good evening welcome to the March 11 e thank you good evening welcome to the March 11 2025 Township conference meeting
this is a conference meeting of the Council of the township of Montclair it's being broadcast live on Channel 34 and is streaming live on the Montclair tv34 YouTube channel it's available on
demand and can and will be rebroadcast this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings act this meeting was included in the revised annual notice of the meeting
schedule as set forth in resolution R 25-38 adopted by the township council at its regular meeting on February 25th 25 advertised to the official newspaper on March 6 2025 posted on the bulletin
boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted in addition a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the Township
Clerk please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 Madam clerk will you please do the roll call whenever you're ready Deputy Mayor Anderson here Council Birmingham here Council deato here and hello Mr attorney
hello councelor lochman here councelor Toler good evening present good evening Council Williams here mayor Baskerville present um I'd also like to welcome attorney tanty very good okay thank you for being
with us this evening um attorney Garcia is not here so we have attorney teski with us welcome there have been presented um the to the council the minutes of the regular meeting held on February 25th
2025 minutes of the executive session held on July 30th 2024 December 17th 2024 December 30th 202 24 January 2nd
2025 January 10th 2025 January 28th 25 February 20 February 3rd 2025 February 6 2025 February 10th 2025 and February 11 2025 does everybody have all of those
copies of minutes have you reviewed them I believe um the clerk emailed them to us she did you did okay is everyone prepared at this moment to um to vote on them or should we do them at some other time has everybody had an opportunity to review
them no I need I need okay all right so um I would like for us to uh withdraw the approval of the minutes um until the the next meeting um if that's okay Madame clerk is there any one of
those that like really has to be done immediately for any reason because not everyone has had an opportunity to review them the governing body's Choice yeah well since everybody hasn't had an opportunity I'd like to
withdraw do I yes I'm sorry just I guess I'm um how come we get a bunch of minutes rather than we get the minutes from the preceding council meeting before every council meeting you receive the regular minutes conference
minutes from the meeting proceeding ah okay but we don't vote on them yes you do but why are we getting a bunch of I'm sorry these are executive session minutes oh they're all executive session minutes okay thank
you uh I make a motion to withdraw second all in favor any opposed okay thank you um now we are going to do the um proclamations
um councelor Birmingham will you please do the proclamations do we have anyone here today that is coming to receive the registered dietician nutrition day Proclamation or the national nutrition month Proclamation okay without anyone being
there um we're going to acknowledge that and um in any manner that Council Birmingham wishes to proceed okay I will say we have two proclamations here one designating March as National nutrition month in the
township of Monclair um and the second one is um a proclamation declaring mark 12th 2025 registered dietitian nutritionist
day whereas registered dietitian nutritionists are the food and nutrition experts who can translate the science of nutrition into practical solutions for Healthy Living um now they we hereby Proclaim Wednesday March 12th 2025 registered
dietitian nutritionist day in the township of Monclair and encourage all citizens to recognize the contributions of registered dietitian nutritionists and express appre appreciation for their commitment to promoting science-based nutrition in the hope of achieving
Optimal Health for both today and tomorrow thank you very much okay um next is our uh public comment and at this point in time I hope that everyone has signed if you have not
please come forward and sign your name you're going to have three minutes up to three minutes to speak after which time we're going to um let you know that your time is up and we'd appreciate it if you would take your seat we're going
to please request that all of the public comment be done in a respectful and dignified manner um certainly respecting the First Amendment rights we we also recognize that somewhere in that there should be some Civility and that um we
should try very hard to to bring thoughtful comments that are not targeted at at hurting other people or in any way be uh become disparaging to people we welcome you all to come in and express your opinion so please Whoever
has number one if you would step up at this time we'd appreciate hearing from you thank you one my is your mic isn't on I don't think okay U shall I start over my name is lisan rener I live at 42 Godfrey Road
um I know that the um Library budget is not on today's agenda but I nonetheless wanted to take this opportunity just to um stop by and urge you all to when the time comes um support the library's proposed 2025 capital budget which is
addressing some very urgent needs and also um it's a request for additional operating funds um our two libraries are the most probably the most used public institutions in town and they're very Democratic um the door count for this
year is expected to be about 185,000 visits um but is as wonderfully used as it is the buildings um both the main library and the branch have some major problems which I'm sure you're aware of um the main library has the elevator
breaking frequently and the HVAC struggles to heat and cool and the energy inefficient Windows um but I want to focus a little more on the Belleview Branch Library which is very close to my heart I give historic walking tours and um slideshow presentations on the
history of that building which is 110 years old and it's on the national register of historic places yet even though it's that special a building it's got some very major structural problems which are only getting worse um number one the storms regularly flood the
downstairs children's room uh the courtyard is a tripping Hazard with raised bricks and um probably the most egregious uh when you look in the building is the roof is leaking and there's major plaster damage on the
ceiling and the walls in one section of the library roof and it's it's so crazy that there's even like a big foam core sign that was repurposed to hang above that mess so that plaster and and dust
plaster dust doesn't fall on the patrons so that's been ongoing for at least a year maybe two years and that would be included in the repairs um that this new budget proposal would include and also with water damage as I'm sure you know
the more you ignore the problem and let it get worse and worse the more expensive and complex that problem becomes to fix so um the sooner the better in that one um I just want to thank you all for being stewards of the historic buildings and the libraries of
Mont Clair and urge you to support the budget thank you thank you very much next guest please hi my name is Glenn Iker I live at six the Fairway and I've been there for more than 30 years and I'm also here to speak in support of the library
budget I would specifically like to offer my perspective as a volunteer here at the main branch first I'd like to mention that as you know the last 12 months have been very challenging for the library the main Branch's HVAC system has at times been unable to keep
up with extreme weather in both summer and winter forcing the building to close during last Summer's heat wve even though it's supposed to be the town's main cooling center I also know that the council has been actively engaged with the library in meeting these challenges and I want to thank you for that I
volunteer at the branches main Branch's welcome desk on Friday mornings Friday is senior's day at the library so seniors are coming in all day long for activities like exercise classes in two languages or films health and cultural
presentations around noon a volunteer from Tony's kitchen down the block stops by with lunchers for those who would like them the whole day feels very much like a special event for the participants to look forward to every week meanwhile Friday is also baby
hangout day in the children's section on the third floor so along with the seniors coming in the front doors there's a steady stream of babies being wheeled in and toddlers hitting those automatic door buttons between the seniors and the babies I get to see the entire age spectrum of people who
shouldn't be driving as the morning progresses I meet people coming in for passport appointments or to borrow Museum passes or to pick up books they reserved and sometimes there are special requests like the gentleman who came in looking for books he could read aloud
with his learning challenged teenage grandchild I knew that he'd get expert help on the children's floor where the teaching of reading is practically a religion and he did my point is that I've seen firsthand how the library's many services and its atmosphere of
Welcome create a powerful feeling of community for our town and while I'm sure that that feeling is not unique to Monclair it is a very important factor in what makes Monclair unique as I said earlier I know the council has been very responsive to the library's challenges of the past year
I'm here to thank you for that for recognizing how important the library is and to ask you to continue thank you thank you very much next guest please good evening mayor Baskerville council members good evening uh my name
is Ain roll I live on South Fullerton Avenue and uh like the previous two speakers I have also come to speak about the library uh I live within walking distance of the main library so it's a regular hangout for me and I also help out from time to time with events like
open book open mind Montclair Monclair is really lucky to have a library well two libraries as a matter of fact a lot of towns in the United States don't even have a library whether it's because of financial
constraints or because of local politics and here in mon Claire the library it's crucial to the community it's a community Hub it's a cultural center and um it's it's one of those places that truly belong to everyone here in town no matter who you
are and uh to let's face it it's part of what makes Montclair Monclair the buildings sadly as as you all are aware the buildings are not in good shape at all they're badly overdue for for an overhaul as was mentioned uh
there were the issues with the with the air conditioning Last Summer the elevators and the damage at the the bellw branch which is in itself a a historic and cultural treasure the library it it can't properly serve the public uh if the
buildings cannot open safely so those need to be addressed and very soon and very fully we live in a time that's very dangerous for libraries uh as we've seen very sadly over the last several years libraries have come under Fred in a variety of ways whether book banss uh
Frets from uh national leaders to pull funding and uh very sadly someone sent in a bomb fret to the main library last summer as I remember so we as a community need to support the library more than ever it's it's something that's extremely important to the
community and it has to be protected I thank the council for all the support that has given the library over the years and I respectfully call on the council to support the library's proposed budget thank you thank you next guest please good evening to everyone good
evening I I'm Alan lofman I live at 58 Maple Avenue and I'm here to talk about my sewer system that runs into the main well I think was November I got my lined
relined that leads to the tea in there Maine and just about yesterday he start backing up again I called the plumber the company that did the job they came out with a
scope a scope is what like a camera look through the line says it's backed up right in the main bear so I did call the city and they said that they are not responsible for
that uh after you know spending $8,000 have it reigned and I just don't know what to do now because it keeps happening you know it's about the third time since I've got it
fixed luckily a company came out they gave me one cleaned out but now it's going to cost me $650 each each time they come in and it's it's beyond my
line so councelor toer good evening thank you for being here so that's fourth board what is your address again 58 Maple map and when was the last time you had your company or the company come out to well
right now they're supposed to come out tomorrow again okay because it's blacked up right now okay okay um I'll get back to you you you can email me and I'm going to reach out to Mr laa and Mr Ash Mr Prim
Vera is not here tonight CU get a family matter but we can take the information and get it yeah and we'll we'll get we'll get an answer to you yeah the black top is not on my property it's right there in the road and you're talking about in the street on Maple in the street yeah that's not your property okay all right thank you for your time
and I'm sorry about your trouble I we should bring um a picture of where it happened but email me a picture in that's fine just go on if you don't have my card or information you can go on the township website and my email is right there you can email it right in to us okay thank you thank you for being
here thank you councelor toer next guest please hello Tony Martin 41 North Fullerton Avenue um I'm come tonight as uh a past founder of the tenants organization and
also as I'm sorry yeah can you all hear me now we can now we can okay Tony Martin 41 North feron Avenue okay um at the last council
meeting um I was quite Disturbed actually to hear um some of the remarks um that uh arose after the union Gardens attendants came and spoke about their ongoing problems
um I I spoke to um Ria Tomkins at at Union Gardens today and things are going much better there um although you know that as you know that's been a hornet nest
for a long time at the last meeting um some comments were made about uh the tenants organization of Montclair of which I I was a Founder but I am no longer an officer but I am a member of
course um and um I spoke with Miss Tomkins today asking um whether or not she W uh had felt that
her remarks had been somewhat misconstrued and in fact she did she did not intend to incite any ill feeling or daunt the reputation of the tenants organization of Montclair and she told me that I could
say that today um um she did not intend to cause trouble among any of the housing groups in Montclair I would say that um K Miss
lofman counciler lochman if there was any uh stirring up of um ill feeling I think it may have been because of your in my opinion not well researched statement that our landlord tenants
action committee should be um eliminated um I I think that each of our housing organizations work well together we each have our
lane all of them are critical and um I I had a very sad moment when um your rather provocative suggestion caused some Strife um May I
just say one last thing because I felt it was my responsibility as a founder of Tomb I went over all of the records and saw what fees had been paid and what Communications had been made between union Gardens and the tenants
organization I will assure you that all is in order and any who need to check those records may do so they are open thank you thank you very much next guest please good evening mayor basille and council
members good evening I'm Jeffrey Robert Grayson and I am a 66y old lifelong resident of the fourth ward I'm going to go back in time to a day over 50 years ago when I was a teenager having lunch in the kitchen of kitchen of our home on willadell Avenue
in south end I was startled by a muffled boo and I looked out the window and saw my elderly neighbor Mr Johnson stumble out of his garage behind him I could see Flames starting to grow I immediately called 911 and
reported the fire I ran outside and Mr Johnson and I grabbed a garden host to try and douse the Flames but we were unsuccessful we actually had to back up because it was getting really hot fortunately the fir truck from Firehouse 3 responded quickly and they
were able to to put out the blades before it spread to the rest of the house Mr Johnson personally thanked each fireman for saving his home anyone who has ever dialed 911 for a fire or medical emergency knows that every minute feels like 10 when you're waiting
for help to arrive coming back to present day there are some that suggest that instead of restoring Firehouse three that money should go towards Vision zero to help make the streets safer the streets would already be safer
if they weren't so overdeveloped and overpopulated because everyone's impatient and in a hurry with a bad attitude you wanted a New York Vibe and now you got one they question how many fires we actually have in
Monclair you wouldn't cancel your car insurance because you don't have many car accidents it has been suggested that the response from headquarters is sufficient for South End using the logic from all of the above let's also close the Valley
Road station and see what the upper monair Community thinks about that both ends of town should have a firehouse capable of rapid response that is supplemented if necessary by headquarters I don't know if he's
listening tonight but I'd like to take a moment to welcome the new Township manager Mr Steven Marx Mr Marx we're counting on you to make sound financial decisions and to demonstrate how higher moral standards and strong ethical conduct we're counting on you to be a
fair and just liaison between residents and elected officials and to seek input from the entire mountclair community and Factor those into your decisions we're counting on you to reverse the pattern that has seen Montclair become the lawsuit capital of
Essex County the behavior of some of your predecessors have cost monair millions of dollars in settlements and there's still one in the pipe line the premiums paid to the insurance companies covering those payments could have been used to open Firehouse 3 so
that the residents of South End could rest assured that that the same Firehouse that kept Mr Johnson's house from being engulfed in flames 50 years ago will be there for them if ever the need arises thank you thank you Mr
Grayson next guest please and fortunately I'm back I'd rather be talking to you about housing policy but uh as I was indicated at the last meeting uh resident filed a motion in court in the litigation concerning
Whitman field uh your JF attorney filed a one-page response the second page has a one sentence we thank the court for its kind courtesy um in the response it does not join in it largely
joins in the refiled by the Board of Education except for one point that point concerns whether the Board of Education had to apply to the board of adjustment doesn't join in but relies on the brief that was filed in the
beginning of last year which did not deal with the events that happened after that I would strongly urge you to that that motion is scheduled to be heard uh in mid April before the court I
would urge you to direct the GIF attorney to make the following points one the refiled by the Board of Education blames the Township's actions in delaying the construction of woodman field that is blatantly untrue the
reason there was delay because they did not apply to the board of adjustment when they were told to in November and December December of 2023 if they had applied at that time they would have the application would have been decided in January two
months before the settlement was reached in the litigation two to remind the court of the municipal land use law requirements concerning construction stopping once the appeal was filed three of the zoning board decision that
precluded construction from occurring and the fact that there was no appeal by the Board of Education of that decision in this Society at least in this state I'm not sure about the country these
days if there's a decision whether by a court or a board that you disagree with you appeal that decision as the Board of Education they did not appeal and in my view and I think your attorney should say they are bound by that decision you don't get to ignore it because you don't
like it they thought we were wrong they should have appealed it I don't think we were and then my pushing a point is to point out that the township Council had no authority to Grant site plan approval and conditional use approval which is what the settlement
done thank you and someday I'll be back to talk about housing thank you so much next guest please good evening Sarah Avery Montclair resident there have been at least a dozen ordinances introduced since 2022
to implement traffic controls and retrofit Parking Solutions for problems that were predicted were it not for the township plannner Reckless disregard for residents concerns developers would have absorbed costly infrastructure
improvements bad Planning Development was promoted to create ratables claiming that increased density lowers the tax bill yet after 15 years of development our infrastructure is crumbling planning and zoning boards hand out variances
like candy to developers cannibalizing the wealth of this community and our tax bills keep increasing in 2013 when tally was asked what economic analysis justifies her master plan recommendations she implied
that planning was about muddling through the evidence shows that Janice tally has colluded with developers since 2009 promoting reduced on-site parking requirements while encouraging construction of mixed use buildings that
increase density and traffic tally pushed for six-story buildings at upper Monclair Wong Plaza and the fourth ward residents concerns that the charm in history would be destroyed were rewarded by eliminating those provisions in Upper Monclair and wung Plaza not the fourth
ward not the South End experience has proven that residents concerns in the fourth ward aren't valued and this Council promotes the same messaging watch on Park will be improved but not the Harrison Avenue Firehouse despite
public outcry for preservation never did any Resident come to a council meeting and say wung Park needs a Refresh on the contrary many concerns have been expressed about the libraryies deteriorating conditions but this Council ignores those concerns I have
seen signs stating that Monclair is a library town really what Monclair is is a corrupt town this Council rehired rer danzic despite their failure to comply with contractual requirements and ethics
laws while repeatedly exposing residents to enormous Financial Risk I am more disgusted Ed by this council's ignorance lack of accountability and transparency evidenced by the voting record then I am
by the thugs in Washington next guest please good evening good even my name is Janet Hubert I reside at five Ward place in Montclair I am here in support of the fire station number three um on Harrison
is it Harrison Avenue yes it's on Harrison Avenue um I second exactly what Sarah said about some of the things that I've noticed about the south end of town this is my 20th year in Montclair and I have had to fight harder than I had to
fight in New York City with slumlords in my days of coming coming up as a young woman I find that there is a lack of interest and a lack of concern to the South End Monclair with the stepchildren in fact I know that there's
been some talk about changing the name of the south in I find it odd that you would not want to rejuvenate something that is so historically beautiful I was just reading on um Fire Station 3 and apparently it was
horsedrawn carriages that came and fought fires on the south end um it is a beautiful building and I second that Janice tally is selling out this town like somebody's excuse my expression excuse my French um I find her
demeanor I find that the fact that she doesn't even live in this town that she doesn't care except except about anything except what the developers are going to pay I mean we're just getting bled in Montclair as I get older and I'm already
older I'm almost 70 years old and one year we are not going to be able to afford to live here in this town school systems that are so bad that bullying is so bad that my son couldn't even go to school here I had to put him in a private school I think it's time that we
re-evaluate what Montclair is about I moved here because it was supposedly the most diverse community in New Jersey never wanting to live in New Jersey cuz I was a um an in New Yorker excuse me but I love this town and I love what it
stands for but it's changing and it's not changing for the better I think you need to examine what Mrs tally has been doing she doesn't even live in the district her planning and and what she's doing with developers in this town is costing people like me a heck of a lot
of money to fight and I just feel that this fire station is very necessary on the south end it's right down the street from it's in the middle of all of the South end and since there was $500,000 designated for it I'd like to ask where is that money how much of it has been
used why is it not fixed but you are talking about spending $65,000 of tax money on Valley Road roof why can't you divide it up give us a little bit of that for this historic um building that's all I have to say thank you
excuse my French I'm an actress I say what I mean thank you next guest please yes sir um um I I'm not going to argue with any members of the public but as the interum town
manager Miss tally is a is a professional and the idea that Miss tally dictated development I can assure you I don't think she tells this group what to do I know she didn't tell the previous governing body what to do and while I didn't know I didn't know mayor
Jackson I can imagine that she told him what to do so the no that she's doing this is ridiculous she takes guidance from the governing body they make the ultimate decisions and ultimate approvals I think the language was totally inappropriate I'm not even going to say the word you can there's a lot of
adjectives you can use and I know you're an actress whatever it is but that's inappropriate I will defend my employees till my last day on March 31st but that is uncalled for and these attacks on her that are personal they're ridiculous they're unfounded she's the consumate
professional and I've worked with a lot of planners and planning departments in my career and I just want to say for the record that should not be acceptable to anyone in this room and anyone on this St thank you mayor thank you manager Lola um is there
another another guests hello my third on Forest Street one of the things I wish to speak again about again is that the Tony's Brook covert across the street from um the Condominiums the
set of buildings um are a real Dumping Ground um there's trash that's been left there there was some trash picked up there's trash in Tony's Brook Culvert um it's it's unacceptable um the equipment that's out there is really bad um it's
really hard to follow um the the people who spoke about the firehouse um that's what I wanted to talk about about that we have found funding for Wang Plaza Park um one of the gentlemen said that every minute
feels like zero um yet you know we're awarding a contract I see number nine resolution for Firehouse 2 roof replacement um we can't open station three there's no questions that seconds and minutes save lives that was attested
to by one of the people from I believe the fire department um the last meeting or the meeting before um the lives of the fourth ward are worth no less than those in the first and second Wards thank
you thank you next guest please good evening my name is Leonor rush I'm a resident of the fourth ward at 15 Ward place I've to um be in support of the firehouse on Harrison
Avenue um the south end the fourth ward has been a you could say a target for development for quite some time and um I would think that in terms of that
development additional funds should be allocated towards the uh restoration and reimplementation of the firehouse to serve the residents in that surrounding
area um I can't imagine that there are less people in the fourth ward than when the firehouse was created or or built rather so to think that it would not be
needed no any longer does not make any sense um I can't imagine that people would think that it's easier to get from one place to the other because I don't know how many times I've looked at
different comments online and people are saying how difficult it is to get through traffic in mclair imagine being in a in a situation in the middle of the day or any time of day and you have to rely on a firehouse that's farther away
than having one that's right there located in your ward that's unfair and um it it doesn't make any sense in terms of what's needed for the surrounding area there so I I strongly stress and agree and believe that there
is a need for that and it's only Equitable thank you next guest please uhhuh hello good evening good evening esteemed mayor Dr Baskerville and members of the Montclair Township Council my name is
aava fiad I'm the president and first founder of the tenants organization of Montclair short form tomb #t TM first no one at the tenants organization
of Mont Clair ever said that we don't need the landlord tenant advisory committee I want this cleared up holy wh l l y the ltac is a needed entity in
Montclair and will continue to be we at tomb have been supportive of the ltac and we are not in Conflict there are two members everywhere in this Township second we do not agree to any one saying that the landlord tenant advisory
committee is not needed in the township of Monclair third we are all working towards solving the problems of the Greater Community in Montclair with regards to tenants rights and affordable housing last but certainly not least it
is not right for any public official to intentionally attempt to create conflict and divide the efforts made by the two entities LT Tac and tomb which is the group that with the community brought
and got our historic rent Control Ordinance for Monclair both are needed a special thank you to the clergy who supported us all through this Collective community and
empowerment this is what we're about I hope this clears up any confusion with divisive public officials whose hearts are not in alignment with what our community
needs as always we invite tenants and homeowners to join us as volunteers to keep rent control visible tenants organization Montclair gmail.com if you don't hear back from us
within a week please email us again call and text as we are all volunteers together 973 619 2855 until we get a new Google Voice number at this time I would also like to
apologize to my dear friend and colleague shadea Bennett for me having to miss the Assembly women Spates event tonight that I was invited to to learn more about aging and Human Services health and regulated professions in our
state good night and may God bless everyone thank you next guest please good evening my name is Kate aught this is my husband Matthew we live in the second ward we're here to support the zoning Amendment for accessory
dwelling units because we care about keeping Monclair affordable to all income levels we hope Montclair can be the kind of town that we can grow Olden and that our children can afford to live in adus are one small way to expand lower cost housing
options although Monclair passed the original Adu ordinance 3 years ago as of 2024 only two building permits for adus were issued expanding the length from 24 ft to 30t is a small change that may encourage more to be built we all know that we need more housing options in this town when we talk about preserving
the character of our town by that I hope we mean protecting the diverse people of all income levels who make this the town that we all love thank Youk thank you very much uh next guest please good evening mayor and councel
dear droy Monclair resident chair of landlord tenant advisory committee good evening good evening I spoke at the last council meeting after the tenant from Union Gardens and I will confirm that tomb has resolved the issues that the
tenant spoke of and landlord tenant advisory committee has confirmed that with the New Jersey tenants organization the other thing I want to say is that the landlord tenant advisory committee had a meeting on March 4th
with staff and the meeting was very successful very productive and I think it's very clear now the process by which landlord tenant advisory committee works we have a uh outcome from that meeting
that will help tenants understand that if they have an inquiry that involves code enforcement and they want to understand what the process is or the status is that they should submit an oper request I will say that eltac has
two spots open um landlords tenants commercial real estate or someone who is interested in understanding more about how the committee works in supporting the constituents of Montclair the uh website you can find us
on the township of Montclair website by going to the search bar typing in landlord tenant and the website will come up all of the information the resolution by which we operate under and as well as the telephone number and
email address thank you very much thank you very much um councelor lochman I'm sorry I just wanted to apologize I was not able to make the meeting on March 4th I think it was but I will try to make the next one thank
you you're welcome it'll be in April third Wednesday of the month thank you 7 p.m. next guest please hi I'm Chrissy Thomas I live at 257 North Mountain AV I grew up in Montclair I went to Edgemont Mount Hein Glenfield MHS Wesleyan upen UVA and Georgetown I
have an MBA And a ba and a masters in public policy and a jurist doctorate degree my law practice is in Montclair and I've been attending Council meetings for years I love this town and I'm again grateful to all of you up there for your service but I've also got to say that
I've been a little disappointed you all except Miss Toller and Mr M who was absent voted yes on number 8 number 11 and number 20 at the last meeting after hearing the problems with them you still voted yes to me that's a little scary
you ran on transparency and virtual public comment what happened Miss Birmingham it still hasn't happened do you not care about what the public take the time to come here to say it takes all of us a long time to go through the
agenda and figure out what's going on and it's disappointing when you don't seem to listen in New Jersey the average Town manager salary is $121,300 then in November December of 2024 the township of Verona approved a town
manager salary of 180,000 in February of 2025 the township of Montclair came in with a whopping $235,000 ordinance 0- 25-06 is on the second reading maximum salary for the position of Township
manager for the year 2025 is $235,000 for year 2025 started on January 1st so I'm wondering if that's a mistake Mr Marx's first day is April 1st is there a reason that the ordinance is not made effective April 1st so that it
applies only to Mr Marx or are we trying to force the taxpayers to give a retroactive salary increase to Mr Lola as well isn't this objectionable to everyone in the room that's a problem and the ordinance isn't written clearly so what does it mean you're shaking your
head no but the ordinance isn't written properly it's not clear to everybody in the room and it should and if it's clear to you then it should be written clearly so that according to Oprah we can all understand it I hope you also remember that
according to the statute you either give the manager 90-day notice or you pay him 3 month salary at the end there's something that seems to be not right here but if Miss lman lochman it's correct then you should be able to make it clear to all of us you should be able
to answer our questions also at the last counil meeting without using her name our new town attorney our new town attorney seemed to take aim at Sarah Avery um it is not allowed when the Contracting attorneys reach 70% of their
not to exceed they are required to stop work and notify the Town Council of a need for a resolution it's a big deal and I don't appreciate my time being taken up by people shaking their head or nodding their head at me if you have something to say then
please just say it thanks I I have a question question I was trying to follow you thank you first of all for coming here and um trying to help us with this very difficult process often times you mentioned a resolution or something that's on here and I was just trying to find out which one were you it's the
salary increase where you increase the salary of the Town manager only it's only says the town manager and it's to $235,000 and it's effective January 1st because it's effective for all of
2025 and it should be just if you just wrote it correctly and made it effective April 1st or for the new town manager of Mr Marx then there wouldn't be a question but poorly written people seem to be taking advantage of loopholes or mistakes or or Loosely
worded ordinances and and um agenda items and it's it's a problem so just just a minute counselor um Birmingham wants to help and then after that I'm going to ask attorney if he can um you know offer an opinion regarding that so
no Ju Just to say establishing a maximum salary does not mean that someone automatically gets that salary so in many jobs there are salary ranges you establish a maximum salary it does not
mean that someone automatically gets that maximum salary so we are establishing a maximum salary for our because we are hiring ing a new town manager if you look at salary ranges for towns like Ridgewood and Princeton it is
very much in line and Mr Marx is not even getting that maximum salary in fact so just to be clear Mr Lola is not getting a salary bump it is he is going out on his salary
that he of $212,000 he does not get health insurance supposed to be 210 it's 210 I'm sorry sorry it's 210 sorry I don't have that number I don't have all the numbers in my head I did look up all this stuff and no I hear you I just
couldn't tell looking so just to be clear when you establish a maximum salary you're not saying that someone automatically gets so much for clarifying because that's important like I can't tell by reading the public documents so you guys must know stuff that we don't know and that's not
supposed to happen we're supposed to be able to get the information by looking through the our op requests and if we can't then there's an issue and if we notice it then it's possible that you notice it but it's also possible that you have 50,000 things on your agenda
and you're busy and you're doing such a great job and it's so much more work than I imagine you could have ever even imagined so I appreciate everything you're doing I'm not trying to be petulant I'm trying to just make sure that you see all the things that we see
and that you understand that people like Sarah Avery and and I get up here and we do this work and we don't like it when people yell at us about how we shouldn't be saying what we're thinking we're only thinking it because it's what's written down and what we have to work with but I
think um just for a moment and I think that if anybody's watching I think this was a perfect example of what should be taking place in these conference meetings you came up in a very professional manner you weren't yelling at us and beating us down and calling
wait and I think that that was very appropriate and then you gave some numbers and I was not you know there yet because you were thinking something and I'm I've got a whole bunch of papers just like you said so I questioned you know very nicely and we engaged in a
dialogue and then councelor Birmingham gave us a very direct response and now we all have Clarity and I think that's what these meetings the conference meetings should be about more we're going to do things or you see things maybe that
we won't see it's okay we we are we're we're definitely about transparency and we're definitely about getting it right but when we do something like you didn't see that and maybe we're not communicating a certain way it's okay that's what I love about that is what I
love about you thank you right so this is what this is what it's about so thank you all right and thank you for answering I would just like to say one thing I understood that it's our practice here not to engage with every speaker that comes up and give our side
of the story or give more information I thought that that had been our practice otherwise at the last council meeting and at this council meeting I would have defended myself to comments that were made about me and uh but I'm not going to do that because I understood that if
every person who came up and we engaged with them in some kind of dialogue we'd never get through this so if if anybody wants to talk to me personally just email me get me in the hallway I'm happy to talk about this youten what you know
there's often information that we can give you that would I'm sorry that would um give you more information to understand where we're coming from so that's so my practice because I understood it was how we Act is that we don't engage with the public it wasn't to put you on the defensive I didn't
mean to do that I apologize no and and just so everyone knows that that that has been what we've been trying to stick to as we move through the meetings and I'm learning more as a person that is trying to convene the meeting and run the meeting I'm realizing that there's
not one size fits-all and I was inclined to ask you councelor lochman if you wish to um reply sometimes Council people will signal to me or the manager you know like hey can I say something and then I realize it's that so I'm trying to get a sense too when we say we're not
going to respond by and large we're doing that because we have a whole agenda that we need to get to and we've been leaving here after midnight but I was just upset because he had said that after all public comment was over and he said she was wrong and she wasn't wrong
she was 100% right he was wrong and there was no opportunity to correct it and I felt like that was wrong right but I just want to the record that if I want to engaged and I'm going to take that Liberty for as long as I'm sitting here and have that ability I am and there are times when I feel it needs to be said
because I didn't think we were really far off and it sounded as though you felt we were doing something you know that that maybe we were doing it in a certain way to be under I can't tell I couldn't tell but now I know and I so appre how we wrapped that up really fast
so thank you next guest please okay good evening Nicole farani um now I'm going to be all over the place because I didn't have something prepared but things keep popping in my head but I wanted to say first thank you to those who showed up
um for the Crescent Moonlighting it was a nice night uh weather was great and um it hopefully next year it can be bigger and better and maybe the town can sponsor it in some way that would be nice um actually I wanted to say something
about the responding the responding sometimes is warranted and it and it it shows transparency um I've been in Monclair like I was trying to think I think it's 24 or 25 years and I still consider myself a newbie but I have seen um Board
of the Board of Ed and the Town Council get less and less transparent as time goes on and as you can see we have very passionate residents here and sometimes if you have an answer um that can clarify things I think it clears things
up quicker than than um not so I appreciate that from the mayor to say that she will sometimes respond um I I actually wanted to speak when I was you're talking about building see Monclair doesn't have enough housing
um it's kind of sad because it's like a catch 22 right you don't want the overdevelopment and and and then there's not enough affordable housing to go around um I don't know how you fix that but I think maybe this Council can have
deep conversations because I think many of you up there care about this topic and if you care you can work you have three and a half more years to fix it like I know you want to keep Montclair special people come up and talk about the diversity we're losing it we're
losing it we're losing it and so I wanted to say thank you to all of those um tenant groups which I'm slowly starting to learn the names of cuz I was getting confused between the two or three that there are and I want to be clear on them but I'm very thankful to
all of them for all the hard work they do to help tenants um landlords and everybody else that needs them but I I want to say quickly that I was in Morristown getting my car fixed the other day and they weren't ready with my car so I said let's drive to the little
circle you know where they have a little park there let's go it was sunny on Monday let's go sit in the park and wait for the car who cares that they're taking too long it's a sunny day I could couldn't get through Morris Town I don't know if you guys have been out there lately they've built a lot and they've
built up and they built right up next to the train station and I understand the need for that housing but but I couldn't get through and it felt much like Bloomfield Avenue already feels to me on a lot of days where you're risking your life walking
across it or driving up it I mean people are weaving in and out every single time now we're packed so just thoughtful be thoughtful in your choices and thank you for your time thank you next guest
please number 17 all right um good evening everyone Axel helmet evening uh Columbus Avenue regarding the adus accessory dwelling units so like the previous speaker said there is a housing shortage both here
both in the region country at Large we have built some housing but it doesn't keep up with the number of people who want to move here because it's a nice place to live right um I think it's an important part of the solution but not a complete solution to encourage the
adus um the ordinance tonight helps to build them but um I encourage you to think more about ways that it can be made easier to build them because the reality is vanishingly few of these have been built single digits low single
digits uh and part of that is regulatory um another idea that was brought up was to remove the requirement to build a parking space if you build one um a lot of people build these for family situations if the relative who lives there doesn't have a car or sharing the
car why make them pave over part of the part of the property um that's my comment thank you thank you next guest please I wasn't trying hi everyone my name is Mary
Birmingham and I'm a resident of Gordon Hurst I'd like to respectfully challenge the idea that the only way to ensure the health and safety of our community is by focusing exclusively on increased spending for Public Safety a few months ago I emailed you about the surgeon
general's report on the quote epidemic of loneliness which I believe is deeply relevant to this discussion the Surgeon General has described loneliness as a widespread crisis equating its impact on health to smoking 15 cigarettes a day it contributes to mental health issues like
depression and anxiety as well as physical conditions like heart disease and stroke the covid-19 pandemic showed us that loneliness is not just an emotional issue it's a serious health threat as a pediatric emergency medicine physician I witnessed firsthand the rising number of children experiencing
Mental Health crisis and I'm committed to finding long-term Solutions the Surgeon General however emphasizes that loneliness is a problem that is affecting all of us it's not limited to one generation one key recommendation in the report is investing in public spaces and
Community organizations that Foster social connection and engagement in Monclair this could mean continued investment in our libraries parks and the senior center the recent discussions around the animal shelter have shown how valuable Community connections can be
many residents find purpose and connection through volunteering adopting pets or even reading books to dogs these spaces matter and I'm grateful to those who've helped highlight their importance I also want to thank you for your responsiveness regarding the Clary Anderson management con contract I'm
pleased that it's been put out for bids and I hope we can prioritize weekend public skate times for our community Friday Saturday night Sunday afternoons just like we used to have I imagine food trucks french fries and DJs a place that teens and Young adults could get excited about it's time to take a serious look
at the situation and fix it so we can create a community Gathering space that so many people are craving to be clear I believe that investments in libraries Parks public events like the 4th of July parade and Community centered activities like public skating are just as crucial for
our health and well-being as spending on police and fire Services they're not secondary they're essential for building a thriving Community additionally we must recognize that Monclair is an expensive place to live many of our neighbors are unfortunately lying awake worrying about how to pay their taxes
their heating bills and buy groceries for their family chronic stress whether Financial or otherwise takes a toll on both physical and mental health given all this I believe that need YK spending on Public Safety without a careful review of data and costs is not the most
responsible approach I deeply appreciate those of you who are asking tough questions and I hope we can continue to have respectful constructive conversation fisc responsibility is another way you can show you care about the health and wellbe of our neighbors thank you thank
you very much next guest please good evening um I'm Marana ARA and I was hearing the meeting from home and I left my family having dinner and ran here because I saw so many instances of folks saying that there is no
Firehouse in the fourth ward and I'd like to ask you to please correct us if we're factually inaccurate right we have different opinions and different reasons to be here but on basic facts we need to agree and
so I printed this map of montclair's WS and I put the two functioning firehouse and the one that's not open here right there is one that's current open in the first W there's one that's currently
open in the fourth ward and then there's one that's currently not open in the fourth W now my daughter Goes to School in the Shain and on Mondays I pick her up at 4:45 p.m. because she has an after school program so I started driving
through Pine Street instead of going down Grove Street to see how long it takes me to get to Nan from the from the fire main Firehouse from the headquarters and not once has it taken Me 3 and a half minutes always less now
unlike a fire truck I need to stop for lights and 55 seconds of the 3 minutes and 17 seconds it took me to drive from Pine from the Pine Street Firehouse to Nish rain 55 seconds were on the light
which I don't think a fire truck would take as much time cuz I had to swap the whole time so I have a question for you and I appreciate that you don't have this answer today but I'd beg you to bring this answer to the next meeting which is how long does it take an
ambulance to arrive in nine park or to the very south end of monair because maybe the same folks who don't know we already have a fire a firehouse in the fourth FL perhaps they're not aware that we only have an one or two
ambulances in this town on any given and that the fire department does not provide emergency medical transport and with my child at nine and with my own family in the second W that is what makes me feel
unsafe because we're most much much more likely to have a life-threatening medical emergency that requires emergency medical transport immediately than we are to have
a fire that requires response in less than three minutes I also timed how long it takes to get from the firehouse in the first W to my house which is almost at the edge of the second to the first W and it
takes a little bit more time than it takes anain with the exception that it was 5:00 p.m. as opposed to 4:45 p.m. so this is please show thank you very much um next guest has
anybody else signed up at this time Mr fan no more man no more okay um at this point in time we're going to I'm sorry um I just I just wanted to say that um two things first on the question of the back and
forth um this is something that we've talked about I I believe personally that the best and most respectful and Equitable system is for us to wait our turn till the end of public comment and
then to respond carefully to everybody there's it's considered basically best practices not to have a back and forth on the fly with people partly because then you can get in an argument people can lose their heads it's it's better to just wait and then if a lot of people
talk on one topic you collect your thoughts and you can say stuff so that means that people do have to wait till the end of comments but it it is I believe it is a good way now we can all have this discussion about it the other reason I think that it's good is um I'm a big believer uh as
Miss Thomas brought up in remote Comet and I would like to see that happen and when we have remote comment um to have people here having a back and forth it it it it disempowers those at home
because the people at home get a very they just get a a ring to they get cut off at 3 minutes so the most Equitable thing to do is have the same rules for people who are able to come in here and and get up the steps and stand here at the microphone and talk and people who
want to call in so people should think about this and what they think is the most reasonable and Equitable way of doing it I do not believe the best way to do these things uh and I don't believe the best way to ever do government work is to do it on the Fly
and make up the rules on the fly I think we should have rules I think rules are good uh the second thing very quickly very quickly because then we're going to move on to the storm water utility feasibility study um and then we'll have a discussion at the end if people want
to talk about whatever uh okay very quickly on the library we could talk about it later but people should know um that a an ordinance to uh for the bond that would fund those
improvements uh that people were talking about Miss R uh Miss Al I believe um uh that came was going to be on the agenda tonight uh which makes me very happy and I think it would it would pass um but there is some
technical issues uh that are involved in it uh because it would potentially be used as a as a a component in a in a grant uh opportunity that we have so we were not able to put it on but uh but it
is there is a draft that's that that uh that is being marked up right now and I I'm quite confident and sure that it will be in front of us on the 25th and that we will have good news for everybody who's a fan of the library of of of which there are many people and
that makes me happy that's all I'm just going to respond to whatever um The Counselor was talking about about on the Fly and I don't know if it had anything to to do with my comment so for the record I was not offering comment I asked a
question of a um attorney Chrissy Thomas because she comes in and she's a wealth of knowledge I was not aware of which resolution she was talking I was not having back and forth just like if anyone else comes up here and you present something it's important to me
so if you mention some numbers and I'm not clear about it I may ask you can you give me the numbers as a result of my asking a question about a number then um councelor Birmingham was kind enough to offer something but this was like nothing on the Fly we're not creating
new things on the Fly and sometimes we just have to to try to support one another up here more than try to find out what was wrong with what the person sitting next to you did anyway I'm going to move on and we're going to have the
storm water mon cleair Township storm water utility feasibility study at this time thank you so much for being here hello thank um good evening mayor and Council so last year we received a
technical assistance grant through the NJ DP for a storm water feasibility um storm water utility feasibility study and the DP matched us with wsp engineering so David boliva is here from wsp engineering uh we've been
working together for about a year he's they've been wonderful to work with and this is just um an introduction to the findings um no decisions need to be made this is just the findings that were um that are going to be presented and I do want to say that there are two
municipalities in New Jersey that have passed ordinances for storm order utilities the first one was New Brunswick in May of last year and the second one is Maplewood and they did it in 20124 in December so um David
good evening um Madame mayor and members of council um it's a pleasure to be here with you and um appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk storm water management with you on a very beautiful evening um just wanted to reiterate um so I'm presenting the initial findings uh of the storm water
utility feasibility study uh these are initial right and so this is meant to be able to provide some information some data points um to be able to to give you an opportunity to decide whether or not you would like to explore the idea of a storm water utility uh further um and so
I'm going to go through the presentation as fast as I can um if you want to slow me down please do if I start wonking out and using acronyms please stop me um and I'm happy to go ahead and spell those out uh I did want to just uh two really quick fun facts about myself so I am not
from New Jersey um but uh I actually lived in New Jersey for 2 years my dad was a army uh physicist and uh he was stationed at Fort Monmouth for two years and so he lived in the in the township of Neptune uh the second thing is that
um in addition to my job at wsp um I'm also a member of the Virginia House of of delegates um and so I'm down there for two months out of the Year doing that Duty um and so uh just I want to say I deeply appreciate your roles as as elected officials um and hearing hearing
me out on on the issue of storm water management so uh I guess first I just wanted to touch on on their two purposes for this study um the the first part uh deals with what does a future storm water program look like for the township of of
Montclair and when you're looking at that there are a couple of different considerations um first of all is making sure that you're meeting the different mandates uh that are imposed on the township uh at the state and the federal level um the second one is making sure that your program is designed in a way
that meets the needs and expectations of of the Town itself and so one is relatively predictable uh the second one is going to be unique to what the town's expectations are um the second part of this is how do you fund um those different needs um and expectations of
of your residents and and businesses and so one of the the big focuses of this is that recently uh New Jersey passed enabling Authority uh that allows you to if you want adopt a storm water utility fee um in addition to how you would normally go ahead and fund storm water
which is through the real property Tex and so again it's really twofold which is what should the program look like uh and then how do you ultimately fund that program um just to give you a quick overview of of the points that I'm going to touch on this evening so uh first of
all I'm going to really quickly go over what those drivers for change are so why is it that we're even concerned about talking about the storm water program uh get into a little bit about the program assessment that we did and so what does your current program look like what are the challenges and needs and issues that
are ahead uh and then talk about the storm water utility fee and so a little bit about what the heck is a storm water utility uh what that would mean for moncla um if you were to adopt one or consider one and then what are the next steps in the process if you'd like to take it to those next
steps so in terms of the the drivers for change um some of these are unique to Montclair um but most of of the issues are things that all municipalities are dealing with not just here in New Jersey uh but Nation wide um there's really
three major areas three major drivers and so the first one is something that's totally out of your control which is that you've got a relatively old storm water management system uh a lot of the pieces were put in place uh prior to World War II um and they were done in kind of a peace mail fashion right and
so back then they didn't really think about um what a future Montclair would look like in 2025 and so you've got some pieces of the system that are larger than others and where you have mismatches that can ultimately lead uh lead to flooding and so you do have a pretty large system with respect to the
number of inlets and the miles of pipes um and so it's often considered uh the silent infrastructure people don't think about it they don't think about how big or complicated it is until you run into flooding issues um those issues um that you have
with with the program or the storm water management system um you've already captured them in your storm water management program plan um and so it really talks about the cumul Rel ative impacts of increased impervious cover over the years um and the fact that you
do have flooding issues because of those mismatches in the system um particularly with respect to undersized Road Road coverts um and also connection points and this is just kind of an example of um something that uh was picked up in
2023 and so this is a clogged storm drain Inlet so um the the issue here is twofold which is you've got sediment going into the system uh but things like that don't tend to clog like that uh if there isn't a downstream issue with respect to the ability of the system to
handle uh that kind of sediment flow so the second thing so you you've got a system that's that's relatively old um what exacerbates the problem is climate change and so um you've got two issues number one is that New Jersey's
climate is getting wetter um and so you got more water that's going into the system uh the second one is that new jerseyy is experiencing more extreme rain events um that overwhelm the system and so um these are all things that that you know um this was just this uh past August
2024 uh at the studio Playhouse this one broke my heart in particular because my son is very active in theater um and so it kind of made my heart go boom um but it's not something that's just one time um so this was August 2018 uh with
additional flooding incidents in in Montclair um I guess the good thing is that you know where a lot of your problem uh spots are and so in 2021 um the township did a hazard vulnerability assessment and so uh the department of engineering along with uh
members of the vulnerability assessment committee went out and they identified 36 different areas uh where there were spot flooding issues and so again uh the issues that they were looking at were undersized pipes blocked pipes uh and just a total lack of infrastructure in a
couple of areas and so you do have a good sense of where your problem areas are um and then finally kind of the the the Triad of all this um are the water quality requirements under the New Jersey municipal uh separate uh storm
sour system permit program and so this is a federal requirement under the Clean Water Act uh it's implemented by New Jersey D um and it basically gives you a permit for um managing the quality of water that discharges from your system um it's
important to remember that it's very similar to the structure that's used for industrial um discharges as well as Wastewater discharges and so um something that has to be treated seriously because ultimately compliance um can result in in penalties and and
fines for any municipality um you you've had a a program in place since 2004 um this last permit that was issued in 2023 has a lot of new requirements um that are going to require some time uh attention and
investment um on behalf of the township and you've got a relatively short period of time to be able to do that and so those permit Cycles are fiveyear permit Cycles so we're already a couple years into the permit um and there are very specific deadlines uh with respect uh to when those have to be
met so uh really um quickly um one of the important things that we did uh was to do the program assessment right and so you've got an existing program and then what are the needs and issues that we need to be paying attention to over the next couple years uh was very grateful that your staff um allowed us
the opportunity to send them questionnaires and to interview them and so these were the kind of questions which are you know um what keeps you up at night about stormw Water Management in in the township of of Montclair and if you had the ability to um what are
the things that we would need to put in place to ensure uh that we've got a system that protects water quality as well as public safety and prevents flooding um and so your current program uh primarily to uh the responsibility of the Department of consumer services so
they do day-to-day operations they uh manage your ms4 permit uh most of the work is done by a three-person crew about 70% of their time is spent on storm water management uh engineering and planning and development also have roles as well as the office of
sustainability I wanted to go through a couple of the highlights of um our findings as we went through and and these are the real cost drivers uh behind the program uh so the first one gets to Inlet and catch Bas and maintenance and this relates very uh back to that picture that we went ahead
and showed you and so the permit uh requires um that all inlets and 20% of catch basins have to be inspected each year that's not so much the challenge uh the challenge is the permit establishes an expectation that you're actually going to um clean out and address
problems in those inlets and catch basins uh street sweeping is another big area to pay attention to so with your current sweep uh sweeping equipment it takes about 8 months uh to go through the entire Township uh there's a new requirement in there that says you have
to sweep um all roads that have kban gutter which is the majority of what you all have uh every four months um and so staff identified a definite need for additional sweeping equipment as well as staff to be able to um operate
those private storm watert management uh facility and so the township doesn't have any publicly maintained storm water management facilities but your storm water ordinance does require um best management practices and storm water facilities to be put into place uh
during private development um while you're not responsible for maintaining those there's a maintenance plan and the private owner and operator is responsible for doing that the permit does require you to track and make sure uh that those uh facilities are being
maintained and that the documentation that they're being inspected and maintained is provided uh to the township and so um there's a need to be able to figure out what those are uh in terms of a database uh and then there has to be somebody who's going to be that point person uh going out to the
property owner um to make sure that uh they are indeed U maintaining and inspecting their storm water management facilities uh elicit discharge tracking um so the township already has a program to get out there and inspect a certain number of outfalls during dry weather uh
to make sure that there's no illicit discharges coming through um however uh what the township struggles with is if somebody reports that there's an illicit discharge coming out of um an outfall or if there's a smell coming from somewhere they don't have the resources or the
time to be able to do the forensics and back up and try to figure out where that's coming from Watershed planning this is potentially a big one for the future and so the permit requires that you have Watershed uh plans in place uh by the end of the permit cycle the idea is uh
to actually go back through and retrofit um areas of the township to be able to actually improve water quality over time um and so um these are plans that have to be in place at the end of this permit cycle and the expectation is for them to be implemented uh and updated and
reviewed every two years um conveyance system maintenance um and so this just gets back to the fact that you have that older system and so precious is precious little is actually known about the condition of uh
those 42 Mi of conveyance structures and so as a result uh the township engages mostly in maintenance by emergency something happens you get out there and you fix it um but they don't have the resources to be proactive about how they would go ahead and do that and so another I item that was identified is it
would be really helpful especially for your older areas or where there are problems to have the close circuit television um getting in there and taking a look at what the condition is so that you can be more proactive in maintenance uh for those uh identified flood prone areas uh you've identified
them um but there's no Capital um money set aside to actually be able to uh do anything about those um and so uh this is one of those kind of great unknowns you need to do the hydrologic and um hydrology studies uh to figure out what
the issues are and then actually do some preliminary engineering uh in order to be able to come up with a cost for something like like that um and then finally kind of WRA wrapping up the capital needs uh so those Watershed implementation plans uh there's um an expectation that they're
going to be implemented um to what degree uh New Jersey D is going to require that certain things have to be implemented in a certain period of time will probably be an issue for your next permit cycle but you'd want to be prepared to actually Implement those projects uh and then Edgemont Pond was
something that was brought up by staff uh as being a potential Capital need uh it is silting in uh will ultimately require dredging um it is primarily an amenity um but it does have flood control uh functions associated with it and so those estimates were about $2
million uh in order to be able to do that so I know you can't see that very well um but uh ultimately we were able to boil this down into what would the cost of that future program look like um just a a couple of drivers that I wanted
to highlight very briefly um so number one is the need for another threers maintenance crew to really be able to get ahead of the maintenance issues um additional specialized equipment um operators and so that would be one vac
truck uh and uh two street sweepers in order to be able to keep up with a catch base and an inlets and the street sweeping um an ms4 coordinator somebody who can actually make sure that all the pieces of that ms4 program are are being uh accounted for and so there's a lot of
little requirements in there uh that add up up to probably a full-time person this is also something that could be contracted out uh but but again if if you were to go with a person this is the type of person who would engage in required education and Outreach uh they could handle the illicit discharges um
you could get somebody who can update your geographic information systems so you're updating your GIS now which is a permit requirement but you're going to have to maintain that over time um and then funding for that closed circuit television and H&H modeling uh and then the capital part so we put in a capital
reserve of about uh $500,000 per year um just kind of based on you need to start socking something away in order to be able to deal with the capital needs of of the system as you discover them that can be adjusted up or down depending on what the modeling says or what the
closed circuit television ultimately tells you about the condition of your system so in in terms of what is a storm water utility and and what really kind of drove um you know our involvement in this um and so a utility is is very much
like what you would treat drinking water or Wastewater so it's a program and it's a fee for service um and so it's um just a different way of thinking about and uh funding the the system so rather than coming out of a general fund you'd
actually have an Enterprise fund uh that would only be dedicated to storm water management and then you would establish a rate structure and a fee um that would go ahead and and fund the those needs and so uh this was authorized by the New Jersey general assembly in
2019 um some localities consider having a separate Authority um but there's nothing to say that it can't just be a department or under your current uh departmental structure the key is is that you have to segregate the funds they can only be used for storm water management purposes per state law um and
the last point is that uh kind of the meter for this is impervious cover on on a uh particular piece of of property and and so uh there's been a lot of research behind uh this and it shouldn't come as any surprise to you uh that the more
impervious surface cover uh the more uh there is with respect to the need for a publicly supported uh stor M Management program and so that's kind of the meter is the more impervious cover you have on your property uh the more that you ultimately will go ahead and
pay so in terms of how um this compares to the real property tax um just uh a quick comparison so real property tax um the cost is distributed based on the value of of the property uh can be accounted for separately but there's no legal requirement that it's accounted
for separately it's an ADV valorum tax um does not generate revenue from tax exempt properties so if you were a tax exempt property you're obviously not paying a um tax bill for Real Property Tax uh easy to implement though right so it's an existing structure that you have
in place uh as far as a user fee um the cost is distributed based on impervious area um it has to be a legally separate fund right and so just like any utility the amount of money going in has to match the amount that you have going out it can only be used for storm water
purposes um a key component is that all properties pay even tax exempt ones and so in the same way that they pay electricity or water or Wastewater they'd also pay the storm water utility fee um there is a requirement for credit um if you have storm water management
facilities on your property um it does require you though to engage in special billing right so you'll have to track in perious areas um and you need to have a a master account file that would track how those would be buil just from a very practical standpoint um
how this this this is not uh Montclair uh this is another jurisdiction but I think it's a really great illustration of how this ultimately pans out so that picture on the top is a highrise um and so it's a very very valuable piece of land but it's in a very efficient use of
impervious cover and so under that particular scenario you're going to be paying more under a real property tax and less under a storm water utility fee that bottom there is um a strip mall with a big parking lot so the land is is
valued less and you've got lots of impervious cover and so in that situation uh you're going to be paying less in um real property tax and more as far as a storm water utility is concerned and so again you can see that adjustment with respect uh to how um
you're ultimately assessed uh for the impacts of what your property is doing so is this a new thing um yes and no so it is new in in New Jersey as was mentioned earlier there's a couple of localities uh that have adopted and a few more that are exploring so congratulations for being on the
Vanguard of of the exploring part um but but it isn't something uh that is is new in the United States um we have about 2500 plus storm waterer utilities Nationwide uh they originally got their start uh in the 1970s uh and so um in Most states in in
the United States you will find examples of storm water utilities so in terms of how it might benefit um the township of Montclair um so it does provide a dedicated Revenue source and that allows for better long-term planning both with respect to
operations and maintenance but also for for Capital um it can be seen as more Equitable and so it distributes uh costs based on the impact to the system rather than the value of the property uh tax exempt properties uh pay their fair
share uh and it also again requires credits and so if you have a property uh that has storm water infrastructure on it uh you have to get a credit um a discount on your on your fee per state law and so this can actually reward people for maintaining their systems and
serve as an incentive for people to be part of the solution with respect to storm water as You' imagine not everybody is going to love the idea um and so people who will look at this from a skeptical standpoint uh will be tax exempt properties uh people with larged pave
areas uh but the the property is uh has a uh Low Land valuation uh and then potentially anybody who doesn't see the value in investing more in um your storm water management program so just wanted to give you a a quick idea of preliminary um impact
analysis that we did for Montclair and so again assuming that you have the need for additional resources for your storm water program the big question comes down to how does that redistribute the cost of the program among different
property types and so um there are a couple of different rates that you can use um the one that we used was the simplest for our scenario and that's called an equivalent um uh residential uh unit uh approach and so in this
approach all your single family detached properties are charged a flat fee and then everybody else is charged the median of uh the impervious area of those um Residential Properties and so in Montclair that is
3,669 Ft of of uh of impervious area so that's your billing unit um I will tell you um that that's one of the things if you decided to take the next step is do you like that that flat rate model so it's very simple it's easy to administer it's also less
Equitable and so the reason you can see here so that is uh the Township's um single family detached properties uh a histogram uh relating to how much impervious uh cover that those properties have and so you can see it's
pretty well grouped um but the people who have relatively small Lots or small impervious areas might be looking over there to the people who have lots of impervious area and questioning you know why would they be paying the same amount um as the other people and so there are other different rate structures that get
at that so there's tiered rate structures there's just using Straight impervious cover um and so that's something that would need to be decided but here's the distribution um with respect to um the property tax versus the storm water utility fee and
so in this case you can see that if you use the uh real property tax uh about 85% of the burden of the cost is going to be on the single family Residential Properties another 5% is going to be on apartments and then 10% is going to be
commercial um if you were to take that exact same amount and then use a stone water utility approach um this is what our preliminary analysis shows and so it's actually very interesting it's a little bit different than what we've seen in other localities so you still have the same amount uh for apartments
still have the same amount for commercial um as you can see residential drops significantly from from 85% to 64% of the p and that's largely because you're picking up uh all the different uh tax exempt properties and state-owned and federally owned properties um as
well as school properties I just want to ask sorry just ask a quick question when you say um single family homes most of or a good portion of the single family structures let's call it are multif family houses so are you in that 65% are
you including multif family houses as well as single family houses correct you are but you're not distinguishing what they are detached unit a detached unit not yeah yeah great question thank you okay so anyways uh the question
comes down to all right um what's next if if you decide that you wanted to pursue this a little bit further um what would those next steps be so I I think the the biggest one is it comes down to leadership so somebody needs to take ownership of it um this is a a a data
exercise but it also is a policy and political exercise and so leadership needs to feel comfortable with moving forward with this idea uh public engagement is absolutely key to a successful program and so the more engagement the better we actually had a
meeting with the storm water advisory committee back in December just to introduce the concept um naturally there were lots of great questions um but this is something that you'd want to continue that kind of process as well as take the show on the road and make sure that you're getting feedback and input from your residents um and then there's still
plenty of other policy decisions that ultimately uh you would need to make um in order to ensure that the the product um matched up with your expectation and this is the last slide and um I'm more than happy to take any question so a phase two uh would be expanded public
engagement um you'd finalize the scope uh and the cost of the program right and so remember the program drives everything if you didn't have a program need we wouldn't be talking about Revenue and so we want to make sure we're nailing down program costs and honestly if it program results in a rate
that's too high politically you need to go back and look at the program itself so you don't want to adopt a rate that is mismatched with the expectations because once you adopt something like this people will have heightened expectations for things to get done uh refining the impervious mapping data uh
developing that credit policy that that tends to get a lot of public attention uh because it is a way uh for you to um uh manage your own destiny right so if you're willing to do something on your property and reduce your fee that gets people interested uh and then finalizing the rate structure uh and finalizing
cash flow and and rate models and then if you get further past that uh then it's actually getting into ordinance and uh putting together a master account file billing uh and then implementation um but Madame mayor I really appreciate your time um on on a subject as uh uh
dry as storm water so thank you do you you have um time for a few questions if the council members have them or would you prefer another format for the question I most certainly do yes I'm your counc lochman so I have another
question so um with the uh utility there's a separate bill that goes to the homeowner for sewer or whatever storm water um but when you have it included in your property tax that property tax
is tax deductible to people if it's outside the property tax it's not I mean I remember that happened with our bills way back when at one point they were all included in our property tax but then they were separated out so we couldn't deduct those if you do so is that
correct correct I mean it's a utility fee right so it's it's it's not not tax deductible like you would have dble um Lo localities will look at it different ways and so um because it is a parcel-based fee I'd say the majority of
localities still have it as an add-on to their um real property tax um there are localities though that say Hey this we want to make sure that it feels like a a utility fee and and not an add-on and so uh in that way you would go ahead and
tag it onto your um onto your utility fee the the the problem often is uh particularly when you've got one um one meter for multiple properties when you're dealing with a um with a Wastewater drinking water or other or
electric utility um sometimes it's it's hard because you'll have to go ahead and split those up and figure out how to go ahead and allocate those but that's that's a it's an administrative exercise you just have to be aware of just one more question for me um you kind of glossed over the cost of this on page
was it 19 it says the ultimate cost of this is $5.5 million and I would imagine that a lot of that is front loaded when you have employees and you have to buy equipment so this is not cheap you know for this is another thing that this town is seeing that our taxpayers will have to
pay and we'll have to do this so we have like clar Anderson Arena we have the police department we have the um fire station we have all these assets that need money and here's just I just want to point it out to people here's another another thing that we're going to have
to pay for y and I think that's it's an absolute Fair Point um and should not be glossed over uh we were able to identify about $5 million worth of needs um and looking at how you would spread that
over a couple of years if you were cash financing and looking towards U ms4 permit compliance it comes down to about $2.1 million per year for the first three years so better better than 5 million still a sizable chunk of money
um I will tell you those is that most localities uh when faced with something like that will Bond finance and and that that way you're spreading those costs out over a longer period of time and so that's that's it's a worst case scenario you need to make those Investments but in terms of its impact on the budget
those could be spread out yes so we have our school bond we could have car Clary Anderson Bond we have the library Bond you know the municipal complex if it ever gets built so this town is faced with an enormous future cost and our
taxes what's going to happen with our taxes I'm just pointing the out I agree with this if we had all the money in the world it wouldn't be a problem but I know that we have to do this so I'm you know we're coming into budget season and I'm like the Grinch I don't want to spend money on anything because I know
what our future needs are and I'm trying to be mindful of taxpayers pocketbooks and I'm sorry I'm lecturing a little bit but sorry no man and and that that's scope and size of the program is stuff that that you would want to really roll up your sleeves and and figure out what are your priorities if that program is
too big mayor Deputy Mayor Shen and Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson and then councelor Toller thank you um it just kind of struck me that uh looking at some of the I really enjoyed your report by the way
um but uh some of the capital more uh higher cost items um it seems to me like it might make sense to um see if I mean this is I'm just throwing it out there sharing costs with other towns around us
that are affected by the same Waterway so I'm just wondering in your opinion what are the types of cost like um that would be what makes sense to explore doing that with sure I I there are certainly opportunities for regional uh
cooperation and collaboration um those Watershed implementation plans are a prime example of watersheds that are going to be bigger um than the township they they divide the Township in different ways and so other municip IP alties across the United States they'll
come up with Cooperative ways of being able to pay for the cost of developing those um and then also uh cooperatively implementing the programs realizing that hey it might not make sense to put something in Montclair uh but it might make sense to put it um in a locality uh
immediate adjacent and that way you can you can share the credit for something like that so that you're you're correct is is that there's lots of opportuni should you choose uh to be able to develop M with with neighboring localities to implement things on a regional Regional
basis councelor Toler and then councelor damato sure thank you um so I have a lot of questions but I won't ask them all tonight I'm impressed yes um you your information is with Dr Johnson and am I able to email you and her to get some answers to my questions absolutely yes
okay I won't do it tonight but thank you you don't want to ask any of them right at this point in time I a lot okay all right so you're going to take a pass and I more than happy to engage thank you and happy to get on a phone call too if
that is well maybe maybe I'll answer ask some of the same um some of these are very quick uh B these things would normally or you would suggest or expect that we would that this Authority if it was if it was legally independent it would have its own bonding Authority or
no uh it it could have its own Revenue bonding Authority correct yes what is go ahead go ahead no no I I was going to say yeah probably easier as an authority but it is a revenue Source it's a dedicated Revenue source and so you could do a revenue Bond associated with it okay what is elicit discharge
generally elicit discharges uh it does have a very technical definition under the Clean Water Act uh it is anything that is um not composed entirely of storm water uh that is not um provided an exception under the law um and so you
know um for for instance single family car washing has an ex exemption um the condensate that comes from air conditionings uh that's an exe uh exemption uh but primarily if it's not composed of of just storm water that's
considered an illicit discharge okay um so we we could have a solution in which uh the real the property tax bill which in our case includes three different um boxes on it every quarter
one for Township oh four sorry one for the township uh one for the school system one for our esteemed colleagues in the county and then one for the library tax so I would imagine that you could just have another box on that same
bill correct uh correct and and so we'd want to check you know in terms of how your thing is structured um but in Legally Legally but legally yes there's nothing that says it has to be on a utility bill versus a real property tax bill okay so
um and obviously we would add that box after a terrible storm like the next week right um I'm not joking um so in terms of the getting people credits which I do like to incentivize people to decrease the amount of impervious
coverage and then it would also be like adding a Detention Facility ay dry Wells all this kind of thing would that possibly include different kinds of planting because that can be a thing if you have
big native things that they are very thirsty yep it can yes and so state state law says you have to have a credit it establishes a couple different tiers with respect to everything from Gray infrastructure to highest amount of credit for green
infrastructure um and uh everything in between uh it does not dictate or micromanage how you want to craft or create those or what kind of discount so for gray infrastructure if you want to say you know what we're going to give you 5% discount on you know a conveyance
system like that that's fine if you want to provide a much higher amount for um you know buyer attention uh or for other things I'm not sure what that is maybe you'll have to spell that out uh rain rain Gardens okay yeah so rain Gardens um and and the other part of the
discussion is you know how broadly do you want to make it and so are you just talking about things that are engineered um you know that you can get out there with an engineering drawing and say yep you know we know that this is you know the pollutant reduction you're getting for this uh and it's designed a particular way uh a lot of
localities just stick with that but there are other localities that say hey we want residents to be more broadly engaged and so you get credit for uh planting a certain number of trees or putting a dry well on your property um or putting in a certain number of
volunteer hours each year um doing a a stream cleanup so you got a lot of flexibility with respect to how you would ultimately craft that that credit program okay and then I would have to assume that there are fair amount of person hours to administer that
especially if you've got uh a population that maybe you know would would be looking at the benefits that they're getting and so it in a town of 40,000 with 10 or 15,000 properties you know would we be
would we need three people two people what the FTS ballpark we're not holding I I don't know that it would require um more than just a portion of an FTE at that um often times there's more interest in putting together the credit policy because people feel empowered
okay fewer people actually take advantage of that credit policy and so it's usually about 3% of your Revenue that goes towards the the credit um I I will tell you though is when you're crafting a credit policy that is one of the things you need to consider which is
um having something that's really broad versus the administrative expense and so that's something that you'd look at as a hey we'd like to do this but realistically we can't track this this would cost take an entire person to be able to administer that program um and so it's just a matter of how you want to
structure it and the fixed model that you showed us which obviously some pros and cons to it would would indicate an a single FTE or less uh that would probably be less than that one
once once you have the system up and running so you've identified all of your single family Residential Properties so they get a flat fee um then it's just a matter of uh making sure that your impervious area in JIS is updated on a
periodic basis um in in order to be able to make sure that your billing is act accurate uh the place where that we would want to ask more information is your billing and finance people uh with respect to how much time and energy it would take to put together a billing file each year and so that that would be
a discussion we'd want to have uh with your Finance people okay thank okay thank you um Council Birmingham um on page 19 where you have the Personnel um table with the costs and I think these
costs probably don't reflect with health insurance and and pension just looking at them quickly um are you s because what I'm just trying to figure out in terms of even if we didn't go for this for
utility you're saying we we are going to have extra costs we need to hire extra Personnel just to meet the ms4 requirements is what you're saying and there's different ways of doing it there's certainly going to be some additional costs um with respect to meeting the ms4 that the town ship is is
facing um how you want to do that um in terms of internal hires versus Contracting that is another item that you would want to talk about um you know in terms of how much ownership and control do you want to have over the staff as opposed to Contracting that
workout you'd still need to have somebody managing those contracts uh but there's different ways that you can structure that but how many is it was it one working is it because there's eight people that you have listed here eight Personnel is it eight additional Personnel or did you
was it one working crew three people one one additional crew um one person to operate a vac truck two people for street sweeping um and so those that's all operation and maintenance stuff uh the one that we kind of struggled back and forth with is having
an ms4 coordinator um because it is a lot of work to deal with public education and Outreach uh there are training requirements there's the icit discharge component the gis component um and so looking at the totality um at least in kind of our best professional
judgment is yeah you could probably justify having a person dedicated to that and relieve um your uh Department of of um community services from having to to try to do that um but again you know that's something where if if you
don't want to do a whole person um that's something you can do regionally and or you can decide hey that's something that we'd rather contract out until we get a better feel of what the actual cost of of that will be in the long term thank you thank you very much I appreciate it
all right thank you all very much for the great questions I appreciate it so at this time we're going to um close that discussion if other members have questions please reach out um after we adjourn this meeting at another time we're going to move on to pending
ordinances at this time I'm going to open the hearing um open the public hearing without objection going to move on to the pending ordinances starting with pending ordinance 0-2-2 is there anyone in who's present
who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance um councelor Toller would you start with pending ordinance 0252 thank you how about on the other end do you have pending ordinance 025 oh
okay thank you thank you uh pending ordinance 0-25 d-02 an ordinance to amend section 295 storm water control of the code of the township of mle New Jersey application and inspection fees uh date
of introduction February 25th 2025 I still move second is there anyone here who wishes to be heard at this time on that pending ordinance please feel free to come forward council
members yeah wow okay seeing none um it's been moved and there's been a second Madam clerk will you please do a roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes Council damato yes
councelor lochman yes councel Toler yes Council Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes great moving on to uh pending ordinance 0-255 councelor Williams pending ordinance
0- 25-5 this ordinance amends the the township code to clarify the Township's requirement to repair sidewalks and curbs within the township so moveed second uh is there anyone here from the
public that wishes to be heard please come forward hi ly stockhammer and I permitted to ask a question yes okay um Can somebody explain to us or to me um what the situation is with repair of
sidewalks and curbs are sidewalks the responsibility of the owner or the apartment building or is that the town as opposed to the curbs thank you thank you
oh manager Lola the sidewalks obviously if it's a government building we're responsible for on sidewalks but uh the uh sidewalks are responsibility of the property owner and the curbs are the responsibility of the uh of the
township thank you council members councilor Williams yeah just I mean I don't think it's a big deal but just in paragraph D the red line it just seems like this um
this edit might be redundant I I could be wrong the the red line that starts with if the owner does not comply with the requirement I think the same thing is said in paragraph
B I think that change was made just to clarify if I'm not mistaken I I think it's in Brackets so I think that's supposedly removed is it yeah the first under D there's a bracket there and then after on the next page real estate
assess there's a bracket I think that's the way it reads so it should be if the only an addition I thought that was I'm wrong it's an addition no I well I guess we need an
explanation I thought that the D reads if the owner does not comply with requirements of such written notice the Township in compliance with provision ISS of blah blah blah shall cause the work to be done and then it's e the cost of work
shall be collected by the township and that whole first section is is uh deleted you do tell me edited this mayor may I respond to the whole first thing is deleted yeah the whole manager it's
deleted the first beginning with where D starts and it says if in the absence y from there until the closing bracket on the second page is deleted and yeah that's what I just said language is added but where's the second page cuz all all of this is out see it all of
this is out see my D is way down here everybody does I don't know doesn't uhuh I have B one thanks okay oh I see you got
it I know um I I have a question on on here on the bottom on um on B where it talks about the responsibilities so do we need to put something written in here clearly so
that if it's a town Township tree and the township tree is pulling up the sidewalk in front of the individuals that it's not the responsibility of the resident um to to take care of the sidewalk because I'm getting a lot of
people that have questioned the fact that they think that you know there a Township tree and the township tree messed their sidewalk up and that they don't feel like it should be their responsibility to pay for the sidewalk how are we handling that
I believe that's done on a caseby casee basis but I you know it's I I'll defer the Council on that but that's how it's been handled in the past the problem is how do you define what what's related to the tree do you know what I mean I mean that that's the problem how do you define it is fact sensitive all add and
it's handled through the case law based on a on a Case by case basis as the town manager had indicated so I don't think that we're permitted to actually Define it any differently because of the case law so I think depending on what occurs unfortunately it's just going to
have to be handled at that point in time but is that included in here does it say Case by case that's just the case law meaning under New Jersey Law that's the way it's handled so but how would people know that so suppose a lot of people there you know don't have the legal
background they're not familiar with what case law means and they're sitting in their homes and having difficult time even staying in Mont cair and then they know that the tree that the township planted out there lifted their sidewalk
how would they know to come in and to begin whatever the process is to determine who pays for it un unfortunately you have to make the request of the township Engineers are involved at that point in time so again it's very fact sensitive it's hard to say on a hypothetical basis you know
it's the location of the tree on the property of the private property is it on the uh the row is it on the actual you know depending on where it's been planted I think that'll dictate any of these other facts so it's hard to say in hypotheticals at this point in time
unfortunately so there's nothing that we could write that would let people know that they it's not like you know that there's something that they can come to do to get some type of of assistance if they think that they've been wrong how can we let them them know
that yes councelor Williams so I think most people that are going to fix their sidewalks they're probably doing it because they got a ticket right so at that point in time they would probably just go and say Hey you know the
township tree did this and then that's how would the process would start um that's how I imagine that it would do I would think so I would agree or messaging there's other options I don't know what uh messaging the the township has as far as email blast and things
like that just to give General awareness Ness during specific times where it would be appropriate that would possibly be the best course of action obviously that's within the perview of the council and the governing body so mayor I I do believe that when people are are given a citation that they're sent a packet that
also includes a list of contractors right and other things so we can establish by policy that anybody who gets a citation as well as you know being aggressive in terms of publicizing this um that in that package that they
get in that citation it would say it could say if you believe that this was a result of a of a Township Street tree that you know that is something that can be done and also mayor I do respect and understand that you want and are talking in the finance committee about uh
possibilities for programs so that could be all part of the same thing in terms of like the information that's given to Residents oh I I I I appreciate that and and again I'm just trying to have things done Less on a squeaky wheel type of
thing and there are people that will just go out and see their sidewalk cracked and then go ahead and fix it cuz it's the right thing to do and then when they see their council members going past and stop them and tell them you know cost me $4,000 to fck the sidewalk
in this tree I watched the township put it in so I think that would be um a great idea um councelor demato so yeah I think that would be something that that would probably help and yes um when we voted on this last time I was very
concerned about the cost and what that may do to some families and since that time We the finance committee met and um we began to have conversations on a few things that um may help to offset some
of the cost so that there'll be equity for people that don't have the $1,500 sitting there immediately uh we haven't gotten to the end point there yet but I'm going to um choose to vote differently than I did the first time
tonight because you know as the council explained and I totally agree we do need to have something in place but know that we're going to continue to to look at this in terms of how we can um set up something that will um make everyone
feel that they are able to um get their sidewalks fixed and and not have to choose between having groceries and and fixing a sidewalk and thank you counselor damato Madam mayor maam yes councelor Toller this is uh first thing item D here where it says 30 days I
think that should say 45 days on the first page here but I thought they said it took it all off okay yeah I see where you're saying at the bottom see she has a page I no look down here mine says 30 and I put 45 here too but I think yours says different the other thing is um
yeah down at the bottom it say 30 it should say 45 and to piggyback off of what you just mentioned and what counselor damato stated are we saying right now tonight there's no language we can include in this because what I've discovered is that sometimes the ordinances say one thing residents don't
know they may go to the permit department to get something it doesn't quite match the ordinance how is this going to be included now so that we don't have to try to figure this out later I understand what you're saying it's a case by case clean thing um there's got to be a paragraph or sentence or blur or something that we
can include now to ensure that when this ordinance is in place if a resident comes in they can say I'm referring to the ordinance not hearsay there's got to be something we can put in here now cuz that's what's going to happen they're going to get a ticket as you
mentioned they're going to get this packet if the ordinance doesn't have the language in it they're still not going to be protected well well M yes councelor Willam how how would this be any different from receiving a parking ticket and you don't think that not
talking well but I'm just thinking you know it's it's something saying that hey you're responsible for this and you you go and fight it I mean if you don't think that you're you should be responsible for fixing it you're going
to go go fight it I I don't think I I I hear what you're saying I respect my opinion I I think we should move forward with this um tonight and and we can do a campaign about about this and and stuff a little bit later on
I I don't that's my op I think we need can I try to answer it in a little different way just regarding that to me it's not a matter of you know you you don't think you should have to do something it's a matter of you've lived in a house for a long time um I I don't know if manager La po knows you may know
there was a time when the township went through the town and they thought they were doing a wonderful service to everybody and they didn't plant the trees appropriately and many of them have caused difficulties for people in terms of the um lifting of the sidewalks
or other things the roots are growing into that and people are incurring fees so it's not a matter to me there that you don't think that it's a matter that the township did that the township to take should take responsibility and then you know I don't
I don't understand why the township wouldn't be happy if we know that we are responsible for something to do that we are at every turn now we're talking about this storm water you know we're talking about a lot of additions and and pushing out a lot of people that would
like to stay here so I'm just trying to find out what we can do take responsibility if we know that that we did something wrong yeah I I agree and I know I've shared emails with you and councelor damato from residents in the fourth W you've seen them and they're concerned so my concern is we need to
find a paragraph some verbiage something to include that covers people in the ordinance not that they have to come in and find out later through a packet through a ticket that this is what you need to do that's just not fair to the residents we need to find a way to include a sentence or two now so that
they're covered within this ordinance and yes the fourth ward you've read the emails is that not correct councelor damato you've seen them I mean I've gotten them in the first trees well I mean I've shared the ones from the residents in the fourth with you so you understand some of the concerns that the residents have regarding this
sidewalk ordinance so my thing is we need to find a way to include some language now into the ordinance now so that they're protected any person in the township is protected as a resident and it's covered if you will whether it's the tree that we planted and it made the
sidewalk Buckle it's in the ordinance they're covered not let's find this out 30 days later and get a ticket and get a packet and that sounds like a big circus to me I'm going to go to manager Lola then I'm going to go to council Williams uh Deputy Mayor I just have a question
are you talking about just when someone gets a summon or you're talking about you know Mr X on Grove Street decides he's going to replace his sidewalk and comes and says I'm replacing my sidewalk town you have to give me a new sidewalk like what are we talking about when I first raised a question I was talking
about all of them and if they know for a fact the tree was planted by the the township and it's lifting their sidewalk and I know in the past the town the township has been very good with that that's the the township has been very
good with that they have sent people out they've you know taken whatever cut the sidewalk removed the um the roots and I don't want us to get away from those things that that you know Humanity so I just want to make sure and and I agree with you counselor Toller I mean I liked
um Council damato's idea cuz nobody else seemed to be understanding at all where I was going with this but um yeah yes oh I'm sorry it's your turn um Council Williams can I just say something yes so we we heard I think we
we had pretty good debate here but ultimately here I I think we should it's up for a vote vote on it if you don't think that it should go forth the way it is vote no and if you think it should go forward the way it is vote Yes um that's
not helpful to folks I appreciate that that's that's I mean yep thank you councilor Williams we're not there yet but thank you for your idea now I'm going to continue to have discussion I know I think Council Birmingham did you wish to say anything
um yeah no I I I think um I've seen in different towns where they the town might cover half or they might do you know um I guess I'm just thinking of potentially what the financial implications of this are and I
can't I can't right now it seems like it might be pretty high if we're if we're basically saying we're going to fix because again there are a lot of trees I'm not Clair and so it I'm just not sure councelor toer do you have a suggestion for what
language you'd want in there because I'm not sure I could I could live with half if the township if a resident says that their sidewalk is buckled because of a tree that we planted we should be able to at least provide half of the fee for them I've gotten at least five emails there's two residents actually that are
fearful they're going to get another violation and have to determine if they're going to buy groceries or pay the violation fee because it's that expensive to fix a sidewalk and it's because of a tree that was planted by the township so if we're
going to um discuss the the finances as as I mentioned the finance committee is looking at that um and councelor Birmingham and we started that discussion right but we haven't really flushed it out so for now you wanted to get some
language in here yeah I think so I mean I would I would imagine that someone here at 205 has a report on where the trees have been planted in this Township and it'd be an easy cross reference if if a resident says it's because of a tree we would be able to figure that out very
quickly I mean can can we say something as just broad as um in locations where it appears that it is the sidewalk is disrupted due to a town planted tree
residents May appeal to the township for assistance on a case-by Case basis or you know again excellent I don't yeah but you had a point to make on that there's there there's two real points and you kind of open up a can of worms to liability question because it raised a flag in my mind to best
disc with the thef how that would imp potential claims down the line going back to origin I mentioned to you is that sidewalk liability is governed by essentially the case law in the state so I don't know I I understand the concerns
I just am a little wary about adding some language that might confuse the issue and open up the town to liability that's not foreseen despite all the good intentions here so that's the only thing I would caution the Council on um I don't have any specific language I can necess recommend at this point in time we'd be happy to look at something and
for further discussion yeah so does the state law preclude us from trying to give assistance to our Township residents because I've seen some things they might be in violation of the state law like West Orange and Livingston and some other places where they have some
language that will even go further than I was thinking we were going to go tonight and provide assistance for them different plans so does that mean that they're in violation when they want to provide more for their Township I don't I don't I wouldn't believe so um I think
it really comes down to when claims do present themselves those are the matters that are litigated all these issues that are great questions that are raised these are kind of all handled during the litigation process that's why again I hate to sound like a lawyer it's just difficult for me to give you a straight answer right now because of all the hypotheticals um but to answer your
question directly no if the town wants to assume additional liability obviously that's within the perview of the council mayor yes question I'm sorry I'm I'm I apologize I did tell Deputy Mayor she had go next I'm sorry Deputy Mayor um I
uh I completely understand what the attorney is saying and I I hear what the mayor and councelor toer are saying as well um I would not um include that language because of what the attorney said that these should be considered on
a case-by Case basis um you know when I I think we ultimately want to encourage residents and um Property Owners to um maintain their sidewalks right and so um that's why we're we're pushing for um an enforcable law and what I'm envisioning
is that the division of Code Enforcement would you know let's say that property owner was like I don't think I need to be responsible for this because it's because of a tree that is something that would be discussed um at at this point with the township and and you know
examined by the engineer so I I would not put that language in there I would I would just ask that the township staff um how really think about how we're going to um communicate you know this more information about this ordinance um
and yeah yes I just want to just so hypothetically if you were going to do a program like this the issue is that we'd have to FL flesh out would be okay I'm going to do my sidewalk I file a form
with the code someone tomorrow does the town have 30 days 60 days 90 days we can't fix sidewalks between probably December 1st and maybe April 1st because the cold weather we have liability issues with the GIF like we need to figure this out like how are we going to
do this just when like I don't want to have people I don't think you'd want to have people sign up and we say we're going to get to you in a year and a half because we have such a backlog so I think we have to price that out I'm not arguing one way or the other about what the merits of this I'm just saying these are the
things that we have not had an opportunity to uh to figure out so whatever we do is going to take whatever you decide to do and if you decide to do something more expansive it's going to take some time to develop the criteria
and then may have to come back to you to decide okay and if I may Council deato it may be also true that the programs that we are going to have that we would explore to have would not
reside in the sidewalk ordinance exactly they would be a different program they may not even be something that's you know in the code that it's just an administrative obligation that we take on right so it's not like the
code that that somebody looks at which people don't actually look at in in terms of the code itself they don't interact I don't think with the e code 360 the way we do um they know about it by coming to town hall or getting a mail
or so it's I don't think we would put all these things into whatever chapter of the code is right like we would we wouldn't it would be probably by resolution to do a a fee split or something like that or maybe it involves money we usually do ordinance we going
to do an ordinance okay either way this is one step there is no concrete that is poured by law until the end of the month anyway we can it isn't it's in the ordinance March 22nd yeah um or actually
it's a different part of our code I found March 22nd you're not allowed to pour anything a slab outside is that we can come back and and amend this again but let's just do this part because we're already we've been through it so
many times when do you think we can come back and do it again because that's what I have well come up come up with the amendment we say that and then we'll forget about it no but it's not it's not on me my concern again is if it's not some language in the ordinance the residents are not protected okay if
this if you can give me an ETA on when we're going to come back to amend this well I'm not the one asking for the amendment I'm just saying you're telling us let's vote on it and we can come back to it that's what you just said okay so then we have another I mean I don't want to get snarky but like so we have another meeting in 2 weeks and then we
go through the same thing again it's like Groundhog Day if people want to amend something and add something to it there's a bit of an obligation to come up with the language now I don't I agree I would like to have something that address the issue of root Invasion and
breaking right I would like to see that it's not a huge priority for me but I'm I'm I'm into it but I'm not remember to do it it's not on me right so if you want to have something an
amendment we can amend this now we can amend it again in in two meetings well you said it's not on you who created the draft because whoever created the draft didn't take everything into consideration well there's never you never take everything into consideration so let me try to um it's a moving Target we we we've heard and seems like you
know a lot of people are are willing you know at a later date to further explore something for for this um Council Toller if you wish to offer some uh Amendment language now then we can find out if
there can you know somebody wants to second that if not I'd like for us to unless somebody wants to add something else tonight I know you know I mentioned earlier what the finance committee is doing um and um council damato is saying
that maybe we can once we get that straight it can even go somewhere else I just want to give some hope to the residents of this Township that if we make an error in planting trees and we know that then we it shouldn't be a
matter of 50/50 it should be a matter of we hired a group of people in whatever year it might have been 2008 somebody might remember it and it has caused a a problem for the for the resident so that's all my whole thing it has nothing
to do with the ongoing um you know 50/50 that type of thing it's really very simple for me if we make a mistake I want us to to be you know strong enough in who we are and really for the people we all ran on for the people and and and
yet and still if we know that we made an error why won't we just go ahead and take care of it that that's so just so mine but let's vote and um unless you want to offer some language now well Council Williams I know you wanted to vote before but I I wanted everybody to
flush it out yeah no I'm just wondering if there is someone in this building that has where the trees are planted and then perhaps that can be turned over to code enforcement um so that if an owner does call in with a question or complaint they can verify that so it's going to have to be a tedious job for
that individual but it's going to have to be what happens because without the ordinance having the language in it which you said we really can't include it gets tricky it gets it turns into tickets violations and fees and all kinds of things so we need to ensure
that um before anything is issued to a resident that perhaps code enforcement verifies if a tree was planted at said address I would be comfortable with that that has to be a verification first and I can try to help them to to go back to the year that I believe it might have
been I have a ballpark idea when it might have been somewhere between maybe 2008 2010 I'm not 100% sure I don't have my notes here but I will be happy to try to assist with um you know getting that information
okay yes um just really quick point of clarification um in section D um are we do we somebody have to put forward a motion to change the 30 days to 45 or no no because that section is deleted oh it is okay deleted so that's
not on there all right okay okay so then we're good so we've had um a motion and there's been a second Madam clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yeah yes Council Birmingham yes councel damato yes
councel lochman yes councelor Toler no council Williams yes mayor Baskerville now you going no yes the language isn't there okay no I said No at the last um when we voted
before I said no and then I earlier spoke so yeah okay I'm I'm going to to vote for this and I'm going to trust that we are going to move forward and take care of those things that the finance committee um is interested in
and some language to help residents know that certainly if we made a mistake on the township side we would like to rectify that moving on we have um pending ordinance B
Deputy Mayor please pending ordinance 0-25 d06 Town um an ordinance amending salary ordinance 0-20 d07 of the township of
Montclair in the county of Essex fixing the salary ranges thereof I so move second okay um are there uh people from uh um our guests that would like to
come forward and discuss the pending ordinance ordinance to amend the non-union management salary ordinance if so please come forward thank you this is the ordinance that I was talking about before and it says that um fixing the
salary ranges thereof is amended to include a maximum salary for the position of Township manager for the year 2025 as follows 2, $235,000 um and it doesn't say anything else so if it's just if it's retroactive to
January 1 which makes sense because it's the year 2025 then you can do with it what you will it can be read that's how it's read that's how it's written that's how it's read just I'm just saying mayor can I just thank you um yes
manager Lola just if you look at previous ordinances the ordinance said the salary ranges for the year if you look at the last ordinance I believe it was for four years it sets it for the year it doesn't set it for the it has the title not the person so if you
appoint someone there's plenty of people in that ordinance that there's a salary range and they're not making the maximum salary so it sets the range or or the or the max salary some of them there's the top positions I believe there's the uh
the manager uh police fire and a few others that set a Max without a bottom line number others have a range but it's set for the entire year if you look at that ordinance it says it's for 20021 22 or 21 22 23 24 it's the range for the
year doesn't mean that everybody gets that salary for the year so I just want to clarify that this is done consistently with how it's been done forever thank you uh councelor Toller yeah thank you uh Mr Leola for that explanation but I think what Miss Thomas is referring to because I saw it too um
I'm just curious if we need to actually specify April 1st on here do we need to put the new manager's name on here just let me finish okay and when this says effective date the date of introduction is February 25 2025
um Mr Lola your title is inim or is your title Township manager well I'm called interim but there's no such thing in the law so it's Township manager right so then that becomes the question that would someone like Mr Lola who's leaving us be able to come back and say Hey I
want to be compensated at this rate from January 1 2025 to March 31st 2025 my agreement specifically says the salary on I understand I talking to the attorney just for clarification so that people that have the questions can get the
answer and thank you he took the words out of my mouth correct since is governed by the actual agreement and specifically stated there's no way that could happen as indicated so that's not going to be an issue anyone that's concerned about that um and as was noted the maximum amount within that year is
identified so there's nothing that would indicate that it's retroactive which has to be specific intent by the council in New Jersey with ordinance construction so that's the way I view and that would be thank you for the answer thank you any further discussion or um there's
been it's been moved did we move this and second it yeah yes okay Madam Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor deato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler
yes Council Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you okay let's move on we're going to move this at this point in time to new business ordinances councilor lochman can you please do new business ordinance C for
us thank thank you umor ordinance 0-25 07 an ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Monclair New Jersey is
so move second discussion Council Council William I don't have a discussion I just want to thank um DCS and the town engineer for the studies um
all all of these properties are in the Third Ward and theyve been problematic areas especially lellan and Harrison um my only question here with this is there's a flashing light at lellan and H
Harrison once these stop signs go in is that going to be removed and I'm asking because someone emailed me and said that the flashing light is always in their bedroom or something like that you know so well uh most likely yes I mean it's a it's a the
the flashing yellow light is a a warning Beacon but um the the stop sign would take president so yes that's something we're looking at and one one last thing sorry sure I'm excited as third W um so
when when do you think just about this will get installed I know that there's weather and and stuff like that and you have to order signs but just a rough ETA right yeah so once the ordinance is passed for the second time um we we're
order the supplies now we have some in stock um and it should not take more than a few weeks and get you the exact ETA um later on councilor Birmingham and then Council model you want to say something to okay
Council Birmingham can I ask that the stop lights that have the lights on them that are solar powered are those are those how that's my question is how much more expensive are those than a regular stop sign so we were talking about this so those are
each sign is around $2,500 now the installation cost is something we were going back and forth of had it to like get that real number the actual signs themselves are $75 um for a typical stop sign minus the pole and the labor and installation um
but that's you know but you're saying all in it's 250 $2,500,000 yeah okay so I guess that doesn't seem that much to me for something that's like a permanent
real safety installation um what's the difference between what's that what's the difference between solar and non-solar add minus well we don't have the installation cost
those are difficult to calculate but the the physical sign itself is around $75 right plus install it's a difference but again these are safety like everyone is always like I didn't see people don't see the stop signs and so I'm just wondering
because I do feel like those are more prominent they are you know we just want to we try to use those in areas where we want people have trouble seeing the signs or if it creates a uh like whe there's a bend that you're going around
that that's the type that's the time you want to use a a flashing time thank you question the one at Harrison and the well I'm sorry no no just is that going to be a double flashing side cuz that's a terrible intersection there
just I don't think so I would have to check to see you know what we're planning for that oh thanks sure I'm mayor anyone else mayor I just wanted to also Echo thanks um I know
councelor Williams and I um particularly have been getting a lot of emails and I understand that at least the Harrison Avenue intersections have been a concern going back at least 5 years so um I think it's small incremental steps yes and and
and I um also would like to um thank everyone that was involved and and um also note that there were some things that have been done in the last few years that just didn't work right they put some light so this is just a next
step and um hopefully things will work better it's not like the township was just sitting still and not responding to the fact that that was an area that had been identified as having some accidents so now I'm glad that we're taking yet
another step and hopefully um this will uh make make a difference now when you got the data um you have the list for the 29 accidents that occurred on Harrison Avenue and Luan road because I know you noted it here and if if you have it I just want to know maybe if you
can email it to me maybe tomorrow or something just yeah because that's that's a a huge number so the residents that may not have that information to know that between 2020 and 2024 at the Harrison ab and lellan Road there were
29 accidents so yeah that's a huge even with that yeah even with the new things that they tried yeah and we will continue to monitor those intersections going forward because it may need still further uh action there's no guarantee that this will solve the problem so we
want to make sure that we're monitoring those going forward as we do with all the other intersection mayor great work team yes councelor damato um this is not a criticism coming from me uh but a member uh of the vision zero task force
I did see was saying uh in our uh chat room um that I believe they they were uh uh maybe lightly disappointed that that it was uh the answer here was control rather than
caling um and I'm just wondering if that was a discussion that was right yes so we've looked at a couple different options uh traffic many roundabouts things of that nature um harison Avenue in particular we have identifi where if I can ask or is it
going to be at well no we we didn't we didn't go with those because of the issue with the Turning radiuses for uh emergency vehicles school buses stuff like that there's making the left hand turn through a a mini roundabout or roundabout is very difficult as you all
have seen at Church Street um but Harrison Avenue is an area that we have identified for traffic caling additions that we we intend to address in this year's capital budget excellent thank you anyone else no uh Madam
clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councilor demato yes counc lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor basille yes thank you uh um Council Birmingham please new
business ordinance did I jump past you you did one okay I thought so C bham ordinance 0- 25-8 an ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Monclair New
Jersey um this is to um amend the mon clar code section 32724 handicap parking on um Seymour Street East and IO moov second any discussion i' just like to
thank um councelor Williams I know you worked hard on this we had a guest that came to us a couple of times I don't see her here tonight but perhaps she's watching because I'd like for her to know you know well I I emailed her
tonight about Barbara uh German so last night we had a meeting in front of 6 Seymour Street um with some of the residents there to kind of talk about the parking situation and that kind of laid out what's happening there she she wasn't there but I emailed her tonight
to let her know that this is coming and there's some other things that we're looking at as well on Seymour Street so uh I hear you we're we're doing stuff just uh just be patient just a question councelor lochman um will that be that
specific person's designated spot oh no no anyone that has the uh handicap Placer uh hang tag can can park there oh just one more question so is there overnight parking on CMR Street that's
the only Street in Monclair that is permit parking only so in order to park overnight you have to buy and and we discussed this last night with the residents there you have to buy an end permit and if you want to park there 24 hours a day you have to buy a c and an N okay permit is that also true of of
handicap parking handicap parking is free I believe um when you park at a handicap St spot but I don't believe that you can use that same one for a permit for permit parking but I could be wrong have to check with Manny can I
just ask one question then just I don't want to open a can can of worms so if somebody is coming coming to the Wellmont and they see that handicap spot they can grab that spot
okay um councelor Williams I I don't I don't want to like um dismiss the greatness of this moment but uh you are aware and I'm aware that they needed two handicapped parking spots there for the residents so have we um made any
Arrangements like with the deck or anywhere for the other individual that um needs a handicap parking space so last year actually when the lot
on South Fullerton and it's between Roosevelt and I forget the other street right there we when it was being restriped we added well I say we I didn't do anything um I I asked I asked folks to add additional handicap spots
there so um it increased I I think we went from like two to maybe six or or something like that now mind you you know these are handicap spots and it's not accessible um to to the folks around um if you have um if you have difficulties
walking and things of that nature but there there are some other things that we're we're looking to do there on on Seymour such as reducing the size of the sidewalks which are you know in inordinately wide in comparison to other
place which will make the street wider which could allow for additional parking on the other side of the street and then we can kind of revisit that now so we don't have a ready-made solution for the two folks that do have the handicap placards right now but this is one step
in in that direction excellent thank you anyone else Madame clerk please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor deato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor
yes thank you councelor Birmingham will you please do new business ordinance oh I'm sorry manager Lola I just was going to uh say that I well I I ask that this this ordinance be put on here I I think it's better if we have a presentation about the technology for the entire uh
mayor and Council so you understand what it is what in a nutshell what it is it's a it's a uh safety stick is a piece of equipment that's installed and it takes pictures of people who are staying too long in a spot you could you can uh set
it for 60 seconds or 90 seconds or 2 minutes but it's been very effective in other towns but I really do think because it's going to be a big adjustment for people in town as I've seen this rolled out in other places that it'd be important that we have a presentation for you at a public meeting
so the public starts to get used to what this would be if you decide to implement it so I'm asking that this be pulled until after that presentation okay all right thank you like the idea thank you okay we are um pulling new ordinance e
so we will not be talking about the safety sticks um this evening we're going to have a presentation so that the residents as well as the council will be clear about what it is and what an wonderful asset it can be for the
township moving on to ordinance F please uh deato uh ordinance uh 0 2510 and ordinance to amend section 347 zoning of the code of
the township of Monclair New Jersey and I so move second any discussion councilor Toller yep thank you um I know this is to expand and I guess my question is after
listening to the storm water presentation the amount of coverage that should be or should be available to homeowners um for their tax credits we're actually taking away some of their space for impervious coverage when we do this do you agree or not
agree are you talking about the Adu I don't get any question well we're expanding the space correct for adus how much space no it's still going to be 800 square fet so it's not going to go beyond that right it y not exceed 30 30 ft in any
direction so residents aren't losing more yard space going in in the the yard space mhm anyone else yeah oh I'm sorry sorry um did any there was a um letter written
to the Monclair local this week does anyone under know what the concern was in terms of did like I know councilor lman you've worked on this did and I must admit I read Mr raki's letter
and I'd have to go back and read it again to understand what he was driving it no I could you know cuff no sure I can thank you thank you I didn't read it
it seems like he's against adus and I'm not quite sure what his rationale is I think that there are some people who just uh are either for or against adus on the
concept that it's providing more housing broadly as opposed to an Adu being an accessory unit usually for a family member so
so the idea is that some people think that it's adding more density and that it's a form of development that it's that it's close to being normal development closer than it than it is normally presented I don't necessarily feel that way I don't you
know yeah he he also way something about parking and it couldn't be waved you know you can't wave the parking um requirement right by doing this well I I can understand that I think Mr Helman point though who who spoke earlier ax MH
Herman Herman Helman I got it right the first time um it is a kind of a case-by casee basis I mean people who would make it in some examples for an older you know person wouldn't necessarily need
that that parking minimum you know that's a big discussion to have about parking minimums but the adus now don't have to be for a senior no they don't no they don't have to be for the the senior but the idea is that it's not clear if it adds another car always so Janice can
you address this I believe that they have to have one spot for the adus I just don't remember what the ordinance says thank you good evening good evening the ordinance does require that they have
one spot one spot yeah so great there's any other questions I can answer yeah and and I just like to say this was driven by the senior Community we all know that right it wasn't it wasn't driven by affordable housing community it was driven by seniors who
felt like you know they may have these big houses they have space and they want uh Adu for a caregiver a family member they could live in the ad they can live in it they can live in the Adu and they could rent out or their family member with a family could live in the big
house you know was just another way to add a unit that uh would serve the different kinds of families that we're seeing now we've seen we we've received 10 applications for accessory accessory dwelling units since this ordinance was
passed so there is a lot of interest there have been applications they're very slow to actually Implement them and build them but they are being built and why is that probably because they're expensive you know it cost you $100,000 to build a ad and financing is is expensive financing is hard so that's
one reason it's not getting built but so and if I may have a question uh from what I understand or am I incorrect uh in assuming that the change that we're making is partly because of a technical flaw in the original one which was that
if it was 24x 24 actually didn't make it possible for you to have well if you 24 by 24 is not enough to create an 800t unit which is the maximum size so we just adjusted the maximum size for an
accessory structure uh in the R1 Zone R1 and R in the R1 Zone District um I think it's the R2 Zone District as well so that you could get an 800t right so we we had initially told people you could have 800 square ft right and then when
they drew it on on a napkin they went but you can't make it you can't make there's a different section of the code that limits it so we basically changed that section of the code regarding accessory buildings to say that you can exceed that 24t in any direct One
Direction if it's for an Adu okay yeah thank you Janice I appreciate you always being here no matter the hour thank you very much I'm sorry Council Birmingham thank you um so I'm just reading here one critique that says it
in the ordinance incentivizes Adu creation by the township subsidizing the utility infrastructure charges of Select Property Owners who can afford to build adus it it
is that I'm I'm not quite sure I'm I'm just trying to I I'm not quite sure what that statement means I know that they have to run because they would obviously still be paying they have to run util if it's a detached Adu they have to run utilities they have to provide a sewer
connection they have to provide a water connection water connection okay so thanks this is why I didn't want to answer his letter okay uh Madam clerk please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes yes Council
Birmingham yes councel damato yes councel lochman yes councel Toler no councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes uh moving on to new business resolutions the bill list councelor
lochman please is that me why do away okay um I move resolution d r uh sorry r - 25- 062 the bill list
resolution um whereas invoices against the township of Monclair in favor of the following persons for the amounts set opposite their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct now there it be resolved by the Council of the township of Monclair in
the county of Essex that said invoices be and they are hereby ordered paid and that checks be drawn by the finance department to the order of such persons for the amounts resped ly and here and after stated on the schedule attached here to and made a part hereof uh the
total amount is 20, we pulled item 7265 the neglia engineering bills totaling 58255 59 at the request of I'm Sor what page are you onil you you can put it on did you put it on I'm going to ask they to be amended to include this one sure that's
fine so we had pulled that but I'm asking it be amended to include that bill that was pulled last month do we have that in front of us it's negli just okay uh 7965 neglia Engineering Associates uh total amount is
$582 15559 okay councelor Toler yes did you yes I have questions yes I'm okay with adding nly your back on I did put through the um the attachment that I received okay you have
questions on the rest of the bill no I do all you um SS County Special Transportation if can you just clarify what that is and what that payment well we see what the payment amount is but what is that for Amy is that Essex County Special
Transportation isue $175,000 yeah we that's the contract for the senior uh bus service and that's we you had approv that and that's the payment for for that so that was for one full year not like a couple of months that was for one full year yes
2024 thank you and then I see that there's a payment for corner Cornerstone twice is there a reason why there's two payments to Cornerstone maybe we can start pagea this on the side we don't staple Janus would you know the
Cornerstone I'm looking for those sure um the first page for Cornerstone uh replacement is um on page two on page two and then the same vendor the same topic you mean for debt Wier
yeah yeah so there was two payments to debt Wier they completed the job and they they they and they submitted um their bills in two SE second up the top yep the tax appeals if somebody is
somebody I guess he's not here to explain these tax Appeals I guess these go to residents for for example on page one there's a tax appeal for 7343 I tax refund tax refund M and on page two
again real estate appraisal for hendris does this refer to or relate to tax appeals okay there's there's two two different things here the um Hendrick does tax appeals for um
the appraisals for tax appeals were very aggressive in fighting tax appeals and very successful so but for these smaller amounts just may be uh we're not allowed on any of these circumstances I I you may recall some we had an issue with people um there was a glitch with the
computer system and we still had to come back to the council so we're not allowed to do those refunds without those approvals but through tax appeals or maybe some ever minor adjustment that it comes back to you but Hendrick um handles all of those appeals on behalf of uh of uh the tax assessor and also
testifies in court Etc so that's what those payments are for okay and then there just they also did the uh uh appraisal for on the psng issue that were okay so um the last one that I have a
question on um is for ra Dan and I see that it's 7,100 $188 but it doesn't have a check total is that normal or is that coming from a blanket po that was just pulled off of a what is the full po amount CU I see it's
a blanket po payment oh I'm sorry I don't know the answer to that question Council I don't do the buildings for the Law Department we don't know how much all right and I guess Consulting engineering
they're super they're supervising these sewer lining that DCS oversees yes um do they have any explanation on the manhole cover or was that not related to a SE line Public Service it was service investig I can get you the report if
they've given us one that's all I have I won't hold the floor with it anyone else no Madam clerk deputy mayor Anderson yes okay councel
Birmingham yes councelor damato councelor lochman councelor Toler yes councilor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you moving on to um councelor Toller will you do new
business resolution H please resolution 2563 uh Township of Monclair res resolution authorizing employment separation agreement and release dated March 11 2025 um is so move
second discussion please councelor Toller someone else to go first to gra my so we got a uh a new a new copy of this resolution did we not sir yes before the
meeting started it took out all the language on the confidentiality yes I just want to make sure that everybody um is looking at the correct copy we got today what changes were made yeah just just one par confidential
mhm put under here I'm sorry guys I got too many papers oh that's okay take your time okay thank you for your patience um what
um while while we're waiting for you councelor toer can I just ask a question um this would I know that this we discussed that this doesn't really need to be confidential so is was this made available to the public prior to this
meeting right so the separ have been able to see it yes y so okay it's on the right y so just the long short of the separation financially is the 90
days as per New Jersey statute and the vacation as per Town policy okay correct so my question is that I I've emailed everyone you know if there was an employment contract and I'm hearing that there wasn't one um so I'm trying to
understand how do we arrive at this decision for this payment and these other things if there was no official Employment contract um nobody can seen the answer that I know that there was a a
resolution that was um by the um Council that um manager Leola by that resolution would be entitled to that of a um full-time employee
M there was a resolution appointing him Town manager correct there several res yeah but I mean it specifically appoints him as a fulltime descrition term are set for statute it's different in the statute there's no no manager has had a contract since Joe Hartnett was hired I
think in 2003 right so no one else has had a contract and this is the same payout that was given to Mr Stafford when he left um I just have another question because and I guess this is okay to discuss in public or should I ask the
attorney first give it a try well there's a a a portion of this that speaks about you know basically walking off into the sun um and not being called back if you will for cases that are current
um I just don't see how our new manager can answer any questions when it's time for individuals to go to court you know this is allowing not allowing I don't know if I understand the question I'm sorry so I know that
pursu to the agreement um s is going to be helping make Reas available for the transition well not only that if he were involved in a court case he would be subpoena to testify right and so he may not be here but he is obligation by the courts to
testify anything that's correct if he is a defendant in a lawsuit for example certainly he would obviously have to appear under those circumstances right I understand that but I thought I read something where it was said that you know if that should arise or that something like that comes up
that I'm sorry are you referring to page four at the top of page four yeah it just that just says that after after Mr Lola leaves if he does become a party to a lawsuit that has to do with his
performance um as the manager that he I mean he would have to as somebody else said appear and um you know he would be he would be covering the costs of that if it has to who would cover the cost of it the township it says that yeah
because if it was a claim official capacity if it something that AR roll is because of his yeah he's indemnified is State indemnification I'm also an attorney so I have an obligation to obey the court the court rules the law
yeah so there's a question as to the non-disparagement clause in the agreement uh and essentially that is what it is on its face that there should no be no uh disparagement to the currently elected or only to shall only
apply to the Township's current mayor and counselors and only for as long as serving as the elected official for the township M Clair I thought that was strien I'm sorry say that again please sure as long as there's sitting as a council person mayor Etc there will be
no disparagement by Mr laola otherwise obviously elections happen politics happen that doesn't mean that Inu going forward he can't say something I would get rid of that I think he should be free to say how ridiculous we are if he wants to totally that's the least we can
do and it's us disparaging him too I'm sorry I but in my copy it looks like that Clause is stricken so all that looks like it's stricken on mine it looks like it's all taken out well I didn't work on the stricken one I worked on the one that we received in our packet okay that's why I'm asking okay
I'll check double check it myself did you get this one I do have it I just said I made my notes on the original one that I get it yeah no I just got and this is normal in here at the top of the page yeah practice I don't have any more question
okay now you said you don't have an employment you said you don't have the employment contract but when we were discussing earlier today you did say you had contct I know I told you I didn't have one and that my email to you said I do not have a contract that my employment is covered by the statute and
I sent you a separate email that said that the last my understanding was the last manager of the contract was when Mr Harner was hired in 2003 or 2004 and um oh it's on but I'm not my voice is fading again but that you know the the
the my employment is covered my job description manager's description and the terms of his employment he serves basically with the pleasure there's the three months you you can have a contract for certain terms but you can't give someone a term for example in contract because the statute limits on what you
could do so you can't give somebody a contract that says they're going to be the manager for two years or 3 years or 5 years you're precluded from doing that so if you look at the proposed agreement for Mr Marx it's very much you know he's going to which is basically you get the days that are the town policy and you
get certain other you know things that you're entitled to and I just took my salary and that was it and everything else was pursuant the Statute and Township policy I'm an employee like everyone else and mayor Deputy Mayor yeah just um and
just to be also just to clarify further um in this agreement you're waving um claims right um and in and um agreeing to remain here until Mr Marx begins his employment yes as well as be available
for up to a month I I've met with Mr Marx several times and we've started the transition may I yes councilor lochman I know I'm just curious why aren't you entitled to um sick days that's the law in New Jersey get paid for if you if you retire
if you we've been through this in this town if you retire from the um the town if you were hired depending on the union but for the overall people for example if I was the manager 25 years and I retired uh if I would be entitled to up
to uh 6 months of uh sick time anyone hired after I think it's May 20th or May 21st of 2010 the the payout for sick time is limited limited to $155,000 but I'm not retiring from here so I'm not entitled to any sick time thank
you anyone else I'm sorry I didn't know you I can't hear you I didn't know you still speaking please forgive me you still no I said it's all that's all pursuant to statute okay that's not a town policy Council I I want to just uh emphas for
like basically people at home that it is in the law and if you read the fauler ACT which everybody should want to understand the government that we have there are interesting like bells and whistles that are baked in there including the manager having the right
to have a public hearing which is almost always waved but it's an interesting setup and it is in the law so as he said there is no I was and I was very surprised to discover and we should be humble like when we learned things we're like wow I didn't know I always thought
that there was a special category that was called interim and that it meant something and it just doesn't exist in the law at all it means it is just something that we append so it is not you know these are things that are you know in the law and we we're learning
them but but it's but it's important so one more I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you off if there's no contract then how how do we pay for vacation time cuz that's the town policy and everyone every employee when they leave is entitled to their recruit vacation time
whether it's me or somebody uh you know who works in DCS or anywhere else that's that's the policy for all employees and I just want to mention just because I want to clarify a point that was made at the last meeting I do not uh get my health benefits from the township and I am not
enrolled in the pension system so in addition to all those extra costs that were implied at a previous meeting is the cost of my employment I do not take those I don't even take a town phone or a town car so just to be clear anyone
else Madam clerk please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor demato yes councelor lochman councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you very much uh we're going to take like a 7 minute
break and and then we're going to come back cuz if I say 10 you all are doing 15 if I say seven maybe it'll be 10 Deputy Mayor needed little break e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e okay welcome back we're going to um move
to resolution number 20 I know we have not gone through number one through 19 yet but I see people here from um the bid and so let's jump to number 20 that way if people don't wish to stay for the
rest of the um resolutions they're free to leave when we get finished so um Council damato please we're doing number resolution um number 20 the bid budget okay he um manager Lola please
Europe he does the we're going to start at 20 of the 2025 budget for the Monclair Center business improvement district uh we do this Pursuit with the statute you approve uh their budget and um which is
totals based uh it sets their assessment at 1,659 for the year 2025 and that there will be a um uh and is you will be introducing it and there will be a hearing uh that takes place and final adoption that will take place on April
22nd at 7 p.m. thank you for people that are watching at home can you please explain what that means when we have a number in here as their budget what that means to the township and if anything what that means to the tax pay this assessment is just on the on the
properties that are in the bid if I'm not mistaken I think it's 160 all right all the property owners yeah come up right sorry wellcome good evening thank you for moving us up my name is a shik sham
the executive director this is our board president good good evening um yeah is 190 approximately 191 property owners in the district some of them owning more than one property may do you have any questions
or Deputy Mayor while you're here um I was actually curious about one of the um items on the budget strategic initiatives can you say a little bit more about what that what that means yeah so the Strategic initiative lines where we put grant money that we're
hoping to raise during the year for projects such as you know Planters or art projects mural projects not specifically put in or things as things come up through the year that we see for example maybe it's rats or maybe it is improving and restoring the murals or
additional support funding but that's basically where we out put in a cutout of our grant funding because we don't necessarily know what we're going to be able to apply for and the limitations of those grants so we kind of give it a broader name but fitting within our
working plan for the year anyone else yeah yes councilor lochman yeah so Sor looking at your budget um what are you amortising or depreciating so amortization
depreciation comes down to our big trucks they have our PL our old Planters current Planters technology just all of our basic okay I didn't really realize what assets you had so you're saying trucks and stuff okay and do you have a rainy day fund Surplus that you carry
yes we have reserves is that shown on this budget no this is the budget that we're going for next year the reserves are on the on the side like we don't touch those those are for a rainy day so how much do you have in reserve uh we have prox a little bit
over a little bit over 120,000 reserves oh okay thank you um hold on just one more question so is there any thought to expanding the bid to watch on Plaza or
Glen Ridge Avenue with those little businesses or upper Monclair so Avenues well yes that part of Glen Avenue with that Bo like adjacent to Bloomfield well I'm thinking um you know where the where the Bas station is where
the new where you where the chicken place is and that used to be where the B station the new Java love location is there yeah is that covered under the that's technically out just outside of the bid some people may think it is cuz we do have a way finding sign there but that's mostly because it
is a major Transportation Hub and that's why the signage is it but that is technically outside of ourside the bid okay and there's no um thought of expanding to include it just to get the whole stretch there I have my own belce but I also work with our board and our
Council this will take a council decree in order order so if this is something that the council and other property owners and other parts of the township would like I think it there worth a discussion because it's not as simple as just snapping fingers but we want to make sure that we're appr if we do
anything like that we appropriately represent and give the same benefits to everyone but and having that deep conversation of what it would take and what it would cost too yeah you would you should talk to the uh business owners in that area interested it it
also would me the property owner as it is the property owners at the end of the day who end up paying the tax assessment um that would go into it but it would become on the council at the end of day to to approve and vote to expand our jurisdiction in any capacity too so it
be a discussion with all of us together okay okay um anyone else councelor Toller yep I just have a not a question but a compliment thank you for the banners for the monair African-American Heritage Foundation those are absolutely
beautiful for you guys to recognize every single uh Grand Master of the parade so thank you for that I see there's a small income increase for it so I'm hoping it was for those bannner thank you very much thank you and honestly that goes out to your team too
they designed and did all those all we did our fantastic ambassadors got them up I got to sit there and look pretty I have one question um yes councelor lochman and then um councelor deato um the uh Monclair Pride event
brings in quite a lot of money There's issues now is there any are you still projecting that the Monclair Pride will be go as planned as it has in the past or what's your sense of that so out Monclair has announced that they are planning to do a pride festival on June
14th and we're working alongside them some of the leadership has changed over so you know there's a lot there's U historical knowledge that's vacant there right now but we're working right now literally just today to bring up to speed so they understand the full Logistics that's involved and the
complexity of it and what parties and stakeholders are involved from Township mity I do predict that we'll be able to do it and I do predict that I'll have much more gray hair by the end of it but should be a fantastic day indeed okay councelor Birmingham I think
the motto um okay councelor Birmingham and then councelor de and I just want to thank you for sending the budget early like before we did the our um Municipal budget and I think that that cuz remember last year we were approving it
in like September or something so I would say that going forward we should probably try and do it like this each time to do it separate hearings because I think then if there's any delay it can be fixed
before um it would delay any tax bills or anything like that so thank you no problem and thank you for managing the PO of keeping me on top of that too councel deato so yeah thanks for all the work that you do uh including the work that you do that's probably our work um
and I know in the I've discussed with uh uh Executives of the bid in the past that you know there were tasks that you were performing uh that weren't really in your remit including picking up trash including some improvements on South Park Street and things like that
and I'm just wondering do you guys like having on official budget line like do you know how much you spend to do work that you really strictly speaking shouldn't be doing can you ballpark that F what film
um so the there's a the maintenance and Improvement uh commercial line it's about $300,000 that pays for our Outsource um CDs ambassador program and yeah while we don't have a specific line that says that we can't we should be
able to some point measure how much time is being dedicated to th those duties that could be going to other duties that they they should be doing again the our ambassador program is supplementary to keep the district looking pristine as
welcoming as possible but you know we're happy to work alongside the township as best as possible make this as efficient and work for everyone okay yes councilor Birmingham I also just want to say thank you for your help
with skip the stuff too that's very helpful thank you thank you guys so much for all that you do and mayor yes I just want to say that in my almost 20 months here I think that we all worked very hard to improve the relationship between
the township and the bid Abby and and Jason before you and I think uh there's been a lot the lines of communications have opened a lot more than they were and I think that we have establish one of those relationships where everyone can pick up the phone and and uh get
stuff done so thank you no thank you and I mean time you guys me anything I'm available please call text email help me I'm here to serve the community just like you guys are just real quick our vice president appreciate it Matt Silverman um Ernest and I are president vice
president for this year so um working together with with uh Obby to to bring the best servic as we can but in answering your question uh councilor deato we are looking at one of the things we would like to do as a baseline service agreement with the township that
sort of spells out who does what so there's no confusion I know that there's some there's been some discussion about that in the past and we're working on that right now a draft of what that might look like so we hope to get that to you within a couple of weeks probably
have discussion just to make sure that we everyone knows who's doing what you know especially when you know there's a lot of finger pointing going on all the time so good we're working on that thank you all so much thank you all right and just before I go I just want to invite
make sure send a formal invite here you'll get an email too we're having a meet and greet next uh March 20th on next Thursday from 3: to 6:00 discussing many of things going on Council U sorry mayor of ASAS and I have been on couple task force talking about issues with small businesses if you're able to make
it it will be at 505 Bloomfield uh the Montclair film office from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. hope you can make it and if you can please shoot me an email and we'll have more information coming out about that great thank you so much AI thank you um manager L POA I'd like to do
three and seven next because I see that we have some some staff members that may wish to do that um and then leave do you want me to read them or something three yeah okay three and number three number
three is a resolution to apply for for New Jersey historic preservation fund certified local government grant and aid 2025 this is uh authorization to apply for the grant in the amount of $30,000 for cultural resource survey of the
Southend Miller Street historic area Janice is here if you have any questions discussion okay okay okay number seven number seven is a resolution to enter into a contract with Conelly and hickey historical Architects LLC to prepare a cultural resource
survey of the Upper Montclair commuter uh area uh this is a grant that we had previously received um we're now going into phase two I believe this is part of phase two and that uh we are uh a selection has been made with
consultation with the state to retain Connelly and hickey uh and the amount is is not to exceeded $30,000 discussion no discussion moving on please okay back to number one yes thank
you back to number one uh number one is a resolution authorizing a subord agreement with Montclair State University for the USDA Urban and Community forestry Grant we had received a grant for a million dollars uh under the urban uh for E uh the initiative for
Equitable Urban Tree access and climate resilience uh part of that Grant was always a uh subcontract with Montclair State for $300,000 and this will formalize that subgrant discussion yeah councelor
Toler thank you um I was just curious because did we receive the money or is this to receive the money Dr Johnson is here sure Dr J yes so we've already been awarded this
grant so they were part of the Grant application moner State okay because the reason I asked is year one it looks like some money's already been spent is that correct based on this question yes so it's a reimbursement Grant okay and and if we lose the grant for
whatever reason um the contracts voided and who who is the Personnel is it someone at Montclair State uh students so we're working with the PNG um Institute for sustainability and their green teams over the summer so right now
we have students working for us okay and this you said this ends on June 30th right we have to use the money by then is that correct no we have um until 2028 till the end8 yeah yeah this is the tree Grant this is just to um you know get it
and writing that they are part of the sub award okay and it's only mclair state students they aren't local students from the neighborhood of the community that are eligible to be paid through this grant to do some work um yeah this is just through monair state so the green teams it it's any student
that applies for the green teams over the summer it's a sum they have to be a monair State student they don't they can be a resident they have to be a College University student okay but it can be a resident if they're as long as they're in college is what I'm asking yeah yeah it could be any student in college can
apply to be on the Green Team okay thank you yeah you're welcome so just yes councilor I just want to make sure I heard you correctly because of all that's going on in Washington with funding programs like this um you're saying that the uh this is a
reimbursement to mler State yeah so right now we're good we haven't lost it I'm you know happy that it's still moving forward but if anything happens down the pike and it is cancelled then we do not owe monair State anything yeah and we've gotten the
full million no no it's reimbursement oh oh our million dollar is reimbursement as well so how much it's it's 1 million total so we get 700,000 and then because they were part of the grant um application to make it more competitive we're giving
them the sub board do you what have this is only what we spent to date is on the spreadsheet is that correct we've only spent we've only yeah we haven't spent much 38,000 so how do we get the word out for college students
in that of residents to apply and be part of the Green Team I posted it it was also it was also on the bulletin board would you mind sharing it with my email so I can post it on some additional places well they've already ended the applications for this year because it's over the summer but we're going to be doing it for the next three
or four years okay so they're closed for this summer the applications are closed Council lochman already be harping on this but should we hold off a little bit with spending money on this until things may be shake down a little bit from uh the federal government so I
did slow down and i' I've been so crazy about it and I keep asking and they're like nope keep going moving forward they say that from my context government to government is more secure than government to nonprofit oh okay so right now and monair State's a State
University so right now we're we're okay okay and so you submit your reimbursement requests pretty quickly after you've spent the money too yeah I can do it monthly okay all right thank you yeah Deputy Mayor I know I mean looking
at the scope of work it looks like a lot of great you know the students and their faculty member would be doing a lot of amazing work for Montclair you know data collection and um you know all of that and I I just just really curious um
which department is the Montclair State Pi part of the it's under the Earth and environmental science department okay thank you yeah councelor toer did you have something else um no not at this moment okay
anyone else we're moving along thank you so much doc you're welcome thank you I item item number two is pulled only because it has to be done by ordinance not by resolution okay okay number four is a resolution
authorizing the award of a fair and open contract for the township to for electrical service for for New Jersey licensed electrical services contractor uh this is uh this was bid out there were five bids um the uh
lowest bidder is uh Sunny electric from Carney and it's an amount not to exceed $100,000 per year question discussion Council um lochman and then Deputy Mayor have oh no
counc to council lman so I have a question for you once again we're seeing a not to exceed amount you know have we taken into account our discussion at the last council meeting that we really need to look into that number and kind of maximize
Austin oops these estimates are done by DCs so this is based on our experience in previous years okay oh okay that's all yep and Carney is spelled wrong there's no second e in Carney okay all right thank you
all right um counselor Toller yeah I just noticed on this uh page 23 where it says can you respond can you properly respond to an emergency service call within Dash minutes or hours they didn't indicate the any you know number there
so I'm just curious if they needed to put a number should we be aware of a number that part of the bid and application process I'll ask I'll defer to Mr Ashley item C on on page 23 of the reference and vendor
qualifications I don't I don't have the doct in front of me I think the question is over here the one of the one of the things was not answered that response time yeah I we'll get a clarification before the next meeting councelor I'll get a fe tomorrow
okay thank you okay number five is authorizing to pre-qualify an award a fair and open Professional Services contract to serve as mon Montclair Township's opioid settlement fund implementation program Consultants uh uh we had uh went through
a process on this um the uh proposals which were received at the mlar ambulance unit and Essex Health and Wellness Recovery Center um this is for one year and each contract is for $150,000 I believe they were also the
ones who did this last year and so far it's been very very successful and um any questions yeah councelor lochman yeah I I was just want you know mon ambulance unit is our hometown uh Ambulance Corp why why would we have
split this why didn't we give the full contract a mon I believe it's because we we they do two different functions but uh Amy can explain that hi good evening everyone um right so the Essex health and Recovery does more of the recovery support work and linking people to
resources for treatment whereas the monair ambulance unit does more the Narcan training and the immediate response you know acute response to overdose so um they and they actually are working together on a lot of the initiatives so it's really a good partnership and they were the only two
applicants they did a great job last year and um so they're going to kind of expand on what they did and you know keep working together yeah yeah I was just you know kind of curious why we aren't and they do more counseling to the other group right so they do a lot
of peer recovery um work so they have people that were former um you know substance abusers and then they actually work with them and they they have a space now in town which is great and they're looking to expand and try to find something on Bloomfield so they can
get more foot traffic right now they're on Park and so hopefully that'll be uh you know possible with this you know money this year one more question so what happens when the $150,000 is up is used up well so they budget for the year um and we you know
with the opioid I don't know how much you know about the settlement funds so we're going to be getting them for another 16 years the money oh it's years 16 years um we're estimated right now not including the produ M that just occurred right to get overall about $3.2
million over how many years 16 total oh this is exciting right so the idea is that hopefully we can you know continue to to fund them and expand on the service at the same amount at the same $300,000 you um possibly I mean it
depends how the money trickles in we never know if we're going to get you know sometimes we get 25,000 from one you know some Maybe W Walgreens or something and then we'll get um 100,000 from you know T you know so there's all
different amounts and we just can't predict but we know kind of overall the estimate is the you know the 3.2 million so um yeah any you said something about a Purdue Grant right so Purdue who was really the initial pharmaceutical
company that kind of kicked things off um they had I think there was a settlement and then there were some issues um and so they um ended up not settling and they just I believe in January finally came to an agreement and
I believe it's $50 billion possibly that they settled for which is one of the larger settlements and so we'll be seeing that hopefully coming down the pike initially the court said that the family the Sackler family would noted
from Suits and then they appealed somebody appealed that right I believe that's what's happening now they are deemed that they have to pay up right right so that'll be on top of the other money exactly right awesome yeah can we use it for infrastructure what's
thatu mean that's the thing it really is very the scope is pretty narrow um but um I think we have some good groups you know we have you know a lot of great Community organizations in town so we're lucky that we have these two anyone else yep just one question
sure um tics health and wellness you said they're they're not in norc anymore they're no they're right here in our backyard okay cuz on the certification of funds the address is wrong they well their original I guess organization was formed out of new um but they're
primarily here now you know 5 days a week and just on page 13 you know what I see right um I don't have it in front of me so tell me what you see oh a vehicle update there you go what is it me you with me right the Monclair ambulance
purchased already or no no it's not purchased this one in 2024 um the ambulance unit well this is specifically for community outreach for the opioid Grant this has nothing to do with you know ambulances for you know
sort of their main you know goals um so this is specifically going to be um for community outreach um it's going to be a used vehicle they're going to have it retrofitted with some medical equipment um it's going to be shared
with the ess6 health and Recovery Group they're going to both use it for community outreach um so they're going to get probably get like an old police vehicle and then retrofit it um so that's where the 35,000 dollar cost is you know coming into play because of the retrofitting
and they won't need any more Vehicles right I can't tell you but I mean we can we are allowed to spend the money from this grant um but we're not responsible for it we don't maintain it we don't you know they're just buying a used vehicle and that's what and they're going to
wrap it so it specifically says um you know it references the township that it's opioid settlement funds and it's going to be very specific purpose so okay Dole stay with them if there's a different you know like if they're going
somewhere else that vehicle is it the property of the M clear ambulance unit and they can do whatever they want with that right right it's just like if we get a grant the health department and we purchase a piece of equipment it's our
equipment so this would be their vehicle and again they're not getting some you know super fancy high-end you know they're getting they purposely are getting something used um they're not getting you know um anything that's you know excessive and it doesn't have to be
used specifically for something related to opioids or that that's so it's community outreach for right but they're probably going to reach out to um unhoused Community um kind of the same people that Robin goes like on foot to
reach out to in her group uh but now they'll have a vehicle and they'll you know obviously stock with Naran um you know and other you know maybe they'll do some wound care um because you know the xylazine that's now found in a lot of um
you know the fadle that is coming in illegally so you know they're going to kind of expand upon the things they're doing right now so roughly do you think that they serve in a year or a quarter just curious the
ambulance unit or the uh recovery recovery recovery it should be in their proposal let me see find you know I brought um information about what they're doing for this coming year but I can probably get
you that data okay you can just happy to send it thank you yeah no problem councel lman just one are you your department administering this grant yes so we were put in charge of the um settlement fund so we're overseeing the settlement funds um and there's really
no prescribed way that towns have to administer them like there's a back it's just you got there's some very basic reporting um so we're doing that we're also we have a Tracker so we're tracking the money that's coming in and then that's how we have an estimate of what
we're getting based on some data we received from the state um and we I decided in RFP was the best way to go because that way everyone has an opportunity to apply but we didn't have to do that we could have just given it to the monair ambulance unit for
instance um but I wanted to keep it really transparent and you know structured so okay thank you do we use the police and fire at all for community outreach um you know regarding ing the opioids I know that all of them oops I'm
sorry I know that all of them go out um for emergency calls with their Naran and whatnot but um do we use them at all for community outreach and I'm I'm asking that specifically because if so maybe we could keep the $335,000 vehicles in the
township of Montclair and give them some Vehicles right so I know the police department actually work a lot with you you know Robin um and that's how we found out about Robin and her organization um so the chief could
probably speak a little bit more about um off the top of my head I don't know what their frequency is that they go out actively and you know do this work but of course they're responding they're um you know giving Nar Naran not as much as the ambulance unit but they are um I
know uh councilor Birmingham had asked for the numbers I believe it was like it seemed low right wasn't it like six doses I think I think it was like police administer 12 by the six by police and
two by family members so right 20 um so yeah so they are doing some I can't I don't know about fire um I Know Chief Duncan's here so maybe he can speak to that um but defin the police are definitely you know involved in that
so 20 20 is a pretty significant 20 number I mean that's 20 people who needed Naran that's where's the 20 she said 12 by Ma and six by the police and the rest family members yeah yeah and
that's yeah that's all we know about right I mean we've distributed um a bunch of Nan ourselves and then the ambulance unit did 420 they trained 420 people last year and they were all given noran so we don't know how many of those doses were
used without it being reported um you know I imagine there's some and those 20 people were all mon clear residents um yes that the numbers we were just talking about were Monclair residents correct okay thank you I appreciate you
so much for all the different things that you're doing you know expanding um into areas that we've never been before and I appreciate you thank you good night everyone okay okay Mr laa number six is a
resolution awarding a fair and open contract to SF mobile Vision Inc for proprietary computer software Police Department pursuant to New Jersey state contract 17- Fleet d731 this is proprietary equipment that
that we used and this this amount is for the uh for the first uh first year just to council Williams thank you just a silly question I I noticed that it's uh in the
memo one of the things that it's going to be getting going to get a DVD printer so just wondering like I mean it's not it's not it's not a big deal I I just just know that there's
no equipment really to I think it's some I you have a DVD player what's that oh I no I have a record player now I think I think in some of the uh police systems that you they still use DVDs for the transfer of evidence and
records and stuff like that that's what that is I'm just curious do you know why we're switching is this a new service that a new company that they using no I believe it's the same one we've been using oh the same one yes cuz there's a the increase was it
a extra cost for this installation the if it's up if it's an there may be an upgrade or a new a newer version of the system that has to be installed I can get you the information if you'd
like what's that new hardware new hardware Tony knows in okay thank you okay all right yes uh we did number seven we're up to number eight a resolution authorizing the renewal of a fair and open contract to Prime Point
LLC for Montclair Township payroll uh hris benefits pension time and attendance uh ACA compliance Etc um this is a contract uh a service that we've
had before and this is approves renewal of the contract for one more year and an amount not to exceed $98,000 just quick question yes Council Williams just when you get a chance just want to know what what did we paid last year sure I'll find that out for you
yeah that was my question too manager okay number nine is a resolution awarding a contract for the firehouse 2 roof replacement project bid number 25-01 uh this is awarding a contract to
Arco construction the lowest responsible bid in the amount of $76,000 discussion okay y Council Toller but I don't know if we can answer this question it has to do with the um the bid itself you know they did they
go with the lowest one the alternate bid is I think it's for a different type of material the alternate is for additional work okay so this cost could go up right okay oh wait maybe I don't understand correct Chief is here he can answer the
question Mr laal I thought that the chief can so the the first part for 76,000 that's for the main roof the alternate bid was for a flat roof that's at the rear of the firehouse so it was determined at the time that that um roof
the rear roof the flat roof still has years of life left to it so this is just what the bids were coming in we went with the lowest bidder for the main roof which is the 7 6,000 okay okay Miss Chief Duncan I'm just trying to
yeah thank you what's the total square footage of the roof that needs to be replaced I would have to get that uh information for you okay thank you anyone else no manager Le poo please okay number 10 is a resolution authorizing amendment number three
extending the contract to Atlantic Uniform Company for the provision of Township police uniform forms not to exceed $75,000 ju just uh Qui yes councilor Williams so two things I I think July
30th the resolution should be 176 I think it was just a typo because 276 is the bills list um I'm sorry where are you at on number one yeah on the whereas okay so
yeah it should be 176 and and then I noticed that so the previous resolution it went from 55,000 75,000 so just just wondering why such a
huge inre I think it's because we had tremendous turnover and um in the last 18 months I believe we've hired somewhere between 25 and 30 new police officers so they'll have to be outfitted Etc so that's what it was we have a
large group that retired and a large group that has to be uh outfitted so the amount so I I get that but wouldn't the number go back down more than like 55 at a certain point well there was a lot of
that were in the academy so then they go down I can get you the information if you like I I don't know the I don't want to guess I'll get you the information if you want how many uniforms do they each get I don't know I think a couple of them I'm not sure
like two it's uniform shoes the whole boots whatever but I was just wondering do they get you know more than there's a whole you know and then they're Theirs to keep when they leave us they they keep that to keep the uniform for
Halloween no so that we can repurpose repurpose I go to thrift shops I'm thinking repurpose so these are just for their initial uniforms because they get $1,400 a year each for uniform allowance right isn't that for their contract yeah
so you know if they change ranks they get no matter how many times they go wow okay okay number 11 number 11 is a resolution awarding a contract to initech Industrial LLC for upgrade and maintenance of proprietary mon water
Bureau supervisor control and acquisition known as scada system pursu to mjsa 4A call 11- 51d um this is a system that we've been using uh since the early
2000s um uh we have received a proposal for them for a 2-year period it's an amount not to exceed 42,500 and Mr Prim Vera um did provide in in your packet that was distributed tonight there is a memo if you have any further explanation
okay okay number 12 is a resolution awarding a fair and open contract to neelon Ford for the provision of a 2025 Ford Superduty truck forsing to Mars County cooperative pricing Council
contract number 15-c item 11 it is for a uh a Ford Superduty F250 XL in the amount of $63,000 22275 question
to yes thank you um this is for well I'm just wondering there's no shared services with our trucks with plows that they would have to get their own vehicle to do plowing excuse me I'm sorry no I'm asking is there any shared services for
snow plowing the fire depart your vehicle a truck to do their own plowing that's their that's their vehicle I'm sorry yeah know this is a pickup truck that we do attach a plow to but it's also just a utility vehicle okay so whatever it needs to do that's what it
does if it carries equipment from one place to another um you can't always fit everything on the fir trucks so let's just say we're doing a pump out of someone's basement which we're just doing the other day you we have large pumps that you there's no place to store these on the fir truck so you put them back at the pickup truck and you bring
them to the location um so it does that it also acts as um so let's just say the Battalion Chief's car goes out of service for whatever reason they will ride around in that vehicle as the Battalion Chief's car so it has a a many purposes that we use it for for one of them is plowing so we do plow the lots and the aprons and as you know it snow
is just a constant you know you plow you go up town you plow you come back you're plowing as it's falling you're just doing that and in a case of large snowstorms it will plow in front of the fire trucks as they're going to the call okay thank you I just wanted to clarify one more question so you're retiring
you're retiring a vehicle yes that had a snowplow yes why can't you use the snowplow of the retired vehicle with just a new truck well the plows are different one doesn't always fit on the other one that plow was purchased with that truck back in
2003 as well both of them were past their serviceable life okay thank you when you go to pump the water is there a charge to the residents um we have not charged the residents now thank you okay before I go number 13
um Kirsten who works works in purchasing heard your question about prime point and she texted me to say the the amount is the same as last year okay wow number thank you K number 13 is resol a resolution Waring contract for the Wang Plaza Park Improvement
projects in the amount of uh uh a total amount uh total B in the amount of 283,000 I mean $264,600 in the C budget it is it is designed to to Really provide uh access
for those with disabilities to you know wheelchairs Etc so they're not going through dirt and mud we are going to be using uh native plants we are repurposing the bricks that are there we're going to improve that little picnic area but it is it is a project
that has been in the works for probably almost 5 years I had I had a question about do we have a visual of what this is going to look like I think yeah I apologize it's it's still a little small but
okay thank you oops thank you so much thanks okay I just have a question when you get a minute and you're going to replace this that's nice yeah it's about
time are there any more recent um uh any more recent projects from I guess from 21 to 2024 this statement of qualification is from 2021 is there anything more recent that you have I'm not sure what what you
mean I'll show it to you um you have the packet in front of you or no mhm um I'm the statement of qualifications I guess this is I can't read the name of the the contracting company but the years that
they gave the you know information is anything more current I guess it's page one of six two of six6 um we have just what they submitted with the bid no I I understand that I'm just saying is there anything current because
these are all from 2021 2020 nothing more current for the statement of qualification this these Pages there don't have anything current that they for Bano is that what their name is for the contractor no that's that is what we have
okay okay all right and this was reviewed by the I don't know the formal name of the committee for persons with disabilities yeah The Advisory Board and they they reviewed this okay number 14 is sorry Council
deato so um when when you put a uh stop sign I mean the stop light there's a stop light going there correct or the county is doing that county is doing the stop yeah the traffic light on the intersection but the and The Pedestrian circulation
at the intersection doesn't change from where it is now not for not for our project no I don't and they don't anticipate the county changing the uh The Crossing there either okay what will change is that the you will be able to
circulate through the entire park cuz currently the uh the sidewalks don't um go fully around the park um and they won't it will be ada8 accessible so but you won't have you won't be able to
cross from the west side of Park Street north of Wang Avenue directly into the park once there's a stop a stop light there won't be a pedestrian Crossing there no I believe that that
will the only one will be on the uh east side yeah the east side oh crap sorry councilor lochman so um this does not include a bus shelter no we did include as an alternate the replacement of the Gazebo
yeah but that came in as an alternate which was too um exceeded the funding for this project right but there is a bus shelter there right on no that's the Gaz there's no bus shelter at all in this park I thought there was by the bus
Gaz like a gazebo right here yeah that's the Gaze yeah that's okay and that is wheelchair accessible well so the way that we're going to make it we'll put a ramp in so it's not a particularly large step but there still is a step so we
will have to make that adjustment to the Gazebo so in that sense it's being touched that way um just while you're here since the traffic light came up can you describe the what's the status of that
traffic light right now because you know of course people are wondering because it's been a long time can you just tell us what that is I don't have an exact update but I have heard that they uh did receive the materials so the project will be moving forward relatively shortly okay because that was what it
was hold the holdup was yeah it was supply chain issue right and is that true for the park the the bellw park park and bellew do we have those materials too they are coming online so now it's just an issue of the scheduling of the inspections for
electrical and U putting them in okay thank you yep thank you manager Lola got no break at the Monclair DCS yard at 2019 North
fton Street this is uh part of an overall plan we had got an extension for remediation and this is for the next uh major part and it increases the contract by $228,100 I don't have a question I just have a a
comment finally yes thank you this is exciting news aren't you excited I am excited this yes this is wonderful this has been a long time yes councelor lochman I'm just wondering why you don't round up the number to 250 we could you
know yeah it just strikes me like it's a very exact number and yet we say it's an estimate so just like knock it up a few notches there so we don't have to keep going through this like I I we're trying to keep it as low as possible to keep the revenues available for us to move on
to the next phase of the project I get it but aren't you better off having money put aside and then if you don't quite hit it then you have money left over I mean that's well there'll be another there'll be phase three well there you go and we'll be going out to yeah so round up these I mean that on
all of these just round up the number this will be a blanket purchase order because then maybe that will help her or us I should say understand when you're peeling off to make the payments is this going to be a standard purchase order or a blanket purchase order I don't know if
it would be requisitioned as a whole so the 200 uh 28 the 228,000 will be requisitioned and it will draw down off of that right so a blanket purchase order as you know when they submit their first invoice for whatever portion of the project that
they've done you pay off of this 228 right say now you're down to 187 in the next portion so can it be a blanket purchase order versus yes that's how it will be okay all right that might help it's still we still might need to
modify not to exceed I mean that's that that is reality of these these projects so but that's our best estimate yeah um just a question because um I agree with councelor toer it's great
that this is being um done and when when it says here the results of the pilot testing were highly favorable to use this method MH um does that mean in terms of you said there's a phase three
but like does that mean that the cost might be lower than was initially expected or or it's it's very hard to tell with these projects because it's it depends on how the the sparge system how if we believe that it will be highly effective but it doesn't we don't really
know until we get the system up and running and it runs for a while because the the uh the variable in this instance is the depth and in The Proposal you'll see that we are we're going to be doing a uh another well for trying to get to
the depth of the contamination we have pretty much the perimeter outlined it's we our initial deep well of 60 ft we still had a large amount of material so we're looking for that bottom so it's
hard to say if it will come in you know is it what uh I have I'd have to get you the exact but it's not it's it's it's deep more than more it's deeper rather than one yeah okay I think doesn't it go all the way to the red well well it does
pick up I mean it the the benefit we have right now is the Rand walls isn't online so there there that's not impacting the drinking um uh water but the nature of these uh contaminations is they get everywhere so it's it's that we
get it out as as soon as possible what we our indications are from this testing that we were highly successful with the Farge method so councelor lochman so did the township always own this property no I believe this was a
railroad yard at some point so is this the cause of this um contamination could it have happened during the prior owners um use of the property it's the the cont contamination is consistent with fuel oil and we did
have tanks in that location so right so there's so we think we did it bankrupt went every Riv went bankrupt see I believe that Mr Prima told me once that it was that the contamination that the that parts of it was aviation fuel and
it was a Depot there from World War II well that's my question yeah I don't have anything that confirms that I've heard that same thing but the I don't have anything that yeah nails that down one of the things when you have you know environmental problems is you look
to see if there was a chain of ownership where the other parties could have caused the damage and then you seek some recovery from them is that happening or was that investigated at all I I don't believe so yeah and also was there no insurance coverage for this leakage no
not for these instances that I'm aware of well did we check to make sure there's no underground storage tank pollution coverage for this I I have in the past not for the specific case but I've yet to find um coverage for this that yeah we yeah you should check I mean that's I don't think we do but yeah
I mean it could be an older policy as well that would have an currence clause in it that you could the environmental GIF but that's something we can yeah I would definitely check that you just don't know okay manager Leola
okay number 15 it's a resolution order contract to Griffith Allied Trucking LLC for the provision of Township gasoline fuel in accordance with New Jersey state contract t839 Fleet
0978 in an amount not to exceed $3,000 number 16 is a resolution authorizing the renewal of a contract for the curbside collection or disposal disposal of Municipal non-composted grass clippings
with Nature's Choice Corporation for the 2025 season and the amount of uh $129 uh per ton that was the amount that was in the um set for this year in the original award there correct Austin correct
okay yes Council Williams councelor Toler councelor Williams you can go first Council Williams councel Toler bless bless you bless you what a distraction um
so when with these when we wore these contracts you know obviously somebody comes in lowest bid and then you know first year you know in renewal terms and stuff like that why after you know two years don't we look to see if we can
maybe get a lower price why do we always just I I know convenience you know you're staying with somebody why not the second year of the contract just test the market to see if we can get a lower price for the for these Services well we
we could um but in my experience that very rarely happens the prices generally do not go down they they go up for uh anything that's trucked coming out of a garbage truck so that's what we feel this is a pretty
good price wasn't this a contract where they the competitor sued is yes yeah and that that's the other thing too at any time anything involving garbage trucks you're almost guaranteed when you go out to bid you're going to be sued that's the nature of the business
the nature of that bus to challenge bids and Sue oh Garb anything involving kind of stuff no industrywide industrywide yes just one more question kind of related when do you start picking up leaves
again uh April 1st okay thank you welcome so is this this this is for the whole Township right correct these pickups um and we don't have employees that are trained to do this or have you
ever looked into or did an analysis to see if it would be make more sense to train some of our own employees to do this it's not a question of training it's just a question of the amount of employees to to man the trucks to to pick it up okay now we're going to
talk about the south end B mhm the curb in the road on Orange Road West yes when do you think you'll have some free time to clean that up uh that's a private property issue understand and that we're not really supposed to be I understand yeah going
on to that's question the attorney right so as a courtesy I've asked them to clean the South and bend up it is property that's on the street the curb behind Pleasant avue venue um the mayor and I talked we would issue a letter to the residents to
let them know that this would be a one-time courtesy we can send it out through code enforcement and after that um code enforcement can do what they do because there are bags of leaves sitting there and perhaps the residents don't know that they're supposed to move their bags of garbage and leaves on that back
side um but that debris and garbage is just blowing everywhere so I'm asking as a courtesy if your guys can clean it up this one time and we will send a letter out really not comfortable dedicating public resources to private property without
some sort of it's the sidewalk though you know what I mean you're not I'm not asking you to go on people's property because it's this much of a curb so we're just going to let this out there and look junky and dirty I I agree with the c with Austin but I W defer the counsel as to the
legal issues here we'd be happy to look into it further for you my office would I don't know what the specifics are but obviously if it's a private property issue public employe shouldn't be on that's private property that this is the sidewalk and this is the property so I'm asking them to clean along the sidewalk
if you will some of it will touch less than an eigh of an inch or it's a unique property you would have to see it there properties many of them probably don't even know that that is their property terrible I don't mean to punt it to Joe Garcia he will be back tomorrow my
office would be happy to look into it for you I just don't want to make any comments that might not be accurate that's fair all right thank you okay I'll go now we're 19 okay now we're number 19
mayor um yes please okay number 19 is a resolution of the township approving and authorizing a grant agreement between the township of Montclair and the state of New Jersey office of Homeland Security and preparedness um Tony if you want to elaborate a little bit on exactly what
service what they provide here I'm going ask even May and Council uh Q4 2024 my office applied the uh state and local cyber security grant program from the uh NJ K and uh as of um
beginning of February and then um myself and Mr Lola received a letter from the NJ kick the director that we will approved for the grant basically the this is um uh a fouryear project first year there's no zero dollar from the
township they will provide the uh uh various type of service for the township for the uh network security wise and some of them service are new to the township for example like 27 uh uh monitoring and uh also the overwatching
services for our Network in case something happen with our Network some like a a normal activity on our Network and then poter contact I'm the primary I will get nullified and JK we got notified and then we can be a little bit
more proactive and react to the instance and then again this is a 4 year um uh Grant and first year is uh from now until uh March 30th 2026 that's Z 0 from
the uh cost of the township second year that will be 20% % third year will be uh 30% fourth year is 40% after that we can opt out that we complete the the Grant and then if the grant is open again we can reapply it and then get another
maybe another four year is depending on the funding at that time so the total is about this grant is for four years is about 63,5 188 and the township probably uh contributed within the four years is $18
, 460 so we probably receiving about 400 uh 4 $45,000 a little bit more than 45,000 Grand with in the four years nice so again this is some of the services that new service that will be implemented um once this uh I asked this
resolution to be adopted tonight so we can move forward with the uh the New Jersey uh NJ Kake with the homeland security prance so and also um this is aligned with our um uh network security renewal so because I
applied for the grand last year and I didn't renew the uh network security for 3 years I only renewed it for 6 months and that's because I was Tred to waiting for the result of this grant so right now um with this um some of the service
is already applied to it so I don't have to renew some of the existing service like if um to add uh to reduce the cost for this year for the it budget and then couple years you're asking them to pass this now yes if I can ask them because I
make a motion um motion to approve second discussion so just I read through this but like they almost serve as a consultancy as well to get they providing a service software services and then it's a service type of
agreement great thank you it's a partnership with the uh njk part of Home New Jersey Homeland Security Madam clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councel damato yes councel lochman yes councel Toler
councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you may coun thank you very much um manager L poo please we can we do7 number 20 to number manager Lola can you please do 17 thank you number 17 is a resolution awarding a
fair and open contract to sanitation equipment Corporation for the provision of a Truck Body in accordance with the Educational Service Commission New Jersey Cooperative contract 2324 there 048 any discussion councelor Toller on
the truck body Truck Body 17 17 uhhuh all right sorry um we're going to have to really get a
handle on our vehicles we need a schedule we need to know how many vehicles we have what year we got them what year they're dying or should die what departments are using them what staff members are using them and if another schedule can be implemented so
that we don't have to keep buying vehicles but if we need a new truck we need a new truck right I think provided that whole sprad that that not only that we also need to keep keep track of the um schedule of Replacements
cuz well this isn't a truck in of itself this is the back the rear end of a truck understand when was the last one replaced uh 2003 I believe long overdue okay that's pretty good and they last about 20 years
right so you won't be back next year not not for this one okay I'm just double checking thank you okay thank you manager laa I'm sorry sorry I'm getting H myself number 21 is a resolution authorizing the W of Affair
and open contract for Township Facility Cleaning Services bid 25-5 this is a contract awarded to the lowest responsible bidder Cleaning Services of Hudson Valley in an amount not to exceed
$66,000 and this is a new provider oh I'm sorry are we supposed just uh I mean you could clap uh so I was just looking at this then the natic seed is 66,000 in first
year the contract is 59 did we did we put the natic seed what at like 10% or or something above or I don't know I can ask purchasing for that I so my my only concern here is that the next the next closest
bidder um over 3 years they're relatively close so I just didn't want this bidder that seems like they're going to win and you have the not to seed um you know more than the first year and they come
in and say and and I was just looking at the square footage and the monthly cost for each one of these buildings with the square footage it didn't really make make a a lot of sense to me like the municipal court is 8 7 uh Square 100
excuse me 8,700 Square ft and it's only $155 a month I don't know if that's a typo or something like that but the police headquarters is 1,600 and it's 11,00 the municipal buildings 3234 so just just things specifics for
you I don't have that here I'm sorry I I don't mean to put you on the spot I'm just right that's the question and and I had some questions Mr Leola and I think I mentioned to you and maybe you won't have an answer for me tonight but I would really like to find out in the contract are they required to
do sanitizing because I'm I'm here most nights when they're cleaning and I've never seen them sanitize anything so in our contract do we specifically say that you know area should be sanitized I mean I maybe they do in the bathroom but I
mean even the rooms like we're sneezing we're coughing we're doing stuff like that and there's no sanitizing basic cleaning but I can find that out for you no I'll find that out for you yeah because maybe if we can give them a couple more dollars we can have a cleaner environment than what we have
now because a lot of the windows don't even open in some of the locations right okay next all right last but not least number 22 is a resolution regarding the governing body certification of compliance with the United States equal opportunity
commission's enforcement guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records and employment decisions under titles seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 this is required that that we uh acknowledge that we are familiar with these laws in order for us to have our
budget adopted and approved by local government services this is done every year it's routine okay that's all I have mayor motion to adjourn no no oh we have something else yeah I have a question oh
so no I had I had submitted at Le three things to go on the agenda and they're not on the agenda and they were seconded or thirded even and I'm wondering how do they not get on the agenda I think that's my fault what is it your fault
yeah well some some of the things some of the things you can just don't have to be for you know reports and things like that could just happen they don't have to be on the agenda for you do it but I will take responsibility for no but I mean how how do we know like it's now it's the end of the evening you know we haven't talked
about things that are probably pretty meaty discussion items and to me they probably should have been earlier on the agenda than now when we're all tired so I I don't know how to address it this is not the first time this has happened and
I I'm just getting like frustra I think I I apologize yeah but are we going to have the next agenda so I had asked about having our committees and our Liaisons and probably an agenda protocol all that I didn't ask agenda protocol
the committee structure and the who's leis on for each of the Civic committees well you can do you have the ability on any meeting to discuss those things you don't have to place them on the agenda for discussion I think I'm just saying if you want if we have the time and just in terms of people being prepared to
discuss an item now they see this and it's done I call mistake that was my mistake but what I'm just asking for guidance here what should I do an extra meeting no okay no I mean I mean you ask the I know I'm just trying to see what I
think so I don't think people want to have an extra meeting but we could I mean we could certainly okay they long overdue what's overdue we need to establish how this agenda is put together what are the what's the protocol around it that has not happened we talk about before the
first um talking about having committee meetings uh disc at the the subcommittee meetings outcome or discussed at our council meeting so everybody knows what everybody else is doing I have no idea what everybody else is doing unless I happen to talk to them Liaisons we need to assign we talked
about it in emails but we need to somehow formalize that in my view I mean I could be in a minority here but so how do we want to approach it it just maybe people don't share my concerns I don't know I'm a person like the government has structure military
has structure corporations have structure I think people work well under structure and we don't seem to be able to get our act together with structure sometimes the structure that we set in place for ourselves we don't even adhere to that's that's where I have a problem yeah yeah yeah which we need to talk
about this so we can right I'm not sure we have to talk about it at this hour but I mean we can almost get out of here by before midnight I agree with you um Council lochman I think it's important and um if if people don't want
to have another meeting if we put that on the um agenda early for the next meeting which is the 25th is it the 25th when's our next meeting 25th that would suit me yeah I think people all know what the issues are I think let just
talk about the time that we've had to um think about it anyway right no I I agree with you you know we've got experience now doing this and we know the pitfalls and the the things that are working so absolutely I totally agree okay so that would be um agreeable to you then can we
make a note that we would like to have that at the beginning of the agenda did you already you already sent it in I have okay so you you'll you'll make sure that that will happen for us make recommendation um you're saying that you submitted some things and it didn't make
it on the agenda right yeah um I think if operations committee can come up with the plan and then present it cuz we're meeting next week we have an operations committee operations on the operations committee okay so see that's what I'm saying I don't know this oh I'm just
saying I don't know anything that's what we have all these ad hoc committees that people make up what we can do in operations is under where you could sign up for operations we did it back in July who is we us all of us did that's you
appointed this committee it's a separate committee originally it was was just councel Williams and I uh we were looking for a third no one wanted to join us and then Council Birmingham emailed us a week and what is under what is under operations when we talked about it that that meeting list May no I just want to know what it is that we talked
about in terms of the operations uh protocol processes and procedures for example we uh will revisit getting our agendas early that's something operations can work on and share with the full Council um and I think that may help what council Lawman's concerns you
know getting stuff on if there's a hard cut off date that is what it is so oh but that's good then you guys should have been doing this all the time that's great well we we did have a process but then it somehow got scuttled up with some other stuff and now we're getting
them on Fridays again so so we have an operations committee that's going to take care of all that make sure it's on the agenda for the next we say we were going to take care of everything but you know we will definitely put that on our agenda next week supposed to be originally like efficiency like it was
the department of government efficiency but that yeah that that got we no no we're not I'd like to make a motion um to adjourn and it a great meeting is there a second second all in favor I I any opposed have a good
evening good night than you counselor for