--------- like to call the meeting to order please johanna will you read the statement of compliance please stand for the pledge of allegiance johanna please take the role mayor Collins here commissioner I am here commissioner here is there a motion for
the approval of the March 20th 2025 regular meeting and workshop minutes motion second mayor yes yes commissioner yes all right we will now open up to public comment if anyone
has any public comment please step forward to the microphone state your name and address thank you my name is Sam Ashman 119 North Avenue uh I want to say a few things i'm looking through the budget
uh on the uh address there are stalkers i don't think people should have to give their number i think the street should be enough uh I know a lot of public officers have their addresses excised
from records so at this point I don't think it's necessary that number be mentioned on the uh budget i'm looking at something like 39 cents or 39% of the budget going to the county
which uh I don't know what uh we're doing but uh I thought it was around 20% typically probably we have more ratables than other cities i don't know if we're number three or number four in the county
but I really don't know what they're doing for that percentage and it's good that the ratable base is up that's about all I have to say thank you thank you
hi my name is Lewis Felman full-time resident on uh Penroke Avenue do I have to give the number i know where you live sir and my I know where you live too i want to address the uh issue about
no parking beach block during the summer and I don't understand why we couldn't have Monday Wednesday and Friday on one side Tuesday Thursday and Saturday on the other side or just parking on both sides i've heard discussions about The ambulance can't come down the fire
engines can't come down they come down Pemroke which is a lot more narrow than beach blocks so I'm wondering does this have to go to a vote of citizens how does this how does this get addressed because there's such a a shortage of
parking in this town particularly in the summer when population goes from what 5,000 to 50,000 and we need more parking and I don't know why these these blocks have to be primadana blocks that nobody can park during the summer so that's my
comment it's a it's also a question how do we change that does it have to go to on the ballot in November or how does that get worked yeah so I can just tell you that I know there's been research done in years past it was prior to uh you know me taking
office i'm not sure i've never been briefed on those reports but I told by various city officials you know that it was denied for certain public safety reasons uh you know I think again Pat you also being new to to the city maybe
we can research that and just you know find out what that analysis shows i mean wouldn't that apply to every street in town public safety i mean why just those blocks anybody have a years
ago years ago i was very involved with an effort to put it on the ballot the city fought it we went to court and a judge ruled that you could not put that on the ballot because it was a public safety issue and it was an effort to control traffic the reason the city did
not want it was these dead end streets they felt it was inappropriate for e vehicles fire trucks ambulances etc and that's why they wanted to keep the beach block open instead of having so you weren't allowed to vote on there was a court ruling because I think
I took the appellet court and didn't win but that that's why you couldn't vote okay maybe the Supreme Court Washington maybe you know maybe all right well I'll keep on pressing forward but I mean again one side maybe on one on certain
street on certain days the other side I can't see how both sides have to be yeah I'm not arguing with it okay but that that was the reason public safety because the dead end street fire trucks ambulances get him in and out quickly okay thanks a
lot thank you uh my name is Mary Slowman i live at 9 Extra Court and um just to add to what you um what um solicitor Abby just said um I believe there's parking on beach blocks in Bentner and I live in a
culde-sac and it's a dead end street and all the emergency I mean my husband has had so many e physical emergencies we are on a firstname basis with the wonderful um fire department Margate so I I don't it doesn't seem to just
doesn't seem to ring true with me but that's not why I'm here i I'm here to ask the commissioners and the mayor i've heard a rumor and I want to know if it's true um that the $500,000 grant that Lucy the elephant got from the federal
government through the efforts of Senator Cory Booker last year i believe it was in the summer that he came down and produced some type of document has been rescended and the federal government has canceled it is that true that is correct and you have no recourse so there's no recourse with the federal
government there uh this is happening to uh all congressionally uh discretionary spending and uh the only recourse we have is to apply for other grants and Lucy has been successful in obtaining them since that announcement so Oh they have applied for other grants to do the
gift they are I say they slashwe are constantly applying for grants to to fund as much of that project and the restoration of the interior of Lucy as we can and uh one of those they were successful in receiving a grant i don't
know I don't have the exact dollar amount on me but um I believe it was a pretty substantial amount of money okay thank you for your help thank you 772 Avenue at our last meeting we were discussing a handicap ramp at Sunrise
Tequila and it was put off further information was going to be looked at it because it was not permit properly has there been a decision on that i mean they have permits from what I understand they have permits they're operating already they're food I'm sure
liquor also and an ordinance is out here today about giving them a liquor license i don't know how you do that but that's uh not related to that entity what's that the liquor license on the agenda is unrelated to the Well I'm saying they're they were given again temporary licenses
to operate yeah so Palma maybe you can just discuss the temporary CO that they're operating under and their deadline to meet requirements sure i don't recall the exact that the TCO expires but they have
um conditional approval from my office the construction office based off of the approvals that they received from all of the required entities that have to permit them to open even the illegal ramp that was there handicap ramp which
was all life safety issues are addressed so that's why they have address before or afterwards in other words did they come to you and say "Here's a ramp and it was in the plans and you approved it." I don't understand okay i was
understanding that that handicap ramping from the last meeting was not permit proper there were no life safety issues when a the TCL was issued that's was that handicap ramp
inspected when those temporary permits went out to the to the somebody or was that put in after the permits TCO had to be granted after that ramp was approved so the and the ramp
that never was asked never was required to be removed it was the sidewalk um adjacent so the county uh the county gave approval to the owner and that was a condition city's approval that was not what's discussed at the last meeting you
listened to it it was about the handicap ramp not being in permit proper so it wasn't so on the agenda last week was a license agreement because the ramp extends into the right of way of the city so that was what u what was
addressed last week okay was it done properly or not so it was done properly it's just that the license agreement wasn't done prior to to it being built so those are things that you know this the city should do in advance it was not
done but all all protocol so we just So what since it wasn't done properly by them it's going to be what grandfathered in or something no because the reason I'm saying this is because I've had issues and other people in our area have had issues with
the permitting of certain things like we had a family that lives on Claremont was told to put in some sort of a paving thing on their driveway they were told they couldn't do it put it back you know even though they had were permitted uh
myself my neighbor next to me had a wall put up was had the permits but was stopped for over two weeks in November you know was threatened to be pulled down fined $1,000 a day my driveway went in had permitted properly but was got
things because I don't know they either lost the whether it was threatened $1,000 a day from what I understand if somebody's doing building well in advance with these projects that they're doing and they have plans and everything we didn't see that they were going to
get into the sidewalk further than what was you know permitted so again you can have a permit and then there that's why we have inspections so they come out and inspect to make sure things were built to plan in addition to the permitting process for TCO NCO and final CO zoning
has to come into play this was an issue but it wasn't built properly no that's not correct so why do we have a big thing last week about extending into the dry into the sidewalk being built properly it's it has nothing to do with being built properly dennis
so were they was the thing built prop did it extend too far into the sidewalk it did not at the end of at the end of this ramp the slope of the sidewalk was pitched incorrectly four four was four inch four degrees think of it as 4%
instead of 2% right and they were given conditional TCO but and this was on Betner Avenue and Monroe Avenue they were given conditional TCO to and with a date to be which I believe may still be they probably have two or
three weeks left on this conditional certificate of occupancy to have that repaired uh common practice in in building why are we issuing then these TCS or temporary licenses if they're not being built proper that's my concern
there's been too many things put into businesses there that have been built and then afterwards we have problems with them why are they not the day they're put in saying "Okay somebody out there inspecting." You have 200
licenses okay i mean I don't know how many times it takes to drive around to do an inspection an hour hour and a half and everybody's not building one of these either it's just not making sense that we hear more and more problems with people building stuff getting temporary
licenses when it's not right in the beginning see that's more than enough on that one okay this EV stations that you want to put into effect it's one of the ordinances tonight um from reading it it's not making sense
that you want to put so many parking spots in for only charging no gas cars can ever park in them and if you're an electric car you can't park there unless you're charging and from what I'm looking at the ordinance it's If you have so many
spaces you're going to have one um electric thing two three four going forward so we have problems with parking spaces in the summer and now you're going to dedicate charging stations wherever maybe in our $3 million parking
lot which Roger said tonight we could put three in there which means there'll be three less parking spots for anybody who has a gas car we haven't pursued this for how many years and now all of a sudden because we buy a parking lot is that why we are now
thinking of doing it has nothing to do with the purchase of that lot okay and why all of a sudden well we're thinking about charging stations and we don't even have an air pump for people's cars here that need air in their tires because our two gas stations shut down
so again I think uh what we do as commissioners here is to to look forward into the future and the future of of electric vehicles and the legislation that's being passed by the federal government so that we're prepared if we sit and do nothing for the next 10 years then we're not going to be prepared when
when those if we do something 10 years you don't we don't even have a master plan for the next five years okay and I'm looking at the capital budget there you're projecting projects six years in the future for $138
million okay $24 million i kept asking Ed all these years what are we going to be spending on the dredging project that's just $24 million and $40,000 for pays one that's today we should be looking at what's today not 10 years down the road
thinking about the electric cars when we have no where our police departments are parking and no parking and no standing zones for meetings here dennis that might be your opinion i we look at today and the future and if we failed to we wouldn't be doing our jobs well I'm
going to tell you your jobs you're not doing because of the fact that you're spending so much money on projects that are not benefiting the people here in market they're benefiting your opinion i hear every day how much a good job we're doing on the projects we're we're
putting michael please tell me you want me to to list all the names yeah you list me a name and an email you have my email address okay okay all right thank you any other public comment steve Avenue first I want to say welcome
back Johann it's good to see you here um you know I'm the chair of the green team sustainable mortgage and we live in a fantastic area and it's because of a couple couple of things like we are sandwiched in between two rivers the
mica river and the egg harbor river which are some of the cleanest they are the cleanest estuary systems that are on the east coast that's because that um the a harbor river is a scenic uh is a what is a wild and scenic classified as
wild and scenic river which is actually a state park or federal park and the mica river which is protected by the finance so on that on the mullica river is the ruckers resource station and they do they have had most form of data that
extends I think 60 years about the salinity that's going on so they're monitoring climate change and things like that um I also like our fire department is second
to none they are so fast to get to an issue that's the chief and the building department is fantastic because when we do when we complain about um or bring it to the attention about the microplastics being cut they address it immediately
right away so um uh in to the electric charging stations i believe that's mandated by the state now it's not it is um but it is something that needs to be addressed because there is a problem with range
anxiety with people who do own electric cars and they can come down here and fear running out of a charge and that's necessary um so the green team we work real hard to
address things like the invasive species and if if you notice right now the grad pairs are starting to come into bloom and and wherever you go along the state along everywhere you see these white trees that are forming they don't belong here they do not provide any kind of nourishment or anything and they're just
invasive because they're spreading like wildfire if you go along the causeways you can see so u uh last last week I on BL the old BL England site power plant and we're looking at how uh they have lost 65 ft
of marsh land on in front of their building and that's a great concern we talked about the dredging but how do we stop this erosion that's coming see what's happening so sustainable margate we look to address these issues I thank
the city for working with us and uh we have never had a problem you know we always got but we don't ask for much and so we're just doing this for the future of our our children and and um we do have a 10-year outlook on the future and
and we do have a master plan that's coming up to be readressed and we're just doing this for our future and so our kids can have enjoy what we enjoy and listen to Frank so anyway that's it thank you
Steve hi my name is Herb Stack i'm a 108 North Adams Avenue i want to thank you for the opportunity to talk last time I came or a couple times ago I came and I didn't say anything the next thing I know I got
a message from my condo association leader saying that someone in the city said "You came to the meeting and did not speak from the city made a public thing about it i thought that was wrong i'm here as a citizen i pay my taxpayers i condo
leader doesn't represent me and the person who did it from the city should know better you agree with me i do and you and I have talked about that and also the same person harassed me with memos
about a project that I did and they asked me to remove it i did what they wanted me to do the second question is about the water meters and the sewage meters my question was do the people with pools
pay the same amount of money for water as the other people in the city so everybody pays a flat rate up to a certain amount so the people with pools and bathrooms and people using a higher volume of water will pay more yes they
are paying more than the average rate okay just wanted to know that and the only thing I have to say uh working for the government 44 years as a federal agent i'm retired now i've worked I've had eight different cities and lived in 188
cities i've never seen a city run this is my opinion now as bad as Margate is going and think in things they do things they don't do and the things they want to do sometimes I
think the federal administration that we have now uses the Margate systems as their example what they want to do maybe the only good thing they have is that doge that they're talking about maybe it's time
someone with those and look at Margate with Doge just an opinion other than that I still live full time in Mar thank you steve Bago 9600 Atlantic Avenue unit
713 um to try to help clarify for Dennis some questions monroe Avenue is Monroe Avenue sidewalk inspected and governed by the county or by Margate monroe is by market by Margie when they installed
that sidewalk on Monroe meaning Sunrise Tequila Park including the handicap ramp did they get their rough form inspection prior to pouring i don't know off hand Steve i have to check are you talking about the sidewalk
talking about the sidewalk and the ramp because zoning or building inspections would normally pick up that kind of error where the ramp is in the public rightway and prior to it even being poured and then once their forms are approved then they would pour the
concrete it would be then they would have a finished inspection and I think Dennis and I would like to know the answer to this question was the ramp inspected by zoning and the building prior to pouring the concrete
i'd have to check if there was a preour because I asked this question in our last meeting and you advised me to wait till was back so that's okay we're glad to see you back but we'll wait till the next meeting you could always believe the
I see all right thank you that's all any more public comment am I allowed to speak again on the same topic is that per minute the same topic you spoke at at the previous meeting i'll be brief a dive mentor 615 North Delivan Avenue i just wanted to give you
some more statistics uh that um very much at risk are the workers who are using these backpack leaf blowers uh so we're asking a human being to strap a vibrating motor on their back for hours a day and many days a week repeated
exposure to high levels of vibration is known to cause injury to workers over time it's called vibration sickness syndrome the noise level at the ear of the operator is above um any of the recommended levels that can lead to
deafness and tenonitis um also the um you know curbing the pollution which is linked to lung cancer heart disease strokes asthma and other respiratory illnesses again it's the landscaping workers who are most at risk
um and they tests by commissioned by the fair warning in June and July found high ultrafine particle concentrations around operating machines in one case the concentration was more than 50 times higher than at a nearby traffic clocked
intersection and um another test found the level of ultrafine particles surrounding an 11year-old leaf blower was 50 times higher than at a busy rush hour intersection and even when the test was
conducted with a 2017 model the particles were 40 times higher than at the intersection uh and I think Steve spoke to this that the high velocity air currents from gas powered leaf blowers
can be comparable to strong hurricanes they disturb the top soil and send particle matter into the air this matter this matter can consist of spores fungi pollen residues from insecticide rodentide herbicide fungicide treatments
microbes allergens and particles of animal feces which both workers and all passerbys and residents at risk uh because this is happening right outside our doorstep so again I applaud you i thank you very much in advance for even
taking this into consideration and I'm behind you 100% i will help you uh in any way I can and thank you for the time thank you is there a motion to close public comment motion second
mayor yes yes yes all right we will now open up public comment on resolutions and ordinance adoption only for the items on today's agenda as we discussed before the meeting we typically don't have these so
is there a motion to close public comment on resolution and ordinance adoption motion second mayor yes yes yes johanna will you proceed please
number 820 second yes yes yes electric supply motion second yes yes
82 budget motion second yes yes motion second yes yes so tonight is the public hearing on the
2025 budget which is not changed one bit from the intro in introduced budget this budget is um sound it's a self-exam budget so Lisa and I will swear that everything in here is okay state won't
look at this budget and it does contain a 1 cent tax increase um and it does fulfill everything that you plan on doing there's no one-time revenues that are offsetting anything there's no funny dispersements in here it's a straight up
budget and typical what Margie produces so tonight's the time for anybody wants to make a comment on it it's open to the public all right there's any comment on the budget please step forward hi Louisis Felman here again from
Pemroke i'm worried i would imagine again I'm not an accountant or any kind of financial financial wizard but with all the multi-million dollar homes being built in this town and the taxes that are being collected on these multi-million dollar homes I would
imagine we'd have a great surplus in this town and I'm wondering why not so we do have a sizable surplus um so then okay excuse me i'm sorry if there's sizable surplus then why is why are taxes going up so so I think this is a
common misconception and I always try to explain this our valuations go up significantly every year with all the building as you discussed in this current budget that amounted to 1.8% so while our value while the values of the homes through all the construction increased by I believe it's
a little over $70 million that ends up at 1.8% so operating a budget in this economic climate with only a 1.8% or less increase is very challenging so uh you'll see I believe our our total tax
levy went up a little over three and a half% and you know I think again given the the circumstances that we're all dealing with I think that's I think the city did a great job on
this thanks thank you 22 in the budget that's that's not why so that was part of a a bond ordinance last fall um the bond ordinance went through that was you know something that was approved previously and uh the
capital projects that you know we talk about whether it be the road program parking lot things like that they have no impact on the budget so you'll see you know in this budget deferred charges you'll see uh debt service things like that they end up canceling each other out and uh there's no impact to the
capital and again you know I'll use Leon's here and he can he can attest uh he's spent hours with me trying to get me to understand the budgets you know over the last two years and we always try to stay within our capital limits so that we don't have an impact on the
budget because of it so that's and that's so that would When the way the bond ordinance works and the debt works is that the commissioners will do ordinances all the time and we'll take two or three four years worth of ordinances and sell one
bond issue the reason why we gather them up in one group is that we have issues that fall off every three or four years we replace with a new issue to keep the debt as level as possible so you don't pay anything on the $3 million until we borrow the money we haven't borrowed the money yet
soon uh we're gonna have a bond sale this year so we'll be borrowing it this year and how will we do pardon me how will we do with the sale we should do fine we always do do we have a motion to close public
comment on the budget motion second yes yes yes resolution number Motion second yes yes
yes motion second yes yes commissioner yes motion second yes
yes yes motion second i abstain yes yes I have a motion for the consent agenda resolution number
942 I'm sorry motion Second yes johanna before you uh make that motion Pat I apologize um Commissioner Blumbberg asked this resolution be pulled at this
point in time for further discussion mayor and the reason being is that I am still looking into the what I believe is the legal nature of the resolution and
I'm seeking uh outside opinions on it so uh I'm not there yet and in that regard I request that we pull it no I think it's important we proceed because we pulled it last meeting and we have three
legal opinions that uh verify we move forward so I'd like to keep moving motion second mayor yes so uh I I take exception
to Commissioner Collins and Horn on this um I I'm not real sure what legal opinion you're referring to but the legal opinion from our hired council uh our hired counsel uh Baney Donahghue and
W Weinberg uh they are our labor council he writes on March 19th under the Walsh Act commissioners are responsible for their assigned department this generally includes the right to hire fire and promote most titles in their department unless
otherwise restricted by the Walsh Act or genuine municipal law i.e tenure and civil service rights if the same apply so Blay suggests that this is not legal
uh and that um the authority to hire and promote it belongs in the Walsh act under the individual commissioners of that department i.e i should not and will not take uh
exception to something something that happens in public works or something that happens in public safety under the Walsh Act it's my understanding that that's not my right further I believe that and and I don't know what the
intention of this resolution is but if the intention is genuine it would say Margate City will review and approve by unanimous vote not twothirds vote so for
me this is this is a it's an ugly attempt to interfere with the management of my department i believe it to be illegal and 100% political in nature i think
it's unprecedented in New Jersey the other two opinions said nothing about the nature of the commissioner's ability to hire and fire and promote in their department they only addressed the
salary ordinance and I agreed that if we pass and we do every year pass salary ordinances that then is their turn to suggest what's going to happen in each individual department that's our ability
it goes no further than that and should go no further than that i think we're now in uncharted waters we're gonna if we pass this we're going to face legal challenges the first one will be from me
and I think the entire state is going to look at this i think we're going to make the front page of the papers and I think that I'm going to fight it and all my fellow commissioners in the state of New Jersey are going to fight it never before certainly not in my 18 years have
we pressed and I don't know why we're pressing i think I know why why we're pressing it's because it's political thing and my commissioners are unhappy with the fact that I speak against projects that they want to do and I just
don't rubber stamp things here i'm not going to be bullied and I won't be retaliated against and I don't agree with this and I think um you know that the idea that we can just spend spend
spend and increase taxes are wrong and I think this is why you guys are coming after me well the idea is and and I'll finish the idea is that if this were
unanimous it would say if it were if it were genuine it would say that the board of city Commissioners will review and approve by unanimous vote all changes in title salaries related to the same and
it doesn't it says twothirds so they they've gotten together and they've decided that they are going to challenge my authority outside the authority given to me by the Walsh Act over a 100 years old and no municipality
no municipality has any type of resolution like this it's not legal and I you know what i'm not a lawyer but I will uh continue and again blatantly blatant not to be redundant blatantly
our contract attorney says under the Walsh Act commissioners are responsible for their assigned departments this generally includes the right to hire fire and promote most titles in their departments it doesn't give my fellow
commissioners the right to reject a promotion that I want to do or a salary raise that I want to do or a title change that I want to make in my department it does not the Walsh Act does not give them that right
okay so so I will respond there's a there's a few issues here one I didn't really ask for your response well I'm going to give it anyway because I have that right so thank you very much uh couple things here maybe we can hear from Commissioner Warren title 40 Chapter 72-11 gives the mayor
supervisory authority over every department in the city i don't have that you know why because Commissioner Blumberg tries to keep me out of things in his department fair enough whatever whatever was done in the past prior to this you know water under the bridge this budget with a 1 cent increase 94%
of that is in the construction department run by Commissioner Plumber we have $300,000 in less revenue to UCCC fees and $85,000 in increased expenses which results in 94% of a penny increase
so am I upset about that absolutely and all of you should be also that's not accurate that's just not accurate it is accurate it's not accurate so I mean Lisa's budget uh worksheet shows it okay
I have the documents here if you'd like me to show you construction department revenues are up i don't know what you're talking about we had $52,000 in revenue last year from UCCC fees in this budget it is listed at $100,000 a $42,000 difference
$410,000 represents a one penny increase on our budget that doesn't account for the expenses so moving forward the the opinion you read is accurate we got that opinion and we also got two other legal opinions plus the opinion from the DCA
which spoke contrary to that legal opinion blay follows and said there's nothing that restricts us from going above and beyond what what that is our other legal opinions basically said we don't need this resolution because it's already part of the Walsh shack uh with
discrepancies that we've had internally and again I've had numerous conversations with our solicitor and our business administrator who have sought these legal opinions from various entities and they've all proven uh to verify you know what what we are saying
moving forward so I believe it is important to move forward with this why for transparency you guys all deserve transparency from government we also deserve transparency from each other so This has nothing to do with what Commissioner Blumbberg's doing in his
department what Commissioner Horn is doing and what I'm doing we all deserve to know what each other are doing in our departments because if I give a raise in my department they need to know because they're going to get a knock on their door saying "Why' this person get 10% I got 3%." All those things so these are
all things that I think are important in government as we move forward additionally months before the budget was introduced months before any of this happened at department head meetings and in discussions with our administrator I have been seeking the uh every
department to provide organizational charts to our administrator so that we can review and we discussed it at one of our previous meetings there's no reason why we need to put a senior carpenter position on the books if we
don't have them supervising somebody beneath them there is no reason why we should have a senior gardener if we don't have a gardener underneath them and these are things that I think we owe the public the public you all say "Why our values are up why are we getting hit with taxes our city employees are paid
well there's there's all this this argument why is this?" Well I think it's important that we're transparent with you and say this is and again Pat is I've charged Pat with a internal desk audit so that we can say every department has the right people in their department under the right titles i
think it's important that we have so the police and fire departments do it better than anybody they know how many lieutenants how many captains chief they they have it all spelled out in their contract the rest of the city does not and I think it's important that we say let's look at public works how many
labor labor twos labor ones do we have how many public works repairers how many water and sewer utility these are all things that I think are important again for us to manage the departments well and for us to uh again be transparent with the people i said to Pat this
morning because you know he warned me that there may be some controversy over this my intention with approving hiring promotion for departments that aren't mine is to go with our administrator's recommendation i'm not trying to hand pick and say I don't want to look at
either of their departments and say that person doesn't deserve it or this person doesn't deserve it i think it needs to come with the administration's re administrator's recommendation and that's the intent of this government that's the intent of of what we're trying to do to be transparent the Walsh Act says that each of us run the
day-to-day operations of our department and again I'm not trying to interfere with the day-to-day operations of their department but I do have the ability to supervise their departments and every single person that comes up here to that microphone looks at me and asks me so I have every right to understand what everybody else is doing and I think it'd
be a fault for me and a fault to the city if I wasn't doing that and again you know I I think in order for all three of us to do our job well it's about being transparent not just to you but to each other so again I already
voted on this if what you're and if what you're saying is true then why doesn't say unite us why does it say if the business administrator's job is to approve and we're going to go with his
recommendations then I I move that this say again I believe it to be illegal if you're going to vote on something why doesn't it say unanimous no I'm saying you can continue with the vote
um no yes yes yes all right is there a motion to adjurnn second yes yes
yes Part: 2
like to call the meeting to order please johanna will you read the statement of compliance please stand for the pledge of allegiance america johanna please take the role mayor Collins here commissioner here
commissioner here welcome everybody and I'd like to start by welcoming our clerk back after a few missed meetings glad to see you back um we will begin with our engineering report ed will you proceed
please thank you mayor okay starting off as always with our dredging program uh we have submitted all the information that was originally requested from the DOT to keep this process moving we're working through some issues with the DOT so hopefully we'll have some updates on that front in
the next couple meetings going along with that we have the shelter island salt marsh restoration project which kind of goes hand in hand with the dredging project so now that we're kind of moving along on the dredge permit we're going to um push a little more on the shelter island to try to
both of those items moving on a parallel track for the Washington Avenue streetscape project we did submit our plan to do for review so we uh this is a federal federal aid project so at an upcoming meeting I don't know if we set the date yet but we will be having a
public information session more or less to share the plan for Washington Avenue that's a requirement of federal funding so once we get closer public announcements that way people will be aware that We're getting really close to that bid real quick Ed will we do that in
conjunction with commission meeting or a separate meeting i don't know if we made a final decision on that yet okay public notice and all that all right thank you um and then we can share the details obviously of that project at that time uh next item the Amherst
Avenue resiliency project um continues to work through the D green acres diversion process which is a fairly long process so continue to track that next couple items on the list Winchester Avenue and 2024 road program are in the engineering process um and will
be ready for bidding at some point in in the fairly near future the lead service line replacement project phase one has been sent up uh to I bank uh who will be funding this first phase of work and we're working our way through the I bank
approval process we have um received comments back that were fairly minimal that we did address and we're getting very close for them issuing the authorization to advertise that project to advance likewise the public works building um is substantially complete
the design process um and so we'll be soon ready to bid that project kind of final review there and also working through the capital budget process that flipping the page to the vendor parking lot uh the site plan is coming
together on that project so we uh will continue along with design once we get closer to some of the other activities on that site such as demolition so forth we'll keep everybody updated the Atlantic Avenue bike uh lane painting project through the capital planning
process uh we've kind of switched gears a little bit and the plan here would be just based on the timing of things and some of the time required for ND review that we would hold off on doing a partial bike lane striping until after we pave the next section of Atlantic
Avenue that way everything is strike at once and we don't run into a problem timing wise uh with the contractor and with this um particular grant and that would be item K which is Atlantic Avenue so we're synchronizing those two projects and we want to run into a
problem with running up in the memorial trying to get that work done it would only partially complet item L is just an ongoing uh compliance item for storm water management and really no update there no update on
our pending grants jumping down to our construction projects we have our list of open maintenance bonds with the next item coming up early May our projects will close out you can see we did close out the crosswall projects they'll come off the list 2023 road programs in
progress um Winchester Avenue construction project we just started punching close that item sigrim basketball uh court um is an upcoming construction project with that
contractor who also happens to have a couple other projects going on in town the Avenue contract which also includes Fremont Avenue is moving along um and will be complete uh Winchester Avenue and Benson water
main reconiguration i'll have an update on that project this meeting off the press so that project is complete that our close out list the curb gutter uh project is in progress as is the phase two of municipal building
improvements and then our two most recently awarded projects walkway and restroom building um they were just awarded and we're putting together contracts and pre-construction meeting of those contracts great thank you Ed
pat now I'll uh would you like to lead the discussion to the backpack lowers and where we're at with that each one of the commissioners were a packet of information back
okay thank you we will now move on to terms and agreement for Argal Avenue Bulkhead scott do you want to take that please certainly have a gentleman wants to donate a the construction costs of a new
bulkhead handicapped uh access to the beach and a stairway and we have a resolution here we're going to do apparently two resolutions we'll do a resolution letting him know we accept that offer and then we'll we'll finalize the details of that
agreement what it'll mean is that our city engineer will have to uh approve their plans as will the D and um and oversee the construction so that it meets our standards for our streets as I understand it the elevation will be 13
which will be a little bit below the top the railing of the existing stairway there so the homeowner wants to make this as a as a donation i talked to our chief financial officer there's a way for any kind of a tax write off we don't
believe there is because we're not a 5013C unfortunately but um he he wants to do this uh and it's a very generous offer you know Bulkhead Street about 50 ft and uh we're going to accept
that's what this resolution does that gets that ball rolling great thank you Scott all right we will now move forward with our department head reports chief Adams would you like to begin please thank you Mayor uh as we speak right now the fire department is participating in
assisting in the dodgeball tournament at Tai School it started at 400 p.m and will run through I believe 700 p.m tonight um the fire department's in the process of scheduling our firefighter bailout training refresher um what that does is
enables us firefighters to practice self skills and bail out in the event that they have to bail out of a fire situation from an upper floor they're actually trained on how to do that and actually go through the motions we will also be doing our live burn training with all four platoon
in May and we have uh scheduled for all departments within the city except for that's all I have to report thank you thank you Chief Lisa good afternoon um few things to update
every North um I believe Scott reported last meeting that there was a grant available an FMA grant for raising elevating the properties um I'll be meeting with Jim Rutella next week to discuss the administration of that um
because just so you know how it works is even though we're awarding a c a contract for the project management portion to the ACIA and then to uh Jim uh management of it the the all the
funds have to flow through the city so it has to be appropriated in our budget which after our budget is adopted I will be submitting for a chapter 159 to the state to add it to the budget after it's added to the budget then those contracts
can be awarded um the money receives or excuse me as the homeowners projects are completed and these RFRS which are requests for reimbursement are prepared and submitted those funds come in and
then I'll process a voucher for the property owner and that's when they'll be reimbursed there's also a local component um there's a federal share which I'll be appropriating but then there's a local component local match which the city It's my understanding the
city is not paying or responsible for it's all that cost is going to be borne by the property owners themselves this was very similar to how this was done i believe it was about 2015 or 2014 we had a similar grant so
um that's all in the works and I'm I will be you know preparing the necessary documents as the time comes um we also received today in our bank the 2022 recycling tonnage grant uh just in the slightly over
$10,000 that will also um be added to our budget via chapter 159 resolution so once I do that I will submit all the documentation for that um I reported a while back I had submitted back in 2022
to the IRS a claim for these taxes that we were being build for on um through one of our phone billing and because we're a municipality we're exempt from that i went as far back as the IRS permits to submit a claim so I
submitted the claim for just over $5,500 back in 2023 I called to check on it they said "We have it but we haven't processed it yet." I've been trying since then to get in touch with someone at the IRS somehow by the grace of God I
got in touch with someone today and she saw notes in there but there was no record of the claim so I submitted it to the IRS um again I faxed it to the representative and she's looking into it um and I asked her hopefully it won't
take another three years to respond so I'll keep you updated hopefully we'll get that in addition to interested to the city um we did receive the $25,000 check for the lease at the house those funds have been deposited um all the
retro payments owed to employees for the MCA have been process they'll receive them tomorrow um there's also the annual filing for the American Recovery Funds that we received that we used to fund a
portion of the water meter project that filing is due this month it's been prepared and will be submitted by tomorrow we're required to send it also to the state so we'll take care of that i'll make sure that Johanna
receives a copy also for her records um other thing in regards to capital I know now we're going to be introducing capital on the 17th would you like to have a discussion about any changes that you would like at this time or would you like to hold that for a later time um do
you see the need to discuss capital okay i do have one question for Ed though the resurfacing for the walkway what type of surface is that going to be at Sig okay much better okay uh the only other thing as you know we'll have our budget
hearing today which I'm sure that's what everyone is here for um if anyone has any questions let me know other than that thank you great thank you Lisa chief if I might I do have one question i saw on the capital projects list for
four or five years now we've been trying to do the bridal path on uh Ventner Avenue on the north side and um I didn't I didn't see that we uh we accepted that
or that we have any money in to do that i know we had a slip and fall there last year so we're on notice that it's dangerous uh is there a plan to get that into the next budget or what what are we thinking about
that so in our capital we actually had a little bit of a discussion with that um the way it's set up my understanding that we did something that would show
through it again so Yeah and there are no items on future road programs on the next capital because we're still we're still finishing up the road program uh current year previous year road program so uh at
that meeting we discussed another capital ordinance at one of the August meetings and it'll be in consideration for that all right Chief Hankson thank you Mayor Commissioners a few items first of all I just want to let
let you know that on Monday March 24th assessors from the New Jersey State Chiefs of Police Association were on site at the police department the assessors reviewed and verified current policies and standards followed by the police department as part of our accreditation process for if you don't know there are 112
standards as determined by the New Jersey Chiefs of Police Association the police department was first accredited in 2016 we are reacredited in 2019 and also 2022 i'm proud to report the assessors will be recommending the police department for a third
reacredititation accreditation is a rigorous process for the police department and to continue to be accredited is really a good thing for the police department also accreditation provides us a discount with the GIF lisa and I always have the conversation every year do we get the the accreditation
certificate we do so we do get a discount with the JIP we get reimbursed like I said it was a lot of hard work and for that I would like to especially recognize Lieutenant Joe Skcoian he was the accreditation manager he was in charge of getting all of our files together getting the on-site visit
together the assessors came down and it was actually very unique when the assessors who were both from North Jersey at the end of the assessment they both commented about what a lovely community it was they said when they drove in they couldn't believe how clean the town was how the lawns were
manicured how there wasn't a leaf in sight so I guess for two guys from Elizabeth New Jersey it was a little bit of a sigh of relief also I'd like to recognize two of my officers Lieutenant Frank Mariani and Janette Sergeant Curi they recently
completed a MEL GIF safety institute msi leadership academy for managers administrators department heads and supervisors the academy required them to complete various classes it took two years for them to finish it was a mix of online classes and in-person classes so
again it took them a while to get it but they do have a a certification from the leadership academy from the Mel and the GIF which is always good currently the police department is participating in the you drive you pay campaign so you'll see targeted patrols probably for the next month April 1st to
April 30th or 31st and it's targeted for cell phone usage so you will see a lot more motor vehicle stops for dist distracted driving it's through a grant that we received from the state we're participating in the campaign and I can tell you from the radio traffic I can tell with the details there's been a lot
of summones issued for either texting while driving or being on the cell phone while driving so it's a good campaign finally on Sunday April 6th there's going to be parking restrictions on Atlantic Avenue for the annual April Fool's Day run there'll be no parking on the south side of Atlantic Avenue from 8
a.m to 12:00 p.m the no parking signs have been up all week so again we do our best to make sure everybody knows don't park there or you're going to get to it because the April Fool's Day run depending on the weather can turn into a big run so we just want to make sure everybody's safe that's all I have all right thank you Chief and
congratulations to you and your department all right we will now move to Roger what is the option of the orders for the work sites the second one is the uh electric
vehicle charging station or again mandated by the state parking lot also comment on the authorization contract inspections that is a third party review to handle all the
construction in the construction office again and also also the reserves cooperative I don't participated last year for us to go directly through
electric good evening mayor and commissioners um the building department has been consistently busy consistently um so much that we have almost the exact same amount of permits issued to date
this year as we did last year um permits and permit updates a total of 236 for 2024 on this day and then today in 2025 238 so we're pretty much matching last
year uh and in addition to the clean job sites we also have been reminding contractors of the safety aspect for the inspections because um handrails are very important even at
the rough stage of the project we've had inspections fail for that reason because inspectors should not be um you know trying to hold on to the wall to get to the second or third story um will continue enforcing
that also we did start accepting the seasonal rental applications on March 1 i did mention that before but here's another reminder to any homeowners renting their home or realators to please submit your seasonal rental
applications as soon as you have a tenant secured this way we can get the inspection scheduled before the Memorial Day rush and that's all I have thank you mama good afternoon
um the public works our call volume's up about 50 calls per day a lot of it has to do with the flushing going on this week but uh we're averaging about 700,000 gallons of water per day compared to about 500,000 two weeks ago so that's up also we're busy cleaning
the overpasses on the beach um removing the sand from around the benches on the beach the sweepers are back on the road five days a week the hydro flushing as I said is almost done about half day tomorrow and we'll be done and the bike racks are finished finally at the Benson parking lot we
fixed two water leaks in the last couple weeks uh the wood was delivered today for them lifeguard stand so we'll start building the lifeguard stand and we'll also start mulching the city properties probably next week that's all I got thank you thank you Scott mayor I don't have anything to add right now all right
great pat I just wanted to expand a little bit on the uh We should open it up as far as creating you guys around that was concern yeah and I think you know I had mentioned to you uh this week we're
still trying to find that phase in for um Maplewood I believe it was yeah I have to locate the phasing program i have their but I do not have the program so so for me Pat like I said at the last
meeting it's really it's a quality of life issue and we campaigned that we were going to try and improve the quality of life the you know when you're sitting on your porch trying to enjoy a cup of coffee and these backpack blowers
are going and the handheld gas blowers are going it's it's a nuisance it's a half hour at a minimum on a block if there's two or three houses in a row um my brother is a is a landscaper in town
and he's not happy with me but he understands that it's it's a problem and you know so in that regard not only are they you know ownorous from a noise standpoint they're they're terribly
harmful to the environment you know I think I read somewhere that the pollution that one of these things gives out in you know less than 10 minutes is more than a car gives out in a week um so the way I see it we should and and
the state is looking you know we're ahead of the curve here the state is looking to ban these the sale of these gas blowers like almost immediately um it's it's in it's a bill it's in the House now we we can be at the forefront
on this i think that you know my idea would be that we eliminate the gas blowers the backpacked gas blowers immediately and then yeah um give give these guys a year with a handheld gas
blower and then let's move them all in two years you've got to use the electric ones um and the electric ones are powerful they're way way more environmentally friendly and I you know I would encourage my fellow
commissioners to um move forward with this and hopefully we'll um you know we'll be doing the right thing for the for the residents and for the environment are we looking at just commercial or we
also looking at home as well i I would say that it would be everybody and I'm not real sure I know any homeowners in Margate that have a backpack blower but uh if they do correct Commissioner if I may I just
recently read an article there was community in Massachusetts and they banned all gas blowers but they did a they did it for homeowners right away and they did a phase in with commercial contractors uh government entities to kind of give
them a little bit more time to transition over to full electric and I you know I read some of the comments on the article and it was you know some people were for some people were against but that's what third commission decided kind of do a phase in for you know
everybody else but the homeowner went right away yeah and I think again uh Pat was looking into this phase in program we haven't had any luck but we did find a a lawsuit regarding uh the ordinance to ban them that may be why we have tr
we're having trouble finding it because we're not sure if it ended up getting pulled because of a litigation so I think you know um I don't know if Steve's here in the audience but Steve's Jaki said think you had some knowledge of this i'm hope hopeful maybe you can help us find that phase in program and
and get in front of us so thank you anything else all right Joanna adjusting okay just to add to that I think uh you know many of you in the audience are here at uh the meetings frequently and
you'll hear me open and close public comment and then open and close public comment for resolution and ordinance adoption and nobody ever speaks at that one because they all speak during the open public comment so I think it's important that we focus on the public comment on resolution and ordinance adoption because that's what we're about
to vote on as soon as we close that section so it's important for us to have public input on on that before we we cast our vote and then public comment that's unrelated to that would move to after the resolutions so I think it'll just be more efficient for the meeting and uh make the meetings flow better and
it be easier for the public to understand you know what we're trying to accomplish so at this point we will now open up public comment for items discussed in this meeting so if anyone has any comment on anything that was discussed
here tonight please step forward uh Steve North Lancaster Avenue um I'm sorry Pat I couldn't get back to you was the Senate was supposed to vote on the the state backpack or the state leaf
blower last or two weeks ago but they never got around to it uh what they are um what their plan is is to um no person shall offer for sale or distribute within the state a gas power
leaf blower after two years of the vote and then after four years of that date no person shall use or operate a gas powered beam blower that has a two-stroke engine uh with with regards to Montlair
and some of the other states that or cities what they did is they had a seasonal ban because they have leaky communities margie does not uh we our houses are just so close together and
like sometimes within 20 feet of each other and these guys are are blowing so um the point is they are highly inefficient they they're throwing out carbon dioxide nitrogen nitrous oxide hydrocarbons and sort of other volatile
gases which really affect our quality of life here um and plus the the amount of dust that they blow blow up they kick out airborne molecules because they can blow at about 180 200 degrees or 200 miles per hour so they're they're
kicking up pollins molds pesticides herbicides animal feces and other particular that get airborne so if you're walking by and you can inhale that stuff plus the riding around I do my bicycle around here uh it's really hardressed to go too far without hearing
this and then sometimes breathing this in and as Commissioner Blumbberg says when you're sitting outside and you're maybe having a breakfast or lunch and your neighbor or even to halfway down the block it's it's very very destructive and it is such a high
quality of life issue and as you mentioned how somebody came and said they didn't see a leaf on well that's kind of a shame you know um we don't have to be a leafless society here it's really
have um so yeah the decel levels anywhere going from 79 miles or 70 uh 70 and 90 decel levels without hearing protection will
cause your damage here so um I did talk with the uh there's a clean quiet communities group that has done a lot of research on on this uh
leaf blower so what they were telling me about the difference between professional landscapers and and the nonprofessionals the professionals they they don't you don't need to
like you blow in big piles when there you know use rake you get them up it's a lot more efficient and plus these things should not be used in the street because of what they were kicking up in the air and I think we all seen it where we
just blow the stuff away from their hands so um I really commend you moving forward on this i will be in discussion with you on this i do have a couple plans uh that may work and may be
helpful so okay thank you Steve hi Sher Lillianfeld um Joanna wasn't here but I do not like to put my address in public comment but I am a permanent resident of
Morgate thank you um just one comment about the leaf blowers i mean Steve you've said everything you guys have obviously done your homework a lot of pollution i just want to make one comment about the sound pollution what people don't realize is that a 10 decel
increase responds to a tenfold increase in sound intensity for those engineers in here it's a logarithmic scale it's not linear so if you go from 70 dB to 80 dB that is a big big increase in sound
intensity so it's something to keep in mind it doesn't sound like a lot but is a big difference and I just wanted to highlight that again steve went into all the pollution and the problems and he can help you with what other municipalities are doing keep in mind it
is a big deal all right thank you can you can you please Sure fine 789 Wellington Avenue thank you hello mayor commissioners everybody um I sent all three of you emails today you may not have gotten them oh I'm pardon
me excuse me i'm not used to this diva Mentor 615 North Delivan Avenue so hello everybody i want to thank you all for taking seriously the um phasing out of the uh GLBs or gas leaf blowers um if I
may um add to what Steve and Sher have already said and Commissioner Blumbberg um and you sir I'm sorry to meet you um I'm a Margate uh yearround resident i'm a member of the ATL New Jersey advocates for
transforming landscaping in New Jersey and sustainable margate green team uh I'm very much in support of phasing out gas powered leaf blowers or GLBs and transitioning to electric lawn equipment as many other municipalities in New
Jersey have uh we have Montlair in Essex County Maplewood uh South Orange in Essex Princeton and Mercer County uh nationally there's approximately 168 commu quiet clean communities in the
United States dc is one of them and Philadelphia is in progress of doing that for uh quiet clean Philadelphia um what I sent to all of you today um is this seven page uh PDF uh it's from
Sustainable Jersey uh Mayor Collins I met you at the lunchon for sustainable Jersey where Margate was recognized and honored with a bronze star for the work uh for the um uh construction of
pollutants uh this is really a master class on why how and who should be involved in creating implementing and enforcing uh the ordinance as you are proposing uh which has been successfully
done by these other communities in New Jersey uh and it really talks about our partnership with you know there are many actors involved all of you will be involved but also working landscapers is this is their livelihood um it's for the
protection of their health of our health and for the environmental health uh so uh this is it and it really is a phasing out uh and it's this is this represents I would say over 10 years of work of
people in these communities who have worked really hard to create what you are all trying to create and to implement successfully um I just want to add more on about the GBS and uh why we would want to support
restrictions and transitioning uh into electric uh lawn care uh the American well first of all the emissions cause it's it's a it's a public health hazard causing very serious health issues including cancer heart disease asthma
respiratory illnesses the American Lung Association urges the use of manual or electric powered lawn equipment uh the pollutants uh which Steve and Sherry talked about uh a bit are widely recognized to cause or contribute
serious health conditions uh among them uh besides well lung cancer is a big one but asthma uh especially vulnerable communities are children and seniors and imunompromised people uh of course it's
also a hazard to our pets and for birds and um pollinators and it really does disrupt uh our environment um regarding the sound levels the World Health Organization
uh suggests that noise becomes harmful at 55 dB according to the CDC a leaf blower admits noise at 90 dB the new ones are even worse 800 ft away the noise has been found to
exceed 55 decel level and that is with windows closed um the um in the US they say over 1.2 billion gallons of gas are used every year to
operate lawn and garden equipment and that is something that's going into our our bloodstream and affecting all of us so if we have uh ears nose throat and lungs uh you know we actually want to protect ourselves from this uh I believe
you have the ordinance from um Maplewood uh already um and uh I also sent you something from uh Quiet Clean Philadelphia u so you have three links uh in that email and I applaud you very much for doing this
we would be the first uh in Atlantic County if we were able to successfully create this ordinance and to enforce it and um I'm very happy to help you and partner with you and uh it will definitely benefit all of us in this
meeting thank you very much thank you any more comment on anything discussed in this meeting is there a motion to close public comment motion second yes yes yes is there a motion to adjurnn
motion second mayor Collins yes yes yes we will have a two-minute break before we move forward with our regular commission