Okay. Meeting call to order. This is the February 24th, 2026 council meeting held here at the council chambers. Would the clerk please read the statement of compliance? >> This meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings law duly announced, advertised, and posted in the municipal building. The meeting will
adjourn no later than 10 p.m. unless a majority of the council members that are present vote to extend the time. I'll rise for the pledge of allegiance. Uh with the chief of police chief chief of police, please lead us in the pledge pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for its one nation, indivisibley and justice for all. >> Remain standing for a moment of silence, please. Thank you. >> The clerk please call the role.
>> Mayor Kamala >> present. >> Council President Talamini >> here. >> Councilman Eert >> here. >> Councilman Pignatelli >> here. >> Councilwoman Rose >> here. >> Councilman Saliani >> here. >> Terrific. Okay, we have a celebration
here today. I'd like to bring uh Alicia Lim Clark forward with her troop leaders and the Girl Scouts. We have uh a presentation of certificates for a new coloring room that they raise money for at the library. Well done. >> Come on.
I know he's scary, but he doesn't bite. >> Officer over there. >> So, first of all, >> you take your jacket off. All right, we're all set. >> So, uh, M. Clark, why don't you tell us
a little bit about the program? I did have an opportunity to visit the coloring center at the library. For anybody that doesn't section, there's a couple tables up there with chairs and some crayons and a whole bunch of coloring books and everything else like this. So, tell us walk us through how this happened, how
you got involved with M with Peter from the library, and tell us what the girls did. >> Sure. I'm so proud of my troop. We're a troop of 17 and we've been together since kindergarten. We meet um second Friday of the month at Heights. So, these are mostly girls from
Heights School. As a troop, we like doing fun things, but I know part of Girl Scouting is to give back to your community. And that sounds really abstract. It's hard to imagine that when you're a little kid. So what I wanted to do was
to show them that they also can make a difference. And so what we did, we were trying to figure out what to do that would make an impact in our community that would specifically help younger kids like
themselves. And so we invited Mr. Peter from the library to come. We brainstormed ideas together as a group. Mr. Peter brought his ideas back to Miss Debbie and they
chose one of our de our ideas which was the coloring station. And in order to raise money for the coloring station last year during the townwide garage sale, we hosted a fundraiser for the garage sale and
cookie booth. So the girls also got a chance to um to be um sellers and um so it took a little bit of time but Mr. Peter um finally got the table
ordered and now it's in the children's section of the library and I'm really proud that the girls were participating in it and had a little piece of you know contribution to our community. >> They learned a good lesson about civic
pride. >> Yes. >> So what grades are all these girls approximately? >> These are third graders. >> Third graders. And how much money each of you guys raise? >> 900. $900. >> Wow. >> Good job, girls. So, we have certificates for you from the governing
body. And I'm first I'm going to give one to Miss Clark. >> Thank you very much. >> Wonderful job. This is so exciting. And it's it really is a cute space. Go down to the library. Go look at it. Bring your kids down there. It's it's good job, girls. Very nice. I have troop
leader Sandra Drews. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to let I'm going to let Miss Clark give out the rest of the certificates. Okay. >> Okay. >> There you go. >> All right. Satie Drews, Mila Clark, >> Zoe Gioamaro,
>> Jakamaro, >> Lily Glatson, Here, I'll take it. >> Amelia Greenberg, Sienna Lonzaro, Rachel Lera. One moment.
Noel Portzmore, Alli Roland, Chloe Spectre, Satie Shoots, Caroline Vez, Angie, hold on one second. Angie,
Angie Benquis, >> good job. You want to take a picture together? >> Sure. >> All right, >> girls. Hold your certificates out. I'm covering my face. >> All right, let's give him one more round of applause. We're going to do something really
exciting today. You're going to see that man over there, Mr. Shan Torpy. He's going to be sworn in as a police officer. All right. So, don't you have a seat over there? We'll swear the police officer and then you can leave. Okay. >> More than one. More than one.
>> Okay. Before we swear in Mr. Torpy, we have the following resolution. It is 26-93 resolution to hire police officer Sha Torpy. Do I have a motion to >> So moved. >> Mr. Sal. >> Second. >> Roll call.
>> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Pignatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. >> Okay. Mr. Torpy. I believe you wanted to bring your
mother and father and girlfriend up. Is that what you wanted to do? >> Okay, Chief, come up. >> Let's go. I'll put you on. >> You're going to get the firstbody all together. You guys want
>> to? Let's see if we can face that way a little bit. >> Oh yeah, we have to go a little closer to you. >> Ready, Sean? >> First of all, I just want to say I've known Sean. Sean's been a member of the fire department for how many years now, Sean? You joined at 18. >> Time going on 11.
>> About 10 years. So Sean's always had a a passion for public service. You know, I've been on the fire department for Sean with Shawn for 10 years. I've watched him grow and and here we are with an opportunity to become a police officer in Oakland. So, you ready, Sean? >> Yep. >> Okay. Repeat after me. I, Sean Torpy,
>> I, Sean Torpy, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution >> that I will support the Constitution >> of the United States >> of the United States >> and the Constitution >> and the Constitution >> of the State of New Jersey >> of the State of New Jersey >> that I will bear true faith
>> that I will bear true faith >> and allegiance >> and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and the governments >> and the governments >> established in the United States >> established in the United States >> and in the state and and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people
>> and that I will faithfully >> and that I will faithfully >> impartially >> impartially >> and justly >> and justly >> perform all the duties >> perform all the duties >> of police officer >> of police officer >> according to the best of my ability >> according to the best of my ability >> so help me God >> so help me God
>> congratulations Congratulations. >> Welcome to the family. >> Congratulations. Sean >> the first piece of paper. >> No. All right, we're going to take a fivem
minute recess for those people that wish to leave and then we're going to start the rest of the meeting. >> Thank you everybody. >> Welcome to All right, we're up to the mayor's report at this time. Uh, first of all, I just want to recognize the fact that Oakland
received approximately 22 inches of snow in the last storm. Um, our DPW once again, uh, did a wonderful job getting the roads cleared. That's I went by the National Weather Report. That's what they said. And, uh, you know, they once again, Oakland EVW delivered. Obviously,
they worked throughout the night. Uh, we're down to the Asheville about 2:00 in the afternoon, uh, Monday, and they did a great job. Also, OEM was out there as well. OEM and I were uh doing you know some uh flaps around the town make sure everything is okay but they did an
outstanding job. EMS was standing by. Fire department also had a plan. They had one person stay at the firehouse. So Oakland was storm ready and and thank goodness we came out the other side with no power outages or anything. So Oakland did okay. Affordable housing. Obviously this is uh
you we're going to be going through several ordinances today for zone changes. uh that'll be uh under ordinance introductions this a this evening. Everybody keep in mind special election is still on March 10th. That's a Tuesday and the big meeting is going to be the
March 12th. I'm going to keep repeating this. This is going to be the joint planning board and council meeting starting at 6:00. 6 o'clock will be a planning board meeting. Uh the planning board members will be up at the deis working with our professionals dealing with the affordable housing. Once that
meeting concludes, then the council meeting will start at 7 o'clock. Okay. Uh for all the people live on the uh north end of town, uh with public service doing all the work in the roads up there, I know it's terrible. Uh we are looking to have public service start
paving those roads sometime either end of June or July once school is out. So all those uh all those roads that are all dug up there should hopefully be fixed sometime in the early summer. Also for people that live down in the Grand View area, we are going to be starting
some storm water upgrades in the Acorn Grand View area. Uh we did award at the last council meeting and they're going to start work as soon as the weather is permitting. And that's all I have at this time. Do I have a motion open to public? So moved. >> All in favor? I hear
>> from the public issue trust the governing body. Hi. Um, Joan Czech, do I need to give my address still? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. 18 Crosby Lane. Um, I'm here tonight as the chief of the Oakland first aid squad. I know the last um most
recent affordable housing unit that was built was built with three stories um and no elevator. Unfortunately, we depend on people who are not necessarily super strong and um
Bill yet there. This is Wait, where where'd he go? That's our kid. That's our young guy on the day crew. And we, you know, the we carry in for your average call about 50 pounds of equipment. If it was a CPR, it's even
more. It's not even really one trip, it's two trips. those those that extra story is a lot for us and it makes it hard for us to do our job. It makes us hard hard for us to take care of our volunteers. Um you know
never mind carrying out the you know occasional really heavy patient. That's a huge deal. Um, so I know this isn't really within the council's control, but I do want to make a note here that we
humbly request that any building over two stories has an elevator or some method for us to be able to get people out quickly in an emergency at least. >> Okay. >> And also picking up on what um, Councilman Petelli has said before, we really need volunteers and in general,
we don't work them that hard. you know, I've I've made some amazing friendships. I you know, it's it's a wonderful thing to do. Um, we provide all the training. You can also join as a driver, which is not necessarily a lot of training. And
even if you don't think you could do it, put in an application. Open fas.org. It's a place to put in an application. Come talk to us. you know, if if you have any concerns that you might, you know, you might I mean, if you absolutely faint at the sight of blood,
but frankly, we don't do a lot of bloody calls. We really don't. It's it's really just mostly just helping out the our older residents, you know, the occasional person who gets hurt, occasional person who gets sick, but you know, it's it's definitely we definitely
need the volunteers. Yeah. >> Okay. >> And we and we pay for the train. We pay for the training. >> Oh, yeah. training is is paid for. Actually, the state pays while training. But yeah, >> M check before you leave. Yes. We normally don't do back and forth, but we happen to have our affordable housing attorney here. Okay. >> Maybe you can just address the elevator
issue when it comes to the affordable housing. And then how do you >> Yeah. the the problem that the mayor and council have on a lot of these issues is that the legislation I'm sorry the the legislation um that was adopted by the state says that you cannot add you
cannot demand anything that is cost generative. So for the bureau to demand that someone add an elevator to a building that is going to have affordable housing becomes an issue and you have developers who say no that's cost generative we don't have to do that. So that's the issue. I I did hear
about that though and and we're going to ask all of the developers to agree to it voluntarily. >> Okay, that would that would be great because it is a public safety issue. You know, the amount of time involved getting up there with all our CPR equipment and then bringing that patient
down may cost people their lives and not because of how old we are. >> Governing body agrees. I know that. >> Thank you, Mr. I'm glad you brought and I think it's ironic that when it comes to affordable housing that if you have people with disabilities that can't get up two stories or third stories. So see how messed up this legislation is. Or
give me affordable housing, but if you have a disability, you can't use the affordable housing, >> right? >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Oh, you're >> anybody else. That's over. Tenley Highway to the mayor, the entire council, OEM, police,
fire, DPW, just a huge thank you. We drove through neighboring towns in the aftermath of the of the storm and they were not nearly as prepared. They were not nearly as well cleared. I think we owe the community owes a debt of gratitude to to everybody who lost sleep and were away from their families that
night. I know I and my family greatly appreciate it. Um and then first thing this morning, like clockwork, trash was picked up and kids were back in school a little bit late. So, for all the planning that went into it, all the volunteers and all the first responders that were out there making it happen,
just an overwhelming thank you from my family to to all of yours. >> Anybody else? >> How you doing? Will Lensetti 23 Chickasaw. Thank you for your time tonight. Um, just wanted to follow up. I was here last time and I had mentioned
some things about fiscal responsibility and and some other things and I mentioned the garbage pickup and then Steve Mr. Kun had come up to me afterwards and mentioned you know we're looking at Pompton Lakes because of the lack of competitiveness in the sanitation industry in New Jersey which
I can't make that stuff up. I mean we're in New Jersey. So, all kidding aside, I mean, although there may be a lack of competitiveness, at least it's transparent. I mean, public bids, I mean, their contracts go out, they are transparent. I think
what's going on here and what's going to be voted on from a resolution is just a gross lack of transparency to the citizens of Oakland who pay a lot in taxes for that for these services. And for me to understand like, well, why are
we moving? Why are we not going into an open bid? Why is this not visible to the public to the people who pay for this? For me, it's just hard to understand. And maybe I'm a neophite at this, but maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm just maybe I'm
just concerned citizen that we're not seeing the big picture and that it may impact us in the long run. And the reason I say that is when I look at what at least the Pompton Lakesboro Council had said, you know, they're
hiring nine full-time people. You know, these are full-time employees with provisions for escalations in benefits, pension, all these other things. You know, these are not small ticket items. I mean, talk about medical
benefits year on year in that escalation. What are we signing on for? We're paying for two garbage trucks from from if you were listening to their council meeting, this is like a windfall for them. So, we can't have two winners here. So, what
what are we getting out of it? What are we saving? And we have no visibility to that. So, as a concerned citizen and taxpayer, I just need to put it out there that I don't know what we're getting. I don't know what you're voting on tonight because it's not transparent
to us. And it doesn't make sense to me because if you look at a sanitation company, you're not paying for benefits for them. You're not paying for escalation on medical benefits. You're not paying for full-time employees. You're paying for a contract. There is a
reason companies hire contract laborers and they don't hire full-time employees because you take that person's salary. You multiply it by one and a half times and that's the cost of the employee because you're paying for benefits, paying for pension, you're paying for 401 and all this stuff and we're paying
for nine more people for this town. So, I just need to understand where the benefit is and what makes the most sense. >> Thank you, Mr. President. You're you're going to hear from the bureau administrator. We're going to be he's going to be talking about that today prior to the resolution being voted on. >> Sure. But I would like to know that
there's financial what are the numbers? >> He's going to break it down for you. Stay tuned. >> Yeah. >> You came at the right time. >> Well, that's good. I mean, like I said, let's see what makes the most sense. If it makes sense, great. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not. But I know there is a
council election coming up. I have no political affiliation whatsoever. But if people feel that things are not working, vote with what you think will change things. That's all I have to say. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> I am Ben Hansen, TW Fieldstone Court. Uh
I've never been in one of these meetings or seen one of them, so forgive me if this has been talked at Nazum before, but just my own thoughts. I've heard a lot about more housing developments uh coming up. We have the one by the high school and we have another one being talked about behind Pace Hardware. And I'm not opposed to growth, but I know
when there's growth, there's also uh fiscal burden or responsibility put on the city. So, I've heard about these developments and now to take care of that fiscal burden, you could either do one of two things. I can see raise taxes or try to bring in more business. Now, I
know Oakland some time ago refused to waw wa. You know, that would have brought some good business. >> Oh, I agree with you. It was a terrible move. Now, I I if we're bringing in if we're building these housing complexes, bring in more kids, more adults, uh you know, just just more families, what are we doing to offset that burden from the
taxpayers, from the citizens? How are we enticing businesses to generate more revenue and money for the city? I I've heard nothing about that. So again, maybe I've missed something, but you know, I I'm for growth if it's done correctly, but you know, again, to go with fiscal responsibility, you know, I
I I like to know what's going on there. >> Thank you, sir. You got to our attorney's here. We're going to be talking about the ordinances today. >> Okay. Thank you. Are these uh like an agenda? >> There's some Yep, there's some there's an agenda up there and also some >> Anybody else?
Oops. >> Dana Pereira, 21 Oak Street. Back up here again. Um, so I just was sitting and listening and I actually wasn't going to speak today, but then transparency was brought up and
affordable housing. And I couldn't agree more with the whole aspect of lack of transparency from our council. Um, we have been dealing with you for a month and a half now about this affordable
housing issues. Again, without us advising our community, no one is aware any of it's going on. You guys are all going to sit today and vote to amend some of these ordinances. We have asked as a block on a whole as well as the
rest of the community many times over for the information about this. We've been told that we cannot be provided the information because of litigation. Only that information that's being litigated is held. The rest of the information should have been provided to
us. So now yet again, the council is hedgehoging us and hiding information and meanwhile our burrow as a whole is going to suffer. >> Okay. So, so what I'm going to do is once again, it's not going to be back
and forth, but I have our affordable housing attorney. This is the Roper site. Can you just address the questions concerning round three and how the that site is not changing. There's no ordinance that's amending that site at all from the third round. That was the zoning for that site was adopted in the
third round. We're now going into the fourth round. There is no change to any of the zoning for that site. >> The bottom line is we still don't have information. Everything is still being hidden from us. The digging as far as the soil
testing, we're still waiting for answers on that. We're still waiting for >> like I thought you last we weren't aware of any soil sampling either. But but I think it's important what the what the attorney said is there's no change whatsoever from the plan from Brown.
There's no change whatsoever. Correct. That's correct. >> Including not increasing the amount of units they're putting in. >> Correct. unit count remains the same >> and anything >> yeah none of this is tolerable the D
needs to be contacted yet which we are working on and reaching out as far and the railroads >> but but just so you know the attorney just there's nothing here being discussed about it because nothing is changing to that application >> you won't find an ordinance that's changing any of that zoning because it's
not proposed to be changed it was adopted under round three and it rem remains is the same as it was. >> You understand there's still no lack there's still a complete lack of trust because you're hiding information. >> Okay. Anybody else? >> Okay.
Hi guys. Marisol Kazowski. I'm over in the college section. Um, as somebody who is self uh appointed as addicted to volunteering, I would first of all like to ask the public in general and anyone watching at home, please consider
volunteering for the town of Oakland. It is what makes us great. Um, the ambulance service is one of our key uh organizations that absolutely needs our volunteering and service. Um, I myself have worked with our Oakland green team. So, if you like a styrofoam collection, you need to join that group. They need
your help. Um there's also a couple of other wonderful organizations in town. I've worked with the arts committee, um the historical society and our PTO's and different organizations like wreck as well. Um as somebody who volunteers
quite a bit, um we had a new uh celebration actually that we had this December which was the holiday stroll which preceded our treelighting ceremony and it was a wonderful uh celebration. It was the first year we run it. We're hoping to make it bigger and better next
year. That's being done by the public events committee. Um, our mayor showed up looking quite dapper. It was a awesome hat he was wearing and Mr. Salani was there and he was asking every single volunteer how they were doing that night, if they were doing well. U Mr. Potatelli was there. I believe you
were working with the ambulance group that night. I can't remember quite honestly, but a number of our council members were there. It was a wonderful evening. um to have that evening. We closed Oak Street and we had the Memorial Day parade. We closed Oak Street for a few hours a day. Um those residents already kind of put up with a
lot from us. And although they get to walk to these events and so on, we have so much traffic on that little two-lane road. We have Pawns Church with a playground for nursery school kids. We have access to the library, to the
municipal building, to the DPW, to the bo to the BOE, to the valley middle school pickup and drop off camps, everything and the under the sun going in and out of there. >> And we've had a major tragedy already where we lost a family at that
intersection of 202 and Oak Street specifically. Okay. We had complaints the last meeting racing traffic on 202. It's becoming a daily occurrence. It's getting worse. We're talking about Compton doing our garbage. I know the minute I go into Compton, the minute I
cross that Oakland line, I slow down because they're going to stop me for speeding if I'm one mile over it. They have a reputation for that. >> We need to do something to discourage speeding and that kind of traffic behavior. But we can't do that
overnight. to go and suggest to put housing behind the Ace Hardware, behind the Oakland Bagel, which has the best Boston cream donuts, by the way. Get them from the cops, the carnival. Um to that's just such a populated area. is
such a densely busy area between foot traffic and car traffic to go and put 80 100 units of housing and a cut through now going from Oak Street to Turon that's now going to be a raceway back and forth to cut across around traffic
for 202. I just don't see how this is smart for our town. I'm not against affordable housing. I'm not get against building and increasing our town. Um, I will tell you that the town houses behind the high school, I wish someone would have done some sort of sound
pollution. I said it before and I'll say it again. Losing trees in this town. Every time there's a football game, that band is playing in my room because we are on the other side of 287. The sound now has no tree barrier to stop it coming from that football field.
Hits 287 and it acts like a reverb and increases the sound. and anybody in the college section will tell you, "Hey, we now hear the Dogwood section." Okay, that's not cool. Um, I would love it if you guys could explain more what kind of assessments are being done. But as for
that specific unit known as the Roper Oakland SL site block 802 lot one where it's being proposed to put 80 to 100 units, please find another place for those.
Please put them somewhere else. And when you guys are discussing transparency, please tonight give us detailed information and explanation because I went through all 89 pages online of tonight's agenda, which don't break down to 89 pages tonight. So, I'm scrambling to find what I was looking at online.
Okay? You guys are working for us. We know you're working for us. We know you're trying to protect our water. We know you're trying to protect our sewers. We know you've got your hearts in this and are trying to do your best. But truly behind the Ace Hardware is not a good place to go. The other thing is that when I read something like
ordinance 984 and item G says permitted residential density shall not exceed 18, cross it out, 22 units per acre and I don't see an application to which zone in town this is. Please provide us some
clarification tonight. And that is on specifically ordinance 984 >> for attorney. >> What area are we? Yes. What are this is for him? Yep. We'll be we'll be addressing that. >> Explain to us where we are increasing the d the density of housing because it's not stated in this ordinance. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. >> That's it, gentlemen. Thank you. And ladies, >> thank you, Mayor. >> Everybody knows why I'm here. Mr. Mayor, >> your name, please. >> Oh, sorry. Debbie Hill, 23 Hillside Avenue. I am also a crossing guard by this unit going up.
>> Hazard. >> Huh? >> You need hazard pay. Go ahead. >> Come. >> I am just concerned about the children that's running around. You go. Where is this going? Where's the opening in Oak? >> Behind the True Valley. >> Ask them. They know.
>> Okay. No, the housing is. But the opening I heard it's going down where you >> the the the parents go in and out of the school over there on Oak Street >> by DPW. >> Yeah. Okay. Right there >> by the curb going to your house. >> Yeah. that is busy when the parents need
to pick that up, pick the kids up and dropping them off. What where's all the rest of this traffic going to go? I um also want to know um because I want a I wish we can put a sidewalk on the going towards the
library for my kids because the when they like they when they come out of school and they block my block. The people that's coming down 202 needs to make the left to go into the school and they don't see the kids standing right there because there's no sidewalk or
nothing to protect them. I'm the only one, >> Mr. Coons. Isn't that part of the sidewalk program with coming out of the school? >> Uh, yeah. It's going to bring it in from Oak Street into uh the burrow lot >> down in Mckennis. >> Okay. >> Who's >> You're welcome. >> You know, because the thing the thing is
cuz like I'm saying like the the cars that try to go in, they don't see the kids. >> Yeah. >> You know, and there's nobody nothing blocking them. >> But the good news is we there is a project in the works to put those >> sidewalks. I'm glad. Just just my kids, you know. Might have to do another school guard down the other end.
>> Thank you. Anybody else? >> Hi guys. >> My name is Rick Hughes, 32 Oak Street. Uh couple of concerns I have. Um quick question. Roert. The owner of uh Ace Hardware is Roert.
>> He's one of the owners of this project. >> I don't think so. >> We just we call it the Roer site. I don't know who the owners are to be honest. I deal with their attorneys. >> There's no way of knowing that. >> I'm sure there is. I mean, we could look up who owns on the deed who owns the property.
>> It's a question. Is is one of the owners of Ace Hardware part owner in this property or the owner? I hear it's he's the owner and his uncle or something like that. >> I don't know the answer to that as we sit here right now. >> Reason I'm asking if you go behind Ace
Hardware right where Cooa Restaurant is. >> Mhm. >> They have a storage facility for all their propane canisters inside of a chain link fence. It is not labeled. There is no fire extinguisher. There is no signage that there's
explosive materials there. The explosive materials are on pallets. Their propane canisters stacked this high up against the entire wall. There's people on the other side of that wall having dinner, having their daughter's graduation parties or wedding parties inside that
restaurant. >> Mr. Curtis, can we have the fire inspector go look at that? >> Absolutely. You have a potential for disaster there. All right. So, if this guy who owns Ace Hardware is part owner, he's setting a precedent. He's not paying attention to
town ordinances. Second, in the corner of his parking lot there, he rents that space to contractors who do septic services for people and whatnot. It's clearly labeled on the fence. No dumping. I have
pictures of it if you want to see it, but if you look back in there, there is dumping of materials all over the ground. There's hoses, there's tires, there's scaffolding, there's trucks parked there, there's generators parked
there. Is this not a residential area? And I'm not exactly sure what the zoning for that corner of his lot is. And I understand Ace Hardware has mulch and dirt and things on pallets, which is one thing, but I'm talking during the
summertime, I see barbecues out there stored that they're going to uh sell as metal products. If this is how this guy rents property, and this is how the guy doesn't care about the uh fire prevention,
>> I I just I want to take a minute. We don't know if he's the owner or not. I'd like to let's not be discouraging about our business owners and everything else like that, but we will have Mr. Kusk, you also have the sub code official secretary. >> I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. That's the back. >> I don't want you discouraging anybody. >> Uh, on a good note, I'd like to really
commend DPW for the job they did with the snow. You guys did fantastic. Really fantastic compared to some other towns. Um, but my concern is if that if he is a property owner of this Roper
project, he's already setting two really bad precedents. One is fire, one is rental. He's renting a space that they're dumping on and it's right behind our backyards. >> All right, we're going to I just told we'll send somebody.
>> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Frank Furbacher, 56 Walton Avenue. I want to speak briefly regarding the shared services agreement with Pmpton Lakes that's listed on tonight's agenda. Uh I understand that negotiations often
require executive session and I respect that certain discussions can't always happen publicly in real time. However, this is a multi-year agreement affecting every household uh in town, and I'm hoping that during the
resolution discussion, the council can walk residents through the financial analysis and rationale behind the decision, specifically how the cost compares to our current arrangement, what assumptions were used, and what safeguards are in place over the life of the agreement. And I heard we were going
to do that. So, thank you. >> Uh but I also want to raise something broader. Um, there seems to be a recurring perception among residents that major decisions are reaching the agenda stage before the public fully understands how we got there. In this particular case, many residents learned
more details from the Pmpton Lakes meeting last week than from communication here in Oakland. That creates confusion and frankly unnecessary concern. Most residents are working and raising families. They can't attend every meeting. So, if we don't
create clear, proactive avenues for information, whether through summaries, updates, brief public explanations, people feel like they're always playing catch-up. And this isn't about criticism. Uh, it's about confidence. When communication is
proactive and accessible, trust increases, even when decisions are complex. So, I appreciate the work that goes into these negotiations and I hope tonight we can help residents better understand the full picture. >> Thank you. And just just for the record, I did address out of my mayor's report
last meeting. We kind of got into a little bit of that saying that we're going to be talking about this, but Mr. Cruz will be here to answer to address all the questions. >> Thank you. Welcome. Anybody else? >> Hi. Um, my name is Sandra Gray. Um, do I state my address again? Okay. 17 Oak
Street. Um I just wanted to start by saying that um actually to echo what Mull said that you know my comments tonight are not about um opposing affordable housing in general. Um they're really about whether you know
this particular site, the one behind east hardware is really right for our uh you know right in the center of town is really works for um Oakland residents as you know one of the sites in the affordable housing plan. Um, I've heard that access
concerns are um kind of addressed because the developer would build a new street. Um, but a new street still has to connect somewhere and that's where congestion concerns really begin. So, as I mentioned in the last meeting, Oak Street already backs up at very
predictable times um due to a whole bunch of things. um shopping center traffic, library visitors, VMS traffic, all the things that people have said before, recfield sporting events, summer camp traffic. And there's also significant concern that we um a few Oak
Street residents, including I think Debbie, the uh our crossing guard, who I can see out my window, um has raised about unsafe um turns from the paper street, um people making right-hand turns and actually going the opposite way. Um,
you know, you're only supposed to exit, but people enter there. Um, and there's also significant concern about, you know, lots of middle school um, age kids that are, you know, walking around a lot there. Um, we know that this area is
zoned for four building, a fourstory building over a parking garage, which to me just it's, you know, it's it's more than a four bit story building if you consider the garage. Um, and a multi-story structure of that scale means that residents are going to there's going to
be more residents, there's going to be more drivers, more daily trips added into what's already just like a pressure cooker, a very congested, um, system. So, expecting that traffic to, you know, exit or enter through Oak
Street um, doesn't feel reasonable or safe. I know Tur Tur Hune has also been mentioned as a possible access point, but it's I I don't really understand how vehicles maybe maybe there's something I'm not understanding, but how could
vehicles turn left at Terune onto 202 without another like another traffic light? And if I'm envisioning that, I would in my mind's eye, I'm thinking a long line of cars on Turfune
>> waiting to get to navigate that traffic light. At the same time, you have a lot of cars. You already have what, four or five traffic lights just to get across town. And at peak traffic times, it's often times it takes a while to get across town as it is. So that would be
another light. Um, and you know, we all know that it's peak traffic times. it's, you know, it could be slower, especially if you have a, you know, a train. If you have a train going by, forget it. But anyway, um, beyond traffic, there's also basic infrastructure questions that matter.
Um, sewer capacity, storm water management, mult municipal services. So, I think it's important for Oakland taxpayers to understand which costs will be paid by the developer and which could possibly fall to taxpayers either now or
over time. Um, I know that there's, you know, as a lay person, I'm trying to understand this whole process. I know that there's a housing element, um, with I understand maybe some of the ordinances you're talking about tonight. I I don't not quite sure, but it seems
like the housing ordinant the housing element has ordinances in it that may or may not affect um all the the possible affording affordable housing sites in Oakland of which the Rockford site is
one. And um you know I just want to it's it's difficult. I understand that you're under a time constraint as you know the town is bound by obligations time deadlines to the state but um my my thought process is are there
things in the housing element as far as ordinances that might um affect how hard it is later on you know to raise viable concerns about all the issues that I've raised at a later planning board stage.
So, I'm going to stop you right there. Mr. Giblin, you want to kind of answer that question? >> Yeah. The housing element and fair share plan is what it's called, is actually a separate ordinance. Uh, and it sets forth things like the set aside that you have to have for affordable housing. In Oakland, we used to have two different
set aides depending on whether it was rental housing or for sale housing, 15% versus 20%. Now, according to state law, it has to be 20%. So, that would be in the housing element, fair share plan. It has the regulations regarding the bedroom distribution. How many
onebedrooms, two bedrooms, three bedrooms, etc. So those kind of general um parameters that everybody has to abide by when you're building an inclusionary site are built into the housing element and fair share plan. >> So my concern would be what um you know
what would those things be and and what you know of those things what might pertain to some of the issues that I've raised. So, for example, how h has would would traffic studies be conducted? So, you would just put an affordable housing
complex regardless, you know, into a a a space that could have really disastrous, you know, um consequences for an already very congested area, no matter where you enter and exit. >> If you're talking specifically about the
the ropper site, again, nothing in that site is changing. that was adopted. >> I understand that and that was good. I I I'm relieved to hear that. But it doesn't answer some of the questions that we have as residents about the
safety, the the congestion, >> you know, who's paying for what, all of >> those are all legitimate concerns. And no matter what site we're talking about, no matter what the zoning says, there will have to be a hearing before the planning board. and residents are
invited and and uh encouraged to come to the planning board and raise those issues. >> Okay. So, that's my that was really my question. Is there anything in the housing element that would kind of constrain a later planning board hearing? Absolutely. Process any any ordinances? Anything that would make it
harder later on to bring to bring legitimate concerns to a planning board? >> No. The a qualified no. As far as site plans go, no. You can talk about traffic, you can talk about uh ingress and egress, parking, things like that. Those are all
legitimate concerns. The one thing that we can't do is make anything that is costgenerative to the developer because the state says we're not allowed to do that. >> Can you explain that a little more? Cost generative. Like, so for example, if if the if the if the developer is saying,
well, we don't want to pay for sewers or we don't want to pay for whatever. No, that if everybody pays for it, that's fine. But we can't, for example, if there's no requirement that a three-story building have an elevator, >> we probably can't tell a developer he has to put an elevator cuz that's going
to cost money. So, that's cost generative. >> Okay. Is there anything in the housing element that you can share with us about sewers who, you know, anything like that? >> There's nothing in there about sewers. That's all under the ordinances that are not being amended at all.
>> Okay. So, no sewers, no traffic studies in the housing element. The only thing that's that's really tackled is the zoning, which has not changed. >> I'm sorry. >> So, you're saying no no sewers, no um traffic studies, nothing like that would be covered in the in the only zoning,
right? Is that what you're saying? Only zoning. >> Like there's no zoning. There's no zoning changes >> to the roper property. >> To the roper property. >> Correct. So there might be other ordinances pertain to other properties in the housing element but nothing has changed in so correct. >> Okay. So the housing the the housing
element only tackles zoning issues or are there other issues? >> It's the the housing element and fair share plan is basically a model ordinance that the state sent out to every >> municipality >> changed it two weeks later
>> uh and virtually every municipality is adopting it the way the state sent it out. Again, it sets forth that it has to be a 20% set aside. It sets forth the the income guidelines, the bedroom distribution, all those things that are generalized and apply to everybody.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Anybody else? Hi, Jeff Petroski, 34 Oak Street. I'd like to speak a little about the um transparency and I'm hearing about with the Ropper project that um no changes to
the zoning that it's all been done years ago. And with transparency, the zoning has been changed, I believe, on that track of land two times in the last five years. and no notice was given to any of the residents of the adjoining province.
And isn't there a burrow ordinance that says that we must be notified? >> Mr. Gil, >> there's a state law that says that if you're changing the outline of a zone or you're changing certain things within a zone, uh, everybody within 200 ft has to
be notified. I don't know what I I don't I'm not familiar with the ordinance changes that you're talking about, so I don't know. The other thing is if a municipality does it when it's doing its master plan re-examination, they don't have to notify anybody.
>> Okay. Um, as far as bringing an issue with the current zoning, would that be brought up to the planning board or here at the council? What what I don't >> I think the challenge the zoning changes that they were done um new zones were
made that don't exist anywhere else in Oakland that just affect that piece of property and I'd like to find out we were never given a chance to have any say in those zoning changes. >> If you want to challenge an ordinance you do that in superior court.
>> Okay. But nothing can be done on the planning board level or >> no on >> planning board does not have the right to change. No. >> Okay. Um any word as to why those changes were done without notifying the residents? >> Again, I'm not familiar with it, so I
can't speak to that. I'm sorry. >> Okay. Um >> can you state the changes were? >> What was the change? >> There was a change. First, they created a zoning um RA5H, I believe, that allowed um
allowed five stories on that piece of land. And then I believe most recently in June of 2024, it was changed to I forget the zoning term. I believe it's SAHD or something to that effect. That's
for senior housing and that allows for 10-foot setbacks to adjoining properties which is horrible. >> Thank you. >> I can't answer. >> Oh, I think we have the obligation to get back to him.
>> Yeah, we have to get back. We just don't don't know. We can't answer it here. Mr. Goodman wasn't part of our wasn't the attorney at the time. Maybe we can discuss that the next meeting. >> What's that? >> Maybe we can discuss at the next meeting. Can you >> find out more about it? >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you very much.
>> Can we just give an answer? Research it. >> Yeah, we can do that. But we Yeah, we can do that. >> Okay. I have Mr. Frosty's number. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Not seeing anybody. Do I have a motion to close? >> So move. >> Have a second.
>> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I are moving up to approval of minutes. We have February 10th, 2026. We have a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Anybody have any changes? >> Not seeing any. Roll call.
>> Council President Talamini? >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert? >> Yes. >> Councilman Pnatelli? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose? >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani? >> Yes. >> We have February 10th, 2020 26 executive minutes. Do we have a motion to approve?
So moved. Have >> a second. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Piggatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Salian. >> Yes. >> All right. We're up to the special
announcements and raffles. I have authorized raffle license RL1591 for rebuilding together on June 8th, 2026 for 50/50 in support of low-income home homeowners at 341 Rampo Valley Road, Oakland. Authorized
raffle license RL1592 for rebuilding together March 21st for a raffle to support low-income home owners at American Legion Post 65 Oak Street, Oakland, New Jersey. Authorized raffle license RL1593 for OOLPH on June 27th, 2026 for 50/50
and supported facilities upgrades at OPH at 117 Franklin A, Oakland. Authorize raffle license RL1594 for Oakland Education Foundation on March 19th, 2026 for raffle in support of scholarships and teacher grants at 64 Cardboard Drive. Authorized raffle
license RL1595 for Oakland Franco Lakes Rotary Foundations on June 23rd 26 for 50/50 in support of services, projects, and local high school scholarships and sponsoring exchange students at Porttoellos in Oakland. Authorize raffle license RL1596
for Oakland Elks on March 12th for casino night in support of Elks charities and causes at 33 Rampo Valley Road, New Jersey. Authorized social affairs permit for the Oakland Elks on March 12th, 2026 for casino night in support of Elks Charities and Causes 33
Rampo Valley Road and weekend construction Mariani Brothers. That's a separate. Do I have a motion to approve the f consent agenda on items? >> Some move. Have a second. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini. >> Yes.
>> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Piggatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. >> As I mentioned during the mayor's report, they're going to start work on Grand View and Acorntorm water improvements. And the contractor is asking for permission to uh possibly
work on weekends because they're under a time constraint. So, uh, they're asking for weekend construction for the Mariani brothers for Grand View Acorn storm water approvals till the end of March as needed. >> Not not on Sunday though. >> Saturday. >> Saturday. >> Just Saturday after 8:00.
>> 9 o'clock. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Motion approved. Got a motion. >> So moved. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Tamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Pig Matelli. Yes.
>> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> No. >> Okay. I have two uh council appointments. One is for public events committee. Like to appoint Patricia Tannis and for the zoning board of adjustments. Edward Tieros. He will be
alternate to. And this requires council consent. Motion to approve. >> So moved >> and a second. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. Councilman Pignatelli, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Rose, >> yes.
>> Councilman Selani, >> yes. >> All right, we're up to resolutions. We're going to pull out 26107, which is a shared services agreement with Pompton Lakes because Mr. Coons is going to be doing talking about that resolution. So, we have 2692 authorization authorization
to hire fire prevention inspector. 2694 salary resolution amendment for a municipal court judge. 2695 resolution approving LOAP eligibility list. 2696 resolution authorizing tax refund due for overpayment. 2697 resolution
authorizing recreation refunds. 2698 temporary budget amendment. 2699 resolution amending 2608 authorizing signatures for burough banks accounts. 26100 resolution authorizing signature signitories for the clerk petty cash
account. 26101 amend contract Des Dresnner Robin. 26102 award contract appraisals for block 19 and 12. >> Lot 12. >> Lot 12. Block 19 lot 12. 26103 contract
amendment for Atlantic salt. 26104. Authorize submitt for ARP grant. 26105 accept grant awards and authorized agreement compost facility storm water prevention and drainage control plans. 26106 a resolution adopting Bergen
County multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan 26108 enabling resolution for supplemental funding request. >> Okay, let me make >> a correction on that uh award contract
appraisal for block 1901 lot 12. >> And does anybody wish to pull any out? >> Yes, mayor. Please pull out 2695. >> 95. Anybody else? Not seeing any. Have a motion to approve.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Pignatelli? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose? >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani? >> Yes. >> All right. We're up to 2695. Resolution
approving LOAP eligibility list. Read Mr. Pulled out. Please uh council recap being a volunteer in the fire department. >> Roll call on that. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini.
>> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Council Pnatelli. >> Abstain. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Salian. >> Yes. >> All right. Mr. Coons 26107 garbage. You're up. >> Okay. Let's talk garbage.
Okay. Uh so first I want to give everybody some background here and and I know Pompton Lakes has already voted on this agreement uh and had some discussion about that and that was pretty much just timing. We were sort of doing things in parallel but they had their meeting first. Uh but just a
little bit of a bit of background to start explaining why we were looking to perhaps do something other than the way we've done solid waste collection for forever. Okay. So, the burrow has had our current contractor uh something over
20 years. Um, and they've done a a nice job for us. I've heard from residents who say, "We like our service. We like our our garbage people. We don't want to lose that." And we certainly don't want to lose that either. Uh, and I actually like hearing that because it means our service is good and our contractors
doing a good job. Okay. Um, what everybody should know is that when you contract for solid waste collection in New Jersey, if you're using a private vendor, that is a tightly controlled process by the state subject to the local public contracts law. You have to do it by formal bidding. You do not
negotiate uh with ani individual contractor. Uh you don't get to just keep who you like. So let's say you have a bid and you have, you know, three or four different companies bid. uh the lowest price company that can meet those bid requirements gets the job. Okay. Um
which sort of leads to the next point. Over the last 10 years or so, uh there really has been a decreasing lack of competition, not just here in Oakland, but statewide. Uh it's something that has caught the attention of the state. They ask these, you know, questions on
the best practices inventory now about how much, you know, how if you've gone out to bid, have you gotten other biders, things like that. Uh so what we've seen is we're getting one bit we're getting suburban contracting. Um and while they're doing a good
service, the cost has risen astronomically over the last 9 10 years or so. Okay. So in 2016 we were paying $615,000 for solid waste collection. That's garbage, recycling, yard waste. Uh last year we paid $1,784,000.
Right? You had four years in that time period where costs really shot up, more moderate increases in the other years, but that's a 290% increase over the last 10 years. That's about or nine years. It's about 32% a year when if you pencil out inflation over that time period
average and that is with the inflation from the pandemic included in that averages about 4.1%. All right, that's not sustainable. It's been a heavy burden on our budget. turn. It's been a heavy burden on taxpayers because ultimately you're paying that cost. All
right. So, we started searching around for other ways to address garbage collection in general if we could not uh get more people to bid if there the competition was not there. So, a couple years ago, we joined with Franklin Lakes and Whiteoff. We obtained a state grant
under something called the LEAP program and we studied the possibility of either jointly bidding for collection or standing up our own in-house garbage collection service. Okay. Um that study was somewhat informative. Um but it also
ultimately did not bear any fruit for a variety of reasons. So last year we started discussing the possibility of a shared service with Pompton Lakes. All right. And what you need to know about them is they already do in-house garbage collection. So, we're not talking about standing up your own program from
scratch uh or or any sort of joint bidding arrangement, which gets tricky in terms of which services you do. And that was one of the issues with Franklin Lakes and Whiteoffs. We all have slightly different service levels and how do you sort of harmonize that for a joint bid or for uh doing something in
house collectively? Um, and what Pompton Lakes does, their their frequency and their method of collection is pretty much mirrors what we do here with the exception of some yardway stuff which they're actually going to be changing as a result of of this arrangement. Um, so
essentially it's an expansion of what they're doing already. All right, they already have the infrastructure there, the management there, uh, the team to, you know, take care of their equipment and the like. just expanding what they're already doing. And when we started talking with them, we realized
that and we've gone through this pretty extensively uh you know, over the last year to make sure that they could adequately provide services to us. All right. So, you know, I know there's been talk to and there was an article in the paper last year that uh of some sort of
reporting on early discussions. I don't think anybody did anybody any favors because it misrepresented uh the negotiations and uh the level of service. So, uh under the agreement, the collection frequency remains completely unchanged. You have twice a week collection now. You're going to get
twice a week collection uh for garbage going forward. Uh there'll still be a north collection district and a south collection district. Recycling will continue to be weekly uh with co-mingled and paper on alternating weeks like it is now. Uh yard waste will still be
weekly from the you know early April to mid December or so. Uh metals and white goods collection will be the same as they are now as well. Okay. So it was very important of us as we went into this uh to try and keep the level of service the same. I think everybody
likes what we have. They wanted to keep what we have. All right. So what are the changes? because there are there are a couple of minor ones. All right, yard waste will still be weekly. The days of the week are going to change to better accommodate what they're what Pumpton Lakes is able to do. All right, so instead of Monday and Tuesday, it'll go
to Thursday and Friday. There are more holidays. It is a municipal workforce that is going to be providing the collection to get more holidays than the private sector. Uh so the number of holidays goes up from 6 to 14. So there will be some more skipped collections based on that significantly.
Uh, and this is something we've heard about over the years is some residents say, "I wish we had a our own recycling center. Why don't we have our own recycling center?" Uh, we will be able to use residents will be able to go to Pompton Lakes and use their recycling center. All right. So, if uh you have a
party, you don't want to keep your coingled around till the next pickup. Uh, or if it's after Christmas and you have a lot of cardboard you want to get rid of, you can go to Pmpton Lakes and drop that off at their recycling center. They also take things like used motor oil, metals, electronics, tires can be
disposed of for a fee. Uh, and they offer uh leaf bag purchases at a discount as well. All right. So, we thought that that was a significant enhancement for those that want to take advantage of it. Um, so that's a nice add-on uh compared to what we have now.
So, let's talk about cost a little bit because I know that was something that was was brought up earlier too and it really kind of gets to the heart of why we started looking at this as a as a way to control costs. Uh so, this is going to be a 4 and a half year agreement be
the balance of 26 27 28 2930. Uh it'll commence in July. Uh cost for the balance of this year is about $643,000. you pencil that out to an annualized cost that's about uh just under 1.3 million 1,286,000.
Um again, last year we paid almost 1.8 million, right? So it's a significant cost savings right off the bat for us. Uh over the life of the agreement, Oakland taxpayers are going to pay $1.4 million less when compared to our current contractor's cost last year.
Right? So it does not even account for any future cost increases and you can project that out any number of ways based on inflation uh or what you you think those may may be. I can tell you the current contract uh well that ended
and that we've extended for 6 months. Uh originally we had sought pricing for five years on the last uh on the last time we went out to bid. We did a three-year agreement because years four and five, that would be 26 and 27, had increases of about eight and a half%
each year. So that gives you sort of some sense of what we would in some measure be looking at in terms of cost increases going forward. Um so $1.4 million that averages out to about $315,000 a year on average. uh and in
the final year of the agreement, we'll still be paying about $120,000 less uh than we were paying in 2025. Right? So, uh I hope that gives everybody, you know, some sense of, you know, why we're doing this uh and some sort of sense of ease that your service levels are going
to remain the same as well. Um so once we execute the agreement, we'll be working with Poppin Lakes on implementation and uh you know, we'll go from there. There will be more information coming or the press release going out tomorrow as well and um you know so look for stuff on our website
and Facebook and uh if anybody has any questions contact my office be happy to talk to you about it and that's go ahead. >> Anybody from the council have any questions for Mr. Cruz? >> So um just uh so so now uh what kind of
out clause is there in the in the agreement if if there is an issue? So there's termination clauses for both parties. Um we can certainly terminate if they're not able to provide the service. Uh pretty much the scope of services was lifted right from our
bidspec. Uh and so you know maintaining the level of service that we've had is very important. It's something we're going to be monitoring closely. uh and if we find that they're not able to provide the service, we can terminate the agreement and go out to bid like we
normally would or seek some other solution. Uh likewise, I think it's after a year uh if they find that uh they're not able to provide the service uh you know there's there's an out clause in there for them as well. >> Anybody else?
M I have a question for you. is are we in a very unique opportunity with Papa Lakes picking up garbage compared to other surrounding towns to enter into an agreement like this? >> Yeah, you know, it's it it's fortunate in a way that we have a town adjacent to us that that does this uh and had the
interest uh to expand their service. This is not common at all. uh and I can tell you having been in this profession a long time now these opportunities to effectuate these sort of cost savings while maintaining levels of services are
come along once in a bloom you know it's something that when the opportunity presents itself you really have to try to work to take advantage of it I think that's what we're doing here so yes >> so also in the interest of getting the information out to the residents from
what I understand we'll be doing a a a joint press release. >> Uh we'll be doing uh information on our website and I had asked for and the rest of the council agreed for a mailing. >> We'll be doing a mailing to >> to every household.
>> So it's not going to be a backroom deal. You're going to know exactly what we know. It's going to be a lot of information. And as Mr. said, "If you have an individual question, make an appointment to go see Richard at his office during the day
>> and he'll he'll answer your question." We're voting on it tonight. It is a back. >> We're not voting on it tonight. >> Well, I mean, we're introducing it tonight. >> So, it is a back room deal. >> Hang on, hang on, hang on. Let's stop.
Stop. Can I uh tell let me >> So a vacuum deal. We we um we've we we've we've discussed we we've discussed going into business with another another garbage company. Um that's what they're
they're it's not it's not another town. It's we're we're hiring them as a vendor. um uh when you when you are negotiating you you can't you can't discuss it doesn't first of all it doesn't make sense to discuss it in public because because you don't want to
share with with them what what what you would give what you won't give um I don't even know that it's legal for us to to to share so much of that information but but but here we are I mean I don't what what more what more
would you want us to do I mean I mean honestly ly we we're we're we're presenting this. We um it's a great deal. Um I I say we're going to we're getting more service and and we're
saving money. Um what what more what more would you want us to do? >> Is that to me? >> Sure. >> Yeah. So I think from a taxpayer of this town Why don't >> you move up to the podium? I'll come up.
So, I think just a little more transparency into what the deal was and how it comes together because you're saying it's a vendor, but it's not a vendor. It's another town who needs to build an infrastructure to support essentially double double theirs with
two trucks adding nine people. So when we go in that and they also look at it that's only transportation disposal costs are fixed. So they still need to bring it to a transfer station and get rid of it regardless of who takes it away. So at the end of the day just a
little more openness and like hey we're looking to do this because some of the numbers that go around they're they're glorious. They're wonderful but are they realistic? And that that's the bottom line because when you look at adding full-time employees versus a contract
that adds up considerably knowing that you're paying for their pensions, you're paying for their we're not >> we're not pensions. >> We're not paying for their >> according to Compton Lakes you're paying incremental >> every year for health. Mr. Mr.
Coons, why don't you answer that? >> Okay. So part of what our cost will cover and our cost is fixed. Okay. Projected. >> Oh, sorry. Not according to what Pompton Lakes said. >> Our cost is fixed. >> That's not what they said. That's not a back and forth.
>> Right. So, there are projections in there. They know what their labor costs are because they have agreements in place. All right. You can from there calculate out what the pension liability and project that out based on a percentage, right? You're taking certain assumptions on health benefits, right?
And all of that gets pencled out the way any business, let's say, would pencil out, hey, where do I think my costs need to be in three years in order to make a profit, right? Same process. And then we came around a number that worked for them, worked for us, and was able to
save us a lot of money. >> I get it. But from what they had said in their council meeting was that they had incremental costs baked in and that they could add them on to it. >> There are >> It's not a fixed cost. It's variable. >> It is a fixed cost. If you look at the
agreement, there is a cost per year. That cost changes each year, right? There there is an increase year toyear. Okay. But that is a fixed cost per year. >> But if it changes over the >> we already know what it is. >> We already know numbers in
>> we already know what the change is. >> Yeah. So anyway, again, like I said, you're voting on it tonight, so it's a bit of a move point, but I think a little more transparency into what transpires because I'll be honest with you, garbage. It's something that I think people in this town seriously.
>> All of us. Well, all of us. >> Since I since I got on the council, the the the contract has has been exorbitant and exorbitant. And I've been te talking with Rich saying we need to go into our own business because because it didn't
make sense. And and it didn't make sense because because you had to worry about pensions and and workman's comp and and and all the other and the and the the maintenance on the vehicles and and and buildings and all that stuff. So So it didn't make sense to do anything like
that. And so we're still not doing that. We we're hiring Pompton Lakes to to collect our garbage. That's what we're doing. They're another vendor >> where I and and and we're getting it at a cheaper cost and um and more services. >> Let's hope so.
>> Yes. Let's hope so. I mean, other than >> I'm saying this is they're brand new. So, so would you rather but would you rather us go out to bid >> and and have to pay another exorbitant increase with only one bidder and and just sit sit on our hands and say,
"Okay, oh, we love our garbage man, but all right, we'll pay we'll pay for the we'll pay for the garbage." I mean, this is the So, you have to do something is what I'm saying. >> You know, it's easy to come up and say, "We're not telling you anything. We're we're not trying to hide anything." I I don't I don't understand what you think
we're trying to hide. What what what what what do we gain from hiding the fact that that that we we other than we we want better service at a cheaper price? I I don't know what what we're hiding. I I I don't and I don't know how
much more we could give you. I I really don't. It's it's we're and I I don't want to be compat combative, but but it just we're we're trying to do something good here and and um yes, it could fail.
It could be the the worst the worst mistake we ever made. Yes, I doubt it, but it could be. But but we have to try something. >> I get it. And then no one's discrediting that, myself excluded, right? But what I'm saying is that there just seems to
be, and I think it's echoed by quite a number of people in this audience and even in this town, a general lack of transparency that things are done and >> without people knowing it. And again, contract negotiations are closed. Understood. You can't disclose that. But
the fact that things just seem to just pop up and then say, "Hey, we're voting on it." >> But that's what's okay. That's enough. I don't I don't >> we we've we've been we talked about we were transparent last year when we got out of the deal. It didn't work out. The numbers didn't work out.
>> It was brought up again. So, Mr. Cruz brought it up several months ago. It's nobody's been hiding anything as far as everything going on with Pompa Lakes. We've been we even you made a statement last week that you said last meeting said, you know, we're paying extra because of this extension. We're not paying any extra with the extension.
>> So, >> so we saved money by getting the extension. We we actually saved money because because if we didn't if we didn't get if if we would have gone into an agreement with with the with the caller, we would have been paying more. So we're paying we're paying what we paid for the last contract the same same
rate. >> So we actually saved money by going getting an extension. >> Um so I I mean we're trying hard. Um I you I I don't know what lack of transparency. I I I really do. >> I want to add one thing, Will, just so
you know. Um Mr. Coon's got a lot of pressure from people on this day about making sure that we get into this because to Russ said risk isn't the word but it's a new way of doing business. Now we do outsource agreements with other towns as well. Our street sweeping is outsourced. Our CFO is outsourced. We
actually serve another town. He helps another town's a CFO. We do these type of arrange with it all the time. This is the biggest This is probably the biggest arrangement we've done so far. We've had success doing this. But there is Mr. Coons did a great job of input and
stress that this council put on him of making sure that we are protecting this deal. So, I'm very confident that we move forward. >> Good. >> And and we're also we're also working to uh lobby our respective senators in our district and PMPA Lakes district seeing
if they can put some state money into this thing to offset the cost even more because we're doing a shared service across county lines. >> There's got to be value to that. So, we're doing everything we can to be fiscally responsible and also get more money poured this put into this program as a model. So, we're trying really
hard. >> Can I ask Mr. Coons one question? Mr. Coons, I know in the past we've only had one bidder and that we have to accept the lowest responsible bidder. Let's say our our our contract was uh uh
1.8 million. If they came in and said it would be 2.8 8 million and they were the only bidder. We'd have to accept it. >> Theoretically, you could make an argument that you could reject, but you know, >> you would just re go out to have another bid or would
>> and if nobody doing it, >> right? You're stuck. >> You're stuck. >> That's it. No, understood. And to Mr. Salian's point, this is the largest contract you've done. That's the reason for concern. That's the reason why we feel that I think as citizens there should have been somewhat expansive. So
thank you. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you for the challenge. I appreciate that too. >> Any other further discussion? >> Just and let me just say I'm sorry if I came across a little rough but I just >> passionate. >> Thank you. >> Any further discussion?
>> New Jersey. We're good. >> It's gar It's garbage. >> It's garbage. >> I'm a town. >> All right. No further discussion. Not seeing any. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Roll call.
>> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Pigmanelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. >> Terrific. Thank you everybody. All right. We're up to ordinance. We have uh
final adoption of 26 code 982 amend 2025 salary ordinance. Have a motion open to the public. >> So moved. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> Anybody wish to address uh 20 code 26 code 982. We uh talked about it last meeting.
I see. Anybody have a motion to close? >> So move. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I All right. Final adoption of wishes to introduce the 26 code 982 amend 2025 salary ordinance. >> So moved. >> Mr. Salina, do you have a second?
Second. >> Mr. Potatelli. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Piggatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. All right. Now we're up to the the
good stuff, if you want to call it that. All right. We're up to 26 code 983, an ordinance of the Burough of Oakland, County of Bergen, state of New Jersey repealing and replacing chapter 18 of the Affordable Housing of the Burough
Code. Mr. McGiblin, you're up. Thank you, Mayor. This is the ordinance, the model ordinance that was I'm sorry. Thank you. This is the model ordinance that uh was distributed by the state of New Jersey. Uh every municipality is adopting some form of this. Uh it's 47
pages long. It contains the general rules that apply to affordable housing, who's eligible, how you market the units, uh what the rent can rents can be, what the percentage set aside has to be, things like that that apply to all
of the zones uh in the municipality. >> Does anybody from the council have any questions? >> So, we're just adopting what the state set down. >> Correct. >> That's it. Any further discussion? And we and we have to adopt it. >> We have to adopt the time, right?
>> Yeah. Everything has to be adopted >> by >> by March 15th, which is a Sunday, ironically. So, actually, it's March 16th, but yes, the state set forth a deadline for every municipality to adopt these regulations. >> And if we don't adopt them,
>> you'll lose your ability to zone. >> Any further any further discussion? That being said, do I have a motion to introduce 26 code 983, ordinance for the burrow of Oakland, County of Bergen, state of New Jersey, repealing and replacing chapter 18, the affordable housing
>> above code. Mr. Pnatelli, go a second. >> Second, >> Miss Rose. >> Roll call. >> Council President Tamini, >> yes. >> Councilman Eert, >> yes. >> Councilman Pignatelli, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Rose, >> yes. >> Councilman Saliani,
>> yes. Final adoption and public comment will be on March 12th. All right, we're up to 26 code 984, an ordinance to amend section 59-53.1.1 of the burough code to revise a
permitted density and required affordable housing set aside in the downtown one affordable housing overlay zone. Mr. Gibler, >> thank you, Mayor. This ordinance changes um as you stated two separate portions of an existing uh zoning requirement.
It's the downtown affordable housing overlay zone. It changes the minimum set aside to 20% for both rentals and sales uh units which is now mandated by the state. And it increases the permitted density from 18 units to 22 units per
acre. And the reason that we had to increase that is so that we would meet the number of affordable units that the state says we are required to accommodate. >> And there's a deadline for this also >> March 15th. >> And this is a model from the state.
>> No, this is just changing those two per ordinance. >> That was the other ordinance that was >> but in order in order to comply with with the state, >> we we have to adopt this by March 15th. Otherwise, we are in danger of losing our immunity to builder's remedy
lawsuits. Correct. >> Could could you just expand a little bit more on what exactly immunity means and what happens if we were to lose it? >> Certainly, Mayor. So we every municipality has an opportunity under the um initially it was through the court case the Mount Laurel case and now
it's through legislation to get immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits which is where a builder can come in and say that your ordinances don't provide sufficient affordable housing and so therefore they're invalid and that's happened in a number of communities in New Jersey and
what happens is their zoning gets thrown out and a builder can come in and say they want to build whatever number they want on their property because they're going to provide for affordable housing. Uh that's what we're trying to prevent by by adopting these ordinances. Thank you. Anybody else ask any questions? M
good. >> All right. 26 code 984, an ordinance to amend section 59-531.1 of the burough codes to revising permitted density and required affordable housing set aside in downtown affordable housing overlay. >> So move. >> Mr. Pnatali, do you have a second?
Second. >> Yep. Mr. Eert. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Piggatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. Final adoption. Final hearing will
be in March 12th, including public comment. >> All right. All right, we're up to 26 code 985, an ordinance to amend section 59-53.1.1 of the burough code to revise the permitted density and required affordable housing set aside in the downtown 2 affordable housing overlay.
Mr. Gibbley, >> thank you, mayor. The only thing this ch this is for the afford the downtown 2 affordable housing overlay zone and the only thing this ordinance changes is the set aside. Again, it raises it from 15% in some cases to 20% across the board.
20% is the state's recommendation. >> It's the state's mandate. >> You cannot vary from 20%. Has to be 20%. >> So this is the same as the previous or it's just addressing downtown area too. >> Just a different zone. Correct. M. >> Anybody have any questions?
>> Could could it be better than 20 if you want or 20 is the number? >> Some towns have gone higher. They've gone to 25%. uh they've been subject to challenge by developers who say it's economically not feasible to set aside 25% as opposed to
20. >> And and if I may too, the specific language in the ordinance uh says the minimum affordable housing set aside shall be 20%. So it's a it's a floor. >> Good. Thank you.
>> Any further questions? Not seeing any. Have a motion to approve 26 code 985. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talamini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Pigmatelli.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. Final adoption of public hearing will be March 12th council meeting. That's the same meeting where the planning board will be meeting at 6 o'clock. We'll be meeting at 7 right after. All right. All right, we're up to
26 code 986, an ordinance of the burrow of Oakland, County of Bergen, state of New Jersey, amending the zoning map of the Burrow of Oakland to reszone the property known as the McBride property pursuant to the M municipal land use law NJSA 40 colon 55D-1
ETSs sequence SEQ. So just so everybody knows the McBride property is for people who have lived here the old sand pits which is behind Gro Street. Okay. Uh it's approx. How many acres is that approximately? >> It's over 50, mayor. >> 50 mayor. 50 acres. All right. Uh Mr.
Gibble, you want to walk us through that one? >> Yes. Uh mayor, this this ordinance, as you said, relates only to the McBride property. It's over 50 acres. The total maximum number of units is 240. So, it's a little shy of five units per acre. U
it it has the zoning requirements, the height, etc. of the types of buildings they can put in there which includes town houses uh stacked town houses and flats which are essentially uh apartment type buildings um
and um it also I I think importantly from the governing body's perspective uh the ordinance prevents access from page drive which I know is a concern of the governing body >> just so the people know they wanted to have access from through the industrial
park and also on Page Drive all the way down at the end. And if anybody lives in that neighborhood, myself included, that would not be optimal. >> So, we're trying to pre to prevent excess traffic on on on page. Not only we are trying >> not only excess traffic, but according
to our professionals, including U Boswell Engineering, who took a look at this, it would become a cut through uh and would substantially increase traffic going down Page Drive and other streets in that area. It's also very narrow down there. If you go to the end, Page Drive
kind of comes down and they're going to make a right-hand turn. I believe it's Morning Lane or something like that. And it's it's it's it's not pretty. >> So, how could this is a possibility of this being overturned by court of law? >> Any any part of these ordinances could be overturned by a court if they are
challenged by the developer or owner of the property. Yes. So if the developer challenged that he wants Pay Drive to be open to accessibility and the court agrees with him, then they would open it even if we say no. >> Correct. >> This would affect the residents on Grove
Street because they'd come right through down Grove Street and get right downtown and it would force the industrial park traffic to come down and cut right through instead of coming down Long Hill. This is this is kind of where we are. Any other questions from the governing body?
All right. 26 code 986 wish to wish introduce Mr. Matelli. Who else? Second. >> Second. >> Miss Rose. Roll call. >> Council President Talini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert.
>> Um. Yes. >> Councilman Pignatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. >> Yes. Okay, last one. 26 code 987, ordinance of the
Burough of Oakland, County of Bergen, State of New Jersey, amending the zoning map of the Burough of Oakland to reszone the property known as Leone property pursuant to the municipal land use code NJSA 405D-1. Just so everybody knows where this
property is, this is the property up by behind the high school by LAR. Okay. Uh there is a horse farm that's currently back there. has been there for the last, I don't know, 40, 50 years. Um, it's directly adjacent to the LAR property
which is behind the high school. Uh, so they want to reszone this. So once again, they can put housing in. So it's directly behind the tennis courts if you go to Indian Hills. >> Okay, Mr. Giblin. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh yeah, as as you
described, mayor, it is right next to another um development that was approved because of affordable housing. Uh the zoning is essentially the same uh as what's permitted in that LAR property. Uh the minimum size of a lot is 10 uh
acres and it's 85 units. So it's about 8 and a half units per acre. So the density is not u not as great as we've seen in a lot of other communities. from the governing body. Have any questions?
Not seeing any. Have a motion to approve 26 code 987. Introduce. >> So moved. >> Mr. Rose second. >> Second. >> Mr. Pigatelli. >> Roll call. >> Council President Talini.
>> Uh, yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Piggatelli. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Saliani. Yes. So, what I did is I put together there's a handout in the front of the table over here.
This has the legislators from the state of New Jersey that created this pile of dung that we're dealing with. Okay. It is Senate Bill. It was first introduced assembly bill four. Okay.
This is the person that the the legislator that sponsored this bill was a Tory Singleton. He's from Morristown, New Jersey. A Senator Nicholas Skury. He's from Clark. Senator Teresa Ruiz from Newark.
Senator Benj Wimberly Patterson. Senator James Beachches. Senator Renee Burgess Irvington. Senator Brittney Timberlake, East Orange. So all these people created this bill that they're shoving down our
throat. Okay. From the Assembly side, you have Assembly William Mowen, Assembly Stanley Sterly Stanley, Assembly Annette Quano, Assembly William Chenique Stwent, and also which was a interesting one to me was our
congressman Nelly Poe was a senator at the time that also approved this and now she's our congresswoman. I want everybody to know that every single one of these people on this document is a Democrat. Okay? And not a single Republican supported this bill whatsoever. So if you want to contact your legislators, there's all their
phone numbers are up here. How to contact them. And this is just this is just despicable for what we have to put up with and swallow making this thing happen. Nobody likes us up here. All right, we're up to work session. Mr. Coons, engineering proposal 2026
road program. >> Uh yeah. So, we're trying to move ahead with the uh road program for 2026. We've shortlisted uh roads for consideration depending on how much funding we wind up putting into the program uh as we go through the budget process. Uh and for
that there's a need to uh engage our engineer to start working on uh uh you know the required engineering work, design work, plans, inspects and the like. Uh so they provided a proposal for that. If everybody's okay with that, we'll move that forward to a resolution at the next meeting. So we can get going
on that. We talked today about uh time frame for that that will hopefully uh enable us uh like the uh like with the PAC andG work to uh do it over the summer. That's what we're shooting for when uh school's not in session.
>> Anybody have any questions? M. >> Thank you, Mr. Co. You going to prepare for that for next meeting then? >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. We're up to something a little light not so serious. We're going to select the America select the America 250 logo. Uh we had a children's contest
throughout the schools and the kids put these uh how many how many did we get, Rich? >> Yeah. So So this is uh being done for America 250 or Revit 250 uh celebrations this year. Uh we put out a call for logos to select one the main logo for
the program. Uh and uh we had a great response. We had 70 >> 78, right? >> 70 70 something or 70 uh submissions. Yeah. So, it was a little bit of work trying to go through this and uh uh the the main committee kind of shortlisted
uh what was it 10 or something that we took to the wider committee. Uh and then these were the three uh three finalists for you to to pick from. >> There's number one. Number two
and number three. >> Do we need a ballot for >> Do we have any discussion on the council? Mr. Falini, what do you prefer? >> Uh just um before we uh where where
where would we be displaying this? like what's what's the thing? >> This will be on, you know, if you have letterhead, any official flyers, things like that. This will be the main logo. I do want to point out there were a lot of great entries here. Uh and a wide variety because you had 5-year-olds as well as, you know, 17 year olds in in
high school doing it. Um, you know, these were handdrawn. We had others that were computer, uh, you know, aided or generated images as well. Uh so I think what the committee is going to do is we'll select others for certain program elements like we're going to do a passport uh we'll have different
stickers for the passport. They'll use different logo designs. Uh the library is going to have display of all of the the artwork uh as well for the community to see. So um but this is going to be the main one as a as a theme.
>> No, this is really great. I love any kind of artistic stuff like this. My my daughter is very artistic, so it's kind of cool to see stuff like this. But uh I like number three with the flag and the eagle on there. It's pretty cool looking. >> M Councilman Pig Natelli,
>> I have to agree. I I like the eagle on it. I like the American flag. Um I I I I do like number three. >> This is number three. >> Number two, close. >> I'm going to go a different route. I like number two. I think it's clean,
crisp, looks great with the grand letterhead when we put it out, especially upper corner at the bottom. >> That'd be number two. >> Councilwoman, >> well, I actually like number one. >> I got to be different.
>> Pressure on you now. >> You're making a tie. The mayor's Jews. I I think number one kind of en encapsulates Oakland and that I I like number one. >> Oh, we have a tie. >> A tie. >> I like number one. It really does encapsulate Oakland. >> It has the library, you know, Oakland
250. It's got the mountains and the river and everything else like that. So, whoever came up with this, good job. >> Do we have the name? Do we know who do we know who it is now? Well, >> no. Well, we did we we deliberately do
not have names on these. Uh >> we can announce the next meeting. >> Okay. >> It's on the original submission. >> Invite them to the meeting. >> Yeah. Yeah. We we'll figure something out. >> All right. New business. Anybody have any new business?
Not seeing any old business. >> Oh, did you? Last meeting we discussed about the zoning over by uh Spruce Street. with the recreation facilities over fur court in that area. Did anyone ever get a chance to talk to the zoning board? I thought that got approved. Did that get
approved, Mr. Co? >> I don't I don't recall, >> but I know they we wanted to talk about the zoning possible zoning change. I think we need to engage the planner on that uh once we wrap up this affordable housing >> stuff uh that's been keeping her up at nights.
>> Uh and I think we can turn our attention to looking at that. Just um old business, just guys with the the snow, it's terrible. Just please make sure you shovel your sidewalks and get the the if you're near a fire hydrant, shovel the fire hydrant out. Make sure you know might be your house
that you need to save. So make sure that the fire hydrant is uh shoveled out. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> Okay. Uh committee leaison reports. Uh let's start down at the left. Mr. Eer. >> Uh thank you, mayor. Um, the
environmental commission met last week. Uh, they they announced the town cleanup is going to be April 25th. Uh, they're going to meet the Danny D building at 9:00 a.m. And then I guess depending how many people they get, they'll divide and conquer. Um, and they're also working on
getting a pollinator package together with one of the local nurseries that that the community can stop and buy and they have a package already set up for them >> to pick up. And then the um on the arts, they have a uh they're celebrating poetry and arts with their verse and
visual. Um it's April 2nd from 5 to 7 at the Oklahoma Public Library. Um you can do your submissions through uh oakland-nj.orgarts-committee. You can submit by March 1st to get your u your poetry and your arts in. And it's
going to run from April 2nd to May 17th. That's the open library. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, sir. Councilwoman, >> I have nothing to report. >> Councilman Salian. >> All right. Couple quick reports here. We'll start recreation. Believe it or not, we're still taking registrations
for baseball and softball. They're open till the end of the month. So, please uh please make sure you get your your registration. Sign up by 228. Also, for recreation, there's a girls flag football clinic for middle school girls. Um it's fast growing sport. you're
seeing it adopted everywhere. The NJSA in high school adopted a sport. It's um you're seeing girls sports to play it. So please, anyone who's interested in in girls playing football, there's a great clinic. You can register on register till 3:20 at the Oakland website at town
website and um it's going to be an official varsity sport next year at Indian Hills. So great job and growing and Indian Hills is actually very good at it, too. They have a very good program. It's growing. So please support that if you're interested. Um, uh, Councilman Telamine stole the both the
fire chief and the police chief texted me during this meeting to make sure we remind people to, uh, shovel around the fire hydrant shovel that walked. Um, great job by our DPW. Want to thank them so much for the job they did. And then real quick on the OC,
um the OC the next OC meeting is right here Monday night at 7 o'clock and um it'll be it'll be still looking for additional volunteers to join the committees. The OC is seeking volunteers for their uh television committee, newsletter committee, uh welcome
website, social media committee, and bulletin board committee. Please contact OCC at oakland- neww jersey.org if interested in joining. and the friends of the Oakland Communications has launched their first fundraising effort by partnering with Razerite. Simply create an account, use a special code
when you buy a gift card through the Razerite website for no additional fees or cost. The Friends of Oakland Communications receives a percentage of the gift card was used. Learn more by going to friends of.org fundraisers. >> That's it.
>> Thank you, sir. Um, Councilman Pigatelli. >> Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh for the um Oakland Senior Citizen uh organization, on March the 5th, decorate and cultivate a spring planting party. Attendees are
invited to decorate a planter and start a window sill herb garden. I got to go to that. All supplies will be provided. There's a $5 fee and registration is required. March the 10th, casino trip to Wind Creek Casino. Uh $15 for Oakland
residents, 20 for non-residents. Additional info available at the senior center. Advanced registration required and at the senior citizen office by uh March 2nd. That's for the casino trip on
March 10th. Must register by March 2nd. Uh March the 19th, we're hosting a lunch and learn titled A Taste of History: Irish Immigration to America. This is the first of our series of lunch
and learn, excuse me, highlighting different uh groups immigrating to America throughout its 250 year history. Lunch will begin at 12:00 p.m. There's a $5 fee and a corn beef sandwich lunch will be provided. Got to go to that one, too. Registration is required. That was
March the 23rd, we will be starting our first monthly Oakland memory care gate caregivers support group on the fourth Monday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the senior center. The group will be facilitated by Alzheimer Association and
is open to caregivers of those affected by conditions of of the disease of the brain. This program is open uh to the broader community. For questions and registration, please call the senior center at 2011457731
or website seniors oakland-j.org. Um, and another plug for the first aid squad again when please don't get tired of hearing me, but if you volunteer, I I'll stop asking
you. talking. It's a good incentive to volunteer for first aid squad. Picnatelli will stop talking at the uh at the meetings. But anyway, uh uh as was said earlier this evening. Um you could come to our March 2nd meeting.
Um starts at 7:30 at the first aid squad. Meet the members. There'll be a lot of familiar faces there. I'm sure you'll see uh from our young member that was here this evening to our older members. And if someone 84 can do
it, certainly you can. Uh remember um you'll be trained on how to respond. You you might even have to respond to your own family or a neighbor or some child. I mean, what greater gift
could you give to a parent to help save their child's life? Please, please volunteer for the Oakland First Aid Squad. And there are other organizations in town, too. I don't want the firemen to be mad at me, but also the firemen uh would like uh they are in need of
volunteers also. Uh thank you, mayor. That's it. >> And if you're interested in joining the fire department, we meet at 7 o'clock Mondays down at the firehouse. >> Councilman. >> Uh yes. So, the the green team, I'm I'm the liazison for the green team, and I I I'm um I it's it's really a great
organization, the green team. I'm really um it was not not something I I I took on a couple extra uh groups as a u as liazison this year because we're short one councilman. And um so, so I said, "All right, I'll do the green team." And
I've been pleasantly surprised. I' I've been to one meeting. I I missed I missed one, but I've had a lot of interaction with with with them, and it's it's really a great uh group. They're they're they're very energized. They're very friendly. Um uh they they just want to
help help the environment. Uh it's it's a great group of people. I mean, I I grew up in Fair View and I I like to tease that my like instead of grass, I like green green cement. That's that's that's what I like. Um, I had a patch of grass in front of
my house that that I would I would put the lawn mower on and I would pull the pull the cord and if it didn't start, it didn't matter because it spun around enough and the grass was cut. It was perfect. But um so anyway, I'm on the green team and I'm I'm enjoying it. It's a it's a great group of people. But um
so uh it's time to sign up for the community garden. You can do that on the website. Uh it's behind u uh Valley Middle School. you can uh get a little plot and can grow some some vegetables and stuff. And they've they've they've
approached Pond's Church to if you if you get a bumper crop and and you need to get rid of some of this stuff, um they'll they'll donate it to the food p pantry at at Pond Church. It's a great great um great initiative. And then um they're they're in the process of
improving the seed bank at the library. So, so you go there basically, you know, you you buy a bunch of seeds. You can't use all the seeds that you have that come in the package. So, you go there and you you leave those seeds and you take a couple seeds of something else. It's really a a nice uh a nice thing to
do. Um save save you some money on on seeds and um and then they're they're looking they're looking into getting different grants and stuff like that. Um and you could always use volunteers. So, so please um come and come and come to a
meeting of of the green team. Um the schools, uh I just want to share uh an email that uh Dr. Kafaro sent out um earlier this evening. Um, it says, "Dear Mayor and Council, I wanted to reach out and extend sincere
gratitude to the Oakland BPW for the outstanding work they have done with the current winter storm, as well as with all of the prior storms to date. The partnership the Oakland PreK District has with the burrow is generally respected and with great care for the
work that DPW does alongside our custodial maintenance department. On behalf of the Oakland Board of Education, please extend our gratitude to Anthony Marcuselli and all of the Oakland's DPW members for the care they put forth each day and the work they do
to assist with readying our schools during these winter snowstorms. I am sure all are very much ready for the spring. Sincerely, Dr. Cafaro. Um, so I I just like to say um uh before before I
was a council member, I was uh I was on the school board and um being on the school board was one of the greatest things I I I ever did. But but I'm so happy that I was able to come over from the school board to here and to just make sure that that the town and the
school board always get along together. um make sure they help when they can, do do what they can, and if if we need something from them, they're always there for us. And and if and if they need something for for them, we make sure we're there for them. And I I'm as long as I'm here, I'm going to make sure
that we have a a great relationship between um the burrow and the the Oakland KA board of ed. Um they're they're wonderful people over there. Um and that's it, mayor. >> Thank you, Mayor. One one more thing.
>> Sure. Um, so many people have complimented the DPW uh this evening and very welld deserved, very welld deserved. Uh, people from other towns compliment me for the work that our DPW does here in Oakland. Give
them a call. If you have a minute, call a DPW and thank them for what they did uh in the snow emergency. many of them work very long hours and uh the the proof is in the pudding that the town really looks a lot better. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. Uh just a couple more fun
facts about the affordable housing. I couldn't find the paper here after speaking to the senator. Um she informed me that the homebuilders association and the fair share housing association helped draft the bill and provided testimony at the hearing for these two bills that we're dealing with today. So,
this all has everything to do with profits and money. And also, uh, another fun fact she brought to my attention was majority of the Senate Assembly people that presented this bill have no obligation in their towns to put in affordable housing.
So, just putting it on the table. And I have a want to share some uh unfortunate news. I was just informed earlier today that Councilwoman Donna Kurdock who served in 2010 passed away. I believe you served with her pig. >> Yeah. So, just want to just recognize
Councilwoman Kurdoch. All right. Uh, bills to be paid. >> Okay. Bills to be paid is 708,6968. So, moved. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call.
>> Council President Telini. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eert. >> Yes. >> Councilman Pigmatelli. Yes. >> Councilwoman Rose. >> Yes. >> Councilman Zeliani. >> Yes. >> All right. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> So moved. >> Okay. Just so everybody knows, all the ordinance that we just voted on today
will be on the website tomorrow. So you have an opportunity to look at them. Okay. And also our next meeting will be uh the 12th of March. Uh remember starting at six o'clock the planning board will be voting on the ordinances first make a recommendation to the
governing body and then we'll be voting on them. We'll be open for public comment. That being said meeting ajourned. Thank you everybody at this point. What can be done?