e
the notice requirement provided for the open public meetings law has been satisfied notice was properly given said notice having been transmitted to The Courier news on Tuesday January 6 as well as posted on the city's website clerk may we have a roll
call council members Briggs Jones present Cherry present Graham present McCrae present Wyatt present vice president sesum pres council president hak pres all members president accor thank you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and stand remain standing for the invocation of the United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all humbly we ask God The Giver of peace and the lover of Charity to give the entire family of Nations true agreement with his will to Grant the light of his Spirit on all those who work for justice and peace amen amen okay may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular
meeting of January some of second okay all those in favor say I I any oppositions or abstentions okay uh the meeting minutes are approved uh we'll move right into our discussion items uh first we'll start with the mayor and the presentation to the Divine n you ready for that mayor yes all right
is there anyone here representing the Divine n I'm cap alpas sa no we got Zeta beta Delta Sigma Theta cap Alpha I meant went home I meant the pan helenic council president namely Sherlock D
okay there's no one okay but is an alpha though right all right he's an alpha I will read this Proclamation whereas the Divine n represents the nine historically black Greek letter organizations that comprise the National panh helenic Council mphc Foundation Alpha F Alpha fraternity Inc founded on December 4th 1906
at Cornell University Alpha Kappa Alpha sari Inc founded on January 15th 1908 at Howard University Kappa Alpa Sai Fraternity Incorporated founded on January 5th 1911 at Indiana University Omega scii fraternity Inc founded on November 17th 1911 at Howard University Delta Sigma theater sorority Incorporated founded on January 13th
1913 at Howard University fet sigtigma Fraternity Incorporated founded on January 9th 1914 at Howard University Zeta 5 beta sority Incorporated founded on January 16th 1920 at Howard University Sigma gamma Rose sority Incorporated founded on November 12th 1922 at Butler University and Iota 5 theat Fraternity Incorporated founded on
September 19th 1963 at margan State University various members of these organizations have walked boldly in the footsteps of great of giants sh Shirley chisel vice president CA Harris Carrie G Hill zor Neil Hurston Michael Jordan Colin Kaepernick Dr Martin Luther King Jr John Lewis Haddie McDaniel and conness other Trail bazzers who have
left an indelible mark on history and whereas the city of planfield recognizes and celebrates the impact of the Divine n on our local community acknowledging the dedication of fraternity and sorority members who uplift and Inspire through mentorship scholarship programs Health initiatives and Civic engagement now therefore be it resolved that the mayor of the city of planfield on behalf
of its residents proudly recognizes the invaluable contributions of the Divine n in honor of African-American history month 2025 and be it further resolved that the city of planfield encourages all residents to learn about support and celebrate these historic organizations that continue to shape our nation and build a brighter more just future for
generations to come and I would like to just congratulate all of the members on the governing body who are a part of the Divine n as well as those of you in the audience who are a part of the Divine n happy black history month thank you thank you so much okay our Council vice president sesum uh will present a resolution honoring
The Life and Legacy of Albert D P thank you council president welcome good evening good evening Council colleagues Administration and those residents who are in the audience I stand before you this evening to
recognize a resident a lifelong resident of planfield who has transitioned resolution in honor of Albert D pittis and I'm going to ask Jim Spears to come up and receive it whereas the city of planfield proudly recognizes and celebrates the life of Albert D pitus a lifelong resident whose heart and soul were dedicated to this community Albert passed away on January 31st
2025 at the remarkable age of 94 for leaving behind a legacy of service passion and unwavering commitment to the betterment of the city of planfield his contributions are extensive so I will not read the resolution in its entirety but will highlight a few things he was a graduate of playing field High School class of 1948 he also graduated with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and also received an MBA from Rucker
University he was called to do in 1953 to 1956 serving as a Communications operator Communications officer in the United States Navy he was president and treasurer of the planfield Business Association planfield special improvement district planfield parking authority and beautification committee anti- litter committee and cultural heritage commission always striving to enhance the vibrancy of our beloved City he
was a 40 30e team organizer of the Plainfield Festival of Arts Albert's Devotion to Grace Episcopal Church was unwavering from his early days singing in the choir and serving in the vest he was a beloved figure in the Netherwood Community championing preservation and social initiatives that strengthen neighborhood bonds and enhance the quality of life for all who called planfield home whereas the city of PL planfield will forever be grateful for
the indelible Mark of Albert D pitus left in the community his unwavering service leadership and boundless generosity continues to inspire all who strive to make a difference in our great City now therefore it be resolved that the planfield city council County of union state of New Jersey proudly honor and celebrate the life of Albert D pitus recognizing his extraordinary contributions to our community the Arts
historical preservation and c and Civic engagement therefore it further be resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Mr pittis as a token of the city of plainfield's deep appreciation and admiration for his incredible Legacy and I know that his daughters are watching uh via virtual meeting and I'm speaking on behalf of the family will be Jim
spear thank you very much councilwoman this is just just absolutely beautiful to to honor this man he was my my next door neighbor uh my friend and my fellow parishioner at Grace Church uh on behalf of his two daughters Carolyn and Melinda I thank you very much I also want to give thank you to the to the to the administration um in in the last two weeks as we knew that our
friend in planfield son Albert was slowly fading um we reached out to the administration to see if we could get access to the Grace Church to the Caroline which was given by his family over a hundred years ago um and it was updated in the 60s by uh Albert's older brothers um and we thought we'd like to get in there just give one more ring as the hearse went by to honor this son of
planfield and I reach out to Mayor M and thank thank you mayor thank you your your presence at at the funeral honored him that is much appreciated um director fields for her work and doing investigation with the developer and the in the dasis to find out what happened to the bells and to uh Orin for getting the church cleaned up what we ended up doing since the bells have been removed from the church and I think my friend and
neighbor and fellow Grace uh parishioner Jeff stman will speak to that later um is that that the bells were removed um and so what Jeff arranged and about 30 of us did is we stood outside the church and rang the bells as the hearse went by to to honor this great man and again Laurin thank you for having the church cleaned up it looked beautiful I appreciate that and uh to conclude
thank you all thank you thank you okay uh we'll move on to our business uh first with consideration a public hearing second reading in final passage we have ordinances MC 20251 through MC 20257 which are scheduled for public hearing and final passage for
the regular meeting as advertised uh we now move on to resolutions uh legislative body items will be first um do we have a consensus to add legislative items R 11025 to R 11125 to the voting meeting yes okay any of those items we wish to take off hearing and seeing none uh
all uh in consensus say I I any opposition or abstentions okay those shall be added to the voting meeting uh we will NE next mve to the mayor and business administrator items uh would you please please present your items yes thank you council president you're welcome we have two items um for advice and consent the first one is our reappointments to the planfield shade tree commission and the second one is a reappointment for judge
Carl Marshall who serves as our chief municipal court judge um the next one is a resolution to execute an agreement with claims resolution Corp you might know them as CRC there're are thirdparty administrator who handle our workers comp claims they've been on for quite a few years and um that amount is 49,500 does not in there is no increase from the previous year the next resolution is
a renewal for Lita Gonzalez um to serve as our interpreter for the court this is a you know we are legally obligated to provide this we also want to provide this um she provides interpretation for every language including sign language and she if she can't do it herself she has you in her staff they provide everything and this is a t this is an increase we're going from 87,000 to 100,000 in this year's budget because as you may recall we added a new session
um a new Thursday morning session in the court so there's an additional session therefore we have to have her for more hours and then finally we have the annual fireworks agreement for the 4th of July okay any questions or comments from Council Members um council president on the fireworks is the 30,000 what we paid last year I think we always have a
up to $30,000 yes thank you any others okay do we have a consensus to add these to the voting meeting yes yes okay uh all those in favor say I I I any opposition or abstentions okay those shall be added to the voting meeting uh Department of Finance please present your items good evening all good evening I have five resolutions for your approval resolution R1 11725 is
resolution granted at VI and consent to appoint Vince Bono as tax collector for the city of ffield he um had previously served an unexpired term and now this is for a full term in his short tenure he brought many enhancements to the tax collection department and there are still some other enhancements in the pipeline to
be brought um resolution r182 five resolution authorizing the transfer of appropr Appropriations and for the budget the 2024 budget and statute allows us to transfer make transfers the last two months of the year in the first three months of the year and this is one such transfer to cover insufficient funds and for a line item resolution 19-25 is authorizing Award of a
contract to Millennium strategies for full service Grant consulting services for um March of 2024 through the end of the year they brought us approximately 2.6 million and we have many Grant um applications pending for 2025 um resolution 120- 25 is
resolution authorizing tax refunds on properties for um three of these were tax appeals and one was an overpayment M cor logic and then resolution 12 121 that's 25 is resolution authorized and approval of the cancel taxes and this is for someone who's a 100% better and dis aable are there any questions any questions for the director I have a question council president please go 11 18-25 you mentioned uh we need to move
the f funds due to insufficient funds in one of the accounts can you just elaborate on that right so there is one account that um just needed some additional funds so we had to move some funds from Public Works to um the fire department to cover salaries any call UPS any other questions council president
for R1 11725 how many hours does this tax assessor work throughout the week um on paper this tax assessor comes in about it's supposed to come in about 1 to two days per week but I can honestly say that I can call this St assessor anytime we were on the phone on Saturday for instance and he came in on Saturday and after hours before hours anytime at all so on paper it is about 16 hours but that his availability is on
lied as far as I'm concerned and this is for the past two years since he''s been here thank you you're welcome council president go right ahead councilman W just two quick questions 11 19-25 uh the 60,000 for millennium strategies do they also get a portion of the grants that we receive a percentage no no so it's just flat rate 60,000 60,000 is the not to exceed fees for them for the year for the year
okay and a question on 18 18-25 I just thought about this uh with the cback and preparing for the budget when are we going to start that process and is there a way that we can move it up um a little earlier so people can be trained and have expectations because last year going through the process I see that many people were rushed the process was rushed so is there a way that we can look to either extend that or started earlier I would say might start that in March because the process is the um
the department heads have to go through their budgets then we meet with the department heads and we only concluded that that last Tuesday we have to meet with them then we have to take all those numbers and we have to put them in run them it's a little bit more detailed so that when we get to you you have a finished product so we still working on those numbers right now cuz our our last meeting was we had meetings all day on Tuesday so I would say I know I mentioned um to council Woman sesss and
end of February I would say sometime in March that we would get to see that okay so couple of weeks okay thank you any other questions okay do we have a consensus to add these items to the voting meeting yes okay all those in favor say I I any opposition or abstentions yes I would abstain from RS 11725 okay can you can you note that okay all right the Department of
Public Works please go right ahead council president Mr Council the department of for The Works has two resolutions to uh present resolution R22 25 authorizing D alino construction uh install completely inclusive playground at Russ playground for The Complex qu complex which we're excited about it's completely inclusive
playground with all the amenities resolution 12325 Jud oriz water professional service contract berck for the Safe Streets for all action plan which is some exciting to as we talk abouto better traffic patterns Etc and work in conjunction to without our Police Department with all crash D Etc so two positive that's all I have any question council person I have a question go right ahead r 122-2
what's the timeline of completion and what phase are we in for the Rushmore Park this is just the playground itself we didn't get started yet once you got do approve it then we can move forward construct contract starting the work we committee our goals have everything completed Sometime Late April complete we're schedu
thank you council president s similar question director with the um with the Safe Streets for all which is a good thing that we're going to have this researched and and professionally studied is there a a timeline in which they're going to come back with a recommendation to us as a governing body um in terms of areas of concern for Traffic Safety yeah well I guess we may have several meetings with them before we finalize other things okay
like the action plan it be probably a couple phases with the action plan to get everything done you know come before us you know bringing everything to you all with a presentation in addition to getting Community involvement with everything too so it's a couple steps before we get to that spot where we can uh say we're going to move to the next phase but this is a large phase this phase covers up to $400,000 of action plan of two and then we have a $100,000 matx 20% uh of of this brand in addition from once this is done then is
another phase and this is all coordinated with the Federal Highway Administration so we have to follow all rules and regulations with them as we go along thank you anyone else yes council president yes on the 123 d25 will there be a separate plan for pedestrian safety that's all part of this whole package pedestrian safety crash data any type of street widening everything it's going to cover every
piece of every piece of uh legislation you can think of as relates to traffic death streams everything yes okay sidewalks as well everything all right thank you okay do we have a consensus to add these items to the voting meeting yes yes yes okay all those in favor say I I any oppositions or abstentions okay we shall be added to the voting meeting all right the department of economic development director
good even evening Council good evening so we are looking at resolutions 124 through 140 so the first resolution is related to a lease agreement between where they're going to be trained in anything from carpentry Electrical Plumbing and so forth there's also going to be a l there's also going to be a lumber yard so they're going to be employed as they're getting trained we've set up
where when we have our preconstruction meetings with our developers we're going to invite these individuals so they'll have an opportunity to work on the development contracts anywhere from looking at demo on on on to construction and completion um this is a 75e lease it is a $1 lease um we can put pick
anywhere in terms of a duration between between 1 year and 99 years before it becomes a sale so we are at the 75 year mark looking at this this is looking for what the city gets back is that we're actually preparing our Workforce and we're preparing job opportunities for the city it's about a 26,000 squ ft building that's going to be renovated at the cost of the general contractor um in terms of the
utilities and insurance they'll be responsible for that this Workforce Development model it's certified by the US Department of Labor as well as the New Jersey Department of Labor and the intent is only for planfield residents it will focus on ages mainly from 16 to 24 the next resolution is looking at uh two resolutions I should say looking at to qualify our owner's representative and
cost estimator this is for the center of excellence so for the center of excellence right now we are wrapping up our design phase the cost estimator or the owner rep really represents the city's interest from going from concept on through construction that means that they will serve as our project manager or our lead for anything related
to design or construction contracts they have a background in construction they have a background in financial analytics this particular contractor is dragonfly Investment Group they have represented Bloomfield Livingston Bergen County as well as hackin sack medical as a owner's rep and a cost estimator so we are proposing to award a contract not to exceed 150,000 um looking
at items that are related 127 going down through 129 these are related to professional contracts for the center of excellence right now for the center of excellence we have a estimate of looking at the construction cost of about 40 million we can expect that the cost for our Professional Services where when we talk about our professional services that
includes the our owner rep that includes our architect that includes our Engineers those as well as our Environmental Services those are estimated to come in once we're complete at about 10% which will be about 4 million what you see in front of you going forward is not the entire 4 million it's the grants that we've had so far so so far we've presented that we've been awarded grants from our
arpa we've been awarded grants from the Department of Community Affairs that are related to development related to Recreation we are also continuing to go after more grants to make sure that we're able to pay for our Professional Services as well as our construction so looking at item 127 through 120-125 that's for our architect our architect
is on board also a MBE a minority owned business with a longtime representation in planfield and construction he has a office in newk he also has a office in Harlem this is looking for the contract that covers going through from design through construction also we have our historic o services that are going to be LED under here too again what we're looking for for the center of excellence this
is a 55,000 Barefoot Recreation and cultural Enrichment Center this is going to include a competition pool a basketball court multi-purpose space art studios um classrooms as well as event spaces then what we have for 12825 that's for remon veric they are going to serve as our
mechanical electrical and plumbing engineer this is expanding a contract with them where they started just to give us a concept now we're refining down for the schematic design going on to design development and up until 30% so this is for those Services the same thing with CME they're going to be our structural engineer so what they're going to look at is looking at the concept looking at the schematic design and and going forward again
in total we expect that the Professional Services are going to come up to about 4 million right now we're a little un under two for for what we're looking at 13-25 looking at 131 d25 this is related to our market analysis retail recruitment services so with this Services what we want to do
is develop a targeted retail trade study so that's really looking at what retail we want to attract to the area what type of stores then we're going to also get an online retail trade dashboard and this will allow us to interact with potential retailers something like LinkedIn where they can see the profile of our city they can see if they have an interest in our areas whether we're talking
about restaurants whether we're talking about different services or looking at products they will also help us with site identification so looking at the different mix use areas that are around they'll develop a retail site profile with the retail site profiles it'll profile a area for example and say well this is the amount of acreage you have this is the potential building square footage there this is the type of foot traffic you get this is the type of
of through traffic TR they'll do a highest and best use analysis they'll identify the different categories whether we're talking about health care which we've already seen while we're going after urgent care they'll look at if we could get another hardware store for example florist what type of restaurants what type of restaurant groups to go after they'll also help us with a retail plan and actually do Outreach to
retail Brokers this particular vendor has served in over 850 communities and 41 States they we met and interacted with this retail recruiter at a previous conference it was The Innovation Commerce serving communities conference they are also endorsed by the national league of cities they are also endorsed by the Main Street America and international Economic Development Council and
we we are looking to award the retail coach for a total of 40,000 we received I believe four different vendor submissions they came in at the lowest bid with the highest reputation looking at R d132 d25 this is to qualify and then the next resolution 133 is to
award Barton Ross as our historic preservation professional this is for architecture it's not to exceed 23 23,500 typically what we've seen in terms of the total this is just rehiring for a ongoing contract this is closer to the amount that we're typically built in the past it's been 20 about a little over 22,000 but we're still building at
23,000 so this is closer to what we're built then the next one the 134 this is for the environmental consulant for the brownfields this is to award for Lewis Consulting also rehiring for 10,000 R d136 this is to look at a non- condemnation Redevelopment study for 8817 West
7th Street and for 736 to 746 Grant Avenue 13725 this is to designate the Jerusalem Lodge or also known as the Freemasons this is for them to renovate their existing building this is a historic building that will be rehabed they actually have an historic Grant to work on it this is a four-story
exist building what they want to rehab is their banquet hall space they also have several Community spaces in there this is a Civic organization resolution 1338-a the reason to remove it from the agenda is that this is Center of Excellence as I mentioned before we're going after several grants another Grant
became a available last week we are making sure that we are eligible to take advantage of that Grant R d139 d25 this is looking at 520 to 532 South Avenue this is to designate the developer equamax development company to build 14 affordable town home for sale this
will look at the town homes on our property the city will enter into a public private partnership where instead of seeing all of our proceeds we are going to ask the developer to place a portion of the proceeds into a down payment assistance fund that down payment assistance fund will be at least 230,000 which will allow each of the plane fill residents to be eligible for
$30,000 at least $30,000 in down payment assistance we expect the price point of these units to be between $450 to $490,000 what this means is that this will be a deed restricted property where the deed restriction will be in terms of income the household will have to be between
a 100 50 and 250 to be eligible to be eligible for the down payment assistance they will have to provide proof of plane fill residents for at least the last year and they will also be receiving a pilot the pilot will be the restriction or the duration of at least anywhere between 5 to 10 years they will not be allowed to flip the
property during that time time the next resolution is 139-158 planfield homes LLC this is a combination of two developers that have done work in Playfield TD plus Partners as well as gon Sosa and the gon Sosa group they typically build homes and have gone through our zoning board for them
so they have experience in building single family and two family and three family homes with this project what we're looking for is the city owns a total of seven properties that are listed um 608 West 4th Street this is in the fourth WS 937 West thirr Street also in the fourth ward 1147 South 2
Street in the fourth ward 45 broke off Boulevard in the fourth ward 125 excuse me 121 Liberty Street also in the fourth board and it should be I'm I'm noting for the record we have a typo where it says block 502 then lot 13 it should say Lot 10 block 502 Lot 10 the address should be
65 59 West 4th Street that is in the Third Ward also in the Third Ward 1261 to 1263 Arlington Avenue these will be six single family homes for sale and one two family home for sale they range in size right now estimated between about 1,800 Square ft on up to close to 3,000 square feeds um the
price point of the single family and then the one two family homes they're going to range between 500,000 and 650,000 these are modern new construction um most of these buildings most of these homes will be at least will be four bedrooms um also again these will be deed restricted the Restriction will be
that the income between 150 and 250 we will provide a down payment assistance there again will be at least $30,000 available for plan fill residents for down payment assistance that they will also receive a pilot and the pilot could be anywhere between five or or 10 years the okay
thank you okay question uh yes council president uh going back to our 24-25 what does the timeline of construction look like from beginning to end for the lease agreement for the uh construction for the Workforce Development Cooperative sure so they're planning to start in
the spring further that um it's estimated that they're going to rehab the building in pieces so it will be some of the building will be open and up and running within 3 months right and so I guess picturing the end of the project I'm just trying to determine how much experience the uh participants will actually have to place on their resume will it be a couple months or will it be a couple of years will it be one year so when I say rehab the building they're going
to stay o open for that's just not the experience that they're going to get sure that's to get the building open as basically a living classroom but in terms of their experience they could have anywhere from a year or whatever the certification to the trade that they're going for so if they're going for carpentry it's a certain amount of time electrician plumber slow on nice nice I like this um moving forward to uh R r131 Das 25 with
that study I'm assuming that's also going to include properties in the special improvement district yes so it includes all the special Improvement districts it includes the central business district anywhere where we have identified as commercial sure so the spe the special improvement district they were a part of our first market analysis study as a part of the stakeholder committee and they will continue to do
so will there be any um Community input regarding these reports so we have certain um Outreach meetings plan particularly we have a Urban Enterprise Zone plan where we're looking to have input on a strategic plan on February 18th and that's going to be at the senior center all right and finally once these reports are completed who's responsible for the execution so part of it will of course
be led by the administration and then we can choose to bring on consultant support all right so I want to move forward to R 140-2 uh the deed restrictions how long are they for so the deed restrictions are going to be for um the duration of the pilot so they're going to range anywhere between 5 to 10 years and once the deed restriction is no longer in existence the homeowner can sell the property for whatever they want market
rate all right thank you those are all the questions I have council president thank you okay coun councilman Wyatt you was guessing no it's not guess all right so the uh r124 d25 uh this is an excellent program um I was able to meet some of the brothers that put this together but I asked is this another opportunity or did we uh connect or talk to the school district
cuz they are building out their CTE Pathways which is the Career and Technical education so this can create a partnership between the planfield public school district and the city uh while they building out the pathways right now so this can be uh create a pipeline for the students to go right into this program that we uh sure well with anything we have a partnership so when we're looking at Workforce Development and we've mentioned this to the school board with something with our Advanced Manufacturing which is this is an
our Advanced manufacturing um Redevelopment plan we've mentioned that they can be a part of it just like we've mentioned with other organization such as Vision Pathways which is a organization that Fosters on Foster Care children as well as re-entry citizens on giving them Workforce Development so what we're doing is creating a venue where we've also spoken to the general contractors that we do and plan to incorporate other organizations St okay and the
was it the town homes on South Avenue give me one second can you just tell me or just repeat for clarification again so you said it was 150 to 250 would be the income the household income and that will qualify you for $30,000 can you just repeat that part for me sure so the income restriction is 150 to 250,000 then what the city is going to
to do is we're putting in our land so instead of receiving proceeds from our land we're going to take a portion of that and put it into a down payment assistance fund that is only eligible for planfield residents okay so clarification again 150 to 250 is what the income that you have to make in order to be able to take advantage of the $30,000 down payment no so 150 to 250 50 is what's going to
make you eligible to be able to purchase the homes which the price points are going to be between 450 and 490,000 okay okay thank you that's household income right total household income any any councilwoman Cherry yes just one question um the planfield Workforce Development corpor Cooperative I couldn't find any information about them online could you tell me tell
me a little about them are they nonprofit for-profit so the name is something that we placed on in the planfield Workforce Development Cooperative the three um organizations that are listed which are um Building Bridges which building bridges they're located in in nework right now and coming to planfield then the second one is um lenar General general contractor General Construction Company then
we also H have S Kofa construction thank you right ahead Council vice president yes um regarding uh 124 uh-2 and the um the the training program um I I agree that these are great CTE operate um opportunities for that age range of 16 to 23 but my question
is um having a 16-year-old going on 40 um that's not the career path that they tend to be looking at so is there a way that this opportunity can be expanded perhaps those of a different age bracket so that they too can get that training um and become a valuable asset to the growth and development of our city or our we limited based on any federal state regulations that this training program has to be for this age group
so we're not limited in terms of funding what's received from the New Jersey Department of Labor and for the US Department of Labor that's the um age group that they're emphasizing but we if you're 40 50 year old you're going to be able to take advantage of this out that's that's great um I'm sorry let me just I'm sorry I'm going to pass
I I don't want to belabor the time okay anyone else council president yes can we have the um changes to 14025 repeated so that uh we can move it forward to the regular meeting without having to amend sure director can you um reemphasize those changes a thank you okay 140-2 um looking at
where it says block 502 lot 13 it should say Lot 10 the address should read as 659 West 4th Street receipt it okay okay uh all right very active Department um we have a lot going on in in Playing Field and this is just one indication of that um what hardens me
the most the most out of all of these is is uh the opportunity to build out our capacity with our own residents um so uh you know with so much development happening around planfield there's commonly a uh uh a a a sentiment that that planfield residents want to be included in uh in this the prosperity
the building uh and and this Workforce Development uh is is a step uh a meaningful step in making sure that those opportunities are available uh so is there any particular information that we could give to people that may be listening in order to take the next step uh into figuring out how they get involved in the program sure so um I believe some of our partners are here tonight so you're going to hear from sen
Kofa once we have a a opportunity for General comment as the we have the ribbon cutting and we open up the Workforce Development Center we're going to make it available it should come in about the time where last year we had a construction job fair and this is where we we thought about these Partnerships we're also going to offer that again and offer the details of the curriculum and the jobs that are going to be available about that time so I'm looking about
May to have further details okay thank you Council pres I have a question regarding that development um will that be open for Charter and public school students it will be open for any students looking for vocational development yes and is there a cost Associated um not as of now but this is training for for jobs but I want to wait and talk to the partners about this
because this is is their was thank you yeah I I would hope that if we're offering it as a training opportunity for planfield residents that the cost be nominal if not at all we want to employ and train as many of our residents and make them a part of the solution so I would hope that that would be um referenced at the discussions okay okay one more question uh you brought up the career fair what I forgot what month that was that was
recently right um we had a construction job fair yes that one it was at the plan Public Library were we able to get the data on that to see how many people actually receive jobs so we we're working on that so we'll go back to you cuz we had some developers that signed on for that but I need to reach out to all of our developers to get those numbers okay thank you okay all right so do we have consensus to add these items
to the voting meeting yes yes okay the ex excuse me I have a question you have a question um yes okay go R1 140-2 um one of the addresses is extremely close to my house the 608 West 4th Street what's the approximate size on that lot cuz that 608 is a pretty small lot unless you're talking about the uh Corner property that's that's been
boarded up and sliced up and all that other good stuff the 608 so all of the properties range of a single family I believe it's just over 2500 square ft okay was that with that parking lot though is that's that whole parking lot cuz there's a parking lot that used to be the old Mr Max right next to it and I have it down as a vacant green space but I'm looking it up right now okay I'm almost posit at this what you talk just wanted to know about the
size because it looks like it's pretty small soty when we present to you the designation it'll identify the sies all right thank you and I was going to ask also as well when you were talking about the the training and attracting the children is and that's something I guess the company can ask also will the wages be very competitive so they'll be based on the construction market so depending on when they get their job with a developer
as a carpenter it'll be it's very competitive okay I mean the trades they can make easily six figure salaries okay I just you know depending on the age I I don't want them to be low balled either you know I just want to make sure that they're we we won't set the salaries okay all right thank you okay one more question I'm sorry no it's no problem 13925 what is the the median salary in Playing Field I know we talked
about that before the median income 73,000 73,000 okay okay so I asked for a consensus um I heard that there were some items that we wish to remove can me State those items are there any items that we wish to remove may I State again um council president that I asked to have remove item 138 -25 okay and so
that that 139 d25 as well for me from the uh consent agenda yes okay so we'll vote on that separately okay all other items do we have consensus yes yes okay besides 138 and 139 uh all in favor say I I any opposition or extensions okay those shall be added to the voting meeting with the exceptions noted okay the department ofth Health and Social Services good evening
director good evening uh council president I have three resolutions for this evening uh the first two 14125 and 142 uh 25 speak to the advocacy of the department I I'll talk to the uh first one uh our division directors and I are deeply concerned about the federal cuts to essential services for not only residents of our community but residents or individuals of this country that need these services and that may include
snap Medicaid Medicare Social Security um Wick all those programs that uh allow people to have healthy lives and to lead prosperous lives uh may be cut and these are essential to the well-being of all residents particularly of planfield so we are deeply concerned uh about that and we certainly want to lift those up to all ears who hear that and who can also support and speak on our behalf because we certainly need it and I think that it also impacts uh nonprofits who do the Yan's work food pantries
and providing services in addition to what the city does and so I I we are and I won't just say me we are deeply concerned about what is happening um 14225 we have done something like this before but we are talking about things that are happening in in our environment that speak to racism as a public health uh crisis and concern and as well as systemic discrimination and help hate groups we certainly are seeing a rise in those numbers
and indeed uh when you uh are living under those stressors it has an impact on your body and your health so if you are living under stress it impacts uh whether you have diabetes and hypertension often communities of color uh those things manifest earlier particularly because of the levels of stress that those communities are necessarily under uh when we see the rides of hate groups that contributes to individuals feeling just a sense of UNC U being uncomfortable when we hear families being separated
when we hear of families uh concerned about whether they're going to be deported all of these things contribute to what is called stress a Wandering which is uh kind of a DNA a genetic change to your system most people think it's just you know hypertension or something but it could be a possible genetic change to your system um and it's generational so we are we are my department and my division heads and some of our employees are deeply concerned about those things and we lift that up because it's
important that um well first off it is something that uh this Administration has stood on uh we are not scared of being courageous in times of uh purported fear and so we stand up against things that are wrong and we seek out Justice when we need to and that's what uh 14125 and 14225 stand to I hope that each and everyone takes an opportunity to read those um because it talks also about the impact on our city uh and how that how that can impact
uh not only our city but nonprofits as well so I I I ask that you read those as well uh 14325 is a resolution to uh for the mayor to engage with um a contract with title shot LLC it's our animal control services in an amount not to exceed $168,000 and it's from January 1st uh 2025 to December 31st 2025 are there any questions any questions uh council president I have
a few questions um director regarding well first of all let me acknowledge you uplifting um racism as a Health crisis and I appreciate and want to um acknowledge the city of planfield for being a voice about the systemic racism that many folks have to endure each and every day and it is in fact a Health crisis um we have many people right now living in fear um and we are seeing the impact on them from a medical perspective I as a mental health clinician
also see it from them as a um a mental health response whereas many African-American folks are the least likely to participate in therapy because of stigma around uh counseling so I want to applaud our city for calling it out as we should be and everybody not only in this city in America should be calling it out so thank you Administration for that um but I want to ask you about you know what I'm going to ask you about cuz I get those
phone calls about title shots hope I can answer your questions you know for some reason people think I'm a cat lover I'm actually allergic and don't like cats but can you just share with me um or with the public some data on title shots in terms of what they've done relative to serving our community how many animals um have how many animals were they able to reunite with the families how many did they take in for the year because these are the type
of questions that I get the emails for so I'd appreciate that so I I did receive a series of questions I'm just going to read the questions and the answer the question I think that's the best way to do it uh does 14,000 a month represent an increase in cost yes if so what is the justification for the rise uh the dog food increase has increased by 5% from $38 to 40 weekly the Depo the disposal of road kill has increased 4% and road kill is animals that are hit by cars along the road and
we have to pick them up uh euthanasia has euthanization has increased from 165 to 200 vet bills have increased due to the dogs being adopted and must be uh up to date with the vaccination so we are responsible for that before they leave the pound uh how many employees does title shot have title shot has two full-time employees that are ACO certified what is the total number of dogs taken in fiscal year 2024 uh that's 133 uh for the same year 22 cats how many of these pets returned to their
owner the total number returned was 81 of of dogs uh the total number of cats were three about 5% were microchipped uh what is the average length of stay the average length of stay is 15 days when was the last time a representative from the city a planfield conducted an unannounced visit facility a council member was there in September and the ACL William I guess I could say his name uh goes there frequently um in the last three rabies in micro
um in microchip clinics we vaccinated 254 animals in microchip 36 and our fourth is coming on February 22nd we do not offer neutering and spraying services at our clinics uh and that's something we're we're looking into and I think those were the bulk of the questions that I received thank you director you're welcome any other Council colleagues wish to ask questions I do for R 14325 were
there any comparable vendors that stepped up to the plate to see if they could do the job none and we have been asking for people to step up for the last two years since the original uh challenge to the city and none have stepped up this is actually the only game in town thank you for that any others uh yes are you sorry council president chair no problem uh did we update the address uh because I did receive phone calls saying that they heard that they moved and I still see
that we have on the paperwork is 173 Route 46 in West Rockaway I tried to reach out to I believe his name is Todd but I didn't get him on the phone so I just wanted to know if you knew that uh they had a new address or is this a typo that we not updated or are you familiar with that at all this is the business address that we received and that's one we're working under with the vendor if they are going to introduce a new address we'll certainly come before we've done that before okay when we received a new address we come before councel and up with the new address that's not a problem but what what's
on the vendor invoice and everything is this address okay all right thank you you're welcome all right do we have consensus to add these items to the voting meeting yes yes okay any opposition or abstentions okay th shall be added uh the department of communications and Technology please proceed thank you good evening counc president and counselors I have three items for your consideration this even evening our
14425 is a resolution authorizing the city of planfield to enter into a grant funded service agreement with JCT solutions to complete phase two of the Broadband Initiative for an amount not to exceed 2.3 and some change uh resolution authorizing the city of planfield to pay an annual service fee for fast track. goov in the amount of 60,000 and a resolution authorizing city of plane field to renew the service agreement with CIS solutions to provide IT services to the
city for an amount not to exceed 155,000 are there any questions questions from colleagues please yes um just have one question on 144 -25 can you just for public knowledge just uh articulate the expectation as to the speed of internet services or Wi-Fi that the residents uh the speed yes
for the for the Broadband yeah um so yeah I don't have the E exact like I can't say it's not going to be 5G right um I guess it's going to be able it's going to allow them to access basic services like emails um it's not for streaming mhm it's for you know performing you know they can for children they can do their school workor they'll be able to do their school work for adults if they
need to work they can access those things but uh it's not going to be 5G right like high speeded and that's the basic internet services and that's what I wanted to make clear you know because most of us have internet on our phones and so it's not uh it won't support streaming but it will support basic functions basic function yeah yes that's thank you mhm direct could you
remind us what happened what occurred in Phase One sure thank you in Phase One what was happening is that the fiber was being laid and um the fiber was coiled at all the uh access at all the areas where they were going to have like Wi-Fi and so on phase two will just be connecting that fiber activating the Wi-Fi and uh installing cameras also in those parts the other public areas that are
designated thank you welcome other questions okay we do we need any clarifications regarding speed uh or from the floor I know we have Representatives here but yeah no obligation to speak but if you want to clarify it's it's up to you
from JCT good evening Wii will be very fast very robust in a given part we will be installing between six and 10 Wi-Fi access points each access point can accommodate 500 users will be very
configure the firewall any way you'd like I prefer you put content filters on it wait firewall comes with content filters to deny or allow anything you so choose uh one particular project we did Livingston Library recently the library board of directors
had me make it completely open no restrictions I'm at the V Catholic it kind of bothered me but it we did it because that's what the governing body instructed us to do so it's really it's it's your service we're here to install it implement it it will be very fast Wi-Fi very robust Wi-Fi okay if if you would like it to it can stream if you want us to
block streaming we can understood okay thank you thank you council president yes uh just a quick question a question was raised asking who will have access to the data do we can you answer that question do the chair it's okay sure the only data that will be captured and stored is the video and that'll be answered by
the you know store by the director uh the Wi-Fi will not be recorded and stored is you mean video from video cameras correct y from the video surveillance system yes that will be recorded and stored in the data center and police headquarters okay thank you thank you thank you any other colleagues wish to ask
questions okay do we have a consensus to add these to the voting meeting yes okay any oppositions all those say in favor say I I I any opposition or abstentions okay those shall be added to the voting meeting uh we now move to uh ordinances on first reading with the ba present that item uh or your items thank you council president we have five ordinances up for first reading this
evening the first is an optin ordinance into the Garden State commercial property assessed clean energy program um by law we have to have an opt-in ordinance to participate the second ordinance is adopting a redevelop the Myrtle AV Redevelopment plan um this was voted on by the planning board at their January 16th meeting the third ordinance is a tax exemption um in regards to block 218 Lots well I'll just say the
address if it's here 25 Clinton AV 21 Clinton a and 131 14-20 West Front Street and this is um their financial agreement with 1314 West Front Street urban renewal this is going to be 84 units nine of which are affordable Workforce housing 1,319 uh retail square fet and 97 parking spots four have an ordinance um
enacting amendments to the Tod South Redevelopment plan this is to add 250 affordable housing units into that plan and finally you have an ordinance amending chapter the chapter for the schedule of fees this is to introduce fees to the Lenny Cathcart house house music festival as you know that's a very well attended event um and it's largely paid for by the city budget and so so we are it's a new event and we're
looking to start charging $100 for vendors who come and sell products at the at the music festival can get up many usually they do very well at that Festival because it's so well attended and so we think it's only fair that the city you know gets some revenue for that okay thank you okay questions from Council colleagues stting those items yeah
for the parking that um has 84 and9 Workforce how many um parking spots did you say 94 I 97 97 thank you okay Council Council vice president um yes regarding the uh fees for the the um the house music festival um why the option to project out over the next five years well I I'll just say that we didn't want it you know we've we're coming from zero so we wanted to
slowly slowly go into um what we're ultimately going to charge after 5 years so was just to phase it in um I have to honestly say I'm concerned about those fees I think that they're going to be cost prohibited for small businesses um who are selling T-shirts and other small trinkets um so that that concerns me in terms of the the amount of money that we're looking to charge
yeah I I'll say um like I said earlier this is a city funded event and so you know anytime we can recoup some of the cost back into the budget um I know that people who were there did did very well and I think we have some comparative data if you director Brown if you could give for for some what some other municipalities are charging so there's there's a couple of things it's not just the fees it's with CAU toying what's happening with the event in
this um ordinance which didn't exist before because it's such a large event uh so the really the vision and the goal for this event not just the fees but is also to say this is the responsibility of the vendor and this is the responsibility of uh the city and so what is the best practices we did look at other cities when it came to what they were charging Trenton ASB Park Park Lyon um we looked at I never wo which is
a County Park and we look at I already said I could pronounce it right um Ros too and we Quake Park we Quake Park sir um and so we look at those house and in WWE we looked at those house music some of them go from $100 to $800 a night um I know Lincoln partk is $1,500 initially when we started this project six years ago uh it was free and it was
to be an incubator for small businesses to develop into have an opportunity to to sell their products uh we remove the barriers other than what was required for food vendors so that they can be there I think that the fee and why we did it as as the ba said in the fiveyear uh cycle is that it gives small businesses the opportunity to plan at at its core so they know for the next 5 years what they have to plan for and if you're going to go from a small business to
a large business you should be able to plan $100 uh is a nominal fee and it's only increased by 10 and that's for non- vendors and for food vendors it starts at 250 and in the following years it's 10% uh and I can comfortably say if we look at Food vendors they they make significant amount of monies um and it work for it though it's not that they don't work for it uh and so do our vendors and at the end of the day I I think that we put for a a reasonable ordinance we did not do this out of
context we did speak to about 20 of the vendors to see where they stood and initially they weren't too happy I'm not going to say that uh but when we explained the situation they accepted it and they thought that this was a moderate fee and council president if I were to add this is not a moneymaking event for the city it costs the city significant amount of money so this merely defr the cost to the taxpayers and so we
believe it's a reasonable amount to ask the vendors to contribute based on you know the cost that we've been incurring over the years and it gets bigger it's going to cost us more each and every year director brown with the same ordinance um why is the insurance a million per occurrence and 2 million for aggregate why so high was that the average yeah that's that's what we always did that's not a new
thing we we spoke to our department of uh finance and this is what they require when they reach out to when they include us on their insured as insured this is what the numbers have to be so this is not we didn't create this this is what this is our practice okay thank you any others uh yes MC 2025 d10 uh can we can you let me know what the rents will be
oh sorry oh yes sure so they are going to range from hold on I'm just opening up the M they are going to range from 2031 on up until 2207 and what's the separation between the two
2031 and you said two what was the other number so uh let me just go through it so for the one for the studio Market Studio market rate unit it's going to be 231 for the workforce housing unit it's also going to be 2031 for the one-bedroom um market rate is going to be 23.80 for the one bedroomroom work for for is going to be
2207 I don't do we talk to our community and understand that our people are hurting like who really can afford this in the city of playing field like what data do we have to say that we're going to keep building apartments and charge for a studio $231 and a one-bedroom 2380 and some of these that's affordable as well so these are market rate and
just to go over again so the 2380 is for market rate understanding that you're asking about the 2031 so just to clarify the definition of what we look at as affordable it's based on the area median income where we look at anywhere from 30% to 120% Ami so if we look at AUD Studio it it's going to range 30% it's going to be
600 50% is going to be 1,000 60 is going to be300 80 is going to be 1,600 100% is going to be 1,700 and then we can go up and still consider it to be affordable for Workforce Studio as 2060 and that is that is based on our area median income okay so do do we do surveys do we collect data that says okay this is the
type of you do so it's not surveys the data that we collect is based on the census and then how we're calculating it is based on how we're advised by the state to look at the area mediate income and the percentages so we don't collect surveys okay so for me it was just troubling to to read this and look at these prices and when I'm out talking to people in the community our people are hurting everybody's hurting on the fact Federal level they're afraid of the executive orders that's being written cutting
programs and here we are on the local level and we are building more apartments for Studios at $231 I had a young man just tell me he was 28 years old he had a decent job he said I cannot afford this what what are our people supposed to do that live here in the city of planfield I understand that we have to think about the future and we want people to move to planfield but what do we have here and what are we doing here for the people that live in Playfield who want better who wants quality living they tired of seeing the blight what are we what are we doing for
them so in terms of affordable housing we are looking at affordable housing that are ranging on the lower end so that's going all the way down to the 30% and also looking at the 60% and a 80% Mark what we're doing with that is that we're working with developers that have experience going after as Spire funding so to ask for it to be at the lower Mark where it's not at the 20 000 Mark they have to be qualified developers to
get Aspire and lowincome housing tax credits from the Department of New Jersey de New Jersey Department of excuse me New Jersey Economic Development Administration so when we're looking at that we're working closely with that taking advantage of these grants we're partnering with developers that's why we're looking at right now to date we're close to looking at 800 affordable units
that we have under contract to be clear it's not just looking at the low to moderate in it is also looking at some Workforce and we can talk about that but the 250 units that are 100% affordable that's between the 30 to 60% a Ami when we're looking at those senior units the 120 units that we have there that's 100% affordable that's looking to this to the 30 to 60% Ami it is not going to
be at the 2,000 Mark we have to work with developers that have experience in building these quality affordable housing okay and the next one MC 2025 D12 uh so I understand that this is an event that's put on by the city but to we all say and as maybe it's just a buzz word for some that small businesses are the backbone in this nation so if we have businesses why can't planfield be the model City and say
we support our small businesses and our vendors and we're trying to help them um become successful so I just disagree with these uh prices as well passing them on to people who are trying to to make money and have small businesses here in our city I don't need a comment for that thank you director fils council president so I know that this um the administration set a goal for I believe a thousand affordable units right where are we
with that number we are at 871 thank you and then for the house music festival what percentage of small businesses are plane field versus external from out of our city that vend so at the if we have a hundred vendors at that if we have 100 vendors how many are from planfield you know I'm going to have to get that analysis back CU I'm going to look at that cuz we have about 50 vendors there on that given day
so let me get that number for you that's an easy one for us to find and I apologize I don't have it for you today no worries thank you director B anybody else any other Council colleagues no but I understand your question I mean uh if if we're looking out for planfield business owners we want to be sure that they're actually from our town because I I know there's a significant amount of vendors that are from
out of town and corre do want to make sure that they're pouring into our city in that manner and that that was the point I mean I see a lot of the vendors are outside of the city I know a lot of the vendors there was just a handful that were city that lived in the city right but I'd like to have that information available thank you all yep okay so uh let's see do we have a consensus to add
these items to the voting meeting yes yes all those in favor say I I any opposition or abstentions hearing none these are added to the voting meeting okay we will recess for five minutes would the council uh meet at the microphone we're going to just take some pictures but the real recess for 5 minutes and go into the voting meeting afterwards
recording stopped
e e
recording in progress okay we'll move on to public comments limit limited to resolutions and motions being considered this evening total of 30 minutes shall be out allocated for uh such purpose each speaker will
be given 3 minutes uh the floor is open please give your name address and the resolution or motion that you're speaking regarding thank you thank you good evening everyone my name is Jeff Spelman I live at 11:51 Gresham Road I'm talking about resolution 110-2 which was a tribute to Albert pittis and I had the quite the fortune it
was my joy to spend a lot of time with Albert he came down to my coffee shop off and we talked about the Caroline Bells we talked about his history I had the opportunity last year to uh do a video interview which I'm happy to share with people and he talked about walking in the 1930s from Front Street up to the church to go to church um I wanted to thank uh mayor map uh director Dabney and Fields for the help in this last few days because we knew that the family wanted to drive the
hearse by Grace Church and other places in planfield and it's only in the last few days after Albert's passing that we learned that the Caroline Bells had been removed from Grace Church um for those who don't know a carolon is a tower full of there 47 Bells they were originally installed over a hundred years ago it was um Albert's Uncle who uh figured out how to get them from England and face tariffs and all these different things and
then later in the 60s and' 70s Albert with his two uh now deceased uh older twin brothers figured out how to engineer and double the size of the instrument over time um and talking to the family it was almost like uh feeling a second death we we were expecting Albert lived a good long life and we thought that the carolon would be his legacy going forward um we've learned just in the last day with the with the help of
of director fields that the the bells were s uh sold to the church services Group which is basically a asset recovery um Salvage of um in my in my words a church uh Chop Shop that's buying assets of old churches and and so the chances of this going someplace as a Caroline if it was going to a university or another church or being played it would it still be sad but it would at least go on um and so I guess my point in just bringing these
I think for public record it's important that we understand this and generally I'm ve I've been very supportive of all the development uh that's happened in Playing Field over these years and I think we're all happy to see an old dilapidated Warehouse get knocked down and replaced with with the beautiful new things but in a case um of a historic church of Grace um I think we let this get by us and we tried every different meeting many different steps um we've
all been involved in the in the Redevelopment studies the planning boards it's the bodies have had this uh multiple different times and many different times there are places to take stronger preservation aspects for Grace Church when we um a nice little marry band sorry it's that time you can come back at general public comment you'll have another 3 minutes thank you very much you're welcome can we
speak on motion table um sure Yes yes again yes s Carano 1284 East Front Street thank you uh for the opportunity to address 20251 um
in my view stabilized rents rent control the opposite of rent control is out of control and I'm trying to grasp and I'm in the business I'm trying to understand why a body would pull or the administration would pull this to try to protect protect its people sooner its people
are I personally know and this may not even be addressed in either anybody's ideas of rent stabilization or rent control but the commercial aspect of this town is totally out of control I personally have an attorney who's a client whose rent went up $1,100 a month month it went up 11 he's now
paying over 4,000 a month it's obscene why would we not want to have some form of control when a person's salary didn't go up that much I would love to have my salary go up that much I'm sure some of you would love your salary to go up that much so why I'm hoping because I'm going to bang the hell out of this microphone if it's
not I'm hoping this gets reassure inserted at a future council meeting because they recognize there are more things we need to do to protect the public thank you I'm sorry I may have time Mr Cohen I I'm hoping it's time 11125 the puppy mill please thank you for putting it in this form thank you for presenting it thank you for moving it
forward if it is if you can we need that protection as well and lastly it was mentioned and I forgive me I forgot the uh resolution but it was mentioned that there is a pilot there is a five or a 10year restricted deed what exactly restricted deed does that mean where we're now subsidizing a
pilot we're now helping people to move in by giving them down payments to move in hopefully presumably their planfield residents First Responders those types of people which I've attended your meetings to hear but what exactly is the restriction for the five or 10 years thank you restricts the purchase price right much you can sell it for uh Nancy p
1129 Myrtle Avenue um first of all I want to talk about 12425 I'm not against this I think it's a it's a good idea but um I Heard the uh economic development director talk about funding from the New Jersey Department of Labor and the US Department of Labor as a formal um worker for the federal government everybody knows that the federal government is chaos right now now what happens is or are there contingency plans if the US Department of
Labor um does any funding cuts to any of the programs and would that have an impact on 12425 my other comment um I'm not against the Redevelopment of the Myrtle Avenue area however I want to make everybody aware that in the plan no one it wasn't mentioned about the Greenbrook flood control project that's going to go through in that area I did send a copy of a map from the Army Court of Engineers that shows that there's going to be and this is a plan this isn't
part of the study this is the lower Basin uh project so it's already been approved and they're working on it currently in Middle sex and they're moving up the Greenbrook toward us and there's going to be levies on the north side of the Greenbrook in that area and a partial levy on um on the opposite side of Jefferson so basically the water is going to be pushed into planfield I say that because um my father grew up in the Ohio area and they were constantly being flooded and he always talked about levies
in my family so if you have a breach or if the levy is on one side of the brook it's holding the water back from Green Brook and north planfield but then it's going to push the water into planfield and it's going to push the water into the area that you want to redevelop and the plan has no mention of that in the mberg Avenue Redevelopment plan and I think it needs to be looked at and there should be a caveat there CU there going to be a school there's also other problems with that neighborhood in that
section because it used to be the old sewer pits so if anybody needs a map I'd be happy to share it with you um my father sat on the was a commissioner for the sewage Authority for years so that's why I know about what that area was used for for many many many years thank you very much thank you good evening name address and resolution speaking regarding
good evening I'm Stuart seen strick at 225 watching Avenue where wind the spirit has a one Center and I commend you on postponing or tabling this the 2025 we have talked about a few issues one not to limited but including the consideration of a lower limit for increase most of the people that we know they're renting in the planfield do not
have a 5% increase on their yearly salary including more units the limit that is was proposed doesn't include a lot of houses that could be housing individuals and of course the composition of the board including definitely mainly planfield if not only planfield residents landlords individuals here so I commend you for working on this and making this better and I guess all of us in PL want a better control thank
you good night everyone uh my name is Dohan lamard I am speaking on resolution 124 address for the record 2011 watch and Avenue PL field so an lar General construction is my uh Construction Company and um
with the planing field work uh Development Center we um we're pretty much partnering with them to uh launch a trade school and also a lumber yard so we'll be uh doing a full lumber yard where we'll be um employing people from planfield and um I'm a little bit nervous sorry and um we will be doing
a a full 2-year apprenticeship program with um with student we don't currently don't have no age limit there'll be no age limit for the program will be electrical carpentry and plumbing we um we will have professional um that works with the um with the school board before and they will be teaching these
students um they will obtain a uh they will obtain a certification that will give them chance to go to Kane Rogers afterwards and um pretty much they will be uh sorry little bit I haven't been in front of the microphone I've been on you know so a little bit
nervous I'll just read from the template um he's he's speaking now I mean if you want to allow her to speak she have a full three minutes I'll speak from I'll speak from the template okay
so the introduction establishing a construction um training school in the city of planfield enance a Cornerstone Economic Development the field of construction currently involving um Innovative Technologies method as these late Trends and Gulf industrial world the need for skilled professional
one second and basically our objective will be um to establish the training center in planfield offering a 2-year apprenticeship program uh the requirement the basic requirement will be a GED uh we're not saying that we're pretty much not saying that you know with
with a skill you still have the same qualification as in getting a degree you're still able to go out and be an entrepreneur like us my company is successful even though I'm a little bit you know nervous around the mic and the you know the people we're we run a a a very successful company and um yeah this basically well we thank you for coming out no
problem name address and resolution you're speaking regarding good evening my name is Jerry fosu 801 St Mary's um I'm the owner of San for constructions and also Sanka for Builders um Inc uh so we have a US registered apprenticeship program which is approved through the United States Department of Labor which consists of 8,000 hours of on the job learning and and also 527 hours of technical instructions uh the trades that we're
going to be teaching basically are carpentry welding Electrical Plumbing masonry then we have a 10we course which are add-ons of solar panel installation and heavy equipment training um as far as the school district we have been reaching out and we're working on working on a cohorts and a pre-apprenticeship for the students so that they could use that as an entry point to get into the registered apprentiship program so pretty much when we look at the hours of 8,000 hours
of ojl and 527 hours of Technical Training that's about a 4-year course that they'll be with uh when it comes in terms of contractors and having developers pretty much join in and support with the new laws that's been passed anybody that's receiving Public Works contracts they have to be a part of a registered apprenticeship so that's given us great odds and having a lot of the contractors and developers also um join on and somebody mentioned what if you know the grants and stuff are not coming through the contractors are going
to be paying fees to support the training of the apprentices also so we're looking at many different resources apart from just grants and just um you know Government funding we're looking for private and also just contractors and develop within the construction industry to play a part and helping grow the you know the workforce U as far as the age limit there is uh 16 to 24 year years of age for the US
do program but there isn't an age limit at all you can enter at any age and you will basically get the training we'll find the funding that's needed to work alongside with you uh now promotion wise in May the USD has a month where they have a week it's called youth week uh we also have a program called Mayday which I basically come out and I share the construction Trad try to more promotions and awareness so this year with the
timeline of the opening of the location we're going to try to put together nice event for the opening and on continue that week with the youth week program to bring more light and give more information out to the construction industry so they know how to get be a part of the program as far as support we are on backed by Ruckus University they key supporters with us they uh with through their technology department we are applying for Grants with them and and the re-entry program we also reached out to them so we are working with the re-entry program to get our out you
know citizens returning back into our jobs and that'll be my time I'll come back and give you the rest of the information thank you very much and I appreciate it thank you hi everyone hello U my name is Susan Stephanie I live at 7:38 South Second Street planfield um I'm
referring to R1 14225 with the Department of Health and Social Services um I'm not sure what type of racism you're talking about here but I had never been called a or a monkey but by a white person I've been I was born and raised in planfield but
I was called a monkey by a Spanish person on top of that my two grandchildren one of them was called a hood and a and he's only 12 years old by a Spanish person and my grandson also was punched in the face they both go to harbard school and anybody that knows harbard school
now I went to harbard school so there wasn't that many Spanish people um but it seems like all the black people been run out I don't know where they are however my granddaughter had her lunch knocked out of her hand by a Spanish person well you know these are kids I understand that but they're afraid to speak to the people in
the school be for fear being called snitches my granddaughter saw a a young man who bumped into a Spanish young man by mistake his whole family she said came to the school and beat the child down with bats and things and she's scared to tell School administrators and people about being uh hit and my grandson's afraid and uh there he used to
have locks he cut them off and he's been wearing a hood because he doesn't seem to have the self-esteem to own what you know the fact that he cut his hair off and these Spanish kids keep snatching his hood off his head I don't understand I don't understand why you know my grandchildren have to endure things like that I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable but they're uncomfortable as well
we have I don't know what you're uncomfortable about rule regarding personally offensive derogatory or abusive remarks this may fall into that can you just refrain from using the bad words what bad words I'm not going to say them but we we all but what what bad words I'm not talking saying any bad I'm just repeating I'm just reping what was said to them thank you but bad words we're adults here what you talking about bad
my grand thank Miss Miss can you are you going to step forward please I'm step forward please no she she's Marie and Sari uh what you R 14325 title shot um I realized there is no such thing as a no
kill facility the state has stopped asking for statistics so actually it's good and bad that we get statistics personally I was shocked by how many animals were killed um we don't have a Facebook we don't have a website
for animal control no one knows when animals are found unless they happen to get into the system privately by the person who lost them no one knows who's up for adoption we should have a strong strong adoption uh program in place
animals should be spayed and neutered before they go out they should be microchipped um I understand the need for a surrender fee I did not see it in the contract where does the surrender fee go cuz certainly that money could be used for additional expenses um
rabes vaccines are provided by the state they're virtually free they're a couple dollars so I'm not sure who's charging to administer it but that should not be an expense or an exorbitant expense um the same
with uh food I know I've donated several cases of dog food and cat food I know other people who would do it if they knew how I am not expecting our one working ACO to take all of this on but
we pay technology a fair price someone must be able to set up a web page and the last question I have not seen posted what hours residents can go to title shot to reclaim an animal thank you thank you so much okay is anyone online okay public comment in person is now closed wait no
there was someone online yeah yeah um on in person and online please unmute yourself name and address for the record and resolution you're speaking regarding can you hear me I can hello yes hello this is Carolyn pittis 617 badier Avenue referencing resolution R 11025 honoring my father Albert uh first happy Black History Month to everyone in town thank you second we are grateful for
Council vice president session's presentation honoring our father and for the mayor's personal participation in funeral events for him this past week my great uncle gifted the planfield Caroline a rare and sacred object to the citizens of planfield with the expectation that it would endure for hundreds of years in a public hearing many months back with the church owner and its proposed developers present my father Albert joined with Jeff Spelman who you've heard from this
evening in offering to lead a public private partnership to keep the carolon and planfield before any response to this offer this instrument was surreptitiously removed shocken and saddening many in this town clearly the preservation protections that were in place around this property were not respected which is disrespectful to to this city council this tragic loss did not need to happen to leave distressed
sellers free to call the shots on their own likely ensures that the city will continue to lose its cultural history including perhaps the cultural history that you are today trying to create a new to celebrate the diversity and vibrancy of playfields population on behalf of our father who we buried today day I would respectfully urge that the city council reconsider how they might
do things differently from here forward please consider strengthening the city's historic preservation rules as a lasting tribute to my father's service to this city please make preservation and Redevelopment of historic properties more transparent and collaborative and in explicitly include informed citizen Representatives alongside the city its property owners and its potential develop developers thank you very
much for honoring our father thank you anyone else online okay public session uh comment is now closed okay clerk uh could you please read the consent agenda this council president identified as resolutions 11025 through 13725 uh resolution 14025 through 14625 uh 11725 will
be voted on separately as um councilwoman Cherry will be abstaining 13928 will be voted on separately and 138 was removed okay uh can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda second okay clerk man we have a roll call council members Briggs Jones yes
Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hak yes the consent agenda items have been approved we now move to resolution 11725 need a motion in a second okay can we have second roll call please council memb is bricks Jones yes yes Cherry abstain Graham yes Wyatt
yes McCrae yes vice president sesum yes council president hak yes six in favor one extension resolution passes now move to resolution 13925 have move second roll call
please council members brick Jones 13925 you said correct yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt no vice president sess yes council president hak yes six
in favor one oppos resolution's been adopted do we have any other non-consent items no is that it okay all right we're going to take a slight break from regular uh business and uh I am going to introduce uh Superior Court Judge James P Wilson and he will be swearing in uh our chief municipal judge uh just uh give us a
second and we can present them okay introducing
Superior Court Judge James P Wilson and judge Carl Marshall you want to stand mayor M don't know where he want to stand all right ready good all right we'll do it this way I just repeat
after me all right this is like the 15th time right something like that something like that that means you're doing a good job repeat after me please I car L Marshall I Carl L Marshall do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully and impartially that I will Faithfully and impartially and justly perform all duties and justly
perform all duties of the office of Chief Municipal Court Judge of the office of Chief municipal court judge according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability further I call El Marshall further I call El Marshall do solemly swear or affirm do Solly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New
Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear truth faith and Allegiance and that I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of The People Under The Authority of the people so help me God so help
me God congratulations you're in once again take my glasses because they always think we twins they get us
mixed up swear I I I F their license we've just proved that they are not the same person he for to do a correction day
you're welcome okay we now move to ordinances on second reading and and uh and final passage um first with uh MC 20251 uh I am going to entertain a motion to table such ordinance uh since we proposed that on first reading I've heard from different Community organizations wind of the spirit being
one of them uh expressing concerns uh with the legislation and uh giving us more ideas uh that we need to look at uh and it became apparent that we needed to talk to more Community organizations as we craft this legislation to make it most impactful for residents so uh your suspicions were confirmed that that we do just want more time to be deliberate and make sure that it's a good ordinance uh I think uh when we hear from the
community uh that we are uh that that we could do a little better with an ordinance such as this then we we we listen so uh I uh certainly agree with uh the tabling of this until we can make it better and have meetings uh with organizations so I look forward to uh engaging in those meetings in the in the in the next weeks to come all right so can I have a motion to table 2025 d01 second okay uh can we have a roll
call it's roll call to table MC 20251 council members brick Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president Hockaday yes that is unanimous MC 20251 has been Ted okay Madame Deputy please read by uh the MC 202 5-2 by title and certify that it's complied with the statutory publication requirements MC 20252 is
an ordinance for a four-way stop intersection at burkman Street and East thir Street to amend and supplement chapter 16 vehicles in traffic article 7 through streets stop intersections stop and yield intersections designating certain four-way stop and three-way stop intersections it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this ordinance was published in The Courier news on January 27th 2025 okay
the floor is now open for any member of the public who would like to speak on this ordinance specifically okay that was a all right I may have a motion to close public hearing so move second all those in favor say I I okay public hearing is now closed May I have a motion to adopt this ordinance on second reading and final pass second okay clerk may we have a roll call roll call MC 20252
Council memb Briggs Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hock yes that is unanimous this ordinance has been adopted on second reading and final passage thank you Madame Deputy please read MC 202-0324 is an or of the city of planfield County of Union New Jersey adopting the 12th Amendment to the 197 scattered
sites Redevelopment plan dated December 12th 2024 it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this ordinance was published in The Courier news on January 27 2025 okay the floor is now open to anyone who would like to speak regarding MC 202-31 Online uh I will entertain a motion to close public hearing so move second okay all those in favor say I I all right now let's have a motion
to adopt this ordinance on second reading and final passage second okay clerk roll call roll call MC 20253 council members Brook shones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hak yes that is unanimous this ordance has been adopted on second reading and final passage thank you madam deputy please read by title MC 20254 and certified legal compliance MC
20254 is an ordinance to amend chapter 17 L use 17 col 8- 2.a and 17 8-7 pointb point6 in the city of planfield for the additional requirement of submitting digital copies to the planning board and Zoning Board of adjustment it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this or was published in The Courier news on January 27th 2025 okay the floor is now open to
any member of the public who would like to speak on this ordinance specifically seeing none in the gallery and no one online uh I'll entertain a motion to close public hearing so move second okay all those in favor say I I okay can I have a motion to adopt this ordinance on second reading and final passage second clerk roll call roll call MC 20254 council members Briggs Jones yes Cherry yes
Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hak yes that is unanimous as ordance been adopted on second reading and final passage thank you Madame Deputy please read MC of Union amending chapter 17 the land use ordinance article 9 section 17
colon 9-23 buildings or structures per lot primary and accessory dwelling units it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this ordinance was published in The Courier news on January 27th 2025 okay the floor is now open if anyone would like to speak regarding accessory dwelling units sure Nancy Nancy p 1129 M Avenue does
mean that you can take a garage and convert it into an apartment and if so they still have to buy by come before zoning or planning to do that yes so you can add an accessory dwelling unit up to 8 800 square fet it can be over your garage or it could be a separate unit okay so if they're not using the garage as a garage M then they need to come before zoning or planning they because it's as of right they can
go straight to planning or they can just apply for a zoning okay thank you okay anyone online all right uh motion to close public hearing so moved second okay all those in favor say I I did you want to speak regarding this okay uh let's allow Mar and Siri what ch avue um we're still
using Hyperbole and false information to justify letting Sports Hunters bring deadly cross spoke talk out of I'm sorry pardon I'm sorry we are uh talking specifically regarding mc20 25-06 I'm sorry I was outside it's not public speaking not not quite yet so I we'll see you in a few thank you
okay so I'll uh continue to close public comment all right now may we have a motion to adopt this ordinance on second reading and final passage yes so so move second okay can we have a roll call certainly roll call on MC 20256 council members bricks Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes
Wyatt no vice president sesum yes council president hak yes six in favor one oppos MC 20256 has been adopted on second reading of final passage okay Madame Deputy please read by title mc225 7 and certify its legal compliance MC 20257 is an ordinance of the city of planfield County of Union New Jersey adopting the Second Amendment to the scattered city-owned parking lots and
adjacent Lots Redevelopment plan dated December 12th 2024 it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this ordinance was published in The Courier news on January 27th 2025 okay the floor is now open for anyone who'd like to speak regarding MC 2025 d07 anyone online there's no one in person may I have a motion to close public hearing so move second okay all those in favor say I I I okay may have a motion to adopt this ordinance on
second reading and final passage and if adopted okay clerk may we have a roll call roll call MC 20257 council members brid Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hak yes that is unanimous this ordinance has been adopted on second reading and final pass okay thank you we now move to ordinances on first reading
uh Madame Deputy please read MC 20258 by title MC 20258 is an ordinance opting into the Garden State commercial property assessed clean energy cpce program to facilitate the financing of CPAC projects okay uh I'll entertain a motion to adopt this on first reading show move second uh roll call please roll call
MC 20258 council members Brigs Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hak yes this ordinance has been adopted on first reading thank you Adam Deputy please read MC 20259 by title MC 20259 is an ordinance of the city of planfield County of Union New Jersey adopting the Myrtle Avenue
Redevelopment plan dated January 16th 2025 okay I'll entertain a motion to adopt this ordinance on first reading so move second clerk may we have a roll call roll call MC 20259 council members bricks Jones no Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt no vice president sesum yes council president hakai yes five in favor two oppose sport has been adopted on first reading okay thank you madam
Deputy would you please read MC 202-10 by title MC 20210 is an ordinance of the city of planfield in the county of Union granting a tax exemption with respect to certain property identified on the city's tax map as block 218 Lots 23 24 and 27 and designated in the city's tax record as 25 Clinton Avenue 21 Clinton Avenue and 131 14-20 West Front
Street planfield New Jersey and authorizing the execution of a financial agreement with 1314 West Front Street urban renewal LLC I'll entertain a motion to adopt this on first reading so move second okay clerk can we have a roll call roll call MC 20210 council members Briggs Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae
yes Wyatt no vice president sesum yes council president hak yes six in favor one opposed this ordinance has been adopted on first reading okay Madame Deputy please read MC 20251 by title MC 20251 is an ordinance of the city of clanfield in the county of Union New Jersey enacting amendments to the to South Redevelopment plan okay I'll entertain a motion to adopt this on first reading so
moved roll call please roll call MC 20251 council members Briggs Jones yes Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt yes vice president sesum yes council president hack yes that is unanimous this ordinance has been adopted on first reading okay thank you uh Madame Deputy please read MC 2025 d 12 by title MC 20252 is an ordinance amending chapter 9
colon 17-1 schedule of fees of the city of planfield to establish vendor fees for the Lenny Cathcart house music festival okay motion and the second on first reading so move second okay roll call please roll call MC 20252 council members Briggs Jones no Cherry yes Graham yes McCrae yes Wyatt no vice president cess no and council
president hak yes four in favor three opposed ordinance has been adopted on first reading okay that's it all right we now move to General Public comments so for those who didn't get a a chance to finish on the allotted time earlier as an opportunity now as well as well as any member of the public that would like to speak for any reason at all total of 30 minutes has been allocated each speaker will be
given three minutes the floor is yours name and address for the record good evening Maria and Siri w Avenue we still invite Sports Hunters with their deadly crossbow to slaughter dear in two parks I did in Oprah the hyperbole about why we're doing this needs
to stop here's some facts try to remember them for all of 2024 there were four dear versus Auto incidents for all of 2024 there were four dear youth andiz because of irreversible injury I know of
one who was impelled on a spiked fence Auto versus Auto at any stop sign intersection 43 Auto versus pedestrian 58 the deer are paying attention Auto versus bicycle 58
so there goes the traffic misconception it's time we stop that's all I have to say everything else you've heard before you've glanced off into space it's ridiculous why do I pick animals because because their voice is the smallest
and animals help people people get Comfort by service animals emotional support animals children often learn their first compassion with an animal we've got to stop the violence and the okay that it's you can kill Ascension being in
a brutal painful way I'm done thank you Jerry fosu 801 St Mary's so just a recap on the workforce training facility so as far as the building the timeline is to get the location going by this spring um on the first floor which is less work to be done um so we trying to get that going due to the fact that a lot of the time is ojl which is they're going to be with contractors they're going
to be working on real sit so that give that on hands experience and then within a year and a half to two years pretty much have the a stateof art Workshop lab so that we can at least give them an extra six months on the hand within the school building before they go and start joining out companies and U start working on that and they will be getting paid so the program basically I think is 1735 the first year and by the time they complete the program
it gets up to being 33 or $35 an hour so it is a paid training they're going through uh one thing also we're going to be bringing Services through the nonprofit SE the s for builders Inc which is going to be providing a shower base we would like to put a couple shower base within the building for know for people who don't have the necessary things they need and also we'll be providing lunches breakfast and lunch guys can pick up their lunch if they don't have when they go to the job
sites and different resources as far as in um resume right and interview and things like that all the things that comes along with just helping people get jobs and retaining jobs another thing is the program is not set up just for people to go apply for jobs the program is set up for people at the end of the day to be entrepreneurs so we have programs that show people how to become an entrepreneur how to become a independent private contractor how to get their banking together their paperworks together so this is what we're trying to build and bring to this ecosystem
uh we're not bringing a facility that's going to be here for a decade we're talking about generationals we're trying to keep this going for generations to come give the ability for our residents to be able to not just be able to put themselves back in the economy here in planfield but have the ability to be able to go anywhere in the United States in Jersey to be able to apply in that construction field it is one of biggest industries when we talk about infrastructure there's a lot of bills there's a lot of funding going even though we have a new Administration there's a lot of Grants coming out
I just received a grant today that a notice for a grant that's out so we're not going to turn our backs on those things we're going to look at every opportunity that we can get to raise the funds to give the facility that could give the type of training that we believe in uh this Mission has been 15 years in the Mak um to me basically on Friday we're walking through the building I just took a and I said this is basically identifies with two things a mustard seed and a CH Chinese bamboo if you know those two things a mustard
seed is a small seed for heavy Faith uh Chinese bamboo you have to have a lot of patience cuz once you plant that seed it doesn't come out right away takes several years for it to emerge and when it's emerg within months it shoots 10 times high so it's persistence um trust and just being you know I mean patient right thank you very much thank you sir I'm just here on
behalf of name and address for Susan Stephanie 738 South 2 Street and to say my mother and father wouldn't have liked me going against the rules and I understand the bad words that she was referring to or the I wasn't directing them at anyone I'm
just trying to tell the story and he was speaking about how our mental health she was speaking about she doesn't we black people don't even look for help you know with our mental health and uh because it's considered a stigma but I don't like that my grandchildren say they don't want to tell anybody that they have to endure bullying or whatever
and you know the result of that mentally emotionally physically what the damage the damage that it does okay and I would like somebody to just address it like in some way because grandparents I used to be able to go into the school anytime with my children I was a class classroom parent I was
very participatory in my children's education and I wish I could go in sometimes and just sit like I used to and observe or you know get a relationship with the children so they realize you know bullying isn't nice everybody wants to be happy everybody wants is there to learn I hope and uh I was
valid dictorian in my college class I'm not a dummy I'm not somebody who's just ignorant somebody who's just ghetto I'm someone who loves learning intended to be a teacher but had health condition health issues that prevented me from finishing at Columbia University Teachers College so but I still have a love for the school and the classroom
and children I mentored children I did all kinds of things you know as reference to to the school system and everything I you know forgive me for breaking the rules but I was just telling exactly what was said I wasn't being trying to be offensive thank you very
welcome good evening my name is good evening my name is Alia lellan 1282 worth drive now as a longtime resident of planfield 32 years um I live in the second ward and there is a property called the Peterson Farm and I'm a part of a community that is deeply concerned about the future of that property um in
2020 U my husband and I conducted an informal uh survey of our neighbors about 100 residents uh in the Environ of that property to find out what they want that property to become um we recently uh we recently uh provided the results of that survey to Mayor map and his administration and
recently we received a survey which the Administration has put forth and the Peterson Farm was a part of the choices for what that property should become um within the last few weeks we've been trying to uh educate the public as to what that choice was because there were no details given about what the Peterson Farm initiative was so um one of the things
that we'd like to see is that we preserve the local history of the farm create the capacity to serve a wide range of users position the farm to contribute daily to the community in a positive and measurable way and enrich the lives of the residents of Union County both present and future thank you thank you Nancy p 1129
M Avenue I really do wish and I hope that this um project that these two gentlemen were talking about and the economic development officer was talking about um com to fruition I'm just worried about the chaos in Washington and hope that that funding doesn't hurt any positive projects and I hope that a component of that project could be maybe reaching out to some of the seniors who may need projects done at their house and would be willing to hire
some of these young people to help them with small projects within their um households and it would be beneficial for the seniors in town that would need help um I also want to thank the administration and the counil for recognizing alpus I sat on the culture and Heritage commission with him for probably 40 years um and um he really did care about this town and is really distressing that the the Killians that
his family donated over 100 years ago are now gone um it's just it's just there are no words there there just are no words um the other thing is um there is so much chaos in Washington right now and somebody that was born and raised in in well was born in Playfield I don't know if he was raised in Playfield but on Wikipedia says that he was born in planfield probably at mberg hospital lost
his job um the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and so we do have to worry about what goes on down down south of us because people like this gentleman um Roi Chopra who was born here lost his job um during this chaos and and that Bureau that he was running whether it was good or bad what PE they was trying to protect um residents and consumers in the United States and he's now
out of a job thank you very much good evening um name Mr Guzman 12 129 New Street i' been a member of this community for like 42 years I lived in Playing Field I really lived in Playing Field lived the life so I've been looking at the infrastructure I Playfield within our
people the wandering ones we see gentrification we see wandering ones our people that we grew up with liveed with went to school with what is the future for our people that just wandering in the streets each and every day do we have a plan for them we have a plan for the city what about for our people I look at
a place they call a mental right on right on Seventh Street where they keep the people with mental issues it's a funny thing I'm not going to get into it but it's not a nice look for the city for the way they G treated for the way they wander you know so my question is
do we have a plan for these people are we going to leave them wander in the streets the one that's sit in just doing things that's all I have to say simple question thank you sou Carano 1284 East
Front Street uh mc20 2506 the renovation of potentially a building that's attached Andor detached um and the guidelines that may go with it is it a separate property deed that potentially could be created or is it the same deed for ownership um and then the question would be is there grant money you're going to
make available or taxpayer money to help renovate it to get a private income for the home owner I mean I get it I had aging parents as well but I'm not too sure about the details that you're giving away to the planning board and the variance board and anything anybody else again giving up power unless you control that body Mr ptis it's very
sad that the daughter on the day of burial had to come before and say basically my interpretation what is all your legacy will it be here 100 years from now I doubt it it's not protected you're not protecting what was Free Speech free speech is very uncomfortable my father couldn't stand it and he fought in three Wars anybody
desecrate the uh the flag Was An Enemy of the State that's free speech it is uncomfortable sometimes and ugly but it also makes people or peoples that did horrific things in the past think about it don't wash books don't burn books read create movies
that I didn't know there were black women in NASA help to create the Space Program don't stop the speech simply because it's uncomfortable I agree with the both people of the same person who came before this microphone and spoke both ways both times both times very
respectful but both times quoted or wanted to quote so thank you lastly I really would like a discussion or an answer on the deed ownership of renovating because all you're doing again is just increasing the population is there any easement will the easement be acceptable now to get to the back building I know we have some of
them currently but this allows much more to happen to the city thank you were you talking about accessory dwelling units there yes okay all right public anybody online okay so public hearing is now closed um just speak regarding accessory dolling units as far as I uh knew there's no um it's the same
ownership right there's no need restriction on Accessory dwelling units what the L use ordinance is saying is that before it the amendment went through it basically allowed only one primary structure on on R1 R2 R3 this will allow one primary structure and one accessory dwelling unit structure on it it will still have to follow all the bulk standards of R1
R2 R3 with the exception of allowing an additional structure any um size requirements minimums or maximums so it's a maximum of 800 square ft and in terms of height it's a maximum of 24 ft tall okay thank you council president can I
okay thank you so I want to thank you first for um restating what what you wanted to say you might not know this but we for many people here they're currently at work um these are working hours for some people and they're currently on you they're being paid as employees and so we have a job as I'm also the HR Director to make sure that in their place of work they're free from any discriminatory or harassing language and some of the comments may have
made implications about an ethnic group that people aren't subject to hear shouldn't be subject to hearing at in the place of their work so I wanted to clarify that for you second of all I was not here at the last meeting obviously but there were comments made that I wanted to be able to respond to it came to my attention that some some members of the council may be under the impression that the city is not um covering retirees in terms of their health benefits and so I
wanted to clarify that um and make sure that everybody has the facts the city absolutely covers retirees for health benefits uh there are state laws related to when you pay contributions and when you don't pay contributions in retirement that state law is called chapter 78 many of us are familiar with it and it St states that if you didn't have 20 years of service in the pension by June 28th 2011 you must make contributions into your health insurance in
your retirement those contributions range anywhere from like 5% of your pension to up to 35% of your of your pension amount um I I Believe In the case that was here last last month uh that person pays 500 out of 4,500 the rest is absorbed 100% by the the rest is absorbed by the taxpayer in the municipal budget chapter 78 came around to lighten the burden on the taxpayer to retiree and employee benefits as you
know that's one of our largest budget items it's about $20 million of our budget so I ran some numbers for you in case you were thinking that you're interested in covering for people covering benefits for people who don't meet the criteria as per chapter 78 last year our household per average household tax increase was 15 $55 had we not collected those contributions the average tax the average increase in taxes for
the for households would have been $46.3 which is an increase of $260 so as stewards obviously of the city's um Judiciary responsibilities I would say that you know adding $260 to the average home is likely not what what you intend to do however when we introduce the budget to you obviously that is your prerogative to put that forward if I could also council president with regard to statements
that were made last week um you know when council members or any member of this Administration uh accepts the position we we place our hand most of us on the Bible and we take an oath and by taking that oath we now have a fiduciary responsibility to the city and part of that fiduciary responsibility is that when we receive information um we have an obligation
to determine whether or not that information is accurate before issuing statements that could potentially hurt the city as we move forward some council members were very diligent when they receiv received this information to come forward and ask questions of of my office and the business administrator others did not I can encourge all council members when receiving information from interest groups uh that have uh an interest that may not align with the cities that they at
least seek the information before making public statements thank you council president Mr President yes I would like to make comments on a couple things I believe that both the corporation councel and the ba um provided some very good information pertaining to health benefits and as well as advice to members of the governing body about the fiduciary responsibility of
us as elected officials it was mentioned concerning one of the items on the res on the agenda um it was an ordinance pertaining to a study of an in need of Redevelopment study for Mortal Avenue and it was represented to you that the Greenbrook Flood Control Commission project which
is well over 50 years old and I once was a commission on that board and I believe that we now have a couple of Representatives on that greenbook Flood Control Commission I believe John Louise is one of them and I believe or dney if I am not correct please let me know but what was said is that the Greenbrook Flood Control Commission is going to be building
levies along the Greenbrook and that that would push water into the city of planfield that is the kind of information that should not be put out into the public domain because it is absolutely and totally false the greenbook Flood Control Commission is a project that is funded by the Army Corps of Engineers it gets us funded on an annual basis by an appropriation
in the federal um budget and the purpose of the commission is to alleviate flooding along the Green Brook for all of the municipalities that are on the Green Brook it is not to exacerbate the situation but it is to allev at and once that project is completed or once it makes its way up
the Eastern side of the Greenbrook it would prevent water that currently comes from the Greenbrook creating flooding in plan field and Scotch Plaines and Fanwood it would alleviate the flooding that we now experience so it wouldn't be pushed water as a result of levies being built into plain field just imagine
um a project that would be aimed or designed in that manner there would be a huge public outcry the Professional Engineers that are all involved would not allow that to happen so the opposite is correct that project would alleviate the flooding that we now experience from the Western end of our city to the Eastern end and Beyond and I can't
wait to see it make its way up the Eastern end of the Greenbrook because it is so necessary people who live in the first W on on Netherwood Avenue on Leland Avenue and in these other parts of our city they experienc significant flooding as a result of the water that comes from the greenbook and so the greenbook Flood Control
Commission once the project is completed it would alleviate flooding in the entire city of planfield I wanted to make that point very clear um as far as the bells are concerned and Grace Church it saddens me that we're even having this conversation but I was in the process a couple weeks ago when it came to my attention
that Jess Felman who is still sitting here was trying over the course of several months to gain access to Grace Church to maintain the bells as he did for a number of years that that access was being denied and and I met with our director of Economic Development and I told her I needed
her to arrange a meeting with the developer myself and with Jess pelman and as well as Jim spear for the purpose of making sure that they have access in order to maintain those bells and in that process director Fields it was disclosed to her by an agent of the developer that
the dicese removed and sold the BTS unbeknownst to anyone and so when we were informed about that I made sure I communicated that information to to Jim Spear and to Jess Felman who were the ones you know wanting to gain access in order to maintain those bells and that happened and
on the eve of that the dorer alitus who he and his family were the doners of those bells he passed away so no time would have been a good time for the dases to treat the city of PL feel the way that it did or to treat the P family the way that it did it was just incredible hearing that news and to have it
on the eve of you know the burial of Al pittis was very sad and so as mayor of this city and the fact that the project is still in progress we will do everything that we can to make sure that there is some resolution to this issue that is
favorable to the family the pest family we discovered today that the bells were sold to what one on the surface would think is another religious institution but we found out that it is not it's like an auction house for want of a better word and so we're very sad that the dases of the state of New Jersey the Episcopal dases and I have been a member of an Episcopal Church
for many years ever since I moved to planfield in 1979 and to have this happen to the city and to the family leaves us lost for words but this is not the end we will continue and I will make sure that we will do everything that we can as a city to let the dases know let the
developer know that things cannot move forward as intended without there being some measure of justice and that's all I have to say at this time thank you all right motion to adjourn all in favor say I all right me a good jar thank
you e