Read the opening statement to section 5 chapter 231 public laws 1975. Notice by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings. 26 record and star ledger in December 2025 and by filing said notice
in the office of >> Mr. Adams >> here >> Mr. Daffis >> present. >> Herman here. Mayor Duca >> here. >> Whereas chapter 231 public laws 1975 commonly known as the open public
meetings act requires all meetings of public bodies be open to the public. And whereas section 7A provides that the governing body has the discretion to permit, prohibit or regulate the act of participation of the public at any meeting. And whereas desire the governing body to comply with the
provision of this act same time to conduct its business in an orderly and expeditious manner. Now therefore be it resolved by the township committee. Township of Mapwood does hereby prohibit except set forth in a formal agenda. Active participation in deliberations of
the governing body by the public and except as otherwise described by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the governing body at all of its regular and special meetings. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Adams. >> Yes.
>> Collinsing. Mr. Daffis. >> Yes. >> Sherman. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh please join us in a salute to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> I was told my mic was not on when we started the meeting. So we have to start over again now. I have to get it together. That's what that means. Okay. So, uh we are we have
a uh proclamation tonight for Black History Month and uh committee woman uh Collins Colding will be down there reading that and we invite anyone who would like to come up and stand with her while she reads that proclamation to do
so. Um next we have u some appointments to our community board on police. We have three members uh we're going to be appointing. We have our public comment period on any agenda item. We'll have our board of health meeting. We have an ordinance on final passage which will
have a public hearing and then we have an ordinance that we're introducing. After that, we'll have administrative reports, reports from elected officials. We have three discussion items tonight. We'll be talking about some uh repairarian credits for a project we're
doing on Maple Terrace, uh the Ridgewood Road Historic District and Carlton Court Parking. Then we have a resolution appointing um CFO, a chief financial officer. And then we have another uh consent resolution,
consent agenda resolution, which is a number of different things, paying bills, uh making awarding some contracts and things like that. If you'd like an agenda, we do have them up here, >> and you're more than welcome to come on up to our clerk's desk and pick one up.
So, with that, I'm going to ask uh committee member Collins Cing to go down and do our Black History Month. And again, please join her up there. It would be really nice if you do. Should we
should we go to about our county representative? You don't want to go up. Come on. Come on. >> Anyone else? Anyone can come on up. Okay.
>> All right. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Um, I'm going to be reading the proclamation today for Black History Month. Whereas the story of America cannot be told without the story of African-Americans.
A story of resilience bond born from bondage, creativity forged through struggle and generations who labored, dreamed, organized, and believed their lives would be shape a freer future.
And whereas in the early 20th century, at the time when black history was largely erased from classrooms, public memory, historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson,
joined by educator, minister, and philanthropist Jesse E. Morland took up the responsibility of preserving truth, founding the association of the study of Negro life and history and establishing
Negro history week in 1926 so that black children and black communities might see themselves reflected with dignity in this nation's story. And whereas they chose the second
week of February to honor the birthdays of Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln not as a symbols alone but as reminders that freedom is won through struggle,
courage and collective action. And whereas though through decades of teaching, organizing, worship, scholarship, and community celebration, Negro History Week was
carried forward by elders, educators, students, faith leaders until in 1976 during the nation's bicesentennial, it was formally are recognized as Black History Month,
affirming that Black History is not a footnote, but a foundation of American life. And whereas the African-American experience spans every corner of this nation, where black Americans have built
families, led movements, advanced knowledge, created culture, defended democracy, and re-imagined justice and possibility. And whereas black history lives not only
in famous names but in everyday acts of care and courage in parents and elders, workers and artists, organizers and entrepreneurs, teachers and healers
whose contributions continue to shape our communities and pass strength from one generation to the X. And whereas the township of Maplewood proudly marks its
ninth annual Black History Month observance. and 2026 Black Black History Month theme, a century of black commemorations continue a local tradition of reflection,
education, and celebration that affirms that enduring impact of AfricanAmericans in our community and reinforces our shared commitment to equity,
inclusion, and historical truth. And whereas Black History Month is both remembrance and responsibility, calling us to honor the past honestly.
celebrate black excellence fully and confront inequities that persist in health care, education, housing, economic opportunity, and civic life.
And whereas to know black history is to better understand America itself and to recommmit ourselves to a future rooted in truth, equity, dignity, and shared humanity.
Now therefore, be it proclaimed, I that I, Jane Collins Cing, member of the Maple Township Committee and the entire Maplewood Township Committee, do hereby recognize
February as Black History Month in the township of Maplewood and urge all residents to recognize, reflect upon, celebrate celebrate the achievements, the resilience and enduring contributions of
African-Americans to our nation's history. Thank you. >> Yeah, that is well done. Now, that's how you read a proclamation, right? Getting us started really well
tonight. Thank you very much. I think it's fitting that we recognize the first uh African-American members of the township committee. Um, you know, this this uh community was our government was formed
in 1922 as a separate community and it took until 1991 the first African-American to be uh seated on this township committee that was J. Harry Smith and uh he also then in 1992 was
the first vice mayor, African-American vice mayor. So, um, we recognize Jay Harry Smith and then we also recognize Ken Pettis who in 2008 was the first AfricanAmerican mayor. So, as we um
reflect on Black History Month, we also have some history of our own that we want to uplift and and remember. So, so thank you very much. And now we'll move to board and committee appointments. Mr. Daffis. >> Thank you, Mayor. One of our board and
committees in Maplewood Township is the Maplewood Community Board on Police, which currently has three open seats for adult voting members. The board also has a youth member, non- voting member. Uh
the three open seats, for those three open seats, we are currently tonight, this evening, considering the appointments of three residents. They are Diana Cammon, Sof Sophie Johnson, and Peter Shake. And they've been
invited this evening to introduce themselves and talk about their interest in serving on the board. And we'll start with Diana, if Diana is either with us in person or online. >> She's right there. >> Oh, hi. There you are. And did I
pronounce your last name correctly? Okay. Excellent. Welcome, Diana. >> Um, thank you for having me. I didn't quite realize that I was going to give a statement tonight, but I'm happy to be here. I enjoyed talking with you and Vic the other night about the um community
board and the the possibilities of collaboration and you know collaborative sort of pursuit for community safety and justice. And I'm looking forward to bringing um my research skills, some some work I've done um volunteering with
a um prison oversight organization and um an open mind collaborative spirit and um just looking forward to uh working together with all of you. >> Wonderful. Are there any questions for Diana from the township committee? >> Nope.
Well, with that, I enthusiastically move that Diana Cameron be appointed to the Community Board on police for a three-year term through 1231 2028. >> Second, >> Miss Adams,
>> yes. >> Miss Collins Golding, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. >> Miss Herman, >> yes. >> Mayor Duca, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> You got your first meeting tomorrow night. Next we have Sophie Johnson. I believe
Miss Johnson is with us online. >> Sophie, >> good evening everybody. >> Hi. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Thank you for joining us. Please introduce yourself and tell us why you're interested in serving on the board.
>> Sure. Um my name is Sophie Johnson and um I'm a resident of Maplewood. Um, I'm originally a Boston native and um, I live here with my family and um, we've been here for a little bit over a year
and as I uh, was trying to find where I wanted to serve in the community, there's so many amazing opportunities. Um, this one really struck me and so I really appreciated the opportunity to meet with um, the mayor and Mr. Davis
and um if appointed I'm looking forward to um getting active and just being a part of the healing and light that we really need in the world right now um in our community.
>> Wonderful. Thank you. Are there any questions from the township committee? >> No. No. >> Nope. I move the appointment of Sophie Johnson on the committee board on police for a three-year term to end on 1231 2028. >> I second. >> Mr. Adams,
>> yes. >> Miss Collins Cing, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Herman, >> yes. >> Mayor Duca, >> yes. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. See you tomorrow. >> Thank you. And and one last uh
nomination this evening for appointment, Peter Shake. Do we have Peter on? Oh, Peter's right here. Okay. >> And Peter, please correct me if I did not pronounce your last name correctly. >> Thanks, T. It's so It's Chic. >> Chic. Oh, very chic. I love it. Yeah, >> very chic.
>> Yes, >> welcome, Peter. >> Thank you so much. I'm Peter Sheik. I'm a Maplewood resident um since 2019. Um uh and I I echo uh the other folks I had enjoyed our conversation the other night. So thank you guys and and really appreciate
this opportunity. For my part I too was not prepared to make remarks this evening. But I would just say um uh we we are reminded every day uh whether we want to be or not. It seems that uh
governing is an exercise in collective care. Uh, and the more we can bring one another into that exercise, I think the better off we'll be as a community. And I'm always hopeful that opportunities like this one um are opportunities to
bring more citizens into uh the the process uh of of caring for ourselves and one another. >> That's very eloquent, Peter. Thank you. Are there any questions for my colleagues on township committee? That was a very chic comment.
>> It was. It was. >> I like that. Collective care. >> Yeah. Yeah. Governing is the exercise of collective care. I'm going to use that, Peter. Well, with that, I enthusiastically uh move your appointment on the community board on police for a
three-year term to end on 1231 2028. >> Second. >> M. Adams? >> Yes. >> Miss Collins Golding? >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis? >> Yes. >> Surman? >> Yes. Mayor Duca. >> Yes. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> See you tomorrow night.
>> Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you. Uh we're going to have our first public comment. Now, if there's no objections because it's cold in here. Um I think we'll open it up to if anyone wants to make up. We usually do agenda items only, but if you'd like to make a
comment to us on any item, we'll open it up for that. Anyone want to speak to the township committee? Miss Richardson Green, you have anything you want to say? >> There you go. Give us the exciting news.
>> Good evening, everyone. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. >> And that that was a very touching black history moment that you shared with us, especially in these times right now to hear that and realize that black history is just history, just American history. So, thank you for that. Thank you.
>> Thank you for allowing me to participate with that. >> So, my name is Valentina Richardson Green. I am the director of the Essex County Onetop. >> Again, trying times, but one of the things that I've been committed to doing in Essex County at the OneTop is providing training, but not just
training to train. Training for employment. The end goal is to get people jobs, careers, so they can take care of themselves and their families. So, over the last couple of years, that's been my goal. So this year I am proud to announce we have about 15 different
not just training this is training that is paid training that's resulting in jobs at the end of the training so they're not just in those usual areas CNAs things like that we've moved past that we have tutoring opportunities we have teacher opportunities we have
construction pipe fitting uh barbarism cosmetology you name it. We went out there and we found those grantees and we brought them in. And the exciting part is many of them said no other onetop had reached out to us. We've been dying to
get connection so that we can get to the people because we know the onetop has the people. Well, come on down. Susan is ready for you. So, what we've been doing is we're having open houses. We're having uh online meetings. We're having open houses inviting the customers to
come in to find out about the offerings. We're inviting the staff because the only way to sell something is that the staff believes in it and they have been on board with it because they've been waiting dying for this in the the short period of time we've had 10 people
hired. Not not apprenticeships because they went in for their interviews. No, no, we need you here working with us. So, it's working. It's working regardless of what's happening in and around the world. Essis County Onetop Jod D. We are committed to getting
employment to our residents. So, I have the flyers. I'm going to send them because it's too many. I could stand up here for an hour and talk about all of the wonderful things that we have available to our residents. We even uh set up a collaboration with the Maplewood Library. >> Great.
>> So, we're doing a lot of good work because that's what we're here for. Regardless of what the government says, people think about what government employees do, we are here to truly service the people. And now we're actually the proof is in the pudding. People are getting jobs. People are
coming back and they're happy. And that's what it's about. >> Any questions? >> Great. Thank you. >> That's wonderful. >> Any questions? >> Yeah. Whatever you can get to us, we we'll get up on our website, too, and we can make >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Thank you. I think we met about a
year ago at a fair here in Maplewood and uh just want to say thank you for all the information you provided because that's that information was very helpful to a lot of people that we distributed to. Thank you >> and I am always available and I will I do this all the time. My telephone
number is 973 5581170 and sometimes it's a quick call. If you I can answer the question is is better than sending an email or hoping that you get somebody. As you see I have three phones. So
>> county work never stops and I am here to service the people Maplewood and just Essex County in general. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room here who'd like to speak to us on any topic?
How about on Zoom? >> Any members of the public joining us via Zoom and wish to speak on any subject matter, please raise your hand. I have two mayor. Uh I'm moving Tony Bayer to panelist.
You could unmute yourself, Mr. Bear. >> Okay. So, I'm a citizen now finally has a voice. Anyway, thank you very much. I appreciate the, you know, um to have the opportunity to address you, the members of the township committee to people in attendance. What I want to speak about
is the is the primary that's coming up and it's become very contested, very um unfortunately very nasty. It's a it's a primary that has national importance and and but I want to speak specifically is
um about you know the the uh the endorsements that you folks on the township committee have made in the primary which is for Brendan Gil. I was going to speak about, you know, and I should ask, you know, I should have some context. I make I'm basically um make,
you know, um making this statement because I respect you folks. You folks have I mean, I've been a 20-year resident of Maplewood. I've, you know, I've admired what you've done for the community, your service to the community, especially uh you, Mayor Duca. You've given your life to this
town. I remember one time you were campaigning doortodoor and um knocked on my door and I was busy plastering. You let me go about my day. So, I'm very grateful to you. But anyway, um the the com I want to make it a little more sober. Uh when I was going to speak about I was going to speak two weeks ago. I didn't have I wasn't able to make
it, but I was going to say I was disappointed. But I've seen you were disappointed with your decision with the decision of everybody on the committee to support you know to endorse Brendan Gil. What I've seen in the succeeding two weeks has made me change my opinion and not
for the better. Um and I'm frankly and this I'm going to use a strong word here. It's nonexpertive, but it's disgusted and discussed not with you as people or as my representatives, but disgusted with the decision. More specifically, what I've seen what I've learned about Brendan Gil as a
candidate has I mean, two weeks ago, I might have been open to voting for him in the general election. And what I've seen in the previous two week in in in the the previous two weeks is there's really doesn't seem to be anything redeeming about him. He's gone very nasty. He's not basically made any
mention about why you know what he has done for Essex and what he would do for us as congressman. And what I look at this in with several criteria one is he the strongest candidate you know for the district you
know for this district. Is he the right candidate for the district? And is he the most qualified? Now, in terms of uh strength, theoretically has a power base in Essex County, but as you might recall, he won the endorsement by I think a a margin of
I think 51% if I'm not mistaken, and that 30% of the committee members abstained. That's not exactly an start. Um and it says maybe one of two things and neither of which are particularly complimentary or reflect well on him which is one
either he's not that popular in Essex or two this decision was rushed through because there was a deadline to get the Essex you know the county endorsement under his name on the a number of delegates abstained for that very reason. They wanted to basically
evaluate the other candidates there a lot of them in this race and some of them are very qualified. So that was very disturbing. Mr. Bear, I just want to um we have it's a three there's a threeminute limit and I believe you're >> Oh, okay. Okay. I I I'll speed this up. Okay. Secondly, does he write for the
district? This is a much more rural district than Essex. It's mostly Morris County. And number three, is he the most qualified? And I don't think there's really any question there in terms of Tom Malinowski's two terms in Congress, his expertise in foreign affairs, which
is during a per this is during a period where um basically Donald Trump has put us in a very dangerous position. Um you know, Brennan Gil will be in a will be in learning mode. He doesn't really have any any any background. Anyway, I'll conclude my remarks here, but I'll conclude with a question. I would love
to have one of you just answer my question. It's not for you know, I'm not asking for debate. I just want to understand why did you folks decide to support Brendan Gil? Thank you very much. >> Okay. So, um I I'll respond this way. Uh
any decisions that each of us make um regarding politics is done as an individual and not done as the township committee. So, just so we're all clear, this is not a governmental decision that was made. This was made by five
individuals and we probably each have our own reasons for it and this is not a forum for us to express that but uh we appreciate your comments and we'll move on to the next person moving Margaret Bogle to panelists.
>> Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Um, my my uh issue is regarding the Jity service. Uh, I don't use it very often. I used to use it when I was working in the city every day. Now I mainly use it
like once or twice a month. And I've been very disappointed that the last two times I tried to use it in January, the jutneys did not show up and there was no explanation. There was no reason. The trains were on time. The weather was okay. The jutneys didn't show up. In one
case, when they did show up, they were 15 to 20 minutes late. by which point most of the people waiting had already find other rides. So um my question is is there any way we can get notified or is there a number to
call or something where we can find out what the status of the jneys are? Are they going to show up? Are they um are we just going to be left standing there? So I'm very concerned about this because I've tried to use them twice this month and both times have been unreliable.
So, I apologize for the the lack of service that we provided. Um, we will check on that. Um, Mr. Weary, Mr. Weary is our administrator and we'll ask him to follow up with the Jity drivers. It
would be useful if um, well, let's see if we could do it right now because you still have more time. Do you have the dates when that >> Yes, I have exact dates. One was on um February 14th, which I think was the day of the big Verizon blackout.
>> Uh sorry, January 14th, which was even more concerning because people couldn't contact >> Mhm. >> get even get an Uber to get picked up. Uh the second date was January 28th, two weeks later. Uh again, I c the train was
on time. I the weather was fine. I got to to Maplewood station and the jutneys were it was the first rush hour train which the jutneys were supposed to meet and the jutneys were not there >> and I started walking home and I didn't encounter them on the way. Uh and they've been unreliable in the past.
This is not the only time. What I'd like to know is there been has there been a schedule change that we haven't been notified on and if not then is there some way we can contact somebody to find out what the status of the Japanese are? Are they coming? Are they not coming?
Because otherwise we used to be able to wait in the station pre-COVID, but now we standing outside freezing. >> So these were um these were pickups at the train station. Correct. >> Correct. Right. >> It should have been 5:25. The judney should have left at 5:25 p.m.
>> 5:25 on the 14th and 5:25 on the 28th. Okay. >> Correct. >> We we will check it out. Um, I don't want you to give your contact information over the air, but if you could um email, you could email me and then I'll pass it on to Mr. Weary. Um,
>> actually, I've been in touch with him about this. >> You have? >> Yes. But I wanted to bring it up as an issue because if it's affecting me, it's probably affecting a lot of other people, too. >> Okay. So if if we will ask him to follow up with you and and um if he can just let us know too what what happened so
that in case others have questions. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much for bringing it to our attention. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> No hands. Mayor, >> no one else. Okay. Thank you. We will have another public comment period later
um if you want to stick around. Uh but right now we're going to move into our board of health meeting and I'm going to ask our board of health president Mr. Daffis to uh start that meeting. >> Thank you, mayor. Pursuant to section 5, chapter 231 of public laws of New
Jersey, this is a state for the record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of the municipal building, by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings
for 2026 to the news record and star ledger in December 2025 and by filing said notice in the office of the township clerk. Can we get a roll call? >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> Collins Cing, >> yes. >> Mayor Duca, >> yes.
>> Herman, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. >> Whereas chapter 231, public laws 1975 common knows the open public meetings act requires that all means of public bodies be open to the public. And whereas section 7 provides that the
board of health has a discretion to permit, prohibit or regulate the active participation of the public at any meeting. and it desire the Maplewood Board of Health to comply with the provision of this act same time to conduct its business in an orderly and
expeditious manner. Now therefore be resolved by the Maplewood Board of Health Township of Mapwood does hereby prohibit except set forth in the formal agenda. Active participation in deliberations of the board of health by the public and except as otherwise
prescribed by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the board of health at all of its regular and special meetings. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Adams. >> Yes. >> Collins. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes.
>> Turman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Daffus. >> Yes. I move approval of the board of health meeting minutes from our last meeting on January 6th. >> Second. >> Mr. Adams. >> Yes. >> M. Collins Cing. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca.
>> Yes. >> Herman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis. >> Yes. Thank you. And I turn it over to our health officer, Candace Davenport. >> Good evening everyone. Happy February. Uh we're going to move on to the first slide which we are happy to promote uh
the mayor's meatless challenge for veggie February. Uh from February 9th to February 11th you can join Mayor Duca and the South Orange mayor uh Sheena Colum as they minimize meat to fight the climate crisis and support good health. Um, the Meat Meet in the Middle
organization has um a menu as well as uh things that people can do to join the Meatless Challenge. Um, as well as events uh that they have for families and they had a movie uh showing of Meet Me Halfway uh this last Sunday. And um
that was for the community event and there's also recipes on their website. >> So uh just so for the record um I've negotiated with my wife, we're going meatless on Monday. So that's what's happening. >> Okay. >> Meet on the on the fourth on the 9th
rather where we've already picked out a restaurant. We're going to we're going to do local restaurant. Uh and I'm going to order dinner from there. It's going to be a meatless dinner. >> Very nice. >> And we're I'm still working on the lunch and the breakfast. >> Excellent. Well, thank you for setting
the good example considering our change in the um nutritional recommendations from our federal government where they've put meat at the top of the uh food chain. Um we thank you for exploring other options. Next on our um
next slide, we just want to emphasize the um program of universal home visiting. We've talked about this before with Family Connects NJ. They provide in Essex County free inhome nursing visits two weeks after you've delivered your baby. Um if you have want information,
this is open to anyone um in Essex County. So if you know anyone who's expecting a baby, they can schedule an appointment at uh Family Connectsnj.org. And this service is provided by the Essex Pregnancy and Parenting Connection. And if you'd like to call them, that's their phone number. in
particular for Black History Month. On the next slide, I just want to emphasize that um on the perinatal health equity initiative website, which is another organization in our community in New Jersey, a black mother is seven to eight times more likely to die from pregnancy related
complications than white women. I ask the health the uh health department as well as our elected officials and everyone who is listening to please um if you want to make an effort for black history month um please speak out about uh this inequity in healthcare um but
also to recommend people to use these services. uh the perinatal health equity initiative, that's their website and their phone number, um also mentioned that 91% of those deaths are preventable and they provide free uh nursing visits and assistance for six months for uh
families. So, please uh contact them if you know someone. Please spread the word. On the next slide, we have some dates for some activities that they're having on Zoom. So, um hopefully that'll make it easier for people to log in on um February 6th, which is coming up
soon. They have self-regulation uh webinar for parents. So, we're really trying hard to get the word out in Essex County about these services. Uh I believe that they are now uh statewide. Um but we really want to make sure that in Essex um we are putting mothers and
new babies first. Next slide is our nursing update. And I just want to mention here uh there are two charts. Uh what you can see here is there's a decrease in the green which is influenza cases and that's a really good thing. Um RSV and COVID 19 have been low but it's
good to know and I just want to let everyone know that influenza has gone down um in the last two weeks. Next slide. Again this is our COVID 19 cases by illness onset date. Um, and you can see there's just like a little uptick uh on
in the beginning of January, but it's uh hopefully decreasing. Next slide. Our nurse has been very busy um as well as our other uh PDM nurse who's assisting us uh with health screenings and uh school audits. So,
we're looking at childcare centers and our schools for vaccination audits. And um just want to show that we have um audited 138 um vaccination schedules and we're looking pretty good. Next slide. We want to thank everyone for getting
vaccinated and staying up to date with their vaccines. Our environmental update on the next slide shows um our restaurant inspections and um we are busy doing um all of our licensing for 2026. Uh we are starting to look at um
inspections for our vape shops, tattoo parlors, massage, uh childcare centers, kennels, um and and the like. Um we've also been responding to complaints. Most of them are heat complaints. So um that's timely for this time of year.
Next slide. Our animal control update. Uh just want to remind everyone that January 31st was the deadline, but if you have a new pet, you can apply. Um, and that would be $15 for a neutered or spay pet. Um, and $18
if they're not um, fixed yet. If you have a dog or cat and you haven't licensed them yet, you can um, license them still with a um, late fee of of $7. Just want to let everyone know that we
have 420 dogs and 73 cats. Um, I know we have more dogs in Maplewood and I know we have more cats. So, I just want to encourage everyone to uh register and license their pet because that really helps us with um a lot of the animal control services that we provide in
town. Next slide. Onto our social services and mental health. So, speaking of increasing numbers, I just want to bring your attention to the total cases that our crisis social workers have done in the month of January. It's 41 cases. 41
cases. um most of them follow-ups as well as um other calls and walk-ins and for co-response with police department. 41 is a high number for us. I don't think we've ever hit the 40s before. This is a good sign and a bad sign. It's a good sign because people are um aware of our services. They're coming to town
hall. They're reaching out for our services. Um they're getting referred to us and that's great. Um 41 is also, you know, hard to imagine because um that means that there's a lot more cases out there. So, it's a really great program. I want to just emphasize, I can't emphasize that enough. It's a need in
our community. So, um, thank you again for your support for the crisis social worker program. Speaking of social services, on the next slide, just want to remind everyone that they can go on Saturdays to the Hilton Branch Library on Springfield Avenue from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. to get free social services. Um,
if you need help with logging into your computer, logging into computers to sign up for applications, uh, that could be an employment application or um, a a doctor's visit, uh, please utilize the services from CSPJ.
And our next slide is um the we just want to emphasize again that 988 and 911 are two very important phone numbers which are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. but that 988 specializes in behavioral health, mental health issues, offering crisis
counseling, and emotional deescalation, while 911 addresses physical dangers where you need police, fire, or emergency medical services. We encourage people to utilize 988. It's not just for the person in crisis, but also for any family member or anyone who knows
someone and they just need help with um addressing the situation. And we always like to end our our presentation with the other two numbers of 211 and the poison control number um so that people know that that's available to them as well. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Health Officer Davenport. Are there any questions from the township committee? I have one uh it's not a question but sort of a um a suggestion and recommendation that we uh work across
the aisle with our school district >> as it relates to whatever programs, services or supports they're putting together on the mental health crisis um side of things. I think it's public knowledge at this point that there have
been two suicides, two since January, since the beginning of the year, uh if not an additional one possibly. Um that's devastating folks. our youth are
really in crisis and um I'd like us to uh get together and figure out how we could do more community outreach, how we can do some positive messaging, how we could
collaborate with um all the local providers who provide uh mental health support counselors and whatnot. Um because this is a crisis. It's a crisis and it affects the families and the
adults. It's not just our students and um you know it's and it's also very complicated and full of stigma and very difficult for people to talk about or ask for help as it is. So um yeah that's all. >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anyone else? >> I had a couple of questions. Um hold on. wrong glasses here. Um, okay. So, for the I I love the information that you have about the family connects uh uh
perinatal health initiative. I think there were two programs you shared, correct? >> Yes. >> And uh both for like new parents, new mothers because I I remember going to an event. It was a Black History Month event, I want to say two years ago at the Woodland where they talked about
this uh as a problem and how many um especially the numbers that you shared, the black mothers um not getting the paranatal care that they need and not getting this um this assistance and the mood at the talk was like what what do we do? Who do we go to? And so I'm
really really happy to see that there are these two programs are accessible to our community and that there is a place for them you know to go where we can change the numbers and change the stats. So, I want to make sure we publicize
this very well um if you haven't already done a like a I think we could do a press release um and get this on our website so that um you know if anybody's not watching this like we want to get everybody you know to be able to know about this and if you're a new mom or
expecting you might not be watching our TC meeting you might be very busy with other things. So, um, so I just want to put that out there. And then I did want to mention, um, you know, for the animal control, um, you know, and thank you for
your help. I I went on and I I signed up my two dogs. They have their licenses. Um, so when we do the dogs day at the pool, uh, this is a very popular event. We have tons of dogs that come out and
it is required that your dog have a license for this event. So, um just thinking ahead here. Um you know, and maybe we can, you know, remind people that. Yes. >> Um next time so that you know they know if you if you want to come to Dogs Day at the pool, you got to get your dogs
licensed and you should do it in January. Um or you can do it now. You know, just get it done. >> So, thank you. >> Try to do Thank you. We'll probably try to do a rabies clinic around that time as well. So, if people need a free rabies vaccine for their dog, we'll
offer that as well, too. >> Yes. Yes. Because I I think I might need one right about that time. So, that's perfect. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Was there another question or comment? >> Well, I just wanted to say um three deaths are one too many. And I
completely agree with Dean that this is a crisis. Uh this is something we cannot overlook or just slow walk. We have to attack it head on. We have to get the schools involved, the social workers, whatever it means for the township to
really push forward some initiatives and things that we can come up with, partner with some other healthc care um partners that have done this sort of work before was let's get it done like yesterday. And um on a line of black women not
having the proper prenatal care, I would also recommend that we partner with the prenatal matal equity center. I've worked with them before. She's lovely. They will come here. They will talk to us or just have something at dehart. That would be great. >> Yep. They will be at the health fair as
well. So um and I just want to say that our crisis social workers um have been in touch with um along with the PD have been in touch with the families um that have been impacted and uh have connected them to social and um mental health services. So we are following up with
them closely. >> Right. All right. and whatever we can do in terms of prevention, >> you know, and just kind of talking about this communitywide uh not just targeted to those who are going through something >> to prevent others from going through it.
Um before I open it up to the public for uh opportunity to address the board and interact with the board, I had one other item that I want to put on your um agenda because you don't have enough on your agenda these days. um which is uh
my other concern is for our Haitian community in particular as it relates to um the this hateful federal administration's attack on on our Haitian community and many other immigrant communities but in particular
um their assault on TPS temporary protected status and we have a large uh Haitian community and uh we know that for various good reasons they're quite isolated ated at times >> and uh they're not going to come here
for help. They're not going to know what their rights are. They're not going to know where to go for help in many instances. So, um again, we are fortunate in this community to be surrounded by by a lot of immigration attorneys and other experts. And I think
we should again open our doors and reach out and say, "Hey, let's get together and collaborate and do some community outreach and support of our Haitian community. And maybe we can do like a fair or something that is um you know
really focused on immigration and um you know the various resources that are available and I'd love to talk to you about that further. >> I think that's a great idea >> because I think that's another urgent need at the moment >> for all for all of our immigrant population.
>> Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Wonderful. Um, now I invite anyone who's here in person public. We have one member in person from the public interested in addressing the board of health. Anyone? Nope. How about online? Anyone?
>> Any members of the public joining us via Zoom would like to address the board of health? Please raise your hand. >> I see no hands, Mr. Davis. >> Okay. Well, then we will conclude this board of health meeting. Thank you again, Health Officer Davenport. and move that we adjourn and meet again on
Tuesday, March 3rd. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> Miss Collins Cing, >> yes. >> Mayor Duca, >> yes. >> Miss Herman, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. >> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. We're now going to uh address item number nine. We have an ordinance on final passage. >> Mr. Mayor, >> I'm just shifting uh folders. >> Ordinance on final passage. Ordinance
number 3176 D-26 is an ordinance to amend classification of employment positions within the township of Mapwood and to establish salary ranges for employees. This ordinance will revise
classification of employment positions and salaries within the township of Maplewood consistent with a revision of the table of organization established within the township of Mapwood. >> This ordinance has been published,
copies posted on the bulletin board of the in the municipal building and copies made available to the public in accordance with the law. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this on this ordinance which establishes salary ranges for township employees?
I see no one in the hall. How about on Zoom? >> If any members of the public joining us via Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance, please raise your hand. >> I see no hands. Mayor, >> I'll close the hearing. And can we get a motion? I move this audience to be
adopted as a whole and the clerk be directed to publish same as past audience in the Maplewood South Orange News record according to the law. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Please call the role. >> Miss Adams, >> yes. >> Miss Collins, >> yes.
>> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. >> Furman, >> yes. >> Mayor Duga, >> yes. Thank you. We have an ordinance on introduction. >> Yes, Mayor. uh introduction of a new ordinance item number 10A. Ordinance number 3177-26
is an ordinance to amend table of organization within the township of Mapwood to establish the position of assistance assistant tax collector. >> I move the passage of this ordinance on first reading its publication according to law in the Maplewood South Orange
News record and a hearing to be held on February 17th. Second. >> Any discussion? Please call the role. >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> Miss Collins Cing, >> yes. Mr. >> Daffus, >> yes. >> Sherman, >> yes. >> Mayor Duga, >> yes. Thank you. Administrative reports.
Mr. Weary. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just one item on the agenda tonight. We have the final certification of um payment to two police officers who have recently retired. So, Officer Lance Mesler and
Sergeant Connie Fields recently retired. We wish them well in retirement. That is my report. Mayor, >> um, thank you. I have a Can you just maybe snapshot? We're having a budget hearing Saturday. What what's going to take place, times?
>> Yeah. So, Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. in this room. We will present a draft municipal budget to the township committee. It's a workshop, so there will be a lot of interaction both with the township committee and and we'll have opportunities for public comment as
well. All of the department heads will be here to present their draft budgets. Specifically, we'll be looking at, you know, new initiatives, new items, um, and we'll be taking feedback from the township committee on things that they would like to see in departmental budgets as well. In addition to
department heads, we'll have some of the um committees that we fund through the budget also present. So the historic preservation commission, Duran Heden, YouthNet and Community Coalition on Race uh will also be here to present their
budgets as will the Maplewood the Springfield Avenue Partnership. Maplewood Village Alliance will present their budget at the second meeting this month, the second TC meeting this month. So the meeting uh we will be uh here live in the room. We will also be uh
broadcasting via zoom and it will be recorded on YouTube. The this is the you know one step in our budget process. We've already we started in November and December and meeting with department heads and finance to uh start roughing out uh the budget. department has
presented or or submitted their budgets to administration and finance uh late in December. We have a draft that we have shared with the township committee uh just within the last week. And then after this Saturday's meeting, there
will still be a lot of uh input, fine-tuning the the budget, and then we expect that we will introduce the budget the first meeting in April. Um and and all goes well, we will adopt the budget at the first meeting in May. >> Okay,
>> that is it. >> And later on, we're going to appoint a CFO, which we need to make this happen, right? >> We look forward to it. Yes. >> Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Weary? Okay, Miss Credio. >> No report, Mayor.
>> Well, guess what? I have something for you. Um, uh, Deputy Mayor Herman and I have been tasked with meeting with some of the bike advocates, um, to discuss our plans to, um, eliminate
ebikes on our on sidewalks in our commercial districts. uh during those discussions the senate passed um 4834 and the governor signed the assembly also passed a complimentary bill and the
the governor signed an ebike legislation. So, um, if you could take a look at that, we'll take, you know, I've looked at it. Deputy Mayor Herman can take a look at it. And in particular, I think we need to know. I think there's some, um, preeemption stuff here that we
can't pass anything because it's in here. So, um that's what we're really targeting on right now is can we um eliminate uh ebikes on our commercial strips because they're on on the sidewalks in our commercial strips.
There's there's a lot more in here, but that's what we're looking to do. So, we'll if you could take a look at it and when you're ready, we'll have a conversation with you before we go meet with the bike advocates. >> Absolutely. We had uh we had taken a look about a week ago at the end of legislative sessions. they tend to get
backed up with producing the final versions of the bills. So, the chapter law wasn't available yet, but we'll check again and we'll definitely review. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anything for Miss Gdidio? Nope.
Uh, township clerk Fritzen. >> Yes, Mayor. I >> sure you have it. You got an election coming up, so you have it. >> Uh, yeah. So, uh, we have a primary election on Thursday, um, two days from now, February 5th.
And, uh, I will have to say that challenges of having an election in February are a lot different than June and even November. So, I want to shout out to our public works department for all the help that they have provided me and my department with some challenges
that we did not expect. digging out the ballot box and I mean uh with a clear path for uh voters to utilize it as well as opening uh really digging it out so that the county twice
a day could open up the ballot box and retrieve the ballots. The thing was in a snow bank. If you were anywhere near Springfield Avenue, you saw that it was barely visible. So I want to thank public works. The other thing, um, I really wanted to get the sign board out
to Clinton. Uh, it's just a great reminder every election, vote here, what the districts were. Another challenge, we had snow all over the street, banks, the front of Clinton school, but again,
they were my heroes. They found a way to bring uh the the the digger in and make a place for the sign board. So, those are just examples of having a February election, which we're not used to, but I would have to say that the township of
Mapwood is ready uh with all of our polling locations for Thursday. And uh we even achieved the promised uh Clinton walkthrough. And we're going to provide um uh auxiliary lighting in the parking lot
to brighten that up in uh the morning and in the evening. So everything's um on target. Mr. Weary talked about the budget meeting and uh I really don't have anything more to say on that. That's on
Saturday from uh 10:00 a.m. And uh nominating petitions for township committee, Democratic County Committee, just another date to remember, March 23rd um by 4 PM. And uh as you know, we continue to uh
push our library for uh our new polling location from town hall here to uh the library. It'll be a a great uh transition and uh we are also advocating for early voting in uh the township. So
I could give you more reports, but I'm going to stick only with election reports for tonight. >> Thank you very much. Any questions, comments? >> I had one question. Um, as you um and thank you also to our DPW staff for all of the digging out of the snow. I'm sure
this is a lot more on your plate than you're used to. Uh I just wanted to point out um that you know as uh voting locations need to be accessible um and make sure that DPW has also um unearthed
handicap spots and walkways so that anyone who has difficulty mo with mobility that they're able to access our polling locations um safely. So I just wanted to put that out there. I'm sure you're looking at all of these things but um that's one in particular. We've
really been working on them since that last flake stopped falling. >> Great. Great. That's so good to hear. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are you okay? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh we have reports from elected
officials. Uh our deputy mayor, >> it's me. Okay. I have several um updates. So, I've got some recreation and some senior updates. Okay. Last call for puppy yoga on February 15th at the
Woodlands. Adult open gym basketball starts on February 22nd and MSO softball registration is open. Um this is a great program. My daughter used to play WCK softball and our town does such a good
job with this program. So this is for grades K to 8. You can register on Reces. Um and this will start right after spring break. Mark your calendar for the Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance um uh event. This is on Sunday, March
15. It starts at the Indiana parking lot, which is where the food the community food shed is. And everybody's being asked to bring a um an item of uh non-p perishable food to put at the food shed. And then we'll march to St. Joe's
where the service will take place. The committee was doing some digging around using some chat GPT last night and we're pretty sure that our interfaith, this is Soma, our two- town interfaith Holocaust remembrance event is the oldest
continually operating event of this kind in the country. So, we're pretty excited. This is the 49th year. Next year will be the 50th. So, um please put that on your calendar. Another thing to put on your calendar. So, like we're really leaning
into this interfaith here. The next thing on for your calendar is a spring egg hunt. That is on March 21st, which is the next weekend. And because there's snow outside, and I know y'all are just really waiting for it, the pool. Put this on your calendar. Opening day is
Saturday, May 23rd. It really can't get here fast enough, right? And speaking of summer, we have some summer camps still have open that still have openings. So you can register today. Uh, kids camp, maple craft camp, tennis camp,
Scott Donny's dive camp, MAPSO summers slam basketball camp, NFL football camp, multi-port camp, USSI soccer camp, creative learning math camp, create creating creative learning reading and writing camp, and ultimate frisbee camp.
Now for our seniors, our next senior social is on February 11th. So, sign up for some spicy salsa dancing on Wednesday, February 18th at the community uh center. This is an a really important event. It's about home sharing. Um so, if you have a spare
bedroom, if you're living by yourself, um it's a really good way to, you know, both um have a little income and also have somebody around to keep you company. This is so important for our seniors. We have a lot of seniors who live alone. Um, and this is something to
really just keep an open mind and and check it out. Um, that's on Wednesday, February 18th at 11 at the community center. Um, there's a senior trip on March 4th to see the Sunshine Boys at Hunteran Hills Playhouse. The following day on March 5th, there is a um, so the
Columbia High School is doing Into the Woods. It's their musical this year. It's going to be amazing. I know a lot of kids who are in the cast um who may be um you know part of the family in the township committee. Um so
uh not my family sorry I mean like within our extended family. So the they're having a community center um they're like it's like a for their dress rehearsal. They invite the seniors to come and watch. Um we're moving we have our senior committee that night. We're
moving that so that all the seniors who want to go can go and watch. Um it's going to be amazing. Um and uh tickets usually sell out pretty fast for that. Just a heads up for everybody. Um and then the April senior trip will be to the Paper Mill Playhouse to see 1776,
but I really think the CHS one, it's going to be even better. It's always great. So anyway, those are my updates. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Any questions for everybody? Mayor Herman. Nope. Okay. Uh, Committee Member Collins Colding.
>> Great. Thank you for that. So, I just want to add on February 25th, um, there's a trip to the New York Museum for Black History Month, Amina Jones, and a journey home. And that's for the seniors as well. And, um,
we've covered all our activities. Let me just Oh, let me just add that the family movie on Saturday on the 7th um, The Long Shot and that's going to be at the Woodland. So, we're still looking for people to sign on. For Black History
Month for 1978, our art center will be uh featuring some um Maplewood Film Society and the Maplewood um division of arts culture presents a screening of centers on the 19th. Uh we have February 8th, Ramadan Moonlight Lightning at the
gazebo and we'll have refreshments for the kids and activities and for adults. So, please come. And for Black History Month concert, we have Laya Malla uh who is an American folk u musician on February 5th. On our arts and culture
website, you can go to our arts and culture website. We have more than 20 items and we've actually more than 20 um activities. We've actually partnered with local businesses, local um um partners to put together all these different packages. And it's just
amazing. This weekend we had at 1978 we had a jazz it was as a jazz evening sort of for artists. He was there and his art was displayed. It's going to be there until the 21st and his art is also at the Newark
Museum. So it's going to be there until the 22nd. I'm sorry February 22nd. It's going to be there until the 22nd and we are still doing our space utilization survey. So we're asking everybody to please go ahead and give us your
suggestions and ideas and also we are doing a request for proposal for um exhibitions um events, workshops and gatherings what we're going to do at 1978. So we want all the Maple Woodians to please put all the ideas in. Uh we're
going to do just like a girl for uh women's month. So, we want ladies and young girls between the ages 10 and 20 to please submit that artwork. And the deadline for that is going to be on the 15th.
So, thank you. And that's pretty much it. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you very much. Any questions? Committee member Adams. >> Um I was going to mention that we're just preparing for Women's History Month
this March. um to go along with uh what committee member Collins Colding just talked about, but um so check somaomen.org, but not yet because I haven't updated it. So I will be updating it in the coming days. So that's all I have. Thank you.
>> Great. Thank you. And committee member Daffis. >> Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple items. Um from the Maplewood Arts Council, uh I'm announcing and we'll be talking about this more as we get closer. Maplewood's uh first arts summit in
quite some time. The arts council has uh sponsored and put together an arts summit many years back and we're doing it again this year in April. uh and it's a great opportunity for fellowship and networking of artists in the community
and surrounding communities of all kinds audiovisisual artists, musical artists, act, you know, everyone and anyone. Um and it applies to established artists and emerging artists. We're also going to have panel discussions. We're going
to have workshops, breakout sessions. It's going to be an all day affair and it's going to be a lot of fun. So, we're going to start promoting that uh pretty quickly. As committee member Collins Golding mentioned, the uh facilities
survey that the Maplewood Arts Council put out a couple of months ago is still available for your participation. So, this applies to all of you out there who reach out to us all the time, and you tell us what you don't like about our arts offerings and cultural offerings in
town, what you do like, what you'd like to see more of, and how we can better utilize our facilities. So, now's your chance. Speak up. You can do so anonymously. The survey will be available throughout the rest of February. And, um, there is a QR code on
our website, I think, somewhere. And if we we have put it out there, right? Um let's promote that a little bit more as we have a few more weeks left uh this month to get it out there. Our newly
constituted uh rent leveling board met for the first time last week, I think it was, and we're excited to get to work to build a new rent control ordinance for Maplewood. Long overdue.
Uh we talk about the affordability crisis. We talk about uh a larger percentage of our residents being renters. Um there's a lot of work to do to create a new ordinance that is fair and
balanced for renters and homeowners. um and uh which addresses the affordability crisis and the housing crisis in our community and across the nation. Uh we're also going to use this
as an opportunity to to build um new processes that would help renters and other residents raise concerns with our code enforcement unit um as it relates to habitability issues, mold and health
and unsafe conditions and and things like that. Um, and we're also going to use it as an opportunity to bolster rental registrations in town so we know where all of our residents are. We want to make sure that people are living in habitable and registered official uh uh
rental units that are made for human, you know, habitation and not for um not basement and and all kinds of things that can happen sometimes when people are not on our radar. Um, and we're using this as an opportunity to build
our housing dashboard is what I call it. I think we're long overdue to have a better understanding of um, of what our housing capacity is in town. Where do we have our homeowners? Where do we have
renters? Um, and so on and so forth. And what does that look like? More on that in the coming months. Uh, from Health and Human Services. The last item, uh we are uh collaborating with all of our providers
uh as it relates to making things better at the food shed. Our goal is to ensure the equitable and safe and decent distribution of food to those who need
it. And uh certainly we have some room for improvement uh when we uh see what is happening at the food shed and not happening at the food shed. And also there are concerns of people being out in the cold and there are concerns about
people being out and waiting um on Springfield Avenue to access food when there are also ice raids that happen. Uh so we're taking a lot of things into consideration and we're looking at uh
ways to make adjustments and and improvements and more on that as those plans uh come together in greater clarity. >> Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. Uh any questions for Mr. Davis? Nope.
Okay. I have four items. Uh tomorrow evening we are having a community meeting on the rehabilitation of Dehart Park. This will be our second one. The first one really focused on the field. Tomorrow night we're going to be focusing on the parts of the park other
than the field. So the playgrounds, the entranceways. Um so it it I think you'll be really excited when you see the presentation um by our architects and engineers. So, um, again, that'll be 7:30 at the community center at Behart
Park. Um, Mr. Daffis raised the Haitian, uh, temporary protective services, uh, the TPS. Um, so, uh, I understand that our assemblyman, uh, Chigosi Onima, um, had
a a meeting, some sort of a meeting today with some of the Irvington council members, and there's talk of doing some kind of statement and things like that. So, I just wanted to test the or get the temperature here about us doing a statement in support of our Haitian
community. I assume we're all on board with that. Yeah. And um I know there's going to be some lawsuits. Uh you know, there was a ruling that that threw out the um deportation of everyone and and the um you know, the the head of the
secretary of homeland security uh eliminated TPS for the Haitian community and the judge said, you know, you can't do that. Um because your whole your whole basis of of why you made that ruling was an error. So there will probably be appeals and what have you. So, um I think we should just pay
attention. In in the past, we have filed friends of the court briefs >> um on other matters and um I think it's absolutely imperative that we stand with our Haitian brothers and sisters here. So, statement and we'll see what legal opportunities we have to to join
whatever we can. Okay. >> Terrific. >> Um number three is uh Mr. Weary and I are going to meet with the new mayors of Union and Milbour. We're going to go pay a visit. We're going to see how we can um try to do more cooperation between
the the towns. Um >> terrific. >> And find out and we have some interests and see what their interests are. And uh both of them are new. And so um we'll use that to our advantage, but we'll uh Good
>> thing this isn't a public meeting. >> Yeah. Good thing no one heard that right now. We really we really look forward I wish my mic wasn't working then. uh we really look forward to to reaching out and creating a closer working relationships with uh both of our our neighboring communities. And lastly, I
just wanted to give an update on um uh affordable housing because the public you're going to see a lot of action in the next six weeks because um of the round four regulations that have come out and we've been working on them for
oh boy over six months now. Um and we will have everything wrapped up uh except for one item um by the deadline uh March 16th. And so that means uh we're going to be introducing things at
our next in introducing ordinances and resolutions at our next meeting and the meeting after that. We're going to be sending things to the planning board for their review. Uh tonight we are uh sending the planning board um an item to uh amend redevelopment area 2 to allow
for 100% affordable housing. Uh and that is an area off of Bdon Avenue between Bdon Avenue and Bernett. So um that's one thing. We've we've sent um the planning board uh a request to evaluate
a piece of parcel in the movie theater redevelopment area to see if it be put in or not. Um so that's that's in the works. Um but one of the things that we wanted to to share with you is that you know we have an obligation as a town to
um do a a new units of 216 units. that's our our new unit obligation in the in the new law and we're we're seriously looking at how we can achieve that. So the movie theater redevelopment piece is part of that and we are waiting on the
for the court's recommendation on some of that. Uh and then this other piece that we talked that I just talked about in redevelopment area 2 which we're working with the Ingramman group. In addition to that, we're looking at about seven sites around the town where we
have um had various discussions, meetings with owners about their interest in developing these sites. And so what we'll be doing is we'll be creating what's called an overlay zone. Not really changing the the basic zone, but putting an overlay zone on top of
that, which would allow for the density necessary to produce the affordable housing that we need, which is um which is a 20% set aside. So that's what we'll be doing. Uh we'll be working on that as I said over the next six weeks, actually be a little less next month. and then
we'll be having those um introduced at various meetings coming up with the hope that we get everything done. We're we have always been committed to doing affordable housing. We've met our obligations in round one, two, and three and we fully intend to meet our
obligations in round four. Um so that's it. Are we unless people have questions we can >> Okay, we're good. All right. Uh before we get to discussion items, we have a a resolution if we can move up
item number 15 because our our our CFO has been sitting there very patiently and uh I know we want you to get used to this, but um if uh Mr. Weary, if you could introduce uh Nyall Clemens to us and then we can move forward. Maybe he
can come up and introduce himself. Um you can introduce him, he can talk to us and then we can move forward with this resolution. Thank you, mayor. I am very happy to introduce a tential committee to Nile Clemens. All of you have met him before. He's been working with us um in
some capacity for a few months now in support of our finance office. Mr. Clemens is a certified municipal finance officer. He comes u with a lot of experience working in municipalities as a chief financial officer. We have a
role to fill um of CFO. our CFO had moved on to another opportunity in the spring of last year. We've been very fortunate that our assistant CFO has been serving as uh temporary CFO um since then and she has served us very
well and the but the department needs uh more support and uh we looked far and wide for people who had the right experience uh both on the financial side dealing with with our budgets and audits
and financial statements and and you know how to deal with all the technical um issues but also, you know, someone who can work well with staff and providing them um guidance on how to perform uh the duties of the finance office. And uh we were fortunate to find
Mr. Clemens. He he has a very good mix of both of those things. He's like I said, he's been working with us closely for the past few months and uh it took us a little while to get him approved as CFO. uh hiring a CFO as a contractor has become uh more popular in the state of
New Jersey as it's been become more difficult to find CFOs and so there's a process in the state that you have to go through. It it kind of delays a little bit of the process but we went through that and we're finally in a position where we can appoint Mr. Clemens and he he'll be a great compliment to our
financial staff and we're we're excited to have him on board and we are also excited to uh uh to to start him at a time when we are very busy as we discussed earlier. We have our um we have our budget pre workshop this this coming Saturday and he's been working
with us closely on that. So I'd like to um if we can give Mr. Clemens an opportunity to introduce himself to you. Beyond that, and I'm sure everybody will continue to be impressed with his work. >> Thank you, Mr. Wary. Thank you, Mayor
Duca, Maplewood Township Committee. I'm honored. I'm very excited for this opportunity. Uh my name is Nyall Clemens. I'm a certified municipal finance officer. I live here in Essex County. I'm very familiar with Maplewood. My family has a bakery in town. It's a beautiful neighborhood.
It's a beautiful township. I look forward to enhancing, you know, not only the finances, but the quality of life here. As Mr. Weary said, there are a couple things that we need to address with the audit. Um, you know, we have the budget meeting coming up on Saturday. I look forward to hearing from you all about your interests and your
needs and concerns when you go out into the community and bring those ideas back. Um, there's a lot of work to be done. Uh, this appointment is for one year. A lot can change in a year, so I look forward to getting to work. Um, any questions? I'll take them at this
time, but just know that I'll bring professionalism. I'll lead by example. Uh, we're going to make sure to get the finance team educated so that they're able to carry out what needs to be done and they're able to communicate to the department why we're asking them to do what we're asking them to do to improve
our recordeping, our financial uh, status. >> Thank you. >> Any question? >> Thank you. I'm excited. Plus, he dresses this well for early morning. >> Seriously. >> Seriously. Yeah. On Zoom. >> On Zoom. That's me. 8:30 in the morning.
Finance committee last year. >> Nice. >> Good. >> Thank you. >> Anything? Okay. Mr. Davis, are you moving this? Yes. >> Yes. Enthusiastically, I move resolution number 76-26 authorizing a professional services
contract with Mr. Clemens, his firm, Business, Finance, Fitness LLC, to perform chief financial officer duties on an interim basis for our township. >> And I'm very happy to second that.
>> Let's call the RO. >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> M. Collins, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. >> Furman, >> yes. >> Mayor Duca, >> yes. Congratulations. >> Welcome. Thank you. >> Thank you. If I may, I just want to end
with collaboration is what turns numbers into impact. So, I look forward to working with leadership, the administration, my colleagues to not only improve, you know, the finances, but the quality of life here in Maplewood. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right.
>> Careful what you offer the community. You might want lower taxes. >> Okay. Okay, we're going to get to our discussion items and um first is purchase of repairarian credit. So, this is uh we're doing construction work on Maple Terrace on the storm water
facilities up there. It's a it's a uh brook uh and actually when it rains it's more than a brook. Um and because of the disturbance of the storm water, you're required to offset that through the purchase of credits.
So you find organizations generally nonprofit uh wetlands organizations, wildlife organizations that have these credits and you purchase them. So that becomes uh allows you to do the disturbance here because by providing
the money to the organization, they're able to um make repairarian repairs in other areas or improvements in other areas. Anything you want to add on that? Uh just to note that because it is an interest in property the the you know
repairing credit is considered you know sort of like an air right or similar interest in property we would authorize the acquisition by ordinance. >> Okay. Yeah. We would have to introduce this ordinance at the next meeting if we wanted to do that. >> Uh any questions? >> Is this something that we do for every
storm water project? >> No. Only when there's a disturbance of um a running waterway. >> Okay. because we're we're we're enclosing the waterway by with a pipe. So, um a lot so it's a it's a most of
our drainage is sewer drainage. This happens to be um runoff and it does have some wildlife in there. It has >> wetland >> wetlands, flowers, all this stuff. So, there is a >> you're removing some of that opportunity
for those things to grow by piping it. >> So, you're disturbing it. Yeah. Okay. So, by enclosing it, then we wouldn't have that um habitat. >> Correct. >> So, we're gonna >> habitat disturbance. That's exactly what it is. >> Yeah. Got it. >> So, by by paying into the by buying
these credits, we then they're fixing a habitat in another area. We generally in a town that's large, you might do the disturbance here and then you would do the habitat improvements somewhere else. We just don't have that area here. So that's why you find these credits and
you have to do it within a certain geographic area usually. >> And could you share for everybody? You know, usually we wouldn't want to enclose something and and take away a habitat, but this is a very important um >> Yeah, this is a safety issue.
>> This is a well, it's a safe it's a flooding issue, safety issue. It's a property damage issue. So, it has to do that. And there's really no other way. We did look at just repairing the walls and that was not feasible and um so in
by putting this pipe system in we felt this was the best way to to solve all those issues >> and we've been working on it for years. >> Yes. >> Years. >> Yes. Yes. >> So um can we get uh an okay to authorize this to be put on to the next meeting?
>> Sure. Of course. >> You're good. >> Good. And you're >> I'm going to abstain as a resident of Maple Terrace. >> Great. Thank you. I mean, like, is there a price tag on this? >> 145,000. >> Approve like >> Yeah. 145,000. It's that's that's you
know, and the credits are what they are. You know, it's sort of like um I guess a crypto, right? Has a number. >> And then we bought So, we're buying.194 repairarian credit at a unit price of
$700,000, believe it or not. >> Wow. So, but what would you spend to protect the planet, right? >> It's priceless. >> Okay. So, we'll have that on for our next meeting as an introduction of an
ordinance. Uh, next up is the Ridgewood Road Historic District and um I've spoken to Mr. Weary about this. So, uh, as you know, and I I think we we we did get some background information from Mr. are weary today. We entered into an
agreement with a firm called Architectural Heritage Consultants to help us think through um the process of nominating Ridgewood Road as a historic district. This would be our first district and we really needed help to do
that. So, we hired this firm. Um they came in with a sort of full package of a $30,000 uh package. We said, "Okay, we're going to do half and half." So, in 2025, we contracted with the firm about
$13,250, um, exactly that amount. And what they did is they wrote up the nominating report. That was to look at the the houses there, look at surveys that were done um and come up with whether or not
it met the criteria that would would be necessary for consideration as designate as a a district designation. So now we want to move to the next step in that process with the uh consultant and the
cost there is that balance of that 30,000 initial proposal and that's $17,250. So normally we would just move forward because that's under the threshold and we would just move forward with this but we wanted to bring it here because
um you know we are talking about budgets and uh in addition to well for the historic preservation in addition to this amount 17,250 uh the historic preservation is also asking for uh $3,000 for web hosting
birthday cards to that we send to homes that 100 years old uh to be uh to members in membership uh historic associations, conferences, things like that. And that's a normal amount that we've been giving them over the years. And then they're also asking for another
11,000 on top of that, which would be for um uh consultants to do u the nominating of properties and also doing some demo review. we we the work is just getting to be too much. Uh and so we
need um consultants to do uh the work on develop if if in fact we find properties that we want to nominate these are individual properties then we would need some consultants to do that. So, uh, in in in total, um, if we were to move with
this contract and consider giving, uh, HPC other dollars, uh, to do this work, it would total uh, $31,000. So, we were, Mr. Weary and I were hesitant about moving forward, although we both agree that we should move
forward because we're not going to really uh get the benefit of the work that we've done before unless we move forward on on Ridgewood. And this would be having um more in-depth uh conversations with the community and um
building public support for it and really presenting a case. This is now we're presenting doing a story board of what that what we're trying to achieve. So we think we should move ahead with that but we wanted before we did that we wanted to talk about the extent of the
work of the historic preservation and there this would be a total request of 1725 for the second part of this contract and then another 14,000 for work um that the HPC would do. I will say that the work for consultants and
attorneys would only be necessary if in fact there were nomination reports. So it would be a budget allocation, but there would only be a draw down if in fact there was um there was the need for those folks to
come. So that's uh you know and and the reason we're bringing it now is because there's a there's a sense of and not waiting till after February is February 7th we do the budget talk is that there's a sense of momentum and we've kind of lost a little we've lost a
little bit because we had the community meeting in early December and now we're in February and there's a momentum that gets built when you're talking about designation and historic properties. Um, and so if we had to wait a couple more months, we could lose that momentum. It
isn't earthshattering, but we think if there's a willingness to allow us to go forward with the contract, we can certainly, you know, zero in on the other parts of the HPC's request or we can, you know, that's that's one way of doing it. The other way is just hold everything until we look at the total
budget. >> I want to add anything. >> Yeah. I you know my opinion is I'd like to look at the rest of the budget and have this discussion on Saturday which is like several days from now not
two months from now. >> Are they uh coming is HBC will present this Saturday? Yes. >> Okay. >> And we can ask more questions then better understanding it between now and then. >> Yeah I agree with that.
>> Okay. I just wanted to >> we won't move forward with the contract. Then >> I just wanted to throw out questions so that they can anticipate them on Saturday. I uh wanted I think I I feel like there was maybe a grant that we got for some of this or am I wrong
>> because I was I'm curious about that. Okay. >> Other grants for surveys. >> Got it. >> Um >> no, we also got for survey those are surveys of property but now the the designation process we have not received a grant for. Would that be something that we could seek a grant for or is
that No, >> I don't know. >> Okay. Um the other part is that the the meeting that you referenced in December, like I was not able to be at that meeting. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about um you know the whole just designating Ridgewood Road um you
know that whole process like what what what the benefit would be. So um because I wasn't able to be there. So, thank you. >> We do have it on tape, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> I think I think you'd want to take a look at it because I think um I think I
think you'd benefit from uh not only the presentation, but the comments from folks who live there and and >> do we have that available to the public? That was uh >> okay. Thank you, Mr.
So, so this is fine. So, we we'll hold off on moving forward with the uh with the with the second part of the contract. >> Also, that this historic district possible designation is it's included in
the final new preservation element, right? Or no. >> Yes, >> it is. I thought so. Yeah. So, that's something you can look at, too. >> Yeah. And I think also >> I just wanted more detail and it sounds like I >> Yeah, it's referenced in the master plan also. >> In the master plan.
>> Yeah. Okay. Um, Committee Member Adams on Carlton Court. >> Oh, yes. Thank you. Um, so Carlton Court, we received some uh concerns from residents uh about uh parking. Um people
are parking basically. If you know Carlton Court, it's kind of a U along um off Maplewood a off Ridge Rididgewood Road and um the U part at the bottom on the east end of the street is up against the railroad tracks. So people are
parking on both sides of the street there and the road is anywhere from 24 to 28 feet um wide and that's not wide enough to accommodate parking on both sides and two-way traffic. So, our
engineer um has visited the site and recommends um putting parking uh no parking allowed on the west side of that section of the street and parking only allowed on the east side um of the
street to ease the the crunch and um also not crowd the driveways that are on the west side of the street. So if that was clear enough, is there any objection to moving forward with >> you say east and west? Do you mean like the >> by the track and on the inner?
>> Yeah, the track is like the east side and the west is the Got it. >> Um, so >> good. >> Do we have we spoken to the residents about this who will be affected? >> Yeah. >> And they're okay with it?
>> One of them is one of the reasons where we looked into it. >> Oh, okay then. >> Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay with that. >> But like the other residents, I mean, I'm thinking of multiple residents I know over there. >> These are commuters that are parking. >> Commuters are parking on the both sides of the street to >> and so the residents are having a
difficult time backing out because cars are there on both sides. So I think the resident and you know, we got requests from one of the residents and I think that represents some other feelings there >> and it really impacts two homes at that end of the street.
>> Yeah. Okay. >> So, okay. So, >> put this on for next meeting. >> All right. Uh, can we get a motion on the consent agenda? >> I'll move. >> Oops. >> Yes. That was assigned. >> Chair, I move the adoption of the
consent agenda. >> A second. >> Please call the role. >> M. Adams? >> Yes. >> M. Collins. Colding. >> Yes. >> Mr. Daffis. >> Yes. >> Herman. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. Okay, we're at our second public comment. Is there anyone who would like
to address the township committee either in person or online? Let's check online. >> We have Ben Vatitali. Uh I'm moving over to panelists. >> There we go. And this is a comments are three minutes
and we have a timer. Is that correct? >> Okay. >> Hello. >> Good evening. >> Big fan of Maplewood government. I'm in South Orange myself, but of course I visit Maplewood almost every day.
Um, I see that Maplewood is considering acquiring license plate readers. Given the national context, I suggest that this is a shockingly tone-deaf decision. Since 2001, we've seen governments tighten a high-tech noose of surveillance around the privacy of citizens. I think the Trump
administration's actions shows it's clearly time to reverse course. We used to have a situation in this country where innocent people had what we call location privacy. But that's disappeared in the past decade or so. Now institutions, both corporations and government, are tracking the movements
of everyone. That is unacceptable in a free and democratic society. Police will say you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. But this completely misunderstands the difference between a human on a stakeout or a bystander with a cell phone versus 24 by7 cameras with
computers, AI, night vision, and statewide API search tied into New Jersey state police fusion centers. The problem with this technology is that it captures far more innocent people than guilty people. probably 99% or 99.9% of
the people vehicles passing by a license plate reader are driven by innocent people carrying innocent passengers. You will say, "Oh, we're only interested in stolen cars." But across the country in recent years, in fact, in recent months, we've seen governments search ALPR records to identify protesters
exercising their First Amendment rights. That's alarming as the Trump administration employs state terror and political intimidation to threaten and coers political enemies. These are the tools of dictators. They don't belong in our country or in our town. Police in Texas recently searched license plate
readers across the country for the whereabouts of a woman who had an abortion. Then he lied about it. Those are license plate readers in other towns like our own. We've seen police across the country run searches for ICE. Could there be a more urgent issue? I trust the Maplewood Police not to do those
things. I really do. They're good folks. Um, but over time, people change, policies change, and because of the computer network, the data gets hacked and shared by the state API to people with less integrity and different values for the Maplewood PD. I urge you not to
proceed with this plan. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, is there anyone else? >> Does Mr. Weary, do you want to just explain what it's for? because I feel like there's some um >> misinformation >> misinformation as far as what we're
using, who what cars they're going in. They're going into the parking enforcement. No, >> I I think it I think I think I don't think we should talk publicly. I think there's >> I see no more hands, mayor. >> Okay. Can we get a motion to adjurnn?
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> Collins Golding. >> Four minutes before 9:30. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. >> Surman, >> yes. Mayor Duca, >> yes. Thank you very much.