good morning everyone we're about to begin right think we have everyone here we need Chris is here good Donna Donna we just need your camera Chris we need your
camera Chris are you there Donna are you there maybe they're still getting themselves ready all right I call to order the meeting of the mayor and the council at bur of River Edge special meeting River Edge Public Library 685 Elm Avenue and virtually
through Zoom March 8th 2025 I ask everyone to please stand I call on council president monsana Cohen to offer a reflection for today's silent reflection C take a moment of silence to remember those that are suffering both in health and mental health and
commemorate International women's day uh on March 8 day call upon our finance chair Council and consel it to lead us in the pledge it's over there I'm Mo IED Ali to the flag of the United
States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all okay statement of compliance with the open public meeting act this meeting complies with the open public meeting
act by notification via the February 19 2025 and March 6 2025 Sunshine notice containing the time the date the location and the access information to the town news and to the record and by posting of the same on the municipal
bulletin board in the burough website and following notice of the same with the municipal clerk Madam clerk roll call please council president Montano Cohen okay councilwoman canella councilwoman M
Larry councilman Benson here councilman glass here councilwoman darwall yes mayor Papo here okay could I have a motion in a second to open the public for any comments so uh in regards to any matter
not just what's on the agenda so mve second all in favor please say I I we are now open to anyone hold on let me switch to let's see if anybody's here okay we have no attendees and only have one attendee
so if anyone uh remotely would like to make a comment uh please raise your hand at this time we will give you 30 seconds if not we will close to the public but I have a motion and second to close to the public so Mo check all in favor
please say I I could I have the finance and budget chair read the payment of the Bills starting with resolution number um resolution 25- 94 at a regular meeting of the mayor and Council of the borrow of Rivage County
of Bergen state of New Jersey held on March 8th 2025 resolve that the mayor and Council of the burrow of Riv approve the following expenditures current fund $386,900 finish his testimony uh and ask council at this time if they have any
questions once he's finished and the assistant budget committee any questions about the budget Chief um we completed and uh discussed the capital part of the budget on the operational part of the budget we went over each of the line items and where we were at was three
additional line items that I wanted to add which was uh maintenance for the maintenance contracts of some of the equipment uh you uniforms which would be a new line item but um last week there was just a recommendation that since we
have uniform repair we would combine the uniforms with the uniform repair if uh it was approved to add the four uniforms that I requested and then the final uh item was um assistance on our dinner
dance which we host every two years I was looking for um $7,500 a year that would go towards our dinner dance if that was possible or anything um you know that could be added to that I did explain that other municipalities do that it's a
help to the department and uh basically that's where we left off last week okay I explained to the chief that um in order to be more little bit more efficient this day what we're going to do is we're going to leave all um I'm going to ask Council to leave all
resolutions to the end um that this is only a question answer time then we're going to move on to our next presenter and presenter after that and then the council will consider um what uh what it wishes to add to the budget Andor if it chooses to remove from the budget so are
there any questions for the chief seeing none Chief thank you for coming we appreciate it all right we're going to go next to uh wreck I believe wreck is our next up on the list uh Joe if you could start with capital budget
then move to your uh there'll be questions at that time and then we'll move to your operating budget there'll be questions and then we'll move on to um our next presenter sure good morning everyone Chris you gonna bring it up
or mayor yes somebody call yeah that was that was me sorry no problem K what's up hey I just could we I hate to cut you off but here can we get an update from Chris of like where we stand that would be one of the things I
was gonna ask them after the presentations but we can we can frontload it if you want CHR Reas why I like the front load is because if we're having to cut stuff okay it puts that in perspective I think okay um absolutely
but that was the reason I was leaving everything to the end I'm hoping that every member of the budget committee is taking notes and and uh on what we have left but Chris can you give us a general update where are we with um where are we with the tax rate where
are we with the impact on the average household um where are we with total capital uh thanks mayor I the um the impact right now the only the
only things that I have included here are the are the three items that Jason had removed because the uh the council had made the decision to accept those those removals which amounted to $11,000 uh anything else hasn't really
been approved yet so I haven't added it to the to the tax impact there are a couple items pending um but we are at currently at 6.46% which is an impact to what what we're projecting to be the average resident uh at
$675,000 assessed value of Chris if you can bring back up wck and Joe take us away all right okay so um for capital for uh this year we're looking at uh some significant changes that are needed
for or upgrades for kbg um as of right now we're looking at kbg pickle ball courts and and uh batting cages which we've talked about previously um in order to put the batting or the pickle ball Courts at kbg
we will need to move the batting cages um kbg softball and baseball fields are in significant need of renovation it's starting to become um a safety issue if we continue to
wait um with the with the Great of the field needed to be brought up um and the Fieldhouse as well so we worked uh with the bur or I worked with the burrow engineer um to get these prices these prices have
jumped up significantly within the last about four to five years of when we originally got the prices to renovate um kbg it looks that um the prices are just going to keep on Rising we have some funding from some open space from back
in 2019 2020 which we are continuing to attempt with the um County to extend those grants however we can only extend them for so long um it's kind of a use it or lose it um point at this time um
so as you can see the the five uh 35 140 for batting cages and pickle ball and then the Fieldhouse and Fields at the 550 um that's what we all hold we worked with a company to just get a quote and the
engineers worked to um get the job done in one one swift move um I believe that that's the best thing to do then to move to phases um and potentially affect what we've already
done if we move it to phases um after that we're looking at a recreational vehicle um the last year and a half I've been using my own personal vehicle to uh go to all recreational programs just
about six to seven days a week and to transport goods from um any vendors that we have banners shopping for seniors um anything like that and uh as you can see the engineering to complete the kbg project
and the engineering for Memorial Phase 1 Memorial phase one would be be um towards the Little League fields and that's talking about the uh walking path that also got written up by GIF um so that will need to be
done this year okay um so I believe last time I went to the um Citizens first so uh Donna any questions or uh comments no
mayor um Ken no sir all right um I think Greg's here Greg I have no comment and who am I leaving out Al Al
Al you're here right yes yes I am um no no comments I think maybe maybe at the end maybe some thought to it right now though all right very good uh from the council any questions or
comments two questions s go ahead Hey Joe thank you for this uh it was great seeing you at the park the other day um I just have a few questions um for the pickle ball so we're going to make some revenue from these courts right um any
estimate about how much we might take in once we put these courts in um off the top of my head we average just give me one sec um on average we bring somewhere between
uh5 and $8,000 on pickle ball um membership registration not including the uh we we're just going to start putting out this year so pickle ball lessons so over time we will be bringing in Revenue for pickle ball it's just a
matter I I don't have those specific numbers CU I don't know how popular the pickle ball lessons will be we're high hopes for them um but since we haven't put the the lessons out yet I can't give you those specific numbers okay thanks Joe I had one more
question that's okay course Joe I just I know what so let's say we put this money in and we get another you know flood you know a terrible flood what like are we going to lose all this money is this insured like I'm just
concerned about putting all this money into this area that historically has been destroyed by floods and we're getting more and more of these floods so like how do we mitigate that potential you know loss of these fields so we've
been working with the the borrow engineer as well as the one company that we we got to give us the entire um quote to see what they thought needed to be done um we're implementing Drainage Systems to hopefully avoid series serious damage
unfortunately with the location at the you know that kbg is at um there's floods there's nothing we could do about that regarding um significant significant floods but we are working with the dra uh the drainage
and we do have insurance on the entire field so we could apply for insurance reimb ments for fixing any damage okay and I mean and I I know you're not an insurance expert but like you know let's say we put the 535 in and
the following year we have another s Hurricane Sandy or whatever is the insurance going to you know pay us back and let us fix the the fields again without putting more capit I don't think that's a question for Joe I think that's con for Liz yes we do have additional
flood insurance and as part of um the Bing cage and pick for applic Grant application for the grant it includes like a a double gate so that way if we know a storm is is coming that gate is open and it allows the water to go
through instead of pushing down Gates and causing damage okay all right and the location of the pickle wall quarts and batting cages are um outside of the floodway so I mean yes uh a Sandy Storm
could affect that but from previous storms where the flood does come it does not affect those two specifically Jason has more I know councilman would you want more information from our superintendent Public Works sure and I think it'd be important for our residents because I
think they would be concerned about this as well um Mr Meo superintendent of Public Works yeah also um so half the flood Fields uh sorry half thei field flood um mostly the softball field um during this process we did ask def
fening companies about stabilizing the fence a little more um so pretty much going deeper with the fences so they don't get pushed over as easy um also there will be um so when it does flood
um with it being raised um to the proper uh elevation we'll say and bring be brought back up to original um we actually gain two feet um so gaining that extra two feet um as we all know um we might lose some of the clay Fields
but it won't be so um drastic because it would be more pushed back into the floodway um uh by the pistol range and stuff like that so that all has all been thought and then actually a pre- um
storm um solution has been thought too with the airbags as well for all the drainage pipes and everything everything so we try to with high tide we try to keep the water um not coming back up to the drains so there has been a lot of
thought on that and uh again it would most likely just be the uh clay fields that would have to be redone um once in a while not the fencing and the back stops okay thank you I mean I think it it's important for our residents to hear that there's thought going into this to
protect the town so uh thank you for that I appreciate okay great uh Chris I just wanted to add real quick because the the numbers aren't on the screen but the grant that we have for this is 234,50
24 and uh we're planning on utilizing $100,000 of open space match as well so the actual uh amount that we would be authorizing here in in debt is 22866 on that first project the pickle ball and batting cage project project so
just wanted to share that as well I do have two question um thanks Joe two two two questions in and following the the train of thought of councilman uh Benson the how many pickle balls are we talking about the quote
that we have were for three pickle ball courts okay thanks and then a followup question would be the engineering the kbg complete project is that then the work for the drainage which is a separate line item
just trying to understand how so the drainag is it that the uh I think liette can speak on this a little bit better but uh the engineering for kbg is for the entirety of the entire the project so the drainage was included in the
initial quote estimate that we got for um the entire kbg yes the section 20 cost you see in the screen covers the engineering fees for the project they already did the surveying it's the design the bidding the oversight of the
construction all of that yeah okay and and then last my last question would be the engineering and Memorial phase one is that also to address the ponding and the the drainage issue in Memorial Park on the um on the Little League field
sides correct that is Phase One the and okay yeah I just wanted to bring everything together based on what we did last year and kind of put context to it thanks Joe any member
of yes Joe um given the constraints of the budget this year it's possible uh to push the recreational people for the following year I'm okay with that and any other questions so Joe Hey
Joe um so the 135 right on that line K G Field baseball softball fields and fi that's Engineering Services and soft cost right corre yes so that's 25% of the capital
cost um what had happened is when I was when they gave me the quote the 135 includes the fields and the batting cas work and the it was the way the proposal was given but to do the whole project of the fields the court and the batting
cage is the combination of the 28 and 135 so it's more so I should be taking um 163 over the million 85 that's a better way to look yes yes it's just that it is split up because
the the fields and the different applications okay that's that's more I thank you is that any further questions from counsil all right um Joe thank you um we appreciate that oh ken I'm sorry Ken you
have a question no worri um this number that section 20 cost number is considerably different than the sheet we got from Chris last week yes it is how we incre we increase that by a
lot Chris would you like to speak to that or Lizette um the sheet that was in the book was a placeholder because we were waiting for updated estimates so the the engineering estimate came after the publication of the book so was that
number included in Chris's original numbers of the V you know of what we're talking about trying to save or issue in taxes we we're talking about the the capital budget right now which is really not
going to materially impact the operating budgets uh figure right it'll material impact future Debt Service payments which will be in future budgets um but the but the the numbers that I give before were only the operating expenses uh not not relative to the capital
budget right but somebody's going to pay this at some point you you there so in year two so in year one it's effectively not going to cost you anything in a year two if we have to borrow the money we might have to pay interest uh on on the
on the debt service um that'll be the case for probably a couple of years until we're ready to permanently Finance the project once we permanently Finance the project you'll be paying principal and interest on it so it will be in future budgets um and and if we Circle back to uh what I had mentioned on
Saturday for the $400,000 of interest uh on our debt service in this year's budget you're actually paying for projects in 21 22 we haven't started to fund the projects from 23 and 24 yet so you can kind of see how the how the lag um how the lag works when the Deb
service starts to hit your budget a couple years after um the projects originally awarded okay I add something sure um also our open space trust account as we build it under the state law you could
use it for recreation historic preservation property acquisition as well as the paying down the debt for any of those categories so as our our Pro our parks and those projects are complete we could use open space balance to help pay down the debt incurred for
this and other Recreation projects okay thank you all right any other questions from Council or assistant budget committee all right we're going to move straight to your uh operating budget what
page I have 105 my first page okay go ahead all right so hold on Joe just as we did uh last Saturday please limit your comments
right now to major changes any minor changes or any uh anything that's staying flat uh the council can always ask about after you finish your presentation sure all right so according to Chris's
page 107 we'll start with um account 012 um looking to increase the part-time salary to a full-time salary um with the programs that we've been
running the last year and a half we've increased to nine new recreational programs um 11 events and um the senior program that that does not include the senior programs which have
grown significantly uh we'll talk about that in another line um ideally if we're able to get a full-time employee by July 1st wouldn't have to start paying insurance um or benefits until uh September 1st
after the 60-day um employment uh that's all for that page what do you got next Chris 108 um 108 no significant changes
other than account zero 0 41 meetings and seminars I would like to just um subtract that by a th000 so that account would uh just asking for $1,000 all right would someone take a note of that we'll come back to it at the
end reduce it by a lot reduce it by a is the recommendation and the council will consider that at the end of the meeting uh I guess all oh sorry go back one more SEC one more page CHR sorry about that
the only other significant change on this page account 174 emorial bench program that program is fully complete um so that will just be um self um
sustained so any any purchases of Memorial bench will be from the residents that are looking to um play some Memorial bench um line
177 um on on CHAS sheets it did increase a lot however looking at it um looking to take that 43,200 and subtract the 15 uh subtract
15,800 that we'll be taking out of the trust account that's for uh spring startup um some water drainage issue and uh for both fields at Memorial Park so bring bring that account down to two uh
27,400 and Chris I think the only other change was for um page 105 um and then account 100 uh other group uh General groups this is specifically for our seniors um which
gets taken out of the score program as well as our senior exercise classes that the burrow covers um as you can see that increased by $8,800 and that's due to the fact that the senior programs are getting a lot more popular words getting around that
uh we have weight lists for both exercise classes um and we're up about 20 or about 15 um participants for the score program and that should do it for my big changes on the operating
requests okay um Council first uh Council have any questions comments or concerns remember we're going to hold all resolutions to the end um and we're keeping track of the page numbers does the council have any questions or
comments what uh you can make that comment yeah okay but that would be something we'd really dealing with at the end at the end okay I just want to make sure anything else from Council all right um Al I'm going to go in order uh Donna
first go ahead Donna any questions or comments I can certainly come back no comments okay Greg any questions or comments I'm good thank you okay Ken any questions or comments yeah on the maintenance contract Joe you mentioned
all the stuff being done for the fields is going to be pulled out of the trust fund or whatever we call it now yes everything other than the infield Outfield transition which is for 6,845 because that's more of a permanent
fix okay are we doing anything is that maintenance also include the Roosevelt Fields for Regal no it does not um I'm wondering why but I'm sure it's another conversation for a
different day yes I can speak to that but I'll speak to that at the end okay so K remind me to talk about that okay yeah okay Al question comment uh comment probably or a question for Chris more than anything
else is there some way to make this uh page bigger I'm having some very difficult I strain here trying to read it off the screen yeah that's tough a little better one more I'm going to uh see if I can maximize it on my
screen there we go that's that's that's much better thank you oh there we go that's pretty good now if we could just get the money to be no that's all right good um okay uh
anything else for go ahead just one thing uh Hey Joe um first of all thank for everything you do for the town man I mean you're involved in so many things so it's really amazing um I just want to throw this out here because I don't know if I have an answer but throw it to my fellow counsil people we charge for
score $2 a person right and we feed them breakfast we feed them lunch I I know there's concerns about raising that because I know when we raised it when we raised it from a dollar to$ two dollar you had a lot of
uh a lot of upset people but I'm just wondering if we should if we raised it up to like $5 you'd be talking about another $2,000 a year so just uh speak to this so that everybody understands uh that $2 is per meeting yeah I'm sorry so
the way score works is uh everyone who comes the seniors are charge $2 per meeting and they get it's on a Monday they get uh uh breakfast they get lunch they get let me just let me just make one comment about that before you keep on going we the burough does not pay for
their breakfast the burrow only pays for their lunch and the exercise classes they they cover their own breakfast that was a conversation that we were having but we we um I I cut that out uh because again the funds would
just be outrageous so and and how do they cover their own breakfast that's what the second dollar is for so they they we get plain bagels for them so that's what their second dollars for one of their dollars is their contribution fee one of their dollars is
the breakfast and then that cash is just used to buy the breakfast I understand I I'm just wondering if it's still for the dollar contribution fee for everything else if it would make sense to raise it a little bit so we get a little bit more Revenue into the town I I'm I'm sort of
on the fence about it but I wanted to raise it up here it's not a lot of money but you know it could be a th500 or something okay since this is a new business item uh Joe would you openon on whether you think that's a good idea or
a bad idea based on your interaction in addition to that what would be um if if the council was to do it what what would um whether you support it or not what would be probably a um a good amount $4
do$ $10 so Joe what what are you thinking so um score has been around for 50 years in River Edge and they have they were running by their own bylaws just recently the borrow took it back over um I believe by raising
it we would lose numbers and eventually potentially probably just not have any more score um as I'm sure Barry you know with being in it um the the the turnover was not an easy turnover and the $2 was
a huge issue for all of the the score members we're still having conversations with them every time they come in uh personally by raising the the cost of it the numbers will drop down drastically and it will go back to having about 15
members from when we first started to like the 35 that we have usually um that's really what I have to say about that I don't think it would be beneficial for the town if they want to keep on running the
program just transfer cost from everyone in the town well we have non-residents attending scor as well we do on that one can since we have nonresidents can we increase the fee for non-residents like from2 to $3 just for
the that's something that I will bring to the table um back to any of that that's what it how that's how it's been the last 50 years and I get we're in you know a new time but with that we numbers
will drop down and I you know I have no problem with I think that that would be beneficial however I don't think that they would continue to come well this is an information time we're going to consider it later in the meeting is there more questions for Joe
I'm sorry or comments real quick Joe if I'm looking actually the notes we have up on the screen right now um so the 75 to 80 yep that's a year-over-year increase of what we're paying
per person no this is for per class so those two so these senior exercise classes so there's the you know you can see the senior arthritis balance and fall prevention class that cost increased by $5 per class so it's an hourong class that's once a
week um that's what we as the borrower River are paying a $5 increase per class that is and then on the um yoga and share yoga we're paying 10 a $10
increase per class that is correct but for those two classes we so I'm wondering why our costs are increasing over 10% that's what over 10% yeah for for the gentle yoga and chare yoga and over almost
7% for the senior arthritis Etc why are our costs increasing by over 10% and over 7% in one year those are what the instructor's increases are so we we're paying these instructors to come in just
like any of our other programs and who agreed to that who agreed to that that's what they requested that's why it's in the budget to yeah I think we should look at that I think you know I mean cost the living increases are like 3% why why are these increasing 10% or 6%
or 7% I mean these prices also have not increased in many years I mean at least the last two years that I've just making a comment you know we can consider it later but I I don't know why we would agree to a 10% year-over-year
increase when it cost a little you know CPI is like 3% uh CPI this year is 3% last year was 3% the year before that was 6.5 in the last four years uh interest has uh inflation has got up 19.8% has there been a request for
change Joe in the last four years no okay so it's been 19 inflation's gone 19.8 but there's been no request during that time until now just for something information it's information Council makes the decision okay thank you ma'am
all right um anything else Joe on your part any council member or citizen budget Committee Member all right uh I'd like to go to revas at this point I believe we have a representative for who is
your uh good morning mayor and Council uh my name is I'm R Captain welcome I still see the screen shared okay hello everyone um so I'd like to tell about our radio situation
and why we're asking Town's help okay uh for many years till about two years ago we were on the same radio system as other departments and police department and we had instant
communication with the officers in the field with push off a button uh it worked great and we rely a lot on Police Department to help us and ensure our safety and couple years ago then uh they switched to the new uh trunked radio
system we lost that ability to communicate with our radios at the time plan was that Dispatch Center would still listen to Old frequency uh to hear our messages and then uh dispatcher
would rely these messages by speaking into the new frequency we tried that that plan proven to be uh not very effective uh on one hand uh dispatchers might be busy they
might be uh answering another call they might be uh coordinating something what is going on so that message could get significantly delayed on the other hand even if they are ready to hear us right away and dispatch that message sometimes
in some situations that might be too long uh once in a while we have a combative patient who might be intoxicated or emotionally disturbed patient and we are in the back of the ambulance and then the patients Behavior
becomes aggressive we are r police officers right away and I personally was in the ambulance where a police officer following us would be inside helping us seconds later right now even if dispatcher is uh not busy it takes some
time for the message to get relayed um so we after several years and and talking to different departments uh we think that it's time for us to join the same p25 system and regain the same
radio communication which we had for many years uh it is very very expensive system we looked for least expensive option it's probably the most affordable one it's many times less expensive than what other departments have however it
is compliant compatible and sufficient that's the quotes we submitted and uh for even that for our department which is fully supported by resident donation it's a lot of money uh that's why we are
humbly asking for Town's help with this um I'm going to ask a question before I go to the uh how many radios would this 25,000 cover it's uh six radios it's uh four
portable radios and two console radius which are built in in the ambulances it's less than what we have right now now we're not replacing everything this is the the minimum okay um isn't there a programming cost that you have to
incurred too are you absorbing that cost the the quotes include that that's the last line of the quotes Okay can you break out the cost uh how much is it per portable how much is it per console oh there it is yes so yeah these have the quotes which were uh submitted
uh these are uh console radios uh so this is the radio itself uh then I don't know if it's worth getting like into every uh line the the installation and programming is
here uh so that covers uh so we need frequencies which are I I guess falls into several categories one frequency is the p25 frequency to communicate with our
Apartments then uh there is mandatory we're we're good with that I just wanted a general breakdown so it's about it's about 11,000 for two consoles and the remainder for the for portable
uh sorry yes let me get the portable we're good we're good um uh audris um this is a question uh I'm just kind of like trying to streamline this I know these questions are going to come up that's
why I'm asking them right up front um audris do you need all four portable and two consoles can you can you can we begin with less and do more more next year we'll appreciate any help we can
get from town but this is already reduced number today we have two consoles per uh ambulance we also so we have Captain radio we have first lieutenant radio uh we'll we'll take any
help but this this is what we do need this is less than than than like usual set of radios which are common for uh ambulance department okay um let's go first to Donna questions
comments yeah I I I believe that this is big safety problem for the Ambulance Corp um and I'm for the radios you know I mean it is a safety issue if you have a irate patient in the back of the
ambulance and you need a police officer you have no way to communicate with them okay anything else Donna no no we're good all right great Greg oh yeah having had the opportunity to running some emergencies and have an
EMS respond communication with revest has been an issue um you know we're all switching the PDS on digital uh we're transforming over to digital and right now we have no communication with them on the fireground OR at an accident and
that is a that's an issue okay um Ken I'm all good mayor thank you all right Al um I agree with the with Greg and and Donna and and as a writing
member I've gone through this situation a couple of times where we had difficulty dealing with people and it is a a major concern well I mean thank you for sharing that not cool um
Council I just have a quick question hey o how you doing um just a quick question again just to give give everyone how many calls like did did your service due last year just so you know how many times did you go out and
140 140 okay okay thank you any other questions or comments for Council all right thank you Audis uh we'll be dealing with this at the end of the meeting for for expediency sake uh we appreciate
it thank you all right um Maxine uh dar good morning good morning good morning morning Chris can you put up the their budget as needed okay um where do you
guys want to start start with uh salaries start with salaries please okay uh can you give us a page 113 113 what we have is not correct so it's better to just the presentation and
then Chris will up the spreadsheet all right Chris you heard that you're good with that yes okay all right so we have an updated figure for fulltime part-time is fine full-time uh I'm working off of um christas uh
monthly salary report and so that's giv me a a more accurate figure that includes longevity and plus we're adding 3 hours to a fulltime position that was at 32 hours a week which we wanton at 45 so that figure should be
322 319 for fulltime salaries 39 322 319 113 did you give that to me again there I'm sorry I was less than thought and I zon okay
322 319 for full-time salaries okay yeah so the only change there would be three more hours for full-time one full-time employee now part
time that figure is accurate it includes uh filling two positions that were vacant for two most of last year those positions would be uh Adult Services Librarian from April
1st and children's uh sorry Youth Services assisted from April 1st that's it so that's uh that's what we're requesting uh for for salaries for the year the the coming
year the this year okay all right so other than that we have we have a request in for 15,000 in additional funds for operating and I've given you a breakout of we would use that 15K
for and just to give a little context we haven't had an increase in our operating budget in several years uh we are dealing with inflation um which affects most notably printed
books so we're asking about 6,000 of what we're asking for is to go on P books um just a little more context so just to to confirm that uh buckles has a policy a
replacement policy for printed books so if you lose a book um we charge you or in the past we've charged you for this T this type of book 30 $30 to replace it that doesn't just cover the cost of the book but also processing cataloging linking
to the to the catalog uh voal last year uh increase that from $30 to 35 in recognition of the increased cost of books all right so let's move on to literacy Volunteers of America of pasak
Valley we'd like to become eventually a member of this uh organization uh and to support our tutors in our ESL program now right now there's no coordinator for our ESL program that would be one of the duties
of the Adult Services librarian we hope um in order to make that program that very important program work to its fullest capacity we would need um membership in this organization which would offer
training among other things for the tutors okay so uh more context I'm sure you're not surprised if I tell you that 35% of the population of Rage has another language at home that isn't English that's an extraordinary figure
and uh we need to recognize that and provide services um that that J with that okay hoopla uh $5,000 for hoopla hoopla is a digital uh
book service I don't like their ebooks very much I don't think the quality is good enough and there are many titles there that no librarian in their right mind would select but I do like their digital audio books they have a good graphic novel collection they have videos and
particularly music I like because we don't have music and CDs anymore so we'd like to have a music service you can download a CD uh or an album um for a week and very often it's a new release
just like you'd have on Spotify and so we want our patrons to have that service um we can never give them enough of the digital content I'm sure those of you that use our audiobooks and ebook service on uh on
Libby have experienced weight times and so you'll know that that's that's a fact um and we try to keep the weight times down to a minimum and also uh moving forward this is part of our strategic
plan we want to have a really good library of things we already have puzzles the library of things is a a library of items other than books that people can check out and that could be like I said we have jigsaw puzzles right
now those are all donations but it could be uh something like a pickle ball a pickle ball Set uh or something like a a metal detector uh or uh some other item that you might not want to buy on your own
because it's hundreds of dollars or maybe thousands but hey the library has one um I don't need it all the time I can I we check it out for a few weeks and don't have to pay anything so that's a service we would like to add in the coming years and we'd like to get
started on that as soon as we can so that's the 15,000 uh in additional funds that we're requesting again we haven't had an increase in our operating budget for many years okay um since this is an operating
budget we start with council is any member of council wish to ask a question or make a comment I have one question yes um KLA is a service provided by bccls right it's not it's a private company um the
model would be different than than are you familiar with Libby Libby well Libby liby yeah Libby is a company called overdrive owns Libby uh we actually buy a license for each of the books and they cost very a lot a lot they are like $60
$70 each those licenses and we're very limited uh as to the number of checkouts so for some com some of the Publishers it's 24 checkouts for $60 $70 so you know do the math it's not cheap uh hoopla is somewhat more is
different situation we pay per checkout so if our patrons check something out we'll pay $2 for that checkout $2 is a good is a good number uh in in library economics uh means you would liby and add h no no
we would have both we would have both we have as a said unlimited uh demand for um electronic or digital items so hoopla would be we the 5,000 figure comes from when I look at similarly sized libraries
around and what they budget and I fail uh uh for 5,000 we would we would probably have that would be around what we would spend or our patrons would spend basically with their hoopla checkouts definitely has more content
I've heard have you seen I have heard from other um the friends that it has more hopla has more content but I wasn't sure it's a monthly that you pay right we pay the bill monthly and again it is uh they're always available we don't
have there's no wait time which is an advantage it's not perfect like I mentioned the ebooks there's some sketchy stuff in the ebook collection they they're not that picky about what they add to their their ebook collection like we have some off of stuff there like uh conspiracy theory stuff and no
librarian would select those items but uh I know from making phone calls and talking to the Librarians that you can exay the the ebooks and keep the rest and just a thought the library of things it is such a great idea uh could
could Scouts are always looking for projects would there be just just throwing it over there I maybe well I I would anticipate some of these items would be donated to the library but some we would have
to probably F out for um like I said we have something like 20 30 jigsaw poses now they're all donations and people check them out I wouldn't say they they're flying off the shelves but I think uh um when we start
building this library of things and when we when we uh use our very good real estate there in the multimedia section is is shrinking because media the media world is changing and that's that's in Prime real estate out on the floor there
we can certainly um highlight this collection put it in a central spot and I think people will really appreciate it any other questions from Council comments Donna you yes I just have a question um
the library does fundraise right we have a group called The Friends of the library who does all of our fundraising for us and most of their money most of their money will go to programs and then sometimes they will donate physical items such as the TV
that we're using right now for the zoom meeting okay so so the fundraising goes to the programs that's what I was asking some of it does go to the programs but again sometimes we have special requests like for example the TV that we're using right now for the zoom meeting was
donated by the friends okay thank you Greg I just have a question regarding the hoopla Dar you said that you're not a fan of their books but the music and everything can people just get music off of Spotify on their
own yeah but some people can't afford Spotify okay or they're not comfortable with uh with a subscription I'm thinking maybe senior citizens okay yeah you and I love Spotify but uh whenever there's a charge for something is a barrier that's the
way how we look at it so we want people to be able to check out something for free because you know taxpayers yeah no I get it yep okay thank you K yeah just a question like to join
some of these things do we have any statistics from other libraries of like what the percentage of joining is once you offer it so let's say this thing that's a non Spotify or Spotify like yeah you know
does you pulled around there are other libraries to say hey they got a you know 35% uptick in usage or things like that after they subscribe you know and get some
momentum can we always um we always do our research lots of libraries have hoopla it's not like I I would have a shortage of and you know when we go to the conference uh every so often I would talk to um sorry I would talk to uh the
representatives there of hoopla um I talked to more than once uh well I'm budgeting 5,000 so that would have logically mean that I'm anticipating 2500 checkouts okay so that that would add to
our around 20,000 checkouts uh electronic or digital item checkouts per year so it would certainly boost that number we would anticipate okay thanks okay
Al U the uh I know the burrow is is required through I think a state statute to provide funds to the library uh I I got two questions here I guess one's for Chris I guess is how
much are we requireed to give the library to operate this year and the second question is how much of that money is used to provide operating funds similar to what you're asking for here uh this year the the minimum
requirement is 82,2 3510 uh for the library of that um you know as you can uh heard this request is
um s 71239 is the total between the the the full-time part-time and the other expenses that are being requested right now and the balance of that plus sum um is used for liability insurance workers
cop health benefits pension uh the Electric telephone water natural gas the uh Social Security like payroll taxes pension all the other ancillary things that are related to um both paying the
employees and uh operating the building okay that that's I don't know if I maybe I I had my question phrased properly the 800,000 is I don't know if this is correct 800,000 goes to
basically the operation of the of the library is that what you said no this the state requirement is that the town budgets a minimum of $821,000 for the library um the the way that I answered the
question was that the library right now is is requesting 72,000 so that leaves a balance of $109,000 that the that the burough would still have to include in their budget um and in this case with with this request
the total that we would be budgeting is 9 just under $950,000 $949,000 for all the things that I just listed but we're required to have 821 the state doesn't dictate what that's spent on it's just that it has to
be appropriated for the library okay I think I have better clarification thank you can I just chime in on that yeah um just I'll just for a little bit more clarification it's 821 last year it I
believe it was 770 for the third of a mill for the library so it's gone up 50,000 or so uh from last year and the a21 is what um we're required to do uh but the burrow
always does above that but a21 encompasses the all all of the uh expenses that the borrow uh contributes to including pension Insurance Social Security all that stuff as well as salary and wages and operating expense
is that correct Chris so what would the number be Apples to Apples to the 821 the 821 versus what the requested budget is the the requested budget right now is
is just under 950 it's 949 983 so we would be 128,00 in in excess of the uh minimum requirement right now thank you thank you any other questions from Council any
other comments right thank you for coming can I have one one other comment is that okay yeah so yeah so one third of a mill funding is the is minimum That's the Law um but we also have a maximum
funding uh law which says you can't go over 15% of the previous year and so you know your your library budget is going to either be minimum or somewhere in between minimum and maximum and so we
can get bugged down in discussions about minimums and maximums and I would just uh ask you to rather than doing that just consider what is appropriate for the funding the library at the level people
want and expect okay so I think that's a a more prudent way to approach live refunding um and that's all I have to say yeah I also had a comment my name is Maxine rumsby I'm the president of the library
board and uh as you all know in 2023 we were open from 10:00 a.m. till 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday and we were open 10:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. Friday and Saturdays during the school year we are currently open Monday through Wednesday
10:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. Thursday Friday and Saturdays during the school year 10:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. and the reason we are asking for additional money in salaries is to reinstate two
positions that we lost last year due to budgeting okay so we lost the Adult Services librarian which inhibited us from giving programs to the public that they are constantly asking for and we lost our youth services assistant and
the numbers in this salary request reflect replacing those two positions that we lost last year and in replacing those two employees that we lost we would be able to move the number of hours we offer to the public closer to
what we used to have I can't say that we would be able to reinstate all of the hours that we reduced but it would move us closer in that direction and as you know this Library this building is loved by the entire Community it is used
constantly you are meeting here and you see how many people are here our meeting rooms are used constantly and we have a strategic plan that tells us what the public wants from us and what they want more hours more programs in addition to
a lot of other things um Also regarding the operating budget in order to maintain the number of hours required to stay in buckles they they do have a requirement for us we had to move some money from our operating expenses last
year into salar so that we could stay open the appropriate number of hours to remain a member of the buckles community so in the past year we have not ordered books we have not ordered digital supplies we're pulling we're pull our patrons are getting digital books online
through Libby but they're actually coming through our partner libraries through buckles we don't own them um several other things we were not able to provide High deand movies in the later months of the year because we ran out of money and we were able to offer less
programs again the friends do help us greatly they do all of our fundraising they provide thousands of dollars every year but again we're working towards what the public has told us they want in our strategic plan so that's where these
numbers come from and I appreciate your consideration all right any other questions right thank you for coming thank so much thank you okay I think that uh leaves only one Department left Administration we can start with
capital okay um there's two items on Capital One is for 13,500 that is to maintain um our recommended reserve of 13,500 from our
it consultant this is this money is used to replace computers printers um and whatever we don't use we keep the balance and we just have to with the the new bur Hall what our
Reserve had been depleted so this is just to build back the reserve and also the cost of the hardware has increased before it used to be 12,000 the it consultant recommended 15,000 and um the
other uh number here is $100,000 and that is to update our tax maps the tax maps have not been updated in about 25 years 24 25 years so that requires the Burl engineer to go back
towards looking at Deeds surveys um land use uh regulations probably was still planning board back then and we need to maintain this not just for people that come in with Opa requests but for future tax appeals we have to have updated tax
documentation and even though it's a big number 100,000 you have to consider they have to go back 24 25 years of research to bring it up to date okay and I believe there's one last one legal
financing oh that is um legal financing that is that is a a section 20 cost associated with the bonding process of of the capital budget and can you speak to NJ do
ordinance uh Bert Road I think that was talked about but just uh I didn't highlight it so I'm not sure that it was scheduled here yes we every year we receive um we apply for funding for vot Road uh based on the condition
it qualifies for State Grant to um make uh sidewalk improvements curb improvements and then eventually once all that is done it um move we could repave the road so section
nine it second we did receive the grant it um the amount is $560,000 but we did receive $29,500 the bids come in very favorable will'll push the limits further okay uh
operating budget start at page one right everybody let's uh get that go ahead the main the big jump is on page two actually for employee physical it's based on actual
expenditures in 2024 this covers the mandatory Federal testing of uh our Public Works employees um as well as the mandatory testing for all crossing guards they
have to undergo uh a hearing and vision test defat that so um because of the we've always stayed within budget but now because of the crossing guard mandate the actual expenditures have
increased um meetings also went up 50% can you just speak to that one 041 it's also on page two yes this covers um the the CEUs confing education
credits for I I have my qualified purchasing agent license and by having the license for for the burrow we are able to maximize using the bid threshold of 40 4,000 if you don't have a qpa then
you have to go out to bid for everything over 17,500 yeah it's very useful keep going environmental commission I reduced it slightly that is um that line reimburses as well as unification green team that line reimburses for their
activities when they do the boat launch and when they do the the cleanup if they have um an event and have to bring in a speak then uh this covers the speaker feed okay you can just do the
highlights that's that's it for administration the other items that fall on [Music] thetion come to page 23 legal expenses
um and pre my predecessor used to have you might see certain blanks my predecessor used to have the labor Council broken up into four sub for sub line items it's been all Consolidated
into one account Labor Relations attorney but there is no increase it's just a consolidation um land use attorney State flat there was an increase of the burough attorney other based on actual
expend expenditures we've had um our prior burough attorney was a sole proprietor of his firm became a judge so in moving forward when you go with a legal firm there's always a lot more expenses for the additional Personnel
but there has been a lot of activity last year when we're doing the Cannabis ordinance with the burough Hall construction so it's activity driven um so what is being budg what's being requested is cover what was budgeted last
year um on page 24 legal other was reduced because this used this line would cover the affordable housing attorney you know we need to have in order to meet the state mandates but since affordable housing expenditures
are out outside of the Appropriations cap that um funding was moved over to the the appropriate line so we're not subject to the cap for that amount and lastly page 26 covers
engineering um there was a just a minor reduction in the other General group because our burough engineer serves as a storm water coordinator so um some money for those Services were moved
to the storm water account line for the same reason that those expenditures are outside of the appropriation path and then the grant Consultants was nominally increased by $5,000 but that is um due to our contract with our grant writer
who's done a great job we've applied for many grants and most of the grants we have received funding like um the local Recreation Improvement Grant um we still trying to get the electric Chargers um they helped last year with turnouts year
for the fire department so their contract is up for renewal in September of this year and I believe that covers everything under Administration and I believe the control went down
5.78% yes because of reallocating funds to items outside of the C oh excuse me um I'd like us to take a um 10-minute break and then return and then we have
to uh make decisions we have had testimony we have had information sent to us via email we have uh had a question period so now it's time for the qu Council to decide uh what the tax rate is going to be so we're going to
take a 10-minute Break um and we'll come back at let let's come back back at uh no later no later than 9:30 all right everybody that time we ask questions about the administration budget oh my bad you my bad you are so right my
mistake um no we have to do that first so we're not taking a break kind um questions about minist so my wrong go ahead any questions any member of counc we always do us first for
operational oh actually no you're right you're right you're right uh let's go through let's just do this no Let's do let's maintain our process um questions about administrative Capital Donna no
questions okay um who do I normally go next to Greg I'm good thank you Ken all good Al I'm good too Capital only Council um just just for everyone's education
the the mandatory testing the employee physicals this is new for the crossing guard this there's a new mandate to that yes the um the state Municipal access oh I'm sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry I don't have any question we kind of council goes first with operating so if
you want to roll right into it you can sure so uh the state Municipal access liability fund joint Insurance Fund H is mandating that um it a liability safety precaution so crossing guards must undergo uh those T that testing and if a
crossing guard doesn't pass either one then they cannot be hired or rehire return for the following year yeah anything uh any question or comment either on the capital or on the operating and then we go back to the uh citizens for the operating okay uh
nothing on the capital but um so that on page 11 is there any way we can change postage um it says that it's budgeted 15 15,000 do we need to keep it at 15,000 on page 11 sorry
1222 um we 11 postage that we've had a reserve for several years and that that's another case where our postage reserve the balance with neopost has been depleting with the postal
increases so uh it's safer to keep it at 15 it's safer to keep it at 15 um I think doing increases every January and July so it's hard to anticipate and you know we do a lot of mailing of you know checks fees uh permits and things that
okay and are you page 31 I'm not really sure [Music] 31 31 is L board yes because the L St board is in here so Lizette would be the only one or or Chris what's the question just
time Chris or uh can you speak to the luse board's request for uh a 3% increase from 46,000 item 012 the um it's the the three three% increase is
built into every non-union position right now so um that's subject to to council approval you've already authorized 2% um via resolution earlier this year so the balance is really the 1% uh and
and we would we would give that to all of the non-un full-time and part-time employees so for context for the assistant budget committee for the council and for the public um we we build in a we we our non-contractual
receive a 2% increase then what we do is later on we decide uh is that correct me if I'm wrong uh if we can give that extra 1% because inflation certainly is 3% and as I mentioned before over the last four years inflation has been
19.8% uh cumulatively uh but we have not kept up with that 19.8% at all we have uh in the last four years I think we've done 3% for the last three years right yes all so we have an
if you pull it out four years we've done 12% but inflation's G up 19.8 so again we're we're this year it's only 3% but that um if we can afford something like that we we try to do it so it's currently in the budget because you
can't uh once the budget's struck you can't give more that's not currently in the budget so it's a buffer would would that be a good way of describing it yes sir all right any other questions no I was wondering why it was it was um
52,000 but it 58,000 I just want to that or Chris can you speak to the line 2024 appropriate actual 52 to 5816 4.67 I'll refer to Christ he has the
payroll available yeah I have to I don't have the the payroll open right now I'd have to open it up to see what the detail was I just need a couple if you want to take the break and then I can come back after the break with all that information we'll make we'll make that the first qu question to be answered
after the break any other questions for any members of council I have a question you guys no I'm done I'm done is that on the um page the tax maps capital on the tax maps yes um what you
explain this is um borrow wide the update yes it's the the entire so I'm just wondering what the what product are we going to get what's the product out it what are we paying for is it is it a
digital thing both digital and paper because um the land use cler is also the part-time tax assessing clerk so he receives a lot of work requests or people that are interested with applications want to come and how do we address those now that think we haven't
updated in 25 years like you said we we Prov provide the most what we have and any backup documentation like if there was a resolution approving a subdivision um and that and that covers us but so it's basically incorporating
all the changes into yes okay thank you any other member of Council on the operating or Capital Don no questions all right great I'm good thank you
you're muted all good thank you all right Al I'm good thank you okay um at this point why don't we uh adjourn to 9:35 and we'll have Chris will give us that answer and then we'll start uh looking at uh what we can do to reduce
the budget from uh over six and a half percent uh because that's not accepted all right uh thank you all uh we are uh can I have a motion in second to uh suspend for 10 minutes second all in favor
all all right I call to order um to return to order the meeting of the mayor Council B of River Edge special meeting uh River Edge library and virtually through Zoom
March 8th 2025 Madam clerk council president monan Cohen here councilwoman canella here councilwoman Mal Larry here councilman Benson here councilwoman glass here councilwoman
darwal here mayor Papo here okay Chris you're up first uh we're looking for an answer to that question can we POS that question again who posed that question Dave can you POS the question again what was the question oh on the library L Lan oh L
yes page 31 page 31 everyone Lan use and Chris take it away um yeah I think the question was was simply that we spent $58,000 last year the budget was 52,000 so the first issue
there was that we did a transfer into that account the transfers posted to the account right above it um so you can see that the total uh budget after transfers was 58165 we spent 58164 uh in this account it's um it's
two part-time employees that work fluctuating hours based on the demands of the office um and looking at the Year date numbers through the first two months of 2025 uh we've spent just shy about $8,800 multiply that by six I get just
about 53,000 uh add the additional 1% increase and I'm right at that 535 number so um it's it's where we're trending I know it's still early in the year um but it's a it's a department that the hours
fluctuate thanks okay so now we're we're we we're with the p hits the road uh rubber hits the road so um uh so what we're gonna do uh Chief
you're not is there a problem Chief no I just uh you know you started off with uh the fire chief gave a summation I was wondering if you're going to offer that opportunity to any other department has like to do that no I wasn't Chief um we we we've had heard
from any unless the council wishes does the council wish to reopen to all departments for some asent well I think Chief I think what happened with uh Fire Department chief was we had not been able to finish with them so it was just
concluding uh the conversation with him that's sound like the summation but okay yeah no at the end of the last meeting Chief I had said that we would start with the fire chief because he walked certain items in and the council would have time to consider those items
he had walked in for questions um so um budget citiz and budget committee this is your last opportunity uh so I'm going to open to each of that you is there anything you
wish to recommend to the council by way of cuts um certainly if you want to raise your hand during the debate you are welcome to do that citizen budget committee but this is your opportunity to uh State a position or or an idea or
a concept or recommendation to the council before we begin to look at that so we'll start with um as always Donna Donna is there anything uh any last kind of like St you like to make no I'm good
thank you all right Greg I just think we have to be mindful of true needs versus wants um and and we got to do everything we can to get this budget down to close to where we were last year and I maybe
everybody's going to have to suffer a little bit as far as departments go that's all thank you okay um Ken I uh second that for Greg but I do have something for the regarding the police
for you guys and uh Chief Walker so I you know I had happen to be driving around saw that we have a lot of cars proceeded to get the information thanks to an for an inventory or lazette I
can't remember which one you know we have a pretty big inventory of cars and I understand the thing as far as you know sum are coming do some are old you know Jason's trying to fix what he can the bag of bones that we have in some of
the cars so my only question was and I'll I guess I'll throw more to the chief when we when we talked about bringing aboard three of those I'll call them utility cars and I apologize for what the real name is um to do the
traffic stuff my question was somebody had mentioned I believe that we were bound to use the money that we are uh obtaining through the psng program uh
stuff that it was bound to be used only for vehicle or items that are traffic related and at which point I don't understand who set those rules and I don't understand why we're
not looking at let's be honest based on that inventory I see a Yukon in your future and with the fact that a Yukon a full Patrol Yukon takes about what seems
to be almost two years to to get I don't understand why we're bound to only utilizing that money for just I'll say utility vehicles and I'm sorry no it so I'd like
to if again somebody can explain why we're bound to that the other thing is why can't we use some of that money towards the camera system in an effort again talking about controlling traffic and I know it's a little bit more about
detective work of when something happens using those cameras but it really is also about traffic why can't we use some of that money to pay for some of those cameras that the chief is requested and again I think Chief's requests are valid
I just think we can maybe utilize the funds differently to maybe pay for this stuff and not have it come directly out of taxes so that would be a question uh for Chris I originally thought it was a question for the chief but you're really asking a
question what can we take from the from correct me if from wrong what can we take from the trust fund and can it be a Yukon can it be uh uh license place readers can it be cameras so you're asking Chris to explain that uh whether
they're whether there's an option taken from from the trust fund and if so why or why not correct Chris happy too um trust accounts so let's just quickly go into what what happens with the trust accounts we have
a lot of different trust accounts you know we talked about open space before we talked about our Parks field maintenance uh earlier as well the the the idea behind a trust account is that the funds that go into the trust account can be utilized for the intent of the creation of the trust account and those
are actually Guided by statut so for example with open space l that had mentioned it before can only used for recreation preservation of of land uh Debt Service on those projects uh we wouldn't be able to buy a vehicle from those that account the the police outside Duty account is a little bit
more flexible because part of the fees that are associated with the um the traffic control you know a bulk of them go to the officers to pay for their time but there's also an administrative and a vehicle portion of that right so we have to pay somebody to Bill out all that
time right and and and that is that is uh uh something that we can use those funds for and it's and it's also to support the program so when you have a a vehicle idling there for X number of hours you know you're you're putting a lot of wear and hair on it not and it's
and you can use it for the gas you can use it for the cones etc etc um the interesting part about the police outside Duty account is that if you take a look at our budget one of the line items of Revenue is uh is police outside
duty this year we've we're anticipating $95,000 in the the budget as as Revenue which actually offsets the the tax impact and we utilize that um you know it doesn't it doesn't directly go towards anything specifically but you
know we do have lines for vehicle maintenance we do have lines for uh paying somebody to to send those bills out to the to the vendors and it does help to offset that so the short answer is if if the the the item that we're looking to
purchase is not a outside Duty related item then we wouldn't be able to charge the trust account directly because that's not the intent of the trust account however we can take more Revenue into our budget and add an appropriation
to our budget to utilize those funds in one of the ways that you described if that was the if that was the choice to do that um what you know what my my opinion throughout the process has been as long as we're not as long as we're not offsetting the tax rate by Revenue that
we don't think we can continuously replenish then we should be okay so if it's you know a vehicle here um or the cameras um or uh something else of that nature that is not uh going to be replaced annually right it's it's every
5 years 10 years whatever the case may be then um you'll just need a new new form of appropriation 5 or 10 years from now when you go to uh replace that that equipment you probably will not have the uh outside Duty trust account at least
not for this particular PSG project um at that time uh so there is a way to do it you just have to run through um a couple of extra hoops and you have to be you have to do it plan it in advance uh whereas now for like these track vehicles I think they're called um and I
don't even know if that's that's the name of them but they're the smaller vehicles that we're using for the traffic control um that can be charged directly to the trust account just by order of adopting a resolution authorizing the purchase uh whereas if we're going to utilize it for something
unrelated we're going to have to take that money in as Revenue uh in the in the budget so now is the time to to make that decision and then appropriate it uh on the other side for what we want to spend it on and that was the the long version of we can figure out a way to
make it happen um at the at the expense of depleting The the Reserve so so my thought behind this right is we need to look at that hard
because my buddy Chief Walker will be coming next year to us for Yukon guarantee based on his inventory and I think that we have this listen this isn't I hate to use the word cash
cas out right this psng I know will go one two more years I think the chief said at the last presentation um but I think it's a way to get again with the fact that Yukons aren't coming tomorrow if we could buy a truck and it was tomorrow I would tell
you let's hold off but if there's a way to pick up a utility vehicle and or traffic vehicle as Chris said whatever it's it's called um and a Yukon I think we should try to use the funds
appropriately and get ahead of the game on the inventory because there's a bunch coming off I mean I think I I won't speak for Jason and the chief but certainly look like it to me on the piece of paper I got all right Ken uh any other question
or comment no sir thank you all right um Al um yeah thank you you uh thank you Mr Mayor I I first of all I'd like to thank the the mayor and Council for the hard work that they've been putting in on this this project moving a a budget from
a a 6% increase down to something that's more agreeable I guess to everybody and maybe even statutorily required it's it's a big job uh I would just hope that uh in your thought
process that you probably can consider the things that are absolutely necessary to have things that are going to protect the town from whatever comes up first and then look to some of the I'll use
this in in my language niceties that we could have to make life a little bit better for our citizens we are not in a position at this point with the amount of money to do everything so how you get there is a big
job and I would just hope that you keep in mind the people that are working for you the people that are helping the members of this community get to where they are and maintain their their safety their
life and just work on that first and then move to the nicer things um thank you all right okay so um councilwoman canella is our budget
and finance chair um she has uh she works uh with lazette the finance committee is councilwoman canella councilwoman um malari and councilman Blass but um they uh they
work with the council councilwoman penella where should we go first um May I we're going to go to the capital budget to go through each each presid today okay and uh we'll start with the last one which was Administration is
there I I know that you said Parks but Administration was the last one that presented yes then we're gonna start with um all right let's start with W okay so um so far we have not moved
any of the items for wreck Chris because um what we have on our sheets is different from what is currently uh real would you please bring up the wreck um Capal okay do you wish to move or not
move any of these items um yes mayor the only change was that we were going to push the recreational vehicle from this year to the following year is the council in general uh agreement then what I'm going to do is
I'm going to ask for a motion in second to move KGB field pickle ball courts and batting cage KGB Field baseball softball fields and Fieldhouse and Engineering Memorial Park training phase one for uh
to be part of the budget so move second it is open for debate is there a debate hearing none all in favor please say I all right I would now like a motion to remove wreck vehicle uh cart uh from uh
the budget so move second there is open for debate is there a debate all in favor all right okay uh do you wish to stay with Rec when it comes to operating uh yes Mary all right what page do you wish us
to go to if any um sorry I have Pages for wreck I think it's 107 it 105 yes but I don't think there was anything on 105 was there something on 105 yes there was other General group
that was an increase yes uh but there was there was no testimony or questions from the council at the time for making a change I believe the first time the council uh or there was testimony for change was page 107 correct
um um due to the fact that uh the mayor started with hiring freees uh I I do believe that at this moment um I I I move to not approve the
full-time position okay is that what would that mean as way of a motion if the council chooses to do it um it would be removing whatever amount Chris had put in the budget because it's currently in
the budget Chris what would uh what would it take to remove the promotion from the budget from items 011 and 012 I'm uh I'm looking for the difference right now the amount that's that's in there for the full-time
employee is um is 50 uh $50,000 but if it's not moved to P full-time we would have to keep a certain amount in there as a part-timer
I'm just uh looking to pull up that number to see how much what it's what it's trending towards and you know and and then perhaps uh lazette and Joe can can jump in and say hey if we if they're not full-time this is how many hours we would need them to work at a minimum uh
so that I can do a quick calculation based on the hourly rate and figure out what that would need to be okay before we do this is there is there um is there an inclination without voting for the council to make this action it appears there is so let's continue Lizette
comment yes this um this employee when he was was hired last year was at $40,000 um I don't know what the increase that was received in January brings it up to but this employee works
the maximum allowed for a part-timer of 29 hours so um uh our director has been very cognizant of that and if that 29 hours for that week is approaching then he
adjust that employees hour is accordingly to not go over that so this employee is working the maximum allowed of part-time hours all right Joe Chris what are we talking about and chis Chris you also have to think about reducing the
additional uh amount that was put into health benefits if any but let's first deal with the salary uh Joe he's working 29 hours uh do you envision him continuing to work 29 hours yes that's
okay um Chris based on 29 hours and his last hourly rate what would we be increasing the part-time too and what would be and I guess we would be reducing the fulltime by 50,000 no all right yes we would reduce it the fulltime by 50,000 we'd have to
increase the the part-time right now he's trending to to um trending to to to uh be paid about $32,000 but I'm not sure if that increases in the summer with extra
activities um but we're we're probably right back in that same ballpark of leaving it at 40,000 um for the flexibility for uh for more or less time during certain busy Seasons okay Chris would it be correct
then that we're going to change if the council chooses to do this part-time line one 02 to 5230 and reduce the fulltime line to uh let me see that would be 84,000 would it be
84,000 yes 84,85 to uh 52 360 and 8472 yes that's correct okay and then of course you'd be removing whatever was put into the health benefit in pension line uh correct nothing's in pension
because the pensions lagged two years but uh health benefits I will uh I will have I I would look to reduce it it would be minimal because it would have only been for three months Joe had had recommended with the hire to make it effective July 1 and as
a new higher there the 60-day waiting period okay so uh I put it to the council is there a motion to reduce um line 5-01 D28
37-1 from $134,800 to $848 something2 and simultaneously increasing part-time line 5-01 D28 37-21 from
12, uh 360 to 5236 is there a second second we are open for debate is there debate a net uh decrease in direct salary of about 10,000 yes but there would there'd be some
health benefits this year and next year that would I was just saying direct salary okay yeah but I just because somebody was thinking all right uh all right then all in favor please say I I any opposed any exstension it is so
moved okay page 108 yep um recommendation to um approve the recommendation from line 3741 from 2000 to
1000 it's been moved well you moved it sorry it's been moved and seconded is open for debate reducing line 041 from 20021 1000 is there debate hearing none all in favor please say I I any opposed any
extensions okay page 109 I moved uh to the recommendation of the maintenance contract to remove 15,800 to make it 27,400 second okay it's been moved in seconded to reduce line uh 177 to 27,400
correct correct is there debate all in favor please say I we already did what was on page 111 but I don't think that bud it anymore right okay
um okay I believe that takes care of wck where do you want to move next and we go to uh revas revas okay so we're going to the capital budget uh volunteer
ambulance Squad uh where its request is 25,000 for four portable to uh console I make a motion to approve that request so second it's been moving second open for debate is there
debate he none all in favor please say I any oppos any extensions okay where do you wish to move now uh we can go to Administration great um so the administration line has two items on it
um Madam chair I move to that lines so move yes sorry okay do we moved in second to move computers and it equipment uh request of 13,500 and update tax Ms request for 100,000 it is
open for debate is there debate hearing none all in favor please say I any opposed any extensions okay uh we have one more under Administration uh which is legal Finance right no that's that has to be
included in a bond War because of the bond Council and whatever financing CH has to implement yes but to keep it in the budget who's putting that forth uh Chris because required under Bond Law yeah that sounds like administrative things all right what you want to move
that don't move all right is open for debate is there debate to put 10,000 in the budget for legal and financing hearing none all in favor please say I hi okay that's it for administration okay where do you want to
move next um and we can now move to library library okay um the finance committee recommends appropriating $657,500 to cover the other General expense of
$138,600 and $58,900 wages the maintenance line stays the same at 58.50 since that is reserved for any repairs to the building so the overall budget would now be the uh Chris can you put that uh
number in so the public knows that we've um captured the third of a milk and how much we going be yes it's going to be about 87 are you able to see the the screen I'm not sure how big it would be on your on your screen not very big
Chris try maximizing it and then zooming in number uh that I'm concerned about is the grand total or what we're giving the grand total looks like $892,500
eight which is uh $ 71,2 4998 more than the uh third of third of a mill all right all right it's been moved is there a second can I have a question
you know absolutely well no and actually not until it's moved okay well we've been allowing it go ahead okay Robert's rules say you have to move it to enter to debate or questions but we we've not been following that exactly check if there's any people in the public that needs to there was question oh no we're
not open to the public no we're only open to Citizen budget committee if they have a question got it I just want to make sure so so they they're requesting about 950 and now we're saying we're going to give them 890 rough roughly do i92 and a half so
about minus about $60,000 then the request then the request okay just want to make sure and 71 and a quarter over what's required by the state was [Music] was is there a
concern you want to mention that no okay are we good just one clarifying comment though this exceeds the uh state required minimum stay still by 71,000 it just needs to be set yes all right um
okay uh it has it been moved in seconded I I believe I moved it second okay all in uh it's open for debate is there debate okay all in favor please say I I any opposed any extensions okay Chris you can take that
down um um where do we go now I believe we are done with today the new business of today should we then be going to the where do we go next the fire department because they were the last to present
yes yes okay mayor I move to uh approve the addition of the $3,000 to the fire department's budget for a maintenance contract to Ser to service there to okay this is a new line item right yeah so we're creating a new line it Chris you
with us on this you can just give me a thumbs up if you don't want to unmik good mayor can I just um um revise my yes you can um no one seconded so you can just withdraw it and make a new
one so of the three requests made by the fire department I move to approve the addition of the $3,000 to the fire department budget for a maintenance contract to service their tools okay so we're not moving the other two walked in
requests correct all right uh do we have a second second okay it is open for debate inquiry is there debate is there inquiry hearing none all in favor please say I I I all opposed any extensions all
right where do we go next um the last old business I have is the Police Department I move to remove the 12,000 from the police department's salary and wage line to um eliminate the additional Sergeant position uh as we are as the
mayor stated earlier last uh week that were the hiring frees and promotion frees okay is there a second second okay it is open for debate commentary questions is there debate commentary question hearing none all in favor
please say I I any oppos any exstension all right uh anything else uh last that on my list is that I move to remove the 170 from the police department's Capital crest for license plate readers and cameras and ask the um Chief to and and
the finance committee recommends that chief chief Walker submit a request in next year's capital budget but as separate line items okay is there a second second uh it is open for debate is there debate
inquiry all in favor please say I I any opposed any extensions hearing none okay well we still are very hi Chris what is our current um you are muted by the way yeah I'm uh
I'm used to doing this thing I'm trying to keep up catch up on on all the the numbers right now so I'm you need do you need five minutes Chris do you need for us to give you five that would be excellent all right we're gonna do uh we're just gonna do a pause not real adjournment we're just G to pause for
five minutes you can let's mute the mics and Chris you'll let us know when you're ready again 1, 55,1 18704 that would that was the that's that second line on that tax impact sheet for year-over-year change uh we have a total net
reduction of 13,598 uh which brings us down to 5.89% or about $218 on the average house Chris I want to ask you a question
um how much would we have to reduce how many in dollars would we have to reduce to get to either four and a half or four uh to get get to 4 and a half from here we would have to reduce another $224,000 wa second uh to get to
[Music] four we would have to reduce another 20 I'm sorry $35,000 right yeah so uh this is now this is now 5.8 so 5.8
from 644 22 Chris correct me if you're wrong 224 to reduce to four and a half which is what we did last year uh to reduce to four we'd have to reduce it to 305 305,000
so now we're in a very difficult position we're now looking at layoffs or we're looking at uh a transfer so um the dollar amount impact on the average home has is also shrinking
year-over-year because of the higher budget so at 4 a half% last year you were at $27 on the average house and at 5.9% this year you're at $ 218 so it's an $11 difference for the for the impact on the average house even though the
percentage is is much higher all right so give that to us again what is the impact on the average house at our current 5.89 $28.37 okay and remember this is the median house right we don't have we don't have the data to support that
right now we have what what we're expecting the average to be which would be the the uh the mean I guess uh based on the information that that our tax assessor has the the full data to be able to actually gather the median um is
an available yet they're still they're still working through it so it hasn't been published okay and what would be the impact on 4 and a half and four um give me one second or um sorry one more
second right yeah uh well uh as assistant budget Committee Member uh uh Greg uh what's your question uh thank you mayor I just have a question for either the council or Chris what has a bigger impact on the uh
5.89% is it the operating budgets is it the capital or is it a combination of both is it more Capital less operating I I just just curious thank you all right uh let Chris finish doing what he's doing and then I'll answer your question
okay uh 4% is would be $138 um on the average house and 4 and a half% would be $159 on the average house all right so now we have a lot of information but before we discuss this
as a council Chris if you could address the Greg's um question as ass and budget Committee Member yeah the the answer is it's it's 100% um operating uh the capital is really not going to impact it uh at all
this year that the capital is going to impact future uh Debt Service so it will it will definitely impact future budgets um but it it'll it'll not really be material to this one Chris just with that impacting the future budgets with the capital that was approved this year
we would start paying for that in two years three years down the road uh well so you will you will you will start paying for it as soon as we need the cash so we've been utilizing over the last couple of years we've been
utilizing our fund balance to be able to support the the operations we ran out we had to borrow $9 million last year right so we effectively were no longer able to loan ourselves the funds to support the capital projects um so at this point
forward you will likely be borrowing the money as the projects are are moved forward so using and the best example that we have today is you know this capital this capital budget includes uh $300,000 for the ladder truck but we're not actually going to be borrowing that
for potentially five or six years so it really depends on the status of the projects if we're authorizing about $3.6 million in debt this year based on this this um capital budget that we just reviewed you know we we might need to
borrow you know 500,000 this year another million next year you know as the projects progress and um so fluctuates quite a bit um but but yeah you'll you'll you'll probably look to be fully funding these at the time the
projects complete uh and uh our first fully funded uh like our first serial bond that we're probably looking to sell will be in about 2030 so uh that's when you'll start taking on very large uh
principal and interest payments but but the reason for that is because that is when our existing uh serial bonds are existing long-term financing uh will fully mature so we'll we'll see a lot of extra space in the budget to be able to
accommodate the large Debt Service payments that come on with the new debt okay thank you for that explanation appreciate it so Greg just and Chris correct me and Lizette correct me if I'm wrong what we're trying to do is control the um capital budget uh in anticipation
of 2030 so we want to make sure that that we're not you know having to go out for principal before 2030 because then we would still be paying principal and we'd be getting principal so we're trying to you know balance the whole
when we need the money thank you mayor good okay Al you have a question as and budget Committee Member go ahead a quick question [Music] Chris the the money that we have in our
budget to P debt now this this this year I think it was 400,000 that is that correct the that's the additional that's that's the interest payment on our on our short-term notes is is that interest or
is that principle also that is just interest that's just interest and that seems like an awful lot of interest that we paid on debt this year can can you I know you talked about this last week but it maybe it's
just hitting home now it's four and a half percent on a$ N9 million note we have a $ N9 million note out there okay and we're gonna we're gonna have that again next year we'll have it'll be more right because we're only paying interest uh and we'll be doing
more projects projects okay it it might not be $400,000 um number one it's it's going to be the Delta between the amount that we're paying this year and the amount that we're paying next year because by including the 400,000 this year you're already building into your budget uh so you'll be paying interest on a larger
principal amount but I don't know what the interest rates are going to be yet right so if the interest rates are down to three and a half% the interest might actually be lower on a higher number okay all right thank you okay um Madame chair
um thank you mayor um I move to add 305,000 to the revenue from Surplus to reduce the tax impact to 138 on the residents okay is there a
second this is open for debate and um I just want us to talk about it a little bit so what we're talking about doing is reducing the um the impact on the public from 200 average house so houses that have a
smaller tax uh burden have a smaller increase hous says have a bigger tax burden have a eer bigger and so we're saying it's about 138 and that 138 is only our portion of the tax we are about
26% of uh the overall between 24 and 26 between 2 so let's say we're we are4 of the tax increase that the residents are going to experience so this uh increase that we're talking about could be we did nothing it would
be $218 before the schools both school districts before the county uh before open space um and that would be uh an increase of 5895 uh if we went if we brought it down
by uh 1.8 N5 or approximately two points we'd bring the the impact on the homes to $159 and if we bring it down um um I'm sorry I calculated that wrong in my head that would be 1.3 that would be bringing down to $59
or four and a half percent increase uh to the taxpayer if we bring it down to a 4% then it's $138 which is a reduction of $80 on the average home okay okay so having said
that um just for the Public's benefit and everyone else's benefit um and our choices were correct me if I'm wrong Chris Lizette our choices were to go back in and begin laying people off um because that's pretty much all
that we have left so what we're do to do is take this from Surplus um and um it's not a great practice but it's where we're at given that there's 19.8% uh inflation over the last four
years and we've tried to control the impact on the public but um it's either leave it the way it is or take from Surplus is that correct Lizette that is correct because the rest of our
operating is either contractual or state Mandy yeah so that's where we're at so uh it's an ugly budget but it's the best I think we can do it's up to the council is there
debate hearing none all in favor please say I I I any opposed any exstension it is done okay uh according to my agenda there is uh is there any new business or
old business is there any Council comments hearing none any comments from the citizen budget committee before we close just call out thank you for mayor for allowing us to be part of this project and uh I hope
people watching or that are going to watch see this is not an easy task at all I'll come back to you anybody else from the citizen budget committee all right yeah M Mr Mayor I I just like to thank the the mayor and counsel the
department heads this is a a very difficult project that goes on and I'm always constantly amazed at how much forth thought goes into the project how much information we presented to know what we're doing and how we're spending
it I I do appreciate all the work that's done by everybody thank you very much thank you Ken I'll reiterate Greg and Al's uh statements and also just uh make a point to make sure that pie chart we put when we send out the tax bill is
highlighted very strongly of the of each area where that bill comes from and to be able to see that an average household might only be about 30% that's based on the town when it's
67% from the schools so it's a big number excuse me to see so thank you thank you Ken I appreciate that and Donna since uh don't know if you want to say anything you don't have to if not we I'm going to move to councilman class all right councilman um um I just
want to say I know what the folks everyone else just said I'm super impressed with effort that went into this part the department heads the cooperation we got from the department heads all the time and effort they spend it's just phen it really is phenomenal
but I especially want to recognize the effort that um the people I worked with on the budget committee put into this um was that Chris thank you um claudiana but especially in the uh councilwoman in
de'arra um it's incredible the time and effort and all the work she put in and I you know got to witness a lot of the uh hours and time and uh it it's a lot of work and um she did it very effectively
super organized super focused and I thank her for that and every on thank you man you're welcome thank you dude anyone else all right I you stole my thunder but I I appreciate that you came from
you and and I know the council concurs wow thank you thank you thank you thank you councilwoman canella for chairing councilwoman marari for and councilman glass for being a part of this you guys have literally spent hours upon hours
upon hours with Lizette thank thank you lazette and uh thank you Chris uh for all the many phone calls the text messages uh you know uh all the many documents we asked and to our department heads uh we really appreciate it um all
that you've done all that you recommended uh both volunteer and uh paid we really appreciate it we wish we could do more I think that is fair uh we did the best we could with uh with you know four years of inflation
um I want to thank the council for all their hard work um and um and I appreciate it and council president Council council president um on S Cohen councilman uh Dar wall councilman um
Benson um so um no this hand was still up from last also budg committee oh my God I forgot and I was going to get to that I got
distracted yes and and very much Donna thank you Greg thank you Ken thank you Al thank you we really really appreciate it and Chris you wanted to say something I I just from a procedural perspective I just wanted I know that typically we try
to get the documents for the next meeting we're a little bit tight for this next meeting because it has to go to the auditor it has to go to bond counsil to put everything together so I just wanted to try to uh increase the expectation over to that March 27th
meeting um it is it is still within the March 31st introduction date uh but I just don't want the expectation that uh they'll be able to turn around the documents uh in in just a couple days all right and I also forgot to thank an
for all that she does in preparation for this we really appreciate and and and of course Annie too and the entire um non-contractual staff including GA and all those who work um in the bur offices and uh and we thank as well all of our
employees our police our DPW uh and we thank our volunteers uh fire uh revas um who am I leaving out Recreation Recreation and so thank you thank you and we appreciate it all can have a motion to
adjourn second all in favor please say I hi hi we are Journey thank you