##VIDEO ID:6Ox8Ukg58CI## good evening okay thank you yes good evening this is a regular meeting of the Council of the township of Montclair and 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 meeting act the meeting is included in all of the and in the annual notice of the meeting schedule as set forth in resolution R2 24- 249 it was adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of November 26 2024 it was advertised to the official newspaper on December 12th 2024 December 19th 2024 December 26 2024 and January 2nd 2025 it's been posted on the bulletin boards outside the municipal building and has remained continuously posted in addition a copy of the annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our Township Clerk please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 roll call M Madam clerk please when you're ready thank you mayor Deputy Mayor Anderson here councilor Birmingham here councelor damato here councelor lochman here councelor Toller good evening present good evening councelor Williams here mayor Baskerville present um and at this time um we're going to H yeah we're going to do the minutes and then have a motion to adopt um the minutes have you had a chance to review them I'll second yes all in favor mayor just one thing I just wanted to ask Madam clerk um the one correction to the January 10th minutes um it's been made correct yes thank you is it something that we need to read here or okay no I don't I don't think so Mr I don't think so no okay anyone else have anything that they'd like to um add or bring attention to before we vote on the minutes okay all in favor I I all right opposed exstension all right so at this point in time we are going to move on to proclamations and we have some amazing people here with us this evening we're going to start out by inviting our Montclair Recreation Bulldogs the Junior peee cheer team down to the front to accept a proclamation and oh we're so proud of you guys thank you for being here with us come on go Bulldog go Bulldog good evening we'd like to give this proclamation to the Monclair Recreation Bulldogs Junior peeee cheer team this proclam the proc the proclamation reads whereas the Monclair Bulldogs Junior peeee cheer team made history by claiming its first national Crown among the Top Pop Warner teams around the country last month at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Florida and whereas the team mastered the routine and won the judge's vote leaving no doubt for the local cheer team to be crowned champion of their respected division the cheer and dance C championships featured over 500 cheer and dance teams who competed at all four at the four day event uh these young ladies here were also repeat champions of the pop warner eastn Regional Tournament from 2023 to 2024 in which each team competed in a postseason tournament last year each year the teams throughout the region from New Jersey New York Pennsylvania and Delaware to qualify for this National Tournament this team is led by head coach Jasmine and assistant coach Heather yeah and it features 15 participants raging from the ages of 8 to 10 years of age the pop warner program is unique as opposed to those of other programs while they are tored about the life values of competition they are also maintaining their grades at a satisfactory level to attend the the Ultimate Prize of being named a pop warner Championship Champion I'm sorry now therefore we the mayor and the council and the township of Monclair New Jersey do hereby recognize and celebrate the mclair recreation Bulldogs Junior peee cheer teammates Jaylen Morgan pton Skyler Ari Zoe LC Annabelle aena Madison Nora Bridget Skyler Clementine and Tori and I hope I got that right lady so congratulations to you if one of the coaches would like to come forward and say a few words you're more than welcome to do so or if one of the young ladies would like to come forward and say a few words come on sweetheart I need a bow space there you go get to the mic yeah hello um my name is Clementine task and this is I'm pretty sure my third year of being a Mont cler bulldog and and my first year um we did not win that many we didn't get I don't think we got any first place and we didn't go to Florida my second year we went to Florida this was last year and we went to Florida but we did not um get first place I'm pretty sure we got fourth place so we did not get a trophy um but this year yeah this year here we got first place and I am so proud of all my cheer sisters and my coaches I thank my mom for supporting me and um being able to get me to these places I thank my brothers for supporting me thank you one of the coaches want to come up and have a few words or oh we got another young lady here all right okay close enough I know hello my name is Zoe Hernandez and this is my third year no my not my third year I'm sorry my second year being a cheerleader at first I thought cheerleading wouldn't be really my hobby but now now that we've one I feel like it's really my thing thank you quick cheer have a quick cheer going to do a quick cheer for us cheer for the council no jumping you could just do something like it's okay you're just GNA do it really fast hello ready okay hi hello and how do you herecome h e Sky J brid Zoe Tor blue thank you thank you one thing um on behalf of as president of North Jersey of the league I just want to present this Banner from North Jersey Pop Warner so that every year that you have registration you can let everybody know that you guys are the national champions girl girls come on we'll call you out we give you got trophies over here for you too and then we're out of here okay all right LC LC come get your trophy Jaylen come get your Jo trophy Madison Clementine Annabelle Skyler Skyler Zoe Tori excellent zarena Skyler and Bridget once again we want to congratulate our our wonderful cheerleading team and your trophies are um on behalf of the Monclair Recreation Department we are so proud of you so look for your sign when it's registration time your face will be up and around Monclair for weeks okay you want to do the eags who's going to do the eag Scouts Eagle Scouts yeah and why while we're having such an incredible celebration here we'd please like for any Eagle Scouts that are here today to come to the front to join us we'd like to celebrate you and your accomplishments we know how hard it is when you work to get to the eagle scout level so please if there are any Eagle Scouts here would you come I think the Eagle Scouts didn't get the memo okay uh so maybe we can they did maybe we can defer till next time okay thank is that possible um and so at this moment we don't see any Scouts except their Proclamation so we're going to invite them again and um hopefully they'll come but even if they don't come they should know how proud We are for their achievements let's give it up for the Eagle Scouts okay um we're going to uh yeah are we good okay now we're going to um open the meeting up for public comment for those of you who have not been here before everyone need to sign in at the table in the front here they will give you a number and when you come up please state your name and um then you have only three minutes that means up to three minutes to say whatever it is that you would like to say at this time it doesn't have to be on any specific topic we're going to try to keep this moving we do have a full agenda tonight and we're also going to ask please and we're getting better this if you don't um make make comments or noises um in in the background while your neighbors are speaking it's really important that we hear from everybody and we want to be polite for everybody that comes to the mic so if you would work with us in that regard we'd appreciate it thank you so much for being here with us good evening good evening can you hear me yes okay very good good evening mayor council Town manager my name is John Fiero I'm a 20-year employee of the Monclair fire department and I have served as the president of the local fnba union I represent the men and women of Montclair who serve the department both at the local and state level something I take very seriously and the dedicated efforts of our membership puts forth our second to none and collectively we are Simply the Best of the Best what brings me here tonight is the completion of Station 3 located at 151 Harrison EV in the township of Montclair project I had the opportunity last October ber at our first annual fire prevention block party to meet with some of you and have a short question and answer about the discussion of the building the the completion of this project is Paramount to the department and the community we serve it has been an asset and a staple of the neighborhood for over 120 years the union and the department is here in any way to help and answer any questions meet to Any Time speaking for myself I am available 247 365 when it relates to the mler fire department the membership of our local and the safety of our Township all of us collectively owe it to the community we took an oath to protect this town an oath that encompasses completing a project that was started only because of the need of the building and repairs it was repairs were so dire that the building would never have been temporarily closed members of the Staffing that station would not have been moved to a station farther away delaying our response times to that area of town other reason that brings me here tonight is to remind everybody that our staffing levels are currently low we are budgeted for 77 and we are from 89 in 2020 I use the word budgeted because as of April 1st of 2025 we will be down to 70 members we understand the township has approved and signed a contract with an entrance test company and we look forward to the process in hiring new recruits to maintain our budgeted number of 77 this year we are not just here to share with you what we need tonight we are also here to take a show of appreciation to the manager the HR Director the governing body for the efforts collectively running our first promotional exam through the New Jersey civil service commission having agreed to this plan we have saved approximately over $85,000 allowing the administrate allow to administer promotional tests at regular interviews now and in the future the promotional exam is fully vetted and managed third party fashion to promote equity and fairness to all members taking this exam the professional dedication of our members and the hard work of the Monclair fire department administrators and Fire Prevention Bureau that provides a blanket safety to our residents businesses and guests 247 365 days a year we have no days off of protecting the community in which we serve no matter what the emergency is we are prepared to serve we look forward to meeting with you as soon as possible to help everyone understand the fire safety needs of this community collect itively working closely and throughout the upcoming budget season we ensure that continuation of the highest level of service this community deserve thank you very much appreciate it appreciate your time next guest please Dr bville and Council my name is Anthony Virgil I've been on the fire department now 10 years but I'm a proud of the south in the fire house that we're in discussion of right I attended Nish Wayne School Hillside School Mount hebr now Buzz AUD and graduated from monair high school I work for the Monclair YMCA the mon C border ed prior to me being on the fire department that Firehouse serves a bigger purpose than some of the decisions made here and now right as a kid that was a safe haven for a lot of us right in the back of my grandmother's car on the way home that was my land mark you know it was bucket seats then so you're looking out the back seat looking up a little more but we called it a castle M fast forward now me and my friends spending summers in the park that's a place we can go get water we can get air and our bike tires if we want to spend a little more time in the park we use a phone right that part of the town has been without that for a while I benefited from that so not only am I speaking as a member of the fire department this is home for me you know what I'm saying so the decisions you guys make now affect my kids my friends kids you know what I mean so just think about that cuz would we be having this conversation if it was a firehouse in a different location that's it thank you for your time thank you so much next guest please uh good evening Madame mayor Town manager ladies and gentlemen of the council my name is Henry nef I'm a local author a Monclair resident who lives on mendal Terrace I wanted to speak up tonight on behalf of the Monclair Public Library both the main branch and the Belleview locations which are in dire need of capital investment and repairs as members of the council may know the libraries face ongoing water damage a lack of adequate heat and air conditioning and spotty elevator service which routinely disrupts its ability to provide essential Services it's been a challenging situation for the library staff and many patrons but I also know that the council is aware of it and looking into possible solutions so I want to thank you for giving this matter your time and attention I also wanted to express my sincere hope that the council will find the resources necessary to fix and upgrade our library so it can meet the needs of our community you can tell a lot about a town from the state of its library and ours is in need of some TLC thank you so much for listening thank you very much next guest please number four good evening everyone uh my name is Peggy McMillan I was here at your last meeting and some of the issues I addressed at that meeting were worth my coming back this evening wrote it all down so I won't forget anyway I've been at the mon township animal shelter for 10 years and at the time the shelter needed help organizationally and physically at that juncture Liz Morgan was hired as the shelter director since then I've seen the shelter uh seen her bring the shelter into a a uh a shelter that is admired not only by the people in Monclair and loved by the people in Monclair we have people coming from all over the state of New Jersey because of our our reputation um people come to us because of our impeccable reputation and because of the variety of animals that we have at the shelter the quality and variety of the animals at the mono township animal shelter has been adversely affected by the mono Council stopping our bringing transports from highly adoptable animals from the south this operation is totally financed by our nonprofit Friends of the monair township animal shelter not a penny does it cost the town they pay for the medical aspect of it and the transportation aspect of it and then when the animals are ready to be adopted who gets the the adoption fee Township of Monclair um it cost the town nothing zero not and nothing yet our Council has forbidden us to transport these highly adoptable animals to the mler animal shelter do the right thing council members do not close our shelter let us bring animals in from down south let us take adoptable animals from Glen Ridge W cwell or whatever A shiu or a Yorkie that we can make an exception and bring into Monclair highly adoptable and we're not allowed to take animals from other towns no matter what the breed is okay do not replace do not close our shelter which is um out there being discussed not openly but being discussed do not replace our director Liz Morgan and let us again transport highly adoptable animals from the south thank you for your time thank you next guest please good evening I'm Beth dero and I live at 4:30 Washington Avenue I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about something that's so vital to our town it's the Monclair animal shelter and the incredible leadership of Liz Morgan who turned it into a community treasure that it is today I want to start by reminding everybody here remember that cold day when there was a fire at the at the shelter guess what it was a moment that could have been catastrophic but instead it became a story of resilience compassion and most of all Community every single animal was safe and in a warm home by the night of that fire that didn't just happen by chance it happened because of Liz Morgan and along with the friends of Mont Clair animal shelter and from that tragedy they built an even better shelter one that provides not just a roof over the heads of animals in need but an essential service to the community under lizz's leadership the shelter has become so much more than a place for stray animals it's a place of hope it's a place of healing and it's a place of connection through programs like reading to the dogs yeah you may think that's funny or the the socializing with the cats it draws the Community together it is a place for kids to go to play with the cats that's time together not on their XBox not on their computer not walking around they're actually have a mission um okay now I've lost my place but um these pro programs uh they bring joy to the animals and to the people it's a Lifeline for families they at the shelter actually offers a pantry and this pantry is for filled with extra dog food and things that are donated to the shelter people that may be struggling with their own food bills can go there and they're not now wondering oh my god do I feed the dog or do I feed my kids they can get dog food or cat food for their animals because of Liz and the friends of the animal shelter um in addition um it's a place overall we have to remember it's it's a place where dogs and cats find loving homes often within just a week and I know this because I too volunteered there for a year or so and I um always would leave inspired knowing that the animals that I was caring for that day on a Sunday probably wouldn't be there next Sunday because they would have been adopted and and that's a happy way to go to a a shelter to get volunteers to have people there they're not seeing like oh that poor animal no they know that animal's going to be adopted but now it's all under threat yes because some of you um it's the the possibility of the shelter being shut down or the land sold to developers is real thank you very much for coming next guest please hello Town Council Members my name is Shannon hivick and I live on 18 Trinity Place in Monclair thank you for your time I'm here tonight to add Advocate and support the Monclair animal shelter and director Liz Morgan additionally I would like to have the transfer program reinstated I've had the pleasure of volunteering with the shelter walking the dogs socializing with the cats and donating to the Pet Pantry the Pet Pantry is a resource for people who are having diffic a difficult time financially the hope with the program is that this will limit the number of people who surrender their pets because they can't afford it Liz Morgan has done a wonderful job caring for the animals and running the shelter the shelter is an invaluable resource to the community and the Animals it serves shutting down the shelter would be tragic and a disservice to the community the reinstatement of the transfer program will allow us to help our neighbors a couple of weeks ago norc animal shelter had dogs on their euthanasia list perfectly healthy and adoptable dogs on their euthanasia list because they don't have the space people were frantic looking for rescue if the transfer program was reinstated we could have helped people were pleaing for Liz Morgan to help but she couldn't this is heartbreaking the animal shelter in our community are overcrowd the I'm sorry the shelters in our country are overcrowded and healthy and adoptable animals are being euthanized because there is no space shutting down our shelter will further the situation we must help prevent the early death of countless Souls by keeping the shelter up and running and reinstating the transfer program the animal lovers near and far are going to do everything we can to support the shelter and keep it open thank you thank you for coming next guest please uh good evening uh I'm Tom Reen I live at 67 mytle Avenue 25 year resident of Monclair I've been volunteering at the animal shelter for the past three years and I'd just like to Echo what most of my uh friends have already said the animal shelter is is uh vital to the neighborhood and and Liz has been a wonderful director and she's taught me so much about you know about just Animal Care and and uh she's she's a shoulder to cry on when I screw up and and uh you know taught me quite a bit um additionally i' I'd say that the three things that I know are important to Liz are the uh the health and well-being of the animals the reputation of the shelter and of course the safety of the staff and volunteers um and then and then lastly I just say the uh and you know I walk the dogs every day so I I come in contact with residents and and Shop owners and and all that I speak to are are you know come out in support of the shelter and and and how positive is for the community and you know and I see I see uh some of the dogs who who've been adopted from the neighborhood still walking around the neighborhood so it it it does my heart proud and anyway I just uh I just hope you um will continue to support the the shelter and and Liz and thank you for your time thank you very much next guest please my name is Nancy ianis I live on uh at 59 Essex Avenue the history is long but I'm going to begin with where we are now on April 1st 2024 my neighbors filed an appeal with the Zoning Board of adjustment voicing concerns about Municipal codes that were not considered in the agreement reached by Mr Leola Miss tally and the Monclair Boe on April 17th the neighbors presented their case to the board of adjustments as did the town and Boe via their lawyers and a lawyer parent represented the baseball families that evening after much discussion the zoning board unanimously granted the neighbors an appeal since that time the town has ignored Municipal land use law in fact there has been no legal basis for all the work that has occurred at Woodman field since that time you were incorrectly directed by Mr Lola that this was a closed matter since he signed the agreement with the Boe but this is in fact not true the agreement reached by the town and the Boe does not include the neighbors and we had every right to appeal Mr Lola and Mr Burr have followed the well-known process of do it now and ask for forgiveness later at the expense of our neighborhood when a neighbor asked mler Lola why he had not included Us in the settlement he smugly replied I forgot on May 23rd Mr Harrison spoke to the prior Town Council work should be stopped at Woodman this was your prior Town Council when questioned about this by council member Abrams Mr Burr told the council that the neighbors were seeking relief relief through the courts and could not comment but in fact there was no court case in process and Mr Burr was not forthcoming with the true situation Mr Harrison volunteered to speak with the town councils outside Council but of course nothing happened on July 1st all of you were sworn in and took the oath to uphold the laws of New Jersey and Montclair on November 12th Mr Harrison appeared before you and explained the Boe is violating Municipal land use law and the township council is ignoring it the minute the appeal was filed on April 1st construction should have stopped there is no legal basis for the work going on at Woodman field the only response he received was thank you very much next guest on December 3rd my neighbor Anna grman asked the Town Council to have the Boe go before the zoning board Miss Birmingham asked Mr lepola and Burr to explain and they both actually speak incorrectly about it on December 17th Mr Haron Mr Harrison explained to all of you that both Mr Lola and Mr bur's comments about mman field at at the December 3rd meeting were incorrect I only have two more lines the lawsuit did not apply to the neighbors the town could have appealed the Boe could have appealed but all you did was nothing on January 7th again he addressed the new attorney asked him to explain Municipal land use all to East ofie it strikes me rather odd that I should have to do this but here thank you very much for coming I'm sorry just one line I am asking you as our town council members to follow municip M Clair's Municipal land use law thank you thank you next guest please good evening everybody and congratulations on your new posts my name is Allison Sergeant I am a four generation native of Monclair New Jersey and still live at 11 Champlain Terrace with my family we're all proud entirely educated uh Monclair you know Township uh educated um I'm so disappointed that I have to come here again tonight because I chair the board of the Salvation Army run a business in Montclair for 33 years a lifelong friend of her and I just um generations of my family have been involved in only philanthropy in this town donating our time building things raising money and here we have a situation where we have a zoning board that makes precedent in our town I can tell you years and years in my family's history where we've you know donated our time to make sure that these precedents were followed Woodman field yes um that whole situation happened I don't know quite how but that you have not taken action for the future for all of your sakes and the Board of Ed to make them accountable on there not being a zoning board approval I think it could really be a serious problem in the future look at the legal nature of everything at some point someone's going to come before this board that doesn't love this town as much as as I do and say this is what happened and this is what we're doing and you're liable across the street from this field I've never lived in another place except for a random apartment many years ago and I'm I'm just so surprised that we would talk safety but we're not going to follow it because of zoning board appr lack thereof and so if there was a problem what are they going to say but there was no approval granted here I ask you to use good judgment and I applaud your efforts to do so thank you thank you very much next guest please hi there my name is Jim Akerman uh proud Mount Clarion I've been living here for 25 years and I appreciate the opportunity to speak in front of you uh for the past two and a half years I've been volunteering at Associated humane Society shelter in Newark New Jersey it's the state's largest shelter I walk and socialize dogs and I also have an Instagram account where I promote some of our most vulnerable dogs and help them get adopted our facility has a maximum capacity of about 140 dogs but because there's been a spike in abandonment and surrenders over the past few years we've housed as many as 240 dogs at any given time one of the reasons we have such a large population is because our shelter current has contracts with about a dozen towns in Essex County these are towns that Clos their shelters and then contracted with our shelter to uh house their dogs when our population spikes like that it makes an already difficult environment even more stressful the influx of surrendered and Abandoned Dogs has a negative impact on our staff's ability to not only take proper care of the dogs but with such a large population under our roof we struggle to publicize and promote them on social media when Towns close their shelter they simply for their problem on shelters like ours and I know I work there which brings me back to our very own shelter in Monclair I'm glad that we have a shelter whose doors remain open it's crucial that we have a local resource to care for stray lost and abandoned animals and that and and that they can reunite lost pets with their owners and give those animals that were abandoned a second chance at finding a loving home from what I've witnessed and heard the township shelter is is is is a remarkable place and clearly I heard some remarks today that sort of underscore that it has a supportive staff and a devoted group of volunteers so I thank the council for its continued support of our shelter but I would also not note that the transfer program hurts shelters like ours in Newark um yes a lot of the pet dogs that come up are coming from the south but we are overcrowded we're in crisis all the time and if we could have transfers coming to Monclair and alleviate some of the burden that we share it would be a a great benefit to us and to our communities as well um I uh so I'd encourage the the council to rethink that ban on transfers and allow the Montclair shelter to lend a hand to other facilities when their population uh spikes thanks very much thank you very much next guest please chairman good evening hi I really hate being here and I hate being here on this and I have two other things I'm going to try and cover but first it is bad enough I live in a country where the president goes around and flouts the law and flouts the Constitution but now I live in a Township that does the exact same thing the you are continually violating the municipal land use law your own ordinance which repeats the language in the municipal land use law in section 202- 18 requiring no work to proceed once the appeal was filed the construction permit was issued after the appeal was filed that was improper it was improper both because it was a violation of the municipal land use law and your ordinance and it was a violation of the construction code which requires all permits to be in place before a construction permit can be issued so everything on that field is illegal and you're just letting it happen it's inexcusable you should do something and I my advice to you is the residents have clearly been damaged they can sue you and I'm intrigued what your defense is going to be as to why you was entitled to deny them their rights devest the board of adjustment of its jurisdiction and just proceed because there is no legal defense to any lawsuit they bring moving on to more pleasant topic I want to I am glad that you're introducing the ordinance that is implementing one of the recommendations the board of adjustment made concerning modifying the definition of basement it was causing confusion we recommended this a few years ago the prior Council was not diligent about our recommendations I have a question on the proposed storm waterer ordinance it reads any applicant submitting a storm water control plan or permit application and I don't know what permit application means is if that's modify if storm water is modifying that as well as control plan fine if it's referring to permits other than a storm waterer permit I don't think you can do it because I can get a I need a construction permit if I'm doing interior Renovations in my house which obviously have nothing at all to do with storm water um so I think you should clarify that tonight when you in roduce the ordinance thank you again that was good I could have done another top chairman I I just like to let you know that we will be pulling um ordinance 02503 this evening the ordinance to amend section 347 of zoning um of the code of the township of Montclair one that you were referencing um because we had that up for discussion last evening in the planning board and we had a few questions so we're going to send it back to the zone board for clarification um while we're excited to move forward we'd like to get uh some questions clarified I have to remember the applications that led rise to the but we'll be glad to do that yes thank you so much for being with us next guest please good evening um I'm John Osborne I'm uh almost LIF long resident of mclair I am an eagle scout so a little late for that but uh good for 13 uper mclair uh 1976 so uh the reason I'm here this evening is to support my neighbors uh in the Woodman field uh neighborhood association we understand or I understand I'm in the construction business and I understand you know get it done and ask for forgiveness later I mean that that happens all a lot a lot of times in my business but at the same time you have to make it right and God bless you my biggest concern is the environment that was damaged the replacement trees that have been put in that are uh hopefully under warranty as a construction manager I would say I hope those were under warranty they were put in at the worst time to plant at the beginning of a very hot summer they weren't watered a lot of them are showing uh extreme stress and we'll be surprised if they turn green this spring I hope that the uh Board of Ed will have their construction manager enforce whatever their contract says about keeping the the green material that was put in into the neighborhood in an effort to replace some of the ancient trees understanding there's nowhere near the same biomass but it's the future and they need to be uh in my opinion hopefully maintained a watering program should have been put in place it wasn't anyone who's bought a shrub knows if you don't water it it's going to die so uh I would encourage you all to uh speak to the Board of Ed and ask them to enforce their contract uh as far as maintaining the green material that they have put in place and then also uh regarding the zoning it's done but maybe there are other improvements that could be made if this is heard by the zoning board the zoning board may have recommendations that wouldn't be expensive but would help to mitigate some of the damage that was done to our neighborhood so I also uh encourage you to keep the firehouse open and uh and the shelter thank you for your time thank you very much for joining us next guest please number 13 good evening Council good evening mayor I'm quite sure you all know who I am I'm Rosie Harrison from 50 Greenwood Avenue again we've been here since 2018 as president of the past Council past mayor now the future we've been asking for help we're getting our building back to the standards that it was when I moved in 20s something years ago when I moved in 20s something years ago I can walk in that building and I can be proud of it now I walk in my building I'm not proud I'm not proud of my apartment and I'm not proud of any Council past Council or this future Council for not coming to look at the place no one has been there to look at how we're living how would you like to pay your rent cost every month and get nothing done I have cracks in my bedroom that's Patchwork is being done every time something is required to get done it's patchwor we call code enforcement they come out they think the standard that we're living in is fine it's not it's not it's definitely not appreciated by any of us we're just asking this last time because believe me this is my last time I'm coming here to speak about the ills in my apartment building I'm going to show up to my town meting because I care about my town but it's clear that this town does not care about 50 greywood and I'd appreciate if someone sometime before 2027 where we may have to move from where we live come out and at least let us have a little decency a little dignity and some cleanliness and where we live that thank you for your time thank you next guest please number 14 number 14 good afternoon my name is Dorothy McLendon I live at 50 Greenwood Avenue Monclair New Jersey well I live there some people say it's the welfare place but every Everybody live there don't be it's not on welfare there some working people there too and I think they deserve some help but they don't get help so I don't have that much to say all I have to say that nobody's helping us and we wasting our time coming up here speaking we could stay at home and do the best thing we can do if we can find somewhere to move we can find somewhere we can afford it we can afford it but most of us live there can't afford it so we have to do the best thing we can do so no one come out to help us thank you thank you next guest please number 15 good evening my name is Aaron bullan I live on Champlain Terrace it's a one block Street between the railroad crossing on North Fullerton and asex Avenue it used to be a cozy little corner of town there were 200-year-old oak trees that shaded the street and our homes the train horn was a warm sound that we recognized as home it is now a stark plastic desolation where the wind whips the rigging of 40ft poles which now Tower over our homes instead of trees The Familiar ding ding ding ding of the gates going down at the railroad crossing is muddled into the wrapping on the poles and the train horn horn screams across the cold hard plastic rubber expanse this is where we live what I'm here to ask you is when you will feel comfortable and confident enough to stand up to a town manager who has been gambling with the Oaths all of y'all have taken and the rights of your residents allowing the stakes to get higher and higher is it time have we taken enough have we come here enough our word representative suggested that we neighbors get together with her to talk about traffic we get together to talk about traffic is that a joke I wrote a fun little suggestion of what maybe your oath was if that is the case follow the law except when it gets tricky or some guy breaks it and though you could choose the to write his wrongs and uphold the law you will instead choose to enlist your elderly constituents to figure out how to uphold their own rights because the same guy said you couldn't uphold them I know you didn't swear that and you know you didn't swear that you swore to abide the laws of the United States and the state of New Jersey which includes Municipal land use law uphold your Oaths set aside the nervous warnings of having made a settlement in bad faith from a man For Whom the walls are closing in the chickens are coming home to roost don't let him drag you down with him read the zoning board's resolution and get the Woodman filled plans before the bo board as the law requires so that we can at least mitigate the damage that has been done and prevent further harm because we have been harmed irrevocably and all you can do is try to mitigate thanks Mike thank you next guest please good evening my name is Ria Tomkins I live at 50 Greenwood Avenue um been here numerous times um we were told that if we had at least four different um representatives from 50 Greenwood which we got four units out here now that the town would have to take us more serious the council the problem I have with that is it is a 87 unit building we can't speak for everyone else okay maybe they're okay with the conditions they live in maybe their unit is okay but ours is not so why do we have to have a certain amount of people to come up here and speak or be here for us to get the help we need I don't pay rent in other people unit I pay rent in my unit so if I'm asking for something to get fixed I'm sending emails I'm I'm calling her I speak to her nothing okay I bet you if I didn't pay my rent they're not going to wait for four or five people to not pay their rent before they send me to their attorney to start eviction proceedings okay the building is no better than than it was in 2018 2019 2020 how much more are we going to take if you walk through that building you would be disgusted not only the dirt the mmack paint okay one lady in the back of her building she got garbage bags on her even though she said her apartment is fine to keep the wind out what sense does that make now I'm not coming up here anymore it it's done that does not mean my crusade is going to end but I do hold everybody responsible because I asked you please come out if you come out you will see for yourself what we're talking about and obviously none of y'all have come because if y'all did and y'all cared there would be some changes I'm done I'm done talking to this Council I'm I'm done with cold enforcement okay if they come I did get a call on Saturday so I will say that but he want to come a half an hour before I was supposed to a half an hour after he called me couldn't do that okay so I'm going to wait to see if they're going to come out but in the meantime I don't feel I should have to wait for code enforcement to come out to fix the stuff in my unit when I've spoken to miss Vargas who is the property manager it's it's enough please do something we deserve it no matter if they're here or not thank you thank you next guest please good evening um my name is Rachel Quinn Egan um I am here with Harriet to um talk about the Montclair Animal Shelter and Liz Morgan um Harriet feels that all dogs should be protected uh dogs that live outside of Montclair should also be protected and we would like uh Montclair to be a place that welcomes dogs from overcrowded shelters and dogs that are on death row um I've been in this town for 22 years I've been involved in a lot of Grassroots activism and I um have a very good sense of when things are going wrong and I know that that property is worth a lot of money it's worth a lot to a lot of um developers I'm certain of it and we've seen some changes lately that remind me of the times we had to fight to stop at the privatization of our uh monair public schools from Charter chains uh when you diminish an institution and you start to take away what's best about when you start to threaten the best staff there um and they start to you know you force them into retirement or to find other jobs um and you turn an institution into a place that the the uh town no longer sees as valuable it's easier to close it down and sell the land um we really know what's coming down here a lot of people are paying attention um I'm really asking you to protect this shelter and also understand that Liz Morgan is a very unusual person you're not going to find anybody like her again ever uh to look after a shelter the way she does she devotes her entire life morning noon and night um she knows an awful lot about animals and animal welfare and she knows the entire Community I'm sure from coast to coast we're so lucky to have her the fact that uh you know she isn't heading the parade on the 4th of July is nuts um and if you think that a lot of people came out to defend their children when our schools were attacked you can't imagine how many people are going to come out to defend this shelter if it looks like it's going to be diminished any further because our animals really matter and also our community a lot of us have children that have grown up volunteering there um and we really love it it's very very good for this community and we can really tell a lot about our society by how well we treat our animals and I hope that we will continue to do the very best thank you thank you very much next guest please good evening Sarah Avery I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to speak tonight item two resolution 258 to designate the qpa as public agency compliance officer cannot be approved as the qpa has a conflict of interest effective internal controls require segregation of Duties Al dairos is the qpa authorized to award contracts up to $44,000 without any approval from this Council therefore he cannot also serve in a position to verify that he has complied with the law under chapter 27 equal employment opportunity and affirmative action rules on another topic the Auditors reported to the council in August that they performed a bid testing proced procedure and identified seven exceptions out of 25 for which there was no resolution approving the expenditure claiming that all exceptions were co-ops and state contracts I opened the list of bids tested and it includes the $459,000 payment to coveware which you all should recall was the ransom paid to the purported threat actor of obviously not a bid a co-op or state contract so the Auditors lied on the audit report demonstrating they are not only sloppy but incompetent as well there is no longer any accountability in this town the former Township attorney repeatedly lied and violated laws on multiple occasions yet councelor Anderson thanks him for his service Thank You for Cheating the residents and wasting our tax dollars we live in a community where cowards actively promote corruption in violation of their oath of office how can the majority of this Council contined to enable the theft of our tax dollars to fund the corrupt agenda of the manager I attended an event at the cran house Friday evening where I spotted a January 1925 Lincoln calendar hanging on the wall the Integrity of the quote contrasts with the moral bankruptcy of both Township and Board of Education officials who represent this community quote let us have faith that right makes might and in that Faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it I am certain that enabling corruption is not your duty thank you NE next guest please good evening Mr manager Madame mayor Deputy Mayor members of the council Mr Town attorney welcome Madam clerk thank you guys very much for giving us the opportunity to serve your town may I have your name please my name is Tim McLaughlin thank you my name is Tim mlin I'm the vice president of the mclair firefighters Union FM MBA local 20 after giving you all 6 months in office to get a handle on things we thought it was time to address to you some concerns that we have for our members and for the public safety of Monclair by now you've begun to hear from residents building and business owners and Community stakeholders who share two of our largest concerns Staffing and a firehouse that's been closed for 568 days let that sink in for a second on the matter of Staffing we're at a record low Staffing today of 73 members and we'll lose two more members at the end of this month to retirements and one additional retirement at the end of March putting us at 70 members just as a frame of reference just prior to covid we were at 89 had this not been the case in years past we may have lost every animal in that shelter that all these folks have spoken about tonight on the matter of station three the firehouse that's been closed again for 568 days it's been closed since the summer of 2023 for structural Renovations we understand that the project began and was mishandled under a different governing body but to use a football reference the ball was fumbled and needs to be picked up and this is your opportunity every one of you to run it back for a touchdown and score some points for the constituents of the third and fourth Wards of Monclair while the structure has been properly shored up more capital is needed to bring the firehouse up to code and make the the space safely and habitable for our firefighters what we ask you to think about tonight is what are you prepared to do this year and in the years to come to ensure the safety of our residents visitors businesses and the State University campus that we serve thank you for your time tonight thank you very much next guest please is there another guest that would like to be here oh thank you oh no wores a long way around that's fine thank you good evening good evening my name is Rachel castellino and um I'm here to speak up for the shelter and for Liz Morgan um we adopted our dog Jasper from the shelter he came up from the south he was a dog who would have been put to sleep if it wasn't for the transfer program that you have um and um that's when I met Liz and Liz was so professional she goes above and beyond with everything she knows all the dogs she knows what your needs are she talks to you she respects you I had originally fallen in love with a different dog and Liz helped me understand that the needs of my family would actually be better suited for another one and she did so with such respect such kindness Liz's transfer program is amazing the pet pantry is amazing um she set up a pppy kindergarten at the shelter so that people in Montclair who need help socializing and training their dogs can get that help this is somebody who goes above and beyond for everybody and that's why we came and we are going above and beyond for her because we love her you know I got on a bus from the city came out and we really my daughter's with me too we love Liz Morgan we love the shelter and we're just so grateful that where you guys are you know hopefully going to keep the transfer program keep the Pet Pantry and keep Liz Morgan she really is oneof a kind anyway I don't need my full three minutes but this is she's a wonderful person and I'm co-signing all the amazing things that people here have said about her thank you so much thank you so much next guest please number 21 number 21 number 22 hi good evening my name is Aubrey K uh I am I've been a a resident of Montclair my whole life and uh for as long as I can remember the animal the animal shelter has always been a big part of my life and my families animals bring joy in a sense of companionship to the people it's also a great community that brings them to together I would go there all the time just to pet cats me and my family uh I strongly disagree that a place is wonderful as this animal shelter with dedicated workers who were so kind to the animals should be changed in any way uh or you know like taken down and you know just changed from its original uh you know thing uh please continue to help and fund support uh this institution of Monir as it has brought me and so many other people Joy as well as for the animals uh I've raised some money for the animal shelter that I'd like to donate from uh walking dogs so that's it sorry wow thank you very much next guest please good evening um thank you for hearing all of us um my name is Tanya Kirkman I'm a resident on College Avenue in Monclair um and I'm also here on behalf of my father who lives at 479 Upper Mountain um which is the house directly next to this proposed um Improvement in Mountain Side um and we're here to voice some I'm here on his behalf as well to voice some concerns about the sound from pickle ball um so the proposed pickle ball courts will be my father's house is literally on your plan here this is his house it shows right next to the tennis courts he's lived there for 34 years we hear the tennis already and pickle ball as you all I'm sure no is considerably louder than tennis um it is um a major concern um for the sanity of my father and anyone spending any time in his house um in Brookdale Park as you may know the pickle ball courts had to be moved because they were too close to residences and they were they were the res residences uh complained because of the sound so why are we now planning to put a pickle ball court four pickle ball courts right next to not only my father's home but the rest of the homes along that stretch and there are more homes right on the other side of those um train tracks that are also going to be right up but against those um those pickle ball courts um they uh the research that I've done says that pickle Bell courts should be placed at least 500 fet feet away from anyone's residence the tennis courts are nowhere close to 500 ft away from my father's res residence or I don't believe from the um next house or the houses on the other side of the train tracks um we would like to request that there not be pickle ball courts happy that you want to improve Mountain Side thrilled for all of the rest of the improvements also not quite sure those tennis courts are full for the entire season that the weather allows um so I'm not sure why why the change when there's plenty of people playing tennis and using the facilities um but if the there's you know if if there will be pickle ball courts there are um some specific um things that my research has shown that would make a difference um I would strongly recommend that you consider putting them in the further set of Courts as opposed to the ones closer to the the residents um so next to the basketball court would be a tennis court further away um I would look into what kinds of materials actually reduce the sound if you just repurpose the tennis court surface then you will get much louder um sound than if you do something that is sound reducing perhaps the court could be surrounded by some kind of sound barrier um I only have one more thing um and um there are something called Green Zone paddles that you could possibly require people to use which do reduce the sound um but we are not fans of the plan to put pickle Bor courts in next to the residents um so we hope that you will take that into consideration thank you so much thank you very much next guest please number 23 good evening everyone my name is Chrissy Thomas and I am a lifelong resident of Montclair as many of you know I ran for mayor and throughout my campaign one issue I heard over and over again from residents was the needs for safer streets and sidewalks at least one out of every five homes I visited asked what are you going to do about the state of our sidewalks our sidewalks are a mess our curbs need fixing we need safe green streets for pedestrians and bikers we hear about people dying in accidents at intersections with long neglected traffic lights we hear about pets getting hit when drivers speed on Upper Mountain a street with sidewalks in some areas but not others and no crossworks or stop signs at wat Chung it's frustrating it's heartbreaking and each time an incident happens we get upset but it happens again Anna Gran's father cracked his head open on Mrs milchman sprained her ankle I fell on a pothole near a handicap spot in the 205 parking lot and twisted my knee I still have a little bit of trouble walking but here's the question are we truly committed div Vision zero to making our Street safer or are we just talking about it for political gain I want to thank a few of You by name Eric damato Amina Toller mayor Baskerville and rahum Williams I've heard each of you speak passionately about making our street safer and I know that you've acted in some way to make a difference I thank you for that but we all know this problem isn't just about roads and about sidewalks that aren't safe to walk on it's also about giving $800,000 contracts to engineering firms we can't blame homeowners on Grey Street or elsewhere in town when we we see poorly chosen trees planted by the town's arborist causing roots to uplift sidewalks and block pipes and how can we ignore streets where there's no sidewalk at all right now we don't even have a certified ADA compliance officer in Montclair after Bruce Morgan was fired by Mr Lola while the reason given was personal we know the deeper truth the town spent close to $100,000 to bury Bruce Morgan's reports about discrimination how angry should we be about mismanagement of our resources earlier today I received a heartbreaking image of a baby who was out walking with his mom when they fell into a pothole the baby hit his head and is now in the pick you with a skull fracture and brain bleeding this is happening in our town real people our parents our neighbors our babies getting hurt because our streets aren't safe Mont Clair's failed to enforce sidewalk repairs for over a year due to a minor statutory issue council members have acknowledged this yet here we are still waiting I'm here today about to ask something simple pass the statutory correction at the next council meeting so sidewalk repairs can resume let's start with the most dangerous sidewalks especially on busy streets where pedestrians have no choice but to walk in the street to Eric Amina Rah and mayor Baskerville this is your chance to act remember while we debate how to get things done real people are getting hurt and we can prevent it let's take action let's make our town safe for everyone and our animals my first volunteer job was with pause I hope that you do some good thanks for your time thank you very much next guest please number 24 hi my name is Lawrence the and I'm here to speak quickly about the Monclair animal shelter in Liz Morgan I personally have been working with animals for the past 15 years I'm 35 years old and I grew up in rosand I work with a group called Murray's Rescue Ranch we rescue animals from down south and I personally have fostered about 30 to 40 dogs in the past uh four or five years myself so I know what everybody here is talking about as far as the difference that it makes in a community I get to have the experience as being a dog trainer of working with families individually and hearing all their stories about where they got their dogs from and I'd like for you guys to really reconsider shutting down an animal shelter and also in the intrum punishing very rare and exceptionable people from participating in making your town a better place because I know personally the difficulty that it is to save and rescue these dogs so I I know very much how it can change a community to to save these dogs and have people who are exceptional like Liz Morgan I know that you're going to have a very hard time even if you open up just a regular shelter that only takes in certain kind of dogs finding somebody as exceptional because at the end end of the day it's it's a thankless effort and it brings the whole Community together and that's where the thank thankfulness comes from and the same thing I'd like to also mention briefly at the end is the same thing with the fire department the fire department ends up keeping a community together and that's what everybody needs in order to have a tight-knit community and to fix all the problems that I've heard everybody mention today it's very upsetting I don't grow up I did not grow up in this town I grew up a town or two over but I understand where everybody's coming from when they just want to see their town do better and see everybody thrive in their Community thank you very much thank you very much next guest please hi I'm Scott KY um I was very disheartened when a few weeks ago um Council went am Muk and mayor and um counselor you were both threatened with your safety in fact you filed police reports outlining your safety and I'm sorry you had to go through that um on a safety vein in a different way I can relate with that every day the hour before I came to council I had two cars in two different directions take a run at me and a crosswalk with my light which I can get the bike light if you want to see how light it is you will turn your head to walk my kids to and from friends I also on Route when driving here had with police car lights on a car come on the wrong side of the road and nearly miss me if you want the recording off my cart you're welcome to have it so I every day I worry less about my safety it's my kids they're 11 and and 14 almost and this is a death zone I asked before who's going to attend the funeral it's we're overdue statistically we don't even have our 2024 numbers now money talks in life we have a development going on and I'm going to talk about that area has anyone actually gone over there we have Engineers frankly I don't think they have a clue I'm not an engineer I did math as an undergrad you look at the road by the the park and the pool it's configured wrong the parking's on the wrong side of the road it should be on the east side not the West we need to get out there scrape the line move the line change the signs boom that is simple how much does that cost hundreds couple thousand why do I have to come up here and say hey there isn't a second crosswalk either it's completely configured wrong but even worse probably is tobogganing and sledding a long tradition for those who've lived here a while is sledding the sleds will go on the road especially right now so what did we do someone in the town took an industrial equipment took the um what do you call it the uh they had Gates actually saw them off saw the gates off so now cars can go through why would you saw Gates off I it just flumes me we've got to start Chrissy had great points every single one of is a spot on and they're cheap so let's move to liability and we have a lawyer present which is great he's an outside firm you're about to spend 400,000 and you're spending peanuts on safety what do you think the lawsuit is for a kid that's hit we had three kids in three months on bicycles hit three we had Vivian ven Fleck and you should pull it up Sir the town is probably massively responsible we have a town manager who's absolutely useless we have that are useless I shouldn't be able to engineer that park that's the first thing they should be looking at is safety this is a simple one they didn't even walk out there I how can you not I'm just an average Joe we got the cars on the wrong side we took out the gate and that's just the beginning and lastly since my time's up and it would be really nice if one of you actually invoked conversations Bob Russo had the gumption to do it you're sitting there silent well is that what you're going to do when you go to the funeral of a kid who died we are overdue we are statistically overdue and the liability he has a fiary duty to tell you which is great his firm also is at risk which is great you have another lawyer here which is great you will know what the liability is it's going to be nothing compared to the fire department's suit the wrongful dismissal suits why is he here he doesn't even live here thank you so much management by walking around I will stop because none of you have the fortitude to engage me and you've asked for Solutions I gave you a solution right there there's a whole bunch more Chrissy gave you a bunch you ask for things that's a simple paint job thank you very much next guest please number 26 hi good evening my name is Jenny Martin um many others have spoken about the animal shelter here tonight with great depth and detail and especially Harriet the dog which who wants to follow that um so I'll just I'll keep my my comments brief um I've been around rescue for years and years both rescuing dogs personally and working and volunteering in rescues um especially in Essex County I will say this shelter is a Shining Light Above among them uh Liz Morgan is the most pragmatic knowledgeable compassionate and responsible person when it comes to placing dogs in the right homes the amount of knowledge that she has and you heard it from folks that have adopted from her she's unlike anybody else um and I'll say this County can't lose another shelter you heard it from the gentleman who works at AHS they are drowning um and with the ice raids coming Fast and Furious there's going to be a lot more displaced pets this is a disaster we can see coming so allowing these transfers for shelters to step in and help each other out is critical thank you thank you next guest please number 27 did he ask did you ask good evening mayor coun William Scott 23 Cedar Avenue U I've got a couple of items but the the first item which is really distressful is the fact that the residents of Greenwood Avenue who have been up here for almost 20 years 20 years four or five different administrations uh there is no reason whatsoever that there has not been an action plan put together by the town manager the police department the fire department code enforcement and Health Department to go in and resolve those problems that is a facility that represents the neglect of our mon residents everyone deserves a decent quality of life in this Township and if there's not an action plan by next meeting we should be taking civil action against the owner of that property if you have to take and uh take ownership of that property somebody better step up and get this done immediately okay that's my first concern the second concern being a resident of Monclair for 75 years I've lived on cedo Avenue for 36 years there's no reason why that firehouse has been deactivated it needs to be reactivated we have a large population we have a senior citizen facility there I've heard the fir truck go down Cedar Avenue in the middle of the night to go and resolve problems for our senior citizens at that building and residents throughout that area of the 44 that Firehouse needs to be reactivated and that also relates to the quality of life of resid to live in that area we need an action plan for that as well in regards to the Woodman field situation you the council you have the capability of resending the work order all you have to do and you can confirm this with your town attorney you have the authority to receive that work order and that needs to be done if the need if there needs to be resolution a review of what's been done this will give you the council a fresh look at what has occurred the residents have been coming up here for several months to ask for uh some resolution at least resending it and taking a look at that situation is within your power and you can confirm that right now with your uh attorney all you have to do is make a motion that's all you have to do you have that capability to do that thank you number 28 good evening council members um I'm here to talk about the issue of the mle animal shelter the M animal shelter is where me and my family adop I'm sorry please give us your name my name is Ash Ash thank you um the mo animal shels were my family adopted our dog and that's where my mother and I met L Morgan she was really helpful in helping us get our dog and she knows every single animal in the shelter and their personalities really well she's really good at her jobs and she helps the and she helps these animals a lot the mon animal shelter transport program is how I got my dog and how many others also got their beloved pets my dog would have been killed but because of the M animal shelter and their transport program he was taken up from the south and is is now has a happy life M anual sheler has helped transport adoptable dogs and get them and get them loving homes some of these animals would be would be dead but it would have been euthanized because there was no there's no space in many shelters but because of their animal shelter and their transport program these animals are alive today and they are happy and healthy in loving homes these dogs and these cats deserve life they deserve homes which Liz in the M animal shelter have helped to give them America kills hundreds of thousands of healthy adoptable dogs and cats a year in shelters because there's just no space taking away the mon animal children their transport program will do no good and will prevent innocent adoptable animals from having homes and happy lives and not just animals benefit people do too there's a pet pantry if you can't afford dog food this month cuz you're just behind you can go there just so your pets can eat too if you don't know where to start with training they have a puppy kindergarten so if you need to make sure that your dog knows Bas of commands you can go there if your child wants to hang out with pets you can take them to the molear animal shelter and they can socialize with cats and dogs the shelter helps many people and many animals I urge you reinstate the transport program and keep the animal shelter if not for the people in M Clair who want a these animals than for the animals who did nothing wrong and deserve the loving homes that the mock animal shelter will help to give them thank you very much next guest please good morning oh good morning it's late good evening good evening I'm night uh good evening mayor and councel aava fad president of the tenants organization of Montclair the group that brought us all rent control with the community so tonight I really just want to keep the focus on the tenants organization and just let everyone know that we are moving forward working on the radio show that I talked about in December if not in the November session we will be on radio Freemont Clair so I just want to thank everyone who's been providing content having interviews meetings and talks with me including one of our interns who just returned who that American University um working on getting us audio so we'll begin to upload to the radio Freemont Clair this month and we want you to come and work with us come volunteer and join us you can call us 973 61928 55 and tenants organization Monclair gmail.com and we're going to cover resources and topics for the tenants rights from the tenants rights manual and we'll have a great time and you don't have to have really any experience in um in radio I can do the training for you because that is part of my background thank you very much have a good night thank you very much next guest please greetings CIA sweat uh as I say most of the time born ra stayed I really wasn't going to speak during public comment I only came here to listen to your discussion and have an opportunity to participate in the discussion for the ordinance of the continuous raising of the Black Liberation flag however this is my first time back in the room that I was provided with an apology from you uh Eric damato I don't accept it you were very nasty and you know I'm not a oneandone type of person I said once before I'm not a performer I'm an activist I will get all up in it consistently so just for the sake of context you said that you yelled at me because I yelled at you to get out well what happened is I saw the climate I saw the culture that was being fostered here with with a of disrespect towards the black women on the council and as I was seated in the back I said stop cutting her off stop being so disrespectful and that's when you yell for me to get out and I told you I wasn't you need to get out so I know there was a attorney here last time and he said it's going to take an entire year for anyone to make you step down I really think you should demonstrate some uh honor within yourself and step down on your own you you're not wanted here and for you the new attorney I know people are not accustomed to folks standing up in protection of black women here that it confused you last time you mentioned that one of the brothers who stood here and spoke in protection and support of black women being safe in the space you you mentioned the word threat so I want to make it clear nobody here who came out on that topic threatened anybody here are we clear on that you're not clear on that well maybe you're the one cuz did you touch him in the hallway mhm so any case nobody here made any threats um you know what time it is now you know what time it is now we see what's happening in our government I'm telling you it is critical that you do not waste time when it comes to advancing I don't even want to say the word Equity now because everyone's going to want to not do it but it's important it is important the fact that this climate in this room is so loose that folks are telling folks F you and you're yelling at other black women to get out and it's been accepted it says a lot the fact that we have people here who are running for positions or have ran for positions like mayor and aligns the Black Liberation flag with the KKK flag it tells you a lot about how far we have gone downward in Montclair so I just want you to know I'm not one and done I as long as I I have air in my lungs I don't even feel well tonight I'm losing my voice I will be here I will be here because we need someone to represent for black people here as well as everyone else and for our children so I'll stay until the end so I can be part of that conversation thank you very next gu hi good evening 4:00 again okay an grman 63 S6 Avenue I'm here because I was up again at 4:00 in the morning hearing these clanking poles and I can't deal with it anymore it's bringing out a side of me that I didn't even know existed and um I'm furious it's been four months of my life my quality of life and my kid too who is woken up by it it's not okay it should never have happened this is why it needed to go to the zoning board because somebody else would have figured out that those polls were just going to cause this nuisance there's no way that you can have 50ft poles in front of people's homes 30 ft in front of their house with cords it's going to clang when it when there's wind so I'm at my wits end and I don't know what that means I'm not you know there's nothing you can do you've you've you've well there's a lot that you can do actually I'm being defaulting to my normal nice person which is gone because you would feel the way I do if you had that in front of your house too so it's it's time for you all to do something more than just send a code violation that then is just a piece of paper that they don't do anything about um it's time for you to demand more for us and protect us now since you didn't protect us when there was a chance to do so thank you thank you very much next guest please may I no more okay um seeing none other we have any conversation did you want to talk about okay um yes councelor lochman yeah I I just have a couple of questions like uh it seemed to me that when Anna came up and talked about the problems with the polls what what has been done about that that's Mr Lola like is there not something that can be done about that that certainly seems like a pretty awful thing to have to listen to for months and months well we've been looking at Alternatives we trying to get the Board of Education to do something however I do believe we've ordered and uh Austin I think is here and noberto is here Austin we have ordered some I don't even know what you call it to to strap on the polls which they believe um will uh hopefully humiliate the problem the Board of Education we are told or have ordered some kind of a sleeve that goes on the pole which will stop the noise so far we you know is being handled by The Architects we have not heard anything specific as when they'll be in but we are attempting once again for an interim solution um manager Lola I'd like to U make a motion that pursuant to the resolution that was adopted by the zoning board that the Board of Education be directed to submit an application to the zoning board so that we can try to wrap this uh up mayor Madam mayor we're going to go into executive session later in the evening I would ask that you hold off on calling any vote on that motion until I get to talk to you about some issues that might occur if you make that motion yeah you can make it when we come out okay let me just give me the opportunity to have a attorney client conversation with you before you yeah because I'm I'm I'm very concerned that this is going on and on and it's not going in Direction and when it came up the first time when people come here I know everybody speaks very generally and you don't really know which ones of us are in favor of you know moving along certain direction and we don't do a lot of back and forth talking but um just for the record I I was in favor when when we decided not to go back to the zoning board before and I am trying to think of a way that we can have that discussion and take some action and certainly I appreciate the people that that came here and that are explaining to us week after week and it shouldn't be and so I am now trying to think of what we can do and and as far as I know we can make a motion and with the second we can at least have that discussion but I'm attorney I will respect your request for the moment and and hold it um until later on this evening you could certainly make the motion I'm not trying to discourage you in any way from making the motion I just want to discuss um a scenario that Council of Birmingham and I had briefly discussed last week as one potential way to try to reach amicable resolution here before you make that motion I'm always in favor of amicable resolutions so okay um yes councelor lochman yeah um you know I clearly am counselor here I also sit on the economic development committee and the um facilities and infrastructure committee and in any of my dealings with any of my colleagues on those committees and on the council it's never been discussed to close the animal shelter I don't know where you're getting that from it's never been discuss to develop the property into anything other than an animal shelter so if this is coming from random Facebook posts I hope I can tell you it's nothing that we're aware of is that my colleagues also is that your understanding that there's been no discussion there's in in the Committees that I'm involved in which there should be discussion in those committees if this was something that is being contemplated but it is not so I I'm dumbfounded that people are up here talking about closing the animal shelter thank you okay at this point in time I'm going to go um and open the public hearing without objection to um resolution r256 the public hearing on Green Acres Grant application and I will ask please Mr um Austin Ashley and uh folks from Naga please to join us call no no no Rene is fine thank you no I agree with you it is so much misunderstanding it is it is y no no it's not you're 100% right resolution r25 -006 is a resolution enabling the state of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres application in support of the Mountainside Park improvements please if you'd like to to leave at this time would you do so rapidly because we're going to try to keep the momentum going momentum going um also if you spoke earlier about this and you'd like to speak uh again and you can have an opportunity to speak again on the resolution usou huhe us couple minutes okay anybody need to do break for two minutes oh you want five minutes we'll take a five minute break and then we'll resume for the public hearing on the Green Acres application regarding the mountain side park improvements off camera e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay we're going to uh resume our meeting and I would like to make a motion that P uent to the resolution adopted by the zoning board the Board of Education be directed to submit an application to the zoning board I'll second there a a second um is there any discussion I I made a motion that pursuant to the resolution that was adopted by the zoning board the Board of Education be direct to submit an application to the zoning board so you remember all of the discussion that we've been having for months and months and then apparently it was supposed to go back the application to zoning board none of that happened a lot of that was before we even got in these seats we've been here now for quite a few months and I've been listening and paying attention and I really believe that will be in the best interest of this entire process and and what's going on there if we Direct them to go back to the Zoning Board of adjustment there's still things that can be done it might even move things quicker they've been coming here with the clang clang noise for a very long time other things The netting needs to go up higher I don't know if we need to get more density and trees I'm just saying we have an amazing Zoning Board of adjustments I have worked closely with them for about 20 years but I know that the some of the people have been there been there for 40 years and they're incredible people and they have amazing legal Minds in that group and I trust them implicitly to help us to get where we need to go so that's a motion that I'm making and I want to have discussion we have a second and so I'd like to just get some some input from my colleagues I'm sorry mayor but the council just advised that we discuss this in executive session and I'm wondering why you feel it's important now to do it now rather than hearing our council's guidance on on this issue oh good question councilor lochman so I certainly did respect our Council and I went and I had a discussion with the council and another council member during our break there and I'm grateful that we have a um attorney Garcia here that shared with me what his feelings are and based on that I've returned and made a decision that I'd like to make the motion and we just have discussion and and and see where here it goes can I can I ask attorney is this your point of view that we should still discuss this in executive session rather than discussing it now I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has them in executive but I mean if the mayor has a motion in a second you know I'm I I don't have an issue with you call calling the vote I did have an opportunity to speak to Mayor Baskerville and and and councilor Birmingham um it was less it was less than a quarum we were not in violation of the open public meeting act I sort of of discussed where my mind was in in terms of trying to reach resolution I discussed some conversations that I had with Mr Harrison last week two two weeks ago sorry time time flies um so again you know I don't know how to answer that question Council if you have questions for me I'm happy to answer them I don't want to answer them out in out in Open Session though so and yeah so I would counc birmingh sorry thank you mayor I mean that's where I'm I think we can revisit because you and I did have an opportunity just to have a two-minute talk but I don't think the rest of the council did so prior to making asking them to vote I'm I think they should have the opportunity to speak with the lawyer as well and then we can come back after executive session that's my thought is I'm sorry councelor damato what would are you s i don't have anything in front of me to vote on I I think I don't want to speak for the mayor her voice is is is is you're doing you're doing a great job you're fighting fighting through it um I I think the mayor is suggesting that me or or Mr L poo communicate with the Board of Ed uh and advise them that it's our position that they have to uh go before the zoning board for review whether that's full review or courtesy review that's you know mayor you'll direct me that's a conversation that I do not want to have uh out and open because I think it's it's an attorney client conversation that should be had in executive session I'm just I'm just asking as a matter of like I don't vote on things I don't see I mean like literally you're the suggestion is to just vote on a a Voice vote on something and then it's written down we've never done that and the way that I Envision it would work counil demato is if I was the individual authorized I would tell them this is our ition that you have to go before a review before the zoning board I'm sure that they're going to object to that and then I would have to come back come back come back to you for the next steps as to how we are going to back up our our I'm asking an actually much simpler question like uh being relatively new to this I did not know that we can just you know create a resolution out of thin air without it being written down no sure and voting on it and also I would just say that while I am quite sympathetic to this position and I've always been mystified by this settlement and people can attest to this um I'm a big believer that we have an agenda for a reason and um the agenda's you know there's nothing on it and if people people look to see what our business is for the for the week and they come to comment on the things that we're going to do and so we should generally speaking not be making up resolutions as we go uh I think most of us or all of us would agree that that's a good way to do stuff so oh I'm just I'm just I won't argue with you either way as to how you want to run run your meetings um I will I will just say that without getting too into the details as to how the sauses made there are times where things come up right and we do we we do resolutions that we verbally read into the record and then I will work with the with the with the clerk to memorialize those in writing uh after after that it's not i' I've done this numerous times over the years before I'm not saying you have to do it I'm just telling you you can do it if you want if you wish to May thank you yes I would rather um I I really would feel more comfortable if we had an opportunity to discuss it as a group and get legal advice um uh this is we're making we would be making a decision on behalf of the entire Township and so my preference my strong preference is that we have a discussion about it in executive session before we um make any uh make any decision or or vote put this to a vote I am not prepared to vote on this um I would rather get the advice um of council and be able to um discuss the pros and cons yeah and and and I um appreciate the discussion here very much and I know that we've had weeks and weeks and I know that I've spoken to at least three maybe four other members here and suggested that you speak to various people regarding this and I'm certain that at least three of you have already spoken to Legal people regarding a matter so it's not like I'm just springing something out of the clear blue sky that has not been on our table and um you know we haven't been discussing all along because we have we all have and if anybody hasn't it was by choice but I mean I agree by and large that you know most of the time we will have an agenda and I more than even most people that want to change agenda last minute or change the flow respect the agenda but because this has been on our on our plate for so long and I personally just feel like we're not doing enough I just tried to bring it to the four so I'm not not disagreeing with what you said Council of demato and what you're saying but that's just where I am tonight because it's not something that we haven't had plenty of time to address anybody else yeah just one I'm sorry I think councelor Toller was before you yep thank you so much Madam mayor um I agree with you this has been going on for a while um I don't know if this is something that some of our my colleagues may feel like they want to have in private conversations you know instead of open public here but we've heard from many many residents you know it's almost like are we even listening you know Bill Harrison has come up here many times and spoke and we all know that if he speaks to us he's speaking for a reason and we need to adhere to what he's saying um I ran on a platform that residents matter and that's what I'm sticking to yes councelor lochman yeah this has come before us and uh public has come up and mentioned it but mayor you're in charge of the agenda you could have put this on the agenda in any one of the past Council meetings we've had but rather than doing an offthe cuff resolution now I really love it when the other Council people start telling me what I can do and what I can't do you know it's just very interesting but moving right along um I am going to just see if anyone else has any discussion on the motion and if not we can call for a vote and and and move it forward and just for the record this is not the first time that we voted for something that was not on the agenda before um councelor Williams as I sit here and you know I do I hear all the residents that come up here and a lot of the things they're saying you know people should not have to live that way it's quality of life but I also think that this is while folks have been coming up here I think that more of an Outreach to the bo Boe should have been made prior to this meeting and I think that that Outreach should be made to the Boe to come up with some sort of solution other than this kind of enforcement uh action that we're putting putting on them and I think that's what should happen here and you know I you know that's it that's thank you anyone else Council of Birmingham I just really feel for myself that we should go into executive session and hear the legal ramifications of what we're doing that that's and then if we decide to come back I just I I feel that's what we should do I that the other council members should have a chance to disc discuss with the lawyer okay so did the other the other group that was mentioned earlier not have a chance to speak with attorney Garcia on this matter can can I just I'm sorry let me just make sure councelor Birmingham has been I received what you said are you finished yes I'm finished okay councelor Williams it seems like there's disagreement appear on it and that's a that's a good thing we're not all always going to agree on everything I I say just put it to a vote right and if you get the majority then it moves forward if not then you know we you know we deal with it that way but like I said before I think that a conversation with the Boe right should be had I you know I don't want to throw anybody on the bus I'm not quite sure why these convers weren't had but that's what I think needs to happen or if they were okay uh anyone else okay so I am going to ask Madame clerk to call for the vote and wherever we end up you know it's um fine when we disagree and if you put a vote to something it doesn't pass it doesn't mean you have to go home and not return uh Madam clerk deputy mayor Anderson no council Birmingham as I said I'm no until we discuss councelor damato no councelor lochman no councelor Toller yes councelor Williams no mayor Baskerville yes thank you very much so we're going to move on now to the public hearing on green makres Grant application thank you for your patience no problem thank you mayor hope you feel better soon let me just see if anybody is leaving so that we can give them a minute thank you good thank you uh good evening everyone um good evening this is indeed the public hearing for uh the 2025 Green Acres Program Grant application that the township is submitting in support of the Mountainside Park improvements project um so just getting into uh this application I just want to take a couple minutes just to talk about uh what this program is and and what are the requirements that follow uh so this program specifically is intended to support and um fund the creation and use of outdoor recreational facilities um that's anything from playgrounds field a athletic field sport courts pools Trails Etc um it's important to note that it's explicitly prohibited for use of indoor recreational facilities or community centers so something like the Clary Anderson Arena um although it is a recreational facility with the ice rink uh it is indoors and it is ineligible for funding under this program uh aside from that uh one of the other requir IR ments is if a facility is funded with Green Acres funds uh it then needs to be made available to the public at large uh that is not exclusive to Township residents within Montclair that's anybody um so um that's something that uh has been taken into consideration and there are abilities to charge fees for the use of facilities that are funded um through the green acus program um and if you wanted to you could even charge additional fees for out of town residents however um all that needs to be vetted and approved by the state before you can impose any of those fees but regardless again they need to be made available for public use um for any Resident in or outside the township with that said um I've put together just an aerial image here of Mountainside Park um as as we know it today um so there's several facilities throughout the park uh you can see to the north we're familiar with the uh swimming pools there um and you know as I mentioned earlier uh if a project is funded with Green Acres funds it needs to be made available to anybody currently the township policy is for the swimming pools uh they are exclusive to Township residents only and those residents who um purchase uh a badge for for use of the facility so um this would not fall under under that eligibility uh for funding under this program the the ball field was recently um done I believe in 2017 2018 um so at this time there's no know immediate need to revisit that facility so for this application we're really focusing in on the sport courts basketball courts tennis courts the surrounding Pathways as well as uh as well as the restroom facilities in the park and I've put together just some images here I took this about a month ago uh before we got hit with the snow um of the current conditions and you know in case you haven't being able to uh visit it in in recent in recent times uh these are tennis courts and as you can see there's severe cracking that is formed throughout the quarts there stained signs of wear um fading with the quartz surfacing um these are just a couple examples you know and it's spread throughout the facility similarly these are the basketball courts again similar signs of age wear uh cracks forming throughout um these are normal expected signs of wear and tear at this point uh it's been about over 10 years a little over 10 years at this point since these uh cords were last uh you know tended to in any kind of serious uh way uh we have over time done what we can to crack seal as we can but uh those repairs are failing at this point um and it's likely due to issues with the subgrade beneath it so it's time to address those issues lastly this is some pictures of the uh perimeter Pathways that are available uh around the park um you can see there's uh we have some benches these are the older style benches that were put in uh the intention here would be to replace these with the townships uh newer standard park bench uh trash receptacles will also be replaced and upgraded as part of this project we also have the drinking fountain here uh we'd like to upgrade that to one of the newer um drinking fountains that also provide the bottle Filling Station um we've received uh you know good requests for those uh to be implemented throughout the township so uh that's part of this project as well and as you can see there's a gap between where the pathways are and the park benches so as part of this project and in my next slide you'll see um we're looking to for the most part maintain the character of the park but make some improvements uh to circulation and Ada accessibility as part of this project as well so uh we look look to eliminate the need to cross over into lawn areas uh and a slope which could present challenges uh to certain individuals so um with that said we can see here our proposed conceptual plan emphasis on conceptual at this point so again for the most part we're intending to maintain and upgrade what's there today um the biggest change is uh the implementation of pickle ball courts the the the ability to do that will require eliminating one tennis court and conceptually we have it shown in the upper right corner of the sport court area here so that elimination of One tennis court uh would provide for four uh full-size pickle ball courts um that will require some tweaks to the general layout of the facility um and where the qus are currently located minor but um still necessary in order to fit everything as we shown as we show here today just a quick question did you say four you you take away one tennis court you get four pickable courts in this Arrangement yes yes councilor Williams quick question so a lady came here earlier and she was talking about her father's house and how close it will be to where the pickle course were and just very concerned about being disturbed and stuff what could we do in this design to kind of decrease that concern yeah so right now um where the courts are shown it's about 100 ft from the closest pickleball court corner to the nearest home so I don't know if she's an expert on it but she said 500 right so with that said there is a dense tree line here in addition to that what we would like to do is they sell they they manufacture they're called acoustic paneling essentially uh that gets mounted on the fence and the intention behind that is to mitigate and reduce the amount of noise that's generated from play from leaving the area it's a containment um there's other things you can do you can regulate uh the use of um you know noise reducing paddles and such um you know that's more of a policy thing that would have to be implemented yes so I I don't want to monopolize no go ahead councelor um Williams and then counselor Toler so with the so this plan doesn't contemplate acoustic paneling or anything like that so there going to be some additional cost that go along with that I and I I know you didn't come here anticipating that you were going to get peppered with these questions about the sound I did yeah so um lost my train of thought sorry uh but in in any event it it I mean at what stage is this this is just a concept and then this is very conceptual okay the acoustic panels that you mentioned are they do you know if anywhere they're in use in I believe the pick ball courts um at Brookdale park at Brookdale I believe so they have they have some installed there um I don't know at one point they were put in but I have seen some photos where you know they they were installed at one point at least and um and yeah it's something that we've included in in in other projects for other you know muncipalities uh that we've that we work in and uh you know they have similar concerns and legitimate concerns obviously with with the noise that comes along with this but um you know just so there's an understanding um you know the the idea of pickle ball um really came from discussions with the recreation department it's understanding that they've received numerous requests for the introduction of pickle ball into the township facilities currently there are none except for Brook Park which is a County facility and I believe they charge fees as well for the use of those uh courts so this will be a Township amenity um and a first so we're showing it at this location conceptually and the park is pretty much fully developed at this point you know so in order to really move it as far away as possible you're losing real estate elsewhere um and then as a result you're creating additional impervious coverage on the property as well which is you know other issues which relates to drainage um so the the intention here is to you know not create additional burden uh obviously the noise is is a serious concern um whether this ultimately is here or gets moved to a different corner you know that Still Remains to be seen we could work those details out you know should the desire to keep pickable and remain uh we could work those details out in the more detailed design phase once we have funding in place and um you know and and there's a project to really to really U Get Behind and move forward but um that's currently what we're showing now and one of the other reasons why it's selected in that location too is that that is uh it presents the least amount of challenges legit logistically to make everything fit within that area it's it's hard to see with a naked eye but these courts on the southernmost side are actually a little wider than the courts uh on the Northern side so it would require even further enlargement of the areas so it's just things that we you know preliminarily considered to lay something out to show what a facility with pickle ball courts could look like this does not mean that this is what it will be uh just to give reference we're probably at least realistically two years out from construction you know by the time funding gets in place by the time the township appropriates funds for the this project um you know designed is put together approved and then go out to bid and constructed you know it it's we still have a bit of time to work all those details out and and make sure councelor Toler and then Deputy Mayor thank you Shen Anderson thank you uh when was this park last redesigned it was about 10 years ago right or do you know I do know 2014 the township uh converted the clay courts that were current that were there previously those are these three courts on the Northern side those were clay they were they were uh replaced and reconstructed with um the asphalt quarts that you see there today um aside from that there was some minor repairs you know crack sling that was done uh to you know refurbish and re rehabilitate the remaining Court areas okay and um you said that this design idea came from the recreation department based on I guess feedback or input they received you said right yeah we had it you know before we really move forward with the full application and design uh preliminary uh you know concept design uh we had a discussion with them to see if they had received any interest from anybody to create new amenities for the park um and one thing was pickable that was before I go to my next question I guess Mr Lola so when these type of funding opportunities come in where's the community discussion prior to this how did something like this get here what without talking to Residents in the area to see what they would like the park to be designed at well if I can just interject um we currently do have a um we call the I was going to get to it towards more towards the end but uh there is a community um engagement survey that's currently posted on on the township website um the the media department has been uh Communications Department has been posting it on social media uh notifying residents that this is uh contemplated provide feedback um and so far we have received about 33 responses I believe as of seven I saw that it went out just a few days ago but I'm talking about when the actual paperwork reaches 205 and they say hey this is a great opportunity to use greenacre funds to fix this part why don't we have a public meeting first or a public hearing with the residents to see what they would like that's just my thinking um just another question for you uh well not question but a statement regarding the pickle ball court you know if you can research to see what is required because Acoustics matter I live across the street from a park and I can hear a soccer ball being kicked every day so I understand that residents concerns about pickle balls 100 ft is not enough if there are not enough trees there to absorb the noise if you will the Acoustics will bounce off your home so if there's something that can be done to kind of ensure that these pickle ball courts are not going to interfere with people's lives every day where they hear it nonstop because I hear it every day across the street from Glenfield Park with soccer balls and footballs and things of that nature so um I'm just wondering if space can be taken from the skate park to a there's a skate park there or no place at Rand R par this is Mountain par okay Mountain Side okay and they're getting bathrooms that's exciting they have bathroom yeah I know they're going to get them done over yeah that's exciting yeah we did something similar uh a few years back for uh for es6 Park as well so uh this is just a continuation of that they've been closed for several years uh they're in disrepair um so the facili there intention there is just really bring them back up to Snuff operational replace the fixures that are there we do plumbing as needed uh refurbish the interior providing improved lighting ventilation painting you know things like that and get I'm glad to hear that because dish Wayne Park doesn't have restrooms at all but that's not for tonight's meeting thank I'm sorry deputy mayor was going to speak then councelor lochman and then councelor damato hi Mr Hernandez oh sorry I have a few questions I mean first of all um I actually don't doubt that there is interest in picle ball um facilities because and I'm just going to tell you why really quick um I remember this past summer before right around the time we got sworn in I was picking up my swimming pool pass and when somebody found out who I was they actually um this this resident actually asked me if we could have pickle ball courts in town and um I think you know at the time we knew it was a matter of location because we're very you know we don't live in an area with a whole lot of open land so um I I I have a few questions so um one question is if we um if we vote on this tonight um once we get more because I know that the the deadline for the survey is February 3rd correct I believe the online survey that's when we'll be closing it because the application and then the application is actually due on February 5th correct so um if we vote on this is there a possibility that when when we get if we do get more feedback um would we be able to change this proposed you know the propos okay and um you know with with respect I'm not opposed to pickle ball cords I know that um you know it's it's a great source of you know exercise and socialization um but the the the the noise issue is is going to be a problem um if we don't if we aren't able to U mitigate it another question that I have is um The Chain Lake Fence um I saw in the proposal that there was a prop you know it's included to replace or repair it the current fence when was that um I know some fence was replaced in that 2014 project not all um when the fence were originally installed I'm not entirely sure and just so we're all on the same page as well uh this is a conservative estimate ideally in order to ensure the longevity of the courts I would love to reconstruct everything new um this is the ca to do that um again the surface is only as good as what's underneath it the base material I don't know when it was originally constructed I don't know who constructed it I don't know if it was properly compacted but there's severe cracking at the surface now that's only going to get worse if you see cracking on the surface that means there's cracking underneath so you know removing it with a couple inches on top and then just resurfacing it it's only a matter of time before you start seeing the cracks up again to surface um so that's the ideal situation regarding the fencing as I mentioned in order to make everything fit as we're showing here we will need to realign some aspects of of of the Court layout that includes moving fencing as well so although some fencing may be able to be salvaged and reused um some of it will need to be replaced just for that simple fact there's also some areas that I noticed while I was there um that there is actually um a step in order to transition from this court area into this court area there's a step I would like to eliminate that issue in order to do that I need to replace the fencing because it's set in concrete curb so I I can't really do anything without addressing that issue and removing the safety Improvement is what you're saying correct okay correct um my last question is and I know that um this grant money can't be used for this purpose but um a resident did another actually did reach out to raise some concerns about The Pedestrian crosswalk yes um in front of that Park and so um you know they mentioned the lack of handicap accessibility and things like that so um I just want to know um knowing that this grant mounty can't be used um for you know improvements to the actual Road and um what how is how are those things going to be how can those things be addressed thank you for uh for bringing that up so this is one area we identifi as a critical area along Upper Mountain Avenue that is in need of some attention uh to better improve pedestrian safety so cently there's the one Crossing if you would uh where that speed hump is there's there's a painted cross walk there um however there's no physical Ada accessible curb ramp um so what we would like to do um and like you correctly noted the Green Acres Program does not fund RightWay improvements so we would do this separately um ideally you know sometime this summer coordinating with the county because this is a County Road um but we would like to provide a new crossing right next to the main pathway with physical ada8 curb ramps improved um signage pedestrian signage the RFB flashing signs as well as um I mean I'm sure everyone here has seen uh this gets lined up with cars during the day so what we would like to do is install the delineators as we've been kind of Distributing um across across the township U set them so that cars cannot park up against that new crosswalk otherwise they will block it i' it's without a doubt uh that way there's clear visibility for pedestrians navigating that way along with the uh the flashing signs we think will be a a real Improvement in that area s yeah um two things two related questions I guess so the first one is so president Trump is doing a lot of UNF funding of uh all kinds of things that the federal government used to fund so please confirm to me that Green Acres is a new New Jersey funding and New Jersey is not funded by this the feds as well as far as I'm aware this is a state funded program um you know where their money and ultimately comes from I'm not exactly sure but I have not received any update correspondence from the state regarding this um I haven't seen anything on their website I've been checking daily yeah um I haven't seen anything indicating that there's a halt on this at all I can certainly Reach Out have I know the contact over there um I'll reach out tomorrow and just kind of confirm that but um I imagine if that was the case we would have heard something by now yeah so is it a reimbursement or is it they give you the money up front so good question this is um so this project as it's shown um under our preliminary uh assessment uh it's evaluated at a total cost of approximately $1.8 million that's inclusive of all construction costs and soft costs that are related just professional fees oversight testing Etc um that's a conservative number again we want to Max maximize the amount of money that we receive from the state under this project uh and then we go from there as far as what we actually get um historically because Monclair is designated as an Urban Aid municipality uh they do receive an increase in funding which typically is in the range of 1.2 to $1.4 million of State grant funding under this program uh that is a 75% matching Grant meaning the Township's responsible for at least 25% of of the project costs that can be provided in the form of a 0% loan that green anchor does provide and in the resolution we are requesting that they provide that as well uh that is a discretionary funding request essentially if there's a surplus and they want to uh fund above and beyond the grant amount they can do so um but it's not guaranteed um that can be your form of the 25% match so you know fingers crossed we get that if not the remaining 25% which is you know 400 some OD thousand would be through just you know a appropriated Capital Improvement fund um it is a reimbursement reur yes once the project is you know closed out um you can make inter intermediate requests as expenditures are made um sometimes it gets a little hairy sometimes it's you know it it it depends there's posos on cons to both uh methods but um you know we we recently completed um uh the 2019 application as far as the close out is concerned and the township was re reimbursed for the full million dollar that they were allotted under that Grant so the work thus far has been paid out of pocket by the town to prepare the Grant application yes and to prepare all this yes yeah yeah okay yeah cuz there's no I don't know top my head okay yeah all right second part of my question was just there's no children's playground there is that correct well there's a playground there today it's not within the scope of oh it's not within the scope to upgrade the no there's I mean we're basically at the funding cap limit as as it is where's the children's playground there it is tuck be a Sandbox yeah yeah yeah yeah I grew up with my kid going to that Park and there was never the playground does need attention as well uh the surfacing is is not in great shape but that would have to be a separate a separate project uh try to be quick um how long does a tennis court last if the substrate and the drainage is all good in this climate yeah you're looking at usually 10 to 15 years before you really need to start considering replacing and a lot of the work here big part would be you would go all the way down deeper and create a deeper substrate is that correct um you don't know again I don't know what it was originally constructed with so oh so you haven't probe down and seeing what's under there no you can't really not yet so you know would it be deeper not deeper I'm not sure yet um however uh yeah ideally we would go down to the subgrade compact that properly and then build up from there because again I don't know when that was constructed and the condition of that subbase material of uh you know underneath the quarts but but we would uh uh or on likely hopefully to not discover bad things that we need to either remediate or that we have to go Bedrock or I mean like you think it's you're confident in the numbers yeah I mean there's quarts there today so it wouldn't be substantially different deeper okay all right you know we're talking about maybe a few inches not not several feet now forgive me this question which may sound um uh uh hippie uh but I think it's legitimate uh I about the fencing and people have asked and and feel exactly the same way so tossing fencing that's still good is um is difficult so a that's made from steel correct so it's scrap it can be scrap steel steel fencing chaining fencing and the post and all that stuff it can be yeah it can it's likely it's not going to be landfilled I me we have to worry about this yeah no it it wouldn't it wouldn't it wouldn't be landfilled yeah to my knowledge no and and you know there's certain things we could write to the spec okay as well to kind of control what what happens there all right so um pickle ball I mean it's a uh verified issue uh for me months ago I had a constituent uh tell me an interesting story and he they were so good-natured about this they blew me away I love my constituents uh and they live near Brookdale and the court was moved and they said they moved it to behind my house and they were like good for the other people who got it moved but I mean and there's nothing that we can really do cuz it's a county park although it did get moved once but it put it on the radar for me a long time ago um we I would like to know how are there decel measures for facilities like this that we do that are objective that we don't just say oh it's going to sound like this like do we have a way of verifying what the noise pollution would be in an objective numerical way I'm sure that there's been studies done regarding the noise generated from pickle ball just in general um I don't know the exact numbers on what this facility generates today uh but uh you know like I mentioned earlier we will be making every attempt to mitigate noise as far as what's generated there under that condition right we just need to know I mean again and if if this 500 foot thing is is some kind of best practice or rule we need to know this ahead of time uh would you lead me to another question which is if we surface if we build this facility and certainly if we you know just agree to it um we are not tied into at the beginning of the process to having that one corner be pickle ball like in other words it's getting the same rough surface maybe they're adding some composite materials on the top to make it stickier or something but it's it's got the same structural form the whole thing so that at a later date we could say this is pickable or it's not pickle ball or it's this or that right the the entire court area is uniform construction uniform construction it's asphalt and just to confirm again we are not being bound by any application that we may make with the state to have one specific subtype of activity on this surface right we are submitting an application describing the scope the scope of what we would like to do once we receive the funds you know we may not get 1.2 maybe we get a million once we receive the pledge of funds because it's reimbursable correct well the the the commitment the contract the contract yeah but at what point my question is this at what point do we need to in this process would we need to say that's aable Court well we're saying it this is what we would like it to be today I'm saying but what at what point for the engineering and the legal aspects of it do we need to really say before we start with the formal design process which wouldn't be until after we receive a funding commitment which again could probably be a year year and a half from now all right so in the meantime we can work those details out you know we can certainly have further discussion solicit feedback you know hey do we want pickle ball courts here do we want them at this location right and then we can work like decide at the last minute to stripe it one way the other way and put the put the uh the you know the the the net in One Direction we have to we have to tell the F we have to tell the state what we're doing right they need to review and approve whatever goes out to bid before it goes out to bid to make sure it's consistent with what was agreed upon okay excellent thank you if there's a change somewhere during the process you know you can reach out to them and say Hey you know we want to change this aspect of this scope to something else we can work that out with them so long as it's not a significant change and me personally I don't think let's just say hypothetically speaking the pickleball courts gets AED and maintains the tennis courts there I don't view that it's a significant okay change in that aspect or where they're located specifically we should probably find out exactly what would be thanks councelor Toler yep thank you um the application that was submitted to receive this grant are we able to see a copy of that can you email that to all of the counselors cuz this may help answer counselor damato's question as far as timelines because that's where that information is posted so um I think we should all see a copy of the other thing is um do you know if the park and Rex committee The Advisory Board was ever in the discussion about this park because if they weren't then we need we need to utilize our advisory committees you know what I mean um do you know if they were talk this or I'm not aware if they were brought in at any point I know like I said we SP with the recreation department I don't know if there was intermediate discussions uh with the prox and Rec committee about that specific yeah councelor toer um you rais a great question because historically in the township before we do any um Parks improvements we participate with our amazing parks recreation advisory committee yeah and I heard from the uh Committee in fact the chair of the committee and some other members how disappointed they were that they were not included in the planning of this or given an opportunity to weigh in in some way and I think that um it was a big concern for them I heard somebody else ask about the community input before so just historically these are things that we have committees and commissions that we value most of the people on the Parks and Recreation advisory committee have been there close to maybe 20 or more years and they understand what's been done in Wood Park why they understand that while there's a suggestion here for a bathroom Nish Wayne park has been trying to get a bathroom put in there for decades and been told that they couldn't do it unless we hire an attendant to sit there in the bathroom so there is a um benefit to including people um that we have in place to help us with those things thank you for your question question again just please email us the application that yeah it hasn't been finalized yet has not been submitted yet no I understand that but I'm just saying before we even have receip got here there was an application that someone here filled out or applied for this grant it didn't just magically appear in someone's mailbox right email there had to be an application submitted the application has not been submitted how did this Grant come across our desk well I I can't I'm I can't see that from here no I'm just saying General the the grant for this project we need to see the application before if it didn't go we need to see it before it go so we can look at what the timelines are and perhaps that will answer some of counselor demato's questions yeah and whoever else may have a question okay um I believe at this point we've touched on most of um most of this what I had prepared to speak I'm sorry counc Birmingham so I'm just is there opportunity for the parks committee and the community to weigh in on this project and when how would that happen What would be the best way for that to happen my email is right there okay would you recommend we host a meeting absolutely okay okay yeah so and just so it's um clear too this is to secure the funding right the conversation does not stop today sure um and like I said we're still a ways away until a shovel hits the ground um or even pen has put the paper to start designing this so we have about a good year at least to have these meetings discussions and see what exactly do we want to be done here um so we want all that feedback from any constituents stakeholders uh you know Community groups uh and committees without a doubt out and we want to work with them to ensure that we provide a facility that meets the the townships and its residents needs um just as an example we've been working with the um uh the um the people with disabilities committee uh on an ongoing basis regarding the uh playground at Nish Wayne Park to see what exactly is it that they want that facility so and we haven't started design yet for that so this this this this is an ongoing conversation um and and something that you know we we certainly want to make sure that it's it's a product that everyone can be happy with yes Council lman just so I am perfectly clear so by February 5th right you have to have an application in submitted submitted and the application is going to be based on what we're looking at here but what we're looking at here can change if we have Community input if we have parks and wck in input mhm but it can't change significantly can it from what we have here so again location of where the pickle ball court is yeah can change if there's pickle ball or tennis you know that can change but basically that's it if it's something where you know we're now converting this to a soccer field yeah yeah yeah that's that's something different that that's a different scope um again it's just something that would have to be discussed with the state if they funded the project but basically what I guess what I'm thinking is what real input can the community or parks and wreck have if this is kind of the standard structure right I don't I mean I don't know right Am I Wrong Yeah by and large but um just just as a thought and I'm just just is just me um they might wish to talk to you about the addition of a bath room that looks like it's a separate part of this and they might want to discuss with you the decades long um discussions that they've been having with the township to encourage them to actually open the bathroom that exist in this they might want to suggest that maybe you don't have to put all of the $1.8 million or whatever in you know one part maybe you can do bathrooms at Nishan and then something there I don't know but I know that they're very eager to meet with you um and they can do that in fact they sent me a text and I got a phone call early this morning if you want to do a zoom or whatever so they they would like to have an opportunity but that's that's my question is that 1.8 or it's almost $1.9 million is it just for this park when you submit this application I'm I'm getting the impression that it's only for what we're submitting here and that we can change stuff within this scheme but you can't all of a sudden take the money and put it ini issuing is that the limitation in the grand program years ago you could do up to three locations in 2019 when we submitted uh we actually included Mountainside park in that application it was Nish Way Park Essex Park and Mountainside Park after we submitted the department let us know like oh well actually we can only fund two locations so at the time we discussed it with the town officials and in place um and it was decided that Mountainside Park would be put on hold and we focused instead on Nish Wayne Park uh and um you know we did the basketball courts there the tennis courts the pathways uh we planted a bunch of trees and Essex Park where we did the playground Pathways lighting uh and we left Mountainside Park out yeah so the funding is sight specific today it's limited to one location only so what does it mean when it says this is a standalone project I when I read that I thought maybe if it's a standalone project that means that you will get separate funding for that portion of it and it will be standing alone separate from the rest of the project is that not what's going on here in reference to the bathroom if I read this correctly and maybe I did not it says it's a standalone project where where exactly is at the bottom of um the page neglia page is that the memo issued uh this this very nice handout on page one of two I guess where it says you know Green Acres funding for the project they applied in 2019 but due to the funding limitations the scope was excluded as a result this project is now being reapplied for as a standalone correct project so when I read that I was thinking that it was a standalone project and if it was a standalone project then if there was discussion with other people that maybe should have had involvement prior and there was a understanding between you and them that that portion could be done as a standalone project somewhere else yeah so but just clear that up um an apologies if I was um unclear with the wording but uh the Standalone I I intended to just reiterate that we're not reapplying for the full application including the three Parks it's exclusively to Mountainside park because the other two parks were done already so it's it's Standalone meaning it's this within that part this location only yes sorry about that no thank you I didn't I wasn't sure I was going to ask you later thank appreciate that thank you and the NTI way you described got had some improvements and it's also getting a playground a new playground but it's not getting a bathroom it can't that can't be part of anything that sounds like that's part of that Grant application discussions weren't had with the community apparently they didn't meet with the park Rec committee Advisory Board um when Green Acres the I met with Janice tally last week you know I'm handling NTI a little differently uh I'm getting Community input up front earlier than the timeline that was submitted or submitted by the uh developer if you will but yeah we need a restroom down there um not a porta poot an actual restroom similar to Mountainside Park it's been years and I don't understand why we don't have well the benefits of having the history and again by going to the uh Park and wreck committee or someone such as myself that's been here on that committee for about 25 years is that you would know that that's been up for discussion a long time and every time it came up we were told that if we did that we would have to pay to have an attendant because of I guess some dangers or whatever the reasons and so I'm just wondering how this works now if they're going to have to pay to have an attendant at Mountainside or are there any concerns about any dangers of having a bathroom at Mountainside or what the discussion was I the benefit of having the concerns remain the same with um the mountain side bathrooms as well um but we will be looking to um see what we can do to incorporate security measures like within the facility uh to have better um control of entering and exiting uh those facilities particularly during off hours of the park that's usually when um things tend to happen so um that's something that we'll be looking to incorporate under this potential project concerning Nish way again I just want to be clear we have not we will be starting very soon the design phase of the playground so there's still time to include the bathroom facilities as part of that project with the understanding that it's outside of what's provided in the grant so the grant we received was $750,000 um at the time uh the playground was estimated to be I believe somewhere in the range of about $1.3 million all in um so we'll have to see what that potential additional cost would be to incorporate the improvements to the bathroom and it could certainly be thrown in as well as part of that project that that's not an issue my my point was just simply that the Grant application uh didn't include that just because it wasn't part of right and I don't know that when nishing came up the park uh Nish Park came up if the park and re's Department was consulted during for conversations prior to because then you would have known that and it could have been included but we're here now thank you for trying to find some way to include it and the council can look at it and we'll decide have to buy the money I mean we've been without a restroom so seems a little unfair uneven um that we don't have one in this Shain Park and you know we we deserve one why not agreed yeah have been open for did you want to you know um um council members any further discussion were you finished with your presentation here pretty much at least my prepared remarks again just want to reiterate um the community engagement form again we want the discussion to continue uh but there's a deadline to submit the application so uh that survey will be available until uh Monday the THD we have about a week left um that's a QR code that can take you directly to the page or you can find it on the township website if you scroll down to the news section it it's there as well um and again feel free beyond that email me call me I'm down the street uh you know two three days a week so I'm I'm certainly available um if there's any further questions or or what have you so that's all I have at this time I don't know if the public has anything to add thank you so very much for being here and for your presentation and the papers that you provided for us we appreciate you thank you um if the council has no further discussion I'm going to ask if there's public comment I know Mr Scott you asked to uh come it's okay as the date yeah okay good evening Williams Scott 23 Cedar Avenue I'm also a member of the Parks and Recreation committee for about 20 years um this uh application did not come before the parks and right uh it's a it's it's kind of troubling because I don't know when the actual application was submitted uh from a grant standpoint but there should have been an immediate um interaction with the parks and wreck uh committee I mean we would not be against any major Improvement in a park obviously but we would like to know the full scope of any project that's related to uh Parks uh within the township which is part of our responsibility to over oversee uh in addition to that uh if you go back to the and I'm not going to make them but he could go back to the first slide since this is a grant uh a Federal grant uh and if 50% of this facility this state Grant Mr just Scot if I understand correctly it's a state Grant a state funding yes sir okay so now with 50% of that uh that facility being funded with this grant basically it's it's a it's a County Park at that point and the management of our Parks uh even at a uh Township level has been very difficult to manage the uh over usage of private entities coming in and using our facilities for a profit uh so now you've expanded that capability with this particular uh application so that's something you should really take into consideration in addition to the fact that uh management of any bathroom facility is is going to be uh a 24-hour uh requirement uh if you remember cavity field uh cavity field put a bathroom in cavity field and it was a major problem who locks the bathroom after it was used after baseball games or whatever the case is and that is going to still remain a problem within the township of Monclair uh in addition to unfortunately we have a a homeless population so we know it's even compounded at that point uh I think the parks and wreck we do have our next meeting scheduled for the first Monday in February which I believe is going to end up being February the 1st or 2nd or something like that okay then what is that the third that's before the fifth yeah to the fifth so you know if we have any discussion it's it's within the 11th Hour of this application being submitted and uh from a requirement standpoint so it you know obviously it's a missed opportunity and there there's really a concern about that and now we have had some understanding about Nish Wayne Park from for many many years and even with the possibility of upgrading the play area in N Way park and we understand that that's a negotiation is concerned with the type of materials that are going to be used in that facility and but we have always required and requested that a bathroom be available because matter of fact I think there's three or four bathrooms within n w park because of the size of the park and uh anyone that's had the unfortunate requirement to use a py party uh don't use them in the summertime I'll put it that way okay uh but you know we really would like to have a full conversation with this consultant uh that's done this uh uh Grant uh to come before the parks and wreck and do the presentation um this is the first time I've seen this and uh it's a it's a good application but you know we need to be using uh the people that are volunteering to take a look and oversee our parts in the township of Montclair not to be included in something this significant and that's a major oversight okay but again I I want to import impress upon you the fact that this is a state Grant and that opens that facility up to be used by anyone within Essex County and there's no management structure currently in the township of Monclair to manage who utilizes our basketball courts or tennis courts uh at this point in time and it is a problem within Township okay thank you I'm councelor lochman Mr Scott can you remain for just a moment at the mic councelor lockman has a question yeah I just had a quick question for you so um I I imagine this was started before the uh current council is that correct no this this one wasn't started yeah I'm just wondering my my my question to you the original application 2019 those were done years ago right so and this one was part of that initiative yeah that's what I thought so my question to you is was there a council Lea Zone to the parks and wck Department that would have relayed information to you or should have relayed information to you in 2019 that would have been me yes and okay going forward to 20 we didn't have this we didn't have that structure or no we we did have a leaon structure and that was hman basell who was a liaison I think for over 12 years even before my time at that point but at at some good point in time we lost that representation I believe in I don't want to throw him under the bus I believe Peter yabis was a liaison at one point in time that was after 2020 and before that the only thing that we did was the baseball field which um I think was completed in maybe 2018 2019 they did an amazing job although I understand that the baseball field is now underwater and so people that want to play baseball can't play baseball there but then I was assured by I I believe you um engineer team that um as part of the renovations here they're going to try to fix the baseball field that was done in 201819 time frame and get it from out underwater so that they can play baseball there okay and then with that in mind a timeline if this project does move forward we know what happened in n a six-month project turned into a year and a project and the park was out of service for for an entire summer so I don't know what requirements or constraints that you really want to put around a project to make sure whatever time it starts there's a completion time obviously we have to take weather into consideration but it cannot go 6 months or 12 months Beyond a completion date because that would take away the uh use of that facility for the uh residents in that area okay thank you I'm count uh I'm sorry deputy Miss Anderson okay uh just just to be clear the Nishu improvements that's also being that's also a green ACR Grant right uh the playground yeah but this one isn't yes that is that is a Green Acres and this one is yeah gr as well okay um so do the same rules apply about access to any facility that's funded with Green Acres money has that requirement yes y thank you thank you um yeah yes Mana yeah noberto do you know if the improvements in 2014 that was the Green Acres and this park is in our Green Acres inventory correct um for the tennis courts no I believe some money was Green Acres money was used for the ball field I believe in 200 2006 and 20110 they received Green Acres funds to improve um Edgemont pm dredging uh Cavin field and the ball field it was a multi-park project with Green Acres fund so yes um Council demato I just wanted to ask the manager uh did Miss camarada do some kind of analysis on these tennis courts and and their expected change in usage in terms of the Green Acres I don't know and I have a question for yeah basically I mean just again the application is due on the 6th of February 5th 5ifth Wednesday well yeah okay say next week difference right and I mean this is the use it or lose it proposition right now like potentially that window is closing on that application day right yeah yes for this for $1.4 million potentially yes and grant funding yeah thank thank you you're welcome any any other members of the public wish to be heard on this hey Aaron Bolan 17th Champlain Terrace I'd just like to say that last year I believe it was uh January maybe 30th or whatever the date was of that meeting for that week we had a Green Acres application come in in from uh Naga and it was again we got about 5 days to get your feedback in and your information in and if you think there should be different products and whatever it should be it's hurry hurry hurry cuz the clock is a tick in and here we are literally exactly a year later with this same pressure like we're supposed to make the right choices the best choices for everyone really really quickly so the thing that stands out most in this entire conversation is the structure the the process process is so important because without it things go Haywire some people get bathrooms other people don't right so that's my comment process process process uh but also I'd like to say I'm glad to hear the concern from Council Members about the well-being of the residents who live adjacent to this park I'm so glad to hear your concern for those residents thank you very much um is there another member of the public did somebody here wanted to speak I no anyone else from the public I just want to really quickly say that we should think I mean we should always get money that we can get but we should think about the cost of getting the money and opening things up like the tennis courts that are there now are used by the high school students um does that change if they can't be used for school projects um what what's the parking situation going to be how are the H how is it going to get worse when you have to park for the tennis courts and the pickle ball courts and the basketball courts and the playground and the pool and there's still no walkway and the road is still the same width and the Iris Gardens are across the street um um and that's also where the accident happened today so just keep all that in mind thank you anyone else from the public anyone from the council hearing none I'd like to uh close the public hearing at this moment um we've been presented with quite a bit of information regarding the application resolution R 25-6 if there are no further discussions or questions I'd like to ask Madame clerk please to do a roll call vote mayor I'm sorry I didn't hear a movement in a second on the resolution I'd like to move resolution r25 d 006 please I second thank Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lman yes councelor Toler yes just want to reiterate that we please get the application emailed us tomorrow thank you councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you madam Clerk we're going to move on to pending ordinances on the second reading I'm going to open the hearing I'm going to open a public hearing without objection is there anyone present who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance 0- 25-01 it's an ordinance amending the code of the township of Mont CLE regarding the display of flag on Township property did you move sorry did you move do you need a second for the to come now or you now is fine thank you well so I never participated in this portion of a meeting but when I was here last time you guys discussed and then I thought we would contribute so are you guys going to have a discussion or no this is um different this is the ordinance on second reading so ordinance on second reading we welcome public to come in and um share with us so uh as I stated before I'm sorry but is your question do we discuss first and then we have comment that was my question as well yeah last me you guys were talking and you were discussing ordinance and then you were specifically discussing the Black Liberation flag and I waited until the end then thinking that we were going to participate but you guys said we would do it the second go round so this is the second go second so are you guys going to discuss first no we're going to offer the public an opportunity and then after that I'm going to offer the council an opportunity so can I just yes I think ma'am I think I understand your question we are not actually this is this ordinance we are not discussing the Black Liberation flag specifically was that your was that what you wanted to know well yes but the the context of it All Began from the moment that I brought the Black Liberation flag on August 13th 2024 yeah and because a few people really just two individuals came to the microphone they expressed that there was a lack of process and that they want to have that in terms of raising the Black Liberation flag I commended each of you for going forward with it but from that very moment things became very distorted and very delayed which is now um very consistent with our current climate we're seeing things that was achieved way back in the 60s being rolled back so you know uh acquiescing to those individuals have really shown what time it is that's what I meant when I spoke earlier we don't have the luxury of delaying anything that's for black people even symbolism I told you people that I am an activist who's Against Racism and black oppression this is the lightest thing I'm going to bring you this is the absolute lightest thing I'm going to bring you so I don't understand how it got lost in the sauce like this so it turned into needing discussion a subcommittee and then an ordinance so I feel a little bit placed at a disadvantage because my expectation was that at some point I could work with you guys we have all these different Gatekeepers here in this town when it comes to nonsense well I want to gatekeep and protect my culture because I don't really see anyone in this town doing it the one there are some who do it but they do it as individuals I wanted to be part of the process so now I'm here seeking clarification um so the flag went up on January 15th Dr King's birthday was which was beautiful it lasted until the 20th which is Dr King day that was appropriate so what I had originally mentioned was um requesting for February the entire month of February is the flag going up for the entire month of February I saw something in the mclair local that confused me and it conflicted with what I was told so if I have to ask these questions publicly to each of you I don't mind is it going up the entire month of February so yes we voted on that which was a separate ordinance from what we're talking about tonight and when we voted on that yes the answer to your question was supposed to go for the month of February tonight we're talking about the ordinance amending the code of the township regarding display of flags just Flags in general but your the answer to your question is is yes okay and so let me say this then then I guess I will not participate in that but I find it very disrespectful and I say this quote all the time that confusion is the weapon of black oppression that's what Dr Umar said and I believe it because see something like this did not need to be confusing if this is a derivative of when I brought that flag and then it turns into all of this before I even have Clarity clarification of knowing like I saw your picture of mina that was nice um when did it go up I know it was the 15th but what time did it go up cuz some of us care I think it went up around noon the fire department wasted it so who is it that I would communicate that I should expect to hear that type of stuff from should I reach out to you manager if there is Somey people flag raisings it's if there is a group for example when the pride flag goes up they organize an event but who told them when it was going up it they the council passed their resolution I think in the last December meeting which specifically gave all the dates that the flag would be up if you would like a if you like to organize a raising but I don't know of any other process other than we put the flag up on that given day for whatever purpose there is okay so if we did want to do something we don't need permission to do that we do need information to know when it's going up like anyone who cares like a lot of people went on their own you know what I'm saying well if you want to do if you want to do February 1 for the month of February if you give us a time on that February we can arrange that so it is through your office sure okay well thank you for that and so we did not go I just want I owe you an apology cuz I said the other one the other ordinance and the one that you were here for when we voted the dates and times that we're going to do it was a resolution so it is a little different process and it can be um you know a little bit confusing and that's not the intention the way we did that oh no no I didn't believe it was intentional but since I'm on the mic and I have this opportunity to have the exchange with you guys and I'm just one of thousands who live here you know you you want to make the reach short for your constituents because we voted for some of you yes um and so I guess I'm clear that so when so what you guys did pass the resolution on it's not etched in stone because I noticed that evening all of the dates I mentioned were not there will we have an opportunity who do I sit with to ensure that the dates at least can be discussed we want those dates that's why I said them they all have cultural significance especially what we're dealing with right now in this country um Monclair tends to W to just waste time when it comes to being Equitable there our school district is under investigation right now for things that are happening and now we have a president who might even be doing away with the Department of Education and office of civil rights we are wasting time when there's supposed to be a sense of urgency so and so I'm just trying to figure out who when the time comes should I be talking to and it should be a a small body I'm fine with that cuz I don't want to always have to be on a public microphone asking questions I like to be prepared I'm I'm going to try to answer your question so if we were to do anything different it's my understanding that there would be that would have to come as an amendment to the resolution that we passed we considered the dates that were presented to us as a group we have a subcommittee now that's called Human Services which consists of three uh council members so if you wanted at some point in time to meet with that group and to discuss um something further to be considered I'm I'm sure we can arrange to do that and who do I do that through because I could have sworn I did that already right here um I guess you can reach out to Mr Lea's office and someone in there will probably be able to so you do the subte I I'll is the council's subcommittee but we'll arrange we will give you the information as to when the meeting would so right now we we don't have an administrative assistant and so the administrative um person from the manager's office has been very very kind and volunteered to assist us with scheduling okay so who who are the persons maybe just she can email the chair of that committee who's the chair of the Human Services committee to get clarification when she can come in and present and perhaps get on their agenda I'm not sure chair is we haven't even gotten that far you haven't gotten that far right three we're happy to take it yeah so so basically s you mayor and you no I'm not on it I think she's referring to I mean me okay I was just going to say that you're you're free to email any of us um but um yes I mean I guess the most focused communication would would come to myself the mayor and Council Birmingham we are the three current members of that Council committee the Human Services committee so the Human Services commit that's what I would suggest okay so then um those are some of my questions regarding the Black Liberation flag but since this really is the time slot for this ordinance I don't know if this is where this plugs in there is one thing that I noticed when you guys were having discussion is there was a little exchange about the word um expressive versus commemoration does that pertain to the Black Liberation flag or is that for this ordinance honestly I think the language only applies in this particular ordinance mhm it was for this year yes it was we discussed this the first reading of this ordinance the language was changed to I think from expressive to Commemorative okay yeah just and it was it was just to be consistent with language that had been used in first paragraph versus the fifth no I remember you guys said the word consistency but I think whoever originally came up with the word expressive it was good um because as it pertains to our flag that represents our experience is unique to it to everyone here everyone here so what normally seems like it's a good fit for certain groups might not be for us like I said before we didn't even come here as immigrants we came here as Imports we didn't come by choice we were thriving our ancestors were thriving and then were made into other people's property and now we're in one of the most powerful countries there is because of that forced labor with no reparations so again providing the climate that we all know for a fact that we're in right now some of us knew it before but now it's it's undeniable um I definitely want to have that exchanged with you guys so it's just going to be emails no meetings okay well I appreciate that thank you very much is there another guest that would like to um be heard on this matter if not I'm going to um ask the council I know we had discussion on this and we basic ly made um uh some changes which are clearly marked on the document that you have and so at this point in time I'm believing that we have the information and I can close the discussion and um you have something you want to say okay I won't close it no and so then I will take an opportunity for Council to um please express yourselves on on this this ordinance okay um councelor lochman yep okay so um two things um section A says that um the council may may authorize by resolution the uh display of a flag I'm just going to talk in layman's terms here so I believe that this is it's going to open up a can of worms we're going to be the same thing we see with people arguing about this flag that flag the other flag and it's going to take up time with public debating the issues Council trying to craft stuff so I'm just saying that so I I just want to make my point I think it's going to open up a can of worms allowing any other flags to be flown except the American flag and I know that I'm in the minority feeling that only the American flag should be flown on public uh flag poles I accept that amend the minority as a um kind of a uh concession I would think that the only flag pole that we should fly flags other than the American flag would be the flag pole that's on church and Bloomfield Avenue it's in a very prominent area people will see it going up and down Bloomfield Avenue it's an area where people come to our restaurants uh but it is not in front of a public building so I'm making the distinction that public buildings only the American flag should be flown um so and the other thing in section D there's a definitive statement that says the town will not display a flag based on a request from a third party so the request that the um Miss sweat made months ago we would not accept a request like that per the language of this ordinance if I'm reading this correctly so I I don't know if that's really your intent number D yeah D it's says this the definitive statement is that the town in quotes the town will not display a flag based on requests from third parties so therefore does that mean the request to fly a flag will only come from a council member but it I don't you know I'm just trying to parse through the language distinction is Miss sweat cannot go directly to Mr Lola as a third party to say please hang my flag she can discuss with the council and then the council resolution the govern so do we think that this adequately expresses that and I read it and I was like they I think it's worded that way it's modeled after other municipalities ordinances and it's worded that way I think to provide as much um protection from the concerns that you initially raised with opening up a you know opening up a can worm we have to and and that's the way that's the way it's worded that way so yes Miss SWAT can certainly come and and and make recommendations there's nothing wrong with with that but at the end of the day you you have to independently decide whether or not you want to raise the flight but we don't have we we don't have a protocol that we haven't discussed a protocol in place for people coming to ask us to fly flags for example you have the French we have a French population here they have bestel day the Irish have St Patrick's Day and there's you know they close down fth Avenue in New York to celebrate St Patrick's Day it's a big holiday you have the Mex we have a big Mexican popul they have their independence day the Canadians they all have you know a day that's meaningful to them so we're going to have to parse through and decide who gets to fly their flag when and for how long and all this no I think I think it's I think it's the opp they don't have to be country flags they could the Irish could fly their green flag with the harp the Mexicans could fly another flag that has represents something to them that's all I'm saying is that I I think the way it's worded is you specifically prohibits the flying of flags of other nations or government except for your sister c c yeah but I'm not talking about other nations flags if my example is the Irish flag the tricolor is different than the flag that represents Ireland which is the black which is the harp on a green background so they could and that's recognized to Irish people they understand what that is I don't know there may be other I'm not familiar with every flag so if you can't fly country flags I accept that but there could be other flags that represent other people and is that something we're going to go through and then how long can they fly there flag what days can they fly their flag if there's a conflict between I want to fly my flag and St Patrick's Day but that's also the day of somebody else's holiday it's just it's it's going to be a mess yeah I mean we we discussed this last I'm sorry counil we discussed this unfortunately we could we could spend an entire year here we would never be able to craft legislation that addresses every single scenario I think what we did here is like I said like look at what other municipalities are doing it model it and look it might it might come that we have to tweak as as as as we go along um you know there might be a test period where we learn certain things and think that there are certain amendments that need to be made to make it make it better yeah um so this council is going to be spending its time if we get all these kinds of requests on these result again I don't think you're going to be responding per se to request it's just could be I somebody could come to the mic I mean I could go to the mic and say hey I think you really should fly the um the the Gay Pride flag right um I and if somebody agrees that that's then they'll make a motion in a second and and you'll vote but you're not doing it just because I requested it right it's anyway I just wanted to make my points and those are my points okay bag of worms anyone else I will buy you a nice Irish logger if we have a big problem I I don't think I don't think we're going to have a big problem okay we'll have one or two little problems I think and and I think we're going to be okay okay I I still would say I think we should only fly the American flags and public po polls mayor I'm just going I just have a quick and I to come I completely understand your concern I really do um but I think we have a good enough ordinance um here and like I said ordinances can always be amended so um we'll just have to cross that bridge my my little knit is that um and I don't think this is substantive Mr Garcia um we defined in the SEC a third whereas we look like it looks like we defined um we created a defined term commemorative flag so maybe all of the rest of the um references to Commemorative flag should also be Capital C and capital F that's my only little nit that's I don't see it in my pack but that's a stylistic change that I don't think would necessitate us going back to doing going back to First reading again I know that that's something that the certain members of the council don't want to do right they don't want to delay this further I do not so I think IC typographical change like that can certainly be made and you can vote on Final reading today and then to your point if you know a month from now two weeks from now you know a year from now we think that there are additional tweaks that be that need to be made we can always we can always make them at that time okay thank you may yes Council B I know we're getting late and so I don't want to delay this but um Mr Garcia can I ask you just to maybe hypothetical question here because there was some back and forth on the town press about oh this is going to open us up to lawsuits Etc um you know this was written in response or to that Supreme Court decision um shli be you know in Boston where they were letting anybody hang anything from the flag and so this is we're establishing that flags are government speech we're seeing and and um in the decision to your point um councilor lochman where I think it was Justice prior is like the be the clearest way for government speech to to to form government speech is at The Ballot Box so if people don't like the flags were flying they can vote us out but we're seeing a more conservative likely Supreme Court getting more and more conservative there's this issue of religion and they don't like for religion to be singled out as um something just theoretically if somebody were to were to sue us were to say we're suing you for this ordinance we're we're taking you to court and we were then to say like we didn't we don't maybe want to go through the effort to defend you know or the cost to defend this again or we would want to tweak it if we were to do that would that I guess I'm just does that then like if we were to repeal this ordinance is their lawsuit then moot or are we going to wind up at you know in front of yeah I mean I think that if if you were if you reached a point where you said I don't want to deal with this anymore like I don't want to deal with lawsuits we're spending too much money you would you would likely default to what I think councelor lochman is suggesting which is that's it we're not raising any Flags other than the flag of the state of New Jersey and and and uh and the American flag but I think um you know the spawn the people who prepared this ordinance and sponsored it they modeled they modeled it after ordinances that were specifically adopted to insulate as much as possible from the law as it exists today oh yeah I I can't tell you what the Supreme Court's going to do going going forward but as it exists today I believe that this this this version of the ordinance insulates you as much as possible okay and I agree I just people like to Sue and not CL it seems like so okay thank you no problem okay if there no no other um comments or question from the council I'd like to to close the public hearing and uh I would like to move pending ordinance 02-01 ordinance amending the code of the township of Monclair regarding the display of the flags on Township property I shall move second Madam clerk would you please do a roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes counc deato yes councelor lochman no councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you okay um we're now up to new new business ordinances oh we're not up to new business ordinances yes yes sir okay oh on the blue got more stuff it where let me see but is it on here yeah new business ordinances that's what I said we're now moving on to new business ordinances okay so we're now moving on to new business ordinances we're going to start with ordinance C want to start um Mr deato councelor deato I'm sorry um ordinance ordinance C 20 502 an ordinance to amend section 295 storm order control of the code of the township of monair New Jersey uh so moved second discussion yes councelor lochman so I I just reading through this I I thought the purpose of um it seems like our problem is that we have too many applications that are coming forward that needs to that need to be reviewed by an engineer that's what I understand it's happened it's increased from you know relatively few number of um applications but since we passed the storm water ordinance saying that anything over 250,000 Square ft needs to be reviewed by an engineer we've gotten an influx oh excuse me 250 yeah we've got an influx of uh applications that need to be reviewed I think that so therefore raising the fee isn't going to change the fact that we'll still get a number of we'll get the same number of uh applications that need to be reviewed why does the raising the fee solve the problem I don't think thatd that budget I think it's a we don't have the budget we don't have the money to pay for it but don't we still want to try to reduce the number of applications that need to be filed and reviewed I don't and the only thing that would do that in my view is to raise the 250 ft to 500 ft which is what most other towns in New Jersey have end of story good point coun Birmingham well I would just say we seem to be getting complaints around storm water from people their neighbors are making minor tweaks in their yards and then yeah and then the the neighbors Downstream are getting see I'm not aware of that I'm just so and that's not expressed in the reason why we want this storm weather um ordinance changed well okayy may so my I think that is um that was part of the discussion for um the ordinance that where we say that um any development resulting in impervious coverage um increase of 250 square ft that's that's where that is addressed but you know my read of this is um due to that um ordinance that other ordinance we're getting an increase of applications and I'm not seeing this the purpose of this ordinance um as being to decrease the number of applications as um Council Birmingham said it's really to push the the cost of review on from the general you know from the general taxpayers to the person who is actually requesting the development so it's just like an offset it's just pushing I just um I mean I was on the planning board when we reviewed this storm water ordinance and one of the persons on the planning board who's really an expert in development yes he he said this is too low why are we and he didn't win the argument everybody said okay 250 feet is what's proposed we'll stick with it and he you know made a good argument about no you shouldn't and I think that this is coming back to haunt us there that we really should have a higher square footage and anyway enough said that's just my yes sir um I just I have a concern I had a talk with a constituent who is doing a relatively large piece of work that would probably been triggered by 500 but they told me a story and I'm going to try to get this right that basically they had fees for several rounds of engineering around storm water that was about $220,000 and they said and they weren't happy about that number but also they're they're a good sport and they just thought it was not very well done because it was back and forth and they thought that we as a Township had incurred fees of probably 5,000 I mean it's hard to Ballpark that one but but fundamentally so we have not only this issue of when they're being triggered but are we how is our engineering work being done and are we going to end up charging people a lot of money I mean this $1,500 may you know that doesn't necessarily cover anything and so that was just I don't know if that's representative but I felt it was worth sharing that story if if I may I just want to yes thank you for part of the reason that that there currently isn't any fee for um the engineering review and what one of the issues that is brought up with when we don't have the uh funding to do these reviews is it will take longer to get a review done so part of the hope is with this $1500 we can speed up the process and eliminate some of that that back and forth can I ask what do you think the average cost for review is we don't think well so it depends on the size of the review obviously um but we feel that $1,500 is a good um estimate of what an average review should be around around if there were if were in if it were to incur cost over, 15500 we'd have to go back to the applicant and get a replenishment of that fund thanks so so this allows you to do that to get the replenishment correct it's like any other escrow oh account okay so in a case where it would be less than 1500 the money would be returned y and can do you think we can keep track as this um you know we pass this of how long and I know you may or do this already but you know what the impact of this is in terms of how long people have to wait for their review how much they're costing you know those kind of things can we get some of that data back from yes absolutely yeah because that would also I mean that the nature of the escro account would would cause that record keeping to be Neary okay cuz what you're saying you're hoping that it'll reduce the weight time can we actually see if there's that impact sure absolutely thanks question counselor Toler y thank you um I'm just reading the memo here um and you're stating that this is going to I guess based on your researcher findings from a steep slope you're talking about the township is is west of South Mountain Avenue and North Mountain Avenue the steep slope ordinance but what about the people you know that aren't within this area how does that right it would be any any any kind of uh impervious coverage over the 250 uh Square fet so it wouldn't matter too much about the the the the steep slope it would be more to do with the impervious coverage the additional impervious coverage okay cuz there are people on Walnut Street Valley Road um they're having some flooding issues in their backyards and I don't know if it's because of the 250 ft or should we move it to 500 I mean who would we talk to you know as an expert to see what we can do to help residents that are at the bottom of the hill if you will that are having problems now because of 250 ft being granted to their neighbors well of the it's the review of the impervious coverage being anything over the 250 square ft so the lower that number is the more um stringent your requirements are and the better protection the neighbors would have and I guess if somebody say you 1,500 they're going to bill it at that right not necessarily it just it depends on you know it's an escro account so that's yeah the time it would take okay I had I was just wondering in here in the bottom line where say says they'll return the escrow should we put something in like within 2 weeks or a month or something so that we can let them know you know when they have to have it or that that that we don't need to do they'll just get it whenever they get it we have counc meetings H we return es councel so we don't need to let them know how long time period we get before we return escrow we just return it whenever we want to okay if nobody else sorry oh I'm sorry question you're answering the question did you you oh mayor yes I think that Mr Harrison had raised a question um related to this ordinance okay he was as I I believe um what he was asking was clarification about what kind of permit would trigger um I think it I think he was referring to paragraph a m it says any applicant submitting a storm water control plan or permit application shall establish an escrow amount account right so they they're submitted to the building department is usually how they come into engineering so once it's reviewed by the the building department that goes to the engineering as depending on what's in the application so it have to be with it have to impact storm water but it would be a construction permanent application not it can be it's not always it's not always I think I'm getting that correct say can can he provide information we're paying enough money to everything hello again um yeah so it's not necessary that the storm water review is exclusively tied to a building department permit application the building department only comes into play if a permit is required through the UCC code generally involving structures um or pools things of that nature if somebody wants to put a patio in their backyard that doesn't require a building permit from the building department but it would potentially trigger this review well how do they know if they're not applying for a permit how do they know they have to get a review yeah usually you're saying you don't have to apply for a permit if you're doing a patio didn't you just say that I had to have a permit I thought you just said the permit would be through my office oh through your office not right right not not the building department that's just a distinction yeah oh so I guess my question is can we provide a little Clarity around a permit like what type of what types of permit would trigger the obligation to open an escrow account I mean I think it gets to the point where there's so many different kinds of permits you can apply for think that was the intention to keep it a little bit more General cuz it you know it could be a pool it could be a garage construction it could be an addition to a home it could just be a simple patio um if you are you able to create something where you identify the permits I mean that's what we're paying your firm for to do this work so I don't think it should be that General it should really be a little more detailed um are you saying that's like too much work that we shouldn't do it that way or I'm just trying to no I'm not saying it's too much work I think it's an issue of if we for some reason don't have something included there and it's not covered under that language then there's no enforcement to require them to do that work if you list everything and you miss something yeah then one can argue if whatever you miss and that's what the perit they needed that I'm not required to go through with this so I think it was purposely left as broad as possible to uh to to cover it can I Council lochman yeah hi um you know I think we none of us apparently grasped what Mr Harrison was saying as from listening to this conversation why don't we just ask that he take a look at this and say what was your point here or or you go look at the tape and see what he was saying and pass this subject to just maybe a minor change based on what his recommendation is yeah yeah we do yeah but if you don't if you don't move it tonight yeah yeah we want to move it but we can make the change as needed if you if you move it tonight and you make a substantive change at the second read then you have to start over yeah but it may not be a substantive change it doesn't sound like it was substantive anything I think maybe just clarification him call him just to recap to me okay sorry just to recap Mr Harrison who looks at this stuff all the time and he's a premier lawyer on land use stuff in New Jersey he came up and made a comment but was after he had talked about Woodman field so I think we're all kind of a little bit oops um and I you know I looked at this I didn't quite get what he was saying I don't think anybody else from what I heard I was in the back I my interpretation of it again uh I could be wrong but my interpretation was I think he was just asking kind of a general question like you know the council asked itself what kind of permit would trigger this um I'm not sure if it's specifically because obviously he does represent the zoning board those are separate this I me my point is he made a point we don't know what it really was why don't we just ask him and then make the change and then it probably is not that substantive I would agree I would tend to agree why don't we just table this let's just table this and then have him you know manager Lea has something to say no I not say anything we not what do you need this time right away it I I okay well I just I just want to say I I do understand the concern about being overly prescriptive in like in this I get it um but yeah I would rather just pull it good for the first you know just to make sure that we're not making any changes that that's fine that don't make sense I'm sorry I didn't mean coun coun would you be responsible for emailing Mr Harrison sure we didn't discuss who soon I'm happy to do problem there's any questions question just to to have him look at this I mean he he looked at it already and this was the point that he made so let's just make sure that we get the gist of what he's saying and put it in the ordinance for next go is that I mean I think that's I think that's an excellent idea so we're going to table um pending ordinance 02-01 yeah I mean maybe if I just listen to the tape yeah I think that's a good plan okay so we're going on to new business ordinance uh 0- 25-3 councilor Birmingham please has that been pulled that one is pulled P okay oh we pulled that one okay uh would you do sure e please sure ordinance o- 25-4 an ordinance to amend section 1214 construction codes uni form fee schedule of the codee of the township of Montclair New Jersey and I so move second discussion yeah yes councelor Williams yeah in I think it's section 2H just noticed that all the all the other fees in here are going up in this one's going down for some reason I think it was that intentional go there's a minimum fee of what good evening everyone thank you for being here my name is Daniel Papa I'm the construction official for the township of Monclair um since July 1st and my experience has been very positive so far so thank you for being here um the reason for me being here tonight is because uh once I got into some stuff I started reviewing some of the data and it came to light that the fee schedule has not been addressed since 1997 there have been some changes made some additions but um but the fees all stayed the same um so you know with the help of my staff I looked into to it I looked at other townships and some of the fees in the surrounding towns and it appears that all of the surrounding towns fees are substantially higher I'd say 25 to 50% higher in all the categories so um this is why I'm here tonight is to present that information to you um subsoil drains special device and subsoil I'm sorry I don't hear well I'm sorry so in the table it's also in the text but in the table and plumbing there are subsoil drains and special device and the current fee for special device is $75 and then the proposed is $20 so we're just wondering why it's going down the reason it's that way is because there's a minimum uh fee for permit and the $20 would be in addition to any work so if the permit were $100 and then that item were added to the permit uh fee it would be 20 okay an additional 20 a minimum that okay so okay um May yes so if I wanted to install a crematorium in my backyard I should probably do it right now CU I see that that's going up to $750 I think so yeah um I just want to say thank you because 1997 is almost 30 years ago it's a long time it's a long time and I really appreciate the way you formatted this the way you gave us the nice tables from the other towns and the way you put this and proposed I really I that was very clear and I appreciate it I I appreciate that it's been discussed in my office how to do it and I can't take the credit because uh my technical assistant and Austin also wellos to us guid thank you thank you for coming she's been huge help to me this is obviously a lot of work and um appreciate it yeah I just have a question yes Council Toler thank you so we're going to increase fees perhaps I'm just wondering this money that comes in from these fees where is this money allocated to here uh where's the money allocated to that comes in from well all the operations of um the building department but to the best of my understanding it goes into a general fund the money is allocated to us to pay for um our operation and possibly uh other uses for the town such as uh I can't answer that question goes into the general fund General funds okay thank you you're welcome I also um in the 2023 annual report I noticed and that's how all this got started there was a deficit of approximately $80,000 so that's when I started looking at the fees with the help from uh my St and looking at the other townships and with their georan so and that that's basically where we are with it yes Council lman we appreciate you're increasing these fees is there any other thing that you're looking at that could potentially be an increase in fees or is it just this for raising fees yeah oh you did a good job we're looking for a revenue Source I I think we need to prepare um for changes that may and probably will occur in the future such as online Plan reviews any equipment um outdated equipment uh equipment that we may need to acquire um that's interesting that and I I think uh um as won mentioned yeah ask okay if the fact that there's a deficit kind of puts a little bit of a strain on a tax payers somewhere in there down the line and if we raise the fees it'll be more focused on um receiving payment from those specifically utilizing our services recouping your actual C recouping your actual cost right recouping the actual cost of your operation yeah all right so thanks and that's that's basically it thank you Amy thank you thank you very much you're welcome wonderful very help okay so if there's no further discussion I'm going to it was moved and there was a second yes I'm going to ask Madame clerk please if you would do roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor toer yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you very very much moving on to the next one um councelor lochman please the ordinance Z yeah we're doing the consent agenda first the consent agenda oh okay rush through those okay yeah Mr discuss yeah we did discuss them at the last one so um unless anything is coming off of the consent agenda I've got the uh consent agenda identified with asteris number one through number one through nine does anybody have any concerns or problems with us doing the consent agenda number 1 through n with the exception of number two the only the only thing that I I'm I'm fine with it the only thing that I saw that there two resolutions in there where they're getting Federal Highway funds and I thought that that might be injecty with all the executive uh I saw the same thing yeah yeah Bas if I can sorry that was um terms chairman Harrison calling me back sorry okay um in terms of any federal grants you know based on discussions we've had with several um Federal leg lators today and and briefings um the advice has been just to proceed as normal until somebody tells you not to see what happens so that's what we're doing here we're well aware of all the restrictions and everything else but they said if you have applications you're drawing down money or anything else you put it in and as see if they're releasing it go you know that's we someone so someone spoke to our federal reps yes okay great thanks but may I yes Council lockman that's all good and well but what if we if we don't get the Grant and if in Li of getting the grant we would have would not have approved the project so we're not going to build a project without the grant well that's it's not a project I'm saying yeah it's not a project you're approving whether or not you get the grant right so it's something we're going to do it's contingent upon getting the grant things conent not authorize anything without I just want to make sure yeah okay Final Call for anything to be removed from um yes councelor toer um for the consent agenda with the asteris thank you for providing the asteris again for this agenda they weren't there at the last meeting um resolution I mean number six and number nine I'm going to need some discussion or clarification um it's a lot of money we're talking about and um number six has to do with checks and balances and um I'd like to remove those councelor Toller just um Can can you help me understand resolution resolution number six why we need 212 mhm um need an explanation for um the official who's going to be in charge of that um checks and balances number nine resolution r 25015 uh we're amending the fair and open contract for neglia you know we're we're at 1.3 million um I'm just trying to um understand what we're getting for that can we do we are we going to see a plan for reduction of spending um there a lot of questions that I have regarding good okay that kind of money being just funneled out if you will okay thank you so at this time I'm going to um move the consent agenda with the exception of number six and number N I guess number five because it's the same thing you've got next on here twice five and nine number five number six and number nine you know 1.3 million I just think we need to have a discussion about that okay I'd like to make a motion that we move resolution number one um all of the resolutions between 1 and n with the exception of number five six and N sorry May yes sir I would like to take number okay question okay now we're going to try to move the consent agenda for all except for 3 five 6 and N is there anything else that anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda please okay okay we good three five six and nine now I do I didn't have five but now I got it um we're okay on that end yeah nothing else okay I'd like to make a motion to move the consent agenda with the exception of 3 5 6 and nine second Madam clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville which number he for thank you mayor Baskerville consent agenda vote yes thank you okay um on okay do them next okay um thank you councelor lochman before we have the um discussion on 356 and N we're going to um recognize that the individuals have been sitting here for quite a while for the liquor license and I would like to move to resolution number 10 please um okay I second so that would be no I'm going to ask you to read that Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson 10 and councelor Williams 11 may we have a discussion first just to clarify something on 1011 yeah yeah we're there we're just going to read it first we have to move it yes um resolution R-25 d016 resolution issuing One plenary retail consumption license to a nonprofit theater pursuant to the provisions of mjsa 33 colon 1-1 19.8 by the Historical Method Montclair film at the clarage LLC is so move second discussion um councelor Toller yeah it's not a discussion I'm just going to ask if Madam clerk if you can just clarify what you emailed me uh because I did have some constituents email me about the date of the advertisement uh for this and it dated April 2023 if you can just go over the Motions if you will as you explain them to me this afternoon just for the record so people understand that everything has been done in the manner that it should thank you uh yes the uh applicant provided an uh an Affidavit of their Publications they're required to publish twice in one of our official newspapers they published in the Monclair times they did it on the 30th of March in 2023 as well as the 6th of April in 2023 um there was a um delay with the state of New Jersey and issuing a letter uh uh authorizing the governing body to issue this license so although the applicant submitted their application paid all their fees did the publication as required we didn't receive the letter from the state until the 13th of January 2025 so for that reason there's a there's a large gap between the publication and the very large gap resolution that you have before you tonight thank you Council deato yeah I think I mean I may have this wrong but there was um a a painful uh uh uh process of them uh being interrogated over the the uh legal structure I believe of of it um and then there were also in that time frame I believe there were amendments to the state law that made it possible um including in uh uh allowing theaters and changing the sides and all this kind of stuff that there was a lot that went on um but it's good yeah um I I know that there are a couple people in the audience who perhaps I don't know if you would like to maybe clarify this um I know that the holdup was with the with the um division of Alcoholic Beverage Control as the clerk said yes yeah thank you hi Don Z treasure mon CLE film here with our mayor and Council hi hello and also the manager new Township attorney um my name is Lisa bar I'm Council for mon film with clarage right yeah I um I don't you said councelor ma said exactly right it was very the the oper word is painful really painful and it took a long time the prior council did everything we asked they were terrific they amended the ordinance we had hearings um public hearings uh we sent the um detective mickens of the police department background checks several of our people were fingerprinted um and when we got to the state yes there was a wow there was a delay there was a delay let just say that that delay has been been uh corrected you now have the letter that that they sent I think about 2 weeks ago and um the prior Council awarded the license and what's happening tonight is the issuance of the license um that's a three resolution process to issue a new license the township issues a resolution saying that the license is available applicants apply you evaluate those applicants you pass a resolution awarding an applicant the license they go through a background investigation our client has done that um the statute has an extra provision that the director of the ABC has to approve the applicant which happened two weeks ago and then the third resolution in the three-part process by the township is the issuance of the license which is what is before you tonight okay thank you any other questions any other questions I I just I remember when this was being it seems like a very long time ago but um how there's limit to how many is it two that three okay so we this is two that two tonight but that that's not a statutory limit that's a limit that the town in your ordinance and and in the issuance so you could always amend that and issue an unlimited amount the state statute does not limit the number of these that a municipality can issue great thank you thank you thank you one yes councilor Williams and what sort of alcohol beverages will be served there asking for a friend the the the plan is to focus on New Jersey based um alcoholic beverages New Jersey breweries wineries distilleries and they're going to be pre RTD ready to drink no mixing drink it's not a bar it's not a bar we're not mixing drinks okay instead of getting a can of Coke from refat you got a can of beer beer something pre-made white coil you know things like that the other pre made canned beverages there'll be no bar with open bottles and a Bart tender mixing it'll be RTD ready to drink Beverages and sorry and just before anybody gets any ideas I mean it's it's not that alcohol will be served every day it's it's just this just during um these uh you know dur two hours immediately before during the times that that are required by Statute and there'll be no expansion based on the overall alcohol service times required by the state and by Montclair so it's like two sets of of requirements of time of service thank you both you're welcome thank you luck thank you for your patience too Adam cler are we going to vote on this tonight like now mam clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you um resolution R 25-17 uh the people here from Vanguard theater yes no no okay we like to have any discussion on the Vanguard theater liquor license same same thing okay I'd like to move resolution R 25-17 second Madam clerk please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lman yes councel Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you um now we're going to go back to discussion on resolution number three right yes yes um Council tomato um uh obviously uh I am uh a supporter of this uh process I'm just curious what the timetable of the of the uh bidding will be is this going to happen soon the reason I ask is that we are about to Embark upon a big change when we pass the complete streets ordinance that will involve new designated people on an oversight board and um the the centering of this and the great work that the planning and Community Development Office has done we're going to have to re look at these structures because the center of traffic safety is going to be in a you know in a there will be a new center yeah so I know that planner tally did say to you councilor CH Anderson that that it was going to be designated the complete streets advisory it's a different name but it's legally okay so my my so when I I did ask a question a question about how this consultant right um yes that was you know um would work with the contemplated um complete streets director and the oversight board that are both you know being proposed in this complete Street ordinance and what she informed me was that um the idea um and she provided a scope of work um is that this consultant would be um actually um under the management of her department but that they would be working with the um complete streets director and the oversight board um yeah I don't understand I feel like there's almost some legal issue involved in that if the I mean the ordinance does not attorney Garcia you may I mean we may need help here if you don't if you have that ordinance in front of you it's it sort of enumerates these new bodies as being the center of activity in Street design and safety in the township Administration under the manager and so I just want to make sure yeah everything is under the manager but I mean it just needs to be talked through not in any kind of you know hostile way that that the planning department is a member of this body of the of that new body that will be created but it is not the director of that body and so it they have to be that just has to be squared and the second thing is does this imply that it is going to go out to bid in all the specs immediately I mean I know that the vision zero task force has worked on it but I feel like it never came to us as a committee it never really no you know in the mobility committee and um I certainly don't want to stop anything that's important to be done but at the same time I'm wondering if there are going to be legal issues about the placement of that cons of this very large $440,000 piece of work uh in in in in potentially one month we're going to have this new legal structure so I I I really wish other people were here and I this is on me for not about asking them in advance I mean we did but Mr Garcia are you looking you're not looking at that ordinance are I was looking at the competitive Contracting statute just to see how long it I mean it's it's it's not it's not your normal RFQ process right I mean how I don't know how far along you authorizing it's authorizing it no more right but I'm saying in order to use comp contract and you need to come up with like evaluation criteria you need to What's Next Step yeah and there is Mayor may I address the question yes thank you this resolution we've done this in the past it's only authorizing the use of competitive Contracting your next resolution which would actually include what attorney Garcia is talking about the evaluation the actual RFQ or RFP whatever it is that you're doing all of those details would be addressed in another resolution this one is adopted one time and then for the rest of Monclair history you can use that route for this specific service and there is nobody that's enumerated here except for our qpa is the only person who is as with all contracts yes sir okay then let's do it are you good May yes and and maybe some of these other things that you're raising we can discuss at the next Vision zero task force meeting which is on February 7th totally I just as long as it's just a framework that's great okay any any other question yes counc Lo just a question for the clerk is this usually a two-step process that's done over time or do you usually have this type of resolution that we're looking at today and then at the same day there would have already been the uh the next resolution no we never move that okay that's why I'm just asking yeah thank you any other discussion on this resolution if not um Madam clerk will you please roll call Mayor I'm sorry I didn't hear a movement in a second for item three oh on the agenda I I still move second thank you Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes we're going to move to resolution number five are we number two Okay resolution number two two that's what you said right not that wasn't a consent item resolution number two R 25-8 resolution designating public agency compliance officer for cy2 oh 25 it's coming it's coming it wasn't Asos number two I I so move I second any discussion yes yes um councelor Toler yep thank you um I guess the purchasing agent is not here tonight is this is this is to a point um I guess what I'm trying to say is how are we the council going to be kept a breast of spin ing under 44,000 um how will we see the affirmative action reports and the other things that we need to see if we pass this resolution um I know that the township has um certain ordinances in places when we're hiring and using contractors and vendors we won't be able to see if this is going to apply um anything under 44,5 or either 44,000 even you know how are we going to be kept a breast of the funds that are being spent there's no question counil Williams balances for this we well we're not getting that information right now right I mean to your point do would you want to set up some sort of process where you're where this information is all right so that's yeah we should because without it we don't get to see it may yes isn't there a certain trust that you have to have for the people who are work yeah we trust a person but how can we how do we keep our eyes on where money is being spent maybe we don't want to spend x amount of dollars on something that we don't have a say on we're giving power to a person without but but it's not like you doesn't have any oversight he has the town manager is watching what he's doing the department heads are looking at what he's doing we don't get any department head reports from anybody I know we don't get any reports from anybody here so we don't know where the money's going or what is being spent on and I guess if you're saying you're comfortable with I am with him spending this kind of money $44,000 well that adds up you're not authorizing him to spend 44 that without without Council approval you're authorizing expenditures under the bid basically under the bid threshold so you don't have to yeah you're just not bidding it you still have to approve it right right they I can't spend $20,000 or nobody can spend $20,000 if I have an attorney that has a bill it's $20,000 I need I still need you to approve that sign off by everybody right and by then it's too late and on the bill you have to we have to approve we have to approve it he just have to get a formal all right and this and this and this appointment here for the compliance officer it's always been the uh the qpa is my understanding from the clerk understand yeah I understand the qpa and how it works I we have a purchasing department in our school district I'm well aware of every single step involved with it but if the majority of the council is okay with 44,000 being at the cap and not seeing exactly where it's going until it's on our bill list to ask some questions we approve it that's nothing so be but can we just be clear because this is important in terms of the process the bill list is money that's like been spent that we have to but for we would have to really do a resolution to even approve that this will be spent let's say let's say h I'll just Department right let's say hypothetically someone makes a hostile work environment Department right and we decide we want to have outside Council come in and and and do the investigation that investigation is likely going to be under the bid threshold of 44,000 I still have to come to you foration to award that firm resolution right awarding a contract to XY and Z and not to exceed so it still has to go to you I just don't have to go out to go out to bidford if you need equipment for recreation department and so the I mean you still have to authorize the expenditure also I'm looking at we're looking at 258 right I don't this is just to hire appoint the compliance officer correct who make sure that when we do contracts we're getting all the but isn't that one of the same person he's going to be that person in the qpa yeah oh that's acceptable yeah yeah I mean we wouldn't we would just asking so we put it on the bill list but just back to this because again I I this is not something that I'm but the qpa is also the compliance off so the are we like asking him to ensure that his own work is compliant I guess that's my question yes that's my point okay so this is okay I got you all right there's mandatory language every bid that the clerk puts out that that's language and affirmative action language he just needs to make sure that we're complying with all those I mean it's it's makes sense got it yeah yeah who else is going to do it okay any further discussion no council TOA um no I don't have any more discussion but I just wanted to I guess try to answer Council birmingham's question um you mentioned about the bill list you had a question about when we get the bill list and when we see it no I'm saying I know that we have the bill list but the bill list is to pay the bill we also have to authorize the spending even if it's under $44,000 right and anything under 175 doesn't require a resolution just so that you're 112% certain on that and Mr Lola if you can please asked the qpa to send me a copy of the memo that he was supposed to send out to all department heads from the meeting we had I'd appreciate that thank you okay was been moved and there was a second Madam clerk please thank you Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham this is on item two thank you councel deato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller no councelor Williams yes mayor B Ville yes okay thank um so now we're up to resolution number five U councelor Williams please resolution r- 25011 resolution authorizing the execution of professional Engineering Services with negle Engineering Associates for storm sewer infrastructure conveyance system mapping for njde Ms or perit compliance so move second discussion yes is Mr Ashley still here thanks yep so your memo um states in the I guess on the last page here this contract amount is C at 500,000 however the township has received a grant for $25,000 from the state of New Jersey to offset the cost so are we paying 425 T 475 or 500 thank you well it's not to exceed amount so okay the the grant would be whatever we spend would be offset by the 25,000 okay and it says to be in compliance with the njde regulations and can you share those RS with us that we need to be in compliance with I'm sure you don't have them on you right now but if you could send us an email sure with those Rags um the other thing is I just feel like you know we're spending so much money every I mean every single meeting there's something on here with ridiculous amounts of money um for a particular firm it just we need an engineer um a lot so for an in-house engineer to be doing the GSI mapping would not be common this GSI mapping is a very technical highly technical field which requires uh infield engineering surveying um and a lot of time mapping so that's not something that a in-house Township engineer would normally do even if we were to have in-house engineering this would be something that would need to be contracted out right then it wouldn't look like again what's that it wouldn't look like again um okay I just I had a question because I saw where it says we have a grant you know got grant money but not to exceed so how are we going to monitor this spending because even though it says not to exceed what parameters or what type of spreadsheet or what time of type of uh checks and balances will you implement to ensure that we don't exceed this amount sure we have it we have the hourly rates and we have a projected um amount of money that we are anticipating to spend based on the number of uh manholes uh inlets and then that type of U infrastructure uh that needs to be mapped so we have an idea of how much will be to get that uh project completed and it just go out to bid or no it was a competitive contract so we got proposals from seven or eight different firms and they won huh yes all all right so you'll keep us a breast of how this is going and the spending cuz we really don't want to exceed we can help it thank you yes okay um Madam clerk please roll call thank you Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor deato yes councelor lochman yes councelor toer yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes uh I think we're up to resolution nine okay that was pulled oh yeah Okay resolution number six Council um Toller please uh resolution 25- 012 resolution establishing a cash management plan and naming official depositories for the township of Monclair for the calendar year 2025 I move second discussion um I would just say m raal isn't here but this is something required by State Statute that annually you describe how you're going to manage your cash and what banks you're going to put it in so I think it's I don't know councelor Toler if you have specific questions I don't I miss R isn't here but yeah I know she's not here so we can't get them answered um if someone else has a question they can go before me any other questions no no I'm sorry we no no other questions oh I'm sorry councelor Anderson the questions that I raised it was last time I think we we got the V so okay with that is your mic on yeah any questions that I had were um addressed last time okay so this good you're okay Council to her are you want I'm still looking no I I'm I'm I can follow up with the CFO thank you okay thank you there's been a motion and a second Madam clerk please do the roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams abstain mayor Baskerville yes okay now we're up to number nine nine number nine resolution number nine r25 d015 is resolution amending fair and open contract another contract for Engineering Associates Cy 2025 Municipal Engineering Services um if somebody wants to move it oh did you move it or I didn't move it uh so moved second discussion yes councilor Toller uh I'm just again this is same firm now we're giving we're trying to spend not to exceed $800,000 um and I thought as a council we agreed we were going to start talking about looking for an in-house engineer not that this particular work right here is done by an in-house engineer but you know within a matter of 10 minutes we've just spent $1.3 million on a firm and um I just want to know what's going to be done to curb the spending coming in from this firm here and can we see a plan for reduction of spending from them because um I I just also feel like this resolution you know it precludes precludes the Council on prioritizing spending in other spaces without adding to the burden of you know with out adding to the burden of the taxpayer um I just think it's really time for us to have a deeper discussion about spending and looking into getting an in-house engineer I mean we're just funneling money out every single month just my thoughts I just wanted to know for the discussion and I I just have to say I totally agree um with with your feeling regarding that I'm not really clear yet on how we're going to try to move away from uh you know just take take a look to see what's out there in terms of other Engineering Services because each week um as we've noted we do get um more and more embedded with the you know negli uh the neglia um Engineering Associates and I I definitely I don't have any complaint or anything but I am very much in favor of us trying to look and see what else is out there so manager um that's something that we expressed can you just let us know what the plan is um for us to to look at that because the council's expressed I think at two meetings now that that's something that we were interested in having done so what do we need to do or where are we with that the um uh Miss Dawkins the HR Director was doing a survey of engineers in other towns to see what the salary ranges were um I hope to have a report to you I I think she's uh been looking at that uh in depth so I think we should have a um a report to you at the next meeting okay all right probably sooner but you can discuss it it by then okay um yes Deputy Mayor yeah no I no I'm in agreement that that we should do have some kind of a comparison um but I just also wanted to note that it doesn't really just based on what we um we as a town are prioritizing I mean we care about storm water mitigation we we care about um traffic and safety so um and then we have these major this major Redevelopment so I I don't know I mean I would like to know how much it would cost us to have somebody in house but I I just feel like maybe as part of the larger conversation we can also look at what other um opportunities are there to curb spending um that because it doesn't seem like engineering is necessarily going to be the area that we're going to we're going to be able to cut whether we go for with somebody inhouse or continue to um hire outside consulants counil Burmy can we also get I know we've talked about that the change in the storm water ordinance led to more engineering requirements can we actually get a number on that in terms of what we feel like approximately $100,000 maybe a little bit more 100 so that was like we imposed an ordinance that led to $100,000 increase in spending okay enhance the ordinance toight to cover that okay and this resolution is for one year because I'm reading it and it says initial period of 2 years with 3 years separate one year option I believe it was five this is just a part of the five part of the five yeah yeah yeah this is the the second of the two years it needs to be amended because it would be the increase in the amount and then there's the option for two uh three one-year extensions when is that option available that's beginning next year there's an option for renewal each year thank you um and just and and I agree um Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson with what you said um you know regarding cost savings but uh I think for me cost savings was just a small portion of the reason that I was very interested in trying to find out you know about having a more internal person that is here and available you know every day um and so it wasn't really geared around thinking that we were going to save a lot of money and as the Essex County when we were at the meeting with Council deato you and myself mentioned that you know it was much easier for them when when we had that one um person here and I found that the experience was just totally different um and maybe in addition to trying to figure out about the realities of if we can find an internal um engineer maybe we should revisit even how the people that are doing it are providing the services because I don't have anything negative to say against negia I'm just trying to figure out how to have someone in here who we can just go to point the finger go to the office and say hey the residents over here want to do so and so they're out can you come measure the street whatever those things are so yeah may I anybody else yes yep one more question on number three um it says the township ship manager or his design is hereby authorized to take the necessary steps to enter an amendment to the contract and any other steps necessary uh to effectuate this resolution do we want to change this language in any way shape or form or are we as a council comfortable with that not where it's on the same resolution okay thanks number three because again this this is going to be something we don't have a say on until it's sitting in front of us oh I see what you're saying should we include another staff member I I think this authorizes me to effectuate whatever's listed above okay I'm just asked it's anyone else I mean I would just say sorry that you know we with the complete streets ordinance in a couple of months we will have a new uh possibly a new uh manager and they can be instructed to take fresh eyes on the way we delegate this business so it's not something that we would you know we're going to change tonight it's something that will happen over the course of the Year thank you with that said um please um Madam clerk we do roll call yes mayor Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay so are we down to number 12 yet yes Okay resolution number 12 please Council deato uh r25 18 Township of Monclair resolution awarding a non-fair and open contract to big belly solar LLC for support service and maintenance of proprietary solar powered sidewalk waste receptacles and so mve a second any discussion if not um Madam Clark Deputy Mayor Anderson we have a discussion oh I'm so sorry thought I get way um discussion on that please yeah I mean I see the garbage cans but it seems like it's about 120 Grand a year for these garbage cans so what's the advantage of having these garbage cans vers versus regular receptacles is it that I mean you're not picking up the trash as often so you're saving labor Court what's correct these are compacting garbage cans and what they do is at a certain setting we we could set the amount uh the level of the notification so say 80% for a can that we know that needs to be um emptied every week or if it's a an area with higher traffic we could set it to be emptied at 60% this reduces the amount of labor costs um that are associated with turning over those cans the traditional cans are just you have to check them pretty much every day so these are their their advantage is having that extra data and those notifications in addition to the compaction I'm just cuur curious were you able to like quantify you know what the savings was or I mean I I think it's a smart idea you know so that you know which which garbage cans need attention but you look like you want say something I dealt with this when I was um in in Hoboken they put they put these um solar belly cans on their their peer and their Waterfront um in addition to the um the labor costs which you I'm sure Austin could give you some rough number on that uh it reduces litter CU they're covered so you don't have overflowing cans with stuff all over and it also especially this is a big problem for them it eliminated a lot of their rodent problem um get getting in and out of the can so there were non financial reasons for these things uh I haven't followed up to know how well it went but I I do know that those were some of the reasons that they had put those cans on their peers along the Waterfront just just one last thing what department is in the number but oh I was just yeah cuz the first go around the fourth Court didn't get any so now you weren't here it wasn't you I understand that so just one last thing I I'll be very quick what Department's in charge of rodent control that's a interesting question Health okay some cat-sized uh rodents running around Church there's no further discussion we will um do a roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor demato yes councelor lochman councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes um number 13 Council Birmingham please this one it's yours resolution R 25019 resolution authorizing the award of a conditional class 5 category a cannabis retailer license to Citrus New Jersey LLC and ISO move second I me go discussion roll call vote Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor deato yes councelor lman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes resolution number 14 on Council lochman please uh resolution 25-20 resolution authorizing the ex execution of an interlocal agreement with the township of West C Caldwell for the provision of nursing Services I so move a second uh I have some questions um regarding the amount of money thank you so much for being here with us I see you early I see you late I'm always around thank you you are I appreciate it um how did we decide on that number right because when I did the math okay and I did the calculation at the number that you guys had for 75 an hour and then I'm trying to figure out the malpractice insurance or whatever then we're not making anything here so what I so basically the average rate say for a nurse is a little under 50 an hour I added some money on for benefits um and all the overhead so that's where we came up with the 7 came with the 75 right and then if they are working after hours you know I did $100 for overtime and so I did include you know we're saying up to 15 hours but if there's an emergency whether it's you know a public health emergency that's declared by the state or just extra you know need for Workforce then we can charge over and above the 15 hours at that either 75 or $100 rate okay and roughly what is their malpractice um for for year for you know the nursing Services we're talking I have to get you the exact number I don't want to quote I was putting I was plugging in like 12,000 anyway from 8 to 12,000 okay it could be it could be but I'm not sure off hand okay um but I did have you know that buffer of you know overhead built in but when you still did that it was it was really cutting it close I think I came up with 50 54 mhm plus that and then I see the amount that we'll be making so I mean we're just really doing this as a kindness not really like a shared service I just don't want to miss an opportunity cuz we've seen some shared services before where maybe we could have made it more favorable right the other question that I wanted to ask okaye is that um are we actually doing just West Caldwell are we doing North Caldwell and Fairfield as well right so West Caldwell has their health department has a contract with Fairfield and North calwell okay so even though our contract is with West calwell will be covering those two towns as well and I really think we need to to look at that number again and I mean I'll be happy to talk $75 you're saying no the the total the total amount the 58,000 well I'm basing it on 15 hours so if we go above but for three municipalities so we talked to the nurse that just retired to get a sense of and we've been over there a couple of times of what their volume is like remember there's much smaller towns North calwell is very small West calwell is quite a bit smaller um Fairfield I don't have quite a sense but um because I haven't been over to Fairfield yet but we based it on you know historically like number of communicable disease cases um I mean we can certainly review it I think if we go too much higher um you know based on what they were paying their nurse so this is replacing their nurse that they had I think think it may be an issue so I thought we'd start out with this I built in the extra parameter so we could you know charge them extra if they we work 20 hours a week we'll charge it but we can we can talk about it more if we're concerned about it if ien if Council are birming Williams are fine with this then I right right okay and just to um piggy back on what the mayor was saying so so this is different than like our contracts that we had for examp example with Verona where we served you were their health officer you also inspected all their resident um restaurants you were responsible for I don't know for road control I'm not sure but like you were doing the whole Soup To Nuts here this is you are sending one nurse who so you don't need additional Staffing correct cuz so you're not using additional Staffing you're sending one nurse 15 hours a week and she's going to do things like audit vaccination records at schools mhm if there is something like a communicable disease outbreak that causes an increase in work so if God forbid we have another you know something happening you have it built into the contract that you will charge for that MH exactly right not doing school nursing what's that I'm sorry they're not doing school nursing at all nothing like that right and so to you know councelor birmingham's point right now our contracts that we have existing with Cedar Grove mhm um it's the pr if you look at the price difference it's not that much more but we're providing right RS services so we're in charge of all the inspections y as the health officer I was just at their budget hearing last night um I do their all their Board of Health meetings so there's a lot of extra things built in so this number just for nursing Services sounds good um and I have these extra you know like sort of Clauses built in that we can increase you know what you know we'll send them an additional invoice and he and the health officer is fine with that we've had discussions so I have a good nurse getting just for you know cuz I would guess what 80 88 to 100,000 for the the nurse that you mention Plus benefits benefits I don't know if I can really what he did tell me um and it it's very close to what the contract is for okay that without benefits I appreciate all your work on this yeah yeah so I think it's a good opportunity and you know maybe we'll pick up some additional services from them so anyone else anyone else I'm getting to side ey okay my bad um okay it's a roll call vote please Deputy Mayor Anderson thank you yes you're welcome Council Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor Lan councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you next one please um Council lman Oh I thought it was me I'm sorry D mayor is that me yeah oh okay um resolution r25 are you on no oop resolution r- 25-23 resolution extending the time frame for the execution of a Redevelopment agreement and planning board submission between bdp Holdings LLC and the submissions between bdp Holdings LLC and the township for laana redevelopment project I so move second discussion Council Toler and then councelor lochman I already knew that yeah councelor toer yeah I just wanted to um ensure that we're the first be it resolved when we discussed this back in um September 24th 2024 where it's says be it further resolved that the mayor is hereby authorized y y y at that time we just decided we should Council full counsel there yeah mayor and councel yeah right okay I don't see it here and I'm hoping it'll make it on for the next one okay um and I think that's all I really have for that I just didn't see it in here so I wanted to make sure it was in thank you Council lock I I have a similar point I think where it says on on two and uh for example it should be Redevelopment agreement is executed by all parties in a form acceptable to the township attorney and the council I mean don't we have to uh agree on the um it says that where am I missing it be it further um after paragraph where wait a second it says the last the last be for for the resolve you're up at number two huh yeah I know it says that there but it but there's other di mentions of the of the township attorney and I think it should be Township attorney and the council yes okay it's in number two the second line it's in it's in the whereas after number two the third line and uh and then it's in the first be it resolved right I okay never mind deputy mayor I mean is there any reason that attorney Garcia that we shouldn't look at this as well absolutely look at it I don't want I don't want that resp right okay thank you right so that any further discussion question yes um for are we what are we incurring expenses because this is being um delayed or did our designation our designation of bdp as the redeveloper means that I think that's okay he's paying so we're not on the hook for anything because of this there's no further discussion Madam clerk would you do the roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor de yes councelor lman yes councelor Toler yes as long as we include the three full councils where they're needed thank you as amended as amended thank you councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes resolution number six is that you councelor Williams 16 yes please yeah resolution R-25 d024 resolution authorized an amendment to correct the cost of the contract with record recognition Systems Inc for provision of police department automated License Plate Reader so moved second discussion Madam clerk roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes coun lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes um the bill list all uh resolution R sorry resolution R 25-25 Bill L Bill list resolution uh whereas invoices against the township of Monclair in favor of the following persons for the amount set opposite their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct um now therefore it be be it resolved by the Council of the township of mle and the county of a 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 amount respectively and herein after stated on the scheduled attach here in to and made a Part hereof I so move second any discussion councelor lochman you have any discussion no no anybody counil y you okay councelor toer yes um I know our CFO isn't here tonight but I just wanted some clarification on a couple of vendors um if maybe Miss POA can share uh there's Cloud permit I just need to know what that is and what it's for we're paying a subscription cloud Cloud permit Inc this is for planning department for Janes T Department this is about to for the uh planning to for any vendor to apply for application so they can do it online subit all the application everything online as well as payment in the near future okay thank you for that clarification and um I'm just curious about this reimbursement um for a staff member um for $5,000 ,000 did we know what that's for over 5 $ 5,178 I'm trying not to say the staff member's name I mean I know it's public information but of tuition maybe possible tuition reimbursement and then lexip pole LLC uh it's a training software I'm just wondering what kind of training software that is and that's for fire department for the fire department that is correct okay if y'all have another one y'all can go ahead I can play catchup anyone else have any questions that they'd like to raise regarding I'll come I'll come back um the bill list um quick question the fire ladder truck lease for $101,000 is that an annual payment or is that um quarterly okay what was the answer to the question okay um if there's nothing else we can move on do a roll call vote and then try to get into our executive session if there's no further question oh yes okay um councelor Toller did you have anything else on the bill list okay not at this time so Madam clerk would you please do a roll call yes mayor Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor deato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you um Council damato would you please do resolution 25-21 listed as number 18 uh R 25021 resolution authorizing the township to pre-qualify and award fair and open contract for municipal auditor for uh calendar year 2025 RFP 24 p21 so moved second discussion just a question so I just refresh my memory which is the current auditor we just used oh thank you anyone else Madam clerk please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor basille yes thank you Cil Birmingham please would you do number 19 uh resolution r222 resolution authorizing the township to pre-qualify and award fair and open contract for municipal financial advisor for calendar year 2025 and I so move second discussion hearing none Madam clerk would you please roll H Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay thank you very much um and so now at this time oh yes I'm sorry um manager Lola just just briefly uh since there's only 5 minutes left in today today is uh our council's birthday so I figur we should wish happy birthday H birday to you no place no place I'd rather happy birthday dear Mr Garcia happy birthday to you no we need to sing it in ESP okay um so yes happy birthday now we're going to move on to resolution authorizing executive session without the public being permitted and we're allowed to do that um under r 24-26 u provision where it says any pending or anticipate litigation that's what we're going to go into executive session for pending and L um anticipated litigation or contract the public as well as uh personnel and there you go anything that may be of a attorney client privilege nature and we're going to ask people that remain here if you would leave and thank you for joining us this evening I second and I so move yeah yeah yeah thank you it's getting late all right we don't need to oh sorry e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Le with which Civic committee I did you didn't get mine I had the three that I'm going to already I did I checked the little boxes yes oh good evening thank you for your patience um I'd like to make a motion for us to um return to the um meeting we're going to leave our executive session at this time a second All In faor I I I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn second all in favor I I have a good evening happy birthday attorney Garcia