Okay. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the May 5th, 2026 Township Council regular meeting. The regular meeting of the council of the township of Montlair is being broadcast live on channel 34. It's streaming live
on Montlair TV34 YouTube channel. It's available on demand and can and will be rebroadcast. This meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act. The meeting was included in the revised annual notice of the meeting
scheduled as set forth in resolution R26-064 adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of February 10th 26 and advertised to the official newspaper on February 26, 2026. It was posted on the
township website and bulletin boards outside of the Montlair Municipal Building and has remained continuously posted. In addition, a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our township clerk.
Please 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. >> Madame clerk, whenever you're ready, please. >> Thank you, Mayor. Deputy Mayor Anderson, >> here. >> Councelor Birmingham, >> present. >> Councelor Damato, >> here. Councelor Harrison >> here. >> Councelor Toller, >> good evening. Present. >> Good evening. Councelor Williams
>> here. >> Mayor Baskerville >> present. Okay. Um so at this point in time, we are going to um go into the um executive session.
We're going into the executive session to discuss matters that our um attorney client Oh, he's with us. Attorney, is he with us? He's part of the group. Yes. Attorney
client privilege and um municipal public um investment. So, I'd like to make a motion >> and personel and personal >> and personnel. Thank you. So, I'd like to make a motion that we move into the executive session. We're going to ask
all people who are not directly related with the township and the matters that I um announced to please leave at this moment. We expect that we will be in the executive session probably until about 7 maybe 7:30ish and then we we will
return. Um all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. At this point in time, I'd like to make a motion, please, that we um adjourn from the executive session and go to the public portion of our
meeting. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Uh we'll take a five minute break and then we will resume with the meeting. So, >> okay. We'd like to welcome all of you to
our May 5th, 2026 regular township meeting. Um, we had adjourned earlier into the executive session. Um, and councelor Bill Harrison, if you would just share um whatever we can with the
public on the matters that we discussed for and 4A. >> Okay. We received legal advice from our attorney concerning the proposed resolutions to transfer the redevelopment agreement and the financial agreement for the property at
65 Church Street. And based on that legal advice, we decided to table action on those resolutions at this meeting. >> Thank you very much. And uh the other matter um going to call on our chair of
our finance committee, councelor Eileen Birmingham. Um the other issue that was discussed with our attorney was um the council has reached a consensus to work with the
board of ed to have the um school the levy referendum. The um in that was the question one um in the referendum to have that struck over four quarters um instead of two.
Thank you very much. >> And no other formal action was taken regarding that matter. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we're going to move on. Um, Madame Clerk, uh, are we going to do the approval of the minutes, please? >> Move.
>> I'd like to make a motion. Yes. Um, that we accept the minutes of the January 6, 2026, January 8th, 2026, January 27, 2026 uh minutes. I I will second that with the understanding there will be a slight
correction in the order on the >> 27th >> 27th meeting with no change in the actual wording. >> Thank you. >> I I so move and and councelor Harrison second. >> Deputy Mayor Anderson. >> Yes. >> Councelor Birmingham.
>> Yes. >> Councelor Damato. >> Abstain. >> Councelor Harrison. >> Yes. >> Councelor Toller. >> Yes. >> Councelor Williams. >> Yes. Mayor Baskerville. >> Yes, thank you. Um May is an extremely busy month and we have um quite a few
proclamations. We're going to try to do them in a respectful manner, but we're also going to be respectful of your time. So, at this time, um if there are people here that are uh came to accept the proclamation for Older Americans Month, will you please join us at the podium?
Okay. Are there people that are here to come for the uh child care providers? Okay. And and these um proclamations, they're they're going to be available for people. So, this is um we we're fine and we're not giving anybody short
shrift. We will make sure that the appropriate people get them. Moving right along to the proclamation for Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Okay. And is there anyone here for the
proclamation for Jewish Heritage Month? All right. >> Meaning, I am proud to be Jewish and I stand with Israel. >> I stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters and I'm happy to have the little Make sure
the wire >> everybody good. All right. Excellent. >> Should I? >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> You want to do the whole thing? >> Okay. >> We were gonna because we had so many we were gonna >> No, we're good. >> All right. Good evening everyone.
It is uh my pleasure to read the proclamation for Jewish Heritage Month. So, here we go. Whereas the first Jewish immigrants arrived in American soil in 1654, escaping oppression and discrimination, their presence along with that of so many immigrant groups
helped define America's promise, religious freedom while embracing democracy, individual liberty, and opportunity for all. And whereas the Jewish American experience is a quintessential American experience, one that is connected to key tenants of American uh identity, including our
nation's commitment to freedom of religion and conscience. And whereas notwithstanding this promise, we are still working to full uh to realize full vision of the American ideal amid the scourges of racism, bigotry, and other forms of injustice is included a
stubborn anti-semitism. In recent years, Jewish Americans have increasingly been targeted of white nationalism and anti-semitic violence it fuels. And in 2024, a record number of anti-semitic incidences 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 in internal matters as well as issuing facing 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 and equal rights. Often motivated by Jewish values to heal the world locally, nationally, and globally. Jewish Americans have significantly have made
significant contributions in the areas of science, the arts, literature, civic life and law. And whereas this is true here in Montlair where we are enriched to have two in town synagogues, Ben Keshett and congregation Shimon uh >> Shomuna
Shom >> Amuna. Thank you. I should be ashamed of myself. as well as the Kagbad of Montlair Kagbad >> of Monontlair and two other uh neighbors uh Tier Tid
also known as TNT right that's what people say uh 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 uh the commitments are routinely expressed by enriching the
community through interethnic and interface 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
both in Monontlair and the wider world and do proclaim May as Jewish Heritage Month in the township of Monontlair. Yes. >> Good evening, mayor, council members, and neighbors. My name is Lonnie Summer Padilla, and I have the honor of serving
as vice president of the Montlair Jewish Community Relations Council. I'm grateful for the opportunity to stand before you tonight in recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the rich contributions, culture, and enduring values of Jewish
Americans in communities like ours and across this country. This year, this moment is made even more meaningful as it coincides with the holiday of Logba Omare, a day that falls in the midst of a solemn period on the Jewish calendar.
Traditionally, Logba Omare marks a pause in mourning, a day of light, resilience, and renewed connection. In the Talmud, there is a compilation of rabbitic writings called Pier Avote or ethics of
the fathers where it is asked, "Who is wise?" And the answer given is one who learns from every person. This deceptively simple idea carries profound weight. It reminds us that
wisdom is not found in isolation, but in openness, in the willingness to listen, to learn, and to recognize that every individual has something of value to teach us. Logba Omare calls us to reflect on what happens when we fail to
live up to that ideal. When we close ourselves off from one another, when we dismiss or diminish the perspectives of others. It asks us to acknowledge that such divisions weaken not only our communities but our shared sense of
purpose and understanding. But just as importantly, this day invites us to begin again with humility and renewed awareness. We are called to honor one another to see the greatness in our peers, our neighbors, and even
those with whom we may disagree. As one of our sages taught us, true strength lies in self-restraint, true wealth in gratitude, and true honor in honoring others. These values resonate far beyond the Jewish
community. They are the foundation of any strong, vibrant, and inclusive society. Here in Montlair, where diversity is one of our greatest strengths, they serve as a powerful reminder of what is possible when we truly embrace one another. During Jewish
American Heritage Month, we celebrate not only the achievements of Jewish Americans, but also the enduring ideals that guide us, learning, humility, respect, and unity. May we carry the spirit of Logba Omare forward, not just
tonight, but in the days and months ahead by striving to learn from one another, to uplift one another, and to build a community rooted in mutual understanding and shared humanity. Thank you. >> And let me introduce this is Christa
Rapaort. She is one of our board members on the Montlair Jewish Community Relations Council. >> The former chair of our Civil Rights Commission. >> Thank you. >> So, you know, I I my my family's bluish, black and Jewish, right? And and quite
of all their when quite of a lot of ethnicities. We're like the UN, but one thing they can say is say it loud. I'm black and I'm proud. And lately it's been very hard for them to like want to wear their Jewish stars or my son Ethan walked out of his um campus at Swarmore
College and like he is he has marched for Pal Palestine. He's pros and he's like you know he has a big heart but to see like the anti-Jewish um graffiti was is just heartening. So this is a holiday that means a lot and I thank Montlair
thank everyone here for this because it's important. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> My name is Nella Gail and I am a proud lifelong resident of Montlair, a proud Jewish person, resident, a proud member
of the synagogue congregation, Shom Emuna, which is right here, our next door neighbor. And I am proud to stand with Israel, free Israel. Thank you. Okay, thank you everyone. Thank you for
coming and um we're going to move on to our next proclamation which is for the uh ambulance unit. Thank you. >> An extra cookie. Hey, chief. >> No, I said I'm just not
>> uh a proclamation emergency services emergency medical services week. And >> I'm sorry. Can we please um show respect for the >> letting the rest of the proclamation group sit down? They wanted >> Oh, they were still here. >> They wanted to take a picture. >> I wanted to be in the picture. >> Oh,
>> we'll come back. You guys can take a picture. Let us finish this since we're here and then we'll circle back. I'm sorry. >> Birthday. >> All right. Go ahead. >> It's older Americans week, too. Uh so uh whereas National Emergency Medical Services Week, EMS week, celebrated from
May 17 through May 23rd, 2026 is a time to recognize and honor the essential work of EMS professionals who provide life-saving care and support to the Monontlair community during times of emergency. And whereas the Montlair Ambulance Unit has served the Monontlair
community as an independent nonprofit agency since 1953. And whereas the dedicated EMS professionals of the Monontlair Ambulance Unit worked tirelessly to save lives, provide critical care, and offer compassionate support in our community's
most challenging moments. And whereas the Montlair Ambulance Unit's commitment to continuous training, collaboration with local health organizations, and dedication to the highest standards of care is a testament to their unwavering
service in their role is a vital resource to the community. And whereas the township of Monontlair Mayor and Council stand with the Montlair ambulance unit to express our gratitude and appreciation for their hard work and devotion to serving our community often
under difficult and dangerous conditions. Now therefore, the mayor and council of the township of Montlair do hereby proclaim May 17th through 23rd, 19 uh 2026 as emergency medical services week and extend heartfelt appreciations
and recognition to the Montlair Ambulance Unit for 73 years of outstanding service and dedication to the health and safety of our community. Thank you. Thank you for your service.
>> Thank you. Um I on behalf of the whole unit, we have approximately 70 staff members. I thank the township, the mayor and council. Um and the citizens of Montlair who through their generosity and their donations helped provide this service every year um 5,500 times last
year. And uh I'm reminded this week specifically of the nature of our job. We were at Walnut Street Fair all day providing uh incident support as well as getting me in a dunk tank. >> And then as soon as we were about to leave and go home to our families at
6:00 at night, four of us wound up in Belleville at the uh 12 alarm fire and man helping to manage that incident. So um this is timely and uh much appreciated. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay.
Thank you so very very much. Did you have anyone that wanted to take a picture with you? Be okay. Yeah. And then I'm gonna please ask the people that came to get the proclamation for Jewish Heritage Month come back to get a picture. I apologize. I didn't know you
were trying to take picture. Oh, >> I know. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Come on. We can scoot this over. >> Put this down.
That'll be safer. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Whoops. Whoops. Whoops. Watch the um watch the cord. I don't want anybody to trip. I've got it. Okay, we're going to move on to the
portion of our meeting that's called presentations. And I'm going to um ask if um the director of community services would please join us down at the podium, Mr. Austin Ashley.
Mayor, um Weston wasn't available this evening, but we do have Manny Germano and Normati from uh the parking utility and department of administration, respectively. >> Okay. Thank you both for being with us. >> Hello and good evening, counselors. Um Manny, I'm sorry, Austin prepared a
detailed memo for each of you and a staff member was supposed to come as well. Did you get the memo or No, >> I have a copy of the memo here. I >> could. So, I'm just going to I'm just going to uh briefly highlight the content of uh the memo and hopefully be
able to field questions as they come up as I can. Uh the township's snow removal billing process is a redundant multi- aent multi- agency operation designed to provide absolute physical fiscal
transparency in accordance with New Jersey local contracts law. The township awarded contracts to Angel's Landscaping and Shoga Schuler Property Services via fair
by a fair and open process. The current not to exceed of $800,000 is an administrative estimate based on historical averages. Snow removal is one of the most volatile line items in any municipal budget and it's driven by
variables outside of our control. When the NTE is reached, the not to exceed, the township faces a choice of increasing the current ceiling or declaring a formal state of emergency for every subsequent storm.
The rigorous billpaying process uh is in the rigorous bill paying process the invoice must pass through eight distinct professional reviews and a digital firewall that acts within the
um software that we have for making payments. You'll see on the second what I believe is the second page phase A and that's the departmental field audit and I hope to have had somebody to explain that to you who actually does the field
audit but in the department of community services when the exterior when the vendors show up they're checked in they're verified with a member of the staff. So that's kind of phase one of
the check-in and and it just makes sure that the people who eventually appear on the bill, we can assure you that they actually came um and did the job. MS MSI is our um software that we use to pay
bills and in it contains a primary key that mechanically rejects any duplicate invoices. Following the preparation of the invoice, the purchasing department reviews uh the invoices and then the invoice moves to the finance department
for a final comprehensive audit involving the controller, the treasurer and the chief financial officer. uh the council approves the bills that make it to the bills list through this process only after passing through these
layers of departmental oversight. Uh the council protects the professional integrity of the municipal audit uh trail and it ensures that legislative oversight remains focused on policy. So that's really how the that's
really how the bills are paid. I I did when there was a couple of questions I did have a look just just for my own knowledge. I didn't see anything wrong and I could try to answer any questions. I think parking goes through the same
type of um process. Um Manny, if you want if there's anything that you want to add, I'll try to answer anything I can on Austin's behalf. Before we leave DCS, Department of Community Services, the last page of the memo is there's a spreadsheet um that basically has a list
of all the invoice. This is um I believe for Shoger. Um it's the date of the storm in the lefth hand column, the event what they were doing in the second column, the time of work in the third column, the invoice number in the fourth column, and the amount paid. So I think
the the question was was um the town paying duplicate invoices. >> I'm sorry. So the the question was was is the town or was the town pay paying duplicate invoices? Um while the amounts um uh there are several amounts that are
the same. Uh for instance on February 6th, February 8th, uh February 9th of the amounts paid were 59,000 or the amounts build were 59,500 uh for those respective invoices. um the dates, the times um and the places and
the invo even the invoice numbers were all different. So um Austin Ashley and the Department of Community Services did I don't have it here now. I'll be happy to share it as soon as I get my hands on it. He did have printed copies of all the invoices for your you know consideration for your review for your
perusal. Uh but in speaking with uh director Ashley um he is 100% confident that we have not paid any duplicate invoice. We haven't paid the same invoice twice. Even though the same number may appear multiple times, it's because they're paying the same drivers,
the same rates for the same hours. Uh but it's not like they're we're paying for the same work twice. >> May I? >> Yes. >> So thank you uh Miss Tassy for that comprehensive memo from Mr. Ashley. Um,
I'm going to repeat this again. There were duplicate invoices with the same invoice numbers with the same amounts. As I stated at the last meeting, MIS does not allow you to put the same invoice number in twice. Um, so if the total is the total, but there was also a question on some of the invoices where,
for example, just throwing a number out, 30 hours of work was 53,000. Okay, 30 hours of work, 53,000. And then we had some invoices that had less hours for more money. And that was part of the questions too
and we didn't really get an answer on that. I did accept that MIS does not allow duplicate invoices, but no one could really explain how we can be charged more money for less hours and other invoices had more hours but less money. So, there's still some
discrepancies to be looked at and perhaps that's something DCS can work on. When three sets of eyes are looking at these invoices, if we're paying 53,000 for 30 hours and we're also paying 59,000 for 28 hours, there's something wrong. And I don't know who that falls on. If it's DCS or if the
vendor needs to submit a better invoice to verify the amounts and the hours because you can't pay more money for less hours and vice versa. >> Councelor Harrison. Oh, I'm sorry, Councelor Toller. >> No, that I just I'm putting this on the record because I understand where this
is going, this memo. Um, and I just want to make sure that I'm 100% crystal clear and everybody understands what my concerns were. >> Thank you, Councelor Harrison. >> Well, Mandy, if you >> may I on on that? >> Oh, yes, certainly. >> Councelor To. >> And it wasn't Angels. It was just Sher, not yours. Well, Angels wonderful
because I was going to very detailed information. Um, I just double check, triple check yours. There's no problems with Angels. It seems to be only with uh Shoger. >> Okay. The only thing I can comment on what you just said, counselor, is that for example on with a parking utility,
we do have uh different rates for different types of services. So they may come and do if they're coming to doing the icing at one particular place, but like you said, it states that in the contract in the uh in the invoice, they will charge us a different rate than they're coming to do, you know, shoveling by hand or something like
that. >> Explain. I just wanted to jump. I also I also have a spreadsheet that I can spread make sure that everybody gets uh that shows all the invoices that we've paid so far and all the uh service dates and everything else in here. So I will get make sure that everyone gets that as well.
>> Sure. >> So sorry >> council harasser. >> Okay. So I'll do this now rather than the resolution extending the amount. So for Shoger and you know the part of the town they do includes the part of the town
where I live and their plowing was not good this year. They had been good in other years but there was snow 6 8 10 feet away from the curb that resulted in snow having to be removed from the
streets and skipping over whether it was necessary in all streets the three weeks after the storm when it happened. Um, but this is a budget comment. The amount that was paid for Shoger for
plowing was $154,795. The amount that was paid to Shoger for removing snow from the streets was $730,167.50. That is an astronomical difference that should not have been necessary if the streets have been plowed correctly. There probably were streets that needed
to have snow removed for various reasons. No strip between the sidewalk and the street, other reasons, but there is no reason that $730,000 had to be spent to remove snow to put in
parks where too much snow was put. But I think in terms of next year, the key thing and um director Ashley has indicated that there would be better supervision to make sure the plowing was done right the
first time which saves a lot of money I to and do that. But I think that's also part of it in looking at where snow should be placed when it does have to be removed. goal should be to minimize the amount of snow so we don't have what
happened this year and to save the taxpayers an awful lot of money. >> Anyone else? >> Yep. I just wanted to add council to even with for example the duplicate invoice S114125
for 1080 $10,80 if that invoice was submitted twice >> for turning in for payment when when and where did we get the actual correct invoice to even pay the bill. That's just the first question, but that's neither here nor there. Um again,
invoice 114248 for 30 hours build at 53,000. There's some other invoices here here bill for 30 hours at 59,500. So there's still some discrepancy and again if DCS has decided that they're going to do a more thorough checking
when these invoices come in um then we'll have to wait and see what happens. Again regarding angels um I was able to decipher where the difference was but there were two dip duplicate invoices. um do invoice number 77265 for 3600.
Invoice 77343 for 2,800 and um they did include what the work was for, but those bills have since been paid. The checks have been released to the vendor and we absolutely need to take a better look at this. And I do have a
question and maybe this is not the time for agenda item number three um where this request of asking for money uh to extend till December of this year. How can we use this money that ends in the the fiscal year the new fiscal year
starts July 1? So I'm just trying to understand this resolution. Is the fiscal year start July? >> We're on a calendar year budget. >> Um it's agenda item number three that we have in front of us and we're not there yet. I was going to wait until we got there, but since we're
on snow, it's fine. I think he's asking for um some additional money to cover snowing snow plowing to take us up to December 31st, 2026. And I'm just curious how this fiscal year's funds can be extended when I'm
asking when does the fiscal year start here? Is it in July? >> No, it's it's a January. We're on a calendar year basis. >> That was my question. Yeah, that's my question. Thank you. Just mayor. >> Yes, deputy mayor. >> So, um I just wanted to thank you for the memo. Um
here for the two of you for coming. I >> Yeah. Um and uh for clarifying all of the controls that are in place to asssure that none of these invoice like nothing was paid twice. I do agree that um that it would be helpful to have more detailed invoices because I do
understand that for some of the amounts even if it was for lower hours that it probably was more involved work. Um and I just want to remind everyone that um the council passed a resolution at the last meeting. I think it was the last
meeting. Um to ensure that uh there is advanced planning um uh the snow removal and disposal plan that's presented to the council. um no later than October 1st of each year. And um I'm sure we can, you know, take some lessons learned
from the these last storms, the ice, you know, all of these extraordinary circumstances, but it was very clear that there needed to be um some, you know, advanced planning. Um and I lastly want to really thank everyone, all the staff, the DCS workers, um you know,
Manny and your team and all of the the people who um who did this really physical um backbreaking work. So, um, appreciate all the work that you did, >> ditto. Yes. Um, councelor Damato. Yeah, I would second all that and also just
say that um I agree with the conclusions of this memo about you know we have to look at the division of labor and what we're doing here and why I think we have to look at both policym and execution to see if the execution you know lives up to the standards and obviously those two things are not immediate you know
totally um separate that um we should be focused on making policy up here and we this year will probably spend have spent spend more time talking about bills about snow removal than we are about our budget, which is $und00 million. And you
know, and um so I I I fully think that, you know, we should try to focus on on on the big picture, which is actually kind of more fun to sometimes. So, thanks everybody. >> Good. Thank you. Um is there any more that you wanted to speak to us about
tonight? um Manny about the um parking and thank you um for being here and ditto everything that the deputy mayor said. >> Well, thank thank you and I'm sure our staff both DCS and parking you know appreciate the the uh goodwill. Um I
just wanted to say that our our process in parking utility is similar to DCS's. Um the only thing we don't do is we don't have a signin sheet for the uh for the uh vendor when the vendor comes. Uh we communicate everything via text. So the te the vendor will tell us you know
we're here. I have parking enforcement officers that will verify that that they are here that they are doing the cleaning. They will also tell me we're done. I will also then have the parking enforcement officers go because we have 24-hour coverage go and check to make sure that what they said they did they did. Um that's the only difference in
the process. Everything else that u m Miss talked about is exactly with the same same process with MSI and everything else. Okay. >> Thank you very much. Anyone any further questions? No. Thank you very much for joining us. >> Thank you. >> Um,
Director Tassy, thank you very much for coming. >> Okay, so we're going to move on. Um, wow. I guess we're at public comment now. I'm not sure how we did it today. Do Did we just sign in? Were there
numbers or >> two names? >> Two names. >> Two names. >> Oh, no. No. I'm sorry. I was >> Oh, >> thank you very much. >> Okay. Um, the first person for public
comment today is Mr. Noah Gail. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. >> My name is Noah Gail and I and I am very happy. I am just thrilled to see um everyone
support Jewish Heritage American Month tonight. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> I mean is very important that we keep having these proclamations and recognizes recognitions so we finally put our differences aside and and say it's okay to be different
>> no matter what background or diversity you come from. >> Good. Yes, it is. Also, um I am wanted to talk about, you know, May and June is a very busy time of the year, especially here in Montlair Township because it is the end of the school year. And I
noticed that a lot of residents go away during the summer. There not as many events other than the July 4th parade and the summer cuz people like to go away before the new school year starts as a majority of people who live in this township have kids in the schools as
children in the school system. So, um, I wanted to update you with what events are coming up in Montlair and just show up. That's what my mom always likes to say. Um, Mayfair at Nishuain Elementary School. Their annual spring carnival is this
Saturday from 11 to 4:00. This Saturday, May 9th from 11 to 4:00. Nishuain's annual Mayfair. Uh, this will be my 20th anniversary going to Mayfair. It is a lot of fun. They have free food, corn,
they have everything you'll love. So, I suggest you check it out this Saturday from 11 to 4. Two more three more things actually. Um, and then MF, I don't know if you're aware, is having their annual spring fundraiser minute to win it on
Thursday, May 28th from 5:30 to 8 at Lacawana Plaza in Monontlair, New Jersey. of course of and we are proud to have our superintendent Ruth B. Turner as as participating in the fundraiser
this minute to win it. So I suggest you all come out and support that as well. And finally the J the Judy Weston awards where all the teachers get recognized where all the current teachers and the who are employed in the Monontlair
public schools get recognized. It is June 9th at Monontlair Public Library at 5:00 p.m. and we or 5:30. I don't remember which one, but anyway, I suggest you all come out and support the
teachers who are getting recognized at the Weston Awards ceremony at Moner Public Library because we know our school system is currently in a financial crisis. It's had a tough year and it's so nice to see that we're finally having uplifting spirits. So, thank you so much.
>> Thank you very much. Okay, our second guest this evening is Jeffrey Grayson. >> Good evening, Mayor Baskville and council members. >> Good evening. I'm Jeffrey Robert Grayson and tonight I'd like to discuss what I'm referring to as the sardine effect.
Sardines are nutrient-dense fish that comes packed tightly in cans or tins. I'm sure everyone has heard the phrase packed like sard sardines used to describe an overcrowded situation. As I was nearing the end of my
nightclubing phase in the 80s, I used to frequent a club in Manhattan called Nells. Nells had a lounge on the main floor and a small dance floor downstairs. Once the party was in full effect, that dance floor became like a can of sardines.
You completely surrendered your personal space to the to the degree that you were not only dancing with your partner. You also became part of a unified pulsating mob of bodies grooving to the beat of Janice Jackson's Janet Jackson's What
Have You Done for Me Lately or Prince's Sign of the Times? The sardine effect is also a sign of the times in present- day Montlair because it has impacted what was once a very special and intimate place to live. The sardine effect leads
to st to strained infrastructure, increased traffic and reduced safety, increased demands on utilities, increased demands on first responders, increased stress and loss of green space. These issues can further
exacerbate socioeconomic factors such as loss of community and diversity, increasing gentrification and segregation. Complete streets was a was created as a direct result of the sardine effect. Roads that were designed for light free
flowing traffic are now clogged like a stuffy nose in need of mucenex. >> Crossing the street has become a perilous endeavor. Impatient, entitled, and rude drivers are putting pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers at risk.
The sardine effect has put tremendous strain on our aging subterranean infrastructure, resulting in more frequent water mane breaks and potential sink holes. Since it appears that most developers receive a pilot or some type of tax abatement, the cost of repairing
and upgrading the utilities falls on the taxpayer. It should be mandatory that developers contribute financially to the expansion of roads, our schools, and the utilities needed to support their projects. Those advocating for more development
development and more green space are diametrically opposed to one another. Now that we're running out of space to build out, we want to build up. Think of the sardine effect the next time you hear someone talking about upzoning in a transit hub.
Think of the sardine effect the next time you hear someone say that Montlair needs more development for all the people that want to move here. Think of the sardine effect the next time a developer asks for a pilot instead of paying their fair share in taxes. Think of the sardine effect the next
time you see paramedics tending to someone laid out on the side of the road. The sardine effect creates collateral damage to my community and we'd like to know what have you done for us lately? Thank
>> Thank you very much. Next guest, please. >> I'll speak later. >> Okay. Um, is there David? >> Okay, you'll speak later. Anthony, >> is it Sakan? >> Sone.
>> Sakone. Oh, okay. How are you? Good evening. >> Um, my name is Anthony Sakone. Uh, my partner Bob and I uh own all the properties on Bloomfield Avenue from um 136, 146, 154, and all the way back on
Hartley Street 79 and 11. uh new street 8 10 12 9 11 and I understand you guys are considering uh changing the uh zoning ordinance in there back to a C3 zone and we just were alerted of this
last week. We've been accumulating the properties and basically been under the radar just have our tenants everybody does what they're doing. We always planned on doing some kind of a future development where we could bring in um additional uh housing units for uh you
get additional possibly 20 low-income housing units on the area. I noticed that one of the one of the tenants of the change proposed came from the fact that there was no activity in that area. there was no there was no uh development
activity and that it wasn't doing what it was supposed initially supposed to do and we'd like you to consider that when you make your vote as to make that change in that uh ordinance at this point. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> Yes. Thank you very much for coming this evening. Next guest, please. That would be Bob White. >> He's with me. >> Okay. All right. Thank you, Bob. Pedro Luna. >> Hey, >> good evening. >> Good evening.
>> Pedro Luna. I have lived on uh I better read this thing. Lived on Gates Avenue for the last 15 years. And for the last few years, I had dropped off and pick up my girls on Gates and Harrison. Uh some time ago, a stop sign went on on that intersection on the Harrison's
side. I didn't think there was a big need for it. Um uh but at least I could see that it was useful because traffic has increased on Gays Avenue over the year. >> But recently another stop sign went up.
This one on Porter Place which is just two blocks down. There is very little traffic on Porter Place. Not to mention that that intersection is within a stone throw away from the traffic light on Harrison and Union. If you stand on
Harrison and Gates like I do on most morning during rush hour and the and the afternoon as well to for pick up, you'll see a line of cars on Harrison and wait and gates uh patiently impatiently waiting for the turn to go through
gates. when they come when they when they finally make it to the front of the line and go through and speed up away and then they come within sight of the traffic light on Union, they had to stop
again because there is now an stop sign on port place. Now what happened is that there is no cars to the left or to the right. So they stop or just slow down and right away try to make the light that is very
visible from there because it's very short block. We don't need an stop sign there. A uh pedestrian light will be more useful and it will be less direct disruptive to the to the traffic.
Uh Harrison is similar to Grove and M Street. It is one of the very few ways to get from one side of town to the other. We wouldn't put a bunch of stop signs on Grove or M Street because we want those cars to flow. We want traffic
to flow on those streets. But that's not happening now. What's happening now is there a lot of cars idling during rush hour. I feel like I'm on Fifth Avenue in the morning where it's, you know, breeding all that pollution because the cars just accumulate. There's no need
for that. You wouldn't do that on G or M street. Again, traffic needs to flow through those through those roads and those stop signs really I can see the one on Gates, but I want to b place. It's just no not justification for it.
The place is a small uh park. It's not like it's you know Brookdale or Anderson Park. There's no playground or anything like that. I use that park. I raise my girls on those park on that on that park. But you know the stop sign is not
needed. If if if we uh want to support a pedestrian cross industry, let's put a a pedestrian light. In any event, I want to also thank you lastly and thank you for voting no on making Southerntherland a oneway. Uh it is it is your courage on
voting down that proposal that encouraged me to come here in the hope that with the same courage you can take down that stop sign and put a pedestrian light which will be more uh beneficial to the to the community and I thank everyone that have worked on making our
street safer. You guys doing a great job. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um Mr. Um Frank Rebecca and then um David, are you ready after that? >> I guess I'll >> Okay, >> good evening everyone. >> Good evening.
>> Frank Rebecci, 398 Upper Mountain Avenue. Um, I'm sure all you guys remember that scintillating presentation by DCS about who's responsible for shoreline laterals and water lines
service lines out to the street. And we had those 1970 graphics showing where one started and where one stopped and what our responsibility as homeowners was. And I'm sure you remember a year ago
about this time that we got the ticketing blitz for our sidewalks. And so it's been a long time since then and not much has happened. Um the bottom line I think everybody agrees certainly my wife was
chewing my ear tonight um that it was a mistake. We made a mistake just like we made a mistake with the parks, with the snow, and we made some other mistakes, but we fixed them. Things happen. We fixed them. We haven't quite fixed this.
We haven't been willing to address this. Um, and I'm not sure why. What I am sure of is that um you authorized a half million dollars
to improve the sidewalks and put in street furniture and such for Church Street. Um which I thought was kind of weird because that was something the bid always paid for as far as street furniture and those kind of decorations.
So now the town's taking that on instead of paying for your sidewalk problem. Um, and I think there are some other cases where we're spending money that should be going to a solution for what
happened a year ago. And I'd like to see you guys make some progress on that um for all of us particularly in the first ward that uh were pretty much the focus of it. Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Thank you very much.
>> David, is it Carfage? >> Corvage. >> Corvage. >> Uh so David Corfage uh 58 Tuxedo Road. Um I'm back uh to discuss climate change again. I began to feel a little bit like Cassandra. Um so I just want to uh start
by reminding everyone of the stakes. Just an example. The UN recently came out with a report about extreme heat uh is going to around the world should drive down crop yields and lead potentially to food shortages uh threatening the livelihoods of maybe one over a billion people. Um heat already kills more than half a million people
around the world every year and in parts of the world that become could become too hot to work outside for twothirds of the year. Um all that's far away potentially but compassion and love for our neighbor demands we make we take action and also simple self-interest. Uh just because we're a richer community
doesn't mean we will escape the effects of climate change as well. So what does this have to do with Montlair and particularly the pending ordinance on the down zoning? As a local government, we are limited in what we could do. But studies I've read make clear that the two major le levers that a town like
Monontlair has to address climate change are first promoting alternatives to cars especially biking and walking um which of course I've talked about before and second denser housing or to be more precise what the IPCC which the town the UN's committee on climate change calls
compact urban form co colllocated medium medium to high densities of housing and jobs high street density small block size mixed land use particularly near public transit Towards that end, I'm speaking in reference to the proposal to downzone sections of Bloomfield Avenue. Um, if we
want to do what we can to avoid the worst of climate change, we shouldn't be downzoning, we should be upzoning. And I'll mention in passing how building more housing brings down housing prices, a well doumented effect. I'll be happy to provide you with multiple studies and examples. I've heard arguments for downsizing. That's always the fourth w
that gets hit with denser housing, for example, or that's out of character for Monontlair. As a fourth word resident myself, I'm actually very sympathetic to the first argument. Uh but the solution is not to downs along Bloomfield near train station for goodness sake, but instead to upzone other parts of town.
I'm looking at you upper Monontlair. Um there are there upon areas that are close to train lines and shopping areas but have been frozen in single family housing for years if not decades. I'm actually not I wouldn't actually suggest a general zoning the town or a broad elimination of single family zoning. I
actually think the town should work for a gradual evolution of the town as denser housing grows outward naturally from the denser centers. Um to the point about the sardine effect, this will require planning uh infrastructure for green space, infrastructure for green infrastructure, biking and walking, but
there are beautiful dense places and in in the US around the world I bike down Migu all the time on my way back and it's uh it is dense and no one describes Migu as a hellscape, right? It's a lovely charming old street that happens to be denser than much of the rest of
the town. Uh we can change and still keep the character of not Montlair. Not just because the character of a town ultimately comes from its people, not from its buildings, but also because there are zoning tools which allow the compact urban form denser housing mixed use while keeping our town beautiful.
There's form based codes or even simpler zoning code that we can do. We deserve a beautiful town, but we also deserve a town that takes climate change seriously and does its part. So do the right thing. Don't down zone along Bloomfield Avenue near base retation. Instead, start planning for denser housing and
more mixed use at true 15-minute city and other parts of town. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And uh that completes our portion of the public comment for this evening, unless I missed anyone. Okay, we're going to move on to the
public hearing on the 2026 municipal budget. I um would like to make a motion. I'm to open the public hearing without objection. >> Okay. Are there any here who would like
to be heard um in relation to the um public hearing on the municipal bud bud budget? Yes. >> Good evening. I'm Martha. I live on Gordon Husse Avenue and I'm here to talk
about the budget. I feel I think every year you spent the whole year talking a lot about small amounts of money and then today you're about to approve a budget where I have no idea and I hope you do and I hope you can tell me how
many positions you're budgeting for. Mon the source of Monontlair's lack of fiscal sustainability is personnel costs in particular benefit costs healthcare and pensions.
Every year they grow faster than the budget is allowed to grow, right? And when that happens, how do you keep up? You keep up by crowding out other investments. So we come here and we ask for investments in pedestrian
infrastructure. Well, you can't do it because your health care costs are too high and you have too many police officers. And I don't see in the current budget in 2026 budget when I finally had access to
the user friendly budget, it is someone actually took more time to make it difficult to use. They printed the document and then they scanned it and then they post it. That takes a lot more
time and a lot more effort than exporting it and making it machine readable. So people can analyze the data can merge the data with the userfriendly database where we have already 11 years of data. Then there is no information on
page three on headc count and there is missing information on sheet sheet three there is no headcount information there and then on sheet seven where we have a summary of the headcount and total
personal cost other no union employees is missing so it's unclear are you laying off all your other non-union employees or you're just not telling us how many you're approving. This is the
problem. I mean, not that it's not on the budget. It's been a really difficult budget season. I just I want to appreciate the effort that went into it and the effort that went into providing the user friendly budget, but you need to talk about how many people you're
hiring that and how that's comparable to other towns. how that is according to what would be expected for a town our size. It's not. It's a lot more. And what it does to long-term sustainability
because any cost that is growing by more than three and a half% a year is crowding out everything else and you just can't keep up. Right? So I'm looking at the growth of the rate of
growth for our personnel cost 4% total personnel cost and then 12 12.9% for full-time supervisors total pension costs
just sorry total pension healthcare benefits and pension 4.36% a year for the last 10 years for healthcare benefits and 6.48% 48% I a year on average, right? The
annual the compound annual growth. >> Okay. >> So, how do you keep up with that? Please discuss. I I I shouldn't be talking too much. I would like for you to talk and tell us how many and how do you make this acceptable or sustainable? It's not.
>> No. Thank you very much. Um so are there others that wish to come and be heard on resolution A um to read the municipal budget for the 2026 year again. Frank Rebecci 398 Upper Mountain
Avenue. Um really this is the main reason for my visit tonight. Um the sidewalks was just an aside. Um, I just want to appreciate uh I just want to show my appreciation um to you and the
manager and and particularly the department heads, the directors uh for the effort that went into delivering this budget. I think it's a reasonable budget. I know there are hard choices that have been made and will have to be
made over the course of the year. Um, and this is a process. This is not an end point. It's not as, you know, it's not really a starting point. But I just want to let you guys know that um, as critical as sometimes I
may be, um, I do appreciate everything um, that you guys are doing offline in committees in the offices and uh, thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. Anyone else, please?
I'm actually the opposite. I actually didn't come here to talk about the budget at all, but but I pulled it out. So, um, but so I just I'll three simple questions that I could be totally misinformed. My impression is that the operating expenses and um this is more of a question. I'm not sure you can answer questions now. Operating expenses
are down, operating funds are down, and taxes are up. Am I first? I want to know is that correct? And is that because other non- tax income is down? Okay. So, I'm I'm seeing various nods and heads
shaking. So, I'm not sure that can be addressed, but that was my first question. And the second question was really about the page on pensions where again, I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly, but it looked like the number of this is that on health benefits, the number of active employees covered is down slightly and the number of retirees
uh covered is up quite dramatically. And I'm not actually sure how that works. And maybe that's the other question I had. So, um, again, I literally just saw this. So, hopefully it's very easy. I'm just missing something obvious. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else wish to come
forward at this time? Um, speak about the municipal budget. Um, speak about us reading the municipal budget by title only. No one wishes to come forward.
Okay. Council is the discussion about um reading the budget by title only according to NJSA 4A col4-8. No. Okay. Whereas
NJSA4A 4-8 provides that the budget may be read by the title only at the time of the public hearing if a resolution is passed by not less than a majority of the full governing body. Providing that at least
one week prior to the date of the hearing, a complete copy of the approved budget shall be made available for public inspection and shall be made available to each person upon request. And whereas these two conditions have
been met. Now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and the council of the township of Mont Claire's hereby declared that the conditions of NJSA4A 4-8 as amend as amended set forth in
subsection one have been met and therefore the municipal budget for the 2026 school year may be read by title only and I so move. Second.
>> All in favor? >> Oh, you want to do a roll call? >> Deputy Mayor Anderson? >> Yes. >> Councelor Birmingham? >> Yes. >> Councelor Damato? >> Yes. >> Councelor Harrison? >> Yes. >> Councelor Toller? >> Yes. >> Councelor Williams? >> Yes. >> Mayor Baskerville? >> Yes. Thank you.
Um, at this point in time, I'm going to ask um, manager Marks if you would please assist us with this >> the budget. >> Would you would you like me to address the questions that came up or or I'm not sure what you're asking me?
>> We're not going to go through this at all. We're just going to vote for it. Move to >> I could go I have 24 notes. If you'd like to hear the 24 notes, you've probably heard them before. I could adjust the question. up to the council if the council needs anything else. I have the benefit of working very closely with the manager, with councelor
Williams, with the chair of our finance committee, councelor Birmingham, our chief financial officer. So, I certainly have um become fairly familiar with this, but I'm just asking at this time if anyone else has anything. Council members, >> hi. Um,
>> Deputy Mayor, >> I would like to if if there are uh things that you would like to address, um I think it would be helpful for the benefit of everyone who's watching. Thank you. >> If that's okay with you. >> Yes, that sounds great. Thank you. And thank you for the suggestion.
>> Um so, uh there are major uh cost drivers to this year's budget which number about 13. Um starting with employee group health insurance which was up by approximately $2,549,994
which is a 33.36% increase. Um as some of you know or may recall uh we actually left the state health benefits plan uh last year and went with a a fully insured Etna plan for cost savings. more future cost
savings than this year's cost savings, but uh cost avoidance nonetheless. We budgeted approximately uh $1,250,000 for contractual increases for collective bargaining units. There are seven uh municipal uh labor unions. Uh it's not
reflected in our budget per se, but it's a it's still a cost driver. Um the public library uh funding in New Jersey is formula driven by the New Jersey state legislature, New Jersey state statute. Um the increase for the
Monontlair Public Library as uh prescribed by statute is approximately $382,441.79. We have absolutely no control over it's a formula and we have no control over it but we have to raise the uh funds to uh
fund the library. Uh PSENG last year raised their electricity rates by 17% which equates to about a $215,50 increase. There are two new departments that did not exist a year ago. Um first
was department of sustainability that was created about six months ago. The second was Department of Complete Streets. The gross uh for both of those departments is about $400,000, but because two of the employees in in one of the department were already employees before uh the new department
existed, it's about a $200,000 net increase. Uh because of all the uncertainty in um the Middle East, um we are budgeting an additional 20% for gasoline and diesel, which equates to about $144,000.
Um the reserve for uncollected taxes is up by 16.73% which is a $55,97 uh increase in 41. Um, last year, actually two years ago, we were ordered by the Essex County
Board of Taxation to conduct a property revaluation. That is a $2 million effort. Um, the effect on this year's budget is about a $400,000 increase to get um that process started. Um, our computer and telephone
networks uh were antiquated and failing. um we had to contract uh for a network modernization project. The overall cost for that network modernization project was approximately 2,349,753. Uh it is a capital item that we could
spread over 5 years. The impact on this year's budget is approximately $320,000. We had the budget for prior year's bills. These were Verizon bills that had not been previously paid. That was approximately $274,775.
Clary Anderson. So the uh arena, so last year, last summer, uh the governing body created a utility around the uh ice skating arena that was only created last summer, say between July and August. Um it only went into operation financially
as a utility, as a utility construct um for October. Um, everybody knows that the ice skating season spans budget years or calendar years. So, it was only in operation for two months. Um, and it was it was um it had a it was had a
essentially an operating deficit at the end of 2025. Uh, by New Jersey state budget law, you have to uh fund or the municipality is ultimately responsible for funding uh its own utilities. So, we had to put a number in this year's
budget of $270,032. The good news is that the Clary Anderson um season, which is wrapping up right now, actually had a profit. So, this is only a deficit on paper. The $270,000,
we don't plan to use it. We don't plan to spend it. That will lapse into next year's uh surplus for the town. Uh the 12 the uh police department uh vehicle uh lease we signed is
approximately $114,658. There were emergency uh building repairs necessary for the police department um last year which uh amount to approximately $100,000. In 2024,
uh we ended the year with a um the in the surplus that we ended 2024 with was approximately 17,258,525, which sounds great. That was the at the end of 24. At the end of 2025,
our surplus was $16,239,000. So it was about a million less. So you always use a portion of the previous year's surplus as a revenue item in in your budget. So we had one $1 million less of surplus to use in this year's budget than we had in last year's
budget. Um as one of the speakers said um they saw a we in order to cut costs and and um uh engineer savings we um created a 5% departmental reduction across across
almost all departments. Uh that amounted to 1,933,396. So operations are down. Um I will be working with there's attrition in terms of a headcount um cut. I will be if approve if the budget is approved I will
be working with all the department heads uh to identify positions for elimination um through either attrition where people have either retired or or moved on or left uh or worst case scenario through a
reduction in force or a layoff plan. But because it's a dynamic number, I don't have and because different people are paid different salaries. So, you know, a clerk or a laborer may be, you know, paid 30 or $40,000 and somebody more
senior may be paid 80 or $90,000. So, in terms of straight headcounts um until we have to take a a snapshot point in time. uh and we will do that as soon as the I mean we've been working with the department heads already but as soon as
the budget is uh approved because the budget could could always be amended up or amended down um that number is in flux. Um the budget contains a 2.2 cent tax increase per $100 of assessed value
which equates to a 2.55% increase. Uh overall the budget is um $1,55,000 more than than last year's budget. Uh the water sewer and parking utilities pay their fair share toward towards
employee health benefits um uh employee pension costs and liability insurance. So they pay their own way. Um the current fund budget is balanced. Um the township has four utilities, water sore parking in the ice arena. The water
utility budget is approximately 11,516,975. The water capital budget is the fully funded water capital budget is approximately $3 million. So, we have $3 million to make in this year's budget to make water capital investments without
having to go to market, without having to borrow any money from um banks or issue bonds. The anticipated sewer budget is approximately 10,215,700. The largest increase in spending is $570,000,
which is a payment to PG Valley Sewage Commission for um sewage treatment. Uh the parking utility budget is approximately 5,882,000 and the capital budget remains at about $250,000.
And then the finally the Clary Anderson Arena Utility was created by ordinance I mentioned last summer and began operations in October. It did even though it ended the year in a it ended 25 in a deficit, it's ending the season
in 26 with a surplus. That's all I have to report. Um, I mentioned headcount and taxes are up by 2.55% and operations are down by a little less
than 5%. >> Thank you very much. >> Oops. Thank you very much, council members. >> Council Birmingham. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I do have just a few comments just to tag on to what um,
our manager said. And, and for those who want a little more information on how we got here, I just remind everyone that we've had three presentations in addition to what you um, describe on February 12th with the mayor, myself, and councelor Williams, finance
committee, and our manager on March 24th with Joe Monzo, our interim CFO. And then on April 7th when the manager introduced the budget. So all of those are available online if people would like more more information. Um this is in addition to the public meetings that
were held late last year with the department heads. Um and in each of these meetings there has been a recurring theme um because we cannot run from our reality that um we have
increased in costs beyond our control combined with a reduction in non-levy revenue. It necessitates cuts. And just to give an example and to put it plainly, we are down $ three and half million dollars in miscellaneous
non-levy revenue and we had a $3 million increase in our healthc care cost. So that's right there a $6 million gap chasm, you might say. Um that needed to be taken care of. That's before we get
to contractual salary increases, rising utility costs. Um we h before we even get there we have a $6.5 million gap but we discussed this very much that we understand uh we are in a very difficult year here
in Monontlair we are already very heavily taxed and so despite this you know gap that we had this year and in a way it was really unprecedented and you will see other towns increasing their taxes this year 20% you know very it's
been a very rough year but um we wanted to stay and we asked the manager to stay as close to 2% as um he could and um that was really asking him to do something very difficult and um we had banked cap we could have gone over the
2% we we could have done that uh we could have gone hundreds of dollars over that cap um but legally because we had it banked and we had a healthcare you you know, again, this this large healthcare increase, we did not want to
do that. And so, the manager has been working as he's described um you know, with all the department heads and I want to acknowledge all of them and all of our employees because this is a really difficult time. Um but just again I I
just want to really um kind of belabor this point of the structural issues that we're up against. But just a just an example and because I think especially for people who have lived here a long time you you
of course you you are like why can't it be like it was and why you know but just to give you an example of a data point in in the year 2000 Monontlair received $4.4 million in state aid for its municipal budget. So
and that included energy receipts and other forms of aid. And if you were to, you know, just adjust adjust that for inflation, never mind that a lot of our costs have outpaced inflation, but if you were just to adjust that for inflation, we would be getting $8.5 million from the state. Instead, we get
three million. So in actual dollars, we are almost a million half dollars less than we were 25 years ago from in terms of state aid. And we get $3 million. and we've been getting that and it's been stagnant over several years. Um despite
rising costs in almost all sectors and so if you just adjusted health insurance for the year 2000 we would be paying something like $7 million in health insurance but instead we're at $1 million. So right there we have a gap again of $9 million.
That is covered by tax our tax levy unfortunately a lot. So, I will um not going to go on too much, but we we tried very hard. When I say we, it really is the manager and the CFO who did a lot of
the work and again the department heads and the and the staff. Um the it looks like the average res residential taxpayer for the municipal portion of the tax levy, the increase is about $14 per month. We did this with
just a moderate use of fund balance as you described. We did not have to we did not use a lot of fund balance. We we're trying to moderate that. Um and like I said, we did not use banked cap that we would have been allowed to take. Um and
I just want to say again, this is a very difficult year for Monontlair taxpayers. County taxes are rising, school taxes are rising. We have this um referendum. the the health benefits between the school and the town, we're looking at
about for the average residential taxpayer, the increase is about $675 towards health benefits when you consider the school and the town. So, this is a very big pressure on both of our budgets. And we will be working
as we can. We we we took what we hope is the first step towards something more sustainable and we will be working through that this year. Um, and I do want to say, um, and again, it's the health benefits are stressful for the employer as well as the employee. So, I
just want to acknowledge that as well. Um, but again, this is the fiscal reality where we are, and it is nothing like the fiscal picture of Montlair 20 or even 10 years ago, and we have no choice but to adapt. Um and again I want
to just say what you managed to do when you look at these numbers to me is quite remarkable >> even if it is very even if it is painful but we are really trying to reach for a sustainable path which is difficult but
it is necessary. So I just want to put that out there again. I want to thank all of the the council the manager everyone. Um, I do want to make one thing clear because I will repeat this again and again, but those eligible for the senior freeze and for the potential
tax reimbursement if you are over 65 or if you are disabled, um, you should make sure that you if you are eligible that you fill out the form for this year to establish 2025 as your base year. all the taxes you pay this
year, including those um associated with the referendum, the levy referendum, should be reimbursed if again if you're eligible. But I do want to make sure that everyone who is eligible for tax relief um takes full advantage of it. Um
and I will stop talking and again, thank you for your time. >> Um thank you very very much. You certainly have been very generous thanking everyone else. I agree with you, but certainly um Chair Birmingham, you have been a a strong force in
helping us to pull this all together and to um help us to articulate it to the public as has um councelor Williams and the rest of the council. So, I'm very grateful for everyone, manager. Okay. So, I'm going to um at this point in
time, I'd like to make a motion to uh close the hearing of the um reading of the municipal budget by title. >> Is there a second? >> Second.
>> All in favor? >> I Any This is the A. This is a to just read it in the title. Title. Um, no opposed. >> Okay, >> we voted to open.
>> We voted. There's two A and B. And it's it's a little confusing for me, so if I made you confused, please forgive me. A is reading of the budget by title. Now B, which I'm going to make a motion to open the public comment on, is actually
for us to vote on adopting the 2026 municipal budget. And I so move. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Mayor, you uh open the hearing on the adoption of the municipal budget. I understand that that first resolution,
like you said, is to read it by title. That doesn't require the hearing. The hearing part, as I understood it, was for item B, which is the resolution to adopt the municipal budget, and that's what people came up and and spoke about. >> Okay, then that that's terrific. Thank you. that that's not the way my notes
are written here, but I certainly appreciate that. So then, have we completed the process here of voting on the municipal budget or we need to do that part? >> No, ma'am. I >> Okay. So, I'd like to make a motion to um adopt the 2026 municipal budget.
>> Second, >> Madame Clerk, please. >> Deputy Mayor Anderson, >> yes. >> Councelor Birmingham, >> yes. >> Councelor Damato, >> yes. >> Councelor Harrison, >> yes. I want to add my voice to praising the manager and the CFO for producing a
budget that minimized the tax increase in this difficult times. >> Councelor Toller. >> Yes. >> Councelor Williams. >> Yes. >> Mayor Baskerville. >> Yes. Thank you. All right. Just give ourselves a hand. This has been Yeah. Right. Right. Yes. Council Birmingham.
>> I'm sorry. Just one other thing. The userfriendly budget which is one of my favorites. Um we have been there's been interim CFOs and we've been in a period of transition. So now that we have adopted that budget, we will plan to
release as you said a um searchable and one that matches the ones that are there. So we will do that. >> We should say hi to our new CFO. >> Oh, there they are. >> What happened? >> The CFO. >> Okay. So we're going to move on to uh
pending ordinance C. Pending ordinance C is uh 0-26-12 is an ordinance of the township of Montlair County of Essex, New Jersey, rescending ordinance 07-43
and the Elm New Street and Mission Avenue redevelopment plan and amending the zoning map in section 347 of the code of the New Jersey of Mont Clair, New Jersey. And I so move to open
the public hearing on this. Do we need a public hearing on this? It says okay. Thank you. So I so move to open the public hearing on this. >> Any opposed? >> No. Okay. I'm going to ask please for
the um members of the public that wish to be heard on this to please come down. This is the ordinance um 0-26-12 pertaining to the Elm new and Mission
Street redevelopment plan. >> Hi, uh Robert White. Um I'm following up with my partner Anthony Sone. >> Yes, thank you. >> Um we own a bunch of properties on Bloomfield Avenue and uh on New Street and Heartley Street. Um
and part of uh right now uh originally it was in the C1 zoning which was 55 units an acre and now it's backing down to the C3 zone which is 40 units an acre. Um which kind of in general makes
it undevelopable. So in your statement uh you kind of wanted to uh uh seek and encourage read uh reinvestment. Uh it kind of makes it impractical uh changing the zoning on us. Um the
original uh redevelopment area was uh 86 units an acre and at that type of density it actually makes uh doing a development project uh practical. um at these uh reduced um kind of units per
acre really doesn't make it practical. So probably uh Anthony and I and probably everybody else on the Bloomfield AB is not going to be able to redevelop. Um so uh we just don't think it's very wise to kind of go down that avenue if that's
what you're uh looking for. Um and the other the other thing is we didn't receive any notice of this. Um, so you would think we the only notice we got was after uh your first meeting to
kind of change the zoning on us. Um, so Anthony, I don't know if you have anything further on that, but um, >> anyone else? Well, one of one of the things I was wanted to mention to you before is um we
really have never met any of you because we're kind of developers. We're we're uh been buying property quietly and just having people rent. No problems. No problems with our tenants. Everybody's been good. Uh they they've all been tenants for a very long time. And uh
it's something where if we were able to do this development, what we've talked to our tenants about was being able to say that they could stay in their spaces with the new development pro prospects because we'd be able to com uh produce approximately 20 low-income housing,
which is low-income uh housing units, which is going to be the exact opposite of what happens if we can't get the zoning because uh it it doesn't work uh to keep the buildings and to keep the tenant base as it you have to increase it and all that's going to do is is kick
people out. So, we just wanted that you guys to consider that when you guys are making your vote this evening as to whether or not you want to resend that zoning. Thank you. Are there others who wish to come and be heard? Members of the uh township council,
please Okay. All righty. Council Harrison. >> First, let me move an ordinance of the township of Monontlair rescending ordinance 07-43 in the Elm new Mission Microphone.
an an ordinance rescending ordinance 07-43 in the Elm News Street Mission Area Redevelopment Plan and amending the zoning map in section 347 of the zoning code of the township of Monontlair. I so move >> second >> second.
>> Okay, let me let me do >> a bunch of things here. This was a redevelopment plan adopted almost 20 years ago that has apart from the Bulock school has seen one building built.
That building on Hartley Street, consistent with the redevelopment plan, is a multi-story, multi-unit building that is totally out of character with the other development on New Street. and it is
what the proposed ordinance is trying to avoid happening. The area before the redevelopment plan on the side streets was zoned R2. This is returning those side seats to an R2 zone, which is consistent. The redevelopment plan was
somewhat peculiar. It applies to half of one west side of Hartley Street. does not apply to the rest of the west side of Hartley Street or the east side of Hartley Street which remained in an R2 zone. It applies to the property between
New Street and Mission Street goes back halfway on the block to, you know, the block that's formed by Washington and then returns to the R2 zone. the the zoning that's
allowed on the Hartley Street portion um allowed buildings 607 ft or six stories or 55 units and 55 units for area for the new admission property allowed building height of 60
feet or four stories. This let's start with the side streets. The the side streets are R2. The existing character of development on those streets is R2. We had one person in the public come up about how nice
Monu is to ride on. That's another R2 zone. Yes, very nice. I don't know why we would want to allow another on on the side streets, another building like what was approved on Hartley Street to be built that is totally out of character
with the neighborhood. This is a neighborhood that is very dense currently. If you want to talk about transit villages, and for three years of my life, I spent running around advocating for them. And if you want to have a discussion in town about transit villages, let's talk about the parking
lots at Walnut Street, Wong, and Belleview Avenue as places that are one, heat islands, and two the ideal place where development should be occurring. Then we can talk about an already dense neighborhood and whether additional density in terms of the properties on
Bloomfield Avenue. I having sixtory buildings along that stretch just does not make any sense to me. We >> are proposing here the same zoning that
applies along Glen Ridge Avenue and Church Street >> also more much more part of the central business district and is very consistent with what I think makes sense for the zoning there. I am not looking for the
area to be redeveloped. If you want to know, this is an area that has been the same, you know, could it be redeveloped and six-story buildings along Billfield Avenue? Sure. I do not think that's a desirable result because those buildings are going to
totally dominate. There are two existing houses that will be behind them and >> make it it's it's just not good zoning to have a six-story building against an R2 zone that has been there for decades
and decades. It's part of the historic development pattern in the town provide and to have an adverse impact in that I think is inexcusable and I think the proposed ordinance is what makes the most planning sense for the area.
>> Thank you councelor Harrison. Um deputy mayor >> um I am really not I I I'm I'm agree with rescending the redevelopment plan. I think six stories is much too um much
too large for this area of town. And um the fact that nothing's been built there for except for the school for almost 20 years gives me pause as to what some of the reasons might be. Um that being said, um I
would not be in favor of um having the buildings that the lots on Bloomfield Avenue um be part revert to a C3. Um I think the planning board originally recommended a new CD um zone where the
maximum stories would be four. Um I'm not really sure why um why like why do we want to have those um buildings have a maximum story of of three. Um I'm just not super clear on um why why we should
have that and you know would the original you know I do have questions would having um allowing an original an additional story would that perhaps um encourage more um better development. So, um I I think that I just um while I
am in favor um generally of resending the redevelopment plan, I'm not in favor of replacing it with what's being proposed here. >> Okay. Anyone else? >> Sure. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. >> Let council model go. I'll go after him. >> Councelor Damato.
>> Yeah. I just think that as I said at our last meeting, which was, you know, videoed, but it was we were upstairs and it wasn't very easy to hear >> on the tape. Um, I just think it's a sad slap dash, um, you know, uh, remedy for
a redevelopment area that was sad and slap dash and that this ordinance, um, basically, uh, is not a fair representation of what happened. It's not an honest recounting of the history here. And like, you know, crucially,
like when you make a mistake, uh, uh, you kind of should own up. and it's in sort of the passive tense. And like I don't like redevelopment areas. I like traditional zoning. I think it's good. You just if you're going to have zoning, you do it right. Don't make special
little deals everywhere and do all this. And so it failed. That failed. And um we should own up to that as a town that we tried this thing and it didn't work. And there's been like no real attempt to
learn from that. Um the planning board on which I sit as one of the designates of the council um went through a process of trying to come up with a better solution to this that was a deliberative
process. a large body of well-intentioned volunteers did the work and the planning department came up with a proposal that the planning board in in in good cheer and and honestly weighed and then approved and it was just completely
ignored and then we were given something sort of handed something and just been and now it's as if that never happened and I just don't I just don't appreciate that and I finally think that this literally is not in um keeping with the
master plan and that's okay. In other words, like if we own up to it. So the master plan is very clear that you know you it says four stories in this area which abuts the key transit node. And now I'm totally sympathetic on on both,
you know, uh, community grounds and aesthetic grounds with the idea that that corridor should be three stories. I think that that's totally reasonable especially given you know the abuing of the R2 zone and whatnot but you do have to go
through the work of explaining what is going on what what happened why we're doing this and it can't just be you know flim and then you know I I do not know these gentlemen but um and it is not my job to look out for your bottom line to
be blunt but I do think it's a little not fair pool that somebody is not even you know given adequate notice that that there's a big taking uh you know from them. So it's just I don't like the process here and I know
we say that a lot. I genuinely am focused on not not on the outcome. And so I will vote no knowing that it'll probably pass. And I at a minimum I would just hope that it makes us more mindful of basically that the
redevelopment process. It's just always losing. We It seems like tonight we're going to deal with three different redevelopment areas, all of which are problematic. that we went in with great hopes and that and that at
the end we were kind of left holding the bag. And so that's what I would just hope that we just we'll take the we're going to take the loss here and you know and just that we don't memoryhole the whole thing. So that's where I am. >> Thank you. Councelor Toller. Sure. I'm
sorry. And then councelor William. Councelor Toller followed by councelor William. >> Um I agree with councelor Damato on one thing. Redevelopment plans are no good. we should probably stop doing them. Um, this particular redevelopment agreement that was presented to the EDC, um, if
you said it went to the planning board, that's when Miss Tally brought it to us. I had some concerns and I discussed it with councelor Harrison. I needed to go through it. Um, in regards to the change in the fourth ward where I live and the constituents that I
represent, development is at an apex. Um, I know the word urban transit area has been used a lot. That can you be used to shape a neighborhood uh some pretty noticeable ways. It can be positive and negative. Uh it's not just
about transportation. It changes how people live, work, and even who can afford to stay there. Uh urban transit access tends to make a neighborhood more connected um but can also make it more expensive and change who lives there. The other thing that I did with this or
the reason that I sat down with Miss Tally and Mr. Harrison um and again for the record when I tabled this at the last meeting uh to review it, Miss Tally reached out to Mr. Harrison for a walkth through and then I was invited. So there was no shade or slight given to the
other EDC member because technically she should have reached out to both of us instead of council Harrison. Um, what I will say is that this particular area is already dense, extremely dense. Um, the number of African-American families in
our township has dramatically decreased over with the loss of over 782 individuals in one decade between 1970 and 1980 to over 1,800 individuals in just four years between the year 2020 and 2024.
That's an increase of over five times the numbers of individuals who disappeared in the previous decades of 2010 through 2020. This represents more than 40% of a specific demographic that has departed over the last 40 years. While I heard the gentleman they use the
words accumulating properties um perhaps doing some affordable housing, there's no guarantee with that. Um the word accumulating properties is actually in my opinion um a displacement of people if you will. Um
when I look around the neighborhood and I'm looking at developments that are going up. We talked about these tax increases that are coming from the county. The fourth ward is going to be hit the hardest because so many homes have flipped and those residents will be paying more taxes than probably the other ws just because of
overdevelopment. Um, we have to do something to make sure that the neighborhood and the blocks behind Elm and Bloomfield Avenue are protected, that our diversity remains in place, and that's pretty much it. I mean, if
we're going to pride ourselves on diversity and we have to start having these real conversations about numbers and stats, okay, and what's affecting it, if we go back to the year 2000, African-Americans were 39%. You go to the year 2023, we're at 19%. What is
that from? What's causing that? I would love to know what's causing it. I could speculate, but you know, we have to just pump the brakes. The fourth board has had their fair share of uh development, overdevelopment. I agree with you. Let's
start talking about zoning everywhere. We're going to do urban transit areas. We have seven train stations in this town. We don't have to focus on Bay Street. Those are just my thoughts. Again, this is trying to protect and preserve what's left of a very special area in town. The
African-American community here in Montlair has been a vibrant component of this township. Diversity's, you know, played a very significant role in shaping Montlair since its inception. And to know that we're on a rapid, steady decline, it has a lot to do what
has happened in our neighborhood. It's just that simple. There's no other word to sugarcoat it. There's no other word to pretty it up. Okay. And if I'm listening to my constituents who said that they've had enough, we're at an apex, if you will, what can we do to protect and preserve and make sure that
we don't have another six-story building >> in our neighborhood where it's already dense and tight. Then this is what I'm here to do. And I'm asking for support because these people you represent as well, not just me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Williams.
So, I can appreciate the character of a neighborhood. I was recently in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and going down a side street, and you look at some of these houses that have been there for like a hundred years, and the character has been maintained, and you know, it's
beautiful. The the only thing my only problem here is as I see these two gentlemen here and I mentioned it when we first had this ordinance here is what is this going to do to the folks that own these
properties right and Councilman Damato pointed out it's not I'm not really interested so much in their bottom line I have no vested interest in this but something that they said resonated with me where hey we didn't even know about this and to make uh a big decision like
this without, you know, putting this out broad and wide. And I I know that we public um we publish that ordinances and public hearings or we have certain sites
and and things that we're required to put these up. But this is something that is going to impact a lot of folks that I think should have really there been should have maybe been like a special meeting or something like that that really addressed this. And I I I
think that that for me is you know I'm going to abstain from this. I I think the charact I think everything that's put forward here I think it's a good idea to maintain the character and stuff like that but that's not really the issue for me. It's, you know, this is going to impact a lot of people and I
think additional notice should be uh >> question. May I? >> Okay. No, thank you. Um, councelor Williams, um, I'm going to ask Planner Tally if you can come forward, please, and um, maybe help us with this. You've heard the concerns here. Um, and if
there's anything that you think, you know, you can say that may be helpful um, regarding how we advertised for this and anything else that you think might be helpful and and I'd like to thank you very much for all of your work um, with this.
>> Well, thank you. Um, first I want to point out that this should not be a surprise. This has been in our master plan for many many years to reduce the height of these buildings on Bloomfield Avenue from six stories albeit to four stories
and the proposal tonight is for three stories. So the decreasing of the height of the buildings and and and the development pressure between the de redevelopment areas along Bloomfield Avenue has long been part of the planning board's master plan and part of
the the discussions at the planning board. um we have not been successful in getting the ordinances in place despite the fact that we have tried to get these ordinances passed since 2018 to reduce the height. So, um I don't think that
there's been a lack of conversation or a lack of awareness prior to tonight's meeting because this is going from four stories to three stories. We specifically sent notice to all the property owners because it is different than what was in the master plan. So we
went above and beyond what we had in the past and notified them because it is technically inconsistent with what was in the master plan in terms of the height. So um that's a little bit of background information um on how we got here. Uh and I just want to emphasize
again I don't think it should be any surprise. Um, and um, that's that's it. I can answer any questions you have. >> Um, thank you, Councelor Birmingham and and then Council Damato.
>> Um, thank you. And I think I'm playing catchup because I'm not on the EDC and so, but can you just what did the planning board recommend? They recommended creating a new zone for these properties, rescending the Elm new
Mission Street redevelopment area plan. Creating a new zone. We called it the CD zone. >> Uh um >> I think it was central business whatever CD central business just to differentiate it from the C1 zone and
came up with standards uh with a maximum height of four stories as opposed to six stories. So, it wasn't all that different from what's in here right now. It's just that it created a added additional story. And the maximum density in the proposed zoning was 55
dwelling units per acre as opposed to what's proposed, which would be 40 dwelling units per acre. So, that's the difference. >> Council Damato. >> And why do we why did the redevelopment area fail? Was it because of the parking
minimums, the the the shapes of the lots? >> I don't think it was it was not a a well-crafted redevelopment plan. Um I think it created certain um visuals for the Bullock School, which
again was helpful. But for the individual properties, they're small. You don't have large redevelopment areas like you do in the other redevelopment areas where you can have meaningful change. All of the properties in this are small >> and when you have those individual
opportun uh lots that small there's not a lot of opportunity for large projects just small changes which happen anyway under the C1 zone or whatever zone. So for various reasons um there was there's been very little development in this
area. there's no opportunity for centralized parking, whatever parking um and uh would have to be already provided in the area that it relied upon. So, and there were some property owners where development could occur who chose
not to develop their it was a decision. >> Yes. >> Um and so I'm going to um just share share my opinion. I'm I'm very much in favor of this and and I like moving to the the three stories. I have um very
specifically spent quite a bit of time there. First of all, I grew up there and I've been in this area for more years than I want to talk about and I'm very familiar with the density and I'm very familiar with the makeup of the um people that are in
that area. We have two schools. We have a middle school. We have an elementary school. And then we have two prek schools that have children from 6 months up to like four years old or five and one of them. And they're all very
densely populated in that area. And so my preference is to try to bring this down and to not put um more density in there for for many many reasons. First of all, the um parking is a problem.
Second of all, the um streets that we're trying to move towards and not have shadows on them are actually going in the area of two families, which we have in our master plan, which is what we want to get to. So, the side streets
there, we want them to have two family residence for people. We've identified that the missing housing that we need more of in this area uh for affordability and just because we don't have enough uh two family housing in Montlair be two
family. So in order for us to get there, we have to have a plan that is going to gracefully be um consistent with with what's there without having shadows on them so that um it it's not appealing for the people that are living there. So
I very much encourage people to just um envision or go by there uh on the rush hour when children are being dropped off to school and in the evening and there is no uh real parking per se and now you
visualize the um opposite side of the street and we have um possibly a very wonderful plan that will be coming to Lacawana at some point in time and you have the Firestone um very busy and heavily traversed first um operation on the corner there. So, I'm very much in
favor of trying to bring the density down. Um yes, I understand when we um decided to call the area around the Bay Street train station a transit village. I understand what our intention, you know, was and to some degree, you know,
we were able to to accomplish some of the things that we wanted. But at this point in time, I think that I am uh more in favor of trying to protect the safety and well-being of all the people who will be in a very small area at one time than I am, you know, whether we're
calling this transit village or whether, you know, whatever the terms are, we might want to. So, for that reason, I'm very much in favor of bringing it down. >> May I? >> Yes, councelor Toller. >> Thank you. And I was going to mention that this particular area, this corner, Lacawana would be right across the
street. Um the density from Lacawana, we wouldn't see sunlight on those four corners for after this. That's it. You know, if we don't make a drastic change um to make sure that we're protecting and preserving some parts of the neighborhood where we can still have
some sunlight, that would be nice. As well as our neighbors, you know, um a lot of change has happened as I stated. You know, I've heard from David uh Corov said beautiful dense places, but he didn't ask didn't share if there were any diversity numbers and did it keep
the character of the neighborhood. So, it has to be a balance. It has to be, you know, a level balance, if you will, to make sure that we're addressing some of everything. And most of the conversation that I'm hearing from folks from the public hearing is on one side and we're not thinking about the other
side which is our longtime residents who actually are trying to still live here. I'm not even going to say they are living here. They're trying to still live here. Um lot of development. We've we've we've we've met our fair share in the fourth ward. And I'm sure if you talk to any resident, if anybody wants
to walk with me and knock on doors at any residents in that area, we can go talk to them face to face and you can hear for yourself their concerns. >> Um, anyone else? Um, yes, Council Harrison. just I so when this ordinance
not this ordinance the original version of the creating the new zone was on the council's agenda I wrote extensive comments to Miss Tally raising issues practical zoning as to why the bulk requirements the parking requirements
the setback requirements the lot size requirements I didn't think and it's a not atypical when you try and create a new zone that everything doesn't quite mesh and that led to her contacting me to discuss that
and Miss Tally, director Tally said, "Oh, we have this C3 zone where all these standards are in place. They've been working and with the reduced height of the buildings made more sense." I said, "Oh, that then
let's do that then write to Detroit and create a new zoning ordinance that was going to need a lot of corrections." The other practical real issue here is if this is not adopted, it provides an opportunity for someone to come in with an application under the redevelopment
plan and have it deemed complete and then they get to proceed under the redevelopment plan like the existing approval did on Hartley. And I >> don't think that is something we should do. I think the zoning on Bloomfield
Avenue from Verona down to Glenn Ridge is something that we should be looking at, but I think the master plan currently recommends going to fourstory the whole route. I'm not sure that's good and part of the
master plan re-examination report that should be looked at. But I think to allow the redevelopment plan to remain in effect any longer is creating a risk of having undesirable development
having in that area that is counter to the master plan and will be extremely detrimental to the existing R2 zone that remains. And there on the other side of Hartley going back on new
>> street council Birmingham please. >> So I'm I'm just going to apologize to my fellow counselors in that I do not feel like I have enough information right now to to make a vote, but I would like to undo the
redevelopment plan. Is that a is it is it an option or no? >> You have to create an a a an alternative an you have to have some underlying zoning >> once you remove the redevelopment plan otherwise there's nothing there. >> Yeah. >> Deputy mayor.
>> Um so I'm just asking here because I think I've already stated my position that I am in favor of res rescending the redevelopment plan. Um, but is there any could there be any consideration
among the other council people to adopt a new the new zoning um with the maximum stories of four stories for this area that we're speaking of. >> May I >> consistent with the master plan? >> Wondering because our master plan is under
>> councelor Toller. >> Thank you. Our master plan is under re-examination and when does that expire? this whole period. >> The master plan does not expire. >> Well, I'm saying expired. We're doing a re-examination and it'll be in place for 10 years. So, when will when should this council or the next council adopt the
next master plan? >> Um, I just want to empexamination of the master plan that needs to be completed by November of this year. >> Oh, okay. >> There's no expiration of the redevelopment plan. >> Perfect. But all and it's a it's a
statutory requirement to re-examinate re-examine it and really what that does is it preserves the validity of your planning and your zoning. >> Okay. >> So, >> and uh when are the next few public hearings going to be held? This is totally separate. >> I don't have a date. The planning board
with the at the at the last meeting, it was not a public hearing. It was a public meeting that we had. uh the planning board uh directed me to um work with subcommittees and directly reach out to the business districts. So I have our economic development
coordinator working reaching out to all the business districts to get input on the um on the re on all of our planning documents and our zoning. reaching out to um the various advisory boards such as the parks and recreation advisory
committee and the historic preservation commission and the environmental commission to provide input. And I think that the way that they want to proceed is if any of you want to have a word, they want it to be very specific. So if you want to have a discussion about the
master plan or the zoning ordinance for your specific district, we can engage that. But it's so big when you look at all of the elements in the master plan. It's so big. We can't do that at one meeting. So, we're going to be reaching
out to different organizations and groups to get input on what's relevant to them and then put that into uh our global recommendation in the re-examination report. >> Start with four. We're ready. We've gone through the 41 pages, so we're ready. Um
so, thank you for that. The reason I asked when will this council be adopting the the final because uh deputy mayor said she would like to see this be consistent with the master plan. So if we're talking from now till November, >> the master plan is four stories right
now. >> Yeah, >> I can't tell you what. >> Four stories is a lot. You know, it's a big push. Again, I don't think my colleagues are really understanding that diversity is slipping through our fingers with every vote and decision that we're making. one additional story is going to actually hurt the
neighborhood. And I I don't understand what what what what you all don't understand from that. I just I'm trying to understand it. If you can share with me three stories versus four stories and how you think that's going to help the neighborhood, I'm here to listen. But I don't see it
helping. I actually see it hurting the neighborhood. But if you have some other ideas and suggestions on how that works. >> So can I just >> Yes. Councelor Birmingham may Thank you. Sorry. When you say that, are you are you meaning because of the bulk of the
four stories? So like >> bulk of the four stories um depending on how it's marketing, are they luxury apartments? Are they going to be affordable housing? Because affordable housing has a ripple effect in the neighborhood. You know, development comes in and offers you 20%, 10%, eight
units. Most of those apartments are luxury. And that ripple effect goes four blocks east, west, east, west, north, and south because landlords start understanding that they can get 5,800, 6,300 for a two-bedroom, and it pushes
people out for 10 affordable housing units. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't equal out. So, the more units you get, you're going to have more luxury than affordable. and those few affordable units that perhaps we get 10 out of a unit, a development, the rest of the
neighborhood is gone. Everybody else is going to start advertising for luxury. And I've seen it happen. Their apartments around the corner from me for $6,300 for a twobedroom. >> Yeah. >> In the sake of affordable housing or another story. because I'm trying to
really understand why some people are feeling that they need four stories versus three stories and how that's helping and protecting as well as addressing the concerns of the residents in the fourth floor who would like to try to just keep what we have in place so we can continue to live here. I'm
trying to understand the difference in one story if follow up with answering that. I mean what originally brought >> councelor Harrison were you finished? Um, councelor Birmingham. >> I I mean I'm just wondering like again my qu like I wanted to just ask is three
stories and the fourth story is set back you know like if there are concerns around >> there's concerns around flooding there's concerns around who's going to monitor a catch basin. There's concerns around storm water. There's concerns around heat islands. There's concerns around
sunlight. The list is endless. Our concerns in fourth ward match every other ward's concerns. But for for some reason this particular ward seems to be get scrutinized and uh people share their opinions and aren't actually living in this neighborhood. And I don't
understand that. >> I just don't I mean I'm talking to people every day. >> It was >> every day. >> What led to my >> Okay. At this point in time, I I will um notice Councelor Harrison, >> the issue of the way the zoning was set up
for the fourstory proposal wasn't going to work. I there were it just with the small lot sizes if if you know you just had a one big lot, yes, it would have worked. I there are issues on the height compared to the neighborhood,
but it was just putting it all together on the small lot sizes, the bulk requirements, the coverage requirements, >> the setback requirements, the parking requirements. >> It was just not going to be workable.
And I I raised the concerns, not aiming at the four stories and not being stupid me forgetting we had the C3 district, but simply pointing out that it didn't all fit together. And then director Tally
said, "Oh, we have this other zone where the standards work." I said, "Oh, well, that that makes sense. That's consistent and will have a less of an impact on the R2 zone that's behind Bloomfield Avenue." And and I would like to point out that is the zoning on Glen Ridge Avenue and on Church Street.
>> So it's not like we haven't seen it in our downtown. >> Also, if I may, it's it's also essentially almost like NC. I mean, this is what we're looking at is that one side of Bloomfield Avenue, the south side of a certain portion of it, fits
more in character with the neighborhood commercial zone, which is the which is the zoning default in most of our of the other, you know, dense commercial districts in town. Not Walnut Street, which weirdly is light
industrial bazaar. Weirdly, >> that's because of its industrial history. It's >> history. It's strange history, but when you look at it, like this is why I'm I'm sympathetic totally like it is really just a process thing that that side of the street is don't. It's true. That
side of the street makes sense. I look at it and I see it's like upper Montclair. It's the same thing. Two, threetory buildings. Makes sense. It's not It's not unreasonable. And in fact, I mean, the key thing, this is a good conversation, by the way,
is that this is this, as you say, council troller, like you know, fourth ward is closed for for business, for development. That's fine. I don't care. I honestly don't. I think the whole town is basically at this stage. >> I was here last night for some, not all of the planning board meeting.
>> Um, there is nobody clamoring for more density overall in town. really there are goodhearted you know people who are pro you know they want housing for people and that's a posit you know that's a positive thing but on a practical level
the vast majority of people in town just feel there's a lot of you know there's a lot of congestion and that basically >> it's probably enough you know the water if it's not too hot it's it's definitely
not too cold so I I see it. I still I wish if all this was folded into the resolution, the ordinance, this discussion of where it was coming from, I'd be probably totally okay with it. >> I would just The last thing I would say is that don't
>> Excuse me. Um >> is that Wait a minute. Is this is important to just get out there is that >> the idea that development that adding more houses increases housing prices. I'm fine if people believe that. I don't believe it. And I've covered economics
professionally for a long time. There is a healthy debate about this. Some people believe that there is some effect and there probably is some effect that if you, you know, add add a new piece of housing that it will cast a glow on a neighborhood, you know, a development
glow and that whatnot and it'll lead to some things. I don't really buy that. I think if you add more housing at a certain point prices invariably go down just like if you have more hot dog stands on one corner eventually the hot dogs get cheaper. I just wanted to get
that out there. So, but it's no judgment on you if you believe differently. >> No, no, I didn't say housing was a problem about the pricing. I'm saying there's a demographic in this town that's on a steady decline because of house flipping, because of luxury rents.
two very different things than what you just said. I didn't say anything about the housing cost making a neighborhood be expensive. That's just going to happen. And yes, it could level out. What I'm referring to is that the African-American population here in this
town is on a steady decline because of luxury housing, because of luxury apartments. And the data is there. You cannot believe it. The data is there. You can look on the census and see that we're on a steady decline. The two I don't think you can always say
are are are >> No, they are. They absolutely are. Again, I welcome you to welcome the fourth board with me. We can knock on doors and talk to neighbors and you can hear for yourself whatever struggles they're going through or facing and challenges. >> All right. So, let's um um I think
everyone's had an opportunity to say something. Council Birmingham, did you have one more thing because I know you haven't said a lot. Yeah. cuz again like so from councelor Harrison what I'm hearing from you is that the what if I think I'm understanding you correctly that the CD
zone I think it was called the CD zone coming from the planning board >> you thought was not workable like it didn't fit together >> the the requirements and then >> councelor planner tally you said well
something similar to that is the C3 zone >> and it would fit and it would fit bit. >> Mhm. There I'm hearing from you that you think that three stories is entirely reasonable, but because of your you're a man of principle, you will not be
voting. >> To be honest, that plan for the CD zone came to the planning department. It wasn't generated by the planning board. Is that correct? >> Largely. >> Um >> yes, >> it it came from my department and then
we disc met with the planning board. We made a couple of changes. Um, but yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> And do can I just ask again, not that anyone's bottom line is is relevant, but when you're when we're making these um
changes, do you do economic analyses of these? Is that something that you do? Because I know like when we do the redevelopment plan, there is an analysis, >> right? >> Do you do you do it? >> No, we don't. for for a small change like this, a zoning change, particularly one that is pretty consistent with the
master plan. And honestly, when we came up with the CD zone, those requirements are stated in the master plan. We just pulled it directly from that. >> So, we don't do an economic analysis. No. >> And you were saying this what we're doing here is consistent with the ma
master plan or >> I like the way the planning board um uh presented it in their resolution. It is not precisely consistent with the master plan because the heights are a little bit lower, the density is a little bit lower, but it is consistent with the
intent and the spirit of the master plan, which is to bring the zoning >> on that stretch of Bloomfield Avenue and behind in in the residential neighborhoods bring the zoning more into conformance as to what's there right now.
>> And that came from the sense that came from Okay. and I also sit on there and it was it was a very interesting conversation and that's why we ended up where planner tally is saying we were because they did feel like it was the
spirit and um so okay so now that we've had that um discussion I'm going to make a motion to close the discussion on this >> well I opened it then he opened
something else so I don't know now how to get back to closing that because then he called for a vote while I had opened the public hearing. But anyway, we could just jump to the vote if that would be where to go now since since he open that. Okay. All righty. I'd like to make
a motion um please that we vote on the um pending ordinance 0-26-12 um ordinance to um for the new New Jersey rescending the ordinance 07-43 the Elm new street mission area
redevelopment plan and amending the zoning map in section 347 of the code of the township of Montclair New Jersey and I so move >> second. >> Madam clerk, please. >> Thank you, Mayor. Deputy Mayor Anderson,
>> no. For the reasons I gave. Council Birmingham, >> um, thank you for your patience and walking me through and answering my questions. I will I'm going to vote yes. >> Councelor Damato, >> no. >> Councelor Harrison, >> yes. >> Councelor Toller, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> abstain.
>> Mayor Baskerville, >> yes. Okay. I'm sorry. Uh, so do you want to do the consent agenda? >> Now we're up to the um consent agenda
and um does anyone have things that they want to remove from here? I know we tabled 4 A 4 and five. What did we do with number three? We didn't >> we didn't table five. Okay. Thank you.
So we tabled 4 A and four >> and I just want to table one for a question or the statement. >> Okay. So we'll take it out of the consent agenda >> and two please. >> Number two. >> Yes. Councelor Toller. >> I just wanted to say that the bill list
we can't see the numbers. >> Okay. >> It's just printed wrong. I mean we don't have to table it if everybody's comfortable with what they can read on it. >> Okay. I think they sent this one. Um, >> landscape. >> Councelor Williams, you want to walk us through this.
>> Well, are we doing the consent agenda first or we >> We took out number two. We took out 4 A and number four. >> So, what are we doing? We just voted. >> We should move on. >> You want to let on the entire consent agenda? That's what I think I
>> I was just going to let him because I know he likes to to move it and I was going to give him that honor to move it for us, but we can Yeah. >> make a motion to move the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All right. >> Madam,
>> Deputy Mayor Anderson, >> yes. >> Councelor Birmingham, >> yes. >> Councelor Damato, >> yes. >> Councelor Harrison, >> yes. >> Councelor Toller, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Mayor Baskerville. >> Great. So, did you >> Mhm. Um, yes.
>> Thank you. >> So, now can we make a motion to go? >> Yes. We're done. >> No, you want to go over number two, Mayor. Number two was pulled from consent. >> Well, and number one. >> Number one, councelor Toller.
>> But you just said that that was the um printing, right? >> It was because it was printed differently. So, we're good with number one. >> Allowed me to look at it. I don't have any questions. I was just making sure everybody else was yours printed like this or differently. >> Let's go to number two. Councelor Damato, >> they doing whatever they want anyway.
>> Number two. >> No, I just think that we should give it a couple of seconds. >> Okay. >> Uh so I can move the resolution authorizing introduction and approval of the 2026 budget for the
Monontlair Center Business Improvement District. And I so move. second. >> Um, maybe I can ask interim director Gleon. >> Director, but you can certainly ask questions. >> The president. Yeah.
>> Bless you, >> gentlemen. >> Hey, good evening. >> Good evening. So, >> hi, good to see you. >> Can we actually get out of May? >> I said, can we actually get out of time before midnight? I just had a question
as to why one of the things that I would try to worry about or end up worrying about is whether or not our uh the things that we spend money on that are hard that are about physical improvements that get
done that people can see and touch and feel. um whether we are spending the ratio that we spend on that to soft costs or to administrative costs or to people sitting behind screens. And I did see that in the budget for this year it
has changed a little bit that um like for example beautifification budget went down and the advertising budget went up and it's more about the latter like why do we feel that we need to be advertising
more and beautifying less if if I'm looking at it correctly. >> So I can actually speak to that if you want. as this uh this >> um so the the advertising budget went up because uh the bid was awarded uh a higher grant award amount from the uh
secretary of state's office division of travel and tourism that's the DMO grant so that's why um and in terms of the beautifification cost um the bid uh planted some evergreen plantings uh in this last year so uh didn't need to
spend money um on doing annual plantings Um, and I believe that's a direct correlation there. >> And then what is that? And the advertising also is paying for a role. Is that correct? >> Uh, yes. >> Or it's it's paying for a position.
>> It is. >> And >> currently that position is being filled uh by a contractor. >> By a contractor. Okay. Who are we? Explain the advertising a little bit. Like how does a bid advertise? >> Sure. Uh you mean like >> Yeah. like how do we or how are we
trying to draw people and like how does that how does that work? >> Um you mean conceptually or like actual like how like print digital like that kind of stuff? >> However you want to summarize it. >> Uh sure. It's it's a it's a mixture of
uh of of you know uh of different mediums. Um you know primarily I think digital is is definitely the um the way to go. there's a lot more um tangibles in terms of uh how to track that um you
know in terms of like actually looking at the metrics and analytics of it. Um you know I don't want to say print is a dead medium but um >> print is somewhat of a dead medium these days. >> Yeah it's it's in it's in somewhat of a death spiral good way to put it
councelor Birmingham. Um, so, uh, I think, um, the investments in print are certainly not as heavy, uh, and and aren't looked at as favorably. Um, I think, um, the bid has invested pretty heavily, uh, specifically with the DMO grant on doing, um, I don't know if I'd
call it billboard advertising, but advertising with, um, New Jersey Transit. Um, so you'd see those billboard advertisements um, that are like when you go stop to stop, they do um, billboard isn't the right way to put it, but uh they're pretty significantly
large advertisements that are on each train stop uh and go into New York Penn Station, even further out into New York. Um those are generally specifically uh for the events um that take place into town. Um those seem to have pretty
significant return. Um, and um, >> so this is this was really probably what I was curious about is like the ad spend is mostly going to driving people to the events. They're event specific. Is that correct? >> Um,
>> are there not do we I've never seen a generic visit Montlair ad anywhere like >> there are. >> There are. Okay. Absolutely. >> Like visit Nashville. I think one that would come to mind is um one that runs in the fall is there's a there's a campaign called Fall in Love with
Monontlair. Um and that is I know. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um and it uh um you know it has obviously has a fall motif to it, right? Um and those go up uh that is a partnership with um with transit as
well. >> If you'd like I could send you the um >> I would love to see it. I could I could send you the ad. >> Uh any other changes in the budget that people should should know about >> or any any changes or
>> nothing real specific. Um I'd sent you all >> or I guess that's I haven't sent it to our treasur to to the manager. Um that had a very specific uh layout of any changes that were taking place. Uh a budget al allocation method. There you
go. Exactly. um that really laid out any changes uh that were made to the budget um from year-over-year. Um >> nothing really significant. >> Thank you. >> You're very welcome.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> No, thank you for all that you do. >> Oh, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Should we start working on puns for next advertising campaign? Uh yeah, we're open to all
ideas of course. Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. Was that the only other one? Do we have any further discussion on number two? >> Roll call, please. >> Deputy Mayor Anderson. >> Yes. >> Councelor Birmingham, >> yes. >> Councelor Damato, yes.
>> Councelor Harrison, yes. >> Councelor Toller, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. Mayor Baskerville. >> Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, I um asked the um council members um earlier today about adding on
um urgent resolution um that came to us from Dr. Johnson resolution authorizing application for municipal efficiency review program grant.
And so um deputy mayor is going to um tell us a little bit about that. Did anybody have a chance to to look at it at all? And has she spoken to you? Because it is time sensitive and I think it's very very important that we do
this. Um, and it it will really help us in terms of process and procedures and the way we're doing these things. So, um, I'm recommending that and I know we don't normally put things on like this, but because it's a time-sensitive thing and because I think that it will
definitely overall assist us, I'm recommending that we move forward with this. And um, Deputy Mayor. >> Yeah. Um, >> yes. I'm sorry. is just make a motion to amend the agenda to include the >> Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I'd
like to make a motion, please, to amend the agenda um to add the >> resol >> resolution authorizing application for municipal efficiency review program. >> Second.
>> All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> No. Thank you, Mayor. >> Okay. Yes, deputy. Just to add to what the mayor has said, um this is an opportunity for for to get a state grant. um uh to it's called the management and enhancement review
program. And the um project that um was proposed by the director of sustainability is to if if we were selected to get this this money um is to conduct a a six-month operational review of our shade tree management
>> um and related functions. Um and uh I think this is this would be an excellent opportunity um to to look at these and figure out how to improve efficiencies, you know, reduce duplication of efforts and you know um figure out how we can align our resources with with the very
big demands that we um and the goals that we have to increase our tree canopy. >> Uh so >> and it it's so timely, right? We're going to review she the grant will help us to review all the ordinances we have procurement practices and all of those types of things that we've been talking
about. And so um in terms of the grant um probably want to know what financially would be expected of the municipality s township um $60,000 is what we're requesting from the grant and the municipality would be
responsible for $15,000 which um has it's been identified already though so it's not like we're out here looking for it's been identified through the USDA tree canopy grant. So, we're looking good in terms of the resources for it, and I just
think it's a win-win. So, you moved it. >> I I moved >> a second. >> Um, yes. I just wanted to know, are we able to make any substantive changes if I tell you what they are? Do you have a copy? >> Oh, yes. Do you did pass her this if she
wants? >> Yeah, I know. Mayor was supposed to to pull that back. >> I'm sorry. You're you're correct. I was I was supposed to Sorry. >> No, I just we I looked at it earlier and
um I was would like to include in paragraph 4 the fourth whereas uh where it talks about uh coordination with uh current workflows, permitting processes etc. after the word departments if we can add including the parks and recck
committee and the MEC commission this gives us a well-verse um dynamic of all persons um in the fifth whereas uh where it says the study will also assess opportunities after the word
opportunities only because we're in a process procedure and you know we're going to adhere to the master plan we would I would like to include the words within all areas of the township. Without those words, this could very well not hit certain areas of the township. Thank you.
>> Um and so, attorney, how would I how would I get to this the the amendment um from where we are because I know >> you can take the roll call and make changes. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um Madame McCer, please.
>> Deputy Mary Anderson. >> Yes. >> Councelor Birmingham. >> Yes. Councelor Damato, >> yes. >> Councelor Harrison, >> yes. >> Councelor Toller, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Mayor Baskerville, >> yes. Thank you. >> So, now I'd like to make a motion to
amend >> or we just It's already done. She wrote it down. You wrote it down already. >> You have it down already. >> I'm going to get it from the attorney. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Um, and so yeah, I'd like to thank um the director of
sustainability for all the time that she puts into this and u all the hard work that she does and she's always helping us to find grants and um we went to to get a grant yesterday for our clean streets and so I just want to shout out
and let everyone know that she's doing a great job. I certainly appreciate it. All right. I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Oh gosh, that was good. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed?
>> Great. Okay. Thank you and thank you to the public for coming out. See you soon.