e e e e e e e e e e
e e ready there he is there we go ready which what are they we're good good we were babbling on all right good evening everybody Welcome to Long
Hill Township uh can we please stand for the salute to the flag please I pled alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all Madam clerk in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting specifically the time date and public call and information were included the meeting that was electronically sent to the echo setal Mo's Daily Record and post on the township website the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can
be viewed online at www . lill nj.gov a public common period will be held in the order it is listed on the meeting agenda committee man lavender present committeewoman rer Eline present committeeman bza present Deputy Mayor Bia present mayor dors here all right
first we have a special Proclamation I'm going to bring up uh Lisa scanland on behalf of the rescue squad hat today and two of Irene sackler's daughter so uh I'll turn it over to you Lisa thank you
okay I don't want to keep my back to everybody but so I'll try and do it on the side um recently The Long Hill first State Squad lost uh one of our longtime life members Irene
Sachs Irene was 96 years young and um she's someone who many of us on the squad truly admired so um the mayor agreed to do a proclamation for her and uh I just wanted to read the
proclamation and I know two of Irene's daughters are here tonight along with a lot of friends and family um so here goes uh this is from the officer the office of the mayor Township of LGH Hill
Proclamation whereas Irene Sachs dedicated 40 years of service to the Longhill Township first aid Squad selflessly volunteering her time and expertise to protect and care for the community and whereas Irene Sachs
responded to countless medical emergencies at all hours of the day day and night while also serving in multiple leadership roles including president captain and training officer for the Long Hill first aid Squad ensuring that
the squad operated efficiently and that its members were well prepared to provide exceptional emergency care and whereas Irene Sach was a volunteer member of the moristown medic maram Memorial Hospital Mobile Intensive Care
Unit since 19 72 and whereas Irene Sach was a founding member of the Long Hill CT which stands for Community Emergency Response Team organization serving 12 years and also of the Long Hill MRC
which stands for Medical Reserve Corp serving 10 years and whereas her affiliation with the American Red Cross from 1994 to 2016 22 years as a trainer and also a
member of their disaster action team what they call Dat LED Irene Sachs to deploy eight times across the country to assist in large-scale disaster relief efforts including several months in New Orleans aiding victims of Hurricane
Katrina and whereas Irene sac's commitment extended Beyond National borders as she also deployed internationally with her husband through the international executive service Corps in Ukraine and China and
separately also taught English in Poland demonstrating a profound dedication to those in need and whereas Irene Sachs and her unwavering compassion leadership and service have left an indelible
impact on the lill Township community the first aid Squad and the many volunteers that she trained through Red Cross classes and whereas though her passing is a great loss to this community her Legacy of service kindness
and dedication will continue to inspire those who follow in her footsteps including her children who were always taught the importance of volunteering in service therefore be it proclaimed that on March 12th 2025 the township Committee of the
township of lill in the county of morris state of New Jersey on behalf of the residents and staff of lill Township do hereby honor and recognize Irene Sachs for her extraordinary contributions express our deepest
gratitude for her years of selfless service and extend our heartfelt condolences to her family friends and all those whose lives she touched be it further resolved that this Proclamation shall be entered into the official
record as a lasting tribute to the remarkable Life and Legacy of Irene Sachs uh so it's signed by mayor dorsy and I'd like to call up two of her daughters um we have Elaine and Judy
here elae also used to be a member of the first one of our um and I'd like to ask mayor dorsy can I get a couple more of
thank you good job Lisa I know that wasn't easy good job Lisa and thank you to all the first aid Squad but especially her daughters for representing for her service so thank you and Lisa you did a good job thank you all right let's see moving on we have ordinance second
reading this is the property maintenance code uh what's it 55 55925 we have an open public hearing on the property maintenance code is anybody Scott is that the one you guys talked about at the zoning board the planning
board um what oh I know D I got to find it it's a separate it's a separate oh separate you want M no I got it here somewhere I got a bunch of papers oh there it is there it is all
right boards is there anybody Tom do you want to say anything on the plan on behalf of the planning board on this yeah you're here for you're authorized to speak on behalf of the planning board so regarding the uh commercial property maintenance yes ordinance yes
yeah so it's a it is it does not conflict with the master plan it actually supports the master plan uh to address these areas uh where maintenance is not being up kept especially for those properties that are
um not being used or underutilized or pretty much vacant uh so it is not inconsistent do you guys make any um significant changes or anything to it no the only thing that I do question is the uh amount uh when you're St starting to
apply penalties because if it's just going to be $50 you know I'll take that hit day in and day out I make it more uh substantial so it forces the uh property owner to uh address the situation I don't disagree with you Tom but we're limited by state law that that's why all
the every section of the code refers to section 1-5 which says what the maximum fines we can impose by by state law but it would be up to the judge the judge can impose I think it's up to 2 200 now pressure we can put on it up yes
it's also guidelines and understand that and every day is a new violation yes you can give me yeah consecutive violations is there anybody from the zoning board no I know they submitted uh things question how how quickly can you
issue a second Summit the next day yeah so you can 365 Summit in if it's a problem property you know not just somebody they're trying to get to comply is not a chronic offender Tom uh Mr chairman you I mean after one week you
can get it up to $350 two weeks no no you can get it up to more than that up to seven it's up to the municipal court judge no but I mean 50 no no it could after the first offense you can issue summons every single day they're in violation so it's layering up actually you can get 90 days in jail or 90 days
of community service for violation as well I mean like I said it's it's limited by state law yeah okay gotta thanks Tom uh anybody from the public have any questions comments or concerns regarding the property maintenance code
we did run this by Mark Andress too before introduction made a couple changes but he he did approve it all right and those who don't know Mark is the code enforcement officer so we got input from the zoning board we Deb Co was involved for both boards planning board and the zoning coordinator um any
yes anybody on the committee have any questions or comments so wait Jack the fine I know it's a first offense is 50 but you could consecutive offenses you can go up to 2500 right right yeah so I think the first time the judge can only find you up to 50 but if you come back again then
they can start whacking you the teeth are there yes yeah that's true like I see some of the towns I work in Jackie um are considerations in here for warnings as we come out of the gate with this the code enforcement officer
ordinarily will give warnings except in egregious violations so I'd rather not put it in there I think it's it's it's done as a matter of course good yeah and I've spoken to Mark numerous times on a bunch of topics and basically as you know his goal is compliance because as
as Tom said you can find somebody 50 bucks they don't care but if they fix the property and looks nice that's it's worth not finding them $50 yeah but there's not a limit of $50 first that's a oh it's not even on first offense minimum fine I think no it doesn't even
oh okay so either way the goal is compliance so some people just might want to pay but that's the goal so Mark as I know from dealing with Mark he always goes out usually I can't say always but it's always a warning first and tries to work it out with people before he even has to get to this point it's not a fundraiser no it's not a fundraiser it's compliance Municipal
Court judges will often say the fines a thousand but if you fix it within a week or 10 days then it'll low it to 300 or something that happens all right anybody else have any questions up here seeing none uh I have
a motion to adopt the ordinance oh oh anybody online if anybody on Zoom would like to make make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor thank you all right so we have a motion to adopt ordinance 55925 so moved second Madam clerk
committee man lavender yes committee woman Reger Eline yes committeeman valza yesy mayor Pia yes mayor dorsy yes all right now we have 56-25 second reading uh historic preservation advisory that's we just amended some of the like language in the
that they requested that they requested so anybody in the public have any questions or comments regarding the uh historic preservation amendments anybody online anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see
anyone mayor thank you all right can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 56-25 some move second Madam clerk committee lavender yes committee woman Riker Eline yes committee man bza yes
Deputy Mayor Pia yes mayor dorsy yes I'm going to skip I know the last two that's what people here to talk about so let's just get rid of this one first uh 56225 that's concerning the recre advisory committee again I believe that was them coming to us asking it to clean up some of the language correct Jack
that's correct okay so anybody in the public have any questions or comments regarding the changes being made to the recre advisory whatever it is code 562 right 562 yes seeing none anybody online anybody on Zoom would like to make a
public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor all right uh can have a motion to adopt 56 1-25 two sorry that's okay 56225 so
moved second committee man lavender yes committee woman rer inine yes committee man verza yes Deputy Mayor Pia yes mayor D yes now we get to the fun part of the meeting um 56 51-25 second reading ordinance establishing the promotional
process basically from Sergeant up to Chief for the uh for the police department um it's open to public hearing anybody from the public have any questions comments or concerns please come on up detective gassi Mr Mayor could maybe Jack explain
what exactly the ordinance sure yeah I we've talked about this but go ahead jack hold on yeah the ordinance establishes a formal process for promotion to all the superior officer positions you need to find Superior it it's sergeant and
above okay mic's a little short here but can you guys all hear me yes do hold on second do Jack anything else uh basically it requires written and oral examinations that every step of the way
microphone I'm sorry that's all right written and oral examinations uh psychological and background checks and if I remember correctly um not that you have to do what other towns do but there's a difference
between thank you uh the there's Civil Service non- civil service and of course there's lar larger towns what can you describe how it is handled in towns across the state yeah this well well certainly in Civil Service towns they they have
examinations uh you know it's a very formal process and uh non- Civil Service towns and speaking to our labor Council Jonathan Cohen he said approximately half the towns follow this kind of formal process with written and oral examinations others have less formal
processes and right now we have a less formal process I was just going to say can we describe what the current process is the current processes I understand that is that people are promoted on a probationary basis for six months and then if it works out they're they're
given permanent position and Leadership chooses those people for promotion correct that's M yes let me double check chambrell that's accurate correct in in theory what's the current can you just describe what the current say somebody
wanted to be a sergeant currently degree yes so uh our process is if there was an open uh position for Sergeant we would post the announcement people would put their submission if they're interested in that
position all of the sergeants lieutenants and any any other um administrative staff above that if there was a lieutenant captain Chief um all would um go through a process that consists of
um a ranking system uh I believe there might be 11 CR uh there's Maybe something around like 10 or 11 criteria uh those criteria are defined um it gives an opportunity for each person to go around the room for each category and
give input on what their personal experience is with that person good or bad so you might not know uh what a person that doesn't work with you does but if it's my um my officer I can give
a detailed explanation of why they get this number in that particular ranking so um none of it's private it it used to be I believe where you just scored your own sheet now we collectively you have to explain your number and why you do
that so you actually get a very accurate um opinion at the end of what that ranking should be who should be top so it it does it it is a a a good process in that regard because you're not I
might not know as a lieutenant the detail that a sergeant is seeing on the road with that officer but they're going to know what it takes for that person to become a supervisor just like them and what is it for what's the process for lieutenant now um for a lieutenant same
starting process but the chief and lieutenants uh even if there was one outgoing would participate in that process to for the selection but basically the same process just less people in the room correct and then um previously um when there was a a Chief's
process back prior to um Chief mazio the outgoing Chief would make a recommendation um when Chief Mao left uh the committee uh which some of you were on at the time had
a an interview process with uh a series of questions they asked both candidates and then they made a decision collectively on who that should be thank you so anybody on the day have any questions for lieutenant chair bro while she's up there about the process itself the current process all right thank you lieutenant thank you I I left out one
important fact both the oral and written examinations would be conducted by the New Jersey Association of chiefs of police okay Sorge detective go ahead now Chris gry Sterling uh before we get started I just want to take a moment of silence for the New York uh detective who recently lost his life on the line
of duty ladies and gentlemen of the township committee and respected members of the public as mentioned mentioned my name is Christopher gresie and I'm the president of the LGH Hill Township PBA otherwise known as local 322 for those unfamiliar with our membership we are the local labor union
that represents the Longhill Township Police Department I stand before all of you today representing the dedicated men and women of this local to respectfully address our concerns regarding ordinance 56125 which proposes significant changes to the promotional process within the lill Township Police
Department the existing promotional policy was set forth by former long Township police chief Robert ferano during his tenure with this agency someone whom we all hold in high esteem this is the same individual who was asked by the township committee sitting before me today to draft a detailed
75-page report that was ultimately adopted by resolution while we appreciate the intent to establish a fair and transparent framework for promotions we believe as is currently written this ordinance overlooks several crucial aspects that will undermine the morale of our officers and the Integrity of our
promotional process the proposed promotional procedure which places significant emphasis on written and oral assessments raises concerns that the process may become improperly focused on test taking ability rather than the essential qualities of actual experience leadership skills and
day-to-day contributions to the department that our members consistently demonstrate for example officers who have devoted years of dedication and service to the department undertaking demanding duties and demonstrating exceptional leadership with no additional monetary compensation would be placed on equal footing with those
whose qualifications may not reflect the same level of commitment or achievement this imbalance risk to valuing the true merits of our officers and diminishing the Integrity of our existing process a process that has been proven to work for the last couple decades as I stand before you today and applaud those who have rightfully earned
their respective positions furthermore when promotion becomes exam focused rather than leadership focused officers may be less motivated to engage in roles that require proactive decision-making and the ability to mentor and guide their Dev peers testing could inadvertently Foster
a mindset where officers tend to focus more on studying for exams than cultivating the Hands-On leadership skills that are vital for higher rankings with inside law enforcement the next concern to address is the involvement of external Consulting agency particularly in this case the New Jersey State Association of
chiefs of police while thirdparty organizations like this may bring some objective standards to the table they inherently lack the knowledge of our Department's culture the unique dynamics of our team team and the specific leadership qualities required for our success the chief's Association though
reputable does not have firsthand Insight of our officers work ethic mentorship and their ability to navigate the complex challenges of daily policing within the community that our officers consistently exhibit these qualities are most appreciated by those who have worked alongside the officers in the field and
have a clear understanding of the context in which they operate additionally the current proposal impos poses an additional financial burden as officers need to take costly training courses to maintain a competitive and fair standing these expenses could create a
significant financial strain particularly for those officers whose dedication and potential may not be reflected in their ability to Bear such costs is unreasonable to expect officers to shoulder this financial obstacle especially when they have proven their leadership and commitment through years of
service the demand for officers to spend months preparing for these tests intensifies the challenge as it takes them away from their families and responsibilities disrupting the work life balance which is vital for their well-being and mental health in addition to these concerns the mandatory psychological evaluation
required for every level of the promotional process raises serious concerns while we fully acknowledge the importance of ensuring mental health and competence for leadership roles the process as currently outlined feels intrusive rather than constructive specifically it suggests a
lack of confidence in the professionalism and Judgment of the officers who have already served the community for years and completed a psychological screening as part of the rigorous hiring process the subjective nature of these evaluations coupled with the associated cost and consumption of time for both
the officers and this Township may leave officers feeling unfairly scrutinized the township is also expected to Bear these additional costs of hiring external services to conduct these evaluations which further compounds the financial burden to already costly promotional
process generally speaking police officers daily actions go of go unnoticed as Society expects them to operate at an exceptionally high standard unfortunately both the public and the members of this committee remain unaware of the constant challenges and heart-shaped officers face on a daily
basis while we neither seek praise nor recognition we only ask for the willingness for you to listen to the men and women who put on the uniform each day knowing that they do so with only the hope of returning home safely to their loved ones while the goal of creating a more
transparent and Equitable promotion system is commended ordinance 56125 as it stands fails to consider the full scope of qualities that make a strong and effective supervisor within this Police Department although this is not the first the second or the third time we have expressed our position on this
matter we stand here before you today and urge the township to revisit the consideration of adopting this ordinance at a minimum we ask you to table this ordinance tonight and take the time to consider all the potential ramifications before voting on it on behalf of our membership we thank you for the
opportunity to speak to tonight we remain committed to working collaboratively with the township committee to develop a more thoughtful and Equitable approach to Promotions we are willing to offer our assistance in any way needed to reach a mutual agreement that not only benefits this agency the township Council and most importantly the citizens of lill
Township who we proudly serve thank you and have a great night you thank you Detective thank you detective for taking up by invitation and bringing that to the public I appreciate you coming in I appreciate all your members coming in it means a lot to see all of you here thank you um what at the public anybody else
from the public I have a question oh I have a I have a question this might be really stupid but just to clarify for detective G yes it's for all ranks not just like Sergeant or captain or chief the call out you have just to CIF
all ranks just to make sure I understand I believe further conversation to have that is necessary yes it is for all okay thank you I just want to make sure I understood is that it ory yeah yeah thank you but detective thank you if if
I could impose upon you to come to the mic uh it's not that I have a a long uh conversation I will say this uh in the interest of uh full disclosure the PBA respectfully reached out to the township committee uh
to meet in executive session my preference would have been to have met in an executive session and have uh this conversation ours too um and the majority of the township committee did want to do that hold on a second hold on a second I I can't say
that for sure and the other thing is no offense that obviously you detector anybody out there but we don't give special preference to anybody so whether it be anybody has an issue or question it's better to do it in public and everybody can be heard and then obviously look detective dressy gave a very good recitation on behalf of the
entire membership which I think the entire public needed to hear and I think the question and answers is good for everybody to hear and understand we also had Lieutenant Cham Brillo tell us what the old process was which in the back nobody would have known about except the people in there but it's important for everybody behind them and on TV to see this so that's why I'd rather have them
here but go ahead I appreciate where you're coming from Mr Mayor my preference would have been to do it an executive session and frankly I think it should been by majority vote of the township committee and not decided individually that said um and thank you
for educating us I mean I think you gave us insights that perhaps we might have missed as we were discussing this and I think you did acknowledge the intent of the township committee is to be objective uh we're trying to remove
as much subjectivity as can be removed which may harmful to the process but I think you eloquently explained in the attempt of doing that we may miss certain things so um under no none of us
want to do anything that is in any way disrespectful we just want to uh continue the longstanding outstanding performance of The Long Hill Township Police Department even through some bumps in the road through no fault of
95% of uh of the of the department so personally I would love to have this conversation fine it's been brought to the public I don't think there's no harm no foul so I'm not I'm not trying to uh disparage uh the
mayor um but I would like to continue this conversation so we we tweak it to where it needs to be tweaked one thing is true and correct my math if it's wrong there are 564 towns in the state of New Jersey the large towns all do it through the process that we're kind of
doing here we're not a large town I appreciate that uh Civil Service towns do it and about half a non- civil service and half of the non- Civil Service towns do what we're suggesting we're not Reinventing the wheel and half
do not so it it's almost evidence that it's not clear what the right way to do it is so I I'd really appreciate the opportunity to work through uh in in in in a you know a conversation a dialogue with the PBA and
from I can tell from the membership and and and how they stood and and agreed with what you said they applauded but by that they agreed with it so I'd like to hear what the concerns are I'd like the involvement of the of the police
department as represented by the PBA uh to sit down with us there and if we come out in agreement wonderful if we come out where we we're a little bit different the township committee is going to have to take a vote uh but I
don't think uh personally I'm at a position where I fully appreciate um the objection or I don't even say you didn't come in here and object you came in and said there were things we missing and frankly I think you're right so I I I would like to
continue the dialogue I don't think there's an urgency here um you know we'll figure out I mean the last thing that I will say on behalf of the Union is we're trying to eliminate the drama we're just trying to be police officers and go to work every day that's stressful enough none of us want to be
here past the time we're supposed to be here we're taking away from our families more so than not that's noted as well and I just really would I would really urge you guys to reconsider what what you're voting on and I think to I think like kind of to build on what both of
you saying like to eliminate the drama I think that was the initial intent of St standardizing the process is exactly as you had said you know to make it less subjective more you know the funny thing is for me but it's like we're going at it by I I wanted get there is two
different way I the officers and the department to love what we were doing you clearly do not so you know I mean you you deserve to be treated fairly you know and transparently and and so I
don't know how it will come come out in the end I do know that I'm personally not ready to vote on this I would also say I know you said like there's no rush I don't want to rush to do things that aren't correct for the long term I do personally feel
though a sense of urgency that we need to land the plane on all things that are pending with the police department as much as possible as soon as possible in my opinion I'm not I'm like just saying that to every my response to that is I think some are more urgent than others and then not on on the agenda tonight
the ones that I think have more urgency to it we haven't addressed and we're addressing what I think was the what we thought was the lwh hanging fruit turns out it was not I mean this this promotion I mean this policy does alter people's future I mean this
is this is a big deal this is not something that's just a small little thing this is something that could change somebody's future everyone behind me deserves a shot and I think that we have a process that works there's no reason for us to change that just we
just need to go back to what works yeah and and I there's there's so many things going on right now that this is not one that needs to be addressed there are so many other areas of concern that are more higher priority no and I and I want you to know that we that guy I think
said it like we're trying to land the plane and obviously it's not the way maybe that we should um but I want you guys to know know that we are at least I am absolutely pushing to resolve all the things that have been brought forth that need to be resolved as quickly as
possible in the right way so did you go finish you finish sorry no did you write out you WR wrote out that thing you just read right can you email me that so I can send it to everybody so we can look at happily thank you so I you sent I'll send it out to the committee so we're perfect um so I think that we're on
point I think the sentiment would probably be to table this and in between now and the next meeting have you know have a our next Township committee meeting have a meeting with the PBA so that we can hear and and move this process along with their input we need to speak to labor Council too before we
do anything yes okay yeah but otherwise no but we can if they don't want to vote on tonight that's fine we can postpone it I'm willing to vote on it and I would vote no and knock it down and the reason was I heard too many disconnects and I I I don't like the
fact that there's this wall between us right we we need to be sitting at a table where working through this together there's too many things I heard that are we're off on right I'm I'm kind of thinking me we maybe just vote this down and start over start from scratch
and start in conversation well then no promotions are going to happen till we figure it out one way or another then might take we rather them happen the right way but we have a process long we have a process don't we do we have a process for promotion that we we all thought was we need to
revamp right now yes as right and what okay we have a process I fear if we say no vote no tonight and then start the process again it's going to take longer to get where we need to get I think if we meet we we table it and then we meet
that think you can you truly think we can tweak this after everything you heard I do I do I don't to be honest with you I I don't I don't think we're going to be too far apart and if if if we meet to be honest with you I do want to make it clear that I don't stand here before you today to tell you that this
system doesn't work it obviously has worked in many different agencies but a town like Longhill Township it's not it it's just not it I mean there are no other agencies around here that do this policy where it's successful in my opinion from my homework I mean I do
know agencies that do it but I don't see it too successful I don't see too many problems here I don't know why we need to change it so you're happy with the current state of the promotion not promotion process but the the people have been promoted and everything else you think it's working I think it is
working thank you that it no I I I I I appreciate it I understand where Scott's coming I don't think we're going to work it out in before the next meeting so we'll meet with the PBA I agree with Scott it's going to take a longer I would not put it we can't agree to me with to be able to talk to labor counsil because some
other legal issues that are above all of us before we get into that so and I would it won't be the next meeting it may be before the next meeting that we meet and if we think it takes more you know more consultation and a collaborative uh you know effort we can
always push it out a as I said I don't think this this you know it's I thought it was a solution I'm hearing that it may be a solution yeah but maybe in search of a problem that doesn't exist in certain areas so let's figure out how we can get
to where it's fair all we want is the process to be fair to everybody sitting out there and and and for the entire department to be happy with whomever is promoted we do appreciate you guys trying to work with us on the matter we don't think that you
guys are being standoffish by any means we just would would hope that you guys listen to the information that we're providing because it is something that we deal with on a daily basis well any anything you have like I said what you read tonight or any other statistics or information you have please send it to me and I'll distribute it to everybody
we have no problem doing that and I would just also recommend because I think it's important you know like like I like all the voices at the table I would say yes PBA and what whatever other voices that labor Council like also thinks should be there is it leadership is it also the Chiefs associ I don't know I don't know I'm just
saying I would want to make sure we have all the voices in the room to have a really good conversation about all aspects I would defer to what labor Council would say all right so thank you Detective
we table it I move that we table it but I I don't think we should take a vote on it if you guys want to take a vote that's fine but I I I think that we should table this we have to deal with Vick's motion a motion to table this on the floor there's a second then we'll vote on it oh can we let's I would like to hear from Jack what the options are
on this well Vick's motion would be to continue the public hearing until the next meeting with no further not sometime in the future maybe a month from now to give you more time um and like I said I would speak to labor Council first to make sure uh and what other options do we have to deal with
this today you could well there are three options you could go to adopt it you could turn it down by Vote or you could do it and if we turned it down then what do we do when if it comes up again in the future you could always bring up a new ordinance okay and so you
know that gets to my point Vic is you think this is a tweak I'm not so sure I I'm more on the line of just vote it down and start from scratch in part ship that's me but is it like six on one half a dozen on the other kind of like
if you tweak it it's not no it's not is it like making it into I don't know enough of those I think that we have the same intention uh I just again I think the fastest way to get there and accurate accurately would be to table it meet and
move forward rather than scrap it I disagree with you but that's fair but I think we're I think we're close even though we did we both want to do something yes if in fact you table It Go and it's determined that you can't just tweak it it down yes okay fine I second
fix motion yep Madam clerk this is a motion meeting to the next meeting or the following meeting following please I guess the following that we could always move it if we have to okay okay so the motion is to table this ordinance to the 20 what the six yeah the next6 what's
the next meeting April 9th oh why was there's no meeting knowing that we could in fact take so it's April 9th fine before it ever comes if we're in still in dialogue we can just push it to the 23rd okay so we're continuing the public hearing until April with no further notice or publication correct and with
direction to Jack to speak with labor Council okay and detective I know uh you're going to send to to the mayor and it'll disseminate it that way there's one one point instead of sending it to all of us you want us to consider send to me
and I'll get it out to everybody this question would be though between now and then are we going to have a special meeting let's assume that we're told that we can meet and discuss it let's assume it what's the process we all need to get together I think the next meeting
should be with the PBA if that is in fact a special meeting I'm in favor of it if it's the township committee I I would not be in favor of that if the special meeting is with the PBA correct we of course in any in any event we're going to have to talk to the labor
Council yes before we do anything do we can spin our wheels for the next 20 minutes I don't know but I think what is saying and I agree I whatever it is I would like to move as quickly for what the next steps are to have the conversation with where whoever we're approved to have the conversation with
per labor Council let's do that sooner versus later versus waiting till like the next meeting the next meeting like let's just please like and it's all of us meeting with you guys toath that's what I want all of us to meet with you to the mayor's Point since are being
transparent at that meeting it's it sounds to me like labor Council should be there to correct us when we made there is a meeting yes need labor Council there so there's a motion in a second on the table so table to carry
the public hearing second reading to April 9th correct Jack's going to consult with labor councel um there may or may not be a special meeting as well correct depending on labor Council correct so I'm going to a roll call
vote okay committee lavender yes committee woman rer line yes committee man verza yes Deputy Mayor yes mayor dorsy yes thank you guys thank you detective thank you officers thank you guys ladies and
gentlemen last what's it 560 oh 63 all right so the next one is 563 it deals with with naming the appropriate Authority it's for the second reading anybody from the
public uh have anything to say be be before that just from the de um I think Jack Aubrey had made a suggestion that you modify that that we reconsider appropriate Authority at reorg in January yes it's on there it's
on it's there yep all right thank you all right mran is armed ready in fact I would put it on every reor just to revisit it I think we're also supposed to review
policies and procedures every reor correct it was on there last time I've also suggested a different procedure for reor going forward all right you're up good evening Charles aritz
Millington let me first thank you for making sure based upon two meetings ago or meeting ago that we're going to vote on ordinances when we have a full compliment of all members I think this is a great idea you set a precent let's
keep going when this at the first reading I went over and read from you from your expert report from Chief former Chief Robert ferano on what he recommended to you you
what to do with the appropriate Authority you after hiring two Consultants have become experts as demonstrated by the last ordinance which I'm embarrassed at as a resident of this town everybody's backpedaling up here what a mistake you
made now you're going to about to make another one the appropriate Authority according to Mr ferano our expert should not be the township committee it causes
problems on who to report to who's in charge and it should be one individual I believe that individual is the Town Administrator there were some comments last time oh he might leave well you
built the ship okay we didn't so similar to what you did with the last ordinance I recommend you do the same this issue about oh we're going to look at it in in 2026 at the reorganization meeting
again let's not even put it up there leave it where it is now and follow the experts table this one too and start over it's embarrassing I'm embarrassed for you and I'm embarrassed for this
staff here in this agency embarrassed if anybody independently saw this tonight and looked at it they said what is going on in this town so continue with your Avenue of of uh ordinances and table this one
too and I don't even think you should table it listen to The Experts you're not the experts running the police department thank you thank you Mr liberado good evening uh Frank liberado
Heritage Road I would Echo what uh my fellow resident uh Chuck Arena was uh had to said in regards to Chief Alano the reason why the police liaison position was removed the appropriate Authority assigned to the
administrator uh and uh mayor if I may ask uh how many employees does the township roughly have 60 or 70y was I don't think we have 70 about 70 oh there you go 70 you're right so in in my interpretation as a lay person you know
Mr bar is clearly capable of managing 70 employees so I don't see why we need to change anything if the recommendations of professionals were to have the administrator be the property Authority as it is in many towns it removes politics to a certain extent from things
and has a direct line of command to the administrator and n if there is a large ra administrator obviously goes to the committee and I think with having that business manager here every day running things and he has the experience in running a large organization of people
staff employees which deal with HR issues that would be the way to go I mean without being disrespectful mayor can you explain to me your credentials to oversee the police department in that position with another Committee Member versus the administrator that sits next
to you uh yeah I can take it stab at it as you know my father was a cop for 20 something years the last third of it was in administration at chattam township the neighboring town I was an assistant prosecutor and I actually was assigned to three different police departments I had to go on a weekly basis I'm a municipal prosecutor our firm does a ton
of Municipal work and I deal with police officers all the time uh administratively and on doing municipal court and things like that I probably have the most experience at everyone's sitting up here in that capacity and I know I'm not qualified to do it so it's I don't have the time to do it I'm not
available all the time you have a full-time job yeah that's my point yeah so but I'm just saying is that do I feel I have a credentials out of everybody here I probably have the most credentials and I'm smart enough to know that I shouldn't be doing it just like if somebody asked me the other day do you do uh somebody had a question about the family law I said look the best
advice I can give you is hire an attorney that does it because I don't want to mess it up for you so I'm smart enough to know when this when it Farm stuff out so if that's your answer to your question I'm sorry to disappoint you but that's my answer no I I appreciate your honesty and I was trying to be respectful because the point is we rely on our professionals we pay for our
professionals and and our Police Department is is great and you know I see that your intents may be in the right place as far as trying to tweak things but sometimes you need to leave things be if they're working good at the moment and I feel with the changes that
were made with administrator bar being the appropriate Authority it keeps a kind of a line of Separation here and a direct line of command where they report to and and I think it's just a lot cleaner and and Bob fer I don't recommend you know he has the experience and I I would trust his recommendation and stick
with it and you had made that change in that direction so I'm just kind of concerned why we're backtracking on that and and looking to you know not say reinvent the wheel use that kind of term but you know why are we messing with that and why do we keep messing with other things I think that we should just
leave alone it's fine right now I don't see any issue causing the need for a change and I really hope you take in consideration the turnout of our men and women here and I would leave this go and I would just vote it down there's much bigger issues to worry about right now
Mr bar is doing an excellent job I would just leave it there thank thank you thank you Frank anybody else from the public think someone's coming Drew fetus one waren Avenue in Sterling good evening thanks for everyone being here um I got a couple
things to uh to say I think that I'm not really super familiar with like municipalities but I thought that like if if you want to have like the mayor be the appropriate Authority the system has to be set up different like did the taxpayers have to elect a a
mayor oh like they Prov for example like Berkeley Heights they changed theirs right I think Berkeley Heights what the mayor mayor right so that so everyone so the taxpayers elect the mayor and then the mayor is the appropriate Authority otherwise it would go to the
administrator so I think that I I like that way I think it works good I think the administrator is good um I think you have probably the best credentials out of everybody here but you're not always going to be the mayor you know so it's not nothing against you it's that you know who knows who's going to be the
next mayor and what's their credentials and background and everything else so that's my opinion on that and I think that it works I think we got a great group of guys and ladies here I think out of the last I don't know 20 years this has got to be the best group of people I mean really and I think as far
as the uh the um promotion process goes I think having a test is tough because um not everybody tests well you know they could be a good leader and most those leaders aren't good test takers so like if if it if you're just going by test alone you might not get the right
person and we all know a lot of people that can test well don't have common sense and we need Common Sense the cops have common sense because they're dealing with tough situations flooding you know a lot of stressful situations and if you don't have common sense that's where anything falls apart so I
think you really need to consider that and you know your future discussions and um whatever that's my piece than thank you thank you can I add like maybe we didn't do a good job explaining this or maybe I don't understand but the in the promotion process from the Chiefs Association no sorry well I just was
talking because the test is a big thing and I totally get it because I'm not a great standardized test taker so I respectfully understand that piece of it however the what we're saying in this process just to clarify and again maybe we didn't do a good job explaining this the process does it's not only the test
that determines the next steps there are several other and we can outline what those are I don't I probably have it in my notes actually um but there are several other factors that you guys correct me if I'm wrong there's several other factors that go into that test not saying that we don't reevaluate
it I just want to be clear the some of the rationale getting to that point was that it was test and interview and years of service and performance and psychological and all the other criteria so I just also want to help clarify that
again I'm not saying that I you know agree or disagree I'm just saying to understand the process if maybe that's applied to some ranks and not others I don't know but it wasn't only the test because I too have I'm not comfortable as that being the sole reason or rationale to promote
so I just want to clarify that maybe we didn't do a good job explaining that as part of the process we're still going forth how we're going forth I just wanted to because when you were saying that I'm like oh yeah maybe we didn't really explain it it's that there's several factors that go into that and to your point if being involved with State Chiefs
Association everything you just describe and more would go into it they would come back with a recommendation of three the rule of three I think it's and then the commit the eled body can we can we can we can we get this back on track we're not talking
sorry I take ownership that was my fault anyway just because it came up again that's why I just wanted to clarify that I have a question for Jack I did sorry please question for Jack so Jack can you bring up the state statute 4A blah blah blah yep give me one second
please read it yep it's very Broad and use your mic because people online want to hear you sorry about that give me one sec to get online here they can still watch on TV hey now wild jack points if anybody else have
anything in the public for now JW you're allowed to sit down you know as used in this section appropriate Authority means means the mayor manager or such other appropriate executive or administrative officer such as a full-time director of Public Safety or
the governing body or any designated committee or member thereof or any Municipal board or commission established by ordinance for such purposes as shall be provided by ordinance in a manner consistent with the degree of separation of executive and administrative powers from the
legislative powers provided for in the charter or form of govern government either adopted by the municipality or under which the governing body operates now question for you is there anything in that that prohibits the appropriate
Authority from delegating any kind of operational responsibilities to Randy bar no I just think Randy if that were the case we'd have to come back to the township committee to do anything so essentially so essentially the township
committee as appropriate Authority reserves the right for those decisions it can delegate whatever it wants down to Randy including certain decisions yes but so but the township committee would have to adopt the rules and regulations which would be
implemented by the chief and yes Randy could be your representative and if the township committee were smart when it came to looking at rules and regs for the police they would engage with someone that had that subject matter expertise to help them with that explain it to
them in in my experience when governing bodies have been the appropriate Authority they' rubber stamped really the recommendation of the chief or officer in charge which is what this committee us regulations correct correct
okay any other public member I have a question two questions one detective oh sorry detective Jessi does a PBA have a position on this at all you have to come whether if you do yes if no you can sit down I think it would be a good
opportunity to discuss that further during our meeting that's okay that's your position okay that's the pba's position that's the pba's position thank you so I didn't mean to put you on the spot but no it's not on the spot I mean there's just it's just deeper than that it's not just a yes or no we think that Mr bar has done a wonderful job I see
pros and cons to both sides um but if it was up to the union we would leave things status quo what status quo there is no approprate as is as is what the public safety director right now we don't have one no public as it was oh thank you okay thank you we have
Lieutenant chamb Brillo I'm gonna as it another words you come up for a second I have a similar question for you not the position but as the head of the organization doesn't matter what your rank is what is how does it affect the head of the organization whether it be you or anybody else for that matter if
it's one person or the committee or or whoever it's set up so um I respect whatever you I respect whatever you decide um but there are a few things you could consider with regard to this um in
working Monday through Friday 7 to 3 or some type of daytime hours the administrator Works those same hours the township committee all has full-time jobs and are tased with those responsibilities
for their jobs it's easier for the operation of the police department to be able to reach out to someone that's working those same hours and is available during that time to have to try to get two people from the committee
together at the same time might not be feasible um due to whatever their um meetings and responsibilities are with their jobs at that time additionally with vacations and travel I don't know how you would necessarily
always have those two people the mayor and the deputy mayor available at the same time as readily as you would have access to the township administrator um you know I wouldn't be aware of obviously what your schedules are if you
go out of the country or you have business trips or you're on vacation I wouldn't have have access to that information so if I had to let's just say there was um a critical incident at a school or something like that and I had to make a notification I don't know
how I would have the the time and access to be able to do that to two people um or um let's just say there was a critically injured officer or something something that I had to provide or pass information on um it's not as easy to
try to access to people um um and then that would have to disseminate out to five as opposed to trying to access the administrator um with the same schedule that tenant can I can I interrupt you so the the role of the appropriate Authority is to decide on policy and
procedure um those situations I really don't see as things that would need our input um additionally um there are with accreditation a lot of the policies are
have to be regulated through um just for the policy part of it have to be regulated through um our contract with lexo um to meet the accreditation standards for njsa cop so and those are things that we can
delegate to Randy right um and then there's other uh at other times where um you know sometimes we're trying to look to get a conditional offer something like that and it would be easier if you were at times able to reach somebody
that's working at the time to try and get that person because you know the process has changed a lot from what it was where you used to maybe have a 100 people that were available um that you could select from for a job and now you're actually fighting other departments for those jobs so um in
trying to secure conditional officers offers and things like that um it's easier to be able to access somebody that is can say right away yes you know you can make a conditional offer to that person as opposed to waiting perhaps um to the for the two people to then talk
to the five committee members at a meeting um or if there had to be a special meeting or in the summer when there's only one meeting per month in the summer you know I think it's access accessibility wise it would be easier
but we're we're kind of doing that already we're essentially operating as the appropriate Authority that that's the way this committee has Opera was just providing just some no I I understand it's a good dialogue what's you said like a critical incident or
emergency situations that obvious obviously some of the policy can wait a day or two but you said something about a critical incident what's an example of something like that um I like I said if there was a an incident at school and it had to be reported you know there was previously an inent for example at
watchong Hills where um everybody was deployed there and you know you had to pass that inform on so you know what's happening in your town you know um I probably would have an easier time being able to access somebody that's what would happen one person what would happen I know this hasn't happened here
but let's say there was a domestic violence episode of one of the officers and it was reported to you or somebody showed up under the influence of something which that hasn't happened in your department it's happened in other towns what would happen then there's some instances for example if there was
a domestic violence incident and um with one of our officers there they would have to be immediately suspended and they their um Duty weapon would be taken but who would you have to report that to well and I'm just looking at this we
go through the prosecutor's office but looking at this I don't know if I'm reading the language right or not where it says that all suspensions have to be approved through a process listed in here like no one can be suspended until until it goes through a process
with the township Comm committee that's the way it's WR now is that I don't know if I'm interpreting it correctly this well yeah obviously the officer is due process right so you can't just say can't you allow say you're suspended definitely there's well no but they have but but there are
instances where some people have to be immediately sused okay thank you so please I want to keep the conversation going if if you're okay with it so so the purpose of the appropriate Authority is to create that buffer
between um the police department and the governing body and there's a few different ways to do it what what we don't want is to politicize the police right and so what we're trying to do is to prevent conversations out of school back
and forth between the department and the township committee right and so the role of the appropriate Authority that is supposed to be the conduit of information and people should not be going around the appropriate Authority and having personal conversations with the committee
here human nature being what it is that's something that we have to create a check and balance against and so we know that that's happened in the past and what we're doing right now what's on
the table is the committee no pretend being the appropriate Authority and the mayor and the deputy mayor being the representative the communication channel of that committee with their term in office
they're not the appropriate Authority they speak on behalf of this group right now we can delegate operational responsibilities to Randy to handle any Corner case that you can think of and we can take this year-to
year and decide every January whether or not it's working or it's a good idea but I don't think we've really done a good job up here adhering to the spirit and the rules in the New Jersey State Statute of how we're supposed to treat the appropriate
Authority right and so this is just one more shot at trying to get this right didn't work with the last public safety director we had because not all the channels of communication went through him so I'm in favor of doing this and I'm also I love
Aubrey's idea because it lets us test drive this for the next seven month okay right um let's just see how this works if it doesn't work fine we'll change it and the other piece that makes me just to build on that cuz I think it does answer some of these questions and I
think you know we can do you know further clarify any of the issues It also says um appropriate Authority and or their designate so I think in times of emergencies and in times of whatever it is the day-to- day because absolutely hear you in terms of you know being able
to access the entire committee not realistic so that's that's why you know to Scott's point that there's two of them but also um for and I think we do need to clarify this for you for the team for everybody up here exactly how that chain will go so everybody feels
comfortable and really is clear but it says the the way the verbiage is written in this ordinance is the appropriate Authority Andor their designate so I think we can make that really clear how that goes um if there's any questions to that so when we when I read this
that to kind of to Scott's Point that's how we're sort of operating now and I think it seems that there's opportunity that we can clarify that even more so everyone feels really comfortable and clear and in no way shape or form I think anyone up here wants a
delay and emergency reaction because of voting for something like this like so I don't like I just want to clarify that I don't emergency action should still be happening and I shouldn't have to wait for all of us this disciplinary section was written by labor Council but I think it generally tracks the language of njsa
48141 147 I I don't think it takes away from the chief or the officer in charge the ability to suspend somebody without pay you know in B on situations but it really deals with major discipline and in such case that officer would then have to be charged in writing and go
through the process it sets forth in section 147 uh as I said that language I haven't cross referenced it but it sounds like tracks the language of section 147 uh but I don't think it takes away the the day-to-day management prerogatives of the uh of the chief
officer in charge okay thank you for clarifying that all right so I got to give my opinion here there was a time where I thought it was a good idea for the township committee to be the appropriate Authority there was a time however based
on experience it proved to be a bad idea and we changed the ordinance to make the appropriate Authority the township administrator which is by the way extremely common I believe more common
in New Jersey than having the one of the members of the township committee do it now when when making a decision I love it when things line up so this is a situation where my past experience tells me it's a bad idea and then the experts
are telling me Mr ferano and uh the police Chiefs Association said leave it alone and keep the township administrator uh as the appropriate Authority additionally I'm listening to the police department who we want to
take with their their consideration uh their feelings into consideration they're telling us that they would like to see Randy stay as the appropriate Authority uh it's it's not a situation that's broke we have a lot of things that we need to address so I don't know why we're we're spending so much time on
this uh so I think we could talk about it forever I think we need to call a vote and uh move forward well does anybody else anybody else in the public have any sorry I didn't mean to cut anybody off anybody else in the public have anything to say hold on Tom goes first you spoke
once oh you sure you're up Tom you won uh Tom Jones Long Hill first of all thanks to the lhpd there'll be brownies there for you so don't worry um I'm just probably going to oversimplify this and look at it from a
corporate world this looks to me like a matrix management you have a direct line in a dotted line you're not a full-time mayor you're an elected official but you're not a full-time mayor you're not a full-time TC right so Randy bar direct
line handles all your operations and they still respect your position dotted Matrix line to you as you are the TC so don't want to oversimplify it but that's how I see it that's how I work today I got a direct line boss and then I got seven other bosses I got to answer to
okay so Tom to your point nothing nothing changes that's right you just said that's right the committee sets the rules ands and Randy is still the direct line that's right he executes it that's the way to and I I say that's the way you do it no this is like what is it
just got to vote and Get It Over The Line phras is to two people separated by Common Language it's exactly what we're saying everything still goes through Randy all we're doing setting the policy Scott's point and and Township committee forms of government sometimes can be
frustrating not just Randy all previous administrators have always found it frustrating not just here in other towns because they don't know who they're supposed to talk to so what they shouldn't be doing when I sit in the middle and it often was the case would
always come to me to things that really belong in the purview of the entire countship committee that's why things are slower in committee forms of government but it works what we don't want to what Scott's point is we don't want whoever the administrator is coming
to me if I'm in the middle or stock or Matt or any of us it should be a committee form so the committee sets a policy and Randy executes it nothing's going to change but as the mayor right the mayor if you're sitting in the middle seat is the talking head so
they're going to go to the mayor first and if the mayor is not available if the deputy if the deputy maer's not uh available then they're going to go to someone in the TC right Authority is all five people okay that's who the authority is it's frustrating
and that's what leads to so again I'm just oversimplifying and and and that's what leads to conversations like this um no ill intent of anybody up here uh it's just the nature of the beat what we're trying to remove is any dialogue from
any member up here whether it's me or Matt or anybody with any member of the police department it should come from the township committee as a whole through Randy yeah through Randy and I would add I wasn't going to go here appropriate Authority fix that I'm so
sorry I don't understand how that fixes with changing the appropriate Authority has anything to do with that but there's also more of a challenge and you know it's something we we've talked about offline labor Council has pointed out to us and we've experienced problems with this Randy for all the good work that he
does Supply Cooney is who we contracted with well wait we've we've had this debate it's look Randy is qualified enough to run a 15 plus million dollar budget he can be appointed to the position but the state to be the liaison has nothing to do if he's a supply Coy
employee or not it's a position it's not the person labor Council you you say we want to talk to The Experts labor Council advised us it causes complications you're not supposed to have somebody perform in the administrative role permanently which is
what we've done Randy's done a good job so why make a change but in this case no nothing from a policy perspective is going to change the officer in charge is going to speak with Randy and if it's above him he's going to go to the thank you yes that's not what this says if the
officer charge goes May motion to vote and get it over the line and be done with it I mean it's going to be 8020 rule right you're never going to be perfect you're never going to eliminate everything right so and if someone's doing something nefarious well you know what it's got to be called out thank you
that's and we're only doing this until January and then we talk about it you know what and then you can revisit it and have another discussion and say this isn't working we need to do something we need to make a change but it's not a big change it's a it's it's a refinement obviously it hasn't been working the way it
was thank you Mr Jones thanks my time's up thank you thank you thank you minute you have 90 seconds 90 seconds fast pitch is it a cumulative 3 minutes did I miss that men so just so we're clear since the public safety director is no longer here Randy bar
currently is the appropriate Authority at this moment in time there is none that's so by there is none right now that's right correct so we don't have an alternate option of just making it just him this is the only resolution that we've come up with and the only solution that has been put on the table yes we'd
have to do a new and to to Aubrey if I may address you weren't part of what's gone on the past three years and you're kind of coming in in you know the ninth inning so a lot of this has buried history in it between what happened with prior Chief and the prior administrator
but those people are no longer here the old system worked administrator being the direct line worked and unfortunately the way everything looks is we're spending a lot of time on this and as much bigger things the promotion process the way it is should went
forward Chief has to be chosen this here is just eating up time in legal bills and personally it really looks like it's more of a power issue back and forth and it may not be the case but it gives the appearance and the Optics we're struggling for power over the police
department and that should be nowhere near here and I would just think carefully on the vote here on what's best for this department and I don't think making that change away from Randy bar is the answer right now I think we have much bigger things to focus on and
not make another mistake no there are lots of bigger things I appreciate that recognizing I wasn't here for some of that thank you Frank um I think the again I just want to move things forward for the police department and so we don't have to continually have some of these conversations over and
over and over and over again like that's my number one goal and also my other goal is to neutralize like from the standpoint of there's not a motion coming into it there's not personal relationships coming into it there's not any of that it's neutral it's a you know like it's that's my mission and the
administrator is the simplest most neutral person the detective grassie Chris grassy Sterling so I mean there's there's apparently a lot of confusion here even from what I'm seeing in front of me here so I don't know how how you guys could possibly vote on
something if there's a lot of debate I mean I'm hearing one side that says that someone's appropriate Authority and then someone says someone else's isn't I mean I kind of echo what I said earlier about how we don't really have a position per se right now just because we too are confused what the objective here is we
don't know what the advantage of having everybody as a committee is versus just administrator bar we've seen him do it and we've seen it work but we don't know what the advantage is of you guys all doing it so maybe we should start expressing those uh areas of topic because I'm just kind of confused as to
I think I I I stand for everybody when I say I'm confused I think the community is confused and I think quite frankly you guys are a little confused so I think maybe some more time to kind of discuss this would be appropriate um I don't I don't know that that that everybody's in the right frame of mind
right now to be making this kind of decision thank you sir thank you detective anybody online if anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor thank you anybody else in the committee have
anything you want to say about this I'm you Mr Mayor thank you then I'll address it kids close close your ears I'm washing my hands of this show I'm telling how are you going to do that what I'm I'm making a record now and telling you why you're going down
the wrong way MRI report page 63 this was about three or four different retired police officers MRI recommends a Township committee restore the oversight Authority the police department to the township administrator and I remember Brendan said when we did this oh he's going to throw that on a shelf like you do with the fire reports sounds like you
guys want to do that ferano report who Scott described as a super smart guy page 47 amend the municipal code to make the appropriate Authority designation from the committee to the administrator the designation will provide a clear line of authority but the police chief
or officer in charge and the elected members of the township committee and then his next recommendation was remove the township committee liaison right here and this is why we pay him to do this next um you want two people what if the mayor and Deputy Mayor don't agree on what they want well then you have to call a public meeting which is a 48 hour
notice and you have to get everybody it's like hurting cats to have a special meeting because you've had that and it's very difficult to do so if you want to have a special meeting then you're going to have to her the cats together and it's going to take at least to 48 hours notice public session and everything else that's number two three as as
mentioned by many of the public I'm not around we all have full-time jobs all five of us sitting here the administrator I don't care if it's Randy I don't care who's sitting there this is their full-time job the chief of police Poli officer in charge that's their full-time job that's why we hire these
people to do these jobs and I don't know what you guys are listening to when you say we want the committee to stay out of it but we want the committee to be the BPR Authority do you listen to yourselves it's complete asinine there's it's it's um what else
uh here the police we have eliminated the police Le on basically this is an unofficial police leaz on position so let's say the officer in charge or chief or Captain whoever it may be oh I can't get the mayor let me call the deputy mayor I don't like the deputy mayor let me call the mayor and then the two of us have to confer if I'm on trial or on
vacation or the deputy mayor happens to be on a a trip I know you have to go overseas sometimes things aren't going to get done and then it's I don't know and you can't parse it out you can't say all right the committee is only going to handle this but then the administrator is going to handle that then nobody knows what the hell's going on as
detective gesi said we don't know what's going on um there a damage look you want to do this till 2026 there's that's plenty of time to drive the bus off the cliff and I'm not going to be on it I'm telling you that right now I we we adopt the MRI report we adopted the ferano
report on purpose intentionally at a public meeting and we did that on purpose because we wanted to see part of the official record and again we just ignore it in my job I have to use experts all the time and I know like Vic for example his staff has called his expert in courts all the time why because they know what they're talking
about not us Bobby Faz could be the worst police chief in the world but he was still a police chief none of us were so I would still take their recommendation over what we don't know um the police Chiefs Association says it should be one person not 10 or two
you're reporting to or five it doesn't provide a direct line to the committee it's in the political it's object was to get the political arm out of the police business which I think they all want I know that for sure I don't want to do it I don't want to be in your business as as Aubrey said let's get you guys
settled and move on and just wind the sne the clock up and go I need help and and as was as Vic correctly pointed out we've screwed this up numerous times because we don't know what we're doing and he's right and everybody out there
knows are right and everybody on Mercer Street knows that's right and if you want to start a land war in Russia in the winter I'm not going with you because I know history and I'm done now so my question is my call out is is I actually think some of these things to the point of I forget who were multiple
people that said it is you know in some cases here we're harping on certain things that aren't actually the most important thing to move things forward my biggest thing with all like the votes like thus far that I've done is how do we move
this forward so I ask you I ask this committee what are we doing to rectify the situation that's going on at the police department and land the plane my concern is is that we continue to say we're doing that and we continue to
stall so I need help understanding regardless of this ordinance or anything else how are we moving forward with all the things that we've said we're going to do with a clear time frame and action in terms of like the chief's Association for either captain or all of the things
like I want a really clear plan this was part of it to help us move forward with certain things because everything seems to stall and again I go back to neutralizing right now I don't feel comfortable that it is a completely neutral entity right now in
in terms of the way things are going and I'm open to other ideas whether it's ry's appropriate Authority or Township committee or Megan that might be a really good suggestion just putting it out there you know like but things like that like I think whatever it is it needs to be a
non-emotional objective decision-making process that's clear to the people that have to do it so we can move forward and maybe this is also part of my learning in the public sector that think go really slow and I'm so used to things being done
yesterday so I'm working on that but I need we need to figure it out and move forward because life is too short I assure you so there it is ready to vote let's do it does any want to move this do you feel better now it's out I'm voting the
same way doesn't matter to me does anybody want to move this motion well I I'll just say one thing if I felt comfortable that nobody's sitting on his St is would act as the appropriate Authority onto themselves and have private conversations with people on mer
Mercer Street I would have no problem with being Randy what we've tried to do the reason is not about Randy it's about people continually going around this committee having conversations with with uh with some folks over on Mercer Street
so I have no problem with being it being the administrator I have a problem with the process as it has been handled by some members up here or a member including yourself but the point is then you have Randy do it or the administrator you don't have to worry
about any of us because whoever it is there is calling him directly or the position they're calling Town Hall directly and none of us every committee will every committee person on this committee take an oath right now to only have communications with the Department through Randy I have no problem with that well you have you have had a
problem how many times you up Mike people's butt for three months I can say I am the only one that has not had other conversations I'm just saying and if I see if I see officer Thompson in the parking lot at Central School I'm not going to ignore him if he says hello to me it's not happening or
if I see somebody I see these I see the men and women all the time on the street I walk away from them that's rude they're nice people so they come up to me and start talking about policy like hey you should change the promotional policy no not at all what def the other day I was talking about his brother from right when you're done with your filibuster maybe I'll ask Randy this
question Randy if you're the appropriate Authority how will you control people on the committee from having inappropriate conversations I don't know I I wouldn't have any capability of reprimanding any committee person uh but I I would remind
them that it doesn't serve the police department well it doesn't serve the public well nor does it serve the township committee well if they uh are having side conversations about the productivity policy procedures and so
forth are the workings of the police department and have those kind of conversations had before I have not had them with any uh person directly uh related to the police department uh on the other hand I've never been the appropriate Authority
here me too but the appropriate Authority reported to you he was your subordinate correct and did anyone go around that appropriate Authority I do not know yes you do know
okay I'm ready to vote make motion I make a motion that we pass the ordinance second lavender yes committee woman rer line can I can I camp on this for a minute like I actually think we should
just table this and rectify the situation at this point in time there's a motion and there's a second so you have to you can abstain there you can yes no abstain you can come back to her if you want because we know the other everybody
else is going to vote no I I I I I flip-flopped no I'm only kidding I'm a no I'm a no let let the clerk go through the proper process smoken like a true appropriate Authority oh it's me it'ses back to me
yes you get paid the big bucks for oh I missed that memo the issue is is current state I appreciate the Jeopardy music whoever's doing that that's good um the issue right now is that there is technically no appropriate Authority or is correct that's correct that's
accurate to make your life easier I would recommend if if you were to vote no Jack could we move forward with another ordinance tonight appointing Randy as appropriate Authority I do not want to leave this room without an appropriate introduce an ordinance by
title but it would be essentially the same language just instead of no matter how any of us vote I want to leave this room with an appropriate Authority so if if Orby abstains or votes no we can make it Randy the appropriate Authority and
move on with this or if voted we can introduce the ordinance to make him the appropriate before we start moving on with things I I think we need a vote from Aubrey yes well we were just trying to figure out what are all the scenarios either way at this juncture you understand what you're voting for you're
voting to do this until the end of the year there's not supposed to be any discussion when there's a vote going on so thank you madam clerk you got a record going here would you please control this meeting I would like I would like to
motion I would like to motion that Megan is the appropriate the she's available she's here oh my God I think we had a consensus in the audience Megan isn't there a or no no no I thought if it took so many so long it's an automatic no
what I'm making it up that's what we tend to do here no was that a jab at me no no cuz you looked at me uh disrespectfully and you uh said that's what we tend to do here I'm not going to
accept any public Jabs or you want my lucky coin that's you know where you what you can do with that coin I hear that there is opportunity to clarify in this
um vote and I know we do need to figure out the appropriate Authority I'm going to abstain because I have Clarity things that I want to add to this that I'm going to go over with Jack all right but since you obain she's obain she's which means the ordinance does not pass you
have to vote I'm a no I'm a no all right mayor dorsy no of course no all right so if correct me if I'm wrong I apologize ol I didn't Deputy Mayor serg I voted yes so but 22 abstain it fails can I
make a motion now that we make Randy bar the administrator then I don't think we can because as it currently stands in the ordinance in the code book it is the public safety director that's right I I think we need to introduce an ordinance by title only
tonight if you want to do that it would be an ordinance concerning Police Department discipline proced procedures naming the township administrator as the appropriate Authority and supplementing an amending chapter 2 of the Township Code entitled Administration so it would be introduction of an ordinance tonight
which would have a public and with the explicit understanding in public please please please all of us I won't point fingers none of us go around the appropriate authority to the police department no conversations none and I would like to add in based on
the concerns we've heard tonight both out there as well as up here that there is again reiterated Clarity and if it needs to be written in the ORD ordinance or whatever that is that the actions Randy is taking based
on his you know his decisions but as well as the policies that this unit is putting in place were clear in terms of how and when those are being executed as a unit and not one off because that was part of my concern in terms terms of
supporting the appropriate Authority being the two members of the township committee is because in my limited time here I have seen some situations and wa you just misstated something I did you did it wasn't the two members of the of
the township commit no I was saying that's why I was saying I was for the yes so I was for that Clarity and the reason I'm abstaining is because I do feel we need to go back and and clarify it even more even ry's going forward as the
appropriate Authority we need to clarify so everybody out there is clear and also up here as well as Randy is clear because I don't feel like it's operating that way right now based on my
experience and it might feel different for some people it's a little bit like to have that Clarity and to have like we're not necessarily proceeding the way we've always proceeded and I think we need to clarify that all right so Jack doesn't know what his direction is right now are we
introducing an ordinance I think we're introducing an ordinance introducing an ordinance whatever you said and I'll I'll read the title again and then we need a motion and a second and a roll call vote an ordinance concerning Police Department disciplinary procedures naming the township administrator as the
appropriate Authority and supplementing an amended chapter two of the tent code entitled Administration so moved second committeeman lavender yes committee woman rer Eline yes committee
men vazza yes Deputy Mayor Pia yes mayor dors yes and second reading will be when the next meeting the next meeting which is the 2 26 thank you all right what do we have left on the agenda con agenda basically oh yeah
is anything on consent that Jen needs to be pulled out for more discussion are you trying so is there anybody needs to abstain from anything thank thank you everybody for coming thank you everybody is there anything that needs to be uh pulled out or extensions I got
a three page at this point can we bypass some of that what I have a three page liaison report like can we get it off the you can say whatever you want you don't need to say anything all right I don't see anybody
anything no all right a motion to oh just one thing on here about the event license last because the meeting was cancelled we had a jack did a vote found a way to do it because the um we wanted to get the Crescent Moon up prior to
Ramadan starting so that's why we did a we jack can explain it more we we agreed we did it administratively but we do have to approve it approve it today but the reason why we puts up before this is because he wanted Mr Bag to be able to get it up there in time for Ramadan which was Sundown last Friday so that's
why it was done administratively but we're um queuing it up today to make it official may I just make one comment mayor about resolution 91 what's that authorizing new lease with New Jersey Transit yes I I just got the uh revised lease today uh but this has been
dragging on for so long I I recommend that you adopt that resolution and you add to it it's subject to the approval of the township administrator and the township attorney and also uh that's talking about authorized me to start
preparing bid specifications to gra to bid on the suas I have no issue with that and just just so the public knows Jack has been on we've all seen numerous emails Jack's been on New Jersey Transit for well over a month probably a year decades yeah to
get this lease so believe me it's not for lack of effort on our side it's constantly reminding them asking him for an update so yeah I have that's I have no issue with that issue with Jack starton to draft up a bid proposal or anything
which I bring to the next meeting for discussion nope all right so motion to move all these uh consent resolutions so mooved second mman lavender yes committee woman rer Eline yes
committee Vala yes Deputy sergia Mayor Dy yes all right what do we on leison reports can I just build can I ask a question or I I don't like support it here but the um the turtle what you the Turtle Rock Park that's be new business
you mean I guess would it be yes okay then I'll go to there yes okay all right so we have committee reports I have a question you can report as much or as little as you want so go ahead Vic you want to start I don't mind but can I borrow someone's readers I don't have readers mine AR going to
the up I was so excited to do it it's well it's too bad you can't see it to you with several days of slightly warmer temperatures and no snow recently spring fever has sprung activ activities in the park have increased the new playground is getting lots of visitors we're super happy about that it's nice to see all the activities
spring Sports have have already begun this week with lots of activity Boom the Parks and Recreation Department completed a survey and it was reviewed with our Recreation advisory committee it's a lot of stuff right the survey was emailed to 1,850 email addresses we have on file there is some crossover between the two lists that were used but we ask
participants to only take the survey once approximately 10% responded that's not great we have areas of opportunity there of interest about 80% of those responding are satisfied or very satisfied with the overall quality of the parks and wreck facilities in Long
Hill 91% of our residents regularly use our park and wreck parks and Facilities she I can't I can't read I can see but I can't read 90% would write would rate Park cleanliness as good/ excellent 72% or of respondents or a typo attended programs and events hosted by Parks and
Recreation this past year with the biggest draws being the concerts Halloween parade egg hunt and summer camp 92% rated our programs as excellent or good 8% is fair in terms of other programs folks would like to see offered for our youth the four most popular suggestions included art classes youth
volleyball theater programming and Sports Programming in terms of other programs folks would like to see offered for adults the four most popular suggestions included pickle ball exercise programs and gardening Floral Design most people learned about our programs by email distribution followed by the website and social media 93% said
the information was clear and easy to find I should add on there that I really think there should be youth engagement in the town committee but I'm just saying giving opportunity for everyone to learn how to serve thank you to everyone who took the survey and let us know what they want to see in terms of
programming on the basketball front the Saturday recreation basketball programming finished up on 3-1 travel basketball also ended and our sixth grade boys team coached by Joe Moran made it all the way to the semifinals after taking out the number one seated team to get there next year our teams
will undoubtedly come back even stronger thank God this is not double-sided printed as for adult open play basketball this will continue until 51 adults can still sign up to play Thursday nights at Central School 7:30 to9 Matt are you watching were you one
of our lucky families tonight in Virtual Bingo just before for this meeting lots of long hill families joined us for virtual Bingo five winning Long Hill families have special St Patrick's Day prize packages awaiting them are you listening our winter yoga is ongoing yeah there is still room if someone
wants to jump in this is a fact are you coaching this spring you'll want to jump into our Rucker safety clinic on Wednesday March 19th don't you start too 6:30 to 9:30 register on community pass 45 per participant Red Cross CPR AED will take place on Friday March 14th 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. register on community
p I'm going to smack those two down there too I lost my place all Red Cross classes are held at the Long Hill first aid Squad and done as a partnership between the Parks and Recreation Department and the first aid Squad register for our spring field hockey program field hockey is great by
March 17th register on community pass this is for kids in grades 5 to8 in the watchong Hills area and Coach Vanessa is back yes you'll want to make sure you mark your calendars for the following events Wednesday March 26 4 to6 caner Park our official ribbon cutting for the new playground lots of fun gnome games
planned and there will be a face painter sponsored by The Long Hill Mom's Club The Long Hill Library will have a special story walk Story Time with themed books light Refreshments there's going to be a quiz thank you to Starbucks Saturday April 12th 10: a.m. sharp annual spring egg hunt at cancer park I think I said this did I not say
this uh Peter Cotton Tail will visit petting zoo pony rides free event children's egg hunt designated for kids eat and Under The Long Hill Chamber of Commerce businesses will also be at the event and will sponsor an adult egg hunt always a lots of fun yes and I did see the egg hunt very clearly on the digital
sign and I would like to say yay that is much more clear that's been helpful don't forget to send us your photos and enter our snow sculpture contest from this past winter it's free and open all ages registration closes on community pass March 17th that's St petrick say camper registration for summer camps
will open March 15th we are hiring now for summer camp and lifeguard positions get your applications in by April 1st no fooling there you see what you did there yes that's good remember to keep our Parks clean and keep a lid on Oscar the recreation advisory committee is always looking for new members as are several
other committees just saying come join in on the fun contact the Parks and Recreation Department to learn more about joining us yay and that concludes the Wednesday March 12th Recreation liaison report thank you I have I have a
question I have a question for committee men Vera why are you holding your reading glasses in your hand I don't have any glasses at all Library update are we ready is that next to your stuff me I don't know am I are you the library person I am can I go I didn't know was that a question is
that a statement oh we are open seven days a week photo from a busy Saturday oh that's a photo from a busy Saturday I'm getting it I'm getting it we're getting it please find here the library's adult and kids weekly schedules of programs and
events a snapshot of February highlights we also had three author talks two visits to louberry Meadow which I might not be saying Right One In person mindfulness class and more our littlest readers are welcome to daily story times alphabet story times every morning at 10:30 building fairy gnome houses at the
library on Saturdays all month how cool is that some left their fairy houses at the library in the hopes that fairies will leave them Treasures spoiler alert Treasures have been left exclamation point popup event fun math activities to celebrate Pi Day March 14th starting at
3:14 p.m. also saw what she did there silent book club at 10: a.m. come read whatever you want think of it as a gift of time thanks to Starbucks for hosting local author and educator will read from her new book about Ramadan Tuesday March 18th at 400 p.m. annual event celebrating making things in local
talent The Gates Avenue knitts will teach knitting lessons at the library Saturday March 22nd 10 to 2 supplies provided all ages welcome how awesome is that there's some really good programming that everybody should take advantage of and they do it like zoom and in person it's really good last week
there was a gardening thing there was there was like bingo today there's lots of stuff going on do I need to keep going are you done can I talk about other committee things yes okay so we were talking last time about the Board of Health and things like that so we're trying to convene some voices that to
speak to health issues that you'd want to see addressed in lill if we can or suggestions or things like that Scott and I are trying to pull together various age groups and things like that so if anyone wants to contribute and has opinions on um health things that we can
work to bring to our community we are all ears for that and welcome to have people people come in and um make suggestions for that also with that um there is a mental health organizing group that's going together that uh guy and I were a part
of it's several towns that are doing it from um Summit chatam Berkeley Heights New Providence us uh Cranford Westfield and there's probably others that have signed up because May is mental health awareness um so if there's anyone in out there that wants to help um with a
couple different in initiatives I would welcome the help guy I would welcome the help to try and Implement some of that for mental health awareness uh personally in addition to Childhood Cancer advocacy I like to Advocate about mental health and I hope that one day mental health things are addressed um
similarly to physical kind of health things so I'm kind of trying to push that a bit um but I think it's really a nice collaboration across towns to bring awareness to that so if someone wants to help um I would love we would welcome things from well well we we s and we
missed the meeting tonight because it overlapped with this a bunch of things so would love other and also other ideas for what we could do so P John from Long Hill um you have an initiative called um way out that was started and my wife and
myself are part of that so if we can include that because we're only town of 8,000 so like just bring bring all of that under one umbrella perfect cuz we had actually thank you for bringing that up because I think it's a great thing at the reorganization earlier this year we brought that up but it hasn't but I love just let it's already there it's
existing let's do it they brought it Us by the knew about it the town the other towns knew about it so it' be nice to kind of no I think reinvigorate that again no I think it's great I've actually talked to Lisa because there might be some things we can do even with the wreck you know in terms of bringing that mental health there's a lot of
different ideas other towns have done it so we're kind of building off of what they've already done and adding to it so would love that we don't have to wait for October when that's like mental health awareness and we so exactly so like they do it for May and like cuz it's a thing it's a thing no I love that
thank you and I think oh and the other thing I'm working with Megan I know um before I actually took my role here I wanted to do a community engagement group as well as a youth um group so I have proposals out there to um to kind of start both of those I'm actually kind
of thinking of merging them into one thing so stay tuned um for that CU I think it's important to inspire our youth to speak up but also have voices from the community that might not be able to come to meetings like this to get the feedback um and insights of
things that we could be doing for our town together so those are things for mine I'll stop now thank you got you're welcome thank you Mr Mayor uh so first aid Squad I I can remember what it is last year is just shy of 700 calls in
the month of January 63 month of February 56 it's uncanny it stays right on target roughly two at a day sometimes five sometimes none uh but they generally do two a day um they are fully volunteer so if you are in a position to
do so even though it's not their fundraising drive at the moment they ac they will gladly accept donations throughout the year and the captain captain Bob English He pointed out we are prepared to assist any patients or
families that may be experiencing critical March Madness episodes I think we had one a little bit earlier I see a fellow spider out there when they blew the game at the end so that didn't work out too well for me uh but uh so please
support your first aid Squad and they continue to do a great job Scott sorry that was your job fine if you're done that's going that way anyway keep it moving so planning board U the ordinance review project continues to to go on with uh Tom Jones
leadership um Tom has put together a process uh where he has uh ordinance review worksheets that go out to all the planning board members uh so they can comment on this and basically create a pipeline of all these ordinances that have to be changed and updated according to the master plan so I think Tom the
first couple of ordinances are probably going to be ready within the next meeting or two this meeting thank you uh committee uh lavender yeah so in the pipeline we're going to be uh bringing up uh zones a lot of stuff as recommendations out of the master plan so we're going to be
dealing with a lot of zones zones renaming there's the uh churches which is a very broad statement we're going to expand on that one a little bit uh give that some uh some guide rails because it's it's Loosely written it doesn't cover mosque it doesn't it just it doesn't even mention temples uh it it
talks churches and and and stuff like that so we want to expand on that um so we're probably looking uh you're you're going to get two ordinances coming to you at your next meeting on the 26th uh I think it's fences and it's not sheds but there's there's there's one other
one and it's escaping me right now but that's going to come before you and you're going to see this pipeline of stuff that's coming and we'll be trying to work on those uh uh between applications when applications start coming we're going to have fair share housing that's going to be coming around for the next uh uh iteration we're uh in
the process of uh responding to the state plan working with Morris County uh to get that over the line which is done at the end of this month yeah yeah I was going to say Mr Mayor if you don't mind Jack how much can we speak to maybe maybe now is the time to
tell the public where we are in terms of fare or we we should hold off on that well we're in the very early stages what we've done is we've accepted uh dca's numbers which is 102 affordable units which can be cut down by various
mechanisms including bonuses and carryover credits from round three uh and also I filed the declar judgement action which is required by the new uh affordable housing act as well as the directive from the administrative office of the courts so we received no
objections to our number uh so that number is now established our next uh step is we have to prepare a housing element fair share plan by the end of June that's right so time is of the essence and that's a good thing because I I was on a call today with the league uh board and about 60 towns I think did
find a challenge that's we're in a good position we have always been Cooperative even though maybe voicing some concerns uh and to Jack's Point uh the number of 102 we're we're pretty certain we'll get down to about
50 60 somewhere in there yes so I just just like to highlight Mr H's work on uh getting the um state plan uh conversation going with Morris County and aligning with the state plan which is 20 years uh since the last one was done I think was in
2001 or somewhere around that time frame that's great yeah sorry I did cut you off no it's fine and Tom you'll be at the meetings here to kind of help educate us on where the planning board's head was at on these ordinances as they come up say that again when these ordinances come before and we we
discussed them you'll be here to help explain the planning board's position and what the think he was behind them correct that's correct and that was the purpose of creating the worksheet which I ran the planning board through uh yesterday so that way we if I'm not here or uh the chair Richardson's here or another member is here they can speak
and and pro provide guidance as to why and how we got to where we got to it's important for us to hear that so we understand how they're changing things to adhere to the master plan otherwise there are so many of these things coming down the path how many there's like 80
just out of the just out of the master we have to right so we want to kind of move through them quickly and not reinvent the wheel every time one or two come up and there's also a um a domino effect you touch one here here it's affecting another ordinance here so we're trying to show that light that um
um endtoend process as well as being as efficient as possible to address these need these requirements and please pass my thanks along to the planning board I served eight years or nine maybe on the board of adjustment five all a it is tedious work it's important work uh but
it's not recognized and applauded so please pass our our thanks to them I'll pass that message along thank you all right anything else no I only have two announcements uh thank you Sterling fire comy for hosting another excellent 25th Annual venison dinner it
was a sellout and as always the food was outstanding and all the men and women that volunteered it was great thank you for all the time and effort you put in and then they're doing a wet down for the three new trucks that we bought on May 31st so then you'll have the um Memorial Day Parade followed by the wet
down a few days later so be a lot to do in town at the end of May that's my report now administrator's report thank you mayor I I just have um an update with the uh from the police department uh for the month of December um a total
of um calls for service for the year was over 25,000 calls uh the for the month of uh December Patrol statistics for uh motor vehicle stops 161 there were 155 59
motor vehicle warnings 61 summonses issued during the month of De December there were 17 motor vehicle accidents uh for the month of January um we had the police department had
2545 calls for service there were 16 motor vehicle accidents uh there were 147 motor vehicle stops 155 motor vehicle warnings 66 summonses and four arrests uh from those
and that's all I have t nightmare for the administrators okay wait Lieutenant do you have anything you need to report at Randy cover it for us in relation to the PD an update of what yeah what do you have any yeah do you have anything you want to rep inde
independent of anything Randy reported just now like an overall update well I know I'm just asking you if you I don't know if you yeah Randy Randy didn't Randy just about the monthly summary yes is there anything else you wanted to add to that is what
I'm saying what okay all right just want to ask you while you're were here thank Mr very can I just I want to thank uh administrator Randy bar and and and administrator uh assistant Colette arment I think uh they did a great job on the sign out much better the last
well no but I mean actual the design oh yeah how it matches Town Hall I think it really fits in uh I know we talked about it two years ago or whenever it was it's been a long process but it's here and and tweaking of the visibility so you
can read that's the big thing I I I I think it's going to be it looks better now yeah it's so so helpful and and I appreciate that the deputy mayor and just to add to that there yes there will be landscaping around the sign so please uh we've gotten many phone calls about
that but we're just waiting yes yes we have we're wait wait for the weather to break so yes we're going to be doing some Landscaping but it does look good and I and again I think the call outs for Corrections for clarity and and you know invisibility like thank you for addressing them and it looks great it's
obviously it's something new that we have not dealt with before so you know there's going to be a little check I've always been a little envious driving along Valley Road Springfield Road that other towns have had it and I must say maybe I'm being a little biased I think our sign is by far the best yep thank
you we agree well once it has Landscaping Randy all right so discussion items there was a lsbury uh Meadow discussion item regarding the cost for all the inspections we checked with the uh Jeff Heist our our building code and
instructor uh inspector and he basically has been in contact with lounsberry and the contractors and he said don't take any action now he wants to get a bigger scope of picture what it's going to take and how much time it's going to take for uh the department to respect everything
so not Mr Caputo not that's happening tonight sure if you want to why not three minutes though Mr dorsy I appreciate it thank you um and the town has been very generous over over the years to us and we we appreciate that and um understand
uh we are integral to the fair share process and if there's anything we can do uh to help you meet that new number please reach out um I just wanted to say that the uh the request we sent in is somewhat time sensitive um only because
after all these years we've finally uh reached a position where our renovation of the property is ready to go uh we're really ready to get shovels in the ground uh we have federal
state uh County County funding that's that's all dependent on getting moving quickly um we have a contractor in place and this is really the last stumbling block uh and it seems like we' we've gotten trapped in a um maybe the the
non-pe specifity of the local ordinance where we're getting charge 6% of the general construction uh $132,000 plus the mechanical electrical Plumbing um the the state has come back to us
with uh and they've said that for a job this size which was about four $4 million uh they would normally expect the permits to be about $155,000 so we're about 10 times that or nine times that so um I don't know if
there's anything I could do the the the building official did reach out to me as well and I don't want to put words in his mouth and he said his hands are kind of Tied by the ordinance um so I don't know if there's anything that could happen but just wanted to no I think that's why Mr Heist wanted to
wait because the email he sent us basically he said that the contractor agrees to go over job cost and remove some items that might not be that might not be needed for inspection I believe or something and then yeah and then he's going to work with you and the contractor and hopefully try to minimize
any of the damage on your end okay so that's the plan that's yeah there's no there's no decision made at all it didn't throw out any numbers or anything he just say he's going to continue the conversation with your you and the contractor and hopefully then he can at least present us with something that might back up your position or not
I don't know okay um uh I just want to re reemphasize that the 6% is a problem even if we do cut back on the basis of our construction so okay I don't know if there's you know
well at this point we have no information we don't enough we can't make it on anything we don't have any information make it B it on so like I'm saying the conversation is definitely not over okay so there's no decision been made we're going to wait to get input from Mr Heist before we come back and discuss this again but thank you for
everything you do down there because I know the people that live down there really appreciate the building we look forward to uh kicking this off and having oh it's gonna be yeah it's well overdue some dignitaries over all right thank you John thanks John for coming thank you all right next
oh the next discussion item is the train station security camera Randy is that your department yeah um as as we had discussed in a in a previous meeting uh we needed to check with New Jersey transit to see uh how um they would be
receptive to cameras on their properties and so forth uh they uh have sent us um their okay if you will and actually have Incorporated it into this lease agreement so we we got that today the
next step would be to uh engage with um if you will a a expert for the cameras uh and we do have uh access to various companies that do that to get their input of uh where cameras could be uh
what coverage we would have um where the server would would be placed whether it's at Police Headquarters or here have uh New Jersey Transit be able to get access should something happen um and and come back to the committee with a
with a dollar amount do we have power Network I think we have power at each of the train stations because I think we have I think we have a lighting at each station so I think we do I think I think we have power and everything I don't think that's going to be the issue and
we also have W you know they do it they can do it by uh Towers cell towers and so forth so there are options uh without without the wiring hard wiring being needed that's what I have now all right new B I know or you have something on
new business you want to discuss yes um for the Turtle Rock Park let me find my notes sorry um I know you said you had updates for that too but I was wondering and I didn't see it but I could have missed it um if there was like a sign
that articulated the the meaning of the space so if someone saw something it didn't seem totally random there there was some sort of verbiage that says this was designated by the township of L Hill you know for inclusivity respect for all kindness something like that just to
articulate mean like some type of sign yeah like a little plaque or something so people would know why certain symbols are showing up there at any given time I don't have a problem with that like do I mean if everybody thinks that's a good idea I'm open to did you say there is now there is not there is not no I just
thought cuz like it was random and I think there was a call out about you know one of the symbols that's up and I'm like oh actually yeah it could seem kind of random on a public property if it's not really explained that we're doing this as you know like a kindness space and a diversity space and I would
so I think it's a great idea I would certainly want to discuss it with the rest of the beautification committee absolutely just bring it up to Colette so she can bring it up in our next meeting because I would also I would also recommend running it by uh recre and the recreation advis thank you yes I
was just thinking of some way that's right that's actually a park it's a park it's a park yeah that's fine I think of it as a train station mistakenly but it's actually a park all by the train station yeah just so every no we have some this is a great time to make that
suggestion there's a lot I don't want to let the cat out of the bag but there's some hopefully some good things going to happen over at Turtle Rock Park all right any other New or Old business seeing none announcements March 26 two weeks ribbon cutting caner playground
400 p.m. I know Lisa's got a lot of things planned for the kids involving gnomes Easter AEG hunt April 12th 10:00 caner Park and finally the infamous Street Fair April 27 2025 um there will be signs up obviously the new legible uh community board
outside will feature all these events so the first one March 26th caner Park be there 4:00 grand opening a new playground all right M I just do have any announcement go St St Vincent the Paul has a blood drive uh sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Tuesday March
25th I apologize St Vincent dep Paul has a uh blood drive sponsored by the Nights of Columbus on March 25th Tuesday 1 to 7: p.m. uh on Facebook all the pages have where you can click and schedule or
Walkins are of course welcome thank you thank you all right open mic night limited to three minutes anybody from the public has anything to say come on down Charles AR Rena with Millington I'll be brief tonight I'd like each of you to do a
little self-reflection tonight on this meeting one three things that I'd like you to look at am I doing what is best for the township
two what can I do better to serve the residents and three in this self-reflection am I truly being honest with myself thank you for your time thank you wow thank you there a lot of time left any other member of the public
is there anybody online tonight at all okay good all right hello and thank you for this opportunity to speak uh as you might know lawnmower and leaf blower season is coming up before you make a comment can you just state your name for the record please sure I am Ryan from J long thank
you thank you go ahead sir okay so uh soon lawnmower and leaf floor SE is coming up it would be nice if there was a way to limit the amount of noise pollution that's going to uh come up pretty soon like it's not that bad right now but it's bound to happen again like
it it does each year and it may improve the quality of life if there was some ways to restrict it like for example maybe not have uh lawnmowers or leap lowers or whatever uh active on like Sundays or perhaps limited to a few
hours like during a certain days so people can uh get the the mowing the lawn and all that stuff out of their system all at the same time and I and it should improve the atmosphere because uh
like if you're just listening to uh the environment at any time just like taking a walk or whatever there's going to be some sort of noise in the background from these two things thank you no I know we have an ordinance Mr Pig is actually looking for as soon we started talking so there is an ordinance we do
have that limits the times of day that they can use like the Machinery pretty wide though I think it's like 7 to 8 I think it's 8:00 a.m. it starts not before 8 right is it 7 I think it's 7 to 8 is it all right sounds right yeah right if you want if you give us your email we can have Mr pigeon email it to
you if you want sir oh it's all online Cod book is all online yes cods online if you look on on the website they have the the all the township ordinances are online but it is it a pretty wide period And I think it's every day right yeah yes I I do request
that okay there may be uh well no we can we'll answer your question no we're just trying to find it of course yeah blowing ordinance I'm just trying to Google it no it's like noise oh I've looked this one up before yeah but your noise wasn't Leaf
blow it was a party all the time not just leaf blowers the lawn mowers big big old things they use all right while we're looking at up do you have any other questions sir I do not okay so hang out we'll get you an answer thank you for your patience you sat in a whole evening yes yes it was a new
experience that's what AI said is that a different one 510 operating construction and landscaping equipment hold on make sure he can hear you hold on Mr Ryan can you hear us all right go ahead construction and landscaping equipment uh any tools or equipment used in
construction drilling Earth moving Excavating or demolition work or the operation of any gas power landscaping equipment including but not limited to leaf blowers and lawnmowers is prohibited between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. the following day I want to recognize that the deputy mayor
had it exactly right what was the answer is that's Monday through Friday days a week days says I think it's Monday through Friday yeah basically s days a week yeah so 8m you're not allowed all right so that answer at
least that you might not be happy with it but at least that answer your question but the call out would be a recommendation to well the followup question Jack are we constrained by any state statute or we can make it anything we want within reason within reason so we could make it
8 800 a.m. yes how about 10 no you're not even up at 10 8 a. too early all right you're sleeping like a baby you don't even hear ital aident Saturday
I'm I don't think landscapers mostly are working on Sundays I don't I think we would be residents would be doing it of course Tom Jones Long Hill I think the bigger issue is the commercial when the landscapers are going because if I'm working five days a
week I've got Saturday or Sunday to cut the lawn and if it's raining on Saturday then I got to cut it on Sunday and I know there's a noise decel um I think we have a noise decel ordinance so if it's and impossible to enforce I know but I know we dealt with
um motorcycles and ATVs running we were talking about that last year so that was becoming an issue um I I would cater more towards stopping the landscapers working on a Sunday because they got the big noisy they come in in an army and they're just knocking out if I'm a
resident cutting and leaf blowing at home it's only for like two hours and it's usually in the middle of the day and I get what what he's saying he wants peace and quiet we all do uh but we've got chores to do as well so and mother nature hours of 7 a.m. to
8:00 p.m. I'll say it the opposite of way it is in the ordinance seems a a bit much yeah I'm not cutting my lawn at 7 in the morning no right and it says the noise decb is ours our ordinance is based on the state standard for decel we
don't to measure it right I'm not yet all right yes sir uh yes I I do want to emphasize that and it really may help if there's a shorter amount of time like it doesn't have to be everyone Moser lawn at 7 in the morning that that's horrifying but like maybe in the
afternoon just just just a few hours and everyone uh well almost everyone should have that opportunity they can still mow their loan for like 3 hours and that should be enough but it would apply to Residence and not just everybody thank you sir for coming it's nice to see new people here yeah
speaking of new people Mr liberado yeah back again I'll keep it quick I don't want to wear out my welcome tonight again good thing we're not on the three minutes cumulative no there's three minutes now yeah there's three minutes now so I'll be quick uh just a quick point I I want to commend you on
the transparency tonight for the discussion in the public I know you wanted to have the discussion deputy mayor in the back for exec with the PBA but I think it answered some questions created more questions and a robust discussion like
that is good that's government at work I think and it's good to have it in the open sometimes like watching something get made sometimes you have to see what happens and what goes on back there sometimes it's good for everyone to see out here that's my Takeaway on second item
just food for thought to take with you when you do discuss the promotions process my suggestion as an employer if my my employees are used or have been under a certain promotion process for the past 40 years as the companies existed and they've kind of worked and
positioned themselves to follow those guidelines and now we're going to go to a new system which is fine if you're going to do that but I think there should be a grace period personally to move things along I would use the ferano system that was in place for the past 40
years for this round of promotions right now and then in fiscal year 26 say in 26 to give everyone time to prepare I'm giving you a Year's notice going forward and next round of promotions will require testing so that it gives them time to get the test prep come up with
the money rather than pulling the rug out saying okay we got a whole new system now I just think In fairness that's a balance a great call Old system right now let's move it forward get people promoted because they've worked hard and to say okay well now we're
going to switch gears and go to a different system especially if you've been here while it's a lot to take in not saying not do it just let's have a transition period grandfather in the old system for now let's get people promoted let's show the support for our
department and then say in 26 or 27 here's our road map you got two years to start studying up and then work with a hybrid system from there kind of like changing the rules in the middle of the game kind of thing know I I get what you're saying you know think we all get what you're saying that's the difficult part is to do that and I'm not
discounting but the old system has worked you want to tweak it that's fine but tweak it in the future because you have a lot of people who worked under this system and we've had a lot of great officers men and women come through under the old system so I don't think the system's broke and I think we have a
great department and I think the the F round system has worked let's just find a balance thank you thank you Frank anybody else and you have nobody logged in online n seeing none I'll entertain any and all motions to adjourn motion to
adjourn second second in favor here thank you have a nice night everybody e e e for