All right. It's called the order of the council meeting of Thursday, October 23rd, 2025. Please stand for pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Please bow your heads for a moment of silence. >> Amen. Okay. Mr. Barnes >> here. >> Mr. Herzel >> here. Mr. >> Luck here. >> Mr. Madden here. >> Mr. Pini here. >> Mr. Winslow here. >> Mr. Crowley
>> here. >> Uh, adequate notice of this meeting has been given pursuant to public law 1975 chapter 231. With that being said, we will go for reports from the mayor and administration. I just have a couple updates tonight. Um the agenda includes
a second reading for the bond ordinance at the San Castle Park Recreation Complex at 34th Street. We, as I remind you, we have $3.5 million grant from the county to help cover the cost and we're recommending you approve that tonight. Um you know, state-of-the-art
playground. We're going to have outdoor stage for special events at Dunk Court. Thanks, Tony. Um for disabled, uh disabled disability, excuse me. We first re uh first jeez can't speak tonight. Resurface our tennis courts,
new restroom facilities and pickleball courts and more. Uh with the construction schedule, we will update because of supply chain. The playground equipment is going to take about 5 to 7 months. So, we're going to hold off on doing anything until after the uh summertime cuz we don't want to start
getting into it and it not be uh done for uh >> Excuse me, Mr. Mayor. Can we not ask it to be a dunk court so there's people not dunking on it that but there's kids there that can play on it that are supposed to because then if it's a dunk court then >> thank
>> people that can dunk will be on there >> then Tony will be out there dunking >> I was just going to say that >> yes yes I will thank you for that correction um also uh we're going out to bid for the downtown street lights on Asbury Avenue again there'll be a state-of-the-art system to control
lighting levels the post will be um able to accommodate our holiday decorations and separate low height uh ballard system we'll use for speakers preventing the noise from uh going up to the second story residence. We have planned to do one block at a time where we're going to start at sixth street and we will be
going to the downtown merchant meeting with the plans and our project manager to explain exactly um how we're going to do it. Tonight on the agenda we have uh two items related to the beaches. One seeks a declaration of a local emergency related to our eroded downtown beaches. This could be a tool to help our
legislators who are fighting to fund an Omry core beach replenishment project. Uh today we did talk to uh Congressman Vandrew. We have a couple other uh ideas that we're working on. So I'll be bringing that to uh council shortly. And
then the other item is to award professional services contract to help us get permits for necessary emergency work uh to get done. also met with the police chief on the new police building and I will be probably in a couple weeks or so we'll be bringing some concepts to
council in a couple at a time like we've done in the past. Michael. >> Yes. >> Yes. Uh the mayor asked me just to bring you up to date uh because at the last meeting Councilman Harel did bring a proposal as far as u doing the playground at the beach between 5th and
6th Street. I just want to update you when it's where we started and where we are now. Um certainly Mr. Carson he brought up many months ago wasn't a new idea but certainly he officially presented it. So after he brought up originally um and it's the beach right there I think you're familiar with the
boardwalk between the boardwalk and the parking lot where the uh volleyball courts are there's some dune there as well. So we uh we did look at it and excluding the dunes actually square foot area where the viable courts was open space was about 27 square feet and um
when we first did that we did look at just buying playground equipment what it might cost for a 20,000 ft playground with our our some of our vendors and it came in for about a million5 to$2 million for equipment to do a playground. Um and then we checked with Green Acres and they they didn't have no
they did not have an objection to putting a playground on the beach here. the green acres. They they were okay with the idea. Uh the only thing is we certainly we have to get a permit. That cost me about about $1,000 to get a permit. Um we checked with our environmental consultant. Um she's, you know, has obviously relationships within
the state and um they pretty much told us we wouldn't be able to put any kind of surface down on it. Had to be the playground have to be on the beach. And I at one point we talked about maybe a water feature or or pl play area and they said no plumbing could be run through the beach there. So that would have to be eliminated from any project
there. Um obviously we know in that area there's some erosion there. Certainly water runs through there. So there's some concerns with that. Uh what we could do about that. So then we figure well is there any way to do some sort of bulkhead there to stop water erosion from flowing through there if we're
going to put a player in there to protect that. uh you know our consultant said a permit for that probably about $30,000 to do a permit and didn't seem like there's a very good chance of getting that but that would be pretty much want to explore that that be the cost to see if a shop but it didn't it
didn't seem favorable that we we'd be able to do that um in the meantime we did start reaching out to um some people in the neighborhood just get um a feel if they would support the project to bring it forward uh wasn't much support there that we felt most of the people didn't want to see something put there
uh we also I know is brought up B merchants um and that was discussed but nothing ever keen for from the board of work merchants to encourage city to move forward with it either. I know we sent out um an email a couple weeks ago. I know council I besides your thoughts on councelor Williams approached us to move
forward as a project there either. So certainly we we appreciate the um the offer. You know anybody wants to give money to the city to build a project. We do we do appreciate Mr. Parks bring that forward. Um but certainly at this time we you know especially that storm a couple weeks ago we again I had to go back. We are very nervous with water and
erosion in the area. That always seems to be our our weak spot when there's there's issues. So, um, and right now we don't have any money in the capital plan. So, if we wanted to move forward, we have to amend that to do something this year or something we can start look at in 2026. So, I guess I just wanted to bring it forward to see if council had
any ideas or direction, you know, what if he wants to keep us move forward with this or, you know, where we might be as far as. >> All right. Um, that being said, not to put anyone on the spot, but why, you know, um, why don't we have a a com
public comment, why don't we have a comment, Dave, we'll just go I think like we normally do uh around the table. >> Okay. Um, thanks for the information, Michael. I wasn't aware of some of those things. Uh, I'm all for a playground. I have four grandchildren and I think, uh,
playgrounds in town will be great. However, we already have we have 31 playgrounds in town right now and again we're doing a big expansion renovation at 34th Street. U so maybe it would be good down there. My concern is when we when we met with the vendor let one of
the vendors leds they said can operate at night. They never allow their their playgrounds to operate at night. Well, I think one of the ideas that Mr. Councilman Harshel put forward was which was a great idea is to get more business down that end of the boardwalk. Well, I
don't think kids are necessarily going to they're given a choice between going to the beach, playing in the ocean or going to a playground. I don't think I think those are two competing things and I think the ocean in most cases would probably win out. So with with the concern concerns that I wasn't aware of
uh I and and the and the expense I have some concerns supporting it. As much as I love love love playgrounds for kids I'm not sure and maybe maybe with more research we'll we I have a different opinion but thinking about through all the analytics of that it probably I don't think we're ready yet.
>> Okay. And and I did mention that every council I did set a zoom try to meet leathers and had to answer questions to that that I'm Mr. Harsh we did do that as well. Yes, >> Jody. >> Uh, I mean, I'm limited with what I'm going to say in my answer till I hear Keith's response and where he would be
on all this, but um, in a in a nutshell, um, I I I think it is a great idea to do something there. Um, we have been talking about it for quite a bit. Um maybe perhaps what my vision of a playground or his vision of a playground or the the public's vision or your vision it might be completely different
but the idea of doing something there um that's that's that's free and open to the public even if it's just restricted to uh daytime and and late afternoon and what have you not at night I I I don't see a reason not to explore that. It's a pretty dead area there and um and something needs to ignite there to get
to the the north end of the boardwalk. So I don't see anything wrong with it. I don't see anything wrong with having a 30 secondond playground. Um and uh but but but for now, in light of some of this information, which makes sense, um I'm sure Keith is capable of doing more research and continuing his expedition
to to doing something great there. So, I'll I'll leave it to him. >> So, almost every town has a playground on their beach um or andor an amphitheater. Um a lot of them are not bulkheaded. Some of them are actually on
the other side. Um, I don't see an issue with the playground coming down because it is going to be well put into the ground. I know in St. Augustine where they have one, it floods, they've had no loss. They've had no problems, nor anybody up or down the coast has had a
loss or a problem. You know why we would particularly have a loss and a problem? Nobody else is. Just doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense to me. If we go with the leather's build, the leather's build is a community project. Okay? So, what happens is they come down and they go
into the community and ask the community what they want. Um, and that would include the people at Fifth Street. So, if the size of it had to come down because they thought it was too close for their homes, uh, that could certainly be looked at. And the other the other thing is is I'm not an expert,
but the majority of the kids that would use that would use that before it got dark out. Okay? Because it's it gets dark about 8 8:30. I'm I'm not against lights or anything of that nature and the playground would be ours. So if the city want to put lights in, we could do
that. But in my mind, the the average kid that's going to go to that's anywhere from 2, three years old to probably 10 or 12. They're gonna they're gonna go earlier. They're I mean I I'm not an expert, but I worked for him for two years and had to walk through Playland all the time and I can tell you
when the kids are there and when they're not. It's not after 9:00 usually uh because they're kids. Um so from that standpoint, the leather's build gives you a lot more than you just buying the playground because the the town puts it together. So that's what reduces the
total cost. So, I could get a cost I could get a a million dollar playground for about $800,000 if if the community does the bill, which that's the whole idea is to get everybody involved in the design of it and the bill to create all kinds of momentum and big frill. Then
you'll get a piece of land for me worth $800,000. You guys can do whatever you want. You know, you you could sell it and then boom, it's equal. Uh the other thing is what I would encourage you to do is join in with me and raise money because everybody else raises the money. So you
have my 800,000 sitting. Then we have a goal of of raising the 800,000. Veteran just raised money and everybody's is able to do this. They're all able to do it in all the areas that you say it can't be done. Uh because they have the will to do it. It's all about will when they're trying
to do something. I have the will. Um, this type of playground is is much larger than a regular play playground. And because it's designed by the community, we have things that the community wants that are different than any other playground we have. So, compare it uh with any one of our
playgrounds. I'll bring a a brochure and put it in everybody's mailbox. They're nothing like it. They're not even close. They're not even in the same he hemisphere as to what as what the community can do with the bill. So there there's options to raise money. There's options to use my money. Um you know,
you don't have to keep my lot. You could sell it. Now you've got $8,000 because the way that would work for me is I get the tax deduction and you go get no capital gain. So you guys will get a $800,000 lot and you can decide what you want to do with it. You can put it into
inventory. You could use it for housing. There's all kinds of things you could do. But I think the most unique thing is is because I've got $800,000 sitting there. I bet if we all work real hard, we raise $800,000. So I'm trying to take any kind of risk out of it and whatever
we don't raise, then it jumps in off that lot. I just see every other community doing it. I mean, there's 3,800 communities have done it with over 3 million volunteers and these beach playgrounds are everywhere and some are on the opposite side of the boardwalk and nobody's having a problem. Nobody's
having a problem accomplishing. Nobody's having a problem doing it. So from that standpoint, you know, I mean, if you have specific things that you want me to answer, send me an email. I'll go do all the research. I know Mrs. McCrossen talked to Asbury Park and most of what I just said is pretty much what's going on
there. So, I don't want to go on too long, but this this this works. There's a ton of them in Florida. You want to talk about hurricanes? There's a ton of them in Florida with no loss. Everybody's good. uh and they work and they're packed. They are packed and
they're packed during the daytime. So, this whole misnomer or that's not going to happen because they're in beach communities. You know, not everybody goes to the beach every day. And one of the things about this is a lot of parents will sit there and have their beach time while their kids are playing and then they go into the water. So, it
it it works hand in hand. And like I said, I'm only going >> because I guess original purpose I thought was to attract at least my notes was to attract people there at night time to bring people to the boardwalk. >> Yeah. So night time in includes us up to 8:00, right? So >> well it depends on the time of year obviously in you know July 4th you're
almost 8:39 by the end of summer 7:30 that's dark all in the globe. So just depends on the time of year >> and and I could just tell you like I said I you know for my time walking through Playland and the optimum time for for the younger kids to be there is 5 6 7:00. So that would get them
started. And you know when I when I ran Main Street, what happened was I had a couple events I put on. I had movies up in up in um Stton. It was getting there were three 400 people up there. Uh we had evenings on Aspbury. We were getting 2,000 people
there. And I went to every hotel and did brochures. And then I hand put brochures all around town, like 85 locations. And here's what I found. The hotels were so happy we had something else because each and every hotel said, "You know what? A
lot of times people come in for three, four, five days. They can't afford the boardwalk every night." So when I ran the downtown, we filled that void. And that void became excellent for us and the hotels because there was something else to do. And this is all I'm trying to do. I was I'm going to capture people
down at that fifth street lot. There's a bathroom there. They get started and maybe they play for an hour and then they see there's another amusement park. You think they're going to turn around and go home. No, they're going to walk down. And I, as I said before, the way the one in St. Augustine, there was push back at the beginning. Now 80% of the
people in the town when surveyed loved it. Uh the other thing is is um what happened also is sometimes one spouse will watch the kids while the other spouse goes and shops and does other things. All I can say is I work everybody everywhere else. That's all they can say. I mean obviously
playground here don't make any sense. >> Yeah. Different purposes. Obviously, you know, worried about the boardwalk and night time getting people up there where I'm sure he's probably busy during the day. If you want to still keep busy day charge. >> Yeah. Let me let me jump let me jump in and just I'm not sorry. I mean the point
of me going around the table is I just want to say >> are we going to keep expending you know manpower and hours to do this? Is that the intent of council or is there not enough interest to do that? or, you know, do you want to get to the point where three of you want to put it on the
agenda, but we don't really need to debate, you know, nighttime and all that sort of thing. Let's just, you know, just give me your thoughts and then let's come to some kind of consensus on how we move or don't move forward. >> Sean, um, well, I love the idea of doing something on the north end of the
boardwalk, obviously, because everything is going on up there. U, but I do have a couple questions. You said $30,000 for the bulkhead design cost. Did you run up numbers for the actual bulkhead itself? Construction of the bulkhead? >> Do we know how long this bulkhead would be?
>> We we didn't take those next steps because obviously we we had to go to council for see if permit >> I mean be the length of the block I assume rough around there. So let's >> that's an expensive fall. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Um do we have any idea of maintenance cost annually? Anybody
budget that? Do we have any clue how much it would cost even though we're getting gifted this? >> Right. I mean obviously you got to see the what the final playground is so we know you know what kind of maintenance it would be um because originally we researched and Mr. It's hard to present at 20,000 ft. So it'll be smaller than
what you know the cost. So we know the final product and we'll know the final mean cost of it. >> And we can go small depending on what what you guys would look at. >> Um I mean there's really my only questions that jumped out at this new information shared tonight. But um you
know I'm not crazy about building anything on the sand. I'm a keep the marshes undeveloped and keep the beaches undeveloped type of guy. But um I understand the need down there. I don't know if we have enough information really to keep going forward.
>> All right, Tony. >> Um yeah, to reiterate, um Dave or everybody, we do need something down there. Um, I don't know in the daytime if it's as important as more at nighttime because um, daytime people
love the beach. But I think more importantly is the cost right now. I think we need to have some more information what it's really going to cost. Some of the questions that Sean brought up. I don't think it's just going to be a million dollars or a million six. It could be a lot more if we're doing a playground at 34th Street for that kind of money. I think it's
going to be a lot more than what we think. So, you know, at this point I'd like to find out some more information what it's really going to cost. >> Um, I think at this point I think we're creating a problem to act like we're finding a solution. So, this hasn't had a ton of support from council or the
community from the jump, which is about a year. So, uh, I don't think we should move forward with it. And I also don't think it's worth 800,000. That's just my professional opinion. Okay. >> You don't think the lot's worth the
>> correct? >> I got an appraisal. That was appraised at the city. Obviously get their own appraisal. >> Correct. We haven't got an appraisal on. >> No, but I got an appraisal. >> Yeah. No, you did appreciate appraiser. So, I think she'd be offended by that.
>> Okay. >> All right. Well, thank you for your thoughts. um you know moving forward you know if if it is something that we want to put on the agenda and and expand you know go down more man hours and that sort of thing the way the rules are
written three of you would need to contact me via email that that's the direction you want to go um and then if and then we can go forward with but for now I would say you know towards the administration until there's a clear
intent from the council I don't want to time and money and and all that sort of thing used uh towards something that's not yet approved. >> Okay. >> Mr. Hart did work on his proposal, so we didn't want to ignore it. So, we want to present done and just get
>> I appreciate that. I just want to protect the taxpayers here as well. So, if you don't mind, I understand what you're saying, but how how do you um how do you envision Keith proceeding with information if we're restricting the
administration from sort of working with him if we're saying it's not worth their time or their effort right now? >> I I until three councilmen up here indicate that it's a project that they want to see move forward, I don't think. For Is it four, Keith? I'm sorry. Four.
I thought three to put it on the agenda, four to approve it. Right. >> Yes. Is there four to go on the agenda? >> Three. >> I think four. >> The last time you made me get four to go on the >> agenda. I think four. >> Okay. So, that's what I'm going to leave you. >> Okay. >> Does that make sense, Jar? >> Got it. >> Okay.
>> All right. Anything else, Michael? >> Nope. That's all. >> Thank you. >> And thank you. One more thing, Jerry. We were in Lank City. We got award. So, let George explain to him because it's his world. Today we were uh at the New Jersey Association for Flood Plane Management's
annual conference and uh >> a lot of engineers, a lot of flood plane managers, you know, good stuff. In any event, the city was uh given the award for uh 2025's outstanding for outstanding flood plane management for
all of the city's efforts over the past years in uh in flood plane management in adopting ordinances that uh uh require our our properties to be built uh uh to the appropriate flood standards. Uh
recognizing all the work we've done with flood mitigation as council knows and I think the the public knows we have uh pump stations throughout the town between 1st and 8th Street, West 17th Street, between 29th and 34th Street uh
Marian Park. We also have another successful flood mitigation project we accomplished on Waterview Boulevard. It didn't involve pumps, but uh it was a successful project. We have uh 14 pump stations now with 38 pumps throughout
town. And uh today's award was a testament to uh to what Ocean City has done and the leadership uh that that the mayor and council have shown in in flood mitigation. And I can
tell you talking to to my peers that uh people look to Ocean City for how to do it, how to how to keep an barrier island uh uh how to do flood mitigation on a barrier island. We we we can't totally prevent flooding when we get events like
we just had when uh this the waters are up at elevation 7. It's going to take more than uh than than what we've done. But the fact is that uh you know we are we are way ahead of the curve and we're going to stay there and today's uh award
was as I said recognition of that for the city and you all should be proud of that. So >> thing I want him to touch base on is uh and I can't think of it right now. I'm sorry at the end when they came up with the the new codes going up at 5T and >> yeah there there is there is some
concerns because that that and we should keep our eye on this. Uh we've talked before about the uh New Jersey packed slreal the the protection against climate threat uh and uh those rules that were put into effect or not put
into effect that are proposed by the current uh administration which would require us to elevate properties I think 5T that they we expect what we were told that they may be adopted it before the
governor leaves office and take effect in 2026. Now, we do expect that it'll be litigated. We don't expect it that uh it'll go through without uh some fight, but it is a concern with uh if we have to do that. So, we're going to keep our
eye on that and uh and make sure that we we do our part to uh to ensure that common sense regulations are put into effect as opposed to regulations that are that are geared probably more, you know, for events that would, you know,
would occur 100 or more years from now. >> They told us they were going to go forward. Now, they're talking about going 5 feet. It it just but and they're also you know everyone thinks whatever the new governor comes in at any time that kind of stuff they're writing is so strict that the next governor or
whatever will be to deal with. So this is something very very serious it's going to you know you talk about going up talk about height forget it. I mean they're going to be 354t up in the air. I mean, they add in that those extra couple of feet and we didn't get enough time to really talk to them about it,
but this this will affect everybody and it'll affect and again the lawsuits and it seems like the lawyers, no offense, will be making all the money again. Uh but it's just uh it's I get it. There's nothing, you know, it's good to look into the future and all that kind of stuff, but there's got to be a right way
of doing it. It's like they're really throwing everything at us right now and it'll it'll affect us all. So, but it was a it was a good meeting today. >> Thanks. >> All right. Thanks, Jay. All right, with that, we will go out to our first citizen comment. The first citizen comment is for agenda items only. So,
um, when you come forward, if you can give us an idea of what what agenda item you're talking about. Sometimes it's hard to follow. Um, first up is Joe Wag Wagner. >> Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
>> David, Jody, Keith, Sean, Tony, Peter, Terry, Melissa, George, the general Dorothy, as my compass shows, Ocean City, New Jersey is heading in the right direction. I have personally canvased the boardwalk
with my pedico electric bike and found a total of 21 abandoned bikes and recorded them. >> Can you Can you wait till this is just for agenda meeting zoning? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> All right. So, we'll have another public comment. We can talk about bikes and all that. >> Agenda. >> Yep. >> Agenda. Hotel.
>> It's not on the agenda. >> What's on the agenda? I'll get to you. Please, >> George Tutill. >> Oh, I'm sorry about that. I apologize. >> Good, man. >> Georgetown, uh, 717 Central Avenue. Uh,
I'd like to, I guess, talk about resolution 25-62 515. >> Thank you. Snow White said, um, I sent everybody an email today. I'm not sure if you got a chance to look at
it or care to look at it or what have you. Uh, I'll just read what I sent uh for anybody that cares to hear about this resolution. um opening I like to say summer of 2024 there was a citizen that came that was from Ocean City that came forward and shared information at a
meeting on the damage and dangers of LED lighting but was told to speak to a council member offline leaving those all those in attendance if they cared or not had no further information uh shared with them about the LED issue
that was presented. Um, so saying that, uh, I was asking for resolution number 2562515 authorizing the advertisement of city contract number 26-12 downtown street improvements from Sixth Street to 7th Street um to be tabled.
Um, I know we're behind the uh, eight ball you there's so many LED lights on the boardwalk in the city as it is. Um, there's issues. My concern is I was asking for it to be tabled uh until further research on the health implications of LED lighting on human
health are brought to the public's knowledge. The health implications of passing the resolution as well as past resolutions involving LED lighting that were pushed forward previously are subject to scrutiny with the information that I am sharing with you. The Ocean City citizens health and well-being far
outweigh any possible benefits that LED lighting may offer. I respectfully ask that you review just a few of the many educational links that I and writings on the subject of LED lighting lighting EMF RF that is slowly killing our health and I included those at the bottom there. I
have so much more other information. I didn't want to respectfully I didn't want you reading for hours um can get boring after a while. Um, anybody that's listening or would like to take notes or even cares about this, um, there's an email. It's called lamp
light decorative lighting.com. Um, look under industry news blog improve health cities changing street lights. Talks about all the devastation of LED and the things it's doing to our body, our eyes. Um, it's not just the street lights,
it's cars. Um, there's no reg federal regulations. There's nothing there. There've been no testing on humans with this. Again, I say it's it's a little bit late because we already have LED lights and I'm sure you're not going to not do Sixth Street and Seventh Street, but if I don't say something, then I
can't pitch later. Uh, excerpts below are shared um from www.softlights.org and there's a bunch of information there. You might have looked at it, multiple paragraphs there. Um
um so go to ban uh you can also go to ban blinding LEDs there's a Facebook group softlights foundation there's a Facebook group and then the two.orgs orgs and.com that I've shared with you. If anybody cares or wishes to have any
idea about LED lights or wants to learn about it, uh you can go there. Um like I said, there's LED lights all on the boardwalk. It's up and down the streets. It's car lights. It's city worker lights. It's blinding. I was coming home my son's birthday at night time. I don't
really drive a lot at night, but the lights, it's unbelievable. But it's neither here and there. Uh, I guess I'm late to the party, but I did talk about this before and the federal government has to do things about it and put some string um tests on it and what's being
uh done to us as human beings. But I just if I didn't say anything, I would feel bad that I didn't. Thanks for your time, George. Thank you, Dave. David Breeden, 114 Victoria Lane, Marian Park. Resolution number 13, payment of
claims. At the September 25th council meeting when you approved on first reading the AC the ordinance for the acquisition of the Crown Bank building. You also approved the professional service contract for $64,000 for design work to place the police
department in the Crown Bank building. As we know, 5 days later, the mayor decided wisely not to purchase the Crown Bank building, and I had two thoughts immediately. I was relieved that we were not moving into 100-year-old building, and that we would save $64,000
in professional fees because there would be no need to design for that design work. Sadly, that is not the case. Even though you approved the contract on September 25th, the work for that contract started in July and it proceeded to such a point that at the
end of August, 75% of it was done without the due diligence of the building being completed. So that's why there's a payment on the bill list for $48,000 tonight. We'll just add that to the list of growing expenditures for
plans that we we will never use. Now, if there was an emergency, natural disaster, state of emergency, yes, sometimes you take action and the paperwork catches up. Been there, done that.
This was not the case. Poor planning, no planning, or halfhazard planning does not constitute an emergency. Now I know the response to some will be well 48,000 64,000 whatever that amount is that's a rounding area error when you have a
budget of well over $und00 million true but the way I look at it is $48,000 that could put a lot of police officers on the boardwalk in the summer that could put a lot of lifeguards on the beach that could put a lot of ADA mats
on the beach that could pay for a lot of items that Mr. Alleged listed tonight. That's the way I view the $48,000. Mayor, hopefully you do also view and appreciate the value of taxpayer money
because I was simply at a loss why we started the professional service contract in July when due diligence wasn't completed. And and I guess more troubling is why couldn't you be straightforward saying you're approving contract tonight at least 75%'s already
done. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. With that, we'll go into reports from city council. David, >> Jody, >> I'm good. >> Keith, >> I think I already >> All right. If you want to pass, we're fine with that. >> Yeah.
>> All right. Good. >> Sean, good. Tony Pete. Okay, I'm good as well. Without what? I'm sorry. Before you move on, I can we respond. >> Sure. Sure. I'm sorry. I just want to address the the comments that were just made about the uh the public safety
building. >> I just want first of all, the mayor and council decided not to move into that building. That was a joint decision. It was also a decision the mayor and council to proceed with the professional
service work that we did with uh with Mccle's architecture. It was a decision that was made with the with discussion with council leadership and understanding that we would bring that professional service contract forward uh
later which we did in September. And we've had a a number of decisions that were made with the mayor and with council with some of them with the full council, some of them just with council leadership when we advance this thing. So, and we absolutely don't look at at
any expenditure whether it's a nickel or $48,000 as a rounding error. Sometimes you move you move forward and you make decisions to do things in the best interests of the community and sometimes they don't work out and we went through a process
here and we did what we thought was the correct thing and we did it in conjunction with the council. Mayor has in my experience does not do things unilaterally without discussing them with council. I wanted to make that clear because it's an important thing to
understand that we work together here to try to do what's best for the community, try to do things uh that are as efficient and as effective as possible. And when we went through our when we finally went through our completed our
due diligence, all of it on 801 Asbury, we decided not to move in move forward with it. But I think everyone agrees and everyone had concurred that we should go through that process. there was an opportunity potentially to save significant dollars, but after we went
through a detailed process, we realized not not in the city's best interest. So, just wanted to make that clear. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. With that, can I have a motion to adopt the regular city council meeting minutes of Thursday, October 9th, 2025?
Move. >> Wiz second. >> Mr. Barnes. Yes. >> Mr. Hartzell. >> Yes. Yes. I guess it didn't come out. >> Mr. Love, yes. Mr. Madden. Yes. >> Mr. Pini. >> Yes. >> Mr. Winslow. Yes. Mr. >> Yes.
>> Okay. There's one ordinance this evening. It's a second reading. Ordinance 25-13. >> I have a motion to uh take up ordinance 2513 on second reading. >> So move on. >> Second. >> Mr. Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hartzel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Luf. Yes.
>> Mr. Madden. Yes. >> Mr. Pini. Yes. >> Mr. Winslow. >> Yes. Mr. Crowley. >> Yes. >> Ordinance number 2513, a bond ordinance providing for renovations to 3,400 block of West and Asbury Avenue recreation facility in and by the city of Ocean
City in the county of Kate May, New Jersey, appropriating $7,500,000. Therefore, and authorizing the issuance of $3,89,500 bonds or notes of the city to finance part of the cost thereof. >> Good evening, council. As the title
indicates, and as the mayor explained earlier, this is the funding ordinance for the new 34th Street playground. You'll note that you're appropriating $7.5 million, but you're only bonding 95% of $4 million, which is the city's contribution because of the 350, I'm
sorry, $3.5 million contribution by the county. >> Okay. Since it is second reading, we will have public comment on this uh ordinance and this ordinance only. Seeing that anyone on this side for public comment on this this side?
No. Okay. Uh questions, comments, council. Dave, Jody, >> I'm good. >> Keith, sir, thank you. >> Glad that we're at this point. Get something done down there. It's going to be a beautiful park once it gets done. I hope it gets done sooner rather than later because costs keep going up.
for you. Tony, >> I just wanted to share a little history of um the little um special needs or we called her um dunk court. Um, >> so, um, my wife about 4 years ago and
her friend, we, uh, ran a, um, from Washington DC to New York City and raised over $4,000. Um, it was World Down Syndrome Day. So,
we raised this money and they wanted to do something for it. So, we've had this in the account for four to five years now, and we finally are able to give it back, and we want to do that in donating to the city when we redo this uh
playground uh a little court for kids that have special needs to be able to play and all. So, we wanted to give back to that and do something really nice. So, I've been at Michael and for years about this and we're finally getting it done. So, I appreciate it and looking forward to it.
>> Good. Thank you. >> Show them real quick. We're we're ordering everything. It's just going to take time. So, we're we're going to get everything here and then we're going to put it in. >> Okay. >> We're going to Yeah. >> We're saving money. I know. >> All right. Peter, you good?
>> I can't wait to dunk. I mean, help Michael dunk. >> He'll dunk you. I'll >> dunk on you. >> All right. With that, can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 2513 on second reading? So, move second. Mr. Barnes, yes. Mr. Hartzel, yes. Mr.
Lovechuk, yes. Mr. Madden, Mr. Pchini, yes. Mr. Winslow, Mr. Crowley, >> yes. >> With that, we'll move into the consent agenda. All resolutions listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and will be acted by one motion. If the mayor or any council person wishes to a particular resolution
to be considered separately, it will be removed from the consent agenda. Does anyone have anything to be removed? Okay. Have a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Jody. >> Jody. Sorry.
>> That's okay. Mr. Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hartzell. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lovechuk. Yes. >> Mr. Madden. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pulchi. >> Yes. >> Mr. Winslow. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crowley. >> Yes. >> That will go into pending business. David. Um, I just wanted to say something about
the 34th Street playground. You know, we we came up with designs earlier in the year. I talked to a lot of people. Dan Kelner and his team did a fantastic job in redesign reimagining that playground which has been there for years and years is and it really needs a facelift. So, he did a great job. Uh, so we developed
some plans and then we uh had some community members come forward and asked if there was any way we could make some changes. So, we we listened to them. Then we went back and we did some substantial changes to the program. So which to the design so that held it back
a little tiny bit, but uh I think it was well worth it because the design changes that they came up with were almost brilliant. Um so I think it's going to be a great great uh playground and park and the thing I'm excited about is the
equipment as Councilman uh mentioned is for children with disabilities. A lot of equipment will be very sensory and it's going to attract a wide range of of activities for younger children as well as adults in some of the areas, you know, and the equipment that we're
ordering is from the same company that we ordered for the uh the uh gym down at down at Sixth Street. And I think we all agree if we've been there, it's just absolutely fantastic. So, I think we're by waiting a little tiny bit. Again, most of it's most of the delay is in the
uh in the manufacturing piece of it and the sourcing of it. But I think a little bit of delay and getting a lot more citizen input some really great ideas that hadn't come forward came forward. So we stopped backtracked looked at that ordering the stuff and it's just going to be a fantastic playground once we get
it over. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Jody Penny >> Keith Pendy. >> I'm good sir. Thank you. >> Sean, >> nothing. Pending Pete. No pending. >> I'm good. New business, David. Jody, >> just in new business yesterday. I'll
keep it brief. Um the um on boardwalk zone uh review committee met yesterday for the first time. Nine people on that committee. It's a very good strong committee of nine residents from Ocean City. And um we will be meeting
regularly for the foreseeable future uh with our second meeting next week. And we did appoint um uh Joselyn Palanis to be our secretary and spokesperson. >> Great. Thanks for the update. Appreciate it. Keith, >> uh thanks for the update, too. I know
you guys have already started out very professionally and what I like about it is you're not going to say anything to anybody. You're going to work on it first. That will be a welcome thing. So, there won't be a lot of arguing until it actually comes. So, I I really appreciate uh the level. I I know you
guys laid out some um things that you wanted to do and mission statement and that type of thing. It's that level of professionalism uh is uncommon in a lot of areas and I I just I'm tickled pink that uh you guys will work on it and it's not that it's um not in secret. It's just to get
something done and then bring it to the public and when it's brought to the public you'll know what it is. We'll all get a chance to examine it and and hopefully a lot of it will be hashed out so people go wow that might work. So, I'm really hoping for the best and I I know all the people personally on the
group and all stellar people and I can't wait to see the work get done, but don't rush it because this will do it right and see where we go. >> Great. Sean, >> um yeah, thank you all three of you for your comments on that. And um just to let everybody know public will be engaged. There'll be parts of the
process where we will be reaching out and uh asking for public comment and and interaction with that process. That's it, >> Tony. >> No, Terry, good job in forming that team. >> Thank you, Peter. >> No new business.
>> All right. A couple things for me. Um, as far as the subcommittee, I know Jody mentioned nine people. Originally, I announced seven people that were on that committee. Uh, the intent was always to have an architect as part of that group. And, um, after going through a process and and talking to a number of people,
uh, like I said, I did have some people say no. But, um, we did appoint two additional people from the original group. group and it was Joselyn Palaganis and also um Shannon Holidayiday who's an architect and lives here in town. So I I I know their both of these individuals very well and I
know they'll be a strong addition to the subcommittee and I know they'll uh do a very diligent job and working with you guys and with the public to to come with some great uh great ideas. So once again I thank you guys for doing that. Uh second, um I will be having a ward
meeting on the 1st of November at the yach club from 9 to 11. We will be talking about all the things to do with the first war. So, uh it's not going to be a boardwalk or 600 boardwalk meeting. It's going to be about real life issues that are going on for the people that
happen to live down in the north end. So, everyone's welcome. I did invite the mayor. I I think he's coming, but uh it'll be a good meeting. We have to be out of there by 11:00 because they have other events that day. But uh everyone's welcome. >> Will there be food? >> Well, Bill's getting his knee replaced
that week, so maybe just some coffee. Thanks, Pete. Um >> and then, you know, just one thing about, you know, the whole thing with 801. I'm always fair with this stuff. And when we looked at the Crown Bank building, you know, we all toured it and
we have two floors over there that are really beautiful. I mean, I wish the public could go see it cuz uh they really did a good job with with redoing that. Um but but when we looked at it and then we saw how well that was doing, that was really when, you know, it wasn't just the mayor. It was all seven
of us that said, "Let's look at this. If we can save 10 or 12 or 15 million by not doing the building back here, let's look into it." And we were all in agreement. It was seven seven to nothing because I talked to everyone. Uh and then we and I want to don't want to bash the guy that owns it. We started doing
some diligence there and looking at things and looking at stuff kept popping up and you know I think it was a good learning experience from us all because it really led us to the new police station and and we all kind of learned that we didn't want to be in the remodeling business. We we wanted to start fresh and so I don't think there
was a lot of negatives that came out. I think we all learned a lot and I think it helped us get to a good spot. Um but we we had to look at it because it could have been a significant cost savings and that's our jobs to do that and once we learned some of the other questions then
it was 70 to to go the direction that we were going to go. So I think something positive came out of it and you know we it is true that we all did work together in that and we all learned the information and we all made the decision I think ultimately that that was best.
So I just want to be fair about all that sort of thing. With that being said, we will go >> if the building is safe. Just I want everybody realize and and because that's important because everyone just talks because they think they know what they're talking about. >> It's great for what it is right now, but once you go to a a police station,
that's what changed it all. And we were good for a while until all of a sudden they came up with this new earthquake thing. So, you know, I don't know how you earth earthquake a building, but that's when all the millions and million that that really was a turn thing. But the owners have done a good job. You see the scaffolding out there now. They were going to do the facade a long time ago
until we decided we were going to do our due diligence. So, I just I don't want anybody think that the owners of that Crown Bank are not taking care of it because they are. And they were waiting a little bit for us and there was nothing bad and they have their own engineers and all that kind of stuff. But it's a safe building. It's not going anywhere, you know, no matter what
anybody says. It's it's it's a nice 100-y old building. It's going to last longer than all of us. >> Yeah. And thanks for adding that because I I I love that building and I I wanted to be there and that was part of us maybe keeping it. But uh I think it all worked out for the best. So um with that being said, I will go out to citizen
comment. Joe, you're going to come up first cuz I had to cut you off. >> Yes, sir. >> Sorry about that. >> Board members, committee members, thank you for your leadership and thank you for your skills and your educations you brought this community. As my compass
indicates, Ocean City is heading in the right direction. I personally filed 20 over 21 bikes in the past four weeks that have been abandoned on the boardwalk close to the police station under the boardwalk and so forth just in my jur travels with my uh electric bikes and I reported them
using the the non 911 to the police. That's public safety's responsibility but the police communicated that to public safety. They had they sit there longer than 3 days. What you do is you tag them and then you come back to it the x amount of days. It's not like an abandoned car. We need to do something
about that because some of those bikes I have to re-report because they've been there over three weeks. So that's one agenda. I took it upon myself to canvas Atlantic City and I went down to boardwalk and I found five vendors that want to come to Ocean City and set up
shop. I share with them the rent. I gave them a a spectrum what the rent would be and they go, "Oh, tell me. Is that all it's going to be?" So they were impressed and they want to come to Ocean City. Ocean City is the future. It's growing.
Now, there's a lot of things I can say and the time is ticking and I'm going to use every bit of it. What I want to say is we have a playground that you lift weights. It has a sign that says security cameras are present, but yet I have saw no security
cameras at that site. We do have security cameras on the boardwalk and we can monitor them at the fire station one on the LCD screens. It's great. It gives visibility of what's going on, especially during the fly raising ceremony, which I participate with. I
also made arrangements with the local uh the local American Legion, the VFWs, the amvets, the Knights of Columbus to get police bikes donated to the Ocean City Police Department. So, there's going to be at least four bikes, we spoke about that, at least four or five bikes that
are going to be donated and they're going to be donated within our budgets and we're looking to do it uh early part of next year. and they're going to be pedicos and they're going to be built up the way you guys want them to when you get the bikes. It's uh we talked about electric bikes. It's a problem. You got
two, three kids on electric bikes. They're exceeding the speed limit and they're not wearing helmets. That's the parents responsibilities, not ours. It's the parents not doing their jobs. All we have to do is educate them. We could put radar traps on the speed on on the boardwalk just like we
have on the uh on the bridge to show you what your speed is, but those are digital signs. We don't want to pollute the boardwalk with digital signs. We already did that when we put the Ocean City uh music pier sign up. We went against one of our regulations to do that, but it was a must. It allows
people to see from all over the world what's at the music pier. And um I saw Wayne Newton had a great time and so did Keith. So it brings me to the point. Ocean City
is growing. We're doing it exponentially and we're doing it right. We're taking baby steps, but we're doing it right. We already talked about the engineering. Engineering is awesome. Civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, the boardwalk materials, the screws that go
into the boardwalk, the inspections. When I arrived my bike down to Warwalk, I noticed those things. I inspect things in great detail because I was a flight test inspector for Boeing on a CH47 shnook program. I was formally with the third 159 aviation regiment for Campbell, Kentucky with three combat
tours working on Apache helicopters. I don't miss things. And if I do, it's on me, not you. I have a relationship with with the police department, a good one, and the fire department and the uh the lifesavers, the coast, the uh not the
Coast Guard, but the um the uh what do you call it? The people that uh protect lifeguards. >> And I tell them jokes like, "Can I ask you a question?" And they say, "Sure." I said, "I just did." Now, I want to talk about something
that's on my mind, and that's the hotel. There's not one vendor on a hotel that has disagree with me. All the vendors on a hotel, I I pulled it. 82.7% want that hotel. They want that hotel because it's going to give a 365 day
year, 7 day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, a place for people to stay, park, relax, and enjoy the ocean. All you have to do is bring it to planning and decide how you want to do it. How it's going to fit into the city like a puzzle.
How it's going to play in with what we do and what we've done. Ocean City, New Jersey. That's civil right there. America's greatest family resort. It is. People confuse it with Ocean City, Maryland. Absolutely not. And that concludes my speech. Thank you.
>> All right. Thanks, Joey. >> All right. We'll keep going this side of the room. Nelson, come on up. >> Greetings on Dice common Nelson Central Avenue. >> Tomorrow 10:00 a.m. here in city council chambers. We the people are going to be
here and new member else to discuss the organic law. Organic means living. The living law of our country. What is it? Four of them. You can come learn about them. And the flag is living according to our
government and I happen to agree with it. I'm not living though when I get called into municipal court. It was a recent municipal court hearing trial where I refused to cross
the bar. I attempted to put the four organic laws into evidence. You know what Judge Frerieded said standing in for Judge Russell who are bar members which come out of London. They're the crown prince is meeting with the pope. There's a reason why I spent time in
jail. Both of them, the prince and or the king and the pope are responsible because we the people have not done our job. Our founding fathers spent their blood, sweat, and tears to give us freedom. We've lost it. My journey for
the last 10 years and dozens and thousands of other men and women have are bringing us back. The meeting tomorrow, by the way, lasts an hour. I spent many enjoyed many opportunities in my
lifetime to catch a wave of the Holy Spirit. It's never stuck in Ocean City. I spent years figuring out how can I spend some of my life bringing the wave of the Holy Spirit and the benefit to this town that was supposedly founded on
Christian principles. I believe it was. But according you read the seven churches of revelation. Many of them had some things that our Messiah said doing a couple things mistakenly. He didn't condemn us. He just said correct them. One of the things we need to correct is
that the founding fathers of this city were members of a witchcraft warlock organization called the Freemasons. Next to the Crown Bank building, there is a little sign. That's where the original uh temple temple
worship temple. What were they worshiping? It wasn't God Almighty. They were casting spells on themselves and on their children and grandchildren. I'm a victim. That's how come I know. And I also figured out how to correct
the problem. The blood of Jesus will correct the problem. During one of my experiences of receiving words from the Holy Spirit, I woke up one morning. He said Hebrews 12. Okay. So, I'm just going to read you a
few of the verses. I've been studying it for 40 years. Therefore, since this is after the hall of faith of Hebrews 11, Abraham, Enoch, etc., etc. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that
so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. That's what I've been trying to do. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith. for the joy set before him. He endured
the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. I've had to think about this as
I'm suffering with the Chinese torture lights in your jail that we're ready to put up some more in this town. Don't do it. Okay. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of
shedding your blood. Well, I have shed my blood. My wrists have been maimed. There's been blood in my inside from the broken vessels from this the police. Now, cause and effect. I'm going to make
a couple statements. I'm okay if you don't agree with me, but Eric Hall, who's the current pastor of St. Peters, wants to put me in jail for another 240 years because they're using the guns, which I saw a machine gun right over
here on the way here today. All I want is to bring the power of the Holy Spirit to town. When I was not allowed to go to this church to bring the miracle working power, a woman died of brain cancer and
a little baby toddler in the gardens had their head crushed. Both members of the church, I'm not allowed to think about it. Cause and effect. All right. >> Thanks, Nelson. Anyone else? Frank. I will be quick. It's rarely that I have much to say. My name is Frank Warel,
3307 Simpson Avenue, Ocean City. First of all, I was at the last council meeting and I was ambivalent about the the hotel, but after watching all those business people say, and they made a lot of sense, we need an anchor down there. I'm not against it, and we could use the
tax wheel. Another thing is, uh, this seems minor, but we had a big issue tonight about $48,000. Well, that's to the right of the decimal point on this. It's so far to the right of decimal point in this in this organization. How much money we have to spend a year just to keep this city
running, but I find it picky to pick on it. When I, you know, you had seven, nine people, 10 people working on it, trying to do the best. And uh when I first started out working, I had a I started out I had a position of
responsibility and I was a young guy and I was going to do this right. Well, the my employer called me and told me to do something. I did a lot of measuring and order a lot of stuff. It was totally wrong. I called him up after about two weeks and I finally got enough nerve to tell
him I screwed up. He said, "Well, if you're working, you'll make a mistake. If you don't do anything, you're not making a mistake. So you people worked and you made a mistake of $48,000 which we could have put hundreds of policemen on the street and take care of
the boardwalk and uh whatever else you can do with 48,000. You can't even buy a new car. Thank you. >> All right. Anyone else on this side? All right. Move over here. Ma'am, come on up. Mary, I'll get to you next. Come on. Yep. I don't know your name. I'm
sorry. Place. >> Hi, my name is Jackie Murphy and I live at Brighton Place. Um, I just want to make a comment about the proposed uh playground. I have five children, 12
grandchildren, so I'm not anti-child, but I do not think that the open space there should be used for a playground. I believe that Ocean City has proven over the years that every little bit of open
space gets taken with something. And to put a huge playground there on one of the most vulnerable beaches on the island. I live there. I see the ocean coming up in the last when the hurricane came by and just recently in the
northeast nor easter. I think that would be a big mistake. And as far as, you know, 800,000, it's never what you think it will be. It will always be more. And that's my feeling on that. And I
would like to see more open space in Ocean City preserved, especially the vulnerable beach. And Fifth Street, Sixth Street, one of the most vulnerable. 17th Street is another 14th
Street and I believe 9inth Street and I think it would be a big mistake. There's plenty of playgrounds. The biggest playground is right there on the other side of Boardwalk. It's the beach. So, take care of that and then save some
money. Thank you. >> Thank you, Marian. >> You got your hand up. a little nervous talking. Miriam Brewer, 3086 Street. Um, so I don't know all of the legalities,
but um, I'm asking I'm asking city council and the mayor to either please pass an ordinance or to talk to the city solicitor for the planning board um, to start videotaping their meetings and
also the zoning board meetings. Um, I do not feel that audio is enough. We deserve full transparency. Um, we deserve to see who is speaking, what is voted on by who. Um, I heard that they are looking at sensitive
documents, but only they can see them. The public cannot. So, all the material they're they're looking at it in front of them. Um, I'm sure the public would appreciate actually seeing the meetings on YouTube
just like city council does. Thank you. Thank you very >> All right. Anyone else over here? >> Mr. Crowley, I'm sorry. >> For the benefit of Miss Brewer and the public in general, the planning board applications and the documents that are presented to the planning board members and the zoning board members are
available online. If there's an exhibit presented at the meeting, that may not be available to the public, but everything else is posted. The application, the plans, and the reports by the board professionals are available online on the city website.
audio. >> I'm saying that the the written plans that the written plans are available online. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you, Daddy. Uh, anyone else over here? Dave, >> David Breeden, 114 Victoria Lane, Marian Park. Looks like I'm odd man out tonight
on Crown Bank building, but that's okay because adversity builds character. Mr. Crowley, Mr. Sabastano, thank you for your response to my initial comments. My only thing is please follow the law and the law would have been very simple to follow in this case. There are
extraordinary circumstances in which paperwork catches up. This was not one of them. I thought the September 25th meeting of city council was remarkable because council approved on first reading a $ 122.6 $.6 million acquisition with little or no
documentation before them. He took the leap of faith based upon information from the city solicitor, which is fine because second reading was pending receeded that information. Now, I've been to countless public meetings. I thought some remarks were rather
remarkable, which required me to do a little followup. Number one was that uh the city had a period of time in which they had to accomplish the transaction before they would be subject to the mansion tax. Mr. Cross has said
that we had to file the deed with the county clerk before November 15th. I checked on that and that was correct. But in order to take advantage of that grace period, you had to execute a sales of agreement to purchase the property
which the mayor executed on July 9th, 2025. That wasn't mentioned in her presentation. In that sales agreement that the mayor executed without council's consent, again required by law under uh Faulner, was a $12.6 million
sales price. I wonder where the city got that $12.6 $6 million. So, I asked for some appraisals. I was told on October 2nd that the appraisals were still not finalized. A little bit more work and I got uh cover pages to the appraisals.
One appraisal was submitted to the city on April 16th. Another one was on August 27. So, I failed to understand what takes months or weeks to finalize an appraisal. Another uh remark, another item in the sales
contract was that 30 days after execution of the contract, sidewalk protection had to be installed around the Crown Bank building. This I assume was based on a report from an engineer that the city commissioned that stated
until repairs can can commence, temporary protection should be installed to restrict access to the area below the facades due to the unsafe condition. I'm not saying it's unsafe. The mayor's report that the city paid for saying it's unsafe.
Another issue that uh I was baffled about was as stated tonight, the city, the administration, and the council have been working on this for months. How could there be no due diligence on this
on September 25th available to council? Again, Oprah request and I discovered there were seven documents that should have been readily available to council. A structural inspection performed in November 22. Facade assessment report
May 29th, 2025. Environmental assessments phase one and two. City received them from the seller before July 9th. Structural condition assessment August 14th. Roof Roose roof assessment report September 2nd and
geotechnical investigation report September 8th. I'm frustrated over this because we've been talking about the public safety building an extended period of time and when the mayor mentions Fifth Street, he always
says 2022. It's 2020. At this point, I wish we built that facility because I think in the long run we would have saved money based on everything we're doing here. That's counterproductive.
Mayor, with all due respect, Next time you tell us that you're transparent, >> save it. >> Careful, Dave. >> Your actions be >> careful, Dave. >> Your actions do not >> Your actions do not match your words. Thank you.
>> All right. Thank you. >> Anyone else from the side? >> Don't want George to answer. >> Okay. Can I put you on the timer? >> No, you're on the timer. I hear transparency one more time. I'm
sick and tired of it because this council knows and everything that I forward knows. So you can go all you want on Opus, but council knows what I've done. I'm sick and tired of public use saying transparency, Dave, because you know it's just you're lucky I don't feel good tonight. Go ahead.
I >> I think I said it earlier. We we've been we've worked in lock step with council. council was aware of what we were doing all through this process. We met and I don't know if I can talk
about closed sessions, but we can, you know, we we talked about proceeding with due diligence and as the administration, we met with the various professionals
that we had that produced the reports that Mr. Breeden talked about. We weren't done with due diligence. Just just having a report. >> We're not going to give you reports peace meal until we have all of the information because some of those
reports, for instance, the the first facade report that mentioned we needed sidewalk protection. Reason we didn't put up sidewalk protection right away is because the owner soon as we provided with them with a report, they gave us an
engineer's report that said they didn't need sidewalk protection. So from a licensed engineer and we did further due diligence with that and you can see the sidewalk protection going up now. It's being put
up because after we had gotten further due diligence done, our construction official required them to proceed with the sidewalk protection, which we had as part of the agreement of contract that we had for sale, which we had an out
for. We had an out for for that agreement of sale. And the appraisals were not finalized. They were never finalized. So, they weren't they weren't ready to be released, but we did discuss with council one of the appraisals we had and the number we had that we just
that we struck the agreement of sale that would that that number was based on. See, it's easy to take information from an Oprah request, take reports that you get, but don't talk to the people that do the work and then weave a story.
Weave a story that that talks about, you know, not doing things right. It's easy to do that, but if you're not the person in the arena doing the work day in and you should know this because you worked in government, if you're not there doing the work
in the meetings, talking with the people who who make the decisions, then you don't really know how the decisions were made. But the decisions that we made in in so far as 801 Asbury, we worked with the council all along the way and kept
them informed. And I think, you know, we've worked well with council. We've been as transparent as possible. I think our transparency is evident in the in the dozens, if not
hundreds of Oprah requests that have been submitted by one individual. and put this office through and put our offices through all kinds of work to produce documents in order to satisfy these OPER requests
and we do that because it's the law and we have no problem doing that. But it does get it does get a little bit frustrating and I think it's political. It's absolutely political. It's designed to cast dispersions on this
administration, but it's not based on what are the actual facts. Like I said, you can take and weave a story from documents that you've gotten through an open request. But until you talk to everyone involved about what actually happened, you don't
really have the true story. You want to have the true story? Give me a call anytime. But I never get a call. So, >> Amen. All right. Thank you, George. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> I have a question to come up. Come up. Come up. >> Revisiting the issue, the hotel issue at
the Young meeting. >> No, we are not. We're talking about the first word, which is the bridge to Fourth Street. That's it. >> Is the hotel issue? >> We're going to talk about >> those. I'll talk to you after the meeting. Anyone else for public comment?
>> All right. Seeing none, have a motion to adjurnn. >> So, move second.