You ready? >> Yeah. >> All right. Like to bring this meeting to order. Work uh session for January 30th, 2026. Roll call, please. >> Commissioner Taylor >> here. >> Vice Mayor Cot >> here. >> Commissioner Kasabun >> here. >> Commissioner Reinelloo,
>> present. >> Mayor Dixon, >> here. If you would all rise uh for a salute to the flag. I alian 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. Are there any changes to the agenda, madam clerk? >> There are none, mayor. [snorts] >> Thank you. Uh at this time, I would like to open up the microphone. Um
for public comment on any agenda items only, if you would like to address the commission, please go to the podium, state your name and address and your concerns. Please limit your comments to approximately five minutes. >> Right. All right. Seeing no one approach
the podium, I'm going to close the public or the the comment portion for agenda items only and we will open it up to discussion of commissioners on ordinances and resolutions. Madame clerk.
>> Yes. So we do have uh three ordinance ordinances on for second reading. Ordinance of the board of commissioners of the city of Milville fixing the salaries and rates of certain employees administration contract. There's any discussion about that one. >> Yeah. So um this is just a second
reading. This is um salaries for uh an administrative contract that was uh discussed bargained and this is just a second reading finalizing finalizing uh their their salaries. >> Ordinance second reading item two an
ordinance amending the municipal code of the city of Milville adding a subsection under payment of solid waste service charges to establish late fees. >> Okay, this was a meeting together that we decided that we were going to start charging late fees.
We had, I think, close to at one time almost a thousand that were behind in payments. That's a lot of money to the city. So, we're going to be assessing this $10 fee for each quarter. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carol, Commissioner Cman. >> Welcome.
>> Anyone else? Ordinance for second reading item number three. An ordinance amending the municipal code of the city of Milville adding a subsection under solid waste charges to establish a deduction for senior disabled persons that meet the criteria for the property tax deduction.
>> Again, this was tipping fees. So the cost of our was passed on to the residents. They had a dollar a quarter. So they had or yes a dollar a dollar a month >> dollar >> $3 a quarter. So, it was $12 increase,
but we also felt that there are some senior citizens out there that do meet the requirement by the state for discounts. And so, that's what this ordinance is for is to help them along with that $12. >> And if I'm not mistaken, [clears throat] this is attached to the property tax,
right? Um, >> correct. If they get the property tax, they're more than likely will be eligible for this. >> And it's very stringent like they have a lot of qualifications that they have to >> Yes, they Yes, absolutely. form to fill out I believe. >> Do we have a number of the people that this actually touched?
>> I thought at one time was 180 165. >> So it's not that much. >> A specific criteria, >> correct? >> I believe it's under 10,000 outside of your social security. >> So she's saying it's under $10,000 that you can earn [cough]
your social security. >> So that only touches what? >> 160. What's the actual dollar figure of that? >> That's who's eligible. >> Yeah. But what does that what does that come to in in dollars? >> 6,500, I believe. Is that correct?
>> 6,500. Yeah. I mean, that's that's something that >> I don't think many people,00 will get them, you know, an extra gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. >> Okay. Good to say no to that. Um, >> okay. Anyone else?
>> Okay. Ordinances for first reading. Ordinance for first reading item number one, an ordinance amending the salary ordinance. >> Yes. So, this is um just there's been five um part-time positions that were um we just didn't vote on last time. So, this is a first reading to get them
added in as well. Um they're just simple things that have already been negotiated. We're just adding them in. They they were forgotten. And I will I will say that some uh code official this is something I sort of pushed forward a little bit that code officials are very
tough to find very hard to find. Um it takes a lot of qualifications and a lot of licensing to be a code and subcode official. They don't they're very difficult to find. We're currently sharing our uh construction official
with another city right now because they're they're just positions that aren't out there. And that's why a lot of cities have shared service agreements. So this does bring uh you know uh it changes the maximum so that we have a little bit more flexibility and I think a lot of work were capped at
almost 20 $21 an hour which to get a sub code official um or uh you know code official is very tough um to get when you're only offering them $21 an hour. So it does bring it a little more in line. So we have some flexibility to work with.
>> For resolutions, we have a resolution to cancel tax certificate as pursuant to NJSA 54 5. If this is just the the monthly uh standard procedure of the tax resolution authorizing the purchasing
agent to award a purchase order for an F250 truck at an amount not to exceed $61,2881. >> Which department is this for? >> That's [clears throat] me. Um that's coming from UEE grant money. Um Samantha Cruz has been trying to pursue this since I think it was June or July. Um so
that's that's finally coming through now. Uh this truck will be used for uh the clean team. Um, we're going to have a clean team going out across the city, uh, cleaning up, uh, all sorts of stuff, shopping carts, anything that's laying around, uh, tires, whatever we see,
DVDs, uh, anything we could get off the streets, any kind of, uh, mess that we don't want to see on our streets. We're going to have two gentlemen when we hire them or or women, uh, who will be using this truck uh, to clean up the UE district.
>> I think that is an amazing idea. I've seen on social media >> people are starting to post pictures in alleys of big trash all over the place. And I think this green team is and the great thing is as you mentioned it's UE funds. >> Clean team. Yeah. >> The clean team >> uh UE funds for the equipment and for
the people. It doesn't come out of the taxpayers's you know pocketbook and it's going to help move the city to a cleaner >> Yeah. >> better looking place. So absolutely >> congratulations on that one. That's a terrific thing. resolution authorizing tax and utility adjustments.
>> Yeah, once again, this is a standard monthly thing. Uh different things involves is like return checks or sometimes we have um high estimates um that we've refunded money for and um just the the cleaning up of monthly
bills of the water and tax and uh sewer utilities. Resolution approving license towing operator application A1 towing. >> So this is uh the renewal of their license for the city for the towing. We
have a on co on call tow list and uh A1's been on that list for quite some time. They're one of our standard um [clears throat] businesses that we use. >> Excellent. resolution appointing
economic developer. >> All right, I'll start off on this one. Uh Joe Couchy, previously our full-time business administrator, um that was a a position where he was splitting his time between business administration and um
you know uh economic development. Mr. Couchy is going to be working directly with me. I am very very excited and very very um happy to see him move into this position. I don't know how
honestly I don't know how we can accomplish what we want to accomplish in this city without Mr. Mr. Couchy in this position. I campaigned on having an economic a person devoted to economic development.
Many of the people who also campaigned that was something that they mentioned. I think it's a vital vital position for the city at this point. Uh without economic development, robust economic development, we will not improve our tax
base and we will always be behind the eightball when it comes to paying for the things that we want to do. So the only way to get to, you know, from point A to B as far as being fiscally solvent in this city is to have a bigger tax base. And we need somebody who uh Mr.
Couchi will be the face of business in the city. When somebody talks, if somebody is talking on a street corner about opening a business, I want him to just pop up and say, "Where, what do you want to do?" And he's going to take them through the entire process. Um, he's going to work on big projects, small
projects. Um, he's going to be the face of any type of economic development. And I'm very excited. I think this is his wheelhouse. I think he is an incredible person for the job and I'm thousand% confident in his abilities and uh quite
frankly I don't know how we accomplish what I the vision that we see um for this city in the next four years without someone like him in that job. >> Anyone else resolution appointing a fund commissioner?
>> Yeah. So, uh we have to we need a somebody appointed from our governing body to sit as a GIF um sit on the GIF fund commission. Um we are appointing um uh Roy Berman, our municipal administrator at to serve on it. Um as
well as Pamela Shapyro as our alternative to that. It's mandated. We have to have somebody sit on it. And u those are the two people. Then we just have two resolutions appointing members to the housing authority. This is Jennifer Hanley and
Kim Barfield. They just expired and wanted to renew their term. >> How long's their term for? >> I believe they are till 2030. So >> five years. Yeah. >> Nice. >> Oh, I'm glad they want to come back on board. >> That's dedication.
>> That is dedication. >> That is dedication. Is that it? >> Do we have I thought we had Rachel Green somewhere in there. >> So, she's as a letter. >> Yep. She's a petition and letter to um for appointment for a class 4 planning board member. >> All right. Does anybody want to discuss
her? Uh since we are now hold on, let me uh let me go on to new business. Um is there any new business we would like to discuss? Nothing. Anything? commission. >> No, at this point.
>> All right. Um, we can hold off to the I mean if we want to discuss um I just want to discuss the snowstorm, the recent snowstorm and uh as everybody knows I do I do look at social media on Facebook and this
morning I sat with Wayne Gresman um who was our you know our superintendent of streets and roads and uh we made a video for the public kind of it's already posted so go on uh uh my page and you'll see the video of us explaining the
entire process from planning and pre-planning all the way through the storm. And you'll learn a lot about what streets and roads does when a storm like this hits. Um it's very informative. It's only about uh 15 minutes. And if you want to know what happened during
the storm and how the city prepares for it and what we do and and how we um approach it, um I see a lot of disinformation purposely being put out by by people in social media. I don't know what the the reason for that is, but you know, I've heard people say we
only had two plows running. We didn't have any salt. Um we had I think the total number that the city had going was over 30 plows going. We put over,
I believe it's five uh it was 250 tons, which is 500,000 pounds of salt on the roads. This was a storm that was a very difficult storm to work with because the powdery snow that came down first and then the ice that went down on top of
it. We had uh people that were worked for 16 plus hours straight. Um they were exhausted. I went around seeing some of them. We all did. Everybody sitting here went around that day and was we're were talking to the employees to see how everybody was doing. Um, very hands-on
commission. I want to hand it to all the commissioners here who who did do that and especially to more more so to the people who, you know, worked the storm. You know, I think they did a phenomenal job. Was it perfect? No. But I don't think any municipality in the state, you
know, did a perfect job. It was a very difficult storm because the ice, if you want details on exactly how the plows work and how, you know, what type of plow you need to get into ice because you really can't chop into ice with with plows. It doesn't work that way. Um, there's a very detailed explanation uh
online where you can, you know, know the real story about how the city works. And that's what this commission wants to do. We want to get real information out to the public about what's really going on, not where people just make things up um
for whatever reason that is. I can't can't tell you what their um motivations are, but we want to get the truth out there and how what we're doing to make the city a better place. Anybody want to jump in there? >> I do. That is my department. And first,
I want to just say thank you to everybody that worked. They did a phenomenal job. Um, we were faced with an unprecedented storm. We didn't expect that ice to come down the way it did with the rain. We had four departments
plus private vendors out there plowing. These guys worked 12 to 16 to 18 hours at a time working in that cold. I have to give them kudos for that. We're still out there working. Yes, there were some
mistakes. We're going to use this as a learning tool for future storms. when we sit down with the guys, when we update them and for the next storm. So bear with us. We are doing the best that we can with what we have. And kudos to every one of them that were out there
working >> cuz you know what? I was safe inside, nice and dry and warm. >> They were out there. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you to every one of those department guys and the private vendors. Thank you. >> I'm going to jump back in real quick. uh what was on you know what I saw people
saying was we ran out of salt. We didn't have salt. We didn't buy salt. >> We started out with I think it's 450 tons of salt >> and he used 250 tons of salt. So we were not out of salt. Um they're putting salt out there. They're still putting salt out there as as we speak.
>> Um so we didn't run out of salt. They put a huge amount of salt out there. Um but we just need to correct the record when people are saying that you know the city there's two trucks and there's no salt. It's just not true. It's almost ridiculous to even mention that out here, but um those are the facts. And if
you want to see more, um you know, uh just check out, you know, Wayne Gresman. He did a great job today explaining exactly how the department works. >> And also, so there was a big change that happened this last time, which was very impressive. Um prior to the storm, for
maybe the first time ever in a long time, we actually had a pre >> Yes, we did. snow meeting with the office of emergency management there. >> Um >> it was it was an eye openener. The employees absolutely loved that we did
that. Um was there mistakes? Sure. But what that did for us is there was also debriefing when we were done. [clears throat] >> Correct. >> So they took all the good things and the bad things that happened and there's going to be good and bad every time. Um we're never going to get it right, but now we're documenting it. Right. So now
we we have plans in place. um improvements we can make um all because of the foresight of using our OEM coordinator >> um and for those who don't know as Sergeant Stannic um RAM this meeting and
we're just trying to change the way we do things >> um and trying to fix the mistakes that come >> that come >> right because we're going to make a lot of them >> absolutely >> but by doing this we are recognizing our mistakes we're documenting our mistakes and We're going to try to improve as we
go and um >> and there will always be a storm where there's going to be something that will pop up and go, geez, we didn't discuss that. >> And and I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I don't know who runs our Facebook page, but should we start putting that video on the Millville Facebook page?
>> We should. However, it was just easier to put it online for that. But uh >> we're not about easy going forward. >> Yeah. put that [laughter] on there. >> He just wants to see how many votes or how many >> Well, you know, views are important. You know, I got to keep those metrics up. That's right. [laughter]
>> But just, you know, being that we're using the city stuff, that'd be nice to see on the >> Yes, absolutely. >> Let's make that happen. >> All right. >> I think that I'm sorry. Go ahead. [laughter] >> I got back up. He
>> You hesitated so long I thought we were done. >> No, no, I'm down here though. my seats this way. Um, emergency services, streets and roads, the parks. Uh, phenomenal job,
>> water department, >> OEM, water department, >> I mean, we were out there very early in the storm. Some were in at three, somewhere in came in a little later. They can only work 16 hours. That's
>> correct. >> They have to have a break. Social media is like a wildfire. Starts with a little tiny flame and then it grows by acre by acre by acre by acre
of completely false information. Some people that are in the know should be ashamed of themselves for spreading lies, false information.
It's it's really disgusting and it's a shame because people look to those people to believe it. You know, they're like, well, you know, these people were, you know, factual, you
know, they were in the spots or whatever, so they must be right. No, if you want the information, just call one of us. Call one of the departments. It's not that hard. Um,
our guys and girls were out there busting their humps this entire snowstorm. This snowstorm was a very odd bird for us. Um, it snowed a lot and then it sleed for a long time and then
temperatures dropped to a point where it had a crust on it and it didn't matter what you did, it was frozen solid. It's been below freezing temperatures almost since the storm. It's going to take a
while for it to melt, but when I was in emergency management, and by the way, we had those meetings, too. >> They're just ran better now. >> Well, they are cuz I I train them. So, um you know, we I always said rain
falls, wind blows, snow melts. We'll get back to normal at some point in time. It just takes a little bit of time. Sometimes it takes extra time. Are mistakes made? Absolutely. Are things missed? They are. But that's why
we have meetings. That's why we have afteraction reports >> and afteraction meetings. And we will try our best to alleviate those problems so they don't happen again.
But I think all of the departments did a wonderful job. absolutely did >> uh on emergency service side, police, fire, EMS, and OEM. I think we had one very minor injury through the whole entire thing. Ambulances could get to
calls, stretchers got to houses, firet trucks got to fires, police got to calls. So, the false reports that were out there that they didn't are extremely false. The men and women of the EMS division were extra staffed. The fire
department was extra staffed and so was the police department were extra staffed. When it came to getting a stretcher to a house, there were two crews sometimes that were sent so that the stretcher could get there safely and
back to the ambulance safely. So, I give kudos to all of the emergency services departments and all of the other utilities that helped during the storm. I think they did a phenomenal job. It actually has not been above above freezing at all. In fact, every morning it's been negative
[clears throat] windchill factor. >> Did I say above freezing? >> Yeah, it has. >> I meant below. >> Yeah, it's been below. >> It's been cold >> ever ever since. And every morning it's been negative windchill factor. >> Yes. >> And I still have three inches of ice on my driveway, but that's my driveway. Right. And I'm responsible for it. That
that was an interesting thing I saw where um not to beat social media to death, but I saw how somebody had said that each one of our they're certain that each one of our our driveways are plowed wonderfully by the city >> and I almost put a picture of my
[laughter] >> I didn't shovel my driveway at all. So to get my car out of there, I was like going over the moon. It still looks like the moon service. Nobody comes through and you know we're we're corrupt and they're they're plowing our driveways. Nobody came through. I don't know. Nobody came through and plowed my driveway or >> my grandson plowed mine with the Kabuda
or whatever that >> with his own equipment. Yeah, >> with his own equipment. >> Um >> and he did a lousy job. >> So So [laughter] >> that's on record. >> Um so I just want to say that two things. Um if you are having issues out there now, call 911.
All right? And if it's life or death where you're caught in the house and you're ran out of insulin and you need insulin for your diabetes, whatever it is, call 911 and get the help you need. All right? If the city can help, the city's going to help you. And I do want to say one thing that we didn't really
mention, but if you watch the video, you Wayne gives a wonderful explanation. Ice. You can't plow ice. >> Cannot. >> Nor will the salt do anything at this temperature. >> And loading salt on top doesn't melt it because it's too cold. >> So the way that Our plows are normal
plows and they don't they're not steelbladed to dig into the ice. They have a rubber a rubber edge to them. And if you and the reason is if you have a steel blade and you're scraping along and you hit, you know, a manhole that's this far above, it basically will stop
it and almost throw you through the windshield and it damages all the the equipment. So you can't have it just plowing ice the way it is out there now. It just doesn't work unless you had like the what the state has those big giant
trucks that go around to plow and the and they probably cost 20 times more than the the plows and you it's just not feasible fiscally to do something like that. Um so we're hoping for warmer temperatures very soon.
>> Anybody else want to talk about the snow or is that it? All right. All right. Snow is done. Anybody have anything else to discuss. I mean, you can wait till your comments at the end if you like. >> Um, [clears throat] Commissioner Cot, I have been speaking
with [snorts] uh with Emily and apparently there's an issue regarding the appointment of uh a couple of people to the planning board because there were unexpired terms where they were put in midstream. Um,
I spoke to Emily about the situation. My initial explanation would be to resend those people that were put in inadvertently and then reissue an ordinance that would terminate them on the unexpired term. The reason is for
that the statute requires a uh a specified period of a term for for these are two class four members of the planning board. Um, the reason I bring it to your attention is is that I understand that you had a conversation with the, uh, attorney for the planning
board and just wanted to discuss that. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, um, it's so these dates are supposed to expire on December 31st. Uh, it's always been like that, but for some reason in between the next last two, three, four, five years, who knows
when it started, um, we started appointing them. I'm making this up. June 20th and made a three-year term to June 20th. Um, so all a lot of these positions were expiring at weird times throughout the year. So going back to
what you're saying is rescending that and making them properly is really what we want to do. An expired term if there's a year and a half left, they're supposed to finish out the expired term. The term is supposed to be three or four years, not the person supposed to be. >> Right. Correct. >> Um, so we're Yes. Thank you for that.
And and by the way, we're just trying to get it back to where all the terms are supposed to end and then redo them. So, all I would suggest to you is so nobody gets caught by surprise and looking for a path of least resistance, uh, if we're going to
put those resolutions on the agenda for Tuesday, um, I think it probably a really good idea, uh, since you're the one who's looking into this, that you reach out to those members and let them know ahead of time that there was an error made in the past and we're looking to correct.
>> I feel like there was only two of them. There's two there's two drafted resolutions that were part of Emily's package that she sent out last night >> and I think that was correct me if I'm wrong. Brian Mills and Paula Gillings. >> Yeah. >> Yes, >> I believe that's correct. >> So I
>> I only say that to you because it it I think we're avoiding a potential problem if those resolutions come up and these two individuals are not aware of what's going on and don't understand the reason why and they get put on the agenda and now all of a sudden
They may be upset that their turn got cut shorter than they believed it would be. And I think and you know if we gave them an explanation before we acted on it and if there's any issue with regard to that you can certainly contact me. But I also think you should let the uh
>> I I feel that both of them will be very receptive. >> Yeah. I I'm not Yeah, I'm not suggesting that I think it's going to be problematic. I'm just nothing really changes except making a housekeeping to make >> correct and what it should have been and there might have been an administrative
error and that's all this resolution is Yep. >> seeking to do and I would just let the planning board attorney know >> either you can do it or I can do it but I think that that's probably [clears throat] just so everybody's on the same page. >> Perfect. And the planning board completely agrees with your assessment as well and it's glad that we're all
coming up to the same conclusion >> as far as the term. And >> I was a little unclear of that. I my my understanding and I'm glad I'm corrected on this is that the planning board attorney thought it was okay the way it was and didn't need a change. I definitely think it needs a change.
>> Well, I I think um and once again, I'm not I don't want to speak for the attorney. I feel like uh they might have agreed that they didn't think it needed to be rescended, but they definitely agreed with how the date should end. >> Yeah. >> So, if it's cleaner doing it this way and we get the same end result, let's do
it the that's the proper way and it makes a clear record of exactly what happened and we don't know exactly how or when or why >> it got to where it is but the important thing is is that we're fixing it going forward. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> So you'll add that to the
>> the agenda. >> Did anybody need any further discussion on that that any clarity? So a lot of these terms ended in the midyear or so they're supposed to all expire in December 31st. um it's a natural progression and if somebody vacates that
the new person finishes out whether it's three months or it's you know two and a half years so they're always ending on the same time and the other the other part of it is this you have a staggered board you don't get into a situation
where all the class four the class one two and three members are elected officials appointed by or appointees so their their terms are tied to their to their election Ed term. Okay. But the class fours are, for a lack of a better
word, residents, civilians. Uh, and you want that board staggered. You don't want them all rolling off on one time or all coming on at a time. So, this will make sure that we have the board properly staggered. >> Thank you, Mr. Solicitor.
>> All right. We have now come to the public comment portion of our meeting. Anyone who would like to address the commission, please go to the podium, state your name and address and your concerns. Please limit your comments to approximately 5 minutes.
Mary Messier of Milville, I give the city credit for what they've done and what these are trying to accomplish. Personally, I have no objections really to if you
want to have a work session, a workshop, a different day than a commission meeting. But for those that would love to come to these meetings that can't because of the hour
because they're jobs. I understand some of you have jobs. So I can understand the difficulty in trying to schedule stuff. I used to go through that my own self. But when you state
make a statement stating you want the public to be engaged, this is a little hard to be engaged when you can't be where you want to be because of timing
because it's interfering with your job or you're strapped down having to watch someone's children, you can't always just sit there and take a child with you because we all know and I know two, well, at least three of
you, maybe four of you commissioners or even all of you know what it's like to try to go somewhere and take a child with you or a couple of kids with you. They don't sit still. They're not very
quiet, so it's a little hard to hear. when somebody is speaking and you can't always sit there and watch YouTube or
look through a computer to see [clears throat] perhaps maybe if we picked a better time frame. I understand you guys are busy. You guys have got a lot to do. I understand that.
but in a roundabout way. That's also [clears throat] it's also a look as though the public is being shut out just like the school board has done. There's many a time the school board has said, "We want your help. We want your
participation." And yet when we try to, the door seems to be slammed in our face through one step or another. I'd appreciate it if you guys would take that into consideration. would you like to start? >> Um,
yeah, I I'll I'll take a um a shout out to that. So, Mary, I'm going to let you know u pretty much right up front. Uh you have my number. You know how to get a hold of me and you can feel free to call me and yell at me tomorrow or later today that I will take full responsibility. That was actually my
suggestion and for many reasons. So, uh, I oversee a lot of the employees that are here that a lot of people don't realize and some people in this audience have worked at this job before. They are here not only from 8:30 to 4:30, but they're here longer on
commission nights. Um, and a strain on them. And you talk about kids and everything else like that, you know, they literally can't go home to their families because they're obligated to be here. But that's not even the main reason as well. Um, we wanted to be as
transparent as we can with the stuff we're doing and we thought having a work session on a Friday and then posting the agenda on a Friday gives the entire community Saturday, Sunday, four days to review
what we went over in the work session. So, we want uh community engagement. Um the work session is you know obviously as you know is really set up for us to work out the agenda. Um and that's the whole purpose of it. And a lot of times in the past the work session was just
commissioners looking at each other and then starting the the regular meeting an hour later and there was hard to get business done. Uh by doing this we have found that we can argue discuss things between now and then to work out some of
the kinks so we get it right. Um, and we're never going to get everything right. Um, and we do apologize for, you know, the bad hours for the community. Um, luckily Milva does put it on YouTube, and I know that's hard to see, too. Uh, but you can go back and look at it later, right? And, um, we always appreciate your input. You're you're a
staple here. Um, you have zero problem reaching out to any of us and voicing your concern. And we love that. >> One person, >> right? And we love that, Mary. We do because we know your your heart is in this city. Um, but that's really why we did it. We did it for the employees um so they didn't have more than one night
staying here till five, six, seven, eight depending on if there's a heated thing and we wanted to treat it like a true work session where we're going through this agendas. We're trying to figure out what what works and doesn't work. So come Tuesday, we we are more prepared to answer your questions. Um
because as you know, we don't get to talk anymore um all five of us. So this way if we have problems, our new administrator can walk us through it. Moving forward, he's going to be um a lot more involved in the work sessions and um walking us through this with his
knowledge. So like I said, I do appreciate you. Yeah, you know, I appreciate you, Mary, and I do appreciate you bringing that up. And I know a lot of people are going to struggle during the workday. Um and I get it and I know we can't appease everybody, but just so you know where we're coming from, we wanted to make this a true work session. We wanted the
public to have more than 55 minutes to figure out from work session to regular session. So, we were doing it for those reasons. And and I apologize for everybody out there that do struggle to get there. Obviously, you three don't because you three have made it to every one of our work sessions. [laughter] So,
I do appreciate you three to do it. And uh and I do I do get that and you guys do have a strong voice in the community. So, I I appreciate it. But that that's where we're coming from. So, thank you. >> I I'll just jump in there real quick. you know, was something he mentioned very well said, vice mayor. Um, a lot of
people don't realize when I talk to people, they they don't realize that as commissioners, we're not allowed to any more than two of us be it, you know, talk about city business at one time. They call it the sunshine law. That is the open public meeting act. I think OPA
is that this acronym. Um, so we can't all just go downstairs after this and and hash things out. This is where it's supposed to happen. And as as the vice mayor mentioned that previously, what would happen is, you know, the work session would be just going just buzzing
through things and then no real discussion and then we'd go to the meeting and um, you know, it would just be everybody going through the motions and we don't want that to be what happens. We want to actually take the time to you can hear us talk about maybe
things we agree, things we don't agree with and uh you'll get to hear the process in action which is I think what the public wants. You know, the one thing that we talked about as commission is being more transparent to the people and I think we're doing a good job with that. Uh but we want to continue it and
you get to kind of see how the sausage is made as they say. Um, it's not always pretty, but uh, we want the public to see what we're thinking and why we think what we think, which was never done in the past. And, um, or rarely. And, uh,
we're trying to make a good change for the people and and like Vice Mayor Cot said, it's it's tough to get people to come out two nights in a row with, you know, child care and and like I like I think this is a great a great way to do it and I'm glad we made the change.
Yeah, Mary. [clears throat] Um, just to address what you had said, um, and and I always say this, in the absence of a story, people create their own. Um, and, uh, that was something that, uh, before we were sworn in that we were looking forward to doing was to
have our work sessions uh, much earlier uh, than our actual meetings because we wanted to have enough time to really understand um, what we were voting on. Um I didn't find it personally uh to be beneficial where you have a work session
and if you don't understand something you only have 10 15 minutes to make a decision when you get to the next meeting. U it was something that um I had stressed that I felt was really important that everybody understand what they're voting on. Uh we you know uh
people elected us to do just that. Uh and I I I want to hold myself and my fellow commissioners to to the same standard. That's uh we owe that to the public. Uh so while unfortunately this may not be an ideal time for everyone,
um I I really believed and still believe that it it helps in the process of transparency. Uh and when we need to rely on professional staff, uh they could be here. they could be here to explain to us and to the public
why an item is necessary or why it's not necessary. Um, so going forward, I I'm hoping this works and if for any reason it doesn't work, we could always change it down the road. But for now, I'm uh I'm in favor of it. So, but I I do consider what you have to say. I have
young children. He'll probably be here during the next meeting, so I get it. Um, so thank you. >> I have to agree, Maryanne. Thank you because you are a staple in this community. Um I learned a lot from you and you you also know how to get in touch with me. But I love this work
session. I really truly do. It has been very beneficial for me compared to the old and I'm for it. And like Marissa said, if it doesn't work out, we'll [snorts] look at see what happens. But for right now, I think it's awesome. It really does because we're here for the
residents. So we all can say what's best for the residents, not how I feel, but what how's [clears throat] it going to affect you. So I'm all for it. Thank you. >> Yeah, Mayor, you know, I'm you're one of my favorite people in Milville. Um your dedication to this town is, you know,
just huge. Um I agree with all the commissioners. uh this time frame and this the way we're doing this work session is beneficial not only to us but to the public um like uh Commissioner Minnella
was saying about you know we can if there's something on this agenda that we need Tracy Gregor to to explain or something like that she's right downstairs and we can say hey can you come to the meeting this is what we need to discuss you know that type of thing
she's right here we don't have to tell her, you know, can you stay after work? You know, good. Especially like like some of our employees live a pretty far away, you know, and once we have a
meeting, if we have a meeting that lasts till 9:00, 10:00, they have an hour or more to go home, some of them. Um, so, you know, it's beneficial all the way around. Um uh and we're available like
the five of us are available to anybody that needs to ask questions. Um something that we're doing that we're that we are changing is we've created a office of the commissioners where two
commissioners at a time. We have an office downstairs and if anybody from the public would like to talk to a certain commissioner if there if the commissioners are in um you know or make an appointment and we'll be there. It
gives us a space to talk to if you would rather talk to one of us you know in a in a quiet space. You don't have to talk to us in the foyer anymore. We actually have an office now where we have an office with a conference table. you could come in, have a conversation with
us. Um, you know, so we're trying our best to make ourselves available to our constituents, to the people that we that elected us here. Um, and we're, you know, it's it's important to us. Um,
it's, you know, it's it's a new group. It's a new group in here. And, you know, there's things that are important to us that haven't been important in the past. But, you know, we're I I agree. I think that the way the work sessions are, we could be here for three hours one day.
Uh we had to meter people here. If we had had that at the beginning, an hour before the thing, we would had to cut it short. But we found out a lot of information. >> Yeah. >> You know, so it helps that we have the extended period. So I think it I think
it's a good thing. Yeah, I really >> again there's that cross trainining, the cross learning by that because of we've all we're all experts now on water meters. [laughter] >> Oh yeah. >> Um thank you. So um anybody else for
public comments? All right. At this time I'll close the public comment portion of the meeting and we will move on to final comments of commissioners. Mr. Taylor, anything to add? Commissioner Taylor, >> I really don't have anything to add. I
just I just think that, you know, the progress that we're having is is is positive. I mean, we we are going to hit bumps. We are going to hit bumps in the road, but I think those bumps are fixable. I think we can put some cold
patch in there, you know, and I think that with the five of us working together, it's just going to be a better place. I really do think that. Thank you, Commissioner Taylor. Commissioner Reella,
[clears throat] >> well, I want to gush over my department uh through this uh whole snow ordeal. Uh first storm uh it was 14 hours. They came in at 5:00 a.m. Uh and they were out there when it started pouring uh
just clearing away uh all of our sidewalks. If you came in through city hall today that you'll see they're a pretty color of blue green. Uh, and that's because they worked really hard to make sure that there wasn't a patch of ice left out front for everybody. And
then when everybody did come in uh to work after the storm, they were out there personally making sure that everybody made it safely into the building. So, for that, I definitely want to give props and kudos to them and thank them. Uh, and I'd also like to
thank uh, Sergeant Stadnik for coordinating with everybody uh, using social media to keep the public up to date throughout the storm how to prepare and all the way along. Uh, so I I I I appreciate everything everyone has done and on Tuesday at the meeting, I'll be
gushing more. Uh, but thank you guys uh, and ladies um, for holding the torch there and and making sure all our public property was was cleared out. and our parking lots. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Rail. Commissioner Kasiban.
>> I said just basically everything I wanted to say, but again, I have to piggyback on what Marissa is saying. The departments all came together. They came together as a team and work together and it's so great to see. It really is. And
thank you to those guys. Just to jump in with you, there's people don't realize there's people from the water department that jumped into trucks, not just streets and roads. People from other departments jumped into trucks to drive trucks. So, it wasn't just the water department >> and they got called in. I got my first phone call from um Mr. Rman at 2:45 in
the morning. I'm calling in the crew. So, those guys were in from about >> They would have asked you to drive a truck if you could see over the deck. >> They were going to let me. >> They were going to let me. I was there. I came. I just brought the donuts. >> Yes. Yes. Um, thank you, Commissioner
Kasaboon and uh, Vice Mayor Cop. >> Yeah, and we're going to keep hashing over this storm, right? Because it was just it was a big one, right? It was it was something you don't see all the time where you had >> um, a lot of snow followed by a lot of rain and ice and which was unique. But,
um, I will tell you, we also, um, I don't know how long they stayed, but we were so short-handed, we even, you know, sent out a bid for an extra company to try to come. >> Yes, we did. >> Relieve us a little bit. And >> it wasn't. Yes. >> It It's the amount of people that
pitches in is insane. Um, and you weren't kidding. Like, so I thought that was weird at first. We asked the city employees if they wanted to come in and work on Monday or they could take a day off. I came in and sure enough there was parks and wreck. Now they were joking a little bit because they knew it was me. They're like, "Hey, you want you want to
be carried up to the front door?" [laughter] >> Um, and I said, "No, I don't want you you keep doing you." >> No, but they were literally there trying to help people that needed to get into city hall um that day, which I thought
was just amazing that they did that. >> And they greeted everybody. It was it was the first day and maybe we wouldn't rethink our municipal administrator because his first day brought all that snow and rain. >> Uh but he >> he still showed up and um and once again
I I know we're getting every So I want to give some of my department a little shout out too. So uh eventually Trish and Emily will shut their phones off after hours. Um but they both answered phone calls that had concern. Trish was still working until who knows when just
trying to get the um contracts done and ready for the extra person. And um >> it was a citywide effort. >> It was >> that a lot of people don't know about. >> Um everybody was all five of our departments was somehow involved in this which is just amazing >> and I love that just so you guys know
and you don't always get to see everything that we do and nor do we expect you to but um we try not to do anything without bringing another commissioner. We are really trying to crossrain everybody. Um I have I go through the agenda and and um
Commissioner Reanella is there. Uh Carol needs something and and Sherman will be there like we we are really in this together. Um and we're really trying to cross train. Those silo days are over because you have emergencies like this, right? Absolutely. >> You have emergency where it takes a
whole city or you have something going on that that touches multiple things. So, I'm just proud of where we're going and uh that's about it. But we used every truck we have if people don't know. Um every truck if it could run and it had a plow on.
>> We used it. So, yes, there was. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I'm not going to be long. I'll just say um if you have questions about what's going on in the city, just ask. I have gotten um in my office downstairs uh the mayor was the very first number on the on the uh the
phone tree. So, I spent yesterday answer I walked into the commissioner's office yesterday. I said, "Why is my why is the mayor the first option on the phone tree and I got calls yesterday on uh I was answering calls on when trash was supposed to be picked up, you know,
mailboxes. I mean, it was over 15 to 20 calls that um I did my best to answer and I probably have three or four. So, if you called me and left a message, doing my best to get back to you, to get answers, and to help you out." Um I I want to be and that leads into my next
point. If you are unsure about what's going on in the city, call us and ask. Don't go on social media and say, you know, I saw two trucks in the whole city and there wasn't the salts all gone. Call the city and punch in for the mayor
and say, are we out of salt? And I'll say no, we still have 200 or 400,000 pounds of salt left. >> Just repeating, he said did punch in for the mayor. >> Well, >> that's right. >> And and more on the way.
>> And more on the way. So my point is this, you know, in general, rather than speculation, ask someone. Um, we're not hiding anything from anyone. If you have a question, come to the podium, give us a
call. If you know one of us, call us or call me in city hall. I'm here a lot. I do work full-time. Thank you for realizing that I do work full-time. However, I work at times where it allows me to be in the office um a lot. And I
think uh the the employees here in the city are appreciative that all five of us spend a lot of time. They've never I think if you ask people that work here, they've never seen this many commissioners, you know, all throughout the building constantly. I I hope that's a good thing in their minds. But we're
here to support. We're here to help. We're here to, you know, give direction and uh give all the employees here everything they need to be successful. So, that's why we're do that's why we're doing what we're doing. Um, as we go along, you're going to see some more public safety initiatives being
unrolled. Uh hopefully in the next few weeks you're going to see that. Very excited about that to to work with Commissioner uh Taylor to unroll some of the things that we've been talking about. Um when they become a little more formed, we're going to bring that to the public. But great things are happening
um on on my um I have some good announcements coming soon on some uh things happening in my departments I'm very happy about. And um you know, we're still very positive. We just want the public to just reach out to us, you know, rather than speculation. Reach out
and we will absolutely tell you everything we know. And with that, I need a motion to adjourn. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Commissioner Taylor. >> Yes. >> Vice Mayor Cot. >> Yes.
>> Commissioner Kasaboon. Yes.