Council agenda Township of Precipity Troy Hills Township Council Agenda meeting of May 6th. Introduction posting a notice. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with the requirements at open public meetings law by following notice in the office of the township clerk and by posting the meeting notice on the bulletin board at the municipal building
on December 2nd, 2024, which remained posted since that date. A legal notice appeared in the daily record of New York ledger on December 6th, 2024. May I please ask everyone to stand for the PL flag p flag 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. Okay. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez here. Mr. McGrath here. Mr. Mucella here. Mr. Negria. Mr. Karifi here. Also in attendance are Mayor James Robero.
Business Administrator Jamie Cryan, Township Attorney Michael Avery, Municipal Clerk Allet Madden, Council President, we have a quorum. Uh, may I begin? Yes, please. Upcoming meetings. May 20th, 2025 at 7 p.m. is the regular meeting. And June 3rd, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
is the agenda meeting. Um, uh, at this time, I'll just ask you guys to quickly review the ordinances for second reading and public hearing, which will be approved at the next meeting. Seeing there's no questions, we're going to go ahead and move on to the public session. At this time, I'd like to
entertain a motion to open up the public session, please. Motion. Second. Motion made by Mr. Negria, seconded by Miss Hernandez. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez. Yes. Mr. McGrath. Yes. Mr. Michello? Yes. Mr.
Neglia? Yes. Mr. Karifi? Yes. At this time, the floor is open to the public. Uh, you can speak on any matter. You have five minutes to speak. Please, please uh sign in before you speak. Uh Nick from Lake Hayawa. Um, I came
across this paper the other day. I've had it for a little over a year and I should have brought it here before, but I think either Mr. Ryan or Mr. Labory may be able to answer some questions here. Affordable housing.
The Highlands was having a hard time with the uh community affairs and they were trying to like short circuit uh ignore Highlands rules for protecting groundwater recharge, steep slopes,
forested areas. uh thanks to uh uh Senator Smith and Assemblyman uh Mikuan, they weren't successful. Now, there's a couple of
things that are interesting here about the buildout numbers. And I'm just going to read number two. This is the most important for your city because we're all talking about numbers. The municipal fair share housing
obligation for conform municipalities in the planning area. The number of units both market rate and affordable would not exceed the number of units determined by the Highlands
Council's latest municipal buildout report. So that's good. That means whatever they built, affordable, market will bear. That's it. You can't build anymore once you hit the buildout number. You would have never got that
unless we're in Highland's conformance. Now, I'm I'm not sure about the numbers. So, I'd like to know if Mr. Prime because you can't get in the portal anymore. You have to set up an account. And I didn't bother to do that. and I tried to get the information from
other sources and they uh haven't gotten back to me. But we got numbers like u in your resolution 2549 it says we only need 456 new units
553 by 2035. We have to rehabilitate 138 units. Then there's this uh bizarre article in tap in. Listen to this. They got precipits for
new units 80,798. And then they have rehabilitation of 65,410. No way. I I don't even know how an article like that could uh could be printed. But here's what I want to know.
Did this bill in fact signed by the governor? That's the only part that's missing from here. Is that your only question? Uh, I had a question from last week that was never answered about when they clean out these culverts and they get all that
plastic out, who pays for that? Does like the do pay for it cuz it's, you know, with all the roads around here or the Pacifany taxpayers uh get stuck with it. So my question is
uh that and what is our buildout number and hallelujah and if it wasn't for Mayor Soraniano we should have been in in the conformance a long time ago but this you couldn't ask for for anything better. So they don't you don't
play that game anymore. You have to build 20 for every four affordable. The number is total period. So and and uh according to this the governor passed it but that's the only
part and it happened in March 2004 both the senate and and the assembly passed it so I could have those questions answered I I think we're going to have to look that up right about the bill. Mr. Can you just give me that bill number? I could probably look it up and
tell you before the end of the meeting. I think ours was like 25. Bill number is not on on the paper. Oh, it's not. All right, let me see what I can find. I mean, I'll get you the answer, but I don't know off the top of my head. If there's no bill or anything cited, it's not going to help me. But u victory
affordable housing reform legislation. I'll check if I can't get it for you before the end of the meeting. I'll get it. Highlands. Yeah. I mean, Ednikas does work with the Highlands. I think that if we were going to be using buildout numbers, we would be up. We would have talked about they're
significantly less. Yeah, because I haven't heard of anything since that bill passed. I think you're right. I think that that was taken into account and that Ed said he did. Yeah. Yep. Anyone else? [Music]
That's just like Anthony Longo back for symphony. What happened? Hello. You better put this in the budget. What' you do? Thank you, sir. Okay. I got a couple of
questions. Um, I called the other day about the road deteriorating on Camden and Hamburg. They did a patch job on it and uprooted it already and all you got is gravel and big holes in it. Um, I called the town. They said they're
going to send somebody to look at it. They didn't even put a cone on there. Secondly, over by Littleton Road by Dunkin Donuts there. Now, you got traffic one way and the other. Okay. But
the speed limit is 40 miles an hour, which I think it's a little excessive because when I go by there, I see people running out not at the the crossway, but in the middle of the road. Meanwhile, people are picking up speed and that's
how people get hurt. I think the speed limit should be lowered somewhat. And this is another one that got my in the nerves today. I looked on the focus today. I don't care if it's maybe Barbarios or Justin Mela's campaign
signs. The town workers, especially the garbage department, had no right touching them and making judges. I'm talking right here. Okay. I don't care whose it is. That matter should not be I mean, they shouldn't be
touching it. They were They're playing around on taxpayers dying to do this crap. It's being investigated. Being investigated. It's right there in the video. Thank you. Elaine Gavalius Lake I think it's not
working right um lake paripany I want to know what the heck is going on in Beverwick Road. I've been hearing all kinds of rumors. Three times they're redoing it. I mean, the road is horrible. It's worse than
driving on the moon. When is it going to be fixed? And what you know, why is why hasn't it been redone three times? And are they union workers? Is that part of the project labor agreement? I'll answer the question. I gave a
report on it last week. I don't know if you were here near the end of the meeting with regards to the road and it's not a project labor agreement. If you when the project labor agreement was passed, anything over $5 million. So, um, and this has a grant to
it. I explained the fact that the reason it's taking it so long is we're not going to pave a road when the pipes underneath it continue to burst. So you had your first phase, phase one from up near food town all the way to
Minihaha. There was a lot of problems with the every time we were getting ready to pave it, another pipe would burst. So we're not going to pave a road and then have to rip it up again. That's what happened there. I think now everything's under control. It's supposed to be paved hopefully within
the next was it 6 weeks, something like that. Yes, 6 weeks to to pave it. Um, with regards to the sidewalks, I guess um the the contractor didn't do it properly or the conditions of the weather using salt on it. It wasn't
seasoned. So, we have a performance bond. They have to have a performance bond which covers the township. So, when everybody says, "Oh, the township's paying for this." No, we're not. We're not paying for it. It's coming out of the uh performance bond. So that's where
we are with North Beverick Road. Phase two is underway at the same time. And again, they're repairing the putting uh plumbing, not plumbing, pipes in and I think gas lines in as well right now. So phase two, if we experience the same
conditions and the same problems, then that's going to even take longer. But and we've been down, we spoke to the merchants, I have at least. And um I know it's not easy. I I get it. But when the project's done, it's it's going to be well worth it.
Yeah, since we're on this issue, mayor, I and I do know we were both contacted by some of the same businesses. Um, and I said that, you know, we did offer the meeting where they would be informed on what would take place and and when the construction would take place because of
uh respect, you know, to their business. Is there any thought on um us maybe doing another mailer to those businesses or notification just so they can know of the next steps? I think that the thought I mean I don't know about a letter is have them at um the community center
again and speaking with them and having the our engineer there or everyone that you know controls that area. Um it actually was very successful the first time. um we can do a letter as well because which we're going to do probably
for the second phase. So yeah, that's what we're in contact with them and I think that's uh something we're going to have to do because this project's going to take longer than anticipated. So and you know a lot of residents I get it. You get upset. I live on that road off that road. It's uh
but the road the condition it was in prior to that. this had to be done and um I'm glad we're doing it and we're going to you know we're going to plug along the best we can and hopefully that these conditions uh remain instead of having all this rain that's the other thing we have remember everything is
weather conditions of weather so could go ahead could I bring up a side note though because I'm seeing Corey and I remember you talking about this um when they're doing this construction or the con the contractor is responsible for keeping the roads somewhat clean. I
hear her here. There's a lot of blowouts of tires and so Yeah. So, it's not, you know, it's not the mayor's or the town's fault, but it's the contractor that's should be held responsible for people losing nails, whatever, debris. I'm not
sure. I don't live up there. I don't see it. So, okay. Any um I know. So, so I'm just making a side note. Yeah. So, uh, any other member from public would like to make a comment, please do so now or we're going to close the meeting. Oh,
sorry, Nick. Hi guys. Uh, I'm Corey Herbig from Lake Hayawa. Um, yeah, I did get two flat tires in one week with nails in them and it coincided with when Beverwick Road work restarted. So, can't say for certain that that's where it's from, but seems
very coincidental for me. So, anyway, that's not what I'm actually here to talk about. Um, I have lived in Paripany for over 10 years. Uh, I brought my family here partly because of the diversity in this town. Um, and I've been really disappointed to see that
since Mayor Barbario came back into office, the town has not flown the pride flag at town hall. Uh, I'm obviously realistic enough to know that LGBTQ plus support is not like a foundational tenant of the Republican party. Um, but
I I did hope that Paripany would continue to be a welcoming and inclusive enough town to continue that tradition when leadership changed hands back to Mayor Barbario. Um especially in these times when we're living in a world where trans kids in particular are facing an
onslaught of attacks through state legislatores and elsewhere including from the federal regime. I know of at least two families in Paripany who have trans children in the school district and they're scared. Uh a lot of the LGBTQ people that I know in town are
scared to fly pride flags at their own homes because they're worried that they might be targeted if they do so. Um, and I think it is a really simple but important gesture for the town to make to show that Paripony is a safe place to
live and work and raise a family regardless of who you love. So, I am here to urge the mayor and the town council to fly the pride flag again at town hall and to issue a proclamation declaring June Pride Month.
Um, could I talk about that? We have we have done that in the past in 2019 2020. I had my copy of my resolution. I wanted to bring it left everything at home. But um I know my peers here sitting with me
are we're welcoming. We want our paripany residents to feel welcome. Um and I want them to know they're seen. And I would like to ask that we consider this. I think it's important even if it's not trans or it's just just just a
feeling of inclusion. I think there's a lot of people out there that are scared because there's so much hate rhetoric going on everywhere and I think it's a welcoming Porcipany is a welcoming town.
Can we talk about it? And how do we talk about it? Do we talk about it now? Do we talk about it? You can talk about it right now if you'd like. So, is that something we could You could you could make a So, there's one of two things. You could make a motion. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion that we discuss maybe
renewing a resolution for that like we've done in the past. Well, no, you don't need to make a motion for that. We could just have open discussion now, but you could make a motion with regards to having the pride flag run back up after a discussion or not. That's up to you. Okay. So with with that, I'll open up
the table with regards for discussion with uh pertaining to the pride flag. So we you're going to close the public. Uh is there any other member of public that still wants to speak? You come on up. [Music] Okay. Eric Densmore from Lake Hayawa.
This will be quick. Um I was the lawsuit that pertaining to the affordable housing that the township is involved with the surrounding towns. Has that lawsuit been filed in state court or federal court? That is my first
question. The second question is if it's state court, I was reading something that there is a lawsuit filed in federal court. And if there is, does the township plan on joining that one as well, especially
since you probably would have a better chance of winning in federal court. So that's okay. Yeah, there there's there's two uh lawsuits both filed by that group of towns. You know, Montville being the lead one. Paripin is involved in the state court action and in the
federal court action. Any other member from public? Hi. You could sign in after ma'am. That's okay. It's no problem. Betty W Troy Hills. Hi. How are you? Um I'm just here. I know we're about to have a discussion about it. Um, I I'm here in
support of uh the proclamation for June being Pride Month, flying the pride flag at uh town hall again. I'm sorry, crazy name. Um, but absolutely, I've I've been um on board of garden equality. Um,
LGBTQ inclusion is um significant. It it's a very easy target, especially now. Uh, there's a lot of rhetoric nationwide. Kids are at risk. adult service. Um, suicide numbers are up and something
like this, a very simple gesture in a public space makes a very welcoming uh message and will really do a lot of good. So, thank you. Thank you. Thanks. So, what we'll do with this is I'm going to close the we'll close we're not even
going to have a discussion just yet. We'll just go through this. When we get to presentations and reports, we'll start off with that discussion. Okay. Okay. Uh, any other member from public? Okay. Seeing no other member from public, I'd like to entertain a motion to close the public session. Please. Motion. Second. Motion made by Mr.
Neglia. Seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez. Yes. Mr. McGrath. Mr. Marcelo. Yes. Mr. Neglia. Yes. Mr. Karifi. Yes. Okay. At this time, I just uh would like the uh council to quickly review the budget resolution and the consent agenda
resolutions very quickly and the approval of minutes. Any questions? Okay, seeing that we have no questions on those matters, we're going to go ahead now and move along to presentations and reports. Um, before we we start with the mayor, if you guys
want to have that discussion now, we can. So, we'll open up the floor for discussion with regards to a resolution pertaining to Pride Month, naming June Pride Month, and potentially hanging up the Pride flag. So, there's the floor is open now. Okay. I would like to ask my
colleagues here what how they feel about that. We have we have done it in the past. Um I I have no problem with um Justin. Um yeah, I think that town hall uh
should be neutral in political matters. I think that um you know to the mayor's credit and to the council's credit for the last four years we we've really stayed out of um nationwide political movements and endorsing them one way or
the other. We flew the Ukrainian flag. Um that well that's a little different. Um but we can't have anybody. It's okay. I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt. Yeah. Um I think that uh you know town hall and the flags that
we fly we should look towards you know issues where there's overwhelming unity on rather than you know flags that can um you know uh that stand for partisanship on political matters and that's where I stand.
Any other member from council? So, nobody has an opinion. I know Paul, you supported it in the past. Not that I'm gonna No, I said no. I said I have no problem. Okay. I feel everyone has a right to feel safe. I just think it it goes a long way in
making people feel safe, even if they're not of that, you know, persuasion. Everyone has a right to feel safe they want. So, uh, at this point in time, uh, we can do one of two things. Uh we could you could make a motion uh to draft a
resolution naming June Pride Month. If the motion is seconded, we can go out for a vote or we can just kill it right now. That's okay. I'll make a motion to make June uh recognize it as Pride Month as we did in 2019 2020. So Mr. Hernandez has just made a motion to draft a
resolution recognizing June as Pride Month. Could I have a second to that motion? I'll second it. Okay. So Mr. Garifi has seconded the motion. Uh at this point, we're going to go ahead and go into a vote. Uh Mr. Hernandez, yes. Okay. Uh Mr. McGrath,
no. Mr. Miscella, no. Um Mr. Neglia, yes. And Mr. Karifi, yes. So, uh 3 to two. Uh the motion passes. Thanks. Okay. Okay. So, moving along now to uh
presentations and reports. Uh, Mayor. Yep. So, there's a lot on my report. I'm going to have to cut it down cuz we did a lot. Can you hear me? All right. Um, I do want to mention this one young gentleman's name. His name is uh Stavros
Serpes. Um he's a PBIN High School junior who came to my office and he wanted to do a project and it was called Fill the Shelves Challenge uh before Easter we did this and um he did an incredible job by getting um contributions uh for our food pantry
here in Paripony. So I'd like to commend him on that. Uh we did celebrate Arbor Day 49 years of Tree City USA was actually a very nice event. We had um Rockaway Metal and Troy Hill schools were there and they joined in on the festivities. We had the grand
opening of Wonder. We had the Partway Little League East um opening uh Partway Little League West opening. And of course, our arms aren't what they used to be. So, and then um we had this Simply Green um environmental um I guess
the project that these young ladies did. uh sophomores diva and Anakica Aurora or Araura I can never say her name but Aurora at the bus thank you I got it right the first time at the Precipian Library about conscious consumer affair and and it was an eye opening event with
regards to garments and stuff and how they can pollute um I got to speak and about uh students uh civic chat with um St. Elizabeth St. Elizabeth students and I got to tell you they asked really really great questions.
Also, I just don't remember the date. It was in the end of April. I had the opportunity to go to the 200 club um awards and uh materious materious awards uh team which is Parcipony 5 district number four which is uh past Chief
Robert J Bryant and Captain John Holloway. for 75 district number five, past deputy chief Patrick Calibris, past Chief Robert Campbell Jr., Lieutenant Brian Clearary, firefighter Matthew Nov Scotia, and past Chief Matthew Palm
Mary. And and for the police department, we had patrol officer Jamie Menend Menddees and dispatcher Matthew Garrison. What they did is back in 2024 they did a rescue of individuals that were stuck in the river and they after
hours and hours they finally reached these uh two individuals and they did an outstanding job. I just wanted to recognize them for that and it was actually a really nice event. Also, um, we did a street dedic, well, we didn't. District 6 did a street
dedication for Andy Tyrone, um, from District 6 for 70 years of service. I've known Mr. Tyrone for a very, very, very long time. I went to high school with his son, graduated. But when you think about the 70 years that he put
in, he put in 70 years or three months before he passed away. He was 90 years old and was still servicing the community of Pory. He loved this town. That being said, I also um as you know, we're going I've been going back and
forth with uh the schools with regards to coming up with some sort of an agreement when it comes to the pilot pilot money. So, I sent them a memoranduming of understanding um for a pilot revenue
sharing. So, I sent it to Andy Chafo, the vice president. um he thought it was um lucrative offer from the township. The schools would get a certain uh not percentage that we get a certain uh amount of dollars. I can't get into the dollars now cuz we'll be
negotiating. It's just a matter of understanding and both attorneys, their attorney and our attorney have to come up with some sort of an agreement, but the school will get a decent amount of money from our pilot program. So, I'm looking forward to negotiating further
with them and see what their concerns are as well as our concerns. And that's it for my report tonight. Council President. Okay. Township counselor going to my Can I go next or do we go this way or Okay, ladies first. Yes, me. Absolutely. Um, we did I went to the
Simply Green too because I was part of the environmental committee and I was very happy that both of you were there. It was very informative. These girls work very hard. Um, we're doing a native, we're adding to our native pollinator garden on Friday at 5:30. So, come out and get at the library. You can
come out and get your hands dirty. And I'm going to read something that I put down after the last budget meeting just because it occurred to me afterwards. So, we can talk about this, not here, but let me just get my words out and then we I know we're voting on the
budget on the 20th. So after the budget meeting, um I was thinking about when Joe Beckmeer started talking about the health insurance cost for the sewer utility that went up by $1.5 million, which seemed kind of high to me that the
total budget health insurance for the town is about $13 million. And I know the CFO, Miss Sabatini, said that we did have a small increase overall. So I understand that. So, I looked at my budget package and the sewer utility health insurance
budget did go up from 2.7 in 2024 to 4.2 million in 2025, a 1 and a.5 million increase um for the same 49 people. Then I looked at the water utility and it was a similar increase, not as much for the
same number of people. Um, so the 2025 water utility budget and sewer together is about $6.7 million of a $13 million budget. So that's like 50% of the town.
The sewer and water utilities are paying over half of the total cost of the 13 million health insurance in 2025, even though the headcount accounts for 20% of the town employees. And I just was wondering if this is just another way of
just adding to the helping benefit the budget this like a surplus. Um I know and and some other parts of the budget were similar. There's a 25% increase in the 20 um over 2024 in the um the mayor's office and
the town administrator is up 10% and the CFO team is up about 50%. So, these are concerns that I have that I would like to talk about. Um, I'm not saying there's no transparency, but I just would like to talk about them before I
vote on the budget on the 20th. Thanks. Just set up an appointment with Jamie and we'll sit down with you. Thank you. Any other member from council? Yeah. Um, I have my own uh budget concerns,
but you know, I know I'm in the process of setting up a meeting with BA Cryan and our and our CFO. Um, I still do need those individual pages on on individual salaries, vacancies, promotions, raises, um, that give me a deeper dive on on
each department. You know, I've said this before. Um, I want to vote for the budget, but I need that information in order to do so. and and I won't until I have it. Um, and then uh when it comes to this memorandum of
of understanding uh between us and the the board of education, I'm delighted to hear that we're going to be sharing pilot money. Um, but does that mean that the the board of ed audit has come back? Well, right now I I put the audit on
hold as you know. Um, I could speak. Uh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Well, yeah, it's on hold. Obviously, we haven't given any updates, so it's on hold. Um, but that being said, just let me let me explain something about the audit cuz you keep saying it's an audit.
Like, we're doing a full out audit, a forensic audit. We're not. We're not doing a forensic audit. That's not what this audit is. It's an auditor that comes in that's a professional that reviews their audit. That's what that is. And you know, John, you can smile
all you want, but that's exactly what it is. So, it's an audit where he's going to look at the numbers that they sent down to the state that Matt McGrath is very well verssed in and he determines what these numbers are and what they
mean. Uh, that's really pretty much what that is. And if you find a discrepancy which they sent down to the state then if it's a concern for the township considering that you know when you're looking to share dollars with the
school even if it's even if it's a project we just want to know your due diligence. Well needless to say we came up with an agreement. Well not an agreement because it's just memorand of understanding. They haven't agreed on it yet. they haven't agreed on it and the numbers or
anything like that. My I personally feel it's very fair. Uh we're we're we're we're going to help the schools out the most best that we can and at the same time not hurt the town. Well, that's good and all, but it's
great actually. Yeah. I mean, but the understanding was this audit would be done, which then became a review months ago, and now it's on hold. But the understanding always was is that
no pilot money would be shared until a review or an audit, whatever it is we're calling it now, was done because that was going to give you the data. No, that's what you understood. It wasn't that. I was at these meetings. I mean breath. No, that's not what the audit was about. Oh, we're going to share
money. But the audit, the audit basically was just to see where the money was going when they come up and they they have different figures than we have. We met with the auditor myself, uh, Councilman Neglia and Councilman McGrath, right? But now you're saying
it's on hold, which is news to me. Not unless you It's on hold right now. And that's what I'm that's what I'm going to do with it right now. If you want me to move forward with it, then we'll move forward with it. But I'm I have it on hold right now. That's my prerogative. But then that's what I'm going to do. So
then how are we we we spent $17,500? No. No. We we spent nothing near that. That was the resolution. That's that's not to exceed. That's the procurement process. How much has been spent? A,000 if that. So So nothing was done in the
end. No, we haven't. When you when you get a resolution, it says 17,500. Just so you know, that's the proper way to write a resolution contract according to the state law in the in the procurement process. So, what we're saying is that you cannot exceed
17,500 cuz if you do, then you have to go to bid. That's all that means. So, I get that it gets confusing. You think you're spending 17,500. No, no. But if you go over the 17,500, what happens? You got to go back
to the council. The only person that sounds confused here is you. Confused. You said we spent 17,500. We didn't. I I I distinctly remember sitting through multiple meetings where you had made the argument that there would be no sharing of the
pilot revenue until an audit was done. That was the main argument you made. And now we're coming to a memorandum of understanding that has been reached. I didn't know about it. I don't know if the council knew about it because if you
guys knew about it and I didn't, please jump in. Well, let me let me just tell you, I don't I don't need to bring a member of understanding that I give to them to the council. What I have to do is if they agree to it, then I got to come back to the council. That's when I come back to the council to get an
approval on on the agreement. That's that's what the member of understanding is and memor of understanding is not etched in stone. The the main but the bottom line is I'm going to move forward with this. And like I told you, it's my prerogative. I'm going to if I don't
want to do the audit going forward, I'm not going to do it cuz if we have a a memorandum of understanding, I don't want to I don't want to I don't want I don't want to affect that. You know, when I looked at the schools and I look at all the how they have to spend and I felt one way,
you felt sorry for them. You got special needs. You got different types of classes. I've been in those classes with them. They took me for a tour. Special needs. So, I felt the best way to handle that was through revenue sharing. I I agree with the conclusion. Justin,
we're not going to get anywhere. I just I'm not moving forward with it. This was a major matter of public concern that took up many council meetings and many members of took up the council meetings with you took them up, not me that that were here that objected to the process
by which you forced a vote on this audit and we were told that for months it was being done and we were told that no revenue would be shared until this audit. First and foremost, hold on. I let me just finish my point. Yes, you can. And how do we know if the amount how
much money are we offering the if they agree to it? We will come back to the council and then I you will have everything we'll go to executive session. You have everything in front of you to make a um a cognitive decision if you want to move forward with that. The the question I have is how do we know
what we're offering is the right amount of money because the data that was supposed to be provided to us was going to come from the audit. No, that that's not how that those you get to those numbers. to get to those numbers through a financial advisor who we have, who we hire, who who determines if if what we
give them works for the schools and works for the town. Has nothing to do with an audit. Audit has nothing to do with it whatsoever. Our financial advisor is the one that determines, hey, listen, if you give this amount of money, guess what? The township is the one that's going to suffer. Or no,
you're still going to make a certain amount of money on the pilot and the schools will will benefit from it. That's that's who determines it. It's not the audit that determines it. I I do have a question. Is this for the pilots that have already been approved or is
this going to be for pilots that approved and going forward? Well, I can answer that question. I'm not going to go past pilots that were approved when I didn't negotiate them and I didn't work on them. It it is going to include
um the Avalon Bay. It's going to include that one. anything starting in 2024 and anything going forward. Hey, mayor, just a quick question. Can you touch into one of the big challenges kind of
reviewing the data with the schools is the schools have selected into a 2% cap. That is their choice. You you can go back to January of 2024 and listen to the school board talk about it in that statement. Meaning ratables go up, tax
rate goes down, they get 2%. Ratables go down, tax rate goes up, they get 2%. They get 2%. Right? How can we give them money if they're locked into 2%. Can we talk about that or is that part of like that's part of the negotiation? In fact,
that's a good question and we can and that would be determined when we when we meet as a group. Um, and and you're right. You're absolutely correct. We we've been saying this all along. um if we do a pilot or not, it does not affect the schools whatsoever. If ratables go
up, it doesn't affect the schools. If raidables go down, it doesn't affect the schools because they're capped at 2%. In the past, when they used to have their elections in April, then they can go above the 2% and
then then it would affect them and all the like the the ratables and everything. But it doesn't. And no matter what you say, no one's going to believe you on it. But you know, our even our tax assessor, he he said to us when we our ratable increase up 27 million doesn't do nothing to the
schools. Doesn't affect them whatsoever. But that being said, I think it's important that, you know, we do work together going forward. Um because, you know, with the environment the way it is, with the affordable housing and the Mount Royal doctrine, um it's just going
to get very difficult. not just for the town but for the schools. And again, I understand my my question also just stems more from making sure the school understands that. It's not our choice. They their selection and I know other towns I I want to say it was Hoboken, but I have to go back and check my
notes. Uh they had to go and create like a special set aside fund where they could fund projects rather than me giving cash to the school. Right. Yeah, it's all it's all it's all pretty much spelled out how the sharing will work and how it goes and and stuff like that.
But what are the specific highlights of this MOA? I can't get into it right now until we have the but you will have a detailed um um what do you call it report on it once I mean they're they're talking about it tonight from what I understand and all they got to do is
vote if they're want to have a memorandum of understanding. that doesn't mean they agree on it because you have two attorneys, one for the schools and one for us who have to actually discuss and meet as well. So, there's a lot more that goes into it,
but it's a start and I think I think it's fair. Um, when we go to executive session, I think you will you will as well. I'm sure they're also really concerned because there's going to be a lot of cuts coming down from the federal government to the state affecting the
schools and affecting affects everybody. It does. Any other uh any other member from council? Okay. Um township attorney. Yeah. No report this evening. Council president, business administrator.
Thank you, council president. Thank you, council and mayor. Just wanted to uh remind uh everyone that the vote on the budget will be next week or or in two weeks at the next meeting uh May 20th 7 p.m. Um for those of you who were not at the
April 15th uh uh for the budget presentation, it is online um or if you weren't able to uh attend the departmental meeting uh last week. Uh just give a you know a brief summary of of the uh budget.
The overall increase is a tax rate and the tax rate is 2.13. The municipal portion increase is 2.22 which translate to a $4.95 per month or $5941 per year impact on the average
residential home. budget includes substantial investments in priority areas including public safety, parks and wreck, paving and drainage, public services, and uh personnel to support those efforts now and for years to come. Uh you can find full budget information
online on our website. Um and there's also additional information that we hope you find helpful. If you have any questions uh or any comments or or uh would like to know any uh additional information, please uh reach out to myself or the CFO um at budget at
parciffany.net. Thank you. Thank you. Um I have no report. Anything for township offices and committees? Go right ahead. M just want to touch base on the library. Um how things moving forward with the uh AC for um
Lake Haywa. Well, I got the I gave the um quote to our business administrator. I'll just we'll talk about it more tomorrow. Great. With regards to it as well. So, thank you. Okay. Moving along to non-consent agenda R 2025 uh 98 authorizing a
person-toperson transfer of plenary retail distribution license Pony Spirits LLC to uh TA Convenience Liquor Store from SRJTA Troy Convenience Liquor. Can I please have a motion to approve the resolution above? Make a motion. Second. Second. Motion made by Mr. Misella,
seconded by uh Mr. Neglia. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez. Yes. Mr. McGrath. Mr. Mella. Mr. Neglia. Yes. Mr. Karifi. Yes. Motion passes. R 202599 authorizing change order one for the well redevelopment services for wells 10
4A and 17 and pumping system replacement for wells 10 4A and 17. project awarded to AC Schultz Company Incorporated. May I please have a motion to approve the resolution? Motion. Second. Motion made by Mr. Hernandez. Seconded by Mr.
Neglia. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez. Yes. Miss Mr. McGrath, Mr. Misella. Mr. Neglia. Mr. Karifi. Yes. The motion passes. R 2025100 authorizing a settlement
agreement in conjunction with the Garden State GIF in Carney Troy Hills Township. Motion to approve the resolution above. Motion second. Motion made by Mr. Neglia. Seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez. Mr. Mr. McGrath. Yes. Mr. Misella. Yes. Mr. Neglia. Yes.
Mr. Ky. Yes. Okay. Moving along to approval of payroll and bills list. CFO and Jac Sabatini recommends authorization for payment off number one. authorizes payment of the May 9th, 2025 regular miscellaneous payroll estimated 1,650,000. And then number two, payment of bills from bachelor list of 5925,
which is $2,554,269. Motion to approve the authorization for payment above, please. Motion. Second. Motion made by Mr. Hernandez, seconded by Mr. Neglia. Roll call. Mr. Hernandez. Yes. Mr. McGrath. Yes. Mr. Bella. Mr. Neglia. Mr. Kifi.
Yes. Okay. M please have a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion. Happy Mother's Day real quick. Yes. You don't for Mother's Day. I got a motion by Mr. Meella and a happy mother's day by Mr. uh by Mayor. I didn't get a second. Second for both. Happy Mother's Day.
Yeah. Um roll call. Mr. Oh, no. Mr. Hernandez. Yes. Mr. McCra. Yes. Mr. Miscella. Yes. Mr. Neglia. Yes. Mr. Karifi. Yes. Have a great night, everyone. Cheers.