##VIDEO ID:Lu6X0tSPrv8## we're going to do that yeah right after we go the roll call yeah yeah because you know he you know Mr Weston he's very dead B is here yeah Mr West is very dead he not here thank you good evening everyone thank you for joining us this evening December 17th 2024 we're happy to have so many guests with us this is a regular meeting of the Council of the township of Montclair it's being broadcast live on Channel 34 and is streaming live on the Montclair tv34 YouTube channel it's available on demand and can and will be re broadcast 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 r241 174 and adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of July 17th 2024 meeting is transmitted to the official newspaper on July 2 4th 24 and posted on the bulletin boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted in addition a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our Township Clerk at this time please any and all who are able to stand please stand with us for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Madame clerk will you please do roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson excuse me please I'm I'm calling the meeting to order and we're going to do our best to to uh respect your time and we'd like for you to do the same please roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson here councelor Birmingham here councelor damato here councelor lochman here councelor toer good evening present good evening councelor Williams here mayor Baskerville present thank you uh we're going to um have a change in um the order of the meeting because we have our um attorneys with us um for a matter that will require us to go into executive session we're going to um have a proclamation for Josh Weston which we're very excited to present this evening thank you for being with us and after that we are going to go into executive session to um discuss legal matters and then we will immediately return um and at that time we will have a public comment I will go would you would you like yes um everyone uh we're going to start the meeting today with a proclamation honoring the one and only Mr Jos Josh Weston [Applause] um okay when do I speak you I I have a proclamation in your name someone GNA read I was GNA read some of it some good to see you again um everyone this is my honor sure it is is this okay okay yeah um everyone it is just my great honor today to welcome Mr Josh Weston here um and I'm going to read a little bit about him um I think nothing will do justice to what you've done for Monclair but um I will start and of course your wife Judy as well so um whereas Josh and Judy have enhanced the quality of life for all citizens and residents of Monclair and are champions of the Monclair public school and whereas the westons have established an annual teacher retirement recognition award in cooperation with the Montclair fund for educational excellence that each year honors teachers in the Montclair Public Schools each recipient receives a certificate recognizing her his achievements and and a cash award last spring 16 teachers were honored the award is presented in Judy's name former president of the Monclair adult school and whereas a summer science research program exists at MSU for interested Monclair High School juniors 40 students do projects with MS Prof professors and present their research at the end of the program students are called Weston science Scholars and whereas Josh and Judy are longtime supporters of Montclair film Montclair Film Festival clarage movie theater today one of the theaters at the clarage is the Weston family theater and do you want to okay and whereas the Judy Weston community garden was created and it is so beautiful in the second ward by in Wong Park working with the Montclair mayor and Town Council and select Departments of the town of Monclair a section of Wong park has become the garden named after Judy the Weston Community Foundation oversees the planning design PL planting and maintenance for the Judy Weston Garden project at wung Park and whereas Josh and Judy are great advocates for stem education they have led the introduction of first robotics in Monclair public schools first competition teams and that stands for for inspiration and recognition of Science and Technology first competition teams are active at monair high school Buzz alen middle school and Monclair primary schools the first Lego league and whereas Josh in cooperation with the Monclair Board of Education and school superintendent has established Innovation Labs using robotics and 3D printers at monair high school and the buzz Alder Middle School and whereas in cooperation with the New Jersey Manufacturers Association non- colge bound students at Monclair High School are introduced to careers in manufacturing program participants intern at select companies and are connected with potential employers as program graduates receive a certificate of accomplishment and um just a few more to go but I I feel like we really do need to honor you today Mr Weston um and whereas through Josh and concept inventor David Rosenberg vertical Farms Arrow farms are in five Montclair middle schools the program is um compulsory for all students and it introduces students to 21st century farming Concepts and whereas working with MSU Josh has facilitated a program whereby Montclair High School students can enroll in m C SC college courses in their Junior and senior years students can earn college credits that go on their MSU transcript students can earn a full year of college credits by the time they graduate from Monclair High School whereas monair high school students can participate in a foreign relations program at the student seatan Hall Foreign Relations College interested monair high school students are introduced to careers and Foreign Affairs meeting ambassadors and Professionals in foreign affairs Foreign Service and we as Josh is working with Monclair State University professors to offer lectures on entomology that are given at each Monclair public schools now therefore through this Pro Proclamation and in recognition of these inspiring efforts that do so enhan the quality of life for all Monclair students citizens and residents the mayor and Town Council hereby declare that December 22nd 2024 will be Josh Weston day with all the rights and privileges assigned to the SP thank you so much sir it's your [Applause] turn you heard a lot of whereases she has more whereases on her paper there you're lucky she didn't read them all and uh one of there whereases should have said I came to Montclair by accident uh when I was much younger we had just one boy we lived in a rented apartment in North Bergen the second one was on the way you couldn't fit them in a rented apartment so I start looking at ads in the newspaper I see an ad for a house very attractive and it says in Montclair I didn't know where Montclair was but in those days you always had a map in your car there was no GPS right so I pulled out the map and discovered where Aubrey road is the asking price was $25,000 yeah oh you're not lucky enough to have busit as old as I am because I could buy a house de for $25,000 and one of the things I did early on is get to know all the school superintendents here one at a time now I have known the last eight School superintendents and my key objective was to dream up more programs for the students not how to do homework but things like getting the hospital connect connected with students because students knew nothing about Medical Careers or getting the students connected with the uh vertical Farm because now they know all about farming anyway it's uh it's been a good ride I'm glad I discovered there was mon clear in the newspaper I'm glad I had a map in the car back time and I'm glad it cost only $25,000 now having said all of that uh I once added up all the programs I'm involved in in Montclair at any given week it's about 20 and you heard some of them over here from my point of view it's fun not work to do things that help students come along I have four kids they all went K through 12 here they all did very well and as I already said I've always had fun working with all the school superintendents I want to conclude my comments this going to sound strange talking about a friend of mine Ted Turner how many people know who Ted Turner is okay Ted was a friend of mine and he was going to be honored at some event so he invited me to come to the event I go to the event and whoever's running the event they must have spend 10 minutes talking about how nice Ted Turner is then they give him the mic first thing out of his mouth is I don't deserve all those kind words the second thing out of his mouth was I have arthritis the third thing out of his mouth was if I have to put up with arthritis I'll put up with all this other stuff now bring it closer to home I too have arthritis and I have to put up with my arthritis I will put up with all this present uh thank you for coming uh I don't think I have to do anything else except dance is that right we'd like to wish you a happy birthday as well should we sing a happy birthday should we okay should we do a happy birthday for Mr Western Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you happy Birthday Josh Weston happy birthday to you and many more I can you hear me back there I'm going to tell you a story about singing of all things when I was in first grade in public school the teacher said from here on in you are a listener the definition of that word was don't sing because your voice is no darn good and for the M of my life I've been a listener that's why I didn't sing before thank you so much [Applause] [Music] okay we're going to ask that you um oh we're going to go upstairs you can stay here we're going to go upstairs and we're going to adjourn to Executive session um and we're going to try our best to resolve the matters that we need to resolve as quickly as we can it's very important that we um do want to hear from you and we'll be back as soon as we can thank you for your understanding second all in favor do we need to say the reasons we're going into she said I already said at the beginning and also labor negotiations okay for labor negotiations we're going to remove ourselves for labor negoti labor negotiations and pending litigation thank [Music] you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e may now good thank you I would like to to move um number four from the consent agenda number four is the resolution R 24281 resolution authorizing the 2025 Community Development block grant applications um I believe that there is um further discussion that that was not completed mayor I just want to make it clear that according to Miss T this has to be done by December 30th yeah okay just thank you so everybody knows yep thank you okay and on the resolution on number 30 resolution uh appointing the um Township attorney the interim I'd like to pull that because we haven't fully vetted that no I I disagree with that may I think we this is something that an action that we have to take tonight the holidays are coming up and we are in need anority as of January 1st well I just I'm certain that we have not um followed a uh protocol that we put in place and that after we put a certain protocol in place there was um I guess um a different process that that people took and came up with with something else that did not involve the um entire Council and I just just personally feel better when if we're going to set um rules and regulations that we stick to them and that we include the entire Council to get an opinion not just people that you know randomly say we're going to go with um a particular attorney and So based on that I was I was just suggesting that it would be good to um you know not do that at this particular time but if you know people feel comfortable just um changing whatever without a notice there was no notice and we just flouted a process that we sat down and said we were going to adhere to and it's just not a good feeling mayor may I I'm I'm going to have to respectfully correct the record um yourself coun lman and I discussed the process uh we discussed in considering three attorne attorney specifically we all had a chance to speak with them uh we shared all of the information with the rest of the council members and tonight we were going to have um a process by which we were going to decide upon an interim attorney to start as of January 1st um okay so I'm going to correct the record too because what happened was on Friday when we met we discussed three individuals that we liked and then at that time we said these are the two people that we're going to talk about there was not a third person involved then we're going to talk to these two people and then we're going to reconvene something happened and I started getting some emails about Scandal this and Scandal that which I really could not understand nor could anyone explain to me what is the Scandal and why are we moving away from considering those people that we talked about those two people then I got messages today that included people that we didn't even have on that list and then a name that just came up that we had not considered on Friday so all I'm saying is that I don't feel comfortable if everybody else think that that that's the way we should proceed with business then that's a decision that the council has to make I expressed that I don't like the way it happened and I think that um if we really looked at at why it happened and really want to have that discussion we can have it when we get to resolution r 24307 and we'll discuss exactly why I believe we came up to that but so then for now since it appears as though the majority want to go ahead and keep that on then we will remove um we will pull resolution r24 281 from there and we will have a deep dive conversation when we get to number 30 under new business 24307 number 30 which one did I say may mayor very quickly um uh I understand uh we can talk about the attorney thing later and if it makes you feel any better nobody ever asked me anything on Friday so you at least were in some of the discussions but on this other one about the community develop about the block grants um we do have a hard uh deadline uh on this for I believe the 30th so that would imply if it's pulled tonight that we would have to have a special meeting no I pulled that one from the consent agenda oh the consent okay understood my thinking here is that we should discuss it there were some people that were eliminated from okay and so when we got to that I just wanted to give us as a council an opportunity to discuss it fine and with all seven of us participating as I really like for all of us to have an opinion heard then we'll make that decision can we though we have public comment now is that I just wanted to make sure okay we're going to move on from there does anyone else have anything else at this point in time that they would like to have pulled or yes Council to yes resolution number 14 um I'd like to have that one pull if we're going to go into a deeper dive discussion we can um I too was not aware of the attorneys I did get an email from the both at larges but you know I wasn't sure that we were all allowed to submit someone and look for someone so I'm I'm I will support your decision if you want to table that or pull it and have a fuller discussion because I know that I emailed two additional names and I didn't see them in the list of the three so I'm not certain how we got to the three that we have if I know for a fact I submitted two add two additional names at least for consideration or to talk to and I didn't hear anything back so so that's number 14 resolution r24 291 that you wish to have yep okay that's okay and that's pulled out of the consent agenda right okay anyone else no okay thank you very much at this time we're going to proceed to public comment and I hope you all have your numbers when you come up please um give us your name and your address and um yeah please I know some people may not agree please be respectful and give um the individual a chance to say what they have to say say and then when you come up we're going to listen to you and you'll have your chance to express your feelings thank you I am Jose German Gomez I am Monclair resident I moved to Monclair 24 years ago since then I has been doing volunteer community work most of my work is related to Environmental Protection and fighting hungers because of our initiative Monclair became a certified Wildlife community in 2008 number nine at National level a very cherish uh priv V for the community the first in New Jersey and number n on National level in 2017 I submitted a proposal to create a orance for Community guance it was approved General consensus I submitted another proposal for Native vegetation and it was approved and most recent proposal for bajer chicken regulation was also approved last year who has been working with public school for almost two decades I have served on the part and Recreation Advisory board for seven years I was recently renominated for for another four years 6 years ago I quit my job I was making a six figure salary working for a very well-known nonprofit organization in New Jersey and I did it because I wanted to do what I'm doing working for my community and support people in needs and protect the environment I had dedicated my time to my community as a full-time volunteer my organization the nor East Earth Coalition is 100% volunteering nonprofit organization creating Community ging creating in pollinat gardens and fighting hungers no nobody get paid and we have never received Public Funding this year we appli for Public Funding for first time and we were rejected and it's insane that a person an organization who is so invested in this community for decades working every day to support people in need in our community monair Emergency Services the the pantry uh human need pantri Ton's kitchen the three little pant we has feeding over 6,000 people last year without Public Funding the work that we are doing here will be very cherish for all the community and appreciate it and the rejection of this grant for the nor East Earth Coalition is an insult and a slap in our face thank you thank you next guest please hi Tony Martin um I live on buerton Avenue and I'm Vice chair of the rent control board and I just want to speak a few minutes about um I know because I got notice as a member of the rank control board that um uh a ruling we made um has is being challenged and that you and we I think have been ordered to come to court um to uh check out whether or not a settlement is possible now I just want to tell you about how we came to that decision really briefly and why I think it um is defensible um so the ruling was that the Alis building um which was uh built in not not 30 years ago um but in recent memory um we ruled that they were not deserving of the exemption from rent control because they did not properly notice um the town when they filed their uh building construction um information we heard from lawyers from both sides extensively I'm not a lawyer but three of the people who sit on the board are lawyers and I did my very best as an semi-intelligent person to parse all of this and we feel strongly the majority felt strongly that we should deny this um landlord the exemption from the rank Control Ordinance we had tenants who had come to us appealing very large rent increases and they were you know um large even by the rules of the marketplace and uh so that's how we came to investigate this um we hope that you will we will be briefed tomorrow by the attorneys who I believe have briefed you um on exactly the details here at this moment but I want you to know how very seriously we took this case what work we did that there were landlords and tenants on the board and a homeowner um who voted for this some of them one landlord was a lawyer too two tenants are lawyers um and I thank you for your respect thank you thank you next guest please wondering minutes or minutes hello my name is Maria Evo I'm a resident of Monclair I'm here in support of Iman Kevin daood amim um I'm a social science researcher and facts are extremely important to me and where I take my the facts from is equally important uh you are public servants and uh you must educate yourself when making decisions so I uh I printed several articles for you that uh that I think are relevant to this topic that we are discussing tonight um one article was written by Masha hessen a Jewish Russian American journalist who writes for the New Yorker magazine she discussed in this article how dangerous is to use the IRA definition and of anti-Semitism uh which conflates the criticism of the state of Israel when uh with being anti-semitic imagine being accused of being anti-American anti-patriotic uh and that that you hate the American people uh because you criticize the Trump Administration or Trump cruel's policy on immigrants how dangerous will be will it be to apply a hate crime charge to those who there to voice their opinion to Injustice uh you as public Ser servants must protect the First Amendment rights even when you don't agree with the others person's opinions that is what democracy is about uh I'm I'm attaching other articles by Amnesty International and the latest report on on word child and uh the ruling of the uh international criminal criminal court on Israel I recommend all to look into reports the of the two human rights uh Israeli organizations balem and breaking the silence uh this is uh this is about the defense of human life human dignity Safety and Security for all the respect of Human Rights rights law humanitarian law and the demand for accountability For Those who commit crimes against humanity um I'm I'm uh um now I I just want to end with a PO by m Barry because of us this morning I learned the English word GS finely woven medical cloth comes from the Arabic word Gaza because gazans have been skilled Weavers for centuries I wonder then how many of the our wounds have been dressed because of them and how many of theirs have been left open because of us thank you thank you thank you so much next guest please thank you sorry about that oh oh yeah hi my name is Carrie and I'm representing New Jersey 11th for Palestine tonight I want to say pointing out factual information is not anti-semitic speaking out against the genocide of Palestinians is not anti-semitic these charges of anti-Semitism are meant to intimidate people into silent against legitimately criticizing Israel genocide is not a Jewish value top scholars in genocide studies call what is happening in Gaza a genocide the Lenin Institute of genocide prevention believes that Israel's retaliation against Palestinians amounts not only to war crimes and crimes against humanity but also to genocide according to a data analysis of major media coverage the New York Times Washington Post and Los Angeles Times coverage of Israel's war on Gaza a consistent bias against Palestinians the print media Outlets which play an influential role in shaping us views of the Israeli Palestinian conflict paid little attention to the unprecedented impact of Israel's Siege and bombing campaign on both children and journalists in the Gaza Strip major US newspapers disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict used a motive language to describe the CLS of Israelis but not Palestinians and offered lopsided coverage of anti-Semitic acts in the US while largely ignoring anti-muslim racism this anti-palestinian basis in print media tracks with a similar survey of us cable news and the authors conducted last month for the column that found an even wider disparity the lack of coverage for the the unprecedented killing of children and journalists groups that typically elicit sympathy from Western media is conspicuous by way of comparison more Palestinian children died in the first week of the Gaza bombing than during the first year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine the stakes Palestinian lives couldn't be higher as the death tollen Gaza mounts entire cities are leveled and rendered inhab uninhabitable for years and whole family lines are being wiped out the US government has enormous influence as Israel's primary Patron and weapon supplier the US sends billions of our tax dollars to Israel as New Jersey Transit breaks down every week and we lack Medicare for all we have a right as American citizens to speak out I urge this committee to end this effort to demonize Imam Kevin daudin we have seen the most horrific images of dead children from Gaza every day for over 400 Days half the population of Gaza is under 18 Gaza is now home to the largest number of amputated children in modern history it is immoral to remain silent thank you next guest please hi there my name is David silverberg I live in Milburn and I'm here to on the one hand agree with the past couple of speakers about the right to free speech I defend free speech at every turn and I think we need to encourage that however to cast this issue as if it has to do with limiting speech and free speech is dishonest in the extreme um I took a look at the posts that the Imam put up okay there was a debate between Alan dtz and I think it was Norman finklestein and he put up uh horns on Alan dtz okay which is clearly an anti-semitic Trope so I ask any of you here if this was a debate in a podcast with former President Obama and Keith Ellison and let's say Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump okay and some member of montclair's official group whether it's you know an Imam or a priest or a politician were to post um anti-african American cartoons or things like Ana or Uncle Tom and put that in a post on the internet would that be okay with you would you want that representing Monclair because putting up horns on a Jewish speaker is the exact same thing and if you don't like [Applause] that excuse me can you please um wait until he's finished if you you know like to clap can you do it when he's finished speaking that's coming out of his three 3 minutes go ahead thank you I mean would any of you be okay with that having having uh uh an African-American speaker being being parodied with um anti- African-American things I don't think so or what about uh we had um pgrs that were taking place in the Netherlands would it be okay if if something like that happened uh like when em when EMT till was was was lynched would it be okay to say come visit Selma Alabama after that because that's what this Imam put up Habibi come visit Amsterdam Israel had to send planes to rescue their citizens who are being hunted down in the streets like animals okay if it's not okay for someone to represent Clair and put up anti- africanamerican tropes it's not okay to do it against Jews this has nothing to do with the imam's right to speak about Israel and Palestine and to make it that issue make this issue about that is dishonest and has absolutely nothing to do with [Applause] it thank you next guest please [Applause] hello my name is Alex simble I'm from Livingston New Jersey um I'm sorry speaker Livingston New Jersey neighbors um the previous speaker mentioned a lot of items that I wanted to speak about as well uh if you look at uh I I really support your decision to distance yourself from uh Imam um the fact that he's posting all over the Internet uh pictures and posts that are considered very very offensive and as previous speaker uh mentioned that um certain images are really really upset a a certain population Jewish population um I know we have a number of um islamist Islam followers here in the audience imagine their reaction If instead he would post a picture of prophet Muhammad riding a pig don't think that would be okay um similarly um having such a person associated with a Township is not okay and I really appreciate you distancing yourself from that person and uh I'm sure we going to have a number of speakers here saying that no he needs to be reinstated no please do not give into him thank you thank you next guest [Applause] please yeah number seven okay good evening good evening I didn't plan to talk tonight I didn't even know this was happening but hello happy holidays what I need from my Council I'm sorry Nico you are there you gok Johnny Monclair New Jersey been here far too many times lately don't want to come anymore but when I hear the racism that continues in this place when these people come in here and compare anything to the to the black struggle in America excuse me please yeah to the black I'm sorry I'm sorry I I'll keep my com I'm sorry I'm not addressing ing you I'm addressing the rest of the audience please who I have not recognized please allow her to speak and when it's your turn we're going to allow you to speak thank you okay it started with racism and it's continuing with racism I started coming here when one of these people that are sitting in this room barged in the room when it wasn't public comment to go after the Panic a panafrican flag and then your councilman the first word councilman has emails stating that he confused the panafrican flag with Arab Flags that's Arab bias in official emails that has never been written around written about in the media and all of you have remained silent about and I've said shame on you and I'm going to say shame on you again if anybody has had any bias the man is sitting right there his name is Eric damato he has bias he said violence he saw violence in Patterson New Jersey and when I brought that to the civil rights committee they questioned him he said the violence he was talking about was a map he saw in the window that might have had Israel Rel erased he has official comments that are racist anti-arab and islamophobic and none of you have addressed it and the problem is in my last minute the problem is and I hope you can correct this in the New Year the problem is the Civil Rights Commission in Monclair you wouldn't be having this problem tonight I believe if your commission had done the work they needed to do and if they can't do the work they need to do they need to be trained to do it so that when you see racism and islamophobia and anti-arab Pate written by a counselor it needs to be called out immediately they've ignored it the media ignores it and the rest of these people keep coming in and comparing it to the black struggle in America what we are seeing is a lynching of the Imam we're seeing a lynching and all of you sitting up here not doing anything if you don't know why I'm calling it that then you need training and I hope you get it in the new year thank you very much [Applause] good evening hi I'm Susie from Livingston as well I'm sorry please repeat your name again Susie from Livingston Susie what's your last name please lugashi I'm sorry lugashi lugashi um we're a minority just as many minorities in this country so when we speak about other minorities is because we understand it because we've been prose uted for centuries as minorities we've been enslaved we've been persecuted on the streets kicked out of countries like do we know history people I mean you're targeting Jews we are a minority of protected class and with that I want to talk about the rampant Jew hatred that's been unfolding in our area and it's not just van Clair it's been all the towns around here and it's been traumatic to say the least today instead of saying Jews they're now calling us Zionist it's the same Jew hating anti-Semitism bared in different wording this is the same vilification we saw that started before the Holocaust where people see us as non-human and violence against us is Justified this is starting to become reality around the world as Jews are being beaten up in the streets as we saw in Amsterdam hunted down for being Jews and we're trying to stop it from getting worse here which is why you see all of us here today I want to bring your attention to groups that are sitting here today Pax Christie jvp Som for Palestine nj1 for Palestine all these organizations that have formed and appeared after October 7th to be full sprung and we see their vile hatred and speeches everywhere in Town Council meetings Board of Ed meetings in rallies we've seen them in Livingston and West Orange and monair they go everywhere and they spew their lies and propaganda in Monclair earlier this year where we put a rally for our hostages we were had counter-protesters yelling at us resistance is Justified we don't want a two State we want all of it Palestine is all Arab meaning no Jews allowed mhm we we don't want no Zionist here there is only one solution in F Revolution which is an a violent Uprising so the only solution and it's going to get worse probably because they keep chanting it and soon it's going to be a reality it's going to be violent soon if we don't stop it in Livingston organizations were trying to stop October 7th survivors who came to speak these same organizations are here today these survivors came to school to speak their stories of a terrorist attack against them and they protested they flooded the Board of Ed meeting and protested against it so what I'm saying is you have a duty to protect your Jewish citizens and we like for you to also have anti-Semitism training for everybody thank you so much for coming next guest please [Applause] hi there my name's Alana Bryant sorry I have to lower it uh I'm from Maplewood like a lot of the folks and one of the previous speakers here um firstly uh I wanted to say I'm a Jewish person for peace um and most of the communities of mon Clair and the surrounding towns are I'm also heartbroken by the civilian death toll in Gaza and I don't believe like most Jews don't that criticizing the Israeli government is anti-Semitism I do it all the time most Jews do um people today are going to try and make this issue today about Palestine but we are not here to talk about Palestine we are here because there was an issue around the imam's anti-semitic posts I have some of them here for you so for example and this has nothing to do with the Israeli government the war in Gaza or anything political or or humanitarian or War related uh this is a post about the pagam on November 7th in Amsterdam it's a post of police and um this was at the time that the pagam happened which was described by its organizers as a Jew hunt where they hunted people down and beat them up on the street for just looking Jewish and the Imam uh placed a laughing emoji on it a laughing emoji uh which is not an appropriate reaction to any kind of ethnic violence in any situation in any circumstance from any clergyman or any Town official I mean I I I I certainly won't tell anyone on this Council we live in a diverse Community we have obviously diverse representation I'm not going to tell you what racism or ethnic violence is but no one should laugh at it and when we brought this up at the um civil rights meeting we we asked kindly and informed the Imam that this was offensive and upsetting and could he do anti-Semitism training he rejected it he did he uh rejected the anti-Semitism training he said he knew what anti-Semitism was and watch I don't Define racism for other people and other people should not Define anti-Semitism especially for Jewish people who are explaining it and in the end the sad the sad thing was that he reposted it not when he was made aware by the Jewish community that the horns which were put on an American Jewish guy and the the the the laughing emoji at the Jews being beaten in Amsterdam on the street wasn't acceptable he reposted it that's why we're here today we're not here about Israel or Palestine or Gaza or criticizing the government I'll criticize it right now we're here to stop hate speech in our towns um thank you for listening and I'll share thank you next guest please ho ho ho my name is Santa Claus and I come from the north part of town I just wanted to offer my sincerest thanks for the free holiday parking feeding 9 M to park all my reindeer stinks even worse than my breath after an eggn Bender but I digress I've come before you today to make a public service announcement for the first time in Christmas history I will not be giving coal to the boys and girls who end up on the naughty list look coal is an Abomination but at least you can cook boo burgers with it I love boa Burgers but my breaking news this year is that for anyone on on the naughty list I'll be giving out used Synthetic Turf a study by the US government found that plastic production is a major driver in climate change one could say that plastic is the new coal and turf is a huge reason why this stuff is just the pits it only lasts 8 to 10 years and when it's done it just ends up as garbage did you know that less than 9% of plastic gets recycled and this stuff never it just ends up in landfills for anyone who wants a white Christmas it's not going to happen if you keep covering the land with this drunk Turf can clock in at over 70° hotter than natural grass and whereas I encourage the spreading of Joy to the World Turf just spreads micro Plastics the more you play on it the more it starts breaking apart and coming loose spreading upwards of thousands of pounds of plastic waste every single year and where does it end up from the North Pole to the South and everywhere between including inside our bodies I want you to be full of Christmas not plastic studies show that the average person may be eating five grams of plastic each and every week that's the same weight as a credit card but instead of getting cash back rewards you're just getting cancer ba hug I actually feel bad giving this to the naughty kids the ones who deserve it the most are the Big Oil CEOs who've tricked us into thinking that we need it and that playing the day after it Reigns is more important than the well-being of all mankind it's pretty Grinchy if you ask me and because they put profits before people it's up to you city council members to do everything you can to stop covering this beautiful town in Gross green plastic okay I'd better get going these mysterious drones make it very hard to navigate my sled have a very Merry Christmas a happy Hanukkah happy New Year happy holidays I hope you guys get all the boa Burgers your hearts imagin thank you so much Santa maybe we have your your name please and I know you're from the North Pole but we need your name and and address I sometimes go by the Alias Keith has I live on College Avenue thank you thank you next guest [Applause] please so this is the act I have to follow yeah okay now was not on my on my bingo card for this evening um to follow Santa Claus but uh this is the last laugh I think that I'm going to generate my name is Jonathan Becker I'm from Livingston and I thank you for your time and for listening um that's before I speak but that's it no more jokes I am here I see there's some shirts back there uh of people who say that it's not in their name what is not in the name what is their name who are they I'm assuming that it's because they're supposedly Jewish and some actions occurring in the Middle East are not in their name I will not litigate those actions I will not even speak in their name but I will speak on behalf of other people other Jewish people such as myself Jewish people of Livingston for example a town which lives lives I would say in peace and harmony with its neighbors its Brethren its Interfaith Community quite well um o over the years um I'll speak on behalf of the Jewish residents of Monclair who perhaps are afraid or uh intimidated to come here uh on the podium or maybe have no words because it is kind of hard to find the words in uh you know in light of some of the of the comments made today or the comments made on those social media posts I'll speak on behalf of my family the the the family that has departed as a result of the kind of hatred persecution and violence towards Jews in the old country in New Country you name it they've been persecuted and it didn't start with the state of Israel it didn't start on October 7th it didn't start even when Santa Claus was conceived it started a long long time ago uh I'll speak on behalf of my children three young children in the public system of this Fair State who have no grasp and I can't imagine how they can grasp that just by being born as kids to me and to my wife Jewish parents they are immediately considered these people those people who are now zionists Jewish and a member of a group that yes has an Infamous history of thousands of years of somehow being always the blame the culprit the the reason for every kind of suffering and loss uh Bank crash uh bad TV uh Jews in the middle of it Jews are are are at fault I'll speak uh on behalf of of those people and um and here's what I'm going to say I'm going to say is that we know what anti-Semitism is okay I know what it is you can take my word for it or you can take some history books for for it or you can take the word of the people who can't speak because they died as a result of the exact tropes that were used by the honored Imam um considering Jews to be devil the devil uh demonic uh controlling some cabal some economic or media um Center um all to the detriment of poor children um who are either Christian or Arab or Palestinian or otherwise I only wish that the concern for Palestinian children will be equal to those Palestinian children living in Jordan in Yemen in Syria in Lebanon we're all living under the Yol of jihadist existentialist threats that are derived today against Jews tomorrow against you I hope not but I wish you well happy holidays happy holidays next guest please good evening good evening merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy holidays my name is Joseph fortunado and unlike U some of the last few speakers I am a Monclair resident 38 Windsor Place shouldn't have given the number U but be that as it may I'm here U because I'm angry um it's been a long time since I've been here but I think that the Civil Rights Commission has disgraced itself I remember the Civil Rights Commission I remember when it was formed by taking sides to limit the Free Speech to bully the Imam who I never met until tonight and I spoke with him just a few minutes I don't know him well but just a few minutes but but what happened to him was a disgrace a couple of you I met before you entered office and you said well I'm the leafblower guy I'm not going to get involved in international politics but yet you have and you have brought it you have brought it to Montclair you have brought uh this to Montclair and by the way for those of you who are interested in history uh pick up the 100 Years War on Palestine by rased khi or pick up yeah debunked pick up the Edward excuse me please it has only been debunked by Zionist propagandists now I am here I am here to say that the Civil Rights Commission has disgraced Itself by taking sides in an international issue and I'm here to say I am angry I am angry about 45,000 people dead by Palestine being reduced to Rubble by people sick by children amputees dead dead children that is the issue that is the issue now uhuh no we're not going to have that please we're doing well okay now sir would you go ahead and I may or may not us I may or may not agree I don't agree with everything I'm sure that the Imam says as a lapsed Catholic who went to St Catans and by the way there's a few names I want you to know some of you uh who I went to Monclair High School graduated in class of 71 that's where I learned about free speech um perhaps uh Madame mayor uh you know some of the same people that I do and some of those names you may be familiar with maybe Miss Toler will maybe not some of you others Arthur canoy yes H Bruce Franklin these are monay residents they taught us these folks in the back I'm I stand in solidarity with them Jewish voices for peace and very much speak a little later to their statement thank you thank you for coming next guest please [Applause] hi my name is Shannon hioc and I live in Monclair New Jersey I'm here in support of the Monclair animal shelter and specifically the transfer program that I understand was cancelled I don't believe that should be cancelled if the Montclair Animal Shelter has space and resources to help others we should absolutely do that there's no reason not to and I would like to propose to reinstate that program please thank you thank you next guest please thank you my name is musaji and I'm here uh from Newark and I'm here on behalf of K New Jersey the Council on American Islamic relations New Jersey chapter and I'm here to express concerns with the decision to dismantle the police chaplain program and remove Imam Cen from his position which is not only unjust but a profound mistake that disservices this Vibrant Community and creates a sense of intimidation around exercising free speech to shed light on global Injustice Imam Kevin has worked tirelessly to bridge divides and Foster inclusivity he has been a Pillar of Strength compassion and understanding for the community the dismantling of the police chaplain program would only cause a significant harm to officers and community members alike the call to determinate Imam Kevin's position are based on accusations of anti-Semitism that are both unfounded and baseless these accusations propagated by certain members of the community are based on misinterpretations and outof context statements let us be clear Imam Kevin social media post intend to highlight issues of concern and have been misconceived the legit the legitimacy of these accusations have not been substantiated by any legal Authority as a civil rights advocacy organization can New Jersey condemns all form of discrimination against all groups including anti-Semitism anti-muslim and anti-arab bigotry Imam Kevin expressed his support for the human rights of Palestinians who have been undergoing genocide for all over a year entities including the United Nations and amn uh amn Amnesty International have deemed these atrocities as genocide food clean water and access to life-saving Medical Care have been strategically cut off from all the Palestinian people by the Israeli mil military children women and unarmed civilians and journalists have been under constant attack by the Israeli military as humans we should call out the killing of thousands of innocent infants and children exactly for what it is an act an evil act that should always be condemned regardless of who's responsible and Israel is no exception I urge the township authorities to reconsider their decision and not allow unfounded accusations and a lack of due process to dictate the fate of a dedicated Community leader uh some of the speakers came up and mentioned that uh it was anti anetic one of one of the speakers referred to them as them in the room but one of them mentioned that the people from Jewish places per piece and the prop Palestinian Jewish speakers are supposedly Jewish so that is anti-Semitic to claim that you can decide who is Jewish or not is anti-Semitic that should be the is issue that we should be addressing here they have no right to decide who is Jewish or not that's anti-semitic thank you thank you for coming next guest please [Applause] good evening um my name is David corage I live at 58 Tuxedo Road um I'm also as you may remember the president of Monclair climate action I'm here to speak on a different topic I'm here to speak in favor of the resolution to install the charger the for EVS in the South and parking lot I wasn't able to attend the last council meeting so I want to thank you in person for approving the charger here at 205 and address a couple of points made about the other proposed charger uh first I and another MCA member have checked out the parking lot the south end at varying times and days afternoon evening and I've usually found it with many empty spaces the only time I saw it close to fall was actually the evening of the tree lighting and even then I will admit someone to my surprise I was able to find a space um given the number of empty spaces normally found in the lot it should be no problem giving over two spaces to charging I also want to stress that EVS are for everyone and the fourth War Bo of which I am a resident and the South End deserve access to charging as much as other parts of town EES are for everyone because they have to be for everyone with half of our heat trapping pollution coming from cars there's no way to cut pollution address the ongoing climate crisis unless we change the way we get around EES aren't the only change we need to make promoting biking and walking is equally important but EV are an essential change anyone who cares about live living leaving a livable world for our children and our grandchildren should be doing everything they can to get us into EVs and in case anyone in the audience or watching online doesn't know it EVS are increasingly affordable you can get a good new EV for around $3 to $35,000 well below the average car price hopefully the bolt will come on next year with prices in the 20s and you can find good used late model EVS online for around $115,000 or less and once you get one it's cheaper to operate than a gas powered car presum me this is why only like 9 8% of people who have bought uh who switch from gas power cars do not want to go back and cost is the major reason they mentioned so everone if you want to save money get an EV for your next car like I said sooner or later we're all going to need to make the change to EV so given that let's make sure the south end has charging too I think having this charger in the South and will make the the option more useful for renders in the area and there are some apartments the area above the shops and just on Orange Road and will also make people in the area more likely to get AVS Studies have found that if you that people are more lik to get an EV if they're within a mile of a charger even though they never use it just knowing it's there probably some psychological satisfaction to be honest I think the biggest obstacle to EV adoption in town is that 40% of our population is renters and they still have a hard time charging I would love to see the council do something more to address that but in the meantime let's put those Chargers in the South End too so people who live there can also charge thank you very much thank you next guest please good evening good evening I'm Steve sham from Haden place in Monclair and I'm going to present a statement from Jewish voice for peace along with two of my colleagues who are also Jewish residents of Monclair Jewish voice for peace of Northern New Jersey is an organization committed to Justice in Palestine and opposed to anti-Semitism islamophobia and all forms of hatred we feel a special obligation to speak out against the criminal acts of Israel which calls itself the Jewish State as if all Jews bear responsibility for its crimes we also feel an obligation to challenge false or exaggerated claims of anti-Semitism that are used in an effort to obscure or Justify Israel's terrible treatment of Palestinians we are here tonight to express our concern for the way Imam Kevin da Amin has been smeared as an anti-semite Imam Amin has a long record of working with other Interfaith leaders to oppose bigotry and intolerance yet he has been attacked by the Monclair Civil Rights Commission some members of the township Council some local residents several pro-israel organizations and a member of Congress Montclair Township disbanded its entire chapy program because he was their Muslim chaplain the controversy began when Imam Amin said at a Township council meeting quote we have this group we have that group and certain groups have more than others in the media and what have you this comment which never mentioned Jews at all and which made the rather uncontroversial Point confirmed by much social science literature that Muslims are portrayed more negatively in the media than other groups such as Catholics Hindus and Jews this was elevated by critics into the equivalent of the protocols of the Elders of Zion it is no anti-semitic Canard to note that messages critical of Israel have much more difficulty being heard than messages supporting Israel last year Jewish voice for peace of Northern New Jersey was accused by some of the same individuals who've been attacking Imam Amin of being anti-semitic and pro-terrorist for seeking to host a talk by a Quaker speaker at the Monclair Public Library the Monclair civil Rights Commission through its then chairperson actually called for the library to violate our free speech and freedom of assembly rights by cancelling the event and the Jersey Journal which had accepted a paid advertisement from us referring to an Amnesty International report describing Israel as an apartheid state had the ad ad count cancelled by the publisher thank you for coming next guest [Music] please David Siri from Cooper Avenue in Montclair and to repeat I'm a Jewish resident of Montclair e Iman Amin's critics have further charged that some of his social media posts are anti-semitic his social media does include harsh criticism of Israel that is his right it is all of our rights it includes quotes and criticisms coming from many sources including from Jews the Israel group breaking the silence articles appearing in the forward and from Holocaust Survivor Dr gabbar mate about whom Iman writes quote evidence um of the Jewish Community is not a monolith I agree with a good doctor and he approvingly quotes nurat pamin an Israeli Jew who says Israel's evil has nothing to do with Judaism consider consider one media post singled out by his critics the Iman reposted a brief Instagram debate between Jewish um Israeli supporter Alan dtz and Jewish Israeli opponent Norman finklestein there is a small icon the one that's been brought up in the middle of the image showing the devil's horns the critics charged that because of tributing horns to Jews was part of a medieval anti-semitic imagery Iman was engaging in anti- semitism that itself is a contradiction even if he was aware of the horns he could hardly be saying that he considers all Jews to be Devils since he endorses the views of many Jews including um Jewish Norman finklestein for the Iman there are some Jews who are worthy and some Jews who are not worthy there is no anti there is nothing anti-Semitic about that thank you next guest please hi I'm Emily Fardo I'm also a Jewish resident of Montclair the the critics denounce a post by Imam Ain saying Habibi my friend come to Amsterdam he actually has several posts uh relating to the recent soccer riots in Amsterdam that together present a rather confused message and indeed there are many conflicting interpretations of what happened among people who are not anti-semites the Habibi post shows Palestinian demonstrators but no acts of violence let alone anti-semitic violence among another of his posts is from the Jewish head of the F Fellowship of reconciliation who says quote if you're freaking out about clashes at a soccer game that spun out into unacceptable violence in Amsterdam but you're silent about all the settler programs being Carri out on the West Bank it's hard to take you seriously close quote note that Amin reposted this which refers to unacceptable violence Imam Amin also posted a link to an article on the website Z Teo that offered this conclusion about what happened in Amsterdam quote this isn't to suggest that anti-semitic or anti-israeli incidents did not occur but when major media Outlets foreground claims of anti-Semitism while marginalizing documented anti-arab racism which I'll say as an aside also happened there they reveal deep-seated bias in how racial violence is understood and reported in Western media one might not agree with these analyses but to charge imama mean with anti-Semitism for posting them is wholly unwarranted people of good will will often want to point out to allies the unintended meanings and harms that their words might cause we can all be better and we should all be striving for greater sensitivity but to take official Town action and to call an in an official Town body the Civil Rights Commission to police the language and social media of a public servant with the long record of interfaith engagement seems particularly inappropriate anti-Semitism is a vile ideology but it is unacceptable to use unsubstantiated charges of anti-Semitism to attempt to silence those who are critical of ongoing war crimes thank you thank you next guest [Applause] please hi good evening uh my name is Elizabeth dericho and I live on Washington Avenue in the South End and I'm here to just voice how upsetting it was to learn of the transfer program at the animal shelter being cancelled back in the spring um apparently it happened quite a while ago and it was a very poor decision that transfer program is what makes that shelter Thrive puppies come from Tennessee my six-year-old tulip who's 105 lbs came from Tennessee she was great for our family sometimes puppies are not great for other families but it brings them into the shelter they see these puppies they hear there's a load of puppies at the shelter they come in and they talk to Liz Morgan who is an expert in helping Council families onto what animal would be good for them and they might say oh wait wait look at that 2-year-old dog she's so much calmer than the puppy and they leave with the 2-year-old dog that was found in Montclair and the Tennessee dog or the Georgia dog or another dog from another town that is no longer allowed here is adopted from another family at another time the transfer program was funded through the friends of Monclair animal shelter not the town so this was ridiculous to stop that now the shelter is 2/3 empty because of this request to not allow dogs from other towns I have another dog from the shelter who is from Monclair I have my other dog tulip from Tennessee would it be really nice in my family if we only had the one it would have been fine but isn't it nice that we could have helped another one also this shelter is so meaningful to so many families not only for adoptions people go they read to the dogs kids learn about being kind kids donate birthday money to get food for the dogs at the shelter and it's not only for the dogs in the shelter it's for families in town who may be not able to afford dog food at that time the shelter is so much more than just the animals it is a community center it is a community thing that is happy I volunteered there I was people would say to me oh aren't you isn't it too sad to sh to volunteer at a shelter how can you do it you know why because it was the happiest place in Montclair those animals were so well are so well cared for those animals are all adopted I never felt sad because I knew in a couple of weeks one of them would be the one that might have been there long was gone at a nice happy house that Liz Morgan was always able to identify ify she's always able to identify so anyway rethink that because I I am not the only one in town with this strong feeling and it's very new that we're aware of it thank you next guest [Applause] please Sor okay yeah okay good evening I am Pat Lidle from Union Street in Montclair and I'm here to express my very strong support for the mount Montclair township animal shelter I am a regular volunteer there three days a week I go there two mornings a week to help clean and one afternoon a week when it's open to the public um I help with the cats so my comments are primarily about the cats but I've also um seen a lot of great things with the dogs now my observation from my volunteer work behind the scenes is that the Montclair township animal shelter is very well-run by a very knowledgeable and dedicated staff in fact I see the staff going above and beyond every day to make it a great experience for the animals in their care and also for the people who come in to adopt the animals do get adopted even the so-called hard to place or hard to adopt animals um I I've been amazed at how often um another CAT will will be gone um so often when the public comes in and I meet them and I talk to them in the cat adoption room they will tell me how impressed they are with the shelter how well organized it is how clean it is how happy the cats seem in their spacious enclosures with cushions to sleep on and toys to play with and it's as I said it's just just a great experience and it it really speaks to the staff um now those pets when they are adopted they bring so much joy they become members of the family and then the the people who adopted they they come back again to adopt more animals they become volunteers they become donors um there are so many programs so the Montclair township animal shelter is such an asset it it's it's really the gold standard in animal shelters in in my opinion compared to others that I'm aware of the Town should be proud of it and I urge you to give it your full support thank you thank you next guest [Applause] please my name is Rabbi Mark Catz I'm a resident of Montclair and the rabbi at Temple near to meet in Bloomfield which has 640 families the majority of them from Montclair I'm here tonight to speak about the decision to disband the chapy program and to represent the pulse of the Jewish Community I'm worried that much of the rhetoric tonight and the story for that decision will be that Jews and Muslims are fighting over Israel and that the town doesn't want to get involved in that conflict and if that were the case I wouldn't either I'll sometimes find myself at odds with members of the Jewish community on issues around the war but that is not what this is I want to say that I value Imam Amin in the community he has been an ally especially after our firebombing and I believe that he has a right to advocate for the Palestinian Community as vociferously as he wants and I would defend him in that regard but when one's advocacy crosses a line into anti-Semitism by sharing posts that play on age-old tropes that call Jews Devils that say that Jews run the media that promote Holocaust denial or that make light of attacks of Jews as did a recent post inviting people to Amsterdam after the attacks on Jews there the posts stop being about the issue at hand and one cannot defend them under quote freedom of religion this is a scary time for Jews worldwide and locally the Jewish Community came to the town asking for help looking for Action that would show us that these types of messages would not be tolerated if every other organization can hold their employe and volunteers accountable for their online presences why can't Montclair I personally would have welcomed any number of actions from firmer social media policies to trainings to probation and then worst case termination what happened instead is that a beloved program disappeared and the Jewish Community was sent a message that had we not spoken out had we not come to the town for help had we not made trouble then things would have remained peaceful and the chaplaincy would have remained intact there are there is a lot of repair to be done and I am committed to doing it with all parties involved but in the case of the town I want to feel that they will not choose political expediency and quiet over the hard work of loving rebuke and thoughtful action thank you thank you next guest please for my time gets started a mayor just a like a point of order I just I don't think it's we shouldn't end this meeting or allow it to go on without recognizing the festive outfit that you have on it's just it's a I think it uplifted everybody tonight all right we can start the clock ticking uh gentleman over there I think from care talked about how um Jews shouldn't be deciding who other Jews are and he's right um we don't get to anyway other people decide who we are usually when they're putting us on trains name and address please sorry Josh cats 99 Midland Avenue um so usually when they're putting us on trains or turning us into soap right or firebombing our synagogues and I wanted to talk about a firebombing of a synagogue not in Bloomfield a few years ago um but recently in Sydney Australia so there was a firebombing of synagogue in Sydney on December 6th and unlike the firebombing of my own synagogue in Bloomfield this one caused significant damage destroyed some holy Torah Scrolls Clare Leman who's based in Australia and a publisher of the media property called quette wrote The Following and this is what I want to get to she says I realize that anti-Semitism is two things Act of vicious hatred and cool institutional indifference toward that hate and it was that institutional indifference that made me feel afraid while the Prime Minister might not be personally an anti-semitic his intentional paralysis speaks of something more damning a timeline exposes the timid response from Australia's leaders the Prime Minister said nothing when a mob descended upon Central schul kabad synagogue in Melbourne on the anniversary of Crystal KN nothing when an anti-israel conoy drove through Sydney's Eastern suburbs home to many Jewish Australians remained silent when families of Israeli hostages had to flee when protesters came through their neighborhood calling them baby killers nothing when a Melbourne Professor had his office stormed for working with an Israeli University nothing when a former Olympian Australian Senator an indigenous woman was surrounded by intimidating mob at the great synagogue of Sydney and then the Sydney synagogue was firebombed when the Jew back to this when Jewish citizens of this town ask you to speak out against anti-Semitism and to act quickly and decisively to discipline a town official who spews anti-Semitism it's not to satisfy some urge to score points in the oppression Olympics or to try to settle the issue in a conflict thousands of miles away in the Middle East a place where tribal Warfare has been shedding human blood more or less since the Earth cooled we're asking you to make these statements and take these actions because as clar Leman pointed out your silence is a stepping stone on the path to violence against Jews in our community thank you thank you next guest please uh good evening uh Sarah Avery Monclair residents uh why does this Council allow the manager to continue sabotaging the community the only conclusion I can draw is that many on the council are co-conspirators I will continue to expose fraud and Corruption for as long as it takes until safety security and Equity are restored southen community members attended a meeting recently to discuss possible uses of cdbg Grant funds that are restricted for use in low and moderate income tracks at no time during this meeting was there any discussion of spending a half million dollar for Street scaping on Maple Avenue for which the planner refused to provide a budget at the last meeting appropriate uses for cdbg funds include private improvements to deteriorating areas to arrest decline make essential repairs and pay Opera expenses to maintain the habitability of housing units instead affordable housing units have been left to rot and tax leans on homecore properties have been sold slums and ghettos are not created by the people who live there it is the property owners the slum Lords who create ghettos this has been well documented in the warmth of other Sons by Isabelle Wilkerson the det deteriorating Financial condition of Home Corp and its inventory is egregious evidence of the planner's mission to undermine affordable housing in Monclair home Corp has become a slum Lord with the assistance of the planner the planner misus cdbg funds for Road works in the South End that should have been used for affordable housing Township Road improvements are paid for with our taxes the planner misappropriated funds that should have been used to improve proove affordable housing by using those funds to offset taxes paid by residents and other Wards councelor logman has been vocal about her support for undermining affordable housing she voted to pay the affordable housing administrator that misappropriated over $137,000 of affordable housing trust funds and she voted no to repairing the roof on the homeless shelter because the counsel doesn't believe in maintaining occupied profit properties if there is a possibility they can be converted to another more profitable use by all means vote your conscience on the resolution but people are watching and the exploitation of this community does not go unnoticed thank you thank you next guest please hi my name is Lisa gartell and I live on Essex Avenue my home is on the corner of Essex Avenue and Frederick Street I have lived in this house for over 17 and a half years I have witnessed numerous accidents on my corner the most recent of which was on Wednesday December 4th of this year earlier today I emailed you all pictures of that accident which I'm sure you had already seen and I also emailed you pictures of the previous accident that I witnessed which which was on June 18th of this year less than six months prior in these two accidents and all of the accidents at this corner over the years cars end up on the sidewalks and property of the Neighbors on my corner I would also like to add that my husband and I had to personally clean up pieces of the cars from the December 4th accident and there is still debris that we are not able to fully clean up we all have children in the neighborhood most of us have children who walk to and home from school there is a bus stop on this very Corner watching School is less than one full block away I have not once in all of my years of living here seen somebody get pulled over for speeding on Essex Avenue or monair Avenue which are both Speedways I have not seen someone get ticketed from running the stop signs which happens daily on the corner of Frederick and Essex I walk and drive here every single day something has to change immediately in this neighborhood which is a convenient pass through there is complete disregard for traffic regulations speed limits and stop signs several years ago I even witnessed a car hit a bus that my child was on as it picked up students on the corner of Frederick and monair Avenue what was that car doing trying to get around the bus with its stop sign out I originally composed this 2 days after the accident on December 4th and while I was typing this on December 6th I watched a near accident at the very corner where the accident happened on December 4th later that day day I witnessed another near Miss if my child had been walking home from the high school when that accident on December 4th happened he would have been killed the town needs to do something before that happens despite the Montclair locals saying that the driver was extracted from the white car quickly it took firefighters 38 minutes to extract that driver and they had to remove the roof the town needs to do better provide traffic enforcement now put in a four-way stop lower the speed limit on Essex and monair Avenue which other neighboring towns are doing now and provide measures to keep our children safe thank you thank you next guest [Applause] please Bill Harrison Harvard Street I'm back on Woodman field at the last council meeting Mr Burr said the settlement was ordered by the court that is not correct the judge encouraged settlements that's what judges do judge approved it but did not order it uh at the last council meeting Mr Lola indicated that it would be awkward to would show that the Board of Education that the township negotiated in bad faith if he went and said I'm enforcing the law there's nothing in bad faith the only bad faith was when the Board of Education filed the lawsuit they knew or I assume they knew that there are only two ways that a Board of Education can build a facility both of those ways require appearance before a land use board which they hadn't done Mr Lolo all you have to do is go and say the municipal land use law as of the date the neighbors filed their appeal that all work had to stop the township improperly issued the construction permits after the appeal and two that you're enforcing the Judgment of the Board of adjustment which you are legally required to do we are not an advisory body we were not party to the lawsuit we are not bound by the lawsuit the neighbors were not party to the lawsuit because the town settled before they had a chance to be heard and they had every right to appeal we had we are required by law to hear that appeal and once we decided it the Township's obligation enforce it that's all you had to tell the Board of Education and you should do that now so that can be reasonable conditions imposed because you have no ability to enforce anything else other than what the plans were that the township approved that were appealed okay I'm changing topics because it's going to be past my bedtime when you get to the cell ordinance and I'm going to be sitting where Renee is tomorrow night and I'll be appearing before the Bloomfield Board of adjustment Thursday night I UR you to pass the cell ordinance um the one thing I want to say is please get a written agreement with Essex County on what is happening on the county rights of way that is the most likely locations and make sure they're in agreement that the township has say over what happens in those rights of way so good night happy holidays I wish you all the best you too thank you next guest please good evening Aon bullin 17 Champlain Terrace um before I continue on what Mr Harrison was talking about I'd just like to say that I'm very excited about skip the stuff having its second reading tonight and I'm looking forward to way less trash that's outstanding so great thank you um secondly I'm looking forward to law being followed regarding Woodman field as Mr Harrison has just spoken about I wonder when that will happen this is just kind of Sitting In Limbo here the project hasn't been reviewed by the zoning board the project has not been approved by the zoning board um there's been no traffic study which could have happened if the project had been reviewed by the zoning board uh Miss cartell I think her name is was just up here car flipped in front of her house this is three blocks away from the location of woodman field three blocks and you would be a fool to think that the same kind of driving I won't regail everything that she just described because it is accurate at every single intersection down essic and more crowded around the field less visibility around the field more teenagers around the field teenagers equals bad drivers by the way just do you know um so what are we going to do like how are we going to fix this cuz right now your Solutions are reactionary you're reacting to a problem right we've got these clanging P poles I don't know how many I haven't tortured myself to stand there and count them to tell you the truth thank you 15 poles clanging like a flag pole so everyone in this room can kind of imagine that all day long that could have been addressed had the zoning board had the opportunity which is rightfully Theirs to review such a plan as this now Mr Lola's way is just give it to him I'm sure these people will stop talking one of these days but here I still am and I'll tell you velcro is not going to fix whatever the next problems are that keep coming up storm water the zoning board has not had an opportunity to review storm water do you think velcro can fix that like flooding and stuff we can we can try it but I think I think we should just listen to The Experts which is not Mr lapola it is Mr Harrison follow the law again sorry also not Mr Burr being an expert either he seems to be banging a drum over and over about residents not having our rights anymore because of a settlement Mr Leola made ditch ditch follow the law and thank you thank you next guest please hi uh Anna grman I live next to Chernobyl uh tonight 11 kennels out of 26 are empty they are empty because there are no dogs from Monclair to put them in in a recent article in the Monclair local MR Lola is quoted as saying I made the decision to temporarily end taking in animals from out of state is Newark out of state is Patterson out of state because the truth is that you made the decision that the animal shelter not accept any animals from outside of Monclair despite the fact that the transfer program is paid for by a nonprofit the result of that was that since Ma May empty kennels were not filled and families in Monclair seeking a family pet had less of a chance of finding the right fit for them at our shelter in our town a town where we celebrated the passing of an ordinance that banned the retail sales of pets you based your decision on a report of animal shelter you commissioned government strategies group to do the same firm that recommended you for this job and the same firm you hired to figure out the PS and bills how much did that report cost us do you know how many shelters they have experienced writing reports for how many of those shelters are simply pounds were they experts in Progressive shelters do you know what a progressive Municipal shelter is because the practice you ended is standard practice ice our shelter always prioritized local animals including from Patterson and Newark and then if there was space they would accept highly adoptable animals from out of state you unilaterally decided Monclair would have a pound and not its much loved shelter you go on to say since then the shelter has been allowed to accept animals from out of state when there's hurricanes you only allowed that because a net from Humane Monclair begged you you made someone beg and even then it was a 60-day temporary allowance do you know how many you allowed in do you know which states you made an exception for one do you know how many pets you accepted eight hrah lastly if you were so concerned about the cost of the shelter why did you not pursue shared services like prior managers had seems like we could have acquired 200,000 worth of contracts and that would substantially reduce the cost for our prize shelter really you expect us to believe that you made these changes to save taxpayer Money Stop and also um that wind chime that you put outside my house is still [Applause] banging thank you oh excuse me manager did you want to say something okay um next guest please good evening good evening uh my name is Lonnie summer Pia and I'm a resident of Montclair [Music] um I I've been coming to town Council now for several years I think um and um I used to come here for uh you know issues related to um things going on in town um that and with to Advocate to you know make Montclair better um and you know up until I'd say maybe a year or so ago um you know the the worst that I've ever seen happen in a town council meeting is you know people speaking disrespectfully to council members or you know typically the conflict would be between residents and the council and a number of youit up on the day right now um you know were ran to you know make Montclair better um and we're very much interested in you know transparency and oversight you know and making sure that happened um I think this issue when it comes to uh the chaplain program and it being disbanded is you know it it it does come down to an issue of oversight um the council is supposed to create policy and the manager is supposed to execute it right the manager is essentially the CEO of the Town um and you know so I I am just urging you on the Council to you know to think about that and to really um you know provide that oversight you know to ensure that policies that have been made by Council are actually being followed um you know I I I worry that the golden days of Montclair maybe you know coming to an end slowly um I'm hoping that's not the case um when Mr Weston came up here to receive his award I was really touched and you know and especially knowing that he came here in 1956 and when he came here he was one one of five Jews there were only four Jews at the time and Mr Weston has been a pillar of our community and there have been many um but he really has done so much good for this town and just to think about how he came here at a time when there were only four Jews and he was the fifth along with his family which made more um thank you very very much we appreciate you next [Music] please hello my name is Barbara German good evening lifelong resident of Monclair I'm here again to speak about Seymour Street and the parking is horrendous the street itself is about 300 ft there's four apartment buildings one with underground parking and you have to like scramble to get a space sit there and wait until somebody moves you're afraid to go out because you know when you come back your space may not be there anymore and something needs to be done and I would like to see a handy cap space for myself or anybody else that's my issue again and I like you all to give us some thought cuz whoever put the walkway in evidently didn't think about the people on the back end of the street parking is terrible I called the parking authority oh we'll send somebody out to monitor the traffic I sat there 40 minutes and nobody came so that's what I'm here for and I hope we can get this straightened out thank you thank you next [Applause] guest hello good evening evening my name is Linda Scherzer I live in the town of cluster New Jersey I am here tonight in my role as uh representative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West where I serve as director of the government Affairs and community relations building wing of the state's largest Jewish Federation as anti-Semitism has surged in this state in many towns in Essex County I am also the lead professional at Jewish Federation for combating anti-Semitism and I would like to add that in my previous profession I was a Jerusalem based correspondent for CNN I spent eight years on the front lines of the Israel Palestinian conflict covering Wars and intifadas and during those years I often questioned and asked critical questions of Israeli government leaders I criticized often Israeli government policy uh as do many israelies Jewish Americans it is not anti-em anti-semitic at all times to criticize Israeli government policy just like it is not uh anti-American to criticize uh American uh policies of the American government but I did not come here tonight to litigate the war in Gaza or to talk about the imam's post related to the war I came to point out the posts which express hate against the Jewish people my people these are social media posts which in most work environments would lead to an individual's immediate termination and what the Imam might also like to know is that many of the images and and words that he's reposting are actually written many of them by white supremacists racists who hate people of color just as much as they hate me allow me to list just two of them the first is a post that promotes Holocaust Denial on November 20th 2024 the post reads the Holocaust didn't happen the way that Hollywood says it did this is what Jewish Supremacy looks like on November eight the Imam post turns out that when Jews pick a fight with someone other than women and malnourished six-year-olds they get their effing tases I'll use that word beat that original post was written by a man named Stu Peters a far-right conspiracy theor theorist a Christian Nationalist and prolific anti-semite respectfully these statements and others should be demounted and repudiated loudly and immediately just as we would expect the condemnation of homophobic comments or racist comments against any other minority so too do we expect consequences for hate speech when there is no remorse uh and that has hurt the Jewish Community disbanding the chapy program of people who are dedicated to the sacred mission of providing spiritual counseling to their communities thank you very much strikes me as dangerous and disappointing en Toons [Applause] thank hello and good evening my name is Elliot Williams um I've been a Seymour Street resident for the last seven years I wanted to address the parking ticket issue that's been in existence for probably long before I've lived there I've single-handedly seen how parking tickets have ruined people's lives fin and it's it's disheartening it's very saddening um including myself um I had I had a whole thing on to say my phone died so I kind of going off top here but I'll give you an example my I wish my roommate was also here to speak as well but him and I had contracted Co about maybe two and a half years ago now the lack of day passes we're we're both per holders I'm assuming like most people in my building are also permit holders the lack of day passes is is an issue we so when I had taken days off of work every single day I had gotten a parking ticket and I just remembered like okay at night I'm not getting them but during the day that I am I think I had maybe have gotten hundred of dollars wor of tickets in that spend that I was sick and there had seemed to be no solution so I'd like if maybe we can get together and figure out how we can create a solution for more people to have day and night passes I put in an application for a day and night pass maybe three years ago still says pending don't know why him as well um other people in my building they have the same ISS issue and hopefully maybe we can come to a resolution thank you thank you next guest [Applause] please 32 32 next guest please okay we're going to move on um whoever's next then please hi Jessica stalsberg I live in Montclair what's your name um oh thank you I know it's been a busy night um I think I'm here tonight uh because I really want to talk about the fact that we are in this room and so many of us return to this room for our own issues and then we witness all the other issues of the people who come to this room just like many of you on the day used to come over and over again for the issues that were important to you and stood right here and I just sometimes I'm so shocked at how slow what really seem like easily solvable issues are moving Seymour Street my goodness those poor people there why can we not figure out how to respectfully and responsibly come together and work with them on their parking issues they sound overwhelming and dispiriting and I think they deserve rapid attention I think that speeding in this town deserves rapid attention the accident that was spoken about just two blocks from my home at Essex and G and Frederick a car flipped over in someone's yard where children are walking pedestrians are walking all the time the reaction to the video that went out on that accident had people talking about the excessive speeding particularly late at night on all the North South thorough fars of Montclair the ones I heard about Park Street Midland Avenue Essex Avenue North Fullerton Avenue my husband and I walk our dogs every night around 11:30 to midnight on North Fullerton sometimes there's a patrol car that sits in the train station invariably on the exact same walk we see cars that must be going about 50 mph down the straightaway past Watchung school why is there not an immediate attention to bring a patrol car to that area and sit and wait for those Speeders because once we have reputation that we ticket that we ticket excessive speeding that's when the speeds start to change and that's not happening where are the patrol cars on Midland Park Essex North Fullerton Etc why aren't they out tonight an hour from 11 to 12 let them sit there for one week and just pay attention to what's happening how many tickets could be issued how much money might we raise maybe that money could pay for cleaning up the bird poop at the parking garage instead of $95,000 that I see is still on the agenda for tonight maybe that is money better spent to overtime that we might be told that I think we really need to think differently about what are we spending money on what is what are you guys being asked to approve and I just think that what brings us to this microphone and to this room is often despair things are moving too slowly things are not being attended to there are Windchimes outdoor break you know outside all those people homes why haven't they been quieted how many weeks have they been coming to talk about it where is the solutions we we rely on you for these Solutions and we don't feel that they're coming thank you very much next guest [Applause] please good evening good my name is Shakur Mustafa and I'm a resident of Bernardsville New Jersey I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of Imam D whom I've known and worked hand in hand with for some 45 years I want to ask a question of the Jewish community in particular do you think that if Imam D agreed with a excuse me please can you speak into the mic so we can hear you and the television has to pick it up thank you okay thank you I'm asking do you think that if Imam D agreed disagreed with any one thing of the Muslim Community that he would be labelizer that God has told the Muslims in general he said oh you who believe in God and His messenger and in the scripture we sent down to his Messenger as well as what we sent down before them he said don't reject the right of Justice don't reject the right of Justice because you if you did it against your father against your mother against your clan that God would have the right to support you if you were right and this is a thing that I've known Imam dud as I said I'm the newk police officer who went to the Supreme Court on the beard issue I challenge them for the rights of people people all people not just Muslims everybody and I'm here tonight to say that Imam D is the first Muslim Community in Montclair it would be a serious Injustice to take away the chapy program and for Muslims and non-muslims alike to benefit from Imam D thank you thank you very much next guest please hi good evening mayor and Council good evening aava fad president of the attendance organization of Monclair the advocacy group that with the community brought us all rent control thank you so um tonight gotten to hear everything because I have to focus on tenant rights I won't be able to express here and now um some of the ideas that I have about resolving the speeding problem and I wouldn't normally even say anything about this or other things outside of tenants rights however this affects everyone in our community and things that I've seen so I want to speak about it there's many issues here I do remain thankful for the existence of these meetings that this forum these meetings this opportunity exists for us to all engage in this way and um share our opinions and thoughts one of my dear friends who was a tenant supporter and also part of our homeowner committee was hit was hit and hospitalized by one of these unsafe drivers so we're all connected um I'll say I was out for my run about 2 weeks ago and I watched a car crossed the double line on Valley Road in front of another vehicle just passing the entrance at the circle of Edgemont Park thankfully one of our monair police officers was there in place right as this person sped by doing at least 50 I've been driving for about 35 years and they had been doing about 50 mph on Valley Road luckily they were stopped this person could have killed anyone in our community our children cross the street right past where the brook goes into the crossing walk where this person sped from wung Avenue at Valley straight across they were stopped our families are out walking their dogs crossing the street there as well right at the mouth where Central Avenue opens into Valley Road I know that they can't be they meaning the police here can't be everywhere I'm glad they were out that night to lessen the dangers of this driver um as well as the fact that they're putting their lives at risk with every vehicle stop but this speeding problem does um affect everyone here in the community it is something that I do want to look into more as well to help with having our streets safer and that's not the only incident that I've seen and it affects everyone here in town um tenants organization of Monclair will list the uh meet and greets for January through June soon we'll post them on Facebook as our cover photo please come out and volunteer and we're also starting a program for seniors um Trevor is working on the ad for that now so we can get seniors into help throughout the week lastly our radio show is in programming process I'm working on the content for that with the members of our community in our leadership thank you have a good night thank you next guest please He Man Kevin that what I mean 50y year Monclair resident um a lot of things I just want to the main thing I want to do is that I'm outraged that the police chaplain program has been cancelled especially at the um suggestion of one of the um council members who has the least experience here in the town um and I also want to take a mischaracterization I just before I came here I was at the police station and the chief the deputy chief and also Lieutenant Williams was explaining why it was cancelled to some of the uh to um to some of the chaplain as well as two rabbis who attended they made the point that they felt that the decision was being taken away from them that number one they were making that decision they were going through their due process as they do cuz they're Law Enforcement Officers they don't work on the whims of people who come especially a a body like yourself who had a Saturday meeting that wasn't videotaped and wasn't really and it was for certain people to come and and there are some video of people calling from the um the gallery so I just want to say that I think that number one at um I believe it was the uh the last um CRC meeting we were supposed to be looking into department of justice among other entities that have training um when I finish my comments I'd like you to tell me where we stand with that the police also have a grant and they said that they want to do training we would like to have our tax dollars be you know be employed for bias training for homophobia for anti-Semitism for racism against black people racism against aipi people and any other in any other group who feels threatened now we should make that happen I also have some complaints about CRC but I'll wait until the next meeting and I'll come back and I'll come back to the next one we're talking about anti-Semitism and and and before I do that we always have people who say that they've been over in what is now Israel and they challenge or they didn't challenge but yet they're over there they're with a military sensor they only they only say what the Israeli government tells them to say so don't come here making as if s know sanctimoniously as if you're doing something that's good also too we want to be careful that every group is protected that every group has the ability say what they want to say and that everybody's not going to be happy with what you say no one has to please you for what you say thank you very much for your time thank you next speaker please hi Lauren Burman Highland Avenue I apologize if this is a word salad I haven't slept in five weeks um I was watching the last meeting at home and listening to the discussion about the clerk claiming that she doesn't need to put descriptions of what people talk about in public comment in the minutes and so that was clearly false and so I figured I'll just go pull a bunch of other minutes from different towns and show that that's not true and that was right and I pulled them and that's fine but what's interesting is that it's actually very difficult to find public comments other places because most meetings don't have public comments because just like what Jessica stalsberg was saying when you actually just do the stuff people don't have to come and talk about it and so there's so much discussion about how to limit Comet and the answer is just to do your job so tonight you're subjected to another you know several hours of the complaints that were subject to anti-Semitism because we're months into this and it's still going on so you could just handle it and then you wouldn't have to hear it I can't imagine living by Woodman field I mean I don't know if you've seen the videos of what those wood Chim sound like all day long it's unbelievable to think about living there these people on Seymour Street that can't park I mean these are real life issues impacting people that they need to be handled as far as the article about the animal shelter I mean what really struck me reading that was you know Mr Leola said from his characterization the way that he was going to change the the shelter was to conduct its core function and what he was describing as the core function the way I understood it and the way I was reading it was to do the animal control portion and that's a valid opinion for someone to have if they think you know the animal control should be the function versus not doing the animal rescue I mean that's a debate that that people can have but the problem is the manager is not the person who sets the values of the town and deciding whether or not the animal shelter's core function is animal control or animal rescue is the job of the council to please the residents and so it's your obligation as oversight to set our values and I I'm not going to pretend that the animal shelter is like my biggest issue and I care that much but what was terrifying to me about that article is that I have no idea what other values he's changing in all of the other departments and I don't think you do either so this is urgent and we need to get on all of this stuff and thank you to Rabbi cats and Linda Scherzer and all of these very important people that have now had to take time out because you're not dealing with the anti anti-Semitism either so please do next guest please greetings Kalia sweat um I actually didn't really come here planning to speak tonight I was just coming to keep an eye on things to see where we were going with the black liberation flag but after hearing what I heard in here tonight and what I've been feeling every time that I've come into this room after August 13th I I knew I had to speak my spirit told me to I am really first of all you know this is mon Clair where it's okay to stand up for everything and everyone except black people it's okay to bring a cause unless it's a black person's problem or cause so I'm not an Entertainer I don't come here with written speeches I'm not an orator I'm an activist I'm actually a former civil rights commissioner for This Town based of upon what I'm hearing I probably need to become one again because it seems like there's some problems taking place there first of all you know this space is problematic it's hostile specifically for black people and again black issues and causes it's way too casual with our maaa with our maaa what I'm referring to is the enslavement and the legacies of enslavement of black people everyone this this language I heard here earlier with someone mentioning imit on a 14-year-old boy dragged out of his home and lynched we talking about anima symbols of degreg of black people and that's casual nobody stopped that that's a problem for me it was really good seeing some of you at the Quanza celebration that's nice loved it but again I said this before in Monclair we're casual with Black Culture when when it's about song and dance or Sport and play but when it's our issues based upon our survival and even protecting our history it doesn't exist or it's slow I'm not attacking you but please let me know where we stand on the ordinance for the continuing raising of the Black Liberation flag what I'm seeing and feeling here this should help you to remember how serious it is to get that flag up because I said it before maybe it will help people act right so I I'm running out of time I don't know if you know a couple of weeks ago a black boy was found hanging in a bathroom in Maryland right so we don't have time to waste we got people in Monclair running for political positions who mention the Black Liberation flag in the same sentence and same breath as KKK so please I need y'all if you're having difficulty contact me I would love to work with you I believe it's you mayor councilman Williams and you on the committee please let's get this done and no disrespect to skip the stuff but if we can deal with all that but we haven't got up this flag it's almost January so that's what I want to say I'm tired of the antiblackness being accepted up in this piece sister Kia I just want to um respond to you because I know you don't like it when people don't respond and so if you'll recall last week I was very excited I mentioned to you that I was going to put that on the agenda for today and you ask that you be a participant in writing the language and so it's for now for yourself and I to get together and we're just waiting for a time that we can get together so I'm I'm here now and I'll be more than happy if you want to come in tomorrow we can do that I was just waiting for you to tell me when you wanted to get together always we can do that tomorrow that was the only thing but I just it's important to me when people come up and they say things that may leave the public thinking that it's not very important to us and my colleagues because I'm telling them I'm working on that just as I told you hey I'm going to get it in for today and you said you wanted an opportunity to work with me so if you can come by tomorrow let's do that so um times are hard people got to work so but I will try to come tomorrow but no matter what I respect and appreciate you saying that I am always uh ready and willing as long as it's a good fit for everyone in terms of time so I wasn't trying to give uh the perception that some of us have not been in communication what I am to do is to make it clear that what I'm experiencing in this space is not acceptable and there really are some people here who are not having it and won't accept it I'm one of them well I appreciate the fact that you're going to um make yourself available so we can get that done thank you next guest hey my name is Ben Kaplan uh I'm a resident Monclair uh I just want to say first off I completely agree with all the statements from the last person the anti-black sentiments expressed in this room have been absolutely disgusting with no push back from the council that was the first push back that was received all night was on that speaker in the state that assada Shakur sundata akalai were imprisoned that is absolutely vile next off I would like to say that conflating anti-zionism with anti-Semitism makes the world unsafe for Jews Muslims Arab people of all faiths and people of all backgrounds who face persecution second the imam's comments regarding the media influence and conflating that to be about Jewish people is an anti-semitic Trope and playing into that yourself he did not Target any specific groups the Zionist entity is an American Imperial project in the American imperialist Bourgeois media the coverage is absolutely skewed lastly to refer to this is a far-off issue is false thousands of tons of Munitions leave the ports of Elizabeth ports of Newark and the ports of Jersey City every single week manufactured here to kill children in Gaza and Lebanon next off members of this community in Montclair have lost family members under the rubble in Gaza in Lebanon and have had their lands their fam's lands settled on by settlers in the West Bank it is absolutely unacceptable this is not a far-off issue this is close to home that is all thank you next guest please marcelis maderas praise the Lord um I came tonight um number one to see where we are with the rising of the Black Liberation flag cuz it's been over four months um and I do know that there has been push back in this town cuz I witnessed it the night August 13 when Kalia did um bring the flag to give to you all so um I'm not going to ignore the fact that that played a role in it and like Kus said this black hate has to stop and I've been witnessing it as long as I could even understand what it was cuz I I've only understood what it was probably like in the last 10 years but um that's what I mainly came to speak on today but there's a lot of things going on in this town that I'm really just disgusted with um you know everybody refers to the state as a soprano state but I was thinking that it would be hard to get some of that stuff off in this town where every with all these people paying attention but they these two gentlemen over here like you're really bold you're really bold and I don't know who you're connected cuz like I'm realizing that like the the the lawyer that sits on Mont cair border ed he's down in Camden he's in um New York he's everywhere he's attached to um the Florio who's attached to um the Florio Law Firm that's attached to um what's his name Georgie Norcross the third who's facing 13 indictments right now on corruption and making all that money off of schools en camed into so I'm clear on how racism is perpetuated and and um selective enforcement and how people waste the money that's meant for vulnerable people and now vulnerable animals like really you don't you don't represent the value you don't get to do that you really don't that's disgusting that you would go ahead behind doors and make arrangements like that that's not the represent representation I know of people how they feel about animals in this town so that's just unacceptable and um I also want to know counselor why why why didn't the insurance pay um Miss ral's um win for her her sea claim why why why why why didn't insurance cover that why is are my tax dollars covering that so that well first first and foremost you said who am I is that what the question was no did you ask you said oh I'm bold I did I did say you were bold no I didn't say generation no no no the only question I asked you the only question I asked you is why wasn't the claim paid with insurance money why were my tax dollars I said you're both I didn't ask you if you were I'm telling you my opinion now answer the question why is it paid with tax doll please please don't answer I'm not going to respond I'll respond at the end of the meeting she will get her answer then okay thank you yeah you're bold you just demonstrated it next guest please thank you for affirming that for me good evening everybody I'm Ani Oakley literally lifelong resident of Monclair and also throughout my time in Montclair I was very involved in things like black lives matter and one of the things that stands out to me a lot during that era is that certain groups in the media actually had more favor those groups were white people as black and brown people were gunned down nearly it felt like daily only the narratives of white people were covered over the past several years we've seen the me too movement and we've seen how certain groups in the media are favored those groups are men and I could go on and on and on but I also suppose that if somebody wanted to they could look into a statement and find a problem but doing that and then sending an email complaint some of those complaints that are in that vein just looking for something wrong should go to the spam folder or the trash because they are not the best use of this town council's time so I want to take some time to talk about what might be in the best use of this town council's time tonight we've heard a lot of people talk about the raising of the African-American flag well that's interesting because there's a flag right now that literally disgusts me every time I drive past it on Bloomfield Avenue and that's the flag of Israel Israel for those of you who are unfamiliar right now is an AP paride State committing a genocide against people who look more like me than some of the people in this crowd complaining a lot about nothing and as a black woman something that is deeply offensive to me are things like Jim Crow the legacy of a paride when I see that flag flowing over Bloomfield Avenue I see the Confederate flag that's how it makes me feel so let's stop talking about nonsense let's stop giving our time to emails that should be in the spam or the trash and let's talk about why that flag is allowed to fly for a nation that literally had a hearing like this about whether it's okay to rape Palestinians let's be for real people let's do things that matter you all matter you have important jobs you have power act like it let's do something about that flag that symbolizes hate genocide rape and rap ISM thank you so much thank you so much next speaker [Applause] [Applause] please next guest please okay I'm Ariel exat uh mon CLA resident and um it's hard to get up here and talk about town issues um cuz it's hard not to feel the generational pain and anger and Trauma in the room right now so just want to acknowledge that for all people not one group of people but all people anyway um I actually um was forwarded something by another Resident in town that really spoke to me that instead of writing something I just want to go ahead and read what she wrote this is from a resident named Ellen Campbell and she said I think what the animal shelter is brought home is Montclair residents care about kitchen table issues they want good honest government a non-kill animal shelter that cares about both our community and other communities they want their problem listened to and taken care of like banging poles at Woodman field they are tired and exhausted from this constant development they have a problem with the traffic and traffic safety they want to ride their bike safely there are environmental concerns such as with Turf the runoff from it and how contaminated is the underlying soil they don't want Pol political games to be playing out at 205 with retribution against employees Hing employees sending rice letters lawsuits this is all political nonsense and extreme extremely harmful for the employees involved unbelievably expensive for us residents and residents and needs to stop we have a town manager that has zero experience running a municipality he was not hired through a search we absolutely need a new town manager that has experience in the field and one with a different mindset away from lawsuits retribution development and one that is willing to roll up his sleeves or her sleeves and deal with what I am calling kitchen table issues honestly how hard is it to get the banging poles fixed is it up to it is up to the Town Council to get this done so they need to focus on these kitchen table issues um and why do we need to beg them to do this and I I just want to add that you know it took a year some someone was killed two blocks from me at Park and Belleview took a year to get over a year to get the traffic signals changed and um we have instead of FASTT tracking that where a citizen was killed we FASTT tracking netting for bird poop it just doesn't make sense there's just so much that just feels like it doesn't make sense and we residents just want it to thank you thank you next guest please good evening Joan pransky uh 11 Steven Street I recently had an email exchange with uh um councelor Lachlan about transparency in government and she wrote to me um I do believe in and support the value of closed Council subcommittee meetings Clos subcommittee meetings allow three counselors to do the nitty-gritty work on issues on behalf of the full Council have debates considering sensitive information engage in thoughtful deliberation amongst themselves listen to selected invitees when needed and have honest and open discussions amongst themselves that ultimately best serve residents after doing this work the subcommittees present their findings recommendations to the full Council for Council discussion at public meetings where residents too can voice their views so at the heel of the hunt it is an efficient and honest process and I replied the nitty-gritty work on issues debates deliberations honest and open discussion is exactly what should happen in public it is what transparency in government is about that it may occur in meetings limited to three council members avoiding the open public meeting act does not substantively change its public value in fact counselors regularly share privately after these meetings with each other and know each other's views and know if four people support what they're doing you suggest a subsequent public airing at Council meetings where residents can voice their views but consider what really happens public comment occurs before council members discuss and deliberate council members having already communicated amongst themselves often minimally discuss and Deli liberate at public meetings as a result residents and council members do not truly engage with each other publicly in the process of democracy it is the public part that is the essential ingredient it takes more time and effort for sure but this is the real work of open transparent government I am urging you to vote against the resolution you have on your agenda to have have your committee meetings confidentially and in private if you do that you are always going to get this kind of Rage because you really don't engage publicly with people you engage privately with each other and we come to the mic and scream about what is going on you all ran on transparency do it just do it have your discussions publicly with us don't just sit us down you have experts that get up at this mic and share incredible information with you and you sit there because you've all talked to each other and you know what you're doing when are you just going to engage with your community and find out what is really good for all of us thank you next uh guest please is there another okay um thank you all for coming we're going to take a five minute break and then we're going to uh reconvene with the approval of the minutes oh I'm I'm sorry manager Lola thank you mayor and since uh there are days when I truly hate my job but I'm going to address two topics here the first one I want to address is the animal shelter when I got here 15 months ago a few months later there was problems with the animal shelter we went to correct them we increased the salaries for the kennel attendance we had a lot of turnover we converted a position to a more bookkeeping position because of recordkeeping issues okay when I talk about getting back to core issues okay what I'm talking about is and I'm not talking about specific personnel there were many problems there you cannot operate a private Rescue out of the animal shelter because it's paid for by taxpayers when the director of Health visits and there's literally no one there and the doors are open that is not accept when you go into a room and all of the drugs are all over the place and not under a lock and key which has been the standard probably for the last 100 years 800 years that is not acceptable so when I say get back to the core values this is not and I know I'm attacked because if you you try to make it efficient and run the way it's supposed to run it's um against puppies and kittens that's not the case I love my dog but the fact of the matter is just because it makes people feel good it's not held to a different standard than everyone else and when I talk about the issue of this program of taking animals in first of all with all due respect on the issue of taking the the dogs from Newark and East Orange it was the employees there who said they didn't want to do that because basically they're all pitbulls and nobody adopts pitbulls okay first thing second thing is we spend more money on this animal shelter than we do on senior citizens and the own house combined we spend almost as much on the animal shelter as we spend on all of our Recreation programs for the kids in this town so if I want to make sure that this money is spent well I think I have the obligation not only to the people here but to the taxpayers of this town and the notion that we're going to have and it's fine if that's the case bringing animals from all over the country to be adopted from people from all over the state and that's to be subsidized because it's not paid for by the friends of the friends of pay a portion but the fact of the matter is the taxpayers pay for all the staff there who are taking care of these animals they pay for the transportation there and maybe the fee but there are plenty of other costs so we're going to spend all this money and I look I love a feel-good story I like to watch the Hallmark Channel but let's let's be realistic here this money should be spent well it's up to the people here not me about whether or not we're going to spend well over 34 of a million dollars for a facility whose basic fundamental purpose is to take dogs from the south and place them with the the people they place with are probably 90 or 95% from outside of Montclair that's their decision but in the meantime I'm going to make sure I'm going to make sure that that facility is run properly this isn't about my values this is about the values you take when you manage a town with limited resources we're faced with a difficult situation this year these people who ran for office and got elected because we're we're dealing with increased healthc care costs pension costs we're dealing with Collective bargain agreements let me people Collective bargain agreements that were negotiated years before that basically said okay 5 years from now 7 years from now let's pay them 3 and a half% knowing the cap law is 2% what do we care that's what happened so we're dealing with all of these issues so I'm not going to apologize if I look at the animal shelter and say we're not going to waste money and I'm not going to apologize if I look there because the same people who attacked me would be here if a bunch of high school kids walked in when there was nobody in the office walked into that drug room saw something cuz I remember when I was a kid they talk about Quaaludes as a horse train tranquilizer so there's drugs there that could be lethal or fatal whatever word you want to use and the kids get a handle on it it's because well you know where were you why was it like that I want to make sure that never happens odds are it wouldn't happen but I'm going to make sure that the circumstances that would allow that to happen are not going to so you can all attack me about my values and this whole episode about this whole facility started by some somebody who made something up lied and then had this Feeding Frenzy about we're going to close the facility and everything else which was never on the table okay so I just want to stay for the record why I did what I did because this isn't the with all due respect the puppies and kittens offense doesn't work it's got to be run professionally these things cannot happen they cannot happen again and until we fixed that and we did let these other animals come in and I know there are eight animals and there's two left that thank you very much manager no I'm not finished okay well do you have much more are you going to go to another topic what we dop no okay all right you can take that if you're going to another topic and then I'm going to let each one of the council people and um attorney you may have some things that you wish to say have some time to May I'm going to wait to make my comments at the end of the meeting we can get through the meeting okay I want to talk about the chap PR because it was my decision to end the chaplain's program this started a couple of months ago as we all aware when it happened when the post and this is going to go to the first comment with by the Imam back in I think it was September uh when he came to the microphone about the media when the post became aware of the post the police department became aware they followed the Attorney General's protocol they went to the prosecutor they went to the attorney general they filed a bias report they they did everything that you are required to do under the law in the state of New Jersey sometimes that's arduous sometimes it takes time in the meantime what the chief did and the deputy chief and Lieutenant Williams is they went to the other chaplain including the rabbis and said here's the situation and to a person all of them said do not fire the amount all of them with all du respect to the rabbi was here their position was do not while at the same time we have half the room yelling at us yelling you should fire fire the amount but we're trying to figure out a way to solve this issue we then get to the next meeting and there are speakers defending and you know it was as we're trying to get to a settlement and there were comments made not by people here tonight but comments made by others that many people in the African-American Community found the ensive you know you listen tonight you can you know there's this I don't even know if the terms false equivalency but this notion that something you can match something that offends you by figuring out what offends another group what's the equivalent of this or Emil or whatever it is you can't do that because the minute you do that you're insulting people even more so we get to let me finish talking we get to the uh we we get to the ordinance okay the ordinance that gives that power to me okay I disagree and I find offensive and I think some of the things that the Imam uh posted were anti-semitic okay but as we worked with these groups trying to find the solution okay you're asking for transparency he's giving you transparency yeah I don't expect fairness there so don't worry about it but so what happens is we then you heard all the diverse opinions tonight so who's going to decide and I'm not talking about the imam's comments and everything else because that's all public in the future whoever and my days are numbered here and not not soon enough uh but who's going to decide what what is offensive to what group in this room there are 20 different opinions tonight so you want the manager to decide we had protest and I would drive up Fullerton to go home to get to Bloomfield Avenue we would have the pro the Israeli side on one and the pro palestini on the other lots of those signs somebody may find defensive okay I may have found them offensive so if a a chaplain is standing next to somebody with an offensive sign and they didn't condemn it should they be removed how do you how do you decide what is crossing what is crossing that line so I decided the way the system set up I know so what can I finish please can I I don't know I'm trying okay all right sorry but so I I said the program Now is not working because no manager can make that decision you heard all these opinions and what happens when a priest says join me at an anti-abortion rally at a clinic in town or someone else post something because one of their religious tenant says we oppose gay marriage there's a whole bunch of other things I'm not lessening debate that was tonight I am just saying that all of these issues okay are very difficult and there's no manager I don't care how much you pay them or what experience they have and I've been doing this over 40 years who has the ability to make those decisions on behalf of a community that has more opinions than they have uh chaplain so I did it I take responsibility for it I did in consultation with the uh with the police department and I trust me the last thing I want to do is end the program but I did not see a way the way it's currently working and constituted that we can move forward without this issue happening and maybe when things get calm again it won't happen but from now until then it would be a complaint a week when people are going through all the chaplain's social media this is something I the the notion that a government employee is going to monitor the the social media of clergy of religious people to decide if they're offending a standard that is not defined no manager can do that so that's what I did with I did I am very comfortable with my decision it wasn't easy but I that's what I did why I did what I did so you can have your opinions and you can laugh people can Mo I don't I don't care but somebody has to make those decisions and that's what I'm paid to do and I did thank you mayor thank you okay we're going to take a f minute break and then we'll reconvene had to make a motion yes uh motion second any objections taking a f minute break all in favor I oppos okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e approval of minutes approval of minutes at at 11:00 we're going to start hey D we're going to start at 11:00 with the approval of minutes thank you okay we're going to go to um the approval of minutes they have been presented to the council the minutes of the November 2 3 24 November 26 24 December 3 24 and October 824 wow October 29 November 26 and December 3rd meetings are there any corrections or additions got motion to adopt second second all in favor I opposed okay moving right along we're going to move to the uh consent agenda no I'm sorry pending ordinances M councelor damato please do pending ordinance a it's a pleasure pending ordinance 0 2435 ordinance to amend chapter 202 land use procedures and to amend chapter 347 zoning of the code of uh the township of Monclair New Jersey to regulate small cell Wireless facilities within the township right of away and I so move second any discussion yes public hearing public he oh um I just wanted to see if we can make sure that we incorporate um what Mr Harrison suggested we get is there a way to include that in this he said that we should try and get a written agreement from the county that states the township has say on rights of way is there any way to add a sentence to this just give me one moment I'm sorry um I'm going to open the public hearing and without any objection is there anyone present who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance without objection anyone oh H yes on this one um I just want to say thank you so much sorry suzan Atman Monclair resident just want to thank you for this ordinance um I do believe this is probably the strongest or one of the strongest regarding small cell Wireless in New Jersey um and we really protect the Monclair community so thank you for your hard work um especially uh counselor lman and Miss tally um and Mr Burr for being so um open to working so hard on this and to uh speaking to outside experts um it's excellent news so thank you thank you anyone else if I may can I just thank Susan apman she's been she was EX working on this with the group the small group and you thank you Suzanne all right councelor Toler I'm sorry you were saying something um I apologize um I just wanted to ensure that we try and include the language that Mr Bill Harrison suggested as part of the ordinance where we should include language to obtain a written agreement from the county that states the township has a say on rights of way are we able to include that language or does anyone want to discuss that language to be included Mr Mr Burr I understand that you councelor lochman Mr Burr I understand that you would talk to the county about this ordinance and that yes and also I believe Janice there was some language that was added here that reference the county rights of way that addressed this issue as well that's not in it's not in um the um right we took the language straight from the state statute uh that involves the role of the township on County right away so that's in there so I think it's it is addressed and there and you don't have that language because unfortunately um the most recent uh ordinance with that change was not given to the council okay so you're saying it will be in the it will be in okay thank you wait so how are we voting on point of clarification here are councelor lman are you making a motion to amend the pending ordinance because this would be the time to do it during the hearing yeah would that be Janice what we should do now add that you have the Lang which I don't have it in front of me I have it I'm I'm here to help you oh okay so would you like to make a motion a motion to amend the ordinance with the there are three changes I believe the one changing the years from 25 to 15 that the agreement will be in place the other thing is oh you have it okay the other do I have to say all of this or just the if you'd like councelor lman you can reference the three pages I think it's page 5 15 and 17 and it's red line yes okay okay I make a motion to um pass this ordinance can you pass it on so we can thanks to pass to um amend this ordinance With The Changes noted in red on pages seven pages five and pages I believe it was um 15 there's a minor type of 15 s and 17 do I have a second I second you have second all in favor I didn't get a chance to read the um Pages you said they're on page seven and what else they're on pages PES seven and then page 17 typo yeah and 17 and the rest they were just taken out the rest was just taken out okay does everyone understand what the amendment is or is there discussion um councelor Toller I'm just confing okay attorney bur did you have attorney Burr would you share with all of us so that we'll all understand what the discussion is on that end please the the question was about the comment that bill Harrison made when he was at the podium about the change to the ordinance and on page seven there is a section that addresses what his concerns were and councilwoman Toler and I were just discussing whether that was sufficient and in my opinion that is language is May I yes councelor Toler because it it it does speak to the the majority of what Mr Harrison stated but it doesn't say anything about obtaining a written agreement so does that cover this because if it doesn't say obtain a written agreement I'm just asking I mean Mr Harrison stated that's what we should include in it but this on our page seven doesn't say I'm just asking well I think I again my opinion is that it's this language covers what he his concerns were so uh even though it's not specific as specific as he was it does it does address his concerns okay councelor lochman did you wish to say anything else uh no I just wish that we would just vote on it can well we can't vote on something that we don't have and apparently we didn't have it so it's not like a rush through just because you know you might have known it this is the first time I'm seeing this I okay the attorney just told you that the issue has been addressed but my question is so so at the last meeting when we were the first we changed things like from 25 to 15 years like we did that publicly what this change that we're making now regarding the county I mean is it a substantive change that requires us to no I don't believe it's a substantive change okay um mayor May I'm a little confused so I'm looking at my notes from Mr Harrison's M Anderson thank you um so I'm just looking at my notes from Mr Harrison's comment and um I'm just reading what I wrote he said to get make sure we get a written agreement with the county regarding County rights of way and I'm just wondering if um the on page 17 um subp paragraph C that language seems to say that we have to you know there has to be a right of-way agreement with the town Cher county so I'm not not really sure that we actually need to amend any portion of this ordinance I think it was just it just has to be you know um enforced that we absolutely get a uh an agreement with the county that's my that's my reading of it so you're saying that we don't have to put the part that's on page seven that was not the one that we were presented with we were presented with a different that Mr Harrison see this one what the revisions I'm just curious because I don't know why he would stand up and mention that if he saw this or did he look at the old one I'm just asking a question and I thought the amendment amendment was from the one that we were presented which is this which is not that this when we were just presented for the first time now so there was an amendment made from the one that we were given to include this one all of this my my only point is that the the section that I'm talking about on page 17 um where it says that an agreement a right of-way use agreement with the township or County um is always required that is not a new that's not new language that was in the the language that we had already reviewed last okay I understand what you're saying I get it now cuz page five is very different it talks about right of way and that rights of way and that's what Mr Harrison was referring to so um it's on page seven he talked about public right of ways and we need to obtain a written statement so I understand what you're saying now thank you so there's been a motion for an amendment there's been a second any further discussion roll call please Madame clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes councilor Birmingham would you please do pending ordinance 02 2436 I'm sorry mayor before we move on to the pending ordinance uh the Amendments have been adopted now do you want to vote on the amended Ordinance do you want to adopt the amended ordinance okay yes we would like to do that thank you anybody wish to can I make a motion about that yeah so I'd like to adopt the amended or for the small cell Wireless okay I'll second thank you [Music] discussion Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councilor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay Council Birmingham please uh pending ordinance 02 436 an ordinance to prohibit the distribution of plastic single-use food service items and non-plastic single-use Food Service items for takeout or delivery orders unless requested by a customer in the township of Monclair and ISO move second anyone um in the audience that wish to be heard on this pending ordinance please come forward hi Suzanne Atman I'm here on this ordinance as a chair of the Monclair environmental commission um on behalf of the commission I want to thank you for considering passage of skip the stuff I also want to thank mayor Deputy Mayor and councelor Birmingham for your hard work collaboration and Leadership on this effort um and getting this to an even better place plus it was fun working with you along those lines uh this really has been a collaborative effort uh including Aon bullan and Judy Myers who brought this great idea to their town to begin with um Amy Monaco and her team including Vanessa who designed the survey and Michael who I don't know who came in early to get the survey out Lisa Johnson of course uh more recently with abash shaki sha from the Monclair bid and Daniel white from the economic development office who are excited to get the word out and support businesses um and of course to our wonderful Food Service businesses in Montclair who will make this happen some are already skipping the stuff and incorporating eco-friendly practices and others are eager to jump in um so we look forward to working with you on the next stage of this and providing education and support for this transition and just a side note um I just want to do a quick shout out and thank you to uh Demetria Edwards and Tony fan who have been an amazing help um to us organizing meetings especially ones that require Zoom meetings Demetri is always on top of things and eager to help out and Tony came and stayed for an hour um when he didn't have to helping us with technology and making sure things function properly so thank you thank you all thank you anyone else please yes thank you m mayor um I'm John Weber I live in Bradley Beach New Jersey so not from Monclair uh I work for oceanana which is the world's largest nonprofit group that is dedicated to the uh to Ocean protection and I just want to encourage you to pass to skip this stuff um I'm glad somebody came before me and thanked all the local people that have helped get this to where it is right now um love to also thank the deputy mayor for bringing it further and then all of you for voting it out of after the last um the last meeting uh in the state of New Jersey there's a bunch of towns that have already done this I think you will be the 17th there is an effort on the state level uh we're working on that this part of I'm part of a large Coalition of groups um clean water action uh New Jersey environmental justice Alliance clean ocean action Sierra Club environment in New Jersey there's many many more uh and so I'll just give you the the big um the big picture on skip to stuff first as you know this is about you know anybody can get all this stuff they just have to ask for it it's really simple um when you order takeout you don't shouldn't get every condiment known to man and you know utensils and everything especially if you're bringing it home which is what a lot we're doing these days we're bringing it home um From oceana's perspective we're a worldwide group you know there are 33 billion that's billion with a B pounds of plastic that enter the oceans every year it's a yearly statistic but that's about two garbage trucks worth of plastic entering the ocean every minute and if I measured that against this council meeting there would be it would be a lot of plastic um so so that's what we're I know you're just taking a blow at that and um we're not going to solve the whole plastic problem but this is a great step other towns should do this I know there's a provision uh that you talked about the last meeting regarding uh where your garbage goes it does go to an incinerator in Newark I understand that you had that discussion I will just say it was great that it even was recognized in the first draft of this um so thank you for that uh you're a unique town I must say I go to a lot of Town Council meetings I don't know of any other town where everybody collaps after everybody speaks so you're just it's Unique in a great way you got a lot of things going on uh and so I kind of feel maybe this is one thing that everybody can agree on everybody up here can agree on and everybody back here can agree on and you can deal with all those other things that um certainly need your attention so appreciate what you're doing and um thank you for this and happy to add you to the next list of thank you very much next speaker please hi uh Jessica stalsberg um I debated whether I should say this but I'm going to go ahead but I'm going to attach an apology to it because I know this should be very celebratory but I just thought it was an opportunity to remind you guys of something which is this is amazing thank you so much for all the hard work that went into passing it um it's as I said to you a couple months ago this is lwh hanging fruit this is a win for restaurants it's a win for the waist stream um in the right way Etc um this this greeted you guys when you joined uh when you got up on the day in July so the fact that this is in this passed in December I just want to point out that something this simple taking that many months to pass for something that was to say you know we know how that when you really look at what it is it's a very easy accessible win-win situation and I just would like to encourage you to think about like can we move things that are easy faster because it really does matter the last many months are many many many items of plastic that did go into the garbage that didn't have to that are being burned in an incinerator in someone else's backyard so these are all things that I just want to encourage us all to be thinking about like let's be more efficient for another thing to bring up is that you've had that many many requests for a trade tree a shade tree commission and that is also still sitting hanging in the balance so important trees are being cut down there isn't monitoring it's there it's just not effectively being handled and people are basically begging for a shade tree Commission why hasn't it happened can we please come together and move these really important issues of our time time that are easy to do faster and I just think it would be a win for this entire Community each and every time thank you very much anyone else wish to be heard please on the ordinance 02 2436 Aaron Bolan Champlain Terrace I just want to say again really quickly I'm very glad this is going through this is a fantastic ordinance however long it may have taken it will make such a huge difference and if you think about just holding in your hands from like one bag of tacos or Chinese takeout what that is and this guy was where Oceano talking about garbage trucks full of plastic and just it's it's real it's really happening and this is a great step to stop it and thank you all for for following following through and getting it across the line that's it thank you thank you Council any um discussion yes um mayor Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson I would like to um make a motion to make a couple of small amendments to this ordinance please uh mainly to clear up some confusion about the effective date is there a question okay um so the first proposed amendment is in section so my proposal is to strike the language that um that says effective March 1st 2025 and then the second Madam clerk are you okay ready for the second one um section 13425 I'd like to have it read instead of when effective just effective date for The Heading and then and um the language to be this ordinance shall come into full force and effect beginning March 1st 2025 um and just to clarify as to um just in case there are any questions regarding the March um date we did put a lot of thought into it um and um it's just and it is in line with uh ordinances of for example Hoboken um it's to just provide time um just a couple of months to execute the E education um the education plan and uh and and allow time for the restaurant owners and businesses to amend their online platforms their menus um and and uh just prepare for um being able to fully comply with it and also educate the public and we're really looking forward to um you know sharing this uh news with the public and the restaurant owners and um I know it may maybe it seems like a a small thing but um I do think that um that it's going to have a big effect and um as Miss Atman said um there are a number of restaurants that are already doing this so um I want to just thank everybody for supporting somebody second that did somebody second your motion yeah yeah I mean I don't know why we have to strike the first March 1 because it's just redundant but I I fine I yeah I I just think that it's it's it can it's a little confusing um so yeah so then I second again the the March 1st was always the intended date and it is just clarifying that that is what it is and again as um Deputy Mayor said this is the holiday season this is the busiest time of year for the restaurant so we are not imposing a new ordinance immediately we will have a whole rollout plan that as Suzanne described um they will get restaurants will get a toolkit they will get information and we will do public education as well any further discussion mayor uh I have a question for Mr Burr section 134-h attorney yeah because that was my question was we have March 1st as the date embedded in the ordinance and then the section 13425 is basically saying it is effective as of today that as of March 1st 2025 you have to stop so so that is I guess the legal in terms of the legal ease what what we need to what what do we need to do why well the CLK raises a important question she's right uh we I wouldn't change the when effective to start on um March 1st 2025 and 13425 because that's when once you pass this then it's the 20day goes through a 20-day weight period it would violate the law to do it to push to extend that date out so once this becomes effective its start date when the um when this stop the stuff starts will be March 1st 2025 if you leave it in uh 135-21 so and I and I do understand your point uh Deputy Mayor but so your recommendation is to leave everything as yes yeah so it is just going to be effective March 1st okay if that's the understanding I'm going to withdraw my motion to amend thank you any further discussion on um the pending ordinance 0 24-36 no call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councilor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes mayor yes okay um councilor lochman pending ordinance 02437 y uh pending ordinance 0- 2437 is an ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffic of the code of mon of the township of Monclair New Jersey um multi-way stops at Lincoln and Irving streets and walnut and farest Street uh y ISO move second is there anyone here that wishes to be heard on pending ordinance 0 24-37 please come Council anyone that wishes to um make comments I I just yes counselor Toler thank you um do we know how soon these will be installed and my second question which is not related to this ordinance I'm following up on the status of the stop signs at Hilltop but you were supposed email me at the last Me Maybe Miss T's here when will they be installed installation of stop signs on Hilltop no this is no Hilltop is something separate this is for item C uh Lincoln and Irving and walnut and far Street I'm just curious on the time frame for inst olation would you like to get back to um counselor Toler okay thank you okay have to confirm anyone else have any discussion on this council members no um Madam clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor de yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes we're going to move on to the consent agenda um consent items one 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 uh 12 13 did we remove 14 yes and 15 um mayor manager would you like to give us a I just on a point of clarification on 13 and 13A originally it was for two ports that would take up four spots and then there were discussions about limiting it to taking two spots so it wasn't a decision that was made by the entire Council so e either you can adopt 13 at 13A one is uh would take up four spots and have two charging stations to one for each spot and the other would just take up be one and have two spots parking spots taken away so I put those on there because there was no other time to communicate to you after the last meeting what you all wanted to do so whichever you decide to do you can disregard the other okay um yes Council lochman there was also a an item 16 added to the consent agenda which um where's that concern the resolution establishing rules and procedures for the conduct of council committees that's number 33 that's number 33 yes ma'am oh I'm sorry excuse me thank you I missed it yeah so so just just to be clear mayor so we're going to um the consent agenda items um can we do a roll call unless somebody wants to discuss them because we already have those in there and took the ones out we wanted to right if I the manager are we pulling 13 and 13A so that you can discuss it yes okay so then the consent agenda would be 1 through 12 except for number four okay yeah and number 15 yes Madam CL yes okay yes uh I need to move in in a second I so move to uh second okay Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councel damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay okay we're going to um go to the um resolution r24 d281 and I had um a concern about about this because um one of the groups the Northeast Earth Coalition um inadvertently put the wrong date on they put in an application and they thought that they were applying for um the 2025 year and and made a mistake it was clear that they wish to be considered and they were not notified to come to the um hearing and they asked if we would please um give them consideration there were um some other groups and another group in particular that that was not here and since I happened to have had their telephone number in my my cell phone I called them and I said hey you got to come down so the purpose of taking these federal dollars that we're getting is really to try to help Monclair help itself and this money comes so that all of these nonprofits that are are are helping make Monclair better can have some resources to continue to do so and I just wanted um that individual to have an opportunity for council members to vote in or vote out whether they um agreed that the person should have an opportunity what happened was that seven council members did not respond only five council members responded three of those that responded said yes let the Northeast Earth Coalition who does so much for our Township be considered and two said no and so because the entire count IL did not opine on this our planner tally did not put them on here and so at this point in time I'm trying to get the general consideration if the council thinks that it would be fine to let Northeast Earth Coalition be considered um and if so um if uh planner tally has any more blanks that we can fill out before we leave tonight that shouldn't be a huge um thing I understand that this has to be done by December what 1 December 31st the 30th I believe yes and so I think that there's a way that we can do this um there's a will there's a way um we we heard from um Jose German earlier today about the things that he's doing we all had an opportunity to read um the things that he's doing and and probably everybody in this room is very familiar with the things that he does to to help us in the community and so that's why I I pulled this so I would like to make a motion that we allow um the application for the north Northeast Earth Coalition be considered for receiving Community Development block grant resources may I councelor Toller yes thank you um I'll second your motion but I just want to have a conversation because I don't know if there's ample time are you suggesting that we do voting again tonight and then this resolution would have to be reissued tonight or make an amendment to it because I don't know how we can add it in another suggestion and maybe the plan Miss tally can um help me understand this when EDC we talked about Jose's uh Mr German's email coming in and I was one of the ones that thought yes we should when EDC met we decided because of the time frame when this needs to be turned in that we would invite him in to our next meeting and see what other funding we could find for him to help him with the project so do you feel that that would be sufficient or would you like us to go through these motions again um well I'm I'm not that's a good question councelor Toler so I and I don't know if if we can do this so simply is a blank piece of paper and it has all the names of the people on it that we wish to consider right and we ranked them we gave a ranking system right and so we can get that blank piece of paper again and add to the bottom of that Northeast Earth Coalition and rerank and have the numbers so that we know where that person falls and based on that there's um resources that you know would be be allocated um generally we get that the paper anyway did did we get the paper that demonstrated where those numbers fell it's on this res yeah so just suggesting now that we include them and and do that um that way he could be included we haven't had the the discussions with the county yet we have to go up there and do them he could be included now and we don't have to go and try to find other money because we can use some of this money that we have may yes just to clarify we don't a we these rankings that we give are just indicative of the sense of the council they don't B in anyway they don't basically it gives a sense of your priority to the county when they are allocating funds and it's a fixed pool of money so it's not like there's any more money like if we do this we're taking from whomever we ranked earlier but he would be included yeah right he would be included he's magic yeah like you know I'm I'm certainly sympathetic um but uh uh just do we how do how do we do it it's clearly your choice number one he's already submitted an application to the county because the county has a separate pot of money that they make available my suggestion is if you want to include them the easiest way is you I would just add them add it as number 10 on here rather than having to do the ranking all over again okay because it would still be considered uh by the county if you put it on your resolution I would also suggest I did not put Oak integrated Care on here because they did not show up at the public hearing even though they submitted an application so if I would just suggest in order to be as Fair as possible if you want to put Northeast uh Earth Coalition on here that you also consider putting Oaks integrated care and I and I would be um in in favor of of that and and I could um uh CH change my Amendment the only reason I didn't do it because when you and I spoke you said that they hadn't reached out at all they hadn't responded or anything but if we know for a fact that they're still interested then certainly I would be very happy to um in my Amendment include both of those in there so it's certainly it's it's your decision how you want to handle this at the end of the day the county takes what what is provided by the township and just uses it to help allocate funding absolutely no you know I've been working at this for what 12 years or longer so I'm very familiar with that and you know appreciate you um helping me to navigate that so we'll add number 10 is Northeast and number 11 is greater Oaks to include it on this if we vote on it when we vote on it yeah how much was how much were they for um Northeast asked for $115,000 and Oaks um let me see ask for 14,500 just refresh my memory greater Oaks what kind of work do they do again it's me it's uh mental health it's cor okay cope it's used yes used to be called cope organization remember them they're down um Bloomfield Avenue they just changed their name yeah Janet can I just ask you how often does it happen that everyone who suppes doesn't get money they all get Mone or do they all typically get some money if they all um meet the the application requirements because the county goes through the application to determine if they if it's structured so that they can actually pay what's being asked for if they have a means of documenting the low and and moderate income people that are being served so what happens is after you do your your priority list in the fall in the winter January February we meet with the county with each of the recipients or or applicants I should say and the county gives their comments sometimes the county has said you know what you're not quite there yet what you're proposing doesn't meet this this criteria or that criteria you have to make a change come back next year that's happened quite a few times in fact sister to sister applied twice before finally getting funding this past this past year so um occasionally and sometimes there are applicants who are non-performing and the county says you did not perform well we're not going to fund you so that has happened as well does the county ever say you ask for 50,000 we're going to give you 25 or something they almost always do that absolutely so that's like we don't have to do that because the count County does that thank you Janice I have a question just one more I um and Northeast Earth Coalition obviously does great work in the community I know them I just I was just wondering if you happen to know because you mentioned that they submitted an you know for a fact that they submitted an application to the county um I was told that they did I believe it was by the county that they had submitted okay I see I saw um he's text me a copy of that and you received that okay the county received it and he showed me where he sent to the township as well okay and do you happen to know if any of these other ones the other agencies also applied to the for County well I mean I know some of the they get funding from various other sources I don't know if neighborhood Council because I think that was it came up in the discussion that they go to the county I I know that um Family Promise gets funding from the county but that's ESG funding um so they get funding from multiple sources but not not necessarily from cdbg ESG what's ESG emergency shelter grants but um Deputy Mayor that's a an excellent question and I always try to encourage all of them that do a lot of work in the county just like cope they do just as much in you know beyond the walls of Montclair as they do um in inside of Monclair and I think we should be encour encouraging all of them to you know seek the resources from the county and from the other municipalities where they are you know um providing services for other people but often times they don't but it would only benefit them if they got more resources any further discussion we're adding them on is that correct we're going to do a roll call for okay Madam clerk okay mayor so this is the motion to add Northeast Earth Coalition at 15,000 and Oaks formerly known as cope at 14,000 14,500 greater Oaks yes 14,500 thank you Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Deano yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay no no now you just have to vote on no we're just putting them on we're just adding on at and so we're up to 13 or 13A we're going to have the discussion yes okay let me get don't you have to move it or something somebody moving number well I I would like to move uh um item or resolution I'm sorry item 13 second discussion we're discussing resolution r 24290 two Council Toler yes thank you um Mr Lola you stated 13 was for two spots and 13A was for four spots mhm yeah I'm just making sure we're no it's the other way right so 13 is for four spots 13A is for two spots okay so I'd like to do 13A so we have to kind of forget 13 okay okay so then um either we have to withdraw 13 or but we're having a discussion so um I just have a question maybe Miss Johnson can can answer possibly if we are if we did 13A we are not obviously we would have brought in the power for two or four or more Chargers so we're not tying ourselves we're just not outfitting those extra two exactly we could always expand it later okay all right so no big deal that's important okay thanks and because of the grants it is a little bit more expensive to do the two spots but I don't think it's a big deal it's only about 4,000 okay and question the placement because I spoke to a couple of business owners and where would they be Place do we get to say where they go in the lot or do they suggest where they should go yeah because where we have to pull the power from off one of the poles that's appropriate where would that be because it's like in the center of the perfect that's exactly where the r you want it it's right in the center perfect like kind of behind the Chinese store area yeah so yeah yeah right in the and if I may one more time and if we thank you if we had the spots four spots and we discovered that they were causing a problem could we repurpose that dual charger at 205 or something like that it'd be really expensive to move it yeah cuz yeah it would be and then you would lose the incentive that you would be getting through one of the grants because that's tied to the spot it's tied to the location at the end of the thing and if but if we had if we're set up to get four spots and I appreciate the constraint here I do I do totally appreciate it we could install it and if there was a parking Armageddon because of it locally and I mean I'm I'm being sensitive to to people there I know it's a real thing we could just in fact bag the charger like literally just say this is not you know this is a regular parking space correct I mean as long as it's not going to cost more than what is allocated here I don't want to be overspending you know what I mean you you mention this I mean because we're getting grant money but then I think of what you're talking about we would have to now use our funds is that correct no well we we do have to use our funds for some of it so about a third of it we have to use our funds for which we have put aside so again if we do the the two dual heads we save about $4,000 um if not then you know if we do the two just the way the grant is but we could also take that Grant that's tied to the dual head and put it in another location so if we wanted to go ahead we didn't have another location and I don't mean in the South End I mean just in general in town you didn't find another place parking lots right yeah another parking lot so yeah so when I had taken PNG through we located um uh the the Valley Road lot across from the police station as well as the bellw lot in Upper Montclair we also um chosen as appropriate sites for Chargers based on the appropriate power and then the fact that it's a municipal lot and it's also in a business district which is important did you look in watch sorry did you look in Watchung yeah so the one area that that could be a possibility though it would be expensive is like it's like um I don't know how to explain it but it's across from like in a lot where there's uh another car deal not a dealership but the they work on cars it's it's hard for me to explain but it it would have been about 50,000 for us to do it there after all the rebates so we could and I'm happy to bring PSG back but the ones I you know I located were the the most cost effective yeah may I have two questions so um I'm just looking comparing the final net cost after rebates and incentive um 13 that has number 13 that has the two two dual Port electric vehicles it looks like the final net cost is actually lower yeah that's what you said all right so great that so it's just a matter of whether we wanted to take up four spaces versus two spaces but yeah and then can you just um say I I I believe I reached out to you about the revenue from like public use can you say a little bit more about that yeah so for like Belleview lot um in the past year they made about $75 or $8,000 just in revenue from the spot so it will pay for itself in time okay and that was just one um dual head charger thank you we're going to take four chargers for for $300 Alex any further discussion on this and I I'd like to withdraw my second for for the 13A I was thinking that was the I mean for the 13 I thought I'm trying to Second for the two spots so that's 13 13A I'm I want to do 13A the just the two spots I don't want to take four spots out of that um area out of that parking so there so yes so the the only thing that to councilman damato's point is that what we can do is install the four for uh for the four spots and we can only use two for the time being so that you don't lose four spots and then that's demand picks up up then put the other one in in use so we couldn't use um one up at the Belleville or or whatever um the other lot is we we couldn't do that sorry I'm just saying and um thank you councelor Williams I got that but I was thinking that we could put the other one somewhere else like in the um area that you just identified so why would we put you know four in one lump unless we were really sure that that's what we wanted to do versus two there and then two um in ex yeah exactly just remember that the grant does expire in May right so if if we're serious about it we could definitely put the charges in another location and then still gain the benefit of the the rebates and the incentives I'm just I thought I thought I thought I'm sorry no you go first I thought that you said that it would cost $50,000 to or maybe that was just watching CH that was just W so bellw was about 42,000 and that's after the rebates because uh it requires more trenching um and more W like uh further wires so longer wires thicker wires so just so we're clear here the putting in four Chargers is in the same place in the South End is cheaper than putting in two Chargers yeah because of the $10,000 rebate that's attached to the clean Fleet grant that I received through the BPU okay and we could do two in another spot but it would be more money because you it it requires yeah more work yeah and then so Valley Road I believe was was um about 42,000 about 40,000 I don't remember if it was around that though but I remember South End and Claremont being the cheapest okay um I mean I guess I would just like to see more resources like this go into the fourth ward so I I'm in favor of moving forward item 13 I would if I may just again say that we could understanding the constraint that you pinpointed and I totally understand it and appreciate it that if we're creative and we install these we literally just do not need to use them for the time being we do not need to you know force people to I age that and that will I think it's just the flexibility and um it it I think it's an easier thing and I do not want to be pulling them up to the Bel pull them up yeah yeah I mean like so I I think it's I think it's a good solution I'm a Little mystified by the math but that's that's why we hire people smarter than us can I ask one question Birmingham that lot it has a a section where it says no parking but there are like parking lines there like it looked like it used to be slers um slers proper slafer masonry spot there's seven spots behinder gotcha gotcha okay thank you you're welcome for that so did you want to second that I will second 13 okay mhm any further discussion um Madam clerk this is for resolution r24 290 item 13 yes yes okay Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councilor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville all right if councelor toer wants it and that's her her W then I'll go with the four yes thank you okay um so where are we now we're going to move on to number resolution 14 yours okay resolution r 24 291 resolution authorizing the award of contract by qualified purchasing agent qpa pursuant to PL 2023 Chapter 30 NJ election transparency act April 3rd 2023 I move I still move I thought this one was pull because I have it written next to it as pull but if you if you guys don't then we can talk about it it was pull from consent okay it was pull from the consent very good okay discussion um councelor Toller yes um oh second we who second it well did you second it no I didn't okay yep um I'm just wondering if our my colleagues here if you guys are interested in putting and what I call I'm saying a cap in air quotes um I know that we have the power if you will to say anything at 20,000 that that we get to see it because right now as it stands and we're talking about saving money and seeing where the money's going who's you know how much we're paying um this type of resolution allows our purchasing agent to you know anything under 44,000 so 435 425 we won't get to see any of these contracts or anything that's not a professional service we won't get to see and I'm not saying the purchasing agent doesn't have the authority to do that by the state but if we're looking to see where money is actually going we do have the power right now to drop this threshold um to say 20,000 or 25,000 just to ensure that we're seeing everything that we're spending money on that would be my recommendation it's up for discussion mayor I would agree I agree with counc I agree I think I love the number that you just threw out 25 it's a common sense number yeah it's real money I could use that right now it's it's it's a good number it is a good number um so again the law says a qpa can do up to 44 we know that's the law but as a municipality as legislators we have the power of the pin that if we want to drop this down to 25 okay we can so anything $25 and $1 or 20 25 and 25 we now have to see it and it's no disrespect to our Excell qpa or staff it's just uh us doing our job but it's isn't there two things here isn't there I'm sorry thank you mayor there's the bid threshold and then there's the notification so so we can ask to see it has to be written all of it right no that's fine cuz I see here all contracts orward shall be approved by the township manager and we can add and anything over 25,000 will be that would be an IT number but in terms of what he can do as a purchasing agent without a formal bidding process can we keep that at 44,000 is the question right cuz that's those are two separate things not miss R is here to explain better I think I hope4 good evening 44,000 is the bid threshold anything over 44,000 he has to bid it you can't change right and below, only thatth issued without any uh resolution by the governing body um under 44,000 that's what this resolution is but that one is being reduced now to 25 instead of right just just the record this is just extending what we're doing year so it's not like not right yeah it says that at the top right in the paragraph above that it says that yes councelor Williams just as a practical matter what does that mean in terms of the workflow that's additional resolutions will come to your way that's the only thing it prevents coming you know you don't need to do the work and he will do the so do I mean do you have enough I I don't I don't really even know what that would even look like I'm assuming that it's going to be a lot more so do you have the manpower to to handle this additional work cuz I I just want everybody to realize what the ramifications of this is I mean we're looking at as just a number but somebody actually has to sit down and pump out additional res resolution these are these are already prefixed in a computer do anything else you can check you can check for one month or two months if you are thinking that it's getting too many resolutions your way you can change it she'll be doing the work yes I'm sorry councelor lochman yeah I just you know we are a uh a legislative body we have a manager we have his staff who work on this stuff why are we getting involved in the nitty-gritty of a a bill over whatever we're getting involved in the nitty-gritty of the taxpayer's money I understand that we have we have we're getting an agree we have staff but I would like to see what was being the money's being spent on maybe you don't I do you want to get in the nitty-gritty with Council uh subcommittee what how things are run you want to talk about nitty-gritty stuff behind doors we need nitty-gritty right here excuse me Amina but there's no okay so um I'm sorry um Chief Financial Officer Maja did you have anything else that you wish to share at this moment oh for this resolution for this um discussion that we're talking now does everybody is everyone clear what is Right 25,000 yeah okay okay I just want to State for the record on behalf of manager while they understand what you're doing I want to make it very clear this is additional work will require certification of funds and all of this it's going to make government slower and uh the reasons are the reasons are I don't see it you know from an administrative performance point of view I want to make it very clear as you said that none of this has to do with the per performance of the qpa but I thought you just said that this it would be we'd be doing what we're already doing no he already has the authorization to this number okay so we're going from what it was now we're going back that's my point it's not that this is a new you know what I mean so we'll be staying staying where we now we're going back to 25,000 so we're going back to what it was probably 15 years ago maybe at least CU they only adjusted inflation F and all that but that's Council damato look everybody's going to have a different number that they're comfortable with and it's there's no great Scandal or or whatever and and we should understand try to have a ballpark understanding of how much more work it is how many more hours how many more resolutions come our way like I said I think that that that the common sense number of 25 Grand where like that comes in and goes out and you know that that's a threshold and you can and if people know that it's un it's it's legible to the community that that's the number that hits us and like that makes sense so I like it I have no idea how many bits of business are between those two numbers so if that just happens to be a spot that there's a lot of stuff in yeah I can understand that it's a problem I don't know I'm not going to push this but I I like where my colleague is going yeah and we can try it out if we see that it's too many resolutions then we can always go back to this yes the state law says 44,000 yep is what he or she can do um but I would like to see what's you know where our money's going if we're we've got a lot of things that we have to pay for and be responsible for and one of sorry councelor Birmingham um I I'm I have just a concern about just slowing down the working of the government I like I mean do you think we could get a like a listing of how many contracts of between 25 and 44 like cuz 44 is the state like they set that for reason right like that's um but so I'm I'm just a little bit concerned about slowing down it work I don't really know how this works slow it can we please hear from our um Chief Financial Officer please thank you man thank you mayor uh if any municipality does not have a qualified purchasing agent nonqualified without the license then automatically it's 17,500 is the cap if a municipality has a qpa then the cap is goes up to 44,000 so like with you can try one month and see how many are you're coming your way you have or you can try in one meeting see how many are coming in your way if you feel it is too much and you can always whatever you feel comfortable um if I may ask conversely we could also pass this as written and then revisit it we wouldn't have to wait a year obviously uh then you have to do another res resolution you can withdraw the resolution I don't know how do you do that I'm I'm not sure what uh Eric was saying you saying we pass this resolution now we can pass the resolution now the we want to revisit the topic and reduce it to 25,000 right yes then you could do that later on yes wouldn't see anything we wouldn't see anything we wouldn't see the spending okay you can do it this way but why can't we just ask to see the spending that that's what I'm like why can't we just ask to see the spending every month it differs it differs every month that's what I mean every month why can't we just ask yeah we see the bills list but that's after the fact that's when it's time for us to pay it want to see it before we pay it okay um councelor lochman did you have anything did you wish to no I spoke already I think that we're kind of micromanaging the business and I don't think that we need to do that we're not micromanaging okay um we heard from you councelor Williams I I have nothing to add I I I think we just put it to a vote okay councelor Toller um did you wish to to share anything else no no that's it okay thank you yep Madam clerk we're voting on did you you made a motion for I made a motion for 25 and then coun deato D I'm not sure if he wants to we voting on the amended or are you withdrawing that totally up to you no no we can we can vote on it on the amendment okay in good spirits CL we're going to Madam clerk we're going to vote on the amended um resolution Deputy Mayor Anderson no councelor Birmingham no councelor damato yes councelor lochman no councelor Toler uh yes councelor Williams no mayor Baskerville yes motion defeated okay um let's see now we are right are you going to move are you going to go back to the we're going to go back to the um original motion anyone councelor Williams you want me to read it again yes please okay I already have it I have a yeah it's already it's already been moved and seconded okay right so so roll call please yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councel damato sure councel lochman yes councelor Toler no councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay where are we now we are mayor may I say one thing sorry um please and I I think she's the room but I we just passed that um the Chargers for this um on the south end and I do want to thank Lisa Johnson because I know she put a lot of work into that and was really dog and I think unfortunately she left and I meant to thank her while she was in the room obviously but I I did want to just oh no definitely yeah she sent me an email after the last meeting um you know explaining everything she's worked on and done cuz I was not aware as you know a lot um and the gentleman the vendor who was supposed to walk the streets with me never showed up but that's okay I did it by myself um so yeah you know I appreciate Dr Johnson's work and all the work that she does in that department so yeah sorry I just needed to say that no I'm I totally agree and I appreciate it as well and before we have these meetings I try to speak to as many people as possible that can help me in terms of making my decisions when I spoke with her earlier today and I asked her which one of the two uh she preferred for the South and she said the two and So based on her expertise um Dr Johnson shared with me I said the two I'm really excited that we're going to have four now and so um but that's why I think it's really good to have these meetings you know have the discussions in public and for all of us to talk more to um one another so where are we now 16 yes please okay I just because this is the end of the year there I I tried not to load things up on new business but there are appointments uh legal things and there's just a few uh resolutions that we had to put on for tonight so um uh number six is the bills list you want you want me to stop as we go each one or you no please if you can just um share a snapshot if you think there's some something 16 is the bills list 17 is a uh excuse me please can you um please either step outside or bring it down a little bit because we can't hear very well up here number 17 is yeah sorry mayor I interrupt 17 is to allow uh seeking approval from local government services to uh uh amend the budget to allow us to accept a grant for uh drive sober get pulled over year end holiday Crackdown Grant of $8,750 can uh can we act on it because it's we're going to act on it at the end they're going to wait they wanted me to go through and then they'll act excuse me we're we're reading um yes oh I did not know mayor I thought these are only discussion I did not realize you are planning on acting on these items that's the plan that's usually you discuss in one meeting and act in the next meeting so I thought not when they're listed at as new business resolutions at a at a regular meeting okay all that okay number 18 is a resolution to award a non-fair and open contract to record recognitions for the police department to purchase automated license plate readers through a grant fund this is the grant that uh Monclair and several neighboring towns uh uh obtained through uh uh through uh Congress congresswoman Cheryl and uh I I believe I I uh North Caldwell is uh is administering the grant for all the recipients so we had to get this done so we can get our money to do this okay 19202 and 21 are appointments that came from someone on the governing body that does not come from Administration but those three appointments were requested okay uh Paul I don't know if you want to address the uh the prosecutor Etc 22 23 make apologize 22232 4 are the uh reappointments for the prosecutor and the public defenders so that they can get off and running in the new year you need that um resolution 25 is the appointment of ERS mcferson to act as Redevelopment lus some Redevelopment attorney um primarily that will be for the lacana plaza um back now that they were named is yeah back we will reim we will be reimburse they will the developer has to pay okay um 20 7 is uh resolution appointing the vacant and abandoned properties attorney s changela and 28 oh 28 is to qualify list of attorneys for your complex and general litigation uh that that's that list will be there so that when you need a conflict in general litigation attorney you can choose someone from that from that list 26 is off has been pulled that's going to go to 26 was pulled because it's going to go to the finance committee for bond councel for them to discuss may I just speak on number 26 since it's going to finance and then it will come back to us is that correct councelor toer thank you um I just want to ensure that this firm has minorities hired because their website doesn't reflect not one so I mean I know you guys are going to discuss it um but we need to make sure that we're holding our vendors and contractors accountable to the affirmative action plan and that they're you know minorities LBGTQ women Etc are listed and listed as employees you know just to put that out there 29 is uh for labor councel Point labor councel the labor Council and to m toller's point is that's a women-owned uh women CER firm um and they're handling uh pending uh labor matters as we speak um 30 you guys are going to discuss 30 um and 31 uh has to do with revoking ascends license Ascend uh left town back in June I believe um they haven't renewed their license and and they haven't um surrendered their license so this is a resolution to revoke that license so it could be reissued and then um number 32 is and 32 and 33 I'll leave that to the manager and the council knows what 33 you 30 32 as you know we've had an ongoing matter with public service for outstanding bills prior to uh 2024 we have reached an agreement which we we have have discussed in the finance committee um and at multiple meetings that they're willing to accept uh 50 cents on a dollar all amounts due and owing prior to the 1st of 2024 or will be zeroed out I think we're my understanding is we are all caught up as 2024 with the exception of a couple of pending bills so I ask for the board's approval so we resolve this matter once and for all and you vote can can you change7 I'm sorry the we we discussed this 2017 is going to be removed so it's all up to December 31st I believe the last paragraph says all amounts yeah the the title of the resolution still says 2017 because as you know as we discussed in the finance committee there are so many these these account balances were from age old from like 2000 they are not the new ones we can change it to through uh uh December 31 2023 as remove 17 2017 reference okay because as I as we discussed it multiple times in the finance committee and as I gave the information and approve there are several outstanding from many many years ago way before my time I gave 2012 bill with big outstanding uh outstanding amount as an example one example we have many many in the boxes if anybody wants to see um and another thing is to put online access we started with online access for many that's not necessary to be in the agreement we have an agreement with them to do that we had that discuss but the the reason is uh we don't uh for the items that we use we do online access and pay through online so we do not need the paper bills that's why we don't open the paper bills ask a question is this all on lman is this all under control now we'll see that you're paying things on time they have been paying from to year 200000 on our yeah our investigation found out from year 2001 onwards they have been regularly paying outstanding current charges only not the pending charges those are the pending charges that became um compounded and became to this situation this is going back to this is primarily because does all the accounts there million accounts every account is a different number every account handle what account are we paying this out of cuz we just noticed that there's no account to the certification of funds yeah there's not a specific account listed that we're paying from right but wasn't there money reserved in the last year's in this budget for $600 something, specifically shouldn't it be paid out of that account that account comprises of several for example water utility water utility is not I just saw the line item in there which I think it's is a 20a on the schedule on on current fund schedule 20a on water utility there is another one on super utility but I know that we you put money away from the year before so it's 600 something, so like in 2021 itself we put some money because we were negotiating at that I'm not disputing that I'm just asking is that the account from which this will be paid I know but depending upon if water utility out of the 971 200 is water U then it goes to water utility I'm looking for that's why I'm looking for the break up of that 970 I'm sorry why are you talking about water utility if this is psng bills psng water utility also pay P bills excuse me can we um just have one speaking at a time um we will issue the check once it's pass we will issue the check charging the accounts where we put the money we're we're going to issue one check yes from one account one check we can try maybe we can do inter transfers from the utilities we'll try yes because every day because of outstanding amounts due and how numbers change it's not we will give you one check okay just want to make sure and so um and the contract the contract will come right the copy of the contract please I'd like to ask um for those that are watching at home and because not every council member was involved with these discussions can you please explain this and and whatever happen to the million dollars or whatever so that everyone here gets an understanding because um the finance committee is a little bit more familiar but not everyone has the benefit of those discussions yeah um mayor with regard to these psng bills um because of the setup of the bills you know each individual poll or streetlight is one account um and and they're not only dealt at you know as IND idual accounts they're also dealt by by different individuals in different buildings too police department does their owns and uh fire department does their own um Recreation used to do their own and water utility sub utility parking utility takes care of all the bills for the decks and the Lots so um and in 2017 what uh psng did is they Consolidated some of the accounts and put under the master account that's when some of these accounts moved and com got into one bigger account this is whole lot of things happened from 2000 year 22 2001 onwards that's our investigation that digging into the matter revealed and all those uh if you remember mayor in 2019 2021 we did that for constellation too we settled that constellation one now we were we start a discussion at that time about this psng one now this psng is going to be settled hopefully with this contract everything will be zeroed out for up until 2023 the minute we can pay tomorrow it'll be zeroed out to up as of December 31 2023 and all only 2024 bills they're almost all are getting paid uh uh current if there is a one or two we know at least what it is which month what is the bill mayor CCT manager May okay um councelor Toler councelor damato um thank you mayor um the bills the public service bills you said how many bills do we have that we have to pay how many total and you stated that some departments or areas pay their own Bill yes okay now they all will be combined correct now they're going to all be combined they won't be on one bill but they all be in the same location to be paid okay so prior to that they weren't they were in different departments or different areas there was there was uh two basic Master accounts back when they did this change Public Service did it was in within consultation of the township I don't know who was involved in those conversations but Public Service grouped those bills together so we have two really big groups of bills that are together we have separate several separate large bills that are in the utilities but they have not been at issue and then we have some smaller ones that we're going to bring over so that it's in one location and all the bills get paid it one we'll have this all Consolidated in one area for all the bills ex when do you think we'll have it cuz is within the next hopefully within the next 30 days as we get this done and the other issue we had with this complicating bills is because I'm not going to get what happens is when you even though you you see the bills and you go through them and you see different amounts it's because once you're behind okay if you're if the if if their computer system says you're behind then they allocate your payment no matter what it is to your oldest bills right so it doesn't it's not like you're looking at your home Bill month-to month the numbers are always different because they apply it where you think you might owe something you don't owe it anymore another spot you think you paid it and it's still there so that's because of being behind on these bills it you can you never get the same snapshot two months in a row okay Council deato yes so this payment that we will make of 4571 197 uh for $457,000 as a settlement was somehow provisioned in our budget correct yes yes this and what was it provisioned at how much it's it's little bit little more than that actually how much roughly I think it's 661 640 or 660 line potentially so we have a carryover we have a windfall of $200,000 based on our current budget probably I have to go check I can't you know I don't want to give you the wrong number 660 is saying if I have the budget in front of uh the audit report in front of me I can tell you but it is all in the audit report it was set aside and uh to councelor uh councelor Tor uh when you say psng we used to you know for one account for example One account you pay the bill we used to cut check and attach the copy of the bill a stub of the bill and send it in the mail they don't apply to that account they can apply to any account anything outstanding they did that at one time I think the Boe accounts um were applied our bills were applied to Boe accounts and sometimes vice versa sometimes to the library and uh clar Anderson a portion of clar Anderson is Boe you know a portion because they have these uh lockers I believe that lockers belong to the Boe so that part is Boe yeah no thank you for the clarification because you know sometimes I hear little off-handed comments like did you pay the bill and it was really other department that we pay the bill but now that everything's going to be centralized we should be in good shape in the coming I hope still not I'm still not not that comfortable trying to figure out what happened to the million dollars that we paid them that's the thing that just keeps coming up and and when I talked to manager Lola I keep saying I just really not don't feel comfortable about what happened to the to the million dollars because if we paid them the million dollars right it it it it went somewhere and I just don't feel comfortable you know okay here's here here's half of that we're going to agree to pay half of that unless we agree that we didn't pay it if we agree that we je definitely didn't pay them then we're getting a deal but if we pay paid them that million dollars which is what I was led to believe may we paid every year million and a half at least if you see every year we paid again there are misapplications some are for Boe and there are some way outstanding too from years onwards there is outstanding so uh that's the reason the management the company government strategy group is hired and as per their agreement they are supposed to determine the starting point of the accumulating past due balances and and ask the psng to justify and provide proof of the past du balances I'm assuming they did that and you're satisfied I'm not I'm not going to belabor this anymore we it's it's simple math we have bills we have checks we wrote okay and as a result if you take the bills and the amount we paid there's $900 something, that we owe we're not doing this paying anything that we don't owe we could not prove in any way shape or form that any money was misapplied we're getting a good deal here from public service because they want this to go away this has been going on for several years okay with negotiating with them and I'm just trying to make the issue resol that that's simple but all the discussions that we had up until today I was never told that we paid that money I kept hearing that that that yeah I I've never told we did not pay a million dollars so if we didn't pay a million dollars then yes let's pay them the $500 and go home this is the first time that you or anybody ever said to me that we that we did not pay that million dollar I never said we paid that million dollars okay all right so we did not pay the million dollars and now they're doing us a favor that's what we we have to because clear about when this I'm sorry May no I'm just saying we have to be clear either we paid it or we didn't if we didn't pay them we're in rear by a million dollars then yes we pay the 500,000 and we're happy to do that yeah there there is idot and you saw the bill from 2012 you saw the bill there was 200 something 29 ,000 areas in that 2 2012 Bill itself right you know Council Birmingham I will just say this has been a very complicated I think at one time there were 70 accounts there were there were 70 accounts for the town of monair being built um I think psng gave us credit for almost a million doll that we didn't think we had paid like when we came up with like this is how much we had paid PNG was like you paid even more than that but you still owe us and so I I think this is a very this been it's been very challenging I think we really don't we are not able to show that we paid the money that they are saying and again when you have 70 accounts it's very complicated I think this is a reasonable settlement I think most importantly we will be settling out all balances that's the key that is key all accounts and moving forward I think and this won't be in the agreement with PNG but I think we've discussed that every quarter we will be reviewing yeah to make sure we are still at the even balance and we are not going to this is not going to happen again the problem the problem was yes we did pay we showed the payment but where it is because of all the million accounts plus the B now you're saying you showed the payments and he's saying we didn't pay it so that's why it's where it is applied that see where it is applied is an issue too the amount of money we paid there is record of what we paid where it is applied which account it is applied to and again as they themsel corrected many times they themselves corrected these are the board of head and these are the libraries we showed and they took off and then there is one or two private companies too and when they took those off they didn't apply those credit to uh to our accounts you know they yes they apply to border of no it's not border ofhe it's ours so they have to remove and apply to us it is impossible to get them to really reconcile anything this has been going on like 20 I'm glad it is I brought it to many managers um like we have been discussing it in 2019 2020 2021 that's the reason we want to see a zero balance it's not a zero B there's nothing unless this is all Consolidated put in a right path then see if you see 2021 and 2022 whatever the streetlight accounts are all clearly put on some Excel spreadsheet because they Consolidated according to their algorithm psg's algorithm we can't argue but they gave it they gave us online access so we have we were tracking all this every month Bill ups and downs seeing hey is is an up find out why they they bought a poll or they install new pole a new light that becomes part of the bill so mayor May any other questions Deputy Mayor no I just I I want to just thank the finance committee and miss raal and Mr Lola for handling this and what I'm hearing is that crossed in the future it should not happen again because crossed Deputy well fingers crossed I'm I'm very I'm a hopeful person so um so what I'm hearing is that because we're going to be combining all of the our psng accounts this kind this should not happen again is that what I'm hearing okay thank you any further discussion do I have this okay are we going to vote on we're not voting on it today on 33 on any of them no I don't I don't even have it okay all right I don't have don't have 33 33 we need to get the um copy yeah I don't I don't have a 33 she had nailed it separately oh we're going to do the Bills list new business number 16 what my we just make sure to get it on the uh in the packet next time I thought 33 was sent separately I thought 33 was sent separately by ITA to all of us she might have I just don't have I just don't so we want to defer that or what you going to have yeah here's the uh yes on um dece uh on December 13th itamar sent uh an email to everybody I guess just saying attached is an agenda item that was not included in the package and it is not name 33 but it's r24 311 so I assumed that we were adding this and voting on it tonight cuz because we did vote on at the last meeting we had I mean we wonder why that it takes us so long to do things you know so nobody nobody printed this out and has it okay okay can somebody do the Bills list please number 16 I is that me yes thank you all right let me look at please3 thanks we we did look at before but okay um number 16 Bill list resolution r- 24293 whereas invoices against the township of Monclair in favor of the following persons for the amounts set opposite their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the township of mon in the county of Essex that said invoices be and they are hereby ordered paid and that checks be drawn by the finance department to the order of such persons for the amounts respectively and here and after stated on the schedule attached here to and made aart hereof this is the council meeting date 121724 the total amount is 1, 47,6 11131 I so move second discussion yeah I just on page uh I don't know what page it is but it's the travel reimbursement for someone the amount isn't listed it just looks like the printer may be printed it off the page unless that's just my copy page I guess yeah George lzy there no I guess it's page two of 10 yeah just maybe the printer print but there's no amount there I mean there is an amount but we can't see it somehow it got print it wrong same thing on page uh three for Schwab just want to know what amounts we're paying that's all nobody knows C you very much is a date stamp or something the internet was down all day today here yeah so that's a date stamp for the uh Municipal uh um Association whatever that is and the other one is travel expenses right I guess for the league the league so how much can these be I mean Schwab isn't for the league but we don't know how much that is either but um yeah I would imagine this might be reimbursement for this gentleman yeah still don't know the amount um and for Schwab we don't know what that amount is well what do you want to do do we want to just pass this and we'll find out the amounts another time just to move on here yeah okay un don't have ACC excuse me can you please come to the mic right but the people at at home need to know what we're doing to I'm sorry mayor unfortunately I don't have remote access anymore to so otherwise I could have brought my computer and seen this but now I don't so if you want to be you know take those off and you want us to do as an interim bills list oh no okay so I can uh I can email you what uh the amounts tomorrow H 16 17 no we we could I I'm okay with voting on this if you know someone will email us tomorrow that's all I'm sure it's very small amounts but we should still just at least know what they are yeah you don't have to miss tassy you don't have to do that we can get the email tomorrow else uh we ain't discuss any of that we would have to do them individually with exception I mean you can pull you pull things pull things that you have discussion okay so uh resolution 33 was just presented to us we had some discussion at the last council meeting on resolution 33 establishing rules and procedures for the conduct of council committees um some of the things that we discussed I see were added here um we'll start with resolution number 33 if there's any discussions or additions or concerns mayor yes if I may I have a motion on the floor to adopt the bills list I'm so sorry I thought we were I didn't know what was going on we were getting people from here and there okay please do a roll call on the B bills list thank you deputy mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you okay so now we're going to move on to uh resolution 33 did everyone have a chance to we not vo oh because councelor lochman said when we were down here she said I thought we were going to do resolution 33 and so because she said that to me I was doing resolution 33 yeah I mean basic basically we looked at this at the last meeting we voted on it at the last meeting um and uh now we have to do I guess the final vote whatever it is so basically these are rules that um rules are procedures for the conduct of council committees and the purpose of this is to make sure that people are following a procedure so that everybody understands how the council committee will work and it's really to the benefit of getting the work done in a uh a uh efficient fashion um and it it just organizes things you name a chair you decide when you're going to do minutes you decide uh what the dates are and then you talk about the uh structure of the um the meeting and the um actual procedure so I think it it hasn't it changed a little bit from the last time you looked at this because Miss Toller had provided some information that she received from irra carasic which I Incorporated in this and uh here it is so at the last meeting I asked that there be written notes provided for the um the entire Council that that's in here somewhere I just probably haven't gotten to it yet can you tell me what number that is please where the written notes would be provided to the entire Council so we'll have that well um it's number seven a high level of recap okay so that high level recap of the meeting I would like that to be a written sure and and the other thing we do is we present the uh committee's agenda so people know what we will be talking about then we have the committee meeting and then we have a high Lev recap um it's not on our agenda tonight but we we in the agenda template that we talked about we always were going to have a uh um committee what's it called the committee reports yeah and this would be the um committee report section of our agenda at the council meeting would also require that the if we've had one of these subcommittee meetings that the chair of the subcommittee would come up and talk about what happened at the subcommittee meeting so we do we have we'll send out the agenda to the council we'll do a oral recap at the council meeting and minutes will be produced high level minutes I guess when when would we expect to get them because I'd like to get them in time that if we have questions and concerns that that we can ask them and I then want to vote whether we have to sit here for another hour while we go through um reports from another committee because I mean I don't know for me I'm not sure that that's going to be the best use of of time the public also the public knows right but remember we talked about it maybe it was the um Communications committee we talked about having the um the notes and the minutes from those things online so that people can just go in there and see what was there and they can read and they'll they'll know as well we were talking about other ways that we can share more information with um the entire Township rather than you know necessarily having to sit um here for another hour and and do that yeah um so that's on the guide so uh we were going to have two resolutions originally one for the Committees and one for the guidelines which was actually just for the right which for the record was the one that um the former uh attorney mostly brought his stuff to and we I think agreed informally and at the last meeting that that would just be for the time being guidelines whereas this would be a resolution that separate one which would in in put into the agenda things like that there would be committee reports we're not voting on that now it's just how the council committees themselves operate right but I'm talking about whether we need to extend our meetings for an additional hour while every committee sits here that's not we don't have to decide that now so like okay because then number eight looks as though if we vote on this we are deciding that now ready to provide ready to provide okay so just because we're saying that that that doesn't mean that we're going to do that what yes that means that we will discuss next time how to have briefings for the public from the committee chairs and what we want to do but it can you know it can all be very very brief and people have done it before by the way councilor Birmingham has gave notes uh for the finance committee that were a model so like this can be done and it's going to be terrific and let's not sweat it I think we've been through this a bunch of times and it's going to be it's going to make everybody happy well it it's not whether um you consider my question sweating something or not it's it's about my ability just like yours and everyone else here to ask questions if we have them and to have them properly addressed and so from Reading number eight I thought that it was saying that we were going to do that here but now if you're saying and Council lman and and others are agreeing that no we're not saying that we're going to do that it's just that somebody may be able to do that and they may not may I yes counselor what number eight if we rewarded it just a little bit to say maybe X number of days before a council meeting cuz I think are you are you feeling like this is going to be presented at a council meeting and we won't know it in advance should we no I'm feeling like I don't want to have them presented all of these minutes I don't want them to just have to be presented there if we're putting them online so people can go there right after the meeting and they can flip to it just like the agenda and stuff like that and if they wanted to come to the meeting and ask questions and say well I saw on such and such a date you guys did so and so can you explain that or whatever but I'm just saying to add anything right now to our agendas if we're continue through the path that we're going now I just don't see how we're going to be able to to do that okay I understand unless we're doing breakfast buns yes would you feel comfortable if we just struck number eight yes uh can we just maybe I would just propose striking number eight yes thank you that's fine with me bless work um did we move this whole thing we didn't shall I move it I mayor basell was proposing amendments I don't know if she has a second that's where I left off I will second her Amendment if you want to strike number eight mayor yeah and just add written to number seven written High LEL high level of written yes recap okay and and then strike number eight and I will I will second that I will second that okay thank you discussion um I I have one comment on um you know as it says here when there are three or fewer and there's no Quorum it's doesn't really qualify as a meeting according to obma but in terms of number six like I do think that committees can have public meetings and in fact should at times be encouraged to have public meetings yes I just I don't think it should be required so yeah I I just want to make that clear to the public that it is really it's the intention is we can have meetings we don't have to advertise these meetings we're just going to be working on a project or something get it done but then we can certainly have public meetings of the commit we need to say that in here or how do we word that because the way it's worded now the public would feel like they don't have an opportunity to come well it says can be a non Mee no it doesn't ites number five I like Sesame Street language so you know okay well that's a good point any further discussion Madam clerk roll call please these are on the Amendments Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams obain mayor Baskerville yes okay so that we have to go back to all of them yes so um we can do 17 right can we do these as a um consent okay I'd like to make a motion that we include and I'm please on this end no no no I just want you to be able to stop me because I'm getting ready to make a motion that we use these as a consent so if I say something in here consent and you don't want in consent you're going to have to stop me I'd like to make a motion that we include 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 we pulled 26 27 28 29 31 and 32 in a consent agenda and 33 Oh I thought we just voted on 33 you have voted on the amendment okay okay and 33 thank you I second second Madam clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Bermingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes okay okay um I'm going to open discussion for number 30 up for Council please okay number 30 uh 30 is a resolution appointing uh an attorney to the position of interim Township attorney um and uh the person that we're recommending and I say we we had a committee of three the mayor Susan myself who did a lot of due diligence on each of the three candidates that we that were up for consideration we each I believe each of us spoke to each of the candidates we reviewed their background we um as I just feel like we did a due diligence on each of them and so myself and Susan are recommending that we go with Joseph Garcia so the resolution would read resolution r 24307 a resolution appointing Joseph Garcia to the position of interim Township attorney I so move M Garcia oh go ahead I'm sorry yeah Mr William Council Williams so I um had discussion on this because we started out as um three Council people in my Chambers and we were discussing the attorneys and we were discussing the need for an interim attorney for what might be 3 to four months we're not not really sure yet but we're guessing about 3 to four months and we discussed um some some of the members and I mean some of the attorneys and then we on Friday before we left my understanding was that we um decided they brought it down to to two attorneys and then and we were going to talk to them by the phone and and I did and I think everyone did and then this morning I started getting messages that did not include either of the two attorneys that I thought we had decided on and someone else who was a recommendation of someone and then some other things about slander and different things that made it really difficult for me to understand what happened from Friday when we left my office and I thought there was an understanding that we were looking at two people to come coming in and then somebody had a different name in there about one of the judges a judge name was presented in different things and so it just went to um a different level and so now I'm just a little concerned about how we went from those two to now going back to another person and um just trying to figure out how that happened cuz that person in fact that they're recommending had less Municipal experience than any of the other rather to and we talked about that specifically we look specifically at who can provide us the most Municipal experience because you know we're we're clearly a new body here we need all the help we can get and we have outside Council to do Redevelopment we have outside Council to do different things that this other person recommending here looked like they had a strong you know legal background in some things but their breath of of Municipal information we all agreed did not stand the muster of the other two so I'm just confused about how we ended up here with that person and furthermore we should have come back and given those names to the council to look at because we're not a subcommittee we're just looking at some things right and I said well why don't we send this to all the council so all the council can you know have some idea and they said oh no you know we need to move move fast we have to move fast and I'm like well yeah we do you know there's a deadline but that doesn't mean that we don't give our Council colleagues an opportunity to hone in and share information too you guys may have gotten it I just didn't get that email so I don't know whether you all had an opportunity to say that this is who you want or you didn't right but I'm just saying those were some of the concerns that I had because if if that's what's going on and how we're doing things here then it's not the best of ways we have um subcommittees and I've been suggesting for a while that that we get a personnel subcommittee and we haven't gotten there yet but then we do have um a subcommittee that deals with you know other other matters that could have done this and and we weren't that we were just three people that happened to be looking at that and so by any measure if we're going to do some things we would want to share it and and and see where we end up but that's just some concern I have if that's who everybody else feels they want then then so be it then that that's what it will be but I just don't like how we end it up there if I may yes I we have a very I have a very different um review of the scenario you just described and I um I don't know where you're coming up with this so you didn't send me today and have a judge's name on there that the Judes you're not reading your emails I was read Susan told you explicitly what this what the why she contacted this judge she was not a name for someone to be it had to do with Scandal okay right but I'm just saying if if I'm going to get something talking about Scandal then we need to have a discussion then how do you just all of a sudden go from this Scandal to boom we're going in a different direction somebody that doesn't have a different direction we had three candidates two of them were in the opinion we didn't hear from you the opinion of Susan and and I these two candidates were you know we thought both of them would be fine what I'm trying to understand is how come as counselors we didn't get an opportunity to submit someone and have a discussion I mean there was a a you said an ad hoc committee was formed y the mayor formed an ad hoc committee no I didn't form uhuh I didn't form an ad hoc Committee in fact while we're in the room I asked them shouldn't we do this and they were very happy not doing that and so I said okay because you know they're saying well we'll just discuss this and then we're going to come back and we were going to today or or yesterday we were going to come up with some names and then you guys were supposed to get the names so I don't know whether you got them or whether you I did get an email with some resume because I saw I saw an email that went out requesting it together none of us all of us couldn't submit someone you know who made that decision that that group if you will will be the ones to decide who the candidate is we didn't I didn't get an input I didn't nothing so I can't say who the person is know we didn't have we did not have a discussion about maybe we should have took this to Executive session where we could have all I've submitted some names for consideration because I assumed and maybe I should not have assumed that one or two people were handling it but to reach a decision today without a full Council discussion I don't think it's the right decision to do tonight well we did agree that we were going to discuss them and that we were going to vet them and that by Monday we were going to come up with a hope hopefully unified individual and um I don't know how Mr Garcia works for where who cuz I I mean I didn't read the may I may I interject here maybe I can answer your questions yeah oh he works for a firm that we're already paying got it so if I may um yeah so we actually at the at last week we had three we three people that we we the three of us had agreed to contact and so all three I thought I did I contacted all three all three right two of those individuals that we considered are um work for law firms um that submitted proposals in response to an RFQ for municipal attorney right and so we are we we put out an RFQ um for firms and individuals to submit proposals so two of the individuals that we cons are have considered and spoke with submitted um uh as firms so um after conver ation uh you know we all we all talk to them um councelor Toller I got your you emailed me on Friday we all talk to them who is we we the three question is why didn't the rest of us have a conversation or why didn't we you know try and discuss this in executive session you can answer that I don't want to cut you off so I'm I'm just going to say we are in a position right now okay unfortunately we are in this very difficult position where we probably should have done this months ago okay this is the last regular this is the last meeting of the year um Mr Burr uh I I really appreciate your service um but we we had decided that you know we had we were going to um you know we're going to do a search and it is now December 16 17th Mr Burr's last day is December 31st we are going to be we are going to be with out an attorney a municipal attorney the gentleman you're recommending is works for a firm that we so won't be without an attorney we can actually as a municipal attorney as a municipal attorney as a municipal attorney okay so he works for I'm going to say the name of the firm Cleary jacobe okay he he has not personally I spoke to him he is currently serving as Municipal attorney as at um a municipal attorney in Ridgefield he um has extensive experience um in land use Redevelopment um he has negotiated collective bargaining agreements employment and labor um and you know he has a breadth of experience he also happens to work for a firm that um we have retained um for services and so we are need in need of somebody while we do a permanent search for a permanent Township attorney and this is the only reason why we need somebody right now is because we cannot be without a municipal attorney um for the amount of time that it takes us to hire a permanent attorney so um based on you know my conversations Council lochman I believe the mayor spoke to him as well um we think that he is I mean all three of the candidates were very good but we feel that um he would be able to just step into this role for the two or three months that hopefully it'll take to hire a permanent attorney so I think it's in the best interest of our town to make this decision today um my only question is we did not discuss um any sort of salary so that's my only question but if we're going to just try us work on behalf of the the town and do the right thing then I think we have to do this go ahead well no I just want to respond so most of what you said I I totally agree with but I remember clearly that we talked about as we weighed the municipal experience you there was one somebody that you said you thought had more Municipal experience in others and when we left the room you were leaning towards that person as we you and so I spent a lot of time speaking to that person because I'm saying because we're saying we're going to try to get a unified person to present to the council and then once I spent all that time going through this person this other person now that you guys are saying yeah we have to have them he he wasn't even in the two when we left because he had the least Municipal experience of everybody I know that he came highly recommended by our manager Lola and that was a plus for most people but right but but but Fant but just because he was recommended To Us by the manager doesn't mean that we throw out the person that we had in mind unless you can tell me why and that's not the person that we left there saying that we were going to spend time if I may yes so again I said this at the beginning of the meeting be happy you were in the in the click of three I wasn't you know so the four of us nothing to be Happ about and we're not complaining you know I had a favorite in this you know I arrang I push to have an RFQ we got seven responses I believe the person you're talking about was one of the seven respondents the the the my favorite in that group was in that seven Mr Garcia's firm was in that seven right and when we have a permanent attorney that we hire if they are a firm they will be pulled from those seven of which you're the person that I believe you're talking about you like will be a part of that and at the at the same time the viewers at home should know that we are collecting résumés until I believe next week yes for a salaried in-house attorney and then we will get to a fork in the road we'll have two decisions to make one is do we want to have a salaried employee or do we want to have the representative of a firm both have pluses and minuses it's okay we'll make that one decision and then we'll also choose which one of those groups but for the time being it's only a few months I did not get my choice if you do not get your choice we can live with that you don't know and and and you're and the whole issue is about process now counc lman just had a resolution about process who asked me about the process I'm tell you what the process was you set up a committee we no I didn't set up the committee oh really I did not set up the committee well no asked me about a committee and I'm living with living with I asked the opinion of what what she thought what attorney do you think is the most qualified to do this job I haven't even finished all of them I wouldn't say the name okay well but I'm just saying some point in time if there's an agreement and then two people because they happen to be in communication decide to just totally ignore the third person and not even ask my opinion before they sent this that's baloney we asked you to rank your candidates we never heard from you I gave you you never heard from you mayor may I just make a suggestion yes I I think it would be prudent no it's the same type of thing that goes on an economic development meeting I think it would be prudent if we're going to start discussing names of potential candidates that you go into executive session yeah well I'm not I'm not discussing it I'm just think all I wanted to say just Abomination when people do that and then they just go ahead and make their decisions and act like oh yeah you know we decided yeah the two of you guys did but we really need to work on that and we need to get a better understanding of what council of seven should be looking like and work towards that that's all because the council DEC ision of two doesn't make it make it so and now people are trying to act like well if we don't do this something a terrible nor does it something terrible is going to happen be because of that get out get out out don't fight but at any rate um so if anyone else wishes to um add another person to to the to the list fine and for for you to sit there and assume one way or the other about who or what I was interested in having is really you know beneath you and um I'm not even going to feed into that but at any rate I just think that we we have to do better we have to do better you know as a group and that's why everything has to be in writing so people can't just go on and however many two people meet and say this is it and if we don't get this done tonight you know something awful is going to happen because that's not true we have a ton of people that we retain for legal services and I'm sure we can get someone to do that but whatever I mean the motion is on the table to appoint Joseph Garcia it was seconded do we need second um it was already second the mayor calls any further discussion no I'm just hoping that going forward we can find a way to um work cohesively and you know stop these clicks you know yep I count a colleague up here mentioned to me a few weeks ago it's 5 to2 I don't know what the five is and I don't know what the two is but I can assume um I did submit two names for consideration for um resumés uh for Council and I didn't hear anything back so it's a little telling um but if we need to vote on this we can vote on it um again we do have law firms that we can call on while we're continuing our search so this is not a dire situation that we need someone the minute Mr B leaves us and we thank him for his service I do know that so just wanted to put that on the record go ahead counselor please councelor Birmingham excuse me councelor Birmingham um so I was also not in the mix here but I did read all the resumés or or the ones that were available um so just like if I mean I I do think what like we have known what what's concerning to me and I know this is about process and but like we have known that Mr Burr will be leaving us for months now and and here we are at our last meeting of the year and we are sitting here at 1:15 fighting over an interim attorney and and so I I just I just want to figure out how we can do this better going forward now having said that you know when our first meeting of January is the 7th MH in your opinion and again I I don't mean to open a can of worms but if we were to I I know we need a we need a municipal attorney we need coverage for those seven days is the is in your opinion do we need to appoint somebody like what because because I hear this like oh we're it's fine it's fine but is it really fine like I I just in my opinion you need to have someone you should have an attorney that is on call ready to answer your questions on you know on day one I there's things that transpire in the township that require an attorney there's going to be contracts are going to be need to sign uh applications for permits are going to need to be reviewed your agenda is going to be put together there might be resolutions on it as a matter of fact there's going to be a res an uh a hearing on for a transfer of license on January 7th you need to be prepared for it the attorney will be have have to be up to speed on that there's going to have to be a process to hold that hearing for the objection to the transfer of license you're going to have uh the objectors going to be here the transfere is going to be here the the council should be prepared for that so there so in my opinion yes you should have an an attorney ready to move forward uh in the new year um does it have to be done tonight well you could call a special meeting you know the holidays are coming it it it would put a lot of burdens on on the T on the council however you could move tonight to put an inum Township attorney in it's not permanent by resolution you can move to you know if that doesn't work out you can look at another attorney have a committee um and make a change you know after the New Year that's that's how I see it I would like to suggest that if we move forward and we appoint someone tonight then that person is not eligible to be considered full-time because nine times out of 10 if somebody comes in and we spend three four maybe more months with them then we're giving them a leg up over some of the other candidates and that's what I'm saying we have attorneys do you are there any other attorneys that you think that we've retained now that would not be interested in applying for the job maybe they're not I don't know but do do you know that we have some attorneys that that are retained already now that are not interested in becoming our permanent attorney that may be interested I am unaware of anyone who's interested in being the township I know they're already saying that right in in the right minds but then I do think that this person should be disqualified then because that's going to give that person leg up and I don't think that we should should do that everyone's acting like oh it's just a few months but the realities are you know people work with somebody and people get to know them versus getting to know some of the other candidates that have more Municipal experience then you know they might just say well we worked with them for three or four months so we might as well just keep them on and and I'm not ready to do that I would agree with that I would just like to say first of all councelor toer I got your two name on Friday um okay so and the other thing is I wanted to say mayor that the permanent search we should all be anyone who applied and put in a proposal for the permanent position we need to follow the process which is to the process now all of a sudden process now becomes important mayor you you you specifically reached out to councel lochman and I I'm not going to lie about it I mean I'm not a dishonest person and I asked your opinion about something I specifically said to both of you all that we ought to go back to the council and you guys said oh no we don't have to do that we don't have to do that we did we we submitted all of the information to every Council okay but they're saying that they didn't get the information so somewhere in the OBS it just disappeared I just think that we have to do better and if these people want to be considered for the permanent job I think that they should be disqualified we'll get somebody that doesn't wish to be our permanent attorney Can Can may I make a suggestion please could we just deal with I I hear everything you're saying you know down the line we'll deal with that down the line but in terms of this our options here now is our option right now is to temporarily put this gentleman in this position from a firm that we're currently using or other or other individuals we can choose one of them well the the fact of the matter here is you know I wasn't involved in that that the group of three there was someone else that I that I like but you know they moved out and I'm perfectly fine with that I think the three I'm perfectly fine with the three of you vetting folks and then saying hey we vetted them and this is what we think about them here at their resumes perfectly fine with that I have no issue with that okay all I'm saying here is we need to make a decision we have a name on there I look at the gentleman's resume is pretty impressive he's going to be an interim person we need we we can either vote on this tonight or we're going to have to have a special meeting which you know everybody it's going to be hard to get a quorum right so those are the two decisions before us uh this evening and I I agree with councelor Burr that we should not we we need to deal with this situation tonight excuse me this morning I respect what you're saying councel Williams um and if you're comfortable with their recommendations that's fine um I as a legislator would like to see the resumés and yes I did send you something on Thursday uh Deputy Mayor Anderson um what my point what I'm trying to make here is there was never any broad General discussion that if you have someone if you know someone send it to person counselor AB see that was never had okay we had a conversation at the last meeting that you were going to talk to some folks at a certain firm or something no no let me finish and I mentioned two other firms to you and you said okay send me the information and I did text you those firms okay but again I think what the mayor is saying is that this whole concept of it's really respect it's really respect has to be given it can't be people huddled up having side conversations and just running off doing whatever they want there's seven of us so you're going to get some Kickback but you have to learn how to work with folks and I'm not saying you personally I'm just saying us as a governing body there was no discussion that to me at least I didn't know anything about three people working together these are the final resumees you did mention something to me at the last meeting okay that you were going to make some phone calls but I don't know who anointed who and decided who the person was going to be to vet all these people but I just think as a governing body we each have a chance an opportunity to have a say on who the resident the the candidates are the resumes councel Williams comfortable with three people making a decision for him that's his choice that's not my choice it's not my choice all right roll call Madame clerk what's the roll call for to vote on to vote on the um as inter excuse me excuse me Council lockman oh I know you are but I'm running this meeting and and I didn't recognize you Madam clerk would you please do a roll call vote on um the appointment of the interum attorney as presented by councelor lochman counselor I just wanted to say that if you wanted to I think that your point about having a pure interim that's not going to go that's not going to be in contention for the permanent position is very legitimate that's totally fine and if you wanted to put up a name right now for consideration first that's that's fine that's legitimate we can vote on it and there's no reason to be too ranous about this everybody like I had a first choice we just put it up for a vote it's fine and and so if you would like to do that I will second it I won't maybe not vote for it but I think that that's totally it's within your rights so we we if you would like to do that now I I would welcome it no I'm not trying to do that now I'm talking to about process I'm talking about disappointment I'm talking about a handful of a body and not the entire body and you know we keep talking about we're going to do a process and and and people here do great works spelling out process and procedures and yet and still often times may be the main culprit of not following the process and procedures or making others feel left out of the process and then moving forward but at this point in time I don't have someone that I'm going to introduce we the three of us were supposed to meet and the three of us were supposed to come up with something and I just got some names about something about a scandal you know I don't know what Scandal means so I guess somebody's name jumped off of there because of a scandal somebody else's name went a and then of the people and I thought this person name was already not there because we agreed that this person didn't have enough Municipal at this point in time now seems as though people are fine with moving up forward with this person yes ma'am I'm sorry I did recommend someone and I thought I got some Kickback from some of my colleagues based on uh the name that I submitted because of something the person said but that person has absolute 11 12 14 years of experience so if we're going to discuss folks you know I I think we should have just went into executive s ex so why don't we go into executive session we need to do that I need to name that I sub you know why two of my colleagues just felt like it was a nogo I mean we should we need an attorney we can go special we can go into executive session and everybody can just because we're yeah just pass it out well it I'd like to make a motion that we um adjourn to Executive session second for matters of um what do you call this uh to Township attorney Township attorney discussion all in favor I opposed okay I'm going to ask please that you um adjourn from this room for the the time being please and we hope to resume this very shortly e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay thank you for your patience um we are going to adjourn for the evening and um resume discussion about the interim Township um uh attorney after um further deliberation so thank you so much for your patience and happy holidays to all of you I make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I I opposed