Don't scared. That's what she does. Okay, stop by Diet Coke. >> Let me All right. going to begin. In accordance with the open public meeting act and state law, be advised that a notice of this meeting
was made by posting on the bulletin boarded town hall and forwarding of the officially designated newspapers. This meeting will take place at the Mill Education Center at 7 p.m. on April 7th, 2026. Meeting details and draft agenda were also posted on our township
website. Please all stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible and justice for all. >> Roll call please.
>> Mr. Coin >> here >> Mr. Mayor Saki >> here. May I have a motion to the agenda? >> I move. >> I have a second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed?
>> Okay. May I have a motion to approve the March 3rd, 2026 Township Committee regular meeting minutes? >> May I have a second? >> All those in favor? >> I Okay. I have a motion to approve March
3rd, 2026 special township committee meeting regular minutes. >> Regular meeting minutes. motion. >> I have a second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> All right. Reports. Uh, I'll start off. The environmental uh EC first. The
environmental commission has partnered with Great Swamp Watershed Association for their plant for pollinators program. A wide variety of native species native species plants are available for purchase online through their 2026 native plant catalog. The sale will run
through April 21st, but don't wait to make your purchase because some popular plants may sell out early. This is an easy way to start or add to your pollinator garden and to help restore and support native habitats. Plant pickup will take place on Saturday, May
2nd from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the building in Jerro Park adjacent to the parking lot on the White Oak Bridge Road in Short Hills. Please bring boxes to put your plants in for the ride home. You can find the native plant program at great swamp.org. Click on the green
native plant button on the top of the page or visit the environmental commission's page on the found website. Additionally, I wanted to address something from our last meeting. Comment was made uh about where the environmental commission was during the round three affordable uh housing
settlement. Um I just want to set the record straight. None of the current EC members were serving on the commission during that time and several of them actively opposed the overdevelopment in their capacity as private citizens. I think it's important the current commission members not be tagged with
that history. Planning board. The planning board met uh and approved an application for a new exterior entrance for restoration hardware at the Short Hills by Stler. Over to you. >> Thank you. Recreation Committee
Recreation Committee Taylor Park pathway lights project is now completed. Uh lights go on every day at uh around dusk and go off at 10 p.m. when the park closes. So if you guys want to walk by and check that out. Full resurfacing and the ADA ramp projects moving along.
They're on schedule to be completed by that May 1 date, which is what we set. Uh and also a reminder to everyone if you want to register for the pool membership before May 1st to get your free guest pass. Uh special improvement district uh spring is here. The explore team reminds shoppers to use the parking
deck for one hour of free parking. So it's open for one hour free parking out uh to free up the street spaces. Uh business owners should, you know, really tell their tell their customers about this free parking and save a few a few few dollars. uh mulching of tree pits
and spring uh planting around town is uh will happen on April 23rd. Uh and the street cleaning and weeding program will begin on May uh May 10th. Finance committee where are introducing the budget tonight. We'll get into that later. Um BOE I went through an
extensive list of of things last time. Um and really pretty much open space tax fund advisory committee. uh had a meeting on Monday night. Uh it's going to be up. The minutes will be up uh and such. Nothing really there. Affordable
housing all defer to council. That's it. >> Committeeman Cohen. >> I don't have anything. >> Deputy Mayor Costco. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I'll give a little more on open space. Um the open space there were four
applications on that were discussed. uh and the applications as to apply for are going to be posted on the open space website so people can actually see those um and I would encourage folks if you have an open space project to to look at
that website fill out the form um for one you know that's near and dear to you next was HPC historic preservation they have a meeting this Thursday they've got three applications on um arboritum um the course arboritum um they're
looking right now at fixing up the entry steps, the sidewalk, and part of the stone wall out. So, that's the latest. Thank you. >> Good evening, STO. >> Good evening. I want to just wished Bueno Pasqua, happy Easter and hugs to those celebrating in the community. Hope
you had a wonderful weekend. Um, I did. And, um, wanted to just just report on a number of things going on. Um, in particular, reminder that Friday, April 24th is Arbor Day. Lots of things going on with Geometry Advisory Board. I'm wearing blue tonight, not just because
I'm a proud Milburn Miller, but because April is uh World Autism Awareness Month. Uh many of you know I have uh uh autism uh living within my home. Um so uh touches uh my family in particular.
Um flood mitigation advisory committee. So, Mayor Sackamand and I uh met and uh I don't want to steal your report, but um we met with the with various towns on the uh railway uh river coalition, mayor's railway river coalition and flood mitigation is meeting tomorrow. Pedestrian safety advisory committee met
this morning. Uh we're talking about a number of big projects in particular uh the intersection of Whittingham Terrace and that crosswalk. Um, as well as as you'll see on the agenda tonight, uh, loading zones, uh, restrictions, um, and, uh, being conscious all around
town, especially, um, as it's getting warmer around, people are out on the streets, uh, excuse me, should be on the sidewalks, but if you're on a bike, on the streets, um, and being really conscious, especially um, by the school. So, one line from this morning was make
eye contact before crossing. So that means both parties, the person driving or the person on on, you know, a vehicle or or a bicycle of some sort and the person crossing. Make eye contact before crossing, right? Um holiday lighting committee met on Friday. Um lots of
great stuff going on with that. We're going to have a temporary um basically example polls and example decorations put together for our committee to take a look at um and finalize and kind of actualize them in person. Mr. McDonald and I walked to downtown with Jersey
Central Power and Light. Uh we're looking to remove a number of telephone polls. We actually have some commitments that um we're going to have some uh some motion on that. We're going to be meeting with the Department of Transportation um in a week change um to talk about group 24. Keep an eye on
noburn250.org for information about future events and ways to get involved with the 250th celebration. Um, I also want to report that um the mayor and I met with the forester and engineer to talk about different ways to protect our
trees in town and there'll be ordinances forthcoming um in addition to storm water management. And I just want to make sort of an announcement that I'm looking to create um uh uh and looking for interest uh for a arts council. So
there's been uh several different um people who have been interested in art through the year. I see people in the audience who've been involved whether it's the creative collective art advisory committee uh CEDA um beyond beyond beyond right and I think we need a centralized explore Milberg we need a
centralized way of looking at and the process of uh putting together and putting forth artwork. So I'm really I'm looking for interest. I ask the community to email me or email Mr. McDonald um you know and and see if we can get something together. I think we need to be focused and classy and uh
diligent and so and creative. So that's the end of my report. >> You like that on your business for the next meeting? >> I would. I would. >> Thank you. >> Business administrator McDonald. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just a uh a few
piggybacks on on the committee members reports. uh the Milbourne Avenue uh improvements uh that we will be doing temporarily to begin with. Uh after the consent agenda items uh that approve some some things for Essex County, we'll
be putting in angled spaces as well as a uh a temporary u u shortening of the crosswalk at Bingham. um over the next few days. Uh DPW and the police department will be involved in that uh which will uh again be
temporary as we sort of look and and identify uh you know how all that works there. Um the goal being that hopefully this becomes a permanent installation. Uh but that will be our first step in that. Um just a reminder that the public information session on April uh 13th at
the library for the eastbound train station uh pedestrian safety improvements as well. uh that begins at 6:30 in the auditorium at the library. Um the 250 events, there's a lot of exciting stuff happening, so please check out the website 250.org. Um you
know, Milbour has a lot of uh great energy and uh things going on uh with that. in particular uh the Arbor Day celebration where we're going to be planting 13 trees in Flet Park in representation of the 13 colonies as
well as an exciting um um May event uh in partnership with Paper Mo Playhouse. Um so just uh want people to keep an eye on that on that website. A lot of lecture series, different things going on. And lastly, the Memorial Day parade
um is um on tap for Monday, May 25th at 11 am as it usually is. And uh so those that are interested in participating uh the form is located on the township's website uh for for participants along with the rules for the parade um displayed on the township's website. So
if you're interested in your or your organization is interested, please fill that out uh so that we can uh we can get we can get people participating. That's all I have. Thank you. Journey Caner. >> Thank you, Mayor. No report tonight.
>> All right, moving on to public comment. When invited to speak, offer your comments. Please come to the lect term. Clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident and or property or business owners. Please do not provide your full address seeing as our meetings are recorded and readily
available to the public. Help facilitate recordedly meeting and permit all to be heard. Speakers shall limit their comments to one three-minute session. will be prompted when there is 30 seconds remaining. Reminder, this is not a time for dialogue or debate matter. This is a time during a business meeting
the public to offer comments. Now open the public comment period. >> Hi, I'm Trina Franle's resident. Um, first I want to alert everyone to few services that help caregivers of dementia patients.
on the bottom. >> Thank you. >> Um, so first I want to alert everyone to two services that help caregivers of dementia patients. There is a memory cafe on April 18th from 10:30 to 12:30
and monthly at the Maplewood Library. It is sponsored by the Satan Hall neurosciences group. They have various tables with activities for patients and their caregivers. Students from Satan Hall are there and of course there's some snacks. There is also a respit care
through the aging and disability resource center at 877222 3737. Being a caregiver is tough and these are small ways of getting some help. Then I want to thank our first aid squad for
offering a wonderful session on basic first aid. The first aid squad is made up solely of volunteers and is funded completely by donations. We are fortunate to have them here in Melbourne short hills. Please honor their work by contributing to their fundraising. I
would also like to commend our board of health on their programs including one on how to prevent stroke. Volunteers are the soul of the community. They are not looking for a title or a photo op. The work they do is motivated by the desire
to give back to a town they love and to make it better for everyone of every political, racial, and religious persuasion. They should be free to choose their own leaders and committee structure. To target a volunteer because of technical issues, to sully someone's
reputation with innuendos will force everyone to think twice before they take on such responsibilities. To exclude representatives of the arts community from this new committee that you're planning is a mistake. I would especially request that Jamie Hawkins,
our senior citizens activities director, stay on the arts committee so she can help our seniors access this important research. This new ordinance doing away with CEDA and and replacing it with whatever makes
our whole town poorer. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Pastor Aisha Marble. I am um the current pastor at Mount Zion Church that has been here since 1881 uh and built in 1902 by the residents of
Milbour. So, I wanted to just say thank you tonight uh to the mayor and to the entire team who has been supporting um the leadership of trying to get that space um uh connected with the historic
preservation commission. Uh I worked with Allison Canfield this past week and that connection will be instrumental in us doing some great work in the future, most importantly telling a great history. Uh it really meant that
Melbourne loved a deep rooted group of people in 1881. So much so that they built an edifice for them in 1902. And so that building is still there today and we are doing great work. Uh I want to thank those who heard about Jesus and
Jazz the last time I was here and they attended. So thank you and I invite everyone else to come again. Fourth Sundays, you're always welcome. and to those who came out to our Easter egg hunt this past week thanks to the parks and recreation. We tried to do it in Taylor Park but we got rained out and
they all came into Mount Zion. So please know that Mikasa is your kasa >> literally. So we welcome you to come to Mount Zion anytime for Jesus jazz or some eggs. Take care.
Hello, my name is Renee Paparian. I'm a resident. I'm also a member of the environmental commission, although I'm speaking for myself tonight, not for the environmental commission. And I'm responding to statements made by Committeeman Stler at the March 17th TC
meeting. Ben, you made a number of disparaging assertions about the environmental commission, which I feel compelled to correct. Contrary to what you said, the EC never changed its position regarding use of gas leaf blowers. Members have
always held the same position that supports the seasonal restriction ordinance, which also applies to fields. You said when making difficult decisions, you get all the information, all the input. That's not true. Neither
the TC nor the park and wreck has ever asked the EC for any input on the field project or on the Taylor Park playground project. And because of that, the EC was unable to do its job and the town did not get the benefit of being provided with all of the information that you
stated you always get prior to making difficult decisions. Your statement about the EC creating environmental roadblocks to impede the field project is consistent with your failure to request that the EC evaluate
and offer a recommendation on these projects. And thank you for your addressing this uh Frank, but I still want to go over again that uh Ben, your rhetorical question, where was the EC during the 2021 affordable housing settlement
agreement selection of project locations? That was entirely disingenuous. And you you knew that because um none of the current EC members were on the EC and you have sat on the ATC for eight
out of the nine current commissioners appointments and still still you chose to point a finger at the current EC to make it appear that it is selective and inconsistent in its positions on the environment implying that the current EC
has no credibility. That was so disheartening, Ben. I listened to it three times. Wanted to get some quotes here. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Denise Shon. I've lived
in town for 34 years and um I stand here by myself, but I just wanted to show you this article in Melbourne and Chordell's that house all these business people here to show you that I don't stand alone. So, good evening. I'd like to take this moment to talk about something
that m truly defines a strong and thriving community. The way we work together, communities are at their best when people support one another. When neighbors, businesses, and volunteers come together with a shared purpose. It's I've seen it firsthand from one
dedicated woman in our community that has brought local businesses together, encouraging collaboration instead of competition. Because of her efforts, businesses are not only growing, but they're also helping each other succeed. That kind of leadership reminds us that
progress doesn't happen in isolation. It happens through connection. Equally important are our volunteers. They are the backbone of our community. They give their time, their energy, and ideas not because they have to, but because they care. And when volunteers step forward
to serve on committees, they should be trusted to lead. Committees should work best when they are allowed to manage themselves, to think creatively, and to grow organically from within. That's where innovation happens. When people
feel empowered, not controlled. When members of our community come to township committees, they come because they want to be heard. It's essential that the committee members listen openly without arriving to their mean arriving to the dis arriving to the meeting with
decisions already made. True leadership means being willing to hear new perspectives to adapt and to include the voices of the people who you are representing. How a township treats its volunteers speaks volumes about the kind
of community we have. Respect, appreciation, and trust are what people feel what helps people feel engaged and willing to contribute. People don't choose where they live solely based on schools or transportation. They choose
communities where they feel valued, where there is camaraderie, and where mutual respect is the foundation. So, in the end, a strong community isn't built by a few individuals making decisions alone. It's built by all of us working together, listening to one another, and
lifting each other up. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Jane Shan. I'm a Melbourne resident. I am truly honored to have been appointed as chair of this new culture diversity committee. Thank you to the township committee for your trust. I am grateful for the opportunity
and I take this responsibility very seriously. I have been part of CEDA for the past five years and during that time I've been deeply involved in many of our initiatives including spearheading the AAPI month Indian and Chinese studies
festival a project that brought together different cultures in a very visible and meaningful way. Beyond CEDA my professional background has also shaped how I approach this role. I previously worked for the United Nations,
specifically with the Economic and Social Council, and I've spent much of my career working with immigrant communities, understanding their challenges, supporting their integration, and helping bridge gaps.
Here in Melbourne, I worked with Explore Melbourne to promote our local businesses. And in February this year, I also had the opportunity to moderate the ICE and Melbourne community forum where we brought together diverse voices to
have a respectful and informative conversation on a complex issue. All of these experiences in the community, in my professional work, and across different cultures have really prepared me for this role, and I believe they've
given me a strong foundation to serve as chair. I also want to recognize the leadership of Jackie and many other members who came before me. Their dedication and volunteer work laid the foundation for
everything we're building today. That effort matters and it deserves to be acknowledged as we move forward as the culture diversity committee. I see this as building on what we've done
while also stepping into a new chapter. Being appointed as chair is truly an honor for me, but it's also a responsibility I take very seriously. I am grateful for the trust and support from the township committee and for the
platform you've created for us to bring people together, celebrate our diversity, and strengthen our community. This role is not just a title. It's a responsibility and expectation. Our township has consistently valued
diversity and invested in bringing people together through meaningful programs. and that gives me a lot of confidence in what we can accomplish next. Looking ahead, I'm committed to putting in the work, staying focused, and
working closely with our team to plan thoughtfully and execute well. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Bill Brazelle. I live in the South Mountain neighborhood. I'm here to echo what Denise said and what my fellow
commissioner Renee Paparian said. Milbourne Short Hills has beautiful homes, great stores, lovely pond, gorgeous rose garden, great wildlife. But what makes Milbour truly beautiful is that people show up. Not just the excellent professionals that we all rely
on, but the volunteers, the people who give their time for free because they care about this town. The volunteers who lead the scout troops, organize the Fourth of July fireworks, run down the block in the food pantry, coach the teams, run the PTO, and raise money for
the Milbour Education Foundation. And those who served year after year on our town's commissions. For decades, residents have cared about our trees, our open space, and the long-term health of this community. And at least according to our website, it is the role
of the environmental commission to advise this township committee on environmental issues. So when the environmental commission gives advice, saying, for example, that natural grass is better for the environment than plastic turf, is that not exactly what
the environmental commission was assigned to do? I asked because at the last TC meeting, our work was described in ways that suggest otherwise. And that raises a bigger question. Is the current township committee
encouraging the talented, passionate residents of Milbourne, Short Hills, to contribute their expertise to improve our town? Or are some members of the TC politicizing the work of our volunteers,
attacking certain volunteers simply because they are members of the Democratic Party? CEDA was a volunteer organization that brought real value to this town. It's fair to ask for structure and accountability in any group, but there's
a difference between asking a group to improve its governance and destroying it. We should worry tonight whether some of our non-Republican residents seeing what is happening may decide that it's simply not worth putting themselves out
there to help this town. No one expects this committee to agree with every commission's recommendation, but we have the right to expect a tone that respects the people who are quietly giving their time to Milbour week after
week, year after year. Because without our great volunteers, a lot of what makes Milbour beautiful simply won't happen. This town has always been powered by people who care. Let's keep it that way. Thank you.
Um, good evening. My name is Jeffrey Feld. I live in the poet section. As my custom, I gave a heads up email with questions and comments to the board. And I think the public should know that the agenda was changed. I believe based on
one of my emails that you had not attached a proper resolution on the packet. I'm gonna have questions basically on the various resolutions, but most of the public does not I think dig in. They just look at the agenda. For for example, there's a tax credit
resolution, but it's $625,312.60. It's going to be payable or credit being provided over two years. Can you explain to us how the credit is funded because that reduces our revenues for our for our budgets. Are you taking money out of the reserve? If you are, when will
official action be done to authorize that? U there's an appointment tonight to the Melbourne Free Public Library. Um is one seat still remain vacant because there was one seat that the term expired. Then there is one seat based on
an ordinance that you passed should be vacated because that person is no longer a resident. So after tonight, will one seat remain vacant? As to the turf field trust fund resolution, I gave you a citation to Montville.
Montfield does it by orders. By now, you should understand that a resolution only has a one-year lifetime. If we want this to be permanent for the funding, why aren't we doing by ordinance that binds future um
township committees? And this is the one that really is the kicker. There's a non competitive bidding professional owners retention um resolution for $391,650. I don't understand. First of all, I don't know what a
professional owners representative is. The contract isn't there. Do we have a professional owners representative in connection with a paper mill playhouse transaction? Do we have it um with some um the turf field project?
What is this person? Because I think we're getting to the same problem that we had before when we picked the architect without an RFP or town hall for almost a million dollars. Shouldn't we be adopting a policy that there's a floor or cap? If something's above that,
we go out for RFP and we have competitive bidding. I'll be speaking about Orange later tonight. Thank you. Good evening. Phil Kersh, Milburn resident. Um, I'm looking at resolution 26-118.
And if the uh if ordinance 2738-26, which creates the CDC, passes tonight, I think that resolution will probably come up to be put into effect. My question is, I see there are 22 names that were put up as one-term members for the new
committee. Uh their terms ending at the end end of this year. And uh I'm wondering if that was just a way of placating the current members or if there's going to be a chance for additional members to be added in 2027 additional to the six who are listed for
more than a one-year term. Hope you can answer that question tonight. Thanks. Good evening, Betsall Township President. I've been a community volunteer on our planning and zoning boards over the past decade. Uh, in fact, I served on the planning board subcommittees that produced the master
plan re-exam in 2018 and the 2021 downtown vision plan. Tonight, you're voting on an ordinance, one of many, um, to create a long-term strategic planning advisory committee. Uh I listened uh carefully to the January 20th TC meeting at which time uh Mayor Sakamandandy
introduced the idea and provided a justification. Uh he noted that this commission could bridge administrations and as he stated in any given year 40% of the TC may turn over. That is true. Um but something we now know is in flux uh with the proposed ballot item should
change our form of governance. Initially you proposed having seven members with staggered terms. Um the language of the ordinance as posted on the website today states that there's nine members. Um but then in section 2B, it only totals seven when I added it up. So if you could hopefully enlighten me or clarify where
I'm confused. Thank you. Um additionally, Mr. Cohen asked at the time uh if this type of committee exists elsewhere uh just to get their insight. And Mayor Sakamandandy answered that he hadn't done a lot of research and was not sure. Um, business administrator McDonald articulated some of my concerns
well at this meeting. Um, in brief, this adds another layer to communicate up and down between the TC and the community. Um, turnover between TC members and committee members not being at the same time could result in the committee focusing on projects that have lost
their TC champion. So, some vulnerabilities with having this. Um, and I have some of my own observations and concerns, too. I love the idea of having folks identified to advance the plans of our community to a point of implementation. So that's fantastic. I
commend the community members who shared their support and interest. U Mr. Cerudo referred in the meeting to some of these prior planned shelfware or PR pieces. Um I just want to take a moment to correct that and defend that. Um call you to review these vision studies which do
exactly what our residents called for. We took into account different components of infrastructure, operation and community engagement in those processes and from them we created cohesive plans. And finally, I challenge the need for this committee. Uh while strategic planning is indeed something
you could create a subcommittee or steering committee uh from the TC to accomplish. I believe nearly all the items listed as the purposes in section 4 and the functions in section five are actually the responsibility of our township committee as the elected officials. Um, I ask you to consider
whether this committee is indeed the right way to implement the long-term plans. Thank you. >> Hi, Diane Eglla, former TC member, lifelong resident of Milbour. Um, in 25 minutes or so, the world might be a very different place. So, I'm sure at 8:00
we'll all be looking at our phones. It's very horrifying what's going on. Um, I don't know what the small print was in the referendum for the green space tax. However, everyone I spoke to who voted for it were shocked and saddened that
these tax dollars are being used for artificial plasticbased turf resolution 26112 and second um ordinance on second read 274126 for $4.5 million. I'm wondering is that $4.5 million coming from the open space
tax and how much have we collected in the first year? Is that all the money? >> Is anything left for anything else? Um the next thing the charter commission also in the small print on the referendum did it say that this charter commission was going to have the
official power to um have um election I just scribbled some notes in June. the middle of June is going to be an election. Who's around in June? Who even knows about this special charter? It's not just partisan versus nonpartisan. Are there going to
be seven members? Do two members who are elected this year or who were elected last year get the short sto and become a two-year member? Where are two new members going to have enough time to get on a ballot and run? And who are they going to be? I mean, I just think this
whole thing is very confusing. And 98.5% of this town has no clue what goes on. And I just saw something um online today that Summit sends out an email to their residents everything the township committee votes on. Now we depend on
Jeff Beld or Sarah Sherman to give us a recap of this meeting. Why doesn't the town you don't tell you have I don't know how many ordinances tonight? You're going to pass on page one a bulk reading. No one's going to have any idea what they are and boom, you're going to
pass 15 things. It's not We don't have the Milbourne item. You don't have any kind of recap that goes out to the community. Everyone has the alert. So, I've asked this before. Send out a recap of what you guys vote on. And about
CEDA, it's punitive. It's vindictive. You took the A out. The whole point of it was to have A for arts. So I just find and you said at a meeting in Frank South Monday that you don't care what the petition was about the historic that
the majority of people in that neighborhood signed a petition that they do not want their homes changed to historic and you said and I can find it if I have there. Okay, shake your head. It's fine. >> You said you didn't care about petitions. Okay, good night. Let's all
watch for 8:00 p.m. tonight. cease fires down >> Kenny Gam. I'm a Short Hills res get this on the record again since we did it last meeting also. But um my name
is Kenny Gamman. I'm here representing the Milbour Soccer Club and roughly the 600 players that we serve that are in town. We're here for the obviously vote on the high school project because we're tired of managing a crisis. It's not a choice between turf and grass. It's a
choice between functional infrastructure and broken status quo. Right now, we operate a 16% field deficit. If our roads were 16% unpaved or our schools had 16% fewer deaths than students, it would be an emergency. Instead, we've normalized scarcity. Field access has
become a zero- sum game where schools teams, recreation programs, and clubs compete for limited space. When we fight over fields, our children lose. To those who say, "I want fields but not turf." That's not realistic for this site. These back fields sit on a high water
table near wetlands. We've all seen it. Sunny weather, but fields still unusable days after rain. Grass fields can handle about 20 to 25 hours of play per week. Our town's demand ex exceeds 60 hours. That gap cannot be closed within that
with natural gas. Voting for grass here is not environmentally responsible. It's fiscally irresponsible. It means spending taxpayer money on fields that cannot meet demand. To to those who say find another location, we all have tried. Every alternative has been
explored and rejected. There is no plan B. There is no hidden valley waiting to be discovered in Milberg. A no vote means continuing the current shortage. On health concerns, modern turf systems have been ex extensively studied and
meet strict safety standards. Today's fields use advanced materials with significantly reduced environmental impact. Meanwhile, maintaining grass in these conditions requires heavy chemical use just to survive. For the first time
in years, all stakeholders are aligned. The board of education, recck department, and the open state trust support, open space trust support this plan. The funding is ready, the work's done. What remains is leadership. Every delay is another lost season for kids
who only get so many chances to play. Please vote yes. Yes to reliable fields. Yes to investing in our community. And yes to giving our kids the space they deserve. Hi, my name is Tangon. I'm a Melbourne resident. I'm speaking to support the
high school field project. I have two children in Melbourne who play sports and they get rained out about a third of the time. Um, I heard the comments from the environmental commission today and I'm quite disappointed. I'm not involved in town politics. Um, but I've known
about the field's project for months now. In fact, I attended a public meeting last year at the high school where the project was discussed. The environmental commission could have raised their concerns much earlier, but they did not because because they were not asked. Um, I've not heard a better
reason today. That's the only reason they provided. That doesn't seem right. also want to confirm that to the extent the open source fund is funded with my tax dollar, I cannot see a better way to use it than for additional field space for my children to play in. That is exactly what I thought would happen when
I voted for that funding in the referendum. Thanks. >> Hi, Laz Lazaru shorts res. Um I just want to echo like again the positivity around the fields project. Um again we've heard a lot of gloom and doom today but for me it's the excitement that we're actually going ahead or
trying to go ahead or voting on something where it's going to give ourselves builds facilities for our kids to actually go play sports. Um I've got three kids in my family. We've already had two sessions this spring rained out. You know we had our tryyous rained out. you know, we haven't got the area, the
hours to play regularly, be able our kids to go and actually let actually enjoy athleticism and actually go and do recreational sports. Um, this town is very much built on a great education system for our families. That doesn't mean that um our athleticism and our
ability to enjoy sports should be penalized. With this project going ahead hopefully and this vote hopefully being a yes, we expect that we're able to actually use this facility and not just for kids and not just for sports teams, not just for the Melbourne soccer club, etc. It's for our whole community. Um
I've said in previous meetings that actually I enjoy coming to high school and running around the track. I enjoy coming with um a group of 45year-old fathers and playing some soccer for a couple of hours. You know, this is for all of us. This is facilities that are going to allow us to actually spread across the community, allow us to
actually all come together and actually start actually being healthier. We talk about the environment, but there's nothing more important than people getting outdoors, playing sports, running, laughing, enjoying the sunlight, enjoying our facilities, and for a long time, this town has not been top of our area in terms of facilities.
With this, this takes us a step closer. Is it getting us there? No. But at least it's getting closer to where we need to be across our community. You look across all these towns across this era. We're one of the most affluent towns in this era. You know, we pay huge amount in taxes. We show the facilities that go ahead. The amount of money that we put
into this town, etc. It isn't just about, you know, do we have grass or turf. Okay, this is a small patch of grass where actually this gives more to the community than maybe the environment is going to flip on the other side. So, we have to take that into consideration.
the importance of having hundreds and hundreds of kids and thousands of residents having additional space to whether it's lacrosse, whether it's running, whether it's soccer, that is so much more important and something which we need to vote yes on. Thank you. Good evening Township President Madesh
Pala. Uh this is in regards to the grass versus the turf field. We had discussed about the environmental aspects but uh people considered the biomechanical as well as the healthcare related aspects
related to it. So I did a little bit of research associated with it because I work in the healthcare industry and I'm a chemical and material science engineer myself. The number of injuries that happen on a grass is much higher as
compared to a artificial turf. And this is one of the leading factors where the switch has been made from grass to synthetic turf. And not only that, the type of cleats that are being used has better grip on a turf field as compared
to a grass feed due to the moisture retention capacity. and Melbourne short hills is on the ro of lower riparian of the fazy active one. So we do have lot of floods and if you look at the FMEA
map flood mitigation we do have like areas in the south mountain regions that are flood. So that being said it's a wise decision for our township to consider the ter and I strongly support the township decision on that. As far as
the CEDA is concerned, A is a very important aspect of it. But here we would like to define what A stands for. Uh we are not asking for A for Atilia the Han. We not asking for A for
something that is extraordinary. We are just asking for Mount Zion church that was located and they had invariably been left out from the ceda invitation as well as the blocks that were going to be put up. So when you have a such a big
glaring gap then it means that the system has failed. So that is the reason why we need to consider how we are going to revamp this and I support the decision of CDC the new title associated with it and as I always say we want to
be a part of the solution we are ready to volunteer and support our township council. Thank you. Good evening, Christine Best. Um, I'm going to talk about the athletic fields later and environmental commission. So, hope people will stay um for my
statement because I have a lot to say on that. Um, but I'm going to first talk about CEDA. um I didn't get to talk about a lot last time and I'm I'm very concerned and I'm glad that you've made this decision to reconstitute the Amasta
Commission and I value very much all the wonderful things that people have done as volunteer volunteer for town the town as well. Um, and what I want to talk about is I've not been allowed access to see the CEDO tiles by the people that created them, particularly because the
board that I sit on is involved in it in terms of actually adding tiles. And what I want to tell the public here is that a lot of the tiles, I mean, a large, I'm not saying they're the majority, a lot of the tiles are for advertisements for nonprofits. Okay? So nonprofits benefit
from advertising. Okay? And I don't really understand why nonprofits would be on this particular mural except for self-promotion. That's very concerning to me. This is a 250th anniversary celebration. This is what this mural was supposed to be
about. It was supposed to be about everybody in the community contributing, but it really wasn't. It was a very focused set of people that were tied to the majority of this township in terms of ethnic background. Okay? And so when
you go and to use DEI as a mission, you need to make sure that you include everybody. And that was not the case. Um the the African-American community was left off initially. Now, they were added on after that was called out. I don't
see any Hispanic tiles for the Hispanic members of this community at all. Um there was no history for the Lenipe Indians that actually started this community. The short hills was actually named after the lenip Indians long before the town name of Melbourne came
in. There was no historical contextual advisement given by the historical society even um as far as as far as I know. So there's very little historical context at all. And over the years what's so interesting is this town after
Lenipe Indians came in was founded by a group of Protestant settlers. And then after that, all these different people migrated and just followed the stream of migration through the country. So there was an Italian heritage moment. Are there Italian tiles on here? Because I don't know if there were, but I didn't
see any. There's a whole Italian movement that came into this town. There was a very large Jewish immigration that came into this town. Why is the Habad not on there? I'd like to know. Why are only certain temples picked? Is it because they didn't respond or was it because they weren't asked to respond? I
don't believe that the everybody was asked and I'm very very concerned about it. It didn't feel inclusive to me. I can give many other examples but that is really really concerning and particularly um there's no interfaith options. There's I can go on and on and
on but it it is really >> you can go on second public comment. Anyone online? One. >> Hi. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes. Good evening. I'm Cheryl Demaris. I'm a 35-y year resident of Milbour. I
just want to say how deeply disappointed I am that you're moving forward with this ordinance to disband CEDA despite the overwhelming opposition you heard at the meeting when this ordinance was introduced. Uh CEDA members and so many residents showed up and spoke clearly.
This is not what they want. Even the TC's own liaison supported the current leadership. CEDA is made up of dedicated volunteers who have given so much to this community and taking away their ability to choose their own leadership is disenfranchising and disrespectful
not only to their work but to all the township volunteers. It's hard to see this as anything but a dismissal of the community's voice. You can say it's nonpartisan or not about a single person, but people see what's going on
here. And I urge you to reconsider not just this ordinance, but the message it sends to your constituents and to the volunteers who care so much about this town. Thank you. >> Anyone else online? >> We do not. >> All right. With that, we will now close
public comment and take a fivem minute recess. Thank you. >> All right. So, we'll now have PC members response to the comments that were made. I will begin. Thank you to everyone who came out tonight and took the time to speak. This
is exactly what participatory democracy looks like and I respect everyone that stood at that podium. I want to take a moment to respond specifically to the comments made about the pseudo/DC ordinance before us later tonight. Not to score points, but because the residents of this town deserve a clear
answer. And I want to address head on the suggestion that this ordinance is in any way politically motivated because it's not. There is nothing political about correcting a structural governance failure that left residents and community organizations without a voice in a committee that was supposed to
represent them. That is not a partisan act. That is the most basic obligation of this office. The people who had every right to be angry about what happened, Reverend Marabel, the co-founder uh and the co-founder of BAMS, never called this political. They never called it
malicious. The only people using those words tonight are the ones defending the process that left those organizations out. Don't let that speak for itself. After this township committee votes on this ordinance tonight, we will also be voting on a resolution reappointing Jackie Benjamin Lieberg to the Cultural
Diversity Committee for a three-year term. That is a longer term than the one-year term given to most other CEDA members who are also all being reappointed to the new CDC tonight with the exception of one who asked not to be reappointed. We did that deliberately. This has never been about Jackie. This
has never been about any one individual. It has always been about governance. If this were partisan or political, Miss Lieberg's appointment later tonight would not be happening. The new committee chair and vice chair are both registered Democrats. This township committee is majority Republican. If
this were political, those two appointments wouldn't be happening either. 250 years ago, this nation declared independence precisely because we rejected the idea that any one person gets to rule by self-appointment without accountability to the people they serve.
No one gets to anoint themselves chair of a public committee, hold that position for six years without a single vote, and operate without records or oversight. That is not volunteerism. That is a personal thief. Correcting that is not malicious. It is not partisan. It is exactly the kind of
accountability this community deserves and exactly what this ordinance we will vote on later tonight delivers. Several speakers tonight spoke movingly about M. Lieberg's dedication and years of service. I agree with them. I even said so from this very day I set the meeting when we introduced the CDC ordinance.
Dedication and proper governance are not in conflict. They should go hand in hand. The new structure makes that possible. Miss Lieberg has a seat at that table as do all of the former SEDA members and I genuinely hope that all of you take advantage of that. The
residents of Milbour, all of them deserve nothing less. Um, also for the person that brought up the concern about the word arts being dropped from the name of the committee, uh, it's my view that arts are embedded in culture. So,
if you have a cultural diversity committee, that should be encompassing art and um, you know, I I I see no reason to separate that out. Uh, as uh, Committeeman Ceruto said earlier, we're going to be looking at in a future
meeting looking at our various arts committees and who handles arts and maybe we'll end up having a new overarching committee that's dedicated uh, to arts because I know right now the SID's trying to do something with art. We have an arts advisory committee that wasn't consulted. So, we're going to be
doing something there. So, arts is definitely not forgotten. It's part of our culture and uh, I'm sure it'll be part of the new CDC. All right, let's see. Um, so Mr. Brazelle, I believe you said something about how the EC wasn't consulted about the fields project. Uh,
I'm the liazison to the environmental commission. Uh, and I'm one of the people that was instrumental in help making you chair of the environmental commission this year. So, you should you should know you should know that at several of the EC meetings uh, going back until last year, we've talked about
the subject of the turf fields. And I actually made it explicitly clear that it likely wasn't going to be a natural grass option and you guys should look at some of the other synthetic materials and advise as to which ones you thought were most environmentally uh
appropriate. So the EC definitely had input in that decision. Um so I'm I'm not sure why Mr. Brazelle suggested they didn't. Um let's see. So Mr. feld. Uh with regards to the library board, so we had one open seat.
Um the ordinance that we passed uh that regulates whether people can stay on committees once they leave town, that doesn't apply to boards that are convened via state statute. So the library board is uh handled by state statute. And the state
statute, unfortunately, doesn't require residency requirements for the library board. So that individual that moved out of town uh has declined to resign and remains on the library board. So we had one open seat and we just filled that tonight. >> Thank you for the explanation.
>> Um and then as far as the professional owners uh representative that we had uh that's part of the consent I think it's either the consent agenda or standalone doesn't make a difference. Uh the point is the that person is going to uh be
overseeing the construction of town hall project. Correct. So with such a complicated project, you really need a professional that has a good background in engineering and and construction etc. to make sure that everything is moving along properly to handle dealing with
all of the various contractors. If you don't spend money on an individual like this, you're going to end up spending two or three times as much money on change orders. You need to have someone with proper experience overseeing a project of this magnitude. And that's exactly what that's for. Now, the reason
it's a it's it's a we're not required to go out to bid for that is it's a very specialized type of professional service. And the law allows for certain types of professional services. Uh you know, you don't have to go out to bid for that because you don't want to
necessarily accept uh the lowest bid for something that's this important, right? We we don't do that for our our legal council either. There's there's all sorts of uh specialized council um that we don't require having to go out to vote for because it just wouldn't be a
good idea. Um Mr. Kersh, uh you asked whether additional members can be added to the new CDC. Certainly, the membership is not hacked. Um one of the things that we did with the ordinance is we left it open-ended. So, anyone that wants to be at least during this
administration, anyone that wants to be part of the CDC, submit a VIP form, give us a heads up, and we will make sure that you get appointed at the next uh TC meeting because we believe that the cultural diversity committee should be open to all residents that want to
participate and want to volunteer. Um, so we will we'll be doing that. Let's see. Um, Miss Z asked about the strategic planning board and you had some confusion about nine members versus seven members. So, the way the ordinance
is laid out, there are seven there total of nine members on the body. Two of them are TC members. They come from the TC and then seven are from the community. So, that brings me to nine. That's how we arrived at that. Let's see. Uh, Miss
Pigglo, I see you left. Um but with regards to how the open space money will be used for the fields project, we have a resolution tonight uh that's going to affirm what the open space uh trust fund advisory committee recommended which was to use 25% of the open space trust fund
money to help fund the bond for the portion of the fields project. So that's how that's going to be uh used. Uh, and with regards to your question on the consent agenda, I'm a little puzzled because you were on the township committee for, I think, at least six
years and you were also the mayor, so you should understand how the consent agenda works. Uh, and if you had suggestions with regards to, you know, how we publish the decisions that we make, perhaps you should have implemented them. But you know what? We'll take it under adisement. Uh, also,
uh, Miss Eglo, you misqued me about the historic districts. I believe what I said at prior meetings is the reason that the historic district was being considered is because we received a petition that was signed by the majority of the residents in the district and they wanted to be uh designated
historic. As time elapsed and as they learned more about the process, another petition came through and it seems that a slight majority of the residents now oppose that. We'll see where the numbers uh shake out when we hear that at the next meeting. Um but that's not
something we're deciding on tonight. But I I never I never said that, you know, the majority's opinion doesn't matter. So that's a gross misquotation. Um I'd like to thank all of those that came out tonight in support of the high school Fields Project. This has been a long
time coming. Uh, I'm going to address it in more detail uh when I introduce the second read of the ordinance, but I really appreciate all of you for coming out and uh lending your support. I think this is something that's been long overdue and we're going to take action on that tonight.
>> Let's see. Uh, Mr. Vala, I I agree with you with with regards to CEDA, which will now be the CDC. I encourage all those out there that spoke so reciferously against it to, you know, maybe decide to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. So, I encourage you to all get involved and
volunteer for the new board. Um, that's all I have. Uh, over to you, Committeeman Stler. >> Thank you, Frank. Um, so a couple things here. Uh, let's just jump into the the the environmental piece. Uh I I've been
my last 17 years of my life has been dedicated to removing transportation costs and eliminating CO2 on the roads. I was a big proponent of the open space tax fund, a big proponent of the uh gas blower restriction helped get that
through. Uh the pollinators, everything. What I saw was the politization of the environmental team of the environmental I guess group coming out and trying to to to sideways this transaction. So when I
think of it, think of somebody on a bicycle riding down the street. Somebody takes a a a big iron bar and sticks it right in the spokes and you come up over it. That's what I was talking about when I talked about where was the environmental commission. Not specific people. I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but where was the
environmental commission when they were putting up Annie says? Has anybody driven by Annie says? Do you guys know they're putting up 62 residents on our arburetum right on Woodland that they're putting up uh the residents on the uh on the reservoir? Uh it's a Woodman
project, the Woodmont project. Uh so in terms of my understanding and my passion for being coaching for the last 12 years in town, my kids, all my kids, uh knowing everyone who's coming out tonight and what that need for the fields are, I'm still confused whether
EC is conflating transparency with the environmental effects of turf. I've been told both trying to understand which one they want. Is it transparency or is it the environmental effects of turf fields? Uh so through that if I hurt anyone's feelings I apologize deeply. Uh
what was coming out was my level of frustration of our planning board our zoning board our prior TC's building in a nonsensible manner at the expense of residents uh uh and really with the New Jersey D took him a half an hour to to
uh approve the the project right on our Aquafer reservoir off of JFK Bullard. So from that, my passion came through. I think and hope we'll get this thing done for our kids. It's been long overdue. It's an embarrassment for the community that we sit today uh to have this level
of decay in our fields and just have those two uh have the multi-purpose fields behind high school just being there for flooding. Uh so I am so excited and uh and excited about getting this moving forward and I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings. Uh that being
said, my level of frustration is not with individual people. It's with the whole state of New Jersey and how they address environmental. There's something that's meaningful. They glossed it over. Uh when it comes down to uh stopping something that's great for our kids and Mr. Gatman did a fantastic job of
articulating that prior. Um when it comes to the CEDA, uh you know, no one in this community should ever feel excluded. No one should feel like they don't belong. Uh, and you know, to me that's an embarrassment that that happened. I'm glad that we've rectified
it. Uh, no one's disbanding the cultural arts part of this. We're reinstituting it due to a structural um, uh, to a structural deficit that occurred uh, and putting it and as I said, I I I very I admire all the
volunteers. I personally cannot understand the time commitment that I signed up for when I ran three years ago. uh and to put all the time and effort and see all the volunteers here who work together and take partisan partisan politics out of it, you know, which is, you know, part
of the charter study that everybody's going to start to see. There's going to be a vote coming up to say, let's take the RS and D's away. Let's move forward as a community of residents who deeply care about each other. The the national politics should not be involved on dayto-day. Um, what else do
I have here? Mayor addressed most of these. That's good for now. Thank you. Anything in? >> Yeah. A few things. First of all, just to add to what uh mayor said about the
library, before anybody gets uh hysterical that we're going to have a full takeover of non-residents on the library board, the statute is limited to one non-resident and she is intending to remain. Um, as far as the fields, I do support the fields project. I was on the
committee. What I don't support is you and I'll be voting accordingly later this evening. What I don't support is using the open space trust fund money to to fund it. We have the money's money. It's all the it's all the town taxpayers money. But I don't think that was what
the open space trust fund was set up to do. I do think what it should be looking at is and I'm sorry that Miss Eggwell has left. she raised this numerous times when she was on the board was that, you know, Essex County has an open space trust fund and we never get anything
from them and they are excuses always because we don't have a matching open space trust fund. So now we do and so what I think the open space trust fund should be going after are the kind of projects that we could then get two for one and go and get some of that uh Essex
County open space trust fund that we've been paying year after year after year. And I think that would be a better use of the money than the field. Not to say we shouldn't do the field. We should take that out of our general treasury. But that's what I think we should be using the open space trust fund money
for. Um as for volunteers. I thank everybody for certainly this town would come to a crashing halt without its volunteers. I thank everybody u who who does volunteer uh the town would not be able to run.
However, I do think that the the destruction and reformulation on the committee is a vast governmental overreach. I do think it was political and I think that there were less radical solutions that could have been and we brought them up during the new business
and during the first reading. There are less radical solutions that could have been taken to rectify whatever structural problems there were. um be that being you know and least not least of which was letting whoever was on the committee choose their own leadership. I
have always felt strongly that that if you have a a group of well-educated people that this town is is full of that they know who they would like to lead them and they should be picking that. We shouldn't be the ones picking it for them. Lastly, um I know Mr. You like to
think everything that we do is because you told us, but I'm actually the one that pointed out the clerical error in the ordinance before you put it in your email. So, sorry you don't get to take credit. >> Well, thank you. >> I thank you that you picked it up, that
you've read some. Thank you. >> All right, Deputy Mayor C. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to repeat a few things. Just a a comment on the owner's rep for town hall. Um, you know,
in my prior career, I did a lot of construction litigation and the the the benefit of a construction manager for the the township watching things every day is is is really critical. I want to talk a little bit about the uh CEDA
change that's 2738-26. And I'm so hopeful that I can uh change the the uh opinion of at least one of the majority on on the committee. The you know, everyone's heard uh everyone talk about that committee and what the
what the mistakes were, right? Uh no minutes um and not an election the first thing and and missing tiles of of of groups in town that that should have been included. Um but there's a much easier way to fix that. we're taking, you know, a sledgehammer here and we're
crushing this this mistake. They're all they were I I don't want to belittle the the the problems, but there's a lot easier ways to do that, including there is no reason on earth that the TC needs to be involved with selecting who the president, who the secretary is, etc.
So, what I'm hoping I can change somebody's mind on here is let's do it a different way. It doesn't have to be us doing it every time, meaning selecting everybody for the rest of our lives. Um, we've got other stuff to do. Um, and and then we're just we're overreacting to
something and that's the real problem. Not that the the complaint is legit. The problem is how are you going to fix? Um, so those are my thoughts on that. So hopefully one of the three of you changes your mind based upon my speech.
pretty smart. But thank you. >> Right. Good evening. >> Well, for me, thank you. >> Um I appreciate everybody's engagement. A number of things. Um number one, um I
would say, uh well, look at the talent. You know, there's amazing talent. We've heard United Nations. We've heard uh unbelievable qualifications of different people within the community who are going to take part in this new group. And Miss Blleberg is also going to take
part in this community and this uh group. Our town is a significant population, Chinese, Indian, used to be big population Italian uh of which I am. You know, maybe leadership will reflect
uh the the diversity of our community. And lo and behold, that's what we're seeing in this proposed slate. I'm Catholic. Okay. Majority of population is not Catholic but there happen to be some Catholic members of this this group. Excellent. Um and uh I think you
know you have to think through a diversity lens about diversity of leadership as well, right? And um so you know there was a it was Jewish leadership. Maybe someday there'll be Catholic leadership. Maybe someday
there'll be Italian leadership. Maybe someday there'll be all different. You know, I I I think I think that's the diversity of this group is bringing all stripes into the population as you see up here on the township committee, right? Mr. Sakamandandy and I, uh, Mr.
Cohen, uh, Mr. Stler, uh, Mr. Cosgrove, we've been called out on on our identity and we come together and work in unison. So, I think that's how this committee should work as well. diverse voices. All members are being reinstated
and there's no no bias. And I think we've seen on we've seen bias. We've seen racism come from this from members of the community who wanted to point out the Mount Zion church that nobody ever knew them that they weren't part of the community. The reper indicated tonight
when they were founded, which was before any of us were born in this room. And to say that they don't matter um is racism. >> Nobody said that. >> Um it was said in a letter to the editor. >> Was said in the letter to the editor.
>> So um to address a couple of other items, Miss V, um you know, there were there were a number of studies that were done um in the community that were sheld and unfortunately there were a lot of studies that were distractions um and that allowed the housing plan to go forward in its manner. Um, but we do see
uh, you know, we see action being taken on some of these things. I'm trying to bring things to the forefront and I think um, you know, hopefully the long-term strategic planning community will do the same. Um, but I I hear you and I I want to resurrect many of the as
much of these studies as possible. Um, Miss Elo, I would agree. I think a summary would be excellent. A newsletter of what's going on. I've talked to Mr. McDonald about that and I I don't disagree uh that that's something that can be done. Um
and at least something that can be explored. Um fields uh I support the fields um and I'm very excited uh to see where that goes. Um I think the divide is really unfortunate. You know, we hear about red
and blue and we hear about all of these things. Um and the reason why um I bring up uh I bring up the divide is um because you know we see this energy behind the charter commission and we see all of a
sudden the idea of trying to work in unison um become such a divisive issue and I I really don't understand it. It started several meetings ago when our identities were called into question. Um it's on Facebook. It's uh you know a
constant rinse and repeat. Um and to say majority Republican, majority Democrat, look at the statistics of my election and look at how the town voted for governor and and and and just just try to understand that these local issues
have nothing to do with party. And it's really really upsetting. It's really upsetting that you're come on on and on and on up here. Um let's see. Sure. Open. Uh >> I think that's it. But I just want to kind of say on a final note that we
celebrated two amazing holidays this weekend. Jewish Christian, we celebrated Muslim holidays, Chinese holidays, Indian holidays, uh Hispanic, all. And let's respect the diversity of
each other, be inclusive, have open ears and eyes. There's no reason to be divisive. And um that's all I'll say. Thank you. >> Great. Before we jump into that, I just want to follow up.
>> Thank you. Uh one thing I want to discuss too is u you know in terms of the fields project, I just want to Miss Eglau asked about how's it being funded. I want to make sure that there's complete transparency how it's we're looking at funding. We created an open space tax fund advisory committee. It
consists of two committee members from up here, three residents, a rep from the rec commission, the environmental commission, and the historical commission. We put together all the information. We push it through and we had a vote. And it was probably one of the best meetings that I've attended, you know, in the
last three years because everyone was very professional. Everyone was very competent, inquisitive, and open-minded about how the issue uh was came through. Uh they provided a resolution from the open space tax advisory committee on how it spent to
support the field's project. The vote was 53 and one uh with the one abstension being being our business administrator, Alex McDonald. Uh and that being said, there was a cap put on it. It was 25%. And it was we've collected to her to her not knowing
what's going on, we've collected $2 million in tax funds life to date to the fund. We take $250,000 towards that. So it's small portion of it, 12 a.5% and then we pay off the $4.5 million
cap. There's no additional funding coming out of it per year. Uh so it's 25% of the of the collected funds per year uh going forward until the the project is uh paid off in partnership with the board of education and their commitment to fund half of it and give
our children the fields that they deserve. just so there's full transparency, everybody understands the monetary part of it. >> Um, is this administrator McDonald? >> Uh, yes. Thank you, Mayor. Just two quick uh comments on what was said. Uh,
it relates to the the tax credit. Uh, the tax credit is being provided to 101 and 103 JFK. Uh, those are two large commercial properties that were under appeal. that is uh I think uh as it was described is is how it works that a tax
credit is provided for for future years reducing the overall equal you know valuation of the municipality but that also balances out with as as values increase these values are decreased through these credits um that uh that generally it is not uh o overly
impactful and it's a way that uh dollars do not have to be allocated uh in the budget and impact the budget uh year to year. Um we deal with the dollars as there, you know, the the valuation as it comes up each year and that's how we develop the budget based on those
valuations. Uh so that is that is how it works and that is the property that it's associated with. Um uh and then lastly, just to piggyback a little bit on the owner's rep, yes, we had an owner's rep for the parking deck. We had an owner's rep with the paper mill projects. Um it
was actually the paper mill that had the owner's rep. Um, but they were there was an owner's rep on the project. Uh, the owner's rep here is very necessary. And one of the reasons that this is uh being put on with the authorization to go out to bid is because we want the owner's rep to be able to review those bids
prior to them being issued. Make sure that they're uh scoured um and looked at for any value engineering that can take place. Uh anything in the specs that would lead to problems uh with the actual bid. Uh and again as the mayor had alluded to is the way to save money
and and reduce costs uh of a large project. So um just uh I think speaking for myself and probably everybody in town hall really really happy to see this getting moving forward. So >> thank you mayor. I have no response unless the committee has any questions for me.
>> Great. In that case we will move on to the consent agenda resolutions. Concept committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions. Are there any comments from the committee in regards to any of the items listed on the consent agenda? Seeing none, may I have a motion to
approve resolution 26-098 through resolution 26-11 listed on the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Cosgrove, >> yes.
>> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Mayor second. Mandy. >> Yes. >> All right. Resolutions. Are there any comments? Uh resolution 26-12 affirming the recommendation of the open space trust fund advisory committee to
utilize open space funds towards the high school field improvement project. Are there any comments from the committee in regards to resolution 26-112? >> I have this. >> Go ahead. Go ahead. Thank you. Um thank you, mayor. Um, I'm going to vote
against this uh for four reasons. Um, and and some of it goes back to the actual meeting that Mr. Stolen referred to. Um, the vote itself by that by that group. I'm going to try to get this. So, it's not so bad. The the vote itself was
defective. Um, I had made a motion um looking for a a contribution of 15% of that fund. Um, Mr. Stler refused to have that heard uh and instead made his motion for 25%.
Um so I I don't think that vote was was effective. Um there were also other projects that were in the in the pipeline at the time of that meeting. None of them were discussed or considered. There was some sort of rush um to get this funding through for the
field and the and it's people have confused I think the field and and the approval of the field with this funding. This funding is completely separate and has nothing to do with the field though. Um the language of the enabling ordinance uh to me clearly envisions
money being used for something like that field in connection with the acquisition of a piece of land. Um when the um ordinance was being talked about there was a lot of discussion about this should not become you know that people were going to vote to increase their
property taxes. all of us, whoever voted for it did. Um, but it wasn't going to be used for the day-to-day expenses that we already get taxed for. Um, so the language of the uh the ordinance in my mind doesn't allow that unless it's coupled with the purchase of a piece of
property. I also think it's too large of a commitment of that fund. Now, Mr. Solar just did some I'm going to say interesting math uh and said well it's not really 25% it's 12.5 because he takes the 2 million that's currently in
the kitty and and drops it down but it's 25% of that fund it's $250,000 a year and depending on how the town finances the project it could be 30 years that that money you know goes out it could be 20 years it could be 10 I think it's
supposed to be 10 or 20 somewhere in that in that thing so 250,000. A quarter of that money um goes out to pay for the fields. The town has their own money that can pay for the fields. So again, it's unconnected with the fields. Um and then it leaves the the um the committee,
the open space committee without a large chunk of money. And as we sit here today, the open space committee has yet to buy a piece of open space uh with any of the money and it's disappearing. Uh I mentioned earlier in my reports of open space that there's four, you know,
there's four people or four groups looking for that money. So it's people are looking for that money. It's going to disappear before you know it. And this is 20 $250,000 a year that's disappearing. It's it's a good cause and like I said, it's got nothing to do with the funding of the
fields. It doesn't have anything to do with whether the fields happen or not. It's the the fields are on tonight. I suspect you're going to see a unanimous vote to do the fields. It's the funding that I have. Thank you. >> Mr. Mr. Stler. >> All right. Thank you. So, this is a
another example of gaslighting the community. It's not interesting math. 12 a.5% $250,000 of $2 million on every day is 12 a.5%. I didn't say it's 12 and a half% going forward. It's 25%. And I specifically said, so Dave, I'm not sure
what you're trying to do up here, but 12.5% of the $2 million that's sitting today in the pot. You understand that math? And then $250,000 going forward. There are really four tenants of the open space tax uh fund when we went to get it passed. I went I stumped for this
very diffic all over the the the community all the ways from Milburn up to Short Hills. And I can look everyone in the eye in this room and I see a lot of people in this room who all voted for it because they understood this would help with the recreation tenant the 25% of what we
were putting this money for. Uh to sit in an environment where we have this money just sitting here uh we're bringing all the projects forward to start looking at them and it will be done. But to conflate that interesting math is not right. Uh, I take big umbrage to that because that's the
actual numbers and being able to bring it forward. Taxes are fungeable, but we've already funded these taxes. So, let's put them to use for our children and and and building those fuh fields behind the high school.
>> So, I've already spoken to why I'm going to be voting against this, but I do have a question for Mr. Caner. Um, Mr. Kosro raised the point that he had made a motion that was ignored for a different percentage and he was he was overruled by the chair that went on to perform a
different motion. So the question is since that happened and there's not follow Robert through the order because as I understand it when a motion is made um it needs to look for a second it stops all other discussion looks for a second if it finds one it needs a vote if it doesn't find one then it
disappears. Since that didn't happen, does that call into question this whole this whole vote from the open space committee? >> So, let me address that. So, I watched that meeting and my recollection of the meeting defers, I think, from what's being stated. Um, yes, Mr. Costco did
make a motion, but discussion hasn't concluded. There was discussion that went on uh after that. Uh, and then finally, there was a motion from Stler uh and that ultimately prevailed. No, I don't think >> but I guess the question is you can make
a motion at any time. >> Well, so let me point this out. The the vote that the open space trust fund advisory committee took was advisory. Um they really have no control over how we spend that money. Uh the township committee has the ultimate authority to
decide how that money is spent. Now the fact remains the majority of that committee you know irrespective of the order of the vote or anything else the majority of that committee made a decision and made a recommendation that 25% of the tilted space trust funds
should go to uh funding the fields project when the open space trust fund was being promoted uh by many that uh you know have been in the audience or uh have uh or that sit on the open space trust fund advisory committee. One of
the major tenants that they were proposing is that it could be used for recreation, be used for fields. And there's a lot of people in town that voted for it solely because of that. And I I truly believe it is my opinion that if that component was not there that
that tax would not have passed. Um you know, we'll never we'll never know. But um and in my recollection of the of the it's paramount or analogologist to starting a meeting and somebody screaming out a motion before the discussion is complete. The discussion
the discussion has was not complete. We're in full discussion mode offering of all the different pieces and such. Uh and also too when the motion was made for the 25% as Mr. Sakamandi said it passed flying colors.
>> I support the fields. Um, can we get the opinion though? Can we get an opinion? Let's get the opinion from Mr. Caner rather than the mayor. And I can tell you that the discussion had ended when I made that motion. And
>> you can watch that as many times as you want, but that's what happened that the motion the discussion had ended. Um, I made the motion and uh and Mr. Stler would not let it be heard. So, you know, I wish I was advised to
look at this prior to the meeting because I'm really not prepared to make a decision having not seen the video. Um, I would obviously need to review the bylaws of the committee and if there's a chair, only a chair can ask for a motion, but under Robert's rules, but I don't know if that's how they operate in
that committee setting or not. I wasn't there. I can I will say that what the mayor said this is an advisory committee. So this board can pass this resolution with or without uh affirming the recommendation. However, the
resolution does firmly state that you know it recounts the vote. Um and it the first therefore clause does does say that they accept the recommendation open space trust fund. So if it wasn't a proper recommendation, then perhaps the ordinance resolution as worded, you
know, isn't proper. I just haven't seen the video and rule or have a and I don't know that myself as contract attorney would have, you know, go back and undo something that was done, you know, at a prior meeting uh that's already been adjourned. Um I don't know the procedure for that, especially when it comes to
advisory committee. >> It's a move point at the end of the day, as you pointed out, it's an advisory committee. I think the essence of what the advisory committee wanted came through with that resolution. Um, and I certainly would have vote. >> Yeah. And it's a cute little stunt to
say, I'll throw it out there. Under Robert rules, I was the chair of the the meeting. So, it's a cute stunt to say, hey, I threw this out and it was ignored. The discussion was not complete. Uh, and when we made the motion, we've got overwhelming 53 and one uh in terms of uh the vote uh to
support it. I I I am happy to review the video and give an opinion, but I don't think it it would it would you know it would have much impact on the resolution that you're holding up. >> Okay. Just want to clarify the majority the roll call that was done was that there was a majority in favor, right?
And we that's recorded and that's there's minutes recording. Right. So we're taking that they voted on that >> but they you might have had the same majority that we'll never know to the 15% but that was not brought to a vote. It was not even allowed to have a
second. So we don't know that it might have been 62 in one for >> well they could have voted against it is what I'm trying to say is that >> I don't think anybody was so familiar with you know or wanted to challenge Mr. Stler saying I'm not it I don't want to hear that >> they don't want to be challenged. I mean they each had a vote. I mean the
statement they wouldn't want to be challenged. >> No they didn't want to challenge Mr. stole or >> under a presumption this vote was valid >> and so we're going to vote on this resolution now. It sounds like it's going to be 32. I'd say let's labor this
unless Mr. R 15%. >> I'm not looking to amend it. My my argument remains the same about the the impropriety of what happened at the meeting. Um you know we're talking
about CEDA and and things there and we've got a thing right in front of us that happened but I'm not looking to amend it. >> Thank you. >> I'll I'll review I'll review. >> All right. Uh so let's move on to a roll call vote, please. Uh for resolution
26-112. I'm sorry. Uh may I have a motion to approve resolution 26? >> I don't second. >> There was not. Okay. So we have a mo the motion >> second.
>> Make the motion. Okay. Done. So now we will do the roll call vote. >> Mr. Cohen. >> No. >> Mr. Posgrove. >> No. >> Mr. Cerudo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stler. >> Emphatic. Yes. >> Mayor Sakamandandy. >> Yes. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Resolution 26-113, board professional service agreement, professional owners representative for town hall renovation project. Are there any comments from the committee in regards to resolution 26-113? >> May I have a motion to approve resolution 26-113?
>> Motion. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> Roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Costco, >> yes. >> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler >> affirative. >> Mayor secondy. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Right.
>> Ordinances. Ordinance 2744-26. Good evening. Cohen is scheduled to sponsor. >> I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2744-26 calendar year 2026. Ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation
limits and to establish a cap bank. Um what this does, there's a state statute that starts the uh budget increase at 2% but based on the needs of the uh of the township, we would like to raise that up to 3.5% which is all allowed under New
Jersey essay A44. I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the township clerk be authorized to have the ordinance posted in accordance with law on the Milurn Township public notices page and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026.
>> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Posro, >> yes. >> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler, >> Mayor Sakamandi, >> yes. >> All right. Ordinance 2745-26
schedule sponsor. I'd like to present an ordinance entitled Ordinance Number 2745-26 ordinance amending chapter 7 traffic the revised general ordinances of building. >> The proposed amendment to chapter 7
traffic code of general ordinances is intended to provide a higher range of fines penalties related to chapter 7 infractions that will be established by resolution each year. One of the main goals for the increase in the range for penalties is to combat not parking within a parking space on Melbourne
students. The ordinance also establishes prohibition of loading and delivery vehicles during certain peak traffic times to reduce congestion and vehicular conflict. Deliveries and loading will be prohibited between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3 p.m. Um, we've discussed uh
these changes uh I think at length uh at least one maybe two other meetings prior. So, this is the board that's fully evaluating that change. Um, I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the township clerk be authorized to have the
ordinance posted in accordance with law the township public notices page and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. May I have a second, please? Second. Will all vote please? >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Costco, >> no.
>> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler >> affirmative. >> Mayor second. Andy. >> Yes. >> All right. 2026 budget introduction resolution 26-11 um I should ordinance 26-114
governing body certification of compliance with the United States Equal Opportunity Commission's enforcement guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records and employee employment decisions under title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
There any comments from the committee in regards to resolution 26-114? Okay. May I have a motion to approve resolution 26-114? >> Motion. >> I'll second it. Roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Collins, >> yes. >> Mr. Costco, >> yes. >> Mr. Sterudo?
>> Yes. >> Mr. Stler? >> Mayor Sakamandandy? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh, ordinance 26-115, self-examination of budget resolution. I'm sorry. These are these resolutions. >> Sorry, >> confusing Barbara jumping around here.
>> Yes. >> All right. >> Are there any comments from the committee in regards to resolution 26-115? >> All right. May I have a motion to approve resolution 26-115? >> Motion. >> I'll second it. Roll call vote, please.
>> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Cosgrove, >> yes. >> Mr. Terudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler, >> Mayor Saki, >> yes. >> All right. I will now uh we're going to do resolution 26 116 resolution to approve 2026 budget and set public
hearing date. Public hearing scheduled for May 5th, 2026. I'll now turn it over to business administrator Donald for the budget presentation. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I'm going to turn it over to the township's chief financial officer, Matt Lari, to uh to
start the budget presentation. Thank you, Alex, and thank you to the mayor and township committee for your time today. Um, we will go through our presentation. I'll answer, you know, any questions afterwards or during, feel free to interrupt. Um, and then we'll
finally introduce the budget. So, quickly, uh, the first slide here is just our agenda for the day. Um we're going to go through the budget process briefly. Uh touch on our goals and objectives, go through the municipal budget and then the park and utility budget which are two separate budgets
and then discuss our capital. So the timeline is really it's ongoing, right? We have the uh the finance subcommittee um with with committeeman stole and committeeman clone that that meet regularly to discuss where we're at in the budget and to discuss obstacles we're facing. Um the financial analysis
is done myself and administration uh continually throughout the year. Um around November, October, November, December, departments uh submit their budgets to us. Uh we review those. We sit down with each major department. Um we go through the requests. Some are paired down, some are even beefed up if
we feel like there's some agenda that they're not addressing. Um and then we finally come uh back to the finance subcommittee with our recommendation. uh that committee will will give us their impressions of where they see the budget that year. Um we come back to them. It's
usually a few meetings, two or three meetings and we we we bring ourselves to today which is the introduction of the budget. Um we pass the cap bank ordinance, the uh self-examination and the certification from the government body. Um, so today's the public
presentation. Uh, then if we go to the next slide here, uh, you'll just see after today is we we have a public information session scheduled for April 23rd at 7 PM. That'll be at the library, I believe. Um, so that's just really a public information session to answer
questions directly related to the budget. Um, you know, it it's a chance for residents to ask specific questions. um some some of them may feel a little bit hesitant to come up in front of everybody that asks. It's more of a casual setting. Uh so that's that's a
good opportunity for everybody to attend if they are interested. And then it takes us to May 5th, which is the public hearing and adoption of the budget. Our goals and objectives, you know, obviously even today we've talked about all these different areas that local government touches. Local government is boots on the ground government, right?
So our budget has to encompass all that. essential services, infrastructure, economic development, planning and land use, civic engagement, cultural and recreation, emergency response, and just our fiscal responsibility in general. Now, um you know, we're funding all
these initiatives on an annual basis, but how how they get funded each year can change, right? Emergency responses depending on emergencies. So we we have to reallocate funds toward those emergencies and we're also funding uh a reserve for those emergencies on an
annual basis. Um infrastructure needs vary yearbyear. Um so our budget is is set up to handle and fund all of our initiatives and and there's a certain portion of it that's funible uh to to react overnight.
Our philosophy here has been very consistent in Melbourne. Uh we take a long-term approach. Milbour is going to be here and will be here uh for all of eternity in our minds, right? So, we're budgeting for the long term uh not necessarily trying to look good in the near term. Um New Jersey is very
conservatively accounted which actually helped us. Uh it helps us, you know, on a long-term plan because we can only anticipate revenues we've received. Um there's it's it's not acrual basis revenue accounting. And then also on the expense side, we have to encumber
reserve funds before we even uh commit to buying anything. So it's very conservative on the revenue side and very conservative on the expense side. Uh there's only one other state in in in America that that has this form of accounting. Most are just gap based uh which is more flexible and you can get
more creative and and sometimes that's helpful. But New Jersey is is very conservative in the accounting and that's why you see pretty strong credit ratings across the state. We have a fund balance policy. Uh Governmental Finance Officers of America is the National
Association for Finance and Government. Um it recommends a fund balance as high as 25% of our general fund expenditures. And that's right where we're at at this point. And uh we're AAA related uh rated municipality recently. Um so we do have the ability to to raise funds at at a
nice nice low rate um and fund our capital needs. So the first few slides here are just kind of a look back on where we stand. The impact of inflation versus our budget, right? Uh since 2021, inflation is up approximately 22.3% which our
municipal tax levy in those years is about up 10.19%. Um so you'll see uh inflation is certainly impacting us. We're able to navigate some of that early on. Um but you know it it's you can see the end of the chart in 2024 and 25 are pretty much
following the curve there. The main taxing entity for for taxpayers is the board of education. Um and you know they're if you look at these two curves they're they're pretty uh congruent. Uh the board of ed is since 2020 up uh 11.45% compared to 10.19. Um,
so you'll see these these curves are are are following each other to agree we're we're a little below them. Um, but in in both entities have been conservative and consistent in their budgeting practices. Now, this this slide is pretty
interesting. It's it's Essex County taxes. Our Essex County taxes. Our share of the Essex County budget has gone down from about 50 million in 2018 to 43.5 million last year. Um it's not because their budget has been reduced in any way. Their budget goes up between two
two point two or 3% per year. Our share of that pie has been reduced due to mainly due to development in more urban areas. So as those areas, those municipalities value increases, our share of that pie decreases. Um if you drive through down 280 or through, you
know, East Orange and Orange now, you see a lot of development um through North. There's pilot agreements associated with that. um a lot of those, but that's what's what's translating to this reduction in county taxes. I believe we still are, or at least we were last year, the second highest
taxpayer, but our share of the pie is reduced. Now, these next few slides are some municipal comparisons. It's you always have to be careful comparing municipalities. Even though we operate very similar, we offer very different services. Um different towns have utilities that that break out large
portions of their budgets. uh out of the tax base. Um but but it's a good idea just to look at this and if if you really want to uh dive deeper um you can do that. But as you see here, we're about 10.55% increase uh since 2020 whereas um these
other towns sit uh you know most of them much higher than us. Uh some of them within our range. But it gives you an idea of what our neighbors and what our uh you know what our other local municipalities are doing. This comparison compares uh two debt statistics. So budget ratio of debt to
budget ratio. So total outstanding debt as compared to uh the total operating budget. Um you'll see where we stand there which is which is a very low if not the second lowest percentage. Um and then the other ratio here is debt service to budget. So that's the
percentage of our annual budget that is funding debt. Um you'll see we're you know we're at a little over 3% there which is which is extremely low. Many of you know this but this just shows our total tax breakdown. So the board of education makes up 51% of the
total tax bill. Uh 24.5% is is the municipality. Uh 22.25% is the county and 2.25% is the public library. within the county and a municipality in these in this slide is the open space uh tax
associated with each. This is just a look back at our average tax bill from the prior year. So, uh you'll see the taxing entities. The average tax bill last year was a little over $26,000 and the breakdown there follows the percentages we just discussed.
Now, we're going to look at our 2026 proposed budget. All right. Our net taxable value increased to a little over $10 billion. Uh that's up about half a percentage point. Um and and that was touched on a little bit when we talked about the tax credits. Uh any given
year, new builds, construction, um development, uh that increases our value. And there's also tax appeals that decrease our value and that nets out. Um, so we try to manage this and not pay out funds. We try to manage this number
as as as best we can. Um, and uh and this is what actually strikes the tax rate. That'll change a lot when we do uh when we have a revaluation, right? So it kind of skews things. Um the amount of money we're raising will stay similar, but uh obviously the pot we're drawing
it from will be spread differently. The proposed tax rate is 499%. uh which is up 3.96% from 2025. And our average municipal proposed tax on an average property of 1.315 million
is uh $6,564. So that would be the average just municipal tax. This chart just shows uh the impact of this increase on various property uh value levels. dive in a little bit here in our
expenses. All right, the total budget goes um to 76.9 million. Uh salaries and benefits. Uh we're really a service industry at at the core of it. So that takes up uh the majority of our budget, $43.7 million. Operating expenses at
about $23 million. Statutory costs and reserves. is pension bills, um self-employ not self but employment taxes that are paid. That's about $5.6 million. And then our capital investment is is 4.3 million. Now, one thing you'll
notice here is that we go from 76 uh we go to 76.9 million from 71.6 million. That's a large jump. A lot of that is because this includes grant funding. We have a large amount of grants we're allocating this budget. So there's two DOT grants, there's a pedestrian safety
grant. Um, so that increase alone doesn't translate necessarily to an increase in taxes. The primary budget driver, the main one, and that's been talked about is is health benefits for our employees. Okay. Um, we're about at 10 $10 million in
total. Um, we received approximately 18% increase as a member of the Metropolitan Health Insurance Fund. um the state of New Jersey, which Milbourne was in for, you know, the 50 years before that plus saw a 35% increase. So, we made a move a
little bit aggressive where there wasn't very sa uh very much savings in year one, but we saved millions of dollars this year by making that move. Uh it's still going to 18% is not good, right? If that number was 8%, we'd be looking at maybe a two two and a half% tax,
right? So, this is really our challenge. Um, it's something Alex and I talk about too much at this point. Um, but we're we're engaging all of our unions in uh in how we can can solve this problem. Um, but it's also something that's that's uh, you know, not just government
related. Uh, I think affordable care act marketplace increase was was plus 20% for the year. And the cost drivers are are are a few. One of it is out of network utilization. So we live in in you know the healthc care capital of of kind of the world here right we have
major hospitals all over the place in network providers are everywhere. Um so out of network spend is something that that can be worked on and save substantial dollars. The other thing are drugs great drugs that help a lot of people GLP1s and other specialty drugs. Um while they're they're you know
helping people changing people's lives. uh we're getting build the fund is getting build you know hundreds of thousand dollars for some sometimes for just some of these injectors so that that itself is not something we can necessarily solve um but it's it's something that's driving a cost so
looking ahead like I said um we're we're we're doing a few things here we're working with our collective bargaining units and and trying to find a solution um trying to design plans that meet their needs and save money uh for both entities is because anytime the town
saves money, the the employees do as well. Um, we're looking at uh how to educate, incentivize lower cost plans and also educate on in in-house in network options. The other major pressures on this year's budget are are always collective bargain
and impact service industry. So those agreements which a lot of which uh three of which I think have been approved uh in the last six months or so um those drive our budget. the library appropriation, which is a statutory amount, increased $524,000 this year. Uh pension contributions,
that's kind of tied into our salaries, right? So that's percentage of our salaries. That's a pound contributes towards employing pensions. Insurance, uh not health related insurance, but liability or workers comp insurance. Um that marketplace, especially workers comp, uh was kind of put on its heels a
little bit due to legislative changes. Um but it has leveled out this year slightly. utilities uh fluctuate and and obviously utility costs are are in the news more and more lately, but we feel those costs obviously, you know, pretty strong. Solid waste and recycling budgets across
the state have been increasing. And then our shared service with the dispatch has a has a you know, it's not a a dollar-wise very impactful, but it's a larger than increase this year as we work through uh we work through that solution. So this slide is always something I
think the public uh likes to see because it gives them an idea of what what they're paying. So we talked about the average tax bill um for municipal services. What that is on a monthly basis. We pay most of our bills monthly monthly. That's it's $587 that the average resident is paying towards
municipal services. Now the vast majority of that is public city. So on a monthly basis, if you were paying your bill with your cable bill and your Netflix bill, you'd be paying $228 towards public safety. Going down the list here, it'll be about $96 a month for public works related
services, $67 a month for capital, debt, and reserve funding, $56 a month for recycling, garbage, and uh utility spend. $53 a month for administrative functions. That's everything from legal, engineering, uh etc.
$46 a month for the public library, $19 a month for parks and recreation. General insurance is about $14 a month, and then other miscellaneous service would be about $8 a month. So, it's a total of $587 a month for all of your municipal services.
On the revenue side here, um you'll see we have a balanced budget. We have to be balanced. 76.9 million, uh 50 million of which is a municipal tax. We're utilizing fund balance uh slightly increased at 8.4 million. Um and and
what that is is a result of operations. We have budgeted revenues. Anything we we collect that is in excess of those budgeted revenues goes to fund balance. Anything we spend below our budgeted expenses rolls the fund balance. And there's some other measures that that
roll into that. But um so what we do is each year we take that money back into our budget. We never really want to be utilizing more than we're generating or we definitely don't want to do that consistently. We're operating at a deficit at that point. Um so while using some money on a year-to-year basis or uh
a few years ago we took in a lot of extra fund balance to fund pay down our debt and fund extra capital. Um that's a worthy use of the municipal receipts that's everything for permits, uh fees, recreation fees, etc. Port fees, that's
11.3 million. The library tax is 4.7 million and the uh grants this year are 2.1 million which you see is an increase from 614,000 from the prior year. Then one one thing I did want to touch on is just our revenue current revenue
trends. Our expenses are increasing each year but our non- tax revenues remain relatively flat. Um the tax le tax levy represents a growing portion of our revenues as a whole if our other revenues are staying flat. Um so
userbased revenues are not keeping pace with other costs. So that's something we we we want to be looking at over the next uh year few years is is re-evaluate our user fees so that they're reflecting actual costs. Align the fees with comparable municipalities making sure
what we're charging isn't well below or or necessarily well above our neighboring towns. um and expand cost recovery for non-residents and targeted users. Um so and and as well as you more importantly explore new revenue sources. Um so that's that's a team commitment uh
that we're making uh township end and I'm sure that the governing body will assist with some good news is our grant funding. We've received over $5 million of grants since 2021. Um, grants are are honestly it's it's a lot of work administratively. Anybody who's worked
on them can can talk about that. Um, there's whether it's a state grant or a federal grant, there's a lot that goes into it. Um, but but the town has has made a a big push to increase our grant our grant awards. It's been extremely successful. Um, close to $3.8 million in
roadway and pedestrian improvements. Uh, 700,000 plus in infrastructure improvements. The fire department is very proactive in getting equipment grants to the tune of $280,000 since 2021. Parks and recreation like Taylor
Park over a million dollars. Uh police as well um bulletproof vest and body camera grants in the last few years totaling $260,000. And then general recycling community grants totaling $250,000. This next slide here is just a little
bit of our history, our tax rate history. We talked about the the average and total increase uh since 2021, but this just shows the uh the annual increase spelled out. One of the last parts of our our current fund budget right now is the sore user charge. It's uh not increased for this
year. We're at $25. Um that's that's really just to spend uh or to to recover the cost of our joint meeting uh assessment. We get an assessment for the joint meeting. We we strike a rate that funds that assessment
and also raises some money to pay uh into a capital reserve. Now that capital reserve was very helpful this year. We got an additional capital assessment from the joint meeting of $790,000. Um you know the vast majority of members of the joint meeting had to go out for
debt on that. we were able to pay in cash and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax tax money. So again, we're very reserve and and conservative in the way we're handling our budgeting and and you know, just this year it came uh came to our aid.
One future consideration here is that we are just funding the joint meeting and and a capital reserve associated with the joint meeting. We are not funding with this sore charge um the other sore infrastructure needs and improvements that the towns make on an annual basis.
A lot of our neighboring municipalities have a sore charge that's more all-encompassing. Um it might be something we want to consider moving forward to some degree um to help uh help the cost burden related there. >> Our parking utility is a separate budget. It's operated in self
liquidating utility. Right now we're looking at a budget of $1.45 million. Uh what you can see here is uh we've been operating very well. The parking utility is since it paid off the deck is is in a very healthy position. Um we're putting uh money each
year into capital improvements. Uh we increased our surplus by $412,000 last year. Um so we're in a good place parking wise. Uh on the left there you see a little bit of a grant. Uh this is how the meter collections come in. So 40 and this this increases every year to
towards more digital payments, right? 41.9% is for mobile park mobile. 23.4% is coming from cash and coins still and 34.6% is coming from uh credit card swipes at the kiosks. And it's interesting when you look back it just
creeps away from coins over time. And and just to piggyback on that point, uh one of the capital expenditures from the parking utility that the township is doing is is the replacement of old pay stations and the increase of pay stations where we still have metered collection. Uh those new pay stations um
will start to no longer have coin and cash uh collectors because uh it's a huge maintenance nightmare, but also uh the stations themselves are cheaper um when you don't have those things uh in them. They will still have credit card, mobile pay and uh Apple pay um on those
machines but I think this year we are ordering 16 of those paystations. >> Right. Lastly on the parking this slide just shows uh somewhat interesting our parking meter collections by month uh since 2022. Um you can see in 2020 2022
we were just coming out of COVID where there was less parking less commuting um and less action in general than the downtown and you see that scale up and you know and majority of these years it follows a similar trend dropping off in December when we bag the meters. Um
interestingly enough we still collect a lot because people don't realize it's bagged in my mobile pay. um we collect about like a third of what we normally so now we'll go a little bit into our capital plan. I I'll kick it over to Alex to handle a bit. >> Thanks Matt.
>> Yeah. So some some really big things kind of happening as it relates to excuse me uh capital planning in 2026 as we've been discussing a lot of it tonight. um town hall renovation um is is underway. Uh we've been going through
the architectural design um and um various approvals needed for that over the last two years. One of the last things holding that up was we needed a D approval, uh, state the office of state controller approval as well as state judiciary approval because part of the
town hall renovation is moving the court from the police department building into town hall uh to alleviate to provide some space to the police department, give them a little bit more room uh to operate um and bring the court over to to town hall. So, the state judiciary was the last one to sign off on it. Uh,
and how that um works uh being integrated into a town hall, which happens in a lot of locations. Uh, so that's why the authorization to go out to bed was on the agenda tonight. Um, another important uh infrastructure project in 2026 is the Gilbert Place
pump station. may have explained this in previous meetings, but there's a storm sewer pump uh in off of Gilbert Place that services South Mountain Reservation for pre and posttorm mitigation uh of of storm water. That pump is uh quite old
and uh needs some redundancy uh new pump, some redundancy and some expansion in its capacity. So currently it it pumps about 30 cubic feet per second um and we are looking to expand that to about 60 cubic feet per second. There are two ordinances on the township committee agenda for the consideration
tonight uh to acquire the easements and property that's needed for that expansion. Uh we've also received a $500,000 grant from the state uh to help facilitate that improvement. Um in addition, you know, there's just a there's there's a lot of work going on and there's definitely a lot of work um
being promoted and championed by the committee here uh as we move forward in 26. The the Taylor Park improvements for lighting. Uh we've still got the Taylor Park Gateway, which is a uh project that we will be uh resurrecting uh very shortly. Um you've got the pedestrian
safety improvements being discussed at the short hill turning station, which is um being funded with some help from a $479,000 grant for safe routes transit. Uh in addition, there is still the safe routes to schools grant that we're working on for uh a connection on Old
Trails Road to the Deerfield School from uh which is a grant in the amount of $599,000 uh dollars. Um also our capital plan includes, you know, other stuff that doesn't necessarily become as visible. Um you know, whether it's department vehicles and the police department, uh
the the uh the department of public works. Um, Department of Public Works is also responsible for uh, five sewer pump stations. It's kind of the point that Matt was making about uh, the sewer user charge. Um, we have five pump stations that um, help lift uh, the sanitary
sewer up over the hill and gravity fed down to Elizabeth where the joint meeting is located. Those take a lot of maintenance. Um, I'll just put my annual plug in for not flushing wipes because that also helps us with the maintenance of those uh, pump stations. But it also goes with sewer line brakes in the
roads. Uh every time we do a road reconstruction, we go in and we TV the lines in the street. Uh we make sure we repair any breaks in the lines there uh prior to the milling and paving or the curb reconstruction on the street. Uh that's another uh aspect of the 2026
plan is that we have 2025 uh a second phase of 2025 road reconstructions. Believe it's about eight roads. Uh this information is located on the township's website under projects. Um and that will be done toward the end of June. And then there will be an additional um uh look
at uh allocating funding for the 2026 roads which will be limited based on the amount of uh projects and and and uh debt that we are uh uh currently um encumbering with the with these large projects like the the field and and and town hall renovation and Gilbert Place
station. But there's a ton of work going on, a lot of a lot of um infrastructure improvements and you know we will continue to do that uh and look for grants. Um the engineering department as well as uh the assistant uh administrator is current currently looking through local aid grants,
discretionary aid grants. Um any opportunity that we have to find grant funding or any additional funding, we go after. Doesn't mean we're always going to be successful, but we we take a stab at it. And so that will continue to help us do more. uh you know with the with the taxpayer dollar.
>> Thank you. Uh so in conclusion um we have our our public information session uh April 23rd. Um again for anybody interested that's your chance to maybe casually ask questions about this. There's a lot of work that goes into this uh this so I don't mind answering questions uh because there's you know a
large amount of time spent my office on crafting this. Um, and I just want to thank uh everybody for your time today, especially the finance sub commmittee. Uh, my staff, all the department heads for all the work they do. Um, it's a real team in Milbour. Everybody works
together. There's a lot of of conversation on on spending priorities and using the tax money we have to the best of our ability. So, thank you. If there's any questions now, I'll I'll be happy to answer it. And otherwise um
we'll just uh we'll see you at the public hearing and adoption. >> First, >> thank you. Would any member of the township committee like to comment on the proposed >> I'll start. >> Uh so as one or two members on the finance committee subcommittee up here, I just cannot commend you enough for the
work you do, Matt with Alex. Just another fantastic job. I know we've been difficult with lots of attribution analysis, understanding the the absolute um pieces of the budget and such. you've delivered fantastically and uh it just
shows in your work. Um part of that and I'll defer to Michael for his comments as well and the whole idea of revenues not keeping up with expenses. I mean I've run multiple businesses uh large businesses and that healthc care is just unbelievable. I mean really and to keep
it at 18% where we did I mean just a yman's job. So thank you on that and uh good job. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll echo that. I mean it's it's really tough. It's between you you mentioned it in the the presentations healthcare it's inflation and now with
energy costs going up you know everything is just going to cost more. We talked about even tariffs and whatever. I mean all of that all of that has its impact and you know you have uh you have us saying well can you do it for less? Can you do it for less? So it
was an excellent excellent presentation super clear and you know I think you've done a great job. >> Thank you. I also want to echo those remarks. Fantastic presentation, very detailed, very easy to follow. Um, we're doing great compared to other towns
around us. We've always um had really good set of discipline here in town. Um, and you know, a lot of that is a testament to um, you know, our CFO and and our business administrator um, just making sure things are are done right and we keep an eye on where all the
money's going and uh, trying to economize where possible. So, excellent job. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah, I just want to emphasize um you know, when I first came on as a township committee member, uh I the first question I asked uh CFO Matt and Alex
was about our financial philosophy and our ethics and morals that we're governed by. And I feel very confident uh with the leadership we have in place. You know, everybody knows New Jersey and politicians, corruption and slush funds
and all the all the gamut and a lot of it goes on in this county. So on this end of the county, uh we certainly um have a discipline which is very important. Um so I I have a lot of confidence. Um I'm excited about the projects that are also uh forward and I
and I and I think it's so important that we are maintaining our infrastructure before it's too late. Right. Some of it is too late. But some of the philosophy around how we manage our fleet, the philosophy around how we uh you know don't just have artificial political uh
you know tax cuts on a on a municipal level or make things look like they're better uh but then in the long road it would pay for it. This is this is how you run a proper municipality. So um I just wanted to emphasize that because you know a lot of people ask oh what's
going on behind the curtain? Well, good things are going on behind the curtain and here is the show in front of the curtain. >> So, uh you're welcome and keep up the good work. Make us proud. Thank you. >> Great.
>> Um just just uh for for everyone, these materials are posted on the township's website under the finance page um if you want to take a look at them. Um and uh yeah, we'll see everybody who's interested in the 23rd. >> Thank you.
Is there a motion to approve resolution 26-116? >> I move that resolution 26-116 be approved and the township clerk be authorized to have the budget notice posted in accordance with law on the township's official public notices page
on the township website and that the public hearing and final passage be scheduled for the May 5th, 2026 Township Committee meeting at the Milbour Education Center located at 434 Milurn Avenue in Milurn. Roll call vote, please.
>> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Costco, >> yes. >> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler, >> mayor, second, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right, I'm going to take a two minute break. warm
warm. Let's go. is on bring in case. Sorry everyone. We need another Okay. >> All right. continue our meeting uh with the second
reading ordinances. Ordinance 2735-26 Cohen is scheduled to sponsor present for consideration an ordinance of titled Ordinance 2735-26 ordinance amending and supplementing the Township of Milburn Development
Regulations and Zoning Ordinance. Tonight is the time set up for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law. >> Mr. speak and answer questions. >> You can I mean this is the one that I
can say what this is. What this was was the one that um does a better job of defining the various types of medical uh businesses that have that case. I declare the hearing open. I move that the public hearing be closed
and that the ordinance be adopted on final reading and that the township clerk be directed to post the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with law. >> I second the motion there any remarks from the committee before we vote? >> No. >> Okay. Roll call vote, please.
>> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Costco, >> yes. >> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Solar Perfect. >> Mayor Secondandy. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Ordinance 2736-26. Deputy Mayor Cosgrove is scheduled to sponsor.
Thank you, Mayor. I present for consideration an ordinance entitled Ordinance 2736-26. It's an ordinance amending and supplementing the Township of Milburn development regulations and zoning ordinance. U. This is, you know, part of
the uh the work of the uh zoning code examination committee. Um it's sprucing up and and fixing some definitions uh resolving some issues identified regarding vaguess of the terms, missing definitions uh and
missing terms. It has been uh approved as well, sent to and approved as well by the uh uh planning board. Tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage
is advertised in accordance with law. I declare the hearing open. I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading and that the township clerk be directed to post the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in
accordance with the law >> second are there any remarks from the committee vote call vote please >> Mr. Cohen >> yes >> Mr. Costco >> yes >> Mr. Cerudo >> yes >> Mr. Stler. >> Mayor Sakamandandy. >> Yes.
>> All right. Uh, I'm scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2737-26. Uh, I present for consideration an ordinance entitled Ordinance 2737-26, an ordinance creating a long-term strategic planning advisory committee
and adding uh section 2-39, the Milbourne Township Code. Tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law. Clear the hearing open. >> My name is Jeffrey Phil section on this.
I I just want to look at section 2-39.2A. earlier this evening. I agree with soul >> that the clear language of it says consist of nine voting members. You're only putting seven. We I was just
told earlier this evening that I don't know how to read. Word voting means something. Also, it says a quorum. If you're having seven members, why is a quorum five? Quorum should be a majority which should be four. I'm just saying that there were
drafting typos or errors that should be corrected. If you are just reporting seven voting members, it should be clear that that's an A and that should be four. And I like how you do in this ordinance which you don't do in CEDA
ordinance. You have exeicio members being various people of committees, other associations, but the word voting member is in there in a Christine pass me township. I'm just going to briefly state my support. I
mean, I think Jeff might have some things I'm not as well read, so I'm not going to touch base on that because I'm not educated enough on that one. But I do want to say I very much support strategic planning committee for this town. I think that I I'm I am incredibly
grateful for what you guys have put together tonight. I don't know who did what, but thank you so so much because there has been no strategic planning ever. And what are we going to do when we have no plan at all? We don't even
know. And we've got more things coming online. And I don't want to see misplanning by the planning committee. I I it's a very different committee today with a zoning board where buildings get allowed that literally are two feet off
the curb and a car is going to go right to that excess building. Outrageous colors. There could be design standards. Go look at other towns. It's unacceptable. And thank you so so much for doing this. You saving our town. I I move that this public hearing be
closed and that the ordinance be adopted on the final reading and that the township clerk be directed to post the ordinance by title as past final reading in accordance with law. I have a second. >> Second. >> Uh
want to address Mr. Felt's comment. I So I think we have nine total members that vote. Two of them are TC members. The other seven are appointed from the committee >> and it says here may two members may be
township committee members >> may >> and then I think >> and these two township committee members shall be appointed. So there is there is an in this ordinance. Um, I think we should uh move
>> uh I think we can move to amend the ordinance if we're sticking with changing the word nine to seven voting members. >> That's what the ordinance had. >> Oh, so we're appointing seven.
>> I see. >> Yeah, I think with Mr. P's point of two. I was just seven voting members >> or we have room. >> If we add two more, we may have to reintroduce.
>> So that's just a >> Yeah, I think if we added if we added to section B, I would say that would probably material change that we could reintroduce, but we could correct the type A consist of seven voting members. >> Right. That's just
right. Okay. Um >> and then um >> well because >> and then and then I think we should change the may the shelby because the the business of Minnesota we're technically appointing nine but that includes the exeicio non voting Alex and
the >> Yeah. Yeah. So it probably was probably because there's none. >> Yeah. I think that's what happened. >> Yeah. Yeah. So why don't why don't we I I would suggest that there's a motion to amend section A to change the word 9 to
seven parathetically seven and two of the voting members shall be counted committee members who may be sh >> so uh make a motion to make the amendment as just second. >> So I'm just a little confused. I don't I
don't care if we make the amendment but I want to vote against the ordinance. Is that a separate vote? >> Separate vote. >> I second it. Uh follow up, please. >> On the amendment. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Costco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cerudo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stler. >> Mayor Sakamandy. >> Yes. >> And again, I'm deeming this not be a substantial change to the ordinance to require reproduction given that the members remain the same. I don't think
it's chang. Uh in that case we have a motion second. >> I need a motion to adopt the ordinance as amended. >> Sure. >> Can I have a So I make a motion to adopt the ordinance as amended. We have a second.
>> Second. Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Cohen. So I I'd like to explain. >> So you didn't ask that the attempts had any any feelings about the thing like it did for the first vote yet? >> No. >> No. All right. So why don't we why don't
you open up for discussion? >> So I supported this. I do think strategic planning is a good thing. But the reason I'm going to vote against this is I when when this was first brought up, I talked with Mayor Sakami and I said I could live with this, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't
political. And what I'm seeing is that it based on the appointees, the appointees, a couple of them are political. We have the Republican party chair and we have someone who ran for township committee as a Republican, albeit briefly, but if you look quickly,
he was on their website. I understand that there are two registered Democrats, but they are not local activists in the same way as the Republicans. And I think that that is counter to the purpose of this of this committee. And so I think it's a good thing, but I'm not happy
with the member. So I'm just gonna vote no here as well as later. Do I vote no? >> I will vote. >> So just to be clear, there are two Republicans, two Democrats, and one unaffiliated uh that are being proposed
for this committee. I think that you don't get any more balanced than that. Um we also didn't have a whole bunch of people that applied to the committee. There weren't a whole lot of local activists. uh from uh the the Democratic party that
applied. So we went with that's what we the pool we had and we chose the most capable people uh for the the boards and committees. Quite honestly, the fact that it worked out that we're two Republicans, two Democrats, and unaffiliated is a happy coincidence. Uh because really we just looked at the
most qualified people because I think that irrespective of party, we should always be choosing the uh most qualified individuals uh regardless of their party. So that >> anyone else have any comment? If I could, I I too supported this originally
was going to vote for this, but when I see the people that are being proposed by majority to be the members of it, I'm gonna I don't support it anymore. >> In that case, we don't need to be labor. Um, you know what? I'm just want to say I I find it really unfortunate that
that's what the crux of it is. The politing is I went to Florida, but I guess I can't pronounce that. Um, making it political. I mean, it's just it's so divisive. I don't know why that has to be the rationale. Um, so I I just I
don't understand it. It's >> I would be happy with two Republicans. I don't think they should be local activists. >> Okay. >> This I mean, we've had the chairs of committees come up here to speak on almost all of these groups. I mean, I could name two of them that spoke today
that have to be chairs and of the other party and they're appointed to things. I mean, I I don't think >> you're absolutely correct. >> I find it >> it's disappointing. Um, and I think the partisansship that we see here tonight
is is not not on the vote from side. It's it's from the other two members. So, with that, >> if if I could, given the comments that are being being made, um, what I what I don't like is receiving a a telephone call from Mr. Sakamundi the mayor
telling me that these are the people that are going to be appointed to the committee after he's already talked to everybody else and there's been a decision made has to be last on the list. >> Yeah. Thank you. That's just the dice.
Sometimes I call you first. >> I I just want to be completely clear here. You know, there's a little bit of a of a malignment of of our current processes. Uh the CFO and Alex do a fantastic job. uh can they use help sometimes? Absolutely. And that's what this this
committee this advisory committee is there for to help. Uh there's a lot of things coming down the the pike in terms of the uh the large buildings that we have that people have referenced on uh Annie says and at the arburetum and wood
mine and such. uh to have a comprehensive pool of talent to help make these decisions uh I think is going to be invaluable. Uh but I don't want to malign what's been done before because this is just an improvement to the current process. >> Yeah. And I believe that we had
discussed in prior meetings, this group is going to develop specialized subcommittees uh and bring in people throughout town to have subject matter expertise um for that uh particular subcommittee. elves
will probably be a finance arm, a architectural arm. I I don't know, whatever they come up with, but there's going to be a lot more to this group than, you know, what we're what we have here, >> right? I just find it, you know, we we had the reorg meeting where we had a lot
of unanimous appointments of people of both parties to leadership roles on all these committees and for it to come down to a 3-2 vote, I just don't I don't understand it because we've had we you know, but um nonetheless, >> I can I can tell you it started I think
the politicization of all this started when we passed the ordinance about party chairs not being allowed to be chairs of committees and Miss Leverberg stepped down as being the Democratic Party chair. That's probably where some of this started and here we are. You know, we're doing it again. I understand this
committee doesn't handle money, >> but >> I think that was for chair chairs. >> I can't, you know, I I don't I don't run her vote and she didn't run mine, but that's where that I didn't vote for it. I I can't speak for her. I think that's where, you know, and it was carefully crafted. I know this one doesn't handle
money, so this one is different and it's whatever. But I think that's where some of the politization started with an ordinance that was clearly directed at one person >> and we are >> I think it's sort of um understood. Okay. So that's your
perspective on that. >> I think let's nonetheless we're going to vote. So >> you know I hope we can all work together once this form you know is what it is. We'll move forward. >> Mr. Cohen. >> No >> Mr. Cosgrove.
>> No. Mr. Cerero, >> yes. >> Mr. Stoler, >> Mayor Sakamandi, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Ordinance 2738-26. I'm scheduled to sponsor. I present for consideration ordinance entitled
Ordinance 2738-26. Ordinance repealing resolution 20-35, permanently disbanding and dissolving CEDA and creating section 2-40 of the Milbourne County code to and creating the cultural diversity
committee. Tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law. I declare the hearing open. >> Good evening, Bill Kersh resident. Um, I have to say I
haven't heard one objective reason to have Cena disbanded from this on the committee tonight. Not one objective reason. So I want to repeat my objection to ordinance 2738-26 which permanently disbands CEA and
replaces it. As I've said before, I believe this is an unnecessary action that appears to be a political power play and a vindictive one at that. The further action to have the township committee only in the case of this
particular advisory board select the chair, vice chair and secretary is additionally on the face of it undemocratic and an effort to ensure the former leader does not again serve. That explains it. So I urge you once again to
recognize the wishes of many of the existing CEDA members and many residents to defeat this ordinance. And further, I'd like to say we've seen a little bit of government governmental arrogance tonight, I believe, because the assumption that this will pass,
which is why the resolution appointing individuals to the committee is on the same agenda and why, with all due respect to the person, the prospective new chair, that she feels that she is the chair and she's not being arrogant.
But the government, the township committee here proposing this is showing its arrogance. And further, the implication once again that there was a racist reason for overlooking or not having certain groups on these tiles.
The implication again with no justification is just totally out of place. And I would say as someone on the committee had mentioned an an additional meeting, it really would have been nice if the township committee at some point
had put together an exhaustive listing of all township related organizations to have on its website so that no one would have been overlooked and that was the responsibility of township government. So stop pointing fingers, stop dividing,
stop implying things. And lastly, I will say that to change your mind is not a weakness. And still, as Mr. Cosbro pointed out, there's still a chance for certain people to change their vote. It would only mean that they stepped back,
did some introspection, reconsidered, and actually looked at the wishes of the people who the mayor thanks for coming to these meetings and being involved. So I think it is very clear what needs to be done and I still hope that the right
vote will take place tonight. Thank you president. Um just want to point out I'm on the flood mitigation committee. Uh uh I am not campaigning to be the chair, but I do want to point out to the
township that the chair of the flood mitigation advisory committee was appointed uh by the uh township committee. Uh James McKenna is a doing a wonderful job. Uh he wasn't voted in. He
was appointed by the township committee. Uh so there are committees in town uh uh so let's let's point the fact there are committees in town that have leadership appointed by the township committee.
Cena is not the only one. Um so it's erroneous to say that that's the only case. I'm not campaigning to be the chair of that committee. I don't have the time. Jim is doing a fantastic job
and I thank him. But just recognize that there are committees that have leadership appointed on the township. >> Good evening. Janet Par. Not so very long ago, there was a New Jersey governor who made the public
announcement that he was um disbanding one of the departments in the state of New Jersey. He made it he made a public announcement he had made that decision and of course when the officers and the people of that department and all their affiliates
um heard that they asked for an audience with the governor and they got one. And not long after that, the governor rescended his decision. He said he never really understood the breadth of that department and what they took on. And he
also admitted he didn't really know of the unintended consequences that would be enforced. So I think that was admirable of our governor to have done that. And it shows this is a leader who's going to take into consideration what the public feels, what they have to
say, to give more points of view on the situation, and to weigh everything again very very carefully. And I also just um piggybacking on Bill's comment when I saw this tonight being distributed.
What it said to me is we're dismissive of you and your comments, what you've said in the past, what you might say this evening. We've dug our heels in and this is the way it's going to be. And
Phil called it arrogant. I call it in a euphemism very very dismissive. This was premature and it sends a very very strong message to the public Christine Best Township.
Um I want to talk about a little bit more about um this particular ordinance. Um so I obviously support your move. Um DEI and inclusion initiatives um cannot sometimes be dishonestly used
um in political astroturfing campaigns to create a false appearance of broad grassroots support for specific ideologies or candidates by orchestrating top- down initiatives appear as organic community advocacy organizations manipulative manipulate public well
these type of organizations manipulate public perception. So, I I love the fact that this group honestly volunteered and I'm not criticizing it at all, but this is a very very sensitive topic and these are
highly educated people. I don't want to hear one peep out of anybody. I went to art school. I'm still pretty highly educated that you don't have an IQ over 125. Okay? So, you should know better. It's unacceptable. So, this is Dennis Sonis DEI.
I'm requesting that the township community has this mural redone. Okay. There's things that need to come off of it. I'm trying to understand wholeheartedly how Miller and Aspire again, why are all these advocacy groups on this? This is about the history of
our town. And if it is a DEI initiative, then fine, make it that. Okay? You can take all the 501c little guys off there and put other parties on that should be on there. That needs to be done. What is Milbourne Inspired doing with listing
organizations in the town of Mil the Township of New York? There's a tile for Trinitas Hospital in New York, the YMCA, which I think might be in New York. I'm not sure, but I know we don't have one in Milbourne that I'm aware of. What is the EOH and Peter Franchesco Park in New
York? Why is why are we not talking about other parks in our town? Why are we talking about Newark? This is a Milbour event. Okay, that's huge. and to comment. Dave, I'm really begging you, you know, and Michael to really like look past the politization of this
because you just have to do the right thing. This is just wrong. And you know why there's a sledgehammer in this room, okay? And loud voices is because it's wrong. Okay? It's wrong and it needs to be fixed. Okay? What is the Quala
conservation crew have to do with Milbour 250 celebration? Please advise. I really need to understand where where are the six the Buddhists the elites the Russian Orthodox Greek Orthodox Copton Christians etc on and on and on and on.
>> I want to also know if Alex could please advise I'd like to know who paid for this mural. I also want to recognize the fabulous artists that did legitimate tiles who were Emily Whitley, Michael Cooper, Amy McGovern, Oscar Peterson,
and Donna Davis. I thank them very much. Thank you. >> Hi Chris Miller resident. Um I find nothing presumptive about what's being done. I've been a member of a whole bunch of boards, corporate boards. You form a committee, you have those members lined up. If the discussion changes,
that piece doesn't go through. I see it as thoughtful, wellexecuted planning. So that those comments surprised me a bit. I think I recall what is it two, three meetings ago. Mr. Sack Monday was criticized greatly for pulling a
resolution on the historic preservation committee and postponing it to a future meeting because all the ducks weren't in a row. There was questions about the petition and he was cracked upon for doing that. So basically, no matter what you do, Frank, you catch it both ways.
So I applaud you kind of sticking to your agenda. I do not for one second believe that if there was a lot of comments here against or a reason to that you would not change your mind or the committee would have a fruitful discussion. So there is a lot of work. You kind of know how these things are
going to go but it could change. And I see that here and I'm I'm I'm greatly disappointed by the the partisanship this evening. I thought reappointing all the CEDA members who I have no idea who they are, but I recall during the discussions there was one guy up here
who said he was a Republican. He may be the only one on CEDA. So my guess is that is a very heavily leaning one-way group. Seems they were all appointed again with no discussion on oh let's take the opportunity to rebalance the committee since now I could do it and
devious. I'm doing all these plans. I don't think that happened. But yet, strategic planning board, which um I think Mr. Miss Mr. Miss Miss Pastnac has been talking about for a decade, finally comes to fruition and she wants to
serve. She gets that chance regardless of her other talents. Makes perfect sense to me. I wanted to be on the board. I wasn't chosen. Tough luck. I'll apply again next cycle. So, just my thoughts. Please move ahead and end the
group. Thank you. >> Fel live in the poet section. I'm a registered Democrat. I probably caused this problem because I was appointed to the seed board. Attended the meeting on February 4th. I immediately within an hour of the meeting contacted Mr.
Cosgrove about some errors, you know, procedural errors, their reorganization meeting. And the real origin of this ordinance goes back to the 250 tile
mural. It's almost 60 days. I'm a member of CEDA. I still have not received a list. The public has not received a list of who the participants are and the number of tiles that were assigned to them. Going to the ordinance, I would
recommend that you use the provisions that you had on the prior ordinance where you broaden it up that we have representation of the clergy. We heard that there's an interfaith association. Why aren't they included as a clause? I
am confused. When you look at your ordinance, it gives you the right to appoint other resident voting members. Later tonight, you're going to have an ordinance, a resolution where I'm listed, but doesn't say whether I'm a voting member or not. If I am with the
attention of the list of, let's say, 22 other people are to be non- voting members. It should be set forth. Otherwise, are we voting members? And if we are voting members, you're going to have 30 members. So, what is that going to require a quorum of 16? you might get
to a point where what you're doing is unmanageable because of the size of quorums. Also, an ordinance becomes effective upon publication. So, it's probably like a 20-day period after um no the ordinance will come effective
upon publication which occur may occur within a week. This resolution comes effective today. So you might want may postpone this resolution till the next meeting because of the way procedural effectiveness is going. >> Hi, good evening. Regina I live in Short
Hills. Um this is near to the resolution tonight. And just just a just a note um tonight one of the board members I know you're you're new and diplomacy is sometimes difficult when you're brand new but I wanted to talk about um your comments about that the leader was Jewish and maybe there'll
be a Catholic one on on CEDA or CDC whatever they call it from now on. And I hope that you understand that the separation of church and state fundamental principle of the United States ensuring that government remains neutral in religious matters. And I certainly hope that you won't choose leaders for any of our committees based
on their religion. That's all >> I don't think. Um quick uh Richie Cyber uh Milber resident last month when I last meeting when I was here I said I've been lived in town
25 years I never heard of CEDA I now hear about CEDA a lot now um these tiles that are being put up so I didn't know that Christine Best knew that there's
tiles up there of whatever for parks in New Orle. Is this a foreshadowing? Something's going to take place in our town. I don't know. It's a mystery to me.
I I don't get it. Maybe someone can explain to me why tiles are up there from Nord. Maybe you can, Michael. I'm going to let you explain.
>> Anyone else? >> I piece. >> Can I bring up something else? >> No, >> it has to be that point. >> There's a second public comment there. With that, I move that this public hearing be closed. The ordinance be adopted on final reading and the
township clerk be directed to post the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with the law. I have a second. >> Second. >> All right. So, I'm going to start with the comments. >> All right. So, before we vote on this ordinance tonight, I want to say something clearly and from the heart.
Jackie Benjamin Liber has given years of her time to this community. That is not nothing. Volunteerism is the lifeblood of a town like ours, and her passion for Milbour is genuine. I have never doubted that. I hope she will remain an active part of this community's civic life for many years to come. But tonight is not
about Jackie. Tonight is about the structure. When we all took our oaths of office, we swore to serve the residents of this township, all of them. Part of the obligation is fiduciary. This means ensuring that when the town this township committee lends its name to a
committee, that committee operates transparently, keeps records, accounts for its decisions, and manages reputational risk on behalf of this community. That is not a political position. That is the job. For six years, the basic requirements of CEDA's own governing resolution went unmet.
This township committee reaffirmed that resolution every single year. The resolution was clear. The board shall select a chairperson. board shall elect the secretary. The secretary shall keep minutes. None of that happened for six years. When that failure finally came to
light at CEDA's first meeting in 2026 on February 4th, the meeting had no agenda. There was no reorganization, no election of a chair, no election of a secretary. When members raised the requirement for minutes, Miss Lieberg stated on video that she was unaware that minutes for a
secretary were required. Those requirements are clearly articulated in CEDA's founding resolution. A resolution that established a committee she herself founded and one that was reaffirmed by this body every year that she sat on it. I won't bear those facts further, but I
do want to talk about what that failure of accountability cost this community in concrete terms and lasting ones. The CEDA/250 committee tile project is a permanent public art exhibit bearing the township's own seals. It is a permanent
public record. Who is in this community? Whose story gets told? Whose contributions are recognized? That is why it matters so much who is on it and why. And that is why the process by which was created matters. When CEDA members, members of the committee itself
asked for a list of organizations that had been contacted and invited to participate. That request was refused. It was refused at a meeting. It was refused on video. They were told to wait for the unveiling. When I sought that list myself, I had to obtain it through the township's business administrator,
going to the chair of the America 250 committee to get basic information about a public art project conducted under the township's name. Why does that matter? Because you already know what had emerged before that list was obtained. Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal
Church, the oldest black church in Melbourne, a congregation that has stood in this community since 1902, was never contacted. Pastor Aisha Marabel confirmed that to me directly in person when I visited Mount Zion Church and she indicated that the Mount Zion
Black Americans of church was not meaningfully reached. An outreach attempt was uh I'm sorry um separately from that, the Black Americans of Milurn Short Hills organization indicated that they were
not meaningfully reached. An outreach attempt was made, but directed to an individual who holds no leadership role in that organization, who was not even directly addressed in the emails, but blind copied on some of them, and who confirmed he had no idea what to do with the message. Bam's co-founder has
confirmed on public record that the organization was not reached. Those initial exclusions are what brought this matter before this body. But beyond that initial reckoning, when the full list was finally obtained, he found that the following organizations are also absent from the final exhibit. I cannot tell
you whether each was contacted and declined or were never reached at all because there are no records. That is the point. The organizations absent include Wyoming Presbyterian Church, which hosts this community's beloved annual pumpkin patch, Covenant Presbyterian Church, the High Center
Habad of Milbourne Short Hills, the Indian-American Association of Milurn Short Hills, Down the Block, which promotes emergency financial assistance to Milbourne residents facing hardship, the Warehouse New Jersey, which furnishes homes for families transitioning transitioning out of homelessness. The Opportunity Project on
East Willow Street, the only brain injury rehabilitation program of its kind in New Jersey, right here in Milbert. The Milbert Institute of Talent, a Chinese language school that has educated hundreds of children in this community. The newcomers and neighbors of Short Hills and Milbour,
which has been welcoming new residents to this town for over 50 years. The Short Hills Garden Club, this township's own community service award recipient as recently as this past December. March 4th, our community service award recipient in 2023, which has raised over
$350,000 for cancer prevention, and the MRI Short Hills 4th of July committee, the organization that runs this town's own Independence Day celebration, all absent from America's 250 anniversary mural. This is not a paperwork problem. As one of our CEDA members said from
that podium at our last meeting, this is a culture, a culture of disengagement from the very communities this committee was created to serve. A failure not only of governance but of inclusion. And it is precisely the kind of failure that happens when one person controls the process, the invitation list and the
records or rather the absence of records with no accountability to anyone. A committee without records cannot be held accountable. A committee that cannot be held accountable or will inevitably leave people out, often the very people it was created to serve. Tonight, we are not tearing something down. We are
building something better. And we are building it the right way. The cultural diversity committee will operate under a governance structure this community deserves. Meetings will be held at least quarterly and advertised publicly on the township website. Minutes will be recorded and submitted to the municipal clerk's office. An annual report will be
delivered to the township committee each December. And unlike CEDA, which existed only by resolution, subject to annual renewal, the cultural diversity committee is established by ordinance, codified permanently in the township code. This is not a technicality. It is a statement of commitment. This
committee is not a year-to-year afterthought. It is a permanent fixture of how the township governs itself. This is not bureaucracy. This is accountability, and it's long overdue. I'm also proud to introduce the leadership of this new committee, which we will vote on later tonight. Our new chair will be Jane Shan. Jane has been a
member of CEDA for several years. She sits on the board of the Milford Short Hills Chinese Association representing one of the largest and most vital communities in our township. She runs an immigration law firm and she understands from both her professional and her civic
life what it means to help people find their place and their voice. She is exactly the kind of leader this committee deserves. Our new vice chair will be Tiffy. I can't pronounce the last name. In any event, Tiffy founded the Indian-American Association of Milurn Short Hills. She
was instrumental in getting Dewali recognized by the state of New Jersey. She served on the board of the Corart Arboritum for 5 years. She has spent her life building bridges between communities and between people. That is what this committee is for. Our new secretary will be Vancapala, a
scientist, an innovator, and a deeply committed member of this community who will bring the same rigor to this committee's records that he brings to everything else he does. All former SEDA members who are welcome here. Your work, your ideas, and your passions have a home in the cultural diversity committee. We want you at the table, and
that is why later tonight we are appointing each and every one of you to the new CDC. And to everyone who spoke out tonight in defense of the old structure, I hear you and I respect that you care about this community. But I would ask rather than defending a process that produced the gaps I just described, consider helping
build the comprehensive, inclusive outreach this community deserves. History does not have to repeat itself. The new cultural diversity committee will reach every corner of this town systematically and transparently. That is the work. I hope you'll be a part of it. The residents of Melbourne, all of
them serve nothing less. Were any other committee members comments? They both committed. >> Yes, I agree with all your comments. Uh Mr. Trick, just want to respond. Uh in the ordinance, it says the Milburn Township Committee hereby finds the cultural diversity committee should exist to promote the community's wide variety of faiths and philosophies.
That's the only reason why I mentioned faith. This is a diversity committee of faiths, backgrounds. >> It's different than picking a leader based on >> No, we would never pick a leader based on religion. >> This isn't a back and forth, but I'm just responding. >> I I'm clarifying. You're out of order.
>> I'm clarifying my statement that all members may hold different backgrounds and that's what makes our community more united and strengthened. That is the point. We can have a leader of I could I could change my religion
any day. And that's the strength that that comes with this committee is uh the diversity in the unity unity in diversity and I think the strength of the leadership and of the members which will
evolve is amazing right this community we heard the history right everybody I hope everybody knows the history of this community some of it pretty some of it not but of the waves of different immigration Right. The large, as I
mentioned before, Italian population. Okay. It's more diminished. Um, what's next? Who knows? Maybe Canadians will come here. Who knows? >> Yeah, I got a few chuckles on that. Um,
maybe a few more. You know, let's bring some positive energy. I think there's a lot of attention on on on negative energy. I mean, this is a it's a municipal committee that has opened the hall. Um, and everybody should feel comfortable. Um, and I hope that this
committee can uh live in person and off of Facebook. >> End of my comments. Everybody is welcome. All backgrounds. All backgrounds. All the time. Thank you.
>> Yes. Uh, Facebook's assessful. You don't know Facebook. Please stay off. Um, no. I spoken to many of the groups that were not on the list. Pastor Marabel has
just been such a loving, great person in this community. Uh, and you know, understanding inclusivity, accountability, and what we need to do to move this community forward. uh and you know I've seen number of times today
people have maybe not been given the convenient uh truth and uh misaligned some facts and things along those lines. So um you know and to the audience who offered their
interjections too uh you know we respect all of your opinions quite a bit. Thank you. >> Yeah. Look, we know it's a foregone conclusion. So, you know, I we've we've certainly talked about this committee more this year than probably in all six
years that it's existing. Um, you know, we did not I don't think anyone of the five of us reviewed the tile. We don't review all of the work in progress until, you know, of every of every subcommittee. We we the the money was obtained by a grant. So, we weren't even
asked to to put out money to for the uh for the mural. I think, as I've said numerous times, there are other ways to have handled this. If this was the this was the route that we wanted to take to make it more of a diversity committee than a culture committee, certainly
that's something we could have we could have done and we didn't we didn't need to take the heavy-handed step of appointing the leadership, but we we said it already. So, that's all right. So, we're gonna have a roll call, please.
Mr. Cohen, >> no. Mr. >> Cosgrove, >> no. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stler. >> Mayor Sakamandy. >> Yes.
>> All right. Ordinance 2739-26. Good evening. Cohen is scheduled to sponsor Yeah. >> Okay. I present I present for consideration of ordinance entitled ordinance number 2739-26
ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic section 7-11.1 time limit parking of the revised general ordinances of the township of Milurn. Tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with the law.
>> Declare the hearing open. >> I move that the public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading and that the town be directed to close the ordinance by title as passed in final reading in accordance with law. >> Second the motion. Are there any remarks
from the committee before we vote? >> No. In that case, roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Costro, >> yes. >> Mr. Seruto, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler, >> Mayor Sakamandandy,
>> yes. >> All right. Ordinance 2740-26. Deputy Mayor Costco is scheduled to sponsor. >> Thank you, Mayor. I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2740-26,
ordinance amending and supplementing the township of Milburn Streets and side park ordinance. We had um introduced this a meeting a meeting or two meetings ago um and this is about trying to get uh some order around uh sidewalks that are being shut
down during construction process. Tonight is the time set for the public hearing or final passage as advertised in accordance with the law. I declare the hearing open president 30 years. Um, I've been an engineer for 53 years. In that
experience, seven of those years were spent as a site safety coordinator for a uh laboratory facility and uh and uh what's called in the industry a pilot plant
which is a a small scale production unit to test out process concepts. uh chemical engineer. Um but that experience in in safety uh I I I've seen a real issue with safety of some of
these sites. So I I applaud uh your considering this and I uh support its passage. Uh it's very much needed. Um, I have communicated through my safety concerns
uh to Alex McDonald and uh that uh he was extremely responsive and taking care of those things. Uh but I can only see what I see. I don't I don't see it all the time. Uh I know the township is is
very aware of what's going on. um uh a police sergeant reached out to me and sent me a very kind uh email in response to my concern. He looked at into it personally and I appreciate that. I appreciate the personal response, but
this is a very much needed ordinance because the the safety at our construction sites in town that I have witnessed firsthand uh has been extremely concerning. Thank you. I move that this public hearing be closed. Oh, sorry.
>> Sorry. I apologize. I'm a little >> My apologies. >> So, as part of my comment, and it might be a short one. Can somebody answer a question just really briefly? Is does this include the grant that we got for um updating the sidewalks and the
bumpouts on Milbourne Avenue past or near starting um at Taylor Park and going up or is this something to do? That's that's all >> you can answer to. >> No, >> thank you. That's all I have no comment.
>> All right, that's it. Uh, I move that this public hearing be closed and that the ordinance be adopted on final reading and that the township clerk be directed to post the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with law.
>> Second. >> Are there any remarks from the committee before we vote? >> No. >> Uh, roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Costro, >> yes. >> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. Mr. Stler. >> Mayor Sakamandi. >> Yes.
>> Right. Ordinance 2741-26 and scheduled to sponsor. I present for consideration with ordinance entitled ordinance number 2741-26 bond ordinance providing for various field improvements at the Milbourne High School by and in the township of
Milbourne, the county of Essex, state of New Jersey, appropriating 4,500,000 Therefore, in authorizing the issuance of $4,275,000 bonds for notes, township finance part
of the costs thereof. Tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law. I declare the hearing open. Christine Bass, Mil Township. Um, I'm just gonna speak. I'm going to riff
here, but um I fully support this and um I I hope that the other two members just in solidarity vote for it. I I think that um environmental commission I I I don't know what's going on because
where were they when the other field went in by the library and you know it's just this all of a sudden they're in your space now and so I fully support fields going over it's it's very concerning. Um chopping down more trees
is a bigger environmental disaster. You guys spent so much time. I I don't I I don't even know who to thank. I mean, if Romano was involved in it, I thought Annette Romano supported. I thought the Democrats supported it. So, I I'm just really confused. It doesn't really matter. I just I really hope it goes
through. And I'm a green person. So, you know, I just want to thank you guys. And that's it. husband a 30-year president of him. Um
I enumerated some of my experience uh in my earlier comments. I'm chemical engineer with over 53 years experience. Uh uh I also was uh responsible for environmental compliance. Um so I know a
little bit about that. Uh but I did some calculations on on chemicals because if we're looking at environmental impacts, we have to look at the whole picture and uh last I I I was aware I don't believe that turf fields require insecticides
or fungicides or herbicides or fertilizer. Um but uh looking at the area of the fields that are proposed round number rough calculations I could be off by a factor of two either way it
really doesn't matter but by my calculation you're talking about roughly a thousand pounds of insecticide per per year. Uh you're probably talking about or the area of these the these fields we're talking about probably
talking about a,000 pounds of fungicide, 1,000 pounds of herbicides to kill the weeds and uh probably 2,000 pounds of of fertilizer chemical fertilizer. So uh if
you look at a 10ear lifespan, let's say a 20 year lifespan of hope, the field lasts a long time. Well, that's 10 tons of insecticides, 10 tons of herbicides, 10 tons of fungicides,
and 20 tons of of chemical fertilizers that are going to be applied to the turf field to get that grass to grow. And the Ben Winkle tributary of the Raway River runs just south of those fields. Probably 50% of those chemicals are
going to run off 50% will be retained in the soil. Um so uh there's an environmental impact putting turf in also and let's not discount that. I I think the turf fields
are environmentally responsible just as well. In this case they're called for by the need of the township uh and the recreation. Thank you. Yeah, change road short hills. Just briefly, your ordinance actually doesn't
say anything about the materials that you're going to use. So, and I've also I think there isn't anyone in the room would be comfortable with you passing this particular ordinance. Everyone knows that our students and our athletes and just recreational people who like to have recreation need fields to play on.
I don't and I don't I'm not on the environmental commission, but I I was listening to their comments and they didn't say anything about not wanting fields. So, I just want to clarify that they never said that they don't want new fields or they don't want fields for our athletes. and your ordinance tonight doesn't say anything about the
materials, but they said when I listen that they wanted the opportunity to examine some other alternatives and also to have more clarity on what you plan on putting down, which I don't think you've settled on. But one question if you can answer later on when you make your comments, who decides or who has the
final word on what what goes down on the field? What's the contents? Which company you're using? Who decides that? Anyway, um I'm here to say no one's objecting to this ordinance. I haven't heard anyone say that they don't think the fields need some work. Anyone else?
>> All right. I move this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading and that the township clerk be directed to post the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with the law. I have a second, please. >> Second. Before we vote, I want to share a few remarks. Don't worry, I hope you
can read. >> Yeah. This project has been a long time coming. For years, our families, coaches, and kids dealt with fields that simply cannot keep up with the demand our community places on. Games get cancelled, practices get moved, kids lose playing time, not because of
scheduling, but because the fields can't take it. That's a real deficit, and it's one that the township committee and the board of education have been working together address. The fact that we've been able to come together on this, two governing bodies aligned on a shared priority, is significant. I don't want that to get lost. Since the first
reading, I've heard from residents on both sides of this issue, and I want to acknowledge that the concerns raised about environmental impact, about cost, about process come from a genuine place. We took those concerns seriously and we did additional homework. One question that came up came up repeatedly was
whether engineered natural grass could be a viable alternative. We looked into it thoroughly. We consulted published research from the Ruters Cooperative Extension, the Sports Field Management Association, and the Sports Turf Managers Association. The consensus, the consensus across all of these sources is
the same. Even a professionally constructed and maintained natural grass field can sustain roughly 20 to 24 hours of play per week before it begins to degrade. Our fields need to support more than 65 hours per week. That is not a gap you can engineer your way out of. I also want to be clear about what this
bond ordinance authorizes. Funds the township's share of the project and allows us to move into the engineering design phase where detailed decisions about materials, drainage, and storm water management will be made by professional engineers. We are not bypassing that process. We are funding
it. This is an important step for our community and I'm confident we've done the due diligence to take it. I'll be voting yes tonight. Any other committee members? >> Yeah, I just want to respond to Miss Best. I think you're you were I just want to clear up a mix up. I
assume you're referring to Mr. Cosgrove and I as the other two. I don't know that that's so complimentary, but that's what they call us. Um we're not opposed to I'm not I will be voting yes as well. I'm I was opposed to funding it from the open space uh trust fund committee, but
I'm not opposed to funding the fields. I supported that. I was on the committee that brought this forward. So the the the Democrats are still in favor of it. >> I just say this is a culmination of a lot of hard work. Keep the politization out of this. This is the culmination of
people working hard uh from day one on the red committee. Uh this was a project that we all worked hand in hand. Everyone up here regardless of what your affiliation is. Everybody wants the fields for our children. Um, when I
speak about these fields, it it does become very personal because when my daughter comes home from flag football practice and she's covered in mud and, you know, possibly sprayed an ankle. Uh, but we have some we have the we had a thousand people in here, a thousand
families from the Milburn Soccer Club, 500 from the lacrosse club, 500 plus from the field hockey club. and we look at what we're doing. This is just an affirmation of how this community has come together uh to do something wonderful for for our township.
>> I just want to say, you know, really excited and I want to add to uh Mr. Stler's comments, all those who were involved thus uh you know, along the entire journey. It's been something that was discussed um forever and um it's so
exciting to see it come together. I've read every study as well. I've read every comment from the environmental uh commission um and from all different voices on this and I think we're going to come to a great uh material that makes sense. Um
and uh look forward to uh you know uh I don't know kicking a soccer ball. What do you want to know what's going to be the first sport um on this field? So I fully support it. I appreciate the engagement. I mean, look, nothing's
going to be perfect, but certainly this is going to bring us a little bit closer to it. >> And and just to reiterate what uh Mr. Serr said, >> Orgas is not going to put that little child, that fourth grader on a surface that's not good, safe, compliant. I
would not put my 14-year-old on a surface that's not safe, compliant, you know. Uh so you know keeping that in mind we're all going to do what's best for our children as we're doing right now. >> Mayor Costco have any comments? >> Uh no thank you. >> Okay. In that case roll call vote
please. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Costco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cerudo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stler. >> Yes. >> Mayor Sakamandi. >> Yes. >> The mayor voted. I'm not going to give up this vote. It's an emphatic absolute
yes. >> Everyone's congratulations everybody. >> Committee callus from the next ordinance. >> 2742-26mano scheduled to sponsor. I present for consideration an ordinance titled ordinance number 2742-26
an ordinance of the township of Milbour County of Essics authorizing the township of Milbour to execute an agreement the sale as to portions of real property located at 10 Rand Circle Milbour New Jersey 07041. Tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law.
>> I declare the hearing open. >> Okay. I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading and the township clerk be directed to request the ordinance by title is passed on final reading law. >> I have a second roll call vote please
>> has abstained >> or recused Mr. Costco >> yes >> Mr. Cerudo >> yes >> Mr. Stler. >> Mayor second. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Ordinance 2743-26. Stler is scheduled to sponsor.
>> I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2743-26. An ordinance of the township of Milbour, County of Essics, authorizing the township of Milbour to execute an easement agreement granting an easement and right ofway on real property located at 14 Aaron Circle, Melbourne, New Jersey 07041.
Tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law. It declare the hearing open. I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading of the township court be directed to post ordinance by title as
passed on final reading in accordance with law. >> Second. >> Are there any remarks from the committee before we vote? None. Roll call vote please. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Costro. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ceruto. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Stler. >> Mayor Sakamandandy. >> Yes. All right. Resolutions. Resolution 26-117 appoint members to long-term strategic planning advisory committee. I have a motion to approve resolution 26-117.
>> Motion. >> We have a second. >> Second comments. >> Yeah, I just want to say I think there's amazing group. Um we have uh uh Miss Lou in the audience. Uh thank you very much
for being here as well. uh we had uh you know uh we had seen her volunteer interest form come through and it had been a conversation uh many many months ago and it's great to see your interest once again uh you know for example we had a conversation about uh restaurants
in town uh and unbelievable uh retail opportunities. So you know um this is you know just an example of the talent. Um so thank you very much for being president and and your husband as well. Um you know uh excited to get this going. So, let's roll.
>> All right. Uh, with that must there no other comments. We'll move on to roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> no. >> Mr. Costco, >> no. >> Mr. Cerudo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stler, >> no. >> Mayor, secondy, >> yes.
>> Right. Resolution 26-118, appoint members to cultural diversity advisory committee. I have a motion to approve resolution 26-118. >> Motion. >> We have a second. Second. All right. Any comments?
We talked about a lot tonight. >> Yeah. Just I could say it's a great group. >> All right. Roll call vote. >> Mr. Coleman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Costro. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cerudo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stler
>> Peru. >> Mayor Secondandy. >> Yes. >> Right. We have no old business new business in process. Deputy Mayor Costco. Uh something you want to say on this?
>> Yeah, thank you very much. Um a few meeting and I'm hoping again to convince uh the majority of this group. A few meetings ago, uh, Mayor Sakamundi made an announcement that he had decided to change the timing of our consideration
of ordinances. Um, I've spoken to him twice about it, trying to get him reverse course. Uh, he's indicated he does not want to do that. Ordinances normally here were introduced one meeting and then there'd be two meetings in between which gave
ample time for citizens and frankly the the you know the folks on the day is here uh to look at the ordinance evaluate it get their evidence together get their arguments together do research etc. Um and the purpose was you know to allow plenty of time. It's part of the
transparency deal that I think every one of us up here made uh when we were running for office. Keep in mind that um everyone here on the day is I think has made that statement about transparency. This is an integral part of it. Um I see a number
of folks in the audience uh that I suspect might feel the same way. Um that uh two weeks is not enough. Two weeks between introduction and then passing is not enough. U keep in mind that residents, if you're one of the residents, you get these agendas at
about 400 pm on a Friday. Um and then Tuesday it's on the first time and then now two weeks later it's going to be on for final. Um if you look at this past two week period um a lot of people were gone on on holiday. Um so you really you
know this one is an example all these are on you got two weeks to look at these things. Um maybe a week and uh you got on Friday night. Um we also have summer coming up and any ordinances set up on the agenda there. of course you're going to be you're going to be short changed. Uh not so
long ago I was on your side of the uh of the day is here um in connection with um with the silver project and things like that. And I can tell you that it takes a lot of time uh to get people together uh to get them educated to be able to show
up here and then speak intelligently to to the five of us about what you like about something or what you don't like about something. Keep in mind too that like tonight, none of these ordinances are emergencies. Nobody's hair is on fire. There's no need for it to be done
in two weeks. uh and short change, you know, people um you know, and many of you have heard me probably over time again when I was on both sides of of this day is saying just because we meaning we can do something meaning I don't have to give you more than two
weeks doesn't mean we should do um and and that's I think a valid point to think about. You know there's a lot of things you can do in life and it doesn't mean you should do them. Um and this is one thing where you folks are going to get shorted. uh the opportunity to really dig into something, get your
folks together uh and show up. Now, why someone can always, you know, fashion a justification for trying to rush these things in two weeks, but again, look at the ones that are on tonight and honestly, any one of you uh tell me that that any one of those is an emergency
that has to be done in that twoe period, short changing everybody. Um, the plan also puts unnecessary uh stress and pressure on the township employees who roll up. Um, so I'd like to hear each committee man's uh and maybe the
audience's thoughts on on whether this is a good idea or so. I'm I'm going to start. So the I need to correct the record here. So the reason that there used to be a gap of one meeting in between the first and second read of the ordinances is
because the reporting requirements in New Jersey were that you had to put the notice in two of the local papers and the publishing schedule of the Milgant item was such that the timing didn't work out to get them in in time. Um, a bunch of other towns, Livingston, Summit
included, I asked attorney Caner, any of your other towns, uh, you know, skip, uh, you know, between first and second read and I believe your answer was they they don't, right? So, so that that's correct. So, just so everybody
understand what the rule is, the rule is that the notice provision applies to the public hearing. Public hearing requires 10 days published notice. that law has changed and that we could publish our notices on our website. So what so I think that even Cosbro said he
understands we can do it. The law is you need 10 days the law says you need 10 days notice of for a public hearing. So you could uh introduce on a on a Tuesday and then two weeks later if it gets put up on the website 10 days prior it can be adopted on the at the next meeting.
Um, as far as my other towns, which the mayor asked me about, uh, Livingston does not have a gap. Um, I'm also missing North Fwell. Um, they didn't used to have a gap and now they have a regular meeting followed by a conference meeting followed by a regular meeting and they only pass ordinances at regular
meetings. So, there is a gap, but if there is uh circumstances which require ordinances to be adopted, sooner, they will adopt an ordinance at a conference meeting. Um, and Morris Township once a month. So, I don't have a gap. That would mean there'd be two months in
between. Um, I, you know, I I I do think that Milbourne is unique the gap, but I'm going to survey most towns. Um, and I'm not discounting anything that Committee Cosgrove says. I'm just stating facts. >> Yeah. So, um, it's also So, Summit also
doesn't have a gap. I mean, most towns that I find don't have a gap. It's about efficiency. We are the most transparent township committee I think this town has ever seen. Um right now if you want you can go to the website. You can sign up for the Milbour alert we're calling it
now and you can check a little box that'll notify you right away when uh there's new agendas. We have new ordinances so you can easily get alerted about this. And a lot of these ordinances are controversial. We bring them up in
new business. we tend to talk about them for a meeting or two and then they finally move on to an ordinance. So to have this gap is just causing unnecessary delay and slowing down progress. I think that we have a lot of stuff that we want to get done uh this year with a lot of priorities and
there's no reason to introduce this this artificial gap. existed because of a law that has changed. Uh and now with the 48 hour notice requirement, there's there's no reason to belabor some of these. Um so, you know, I think there's there's no
reason for us to to be any different than than other towns. We shouldn't have a gap. And it's my two cents on it. >> Yeah. You know, you wanted to hear from every township committee person. Uh Mr. cost growth. So, you know, no one forced us to run for these positions to set up
here. If we have to do a little extra work to get ahead of it, we do. And I don't think your suggestion we don't. Uh but the community voted for every one of us to be up here with the mental capacity to understand move these along
at a pace uh that's uh that's, you know, very commensurate with with the local business in New Jersey and what we're doing. uh speaking to Jared and hearing that you know there is you know all of our surrounding towns uh we want to be progress we want to be leaders not
followers we don't want these to result in politization uh and undue delays I mean prime example is this the four I feel right now for getting those fields done pressing those through and knowing how big of a uphill battle we
had so uh for that reason I think it would definitely be uh in our best interest to keep the the the schedule as we have it. Now, that doesn't mean that there are going to be some items that we might agree as a committee >> that we want to push out and we want
more time and we have, >> you know, I'm going to Germany next week. I'll be gone. You know, if if I had a problem and I said, "Hey guys, I need more time. So, I'm gonna be working." You know, I think everybody here would say, "Okay, take more time."
So, you know, I think just being honest uh with ourselves uh uh being u uh true to the to the to the to what we're trying to pass and and through the transparency as well. Let's not delay uh what's coming to what we can do to help
improve this community. >> Right. Personally, I don't see any reason to to make this change. I mean, if there was some these things are not emergencies as Mr. Casper said, and when we did have an emergency, which was probably the only time I can think of in the in the four years that I've been on
this, was uh for those affordable housing ordinances, we ended up doing a special meeting to make sure that we met the deadline, which, you know, we were well aware that we would have missed given that our meeting was the day after the the deadline. So, I mean, again, you know, it's it's it's a whichever way we
can do it either way, right? We can we can we can push something up when it when it is an emergency. And I think that's just better and if it gives people more time to understand what's going on. We already heard a complaint as the first public comment that nobody knows what half of these ordinances are.
And if you shorten the time between first and second meeting, Mr. Steven allows even less time for them to understand. So I don't see any reason to change. I think we should treat an emergency when it arises and move it up as needed, but leave the rest with the safety. Um,
>> yeah, I'd like to point out in the summer we only have one meeting. So, we don't have a delay. >> We don't have to. We I don't know that we skip that. That means four weeks is four weeks, you know, it's one meeting. I don't think we do the July things in September. >> Okay. Well, then that's I mean that's an
inconsistency, >> but the meetings >> it's not the number of meetings, it's the amount of time and that's the >> additional delay should be the exception number. >> Okay. Mr. Us group asks for everybody. So look, I think we heard from um former
mayor Egllo who is very familiar with the procedures. Um look, give credit where credit's due. I think we have an opportunity to do a better job of doing recaps of what's going on. We do a Milber message every week. Could there be a link or a
reminder that hey, click here to view the ordinances that are uh pending? And it doesn't even have to be a a big administrator. It's the same link every week. You click the same thing and that page populates every week, right? Depending on if there's drafts or whatever. I think that's the best way to
move forward here. And I leave it to the mayor's discretion. It's the mayor's sets the agenda. And look, I think the strong advisement I would give is look, if it's something that needs more time, it's going to be controversial, we give it more time. Um, and I think it's pretty standard practice that we do put
things in new business, old business. Well, I don't think anybody's in a rush to get any of this stuff done unless it's critical manner. Um, so those are my comments. I think we could do a better job of the advertisement. You know, we mentioned some of these towns that you, you know,
mentioned um, Mr. Caner. I don't know if they do recaps of some sort. I know somebody brought up summit. I don't know why you don't represent them. Um, it's Jacob, right? But so they they do a lot of so
um anyways I think what I'm trying to I think everybody understands what I'm trying to say. I think we can do a better job of doing recaps and previews and I know Miss Tritz mentioned it in the past also. You know um it's a nice thing. Uh
we do the Melbourne message um but I and we used to do a newsletter. We're coming on. We just came across a quarter of the year, right? So what maybe it's time to do a quarterly uh report, quarterly newsletter as well. I don't know what anybody feels about that, but how do you
feel that Mr. >> I don't know. I'm just thinking that that I'm not against the quarterly report, but that doesn't solve the problem. We've got people in the audience here um who are going to get shortch changed. And again, it's just because we can do it doesn't mean we
should be doing it. And even if even if all of us because we know what's going on can get up to speed, which I was not inferring that anyone wasn't up to speed on this side, uh I know having been on that side of the of the Deis that you need that time to get people out there
to, you know, e even the fields as an example, right? Um there was people on one side saying no, you know, we want natural turf. There were people saying we want artificial better. All of those people did tons of research. I know from the comments. >> Yeah. >> And the time was what you needed to be
able to do that. >> So I don't think this So mayor, if you don't mind me saying I don't think this needs to just be this is what we're doing from now. Why don't we just say we're going to be we're going to be diligent about when we we're reviewing the ordinances and you and the mayor is going to make the determination based on
>> I don't need to pick you off. I know I know I'm about correct anyway. So the mayor doesn't set uh when the hearing date is. It's a motion. I was giving you a complate. Tell us the clerk. >> The mayor the mayor or the clerk doesn't set it. You make a motion to introduce
and set a hearing date. It's voted on by a roll call vote. So it's basically the entire committee sets the hearing date for each ordinance by motion because when you introduce it, you're also moving to set a public hearing date. So as part of that motion practice, that's when it gets decided. So it doesn't and
I understand as a default it's going to be the next time and you'll have votes but it's it's each ordinance hearing date is sent by a motion and that motion includes just like if it's being referred to the planning board it's a motion to introduce refer to planning board and set a public hearing date. So
actually every ordinance is individually set by >> right but the recommended >> right but there's a recommendation I assume for there's recommend I don't it may be formal over something I'm just >> all right so let me just take that let me retract you um
>> well that's another but you just bring up a good point the the the ordinances that have to go to the planning board you know before the second reading that becomes a scheduling issue >> we believe we leave sufficient time there and depending on when the planning board meets that may be that might be a
meeting it might be two meetings it really depends on and we'll accommodate that >> yeah I'm sort of I'm sort of I think we're putting the clerk before the horse >> I think it's a by the ordinance situ I think it's got to be by the ordinance make a determination
>> but I do think that I don't know I want to hear from how everybody else feels about this sort of update you know Milbur message I don't know >> ordinance do business. >> I think that deserves its own conversation. >> I don't really think it's a long conversation. I mean,
>> I'm putting putting I think we talked about it link in the Milbour message to upcoming. >> What does everybody think about that? >> Good. All right. So, that's direction. >> Yeah. Or reference. >> Excellent. All right.
>> Uh, second public second public comment public comment period is to allow for final comments from the community. I'm invited to speak for your comments. Please come for lectern. State your name whether you're a Melbourne resident or business owner. Please do not provide
your full address seeing as our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public. Reminder that in order to facilitate meeting all be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session.
November 30 resident of Hill. Um a week ago tonight the uh charter study commission concluded their u their commission. they made their
recommendations and the reports will be drawn out. But um uh one of the key components the committee was made up of of uh actually my knowledge three Democrats,
one Republican and one independent. But uh all of their votes I'll note all of their votes were unanimous. Um and uh one of the things they voted on was to
make uh committee elections nonpartisan. And if if anything really uh reinforces that, it's what I witnessed here tonight. And uh because I'm a member of one
party, I don't want to be adversaries uh of other people in this township, of my neighbors, uh you know, of fellow towns people. We should really be all pulling together
and uh tonight's meeting was very polarized. I respect each of you. I respect the job you're doing and I I you had sound reasoning for from each of your decisions. I'm not disputing that. It's just unfortunate that it was so
polarized and and uh and that I had to sit here and witness that. And my hope is that the recommendations of the charter study commission uh when they're voted on in June uh that that passes
that we could maybe put an end to some of this and and work closer together and not be adversaries. Thank 28ear resident chair of the statutoily required Republican committee. I've long been an active volunteer and former
elected board of ed member and I do not appreciate Mr. Cohen's attempt at the politics of personal destruction. I first proposed a strategic planning effort from this podium five years ago and I'm honored to now serve on this committee. Notably, despite repeated attempts, I was never appointed to a GC
committee across six success six or seven successive Democratic administrations, an important contrast to this administration's approach. Regarding the Open Space Trust, I attended both recent meetings. I believe Mr. Costco missed the first one. At the second meeting, his account does not
align with my recollection. I remember a majority supported allocating the 25% toward the field funding. 100% allocation was considered but not supported and a 15% proposal received no second or discussion. Multiple members stated that there were no projects
currently in the pipeline in response to Miss Patel's inquiry. Holding taxpayer funds without a legitimate use is inappropriate. His characterization of the meeting conflicts with what I believe occurred. The tone is also concerning. Why raise these issues publicly in such an uncollegial way
rather than bringing concerns to the mayor or attorney before the meeting? This approach undermines credibility particularly given his ineffective liaison role with CEDA where accountability gaps went unressed. The effort by Mr. Cosgrove and Mr. Cohen to derail at the 11th hour a decadel long
initiative to expand playing time and operational fields for our children is at best unprofessional. Approving a project without funding is not true support. I commend Ben Stler, Frank Sakamandi, the board of ed, and the recreation commission for advancing this long overdue project and supporting
passage of the open space trust. As we heard tonight, numerous initiatives led by Frank, Ben, and Jamie are actively improving our town. It is fair to ask why the negativity now when longstalled progress is finally being made. I also note that several speakers tonight including members of the Democratic
committee, its chair Miss Desmare and candidates Beth Zaul and Bill Brazelle did not identify their affiliations. At the start of the year, meetings were collaborative and constructive with election season underway that has shifted to clear acrimony. So the question for residents, my fellow
residents, is simple. who is politicizing and who is delivering results for our taxpayers and residents. Thank you. >> Bill cur res. I just had uh couple of quick thoughts about the uh the ordinance process. I mean I think it can
be done either way. I think I think certainly I think the township committee members can maybe handle um the shorter process, but I think we've seen over time espe there are many times when residents have felt that they were left out and they weren't but they weren't always paying attention. I think they're
doing other things and they're not digging in behind the agendas online and they do need time I think to to get their act together and feel like they're more of the process. I think that's one thing that argues for a longer, you know, for that gap. Not that it's no longer necessary. And like I said, you
folks probably don't need it for all the hard work you do, but I think speaking for myself or a lot of residents, we do need time to catch up sometimes. The other thing is it was mentioned about that apparently some ordinances need to go before the planning board or some other body. And I think it could be
confusing in the process if we have first readings where well this one's going to be this date but this one's going to be a further date. That default of uh of the gap I think kind of covers most of the problems and makes it more uniform less confusing. But that just a
couple thoughts I had while discussing this. Thanks. Been a long evening. Um, in my emails, a situation occurred at the last DID meeting on March 26th about issues about oversight of this
committee over to SID. I hope that becomes a matter of discussion. Um, many of us had to leave that meeting to go to the charter study commission meeting that night. But there was, you need to look at the video. We need to look at
the statements that were made. This is a unique situation with our SID. It's appointed by this committee. It's located in town hall. 50% of the executive director's salary is paid by taxpayers, not by
special assessment. But there was comments made and I urge you as your fiduciary duties to investigate and confirm who is right of who has oversight of that committee. Thank you. >> One more time since I'm here with Short
Hills. Thanks again for your service. Um I wanted to start out by thanking Mr. Cohen and Mr. Cross Grove for your courage and clarity on voting no on using the open space trust funds to fund um athletic fields particularly the turf since we know the turf is most likely
going to go there. I looked back at some of the marketing for this um ballot question which was which the voters approved and in the marketing it talks about convert ugly unused lots into green space restore forests meadows and woodlands increase biodiversity mitigate
blood flooding and combat the heat island effect. It's ironic that that's there because we all know that turf fields actually do increase the heat island effect. Um so thank you for voting no and for your clarity on how those mines should be used. Um, I also wanted to say I really like Jamie's
comment um on the ordinance link. I think that would be valuable if you're going to shorten the time or I should consider that. So many people are busy. They're working. They're raising families. They're just not maybe have the time and maybe and maybe someday they will like I did. I certainly didn't pay attention when I was a young mother.
Um and and now that I'm more involved um I do know about some of these things, but even some of them get by me. I actually met Mr. cause growth because of the Woodland Road project and somebody called me on it and said you need to pay attention to this and so much of this is word of mouth and you really need time for that word of mouth to happen for
people who are busy working families. Um and the other point I wanted to make on that is that um Mr. Spo is probably very familiar with the school calendar. There's a lot of vacations and breaks. People are away. They're well-deserved breaks. So I think our families um particularly with ordinances that may be
relevant to them need more time. So I would be fully in favor of of having the four-week gap be maintained with and if there's emergency measures that really need to happen then you would notify the public that this is an urgent matter that means a quicker resolution. Thank you.
All right. Uh, Richard Cyber res. Um, so just a clarification. So it's a state law that says that a nonresident must be a board member of the library.
>> Can be or must be. >> At least four residents. At least four of the members have to be res. >> At least four. But but it doesn't say that a non-resident is required. >> No, they're not required. at least four happy residents. >> All right, cool. And then um one other
thing. So in my life of being a businessman, I found that lawyers make money the longer they can prolong the project, but businessmen try to get it done as quick as possible.
Thank you. Chris Hiden Hinri, Melbourne resident. Just a quick comment on the ordinance process. I understand Mr. Cogro Cosgrove comments. Nothing annoyed me more on the board of education when something would come out on Thursday. I had a busy busy
weekend planned and the meetings were on Monday. It was a cra constant. Having said that, I definitely think about this issue the other way around that most ordinances that probably go through the town are are not that critical. So efficiency is key. Doing one meeting
next, get it done. You're all wellversed on the issue because the problem I found with delays, it's like, oh, what's this thing again? And I almost had to relearn the issue multiple times. And I would defer to this committee as uh the lawyer explained. you all vote on when the note
the date is for the public hearing. So if it's a bigger issue one you think the public needs to be aware of it's like hey guys let's just give this one a month give it several meetings I think you're intelligent enough to make those decisions. So I would encourage you to adopt the flexibility to have the
efficiency and then if more time is needed that's what you can do. Thank you. Okay, Christine Best. Um, I wanted to ask Alex, I I I didn't get to finish all my questions about
CEDA. Um, so maybe you can answer for this. Um, answer this for me. Um I I don't know if a grant was given to CEDA for that money by the Short Hills Mall or how they acquired those funds, but I would like to understand how those funds were acquired. And if it was given by
the Short Hills Mall, I want to understand if there was any agreement that we can't have businesses in town because of it. I just want to understand and make sure and you know, want to make sure that money coming from retail organizations might be better directed to um organizations like Explore. And
I'm saying that as a resident, not as a member of the board. Um, and um, I also want to point out that the art advisory committee um, really was not consulted and I'm not speaking for them. I'm speaking for myself. Um, we have an art
advisory committee in town and there's a lot of duplication and I really do think that that committee should be driving any type of artistic process in the township rather than a diversity committee. maybe, you know, they could go to the art committee and ask them how
to do a mural like this in the future. Um, I also wanted to understand just in general, and this is something that came up recently in a meeting, um, and this Alex, you might know the history on this better because it might have been before your time. Do we have an agreement like
a handshake agreement or an inriting agreement with the Short Hills Mall in terms of proximity of businesses in our downtown? I'd like to understand that as it pertains to the health of our downtown. Um I also wanted to talk about
um are we I've noticed on some of the explore um uh social media pages that we have t public township business items going into advertising spaces. So, I
just want to make sure that like things like the township sidewalk cleanup rules, um child passenger safety rules from the town and public info session rules that the explore Melbourne site stays pure for retail um because that's
what that organization is for. Um it's for the retail um health of our town. Um and I also wanted to un one second. I'm sorry. I'm just a little tired. Oh. I can't remember anything. I do want to
apologize to you guys. I I'm just really tired and I forget people's names sometime when I'm tired. So, it wasn't because I was being disrespectful. I I think highly of you. That's why I was begging you cuz And um so I want to make sure I told you that. And I'm sorry. I do say I'm sorry. I
didn't know when I'm wrong. And I was wrong that I didn't differentiate between your different opinions on the funding. I also want to point out that um the funding was yes I understand >> online >> we'll make this quick and hopefully I'm
the last one um president uh in for about 14 years first time homing so I'm very impressed uh uh touch committee meeting uh very impressed with the finances and everything this is the town that I bought into and felt like was well run and now it's confirmed
Um just want to remind about the the turf, congratulations on the passage of the turf. Uh I want to remind the uh committee and your partner board of education. There's another sport that would benefit from this and that's baseball. Just want to keep that in mind as you go through the design process and the scope of the uh uh the first phase.
Just want to keep that in mind. We'd love to see that JB field turf as well. So keep that. Thank you. >> All right. I will now close public comment. Any other committee members have any thoughts? >> I'll I'll start. Uh thank you for those time boards. Very much appreciate it.
And you know uh starts with the first step right and getting the first part those first two fields done. And it also offers a fantastic cricket pitch as well which is madly needed for our community. Um I I'd actually like to take a second
just to thank everybody on the stasis. uh everybody that that participates for your time. You know, I know exactly how much time you guys put in, how much effort. So, thank you guys for all the hard work you guys do. >> I just I'll be quick. I thought I had
made myself clear, but given Mr. President Max's comments, I guess I didn't. I agree. You can't have you can't approve a project and start your funding. I was never opposed to funding the fields. I was only opposed to funding it through the open space fund. I thought that we had you know that
money should be used for other things and we have some huge amount I don't remember now what it was in the uh in the fund balance that we could we if if push came to shove we could have taken it from that but I've always but I have always been a supporter of the deals was
not the way that we have chosen to fund it Um, no comment on that. You know, I forget who mentioned this that that that there was something political about the vote tonight or or there's there certainly
isn't. Just because two people or one person doesn't agree on a certain thing doesn't make it political. Um, you know that I mean I think that's part of the process. There's times when we've agreed on all four of us have agreed on something such as the fields is
unanimous both times. No one said that was political. um tonight, you know, I I disagree with a few of the votes. Um and then I'll address a comment made by Miss Pastnac um that somehow uh is blaming me for
what may or may not have happened at CEDA. I was at one CEDA meeting um and it was a meeting that I understood to be just an update on the mural. Um not an organizational meeting, etc. Um but I will pass on uh you know
to mayor um that I do not want to be on that committee anymore. Um so yeah >> um I'll just say uh once again as I said I think at the top of the meeting uh regarding you know the desire to create sort of an arts council you know I think
we we've had a lot of really great interest in art amongst so many different people and it's just not funing through the right it just has no nowhere to go the art advisory committee in its structure is not it can't ask for money there's so all
these restrictions. So, I think u there's an ordinance that Mr. McDonald and I were taking a look at in a neighboring community. So, we're going to try to um this is my preview to the tension committee. U but I I I'd like to uh you know, if anybody has interest in getting involved in art, feel free to
get in touch with me. I'm going to try to seek out some folks as well um from the different groups, but you know, let's get let's get a process in place. Let's get something just focused on art. I think when things get too confused, you know, you start uh you know, you
start cooking uh uh French food in in an Italian restaurant and uh you know how that works out. Um I can somebody tell you um Turfields excited. Very excited. Thank you.
Have a motion to adjurnn the meeting. >> Motion. >> All in favor?