good evening on behalf of the governing body of the city of Pake we welcome you to the February 20th 2025 city council meeting in accordance with chapter 231 public laws of 1975 adequate notice of this meeting was provided by resolution of the municipal Council adopted on June
18th 2024 setting forth the schedule of meetings for the year 2024 2025 said notice was published and posted on the city hall bulletin board by the office of the city clerk please be further advised this meeting will be conducted in person the zoom stream provided is for viewing only and is
offered to the public as a convenience on February 5th 2025 public notice and zoom instructions for this meeting were published in the Herold news and posted on the city of Pake website at www.city of.com Council agendas instructions are also available on the last page of this
agenda please be guided accordingly R call please councilman monk present councilman love present councilwoman Melo present councilman Schwarz pres and council president Sher president sh we all please rise Heavenly Father we want to thank
you Lord for allowing us to be this evening Lord we ask you to pre bling save those that are on their way here and we also ask you to please guide us in the decisions that will take place this evening in your beloved name we pray amen I to the flag
the United States of America good evening everyone and Welcome to our council meeting tonight if you do not have an agenda they are available immediately outside council chambers you can also find tonight's agenda and all the relating elements to
it in terms of resolutions Communications proposed ordinance etc those are available to you on the city's website and we welcome uh you to them we also ask at this time if you please uh lower or uh take out your uh cell phone
so that there's no disturbance at the meeting tonight and with that I'd like to turn to the mayor mayor I know we have a number of guests here tonight yes yes council president we're very excited for special ceremony where we're going to recognize some of our Stellar exemplary
students in the city once again of calendar poster contest and we're extremely excited uh on behalf of the city of P our city council we'd like to welcome all of the students and the
parents the clerk of the board danir island imhoff of pay County announces the 29th annual pay County poster calendar contest winners this program allows fourth graders to design a poster reflecting pay Count's great history
local interest recreational sites and cultural diversity creating a greater sense of community and pride for their County this year council president members of the city council and those present in city of Pake they received
975 submissions and we are excited to announce that uh out of those 975 the students of Pake were well represented not just in the actual calendar but as honorable mentions and I would like to name the honorable mentions we
have uh with us present today Gabriela kisto Gabriela if you could stand up hi Gabriella we have Genesis buos Genesis Genesis buos congratulations we have Lewis Mendes
Vasquez Lewis Mendes leis if you can stand up and we have Brandon Pon Brandon Ponce though they're not present here right now we had also have uh a couple of individuals Monica Salazar she isn't
here but we'll recognize her Alex Rivera AES and each of you got a copy of the calendar I ask you to please take a look at February if you look at February we have uh the winner from the city of Pake
as is mentioned there Leslie Ramos we're going to ask uh the students to come up as I believe we have certificates they're right there we can thank you um we're going to ask for all the students to come up so we can give you
your certificates we're going to begin with Leslie Ramos first lesie and your family please come [Applause] up please come up to the day is here come follow me we'll go right by we'll go right to the middle by council
president we'll read the recognition for you Leslie Ramos on behalf of the city of Pake New Jersey we proudly recognize your achievements in the pay County's 29th annual my County poster calendar contest with over 900 entries having
your artwork featured for February is a great honor and we celebrate this special moment with you and being that it is still February with the permission of the council and their support council president we would like to declare uh officially and honorific February in
this meeting Leslie R month thank you very [Applause] stand squeeze in a little bit thank you thank you very much just bring the chairs in
we we take one picture with everyone at the end but we'll call everyone up individually we going to call up Gabriela kixa Gabriela kixa come on up Gabriela we're gonna make everyone keep standing
up the certificate of recognition we present today to Gabriela kixo uh from mayor Hector seor and the paic city council we congratulate you in receiving honorable mentioned in the P County's 29th annual my counter poster
my County poster calendar contest being acknowledged out of over 900 entries is a fantastic achievement we are proud of your hard work and talents great job
[Applause] [Applause] thank we're gonna ask Genesis buos to come up [Applause] Genesis yeah
see it right here the certificate of recognition on behalf of the city of Pake from mayor Hector C Laur and the Pake city council congratulate you on receiving honorable mention in the Pake County 29th annual my County poster calendar contest being
acknowledged out of over 900 entries is a fantastic achievement and we are so very proud of your hard work talent and dedication Cong congratulations [Applause]
jat Luis Mendes Vasquez Luis Mendes [Applause] on behalf of the city of Pake the certificate of recognition goes to Luis Mendes Vasquez we congratulate you on
your receiving honorable mention in the Pake County's 29th annual my County poster calendar contest being acknowledged out of over 900 entries is a fantastic achievement and we are so very proud of your hard work talent and dedication on behalf of the mayor and
the city council we give you this certificate of recognition but hold on Luis uh Mr business and Mr RI Fernandez can you bring that basket over L we have a very special surprise for [Applause]
you from Principal Crockett from school 21 she wanted to drop this off to let you know know how proud she is and the school is of you Louise this is a special basket for you look straight there little
lower there you go excellent bring it down to you you got itce was nervous it was chocolate in there he didn't want to leave it with me Brandon Ponce Brandon Brandon if you come up congratulations Brandon
the certificate of recognition goes to Brandon Pon on behalf of Mayor Hector Sora and the P city council we would like to congratulate you on receiving honorable mention in the Pake County's 29th annual my County poster calendar contest being acknowledged out of over
900 entries is a fantastic achievement and we are proud of your hard work talent and dedication in the city of Pate congratulations Brandon I'm ask all the council to stay standing I'm ask all the students to come to the front he's going to go to the front he's
going to go come over here I'm gonna ask all the students to come to the front I'm gonna ask all of the parents to come up we're going to take one picture right here BR all together all the parents all the families to come up we're going to take one picture together right here kids are
going to stand right over here in the front anding everyone here sub basically I said if a soap opera or famous TV show sees their pictures and they get a contract they got to bring 10% off not to us individually but to
the city of paf wherever family is line up with the kids in the front don't worry Renee will set up he he'll get the picture there he goes have any council members think you might want to come in closer we'll put this up on Facebook you
can take it right from there next the together thank you congratulations thank you again we want to congratulate all of the participants obviously over
973 entries we were so excited to see that the city of Pake was so well represented and also that we had winners from p and honorable mentions you make our entire city proud thank you so very much [Applause]
thank you so very [Applause] much my report will be very very brief I just want to share that today on behalf of the city council and myself I took a recognition to Boonton New Jersey to
recognize um former Captain retired Captain Thomas Michael Reno who at a 100 years old was uh celebrating his 100th birthday but he served the city of Pake 36 years as a firefighter he is the
oldest uh surviving retiree of the Pake fire department and potentially in the state of New Jersey we have three firefighters in the fire home of Bon which is a home for retired firefighters throughout the state of New Jersey one of the only facilities of its kind
around the nation we also have a firefighter retired firefighter Harold Ward who was an All-American basketball player many remember his uh contributions in the city of Pake as well as firefighter uh John Wooden who's also there John Wood who's also there
but we want to thank the chief of the fire department Patrick trenos uh DC Bob munir as well as battalion chief Jacob Hern and all the retired firefighters former uh Fire Chiefs who went down with us to give this recognition some of you will see it on PX Channel 11 news they
covered it in the newspaper but we congratulate him and thank him for his many years of service that is the extent of my report and again congratulations to all of our young artists and representatives of the city of Pake thank you very much mayor thank you with your Cent permission uh colleagues I
think that some of the young people who are with us right now might have all things to do rather than to sit at a city council meeting although we'd love it if you would like to but I've got a feeling you might want to um do something else that being the case I'm going to call for a five minute
recess thanks we will convey your thanks and your appreciation uh to the superintendent uh for the work that she is doing in the principes and teachers and staff and that's number one number two the utility bills sound
extraordinarily high ,000 for two floors seems a lot I would suggest two things to you if I may the first is the United paic organization which is located at one how Avenue it's around the block over here and you'll forgive me for
being self-serving colleagues if you'd also contact on the fourth floor although they a bit of disarray the office of ass man Gary Sher that would be me um and we will uh get in touch with psng and see what the story is to
see if there are ways to lower your bills through uh whatever means um but we're we're equipped to do that or at least to put you in touch with the right people um and I would suggest that you do that tomorrow morning do you have a
pen I can give you the number yes 973 249 3665 five and you want to speak to aera um and the office there I know does quite a bit of of work in terms of uh
the winter months and heating and cooling um the uh increases are true um they they are going up projected another 20% um why they're going up so much is a factor of any number of things but the
bottom line is the bottom line um and like so many others uh so many of us find the times that we eat meat once every week is is not what it used to be right um so uh you know by contacting those two organizations the legislative
office as well as the upo hopefully we can find some relief for you thank you council president just have a question you said you received $90 of assistance did that come from the weatherization program from pay County was that on the first floor that's on the first floor
yes that that is a county program um they provided you with uh funding or assistance we offer them space office space here for free but I would also advise you to come back tomorrow and go up to the second floor myself along with the business administrator just recently
met with an agency that is uh pushing forward uh BPU uh approved and that's a state agency program that brings significant savings to Residents within the city of Pake uh for their heat and electric working with uh off-site solar
meaning you sign up and they utilize properties that are not in Pake that they put solar panels but bring the savings directly to the residents here because of a pot of money that was allocated for that purpose so if you get a chance also come by on the second floor and speak to Anna and she'll be
able to sign you up for that program no problem thank you you're welcome thank you for that mayor I forgot that totally the second floor here in City Hall yes at one how Avenue the third floor is the uh upo and the fourth flooor is the
assembly office so we'll have you walking only to two places in the bitter cold but hopefully we can get some good results for you thank you very much and please don't hesitate to come back if there's no correction or or to give a call I know the mayor makes himself available at all times and certainly we
can do the same with upo and the legislative no problem thank you still on the lines though Mr Mayor I'm sorry the lines we still waiting on the parking lines yes we're we're working on I know you're working on it but we still waiting Council pres she referred to the parking lines we did them on Hudson
we're working on Myrle Avenue we're trying to hit Street by Street we've been doing the parking lines throughout the city in order to maximize make world's difference make a world difference thank you is there anyone else like like to address the council seeing no hands I move to close the public portion second motion on
second to close public por councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes Council monz and council president Shar yes thank you up to numeral Ed on our agenda ordinances for second and final reading hearing is
required number one proposed ordinance 2477 d25 an ordinance amending chapter 275 taxation article two tax abatements on residential commercial and Industrial Improvement projects section 5.1
definitions and article three tax exemption on improved in dwellings is there a motion please to open public hearing B motion second and second Ro call please councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman
melow yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes Council M monz and council president Sher yes thank you uh thank you madam clerk ladies and gentlemen at this time the council will be deliberating proposed ordinance 2477 d25 is there anyone who would like to
address the Council on this item and this item only I see no hands I'm over to close the public portion second motion and second roll call please councilman monk councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman
Garcia yes councilwoman col monz yes and council president Shar thank you that was to close yes public hearing is there a maker of the motion please so move it motion second and second roll call please councilman monk councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman
schwar yes councilman Garcia yes Council M monz yes and council president Shar yes thank you the ordinance is passed unanimously we're up to Communications R numeral nine on our agenda items 234 and 67 are there any questions
please on 23467 see no lights at this time is there a motion please to accept 2346 and 7 there is a move there is a second roll call please councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman yes councilman Schwarz councilman Garcia yes
councilman monz yes and council president Sher yes thank you on items four and five are there any questions please seeing no lights is there a motion please to accept four and five motion and second roll call councilman monk yes councilman love exension
councilman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes Council MZ and council president Sher yes thank you all matters listed here under considered to be routine in nature items 8 9 10 and 11 are there any questions please on 8 9 10
and 11 sing none is there motion please to accept 8 n 10 and 11 motion second and second thank you councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz councilman Garcia yes councilwoman col monz yes and
council president Shar yes thank you on number 12 please is there a maker to accept moving motion second and second thank you roll call please on councilman mon yes councilman love exension
councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilwoman colong monz obain and council president Sher yes thank you resolutions Froman numeral 10 number 13 is a resolution authorizing closed executive session of the city council tonight attorney sir do
we have any reason for close session thank you sir Mr Fernandez no council president thank you Mr Mayor sir not at this time thank you members Council seeing none at this point if we could please preview item 14
through 24 are there any questions please on 14 through 24 councilman monk thank you counc item5 the purchase of recycling
containers so two questions one is what is the um intent with what to do with these containers how are they being dispersed the second thing is just the cost of a container just seems a little pricey for a 35 gallon I just I
priced it out on you know from other places a little bit high of course obviously uh we're subject to uh certain purchasing restrictions we we can't go to the uh I don't want to say Home Depot but
obviously yes the prices are higher for government but uh over the last seven years we've purchased utilizing grants recycling containers and giving them out for free to the community to encourage more recycling we've seen a drastic increase in recycling and obviously a
cleanliness throughout the city this year we decided to go bigger and get a couple of bigger containers as that's been the request of many of the residents in the city so the purpose is to distribute them freely to the community um the process that we've done is often we'll pick strategic spots
throughout the city like we've done them in Third Ward Memorial Park we've done them at G Plaza which is on AO and First Street we'll go to the different Wards we'll announce it out to the community with Flyers send out uh Flyers to the schools and invite families to come out
and pick up free containers and then we just give them out with our DPW why we I know there's govern contracts which allow the city to purchase items and stuff without biding but what
what these these were the lowest prices we found with government approved vendors I'm sorry if I didn't word that appropriately we obviously rely on our purchasing agent to look at all of the prices these were the most affordable at that size I I just I again I don't know
what's so special maybe we print Pake on them I don't think they charge all that much because of the printing but they are different than going into a store where you get a a generic one we get special Lids on them we actually print out uh the name of the city of Pake on
them and so that's a little bit of difference with covers and stuff yes these come with covers attached to them and then sometimes we get charged more because we request to put holes on the bottom the reason that we do that is because when it rains that way the water
drains out that doesn't happen at the local Home Depot you have to do it yourself so we can get some more detail for the next meeting but again these are similar to the ones we've done in previous years this year we just went a little bit bigger okay thank you counc
president have a question on item 19 please so there was this is a contract with an engineering firm to um I guess to oversee the parking deck which start off with 74,000
and change and now is close to around $160,000 um I read through the notes of the engineer city engineer it says here through discussions with Ker's project manager thorough review of the daily field reports it is evident that their
inspection servic have identified several critical deficiencies and inconsistencies that could affect the structural Integrity of the pre-cast erection these issues include welds that do not conform to the contract plan specification which could have
significant repercussions for the functionality safety and long-term durability of the structure now that's serious allegations there to the contractor that's building this $13 million
structure um so I would imagine that there must be a way to recoup these additional costs either through the architect that designed it or through the company that
pre-cast it actually manufactured or or to somebody here along along this chain this uh that's be my guess so yeah that those reports are being done by the engineer we're
reviewing them and then ultimately once we complete the analysis there might be discussions with the attorney depending on what the outcome is of the overall project at this point I can't speak on
whether that's gonna happen one way or othere that it's ongoing all I know is that this was and the mayor and I had the same uh view when we looked at it we're like wow that's double the contract you just
don't bring that up and us not question it and our engineer assured us that this resolution was necessary and that's why they wrote the report so that the council understood that that change order was necessary for that for the
work that this uh venger did and I would imagine besides just for the engineering cost to oversee it someone is has to fix it right an engineer doesn't fix it I'm going to
interrupt you for just a moment if you will permit me to have a sidebar with our attorney should this be a closed the door thank you at this point due to uh the qualities of the uh question and the
questions the Ben I'm to ask the council for consideration please to go into special session into executive session is there a motion to go into executive session please so Move Motion is motion and second roll call please for executive councilman monk yes councilman
love yes councilwoman Melo councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilwoman goz and council president Sher yes thank you everyone who is not a member of the immediate staff 24 is there any are there any other
questions on 14 through 24 sign none at this time Mr motion please to accept items 14 through 24 excuse me 25 24 I was right there it there it is motion second on 14 through
24 councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman melow yes councilman Schwarz councilman Garcia yes councilman monz and council president Sher yes thank youor 11 on our agenda tonight
ordinance is for introduction first reading uh proposed ordinance amending the designation of restricted parking for disabled person by New Jersey Li plate number ordinance for second and final reading to be set for March 18th 2025 is there a motion please to
accept motion second and second R call please councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilman col and council president Sher yes thank you item number 12 please
payment of bills are there any questions on the bills is there a motion please to accept the bills as presented Mo motion and second thank you roll call councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes
councilman Garcia yes yes councilwoman col monz yes and council president share yes thank you administrator's report sir not this time sir thank you Mr Mayor many members of the Dominican community and Dominican American
Community will be celebrating independence day we will have a ceremony here at the city council chambers as well as a flag raising outside we will be sending out invitations obviously to all of the council members to the city clerk thank you very much very good thank you
sir members of the council any further comments is motion I just wanted to ask what time is the flag we're looking to do 6 PM we're good I believe that's Thursday
Thursday 6 the 22nd that's also the deadline for anyone that's running is there a motion please to adjourn Mo second and second roll call to adjourn councilman monk yes councilman love yes
Council Melo yes councilman schwar yes councilman Garcia yes Council monz yes and council president sh yes thank you very much this meeting is a chour