like to call this meeting to order for May 19th, 2026. Can I get a roll call, please? >> Commissioner Taylor >> here. >> Vice Mayor Cot >> here. >> Commissioner Ranella, >> present. >> Commissioner Conaboon >> here. >> Mayor Dixon >> here. Please rise and join me with a salute to the flag
to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> This meeting is being conducted in accordance with the open public meetings
act of 1975. was advertised, posted, and made available to the public as required by statute. The municipal clerk is directed to include a statement in the minutes of this meeting. Madame Clerk, are there any changes to the agenda? >> Yes, mayor. We do need to add a resolution authorizing close session for
the discussion on personnel matters. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time, we have now reached the public comment portion on the agenda items only. Anyone who would like to address the commission, please go to the podium, state your name and address and your concerns. Since there will be a lot of people, we are as usual limiting the
comments to five minutes per person per person. Uh if you'd like to make comments, please approach the podium, state your name and address and state your concerns. Uh Lynn Perka Milville, I wanted to know why the budget wasn't discussed in the recent work session because this is very
important. It should have been discussed among you because y'all should know what everybody's doing in every department. I wanted to know why the um budget and the presentation wasn't online so we would have a chance to look at it. 15 minutes before the meeting isn't really enough time for the public to be able to
logically discuss it and to grasp everything that's in it. And I don't know what the presentation's covering, but what I was interested in um and I'm sure Trish will do it because I know she'll do a good job. I didn't know how the 1.9 million assessment error that happened last year affected the budget
and Okay. I didn't know I couldn't tell from the report. There was one place where it said 8.48 and one place it said 12 cents. the difference. So, I wasn't sure what the real tax increase was going to be. Um, I didn't know what other charges of 1.5 million were. That was an increase of
1.5 million, just not. And the other thing is salaries increased 1.6 million. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. M. Uh, Bara. Thank you. >> Seeing no one at the podium, I will close the public comment portion. Oh,
I'm sorry. Sorry about that. >> Yes. My name is Cindy Hamlin. I'm a resident of Millville. I would like to know as of right now, what is your AI data center decision? Are you all is it
all banned? Everyone because I've seen multiple things. I've seen things I know there's things on the internet that are un that are not true. But I saw an article in there. I got upset about this. AI data center transforms former glass factory into
power-driven innovation innovative campus in Millville. Uh web 3 wire on the internet. Is any of this true? >> Ma'am, if you stick around for the meeting, you'll you'll find out very quickly. >> Okay. Because I thought like last month
it was decided everyone was banned. Um, and I have a question about um about this RAB redevelopment area bond. Um, that is this a back door to try to get
an AI data center into Milville cuz that's what I I was concerned about this. It's not. Okay. Definitely not. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Because I definitely I'm speaking for a b a bunch of citizens. We don't want it.
No way. I want to hear the birds sing outside and I want to enjoy my water and I want to breathe fresh air. Please, no AI data center. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> All right. Seeing no one approach the
podium, I will close uh comment portion uh to agenda items only. Madame Clerk, um, presentations. Do we have any? >> Yes, Mayor. We have the 2026 municipal budget presentation by Chief Financial
Officer Trisha McGee. Test my nose. >> Just testing it. >> All right. Well, thank you guys all for coming. I know some of you aren't near for the budget, but unfortunately you have to still see the presentation. Um, so I'll try to talk as, you know, as
fast as possible. The air conditioning is on, but it is a little cozy in here. Um, this presentation is probably a little bit more than what the city seen in the past. I'm a little extra. I like to do um some historical
slides. It is my first official budget um with the city. So I delved into a lot of the historical numbers which the past tells a picture of the future. So just to get us started um so just to go over the timeline
process um to actually adopt the budget. So tonight on the agenda is the um resolution for to intro it. We have to then have a public hearing that would be scheduled June 16th. If there's any
amendments that could be held on that date and then the adoption would also be on June 16th. You have to have at least 28 days in between intro and adoption to be able to vote for that. And the um advertisement for the budget just has to go out 10 days prior. And then I'd have
just little caveat to say it is um majority of full membership which means three of the five three yes S's to proceed to the next um steps. So I always like to kind of give um kind of like budget 101s. It's you know I
came from corporate many years ago. Um corporate accounting is very different than government accounting. Um so the functionality of the government and financial regulations are set by a lot of laws and statutes that are defined by the various admin codes and u ongoing
local finance notices. The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, also known as the DCA, is in charge of of issuing the um ongoing local finance notices throughout the year. New Jersey municipalities and counties are required
to follow or by law to follow fund accounting verse GAP accounting that's used in the private sector. Fund accounting is a modified acrruel basis of accounting. Um fund accounting essentially means there's different
funds per each operation. So there's a different um in theory set of books for the operating for grants, capital trust, utilities, etc. um New Jersey statutes title 4A is uh municipal and counties and chapter 1 through 67 is what we
follow and NJSA4A 4-3 is the annual budget section that dictates that the governing body of each local unit shall adopt a budget of each fiscal year. The budget of each local unit shall be prepared on a cash basis
unless otherwise permitted by law. Sorry. Um, just to continue, uh, the balance budget concepts of revenues have to equal appropriations or expenses. Current year revenues cannot be anticipated or budgeted in greater
amounts than what was received in cash the prior year. You know, there are some exceptions, but the rule is that you can't anticipate more than you received the prior year. Current year levy cap, which is the tax increase, that's limit to a 2.0 0 um% increase from the prior
budget levy with allowable exceptions. Current year appropriations are generally limited to no more than two and a half. It was actually two this year. The state um back to two, but with the COLA ordinance, we were allowed to go up to 3 and a half%.
The state allows each year for select appropriations, um, pension, health benefits, insurance. They're usually the larger year-over-year, um, increases that are anticipated to be outside of the cap, and they have a cap levy calculation that determines what can go
outside of the cap calculation. For this year, specifically with the state health insurance um, increasing, the cap levy was uh, 36.2%. 2% of the year-over-year increase. Last year it was 14%.
And then a budget or balance budget concept, it makes it illegal to anticipate spending more money than you're able to bring in during the calendar year. And unlike our personal funds, uh money in the bank does not equal funds ready to be spent. It has to
be budgeted. Uh here are some best practices for revenue. Revenue should be sustainable. Additional revenue received above anticipated builds the fund balance so that it can use in future years. Uh the
use of one-time revenues to support operating budgets can be detrimental to future budgets. Limit reliance of on on excess use of fund balance and to build that rainy day fund. Do not anticipate 100% of revenue received in prior year
unless fully certain that the same amount will be regenerated again for the current year. cannot uh spend new money received postbudget introadoption would be additional fund balance recovery for future years. Meaning like if we were to hold a city auction next
month, we can't spend that money this year. It has to go into next year's budget. some appropriation or expense best practices. Must budget enough to pay anticipated expenses and provide a buffer for unexpected expenses and/or
increases. Must budget enough to cover 100% of all statutory required payments which are pensions or security tax, debt services, any deferred or judgments. budgeting for 100% of the organization's needed unfilled positions maintains
positions within the go forward budget baseline as well as builds potential fund balance for future years if there's a lapse of unfilled um time versus hired start cannot transfer funds between accounts into the last two months of the current
year or first three months of the following year. Meaning if we were to budget um say overtime and overtime goes over the last two years of the month or the first three I can move be in between inner departments to fund that. Um if
there's not enough budgeted and unable to transfer fully it would create an emergency appropriation which must be raised in future years taxes. Um and then excess appropriation budgeted funds not spent will lapse to fund
balance in the future year. So 2026 would any unspent expenses would lapse in 2027. Uh the year is stayed open for one year post the close for any residual bills that come in. Uh 25 will lapse this year
into next year's budget and 24 went into fund balance this year. This is a slide that the tax assessor has to fill out every year. It's on our assessed value. So based off of um the
data as of October 1st, 2025, we have 8,410 residential partials and our assessed value is 1.48 billion. And our percentage of exempt
versus non-exempt properties is 25%. This next slide is also something the assessor has to provide every year. It's for our long-term pilot. So there's two this year. one being the new standards
um senior living which was the $19 million assessment um clerical error last year and then the second one is the glass town residents. So our pilot billing we're expecting is
about 124,000 to come in off of the 25 uh million assessment value. This crazy graph is um the history trend of our net valuation table. Uh over to
the top left is the ratables. The bottom is the penny equivalent. So I always talk about pennies. So this year our um penny was $148,66. It's about $255 increase. I did include
a added um column in the graph to show if the $19 million error did not occur last year where our NBT would be and uh to answer one of the questions earlier
it was about 3 cents of the tax rate if it wasn't factored in last year all things being equal to the 25 budget. So you'll see I pulled data from 2024 to current and we've only changed less than
a thousand in the penny. So really hasn't gone up much. And the last time the townwide um reval was done in was in 2005. So it's I don't know when they're going
to mandate it. That's for the assessor to deal with, but I would foresee in the foreseeable future it will be mandated to do a readal. This was our internal budget file buildup. So the whole process is we
asked the departments for what they needed for their OE, put in their salaries, put in debt, you know, um other statutory expenses and kind of look to see what the crazy state template um exports. So round one, we
were at 23% or 32 cents and over the cap. We cut more um went through it. We got it under the cap at 18% or 36. Kept cutting, kept cutting, kept adding some um revenue to offset. And we're landing
at a 12 cent increase, which for the pennies is a 8.48% increase if you do the right. So, this next slide, I know it's a lot of crazy numbers, but again, it's with it being my first time, I always like to
see the the trends. Um, on the county website, they list the last historical rate. So, that's where I got all this information from. And the um left column if you look at that's our
12 cent increase for the county. I'm estimating a 2.5%. They are going to be introducing their budget next week, but I don't know what our share of the pie is yet. And then the school I was able to use an actual um percentage because
they finalized theirs already. Um, based off of this, one of the questions was asked earlier or to me before the meeting why it says on the bottom left side 3 or 7.3%. The why that's not 8.48
is because our net value changed. So, it's the same math but a little different. I know it's confusing, but the rate is the the cent is 848% increase. Um, and then at the bottom I
have the average assessed property per the assessor is 176,000. So just for our municipal portion, the annual uh tax increase will be $212,
$53 a quarter or $17 a month. I'm going to the next slide. This is where I was saying this was the um on the county website they go back to 2008 to list the three rates. So you'll see
like in um 2014 to 2017 the rate was essentially zero for four years. No increase. uh 2018 to 21 it was 12 cents and then 22 to 25 was 3.3 cents of total
increase. In 2024 the municipal rate actually decreased 5 cents and that was when they um established the solid waste utility. So they lowered the municipal rate and then created the solid waste utility.
Um the next slide is the tax levy in a graph to show um we are going up 1.5 million which is the equivalent of the 12 cents. Just see down at the bottom or in the
left side it's kind of flat and then it starts to go up. The next is the famous pie chart that I think everybody puts in their budget presentation. Uh so the municipal makes up about 35.7%,
school is 28.38 and county is estimating at 35.92% of our total taxes. The next is our current fund surplus. So again, I went back as far as I could um
in calendar year 2024 was when they changed from fiscal to calendar year basis. Uh between 24 and 2017, the surplus uh re um increased 897,000
or 11%. Between 2018 and 2021, it actually reduced by 2.7% or 2.7 million or almost 31%. And then 22 to 25, the net increase was 1.1 million or 18%.
And as of right now, we are planning to use 7 million of our surplus for this year's budget to uh reduce the uh tax increase. And I know there's a lot of numbers on these pages, but the handouts make it a
little easier to see. Um, so the 2026 proposed budget. This these um this slide displays how the state views our revenue. So they review it as surplus, local revenue, state aid, um,
construction. if you have a UCCC construction revenue shared service grants other uh receipt for delinquent taxes and then the delta is the tax increase. So we are proposing a $42 million budget. Last year was $40
million. If you I like to always exclude shared service and grants because they're one for one. So there's a revenue and there's expense that um counter each other. With those factored out, we're at a $40.2 2 million budget versus a $39 million budget. So, it's
about 1.2 net increase. Um the local for the year-over-year if you take the local state aid and other special revenues actually reduced almost 350,000. And then obviously the offset is our tax
increase of 1.5 million. As a net revenue uh without shared service and grants uh we're going up 3.8%. 8% last year was 7% increase. Now I know this is an even busier spreadsheet. This is our revenue by our
actual internal categories. So again we have surplus. We have our licenses. They're limited to um what bring in ABC licenses, birth certificates, death certificates, uh fees and permits. That's where the uh construction or I'm
sorry the um inspection department that's mostly their revenue that they bring in. Uh municipal court. We have taxes on the tax sale. We have our bank interest which I did increase our bank interest um by 100,000 based off of what
we received last year. Uh then we have some other income. We have a recurring manufacturer home annual service fee. The cable TV franchise fee that's from Comcast. So we have nothing. We can't dictate what we get every year. We just get the check in the beginning of the
year. It has started to um go down a little bit. As people have less cable at home, we're going to get less of a fee. And then uh they have included um our EMS services in the top other section.
And then we have our state revenue, which I'll get into in a slide down the ways. We have our UCCc revenue. And then we kind of have our miscellaneous revenue, which a lot of them are one-time thing. So you could see the very tiny print on the screen. The reds
are one time uh one shots as I call them. The blues for the use of utility surplus from water or sewer. You can use them on an ongoing basis. Um, obviously you can't drain the the utilities and you're not supposed to use the utilities
to fully offset your general fund. But this shows that um the total utility revenue offsets is 700,000 and our one times this year are 707,000 versus last year utility revenues was
670 and one times was 1.1 million. So another lovely pie chart for our uh 2026 budget revenues. The tax levy is making up 54% surplus 17 local revenue 7 state aid 10
UCC 1% grants four special um other special items 5% and delinquent taxes got cut off 1% I think this is just a line chart to see um the
ups and downs of how it goes throughout the year and then our tax levy. Here's uh the last um seven years of surplus and the usage as
you can see last year and this year are the same which was a much last year was a large increase from the year prior. So this is a trend of what's considered
local revenues, the plus and minuses. Um back in uh 2021 is when the EMS unit was established. So that added 400,000 to our baseline or I'm sorry in 2020 added 400,000. In
2021 they increased it from 400 to 800,000 revenue. So it increased it by 400. Uh you'll see in 22 some of the fees and permits and municipal court um were reduced. In 2023,
they had a major reduction to bank interest and there was a recurring uh it just said rent Millville on the budget. Um that's gone away. Uh in 2024 we had a slight reduction to EMS but it was
offset by bank interest. And then in 25 or we had an increase of EMS and another increase of bank interest. And then this year is the 100,000 that I'm adding for more bank interest. But the more you anticipate, the less that will um recoup
into surplus. This is a graph of the state aid. So a few years ago, the state said, "Oh, we're going to give the towns more energy tax." This is many, many years ago. They took it away from the municipalities. municipalities used to
get the energy tax direct state took it over. Um they basically gave pennies back to the town. So in 2023 they increased the ERT tax by 29,000
and then um postco the state knew that all the municipalities were obviously were all hurting. They gave initially a one-time state municipal relief aid. Uh Milville received 220,000.
So that was used in the 23 budget to offset added um expenses and not raise the uh the tax rate. In 24, the state said, "Oh, we're going to give it to you again, but we're going to double it. And after that, we're not going to give you
any more money." So that 440,000 or essentially 3 cents was again baked in as a oneshot deal to offset um increases and not increase the tax base. And then in 25
and 26 they said we're not giving you any extra uh the special items of revenue. I was doing this graph to answer your question earlier why the budget presentation I finished it today. I was doing this slide about one o'clock in
the morning last night but I found it very interesting for the history. Um so again postcoid the federal government gave all of the towns um several millions of dollars. It could be used to offset loss revenues or infrastructure
costs. So for 2022, the city used 1.7 of the ARPA funds to offset the tax increase, and 200,000 of balance sheet cleanup items. In 2023, the city used 3 million
of ARPA funds, 1 million of balance sheet tax appeals, and about 400,000 of balance sheet cleanup items, which again, those are one shots. when she clean them off the balance sheet so they don't get added back in. That was about
30 cents offset that specific year for one shot deals. and 24 they used the remaining balance of 213,000 of the ARPA funds another 1 million for tax appeals that was on the
balance sheet and 107 of additional balance sheet cleanups which came to about 9 cents offset in 25 they increased uh the utility surplus by 83k another million for the tax appeals
145 of balance sheet cleanup items which totaled about 1.2 million or 8 cents. And then this year we've increased the utility um surplus usage by 30,000 and I've found two balance sheet items we could clean up for
628,000 which is about a 4 cent um offset. But with that said, with the ARP funds over those three years totaling 4.9 million of revenue offset, that's about 34 cents
that wasn't raised because the ARP money was um put in uh for the revenue. This is just a little graph of the amount to be raised by taxes. um just a little chart and then the
bottom is a waterfall chart to show the rate increases. So in 2020 the rate was 3 point or 1.366. It went up u 02 then it basically went flat then up 4.7
cents then down five for the solid waste utility then up 3.7 cents and now up our 12 to be at a rate of 1.539. So now I've probably beat to death the revenue side. And now the expense side.
Um so where the revenue gets expended. These are the categories again that the state views. Obviously internal we have a lot of sub accounts. So we view it in more detail oriented but from their perspective they view it as um salary
and wages. Um OE other expenses that are excluded outside of the cap. That's part of the cap exclusions. So, the reason why it's 1.5
or 1.48 of a year-over-year increase this year was part of our insurance cap that we were allowed to um insurance increase that we were allowed to have outside of the cap. Uh last year they had a deferred charge
for the new um parks building of 1.9 million. We don't have that this year. Statutory expenses uh went up 44,000. Our debt went down 77. Our capital, what we're funding went
down 51. Reserve for uncollected taxes. That's a calculation. Uh that calculation um went down 166,000 and then as of right now, our grants are up 173,000. So our net um appropriation increase was
3.13% where last year it was uh 7.0 and the year prior it was um reduction of eight for the uh solid waste coming out lovely pie chart for the budget appropriations. So salary and wages make
up 41% of our budget. Um OE, which is what the departments uh have to fulfill all of their needs, makes up 29%. Other expenses excluded from the cap,
like I said, is that's almost entirely the cap exclusion for our healthcare insurance. Uh statutory makes up 10%, debt is five, capital is zero, five. Um, library is 1%, grants are 5%, and shared
service is 0% because it's such a small amount. This is a waterfall graph of what makes up the expenses. So, we start at 25 budget or uh 40.7 million. Our grants as
of right now, the airing is up 174. Um, police salaries up 133. fire and EMS is up 427. Part of that is because the past budget didn't budget enough overtime, which is part of the budget transfer had to
complete at the end of last year. So, we've um rectified that calculation. Um you know, admin economic development up 176, all others up 304. And this year we every 11 years cuz we get paid
bi-weekly, we experience a 27th payroll cycle. So um because if we would t we should get paid on January 1st because it's a federal holiday, it falls on December 31st and whenever it gets paid is when
it has to be expensed. So therefore it makes another um cycle that we have to um cover this year. that makes up uh 572,000. It's about 4 cents.
Uh the payroll tax and equivalence is up 156,000. Obviously, you know, as salaries go up, so do the statutory expenditures um that we have to pay the federal and state for that. Uh state pension actually went down 96,000.
Uh the deferred charge for the new building didn't recur this year. capital. We're not putting we're putting 50,000 less this year. Our debt schedule, like I said, is down 77. The rut down 166. And then the big increase going back up
of 1.8 million is our health insurance. So, the end of last year, uh, it was kind of had to be a last minute decision. The city had to get off of state healthcare and we are now with a private company. the state issued their
rates, they were going up about 51% for active employees. With the change, we went up 30%. Um, it's about 37% when you add retirees or about 12.5.
So if you were to look in silos, we're increasing our tax by 12 cents, but our insurance is costing us 12.5. So we're basically just covering that using additional surplus and balance
sheet cleanup to offset the normal increases of salary, wages, and oh, and cost of goods. um our general and uh workers comp insurance for the current fund reduced 366,000.
I changed some of the allocations to the utilities for that. We had a lawsuit settlement that was discussed in a earlier um meeting this year. That's 75,000 for our portion. And then all o
all other OE is up 181,000 which that's to cover any departmental needs. That does not cover we had to make some cuts. It doesn't cover any departments that had um asks for additional staff.
Uh mainly the fire department and had asked for additional staff. It doesn't cover any cushion. Hence why we're here. Our elevator's broken to figure out how to pay fund. It's all OE is very slim. 181,000 is not a large amount to
increase with the tariffs and just the cost of goods postco. Um and then that got us to 42 million for our we're introducing. This slide is just a screenshot of um when you put in the budget, you have to
make sure that you're under your levy cap and your for the tax side and for the appropriation side. So, it's just a screenshot showing that we are um 657,000 under the levy cap. That levy cap can
carry over to the next three years budgets if we need it to get under. 2023 they were under by 1.6 that balance will go away. I will have that available to use. 24 they didn't
have any levy cap extra. And 25 they had 1.8. So the 1.8 8 and then the 657,000 which totals 2.5 million will be available in next year's budget if we need it um to meet our cap expectations.
This is the appropriation side of the cap. So the levy cap's 2% appropriations. Uh we approved the COLA ordinance so we could go up to three and a half using the cap bank for 24 and 25. they had about 500,000 each. Um we will
have 396,000 available to carry over to next year's budget to help against the um 3 and 12% cap exception going into grants. So,
um, looking at the last, uh, four years of grants, I kind of itemize. You can look at it's, you know, look at your handout to see. So, 2023, the city brought in 2.9 million. In 24, they brought in 4.6
million. Uh, in 25 1.6, and to date, we are introducing 1.8 million. Um that's largely uez uee is 1.3 of the 1.85
million just kind of shows that um lot 2024 was large because they had a large uh DOT grant. So obviously we want to work for DOTs do road paving and stuff. The more we can get grants the less we have to
bond or um pay for on our end. So, we wanted to also take a look to see what the two large larger surrounding towns brought in grant-wise. Uh, Bridton didn't have their 22 and uh through 2020 budget online, but Vinland did. So, if
we look at um our percentage for 25, if we look at what the three towns brought in, um Milville brought in 7% of the pool. Burch and brought in 26 and Vinland 66%. I mean obviously Vinand's larger they
have you know a specific department for grants but any grant that we bring in can help buy equipment you know if we can offset salaries any any little bit helps. Um, so this is again just to reiterate
um what all of this means to the average assessed house which is 176,000. On this slide I included what the school and county estimate is going to be. So all in the estimated increase is $450
quarterly 112 monthly 37 again of that municipal is 211 annual um school is $144 and county is estimating at $95. Now, this will be two quarters will go
out this year, two quarters go out next year because of how the tax um billings fall. If you have a mortgage, obviously you'll get the adjustment when your escrow gets reestablished or recalculated.
Uh jumping into the capital. So, capital 101. A capital budget is required for multi-year anticipated three years if you're under 10,000 population six if you're over. Um not considered a spendable budget used to represent
long-term financial planning for large-scale dollar projects to exceed a 5-year life. A capital bond ordinance are required to adopt the budget necessary for these items. Um, you have to have the 5% down if
we're going to do a bond. Uh, these ordinance are generally required for long-term financing, uh, funding. And like I said, debt services can be bonds or permanent financing, notes for short-term up to 10 years or I bank, green acres, um, those types of state
approved loans. uh balance balances in capital improvement fund or fund balance in capital may be used to help self finance these types of purchases if available. This is
um what the departments asked for for some uh their needs. Uh we have various needs of you know we need equipment back hose street sweepers vehicle lifts uh we need upgrades to buildings um upgrades
to park our uh Walt Whitman and course and park athletic fields we need a few fire trucks a few ambulances uh we have police obviously they need police cars fleet in general need vehicles um I did put at the bottom from
uh you know just long-term thinking for new firehouse EMS station, police building, city hall or rehabbing of those locations. And then at the bottom I listed the city assessment for the reval since it hasn't been done since 2005.
Again, this is just a plan. It doesn't mean that we're going to fulfill all of these needs via debt this year, but it has to be in the plan to be able to move um move forward. Excuse me. So, things we need to contemplate um for
2027 and beyond uh health insurance. So, we moved we got out of state health insurance because we were looking at a 50% increase. We got a 30-ish% increase. You know, we don't know yet what the premiums are going to be for next year.
Um, we have aging fleet. I put my little my little um Flintstone car to some of the vehicles are very very old, but knock on wood, they are still moving around. Uh, we have building repairs, the city assessment
reval, general insurance, workers comp. Um obviously if we have claims that uh premium will go up the overall cost of goods with um what's going on at the higher governments with the tariffs. We don't know what's happening there. We
have um to fulfill the union contractual increases for all of the contracts that was were settled last year. And then um we also have uh additional staffing needs that were not budgeted this year that we will look to fulfill uh in the
future. So now moving on to the smaller budgets utility um the state views the utilities on a very uh summarized basis. So for the water,
they view it as surplus, rents, uh, hydrant services, and miscellaneous revenue. Our surplus usage is going up this year by 817,000. It is a lot, um, but it is explained. Um, it's coming from the need to offset
our health insurance and our general insurance and some overall needs that the department um, needs to uh, increase their infrastructure. So, we're looking to propose a $5.1 million budget. Last year was 4.4. Uh, revenues have to equal
expenses. So, uh, with that said, the overall, uh, revenue and expenses are going up 789,000 or 17.93%. And I, uh, listed to the side, healthcare insurance went up for the
water, um, employees 66,000. General insurance went up 260,000. uh just to go over their surplus. I didn't go as far back as the current fund because the state uh their templates weren't their AFS and their budget templates weren't the same in the
as they have been recently. So, it's kind of hard to get the historical numbers. Um but just looking like last year the uh um they used 817,000 for the utility, 450 for the current
fund. We only recouped uh 948. So surplus went down 318,000. The year prior it went up 88. The year before that it went down 135,000. So it kind of goes up and down as we go along.
uh to the sewer budget. The same thing the state views it very um summarized. So their surplus this year we put in an extra 838,000. Again, the drivers were um healthc care
insurance and needs that the department um needs to increase for their general infrastructure. So, our revenue is looking at 7.3 million versus 6.4 um which is a 12.69%
net increase. the uh sewer utility uh their surplus is pretty healthy. It has continued to increase over the last several years. Uh this year obviously shows a decrease cuz we don't know what we're going to be
able to recover yet to the solid waste since again this was established in 2024. Um this year the budget is going up about 242,000
from 2.4 to 2.15. Uh the city did implement a $1 a $12 annual increase for the rents that will reflect in this year's cash receipts uh which will be able to increase next
year's budget. Um the other expenses that the the reason why the tax or the solid waste budget increased is obviously for the trash collection. So the CCIA tipping fees went up 3%.
The ACUA trash fee specifically for trash went up 19% or 147,000. The recycling went up 2%. And we did um need to also budget another 50% or 50,000
um for trash can purchases. We do get reimbured for that if the residents um residents purchase if they uh want an extra can, but if one's broken or repairs, we have to cover that expense.
Uh the 25 budget did not um factor in any can purchases. So that's why I have on there that it's a 100% increase cuz they had factored in some canned purchases in 24 when the utility was established but not in 25.
And solid waste little surplus tracker is the simplest of all since it just started in 24. So when they ended 24 they brought in uh 45,000 to carry over.
Um last year uh they were able to um add 42,000 and then this year we're planning to offset 182,000 of that. And that's the end of my very long
presentation. So >> you came to me do have two budget resolutions. Bud budget resolution number one, resolution to read the municipal budget by title only. >> Like to make a motion second. So
that was a long presentation, but the work you took was way longer. Um, and I know it goes unnoticed. Uh, it doesn't on my part when I get your 11:30 at night emails, um, almost every day, your Saturday emails, your Sunday
emails. Um, I know you try to simplify it into round one, round two, round three, but you forgot round one, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Um, you forgot the many times. I'm like, go back into your hole because we're not accepting those
numbers. We have to keep fighting and and getting them down. And uh I appreciate it. I know a lot of people just look at dates and wonder why it took us this long. Um but the work that you two put into this
that you and the administrator and the meetings you've had with every department head for the last couple months just to try to give them some of the bad news that this doesn't even this isn't even about growth.
This isn't even keep us even. This is just keep us from just let us try to move forward a little bit. Um we haven't had any growth in this city in such a long time and we're just playing catchup. Um
and I know you want to see growth and you're like ah we need uh this big number that I'm not even going to put out to even get to there. Um and you did a lot of cleaning up of the books. you did a lot of work that you know if this isn't something that everybody wants to
talk about it because it's not fun and um it feels boring at times right to a lot of people but you know the time that you spent out there doesn't go unnoticed and I want you to know that I appreciate what both you guys have done and the
long hours you guys have put in I know the the public may not have the same perception because you know a lot of times unfortunately they see the end product and they don't see the blood, sweat, and tears. So, uh, before that gets to that point, uh, once again, I just wanted to say thank you for all the
hours you've put in. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasabun, >> yes. >> Commissioner Minnello, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. >> Budget resolution item number two, resolution to introduce the 2026 municipal budget. I'd
>> like to make a motion. I'll second that motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Costume, >> yes. >> Commissioner Minnello, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. >> We now just need a motion to approve the
bill list. >> I'd like to make a motion. >> Second the motion. >> Uh once again, I think um the bill list is made public. I I I do appreciate that you're also doing that, Trish, as well. Uh sometimes that goes unnoticed but um that gives the public a chance to see
all the bills we are paying. So thank you. >> Roll call please. >> Commissioner Taylor. >> Yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Kasoon. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Reinelloo. >> Yes. >> Mayor Dixon. >> Yes. >> Need a motion to approve the minutes for the following dates. January 6th, 2026.
January 16th, 2026. January 20th, 2026. January 30th, 2026. and February 3rd, 2026. >> Like to make a motion to approve the minutes as second it. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cott. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Kasun. >> Yes.
>> Commissioner Reinella. >> Yes. >> Mayor Dixon. >> Yes. >> Uh now we move on to reports of commissioners. Commissioner Taylor. >> I'd like to make a motion to receive and file the police, fire, and EMS reports for the month of April 2026. >> I'll second. >> Roll call, please.
>> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cott. >> Yes. Commissioner Kaspoon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Reinella, >> yes. >> Clar Dixon, >> yes. Anything to add, Commissioner Taylor? >> Not at this time, mayor. Thank you. >> All right. Commissioner Kawink, >> just a few things. Uh, streets and
roads, they are right now on Sugarman A for the brush cleanup and collection. They still have Caramel Road area, Ireland AB, both White Mar Cedarwood Village developments and Lloyd Terrace before heading to Laurel Lake to finish up. Residents can still put your tra
your brush and loose leaves out to the compost out on Cedar Street if you'd like to or you can have your loose leaves and they have to be in bags and put out with your daily weekly trash. Our sweet street sweeper is back and up and running and tickets will be issued
as needed when they are back out on the streets. water department. Um they've been doing there's been a lot of breaks, pipe breakage with this past winter. So they've been working on Garrison Kimble Avenue. Garrison just
finished completed a new wet tap and 60 foot of 6 in pipe across Wheaten Dav Pleasant Drive replacement project bid that's going out on May the 9th. That's so we can get that piping up to standard for the state with
the Yep. The rust. No, not the rust. >> The lead. The lead. >> Get that before we pave that street. So, we want to get that done and progress. We're a little bit half we're halfway installed with the meters. So, that's a
good thing. So hopefully keep on if you get a notice, go ahead and make your appointment. And that's about it for me. >> Thank you, Commissioner. >> Uh Commissioner Reanella. >> Yes. Uh we have the senior barbecue tomorrow, uh May 20th at the Millville
Elks. >> As always, all 200 seats filled up pretty quickly. And we're looking forward to a fantastic day of music, games, great food, uh and even better company. I saw some of the baskets. They look pretty fabulous this year. The
doors are going to open at 10:30 a.m. The barbecue officially kicks off at 11:30 a.m. and lunch will be served at noon. Uh then on Friday, May 22nd, Milville Public Schools, who's been gracious enough to uh give us this room,
uh will host its 49th annual Olympic day. The parade is going to begin at 10:00 a.m. at city hall and a few commissioners and I will be joining in as 800 fourth and fifth graders march to Wheatenfield to compete in 14 different events.
Olympic day remains one of Millville's greatest traditions. It's filled with school spirit, community pride, and support for our youth, including my son, a fifth grader at Rick Avenue, and a proud jet, who will be taking part in the day's events. On Memorial Day, May
25th, our annual Memorial Day parade will begin at 9:00 a.m. We also want to help spread the word that the parade route has changed this year due to the Main Street Bridge construction. The parade will begin at the American Legion, proceed to Buck Street, continue
to Brandruff Avenue for a brief naval memorial ceremony on the Brand Ridge, and then travel to West Main Street before concluding with a ceremony at the Veterans Plot in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. And finally, don't forget about our citywide community yard sale on
Saturday, May 30th. Anyone who would like to participate and have their address included on the official list of homes can sign up by emailing recreation milvillej.gov. Uh, some quick department updates. Last
week, all but two of the black decorative light poles on High Street from Broad Street to Vine Street were repaired and are now back in service with upgraded LED lighting. The two remaining poles require additional work. We are also aware of intermittent
outages with the decorative lights on High Street and those will be addressed in the coming weeks with LED upgrades as well. All athletic fields now have irrigation up and running. The parks department is currently clearing overgrowth at the American Little
League. We're then returning to parks and cutting grass. The team will then move on to Corson Park during the first week of June ahead of the fishing tournament to address all cleanup and overgrowths around the pond area. Clean team has also been very very busy. They
completed the cleanup uh on Eden Avenue that I was mentioning at the last meeting in the industrial park. They did a very large cleanup on Buck Street and addressed areas near the railroad tracks at High and Broad Streets. They've also been retrieving abandoned shopping carts and removing trash
throughout the UE zone daily as well as cleaning up rem I'm sorry, remnants of abandoned encampments. Everyone's continued effort is making a visible difference in keeping our city a little bit cleaner and a lot more presentable. I also want to recognize
Sam Cruz and Broo Tomlin for their hard work across several major community efforts that are taking place right now. uh from organizing the senior barbecue and confirming our senior list to processing veterans names for the wall of honor, collecting addresses for the
citywide yard sale, helping coordinate both the Memorial Day parade and planning for our Fourth of July celebration that's happening in a couple months. It's been a really busy stretch and I appreciate all their dedication and efforts. Uh sewer department also
working very hard. I want to thank S and all the men and women from our sewer department. We are going to have uh our report at the next meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Ranella. Vice Mayor Cop. >> Yeah, it's just uh it's been budget
season. It's been crazy. It's been hectic. Um revenue finances and just uh want to thank the men and women there for just keeping us afloat during the office this process. Thank you, Vice Mayor C.
I want to start with engineering. Um, if I overlap with uh sewer, water, roads, I apologize, but this is kind of more from an engineering perspective. Um, the third secondary clarifier. Um, we're hoping to have that done by the end of the year. Engineering continues on all
aspects of that project. So, that should be done by the end of the year. We are we've uh engineering has finalized the design on our solids dewatering upgrade. What that's going to do for us is save money when it comes to solids. The
wetter the solids are, the more it costs to get it out of there. And when we have a the upgrade happens, it's going to save us money in the long run. Um Ireland Avenue force main upgrade, they're looking to get that paved. Um so all the work that's going on, it's 95%
complete. So, if you folks live around Ireland Avenue, um there should be money left in the project and engineering is going to get those roads paved in that area so it doesn't look like a mess. Uh thank you. While we continue those upgrades, um engineering is working with
um the water utility on painting our and uh resurfacing our water tanks. So, engineering is working on that. Um, Pleasant Avenue water improvements um, as car uh, Commissioner Casaboon
um, had mentioned should be happening um, being done in about two weeks. That's how how long it's going to take. And then once that's done, the paving is going to start probably this fall. >> This fall. >> This fall. So engineering is working very hard to make sure that happens on
time. Gisinger Avenue's water improvements are being engineered and taken care of as well. And it looks like there'll be a fall completion on that project as well. Um the South 14th Street paving project um it was awarded
and that is going to be uh moving along very shortly. Gisinger Avenue Road improvements should be done early 2027. uh Buck Street road improvements that's being done with UEC money. Um perhaps this year, I like to make these updates
because people ask me all the time, what's happening with these roads? Um the downtown uh improvements for the um the streetscape that has already started and uh it should be done in about two months. So um engineering was already
done on that and uh that's that's moving along. They've had trouble getting materials, but that's moving along. And when it comes to parking lots, um the engineering is going to start on a lot of the lots. Not to take public uh properties uh thunder, but uh as
engineering gets done on those, uh those will probably get done early next year based on our engineering department. Um I'll be quick on construction fees. Um construction permits to date are at
245,000 uh compared to same year to date 183,000. So we have a 33% increase in construction permits so far. And rental registry registration uh rates are up. It's a 7% increase over last year. So
hopefully the word is getting out that you should not have a rental unit without um registering it. And with that, those are all the comments that I'll have for right now. Uh, madam,
but let's move on to regular business. >> Yes, mayor. Ordinances for second reading. Ordinance for second reading. Item number one, an ordinance amending chapter 30, land use and development regulations. And there is a public hearing. >> All right. So, um, this is where we're
at. Um, we've we've been waiting for this moment. There's a public hearing on this. Um, this is our data center uh ban that we've been talking about for at least well since we've been in. So, there is a public hearing on this. I know there's going to be a lot of people that want to come up and speak. We will
hold public comments to five minutes in order to give everybody an ample time to speak. So, please each uh person that's presenting please hold your comments to five minutes. If you'd like to make a comment, please approach the podium. State your name and address and your
concerns. Mayor Dixon, commissioners, Michael Molinsky of Fox Roll Child LLP on behalf of Anthony Dantis who's a member of 1300 Wheaten LLC, 200G Construction LLC, and 600G Construction LLC located at 1300
Wheaten 200 G Street and 6 uh 200300G Street and 600 G Street. also known as blocks 260 lot 5, blocks 260 lot one and blocks 264 lot 62.03 or 2.03. Uh with regard to the five-minute
limitation, I'm going to place my objection on the record. Uh with regard to that, uh there is no limitation set forth in your agenda. You do limit the time to five minutes under sections 6 and 21. However, no other sections are limited. uh under the POP open public
meetings act are able to limit comments to the public comment section. However, this is a public hearing on a second reading on an ordinance 409-2 dealing with the passage of ordinances doesn't limit public comment. Moreover, I'm not aware of an ordinance that the
city of Milville has adopted which has limited the right of the public hearing or the time frame of the public hearing on the second reading of ordinance has set forth and felled versus city of Orange Township 2018 WL3747632
appellet division 2018. You have to have a narrowly tailored ordinance in effect limiting the time frame for public comment with regard to a second reading on an ordinance. uh narrowly tailored because it does uh impinge on the public's first amendment right to speak regarding the second reading of
ordinances. Uh so with that uh I don't believe the five-minute limitation in accordance with your agenda or the open public meetings act or 409-2 is applicable here. So I have four witnesses with me this
evening. Our intent here tonight with that on the record and my objection noted on the record is to inform the commissioners and explain to you there are certain concerns that are laid out in your ordinance but there are solutions to those concerns that can be
addressed through smart planning. Technologies are ever changing in the data center realm in the data center field. uh certain technologies which probably should have been implemented down the road here. But again, these are technologies that are in existence that provide realistic solutions to the
concerns that you have in your ordinance. So, with that being said, I'm going to call my first witness who is Barry Smith. Also, real quick, before Mr. Smith gets up here. I'm going to note that I did hand out exhibits A, which is also known as O-1
through Q, which is also known as O-17, consisting of 19 159 pages, uh, with inclusive of the table of contents and exhibit tabs, which I would have marked into evidence as part of this public hearing.
>> I'd like to defer to the uh, solicitor at this point. How do you want to uh handle public comments at this point? Uh it looks like we're going to be switching from uh presenter to presenter. Would you like to limit each presenter to five minutes? How would you like to proceed?
>> I think that's probably most appropriate at this time. We can bend for this. Um I don't necessarily know that I share your analysis, but we'll let him limit it. Each presenter is no more than five minutes. >> Not by objection on the record. Just
trying to be back here and spirited. >> Now, real quick, the ordinance we're talking about tonight said the number is 48. Is that correct? >> That is. Yes, that is. Thank you. Mr. Smith, briefly give your background
to the commissioners. Sure. Uh started my career as a federal bank regulator cleaning up the US banking crisis in the 90s. Uh I then moved into fintech which is very much a digital um play. So I've been operating in the digital infrastructure space. I worked for a
company called Equinex which is the largest data center re uh in the world. We had during my period gone from 100 data centers to 280 globally. Moving from 35 metros to 77 metros. Many of those metros are in and around populated
areas. >> And your curriculum is actually included in correct. >> That's correct. >> And you've reviewed ordinance number 48-2026. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> And you're familiar with the five concerns that are outlined in ordinance 48- 2026. Is that correct?
>> That's correct. And in your professional opinion, there are solutions to each of those five concerns. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> And can you please explain to the board what your five solutions are and how each of the concerns can be addressed?
Certainly. So let me go through um basically the first one which is the legitimate worry about large data centers that can pull hundreds of megawws drawn entirely from existing grid that demand can stress
local infrastructure and push energy prices up for residents who share the same lines. Um Atlantic City Electric serves Milville. The same utility serves much of the of South Jersey. So any new look
>> I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. How's that? Is that better? >> Sorry. >> Okay. So, um, Atlantic City Electric serves Milville. Same utility serves much of South Jersey. So, any new large load anywhere on the AC system can
affect mill rate payers. So you currently have another other um municipalities that could be at risk to what how you pay pay your rate. So the one solution to that though that I want to talk about which is also a solution to a few of these other five points is
something called solid oxide fuel cells and they're primarily from Bloom Energy. Um these are in play. We used them probably we probably about 12 13 years ago. We basically installed them and what they they can at our data centers
at Equinex because we were basically looking at ESG scores, environmental, social and governance. Um so we basically always wanted to do good by um the communities that we operated in. But those SOFC's run on natural gas, bio gas, and even hydrogen. They're clean.
They don't vibrate like um like um turbines or generators and basically they are very very efficient and modular. So if you use bio gas with the SOFC's you could get 90% um rec and with
weight waste heat recapture you get 90% efficiency from those SOFCs. So on a second point concern 205 cooling and and water usage. So closed loop cooling has cut water use to near zero.
Um so what does that mean? That basically means that what you're doing is you're data centers were never using water previously. Actually water was the enemy of data centers um because of all the electronics. Now with GPU processing
AI, you need to cool that heat. So with closed loop what it does is it basically recaptures that water and recaptures the evaporation from that process. So the water usage goes down significantly if at all. There's also now something called dialectic fluid. So if you're
driving your car, your car is probably not cooled by water, it's cooled by anifreeze. So think about that dialectric fluid exactly that. So there's a lot of these new things that are moving forward that um are going to solve some of these problems.
So concern three of five, mechanical noise, the industrial zone sighting plus modern engineering keeps noise contained. So what we're saying is just go ahead and open up where your industries are. I can tell you I did this uh when I was at Aquinex, we were in Toronto. We were basically what they
call black. We couldn't open up a second site. We found an industrial zone. A developer remediated that site and we built a very large data center in in Toronto to go ahead and basically build out their whole industrial where there used to be steel plants, there used to
be coke plants, things like that where we cleaned up the site. So the same thing can happen here in your industrial zones. Keep them in your industrial zones. Um how does how does this get solved? Basically the noise. So again, industrial zones, liquid cooling,
SOFC's, there's no combustions, near zero vibration. Um, and then I would do setback sound walls. You guys have the ability to go ahead and design these and dictate the design for the benefit of the community. Um, so there's a number of there's enough of these out there,
examples. There's a lot of noise out there that I think you can move ahead and and basically implement something incredible for your community. the waste heat. Um, concern number four or five, heat and environment. Waste heat is wasted opportunity. Uh, I can say that
when I was at Aquinex, we had in our Paris data centers, we used to basically push out all of our heat from our servers. We took that waste heat and we actually now and still to this day heat the Olympic pool in Paris. Just one example. There's other now there's data
center providers that basically take the heat and they they go ahead and they basically um they take it to a greenhouse. The greenhouse is their their biggest biggest expense is actually electric for heating. So they basically take it and it and that expense goes down to next to
nothing and basically they're they're trying to recoup this. So there's a whole ecosystem of plays that you can do off of any data center um in the area. So again, I I would not go ahead and listen to a lot of noise out there. There are solutions. Uh I'll give
you another one. In Stockholm, Sweden, they're basically heating 30,000 apartments with the data centers waste heat. So they put it into their their heating grid and they're heating homes off of any of that heat. So there are ways to go ahead and and remediate
anything out there, whether it's weight east, waste heat recapture. Um even some of these large hyperscalers have gone ahead and funded waste treatment plant where they're taking waste water and cleaning it cool using it for cooling
and pushing it back into the community. And then lastly five um number five the jobs versus land use. So many of you say okay there's a data center there's only going to be you know 20 30 full-time jobs. Well, during the
construction phase, there's obviously a lot of jobs that come in. These are bluecollar. These are plumbing, electricians, HVAC, they're building. They're they are and you could say they are temporary. When somebody something is up and running, there's a lot of
indirect jobs. So, you're not running a data center that has a lot of electric, a lot of plumbing, a lot of HVAC where something can go wrong calling in in another state. you're looking for local indirect plumber plumbing companies, electric companies. The other thing I'll say is you're work, you know, you have
the ability, and I've done this with another developer uh in Mississippi, is they've worked with a local university to go ahead and create training programs because all this capital and two weeks ago, four firms um went ahead and said
$750 million this year alone they're putting into capex. That means capital to go ahead and build data centers, work with the community. So if you want growth, and I did hear that, there's a way to do this and do it properly. I would not ban data centers. I would
maybe individually review them and look at them and approve them and spec them out. Um on a design side that require all of these unit such as cells and food. Is that correct?
>> That's correct. >> One uh one other thing just to make uh point here. So you know I had helped build Equinex's uh I'm a New Jersey resident. So I am paying by property taxes just like everybody else. Um so Caucus New Jersey we built the largest
financial electronic centers in the world. Um they they transact more transactions than anywhere throughout this globe. Um I just want to give you a little example of the difference between Millville and Saucus. >> I'm going to have I'm going have to cut you off there. I let you go probably about eight or nine minutes. >> Okay.
>> So again, you noted my objection on the record. I'm not aware of the legal authority or ordinance that's been pointed to to limit the time frame or in the agenda. >> We're not talking to you. >> We can again
>> we're not addressing the public. We'd appreciate the courtesy of the public not addressing us right now with respect. >> Okay. >> All right. I'm going to address everyone in the public. All right. Everyone gets a chance to talk. We all
don't agree on this subject. Please do not yell at the people. They get to say what they want to say. You will get a chance to come up and say what you want to say. It's obvious we don't agree on this, and that's okay. So, be respectful. Let them say what
they have to say. Everyone here is going to get a chance to come up and talk if they want, but let's be respectful. All right. Um sir, please continue. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My next witness is
Mr. Matt Dorsy. Mr. Dorsy, >> afternoon, your curriculum by is already in the exhibit package, so skipping your background. Uh you heard the testimony of Mr. Smith, and do you agree that there's a proven solution for each of the concerns?
>> I I do. and I've reviewed the concerns in the reports that I've seen in the ordinance. Um, and I think my key considerations are that those positions overlook a lot of the benefits that data centers could bring to the town. Um, it overlooks the fact that some of these
concerns are not necessarily impacts because as as Barry said, they could be mitigated. Um, and I think that brings us to a conclusion that it makes sense to consider these applications on a case- by case basis rather than a blanket ban. If it's useful, I can walk through each of those positions in more
detail. Okay. So, when it comes to the benefit side of the equation here, um the previous presentation spoke well to the benefits that could come from taxes. Um I wanted to raise the commission's attention to the potential of energy cost savings. And this is in the packet
you have starting at slide three. Um this is an area that I specialize in elsewhere. What we've seen over and over is that when a data center comes to a local community, they absorb some of the cost of running the local utility and residents bills go down for their
electric use, for their water use across the board. At at slide four, we've listed a whole bunch of specific instances where a utility went before a regulator, got an order to do this, and they found evidence to support this position. This isn't corporate PR. These
are commitments that companies are making and and rulings that regulatory agencies are are finding. It found that in Arizona, bringing data centers to the system will save residential customers $100 a year. In Michigan, the regulator
there found that the utility is going to defer future rate increases because they're able to absorb the revenues from the data center instead. California, they found the same thing. Nevada, they found similar findings. And again, these are not exactly sort of bastions of of
rampant capitalism. These are closely regulated, careful with these issues kind of jurisdictions. And the finding is consistent. When data centers are added to the electric grid, the cost for existing customers goes down. Again, there's there's lots and lots of data in
your packets in in in the effort to sort of move it along. Um, on the impact side, I think there have been a total of of five potential impacts that have been identified. I've addressed four of them in in the packets that you have here.
I'm not an expert on the jobs economy, so I didn't touch that one. But on the other one, I've I've picked up some of the technological and the governance solutions that can apply here, and I've listed specific instances in which other communities have navigated these issues. on on noise. We've seen that
jurisdictions can impose um specific requirements on new data centers to come in and if they if they don't then they can reject their entrance to the town. Same for water use. Um here we we've listed that Microsoft has zero water. Sir, I'm going to pause you for just a
second. If the people in the gallery could please stop private conversations. People want to listen. All right. Let's pay attention to each speaker. give each speaker a chance to speak. If you don't like data centers, you'll get a chance to come up here and say whatever you'd
like to say. I want to give these gentlemen a chance to say what they have to say. So, please let's let's keep the conversations that I can hear almost from here. Uh if you'd like to speak, absolutely move out to the hallway and have conversations. Everyone's going to get a
chance to speak. Sorry to interrupt you. >> No, it's fine. >> But I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to be heard. >> I count it against his time. Make sure >> this is not counted against your >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> All right, continue. I'm sorry. >> Uh, so so we were talking water use. Um, >> I'm kidding.
>> Um, we we've listed several instances here. You can review them at your leisure of sort of new technologies, closed loop cooling that reduce water use to close to zero. One of the best examples I'm aware of is from a few weeks ago in East Windsor. There the town approved the expansion of a QTS
data center. One of the conditions they oppo imposed was that QTS had to install closed loop water cooling or they couldn't move forward with their with their um facility. It's worth noting here also the town owns the water utility. So you have the ability to
restrict the service from the water utility that goes to any of its customers reasonably and this would apply as well. Um, great impacts. Again, I I I've talked about the regulation is a little bit complicated in the ratem, but the finding is clear and it's
consistent everywhere it's applied. Um, costs go down for existing customers when large loads are added to the grid because they absorb some of the cost of doing business and they pay for all of the costs to serve them. It's been a pretty consistent finding. I've also seen that heat is a is a concern and a
consideration and it's a very reasonable one. Again, it can be addressed. There's technology to sort of use that waste heat to apply it to other uses to mitigate its its release into the atmosphere. And again, we have examples here of regulation that's proven
effective. The EU has a a scheme to limit and directly regulate heat emissions from data centers. So, you know, each of these concerns are the right concerns. They're reasonable concerns. They're smart concerns. They're the things that commissions like
you folks should be taking up. Each of these things can be addressed. I don't think we're proposing that we leave it to the data center to developers to do it themselves or to sort of let business just run a muck. Impose any standard that you want on a case-bycase basis.
And then you can explore the the balance between the benefits and the costs. And if someone comes in, they don't convince you, don't approve them. But if you impose a blanket ban, you lose the opportunity to even evaluate. >> Now, you review data center analysis
report. Is that correct? >> I did. >> What is your report? I >> I mean, I think probably it aligns with those five concerns. I I I think my concern is that it it overlooks the benefits. it um leans too heavily into
the concerns or it assumes all of the concerns will be impacts. It neglects the fact that there are technological solutions to most of those concerns and that there are governance solutions to require them to be imposed on new developers. And one of the things there
that I noticed in the report was a lot of those references are dated and so I'm not sure it fully reflects the state-of-the-art on the technology side. So for all those reasons again I think it's worthwhile for the town to look at these things case by case rather than impose a a blanket ban.
>> Thank you Mr. Cor. >> Thank you. My next witness is Mr. Buddy Riser. Um I understand there's a fiveminute limitation but I asked Mr. Riser to come here because he's actually from Laden County, Virginia and traveled up here today to speak to you. He's the director
of economic development and uh also the uh director of development in Lden County. Um and Lana County is the data center hub. Uh so he can actually talk to you about real live implications and
effects from these data centers as a governing body being in that position themselves and what the benefits are and how they've addressed the concerns. So I would respect the request based on his travel up here that he be allocated longer than the five minutes. >> What are you proposing?
>> No more than 15 minutes. Try and keep it to 10. >> But he did travel all the way today from Lowden County to be here. >> I can appreciate his travel and I think it's beneficial because he stands in your position in L County. I did not
>> and and I honestly I because I work for elected officials, I will do my best to get through it much quicker than that and get you out of here as soon as I can. Um my name is Buddy Riser. I'm an economist and an economic developer in Lowden County, Virginia, um which is known as data center alley. I appreciate
the opportunity to speak before you tonight. Uh, I recognize that this is not an easy time to be a public servant and uh, I appreciate uh, all the work that you do. >> Could you say your name again, sir? One more. Say your name again, sir. >> Buddy Riser. R I Z E R.
>> Thank you, Mr. R. >> Um, and I am u not here tonight to um, I would never presume to tell you or any other community what you should do with your zoning or ordinances. Um in fact um I fly all over the country at the
request of communities trying to talk to them about the realities of data centers and I would I would say is I suggest that every community define their own opportunity. The community should decide if they want them and if they do where they want them and under which
conditions they'll take them. Um I can speak to why we went down this path in Lden County. Uh when I was first hired in 2007, uh Lowden County was 81% dependent on residential real estate. When the housing bubble burst, we lost
about a third of our tax revenue in a community that was getting 15,000 new people a month into our community. Um we had to cut services, we had to lay people off, we had to raise taxes to the
highest in the community. Um, our analysis showed that data centers would give us the best opportunity to grow our commercial tax base. Today we are at 51% commercial and only 49% residential. Uh, it's made a significant
difference to our tax base. This year we'll get about $1.2 billion in local revenue from data centers. What does that mean in our community? During the last two decades, we've been able to build 32 new schools. We're building a new high school today that is going to
be budgeted at around $144 million. We've built 15 new fire stations. We've built six new libraries. We've been t able to take our pay scale for our workforce, both the county and public service like fire and rescue and
the sheriff's department from 80% of our competitors to 95 to 105% uh of our competitors. Uh we have built over a thousand acres of parks and recreation and miles of roads and a new affordable housing program and so much
more. And we did that while lowering the taxes on our residents by 48 cents on the dollar and the car tax by more than a dollar. We're now the lowest taxed uh jurisdiction in all of the greater Washington area. The average homeowner
with two homes saves about $7,000 a year in their taxes. Um, and I appreciate the work that you guys have done and the questions you've asked. The questions you're asking today are the same questions we were asking 20 years ago almost to the letter. And I can talk a
little bit about how we've addressed some of those. Um, there's a lot of conversation about water. Uh, we have more than 200 data centers, about 203 right now. And those 203 data centers use less than 10% of the total portable
water in Lowden County, Virginia. So it is not a drain on our water system. Uh they talk about the electric rates. There is no evidence that electric rates have been impacted by data centers. That said, the Commonwealth has went ahead
and put protections in place to protect rateayers going forward with a separate class uh a take or pay system where the data centers must pay for whatever they use going forward whether they use it or not. Uh and also responsibility for any
new infrastructure. Home values home values in Lowden County in the last decade have gone up 68%. And there's no evidence that homes have been able to have been impacted by by that. Um, air quality, the air quality in Lowden County is better today than it was a
decade ago. We have the lowest health incident rate in all of Virginia and one of the lowest in all of the United States. Um, we have uh our low our asthma attacks and our uh lung related diseases are well below the national
average. Um, land use is important. We get that $1.2 billion, which is 45% of our budget on just 3% of our land. Uh, the reason we're able to make so much is that in a typical office building in Lowden County, the assessed value of a
square foot of office is $126. That same square footage inside a data center is $858. So you we in LA we would have to build 2 million square feet of office to get the same revenue we get from a 250,000 foot
data center and the jobs the jobs are I think really significant and Mr. Absolutely. Can I can I ask you a question just one quick? How how big is your uh municipality? Your your county? >> We're a community of 450,000
>> like like square miles type of thing. >> Oh, >> I have no idea to be honest with you. Uh but we're a very large county. Twothird of our community is rural. >> Um so about jobs. Um for us originally
the jobs weren't the thing we were worried about. we were worried about the investment. Okay. Uh for uh but what we've seen is we have 15,000 jobs inside data centers now and we have another uh big circle around that for every job in
the data center we have another six jobs in the ecosystem either secondary or tertiary. So I can only tell you from our experience having data centers has been a good experience. Uh, I would say that we were slow to react to the growth
curve and I encourage you to look at this and to find ways to mitigate upfront and to make your zoning. Uh, but I don't think that a out-and-out ban makes sense given the fiscal responsibilities of all of our
communities. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Excuse me. >> I'm sorry. >> You said you were going to ask something. >> Okay. >> Um, so in your opinion, uh, if data
centers were to not be prohibited or banned, but to be smart city school system. Is that correct? >> Yeah, it's been a it's been a huge boon for us. Now I would defer to the CFO about how how they tax and what the the
tax structure is. Um but significant amount of revenue is available from data centers but again I think you have to balance the the public and the fiscal opportunities and um I think smart planning does that. >> And you also reviewed the impact
analysis of black. Is that correct? >> I did and I think that he asked all the right questions. uh some of his conclusions are different than what we've experienced in Len County. >> Correct. >> Thank you again. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> In answer to your question, counties 523 square miles. >> Okay. >> During your during your time, you can >> you could Yeah, Mr. Mr. McN, you can come up during your time and and fill in Mr. Sherman for sure.
>> My next witness is Miss Tiffany Morsy. >> Good evening. Um, I'm a professional planner, State of New Jersey, licensed member of American Institute of Certified Planners. And uh I'm here because I reviewed the ordinance in accordance with the requirements for
adopting an ordinance under the land use standards in New Jersey. Um and have four things I just want to touch on. Um and I'll probably leave the last one about the master plan consistency to not as much detail. There's a lot in a report that I prepared for you. Um but in reviewing the ordinance, um there are
things that raise concerns. We're calling this a data center prohibition ordinance, but it doesn't just prohibit data centers. Um, and it doesn't just prohibit what the conception of a data center is. It prohibits data centers
that impact local land uses. For instance, we're standing here within a school. Milville school system ha uses a data center to power the district-wide technology through network infrastructure and digital classrooms. The way your definition is defined for a
data center, it would include local facilities within local businesses or buildings or offices within your community. And that's one of the flaws that I find within your ordinance that is while well-intentioned in terms of
what you're looking to do, uh, overreaching in terms of what it actually does. The data center definition when you break it down would would include things such as if you have a um a distribution center or you have
businesses in the community that have distribution and offices or shared companies in other countries or other parts of this of this United States. If they have hubs within their building to serve the telecommuting the sharing of
information across facilities, you are by virtue of the definition that you have created and prohibiting data centers as accessory uses making those operations which are accessory to their fundamental business operations prohibited within the community.
your definition is is overreaching and does more than just prohibit what the public perception of a data center is. And that's concerning in how it is written and how it is written out in your ordinance. The second thing that I want to talk about is the other things that the
ordinance prohibits. The ordinance doesn't just prohibit data centers. It prohibits a list of new uses that are currently not prohibited within the land use development code. It prohibits um junkyards and automobile wrecking facilities, dumping and disposal, waste
and scrap material, all acceptable things that many communities prohibit. But it also prohibits single family dwellings, manufactured homes, mobile homes, or trailers for human habitation that are either less than 22 feet wide or on land that is not held by t in
title by the owner of that dwelling. Um as well as two other standards that go along with that. It's not one or the other. It's any of those prohibiting earth extraction or land mining operations which are commonly referred to as resource extraction operations and defined in your ordinance as well as
other facilities um including more than one single dwelling unit on a lot except for agricultural employee housing. I will note that in prohibiting these additional uses, you're contrary to your ordinances and to your master plan. um
your issue with regards to the mobile homes. You have a mobile home park zone and you have a um ability in your ordinance to expand the mobile home park zone. You also have a motorsports enterprise district and it includes such
uses as condominiums or villas. And if you have a small uh villa type facil uh unit on a condominium type property where they don't own the land they are on, you are prohibiting that use through this ordinance which has different reaching effects more so than just the
data centers. Additionally, your earth extraction proh prohibition is contrary to article 22 resource extraction of your land use ordinance which has this as um a use that is permitted subject to conditions. And um the last the the
third thing I want to address in the ordinance is the um aspect of it relies on facts um statements that are not supported by facts or expert testimony which is why you heard from the prior three witnesses indicating that some of the information that you're relying on
can be addressed can be easily regulated and controlled and can be done in a manner that allows for comprehensive planning in the community. The last part of this um report that I've prepared is extensive and I've provided testimony at the planning board meeting regarding the consistency of this ordinance with the
master plan. The planning board did find and recommend that it was consistent with the master plan despite um the objections that were raised and the reasons given for that objection. The municipal land use law requires that an ordinance be consistent with the master plan, substantially consistent with the
land use element and housing element in your master plan documents. And it also requires a finding if it's not consistent that the governing body adopt a resolution with statements of fact. You have 2005 master plan, comprehensive master plan, your 2017
land use element, and your 2025 master plan re-examination report. All of those go towards creating opportunities for economic development, create purposes for the business enterprise zone, which is the property that uh we were talking about as being um an appropriate location.
>> Thank you, Mr. >> for data center. And just to conclude in in my last statement, if I may, um data centers are not new. They have existed for many years. Your 2025 re-examination report was adopted just over a year ago and does not raise any concerns or
recommend prohibiting this as a land use. and in fact considers allowing for a variety of new innovative land uses in the community um through the economic development plan, land use element and master plan. >> Thank you. I know my one witness, Barry Smith, did
have a few more comments he would like to make. I know he was cut off. We can either address some now or I can wait till the five minutes of the public comment section at the end and have him come up and address them. >> Uh I prefer we dealt with it now so it's a clean record. >> I think it's probably better that way. If you want to bring her back up, go ahead.
>> I mean, we have five minutes at that point, too. So, >> you can take your bring her up now. Oh, Barry. Thanks for the uh additional time. So again, I I just want to go ahead and kind of finish up. I think you know, you've heard some of the experts there. I know you've heard about Lowden County,
big development, one of the one of the biggest data center metros in the world. Not saying that Millville needs to do that. There are offsets. There is an ecosystem that you can build around. So, you know, in my view, really, this right here, this was a data center 15 years
ago. You're going to play whack-a-ole if you try to outlaw data centers and the technology advancements that are coming at us at hyper speed. So, my view is really figuring out how to take advantage of it. AI is daunting. It is coming fast and I think there's ways to
take advantage of it. So, to me, there are six conditions that I would basically look at as one of them. Keep it in the industrial zone. Be safe. do on-site generation. That's just going to help the data center, help offset anything for the community. Look at water reclamation standards. Those are
going up. They're becoming more efficient. Again, water data for cooling and data centers are fairly new. So, the advancements are coming very quickly. Um, they are a risk to the industry. So, they're going to go ahead and address it and figure out how to solve this. Heat reuse, it's out there. You can do it at
low heat. There's technology for low heat all the way up to the high intensive heats of industrials. and the noise and visual standards. Again, most of that is coming from HVAC, from turbines and things that are now easily replaced with new technology that's
already implemented and in the market. So, um, and again, the financial benefits are there. You just need to I'm not so you need to structure it the right way and hold people accountable and anybody who's operating accountable, but there is a big opportunity sitting in front of you. Thank you.
These don't have to look like warehouses. Aesthetically pleasing. Is that correct? >> Uh that that is correct. And I actually uh I think it's part of the public record um put some of the iconic designs. Everything from you know we're talking about Denmark, Norway, South
Korea. These are communities that really um want to have you can have different designs. You can have rooftops that are green. You can There's no reason for them to look like a box. Logist logistics centers, warehouses look like a box. There's no reason for them to do that. You can design them. I will say
logistics centers too are a little bit there's a lot of robotics going in there. So, a lot of the same issues, you're going to have to look at logistics centers because the reality is they're data centers, but they're just serving logistics sites. And that's coming in throughout New Jersey because
I speak to these operators of logistics sites. More and more robotics are coming in and and again that's just more uh equipment >> and also unless every municipality service area will face. Yeah, Milville. I think um the
difference and you know, I looked at Vinland. I I'm not saying I'm an expert on that build, but um I think you guys share the same gas company. So gas prices could go up if all of a sudden Vinand uses more gas. If if another adjacent municipality in Cumberland
County wants to build a data center, wants to use water, you may have shared water uh resources. So what I guess I'm I'm positioning to say look at that and understand for your community you know that they're going to basically take some of that on. So figure out how to
bring back some of the benefits of of a well-designed place data center. >> But smart require infrastructure improvements to make cost go down. Is that correct? >> That's correct. I mean even some of the
um there's tariffs a lot of times that they put on and those tariffs are used to say, you know, build new natural gas pipelines or offset your budget. There's there's a lot of that that goes on um with any sort of new data center build, any new infrastructure build. So, you
have the benefit to define it. There's a lot of capital now. I can't tell you there's going to be a lot of capital in, you know, next year in 2027. >> Mr. Smith, um you went through a list of
five things that can be overcome. One of the first thing you mentioned is data centers are using solid oxified fuel cells. >> Solid oxide >> oxide. What percentage of data centers uh out there are using solid oxified fuel cells right now today? >> Uh I couldn't tell you the percentage
again. Are you talking global? Are you talking locally? Again, we used them at Equinex 12 something years ago. I think one of the things I'll say about them is um that technology has advanced very quickly. And >> you can't you can't give me a number. >> I can't give you a number. I I would it
would be a wrong number. >> Of those solid oxified fuel cells, which you can't tell me, how many of them use a hydrogen as a fuel source? >> Hydrogen is probably the furthest out. Um I'm going to say, like I said, natural gas since natural gas. >> Hydrogen is probably the I'm sorry, hydrogen is probably the the cleanest.
Hydrogen is probably I'm going to say I know of one major data center but you may know of a few more that is basically using hydrogen as their primary source. Um the bio gas is in play but natural
gas since natural gas and fracking and we have an abundance of natural gas that's really where solid oxide fuel cells have stepped in. Then Bloom Energy's US um based there's Ducson and um there's a lot of other providers that are coming to the states. Now
>> of all the data centers being built today and that that are in use today, how many of them use closed loop uh cooling? >> Uh again most there's a difference in data centers like I'm just going to quickly like 15 years ago it was telco
telco hotels basically fiber connecting them. Um again most of that was heat exhaust no water water was the enemy of electronics moving then all a sudden it became collocation where a whole bunch of people shut down their data centers come in they want to be next to their
you know their digital supply chain and then basically they've moved to more cloud so large storage centers around around the globe where there's cloud now with AI and GPU chips which I know that was a question GPU chips can turn any
data center now into an AI data center. So that's your that's your factor right there that can flip something. >> Just I'll be real quick here. You mentioned noise that they should to mitigate noise, they should be put in industrial zones, which assumes that
industrial zones are nowhere near people. Is that >> That's correct. I think what I've read is in Millville that you already have that mandated for your I think you have two industrial zones if I'm correct. So you would say if an industrial zone buted up against a residential zone,
that might not be the the the heart of what you were speaking about. >> I I I would probably say, you know, again, there's other mitigating ways to do that with walls and and the new builds and the new water is there's just less noise. >> You did mention waste heat. How of all
the data centers being built, how many of them are actually being used to heat homes? Uh, I would say the new builds probably, you know, again, I think most of what I've seen in home heating has been in the um Nordic area. So, you got to
remember there it's a cooler climate to begin with. So, it just makes sense for them to go ahead and cool it. So, >> so in Norway in Norway there's a lot >> here technologies that are out there and how each of these concerns can be addressed
which smart you guys require conditions there. >> Mr. Molinsky, you you've you've quantified him as an expert. This is our chance to ask an expert questions. Is that okay with you? I that's fine if you want. >> And the last the last question I had uh
Mr. Smith was jobs versus land use. You you pretty much stood on the fact that uh there were a lot of construction jobs. So just to wrap up, I don't want to take too long here. Of all the data centers out there, how many of them hit on all these? They use solid oxide fuel
cells, closed loop cooling. They are only in industrial zones that where people can't hear them or they have walls 100 feet high where you can't hear them. Uh produce waste heat for homes. What do you where do where do you think most uh
of these data centers being built today hit on all these factors? >> Again, there's different types of builds. So, a lot of the noise you hear out there are for what they call large language model builds that are humongous sites sitting in the middle of what they
call tier three and tier N locations. Those are very different than what would be built here, what's being built in Vineland as well. They're different designs or different construction. Again, I could build a data center tomorrow that's a telco data center, use
heat exhaust, and not have to bring in uh liquid cooling. The liquid cooling is because of the processing of those chips. Um, and those are going to get better. Nvidia is not going to put that at risk, and they're going to continue to to basically improve on that efficiency. >> So, just to be on the record, you're not
sure what the amount of uh data centers being built today hit on all five of these. >> I'm not even sure globally the amount of data centers being built. So, you know, there's different zoning, reporting, >> things like that. >> Mr. Tonight, your expertise was just in the
various technologies that are out there currently. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> And that was to indicate how each of those five concerns that the city could require all five of those conditions that be implemented in order to address
their concerns. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Smith. >> I now have a couple questions and then just a conclusion. Um, my first question
is to the mayor. Um, and it's a quick question. This data impact analysis you prepared, did you utilize AI to prepare that? Um I'll tell you if I can answer very quickly. Um the you opened a
document that I had mentioned when I was here uh on that was something that wasn't given to any of my uh fellow commissioners. It wasn't relied upon in their decision. It was something I did
for my own um edification. So you're treating that document as something that was although I didn't provide it uh as part of the OPRA you're you're treating that document as that was something that anyone in this government uh relied upon in making a
decision that well I'll answer your question in a minute. This is not a trial but I'll answer your question when I get to it. Um no one up here relied on that document to make their decision. No one in the planning board relied on that document to make their decision. That was
something that I did as an exercise of um self-education for myself. So I I prepared a document, did some research, used AI to find uh lots of information on uh on the information, uh absolutely
use AI. And something I do like to say is just because uh you may like to eat bacon, but nobody wants a pig farm next to your house. So, uh, um, you know, I like bacon, but I don't want to live next to a pig farm.
>> So, I hope I answered your question. >> Well, that is true. >> That is true. But at the same time, there are brown fields that you'd like to see redeveloped. There are industrial areas where certain uses seem more oriented than others. Uh, and just to be clear, is this report going to be uh
made part of the record this evening or No, >> that report was never part of any record. Okay, with regard to that report, since it's not going to be part of the record this evening, there's no uh reason to even speak about it anymore. Uh what I would
like to say is that you've heard the testimony, you've heard realistic implications that these five concerns have actually been addressed in an area. You asked what the square footage of Laden County was. It's 521 square miles whereas Cumberland County
is 678 square miles. So Laden County is actually smaller than Cumberland County. Um you know you've heard real life uh benefits from data centers. Uh and that's through smart planning. Uh this can be addressed through smart planning
where you address the power uh power concern where you address the uh cooling concern which can be addressed through again power can be addressed through require on-site oxide fuel cells or similar power sources with a power generation facility. You could require
that there be um infrastructure improvements to Alania Electric's grid or the South Jersey Gases grid. you for cooling you could require closed loop uh system liquid cooling system so that it's almost no water usage whatsoever
and there's limited evaporation for noise you can limit it into an industrial zone instead of using evaporative cooling you could use again liquid cooling you could require acoustic enclosures acoustical walls you could require um distances or address it
also through setbacks certain setback requirements you could require a certain decibel limit at the property line. Okay. With regard to waste heat, you already heard it. Waste heat can be utilized to heat municipal buildings, to heat schools, to heat um green houses. Uh you heard it's heating apartment
complexes, the Olympic pool. Actually, what's in the package, which Mr. Smith didn't get a chance to testify to, is that in some places the waste heat is actually converted to >> power behind the meter, in which case it can actually provide power to the grid.
So you have a uh zone, you have your uh be business enterprise zone which encourages traditional heavy and medium ind industry as well as technology and research center use uh which is a good industrial zone for this with some
planning and actually you could realize a lot of benefits without any missed opportunities. Uh, and through smart planning, you can address all of the concerns and you could reduce the tax instead of increasing the taxes for your residents. You could put into place a
development plan where you have a conditional use that actually is a huge tax income generator for your residents. So, their taxes could actually be reduced so the school systems could be assisted and improved. These are benefits that you heard that are realistic. They're not made up. They're realistic. You're someone from L County
that's here that's done this that tells you what can be utilized. So again through smart planning this can be a huge benefit. >> Thank you Miss Mill. >> And this is and then this is the digital next revolution as you'll see in the uh packet we produced that if Milville sits
out on is going to miss the opportunity to do something great for its community. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate your comments. Let me know if you can't hear me. Okay, Anthony Santis.
I'd like to thank everyone. Take I I' I'd like to thank everyone for patiently listening through all the experts here tonight. You know, we're not here trying to change your mind because your mind is already made up. It was told to me that
when you guys got into office that your minds were made up. I understand that, but what I don't understand is how close-minded a lot of these individuals are.
you're you're you're in a situation and the right thing to do is if there's an issue, sit down with the people and say, "Hey, these are our problems. This is what we see as an issue. You know, I came to this town
and we've spent a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of aggravation trying to improve this place. When the buildings were demoed, the real estate properties shot up." Okay, that's progress. And I'm proud to say that we
did it. When the city said we have to pay for the demolition, we said no, we'll pay for it. And we paid for the demolition. We have no grants, no free money, no public support.
Okay? We're not burn it onto the city. So I find it disappointing that a commission that has someone who is not only rooted in the
community at this point but has very strong Wall Street contacts, companies that I brought in and that you don't actually take the time to say, "Hey, you know what? Let's sit down and let's discuss this. This is our issues. can you address him? And
then you tell me nicely, you know what? We've listened to you. We can Can you You're either going to say, can you maintain your promises or you're going to tell me, well, you know what? I gave you the opportunity
and we parted as friends to arbitrarily take investors and this is real money. We're talking about real futures for your children and your grandkids. Okay? I know you have people from violin over here. I know you
have people who just work in grocery stores and they pump gas and they don't care about the future. But I do I do. >> No. Okay. Mhm. >> So with so with that with with that with that being said, you know, if you
actually if you actually want to do something and represent the community, sit down with the professionals, address your concerns, see if they can answer them in a way that's going to benefit. And I'm not talking about my
property. I'm talking about all the brownfields. We're not taking green acres. We're not taking farmland. We're talking about brownfields that you can't do anything with. Brownfields are contaminated. Have you seen the plume
underneath the brown fields? They start from S Jersey Gas and wind up at the river. The water is contaminated. You're not doing it justice to the city. Take a few minutes. Look at those fumes. All right. Take a look at that. Take a
look at the brown fields. How contaminated, how they have to be cleaned up. And we're cleaning them up. But look at the other city properties and not the city properties the properties within city limits that are also brownfield that also had former glass facilities.
Again I just want to take the opportunity and say thank you very much Mr. Dixon. I'm sorry to call you Dan before it's but you've been a gentleman with us and I want to say thank you for your time. The others Marissa and Casp
I I know you too. and the other ones I haven't met yet. But I do want to say thank you very much. I know which way you're going to vote. But like I said, I'm just disappointed. So on that note, gentlemen, ladies, have
a great evening. And that's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Santis. Hello. Wow. My name is Kaylee Henry. I live on 330 East Central Avenue, Hamilton, New Jersey. Um, I'm from
Climate Revolution Action Network. I was here back in March at the other building before the elevator was broken. Um, and I came up and I talked to you guys and I said, "Hey, I think there's a data center that's being proposed to be built in Millville and it will have catastrophic causes to our community, to
everybody in South Jersey and New Jersey." And after I gave a quick two-minute testimony, I heard from multiple of you saying how much you did not want a data center in our homes. There are so many reasons why we listed them back in March. And I do just want to say thank you because this town
council has really shown other town councils how to actually step up, pass an ordinance and ban these data centers and protect your community because you work for the residents. We're here because we want to listen to you guys because we want our issues to be heard.
And what we want you guys to do, what everybody has been saying that we want all these towns in New Jersey to do is ban data centers. Everything Thank you. Um, everything that these people have said tonight, I'm glad they
spoke, but none of it really related to specifically Millville, to specifically South Jersey, to specifically our residents. And that was the main issue that I was seeing. None of it was adding up altogether to actually provide something that was clear and concise and positive for Milville. It will not be
positive. There are a lot of negatives. Me myself personally, I have taken down three data center proposals in the last two months. One of them being in Monroe Township, which will be done in two weeks. They went through something that was more catastrophic than this. And I feel like you guys will also do the same
thing and do the right thing and pass this ordinance tonight. I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello again, guys. I'm uh back here with only one child in tow tonight. So, we made some progress. Uh, my name is
Riannan Clark for the record and I live over on Shushenko Avenue by Union Lake. Uh, and I I'm going to read you tonight um some portions of the statement that I gave in Vineland at their city council meeting last December. I think that um in response to some of the information
that we've been given tonight that it's relevant. Um, so to start, I just would like to read some quotes from some people who are currently living in communities that have put in data centers. These quotes were given to More Perfect Union, an investigative journalist uh an investigative reporting
uh uh organization. Quote, "I've been here 81 years. I can't stay here." Quote, "My mom has been here her whole life, 82 years. She's not happy about it, but she does want to leave." Quote, "My neighbor was washing my clothes and
messed up a whole load of whites because it came out stained from that brown water." Quote, "Do this is a conversation between a journalist and a resident. Do you feel like it's safe to drink?" "No, I buy water. Have they addressed that?" They being meta. No,
they haven't. Have you gotten any information at all? No. None at all. Quote, "This is my water pressure in my kitchen. a trickle. Quote, "This is where I fill my up my buckets to flush
my toilet." Quote, "I can't breathe at home, it smells like gas outside." Quote, "You know how when you light your stove and the gas seeps with that little ticking noise? That's what it smells like. Quote, "My electric and gas bill is more than my car payment. Quote, "The
light pollution is We don't have to have a nightlight in the house. You can walk around the house at night and see everything. It's that bright. And personally, my favorite quote, a quote from a lawyer for Microsoft. Quote, "Nobody really wants a data center in
their backyard. I don't want a data center in my backyard. Data centers, once they're operational, don't bring a lot of jobs." End quote. So, how do data centers impact communities? Jobs. A few dozen highly specialized jobs, usually hiring
remotely. Electric bill increases, extreme added burden on the grid, air quality, increased ER visits due to asthma, COPD and other breathing issues, water, loss of water pressure in homes, water tainted with sediment, unsafe to drink, aquifers, which uh aquifers
significantly impacted, which is relevant to South Jersey in particular. Uh Cumberland County is the poorest county in New Jersey, and that is not a uh coincidence. This is nationwide generally being targeted towards poor communities. So, uh I I know you guys
already likely know how many communities are are banning these data centers. I'm not going to run through that, but I do want to point out that uh across the country right now, some of the billionaires who are trying to build these centers are showing up in communities that do not want them. And then the community members are showing
up in turn and they are accusing community members of being bust in. And I want to ask you guys tonight who was bust in here because the room is full of your residents and a few people from Virginia, I guess. Uh but your residents
that I I heard the the suit from Virginia say uh he said quote the community should decide if they want them. The man behind me said that's what we are trying to do here tonight and I don't understand why we have outside interest here while the community is
trying to do that. That's my concern. Thank you so much for continuing to attend to this matter. I appreciate you guys. Thanks. >> Hello, my name is Dwayne Gartner, Milville, New Jersey. This is not why I came tonight. You'll see me at the end,
but uh one of the gentlemen that testified said that our electric rates could go down if we get this data center. I retired from Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant. Currently, there are three closed nuclear power plants that are being reopened to feed data
centers. In December of uh 2025, the PGM, which is the grid operator that covers New Jersey and Virginia, posted um one of the highest marginal um capacity rates.
So, you could look that up for yourself. Um you you could find out that where wherever this discount happened to the resident, I don't know. in New Jersey with the failed uh energy policies the last 15 years our rates are going to go
up and in 2027 at that auction in in uh December 2025 our rates are going up again. In addition to that the um I lost my train of thought here.
Uh we'll just leave it at that. you. Oh, last year the as state assembly passed assembly bill 5462 which was to address the issue of the data centers and the electric use that got pocket vetoed by govern Governor
Murphy on his way out the door. President Trump also got involved with the PGM directing them to come up with a method to uh regulate the uh energy requirements of the data centers. Now, I don't know where he got his information,
but you go Google it and look it up. Our rates will go up. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> So, my name is Larry. I'm from Vinland. I'm the guy that pumps gas. I don't know why it's a shot. I also work through the community and do a lot of volunteer work. If you want to keep take shots at
me, say it to my face. Um, yeah. Uh, the data center thing. Lowden County in Virginia talking about it's a benefit to the community and the air is being cleaned up. That's not true. Fossil fuel backup generators and primary generation operations create significant air pollution including a chemical called
PM2.5 which is cancerous and increases according to Charles Benet in the Binland data center. He said that's going to increase about 5% a year to the community. So that's very clean air I guess. Uh the cumulative water and heat pollution from multiple data centers significantly impact our freshwater
resources and our wildlife habitat. I don't know if you saw the heat around data centers increases around like the heat around environment you know uh the the closed loop water system that's just a scam. I don't know why we keep talking about it. They said they weren't going to take water. They said it's only some water and it's 20 million water gallons
of water start. That's what the violent guy said. But that water runs through and runs through, runs through, it's going to evaporate. It's going to become contaminated. Something has to happen with that water. And you can't just dump it back into the community. And when you're talking about collecting water from like the air, that water is now acidic. That water again has to be clean before it can be put back into the
closed loop cooling system. So, a lot of it's just not true. I don't know why these people that are outside members come in here do this Excuse my language. I'm sorry for interrupting, but seriously, they came here when you when everybody in the community said they wanted a ban and you said you
wanted a ban and they came down here and they brought a guy from Virginia that's killing people to tell you how good it is for you. Are you serious? Like I've I lived through my grandfather used to work in the EPA. I've seen the stuff. You've seen DuPont what it's done to
Salem County. I now Cumberland it's we're just poor. So all the rich Jagoffs are going to come here and give you the they're going to try and sell you on. That's just the truth. It's six people that are paid by some other jag off and a resident that's Maddie lost the commissioner race. Thank you.
My name is Tom McGinty. I've been Millville all my life practically except when I went to White Go to school. Um, as I've said before, I've worked for EPA for 20 years. I'm a geologist.
Everybody comes and says, "Oh, it's going to wreck my water." It's not their water. It's the state's water. Most of these people coming in here and complaining about their water have city water comes to them from a pipe.
>> Please do not >> okay interrupt the speaker. The state allows businesses and so forth through the Bureau of Water Allocation to pull a
certain amount of water and in many cases it's limited because of shallow wells for farming and so forth and so on. Um most of the data centers can reuse water. I just looked up today one
of the places that everybody says um I think it's Courtland uh Georgia uh big data center down there toilet water turned black. It's the inside of the tank from iron and it
didn't happen overnight and the data center is new. But that that Georgia company, that data center is spending $10 million to take waste water from their community
and cool their data center. Amazon's uh data center down in Louisiana is spending $30 million to bring uh city water and city sewer to
residents down there who are rural and probably are drinking their own septic. You know, here's here's the well, there's a septic. Um but I didn't come to talk about other places. Um, a lot of
the uh statistics are horrible. Um, in our area, our aquifer that we could use to cool a data center is contaminated. It's been brought up and uh there's a plume from
South Jersey Gas area, Wheaton area, all the way to the river goes down probably better than 100 ft. What? What better place to pull that water out of the ground, treat it, clean it,
use it for cooling, and put it back in the ground to flush contaminants back toward those wells. That's typical groundwater cleanup 101. Okay. As it is now, the water's non-pottable. You can't drink it, can't
use it, can't shower in it, can't do very much with it at all. I wouldn't wash my car with but very simple process. Um we have the that technology going on here in Millville because some of our
municipal wells have been contaminated. The one at the airport have a pack column out there. Um you know the Wheaten property is is ripe for brownfield development.
Um, other areas in Millville, our airport, we have CAS out there, contaminated soil, um, above the residential standard, below the industrial standard.
Perfect place to put some type of development that you're banning. Not just data centers. Um, NIPro Pharmaceutical, they also have a CA. So you have three plumes of contamination just in that area alone
where be great to have a data center come or some other business that you intend on banning um the it's bordered by Winchester and Western Railroad, a junkyard which
you're banning um an EPA super fund site that's now completed busing uh other business that's ancillary to uh industry around here. You have a diving
uh guys over there. You got guys building cars. You got guys doing all kind of stuff surrounding this area. It's not a residential area where you're going to plunk a data center and the noise is going to bother somebody. I've been up to the data
center 20 times. I pulled in there >> driveway. >> Can't hear any noise. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Let me say this one more time. Nobody interrupted people who were against data centers when they were up
here. Afford them the same courtesy to speak. Anyone else? All right, with that we will close the public hearing portion. And do we have a motion?
>> I make a motion. I'll second the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> What is your motion? Is it to accept >> She had already read it earlier, but uh Madam Cler, would you like to read the ordinance again? I don't have to read it again. It's a motion to adopt. >> Adopt. Yes.
>> Commissioner Taylor. >> Yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Kasaboon. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Reinelloo. >> Yes. >> Mayor Dixon. >> YES. >> Ordinance for second reading. Item number two, an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits
and to establish a cat bag. >> I'm sorry, there is a public hearing on this as well. If you'd like to comment on this item, please approach the podium and state your concerns. Please keep your comments to five minutes.
Seeing no one at the podium, we will move on. Can we get a motion on the item? >> Yes. I like to make a motion. >> Second a motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Casabon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Reinell, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon,
>> yes. Resolution sign, please. >> Resolution item number one, resolution authorizing tax and utility adjustments. >> Like to make a motion. >> I second the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cott, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasabun, >> yes. Yes. Commissioner Reinelloo.
>> Yes. >> Mayor Dixon. >> Yes. >> Resolution item number two, resolution appointing the register of vital statistics. >> Like to make a motion. >> Second motion. Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cott, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasaboon,
>> yes. >> Relo, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. >> Resolution item number three, resolution authorizing the execution of a shared service agreement between the city of Milville and Milville Soccer Association. like to make a motion. >> I'll second the motion. Roll call,
please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasaboon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Reinelloo, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. >> Resolution item number four, resolution establishing fees for Milville's Hometown Heroes Banner Program. >> Like to make a motion.
>> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Casaboon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Vanelloo, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. Resolution item number five, resolution authorizing the contract award of Pleasant Drive Water Improvements. >> Make a motion.
>> I'll second the motion. Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasun, >> yes. >> Commissioner Relo, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. >> Resolution item number six, resolution authorizing special assessment of municipal leans for certain properties
incurred by Milville relating to board and secure. >> Like to make a motion. Second the motion. >> Roll call, please. Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasabun, >> yes. >> Commissioner Reinella, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. >> Resolution item number seven, resolution
of the board of commissioners of the city of Milville, authorizing the city to advertise for bids for Gisinger Avenue Water Improvements Project. Make a motion. >> Second motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kasaboon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Relo, >> yes.
>> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. Resolution item number eight, resolution appointing municipal claims coordinator. >> Yeah, we're appointing our uh personnel director to this position. >> Like to make a motion. >> Second the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor,
>> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Caspoon. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Bello, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. Resolution item number nine, resolution authorizing the execution of an application to the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority for first generation funds not to exceed $100,000
to fund cameras for the Millville Urban Enterprise Zone. So, >> this is uh the start of the funding for um the cameras that we're going to be uh utilizing for the UEZ in the city. Um, it's a step in the right direction for public safety and it's something that
the uh businesses and the uh citizens of Milville have asked for for a long time. Great. >> So, I'd like to make a motion. >> Second the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Casaboon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Reinella, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon,
>> yes. >> Resolution item number 10, resolution appointing alternate member two to the zoning board, Thomas Mory. Yeah, I would uh I don't know, mayor, if you want to talk about it, but uh uh we've known him for a little while and I think he's going to make a good addition
and like you said before um just another resident wants to step up and uh and help out. >> Absolutely. Um he's a good we've known him actually. I think he graduated with him. Um the class of 88 is stepping up um to uh to help out the uh city and
very happy to have Mr. on board. If you would like to volunteer for the city in any capacity, reach out to me and we'd love to have you help out the city in whatever capacity that you think you can help out with. >> I'd like to make a motion. >> Second the motion.
>> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Caspoon, >> yes. >> Commissioner Reinelloo, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. Madame Clerk, any new business on the docket? >> There is none, mayor. All right, we've now reached the public comment portion of our meeting. Anyone who would like to
address the comm commission, please go to the podium, state your name and address and your concerns. Please limit your comments to approximately 5 minutes. >> Hello, uh Tamara Davis. Just a quick public service announcement.
Um, early voting for primary elections will begin on May 26th going through to Sunday, May 31st. So, the hours will be from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and then on Sunday 31st it'll be 10:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m. The locations for early voting, first one in Bridton is at the All Sports Museum of Southern New Jersey, which used to be the Bridton Senior Center, which is located right behind the uh Bulldog Stadium um and West Avenue School off of West Avenue. the
women's club right here on 300 East Street and the Violin Fire Fire Department which is on 400 West of Plum Street. If you choose to vote by mail, please get your mail in ballots as ASAP. And the best method to get it back to the board of elections so it could be
counted would be to put it in the box the uh mailin uh ballot boxes and there's one located right in the back of uh city hall. um then you don't have to deal with any kind of delays from the uh post office. So um if you have any
questions on about uh about voting or your uh um if you can vote, if you uh want to um register to vote, please call the Department of Elections. Um they're always there to help you or the county clerk. Please don't put it out on
Facebook because you'll get 1,356 different answers and probably about one of them might be correct. So, I highly urge you to call the board of elections should you have any questions about receiving a ballot, your affiliation, whatever it may be. So, um, voting is
very important. I know this is a primary election, but it's just as any important as any election that is there. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. That that box is near the tax window in the back. >> Yes, in the back. That That's right. Absolutely. >> Can I Can I ask you a question?
>> It depends. If I can answer it. If not, I will get the answer for you. Are there any Republicans on a on this ballot or is it just a Democrat primary that's on the ballot? Do you know? >> Well, their ballots are going out for both Democrat and Republicans. So, you will get a sample ballot will go out
tomorrow. So, um tomorrow, today or tomorrow, they're being mailed out. So, um yes, there are choices on both sides, but it is for you to review and take a look at it. Oh, and one else that's very important, and this happens, please don't do this. Please do not confuse
your sample ballot with a mail-in ballot. So don't put your sample ballot back in the mail and mail it back to the board of elections. It does say sample. So if you receive a mail in ballot, you know, just be very careful on that. So that's what I'm saying. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Hello again. This is why I came. My name is Dwayne Gartner. I live at 60 Pereck Drive and I'm here to complain about the condition of my street. To drive down my street is like drive uh skiing a saw between the potholes. Um two months ago the sewer department
was doing an inspection of the uh sewer pipe and got their camera stuck. They dug a hole that's 9 by14 and they still haven't fixed it. When the gas utility upgraded my gas service, it was fixed within a week and then they
came back and did a final patch like a month later. According to your own ordinance, it's a $1,000 a day fine when you don't do that. But somehow the sewer utility is exempt from that in Millville. So,
I'm kind of wondering if we can't seem to get this fixed, if I could turn around and uh uh appeal my uh property tax assessment since I now live at the end of a dirt road. I just like to know when this is going to get fixed. Mr.
>> Gardner, I will say that I did sit in on a meeting uh about a week ago and we talked about the priority of the roads. We do have some money available to do some roads. And your road was definitely something that was one of the first things mentioned. >> The patch or the road?
>> No, the entire road. >> What is the the the dirt going to be there until they get around finding the money for this? >> All I can tell you is what I talked about in the meeting and drive was one of the ones that we had uh put on the list as a priority or talked about as a
priority. That's really all I can say. Well, since since the sewer water and sewer is a public uh municipal public util uh utility that's self liquidating under New Jersey res statute uh title 4A
they should have the money. They could just raise the rates on their own. They don't even need you. So I I don't understand why it's not fixed. You make the gas company fix it. Why don't we make the sewer utility fix it? >> Mr. Gardner, I thought you were speaking of the entire road. I'm talking about the hole in the front of my house right
now. >> I can't comment on that. I was just trying to help you out with the uh letting you know that Para Drive as a whole was discussed as far as uh a priority to pay the entire >> That's all I can tell. I thought I'd help you out with that, but >> thank you.
>> Sorry if I can't help you out. Lyn Fara Milville. Um, the budget presentation was very good and I really appreciate you went into such depth. I do have some questions though. I didn't understand all of it. I didn't really understand the $1.9 million error if that increased taxes or didn't. When you
explained it, it didn't make sense to me. Um, there was um a million dollar under the revenue for tax appeals and that's been there for years and all of a sudden it's gone. And I didn't know if that made the tax rate go down or go up or how that affected or why that
disappeared. Um the sewer and the water from the budget, it looked like the sewer department was okay. It looked like water might be in trouble and it looked like the trash might be in trouble. So I didn't know if there was um any talk about those rates going up also. So the taxpayers could hit get hit
with that plus the increase. Um and CRP supposed to be settled this year. I realize it can't go on this budget. that's supposedly going to be $10 million. I didn't know if that just goes into a fund if that I know in your presentation you talked about don't waste it on just lowering taxes. So, I
didn't know what the plans for that money was. And also, I just don't understand from the commission. This budget is crazy in my mind. It's high. I realize there's issues and I'm sure there's a million excuses and reasons. There's ways to increase revenue that I
see are not going up. Um, just as an aside, I'm getting way late, but construction permits do not help the budget. That is supposed to be a zero functioning department. So, increasing it is great, but it's supposed to go right out the door, and it's not supposed to help the tax rate. Um, I
don't understand why there was no discussion among the commissioners about this budget. You should have had questions for each other. You should have talked about it. You should have at least said, "We're really sorry we're doing that to you. This is the best we can do. We are going to look for ways to increase revenue and to move forward."
But nothing, nothing in the work session, nothing tonight, and you vote yes. I don't get it because you couldn't meet together or you violate sunshine laws. That means none of you discussed with each other what was going on. It may be one of you each, but you're not supposed to go one to one to one and do
it that way either. So, I don't get it. Supposed to be transparent. You should have discussed it. You're affecting people's lives. It may sound like it's only $400 a year or $500 a year. That's a lot of money for people now. Groceries are crazy. Everything's crazy and this is going to be a burden to a lot of
people especially when they get hit with the escrow going up greatly whenever that happens in January. Thank you. >> Sorry. >> Want to come back up again and actually thank you for following through. when you were sworn in, we had the conversation about data centers and it's
really cool to see them finally banned. And I do spend a lot of time in Millville like fall 2025. I spent like every day sleeping on Jim Quinn's broadcasting couch trying to do the elections and I do try to organize young people and get them involved in politics. And I am a board member of Sustain SJ and I'm trying to run around the state and stop these data centers.
But it's really cool to see a city lead the way in Cumberland because I'm getting really concerned about other spots in Cumberland. So, thank you for being leaders and sticking to your word. That's all. Thank you. Seeing no one at the podium, I will close the public uh comment portion of
the meeting. >> Resolution proposed. >> Right. Yeah, you can close the comments, but I have to make that announcement before we go into executive session. >> Oh, okay. Okay.
>> I have to go ahead and close the public and then I'll do my >> think I already did. >> All right. >> So, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, we we're going into executive session to discuss a personnel uh matter. Um, I anticipate this
discussion will take roughly 20 minutes or so. Is that fair, Roy? If for some reason the discussion goes further than 20 minutes, I'll come back out and alert you as to how much more
time we anticipate we'll need. Uh you should be aware that following this closed session the board the body may return here and action may or may not be taken by this governing body.
Okay. Thank you. Just so for the record it is now 8:37. So a few minutes before 9:00. If we're not finished we'll be back out to give you an update. >> All right. Can I get a motion to move into close session? I'll make a motion.
>> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot, >> yes. >> Commissioner Kabun, >> yes. >> Commissioner Relo, >> yes. >> Mayor Dixon, >> yes. bring this meeting back to order. Madame clerk.
>> Yes, Mayor. We just need a motion to approve the resolution to approve a settlement agreement with Pam Shapiro. >> Like to make a motion. >> I'll second the motion. Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cott. Yes. >> Commissioner Kasun. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Reinelloo.
>> Yes. >> Mayor Dixon. >> Yes. >> Like to make a uh Would anybody make a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> Like to make a motion. >> Hold on. Hold on. >> Sorry. >> You didn't give your public comments for the elected officials. If you have them,
now's the time to give it. And if there's no comments, then you could adjourn. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Sir, um, are there any comments from any of the commissioners? >> I have none, Mr. Mayor.
>> Not at this time. >> Having no comments from commissioners, I'd like a motion to uh, adjourn this meeting. >> Like to make a motion. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot. >> Yes.
>> Commissioner Casabun. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Reella, >> yes. There it is. >> Yes, that we All right.