good evening everyone Welcome to the April 22nd 2025 Montlair Township Council regular meeting We're so glad that you chose to join us this evening This is a regular meeting of the Council of Township of Montlair It's
being broadcast on channel 34 and is streaming live on Mont Clair's TV 34 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 was included in the revised annual notice of meeting schedule as set forth in resolution R25-038 adopted by the township council at its regular meeting on February 25th
2025 advertised to the official newspaper on March 6 2025 posted on the bulletin boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted In addition a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available
to the public and is on file in the office of our township clerk Please rise for the pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Madame clerk whenever you're ready please for the roll call And I and I apologize for starting before you were
ready Madame Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson here Councelor Birmingham here Councelor Damato here Councelor Laughman here Councelor Toller good evening Present Good evening Councelor
Williams here Mayor Baskerville present Um I would like to add to the uh agenda as pending ordinance D The where is
it It is the ordinance to amend section 327 vehicle and traffic of the code of the township of Montclair New Jersey It's ordinance 0-25-16 on second reading I'd also at this time like to ask to
withdraw resolutions number 18 and 19 until uh special um executive meeting of the township on the 2 9th of of April specifically for the
purpose to discuss the interim township attorney You want to I so move I'll second it You want to have a special meeting I'm sorry What day Next Tuesday
May I ask who scheduled this and um where I mean was this discussed with anyone Are we just all supposed to be available next week I'm not I'm not sure who who is and who's not I am uh suggesting that it
would benefit us all to be able to discuss the um candidates that should be considered for an interim township attorney and that it should be done in a thoughtful manner and suggesting that it it be done at that time
Um so can we discuss in executives I think we are going into executive session tonight Um so can we hold 18 and 19 till after that executive session We can Okay that's fine Okay Um at this time we have a a couple
of proclamations We have a we have the proclamation that I see most of you that are that are here are probably waiting for So let's do that one first It's our wonderful township proclamation for designating the week of
April 21st to 27 as Earth week in Mont Clair And as everyone that is here to stand with us on this proclamation moves forward please if anyone is here for a family service league um proclamation
for sexual assault awareness month can start moving towards the front of um the chambers and that will be next in line All right Sure I like Earth Yes
Uh Township of Monontlair New Jersey proclamation designating the week of April 21st to 27th as Earth week in Montlair Whereas Earth Day is an opportunity to renew America's commitment to preserving and protecting the state of our environment through community service and responsible
stewardship And whereas all people regardless of race gender income or geography have a right to a healthy sustainable environment with economic growth and opportunity And whereas the global theme for Earth Day 2025 is our power our power our planet focuses on
renewable energy and urging a global shift towards clean energy sources Earth Day focuses on engaging governments institutions businesses and the more than 1 billion citizens who participate annually in Earth Day to do their part Everyone accounted for everyone
accountable And whereas on Earth Day let us recognize the role that each of us play to increase awareness about the importance of environmental education and spur progress towards global environment environmental and climate
literacy Now therefore the mayor and council of the township of Montlair hereby proclaim April 21st to April 27th 2025 as Earth Day Celebration Week in the Township of Monontlair and encourage all citizens to learn about ways they
can improve the environment Thank you We're so fortunate in Montlair to have many groups that are very very focused on the environment We'd like to thank our environmental commission We'd certainly like to thank our PRCA advisory board I see we have the
chairperson Marcial Almea here I know that you all work very tirelessly um environmental issues and certainly we have Northeast Earth Coalition and we have the founder and chair Jose So would you like to take the mic and say
something for us and we thank you for your work for how many years now It's been 25 25 years Thank you And if there are other environmental groups that are here and I didn't call you out and you you know would like to acknowledge and
stand with us don't be bashful Come on down and give us your name Thank you Thank you mayor Uh it is my pleasure and honor uh to be here tonight Uh celebrating the Earth Day is a big thing uh especially for us who are taking care
every day not only the the in our community but beyond Monontlair and Monontlair has been a a leader a role model for other communities and we want to continue uh accomplishing more things on behalf of Monontlair community Thank
you Thank you so much from all of us Yes there are I would just mention there are probably wherever you live Sorry Thanks so much Thank you Yes
Good evening council Uh I would like to turn a warm invitation to everybody here to join the Mona Park Recreation and Cultural Affair Advisory Committee for the annual townwide park cleanup this Saturday
April 26 started at 9:00 a.m The schedule of the different parks are on TV34 and a different flyer and every social media that you can think of This is our fourth maybe fifth year organizing this event in
celebration of spring and mother earth It is not just about cleaning up our beautiful parks is also about community Working side by side with friends and neighbors and meeting new
people along the way helps build the kind of positive connected environment that make Monontlair such a special place I have to say I war one have two parks Yankatu
and Tours The second one have uh Woods too Bono Kai is Nishuain Thank you so very much Okay Nishuain is also going to have a clean up on this Saturday at 10 o'clock for anybody that would like to
join the Nishuain Park cleanup Thank you Uh we got a request for an additional proclamation Is there anyone that came for the sexual awareness sexual assault awareness month Anybody like to read this Thank you
Um so I am here reading the Township of Monontlair proclamation family service leagues SA save of Essex County program Whereas sexual assault awareness month was first nationally recognized in April 2001 to increase awareness of
sexual violence and its profound impact on individuals and communities And whereas studies indicate that over half of women and more than one in three men experience sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes with the majority of survivors knowing
the person who harmed them underscoring the urgent need for education prevention and survivor centered support And whereas studies further indicate that individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community are at an increased risk of experienced sexual vi violence
with 47% of transgender individuals two in five gay men and one in eight lesbian women reporting experiencing sexual assault or violence in their lifetimes And whereas sexual violence does not discriminate and affects individuals of all gender identities races ethnicities
ages and socioeconomic backgrounds survivors often remain silent due to fear of blame shame disbelief or revictimization making it crucial to foster a culture of belief and support And whereas the goal of SAM is to bring
visibility to the issue of sexual violence and promote prevention efforts symbolized by the teal ribbon which represents trust devotion and healing Whereas Family Service League established in 1881 is a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening
and supporting individuals through counseling sexual violence advocacy and education Family Service League provides traumainformed services to survivors their loved ones and the broader community Um and whereas since I'm just going to
read these whereas since 2015 SAVE has answered 4,145 hotline calls provided 1,344 accompaniment to survivors at hospitals and law enforcement agencies and served
4,750 survivors of sexual violence through various services Since 2017 SAVE has provided 15,570 sexual violence counseling sessions Additionally since 2021 SAVE has facilitated
1,653 Uber rides to ensure transportation challenge survivors have safe and reliable transportation to access services And now therefore be it resolved that the Township of Monontlair formally recognizes April 2025 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month commends Family
Service League's SAVE of Essex County program for its unwavering dedication to supporting survivors educating the public and advocating for a future free from sexual violence and calls upon all relative all residents to take an act
active role in prevention and awareness efforts within our community Thank you for your work and um I know those were very sobering statistics but um I do believe we need to be aware of them and thank you again for and if there's anything you'd like to say
Good evening everyone mayor uh town council members um and the community Um I would like to thank you um on behalf of uh my team our board and um the survivors that we serve uh for recognizing sexual assault awareness
month This is our second proclamation with Monontlair uh and this just underscores the uh importance that you uh give to this cause Um and um together um I'm I'm sure that we will work um you know harder to um help and you know
extend the uh necessary services to the uh victims and survivors in our communities Thank you Thank you Thank you for your work At this point in time we are going to move into public comment Mr Fan how many
residents do we have signed up please for public comment Six people Excuse me mayor The minutes Okay Oh okay Um I hope that everybody has received a copy of the meeting held on April 8th 2025 Has everybody received them and had
an opportunity to look at them Are there any corrections Motion to adopt Second All in favor I I Any opposed
Abstained Thank you Mr Fan please can you tell us how many people we have signed up please to do the public comment We're going to go into public comment so far Probably 10 people so far Ma'am 10 people is good We'll try to get um
through the public comment making sure that people please stop um before your 3minut cut off time not you know after the 3minut cut off time and we did really well at the last meeting I'd like to um compliment everyone we didn't have
um you know disrespectful comments about individuals because we're trying to stay away from individual comments but we want to welcome you all to come and share with us our your concerns and things that we can work on together So who is number one please Our first guest
please come down Good evening Good evening Uh dear council members Uh my name is Jose German uh Gomez Uh has been a resident of MLA for 25 years I am here tonight uh to introduce a proposal for a resolution
declaring Montlair as a B USA city Monontlair has a strong traditional leadership in environmental matters in the state of New Jersey The first township to institute curside recycling the first national wildlife federation certified community wildlife habitat in
the state and number nine at national level a designated monarch USA city host township of the pollinator uh pathway and the second New Jersey township sheet to pass a native vegetation ordinance Now Montlair has the chance to continue
this tradition by becoming a B city USA affiliated All that is required is for the council to pass a resolution which I chair already for email We hope that the council will pass the resolution as soon as possible so that we can use BCD program to educate the Monontlair
community on a step that they can take to make our township a more welcoming place for native bees and other pollinators so essential in sustaining our environment Thank you Thank you very much Next guest please Hi my name is Charlotte Driver I'm here
as a representative of NJ Perk students from Ruckers in New Brunswick So we've come quite a far way today Um we are a studentled nonprofit organization that works on various environmental and social issues and we just came up here to support this um B city resolution and
just talk a little bit about what it means to us Um hi everybody I'm Erin Dy I'm the upcoming chair of NJ Perk I would like to thank the council for hearing us out tonight um as well as Jose for working with us But yeah so the issue is um given the garden state New Jersey loses
about um 50% of our bee colonies annually due to a lot of reasons um mainly the use of harmful neonic pesticides Growing up personally to me I mean I'm from North Jersey originally I'm from Mawa so not too far from here Um and I grew up gardening with my grandmother learning the importance of
these um creatures and they pollinate about 70% of the food we eat And this is a vital resource and it's really disheartening seeing that we're losing them and that our kids are growing up not understanding the importance of our bees and what they mean for the state Um so I hope by passing this initiative and
you know reducing pesticide use and focusing on bee education but really most importantly focusing why we need the b bees and finding a way to save them as a state um is really important So thank you Thank you My name is uh my name is Bowen Williams
I am the upcoming secretary for NJ Per and I would like to drive home the point of the importance and relevance of keeping bees safe As the garden state uh we produce a lot of food One-third of all food that is eaten by New Jerseyians is produced by bees in some way shape or
form through their pollination It is crucial that for our safety and the safety of not only the other people in New Jersey but also our nearby states we must protect these bees and we must protect our agriculture Thank you Next guest please
Hi everybody Thank you My name is Lynn Stockhammer I live on 16 Forest Street and others will be speaking a lot better um and more eloquently than I But this is regarding two South Willow Street This town has a history of enriching developers over the common good Our city
planner who does not live in Montlair has had tenure throughout mega projects lining the pockets of Staller The first iteration of two South Willow caused major disruption to traffic the environment and the general quality of life And why does two South Willow with
its already extraordinary rents completed just a few years ago need an upgrade There is room for a pet washing station but where is there room for more trucks and equipment in an already attenuated for all purposes one-way
street with two-way traffic How does this deal permit 10% affordable housing while our code mandates 20% I'm asking that genuinely I don't understand it I'm very ignorant of that Please examine extending the Please exam extending
I have a few more seconds Thank you Please examine extending the terms of this handover to the greedy for an agreement which we will be locked into for decades But what really really pisses me off and what should outrage everyone is that the interim township attorney managed within one
meeting to liel two classes of people esteemed lifelong members and leaders of the Monontlair community women and African-Americans venomously calling council to a liar and slinging out to our mayor Dr Baskerville that quote
"You're just going to vote no anyway." This council remains silent This is typical blatant immoral behavior well beyond the category of microaggression that cannot be hidden behind your water bottles and it cannot and we will not
allow this to be disguised Next guest please I'm hoping as you see last time I sent you a letter last that detailed reasons you
should that the construction permit that was issued for the grandstand and the press box should be revoked as there was no theory that that was properly issued I'm not going to go through all of that the board that the state department of
education um and I want to discuss the whole project sent a letter in September 1st 2022 to the board of education that said the following
facilities are ineligible for state funding and I'll come back to why that meant they are were required to go to the board of adjustment renovation work to include replacement of the natural grass grass field work includes new
bleachers pitchers bullpen and batting cages And then it goes on to the grandstand and press box And then also in bold it said all needed outside approvals are required Now whether that just applied to what was in bold which is the only thing I'm particularly concerned about or everything that was
listed doesn't matter but clearly it at least applied to those There was a court hearing a week or so ago um on the neighbors motion to intervene in the case It was argued for an hour and a half Um so even though I think
some of the opposing attorneys thought it would be dismissed out of hand it wasn't The judge ended the hearing by requesting that the board of education send a response as to why the September
1 letter that I just referred to did not require them to apply and why they were relying on a decision a court decision prior to the adoption of the Educational Facilities and Construction Act and then required your attorney to explain
whether the township had any authority to settle a case in a manner that neutralize the role of the zoning board which by statute is a separate body that the township attorney legally under the municipal land use law can represent
neither the planning board nor the board of adjustment So clearly there was no ability to bind us So I am urging you to um tell your attorney that what they she should write is that the settlement agreement did not do that
and it is necess and that she should say that they and as the brief has said that they are required to apply to the board of adjustment the I have like three more minutes but
the the board of the state department of education regulations implementing the educational facilities construction and finance act specifically require for other facilities which includes grand
stands ball fields etc to get all necessary approvals required by statute That is what applies There is no basis for the board of education to say they are exempt from review The statute the regulations are clear Please resend the
permit and require them to apply No one is saying the baseball team can't use the field for this season but it is necessary that they comply with the law Now thank you Next guest
please One two three four five Good evening Mayor Baskville and council members Good evening I'm Jeffrey Robert Grayson and I'm a 66-year-old lifelong resident of Monontlair At the last council meeting I was stunned by the numbers attributed to
traffic accidents pedestrian injuries and deaths As someone who took my first steps crossed my first street rode my first bike and learned to drive in this town I wondered how streets that used to be so safe have become so
treacherous Geographically Monontlair covers 6.3 square miles and the population has seen mild fluctuations since the year 2000 What has changed dramatically are the demographics of that population Street safety has become such a priority
that Monontlair has adopted the vision zero task force and complete streets initiative with the goal of eliminating traffic and pedestrian injuries and deaths While the population has remained relatively stable the density of that population
has become more localized All along the Bloomfield Avenue environments there are many luxury apartments and condos that have saturated the downtown area Increased density puts more pressure on existing infrastructure like roads water
and waste systems It is no coincidence that we are seeing far more water main breaks than ever before Increases in traffic congestion are undeniable All across town there are lines of traffic at railroad crossings stop lights four-way intersections and
along Bloomfield Avenue that we've never seen before There is a psychological toll that takes effect when driving a distress anxiety and frustration This this can lead to aggressive driving impaired driving ability and decision-making with reduced
situational awareness This type of driver is more likely to drive faster take more risk and have less empathy for others When you combine all of these factors with the sense of entitlement that some feel is their birthright it is no wonder that
walking biking and driving in Montlair has become so dangerous What used to be an easygoing mellow vibe with a strong sense of cross-cultural community has now become a frantic hustle lacking social cohesion People are even assaulting one
another over parking spaces Monontlair has bent over backwards sideways and unfortunately forward to become something that is 6.3 square miles of geography and infrastructure and reputation for diversity is not capable of
maintaining The first step to getting out of this hole is is to stop digging it Remember those words the next time you see a photo of someone with a shovel in their hand breaking ground on some new luxury building Capitulation to developers and special interests has so
warped the thinking of the policy makers in Monontlair that they can't recognize the hypocrisy of advocating for street safety while denying that South End needs Firehouse 3 Vision Zero and Complete Streets have become necessary because we'd rather treat the symptoms
than cure the disease Thank you Next guest please Hi council members Mayor Baskville council members Eric Payne 70 South Fullerton Avenue Uh I've been living in Mont Clair now for 11 years Um I'm here to talk about the cannabis As you guys
many of you guys know uh as I've been coming here last couple of years I'm trying to bring cannabis businesses here as we at night out So the recent uh exit of of Ascend and the recent awarding of
Citrus of the licenses created now three licenses three cannabis dispensaries on Bloomfield Avenue about a block away from each other So we were originally going to go into the DLV Uh the DLV proved not to be feasible for us to go
into So at that time with the previous council as many of you might know you were here I came here and lobbyed the council to see if we can get a change of address and found out after the fact that it needed to be amended The ordinance needed to be amended to allow us to do that Uh Kush Connection was
having a similar problem And you know as this roll out the state rolls out a new business as you guys all know there's a growing process going through And so that's what we're finding out as we've gone And so once we were able to get it finally passed you know it was some bumps in the road It was some uh uh
questions about how many readings it needed We finally got it passed with the help of you uh uh Councilman Damato and all the rest of you And now we're in a situation where Kush has moved over on Bloomfield Avenue and the old uh luxury car dealership Now I understand that
Citrus might go into the former Dunkin Donuts at Midland and we were looking to go into uh CVS the old CVS space And once that happened I heard about Citrus coming to town I then approached and see if we can go into the Ascend space Been
talking to them but it seems that it's a while and they don't know what they're going to do Actually I was talking to the owner of the building to see what the possibility So I'm here to ask that possibly I had a conversation with Councilman Demano and you Councilwoman Toller about opening the uh commercial
district in on Valley Road to extend to perhaps uh Belleview or Lraine And that would allow all of the businesses all of the cannabis dispensaries in town to have a better shot at success And you know having us bunched up in one area
doesn't serve anybody So had to keep moving uh a lot of moving parts for this but for us that would be better I mean we could move in waiting to find out what ascend is going to come or go That's a longer process So I mean that I understand that there might be some
projects and it's more revenue maybe some things in that area of town that might benefit from some of the revenue that would be generated Uh uh Councilwoman Tully you made some suggestions to me but you know I want to I want to emphasize that Uh Carmel I see
you shaking your head a little bit so I don't know But I want to emphasize that you know what happens with uh really really briefly if I can what happens with this is that you know the regulations here we're not trying to have any signs or anything like that You know guys know the regulations They don't want to have a a whole another Joe
Camel situation where it appealed to the kids and stuff So to let you know if that were to happen we will make sure that it's nondescript for adults Thank you Can I So um Mr Payne did you send us um all a copy of something in in writing just so that we know have all you sent
it to us an email or something or I will say thank you Thank you very much Yes Um um Councilwoman Lachman just one point I I did want to say that I agree with you 100% that it seemed to me when this law was passed that it was all directed towards the Bloomfield Avenue corridor
where to me the ideal places would have been by the acme or up in that direction Yes But yes the former council said no it's going to be all in you know this little area and that's it So I agree 100% And there's a number of vacancies over there now too And there's also a
lot that uh some of the people I'm talking to would be willing to build on So that creates that that that revenue as well So anyway only if we can have a dive bar in the first floor That's my price There you go Uh I have one question You
guys have a the next council meeting is a conference meeting If you guys decided to put it on would that be you know I know there's two it takes two meetings So I'm just So we we are in the process of um reviewing how we do some of the things um with the meetings So if you
can just get us the information that you would like for us to have as soon as possible it'll be great and we'll make sure that it's not ignored Thank you Thank you very much Next guest please Number seven number
uh Sarah Avery Monontlair resident Uh the audited financial statements for two South Willow disclosed the building cost of $81 million So based upon an allcash sales price of 96 million Stler made a profit of approximately 15
million leaving the residents to pay for all the infrastructure improvements necessary to overcome traffic and safety issues that come with building unwanted density in a suburban community How was it determined the developer needed a 30%
pilot discount annually The Monontlair Times quotes the planners stating "The planning board is not meant to consider the financial viability of specific projects or buildings claiming it's the council that deals with the finances." So then it's the council that colluded
with the developer and cheated residents out of half a million dollars a year to support wealthy real estate developers become wealthier Every issue in conflict raised in connection with every development deal the township planner has shephered is
riddled with errors and problems that were predicted by the public What about the series of mistakes that cleared the way for more than triple the number of units at 37 Orange Road 46 instead of 11 Another Brian
Stler project that was GL granted multiple variances for reduced parking in exchange for a publicly accessible plaza Tally is Stler's fairy godmother September 9th 2010 Tally
describes her role saying she makes sure development actually happens as it's planned March 27th 2014 I'm quoting from the Monontlair Times Tally says the township hopes to come up with alternative transportation strategies
rather than just relying on the car November 6th 2014 Stler promises shuttle service from Valley and Bloom and the MC Hotel connecting with Bay and Walnut Street train stations After more than a decade despite all the promises and
claims the added density has come with more cars dangerous streets and expensive taxpayer finance solutions And there is a long list of concessions made by the planner in exchange for benefits that have never been paid on top of the
failure to provide affordable housing to residents that was promised February 10th 2011 Tally claims she is addressing the housing affordability issue If Tally does what she claims why has every plan
she implemented only benefited the developer The best interests of this community have not been served by the township planner or any of the attorneys hired to represent the township Attorney Burr repeatedly and willfully violated
the law Attorney Garcia openly admits that he doesn't follow the law Attorneys Fredill and Schwarz weaponize the government to protect criminals using our tax dollars and this council's majority of five blesses their contracts
Thank you um very much Miss Avery And so I'm going to remind everybody again please it's one thing if you're giving like a quote or something like that but we would like for you to um please try not to just make negative statements that are casting a poll on individuals
who it's not a poll it's the truth and the facts have to come out Thank you Miss Avery I'm just going to I'm going to just suggest as someone um who precides over this meeting that it is best that best
that we do not cast a poll on individuals who come in here and work very hard for this township and and many of us work with them daily Sure we all have our personal opinions I am just suggesting and I am aware of the law I'm
just suggesting that these meetings run much better if we do not make statements solely for the per purpose of harming individuals Next guest please Mayor can I say one thing as well Just just
to me it sounds like what a lot of what is being criticized here are redevelopment projects and redevelopment projects are approved by the governing body So the if if you have issues with a a redevelopment project take it up with
the council I and I I'm not saying I that there's not criticism to be had but the planner is not the ultimate decider on on redevelopment projects I just think that should be clear to the public Next guest please
Uh good evening council Uh Daniel Cruz Uh I I gave to the uh madame clerk a brochure that I'm distributing around uh learning how to be a more effective communicator on the side of the of the deis Um one of my neighbors uh told me a rumor that down my street somebody was
developing building offices which I found to be quite odd since building offices being plural So I started trying to do some research to see what was actually being built and what I came across was a discrepancy I think in the
in the ordinance since the planning and zoning uh department have a I think I think they have a standing practice I'm not certain on that part um of doing like internal review if an application is sent to the building department but if it's sent to zoning first with like a
zoning application then they get a zoning permit Both of these projects received construction permits without zoning permits And it says in the code that if you're going to build an addition you need to have a zoning permit Uh I don't know which one is
right the ordinance or planning and zoning department but I think that would be something that's important to get checked for clarification so that um the public is a little bit less confused Um when I sent my first Oprah to the building department I got a lot of you
know uh information back Then I sent a second Oprah to community services for engineering plans but I was a little bit too vague And I understand sometimes if you're vagras you may not get the information you need So then when I sent my Oprah a second time with more specific information
um I still did not receive plans which I know exist Um I think the response was no responsive record So I was a little bit curious as to why even though I exactly cited what plans I was looking for nothing came back especially given
this interesting like discrepancy Um the only thing I could say conclusively is what I mentioned in the beginning on pages one and two which is that there's this you know uh conflicting information between planning and zoning and um the ordinance Uh beyond that I I genuinely
don't know because I don't have enough information because I couldn't look at the plans You know the impervious coverage calculation sheet on uh page seven doesn't seem to make any sense And if you look at the construction permits it clearly says that there's going to be an addition So
um anyways this something I think the council should take a look at for clarification Thank you Thank you Next guest please That's good to know Thank you Appreciate
you're hearing me Glad to see a lot of strong individuals behind the desk here Good evening Very good Um I'm going to change the way in which I present my point I want to talk about the accessory dwelling units Uh I
disagree with the 30-foot limit on the units I think it restricts the ability to have uh flexibility in the yards Most of our lots are very rectangular or at least 50% of the lots at Monontlair are very rectangular And having the ability
to put a rectangular building and a rectangular lot is a lot easier to facilitate a good design While we're here for Earth Day let's talk about solar design So if you want to design a building that's standalone and has no
carbon footprint it's really important to stretch it out long and put a lot of glass off the south So if you took a a an ADU unit at 8 800 square f feet and made it 50 feet long and 16 foot wide with a single loaded corridor out the
back you could have lots of glass on one side and you could have a beautiful garden relatively low roof and you know it's an opportunity um as far as impact to the neighborhood and impact to the neighbors I feel that
the setbacks and the height limitation keeps the building small enough that whatever size it is it's not imposing on the neighborhood or on the neighbors So for those reasons I suggest that we delete the 50 the 30 foot requirement If
there is a reason to have a limit let's make it a lot longer than 30 feet Thank you Thank you Council Lman Yeah Uh Mr Gett I I I just want to say that um the points that you raised when we met
the points that you raised when we met we're taking them under consideration at the planning board So don't fret change may be coming Okay Okay Thank you I appreciate Thank you for raising the points because you're absolutely right Thank you Thank you Next guest please
Thanks Yeah we already put it there too Yeah Great Good evening everybody Good evening I'm Frank Rubaki Mr Rubak Haven't been here for a while Don't take offense You're doing a good job Thank you Um I didn't put him up to that Um but he
is an architect and a good one and um I'm not going to go into that I'll save that for the hearing And by the way I think you have a quorum of the zoning board people No No
Um first up was not on my agenda is Woodman I'm sorry the um Aubry Lewis Sports Complex uh mostly Pondsfield Um I'm really I share
um the chair of the zoning board of adjustments uh comments and um actually I'm quite angry about it but um I'm trying to be chill and I would hope that you guys would do everything in your power to work with
your attorneys um to try to get this to the proper resolution Um I want to talk about the housing plan you know affordable housing We have a housing plan a housing element of the
master plan a fair share plan and a spending plan that is due to the state by the end of June I believe And what I don't think most people realize is that we'll probably have a public hearing about it in about two weeks I don't know if anybody knows
that May 6th This Yes So in two weeks Yeah And no one's going to know about it for a while now Maybe they'll get a copy of the report published this week if we're lucky They will I'm just saying that this is an outrageously
fast schedule Government does not do well with speed Yeah speed kills And what I'm asking you to do is quite simple I would like you to take do the bare
minimum that is statutoily required in making this submission to the state No more Yeah And if you we want to add to that because we do have that option we do have that time Correct Then let's add to it and let's engage with
people Yeah Um but this is not sufficient engagement time Um so I would ask you to do that Um quickly the affordable housing discuss um discussion is really off base to me I explained
this to tonight planner tally We don't talk about people We're not people oriented when we have this discussion We don't talk about families There's nowhere in the documents that talk about families How could we do that
We're a town that is known our best attribute is raising families Correct And nowhere in our affordable housing documents do we talk about families I could go on in depth to that but my time's up and thank you very much Thank
you very much Um are there any other people that have signed up to come or is that it Mr Fan That's it ma'am Okay great Thank you to all of you who came before us and and shared your concerns um and
questions And now we're going to move on to um pending ordinance I'm going to o open the public um hearing and we're going to go to pending ordinance 0-25-10
Um council Damato pending ordinance Um what are the protocols or you want to withdraw it This is the time scheduled for the public hearing So legally you need to
open the hearing but if after the hearing when you give the public an opportunity to speak Okay you got it You are good at this Okay Uh pending ordinance 02510 an ordinance to amend section 347
zoning of the code of the township of Montlair New Jersey exemption of the 24 limit uh on the wall dimensions for accessory dwelling units Um and I so move I'm going to open this up for public
um hearing Um the we'll start with the council and then if there are members of the public who wish to be heard on this you may also have an opportunity to speak on this um ordinance Council members
wait Should we have the speaker go first Who is it Mr Rebecci what's going on Um I really can't top what Charles Griffith said It was exactly my point This is an interesting town a fascinating town All
of you have been through the wards You appreciate the character And I talk about the architectural character the built character of this town And what this ordinance is effectively condoning that's a strong word but is a customized
garage design And I think we need to give ourselves a little breathing space to allow the creativity the aspirational aspects of some of these property owners to create
something what is new for us an important part of our future whether some people like it or not And I think from a design point of view because of the lead times because of the cost involved I would ask you to postpone
this for a month reintroduce it do whatever process you want to go through We're only losing a month And if you can't do that which is I understand if you choose to do that then I have a question prop As I read the ordinance
what I would like it to mean is that any one continuous wall not exceed 30 ft Okay And that what I'm talking about is if you wanted to have offset spaces
where one wall is 30 ft another wall is 30 ft and there's a right angle that whatever kind of angle that connects whatever connects the two walls But it gives the design the architects of that
space an opportunity to do things that not only fit the properties the you the unique situations of each property but also kind of brings something that's pleasant for the neighbors too Instead of seeing
a second garage type structure in their neighbor's yard they might actually see something interesting And it might be just this minimal change that tied you over for now I still would like to see it the length eliminated But if that's the intention of this ordinance if
that's what it really says then I'm fine I can accept that But if it says that it's got to be a box it's got to be 30 feet no matter where the walls are on each dimension then that's just not right Thank you very much Are there
other members from the public that wish to be heard on on this ordinance 025-10 Otherwise I'm going to um allow the council to um speak As you all will recall this is our um ordinance on
second reading We read this and voted on this on um March the 11th and um councelor Toller was the only person at that time that voted no We're going to give everybody an opportunity now to um share their thoughts and concerns And
we'll start with you Councelor Damato Well yeah Uh I do have the same feeling now and councelor Toller is looking good for voting no though I'm not sure Uh if we could ask Planner Telly to come up I just she's been you know this is her job
to worry about these problems And I did discuss it with her my my basic question Well I in the meantime Attorney Garcia if we were to um uh modify something on this it goes right back to the drawing board right Because
it cuts to the heart of the whole point of the of the amendment So Director Tally um the idea would seem to me to be that if we we retain a square foot obviously
a square foot limit and if we don't have any linear foot limit either way um there would be what we would want to do is have some sort of aesthetic
break on on a thing and that would be the planning board Is that correct Like where how would we a be able to if we didn't have any uh limits on it but we wanted to be able to have some control
over it So it wasn't you know 100 ft by whatever 8 ft How would we do that Well these applications do not go to the planning board or the zoning board Actually they don't go to the planning They're just as of right They're as of right If there's a variance they go to
the board of adjustment for a variance So that's how it functions It was it was created because these are considered one and two family houses One and two family houses if they're putting an addition on or building an ADU do not require approval from a board unless it doesn't
meet one of the requirements and requires a variance it goes to the board of adjustment So a little bit of the background of why we have this limitation Couple years ago there was a lot of concern about the size of accessory structures
So we amended the ordinance regarding accessory structures to put a maximum wall size And then then after that we adopted the ADU ordinance And that maximum size of an accessory structure which was really designed for a for a
garage um would not because it it was it would not allow an 800 ft detached ADU So the attempt here was really to relieve that maximum size from 24 ft to 30 ft Um so it maintains the intent of
the ordinance by keeping a a limitation on the size of an accessory structure in terms of the length of the wall but it allows more latitude um for uh uh for for somebody who's putting in an ADU to to go up to 30 feet um in certain
zones zone districts I heard what uh Mr threw a back He said um you know a maximum of 30 ft in any one direction I or a continuous wall as I wrote down I think that still achieves the same intent
So whether you um go with the ordinance as it's written or you amend it to to address the suggestion from Mr Rubaki I still think you allow more latitude but you stay within the intent of the ordinance which is to prevent a very
large continuous wall which would impact the So the idea is that if somebody wanted to have a structure that was longer that if they do they could do 30 feet set it back by 2 feet and then go another 30 ft Correct
Or is it it would have to be in a different direction It would have to be because it would have to go be like at a 90 degree angle If you just offset it it's still you know if you have 30 feet an offset and another 30 feet that's basically a 60ft wall right Well my concern here is just basically that the
economics of what we're dealing with militate that people would always have to maximize the space to make it 800 ft You wouldn't build less That's absolutely true And and that being the case you are going to end up with as Mr Griffith says and just common sense
would say uniform square blocks with the maximum height which is aesthetically also challenging if not a little almost dystopian So I'm just I'm asking you as a person who doesn't know what's the solution and all I can say is there was
a reason we put in the maximum wall size of 30 ft and that was to preserve the the the the light air and open space for the neighbors So they would not have a continuous wall adjacent to their property Deputy Thank you so much Deputy Mayor
Um thank you So I appreciate the people who came out uh to speak Um and I think that I would like to consider um I would like to propose tableabling this um for further Is that a motion consideration Motion So
I make the motion table this second May I councelor Toller Yes Thank you Um I just wanted to add a quick note that um I agree with seconding this and going in deeper Um I also think that when we go back for discussion that we actually
need to include the exact size meaning the exact number not square footage If we need to map it out at 801.5 it should be very specific Um because the zoning board the other day approved a variance for an ADU It went
from 800 to,200 square foot for a family and just wondering what's going to happen with that a little later if the parents are no longer with us So they gave a very compelling story as to why they needed this to be larger So if one person does it then we're going to have
more and more folks wanting to do it The other thing I wanted to add if there's a way to include this in the discussion for the new ordinance is that um people applying for these ADUs at a copy of their application and what they're asking for a copy should go all to all the chairs the chair of the zoning board
the chair the chair of the HPC um the chair of the planning board because without these boards knowing what's happening with these ordinances things get approved So we need to make sure that we have all of our bases covered Just wanted to share that Thank you There's been a um motion to withdraw
There was a second All in favor I Any opposed Abstain I'm just thinking out loud I think this is important I would maybe ask uh the planner again I'm just trying to find out does that did you vote If we pass
this we can of course revisit it And I don't want anybody who is right now planning to build something who wants to build it to the full size to be over the summer to be you know not So
there there was a motion There was a second and I and I called for the vote So now you're going back because you had more comment and I just didn't see your hand or anything up I'm just trying to do follow the procedures here So there
was a right but no having not seen your hand counselor I did not call on you if you wish for me to withdraw you know my second or for the call for the vote now and allow further comment but please if
you signal by you know either I what we do so that I know there's further discussion then I will not call for a vote if you still wish to proceed discussion so certainly um councelor the motto Just one last question which is do
we have pending applications Is there an indication that like there are people waiting to build right now that we would be putting out Well um we we have a constant influx of
applications to for zoning review I I mean zoning permit review To my knowledge we don't have any pending before the board of adjustment So um uh the issue is if there's a significant cost that go goes along with
going to the board of adjustment So we're just trying to make it easier Um and you can always come back if you can adopt this this ordinance right which makes it a little bit easier You can always revisit it in the future We need to revisit I think we need to in your control that we please if there comments
from the council members please will you raise your hand or in some other way so that we're communicating and I can call on you please Council Damato were you finished Okay Councelor Toller and then um Councelor Birmingham Uh thanks I was
going to let Councelor Birmingham go first since Councelor Toller and then Councelor Birmingham No problem I was just going to say that I know that we can always vote on this and come back Um but that usually never happens You know it takes a very long time for us to come back to something that we voted on to go back and fix it I highly recommend that
we push not push this off but put this to the side discuss it thoroughly make sure that everything is in it that we want it to have and then come back and bring it up It's just that simple We push this through now I can just see problems down the road It's just my thoughts It's better to just get it done
right the first time than try to come back and fix it later Council Birmingham Um I I'm just curious because I'm not a construction person at but if you have a 24 ft limit on a
wall can you build an 800 foot no building Nope Okay So so right there we have a math problem Right Right So we we're saying that the limit is 24 ft for one but then you can't possibly build an 800 foot That's right
So it seems like this 30 ft is designed to at least correct That's correct What is kind of a very you know strange math problem I So for me um I agree you know and I watched the
144 Irving I watched that Um and you know I I do think um people can go to the zoning board now and and if some but but they will still be able to do that even when no matter what ordinance we pass and if they had a really great yard
that would fit a 50 foot structure and you know it would seem like the zoning board could approve that in in the interim Um but I for me I'm okay to pass this because again I think it solves what was just you know math that doesn't
really add up Um and then we can go deeper I don't think there are going to be a lot of ADUs built between now and the time that we um were to revisit So for me I'm okay to to to move it just because the math really doesn't add up
here and it's anyway Yes Um deputy mayor So I do recall that when we discussed this um in the economic you know at the EDC within the EDC um it was exactly um the intent that um councelor Birmingham was speaking of to fix this So just so I understand um
if somebody does put in an application that uh goes beyond the the 30 ft it would have to go to the zoning board actually before the 24 ft Right now it's 24 Oh if but if we were to vote on this tonight right If it was more than 30 ft then it would go to the board of
adjustment Okay So there is still a pathway for the uh structures outside of you know these dimensions to be okay So I am going I actually would like to withdraw my um my motion to table Okay Any any other u councelor Williams Would
you no um councelor Lachman No one else Any any further discussion Okay I mean I I do think we should pledge to revisit this You know is it the EDC Let's decide on the committee What
committee will be taking this up It could be the EDC Yeah And I will say that the planning board had raised the issue of correct um of um revising this already So it has kind of come to the four of the boards So yeah So
um even though we discussed this and and introduced it and and voted on it on March 11th by um six in favor to to one this evening people have had a chance to um
review and even though those concerns were not addressed prior to this meeting at this time we've deliberated We've given you an opportunity to be heard And so at this point in time does someone want to make a motion to adopt this as
as we we are or there was a a motion and a second Okay So there's been a motion and a second Um please do a roll call Madame Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lochman yes
Councelor Toller no Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville Yes Okay We're going to move on to the pending ordinance B Um please Council
Birmingham Um this is pending ordinance 0002511 township of Montlair calendar year 2025 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank pursuant to NJSA4A
4-4514 and I so move second I'm going to open the public hearing without objection at this time If there um members of the public who wish to come forward and be heard please do so at this time Thank you Hearing none I'm going to
close um that invitation and I would like to hear if there are any members of the council who wish to be heard Now would be the time Seeing none um there's been a uh movement and there was a second Um
Madame Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lochman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes Yes please Councelor Lachman Thank you
Yep Um I move um pending ordinance 0-25-12 which is a bond ordinance providing various capital improvements to the Montlair public libraries for the township of Montlair appropriating the aggregate amount of $5 million therefore
and authorizing the issuance of $4,760,000 bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost thereof Second Um are there members of the public who would like to be heard on this I'm opening the um public hearing
at this time without objection Seeing none I'm going to close that portion of the hearing Are the members of the council who wish to be heard at this time regarding this No Seeing none Madam Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham
yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lachman yes Yes Councelor Toller Yes Councelor Williams Yes Mayor Baskerville Yes Um we are moving the location and to um the pending ordinance
D Councelor Williams please Uh amend So okay I got it Amended pending ordinance O-25-16 Township of Monontlair An ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles
and traffic of the code of township in Montlair New Jersey So moved Second Okay So this is not on your um this is you all probably will not see that there Um I apologize We did um have this on at
the um 11th also and we discussed on it and voted it and it came now um for the second reading Um council Williams would you like to explain please Yes This is the overnight parking ordinance that was introduced last week and excuse me last
meeting and move forward It's being brought up again not for the second reading but to make an amendment to one of the streets that will be listed for overnight parking Uh the street that
will be amended is Maple Avenue Uh as it right as it was voted on last week it has um overnight parking on Maple Avenue from Woodland Avenue to Bloomfield Placevenue
excuse excuse me to Bloomfield Avenue And we're making an amendment to move instead of Woodland Avenue it would be from Monroe Place to Bloomfield Avenue on Maple Avenue Um so those are the
proposed changes I so move Um yes Um Attorney Garcia please Thank you Mayor Uh councelor I just have a question because we introduced it on April 8th and it says we amended it on the 21st
We're amending it right now So we have to start right So today will be the first Yes Today will be the first one This is now the first reading not the second Okay Thank you I didn't know that because I was asked to put it in So thank you very much So yeah it was just
brought to my attention that this is not a um pending ordinance It's going to come as the first first reading So okay Well that that's fine We'll go ahead and move forward with this and not
hold it there But thank you So um then the members of the public you won't have an opportunity this evening Um if if anyone is there and would like to come and and just take this and see what we're talking about you're welcome to take my copy here I'm going to allow
the um members of the council please to have any discussion at this time If if you'd like to do so No I I just want to say thank you again to the three of you who worked on this and even just I think the amendment
shows how much care and thought you're putting into it So thank you again And and I'd like to thank councelor Williams too because it was so important because we know a lot of you are sitting around waiting to have this passed so that you can um you know park
differently and it was very important for him to do that and so he rushed to do that Hence the fact that I wasn't quite sure where it was going to go but we are going to have a vote on this at this time for the first time and then it will come again for a second time
There's been a motion and a second and I'll have a question Yes Um Councelor Lochman please Yeah Just my question is probably helpful to the audience So once if we hypothetically were to pass this on May 6th then there's a 20-day implementation period So you can't park
here until 20 days are up Okay Just so you know Okay All in favor Oh Um roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lochman yes Councelor Toller
yes Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes Okay Okay Now we're going to go to the um bid budget And I see some of you that
are waiting here um for the bid budget discussion We're going to have a public hearing for the adoption of the annual budget of the Monontlair Center Special Improvement District
We have prepared a script here um to ensure that the statutory procedures set forth in NJSA 40 col 56-84 are met this year 2025 budget of Montlair
Center Corporation Business Improvement District This is the budget of the Montlair Center Corporation Business Improvement District known as the bid of the Township of Montlair County of Essex for the fiscal year 2025 I have a resolution regarding the reading of the
bid budget by title only I will read the resolution Whereas NJSA4056-84 was amended to and provides that the budget of special improvement districts shall be read in full at the public hearing or that it may be read by
title only if a at least one week prior to the date of the hearing and at the hearing a complete copy of the approved budget shall be made available for the public inspection and B is made available to each person requesting same
during said week and during the public hearing Now therefore be it resolved by the council of the township of Montclair that it's hereby declared that the conditions of NJSA 4056-84 is amended set forth in sections
1A and 1B have been met and therefore the bid budget for the 2025 shall be read by title only Mayor I certify that those requirements have been met I offer the foregoing resolution and move its adoption
I second Madame clerk please call the role Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lochman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams
yes Mayor Baskerville yes The resolution to read the bid budget by title is adopted I'll entertain a motion to open the hearing on the bid budget Second No I move I move that the bid budget hearing be opened I second the
motion This may be done by voice vote All in favor I I Anybody want to call I'm going to open the hearing at this point in time Um mayor this is the time fix for the
public hearing on the bid budget for year 2025 The bid budget was introduced by the governing body on March 25 2025 was advertised as required by law on April 10 2025 together with notice of hearing for this time Copy of the bid
budget has been made available to the public for the past week for anyone desiring to view it Is there anyone who has not seen a copy of the bid budget May if you may you may view it now There are copies in the room It can be viewed
um on this evening's agenda online and council meeting at the council meeting agenda page of the township website Please address all comments to the chair where necessary Speakers must confine themselves solely to the bid budget
before us School and county matters are not proper They're not proper subjects for this particular hearing and can't be discussed or answered here in this venue tonight I now declare open public hearing on the bid budget resolution for
2025 Good evening Good evening mayor and council Welcome For those of you in the audience who don't know my name is Abashek Sham the executive director of Mont Clary Center bid Appreciate council taking this up the assistance from the clerk's office
and clarifying some error any errors in my part of emailing it as this is my first time and appreciate I'm here for to answer any questions anyone may have including the public about our budget If any of you have questions
yay Thank you Thank you Are there other members of the public who wish to come forward and be heard at this time Please do so Observing no further persons wishing to speak I'll entertain a motion to close the hearing Mayor I move that the hearing be closed
I second that motion Madame clerk please call the role and motion to close the hearing I motion to close the hearing Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lachman yes
Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes Now Councelor Toller all you see that's me Oh the hearing is now closed Anybody have a thing want to do the next
one I have one You have one You want me to finish Yeah Mayor I request I request town clerk be instructed to read the last paragraph of the adopting resolution for the bid budget Please and thank you Madame clerk please read the resolution Be it resolved by the
governing body of the township of Montlair County of Essex that the bid budget herein before set forth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purposes stated in the sum therein set forth as appropriations and authorization of the amount of
1,65,94 the year 2025 Monontlair Center Corporation bid budget At this time I offer the foregoing resolution and move its adoption I second that motion Madame clerk please call the role Deputy Mayor Anderson yes
Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lochman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes The resolution approving the 2025 bid budget is adopted
Okay Good job amongst our community players Okay that's good Okay so we're going to move on um at this time to see what's next We this we are moving
on to the consent agenda Um I'd like to ask for the assistance of um manager Markx if you would Are there any things on the consent agenda before we go through here that people wish to have pulled from the consent agenda I'd like
to know at this time please councelor Lachman Um I think uh number 16 I would like to see this pulled because I don't think that um it's was uh thoroughly reviewed Are those under new business resolutions
Number 16 16 Not that's the items that we have this evening for consent agendas are 1 through 13 Excuse me We have 14 through 20 as new business resolution ordinances in the um resolutions 1
through 13 Does anyone wish to Yes Um councelor Birmingham Um could we pull for discussion number seven R-25-110 resolution regarding sustainable land use pledge regarding excuse me when you're done oh
yes I'm sorry councelor Toller sure um number four resolution R25107 and um we going to have discussion I I don't want to pull it but I'd like to have a discussion on R25 5 109 which is number
six as would I y 25106 which is number nine and and well we're having discussions is that correct because I was waiting for a report from someone here at 205 to discuss R2514
okay so so the the items that we wish to have discussion on as I understand so far are R25 112 are there any other that wish Do we wish to have discussions on I just I
just have one question on R-25-106 106 Okay So we're going to put a D by number three Any any other resolutions under the consent agendas that people wish to have discussions about or say
just one thing Is that six Mhm We have six four 6 4 7 9 and three And right no no I have 3 4 6 711 3 4 6 7
11 and 11 Okay thank you Yeah that's it Okay so this is out and nobody wants to see as well Madam Mayor Just again Okay and 13
Okay manager marks Um on the consent agenda um we have usually allowed the um manager just to read through them by title um rapidly
if if you'd prefer not Yeah we just But we have to know what they don't they have to know what we're voting on last week We did that last time Okay Okay Then please call the role Thank you Okay So this is a motion uh to adopt mayor
all of the consent agenda items as listed on the agenda except for item 3 4 6 7 11 and 13 I understood mayor that you made the motion Do I have a second Second
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
Um okay So we're going to start with uh number three Yes Does anyone want to read the resolution 25106 I think it's my turn Sure I think it's my turn right Do you want to do it My turn Sure Okay
So resolution R25106 resolution awarding fair and open contract to Continental Fire and Safety for the provision of Township Fire Department fire protection equipment in accordance with New Jersey State Contract 17-
Fleet-000082 and 17-fleet- 0757 I so move Second Uh just a quick question How many how many firefighters do we have trained here Because this is covering
So this this equipment was to complete the grant that we got for training and equipment in uh trench rescue and confined space rescue Right now every member of the department is is certified fully in those two uh those two rescue
techniques Oh so the entire department So yes so the the uh the grant covered the the training the specialized training through technician level and then because we got to that level we had to have some equipment that to update some of our equipment Okay So that this
is the final the equipment is the final piece of it So that and that's what this it closes it out Thank you Yeah Any other questions Um councelor Lman and then it's on another Okay Deputy Mayor And
just to clarify this is all paid for by a federal grant It's a a federal grant with a 10% match Okay And that's in an account that's already you know that money from the township has already been in that account Okay Thank you
Yeah Yes Councelor Toller Yep Thank you Um I just wanted to say one thank you for including the purchase order Um so we can see how it's broken down and what it's being spent on Total number of firefighters I know he asked this question Can you just give us the final
number because we didn't get the number because you said all the firefighters trained What's the total number of firefighters right now We have 70 Okay Thank you Any council members have any um questions or comments regarding that resolution
No This needs to be changed but it was passed in the consent agenda It was supposed that's a typo We'll come back Should I make Okay Okay Did Right But you don't need him anymore Okay Thank you Madam Clerk Mhm Deputy Mayor
Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham Yes Councelor Damato Yes Yes Councelor Lochman Yes Councelor Toller Yes Councelor Williams Yes Mayor Baskerville Yes Um before we move on uh we're going
to go back to uh resolution R25-105 Councelor Lachman has discovered something that she wishes to share with us Yeah Um Mr Marks we had talked about changing that number to 12,500 rather
than 10 Um but it wasn't changed And I'm sorry I didn't notice it before No we didn't either Yeah Well you wouldn't have known Yeah Um and the reason basically is that the state said the amount to to hire this
preservation architect would be about $50,000 So it's 25% of 50 which is $12,500 Initially we thought it was $40,000 and 25% of that would have been 10 So that's why the change is needed
So um I I don't know how you manage that Do you with redraw the consent and start Okay I'll do an amend to amend that number Um that's on the resolution So would you introduce the amendment I'm sorry Yes Um so I'd like to amend
resolution- 25-105 which is a res resolution authorizing the submission of an application for assistance from the New Jersey Historic Trust And the amendment is in the 1 two three four five six The sixth paragraph that begins the mayor
and council the number there on the fourth line should be 12,500 I so move Second Um and anyone that is going to vote on this not understand what councelor Lachman just shared with us We're good I Yes sir Attorney Garcia I
understand if I may mayor So we voted on something Yes Now you want to make a motion to resend Yeah I guess my motion would be to rescend that approval Yes So I think again I'm usually not a stickler for Robert's rules mayor but I think I think I think we need to res ask for a
motion to resend the prior vote Okay Right And then you can make a new motion to vote on the resolution as amended Okay So I make a motion to resend the prior vote on resolution R20 sorry R-25-105 Second
Um can we do that by roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Laughman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams
yes Mayor Baskerville yes Um now I make So now I make a motion to uh to move resolution R-25-105 as amended And the amendment is to change $10,000 to
$12,500 in I believe it's the fifth paragraph Second Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham Yes Councelor Damato Yes Councelor Lachman Yes Councelor Toller Yes Councelor Williams Yes Mayor
Baskerville Yes Um I just have a quick question um for you Attorney Garcia since you were so kind as to let us know that had to be rescended yet So for my learning purposes under what what conditions would we have to resend this in order to amend it So for example if
we left here and we didn't catch it then and we come back next week would we still have to resend it and then um amend it or could we just amend it without rescending I mean the short answer is I don't I don't think a court is going to overturn your your your
action if you just took a vote to to amend amend the vote as opposed to the formality of rescending and then doing the amendment But again I'm going off off recollection of Robert's rules of order which is an extremely thick book I think the appropriate action is to make
a motion to resin the prior vote and then conduct a new vote Okay No I I appreciate it I just cuz I'm trying to learn I know that's not the definitive bright line I can get that for you though I just can't I don't understand sometimes if things don't really readily make sense to me I just
ask questions especially since you were kind enough to volunteer and stop the vote and say we needed to rescend it Now I want to understand in my mind under what conditions we would have to call to resend versus just amend But we can have that discussion offline And I certainly
appreciate you for jumping in here and helping us with that I can give you a brief uh cheat sheet on that for the next meeting Thank you so much Moving right along We are Where are we Number four
Who wants to do that Would be um well since I let Rahoon do his counselor to please Sure Uh resolution R25-107 Township of Montlair resolution awarding a fair and open contract to SHI
for the provision of township water utility CCTV surveillance system upgrades in accordance with Bergen County Cooperative Pricing Systems contract BC24-38 I so move but I have a question Second Thank you So my question isn't uh
a question like you think Mr Primara Um last time we discussed this these numbers are still wrong at the bottom where it says be it further resolved The number there says 109791.73 went throughout the entire document Um you know the total should be
96231 I did send a corrected one but it just didn't make it Okay I just wanted to make sure it is for the 96 Yes Okay Cuz this one here at the bottom says uh 109 when it should say 96 It should say 96 96 the
23185 number No at the very B where it says be it further resolved the very last paragraph Yeah And this the the fifth paragraph again it says I see Okay So we just need to make those need to be
96 23185 Correct Paragraph five Yeah And the last one But no Okay But C councelor Lochman I think number three is correct If you go to uh resolution number four that's where that number we're on Yeah
we're on number we're on number four Okay Yeah Yeah it should be 96 You're absolutely right Yeah Yeah In two places again The the fifth whereas and then the very last paragraph resolve Six seven eight Right Five and eight received Thank you very
much Thank you That's it Um finally madam clerk Oh here it is Yeah I got you So um Can I just ask one quick question because I'm having a memory of this but I just wanted to where it so it's basically the
96,000 is the amount and then these this was written in the amount not to exceed like 109 So that's it So that was a typo Okay So it's all typos there Okay Yeah I think it might have been a copy and paste of the resolution I wasn't sure if there was some where that one was 109 So
just changed over Thanks very much Yes councelor um Damato So these are CCTV things This is a whole system upgrade So it's the cameras We have to pull new cables Um our cameras are outdated Uh the we could not get on the
township system if we wanted to The police department wanted to have access to our cameras Our software is so outdated These are CCTVs for inside pipes or for the No this is for the for the pump stations This is for security for the pump stations This is for security purposes
Okay cool Um Attorney Garcia in this instance where the numbers are wrong um do we need to do something um other than to change those numbers Do we have to resend anything or go Thank you Okay So
there's been um a motion to amend There's been a second Madam Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lochman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor
Williams we've changed 96 Mayor Williams I'm sorry Mayor Baskerville Yes Oh boy Thank you The next one is We're all on drugs Number six Is it um council Damato please
Uh R25109 uh resolution of the mayor and the council of township of Montlair 6 county state of New Jersey authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a contract with GPI for design engineering service
for the Glenidge Avenue cycle track So moved Second you had a question on this one councelor Laughman or would you like for me to go first Whatever you can go first but I think All right So um you know I think I I stayed in my case last go round I
don't think that uh we should be putting in a bike lane let's just call it a bike lane in a very short spot That really in my view is a bike lane to nowhere If we had and I understand we can't do this if we had started the bike lane down by
where the planned um opening of the Essex Hudson Greenway was that would be different But this it just it just stops It also as I understand it now I haven't seen the design plans They've not been in play They're not done yet because the this is to appoint the engineer but I
understand there could be the possibility of uh cutting into the curb interfering with the crane park I don't think there's been a lot of discussion with the neighborhood about this I just um and I realize people will protest Oh we're supposed to be getting like x number of dollars for this Why not take
it Just do something now Well I don't agree with that I'm a taxpayer I don't think I paid my taxes to the state of New Jersey I don't think we should be spending this kind of money for something that's very expensive and not functional in my view and that interferes with the neighborhood
So Council Toller Yes thank you Um I copy and paste everything Councelor Laughman is saying tonight Um I also sent an email and I don't know if Mr Marks and Miss Tally you had a chance to review it Um but I wanted to take a look at the original application that was submitted to the state for us to even be
eligible for this because that would help us determine a lot about what to expect Um I do have some concerns about Crane Park as Council Lauman stated Um conversations with the neighbors is important That's a very busy street And
again the bike lane it just seems like a lot of money for two lanes that if we do this where what happens to going up Glen Ridge Avenue Are we going to have to later on down the road tear that street up and do something else We don't know There's just too many questions Um so
I'm not in agreement with um this I I I really need to see the original application Did you submit this to the state on behalf of the township I did and councelor Toller I did send you the original application when you requested it Okay Thank you
council members Anyone else Um councelor Birmingham and then um Deputy Mayor Council Birmingham please Um so again just to like think about five years into the future when perhaps
we will have a greenway coming If we get this this is a grant to get expert engineering advice on a putting a a bike lane that would serve or at least connecting essentially eventually to the
greenway if we do this if we get this engineering expertise that may you know again we don't really know in my mind what they're exactly going to say And I we've heard that they are going to do neighborhood residential input here but
it doesn't obligate us to do any work Like if we if we were to get this expertise and they and they say here's what you need to do and we are saying that well green we learned that the greenway is like 10 years out we don't have to do the work right like
immediately or we're you're not obligated to do the work You do have funding grant funding for the design you have grant funding for the construction but it's up to you whether or not you want to move ahead with it at this phase This is phase two of a multi-phase
project to connect Montair Center to the Essex Hudson Greenway You're in the driver's seat So we do have funding for the actual Absolutely We got a million dollars That's right Sorry I forgot we've approved that Yeah it's reimburseable grant money though We don't have it yet We do have it Or is it
reimburseable grant money Okay I don't have anything else to say Well it's No I'm sorry Were you questioned the question Okay I'm I'm I'm sorry You asked a question of the planner Yeah I
did I was asking planner Council Birmingham said we have the money and I'm just asking is it reimburseable grant money or do we actually have the money in the account line No it's a reimburseable grant So we don't have the money yet We'd have to We have a contract award Okay So it's not here yet Thank
Okay Deputy Mayor uh Shin Anderson Um yes So not to repeat myself but I I do you know this is this is a big project that's supposed to be done I mean it's meant to be done in phases We were awarded the
money Um I think you know we have to decide are we in FA We were awarded money Um so um as councelor Birmingham said if we can use this money to hire an expert which by the way in the memo it
says that part of the work in this phase is to get public input um I I I think we should move forward with it I mean we if we're going to if our if we're if we don't agree that um eventually having a
bike lane that will connect us to um the Essex Greenway and connect us to um you know other towns Um if we don't agree that that's a good idea and if we don't agree that that's a public benefit um that will pay off in the end then you know we can vote against this Um but in
my view um I think we do have to it's it's better for us to to think in the long term Um and and um and I would be in favor of moving forward I um I also agree that um I I'm in favor of of moving forward with this I've heard um a
lot of um comments and public comments and then we had a a special meeting with the park and recreation um advisory group and and other people And um I thought it was a good opportunity even after we had that meeting It was the
general um con feeling of the um advisory group at that time that this would be something positive moving forward in the long run I don't view it as going nowhere because I see us doing phases I see they have phase one Ideally it would be great to be able to have a
path there for families and others to safely go down to the um the uh Essex Hud Hudson Greenway and get on that path and just have a great great time Yes it's an extremely busy um area and I
think because it is heavily traversed and it is busy that I feel very um excited to have this I think that I think that it will act as a traffic calming measure in that area and from what I understand we were going to have
some ways to isolate those paths Um and so I felt good about it In contrast to what some people were saying about the numbers of trees I think it was down to three trees that were at the Crane Park
in the curbside and then what three or four others along the upper area It was what seven trees How many trees Because I know that was a big concern for some people Yes there's some trees that are still within the rightway between the curb and the sidewalk Mhm Some will be
relocated because they're young enough to be relocated Some of them are not They will be removed uh to to extend the cartway um by a couple feet so that we have enough room for the uh the cartway if we choose to move ahead with that
alternative Yeah And we're not going to interfere with the crane park that people are so concerned about We are not um going to interfere So yeah for those reasons and others that I articulated I believe at the last meeting I'm in favor of this May I Yeah Um I'm sorry I think
Councelor Lochman had her hand up first but So she she's saying that I can um recognize you and then go back to her Thank you I just want to clear something up because if we had the funds here wouldn't this say that the CFO has certified that funds are available in account number etc etc I'm just trying
to get clarification that we have to actually be reimbursed to get this money back This is again a reimburseable grant Okay So the funds are not in this building technically is what I'm saying I just wanted to clear that up because someone on the dis said that we have the funds here and I wanted to make sure that that was cleared up Just can you
Okay councelor Lochman and I I um and this is these are state funds that are how how is this funded through state funds It's through the state It's federal highway administration money through the state Ah so it is a federal grant So the potential is given what's
going on in Washington that this could be taken away I know it's you know and so we will start the work and then we could we hire this uh contractor to the engineering firm to give us a design and
then the grant goes poof We don't know what's going on It's a difficult time And I I recognize that you know nobody knows but I guess I'm not very optimistic about what's happening now And it just makes me concerned And just to have the last word here I guess I
just feel like and I'm going to say it this is like the biggest government boondoggle you know paying all this for a little bike lane paying for engineering stuff and then actually what's the total It's like a million dollars or something Yes For how many feet of a bike lane I don't have the
feet I don't have the the linear to It just sounds outrageous Two blocks and I I cannot buy into this just on principle Thank you Okay Um someone moved this Is there a second Yes Madame Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham
Yes Councelor Damato Go ahead Yes Councelor Lachman No Councelor Toller No Councelor Williams Yes C Mayor Baskerville Yes Okay we're going to move on to um the other Where are we Number
seven Thank you Um number seven please Um Council Birmingham Number seven Uh R2-110 resolution regarding sustainable land use pledge
Um I wanted to just ask a question about this because I I understand that this was necessary for us to um reach our goal of of in in terms of sustainable Jersey Um and I also understand that there have been previous
pledges Um it's this this clause though in um clause 8 in the parking regulation um where it just and and I believe in um working towards sustainable parking
and and this I am for this resolution in general but this where it specifically says um the amount of to reduce the amount of required parking spaces for development
projects in the township I that specific clause bothers me a little bit because it's very specific I'm just wondering if that can be changed to something a little bit more um like we pledged to evaluate
our parking requirements to achieve sustainable parking or just take it out I don't know I cuz it has I understand it's been in the previous I looked at the previous one and it's been there So I don't want to like disrupt too much but I just again to me this is like
making a a real policy here that I'm not sure we we want to make Can we just take that part out And I I don't know if we want to have Miss Johnson come down I don't think Lisa's here because I know
as part of the like one of the requirements is to talk about sustainable parking So I but I don't know that it has to say required parking spaces for development projects And I apologize I didn't bring this up to Lisa earlier but
um anyway that that's my thought It's just um Could we table this and see if she's up upstairs and then come back to it later I don't think she's upstairs because I
Norma did you say you were okay Yeah because she she asked were we going to need her and I said no because this was on the consent agenda and I figured that people would have you know tried to get there So she said great I need to go So
I think she might have gone Yeah And I I don't have a problem with the whole it's really just that one sentence We can always come back and amend it Right What's that We can come back and amend it Yeah Or we can take the sentence out and vote on it And and
mayor can I just ask councelor Birmingham something Yes So I just want to better understand Oh there she is Go I think I just I just wanted to understand So much for being dismissed My my apologies I just assume since everything was on consent that they
would have No problem Um councelor Birmingham please Um Lisa I'm sorry Dr Johnson Sorry um this clause in the clause 8 under the parking regulation and I know it's been
in the existing um one that we have the resolution that was passed a few years ago where it just says um with the goal of reducing to the extent feasible and legally permissible the amount of required parking spaces for development projects in the township and promoting
shared parking that clause like the amount of required parking spaces for development projects in the township is very like specific and it seems to be very um like it's a it's really instituting a
policy for all development projects and I so I'm just wondering do we have to be we could take that out okay this is just what was passed twice before so we just kept it as is and this is for um reertification for sustainable jersey so we can maintain or silver Yeah like I
don't want to mess it Yeah just that can be removed No no problem at all Council Damato I I actually I don't see it as being problematic because it really doesn't compel us to do anything other than just say you know we shouldn't be mandating
parking that we don't need Yeah And I was just going to say the same thing you know So it's there's I don't see any real problem It's not going to get it No one's going to sue us over it And well no I don't think anybody's going to sue us over it
And um parking is at a premium but like yeah it'd be nice not to have as many square miles of asphalt you know if we could do without it So I you know I I don't it doesn't bug
me but mayor councelor Lachman and then yeah I would just like to say as a member of the planning board this is something that we do we do try to reduce our number of parking we you know we not bend over backwards but we certainly look at it very closely and don't want
any excess parking if we can avoid it So it is this is our goal that we have So I have no problem with this at all Uh Deputy Mayor Shin Anderson Yeah I agree I understand that this is something that actually is incorporated
into review um of projects and also when I read this in I I don't see this as a a mandate I I I do but when I look at it in the um in the with the totality of the everything else it's just encouraging us to you know move away
from like heat islands basically Um and so I I I don't really I guess I don't have an issue with this language Um I I just want to say that I I do um well I shouldn't say have an issue but I
would prefer that that was eliminated also And my reasons for saying that I prefer was eliminated because I already see that developers will come in and say well you all said you're trying to you know eliminate parking So if we say well based on what you have here you have to
your parking requirement is something they're going to come in and just get momentum not to have parking And I have serious concerns because history shows us that very often when we say well because something is either transit
village or um location people are not going to have cars and and we know they are going to have cars and so I'm very concerned that if we start giving you know people that wish to develop in in our township an option or a way out versus let them come you know before the
appropriate boards that exist for that purpose then they can um plead their case and and people there can vote on it I think this is sort of given a momentum to come in you know to try to get less parking and I'm not in favor of that
Okay Um um Council Birmingham Um yeah again I it for me it really to that point it's just because where it says we pledge to review and evaluate our parking regulations and requirements I mean if that's what we're pledging I
do think you can review them and reduce the parking requirements and so no but you can go to the ordinance and and reduce them And so if that's what we're pledging then that's what we are that that's all I'm saying is that this if that's what we're doing then
that's what we're doing But it it just like Do you want to remove that that paragraph So let's um the sentence I mean the sentence Do you want to remove it Then we can vote on that as amended and then
vote on the resolution Is there a motion Sure Um Madam Clerk is there already a motion No mayor I don't have any Thank you So I mean I I I can All right we'll just
since I brought this up I will play it out Um I would make a motion to remove and I the problem is Okay so I had put some language that was just a little more general but it would say um like we pledge to review and re
reevaluate our parking regulations and re requirements um to achieve to the fullest extent possible you know best practice and sustainable parking or parking requirements something like that That's
just a little more Would you like to table this and revise it and bring it in for the next meeting so that it can have the language in it that you would like to include Is do you have time for that or I know that there's some kind of deadline Yeah it'd be nice if we got if if it's possible to get it passed today What's
your deadline Um it's June So we have two two meetings in um May right And we have one in June We have two meetings in May Um councelor Birmingham if you want to get the right I mean are
you okay with that That's fine Okay I don't because I'm not meaning to impede your work We have you know over just some But again I'll make a motion to get this motion to table Second
All in favor I I opposed Motion tabled Okay Now we're going to move on to um Let's see what else we have 11 Thank you
That would be councelor Lachman Okay Um I'm uh I move resolution R-25-114 a resolution awarding a fair and open contract to Tilcon New York Inc and SLE and Sun general contracting for
township road resurfacing paving and curving services Second Um someone wish to have that Yes Yes Um councelor Toller Again I apologize I did not check my email but I'm just wondering if the report has come in that
I requested Um I asked for a report on which roads would be worked on um and the timeline on which they would commence Um is there a detailed schedule that we could see Good evening Hello Good evening Uh we do
have a proposed list of roads The issue becomes the schedule of what the what roads will be paved and when The the um fly in the ointment is the PSENG gas line um replacement So a lot of the
areas which we have previously identified as roads that we were going to be paving are on their list and they don't share them those lists um in a expeditious fashion Um so we have made adjustments to our prioritized
list but um it's still not it's still not set because we still don't know the bounds of what uh PSCG will be doing It also depends on the availability of the contractor as far as the set schedule We do want to start as soon as possible and we want to end before the start of the
school year as not to interfere with any of the uh the first day of school or any of those activities So as much as we can get done with the funds available is what we're planning And manager Marks has asked us to uh provide a map outlining which roads will be uh um
paved and which ones on a schedule so you can see uh actually see um a color-coded map so it's easier to understand and we're working on getting that to you Okay that was my question because you know again I think residents
need to know if their streets are going to be inconvenience if you will And as you stated school will be starting in September So again I just wanted to know which roads um this work was going to happen on and when it will start So you're going to share a map with the full council Correct Yeah we we have a
list a prelim preliminary list but I I caution that that's not that's not set in stone due to the nature of the the contractors that we use and then their their allowable time on their schedule and the work the other utility work Okay
Thank you Sure Anyone else Council Birmingham can I ask a Did you I have a somewhat unrelated qu like it's a little bit tangental It's related to the Okay Go ahead Yeah I just wanted to know Deputy Mayor Shin Anderson Um is can the map be
made publicly available on the website Yeah Okay Yeah Yeah Absolutely Councilor Birmingham Um when you mention PSENG and I know we've talked about this in the finance committee like them they
basically then would pave roads like so they're paying when they do this work to then pave roads miles of roads It depends on the age of the road So if if a if a road has been recently been repaved they will do curb tocurve
repavement repavement Um if it's a if it's past the mortorium it's it's only halfway depending on how the trench goes If the trench makes its way it wanders to and fro well then they might repave the entire uh width of the street If
they keep it on one side of the street and it's it's an older road they'll only pave half of it Now we do have the ability to trade with them So if there is a street that's particularly bad that we want to tra that we want to have paved the full length we can do that and
swap blocks It's not something we don't like to leave half paved roads though right Cuz the reason I'm asking is because you know in the second word and I'm sure in other words as well we have roads that were paved not that long ago and then the then then PSCG has to come
in and they just put like a strip that then becomes like you know a well a little trench and and in one way it's traffic calming because you're kind of like what is this But um it doesn't look good obviously and um I I'm just
curious I I think I saw somewhere that Westfield for example passed an ordinance where like if you touch their streets you have to like do the whole thing do the whole thing Sure And I'm just wondering if that's something that we should be thinking in other words is there is there more we could be doing
that and I don't know this is not to put you on the spot right now but just something to think about Is there more we could be doing from our end to you know get more out of PSNG when it comes to them fixing the roads that they're messing up Absolutely We do have a
moratorium ordinance So there are there if a certain point if the the the street has been paved within I believe it's 3 years but those times can be changed So it could be five years That's that's up to us Okay So we could say something like that Okay And that's not just for
PCG That's any right any util Yes Yeah Got it Okay Well thank you cuz that that's probably something we could look at in um finance committee or you know to see if we want to extend those moratoriums there Okay Great Thank you councelor Toller and then councelor
Damato Oh sure Um one last question This um payment we know it's not going to exceed $2.5 million Will this be issued under a blanket purchase order so that when the bills come in we can see them as they come in or is this going to be a standard purchase order Because I know
with a standard purchase order it's just one check So will you be doing a blanket purchase order to do this or No it'll be a rolling So you you'll see the bills as they come in They'll be on the bill list as we're not going to wait for one giant payment at the end Okay Just want to make sure Thank you
Council Damato Also not to open up a huge can of worms but h has this contract in any way which is coming as we are passing the complete streets ordinance provisioned
for more for different types of paving like curbing out and are are there any expectations that in this contract that things will be done differently Yeah we're looking at we're identifying areas
that we believe we could do different uh traffic calming treatments Harrison Avenue is one of them where we could do curb extensions or something along that nature This does allow us to do that We have also identified more or we've also targeted more money for striping There'd
be a lot more striping for traffic cominging in in this proposed um contract And we we purchased a stripe a striper correct No we don't have a striper We have a very small Yeah That's for the striping That's for the
striping company The the the next resolution Yeah We don't have a um a striping truck We wouldn't have the we do the the amount the length of striping that we do It wouldn't be feasible for us to maintain a that level of equipment
It's very expensive I think that I I I recall former manager Leola saying that he wanted to buy one We looked into it Oh but it wasn't Great Thanks Madam Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes
Council Birmingham Yes Councelor Damato Yes Councelor L Yes Councelor Toller Yes Councelor Williams Yes Mayor Baskerville Yes Number 13 We just do that one
13 please Okay Uh I move resolution-25-116 a resolution authorizing purchase contract with Dan Sees and Sun Inc through the Mars County Cooperative Purching Purchasing Council pursuant to New Jersey
statute 40A 10A1 Second discussion Yep Council Toller Thank you Same question What streets When's the schedule Uh you shared my me my email with him
correct Okay So it's the same question that I had for the other one Um again what streets um schedule and the dates that this will happen Again it's about the residents Mhm So the the striping um as soon as possible There's some streets
that we can stripe that are not getting paved that we're adjusting the uh the striping plans but uh this again is heavily dependent on the the schedule for the contractor and after our roads are paved So once those roads are paved
that's when we'll really have a a better understanding of when they can get get in there because it's a balancing act of contractor Well the schedule will be good the map will be good and then we can share information with our constituents and perhaps send it out through our communications person Thank you
Anyone else Madame Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lachman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes We're going to move on to new business resolutions and
ordinances Um deputy mayor would you please do 14 R25-117 So uh resolution uh 25-117 is a resolution awarding a non-fair and open professional service contract to RC Architects for
$34,000 to assess the physical conditions of Clary Anderson Arena Oh next I'm sorry Okay Um resolution 25-118 resolution authorizing the township to accept and qualify responses to the request for
proposals for professional services for bond council for calendar year 2025 Resolution 25-119 is a resolution extending the time frame for the ex um execution of a redevelopment agreement and planning
board um submission between BDP Holdings LLC and the submissions between BDP Holdings LLC in the township for Lacawana redevelopment project to do that tonight extension of time that was thank you
I think April 30th No June 8th that there were two dates the for the finance it was earlier than yours Yeah Yeah So but this um since we're talking about that it does need to be amended I think But this is a first
reading so we have time to do some amendments Well this is a resolution Yeah One and done One and done Oh okay Well because the this list here isn't to be the consent agenda for next week right
Or next meeting It's really for to this action for tonight or some of them at least Well these are these are items that were not on the consent agenda two weeks ago Right But not consent agenda but you know the conference meetings
agenda Okay So are we this resolution Did we have discussion Um both everyone had enough discussion and understand exactly what's going on If you're comfortable to vote I would like to add a question about number 14 Does everybody feel like they
have You don't have enough um information for that for number She's back to 14 You're back at 14 Yes Okay Where were we We were at 17 16 17 17 Right I thought we were at 17 Well
I think the manager is just reading this to correct put it on the record the items that were not discussed at the last meeting Correct And then at that time mayor if you wish to ask for questions or council member discussion I
think he was almost No and and I really appreciate um you manager but that's why when I asked the so for the new business resolutions I called on um the council members to read it because since they
are new and they haven't had discussion if there was going to be discussion um then we could have had it at that time and um decided if we were ready to vote on it or not I I guess but so why Don't we
go back to resolution 14 Councelor you had some some questions for 14 Okay I apologize I didn't have the resolution Okay Um so regarding the mic Oh I'm sorry Um so regarding the
professional service contract um for RSC architects to assess the physical con conditions of Clary Anderson Arena Um I do just want to um clarify uh because you know I saw the the memo that you sent us
and I just want to know if there is um if it might be advisable for us to consider whether or not we need to um close the arena until this uh this this um assessment is done
So if I may may there Yes Um so uh I visited uh Claire Anderson Arena about two weeks ago um with uh um Weston and Garland from um recreation um as as well as Jeff Select who's an
architect with RSC Architects I had been here I had never visited Clary Anderson Arena before so I didn't know what to expect and I had heard different things about the physical condition Um our visit was concerning to me because I did uh witness firsthand many code
violations Um as well as life health safety hazards Um it made me feel very uncomfortable Um that it's a place of public accommodation There's people going there Um the roof is leaking
um directly into the utility room where um the mechanical systems and especially an electrical sub panel is exposed to the elements That's in a utility room that's off to the side I don't believe it's accessible to the general public
but still from a risk management insurance liability perspective very concerning That was why um I'd asked for a proposal for the architect So if approved um the architects will do an assessment of code violations life
health safety hazards and come up with a prioritized repair list with um itemized cost estimates They have cost estimators on staff and at that time uh I will present their findings and recommendations to the mayor and council
and it will be up to you to decide whether you know it warrants the the investment I I can tell you from um eyeballing it myself it will be in the six figures to make the necessary repairs Um yeah but just
um in in reference to um the discussions that that we've had and um certainly manager we had some discussions councelor Toller Lachman yourself myself and then um this evening um councelor Damato and I have had discussions So
members of the council we've been discussing this and just in terms of the public safety um aspect of this I certainly would feel very comfortable if we did not allow it to be opened for um individuals to to go
in there until such a time as that we are you know 100% you know sure that there is going to be no safety hazard for anyone Um and then we can do whatever studies we need to do whatever time that thing But I
think that the first thing that I would recommend that we do is that we you know say it's closed you know prohibited use until further Is it being used now No I think it's closed now but it just needs to stay that way so that people won't
think that they can just freely go in and out Yes Um Councelor Williams So don't hit me because I I know that this is something that you're not going to like I think under a certain dollar amount you don't need our approval Um am
I wrong I thought it was like $44,000 Correct Right So that's why I was wondering why this was brought up as a resolution Every every town is different with its rules It's a professional service cont So in in other jurisdictions where I worked a
professional service contract even under the the quote threshold of 6,600 required uh mayor and council approval I just assumed that was the the case here May I May I say something Yes councelor Lman I mean it also makes sense to bring this to the council's attention at this
point because in the Yeah Yeah I understand that No this doesn't need to be a resolution No Okay But I think that part of it was let's bring this to the council attention We in the facilities and infrastructure committee have been talking about this and trying to decide how do we you know how do we resolve
what the next steps are with Carrie Anderson I mean there's a point of view that you should close it It's reached its normal life There's other things perhaps we could do with the property to maybe generate some revenue for the town and um you know that that actually uh
would would or would not be supported by the information we might get from the uh right the engineering group I mean I know that people have sentimental attachments It's been in in town for forever but it's a it's um we're putting
money into it It basically caters to commercial interests that are not town residents And we have to really seriously think about it Do we want to keep this in play We could do a ground lease We could lease it to somebody who knows how to manage arenas and let them
deal with it It's not our strength And also the the manager that we've had has just let it go you know to the dogs So anyway may I Yes councelor Toller Right Thank you So you're correct Councelor Williams This is under the threshold but I would like to thank our manager for
bringing it forward for full transparency so that everyone can see it everyone's caught up to speed facilities and infrastructure myself along with councelor Damato councelor Laughman we know that this is a tough decision a tough conversation I should say and this was a good thing that he did to bring
this to us in this manner so I appreciate you for doing that Mr marks Ju just just to be completely clear I I'm it wasn't a reprimand or anything like that I'm just saying we don't necessarily need to vote on this you
know Yes bring it up but we don't need to vote on this because it's within his purview That that was it Correct Councelor Lman and And then I'm sorry Okay Sorry Council Lman Just one more thing You know my profession was risk management and now we've let the
cat out of the bag We know that this is a this is a a facility that is you know falling apart and potentially dangerous You know as a we'd have no defense if something happened here to somebody at this place if we didn't do anything So therefore you're absolutely right We
should shut the thing down right now until we get um an answer on what to do Um I I don't know that I'd agree with the characterization that we said it's falling apart and it's dangerous but perhaps perhaps I I didn't visit the site I haven't seen any reports Perhaps it is worthwhile to shut it down I'm not
going to comment but you you didn't have to agree with that Um thank you I'm going to call on Council Damato Yeah I've got bad news Uh which is that I did talk with somebody who told me today that in fact it is still being used So the the MHS is done but the clubs are
using it for tryyouts and other things That's just from one source You're going to have to go up to state h having seen the manager's you know wonderful and quite thoughtful note um you know that put us on notice and now
talking about it in public I mean uh um I mean it's a 600vt panel or something I mean it's like these are this is frightening stuff Um I don't know what the process is but there are people using it and we have to help the community understand you
know and and work very hard on this to be serious about what's going to happen next about this this RFQ I just don't I want to make sure that what they come back with is something more than a list
of repairs that we might do on a building that we may that might be a tear down And I don't know what the process is You know I have never done this run a a rink before So I don't know
how we're going to go about spending $34,000 To be told burn it down is is also painful having just spent $60,000 on a report about it And uh so this is this is going to be really tough
So um at this point in time um it seems that it's less important for us to you know vote on this dollar amount right now than it is to perhaps make a motion to prohibit further use on it so that we can do that Yes sir Manager So so I did speak with the architect this afternoon
about this very issue um he recommended that um I go out with a construction code official um and the electrical um electrical inspector uh at first opportunity tomorrow So I will reach out to them tomorrow and if it's deemed to
be you know clear and present danger or you know life health safety hazard unsafe building it will be th those folks who are the licensed code officials who can can officially shut it down If they think it's you know manageable then it's their licenses Well
I mean they're they're duly licensed you know code inspectors by the state of New Jersey So you know they're in the best position because I asked him who I asked the architect who you know who makes that determination and it's ultimately the the sub code official And do their
kids play ice hockey Well that shouldn't matter I mean it's I know it shouldn't but I'm just saying because if they come back and they say fine go ahead We don't have any input Well it I mean if you if you want to take that's that's your prerogative I
mean to if you want to shut it down preemptively before they've made their you know inspection or recommendation No but I'm just basing it on you know from from what you said and from what other people that have been in there and inspected said So when when we were
speaking as a group it sounded as though you certainly did not think that it was safe for it's it's certainly concerning question Yes councelor Toller No I'm just you said you're going to go out tomorrow with the officials the I will
assuming that the official is available tomorrow We will go out tomorrow and the fire official And the fire official Thank you And I to me that makes sense Birmingham I'm sorry Thank you mayor Um it makes sense because we do have contracts that like are at play So it to
have an official code enforcer make that decision seems to make sense And it sounds like it can be done very quickly like tomorrow It should be able to I mean it should be okay A relatively quick turnaround Okay Okay So we're going to move on to
resolution um 15R 25118 Who is next What was it Um the manager We're at resolution
25118 resolution authorizing the township to accept and qualify responses to the request for proposals for professional services for bond council or CY
2025 and I so move Second Discussion Okay Just have one question Um resolution number 14 Did we need to vote on that Madame Clerk or are we just going to table that I'm just asking for the record As I understand it the
manager has presented it and he wants the governing body to consider adopting it Okay that's what I thought So we moved on ahead and I'm But I thought we said that you said we didn't have to vote on it No I didn't say that I didn't I was asking below the threshold Okay So
councelor Williams said that Well it's because the threshold Yes it is below the threshold for 44,000 but now that it's in front of us and it's on public record it's part of our agenda Do we need to vote on it Whether it's $2 or
44,000 44199 it's here in the public Do we need to vote on that But it matters to me what the findings are when they go out there tomorrow to decide you know what they're going to do with that because as some have said tonight it might be uh
worth going in a different direction versus you know putting 34,000 here and 34,000 there So I would I would like to have more information about you know the condition and is is it something that should be habitable or not at this point
in time before I just say go ahead Councelor Williams can I just make a motion to withdraw that and because if we withdraw it you don't have to vote on it and it's within your perview Second
Thank you Okay there you go That's fine Now we are at the bomb council Now you you your intention for putting all of these new business things on here was because you wanted to have them voted on this evening or how they're because this is just a new
format So I'm not really clear about the format There were items that were requested to be added to the agenda or put on the agenda um including there was the um the bond ordinance for the library Um the in order for the bond
ordinance for the library to be added to the agenda it needed to be reviewed by bond council Um the township um advertised an RFP for the bond council but never awarded a contract So it's a little bit of a chicken and egg in terms
of you need the bond council before you need the before the library um bond could uh proceed that that's why the bond council was necessary Okay So I so move I discussion Yes So I I actually I think
I was the one who requested this Deputy Mission Anderson Thank you Um I was the one who requested this Um I understand that um we needed the services uh we need some somebody to look at it Um and uh it just this is just sort of um
anticipating um future needs So I I thought it would be better to have um a contract in place with bond counsel And just to be clear any work that they did already do is below well below like
the threshold that we needed right To that's how I understood it from the CFO Yes the CFO has that was part of the conversation as to whether or not we needed to actually have a contract with with a firm um or whether they could just invoice it because the amount of of
work uh was was so low Um but I think at the end of the day I think some right like moving forward it makes sense M I think I don't want to speak for Mr Marks but I think Mr Marks and I thought that there are going to be other bond issues that are going to come up I'd rather have at least one Oh yeah I have no
problem if not multiple firms qualified to uh to assist us on bond issues as they arise Yeah So at this point in time the township does not have a bond council We we we don't we don't have a contract
with anybody for bond counsel Okay But we we did have bond attorneys from one of the firms that we use uh assist us on the library bond notices and certifications that were required in order for you to approve um that ordinance on second reading tonight
Right Okay Okay Thank you Um discussion Yeah it's been moved and second Madame clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham Yes Councelor Damato Yes Councelor Lachman Yes Councelor Toller Yes Councelor
Williams Yes Mayor Baskerville Yes 16 No Um we're at 16 right No I know where we are I'm just reading that because there's two things here that I want to pull and go into executive session for and I want to make sure we're not there yet Uh number 16
items I'm sorry Would you like me to read Yes Um item 16 is resolution 25-119 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 Lacawana Redevelopment Project Oh Attorney Garcia Yeah Um so mayor yesterday um I had the opportunity to speak to our redevelopment council Joe Ragno who was here at the last meeting
um as well as um the council for the the entity that was designated as the redeveloper And there were some very minor um changes that I wanted to make to the resolution And when um again I was out of town late last night and this
morning I sent it to my assistant um to send the changes over uh to manager Markx's assistant to be placed on the agenda and um my assistant wrote back that we were not going to accept any any changes at that time So I was just wonder I I don't know what the if there
was miscommunication or something but there was just a couple of of minor ones For instance um in the second whereas clause paragraph 1 um it says uh plan approval is submitted to the planning board on or before August 30th 2025 I
think that date based on prior resolution should be June 1st Okay 2025 Um so that would be one one proposed amendment that I that I would request Um the second one is in in paragraph two Um it says a redevelopment
agreement is executed by all parties in a form acceptable to the township attorney Um I believe based on some issues you had with past redevelopment agreements that should say and the and the mayor and and township council
um just bear with me um in the third whereas clause where it says whereas in order to set forth the terms and conditions under which BDP will undertake redevelopment of the redevelopment area um we I just think it's and based on the
history and findings set forth in the September 24th 2024 resolution which was R-24-216 I'm sorry Um attorney can you please read read to me where that's going Um
third whereas clause right Right after the comma after redevelopment area Yep Okay Where it says the township of BDP Uh yeah right before the township and BDP Okay What are we adding there please
sir And based on the history and findings set forth in the September 24th 2024 resolution R- 24-216
These are not substantive changes that we're doing here The date I think the date is substantive I think the June the June 1st the first one that I said is certainly substantive I I would argue that the second one adding township um township mayor and council after township attorney I could make an argue
that that that this is this is substantive I mean I don't think that I'm I well I know that I'm not a unilateral authority that can that can approve those things by so I mean so after we do this and we can just withdraw this and move on We can just amend it because this is not uh this is not an ordinance We could if we if you
accept my recommendations we can just uh vote on it as as amended as we did earlier on a different resolution Okay Um in the first now therefore be it resolved clause it refers to
September 1st 2025 I think that needs to be March 1st 2025 Mine says November November 1st 2025 Or am I at the wrong one says it's supposed to say March I think it's
supposed to say March Well I'm sorry You have We have two different versions I have the November 1st Right Okay You have November 1st There was another one that said September I think it's supposed to say March March Okay Councelor Toller And then the last the last one Sorry I'll let him finish Go
ahead The the last one Thank you Councelor To The last one uh in the second now therefore be resolved It refers to 90 days from the date of this resolution And I would ask that be 120 days from the date of the resolution And that's both those are all my somewhat
minor but I do believe substantive uh revisions that I would request May I councelor Toller and then councelor Lachman Uh yes So the attorney said it as he stated in the second no sorry the third whereas where it says township
attorney semicolon and we did agree on mayor and council uh this was presented to us on January 28th 20125 um on this agenda I mean I'm sorry on this resolution on number two on um 90 days on this one it's said 90 and
you're asking for 120 and again we agreed on January 28th 2025 um that It would say the township attorney mayor and council and manager Um you said a March date and it's not a March date because I'm saying but I
don't see the January at all You have to have printed out the other two resolutions to understand what he's saying And if you don't have But he didn't say January in his No no he said March Didn't you say March I said March Yeah March 1st 2025 Right I know that this says November And that's we're
working You guys are looking at number 16 which is in front of us If you had number 15 from January 2020 January 28th 2025 as well as September 24 2024 you would better understand what the
attorney is saying I didn't have a problem following and understanding what he was saying without that It's making it more complicated for me to understand the January I agree I agree But I was able to follow along Council told her it should be March 20 It should be March 1 2026 because at the January 28th meeting
I believe 11 months outside was what the council had discussed Right So again this probably just needs to be reworked because there's several Yeah I tried to do that yesterday but I was Yeah it got a little twisted up I I see where you were going with it but I think if we're going to do this and do it right we need
to make sure that this Why don't we I'm still trying to figure out why can't we just withdraw this then I'm just We can Yeah Is there like a rush It seems like we're writing and talking and adding and deleting and I don't think we've ever added this much to any resolution that we've done you
know since we came together as a group in July and then just felt unless it's like a time that we have to do something that we need to go forward I haven't even had a chance to to read it and get the flow Could Could you not vote on it tonight
Yeah probably it the the redevelopment designation is set to expire April 28th 2025 Could could you do a resolution after that extending it Probably Um but it's just it's just an awkward it's an
awkward look Um yeah And again I don't I don't I've been here four months and I'm still a little bit unsure on how who's drafting resolutions how they get to the agenda where like when they get to me but we
got this and having an opportunity to speak with our council yesterday we we did request what I think are really minor amendments I don't think there's anything earthshattering in here And I was told that we weren't accepting amendments at that time I don't know if that was based
on a miscommunication but that's what I was told last yesterday Okay So based on um what you're saying about the April 28th um expiration then then I think that we should move forward Was there anything else um Attorney Garcia that
you wished to um add to this before we vote No Thank you Mayor Okay Councelor Lachman So was was um were these changes discussed with BDP's council Yes So and that council agrees with the changes you
want to make Yes Okay Thank you And Babin is is 100% on board with the changes Madame clerk do you have um the um changes in um recorded there or do you
need us to read back the amendments that we'd like to put in here I I understood what attorney Garcia said and I will be in contact with him so he can get me the correct version Okay So I'd like to um move this based on the amendments that
attorney Garcia shared with us for this evening Is there second Second Madam clerk Thank you 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 Yes So item number 17 is a ordinance-o-25-17 an ordinance to amend
section 127 uh disorderly conduct of the code of the township of Montlair New Jersey Item 17 and item 21 mayor are your items Yeah they're related to the beer garden uh changes that you requested Correct I
just don't see the rest of it Okay So this is the same one that was presented at the last meeting Or were there changes attorney I you you had directed me to speak to Miss Miss Camarada Yes um who I was out a couple days last week
She was out ill this week I hadn't been a chance to talk to her I didn't put this this didn't come from me This ordinance This didn't come from my office I don't I don't know when we had it on the first time right We had we had it on from at the last the last meeting
You wanted some or there were some people who wanted some additional changes Correct and we were not able to get those an understanding of what all those changes were in order to get it on the changes on the agenda tonight So I'm not sure why I thought somebody else put put 17
and and 18 on I did not come from me Okay So from the council what are what are your questions um please and concerns Because it was it didn't go back to Michelle So what are the questions and concerns please discussion from the
council mayor Yes Um as I said at the last meeting I'm totally fine with the substance of this It sounds like fun Um I would I would like us to have
some this to be in you know normal format with like wherees that explains what it's for and what it's about And I would be actually I will help if you want to help No I sent it to the attorney's office and so the attorney's office was going to to do that as far as
as I know I didn't know now that I was responsible for that as well as doing my own administrative things from time to time I thought that when you went to the legal department which when we first did it right away Attorney Garcia was very
helpful and sent back Yeah I I I the I the way I thought this legislating gig worked was that the attorney's office really helped us with the technical aspects of it and that we
generally sometimes could do the you know in ter the frilly stuff at the top to explain what we had no problem preparing the ordinance as as the mayor said when you know she first brought this to our attention she had she had a draft within a day um we modeled this
off previous uh ordinance amendments that we've we've done in Montlair as well as when it comes to the substance of the beer garden Um what other other similarly situated municipalities such as Jersey City have done Um you know councelor I could talk to I can give you a call tomorrow if you want uh you know some
more whereas clauses explaining you know the reasoning behind the proposed changes I'm happy to do that That'll afford me additional time Um mayor I already explained to you and uh and and thank you for your patience on on speaking to Miss Miss Camarada and uh I
believe Austin's he stepped out I think he's supposed to be on that call as well So we'll get those we'll get those changes done And please tell me what time that's going to happen tomorrow because I'm gotten a time You you said who was available I think Austin and I said we were both available at your
convenience Um so okay then um we can withdraw this for now but then there's another matter that just came up So is it correct now that the that we have to write our own um ordinances and resolutions because
for the 12 years that I was part of the council before and I know it's new new term and new new people but then we need to get that understanding if moving forward from now on the council members have to write their own resolutions and ordinances then that needs to be
explained because we always had an attorney and the attorney was very good at those things and we would give the information to the attorney and they would be put in whatever that format was Um if it was something that we already
had a resolution for or like what you're saying you took something from somewhere else then of course that was you know a little easier because you're just borrowing maybe changing a date here or there Is it the understanding of this group now that we have to write our own um
ordinances and resolutions as well as do our own administrative work I think that the top if I can if I may for me writing the whereases in a piece of legislation is like actually the top one of the top joys of the job So and the way I would
look at it is that we write the why and they write the how They write how it's working the legal ease We just have to read that We just have to have it in writing and be clear cuz I'm not taking any joy from adding on extra administrative work And I know you guys
have you know refused to feel the need to have any administrative assistance And yet and still when I am chasing around trying to return calls and trying to do so so many things that you know ideally would be very helpful to have an
administrative person have a a count a calendar that we could all go on to and pull up and and have those things And I've heard some of the council say "Yeah you take joy in this but just because you take joy in that I want to see it in writing that this is our role and
responsibility." And if so it's just new Well legislators legislate It's like they draft legislation and write legislation So I I I'm really clear about the legislation part I am not clear about the part that it's our responsibility to have to sit there and
write it And all I'm saying is if so I just want to see it in writing because for the 12 years that I was here we always had an attorney that would you know write up the resolutions and things based on the information that we we
shared So this I just want to see it in writing Council Baskerville Yes I'm so sorry I'm available if you have questions about these two ordinances since what is written here is an application that's reviewed by the chief
of police and myself the township clerk So if the governing body has questions I'm here at this meeting ask and I'll answer May I Okay So you're going back to the specifics of this and my question after I said I could withdraw this was
just a more general one because councelor Damato mentioned something about writing this up um in to you know the format for um doing ordinances and um resolutions And so this is the first
that I've ever heard that that was um the responsibility of the council to do that So I just want to see these things in writing so that I'll know I never ever um saw that or ever heard that from any of the um council for the 12 years
that I was here I know it's a new year and I just want to be on board if that's what we're doing but I've never heard that before Councelor Toller And um yes um I'm sorry I'd like to I'd like to call on Attorney Garcia and then come back to you if that's okay with you
Councelor Toller Thank you Mayor And I'll be brief council So I just wanted to make clear I understood it when you asked me as my obligation to write the ordinance Right So if anybody wants me to write it if somebody asked me to do something I understand that as my obligation to write it If someone wants to write their own because they take joy
in the warehouse clause I'm certainly happy to to to I don't want there to be any insinuation that I thought that I didn't have to write Like I I No And you did it so rapidly The test I was assigned and I'm happy to You jumped right on it I was surprised at how quickly you turned that around for me
and I was very grateful I was just trying to get clarity and I can probably do that offline so we can move on Council to do you have something that we have to say tonight otherwise let's like I withdrew that Can somebody second move on I don't know if you need to withdraw it mad because the question that I have
is this 127-6B is a portion of a current ordinance This is the only paragraph that's being revised Is that correct Correct Yes Okay So when we're talking about where you already have we already have a town code if you will ordinance
in place for this and all we're doing is revising one paragraph So would it need all these wherees etc cuz this is how I'm reading this is an amendment to a current ordinance and the paragraph that's being revised is 127-6B Is that correct That's correct
Okay So we wouldn't need all this whereas you could easily go on our township website to review the current ordinance So and it will be codified So the code will be updated to reflect that now you can consume alcohol if you
have a park permit Correct That's I just wanted clarification Thank you That was a good point Yep That's a good point Yeah Yeah Paragraph and our current order And can I just to address May I councelor Lman I personally do like to
write my own ordinances and um I generally write them and then submit them to the attorney but I feel like I'm the one closest to the law that I'm trying to get past So why shouldn't I write them So that's my view
So I'm kind of with you there I like whereases and all So for those of you that find joy in doing that and if one of you guys finds joy in you know responding to emails answering phones making calendars so we can all see where all the dates are and people don't get
left out of certain things I mean all because yeah I mean it's just so some things that we need to talk about but we need to do that offline So um councelor Toller what is your suggestion here Um again I think we can go ahead with this you don't need to withdraw it because
again this is an amendment to a current ordinance and we're not amending the full ordinance We're not creating a new ordinance We are adjusting one small paragraph and it's identified for us here on this document 127-6 And the new language is underlined The new language
that we're adding to our current ordinance is chapter 234 or the code of the township of Montlair That's it How's that Two four six eight 10 words If you get you get a permit to use the park or you have a beer garden in the park you
can't be charged with disorderly person right So we just have to connect we have to connect that one to to you know 17 has to be connected to 20 one Okay Council Birmingham I'm just quickly because the last time it was introduced
it just spec it just said beer but now it's saying alcoholic beverages No beer gardener This is very specific for beer gardening Right No So then we're not just doing beer garden No it's just for supposed to be beer garden So it should
the right the one I drafted which is this which says the mayor and council may permit the distribution and consumption of alcohol or beverages with an enclosed area with a regulated entrance incidental to the approved use of any township parks upon securing any license So like I mean sometimes um you
know some of some of my towns have have festivals or religious uh festivals They'll take a portion of the park they'll warden it off They'll have a little bar area there right And there are there's there's drinks other than other than beer It's not super exotic
but you know if you want a vodka you can get a vodka And that's why that's why and I appreciate that And and I didn't Thank you And that's why I was saying after the last time I wanted to hear from um the um director Camarada
um because I know that there were some specific concerns and even from the director of parks um regarding having all alcoholic beverages rather than just the beer
garden And so again I think maybe we'll just um withdraw it until we get those things because it's important And they they spent a lot of time to deliberate on this And um I was hoping that they we could have heard back from them but we
didn't And even though it would be great to have this because the weather is nice and people are having like AAPI whatever you know all the different festivals are starting but if we're not going to have it in in in the way that um our directors are have had an opportunity to
express their concerns is that their only concern is that it's serving serving beverages other than other than beer A after we talked about it and talked about the pros and the cons and the different um like the glass containers
versus just the little beer thing on tap and different things like that It was my understanding that everyone at the table was in favor of the beer garden I'll talk again I don't want to get too but my experience at these kind of events is all of the all of the
beverages are served in the same plastic plastic cup on tap It's all regulated by the state That's why I said I'm here to answer questions but we shouldn't specify Or you get a beer I'm think it's all in the same the same
plastic cup And you sell I mean you can sell a can of Coke So you can sell a can of beer or wine They were trying not to I mean look especially I mean just the the appearance of impropriety is this was brought to us like the it came to my
inbox courtesy of a beer company So like I'm not going to vote for something that limits it to beer based on that Well I'm I'm not a beer drinker so I don't have you know there's nothing that I'm I'm not here like advocating for one or the other This one is fine and it says alcohol But as a courtesy I'm just
saying that I think and perhaps u madame clerk you were um in attendance at that meeting Can you help me out a little bit here please What was your recollection of what some of those concerns were about why we would just have the beer garden The one concern was the cleanup
right That was um something that was said by DCS as well as uh parks and uh I'm sorry Department of Recreation right um the glass and the dangers but the police department was there and they did speak to how each application comes with
the security plan So this is already happening in town It's just that they do it in the street and then they have to close the street as opposed to coming into the park So the first resolution that you have would permit consumption of alcohol in the park That's uh 02517
Okay 02518 would then say "Okay um you can consume alcohol in the public in a township park if you get a park permit from recreation right If you get a uh mayor and council approval so this would
have to come back to you per event and you'd have to approve by resolution And then lastly you'd have to get permission from the ABC which means you fill out that state application 14 days in advance and it goes through the normal course of business reviewed by the
police department reviewed by my office So but this was they already have to go through the ABC They already have to get the permit They already have to the only thing and this is interesting because the only thing now that you're saying it has to go through through the council to get approval So I think that would be
like the new layer Yes ma'am And that's 02518 So if the council introduces the these two ordinances tonight you'll have a public hearing sometime toward May 20 I think is the next time
we can have a public hearing And then after you have that public hearing if you adopt it every time a festival happens and they want to consume alcohol in a park they're going to need a resolution approved by you Uh we only have one
meeting each I'm I'm sorry Presently your borrow code prohibits alcohol in the park Correct So while you're right that they already like if they want to do it in a street or some other ABC correct You still have to amend the ordinance to allow them to do it in the
park So that means you have to amend 234 to to remove the prohibition and then amend the other ordinance so that they can't be charged with disorderly person Correct I think it's a pretty I I'm the biased I think it's a pretty good ordinance It's one that's consistent with other like I said similarly
situated towns having these type of events like Hoboken in Jersey City Um you know well I I have a um Deputy Mayor I don't I think the ordinance the the ordinancees are fine I just have questions about their implementation So
um I think you described like the steps I think we just need to make it very clear like what what the steps are to the people who might be interested Also I wanted to know is there was there discussion about like an additional fee or there's no fee collected by the
municipality All that service that I was just talking about the township collects nothing The state collects about $1 to $150 The discussion that we had at that meeting regarding fees are that the the vendor the person that would providing the alcoholic beverages would make that
agreement with whoever the person was that was hosting the event So say it was African-American um heritage festival then that vendor whoever it was that was going to have the alcoholic beverages whatever agreement that they made So they might charge x% or whatever but
that would be between them not with the township So the vendor would the So the organization that's holding the event and has the permit to be have been have the event in the park they would be the one paying the fee to whoever's selling
Is that the people that are selling would be paying whatever whatever the agreement is So if you're doing right a thing and I said "Hey I want to sell some beer there." there then you might say "Well okay we're going to be there for two hours so you have to pay me $200 or whatever that number is but that
wasn't that's not coming to the township." Why would why shouldn't it go to the township So we discussed that and um then people started saying things like that that might you know pro prohibit it make it like so people couldn't really wouldn't benefit from
doing it because they already have to go to the state and pay a hefty fee the um person for the consumption of the alcohol then they have to come here and they have to pay a fee to whoever the people are that are hosting the main
event and then to add another me I mean if the council wants to do that but that's why that's why we didn't proceed and say yes and now we want you to give us another $100 because you know I don't think the the the the feeling didn't
seem as though we were trying to make it impossible for them to be able to make a couple of dollars right I think that there's been a lot of um people that are interested in having alcoholic beverages Um we've seen people enjoy that when they have it like a foot outside of the
park grounds And so now we were just trying to make it so that they don't have to fight to get to you know the parking lot area versus put it into the park The permitting fees are also well in other in other towns they're they're pretty nominal right I mean I think like
Jersey City's fee might be like $500 $500 but the people that are hosting that would pay I'm saying right I'm I'm actually I'm on your side on this in the sense that I'm saying like it's not like whatever fee we charge isn't going to come close to covering whatever cleanup costs or other other costs might be
associated with it It's just really an administrative like paper push Yeah I mean that's what we're we're discussing here If people think it would be a good idea for us to try to get some more money out of the vendors that are I I don't want to get more money out question In fact I would go the other
direction Do we need to pass resolutions for this on a case-by case basis Is that baked into I don't think so I'm not even Is that in the ABC law That's in 02518 It's not in the ABC law but it's in 25 in 02518 that's before you It says that
the applicant can consume alcohol or you know pull a permit with the approval of the council I'll look at the exact because it says may it would be a formality You're you're as long as they meet the criteria you it would be a formality to approve You're not going to
discriminate amongst groups But that's do we have to do because it says here can't it just be the clerk the mayor and the council already do it but may permit the distribution and consumption that part So that may permit that means we have to pass a resolution The only way
that you act is as a body Can we are is it possible to just make an ordinance that where they have to follow like get get the permit pay the fee but it doesn't have to come to the county I don't know I mean Garcia agrees that just as an example like in the
summer we have a meeting in on June 3rd and our next meeting is July 26 It's crazy We can't do it Yeah If we don't do it Yeah Excuse me I agree 100% I agree to that we should take the
um council approval out of that Yeah So you would just want to say the township notwithstanding anything contained here and to the contrary the township may permit the distribution and consumption of alcoholic beverages Okay
Thank you I'm all for making your meeting your meeting shorter Um but but I mean at the same we get we constantly get questioned about you know transparency and not doing things out in the I don't know I I for me I feel a lot
more comfortable if if the uh if the mayor and council were doing a memorializing resolution but if you don't want to do it that's fine we could we could amend we could amend the ordinance So same I'm sorry um attorney tell me what you just said please I think I think again I don't
want to speak for manager marks but I think earlier there was a question why is this on the agenda I think anytime you're expending expending money or allowing people to use public property such as a park um I think I think your employees and your agents such as myself
would feel much more comfortable if there was a formalized approval from the governing body% that there could be no accusation that anybody was doing anything without your knowledge or consent No 100% And I appreciate that about you um Attorney Garcia And again I
I also appreciate you know the um rapid turnover when I gave you you know what was what we were trying to accomplish from that meeting So thank you May Yes Um town uh listen I was going to say township attorney councelor Toller Yes
Thank you Um I think it should still come before the council Otherwise we won't have any way of knowing what type of events are being held in our township by whom what the hours are especially if alcohol is being served But we should that's why I'm saying we need to have a centralized calendar and have all the
events on it so everybody knows what's going on Well even with a calendar that's fine But we get to review it first What you know we don't know who's coming into town and wants to sell alcohol at their event We need to know who's going to be here what park or street they're going parks they're going
to use and what the type of event is And so the way this was the way we had our discussion by the way was for Mont Clair um Mont Clair groups It wasn't just random people coming into our No I understand But if it's open to anyone
then it's open to anyone Does it mean this is not limiting outside people from doing this That's my concern Not that outside people are bad but I'm just saying anyone can come in now put a permit in to use say Nisha Wayne Park Yeah Put in this permit for alcohol and
we don't know who the people or persons are that are going to be having this event and it can get bad really ugly down the road if we're not aware of any event where alcohol is being served It's not about a general calendar It's about perhaps we can implement and I'll I'm
happy to talk with the clerk and the manager about it Um but we can set up a a some kind of schedule if you will where if people want to put these permits in on a quarterly basis and issue maybe we'd have to limit the events I don't know but there's a way to do it so they wouldn't have to be on
every single agenda Mayor if I may they are limited to 12 per year I don't know if that's helpful Of course I'm open to conversation but each organization they have to be nonprofit civic or educational So it's not just anyone who can come in They do
have to be an When you say 12 a year you mean 12 for the township No 12 for that organization So each organization is capped at 12 events per year and each location is capped at having 25 So for
the parks example we can't have that park used more than 25 times per year by that one organization by any But we said we said more than just non nonprofits as I recall it They said Montlair nonprofits when we were talking about
this It wasn't just random people coming into the township No when we had that discussion it was you know Montlair nonprofits Yeah That's fair But how do we ensure that if outside nonprofits that aren't Montlair come in and they put in the
same applications So you're saying So we need to I get it So you're saying we need to do that Yes Okay Yeah Just one question Yeah Yeah On what grounds would the council say that you can't do this if we were approving these things So well one is that they don't
comply with all all the they don't they don't have all the whatever the clerk would certify that right Criteria is that be number one Number two is like anything else right So people can use your public space for quite a wide latitude of things but you can't use it
for like public hate right Or public if it's like a hate Oh right some sort of hate organization that that you could I was think I was trying to think about it myself and that was one of the only ones that it's kind of similar to like our
flag policy right no where we have to we have to re bring it here against anybody I got you just mayor if I may the state also allows some discretion of the municipality if there's some instances in the past where there's been bad
behavior not cleaning up or police calls there or something There is some discretion there that we can use It's called special conditions I'm sorry Um um Council Williams has been sitting here for a minute and then um Council Birmingham Thank you Two
things Are we are we looking to vote on this tonight Well it' be nice because the time is upon us when they might want to use it And then from what I understand we have to have a public hearing and some other things So that's on the ETH It's supposed to be introduced tonight if you follow normal
course and then May Did we already move it forward and second No you there I don't have a motion on the floor floor Okay I'll motion to move it forward Okay I'll second Okay the next thing here is um I guess anybody applying for this
permit they have to get checked by the police Yes Yes counselor It that's a part of the protocol I don't even have all of these pages in my packet Would you would you like to do that Okay
Yes I I I do I do have council Birmingham Based on what Mr Garcia just said because with the flag policy we very much are saying that flying the flag in a you
know in our public um spaces is government speech like and so that we get to determine what we what we're speaking like that's been we've established that okay the parks and if whatever private
vendors want to um you know what they want to sell and what groups like I don't want that to be government speech like I don't want this is where I'm just a little bit like this is a little bit different than I understand what you're saying drafted our flag policy so that it would be your decision Yes To fly
flags you're the one flying You're not saying you're not just granting a request right You're making a decision to fly It's your Yes It's our speech It's your It's your speech This would be something that this is someone asking for a permit to host a private event but
there's still going to be some some regulations on what we're going to allow them you know what we're going to allow them to do over there right I mean you're not going to have you know adult themed activities going on in this right there some regulation to but
that but no but see so that's my question for you is my question for you is should all of that be written into the ordinance to say it you know no whatever whatever because again to me it
starts to get tricky if a group let's say a group that you know follows all the rules pays the fees goes to the cl goes to the police and then they show up here and we're like you know what we don't like you You know I don't I don't really like what you stand for I'm not
But it's not that's going to be a rare It's probably never going to happen but it but it will be the lawsuit if if we turn somebody down and they're like you know what you you didn't turn this group down You turned me down This is what I'm just I'm talking about extreme examples of if that happens I didn't mean to cut
you off If that happens and we are reviewing it we can request additional police if we think something bad is going to happen at that particular event No we wouldn't turn anyone away but we would have the power if you will to say "Hey we see that there's a special interest group that wants to use our
parks and we're not really comfortable We can't tell them no." We can definitely alert our town police to make sure that there's adequate policing available But that's the other thing they have to provide for the security um for for these events and and so that's
in additional things I think um deputy mayor had her hand up Yes Um so what was I going to say Okay So so I I don't think that we should be in I mean I'm just wondering if a way to go um get
to the core of this is I mean if people want to have the council um approved these permits um I am wondering if it should be I mean the parks department is is approving um
the event right based on I assume some kind of criteria like they have certain requirements right and then um the ability to sell the alcohol should be under criteria So perhaps um we should just be clear on the
process I think I I do think that I would like to vote on this since it's the first reading but I would really like to be very clear on the actual process and um and maybe have that process be very clear that with respect to this part of the events that um the
clerk your office um um would be making sure that all the uh tees are crossed and eyes are dotted or whatever the expression is um by the time it gets to us in the form of a resol solution and we're just sort of signing off on it Can
I That sounds good Answer your question Yes But I thought it was a good question Yeah I don't and I've said this before to you I I don't know that we're ever going to be able to draft ordinances that are perfect and address every scenario And I don't know that we can define every thing that we would approve
and everything that we don't approve I think it's almost like the famous Supreme Court case right where they were asked to define a certain type of art and the court said you know it when you see it right Um there certain things
that are so egregious and not fit for one of our parks that I think will will know it and be comfortable saying we can't we can't do that here Um and I would just be a little uncomfortable hunting that decision or
or kicking that decision off to you know a parks director or you know some other some other director agent of the township I prefer you all to be able to know what what exactly the event is and 99.9% of the time you're going to
approve it but there might be that 1.1% go a little too far Yes Thank you So Madame Clerk um please and and I thank you so much for you know your participation and and helping to lead this discussion I know you've been um
very familiar with this Can you please articulate for us process Um if we want to vote on this tonight what are we voting on Well the first ordinance would be 02517 and that's going to amend the code
to allow consumption of alcohol in the park like attorney Garcia explained before So it would no longer be considered disorderly conduct if you're drinking in the park if you have the permits in place Of course it's not like
a single person just opening up alcohol and drinking And then the second ordinance would allow you to consume alcohol in the park in an enclosed area so long as you have the park permit the
uh approval of the mayor and council and the ABC special permit in place Security Yes the security comes with that ABC permit So when they make application they're required to provide a sketch so you can see the proposed area of where
the alcohol would be consumed as well as a security plan And that's reviewed by the chief of police or his designate and our office And if it's going to be on public lands we always require an indemnity agreement to hold the township harmless and a certificate of insurance
name in the township of Monontlair Okay So I'd like to um Did you make a motion and I second it already Yes I have that So um can we have a roll call vote And this is for number 17 right Uh 17 and 18 We're doing them both together
That's what I understood the motion was Okay 21 maybe because I don't even have I just have 17 That's Oh I'm sorry When I'm saying 17 and 18 I'm referring to the ordinance number If you want to talk about the agenda item number it's agenda item number 17 and 21
Yes 17 and 21 You ready Okay Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham Abstain Councelor Damato Yes Councelor Lochman Yes Councelor Toller Yes Councelor
Williams Yes Mayor Baskerville Yes Okay Great Um and thank you all for you know helping me go through the process because I really wasn't And um thank you councelor Damato for sharing with me that some people you know do their own
thing I really was not aware of it so I wasn't trying to be flip about it I just didn't know that But thank you All right moving right along Um I'd like to um go to the bill list please Um who want anybody want to do the bill list I'll do it Yes please
Thank you No one does it better Okay So I make a motion to move R-25-120 the bill list resolution Whereas invoices against the township of Monontlair in favor of the following persons for the amounts set opposite their respective names have been
received duly audited and found correct Now therefore be it resolved by the council of the township of Montlair and the county of Essex that set invoices be and they are hereby ordered paid and that checks be drawn by the finance department to the order of such persons for the amounts respectively and here and after stated on the schedule
attached hereto and made a part hereof Um this is the council meeting April 22nd 2025 And the total amount of the bills is 1,616,74920 And you so move I did Okay U second Um councelor Toller questions Yes
How you coming to me first Mr Ashley isn't here right now but um you know I'm just looking at the Big Belly um solar receptacles and I guess perhaps he can email me tomorrow because I had some
questions about placement in other areas in the fourth ward So it's not so much that the bill you know that that's the amount we pay every month for those big belly um solar waste baskets Yeah
Um there was one more I'm sorry Madame Mayor I didn't highlight it Oh yeah If someone else has a question they're welcome to go Councelor Lman Yeah councelor to I just wanted to say um I had a situation where I thought a receptacle should be in two spots and I just told them and they were there So
it's it's really really easy to do Yeah In front of the library and uh on Midland Avenue Was it township property or was it Okay that's the difference This isn't township property The issue we're having is across from Glenville Park because it's so busy Um and I did
reach out to the county to see if they could put more garbage cans on their property in the park but when people park on Woodland and Maple and getting them their cars on the opposite side we're picking up diapers all kinds of stuff So you know I was trying to see
if we can get one place near there So that's different for township property Thank you though for that and literally any Oh um council Birmingham I just have one question on
um the top It's what is it Page 40 My gosh my eyesight is I can't read the page number but um it just says record recognition system Inc and it's $55,000 and it says nonfair and open
contract to purchase and and then there's nothing Do um so I'm just wondering and I don't want to put you on the spot but may if anyone knows what that is Is that um the license plate reader says it
okay anyway I I I'm fine but I'll we I'll just follow up on that Yeah we can get request a copy of the purchase order Uh the CFO or Mr Marks can send us a copy of what this is for I think that is traffic
Yeah I from the name of it I think it's something to do with I'll find Yeah cameras Madame Clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson Yes Councelor Birmingham Yes Councelor Damato yes
Councelor Lachman yes Councelor Toller yes Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes Um at this point in time I'd like to make a motion that we um adjourn to executive session Um during this time we
ask that the public um remove yourself from the premises The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss personnel and contract matters We will return to chambers after we have had the
discussion and I do anticipate that there will be action taken after our meeting Is there a second Second All in favor Opposed
Abstained Five minute break please You're unmuted Thank you Um we are now coming out of executive session where we talked about personnel and uh contract matters and we are going
to uh assume um new business resolutions I'd like to withdraw uh new business resolution 18 I so move Well I don't have to to withdraw it I can just make a motion
right to withdraw 18 Yes mayor I understand that you want to withdraw agenda item number 18 That's what I heard Is there any objections Is there a second Okay 18 is the resolution that has the
blanks in it Correct Okay Now I'd like to make a motion for resolution No I'm sorry So that was not seconded That's what I'm waiting for So there's no second Oh it has to be voted on If I understood right mayor you're
making a motion to withdraw agenda item number 18 which is the resolution in front of us that has blanks in it Correct So if there's a second and you want to call the question I'm I'm ready A second So um no because 19 is the one that has
the blanks that you want on it Uh number 18 is the one that I put in there that didn't have anybody and I was going to put if we voted on someone else I was going to put their name in 19 is the one that has everything that the group said that you all wanted So
I'd like to make a motion Um so there was a second Do we have to do a roll call vote or can we do this We can do that by voice All in favor of withdrawing resolution 18 Um which I can't even see whichever was there's no right number 18 on new business
resolution ordinance I opposed abstensions Okay I'd like to make a motion to um for resolution 19 which is a resolution appointing Clary Jacobe
Alfieri and Jacobs as the interim attorney Um and I'd like to put an amendment that they not be considered for our permanent attorney And I so move
Second Roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson Are we voting on the amendment Yes Correct Yes So my vote um on the amendment is no Council Birmingham abstain Councelor Damato
abstain Councelor Lochman no Councelor Toller absent Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville Yes Okay So that motion was defeated Okay So
um somebody else can do the resolution Okay Um so I'd like to put forward um item number 19 the resolution appointing Clary Jacobe Alfur and Jacobs as interimm township attorney uh commencing May 1st with um John Chintski serving as
a primary attorney for the township for a period of 120 days or until such time as a township attorney is appointed Um and the the terms shall be um the same as as the prior appointment I so move
second uh second excuse me So um discussion on this matter I am opposed to this I'm opposed to this because um individuals did what I call pick a pal attorney and decided because someone had
been here on two occasions before and they were rushing to hastily bring in an interim attorney that they were going to pick a pal without considering any of the other people which is in protocol with the um hiring process and not at
all consider other candidates And we did have other candidates We put out a RFQ We put out um other things and and we have other people that were not concerned And so unilaterally without going through the appropriate hiring
process now we're being asked to bring someone in because people are concerned about that I'm never in favor of doing pick a pal anything I think that it's wrong I think that there should have been an opportunity for us to even
interview this um the John interview John Tantki um and to try to figure out if this will be whether it's for one month whether it's for four months is this the best thing that we can do for our township We
have a lot of legal matters before us and we need to make sure that we have the best thing that we can to offer our township So because of the manner that it's here because I believe that the process is wrong for hiring people you
can't put out a request for applicants and then not consider any of them just because this particular fir firm the um Clearary Jacobe Alfairi and Jacobs they they're representing us now And so now
to terminate that that same group and then turn around and say "But now we're going to hire that same group We're just going to hire that same group and put a different name." It does not seem like that is the appropriate way If we're going to keep the same firm then we
should just be able to extend that without that Once you put out a request for people to send in their resumes and to be considered for a job at a minimum we need to respect that and we need to review them We need to have discussion and we need to make some intelligent
decisions So I really am opposed to the way that this is coming before us and I'm not going to feel pressured into voting for something that is not the appropriate way that you do that And what does this do This sends a signal to people at a time
when we need all of the best attorneys and we have many many wonderful attorneys who have put in applications to be considered here that regardless of the fact that you all took your time to send in the resumeumés and said let us know that you're very interested in this
position They already decided pick a pal without looking at your resumes that they're going to bring somebody in here for period of 120 days according to this without considering you That is not who I am I am embarrassed that that is
what's being represented here tonight and I will not be a part of this type of hiring process And and I really um hope that we will be able to at least have conversations as I have with other attorneys who um specialize in these
types of hiring process to make sure that this is what's right and good and the best that we can do here and what is expected of us once we put out a request for some services So no I'm not going to participate in this
May I I'm going to be very brief because I think we need to just it's very late and we need to just vote on this Um I would all I will say that is that um what was just said is a complete mischaracterization of what's occurred and I think we just need to carry on
with a process um a professional process and um and hire a permanent attorney And I think um that the firm of Clary Jacobe um and Mr Chvuffski are the logical um
choice to fill the seat until we hire the permanent attorney Um and I will the last thing I'll say is that emails are operable So I would like to move this forward for a vote And I just like to say that I encourage
all of you that put in your applications and have suggested that you'd like to be considered to definitely follow up Um you know people can sit here and say something is mischaracterization I'm just telling you what happened You can you can read it You be top of here It
says appointing Clearary Jacobe Ali and Jacobs as interim attorney We have that firm now as our attorneys So the process is is just something that I'm not familiar with I've also spoken to many attorneys and I'm just saying this is
not I don't believe it's the best that we can do That's not a mischaracterization When I'm speaking and saying that this is definitely not what I would expect in terms of a hiring process once we put out a request to get some services people replied and we're just going to pick somebody because they
were here twice before The same firm that we now have just a different name Okay Can we can we vote on this please I need to vote Is there any other discussion
No Okay Roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Councelor Birmingham yes Councelor Damato yes Councelor Lachman yes Councelor Toller absent Councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville No
Thank you Motion to adjurnn Second All in favor Yes I opposed Good night everyone Have a great evening