e e e e good evening everyone in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act we advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding to the
officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday February 18th 2025 meeting details in the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to salute the flag please Deputy Mayor Cohen here Mr
clro here Mr Sandy here Mr Stoler present mayor Romano here thank you may have a motion to approve the agenda I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda uh I'd like to move 25-64 uh out of the consent agenda to be
considered separately may I have a second second R Deputy Mayor Cohen yes Mr cro yes Mr sack Mandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you I I just want to saying in the future I
don't think we need a a motion I think because it's consent if one person wants to move he would need second okay thank because if obviously if one person wants it it's not consent all five don't want it there okay I should have said that before the meeting no thank [Music]
you I mean I think once once it's off set agenda yeah you could proove it as as amended but it only require One V because sometimes it might just be one person who wants out consent he wouldn't require three people to take it off inside just one perfect okay so now we have a
special Proclamation for a special birthday uh committee maner would you like to present sure to our longtime resident Bernard Zen celebrating his H 100th birthday yo Happy Birthday people they came to
[Applause] see I since I voted see family okay uh fantastic thank you for coming down it's so humbling to meet you in person uh and actually after all the discussions we've had okay
whereas Bernard Zen joyously celebrated his H 100th birthday on January 5th 2025 and whereas Bernie has resided in Milburn Township since 1962 and over the decades he and his late wife beatric raised three children in Milburn all who went through our school system and
graduated from Milbourne high school and three grandchildren who were went through our school system as well and graduated from Milburn high school and whereas Bernie Faithfully served his country overseas in Europe in World War II being honorably discharged after being injured there and answered our
nation's call during a time of great need and served selflessly to protect our freedoms and uphold the values we hold dear and appreciate his courage and sacrifice greatest generation and whereas Bernie is the proud father of Jeffrey and an Robert and Amy and Roger
and Mindy grandfather of David Jake Jessica Rachel Scott Nicole Jacqueline and Melanie and at last count nine great-grandchildren that's awesome uh uh Bernie is young at heart is being
honored this day for the exemplary way he has lived his life maintained a very positive outlook and constructive attitude cared for and loved his family and friends and strive to improve our community now therefore be it resolved by the township Committee of the township of Milbourne in the county of
Essex state of New Jersey our congratulations and best wishes to Bernie on his 100th birthday take picture sure should we sing first sing council do we need vote on that all right okay let's see go
ahead to you happy birthday to you [Music] happy birthday dear Happy Birthday [Music]
to you guys want to jump happy [Applause] birthday so we'll take a three minute break so Mr Zen's family doesn't have to stay for the rest of unless you want to and we can depart
e e may I have a motion to approve the January 21st 2025 Township committee minutes may have a second all those in favor okay reports um committe would
like sure um so the uh citizens uh affortable housing advisory committee is going to be having a public meeting via zoom on Thursday 7:30 pm we're GNA have uh
Graham our town planner there as well as a representative from our legal council um and we're going to um do a short presentation followed by a Q&A session so bring all of your questions about the
fourth round um and we will try to get answers for you um next the environmental commission would like you to know that they'll be partnering with the Great Swamp Watershed Association for their native plant cell please watch for information to be posted on social
media about related webinars and plant selections plants can be ordered online uh from noon on April 1st through 5:00 pm on April 18th ordered plants can be picked up at a location that would be
determined in the future on either May 3rd or May 4th is not to really to start planting your Native Garden or additions to your existing Garden that's it for me sorry can Costco uh yes uh our report on the historic preservation commission
I missed the meeting but I still wanted to report on what happened so Allison Canfield was elected chair Zack Davis was elected the vice chair um there were five applications on two were carried and three were approved thank you thank you committee misser uh sure
Recreation committee pool golf tennis pickle ball memberships are all still open a little feedback there uh registration for spring and summer programs are open again Recreation Town Basketball Championships are set for Saturday March 1st at the
middle school and high school uh gero Park LED project light is moving along trenching is almost done for the tennis and pickle ball courts pending weather all lights should be ready by the first week of March Sid special improvement district Restaurant Week is back and we'll start
on March 24th for your calendars uh Small Business program social media influencer list and autism friendly businesses uh explor has developed a variety of resource documents for businesses on these important documents you can catch them on the website community events explore is working with
various local community efforts and helping businesses engage for support and sponsorship if you're a business interested in getting involved with the March 4th 5K March which is on March 2nd Lunar New Year celebration March 2nd or team bloodbound event at the common lot
on February 20th please email uh Steve at explor murn hills.org Boe liaison uh Cheryl Snyder announced her anticipated retirement from her position as business administrator for Milburn schools at the end of this
school year uh among her notable accomplishments and I've known her for with all my kids in school for a long time she's helped to move voting for public elections out of the school buildings she helped repurchase and renovate and reopen the Washington school and establish the capital and
maintenance plan we wish Miss Schneider the best in her retirement no updates at this point on the joint fields or the flood mitigation I'll defer the council for floral housing thank you thank you deputy mayor
yeah the uh planning board continued uh the application from the kai Center there are uh it was carried over to the next the next meeting and estimate will be that it'll be at least two more meetings before a decision is rendered um the library opened bids for the um
for the renovation of the second floor the winning bid was AB designs who also was the the company that did the first floor they came in with the lowest Bid And so uh we they we have exper is dealing with them so that we're all looking forward to work getting started
shortly thank you um I just want to report on pedestrian safety uh Advisory Board we met last week um there will be a public information session uh we don't have the date just yet for the uh plans for the eastbound side of the shol train station uh we're are looking into the
automat audible traffic signals uh working with the police department so that they can see if the existing beacons can be changed correct correct okay um and also just um if you notice any of the um the the pads are damaged
at the flashing beacons to um just reported on the portal so that um it could be fixed and that's all I have Mr M thank you mayor um just wanted to let the public know that we will have a public
information session on February 26th at 7 p.m here in town hall regarding the Taylor Park Gateway project as you recall that was a project that was focused strictly on the streetscape um and Frontage of Taylor Park on Melbourne
Avenue and we will be presenting sort of the the uh initial plans for that and um having a Q&A and and uh discussion with the public our uh our consultant spel uh will be there as well uh to help that
presentation uh I met with um a representative of the historic preservation commission the environmental commission and the and the rec director um Chris Meyers to discuss the open space trust uh ordinance I
think we had a good discussion um and I think the ordinance is in pretty good shape uh according to that small group that we um would like to advance that to the township committee for their consideration in March um I think
there's a desire to get the committee started uh so that they can establish how they would like to operate and how they would like to be able to provide recommendations back to the township committee uh given I'm sure all the work and um projects and different ideas that people have for the use of that money uh
so we are um and and knowing that that money doesn't um come forward until the last quarter of of the year um when the when the final tax bills are issued um it's important to sort of get that group
started and and and working uh on how they want to operate and um so just wanted to to give the committee that update as well as the public um at the last meeting I was asked by a resident to put the totals together for legal
expenses just wanted to report and I will this will be posted to the township website tomorrow as a revised presentation uh for total legal cost between 2021 and um 2024 um in 2021 the township spent
$734,900 in legal expenses 2022 was $633,000 8,839 for an average yearly spend in that time period of particular
um uh resident and individual who has uh I think uh one at least one lawsuit against the township right now um and just wanted to provide what I know as a hard dollar figure since 2020 um because it's very difficult to ascertain the
dollars that are being spent on um you know reading an email or responding to a uh um uh a civil rights complaint or responding to an Oprah so what I know is hard costs is $12,383
uh we do know that 2010 records have been requested by this individual 137 oah requests and uh and and 679 plus emails in that time period again the uh the impact in terms of time whether it's
staff time um you know uh some of the time that's related to our attorneys and and and that can't necessarily be Quantified without really digging in and spending more time looking into this this issue uh but that is uh sort of a general idea of what um we've been um
dealing with since 2020 um with that with regard to that so just wanted to provide that report um just another update on trees Street trees I know it's been a a topic at times we do have a plan in spring
when the when the weather is weather breaks to plant 28 Street trees uh between Milbourne Avenue um you know past Main Street uh as well as upper Milbourne Avenue as well which is I think in need of trees uh the Forester
has went went around identified all the spaces talked to the property owners and the uh the business owners about the placement of those trees picked out species for those trees so uh we will be planting uh 28 trees um Street trees come come spring lastly just a brief
update on Town Hall we are still planning on moving out of town hall uh mid to late April all things going extremely well um down to 22 East Willow we are finalizing quotes on furniture the idea is that we're going to purchase Furniture um particularly workstations
for 22 East Willow that could be brought back to town hall and reused um as Furniture here so uh and and we are finalizing some quotes on uh providing fiber to the building as well as a network in the building uh so that we
can function we have a uh we're finalizing design uh and bid specs for the environmental remediation of this building including spest and lead and different things that are are currently in this building not not not not a danger but you know obviously need to be
remediated when we do this redo this building um so those will be going out the hope is next week um so that we can get that project started very quickly um and uh hopefully be be done sometime before the the summer starts uh with
that environmental remediation work in the interior of the building nothing is done on the exterior of the building uh that environmental remediation also includes the fire alarm building which is behind Town Hall which will be demolished in the uh in the process to add an addition um and so a lot of work
continues to to be done um on not only the move to 22 SP but certainly the design and uh and of of the new town hall so haven't answer any questions from the committee on on any of those but those are my reports thank you I have a question you didn't mention what
is the budget for that street trees project um the well the budget is first of all is coming out of um fees that we've received for uh now uh the the people that correct correct we've established a fund
for those for those uh for those uh people who pay instead of uh planting new trees as well as there's a registration now for tree contractors um so those are also being used for that um so that that is the budget that's being utilized and I think the Forester is
well on her way um to completing the tree inventory that the township committee approved last year um so we're hope to Hopeful to get that um up and out to the public in in due course so that people can see what kind of trees we have around town where U public trees or or Township own trees are again we're
Tree City USA for I think the past 40 43 or 44 years um and we we manage about an 8,000 tree uh Urban Forest so Mr K thank you mayor um I just have a brief update um just because everybody's
following the fair share housing litigation fairly closely um RPM filed a five-day order uh last week essentially seeking that the court deemed the pilot agreement uh to be accepted by the township implemented um our co-counsel my
co-counsel on that matter MCM and Scotland Balman uh filed opposition that 5day order um the court has scheduled the case management conference for February 27th uh we have a new judge um our judge from the last our judge from the last round has moved on to the
Chancery division um so judge Russo is now handling um the what's ever left of the third round um so we will have be having a case management conference before judge R so on February 27th and one of the things he wants to discuss is that pilot agreement and the Fay order submitted by
RPM unless there's any questions I have no further update um is Mr kamacho on yes okay um I our County liaison is on on online he does not have any reports but he will be on for the meeting in case there's anything uh
public comment or question uh he'll be on to listen okay thank you so public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milburn resident Andor property or business owner please do not
provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you called in would like to comment please press star six now if you are attending by computer or electronic device please click the raise hand button and be sure your video is on
when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you will be prompted when there's 30 seconds remaining a reminder that this is not a time for dialogue or
to debate a matter and this is a Time dur our business during our business meeting for the public to offer comments I will now open the public com hello good looking to committee um I wasn't planning to speak tonight but my ears perked up when I heard about the move to 22 East Willow Street because as
many of you know I volunteer for the warehouse and we're always in need of furniture so I hope if there's any furniture that is going to be left behind here that you'll reach out to either Kim slan or myself we can use small tables chairs I can give you a whole list of what we need and we would
love to pick it up and use it for families in need so thank you thanks good evening my name is Renee paparian I'm a resident I'm also the chair of the environmental commission and my reason for coming up here tonight is really to
make you aware although I know our liaison to the township committee keep does a really good job of making you all aware and residents who are listening of what the environmental commission is working on we have a very hardworking
dedicated group and I just want to give them a little shout out and let you know some of the things that are being worked on Alex McConnell is now going to be working on the mandatory housing element commission he's also working with our
new student advisory committee on something we're calling skeer Stoppers and I'm not even going to tell you what that is you have to come to Earth Day on Sunday April 27th and um you may even be given a free
we have 50 free sker stopper kits if you're interested and you should be come by to that Pria Patel is continuing to work on matters related to the establishment of the open space trust fund Bonita gangwal is working on skip
the stuff and she's also connecting the EC with the Milburn Education Foundation steamfest 2025 environmental challenge Deborah Nas who is also Our member on the planning
board we the EC must have a member on the planning board and that's Deborah so she does double duty um she works very hard on the environmental commission site plan review uh together with someone else I'll mention in the next bit but she
Deborah's also going to take the lead on the environmental commission's partnership what Frank was telling you about with the Great Swamp Watershed native plant sale they have a fabulous um offering of native plants all the purchases are made online and we are as
a partner there are many partners we're not the partner um we'll be advertising there are webinars and will be the pickup site right here in town so stay tuned to watch for that now Joyce seagull also works on the site plan
review um with Deborah they're the subcommittee and the reports that she writes to zoning board and planning board are phenomenal um I'll go faster Joyce also on the development Review Committee for the environmental commission so we get a
chance to see what's going on before um it's already happened bill brazelle is working on the seasonal restriction on gas leaf blowers as is Matt gr who's also working on skip the stuff and we're also working on updating the townships environmental resource inventory we're
going to begin work on a community energy plan after receiving a BPU Grant and uh that'll move us closer to um the New Jersey energy master plan Pathway to 2050 and so glad that the second reading
of creating native habitats ordinance is on tonight thank you so much it's a long time coming past environmental commissions have worked on it it's been reworked thank you thank you thank you very much you for that great information thank you
good evening my name is Jeffrey Feld I live in the poet section um my first question I have tonight uh at 2:44 on the website um it said that the agenda was amended has resolution
25062 been removed from consideration because there was an amended uh budget uh agenda that was posted on the website at 244 deleting that one I just the only thing that was updated was the Proclamation well thank you well when I
looked at it all right I saying was but as to the consent agenda the bill list the format has changed why in September when I appeared and I started making op requests all we
had was a summary we asked for the itemized Bill list items tonight you're change going back to a format where all you have is the checks and who's get the recipient you do not disclose from what light on appropriation the money is
coming from nor do you tell explain what the services or what the goods are being paid for and we everyone here talks about transparency question is are we going backwards as to New Jersey sustainable energy joint uh meeting termination
resolution why are we terminating our relationship I think the Public's entitled to know um as to the Bist there's always a question about the professionals we heard the reports about how much money we've been
spending doesn't include and we heard a report about the round three affordable housing but there something that was missing from the report is because I filed a letter on Monday morning around 7 o'clock to the court you know qu
questioning um RPM's request for a long-term tax exemption under a statute um around 2:00 Mr caner filed a letter saying that I'm just I'm not an interested party nor is any property owner in the state in
this town around three around four interested party I cided case law I sided the um orders and notices are entered I mean I I understand the fox out please look at me while I'm speaking
um you heard the attack about me about oer cost this municipality has the ability to get a injunction preventing me if I'm spending so much money but but through Oprah we discover various things we discovered that the Main Street New Jersey application
entity the boundaries were reduced we learned that there is no for the Sid special assessment for the shared was no supporting direct benefit report and but we did know that when there was a report filed for the an
report for the it showed the lack of direct benefit received by four Ben by I'll speak later thank you Charles B uh 28 year resident of mbour sh Hills uh two items first of all uh I want to say for the record Jeffrey
Feld is a friend of mine uh I think he performs an important function as an advocate for this Township he invests a tremendous amount of his personal time attending uh just about every Township meeting I could think of including Board
of Ed and everything else um and it troubles me that whenever he files a motion he is immediately rebutted by attorney canther and I would like to know on whose account attorney canther is is working to do that okay um and
then secondly uh regarding the uh the uh uh uh ordinance 2697 d24 there was a 2697 there 25 also
posted as a drift it seems to me that they're labeled exactly the same thing so it's a little confusing on the one that was posted uh ordinance 2697-22 [Music] comply and yet in the opening statement
I think there's one word that needs to be changed to be correct in that intention uh and this is after the statement of the uh the intent for Township property it says and to help promote a similar
commitment by Township residents similar could mean that they're also being forced to I think you got to change the word similar to voluntary then it reads correctly and it reads uh in keeping with what Rene has been telling us all
this time so I think one word change from similar to voluntary uh the last sentence in the first paragraph if you see what I'm talking about I think that's a very important amendment to make before you vote on it thank you thank
you Christine best um 15 Fair ter I forgot say that I just want to make comment I really appreciate Rene's incredible work on the EC I think that it's been tremendous and I'm really I'm very support of um the open space um act
that she's working on in a lot of her other projects I do want to talk tonight about ordinance number 29725 um I completely agree with Mr B's assessment of the language and the statement of purpose I find it to be very legally problematic um and I also
want to talk about the difference differential between native and invasive species so I'm just I'm going to probably talk through all three of my comment periods so because I have a long statement so I'm going to start out here do you know that poison ivy is a native plant do you know that it's invasive but
birds eat its berries and it acts as a pollinator will we be encouraging poison ivy Hedges now in our ecosystem the native plant ordinance should be greatly changed and there should be way more s scientific consideration other than one-sided science before implementing something so extreme the world is a
global space now and plants microbes humans animals and insects have made the trip around the world and are greatly impacting the ecosystem if this is about climate change since bamboo produces more oxygen than any set of trees why is this being pushed out if we are worried about climate change why do we allow
three acres of residential de area to have a large amount of trees clear the EC makes claims that Draconian monitoring of what is planted in the township own land as well as influencing what people do on their own property is concerning to me the language States in addition ordinance will promote the
building of n native habitats on Township property and help promote a similar commitment by Township resents through commitment to utilizing native plant species I already have seen this enacted by request in particular on the 165 old Short Hills development which I consider outside the scope of the law I
do find this to be a bit outrageous and Township residents should be given informed consents and I really recommend relooking at this in Greater detail and putting this to referendum in the fall and possibly starting small and then maybe changing it next year to 50% start
out at 25% put it to referendum as you consider all the purported benefits of native plants there's inaccurate me messaging that non-natives are not are chest not as good non-natives are framed as being weakly and incapable of survival with all sorts without all sorts of intensive inputs this is simply
untrue outside of a reasonable amount of water mapal alium hydrangea ly Turf penis ly Ivy ferns tiger lies are barely invasive and provide nectar to the bees only Ivy and Japanese anomy spread in the slightest this is on my property in
the slightest in the slightest way which I maintain through responsible root removal I have never seen any ivy or nemies spread into my neighbor's property my pent stenum which is one of the few native plants does spread somewhat actually I would also like to
say the survival rate of my Oakleaf native hydrangea is dismal compared to the other non-native hydrangea species of my property thank you J Mor Ali Township resident I'd like to start by thanking all the committee members for their service to the
community and thanks Alex for publishing the legal expenses it's greatly appreciated at the end of the last TC meeting it was suggested that nonpar elections would put an end to the partisan committee appointments and the appearance of conflict of interest I was
a little surprised by this because to my knowledge there is nothing that requires the political parties to change in any way in the case of nonpartisan elections and I've asked at this meeting in this at this meeting in the past what will each party do differently if voters
select to move to nonpartisan elections would they for example continue to select and endorse candidates would they raise money for the campaigns of party chosen candidates would they solicit funds from from party members outside of the
constituency mayor Romano suggested and please correct me if I'm wrong that the parties would continue to operate as they do now with little or no change and that is certainly a possibility I am aware though that in some towns which hold nonpartisan elections the parties
have made their own decisions not to endorse candidates and or raise money externally for campaigns and I've been meeting with people and talking about the charver study commission and this same question inevitably comes up what will be different if we move to
nonpartisan elections now we have three TC members that are elected County party members for the respective parties and several others in the audience I assume they attend party meetings so the question is this has this come up at
your part meetings and if so have you discussed it and what will you do differently it's clear that residents would like to know thank you and have a great evening thank you anyone else evening Jerry Kung sh Hills
resident the decision to pursue a charter commission study was driven by widespread concern over how outside political influence and single party rule have damaged trust in our local government many residents want a nonpartisan election process to ensure that our local governance is free from
outside political interference the entire purpose of this Charter commission is to explore ways to improve local governance by detaching it from the incessant noise of national hota and political issues that have nothing to do with our town decisions about Milburn must be based on made
based on what is best for our local community not dictated by partisan battles happening elsewhere that's why deeply concerning that the township is considering hiring Scott salmon as special counsel for this process while the township is not required to use a competitive bidding process for this appointment I urge you
to voluntarily do so this would ensure transparency allow for a broader range of qualified candidates and ultimately help engender trust in the proceedings this step is especially important given the serious concerns surrounding Mr sammon's deep political ties and record of extreme
partisanship Mr sammon has previously considered a bid for State Assembly as a Democratic candidate and maintain communication with in his own words Party leaders elected officials and activist groups he's also known for his work in high-profile partisan legal cases including his unsuccessful attempt
to keep RFK Jr off the New Jersey ballot an effort that sought to limit voter choice that legal effort was ultimately dismissed by judge banani who ruled that sammon's case relied on an over Brad interpretation of the law Beyond his legal work sammon's public social media
activity further highlights his strong partisan leads he's repeatedly expressed overb political opinions including posts that ridicule opposing political figures and advocating for legal strategies aimed at benefiting one party over another he's made posts about how to resist the GOP he has publicly
celebrated legal Maneuvers that aligned with his partisan views his active and repeated engagement in politically charged disputes at the national level raises serious concerns about his ability to remain neutral and undermines our desire to keep the focus on milber given his history his appointment raises
serious concerns about whether personal political Ambitions and party connections could create a conflict of interest whether intentional or not that would undermine the Public's confidence in this process the last thing this effort needs is for its legitimacy to be questioned because of concerns over
partis and favoritism if we're truly committed to moving to nonpartisan local governance we must ensure that those overseeing this process are above political influence not deeply entrenched in it for these reasons I strongly recommend that you vote down res solution
25-64 until such time as all options have been adequately vetted rushing this decision only raises further doubts about the fairness and neutrality of the process to protect the Integrity of this effort I urge you to open this role to a competitive process and select a council whose background is beyond question the
residents of Milbourne Short Hills deserve nothing less thank you Diane Eglo former Township Committee Member former mayor former deputy mayor I don't say that every time I come up here but something was at the last meeting and something was put on that
Milbourne politics site Alex you can attest to this I was recused from everything and any discussion having to do with the kai Center for all the years I was on the planning board for three or four years I never was part of the discussion I was never part of the
settlement agreement I had nothing to do with that so I just want to put that on the public record okay um I'm thrilled about the street trees I think that's going to be really nice for town I also coming up at night I just noticed this um lights
along Town Hall Plaza it's really nice I'm wondering if maybe that could be considered to go all along Milbourne Avenue add some light to the town I mean it really would be nice when you could drive through Summit not to compare ourselves to Summit different town um and I'm wondering if in the
plans the final plans for Town Hall will that become a permanently closed Park area I don't know if that's been discussed think that's it but just want to make it very clear I have nothing in state for or against the high Center
application thank you hi Richard cyber Town resident next birthday today just let everybody know um you know like I've said many times there's a lot of smart people in this
town sometimes they uh say things that um everybody doesn't like to hear and that's always good because it actually opens doors and people think
about things so right now Dr Kung I had no idea that there was even going to be a lawyer representing the committee going forward with the possible bipartisan but it definitely can't be
bipartisan if everything that Dr Kung just said you'd be out of your mind to think that it would be because I know how it works once you put that hat on your head you can't take it off whether you're
on one one part of the fence or the other that hat stays on permanently and whatever you think whatever you do wherever you walk it's always there so that would be a distraction to the committee I think
as far as trees go why you put some apple trees can you put fruit trees on the street yeah you're not allowed to a bad idea I think it would be good to kids walk by see some apples on the trees I think it's a good idea to tell
you the truth I have some apple trees they don't make any mess it's good anyway I think that's all I have to say let's all stick together and do good for the town that's all I have to that's it as long as everybody's working in the
same direction to do only good for the town and not be influenced by outside people that's what I'm for thank you thank you I know where this narrative is going and I just want to say that this
this from what I understand I I don't know who Mr salmon is and the intention was to bring him on to answer questions about the process for the charter study correct yeah right I I'll I'll speak you'll speak to it okay because I just
want to put that out there but I'm sorry anyone next Pastak resident um I'd like to um have an update from Alex on the long range planning effort that you committed to undertake in Lo of a Citizens budget advisory committee failing to plan is
planning to fail um would Mr McDonald also clarify Mr Gilla statement read at a recent Sid meeting where he said he was directed by you to send an email on November 2nd 2023 to melburn businesses requesting them to remove signage that did not adhere to the town's sign ordinance failing to mention that
political sign is protected by the First Amendment he was called out on this by Nancy Stone a business owner as it fell just days before the election and just after signs for Ben and Frank began to appear in store Windows after they received support from these businesses they subsequently removed their signs I
submitted an Oprah to try and figure out what was going on with him saying uh that Mr McDonald told him to do that so I hope you'll clarify that tonight also I noticed um a FB post by romano and Cohen's p uh C page uh it was liked by
step gillow um so I just wondered we talked about impartiality and impropriety on the Sid so what I'm wondering is is Mr gillo um an active uh supporter of one party over another in town he's the executive director of the
Sid he's an active and vocal Democratic party operative in the state he's a former sville Democratic councilman uh for a couple of years a 2020 delegate uh to the National democr party convention a vocal supporter Bernie Sanders he worked on his campaign
a current Vice chairman of the sville economic Redevelopment agency where he advocated for a $200 million project involving a pilot where one of the residents asked in opposition ask yourself who needs the money more multi-billion dollar Corporation of the children and taxpayers of sville sounds
a lot like what we argue about our dump um finally uh Mr McDonald has not responded to Mr ph's assertion that the supposed independent investig ation into a criminal complaint filed by former mayor miggins against me was not thorough or complete and missed the entire point of the request for the
investigation the unsigned and undated probable cause summons prepared by the M Milbourne Municipal Court was never shared with the investigator we assert that this complaint has no record of any kind supporting a probable cause finding and it was a case of political retribution using taxpayer funded law
enforcement and judicial resources to do so by a former Milbourne elected official what do you intend to do to further pursue why this occurred and to get to the bottom of this so it never happens again uh another thing that I learned this week was a resident uh
suggested or told me that uh they offered their help to the mayor on the food pantry and uh that was I think when you were elected and you said no thank you we have this under control I my question is does the food pantry uh is it looking like it has some partisan
flavor to it should why is it in town hall shouldn't it be outside of town hall if there are other people willing to do it I think we should say yes I'd like to know who that was if you don't anyone else anyone online thank
you hi Perry Oro even good evening um I have a couple questions um during reports it was talked about the legal expenses so I'm just wondering um Can the present TC and attorney caner explain to the public why they um choose
to not to mediate but continue to litigate so that would might explain some of the um expenses that were discussed earlier um this is going on about four and a half years now also can um you please advise it was also stated
in reports that as a property owner and business owner we were never to date notified or contacted by the Forester regarding trees on upper Milburn Avenue I would certainly welcome a conversation um considering that I am both up on upper milb Avenue and I am an
interested party so I'm kind of curious to uh like to have some input on that um also to uh ensure some transparency today the president signed an executive order implementing all government expenditures to be put online daily making all expenses available to the
public and would eliminate the need to Oprah will Milburn follow this executive order because I know that there was comments about um opras earlier um you talked about that you're you're in the process of your move to Willow Street so just for
accountability I mean I understand that you are going to buy new furniture and and to bring it there and then you're going to bring it back doesn't it make sense to use the old a building that you're going to I mean I don't know I'm sorry I'm just you know being a little practical that you're
going to go buy new furniture why don't you take the one the furniture that your Township employees are using it now and then certainly sell and give away whatever you don't use and then when you're all finished you have brand new stuff that are going into the town hall I'm sorry just an uh just a um
suggestion I'm looking forward to um your old business and new business you're talking about appearance of impr propriety for certain chair members and also um I I guess you're going to discuss something about new structuring or something about the Sid but I have to
say it's quite disappointing that we have um I'm honestly deeply offended that I'm always discredited and silenced amongst others but you know there's other people we have retained uh professionals that are within the Sid that are
contracted and they are to my knowledge I believe that maybe perhaps that they are not attorneys and they're not licensed but they are steering multiple Township um employees and uh I'd like to also if you
can kindly explain the process for the uh Sid tax um um appeal I took the advice from the last meeting I met with your Township I also met with your Township collector so
can you verify the actual than you your time is up thank you anyone else I will close public comment installer would you like to start for night thank you so much for for that overview of the projects you
see currently under under work sounds amazing um I'd like to understand more about this lawyer Scott Simmons uh just make sure we do our homework there uh you know the information given is you
know quite concerning for Mr Khan so you know if you could even provide a copy of that statement to the township count so I think we would all appreciate it uh then Jean past uh conflicts of interest uh appearances
of impropriety all of the above definitely you know comes into play on on a lot of things so I think we're going to try address that as Township Council um I would like a little more clarity on U on the uh investigation of of you know
it seems to have gone away are are we going to do any follow up what's the general U general feeling of the township committee maybe we do that in the next in the next is new business or I don't know if it qualifies the old business but you know uh besides the
legality of what happened uh it does have an appearance of impropriety that from Essex County and you know if there's some pulling the strings you know I'd like to understand what that is that's all that yeah just question people were
referring to the ordinance as 20 2 25 yeah it's 25 it was just the agenda the ordinance itself has this 24 is actually 25 was confus so we're talking about the same thing that's I just wanted to make sure
okay yeah the questions were primarily about legal and and the Sid so I I'll pass on that can we sure uh so miss best um you spoke out against the native plant ordinance I
want to make it clear that if you like your daffodils you can keep your daffodils say it once more so it sinks in if you like your daffodils you can keep your daffodils the ordinance uh that's up for
uh final vote and passage tonight applies only to Township owned property it's been signed off on by the DPW it's been signed off on by the Forester and it in no way shape or form
limits what you can plant on your property so you can keep planting those daffodils Mr B um I think that's a good uh observation you made uh about the wording I think we could probably change that one word um when we get to that
we'll see if that's something we can we can do um Mr moreli um you know uh I'm not going to speak for the party um but you know I encourage you to reach out to the
party chairs and see if they'll make an official statement or perhaps maybe they'll publish an outed to answer your questions as I think it'd be best to go through them uh Dr Kung uh I think you brought up some interesting information uh that's that's concerning
um I think we really do need to look into uh the background of this individual before we hire them for a charter commission um and to advise the township on you know the legal issues surrounding that because if there's a
bias that could certainly be an issue um let's see here uh Miss Pastak uh I agree I I don't feel that we got an adequate answer with regards to the ballair investigation as
as I like to call it um so you know I think that's something that we should we should look at uh I have seen an image of the um un undated summons I'm not sure how how that all works but I think that does need to be provided to the
investigator and I think the investigator should also talk to individuals involved you know it would seem that if you're investigating something that would be something that would be worthy of of doing um you know if for nothing else but to say
everything was thoroughly investigated and if the conclusion is the same the conclusion is the same but if we're going to do an investigation let's not do it halfway um Miss berso I maybe Mr McDonald can answer this I I I don't know that there's any plans necessarily
to get new furniture for 20 East Willow I would think if we have furniture that's still in um usable condition that we might reuse that but that's something I will defer to Mr McDonald also um Mr Feld um as to regards to why the bill
format has changed uh I don't have the answer to that maybe Mr McDonald can can explain um and then as far as Mr caner objecting to you as an interested party um I think it's been long established now that the court considers interested
parties to be developers people organizations advocating for the construction of affordable housing there's a few other categories uh that they consider interested parties and I believe in the past they have rejected residents um who claim that they're an
interested party unless that Resident you know owns land that they want to develop into affordable housing um so you know I'll let Mr caner speak for himself but uh I would surmise that that might be why he objected um also I
believe that you did have an opportunity um during the fairness hearing speak with the the judge and and and say your peace um and if I recall the the the judge seemed unmoved uh by your comments
so that's my answer regarding that um that's all I have to say thank you okay um I'm sorry I'm sorry thank you you read by do you want
to go first no okay okay um so uh I want to comment um first of all I kind of take offense to bringing the pantri into this conversation um whether they're volunteers or clients I don't know if they're a Democrat or Republican I don't even know if they're registered to vote
nor do I care I just appreciate that as volunteers that they're willing to give me the time to help me with to help us with deliveries stock the shelves or or go through expired items or whatever it is um so whoever that person is please have them reach
out to me again because that did not happen maybe in the beginning when we had I don't know couple handful of clients maybe that was the case and we had it under control but the list of clients is building so I welcome any help thank you um as far as the other
conversations the it's going to be a long campaign season right and if anyone wants to talk to me about my campaign or how I'm running or anything like that you can reach out to me by my personal email my phone number I just don't want to waste everybody's
time with it so thank you um and I think that's all I wanted to comment on so first and foremost let me address the uh Scott salmon um information and make it very clear that
this was a operational decision from the staff uh the township committee had no knowledge at all uh because we needed somebody to be able to answer questions more efficiently and quicker um to to on a particular subject that is I think
nuanced and more difficult and and um uh I think is a little bit of a niche sort of um uh topic so so uh that was you know Christine and I had had a conversation we needed to you know make a decision to be able to address questions that are continuing to pop up
as this process is starting to move um so I appreciate the information we are happy to do whatever the committee um directs us to do uh but please know that the township committee didn't have any knowledge of of Mr salmon or our our
desire to to make sure we had somebody available to answer those questions so um that's um that's that particular situation and again happy to do whatever the township committee decides um an explanation as to uh resolution
25- 068 which the township is authorizing the termination of New Jersey sustainable energy joint meeting um we've been involved in njm for a while now um it is only on our gas utility side where we aggregate our gas
utility and unfortunately the billing issues with this particular uh group has become um too proliferate for us to ignore any further so we we we've been having a lot of issues in in terms of how the the the suppliers are billing us
you know billing us five cents we have to you know do a whole purchase order and you know so we've made a decision to or we're asking for a decision to be made that um that we remove ourselves from the sem we will then move our gas utility aggregation over to mantis Who
currently does our electric aggregation uh they've they've uh it's a lot more personalized uh we have a lot more control and we have a lot more ability to communicate our our needs and uh and and those things that are impacting us from a billing perspective so that is the reason behind
that um just a a couple comments on I think what is being and and this is a clarification from I think the last meeting as well the last meeting it was asked what to do
in the event of a uh if you want to appeal your Sid tax so when people say if they want to appeal their taxes right they're actually saying we want to appeal our assessment because we don't believe we are being assessed properly that was the
response that was given at that meeting now um and that is still the route if you don't agree with your commercial value and you want to appeal your taxes or your whether their property taxes or your sit assessment which would all be impacted by the level
of your assessment that's how you would go about doing it you would file a normal tax appeal that is not the question that was being asked apparently which we found out later when um Mr Feld came into town hall and met as per Miss erso was about to explain met with the
Township's tax collector and the Township's tax assessor to discuss this particular situation um I have a lot of concerns about how that conversation went with our staff um and and I want to say that it was determined then that
they actually want to appeal that they're being taxed at all which is a completely different conversation than what was asked at the meeting and what was answered by me at the meeting and so that's my clarification is that what was asked I had answered with the process
what they actually want to do is something very different than that which is actually something I think that is being done in the bare properties lawsuit so I'm not sure sort of how that is currently playing out but um I also
am not in in in in my experience aware of a direct benefit um I'm happy to I'd love to understand the statute and see the statute on how a direct benefit applies to a sid assessment and Sid tax um you know there is a special assessment that properties would receive say if we came
down your street and we wanted to put in a sewer um you didn't have a sewer and we wanted to assess those properties based on that Improvement and how that impacted your property and improved your property yes it would be a direct benefit special assessment calculated based on your value of your home and what the increase in that value of your
home would be based on that Improvement these are not the same thing and so I'm I'm continuing to be confused um by this sort of um I you know I'm not sure what the word for it is but I I have a lot of concern
when um you know an individual who is currently in litigation with the township representing an individual come into town hall and speak to staff um and and use that as an opportunity to
potentially get in you know get information in a lawsuit that they're already involved in it is a wearing of both hats it is a I'm a resident and I am a litigator and an attorney and I'm going to come in and get this information so I I find that very troubling
and I don't know if that is proper in the legal world but I find it very troubling I find the words that were used in that conversation also very troubling um you know I'm I'm looking out for you be careful you know this is going to end up being a lawsuit things
like that so um I'm I I think that as we sort of govern and lead up here like the this isn't this is not the way that this should go down if if Mr Feld and Miss uro have particularly Mr Feld if he has
a legal question he should do that through the Township's attorney not in an email with 53 other individuals not in a in in town hall with staff who don't know what the law what the current litigation is or are aware he should be dealing attorney to attorney am I am I
incorrect in that thought process Mr ker so M MC you know attorneys are not allowed to directly contact other representative parties and I know we have an interest inter in um situation or Mr Feld is also a resident the township has advised Mr Feld at least on two occasions that he shouldn't directly
be contacting the committee as it relates to the rare property lawsuit and litigation it's improper for him to directly reach out to the committee and ask them who authorized this what's the strategy behind it I mean it's it's it's it's it's it's just flat out an ethical
violation I mean the the latest case on point says you can't even Facebook friend somebody as an attorney who's a party to litigation if you're an attorney so coming in here and questioning employees to gain information for your case is improper they should be because you're coming in
as a lawyer not as a resident now if a resident wants to come in they can come in they should be have the same rights legal counsel when they're being questioned by you and understand that what they're saying can be used and probably will be used against them in the lawsuit so yes Mr M it is it is unethical and letters have already been
written to Mr Feld asking him to stop Mr ker real quick is there action we can take to prevent this continued behavior from happening so we certainly a motion eics we certainly can file so excuse me so it's a two-part question so we can certainly seek uh an injunction uh with
the court that Mr phel be barred from contacting this committee related to the bare property litigation and employees and the court would likely enter that given what we've done um but as far as ethical complaints um they're not allowed to be filed during the duration of litigation they can only be filed
after because they want to prevent you know during the case everybody thinks the other lawyer is so I think they would to stop an influx the court rules are very strict you can't file ethics complaints against other attorneys while the cases are pending but certainly if this committee wanted to we could we could look into some uh injunctive
relief from the court because I know we get inundated by Mr felt's emails on bare properties especially which is a case in which he's an attorney as to the other stuff the fair housing stuff whatever else he's you know he's acting as a resident and he has his his rights here to speak
thank you so so just just for a record though I mean let's you know make sure that we're very meticulous about how we look at it because you know the I'm almost hearing an allegation that it's threatening and intimidating to some of the employees or at least they took it
that way correct um so but from an ethic standpoint too I just want to make sure we have all the information uh prior to to any any any movement and in any legal action I'm just saying and but as it comes to
harassment residents can't harass employees either 100% yeah um to speak to miss past next inquiry um certainly again happy to do whatever the township committee uh
wishes as it relates to the the the report I would just like to reiterate that at the beginning of that process I had also provided information um for uh Miss Pastak as well as as um her her attorney to reach out to essis County uh
the court system and the um uh the assistant to the judge so that they can also have this same inquiry at that level as well which I think is important um it's nothing that we have control over we do not control um you know 's
County courts you know in in our in our situation when it does come to things like this and I've said this at a previous meeting you know when something comes up with a an elected official the Court's immediate reaction is going to say it doesn't live here it goes to ESS
County they do with what they want how they're going to assign that that that case how they're going to deal with that case whether they're going to have problem call whatever it might be is not up to the mbar municipal court because of this very situation this very situation is why that happens and so um
you know again happy to do whatever the uh the the committee would like in terms of that investigation um but um we do have the the the report and and uh and what it says and if there's there's further information that is that is
needed um you know you just um let me know and and we will do do that um and uh as far as the uh the plan um this pastor neck uh we will we will make sure that that is uh presented with within
the next month or with in conjunction with this year's budget okay thank you for continuing to stay on top of that appreciate and just to confirm because it was mentioned off the letter that Diane ow wrote that she noted a problem
with Party politics when I was expected to hire firms that were promoted by the County Democratic party to perform Township work I was forced to choose between obedience and the party maintaining my integrity and commitment to serving the residents of Milburn shill
I can unequivalently say I've not seen that list uh and to me I don't I've never seen that list I don't know if it exists or it doesn't exist Etc but from that standpoint too I just need to make sure we have all the information out there as well because I don't think you
have a list that you're picking from but you know just based on former Le I guess I just want to put that to bit I'd like to add as somebody from the other party I've never seen such a list either I've been here one year longer than you I've still never seen a list nor have I ever
ever received a call from anyone in Essex County about any hiring decision and Mr McDonald's been here the longest never seen a list never never never never been asked [Music] to I have no knowledge of any such list
other than what Miss Eglo claimed she's been claiming for like five years she's been claiming a lot of things over years yes Mr um only because I was asked um the reason why an objection was filed to Mr feld's letter and it's it's somewhat self-explanatory in the letter
and without getting into a lot of litigation strategy when you start off a letter to the court you first advisor support why you're writing to them and in what position so I would typically say I'm the township attorney and I represent the township of milor I'm not writing on my own behalf Mr F's letter
starts with I am an interested party this is a new judge to the case Mr Feld is not an interested party he admits within his letter he's twice tried to become an interested party I'm not saying he's not interested in the case I'm not saying he's not knowledgeable but he's legally not an interested party
a legally interested party has to be copied on all pleadings has the right to stand up at the hearing has the right to set at Council tables he's twice tried to become an interested party and he just doesn't have the legal qualifications to do so based on the current law so I didn't want this court
to think that Mr Feld was what is essentially a party to the case and that you know whatever he's writing the court would need to consider so I was putting the judge on notice of that if you read Mr feld's letter other than it's you know characterizing his own
accomplishments he's asking the court for a pause and what he says is with all due respect and this is why he wants a pause this short pause will allow all interested parties to consider your honors prior non-urban renewal entity
njf long-term tax inment slat suit litigation history with the city of Orange Township RPM and myself and whether the appearance of impropriety requires your recusal in the third round Mount Laurel declaratory judgment action
this would be consistent with your recently action be property prerogative RIT he then goes on in another paragraph to talk about the be properties litigation and why he's right in that we have to object we have to object to this it's my obligation my fiduciary duty to
represent this Township one I mean I don't want to say anything that's GNA get me in trouble but I don't think we were very happy with the prior judge I think we're okay that we have a new judge I didn't want to see this judge to come out Off the Bench and have a bad taste about Milbourne and to
recuse and to recuse himself and secondly I object to what was said about Milbourne I object to what was said about bare properties and I object to the fact that he's stating he is an interested party in which he is not I don't think the township wants Mr Fel to be a party in this case um because this
committee is acting through Council um for their best interest um so that's why I opposed it and that's why I opposed it quickly so there was no confusion with the court as to Mr feld's role in the case um I'm happy to answer any other questions that were brought up so so
just to be just to be fair to everybody no one on this Township Council requested that you write that letter no but I think that this Township committee requests that I committee fight for the township member and do Us's right yeah to be fair I think we
have had consensus amongst the township committee with regards to how to deal with these type of incidents that have come up numerous times so I you know I don't think Mr caner needs to go to us every single time he needs to object to
something that Mr Feld submits to the court because you know that would be very timec consuming given the amount of things that get submitted to the court by Mr Philip so I I personally am okay with that thank you and and you know it doesn't there's larger decisions that we
go into close discussions for but there's other things that happen in court that forward the Township's objectives and a litigation some things need to be filed quicker than we could convene a public meeting in has I certainly will talk to Mr McDonald we talk to the mayor we talk to dep we talk
to M Thor M saki you know Mr Cosgrove I I will poll them independently and we've had many conversations offline I talked to and we've had many emails offline and we go through this stuff um but this was certainly something that the township had to react to um because we didn't want the judge to recuse himself upon
receipt of this letter thinking that Mr Fel was an interested party thank you the township committee will now consider consent agenda items okay um are there any comments
from the Committee in regard to any item listed on the consent agenda may I have a res may have a motion to approve resolution 25-61 25- 063 25-65 through
25- 069 which are listed on the consent agenda I have a second second roll call vote please Mayor Cohen yes Mr cro yes Mr sack Mandy yes Mr
Stoler mayor Romano yes thank you okay are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 25-64 yeah I think in light of the information that came up tonight we should pull this off the agenda we should look into these
um these claims uh to see if there's Merit and perhaps consider different Council uh if it turns out that there's you know an appearance of of bias uh for for you know one party or another uh given the nature of this um you know
this this engagement and what it would be for I just want to confirm you said this was to help answer your questions around the process you have not reached out to him as yet to do that is that correct well yeah we've reached out for the proposal and he also assisted the Township in the recall which is why we
contacted him again um I have obviously no knowledge of any online presence or any so but um him prior if we don't approve this are we are we on the hook for any money to pay him for services he's already provided
we did send him a couple questions um that are pending um but I think you can use up to 175 and we can certainly if the committee does not want to utilize them anymore obviously would but I think we should all confirm
and I mean Mr Dr kung's G be gracious enough to give us a copy of his report uh and do some homework on it I mean there's no reason to rush that through at all especially at the uh the gravity of the of the situation is there an impact to you
Christine if if this does stretch out a little longer than you expecting no I don't I don't see a big impact okay as long as everybody can be patient with us that are if anybody's waiting for responses to questions just patient until we find somebody else okay I'm
fine with that okay so so I guess I'm not do I have I'm not gonna have a a motion or a second I guess right yeah so just dies yeah there's no motion
okay okay okay are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 25-06 62 I I did um just I think I but I wanted to clarify for for you know the
citizens that this is the piece of property that the town bought from the paper bill um and there is not money being refunded from what I understand to to the paper bill it's just canceling the taxes going forward so I just wanted to make that
clear thank you okay correct the the taxes were already built on the property for 2020 so in order to cancel those now that we own it and do not pay taxes it had to be done by have to cancel our own our own yeah we're not GNA pay ourselves right okay so may I have a motion to
approve resolution 25- 062 motion may I have a second second roll call vote please Deputy Mayor Cohen yes Mr cro yes Mr Sandy yes Mr Stoler F mayor Romano yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to
resolution 25-7 z may right sorry I I do okay go ahead so um a question on this one this is um you know bids for the retaining wall and and it's a s similar question I had for
Mr McDonald um two weeks ago on the prior um bids that were going out but this retaining wall that we're sending out for bid is the responsibility of the paper mill into the leas to repair correct correct yes the the the leasee
does state that the the paper mill is responsible for the upkeep of the property however as I stated last time it does not prude the Township from um making such repairs this this particular retaining wall is the river wall um along along the West Branch of the rway
however this resolution is just to be in accordance with New Jersey municiple contract law I assume correct so it's just every that that ship itself on the other this is just a the process
of going out to bid is that correct correct okay just let let's not be confused though on this um this is something that the um the the tenant has the obligation to fix and pay for it um I'm concerned that as we continue to do
these things and voluntarily repair these things at our expense um that um the tenant down the road may turn around if someone wants to fight about the wording of the lease and say Hey listen you guys now have paid for two repairs
parking lots in this clearly I don't have the obligation with the this leas to do this it's a very valid point and depending on the longevity uh and the economic impact to our town I think it's something to be addressed on a holistic
approach not in a microcosm or in a um myopic view uh so yeah I agree may have a motion to approve resolution 25-70 motion may I have a second second roll call vote please Deputy Mayor Cohen yes Mr costro
no Mr sakandi no Mr Soler that would be an affirmative mayor Romano yes the resolution passed committee men second commend or schedule to sponsor ordinance 2697
d24 what point would we want to make potential Amendment or that impossible at this point what the amendment is I think it's to change that one word say support it doesn't say requ it just says support like encourage so so I
will say this the change is what again the change changes from look at my notes hold on one second just to change it to voluntary instead of similar so I will say the statement of purpose has no sub no substantial value
to the ordinance it's simply a um a narrative for the public who are reading it so I would not deem that to be a substantial change so if you want to make that change you could still adopt tonight so you can make a motion to amend and I would I would you would not need to reintroduce based on that it has
no it's not a substantial change to the ordinance great so I'd like to make that motion then to amend ordinance change that uh similar similar to voluntary that's only in the statement of purpose it's only in the statement of
purpose so you would need a second I'll second just just that word change it's not there's no uh again the statement of purpose isn't has no isn't has no legal binding effect it's it's it's it's
simply a narrative okay do we need so i s Dem I'm not saying that the word isn't important or not what I'm saying is it's not a substantial change to the ordinance which would require an introduction so it may have a lot of meaning to the people who wrote the ordinance but it doesn't have any legal meaning that would require a a a
reintroduction okay semantics you have a first and a second man um roll call please Deputy Mayor Cohen I don't see any TI be instructionist I'll V yes Mr crove yes Mr Sandy yes Mr
Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes I now present for consideration ordinance entitled ordinance number 26972 an ordinance to amend and supplement the general code Township of Milburn chapter 18 and subsection three
entitled I'm sorry and add subsection three entitled building native habitats and promote the use of native vegetation on Municipal property uh as many of you know uh the purpose of this I'm sorry um don't need to do that again do I all
right so uh you all know what it's for um tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open best just gonna leave some stuff maybe and you might just pass this around give
me a second on my time I really appreciate so I can give it to you I'm just hoping read read these articles about how bees love lots of nonnative I know I want you to also look at the Cornell Cooperative Extension from Monroe County it talks about the nectar
and the bees associated with non-native plants there's a Mis there's misconstruction with the term non-native versus native and really what this ordinance should be about is about invasive species not non-native there are tons of there's a need right now we
have all these trees dying okay and actually both um both Forest spoke to that um so I was surprised that they signed off on this um so and when I was talking about my property I was giving examples I'm very clear but take an inch and take another mile later on this is I
think being set up to control later on you know people's personal property that's my personal opinion so I want to talk about the Deciduous bushes and plants and native trees um we're right now experiencing Beach Leaf Disease Oak cancer blight Scorch Leaf gypsy moth and
Oak Wilt Emerald Dash boore I have to take down four trees this year okay and I'm not going to be replacing them with a native species sorry um verticulus Hemlock woolly I can't even pronounce this adid and thousand cankerous disease on black walnut right
now this ordinance pushes Our Town into investing in and recommending trees that would die more easily so let's say you give a cup of mill to like line the street with trees these are trees okay that people see in front of their homes okay so they do matter it's part of my visual space it's part of your visual
space so we don't want them to die so I don't think that it's bad to have a Japanese Cur tree anywhere in the town it actually does really really well in this environment and I really think that we should be looking and listing down the plants that should be banned and the plants that cannot be banned and I think
doing a little bit more research when you look at that Cornell edu list I mean that's coming from a science science basis that's not me just making up oh this is my random opinion so I feel very strongly about it and one of the things I'm going to have to skip around so
because um I wanted to talk about is excuse me tree Forester are not plant experts so this is about plants and forestation so I do think that you need to bring in another expert before making this decision probably the worst conflation promoted by misguided
conservationists is a tendency to misuse the term invasive it is incorrect to equate invasive spe species with non-native species what is what is an invasive species and how does that differ from non-native when used anecdotally the term invasive might be used to describe any type of plant that
exhibits excessive agressive growth so there are thousands of native and non-native plant species I mean there's stuff you can go through the reservation and you can see Japanese not not weed that is it massively invasive species it is it should be eradicated things like
that should be but daffodil okay which everybody joked about daffodils are considered non-native they provide no danger or detriment to the environment and they are like they are pollinators so I thank you so much I hesitate oh Rene paparan I
hesitate to address Christine because I feel so very strongly and I know she's going to come at me want you to know that I don't go on Facebook your comments please direct your comments I'm sorry I'm sorry she doesn't know what she's talking about if you look at the ordinance IT
addresses all of these things if you look at the trees what is a native tree the definition has been changed so that the Forester has the opportunity given climate change to use whatever tree she
deems to uh be satisfactory to the conditions up and down the Eastern Seaboard as far as native plants and supporting biodiversity you will see that the name of this ordinance is building native habitats if you want to
learn about building native habitats read Douglas talmy's books I don't know where Christine's getting her information from she she has her reasons she can say
whatever she wants however it doesn't make it true we have addressed the shade tree advisory committee um concerns the uh cor harer and or burum executive directors uh Tom Dodie the uh
supervisor of DPW we've worked very nicely with the Forester everyone agrees this is very good for the township and yes the idea is to act as a model for the residents and yes as far as promoting
and supporting that is is what we're trying to do we're trying to educate we are by no means Milbourne Township a leader in this by no means okay so the danger that is being introduced here is
I don't know where the heck it's coming from I know there are a lot of conspiracy theories going around this seems to be sliding into that I hope that you read what's in the ordinance it explains itself very clearly IT addresses everything very
clearly thank you very much for your consideration thank you Charles danar 28e resident thank you for making that one word change I think semantics are important in that respect I I know a large part of the commentary
that I've heard and read is a fear that the township is going to mandate what's done on private property and I know that's not the intent I me you stated that Renee um I shouldn't talk to you
directly Renee has stated that um but I think making the word voluntary putting the word voluntary makes it crystal clear that you're asking residents to follow the example of the town and it's up to them to volunteer to do that I I
think that semantics are important in that one case so thank you thank you hi Jean Pastor neck um I just want to say I know Renee I think pretty well and I know Christine pretty well I'm just all I can say is they're both really
passionate but they come from different backgrounds I don't think anybody's stupid or doesn't know what they're talking but I think they both do they just have different views right so the idea is how do we get those voices talking to each other so you come up with some kind of compromise um I I feel
like you've done a lot of Education in the community I've personally felt some uh a lot of Education from what Renee has done uh I also have felt the same from Christine in other ways so I just wish that we could somehow really be um
I don't know if it's bipartisan I don't know what this is exactly but there there's lots to be learned from both points of view and I just hope that you guys as leaders in this community can figure out how to get people talking to each other and not be feeling bad or going on Facebook to work it out stay
off of Facebook anyone else yes um telling the truth I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish the title by publish the ordinance by title as passed on
Final reading ordance with law may have a second second roll call vote please Deputy Mayor Cohen yes Mr costro yes Mr Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yesk you okay
old business um Mr Kanto do you want to provide an update board committee chair eligibility so um again I just want to re iterate that there's not an actual conflict of a party chair chairing a
committee or or there's no actual legal conflict of the current situation with the Democratic chairperson um serving as a chair of the Sid however I don't think that there would be a legal I think legally the
committee can uh pass an ordinance which would not allow uh party Municipal party chairpersons from serving as chairs of committees so if this if that's Direction the committee wants to go um we can certainly draft something up I think that there's it's a it's a
balancing test and I think that if that's the way the committee wants to go I I think that it would it would withhold any legal challenge just a question if we ultimately do go nonpartisan would that change you know any of the view here that that's what you have ask they would still want to have that
consideration if if if there was a nonpartisan election but you still you still have party chair you still have party chair I don't know what the answer would be I mean I'm saying that that change the idea of a conflict of interest if the is nonpartisan I so I I would think
that it would still be valid uh whether we're nonpartisan or not um you know I just don't think it's appropriate for a party chair and again This only affects two individuals in town and while those individuals may be different individuals
from year to year it only affects two individuals so I think it's um it's a it's not going to have a detrimental impact on residents and there's only upside which is that there won't be any appearance of impropriety
there won't be any impropriety of you know so is the consensus to move forward that on all of our boards committees commissions that the Democratic or Republican chair cannot serve as chair of these groups well I'm speci to
talking about the local Democratic party chair and the Sid chair you know fundamentally incompatible yeah this will take care of it across theard and that means that individual would have to no longer be chair or or resign from one of the chairs right right you know so do we
have a consensus to do that so we can just we can just develop one mechanism to cover all of the boards so that we don't have to do each one individually right right okay okay so we have a consensus we're good yes we're good okay
so that's done so Mr caner you'll prepare coordinates or I don't know if that's yeah someone will prepare the ordinance we will review it take it from there okay uh new business the special improvement district review um I don't know this new
committee I think I did the last meeting yeah so we had discussed um we discussed this uh a bit in the past um so I wanted to put our actual agenda item I think um and I said this last time I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water I think the Sid does important
things think it does valuable things but I think over the years um some opportunities for improvement have uh have been brought to our attention uh and so I think we ought to take a look
and and see where we can make improvements and I think one of the improvements that we can make would be now that we seen over the years that it seems that the downtown you know gets the Lion Share of the benefit from the Sid maybe it makes sense that the
businesses in the downtown district pay you know a little bit more in terms of Sid tax and the um businesses in the outer districts pay a little bit less now I think we can probably do some sort of um analysis of how money was spent in
the past uh to figure out you know what those percentages should look like yeah so do we have can I go first I started there's two things there's two things I'd want to do is understand the the benefit for
the Sid dollars by District but more importantly too the benefits will be directly seen in rents right if the rents downtown or you know on Main Street are significantly higher or percentag higher that will tell you exactly the kind of the benefit because
you're seeing real dollars so some type of attribution of what's happening in those different districts right the difficulty with going based purely on the rent is you may have commercial like commercial Office Buildings uh over on Morris Turnpike be retail spaces and the
conditions of the spaces are not necessar they may be substandard in one district and newly developed in another so the rents will be higher but I do think the first part of what you said makes sense if we can do some sort of look at you know attribution benefit would also say since we're looking at
this I learned since the last meeting I had always thought that the district east of downtown went all the way uh well now all the way down Milburn Avenue and I subsequently learned that that is not true so the shopping center where Trader Joe's is is not part of the C the
TR the shopping center where the Jay Garden or whatever I'm not sure that's they've changed their name a couple of times but that shopping center just passed um Annie says is not a part of the S so to me the whole point of this was what
yes not CBS so for in any event we can look at the map whatever to me there shouldn't be any big commercial area like where Trader do is if that is the only one um excluded we should look at bringing that
in albe it perhaps you know with a lower assessment because it's not part of the downtown but I think we should expand that to include all Commercial Business okay so the consensus is that we are going to move forward with a review yeah the other thing that I and I
brought this up in the past I think it would be beneficial if you know want probably two board seats on the Sid get directly elected by those that pay the Sid tax that way people will feel that they have representation I think they
are don't we business own no oh yeah so well that'll be part of the review yes okay okay so we will move forward okay two so um maybe two committee people to meet with Steve I'd
be willing to I would too I think it's pretty popular I think um is that something could we maybe have Steve come in close session and talk with us I think there's enough time I don't know if you can I don't think I don't think I don't think that's
a reason for close s well since um I think since committee M stolar and I both sat on it for a year yeah but what do you think I don't want to be Jaded by the amount of great work they're doing as well so you know I
would actually recuse myself as in here and let someone else sit have that discussion okay I'd be happy to to join okay the mayor it's up to you know I'd like to do it but
together okay so two of you guys goodove it okay U proposed zoning regulation subdivision yes um so in light of all the development that we've seen around the state
um in light of the fact that there's not a lot of land in town to develop um there's been some concerns that developers may start to acquire adjacent properties in single family residential zones and then Look
to You Know potentially build uh something other than a single family um residents there so what I'd like to do um is you know to the extent that we can legally uh an ordinance prohibit um the
merging of adjacent properties in single family neighborhoods into one you know larger lot and I think we probably need to consult Our Town Planner on this uh and we might need to consult with a land use
attorney perhaps I don't know um but wanted to see if we have some consensus uh this is something we should investigate because I think you know as each day goes by urgency of thises more and more as you see there's llc's all over town that are gobbling up
property and you know who knows what their intentions are and I think this will provide a lot of comfort to those that live in civil I agree with what you're saying but just just for clarification if it's a residential neighborhood multif family is probably excluded that doesn't mean conditional
uses uh other conditional uses would be allowed I still I do think this is where doing I'm just saying that we already have stuff on the books that would prevent that but I do in in theory however if we look at the last round uh
of MTH oral uh we did have to change zoning right in C we have to change zoning to allow it but and I don't know that even if we had an ordinance like this it would pre it would have prevented that I think it would help and it would potentially discourage right developers I AG I mean I'm happy I I
agree we should have it I'm just I I just don't want to oversell what could actually do I it's wor doing to I I agree as well from a consensus point but uh you know it's kind of a creeping tender right people joining together and looking to you know buy those lands up
so whatever we can do to to mitigate that now this this this is something I would have thought would have come from the usually these things come from the zoning code review so yeah I sat on that board and and they are and I'm about they have they have a huge backlog okay
and this is something that I think you know given that we're entering the fourth round is especially important and we don't you know we can we can send whatever we come up with to them for their review but maybe let's take this one off their plate because they've got a a laundry list of things they're try
fine I suggest we got an opinion from MCM on that they do L use you said L use attorney we already have can I just also because I think this question has come up before is and I know that at some level you know I
think it was mentioned in New York or you know and I don't know that St in New Jersey yet but I don't know if it's a local control that can be done is that in terms of the property and being purchased by an LLC and being you know sort of done in that way is that something
and again another question for MC perhaps is there an ability to have a local you know um against having that that's my concern yeah yeah okay so it's there's another question if it's something that can be done are two
different issues though is it possible to do an ordinance that prevents these properties being acquired anonymously under the guys of an LLC yeah I think that's as well as and then if if it isn't you know as also being combined or even even if it's a person who has Doney
still could be combining them not necessarily I didn't put it on the agenda but then in that same thing the other side that I've wanted to bring up but I was waiting for the zone you we haven't met yet so you know the new thing I also think we should be addressing um
accessory dwelling units as a town and looking while the state may be mandating them I think we should get out in front of that and have an ORS on the books about that well yeah I think that makes a lot of sense um even if the state were
to enact a law that overrode our local ordinance I imagine that law at the state level is going to get challenged in court and if that prevailed then the law we have in our books would would still be there so it's probably a good thing to so so we're g to accelerate
that topic was zoning regulations I think these are all gerain let's have those all looked into okay package deal okay okay uh public comment this public comment is to allow for final comments from the community when when invited to
speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full addressing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public our reminder that in order to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall
limit their comments to one three minute session um Jeffrey Phil po section I guess I am the anti christ or devil based on the attacks this um we just heard this evening um first I think we need to clarify it's my understanding
that the case management conference in the round three is March 11th and that's what the notice that I have from February 14th I don't know if it's changed you said February 27 um Court notice that I receiv received was was March 11th I stand by
my definition of interested party in a declaratory judgment action I stand by the order and the notice that was entered especially one of the notices that was drafted by Mr canther defining broadly what an interested party is um I also stand by the definition of
interested party under the M luse law um we did not receive an answer why the change in the bill list the format and as to to theid in direct um benefit special assessments um the conversation we had
was like 105 15 minutes and at a result of that conversation was agreed that we contact the County Tax Board we contact Joan uh Cody Durkin she responded about like a day later saying that when you have a special assessment if you're
going to challenge the special assessment that's the rate and this and the direct benefit that you receive you don't go to the tax court you don't go to the County Board you had to file a prerogative writ within 30 days that was the issue and that issue I think we clarified that we've been explaining
that for more than five years direct benefit and also I provided you a case that came from the state supreme court about a special assessment that was Improvement to a dam and in that case they had got a report and that's what's missing
here and also today the Gothamist put out another spin piece and I hope that we respond when are we going to say that we did do stuff for affordable housing what do you call the uptin when you look at the agreement
fair share housing center agreed we got credit for it how can we always be standing here when we're taking it we have to fight we're in a war for the survival of this community and of its character I'm not the enemy I'm trying
to help I hold the keys to stopping the dump project you all should look at the Appel brief that that you filed look at the footnote the right to speak is a fundamental right and that was denied to
Citizens thank you hi Perry uro up milour Avenue I was compelled to come here tonight I'm actually I'm floored about the treatment that um some people in the public including myself were treated this evening if you go back to the uh I encourage you all to go to the February
3rd hearing um um and or February 4th when we were talking about the Sid assessment role and you all approved um and the conversation between kitum installer and our business administrator back and forth I am unclear if you want me to tell you how
to make Penny Voda I'll tell you how to make it you want to tell me how to appeal my sit taxes that's what I came up here to do I was instructed to go to the um tax assessor's office if you're telling me that I cannot speak to any Township um department heads at any time
I go to uh each department for certain things I'm not going to go to the tax collector's office because I have a plumbing issue I'm not going to go to the building department because I have a tax obviously if I'm in the tax department I was seeking um Direction um the direction that we were
giving I'm going down a rabbit hole and now I'm actually in a rat Maze and I I remember doing this in another town many many moons ago I'm simply asking what's the correct process I said I had two attorneys up here I asked you Mr caner why don't you should be clear and let us know exactly what has to be done so then
I have a department head in your tax department saying that he's been instructed by an executive director that's an outside consultant for your Sid board so then we go to your um tax assessor office I don't believe
that I asked over and over what's the tax appeal process now I know initially there was someone in the back room that was overseeing and hearing this conversation so I would like to know who that is I think I have a right to know if I had a meeting with somebody I want
to know who was overseeing that meeting um we were instructed to go to Essex County I went back and I did um in fact write an email to miss durken she was kind enough to get back to me and I just like to take a brief moment to read you
that email so it's clear that this is how what we were instructed what to do and actually she said that that's not the right process I don't use Essex County so I'm told here to go to the tax assessor this tax assessor goes tells me to go to the county and then the county
bounces me back so someone would be clear enough to tell me what the actual process is I'd appreciate it and as far as assessment role if did I get it correct Mr uh Deputy Mayor Cohen that Trader Joe's is not in the sit assessment role that's correct okay and you approved the C assessment role on
February 4th correct yes just so you know they pay 177,000 uh 4 $64,000 64 into the assessment role just so you know and you approved it on February 4th that's the problem here thank you thank
you anyone online anyone else yeah real quick u i I'd like to know how come we had cake for uh Alex McDonald's birthday we didn't have any for for May Romano I
want to know where our cake is Al is but I want to commend you I thank you for the explanation uh attorney caner um and thank you for all pulling together and saying you support him so I'm I'm a
little clearer on my my question I had I got a good explanation and I have to applaud you there was no partisanship in what you did tonight I have to applaud you you really worked as a team and you
came up with some some great solutions for the town so so thank you I I I applaud the performance tonight with spectacular thanks thank you and then I do want to wish you like from the bottom of my heart happy birthday and I'm gonna get you a kick so
you can tell me like really thank you um I wanted to um thank um Mr Cohen and Frank so much for looking about at the LLC implications it gives it makes me sleep at night I I can't even tell you
um so thank you I think this town is beautiful and I don't want to see be over that's all it is and I'm very passionate about it and I really really thank you about that and I had a suggestion I'm not a legal person so just just throwing this idea out um you
know a lot of the properties in town through some of the historic associations the Short Hills Park Association which I think was established in like 1898 um that had many many properties um do you have deed restrictions that are very clearly indicate residential only um regardless
of whether it's in a res I mean it is in a residential district and I'm wondering maybe there's a possibility that areas like let's T let's just take the poet section right becomes you create deed restrictions and you know that people can only build single family homes or you take Fairfield State sections or The
Farley section or whatever you want to say I don't know if that's legally possible it's just a random idea I had so just throwing it out there um I did want to just come back I was I want to talk because people always look at me about the Facebook posts so part of the
reason why um I was very disturbed on this particular issue with um with the na native plants is there wasn't a lot of public forum sessions all the landscapers that I know and talk to were not not invited it's a it's a big change
environmentally and I was actually on a public information session online that was a half hour long and um they selected um Bill brazelle selected and I'm not trying to call him out his the people that he wanted to speak and so the other people that were online on um
on the web webinar were not allowed to speak we were just allowed to submit questions and none of my questions got answered so it was kind of it it felt as like a propaganda piece to me and so part of the reason why I go on Facebook is I want other residents to have
informed consent and generally I speak and I just give my opinion and I do get attacked an awful lot particularly about you know one65 Ultra Hills Road again it's being developed in a residential area and that's all it is for me it's a land use issue and I do get attacked a
lot and her calling me you know a conspiracy theorist is really a very derogatory term and it it basically implicates and tells people that I'm stupid and crazy and so that's the reason why you know I go out there and I would prefer not to um I'm just trying to give people informed consent and
thank you again thank you hi um Jean past I just wanted to read uh Diane actually didn't talk about a list she just said that in her letter um she said that until recent local events oh sorry wait where is it okay oh
I first noted a problem with Party politics when I was expected to hire firms that were promoted by the County Democratic party to perform Township work so I'd like to just ask the question of each one of you have you ever been in any
conversation whether it's verbal email text in person I don't care what kind of conversation with any member of the Essex County uh officials elected officials um people that work for Essex County in
that capacity of elected officials the clerk's office uh anybody has contacted you and asked you to hire somebody for this Township yes or no okay um I can't believe that someone like Diane who worked her ass off for
six years for this town even though I disagree with her on a lot of things would make that up and put it in writing and put it out to the public so I'm sorry I don't like that you guys did what you did okay she is not lying there's something here and I think
people need to acknowledge that okay so that is the basis for the movement to go to nonpartisan elections this kind of crap so people are fed up with it they're tired of it they're sick of all this conflicted garbage that I went through tonight you know uh Jackie
sitting as both the Democratic chair and the head of the S uh gillo sending emails out to the businesses telling them not to put signs up that that he claims that Alex which you didn't address tonight Alex told him to do okay you should address it I mean otherwise we're sitting there wondering did you or
didn't you just tell us you know and then there's all of uh you know ties to the Democratic party lawyers being hired that are very tied to the Democratic party I he own to well was put on the agenda to be hired okay luckily Frank
and then spoke up about it okay with the help of a member of the public who did his research okay um and then there's also the the the the all the retaliatory stuff you know there's just too much like you got to acknowledge this stuff we're tired of it we don't want it
anymore stop thank you I'll be very quick Richard cyber so the Sid discussion always comes up how far down Milbourne Avenue does the Sid go towards foxall Road does it go all the way to
boxall Road B2 District that's the B2 is the Anthony Lawrence jewelry store part of the S no it's not in the B District they're not in so it stops before there anything in the B2 B3 or B4
District okay all right that's all I want thank you so that's the answer for sure yes J Morel resident uh Happy Birthday mayor Romano um I applaud uh this board on
doing a holistic statement in terms of who uh can be on uh leads on committee boards I think it's great to have one rule for everybody I do have a question though um for Council uh if he can take
a break from texting there for a moment uh in terms of the the TC's ability to Bar people from being in certain positions um we've just made a statement that we're going to BU party leads could
that be extended legally to other people in the community be they political party members could they be registered voters I'm a little concerned not with the specifics in this
case I actually think it's good thing but I want to know legally where the line can be drawn on when you can bar people from holding positions appointed positions thank you thank you okay we're got to close public
comment keep on looking at that $75,000 check it's very nice uh uh how do we get more of those I mean uh 75,000 is nice but newbourne puts a lot of money in TAS County uh how about going after some
more money how do we get some committees to go after it and and do something about that is there a possibility of doing that for certain projects improve uh walkways or sidewalks or allowing
people to cross the street more safely audible things like that uh someone knows Joe Joe D say we can use another 75,000 what the heck happy say happy birthday to our mayor give her you know
25 to start that's all something simple thank you very much I'm a resident for 32 years I don't own need property but I pay a lot of taxes thank you okay we're gonna close public comment any final comments I have go
ahead so first of all Miss best thank you for your comments um and as far as your you know your land use that is the point it's supposed to be in a residential neighborhood that's all you're supposed to have I think the issue that we are addressing as you all know is conditional uses and I'm not
sure that you know that's you know that's that um Mr Pastor KN I will say you know maybe what Miss Eglo said happened she hasn't been on that she hasn't been on the township committee for a couple of years maybe that happen in the past if she says so I have no way
to know one way or another I you know perhaps it did I can tell you categorically I have not I that has not happened with me m uro if I made an error I was and I was given mistaken information I had asked a question of someone and that was what I was told I
didn't check it if I made a mistake I will look at it certainly now that uh Mr sakam Andi and I will be looking at this it as a whole I will have the opportunity to do that any uh uh sure uh
Mr Carling you're in luckus Orlando crw I believe our Essex County uh uh liaison is on the uh on the thing tonight so hopefully he could kamacho sorry chis is I was looking at Leah uh can help us out
uh you know he's been attending these meetings and you know he understands how much in taxes we pay as a community to Essex County uh for very little in return but I always encourage uh our TC members as well as uh Mr kamacho to make
those requests and keep us in the ear of U Essex County officials um Jean uh to the letter I read it verbatim I first noted a problem with Party politics when I was expected to
hire firms that were promoted by the County Democratic party to perform Township work I didn't Veer off of that at all that was the actual statement from the letter I have right in front of me I was forced to choose between obedience to the party and maintain maintaining my integrity and commitment to serving the residents so that's
exactly the the quote I read so I don't want it to be misconstrued as some ominous list that I don't have etc etc uh just want to make that perfectly clear uh and to answer your question I haven't seen a list um
uh real so I'm I'm just so confused because on this whole uh Miss erso and how to file a pill I mean I've specifically asked the question multiple times for straight answers on how she could file her appeal we were told to go
it was a can be considered a tax appeal she should walk down to the tax assessor and do and file her appeal Etc so why she's getting to beat up run around Rat Race whatever I just want to make sure we're all all in the same page there and understand that she has a
concise straight method on how to how to approach that um I thought we were as concise as we possibly could be I've asked a question like three or four times now um and then um uh Christine uh don't get beat up on
Facebook Facebook's the biggest troll Suess I got the hell beat out of me in the last two weeks so please you know just just let it let it roll off you there's so much more in this world you know it it's sucessful thank
you um so uh Mr McDonald could we maybe get an answer to um Mr feld's question as to why the bill list format has changed um secondly Mr Feld we are aware of the Gothamist
piece stay tuned we're aware of the Gothamist piece that you brought up and our town has actually been fighting back we've been putting out um press releases of our own uh you know with with facts and data about the
fourth round process that's been going out not only in our tap but the tap of other local municipalities like ours so um we are absolutely using um the formats and mediums that are available to us to try and get this information
out there you know unfortunately you know there's no local newspapers anymore uh you know we don't even have a state news newpaper anymore right um so it's a little bit difficult for us to get information out and we're trying to do that as as best we can um with the tools
that are available to us um Miss best again so the native plants and I'm gonna say it again so so you're clear that resolution that ordinance does not apply to individual homeowners so you can plant whatever you like you
can listen to the advice of your landscaper you can have your landscaper plant whatever they like in your yard it is not affected in any way shape or form by the ordinance and so therefore I I think a lot of the stuff that you brought up isn't necessarily the
concerns at least aren't necessarily relevant because they do not apply to the individual residents and the town the people in the town that are supposed to oversee the planting of the trees and the selection of the trees the DPW and the Forester they signed off on this
plan so they have no objection so I I'm hoping now that it's passed that that will be the end of the concerns any lawful plans any lawful plans yes yes lawful PL yes um and Mr Carlin yes um of course we
would love for the county to return some of our taxpayer dollars to US um it seems that you know Essex County seems to have the approach of you know ask not what your county can do for you but what you can do for your county um and that seems to certainly apply here so um if
anyone from the county is listening uh I think it's time that Milburn get a little bit more love um I have noticed that those giant checks seem to come out in towns where a particular party is perhaps facing an election that might be contentious um someone pointed this out
to me and I'm sure a list of those towns and accompanying data and evidence can be furnished but uh you know maybe if uh you have a contentious election then your ten will get more money so we'll we'll see what happens this time around what you're when don't
we have a contentious election so we should just just not ask any last year last year wasn't too contentious I have nothing to add that I haven't already said in the past um as far as uh the partisan nonpartisan we've already uh voted to move forward with
the charter commission study I don't think we need to beat this to death every meeting um and again if anyone wants to talk to me about the campaign or or anything else pertaining to politics you can reach me
during well non non meeting nights I don't know Mr McDonald you want to add anything um yes just in terms of the Native ordinance native plant ordinance as well um I think we're excited that we're going to get our potentially our first
test with that ordinance on Municipal property as it relates to the Taylor Taylor Parkway uh Taylor Park Gateway project in addition I can just you know from from the perspective of the operation and the enforcement of what it would mean to enforce an ordinance in
which people are no longer allowed to plant whatever they want um I can just say it's it would be it would be a a quite an undertaking to enforce such an ordinance but um
the I'm going to explain it again as it relates to the Sid and appealing taxes because when someone says as was stated I want to appeal my Sid tax when you say appeal your Sid tax that that's not the
same as saying I don't think I should pay a tax for the Sid that is a completely different statement so when you say I I want to appeal my sit tax the the answer to that question is you appeal your assessment which impacts the
level at which you pay your Sid tax just like it is on property so if somebody a homeowner comes to me and says I want to appeal my taxes on my house you say y here's the process you're going to appeal your assessment so that therefore that will determine the value of your
how much you're paying in taxes based on your assessment same thing applies here you're going to appeal your commercial assessment which would impact not only your property taxes but also the level at which you're paying the S assessment we've come to know that that
was not necessarily the question the question was I don't feel like I should be paying a said tax at all I never said that then I'm confu still confused because in the end if you and and I think the the statement from Mr phel was
then yes this belongs to Superior Court as a as a as an action which is correct if you don't feel like you should be paying the tax then it is a prerogative writ suit or lawsuit or litigation so so that that is the issue
here is it's it's if if I'm mistaken in what is being asked then I'd love to have that conversation because as I understand it if you want to appeal your taxes you're going to appeal your assessment to impact the level at which you're paying taxes whether on your property or the
city so can I get a point of clarifications isn't it is it the case is my understanding that it's a fixed percentage based on your assessment there's a fixed percentage if you're a commercial property owner in those zones it's a fixed percentage based on your
assessment and that's what you pay so if you don't want to pay that you can't change the fixed assessment the only variable you can change is the uh the value the value of your property correct or you can find ways under the ordinance that are Exempted for instance if you
have a residential and commercial property you would only be paying 50% so you can so you pay 50% based on you have your second floor is residential your first floor is c commercial you pay 50% by of that assessment so um I think
that's the confusion and I think that the the the word lawsuit was brought up when it was when it was brought to town hall so I think that is also part of the conf so that's why the answer is just thank that makes sense
okay so I guess then the question is since miss the Mrs Co Mrs derkin um responded that way somebody because I think it was I think I actually misunderstood them what was being asked of her no we CL I just want to say that it's in
Jason yes I've seen it seen it but I think also the issue here is not that Miss erso came in and asked these questions not at all not at all I think the issue is is that Mr Feld who is an attorney and also an attorney litigating the township on this very subject was
there as well that's that's the issue not miss erso not miss erso coming and having this conversation uh by no means and I've had many conversations with Miss erso and and uh actually quite like dealing with Miss uro but the but the issue here was that that um that Mr Fel
as an attorney on that litigation in that in that in that correspondence between Mrs erso and Mrs Durkin if if the question was I'd like to appeal my my property value not CI
not I wanted to appeal my CI because she has nothing to do with the sit assessment but what she does have something to do with is the value of the property so if that was the question that was asked I maybe it was but it would seem to me if that was the question that was asked she would have realized that this is her her value yeah
I think it's I think it's an issue with the vernacular and how it's used when somebody says I want to appeal my taxes you're not actually appealing that you're being taxed you're appealing that assessment on the value of the property correct so that's that's that um just to
address the thing uh with regard to signage so we get a lot of complaints about enforcement right it's come up at these meetings um as I recall that particular instance and and I just like to also make it clear that I've been in
this position since 2016 when there were Billboards on buildings political signage on buildings and we do nothing about it there it is you're absolutely right that is political Free Speech you do not touch it there have been signage on buildings
on upper mbour Avenue there have been signage on you know uh the courtyard there have been signs everywhere um so to to be clear prior to I don't know the exact date when that email was issued but yes I had a conversation with Joe
toia Joe toia our uh code enforcement officer and I said to Joe Hey Joe starting to get a little bit out of whack grand opening signs being up for 30 days you know all sorts of different signage violations I said I want you to go out and enforce signage but I said to
Steve give the property owners a heads up that we're coming because I think that's fair and I think that's all also something that people appreciate is that hey you know look the town's going to come around they're going to start looking at signage you know make sure that you're in compliance whether it's you know you're not allowed to cover
more than 25% of your window whether you're not allowed to have signs that appear to be in motion there's quite a few of those we actually just got one down on uh on Main Street uh in which was scrolling across the right there was no I believe there was no mention of
political science because it's not a question it's not even a question nobody's nobody's looking at nobody's going out I had nobody had any idea that that there were even political signs going up I had no knowledge that people in the business districts were putting up Ben and Frank signs or whoever was
running against you at that time means nothing to me matters nothing I I think I think M P's point is and let's be specific here is your discussion with Gorilla was six months ahead of time three months ahead of time two years it
was it was not that 30 30 30 hours before no it was it I think she's trying to get it's the whole appearance of impropriety I mean we will be able to apply appearance to everything that's why trying to get it all out in the open yeah and it was a few days prior it was a few it was a few
I think it was like a week or so prior because again I had told Joe you know like hey let's let let me let Steve give the heads up so they know that we're gonna come and we're g to do that because you know some of it's just a switch on a on a sign some of it's you know oh I'll take down that grand
opening sign I've had up for 60 days whatever right that's that's is whether whether people thought that like that I can't speak to right and and so then it's like all right well you know don't don't do those things during from from
September to November when was the election that year November 4th November 5th right so yeah so people are putting up signs two days prior to the election right like I like again you can you can apply appearance to anything but that is what happened I spoke I spoke to Joe
toia I said we need to go out and enforce I said to Steve please let the businesses know there was an email in that you emailed Steve that no I I had that conversation I'm telling you I had that okay I know yeah because yeah listen whenever I I think I have an
email with Joe if if you want to open her that or I can provide that yeah I think I have an email with Joe that stated like you know wait for Steve it'll help put I don't I don't know that it will but but um but sure conc so well that's the thing I just
want it to be put to rest it's not here's here's my thing it's not going to get put right it's here there's always going to be this appearance of oh believe me the the force is strong I mean I was out there with business owner he got out of this he grabbed a ladder he's banging our sign up on his thing I
mean literally eight feet off the ground so nobody could rip it down and he calls me the next day and says you know what's up with this with this uh with this email and I and I say you know don't it's not political but we did have people who actually told us to come get the signs versus this gentleman who was
fantastic and said you know stick by us they you know they could have always called and said hey do you mean political s said absolutely not go back five years and look at the billboard that's on top of uh the blue Mercury building all we told them was hey make sure it's you know sandbagged down or
drilled into the the roof so that that it's a safe structure right matters not means nothing to me right um anything well format oh yeah so so we don't have to hear about it again
next time yeah I mean look I mean I would say if it was if it was two times in a row i' would say that's probably a change but you know it happened once I don't think that it's meant to be a change like let's uh like I appreciate you bringing it to our attention we'll make sure that it's right as rain the next meeting I don't think that was the
intent you know we've been doing it for how many years now I don't think there was any intent to all of a sudden start uh not providing any detail to the to the bills list so may have hit the wrong check box when they somebody out of the office unexpectedly yeah not guess we go into detail but somebody had an
emergency was out so I think somebody was covering and did a differ yeah yeah yeah anybody can get any of these anytime we'll make it right as rain the next Mee motion toj motion to adjourn no comments from Mr pter
Mr do you I uh so as Mr F's comment out the March 11th date there's competing Court notices like my my office reached out to the court today see which date is right um I just want to say I think Mr McDonald did an excellent job explaining
the the assessment appeal process uh if you're challenging whether or not you have to pay any Sid money Mr Feld is dealing with that and what you're doal with that in your prerogative rate action find the Sid and any payments are invalid if you're suggesting that the amount you're paying is improper then
you have to you have to file an appeal of your property assessment I'm looking online there's an easy to follow guide on how to do that Mr Feld is a license attorney I'm sure he knows how to file a tax appeal um but is you do file tax bills with the county board or Superior Court based depending on the value of your
property happy birthday good night thank you Happ