--------- I'd like to call the work session meeting to order. Roll call, please. Mayor Ramenik, here. Commissioner Hwitt, here. Commissioner Suie, here. Vice Mayor Watson, here. Commissioner Kasabun, here. May we please stand to salute the flag. I pledge allegiance 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. Madam clerk, are there any changes to the agenda? There are none, mayor. Presentation seeing known public comment on agenda items only. If anybody from the public
would like to come to the podium, please state your name. Address your concerns. Please limit your concerns for five minutes. Seeing nobody, I will close public comment on agenda items only. Discussion of commissioners. Commissioner Huitt. Go ahead. Thank you,
Mayor. Uh, just a little update on public safety. Uh, want to talk a little bit about the PD. Uh the police department has continued to have difficulty in the process of filling
anticipated 15 open police officer positions. A total of 87 applications were received in total. 87 folks over half failed a portion of
their background investigation or withdrew their interest in position. The remaining candidates were assigned for full background investigations and physical assessment with an academy scheduled from August to
January. So it looks like at this time we are uh luckily putting in uh some some candidates.
The department continues to participate in the click it or ticket and distracted driving enforcement programs and will be adding UEZ funded patrols which is what we talked about and approved last meeting. PD right
now has 71 officers on the roster with 61 being available for duty. We are budgeted for 85 officers at a budget that has been in place for many many
years. Uh so that's my update on the PD. I just got an email leaving the house from Chief John Feltus at the rescue squad. Uh want to let everybody know
this is EMS recognition week. Uh, see an EMT, say hi, say bye, say boo, whatever. Uh, the best part about this email is that ambulance 26, which had the uh
major engine situation, will be returning to service tomorrow morning. With that, that's all. Mayor, thank you, Commissioner Huitt, for those updates. Commissioner Suie. Yeah. First, um, just to address the police
department. Um, I know you guys had stated that our problems would be solved with Manning. So, I How many people are you actually sending to the academy? Uh, right now till they they have one more uh, psych to go through. Mhm. We don't
know if we'll lose those candidates. So, right now, I can't give that number till that. Well, you have a number till then. What's the current number? The number till right then is 15 till now. So you're still spending 15. So that's the same number you said before. Correct. Okay. Correct. That's all we
got out of that group of candidates that applied. Okay. That's the number you said you were going to send. So that Okay. Um parking. I don't know if you guys gave any issue to the parking stuff on High Street or the correspondence with from Jim's lunch.
I know we all got Did you guys think about that? You come up with anything? Any alternatives? Anything? Well, it's not like we're going to like have more land somewhere in the area. Uh again, I mean, if it's we're not going to be able to build a, you know, parking garage. I mean, I don't think we have
that kind of money laying around. Um I think the only thing that we're going to be able to do is just to keep vehicles moving from just sitting in the same area, preventing other people from parking in there is enforcing, you know, rules, you know, limited parking for a limited amount of hours in a certain amount of area. If we were to take over the gym's lunch parking lot, that could
be an area that we could monitor. Uh so it's, you know, basically used for gyms lunch and not, you know, eight hour shifts for those in the area. I mean, I think that's going to be the cheapest way out. The last discussion that we had on it. Well, I don't know why we would do that, but I was just curious if you
guys had any new ideas. That's all. I'm pretty sure they're looking for us to give them a road map. You know, gyms. Uh myself, I'm trying to do all the work before I go across the street to see just what control, what ability we may
have, especially with the buses being parked down on the city parking lot. That that's big. Uh but as always with certain situations in certain places in town, we we have to make sure we're sure of what we bring forward before we do
uh to be careful of what we say and upsetting people. All right. Uh next question is uh street paving at Laurel Lake. We had put money aside in a bond for that. There was I think another $160,000. Any plans to proceed with
that? it was in the hands of engineering. I don't know if you're uh we had a meeting to this uh with this today. Uh thank you Commissioner Kasaboon for having me with streets and roads and engineering. Uh yeah, we do have Laurel Lake and it's the amount of $280,000 um for those projects down there. Uh
right now we're evaluating and I believe we're actually going to move forward with trying to present um a grant uh for a bigger area. Um we're working on a details with engineering to try to get the linear
footage for that area. Um and because of that and because of al other reasons like the force main project and the secondary project at the wastewater facility um you know engineering is very limited with time. Um unfortunately um and in our discussion today we we talked
to engineering and we believe that it is beneficial for the city to kind of hold off instead of paying for a consultant for or another engineering uh firm to come in here to get these plans together and get everything moving forward with other streets that we should wait hold the money and wait for our engineering
so we can handle it in-house. Try to save as much money as we can so when the project comes we can get more asphalt on the ground. Three streets were paved last year, I believe. What's the goal? The future goal. I mean, obvious we're looking to proceed with it, but right the the amount was 280,000. That's what's left
over. So, what with that? We're still looking to move forward in that area, but it's just right now it's just being pushed back a little. So, you have no timeline to do that. Time, right? If I can. Okay. If I can just for a minute, Commissioner, uh, while we're talking about roads, we got an email from DOT
the other day. Okay, we've been getting daily, sometimes just by daily updates on the paving of Route 49. There will be no more night paving. All all the works will be at nighttime, but there will be no more night paving starting this
Friday because Memorial Day weekends summer traffic. So, paving will only be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in the nighttime hours till they clear Milville. They're running all the way to Hopewell with this asphalt situation. I forgot to bring that forward. Um, the last thing I have is cannabis. I
know I asked for it to be put on the close session, but there's some stuff in the open or public session I want to talk about. So, as you guys know, the master plan has been completed by the planning board, and they're going to memorialize that resolution at their next meeting. So, first of all, I want
to thank the planning board for their hard work, especially chairman Gallagher and our planning our planner Barbara Faggley. Now, I I believe you guys have all received the emails of the part of the master plan that deals with the sale of cannabis, retail cannabis. There are several things in there we need to
consider. The impact upon neighborhoods and areas where the sale of cannabis would be permitted, how many retail established and establishments we should have, and as I said, where they would be located. I asked for that part of the master plan to be first sent out for two
reasons. I think there'll probably be some points of contention among not only the public as to where and how many but probably among the commission as well as to the detail of the ordinances. Second, it's important to do this correctly and with expediency as
retail sales of cannabis will be an important source of revenue that we're desperately going to need in the coming years, especially with what's going on which we will discuss during the regular session. Now, there's a couple of uh issues to be discussed in close session about this, and I'm looking forward to
hearing your your folks thoughts on this. As I said, you probably would want the first one open by January. I would think at least it probably isn't going to affect us, but it's certainly going to have a huge impact on the next commission, especially in terms of revenue.
Absolutely. you know, being sitting on the planning board, um this was an expedited push because of the continuous since the previous commission administration approved 1 through 4. Um but for just as in the cannabis nature
and you know, no pun intended, of the growing of the business of cannabis um in the state of New Jersey, uh be from former business administrator Ray Perry to now Mr. Couchi fields probably hundreds of phone calls in a month just
related on retail specific. Um so it's an expedited push um with getting the master plan but with reviewing where and how cannabis the state outlines a lot. you know the state as being the cannabis regulatory commission the CRC
uh outlines it very detailed but you know it gives interpretation for municipalities um from those details you know from the the rules and laws that the CRC has set um with cannabis um there is some uh manipulation that the
planners planning board we the commission can um choose to do so they've given us a very good outline and respect. Um, I know we're going to disagree with it on some of it. Cannabis is just a business. We cannot
discriminate on what it is. It is a business that's going to provide very well much needed assets to the city with the CRC in the state of New Jersey allowing us to get 2% from those any, you know, now classes one through six
um, in the city of Melville. So, we got to look at it carefully. We want what's best always with any type of business here in the city of Milville to move um to not let it be here uh short and quick but you know have tenure and let it be a good business partner here in the city of
Milville like we have many businesses um that do so that much. So, it will be always a topic point, but yes, to get it pushed through this commission and uh uh ratified um in our city government um is
the next step forward. Uh you guys know how I feel about it. I'm not going to speak, you know, too much against it. I mean, that's just, you know, my own belief. Um I'm just not going to support it. Uh I'll probably abstain as, you know, for
that reason. um you know not having any experience and being introduced to this seat uh you see the importance of generating revenue and yeah this is a you definitely can um that's why I'm not going to you know push it push it away
um you know for my own sake uh I think it is going to be a good thing for the city but just something I can't support very well and I think everybody up here knows it present it let's go Bring it on.
Well, you guys should read that recommendation of the planning board and then you might have an opinion on to, you know, if we should do it that way or we should modify that. Yeah, I believe the city will, you know, we will uh the board of commissioners, we will modify it in certain areas
um just to appease, you know, I don't want it to drag on, you know, meeting after meeting. I do want to get this rectified. So, and with good reason as well. So, yes, please do review that. Anything else, Commissioner Su?
That's all. Thank you, Commissioner Kasaboon. I just have one. Um, I'm assuming you all have the letter from the Holly City Development Corporation that they're not renewing. I'm very disheartened over that and I'm concerned of who was going
to be taking over this. Can I can I help you out with that? So, we we when the commission first took over, I had asked Heather Santoro to do it, right? And she said, "We don't want to do it, but we will do it for you." So, and I sent her an email thanking her, and I really do appreciate I was
going to wait till the next meeting. I really do appreciate all her help with that, and she was a big help. and Samantha Cruz will be taking that over. Heather is willing to help her. There's correspondents doing that. Samantha's very capable and I'm sure she'll There
is absolutely she'll do just fine with it. She's already been in contact with the state as well as with the violent UEZ, so everything's seems to be under control at this point. Thank you. Seems to be. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, it was I've talked with
Commissioner Suie and also with Heather and Sam. It was it's in the works. obviously just said for for the next meeting to be graduate. Yeah. Thank you to Heather and Holly City Development Corp. Uh it's a shame that we lost that partnership and uh you know I think this commission should really you reflect on the actions that
prevented or that could have prevented um you know losing that partnership. It's a shame they did a lot for us and uh they were good to work with uh always open with communication and always a phone call away. So thank you out to them. Well, you know we didn't lose a partnership. We lost the uee coordinator. Um, I think the partnership
can still exist. I don't see why it can't. And as I said, they didn't want to do it to begin with. Um, we all kind of voted for what may or may not have precipitated the final straw. I don't know. But it was unanimous vote. And I'll
just go with everybody else's sentiments. I I thank both of the Heathers for what they did. And uh I feel Sam is uh going to be good at taking care of it. Uh she may have to shuffle some
other things around or whatever, but she's got a heck of a load on her plate anyhow. Just every day uh doings. So uh thank you Holly City Development Court and uh thank you Sam
for picking it up. Anything else? just that Sam will definitely do a good job. I just hope it doesn't overwhelm her, you know, with her other day-to-day operations. She got rid of one of her day-to-day operations, which I guess think will be explained later. Okay,
that's great. All right, but yes, definitely it was been a pleasure working with the little time that I've had working with Holly City Development Corporation. Both Heathers have been phenomenal. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Kazaboon. Vice Mayor Watson, go ahead. Yeah, just so there's
no residents out there, I get it twisted. Yeah, it is a shame that we have to push uh you maybe the project off for Low Lake. I don't know how long, but just uh I mean I usually reflect on this for reports of commissioners during regular session, but our engineering department's very busy. Uh obviously we have the wastewater treatment upgrade,
which is the installment of the new clarifier. Uh we have the wastewater solids dewatering upgrade. We're looking to um try to find funding to support that project as we have a TWWA. It's getting ready to expire. uh which will essentially save money on disposal costs. As we mentioned before, they have
the Ireland Avenue pump station upgrade. That's the force main leaving the pump station. We have the Laurel Lake water distribution system. We have South Millville water main upgrades. Uh Wooden Woodland Avenue project Coventry Way. We have citywide water meter upgrades. We
have the Pleasant Drive uh asphalting. We have the Wear Avenue Wells number 15 and number 16. We have the airport treatment facility well 2A. Gisinger Avenue well 18 uh the four season development phase two we have white marsh storm drainage system that they're reviewing they have the Ellen Court 48
inch storm sewer they have the parks and public properties they have fire department roof repairs they have worldwide turbines they have the airport industrial park they have the four seasons upgrade and I have about four more pages of project that our engineering department's working on so before anybody from Laura Lake wants to blow me up on Facebook or you know call
me out because I said a comment don't get it twisted it's not getting pushed back on the burner Um it's something that we still have in the works, but unfortunately we just can't move as fast as we would like to. Um decision was made to try to keep as much funding as we can to get as much done as we can. And that means that we're not going to
be able to spend as much on consulting or having another engineer come in and do the work when we could do it in house. Other than that, the other item I wanted to discuss was um the CFO position. Uh we have a CFO position posted and there's been limited interest
in it. Um, and obviously with that, uh, we did have one really good candidate, uh, but unfortunately we weren't able to meet the salary that it was desired. Um, so I wanted to bring up in discussion today, um, how everybody felt about increasing the salary ordinance to try to attract a
CFO. I believe the ordinance is a well, I don't know if I'm allowed to say the number, but I'm sure you could do your homework. It's public information. Yeah, it's I believe it's like 124,000 in that area. um just getting everybody's take on it to see if it's something that we're
interested in to try to get a CFO. Uh I believe ours is leaving, you know, in a few months. I just I as long as what's fair and uh comparable to, you know, other municipalities, you know, the the the running that that Milo and Violin
don't get along. See what Vinland makes. Obvious they're a bigger city, but you know, keep the the obviously we're a very complex city as well as violence. So, um just look at see what other comparable uh cities and towns of our size and uh
see what goes from there and then let us everybody know. Definitely. We have to be compatible and we also have to be competitive. So, definitely. No, I'm fine with just So, it's something that we're all willing to uh to look at and to, you know, kind of
consider within reason. Yes. Sounds good. Yeah. Perhaps a table can be made that would show what the CFOs are earning at the county level and in the other neighboring municipalities. Very well.
Anything else? That's it. Thank you. I have nothing at this time. Seeing no new business, public comment. We have now reached the public comment portion of our meeting. Anyone who would like to address the commission, please go to the podium, state your name, address your concerns, please limit your comments to approximately five minutes. Thank you.
Good evening. Tim Spiron. Uh, Commissioner Kasu. Yes. Easy one. Um, I appreciate the fact that the city only has one street sweeper. I've been here 39 years and you know to see it in the
outskirts of the city and that outlying neighborhoods is far and few between I think I could probably count on my hand how many times I've seen it in the last 10 years. What that being said I was happy to see it in our neighborhood this past week with the exception that the brush
hasn't been picked up yet. So they went around it. You can see the lines from the street sweeper. Is that is there a possibility they come back through after the brush is picked up? I will talk about I will give him a call tomorrow. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. And what street is that Mr. Spanga? Um it's
white marsh states. They went through estates. Okay. Thank you. And in for that uh the just to let you know from my understanding street sweepers has certain sections but if you must have had some other things going on in that area so they must have come out.
So, but thank you for bringing that to my attention and we'll take care of it. When the lease picked up, they came through this week and it Okay, we got it. Thank you. Uh Patricia Kers, 409 Peach Drive.
Um I just want to make mention of two things. Uh the parking around city the city lots. Um, a couple of people were um concerned about the buses that are
parked behind the Taekwondo place. Um, I just want to remind everybody that this is a small business and it's part of what they do with their business and I think there should be a way to compromise with them so that their
business can be supported. Uh, the other comment I have before you go into public or into private session is the cannabis retail. Um, I don't feel that they should be in center city area. I think they should be kept in the industrial
parks on the outskirts. I think Wade Boulevard would be a good place. uh the industrial park out there, it's right off of 55. And for people going to the shore, they would probably get a lot of business and
people wouldn't have to go as far to get to that retail position as they would in Vinland going to Deli Drive. Um I also think the airport is another good place. It's not near residential areas and I
think it will give the city ratables that are needed and I don't feel any of their bis these businesses should be given pilots or tax abatements in any form because they are for profit and I don't
think that and everybody wants to get into this business. It's very popular. I don't think that we should give them these tax breaks on the backs of the taxpayers. Thank you, Mr. Mrs. Exactly the spots I've been
thinking of and my thoughts. Mary Mes of Millville. I kind of agree with Mrs. Kes. It shouldn't be within the city, especially if the city is going to go ahead and do this for the
godforsaken almighty dollar. which I do understand we need ratables, but also remember it was posted in the newspapers about the problem that Violin had with the smell
from the various dispensaries. The city said no to doing something that would have possibly been a way of helping those that have an addiction who wanted to get off of it. City said no,
but yet the city's going to stand by and say yes to retailing this. Growing it is one thing. Yeah, I understand it's a business and I understand we can get an extra 2%. That's a little more money than what
they normally would have been given us and I agree. They shouldn't be able to get a tax break. Nobody else is getting it. and those that have asked for it are
doing a legitimate business that isn't hurting anyone like grocery stores, department stores, we all need them. This I'm sorry, me personally, this is one time I can actually say I
agree with Commissioner Watson. I myself don't approve of it, but it's a possibility that it's going to happen. And if it does, I feel it shouldn't be anywhere near within our city limits at all. Now or
ever one thing about the CFO salary. Go ahead. Please come come up to the microphone. I'm sorry. Tips again. Um, so not as anybody else have I know somebody um on the CCUA board and they
have a CPA as their CFO and their salary is $120,000 a year just to give you for comparison. Sounds a little low but it's a small board too. Right. There you go. Thank you. Anyone
else? Seeing that I will close public comment. Comments of Commissioner Commissioner Hewitt. Closing comments. Nothing. Just comment. Commissioner Suie. Yes. Um I would agree that no retail cannibis would get a tax f pilot or an abatement. Nor would a retail
grower. So we're on the same page with that. I don't think there's anybody up here. Can't speak for them, but I don't think there's anybody up there here that would vote for that. Correct. And nobody suggesting that we do. So correct with that progress. Not even the businesses. Um thank you Commissioner Cman. No.
Thank you, Vice Mayor Watson. No, thank you. For me, resolutions. Resolution authorizing close session for the following matter. Discussion of cannabis retail sales. Move the resolution. Second motion. We have a motion to second. Roll call,
please. Commissioner Huitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasabun? Yes. Commissioner Suie? Yes. Mayor Ram? Yes. Part: 2
to call the regular session meeting to order. Roll call, please. Mayor Romik, here. Commissioner Hwitt, here. Commissioner Suie, here. Vice Mayor Watson, here. Commissioner Kasabun, here. May please have Reverend Brian Robinson give the invocation. And may we please stand for the invocation and
salute the flag. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for bringing us together here tonight. We thank you for this great nation that we live in. May you always watch over her and protect her. Lord, may you always help us remember those
who are less fortunate. And as this city commission meets tonight, we pray that you would give them wisdom that all in all of their actions, they would always be working on behalf of all the people who reside in this city. And Lord, that
because of the decisions are made, this would be a better place to live, work, and raise our families. We pray this all in the name of your precious love. Amen. I pledge allegiance 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's meeting 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. Madam clerk, are there any changes to the agenda? Yes, mayor. We're adding a resolution to amend the capital budget. Thank you. Public comment on agenda
items only. Anybody from the public would like to come to address the commission. Please come to the podium, state your name, address your concerns. Seeing nobody, I will close public comment on agenda items only. Presentations. Seeing none, bills.
Make a motion to pay the bills. Second motion. Roll call, please. Commissioner Hwitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasabun, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Romick, yes. Any petitions and letters? There are none. Mayor Ports of Commissioners,
Commissioner Huitt, go ahead. Yes, thank you. Uh, I'll repeat. We have some people here now. Uh, what I spoke of earlier, a little bit of an update on the PD and recruitment. Police department has
continued to have difficulty in the process of filling an anticipated 15 open police officer positions. A total of 87 applications were received in total. Over half failed a portion of
their background investigation or withdrew interest in the position. The rema the remaining candidates were assigned for full background investigations and physical assessment with an academy scheduled from August to January.
The department continues to participate in click and ticket distracted driving enforcement programs and will be adding UEZ funded patrols which were approved by this commission last meeting. Presently, Milville PD has 71
officers on the roster with 61 being available for duty budgeted as always for only 85. uh rescue squad. Chief Feltus, who's here tonight,
uh sent me an email just before heading to the meeting. Ambulance 26 will be back in service tomorrow. That will put us back to three ambulances available in the city.
[Music] uh fire department as we have talked about before has now received and everybody is trained on the operation and driving of tower 7 from Bridgton. Once again we
thank Bridgen for stepping up and giving city of Milville mil fire department and public safety team assistance in this time that we're going through. With that, I would like to make a motion to receive and file the police and fire
department and rescue squad report for April of 2025. Second motion. Motion in second to receive and file the police and fire department's report for the month of April this year. Roll call, please. Commissioner Hwitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasaboon, yes.
Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Roman, yes. Thank you, Commissioner Hwitt. Commissioner Suie, go ahead. Yeah, let me first cover the upcoming events. So, our annual Phillies home run derby was going to be held on Thursday, May 15th, but that was cancelled due to rain. It's
been rescheduled for Thursday, June 5th at 5:00 p.m. at the Rob Shannon Sports Complex. Children ages 7 to 12 can participate. The Memorial Day parade will take place on Monday, May 26. It will kick off at 9:00 a.m. behind the American Legion. Proceed to Malberry
Street to High Street, High Street to Main Street. There'll be a brief naval memorial ceremony at the Main Street Bridge. and we'll continue down West Main Street ending with a ceremony at the Veterans Plot at Mount Pleasant. Um, other than that, uh, some of you saw that cannabis was on discussion for the
closed session. So, the planning board passed part of that. We met in close session to discuss some parameters under which uh where, how many, and what fors for the uh retail cannabis places that that will
be allowed and we'll be giving you updates on that periodically as we go through that process progress. Thank you, Commissioner Suie. Commissioner Cosman. All right. Streets and roads. 184 and a half tons of brush has been collected so far this month.
Streets and Roads is currently in the Cumber Carmel Road area collecting brush and should be done on the with the west side of the city by the end of next week. Loose leaves, just a reminder, collection has ended. Don't put loose leaves out there unless they're embedded. Next Tuesday is tires and
appliance collection. Residents have that have collection on Monday will get collected on Tuesday due to the holiday. Any other questions? Give Streets and Roads a call. Thank you. That's it. Thank you, Commissioner Kasu. Thank you, Vice Mayor Watson. Floor is yours.
Uh, first, um, just wanted to show appreciation to Mobile EMS as it's EMS week. Um, and thank you for all you that you do. Um, good to see you, Chief. Um, I'm still in the pro uh, process of working with council 18 and
SOA for negotiations. Um, thank you Commissioner Kasabun, Engineering and Streets and Roads for putting a meeting together today to discuss upcoming paving projects um and potential for grant applications. Yep. Um, currently uh some of you may have already seen reaching out to different
departments to discuss some of the uh capital uh line items uh just to kind of see what they're used for. Um, you please look for that in your emails. I think some of you already seen that. Just me reaching out and asking some questions. Um, touching on this
briefly, as it pertains to the error on the 2025 tax list that occurred, um, an exempt line item for 19,625,000 was created for a 30-year long-term tax exemption for a property on Village Drive. At the time the exemption line was created, a duplicate
amount was placed on the taxable line item, and that was the error. [Music] Um right now we're trying to move forward and doing what we can uh following uh protocol that has been in place for um errors that are clerical in
you know in this sense um and a correction of error complaint has been um sent to the New Jersey Tax Court um and that's currently where we are. Other than that I don't have anything further. Uh, I do have something further. I want
to make a motion to receive and file a tax collector's report for April 2025. Second motion. Thank you, Commissioner Hwitt. Just about to speak. Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasabun? Yes. Commissioner
Suie? Yes. Mayor Romick? Yes. Good evening all. Zoning board will be on June 5th at 6 PM hosted here. Next planning board will be June 9th hosted here again at 6:30. I'm a little out of date on my
events. On May 14th, me and recycling coordinator Chris Finch headed up to Raw, New Jersey to the Union to the Hamilton Square Theater. We attended the New Jerseys clean council communities grant and award celebration.
Um, I believe we are the furthest traveled. It was 111 miles. Uh, if anybody remembers the wonderful weather that we had last week, uh, it downpoured the entire 2 and 1/2 hours um, up and down on the turnpike. Um, but it was a
great event to see and meet um, face to face with D officials, DOT officials, and mayors just through all the throughout the state of New Jersey. Milville received almost $10,000 more from New Jersey's clean communal clean
communities council. Um I thank the the entire council for uh setting up this wonderful event. Um us uh receiving more um money. I hope this continues every year. You know, this goes towards uh you
know our ecoair that we have to Wheaton Village which was two weeks ago. Two weeks. um and just promoting and educating the public on keeping our community clean. Um hopefully something soon. Um Chris obviously is the forefront with this in
the city, but you'll see there is a um cigarette butts are non-recyclable and it's a very hard process to be them recyclable. There is uh hopefully being soon at locations where people frequently smoke in the city
um will be new containers that handle just the cigarette butts. They will then get packaged um in a box and mailed and picked up to go to get to um a third party recycling. Um that's something that's an innovative project um which I
think could be used here in the city of Milville. Um there's a myriad of also uh of many other things. I'm sure Commissioner Kasaboon um with talking with Chris Finch uh he definitely knows his uh uh Clean Community Council's uh rules. Um but uh he always does a great
job. So thanks thanks for Chris for attending that. On the 14th, May 15th, I attended the Ran College of South Jerseys college graduation. Uh that was a very nice uh event. Obviously well well attended. Um it brought back um my memories of
graduating. Um uh it just you know it's a happy to see you know brand new uh people get a brand new start um to their professional career at achieving either that um associates or then to go to get your
bachelors. Um Melbourne Superintendent Matt Mazone was there. Mayor of Bridton um Mayor Kelly was there. I personally thanked him once again for the assistance with us and our our fire department here in the city. Um he was
in great uh rapport with that. So he does know well. On April 29th I will be attending the dog tags and green flags at our New Jersey Motorsports Park is a nonprofit for exactly what it is. helping veterans
um receive a little uh support and you know be be hosted at a world class racetrack. Uh more can be found on that on the dogs tags and greeted flags page.
Um that is all I have. Ordinance in the second reading. There are none. Mayor ordinances in the first reading. Ordinance of the city of Milville County of Cumberland, New Jersey. appropriating certain unexpended proceeds of the sale of previously issued bonds and notes to
finance the cost of additional capital improvements and taking related actions. Make motion on the ordinance on the first reading item number one. Second motion. We have a motion second on the ordinance on the first reading item number one. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt. Yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner
Kasaboon? Yes. Commissioner Suie? Yes. Mayor Roman? Yes. Budget resolutions. A resolution to read the municipal budget by title only. Make motion. Second motion. We have a motion and second. Any comments? Roll call,
please. Commissioner Hwitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasabun? Yes. Commissioner Suie? No. Mayor Ramen? Yes. And we do have a public hearing at this time as well. Open the public hearing. Yes.
on the budget. Evening again, Tim Spirana. Question about the budget um going forward if we're we pass if the the budget as it's written now, taxes. What is that going to leave for
the next commission? Are they going to be forced to look at a tax increase before they even look at the budget for 2026? Is that what's being being done here? And also, you said you're still in
negotiations with council 18. You failed to reach an agreement with that. So, is that going to be put on the next budget also? Is that is that is there appropriation money appropriated for for that that in this 25 budget? So, there's no guarantee of whatever
increase is going to be in future budget years. Um that really depends on new ratables, new revenues, and actual budget amounts. Um there are projections when we're selling contracts. We try to include potential cost increases and
potential tax increases, but that's never a guarantee on exactly that's what the tax increase is going to be in future years. That's dependent on factors going into those future year budgets. I appreciate that. So we don't know if the mistaken this budget is
going to trigger a automatic tax increase for 2025 be 2026 before it's even discussed. I wouldn't say it's going to be automatic. There's potential but it's never an automatic. So it's a whatif. Yes. Okay. Thank you.
Anyone else? I'll close the public hearing discussion of commissioners. I have a couple questions. Go ahead. So, if I understand this right, um, we have
adjustments to the ratables. One of them is going to be, and this is in terms of revenue, not in terms of the amount of ratables. So, one of them is $756,000, and that's for Village Drive, which is the ratable that was added in the wrong place. We also have county
appeals pending and $30,000. State appeals low and target of $213,000. City-owned buildings 8 13,836. that veterans exemptions approximately 31 for a total of 1,ion46
25131 of which like I said 756,000 is village drive now when we did the budget we were counting on that revenue right you counted that revenue to calculate the tax rate and to pay our bills so we don't have that revenue so
what I'm getting at is if since we'll talk in hypothetical since we don't know what'll happen next year. We're short of revenue this year of 6 $756,000 at least. Um we are reducing the reserve for tax appeals which is $1 million
which is that's about what the re what we had put aside for that rate. So we're going to have to reimburse that revenue sometime down the line without a doubt. And I'm calculating out this $756,562. That comes out to basically
about 5 cents per 100, which is a pretty big impact. So we have that loss and we're going to have to take a hit for that next year. There's no doubt. I don't think we're going to be able to I don't know. I doubt if we're going to be able to
increase ratables by $19 million. So I guess the question is should we anticipate some of this loss in our current year to alleviate a big hit in 2026? In other words, should we have raised taxes another two or three cents? Uh should we res reserve the make, you
know, increase the uh reserve for tax appeals because of the pending judgments of over a million dollars. And this is going to have a an impact on the county as well, I believe. Um, and I know that, you know, we're paying the county, we're going to pay the county that their share of this,
285,000 or something, and we're going to get that back next year, but we won't be able to spend that till the year after, right? Because we won't be able to appropriate it till the year after we get it. So, that kind of leaves us a little deficit there for next year. So, I I believe taxes are going to go up a lot. I don't think it's fair to the next
commission. Um, no matter who wins, it's not fair. And I will say this, had I been the guy in charge of revenue and finance when this happened, there would be a couple people here waiting to excuriate me. I
don't know where Angel Broom is, and I don't know where Tim Cardi are tonight. But if I were in charge of revenue and finance and this happened, you guys would want to hang me by the top of city hall. So, I don't know what else to say about that. I can't support this budget
or any of these amendments because I know it's negatively going to effect next year. There's no doubt about it. Hypothetically, oh yeah, we could, you know, CRP could get done. They could have three warehouses built next year. You know what? You'll be fine. But I don't think they're going to have three warehouses built next year. I don't
think that's possible. It just, you know, we we sat here and the last meeting we talked about, oh, we have to do it right. We have to do it right. We have to do it right. I counted that saying and it was over a dozen
times. So I'll ask you guys if we have to do it right. So my next question is what were we what would happen if we were to say no to this budget tonight? I called the state four four eight years ago and they told me well you wouldn't be the first guys that did that. I don't know you know I'm sure the
laws have changed since then but what happens if we say no and we try to fix it? What happens then? Well, what would happen if we don't vote on the budget tonight? If we do another amendment would need state approval and we'd have to defer to the next meeting, get whatever amendments that we need to
put in place approved by the state. Now, the amendments that we do have on for tonight does not necessarily change the budget in and of itself. It was all what was required by our state examiner. So, the city itself didn't do those amendments. Those were to be in
compliance with what was required by the state to be approved for tonight's adoption, pending adoption. Okay. So, if I vote yes for the amendments, that's what the state wants. So, what happens if we vote no for the budget? Then we wouldn't be able to adopt the budget and then we would need
direction on what new amendments to adjust this budget. So, if we did that, could we fix this and make it right? Well, we couldn't change anything on what's included as the valuation. Well, we could change the tax rate to
make it correct. We could adjust the tax rate, but it's a matter of exactly what categories we want to put that funding into, and that would be pending state approval. Okay. Well, I'm sure probably everybody else is going to vote vote yes. So, you'll probably be safe. But, you know, there is an election coming
up. this will be an election issue because if those guys out there ain't aren't smart enough to make one, I will. So, I don't know if you can answer any good evening, commissioners. Mike Cesero from Bowman and Company. I serve as uh the city's budget consultant. And I do
want to point out that built into every city budget is what we call our reserve for uncollected taxes. So because we don't collect 100% from our taxpayers, we need to have this appropriation built
in so that we can pay the county and the school tax 100%. Because they get every dime. So if we looked at sheet 30 of the budget, the reserve for uncollected tax number actually did increase from 1.8
million to 2.1 million. And that $300,000 additional amount will help cushion the city's impact that it faces as a result of the ratable error. To increase the tax levy at this point only
will increase the burden on a false number. So if we increase the tax levy now and amend the budget to do that, then the person who was only going to pay the three three cent increase that should have been paying a 5-cent
increase is going to be paying a little bit more. But the property value, the $19 million loss that the commissioner Suie has referenced of, I guess a net number being 735,000, that's a total number. That's the city share. That's
the school share. that is the county share that number would actually go higher. So our loss would be even higher if we increase the rate uh the tax from that standpoint. Question on that if I can because it's related to that. So if on a hypothetical number so next year there's going to be that revenue is not
going to be there right that that that's gone that's going to get wiped out of the next budget. So that number is no longer hypothetical next year. the actual valuation of the community will be reflected properly in the 2026
budget. So the $19 million will be gone would not be there. $700,000 will be gone. That's correct. Somewhere that revenue has to be made up. Yeah. So, so build into your budget is the additional $300,000 in the reserve for uncollected tax number. And you also still have
roughly $600,000 left in the reserve for tax appeal line after the cancellation of the $1 million. So there's a resolution that the state required for us to have that as a revenue. So that $600,000 that's sitting already in our bank account would in essence be
utilized to help refund the city for that lost revenue. So here comes the other part. We're not going to collect taxes on that $19 million. That's correct. But that $600,000 would be used to offset that loss. Offset the part we're not collecting, but it's a lot more than $600,000. It's over a million.
And but you also have the $300,000 correct in the reserve for uncollected tax. But after that, after we don't collect the taxes on that, then we have to use that reserve to pay ourselves basically is what we're doing. That's exactly what you would be doing. That's correct. Okay. Now, can I take you to
another part of the budget? Sure. The fund balance. Sure. I think right now you'll see a fund balance of what is it 3 point something million. I don't know what page it's on. Uh we sold a property. We sold it for $6 million. Of that $6 million we took 2 million and
set it aside to replace that property. So that left us 4 million. Uh the last budget the fund balance I think was $750,000. So really if we didn't use any fund balance I would expect $4,750ome,000 to be in it. everything
else remaining the same. Now, most of that went for employee contracts. Um, Susan still here. She can correct me if she's right behind me. Am I correct in that assumption? So, next year, we need to make up that revenue as well for for what the raises were this
year. And then in addition to that, we have to pay for for the raises next year. So, that's going to look probably I think another 1.4 we figured with 18 if we added that in. could be. I don't have that. So, basically, your fund balance is going to disappear unless we sell something else or get money from
somewhere else. Um, so what I'm getting at is that money is going to be gone. We're going to have to make up for that. We're going to have to make revenue somewhere because the third year it's only going to get worse. So, look, I, you know, I get what you're saying, but I can't I can't support a
budget that has a mistake like this in it. I just can't do it. I I won't do it. I can't do it. Um maybe a textbook budget, but I can tell you this that you know everybody thought the center of the world was center of the uh solar system was the earth until a capernist came
along and they found out it was the sun and they were ready to hang him. And you know I've looked at enough textbooks to know that numbers in textbooks are derived so you can get an easy answer like a math book, right? They want you to get a whole number so you don't have to deal with fractions or decimals. But
that's not real life. And this is and this is unfortunate and maybe there is no way to correct it. I don't know. But I'm not going to vote for it. So, thank you. Just to to amplify what the commissioner is referring to on sheet 39 of the
budget. It reflects the appendix to the budget statement which shows the surplus ending as of December 31st, 2024 at roughly $10.6 million. And the city has anticipated $7 million in the 2025
budget. To Commissioner Suie's point, uh $2 million was the additional funds. $1.9 million was uh the direct correlation to a line item that sits in the budget. I think it's sheet 28 in
referencing the repayment uh for the ordinance that we borrowed money for or we we were going to borrow money for. So that's why there's an additional use. I think your historical trend for surplus has been at 5 million I think. So so
roughly 5 million. So as as the economy flows, can I address that for one minute? So surplus every year you say you say you start with 10 million. So you use up 7 million. I'm just give an example. Right. Right. Textbook. So we start with 10 million. We use 7
million and then our fund balance is 3 million, right? The money the money that's really left over at the end. So this year we had what was it? 700,000. You have it in front of you now, I guess. Right. The fund balance I think it's on that page. I think last year was about 527.
527. So that's how much we had after we did everything. So this year is what I'm getting at is you're anticipating to have 3.1 million, 3.9, whatever it was. So, we used up that extra money and instead of having all that, this is what you're going to be left with next year, which is going to give you another
problem in the coming years. Unless, of course, you get a bunch of ratables, but we'll worry about that when the time comes, I guess. Thank you. Been fun. This is comments of commissioners.
Any other comments? You know, I I can understand where Commissioner Sue is going. Remind you, we're on resolution one. This is just the title only. No, we're talking about the budget. Yeah, I've been working pretty hard on a
budget item. We'll leave that alone. I need to be convinced that we're that we're going to be okay here, that we're not throwing the next commissioner under the bus. We're not going to throw me under the bus. I'm not going to be
there. But there are things that need to be done in public safety. Uh we should have started them. We should have started them before this year got here in our last year because he's talking the microphone. Nobody wants to do anything in their last year
when they're up against an election. Uh there are things have to be done. There's things that have to be done when I was sitting out there for years. Uh and I'm sitting here now u knowing
things have to be done listening to the commissioner. Where where are we putting our black and white just a general person where are we putting ourselves with this budget layman's terms where we where are we putting the
next commission that's what I should be saying well as your CFO and your your finance team has indicated there's no crystal ball that tells you where you're going to be and as you keep indicating there could be five different people sitting up here. There could
be, you know, inexperienced individuals coming here. There could be people that have experience that have worked with uh city budgets or county budgets. So, from from that standpoint, they will be making decisions based on
what the electorate want. So there is room in the budget to increase taxes for future projects if surplus is not regenerated during 2025. So at this point in time, the city's budget is
compliant with the tax levy cap. There's a tax levy cap that limits what the city can raise taxes. You are in compliance with that and you still have at least a million dollar cushion to carry forward. There is also a spending cap limitation
that the city faces, but you are well under that at this point in time. If you need to increase in a future commission, as other commissions have done, whether they've increased personnel, public safety investment, whatever they have
deemed their priorities, there is room in the budget for that to grow. Now, is it going to be coming from surplus? Not necessarily. But it's also possible that as 2025 proceeds, things could be very,
very good. They may not be. There's no crystal ball that we have. But there is room in the budget for future years for there to be a tax levy increase to
support anything that you need to do from a personnel standpoint. less cigarettes for you in time. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is an election year for the city of Milville, so I'm sure there's probably being points made across to, you know, better suit that. I
mean, I can tell you right now that I'm not rerunning, so everything I say, it's not going to help me if I want to, you know, proceed with this position. But what I can tell you is, you know, looking at the budget and trying to be involved and trying to ask questions I ask city residents and I ask myself all the time, what am I willing to get rid
of so I don't have to pay a tax increase? Am I willing to give up a fire truck for the fire department? Am I willing to say no to increases city employees to keep good people here so they can provide these services that we have? Trash pickup, water, sewer, we
have potholes, we have snow removal. We have all the jobs in the city of Milville to make this place work. I want to live in a good place and I want to have my kids to live in a good place. And unfortunately, things go up, we have to pay for it. So, no, I don't want to pay more. Absolutely not. But
unfortunately, with the circumstances given in today's world, things are going to go up and we have to pay more for them. I want good employees working for the city of Millville so they can continue to provide my family good good services. That's where we are with contract negotiations, even though it's a big hit on the budget. moving forward
today as we're trying to, you know, pass this budget. I want to move on. I want to take the next step and work on the projects we have to do, not hold anything up. We have the auditors here. They're giving their
feedback on, you know, the budget. They're saying everything's good. I mean, for what it's worth, what I've been asking and what I've been involved with, I'm going to I'm going to approve it. But that's just my take on it. Mr. Mayor, if I may have my second
bite of the apple under Robert Turtle's order. Yes. What I'm saying is that in order not to leave the next commission with a mess is that some of these taxes should be offset this year and not wait till next year. That's what I'm telling you. I don't want to raise taxes at all,
but it's sometimes it's necessary. So that's what I'm telling you. I'm not telling you don't buy stuff, don't fix stuff, don't give people raises. I'm telling you, if you want to do that, do it right. So that's how you would do it right. At least in
my opinion, that's all. I'd like to hear from the other sitting here. We're not going to resolution item number two. Did we vote on this? Yeah. Did we vote? Thank you. Resolution to amend the 2025 municipal budget. Make a motion. Second
motion. You have a motion and second. Any comments? Commission. Commissioner Hwitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasabun, yes. Commissioner Suie, no. Mayor Romick, yes.
Resolution item number three, resolution to amend the capital budget. Make a motion. Second motion. Have a motion. Second on resolution item number three. Resolution to amend capital budget. Any comments? Yes, this is required by the state. I will be voting yes for this.
Roll call, please. Commissioner Hewitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasabun? Yes. Commissioner Suie? Yes. Mayor Romick? Yes. Resolution item number four, resolution of the city of Millville, County of Cumberland, State of New Jersey, cancelling a portion of the reserve for
t for tax appeals in the amount of $1 million. Make motion on resolution item number four. Second motion. We have a motion to second resolution item number four. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasabun, yes.
Commissioner Suie, no. Mayor Romick, yes. Resolution item number five, resolution to adopt the 2025 municipal budget as amended. Make motion. Second motion. We have a motion to second on resolution item number five. Any comments?
Roll call, please. Commissioner Hwitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasabun. Yes. Commissioner Suie, no. Mayor Romick, yes. Resolution item number six, resolution requesting approval of items of revenue and appropriation, national opioid
settlement, Walgreens. Make a motion. Second. We have a motion and second on resolution item number six. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, Commissioner Kasaboon, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Ramen,
yes. Resolution item number seven, resolution requesting approval of items of revenue and appropriation New Jersey UEZ exterior improvements. Make a motion. Second motion. Move a motion second on resolution item number seven. Just want to make clear
um we are on to regular resol standard resolutions done from the budget resolutions. Correct. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Roll call, please. On item number seven. Commissioner Hwitt. Yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasaboon? Yes. Commissioner Suie? Yes. Mayor Romik.
Yes. Resolution item number eight, resolution requesting approval of items of revenue and appropriation New Jersey UAZ special events. Make a motion. Second motion. We have a motion and second. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt, yes.
Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasaboon, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Mayor Romnick, yes. Resolution item number nine, resolution authorizing a tax sale certificate as shown on the attached foreclosure list now held by the city of Milville be
forclosed by summary proceedings in RM as by NJSA 54 5104.29 to 54 5104.71. Make a motion. Second. We have a motion to
second. Comments. Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt. Yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasabun. Yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Ramen, yes. Resolution item 10, resolution authorizing adjustments to the tax and utility records. Make a motion. Second
motion. We have a motion second. Resolution 10. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt. Yes. Vice Mayor Watson? Yes. Commissioner Kasaboon? Yes. Commissioner Suie? Yes. Mayor Romick? Yes. Resolution item 11. Resolution authorizing first amendment to services
contract with C&H disposal. Make motion and with that I have certification of funds in the amount of $44,000 signed by our chief financial officer Susan Canonius. Second have motion to second on resolution item number 11. Any comments?
Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasaboon, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Romick, yes. Resolution item 12, resolution authorizing first amendment to professional services contract with Taylor Wiseman and Taylor.
Make a motion. Second motion. Uh certification of function. I do not have certification of funds. We do have a certification of funds. So you certify the funds.
There you go. Yes, we have the certification of funds right now. I do have the certification availability of funds in a contracted amount of $300,000 336,855.72 signed by our CFO Susan
Konunes. Second motion. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasabun, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Romnick, yes. Resolution item 13, resolution
authorizing the ratification award of an emergency contract to American Demolition for the demolition of South Fore Street. Make a motion. And with that, I have certification of funds in the amount of 58,78 dollars, signed by our chief financial
officer, Susan Kenon. Second motion. Motion and second resolution item number 13. Any comments? Roll call, please. Commissioner Huitt. Yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Kasaboon, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Romick, yes. New
business. New business item number one. Motion to authorize the following special event on public lands application pending approvals. Positive vibes basketball event sponsored by JT Burks at Waltman Park on June 7th, 2025 from 12:00 p.m. to 3 p.m. Make a motion.
Second a motion. Take one. Um, motion in second on new business item number one. Any comments? Good luck with it, JT. Thank you for your good work. Roll call, please. Commissioner Hwitt, yes. Vice Mayor Watson, yes.
Commissioner Kasaboon, yes. Commissioner Suie, yes. Mayor Romick, yes. Public comment portion. We have now reached the public comment portion of the of our meeting. Anyone who would like to address the commission, please go to the podium, state your name, address your concerns, please limit your
comments to approximately five minutes. Thank you. Rick Cod Mill. Sorry, that was a longer walk than I thought. Um, just something uh couple meetings we've been going to at the um Holly City Development Corporation. One of the
residents has been complaining about the railroad um between third and fourth not being cleaned up for a long time. She's tried to make a lot of phone calls, tried to talk to the railroad. I don't know if they if she's reached out to you guys or not, but if you can just somehow help her out, if you have any questions,
uh any of the Heathers uh at the HCDC, there's like 12 of them. Uh they can help you. I'm not sure the exact address, but I know she's been worried about it for months now. So, she hasn't come here and asked for help, but I'm just want to speak on her behalf that she's been trying to clean up that area
for a while, specifically the railroad in between. even contact the railroad company and they were virtually no help. I have spoken to her personally. Okay, very good. Yes, I I told her to tread lightly with the railroad, but that if they happen to have clean up and some
bags to just give me a call. And if I may, we're saying we're commenting. Uh, we got to look back to the time that Pal this past spring went and cleaned up the railroad from Maine
to 5th. And we caught a holy, you know what for doing that. So, we got to dance a little bit careful there. Hopefully. Yes. Dance careful. Well, while you're dancing, you can find out what they're responsible for and what we can do. Somebody's got to clean it up, right?
Yes. Well, we did. So I don't know who we're dancing around who we're worried about. Other people start complaining. I can probably talk to you about that later. Okay. Can I make a suggestion? Why don't you try to use clean community grants to do that? Pay some money to do it. That's what I was going to talk to you later. That's what I was going to
say. I was like just went to something. So there you go. There was a lot of you guys talking using clean community grants funding to see see if we can what we can do and what we can't. It's the railroad itself. We can't go anywhere near. We've worked
with the railroad before and trying to give them attempt to help cleaning up the area, but there's certain things that we have to abide by. Buying. Yeah. Yep. Now, do they have to abide by certain things, too? More than I don't want to speak on the railroad getting railroad. Listen, I'm
just right. But she if if you guys are struggling with it, you can imagine her struggle, right? If it's brought to our attention, we could talk to our recycling coordinator and go from there. Yeah. I'll talk with Chris. All right. Uh it's it's a shame to see um Holly City Development Corporation leave the
UEZ. I'm not very familiar with it, so I'm going to tell you right now. It looks like a heavy lift. I'm hoping it's not. Um Sam Cruz does a lot. Like back in the day, public property and parks and recck were two different places and
now they've been one. It's been that way for a long time. but she does a lot of work down there and I'm just hoping that this isn't too huge of a lift for somebody that already gives a lot of time and effort to the city to now take on something that, you know, good for
her. I hope she can, but I know she she does take up a lot. So, let's just make sure we don't drive her out of there and burn her out. So, just keep eye on her and her well-being because like I said, she does a lot for this city. Um, and last thing is just the budget. I was I'm
so confused. Like I was more confused than when I walked in the door. I was told by various people it was fixed. Like oh yeah, we had a meeting, it was fixed and uh that 19 million's no longer a problem. And then I found out that that's nothing that was
right. So, I don't know where information gets misinformation all the time, but I just want to let you know from out here, you know, we were being told that it was fixed and you found a way to fix it and the $19 million, which once again was a clerical error. I was told the clerical error was fixed. Um,
it's not fixed. We just found another way around fixing it. Um, but there's a lot of misinformation. So, thank you um of Milville. I disagree with you with the railroad because when I was commissioner, Mike Mcnes and Chris Finch, we've gotten out
there and we cleaned it. We contact the railroad and we told them, "You own property in the city. Now, either you're going to clean it or we're going to clean it. And if you don't clean it, we're going to sight you just like we would site any other citizen who owns property in the city. Therefore, we went out and cleaned it and they agreed to us
to do that or we were going to site them." And we did it at the streets and roads department. Mike McNiss is no longer here now and Chris was out there as well cleaning around Fourth Street, around Sixth Street, around Third and Fourth. It can be done. The railroad owns property in this city and they're no different than any other citizen. So,
what gives them the right to allow that property to say, "Oh, we're trespassing when everybody's riding motorcycles up and down there and they're walking and they're camping in there." Okay. And I've cleaned it myself as a citizen walking through there. So, that's my personal opinion. You can do it. You just have to be more stern and The
streets were a lot cleaner when I was out there with my guys because I went out every day with them and I went out with code enforcement as well and we went and removed some squatters with the help of Sheriff Augustino at that time. Thank you. Hi. Um, Greg Kir, uh, 409 Peach
Drive, and I wanted to make a comment, um, in an odd way about comments by commissioners. Um, recently I read the city's, um, rules and regulations involving how you regulate your employees and how they're allowed to
post on things like social media. And I can't help but think about how the city recently got rid of its positive media. And now, I mean, the media is all over the place. I mean, we have
commissioners posting crazy things allegedly. So, I got to say, I'm 42. When I graduated college, we were told that Fortune 500 companies will look at your social
media. I worked in optics for 15 years. We do. We still do. It's how we reference our speakers at my current job. Everyone posts their CV on social media. So, the way you present yourself as commissioners. One, it's hypocritical
to just go be going buck wild online, but your comm but your I guess your employees can't. seems a little dictatorial to me. But on the other note, it really just makes the city look bad. Makes us look like petulant children. Obstensively, three of you are
supposed to be my parents' age, and you're acting like 14y olds on Tik Tok. Come on, do better. Thank you. Tom McGinty. I'm from Milville. I know this is a horrible time to bring up
something that's going to cost money, but um people were talking in subsequent uh meetings about parking issues in the city of Millville and how it affects downtown and so forth. I started to
think about it. We have several lots that are unfortunately not directly in the vicinity of the places that attract people to the city
of Milville and got to thinking about it and I don't know if it's feasible but I'm just going to bring it up because nobody else has any suggestion that I've seen. um worked at Southwood
State Prison and they had uh electric golf carts that could carry 12 people. Um maybe more, maybe not. I know 12. Um, I don't know what the potential
would be to possibly buy one of those carts and use it on third Fridays and nights when there are um, you know, special events in Millville. Um, where you could shuttle
somebody from the lots down on Buck Street or the lots behind the uh, the lot behind library. I know people park over in the area of uh uh the American Legion. Um and you
know, maybe there's some other parking that you know they can kind of do a loop, pick people up. Um you know, I know it comes at a certain cost. Uh, we also would like to have probably
more of a presence of police out there. Um, I don't know how it's been lately, but I do know in the past there's been a lot of breakins in cars and windows broken out and stuff like that. Just nuisance stuff.
Um, we do have some special officers. I don't know whether they could be used to, you know, drive that vehicle around and also patrol the lots at the same time. And maybe I'm, you know, getting into a thing where the union would go
bonkers. I don't know what the possibilities are. Um maybe you could get a volunteer to drive the thing, you know. Uh but it it may be kind of an answer to at least have something where
uh you know there would be a presence of somebody driving around through the lot while people were you know enjoying some kind of event. Uh, and you know, keep an eye out and if
there's an issue down in the lots with somebody around cars or whatever, you know, call the police department or whoever and get them out there and, you know, look things over. Um, I I kind of looked at them online
and not the Alibaba ones that are $2,000. Um, you know, perhaps uh, you know, somebody might like approach somebody for a donation or something like that for these for
something like that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGinty. Good evening, Tennis again. um comment about cannabis, retail cannabis. Um I think that people are selling it, overselling it.
I'm not against it. Um I'd rather see it in areas that aren't heavily traveled, make it a little difficult to get to, but I want some I want you to keep something in mind. Bear something in mind. Violin has I think one grow or two grows right now and one retail cannabis
store. I think last year, and don't quote me on this, but I think ballpark 750 or almost $800,000 in total income to the city of Ireland, less than 200,000 of that was retail.
So right now since Milville Commercial Township and up until recently Buuna didn't have retail cannabis, everybody who frequents a uh dispensary go there. So you're going to split that
pie along on many pieces. So it may not be the boom that the city is looking for as far as revenue coming into the city. Um just want to point that out. Uh, and also right now there's problems. Uh, the one that's in Buuna Township, you might
as well say Vinland because it's at the end of Wheat Road and that's, you know, where Lincoln Avenue comes out. There's a little shopping strip right there. They are having major problems with people sitting in the parking lots, lighting ups right there, and the other
store owners have, you know, voiced their complaints about that because it chases their customers away. So just food for thought when you come to those decisions of where you want it, where you where what's the best thing for the city. Thank you.
Thank you, Tim. Seeing no one else, I will close public comment portion of the meeting. Closing comments of commissioners. Go ahead, Commissioner Huitt. Uh, I got nothing but have a good night and a good couple weeks. See you in a couple weeks. Commissioner Suie. Yes.
First of all, the Holly City Development Corporation when we first took office three and a half years ago. I talked to Heather about becoming our administrator. She said she didn't want to, but she that she would do it. So, I want to thank her for the time that she
invested with that. Really, really appreciate it. I asked her and she said yes. And I really do appreciate it. Um, I knew the day was going to end. I didn't know when. And yes, Sam is taking it over. I believe Sam is capable. Heather is going to graciously help her
for a while, which I appreciate. Again, we'll have another assistant helping Sam as well. So, that'll be done. I'm confident Sam can handle it. She has given up and I might as well tell them now. She has given up her duties as mayor to the secretary in order to
facilitate this. So, that frees up a significant amount of time for her. Um, Susan, you guys, auditors, I want to thank you guys for coming in. I won't say it was a pleasure, but in my weird way, I had fun. So,
uh, you know, on and I'm glad you brought up social media, Mr. Kier, because I'm going to tell you a couple things. First, I've been kicked off many of the Milville face pages, Facebook pages. There is another one, Milville, New Jersey Progress. If you have questions you want to ask me, you can
ask me there if you don't want to do it in public. I'll answer them. Make your comments. I won't censor them. Um, some of you also may seen some political satire that was posted making fun of my fellow commissioners. And shortly there will be one of me making fun of me. I'm
okay with it. It's satire. I enjoy it. You believe you got to have some fun doing this stuff cuz sitting up here listening to this stuff is not fun. Not most of the time. So, I will continue to do what I do. Most of you guys sitting here know what I do. I'm not going to
stop. I am what I am and that's the way it's going to go. So, progress. Commissioner Kasaboon said it right. Yes. First, I want to acknowledge all the EMS workers. Uh, thank you for what they do. You put their life on the lines every
day to help our community. Thank you. [Music] Um, geez, Commissioner Sue, I could make you president of my fan club for your satire of me. Well, you want some more? I'll have the guy draw up some more for
you if you like. No problem. There you go. Um, yes, I will work with Chris and we'll see what we can do with the railroad. Um, it's a very, very touchy subject, but thank you all. I We're well aware what's out there.
And with that, that's all I have. Thank you, Commissioner Kasaboom. Vice Mayor Watson. I got a couple things, but I don't know where to start. Um Brock, did you want to make a comment? Um when Mr. Cot was up here, he
was asking about the the concern and just if you can give your side of it, maybe it's better explained than mine. I think that you know what happened was there was a 19,620 thou $5,000 assessment on the
village drive property which was correct that got overwritten however on the exempt portion of the uh assessment because it's under long-term tax abatement. So they have a tax abatement they don't have to pay taxes on the value of their improvement. So there
wasn't any loss. The city just thought it had more rattles than it actually did for a for a few months. Uh there is a complaint in tax court and we have had discussions with the attorney for uh Village Drive and uh there's going
there's going to be a stipulation of settlement. I believe that uh we'll uh enter the correct amount of the assessment. But if the correct assessment had been entered initially, we would be receiving no ratibles from that property because it's under a
long-term tax exemption. Can't get rattles out of it. So, so uh you know, if you look at it that way, there isn't a loss to the city. There was just a over assess assessment error of the assessed value. With that, I want to bring up
accountability. So, a mistake is unintentional. Commissioner Sue, you mentioned, you know, in the past meeting that your action caused four investigations based on you doing your job. So, you know, the outcome of your actions and you still act out upon them.
So, the city investigating your complaints and your weird way is irresponsible use of tax money. So, if you want to start with accountability, I think you should start with yourself. Well, that's a bunch of right there. But go ahead. I don't know. Maybe we should count up how
much. Please refrain from using it's his time to talk. Thank you. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. That's all I got. Well, I made a clear error. I said April 29th. I wrote April 29th. We're not even in April. Dog tags and green flags is May 29th. It
starts at 8 a.m. at New Jerseys Motorsports Park. And it is a right to heal veterans drone training program. I will be there at noon. I am expected to speak and talk with Miss Lisa Regina.
I have not met her yet, only just through email. She's a survivor and advocate for the founder of the 501c3 nonprofit. So, uh that was a clerical error on my my behalf. Also for public affairs
department, we now have the public we now need the public input for the 2025 2029 consolidated plan. Noville residents are encouraged to participate in the survey to provide input to community needs and priorities. The survey can be found on the city
website under the latest news tab. Please encourage everyone to submit that survey. I also since you know I don't know where also there is no influence like
the influence of habit Gilbert Parker and you know April was a bad month for all of us here in the city of Melville with three lives senselessly lost due to the tragedy but when somebody loses their life um that you know very well in your family and especially somebody that
you know through your entire life them being to me another father figure. Um I just want to pay homage to Steve Dupnac as he did pass away and we did have his funeral yesterday. So to the entire Duke
family, you know, we're all here for you just like everybody else was here for all of us during the month of April. So may you rest in peace. Ajournment, please. Make motion. Second. All in favor?