All right. Good evening everybody. Thanks for joining us. It is June 23rd, 2025. This is a meeting of the mayor and council of Princeton, New Jersey. Madame Clerk, could we have the meeting statement, please? Notice of this meeting was provided in
accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and state regulations governing public meetings, including the time, date, and location of the meeting and clear and concise instructions to the public for accessing the meeting and making comments. In addition, the agenda and all related
materials were posted electronically and made available to the public on Princeton's meeting portal in advance of the meeting. Thank you very much. Michelle's going to do the land acknowledgement tonight. We gathered today on the land of the Lenning Lonape. As members of the Princeton community,
we aspire to show appreciation, respect, and concern for all peoples in our environment. We honor the Lape and other indigenous caretakers of these lands and waters, the elders who lived here before, the indigenous today, and the generations to come. Thank you,
Michelle. We're going to do roll call in one second, but just uh Council President Saxs has a flat tire. She'll be a little late. Uh, but if you do the roll call. Thanks. Sure. Mr. McDonald here. Miss Peron Lamrose here. Mr. Cohen
is here. Miss Saxs will be on her way. Miss Braa here. Mr. Nulan here. Mayor Freda here. Okay. If you'd like to and able to stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance,
that would be great. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
Okay. Next up, we have three sets of three sets of minutes um to be approved if somebody wants to move those in block or Leticia is moving all three. Leighton is seconding them. Any questions, comments on any of these.
All in favor then, please say I. I. I. Thank you very much. Announcements and reports. Brian, I think you're gonna lead us off. Sure. Thank you, mayor. Uh, memory is a tricky thing. This council endeavors to govern in ways that make the future
better, brighter, and stronger while remembering, respecting, and understanding our past, what was good and what wasn't. Tonight, I want to remember one very good person who always sought to make our community better. All of us residents of Princeton stand on
the shoulders of giants, volunteers, community leaders, business leaders, philanthropists, and public servants who came before us. I would like to offer some brief words about a man who filled all of these roles, former township commit committee man and mayor Jack
Wallace. On May 1st, Jack passed away at the age of 92 peacefully and surrounded by family at his Princeton home. For me, he was a role model, a mentor, and a friend. A Princeton resident for almost his entire life. Few have given as much
to our community as Jack did. Born in Trenton in 1933, Jack grew up in Princeton, attended the Nassau Street School, Princeton Country Day, and Hodkus before graduating from Princeton University in 1955 as a member of the
Navy ROC program. After graduation, he served in the Navy from 1955 to 1958 as a flag lieutenant and aid to the vice admiral in command of the Atlantic Amphibious Fleet. Jack was a banker who after early years
on Wall Street joined First National Bank of Trenton, a predecessor of New Jersey National Bank and eventually Core States. While Jack loved advising and lending to businesses to help them grow, he took special pride in the town of Princeton and his vibrancy.
J touched and forever changed our community in countless ways. His service as a township committee member and mayor among them. In 1962, at the age of 28, Jack was appointed to the planning board where he eventually served as vice
chair. In 1966, he was elected to township committee and served from 1967 to 1972. And like his father, he also served as mayor in 1969, 1970, and again in 1972.
Jack was first elected as a Republican in township committee in November of 1966. He campaigned on a platform of responsive and responsible government. He focused on issues like land use, open space, conservation, traffic safety, and
burough township consolidation, for which he was a strong proponent. In 1969, when first elected as mayor at age 35, he was committed to fostering a nonpartisan approach to township problems. According to those who knew
him, Jack always insisted on replying personally to letters addressed to him rather than delegating the reply to staff. No matter what the comments, suggestions, or complaints were, Jack always felt they were valid and deserved attention. Among his first actions as mayor, he
appointed a five member civil rights commission, and soon thereafter, he appointed a citizens advisory committee on housing to focus on affordability and low and moderate income housing in the township. After two terms as mayor, Jack added to the list of accomplishments by
creating a new traffic safety department and undertaking work on a burough township bike path and sidewalk master plan. When Jack returned as mayor a year later in 1972 in his final year on township committee, he advocated for a
mayor directly elected by voters and for nonpartisan elections. His priorities that year included housing, waste management, recycling, and addressing the increased use of drugs in the community, and once again, consolidation.
In April of 1972, Jack announced that he would not seek re-election so that he could spend more time with his wife, Happy, and with his three school-aged children, John, Chris, and Margie. While he would have to wait four more decades for consolidation to become a reality,
Jack had collaborated, facilitated, accomplished, and brought his beloved Princeton forward. Without question, our Princeton is better because of his time as a public servant. After completing his time on township committee, Jack continued and deepened his commitment to
the community through his service on many local boards, including Princeton Day School, McCarter Theater, the Princeton Area Community Foundation, the Princeton Senior Resource Center, Trinity Counseling, the University Medical Center, and the Watershed Institute. I am grateful for the life of
Jack Wallace, and for his almost 70 years of exemplary and sustained service to our community. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. Okay. Um, announcements and reports from council members Leon. Thank you, Mayor.
Yes. I would like to uh let the community know and greater Princeton know that on Saturday, June 28th between 9 and 12:00 at the Arts Council of Princeton, the Witherspoon Jackson Neighborhood Association,
uh we'll have a meeting and the meeting will cover the following items. We will have a presentation by our own uh beloved Jim PCEL of the engineering department who will talk about neighborhood trails and tree canopy. We will also have a presentation from Josh
Zinder and his team on the revisioning of 254 Witherspoon Street that will include a laundromat. There will also be updates from the Witherspoon Jackson Development Corporation, the Paul Robson House, the Witherspoon Jackson Historical and Cultural Society, and
also a review of joint efforts uh agenda for August of this year. Thank you. Thank you, Leon. Other council Michelle, just wanted to thank everyone who was involved in making Clovia happen. Uh unfortunately, the weather didn't
cooperate with us. We were really worried about the heat and un instead we got a thunderstorm. Uh but for the hour or so uh we you know we gathered uh it was really a great first effort and I just wanted to thank sustainable Princeton uh Christine and her team. Uh
I want to thank the wreck department for putting together decorating contest. uh the prince uh the pedestrian and bike advisory committee uh for the great idea to put this together and then the arts council Adam Melissa and others on the team. So it was a great cooperative
effort between the town and several of our part community partners. Um so I hope to see more of that. Uh and I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you Michelle. Any other council announcements or reports? Just two quick items on the agenda. There's two
resolutions in the consent agenda that will be put that will handle under the regular resolution section. Uh that's resolution 222 and resolution 227. Just saying that now so everybody helps me remember when we get to that point that I do not overlook those.
Uh okay. I think next up is the police department report. Captain, thank you. Mayor and Council, the Princeton Police Department Chief's monthly report for April is highlighted by several community policing interactions. However, the one I specifically wanted
to bring up this evening is our Wheels Rodeo event uh which continues to be an incredibly engaging event focused on promoting bicycle safety and reinforcing roadway safety for our younger riders. It's events like this that play a vital
role in our ongoing efforts to reduce bicycle related injuries as well as foster a culture of safety and respect for our roadways. While on the topic of roadway safety, we also wanted to highlight a traffic safety campaign that we launched earlier
uh this month in June. And this effort is focused on eliminating bicycle riding on sidewalks in the prohibited areas around town in our central business district. Officers from the police department have been on daily assigned to conduct education and enforcement in these areas. We also made efforts to
include educational messages on our department social media platforms and also by placement of electronic variable message boards and strategically placed throughout our CBD. Moreover, in the interest of traffic safety, our traffic safety bureau is coordinating with our
Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey and putting together a community training and educational seminar which will be occurring in August, mid August. So, keep an eye out for uh messages and updates on our police department social media. It's an excellent opportunity for pedestrians and bicyclists to learn more
about roadway safety and being a vulnerable road user. So with that, uh, mayor and council, I'll take any questions you might have about the April report or anything police related. Thank you. Any questions, Captain? Okay. Tremendous. Thank you, mayor. If I
may, uh, I Captain Sulliv certainly wouldn't mention this, but I just wanted to mention uh, he just graduated from the FBI Academy, which is, uh, not only prestigious, but uh, it's not easy. So, I just wanted to congratulate him on that. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to attend the
academy and I thought it was an amazing experience and I'm happy to be back. My wife is definitely happy I'm back. So, uh it's a long 10 weeks so she was ready to drive down there to pick me up but I'm glad to be back. Thank you again. Thank you. All right. Next up is the
audit report presentation and I think that's coming over Zoom. Sorry, I'm watching the screen and our CFO and our auditor are getting put from the outside of Zoom to be a panelist. Sorry. Hey Sandy.
All right. Hey, Sandy, you're muted. It looks like Did we Hey, Adam, if we move Sandy Webb up. Oh yeah. Hi. Thank you, Mayor. Um I believe that Dave Ganon is on as well and he's going to do the
presentation of the uh of the audit. Okay. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Evening. Uh so another successful year of the finances of the municipality. I'd
like to recognize the um I always like to recognize the employees of the municipality. We received excellent cooperation uh which makes the order process go smoother. Uh we've issued an unmodified audit opinion. Uh that means that we take no exception no exceptions to any
of the accounting practices that Princeton is following and we found that Princeton complies with the reporting requirements um as promagated by the division of government services. Uh we also found the overall financial records of the municipality in excellent condition. Uh and Miss Webb and her her
staff in the finance office do an excellent job. Uh the municipality is in healthy financial position. Uh the current fund fund balance at the end of 2024 was $25.3 million which was an increase of $3.3 million from the prior year.
Uh also, you know, when in the 24 budget, the munow used uh almost $1 million to balance its budget. Uh however, there were several revenues that allowed the municipality to build back that surplus amount, $5.8 $20 million from appropriation reserves from
the prior year lapsing, $2.7 million of tax revenues that exceeded the anticipated budget, uh, as well as several other miscellaneous revenues that exceeded the budget, most notably sewer rents, uh, exceeded $1.6 million to 8.1 million and interest on
investments also exceeded its budget by $1.6 million at 2.2 million. affordable housing utility ended fund balance at the end of the year of $256,000, but it also had $2.4 million of program reserves. The parking utility fund uh
had $3.6 million of fund balance, which was unchanged from the prior year. However, it's important to note uh the parking utility continued to contribute $1.8 million to the current fund operations. the 2024 tax collection rate was 99%
uh and it's been at or above 99% for many many years. Uh from a debt perspective, your net debt at the end of 2024 was $25 million. It's important when we talk about net debt, you understand that it's issued as
well as authorized but not issued. Uh so your net debt was uh an increase from the prior year. So net debt was 2.04 04% of equalized valuation, an increase of 1 an increase from last year of 1.36%.
Uh, as you know, there was several um capital projects authorized in 2024 totaling $89 million. Uh, however, the 2.04% is still well below the 3.5% limit. That's um limit by statutory regulations.
and your remaining borrowing power is $147 million. In addition to the financial statement audit, we were also required to perform a state single audit over the green and trust loans as well as the I bank funds. Uh that's a separate audit that we look at compliance with grant regulations and
we've issued a modified opinion on compliance. Now over the over the month of our of our audit, we do perform tests of various internal controls and compliance and we did not find any exceptions or violations of statute that would require corrective action.
Any other any questions the council may have? I'd be more than happy to answer them. David, thank you very much. I I just want to make a comment that it's uh it's great to hear again that there's no no negative comments or no comments at all uh in the audit. I doubt that
there's I don't think the vast majority of communities in the uh in the state or in the country can probably say that. But anyway, any council Michelle? That's terrific. I appreciate the um the summary. Just some of us are closer to
the numbers than others. And I think for the community and and our colleagues, it would be um really uh advisable to include that. uh it's not in the agenda packet just just so that we see the audit. I think that it should be a
public um you it should be it should have been in the packet. That's all I'm going to say. So I'd like to um commend you once again, Sandy. You do a great job. Um but I would like to be able to have the numbers in front of all of us um so that
we can all you know take a look and uh you know have questions. It's a little hard uh when those numbers are just um presented this way. Thank you. Okay, other questions or comments?
Leon, you know, as someone who's not an accountant and not a big- time numbers person, it's always good to hear. Uh I think the public would appreciate that we have a very well-run business municipality and uh appreciate the people who help us achieve that
objective. So Sandy and to your team, thank you very much. And you know, everybody doesn't have, you know, a degree in in in bookkeeping and everything. So it's is is it's good to know that we are a well-run town for everyone in the public to understand that.
Thank you. Sandy as CFO, do you have any comments or anything that you want to point out in addition to David's? No, I would just say thank you to uh to the members of council that um thanked us for the job that we do. Um, we're always really excited each year when we do get
a clean audit. You know, it's something that we certainly strive for and I apologize that it was not included in the packet, but I will send it out first thing tomorrow. Thank you. All right. No other comments. Then we have a resolution which is
25-214 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton accepting the 2024 audit and group affidavit. David's moving that. Is there a second? Michelle's got the second. Any questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. I. I. I.
Okay. Next up, presentation of the Community Park South concept plan. Thank you. Um I just first of all, I want to thank the members of the rec commission that are here in person and on Zoom tonight for coming out to support this. And um in our recck
department uh we are working really hard with the consultant and the consultant um we'll show you tonight. It's not a huge substantive change but our prior consultant we were pretty insistent not to put anything that would um preclude
having to take down trees and apparently those would have taken down trees and the original concept plan. So, uh, that has created a shift in, um, the various amenities, uh, which they're going to show us. But I do want to mention, too, that we're working really hard at
finding ways to raise money. Um, right now, we know it's a $25 million project. We've asked that it be done in three phases over time, but there's state funding, there's county funding, forget anything federal, but there's grant
opportunities out there. But we're also looking at setting up a 501c3 something like we did with the pool when we raised money. Um maybe like a community friends of community park south. Uh there are individuals that are interested in making substantial
contributions. So hopefully we can identify various amenities costs and put um people and state funding and grants together with those amenities. So um I thank you for being here tonight and I'll turn it over. Thanks.
Uh, thank you, Councilwoman Pon Lamrose. And I'd just like to add that um, you know, what we're looking at tonight is really just an the, as Councilwoman said, an, you know, some minor adjustments to that concept. Um, we're still at the 30,000 ft view. Uh as as uh
councilwoman mentioned, there's going to be uh time down the road to uh to look at how we value engineer this uh you know, look at how we phase this and be very conscious of those budgetary constraints and concerns that I know we
all have. Um tonight is not the time when we're digging into those issues. This is simply an update. uh what you will be presented here in a moment has also been shared with the uh project steering committee uh which consists of
members of municipal staff council members uh the principal public schools as well as the environmental commission they uh viewed this proposal several weeks ago was received favorably and so uh next steps were here with the project team and uh I'd like to introduce uh to
my right here is Jared Moran the project manager with Bowman Consult uh consulting and he'll uh introduce the rest of his team and uh take it from there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Evan. Uh good evening, mayor and council. Uh my name
is Jared Moran. As Evan said, I am a principal at Bowman Consulting Group. Uh we're here tonight, as mentioned, to present to you the master plan updates. Uh let me second just get this slide thing going.
Okay. So um so yeah I'm a project manager with uh who's who's running the community park south project. Uh before you you have the project team. This is just a quick look at the structure of our project team noting key uh
individuals and their responsibilities. Here's the uh project timeline. So, just wanted to kind of give you a brief uh status update of where we are, where we came from, and then I'm going to pass it off to
uh to uh Mick Humes and Matt Victor, who who I have here with me tonight. They have been instrumental in preparing the updates for the master plan. Um as you could see on the timeline here, we
started this project early 2025. We were tasked with updating the master plan which was prepared uh under a separate contract. Uh we've take that master plan. We had a uh our first stakeholder meeting where we discussed
the project the existing uh master plan and the project with the stakeholder. Had good discussion, received feedback. We took that pro um the the the feedback and we worked with recreation and engineering through multiple meetings,
multiple iterations of the master plan uh and we came up with what you're going to see tonight uh for the the um master plan. We took this back to the stakeholder meeting uh presented it to them, got positive, favorable feedback
and uh that's you know where where we are right now moving forward. Uh after tonight's meeting, we plan to uh go full steam into the construction documents and phasing portion of the
project uh with a our 30% set looking to target mid to end of September w with numbers right so at that point we'll be able to uh you know get into the phasing as mentioned where the end goal is um
you know value engineer and and prepare three separate uh bid documents for phase one, two, three, all uh trying to be as as equal um uh in the construction costs between the three.
So, with that, I'm going to pass it off to Mick uh and he's going to walk you through the master plan updates. Hello. Hello. I'm Mick Humes. I'm from Mayhem Regal Associates uh and I'm the uh lead landscape designer on this project picking up from where the master
plan uh left off in 2023. Uh shown here on the screen, this is what the master plan looked like in 2023. Uh and this is really the basis of where we started our exploration and advancement of the concept design. Um taking into consideration all the work that have been put into this master plan
to date and really trying to advance it forward from here. taking into consideration elements of connectivity to the adjacent neighborhoods, offsets from public streets and adjacent uses, the school, the neighborhoods, um and uh certainly the connections to the
adjacent uh pool and parking lots. Uh along with this, one of the the key things that we were tasked with was really to take a look at this master plan and understand what the impacts were the existing site features uh and to optimize those opportunities within the overall project. One of those big things was really looking at the trees,
existing tree infrastructure on the project and finding ways to creatively keep all of this program that's uh packed into this uh park while trying to keep as much of that existing canopy coverage as we possibly could. Um there's a bunch of other constraints and opportunities that we looked into as well as uh the geology of the site, the
topography of the site, uh as well as sun shade studies uh looking at the orientation of the athletic fields and really trying to optimize the site for the uses that it's intended for. We took all this program uh and and analysis uh and and we baked it back
together to really look at how we can uh keep this program here, keep the existing tree infrastructure uh provide additional ADA access to the site uh as well as to try to consolidate some of the uses and orientation and connectivity of certain key elements within the overall project. So uh when
we came back and we looked at this, we really wanted to centralize some of the program that's within the space. This uh the T that's labeled on the screen is that central pavilion uh with restroom facility. We really looked at this as being one of the hearts of this overall park, the place where people are going to congregate at when they're going back
and forth between all these various uses, whether that be tennis or the athletic fields, soccer, uh tournaments, the um uh the sand volleyball courts, the playgrounds, the dog parks. We wanted to create a centralized location that was convenient to access the
adjacent neighborhoods as well as the parking lots. You're also going to see uh towards the lower part of this screen um is where we were trying to pull these uses away from uh kind of being scattered throughout the site. In the previous master plan, there was kind of a pocket for a fitness center, pocket for a playground, um the dog parks, as
well as some shading opportunities. Um we really tried to reorient this to really maximize the overall space that's allocated for the sporting uh fields as well as the flexible lawn space. Flexible lawn space was one of the important things that we came back to look at to recognize that this is a community park. It's not just an
athletic facility. Um, so you're going to see where the the C and the M and the N are at that this is really a a flexible space for the residents of this community to come and utilize, whether that's for sporting or for public gatherings. Um, but trying to keep that space open uh and flexible in nature um
so that you have the opportunity to use it however you see fit. Um we kept uh in zone A there are uh the remaining uh 12 tennis courts. To the north of zone A you're going to see the I designation. That's where we've allocated the platform tennis or
relocation of the platform tennis. There's going to be remaining uh tennis practice ball as well as six uh pickle ball courts um that are offset from the highway and also were moved to take into consideration the fact that we wanted to keep that existing tree canopy coverage
um and buffer along um the road that's up there. And with that, um I'm going to open it because I know I have a limited amount of time. I'll open it for uh questions and answers on any of the changes that were uh presented. Um,
let me just say right off the bat, that's tremendous only having a few slides and not killing us with 30 slides. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, in all seriousness, open to David. Yeah, I just want to comment that I feel like the plan is
much improved. um you know, the way that the the fields were broken up with a rotated soccer field before, it just wasn't clear how to use the open space for many of the uses that um our
community really values at the park. So, you know, I think you did a great job of fitting everything in that needs to fit in, but in a way that is and then preserving the trees is obviously a very important um aspect for the community.
So, well done. Thank you, Lisa. Yeah, this uh I I like everything that I'm seeing that's included here. And uh the only thing that it doesn't stand out to me, but perhaps I'm just not seeing
it from uh the way it is looking on on this plan is where uh families are going to be able to gather. Is that the the shade structures? Are there going to be tables? Uh where because right now there
are some spaces in the current uh existing facility for families to gather. And I I would if you could explain where where that's going to be possible. Yes, absolutely. Um there are multiple uh stations throughout the entire park that are community gathering
spaces. So the first and uh predominant one would be where the tea is located. Uh this is a pretty large shade pavilion with a restroom structure uh as well as a generous amount of paving and tables and chairs. This would be where that uh primary location would be for gathering. But there's also a number of smaller
locations located around the site. Um, if you're looking at uh the left side of the page where there's an O um where you'll see multiple O's, those are either uh shade structures or covered areas where um families can gather uh can get shade and reprieve for the activities that are happening in those
zones. Each one of the zones that we created, whether that's for the playground zone, the fitness zone, the dog parks, we try to incorporate shade and gathering spaces that are paved in those areas so that it's comfortable and usable, especially with a lot of the heat waves that we're experiencing. Um,
but that carries all the way throughout the site. So, you'll see those designations, the O designation, and many locations. I want to say there's probably seven or eight locations throughout the entire park that have been incorporated. That's wonderful to hear. Thank you. Other questions or comments?
Yeah. Um yeah, I I agree. It's um an improvement um over what was a good plan already. Um and we glad to see we have our most um fervent pickle ball advocate
in the audience and uh so I hope this passes muster. Um I'm also wondering um you know what is really essential for this is not actually anything that's on the picture here but but the um infrastructure underneath the the pipes
um and the green infrastructure the trees and I'm just wondering what the time frame for those elements are and how long um it will take to um integrate those into the rest of the plan. Um
so thanks. Yeah, I one of the one of the points that I wanted to to touch on when Mick was talking about the shade structures was that uh you know there there is the plan for um you know proposed tree plantings, right? But that initially for the first you know 10 to
20 years you're not going to get that shade that substantive shade which is uh you know one of the reasons for the the permanent structures to give you shade. as far as the green infrastructure um you know we're right now with this
this plan next step is going into uh our CDs. So that's where we we started doing some initial um you know analysis for the storm right but the intention is to you could see um uh letter X so the
green infrastructure will be you know uh scattered throughout the site right so there'll be uh multiple bio retention rain gardens and our intention is to incorporate those into as a site feature as opposed to an afterthought kind of in
the background Um so that that that's next step is is but but the green infrastructure will be uh incorporated into the overall plan. Yep. Is there any way to um that's great. Um with the trees uh is there any way to
plant start with slightly larger trees we don't have to wait such a long time. Absolutely. It might be more expensive but right that'll be worked into I mean that that's noted. But I mean that'll be something that we can um you know uh
obser you know identify during the our value engineering once we you know get through our 30% we get the numbers back that's something that we can and potentially I don't know Mick if you have anything to add to that um you know maybe we can um you know one of the nice
things is is providing uh multiple sizes for trees so maybe there's certain you know areas areas that we can we can provide some larger trees. Final question. The dog parks look a little smaller. Thank God.
They were way too big in the original plan. I mean, they really were. Even our animal control officer was very concerned about the size of them in the original plan. Michelle, they're the same as the one that we had before. They're the same. Do you want to speak just to I mean, they are roughly the same size. The large
large dog park, correct me if I'm wrong, is is roughly the same size as what the concept the previous concept plan called for. Um but there is some statistical uh some numbers that um you know square footage per you know per dog that you uh
that that just the question is very simple. These are smaller than they're smaller than existing how much smaller roughly I don't I don't believe that we have um those square footage takeoffs but we can certainly uh provide those to
council. Okay. is just mayor, you know, the mayor's comments notwithstanding, who I don't think brings his dogs to the dog park. Um I the the understanding from my colleague on council was that the dog park areas were going to be the
same. And I'm not saying they have to be, but in the interest of transparency, um, to just find out that they have been dramatically diminished without our, um, the Princeton Dog Alliance or those of us who are advocates for dog parks being
consulted um, is unfortunate. Mia, there the dog the large dog park is exactly the same as what we approved before and it's it's minimally less than what it was originally. I'm not sure about the smaller dog park, but can you we can
share the statistics as far as I mean it's you know it's it's large. I mean so I'm Are you both saying the same thing because you're saying you're not sure and that it is smaller and Michelle's saying it's not smaller. So well for the it's smaller than today but that's the
same as what we had already approved. But tonight is a concept and we're not really going into the details are we? Yeah I mean if and I'm asking about this detail specifically. Yeah, we have the numbers. We don't have here. Yeah, that's just to clarify. Yeah, we can we can provide the numbers. We don't have them in front of us right now if you're
looking for square foot square footage comparison. Okay. Yeah. And and as you can see um you know there there are flexibility in the concept that we have now moving into when we when we start hardlining this that's something that we can work out.
Let's just make sure that our animal control officer is part of the discussion, right? Right. I mean the the one expert we have on staff should be included in that discussion. He might already be. I don't know. Anyway, that's a good idea. Yeah. What about and and not to start
another discussion, but anywhere in this concept plan, is there field lighting of any sort contemplated or is that being looked at as a an option or? Currently, it the uh the concept as you see it allows for sport lighting to be
included in in any and all the areas that we choose. We're not at the point now of ruling it in or out. Uh certainly we do have some existing sport lighting on our tennis courts and uh the intent is I believe to continue with sport lighting in certain areas, but that
needs to be determined exactly what those areas because there will be budgetary uh concerns uh obviously related to that. But right now that this doesn't rule either in or out uh sport lighting on any of the fields areas that you see. Okay. But as you go along with
your construction documents, you'll have options for lighting of one field, two fields, 30 fields. You'll have options on numerous things, right? Because I think at the end of the day, one discussion the council's hoping to have at some point in the near future is looking at our overall capital plan for
several years to come. And obviously we have to look at this project and a number of other projects. But having the more information as we get along and the more options and what they cost, it makes it easier to figure out. I mean like Mia's question about trees, you can plant any number of larger trees.
They're more likely to die and they cost a lot more money. So then it's just what's the balance. But yeah, but I know way too early to to get you too detailed because it's still a concept. Um, one, you know, one comment though is that, um, we have asked that, um, everything
be wired underground. So even if the lighting isn't done immediately, that there's always the infrastructure there to add to add plumbing, water, electric um, while you're doing it, so you don't have to rip up fields uh, in order to add things later.
And I don't want to belabor the point, but our animal control officer was involved from the beginning. And you know, if he has changed his mind about sizes, I would be surprised because in general with dog parks, the more space you have between dogs and the more area
they have to not run into one another, the safer it is. And I I remember him saying that he appreciated that the dogs had a lot of space without. So that said, I do think that we have got to get the last word in some some room to to play with. Um but this is something that
um advocates in the community uh wanted for for several decades and were are very very happy to have it. And um you know I think they are stakeholders who who um deserve to have a an ongoing seat at the
table and what happens and not find at the last minute that somehow they're what they've worked very hard for has been minimized or constrained. So again, it's a concept plan, not a final plan. Leon. Yeah. You know, I was part of the steering committee and I just want to congratulate you for listening very
carefully and coming up with something that works. And to be honest, whether you're a dog lover, a person who wants to take a walk, or someone who just wants to watch activities in athletics, I think this satisfies the interests of all people who want to go to the park.
And let's remember, it's a community park. You know, it's not an athletic park. It's not a dog park. It's a community park and I think this does a really good job of building community. Thank you. Thanks. Any other questions
or comments? No. Anything else that you wanted to point out or stress or seems anything from your No, I think that's it from our end. Thank you. Okay. I'm sorry. I did have one other question on on the schedule where it says phased construction
program. That means phased construction document program or you're not there's actually no construction contemplated in the next couple months. No, correct. That's uh the Sorry about that. Uh yeah, that that's the phasing, right? So that's that's where we're going to we're going to get into our construction and start thinking
about the phasing, how it works, constructibility, and incorporate the, you know, overall construction costs. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just I just wanted to be I was pretty sure that's what it meant, but I wanted to This is the place to ask the questions. All right, we're all good. Thank you. Thank you very
much. Thanks for the short presentation. Very good presentation. Thank you. Good job. All right, next up and thanks to everybody from the rec board for being here. Appreciate your time. All right, next up is public comments for items not on the agenda. If anybody in the
audience or on Zoom wants to talk about something that's not on the agenda, you could come up to the podium, introduce yourself, name and address, and you have three minutes to chat about whatever. All right. I don't see anybody here in the room, and I can't see the screen at
the moment. Adam, can you let me know if there's anybody on Zoom that has a hand up? I can't see the screen. Uh, yes. Can you hear me? Yes, we we can. So, I'm at a disadvantage, but if you could introduce yourself, uh, that'd be great. Absolutely. Uh, good evening,
council members. My name is Asma Elhuni. Uh, I am an immigrant. I am an Arab Muslim woman. Uh, my degree is in political science and I am with Resistencia who mostly serves immigrants in Princeton and the surrounding areas.
We fight for the dignity and protection of immigrants right here in Princeton and in Mercer County. I am here to speak about why it's important to pass the Princeton Immigration Trust Act. Uh I want to speak to you tonight from two places from my personal experience and
from my political science expertise. Uh personally, I know how it feels to be profiled. I know what it's like to be profiled and be treated with suspicion because I was detained by border patrol in another state. Not because I did anything wrong, but because I am a
Muslim woman who they thought could be undocumented and eventually let me go. And this is on camera. Um, and you could see this on camera where they say she's probably a citizen because he can't detect an accent on me. And you could see a ACLU's story on me about that. Um,
and I know when someone says, "Don't worry, we protect immigrants here at Princeton," it doesn't make the fear go away. Uh, because they're just words. Uh, and words, as I have learned both in my life and in my studies, are not what
protect people. Uh, policies are. So, every political science student learns this in their very first semester that equity and practices live in policy. So, if you want to protect people, you can't leave it to individual promises. You can't leave it to good intentions
because good intentions can disappear. Leaders can change. Priorities can change and when they do, we leave our vulnerable communities are the first p people that lose protection. Right? So as public servants, each and every single one of you are here to serve your
constituents. That means responding to what your communities need, not what each and every one of you want. So, it's important we live into this role that we were voted in to do, which is to serve. And that's why policy matters. That's why the Immigration Trust Act is
necessary. I work with immigrant families here in Princeton who live in daily fear. They avoid calling the police. They avoid hospitals. They avoid asking for help. Not because, again, they've done anything wrong, but because they don't know if they can trust this system. So, if you want to build trust,
if you want to do that, you have to have proof. So, personally, I believe this resolution doesn't go far enough. I want Princeton to pass a full immigration trust act locally so that all agencies, all city members in Princeton are required to protect immigrants. So, we
we can't just have a handshake. We want these things codified uh in law in safety for our community members. So, 13 other cities in this this the state of New Jersey have already passed ITA resolutions. Princeton should not be
behind. If anything, Princeton should be leading. So, I'm asking you all to do the right thing. Please don't leave our safety and the safety of our community members by chance or promises. Please pass the Immigration Trust Act. Thank
you. Thank you, Adam. Who was next? Can I I have a question, please. Okay. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, thank you so much. Uh, my name is Brooke
McLaren. I'm at 315 Constitution Circle in North Brunswick. Um, and I'm with the Central New Jersey DSA, Democratic Socialist of America. I've been a lifelong New Jersey resident and I love New Jersey in part because
uh, we definitely can have very many uh, diverse and vibrant communities. As I've become an adult, I live very close to Princeton. I very I have several close friends in Princeton and I very much um tried to be very active in the community. I'm here because I'm in
support of the immigrant trust act resolution, but I think it's critical that Princeton um passed locally and support at a statewide level. The reason it's so critical um I think part of it is just the nature of the community. Princeton is a very um Princeton is a
very vibrant city. There's a lot of um different elements, different cultures at play here and we create something beautiful. Different groups like mine have identified that there's many vulnerable um people in the Princeton area who are
um very scared about how they are being treated, how they could be treated, um whether their children are safe to go to school, whether they can go to hospitals, whether they're safe to go to work. Um, and I think you'll see that
um, while many people are familiar with a lot of the tension that people in the community are feeling regarding tariffs and other issues, personal safety and personal freedom is a constant reminder or constant concern for several people
as well. Um, I think there's obviously many high-profile incidences that you council uh the council members and the general public are aware of, but what people may not be seeing is um I'm on several groups that we talk about. Hey,
there's a concern that um someone's being harassed over here. There's a concern that people are about to be um addressed over here. There is a definite need. This is a um civil society bill. Um the Immigrant Trust Act resolution
definitely could go further, but we um value our community members and we need to support them with hard policies. Um obviously with recent changes in federal protection in federal actions, we need
to address our concerns locally and I would just say please please pass the immigrant uh trust resolution act. Um thank you for your time. Thank you, Brooke. Rowan, good evening. Can you can you hear me?
Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you. Good evening to the council and everyone present. Uh my name is Rowan Johnson and I'm a student at the university and a human rights organizer within the local Princeton community. Uh, I've joined this meeting today
alongside Osma Brookke and others to express my resolute support for the Immigration Trust Act resolution, which for those less in the know is a piece of legislation that was recently presented to the council which pres protects our entire community by limiting the ability
of the federal government to take advantage of local agencies in order to encroach on our rights. It is my strong opinion that Princeton should be a place where all people, regardless of their immigration status, feel safe, valued, and protected. But I
would also like to remind the council that in fact this issue extends far beyond protections just for those without documentation. In recent weeks, DHS officials and top Trump advisers like Steven Miller have been aggressively pushing for increased ICE
raids and arrests, setting their quotas higher and higher with the unsurprising result that people like visa holders, green card holders, and even citizens are being detained left and right. And the issue is that when our local law enforcement are complicit in ISIS mass
campaign of terror, massive amounts of resources that could be put towards local priorities are drained and instead put towards detaining people that are community members that are valued members of our society. And those local
priorities from which the resources are being drained are exactly those kinds of positive priorities that I know that you all joined city council to promote. Now, I completely understand fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, but backing down from taking measures to protect your
community in the face of authoritarianism is quite frankly a sad look for public leaders such as yourselves. I'd like to remind you that there is strength in numbers and none of the 13 other cities across New Jersey that have
taken the brave step of passing ITA resolutions of their own have faced backlash yet. Just wrapping up my time here, I would also like to say that from firsthand experience, having been out and about in the community, the community is scared. Your community is
scared and it's up to you to do something about it. We're all here to call on you to be the leaders that we know you can be and to introduce and pass the Immigrant Trust Act resolution. That's my time. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, who's next up? Julia. Hello. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Good evening. My name is Juliana Lopez and I am a Princeton constituent and college student. I am here to express my support for the immigrant trust act
because I am tired of waking up every day asking myself if I will come back to my bed to sleep due to the target that has been placed on me because of the way I speak and the way I look. Princeton has fallen behind on protecting its constituents. Madison Burough and
Trenton and other cities have already acted. This act is not just in service of immigrants. It is in service to all people. Passing the immigrant trust act means you are protecting the immigrant community and upholding your oath. The raids we are witnessing are no longer
just targeting immigrants without status. US citizens and native born are being detained too. By protecting the immigrant community, you are protecting the rest of the community feeling the rippling effects of these raids. I also want to remind you that words are not
enough and action must be taken. On January 11th of 2024, on an article by Leah Khan, council member Fraga as a first generation immigrant voiced that her priority is to ensure that we are creating and supporting policies that provide our residents with the resources
needed to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. She also mentioned that she is cognizant of the fight immigrants face for better opportunities. So now I speak to you as an immigrant myself who also has experienced a struggle as a first generation college student and ask that
you speak up for our community. Our communities seek the same opportunities that we found and any opportunity they have now is only being taken from them. They are living in fear for simply seeking a better life for themselves and their families. My struggle is your
struggle and their struggle is our collective struggle. In the same article, council member Cohen said, "Bringing the change we do want is a local issue and achievable only through local solutions." While his words referred to the master plan, these are highly applicable. Now, the master plan
consists of community facility goals, one of which is to promote and enhance the built environment of Princeton through highquality design of public educational and cultural facilities. There is a lot of pride in the diversity found at Princeton, celebrated through community spaces. Yet, how is it that
now when our immigrant constituents who bring this culture are being attacked, we fail to protect them? I see the fear in my community's eyes when I walk into my dining hall, when I walk into my favorite restaurant, and I when I walk into my home. I could site many more examples of wars from other council
members. And I do not do this to attack anyone. I do this to remind you all that our constituents need you. Your constituents elected you because they trusted that you would fight for their human rights and civil dignity. So now I urge you to do the right thing. Protect our community at Princeton with more
than words. Protect us through policy. We have put so much into a system that only continues to take and take from us and we are tiding. We are tired of waiting for the right time to get justice because the right time is now.
Thank you. Okay, madam. Who's next? May I? Hi. Could you introduce yourself? Hello. Can you hear me? Yep, we can. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, great. Um, hi, my name is Maya Ponan
Areronov. Um, I'm a master's student in Princeton's School of um, public policy and international affairs. Um, and I've been a part of this community for a very long time. I apologize, I don't think my camera is working. Um, but I wanted to um come up and speak as a student, a
member of the community, a member of Resistance Sanion and Princeton Mutual Aid um in favor of the resolution um for the town to support the immigrant trust act. Um, and there's a couple of really key reasons that I would hope that the town support this act. Um so 11 other
towns in New Jersey have created resolutions um in favor of this act to try and create upward pressure on the state legislature in order to pass this act which is extremely vital to protecting the data not only of immigrant New Jersey residents but of of of all of us right um we've seen at the
federal level the weaponization of our data um the stealing of our data um by many nefarious parties from um official politicians to appointees like Musk um to nefarious billionaires um and corporations like Palanteer and the
exploitation of that data in order to literally hunt down our neighbors. Um the exploitation of medical data, of university data, of school data in order to find our community members and and literally kidnap them. Um and we see that this would be a horrible injustice
if it was limited to undocumented immigrants, right? uh many of my close friends are themselves undocumented and these kind of arbitrary lines we've drawn um across the sand on this continent really should not be determining um the worth of a human life or um what opportunity someone deserves
right in in my belief and undocumented people are an extremely valued part of our community and if it would only impact them that would be enough um for Princeton need to speak out but we see that they're really going after permanent residents um people with green cards um students for their free speech and US citizens based on racial
profiling. We really see that the federal government um has in their ambitions a project of ethnic cleansing. Just today, the Supreme Court announced that they would approve deportations to third countries like uh concentration camps or enslavement camps in El Salvador and Libya. So, this is a really
urgent crisis that affects all of us, right? Um and we might ask, what is the role of a local government at a time like this? Um, and I know that all the time that I've been a student, and I was an undergraduate student at Princeton as well. Um, all the time that I've been a student, the town has really prided itself on being a bastion of
progressivism, of goodwill, of uh, neighborliness, and um, you know, the the frontier of of policy, right? The policy experts uh, live here. Um, and I think that um, I've been lucky to see that play out in the town in many ways, but we always need to do more. And um it
is surprising to me to see Princeton um after so many towns have passed these resolutions um to have some hesitation there when I would expect Princeton to want to take the lead, you know, in following their own brand. So please take the lead in protecting myself, my friends, my neighbors, and our
community. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hi, good evening. This is this is Anna Pasmino with Resistencia Axion. Thank you for uh allowing us the space and allowing me to take time to talk to you about what is
going on with um the immigrant trust act in the state of New Jersey and how we as Princeton can be uh one of our neighboring cities uh that could be helpful for all of um immigrants not here not only in Princeton but in the
state. Um, so as as you many of you may already know me, I am the director at Resistencia Nexion, a proud organizer for my community. I'm also from Ecuador. I grew up here since I was 4 years old
and um I have become very much involved in policy and I want to be clear of what I want to say because the fear is real right now. The confusion is very real. the harm is already happening and for
all the years that I have been organizing, we have not seen the um this severity and this crisis. Um we work with people every single day who are terrified to go to the doctor, who are afraid to report domestic violence, who
don't know if calling the police could put their entire family at risk. So there is this concern the day-to-day realities of community members, parents, students, workers who contribute to this
town and who deserve to feel safe in it. Um, and what makes it worse is that there's uncertainty. There's uncertainty at uh a state level. There's uncertainty at a c the country level, a federal level. And because we don't have any
written policy in place, people don't know what to expect. They don't know what lines there are. That uncertainty also leads to silence, to isolation, and sometimes tragedy. Um, I can also affirm
that our membership meetings have been getting bigger in number of allies, but smaller in community. um that is affected directly because of the fear of what is happening. That's why we as an
organization have joined a coalition of organizations to support the immigrant trust act at a state level with other organizations that you might know like the New Jersey Immigrant Trust Alliance. Um I'm sorry, the immigrant trust, the New
Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. um other organizations like uh gocha, other organizations like um I'm missing a couple or kasafho all of these organizations that are working towards the same thing. Winds of the
spirit um and we have had 13 other cities who have already uh resolutions in their towns. Um, I've also spoken to some of the organizers and directors of organizations. Anna, thank you. Anna,
thank you. I'm Can I just finish real quick? Your time's up, Anna. Thank you. In Madison and he will she will be um getting to you. Bring in the next because the mayor would like to um have some words with you. Thank you for this
evening for allowing. Thank you. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Good evening, uh, mayor and council. My name is Po Miron, and I am an immigrant who works here in Princeton. And I am as concerned about the safety of us immigrants in Princeton as I am about
the safety of immigrants everywhere in the United States. Because the federal government uh government is very clear on targeting people of color with its current immigration agenda. uh especially right now because ICS is racially profiling people of color with
the presumption that they are criminals and that they are not documented as has happened with friends who I know and as could happen with me because of my accent for example and I do not wish anybody present here to live with this daily fear and I hope you do not have any similar experiences ever in your
life but we know that there are things that we can do to make it clear that immigrants are welcome here and that bigotry in the form of policy will not be tolerated in New So I am here to say that it is your moral responsibility mayor and council to pass the immigrant trust act at least
to show the people of Princeton that its municipal authorities have made a call to give the necessary protections to those in vulnerable status. And to that end, I also ask you, as the people here have also been saying, to pass a resolution in favor of the immigrant
trust act because your official support for the ITA will be a step forwards um forward towards uh defending civil rights for everybody and to sending a president that will inspire other municipalities and eventually other states to do the same.
To ignore this and refuse to act in the face of injustice will be an act of injustice instead. And the last thing that we want to believe as a community is that you will advocate for our destruction because that's what the Trump administration wants to see. But I do trust in your judgment that you will
support and pass this resolution because the community in Princeton is watching and hoping that this happens as well because Princeton can only thrive if it's safe in the first place. Thank you. Thank you. if you could unmute yourself and introduce yourself.
Uh hello. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can now. Okay. Um, hi, my name is Yoshi. Um, I am a resident of, um, Princeton for like over 20 years. Um I um you know I've
been following the aftermath of the Trump executive order and ICE you know going into our community um around the country including here in Princeton um you know to pick up people
who you know speak a language perceived to be different from English or with an accent or the wrong skin color or be, you know, they're um um you know, advocating for certain
political causes, like for example, advocating for Palestine. And you know, this this is very deeply concerning. You have to like ask um ourselves like what kind of country are we living in that
like um you know people are just a lot of times going to get picked up um for no reason except to you know go to school, go to a doctor's appointment, go shopping and um and and sometimes right
like they don't even identify themselves like so you you have to wonder what who are these people Like if if I was walking around outside and then all of a sudden someone um show showed up um they don't identify as they don't have bad
they they pull out guns um train it on someone that could even be me because you know I I may speak perfect English but like I'm you know I'm Asian. I uh you know I'm perceived as not white you
know not quote unquote American and then you know I disappeared like that doesn't fill me um with confidence living um uh you know in in safety in in in Princeton and I wouldn't want this for anyone else
either. Um, so I'm just here um using my uh public comment time here to like urge you to um you know consider passing a immigrant trust act resolution um which uh the
Madison Burrow and and Trenton have both passed and um this kind of policy would um send a very strong message that here in Princeton we care about safety. We
care about community and uh you know um we also do not want a kind of you know fascist uh police state to um you know uh to to take root here in in Princeton.
Um there is there is still time to do this before um you know it it becomes like really malignant and then everyone just has to Yoshi. Thank you. Be very guarded. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thanks. All right, Adam.
Who's next? Jocelyn. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Good evening. My name is Jocelyn Doran. My grandparents moved to Princeton in the 1940s. My mother grew up in Princeton and while
I have lived on its outskirts during my life, Princeton is my hometown. My husband grew up on Yuing Street and went through the Princeton public school system. I'm an alum of the Hun School of Princeton. My children went through the Princeton Friends School, then the Hun
School. My husband, children, and I have been members of the Yuyu Congregation of Princeton since 1996. My entire network is and always has been in Princeton. I shop, eat, and bring out bring out of
town guests to Princeton. My son and daughter-in-law even live in the Avalon apartments off of Turon Road. What is happening now in our country with the kidnapping of immigrants, their detention without due process and being
sent to countries with which they have no con connection at all will be judged by history as an atrocity and rightfully so. With today's Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration has been given
the green light to fasttrack what can accurately be called human trafficking for profit. My question tonight is, what will this council do to protect its community? The people who live and work here, who pay taxes, who keep our stores and
restaurants operating, our friends and our neighbors. Promises and words are hollow. We need policy to protect this community. I'm asking you all to be on the right side of history and pass the immigrant immigration trust act
resolution. 13 towns in New Jersey already have. It's time Princeton passed it as well. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Um, my name is Adam McGovern
and I work with Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center. Uh, we're not based in Print Princeton, though of course we have many loved ones and um, valued colleagues there and uh, you know, we look to your town uh, for many of the, you know, good examples that are
set for our state. Um, one of the significances of my um, speaking here as a member of Wind of the Spirit is that we are based in three of the towns, three of the 13 as people have been discussing, that have passed resolutions calling on the state legislature to
expedite the Immigrant Trust Act. Um, and you know, we hear a lot about the horrors tonight. Uh, I'd like you to envision the opposite as well. uh my group first came together uh to defeat successfully uh an agreement so-called
287g agreement uh whereby the county of Morris would have cooperated uh with uh federal immigration officials when that was defeated by an allrepublican freeholder board then called freeholders uh so I would like this all democratic
body to take note um there was a sea change in the kinds of confidence in the community the uh willingness uh to go and use services that everyone is legally entitled to. People not keeping their kids out of school, uh people not avoiding health care. Uh the same thing
happened when the attorney general's immigrant trust directive was instituted 6 years ago. And we want to go forward into more of that. We don't want to go back. And you know, when you talk about going back, there's all kinds of things that uh can't be reversed. I know that
there's concern on this council or at least from this mayor about uh drawing attention to ourselves as as a town. Uh I'd like you to think of who you're paying attention to. Uh the constituents who have spoken tonight can do so much more eloquently and with much more at
stake than I can and are speaking from quite a position of courage as people who are at risk. I want you to pay attention to them. I hope you'll pay attention to, you know, some of your colleagues in the other 13 municipalities who have passed these uh laws and have, you know, felt it uh
worthy uh to stand up. Um it would be great if you would listen to some of your other counterparts throughout the country, including say the police department of Omaha, Nebraska, and the National Sheriff's Association who rejected Trump's, you know, executive order uh trying to uh put down sanctuary
cities. You know, I don't think it's too much to ask that an alldemocratic council show at least as much of the progressivism and uh courage of the, you know, the sheriff of Omaha or the National uh Sheriff's Association. Um when Madison became the first of the
towns to pass one of these resolutions only a month after the election, one of their councilmen said, "This is not the America that my dad fought World War II for." And you know, we all know who that was fought against. Uh you don't duck a dictatorship, you stand up to it. And we don't we are all a target under Trump.
So we need you to be a shield. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Christella, if you could unmute yourself and introduce yourself. Are you there? Try try now. I saw you muted yourself and you unmuted yourself. Go ahead.
All right. Let's let's go to the next person, please. All right. Sulie, is that how you say that? Sulie is correct. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for allowing me a moment to speak. Uh, my name is Sulie Rosales Garo. I've had the opportunity of
calling Princeton my home since the early '9s. And I arrived here as a child of Sy, fleeing the violence in Guatemala with my family. This town quickly became our safe haven, a place where we were all able to rebuild, contribute, and be feel protected. Tonight, I rise not just
as a longtime resident or a US citizen, but as someone deeply grateful for what is this town has stood for, community, compassion, justice, regardless of who is in power or what party leads, I'll never forget that the very asylum protections that saved our family were
granted under a Republican administration. That's a reminder that humanity and protection should never be partisan. But today, I do feel a growing concern. Our immigrant neighbors, many who or many or all who are hardworking, low-abiding members of our community,
are living in fear. Whether they are fully legalized or still in the process, no one who contributes to our community should be looking over their shoulders, afraid of being unjustly targeted. This isn't the kind of place we are. And I believe we can take steps, local practical steps to ensure that everyone
who plays a role in making Princeton thrive is treated with the dignity and the safety they deserve. When people are afraid to come forward, whether they're victims or witnesses of a crime, it threatens the safety for all of us. Silence creates shadows and in those
shadows, justice can't live. Let's be clear, immigrants are not going to any going anywhere. Our town, our economy, our neighborhoods depend on the work that they, we do, these or they or we are not others. We are all neighbors.
What I ask tonight is simple. Let's build an understanding in Princeton. One that says that you if you are law-abiding and committed to this community, you are welcome here and you're protected. Let's not borrow fear-based models and policies from
places that don't reflect our values. What doesn't work elsewhere doesn't have to be our model. And what might seem impossible elsewhere might be completely within reach for us. I'm a mother of a 16-year-old at Princeton High School, and I had the complicated task of sitting my child down, my US citizen
child down, and explain to him how to act and react in case he is ever stopped by ICE or sees his friends from school being detained. I don't wish this on anyone ever, but unfortunately, we can't pretend it's not happening or that it won't happen here. Thank you so much for
listening and thank you for helping to keep our town a place of safety, fairness, and opportunity for everyone, all of us. Thank you, Adam. Let's go to the This person's spoken already, Adam, I believe. I'm sorry.
Oh. Oh, did not get through. Okay. Sorry. Christella, are you there? All right, Adam must go to the next person in line. All right, whoever signed in is iPhone, if you could unmute yourself and then introduce yourself.
Hello. Hello. Yes. Uh, you hear me? Yes, we can. Yes, you heard me. Hey, how are you? Good evening. Uh, my name is Ri Richard that resist a I am leader the hornos. All
right. So we are worried uh you know when we going to the work we are worried when we go to the shopping we are worried when we go our children's of the school so we are worried all the time
that's why we demand the they pass the Princeton immigration resolution thank you very much thank Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yeah. Go ahead. Hello. All right. Who are you guys? Uh, good evening, council members,
mayor. Uh, my name is Richard. Um, I am here tonight because we've heard the right words before. Um, you know, we care about immigrants. We want Princeton to feel safe for everyone. We don't cooperate with ICE. And I believe those words are sincere. I really do. Um but
they're not enough because words are not policy. And promises without policy are fragile. Uh let's be honest, we don't get to control what happens at the federal level. We can't stop ICE from making arrests, but we can control what our town does, how our local government
responds. And right now that response is identified. That means it's vulnerable. It means immigrants in Princeton are still living with uncertainty and that fear seeps into every corner of life. People are afraid to drive their kids to
school, afraid to ask for help, afraid to even call 911. I know people who have skipped their doctor's appointments, who then report abuse, who live every day with the feeling that one wrong move could destroy their family. that could separate them from their kids and that's
not safe. That's actually quite suffering. I support the immigrant trust act because it puts policy behind our principles. 13 other states, I'm sorry, 13 others u New Jersey towns have passed this. They understood that leadership
means nothing. That means protecting your residents through policy, not just sentiment. Princeton should not be an exception. It should be an example. So, I'm asking tonight, don't just say we care. Let's prove it. that's passed the immigration trust act resolution. Um and
also by the way we didn't know that um in person available was available. So we'll definitely be there um in person with our community for the next one. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Hello. Yeah. Hello. Hello. Hi. Uh I'm Jabari. Uh, good evening, council
members, mayor. Good to be here with you all. Um, and I'm here because I I really do love this city. I love Princeton. I care about this town. Um, and I believe that we need to show that in in our actions. That includes me and that includes everybody here on this call because, uh, like Richard mentioned,
many many of you have said, "We don't work with ICE." I've heard people I've heard police officers say, "We don't work with ICE." That's amazing. That's good. But what happens when police leadership changes or the next administration comes in and there's no if there's no written policy, written guarantees, then national pressure just
like this can wipe those verbal commitments away with one phone call or memo. So what we're asking for is we're asking that you exercise the power that you do have through your policy. Just like we learn here, every political science major at Princeton University
learns that in their first year that power is exercised through policy. It's not enough to just make verbal commitments. You have to write protections into law. That's how rights are defended historically in this country and that's how we keep people safe. So the Immigrant Trust Act, this
isn't this isn't some crazy new policy. We're not reinventing the wheel. We are asking to reflect the practices that you say that you already uphold. We're asking you to codify that into law. That's all. We just want to make this official, create clarity, eliminate this
confusion for immigrants, for police, for everyday everyday workers, for the whole community. And so we know that 13 other cities have passed this. And the more cities in New Jersey that passed this, the harder it is for one city to be singled out because, let's be honest,
we're all scared here. Nobody wants to be targeted. Nobody wants to be the city that's up on national news drawing attention. But Princeton should be along with the 13 other cities in New Jersey that have passed this law. We should not be standing behind them, letting them protect us. This is our chance to show
what real courage looks like at the city council level. This is our chance to make sure that our policy is reflective of the values that we say we hold. So please, I am asking you to please pass this immigrant trust act and let the town of Princeton be a town that backs
up its words with policy. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Can you hear me now? Yes, very easily. Wonderful. Good afternoon. I mean, good evening. My name is Christa Lair. I am an immigrant from Haiti. I am
a social worker and community organizer and board member of Resistencia Action, New Jersey. And I live in Trenton. I'm so proud of the city of Trenton and uh they have already passed the immigrant trust act for for Trenton and this gives
a level of peace of mind to my community and as I conduct a lot of organizing and professional activities in Princeton. I am expecting the same from Princeton. In my daily work, I work with immigrants and they speak every day. They express
how they feel constantly terrified to even go to work on a daily basis. And personally, last week I panicked behind the wheel while I was driving to work because I saw a heavy traffic. I was afraid it could be an ICE raid and I
could be um taken, you know, just as they've been taking a lot of immigrants and get them incarcerated and deported to any country. I was afraid this could happen to me and I was panicking. And imagine how dangerous that can be. Imagine how many car accidents could
occur due to people feeling unsafe in a community where they are contributing their taxes to. So today I'm here just to ask you to please, please, please pass the Immigrant Trust Act. As we all
know, actions speak louder than words. So the only action I'm asking for you today is to pass the immigrant trust act. And as I'm so proud to be a member of this community, I'm so proud I will be proud to know that this community is
is also in return standing with me. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hello. Hello. Hello. Go ahead. The resist. testimonial. So, Fore!
Foreign! Foreign! Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Masso represent Foreig is implement.
It's important for [Music] Thank Thank you. Someone's going to Somebody's supposed to translate what he just said. Okay. Does he? Okay. Or we can I mean Leticia
and I can summarize. Well, I I can translate. Oh, you have someone. Okay. Yes, I can translate. Okay. So, he said, "Good hello. Good evening. My name is Juan Regal and I am a Princeton resident. I am married and the father of
three beautiful daughters. In 2016, I immigrated from Honduras to the United States. In 2019, I experienced one of the most painful experiences of my life. I was separated from my family and taken to the Elizabeth Detention Center. I was
detained for 6 months and 25 days, and it was a time when my heart broke every single day from not being able to hug and see my daughters. Now in 2025, almost a whole decade later, I face the same fear again. I fear that my wife
will be arrested and my family will be once again separated. I don't want my daughters to live through the same nightmare of losing a father again. I, like many other working fathers and mothers, ask you as a representatives to support and pass the Immigrant Trust
Act. I want our families to be protected because all we do is go out to work to support our families. Even though the immigrant trust directive was passed in 2018 and today's immigrant trust act is modeled after that directive, it's still not enough.
By halting the implementation of the 2018 directive and stopping at this modeling, we took a step back from the hard one progress we've made. It's important that we follow the example of the 13 cities that have already passed this law because it protects the hardest
working people in our community. I am a hard worker and pay taxes every year and all that I ask is that you pass this act. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Whoseever iPhone 8, if you could unmute yourself and introduce yourself.
Hi. Hi. Hi. It's Hillary Perski. I'm a longtime Princeton resident. I can't really add much to the extremely eloquent words that you've already heard, but I do want to note um a recent
passionate letter from Councilman Nuland in the town topic suggesting that opposition to some of the affordable housing plans in Princeton is counter to our commitment to equality and to a diverse community. And I guess I would
ask all of us to consider, isn't it true that passing the resolution in support of the immigrant trust act is as much a part of this commitment to equality and diversity as our commitment to affordable housing. Thank you for your
attention. Thank you. Okay, so I'm sure a number of us want to make comments. I would just ask that we try to be succinct and concise. And I I just want to say to everybody that joined us tonight, we appreciate the comments and I know I personally agree
with a lot of what you said. What is happening at the federal government level is hard to believe. It's certainly not the uh America I thought I grew up in. But having said that, I I do want to stress that we have a
written policy as far as our police department goes. In fact, there's a statewide policy from the New Jersey Attorney General and we follow that and we have our own written policy based on that that is uh in anyway in the police department SOPs. Our human services
department has policies. We have a written document on what we're going to do if ICE comes back into town on how to alert people, how to pay attention to what's going on, how to share information with people. So people are obviously can say whatever
they want, but it's always good to get full information before people maybe say that we're not doing what we should be doing. I think we're doing a lot more than many communities within the state, maybe within the country. Um, passing a resolution is not passing a
law. Uh, I just want to make sure people understand that a resolution at the end of the day is words. Uh, some of you said that actions speak louder than words. And I think the actions that we took and are prepared to take after ICE was here last July um are things that
people should feel comfortable with. I would also stress that any group that wants to work with us has to work with us in a truthful manner. And that is any group that then tells people not to work with this community after we have stressed that
our police do not in any way help ICE that our human services department, health department, all those services are there to help people regardless of their status in this country. And then for people to say to tell community residents that are have these
concerns that they should not trust us is extremely counterproductive. So we are willing to work with anyone that is going to truthfully and honestly work with us. Um, the resolution that was first sent to us
to ask us to consider to support the ITA had a lot of wording in it that basically just chased the federal government and just said a lot of needless things that are just going to stir emotions and not really go anywhere. Well, uh, actually
in a correspondence I had with the mayor of Madison this morning, I asked him to send me a copy of their resolution. So, uh, I know that I plan on sharing that with the council members once I get it. Anyway, those are my limited comments. Whoever else wants to make comments,
just please let me know. Thank you. Yes. So, uh, as many of you are already aware, uh, I am a first gener generation immigrant myself, proud one of that from, uh, Mexico. And so I
really connected with a lot of the comments that were made and I appreciate all the advocacy and support of our immigrant community. Uh but I also want to uh I guess take issue is too strong of a
word. I want what I wanted to say is that I we as uh Mayor Fredas has said we do not just in words we have been working in support and of our immigrant
community through our policies uh back in and I and actually the uh when I first became aware of the uh immigrant trust act that was being proposed I did a lot of research on it. Took a uh
took a look in comparison how it compared to the immigrant trust directive and uh and so I took that into account as to whether I uh how I felt about that about support for for the
immigrant trust act. Uh I could say that because of uh just based on the differences of how they compare in that the directive is just that a directive. So if we had an a governor that was not with an AG that
was not in support of that directive could change it but that the act would make it law and for that I would support uh the act. However, we are limited on what we can
do at the local level. Yes, we can adopt a resolution in support of uh of the immigrant trust act. And personally, I'm in support of doing that. In fact, my colleague David, and I'll let him speak for himself if he wishes. my colleague
David Cohen and I uh we actually took a stab at drafting a resolution in support of the act that was uh Princeton specific that reference what we're already doing
at the local level. That includes the 2013 uh our Princeton Police Department issued uh immigrant trust directive. That's before other towns in New Jersey were doing that. That was followed by uh
in 2019 the AG issued the immigrant trust directive that in large pack in large part actually mirrored what Princeton was doing. We have also adopted a wage theft ordinance that uh protects our immigrant community. And
this is done in collaboration with our Princeton Police Department and human services who has already assisted countless number of uh not just day laborers, workers in our community who
were being taken advantage of. Uh and we also in 2015 Princeton became a a member of Welcoming America. That does pretty much as far as ensuring
that our immigrant community knows that they are welcome here. Actively, we promote programs with our community partners. I see one of them here, our Princeton Public Library uh and others who work with us every
year round to develop programs to ensure that our immigrant community is not just made welcome here. know that they're welcome here. They're a part of our community. And so that's mainly what I wanted to um to
highlight is that what we're doing is not just uh it's not words only. We're taking action and it's not just a oneoff. Year round. We're working to ensure we're we are assisting, protecting, and
providing services for our immigrant community as well as all our residents. Thank you. Mia was next and then Leon. Thank Thank you, Mayor. You know, late, we've heard from no less than 18. I'm sorry. Mia was
next and then then you. I'm sorry. Sorry. You can borrow one. I do want to go next because it's very frustrating that the there's a total disconnect here. First, I just want to say that I'm glad that we still live in a country in which people feel free enough to at least call in and express that they feel
afraid and um confused and anxious and all all of the and terrified and all of the things that were expressed tonight and feel free to give their real name. Um that's not true in many places around the world. Um and I'm glad that we have
a hybrid meeting so um that uh people if they don't feel comfortable coming in person they can speak virtually and don't have to give their name. But secondly for the public who've been listening to this I want to explain that there was a group in town that
circulated um uh a letter asking um residents to come to council to advocate for us to pass. And as you see every um most there seemed to be some confusion. Um we were asked to pass the immigrant trust act. Most of the the speakers
asked us to pass the immigrant trust act and then others said the im the immigrant trust act resolution. So let me be clear um the immigrant trust act is a um a legislation that has been pending at the state level which does
offer much stronger protections than the immigrant trust directive which is in place now. Um I can speak for myself and I think every member sitting up here has uh as far as I know most of us if not all of us have uh spoken out um quite
publicly for many months now um in support of the state legislature passing the immigrant trust act. Um it was a big issue in the gubanatorial uh campaign and I know many of us also made decisions based on the candidates's
commitment or lack thereof to pass the immigrant trust act. Um so there is absolutely no lack of support in this body for the immigrant trust act. However um we do not have the ability to
pass the immigrant trust act at the local level. What we have considered doing was passing, which is what the 13 other towns and cities did, was to pass a resolution in support of the state legislature passing the immigrant trust act. And it was just interesting to hear
everybody uh speaking about how they don't want us to just, you know, engage in words or, you know, empty promises. That's what a resolution is. It provides no additional protection for a single
person in this town. Um, it is just words and I we the statements that this council put out right after the election and has continued to put put out are actually much stronger than the other town's resolution in support of the
immigrant trust act and that's great that other past towns passed resolutions in support of the act and we may or may not do that. I will say that that um it is our understanding that this is not moving forward in the state legislature this year. Um and whether or not
Princeton being the 14th to pass a resolution would make a difference, I can't I don't know. But what I can say is that it would not change in any material way um the the safety and well-being of all residents of our
community. And that is what we are committed to. Not passing resolutions in support of legislation which may or may not come to be. But but our responsibility as local officials, which a number of speakers um were very
eloquent about in terms of um doing everything we can on a daily basis to protect, support, reassure, and encourage the people, the vulnerable um residents in our midst. And I know that everyone sitting up here
as well as our staff are very committed to that. And we're not going to talk about what's happening because that would endanger those very residents. But I can assure you that it's happening. Um I'm proud of what Princeton is doing. Um I don't know about the other towns that
have passed a resolution but I and whether there is action that actually uh underlies those resolutions which are just words but in Princeton there is action and uh I know that we don't feel a need to
support to to to pass resolutions um just so that people feel that we're doing what we should because I know that we're doing what we should. Um, and to the people who came tonight, it's really painful because I wish that we could actually there was something we could pass at the local level that would make
that that would actually give you the guarantees and protections that that that you deserve and want. Um but this is state legislation and um for the group that circulated um this um you
know uh call to action, I would strongly urge you to write to your state state uh representatives with all of the same comments that you've made tonight so eloquently and passionately because they do have the ability to pass the
Immigrant Trust Act, which we do not. We only have the ability to pass a resolution in support of it. Thanks. Any other I'm sorry, Leighton, did you have Yes. Thanks, Mayor. Uh, first I want to say I hope everyone paid very careful attention to what council
president Mia Sax said with regard to this legislation that's kind of stalled at the state level. But we've had no less than 18 individuals and I thank each and every one of you individually and collectively for sounding off on the devastation that we see in our country
today. It breaks my heart to see people deported in mass to places as someone referenced that aren't even their country of origin. But I will also say as my colleagues have shared with you that Miss Road Jones is the head of our
human services department and we are probably one of the top three municipalities in the entire state of New Jersey that has a robust human services department. We have a great CARES Commission which looks at equity,
uh, civil rights and affordable housing. And to each and every individual that called in tonight, I would ask one thing of you to help us. Please help us build trust here in Princeton so that those
people that you say are confused, scared will come and get and take advantage of the resources that we have put into place. We are here for you. We love you. We are a welcoming town and trust me when I tell you that we are doing
everything we can to keep Princeton safe to keep it equitable and protect each and every citizen here. Take advantage please of the resources that we have and to everyone on the call work with us to
build trust in the community. Thank you. Thanks David. Yeah. Um, so I want to echo everything that my colleagues have said uh about what the immigrant trust act is
and what we can do at the local level. But the one point that I want to add uh some people know that um bicycle and pedestrian safety is one of my top issues and bear with me um it's
relevant. I was reading uh the the monthly report on our traffic accidents that appears in tap into Princeton earlier today report about May and this poor 12-year-old boy was riding his
bicycle and rode it into a crosswalk and was hit by a car and he was deemed to be at fault. I mean he got banged up. wasn't a serious uh you know hospitalization type um injury. But the
point that I'm trying to make is that a healthy fear of things that you should be afraid of is protective. And while I feel the tragedy of the fear that our immigrant community is living
with, I also I mean I want them to be not afraid of the things that they shouldn't be afraid of. They should not be afraid of our human services department. They should not be afraid of our police. But they should be afraid. I'm sorry. With a federal government
that we have right now, they should be afraid. And if we passed a resolution that removed that fear without us being able to actually protect them, we would be doing them a disservice.
Thank you. any other comments or I don't have much to add other than just to to say you know one of the really uh honors that I have of serving um with my colleagues is that we all have areas of
expertise and um areas of passion and we are all passionate of course about this but I just have to give a a shout out and thank you to Leighton and Leticia and their work in this area in particular. Um, you know, we lean on each other and it's really good to know
we can do that. Um, this is so heartbreaking. It's absolutely a nightmare. Uh, as soon as you Trump took office, we convened. This was our number one discussion at our goal setting. It was a number one discussion of how are
we going to be able to protect our residents? And um, I think we're doing all we can. I think as we said before uh action speaks louder than words and we are taking action as much as we possibly can. Uh so I thank you and I thank our
human uh service department Jeff Ger and his team row and others um that are working really hard. So um and I just want to say when we talk about a trust act, please trust us. trust that we're there for you and we're not um we're not
the we're not the we're not the enemy. We're not the problem. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to bring that section of the meeting to a close and we're going to move on to ordinance introduction. Ordinance 25-1, an ordinance by the
municipality of Princeton. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I comment on the agenda. Yeah, I had a few words about another matter that I wanted to bring up. Do I need to say my name and address? I'm Sam Bunting, 99 Dempsey Avenue. I'm here
tonight to talk about the orange defend historic Princeton signs. When I saw those signs, I was not very happy because it made me wonder, what historic Princeton are we defending? There's a
lot of good history in Princeton, but also some pretty bad stuff. Town came into being when the native tribes were run off the land. We had Woodra Wilson of Princeton tried to reegregate the federal government. We had the
destruction of Baker Street to build Palmer Square. There is a history here of exclusion. And let's be frank, we know who is responsible for these orange defend historic Princeton signs. It's a bunch of neighbors who are trying to stop an
apartment building being built. That's the reason why these signs are going up. And it strikes me that when you put up some signs for an exclusionary purpose saying defend historic Princeton, you are tying yourself to that history of
exclusion. I'm sorry. That's the way it is. So when I read a letter from Councilman Leighton Nulan calling those residents out for putting those signs up, I was very happy to hear that there was somebody up there representing those
of us who thinks that those signs are ignaminious. I think that Leighton did a great job. I think he is a much better spokesman for historic Princeton than the people who have been putting those signs up. I thank him for his courage in saying the
words that he did. And I would encourage the rest of council to continue to stand up to those neighbors because just because you have expensive attorneys and some fancy out of town some fancy out of town friends and some signs does not
mean that you get to say what where and exactly how affordable housing has been built in Princeton. Plenty of other neighborhoods have stepped up to the plate and there's been apartment buildings, inclusionary apartment buildings built in those neighbor in those neighborhoods and it should be built in this excellent site as well.
So, thank you Councilman Nulan for your words. I thought you got it dead right. I think those signs are bad. I think they've been placed for a bad reason and I would like to see them go away. In fact, I reported on Access Princeton on the 30th of May that those signs had
been placed in the public right of way in defiance, I believe, of the municipal sign ordinance. And I would like to hear some comments from the staff about why the signs are still there. Because if you want, I will happily go around and gather them up myself for a low low fee,
but I would like to know why the town has not taken them down themselves. Thanks. Thanks for your comments. Public Department of Public Works pretty much on a monthly basis goes around and removes signs that are placed in the public right away. So it happens loosely
on that schedule. So at some point signs that are in the public right away do get removed. Okay. Now I am Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. Okay. Now, now we're moving on.
Ordinance introduction Ordinance 25-1. An ordinance by the municipality of Princeton increasing Princeton sewer service charges in amending the code of the burrow of Princeton, New Jersey 1974. Public hearing is scheduled for July 14th, 2025. Would someone Michelle moves it? David the second. Roll call
vote, please. Mr. McDonald, yes. Miss Peron Lamrose, yes. Mr. Cohen, yes. Miss Saxs, yes. Miss Braa, yes. Mr. Newan, yes. Thank you. Resolutions. Resolution 25215. Resolution of the
mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the purchase of three 2025 Ford F250 pickup trucks for the Department of Public Works from Winer Ford for $22,193 utilizing New Jersey state contract 24-fleet-
103120. Is there a motion on that? Thank you, Brian. David's got the second. Questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. I 25216 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the
purchase of a 2025 F250 pickup truck, Ford F250 uh pickup truck for the recreation department from Winer Ford for 66,97 utilizing New Jersey state contract 24-fleet-3120. Is there a motion on that? Thank you,
Leighton. David's got the second. Questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. I. I. I. 2517. Resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the submitt of a fiscal year 2026 New Jersey Department of Transportation Municipal
Aid Grant application MA-2026- North Harrison Street traffic coming- an execution of a grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Is there a motion on that? Thank you, David. Michelle's got the second. Questions or comments?
All in favor, please say I. I. I. 25218, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the submitt of a fiscal year 2026 New Jersey Department of Transportation Bikeways grant application Bike-2026- Hamilton avenue-
00028 and execution of a grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Zero. Michelle's got the motion. Leighton's got the second. Questions or comments? All in favor say I. I. I. 25219 resolution of the mayor
and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a master performance agreement in accordance with the recommendation set forth in the evaluation report dated June 19th, 2025 in connection with Princeton's community solar renewable energy program. Is there a motion on
that? I'm sorry. Did you want to We have people here. Sorry. Yes, we have Sustainable Princeton as well as Gable and Associates to uh give a short presentation about this project. Okay. Sorry about that.
I was in the get through the meeting mode. My bad. Good evening, Mayor and Council. For those um tuning in who don't know me, I'm Christine Simington. I'm the executive director of Sustainable Princeton and I'm joined here uh by Belle Gable um from Gable and Associates
and we have been working with Tiana and the municipality since 2018 to help the town to develop and establish a community solar program that would serve its low moderate income households. Uh so we're here tonight and the council has before them a resolution to approve
and award a master performance agreement with the successful bidder um to the RFP that the town submitted to select a community solar developer. So it's not fancy.
Ah there we go. Uh very quickly, if you are not familiar with community solar, it is basically a way for someone who cannot put solar on their own home or their business to take advantage of the benefits of solar for an array that is
uh installed somewhere else. You participate by being a subscriber to a community solar project and you are able to derive the benefit financial benefits of that project through a savings on your utility bill. This is a program that was established by the board of
public utilities um initially as a pilot program in 2018 and then established the permanent program rules um in August of 2023. I'll skip through that. So, um, a little bit more about how it works is a
community solar developer installs a commu a solar project somewhere, um, perhaps a warehouse rooftop or in a landfill or a carport in a place that is, um, can support solar but does not have the electricity demand that that
solar uh, electricity that's generated would offset. and you subscribe through to that project and as I mentioned you get a savings on your utility bill. Um it looks something like this. This is a
sample utility bill. Um, you would see in the electricity supply section of your utility bill that you're a subscriber to a community solar project and uh there is a subscription fee and then a credit which nets out to a
reduction in your electricity supply cost. What the state of New Jersey and the Board of Public Utilities has enabled in its permanent program is the ability for a local government to um put in place a
municipally sponsored approach. So, beginning April 20, April 1st of 2025, local governments may submit registration for a community solar project that would automatically enroll its low moderate income households.
And um in this type of model, the municipality of Princeton serves with support from its uh energy consultant Gable to manage that subscriber organization, that program. Um and these community solar installations need only
be located somewhere within our utility territory which is PSENG. So the process has been where the municipality has engaged Gable as the consultant. The consultant has worked with the town to issue the RFP that was
issued back in March to select a community solar developer. And then once that um developer is awarded the um master performance agreement, then we sustainable Princeton will work with Gable Associates and the town, the
affordable housing uh organizations, Princeton um housing authority, uh Princeton community housing and the municipal municipalities department of affordable housing to do an extensive outreach pro um process as defined by
the rules uh that the BPU has put in place to uh notify those LMI households that they are going to be enrolled into a community solar project. So there were um uh the results of the
RFP which I'll can hand over to Belle Gable from Belle from Gable so she can talk a little bit more of the specificity of the response that the town received to its RFP. There were two biders. Um, one um was deemed one bidder
withdrew um and there was one bidder that provided a um for which we did an evaluation of their response. All right. Great. Thank you, Christine. So, what we're looking at right here is a summary of the various projects. So,
these by project we mean the individual solar facility. By program we mean the potential the Princeton community solar program. So, as you can see, there are three individual projects that were proposed for us to offtake from. As Christine pointed out, they're in
Robertsville, Carterette, Cranberry because they are outside of Princeton. They're in the utility territory, which is a great benefit so that there are no panels that need to be visible or go up on the limited roof space here. We have broken down the approximate number of
residents who could participate. We've identified 899. the savings $542 a year and that is reflective of the bid the discount bid from the developer
Solar Landscape of 36% which to put that in context for you the requirement is only 20%. So that's a very impressive percent. So, as you can see, that gave them a large percentage of the the score. They got 33 points on that
because of those amazing savings. Yeah. So, this is the rubric of the evaluation criteria that was in the RFP by which the respondents would be evaluated. And uh Solar Landscape did score uh 97% of uh total um possibility
of of 100 points. Um as Bel mentioned, the proposal um provides a 36% discount to the electricity supply portion of their bill. Um the there would be two of the three projects have not yet been
fully permitted. um but they are far along in the process um that they would uh be operational in I think spring of next year. One of them is far along and would be operational by December of this year. Other benefits that this
respondent um provided um would be for job training and high school education about solar. Um Solar Landscape has extensive experience in community solar projects in New Jersey. they probably have the majority of the approved community solar projects um that the BPU
has authorized. Um and there were no other material changes that they asked of the um RFP or the or the um the MPA. Um and the projects that they provided in the bid um have been approved by the
BPU into their community solar um program. So if the town or is to uh pass this resolution and agree to enter to an MPA with solar landscape, then the extensive outreach um will will begin. And we are
committed to work with the um low moderate income um families in town with the housing authority with Princeton community housing to make sure that they are all aware about community solar. Um there are specific requirements
um as defined by the BPU. There needs to be uh notifications that go to these households at 90 days, 60 days and 30 days um before the subscription starts, the enrollment starts. Um we have been working very closely with PCH and PHA
and um the town's affordable housing department to start um informing them about what community solar is and uh we will work with them to have information sessions on site. Um we will use in we will do in in-person
tableabling events. There will be a website page um with information. Um, so we want to make sure that this uh outreach effort really does um reach to every single person who um would be
automatically enrolled in the program. So that we will take questions. Okay, Michelle, thank you. I I I really I love the concept of this and um I just I'm a little confused about when you say
talking to PHA and PCH that's multifamily housing. Yes. Are I thought when I looked at it it would be residents that may qualify seniors and others that are low and middle income. So how would we distinguish and would
this be available for individual residents as well as multif family? it is um so all you have to do to be considered LMI is fit the criteria which is you I think make less than 80% of the area median income if you um participate
in any type of program SNAP you are eligible so for the definition from the the BPU LMI means you you meet those criteria and you can even self attest um but what the process in order to autoenroll is that the utility needs to
know the um uh the account the PSCG account by address and that's very easy for us to to get if if we know the address is from um Princeton Housing Authority and the Princeton Community Housing. So the the way this if the
municipality proceeds you're establishing a program and the program will have three projects for which up to 800 low matter income households can automatically be enrolled but you would then be able to expand that program
through future projects at a 36% discount or higher as more projects get um green lit and are operational. And then you can at anyone that we can identify with a mailing address
um and it has an account number would be enrolled. There is a um there are master metered accounts. There are some of the multifamily housing at PHA and PC um PCH that are master metered. They can be
included. It is the um the bill person who is responsible for the bill PCH or PHA. They would be the ones that get the bill credit. And the rules require that that savings then somehow has to benefit everyone in that um in the um
development in some way that is uh shared by all. Um so there are rules that account for master meter buildings versus individually metered buildings. Okay. And that I mean I could see where it applies directly to 100%
you know affordable right. So you can do that and maybe the 8.99 is estimated at some of those residents, but you're figuring units. It's units, households, right? So it can be an inclusionary as long as we know what the who those
individuals are. That was my next question. Yeah. Okay. And and then of course just single family homes that qualify and Yes. Okay. Yes. So, we've we've talked with um some of the multif family development owners, Avalon and Win um and they're happy to work with us
to help make sure that any of the inclusionary units there can be included in the community solar program. Thank you. Sure. So, I'm going to throw a real monkey wrench in. Um we have learned that um
even in some some of our 100% affordable developments not all of the residents any longer qualify as moderate income. They but you know by state policy they don't get get kicked out of their housing.
Are you going to be able to sort that out or are you going to have to get, you know, will you be giving people who actually don't qualify um the ability to participate in the program? Um I don't think they'd be more than 80%
of AMI though, David. Yeah, I I they they most certainly do. They are. Absolutely. Well, yeah, I don't know. The rules are about whether or not those residents are within a HUDcertified affordable housing complex. So even if the individuals may
have been disqualified, if they're living that HUDcertified affordable housing complex, they're in. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to throw another wrench in. Our inclusionary sites are not HUD certified because they're inclusionary.
How did they qualify to be in that afford? You're working with Row. Yes. You're working with our human services affordable housing group department and they can provide Yeah. Yes. So what my my question though is if you're dealing
with PCH or PHA and the rule says that they have to make sure that the savings if the savings is going to that entity as opposed to the individual apartment owners or residents um that somehow the savings has to acrue
to the benefit of all those people. Are we going to are you going to make sure that we find out that how they're going to acrue that savings to those people to their benefit and make sure that's something we agree with. So in other words, yeah, XYZ Corporation happens to
run a I don't know 100 affordable units for us and says we're going to plant flower beds. I don't know that that's really to the benefit of all those people as opposed to like a rent decrease or something, but anyway. So one of the reason why uh if it's a master metered account um it it's in
those units that if you were to give the financial savings to them that would affect their eligibility for so there are rules that were um or guidance from HUD about whether or not a community solar savings would affect their
eligibility and so it would. So, you have to um work with that housing provider, PCH or PHA to sign an affidavit of how they are going to provide that benefit. It could be Wi-Fi if they don't have Wi-Fi. It could be um
some green infrastructure. It could be things like there is some criteria by which you you can't just say we're going to, you know, do something that's not that kind of beneficial. You've got it covered. I Yes. Okay. No, I just want I just want to make sure because I I just want to make sure it actually is it's
actually helpful to someone as opposed to something that's just on paper. Yes. And we've already brainstormed with um you know PCH and PHA and what those kinds of benefits could be in those master metered examples. Okay. If anyone has it in hand definitely Christine. So
when I say we've been working on this since 2018, we've been working I I know I know and Gable and Gable has been working since 2018. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I point out one more thing why this is so important now because electricity rates have gone up 17% this
month and in the the depths of the summer everyone's using their air conditioning right now. And so the sooner that the town can provide a savings to these residents the better. And so I'm sorry one one other question. Sure. The savings are on and I don't
know when the PSEG rate increase is going into effect. This month. Okay. So the savings will be on the new rates. It will be on whatever rate for the next 15 years. So it's it'll be 36% at least on their um electricity supply
rate no matter what the basic generation service rate is. Right. Do I have that right? Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions or comments? Clayton. Yeah. Christine and team sustainable. This this is not just good news, it's great
news. You know, for for many years, low and moderate income people could not take advantage of solar energy. And here you go, coming to find a way that not only can they take advantage of it, but at a 36% uh decrease, it it it just speaks
volumes to the work that you're doing for environmental justice, sustainability. And I just want to thank you personally for the many people that I know that will save money on their electric bills, whether it's from the Princeton Housing Authority or Princeton Community Housing. I'm particularly
happy as I can be about the people in single family homes that will be able to maybe remain here in Princeton a little bit longer because they're getting some help that they need. So, thank you for this work. And you know, even though the
incidentals and the small details are yet to be worked out, if you and your team have done anything, it's shown us that we have great confidence in your ability to finish the job. So I I I know this is going to work out great. And I thank you. Thank you. Thank you again
for looking out for the least of us. Thank you for your trust, Leon. Michelle, ju just one one thought just you probably already thought of this, but reaching out like to the Center for Modern Aging and reaching out to like the seniors in the community when we talk about aging in place. You know,
there are a lot of the lower middle inome families that are trying to hold on to their their single family homes and trying to stay in Princeton. So, I mean, it's true like to put solar panels in a resident, it could take 15 or 20 years just to pay for the panels in the
savings. So, we do it because it's the right thing for the environment, but this is a savings they can realize right away. So, um yeah, kudos to you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, last shot. Any other questions? Anything else you wanted to say?
Okay, we moved it already. All in favor say I. I. I. There we go. Thank you very much. Thanks for waiting so long. Thank you. Sorry, my bad. I would have moved that up. I wasn't paying attention, Mark. Yeah. So, we're going to move something from the consent agenda. Uh,
yeah, we're moving. Thank you. 25-222 recuse from that vote. Yep. I'm going to bring it up right now. Okay. 25222. Resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton to cease and desist alcoholic beverage license 1114-31-032-00002 as of June 30th, 2025. Is there
Leticia's got the motion. Brian's got the second. Okay. Now, we're going to make sure we get this correctly because as Michelle said, she's going to recuse herself. So, all in favor? Say I. I. I. That looks like everybody else. Anybody opposed?
And those abstaining is Michelle. Okay, got that one right. And then 25227, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing an amended license agreement with Ryder University. Is there a motion on that?
Thank you, Leighton. David's got the second. We took it out of the consideration. Bernie, this is just prolonging a an agreement for use of a It is just for administration to run a conservatory
through the end of August through at the Princeton um prison hall. Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure we said that. That's all this one is doing. Yes. Thank you very much. All right. Questions or comments?
All in favor, please say I. I. All right. Anything else on the consent agenda? Anybody wanted to pull out? If not, does somebody want to move the Thank you, Leticia. Michelle's got the second. All in favor say I. I. I. I. David, I move to adjourn. Thank you. Is
there a second? Thank you, Brian. All in favor say I. I. We are done. Thank you very much. Thank you.