even better go for to the meeting of the mayor and the council uh B Riveredge CI budget committee uh February no March 1st 2025 uh Miss P bur Hall at the library
and on Zoom Madam clerk you could read the um open public meetings notice okay you don't want to do the silent prayer and flag salute first oh okay yes thank you please stand for uh peace in the world and for
our government and um and our people Council canel releas in the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands indivisible
andice okay Madam clerk if you could read the um open um notice sure this meeting complies with the open public meeting act by notification via the February 19th Sunshine notice containing the date time date location and access
information which was sent to the town news and the record and posted on the municipal bulletin board and burrow website and filed a notice of the same with the municipal clerk okay um so this is a a meeting one of two hopefully only two they are from
8 to noon uh we are open to the public uh later on in the meeting uh we would like to um have an introduction by um um
C Mr Backa and then we'll have some comments for myself and the uh Budget Finance chair and the uh burrow administrator and then we will begin uh to work through the Departments Chris
take it away thanks mayor um just to go through a couple of the uh you know higher higher level line items while we're uh you know pending going through all the detail um we're starting at a tax impact
this is what I have is a little bit different than uh than what's in front of you it's not very much different but there are a couple of uh last minute requests that I'm sure the Departments will be going over CH yes Chris I apologize my failure Madam clerk would you please read the role of both the um
Council and the citizens budget committee okay uh council president Montano Cohen here councilwoman canella here councilwoman M Larry here councilman Benson here councilman glass
here councilwoman Darwell here mayor papalo here okay um Greg Ked here uh Kenneth Kim here Albert ran yeah
Donna Sanders here and I'd like to thank especially our assist budget committee members for taking the time and being a part of this today we really appreciate it Chris uh again thank you for letting me interrupt you please
continue uh so again high level um right now we are looking at a total amount to be raised in taxes so that is your total Appropriations minus the miscellaneous Revenue that we collect uh not from taxes of uh about
17,200 th000 uh which is about a million dollars more than what it was last year or about 6.6% um again it's slightly different than the tax impact sheets you have in front of you not by by very much but
there were a couple of uh last minute requests that departments had put in that they will be going over when we go through their departments um and obviously I will be making changes to these documents in real time uh as we go through it uh this year I'm using an
estimated average residential assessment the reason why I'm using the estimated number right now is because our final numbers are not final yet uh I only have the um the anticipated number from the assessor's office we are going through a
revaluation and they are still finishing that up and the final book is not yet published so um last year we had an average residential assessment of about 397,000 this year that number is about 6 75,000 what that means is that
everybody's uh for the most part every residential property will be uh assessed at a higher number the tax rate will be lower and um you know it'll be split into about a third a third a third where you'll see uh a third higher a third
lower and a third about even in taxes depending on how their assess value changed relative to all the other assess values in town um the uh the year-over-year change for the the million doll increase in the amount
to be raised by taxes is about $248 on that average house uh assessed at $675,000 and um I'm going to go through a couple of the drivers here on the revenue side uh since we you
know we spend most of our time talking about uh the department budgets I want to go through some of the pieces of Revenue uh we don't have a lot of non- tax revenue uh so like I said before um
we've got about $4.4 million of non-t tax revenue of that 4.4 million dollar 2.2 million of it is our own Surplus that we're utilizing and another million 86 is
state aid the rest of it is relatively small numbers uh fees and permits Court spines and costs interest that we collect on investments uh cable franchise fees things like that uniform construction code fee so the Construction office is
probably the largest uh Revenue outside of state aid and and surplus anticipated and that's anticipated at about $250,000 so not a whole lot of um non-t tax revenue to to to talk about uh there
are two big items that you will not see in this year's budget that were included in the last at least two years that is Municipal Relief Fund Aid that was state aid that the state had um included for for two years they they do not have it
uh again this year um that said the state aid certifications have not yet been released uh that I'm aware of so that could change but I'm not expecting it to and then the last one is the reserve for arpa funds that was uh the the money from the and arpa is the
American Rescue plan act that was back during covid that came out um we had been drawing that down every year for the last three years or so and last year was the last year at about $300,000 between those two we saw a drop
in revenue of about $400,000 and uh I increased the amount of uh fund balance or Surplus that we anticipated by that 400 ,000 to offset that so uh we largely did not see a a
big change in our anticipated Revenue to the downside only to the upside uh for the smaller smaller items uh to the tune of about $100,000 or so on the appropriation side um you know a couple of the big
ticket items that we talk about every year are uh the garbage contract this year that works in our favor we we were expecting that to come in a lot higher than uh than it did uh we were're seeing
a savings of just under $200,000 there uh we have new Chris I'd like to interrupt you again at this point I want to uh call out kudos to superintendent molo for working very hard with New Milford and uh getting us this favorable
contract especially uh in addition to superintendent Leo of course RBA but uh the superintendent did a great deal of the leg work on this so Jason thank you very much for um uh helping us get a favorable contract go ahead
Chris the the next item is the affordable housing um you know there's going to be more expenditures related to affordable housing this year as they um as we go through that process of uh of the of the fourth round of
funding um the bcua fees uh for both omm and Debt Service are about $108,000 higher than last year I'm expecting uh an increase of about 21,000
in the sewer charges from hackin sack and paramis so between those three items we're at $18 $129,000 of an increase our unemployment insurance Reserve uh has been pretty much depleted needed for a couple of
years with with Co the state was subsidizing the unemployment claims uh that's no longer happening um and for the most part our unemployment claims have have been steady so we are going to have to replenish that Reserve that's to
the tune of about $441,000 and then the uh the uh this is the first year that we have uh interest on notes notes are short-term financing we discussed this the last two years
where I had been utilizing our fund balance to effectively act as a bridge loan for ourselves for all the construction projects and capital projects that we were going through uh we hit the limit on the amount that we can use on that and we had to borrow uh
on a short-term basis about $9 million uh the interest rate at the time we borrowed was about4 a half% so um we're paying about $400,000 this year in note interest which is a new uh new
line item we did anticipate that that was going to happen we didn't anticipate that the interest rates were going to be as high as they were um but we did have about $300,000 that we had included in our Capital Improvement fund to help absorb the cost of the interest so we're
only seeing about $100,000 on the appropriation side of an increase on the revenue side you'll see uh that we are anticipating 57,600 from General Capital fund balance that's a new line item as well that's
actually a premium that we collected on the Note sale so the real impact of the of the note interest is going to be about $43,000 after you consider the reduction in the capital Improvement fund the addition of the um of the premium and
the actual cost of the interest on the notes the uh the combined Library increase increas this year is about $83,000 as of right now that is um primarily a result of the one-third mil
calculation being about $50,000 higher year-over-year and then the rest of that is the requests of the library which we I believe will go through next week um the last couple of items here we
had two special emergency authorizations um last year uh a special emergency allows us to raise the funds immediately but we have to pay them back over five years we had a storm system map and a
reassessment last year that we uh adopted special emergencies for so we are paying one5 of the cost of that this year uh that amounts to about $91,000 uh and that's a new line item that will be in the next five
budgets um the total salary and wage increases uh which includes Union non-union and uh and all part-time employees is about $562,000 uh and then we've got the liability and workers comp insurance
from the GIF is about 42507 of an increase we've got a $42,000 increase in health benefits which we actually uh weathering a pretty big storm here the increase in the premium was about 16 $1,000 uh we've been
anticipating increases year-over-year and we've been building up that budget a little bit so we're only seeing um a $42,000 increase as opposed to you know $60 $170,000 increase and then our pension bills uh
you know we we discuss this every year we just get one bill from the state for each fund we have a police and fire retirements fund and we have the Public Employee Retirement fund and uh those total about $92,000 in
increases uh again it's just a bill there's no breakdown on the bill it's just the amount that we owe for the year and then uh the last two uh larger items that we have are Department related they're the recreation department and the DPW Department the
recreation Department's going up about $220,000 we'll go through that when uh when we go through the recreation budget and the DPW budget um combined there's uh there's eight different uh sub
budgets under the entire Public Works header which includes Public Works repair and maintenance recycling uh other Public Works functions uh the shade tree commission is now under the Public Works umbrella buildings and grounds parking lot maintenance vehicle maintenance and the sewer system those
are all combined to and it's only about a $56,000 increase um I'm really including anything here that's about $20,000 more um the total of the items that I just lab that I just named is $1.1 million 1.17 million right and our
taxes are only going up $1 million 1,60 so I've got about $100,000 more of increase in just those couple of line items um than what our total uh our total budget's going up that extra $100,000 savings was the was the revenue that I was talking about so those are
your major drivers uh everything else is is much smaller uh impactful but but much smaller as as it relates to the total budget and that's what uh amounts to about the 6.6% increase as it stands right now okay
um councilwoman canella is our um budget and finance chair councilwoman do you have any comments at this point um I just like to uh say thank you to Chris and RBA um lazette aella as well as my
fellow finance committee members dat glass and clana malari we've had many meetings um trying to figure out how we can get the tax rates down from 6.5 to something uh somewhat reasonable from last year and hopefully we can go
through and get as well as the mayor sorry don't oh um uh as well as the mayor meeting with us uh trying to figure out um how we can uh assist with this and so hopefully this meeting will
um will uh help us to get a better tax rate for the residents very good now one of the concerns that um we have is that we can't possibly um Place upon ourselves as residents or our fellow
residents a a tax increase of 6.53 2% or um I think it's a little bit different uh in Chris's current calculation Chris what's your current calculations you're muted sorry 6.6% right now
6.6% um I think we we definitely want to try to reduce that uh hopefully as much as 2.6% if possible um Chris uh what would that be if we brought it down by um in uh dollars what would be the
reduction to bring it down to 4.0 if possible uh to get to 4% we would need to reduce uh $420,000 from this budget all right and uh as anyone might think that will not
be an easy task um the finance committee myself the ba um uh have had many uh discussions about this and it may be necessary for us to consider strong Cuts
uh across the board which may include hiring freezes and salary freezes we will need to run a needs budget not a want budget and that will go both for the capital and the operating budget um but we want to uh understand what our
department heads uh why our department heads are ask asking for what they're asking for whether they're asking for an increase and or decrease and um that will help us in our deliberations of what we uh need to um cut and um what we
need to keep would that be fair all right then um Miss appella I think and and miss and Council and consel I think right now we'd want to move to our departments yeah yes all right uh which department would you like
to go to first um fire if that's okay 11 oh sorry apologies um please Chief Walker you are up first um uh we'll go to your operating budget
Chris can you tell us where we'd find their operating uh on the operating tabs and hold on mayor I think we're on page we're on page 48 of the large document do you want me to share my screen the same way I'm not sure if everybody can see it in
there that or if you want to keep no I want you to share it because that helps the public understand what we're doing too if the council is in agreement all right and if it becomes burdensome then we can move back to uh the screen the
request um do you want to do that do you want to do requests uh inste of operating all right um Chief uh Chris what we're going to do is we're going to keep the uh we're going to go we're going to close this out go back to full
screen and um we're gonna have the chief speak to his requests um for this year Chief this would be both uh salary and um uh Capal and you can begin with either but if you can just stay with one
of the other so that the council and the assistant budget committee can follow along in their book okay so I'll start with capital then all right everybody let's switch short Capital tabs you may or may not want to uh
remove the sections and then put them back up to you whatever you find more convenient okay chief go ahead okay um I don't know if uh in the past I think Chris you put up that capital budget sheet but I guess if everybody's looking at it doesn't
really matter no uh Chief I think that's a good point we're in a for the Public's benefit we're in a slightly different phase of this uh for the last uh about five years we've all been doing this remotely but um uh we are now by
attorney um advice with the Council must be in person so uh if um Chris if you could uh put the capital budget up on the screen that would be great thanks Chris
absolutely great all right so um to start off with the the vehicle replace um that is something that I uh I've been I communicated with Chris recently
about and um my liaison that 101,000 is something that I'm looking to move and take out of the U the traffic trust account um and the traffic trust account I think everyone's aware of it that's the money that's been
taken in and cleared from the the psse and G project all right um and not take and not keep it in the cap line um there's uh well Chris Chris will have the numbers on how much money is in there but I think that's a A wise choice
for that this these particular vehicles are the traffic Vehicles right we uh are those three there three tracks that we purchased last year we have at least two more years of PSG um in front of us um and and those
cars as uh they did prove themselves this year they are more efficient they're smaller and they're getting the job done uh what's happening is we we just lost another car about a week or so ago those the older the older um police
vehicles that have been used for traffic are just they're just basically their their life is coming to an end um I think when they when the um time is necessary um superintendent molo will give input as to the upkeep and the cost on those so we want to take advantage of
this opportunity to use this trust money to purchase these vehicles um not only will it get us through the psng traffic um for the next couple of years but once that once those details are done we'll be able to even phase we expect to phase
out even more cars that are older that haven't that haven't actually died by them um um so then will be in a uh a very good place with our with our traffic vehicles and when I say traffic Vehicles remember that these small cars
they can't be used for patrol they're not Pursuit rated um they're not beefed up enough uh like the like the tahos uh they could be used for detective bu they could be used for admin uh but primarily we're looking at them for the traffic Vehicles so that we can we can get
through this um without without not having the cars the cars we're not in the business of making money as as one would know from as a police department that's certainly not our priority however with the traffic uh the PS and G details we are bringing in a
considerable amount of money uh each year I think last year after all the offices were paid we were over 600,000 I think even you know closer to seven again chryst will have the precise numbers with that so so as much as I put that in the cap that that would be my um
request and Direction with that I think everyone also knows generally I ask for at least one or two radio cars each year all right um this year I'm not asking for a radio car we we uh given the
circumstances with the dealerships it's been a bit of a nightmare dealing with them it's something that um the Chiefs Association is even looking at they they just um they put put you off in Burgen County we don't buy a lot of cars so when you're buying one or two cars they
kind of just push you off that being the case and the reason why I explain that is because we're still waiting on a Tahoe from last year believe it or not so um we've been able to make it through without that replacement um but obviously we're we're really relying on
it to get here as soon as possible um and that's and that's in doing a large credit to superintendent Mito and and uh our mechanic Pete Stitz um keeping the cars that we do have um at the level that they're able to run so we didn't
fall behind there so the the point being um taking this 101 requesting that it be taken out of the trust not asking for a radio car this year because my um priority is to look at this uh this line I'm going to jump a little further to
the bottom but you'll see the townwide uh alprs and cameras alprs are automatic license plate readers and cameras are are just that they're cameras and townwide means the placement throughout the town um
over the last couple of years uh as you know uh we have been adding cameras throughout different properties in town um I've been able to uh Place some cameras in some areas of town where um it benefits us as a police department
and benefits certainly the town from safety aspects um the way policing is moving forward is that we uh it's based so much more on electronics and and cameras and uh when I watch my detectives work now
it's so much different than when I was a detective years ago they're putting in subpoenas looking for you know your phone records they put in subpoenas and they get cameras from places like McDonald's or CVS that that might have perimeter cameras or even interior cameras it's all about digital um
evidence and it's it's all about um following people if you would when there's a need to um a perfect example of this just happened um this past week I don't know if you saw it in the newspaper um Chief cetti um who who I
will uh is a good friend of mine from pramis uh the premise took full credit for this incident with the um the individual was passing for two of them were passing foral $100 bills that started in Riveredge that started at total Vine and um we were made aware of
it and uh we had one of my detectives quickly went to the cameras followed the individual through the lot watched the car that they got into went to another set of cameras and could see that the vehicle went North on Krick and then we do have a couple of
these in place already like I said we have three plate readers placed around town and what the plate readers do is they catch every single plate that goes past the the camera and then it turns it into we can obviously track that what this detective was able to do is then
say all right let me see where if I can because we only have three where it left town he determined that it left town it looped around in left town um down by Total Wine and went towards pamis we're also part of a network of this sharing
and it's important to know that the the Attorney General's office and the beron county Prosecutor Office supports this program um and they are involved to the extent of helping us they have to house all the memory um that's the way it is we don't house it ourselves that's a
control um and security reasons so that all this information is kept in one spot so that's a good benefit to all the police departments because we don't have to pay for that but it also allows us to jump on the cameras in other areas sure enough our detective was able to tell that the the vehicle had gone into the
Bergen Mall um and we relay that to pramis and interestingly enough um an officer that had left us to go go to pramis stopped the car and long story short that two individuals were caught it's just an example and you know I'm bringing it up because it just happened
last week that's that's the direction that policeing is going into I used to you know beat feet and knock on doors and you know look for people it's more it's it's more that um there this electronic age there's several towns in
Burton County that are that are um either already in this place or or heading here and I just want to at least begin the process if I could to wrap up the town basically what what what you're ideally want to do is you're putting your plate readers and a camera at the
entrances of town which we have about Lieutenant McGinty is running this project for me and um he's he's an ace with it but if I recall correctly I think we have about 15 locations if you think of getting in and out of town um once you once you're there then you're
you got them you know you're not getting in and out of River Edge without us knowing um what vehicle now what is this what does this mean for the residents and what does this mean is is it just a bunch of you know toys for the police department not at all it's it's actually it's it's a a big responsibility it's a
big undertaking for us to be able to look at these and and use them properly um but what it means is you know for your people that come into town and steal the catalytic converters they had to get here somehow you know that that those we haven't had one of those people
from town yet right so it means that you know it's not uh you know um a resident or or um somebody living in town taking it and we we can't see them because they didn't leave come into town these people come into town the burglars come into
town um having a town as good as we do we generally don't have many criminals living in the town so they come into town the shoplifters that come into the south end of town they come into town and they leave town so um there's there's many types of offenses um and
then on the on the you know another area is when we have people and we do every now and then we have an elely people every now and then that may wander off um and this gives us the ability to see hey where are they where where did they leave town what time was it and and then it's not just us right like I said
before there's there's thousands of these things all over the state and and we can and then we just quickly cont trct things once you have a plate you put it in and the system will tell you where it's been and um what dates and what times in fact the individuals that
I've talked about with Total Wine they um they came over the gwb we had that and we suspected they were back so right away we got in touch with Fort Lee PD and you start a network and you start to you know close in on them so that that is obviously that is a huge cost um you
know um and I realized that and I realized where we're at but by not asking for that uh radio car generally that we ask for 880,000 for a radio car so I'm not asking for that this year and by taking that 101 as long as the you know it's approved that's being taken
off of here and moved over to um you know the the trust account um that I think everyone is aware of how that works all right um I'll certainly you guys just stop me when you want to ask questions otherwise I'll go through these other few items all right Chief I think it's best if you go through all
the items and then the council can ask questions great I think that's what we did last year so the the ballistic vest program is just something we do each year those are the ballistic vest that the officers wear we have that with a combination of what we get in state aid or federal aid and that just keeps us uh
where we need to be these vest get replaced basically every 5 years um and we're we're right where we need to be um you know uh meaning that uh we might be a little behind I gave up mine my replacement um a couple years ago but then I finally was able to to jump in
and get a new one last year and as you know I do wear a Class A uniform so I do wear a vest um but that just puts us where we need to be with the with that obviously much needed piece of uh equipment that the officers use the radio car computers is same thing those
those have about a 5year life expectancy our radio cars uh as you know we have four that run around the clock we have two that back them up we are we do have the slo2 program with the officer we have one in the academy now we hopefully will'll expect to have two of those um
and we can use the the ones that are still working the older ones in those two cars which are also the backup for patrol when a car goes down so simply put that's a that's the computer and the radio cars that's the the really that's the lifeline of the officer as far as
all intelligence computer entries license plate checks wants um all all types of information goes through that um so that's something that's these couple items have been there and they continue to be there uh they haven't really increased much I think the vest went up a little bit but not this year
but from the year before all right traffic signs and Cones um that went up a little bit last year and that is where it we kept it the same this year and that's um you know part to do with um not just the PSG project but to make sure that we're keeping our assigns
throughout town uh where they need to be Sergeant diamond is an ace with that um and he stays on top of that for me but it you know we're able to use some of that trust money as we have as uh again I yield to Kristen to recall um how
we've used it for um the purchase of of different things of different signs and cones and stuff that relate to the traffic details but there's more than that there's actual post there's replacement of faded stop signs all the costs in these things go up and um it's
important that we maintain the the level that we're at to so the signage in town is proper and that's obviously for safety for enforcement and um and just to to keep it in the right place right the Beast evidence software is something that um you know we've been looking at
my evidence officers been qu requesting for a while and simply put that's how we keep track of our evidence it's a software system ours is very Antiquated uh it works um but it's it is Antiquated um and um this is something that especially with
accreditation we took note of and we said hey you know we need to start putting this request in to see if we can get there and keep track of this the evidence uh in the police department is obviously very uh seriously taken uh to give you an example how serious it is there's only two people that have a k
have I'm not one of them there's the lieutenant and The Evidence Officer everything is so very very strictly uh monitored and and looked after we have to move evidence from the evidence room to the state to you know uh for court
cases um whether it's sometimes it's blood sometimes it's urine sometimes it's just weapons some it could be a variety of different things to keep that um very uh you know to the to the level that it needs to be with basically can't
be any mistakes with that it can't be compromised in any way this is a software that brings us really to this day and age of where we need to be um and as an example um you know if you remember a few years ago there was a um an issue with the Burton County prosecutor's office where they had an
officer unfortunately a ranking officer over there who was taking evidence out taking narcotics out and um and selling it believe it or not um and that was that was a huge uh you know um blemish I'll say on such a a prestigious uh
department but it was it was an eye opener to a lot of departments uh you know to all of us really to say Hey you know this is how this is how close we we need to keep track of this stuff um you know I'm not concerned about that with my officers and I'm sure the chief over there wasn't either but you know there
there was going to be a bad apple here or there um but more so again it just it just it's a check and balance because the way the software works and um it's just something we we want to at least uh put on the table to to make um the council aware of the need and the
request is there all right I think that is everything right gentlemen for this year yes okay okay so let's stop there for a minute um I'm gonna go to the committee uh citizen portion of the
committee first but uh before that if Mr baglia and uh and Miss uh apella if you can please comment on how moving in items to the traffic trust account impacts the budget for instance does the
5% need to stay in um what does that do to long-term debt so if either of you could opine on what the chief was uh recommending for the first item the 101,000 patrol vehicle replacement I'm happy to to jump in
mayor if uh if's okay with that um the the $101,000 we pulled from the police outside duty truck account um it would reduce the overall debt that you're going to authorize with this ordinance um it would not really so you
you would not need to put in the five the 5% because it would be fully funded through the outside Duty trust so you would save ballpark $5,000 on that um in in in this year um but more importantly it will reduce the
uh cost of debt issuances in the future right and and during my initial uh introduction you know I mentioned that you are paying about $400,000 in interest on short-term debt that we
hadn't issued in the past that those are ordinances that were adopted in 2021 and 2022 we have not issued any debt on 23 or 24 so uh this is something that helps a lot more down the road when we start to incur those debt payments uh and in
the it might be interest only but then as the principal uh requirements start kicking in the impact on the budget is pretty dramatic so um so it might not you know you're talking maybe $5,000 it'll help in cash upfront this year
from the capital Improvement fund um but it but really the benefit is is long term and that is very important because currently I believe uh we're looking at about 5.3 million requests for Capital somewhere around there
and uh we might say well you know um we have these needs and they have to have we have to fund them but in five years that's 20 more than 25 million in uh Debt Service and in 10 years that's $50 million in debt service and as the
principal comes due uh it becomes harder and harder for a council to meet its um its budgetary uh demands uh without put doing layoffs and firing so this is uh
it may to the for the public I know the council understands this and I believe the U committee citizen committee recognizes this but uh long-term debt becomes um basically a death now to uh a council's budget over time Chris or Miss
Le liette I'm just going to use people's first names come mind Chris and is that um if you could uh what other for the council's benefit not that the council's choosing to do this but and for the Public's benefit and for the committee's
benefit um what other elements of this um request of these six items five remaining if the council chooses to move the patrol vehicle into the trust account line could be moved could all uh
could be could the whole group be moved or only a portion of the group just in general what sort of flexibility towards um the budgeting process does the council have in regard to the um Capital requests of the police
department um I would say I would say that you know the vehicle uh the radio car the computer replacement because that is also related to outfitting the vehicles and the traffic signs and Cones um those can all be moved to the outside
Duty trust account those are all used for track or or vehicles um or or related to vehicles uh so I would say that you know it's the it's the 101 plus the six plus the seven for a total of about
114,000 uh the vests I think that they would probably have to stay where they are and the Beast evidence software you know I do have a question whether or not we have ongoing annual uh software re like requirements like upkeep you know I know a lot of the
software that I that I purchase is just an annual uh service contract as opposed to like a one-time purchase um so we have to consider whether that will be future budget impact as well um and then the LPR and the cameras uh are are
definitely are definitely capital okay so Chief why don't we start there and then I'll go to the uh to the citizens budget committee members they they may or may not have questions but I'm going to try to do that for each department so that the we hear them first uh but if
you could answer uh Chris's question about update costs for uh Beast evidence software if we choose to go in that direction sure sure so there's always I don't have the exact number um but any anything uh as Chris said anything with
software uh how they get you simply put um is the is the is the upkeep each year annual um increase on on an item like that I would I would say it's probably it's I don't think it's going to be too much but um there's going to be a cost
there I'm going to say it's somewhere probably around a th000 or 2,000 maybe maybe less though because it's not it's not something um it's kind of stagnant it just stays and it's a good software and they don't they don't have to do a lot with it it's it's unlike our CAD
system right which is like thousands of dollars a year for upkeep um so I don't I don't think it's that significant of uh of an annual cost again I would speculate between um a th somewhere around a thousand all right um that
that's what I say about that the one other thing if I could that I just didn't put in there if and I'm sorry about this but with the townwide alprs and the cameras um about half of that a little less than half of that is the or the plate readers on the radio cores and
um that we currently have they're they're over 15 years old and they will no longer be um able to be repaired by the company they just they're just not doing it anymore um so that is um obviously a major concern because those cars roll
24/7 and they pick up plates um non-stop which is very very important that's that's been in place for a long time so I just wanted to point that out because it's not just the placement of the cameras and the plate readers I wanted you to be aware that um in fact that's that's for the vehicles
um it's for the use and also the the one other thing about them is you know I don't mean sound like a salesperson but currently it is if you buy one of the ones for the car you're able to get another one free um again I don't work for the company it sounds like I do but
that's a real fact um because they're they're very expensive okay chief um so I think for the council's benefit before the next meeting which is March 8th um you'll need to uh find out what the update costs currently are for the uh Beast
evidence software uh you'll also need to break that 170 into two different components replacement for current cars and not and you'll also need to provide evidence uh about um uh this what you
said uh about that um that they will no longer be repaired and their current condition um so that the council and the uh committee can make an informed decision on that uh I appreciate that information
all right um could I go um uh Donna Donna Sanders uh questions comments concerns um just one question how many cameras um does that purchase throughout
town so to to wrap up the whole town I think we need about a dozen cameras somewhere around you know I'm going to say it's it's like 11 to 13 you know again I my lieutenant oversees that say and if you look at the town right um
if you could if you could picture of it Don you've been around uh in town as long as I have I think we know how to get in and out of town you know you're you're looking at our main thoroughfares which are easy right the North and South the kak hakak EV howand Dev Midland Dev but then you have your your areas of uh
you know Boger Road North End Myrtle Road Myrtle AV North End Summit AV North End all right and some other areas down the south end and and the the um the importance of buttoning up is not that the criminals you know um you know
they're very smart sometimes but you want to if you're going to do it you want to do it so it's it's um complete so you're not leaving that little corner open where sure enough you know by luck of the drawer or by them being clever they go in and out that area
okay thank you Mike that's the only question I had thanks Don uh Chief I just is this something that can be phased in or can you use can you can you if you bought this today could it be implemented by the end of
the year is how fast can this thing be put in place so it will move along pretty quickly you know you have to wait for the the product and then and then you have to install it and installing it you know you're you're getting somebody out there that's you know another part of this cost somebody's out there they're on a a pole truck um putting
this up it's it's connection it's the um computer people involved but it it move it would move along pretty quickly if um if we decided to do it I would certainly think by the end of the year we could have it in place so this isn't a
multiphase program because of installation or because of Welling the equipment that it would take a number of years in order to do that's a so no it doesn't it wouldn't take a number of years but what the good point that you brought up there Al is you know
generally when you do these things you know and I and I respect the fact that it you know sometimes you're just not going to have the money so you're going to do it in phases but generally when you do it you want to do it um with electronics and things like this you want to do it if you do it at one time
it's most efficient right because you have the people out there working and you have the cameras that are all going to be at the same phase right these Electronics basically you know six months right if you look at a you look at a TV PC Richards it's old in six months cameras are basically you're going to run through the same problem
they grow old so if you can if you can get your system to be on the same page um yes you're going to take a hit every now and then to update them but um it the system works more efficiently you're not dealing with different softwares for example you're not dealing with different vendors and you're also not
having the people come out to say hey all right we can do this many this year we'll do this many next year all right well we're out here it would be great if we could put them in now because we'll give you this week to do all the installs you know um that's just efficiency you know that makes complete sense to do it that way but obviously
there's there's you know we have to be aware of the budget too but optimally that would be the way to do it is to Bam do it put it out there get it up and uh and be in place okay this is uh you said it's roughly 15 cameras that you're
looking at it's somewhere around there right and your equipment in the has been updated or your computer system is able to handle the the installation of it you got a A yeah so so the neat thing it is
like I as I had mentioned um because of the way uh because this information is so sensitive the Attorney General mandates that this be kept at a at a central location which is awesome for us because the amount of you know and I'm not a computer guy but I know it's it's
a word like a terabytes is like ridiculous the amount of storage that you need we don't have to worry about that we we it all gets sent all goes okay it all goes to the county and the other part of that is because then it's shared like I like I the example I gave my detective was able to jump into
another system and found the car over at the Town Center that's not our cameras obviously that we share those cameras okay great and and I just wanted to compliment you on the the traffic trust fund and and trying to you know save us some money that way thank you that was a
great idea thank you thank you thank you too Chris Greg uh good morning Chief how are you good good hey uh again just again with that trust account that's awesome um do you see that account staying
solvent like for you know next couple years like would there ever be a possibility of tapping into that again absolutely um again Chris will be the guy that has the the hard number on it but um just in our numbers again um
this year you know and I'm I'm generally conservative with my numbers um but I'm I always corrected by Chris because he's the he's the Precision guy but um this year we we should have cleared after everybody's paid and done um somewhere
around 6 700,000 the last couple of years we were certainly somewhere around I'm going to say 400 3 400,000 and now we have a couple of years left now I don't expect as much next year because um we're starting we're starting a
little late we're starting at April and the way the construction plan is being uh explained so far is that we're going to have two crew out all right so we may have a few less officers however if you keep in mind the fact that um you saw a
lot of out of town cars in River Edge well they won't be here if there's less details it'll you know priorities Riveredge obviously all right um so so we do we certainly expect you know to to continue to get these These funds and
put in there and um and and you know use it wisely you know obviously you know we I don't I don't intend to squander it anywhere this is taking advantage of a moment say hey if we can get these cars in place um you know we're going to be in a good place for a while that you
know we won't have to you know the maintenance on them the warranties on them all that type of stuff is just makes Common Sense yeah no nice job with that and then the last comment I have with that Beast software can that be covered like you said and I know with some other programs that there's a
yearly upgrade can that be covered under your current uh service contract in O and it would it would be yeah that's where it would be it would be covered in the service contract but I think that's Chris is merely pointing out that I think Chris is that it's going to have
an impact even though it's goes over to the service contracts it's still something to be aware of it wouldn't be paid for out of a yearly cap it's paid for the the upkeep of it moves over once the purchase there operating okay that's
all I have thank you the the basis of my question was I just wanted to make sure that we didn't have a $113,000 expense every year because then the argument is that it's not really a capital expense it's just an ongoing cost but if it's the one-time expense to actually purchase and
implement the software and then it's just nominal annual increases or annual Service uh contract maintenance fees then then we're okay that's exactly what it is Chris thank you all right uh that uh the three um
citizen members that are uh remote Ken y any question comments all right uh from the C questions or comments for the chief I have a really quick question um I don't think we're getting a lot of bang for the buck on this capital budget
stuff but just real quick Chief um I'm just wondering so if orell has cameras when people enter their burrow do we need cameras everywhere where people exit borrow same thing with the milord and promise since we're all
collaborating coordinating is there some overlap like maybe we don't need a camera everywhere that people exit River Edge because someone has a camera where people enter orale that's a great question and the and the answer is that another positive
part of the fact that we do work through the county is that they keep track of that so for examples the reason why I'm not giving exact numbers on the cameras or or where where um and and again my lieutenant working closely with the with the prosecutor's office we're aware that they are looking
at certain areas they are looking for example over by hacken sck EV all right um so if they put a camera there we're obviously we're not putting another one there um we're we're looking at the we're looking at the roads that that are going to pertain to us and that we know I'm going to say the county will have a
less interest in it but certainly when the county and and then what happens the county looks towards the state right because the state throws them up on like and 17 and place you know different places like that I know pramis has some cameras there but plate readers are are you know so it's a trickle down and
nobody's nobody's uh everybody wants the bigger dog to take care of it for obviously you know if the state did everything it'd be great even though it's trickles down the taxpayers either way but you know uh that's how that works thank you any other member of council may I have go ahead pretty um
following the Dave's question hi Chief um is it um the the state and the county doesn't help at all with the high frequency roads for the cameras no they do sure but you know it it depends on the
location right so they're trying to do the state and we're trying to do the town and you're going to over you're when I say overlap you're going to look at areas disabled GE what is the priority of let's say um ker kamak and
and um Akerson right right the right Kinder kak and Route four let's call it all right that's a huge priority to us all right um the state's going to look at that and go not really for the state you know they they want to do their interstates um they want to do their
State Properties you know their their uh the parking lots that are on the um you know on the turnpike and things like that and then if you step down to the county it's basically the same thing the county will have more of an interest you know interest you know like I said theyve seem to have an interest over
back and Sack EV so we're going to work with that obviously we're going to take advantage of everything we can um and that's where I think we will see it more being Riveredge because we don't really have a lot of State um area um is that uh you know we're going to see the county stepping in saying hey we're
gonna throw a camera over here that's hey thanks that's awesome thank V Barry hey chief um I had a question about the uh the cameras um did you did you say that there four uh the roads and also into the police cars to
upgrade those cameras yes so so the uh not not the cameras so we have different systems right and some you know we have uh what called mobile video uh recorders which are the cameras on the police car itself that have to deal with really the police
car and the officer they're not for uh Gathering intelligence as much they're the they're the ones that so when the police car is in a pursuit or there's somebody in the back that's under arrest those cameras take care of all that we're in a good place with that that
system is is running and it's fine um for the most part we have an issue we contend with it the cameras that I'm talking about the out of out of this system which would be the alpr as the automatic License Plate Reader go on top of the radio cars and what happens
when the radio cars are driving around is any plate that's that's around that car going in any direction in a parking lot it just sucks all those plates in and and it records it and it'll spit out right away if the car is wanted if it's uh not registered um and that's and
that's what the patrol will use right away to say hey let me stop the car let me you know do that investigative wise we are able to go back right so we get a burglary and we say hey we had a description of a of a vehicle we had a partial plate on a vehicle we can take
that that that um information that we have and put it into a system and the system has all the plates that have been run and gathered in River Edge that the cars have been Gathering you know the 247 period um 20 you know um and and do
that comparison and then investigatively start to look and focus in on individuals all right the plate readers on the cars have been around for a long long time um it's just that they're uh phased out and as you know certainly with the mayor's request I can present
the specifics on that um these companies after a period of time and I'm thinking we're around 15 17 years the companies either just leave or the or the equipment is just so outdated that they won't they won't service it anymore and that's that's where we've got where we are we certainly have gotten our
lifetime out of it um and they they have proven to be a very valuable tool you're you're going to see them on you know most you the majority of radio cars throughout the state and municipalities and um you know the troop cars and
everything any other member of council I do have a question thanks Chief good morning uh on the vehicle replacement I mean I think it's a great idea to consider the traffic trust account but how many vehicles are we talking about this time around this would be
three in total in total they're they're small quars members so they're that's you know that's why we moved to them because the you know the tahos that you see are you know I I generally ask like I said I would be asking for ,000 I I I believe I
can get away with not asking for that this year to help to help uh you know prioritize these other needs um but these smaller cars are are um something that we took a look at you know it's in the direction of hey can we be greener
um and can we just pay less for these radio cars and um and you know we did purchase them and they and they've proven themselves so far um and I think again if there's a win and if there's an opportunity from Super nintend Belo maintenance wise were in a good place
using less Fuel and they're not equipped like the like the radio cars like the you know the patrol cars you know those things are stacked with equipment they're stacked with computers the back stacked with stuff the gun racks the every every n the cameras that I mentioned the plate readers those cars
are are loaded these cars just have the lights and they have um a radio charger that's it we don't even put a radio in them we use our portable radio so they're they're basically as efficient as we can get we if you remember we talked about electric I I
think sometime down the road we're going to be electric but electric is is just not proven itself in in most Emergency Services yet okay and then just just to level set whatever everything that we think we're talking about the traffic trust account so Chris confirmed that we
can actually move line radio card tough books and the traffic sign and Cone devices under the TRU account plus the vehicle replacement am I correct that would be to Chris not to Chris Chris uh would you please confirm
of the six uh hold on two four of the six items I believe you said three items and if you could confirm which three items we could move the the 101,000 for the police vehicle replacement the radio car computer replacement for 6,000 and the
traffic signs cones devices for 7,000 for a total of 114 okay great and then just to finalize on my uh my thought process here here once I'm going through Chief this is for you the Beast evidence software just to
confirm that that is a one-time purchase and annual increases maintenance will be out of the OEM line as Services once once and if that is implemented correct yes the the annual maintenance will fall under my operating under uh maintenance
contracts and again I expect it to be minimal um comparatively to to my other contracts okay thank you uh but the chief is going to get us those numbers by the and the breakout for the cameras versus the um cars
yep thank uh anyone else all right uh Chief Let's uh move to uh your operating budget uh and requests that you are making or any changes that you're making uh there or requesting there everyone is Page
47 and uh Chris if you can put that up that' be great okay chief take it away all right so so um you know I think I'm fortunate when it comes to um my operating budget and uh certainly when I talk to uh
superintendent Belo who has a lot more going on um mine doesn't move too much as you can tell um I I um I think I'm as efficient as I can be with this budget um this year you know um just taking you
know in simple looks um I had a minimal increase $200 for law books um I had a decrease in crossing guard uniforms a little bit because we've caught up we need more crossing guards but we're we're okay with um their equipment um
the police reserves while I while I show a 2,000 decrease Reon there is because we're moving over to the SLO ones um I was sorry what where line of line item are you right all right I you know I'm I was looking overall just about the
increase and decreases but if you want to go by line by line that that's fine too I'm sorry well we want to be efficient Chief so um if you could move through the pages but um you can skip over any that you are really not making
any major changes to and if the if the committee or the council wishes to draw your attention back to that we can after you do your presentation that works okay so let's find the first change uh the
first one first change 105 supervisors uh full-time an increase of 15.49% with a budgeted of 1.46 million right so you know those are those are numbers that just take place
out of for contractual with with increases in percent um you know that they they come from um really Chris generates those and puts them together he's the uh the the numbers guy with that there's not much I have to do with that that has to do with contracts and
um and if I'm correct Chris that's not just the wage increases but uh you know salary and wages so it includes uh the benefits in there too this is just uh this is just the contractual salaries okay and all the components of the salary right so um you
know we we look at the what the contract says that uh needs to take place and then if anything in the civilian area is where I I give input I don't have many civilians um I'm uh you know I can say this they're they uh they they certainly
deserve what they're getting if not more um but we we also yield to we wait to see what comes around for the uh for the increase for the civilians I'll say or that number that comes up after you guys do all your calculations right um so
there's not there's really no input from me on that other than to say hey I'm certainly um proud of everyone that works here and I think uh think anyone's making more than you know anyone has anything outrageous salaries or outrageous uh increases taking place all
right um are there any questions about that that that would fall my area there's two things Chief um you've kind of B that you you don't think anybody's making that's good uh we appreciate that but we don't want to be here until 2:3 in the afternoon so if you could keep uh
you know if you could keep your comments a little bit more efficient um and uh the finance chair has a question I just have um a question for Chris because we discussed this before just for the public um do you see uh the account
24004 it has a huge amount but I just want Chris to explain that that is It's a combination of several different accounts consolidation yes i' I've corrected that um on the on my working version so the
uh the 546 over uh over here 546,000 civilians part-time is actually inclusive of the dispatchers parttime and the crossing guards that are directly below it you can see that those are zeros the
breakdown is 144 4,612 for civilians part-time 26,7 for uh for crossing guards part-time and 141 213 for dispatchers
part time so the numbers are not that far off from 2024 um but yes the there there was an error where those were Consolidated all as civilians parttime um and technically they are all civilians parttime just a
subcomponent of the subcomponent uh that wasn't broken out uh but it's fixed now on the current version that's for that page thank you in great Chief uh if you could just scan the page and talk about any changes that
there's uh the next change would be um 105 which is maintenance contracts which I guess is page 49 all right everyone and what I'm looking at can we go back to 48 uh Chief uh well is this a question of Chief let
him finish um let him finish his presentation and then we go to questions only because it'll be a more efficient way moving go ah CH so the maintenance contracts maintenance contracts uh tend to go up every year you know and just a reminder for those who are new to the council and haven't been with uh with me
since I've been Chief you see there is a there is a jump from certainly when I took over um in the maintenance contracts but some of that had to do with um just a properly aligning account in the first year or two I realigned many of the uh the line items in these
accounts so that it was reflected more exactly what it should be so so basically everything in maintenance contract is a maintenance contract and it wasn't uh it wasn't out of place like it was for a while so the increase this year is just um increases on a few of
the contracts themselves but um we had to deal with a a situation where our phones and our radio recording system um just it just crashed and um and we couldn't repair it so we had to replace that so I was able to replace that with
last year's budget as far as the um you know the hard stuff that we had to pay for but there is an an annual contract with these things and it's um you know it's around $99,000 right there so if you take the
9,000 that there's no there really had no way around that for the to record our phones and to record our radios um and then then you add just the uh increases from that just take place in in other areas like quick Tech has an increase um
or CSI which is our CAD system has been increased that's how you come up with that um approximately $10,000 increase all right it is it is higher than normal um but that's because of the the replacement of that recording equipment and what it cost what we did with one of
them is we we made it so that we're uh because they seem to have a fiveyear life expectancy so we're leasing it because it was seemed to be much more efficient and I'm not big on leases but in this case it just makes sense when we did our homework on it and looked at other towns and things like that right
so that's that um can I just make a global comment about the math here so in this column where it says percent over prior year it's percent increase from what was budgeted over the prior year correct so
for example here what the chief's describing now it's actually a 15% % increase over the amount spent it's a 9.37 increase over the amount budgeted that applies to every item in this report I just want to make everyone
aware of that just a math comment no I love math comments Chief uh continue we're gonna hold off uh questions uh to uh when you finish your presentation and we'll move back to page 47 and so page 50 line 17
74 this is the crossing guard uniforms so we able to bring that down a th because we just we can catch up it's basically so we caught up all right I say we save electricity and keep it ey no it's hard
to um page 51 page 51 line 185 investigation so that's just the you know my investigation detective Bureau um you know he's running things efficiently over there hasn't got you know that's just $500 that's just to
keep anything that he needs in the detective Bureau which is minimal things but we looked at that and we said hey you know we can bring that down to 150 so we did um 188 on page 52 are the police reserves right so um
this is this is the request I put in for Chris um everybody but for Chris because he's the man that handles it is uh we're we know we're phasing out of the reserves we have three left um and uh you know and I hope they don't go anywhere because they're awesome um but
we know we need to to change that program and we're going to move to the SLO ones which are basically the same character um it's just it's just uh a properly set in place with the state the way it should be in their hiring and in their training and all that so we anticipate that this year we're going to
get some people to put them through the academy and these are these are volunteers at this point uh I know I've spoken to the mayor about it and some town do offer a nominal amount hourly rate um this could be any one of you by the way this is uh this is not a young kid it can be a young kid that wants to
be a police officer but they generally go for sleo too but it could be it could be any anyone in town that wants to basically help and volunteer we get the minimal training we got to suit them up though we got to put them in uniforms and make them and make them look like they need to look so I'm saying by the
end of the year I want to have that program in place and keep in mind that program saves us quite a bit of money because when you see reserves out there that means it's not a cop out there if you see a cop out there when it could have been a reserve that's money so it's
important that we we get that program back up to where it is and I'm asking for 4,000 to do that right I'm just goingon to interrupt for a second for the Public's benefit SLO stands for special law enforcement uh no give give me SLO again Chief Special law
enforcement officer yes so um so that people understand that acronym and there are three classes and that's the chief is referring to when he uses the word SLO keep going Chief right so uh line 200 on page 52 is the wellness program we brought that down by a thousand
because uh you know um they assure me that that's going to be the same cost and by crunching our numbers we know that that's what we need to cover that the wellness program or the off we started that last year um and that's where the officers um are uh every one
of us is going to speak with a therapist for an hour um and where it goes from there is between the officer and and the counselor and that's it um aren you also page 53
peard but maybe you don't have a comment on that that'd be fine because that would move us along no G took my PE card away they're in the proc this time I'm gonna start with the council is there uh and I'll start with the finance chair is there any item that you would like for
us to look at regardless of the page it's on uh yes Chief I just want to go to page uh 48 the I'm sorry what page 48 and it's uh 24013 right so it was steadily going down when
you uh became Chief because I remember that was one of the things that you um said that you were going to definitely do and you did it I'm just wondering why it has gone up um exponentially sure so it it um it generally has to do you know
um the curve balls of things that can happen are just it could be Personnel that are out um and that's what you know a good portion of that is from last year I had a couple officers um that were out with surgery um you know one of them 900 hours another one was 800 hours and then
a couple other ones were in hundreds um so once the once those officers are out that um opens up for overtime um we also uh we have we have officers that are assigned to County details um we have an officer that's signed to the swap team we have an
officer that's signed to Rapid deployment for us and why we get a minimal amount of return as far as uh money back from the county or uh really County um they they can cost and because of uh the way programs have gone there's
a call out more for them you know we've had a lot of unrest in the county regarding you what's going on overseas with protests and they get called out more um so that cost us a little bit more not not a huge amount but it is it is something that increased last year
and um but that being said you know we have had the SWAT team in town um I think three times since I've been Chief and um every town in Bergen County benefits from from uh the way this is put together by all the towns chipping in so it's um it's important that we
continue to do that but that could you know that certainly was a a slight increase what I also will say since you brought that you know in bringing it up I'm starting this year um I you know my secretary is I'm I'm critiquing the overtime even more closely um because in
my I I just it's always it's always a thing of mine I I just you know want to know where the money is being spent and how so we're looking at it on a daily basis basically every day she coming in I'm getting a report um to see what caused it the day before and to see if we can even make it tighter than than we
have um because it's it's obviously a very concerning number as you were pointing out yes thanks Chief and then just um us traffic it's a page 51 just one other question 240 1882 what are the last number uh it's
182 page 51 page 51 right is that is just that to keep that steady or or can we get that lower or is that something you just want yeah actual PRI it it has to do with um you know the
the it's areas of traffic that don't really fall into the cones and stuff that um that uh you know we need to purchase and um the increase over you know up from last year is just basically it's it's just an increase in cost on
items and um and again Sergeant uh Diamond being as efficient as he is he's you know catching up and making sure all these things are in place you know if we took if we took a you know you want to take a little off that you want to take a thousand off of that you know um my
concern would be is just that we don't fall behind in the place where we're going to be we're trying to keep it where it is but you know um you know you want to take a th off that I guess I could say we'll take a th off of that I think um we be okay I just like to keep it um I
don't want to fall behind the point and then have to come to you a few years from now and say hey I need you know 10,000 for it but that's that's what that okay better safe than sorry on that one that's that's kind of how I look at it but again if you if you know $1,000
isn't going to kill me on it I'll just you know we'll we'll to figure it out no that's fair I think that's all the question questions I have okay hi Chief I have a question going back to the first page 47 the superior fulltime
salary does that include the additional sergeant that you requested no no right Chris uh this this does include a promotion yes a promotion this one does it includes the the the difference between
the cost of a patrol and the sergeant so I've got that at about $112,000 so I I did include that in this number all right well I have to be you know and to be honest with you that it's a position completely Chris so it's not
a it's not an increase it's not a promotion okay it's the request for a Sergeant's position in in so if a if a patrolman was promoted to a sergeant then you would also be hiring a patrolman right
because you wouldn't hire a sergeant straight away they would it would have to be internal promotion right so we have a sergeant on Deck we have one waiting to be promoted right so so if he makes if he makes Sergeant he wouldn't be
replacing a sergeant he'd be a new sergeant but would you replace would you replace as a patrolman yes so then there would need to be a full new patrolman in which would be in the patrol section so that that is not included right now the
only thing that's included is the cost of a promotion but not the cost of a replacement patrol officer right that's what I that's what I figured okay uh Chief um Lizette um if I understand it correctly our um table of
organization is currently full so you'd be asking Maybe I'm Wrong on that uh but I assume that you're asking that we would then be altering our table of organization yes we would be adding a sergeant to the table of
organization um right now we're full to the extent of the patrol if you recall we we made so that we could add patrolman if we needed to and in fact we just did that I have a uh a captain position that's
expecting retire this year um and so without getting into great detail not to confuse anybody so that extra patrolman if you would is is going to is going to move right in so we would't have to worry about that but for this purposes we are adding a completely new position
for sergeant okay I mean uh it's up to the council but one of the things we started with is that we were not looking to promote or hire this year so right now Chris uh you would unless the council wishes to make that move right now you
would be removing the 12K and not increasing anything else uh but if the council wishes to consider it at this time they would need to there'd be need to be a motion in second to uh make a
change uh up uh if not then uh because it requires a change in the table of organization so I put it to the council now for uh debate uh would the council wish to alter the budget uh with full understanding that they're considering
altering the table of organization I have to say that councilwoman um not cons um yes uh who is on line with you mean magic giobi just the two of us so um our uh labor
attorney had recommended that we uh that that not recommended his uh his thinking was there this is not something that uh we are required to consider because we just made a change uh but it is up to
the council to to uh if the council is seriously considered making a change of organization uh that would increase our supervisory staff uh by another patrol officer so um is the council uh
interested in making that move understanding that it would increase 12,000 plus a police officer Chris quck real quick a police officer uh with health benefits I think that's 150,000 that no maybe not for a patrol
officer that'd be about 125,000 that's probably I mean if if they have a family plan it's impossible to to know what what health plan that they would have because the difference between a a single and a family plan is probably $330,000 by itself so um if
you're thinking 50,000 for the the uh salary potentially you know between 20 and $50,000 for health benefits and another um probably $20,000 in uh
pension and uh payroll taxes okay then then then yes about $120,000 or so and that's not in here right now that's not in here so that' be raising the budget by another 120 to 125
,000 is the council uh so is the council interested in moving in that direction uh if not then the would the so I need a motion to um for us to consider it a motion in second to um to consider
increasing the uh draft budget by about uh 120 125,000 I guess if there is none then it then it fails is there a way for the chief to explain why he wants to do this absolutely um
Chief uh can you explain why we would uh increase the budget by that much yeah how critical is it why we would need to change the table of organization when the last time we made the change you you had said this would be satisfactory right um so what I just
just for purposes of because it's it's a lot to explain here I did request several months ago to meet with the personnel subcommittee to give the details on this and it was just decided to to put it here which is fine but it is a lot to explain um I'm trying to make it as simple as I can what we've
run into and what departments are running into um really Statewide are uh because of these uh body warn cameras because of opa request because of Discovery request we're inundated inundated with having to review these
we're also required to review the body warn cameras for uh evaluation purposes um and there has to be random ones there have to be uh take place by supervisors it goes all the way up the chain even through the the chief to be involved it's a lot of time you know when
something goes out for Discovery so you make a a radio car stop the officer gets out of the car the cameras the four cameras in the car are on the camera on the officer is on the camera on the backup officer is on if there's an arrest and there's more officers involved you could have four officers
with all those body War C on we have to review every piece of footage before it goes out to a defense attorney and what's killing us Statewide and unfortunately they're not really doing much for us at a state level are the Oprah requests we literally have people putting in for Oprah requests because
they just think it's cool to look at our videos all right but we can't send them out unless we review every part of that right now my uh detective Lieutenant he can get inundated and just crushed by that which means he's not doing his job to run the detective Bureau and and you
know all the cases and things like that and we're also exceptionally exceptionally lucky to have a record clerk like Carol burn um she's makes minimal um salary and um because she is
so so um good at what she does she she picks up for this um for this you know a ton of time that we do she can basically start to look through it for us but at the end of the day we still still have to look for it it's not the proper way you shouldn't have your records Clerk
looking at these items and um you know she's not making the final decision because at the end of the day that's that's me but um I rely on my lieutenant certainly but he's a paid police officer and he's trained to to do that and he knows what we need to edit you have to
edit these things if it's an aid call and someone doesn't have their clothes on you have to take it out if it's a domestic violence call and there's a child there you have to make sure you edit certain things if they say certain things things um you know uh civilians put on request for something and there's
talk on there about the individual's uh lifestyle or whatever it is you have to edit that out that's a ton a ton of time and what we found Statewide is that um in little departments like ours we get we we're getting crushed we we're losing
I'm losing a supervisor and it needs to be a supervisory level why because as as you know we're paramilitary and an individual needs to be able to say hey I need this and any explanation for this and and that's why I'm bringing it down to a sergeant rather than a lieutenant doing it but um I I do believe it should
be a sergeant um and that that's real quickly put guys so um Lizette and I had the conversation with mat Jobe just about that particular factor and uh our our labor attorney uh who handles this on a
regular basis um feels that it uh does not need to be done by a sergeant or even patrol officer it can uh be done by a civilian that in fact his firm offers this for many police departments when they are overwhelmed to cover it at a
minimal cost Lizette if you could chime in on that conversation yes he said um it doesn't have to be a sworn officer it could be a civilian and um that his office has done that with opah requests they do the blurring and everything and
it wouldn't even be an attorney doing it it would be a pargal at a much lower rate so there are there are options I have to tell you you're you're talking about Oprah requests guys yes that's a different animal that's that's a portion of this right that's a portion of this
and we do yield to our attorneys when we have a question about what we're giving out for Oprah you know I don't know I don't know exactly how that would work that they're going to do this with the turnaround that requires you know a week to 10 days at any rate with the amount of footage but I'm talking about
discovery Quest all right I'm talking about things that go out to attorneys things that go out to individuals who are defending themselves that's a completely you know Oprah is a big part of it but we're also talking about investigations and we're also talking about internally what we do we have to
review this as per the AG's guidelines to make sure that things are being reviewed um for for example each shift or each week Sergeant has to review stuff it has to be reviewed to make sure they they random reviewing they're doing
it properly that all falls under that's a supervisory spot you can't have a civilian come into the police department and say you know hey what what are the patrolman how are the sergeants reviewing how it's just that's just unheard of Oprah sure you can have
somebody look at Oprah it still has to be approved at the end of the day I'm responsible for what comes out of the police department you know I don't know that match Kobe's going to say you're not responsible anymore Chief um you know we'll give it to a civilian to take care of I'd be shocked so so Chief I am
I I'm not a lawyer uh we simply investigated this uh recently uh we can ask Matt to do a memo on this a confidential memo for the council uh and we can uh revisit this uh on March 8th
only for the sake of time that's fine I think if if I would uh could confer with Matt on that so he has an understanding so we're on the same page cuz I just don't think we're on the same page with that that's also the reason why you know I just I would have liked to bring this up at a personel subcommittee some time ago
because it's obviously very involved and it requires some detail okay um Chief why don't you have a conversation with Matt Lizette want you also have a conversation with Matt and uh if necessary the council could do an emergency close session if there are
questions uh before the eth or after the eth okay sounds good all right Chief please move on oh no not Chief Council I have a question regarding this uh Chief based on your knowledge can the captain covered
this so I have people that could cover it but what happens is their responsibilities are then taken away for what they do now right will that affect the captain's responsibility yes because the captain is responsible for other things if you
look and again I'd love who would have had it in front of you but if you look at the table where organization and responsibilities you can see I would be able to show you where where uh it would take away from what they're doing um and keep in mind um as far as you know
efficiency in the table Organization for those of you who were hear from me from the beginning I removed two full-time patrolmen from the table of organization um when I was hired When I Was Made cheap um you know so it's not I'm it's
uh this is of for a reason it's not to make the form bigger thank you my other question on the budget items is page 49 uh number one I'm sorry 051 police cards
last year you spent over $7,000 what is that for I'm gonna have to ask Chris what that number is because we don't have anything in that line that was the the the balance of the uh of the Chevy Pursuit vehicle oh okay
so we put it there but it came out of the budget it came I didn't that wasn't extra so that that would be a zero what happened is the vehicle went up in cost by the time we purchased it and that's happening to me again you know um with the that is this one that we're waiting
for by the time it came around um we we had to move it up and cost so that money correct me if I'm wrong Chris that money was taken from other lines and put there and I think Chris put it there just for purpos of saying hey that's what we actually spent the money on that's yeah
I mean we want to make sure that we charge everything to the account that has the appropriate description but um you know to to your point earlier you know when you have an a line item for example that us traffic other that we talked about that had a
$44,000 uh budget but only $1,800 spent that extra $2,200 was put towards this right A lot of these accounts that maybe were UND spent um absorb the cost of the with the extra cost of the vehicle okay so I just want to make sure
we don't need any money to put put aside for the next vehicles or anything no it's expected with the cap or you know or in this case the trust fund um that will make the full purchases this is a unique situation where the cost of the car can go up and
it I I don't think it's right I don't think it's fair and again it's something that I personally have brought up um I am on the Executive Board of the Bergen County Chiefs asso iation is something I personally brought up that I think we need to address Statewide I think we look at these um these methods of purchasing and everything looks good on
paper until you really do it and it's it's not working the way that I think it should be okay thank and my last question is on page 52 the police reserves 188 can we keep it at 2,000 or you need the 4,000
since we haven't used what number was it I'm sorry 188 page 52 so so that's where um again it's we're moving to that special law enforcement officer one and um we have
two or three reserves left guys and um and they're again I'd love them to be around forever but they're they're aging out and that program is aging out so in order to in order to get us to where we need to be I think that $4,000 is um is
what we need to do to suit up these new officers and take care of their training uniforms are disc very very expensive okay um go ahead very quick hi chief on page 52 the wellness program
which was there from last year uh the insurance doesn't cover the valance program for no the um once an officer goes there if the officer choose uses to continue then it goes to their
insurance that's between them and the and the um and the counselor this is a program where we're saying hey everyone in the police department is going to talk to a counselor at least once a year it's becoming um more widespread throughout the county and um it's
something that I jumped on board it's um it's um it means it means a lot to me as far as the the mental health of the officers the um what I heard from my profession that a lot of uh the mental
health programs and um are being covered these days by from the insurance especially after co uh so I was just curious sure I think you know and lizette's aware of this and Lizette and I talk throughout the year about um you
know there different things that come up where we have to get officers physicals and and taking care of different things and this just isn't doesn't seem to be uh one of those areas that's covered by the insurance un fortunately and just for my knowledge what is an e
like e ticket uh the the amount that we are spending on an e tiet what is an e ticket actually so those are those are numbers that um you know interestingly enough that's a number that you like to see go up because that means the officers are write more tickets we have to pay for
those tickets they you know the uh the way they're they're uh the the the system that's used used and the actual tickets and you know themselves that are generated um it's the process it's the um the upkeep and the records keeping
it's a it's a system that we use um so when that number goes up you see we spent over I went over budget last year by $460 I'm okay with that because that means they wrote a lot more tickets hopefully not to you guys but but they wrote a lot more tickets and the the the Publications and
office supplies that's separate like the office supplies in includes the computers and everything or just the what line is that Publications what line are you on it's on page 49 49 uh what is the last three digits because it's it
says but it what are the last it's 033 and 036 on page 49 on page 49 033 the first two uh oh 033 they are um they are so Publications or that the minimal amount
that I I use to to actually buy like the law books that the uh detectives and Patrol use you know that they actually refer to um we buy we we buy a couple year we've um we've gone over last year so that's
that has to do with uh those Publications I put that in there that probably has to do with the academy um but you can see we're right around 200 but what we noticed is we went over last year by a large amount but that had to do with another purchase kind of along the lines like Chris said we need we
realized we needed to purchase something that we normally don't and we said hey where are we going to put this and it properly would go under publication but it's not a regular item that we buy annually but what in doing so we looked at it and we said hey you know these annual uh books that we are purchasing are going up in in cost and um we've
been you know probably putting them in another line here or there but um that's just the cost of publications of books you know we do have some hard books that the officers use on a daily basis when they you know they Mak rest they need to look up a law they need to look up a a procedure on how to type complaints
things like that and the 036 covers the computers I'm just curious that's so 036 are office supplies so office supplies are paper Staples pens pencils pads um and uh you know other items that are
needed just throughout the throughout all the desk that take place um within the way we operate um if I have a question um in your the salary and wages in your request U for new sergeant you specifically say that
um it would not cause for a new hire of a patrol officer since patrol officer masterio Pio is ready to take Blue's Place correct it wouldn't but keep in mind that that doesn't include if we have a retirement right because if
there's a retirement then I replace somebody but as we stand right now officer Master Pierro stands as an extra officer um but um and as I think I explained when I uh had a when I met with the mayor and Council a couple
meetings ago it's proven to be uh an um worked out way to our advantage because of the things that I had happen with scheduling I an officer out for 3 months Master Pierro jumped right in he jumped in from being in class 2 is receiving $45 an hour to a
patrolman who receives a lot less than that and um because patrolman S at the bottom of the scale Class 2 is just different they only get 45 they don't get benefits he would say well he's going to get benefits but he's not many of my young officers are still off their parents' benefits which is uh a good
savings to us so we wouldn't be hiring a new officer we wouldn't need a new officer if we did this promotion because we haven't extra Sergeant sitting there right but you just said that correct me if I'm wrong but you just
said that you uh Chris didn't include the new um patroling but you said we need a new patroling in the in the operation so so we we would we need the position to be there but we actually have the
body if that makes any sense I'm sorry I'm confused okay so right now I have five Sergeant right I'm saying I want to make a sixth Sergeant well how do I get that Sergeant I take a patrolman and I make
him a sergeant then you say well what about that Patrol position and that's Master Pierro he's already there he's an extra right so we don't we don't need to so even with promoting a
patrolman to Sergeant we don't need to budget for another Patrol is that what you're saying we don't it's okay we don't need to budget for another patr seems like that's what you're saying now Chief if you move if you move the
sergeant that's ready to be promoted it's a patrolman if he goes up yes then you're just adding it goes back to Chris's original calculation you're just adding that 12,000 I think you said it was Chris that's that's what I have included
in the in the draft of this budget so we don't need 120,000 that would be 14 officers and six sergeants if to put numbers to it it would include the 12 the $122,200 if I take out the 12,200 I
would be at 15 officers and five sergeants so basically the difference is is the way I'm explaining it I'm being very like I want to make sure everyone you know you understand that the officer that's going to be moving up is an officer that we have like course he's an
extra right now you know so um that that we're paying for him now yes but I don't want to I didn't want you I didn't want to say yeah it's only 12,000 and you guys go wait a minute Mike who is that kid you know he's he's somebody that he's an extra right there you know um
but we are paying for him and the reality is is yes obviously Chris is right it would be that that cost 12,000 Chief if the budget wasn't so tight this would probably be a different conversation but the budget is current ly
421,000 over so that's why we need to understand um and if um and we are the council does not need to replace the um the patrol officer um if the council
chooses to um promote the sergeant and change the table but that's the discussion for later on right now we're just doing a budget discussion is there any other questions from the council before I move to the committee no yeah I I just have one question and uh cap Chief as brief as you can timing is
against us page 54 line item 144 and 145 I'm a bit confused so we replacing the reverse 911 with a new system that's one and then on 145 we're budgeting almost
triple if not more for reverse 911 for $4,000 so we're we're replacing the system with Rave and there's actually a cost savings there um I'm looking for it so you you see um reverse
911 was 3,900 and 1500 for those service and calls and what we're doing is we're moving we're moving over to a system called Rave and that's $4,000 so you don't see anything in the um 144 for
2025 okay so if you add 3960 and 1,500 you're coming up to four five over 5,000 so there's a savings of over $1,000 by moving to this more updated and efficient system okay so that line 144 is just
depleted in a sense because we're moving into a new system which we're still calling reverse 911 on the that's that's up to you know and I I yield to uh Chris on that because you know he's the guy that puts these lines together and I never want to mess with him because he's so accurate but that that my request was
say hey we're going to call that Rave now because that's that's what it is yeah it just got me confused and I didn't understand what we were doing understood thanks anything one else in the council
Ken question no sir um I'm going to just open it to the group Greg Donna Al any questions speak up I'm good I'm good all right um so um Madam chair it
is up to you do we wish to uh make any changes now do we wish to make them later or um maybe there are no changes to be considered but um so for sense of process do we want to to uh make some
changes now or hold off until the 8th yeah I think we hold off until the 8th to get the for both operating and capital or um well definitely for um Capital because you want the breakdown of the um well the council should get the breakdown yes we should get the
breakdown of that and then also for the uh possible Sergeant position okay any other items that you or the council feels we should uh increase or decrease um uh at this time or do you want to
wait until the eth we can wait till the eth for everybody be okay so the council and the committee needs to uh take notes uh and highlight uh maybe on a separate sheet of paper uh if they wish to revisit any of the line items that have
been um discussed today for uh increase or decrease I the public might be thinking increase come on we have in the the past in fact last year we have okay um superintendent molo we're going to uh we're not going to go to you right yet
we're going to go to you afterwards if you want to make a comment about the police budget when we go to the DPW you are free to do so um I think we need to take a bathroom break so um why don't we all come back in uh no later than
10:05 uh so we are temporarily suspended until 10:05 many many thanks to Chief Walker yes many excellent job very thorough all right I'm G use restroom thank you
guys I fin my te can we mute ourselves yes I think we can I call back to order the U um meeting of the mayor and Council and the Assi and budget committee on the budget um very
good everyone's up and running [Music] um indir as a chair is there any action you want to for us to take before we move to D PW not this moment very good um Jason
there you go uh Jason can you hear me yes Jason yes how you doing good good uh so let me first introduce you uh Jason molo superintendent of Public Works um Jason we'd like to start if are
you okay starting with capital again we'd like to start with capital but I saw that your hand was for the police presentation is there any comment you want to make about that before we move into your capital budget yes it's just basic on all the the capital from all
the other departments um that actually affects my operating budget like was explained last year um cars will affect it obviously Parks will affect it and what I can actually look at and possibly take down as I go through my budget so I just want the council to understand that
um so not an understanding where um you guys are at this point I I can't really um try to go through my budget with you guys um to take it down because Capital was a big um understanding of what I can remove in operating because there is
stuff I can remove if capital's approved just okay uh we're we're not going to approve uh I I don't think the um uh indir as the finance and budget chair uh is the process she wants us to
follow correct me if I'm wrong D is that we'll be making um uh decisions at the beginning of the meeting of the 8th for departments that have already presented so Jason you might need to be at the meeting of the 8th uh and then say oh
well based on what you did with capital I'd be making these changes Jason you need to leave your mic open okay I'm sorry I hit that is that okay Jason well I think it it's a big impact in some of the stuff um that Chris would have to try to figure out
before the eth to get you an honest estimate um of of what he's going to be able to come back to you on um so I think I mean it's it's it's definitely the problem is we need more information about the townwide
cameras and uh license placeat readers um how about this um inar uh would uh moving andiz and Chris Chris start off with You Chris Chris how much money is in the trust fund for police
vehicles uh for the the outside Duty trust there's about $520,000 plus uh what we've collected this year um which there's always a delay with paying the officers versus when we collect it but it's about
$130,000 right now okay so um andir uh would you consider moving the three items Chris has already said to the trust and then that impact yes okay would you make that motion uh specifically naming them okay motion to
move Patrol vehicle replacement 101,000 101,000 radio car computer replacement 7,000 traffic sign oh sorry 6,000 traffic sign cone devices 7,000 into the
um dropic TR account second it's up moved and second it is open for debate is there debate all in favor please say I I it is so moved Chris will you please make those Corrections
um so the only item other than so that moves three items out I personally would recommend if uh if unless you don't want to do it uh I I right now I'd approve
the ballistic vests and the um the ballistic vest and leave the other two unless you also want to do the Beast evidence software because we still have questions on the town white cameras how do you feel about how does how does the
council and the committee feel about uh whether or not we should approve the um beast evidence software and the ballistic vest replacement um you mean moving those as well moving those as well they're
they're relatively small small items um how about we just let's do it one by one uh is is there any objection at this time to moving police vest uh vest replacement no no and from the committee
no no okay could I have a motion in second Mo second all in favor please say I I okay so that's approved is there um is the council and uh at this time ready to consider the be
evidence software or does it need more time good I I suggest that we wait until we understand I do have my hand up oh sorry uh yeah I didn't see it go ahead Chief the report back from my lieutenant
is it's less than ,000 a year okay to maintain it to maintain it so I mean $1,000 in the operating budget uh in addition okay uh so is the council ready to consider it at this time or would it ra rather wait till the
8 we can consider you can do it okay uh I would uh if if a motion to move it is on the floor we would consider that now so moved second it's been moving second it's open for debate is there debate hearing none all in favor please
say I I all right so the only one that we're going to be waiting Jason I don't think this would affect you is the um uh License Plate Reader in the C no May that wouldn't affect me it was more of the patrol cars um at this time okay uh
Jason take us uh let's start with the capital please um run through it uh I should point out that we have only an hour and 45 minutes left and we are hoping to get to a wreck also since
wreck has budget concerns too I mean Capital concerns too we'll go through this quick all right mayor I'm asking for uh so I'm asking for two Ford f50s these are to replace um uh 2009 and
2010 um that has seen uh better days they have a lot of rust a lot of repair cost going on them and they're no longer running at full capacity um one's a diesel that's why one's a little more than the other one's a diesel one's a gas obviously we need
diesels to push leaves these these trucks um obviously snowplow um push the leaves into piles and pretty much a run every day um they're essential to uh the operations down here the Jas I'm gonna interrupt you for a second you said
you're replacing two so the 240,000 is to replace two correct and you're both that is for two yes all right keep going um the street sweeper is um already 12 years old um they have an average life
of 10 years um I was looking I wanted to put this on here I was looking to replace this in 2027 um but after going to the league and seeing the new updates on the EV mandates in New Jersey we were lucky to
um that that the federal EV mandates have backed off um but um we still have our own State mandates um we could wait and take a chance on this but if we do and and we have to go electric um on this this this on the sweeper because it
would have to be the next item coming in because there will be a mandate for how many vehicles you have per every every one EV is to judge how many gas vehicles you have coming up that is a mandate um it's not a mandate for emergency
services but we are not considered Emergency Services believe it or not the DPW that is OEM fire and police um if it this does go electric or hybrid you would be at 650,000 to 700,00 ,000 um
for this unit so this is the decision if we wait and it and and nothing happens um obviously the price will go up uh uh the price will stay the same but in two years if this does happen you double the price of the sweeper um if not more at that time um
but it is a unit that is on its way out and only has two more years left um of of what it should be replaced and we have been putting a lot of money into this and um the hydrostatic clutch clutches and the motor have not been
touched yet and they're the big items on this unit um again this this does the street sweeping throughout the year this also gets used every day during Leaf season for three day three months out of the year and it's another uh important
piece of equipment down here um the 220r dumpsters are to replace two dumpsters that are 12 years old that are rotting out on the bottoms of the sides that are no longer Road worthy um we've had a welder in here already weld them a
couple times but when rust is rust you really have nothing to weld on to so we don't want h a catastrophe on the roads and they are two two dumpsters for 20 grand they're 10,000 a piece it's not 20,000 a
piece um any may you want me to keep going or absolutely brevity okay so Road sidewalks and curbs the Ada ramp program we're pretty much caught up where psng will be um doing their work for the next
two years um so we don't have to there's no need to keep going down on the south end until we're about a year out from psng so we can wait on that um the New Jersey Grant uh primly expense uh expenses Chris do you want to talk on
that because should there be money there hello yeah I'm sorry I was on mute uh I don't I don't have anything in there right right now uh those are just placeholders from previous years I think that we have money reserved from last
year for preliminary expenses for the dot grants so we didn't include anything this year I can delete those lines from this report um for now no leave Chris leave them in as blanks okay because it becomes a public
record and it's good to have it uh remain there as as it blanks all right we good Cur ro road program uh sorry curbs and sidewalks this is to replace claring Court um
curbs and sidewalks which are not up to uh um do standards um this is also in the psng um Paving zone for this this upcoming year or two so we're trying to get ahead of that so we don't do it afterwards um obviously ripping up the
streets that we we would be Paving or psng so this is pretty much to stay ahead of them um the road program last year we were lucky we didn't have to pave one street um that was all psng um
honored their commitment um with a uh due to a problem they found on their paperwork so they still honored it so we were lucky so I know it says 800 80 uh 38,000 this year but last year we didn't have to spend what was allotted so that
sort of slid over um so it was in debt um from last year I'll let Chris talk a little more on that yeah I just jump in real quick we the this that's the full amount but the the balance would actually be about1 124,000 this year we've got just under
$797,000 from last year uh left over so when when you read the actual ordinance we might be doing $921,000 wor the work but we're only going to be authorizing an additional 124 uh on top of what we have available I just wanted to include the full 921
for clarity that you know we're not doing $124,000 worth of work we are going to be doing uh over 900 it's just uh that we do have 797 available from last year Jason um because the question's going to come up uh would you please um
expand on what that 900 and what the 900 and um change yes so the 900 and change will be to do so psng is going to have allocated roads um obviously we use our so instead of Paving half streets we're
gonna they're gonna do full allocated roads and then we're going to do our full allocated roads at this time this is to do um June Court auson Street Manning all the way from kinak to Monroe Court North Drive Summit some of these
streets are outside um the paving due to they're not even within the next seven years of psng so Summit we can't go on anymore Magnolia Oak and milbrook um there is an
actually slurry seal component to this as well for fifth a due to fifth a being a grantable street through our DOT and us uh nearing completion in the next couple of years on bogert with curbs and sidewalks we will be looking to move the
grant um to fifth a so right now we're trying um to lower costs by not having to do ad Ada ramps or anything through the capital budget and and wait till we get to um uh wait till we get to the
grant portion um where we can move the grant to that street this is actually considered a maintenance Factor so it doesn't trigger um a ramps to be replaced it's actually uh and it lasts about eight years so I do have fifth a
from Continental the hland I have hend to try to preserve that road because this is a third at a price or less of Paving um from pamis to kinak and I got Continental a um from kinak to Elm and
then from milbrook to paramis border skipping the area that we had the Grant on a couple years ago so this will this will allow us to do all of those streets this also includes Professional Services
and police um police uh uh um protection Jason the streets of bogert and Elm that were not fully repaved after PS and's work um are they going to
be treat uh repaired or that was moved from this year to next year the only reason why because psg's new format of a four um a four section for this one section they have a four phase so they won't they will not be completed until
probably late next year so we're looking at 2027 as possible Paving and with some of the streets like I mentioned in Summit uh Magnolia Oak up north that's not even going to see PSG uh psng project um I I felt like it was
necessary not to sit on the money at this time and budget for it more next year if not 2027 so the part of the street that was ripped up in bogur is that was not paid by pscg is not going to be paid by us
this year no so we're gonna extend the curb straight out and it's that will be Phase 10 that will be next year's um Paving I just want everybody to know um that will be next year's Grant I'm sorry to finish out the rest of bogert Road
and then Pavo all bogert road so it will not be paved in 2026 because I mean 2025 because PSG still has to do gas line all the way down to Continental on that street so obviously we don't want to
pave just for them to rip it up and the Little Portion from Wayne a to Manning right now that's ripped up is just gonna have to wait until they're completed and then we're going to go straight down the whole street with the grant okay great keep going
um so we're done with roads any um let's see so the next we'll go to we got facilities on here Fire Company 2 apron concrete and parking lot oh okay parking lot you got hold on let me get there so the parking lot is Fire Company 2 this
was on three years ago um to get paved there were some questions on um some other and some other issues plus we had cost increases that year that was in 2022 when everything when Haywire are after the budget um so again I'm looking
it's gotten really bad over the last couple years so I'm looking to complete everything down there this will this will include sidewalks I mean not sidewalks curbs some front apron work um if not most of it um the back
sidewalk a concrete pad a storage facility shed for um uh like that's in behind company one um and a retention wall that's falling over holding it up the retention wall is probably Chief Kitty could probably tell
you how how old that is but it's made out of wood and it's all rotted um so this will do the rest of the work on Fire Company 2 which will pretty much complete the um the outside and inside down there with with minor um repairs to
go keep going okay so now we're to what what's next Road facilities yes emergency uh repair program oh emergencies okay our emergency repair program let me just go over here so it's done um these are obvious every year we
we fund these programs this is for sewer and storm drain so if we have a collapse or a problem um in the streets um we pretty much um go to this we get certification from our engineer um and
this is what repairs the sewer line or the storm drain line um so we're we're not shortfall on any money we do build up year-over-year as Chris will tell you we have probably some left over from 23 and 24 but um
again you can have a repair that ranges up to $300,000 sometimes it all depends how deep and how far you have to go um and then go keep going and then emergency buildings and grounds that's
the line that Chris that that we established in 2022 that assists us with any major repairs on buildings that we don't see it assists us like the HVAC and HVAC goes out obviously my operating budget
doesn't account for a $16,000 hit um so this is just a way to lower the OE costs if I'm correct um just having this off to the side obviously we don't pay on it until we use it so again this is a way
to lower that costs both of these are really all right what's next on your sheets chrisw Sal shed mechanics Bay B I'm trying to read off of Chris and go off of mine there they're a little different okay okay facility
improvements all right hold on all right so facility improvements um to finish up bur Hall and and really areas in the public safety building um I'm looking to remove the falling down wallpaper and all the and and paint the
whole interior with an outside company um which the wallpaper's been there for ever since it was redone in in I think 1988 um so it's going to give it all Fresh coat of paint get all the wall people removed get all the glue removed
and all that the public safety upgrading of the lights will let us go to LEDs and and get away from the florescent bulbs that are quite frankly priced that are uh have have significantly increased over the years the public safety windows
are the finished the windows um around the building from Individual offices that are leaking um and have been uh have been or the original windows to the uh the building of that um uh to the
building of the uh sorry the original Windows to since they built that um so that will uh help us get more of um a lower uh obviously gas bill and all that and to stop the leaking and and
possible mold um um infiltration um the the fire company first floor for Fire Company one I'm sorry the second floor um this is an original floor it has sticky tiles 12 x 12 sticky tiles that are popping up and
creating tripping hazards so this will replace about uh 3/4 of the entire floor upstairs um besides the meeting room um the meeting room's floor is fine and by the office is out front so this will do their whole back off their whole back
room all the hallways um into their uh utility room off to the side um and then of course the replacement of the salt shed this is for the planning and design um this is this is for the planning and Design
design um we started funding this last year um understanding how it's funded for planning and design I we we you know to do this right with um our Geotech surveys and all of our en environmental stuff and our architectural design last
year was more or less going to be able to cover a lot of the engineering and permitting aspects of this so um I came up with $300,000 on top of the the extra hundred we put in last year for total of 400,000
for all the permitting um design work for the um um for engineering and for architectural and environmental and then what's next sewer improvements sewer Improvement storm
drain that should say storm drain improvements but sewer storm drain all right two it says Ste if you can scroll up a little bit uh it says sewer improvements 100,00 000 it says uh second line sewer Improvement
storm drain line replacement 205,000 so there's two separate items okay yeah so one is the emergency line mayor that I talked about before with the buildings yep for sewer replacement and the other one is for so on Mohawk we have um bad flooding over
there on the roads that ices up um we have ponding on all the driveways um when that was constructed there was no storm drains put in Mohawk or Z brisky or cherry except for one on the end um that goes right out um to Oak ditch
we've done it's sort of what we done on Fenway two years ago to relieve all the icing condition over there and the ponding this is the same um same thing that we have going on and it's actually a safety uh concern to us because this year it actually was iced over the
complete Road about 4 inches uh thick um loer Terrace is on the bottom of ler and vanon um this this will assist with the icing right by the Ada ramp we will put a basin in there and run about a 20 foot
line to the um piping that's already in the road first storm okay and then what's next anything else that's it no uh Jason I'd like for you to uh opine if necessary on uh
turnout gear for the fire department no well that doesn't involve you at all uh sorry let me just look through it uh opine if anything on the KGB field pickle court and batting cage does that affect your budget in any way uh baseball softball field and Fieldhouse
does that affect your budget in any way Recreation uh vehicle or cart uh does that affect your budget in any way and Engineering uh KGB field and Memorial Park does that affect your budget in any way so yeah so it'll affect my budget um
to see what you guys do because obviously if you're going to redo the fields that's going to affect the budget on top soil that's going to affect the budget in a couple other areas um that we have seating everything so I just need to know the extent of what you're going to do there because it also is
fencing right the fencing is falling apart I got to just see what you know obviously in the in the I work with uh Joe on his budget um obviously we work together on that and we have to see what the of the what the
upgrades are going to be because that's going to determine how much we got to repair to keep it going for this year okay um Jason anything else you want to say about the capital before I ask for the budget committee to uh ask
questions no that's all mayor all right uh Donna any questions comment um I might have missed it but what was the seasonal poll decorations for 5,000 oh yeah that was a different line so that's so right now we
have decorative poles uh decorations that go down kinak Road um for the holiday season um I put that in there because all of the decorative things were bought in 2010 they're 15 years old and they've been through four floods due
to where the we store them in this container we've actually moved them lately but they are fading and they are going away um they're not really in great shape we did um lose a couple and get insurance claims for them and if you noticed this year the ones down Main
Street in front of Total Wine were the brand new ones that were bright the other ones are half not lit not looking good so that that's that would replace half of them um and that's all we would need right now because hopefully the V uh veterans banners that have starting
have started picking up lately um will give us every other poll we can remove one and pretty much just hang a banner instead of a light so that is to replace pretty much everything along kak road
that we're gonna need thank you yep now no I don't have any questions thank you GRE Jason the uh two Mason dumps can one could one get pushed off the next year are they both pretty and
bad shape they're both in bad shape one's turbo is ready to go out and the other one that doesn't move it's rusting in the frame and the other one's just it's it's it's running at half power as it is we're just trying to use it as a water card at this point in the back
they are 15 years old now they're both a 2009 and a 10 and they everything we do with them they're just shot they were the they were the latest Leaf pushing trucks for the last four years and that killed and do when you
buy them are they off State contract yes they are we buy them off of Route 23 who is a state vendor right would there be any savings going with sourcewell or Houston Galviston no so with the problem sourcewell they don't have sourcewell doesn't have Fords
on there you're better off first of all to get go off a sourcewell you gota pretty much so the big trucks right when you take when you do the big trucks you go off a source well because like International Mac and all them are off of source well there's not really a
state vendor for them okay the state vendors are your bodies right and usually they don't want to buy the truck with bodies so you go off a source well to get some of the big trucks like fire uh trucks or the sweeper will be off Source well um for the me you're G to get your bang for
your buck is through the state vendors or the county co-ops right okay so that's what we've been purchasing all of the police vehicles through is the county Co-Op esj um and or our trucks go through Route 23 or you can go to winers it's
it's both the same um once they bid the specs it's that's what it is and with the street sweeper is there any like prepaid discount like the burrow puts down so so the street sweeper I mean you
could put it down but the problem is you need full funding for Capital right so that's up to Chris um I think he's until we get the capital budget approved um I don't believe anything should be I mean we could put a letter of intent but this is an orderable vehicle this is not
something that's on the lot so a letter of intent is Pretty much telling them you're going to buy it but until you could put a letter of intent you know the council's got to uh approve that with Chris that's I can't just you know and and usually for I guess an item that
big I I would suggest it gets funded and the aopo period goes over plus you got to put it in the paper this is not something I could just go to Elgen I gotta I there's a whole process with uh Source no I understand okay thank you nice job thank no I'm good be uh great
just add the question I was asked indir no not at this moment anyone on Council Barry I just have two questions uh Jason uh just so I understand conceptually so this street sweeper we want to buy it now because in two years
they might change the rules and we have to get an EV one and that's going to cost us twice as much yes exactly because right now you could buy it as diesel down the road I'm not going to be able to do that if I got to integrate electric into my fleet okay and they won't change the
rules where now you're gonna have to upgrade that anyway in two years no he would be grandfather they can't force you to um they can't force you to say oh you bought this now it's done you would be a it' be a grandfather rule it's just the next thing we buy when they introduce that rule when
whenever that rule goes into effect or whenever it goes up the next thing you buy would have to uh obviously be electric so you get the percentage of your Fleet to where they want it eventually all right thank you and one more question uh just from the tiles on
the floor the 23,000 I know it's a tripping issue is there any way to just kind of tape it over and just you know it won't look great but you know um at this time I wouldn't these tiles are all cracking they're coming up and once the glue is
gone and and and chief um uh Greg could probably uh attest to this uh once once the glue starts coming up on them and you start getting things under they just start popping up I mean every corner is starting to roll um upstairs so um I
tried to cut the expense on this by not doing the um meeting room floors because they still look in really good shape um and with talking with the Chiefs and stuff they're okay if the floor looks a little off so you know the hallway and all that are are all done in that area
so thank you anyone else on c i question uh hey Jason again the dump trucks are the the Ford 550s um the 240 is that net of
any type of trade in value or do they have any trade in value so they don't have trade in value what we do and and that back me up on this because she usually does all the gov deals so what happens is as soon as they come in we get them all obviously they get
outfitted with a new plow they'll go to get a new body the body put on and then our guys do the lights in house here um what happens is once they're once they get put in um the old trucks go on gov deals and get auctioned uh by a third
party and then that money wherever Chris um puts that money I think it's a general fund but don't get me wrong um that's where that goes so there's some potential Revenue there that's been accounted for in our budget oh you'll get yeah you'll get some Revenue um from
these trucks because it's an unknown amount so we can't anticipate it okay and we also can't anticipate when the they we won't take one off the road until the other one is on the road and
you know it could happen that with ordering and everything else it doesn't come in until next year yeah uh the ordering just on the sweeper right now is 18 months so from the date we order it till that comes in is 18 months the uh Mason dumps are around eight
months okay thank you any other member of council all right uh Jason that was good thank you very much for that um Jason we want to go to your operating budget uh what page would we be starting on do you
know or should I ask Chris right here you'll be starting on page 72 all right Jason again for brevity sake only uh deal with increases or decreases um and only the ones that that
you feel are substantial or necessary to comment on the council can certainly ask about the others okay so um so do you do you want Chris to sort of do the the salary and wages and
how we got with that because Chris usually does that due to the um contractual obligations and the percentages Chris uh would you just please talk to item I believe it's 011 and
012 and any other that would be uh automatic and not part of uh a decision-making process that the superintendent has made uh sure there's there's actually uh three accounts uh for salaries and wages
um within the DPW we've got repairs and maintenance which is what you have on the screen right now we also have Recycling and then we have storm water uh all our are just allocations of existing employees so
um but I for the most part with the exception of one two three four seven people and a couple of part- timr everything is contractual so the numbers in there are um are the numbers per the contract um and and then the the
non-union are are based on uh percentage increase uh that's requested across the board for for all non-union employees so it's on page uh 72 um page and and the reason why they're
broken apart like this is because some some things needs to be a little broken out for Grant purposes and for obviously uh storm order purposes um so the some of the percentages are changed of employees um that's why um it's broken
down to these three categories um employees salaries are broken out by percentage if I'm correct right Chris on yeah all the the allocations to recycling and storm water are all percentages of employees based on uh
their their work functions in those in those departments um this is something that we've Consolidated pretty substantially over the last four years or so we used to have uh buildings and grounds maintenance of parks repairs and maintenance recycling vehicle maintenance and uh the bus driver
separately uh now we are down to just repairs and maintenance which is essentially your overall DPW plus your allocations to recycling and storm water uh one big item to to keep in mind is that storm water specifically is an out side of the cap appropriation so that is
why we added that over the last two years we started it in 2024 uh with the allocations and we continue into 2025 uh as more and more uh state requirements have come down the pipe for uh storm water
management okay uh Jason uh why don't you move uh if you can um um rather quickly or uh where except where where you feel you need to explain and please reference page numbers all right page one overtime has
increased due to obviously step raises and um the percentage raises so we got to keep up with that um it increased about $133,000 if I'm not mistaken right Chris no about sorry 9,000 to keep up with salary and wages um keep going down
Chris let's see um I'll go off my sheet it's easier um office supplies has increased uh to 3,900 but that's all Jason Jason give us a page reference I think you're
on 73 I gotta go off for Chris I hold on all right so as you can see um let's see boot uniforms nothing went up Chris unless there's any oh uh office supplies has increased if you could see see that
by um by $1,900 but that's consolidating shade tree all the shade Tre lines are going to be Consolidated into the DPW tree lines there was no sense duplicate just so everybody we're good move on all
right keep going so that that's why that increased to 6250 there was really no increase there Chris it didn't go to page 70 sorry I'm going the wrong way um Chris if you can go to page 74 the salt and sand line has decreased
by $5,000 hold on a second hold on a second Jason the percent's saying the percentage because 6250 it's like where's 6250 okay no he's talking about the percent are we all good with them all right Jason we're all back on the on same page you are keep going okay
calcium chloride was negative ,000 due to obviously storms that we've been having and the buildup of the the trust fund a little bit the storm trust um that has a little bit of money in it for hurricanes and snow let's keep going let see where we
go um page 76 uh training I actually can reduce that training line down ,000 doll Chris more Jason you're talking about uh 0422 I'm sorry and you're saying that
it's currently budgeted for 5,000 even though last year we only used 2,300 and you want to reduce it to 4,000 yeah 4,000 remember mayor that's the line that got uh shade tree got uh put into as well okay uh the council will
consider that later keep moving okay uh operating costs um that went up 9,000 but we can reduce the operating cost after talking to my guy by $3,000 so we're talking about uh item
number 166 from 9,000 to 6,000 yes if the council chooses to do so I assume they will but let's keep going tree removal that obviously went up I can't do anything with that but that did come the extra money was funded through the shade tree um lines stump removal stayed
the same track stayed the same we spent zero last oh is that shade tree Jason all those lines are done they should be negative like they're just zeroed out but okay they've all been moved there's really no increase um to
that okay there's actually a decrease since that Happ thank you keep going Jason let me keep going let me get you to the page where's any kind of big change so page 84 increased tipping costs 305
5190 everybody on that good go ahead yeah we're able to reduce that by $10,000 so everybody knows temp agency you're going to see that as a new line that's 3051 195 um that did come out of salary and
wages that was my 17th guy so that assists us with recycling um for the three days a week that was the 17th guy that I given up so that just came out of salary and Wages that's why it looks like 148% but it really came out of it
was really already funded keep recycling um recycling uh that's Chris recycling tax went down no yeah recycling tax went down $1,500 Chris you know what that is
that's line number 30530 that's just the amount that we spent last year we spent 13,200 okay okay um control okay so everything else is
salary there so let me just is this what is it okay so the next thing is building and grounds um obviously let's see building grounds
building and grounds cleaning supplies went up um that's page what page are we on page 87 87 okay give us the number 310 171 just the last one 171 is good keep
going that went up due to increase on product that's only a couple hundred um okay so if you go to 88 page 88 you're going to see cleaning contracts um we put extra money into the cleaning contracts due to the Burl hall
now being part of that and there's more rug and a little bit more cleaning that goes involved plus the um parks and wreck ask for the bathrooms to be cleaned a little more um and the police department is going to be cleaned
a little more as well especially during the winter times when you're Sal all over the place so right now we allocated we went up um pretty much what what is that $224,000 am I right on that 19,000,000
I'm sorry 9,000 um but that might come back down next year um and not be used but we have to appropriate the proper money till we get the contract back in we have them out to bid now all right all right keep
going we'll hold questions until the end control nothing okay uh page 91 the top the top uh 3151 173 the very
first one you only went up by a thousand I don't uh really went up 10,000 in that mayor because there was money transferred to that line two years in a row 10,000 was transferred it usually was 65,000 looks like it it hasn't gone up
at all but it does go up 10 grand um we had to two years in a row and this is I had to go up this year because of a repair of a uh the tub grinder um right now I'm looking at a $20,000 bill um to replace uh
it hasn't been replaced in 18 years but to replace the Cradle that's the Hammers um section of it um and that's already 20,000 I think I can handle it with just a $10,000 increase I wouldn't need the full amount so really that that was
65,000 last year with $9,000 transfer so really it wasn't 75 okay all right so that went up this is where mechanic police police vehicles if if that's the next line down 315
174 if since you guys approve that that line can drop down to actually not even 212,000 because we got the vehicles last year and since he's going to be able to get them at the before the beginning of the year now that we could drop $4,000
off of that line so um you're saying we're moving it down to 20,000 yes all right you guys are somebody's keeping track of these so go back um keep going Jason okay same page 315
176 there was an increase of like $400 400 and change or no sorry there was an increase of 70050 $750 that's due to tire prices they're just skyrocketing right now um
okay stop for a second Jason just real quick it seems like we're we're talking with respect to budget for last year should we instead be talking with respect to cost last year I mean it matters more what we spent last year and
what we arbit not arbitrarily but we anticipated for Budget we can come back to that that's what the council's job his job is simply to tell us what the change is Jason if if the change is minimalistic uh you can skip over it and
the council can ask questions if they choose to ask so if the change is like a couple hundred dollars just keep moving I I want C can I just say one thing so the council's aware of how I this budget it really works is that we have a control line on the bottom and I want
you guys to make sure that you're aware of this there's a control line at the bottom for each block of of of stuff you're going to see down my down my down in each in in each control line you're going to see some things negative
171% and some things keep money in them that in that control block we use that control block to to make it all work sometimes it's the best to try to hit 100% And and think everything's going to be correct but that doesn't happen so
sometimes I got to hold back on certain things and take money from another line in that control block to offset another problem so I Jason we understand that keep going okay okay
let's see Chiefs ERS storm water OE that's page 96 26510 100 yep if you see that increase dramatically that's for our new GI
system um so the D mandates a storm order GIS system be in place last year we funded that system and it's been complete this is for storm drains ENT trees all got are being put on this system um there is a fee like like you
were talking to the chief before there's a fee to every computer system every year and you a user fee so there's got to be right now we have six users on that fee so um and that's also for kers
to assist us because they are the um Ezra they they maintain an Ezra system they're certified and licensed in the Ezra system so if we have a problem we can go right to them so that's where the $15,000 increase comes
from okay okay turn you back11 yeah 011 there's a drastic jump yeah 011 what page same page 96 is Storm salary and wages Public Works storm order oh that's salary and wages so that's like what
what he what what Chris was saying he took it out of if you see the salary and wage maintenance line at the beginning of this you see that that's like sort of negative so this is outside the cap so we we we made a percentage of employees
that work on storm water what their percentage of their day or or or or week is on storm order and we move their salaries into this this line and that's the salary and wages for the storm order what what row was it moved from what
line was it moved from Chris we're talking about 011 where was it moved from so there there it's it's it's an aggregation of of movement um you'll see that uh the recycling snw went down by
about $992,000 uh the the bus salary and wages went down by 27,000 it went to zero because that's all Consolidated now uh so that was absorbed into storm water which last year we we only had allocated
the increases and expected time for this the mapping but this year we're allocating the full expected costs of some of the uh employees that are you know in cash basins every day and and and doing uh some other work so we've
got it um you know percentages by employee actually uh that are being allocated to both Recycling and storm water this year uh and then the balance is just in the repairs and maintenance which was that first line if you look at aggregated numbers
the total 2024 was 2,133 the total for 2025 is 2,262 so it's $128,000 difference across all the lines salary and wages
right for for the salary and wage portion correct okay okay thank you Jason keep going I think I'm done mayor okay um with that portion I mean we could
go what's the next I guess we have Chris your book I'm trying to follow your book it's different than my sh forms where are you trying to go trying to go to the next section which would be hold
on Jason chrisen Chris what where do you want to go now hold on let me get to the budget doc here uh let's go to 283 uh 375 let's just do Parks so I can Chris what page would that be uh that
would be on 110 everyone page 110 all right Jason all right we're talking with obviously we're seeing flag the little stuff went up $250 due to Flags if you see the big one Ballfield
clay uh on it would be the next page down so 111 yep 111 Ballfield clay it went up $4,900 because we did the schools now talking to Joe um we could bring that's going to stay the $4,900 increase if you
go to general maintenance and repairs um the 3751 185 we can lower that by $3,000 so from 15 to 12 yeah uh from 15 to TW uh sorry hold on
yes 15 to 12 okay so that would only be a $1900 increase due to the ball field clay the reason why the clay is going up last year we didn't have to do the schools there's was no agreement or the Joe will
speak a little more on that this year we are doing the school Fields again um with the clay which jumped the price up so that's that that's the budget so all of it it's a $1,900 really increase
okay keep going okay Chris we're out of that so we'll go next to let me get the last thing here we'll go to utilities that's 31 um all utilities line is that Jason what's up
what line is that it's page 119 oh sorry what is the page Chris 118 119 is is yes just go down Chris and scroll down um I don't know where this one
is which one are you looking for um I'm looking for um 100 455 100 31455 100 uh we're on page 126 four five 4 five5
there's 44 121 fire hyren service yeah fire hyren service we increased that year-over-year so that went up $3,000 due to um sometimes when they have fires and and
everything else that that fluctuates here and there because that is our hyen service just want everybody understand why that went up and water did go up the water bill did go up this year um a little bit so that's the reason why we went to 134 even though last year it
says 114 if they have a couple of fires that's going to change all of that and I've actually increased it on top of that as well we we received a letter from violia with the amount um and I updated it after we got that okay to up
to the 14 45200 that you that you see there all right and then if you go regular the same thing happened with 4461 166 on the same page or go go one more page go 122 yeah that's on one page 122 4461 166
that's yeah that also increased due to the water increase um even though it doesn't look like we Ed a lot if you see the years prior to that 22 and 23 they were all high so with the rates going up we added
a little more money to that I think we're good on that too Chris so we have one more left right is that all my I think that's all mine correct oh sewer o sewer sewer system so I'm going to leave some this
up to Chris because this has to do with um pretty much paramis and um hackin sack with all the bills that he gets from um pretty much their their CFO so I'll let you take over on this one
Chris yeah the only two lines that are that are under you here are the Tv scan which didn't change and the sewer meter inspection to promise which didn't change the other items were bcua and uh the the hacken saac uh uh paramu charges
which I I talked about in the very beginning uh on the introduction I don't know if you want me to go over that again page 127 everybody and we're talking about 202 and 301 um Chris has already addressed that
normally uh um so if we want to go back to that we can when we open up the comments okay um so uh the budget continues uh for sanitation landfill and things like that
but there's not mentioned goes to um uh contingency on 130 it goes to a Public Employee Retirement on 131 um uh Social Security things like that but it's not something that we
would those are things that we don't control uh you'll also see there'll be retirement for police and fire um Jason if you're done I'm going to ask the council to move your uh suggested reductions are you done yes mayor I
believe the first uh recommended reduction was page uh 76 uh there are two reductions there um Madam chair uh do you wish to move uh
a reduction of 042 and 016 uh sorry 166 a reduction uh from of 1,000 to four uh so the item would go from 5,000 to 4,000 and uh o and 116 the item would go from
9,000 6,000 with a reduction of 3,000 so should we do by Page or just all of them at once it's because the pages are complicated it's just easier to this second all right uh is there debate if not all in favor please say I I uh
Chris are you good with that change yes but I just want to make sure you keep it up now correct me if I wrong but I believe the next one's on page 91 okay uh Madam chair I have one on 8 tipping fees just did he say reduce that by
10 oh sorry s okay yeah but we'll come back uh everything else will come back to but his recommendations we want to put them on the books right now okay uh mechanics uh week please uh item uh 174 page
91 uh Madam chair would you like to make a motion or have the committee consider um reducing uh item 174 from 24,000 to 20,000 thus removing 4,000 from the budget so move second is there debate
hearing none so move all right I believe the next one is on page 111 please check me if I'm wrong okay Madame chair uh general maintenance and repairs um uh 185 on page 111 would you wish for the
committee to cons the council to consider reducing the 15,000 to 12,000 with a reduction of 3,000 so move second it's been moved in seconded is there a debate no uh all in favor please say I any opposed any extensions to anything
pre previously mentioned all right Chris you have all those I'm sorry I think we missed one on page 191 let's look at 191 191 we did that 20,000 20,000 we all right do
everything else good okay uh this I open up to the council first uh I'm going to excuse myself for a moment uh and council president you are now in charge how do you wish to proceed want to do the budget committee
first yeah can start with you any comments on everything all right you're muted Al no comment thanks all Greg okay I'm good
thank you than Donna I'm good also all right anybody has comments I have a few but uh happy to go last um regarding the merger with the Shad Tre commission uh hi
Jason I remember that they used to have a lot of um funds in the bond so all that comes now under DPW is that right yes correct um what was there anything we could we could have used so
if if you noticed right now right now we have bonds and everything and and lazette jump in um if you notice right now I'm not I'm not asking for any tree replacement program at this time um in the new ordinance obviously when when developers and people take down trees in
their yard there is a 4 $100 per tree replacement um if whatever we decide first of all there's there's a chart that explains sizes sometimes if you take down a 30inch tree that could be a three for one so what so what we do is
we we we go out we evaluate um we we tell them how many trees they got to replant if they don't replant the trees the tree they do forfeit $400 to a a trust fund or a a a a bond fund um at the end of the year
I'm hoping that bond fund will supply the money right now to plant all the trees for Street trees um I I still am looking at that this is the first year we're really doing this so I'm really not asking for um any money in that I think that
could be self- sustainable um plus if there's bonds that are um released from Street trees they can range anywhere from I think it's $1,500 to 2500 or five 1,000 to
2500 if those trees happen to um um pretty much uh decease um we get we we keep that money and for replanting and so for one tree that deceases you can get it's $400 per tree planted so you
could get upwards of what uh six trees for that one so I'm hoping the program is self-sufficient um and doesn't um request us to put any more money aside except for for the park programs and just just so you understand
the the stom REM the fonding right the sh tree used to handle is now under the de perview of the DPW as per that ordinance yes and so so this means that the tree removal which you mentioned went up and the stump removal the um you
mentioned the shap free office supplies went up all that can be covered from yes so all their lines got absorbed by ours and then reduced so we closed their lines out we put that the money they had in those lines into the lines that the
DPW also had for trees and then we we looked at them and reduced them where we could I think it's simil it's not the same as the police out outside Duty trust the replacement trust and then the bonds that are forfeited and put into a
different trust a don account that money can only be used for tree plantings it can't be used to substitute okay so not for tree removal cannot it's only for so stump so for the amount of so if I could
charm in there for the amount of stumps that we remove a year it's it's not it's not a big cost um if we went out and did this ourselves just the machine alone is 90 grand so for the little bit we do um that's not really a lot of money we keep
a blanket open and as we do them now we stump grind quarterly not yearly so the resident doesn't have to see the stump in front of their house um all year or leading into the next year um the other line that you said with the
storm or the storm trust where it got absorbed that's for our hurricanes and that's for our trees that are in our ditches just so you understand um that's that's the only place they're used where we need a
crane um that's why we absorb their money into that as well um and that's usually two or three times a year thank you anybody else want a comment hi Jason just a suggestion on page 73 the meeting
and seminars uh can would you be able to reduce that to 5,000 so that's so we have a contractual obligation now we amended our unionized contract for um our employees to be able
to upfit their CDL licenses from a b to an a um so the money actually so they just for the Public's sake Jason would you always explain abbreviation CDL oh CDL CL a Class A CDL license is
license you have B's and A's one's for a tractor trailer one's for a regular um Regular truck with air brakes um so that that would be all of our big Salters um so what happens is for title changes here um some titles you need a
Class A um this uh in this contract we we allowed them we put that in as long as they lay out the money to get to class a um we will reimburse them as soon as they show proof of that class A now they do sign a three-year agreement
with us where they can't go anywhere um and if they do they have to refund us a 33.33% every year that they don't stay up to three years so that that's where that money comes from and it's usually around
anywhere from 28 to $3,200 depending on um what license they go for then also that's also our our our staff um um cus um to get our our cus for all of our
certificates um that's for the recycling coordinator um my certificates for the cpwm the cling communities some some of their classes are free but some of other classes we got to pay for so that's where all that money comes from the training in the Sha tree line or the
tree line now that goes for our tree guys that do acrt training and for our uh for them to get for us to get all of our certifications and our Point systems for Shay tree
Federation so that that's that's sorry Jason so that's in that account 29041 yeah yeah so meeting in seminars is all that that's that cannot I have a question I think May if you want to
resume okay Jason thank you so much for walking us through all this very helpful um I'm on page 84 Chris can you throw that up so if you look at uh 189 and 190 you explain to
us why we can decrease the Tipping fees but my question is are you good yeah go ahead sorry okay let's let's look at 190 so we're going from 880,000 to 70,000 you explain that very good what I'm looking at though is
what we spent last year which was 27,000 that's a good question Dave so recycling is a commodity okay it's just like fuel okay it could go up it could go down um we've had the year prior if you look at at
65,000 so the problem is every month we get a bill um whether a ton went up to $135 a ton to remove or if it lowers to a dollar cardboard sometimes is higher sometimes we get paid for cardboard so it offsets
the plastic sometimes both of them are high so this is your best estimate considering the fluctuating market conditions I understand thank you yes and then what about can you also comment on 18 18 Jason same type of question where we're
going almost what 12,000 higher than last year's or 2024 actual yeah so if you see it zeroed out from 2024 today if you see it slowly increasing last year believe it or not we cut the contract
for vegetation pickup down um because it's starting to get it's starting to increase a lot especially during the fall so we we took out a month um October and we started picking it up ourselves during our Leaf season but we're noticing as as houses get older
especially the new ones we're we're seeing a big increase in in vegetation getting thrown out so all their shrubs um branches grass so we're noticing there's a lot more being um
there you think we can go any lower there than the 34 though um no also um I believe is at the end of last year or middle of last year we got a new new contract through Nature's choice we we go out for three quote solicitation and
nature Choice again was the cheapest but they also went up $2 I believe a yard of vegetation so that's also going to see a little bit of an increase on that I feel and again that's it's like a commodity right you don't know how much people are going to throw out so you don't want to
be underfunded and you're trying not to be overfunded I think that a happy medium just so we don't you know get caught thank you Jason anyone else I have a few questions for Jason just for clarity sake um I'm
on page 87 of our book is line 174 um in years past we've talked about um how a the ageback mains for example the new hbag in the library now the hbag at the Bor Hall the fall under the DPW
for maintenance but I noticed that this year and last year uh it's still zero but I do remember I just want to make sure that we're not overlooking the maintenance as a whole not per unit because ultimately I think and and keep
me honestly said I mean it's the DPW that repairs the the the HB but I see that as a zero so I I I can I can address this so what we've been doing is keeping them that's what's good about the capital
account that we talked right the buildings and grounds Capital that account has $30,000 in it so if something major comes up we are able to use that account and not up up our our OE budget um obviously that's direct
funding that needs to be here the capital account unless you if you don't use it you're not being charged on it so again that that was the way that we offset that and was able to keep it at zero and if you could see I I I over
expended that account by $1,100 but the the the grounds account made up the difference for us so I that's how I use all the accounts in that block you gotta you know so and then of course we have the
capital all right thanks that's helpful and then my other question is on line 177 page 91 it says um I know that we moved it around but for the Public's benefit the senior citizen bus still operating and you have it as a zero for purposes of uh
yeah dollar and wages I think it is but I think it's moved to another line because it is operating yes it is operating 177 that's actually that used to be the old senior bus line we had a separate line um for repairs on a senior bus I believe last year or the year
before we moved that into just a regular DP W line because that that we we all decided I believe that the bus is not going anywhere um so that that lines just for the repairs the bus is running and again
um yeah that'll be a conversation for next year understood all right I think um I don't have any further questions right now any other member of council I just have a quick question but it's more on a positive note on page 83
um you have 30511 you had $100,000 plus decrease just wondering what what that why that is 30511 that's that was Diversified through the other salary and wage lines like Chris was saying so you
have three salary and wage lines right you got storm water you got Recycling and you got the main salary and wage line that money has been removed out of there to be put into the other salary and wage lines so everything is combined no there's three different ones so
that's combined but you see the reduction to the reduction went to either storm water how Chris either set it up or it went to to recycling I have a question so TR I think billing and said so so Jason so I
understand the way you do it is you might have somebody who spends 40% in one bucket 30 in the other 30 in the other yes okay okay thank you thanks bar yeahor on the same page there is sance I just wanted to understand what it is it
means like somebody left like what just out of my for my knowledge what is that so 06 you're talking about 16 yeah so sance um Chris do you want to talk on this because this was more based on so
this is the if we lose somebody and it accumulates vacation time as per the Union contract cont racts and and our policy book if they accumulated time just for vacation um not sick not anything else just for a vacation we have to pay that
out so if the employee here for four years and say if they get 10 10 days a year and they have 40 days you're allowed to carry over 10 right every year and you get an extra 10 that 10 is guaranteed to them so usually that's the walk away you have to pay that out am I
correct clette no I think the sance is for certain group of employees I think the cut off was in 2011 that was their their terminal leave so some Department to see Severance um and newer
employees like such just myself if I leave 20 years from now maybe a gold watch thank you but there's no severance but if somebody in um like last year when the deputy clerk retired since she have been here like 30 something years
she had that terminal Le yeah oh that was it yeah the the um I forgot the the the program the three the three month Severance right it depends how many years somebody is here I think if like 20 years it's two months seever
was 30 years it was three pretty does that satisfy your question but it's a program that's phasing out as employees retire what any other member of council before I go to the committee go ahead Dave page 119
it's item 44017 I'm just wondering about the $72,000 for telephone service is everyone getting an iPhone 16 or what's going on no so that's for and and Joe zes really runs the phone services here
that's for all the voice over IPS that's for all the the phone lines that we have there is selfservice in there and now actually he's upgrading that this year um we actually are still running on hard lines Believe It or Not There is copper lines going to that building and that's
part of the upgrade that we're doing um in the police department in burrow Hall um I know he's gotten numbers lazette probably could talk a little more to that um but that's that's pretty much what what that's for um if you see the
longdistance one that we haven't used the 6,000 that will be eventually I will talk to Chris the 168 um that's going to be more for the alarm system um there's a system that um the Lieutenant's also
looking to do um over to the police department um to um I believe it's for the fire department um connection as well so that will hopefully be changed I gotta see how Chris would want to do that but that money would be allocated to that line or to those that feature
all right there's a lot going on there I see like the AT&T Wireless also that's got zeroed out out yeah that zeroed out last year or two years ago okay thank you Jason you're welcome Telephone and Telegraph telephone graph anymore but
anyway go ahead Dar hey Jason uh page 124 uh 47166 the diesel fuel so that's staying flat to budget but we only paid 48 is that is that what because it's a commodity it can go up and down is that what it's a commodity
it can go up and down and remember we didn't have any snowstorms last year or hurricanes so you got to remember yeah being a commodity and not having any of that really kept that low but that we've had that almost uh we had that pretty close to being over um a
couple years ago if I remember correctly I think 2022 so yeah you gotta remember too tariffs are coming so or are here so these are really light budgets and I'm I'm sort of a little worried but it is
what it is because we got to make it friendly to the res uh residents but I'm worried about that just so everybody understands any other questions from Council there is um again for my knowledge it's on page 116 it says
celebration of public events that's Recreation events right yes not a recreation no that's not j i Shar accounts with Jo and not that okay the the account they share is the
park any other questions from Council thank you oh sir we I think Donna yeah any questions with the committee first okay seeing none
um does the uh mad chair um any uh any changes that you would want to make uh would uh are you reserving that until the 8th no we don't have to reserve um is there any changes other than we made
that you think we should be doing now I don't have any objections so is there any Capital that we want to approve or do you want to wait to the 28th I mean to the 8th no I don't think we need to wait okay so why don't we do
it in sections uh DP vehicle equipment um it is open uh could uh Madam chair could you move and uh can someone second and then we can decide what we want to do for each line for we're gonna do it
by groups okay DPW vehicle this to move it yes so moved second it is now open for debate discussion and uh and revision if we wish to do anything do we wish to uh move this as
is or do we wish to change it is there any any thought on that make a motion no we've already made the motion it's now on the floor um so we would have to revise it if we wanted to pull anything out no to be very honest with you um the
uh I I've spent a lot of time over the last 13 years working with Jason they get uh 150% out of our vehicles and if I'm not akak in the street sweeper actually its entire tank fell out like last year the year before Jason yeah
yeah and they put it back together so it literally fell apart in the street and they put it back together so um that's why I thought we could move this as a group we can do the others by item if you wish but um I think group is fine unless someone has an objection I mean
the uh danger of having to start to move to an electric Fleet is a serious concern for us budget wise so we we really need to get that moving okay all in favor please say I okay any opposed any exstension all
right so we've approved all of those the uh 240,000 to 350,000 20,000 okay let us now move to Road sides um we'll do this one separately curvs and sidewalks uh maybe we'll do
this one a little bit differently is and is there anyone who would wish to reduce or not move this then could I have a motion so move second all in favor I okay Road program
Riverside Co-op anyone wish to reduce or to not move this could I have a motion so move second all in favor I it has been approved uh Fire Company number two apron concrete and parking lots anyone
wish to reduce or um amend or not move it I have motion all in favor I okay now we move to the second sheet
um so I'm gonna jump to sewer improvements and Sewer Jane line replacement I'm going to recommend that the council not reduce that and that they simply move it is there any objection to moving the sewer Improvement sewer improvements storm
drain line rine replacement okay could I have a motion then so moveed second all in favor please say I I I both of those are approved okay now we're going to uh move item by item uh actually uh emergency
repair program I'm going to ask the council not to take any position other than to approve could I have a motion don't move second all in favor please say I hi okay we're going to skip the salt and go to Public Safety wallpaper
interior uh does the council wish to move that move second all in favor please say I Public Safety lighting upgrade does the council wish to move that so move second all in favor I uh Public Safety
Windows does council wish to move that so move second all in favor uh fire company number floor second floor Council wish to move that so moved second all in favor please say I I okay um now let's go with uh this
last small one seasonal poll decorations does a council wish to move that reduce that or uh not move it move second I will okay uh all in favor
please say I I I okay now DTW shed mechanics Bay burle as Jason said what we're doing is not necessarily spending this amount uh we're simply putting it to be able to spend it um so um does the
council wish to discuss this or move this on my sorry it has been moved in seconded it could be open for debate is there debate seeing none all in favor please say I I all right um
we're done with that okay we have 20 minutes left um now Madam chair we can either move to the fire department or we can move to the wck department um the chief is here would it
be acceptable to move to the fire department yes um Joe I'm sorry um Joe director so sorry that um we have to move you to possibly next week I know you've been online for the last four
hours or so um but uh would that be okay with you yeah no problem okay chief if you could come up and join us the chief is present he's not remote so uh we're gonna ask him to sit here all right Chief uh what we do is we
do Capital first um and what we have down for you for capital is turnout gear purchase of pagers programming for portable radios and replacement of ladder truck I think you might be walking uh something else in if you are we'd like for you to talk about that
after you talk about the items that are currently listed on the capital budget I think you covered everything so if you can just to explain for the Public's sake and for the uh the committee and the council's sake uh what these items are and why we're doing them I think this pretty self-explanatory but it's
just a process I mean I'll start with the uh largest amount here um just to make everybody aware we brought it up last year and I'm bringing it up again uh the lad truck the good news is you know it's recommended that every 25
years our apparatus is replaced uh my prior Chiefs before me as well as the membership have done a great job taking care of the equipment uh we've spoken to mechanics and uh we realize that the life of the lad truck can be extended to
30 years with that said uh it's a 2003 uh you need to be looking at and I'm making you all aware of that uh the size of the purchase that money should be uh put aside because that purchase could be anywhere from $ 1.8 to $2.2 million so
the good news on the lad truck and this is taking up the most time on my capital is uh you know you got to figure by 2028 we're going to have to order that truck right now they're running uh 3 to four years behind on apparatus uh you you
know for anybody that needs apparatus and the ladder truck will have to be replaced at 30 years so um you know I'm just making you aware like I did last year that you know we should start thinking about what the plan going to be to have those funds available in 2028 to
replace it and what I do want to speak about uh on public record is that we do have an engine that's behind the lad truck that will not go 30 years in my opinion and that will go need to be repl place when it's 25 years old um not
putting that in the budget or anything or in the 5-year plan but uh you know when I say that the ladder truck can go 30 years I don't speak for the other apparatus for River Edge fire department okay so the ladder trucks the biggest item the other uh three items to
take you through real quickly the turnout gear uh we were successful the prior Chief and uh a grant that we received uh you know we also have members and when I say gear it's not just the fire gear that we wear it's the
um uh Swift water uh rescue gear that we wear uh so uh you know we have two types of gear that we're buying uh I did spend a lot of time speaking to some of uh senior membership and that $38,000 number we were able at the last minute
to bring that down to $30,000 so that's good news Okay so Chief what you're saying is you're recommending Chang the current list from 38,000 to 30,000 correct okay um go ahead Chief okay just two other
items uh the radio's communication is very very important um you know we took on a big project this year uh getting our radios uh uh identifiers put on the radios making sure that the radios uh
were all programmed properly um you know I put in a number of 46 ,000 um I felt that that was a good number to keep the um uh radios where they need to be for the equipment that we have so members can communicate in
case of an emergency that number I can bring down though also and that was a last minute decision by speaking to a senior member in our department and uh that I can bring from 46 to uh 38,000 okay thank you
Chief and then the last and final item very simple the pagers I mean we've done a great job you know making people responsible that we're just not going to replace their pager if they lose it and the members have done a great job the last couple of years uh you know not
damaging or losing their pagers and although the prices have gone up on that uh we're just holding that number at $4,000 and that basically explains my Capital uh budget okay chief is are you walking anything else in or is that is that the
capital side no yeah okay very good um I would like to change our process um I'd like for us uh we're going to do the same thing we're going to go to the committee first and then the council but I'm asking considering the time that if we wish to approve the capital we not
wait until after the operating which shouldn't take us long but just in case we run long is there objection no all right uh Donna questions or comments about the capital budget no questions um Al no questions
Greg no just to state that we really do need to start considering putting money away for that major purchase that's all okay Ken uh no just a question actually I take that back you're definitely not shorting yourself on a turnout gear
right by dropping it to those numbers my uh prior Chiefs have done probably an unbelievable job and making sure that our guys are suited properly and have the right gear normally when towns fall behind there not replacing the gear when
they should be replacing the gear and uh we were fortunate enough to get a grant uh my prior Chiefs so so yes I'm safe with that number but I appreciate you bringing that up okay Council I have a question how many sorry
Hi like how many turnaround gears or pagers and the portable radios what numbers are we talking about turnout gear maybe five sets this year we're looking at um the pagers um I think we're looking at maybe six eight uh
pagers this year 6 Z six 68 GNA say I mean we've been fortunate also with new members uh coming in so they're going to need a pager and you know uh we've done a great job holding people accountable on their pages and what was the third
question for the portable radios the portable radios well what we're doing is uh the county has upgraded um the the um channels on the radios so what we're doing is to looking to get some radio some of the radios flashed so we would
have more people being able to communicate on the apparatus orell is there right now River Edge is looking to get where orell is on the uh radios I did put one radio replacement in there as well um you know uh to replace the radio add
one more new radio thank you thank you Chief um quick question a ladder truck yes we're going to need a new one by 2033 we're thinking your
estimate yeah 2033 so that means we have to put the order in by 2028 like you explained three or four years ahead of time yeah it may be even longer question is is that when the full amount will be doe you know what I mean so that's
actually a question for Chris Chris uh I believe that under state law we have to have the full amount before we can put in the order is that correct we have to have the full appropriation available before we can award the order that's correct but we don't have to have the
cash on hand until we need it to actually pay and for the Public's benefit what uh what our CFO is explaining is that just because we put in the capital budget doesn't mean we go we borrow for it we borrow as we need it not uh as we
appropriated mayor thank are we subject to the same problem we are with the police cars or you place the order by the time they give it to us it's 20% more don't like once you make the purchase is it a purchase loot I believe
that when we uh make the purchase on the lad truck we we agree to that purchase in 20 28 we order it at that price and they don't raise the price noice it's locked in because our cop cars don't seem to go that way it had to do with um
cop cars had to do with um uh State Endor under State contract that lost yeah the contract yeah so the vendor we had agreed with uh closed up or lost the contract and so we had to go to a new vendor and the new vendor said yeah but I'm let him do at that rate right so
bottom I mean based on we have to get up to that number by 2028 2028 on the thing I think he has it to 2029 okay uh but yes 2028 2029 yeah 2028 2029 and we brought this up if you remember last year
so no how much did we put away so far any Oh I thought we did I thought we did no I think we spoke about it last year I watched the tape but I don't believe anything uh Li that Chris did we put any
anything away for uh Fire Equipment last uh fire ladder truck no this will be the first time all right all right so that's that's important Jim um okay um so I I would make I would suggest
$300,000 I mean uh that should be put away for the lad truck so let's uh let's move forward does the council wish to move uh but we'll start with the turnout gear uh at with amended to
30,000 uh or do they wish to put it off or reduce it at 30,000 so move okay second we have a motion in second is there any debate okay so uh all in favor I okay
Chris so the turnout gear is now 30,000 purchase of pagers uh does the council wish to move this or reduce it or um put it off until the 8th 4 4,000 you yes purch PES
4 second all in favor please say I okay programming of portable radios uh there is a on the floor a reduction to 38,000 Council wish to move that at 38 or make a change or put it off to the
E second all in favor I okay replacement of Latter truck partial funding does the council wish to move it at 300,000 put it off until the eth or uh end or reduce it or not move it Chief would it be
given the budget Crunch at the moment would it be acceptable to have that this year and possibly put more towards next year I'll be honest with you I'm not going to be the chief when that needs to be but looking out looking out in the best interest of the Comm town and we
we've taken this vehicle 25 years and we're moving to 30 years you're not going to get more than 30 years out of it so we're you know we're just putting something off that we know and publicly now the last two or three years that we got to be seriously looking at this at
the very least I would put 200 to 250 aside if it's not going to be 300 and at least we have something in the pot to uh you know keep putting money away it's only going to incentivize us next year no matter how bad things are that we started putting money aside for
something that we're going to need and you know we should continue at the very least putting the same amount for next year put aide so you'd be okay with 200 listen I'm here I'm you know I I would if 200 would be fine I mean it's a start
and I think it's a good start for uh this meeting and uh for the community does the council wish to weigh in on 200 I agree with that my my only concern is that we're just pushing it down the
road then I agree it's not going to make a big difference on our budget for this year so you know does the committee wish to opine I think yeah I think you have to put something away right I mean you're talking about 200,000 or 300,000 and
really by the time we purchase that that's what the cost is going to go up so you got to really start putting something away if we're going to spend $2 million on this machine in four years mayor yes um if you remember we've you
know I was Chief in 22 and 23 we've been kicking this can down the road now for a few years and that tunnel opening is getting bigger and bigger in the in the window okay Donna Al anything uh yeah I have something I'd
like to say too I I I I agree I think that there's a need to put money aside and I think that the more you put aside the better off you're going to be uh this is a $2 million piece of equipment that you have to buy uh and at this
point in time it if it's five years you need 400,000 every year to do it um you need more than that so I think reducing it is not a wise idea and I think you should at least if if the chief is recommending it and his staff
is recommending a $300,000 start then I think that's what you should be seriously considering and I think next year you should be considering putting in more otherwise you're going to wind up buying this thing and you're GNA have a $2 million debt that you're gonna have to deal
with well we're gonna have that debt no matter what but yes um so uh Donna I think you should be putting away the 300,000 I don't think lowering it is the
way to go considering how expensive lot of trucks are so our finance chair what she's trying to do is uh if for no other reasons consider the fact that uh we're talking about right now $5.2
million uh of debt for this year and I think she's appropriately asking uh whether we can reduce it in some places uh does the council wish to do 200,000 250 or 300 ,000 I totally get what you
just said thereor and it's important but this is life safety stuff and I don't want to see us get in a bad place with that so good I suggest 300,000 does the council wish to go to 300,000 I I do the chief's number all
right so motion and second I would need so moved second it's been moved in second all in favor please say I I okay uh chief operating budget if I can and believe me I respect you've
been here for four hours I just put something together that I'd like to read real quickly I promise I'll take be quick is that right with you of course first and foremost I want to thank I want to say thank you like many things we are all aware it truly takes a
village and we need the help and cooperation from each other I can wholeheartedly say that we the river Ed fire department get the support that we need I can say that I to get the support that I require we just ask that it continues and I see that it is and I
appreciate it I'm smart enough to realize that my success is because of the support I receive from our dedicated members while one member can make a positive impact to any situation one person can rarely do it alone our success is also due to this Council my
past Le ason our currently ason as well as the River Edge police and the DPW who frequently work with us we also have a strong support of the community as evident in our interaction at public events like fire education in our
schools River Edge day and trunk ATT treat holiday festivities and of course taking Santa around we do much more than just the fire calls I can confidently confidently say we're successful last year and how do I define success we got
better at what we do and injuries were minimal safety is our number one and we operate in the danger so this is always the main goal for us no one gets hurt and we all go home we welcom new members last year we invested in Swift water
rescue and when our teams were called in emergencies we executed brilliant L fire calls in 2024 were at 300 340 highest in years up from 2023 where we had 257 calls so this was an increase
of about 34 % we are proud to state that our fire department that makes other fire departments better we lead in training we invite others to train with us we have completed more training than most New Jersey volunteer fire
departments our training resulted in quick fire stops when called to duties um I'm happy to explain and speak to my rational around the decisions on the operational part of the budget I thank you all for uh your time
okay um she that can I see your sheet because it's easier for me to reference uh Chris what page is the chief's budget 59 59 in our book better yep 59 all right Chief if you could explain
any increases or decreases um that are significant uh the council can certainly ask questions uh if uh anything you say um uh for the Lesser items goad
um I mean garage supplies uh we had I mean I'm just pointing out what we inreased um the garage supplies were, 1500 we went to 1,800 based on you know what we've uh spent and the fact that a lot of the uh costs have gone up
um that's on the uh first page okay Chiefs go ahead okay um let's see uh office supplies they were 500 last year we spent uh
742 uh this year I'm recommending that we go to 750 on the uh office supplies membership news were a th000 we reduced that to $500 I'm just pointing out any UPS or Downs here
sure okay medical exams were $750 last year we lowered it the uh in 2023 was 1,00 and then we went to 750 this is is when we pay uh when new members come aboard and they got to get
a physical uh We've exceeded $1,250 this year we're at 1274 and I'm recommending that we do 1250 uh for next year and increase of $500 due to the new members that are
coming in he's on P 62 count number 170 yeah I've been just uh making uh yeah talking about changes you're doing great okay um your next change would be vehicle repair 184 uh the vehicle repair 184
last year uh when Council woman cman was here she put a lot of time into helping me with this and we had a number of 50,000 and I'm recommending that we keep that number especially with the uh you know age of our equipment and some of
the repairs that they require but I'm not looking to change that so we're leaving that in um central dispatch is our communication they who call us out um I'm just looking
to uh put that at $6,250 only because that's what their new uh price is going to be let's that pass that information over to make uh hose testing and the ladder testing that is also Al gone up like everything else
uh I'm looking to bring that to 6500 and last year was at 6,000 uh the internet service uh was 1725 there's been an increase there for both firehouses so I'm looking to move that to
2000 our software contract there was an increase there um I'm looking for 3500 it was 3,000 what I was Pro what the money we put uh that was budgeted last year we spent 344 so this year I'm looking to make
that number 3500 and then uh the only other two uh added items that I'm asking for help on is um we had in the budget three items actually uh uniforms uh this is the uniforms that our firefighters wear our
dress uniforms during July 4th uh you know whenever we attend a funeral or a celebration um this is something that was in the budget many years back we've taken it out of the budget and uh we use our fund Drive uh money that we get to
um purchase the uniforms I'm asking for the um for uh $4,000 that would buy us four uniforms and I want to put that back in our operational budget so Chief and Chris correct me if I'm wrong Chief is looking
to move on page 67 um uniform expense 032 from 450 to how much Chief uh 4,000 Chief Chris is that
correct uh no that the that's a different department the this is the 4,000 is a new line item that's not in this budget at all it's a new line item okay so um okay it's not on it's not on any of the documents it doesn't exist yet it's fire
prevention okay so Chief you're looking to um back in said it was there before is there a line for that Chris no it doesn't exist yet it's a brand it's a brand new line that was and and the request was made after the packages were already completed
and you're looking for um $4,000 for uniforms yes and I would use I would split that evenly between company one and Company two regardless of what you know if company one needed more uniforms uh and Company 2 needed
less we would still split the money evenly so each Firehouse uh was to get $2,000 uh you know like you know just to give an example I'm entitled that actually isn't a concern for the budget committee problem that is between you
and lazette okay so just because we short on time no problem I have a question because hold on I think he has a second request Let's uh two more requests yes then I'll make it quick the other thing was uh dinner dance that's something else that we paid for uh
through our fund drive and the money is just not uh there uh it's something that we do uh every two years just honoring the uh chief that served the two years plus it's like a thank you to the members um you know
many uh other towns uh contribute to this as part of the operational budget you know we're just not seeing the money that we used to get in our fund drive and it just makes it hard for us to have the funds that we need to uh be a 7500
7,500 yes and the third one Chief uh is just the maintenance uh this is contracts that we're having uh for our tool and whatnot just to keep them serviced properly we don't have that currently in our budget no we don't and I want to add well who's currently doing
the maintenance we're you we're putting it when when we get the maintenance done we're just uh putting in under repair Chris would you upine on whether um that would be a new item or simply an increase to an old
item uh I mean this that would really be Department prerogative I don't have a problem with creating a new account for it uh if that makes it easier to keep track of and that would be you you to take it out of which line Chief normally we would take that out of the $50,000 uh
repair Chief why would we create a new line well because it's you know it's it's really not a repair it's something that's preventing a repair so you know it's a contract that we're doing on uh for example like the tools that we have
on the squad the new Squad so somebody comes in they service the tools every year prolongs the life for those tools so it doesn't have to be part of the $50,000 and you know we have to end up replacing this old so Chief you have a
fire siren maintenance line you're asking to add another line similar to that and it would be a maintenance line for specifically what how would you title it maintenance of equipment that we have tools tools and equipment so this would be tools and equipment and
and equipment maintenance for how much Chief uh 3,000 but this doesn't include the sirens right no this this just like manual tools yeah tools that are on the
apparatus it I'm sorry 300 3,000 com it would be like the equipment that's on the apparatus like when we showed you the squad and we open up the cabinets and the radio m it would be new it yeah and it was you
were traditionally taking it out of line number 184 on page 63 yes 184 on page 63 and you want to keep 184 at the same amount correct actually
184 last year the budget was 58,000 yes he's reducing it he's recommending we reduce it he's already reduced it to 5050 no we had a transfer any oh okay okay okay okay yeah thank you um
but it's already in the budget at 50,000 so we don't need to take any action there so um just ask a question so Chief are you GNA get a u maintenance agreement or you just go in and no we're
gonna get we're get an agreement to service the uh tools I mean right now we're doing an agreement to get the tools you know um maintain and then we just took it out of the uh that line item with the $50,000 I know would PR time can I make
a question to clarify questions yes but we really are eight minutes over and uh our citizens uh budget commit are uh here so we want to probably vote on this on the 8th but if you want to ask questions now we can yeah just a two
clarifying questions so we're we're adding a new island uh line for uniform 4,000 right but I see here uniform allowance on page 59 uh is 013 for 75,000 no that's that's that's not
that's uh L can you that's the annual is just entitled uniform clothing allowance and that was um if firefighter goes has Clos on underneath their turn here the idea originally correct me I'm
wrong yeah well we changed the yeah but that was the original idea when the line was first created now it's it's essentially a stien we're giving fire the name is confusing the name is confusing because there a lot of unform lines yes and I was trying to reconcile
what you meant by new one for okay funeral and whatnot dress uniforms so um we're going to go to go uh to Chief Kitty but we're we're we're going to keep have to keep it short and we're going to have to pick it up on uh the E
go ahead U not he's uh he's on S and budget Committee Member Greg yeah yeah you don't you don't have to call him Chief just real quick I think what Chief schosberg is getting at is with the uh maintenance I think we're getting into the weeds a
little bit just like the police chief for his budget has a service contract line that's what the fire department needs we need a service contract line we get our brand new Cascade system at Company 2 maintained every year and
calibrated we get our exucation tools maintained and calibrated right now the past three years we've been taking that out of Machinery equipment other repairs other we need a service contract line and the uniform line I
know just to make a suggestion um why not just change line 25532 uniform repair and put the $4,000 in there instead of making a mountain out of a molehill and just put that in there and
everybody knows what that is that's a great idea and all these are great ideas but because this is a Walkin item the council should and the committee should be allowed some time to ruminate on it we will make it item number one when we open on the eight does that sound
fair yes yes all right yes um so um we are now 11 minutes over I apologize for anybody who has uh scheduled items that they need to be at at events or or appointments um with the council's approval I'd need
a motion in second to close for today Mo second all in favor please say I all right thank you all excellent work mayor mayor mayor you need to open to the public though we oh my bad everybody sit back
down uh so the last motion was Nor void because we have to open the public so can we have motion second to open to the public on any item spoken about today or any it they speaks I'll move second all in favor please say
hi is there anybody who wants to speak Jay-Z iPhone Neil Carol we don't see anyone would anyone here like to no please raise your hands seeing none motion toose second
all in favor please say I I okay uh motion to adjourn this meeting so all in favor please say I I all right excellent thank you and we're good okay chief