##VIDEO ID:qxshUJDJt6A## e e e e e e e e e e for apologize let the recor reflect that we have reconvened with all all members present uh council member Tom Howen pus is absolutely excused for those who are able please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing after the pledge I take a moment to remember a few Madison residents we lost over the last couple of weeks our well passed away last week at the age of 96 born in 1928 in Orange New Jersey he survived by a sister for children six grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren grew up in Maplewood and graduated from Columbia High School after a year and a half at Valley Forge Military Academy attended Syracuse University graduated degree in English listed in the Air Force as a Communications officer and then went on to work for his father's business the rails company and and spent the Summers out with the rail rail gangs and stalling rail Fasteners his father passed on he was appointed president and as it says in the obituary he could have been a doctor but chose not to go to Europe for medical school but the uh often spent his teen years uh in the backyard covered as the backyard was covered with motorcycle parts and assemblies trying to make them go faster and he did own several which he would use to commute to Syracuse even in the winter I guess he was also known to uh race with his friends on Wyoming Avenue which I assume one in Maplewood um can't get away for that now and he was an amateur radio Builder and operator purchased his first single engine airplane at 18 years old and and ended up acquiring at Twin Beach and uh won several several air rally competitions and while in the military he married his wife Marana where they had four Sons vacations on lake Lake George while he was with the rails company he invented a new snow detector and railroad bridge tie anchor design and developed a Pneumatic centralized Railway rail Railway track lubrication system which became standard in New Jersey or New York City Transit subway system it was very active in Madison including with the YMCA Madison Presbyterian Church Library Mars toown Medical Center and noi Pond Club also remember mar Mario lapio passed away on October 26th age of 94 survived by his two daughters two grand two granddaughters a brother and a sister he lost his wife Maria in 2017 he was born in Som vene vuia Italy where he was raised with his five siblings married in 1954 and immigrated to the United States and settled right here in Madison and uh he loved his uh New Life in America but kept his Italian traditions and values they first lived on keep Street and moved to North Street where they raised her two daughters and um he enjoyed spending time out outside gardening and playing Bachi with many of his friends he had a garden so he and Maria could grow their own vegetables and the aroma from the kitchen brought back brought you back to Italy that extensive career with PSG before retiring John rillo died age of 95 seed in death by his wife of 52 years Maryanne he's behind two daughters and a grandchild born in Summit served our country in um United States Navy 1950 to 54 in the Korean War above the USS or the USS Henley long career in plumbing and HVAC trades he worked for PSG and then uh CBA gagi was involved with the uh St Vincent marttin Church where he was Usher and greeter for 10 years and also we remember Patricia PAT kakav valy pass away on October 25th born in 1934 in Bel Belleville lived in Madison for past 87 years graduated from Madison High School in 1952 worked for chub Insurance followed uh as a bookkeeper PNC and then reception of St Vincent Mar church till our retirement in 2021 at St Vincent you also served as Eucharistic Minister and volunteer the annual Thanksgiving basket Outreach for for several years survived by her three children and five grandchildren she was predeceased by her husband William in 2005 who was a dedicated Giants fan which takes a lot of dedication and um through through good times and bad bad years and she never wavered let's take a moment to remember gar Burwell mariio lapio John rillo and Patty kaval let's pass our thoughts on the family and friends they leave behind thank you I have a motion for the executive minutes of October 16th 2024 so moved all in favor I a motion for the regular minutes of October 16 2024 so moved second any discussion Corrections all in favor I I thank you welcome all sorry for our little delay at the start there computer decided it was time to uh do a reboot and threw me off so I'll go for my uh iPad instead I did forget uh our last meeting to welcome the uh Drew journalism class and so we have a couple students here again for the second meeting in a row so welcome thank you for being here seeing local government in action and um just a uh couple of things that uh were going on last couple of weeks and all seem to happen on one day actually which was this past Saturday um I started the day at 8:30 with a uh visit to the 10 Monica field at the high school which had been uh just resurfaced and uh is now ready for at least another decade of uh uh play there so stop on by take a look at it and then at 10:30 I went to the centennial celebration for the Madison Junior school and since I was told by a few people in the audience that I exceeded my allotted three minutes I will not read my full comments right now but I will uh take cover on a few of those um but I I was there kind of living up tradition when the school up opened up in 1924 the uh mayor of Madison was there to speak but um he couldn't say that he was also a um a lum as I was a member of the 1970 class of um Madison Junior school so yes I was there before the school had even reached its 50th birthday and one of the things I mentioned was the fact that uh my class um since we were born in 1956 you can do the math we were the right the right in the middle of the baby boom so we had really pushed that beautiful building to its limits in more waves than one um in attendance was Dr Bob new house who was a former principal of the junior school but more importantly he was my principal at the Green Village Road school which is where Rose Hall is right now uh he was there among several other formal principles but he was the only one there who was born the same year the building opened in 1924 uh Bob new house celebrated his 100th birthday just a few months ago and um I went up to say hello and before I could say anything he said hi Bob how you doing so and uh somewhat related to this I I got a letter from a John Callahan in Florida last month John Callahan and his Madison High School class of 1946 so he attended the Junior School when it was still the high school and he he was just sending a letter to uh one was to talk about the Lincoln portrait but to share some of his memories of uh Madison he hadn't lived in Madison since the early 50s but had some great memories including uh his memories of the high school and the uh sticker on his envelope was the foundation of every state is the education of it of its Youth and anyone that went through mad Madison Junior School knows that is right above the uh stage so it was very neat the timing um also at the event was uh a museum that was put together of the uh school history both as a junior school and the high school and they recently opened they they just recently had opened the Time Capsule that was put behind the uh Cornerstone I told Jim that one of the things in the time capsule was the 1924 uh Finance report for the burough of Madison so he's anxious to uh look at that and uh maybe make make some recommendations for next year's budget based on that um but all of this work it was an incredible day for anyone that was there to see it the museum all the uh the history that was put together would not have happened if it wasn't for the uh junior school history teachers Steve finlin aka Mr fin his dedication to the event truly made it special and then when that was done at 12:30 headed over to the Madison chamber Halloween parade I did miss the actual parade uh as I was making way away from the junior school but did see some amazing costumes as children gathered on the heartley Dodge Plaza for the magic show uh which preceded the uh trick-or-treating downtown and Madison certainly was busy with all sorts of uh children going through with their parents it was a great day and then at 2: p.m. we cut the ribbon at the new playground at DOD field uh in there were children arriving there and their costumes uh that just come from the parade to enjoy the beautiful day and playing on the equipment of playground and just a few things that I recognized there the fully accessible playground was made possible through funding from the New Jersey Department Environmental Protection Green Acres Jake's law initiative and it was pointed out we're the first uh playground in Mars County to uh take advantage of that funding to uh deliver a fully accessible playground New Jersey Department of Community Affairs local Recreation Improvement Grant the Mars County Commissioners Community Development block grant and Madison Elks uh lodge number 1465 our local Lodge uh bought benches for there in the Land Conservancy of New Jersey and the playground as we as we stated on Saturday would not have been possible without the vision of former U councilwoman Deb Cohen and the support from Susie whorn Rec director Zack Ellis uh burough assistant uh engineer Dennis Harrington and Director of Business Development Lisa Ellis and we also had our expert uh playground tester Katie whorn uh Susie's uh daughter and visiting that day was Eric Legrand from uh ruter the ruter foot football player who was paralyzed in 2010 he had a great great big smile as he viewed our playground and comment on the import importance of accessibility for all to have those able and those with the physical challenges being able to play together haven't been there please uh take a visit and today very important day is National first responder day I want to take a moment to express deepest gratitude to the dedicated men and women and the Madison's police Fire EMS departments your unwavering commitment to our community ensures Madison remains a safe place for all who live work and visit our residents know and they don't even think twice when they call for help the answer is there so your bravery and selflessness in the face of challenges do not go unnoticed especially over these last few days as you'll hear from some reports it's been a busy weekend each day our First Responders put their lives on the line to protect others responding to emergencies with professionalism and compassion it is their tireless effort that creates a sense of security in our neighborhoods and Beyond so to all the First Responders out there thank you for your service your sacrifices and your dedication to keeping the Rose City safe and I have a proclamation ask to come on down we'll do we'll do it right here and and this is a proclamation we we do every years to uh truly a very important one for awareness um this is something very close to uh Liz Osborne our Clerk and also to this Council as we lost uh Ben w W's council member to pancreatic cancer whereas in 2024 more than 66,000 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States almost 52,000 will die from the disease including more than 1,400 in New Jersey alone whereas pancreatic cancer is currently the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States and projected to become second leading cause around 2030 and whereas each person's chances of getting the cancer can be affected by certain risk factors such as tobacco use being overweight family history and inherited genetic syndromes and whereas when symptoms of pancreatic cancer present themselves is generally in the later stages and 88% of pancreatic cancer patients die within the first five years whereas it is important to see a doctor at the first signs of pancreatic cancer which could include abdominal pain midback pain new onset diabetes not associated with weight gain and yellow eyes your skin and whereas the good health and well-being of the residents of Madison are enhanced as a direct result of increased awareness about symptoms and risks of pancreatic cancer and Research into early detection causes and effective treatment now therefore I Robert H County mayor bur madis on behalf of the governing body hereby Proclaim November 2024 as Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in the burough of Madison [Applause] just guessing but I think I went past three minutes so reports from committees Public Safety Council president range thank you mayor uh from the police department tonight on October 24th the Madison police Command Staff detective Bureau and school resource officers attended bagels and brainstorming event hosted by the Madison y YMCA by members of project Community Pride this event is held sever times per year with members of the police and project Pride discuss Trends and issues they're seeing with youth with youth and collaborate on events that can be planned to streng strengthen the relationship with the police in our community topics of discussion of note were bullying and social media safety for teens Madison police uh Personnel attended several events for the kickoff of Halloween week uh over the weekend uh officers were present at the annual Trunk or Treat held at the Madison High School school over the weekend uh they were present during the Halloween parade uh that yielded many participants this year uh police also got a chance to see many awesome costumes by uh the visitors and residents throughout town uh further the during Halloween during Halloween trick-or-treating time coming up this week um you residents will notice uh many marked police vehicles in residential areas to ensure that the night is safe for everyone we'd also like to thank the uh Madison Masonic Masonic Lodge who recently donated $5,000 to the police department that will be used to support the 2025 every 15 minutes program and from the fire department tonight the fire department had a very busy weekend uh on Saturday morning there was a large brush fryer inside the enclosure for the Hein Woods uh the New Jersey state fire forest fire service Watchtower located approximately 6 miles away in Denville uh was the first to uh spot the fire located uh deep in the in the Drew Forest uh Madison fire department was dispatched and found the fire near the Southern Property Line working with the state forest fire service and our mutual Aid Partners uh the fire was held to just under two acres and that was uh very fortunate that the fire was not worse as also on Saturday there was a large uh brush fire in Livingston that off of Eisenhower Parkway that consumed 190 Acres uh this underscores the fact that New Jersey is in extreme fire danger currently and we are under a Red Flag Warning we've been without rain now for 27 days and the dry weather and low humidity have made conditions very dangerous as it relates to fires there should be no outside burning or fires unless they are elevated and fueled by propane or natural gas the leaves are incredibly light and dry uh so drivers are also reminded uh especially with uh leaves piled curbside for pickup um not to park cars uh on or near Piles of leaves as this can result in the car and those leaves catching on fire also last night at Drew University at approximately 11:45 p.m. multiple 911 calls were made reporting a large fire near the tennis courts at Drew University firefighters arrived and found a uh a structure fully engulfed in the fire in the tenis court area the stranding grass area was also burning and spreading and the fire was spreading rapidly the fire went to two alarms and uh with help once again from our partners we were able to limit the spread of the fire and keep it within the structure one minor injury to a firefighter was also reported at that incident um back to Saturday the fire department and the EMS division uh responded to a major motor vehicle collision on Route 24 um that resulted in a teenage passenger being ejected from the vehicle uh the fire department would like to remind everyone uh that all occupants of a vehicle should wear their seat bels at all times to avoid those sorts of serious injuries and lastly tonight fire prevention month as we wind that down for October here um was a great success for the fire prevention Bureau who visited St martyr Vincent uh Central Avenue School Kings Road School Tory J uh school kindergarten first grade and second grades in each School learned about fire safety and the equipment used by the firefighters firefighters has also been visiting all Nursery schools in the burough and they've been showing the children there our fire engines and the gear uh that they wear during uh working fires that is all from Public Safety tonight mayor thank you thank you finance and bur clerk M thank you mayor the tax collector would like to remind residents that the fourth quarter taxes are due November 1st because of the holiday weekend the grace period is extended through the end of business day on Tuesday November 12th any payments not received by the 12th will have interest charge back to the 1st of November in addition the property tax reimbursement forms uh which are in the blue booklet also called the senior free program must be filed by October 31st if you haven't yet completed and mailed your application out to the state time is running out the the Madison tax office is available to answer your questions and to fill out the tax certification portion of the application from finance and administration there are two items to report on October 15th the burough wired the Board of Education their monthly funds which were over four $4 million this month and second this evening we have a short presentation from Administration on on the state of New Jersey's best practices checklist the state division of local government services issued the checklist last month it includes scored and unscored questions for the burough to answer the questions cover various topics including Personnel ethics budget cyber security transparency shared services affordable housing purchasing and capital planning the best practices checklist assesses Madison's compliance with various state laws it also evaluates our operations as well as our pH iCal practices the checklist provides taxpayers with additional means for evaluating a Town's management this is the sixth year that the best practices checklist has been in existence and this year's lists as well as all prior year lists can be found on the finance department's pages of rosenet.org in the document section in 2024 a municipality must attain at least 35 points on the checklist in order to receive 100% of their state aid Madison scored 43.5 out of a possible 46.5 points so I'm happy to report that the burrow will once again receive 100% of our state aid tonight the CFO will discuss some of the questions and I want to say that I'm very proud of Madison's fiscal and operational strength I want to thank all the staff and elected elected officials past and present their careful consideration and prudent fiscal planning and policy have positioned Madison on such sound footing that we can be proud of our performance on this checklist the services that we deliver and uh the fact that we are able to deliver year-over-year in all of these categories I think is something we can all be proud of that's all mayor thank you Public Works engineering and also utilities Mr L thank you mayor okay first from engineering the wellbe fac facility improvements the projects being closed out final inspections from the building department are required uh the utility building roof ventilation fans remain to be installed the library interior is reval submittal and invoicing con construction work is approximately 99% complete Furnishing and restocking the sub Library materials will take some time anticipate reopening in the fall for milling and overlay the project has been completed to cook Avenue parking lot phase one of the project is complete phase two has commenced and is continuing this week with phase three scheduled for later this week as well the telecommunications companies have relocated their wires underground for the phase one portion Madison Electric has transferred services to the new underground wiring the project is scheduled to be completed by mid November now in regards to the playground and the mayor has given a very good review of that what I can tell you personally is that several families from where I live uh have all attended and have praised it they said it's wonderful and it was long overdue so that was a great thing for the town uh the MRC solar car port the the project has been watered to Bullet electric of North Arlington at the amount of 1,998 500 Pro the project is advancing some equipment has been procured a preconstruction meeting will be held shortly the project is anticipated to commence late this fall okay from DPW DPW has made it around town completely with the leaf vacuums residents are reminded not to put sticks or other any other in with the leaves that clogs up the machines and slows them down they are working on having work done on the trusses at the Public Works building on John Avenue when looking at putting in a solar roof on the a solar Port putting in solar on the roof they found a couple of problems which they are working to correct it is an emergency repair and the crews here are every day making the repairs we anticipate all work done by mid November the parks department has shut off and blown out all sprinkler systems they encourage all residents to do the same if they have not done so already this will save a Time save time in line breaking and causing a significant leak in the coming week we will start working on snow equipment and making sure the plows and Sals are ready okay from the Madison environmental committee the Madison environmental commission or MEC reports that the townwide yard sale on October 19th was a success with more than 50 households registering since 20121 the M MEC has partners with partnered with the cadams to run spring and full yard sales and redu that reduce waste and they also a fundraiser for a good cause residents listed their sales with a $10 tax deductible donation to The Great Swamp Watershed Watershed Association on SE on Saturday October 26th the Mec table based at the Centennial event at the Madison Junior school and Joan mcui gave away lots of packets of native native plant seeds on Sunday the Mec co-hosted a hugely popular popular the ID tree walk at the Forest Preserve at the Madison Recreation and cons conservation complex the soldout event offered small groups and intro into the forest ecology and tips on how to use Nature's cues to identify trees based on training from ginger van van RS a naturalist with the Great Swamp water Shar asso Association the tree ID walk was a successful partnership between the M MEC the Madison Shade Tree Management board Friends of the Madison shade trees at the Great Swamp water shed Association okay the electric util U ility Aslin engineering has started the relay upgrading at Kings Road substation with assistance from the electric Department Michael rigs was promoted to First Class linan following his completion of his first class test on October 16th and 17th the senior housing Transformer relocation job was completed on October 21st and 22nd Crews were out replacing street lights that were out for the Halloween coming up on septe on October 22nd the department started testing out a new Digger Derek truck demo for possible for a possible replacement truck the service hook up for 50 East Lane was completed the electric Department continues to complete markouts uh see click fix postings and Resident calls okay for the water utility dug six curb boxes after old main valves were found dur the meter changes replaced iron service from water m in our systems found when digging out a curve box bacteria test was conducted at 120 Madison Avenue that's the MOs complex the F hydrant raised the fire hydrant to proper grade at Rosco Avenue the systemwide hydrant flushing was completed meter changes continue markouts residents called and they remind people to see click fix to see uh what work is continuing and winterizing for fountains and field houses is to be started this week thank you mayor thank you B just one there was a little subtle thing in your report from the Mec which I want to point out that the U you know the MRC madicon Recreation Complex and the uh I know the environmental commission wants to have it being start being called the Madison Recreation and conservation complex which is a very uh we may have to do that officially but that highlights the fact that not those not only playing fields but the fact that we have the wooded area fence to keep the deer out to restore that we have the wildf flower Meadows we have um the Community Gardens we have uh rain Gardens and so truly it is a recreation and uh conservation complex so thank you for that little subtle uh report point Thank You Clair for put that in there and now we'll move on to uh Community Affairs Miss Hanahan thank you mayor uh from the DDC uh it is just coming up on Halloween but we're getting ready for Christmas in Madison The Rose City Christmas committee has begun planning for the annual Christmas parade and tree lighting if you would like more information regarding sponsorship um or donations you can reach out to Lisa Ellis DDC at rosenet uh the farm and Artisan Market continues through December 14th it's continuing to be a great success uh 9 to2 on Saturdays the next regular meeting of the Downtown Development commission will be held on October 17th at 7:15 right down the hall from here the Chamber of Commerce will be presenting a new event in conjunction with the DDC on November 2nd at 11:00 a.m. and it is the Rose City dog day and parade so we're in the season of parades for sure uh contact Karen at Madison chamber or Lisa at at DDC the Madison Community Art Center has over 50 paintings by area artists from the de debber Studio in Floren Park and they're being displayed through the 25th of November and on Friday November 1st the Film Society of summit will be screening intercepted a documentary looking at messages of Russian soldiers that were intercepted in the Ukraine war the New Jersey Jazz Society will present a concert um of their annual high school and college Jazz scholarship winners at 3M on November 3rd more information on other events at the Madison Arts Center can be found at Madison arts and j.org on November 2nd at Grace Church uh with the rotary as lead the repair Cafe will take place so if you have knives that need to be sharpened or things that need to be fixed that's a place to go for free free help and then on November 2nd dead of night Cemetery tours will take place those will um be free and there are several different times you can go and to reserve your space you can email Hillside Cemetery NJ gmail.com thank you very much and Health Mr Forte thank you mayor the New Jersey Department of Health has identified five cases of measles in Mammoth and middle sex counties each of these cases are related to each other through a single individual who contracted measles while traveling internationally none of the five cases were vaccinated against the disease measles is a highly contagious preventable disease with a 50% hospitalization rate in children under five the Madison Health Department would like to remind residents to stay up to date with their vaccinations including measles uh and also the annual flu and covid vaccines any individual that would like help finding vaccinations can call the department at 97 7359 33079 thank you thank you now we move on to Communications and petitions but none received mayor Now we move on to our first of two invitations for public comment this one is limited to items on our uh agenda discussion which is the uh best practices checklist which you heard about already and you'll be hearing the full report shortly and you can comment on the following resolutions if you want to comment on other topics you have to wait for our second uh invitations for uh discussion for for comment and these are the um resolutions you may comment on these will also be part of the consent agenda resolution 292 authorized the appointment of Robert Duffy position of director of Public Works annual salary of 165,000 uh resolution 293 is authorized a letter from the governing body stating that there's no objection to issuance of temporary hell Stop License for every 15 minutes program at Madison high resolution 294 is authorizing shared service agreement with the Madison Board of Education to provide a special law enforcement officer three uh resolution 295 is accepting a donation from the former Masonic Lodge for the police department and this is uh $5,000 for school related events and programs to be used by the department we thank the Manan clge for that donation 296 is authorized on special event permit for use at Summer Hill Park by a Girl Scout Troop resolution 297 authorizing renewal of agreement for employee assistance program AKA EAP program with Atlantic Health Systems resolution 298 authorizing sustainable Jersey climate vulnerability assessment technical assistance application resolution 299 is enabling resolution for the funding for the Dodge field uh playground resolution 300 is authorized execution of an electric vehicle adoption leadership pledge with e EV adoption leadership resolution 301 is approving of raffle license applications submitted by Drew University and resolution 302 is authorized an appointment of AJ rangu to a position of director of Information Technology annual salary of $165,000 resolution 303 is uh authorizing the appointment of Archie Joseph to the position of an information technology IT specialist annual salary of $65,000 per year so those will be part of the consent agenda and also you may comment on any of those resolutions right now if you wish to comment please step up to elect turn state your name and address write the same on the clipboard State the uh agenda discussion or the resolution you wish to comment on and then you may start speaking anyone wishing to speak please step forward seeing none I close this part of the meeting and we move on to our agenda discussions CFO Jim brunette thank you mayor I appreciate the opportunity to present the best practices uh survey results um as uh councilwoman Erick clarified and stated earlier this is a requirement every year since 2019 the state has issued and promulgated this list list every year the questions are different uh and it gives us an opportunity to go over them make sure that we're doing everything we can a lot of state laws and guidance are issued within it as mentioned there are scored and unscored questions unscored questions this year were on affordable housing lead remediation um and uh other items like that there were uh various questions um that were scored on ethics on the environment on core competence IES with capital projects cyber security had more questions this year things that you would anticipate um that are becoming more and more important um are uh being mentioned in and brought forth with questions core competencies on Personnel um procurement how we purchase insurance and things like that so we scored a 43 out of 46 and a half and doing the math that's 93 a half% and I checked online Smith College grading numerology says that that's an a that's my wife's uh Alma moer so no offense to Drew I hope it's an a at Drew University as well but uh just want to let my kids know that we got an A and um happy about that so uh three questions we did not answer affirmatively one uh two of them keep recurring every year one is do we have an accumulated absence uh liability Reserve accumulated absences are when and an employee accumulates sick time and then when they go to retire we would presumably pay out of that accumulated sick Bank um they oftentimes can cash out one sick day or get one day for every five that they cash out at the end um when they retire the we we choose not to do this because we put employees on terminal leave and let them stay on instead of giving them a large payment just just what we CH to do here what we've been doing for years so we don't see a need to have that liability also that liability is reducing significantly because previous laws and previous um policies allowed employees to be able to cash um save more sick time and more importantly um cash in at a better rate uh one day for every three one day for every four had people like David Ms who worked here forever love you David Mains if we miss you and um someone like him who you know had just an incredible amount of days um now uh newer employees that are hired can't accumulate that the second is a storm recovery um reserve and we don't do that because we're unique that we have our electric utility we're unique that in the way that we budget with Public Works in that we don't just put an average amount into the salt budget you've heard me talk about this before we put an extra into the salt budget so if it's a it's a year where we need more salt or more overtime for plowing or more work we have it baked in the budget um if we don't need it we don't spend it on party hats we don't spend it Paving roads it can only be used for plowing and for salt and that um those funds would lapse into fund balance and be made available in future years so that's just a strategy that we use it's almost a side of me that just wants to create these little reserves and put $10,000 in them just so we can answer yes but why why do the accounting the third um had to do with the number of um lead inspections that we've done and we're in the process of developing our program here lead inspection is required on the municipal level it's a new I hate to use the word unfunded mandate but that that's what it is we're expected to uh to perform this work um mandated by the state the state inspects larger apartment buildings so apartment buildings downtown five Apartments 20 Apartments they get inspected by the state um DCA Department of Community Affairs so they're already being inspected for for um these issues but a single family home that might be rented someone moved out or someone's just renting a single family home or they're an expad out for a couple of years or two family homes are not subject to DCA inspection and they're asking the buau to identify those homes notify them and then require inspections so it's easy for us to identify two family homes um we can do that through the tax record it's a little trickier on one family um homes but we'll look for tax bills that are being mailed to some place other than the home and um we'll send out notifications to them there are companies that will do this work where they will take the payment from the uh property owner $200 payment they'll go in and do the inspection to all the compliance for us so we'll be coming to council um at the next meeting or the following meeting um getting authorizations to do an RFP to hire a company to do that other towns have done it differently um using zoning officers right now our our um engineering land use and zoning department doesn't have the bandwidth to pick this responsibility up and the fact that there are companies out there that have this entire platform ready to go makes sense for us to do that so um other than that we scored um uh yes on everything else I'll just pick two random questions just for fun um that's a weird one uh here we go Personnel does your municipality currently have an unlicensed individual serving as an acting municipal clerk temporary Chief Financial Officer purchasing agent temporary Public Works manager uh and the answer is no we have all fully certified staff in those positions Liz is certified continues to take um classes and continuing education credits to become a municipal finance officer great job for University students if you're interested let me know um it it I had to go and get an another master's degree effectively to take 10 courses not classes courses so that was a multi-year process so we have fully certified um uh staff in all of those spots um looking for something that we actually get scored on um thankfully we weren't getting scored on picking random questions but okay so th this is um if you're if your Municipal contracts with an insurance broker for health insurance um how do the procurement um and the answer is um that we do it the way the state wants us to do it I'm not going to go into all the the state statute and local public contracts law bid thresholds and everything but those are just examples of questions they want to make sure that you're just not giving an insurance contract to someone without bidding it so um these items will be posted on rosenet um as a matter of fact I don't know if Michael wants to pull it up now if you go to finance department and then you click on financial documents and then you scroll down down to best practices you will find the best practices for this year and for all the other years um on online so if you have an interest in diving into it further um feel free to uh take a look at these and if anybody has any questions my contact information is affiliated with the finance department page on roset thank you and it's great work and it is uh you know it's twofold one is um we score so well so it's great to hear that I didn't get too often in my time so it's good to get them now and the other is they truly are best practices if we get high points which mean means we're running a very good town so any other questions or comments thank you Jim all right there are no ordinances for hearing so we will move on to invitations for public comment this is when you may comment on any topic uh again try to keep your comments to three minutes but we give you a one minute grace period ask you to stop at 4: state your name address and write the same on the clipboard welcome Claire thank you uh Claire witcom 12 Fairwood Road um mayor I'd like to thank you for um picking up that little note about the conservation complex which um apparently was the original name of that um area so um yes we're advocating for a new name an actual name for the farm Madison for uh Forest Preserve is what we were talking about um at the NC that's what we voted to have it because you just call it the forest at the MRC and that doesn't capture what it is and it's something of a secret really you know 20 deer fenced Acres which have undergone a a 10year restoration and um stepen stalker uh a and heroically managed that for for the duration he got that Grant he got the deer fencing $20,000 sustainable Jersey Grant so it has a lot of history and institutional knowledge but unfortunately he's not able to manage it so one reason why we had the Tre ID walk at the um uh Forest Preserve was to kind of raise awareness in in terms of the public that to take them through the forest and introduce them to Forest ecology and um there's a lot of work to be done there which I'm not going to go into um but um speaking of forest I uh we tabled as mentioned by Bob leran at the um MJS Centennial and no sooner had we set up the table than um mayor Conley showed me a a video of the Drew Forest burning so I spent um a tense morning and our our our colleagues were you know trying to figure out what was I mean that that situation could have been bad quite quite it's it's just an unknown what happens with a wildfire like that and I really thankful to all the firefighters who came and um I talked to the guy who was attending Geraldine the fire he's like oh God something finally happens and I'm babysitting Geraldine so um I said well you're lucky that things don't happen a lot um one thing that i' like like to point out is that the Drew Forest has undergone a 15-year restoration and there were two acres and and more that were choked by wisteria and the absence of hanging Vines and the invasives that had been cleared meant that there was not a ladder that went up to the canopy and that Forest could have been far worse if we had had a different situation there and um it just raises the point that we should think about all our forests and I know that Summer Hill Park is you know a hot hot spot for invasives um and the Wisteria is is Asian Wisteria American wisteria doesn't spread that and it's um one of the top five invasive plants that are in homeowners yards that spread to forests and Dr Sarah Webb gave us a list of these and this is um the foundation of that Grant we got to from um The Association of New New Jersey environmental commissions to remove the barberry bushes at Gibbons Pines and so at the tri ID walk we did education about these invasives but the um these are all things that are still being sold in in garden centers and it's barberry bushes Japanese Barberry Bush which is full of ticks um because it's it's spiny and it uh the mice can Nest under it and they have no the Predators can't get get to them burning bush which um the burough proudly displays in um many Hedges um Ivy which was recently removed at the at the library during the um green and clean is that one minute or am I at four actually I guess you missed a one minute warning so I'll give you 30 seconds yeah okay uh um Asian honeysuckle I think that's five um but the point is that we need to connect like if we want to help save the health of the Drew Forest we have to start in our yards and um these should not really be sold at nurseries but um they are and people need to just understand that they can have a role in protecting Madison's Parks by how they they Garden at home thank you Claire said it before one of the things I always love about our Drew forest and other thing reports I always learned something new about the concept of invasives serving as a conduit to the canopy in a brush what small brush fire becoming a lot much larger thing that's thank you for that anyone else wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close this part of the meeting and we now move on to introduction of ordinances will the clerk please read a statement the ordinance is scheduled for hearing have a hearing date set for Wednesday November the 13th 2024 all will be published in the Madison Eagle posted on the bulletin board made available to members the public requesting copies I call up ordinance first reading to ask the burough clerk to read set ordinances by title ordinance 32-22 24 ordinance of the Bureau of Madison appropriating $160,000 from the general Capital Improvement fund for emergency repairs to the public works garage roof mayor I move ordinance 32-22 second Council discussion this is part of of B Bob Lander's report so uh explain that further discussion roll call vote please M erck yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes and ordinance 33-22 24 ordinance of the burrow of Madison establishing an authorized personnel only policy for restricting areas within the buau of M Madison mayor I move ordinance 33-22 24 second Council discussion in ways of best practices sort of thing roll call vote please mck yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes consent agenda resolutions where the clerk please read the statement consent agenda resolutions will be enacted with a single motion any resolution requiring expenditure is supported by a certification of availability of funds any resolution requiring discussions will be removed from the consent agenda all resolutions will be reflected in full in the minute mayor I move the consent agenda resolutions uh 292 2024 through resolution 303 2024 second any Council discussion Rachel I have a couple I just like to highlight that are of interest to um that pertaining to climate action and on Madison's ongoing commitment to leadership in these areas uh resolution 298 is a resolution to apply for the sustainable Jersey free climate vulnerability assessment technical assistance program so this is a grant that provides technical assistance to municipalities through funding from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the aim of this program is to help towns meet the new regulatory requirement of the New Jersey municipal land use law which requires that towns include a climate change related Hazard vulnerability assessment in their master plan so there is a a Time clock on when towns need to adopt this assessment as part of their land use element of the master plan and sustainable Jersey is offering technical assistance to towns that apply uh we can get assistance in developing this new section of the um the master plan and when you read through the requirements to allow you to um uh qualify for this assistance Madison is really well positioned for this this because we've already adopted um climate goals we have a climate plan for resiliency and energy and uh we're like the perfect candidates to receive assistance to create this new uh section of the land use uh element so um I expect that we'll receive this Grant and be able to get started on it in the new year so that's exciting um and uh r300 authorizes the adoption of an EV adoption leadership pledge the this is eval vehicle adoption leadership program it's a national certification funded by the U US Department of energy and it's a program that provides recognition and technical assistance to organizations supporting the adoption of workplace charging and other zero emissions Transportation options so uh the authorization um to take this pledge tonight and a few other steps um that have been proposed and um endorsed by bur Administration will allow us to uh gain certification points um and get assistance in continuing to promote the adoption of electrical electric vehicles in town uh so two great steps that we're taking to background on those any other further discussion roll call vote please yes yes yes M Hanahan yes and Mr Forte yes okay there is no unfinished business approval of the vouchers will the clerk please read the voucher totals from the current fund 6,65 , 6819 from the general Capital fund $ 72,8 184 from the electric operating fund $466,900 44290 from the trust $5,427 the total is 6,626 669 54 cents mayor I move approval of the vouchers second discussion roll call vote please M erck yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes there is no new business Mr there I move to adjourn all in favor I thank you I do think somebody is is making what