anybody want to do the proclamation for the decamp bus line or mayor you're live thank you good evening everyone thank you for joining us on this uh April the 8th meeting of the township
council so good to see you all with us this is a conference meeting of the council and is being broadcast live on channel 34 and is streaming live on Montlair TV34 YouTube channel it's
available on demand and can and will be rebroadcasts this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act the meeting was included in the revised annual notice of the meeting schedule as set forth in
resolution R-25-038 adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of February 25th 2025 advertised in the official newspaper on March 6 2025 posted on the bulletin boards
outside the municipal building and has remained continually 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 at this time please would everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all please be seated i'm I'm very happy uh this evening our uh clerk of the evening is Madame Clerk Mr dominguez thank you very much for being here and I'm also very excited
that this will be the first official meeting of our new township manager Mr stephen Marks and um as our township attorney this evening we have John Tentski thank you so feels like a a brand new day and
I'm very hopeful for great things this evening madame clerk will you please do the roll call deputy Mayor Anderson here councelor Birmingham here councelor Damato present councelor Lachman here councelor Toller good evening present
councelor Williams absent mayor Baskerville present we have quite a few proclamations this evening and um we're going to start with a proclamation um that is a proclamation autism acceptance
month as we do the proclamations if there are people in the audience here that would like to come and join us at the podium as we read this into the record please feel free to do so it's um nice when somebody is here to accept the proclamations so the first one up is the
Autism Acceptance Month oh this is good you guys can come this way everybody can see where you want to come this is from the township of Monty
whereas whereas the autistic self advocacy network defines autism as developmental disability that affects how autistic people experience the world around them autism has always existed
autistic people are born autistic and will be autistic their whole lives anyone can be autistic regardless of their race gender or age autism is a word used to describe neurodedevelopmental differences in a
person's brain that impact how they feel see and understand the world around them these differences are genetic autism is not a disease that can be caught nor can it be cured autistic people want to be
accepted and welcomed just as they are including their differences because their differences are a part of what makes them who they are and what makes them unique acceptance is the only cure for autism
and whereas autism awareness is knowing that someone is autistic autism acceptance is knowing someone is autistic and including and accepting them for all that they are
acceptance is an action and whereas a disability is any condition of the body or mind that often makes it more difficult for a person with a condition to do certain activities and interact with the world around them saying
disabled and/or disabilities rather than special needs is a preferred by most disabled people disability and disabled are not bad words when a
neurotypical When our neurotypical families peers and community members are more informed it can create a more mindful welcoming understanding accepting and caring community whereas the township
recognizes that autistic people have a variety of support needs understanding support needs and how Mont Clair can increase community interaction and inclusion is possible by listening to the voices and messaging of autistic
self advocates and neurotypical allies who amplify autistic people now therefore the mayor and the council of the township of Montlair do hereby proclaim April 2nd as autism acceptance
day and the month of April as Autism Acceptance Month in our wonderful township of Mont Clair and now we have a special treat um some of our guests this evening would like to speak with you and we're going to start
out since you asked me so kindly would you like to go first okay thank you and then anyone else you're welcome to after he goes thank you all for being here thank you thank you okay hello everybody hello
my name is Jack Kade and I'm autistic and I have a note here it says I love who I am we love you too thank you thank you everybody and I have
I have a friend named Miles right here hello hi Miles thank you hello everybody hello thank you thank you and uh have a nice day happy autumn acceptance day
everybody oh Noah's going to go hi everyone my my name is Noah Gail and I am proud of who I am it doesn't it doesn't matter what race you should be if you're autistic or not it shouldn't matter what religion you be jewish
Catholic Christian Muslim Buddhist it should not matter if you're autistic or not it should not matter if you're black white Asian Hispanic it should not matter what sexual orientation you are gay straight
um bisexual it should lessbian it should not matter what hold on a second um oh I know um what uh it should not also matter what um gender you are non-binary female male
or trans what matters is is that we put our differences aside and that everyone is welcome everybody is welcome thank you yeah way to go Noah that was challenging i am an autistic ADHD Jewish
um can I start over i like I am an autistic ADHD Jewish ma straight male and I love who I am and you should too boom good job
okay thank you Mayor Council Members and Montclair People with Disabilities Committee for this autism acceptance proclamation acceptance is better than awareness just as awareness is better than tolerance nobody wants to be just
tolerated we all want to be accepted and a part of society so Montlair is moving in the right direction my name is Ezra Riiffken and I am autistic with a capital A loud and proud okay yeah believing that there is a
right way and a wrong way or a normal and abnormal way of being human is kind of like stating the sky is blue when sometimes it's also gray or the grass is green when sometimes it's also yellow all people are different from one
another right right autist autistic people may speak think or act differently from what's considered typical and they also may have unique and wonderful abilities
the great disability rights activist Judy Humeman said "Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives people with disabilities are all over Mont Clair you can improve life for
us and we can improve life for you." For example ADA approved cutouts in our sidewalks and wider doorways into our buildings benefit people who push strollers like so many other people in
Montlair we need excellent public transportation affordable housing and jobs we can be the most honest hardworking employees you'll ever have hire us you will be amazed by our capabilities loyalty and work ethic
thank you all so very much for accepting autistic people during Autism Acceptance Month now please accept and get to know us every day excellent excellent you got this Miles good hello i also
have autism and ADHD and I don't think it's something that's really stopped me from much i think it's not something to be ashamed of happy Autism Acceptance Month anyone else just want to thank our allies for being
here too this is Thank you all thank you so much that's it okay thank you very much we're going to find that proclamation for you all thank you good job excellent my name is Jack K by the way
thanks so much what a miracle thank you for coming we appreciate you thursday is going to be recorded yes who has the proclamation i want to give it to them before they leave that's it thank you which one do you
have you can do the next one yeah you can do that um I think someone over there is doing it oh hold on just let me run and get this i'll be quick oops is there anyone here to accept the proclamation for Arbor Day thank you
very much for being with us is there anyone here to accept the proclamation for Arbor Day okay Doc's here if anybody else would like to come Deputy Mayor Shin Anderson is going to
present the proclamation for Arbor Day um followed by Damp so if you're here to accept the proclamation for Damp please get ready thank you hello hi everyone so it's my um honor to
present the proclamation for Arbor Day which um is set aside it's a special day that's set aside for planting of some of my favorite things trees um trees as you know are good for the environment providing shade um they provide homes for critters and for me they make me
look up and wonder and so I really like this um this day so um in 1872 J sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees this holiday called Arbor Day was first
observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and now is observed throughout the nation and the world trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by the wind and water lower our heating and cooling costs moderate the temperature clean air produce oxygen and provide habitat for
wildlife and they are also a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products trees in our town township of Monontlair increase property values enhance the economic vitality of business areas and beautify our
community and trees wherever they are planted are a source sorry a source of joy and spiritual renewal so now therefore the mayor and council of the township of Montlair do hereby proclaim April 25th 2025 as Arbor Day in
the township of Montlair and urges all citizens to celebrate and support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and all citizens are encouraged to plant and care for our trees to gladden our hearts and promote the well-being of this and future generations
thank you thank you mhm uh is anybody here from the DeCant bus lines to accept this uh okay well then I'll I'll be brief um Township of Monontlair New Jersey
proclamation honoring Damp Bus Lines uh whereas the camp bus line served Monontlair Essex in Paya County from 1870 when it was started as a stage coach company until February of 2025 it normally carried up to 7,000 passengers
a day located at 101 Greenwood Avenue in Montlair the current owner Robert Damp and whereas uh the family-owned company I'm going to read this in full even though nobody's here because it is an important part of our history whereas the family-owned company was started by
a Civil War veteran uh Union Army Major Jonathan W damp who started a Rosland and New York stage coach line in 1870 his son Benjamin Capamp started a second stage coat route uh between Livingston
and Orange after Benjamin Damp's death in 1905 his son Robert took over the stage coach line added a third route to Caldwell and acquired the company's first motorb that's a lot going on before 1909
the company came to the crossroads in 1915 when Robert Damp died and his brother Dr ralph Damp decided to give up his dental practice in in Orange to take over the transportation service he oversaw the transition from the last horsedrawn carriage uh stage coach to
motorbes by 1923 the company had a fleet of eight buses added a route to Morristown and built a new garage in Livingston and whereas in the 30s the camp moved its operations to its current location here in Montlair at the company's heyday in the
late 1940s and 1950s brothers Robert Senior uh and Steuart Damp uh and their mother Edith uh grew the company to a fleet of 175 buses and 250 employees it had bus routes between several North
Jersey counties and New York and whereas the damp name is legendary in New Jersey and will be sorely missed said Scott Sprangle president of the bus association of New Jersey and whereas quote Bob is a solid individual when I
was young I could ask him how to fix a motor how to dispatch he was a jack of all trades john Deamp helped train many firefighters here uh in Montlair on the safety equipment on the buses said retired fire official John Thomas now therefore we the mayor and council of
the township of Montlair New Jersey do hereby recognize and celebrate the contributions of the Damp bus lines to the Montlair community and I would add the Damp family we commend their dedication passion and unwavering
commitments to serving others and I will give a round of applause that's a lot close the book okay um our final proclamation for this evening will be the week of the young child so I know um Miss Beak and and
others are here so please join us at the podium hello how are you thank you so much for coming thank you so much thank you um I am very proud we are two
pediatricians here so we get to read the um proclamation in honor of the week of the young child um we are declaring April 5th through the 11th so we're right in the middle of it um the week of the young child whereas the week of the
young child celebrated April 5th through April 11th is an annual celebration hosted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children celebrating early learning young children their teachers and families and whereas the week of the young child
offers an opportunity for early childhood programs across the country including child care and head start programs preschools and elementary schools to hold activities to bring awareness to the needs of young children and whereas young children and their
families depend on highquality education and care which help children get a great start and bring lasting benefits and whereas the week of the young child is a time to recognize the importance of early learning and early literacy and to
celebrate the teachers and policies that bring early childhood education to young children and whereas during the week early childhood educators in Monontlair will be presenting programs and activities geared to young children stressing the importance of reading
healthy lifestyles exercise and other essential factors in the development of a child now therefore be it resolved the mayor and council of the township of Monontlair do hereby proclaim April 5th through April 11th 2025 as the week of
the young child in Monontlair and urges all citizens to recognize and support the needs of young children and take part in some of the planned activities thank you so much for being here thank you so much would you like to say any words would you like to say some words
thank you thank you thank you on behalf of the entire um early childhood programs in Mount Claire and throughout New Jersey Exus County first let me just thank Mayor
Baskerville i mean you know we spoke it was last minute i'm always last minute but I always try to make sure that the week of the young child is recognized in Mount Clair um because it's such an important part in our world early
education is so important neighborhood Child and Infant Care Center has been doing this for over 90 years and I've only been there 48 of those years but it's a passion for me i thank you for
the recognition we started off celebrating music Monday we handed out um a breakfast treat bag to the parents because without them there wouldn't be us so we recognized the parents and then we celebrated all day yesterday with
music today was tasty Tuesday so the children tasted empanadas meat pies um they made quesadillas and tuna fish there were so many other things there um they were tasting today tomorrow it's
work together Wednesday so they're going to do some work craft together hopefully if weather allows we'll do some start our planting outside and then Thursdays artsy Thursday where they're just are creative and Friday family day um and we
spread it out throughout the month because April is so important it's autism and as the students were up here the young people were up here talking about autism i thought of the several um children that we have in the center with
autism and we were I was mentoring one yesterday with his math problems and I was trying to get it right and he was trying to tell me and I said okay let's figure this out together and we did and this morning he came in proudly and said
I got it right you know so autism you know they're children they're young people they're people too and so I thank you for that so we'll be celebrating the entire month and we'll end it um with an ice cream social where I'm sure you will
attend you know ice cream um and we celebrate the family so thank you for this recognition thank you Marvin for always being here with me and thank you so much thank you so once again good evening i am
uh as I as I stood here and I listened to all of the the young people coming coming up and as I listened to Miss Beak now and we were talking about the importance of uh educating our young children and while we know that's true
and we've been here before I I became somewhat saddened because we are at a time where some of those things that are so important to all of us are being challenged and it's
um it's difficult to to see that most of us like we come in here and and I see a lot of you the same faces time and time again and I I think of us not as neighbors some of us as family we've been here for so many years but most of
us as change makers because most of us that are here come time and time again because we want to change things we want change for the better and we want to make our Montlair the best that we can we're facing some pretty um horrific and
dastardly challenges at this point in time and I do believe that the power of hope the strength of unity that we will pull together in Montlair as we have over the many many
decades and we're all in this together and the undeniable force of action will allow us to continue to pull together and continue to rise i don't know um if all of you I
know Ellie knows this song but um uh uh Joan Bayz said that action is the antidote to despair and I don't know who knows that song but it's a beautiful song and it talks about if you're feeling some kind of way and you're
feeling a little bit down that action is the antidote to despair without hope we become powerless however when we feel hopeful we manage to find the energy to get up and keep on going to push back
against any negativity that may come our way i don't know about you but I'm feeling hopeful this evening our history shows us that when our community comes together we rise together and we can and we will
overcome we've seen that for decades we're not deterred by the actions of a few in power we're defined by our resilience our fortitude our compassion our faith
our commitment to justice and still we rise and we fight back we fight against cruel and wicked unjust policies that are based on hate and we continue to climb and push
back yes the mountain may be high but not too steep i am not weak and I will not settle for defeat we'll face some difficult times but I want to tell you that we can and
we will reach the promised land got my mind made up my heart is fixed i won't turn back so to the powers that be in the White House I have a message for you we
won't go back there is too much at stake you all know what's at stake what's at stake our healthc care is at stake our social security is at stake jobs are at stake global economy at stake education
our early education of the young child at stake freedom to love who we want to love and be who we are at stake democracy at stake civil and human rights at stake our future at stake
justice and liberty at stake i want you to know that my mind is made up and I won't that I am so proud to be a resident of this Montclair Township this is a call to the
conscience of all of you to rise up and do justice and mercy and walk humbly however if that doesn't work for me I am not against good trouble
thank you renee Basker mayor reelected in 2028 run again 2028 okay we're going to go on to the approval of the minutes they have been presented to the council the minutes of
the regular meeting held on March 25th 2025 are there any corrections i make a motion to adopt second all in favor i any opposed thank you
now is the public comment um portion of our agenda and for those of you who may be visiting us for the first time please make sure that you've signed up here when you come to the mic um please you have three minutes up to three minutes
to speak and um we really ask please that you try to refrain from uh name calling or using individual names as much as possible if you're coming to um share concerns on the broader sense we welcome that but
it's it's not a um very pleasant thing for you know people to to have to hear their names called and I know all about the freedom of speech that some people are going to tell me about later on i'm asking you as a courtesy as human decency something that I really like to
try to uphold please try not to use people's names if you have you know a concern that is not going to make them feel good thank you who's the first person up please hi my name is Ann Lapel i live at 10
Crestmont Road and I have been a member of this community for almost 50 years i want to thank you all for letting me speak and I want to welcome Steven Marx as the new manager i also want to go on record and say that the citizens of
Monontlair who we call modern aers support the vision zero project um I was privileged to work on complete streets about 10 years ago sometimes good things take a long time yes but this will help
not only every citizen but especially help the older citizens of Monontlair yes and if you want good trouble you can look to the modern aers our typical modern aers in Monontlair currently
represent 26% of our population we have lived here for more than 20 years we have paid taxes and we are now asking for your continued support as you make budget decisions we have proven to be reliable voters and eager volunteers in
support of community activities our population is the fastest growing demographic in the nation and a community does that does not prepare now to support our numbers and needs is sure to falter the upcoming lifelong
Monontlair modern aging center located in the middle of our business district is central to that community planning from that center will radiate a wealth of services and resources designed to make an agefriendly community not least
among them providing reliable and timely information access to resources for modern aers and their caregivers health screenings as well as providing a hub for overcoming isolation research has confirmed
loneliness can cause 15 years of longevity what will a lifelong center for Monontlair facilitate a physical center for offsetting loneliness a resource for business
district consumerism and tax revenue a physical center for supporting needed services information and digital inclusion we hope that you understand the gravity of
this request as the population ages we must step up thank you very much thank you so much next guest please and um Counselor Lochman was kind enough to let me know
on the um on our agenda it says this is for agenda items only um that is is a mistake i apologize to you this is for anyone that wishes to share with us at this time so please come on down sign up
over there um we welcome you hello uh my name is Cynthia Cox and I live up on South Fullerton and have been a resident since 2008 i am here specifically to speak um in support of
the complete streets policy and the the township's adoption of that policy um I moved here because I walk and I I really enjoyed the fact that Montlair is a place where you can walk to just about
everything you know I felt I needed at the time and um I'm saddened to say that there have been a lot of near misses here in terms of pedestrian safety um walking accidents biking accidents people being
hit by cars um I was pretty much almost sideswiped um in a car you know so I so we've all had our close calls and I was at a recent meeting maybe in in the fall where almost everyone had a close call
to report which is pretty scary so I'm encouraging you and I appreciate um your supporting the complete streets policy as a way of really formalizing um what so many people here have been committed to over a lot of years and um
you know I've been here long enough to be at some of those early meetings and and so forth so um I think it's a real commitment to pedestrian and cyclist and vehicle safety and you know everyone has a responsibility in that and so I'm I
appreciate you're supporting it i also just want to say anecdotally I appreciate the work this council is doing um so far I feel um I've you know gone to a couple different meetings and I feel listened to acknowledged and I feel like things are really moving in a
good direction and so thank you thank you okay all right next guest please good evening good evening welcome Mr oh my name is Nicole Farjiani resident welcome Mr marks um I've brought my
concerns about parking to this council a couple of times already so tonight my questions are going to be directed to you um I I know you don't have a back and forth maybe you do but um most people don't here in the interest of time which I understand so I will follow
up with an email um I did a little investigating i see you worked in Hoboken and Carney right um correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those towns allow residents to park on their streets um my my question is what is your
understanding as to why Montlair doesn't allow residents to park on the streets and do you feel that if someone lives and um pays taxes either by rent or owns a home that they should be able
to park in their town um because most people need a uh a job and a lot of people need a car to get to their job so I think it's in the name of equity that we get this done and because you live in those towns I lived in Wehawen and
Guttenberg and it seemed like a real easy thing to show my place of residence get a permit and be able to park on the street where I lived so that that was that um so I will follow up with some questions because I feel maybe I hope
you feel that it's something that's easy to be done and fair um I know there are reasons in the past why Montlair hasn't done it and gotten it done but I hope it's not a money maker that
people have to keep getting these permits to park on their own streets when they already pay rent or a mortgage some of our houses here I don't know if you know this or not don't even have a driveway so if you go to buy a house and you don't have a driveway you're having
to continue to buy that permit i don't know the cost of it but I know it's not helpful to anybody so thank you for listening to that and as I finish tonight I just need to mention um the name and I hope I get it right amir Robbie a 14-year-old from Saddlebrook
New Jersey brutally shot and killed in Palestine on Sunday by Israeli forces my thoughts and prayers are with all that loved him and will miss him 14 years old supposedly shot 11 times this needs to
end free Palestine thank you free Palestine thank you next guest please oh first I need to turn this to number four good evening everyone good evening Noah
hi Noah my name is Noah Gail my address is 34 Arsley Road Montlair New Jersey 07042 it's also my birthday month my birthday's coming up Friday April 18th i
will be a quarter of a century 25 years old all right woohoo thank you i was born in 2000 yep 0418 2000 anyway I'm going to stop making it myself right now more about the township um well one I have few
issues speak tonight one I would like to congratulate and give a huge masle tub to our new township manager Steven Marx welcome to Montlair Stephen now usually I'm the person who speaks about lowering the taxes and by a
huge chunk in Montlair and all over New Jersey but tonight in Mon but tonight I'm here to speak about something so um I suggest that we get rid of anti-semitism
okay free Israel free Israel free Israel it's okay we can agree to disagree but we can still be friends at the end of the day anyway we should um It's okay we can free Palestine free Israel
free Israel and free Palestine both for example since October 7 2023 a lot of people have been hurting it's important to speak up against and speak out against anti-semitism i am angry that there's so
much hatred going on and prejudice why can't we all coexist in fact the excluding these tumultuous times where where we have a president of the United States who is a racist a
sexist a liar we need to make sure we stay together and make sure everyone is welcome and that we coexist because we are on the verge otherwise of sadly becoming a fascist country and we know we have to
keep democracy keep democracy let democracy stay let democracy stay thank you Noah thank you very much for your time thank you very much i appreciate that um please I just like to remind you please that there's u we're
not going to do a call and repeat for as much as um an individual is at the mic that's that time for that individual and then if others want to come up and share their opinions we want to hear those also thank you thank you um I'm Deborah Kagan i live at
Beverly Road i have been a citizen uh of Montlair for over 35 years a member of the Montlair Vision Zero Task Force i'm the executive director of the statewide New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition which is also a member of the New Jersey
Vision Zero uh task force alliance um I'm here to speak in support of the complete streets ordinance and the extension of the vision zero task force and uh I am also a uh modern Asia and I vote so um we are all frustrated with
the danger constant crashes and injuries we continue to experience on our streets in 2024 and this is uh according to the data we got from local uh police there were 1,398 crashes in
2024 that is unacceptable that is the definition of a traffic violence crisis in our town while Montlair has had a complete street policy for over 15 years not enough safety measures and infrastructure have been implemented the
new complete streets policy uh which is based the the ordinance is on is about implementation it details a process that all street and development projects need to go through to ensure that safety for all users is given priority with
checklists it lays out a structure for accountability and community engagement with an advisory board it identifies a leadership position to ensure implementation and coordination with town departments this ordinance has been heavily vetted
by staff and the task force rewritten reviewed and generally put through the ringer over the past 18 months it creates a systemic way to address the ongoing need to be proactive about safety not reactive where we end up
playing whack-a-ole to try and fix one intersection crash after another i want to thank all the members of the vision zero task force and our fearless leader Laura Torsio who is here today woohoo and our lead on creating this
policy shout out to Amy Vich who worked very hard in this who's also here i also want to thank the council members on the task force who have spent many hours reviewing and honing this ordinance to create what has the potential to be one
of the strongest complete street policies in the state we need to work Yeah you don't you can clap for the task force we need to work closely with the county to implement this so I also want to thank Mayor Baskerville and Essex County
Commissioner Gil for jumpstarting that effort with the county by championing new fast reaction safety measures like the street ballards on Gro Street to address high-risk intersections quickly thank
you what we need now is action we need to have safe places to walk and bike with our families without getting hit by cars we need to drive on streets that are designed for safety and reduce speed and see increased enforcement of new
speed limits this complete street ordinance can help us achieve that goal we cannot continue to delay these efforts the lives and safety of our families depends on it and given I just want to to add given the comments uh Mayor Baskerville that you gave before
this is a critical time for us to do something locally that we can achieve with hope and so um in in honor of the comments that you made before this is exactly the kind of action we can do that is hopeful and brings us positive
change locally i urge you to pass this ordinance and make Monontlair a town of zero deaths and serious injuries a place a safe place to play to work to live which is our right thank you very much yes thank you
next guest please good evening Mayor Baskville good evening council members and Mr marks my name is Jeffrey Robert Grayson and I'm born and raised in Monontlair the following information comes from the National Fire Incident Responding System
and the National Fire Protection Association there are four phases that determine a fire unit's response time call processing time equals the elapse time from notification to dispatch turnout time equals the time from dispatch until the unit changes
their status to responding travel time equals the time a unit responds until they arrive at the scene setup time equals the time hoses are connected and water begins to flow the first 30 seconds of a fire a small
flame can begin to grow from 30 seconds to a minute the fire spreads igniting more objects from 1 minute to two minutes the smoke plume rises to to the ceiling potentially reaching other rooms from 2 minutes to 3 minutes the temperature in
the upper layer of hot gas can reach 400° and the smoke becomes toxic beyond 3 minutes the fire can quickly become out of control with the potential for flashover and destruction of the building flashover occurs when the majority of
surfaces in an enclosed area are heated to the point of automatic ignition of the flammable gases with temperatures in excess of 1,000° in 1966 12 New York City firemen lost their lives fighting the 23rd
Street fire when flashover caused the floor to collapse prior to 911 this was the single largest loss of fire department personnel in New York Fire Department history my first cousin Bernard Ter was one of those
firemen firehouse 3 would not only be the first responder to a fire in Southoun but also to the multi-million dollar estates along the South Mountain Avenue Boyd Road area of the third ward unfortunately the third ward has been as quiet as a church mouse on this issue
as long as the request to renovate Firehouse 3 and Southoun is on the table the scales will always tilt in favor of what the other wards want need $5 million for the library you got it need 264,000 to spruce up Wong Plaza Park you
got it need 76,000 for a new roof for Firehouse 2 in Upper Monontlair you got it need money to renovate Firehouse 3 in South End we're sorry that's not a priority for us i want to close with this the March
25th council meeting reminded me of a classic song by the Temptations from the 70s called Fall of Confusion there was blameshifting there was faultf finding there was criticism there were accusations there were improperly
written documents approved there was a meltdown by the attorney followed by an exaggerated aftermath we need Firehouse 3 now more than ever because the hopes of those of us born and raised in the fourth ward are going up in flames thank you thank you next
guest please hi good evening we are Oh sorry we are part of NJ Per New Jersey Public Interest Interest Research Group of Ruckers New York i'm a resident of Jersey City and a freshman studying at nursing at Ruckers Newark and I'm Ashley
i am the Newark uh Ruckers campus organizer for NJ Perk all right good evening um NJ Perk is a studentled nonpartisan and nonprofit organization doing advocacy work at Ruckers since 1972 we work to protect the environment make college affordable and promote
civic engagement through public education and GA grassroots meetings i mean organizing I'm sorry this semester our main campaign is to save the bees bees pollinate everything from flowers to coffee but according to the US beekeeping survey conducted by the Avery
Inspectors of America New Jersey beekeepers lost more than 47% of their colonies last year this is a massive issue in terms of agricultural production economic growth and intricate value of our biodiversity bees are a critical part of
agricultural production because without pollinators we would lose about 75% of most of the food we eat the loss of bee populations is known as colony collapse there are many causes of this phenomenon including climate change
habitat loss industrial farming practices and the use of harmful pesticides solving the problem of bee population decline is not something we can do immediately harmful practices are institutionalized within our lifestyles so in order to start the process we need
to make we need to make local changes now the best way for Muna oh I'm sorry how mun kind of nervous so to help us is becoming bee friendly cities and Berkeley Heights has already signed on
becoming a bee friendly city means making commitments laid in a resolution adopted by the city council to support pollinators through habitat creation p public education and reducing harmful pesticides use we're here today to ask Montlair Township to take an essential
step to protect our pollinators and strengthen the community's efforts by passing a resolution in order to become a B city USA affiliate so far over 1300 Rucker students from across the state have signed a petition in in support of bee friendly
cities monontlair has already played a crucial part in environmental responsibility as the second town in New Jersey to pass a native vegetation ordinance and as a USA monarch city further Monontlair already has the entire pocket park downtown dedicated to pollinators so the next natural step
would be to become a bee friendly city uh we are excited to be in discussions with Joseé German Gomez and David Wasmouth uh founder and chairman of the Northeast Earth Coalition who are excited about the prospect of passing this resolution so far more than 60
Monontlair residents and patrons of the farmers market and 25 small businesses have signed on to endorse the measure becoming a bee friendly city is the next step to reaching Monontlair sustainability goals so we are excited to continue working with your council to pass this resolution all the commitment
requires is intention and community and it will open up new partnerships educational opportunities and a better future for us and our pollinators we believe Montlair is ready to lead and support our local gardens pollinators and future so we ask that you continue the partnership and conversations we
have opened and consider passing the resolution to become a bee friendly city thank you thank you very much next guest please mr fan is that it no ma'am number nine okay
good evening good evening um hello my name is Laura Torchio i am um the Vision Zero Montlair task force chair i live at 569 Upper Mountain A
um before I start I just want to say welcome Stephen Marks glad to have you um since October 2023 we have been working toward as the vision zero task force uh
eliminating all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe healthy and equitable mobility for all our strategic approach has been to one establish an alert to action pro process
um pass a complete streets policy and ordinance create a vision zero action plan and demonstration projects and create a rapid response system for community concerns i just passed out um our quarterly re
report for the work that has been accomplished since October 2023 including completed deliverables delays to anticipated deliverables outlined in in the strategic framework
and unanticipated advances in safety interventions tonight I'm here to ask that you all unanimously support ordinance 02513 the complete streets policy and
oversight board and the resolution renewing the term of the vision zero task force and extending the membership terms of the vision zero task force i just want to mention also that the vision zero Monontlair task force is
comprised of council members um Mayor Baskerville uh deputy mayor Shen Anderson and councelor Damato um it is also comprised of staff members which includes the township manager community services planning
health um it also includes members from the county Commissioner Gil the county planner the county engineer and other experts like the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition Bike and Walk Monontlair
um Monontlair Police seniors students um disabilities health and the Monontlair Center bid um and environment mental counsel and more also I just wanted to provide a
brief illustration of how we together are collectively getting stuff done um the time is now for all of us to work together and make our streets safe commissioner Gil from Essex County along
with our council liaison Mayor Baskerville Deputy Mayor Shin Anderson and Councelor Damato have been instrumental in creating a positive relationship with Essex County to that together they have
facilitated a high level meeting resulting in Essex County reversing their original decision about lowering the speed limit on Grove Street this meeting also resulted in Essex County allowing reflective delineators
at crosswalks on county roads and Essex County agreed to purchase 10 driver feedback speed signs for placement around town and this is just the beginning both Essex County and Monontlair Township are
currently working on safety action plans which will result in more longerterm improvements bless you let's please celebrate these small actions as bigger actions are pl being
planned i am here along with my co- vision zero Monontlair task force members including Monontlair staff and council to help answer any questions you may have thank you thank you next guest please good evening good evening my name is
Eric Pearson um is the mic okay yes soundwise okay 14-year resident here i love it here i started my family here i'm not going anywhere uh and we currently live on Dodge Street um I'm a parent of young
kids and it's really hard to get to town council meetings so I I'm guessing you guys haven't seen me before um most of my peers are currently contending with pajamas and hair brushes so just pretend there's a bunch of us standing here uh it's crowded like there just a lot you can't see them though it's bedtime um
there are a lot of us who voted for the current council based on the campaign comments about street safety we will also vote in the next council election based on street safety and the next election after that so I
just really want to underscore how vitally important it is in our decisions about local governance uh how we conduct ourselves when it comes to investment in our street infrastructure and the safety
thereof my kids seven and nine they cross Grove Street every morning to get on the bus we also cross it every Friday on our bikes because we are uh really loyal bike bus riders i want to say that the Ballards
that were recently put up make all three of us and our dog feel safer every single day i've been repositioning them every so often they get dro they get knocked over by uh motorists and I'll uh if one of ours at Grove Street gets knocked
over I'll put it back up uh I also like reposition them all up and down Grove because I've seen the difference they make it is slower even even independently of the the lower speed limit cars are slower around the Ballards um so I have a couple requests first
please accept my thanks for the progress already made grow Street is already safer than it was recently uh second renew and extend Vision Zero third please pass the complete streets
ordinance fourth support it with hires and funding to make it effective and not simply a document and then fifth support it again by telling us your neighbors what we need to do to
help you get the job done thank you thank you next guest please hi hi i have some uh visual aids and some things I'd like to hand out great so
okay okay that's there's eight there so first off uh my name is Amy Vch i am a resident on 535 Upper Mountain Avenue and I'm also a proud member of Vision Zero uh also welcome Mr marks to the
township thank you very much um so what I'm passing out right now or what's being circulated is our latest March newsletter which is a compilation of the data that we've been collecting over the past year and you'll see
attached to that behind it a list of all the crash data for crash injury data um related to fatalities serious injuries minor injuries and possible injuries as well
as a second list that designates the serious and the fatal injuries i think it's really helpful seeing it all together and quite frankly where we are today has been a lot of work and as a task force we've really
worked collectively to make these things happen and I I would summarize it in six broad strokes of what we've done first one of our biggest goals was creating a process internally within the
municipality to get work done dayto-day and that really is a manifestation of this policy that's present that's before you today and that I am like wholeheartedly with everything I've got asking you to please pass not only because it makes that difference in
day-to-day actions to really make real changes but it is the beginning of of of just getting I'm sorry i'm I I I was so uh I'm a little flustered here
it's the beginning of really making things happen um as the gentleman before me said the ballards and delineers are very simple simple action and they make a difference and this policy it starts with those basic actions it's as much as
integrating our maintenance and our repaving projects changing the striping on Harrison adding a line small things they make a big difference repaving on Park Street adding painted curveouts it makes a big difference for
all those families congregating on those intersections for their four schools these little actions they're not huge it's not a major major investment but small actions lead to big changes and feelings of safety and it matters on our
streets and if you look at those lists it doesn't matter where you live what ward you live in whether you are a newborn being pushed in a stroller whether you're a senior going to the Wall-E Center to do a Zumba class or you're driving your kids to school or
walking your children to school or biking with them or going to the grocery store we are all pedestrians every single day we are drivers every single day and we are passengers and with that I ask you please pass this
ordinance thank you thank you very much and quick quick plug we have been collecting um feedback to inform our action plans as one of our big uh goals that we've been working with so Essex County is
also facilitating a survey so if you haven't done it yet whoever is watching please fill out the survey we have till the end of this week to do so and um help us make the changes thank you thank you very much next guest please
bill Harrison before I get to why I'm really here wish I you know uh the complete street ordinance i'd like to suggest uh a minor change before you introduce it um on page 6 uh
29763 A2 um I was going to suggest you have major site plan adding major subdivision but then I think it's simpler if it just simply reads into their reviews and delete end recommendations of major site plan and
just have it read reviews of development and redevelopment projects and cover that way it covers everything reviews covers recommendations s planning board in limited instances does make recommendations to the governing body but I think if it simply reads reviews
of development and redevelopment projects and everything's covered because there are some minor projects where it becomes relevant um and no reason to limit it to just major projects major site plan major
subdivisions just Mr harrison sorry can you say it was on page six and which number two number two two oh okay yeah I had that noted actually okay moving on sent you a long letter detailing legally what you should be
doing please resend the cons permit that was issued for demolition of the grand stand that your point of leverage when in fact people playing baseball this year will
require them to continue with that work because I want a place to sit when I go to the football games um the but it is too long that everyone including the township has been ignoring a decision of the board of
adjustment violating the rights of the neighbors to have an opportunity to be heard on the project and at some point they'll figure out legally how to proceed and sue everybody the board of ed and the township for violating their
rights it's and direct your attorney when they appear in court next week to inform the court of everything incorrect that the board of education has done since the settlement
there is no point in my continuing to serve on the board of adjustment if you're going to ignore our decisions i don't want to think and say we deny an application and town decides to issue permits which is what happened here or we deni we approve an application town says we don't like that so we're not
issuing permits we issued a binding decision everyone including the township had a right to appeal that decision no one did it's binding everyone's ignored it and it's disgusting thank you and welcome Mr marks thank you next guest
please good evening Mr marks Mayor Baskerville and Council good evening my name is Sarah Avery i'm a Montlair resident for 38 years and my three children were born here i'm a retired certified public accountant with over four decades of
experience in the public accounting industry and an expert in taxexempt organization reporting and compliance i have often thought that internal control policies and procedures are like the framework of a building designed to
protect us you start with the foundation then add structure so the building doesn't collapse systems such as electrical and plumbing are installed professionally to ensure safety then flooring walls and the building envelope
are put together to provide shelter and security accounting policies procedures and internal controls are part of the framework designed to protect democracy but you need a council willing to do more than rubber stamp agenda items the
town is supposed to represent the people but the town government has been weaponized to attack dispossess displace and silence staff who follow the law the story Montlair promotes that the town
supports diversity is a fiction as none of the redevelopments since 2010 provides any measurable affordability rent control is another fiction first all new construction is exempt by state law and second there's no
enforcement funds are regularly misspent there's no evidence that a $400,000 grant to the health department to strengthen local public health capacity increased capacity the health department bid for $290,000 of renovations is missing the
two most important documents affordable housing trust funds are not spent or reported in compliance with the town's own code sections 20245 to 20248 contracts for legal services are
regularly violated by the attorneys and when asked if this is legal the township attorney's response is everybody does it the township regularly violates the open public meetings and records acts we are
witnessing the destruction of democracy not just on a federal level but here in Montlair the deepening divide is a nightmare created by failures to enforce the policies and procedures democracy requires to protect itself from being
weaponized against constituents only in Montlair can you be accused of being a problem for insisting the law be enforced because in Montlair we protect criminals not the residents
thank you next guest please number 14 stand right here so I can see you it's okay i can see you oh here you go you can hold that go ahead hi my name is Lena and I'm a 5-year-old
and I go to kindergarten at New and I love to bike and that's why I chose bike bus to do on Fridays so what I think to be safe is to do
safety bike so we can be safe to school and back all right hi my name is Koko and I'm a third grader at Hillside School and I love biking and walking around Montlair we
have lots of amazing places in Montlair to go to that are all really close by and yet it's still so hard to get there so please help us kids be so much safer thank you thank you woohoo good job
Coco i'm with them um hi everybody uh I'm Katie Steer i live at 42 Northview Avenue excuse me North View Avenue and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today uh I wanted to come out today to ask the town council to support the measures uh that
will reduce traffic accidents and make our streets safer for the residents of this town and our littlest residents as well as you can see I have two children who you've now met and uh we are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that any realtor would describe as extremely walkable uh we're just steps away from
the Upper Montlair shopping district and we love everything about being this close but it also means that my children must cross a very busy road um and often dangerous intersection in every single direction after they leave the house to get to their bus stop they must cross
Cooper and North View which most drivers use as a pass through to get away from Valley Road Super Speed uh to in the other direction uh they must cross uh going the other way with too many parked cars for drivers to be able to see them and there is no stop sign going the
other way uh the other way we have Belleview Avenue which has a crosswalk but where cars rarely stop to let us cross and sometimes a car will just swerve around the car that has stopped not seeing that a pedestrian is in front of them which I assure you is my worst nightmare uh to the west is Valley Road
where a dear friend was thrown 20 ft by a van who didn't see her shattered her knee uh she was walking with the right of way to the east is Park Street which has had unimaginably two fatalities in the last several years this is all within one block from our house we bike
regularly in town and every Friday we bike to school with the Montlair bike bus which is a joyful weekly community experience for which we are so grateful but I have to tell you I wish we were doing it solely for the joy and not also for the safety um it's safety in numbers
that it provides and a few months ago I dropped my daughter off at Hillside after riding with the bike bus and I was personally hit by a car at the intersection right in front of the school i was thankfully not injured mostly because I was adult-sized and paying attention but the driver who backed up into me out of the
intersection would not have seen a child i want my children to be able to be more independent as they grow up but as a parent I have to tell you that the thing that I fear most is not them being kidnapped it is not that they will get into trouble it is that they will be hit
by a car outside of their house i don't mean to be alarmist and it is true that this is all anecdotal but we don't need anecdotes because we have data 574 vehicle accidents 90 pedestrian related accidents 42 cyclist accidents
and five fatalities from 2021 to 2023 is just too many two of those fatalities within a block of my house and that doesn't even account for all the incidents that go unreported every day like mine we are so grateful for the real
changes that we have seen around town recently the new stop signs the new speed limits it's not enough and so we ask for your continued support so that we can continue to enjoy our town and make it safe for our whole community thank you so so much thank you very much
uh next guest please that was cute i'm 16 my name is Allison Task i live at 173 Orange Road District 3 um and I want to say hi and thank you to everybody here
for your endurance for your intention for your outstanding work i sincerely have no idea the depths of what you're doing every day but I'm very grateful that you're doing it and welcome you're in good company i am here to talk about my favorite subject Clary Anderson Arena
um oh I'm I'm not alone thanks guys um and I'm talking about Clary because I have a vision and hope for this space that it is a great community space um one of the former speakers was right and that you're not seeing a lot of parents here
tonight because we're home with our kids most of the time but we sure would love great places for those kids to go Fridays and Saturdays nights and you know the 10 hours a day that Clary is supposed to be open for residents i want to say thank you very much for reissuing
the RFP this January i had been working with Mr lala and council members for over a year to consider issuing a new RFP and I am delighted that you took that seriously i was told multiple times
in meetings that no one would respond but the current manager and that was not the case this is a happy surprise for us we have three respondents that I know of which I presume is the current manager um as well as a team that includes some of the folks from MSU a very well-run
rink and another team that includes a man who built the rink at the American Dream Mall and rinks around the world i happened to speak to him last week he was at the Phoenix Suns Arena building out ice for Lir Sole
we have good options ahead of us we have great options ahead of us and I am so glad that you have taken this seriously because I never come to complain i come to solve so I know you've had these uh proposals on your desk for days but on
the desk proverbally for over two months there is a point system that you can use to declare a winner and there's interviews please I implore you have the teams come in do the research and get beyond the current manager to learn
about other people who have great ideas people who build rinks around the world monontlair has the opportunity to get a little free consulting ask all the questions you want to ask about clarig now and our ice in the future and I apologize if this is already underway then I just say thank you um I also want
to point out that the current manager is not keeping with the current contract that's on him and that's on us for not watching i am sure current contracts will be figured out but you have to look at the spirit of a person who has taken a community center and used it as a
profitable hockey pass through because Monontlair residents can't get on their ice anymore everybody knows this is the cheapest ice in town and they take advantage thank you so much for setting this right thank you thank you next
guest please good evening Mayor Council and welcome town manager uh I'm here to to join the chorus of voices to say we need action now to address the traffic violence and implore you to approve the complete
streets policy i also want to say thank you for all that's been done the 25 mph speed limits the four-way stop signs and the the task force experiments have really been been helpful in improving safety as everyone has said
um I have a I have a 13-year-old who he he he was too cool to ride the bike bus with me but he he's just now discovered biking and he's riding all over town and for someone who's been a lifelong cyclist this has been a dream of mine but it also could be uh a nightmare
especially for his his mother as she's concerned about his safety so uh really implore you to to pass the the ordinance um yeah uh and I I just in in terms of recently on on Sunday on on Van Vleck a
very short street there was a a car overturned people have talked about the number of accidents we've we've seen um so just please uh approve and probably more importantly fund the the policy so that the work can get get on and um thank you dad may I please have your
name sorry uh Steven Meyer Nassau Road thank you very much this is so cute all right everyone can hear me okay um good evening council members uh and mayor and thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my
name is David Maher and I live in the fourth ward here in Montlair um on Willidel Avenue or Willidel Court i'm a parent of three young kids of whom you have all been patient with tonight thank you uh Alice our seven-year-old um
Bennett who is three and Esme who is two and I also am a part of a really strong community here in Montlair the Monontlair Bike Bus um as a lifelong uh division one athlete and now converted to age group triathlete cycling walking
um are one of my most favorite things to do and it is why we picked Montlair to start our family and make it our place of home leaving New York City i know uh uh uh uh every week I bike with my daughter uh to school and every week we
have at least one near miss a car speeding through a stop sign a driver making a turn without looking we stop we wait we double check but I can't help feeling like I'm asking too much of my 7-year-old to be this viligent just to
get to school and as you have heard we are not alone between 2001 and 2003 every single fatal car crash in Montlair involved a pedestrian or a cyclist that's 100%
and of the 574 total crashers in town during that same time 132 involved pedestrians and cyclists that's nearly a quarter these are people neighbors kids parents
seniors trying to walk or bike through the town that they love the solution isn't just about bikes it's about safety it's about kids getting to school seniors as we've heard from getting to the store and drivers getting home
without a pit in their stomach this stresses me out whenever I have to drive we all share these roads we all deserve to feel safe using them i am not here to pit bikes against cars or pedestrians
against cars i I drove here tonight i had to i drive too but what I'm asking for is balance streets designed so that walking and biking aren't the risky options streets that invite families not
just vehicles walkable bikable communities are healthier cleaner and more connected they help local businesses they reduce traffic they build trust and familiarity among neighbors they make Montlair the place
that we love i know there are tough choices ahead about how we design our intersections enforce our lives and prioritize our investments and resources but I also know the cost of inaction more close calls more injuries and the
unthinkable possibility of another preventable loss let's commit to a Monontlair where kids and all of our kids can walk our bikes safely to school where drivers feel calm and supported by the design of our roads where we lead
the county in creating a truly safe and livable and accessible town thank you for your time and thank you for your service alice would quickly like to say something sorry my turn yes crossing guards are safer bike bus because they
help us know when to stop and go and so do traffic lights love us thanks guys good job good job next guest please okay um hello my name is Jessica i live um on
Harvard Street here in Mont Clair i just want to start by saying I am just so impressed and honored by the energy and the community that you all are building mayor Baskerville I'm just I just love what you're doing and to the whole
council it's incredible and I also just want to welcome Mr marks it's so wonderful to have you here i can tell what a good person you are and I've read all about your background so it's great um so I'm I'm Jessica as I mentioned i'm
one of the co-founders of the Montlair Bike Bus i'm also the co-founder of Bike Bus World it's now a global organization mont Clair has been in any single like any news source um from the New York
Times to ABC News about the bike bus we've inspired communities around the world around Montlair um sorry around New Jersey and I mean I was just speaking to an organizer in Kenya yesterday it is incredible what we have
done and it really is this community and I don't think it could have happened anywhere else um we created the bike bus because we know two things one is this is we all want to walk and bike and just get around here that's why so many of us
moved here we chose it intentionally um and yet there's this incredible high rate ab I would say abnormally high rate of car crashes here as others said it um it's you know between 2021 and 2023 it
was 574 crashes um and five fatalities horrific that was one reason we started the bike bus because of safety the other reason we started it is for one of the reasons that we began um tonight's event um around the idea of of
early childhood and the autonomy that is needed for early childhood there's been incredible studies that show that there is this mental health crisis in the United States right now that we've never really seen before among young people and one of the key factors is autonomy
bike bus gives children autonomy and you heard a couple of children speak today you can follow us on social media and you'll see more children speak the thing that I hear again and again is children saying,"I love Friday because it's bike bus and I get to school all by myself."
Think about our childhoods that's just the way it used to be um so I'm here to introduce myself to you Mr marks and to thank the council but then to also really push for change i will always be on your side i will always be so
grateful for your work grateful for the work of Vision Zero Task Force which I'm also a member of um great hello um grateful for the work of Vision Zero Task Force and grateful for the work of um of Brendan Gil and others in
Essex County but I'm also also going to always push for change um I really hope that we pass this complete streets ordinance tonight i really hope that we uh pass the resolution to renew the term vision zero and for the oversight board
but I also feel like that is actually just the tip of the iceberg um so much of this work that we're in that we're doing right now is because our bike bus community has shown up and spoken about this again and again and again um I know
that all of you were our bike bus community came around and looked at what you had to say about pedestrian safety about bike safety and that is why we voted for you so I really really hope that Bike Bus is an example of
innovation and creativity i hope that we can continue to push for those types of actions thank you so much next guest please hi good evening my name is Liz Clark i live at um Cross Street 12 Cross Street
um I am also here to advocate for safe streets um I am a parent of a five and sevenyear-old um similar ages to the other two children here today um and if they didn't need to be in bed I would they would have been eager to get up and
speak about how much they love the bike bus and also how much they love riding their scooters to school and walking to school um we have to cross a number of busy streets to get to our school as um from our house as well we are sandwiched between Orange Road and Harrison and we
um have to take one of those roads and cross those roads in order to get back to our house every single day um um I'm here to ask with everything I have in me um to please pass the complete streets policy and provide funding for these positions to make sure that this has
teeth and is a real policy with action um I thank you so much for I have driven around town i have seen speed limit signs posted um and I have seen um new ballards out i have seen um oneway signs
that were added to our uh street where people were driving the wrong way so thank you so much for the quick action that has been happening i'm so encouraged by it um it's hard for me to speak about this because I lost my brother less than a year ago as a pedestrian he was a um wheelchair user
um safe streets are for all of us it's not just for bicyclists we are all pedestrians in different ways this is near and dear to my heart um it is my worst nightmare too to see my children um to imagine them going to school especially as my son gets ready to get to go to hillside and I would like him
to be able to walk and bike there um sometimes by himself and again these are busy roads um please take action and please fund these policies um we we love Montlair we love it because we are pedestrians almost every day our family is we also drive we want it to be safe
no matter how we get around town um so thank you for your actions so far and um please continue the good work thank you wow thank you next guest please number 21 hi my name is uh Bruce Conaway i live on
Park Street um I walked here tonight um and I felt pretty safe doing that because I only live two blocks away um but I moved here about six months ago um from Colorado uh that's my daughter and
I'm now close to my grandchildren which I love i really miss biking i can't do it here in Colorado I was safe i could ride on out on any street and have a dedicated bike lane protected bike paths um I don't ride my bike here except on
Friday mornings um and I miss that and I hope you do whatever you need to do to so you can have that experience like I did thank you thank you very much next guest please i thought that
was I I was thought that timer was not reset it was thank you hi everybody hey how are you i'm Ellie Baggley hey Ellie i live on uh Grove Street i didn't I came here to talk more
about modern aging but I do want to say what the work the work of the Vision Zero task force has been amazing and as someone who lives on Grove Street I'm very excited about any change that can be made to make our streets safer so most of you know that I grew up
here yes um and you know I ra and I came back here because I wanted to raise my kids in this community and now I'm retired and I want to stay here and like many of my friends in town we want to stay
here so we're really excited that we're getting really close to making that possible and I want to welcome you Mr marks because I hope you're going to be our shepherd to carry us through this journey um our town has incredible resources for
modern ages we have programs from the Monontlair Institute for Lifelong Learning Aging in Monontlair the Dood Drop In and my organization Monontlair Gateway to Aging in Place but none of not enough of us know about it i grew up here i didn't know about all these
programs what we're doing now is we formed a collective of all these organizations so that we can consolidate our efforts and do better at getting the word out so we're really excited that the
construction has begun on the lifelong Montlair Center for Modern Aging and we are here tonight to urge you to continue with that i know this is a new council we have a new town manager i hope that we all move forward together on this
it's really important the center will be a space where we can get together where modern aers can find companionship education entertainment and health services all in one place and that's really
important and here's what we give back people who are retired or older are a reliable tax base we've been here some of us for generations and we pay our taxes in a timely manner we're a really
big resource for volunteers i don't know if any of you volunteer already but if you look most of the volunteers are older people we bring experience we bring history to all the work that we do and we now have the time and the energy
to do it um we also support local businesses because we stay in town we're loyal to the small shops and services in town and we spend our money here so my point is let's work on this
together let's not lose a generation of Mounty's born and Mounty's breath yes thanks thank you Ellie next guest please good evening everybody my name is Khalil Savvar i'm a pediatric pulmonologist i
reside in Montlair on the fairway uh I wanted to say first uh I'm really moved by all the participants and and people who shared their stories about the dangers of traffic control uh my father-in-law died two years ago and to leave to go to the memorial one of his
friends uh left her house and 30 ft outside on Park Street she was struck and killed and so she was unable to attend the memorial today I'm here to represent my town and my county and my state uh with the rise of extreme weather events like wildfires
like last year uh heat waves like last year and floods like last year we need to be prepared for this year as well um coming into the summer it is vital that we vital that we build methods to handle these events as well as address
climate change to reduce the frequency of these events i'm coming tonight to request two things the first is to ask the council to engage with the office of sustainability to prepare for the coming summer where heat will cause distress for many Montlair citizens we must prepare by identifying cooling centers
and at risk citizens to be ready for the influx of citizens who will need support during this time the second is to ask the council to consider passing a resolution supporting the New Jersey Climate Super Fund Act the Climate Super Fund Act is legislation that would make large fossil fuel companies who have
long operated in New Jersey pay for damages caused by climate change modeled after similar legislation in New York the calculation would be assessed by the state treasurer and be proportional to the greenhouse gas emissions between 1995 and now revenue from these payments
would be collected by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and would fund climate resilience projects to help avoid mitigate repair and adapt towards climate change effects so far many towns including Hoboken
Maplewood and South Orange have passed similar resolutions to support the New Jersey Climate Fund Act i ask again for the council to consider adding Montlair to this list of communities which stand for citizens both with and without wealth who share a goal to live in a healthy and fulfilled life i've also got
a little bit of a leave behind for you thanks thank you very much next guest please thank you legislation i appreciate I'll reach out um I wanted to say thank you to the
prior speaker especially as a pediatric pulmonologist i'm sure he understands the importance of what we have done here in Monontlair by banning gas leaf blowers that are incredibly toxic for lungs especially pediatric ones um and
I'm glad that we don't have to deal with that nightmare anymore uh welcome Mr marks uh to Monontlair um a couple of things are on my mind top of my mind is Woodman Field it's moments like the whole Woodman Field thing when
I realize that I am fundamentally a naive person with a heart that's way too open and trusting and um and that has changed me this has changed me i will never be that way again i trusted Mr
lola and I trusted Mr burr and neither of them advocated for residents in fact I spoke to a prior town council member who had no idea that our rights had been violated and certainly it was not under their direction
um that Mr lola and Mr burr did what they did in terms of making decisions and advising the uh lawyers for the insurance fund to not fight for our rights the result of all of that is what
I'm living every day um so in the winter I had months of clanking poles uh months of it sleepless nights because of it um losing patients not being able to work um awful quality of life issue and
apparently all it took to stop that was raising the nets and yet they waited and waited for these installation things um only to then put them on and then take them off which is just a waste of public funds and ridiculous now we have um I go
out to garden and um when I'm done with work it's my way of meditation and I have to look at kids pissing on the red cedar trees that they think hide them from their friends who are playing or
finished playing a game but actually they don't realize that everybody who has a front yard can see them and um in fairness it is not the Mounty team it is the opponents who win and then piss on our trees which is appalling and it even
made me feel um very protective of our baseball team to see these kids do that um but the bottom line is now I have to see that which you know you understand psychologically after what happened to us to then have to look at people urinating in front of me um it just
really feels like something has been stolen from me uh and I'm never going to be able to quantify that what happened was like I wish my grandfather was alive cuz he used to say "Oh don't worry honey it's things are rigged don't get so uptight about things it just is the way
it is." Um was that really 3 minutes okay um anyway things were rigged mr leola did what he wanted to do mr burr who said he had no conflict of interest when we were discussing the artificial turf moratorum accepted the thing for
Musk the other day what he accepted the nomination for Musk and he sat there and said he had no conflict of interest it's discouraging and I would like to see all of this fixed um and I'm just really kind of appalled at all of
it and I want to say thank you to my neighbor Aaron Bullan for having the courage to do what people admire other women to do and that is to persist no matter how many times men around you are telling you you're crazy and you don't
know what you're talking about she's persisting and she's fighting for what's right and what's legal and I think that at in this moment in history she should be applauded thank you thank you very much next guest please
your honor hi I'm Chrissy Thomas 257 North Mountain A and I've been a resident for 54 years i'm a proud product of the Montlair public schools and I'm a little surprised still but certainly honored when my neighbors reach out to me to
speak on their behalf so tonight I have three things to speak about first is to welcome our new township manager aboard i know you're extremely bu brilliant and wellqualified because I read all about you and because you beat me out for the position but in all seriousness you have
a tremendous opportunity to do great things for Montlair and to forge your own proper path whereas things in the past have not always been as transparent as they could have been i encourage you to abide OPMA and to make sure that under your watch complete agendas are
present by Friday at the latest with all of their attachments or the issue shouldn't be addressed until the next meeting unless it's an emergency i was shocked when at the last me meeting at the last minute our IT officer brought up a resolution for a bill from
2023 that's just poor practice unacceptable and against public policy you have a tremendously talented council full of smart and dedicated people who want to do right by this town we have at 205 some of the best employees you could
ever find i know that you're going to be able to lead them better than any who have come before you because I have no doubt that you're that awesome now and finally I want to talk about my neighbor and friend a local entrepreneur who sells candles it's a
small kitchen table business and she's trying to get off the ground but the rules in our town have hindered her success she was asked to be a vendor at a recent AAPI event but couldn't because getting the peddler's permit and soliciting paperwork completed was impossible over the weekend and it was
more complicated than it should have been when the paperwork had to be done it seems outdated and needs to have better more accurate exceptions for small vendors i'm hoping that you'll look for an email from Beatrice Albini and address our concerns and concerns of
local vendors expeditiously changing the rules to comport with the needs of the township and the vendors which will be for the betterment of us all so welcome again please blaze your own transparent path get us remote comment do great things get things done well so when we
come to meetings it's just to stay informed not because we see terrible things happening but because we see wonderful things around us we're all counting on you and are on your side Mr marks go team Montlair thank you next guest
please john Caulfield um Monontlair resident good evening council good evening mayor um I'm here for Clary um the question is do do you do you think the township should put money into Clary and I think the answer is
yes the skating rink brings in money we don't know how much because it's never been audited so we don't know how much money Clary brings in you can take a look at um the hours that they do post and I think that they could bring in $700,000 if they if everyone pays that
and it can bring in more the rink can sustain itself with an original with with some money from the town all rinks in the United States have to um have to update all their machinery um the freon
that was used in these rinks have been banned by the EPA and all ranks need to be updated that Clary needs an investment of that $3 million they say to to have that work
done we have three biders um one is the original manager who should just be kicked out for lack of managing um we know Montlair State had put a bid in um and they do manage other ranks and we know a town resident has also put in a
bid who's working with the guy who as was stated that worked with um the American Dream Mall and Mr marks you from Hoboken jersey City just did this last year you know you could always reach out to Jersey City to find that out too i cannot tell you what a loss
Clary would be if if you guys are at a crossroads um do bring in those those other bids to find out where this is the facility committee had talked to the old manager and their thoughts was that Clary uh was not worth putting more
money into it but that's not true what Clary needs is to fire Joe first and add a new manager and give and have the town give its fin give a financial uh investment and that is what I think would do clary in a better situation
what brought us in this situation with Clary is um there was no oversight um with the manager and how much money was in there and that's why we're in this situation thank you so much thank you very much next guest please
commissioner good evening thank you for joining us thank you uh thank you Mayor Baskil um to the members of the council it's an honor and privilege uh to be here with you tonight um I do have to apologize to my seventh grader who I picked up from practice and said I'm
just going to stop in real quick at the council meeting and then I drew number 27 on the speaker list so I'm sorry Kristen um but in in all in all seriousness um I'm here tonight uh to commend uh you Mayor Baskville uh Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson uh Councilman Demano
to all the members of the council uh to uh please support the Complete Streets ordinance and to allow the work of the Vision Zero task force uh to continue and also to thank you for the opportunity uh to be able to serve on that task force uh that the work that
that task force is doing um is second to none it is um I think um the epitome of what we want to see uh in government it is a cross-section of our citizens our government representatives uh members of the governing body members of the
professional staff uh advancing um issues and causes uh that we deeply care about and actually getting things done so I think you're to be commended for that i would also just quickly say uh in in coming before you to encourage you to pass the ordinance and to extend uh the
work of the vision zero task force to also never forget about implementation so complete streets is a policy and unless you implement it that's all it will ever be um we passed our first policy I think over 15 years ago uh we passed the one at the county of Essex
probably over a decade ago uh and it's probably time for us at the county as well to look at our own policy but in addition to that um when that policy and this ordinance is put into place and this uh and the committee is put into place please please please focus on the implementation of what the policy sets
out to do so again thank you it's been an honor to work with each and every one of you on this project i commend you for it thank you so much Mr marks uh great to see you best of luck to you here for whatever you need uh and in service of this township and all the best to each and every one of you and thank you for giving me a few minutes mayor all the
best thank you thank you i'm so sorry Commissioner i did not see you in the back cuz I I definitely would have called you up who's here with you Kristen hey Kristen wave your arm i I didn't even Oh how are you okay next guest
please hello and good evening esteemed Mayor Dr baskerville and the Montlair Township Council aava Fleid president and first founder of the tenants organization of Montlair i'm going to speed it up cuz I have a few
things eyes on everyone i was asked specifically to speak about this tonight uh we are watching this is about your important packages and deliveries if you're not watching please begin to watch your packages renters especially be on the lookout for thieves on bikes
grabbing packages unfortunate for those of us who ride for leisure and sport do not approach anyone uh be mindful for quick pickup plan out your deliveries whenever you can and when you know you will be home as well as having someone else sign for packages for you and do
not hesitate to call our local law enforcement to give a description of the grabbers if you see someone from afar do not approach close there was a comment made in speed um in speedy brevity earlier i heard it and rent control is certainly
non-fiction we saved thousands of homes we have 42% plus renters representing Montlair our rent control ordinance which covers two and three family non-owner occupied four family and up within the guidelines and tens of buildings built in or before the early
90s rent control is truth it is real it is supported it is historic it is being watched and working well and it is documentary worthy after 50 years of failed attempts which weren't because of all the supporters who showed up from
2019 through implementation um we're sure to make sure that those who came before us were not forsaken for their efforts that were made a conversation with an 86-year-old senior at the Montlair Public Library today was a reminder for me to remind everyone
that rent control and the tenants organization of Montlair team are not limited to renters we have a homeowners committee who supported us through this and to this ordinance she was asked why would you want to do that with regards to volunteering uh with us as uh for
renting for renters she says remember where you came from she was once a renter who remembers not having rent control and wants to see it continue for all the generations to come lastly we welcome you to join us on Sunday May the
4th 2 to 4 p.m at the Monontlair Public Library for an info chat and the recording of two to three episodes of our radio show that will air on radio free Montlair and I would like to apologize for the delay in launch mostly
due to life happening for our volunteers who we are deeply grateful for near and far uh but they're all from Montlair tenants organization monlairgmail.com and I wish you all a good
night thank you very much next guest please matt that's all great okay thank you that wraps up that portion of our meeting thank you all for coming out and sharing with us they have been presented to the
council the minutes of the regular meeting held on March we did the minutes oh okay now we're going to go down to proclamations we did
that okay now we're going to go to ordinance on second reading you want to go now okay got it thanks okay let's start with the um pending ordinance A and Council Damato if that's okay we'll start from
your end uh pending ordinance 02507 an ordinance to amend section 2 uh 327 vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Montlair New Jersey and I so move second Madam clerk oh you do you have
discussion any discussion from the floor anyone want to be heard on the ordinance that councelor Damato just read any conversation up here madame clerk deputy Mayor Anderson
yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lachman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you u councilor Birmingham um this is pending ordinance
0-25-08 an ordinance to amend section 3277 vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Monontlair New Jersey this is to put a handicapped parking space on Seymour Street East um east side and I so move second is there
anyone here that wishes to be heard on this ordinance council members no uh just a quick quick question on this so if if this passes tonight when
would it become effective 20 days 20 20 days okay that was it Madam Clerk oh oh I'm so sorry Council i just wanted to thank my colleague Councelor Williams for doing this great work great work i know you worked hard on us yeah that's
something deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lachman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes
councelor Lachchman please see new business right okay um it gives me great pleasure to read this uh ordinance 0-2513 of the township of Monontlair this is the ordinance amending chapter
297 streets and sidewalks of the township's revised general ordinances to establish a complete streets policy and create a complete streets director and oversight board do I move so move i so move
second is there anyone here first reading oh this is the first one okay any discussion from the council sure mayor yes deputy mayor
i think several of us want to say something but um first of all I want to um I think a lot of people who are here today um thank you for every everyone who came out um said a lot about it um I've been a council member on the vision zero task force in addition to um the
mayor and councelor Damato um uh councelor Birmingham has also been very involved as a member of the mo mobility committee and I just want to say that I've just seen firsthand the great work that the Vision Zero task force has been doing um you
know I I uh I think most people don't know that i mean Vision Zero is the township right so it's uh you know it's council people as as some people said it's council people it's township staff the engineer the planning planning department the police department all represented and um many many advocacy
groups um as well as the county and um you know there is a lot that the task force has been able to accomplish you know applying for a federal grant um safe streets um uh safe streets for all grant to um you know that that is going to be the money is going to be used to
um develop a uh a local safety action plan um the task force has been really active in compiling and analyzing data um there's a lot that that the task force has been doing but the aim of this ordinance um that we're putting forward
today is to codify our commitment into making our streets safe for all road users um I recently had the um the honor of attending the 14th annual New Jersey Bike and Walk Summit and
um it was really inspiring to see so many you know this type of uh work being done by so many undertaken by a lot of different municipalities and we're all you know going through the same thing so um by by making this into law by uh
codifying the pro procedures that the task force has been developing um there will be a checklist that has to be submitted with every um transportation project um that checklist is going to be under the ownership of the complete streets director which is a dedicated staff member who's going to be
responsible for um overseeing uh the the the different aspects of this law um as well as the oversight board and there's a lot of responsibility that comes with it and um by by putting these measures into place um we're really hoping that um this is going to be all of these
complete streets policies are going to be inst part of you know institutionalized within the township um and then the other thing that I kind of wanted to say which many people have said and we've talked about a lot within the task force is uh we can't just have
a policy right we have to um commit to I mean this this passing this ordinance is a really important first step um and it's going to um you know really show that we are committed to this and protecting our our residents and
everybody who uses our roads but as many many people said we have to also put our money with where our mouth is and fund um this position which is an incredibly important position if we want to make this successful um and and um and this
position will you know also help to bring look for the funding and make sure that we are able to carry it out so um I want to hear from other people and um I hope that everybody will vote yes to passing this tonight yes um councelor
Damato yeah uh I at my most eloquent I could not top what uh people coming up uh and saying said about the the promise the pro the problem the promise of trying to fix it and the joy of seeming like it's being fixed um I will focus
instead on this question of implementation and I've over the last couple of months you know everybody knows that um I have uh you know I I I want to make sure that the best outcome happens and the best outcome we have to think what is the best outcome the best
outcome is on the ground improvements that save lives and make our streets usable for all that's cheap and that creates harmony harmony in the township harmony in this building
and so forth the worst outcome is that we get no real improvements on the ground we get a big bill for things like studies and all this kind of stuff and we have disharmony and and more you know squabbbling or whatever we really need
and that's possible so we really need to be focused on this implementation because I do believe in my in my in my heart my brain that if we get it wrong it's kind of worse than not even doing it in the first place there's the possibility that that happens so we really have to be vigilant we're blessed
because we have people who will keep us vigilant um and we and we just need to stick and try to make sure that we end up in that positive quadrant where we get all three of those things as correct as possible and otherwise obviously thank you Laura and thank you everybody
who's worked so hard on it anyone else uh Councelor Toller yep thank you so much um happy to see this in front of us happy to see um a little more information um some of the work that's been done over the last year i'm very excited to see some of the streets
in the fourth ward identified and I'm looking forward to safer streets for all this is important and um I'm just hopeful i know Commissioner Gil has left already but if there is going to be a discussion down the road with either the director of Vision Zero and the committee we really need to look at the
bottom portion of Orange Road in the south end where our Ubers and deliveries are actually going down the wrong way of the street is very important uh many of the businesses down there have reported you know cars coming down the wrong way so I just wanted to put that out there um to make sure that that's going to be
part of the discussion going forward so thank you to all who put work into this thank you um Council Williams yeah very brief great job you know this legislation I I went through it uh over
the weekend and before that some other times you you guys did a great job putting us together congrats um Councelor Birmingham and then Councelor Lachman yep i will also just thank you all for this really important work and the work of the vision zero
task force to share this data to co-lead it to really help us analyze it um I think this really gets is an example of what we should be doing more of here in Monontlair so I just want to say thank you and as councelor Damato kind of said
I think the hard even though this was hard I think the hard work is really just starting um so I think we're all committed to that um and yeah I think it's exciting and I think it's really critical thanks
Councelor Lachman uh so mine's a technical question when is the um should we be for should I be forwarding questions to you Susan about things that I would curious about on this um ordinance oh you know not to talk about them publicly because they're kind of
just technical things that I was curious about is it appropriate to I don't want to you know take up too much time and if I could just send them to you privately is that fine or what should we do are they questions that you haven't sent already
they are yeah okay yeah sorry i mean you know every time you read this you come up with something new sure so I'm just curious for example how is the funding determined we're in a crisis mode I believe in this town with you know budgets and in my
view there could be recession coming on how are we going to fund something like this i mean not how but I'm just curious what is the funding for something like this anticipated well um you know so we have had some discussions um with members of the
finance committee um I've also spoken with Mr remarks um who had an opportunity to to review the the ordinance yes um as far as you know potent you know costs for the position the funding the
position um I think that's probably the first order of business and then in terms of um you know how do we actually fund the improvements we've also had discussions about that um uh we need to identify um sources of money in our
municipal budget um and and you know department maybe maybe the youth some of you know we'll have to figure that out and then also um working with our um I forgot what they're called they're regional we have a Northern New Jersey
MO right um when we so what I was informed was when we have the local safety action plan and we begin to prioritize projects um we will be able to work with um that agency in identifying potential funding
sources grant funding grant grant funding um yes we know that grant funding is something that could be cut off right so again yeah but it's I mean the hope is to have it be coordinated um be it a coordinated and very
systematic effort so um that's why I think to me I think funding this position will be of um the highest priority right now um yes sir so yeah I agree with all of that uh and if people
are wondering what this position is it is the ultimate sort of bureaucratic traffic cop so right now information about streets comes in to any which way in this building and other places and this would be a point of
accountability where you know that the person that you're reaching would would have all the pieces at hand it's quite important i I think it's very important and I push for that very hard about the costs i will say you know we don't really know and
it's would be dishonest to say what we know it what it is but what this is really about is mandating that when you're going to look at a street to improve it just to repave it which we do as a normal culture
business that you are mandated to look at that street and try to make it as complete as possible for all three of the key flavors of of people who use streets cars pedestrians or I should say pedestrians bicyclists and
automobiles and that doesn't have to be some bank breaking thing and and I think in many cases it can just be a case of we need to do something and we weren't going to do it before it's a change of mindset if you stripe a road differently this is not some bank busting thing
there would be some roads where you would have to do some serious improvements that would involve you know curbs and and and things like that that that starts to get expensive but that needn't always be the case and always remember that there is an escape clause
in this thing there's an exception exception now what we have to do and why I worry is that we don't want to start triggering that first because then it does sort of come in with a whimper you know but but we can always it is not some certain bankrupting cost that's
coming down the road it is a mandate to to try our best given the resources that we have to make these streets in this town safe and accessible for everybody that's all it is um I'd just like to say um first I'd
like to um thank Deputy Mayor Shin Anderson and Council Damato so very much for your relentless work with um this complete streets policy to get things where they are um in response to the the
funding yes we were talking about you know the possibility of some grants and some other things but um I personally think that yes we are experiencing some tight times with resources everywhere but we heard from all of the residents
this evening we've seen it we've seen the data the statistics we hear about people that have been killed in accidents um and so for me when we're prioritizing resources there's very
little that will trump doing things that can possibly save a life so I'm I'm very interested in trying to take a look at what we have in place and then try to find the resources wherever we have to try to
find them to do the best job that we can to implement this and to make sure that we're doing the best that we can for the residents to keep them safe the concern that I have with the oversight board and I've mentioned this
is that I'm not certain that that has to be a new hire that has to come in from somewhere outside i I would prefer if we take a really close look at the staff that we have here and try to find out if
there are people here that can can do that job and I'm certain um with our new manager manager Mark's here that he will be taking a very good look at all the positions that are presently here and trying to to see you know who we have in
place and and again then if if there's no one and it doesn't work out that way then I'm I'm sure we will adjust to do what we have so I definitely don't think that that would be squandering to employ someone but my preference is to always look at what we have here and shift
people um accordingly i wasn't finished oh I'm so sorry yeah yeah you weren't finished didn't I i interrupted no no that's okay i'm sorry i just want to make sure um so my my other question is just looking at this who is ultimately responsible for this
we have the town manager we have an employee who will report to the town manager if we hire somebody we have this you know massive if you want like large advisory committee so who is ultimately responsible for making things happen here
this is the town manager the town manager and the advisory board is advising the town manager overight oversight oversight board is that correct yes no the oversight board is working hand in hand sorry the oversight board is working hand inand um with um
the uh the complete streets director who works with the town manager um I mean the oversight board it's it's it's more than the way it's contemplated it's more than just an advisory board you know the the oversight board is comprised of
township employees who you know like the engineering staff everybody who who are able to get things done and so um it's it's really an actionoriented Are you suggesting that the oversight board is directing those employees who are on the
board to do certain things i No it's not directing it's it's working together to review projects um prioritize projects create the checklist you know create the things that are actually going to be you uh implemented
um and and yeah I mean they're not directing anybody they're working together it's a collaborative yeah you know that we can't um direct the staff under our form of government so whatever we were going to do right it would be going through our manager and our manager would
appropriately help us yes sir just to clarify that you know the board the oversight board is not a voting body it does not vote on things but nevertheless it was designed so that its numbers as
enumerated in the ordinance uh add up to an odd number in which the township staff under the direction of the manager uh uh have a one vote have a one person edge on it just to make it clear that we are not violating in the in any way the
spirit of of the council manager model and there are two members of the of of the public that are on on the oversight board so it's two members of the public three members of the council and then there are will be up to six so it's it's it's a flexible number but the idea is
that there's a group of people who will come together and they can you know put their heads together to try to solve some of these problems hopefully in ways like I said that are costefficient and creative and cheerful and great you know so that's the point is that it's not
just one person but at the end of the day we have a a unitary executive in this building and they they are have the ultimate responsibility of of doing it and I'm I'm councelor Lman yeah I'm not
trying to you know poo poo this I'm just trying to understand more and for people who may be listening in they may have the same questions as I do and I just want it out there exactly how this is going to operate and you know I'm getting a better understanding i and as you know I looked
at the uh other documents and provided my input so I am familiar with this and I also want to add my brother was killed by a car and as a pedestrian so it's near and dear to my heart not in Monontlair
i'm sorry to hear that Council Lochman that's something that got us all but I'm really sorry for that okay any any other conversation on this at this moment this is Yes Councelor Toller yep i just wanted to thank Councelor Lawman for bringing up those questions i
appreciate that those were very good questions to ask for the public to hear and get the responses and very sorry to hear about your brother and just one more thing uh Mr harrison made one change I think um
page six yeah page six um number two okay so it's it's I think he eliminated the word major if he's still here it's just uh site plan and development and redevelopment projects
but I would prefer if we go back and listen to him you know it's hard to listen to the public when you're thinking about something but I think that was what Yeah that's what I my question i had actually circled the same point and wondering if there's any conflict with
this and the um obligations under the MLUL um something to research I think mayor I believe um the the attorney is uh wanted to chime in just for clarity yes attorney thank you thank you mayor just for clarification the council
person that major site plan clause is defined in M uh MLUL so it's not something that needs to be addressed for purposes of bar that language I believe probably specifically utilized because of that so it's already embodied in the laws that would govern the land use of
it anyway so you don't think any changes needed i I don't think I know thank you thank you Attorney um councilors any any further discussion i just Yes council to Can we pay can we say major and minor
would that be a problem for number two or should it just say major just asking you know because I'm thinking about consequences down the road is this is the word minor going to be a consequence if it's not there so it's defined in the laws that we have for the municipal land
use laws in New Jersey um it's whatever the intent of the body would be if you if you were to use both that language I think that would be construed to mean everything i don't know if that's necessarily what everyone wants pretty specific in New Jersey a major site plan under the municipal land use law is defined as any site plan that does not
meet the criteria for a minor site plan which are set by local ordinances and generally involve larger developments or more complex projects so it honestly just depends on the intent of the governing body okay thank you for clarification thank you Councelor Lock just one more question about that so
this will not um override what's in the MLUL no no it can't okay cannot do that yeah just want to make sure because there are things that to do with planning and zoning board applications and review yeah thank you
anyone else no okay um we're going to move on to um that was we're going to vote on it okay um you you moved it i did yes I second it i
did okay madame clerk I just want to confirm that there will be no amendment that's correct that is correct we confirmed it i'd like to add major or minor if we can he go ahead i'm sorry i I thought that the attorney said we
didn't need to do He said it would be up to the governing body side can you repeat what you said no it's correct it's up to the governing body obviously okay I'm fine with that so it will be um adopted as amended page six number two it'll say
major or minor site plan okay should it say and or or should it just say or i know you wouldn't know i'm I apologize that's a question for you okay attorney said it doesn't matter so So thank you and or or just or
well it can't be and it's either a major or minor is more appropriate correct thank you okay okay we good councelor Tollard yes okay uh Madame Clerk okay deputy Mayor Anderson
are we voting on the amendment first or is somebody made it's up to the attorney sometimes it's depending on how big the change is so you can just amend it and vote on it worms I didn't want to open we can call the role for the amendment i
just that seems like a significant change that would that would agree that would do it first for the amendment yes so um the fir who wants to move it let me do that again why don't I do that again okay so uh um pending ordinance 0
Oh sorry i got the wrong one see can I ask the attorney question on that that's what I'm concerned about we would have to move this it wouldn't I don't think be able to be voted on at the next meeting that's my concern
substantive it would have to be reintroduced and then they delay the adoption which I don't think Well I thought we could do that all tonight and then that's what we So you're going to amend it and then vote on it as amended but you're saying if it was a
substantive you'd have to reintroduce but you don't believe that this is substitive it's not but in the in the just in the interest of brevity yes what if we just removed major and just said recommendations of site plan wouldn't that mean the same thing as major and
minor just by getting rid of the qualifier i mean because it's a long bill anyway so why not cut you fine with that council to let's cut absolutely yep so should we call the role on the
amendment you're just going to remove major correct do you want me to move move it again yes please i'm sorry can I just say one thing about this proposed change i think I'm just concerned about the real life impact of making that
change and how it might add to I I I am a little I'm questioning that um what's the question i'm trying to understand because major or minor could mean um for redevelopment plan in any
projects it's it's going to matter down the road in my opinion it really is as far as um what vision zero plans to do if the word major stays there then for example we're only talking about Lacawana if the word minor is added we could be talking about uh conversion of
a one family house to a three family house so I'm just saying I think we should just remove the word major and let it say redevelopment and or development i don't have it in front of me so this way it covers everything we're not limiting ourselves to just one
type of project mayor I think my point is that if we if it's if this we're going to have to that the law is going to require application of this policy to minor site plan um uh proposals how much is I mean what is
that going to add to the work of the oversight board um I mean they're going to have to review a checklist i don't know if that was the intent if it's contrary to the municipal land use law i'm not really sure if we need to
consider that at this time well I think that what Mr harrison stated uh was he stated it for a reason um we're not adding major or minor we're just saying site plan and development
redevelopment um if we want to table this and discuss it at the end and maybe somebody would like to call Mr harrison or you need to speak with him to get a better understanding i don't know just making a suggestion so just to add for clarification purpose I think uh council
person is requesting would mean that then all all site plans would be included just so everyone understands that minor site plans is defined in the MLUL um is generally refers to a site plan for smaller projects like additions to
existing structures or smaller commercial industrial developments they may not require the same level of review as larger more complex site plans so by removing the language you're expanding the scope of I think as the council person had indicated what they're going to be involved in so just so everyone
understands that it's going to be more expansive okay so again I would like major or minor if we need to do it because I can only speak for the fourth ward we have some projects going on right now that are considered minor work and they're actually major projects so
um certain streets if it's going to um vision zero is going to be looking at other streets in the fourth ward the word major would out would take out the minor projects that are being done on some of the streets that I'm familiar with that's why I'm asking for major or minor to be included because it's
definitely going to matter down the road but then are we saying every time someone wants to like put something in their backyard that there has to be like a complete street checklist or what i don't know why Mr harrison would present that to us if he you know didn't think
it was adequate to include it in here no I'm just It sounds like though if we're just talking about additions again I think maybe I'm wondering if we should reach some kind of compromise between I don't know every time somebody because again it seems like it will just it will
be adding work to the Yeah but but I hear what you're saying i definitely hear what you're saying it's just kind of Yes council Damato um Mr attorney so the land use
bodies would have some dis they would have discretion and obviously they would not be they would not have the power to compel the question is whether they would have the power to compel the
township the township manager to to uh uh not gratuitously but to make street improvements that the ma that the manager was not willing was not interested in making on a particular
street i'm sorry I'm not being very precise but like the idea is that if somebody's putting an addition on their house right this the the the board of adjustment could say we are obliged to consider this but they can just say it's
not relevant it's a 5-second decision or or non-decision they would they would have to abide by the ordinance and I think that's what the concern that's raised by some of the council people they couldn't just bypass it necessarily but all state law would obviously uh preempt Yeah right preempt be
appropriate or be the conduit for how they operate in passing everything um again so it just depends on how expansive you do want to make the ordinance uh but wouldn't common sense dictate that if the things that they are
working on do not involve the you know the public right away at all why would would it it would not trigger an action involving the public right away if their work had nothing to do with the public right away would it can you rephrase
that i'm sorry um it's difficult but basically if if somebody's putting an addition on their back of their house it doesn't in any way implicate or involve the public right away the streets the sidewalks correct
so why would would they would the zoning board somehow be able to force a change in the street as a result of this unrelated work that they're doing
i'm um please I'd like to um ask Senator Marks you have a extensive background in planning can you just um offer an opinion here or share some thoughts please so in terms of the uh this doesn't move um in terms of the
implementability um the the complete street spirit and the safe uh streets for all spirit will be infused across I would say all departments and across the entire municipality so whether the township spends a dollar or a million
dollars or $10 million we will have to apply this the safe streets rubric against all projects u public projects later in the agenda um there's an item to um award a contract for road resurfacing for $2.5 million so that
safe streets checklist and that safe streets um ethos spirit um directive would be applied uh towards that there's also I believe it's a $200,000 uh contract for road striping which was
going to it's going to be applied for you know redoing stop bars at at stop signs and and um uh safe uh street safe school zones uh anyway but that $200,000 in if approved in addition to
the $2.5 million if approved uh will have the safe streets metrics applied against it as far as um minor versus uh major site plan I'm at a disadvantage i don't know how many you know relatively speaking i'm sure director Tally uh
could could tell you exactly you know we have a hundred minor site plan or subdivision applications every year and we have you know 25 major um applications every year if somebody's putting my concern and concern with a
small C my concern if somebody's putting uh a deck on the back of their house and their their sidewalks are broken you know applying the check there's a there's in uh planning a land use law there's there's a rational nexus and there's applicability proportionality so
if somebody's putting a deck on the back of their house um can the planning board or zoning board require them to install all brand new sidewalks that if they're on you know a corner and they have 200 feet of frontage you know will can or
will the planning board or zoning board require them to in install 200 linear feet of you know sidewalks again there's a proportionality which the attorney um just mentioned and I think the devil's in the details of I don't know what the legislative intent is for something like
that so when would it be triggered also is there a a relief mechanism for homeowners or applicants to come back to who do they appeal to so if the planning board or zoning board or some other land
use board is requiring all brand new sidewalks or the installation of shade trees or the installation of rain gardens at the corner if it's a corner property you know and the homeowner it's a financial burden for the homeowner um who do they appeal to i don't I don't
know i don't know if the the ordinance addresses that per se it's it's important to address the legislative intent of the ordinance and and you know how do you that's a legislative process i don't know what you all are thinking u it's my first meeting so I I don't know that myself but it's just just some of
the concerns that it's a great ordinance and it's long overdue and it does great things but just you know reading it and hearing the discussion those are the some of the concerns that come to mind well thank you you did a great job with that so yeah woohoo
um so um do we need to withdraw this can we ask Janice yes um okay Janice come up i didn't even address this because my sense is that we could have and Janice you could agree or disagree we can have when we have an application to the planning
board we have a checklist for vision zero or complete street stuff and then the uh planning board when they're looking at an application says you know can this be done should this be done and they have some discretion there councelor um is that correct planner
Tally thank you for joining us oh you're welcome and good evening um we do for the most part apply complete streets principles currently so this is not going to be a big lift but I just want to tell you that minor site plans are
generally applications somebody wants to redo their lighting you know we looked the DRC reviewed that the other night that's a site plan um but that wouldn't trigger a complete if you're redoing the lighting on a on a on a property that wouldn't trigger a
complete streets review so I feel okay keeping the intent in the ordinance but you have to give the boards latitude in applying the the checklist depending upon sight specific situations clearly we apply them for
subdivisions we look at sidewalks if there's no sidewalk you need to put a sidewalk in if it's if they're putting in uh uh circulation improvements we look at you know the sidewalks and the location of the ingress and the egress you've seen these reports it's already in there it's just um legislating what
we already do and I think it's fine okay you think Thank you very much i appreciate that planner tally fine the way it is fine the way it is or finetting a change or what that's the question oh the minor versus should we it states Jan is that I think the best
way is just put the general development application you cover everything take out major site plan it says right now okay I'll just read it to you the planning board and zoning board adjustment along with their respective planning and engineering professionals shall incorporate this complete streets
policy into their reviews and recommendations of major site plan and development/redevelopment projects i I think that's fine as well but it generally I when I do my ordinances and
my development applications is the catchall phrase it would capture minor everything yes it would capture subdivisions it would capture zoning changes so if we take out um recommendations of
uh development and redevelopment projects you could put development applications and redevelopment that would cover everything under the sun development applications and redevelopment projects okay council
I'm hesitant this will get lost down the road i I can feel it in my bones i think if we include We're talking about decks we're not talking about decks i'm talking about single family homes being converted into two family homes three family homes you know I'm just This is about protecting the residents not
necessarily whether or not the oversight board is going to have to do a little more work or if the zoning board is going to have to do more work it's really about protecting the residents down the road and making sure that everything is covered there's a lot of minor work being done in the fourth
ward in my eyes it looks major and councelor Toller I believe everything is covered if you use development application on the record the only thing that that is not covered is if somebody was putting an addition on a single family house or a two family house that didn't require any variances there's no
need for them to come to my boards they go straight and get a building permit so okay one more thing um because yes deputy mayor yeah the mayor or the the manager was asking about you know the legislative intent and to me I think the legis legislative incentives you know we
define transportation project right and it's defined as any public or private land development program etc that affects the transportation network or occurs in the public right of way so I think that's really the intent of of this of this ordinance is to cover you
know make sure that those types of projects and that covers everything even bigger that covers everything in the community services department not just you the reviews that my department does okay so does someone want to um repeat
for the clerk now what it is that we're getting ready to vote on do you want me to do that so yes thank you so I I want to make an amendment to the proposed ordinance 0-25-13 to state number two reading as
follows the planning board and zoning board of adjustment along with their respective planning and engineering professionals shall incorporate this complete streets policy into their reviews and recommendations of development applications and redevelopment projects
and you so move oh sorry i so move a second okay we're good we'll vote on the amendment all right so now um we're going to vote on the amendment deputy Mayor Anderson
yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lachman yes councelor Toller yes with the amendments thank you yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes shall I do it
again yes thank you um and now to adopt yes i have the first and I have the second as Baskerville yes yes okay so as amended yes okay thank you deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes
councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes Mayor Baskerville yes good woohoo okay um moving right along we're going to go to um Deputy Mayor if you'd
be so kind please as to do ordinance D thank you love to okay ordinance 02514 an ordinance to amend section 309 taxation of the code of the township of Montlair New Jersey and I so move
second discussion yes yes councelor Toller yes excuse me i just want to thank um the finance committee councelor Birmingham specifically for working this and Maja if she's here our CFO um this is as a result of a resident uh who
brought some issues to us it's been a couple of months so I'm very happy to see this ordinance be revised um Mayor Baskville and Councelor Williams I know you both serve on the finance committee and had some input in this i just wanted to take this time to thank you all for this um and hope that our veterans you
know going forward are able to get some relief and again to our CFO uh Miss Ralph to you know providing her input on what we should be doing going forward so that's it great okay um were we ready to vote oh I'm sorry council Williams I
don't know if the CFO can answer so when we give a refund here do we This is a question for the CFO when we uh give a refund do we then go back to um how do we
Miss Ralph please would you join us thank you for being here this evening good evening Mayor good evening good evening thank you i'm so sorry I missed what the question was no worries thank you i didn't really even get the full question out i'm stumbling all over myself don't worry about it so I know
that the municipality acts as an as an agent for collecting taxes for the county and for BOE so when we give a refund as we're intending to do here how does that work in in terms are we fronting the money and then somehow
collecting it on back how does that work once we pay there is no collecting back if there is any refund it goes out of the municipal portion so we bear the full brunt of the refund and
yes okay I just want that's a good why that's how because the school budget is school budget whatever their budget is we collect and we have to pay it I know but at the point when you're calculating a refund you would know exactly what percentages each of the library the
county the school every so why would we as a town pay the full the laws don't allow back the law it's the law yes okay any further discussion okay madame Clair
deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you very much uh councelor Williams please would
you do ordinance the numbers E sure ordinance 0 0-25-15 an ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffic of code of the
township of Monontlair New Jersey so moved second second any discussion okay um Madame Clerk I I would Can I just Sorry can I just say quickly um because this these are streets around
the schools that are being um there were where there will be four-way stops put on Midland Avenue and Walnut and Chestnut Street um and I again want to just thank the Division Zero and the engineer the police the um Department of
Community Services for acting on this relatively quickly again I think um one of our focuses this year will be the schools and safety around the schools and I think this is a really good first step so thank you excellent madame Clerk
Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman Councelor Soler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes um now councelor Williams please
would you uh do the ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Montclair New Jersey certainly so I I'll read this and I'll move it forward and then after someone seconds it I just
want to say second a couple of words so an an ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffics of the code of the township of Montlair New Jersey so moved second so So uh great work Councelor Williams
thank you and just just for those Oh I'm sorry Councelor Toller as well well no no well so just uh just for folks at home this is an overnight parking ordinance uh you know folks have been reaching out for a long period of time
about you know the lack of parking in certain areas of town um you know they live too far away from a municipal lot so this is going to give some relief to those folks and before I get to that point I just want to thank uh some of my
colleagues up here you know councelor uh Birmingham you know who who tapped me on the shoulder and said "Hey you know you seem interested in this i knew you were the right person for the job." Thank you indeed he was and you know uh Deputy
Mayor and Councelor Damato who you know set the foundation for this with our with our first meeting on this topic way back when I think it was September and then to my my uh counselor Toller and to
Mayor Baskerville who jumped in and wanted to make sure that the fourth ward was represented and the fourth ward I believe was represented and I must say I I liked having both of you involved because both of you were skeptical and I I always I don't like to lean on my own
understanding and I like to get opinions here so you know you you pushed and made sure that we got a decent uh piece of legislation so I appreciate that and counselor also yes no thank you because you you stress test uh what we put out
there and came back so everybody had a hand in it and then not it's not just here on the day austin and uh DCS out there uh and Norberto and Manny and Norma Matassie and and uh Daniel White uh so it was it
was collect it was a collection of folks that uh brought this forward and I'm I'm very happy that we were able to do this so thank you and I just wish that u Miss Farjani was here because earlier when she was thinking that we are not hearing
and that we're not aggressively moving forward with the um parking types of things i I wanted so much to give her this so that she can see and that the rest of the residents that we may not be moving at a pace that is appealing to
you but we we receive what you're saying and we are actively working on these things and we're going to continue to work on these parking matters so thank everyone that's involved may I do one last thing and to your very point just
what we have gone through so far five of these audiences are related to traffic and things of that nature so you know just at home you see what our our focus is we we heard you and we're not it always doesn't happen when
you want but it it's it's happening so thank you deputy mayor um thank you um definitely I want to thank you councelor Williams um it was a lot of work waiting through a lot of data i do have a couple questions because um a resident who is
going to be impacted by this um wants to I I think we just make need to make clear that um this is overnight parking and permits will still be required correct correct um and uh no changes are being made in terms of
the the price of the permits so can we get some clarification around that at this time nothing the only thing that this piece of legislation endeavors to do is expand the streets that are eligible for overnight parking via permit that's
that's that's it correct i believe the cost of a night permit is currently $45 is that correct per month per month okay thank you Madam Clerk deputy Mayor Anderson
yes councelor Birmingham yes couns Council Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes um councelor Toller please would you have the honor
of the bill list resolution please sure no problem mhm uh resolution R25-097 billless resolution whereas invoices against the township of Montlair in favor of the following persons for the amount set opposite
their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct uh I so move second discussion i know councelor Tor yes I have questions um and I don't know if Mr
marks is going to be able to answer these his right now i mean you just got here um I guess there's a bill on here for $8,800 for Commercial Interior Direct i'm just trying to understand where they did the work it's on
page one uh the vendor number is 1000385 i'm just curious And if you don't have an answer you can you know El Maja Miss Miss Ralph may have a Good evening again this is the page
one um commercial interiors direct yes yes this is uh this is for the health department improvement this is out of that strengthening health capacity grant work is this out of that grant money or is this out of our budget this is grant money okay
and then there's um on page we've got to find a better way to pageionate this is uh page six vendor 20 602 uh
48,367 i thought this was for resolution 24208 that we did back in September 2024 am I wrong can you give me the vendor number sure the vendor number 602 for vendor name sorry oh Winter Ford of
Cherry Hill to purchase utility trucks for the township i thought this fell under resolution R24-208 back in September of 2024 it's for 48,367 yeah this is Sure this is the
So when we did that resolution we went out to bid for three vehicles two of them were delivered in 2024 the third one was just delivered in 2025 that is where the 48,000 is coming from okay so then we're done with this vendor yes thank you no problem thank you very
much any other questions Madam Clerk deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes
councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay now we're going to go to um discussion um the resolutions and I'm
going to ask please um manager Markx if you would just do a read through of the resolutions as you feel comfortable um so as you know it's my first meeting so I I apologize in advance every town does things a little bit differently so um
that's why I was saying if you would prefer that we just continue to read them it's up to you normally it's just to read through thank you i appreciate it but I ape or or mispronounce a name or a place please be patient with me
so item uh one is a resolution of the council of the township of Montlair affirming designation of the environmental commission as the township's uh green team to lead in the implementation of sustainable Jersey municipal certification i think that's
self-explanatory item two is a resolution authorizing the submission of an application for assistance from the New Jersey Historic Trust so architects RSC uh did an evaluation of police headquarters the estimate the estimate
to make repairs is between 718 and 900 718,000 and 932,000 which is a lot of money so uh we are requesting a $50,000 grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust uh to to prepare a preservation plan for the
building and if funded um that will allow us to create a plan which will then allow us to ask the state for additional funds okay item number three is a resolution awarding a fair and open contract to Continental Fire and Safety for provision of Township Fire Department
fire protection equipment in accordance with New Jersey state contract um it's for $19,791.73 it is a federal grant um that's funded through the um assistance to firefighters grant so there's two parts to the grant one was for training and one was for equipment so this is uh
I believe the training already took place um this is uh for equipment purchases necessary for the fire department mr marks your question is there any issue with this not being it's reimburseable grant it is a reimburseable grant is there any issue
with it not being reimbursed by the feds because of what's going on in the grant world or you just probably don't know i am not aware of it in other instances the commissioner of the state department of uh health uh and and the commissioner of the state department of environmental
protection um when in in my former job just before I left we were receiving letters for various grants that we had received that the state as as you know the state of New Jersey is suing the federal government over grants that were made that were then rescended so with
regard to those grants that were at least in the town of Cornney that we had received we had received letters um fortunately it was for grants that we hadn't encumbered money against um and it's basically for those particular instances it was we had to issue stop
work orders that that is not something that I am aware of with regard to this grant so I think we're in safe harbor as far as spending the money and and seeking reimbursement just a question for you do do you recall whether such a letter would come to the person who
applied for the grant like in some instances it's a staff member that applies for the grant or does such a letter come to the township manager so that you'd know right away what was going on maybe you might not recall but I'm just curious to make sure that you know we hear about this before we spend
money if it's not going to be reimbursed um just something I believe the health officer in Cornney brought it to my attention before I came here okay can I can I just ask then the the wording of this resolution where it says
Um the total amount of this agreement shall not exceed $109,791 subject to the appropriation of sufficient funds in the year 2025 temporary adopted municipal budget otherwise the contract cannot exceed the amount available for the year 2025 so
I'm just curious like if it's grant money why is it phrased that way um I'm this is just a question that I I'm just curious oh Chief Duncan great so to your question Council Lman good
evening everyone good evening um well our contact that we use um for the federal grants um they pretty much informed us that there shouldn't be any issue with receiving uh any reimbursements for the grant uh that this is this last we've been the grant
total was $338,000 I believe so we have been reimbursed all along you know as we've made purchases uh Mr marks is correct the training was completed last year the last portion of grant is just funding the equipment purchase and we're done so
once this is passed that reimbursement will be submitted and we have not been we've been kind of as assured as you can be that there shouldn't be an issue with receiving any money um now what was your question i'm sorry mine was just the way that it's worded here where it says the
total amount of this agreement shall not exceed 109,000 subject to the appropriation of sufficient funds in the 2025 temporary adopted municipal budget it it's a it's obvious it sounds like there are funds so that's where I just was a little I'm not sure exactly why it
was worded that way you know purchase department worded that um yeah it's not a big deal it was Yeah it just kind of So I mean this is the last portion of the grant once this money is expended the $338,000 will be you know exhausted
great thank you for being here thank you yeah I may miss Ralph just one moment councelor Toller yeah I just And maybe Miss Ralph is going to answer Council Birmingham's question but this quote that's attached is probably why it's written this way when you're doing
resolutions you have to get a quote from the vendor they give you the amount and that's how you type it up here so if it says 109791.73 that's this paperwork here is the actual quote that was sent in so it matches the resolution on top but it's
fine i don't think they can make it more i know what you're saying you're fearful about the note no I'm just curious like from my reading of this not nowhere in in the resolution is a grant mentioned the grant is only mentioned in the in the note that you would read so that's
all I was just curious why you would why we wouldn't be mentioning the grant in the um the resolution itself but it's M it's a standard language plus even the grants get inserted into the budget so whether it's
no yeah it just thank you manager marks okay the next item is uh item four resolution awarding a fair and open contract to SHI uh for the provision of township water utility CCTV surveillance system upgrades in accordance with Bergen County
Cooperative Pricing System contract BC-24-38 um the contract is for $96,23185 which includes $35,000 $35,338.50 50 for the Grove Street pump station and
$60,000 $60,893.35 for the Wong uh Avenue pump station may I thank you councelor Toller yes so paragraph 5 i'm not sure if this amount is right where it says 109791.73 it's the same amount for the
previous resolution i think that should say it's in the fifth whereas should that say 96231.85 yes I believe so okay the next item uh item five resolution appointing Steven D marks as fund commissioner representing the Township
of Montlair on the Garden State Municipal Joint Insurance Fund board of commissioners yes Mayor oh yes um Deputy Mayor I just wanted to know if this is something that has to be um acted upon tonight
well um the the GIF meets monthly it's usually the third Wednesday of the month um so if uh if it's not acted upon um then Monontlair um I don't think we'll have a representative before the before
the GIF so it's a okay so I move i second discussion roll call please deputy Mayor Anderson um council William oh he has to go okay deputy Mayor Anderson yes
councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams absent mayor Baskerville yes item number six is a resolution author authorizing refund of escrow account
balances these are for from four applications that were um seen by the uh planning board item seven is a resolution of the mayor and council of the township of Montlair Essex County state of New Jersey authorizing the mayor and clerk
to execute a contract with GPI for design engineering for the Glen Ridge Avenue cycle track this is a um grant-f funed uh opportunity uh by the Federal Highway Administration 2023 transportation alternatives program and
it is for $330,11829 uh for preliminary design engineering may I councelor Toller yes thank you um I thought a while back when this was presented to us Miss Tally is still here i thought we were going to have some community meetings before we decided to accept this grant because we talked
about spending this kind of money um and then possibly having to redo it again and I know you said the owner of Lacawana would then be responsible but this is grant money and do we know we're getting this for certain yes we've already received the grant money we have received it we've Well we it's a
reimburseable grant we've been awarded the grant money this is the contract to uh with the design firm uh that's funded by the state so uh I know you wanted to see some preliminary plans we don't have any preliminary plans until we have the
engineer on board to do the survey do the preliminary plans do the community outreach all of that's involved in this uh contract with GPI right and I thought our discussion a few meetings ago was that we were going to do that part first
before we did this so I'm just trying to make it make sense i'm not quite sure what you're talking the previous um we were going to do the community outreach first is what I thought we discussed here and councelor Damato would you like to weigh in on this or you have anything to add
um as I said when we talked about this whenever it was months ago um my biggest concern here is just simply the dollar cost even though we're not paying it i guess it's NJ dot so there's no counterparty risk or whatever you would
call it like risk of default there's no what risk of default there it's right no essentially you need to have the data the information and that's what the engineer will have the information to talk about the alternative right now i'm just saying that my you know we've just
passed a complete treat ordinance and as I said like we have to be sure that we can do the work that we need to do and I'm worried that we set a benchmark of by my calculation it was something like $500 a linear foot for design work on a
bike path when in my mind you know this guy I'll paint you I'll do the work for $500 a foot and be happy so I'm not saying you know I I just it's an emotional thing of just you know I feel like and when we set that as a benchmark
there's just there's sort of um a moral hazard as they say in economics of like we're going to end up using that as a benchmark later on for our work and then we'll never have bike lanes because we figure out it costs $2 million a mile just to plan them so it's not your fault
i'm not No I just This is a cycle track it's a different kind there's different kinds of bike lanes this is a cycle track and it will require moving some of the curbs a couple of feet okay so that's why it's a little bit more complicated than just painting it which is what we did on the first phase so um
didn't we spend money on uh Glen Ridge and Forest already and this is back on this survey to be done again or is that it ends at Forest it but no we we did that well not this administration it was done in the past I thought on Glen Ridge and Forest for one block bike lane but
it's now listed on page 31 of this that was phase one phase one we used uh CDBG funds on a previous council was for that first phase that you see between um Forest and Bloomfield Avenue phase two
will take it from Bloomfield from Forest Street all the way to where the Lacawana Plaza redevelopment area starts phase three will be the require uh a requirement of the redeveloper to put that in and eventually future phases
will connect it to the Essex Hudson Greenway councelor Lachman yeah I guess I'm going to say the same thing that I said the last meeting and it's kind of I'm with um councelor Toller on this to me this looks like we're planning a bike
lane that goes nowhere and Lacawana Plaza is not going to be built for many years yet and we we don't know what'll happen in the meantime so you have this bike lane already on Glenidge Avenue that is used as a parking spot for basically trucks and whatever nobody I
have never seen anybody use that as a bike lane i walk around a lot it just seems like if we're going to have $330,000 let's look at a realistic place where we could put a bike lane like a street that you know a long linear street rather than the center of town i
know the idea of it is to eventually hook up with the Essex County Greenway and that's a great idea but at this point and years from now you know this would be worn out maybe or it just strikes me as not the right spot for this and I I don't know how it was
chosen and you're going to be moving curbs over where we have Crane Park where you have the you know the park that was built up there potentially i know it hasn't been set in stone but that just so we all know we have a million dollars separate to build the
bike lane that was all done by the previous council if this council does not want to proceed with that then proceed with what the million dollar construction cost the project that to build it here in Glenidge Avenue yes oh boy this is just the engineering it just
feels wasteful it just feels waste whether you know because if you're saying we use community development block grant for phase one which that money really could have went someplace else to and that was a council decision i understand I understand so is this transferable to another location now we're going to tear it up no it
absolutely is not it's just this Glenidge Avenue location yes yes it was a very extensive grant application put in three years ago i I guess it was put in when Lacawana was going to happen right when
we thought Lacawana would be passed and it would go forward then the developer would do his redevelopment was approved this was built into the redevelopment what's the spending timeline on this i mean do is there a timeline that we have to spend the grant money probably pretty soon because we got the
grant money from the federal government two years ago this is how long it takes to get state money to do the design your is the money here in our account now absolutely not it's all reimburseable all reimburseable okay i'm just uncomfortable as a council people look
at us and say "Wow you spent all this money on a bike lane that goes nowhere what are you thinking?" And they don't understand all the details that you're telling us which makes sense well that's what I'm saying if this if you do not want to proceed with this let me know cuz it's a lot of work it's a lot of
work it's a lot of money back it's a lot of money i'm sorry excuse me so we don't we have a million dollars um to spend we've got a grant award for a million dollars for construction total engineering which is
close to $600,000 with all the different phases and so right it has to be done in phases and this is all to connect us with the rest of the the greenway so right I don't see an issue if we have a million dollars in grant money that we have we
have available to spend on this very expensive phase of the project can I guess I don't really reimburseable yes councelor Lachman and then councelor Toller janice uh could could this grant money be spent
on a bike lane that starts closer to the the um starting point of the greenway and work your way back it cannot make sense because when we applied for it we had to say exactly where it was the application is for okay you know and exactly we had to come up with a cost
estimate exactly what needs to be done uh so you can't just put it for a different location well it's the same principle you're trying to make a bike lane that goes to the Essex County Greenway and if you start at with the entrance to the greenway and work your way back up to Bloomfield Avenue unfortunately the previous council
wanted to start at Bloomfield Avenue and work that it way back towards where the greenway is going to be and there's no way we could talk to the grant we need to ask if we can talk to the grant you know what i can apply for a new grant no that's I can't take this grant and put
it someplace else you can't amend the grant application to look for a different different spot manager Marks oh sorry um from personal experience the transportation alternatives uh program is extremely competitive so it's based
on applications that were submitted I'm sure years ago so at this point it's either you know accept and move forward with the with the funding and the project as is or turn the money back there's no there's no the the DOT or in federal highway there's no asking for a
redo like oh can we use it over here it's either you know proceed or not proceed yeah you know the applications are out right now for the next phase i haven't done that because we have to get started on this phase but that's the lead time to get these things done uh
with grant money is is years is years yeah thank you J i don't mean to sound aggressive towards you i'm just kind of curious about it used to it but but no never mind council Birmingham
no I was going to say that it just strikes me that you know we live in a buildout suburb that's old you know that didn't really incorporate bikes into the thinking and when it was built out um and you know I think
when the Essex Greenway is finished that's going to be amazing and you're going to want to have a way to get down there and I think we are going to need engineering help to to really develop this in the best way and even though
it's a long-term project and it will be a little bit frustrating I think as you're describing to me I believe we do need to have community involvement so I think that should definitely be happening but to me this is something that we should really be taking advantage of because
again it is long term but we are we just finished our complete streets ordinance and so I do think it's worth moving forward in my opinion i agree okay um anyone else council Damato oh I'm sorry
manager did you wish to say something else oh no i I Okay Council Damato I just let's just make sure it's a learning experience and that we learn how to do these things more efficiently and and cheaply so that we can do lots
of them and that we're and that we not double down on a mistake of making a bike lane that people make fun of we need to have a bike lane that inspires people so it will demoralize people if we do it wrong so that's let's just do
it let's do it but let's do it right it goes and this lane won't have to be removed once we once Lacawana goes up is that correct no i was asking Miss Tally thank you yes she answered no I didn't know if you saw
her head she was sitting in the back going like that yep any further discussion okay um so item eight has been removed item nine is a resolution regarding
sustainable land use pledge uh which is a requirement for sustainable Jersey item 10 is a resolution to amend R-22-154 and to remit outstanding invoices to vendor IPS for parking meter
maintenance and credit card fees which is approximately $75,000 uh for maintenance software and $39,000 for credit card transaction fees for a total of $114,000 what number you want that is um item
move to 11 that was Did I skip i'm sorry that was item 10 okay right i don't have any questions item 11 is a resolution authorizing emergency purchase pursuant to NJSA
4811-6 repair of water main break at 89 Walnut Street so it it was a declared emergency uh water main break it cost approximately $16,6162 and was awarded to Montana Construction
um Council Toller yep mike's here right i just I want to make sure like this was submitted back in January for payment they did the work already correct oh yeah the work was done okay so we're just getting the bill now in April is it a reason at the mercy of the
contractor sometimes for the proper paperwork they may send the bill but forget certified payroll so I have to go back to them so sometimes it takes us a little while to get the proper paperwork in place to pay the bill okay thank you you're welcome so item 12 is a resolution renewing the
term of the vision zero task force and extending the membership terms of the vision zero task force um so the re um it's renewed until the first meeting of the complete streets oversight board deputy may you go ahead okay um sorry
thank you um so I I believe we do have to take action on this today because the um the the term expires on April 15th and um so I would like to make a motion to vote on this second
discussion roll call deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lachman yes councelor Toller yes councelor William absent mayor Baskerville yes thank you
so item number 13 is a resolution authorizing award of contract for parks maintenance services for the 2025 season which was bid 25-03 to Custom Care Services LL3
uh for $69,760 for the initial uh year 1 yes um this is to cut grass correct and we don't have staff members in place to do that uh director and then the the
certification of funds is for 75 but the resolution says 69 760 and we're getting into a is this a three-year thing or this is the third term i'm just trying to understand the paragraph here this is the Good evening
um this is the initial uh term the this contract went out to bid twice um there was initially no biders the first goound and on the second round um custom care was the only bidder and this is also yes to supplement the grounds crew that we
have um in the parks division how many people do we have in grounds six okay historically the department had um believe 14
okay um and we're going to enter a three-year term contract for this amount every year or is this that amount for three years we have the option to do three years we do one year at a time um for this is $69,000 for the initial year
ideally we would like to have the staff to not use vend outside vendors yeah um might be cheaper to hire somebody i don't know just throwing it out there do is it hard to hire someone for this type of position
uh it it's it's difficult to find employees but it it would be substantially more expensive okay item number 14 is a resolution awarding a fair and open contract to Tilcon New York Inc and Selian Sun uh general
contracting for township road resurfacing paving and uh curbing services MCCPC um I hashtag number six uh which was the $2.5 million that I had mentioned before so um this is done
under a a purchasing cooperative and uh director Ashley yes oh it was do we know which vendor because it's not broken out on the resolution um I see it's you know two different vendors that's going to do the
work do we know the breakdown of who's getting paid what because it's not identified here so Tilcon will be the paving vendor um Sellian Suns is for the curbing right the breakdown amounts of the 2.5 who's getting paid what so it
depends on the final list of for paving and for curbing the curbing for 2025 is not as extensive in past years but primarily we've been focusing on Harrison Street um then there's a few odds and ends but the majority the line
share of the funding will be going towards Tilcon and the paving okay item number 15 is a resolution authorizing the renewal of a contract with Rich View Consulting for Township Professional Arborist
CY2025-2028 uh we received one proposal um for the third year for $85,000 that's correct so this this is our town arborist um this was uh initially bid out two years ago we had one bidder um
we are satisfied more than satisfied with the uh the work that the arborist has performed and that we're we're asking to have this uh extended for the the rest of the term which would be for three years so the arborist is a vendor not a
employee right the arbiter is a vendor correct okay so how do I get a report from the arborist you'd have to ask me for whatever report you would like we haven't not yet begun the tree planting yet but you're thinking about that site that we we spoke about on
Grove Street and Walnut yes we actually Yes changing that tree thank you and how many um days is he available like how many days does he work so in previous years we had him for one day a week um but we're looking to up that to two days
a week due to the volume and the demand that we're uh seeing for trees okay so that 85,000 covers two days a week correct okay and this is going to be another three-year contract or Yes we're looking to extend it to for three years we like
I said we're very satisfied with his uh service and uh we'd like to keep him on it's it's good for his stability um they he knows the town he knows the trees so we feel it's the
best option for the town it says his hourly rates are included i don't see them i can get you the proposal for the hourly yeah no I'm just reading what the resolution says and it says the hourly rates included in the attached proposal
but I don't see the hourly rates but I won't you can email it to me it's fine so item number 16 is a resolution amending the professional service agreement with interim township attorney Joseph A garcia Esquire uh which is a
30-day extension through April 30th 2025 and an increase in the contract amount from 40,000 to 55,000 mayor yes i believe we have to vote on this tonight we don't have um so move
yeah okay so I would like to make a motion to vote on this second discussion um ju just to my memory and I apologize but where it says his his um agreement
expired on March 31st 2025 wasn't there language in there that said like the 31st or until another Okay so okay so we It's not like we've been without an attorney for 8 days correct okay i just want to
clarify that sorry roll call please deputy Mayor Anderson I'm sorry more discussion i apologize could could we just strike that whereas just so that it doesn't appear in the record as which one whereas Mr garcia's professional services agree agreement expires on
March 31st because I agree with councelor Birmingham i don't think it seems good to just have it in the record if it's false and it's looks like we didn't have an attorney can we can I make a motion to amend to strike that
whereas second this is a discussion item so no no we're going to She just um said it was a matter of urgency so we're voting on it okay it's been It was It wasn't put out to the public so the attorney would know
best if there has to be a motion to amend you have to re notice it no it it's a discussion item so discussion items aren't put out to the public so see yes the discussion items aren't put out to the public because they're
draft deliberative m material um so because it doesn't it hasn't been put out do they still do the motion to amend yeah we just did it okay just making sure okay
um may I I think the issue was I I I think we talked about this the the resolution that where we appointed him is really not very clear um it kind of it says it it says exactly what you
said so um I think it could be interpreted as I but the intent I remember it was to for us to you know start right away with finding uh doing the hiring um the hiring process for the permanent person and having that the
original intent was to have that done within 90 days um but the way the resolution is worded it doesn't really explicitly say that the contract is expiring after 90 days so um I think
that this is just sort of like a not like a CIA but you know just a guarantee that that we're making the intent known that um that the term is going to end at the end of this April and that um he's
going to be paid for the services so then I understand we want to pay him for the services but so then should we amend it expires on I'm just trying to figure out because as as Eric said it or
councelor Demano said it reads like we've been just grammatically it's wrong well it just I he gave me advice the other day so I mean he he he's working he's working yeah he's sick today so you're making a motion to strike yeah just
strike that third whereas if we can and the intent of week two just for purposes of the the cap so that the firm is reimbured for the service form as opposed to for free in perpetuity because obviously a uh an attorney was not yet hired so that's just in the
audience right any other resolution numbers are listed within this one so if anyone had a question they can just search Yep this resolution number in the second paragraph or the one in the first paragraph that shows the original language of the first resolution so take this yeah so I make a motion to strike
the third whereas is there a second second okay so for the amendment that's what I'm calling the role for okay deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor
Lochman yes councelor Toller abstaining sorry about that councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes so uh item 17 is a discussion i'm sorry i'm sorry to interrupt you i just need to call the
actual Okay mhm um so the movement the movement is deputy mayor Anderson and then the second is Williams to adopt the resolution for Joseph A garcia Esquire uh Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor
Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller well I'm sorry abstain councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes
okay thank you so item 17 on the agenda is a discussion item council liaison to civic committees so are we going to discuss it today we already discussed it didn't we go through the rest of the Why don't we
do that i mean the rest of the res we can't just vote oh this is a need to do this tonight or what okay all right yes sir please would you continue to um number 18 thank you so item number 18
is a resolution authorizing township man authorizing township manager as bank signatory oh we need to move this one tonight too um yeah we should do that tonight i would defer to Yeah
so move second discussion yes uh I believe the resolution is also written that it's effective April 1st so and he's already enrolled in the bank correct as a signary Okay discussion there was I was move it
there was a second madam clerk would you do roll call please deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lachman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes
number 19 please um so item 19 is resolution reestablishing the town's arts advisory committee councelor Toller yes um I'd like to make a motion that we move forward with this this is I've
shared it with several council members i've included all the input unless anyone has any questions tonight um I'm really excited about this new uh resolution reestablishing the town's arts advisory committee uh to a cultural
arts advisory committee we have you know we have people ready to be volunteers if you will and um if anyone wants to have any questions or discussion about the language here are you moving it and I'm going to
second that i think I'm excited about it also discussion yes Mayor i have some questions um Council Toller I appreciate you putting this forward um and um I did have the opportunity to look at to look at it more closely i just have a few
questions sure so um I think I was wondering if um anyone from the nonprofit arts community had a chance to look at this and the reason why I'm asking is because um I have a
couple questions so under duties um number six uh yeah um number 6B um I just want to clarify is the intent for them to recommend arts programs that
are township sponsored or just in general it's in general that recommendation came from Daniel uh from the EDC he included the duties there and um I shared it with everyone so this isn't anything to stop any nonprofit
from doing any work we don't have a township cultural arts committee um the township needs to put on some events or work with other nonprofits to do cultural events so this is not aimed to stop other nonprofits from doing events
that are cultural to their beliefs etc um this is just a general general general way to get some work done i mean I do think that um it's it's it's there is a need for the township to um for for the nonprofits to be able to get
support from the township if that's what the intent is yeah it's a pipeline i just um I just I think I was just concerned if if the nonprofits were not um consulted because there's a potential for the township to compete with the nonprofits like you know the Vanguard or
the Essex Theater or other Nope no compet No we wouldn't do that not at all it says to pursue arts related grants that's why I'm asking yeah well the grants would be for events that the township would like to put on it culturally doesn't mean we will be taken away from Vanguard or um the
African-American Heritage Foundation give us some examples right like the Junth Junth celebration that would be something because there is no organization that does that uh Three Kings Day I think that's a group of volunteers that get together and pull their money together uh to put on an
event this is something that the township can actually implement and put on at the township so of of course we could work with other nonprofits but we're not trying to take away from any nonprofits shine if you will okay and my
other suggestion is in 6F maybe not instead of limiting it to murals could we um could we say public art sure oh that's excellent yep i'm sorry yes Council Damato um
just one uh grammar thing or whatever where's the council's economic development subcommittee it's a committee it's not a subcommittee these are committees we are a committee i mean you know it's a committee where do you see that council the motto okay it's a
second whereas in the purpose and intent Oh on the second page um so my my concern here is only I I'm fine with this i mean I would say that in general I feel like we do too
many things you know just the complexity of the township government and what we do is every time we add something it's like another plate in the air this is the least problematic plate we would add you know um but uh but I am a little
concerned that we have a lot of items that were discussion only items that were not in the package that the public saw that we're passing that we don't necessarily need to pass passing you know pro- former things like the bank signatory thing i don't think anybody's upset about but uh and the
vision zero task force you know um uh uh expiration was a lapse in service that we were preventing and the same thing with with the attorney but this is something that it feels like to me um there is no fire you know there's
nothing that's really urgent and B it's just we're moving something that was literally just said a discussion item and voting on it and at a certain point you know that's that's not great given also that our agenda tonight had some other mistakes like about the um the com
you know the agenda only comments and other things that you know a lot of people who supported us wanted our agendas to be clean and to be upfront so it's nothing against the piece of legislation just saying that that um I would like to not be moving everything
off the discussion agenda would you object to moving this um I Yeah I would i would like to get this approved i mean I've emailed everyone many many times um I even asked for it to be put on the last meeting for whatever reason it did not make the
agenda i don't know why um this is a very small ask for a very small purpose if you will yeah to get started so well then I would say as a then I would just like to have a discussion now for a few minutes sure or minute about why it is that things that we asked to go on the
agenda are not on the agenda that's the biggest issue for me huge issue so I had the vision zero task force extension which I wrote and I submitted and I don't know if the attorney saw it we did have a little bit of of of a a break in in service there but I
mean I was surprised to see it as a discussion item and so we had to break the you know we just it's truth and advertising it said we were only going to discuss it so I would like to know why i know that the clerk is out uh um
and I think the two people that could probably answer that best are not here unless the manager could answer that but I'm not sure that you can um Mr dominguez do you have any answer for that or should we hold that until the two people The manager is done through
the ch I'm sorry the agenda is done through the township manager's office i know there was some transition so I don't know if it could have been the emails between Mr lola and him receiving emails i don't I don't know who you sent it to they're in transition um right now
the the team in terms of who's doing the agenda and and I asked too because there's several things that I thought were going and so from what I understand the um agenda has moved from the clerk's
office mostly and has gone up to the manager's office and they're trying to work it out and it's it's a new thing i understand and Miss Edwards I think who was doing it is doing it with great rigor and cheer and I'm not throwing shade on on her or anybody i'm just
saying mostly we had talked early on that we would as counselors would see what was going on with the agenda before it arrived with a police car at my front door on a Friday night i would like to know what is actually happening and we were seeing now police car didn't come
Friday night right the police car came Saturday because the agenda wasn't ready okay well in any case it's just a reminder that we should try to work on the process so that we're not getting mistakes okay i heard a may I and I
heard a so I just wanted to Okay as the operations committee myself council Williams council Birmingham we did talk about the agendas um and perhaps if Mr marks has some time in the next few days it can be via Zoom uh early on in our
tenure we well I created a cuto off date memo that Mr leola followed for perhaps a meeting or two after that i don't know what happened um I think if we get those cut off dates or you recommend the cut off dates so that we can get things earlier than we've been receiving and
that would be very helpful we you know it's just as you know it would be a memo to your department heads for them to turn their items in at a certain time so that we can get our stuff a little earlier because they do come Friday 10 11:30 at night and that's very late so
that's part of the problem that or the question that you had there about why things aren't making it it's it has to do with the cuto off dates that are implemented by the manager we should just be able to see a draft of it and I know that that early on in our tenure
they created a folder one drive folder with with the ordinances and resolutions and and in the last couple of days that Mr paula was here he said no one ever looked at it and you know and we just we so you know maybe it's on us but if we
can just see it before it's printed um we would be in a much better p place councilman I I would just like to ask maybe Mr markx has a better idea given his experience of what we the best way to handle the agenda just as a comparison to what we've been thinking i
would just say that I I take criticism and and critiques to heart so there's opportunities to do better and I I promise you we will do better okay there you may yes i'm sorry council Williams so um
Deputy Mayor I want to ask a question because this this has come up and I heard some folks speak about it tonight about what the town's obligation is to publish the
agenda what the time frame is i I keep hearing the the agenda the violation of uh open public meetings act because the agenda is not published within 48 hours is that the case because I I keep
hearing conflicting things i I I I heard that once you publish all of the dates of the meetings then that is the required that is in compliance with with the law and the town is under no
obligation even though we do it as a as a custom to put the agendas on online um within a certain time frame so I I don't know if you could clear this clear this up is your question regarding the
actual agendas or the items in the agenda agenda being available for the public um so well a on both a pine on both uh the agenda and and the resolutions so the resolutions should be provided to the public on notice exactly
as you had indicated um with regard to the agenda items these are routine items are not don't require any type of notice as far as the actual uh items involved i'm not sure if the
uh Mr manager with your experience in doing it what you've seen with regard to how it's done in other municipalities but um so in other municipalities in my experience we would advertise the items that we knew that would definitely be on
the agenda but inevitably there were always items added and and the mayor and council respectively would reserve the right to add items to the agenda after publication i think you start the 48 hour window is what you're Well are you
I'm I'm sorry go ahead and I'm not an attorney so I mean I I could just tell you past practice without appining on you know open public meetings act right so that I mean at a certain point maybe the next meeting or in between the meetings or something like that if you could kind of track down what the
correct answer is here just because folks come to the microphone and we get emails about violating open public meetings act and you know it's fine if you know if we're doing something wrong i I want to know about it and I want to correct it but it it's just my
understanding from what we've been told that there is not a 48 hour window in which these things have to be provided to to the public why do we handle it this way what we can do is do an outline or template for everyone
to have discussion for the next meeting that way if the public has questions as well we can handle in that regard if that's something you want discussion no I mean that that's that's the there should be something in in law that dictates what our obligation is to the
uh be in compliance with open public meetings act so that's all I wanted i I didn't Yeah did you get the response from um Attorney Garcia because I know he see he sent um his opinion as our um
now sitting interim attorney and I respected that he would not have put it in writing and sent it out to us and so unless we uh decide now that we'd like to seek another legal opinion I I felt that he was telling us No I just I just
wanted for the record for the folks that are watching okay because they weren't privy to I get to ask okay thank you we have to advertise our meetings by so many days is that correct so then the question becomes do we have to have our agendas online the same way we have to
advertise in the newspapers within the 48 hours that's really the question not so much the resolutions and stuff available um uploading it for people to view and submit questions that's not what we want the ask is the 48 hours at the bottom that's the bottom
line and the agenda items should be posted 48 hours they should okay there's the answer that's that's all right we'll we'll to the extent known that's what the That's what What did you say to the extent known so if in that you have to
post it change or be amended as your point exactly but when you post it and then you bring other things up you're not violating the OPMA correct right we're not talk I'm not I'm not talking about other things to be added i'm talking about if this was our final
agenda right now say on a Wednesday and our meeting is Friday this should be posted 48 hours of course we can add stuff to it we're I'm not talking about the add to i'm just talking about whatever agenda we have should this be posted 48 hours prior to our council
meeting yes which we always then if we need to add something we can yes this is something has to be up 48 hours even if it's just one piece of paper yes we post at the I don't want to beat Council Williams thank you i I don't want to
beat this to death so it's legit 48 hours it's not business days or anything like that it's 48 hours okay so it's not it's not Friday you know it it's it's 48 hours before the meeting yes we usually
do more than 48 hours okay and that's that's a customary thing that we do but it's not a violation of and I know folk I'm going to get an email or something about this but I'm I'm not trying I just want to make it clear for everybody what the actual law
is you know right okay thank you okay so where are we okay deputy Mayor and then councelor Toller is trying to vote on this tonight right wait yes unless someone has some more questions we can
go into deputy mayor does sure i just wanted to respond to I'm just adding on to the the secondary conversation about the agenda okay um so as councelor Damato mentioned early on in our tenure we developed we created
this agenda creation procedure which I believe I shared with you so maybe I would just like to suggest that um perhaps I don't know I mean if it you want to do it with the operations committee maybe figure out a way to make
that work or um I mean for one thing the agenda creation document included a template agenda um in which we had several of us had expressed that we wanted to have committee reports be a standing item on every meeting agenda um
I'm not going to put that on here for every um thing i'm that's not going to be a part of my plan so that's what was on the agenda creation document so um I'm just suggesting
that Mr marks um maybe if you could help us get this process smoother that would be really And what committee are you now suggesting that this communications matter goes to i think councelor Toller mentioned the operations committee um
yeah I I submitted my meeting notes and shared with you all i hope you had a chance to review them yeah we did um I think what's happening with the creation and preparation of the agenda it falls under the manager and he executes it and delivers it to us if there's something
that we wish to tweak then we should recommend that to him for consideration but it's ultimately his office that uh assembles the agenda and gets it out to us so we can recommend say new cuto off dates or um you know identifying it in a
different way the way we receive our agenda the way it's stacked up um but it that onus falls on the township manager and his department so I don't think he can tell us how to do it no we we he actually has a document that we all commented on that yeah and if he wants
to use that he can but he may have another preferred way of assembling the agenda to get it to us but is this an assembly problem or is this a problem with us not knowing what's on the agenda and and not getting on the agenda okay
both but there if I may just two suggestions you know they're just things that we identified that I think are very common sensical that I think a lot of people would like to see so for example I think it said in there that if you add things after the 48 hour rule if it is showing
up in in a thing like this that any late item would would have a box around it so people would be able to see that it is on there it would also say who was the person who the sponsors of the bill like you do in any other most other
legislative bodies so on this one it would say Toller and somebody else so we would know where it's coming from i would also like to see to the extent that we can stick to the committee structure and I agree it's not perfect and there's some you know uh leakage
between committees and and the topics that they cover but you know things that come from the administration should appear should go to a heads up to a committee head where it's very much you know uh directly in their in their purview just as you know
the process like that so that people are not surprised by what they see and because it just leads to alienation not some terrible thing and and the last thing is that the law is one thing but we should be aiming way higher than the law i mean you know it's not against the
law to have you know pineapple on a pizza but you know you shouldn't do it so okay so where are we tonight um councelor Toller is asking that we expedite this and vote on this tonight with the recommendation for public art
to go on under number six item F is what council and you moved that and there was a second we didn't move that the first one okay if I'm not mistaken anybody else want to talk any more about
um whether this should be voted on this evening or not if not may I have a a motion please i'll make a motion i'll second it this is for the amendment yes roll call please just let me just write it down so
then I can fix it uh where it's number six F to review the installation substance and management of public art murals and public art mhm okay deputy Mayor Anderson
um the the amendment right for the amendment yes yeah yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato yes councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes
may we need a motion and now to adopt i have a movement and I I have a second so uh I'll call the role roll call please deputy Mayor Anderson to adopt as amended i can't yeah um yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor
Damato abstain councelor Lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you moving along so item number 20 is an ordinance to
amend section 127 disorderly conduct of the town of the code of the township of Montlair New Jersey um this matter involves social affairs permits and or petition of extension of uh licensed premises
we have three number 20s here two number 20s i only have one number 20 on my One of them says "Be it ordained by the mayor and the council of township and county of Essex at Montlair code 127-6B
uh consumption in public areas unlawful which is not the same as this um yes one of the ordinance was a resolution so it's just I think it got jumped around somehow on here um do do they go with one another so we
have um a page that um has some whereas while the senator is that the one cuz I have a 20 yeah okay this um number
R25098 is also listed as number 20 correct but it's a resolution um but it's and then the other number 20 is an ordinance yes ma'am to amend correct
so no this is about executive session this is about disorderly conduct so I think the agenda might have a typo but I've got look look the two 20s i've got this 20 and that 20 okay so what 20 does everybody have
because I have two 20s like this yep everybody has these two right now so be disorderly conduct oh no but this one isn't an executive session no on the new agenda it's 20 so this feeds this
okay so we're going to do disorderly conduct as is on the um orange page number 20 ordinance to amend section 127 of the code of the township of Montlair disorderly conduct and that would
be this one um yeah so it's replacing which ordinance it's not it's not it's just unlawful it's just
amending amending a section i know about 21 i don't know about what these are mhm i did 21 i don't know maybe maybe you need to do 20 in order to do 21
okay well anyway since we're not going to vote on this I don't know maybe and um I don't know that the attorney can tell us if we have to do number 20 in order to do 21 the um amended amendment to the ordinance
amend section 234 which is number 21 um on our paper and number 21 on the white paper here is for discussion item and that has to do with the consumption of alcohol um not not alcohol the
consumption of beer only having beer gardens in specific places in um the park for um township events that are hosted by in our parks and that was put on so that we
can discuss it discuss no it was it was specifically a discussion item why um mayor yes sir why do you only want to Why is this only
limited to beer uh no wine no because um from what I understand and um so Michelle Camarada and Avery Austin and myself the police and
um Denise Sawgo a whole group of people that represented everybody here talked about this and the feeling is that with the wine now you're having um possibly more containers and they're trying to just have the tap app on tap to prevent
having excess you know trash or or glass or whatever it is and so it was just for ontap beer that was the discussion that was had at that time yeah can I say something yes yeah so this arose out of the uh Monontlair Brewery asking about
this they sent an email and suggested this is that correct yes okay so I have a problem with that because it seems like we're directing an ordinance to specifically help one particular company or business no that that that wasn't the case at all i mean it's just like if you
have you know we're talking about Clary Anderson Ice Rink and just because a certain person comes it doesn't mean that Clary Anderson ice rink is now just for that person that that bought it up she bought it to the table but it's for anyone any any brewery yeah yeah yeah my
point is that why would you not include wine as well because it sounds like it's we're having the discussion now okay and I misspoke it doesn't it doesn't describe any beverage in here at all that just
Okay so that we're having the discussion now i'm telling you what I know i gave the same notes that I gave each and every one of you a copy of to attorney Garcia who was kind enough to try to write this up so that we could have a
starting point for the discussion some people said they wanted to have you know X Y and Z committee i expected that we would have had you know very aggressive discussions by at least three of our committees by now because everybody said we want to do it we want to do it so I
said that's great every committee that wants to do it do it then we'll come back and we'll have a discussion since maybe that has not happened let's begin the discussion it's just on for discussion and you know it may turn out that nobody's interested in any of it
and then it doesn't move forward excuse me madame mayor this is actually so someone can get the permit to serve is that correct it's not no it's for them to have the beer garden they have to they have to pay um a price they have to
pay the state there's three different license they have to get to do that yeah okay so so this ordinance and this again this is the first time I'm seeing it or or formally fully um but it doesn't limit
it to beer it just says consumption of alcoholic beverages within an enclosed area so I guess to me I maybe we don't need all alcoholic beverages but
um like beer seltzer cider wine um maybe do you want to list them is that what you're saying um yeah like cuz you know if you're gluten-free for example and you don't want to drink
beer maybe you want seltzer instead that could be an option um but I guess that's already allowed isn't it beer wine selzer and hard cider period maybe but like yeah do we want people doing shots of tequila no tequila
yeah we do but no it's why not i mean well you I mean just right now with the by with our laws right now you can't drink bring your own spirits into a restaurant right now it's limited to
beer and wine and you know cers and whatever case would be you can't you can't bring spirits in right right Madam Cler but this is just talking about the park if I may mhm the ordinance if I'm not mistaken was was uh addressed
because when people obtain social affairs permits they're not allowed to sell alcohol in the parks right this would allow them to sell the alcohol what they're allowed to sell is regulated through the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission so I don't know if
that's something you could put in the ordinance because it's not regulated by us well you what is being said is now they will be able to have a beer garden in a park like um usually the Monontlair African-American Heritage Foundation does it initially Wayne Park they're not
allowed to have a beer garden there now they would be allowed to do so right and so the um driving factor was that um many like some of the other groups that do things like the Jazz Fest or Outlair
or whatever they get uh permits and they are able to have a beer garden and she was saying that there are a lot of people that are doing you know AAPI and other people that are doing these events in the park and they just want to be able to have a beer garden and it was
very specific and And I remember at that that meeting I know u Miss Camarada was you know very strongly against anything other than the beer gardens um and that's all the discussion that we had was that the same types of things that
were allowed you know with the other ones that are not in our parks that that it would be nice to do it and we found out it was just a matter from what I understand of our permits so yes um so first of all I do think that this is an
example of a of a kind of a thing that can fall out of a committee legitimately in the same way that I was doing all the marijuana stuff you know which sounds bad but you know it is uh and I would say that um there are I would like to work with
you on this because there are actually two other alcoholic beverage things and I think that we need we could look at all some of of of additional things that could be put together if we're opening the ordinances about it so that we look
at it comprehensively and the two others that um that I've talked with people about uh involved they're both small changes seemingly small uh but it's good to look at them together one is
um that we have a regulation a local regulation on uh the Sunday opening hours for when you can have a drink in a bar which are uh broken so I'd like to see the laws yeah right just shocker um
uh to to change it from noon to 10:00 a.m when people have people change people have people need a bloody Mary at 10:00 in the morning please this is the real world and what was the other one that was and then the other one is the possibility of having of erasing one
line in our code that prohibits we're a town that prohibits club licenses and there are some clubs that would benefit from this you know um Elks and um um Columbus Commonwealth yeah exactly well
they have very very tight regulations at the state level but I'm saying that you know it would be good whether EDC or somebody could have a a focused look at some of these things altogether and um and if you would like
to to do that with the permission or with the uh understanding of the EDC I would be happy to work with you on that i don't know why it would be taken from the subcommittee which was Miss Toller and myself and now it sounds as though you're volunteering so we have an ad hoc
committee here and this was specifically the group that we pulled together that had all of the um the um heads of the departments it was basically centered on the fact that this was going to involve
our parks i certainly am not opposed to looking at Sunday liquor hours or club license but but this the people that came to the table and talked about that even in terms of you know the cleanup and and we looked at the costs and we
looked at I mean it was a lot of um time that went into the actual um evaluation of just this specific parks thing um because it was in the parks but I'm open to doing that so that would be you can
say it's about parks but I think it's more about liberalizing you know these some of these ABC regulations that we have control over locally which is not a lot of them so I'm just So then we can um I can be the ad hoc committee and we can
um discuss those other two things at some point in time also 10:00 a.m sunday well can I ask can I have a question so right just let me finish that my hope and thought is that with the
nice weather coming that we are um able to move forward on specifically the one for you know the vendors in the parks because it be great the residents you know would like to have it and many of the vendors uh would too and we we spoke
to other vendors so it did start with a particular one but this is not like any one particular individual um I have a question so I don't want to wait on whether we're going to be able to get you know Sunday hour moved up to that or
whatever in order to bring this back and to have a vote on that but I certainly am open to to looking at the others as well may I yes i think Miss um councelor Law first and then I'll come that way i just wanted to make the suggestion that clearly uh the clerk's office might have
some input that they could give to this the clerk's office was very active particip I have a list and I sent you each and every one of you the name of everybody was in there so the clerk's office was very much there so may I Yes
just wonder how much are the permits going to be if this gets approved for social affairs in park that's not a fee paid to us we do um the police department signs off we sign off but it's ultimately paid to the state which I believe is 75 or $1005
the social affairs permit that's for nonprofits they're only allowed to obtain 12 permits a year so if we if we agree if we agree and we change the language from alcohol beverages to be beer wine salsa hard cers that means our
summer could be lit here is that what we're saying i mean I mean there's a lot of events going on like um Junth you know there's a hard cider guy that wants to come and do a tasting and he wouldn't be able to do
that without this Ironbound cider wants to be a vendor for Junth festival he can't do it because we don't have this type of permit in place for social affairs and parks correct the only thing I would say and correct me if I'm wrong but I remember looking at this I thought
that the permit for not if you're not a nonprofit is like $500 it's and it goes to the state with the state which to that point and I because I think you alluded to this in an email what are our guarantees that people will be cleaning
up from this because I think we talk about like that money will go to the state and then our parks department are we pay you know will be paid overtime to be cleaning up or you know correct what is the excellent question and we talked about that so the
the discussion that we had is about the fact that there's going to be an area that's ced off however you know big and you are only to go in with your wristband on and the appropriate people standing around you have to stand in that area and have your little beer
because again we always talk about beer and put your right in there whatever you can't leave that area with your cup you can't freely walk around the park and heads up you know you have to drop so it's going to drop there the larger discussion is the fact that whenever we
have these events in the parks it seems as though our township is getting hit very heavily with overtime and with people but it's not because of you know this we haven't had this just the fact that when the nonprofits do these great things in the
park we're we're paying for the the overtime and that is it's a heavy lift and so you know that's something that we have to decide because they have to bring on extra team overtime and then you know maybe sometimes a day after depending and they do an amazing job we
know that but when you're talking about huge things like out Monontlair Jazzfest and the big thing the AAPI and that's a lot of um overtime and it's not covered they don't pay for it so that means the township we're paying for that but I
don't believe that this will be affected in in a large way other than you know however many people are dropping their little cup or whatever in the plastic bag it's not like the rest of the people that are going to the food trucks and throwing food all over but those are all
things that Yeah we have to consider them mayor yes i I just want to be clear that I think the I'm reading this and it says incidental to the approved use of any town of the town parks so it's not
like this is the intent of this is not to just allow sales at any time it's only in the parks at any time it's it's not meant to establish a beer garden that's going to be in the park like every week it's only if you know a nonprof like as an example yes you know
nonprofit profit has an event um Montlair Brewery or whatever you know whoever um they want to be a vendor they have to get apply for the peddler's license right um and it all has to be done under the permit that the nonprofit
has to get from the parks department to use the park for the event right so um I just want to I just want I I want to look at the language again just to make make sure that it's crystal clear that that is the sole intent of this y and um
yeah I mean I just just from prior experience like for example we have the lantern festival in Edgewan Park um I mean a lot of like I'll just say from that experience the the volunt like the volunteers from the organization like pick up the trash so it really depends
on like the organization that's running the event as far as like what additional resources are you know are needed from the township so may I yes council Lola if we agree with this and move forward with it are we able to amend the permit
application to make the vendor responsible for their trash so that's the talk we're having about the cleanup and who's going to monitor or can we admin say that they can only use cups or something to that effect what does the
actual application say for them to cuz so you would have to speak with um Miss Camarada because she would be I I wasn't in the discussion miss Bermirez Neves was um so I'm not too sure about the permit fee that they will be issuing as
far as the social affairs permit from the state that is a state application that we cannot amend and I will say that the state already it's it's something that already happens that's what everyone gets when they close Bloomsville Avenue you know is just putting in the parks as far as the
cleanup that would have to be for Michelle saying we can maybe not of course we can't amend the state application but the parks application that people fill out to use our parks if they're going to be serving a beer garden or a hard selzer we the governing
body we can add a sentence if you will or a checkbox to make that vendor responsible for cleanup i believe you i believe you can i think you can even impose a fee if Yeah we can impose a fee there you go but why yeah but but on
that matter I'm just saying we're sitting here talking about a fee for a beer garden which in my mind that's going to be the most controlled and I don't know I guess all of you have been to some of these events and they had a beer garden that's the most
controlled area where people are pretty much just want to just drink their little tiny sip of beer put it in the trash can and then you know you have to show that you have nothing in your hands whatever no children no underage people in there so I don't think there's going
to be a um cleanup issue regarding these this little thing i think that the larger discussion there is having the the events and certainly I'm not trying to impose additional fees on the wonderful nonprofits and others that are
hosting events that are community building and bringing us all together but that's the heavy lift lift and when you have the food trucks and so even if you say to you know well you're going to have food trucks so now you have to have some additional cleanup that still is
not going to take away the cleanup that we're going to have to have because it's never going to be enough people are always going to drop their things so then the question is do we want to at some point in time talk about adding on a cleanup fee on top of whatever the
park things are i think that might um prohibit a lot of people that are doing great things in the park but I'm saying that would be the discussion there okay i So obviously this has to be rewritten i wanted to get conversation and I would like to if anybody wants to write their
things and and send it that would be great because yeah the weather's getting bad i don't see you know um a need to to hold it up unless people just don't want to do it and then we just move on to you know something else
i'm okay with it if we just change one but I I like the idea uh that that all that alcoholic beverages are created equal i mean it's just ethanol so saying beer only I mean we're or
actually a wine drinking town so we can do um we can do alcohol on tap and alcohol on tap in a um plastic cup i mean a paper cup then because the idea was because it's on tap and because it's going into these little paper cups it's
going to be less junk around so they they didn't want to add like glass that was a big discussion and I don't know that much about how alcohol is served um but there was a discussion about with the wine you would have to have glass these are the things that I remember that plastic glass plastic glass it's
the same thing but what do you put it in you put it on tap or how do you do the beer pour it from a box or box oh box beer i mean box wine okay okay so yeah then let's have that discussion we have our ad hoc group and um cheers we'll
bring this back when it's ready thank you okay moving along okay next cheers box one y'all look funny so mayor on uh on my
agenda that was item number 20 um I item number 21 is an ordinance to amend section 234 i'm sorry oh yeah that's correct i think we're up to like 22 22 I believe was already addressed uh that's the overnight
parking on various streets oh great so 23 correct so item 23 is a resolution authorizing purchase contract with Dan sees and Sun Inc through the Morris County P uh cooperative purchasing uh
council pursuant to NJSA4A11-10 A1 uh which is a $200,000 contract for traffic striping on roadways including uh repainting stop bars and uh school zone markings that was alluded to before when
we were discussing the um complete streets ordinance okay so should we go back to discussion item number 17 we can but I just have a question on 23 um do we have a quote or anything that
ensures that this is the amount we're going to spend and we're not going to exceed this 200,000 great that is the not to exceed amount okay so we don't anticipating anticipate spending the
full 200,000 but it's within the realm of possibility depends on how many streets we get to pave yeah so how do we break this down i mean it's a price per linear foot and what streets have been identified do we know what streets or
Yes it's the paving list and it's also the all the schools so the school zones we're looking to increase the u the renew the school zone lettering and also do daylighting at the intersections so
um this is uh like the park and lraine bumpouts that we've done for curbing with the delineators that's the the type of uh uh striping that we're looking to do in the school zones okay awesome daycare centers too or just uh for now
it's just the the schools okay thank you thank you okay so we're at the discussion item for council lea zones to civic um committees
discussion can I can I just address how this came about i mean I know I talked about it last go around um basically I you know I sent the list of the uh civic committees to everybody i asked them to pick their first choice i I uh gave them
their first choice for the most part then I got comments saying that uh maybe we should have two people on each as a liaison to each committee or commission or board um so that's where we're at so if I since I'm speaking I think there
only needs to be one person so that would be my point of view um thank you Councelor Laughman for putting this list together and following a spreadsheet for those that responded um I think we should at least have two
just as a backup counselor if you will doesn't mean that counselor they have to be present in every meeting but I think it just makes for a easier uh lift if you will that you have more than one counselor assigned to an advisory committee um I believe the past
administration had the same thing for example um landlord tenant under the last administration was um Lori Price Abrams and Peter Yakabalis that served as the counselor liaison for that committee i just thinks it make make I think it helps to make it easier lift
for the counselor that we have two i guess we just have a different and I'd like to um go since you went one you went two i'd like to say I think that there's no reason why we can't have three if three people would like to attend um meetings as liaison as long as
there's no more than three i don't understand why we would limit anybody that is very excited to participate in any of these committees and wants to attend the problem that we had during my 12 years when we had three liaones assigned is that people say yes they're
going to go and they never show up for a meeting so you end up with the one person that goes um anyway but if if there are two or even three people that want to go regularly to these meetings I don't understand the downside of
it i don't either it just if someone else chooses to be on a um committee that I have put my name down I will remove my name because I only think one person needs to go so I I have I have enough work without having
to do this as well but I will do it if that's what you know the council decides but if you know if one other person wants to be on one of these commissions or coun uh groups then please be on it and I will not so you're I'm just trying to
understand um so you're thinking that nobody wants to go so it should just be limited to one i think for I think that if it's one then everybody on the committee knows that that's the person who's the council representative
who's accountable to them to get their message to the council it's not it's just very it's just clearer to me and I I don't see why you know two people what does that really add i don't you know I doesn't add as much it doesn't add anything in my point
of view so I just think that having one person is fine like I look at the historic preservation commission I say we don't really need two people on that in my view so if Eric wants to be on it I seed the position to him rather than both of us so let me just give you an
example like with this civil rights commission which is very active and involved and I don't see any downside to there being more than one person so right now since I'm the person that goes regularly to the meetings if deputy
mayor wants to go and then someone else goes and I think it it's it serves a purpose if people are really excited to go because when they come in I think it the topics are invigorating and lend themselves to conversation you get more
than just that one person's opinion sitting in there i'm not opposed to that i'm I'm not I'm just saying personally if there's somebody else wants to be on it go right ahead because I I don't want to you know I I don't feel it's necessary for me so mayor to your point
um I I sort of do see the value of having one person as the official liaison and then other people can go as long as you you know there's not a quorum other people can then attend because if if we're saying right now
we're going to assign three people to be liaison to the civil rights commission that means the rest of us can never go and I would prefer personally one official liaison who the you know the chair of the
um committee can comm knows is the official person and communicates with them and then you know other people can express like I'm interested or I'm going to go to the meeting or I'm interested to to be on it and I plan to attend meetings i think that's fine i that to
me just seems like the most streamlined because then it's not like if there's three people or there's two you know that then they are the ones that always get to go if that makes sense yeah no I mean that that's fine and and however other people feel i know that I've been
attending the different committees on here where I have my name and I know that I'm going to continue to go to those and so whoever else wants to go where it's it's fine i don't I don't I don't that's why I'm saying up to three
as long as one person is going regularly all the time you know then if if only one one we know one is going to be there and it could be two or three well that's my point that um Eileen
expressed it more better than I did that there should be one person who's accountable and um you know as you said if anybody else wants to go go right ahead um but I I believe that is the streamline
is a good way to describe it i think it'll work best that way i'd like to chime in as well yes deputy mayor because initially I thought you know why not to to have a backup but you know for instance I've been going to the
environmental commission meetings and talking to some of the other committee chairs it's more than just the role of the liaison what they need is a point of contact and and it's not the job of the to me it's
not the role of the council people on that committee to dictate their business like we've established these committees we've given them a directive it's not our meeting right so they want someone from the council to be able to say hey
what do we have to do to get this moving or what do you think how do you think the council will feel about that and convey that to them so if there's one responsible person that they can go to I think it makes it a lot more um
productive and effective um for them and for us so I would tend to agree with um Eileen and Carmel to have one surprise official well it's not a matter of that i'm trying to be I'm trying to be
responsive to the actual committee chairs who are expressing these things to me and you know they want to have somebody on the council that they can go to um oh no I I understand that um very well and I think for
the different commissions where you see my name all of them know that they can count on me to show up that they can ask me questions send me different things and I will be that person so I I get what you're saying i just you know if anybody else wants to to go fine if
people don't want to go you know then then they don't need to go um I mean I think there's there's a there's a there's merit in hearing what the residents that we appoint to these committees think there's merit in going to hear hear about what the people are
talking about on the housing commission or any of these even like with the the park there's merit in us hearing from the residents so the more that you're interacting with the residents other than when you're in the front of the room telling the residents in your you
know different community meetings you're doing the talking you're going in there and you're listening to what it is that the people on these committees want and feel and I think that's such an large part of who we are if we're not there
listening to them we can't possibly represent them to our fullest extent if I may yes it's this is these are official committees and commissions it's not the same thing to me and I I'm sorry i'm going to just to me it's not the same thing as going to a community
meeting i mean I I I would love to go to every single one of these committees when they have the meetings like most of them have regular like monthly meetings right but I I expect the liaison whoever whoever's liaison my point is I don't think it's
feasible um as much as I would like to hear the discussion at all of these committees I expect whoever is the liaison to communicate anything that needs to be taken back to the rest of us that's the liaison's job administrative
assistant that we should look into getting because we used to have a staff member For example um you know when we had the PRCA we used to have Pat now Michelle goes when we have you know different
committees like we had before Mr morgan was supposed to be going to the um the civil rights so we always had a um person from the an employee a staff employee and they would go as the person
that was taking the notes and they would go to whoever and they would get back and everybody would have have notes and I thought it was very good and and it just served a great purpose so now I think we really need to consider you
know the best way that we can make sure that there are notes getting out to everyone not just a small group of two or three and you know and I really think that it would be helpful if we had an administrative assistant to help us out
with some of these things so so due respect we're talking about resident committees and they have people in their committees that take minutes right per the volunteer handbook they're supposed to have a chair elected they're
supposed to give I'm just talking about other experiences where we used to have and we still do have staff that go to some of them it's a lot to ask of the staff why i mean why would staff go to a tally she goes to the house that's her job and that's her job right and so the
rest of them with parks like Michelle and whatever you know she goes and and she is taking that maybe she considers that her job i don't know why i'm just telling you what is and I know it's very nice when they're there because as when Janice goes you're getting nice minutes
and then you have everything you know back so that you know what's going on and it's not catches catch Ken and some get it and some don't may I yes um I understand everyone's point about one the reason I'm saying it should be at least two and even if we just say it's
two if for example councelor um Anderson and I are both environmental it's a simple text hey you're going to the meeting no I can't make it okay Tola I'll go it could be that i mean I think it really should be a backup person when for these commissions because there's in
committees um it's a lot of responsibility it's a lot of work and things can slip through the crack people have emergencies you don't get sick you know it could be anything i just know that previous administrations always had two in my from my understanding 208 to
2020 we had and some and staff members like I think Mr morgan was part of the housing went to those meetings as well so um it's really just a checks and balance so it's not the heavy is not on one person um am I going to make it to every environmental commission meeting
absolutely not but I'm sure Deputy Anderson would be able to you know and if she can't make it she can call me it It just works that way i think it would work better i don't think we need three because then as Council Birmingham stated that rules out someone else that may want to participate or listen in in
a meeting but we should at least consider two you know first person and manager Marks um just to echo that point maybe to split the difference we should designate a a designate and an alternate i mean that's and then if if a third person wants to go to a meeting then
then they're not prohibited from doing so love it okay well so then I think we should go back and recons because again when these were first proposed it was one person so there's a little bit of an imbalance so
maybe we shouldn't vote on these tonight and we should go back and recon one other question on here about safe streets um this is separate from vision zero is that correct i don't know if there is I don't know what the I don't know no there used to be a safe streets here so that's why I'm
asking the vision z v sorry vision vision zero is going away vision zero will sunset at some point as a a body that we are leaison to right the con complete streets oversight board which by the way would be the point of redress
in terms of legislative intent um would have three members that we will vote on later but until we have passed the ordinance fully and it's implemented that shouldn't be included in there uh I very much like the idea of a delegate and an alternate I think that that that
just rings nicely to me I would also say that if we have a master list of these things we should probably expand it to include just to be honest there are other bodies that we spend time on so I'm on the two sewer commissions and
then I also got up this morning to go be on the uh advisory council for um Montlair State University which drafts in two people so that's the same kind of a deal so we should have a more comprehensive and I would make it
public you know yeah I would list all this on the website so people know but how how did you hear about the Monontlair State University it's because the it's it's because they came to me because I'm the first ward i still got an invitation cuz I'm the
mayor and it was you know and I think you weren't able to make it but it's good to have two people because I was there and and you know represented the town so but there are these things that people do i don't know them so if you want do you want me to do this again i don't mind
i'm sorry i didn't mean to interrupt before if you are going to revise this you can take off rent control board uh deputy uh manager here Mr scandalberry stated that this is doesn't require a liaison for the rent control board um we would have to amend the ordinance to
assign because it's a board not a committee or a commission um you said it's a statuto statutory so we don't Okay grand control board and probably planning board can come up yeah i was just listing everything so planning board and the zoning board I was listing that probably doesn't need to be on it
either right um so planning board you know I was just trying to tell people what so people know the responsibilities that people have it's a big responsibility to be on the planning board or whatever the whatever board you know thank you and I guess the library
board too is that correct because that's a mayor a mayor appointment the library the library board of trustees may appoint and the early childhood board of trustees can come off corporation board of
trustees okay so okay so I'll just send it around again and people can pick their first and second choice thank you for I already picked mine so I'm not going to pick again but I appreciate all the work that you've done on this
okay so I make a motion that we go into executive session i need some help from the attorney about the reason that we're going into the executive session yes so the open public meetings act does have exceptions uh two of those would be
whether something in discussion will involve litigation or litigation or if it involves employment matters or personnel related type matters we have three agenda items to discuss in close session regarding that so so this evening we'll be adjourning to
executive session to talk about employment matters correct and if there are litigation so that's at anything attorney client privilege we can discuss correct okay okay thank you so for those
of you that are still here thank you so much for being here with us we're going to ask that you leave um at this time i don't expect that we will will we be doing taking any action on what we're going to talk about i'm sorry but
Oh okay yes okay okay so I make a motion to go in executive session second and so she we're going to ask her to stay on
yes but in order to talk about her does she have to be present attorney so we have certain questions direct tax collector he should remain all the other items uh tax collector should not be present
no not the tax collector there's an employee matter yes it's an employee matter excuse me no I'm trying to find out yes but I'm trying and you have to be here because
of right the the first legal matter did we go into closing we didn't Did we vote to go into I have a a movement and a second i just All in favor i I Okay
thank you cookies i'll make cookies for everybody okay um thank you all for waiting and um at this point in time I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn the meeting for the evening is there a second second all
in favor hi any opposed have a good evening okay