##VIDEO ID:bV5Sh5D03ko## e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act be advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday February 4th 2025 meeting details on the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to salute the flag one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call please Deputy Mayor Cohen here Mr cro here Mr Sandy here Mr Stoler pres mayor Romano here may I have a motion to approve the agenda may I have a second all those in favor I may have a motion to approve the January 7 2025 Township committee minutes may I have a second all those in favor okay reports um um committee second men do you want to go first not really okay we don't have to committee coso I no report thank you Comm installer I have plenty of reports okay Recreation committee pool golf tennis pickle ball memberships are now open uh if you haven't seen the new pickle ball courts are fantastic with lights discounts 10% off or available if you purchase a tennis pickle ball or golf membership with your pool membership registration for spring and summer programs are still open uh limited spots remaining they're filling up quick and then the uh J gero Park LED light project is moving along the basketball court LED uh retrofitting uh is complete so you can uh play Bowl up during any hours um let's go to Sid special Improvement uh Super Bowls on Sunday encourage all residents who are saying local shop local dying local celebrate the big game uh menus are out make sure your catering orders are in advance so you get your order on time uh explor is hosting a business listening session 6m on February 11th via Zoom the link has been distributed to all businesses and Property Owners uh you get it off the website or you can email Steve for it Sidewalk Cafe licenses are live and can be applied for uh Explorer has been Distributing the forms via email and they are also accessible on the clerk's office on the website or at the clerk's office uh and then Restaurant Week is back and we'll start on March 24th uh Explorer are working hard on recruiting participants it was a runaway success last year uh we expect over 40 Restaurants to join again as they did last year uh and we'll keep you up to date on that Boe uh uh the big update there was we had a forum on Sunday afternoon with the Dr disin and Mr Connelly and the board engaging with 80 residents and it lasted two and a half hours a lot of good questions a lot of good responses uh just a fantastic coming together with people other um Finance subcommittee subcommittee Michael and I met uh with uh with Matt larcy and Alex and and others to go over several Finance related matters uh initial discussions about the future Solid Waste Services and the cooh fee ordinance uh these topics took some time will be initially vetted through this group and then presented to the township committee uh we're expecting introduction of the municipal budget in April with adoption consideration in May um Mountain Valley Emergency Communication Center that's our dispatch 911 dispatch emergency dispatch uh we set our meetings for 2025 um uh at the last Township committee we authorized the mvcc to execute another 10-year lease with New Providence the authorization was also completed by the city of summit uh with uh mayor Fagan and and Jamal Boer is on is also on this committee uh there'll be a lot of important work for uh the board this year and we look forward to a continued partnership with Summit uh and the mbcc joint Fields no update um flood mitigation update now apparently I I'm a city kid so I really realize there's a big difference between a pond and a lake but just make that on the list when I see a big body of water I saw she's big body of water next time um work on potential chadam Road retention area it's going to ease flooding in the Glennwood and Washington sections it's moving forward as a team selects one of the three firms bidding uh the next key action to mitigate flooding in downtown murn and Main Street will come from the orange Reservoir enhancements as you've heard me discuss uh for plan completion in 2026 I think that about R it up uh thank you I have a question for the flood mitigation there the bid covers how far is it just the initials design or how far is going after for bid for the res for the uh the the project in for CH Road uh I think it's going out well I think it's going to be a bit for the entire project to start right yeah it's a it's a feasibility study it's a feasibility study correct and and and sort of an initial and like that all obviously leads into an initial design but but it's it's a feasibility study of whether a detention area would work so that's so that and then there's a decision point after that to how assuming it would work there would be a decision Point as to how that would get done corre okay thank you um de mayor call sure well Ben covers the finance committee the planning board meeting uh that would have happened between from the last meeting was canceled but there is one tomorrow the high Center is still on the agenda I um it's tomorrow at 7:30 in in this room I don't know that this will be the last meeting frankly I don't think it will be but you're certainly welcome to attend um the other the other thing the library um just question is there is there a deadline on the when they have to make a decision by uh every meeting we have to both sides have to agree for an extension because it should have been done per the law in 45 days and we are way over that so um every meeting both parties have to agree to extend the deadline and so far that's what we've been doing but we do it one meeting at a time because that's what their attorney would requests um the library the second the bids for the uh second floor renovation will be opened on February 6th at 2m in the auditorium it's open for the public um and so they've gotten a bunch of bids and they'll be choosing the lowest bidder and uh that's it thank you committe secondate sure uh the citizens affordable housing committee is going to be having a public meeting via zoom on the 20th of this month uh we're going to have planner at that meeting and I believe a representative from our our legal council as well uh so if you're interested make sure to tune in I think the EC has had a meeting since we last met and the planning board was covered so let go thank you um so I just want to report that we are the uh proud recipient of uh Community block grant from the county of Essex in the amount of $75,000 and uh that money will be used for various Ada and sidewalk improvements on Blain Street and Ridgewood Road so I just wanted to uh I see U Mr kamacho is not here but I just wanted to thank um the county exec and the uh Board of Commissioners and all of everyone involved in making that happen and also opportunity project received uh $144,000 today for their programs and services so um that was great news today and um also believe we're going to have somebody from the uh danov family uh during public comment just to announce that they're having their e8th annual March 4th 5K on Sunday March 2nd um to raise awareness to uh colon cancer which is in March so um think he'll be on the line so he can give us some more information okay yeah go ahead thank you um just to piggyback on the community development block grant um with the $75,000 it's currently in um in being designed for the 8 or barrier-free accessible ramps again that's Ridgewood and Ivy Blain and church blae and recor Hobart and coniston Hobart and South Hobart and north and Hobart and Taylor um will be covered by that Grant so um as we've mentioned in years past we were in a cycle of every year receiving this money but now we've gone through an every two-year cycle so that we can have a larger project and and and get more um funding as well as um more more areas done at the same time uh just an update on the safe routes of schools Grant uh in which the township received $599,000 for um accessibility from the other side of South Orange Avenue um uh to the Deerfield School there will be a sidewalk installation on Old Short Hills Road which is a County Road and the county RightWay uh survey work is going to start on that project and then uh the the there's going to be a kickoff meeting with the nv5 who is the consultant uh and certainly the do who is is administering the grant uh just wanted to make an announcement to the community that um the township will be starting a construction blot uh this will be very similar to a police blotter um however this will be a blot that uh you know um lists those individuals or construction companies generally that are in violation um or receive a summons from the township for doing work without a permit um doing work without inspections um and other such infractions that result in a monetary penalty against that that company um again I think the Hope here is that those that are working in town and generally ask for forgiveness um are more concerned about their reputation of that this bladder will be made public um and that they won't do those things in the first place so that's going to come out first one's going to be the end of February um we'll see how that goes um just a quick update on the parking ad hoc committee which met on Monday um we discussed the levels of permitting we are back um getting pretty close to pre-pandemic levels in terms of number of community permits issued uh I think we are already over a thousand permits issued uh for 2025 um levels for business permit parking and other permits are generally the same The Shopper parking permit Park parking uh still becoming more and more popular each year uh so that's a great uh permit that's offered by the township for our residents that should you not want to feed the meter you can purchase that permit and just park in the downtown and utilize that or any business district quite honestly um we are talking about the G Techna roll out which is going to be a LPR enforcement tool for parking um and also will move us towards uh permitless permitting um so people won't have to put permits on their vehicles um and the uh LPR uh enforcement system will just read whether a per person has a valid permit um as they drive through the lot uh improve efficiency uh in terms of enforcement it'll allow uh pbos to address other issues and things like that in town uh but that will be sort of a slow roll out through 2025 um we discussed some issues on chatam road parking particularly when it comes to business permit parking some solutions there that we're working on um and we also talked about parking deck utilization uh interestingly enough we have um 93 spaces uh allocated for business permit parking and the average is 35 in terms of usage so we are discussing ways to uh not only incentivize potentially you know getting business permit Parkers in there but also Shoppers um and utilizing that deck to its full capability uh which is going to be a big Focus this year as well as trying to get those individuals who work you know maybe are employed in a business or work in a business to to Park um off the street so that that can be opened up to Shoppers so that was a a large point of discussion with that thank you thank you Mr can uh thank you mayor good evening I have no report tonight um but any committee has a question person question thank you thank you okay public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milburn resident and or property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there's a remote option if you called in and would like to comment please press star six now if you are attending by computer or electronic device please click the raiseed hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you'll be prompted when there's 30 seconds remaining a reminder that this is not time for dialogue or to debate a matter and this is a time during our business meeting for the public to offer comments I will now open the public comment period so we're gonna go um online real quick cuse Jeremy's on Mr D call hi Jeremy hello everyone uh my name is Jeremy dranov I really appreciate you that giving me a few minutes to speak thank you mayor romano and Steve gorilla and the township committee I really appreciate it um just so everyone knows yeah so I am the founder and race director of March 4th as briefly mentioned we are an annual 5K that takes place on the corner of Brookside and Glenn right by the Milbourne library in town this is our eth annual 5K run walk that we're doing on Sunday March 2nd this year um this event was started eight years ago uh by my family and I when my mom Joanna a Milbourne resident uh died of colon cancer on March 4th of 2016 um and each year we've been doing everything we can to prevent that from happening to anyone else ever again and with that uh we are pushing for as many participants as we can as many dollars raised and as many people tested for colon cancer as humanly possible we're calling on individuals of the town as well as businesses to partner with us for sponsorship um and anything else you can do to help us spread our word and make sure that uh this never happens to anyone ever again um I really encourage everyone to check out our website at March 4th .org or feel free to reach out to me Jeremy dranov gmail.com um or shoot me a text at 98477 1339 since this is recorded and uh I hope that you guys all come on Sunday and we're really looking forward to it and again thank you so much and appreciate the time thank you so much is there anybody else onl no hands yet no okay um anyone from the audience good evening my name is Jeffrey Feld I've Liv in the poet section for more than 32 years um other comments today they're put in the context of the Friday's Announcement by R AG about an announcement for a trust commission which is pretty unique and also Sunday was the last published edition of The Star Ledger and I referred you to to the harsh editorial and oped that appeared and also regarding a round three the Belleville Public Notices Sunday's New York Times had a very interesting oped by David Brooks in the last few days the New York Times has been writing like today Brent Stevens about what does it mean with no sord Ledger about being a Watch Dog about local wrongdoing and that takes me to tonight's agenda which is like my annual questions regarding the anticipation uh note resolution 25057 um really to analyze this we need our annual debt statement which is usually dated is as of December 31st of 2024 and usually it's due as of the last day of January and to really understand this this resolution you need to know what our debt was um and when you compare the amount of our ban for this year compared to last year's is about $3 million more like who who is the lender that who's buying these what is the new interest rate and what projects are included in this and which ones were satisfied I can't tell that without that information and it just seems to be the same pattern for the last five years that come here and they ask regarding about transparency robust informed transparency for in particular on December 20th of last year we completed the Papermill Playhouse acquisition me through OA I got the HUD statement but how do we fund it how do we fund the East Willow Court and I think those are the information that the public should have how we funded these transactions um as before I've sent you various heads up questions we haven't heard it um we have our mayor um I think it's time for her to respond about whether she receives a stifen for U for serving on the uh joint counties committee and how come we never get reports regarding about that um entity that she serves on um I'll speak later but again I have copies of the articles that appeared and again I invite I offer my assistance in our round three litigation because it seems that we have a new judge in that case that's Judge Russo I think everyone knows my history of Judge Russo how he rused himself from the Bear Properties case and I think when I made the reference to the Belleview um various Public Notices that were in Sunday Star Ledger please look at them thank you Charles vanara uh short mil bur Short Hills resident for 28 years um on the subject of parking permits uh I know there's times where I go in for the day with one of my daughters and my wife will go in and we look for a place to park uh and I've I talked to the town hall and I did get a resident permit but um don't forget about people like me and and us and when we go in for for a day into New York City you know reserve some parking spaces for residents that want to get a special permit and go in for the day so we don't get ticketed for being over two hours um the other thing uh I've always spoken from my heart and tried to be sincere so I have to tell speak from my heart now uh last year I stood here at this Podium very proud of our Township committee and its members for showing a genuine concern for nonpartisanship in the mayoral and Deputy mayoral elections and in the teamwork that you exemplified and I held uh mayor Romano especially in high esteem when you stated and it's recorded as such uh that you step down to avoid conflict of interest watch the recording um uh I was really disappointed I almost spoke at the end of last meeting but I decided to go home and look at the recording and make sure um to hear mayor Romano change her reasoning and say it was due to uh uh the workload and not conflict of interest and I just have to say you know I I I I found that to be a blow to the high Este demon which I held you mayor uh so u i I thought you were doing the right thing for the right reasons and it turns out now I'm learning otherwise uh I expressed my concern at the last Township committee meeting about the sit elections and that very same topic of conflict of interest and I uh my recommendation uh very strongly was to avoid a conflict of interest between a uh a party chair and an important position uh like the uh uh uh the head of the Sid um uh the chairperson of the Sid uh and contrary to my recommendations and several others who stood here and contrary to uh what committee men stal the recommended uh the uh the Sid went ahead and uh and voted the Democratic party chair as head of the Sid um I'm really disappointed to learn that I've lost a lot of respect for the Sid and I've lost a lot of trust in you thank you J moreli Township resident I'd like to start by thanking all the committee members for their service to the community and kudos to Alex on the presentation on legal expenses last meeting I've got some questions there but let me come back to that um I'd first like to comment on last uh meeting's discussion on what boards committees commissions political party leads and elected Party Committee members for that matter should be on I think it's a great question and commend committee manell for raising the question but rather than speak about a specific individual on a specific board why not take a holistic approach why not sit down and put forward a statement of principles and values I know that is almost certainly unconstitutional to pass any sort of ordinance or resolution declaring who is or isn't allowed to be on a board or a committee based on belonging to a political a particular political committee but perhaps a proclamation stating the values that you as a Township Council believe would be okay that may remove some of the partisan aspects of the discussion by making it clear that the principles apply to everyone back to the legal expenses I went back in my archive and I pulled out the legal presentation from 2013 to 2020 Alex is smiling he knows what's coming uh it starts with the same page on the different categories and the decks are almost identical with one exception and that is on the second page of the deck from 2013 to 2020 in that deck it shows total legal cost per year for every year from 2013 to 2020 it shows what the total cost over the period was it shows the amount that was reimbursed and it shows the annual cost for Legal Services there is no such page in this document and while the categories uh for expenses are broken out into for three of the categories we do not get a holistic picture of the cost nor can we derive from the information in here what the total costs per year are so my question is what were the total legal expenses for the years 2021 to 2024 and why isn't there an equivalent chart in the deck just curious I'm not insinuating anything I'm simply asking why those costs aren't here and what those costs were thank you thank you good evening Diane Eglo Milbourne resident so I have a list of questions I've been wondering what is the construction on JFK and how long that is going on for um please consider reasonably sized raised bump bats at Whittingham and Milburn Avenue the plastic barriers are ugly and do not prevent double parking as intended they also catch all the dirt and the sandbags it's just unsightly and importantly this would provide a safer Crossing raise for pedestrians um a few weeks ago I had sent Alice Alice and Canfield and Alex picture of the hessen house and it's really concerning since the historic designation was forced upon them a few years ago the house is falling in disrepair what are the rules I mean it's and I've been sent pictures from other people who want to remain anonymous thank you for the crosswalk install and Ivy update um old pet peeve of mine the area behind the standard looks like hell this is what everyone sees when they're walking along the bridge on Milbourne Avenue they put up a fence which is broken and does not function as a real barrier again are there not rules for upkeep the paths and tayor park are crumbling and are even too narrow for two people to walk comfortably side by side is there a plan to redo and widen all the paths in the park and that includes the Rose Garden we had a beautiful plan that would have redone the Rose Garden for 1.7 million people went crazy yet 7 million handed to the paper this all goes to town Pride for a town of our wealth and reputation why is Milbourne Avenue looking so rundown with broken brick paths years years and years um I'd like to suggest again that a link to these TC meetings are added to the bottom of the Friday mayor messages I don't know why it would be very easy might get some more people than the seven orade who come every week um on to nine main street I propose that we stop spending Millions might be an ex exaggeration of dollars fighting the inevitable instead consider renegotiating with RPM to develop all of the DPW site on essic Street DPW will have to be moved at some point make this a coordinated project that has many benefits this would prevent the offensive to many 100% affordable housing Frank you know the plan um lastly I'll speak about the high Center application which fits the zoning rules passed for a house of worship the comments insinuations and innuendos that are online at public meetings are shameful especially from a few of our residents who I will not call out their name it's just horribly insulting let the application let the application go through the process at the planning board where belongs wait for public comments and stop inciting such hate got it hi there I'm Jane Gomez A 25y Year Milburn resident um nice to see you all I am here today to ask you to consider putting in audible traffic signals in the downtown area I don't know if any of you have been to moristown but when you stop at a traffic light in moristown it tells you when to go this would not only help blinded and visually impaired people but it would also help the newcomers to our town that don't really understand the traffic patterns it would help the middle schoolers and high schoolers that come into town the texter the people who want to take advantage of all the great restaurants Carly the people who' want to take advantage of all the great restaurants Milburn has always been concerned about the safety in the downtown area with so much growth so many exciting new commercial entities coming in new apartments New traffic I think a retrofitting traffic lights would be a not that expensive solution and it may really save lives and make this even more of an attractive place to come and spend time thank you thank you anyone else sorry B 15 full terce um I just uh had a couple of questions um Alex I believe on the December 17th meeting might have been a different date Frank had asked you to answer a list of questions that I asked you to answer in regards to the high Center um and I had sent that out to the entire team here on the day and I haven't gotten response from you yet um because they're continuing to violate the settlement agreement and also I also wanted to understand why the township gave back the $500,000 in um violations for a, one I think was reduced down to $1,000 and I think that's really really important because we want to have transparency um and not give favoritism to one group or another um and discriminated against homeowners um that live in a neighborhood Ood of that there would be an expectation of residential like activity particularly in light of the 1898 deed restrictions and I continue to do quite a bit of research about legality of deed restrictions and the reason why I'm bringing it to you and not the planning board is I want you to understand that the township has the right and can enforce deed restrictions especially when it's been handed down in 2014 by the Shaner division um you know enter plative for um the judgment on Virginia Welch and her property and it was also reiterated legally I believe in 2018 2019 and they had provided quite a bit of evidence you know you'd explained to me that there was no evidence of any deep violation de restrictions but there was quite a bit of evidence that was brought forth in multiple cases and continues to be brought forth on Facebook pages Etc where they're violating and it's so you know I want to know can I violate things in my house and throw parties late at night do whatever I want to do and can I do that because it's it's not fair to other residents it's not fair to people that have the expectation to live in peace in their homes it's not fair to do that to people so I just want to bring that to your attention I also just want to read a couple things um you know you you were unaware that the high Center continued its operations with little changes after it exhausted its appeal Council for Welch that's the Welch Family at 165 Ultra Road since he into cist letters in 2018 and 2019 and Alex I do think you had mentioned to me that um that you guys had some kind of agreement I know that Jackie lieberberg signed the settlement agreement because she was the acting mayor at the time I'm not sure if who voted yes or no on it but I think Miss eago was involved um in the offline settlement agreement that there's no paper recording of maybe she was wasn't um excuse me I wasn't talking to excuse me thank you thank you very much um so you know I'd like to understand more about that because I actually think that we have to we we owe equal opportunity to all people of this town thank you thank you so much anyone else okay thank so I will now close public comment um so um Mr Feld I do get a stien I don't know exactly what it is but um it's public record so feel free to look it up um Mr Bomar there are spaces at the library for um Commuter for residents that want to go into the city for a day um I don't think they're all being used but I haven't gone into the city in a while so I'm really not sure um the barriers at The UPS Store are temporary so so you know that's just a temporary thing until um we figure out what we're doing um and the audible traffic signals uh you know we've been talking about this for a couple of years now just some some changes with uh uh pedestrian Crossings and lighting and everything else so it is a work in progress it does take a long time um but we are discussing it so hopefully if I can report something positive in the near future in the couple of months I I hope I can so let's see where that goes um who wants to begin all right thank you all for coming out tonight appreciate your presence uh So Christine best you know I I believe there's a lot more between that 500k versus 1K that you're talking about uh I think it would be good to get a full record and accounting of what happened uh and if there is participation by any other people then we can go through it uh Mr Sol all I don't even know she's referring to explain in detail yeah so maybe you can submit a a written request to the township committee to Mr to to Mr uh to Alex Mr McDonald and and request exactly what what you're asking I I because it just seems very salacious when you're coming up with 500k versus is a thousand I'm sure there's a lot of exogenous variables that all occurred at the same time whatever happened Miss Eglo Miss liberg I don't know but now I do want to know acquiring minds want to know right uh I'll let Alex answer the the funding of EAS Willow and paper mill I think it's just part of our uh our normal Finance operations um what else we have here audible alerts as I've said I have all four audible alerts uh anything we can do to improve safety in this town uh Miss iglo iglo um they'll answer the con instruction on Eisenhower and such um and as as we go forward and you know I cannot say how proud I am of the township committee and the changes we did made last year and the contributions to our town that we made uh everything from the paper mill to the Sid to um uh a new town hall to uh precipitous Dro in crime that was St staring Us in the face all these different things happened and uh and we prove every single week every single month and uh I commend everyone's contribution um thank youy mayor I'm well you can obviously count me in on the audible traffic signals of course um as far as Mr Mor Al's comment on the uh on the presentation I'm sure putting together that slide that wasn't there is something you can do and it it's something that that we should have so um I'd like to see that and that's it can you second sure uh so I would support looking into the cost of getting audible traffic signals as well so I think that's at least three people on the stus that has asked for that so Alex I trust that you'll uh take that under advisement and look into that um let's see m iglo i find it ironic that you're asking about the state of the hessen house since what I recall it was uh you that wanted to tear that thing down at some point so that's interesting but um is that a town-owned asset now is not it's not okay so not responsible for it um see uh Miss best um we did receive your list of questions I was hoping uh that Mr Donald would provide answers to to some of those did this afternoon Miss um additionally like Mr Stoler I would like to know if there's any sort of agreement that was going on with the high Center either written or unofficially um I know that there recently have been some um some enforcement activities to you know monitor that area um but you know I don't know why enforcement is only happening now if there's been some sort of agreement in place for an extended period of time and they're violating it in any way shape or form you know that should be taken care of that's it um commco yeah yes uh thank you um you know I I agreed uh with the traffic signal aspect that we you know to to look into that um the uh Mr morel's request uh about looking at the code of conduct so to speak I think that's a good idea I think that may get touched upon on on new business uh the paths in the in tayor park I do think they could the asphalt paths could use a little work and those are my only thoughts uh thank you Mr mdon as uh commit M Stoler noted um the the bond antis note patient note that's being sold is um for a variety of projects inclusive of 22 East Willow as well as our road reconstruction projects that are being financed um we have this conversation each year and certainly you know Mr fell has heard the explanation not only from myself but also from uh Matt Matt larcy who is the township CFO um the annual Deb state statement is um on the website and um and so um I'm sorry so um so you can take a look at that and certainly if you have any questions let me know all right um Mr banara uh parking lot nine has about um close to 90 spaces for all day parking uh $10 $10 a piece um you just pay at the pay station right in the lot there are also approximately with a resident sticker thank you mayor uh you must have a resident sticker um and uh there are approximately I believe 12 to 15 in lot three u in the Short Hill train station that operate the same way resident sticker pay $10 take the train in the city park all day um Mr morale no problem uh I'll certainly put together that slot deck I also owe Mr Sandy some additional information as as the cost of um the particular individual in the town that you know does OA requests and things like that so I'll make that part of the same great um Miss Eglo the um the construction on JFK uh great question um great project actually as you know JFK floods um and this is a uh a mitigation of that uh poor drainage in that area so uh that is County work being done I do not have a timeline on it but I will certainly uh reach out and see what the expectation is in terms of the construction uh but certainly a much needed and and uh project up there um as far as the Hess house goes I you know I think they're under the same pretense as everybody else so if there's a you know appealing paint issue uh it's a certain percentage of the house that needs to be peeling and uh then can be enforced by code enforcement but we'll uh we'll have somebody go take a look um but um and then as far as the Winningham bump out and the brick and the trees and all of that um I you know this was all part of a a wider uh look at the uh the downtown and how um things would be improved in the rest of the town and so I think that you know given the amount of conversation around it and you know it might be um an opportunity not I'm not going to say the word um but certainly to do improvements um streetscape improvements um whether that's um and and just to add uh to my reports from previous uh we are uh planning a spring planting of 28 Street trees on both uh Milbourne Avenue essic street and upper Milbourne Avenue so uh looking forward to that and uh some improving uh streetscape there but you know you you got to look at uh pedestrian scale lighting you know uh the the sidewalks getting rid of the red brick that type of stuff these are much larger wider projects bumping out at Whittingham uh we are evaluating the idea just an idea of uh having angled parking further up Milburn Avenue which would provide that sort of uh protection to a bump out um at Whittingham um so that more to come on that and certainly more to discuss with the township committee on all of that but um the in in terms of Miss Miss best um questions and uh matters around ju Jefferson the high Center things like that so I I I did answer um some of your uh 20 questions that you had sent um those that could be easily answered I I remind the community and certainly the township committee that the township is involved in a federal Rupa case with this same uh um you know entity um and we need to be careful um and and you know uh judicious about the way that we answer these questions um certainly when comes to one Jefferson I I mean people say stuff and assume I know what they're talking about and I'm happy to look into things but you know to say $500,000 was reduced to $1,000 I I don't know what that means unless you're providing me a specific um example did this have to do with you know construction fines do this have to do with the you know the fire that took place 2017 I don't know um so I think you know and and also whose discretion was that was that you know so I think there needs to just be a little bit more information than just getting up and saying you know $500,000 was reduced a thousand it may be true I don't know but it's but it's it's a it's a there's got to be some more specifics to it and I am going to be cautious in my answering of questions given the fact that there is a planning board application there is a Rupa case against the township um and then but to answer this the enforcement question again um look we we have done enforcement particularly now that we have a part-time uh code enforcement officer that's up there on Saturdays when a lot of this activity has taken place um they have noticed a abundance of cars um on Saturday morning however the settlement agreement states and this is a public document states that um there's no there's not allowed to be more than 15 cars on the property there were 18 and um they are and family cars are Exempted from so there are aspects of the settlement agreement I think Miss best actually brought this up in her email that are a little bit ambiguous a little bit contradictory um and make it very difficult to enforce um we have sent a warning letter um and we will take it from there um as far as why things weren't done in the past I had stated it before um and the reason that we're doing it now is we've had constructive and and uh complaints about the activity up there uh I've been sent you know a variety of different things a lot of things have been said or or you know you heard this or people have complained about this on Facebook or those aren't direct direct complaints and and I know you don't feel like we should operate on a complaint basis but there is a degree that we do um and so uh that is sort of the the answer to that and I'm sure I'll be asked again and and we'll continue to to do that but um and I'm happy to get more information on any of the questions that's around it if it is um judicious to do so given the situation that the township is in um you know we talk a lot about sort of the like the responsibility of all of us up here um to uh and to just sort of put things out there uh answer questions that may be used against us in a Rupa case I don't think would be in the best interest of the community as a whole so um but but also continue to sift through those questions and answer where we can that is all I have thank you thank you Mr C uh I have nothing to May unless anybody has any question thank you the township committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions a reminder that resolution 25- 056 pertaining to Raffles has been updated and the updated copy has been made available to the committee and the public are there any comments from the committee in regard to any items listed on the consent agenda may have a motion to approve resolution 24-50 through resolution 25056 six which are listed on the consent agenda may I have a second second roll call vote please St Mary Cohen yes Mr cro yes Mr sakandi yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 25-57 may I have a motion to approve 25-57 may I have a second second roll call vote please Deputy Mayor comen yes Mr pbro yes Mr sakandi yes Mr ster mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 25- 058 may I do have some comments um I'm going to vote no on that if if there is a motion in the second um that particular tenant the town has a lease with my reading the terms of that lease require the tenant to maintain and repair both of those parking lots in their entirety um I do not think we should be assuming this obligation I think doing it it could also Prejudice us in the future if there was ever a dispute over the language of the police and who's responsible for the repairs ands thank you thank you anyone else I have a question I just want to confirm that this authorization to go out for bids for Lots BNC is a project that was voted through and identifying our discussions on the paper mill in support of the capital campaign correct correct okay so this project addresses drainage lighting parking surfaces safety and potentially grading the Lots uh the icing that continues uh the issues with icing uh as a result of the poor drainers and the topography uh I just want to confirm that this process puts us in compliance a local public contracts law that govern the expenditure of public funds it's just basically checking the Box on procedure correct is there anything new that I'm not following no okay so there's nothing above and beyond the original vote and authorization last year this is just following the wall okay and then uh any additional projects and similar authorizations that are forthcoming underneath the Papermill that we've approved previous uh is the same thing for contract law or um you contract they will come before the town committee to authorize okay so I just want to understand that thank you if thank you mayor given those questions I have an additional comment you know Mr McDonald it is the tenant's responsibility to maintain those walls in in those parking lots correct under the lease it does state that in the lease okay thank you oh I mean again I just I would just say and and you have made your point about what what what impact that may have but it doesn't NE necessarily preclude the municipality from making those improvements given its Township property may I have a motion to approve resolution 25- 058 motion may I have a second second roll call vote please Deputy Mayor Cohen yes Mr cro no Mr sakandi no Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes okay the resolution passed oh thank you the 2020 five uh assessment role special resolution the public hearing I hereby open the public comment for any comments on the 2025 Milburn Short Hills business organization Inc special improvement district assessment W Jeffrey Phil on the poet section I just have a few procedural questions I wish to the can we maybe pause till the attorney and Alex come back into the room so I think they need to be here my comments would anyone else like to speak in the meantime so we could just I think I think the whole public any comments should be they should be here when we make them we're g to take like a three minute break e e e e e thank you everybody so we will continue with u the public hearing again thank you taking that pause again my name is Jeffrey Phil from poet section regarding the tax assessment as you as everyone knows I'm representing U the plan if in the be properties case the case management conference That was supposed to be held today has been postponed um till two weeks um a year ago for of you is this in reference to the assessment yes may I continue four a year ago four of you delegated the authority to submit and prepare the Main Street New Jersey application to the state to the uh s board there was no application attached in March an application was filed I had to file an open request to receive it I filed a letter made some objections Mr R filed the letter replying the state directed the town to change the boundaries of its Main Street New Jersey application to be limited to the downtown area today you're being asked to approve assessment for five districts under the state statute you have to look at the because there's a special assessment what is the direct benefit received by each of those individual districts I don't know what four of the districts benefits they receive and it's in proportion why they are subsidizing the downtown area and when you look at this the Sid has five districts best practi is required each district to have its own separate City but you have a subsidy here and the question is what evidentiary report do you have to justify the same percentage for each of the properties located in the four other districts you receive letters from business owners to my knowledge we're not located downtown in the downtown business area do not allow the assessment you have the ability to say that the assessment can be staggered have different rates for the the people that really benefit because the key is word in a statutory word is direct benefit this impa imp impacts equal protection Clauses and subst du process under our state and federal um areas again what evidence have you had that all the districts re receive the direct benefit equally and why should other districts pay they're not located down town area especially in light of the state's direction to you to limit the Main Street app Main Street New Jersey entity which is funded by the Sid tax to do all these activities why should these other districts be subsidizing thank you thank you anyone else say my hand was up before on two devices because I have problems on my phones so just so you know um and then during that public comment I just wanted to say that you should be tabling this hearing so but here we are here's the hearing yeah if the name if the name doesn't come up on the screen and it screen it says iPhone we don't ohn it because I had both my husband's I don't know what his is on so okay we're GNA go back with the clock yeah I appreciate it so um I am receipt as you know I do like a lot of homework I'm in receipt of the um sit assessment letter and sorry I'm G I think I grabb the wrong one in that um sit assessment letter that I received the notice I got it somewhere like January 23rd and it says the township committee will consider objections to 2025 special assessment to be levied against benefited and assessible properties in the township special improvement district however there are five districts the amount of the quote the amount of the 2025 special assessment to be levied against your property think a moment and ask yourself what does that mean this it means because I Googled it it says the specific dollar amount that you will be required to pay as a one-time additional charge on your property taxes is 20 in 2025 used to fund a particular local Improvement project that directly benefits your property such as Road repairs sewer upgrades new sidewalks within the area uh essentially is the cost of your share of the Project based in your property on your property's value and the proximity of the um Improvement so I asked this question to Mayor miggins I'm gonna ask you mayor Romano um this is a notice of a special hearing if we are an objection to the special assessment can you ask your attorney we actually have two attorneys on this dis tonight A special assessment it's a tax it's not a permit fee it's not an additional fee we are being taxed and if we don't pay this tax the tax department will use their tax remedies to foreclose on my property so you're giving me three minutes in a public hearing which is actually disgraceful and embarrassing if anything that if I want to appeal my property taxes this is the proper procedure I have two attorneys on this board have you given a legal opinion Mr caner can you tell me if this is a proper procedure and ethically correct that this is the formality of how a property owner and there happens to be 12 on upper Milbourne Avenue I mean I can go on and on I've spent hours on this hearing in objection that you are not affording the 164 property owners that are being assessed by way tax it's not an extra fee it's not a donation you are assessing our properties that are levied thank you thank you Miss hero so I'm only have three minutes and and and so this is ridiculous okay let it be on the record you own this oh Mr BR can you explain why we don't anyone else thank you Miss uro Shing your Christine best um I just I'm sorry no Township um I just wanted to make a comment just in general it would be really great to understand the allocations per you know District at the very least and you know I mean every person should sort of you guys should have a spreadsheet to see the allocations by business owner and to not have that presented in front of public comment I think is really kind of a useless time of public comment because I I I can't see what the allocations are to either support Perry I'm assuming that she's completely correct um so just something for the future and also going back to the tax remedy she talked about you know one of the things that's important is like when I fought my taxes I went to Essex County you know Courthouse got denied and then I went to Superior Court and you know ended up settling with the township for myself how does a business owner do that in the case when the taxes are levied here is Perry saying this is the only format it's it's a very small amount of time to actually uh fight your case and then just quickly um Terry I Perry asked me to um you ask about um there was a lot of chit chat from a select few during the Sid budget hearing back in December mentioning $7 a year where did that number come from is it a calculation from the 683 households which would be half the S executive director's salary by way of ordinance allocated by the township those few members of the public who advocated and stated that they were happy to pay the $7 a year failed to include the additional 25k allocations to the Town Hall Plaza the expenses incurred by the employees such as the wonderful DPW workers our firemen and our policemen that are present before during and after activities held to be our held in Our Town Hall Plaza is is all of that money included in the $7 a year paid by the taxpayers thank you thank you anyone else Jean Pastak resident um I I have to say just listening for so many years going past four years I guess now about this unfairness issue with the downtown getting a disproportionate amount of the benefit of the Sid I I I just think it's incredulous that this body and um the people that are voting here don't see that this is actually the case and that it really isn't fair it just isn't the the the township doesn't own property to hold events and most of those other spaces as I understand it I remember Steve gillo saying that so or maybe it was Jackie but I I really think that there has to be something that can be done to settle this issue other than people getting really upset a 30-year business owner having to come up here night after night at all these meetings and saying the same thing and getting no response it just doesn't seem right so I hope you'll bear that in mind I think many of us do see this and feel very uncomfortable but we don't see you our elected officials responding to it or doing anything about it thank you thank you this is just about the Sid public comment right so I remember when I was sitting up there and the Sid came before us and I remember mayor burin voted no because she felt it should not include anything other than the downtown I remember voting no because I was under the impression that Tara prus had a conflict so here we stand I don't know maybe we' all followed mayor buring we wouldn't be in this position now so that's my how I remember things thank you you know uh I have to second what was just said this is Charles bambar uh 28 year resident of murn Short Hills um I have the second with Jean Pastak and and I egler just said I'm sitting here and I've been attending meetings the past several years and I see this issue coming up and up again and it it seems to me there's an injustice between the assessment and the distribution of funds from that um uh there certainly is an appearance of impropriety after after the the last elections that the S held um so none of that seems to be addressed it keeps coming up nothing gets done and it's a legitimate concern of the residents I think it's time to address it properly thank you anyone on anyone else wish to speak okay I will now close the public hearing would anyone like to address any comments I will um to my understand the sis the Sid assessment role is the mechanism used to assess the properties within the Sid boundaries and collect the assessment of funds to fund their budget which was approved in December um the tax assessor prepares a role based on the commercial value of properties and the Sid director and board reviews all the roles for accuracy uh tonight's function is to Simply review and approve the assessment role correct if a proper owner has an objection to assessment that they're going to schedule to pay and they believe that amount is wrong or the property is assessed incorrectly there is a form for them to go through to to get that in front of the right people I.E the tax assessment is that correct no no no it it serves as a tax appe appeal right it becomes just a tax appeal again this isn't a dispute of the mechanism of assessment it is a dispute of the value of the building um or the property or the allocation the allocation of residential versus commercial excuse me excuse me so that's why I want to fully understand that's there is they can go through the tax assessory file a tax appeal with the tax assessor and get it and and V voice of concern there so this is different than the than what was discussed in December for the validity of the c or budget or the budget yes correct Okay so understand anyone else have any comments questions so um I've made my thoughts on this clear I think the Sid was flawed in its design I think the flaws can be corrected I think there are things the Sid does it has value for the businesses in town um so you know I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water but there are things we can do to make it more fair um Miss best I think your idea of having allocation per district is a good idea uh I think having that data would be helpful so hopefully that's something the Sid will consider um but you know my position is now and has always been I think we ought to re-evaluate how the Sid is implemented I think we ought to figure out a way to give business uh owners that pay into the Sid some sort of direct representation um you know whether it's electing you know one or two of the board members um or some other structure but we can definitely solve these problems but there needs to be a willingness to sit down and actually take a look and re-evaluate this so I I hope that at some point the other uh individuals on this Das will join me in uh re-evaluating uh examining and proving the Sid because I would love nothing more than to get all of these issues put to bed uh and have the Sid focus on Mission which is to help the businesses in town um but you know I think we can resolve these issues we just need to sit down and try that's that's what I have to say about that thank you anyone else Dave cosg yeah I I I I agree with Frank on that I'd like to see us look at the uh this the structure of the in I would I would I guess third it second third it because you know there's a lot of different methodologies we can look at and do and such and uh you know maybe it is for freshh reevaluation I mean we had a former former tachic council member saying she wishes she didn't vote go no so you know let's understand look at it make sure it's the best path forward for everyone may have a motion to approve resolution 25- 059 with which authorizes adoption of the 2025 Milbourne Short Hills business organization Inc special improvement district assessment role motion M second second roll call vote please Deputy Mayor Cohen yes Mr cro yes Mr Sandy yes with the stipulation that we reevaluate Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes okay okay we have no nothing for all business new business um committee M ster you want to talk about board committee chair eligibility uh correct uh so this has come up you know uh I've brought it up a couple times just about appearance of impropriety and such and I've been told a lot of different things I I heard a lot of arguments trying to turn us into some debate about Free Speech or some kind of legal technicality but that's just a distraction in my opinion this isn't about silencing anyone or restricting political rights it's about ethical governance and public record the issue at hand is simple can one person fairly oversee public trust funds while simultaneously leading a partisan political organization the answer in my opinion is no and deep down we all know that's true ethical standards exist for a reason to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure that public resources are managed without political bias no amount of legal maneuvering or rhetoric about the First Amendment changes that fundamental reality this is not the debate about limiting First Amendment rights it's about ensuring public funds are managed with Integrity without conflicts of interest or the appearance of political favoritism it's not about imping or merging someone ethical standards exist to protect the Public's trust in government institutions not to suppress political Expressions this is not an attack on political expression again it's a defense of ethical governance the community deserves to know that public funds are allocated fairly and without political influence the solution in my mind is simple separate the two positions from aad of political chair and the head of a organization that spends public trust monies what anyone else like to weigh in yeah I think Mr Stoler makes a good point I think there's and we've seen examples of this I I think there are times when it can be seen that you know ah head of a political committee being ahead of a board that distributes taxpayer dollars um there can be an appearance of impropriety at times I know there were a few incidents that have come up over the years I don't know if the individual in question was uh chair at that time or not but the the point is I think if you're the head of political committee and really This only affects two people in the entire town then you shouldn't be the head of a Township committee sub commit subcommittee that is in charge of you know managing Distributing funds so you know I I think that in this particular case since Sid is a creation of the township committee we should be able to make an amend rules that would apply to that committee I don't know if we can do this across the board um but that's something we can certainly look into anyone else wan to again I think I I think we I'd want to hear from Mr attorney uh with you know not not right now but you know to to ask him to take a look at it Deputy Mayor yeah I mean obviously we need a legal opinion clearly um you know I'm sure I'm sure if there was any impropriety going on at any time um people in this town are not quiet and it would certainly come to our attention pretty pretty quickly and uh we would certainly be able to uh to address that but you know I so I would like to hear a legal opinion this my session so I mean I could I could state that being a party chair is not an actual legal conflict from serving that role however I would like to look at the law as to uh First Amendment rights um and eliminating it to just a Republican and Democratic chair if we could do that and I'm wondering is there any other people you like to limitate to because I think given how much money this s spends there could be other other potential people you think could have a conflict if they were well based on their business practices and what they do so I'm just wondering is there more robust L the people it's it's potenti it could it could affect I think any you know officer of those political parties you know the local political parties not just the CH you know not just the chair of the Committees um and it might also affect I've given this a lot of thought it might also affect combinations of people if you had you know two TC members on plus somebody else on a on a on a board or something so I think there's far-reaching potentially far reach reaching consequences so but when you say I'm sorry but when you say representatives from the Democratic or republican committee that includes some of us sitting up here absolutely yeah potentially I and I don't know where how you draw that line right I mean the only thing I want would want to add is I don't think it should be just you know the Sid I think it should be every board and Commission because whether it's advisory or not I couldn't agree more you there's we put in place a nepotism policy last year now just for the appearance imp of impropriety I don't I'm not imping I'm not bearing I'm not not telling anyone somebody did something wrong but from sitting up here as as an elected public official and and as we see it today there should be the separation the head of one party to not be able to run something that's dispers as public trust funds and operates day-to- day where there may be some benefit that's gained and I mentioned this earlier in my in my comment this is not about the legality of the situation it's about the appearance and understanding what's right for the township moving forward I'm sure the legality there's probably no legal law written down applying to Milburn Township and the head of the Democratic Party Republican party managing a a subcommittee that spends public trust funds I don't think it matters whether they spend public trust funds or not I think it's the appearance of it so like like said we're talking about two people correct so so and and and you know and I thought it was admirable of you to set down from the Democratic committee when you were elected mayor for whatever reasons you stepped down uh and we appreciated that uh and uh you know when I said when I get on here you hear my updates eight committees doing the work I left the r and the D behind this is constituents I think we could tell by tonight the way we voted on certain issues it was not party lines and that's the way we worked last year and that's the way we continue to work this year I think that's the point we're elected and we're beholden to the public and so when we get to office we do hopefully put that behind exactly we want to stay in office um however the head of a political committee does not have that same sort of responsibility to the electorate because they're not elected right and their loyalty is perhaps to their party uh and and their committee as opposed to what's best for the residents of the town so I think in light of that perhaps you were right um mayor Romano maybe maybe the rule should be the heads of the political committee or officers or you know whatever it may be aren't able to serve as chair of any committee but I they can be members of the committee no saying they can't be members saying they can't be chair I guess the question is as the chair just like the chair the you know the chair here the mayor they have one vote out of however many people that are on the committee they don't they don't they don't have any more power than the other members so do you then extend to that they can't be on any committee at all in any in any role you know be a chair or member why have a chair you know um why just the chair I mean the chair has no more Authority than anything else I also think in in some committees like the planning board and and this one that the chair is is appointed by the members of the committee and they are the ones who and I and I think that's a good thing because they are closer to how those meetings go and and what they're looking for to accomplish as a as a committee and if they whoever it is that wins the respect of that committee to be elect a chair that's up to that committee I don't know that those are decisions that we should be making on you know for the for the Sid for the planning board for the zoning board for any of those for the environmental commission I believe they all that one too I'm not as clear on that we did that one but maybe we I don't think we should to be honest with you if we did we should that to me that if you're on you know the chair of the committee should be the should be appointed by the committee good points so Mr caner you'll um I guess do a little research and see if yeah I'll report back to the next meeting and then we'll take we go from there if it's if we can do it and there's a consensus we can certainly dra okay good and from that what you the work you do I don't want to be 100% focused on the legality of it because that's not the question questions best practices oh I don't miss so sole that that I would have to do a survey of like municipalities and what they do I was going to go into the ality of whether or not we could bar a chairperson from from chair committe we legally do that I don't know what I mean best practice I think I think you've said I think it's what's best practice for this toship which is what I think you vibr the side okay thank you and related to that I we could look into Mr Mor's suggestion of coming up with some sort of code of conduct or code of ethics you know if we can't far these individuals or decide that we don't want to we already have it oh I was say I do we have one that's we I think we should do that whether whether this happens or not we should definitely have a review of a code of conduct and make sure that it has team and I think it's likely you probably can you probably can mandate that no party chair can sit chair but I just want to double check that before I give you that so your initial incl as you probably can mate probably very good thank you okay uh public comment this public comment period is for to allow for final comments from the community we invited when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the elct and clearly state your name and whether you are a milberg resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public a reminder that in order to help facilitate an orderly meeting into permittable to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session Charles B 28 year resident of Melbourne Short Hills I just want to make it clear that I personally do not believe that any one of you on the committee would ever make a decision that is contrary to the best interest of the town to suit your own uh your own purposes uh I trust all of you I think you've done an excellent job and I commend all of you and I'm going to go back to the mayor Romano that I know from last year that did make that statement about avoiding the conflict of interest because that's the way I think you feel and I no you're no go ahead I'm sry I'm gonna have my own opinion and I'm gonna hold tomor okay I'm Jeffrey Feld um poet section um when you talk about the doctrine of appearance of impropriety to put in context when the Sid was looking at this and they put their code of ethics of just talk about conflict of interest it did not talk about the appearance of impropriety and that goes back to what happened to the stale Memo from August of 2020 that was done by a fire law firm and you might also want to look at the diamond ship case where uh whole planning board was disqualified um as to let's go back to Mount Laurel round three I think we really need to have an update where we are with the new judge that being judge Russo um we've never really heard what the status was because last time there was a hearing um one of the issues was whether RPM was going to be G given access to the property du test the public doesn't know what happened because they didn't file a motion have they been provided access to the property um also what's the status of the pilot um because I think it's either time to cut bait um also I sent you a copy of a case that came today about Equitable principles the implied Covenant of fairness also you might serve one looking at Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson about fundamental rights and that goes back to the whole settlement did where is the fundamental rights of the public suppressed and impaired when you approve that settlement without telling us the terms and when you go back to look at the agreement as to round four when you have your next um public Zoom session I think this might be tied to the litigation that I think we should have a report that because January 31st deadline that was just happened in region two which is we are how many municipalities rejected the dc8 numbers and what is the shortfall um and trying to determine when I said look at the Belleville public notice when you look at it because Belleville is an exempt municipalities I think we really need to look at that analysis whether the exempt municipality should be included because of all the housing that's been happening they haven't done um and and I made a reference to Newark that they built they're going to build like a 40 unit building on market rate how come they aren't subject to an inclusionary zoning and the question we really have is do we have to preserve that in our round four separate case or do we have to really hope that the judge that's in merer County raises those issues I just raise that to you thank you Diane Eglo I'm certainly glad you brought a second public comment back it's Eglo short e um Ben Cheryl burin had voted no because she said we should not have more than the original boundaries I voted no because I was under the impression that Tara had a conflict if the other three I don't remember who they were Alex so up there had they maybe listened we wouldn't be in this position Frank I don't know you lived here in the hesan house thing they hired the partner from marter English they did not want to be declared historic they were never going to knock the building down how dare you how dare you insinuate anything else about me never lie about me in public I was on their favor that they did not want to be be declared historic because it put certain Con straints on them I understand Alison Canfield wanted it historic so it could never be knocked out and have public housing or whatever never lie about me please um the other thing I'm going to say Christine Bess and others insightful hateful remarks if there was 18 cars parked of the kai Center how did we know that this is how it started long time ago folks a lot of anti-Semitism in the world hear me out neighbors spying on neighbors neighbors reporting neighbors how do we know there was 18 cars there this is really scary scary stuff it's enough with Trump I never talk outside politics here what Trump and musk are doing to our democracy is unbelievable okay so remember folks there a lot of talk on Facebook on social media in the news what is going on let's not allow this in no Township the kai Center has an application in front of the planning board keep it in front of the planning board where belongs keep your comments I just don't even have the words for what I am seeing spread let's see glad you're going to be planting trees Alex um last thing Taylor Park Gateway you said there's going to be something to make that more beautiful last thing if I have a couple more seconds spent a lot of money um looking at two-way traffic that started when I was up there things take years I understand that but the two-way traffic you never studied gateway to Gateway now that Annie says building is going to go in and we have the beautiful Wells Fargo maybe the two-way traffic study should really be considering gateway to Gateway with traffic lights and make them audible thank you thank you good evening Richard cyber resident um you know I come to this meetings and a lot has talked about the Sid if three or four of you decided to to get rid of the Sid the Sid would be over I believe that's true if not correct me I think you should make the calls on what's going on uh Committee Member sakandi said let's make some let's review it take a look see if a for some reason and this is just hypothetical a Republican head of the Republic committee decided to be the head of the Sid current Sid there'd be a big problem I think that would be a big problem and I think oh she left I don't think she'd be very happy about that I'm an independent there's a lot of people that are very unhappy with what's going on in the news today let's see what happens over the next four years I mean I'm for change I'm just I'm for change and you guys should be here for change as well if you hear people like Perry erso saying that she's not happy about her assessment or the way the Sid works I think it's important to listen to her I really do and if committee man Soler says that he thinks it's not look there's a lot of stuff that's legal but people don't like I don't if if people think that having a the head of the democratic local party being the chairman of the Sid committee it should be looked at I think it should be looked at and make everybody happy I mean what difference would it make if she's not the chairman of the Sid would it change the Sid would the Sid not work anymore it would still work and I think she's big enough to say you know what there's a lot of people don't don't want it if I was her I would say I'm out I'm not going to do it seems like a lot of people aren't happy and the fact that she doesn't say that it bewilders me tell you the truth that bewilders me this is a very smart town we got a lot of smart people in this town that are saying this stuff so it must have some value mayor thank it must have some value of everybody's saying thank you Phil kers Milburn resident um I think as far as the question of this committee or board chair eligibility interesting one I think I think as one of the committee members pointed out it's not as if the the mayor as head of this committee or a board chair is unilaterally handing out the dollars it made it seem that way but it's not that way I think Mr Cohen had pointed out which is true that you have a board um and uh I guess you try to elect the person the most experienced most qualified person to be the board chair whatever board that is or whatever other position they have and I think before you while you look at this and you look at eligibility before you effectively shrink the uh the availability of experienced people by ruling out certain people for certain reasons um you think if that's really necessary I also feel that um you know we can talk about the perception of uh of prejudice but you can have we have a lot of skepticism in society today we see it in these meetings and you can have a certain number of people who have this perception and but there's no reality of prejudice there's a perception we have all kinds of perceptions people have certain times have perception there's more crime there's less crime that perception of prejudice and his Prejudice and that without proof so I think you got to be careful uh before you go down this route really good reasons um to do it I also think that as far as the Sid goes um I think it's is a good idea to reexamine some of the things in it I also think that there are people I've heard in the last number of years here who are just against it and they will come out with criticisms they will come out with reasons they will say just get rid of it they will not look at what it does for the town and um I think uh I think that's something else that well it's worth reass assessing I think for instance I'm not sure what the lawsuit involves against it but I think if that is dropped I think there'll be a lot more of ability for the Sid to go ahead and reexamine itself and maybe be reconstituted but I think that that my perception is that lawsuit I don't know what the reason for it is it's costing us taxpayers a lot of money but also I believe that it put some constraints on what can be examined you know for legal issues of different kinds and and and uh the flexibility of what can be done so I think we need to put aside our prejudices and our perceptions of wrong and our grievances for a while and maybe take a good look at some of the things in the city that could be changed and possibly a code of ethics for board shares but let's take it that way objectively and leave politics and Prejudice out of it like everyone seems to seems to believe one last thing I think some people have said seem to imply that we should go by The Winds of what people say here and while I think this is important we are all part of that vocal minority so there's a lot of feelings out there in the township at large that that that may you know have a different perception about this whole thing thank you uh Debbie Frank Milburn resident I want to Echo what Phil said about looking at um political affiliations and chairs and everything I think he's correct on that I don't I don't see in a equals B and aals Z but was when you prefer you look at it you should look at it however I do think that when it comes to the Sid I think there are a lot of things the Sid does and a lot of the things that the Sid does are probably things that we as people sitting here or The Wider Community don't see which is counseling individual um businesses helping individuals do things all that sort of thing that operates beneath our radar and there's no reason it should be on our radar that's you know that's between a business owner and an entity that's set up to help them however that being said I do think that for understandable reasons which is where the where the um most infrastructure is where all the public event sponsored by the Sid do happen in the downtown they happen in the downtown and any ancillary benefit that comes from drawing all those people in does affect the downtown so I do believe that other areas in the town do have a legitimate complaint or a legitimate reason to think that they are subsidizing another part of the town without seeing that kind of direct social and benefit to their areas and I don't know how that could be addressed whether there's a way for the Sid to do other um events in other areas as well to try to bring people into those areas excuse me but I do think that that is a def lack on the Sid's part and I can't imagine that that would engender a great deal of support for people who feel as though what they're doing is supporting one particular area of the town with those kinds of benefits that they don't see so I do think that that's something that ought to be looked at whether that means five different SIDS whether that means some allocation otherwise or less money on an assessment that's in your hands that's in the Sid's hands but I do think that that's a legitimate point Thank you wow hi Jean Pastor neck I just want to address um comment that I just heard um it's not about the person's prolific volunteer record or the character of this individual it's about what is I think in dispute is and should be examined is the D damage that the Dual role saving serving sorry can do to the reputation of the Sid as well as the town is it worth it why even have this appearance of impropriety I mean you talked about handing out tax dollars well here's an example of handing out candy that was given by businesses by the individual we're speaking about it does happen Okay I mean when I saw it I have to say it gave me a really bad feeling because I saw people who were running for the Democratic on the Democratic ticket for a Township committee standing there handing that candy out is that a big deal you might think oh it's years ago who cares but it speaks to someone's intention and the fact that they didn't see that that was wrong so I really think it's your job to not let that happen to our town um anyway everything you're talking about as far as examination I fully support and I am the chair of the Republican party in this town I would never ever take that role on and I don't think it is an equivalent to sit on a committee versus being a chair of one that has taxpayer funds that they're responsible for I don't think they're the same at all um the other thing I want to say is I was at the hearing involving the hessen house that that evening uh the mcarter English attorney as I recall said it was the worst meeting he' ever attended the way it was conducted that he felt that was what was being put forward as an objection to making and and having that that house be declared historic was bogus and had no bearing so I really do think that the recall of what happened that evening might be slightly incorrect um and the other thing I want to say is um as far as the high Center um Diane I know I'm sorry talking to you guys the passion is there about things that really aren't relevant people are coming forward to raise objections to it as an application to the planning board as a project it has nothing to do with a religious affiliation and for that to be kept going by someone who was a former mayor of this town is extremely disturbing to me it it's meant to chill speech and to put people in their place not to speak out and that is absolutely talk about free speech and First Amendment rights to me that is absolutely appor and meeting like this and lastly I have a question for you Alex what ever happened to the long-term planning project that you were working on several months ago can you give us an update thanks thank you good evening Jerry Kung Short Hills resident so we started at the meeting with this $75,000 Grant from Essex County which is great it's great that we get our tax dollars handed back to us for something in our town that directly benefits us but all this talk of inflows and allocations of the Sid got me thinking do we have an accounting for what we give and get back from the county because we give to the county about what is it the township budget's $60 million a year so we probably give the county $60 million a year and I've been coming to these meetings for three years now so let's just say we've given the county $180 million in that time and I'm seeing $75,000 in grant money so I had to pull out a calculator because there's a lot of zeros involved so 75,000 divided by 180 million is 0.4% 0.4% so I don't know maybe the county has all this as public information I hope it does and I just haven't looked into it but this is something that I think is pretty interesting because while we're talking about taxation getting benefits from our taxes that we pay in I think it might be a worthwhile Endeavor to do this analysis with the county so that we can Advocate more on behalf of our town and our residents to make sure that we're actually getting the value for what we pay for thanks a lot thank you J moreli Township res I am encouraged by the open discussion on a whether we call it a code of conduct a sort of principles values whatever we want to say that the conversation has begun on what we think is right or wrong I will say I think there is an inherent conflict between party leads party elected Party Committee members officers of parties which by their nature are they promote their party interest look no further than the hearings on appointing uh members uh to the cabinet 50 people voted One Way 51 voted One Way 50 V 49 voted the other way I find it impossible to believe that the parties do not impact their decisions and that doesn't only happen at the federal level that I've seen that happen here on this day is not with this group of people but with people that had higher political Ambitions I've seen them vote ways that bewildered me only man my only conclusion was that they were motivated by seeking higher office within their parties do I have any proof of that no absolutely am I going to name names no AB absolutely but to think that the parties do not influence the votes and decisions of people on those committees is is full-hearted so I encourage this group to sit back think about not only the party leads party officers as someone suggested and maybe even the elected committee members and whether or not they should be put in roles that could be potentially influenced by their party thank you thank you Christine best um I wanted to respond to miss igo's I'm sorry Eglo Miss ago's comment about me and um I'm I'm very saddened that um you know people I guess you know judge a book by its cover and I guess my name Christine kind of is the book that my cover of my book for her um I want to tell people here a little bit about myself um see most of my boyfriends were Jewish I grew up in Westfield most of my friends were Jewish probably 90% I married a Jewish man his name is Ira where IRA and Christine like Le and chirley with guy and a girl um my nephew uh grew up attending in aiva he was in the attacks on the 7th of October in Israel he escaped he sat in a um a bunker with girls screaming and crying all over them they were bodies piled on top of there while he listened to moms and he escaped from there and got home I also very familiar with ultra Orthodox Judaism because he lived in a household in an ult ultra Orthodox Community I value the Jewish Community I support Israel I don't support unrealistic development that is harmful to a residential area be very very clear about that I also don't support people that use the term anti-semitic which Diane has with her gang of ghouls which I would call them because that's that's what you're acting as Miss Eglo I don't appreciate being attacked and if I want to publicly go on record stating that there's a hearing and I don't agree with it I will and I stand proud and I'm going to do it and I'm going to continue to do it because it is not right to violate deed restrictions that run with the land that are gold standard deeds and also towns do have the right to look at them and they do supersede zoning laws that is a fact I'm sitting and reading the steart title restrictive covenants the alter 9 series a um Vandable law review case I'm not even attorney I went to Art School okay it's very clear so anybody who comes against me I will screenshot your thing and don't think that I'm some weak person Miss Eglo that I won't seek any damages for any damages thank you anyone else anyone online there she is I think you're mute I think she started talking can hear us can you hear us hello I can't see if it's muted you're still muted hold on we're gonna try to do it from here she can't we can't can't oh you can't oh sorry well maybe she'll call back good evening hi thank you so much Perry Ur I got to get a new device um I have to um incidentally um the Sid budget that was approved in December it's unfortunate that all the property owners who were in objection were silenced I had taken the time from December to now and sadly that the Sid assessment role is quite different from today from the one that was originally uh provided in 2020 this is how long I've been going at it um so I actually took the time and went through the whole entire sit assessment and I tried to do a by district and I actually asked help from the tax assessor who referred me to M the executive director who then emailed me and told me I need to Oprah so not to be accused of adding more fees to the township for opras I did the work myself so according to the state of the Sid report the total assessed slots are 162 over the five districts two are located at the Short Hill train station which represents 1.23% tax assessment with a revenue of 1% they pay $3,159 there are 10 assessed properties in Wyoming Business District represents 300 uh I'm sorry 3.9% of the tax assessment revenue and they their assessment revenue is 133% they pay into the Sid $ 42,3 3648 Morris Turnpike has 17 properties they represent 15.43% and their tax assessment Revenue mind you 15.43% and their tax revenue is 33% equaling 72,000 $28.95 upper Milbourne Avenue represents 17.28% the tax assessment revenue is 10% and they're paying into $ 31,44 downtown represents 62.3 5% of the properties that are assessed in downtown their assessed Revenue tax assessed revenue is only 43% but they represent 62% and they pay into it 99 9,788 so now when you see these numbers by districts you wonder why you ask for kpis well you know how about producing this type of information and we wouldn't have to open it but I did it by myself thank you Miss they represent 43% and everyone else is subsidizing thank you m so I'm sorry your time's up okay evening good evening Sarah Sherman Milbourne resident uh I was going to compliment you on the you know short meeting we were having but that Chang um I want to talk about uh the federal government um there's the steady drum beat every day of what program is being killed and and and defunded my concern is FEMA and uh as soon as I heard about FEMA I called all my federal elected representatives I en I encourage others to do the same we live in a community that floods I have been an advocate for flood mitigation for the last 20 years I am not new to this I'm I didn't arrive three years ago I didn't arrive after Ida and I I am very concerned that some of the projects in the pipeline that are part of the fmac May may not be funded home elevation any big project that we may want to do and also we have FEMA backed flood insurance that's the flood insurance that I have 94% of Americans live in a county that has gotten FEMA help for disaster since 2011 so the idea that this program would just be decimated hand it over to the states who would then have to find the funding for important projects that we need is one that I find intolerable so I encourage everyone to get in touch with Mikey Cheryl Senators Booker and Kim tell them what you think don't write an email call leave a message speak let's make sure that FEMA is not destroyed thank you thank you we'll now close public comment would anyone like to comment sure so Mr so I think you hit the nail on the head um the other districts pay a lot of money into the Sid that's why they were included in the Sid there are other people on this de that know that as well we've talked about it both in public and in private um the reason that we don't remove them from the Sid I would but the reason others don't remove them from the Sid is it would leave the Sid without enough money so yes those businesses on Morris Turnpike they are not receiving the same level of benefit as the businesses downtown yet they're kept in because they helped pay the bills for the Sid so yes you've discovered that um I think you knew that but now you put some numbers behind it which is great um Miss best I you know I I've gotten to know you a little bit over the past few years uh and I can say I know personally that you are not anti-semitic in any way and I think that the example of the exchange that happened between Miss Eglo uh and Miss best um should serve as an example to remind us all that in a community you can object to a development or you know a specific project for reasons other than religious reasons so just because Miss best objects to the construction of a commercial building in a residential area does not mean in any way shape or form that she is against the religion uh who's backing that that building right so I think we need to be careful about what we say um and what we accuse people of because we don't know the whole story all the time and in most cases what I find in our town is people are generally good and when they stand against something it's because there are reasons and principles not because they are biased so I just wanted to put that out there um Mr Mor um you know I was a little surprised that you didn't mention the obvious solution to all of these you know partisan committee issues the obvious solution is to move to a nonpartisan form of local elections right that would take away all of these issues and would have probably given us back at least 30 minutes of our time tonight um Mr Kung um great idea to do an accounting of what we give the county and what we get back what I understand we get very little back I think it's more than the 75,000 I think you know J D does throw us a bone here or there but I think that in general we get very little from this County and I think that decades ago there was actually a movement to try and get uh Milburn and Short Hills out of Essex County um I don't know if there's if that's something we can actually do but uh would be probably a good idea because I feel that Essex County takes and takes and takes but gives us very little uh especially with regards to flood mitigation you know Miss Miss Emma brought up um you know the concerns about FEMA and while we can't really do anything about that being you know a local body here um I would hope that the county would be able to allocate some funding to help us with some of our flooding problems here right um so you know if anyone from the county is watching maybe you could throw us a bone and and help us out with our flooding um let's see uh Mr kers um you had indicated that you thought that one of the reasons that um we couldn't make changes to the Sid was because of the lawsuit um well I don't believe that's true and in fact I think if we made certain changes to the Sid it probably would get rid of the lawsuit altogether so I think that would be an very easy way to deal with these ongoing uh issues that we're having legally with regards to the Sid uh if we re-evaluate it make some tweaks not saying to get rid of it but I think we can do better um and Miss Frank I appreciate um you speaking out for the businesses in town that you know aren't getting the same level of benefit as those downtown I think I think you're absolutely right about that um uh Mr felt so with regards to the townships that are exempt as you know we are involved in a lawsuit with 30 other municipalities and that's one of the issues that we're fighting about in court so our town is proactively trying to address that um also we didn't just accept our DCA number we proposed our own numbers so I I would say from what our Township is doing we're really doing all we can at this point to advocate for ourselves in the the next round um that's all I have to say thanks sorry because I was gonna ask Jared a question Jared if you can um an update on the on the fair share litigation so I was G respond to Mr F's comments um as far as the pilot G goes it was the subject of our closed session which took place before this meeting so uh we have no information that can release to the public at this point but when we can we certainly will but at this point um the pilot has not been uh executed um and I'll give a further update um as far as your question as whether or not RPM was granted access to the property they were granted access to the property they conducted test um Mr McDonald and his administration I think War needed thatal if there's any further test need to be done but I think they're on the site twice no they were on the site one twice yeah um so that's complete um with regard to the fourth round question as far as adjusting numbers um we are part of the mon F lawsuit um but we did make a reservation in both the resolution and our complaints that there's any adjustment to the numbers based on the monell lawsuit or any other mechanism that we reserve our rights to adjust our numbers accordingly so I think we're protected uh in that in that manner um is there any other further questions thank you in fact we actually put in the title of it under protest Mr Mr feld's uh suggestion well I can I can go um uh you know starting with u Mr Kong true words have never been said that must come out of my mouth multiple times a week and Alex and and the TC will tell you we have to get valued for the monies we're paying roughly 50 some odd million uh to the county year in year out and we have to have some of that back in fact I've challenged the deputy mayor and the mayor to fight for in Essex County with the powers thatb and Mr Cosgrove to make sure that they're hearing us because we are an important part of Essex County um and and from Miss Sherman's comments too I I'm so happy to hear her understand that that's where this funding needs to come from we have to hold the county responsible now we're going to ask some nice ask of the county and we fully expect them to step up uh if we they don't you know we'll cross that bridge when we get there um what else I got here uh Mr kers um I go to all I'm on the liaison to the S I actually sit on the board of the S and I see it day in and day out they do good work they promote economic activity in our town uh and to think that there's not an appearance of impropriety I started I had discussion with the legality of the legality we'll discuss here what we can mandate what we can't mandate Etc but someone out front kissing babies shaking hands passing out candy as as Miss Pastak suggested you know becomes problematic in my mind because I see the the focus on that position as well as how it could cross over I'm not imputing I'm not beeching I'm not accusing Miss uh liberg of any improprieties but the appearance certainly could be there that person responsible for all the good that uh sits doing this is you know I do think we should look at it we should look at the some type of PR rate Etc we'll get into that down the line but you know and I love your Council when I speak to you you always give me good points but from my perspective that's how I see it is that uh we should separate that those positions I had to say comment for uh Mr morale that easy solt nonpartisan politics in town um I'm not g to go down the rabbit ho Rabbit Hole of Diane Eggo and Christine best Christine best has been a good friend she calls me on the holidays uh there is no person to tell me that she's anti-semitic I'll put that on the record here I've put on the record before um you know we're all neighbors we all have to live together and be kind to each other this world's lost Civility and it's lost kindness and replaced it with Trump this Trump that you know Bing this buing that we need to get back to our community this is what matters every day day in day out we live together harmoniously we want we don't want discourse like that thank you very much do you think if we were nonpartisan you wouldn't know like who the Democratic TC members were Republican TC members were I'm sorry like why do you think it would we wouldn't be talking about it if we were nonpartisan I'm just curious well honestly I I think there'd be more Independence right that probably ran because right now if you're independent or unaffiliated um as as Miss Eglo proved a couple years back it's really hard to get elected um but if you look at the school board where are no parties yes people might be affiliated with a political party doesn't seem to matter because they're able to run they're able to run freely they don't need the backing of a political committee uh and you know we have more qualified people that step up we have more Choice more variety uh and I think if we had nonpartisan local elections for the TC we would see the same thing I mean as it is right now I feel like what is the percentage of people that are una Affiliated got like 40% or something it's pretty high um those those people sort of mar marginalized because they don't really have a realistic chance of serving in elected office I I completely concur I mean I changed my affiliation from independent from Democrats independent been independent for years to Republican to run as a republican because because of the you can't run as an independent and win in this town if it was nonpartisan everyone has an equal chance to win I mean I was called a racist I was called all types of names there were signs about extremist Republicans Etc all over town and my kid's like Dad what are you doing I go there needs to be changed the change needs to start locally and this is what I'm fighting for and and and L I'm so thankful that the community got behind us and and voted Us in well I was I was also called names but if we were nonpartisan would we be having the discussion about the sit chair she'd still be the Democratic chair well there would there would would there be a democratic chair then absolutely there would be a Republican chair we'd still be we'd still have that discussion correct well well no there's a fundamental difference because the political committees in town right whether it's Republican or Democratic they're the ones that pick the candidate candidates that actually have a chance of winning elections if they're nonpartisan then I think it doesn't matter uh you know who they are uh because the elections would be nonpartisan and they wouldn't be having an influence in the elections okay and just one more point I wanted to make um Deputy Mayor Cohen and I don't need to go speak to the county exact because you could speak to him at any time so we don't have any extra like influence over all the pictures I see on social media with three of you guys with them I just thought you guys had a knew him or something um no we just uh you know he he supports milour and I mean there's a lot of other you know monies that come into the town besides the 75,000 100% appreciated we're going to have big ass but I just want you to know that when his has his armor around you're taking a picture whisper hey we need more money just saying all right we won't I'm not gonna go down that road because I'm I'm not doing that with you can I have a um motion to thank you good night everybody