Were these in that? These were in the thing. Those were yours. Okay. Cuz I had mine somewhere. Who's this sitting next to me? Okay. Thank you. This isn't the mayor, is it? Good evening, everyone.
I'd like to welcome you all to our May 6, 2025 township council meeting. Uh we have a full agenda and um we're going to first please, if you would stand 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. This is a regular meeting of the council
of the township of Montlair. It's being broadcast live on channel 34 and it's streaming live on Montlair's TV34 YouTube channel. It's available on demand and can and will be rebroadcast. This meeting is called
pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act. This meeting was included in the revised annual notice of the meeting schedule as set forth in resolution R-25-038 adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of February 25th,
2025, advertised to the official newspaper on March 6th, 2025, posted on the bulletin board outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted um in in that location. 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 mun municipal township clerk. Madame clerk, would you please do a roll call? Deputy Mayor Anderson here. Councelor
Birmingham here. Councelor Damato here. Councelor Laughman here. Councelor Toller, good evening. Present. Good evening. Councelor Williams here. Mayor Baskerville, present. Okay. So, um at this time we're going to move right into our
2025 budget introduction meeting. Um if our if Miss Ralph is available, we'd like for you please to come. and um our manager, manager Steven Markx.
So, uh good evening uh mayor and council, members of the general public. Um my name is Stephen Marks. I'm the township manager. My name is Majara. I'm the township chief financial officer. Yeah. So, uh this evening is the
introduction of the uh annual municipal budget. So, just just to go over the timelines, um the budget um sorry to give my back to anybody, but uh the budget is introduced. Uh there's a budget uh um series of meetings and a
time for the mayor and council to do their due diligence in terms of digging into the budget. Along the way, we we are scheduling the finance committee in conjunction with the administration uh is scheduling two days of uh public meetings for the departments to present
their budget requests to the mayor and council through the finance committee. Um the first day will be on Saturday, May 17th. Uh and the second will be the evening of Wednesday uh May 28th. Uh the budget is due to there has to be a
certain number statutoily a certain number of days before uh the introduced budget is adopted. The public hearing on the budget uh is scheduled for June 3rd. Excuse me, Manager Marks. Um, do you have a preference if um, council members
have questions, would you prefer that they wait until you're done or how would you like to do this, please? I I think any any questions along the way would be fine, acceptable. Yes. Great. Thank you very much.
So, basically the town the administration has uh four objectives uh for introducing the budget. One is to minimize any tax increases. Uh two is to maximize budget flexibility. Uh three is to strive for uh service excellence. And
four is to manage our debt. So essentially the um the municipality actually raises the funds uh for other levels of government including the county, the library and the school board. So for 2025, the
average home in Montlair is assessed at $639,000. Um the municipal portion of their taxes is approximately uh 24 almost 25%. The library is about one one a.5%, the county raises about 16.6% and
the schools take more than half of local taxes raised at about 57.3%. um the municipal portion of so the average um tax bill for a residential home is is approximately $22,000 22
22,537 of which the municipal portion is $5500 roughly. The library portion $345, the county portion is $3,700 and the school portion is $12,900 approximately.
So um a revenue uh a summary of revenues in the u uh in the budget for non- tax revenues for 2025 um it will be approximately the anticipated non- tax revenues are approximately
$30,800,000 so non what are non- tax revenues? Oh I I well I was going to go at a high level. Yes. Yes. Go ahead. And if there's any questions, we'd we'd love to dive into it. Uh for miscellaneous revenues, building permits account for
$1.3 million. Uh police off duty uh is approximately $440,000. Police offduty expenses are for when PSNG or contractors hire the police department for traffic control. It's not a revenue expense. It's not a
municipal expense per se, but the PSCG public utilities contractors will hire police officers off duty to manage traffic. Um, Monontlair has a cable television franchise fee of approximately $400,000 and a hotel tax of
approximately $370,000. Uh, we're anticipating for 2025 approximately $2.9 million in grants. That includes a $438,000 safe streets for all grant, a uh
$330,000 cycle track grant of which uh the council approved at the last council meeting for the design of a of a a bicycle um bicycle route. Uh we also have a $240,000 composting grant, $160,000
um assistance to firefighters grant and a a $159,000 uh dollar national opioid settlement funding settlement funds. Not a grant per se, but settlement funds. So um that's that's basically a look at a high level look, not every grant, but a high
level look of the at the grants. So the total miscellaneous revenues are approximately $33 million. U the total tax levy is anticipated to be $74 million and the total general revenues uh are approximately $18 million.
I just have a question just so I understand this correctly. Is the 2000 uh 2004 number there the actual or the budget? That's a budgeted one. Okay. And do we feel comfortable with the grant number given what's going on
in uh Washington? Yes, that is the award letters we got for those grants and they keep going up during the year. Whenever after the budget is adopted, if we get any more additional grants, we do through a resolution that gets added. Last year,
if you see it's $4.6 million, we may get those many grants. I'm not concerned about getting grants. I'm concerned about the government clawing them back given what's going on. But you you feel pretty comfortable with the number that you've put in and the grants. Yes. But but that is used for the grant purposes
only. So if the government calls back that project is going to be closed out, cancelled so we don't do that work. So but some of them are reimburseable where we may have already spent the money. Yes. Most of the reimburseable we check with the grant, hey um we are spending
it and we periodically put in for reimbursements. So if it's a $400,000 grant, if there is in one month or one quarter to the month, sorry, if in one month or one quarter, if it is $50,000 spent, the departments immediately apply
for reimbursement. We get that partial reimbursement as we spend. Thank you. We encourage all contractors and consultants to bill on a monthly basis. And when we get build by the contractors and consultants, then we bill either the federal government if if it's a federal grant or the state governments if it's a
state grant. So, the municipal um under the proposed budget, the municipal tax rate increase is uh 1.98% less than 2%. Uh compared to 2024, it's a decrease from 2.96% from
last year. The average municipal tax increase in dollars will be under the proposed budget $107, which is down from last year's increase of $140. That's good. On the appropriation side of the ledger, um the total amount of of salary
and wages is approximately $43 million. Um other expenses are approximately $27 million. So the other expenses include things like liability insurance for $2 million, employee health insurance for
$7.1 million, uh payment for uh public employees retirement. Move the slide. I'm sorry. move the slide forward. Yeah. Ah. Um, so the the state's uh pension system uh payment for civilian employees
is approximately $1.7 million. Like any other employer, we have to pay social security, which is about a million half dollars. The police and fire retirement system payment for Monontlair is approximately $8 million. And the library portion is also made up
in this which is approximately $3.88 million. So um one of the new positions that is being recommended or requested in the budget uh which corresponds with a um an ordinance that's on second reading for this evening uh is a
complete streets director. So there's a complete streets ordinance that's up for second reading. Uh and if approved, we've requested uh funding for it to fund the position of a person, a high level director level position to actually implement the complete streets
ordinance. So not looking at every department but looking at the higher level departments the salary contains I mean the budget contains approximately $17.2 million for salary and wages for the police
department with um operating expenses being $635,000. um $11.3 million for salary and wages for the fire department uh which uh in not doesn't include but other expenses are
$478,000. Uh department of community services for public work works um the request is approximately $3.1 million for salary and wages and $2 million for other expenses. Refuge collection. So the refuge collection, I believe we have
approximately 40 employees who actually pick up solid waste. So the approximate cost for the salary and wages for solid waste pickup is approximately $1.4 million. And the actual tipping fees that Montlair pays to dispose of its solid waste is approximately $1.3
million. So Mr. Marks, what are other expenses? So um is that benefits or to run the operations in that office that $27,450 anything that's not is it benefits
included in that? No no benefits are all under the statutory category with the pension benefits and social security and all but it would include something like the uniform payment. Yes. Some of the uniform payments are OE, but some of the
uniform payments go through the salaries and wages depending upon the contract, their bargaining agreements. And can you just tell me how many police and how many firemen there are? 112 police officers, including the chief and the deputy chief. And there's 77 fire
personnel, including the chief and the deputy chiefs. I'm sorry, how many how many police? I I missed the 112. 112. Thank you. Do you know how that compares to other towns of our size? There were
several analysis done at some point. As of now, I don't exactly know, but I can get you the information. Compared to you mean the in Essex County? Yeah. Roughly towns with 40,000 people, what do they have in numbers of fire and numbers of
police department? Police. We do have that information. Okay. So, also under appropriations uh for uh recycling pickup uh is approximately $1.2 million for salary wages. Um for recreation
uh approximately $754,000. Uh for health, nurse, nursing, and senior services, approximately $1.8 million. And for a uniform construction code, approximately $1.1 million.
Oh, sorry. Sorry. So, uh, Monontlair has three utilities, one for water, one for sewer, and one for parking. So, we'll go through a highle overview of each of the utilities.
So, um, the fund balance, basically cash on hand for the water utility is approximately $15 million. Fund balance is like what's remaining in your checking account after you've paid all the bills, right? So, the water rents, the water rents are
actually, it's a misnomer. It's the the amount of revenue that's generated from uh water the water services. Uh, we're anticipating approximately $8.7 million in water revenue. Um, and then miscellaneous interest on revenue and
such, $425,000. The total water utility revenue is approximately uh $10.6 million. On the appropriation side, uh it's we we're budgeting approximately $1.55 million. The other expenses are
approximately $2.6 million. We buy our bulk water from the North Jersey Water District Supply Commission. So it's not um you know it's the water's not free. It comes from somewhere. So that bulk water purchase is approximately two $2.2
million. Capital improvements, replacing lead service lines, manholes, uh water manes, um even fixing um uh service line leaks and and water main breaks. We're anticipating approximately $3 million. The New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection actually requires all water utilities in New Jersey to uh replace approximately 150th of their system every year with a replacement rate. If you replace 150th, you're going to have a new system uh
after 50 years. So most of most of our water mains and water service lines are more than 100 years old. So, it's going to take us a while to replace it, but you have to start somewhere. So, that's what the the um the capital improvements
cover. Just question. Yes. Do we have any choice about who the water provider is or is it kind of a monopoly? Um it's a it's a state agency that's made up of of uh municipal shareholders, so to
speak. So Montlair is one of say a dozen municipalities I think including the city of Norc and and other larger older municipalities that get their water from I believe it's mostly the Waniku reservoir and the split rock reservoir and the the Monks Monksville reservoir
that are all maintained by uh North Jersey Water Supply District. So um the debt service is approximately $933,000 and the statutory expenditures is approximately three $381,000. Those statutory expenditures
include such things as um social security and pensions and pension payments so Medicare u Medicare social security pensions and unemployment insurance. Yeah. On the soar utility side, uh the fund
balance is approximately $1.3 million. The SOARE rates, the total amount raised for by the SOER bills is approximately $8.2 million. Um the miscellaneous revenues coming from interest uh on revenue and and other fees is
approximately $411,000. So the total Soar utility revenues is a little less than uh $10 million coming in at $9.9 million. On the appropriations side, salary and wages for the sewer utility is
approximately $910,000. Other expenses $879,000. Similar on the similar to what we pay North Jersey Water Supply District for water, we have to pay for disposal of our wastewater. So
Monontlair's wastewater actually goes to PG Valley Sewage Commission, which has a sewage treatment plant in Newark. So we actually pay Valley Sewage Commission $5.7 million to treat our wastewater and and dispose of our wastewater. That was
a huge increase this year. That was a that a one-time increase in the PG valley. And again, it's not like we could send our sewage or wastewater anywhere else. I mean, the sewers go where they go. And it's a the Pic Valley Sewage Commission is actually a state
agency or it's a a multi-county multi-municipal compact I think covering 42 towns in northern New Jersey. So um they're the only game in town in terms of disposing of our wastewater. Um Third
River is approximately allocation of uh $5,000. Second river improvements $132,000. Capital improvements approximately $2 million. debt service of approximately $130,000 and statutory expenditures of approximately
$219,000. So the total um sewer utility appropriations is a little less than $10 million coming in at $9.9 million. On the parking utility side, uh the fund balance is approximately $947,000. the meter fees. So, the total
amount that the town collects from the parking meters uh is approximately $1.6 million. The permit fees from um from uh garages and other parking lots is approximately uh $1.2 million. The
transient fees is approximately $1.6 million. Uh the PATS revenue, I think that's the parking authority ticketing system. It's a fee that we pay to Trenton every year to process our traffic uh traffic summones is approximately
$150,000. The total miscellaneous, which includes um uh interest, is approximately $200,000. So, the total parking utility revenue is approximately $5.8 million. On the appropriation side of the ledger,
uh the anticipated salary and wages is approximately $1.3 million. The other operating expenses is approximately $2.8 million. The capital improvements, making necessary repairs and such. I think on the agenda this evening is a
contract to repair one of the stairwells in one of the parking garages. So that's a that's $250,000. Our debt service, including principal and interest, is approximately $1 million and our statutory expenditures for parking is
approximately $295,000. So the total parking utility appropriations is approximately $5.8 million. Question on that one. Did we did we not use some of the surplus in 2025? So where is wouldn't that come from the
fund balance? Yeah, parking utility surplus is used in the general fund balance, general operating fund balance, the current fund. If you go to the first line, the miscellaneous revenue, the first page for the for the current fund. I understand. But where does it show up
on that sheet? It it is on the um miscellaneous revenues. It's part of the miscellaneous revenues. It's a full budget that we I understand. But why isn't it show up in the fund balance? Well, it's a fund balance that is only from the general fund balance. Okay. The
fund balance that is shown on the regular fund balance. It's not on the parking utilities fund balance is generated already. It's an existing fund balance. This budget that you are showing is it's we are anticipating for this year we are going to use for the
parking utility. If you see it in the general operating budget, you will see $1.3 million from the parking utility that's going to be in the in the current front budget as anticipated in the current front budget. And can so could you put it here as surplus to general
budget? I think that's the qu like so that it could be clearer that some of it is coming over into the general budget. Is that if you if I put it it won't be on there it will be on the other side appropriation side because you are paying that's what I mean in the in the
appropriations yes and to give it to the current fund but it is a general current year appropriations if it is current you you're for example if you're raising the fees to create to generate more fund balance to be used for the current fund
then you put it in that appropriation side in the that's what I think he's asking is just if you look at the appropriations there is it under other expenses or no no it's already exist prior year it's already generated previous year we are not generating new
for this year it's already existing bucket we are taking it from there if we are anticipating to generate more like you then you put it in here okay okay we already have it in reserve we don't need
to gen do it okay so So this year's would be going towards next year's budget is what you're saying. If if we generate more this year, yes, next year if you want to take it in the general fund, then you can take it in this. I'm sorry. I still don't really understand by looking at this balance at this. I
don't see like for example, will it generate $1.5 million again if the appropriations and the and the revenues are more or less matched? It means this is anticipated revenues, right? For example, meter fees we are anticipating
1.6 million. What if it we get $2 million? Then that $400,000 we will generate. Okay. End of this year by the end of this year. If you see in the full budget that presented it's on sheet 10. You will see
from the parking utility it's coming into the channel. So that is all that is our presentation. I just want to go back to the timeline. So this evening is introduction of the budget only. Um
there are two um days of uh public hearings or presentations by the departments that are scheduled for Saturday May 17th and Wednesday May 28th. So, we're currently divvying up which departments will present when. Um,
and then the actual public hearing on the budget itself will be June is scheduled today for June 3rd. So, it's a month-long process. Um, there will be plenty of opportunity for public questions and public comments. Um, and we'd love to entertain any more
additional questions now if you if you have any. Excuse. Do you have a time yet for the Saturday, May 17th? We are anticipating um 10 to 11, basically giving each department an hour approximately for
their presentation and then a healthy and robust Q&A. Um 10 to 11, 11 to 12, 12 to 1. If we need to go 1 to 2, we could do that. And then on the evening of May 28th, um 6 to 7, 7 to 8, 8 to 9.
If we need to go further, we could go further. Thank you. I'm sorry, but haven't the department heads already given their input to you? Well, it's an opportunity for the department heads to basically go over their operations. Yeah. Just it's kind of an explanatory thing. They've
given you the numbers. They're included in the budget and they're just your they're explaining they're not changing their ask or anything. No, no, no. We're not changing their ask, but it's an opportunity to you to do for you uh and the general public to do a deep dive into understanding how the police department operates, how the fire
department operates, how the department of community services operates, how the water utility, the sewer utility, and the parking utility, you know, operate in terms of what they're anticipating um in terms of their spend and their capital needs for, you know, the
reasonable future. Thank you very much, manager, and I certainly appreciate you affording us the opportunity to to have these um additional meetings so that we can ask questions and listen and u just become,
you know, very secure in understanding what's here. Any anyone else have any questions from the council? No. I I just want to say um thank you to you both. I know we're in a period of transition and this process that we have
this year likely will change for next year, I think, but this is sort of our um attempt at making it work to the best we can given that we were in a period of transition and and change in leadership. So, thank you both. Thank you.
Okay, the the next thing up um are the proclamations and we have some proclamations this evening. Um we have a proclamation for provider appreciation day. Uh, did all council
members get Thank you. Um, I'd like to first approve the minutes. Um, they've been presented to the council the minutes of the regular meeting and executive session held on
April 22nd. Are there any corrections? Mayor, I just I I think I had requested one small correction in the executive session minutes that um have been made, but otherwise, no. Thank you.
Motion to adopt. Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Lachman. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.
Yes. Um, so now we're going to to do the proclamations. Do we have anyone that would like to do the provider appreciation day? Um, is anyone here to receive the proclamation for provider appreciation
day? No. Okay. We just like like to note it note that also as many of you know it's teacher appreciation day, nurses appreciation day, public servant appreciation day. So I for one am very grateful for all of
you. Um and and for for all the council members that are here. Um it's really just it's always nice to just take a few minutes to show appreciation for the people that work hard for us um regularly. So, if there's no one here to
receive that proclamation, we'll hold on to that. Um, the next proclamation will be for St. James Preschool. Is there anyone here who wishes to to read that? Do we have members from the St. James
Preschool? I know we have um a large celebration that's planned for Thursday. Is there anyone here at this time? Do you want to um give us um a summary of what what's going on? Um
okay. Well, St. James, as you know, is in Upper Montlair. It has a preschool that's been around for well, I think it's 35 years, I think, is on the proclamation. And um so we're we're proclaiming the preschool and acknowledging its existence and its uh
its um contribution to the community. And uh they're doing a special project for I think it's children's hunger. Is that what it's all about? Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't read it. Yeah. For um as part of their giving back to the community. So there they have the
celebration which we I think we three intend to go to, but it's also been on this um today's agenda, but really we'll be celebrating them at the site of St. James on uh Thursday the 16th. I think
16th. Yeah. So if anybody wants to come, I think actually News 12 will be there. So you can get your picture on the on the big screen. Okay. Thank you very much. Um at this point in time, I know there are people
here and and many who wish to come forward for the Jewish History Month proclamation, Jewish Heritage Month proclamation. All of you that are here and council members who wish to stand
um also may come forward for this very important proclamation. Do we have the proclamation? Oh, he has it. Is that a cat or a dog? Oh, this is Okay, good evening everyone.
So I am going to read the proclamation for Jewish Heritage Month as uh you hear me? So why am I reading this? So I just happen to be Jewish and I believe I'm the only Jewish member on the council at
the moment. So uh it's my great honor to read this. Uh okay. uh proclamation recognizing May as Jewish Heritage Month. Whereas the first Jewish immigrants arrived on American soil in
1654, escaping oppression and discrimination, their presence along with that of so many immigrant groups helped define America's promise of religious freedom while embracing democracy, individual liberty, and opportunity for all. And whereas the Jewish American experience is
quintessential American experience, one that is connected to key tenants of American identity, including our nation's commitment to freedom of religious and conscious. And whereas notwithstanding this promise, we are still working to realize full vision of
the American ideal amid the scourges of racism, bigotry, and other forms of injustice is included included as stubborn anti-semitism. In recent years, Jewish Americans have increasingly been the target of white nationalism and anti-semitic violence as it fuels. And
in 2024, a record number of anti-semitic incidents occurred in the state of New Jersey according to the latest annual audit released by the Anti-Defamation League using information from victims and law enforcement. And whereas the Jewish community has consistently overcome challenges and adversity,
remaining deeply and robustly engaged on internal matters as well as on issues facing society at large to with Jewish Americans have played major roles in all aspects of society and have worked tirelessly for social justice, equal
rights, and often motivated by Jewish values to heal the world locally, nationally, and globally. Jewish Americans have made significant contributions in the areas of science, the arts, literature, civic life, law and law. And whereas this is true here in Monontlair, we are enrich we are
enriched to have two in town synagogues, Benet Keshett, uh, Congregation Shimon Amuna as well as Kagbad of Monontlair and two others as neighbors, Temple near Tamid and Temple Shalom, all of which serve Monontlair residents and engender
in their congregants a sense of spirituality and engagement with their history and heritage to perpetuate the values of Torah. The commitments are routinely expressed by enriching the community through interthnic and interfaith collaboration and participation in initiatives to create a
more just society. Now therefore, the mayor and council of the township of Monontlair do hereby celebrate and recognize the contributions of the Jewish community and Jewish Americans in Monontlair and in the wider world and do proclaim May as Jewish Heritage Month in
the township of Monontlair. Good evening and thank you to the council for this proclamation and for the opportunity to speak tonight. Jewish American Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the rich culture, enduring history, and significant contributions
of Jewish Americans both across our nation and right here in Montlair. From business and education to science, the arts, social justice, and public service, Jewish Americans have helped shape the fabric of American life in countless meaningful ways. We see the
impact of that legacy throughout Montlair in our local government among our elected leaders and in the generosity of community members like Josh and Judy Weston whose philanthropy was recently honored by this very council. In recognition of the vibrant
role Jewish residents continue to play in our community, we're proud to share that a new Jew Jewish organization has recently been established right here in Montlair. to explain more about that. I'll turn it over to Josh Katz for a quick word.
Thanks, Lonnie, and thank you to the council. Um, so over the past few years, it's become thank you clear to us that the Jewish community of Montlair needs a cohesive, organized voice. In this time of rising anti-semitism, we need to be able to adequately represent our
concerns, but we also want to celebrate our contributions and stand in solidarity with others. For this reason, we've come together to launch the Montlair Jewish Community Relations Council. This organization exists not just to advocate for Jewish people in Montlair, but to join with other groups in the municipality to support one
another, and to help shape the inclusive, vibrant character of our town. We believe Montlair is stronger when all communities are heard, respected, and engaged. And we're proud to be part of that effort. Thank you again for this proclamation and for welcoming us into this important work.
Oh. Yes. And and if you could indulge me for just one second, we have counselor uh Lori Price Abrams who was the one I believe that first started the proclamation for so if you
could just uh couple words. Well, I I thank you for the opportunity to be back here with uh with everybody in the community and um in this recognition of Jewish Heritage Month and uh appreciate that it's become part of the fabric to recognize so many you know we have this
beautiful tapestry in this community and that we call out for recognition at you know opportune moments that May is that month on a national basis and that Monontlair has embraced that of course means a lot. Uh I was proud to sort of draft that proclamation and um really pleased that it's something that's been
perpetuated and we will we will again take the opportunity to recognize the contributions of all the communities that make up this um amazing community we call Monontlair. Thank you for forwarding it to the current council, Mayor Baskerville and councelor Williams. And
thank you. Thank you very much. Speaking about the wonderful tapestry, the next proclamation will be recognizing May as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Are there people here who wish toclamation? Individuals who wish to come and stand with us for this proclamation, please come forward. We'd like to welcome you and present the proclamation to you.
Hello. So, um hi. In case you didn't know, I am Asian and uh it is my pleasure to um present this proclamation recognizing May as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Whereas Asian-American
Pacific Islander Heritage Month originated in a congressional bill in the June in June of 1977, March 28th, 1979, President Carter issued a presidential proclamation proclaiming the week beginning May 4th, 1979 as AsianPacific American Heritage
Week. And since then, it has expanded to a month-long celebration in 1992. And whereas in the years and decades that followed, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have become one of the fastest growing racial and ethnic groups in the nation, representing a multitude
of ethnicities, languages, and experiences that enrich and strengthen our community. According to the census, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders make up an estimated 24 million nationwide in 2020 and over 10% of the
population in New Jersey, making it the fourth largest population of AAPIs in the country with over 1 million who call New Jersey home. And whereas this month we recognize the diverse contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders
to our country, including completion of the transcontinental transcontinental railroad. We also recognize painful chapters in our history like the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Some of the notable
Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in our history include Vice President Kamala Harris, Hyram Fong, the first Asian-American elected in the US Senate, Paty Mink, the first Asian-American woman elected to the US House of Representatives, one of my personal
heroes, civil rights activist, Yuri Kochyama, Kyle Penn, American actor, author, and former who is a former um White House staff member and who was born in Montlair. and Connie Chung, the first um Asian-American and second woman to
anchor a nightly newscast at a major US broadcast network. And we remember the late longtime Montlair resident Eileene Yinf Lo, a chef and author. And whereas other notable individuals who have made an impact on the community include um a
number of athletes such as Sam Sammy Lee, the first Asian-American to win Olympic gold for the US. Um, and he also uh was the first man to win consecutive gold in Olympic platform diving. James Vod Jim Park, a major league baseball
pitcher for the Chicago White Socks. And Wataru Watt Misaka, who broke the color barrier in pro basketball by being the first player of Asian descent to play in the NBA. And whereas Montlair Montlair celebrates the
historic election of the first Asian-American- elected official, Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Anderson. Thank you. And whereas Montlair is the proud home and headquarters of New Jerseys largest Asian-American advocacy nonprofit organization, AAPI New Jersey, which
started as AAPI Monontlair and has grown to serve Asian-Americans across the state. And whereas throughout New Jersey, people are celebrating Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month by sponsoring a variety of culture events throughout the community and in the schools. and and organizations such
as AAPI New Jersey are promoting awareness and education around AAPI culture and history in Montlair and throughout New Jersey. Um and um as you probably know, I'm not going to go through the entire list, but um the organization hosts events such as the Lunar New Year celebration, the Lantern
Festival, and Dvali. Um the organization also provides youth programs, cultural programming throughout the year and advocates for the community's rights and representation. And whereas the township of Monontlair is committed to fostering a community free of hate and promote
belonging for all who work, live, and visit Montlair. And whereas the Township of Monontlair is proud to celebrate Asian-American Heritage Month and commemorate the contributions that Asian-Americans have made in Montlair, our state, and in the country. Now, therefore, the mayor and the council of
the township of Montlair do hereby proclaim May as Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the Township of Montlair. Thank you. Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor Shin Anderson. We are so proud to be
receiving this proclamation from Monontlair's first ever Asian-American elected official. It's such a milestone for us. Uh thank you to the council. Um you know, a town is where you you put your heart, right? It's where you decide to raise kids like Alenia, my friend
Alenia here. Maybe she'll say a few words, too. Um, and uh, a few years ago during COVID 19, anti-Asian hate, our hearts were hurting. And you really all came together to support us in that moment.
And since then, you've seen our growth. And you know, even better than that, I would say we've seen other groups come together uh to empower each other and be embraced by this town like Latinos of Monontlair and Farah, the new Monontlair Jewish Relations Council, the Persian
Heritage Society. Hopefully, we'll see more. And I think the the way this town has supported our group, all of these other groups is really a testament to the, you know, the the values that we have here in Monontlair. And I hope we'll always see that. Um, want to invite you all to what will be our fifth
annual lantern festival in Edgemont Park. Saturday, May 17th, 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. You'll see us and many of the organizations I just mentioned and more there to sort of affirm the town, the state, the country that we want to see,
that we still think can be realized. So, please join us. May 17th, Edgemont Park. Thank you so much for this. Anyone else? Okay. Um, we have two more proclamations. The next one up is a
proclamation honoring Armando out there Diaz. Armando is a resident in the community who has done so much to bring us all together through the arts. Um, he fights relentlessly for justice every day. So, Armando and other people who
are familiar with his art and how he brings us all together through arts, if you'd like to come forward. Okay, seeing none, I'm just going to briefly um let you know Armando has been dedicated um in the township of
Montlair for 47 years. Throughout that time, he's contributed immensely to the arts, culture, and civic fabric of our community. Whereas Mr. Diaz, an esteemed photographer and artist, has made it his mission to document the humanity,
spirit, and vibrancy of Montlair, particularly the lives and stories of residents in the fourth ward, through his lens, capturing moments that uplift, inspire, and unite us all. Mr. Diaz
unwavering commitment to social justice had le has led him to document countless protests and demonstrations including participating in the million man um march in New York City in 2020 and in
Washington DC and ensuring that the stories of everyday people and activists survive through his lens. Whereas his artistry, activism, and community engagement have earned him the
admiration and support of civic leaders, including Mayor Dr. Renee Baskerville and countless residents who have been moved by his work and spirit. Now therefore, by the mayor and the council
of the township, we hereby recognize and extend a profound gratitude to Arando out there Diaz for your decades of creative service, civic engagement, and visual storytelling, which has
profoundly enriched the lives and hearts of all of us in Montlair. I see you back there. Would you please come forward, Armando Diaz? And before before I ask Armando to just uh say a few words, I'd like to let you all know that he's going to have a art
showing um beginning on May 10th and through the end of May and it's at 408 Bloomfield Avenue in a location called Keep Creating Art the Keep Creating Art Wellness Center. Some of you may be um
aware of that. It's very near the Wellmodont Theater for those of you who don't. And I I believe it's on the second floor. So, if you get an opportunity, go check out his work. Thank you for coming. I didn't see in the back before you were back there. All right. Give him some love.
I I'll just keep it brief. Um, most of my talking I do with the cameras. So, I'm not really good at this part, but I am very grateful um for this honor. I mean, it's one of those things that I wasn't um I didn't know I wanted it until it was it was extended like, "Hey, you you know, you should have this." And I'm like, "Oh, that's that's cool." I
never never really understood how that worked, but I appreciate it because now that I know what it means, it means a lot to me that um that that Rene Dr. Baskville, you know, thought enough of what I do and who I do it for to to see me up here and make this statement to the to the town. So, I just want to say thank you for that and thank for
everybody who, you know, who's who's supported me in the process and um you know, you'll see me around, right? Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you and I will be coming by um whenever you say to come by and present that at that
time. The final proclamation um for this evening is a proclamation for LGBTQ plus pride month. I know that there some individuals that are
here. I'm sorry. No, we don't have to. Okay. So, we're going to do this on June 3rd. you guys come back for June 3 presentation of this proclamation and we'll move on to the next portion of our
meeting. Thank you. And so be before we move on at the beginning of the meeting um I'm allowed to make some some changes and I would like to uh suggest that resolutions on our agenda that are
numbered 14 15 16 17 18 and 19 at this point in time be withdrawn um until uh further until the next the the next meeting. Um these resolutions are to
um to to uh appoint some some incredible community members to different um boards and committees that we have and they certainly are deserving. I know many of you are here. We made every effort um to have you here in case you wish to um say
something and just so that the community will know who the people are that are volunteering their time to help us be a stronger community. Unfortunately, because not every council member had an opportunity to reach out to you, ask questions, and really get to know you as
as I did because these positions, we take them very seriously, and we really appreciate you all for doing what you do, for volunteering the time. It's a time commitment. Most of these positions are a minimum of two years. And so, um,
until each council member has had an opportunity to reach out to you, I thought that it would be best rather than say we'll appoint one tonight and one on another night that we do it all at once. It's not going to really um change anything that's going to be of
significance because on the um resolutions that were going to be presented, it actually says May the 20th. So, I I apologize to all of you who came here and were expecting to receive um you know the vote tonight um
of appreciation, but after um conferring with some of our council members, we were just not able to do that at this time. Know that we really want you here. If others of you are wanting to do so, please fill out a volunteer interest
form and um be considered also. So, thank you so much for coming. Those of you that did, I'd like to make a motion to withdraw 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 from um the agenda. Yes, councelor
Toller. May May I make a request that we not withdraw number um 16, that one's been in for quite some time, and that particular organization is in need of the body. Um the person's name that was submitted was submitted back in I guess
August. Was it August or November? So, this council has had a chance to review that person's resume. Um, the actual Monontlair Early Childhood Corporation has um they're looking forward to this person joining them to
get started on some work that they need to do. If we can not remove number 16, that would be appreciated. Um, if you want me to say the person's name for the council, I can. No. So, um, it it's fine, but the the the reason that that
one was pulled is because we never discussed as a council which one of the members that are presently on there will be removed in order for that person. No, none of them. Well, they've increased their board seats. They've increased their board seats. So, no of none of the
older members speaking the mic. So, they I'm sorry. None of the current members that are on the board are being removed or replaced. Okay. They actually increased their board seats to accommodate this person. Okay. So, how many um board seats did did they have at this point in time? Do you know? Because
I know that they increased it by one a couple of months ago. They increased it by two. So, it was one a couple of months ago and then just another one. So, that that that sounds fine. And the suggestion was that we move forward with the um vote of the resolution appointing
to the board of trustees of the Montclair Early Childhood Corporation. Um and so unless anyone has any concerns about that. Did I get a second for the other ones? Okay. So I'm going to I may I'm
sorry. I don't have any record of a change in the bylaws to change the seats. Mr. Mr. Is it Mr. Dunn? He was supposed to email you um the resolution from are there new bylaws? Hope I guess he didn't do it. Should we wait until the next meeting and when you have them
in place? If you have read them and you see that and it's the will of the governing body to move so be the only consequence proper procedure is for you to see them and need to see them. I'm totally fine with that if that's what you need. It's not a problem. Yeah. because then the alternative would be if
we don't have that in place then this person that we're nominating won't have a seat. That's the only thing I want to avoid. Right. Okay. No problem. Mayor, if I if I may, I'd like to request that you move on 19. These are
reappointments. One reappoint is the chair of the rent control board and we have a meeting next Wednesday. That's fine with me. um unless some of the council members have questions or concerns and wish for me to um follow
the directive not to make the appointments this evening. Um I'm I'm open to discussion. Any discussion, council members? I just Yes. Councelor Lachman. So, I I know the way it works on the planning board is that even if your term is expired, and I think you're saying that Alex's Alex Morgan's term is
expired, you you don't leave the board until you're reappointed or someone else is reappointed. So, he technically he's still on the board and the chair. This says effective July 1st, the appointment. So, yes, Mayor, if I may,
Mr. Morgan's term expires June 30, 2025, but the alternate does expire May 15. And the alternate is Mr. Kaine, but uh town clerk, please correct me if I'm wrong, but you were correct.
Yeah. So, there's no urgency about appointing anybody for the rent control board tonight. Well, Mr. Kaine is coming on as an alternate, and you said um the 15th his time is up. He currently serves as an alternate and on the 15th his term would expire, but to councelor Lochman's
point, he would be a holdover. Okay. So, he could remain in his seat until the governing body decided that they wanted to thank him for his service. Okay. I I certainly um respect the um deputy manager's opinion. Um I that is the the
group that you are closely associated with. Um, if other council members want to weigh in, whatever the will of the council is, um, deputy mayor, I, um, I would not have an issue with moving forward with, um, number 19, uh,
because they're reappointments, but everything else, um, I would like to, uh, postpone until the next meeting. Thank you, Council Williams. No. Councelor Toller, I'm fine with the
reappointments for tonight if it's gonna allow you to continue doing business. Um, I'm fine with that. Councelor Damato, uh, yeah, I'm fine with that. Okay. And councelor Birmingham? Yep. I'm also fine. Okay. So, I um I'm
fine, too. I am fine, too. Okay. I'd like to um withdraw resolution 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 from this evening's agenda. Is there a second? I second.
Thank you so very much. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes.
And thank you very much. So now um is the part that many of you are waiting for and we also look forward to hearing from you. We're going to move on to public comment. Please note, if you don't already know, so that you must be signed in on the
sheet next to the podium or up up front and that you're allotted up to a maximum of three minutes. Before speaking, please clearly state your name for the record. And if you wish to comment on a pending ordinance listed on this
evening's agenda, please make your comment during the public hearing for that ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Hi. Good evening. Reggie Jenkins, 105 Chestnut Street. Uh on behalf of the Clary Anderson Arena
Association. Um, as you may know, this is a residentrun, notfor-profit advocacy group that has been established to advocate for and hopefully fund raise for the maintenance
and the improvement of the Clary Anderson rink. Before I go into what I was going to say, I just want to say that I think this council should be applauded. Uh, listening to the proclamations that you just um issued,
they are acknowledging things that I think we are all proud as we live in Monontlair are important to this council, the community, the inclusion to bringing people together, the arts. Um
so to that to the extent nobody is thanking you for these things please thank you and again you should be commended um for that and for honoring that part of Monontlair. Um again I am here for the Clary Anderson Association
with uh Deron Sittens who is next to me is a trustee. I've waxed poetic about this a long time and so I'm not going to go through every jot and tit but I have two points that I want to make for the the U council. First is you've heard a
lot I think of negative uh talk and noise about the rink which is misinformed and I think mean-spirited. Please do not listen to that and please do not listen to anybody who is negatively claiming to be part of
our association. There's three of us who are the spokesperson for it. It's myself, Mr. Siddens and uh Scott Gibson over there. So if you have any questions and if you want objective responses to that the rink the operations please come
to us. Secondly you heard about the the ordinance for the budget that's being introduced and I do not envy you for going through the numbers there. Um and in terms of the rink itself we are not going to go through every jot and tit now but the only thing I ask for is
this. There are current obligations that the municipality has right now. There is an appropriation from the last council which is not touched. So right now it is sitting with the township manager. All we ask is to honor the current
obligations for the residents, many of whom are sitting here. They need to know where they're going to be in the next season. They need to start planning now. The school needs to be starting planning now. MKA
needs to start planning now. And we talked about uh and Councilwoman Laughlin stated it uh very clearly, the concern about withdrawing of grants. Right now, let's not pull the
rug out from the rink. Let's not pull the rug out from these citizens who are sitting here. Let us fund what we can to keep the doors open and have the next season have the
um freekate for the seniors, for the citizens. Let us have some certainty in the short term and then in the farther term. Yes. Thank you so very much for for coming. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next guest,
please. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you for hearing me. My name is Scott Gibson, 122 Midland Avenue. Um, and I just handed you a list of all the ice rinks, the municipal ice rinks in New Jersey. We'll go over that in a
minute. Um, I heard been working with uh Reggie and Darren for the last year and a half and the previous city council and the previous town manager about trying to uh improve uh Clary Anderson and the uh conversation that was at the last
city council meeting made me understand that you there's a misunderstanding about what Clary Anderson is. Clary Anderson is not a hockey rink. It's a very valuable community asset. It improves the town. It improves Essex County because it's a very rare
commodity. Right? If you look at the list of rinks here, there are 16. Sorry, I mean there are 16. You don't have a list of rings. You have the the list of people who use it. So there are eight uh youth organizations that use Clary Anderson including Montlair High and
Monontlair Kim Academy. There's a bunch of clubs. Those are all young kids playing club hockey. We have representatives from the clubs here. Then there are adult groups. Uh there are another seven adult groups. And then there's a list of five people that the management of Clary or five groups that
have been trying to get ice time at Clary, but ice time is very rare all through New Jersey. There are only 16 municipal rinks in all of New Jersey. And there are out of that 16, four of them are over an hour and 45 minutes to an hour
away. So those are not going to be used locally. Six of them are at least 30 minutes away and another fif another five or 15 or 30 minutes away. So if Clar Anderson closes, that's the end of hockey in Monontlair. That's the end of the high school hockey. That's the end
of MKA. That's the end of these clubs teams because there's not enough ice time in all of New Jersey to fill up these the to get ice for these people. So that you if that rent goes away, you're killing the the high school program. I've spoken with the school and
they don't have the budget. They don't have $60,000 for just the ice time. Forget about the buses because these kids can't. These are young kids, nine year uh in ninth grade, 8th grade. They can't drive themselves. You'd have to do buses to any of these rinks that are half hour to an hour and a half away.
So, that's something that needs to be considered. I don't think anybody wants to kill a high school sport. Um I also heard mentioned the last meeting uh that we're not in the ice rink business. Well, are we in the tennis court business or the swimming pool business or the basketball court business or the
uh skate park business? Right? Those are all amenities for the town just as this rink is a money for the town. That's the way you need to think of it. not as a hockey rink. Because if we fix it up as a really beautiful arena, community arena, we could have a good restaurant
in there, a good snack bar. We could have year-round facility where you could have summer camps there and it becomes a cash cow for the city. We we will make money. It is not all those other things lose money, right? Basketball courts, pools, they're a drain on the economy.
Hockey, ice rinks can make money. So, please keep that in mind. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. Good evening. Um, my name is Gary Smith. I am this year a 45 year resident of the town. 37 of those years
I ran a small business in Upper Montlair. I'm here to speak in favor of your uh fixing up the Clary Anderson Arena. My whole family skated there. My daughter uh figure skated there.
My son played on the high high school hockey team. In the 1990s, I was uh co-president of the hockey booster club. We raised money and uh quite a number of people labored weekends and nights to build the showers, toilets, and lock and
rebuild the locker room there at Montlair. Um this is a terrific asset to the town. It's a terrific asset for the high school, both high school hockey teams, because the kids can walk from school to the arena. They don't have to be bust. It doesn't take another hour
each way. This is a terrific benefit. So, I urge you as a taxpayer. I know it'll cost some money. Please fix up the rink. All facilities have a lifetime. It's time for Clary Anderson to get rebuilt. Thank you.
Thank you. Next guest, please. Hello, council mayor. Thank you for taking the time to uh listen to me. My name is Ken Lillian. I own the Jersey Wolves hockey club, the youth program that's been run out of Clary Anderson for 13 years. Everyone has heard these
numbers, but we have 160 families, 40 families in learn to play, many, many families from Montlair, and many, many families from the surrounding neighboring towns. The money spent at the rink and of course at the farmers market. All the money brought into the town by the rink are extremely
important. But I really want to talk about something else. Uh, have you ever seen a 9-year-old score his first goal playing ice hockey and the joy on his face? Have you ever seen a 5-year-old go to public skate, hold the boards all the way around for hours, finally skate end to
end on their own, and see the joy in their face? Have you ever seen parents or grandparents of these kids react to seeing this? Have you ever seen a young figure skater try something over and over, fall 100 times, finally get it right, and see the joy on their face?
Have you ever seen a group of teens go to public skate, laugh while trying to teach each other how to skate? Have you ever seen a young couple go holding hands at public skating and seeing the joy in their faces? Have you ever seen a group of adults ranging in age from 25 to 70 play an hour and a half of ice
hockey at 6:00 a.m. leave with a great workout and smiles on their faces? How about a teenager working as a skate at Clary Anderson Arena and helping someone to learn how to skate? How about 40 kids, say ages 5 to 10, make it across the ice at the learn to skate program
for the first time. How about all the students watching Monontlair vers MKA in the Montlair trophy game? Getting so excited watching their friends compete. So much pride in their town and their school. What about the student athletes who have had the opportunity to
represent their town and their school in the arena experience doing something they love in front of their peers? I witnessed Montlair hockey Montlair High School start a women's JV team with a group of teenage women who never played hockey before and some who never skated fall in love with the game and the rink.
Do you know how many people when I tell them who I am and what I do immediately tell me an amazing memory of having an incredible experience at Clary Anderson Arena. People of all ages. This rink is part of the fabric of Montlair and something else that brings people together, teaches children life
lessons, creates community bonds and bonds that last lifetimes. Having the rink in Montlair and the importance of this rink being measured on this scale is invaluable. The devastating effect the loss would have on Montlair and the local communities cannot be measured.
Just look around this room and the love and support this ice rink has in this room alone is incredible. The impact of closing this rink for the upcoming season would not only be devastated to Montlair, it will have a devastating impact on ice hockey throughout the state. I ask you to look at Clary
Anderson in this respect and what it's meant to families in this community for 60 years. I ask you to consider all the life lessons and life experience the children are getting from this space. Please do not take this decision lightly. Go to the rink, see the things I talk about. I understand the need to
look at numbers, but the wrong decision here would come at a greater cost than could be measured on paper alone. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well said, Ken. Well said. Uh, thank you all so much for hearing us out. My name is Tim Cook. I'm a fourth generation Monlair resident. Um, grew up at Clary
Anderson. Now I'm a teacher and coach at Montlair Kimberly Academy. I'm here obviously to speak about Clary Anderson Arena. Um first I want to talk about what Clary gave me personally. Um after my father passed away when I was nine, they gave me innumerable father figures. Many of them Monk residents. So when you
talk about the von Hoffman's, the guided, the Healey's, the Smiths, Monair icons that stepped into that role that I wouldn't have had without Clary Anderson. Um, it also gave me the opportunity to get a hockey scholarship to the University of Michigan, get drafted in the NHL in 2003, and things that I never would have had. But more
important is what it saved me from. A very different life trajectory if I didn't have that. If I didn't have those other father figures, if I didn't have the support network, if it didn't give me the sense of discipline and self and the future goals that it gave to me because of what Clary Anderson has and continues to give to this community. And
I personally know that it did the same for countless other young people in our community. This isn't a rink. This is a home for people that need it. Um, I want to let's honor the community, uh, the commitments made by this council. Um, I know was a previous council, but I
consider us all one community. Um, I know that right now there's $286,000 in the capital improvement fund. I consider the bond ordinance 02424 as a promise, and we in Montlair honor our promises. I heard earlier when you're talking about the budget that we're worried about things being clawed back. We're worried
about things being clawed back. Um, everyone in this room is ready to pitch in and give back to the rink that has given us so much. All we're asking for is that opportunity to give back to this rink that really shaped so many of us and bring so many of us from different backgrounds and different um interest
groups together. So Connor and Ken and so many other people in this room that um when we're on the ice competing against each other, it's serious and it's intense, but we all have a common goal and a shared interest is that helping young people in this community. And the rink is the way that we do that, that we give back to this community. So
I want to thank you so much for having the foresight, having the commitment to honor our promises, and to allow us to restore Clary Anderson to what it can be, a real asset, a real prize jewel of this town. Thank you.
Thank you. Next guest, please. Uh, good evening, uh, council members. Uh, thank you for your time and effort. Um, I volunteer a lot of time myself. I know it's often a thankless job, so I appreciate, uh, all that you do. Uh, my name is Kevin Smith. I was, uh, born in
Montlair. I've been around the town for the last 43 years. Um, I started playing hockey at Clary Anders And Anderson Arena when I was 10 years old. I'm a proud graduate of the high school here in Montlair. I played varsity hockey in the late 90s here. My sister was a
figure skater that also skated at Clary for many years. Uh, I can honestly say that playing uh hockey and growing up playing and being on the ice at Clary was one of the best experiences of my life. I It taught me discipline. It taught me teamwork. It gave me friendships that last to this day. Uh,
in fact, many of uh my friends and I from high school still play uh in some of the men's leagues at Clary. We skate Sunday nights. Many of the guys are in the in the room here tonight. Uh, it's a network and opportunities that have come out of the rink have really been truly incredible. Uh, both my kids uh also
play now. Um, I have a 13-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl who both um play and uh are part of the Wolves program. They've been on the ice for almost the last um pretty much since they've they could walk. Uh I've had the honor of coaching them in many of the leagues
that they've been involved in and I can see firsthand how important the rink is not just for developing athletes but for building confidence community and the character and the kids that uh we're all involved in. Uh it was mentioned earlier one thing I'd like to stress is uh how limited the ice availability is in New
Jersey holistically. Uh rinks are in really short supply. So shutting down one facility even for a short period of time has a ripple effect and really can impact uh a number of not just Montlair families but broader families and uh athletes across the region. Um many
youth programs uh it's really impossible to just find alternative time. Uh so you have to really think uh think hard about the timing of of when facilities get upgraded. Monontlair is incredibly fortunate to have its own rink. Uh Clary Anderson brings people to there every
every week. Um every Saturday morning pretty much this whole group is there. Uh they're uh buying coffee in the local towns. They're going to the farmers market. People are stopping at restaurants. They're a really big um part of the local economy. Um so
thinking about it holistically I think is really important. Uh closing during the season I think would be a major setback. Um, I think the council should really consider the timing and horizon as you think about upgrades. No doubt it does need some upgrades. I mean, you can
walk around. Many of the things probably look the same as when I was playing in high school. Um, but you should uh think about the timing and when that can be done and there are a lot of alternatives. A number of towns have put up temporary rinks um for the the time
that it takes to rebuild bigger facilities. So, I think the the coun town council should really considerate all the options as they think about the rebuild. But thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Hi, my name is Suzanne Lillian and I'm
speaking on behalf of the New Jersey Youth Hockey League. I'm sorry, would you say your name again, please? My name is Suzanne Lillian and I am speaking on behalf of the New Jersey Youth Hockey League. Um, I'm going to read a letter from the president. I'm actually the master scheduler, but I'm here on behalf of her. Uh, dear Mayor Baskerville and
members of the township council, I am the president of the New Jersey Youth Hockey League and I'm writing to ask you to keep Clary Anderson open and to invest in repairing and upgrading the building. Four NJHL clubs skate at Clary Anderson Arena. Jersey Wolves, Nutley Clifton Horse Pirates, New Jersey
Colonials, and Montlair Blues. Team selections occur in March and April, and if Clary Anderson closes, hundreds of hockey players will be left without a place to play during the 202526 season. This would affect not only the young athletes who play for these clubs, many of whom are Montlair residents, but it
would also negatively impact all of our member organizations and players. While the health of the NJHL is obviously my main concern, I understand that as your responsibility to serve the residents of Montlair. Fortunately, keeping Clary Anderson open also benefits the township. Municipalities across the
country are investing millions of dollars in constructing new athletic facilities because youth sports are relatively recessionproof. And these establishments attract families who patronize local restaurants, stores, and other businesses. Over 200 out of town families come to Clar Anderson on the
average weekend during the youth hockey season, and many of them spend money in the community while they are here. Clary Anderson also provides jobs for dozens of people who work as skate guards, engineers, office staff, cleaning personnel, concession workers, skate rental attendants, and ice hockey
officials. Numerous additional jobs will be created for engineers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, and others when the facility is repaired and upgrades begin. In addition to the youth hockey programs who use Clary Anderson, the Monontlair High School and
Monontlair Kimberly Academy ice hockey programs call this facility a home. The rink also hosts public skates, learn to play programs, freestyle sessions, private hockey, men's league games, birthday parties, school events, church outings, and community programs. Many
young people and older people put on skates for the first time at Clary Anderson Arena. The rink even provides location for local students to learn and practice filming techniques. Over the past decade, the landscape of youth hockey has changed as an increasing number of rinks are privately owned by
individuals or private equity firms. Places like Clary Anderson Arena are becoming more rare. And Monontlair has a unique opportunity to serve the community by investing in the repairs necessary to keep it open. Sincerely, Kelly Denora. Thank you. Thank you. Next
guest, please. Number eight. Hello. Hello. Hello. My name is Mitchell Steinberg. Uh I'm here with my daughter Khloe who is a resident of of uh Monontlair. We're here to address the
problem that we're having with um the un unhomed people that are um that are congregating uh more or less on Bloomfield A and Midland A.
Um, we have seen uh a large increase in problems since last summer and um we're hoping that there can be a better solution to what is happening in our in our neighborhood. Um, so there's always been some
problems. Uh, when you have a story, there's always problems, but lately it's gotten out of hand. our business uh pizzazzed uh 11 Midland uh had an attempted breakin last
September. The uh the alarm went off causing noise to our neighbors. The police came down. This happened around 2 or 3 in the morning. I was 3 hours away at the time and had to drive up. Uh
we've never had this problem before and we've been here since 2018. So really something it's gotten worse just in the last year. And we think that there are other uh great cities, towns
that perhaps we could learn from that there could be a better way of handling this. Um, we think that having the uh the mesh center where the old office restaurant used to be could be uh or
probably is maybe at the root of the problem. Uh perhaps there might be another location that could that could be better. Not so much in the heart of this great city, you know, right smack in the heart of the business center.
We've witnessed uh of course vagrancy uh urination. Um some of our customers have been intimidated. Um as I said, we've been uh attempted breakin with a
crowbar and uh it's not been good since since really since last summer. We're hoping that there can be a new solution to this. You know, we're sympathetic to the plight of the un unhomeded, but there to have it smack in
the heart of our of our great town is it doesn't seem to be the right solution. Also, perhaps if the police could be present uh when they um are congregating there or perhaps when they disband afterwards to make sure that the
neighborhood is is safe. I think that a lot of people in our part of Monontlair don't feel very safe anymore. It's uh uh I've worked 35 years in Manhattan. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. When the buzzer goes, that's your
your three minutes, but thank you. And um yes, we're addressing that concern. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next guest, please. Hello. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. And I want to echo sentiment said earlier about the being grateful for your public service. Both my parents
served on the local governing body where I grew up. And I know it can sometimes be a thankless mayor. My mother was the first woman mayor, only woman mayor of the town where I grew up in Pay County. So, thank you for your uh for your service. I come here as a as a a parent of two of my children go to Montlair Kimberly Academy. And I want to mention
as somebody who doesn't live in town, some of the tangible benefits that Clary Anderson and the hockey community have brought to this, uh, at least through my personal story, uh, I was unaware of the great rivalry between Montlair and Montlair Kimberly Academy before I came here. Can you give us your name, please? I'm sorry, Michael Doohane. Sorry, Mike
Duhane. Michael Doohane. Sorry, my last name. Duh. Sorry about that. Um, and uh, that rivalry is the best of uh, this community from what I've seen. It is incredible in terms of the sportsmanship uh the intensity and uh but also the great mutual respect that the uh the
players have for each other, the coaches have for each other. But that brought me into this community into Montlair in a different way in terms of me wanting to spend more time here and uh I invested in getting a place where I could work from here. Uh that means I bought a place, I paid a realtor, I've now paid property taxes, I'm now thinking of
moving my entire small business here. I'd be bringing 20 employees here. I was just looking at real estate today. That would be a six-f figureure annual investment in terms of rent, be paying another realtor. I'd have people here buying coffee, buying bagels, uh, lunch every day. And, uh, that really happens out of Clary. I I grew up coming to
Clary, even though I did live in this town. And, uh, what Clary means to this community is incredible. But, I just wanted to be aware of some of the tangible economic benefits that it's bringing to the town through what what it's meant in terms of bringing me and my family into this community and welcoming us as part of this community. So, we appreciate it. Secondly, I I wear
a different hat as I run a nonprofit youth hockey club in a different part of the state and we would do anything to have an asset like Clary Anderson. We wish that uh our communities had had the foresight many years ago to bring this and please don't let this go away. It's such an asset to the community and so many people will wish you had it back.
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next guest, please. Say your name. Uh, hi. My name is Emmy Smith. I play hockey for the Jersey Wolves and I love it so so much. I go to the rank more than five overs every
week. That's a lot of time skating, practicing, and playing games with my team. Hockey makes me happy. It helps me make friends, work hard, and be strong. If you close our rink during hockey season, we won't have anywhere to go. But we won't get to practice or play
together, and I'll probably just be stuck home doing homework and maybe chores. Um, please don't close the rank now. We needed to play, have fun, chase our dreams, and chase our dreams. Thank you for listening.
Wow. Um, I'm not sure I can follow that. Scott, you can't for a very short amount of time. I've only 13 years. I have three children. All three of them learned how to
I'm gonna start again. Scott Mixer. And the the point what my fellow hockey fan just made I think is is wow is what I said is because I'm not sure I can follow that. Um I just wanted to note
that as a resident of this community that clary is an asset that I think we've just heard from several people said the same thing that I think that we can't let go away. And there's a difference between something that we utilize and certain groups utilize. But
when we think about the asset in itself as part of the fabric of the community, there's a lot of people here tonight that are going to tell you that, but there's many more people watching at home who have concerned interest in this as well. But we think about how having that specific asset exist for us and
really serves a community of people and it's part of the fabric of Montlair. And so I'm not coming here to tell you that my team's going to be left without that or anything like that. Although I do play adult hockey and my three kids all learned how to skate there and two of them do play hockey, some at the high school and other places. But the truth
is is that it's such an awesome feeling to have an asset like that in your community when you go other places and people come here for it too. And so our job to really prepare everyone else and to make sure that we can continue to use that facility is to fix it, not to close
it. And we also, and the last point I want to make here too is that you have concerned citizens and many of us who are willing to help. I mean, everything from swinging a hammer, let alone raising funds to do such a thing. There isn't a scenario that I can fathom that would warrant the shutting down of this facility or making it go away just
because of the sheer support that you can see from this community. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you. Hi, I'm Stu Kennedy. Um, here to comment in support of the Complete Streets uh director and oversight board. Um, I am with a group called uh Gro Street
Greenway. Probably haven't heard of us yet. We're pretty new. Uh, it's a collaboration between Monontlair Climate Action and Bike Bus. Uh, some other organizations, but we're really leading the way. So, I probably don't have to tell any of you that Gro Street is statistically the most accidentrone here
in Montlair. Uh, I think it was great dropping the speed limit. That's a a right move. Adding the plastic ballard's right move. But if you live close to Grow Street like I do, you know that that hasn't really impacted the speed of traffic. What does impact the speed of traffic, it turns out, research from
record shows, is giving the cars a little bit less room. Bike lanes. Bike lanes would do a great job. Um, we've already collected signatures from like 200 of our neighbors um in the comment supporting a bike lane on Grove Street. Uh, these are folks who in the comment
sections talk about their own safety. Adults like me want the benefits of act active transit worry about being out on the streets. Of course, parents with kids, you drive along in the morning, you see the bus stops. These are kids who have to cross the street. Parents are nervous, rightfully so. We've seen the statistics.
So, what do we do? We get all these signatures. Where do we go? It's exciting to know that we have funding to support bike infrastructure, active transit. Um, and it's great to hear that we might be able to get a director and an oversight board to help implement and listen to the community and build
infrastructure in a way that's collaborative and supports um, another great benefit to our town. So, really uh, excited to support the effort and uh, looking forward to the vote. I'll say also since I maybe have a little bit of time left, I have a lot of
hockey people in my life and I have a small child. I moved to this town just before I had said small child and uh it's just nice to know that the arena's in town and that it's another option that my kid could potentially pursue and all these other hockey folks. I know what ice time is. I've heard those
conversations. So, it's a neat thing to have around. So, I'll throw my support in for that, too. Thanks. Cool. Thank you. Next guest, please. Hello for your time. How are you? So, my name is Anthony Simillo. I am a co-owner of Vanity Salon at 9 Midland 9 Midland
Avenue. Vanity Salon co-owner. This is my business partner, Nicole Pachone. Um, I have worked in town for 28 years. I worked here when I was still a student in high school. Um, Montlair was always a home away from home for me. So much so that we decided to open a business. I
opened a business when I was 21 years old. Um, and now we are in business 21 years. Uh, it's been a long road and it's been wonderful to be here. Monontlair has served us amazing through throughout the years. Um, and now, uh, for the last 13 years, we've owned our building on Midland Avenue and we've
created a successful culture and business integrated into this town and Montlair has always been something that we both believed in. Um, with that said, the Monontlair that I started at when I was 15, 16 years old, and the Monontlair that I own a business at now is a little
bit different. I still love the town. I have a passion for the town, but I I'm a little bit nervous. I'm here on behalf of the conversation about the unhoused and the um it's the violence and it's the situations that have been coming up that we are having to deal with on almost a daily basis, multiple times a
day. Yeah, the MESH the MESH program is a wonderful organization. Uh, I'm not here to question what the organization does. I think it's wonderful. I think the location is causing major issues for us business owners. I'm here on behalf of my fellow business owners that are
also here with us. Um, bicycle shop, um, the the art gallery, uh, Mitch from Pizzazz. Uh, we have Jaipur Yoga. It goes from Midland Avenue wrapping around to Bloomfield Avenue. Our clients and our patrons are well, I don't want to use the word petrified, but they're petrified sometimes, especially at
night, to leave our business. And sometimes we're actually getting cancellations because they're afraid to come, especially if it, you know, during the the winter time when it's darker out. Um, they're getting they're really getting harassed in the parking lots. Um, the issue is that they're not just unhoused. It's the they're inebriated.
They're drinking. They're spending a lot of time at the liquor store. And right now, what we're noticing because we're monitoring the situation is we're going from they're going from mesh to the liquor store. And Nicole can touch on some of the topic as well. Yes, I think Anthony hit the nail on the head here. It's become a fearful situation for
myself, for our clients, for the young kids that we're trying to train and build careers there. They're scared to walk outside. There's constant harassment, nudity, urination, drugs. Um, you know, they're
just sleeping outside of our business, being over and you know, it's it's I'm scared. And I've been in Montlair for 35 plus years. I love Montlair. I have never felt this way as badly as I feel in the past year. And it just seems to
be getting worse and worse. And it's a concern. It's a huge concern for all of our neighboring businesses. It's a concern for my daughter that works in my salon. I'm scared for her to go down to Sweet Kitchen and get a coffee. I mean, I grew up on these streets. I grew up
walking all around. We grew up, you know, we love Montlair, but something has to change. It is not a good location for me. What's coming in from Irvington, Norc? These aren't even the Montlair. They're not unhoused people. These are unhoused people from Irvington and what
about the Montlair issue that's not even being addressed. So, how are we bringing people from other towns and you know when we have a problem at hand in this town. So, that is definitely our concern. Thank you for your time. Yes. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next
guest, please. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Uh my name is Karen Sepansky and I live at 40 Nishwain Road in the fourth ward. Uh I'm here today to speak in favor of a resolution to support the Climate Super Fund Act and
to urge the council to aggressively advocate with our state legislators to get this bill passed now. The Climate Super Fund Act is a necessary but not unprecedented law. It would make the fossil fuel industry that knew and lied
about the effects of burning fossil fuels on our environment pay for some of the damage that they have caused. By prioritizing profits over people, the fossil fuel industry is responsible for the extreme weather events, flooding,
droughts, and wildfires that we are now experiencing at a more frequent basis. This is a fact and we are well past the point of debating whether climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels. The climate super fund act simply mandates
that the companies that caused the harm should pay for cleaning up the mess that they made. I moved to Montlair 35 years ago when an EPA trailer was sitting at the end of my block due to the fact that some company had duck dumped toxic
materials that were buried in my neighborhood. Throughout the uh through the federal super fund, we were able to remove those toxic materials and clean up my neighborhood. The law works in exactly the same way with fossil fuel
companies paying into a fund that would then go to help communities recover from the effects of climate change, build green infrastructure, and make communities more resilient. People living in New Jersey should not have to pay for the damage caused by corporate
greed. More than 12 states have now filed lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry and are considering making the polluters pay legislation in addition to New York and Vermont which have already passed climate super fund laws. For
example, in response to the devastating wildfires in Hawaii last year, Hawaii filed the lawsuit against the largest oil and gas companies. And Hawaii's lawsuit comes at as Trump rescends disaster relief programs and pulls back
on FEMA funding that is already strange by increasing climate disasters and is dis disproportionately dispersed along lines of race and class. A recent national
poll reported that 71% of likely voters agreed that FEMA funds would be insufficient to help them recover in the event of climate disaster. That leaves the burden of recovery costs on all of us, the taxpayers. State and local governments do not have the money or the
capacity to deal with the scope of this problem. So, it's time to make the polluters pay for the damage they have caused. This is a no-brainer. So I asked the council stop wasting time uh on uh moving this uh resolution from agenda to
agenda to agenda and just pass the resolution so that you can become part of the solution and not add to an already worsening problem. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Hi, Mayor and Council. Uh, my
name is Jordan Hershorn, and I'm going to break up the party just a little bit by just thanking you guys actually because one of the things that I've noticed from this council is the responsiveness from every single member on this board, particularly with regards
to matters of transportation and safety on our streets. Um, it's something that you guys clearly care deeply about and I clearly did not read the rules closely enough. I will stick around and uh uh comment in the appropriate pending
ordinance comment period, but I just wanted to thank you all for all of your attention to some of the serious issues. I have actually lived in every single ward in Montlair and I can say that there have been different there there have been major changes to every single
ward in terms of stop signs, intersections, bumpouts, all of that that make our streets safer, make kids walking to school and back from school safer, make bike bus safer, everything. So there's obviously more work to do,
but the fact that you guys are actually working on it and there are and there are actually visibly visible changes here, I think is huge. So thank you so much. Thank you, Jordan. Next guest, please. Good evening.
Thank you, Council Mayor Dr. Baskerville. I appreciate your time. Um, some of the local businesses have come up tonight. I am the owner of Jaipure Yoga. We're on Bluefield Avenue. We've spoken with some of you privately about the conditions that we're facing
and we've come tonight just to make it clear that we are really suffering. Can you give us your name, please? Lauren Rigiola. Oh, thank you. I spoke to you last night. Okay. Thank you. and I appreciate all of your attention and time, but we're asking the local
government to address this safety concern with immediate measures to make it safe for our staff, for our customers, and for our businesses. Our customers are being harassed going in
and out. Our entrance ways are being blocked with men urinating or taking off their clothes or dancing and yelling and cursing and calling us names. If we ask them to leave, we are threatened. By the
time the police come, they're gone. And there's really no recourse for us. In the 12 years that I've had the business there, I never had cameras. I never had security. It wasn't necessary. Now we
do. And it scares me that I have young women working at the front desk and they call and they're afraid. Or I have tween Ariel and there's young girls in there and their parents say there's a man outside taking off his shirt and
blocking the door. So we ask you, we understand that there's competing interests, but we ask you to please make this a priority. do something to make it safe. On another note, my husband has
stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It's metastasized. The one thing that gets him up every day is playing hockey at Clary Anderson. Okay. He is a long time Monontlair
resident. If I ask him to go to dinner, he says, "No, I have hockey on Monday morning." So I hear these men and I just want to reinforce and women that Clary Anderson is a place of community. Mont
Clair is a place of community. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next guest, please look. Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council. My name is Andy Weinstein. I would first just like to thank all of
the parents, all of the players, all of the coaches, everyone who came out here to share with you the reason why Clary Anderson is so important. I grew up here and I three minutes goes fast, so bear with me here. I grew up here. I
played hockey here. I graduated from Montlair High School in class of 94. I know I look younger, right? So, however, uh, and now I'm fortunate enough to call myself an assistant coach of, uh, the Monontlair High School hockey team. I stand here though to the views I express
tonight are solely my own and not of anyone else's. Although I believe very strongly that you've heard more than enough about why the rink is important, how it's so integrated into our community. So, but let's talk about what your concerns are practically. You're
sitting here. Money does not grow on trees. You have an asset that is clearly valuable to the community in many ways. Uh not just emotionally, but practically, fiscally. So, there are a number of solutions you have. And let's
talk about the solutions that may not require any money. So I think for right now what the people who are sitting behind me as well as myself are asking for is not for the township necessarily to commit any money necessarily right now. There are certain things that we
can do to better and improve the rink without spending money but for now we're asking for a vote of confidence as in this is an important piece of our community and we want it to stay here. the rink could and I and I hear loud and
clear the concern. Well, we're not in the management of running a rink, but the this this committee, this commission here, this council could create an advisory committee that is comprised of people who are informed and well-intentioned who would like to be a steward of this asset here. This isn't
something that would cost any money. You have a number of you would probably have I bet there's nearly 50 people behind me nodding right now saying that they would be willing to volunteer their time not just and this could be something that whether it's and I apologize I don't
know whether it's a commission an advisory whatever it is it's volunteers it's doing that this this council is or portion thereof is going to be determining who will be the next operator of the rink that rink is can be profitable you can hire hire somebody to
operate the rink who will be a steward without the town spending any money. If there are upgrades made to that rink, it will lower your overhead costs and there are ways to manage that asset so that it is not sitting squarely in your lap here. And I think that's
probably a practical solution that creates a win-win situation. any renovations can be done incrementally while also uh and that's it while also just I'll just wrapping up here any renovations can be done incrementally which lower
overhead and also we can raise money for a large scale renovation but there are practical solutions that cost nothing so thank you for your time thank you for believing in us thank you next guest Please. Hi, I'm Maline Gail, a resident of
Montlair. Good evening, council. My name is Reba Spence and I'm the president of Out Monontlair and also the board chair and also a co-founder. I'm a co-founder, too. Anyway, we noticed on the agenda
for tonight that you will be discussing the resolution for the flag raising for Pride. So, we came here just to speak in favor of it. Um, I'm also here for a few other reasons. And so, for one thing, as I said, I'm in support of the resolution for the
LGBTQIA+ progress pride flag raising on Tuesday, June 3rd. Pride Month is a national holiday, which means it's already government endorsed, and it does not go against core government values, and it has a particular historical context behind it, which contributes to equality. For those that might say it's
political, raising the flag is not necessarily political, nor does it censor the content of those who may disagree, but simply it represents our local governments and many of our town's residents core values of equality and inclusion. Raising a Progress Pride flag
is important because it acknowledges and affirms our LGBTQIA plus existence and that we are recognized as valuable members of our town and society. The Progress Pride flag visually represents the diversity of identities within the LGBTQIA community, including those who
are often marginalized and underrepresented, and it symbolizes inclusion, solidarity, and an ongoing progress within the LGBTQIA community and beyond. The flag also serves as a reminder that the fight for LGBTQIA rights is ongoing, especially with the
attempts at erasing and silencing our trans and non-binary members of our community. And there's still clearly much work to be done to create a more inclusive and equitable society. So I um also wanted to announce that Out Monontlair will again be having our fourth annual Monontlair Pride Festival
presented by Audi on Saturday, June 14th from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. And we'll have two weeks of pre-Pride events that will soon be posted. And this Thursday, we'll be creating a Pride collage at Keep Creating from 7 to 9 for those that may be interested in joining us. So you can register at monontlair.org. I also
wanted to say I'm pleased that this council recognizes and celebrates so many cultural groups as you did tonight with Jewish history month and AAPI heritage month. Monontlair is a fabric woven with so many and acknowledging each one is important. So thank you for that. Lastly, I'm here in support of the
vision zero complete streets ordinance policy advisory board and director. Our town has to do everything we can for safer streets now. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest please. Hi. Hi. My name is Tina Wrights. Um I'm
a resident of the town. I came in support of the business owners along Bloomfield A. Um to deal with the situation we've been talking about tonight. Um I just came to give you my perspective as a resident. Right. I've lived off of Bloomfield A for since 2018. And over the past couple years,
I've actually been scared and I walk my dog up and down Bloomfield A every day. And I'm constantly harassed. Last week I was followed just for walking past someone. He chased me, cursed at me, followed me down the street, went around the corner, met my friends, and he tried to fight my friend who was protecting me
who was also a business owner. So this is like an ongoing problem. Right. A week before that, I'm walking up the street and two workers from Fowlberg are coming out. There was a group of them. They chased us out into the street in Bloomfield oncoming traffic because they wouldn't let us pass, right? So this is like, you know, really as a resident
scary, right? I'm scared to walk my dog. you know, it's just it's it's out of hand. I do have empathy, believe me, for the unhouse. Like, I really really do, but this is uh a different situation. There's plenty of nice, calm, polite people out there, right? But this is this is a different group and it's it's
um it it it you know, I know you said you're going to address it, but I would just want to give you my point and and I just want to bring up too like there's a ton of empty businesses on Bloomfield app, right? If I was a store owner looking for someone to I would never rent if I went up and saw what is happening out there. defecation on the
street. I've seen it. Defecation, urination, vomiting, sleeping, like carboard boxes. Like it's it's you know as a resident like this is like you know I I don't know what else to say but thank you. That's all. Thanks. Thank you. Next guest please.
Yeah, I'll be back. Number 22. Hi, Council. Connor Smith here, 218 Park Street. I am the varsity head coach of Montlair High School hockey and I a professor at Montlair State in audio
production and entrepreneurship. I am a fourth generation Smith in this town. I moved away uh a couple years ago and came back to my hometown. A lot of legacy in my family. Uh some of you may know some of my family members. Joan Smith, she's uh 94 years old. had a lot
to do with uh our public busing system in the 60s with the Montlair public schools. It was a model that was used all the way in Atlanta to diversify education. My aunt Betsy Smith, everything she's done for inclusive education in this town cannot be understated. Try to think about my
legacy in this town and and and what my role is and that's what brought me back here. I always knew I'd come back to coach this hockey team. I uh I grew up here. I remember skating at Clary Anderson. It's the It's the first time I first time I held a girl's hand in fifth grade. I didn't have much RZ, but I
could skate. It's where uh it was my first job. I've been coaching the team for four years now. And after our big games, uh the Montlair Cup, I walk over to the uh to the glass and I see my wife
holding my one-year-old son in his Mount shirt banging on the glass. brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the day that he'll play at Montlair. And then I turn around and I see everybody here on the
ice. I see my arch uh rival for an hour and a half, Tim Cook, who turns out to be a good friend moments later after the game. And I look at the kids that I coach and I see family. There's a family that's been
built here. That's what brought me back to this town. And when I think about the rink, I think about what we're saving. That's what we're saving. We're saving a community of people who really love each other. Hundreds of people at that rink. I think when Coach Weinstein
spoke, probably a few people were nervous in here for a second cuz we do need some money, coach, just just as a reminder. But he's not wrong about all the things that this community will happily step up and do for free in a heartbeat.
I do not speak on behalf of the Clary Association as they there's three of them, but a lot of us, if not all of us, do really support their mission and their goal and their strategy to raise these funds. And what we really need to keep our family together is just to get
the ball rolling. If you guys can do the most basic, I'm really confident that so many people will come in and donate to this cause. It will come in droves. They need the confidence from you, from the town that they can see that the ball is rolling. Please keep our family
together. Thank you so much. 23. Number 23. Miss Ay, it's your turn. Uh Sarah Avery, Monontlair resident. I wish people cared as much about transparency and accountability as they
do about the ice skating rink. Recently, the Brian Lair program on WNYC interviewed Sean Spiller, one of six Democratic candidates running for governor of New Jersey. I'm a retired certified public accountant and a
taxexempt organization subject matter expert. I have been investigating Shaun Spiller for nearly two years now and have accumulated over 5,000 documents revealing evidence of laws violated by Spiller as president of the NJA and as
the one-term failed mayor of Monontlair. I called in at the beginning of the spiller segment and was placed on hold for over half an hour the duration of the segment and was not permitted on air. Listening to the segment, I was
struck by how unprepared Brian Lair was. Spiller claimed that he designed health care plans that saved billions. Then why did he claim eligibility for health care coverage from Monontlair when he was
covered by the NJA plan? Sean Spiller was famously subpoenaed for claiming health benefits he wasn't entitled to. Much has been written about this. How could Brian Lair let Spiller make this claim unchallenged? Spiller also claims that he worked with
developers in Monontlair to make Monontlair more affordable. But you need to earn at least $120,000 a year to rent an apartment in Monontlair where monthly rents average over $3,000 a month. Most teachers earn
far less. Spiller also claims he is financially responsible. So why did he give the township of Glenn Ridge a $20 million discount on fire services despite public opposition burdening Monontlair residents with the cost? He
also claimed he is the most transparent of all. Then why did he plead the fifth over 400 times in his deposition in the RAW case? Biller even pled the fifth to the question. Quote, "You have a full-time
job right now as the president of the New Jersey Education Association since September of 2021." Correct. Answer. Quote. Upon the advice of council, I assert my fifth amendment privilege and respectfully decline to answer your
question. Simple questions to ask if Lair had done any homework. It is disappointing when public radio gives someone like Shaun Spiller a platform to lie repeatedly with impunity and makes
you wonder who is protecting democracy. Thank you. Next guest, please. Good evening. Good evening. I'd I'd rather be here advocating for Clary Anderson or the various recommendations the board of adjustment has made that have not moved forward. But I'm here as
you know on Woodman Field. Municipal land use law provides that no zoning ordinance governing the use of land for by or for schools shall be shall by any of its provisions or by any regulation adopted in accordance therewith
discriminate between public and private nonprofit day schools or element of elementary or high school grade accredited by the state department of education. The township and its zoning ordinance treats public and private schools exactly the same.
Board of Adjustment has approved numerous facilities at MKA and Cody Field for immaculate conception. Yet we have yet to see the board of education. The you received both our brief and the brief filed by the baseball parents. of
baseball parents brief thoughtfully does not discuss the regulations adopted by the department of education which make clear that they are obligated to apply to the board of adjustment. The Educational Facilities and
Construction Act and Department of Education regulations define other facilities as athletic athletic stadiums, swimming pools, and any associated structures including grandstands. The
Department of Education letter to the board of education h bolded those very same facilities and in bold said attain all other approvals. Everyone ignores that sentence all other approvals either
applies to all the facilities or just the other facilities but it doesn't mean nothing. Um the department of education regulations further defines other capital projects which are both
facilities both other facilities and projects or portions of projects that are 100% locally funded. The Department of Education letter clearly specified a bunch of the facilities including the ones we're talking about are not funded by the state and hence even if they're
not other facilities would still have to come to the board of adjustment. the the when the Educational Facilities and Construction Act was amended in 2007, that legislation included an amendment to the municipal land use law
amending the Z C variance provisions which deal with both variances to say when considering a C2 variance, the board should consider the purposes of the Educational Facilities and Construction Act as well as municipal land use law purposes. Why
would they do that if bulk variances were not to be are not subject to board of adjustment review? I have a little more but good point. Thank you so much. Next guest please mayor. Number 25 through 28. Those
resident turn in their number because they want to speak behalf of the ordinance for the public comment. So we go to the last one now is number 29. uh I was watching from home and I was watching the wonderful budget presentation. Thank you Mr.
M. It was really nice. I'm surprised at what you managed to do in such a very challenging year to put together a budget. So, thank you for that. I imagine was a lot of work to arrive where we arrived with the budget. And
Carl Loffman asked a great question whether we have Excuse me. Can you just please state your name for the record so I know who you are? I'm so sorry. I'm Mariana. I'm a Monontlair resident. I live in Gordon. Um, Carmel asked how
many police if whether the number of police officers and firefighters we have is comparable to that of towns of similar size. It's a very easy answer to this question. The Department of Community Affairs puts out a user-friendly budget database showing
the user-friendly budgets for every town in the state. Of course, some towns don't report their data. So when I pulled the towns with between 30,000 and 50,000 which I have for you there um we are missing data on four of them and the
average is 77 police officers and 23 firefighters um against the 112 police officers from Monontlair and 77 firefighters. The reason um I think our police department does a lot of things that have nothing
to do with police. They're busy, but you could have people who earn less do those things and it cost us less. And you don't need to lay off anyone because there's a lot of turnover in the police department. So last year we hired 25
officers. We could have hired 10 officers and you know 15 people to do other things that the police is currently doing. Uh, so I think that really is room for improvement there. And on the firefighter side, the reason
the average is so low is because most towns have all volunteer fire departments. But some towns have something that I think is very efficient and very smart, which is they allow volunteers. They have part volunteer and
part professional fire departments. And that would allow us to spend a lot less on overtime and spend a lot less in the fire department. And hopefully it could even even out because Monontlair taxpayers are paying a lot more for
their fire services than Glen Ridge are is. So over the next 10 years, if you had some volunteers and you had a smaller professional fire department without laying anyone off, you know, just letting it get smaller by attrition
and hiring volunteers, perhaps you could get to a point where Monontlair taxpayers pay as much as Glenn Bridge taxpayers. And that would be a matter of fairness because we're paying a lot more and Monontlair has all of the risk. They have a contract that says exactly how
much they'll pay. you every year have an huge increase in overhead costs through health through the health insurance. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please. Ma'am, that's all. That's the last one. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you.
Okay, that brings us up to the pending ordinances for uh second hearing. Oh, is that on here? Oh,
right here. Resolution introducing the year 2025 municipal budget pursuant to NJ SA4A colon 4-5. Would anyone wish? Second.
Oh, sorry. Okay. And I so move. Very, madam clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Lachman. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor
Baskerville. Yes. Okay. Okay. Now, um we're going to just start with um Councilman uh Damato, please. Would you start with pending ordinance 0-25-13?
I would be delighted. Thank you. 02513 ordinance amending chapter 297 streets and sidewalks of the townships revised general ordinance to establish a complete streets policy uh and create a complete streets
director and oversight board. And I so move second. I'm going to um well, first are there any council members that wish to discuss that any further than we already have? Uhuh. I'm going to open the public hearing.
Yeah, I saw a hand up. Councelor Toller. Yes. Um, I just wanted to know if um there's an area here where we're talking about hiring and I'm just wondering if when you say that you're
going to I guess we we are going to um look for two members of the public who have experience in transportation planning or our members. It's number four under membership organization powers and duties. Um I'm just wondering
if we can add some additional language to that because if this is going to be complete streets we need to make sure it's complete Montclair and I don't know if two members of the public are enough. Should we increase it to four members at least one from every ward because every ward has a different situation or
scenario. I'm sorry, Nina. Where I'm sorry, where are you on this? You're on um under membership, organization, powers, and duties. Page. What page? What page? Uh it says two of 11. Two of 11. Yes. Yeah. It's item number four. Okay. You know,
like I said, my concern is I can't say the two people that we select or that volunteer, etc. may know every aspect of every ward. I'm just wondering if there's a way to make sure that this is equitable for all wards and that there's a member from every ward represented in
this body of some way, shape, or form. Council Damato, I well um we sort of nailed down the specifics of this ordinance in March or February even. I
mean, it had like very long drawn out stuff about who would be on the board. And one of the prime considerations was basically just that it not be unwieldy in size uh and also not be dominated um by people who are not in the
administration um so that this was carefully looked at and I would say two things. one is we can always amend later if it seems like it's a problem uh rather than holding off on this incredibly important thing which a
lot of advocates and regular people have been waiting months or years for us to do. And the second thing is I would very much um agree that when you look at the four that the five positions that would be
delegated to the oversight board from the council collectively that you would obviously be wanting to look for um representation uh geographically at a minimum. Yeah, I I understand how long
this has been and I know that I emailed and asked this a while back, but it never made the document. Um, I'm happy to go with this today and we can look at an amendment for down the road. Um, but again, to make this equitable for all because every area of Monontlair operates and has different issues. I
can't say that two members of the public are going to be able to speak for every single ward and whatever the issues or concerns are, right? But there will also be three members of the council. So again, I just if we're looking for members of the public is what it says here. So I'm not asking for administration. I'm asking for
residents. Deputy mayor. So, uh I just want to emphasize the intent of the oversight board. Um after much discussion was for this to be um very much a working board that reviews checklists that reviews um
priority priority projects. Um and so the expectation was that um the individuals who serve on this are appointed to serve on this board are going to have some level of e expertise and and there's a specifically reason why we wanted the majority of the people
to be staff members. Um and that is because we wanted to make sure that this body is accountable. Okay. Um to um to implement the various um aspects of the ordinance. And that being said, um I number one, I just wanted to point out
one thing. Um the I I mean I I happen to think that the vision zero task force um actually has made a concerted effort to make sure that improvements are done
in every ward and I think that's reflected in um you know um what's been presented. And the other thing is the ordinance specifically says that um a responsibility of this oversight board is to make sure that public input is
sought um with respect to the um transportation projects. So it's not as if you know public input from um people in all areas of town is going to be shut out. And so, um, I think that there is enough in this ordinance, um, without needing to amend it further and delay
its passage that protects, um, the interests of of residents in all four words. I'm going to open the, um, public hearing without objection. There anyone present here who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance?
You may come forward. Hello everyone. Uh, thanks for the opportunity to comment. Um, I felt unprepared without my meal number. Um, my name is Eric Pearson. I live on Dodge Street. Uh, previously lived on Claremont. Uh, and I'm a an enthusiastic
member of the bike bus as well as the newly forming Grove Street Greenway project. Um, my family and I moved here 14 years ago. We came to Mont Clair for the restaurants, the open spaces, the schools, the culture, and the
interpersonal connections of this town. Uh we did not come for malls or ample parking or wide fast roads. And I don't think that's what attracts people to visit our town and to support our town and to move to our town. Uh, so I just
wanted to once again reaffirm my my enthusiasm to reinvest in what makes Montclair such a gem in New Jersey. Um, to continue to uh support the complete streets ordinance with
highquality hires and continued budget commitments. Uh I believe this ordinance will support the economy of Montlair by making it a continued high desirable um destination for people to come and visit. Um it'll it'll support the safety
both of drivers and pedestrians and bikers. Uh it'll also support transit equity for uh opening up pathways for people in all wards to reach all parts of the town as well as obviously there's health and climate um benefits. I also
hear some more car oriented uh advocates with concerns about traffic. I actually think this ordinance can improve traffic because I try to just take my car when I have to and if the streets were safer, I would take my car less and there'd be
less traffic. Um in closing, my seven and nine-year-old daughters cross Gro Street every day. Uh we use it to get to school, dining, and shopping. and I want to this will continue to be the primary voting um issue for my family as well as our neighbors. Um and so I just picture
a Montlair whose streets are as vibrant and welcoming as the people who live here. Um lastly, I have your back. A lot of us have your back. Continue to please tell us what we can do to support and move this forward. It's a lot of work. Um but I hope we run into it unblinking
and and without hesitation. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to come forward, please, to be heard on this ordinance? Yeah. Hi, uh Sarah Avery, Montlair resident. Um I don't think I've gone
through a uh ordinance before in my uh two-year career of uh tearing apart the documents of uh the township of Monontlair. But I took a read and uh I did have a couple of comments. Little
bug there. Um let's see if you read along. Uh so the complete streets director it says should shall be top of page four of 11 be a dedicated full-time
employee. Then it says the role of act in in the in the absence of the full-time employee the role uh of acting complete streets director could be filled by another member of township
staff or external contracted engineering firm. So my question is how could it be a full-time position if the role could be filled by another staff member? That just seems not clear to me. or um seems
to me worse paying the external uh engineering firm because their rates are very high. Under environmental justice, it says uh fair treatment means that no group of people should have should bear a disproportionate share of the negative
environmental consequences resulting from governmental operations or policies. I didn't read the whole thing. So that sounds good. But um all concerns of residents with respect to traffic conditions
um with respect to the proposed uh Lacawana Plaza development uh will inflict on the neighborhood. You know, the residents were ignored and um in fact some of those residents who voiced opposition to the Lacawana Plaza
project, you know, have been vilified. Um bottom of page five of 11 uh A1E says equity implement policies and distribute funding and other resources
equitably and responsibly in all Monontlair neighborhoods. You know again the public there was a lot of public concern uh with respect to negative impacts of increased traffic that have
been ignored with every single redevelopment project executed in the town starting with valley and bloom. So I just want people to be really uh conscious of that. Page six of 11, top of the page number two says, "The
planning board and zoning board are going to uh shall incorporate this policy into their reviews and recommendations." This of makes sense, of course. However, as experience has shown, um the planning board and zoning
board's uh opinions have not always been um embraced by the council and and that's a problem because these are volunteer, you know, these are volunteer boards um spending their time and so
their time has to be valued. Uh number four says and maintenance of highways. I don't know why throughout this document it mentions highways several times. I know we don't have any highways in Montlair road.
Page seven of 11 top of the page says highways again. Then number 10 it says all manuals standards and guidelines shall be made uh publicly available online. Then it says when applicable. I don't know why it says
when applicable because if we have manual standards and guidelines they should be made uh publicly available. Um B2 under the complete street checklist uh at the end of number two it says or
not applicable to the complete streets policy. I think you mean transportation project because number one talks about transportation projects. Um
B6G says uh proposed pedestrian then it lists other modes of uh transportation but then it calls them facilities. And my question is uh what is a pedestrian facility? I mean, do you mean sidewalk?
Um, I'm not sure what that means. Uh, then B6J says consistency with applicable design standards and guidelines, whereas up at the top of the page, number 10
says manuals, standards, and guidelines. So, I I think that the you're you're probably talking about the same thing there, but using different language. uh page eight of 11 number C talks about
priority communities and then it says other indicators of underserved and adversely impacted populations and there's three that say uh something about children a is female head of
household with children as a uh you know an adversely impacted population and I that that just is kind of strange cuz I was a female head of household with children and um I never felt like I was an adversely impacted uh
population. Then it says elderly populations and children and then families in poverty with children. And it just seems to me, aren't there children everywhere? And why would we um why would this policy break it down in
in this way? On page nine of 11, E, public participation number two says, uh, Township of Monontlair shall identify an existing process or develop a new
process that allows for public participation. I mean, I don't know that we need a new process for allowing part public participation. you know, we have public comment, we have public meetings, we have surveys. Uh, that just seems a
little uh out there. No. Uh, number F, exceptions. It says in uh number one, if the complete streets director determines in writing that there can be exceptions
A, B, and C. Right? So the complete streets director can determine that there are exceptions which is fine but then on the next page it says an exception shall be granted only if it's
approved in writing by the complete streets director. So that it doesn't make sense to me. Um it just doesn't make sense. It seems like how can the director determine and approve an exception? So, that's a
little bit of an inconsistency. Uh, under GP program reporting, uh, number one, it says, "And streets within the township's jurisdiction and in its priority communities." And it
seems to me that the priority communities are within the township's jurisdiction. Um then down below number 3B talks about uh linear feet of new and existing uh pedestrian infrastructure.
So again that's a a difference in the terminology used earlier when you talked about pedestrian facilities. I just think the language throughout the document should be consistent and those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you.
Next person who'd like to uh be heard on this ordinance, please. Good evening. Good evening. Hi, my name is Laura Torchio. I'm the current chair of the Vision Zero Monontlair task force. Um and I live on
Upper Mountain A. Um where there was a near miss and road rage just earlier today. Um it got really ugly and loud and people were shouting and banging on each other's cars. Um, and it was one of those instances when a person was
driving, stopped for a pedestrian and their dog to cross, and the car behind them swung around. Um, and the the driver was like, you know, what are you doing? Um, and I just want to say it was
insane, but we all have experienced that. We've all been that driver who stopped and then worried about the guy behind us wanting to pass um and hit the pedestrian that we're stopped for. Um but guess what the part as part of our vision zero Montlair goals, the
Department of Community Services has done this great thing and put delinear delineators up all over town at the crosswalks that kind of pre prevent that kind of behavior. This is a small step to a bigger future for complete streets
in Montlair. So, that's why I'm here tonight. I want to thank all of you on council, manager, staff, um, and the community members who've been tirelessly working on a complete streets ordinance to establish and imple implement a strong policy, an oversight
board, and a person dedicated to operationalizing it. As you know, I petitioned Montlair's first complete streets policy in 2008. Yep. I'm wearing the button, my vintage button. I want my complete streets. Um, and that was
passed early in 2009. It was the first one in the state. And while it was the first one in New Jersey, it was a weak policy where it was easier to make exceptions to safety than it was to implement safety interventions. This ordinance put safety and people first,
and exceptions ceased to be the default. I also want to mention that this ordinance is based on the New Jersey Department of Transportation complete and green streets model policy and guide and a lot of the definitions of why some of the terminology that's in this
ordinance is explained in detail in the guide and that guide is available on the New Jersey DOT website and we can make that available on our vision zero task force website as well. I also want to share my excitement um that a consultant team has been chosen
to begin Monontlair Safe Streets for all safety action plan this year which we're probably going to talk about a little later. Um, and I also wanted to mention to your point, councelor Toller, um, that yes, part of vision zero, um, and part of the complete, sorry, I get my
terms mixed up. Part of the complete streets oversight board is to conduct ongoing public engagement. And one of the things that the task force has talked about is maybe we can begin to create an ambassador program that includes like members from each of the
wards to help spread the word. Um, and I just want to say thank you and please support the ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else like to come forward please and be heard on this ordinance?
Yes. Hello, Mayor Baskerville, Deputy Mayor Anderson, fellow council members, all of you, and manager Marks. Um, I just want to say thank you. It's a long day and I know you guys put in so much
of your time and heart and work for our township and for the betterment of our community and I just thank you all of you. I know you you come to it with good intent and you put everything into it.
And um I think oftentimes we as residents uh we're so busy with our lives, we don't really realize the work and the time that goes into everything that makes our community stronger and better and safer. And I'm here to speak for
this policy um for many reasons. As a member of the task force, I've had an opportunity to really dig in firsthand and to see the changes and what can happen with a little bit of work and with a little bit
of good intent and data. In this past year and a half as a task force, we've collectively, and I say collectively because it is a collective collaboration, not only amongst the mayor, council, community members, our
uh dedicated staff and professionals, we have all worked for that singular goal of eliminating pedestrian fatalities, okay, and severe injuries on our roadways. And in that time period, we have created
this policy. We've put together a process or working on putting a process so that residents can um report issues or concerns and we can address it. And there's a process here in the in the
township to do so. We have identified our major crash injury points. We've seen patterns. We have the the list. We know which intersections are the most dangerous and the ones we need to address and the ones that are most dangerous for
pedestrians. Three, we've secured a safe streets for all federal grant that I'm really happy to hear. We have a consultant that we've decided. That's fantastic. Um, and the intent of this grant is to develop action plans so that we can take the data that we've
collected and come up with plans and solutions to address these issues and these dangerous streets. Number four, we've created channels of communication amongst not only the work we're doing but for the the public at large. Five,
we've implemented one of the first levels of safe streets of a safe street system by reducing the speed limits. We've reduced the speed limit to 20 m hour in the school zones. We've reduced it to 25 miles per hour on county roads, Upper Mountain, on Valley, and on Grove
Street. And it this is just one small part of an entire process and a systems approach. Safer speeds are one of the single most impacts and and changes that we can make that will save lives. That
five mil five mile difference between 30 to 25 is tremendous on a person's life and their quality of life and survival. So the next step really and number six actually we've made physical changes on
the roads by adding delennon park and while these are very small efforts they are huge in impact the the effort and the impact is outsized by the action and
this policy really is just the beginning of taking all of this work the foundation and the scaffold ing of everything that we have worked tirelessly collectively to do and giving it the legs to succeed in the next
iteration of our safe streets. So, I thank you all for your time and your effort and your your genuine work to make our streets safer. And I ask you to please pass this because it really is the beginning of making our
streets safe so we can all walk out of here, cross the street and not fear fear for our lives or our children's lives as we're walking to school, but that we all are part of this community together. So I thank you. Thank you. And thank you
for your work on task force. Next person, please who wishes to be heard on this ordinance? Hello, council. Um, I'm so happy to be here tonight and thankful for everything you've done. My name is Jessica Tillier. I live on Harvard Street. I'm here with
just the deepest desire that you pass the complete streets ordinance, the oversight board, and the director. This ordinance, I really believe, is a bold new step. We, as Montlair, have always been a center for innovation, and this to me just feels like part of that
progress. Um, it's also taken a very long time to get here. There's been some incredible steps, but it's taken a long time. And while we've advocated for this, traffic violence has increased. It's actually at an all-time high. So, a
few weeks ago, um, I lead a bike bus here in Montlair, and we made a pitch to our community. Let's do a weekend uh, bike ride to draw attention to traffic safety. Um, I thought maybe maybe 50 people would come. That would have been
great. I would have been so happy with that. Um, I hoped maybe 75 people would show up. Um, the ride was planned for 10:00 a.m. on an overcast Sunday morning, a busy time, questionable weather, and against tremendous odds,
and actually to a point that scared me, um, almost 300 people of all ages showed up in Montlair. um if not more. Every Friday, we also lead a bike bus to school. Hundreds of families join
us from all over town. Um which is actually um we we we're math people. We love to do the math and run the data. Um it equals 7 to 10% of our student body. Um for reference, the number of people that regularly ride bikes with us on
Friday, they also they scoot, they walk, there's parents that run alongside the bike bus. It is the same ratio as the number of people that commute to work in Portland, Oregon. And for reference, Portland, Oregon has some of the most incredible um safety infrastructure in
the world. All this to say, there is undeniable demand for safe well-being centered streets. There's undemi deniable demand for community, for healing in your own words, Mayor
Baskerville, and actually for creativity in how we build our towns. Um the ride that we had this weekend where we had 300 people join, it felt like a big nudge towards hope for what's possible. And I think we all really need that hope
right now. So, while all of this is happening and while I see this hope, while I when I see these children and these families, different languages being spoken on the big bus, in the background of that, New Jersey is the most dangerous state in
the country to be a pedestrian. Wow. Ex Essex County, last time I checked, is the seventh most dangerous in the country. So, us going out there and biking, walking, scooting, trying to um uh roll along in our wheelchairs, that
is a courageous action. And now, policymakers, you all um town council, we are looking to you to be as courageous as your citizens. Please pass this complete street ordinance and let's make this town equitable for all. Thank
you. Thank you, Councelor Lachman. Hello. I I you're you're one of the founders of Bike Bus, right? Yeah. So, I stepped out of my house on the corner of Walnut Street and Walnut Crescent and there was like whoa, this surge of bikes, right? You know, it took me maybe five minutes for them all to come or
even more past my house. It was like incredibly uplifting. Oh, it doesn't matter. It was really nice to see all the different fathers and mothers and whatever, all different kinds of children. It was very inspiring and I thank you for your founders efforts.
Thank you so much. come join us for you. Are there others who would uh like to be heard on this ordinance? Okay. Um well, hearing none, I will close the hearing. Without objection.
Yes. Um Deputy Mayor, I do have a question for Mr. remarks. Sorry to put you on the spot. Um, so I know that the budget um still has to be passed, but um I did wonder if
any action has been any steps have been taken with regards to um the complete streets director and you know the next steps for this ordinance what if assuming it passes. So, two things. Um, I spoke with Alicia Dawkins, the HR manager, and asked her
to prepare a job description with duties and responsibilities that we can advertise. Uh, she has done so, so it's ready to go pending outcome of of this ordinance. And I I spoke with Miss Ralph regarding uh actually funding the
position within this year's budget. So, it's actually um in two different places. one uh partially out of the parking utility as it as a nexus to safe and complete streets and the second part of the budgeted um item for this
position is out of the township manager's budget. Thank you. Anyone else? Um just very quickly uh in response to Miss Avery's comments which you know uh if you do look at a piece of legislation
I mean if you start to do that and I would encourage you like you will find like especially in a place like New Jersey at the state level like it's you know it's a horror show like the technical quality of a lot of legislation is not great. So we we
actually did import a lot of this from a state guideline uh and included it and that's and it made it quite long and that and and and I think we cleaned it up and have a very good policy but in general you know the longer you make
something um it it does get on you know it get does get difficult but I think at the end of the day all the mechanisms that we've added uh are are significant and they will work and we and it has been given a lot of thought and a lot of deliberation. So, it's not like, you
know, we just whizzed it through. It's it's a lot of work. Yes, councelor Lman. Yeah, I I did just on that note, I did want to thank um Sarah Avery for reviewing this and providing her comments and it's something I'm sure that we can take into
consideration if um you know, you need to do some revisions later on. But, thank you. There was um this was ordinance was moved and there was a second. Madam clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor
Damato, yes. Councelor Laughman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Moving on to the next ordinance. Yes. Absolutely.
Little swag for Lauren. Lauri and Amy and Jess. Uh, and if there's anybody else from the task force, um, I ordered us some celebratory swag from France. It's really true. If you want to come up. All right. Swag. 25 mph. Well,
they're 25 kilometer per hour bumper stickers for your cars. I could have gotten you champagne, but and there there three left. Mayor, thank you guys. Would you like one? Yes, I would. Thank you. Thank you all for your
work. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Move. Yes. Um, councelor Lachman, I I would just like to ask the gentleman who talked about the Grove Street Group, can you just um can you tell me about that or send me an email about that? I'm
just kind of curious. I live off Grove Street, so I'm curious. Thank you. Okay. Um, Council Birmingham, would you please do the next pending ordinance, please? Pending ordinance 025-14. Um, this is an ordinance to
amend section 309, taxation of the code of the township of Montlair, New Jersey. Um, and this is in relation to the refund of property taxes for veterans determined to be totally disabled. And I so move second.
Uh, council members. Okay, I'm going to open the hearing at this point in time. Um, and if there's no objections, anyone uh, please come forward that would like to be heard on this pending ordinance. Pending ordinance
0-25-14. Seeing none, and the ordinance was moved. There was a second. Madame Clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lochman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor
Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Moving on to the next pending ordinance, please. Councelor Lachman. I make a motion to approve pending ordinance 0-25-15, an ordinance to amend section 327, vehicles and traffic, of the code
of the township of Montlair, New Jersey. Second. Council, anyone from the audience like to come down and be heard on this ordinance, please? Pending ordinance 025- 15. And just so anyone following at home,
it's this is in relation to putting multi-way stops on Walnut Street in Midland and Chestnut and Midlands, which I think will be great around the schools. Thanks. Great. Thank you. Okay. The ordinance was moved. There was a second. Madame Clerk, Deputy Mayor
Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lochman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Moving on to the next pending ordinance, please. Deputy Mayor.
Oh, this is actually amended pending ordinance 0-25-16 an ordinance to amend section 327 vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Montlair, New Jersey. Um I so move
second council members. Um mayor. Yes, just um for anyone who doesn't have uh the information, this is um an amendment to the um part of the or the the code that speaks to overnight
parking on the street. Um and it is adding a number of of streets to the list of um where where the the law is is is exempted. Is there anyone present who wishes to be heard? Please come forward at this time.
be there in a second there. Thank you. Well, you can come first while he's um signing up. Too slow. You blow. Hi, my name is Lynn Stockhammer. I live on Forest Street. I wasn't able to get any of the um ordinances online in
advance of the meeting. So, um can can you please explain to us what streets are involved in this overnight parking and what you've um extended and what you've um created? Yes. Thank you. Um they'll give you a paper copy and I'd
like to um ask Councelor Williams or Toller if they'd like to um explain while you're looking taking a look. Councelor Williams please just in a nutshell like wrap up what we're doing. Yeah. Pri prior to this
ordinance, there were I think about 19 I know it says online that it was 15, but I I think uh there's about 19 streets where overnight parking is allowed. Uh so between the hours of 2 and 5 every
day. So folks that were that lived on those streets could buy a permit and I think it's approxim it's an end permit for those at home that are watching. uh could buy a permit for $45 a month and they can park on those eligible streets.
This ordinance right here expands those 19 streets to I don't really even know how many streets in here. It expands the number of eligible streets so that you can buy a parking permit overnight so that you park your car overnight and and
we're talking about the M permit. Can I speak? May I? Yes. Um councelor Toller and then councelor Lachman. Sure. Um, and just to add to what councelor Williams is stating, many of these streets are in the fourth ward, some are in the third ward. A lot of these streets have homes that don't have
driveways. So, we have to take some additional things into consideration. So, if people at home say they see this new ordinance and what about my street, if you have a driveway, we had to we had to come up with some kind of rubric to make this decision. Um, as well as the distance to
municipal parking decks. Um, again, the fourth board at the end, there's no municipal parking deck. So, this is how many of the streets, if you're reading them or get to see this online, a lot of them are in the fourth board. I just wanted to put that out there for full transparency. There are a lot of homes
on these streets without driveways. Councelor Lachman, just a a from a practical point of view, how are people on these streets notified about this change? Mhm. Well, that's one of the things that counselor Toller was pretty keen on
identifying and I totally agree with her that we need to, you know, get the word out. So, we're going to be speaking to Matt about how best to go about doing that. Thank you. Okay, we may have to do some mailing because it's been my experience, everyone's not on our town
pages, um the Instagram, Facebook, um and sometimes just good oldfashioned mailing something to someone's home. Walk around that there get an intern running around. Thank you, Jordan.
Hi, Mayor and Council. Uh Jordan Hershorn 180 Walnut, which is the corner. Uh yeah, a lot of activity that you guys have been doing tonight. Um so thank you so much for the four-way stop at two intersections where I've seen
near misses. Um for sure. Um and on this specifically, I want to say thank you so much. I've spoken to many of you and I really want to thank uh councelor Williams for the innovative approach that you took to this identifying the the areas of most need by taking a look
at some of the data that that the township has collected through enforcement and I think that was an incredible step to take uh to figure out where folks have the most need. Councelor Toller, thank you for representing the fourth ward. uh you
know I know uh especially as somebody who grew up in a single family home with a driveway and never had to worry about this to going to being a renter where sometimes I had a driveway sometimes I don't today right now I do not and the
building that I live in which when we're trying to add when we're we talk about affordable ho housing we talk about adding units we talk about diversity of housing options right that's a building with a whole a lot of units that does not have enough parking below in in its
in its underground deck to actually h have the number of cars for the residents there. So, it is absolutely crucial and on behalf of the folks who live in uh my building uh who were absolutely had no idea how to deal with this as they kept on getting ticketed
and ticketed. That is this is so appreciated. Um, I've experienced this on a couple of streets in Montlair and you've actually taken the initiative, changed this and made Montclair a more inclusive community and made renters,
especially those who do not have access to a driveway, feel more welcome in the town. And I think that's hugely important. I want to say thank you to all of you for your support on this. And I urge you um if you have any doubts uh to please pass this um and uh if there
are any doubts in your mind, I'm happy to answer any questions and I'm sure you've gotten a lot from some of some of the folks who have been pushing this. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, please come forward. There's just a typo the word house in the
introduction to the ordinance. Okay. Okay. So much for all of this. Typo. Good. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Okay. The ordinance was moved. There was a second. Madame Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson.
Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Lachman. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Okay. Now that brings us up to Yeah. Right. Woohoo. That brings us up to new
ordinances. Uh, Councelor Williams, will you please read new ordinance 025-9? Ordinance 0-25-9, ordinance to amend chapter 341, water article 1, facilities, use, rates,
and charges. So moved. Council members. Oh, well, we're not since this is the first reading, we're not going to call up the um people from the ordinance um discussion. I guess it's just a little bugaboo of mine. Why don't we use round
numbers, you know? It just seems crazy, you know, just to have like $96829. Anyway, anyone else? But throughout everything we do, let's stop doing this, you know, down to the scent. Okay, this is moved and this was
second. Um, Madame Clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lochman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor
Baskerville, yes. And the next um section is uh discussion for um what appears to be agenda items that will go on our May 20th, 2025. Um I will please ask if our
manager, manager Marks, will be so kind to help us with these. resolutions. Okay. Where are they? Number 11. Number 10. 13. Okay.
They were sent in expecting. Okay. Got it. And director Ali is here along with consultants. Oh, that's a good point. Okay. So, we're just going to and I know I should have done this at the uh top of the meeting, but um we're
going to take a chance that it's going to be all right. I see um Director Ali is here. We have two resolutions, resolution number 10 and 13, which actually are are on here um to be voted on this evening. So, I'm going to jump
over to um resolution 10 followed by 13. So, um, Council Damato, will you lead us off with, um, resolution 10, please? Sure. Resolution. I'm sorry, Councelor Toller. I'm not forgetting you. I know you're next up. Okay. Okay. Resolution in support of the Monontlair Operata
Club's Cultural Arts Pro uh, project application uh, to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority under the Cultural Arts Facilities Expansion Cafe Program. Uh, so moved. Second. discussion from the council.
I can try to be explain this very quickly for the audience at home. So only if you do it quickly tomorrow. There are two different uh resolutions of support for this program of cultural arts funding. uh one of which will be for the library and then one of which is
for a nonprofit group that is very very old uh in the township ancient and is being revitalized um in my ward that I'm excited about which is the opereta club to have music light music um I don't
know if it'll be operetta as as we know it but probably some of that we need to pass these for them to make an application it's not really you know doing anything other than as with the cannabis license uh thing where we're just saying fine, you know, go at it,
apply. Um the first one is not ours. You know, it is an independent nonprofit and so that is just really totally pro- forarma. And then and I don't think there's anybody here to speak to it. So I would just like to have that pass. And then the
second one is, you know, is our business and we we can discuss it and we should discuss it. Yep. would you mind like talking into the mic because we're having trouble with the air conditioning here. Uh I was looking at the mayor because um so the first one is is for
this uh program application for the opereta club which is a I guess 75 or 100 year old organization that's being refounded and is going to renovate its old historic um uh small theater which is on Valley
Road um by um I guess Gordon Hurst and uh and so we're not involved in that other than just as with some of these things giving um a resolution of support they're not asking for there will be
nothing you know no ask if I may um yeah so what they're doing is they're just taking the operetta club they're not changing the footprint of it they're just adding um ADA accessible bathrooms production space oh okay so you're aware of that yes so anyway that's what they're doing they're not
looking for any money this is just part of their application process that they have to have a letter of resolution of support. Yeah. Okay. Question. Sorry. My only question is how come the address isn't in here? Is it? It is.
Yeah. Yeah. Where is it? Number 10. I'm sorry. I'm looking at the wrong one. Sorry. Yeah. Let's one, two, three, four, five. Okay. It's the fifth where. Okay. Fifth
where? No. No. I Oh, the other one. So, this was moved and there's a second. Any further discussion? Madame Clerk. So, we move both of you. This is for item number 10 and item number 13. Deputy Mayor Anderson. This is 13. No,
no. Okay. I'm sorry. This was number 10. Resolution um 10. All right. So, it's just item 10. I'm sorry. I heard you speak items. vote on them separately. Understood. Okay. Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor
Laughman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Um, Councelor Toller, would you do resolution 13, please? Sure. Uh, resolution R-25-XX, resolution in support of the
Monontlair Public Libraries Cultural Arts Program application to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority under the Cultural Arts Facilities Expansion Cafe Program. Um, I so move second.
Council members, any discussions? Been moved. There's a second. Madam clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lachman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor
Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Now, I'm going to to go back. Um, please. Um, Miss, do we want to have the director? Absolutely. Um, yes. Director Ali, would
you please come forward and Woohoo! This is a wonderful moment for you, director. Yes. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for uh voting so quickly on this. That's great. Um I just I'm I'm here just to talk
briefly about what this is and why we're doing this. Um so this is an opportunity that came to our attention uh earlier this year when we were still um you know trying to figure out the HVAC situation and the other numerous issues that we
have at both buildings. So you all aware very aware at this point that we have roof problems at both buildings especially at the Belleview branch. Um, we have just a lot of safety issues that have to be addressed. And we just had a capital needs assessment done very
recently that um included about $14 million worth of repairs that need to be made to both buildings um you know not right away but you know over the next few years. So, uh, this opportunity came in front of us and we were considering it for, um, to address some of these
issues, but from the, uh, the the program, what this is, it's not it's not meant for, you know, quick fixes. It's really meant to be a visionary, um, uh, for for visionary projects. The the goal, the aim of it is to expand access
to cultural facilities um, to really create uh, beacons of culture. um uh beacons of economic development in in in the state of New Jersey with a focus w with with a cultural bent. And so libraries are thankfully one of the uh
entities that are eligible for it. And so we looked at it and you know looking at our facilities and really trying to see well you know we have this incredible incredible community here in Montlair that uses its library and really values its library tremend. We're
very very fortunate. Um, and our facilities, um, you know, are are gems of of this town, but they really, like I think you all are aware, a lot of our facilities here have not had the TLC that they really need to thrive in the
21st century. And so, this is an opportunity that we decided to, you know what, let's let's go for it. let's apply for this because if we were to get this funding, it would provide an injection of funding to th both of these buildings to really bring them up to 21st century
levels. Um, we're talking about the library as a third space, the library as true community hubs. Um, uh, and in the terms of the Belleview branch, we're talking also about an expansion that would provide ADA accessibility because right now it has none. Um the expansion
there would have an elevator, new entrance, um and of course a lot of the the safety issues that we need to address for for both buildings. So um the application is due next month and um we have a lot of work to do between now and then and we've already been working very hard and a lot of you are already
aware and have been working with us. So, I just want to thank you once again for all your support and um this resolution is just one part of about a hundred different steps that are on my list of things that have to get done between now and and the deadline. So, thank you so
much for everything and if you have any questions, I'll be happy. We have the um 9:30 Zoom tomorrow, right? Yes. Yes. Every every Wednesday morning 9:30 there's we're doing a cafe update for all the stakeholders that are that are involved. So, I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you very much. Sure. All right.
Thank you. Good. Okay. Now, manager Mark. So, item one on the agenda for resolutions is a resolution authorizing an amendment to the fair and open contract to the Musial Group for architectural design services in the
renovation of the health department. Item number two is a resolution authorizing emergency purchase to repair water main break at intersection of Upper Mountain Avenue and Alpine Street pursuant to NJSA4A 11-6.
Item number three is a resolution awarding a fair and open contract to Juul Electric LLC for the provision of Township Water Utility for the purchase of two variable frequency drives VV VFDs
under the state contract 21-f49. Item number four is a resolution awarding a fair and open contract for the purchase and delivery of Waterworks materials. uh parentheses bid
25-09. Item number five is a resolution enter into contract with uh Michael Baker International to develop the Montlair Township local safety action plan with demonstration projects. Item number six is a resolution awarding
a non-fair and open contract to Primepoint LLC for proprietary computer hardware for Township of Monontlair. Item number seven is a resolution of Township of Monontlair adopting the 2025 Essex County Hazard Mitigation
Plan. Yeah, just I don't know if it matters um the memo I know it's u previous but I don't know if it matters that one of the email addresses doesn't match up
sorry yeah I I don't know if it matters that um in the memo some of the email addresses doesn't don't match up and um some of the point of contacts in in the memo that's attached I don't know if that matters. We will make sure it's updated. Okay.
Just what he's doing. Excuse me, Madam Mayor. Just one moment. Um, please. Manager Marks. Yes. Just one moment, please. Yes. Um, counselor, I just want to make sure that we're going Are we able to come back and have discussions after Mr. Marks is done
reading these? Because um, a couple of them I just have some questions and I think one or two may have some missing information, but Okay. Yes. Item number eight is resolution regarding sustainable land use
pledge. Item number nine is resolution authorizing emergency purchase to repair stairs at Fullerton parking deck pursuant to NJSA 4A 11-6. Emergency repair. I mean, do we have to do this right? Shouldn't we do
this now or or do you want to wait till the next meeting? Um, I think they already did it. It's already done. You're just ratifying the payment. Item number 10 is a resolution in support of the Mon. Oh, we already did
10. I'm sorry. Do 11 now. Thank you. Uh, 11. I'm sorry. I want to ask 11 and 12. So item number 11 is a resolution acknowledging the name a change of Citrus NJ LLC to High Hills NJ LLC and
authorizing the award of a conditional class 5 category A cannabis retailer license to High Hills NJ LLC. I so move number 11. My understanding that that's one of the resolutions that
we're being asked to move on this evening. I second. Okay. I second. Yeah. Any discussion on resolution number 11? So, yes, deputy mayor. Yes. So, this so um my understanding um from the attorney is
and others is that this is solely because of a name change of the business and um it doesn't affect you know it's not having any other licenses or anything like that. Y. It's been moved. There's a second. Um, Madame Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor
Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Laughman. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. So resolution number 12 um permitting for
the following flags to be raised as an expression of government speech. number 12. Um the flags um to be raised would be the Junth flag on the and
the the Junth flag um on the date that coincides with whatever that actual day is that year, June 19th or June 20th, and the pride flag on the following dates from June 3rd to June
30th. And I so move second. Why? Yes. I have absolutely no objection to this, but why are we why do we have to move it tonight and not next two weeks? I'm just I just I'm just wanting to follow our because
we've gotten in a lot of trouble with with process and flags and so I just want to I don't I I don't have an objection to it at all. I just want to Is there an urgency cuz we're I was
ask like did they give you a did do you have a reason why we have to do it now? Not next week. No, I was I was just Does anyone know? I just want to know. We can we can um hold off until the next one. Yes. It might be because this says that the pride flag is going to be raised on
June 3rd and we have a meeting on the 20th. We have a meeting on May 20th. We have a meeting on the 20th. No, I know. But like I just I didn't know if there were like preparations. Maybe maybe the organizations want to promote their events, you know, knowing that the flag is going to be raised on the third. It
gives them ample time to promote and gather folks to attend. I mean, we can wait till the 20th, but I don't see what difference would be. I think there was an email requesting that tonight. I saw that and and it was because they wanted to make sure that this was going to pass
before they started setting dates and some other things like that. Um, so maybe they're having a flag raising ceremony. Yes, they are going to have a ceremony and they wanted to be able to advertise for it and that type of thing.
I just, if I may, I just wish that we had this section say we may move any resolutions on a list of resolutions. I mean, we if we just indicated that to people, it wouldn't be foul play. And
it's good to get if we all agree on something, let's just do it and get it out of there and get it done, you know, in general. So, I'm saying for the future. Yep. if there was some, you know, as long as we just advertise that that, you know, it may happen, then it's
no problem. I totally agree and I um believe that um we have addressed this uh because there are a couple of things in there that I was also um I didn't expect to see where it said just for discussion. So, as you all know, we are
u moving rapidly in the learning process. I think we're making great strides. I think uh tonight's meeting is an indication that we are you know melding together in in a good direction and um so this is another one of those things that I think we you know lesson
learned and so in the future hopefully we'll have you know section corded off but the ones that we're going to take action on and the ones that we definitely are not but point well taken counselor and the one of the reasons that I'm asking is because I had text
exchange with people who wanted to know if they should come tonight to speak in favor of it and they did not come specifically or that because it was listed for discussion. So again there's just multip you know it's multiple
places right so but I'm happy again I if it if it is felt that it is important to them you know to to the process of them getting people I I don't want to seem to be speaking against it at all it's just process Is there anyone here that um needs more
time to deliberate on which way they're going to vote? And if not, I would just um move forward and and call for the vote because the person that is asking to have the flag on here was the person that actually wanted us to vote on it.
I must I must are we going to vote? I was just trying to hear, you know, if anybody is just, you know, vehemently like, "No, no, no, don't don't vote." Um, I get everything that that's that's said, but now we're um here at at a point where
the person that they're asking to have the flag raised did send some email information about what they were trying to do and that we asked to to do it tonight. I think that there was a breakdown between the information that we got and the time that the agenda was
made and and so um you know there there was a disconnect. I'm I'm sorry. So, I'm looking at this email. It doesn't say that it needs to. It says that it was my understanding that it was going to be voted on tonight. I I didn't see any and I could
be totally wrong and u I can go either way, but it doesn't seem like there's any sort of urgency here that it couldn't be voted on next week. I mean, excuse me, next week. I don't think there's any urgency. I just think that that if the person is planning an event and they they feel better, I don't think that um you know, if they would feel
better to do that before they print up literature just to make sure, then I don't see why we wouldn't help them out with doing what they're doing. I mean, but it's just that's fine. Some people some people may may want to come. They can come next week and speak in favor of
it or against it. I'm just if it's not going to change anything here in terms of a vote, I just don't know why we would make it more difficult for the people that are planning the event around the flag raising. But either way, either way. Yeah. Yeah. It was a
mistake. We're doing a correction. We're lesson learned for next go around. Yeah. I mean, I agree with the mayor. What you agree with that? Yeah. Yeah. So, let's just vote on it and get it done. We already voted on things that were more ser that were heavier. So, I mean, I recognize we should try to follow the
procedure, but we didn't this go around. So, absolutely. We're getting better. All right, let's go. Let's go. Madam Clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lochman, no. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor
Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Okay, where are we now? So, u um mayor, items 14 through 18 have been withdrawn. We're up to item 19, resolution appointing a member to the
rent control board. Was that acted on that as well? That was acted on. I think that that was included in the ones. Okay. We voted on that. Oh, because we didn't vote on it. Excuse me, mayor, if I may. Yes, ma'am.
The mo the motion was to withdraw items 14 through 18 because at the request of deputy manager uh Brian Scanberry, okay, he would like for the governing body to consider item 19. Okay. Okay. And then I think I mentioned
there's no reason because this the two of them would be holdovers. So we could wait until we do all of them. But I I'm I'm just pointing that out. We have no I don't care one way or the other. Let's do it to council members.
Demato Birmingham. What are we thinking? Mayor, I think I I mean I I think I made my my opinion that I I think that we should just go ahead with this one since there are reappointments. I guess I just wanted to make sure everybody understands the process that
it's not absolutely necessary. It is. The process is extremely important. Um, we're getting better and I anticipate that with each meeting we will do do much better. But I I'm really proud of us for tonight. You know, we had good
deliberation and um we're moving in the right direction. So, this was um Did anyone move this? I so move. Second. Discussion. Madame Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes.
Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Lachman. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Abstain. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Okay. Bill list. Councelor Lachman. May I Mayor May we go for discussion? May I have questions? Not for the bill list. I have questions
for that too, but I wanted to go back to item number one on the discussion agenda. Um, first of all, there's a typo. It says um RFP 20. Unless maybe that's not a typo, but my question is I know within
the body of the very first paragraph, um it says on December 5th, 2023, the township approved resolution R23-290, which was originally 12,65. This resolution here is now saying not to exceed. So, there's an
increase of 13375. And I'm just wondering what the increase is for. I mean, I know it's renovation work, but if the first resolution was for 12,000, now this one is 25. There's a I'm just maybe Miss Amy Amos Monaco can
explain. It's number one, but I'm just looking for your numbers. Where where it's the very first one? Uh, resolution authorizing amendment to the fair and open contract to the musical group for architectural design services.
Um, our resolution 23-290 is for 12 thou was for 12,605. If this is the same work in the same firm, this increase is 13,375 because paragraph 3 says not to exceed, but you're here. So, Right.
Right. Um, does someone have a copy? It wasn't in my packet. So, there you go. Oh, this was for the work that was already done. Okay. And I just wanted to know if the typo if there was a typo after um the heading there where it says
RFP23-P029. Is that how most RFPs are written or is that should that P be a number? Um I don't assign that number. So I'm not sure. Uh Miss Neves, is it um
that 23 P09? Is that a valid number? I um I didn't draft this document, but I can tell you from hearing what you're saying, it sounds like a reference used in the purchasing office by Mr. Dairo. Okay. So, you're talking about councelor
was asking in the title RFP23P09, right? Yes. I see that all the time. That's from the purchasing office. So, the heading is correct. They assign a number. Right. So now I'm asking about the resolution R23290 which was originally $12,65
um which is worded in this right and paragraph three at the bottom is saying not to exceed 25. Can someone explain the $13,000 increase? Okay. So right so what happened was we had there were three phases for this architect. Um the
original proposal was like the whole thing was 25,000. We initially just were going to do phase one, but then we were told by the purchasing agent that we had to actually use them for the bid process that we couldn't do it on our own. So that's why the increase went up to
25,000. And so now all we're doing at this point is we're not even finishing the project cuz the grant funds were pulled for this project. We're just extending this contract like basically it ended 24. We're renewing it for 2025
and we have a $3,000 balance so we owe them. So we have to have this up to date so we can process their final payment. Okay. So we're spending 25. So when resolution No, no, we're not spending the full 25. Okay. What are we actually spending because it says not to exceed 25. So I'm just wondering what's the
total amount we spending. So I believe it's going in total end up being 15,000, but I can get you the exact number and email it to you. So it was the phase one which was 12 and change and then for phase two and three we only spent part of that. So we're not going to exceed
25,000. We're not going to even get close to it. Okay. So but it was all grant funding um that got pulled back. It was part of the ELC fund. Thank you for the explanation. Councilor Toller. Yes. Number two. Mhm. Uh this is resolution authorizing
emergency purchase to repair water main break um an intersection at Upper Mountain Avenue and Alpine Street. Um I just have a question about the contractors that we use. I know that we have an affirmative action uh policy and I see this vendor utilized a lot. Are
there any other vendors that perhaps could be used? So we we use a multitude of vendors. Um, uh, one vendor we do use is Montana Construction. They are a woman-owned business. Um, we use CRJ
Contracting. Uh, we use, but this contractor was brought in to actually pave Alpine Street. Um, we called multiple vendors. They were the only one who could provide a crew that following Monday. This happened on New Year's Day. We were on the phone with Selli the next day. They were there the following Monday. uh they had to replace about
14,000 ft of roadway and repack certain sections that were missing about 4 to 5 ft of dirt underneath the roadway. Uh it was deemed unsafe and we felt as though the best way to go about this was to get the contractor who could provide us a crew right away rather than try and find somebody.
Okay. I just asked cuz I see sons all the time on resolutions and like I said we have an affirmative action policy for minorities, women businesses, um etc. Um, so I'm hopeful in the next couple of resolutions down the road we'll see. We we do use a number of like I said,
Montana Construction one is one we use. Uh, Initech or is one we use also. They you guys just passed them in April. They are a womanowned business, so we do try to fall under the policies um to the best of our abilities. Thank you. Just a followup question. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I
mean, we use these firms, but do they have minorities employees? Uh, definitely does. Yeah, any contractor we hire does. I mean, they they all has to go through the perching office for us to use them. So, yeah. So, that's that question. It's a different question that
I had, but I know that they have minority employees, but there are minority minority firms too, actual companies that do the same type of work. Yeah. Is the next one yours too, Michael? Uh, number three. Yes, it is.
I don't have a question about number three. Sorry. I have a question about number five. Oh, nope. That's not me. Thank you, Mike. It's just a quick question. Thank you. Um, at the bottom of the resolution here, and for those at home, this is
resolution to enter into a contract with Michael Baker International to develop the Montlair Township local safety action plan with demonstration projects. The last paragraph where it says, "Whereas the township issued an RFP on March 13, 2025, and received proposals
from the following firms." The firms aren't listed unless this is what you're stating the firms are. I don't see any firms listed. The firms are in the table. That's what I'm asking. Is this So, this should be should this be typed on here? This is These are the firms that you're
referring to, right? One, two, three. They're they're listed on the table in the memo. Are they listed in the question? Yep. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, Council Damato. Sorry. Planner Kelly.
Um the March 13th was when you reissued the RFP. Um yes, we reissued the RFP and then we gave them an extension extra time to respond. Uh so that's why I'm just
trying to keep track of my own of like time is blown by, but like we had the initial RFP which had no respondents. Correct. That's correct. And that was in January or something like that whenever. I I can't tell you. I don't know the date off. It's all blur. Right. So, we
went from and I know that you picked up the phone which was great and like got people to but like what happened? Why did we get five? I reached out to the North Jersey Transportation Planning Association, got the names of firms that they've used and I contacted them to
make them aware that this was out there. I contacted the state. okay, to get the names of firms that they knew that could do this kind of work. So, I think from experience, you had to be um aggressive and let everybody know that it's out
there. I even got somebody call me, Janice, another firm to say that they they they needed more time and I said, "We have to keep with our deadline." And then if you could just like in a couple more words explain the the
winners, you know, why they were. Yeah, I I mean I think we had some excellent excellent proposals. Um unfortunately two of them were over the budget over the grant amount and so we could we we did not consider them. They they were very even though the firms were
qualified because they were $100,000 over the grant um we did not prioritize them. they did not rank higher. We did a ranking system. Um but the other three firms, one was a little questionable. The the the reviewers didn't feel that that firm had the necessary
qualifications, but there were two firms that absolutely did. Um and I think um from my understanding with the other people who reviewed it, the firm that was selected had the advantage number one, they're familiar with Essex County. They are working. They they've been
hired by Essex County to do the Essex County uh local safety action plan. So, they know what's going on here. They went above and beyond in their proposal and actually included uh items in the proposal that we didn't ask for,
including uh providing cameras at intersections to evaluate near misses. So, any of you who've been part of the vision zero discussions, evaluating near miss accidents is difficult. and they had a solution in the proposal. So I think the people who reviewed it were
really impressed by the fact that they were going above and beyond. So um so that's I think that was part of the rationale why they got the highest number of points um by the people that were reviewing the the proposals and I'm
really excited to be working with them. They have an excellent excellent firm that does community engagement. If anybody's participated in the community engagement outreach that the county is doing, yes, I think they do a good job and they'll be doing the same thing for us. Excellent.
So I I would also just add that I think as a body we have to have a discussion about what h how the council participates in these kinds of processes because for example on the communications committee
we have sat through pitches from companies for software packages that are $25,000 and the mobility committee you know never from what I know God had any
involvement in in this entire process. So, you know, that's, you know, I'm sure it sounds like we picked great people, but I just uh, you know, as a first- timer here, I just don't really understand what is expected of us to get whether we will be involved in some of
these things and then not involved in some of them. And it's it is a little mysterious and that's what I the townships because it's that's never been part of the township's policy in the past, right? And if that's a policy that you want to put in place, it does slow things up. In this instance, we got
the proposals on basically Monday morning. We had a to distribute them for every and we basically had a a zoom meeting on I forgot Wednesday when everybody could talk to talk about there was a very tight time frame because you needed to get it to this council meeting
so you can discuss it and get it voted on at the so if you want to be involved then then certainly let the manager know and we can make that part of the policy but it has not been in the past. I think it's more of a question of like we have a committee now that there's been this overlap because of the liaison group to
the vision zero task force and a mobility committee but but there as we have committees that try to work even the question of what the the consulting not not you know I have not been invited to any of the mobility committee meetings there there haven't been many
of them so okay so that's why that yeah you say there's a committee I I didn't even know that there was a committee that did that so I I work with the vision zero committee and that's why Laura who knows these firms we brought into it but I haven't
had an opportunity to even have these conversations with you. Okay. Okay. Well, anyway, thanks for the work. I'm sure it's going to turn out great. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Lachman. This is not for you, Janice. This is um so for the manager. I I see in the months that we've been here that
many times we get um you know contracts that were only one or one person bid. Why is that? I mean and I and then the example for me was um with the ice skating rink when we were looking for you know proposals for new managers we
only got you know three one from the current and two new. And yet when we spoke with someone outside this region Mr. Anderson, he said, "I didn't even know about this." And he was an experienced rink manager. So, I'm just wondering and and then we see Janice,
she reached out aggressively to other firms. So, I'm just curious about why it is we could possibly get like no no bid, no competition, and maybe it's something that you can look at going forward. It troubles me when we only have one bidder. Yeah, good point.
That's Can I Can I ask about number seven? Yes. Um, may I I have a question on number six just so we can keep working order. Council to and then your turn. Um, is that you, Mr. Fan? Okay. Um, so this is for time clocks to be
installed in the various departments here and to replace all time clock within the township mon. Okay, that will be we will be ordering 20 uh at the ex 14 is existing, six is the new remote locations because the current time clock
need to have a middleware. The vendor uh prime point is get rid of the middleware. They're retiring that technology. So that's why uh the new time clock is not going to have to contact the township network first in order for the to make sure the employee clocking time go back to the server. Now
as long the location has a weo location have internet they all will uh communicate with the prime point server directly. Okay. So I have one other question for you. On March 25th um resolution R25071 we approved $98,000. Was it for
this same thing or the actual what was it for? That is for the HR system and the payroll systems. the HR system and HR and payroll systems. Then the time of attendance and stuff like that. Software. Software. Okay. So, that was software. Mhm. Thank
you. You're welcome. Number seven is mine, too. Okay. Council Birmingham, you're up. Council Birmingham, you you're the hazard mitigation plan, the Essex County hazard mitigation plan. I'm the second uh uh alternative alternative
uh um point of contact. Okay. up because this is part of the go through the uh OEM. I'm one of the deputy OEM for the township for Monontlair. So just to clear the question, the letter intents were written back in uh December 2024.
That's why Mr. Lola was named the point of contact, right? Okay. He's not Mr. Mark at that time. He's not here. I cannot put him. So uh that was Mr. Leers and at that time he was a township manager. That's why he signed that letter intent that is required by the
county OEM. We have to submit it by December 19, 2024. So the the um mitigation actions here that are listed in the table on page uh
126. By adopting this, are we um committing to do these things? I I'm just curious because I in terms of funding them and things like that. This is not uh so basically county OEM hired a consultant. Yeah. For all the exis uh
county city and uh and township to go over the uh the hasher mitigation plan and that's why the letter intent appointing all the person Janice Tally is for the uh planning and zoning. Uh Nberto the engineer he's appointing for
the flood zone manager. So all these people the township employee has to be named it for the land of intent to let the uh county OEM know that these are people who will be working on this uh plan and then during the beginning of
the year there is couple survey went out uh they work with the vendor the survey went out to the county even though uh our communication director sent out to the township of Monontlair we did have six or seven reply but some most of them
is not relevant to this plan. They are asking something else. Okay. So, this survey did go out to the township and also the county level. I I I have worked on similar plans in another county. So, um anything that appears in the plan does not obligate
the township of Monontlair to act on that. Uh but uh if funding opportunities come up in the future from FEMA or other federal agencies, if we apply and the items that we're applying for are in the plan, then we're eligible for federal funding. If we apply and the items that
we're asking for are not in the plan, then we're not eligible for funding. So it has to be in the plan in order for us to be eligible for um state and federal assistance. Oh, really? So could Okay. So do I guess that's our question then. Do we feel
like this plan and we've already adopted this plan or you going to adopt this? So the plan already submitted approved by the county. The draft one is approved by the county. The county OEM asked us we have to adopt this resolution so they can submit to the county and county will
submit to the state and the federal. Okay. Do we feel do you feel like and maybe I don't know you're the planner like do we feel like this pays enough attention to the our flooding hazards that we have in this town that will I will refer to and like because again if
it if it needs to be on this list in order for us to get you're saying FEMA funding do we is this adequate this list? Great question because I believe it. Council Birmingham, when you say the
list, what page are you referring to? Um 126. So I guess it's 20 page 26. Yeah. Okay. Cuz I have a question on page uh three and four, but we'll do you know when you finish 26. And then I guess on 28 there's also
the a prioritization list. So, so 28. Yeah. Or there's a list on 26 and a list on 28. Well, the these are not location specific. So, I I think I think it it's
been generalized enough so it was it's structured so it's generalized enough so it can respond to situations. Okay. Um but not specific situations but not specific locations. Okay. Cuz some of them are specific like the ambulance unit and the library and
the animal shelter like those are specific. But so you're saying like watershed improvement plan you could apply like for any funding for flooding mitigation based on that. To be honest, I'm not as familiar with the county
hazard mitigation plan as I am with our um climate change related hazard vulnerability assess assessment which is part of our master plan which is much more comprehensive than this. It has everything in the kitchen sink in it and that will be the basis for our
resiliency plan that we're working on. We have Collier's engineering doing the resiliency plan. So that will be a lot more detailed than this is. And I my understanding from the presentation they gave to the planning board is that that will be the basis for funding that the
count township can go after for storm water. Yes, that's what I was just asking. I'm much more familiar with that than I am with the county plan. Okay. Okay. All right. But they must dovetail into each other. Well, you would assume, but I don't think that they me I don't think that they doveetailed because ours
is specific to Montlair and we identified um uh susceptible locations which includes child care centers, places where the seniors are living. It's a very exhaustive list, but it's all there in
our plan which we will be adopting this year hopefully this summer. Oh, okay. Um and and it's going to be it's going to get the blessing of NJ because it's funded through NJD and what they've told us and I think they're going to come here before the
council as well once they're do once they finalize resiliency plan is you get the blessing of D on your resiliency plan that prioritizes you for funding. So because May Yes. Oh, go ahead. You finish. No, again and because I in terms
of flooding um you know because they call out for example the ambulance unit is in a flood plane etc. But I think in Monontlair, as we know, it's bigger than that. And like when I read this plan and then the first table one where it says
hazard event history since 2020, I don't see um Hurricane Ida on this list from se September, which was in September of 2021. So that's an enormous that was an enormous flood
issue in this town. And so that's all I'm saying is is like I um I just want to make sure if this does have implications for flooding I'm sorry for funding that um and maybe your other
list will I'm hoping that our our resiliency plan and our climate change related hazard vulnerability assessment um which is much more exhaustive than this will give us the necessary report again. I know
since we know that D is almost trying to use what we're doing as a model. Okay. And when is that going to be ready or when Well, first we have to get our housing plan adopted which will be um May 19th. Okay. Hopefully. Hopefully.
That's the we continue the public hearing. So, uh, I believe this summer we're going to, um, create some some time on the planning board to actually adopt the climate change related hazard vulnerability assessment. And once we do that, then that'll clear the way for the resiliency
plan, which will be basically like an action plan for the township. I think you had a presentation from Collier's Engineering about this. Yeah. And that'll have prioritiz priorit prioritizing projects and identifying funding. Um, and
okay, please. I I think it's we'll be in a pretty good position with that kind of support. Deputy Mayor. Oh, I'm sorry. Councelor Toller, were you next? I was. I'm sorry. Council Toller. Sure. Um, so on the contact page here, it says Rob Biano, but it has
Austin Ashley's email. I know Miss Okay. No, that's fine. That has been uh addressed with the county OEM. That has been amended. Sure. And then on page um one well I guess three and four um table
one-4 recent and expected future development 10 Elm Street is listed twice. It's the same address, but if you can explain, it says AB Holding, 10 Elm Street, mixeduse, 20 units. Um,
under construction 1-4, 1-3 and 1-4 both have 10 Elm Street listed. One is mixeduse and one is residential. Both have 20. It is mixeduse. That's probably a typo. It shouldn't be in there twice. Twice. Correct. Okay. So we need to when
is the final date that this has to be submitted or due has to this resolution has to be uh adopted on May 20th because the by the end of May uh the end of May I have to submit it to uh the approved resolution
to the county OEM. Um okay. Um does this talk about enforcement? Because I'm reading some of the um impact on risk reduction. Do we need to include how this is going to be enforced if you will um you know the
preserve open how we're going to preserve the open space preserve existing trees and air qualities there any enforcement especially for private properties is that something that we can include in here this go enforcement of the hazard mitigation plan no if we need
to make sure that the open space stays and um protect existing trees like is there going to be a team that says, "Hey, don't cut that tree down." I'm just asking. I don't think that's part of the county's hazard mitigation plan. Right. But I'm saying on a township level, is
there going to be something in place to ensure that those things are going to stay in? I I think that if we have the power to adopt ordinances, okay, to to to make that a reality. And one last question and then councelor Anderson um
had a deputy mayor had a question on page 26 where it says library and social services building backup power. Should that be there because that's not our building. Can you explain what building backup power means? The social services
building isn't ours. Page on page 26. Probably an emergency backup generator. Yeah. Well, not our basket because that generator in that building that's not ours is I just I'm trying to make it make sense. I think it's be it's just because
it's not ours. I think it does serve the community qualify and that it would qualify even if it's not a township facility. It does they do provide social services. So, okay. Okay. So the back it would be like a backup generator maybe because uh
Monontlair Public Library is the uh case emergency they public library is open for shelter. Right. Okay. Thank you. Oh I don't know who can answer my
questions. I have a few. So um I don't know who's who can answer that. I have a few questions. Maybe one is very and I apologize. Who who put together this docu? Who actually put together this document? Which one? The
letter the letter intent or the hazard? No, the county um consultant is a consultant that hired by the county. Okay. And they they got all of these items um from the uh the uh all the employee from the township listed all the letter intent. That's what I
thought. Okay. Um, and then I just want to clarify because uh and and I I'm sorry if if this is sounds like a dense question, but like we have is this about is is passing this county um m mitigation plans or
mitigation plan is it about like being able to um get funding through the county because and the reason why I'm asking is because there's this other legislative district 34 that Mont um uh flood mitigation
um committee that um that Montlair's is now a part of um where the intent is to develop some plans and apply for federal funding together. So it's is this really more about being able to apply or
qualify for funding federal funding through the county? Yes. Okay. This is for FEMA. Yeah. Okay. And this this plan is adopt every five years. Last time it's adopted back in 2022. Okay, I think that clears it up. Thank
you. Others. Thank you. Um, where were we? Who had um more questions or um council Birmingham? I I just had one question about um 8 the resolution regarding the
sustainable land use pledge because um you may recall at the last meeting I had asked for that language around parking and developments to be changed and um Dr. Johnson did a really nice job, I think, of um changing the some of the
text in there. And I I just wanted to check because again, it was on the the res there last time and and it got bumped. I just Does anyone know if she needs it for some application or anything to be passed
tonight? Would anyone know that? My my recollection was that it's due to sustainable Jersey by June. So that I think that was the deadline. That's my understanding. And she did mention councelor Birmingham that she had sent it and you were okay
with that piece. Is there another item that you're concerned about or No, I just am wondering if we should pass it tonight even though I just even though it's on the list and I just talked about it, but um because it was on the list last time and it's really not a
substantial change. It was just um she changed some of the language to be a little less specific to developers in my mind. So, would anybody have an objection to just so that she does need it to get her application? I think so. I
can I make a motion? Yeah, I make a motion to um move R-25-XX. Item number eight. Item number eight. Um the resol Oh, sorry. Resolution regarding sustainable land use pledge. Second. Discussion. Madam clerk, please. Deputy
Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lochman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. So, item number 20 is resolution
R-25-126, the bill list resolution. Councelor Lachman. Oh, if you want to do it, council William. Oh, wait. Are you going to read this? You know, I don't want to deprive you of your pleasure. You know, please. I I
just have a question. Okay. So, shall I read it and you can ask a question? So, I want to move, sorry. Um, I'm moving resolution dash R-25-126, the bill list resolution, whereas invoices against the township of
Monontlair in favor of the following persons for the amounts set opposite their respective names have been received, duly audited, and found correct. Now therefore, be it resolved by the council of the township of Monontlair and 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 too and made a part thereof. Wow. Um the total amounts is 1,460980.12. I move I second. Second. Yes. Councelor Williams. So,
this is probably a question for Tony. Uh, I see on here on the bills list there's a C uh, excuse me, it's page one. It's for
CDW government and it's for Zoom. Yes, sir. So, we still pay for Zoom, but we also have Teams which essentially does the same thing. No zoom is uh mostly is for the by the request for the senior services to
remain on zoom. They found that using zoom is much more easier much more user friendly for the seniors and then so that's therefore we still maintain number of license for zoom. I have been reducing the I don't recall how many license we have before uh but we we have
been reducing the license from zoom of uh from the pandemic and okay and then because other people like to use zoom some people like to use webex I mean um team is free I mean mostly for the building collaborations
but sometime using zoom um can do right now zoom can do AI transcriptions and stuff like that taking minutes for like after during the meeting when the AI is uh feature is enabled we can use that to do take minutes and then whoever is the host who get the uh email with the uh
during this entire zoom meeting will have a minute type out that's an amazing amazing feature I'm not sure how many folks are actually utilizing it but the the point there's kind of a broader issue here just I would like to see at
some point and how many subscriptions the town has to various different things because it's kind of like those commercials where it says, "Oh, you you have all these uh subscriptions. You just don't realize it." I think Zoom, if we taught people
how to use Teams and you know, I'm I'm biased because I use Teams every day. It essentially does the same thing as Zoom. Again team is more for internal organizations and then for like in township mon employee to employee like a
team building zoom is more friendly to the uh resident or outside organizations and you you said that and I'm sorry to spend so much time on this uh so you're saying the people that are using Zoom they're
they are mostly from the senior services they're initiating these during the pandemic and then Amy uh during the pandemic. Yeah, Amy the uh yes from the health department they requesting to maintain uh retain their Zoom uh subscription. It's not so much the staff in senior
services. It has to do really with the senior residents in town who got used to using Zoom during the pandemic. But are they hard for them? I'm I'm sorry. So, and I I apologize. I don't want to spend
so much time on this. But are the seniors initiating these Zoom calls or are they just participating in the Zoom calls? And and the reason why I asked this because if somebody here is initiating a team's call, it it there's
no difference to the person that's participating, right? you're getting a link essentially that um mostly it's the the uh instructor instructor who leading like a yoga class whatever the class they are doing that which is for the
seniors people which is a town in not they're all independent folks that we hire to teach the classes so it's a combination of the instructors but it's also you know the residents got used to it I can speak to when I have some of my board of health meetings in Cedar drove
when I use a team's link, half the people can't get on. I don't understand why exactly, but it does seem to be an issue when people get used to one and I apologize to all my colleagues. It's late hours to spend so much time on this that obviously only I have interest in.
Um, but I hear you. I mean, just the broader uh kind of like the spirit of what I'm getting at here is I I I think we probably need to audit like all these subscriptions and then I I know at I know in at my job um just as manager on
a quarterly basis I get a whole listing of everything that my people have access to and I have to say whether or not they have need access to it going forward. I don't know if anything like that is is happening for the for the zoom and then
we I did one last every year annually to and then also contacting the department heavily using it. are these users still valid and then that they will let me know yes they are still using the team subscription uh the zoom sub subscription to teaching the senior
remain them on the subscription account and and we can take this offline this is probably like a communications committee thing so I I won't you know I appreciate talk more about yeah yes council damato yeah I'll just jam in on a similar topic
no for it's for Tony um yeah So we have switched out of granicus for the agenda management tool. Is that correct? I'm sorry sir. The agenda management tool. No, we are continuing using the gran. So what is what is um
SHI or H? SHI is a a purchasing vehicle company. They usually they do have a a Bergen County cooperative. So which what what is this payment for? They're a vendor. Oh, what page are you on, sir? I'm on uh I can't read because it's in
0.0000. That's whatever this is. Yes, you're right. Uh three of 10. Oh, so shr that one is for the uh website hosting township website hosting. There's two of them. And the second one, Township Monontlair agend agenda mand that is for
the granas. So right now they are granas. They are granas. They granicus prefer to use go to SHI to uh to renew their subscription now. Okay. So that's that's $18,000 a year for the for the agenda management software. Is that
correct? Yes. And then um perh township manager MarkX, we are expanding the usage of the uh the the meeting uh the meeting agenda software right now. Okay. I don't know if if this is a a a
temporary bug, but in the online um agenda that we have the the the PDF, it is well not linking at least in my rendering of it to the individual
resolutions and ordinances anymore. believe maybe the madame clerk can explain a little bit better when the conference meeting to do with the kicking back and forth of who is making the agenda but you know what I'm talking about. I mean the agenda is prepared by the township manager office but I refer
to town uh township clerk uh madame clerk is because she have previously she was the executive assistant to the township manager. She know the agenda uh process and procedure much better than I do.
what you're asking can be done. Any further questions? Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion on budget items? The bill list. Madame cler madame mayor. Bill list. Yep. Um, I have a question
on page if we can get these pages a little lower. Page three, it's uh purchase order well vendor number 19934. Um, Riker recognition. Is this
something that you had, Tony, or is this for That's not you. I was No, I know we approved it, but I'm just I can't remember what it's for. It's for those cameras, right? The license plate readers. But but license plate.
Yeah. Thank you. And there's um I'm just curious, did we have that much snow that we No, I mean I still have a bunch of salt left. Wow. One just got back a day. Mhm. That seems like a lot
of money for uh snow removal. Um I agree with you. And I'm just wondering if vendors such as Angels uh when they submit, can they perhaps submit their uh invoice, can it be attached to these bill list going forward so we can see
what actual streets or areas um you know the time that they put in? I know it says Bay Street, but it looks like that's the parking deck. Yeah, these are parking decks. $39. I know. I agree with you. It seems high. I'll go out there.
Get your shovel. Yeah, we were talking about that. And then I do have one other question and it's on page. I'll be quick because I see that there's a section 8 payment that's under the um parking utility. It's on
page eight. Um there's a I'm trying to understand why this section 8 housing program payment is falling under the parking utility uh for 3500 and then right under
it um oh do we know or is that is that maybe for two is I think the way it's written I think the the totals for section 8 are actually above okay I think it's like it's a weird so it's the cut off you mean it's the way it's
pageionated, you know, the way it printed out is what you're trying to Yeah. Like I I think the section 8 and then it says total for section 8, but it's under as you said parking utility, but it Right. Okay. Yeah. Um and then we've paid 1725 on
uh ordinance I guess 20-09 various capital improvements. Do we know what that was for? Can you repeat that? Sure. It's on the same page. I believe this is supposed to be It says OD 20-09 various capital improvements
um $17,250. I'm just curious. You know, there's a bunch of them, but what page um council to please? Page eight. Thank you. Do we know about any of the capital
improvements? But we can I can look up the ordinance if that's what this means. These are the ordinance numbers in front of the various capital improvements. Yes, they are. Okay. So, I'll look them up. You don't have to um Mayor Council to the
$55,000 for the uh camera, those are grant. They will get reimbured later on. Okay. Please. I don't have any other questions. Oh, I do have one question for Mr. Marks. Um, and it's not relating to the bill list.
It was something that was presented before. Um, I know that we approved 2.5 million for the road work and we're supposed to get some kind of map. Any status update on where that might I spoke with uh Austin Ashley about that
either today or yesterday. They're working on it so they'll have something. Okay. you know, tangible to to provide uh I'm sure by the next meeting. Okay. Thank you. The bill list was approved. Um was the bill list was moved and second. There
are no further discussions on the bill list. Madame Clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Lochman, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you.
Okay. Item 21 is a resolution to extend and amend resolution R-23-244 extension with Parkon doing business as Flowbird for proprietary parking mo parking mobile applications services pursuant to NJSA
40A 11-51 DDD. I just have one question. Do we have more than one parking uh you know management? Is park mobile also on our park? We have park mobile also. And and
just this park mobile and this uh and IPS is for the individual meters. Okay. Okay. Mayor actually that was my question. Why do we have more than one? Is there a reason?
I mean is there is the eventual goal to I'm sorry. Go ahead. I I was just wondering if the goal is to move everything to one system or management system. As far as I understand, each management system is for separate equipment. So, FlowBird, we have some
parking lots where it's like an actual kiosk that you can walk up to. Uh, as Mr. Marks just said, IPS, those are the individual meters on the street. So, that's to the best of my knowledge, but of course, someone from the parking utility can give you further detail. And Park Mobile, of course, is on, you know,
an app on your phone. So they're slightly different. Park level would not have any physical presence. No. No. Okay. Uh and madame mayor, the last item is the um executive session resolution
R-25-127 resolution authorizing executive session without the public being permitted to attend in accordance with NJSA 104-12B. Second. And we do have Katherine Hatfield uh in the back who's here to uh speak on contract negotiations. Okay.
Okay. So, at this time we will um ask Sorry, I'm sorry. Is can I just Is that the one thing we're going in for is contract negotiations? At this time, we we will two involving contract negotiations and
personnel matter. Thank you. At this time, we'll ask the public please um to remove from the um chambers we're going into executive session for the purposes of contract
negotiations. I'm not anticipating that we will take any action tonight. Is that correct? Or we will take action tonight. No, no action. We will not be taking any action this
evening. Thank you for coming. She she can hear less than an hour. I told her, so she's been here. You're back on, mayor. Um, at this time, I'd like to make a motion, please, that we go into
executive session for the purpose of contract negotiations. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Abstained. Okay. Can I turn this? Yeah, of course.
Okay, we're going to um resume our meeting and we're going to come out of the executive session and I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Abstension. Okay. Thank you for the
great meeting.