[Music] if you like Disneyland go to You don't have to go there you go on the website fill it out i'd like to call the April 22nd 2025 council meeting to order and start with Flexley
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all moment of silence to remember the service and sacrifices of the armed
service members who protect our nation and the first responders who protect our neighborhoods yeah council president if I could add moment of silence for the P family um they just lost their dad Ed um firefighter in the township uh son Adam's a firefighter his wife Diane was
on the board of Ed with myself and uh his other son Keith works for the township so I just like to add them to the thoughts clerk please take the role councilman Freellander here councilman Sacket here councilman Quinn here
councilman Brooks here councilwoman Noun here councilman Salberg here councilman Vtovich here council Vice President Brooks here council President Morrison here adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the daily record and the official newspapers for the township of
Rockaway notice was posted on the official bulletin boards of Rockaway Township the township website and notice was filed in the office of the township clerk approval of the April 8th Township Council meeting minutes can I have a motion so move second clerk please take
the role councilman Freellander second councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman New yes councilman Salberg Epstein councilman Boytovich yes council Vice
President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes at seven yeses to abstension motion passes ordinance for introduction 02507 an ordinance repealing chapter 2 article 8 section 2-40 entitled citizens
recreation committee can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes
councilman Brooks abstain councilwoman Noon yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Boyovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's eight yeses one abstension motion
passes ordinances for adoption o2502 an ordinance amending chapter 54 entitled land use and development of the code of the township of Rockaway creating a new section 54-30.71 entitled RMFO-12B hospitality and affordable
multif family residential overlay district can I have a motion so move second is there any council discussion on this ordinance is there anybody from the public that wishes to speak on this ordinance only clerk please take the role
councilman Freellander yes councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noon yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President
Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries o-2504 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank can I have a motion so moved second is there any council discussion on this
ordinance anybody from the public wishes to speak on this ordinance only clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noon yes councilman
Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's nine yes this motion carries 02505 an ordinance fixing the salaries of various officials and contractual employees of the township of Rockway and the county
of Mars can I have a motion so move second anybody from the council any council discussion anybody from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman
Sackett yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noun yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Boyceovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries 02506
an ordinance fixing the salaries of various officials and non-contractual employees of the township of Rockaway in the county of Mars can I have a motion so moved second any council discussion anybody from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone
clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman Saget yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noon yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes
council President Morrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries 02508 bond ordinance appropriating 4,286,375 and authorizing the issuance of1,821,585 bonds or notes of the township for various improvements or purposes authorized to be undertaken by
the township of Rockway in the county of Morris New Jersey can I have a motion so moved second any council discussion anybody from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman
Sack yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Nune yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Boyovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Marson yes it's nine yeses motion carries 0.2509
bond ordinance appropriating $1,629,000 and authorizing the issuance of $1,547,550 bonds or notes of the township for various improvements or purposes authorized to be undertaken in and by the township of Rockaway in the county of Mars New Jersey for the water supply
and distribution system of the township can I have a motion so move a second any council discussion anybody from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman
Sakin yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noun yes councilman Salber yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Mars yes it's nine yeses motion carries o210 bond
ordinance providing for the acquisition of a new sewer vacuum truck by the township of Rockaway in the county of Morris New Jersey appropriating $564,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $535,800 bonds or notes of the township
for financing such appropriations can I have a motion so moved second any council discussion anyone from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman
Sackett yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noon yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison
yes that's nine yeses motion carries 02511 an ordinance amending chapter 3 entitled finance and taxation to amend article 3.1 entitled 100% disabled veteran tax refund can I have a motion so move i'll second that any council
discussion anyone from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman Sackett yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Nune
yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council Council President Morrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries o212 an ordinance amending chapter 28 and 28 entitled health and environment
to amend sections of articles 3 four 5 10 and 11 can I have a motion so moved second any council discussion anyone from the public wish to speak on this ordinance alone clerk please take the role
councilman Freellander yes councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Non yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison
yes it's nine yeses motion carries um I'm sorry and I also neglected to mention that I we are going to be pulling the closed session uh resolution which would come at the end of the meeting anyway so we will not be going into close session today uh okay we are going to move on to
the budget hearing portion of our meeting uh the next part we are going to open up um uh open up to the public uh any comments on the budget uh I would like to remind everybody that it is not a question and answer period it is for
comments alone if you do have questions uh please feel free uh to send those via email uh to our administration we'll be happy to get you some answers before opening this public portion of the meeting I want to remind everyone of the rules that apply to anyone who wants to address the council
any member of the public wishing to address the council will have three minutes to do so while an extension of time may be requested it should not be assumed that an extension of time will be granted while addressing the council members of the public may not address or question any individual council member if anyone addressing the council
violates these rules or conducts themselves inappropriately their speaking opportunity will be terminated and they will be instructed to return to their seat a refusal to comply will result in removal from the room members of the public in attendance may not make comments from the audience without recognition by the chair persons doing
so will be subject to removal from the room as council president I have tremendous respect for my fellow council members and the public who take the time and effort to attend council meetings these rules are necessary to permit the council to do its business in an orderly and professional manner with that are there any members
of the public that wish to speak on the budget alone hello Kelly no mr i'm sorry is that mic working it should be my time no it's not
i just want to make sure it's working there we go okay I'll start you through thank you again i appreciate that uh I'll just go back to the beginning of that again um well tonight you're up here for a vote for the uh uh 2025 budget that we have and I had spoken to Mr sell before and had it mentioned and
confirmed that it's a little over $45 million now uh some of you uh and I look at most of you uh adults professionals jobs homes mortgages preparing for college some have already spent that money some are doing so now for their children to come up there and then I look at this council
itself you guys try to save money and you have needs and wants and you guys always focus on your own personal budgets of needs and then you deal with wants later after you have that some of you work multiple jobs Mr morrison um and you have a lot of financial
obligations when people buy a home they go and they spend hours and hours and weeks and even sometimes a month or so to go through the process of purchasing a home 400 500 $600,000 attorneys get involved and they do all this oversight and overlooking everything that's there to see if in
fact they can afford it what their payments are going to be and moving forward on the 15th of March this council assembled for a budget hearing that you had in this room itself and you spent a little over an hour discussing a $45 million budget less time than
somebody would do just to buy a house for 500 grand and it's interesting in in 2021 the budget was just a little over 40 mil 40.3 and here we are at 40.5 and the common optics that you guys say is that well we have a zero increase in
the municipal budget however it's raised almost $5 million if not more what I don't hear from you because we did it in 2018 and 2019 when I was an elected official where we actually reduced taxes we actually cut a million and a half out of the budget where people's taxes a
large majority of those in Rockway Township went down to 2014 2015 levels in 2018 2019 mrs brooks you you had a reduction of 600,000 or $600 of your yearly assessment same with you Mr morrison
there's an ability to do that but I didn't see a willingness of this council to try to get it below that zero you just stopped at zero you didn't want to go on a lesser end of it maybe reducing it a tax point or two coming up with other ways to reduce operating cost bringing other businesses that don't
affect schools and whatnot those are things that are super concerning to many people now we have seniors that have been here they talk about being on fixed incomes other people themselves are moving out because they can't afford it we had a ratable increase on a large portion of all these properties we have
10,000 units in inventory i believe Mrs paul Mary uh in there that people are now paying even more money to that and you're still raising the taxes and they're not getting anything additional for that now your default is going to say "Oh Mr kelly litigations that you have and they cost the taxpayers money."
But Mr morrison you can't even show any paid invoices to validate your claim even close to the number that you say so there's other things that are here that are taking place there's a lot of wants that are taking place versus needs time is up and I hope that you can address them with tonight i don't want you
getting excited just you seem like you're getting a little worked up you can take your seat i I wasn't getting worked up at all it sounded like you weren't there at the end not at all but I mean you can flip the script and make something up that didn't happen but I appreciate it i'm You're the expert on that chief is our AED working outside i just want to make sure we're covered in
the case thank you um I just to bring up a couple points of course you know what's brought up here is full of half truths and self-s serving comments um when when when Tucker was on you know
the council a couple years ago and he reduced the budget that was through gutting some of the emergency funds and things that are needed to properly run the town and put the town in a really very precarious situation so sure if we want to put the town in a very precarious situation we'll be happy to
gut whatever we can all right however that is not serving the community while the budget may have gone up again something that he is not clear on is the tax rate has not gone up okay budgets
will go up now a 0% tax increase in an inflationary market is technically a reduction right so if the budget should go up to reflect what inflation rates are over the last couple years and we don't go up that's a
win okay um yeah I am going to bring up your lawsuits you know so you know and the amount of Opras that you file so far this year Tucker you have filed on average one OPRA every two business
days who has time for that right so you know I know we probably have the numbers somewhere but you want to talk about reducing it's to the point where I might even recommend having a Tucker defense fund in our budget for the hundreds hundreds of thousands of dollars that
you cost the township hundreds of thousands of dollars so don't sit there and preach that you're trying to save people money and the last piece I want to bring up and I'll leave it at this um the reason our budget meeting did not go that long is because of the hours and
hours and hours of work that this team put in ahead of the budget meeting to get their questions answered to do their own investigations to ask their questions collaboration which is how it should be done all right in fact when you were on the council budget meetings
had to be spread over three days because you guys couldn't get your act together and ask legitimate questions because your game is all about gotchas ours is about responsibly running a budget and running a council so before you get out there and
start lecturing other people I suggest you take a look in the mirror thank you i got that out is there anybody else in the public that wishes to speak on the budget please there's going to be another open to the public portion so this is just for budget i don't know if this is when I
should speak or not so I have questions about taxes name and address for the record sorry sure aaron Deort 16 Alquan Rockaway New Jersey okay so uh bringing up the budget I heard you say that the assessed value or the assessment
percentage is not going up i just wanted to state for the record in 2022 my assessed value for my home which is a 1,000q ft three-bedroom onebath no garage no basement house was 254 254,000 my taxes were
6900 2023 my assessment went up to 2842 my taxes went up to $7,457 an increase of 500 and change 2024 my house then was reassessed at
$34,800 my taxes then went up to 7,815 so my taxes in a matter of Can you take a look i'm sorry let me just fix that microphone yeah yeah of course is it working there we go sorry about
that so my taxes have gone up almost $1,000 between 2022 and 2024 my reassessed value that I now got for 2025 is $342,000 which is a $38,000 increase in one year in assessed value so that means
my taxes are going to go up signi significantly if we're using the same tax rate from the year before now you're talking about trying to save us money or giving us all these great things in town and I love living in Rockaway it was a great place to raise my son i'm more
than happy to pay for taxes for the schools it was a great school system for my kid you could just go ahead but can we get another battery in the meantime but my concern is my concern is now my I'm I'm waiting to get my tax bill for
2025 which if it if it's the same tax rate is going to be like another 700 something dollars that means my taxes have gone up $1,700 from 2022 to 2025 now I don't know if that's for
everybody in town but I know how it's significantly affecting me i understand um I'm not taking more of your time just and and I'll ask um just Yeah I'll ask Ray just to give me a quick blur but and hit the buzzer if I'm
because you're the expert we're talking about the tax rate not the assessed value of your home right and this is not a Rockaway thing it's you know since CO the values of houses have gone up dramatically um we are also the the municipal portion of your tax bill is
35% 65% of your tax bill is from the schools which we don't control so we don't control that tax rate if there's an increase in that part of your taxes that's addressed through the board of education right so again we make up 35
and then 27 27% all right so 27% of your tax bill is township the rest is school system right we county and county you 27 is us and then you have the rest maybe my question is who is assessing all this
extra money on my house can you speak to that real quick all right thanks so for those so Grace Arnelli is our uh talent auditor okay so the process of assessing taxes is incredibly
complicated in general what what this township chooses to do is to try and keep the assessed value as accurate to market as possible by doing what's called a revaluation every year so each year the entire town is revalued to keep
the market rates equal to the assessed value that does change in that value does not alone affect your taxes a rate is then applied to that so as the assessed value
increases Rockaway Township's portion which has stayed the same the rate actually decreases so that when you multiply the assessed value times the rate you're coming to a very similar tax levy so the assessment is done by an
assessment firm independent of Rockway Township okay right i know my mom who lives in Bridge her house $20,000 more than mine
so I don't know where this reassessment is coming from my home in four years of my ass right so so what it is or whatever but it's
not a single mom but the the change in the value of your home is not changing the the taxes that are being assigned to it from the township so how did my taxes go up by $1,000 the the school and the
county taxes are increasing so the town ass I mean it they they are your assessment is multiplied by the rate but the your assessed value changing doesn't change what taxes
collected only the levy of the school the county and the municipality multiplied against that assessed value affect what you pay in In this particular case the township's levy
is not changing just your assessed value is the rate is going down and they're collecting the same amount so your actual payment to the town for municipal taxes is not changing am I not
no no no this is not Hold on you're the the Am I not Am I not paying more taxes because your assessed value is going up yes no you're not paying more money because the the the assessed value of your home is changing no you're paying more money
because they're asking for a tax increase from the school and the county there but it's not the town not the town okay that's why when when the mayor says it's a zero increase it's not the assessment but again it's not coming from us the assessment on your house is the same that the assessment is changing
across 100% of the township every town for every house every business everybody who has a pays taxes to Rockaway Township their assessed value is changing everyone in Rockway has had
their taxes increased by at least $1,000 over a threeyear time span and it's about to go up again that I'm not unique is what you're saying right yes correct all of our taxes have gone up about this
it's not that you're not upset of course every nobody likes the taxes but New Jersey we all pay it you know we all live in Rockaway you know and I mean granted I mean I have four kids in the school system but it's not any better in I mean it's Mars County do you know what
I'm saying it's what it costs to live here well I I you expect your taxes to go up two two to maybe $400 a year at the most not $500 a year and we are completely in agreement with that and that's why we
did not raise the taxes we're with you we did not raise the taxes i appreciate your time in the I think it was a very good discussion thank you anybody else from the public wish to speak on the budget okay and for the last time with the
budget I'm going to tell everybody again thank you for all the work that you put in administration Lisa all the hours that you put in above and beyond the declared one hour that we spent during the actual meeting thank you thank you all
right a resolution to read the 2025 operating budget by title R2570 can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman
Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Noon yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Votovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's nine yes this motion carries r
2571 resolution to adopt the 2025 municipal budget of the township of Rockaway and the county of Mars be it resolved by the township council of the township of Rockaway county of Mars that the 2025 budget herein before set forth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purposes stated
of the sums therein set forth as appropriations and authorization of the amount of $30,533,753 for municipal purposes $426,373.16 for open space recreation farmland and historic preservation trust fund levy and
[Music] $2,95,93566 for minimum library tax can I have a motion so move second cler please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks
yes councilwoman Nune yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vuittovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries miss Palmir you're done until next year thank you you're welcome
consent agenda council President yes i'd like to pull uh R2572 for discussion before reading them off okay uh consent agenda um items R2573 up to and including
R2588 and R2590 R2591 R2592 can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks
yes councilwoman Nune yes councilman Sberg yes councilman Boyovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Morrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries opening discussion on R2572 councilman uh yes uh question
for the administration um resolution establishing sanitary sewer maintenance fee for single family residential dwellings um question is this to be assessed on all homes in Rockway Township or just those that are connected to the sewer uh to the sewer system just those that are connected to the sewer okay can is that specifically
stated um it's the sewer maintenance for single family dwellings that are connected to the sanitary services that are connected to I just Okay just want that clarified thank you any other council discussion yes is that a Last year we were 265 is that going up
to 320 what was last year's rate i believe it was 19 uh 290 295 295 and and we where did we come up with the increase on that how do you calculate that i needed to I needed to increase it for um the uh sewer jetack that we're
looking to purchase this year um as well as you know just inflation and um I would think I believe we are still well within um you know we're competitive with the surrounding towns i gave a little chart on a memo i hope you were provided with that to show that Rockaway is very competitive compared to our
surrounding towns thank you for clarifying that any other council discussion okay make a motion for R2572 can I have a second second clerk please take the role councilman Freellander yes
councilman Sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman Nune yes councilman Salberg yes councilman Vtovich yes council Vice President Brooks yes council President Marson yes nine yes motion carries
council President I just want to real quick if I can interject since we're talking about the resolutions I wanted to point out um R 2590 the shared services agreement with the Mine Hill Court in Rockway Township but I wanted to point out um Rich our court administrator um worked with Brian Cower
and that that shared services agreement increased 50% um so it was a really good they did a really good financial analysis and it's bringing in uh a decent amount of revenue to the township now so it was a very good job of them i want to highlight that since you just approved it nice thank you
uh okay we're going back to open to the public for anything non-budget related uh the same statement applies regarding rules surrounding addressing the council uh Mr court you were on here was that you're satisfied okay is there anybody else in the public that did not sign the
sheet that wishes to speak yes ma'am did you raise your hand you can go back okay who else was Go ahead pat Denon 88 Valley View Drive um it really relates to the budget but I think
it's something that most residents don't realize that when a company files a tax appeal the township winds up being responsible to pay back if they win a
tax appeal the portion that they paid in school taxes does not come back from the school and that's really something we ought to see if we can work out and get the school to give back if they wind up
winning a tax appeal um I think it's something that most residents don't realize and we've had a number of tax appeals in in the past and the township winds up being responsible for that so
that's something to to think about miss Pomeary is that something we can discuss not right now i'm saying Yeah we can discuss it all right thank you ma'am you can record as long as you get my good side okay i like to record myself
because since I'm sorry just name an Wendell Franklin 202 Cleveland i'm recording myself because I called to ask for a copy of the last April 8 video and a copy of what was
said and what work you spoke about and they said the camera was broke they did not record anything uh that is correct unfortunately there was a an issue with the camera keep in mind the camera is not a requirement
it's something that we do um for lack of a better term i don't want to say as a courtesy issue something that we choose to do but it's not required so was this the first time the camera broke no it's it's uh we went through and there was some kind of maintenance miss Pomeir you
explained it before there was a hardware something i don't know but they they redid it um and I was talking with one of the other council members and we're talking about an upgrade to the system but it has happened before okay so just I wanted to just do a summary of what I
said last April 8 2025 yep to the town council and to um the administration in reference to I've made over 38 police reports over a hundred phone calls saying that someone is stalking me
someone is coming in my condo every single day they take my mail i'm not receiving mail when I do receive it it's way backdated but it seems like no one is interested in doing an
investigation so is this part of like some a senior citizen that is disabled which I have a disability with my hands that you you corner them because they're not nothing's being investigated nothing can move forward with no investigation i
can't even follow an insurance report i can't do anything and you know the perpetrator Army Sergeant his qualifications in training is Q Q25 and
25E and nothing has been done and you wonder why the taxes are high is it because of no one doing investigations and things being failed and then it's a incident that happens that cost the
township a lot of money i'm not sure but I think I still haven't received the call i have not received any answers to what I said so I think it's fallen death gears correct and now the meeting I had and spoke about all these incidents
happen the machine broke when Franklin anybody else from the public hello again Mr morrison uh Tucker Kelly 16 Megan Dro just to follow up on the comment that you made when we were talking about the budget before uh and I'm sure that you're aware Mr morrison at the end of every year the auditor that just left Mr sarinelli who was the
same auditor at time in 18 and 19 they do reports on the budget and whatnot and there was no reckless cuts there was no loss of services matter of fact it was very complimentary of how much money we were able to reduce that was actually a savings for the taxpayers not only was
that 18 but it was also 19 but in those reports even up to where they're at now there were suggestions about collecting that $650,000 from the sewer assessment in Bobville that Mr quinn didn't pay and you guys waved that money collection it was almost two points and then don't forget about the controller report about
the $4.5 million that was a double expenditure on health benefits that was paid by a member of your administration and not only that there was other monies that were bond ordinances that were thrown into the reserves that our state of New Jersey controller recommended to
give back to the taxpayers we're talking millions of dollars that are there and again I said to you before because of your default end of it you always go back to saying litigation and I I plead with you because I have to make Opal requests to get information because you're not willing to give it to me to get those documents of invoices or
accountability or political documents why don't you provide all those invoices that you're saying accumulate to all this money that was being spent you have access to it because it's a legal requirement that you file an Oprah that's it no no it's not see Oprah you're wrong about that under 471A there is no requirement for Oprah it's because
you're not willing to give the documents that force us the member of the public to make that request it's that simple and now the other thing is Mr uh um Jackson had made a mention about the poor what was the new contract because we you couldn't see it online how much is the court going to be paying now we're not discussing individual cont i
said this is not a question and answer well you're answering everybody else's questions before they were relevant questions that I had the answers to at the moment obviously I don't have Well you just voted on a contract you don't know the amount of money that you You think I happen to remember the line item of every single thing in the budget off the top of my head seriously no it's a
contract you just voted on for the Mine Hill Court you don't know the number do you think I would have it at the top of my head yes cuz you voted on it well you're wrong you don't know what the actual amount is for a contract that you just agreed upon for the fourth time i don't have it on the top of my head all
right and even if I did I don't answer to you okay so let's just say it's $100,000 and it was originally 70 or $80,000 i don't see the 50% increase and interesting enough when Mine Hill was in
Dover they were paying a h 100red grand 10 years ago for the same services they're getting now so were we trying to recoup the losses that we didn't build them correctly in the multiple years that Minehill was having court with us here for the increase to cover that loss again it's not a question answer period
and you could be pulling these numbers out of anywhere all right i'm not everybody listen I'm I'm not if you disagree with me you can easily find it through Dover contact Mr morrison or maybe know the information before you vote on that resolution please sit down again half-truths and conspiracy
theories okay we are going to move on i'm sorry is there anybody else in the public okay uh we are going to move on to um reports uh you know what I think do we want to start with uh defer to Mr mayor
sure okay thank you Council President um I do want to talk about something before I get into my report um I think many of you aware of the recent um litigation um by Mr tucker Kelly his his
latest litigation um against the township clerk um I I want to paint a picture for people um that are watching this and that are here right you start a job um you're learning the job any job you start a new job you learn there's
things you have to learn and you get a new task and this new task is very important it's very complicated and you're learning it get that out now and as you're learning it um you know somebody shows up to your workplace right and
somebody shows up to your workplace that doesn't work there and starts antagonizing you and many of you seen the picture on Facebook right there's been a Facebook post out there and I thought it would be a good visual for people watching so so this guy shows up
to your workplace and starts telling you you're doing your job wrong starts accusing you of committing fraud starts um you know making false accusations in an angry harassing manner as you could see in that picture it's it's right
there and so you might ask why do we have that picture well that's a still frame from a police body cam so that might make you ask why why why do we have a still frame from a police body camera because Tucker Kelly called the police because he had
concerns and asked him to send somebody upstairs and I don't know Council President I might put it in context if you could play the audio of his call to dispatch please hey uh doc it's Tucker Kelly how are you i'm good
hey um can you send an officer up here to the clerk's counter okay i I have a I have a concern there's um documents that are going to be signed uh after the fact and I have Councilwoman Brooks here who's going to sign the document that Mrs mrs wadley
um contacted her so if you could could you just send a police officer up here okay we'll get somebody up there okay thank you okay bye-bye so to to put it in perspective right we have officers out patrolling
um protecting the public and now we have to pull somebody in because Tucker has concerns about documents being signed that's what our clerks had to go through for a two-eek period okay over and over again sitting in the office sometimes
for hours asking for copies calling people sitting at their desk and saying "Hey can you go knock on the clerk's door and find out if she's done?" It's unbelievable it's unfathomable to me that we took cops off
the street to do that it's unfathomable to me that somebody who's trying to do their job is being accosted and being accused of fraud and committing illegal activities um what I will say is that the case got dismissed by the judge none
of his none of his claims were found to be accurate um and I will say this I've seen the bills um for the past three years Tucker has sued the clerk in Rockway Township i think they've been three different clerks it might have just been two different clerks um he
also the year before filed a civil rights lawsuit against me and former mayor Puzio and I can tell you the legal fees are in excess of $100,000 for those lawsuits so to sit here and and you know condemn the council for what they're doing and condemn the administration
it's it's just unfathomable to me and I don't think it's it's fair to create a hostile work environment for employees of the township they're trying to do their job and I'd like to commend um Lisa and Adele for doing their jobs in
in such adverse conditions and doing it you know they they their job is really to serve the public everybody here is but they're they're really the face of it and I can tell you I get so many compliments in all the weddings I do um about them in particular um so I just
think it's a shame they had to go through that and I think it's uh people should pay attention to this and and really see what he's about because it's not about doing anything good for the township from what I could see um I wanted to go through my report so we had
the uh town square Easter egg mr mayor yeah I'm sorry i don't mean to interrupt i just want to point out that the lawsuit that was filed um speaking of uh Tucker's love for senior citizens there was what five seniors on there and including suing a 95year-old resident
who was trying to serve her community that's who they sued yeah and let's be clear they were sued because they support me and for no other reason right go ahead sorry well I'm going to go through my back well then we're going to do council in Town Square Village is a great community
over there they they do an Easter egg aon every year um very nice they're doing a lot of work over there too uh fixing some retaining walls um had the Substance Abuse Alliance Committee meeting um last week manny you skipped it because you're in Italy or something
like that right yeah um we had the Easter flower sale uh at the Legion and they got some events coming up there too we got some nice flowers there at the Mount Hope shredding event um the fire department does that as a service to the community and uh one of the things I
thought was pretty cool you know you got um you know your senior firefighters that are there like Mr elco Mr govern all those and then but there were a lot of younger um firefighters there so that was encouraging to see and by the way they were all the ones on the street
risking directing traffic um done five weddings since the last meeting got some really good feedback from the public on some township services uh another nice email on um dialeride um I wanted to read this one on Sunday I sent an email
regarding part holes at the top of Richard Myro and Mount Hope i requested that they be filled um to my amazement they were completed yesterday and this was on Tuesday i want to thank whoever is responsible and that's Al North and his crew for the very prompt attention
to this matter um it renewed my faith in local government happy Easter so I thought that was a uh a really good uh email um and great feedback for Al and his team i'd like to point out that April is National Safe Digging Month so
uh keep that in mind whenever you are doing any work where you're digging in the ground um you should call 811 and get all I think it's free and get all your utilities checked so that's my report for tonight miss Yatrafo
thank you Mhm thank you Council President um I just want to uh as requested by the mayor address the lawsuit that was filed uh what happened etc uh the lawsuit was
commenced uh by an order to show cause and a verified complaint where various irregularities were charged uh in the election processing or petition processing
uh against our clerk and in addition to these technical irregularities which the court found they were uh there was the allegation of criminal fraud brought against the clerk which is a an
extremely serious crime the following were the defendants in the lawsuit there was of course Adele Wadley uh in her official capacities Rockway Township Clerk and the following individuals:
Rachel Brooks Douglas Brooks Mary Noon John also better known as Jack Quinn uh Frank Jackekal county committee candidate uh Lillianu the 95year-old you were talking about Kimberly Brooks
Douglas Brooks Suzanne Jackson and if I repeat somebody's name as you guys I'm sure know but the public probably doesn't know why uh some of the officers were for council some of the officers were for Republican county committee uh
and that was just the way it's done they're separate petition processes so we had we left off with Suzanne Jackson then we had Barry Non again for county committee Jack Quinn again for county committee Laura Shavevela for county committee Kathy Quinn for county
committee and Joe Jackson for county committee [Music] um my firm as Rockway Township of Attorneys uh represented solely Adele Wadley
uh as as our municipal clerk the other defendants were collectively represented by an attorney John Coyle uh who was paid out of the coffers of the Boris County Republican Committee
uh so we were given uh two days to respond to this lawsuit and the hearing was on April 15th before Judge Stuart Minkowitz who is the as I
like to call him boss judge of Morris and Sussex counties more properly known as the assignment judge okay um I'm not going to go through the whole litigation we don't have the time for it but I'm just going to focus on one paragraph
which encapsulates the legitimacy of the lawsuit to begin with this is from the judge's 17page opinion if you count the order dismissing the lawsuit
it is well settled that the legislature intended New Jersey election laws to be liberally construed to allow the greatest scope for public participation in the electoral in the electoral process to allow candidates to get on
the ballot to allow parties to put their candidates on the ballot and most importantly to allow the voters a choice on election day a case is cited and I'll refer to that case in a minute it has long been the public policy of New
Jersey that election laws must be liberally construed to effectuate the overriding public policy in favor of public participation in the election process and there's another case site i won't bother you with the case sites
what I will bother you with is the dates of those respective cases one from the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1990 and another from the appellet division of superior court in 2000 so this is not
new law this is not some miracle that was created just because somebody felt sorry for some minor technical election pro or petition processing things that went on in Rockaway Township this was law that anybody challenging what
occurred with respect to this election should have known about what does that tell you about the motivation now on a brighter note there were two people who were really responsible for this i'd be happy to put on my spats and you know the fancy uh
lawyer outfit but the simple fact that we would not be where we are in terms of achieving an overwhelming victory in this case if it wasn't for Adele Wadley and Lisa Caruso okay in addition to
enduring more than two weeks of in-your-face conduct by the plaintiff these two women worked like dogs to cooperate with me to collate
data to provide sworn testimony to the court in the form of certifications uh it was not easy uh I don't know that either one of them well I do know that neither of them had ever
been named as defendant in a lawsuit of course Lisa wasn't named as a defendant adele had that honor okay but uh it probably is not appropriate but uh I wish they could both be here tonight but I'm sure Adele will tell Lisa about it
if she's not watching on the TV uh if it was appropriate they deserve a standing ovation and thanks from the council of the administration for what they did and they certainly have my personal thanks that's all I have
thank you Miss W one could even consider that lawsuit to be attempted voter suppression by trying to eliminate people off the ballot so okay uh you know let's go backwards we'll go to Miss Pomeary uh thank you i don't have a report but thank you for your support with the
budget i do appreciate it get to work on next year i will Miss Fonte just briefly we've got three active construction sites going on right now and that's at Richard Street down in the Birchwood section then the utility building in White Metal Lake and then Telmark Park
on the northern section um moving along well and just bear with us while we get through the construction thank you Mr tab thank you Council President uh two items first very quickly just a reminder uh the township
spring cleanup day is May 10th from 9:00 a.m to 11:00 a.m i mentioned it at the last council meeting uh people can register by May 7th to participate just to reach out to Cara Selena Wyber our chief environmental health specialist at the division of health or anybody there for that matter um the second item I wanted to mention just to take a moment
uh we have in about three weeks time maybe a few days further uh the gypsy moth suppression program uh this town in 2016 and 2017 participated in the program it's a cooperative program with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Forestry and um
it involves a biological uh pesticide of very low risk one called basillus and genenses it's a part of integrated pest management and it's very low on the risk scale um and there's a small part of the town that's going to be involved in this the very northern part of the town near Green Pond so on or around May 15th
probably over just a couple of hours in the morning with a 1-hour break between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m uh a biplane or some kind of plane uh from South Jersey in cooperation with the state department of agriculture uh it's going to be timed based on the growth of leaves on trees and also the the life cycle of the gypsy
moth but probably around May 15th um the plane will come over and spend a couple of hours and it'll be done uh it'll probably happen in the early morning uh division of health staff will be out on the roads to make sure that nobody is unnecessarily outside we get out at 5:30 in the morning for this event when we've done it before and we'll have a few
people out there myself included um it involves 293 acres so it's about half the size of past treatments and about half the budget that we had to dedicate to it before uh this council a couple of months ago did devote a resolution to adjusting the budget for this and last council meeting a resolution was passed
declaring the gypsy moth a public nuisance so everything's been taken care of um again primarily sections of Green Pond are involved limited portions of Green Pond Road Lake End Road Old Lake Road uh Jacobs Road and a few smaller roads in the Green Pond area um this
information is available in Division of Health for any member of the public that wants to look at it as well as a map that the state developed showing where those treatment sections are um in addition many notifications have been provided and will be provided by the Division of Health our township website through the Division of Health you can
find a copy of the map showing the treatment areas you can also find a press release that I put up there um the school districts will be notified um I've already had several correspondences in writing and verbally with Dr corbett uh and Megan Slam uh of the Rockway
Township uh board of education and also with Nicholas Norsia and Gail Libby who's the administrator for the Mars Hills Regional District um required correspondence and also just good conversations about how to effectively do this um newspapers have been notified april 9th there was a legal ad in the
Daily Record april 16th there was a larger display ad and the citizen uh on April 24th this week the Daily Record will have a display ad and on May 7th the citizen will have a larger display ad so we're doing the required publications and notifications for the public um we also by April 24th will
notify the adjacent municipalities and school districts per state regulations and um letters will go out to every resident in the identified areas uh by May 5th so we already have the the labels printed the letters uh but we are obligated to send it out during a particular period of time so like I said
anybody uh from the public or the governing body for that matter can come to the division of health or just go to the website and and check out the um the map or information and I'm happy to answer any questions uh we'll do rave alerts uh the day before and the day of the treatments but we're not going to know what that day is until the state
calls us which is usually one or two days in advance not much notice uh because again it depends on a few factors including weather if there's precipitation or wind then they might call it off for a day so um that's all I had to report but just wanted to put some information out there in case anybody was interested thank you thank
you Chief thank you Council President uh just a reminder uh this year we do have for the first time the junior uh police academy registration will be available via uh the website and social media so just
look uh for that that's going to be fifth grade through 8th grade July 7th through the 11th it will be uh drop off of 7:45 a.m and it will be a pickup of 2:30 uh in the afternoon so we look
forward to that uh also just after uh the meeting we had last time I was able to speak with some of the residents in reference to some of the issues and the traffic uh that was going on in particular Richard Mine Road so we were able to make some very quick adjustments
uh after the meeting at some of the suggestions that were made so um on top of that just to let everybody know in all of the areas different areas throughout town that that we've had different meetings on or different commentary or emails uh about uh the
officers have been out there again there's been since the beginning of April I normally do this each month but since the beginning of April uh there have been 81 motor vehicle crashes there have been 433 motor vehicle encounters officers have increased their radar and
traffic enforcement to 75 in those areas and they have a total summons in those affected areas that we've had very uh specific concerns about they've issued 64 uh summones in those areas i'd also like to announce that uh Saturday at
Walmart there is a DEA drug takeback in the Walmart 10 a.m to 2:00 pm and also we look forward to the uh spring festival at the library this weekend as well okay Councilman Quinn
thank you peterson Field this is the time of the year all the spring sports are going you know the money we spent for Peterson is amazing these children are really
taking a lot of use out of it the basketball court is crowded every day tennis and pickle ball is crowded every day and Peterson turf field is crowded
all the time it's amazing i went by lacrosse was out there there was cars all over the place this is what the town did and you know it's a great thing for Peterson Field and the town the kids are
really enjoying it they had off last week because schools were out that field was full of kids it kept them off the streets out of trouble and they played it was great my grandkids were all over
there i want to thank the mayor and his wife for stopping by the dialeride lunchon uh the mayor had a chance to talk with some of the dialeride residents and he committed to having us
get out to different places because some of the people said that it's a little too pricey at some of these places and we're looking at getting a better bang for our buck and the mayor's getting Shannon involved and we're going to have
a list and it's going to really perpetuate this this thing for dial a ride it's a social event it's much better than constantly talking about how sick they are or anything
else all right also I wanted to talk about let's see why hey Council McQuinn if I can interrupt you real quick so next week there'll be a flyer on the Dialeride buses um you know they'll be handed out asking you know what other places you
would go like to go to with some suggestions um Dave Dyer and I met with the Dialory drivers last Thursday morning um they gave their feedback on some areas they thought some of the residents would like to go to so that's all underway so thank you thank you and
then the planning board we have a meeting on Monday night so uh and as far as the rec committee there is no more so I can't even discuss that one so moving on thank you Councilman second
i have no report thank you Councilman Silver uh thank you uh nothing really to report on county commissioners meeting was very abbreviated but next one scheduled uh for tomorrow night um one thing I point out um regarding the Open Space Trust Fund um it's about a year and a half in
the making they just rolled it out on uh the Mars Countyj.gov website uh fully interactive uh map and um,formational site um really it's a wonderful thing especially if you'd like to visit some of the uh some of the properties that have been purchased uh it's an
interactive map where you can see the history the historical significance of the purchase properties uh available trails recreation opportunities and you can literally follow a timeline right through Mars County and of course the early days of some of the purchases were primarily in the Rockaway Township area so really recommend you take a look at
it marscountenj.gov departments openspace preservation it's actually really nice and they're very proud of it um it's about all I have to report i should just mention um last week I wasn't at the meeting um in a way
uh Rockaway was in uh Washington DC um the HCMA had their day on the hill and we went down there we spoke to about 170 uh members of Congress um primarily talking about um uh health issues um the the quality of generic drugs being imported and red blue didn't matter it
was uh you know it was very positive meeting met with uh uh several senators as well and uh so in a way uh Rockway Township kind of had their impact on the hill last So that's all I have nice job Council Me yeah on April 16th I attended
the Morris County League of Municipalities and the main speaker there was uh Morris County prosecutor Robert Carroll and he spoke mainly about car thefts and burglaries home burglaries that have been throughout the state and in this county but he he did report that for the last three three
years uh car thefts and home burglaries have been trending down especially Morris County and uh he thanked the uh local police departments cooperation cooperating with them great job with uh working with the county that's he credit the Luc local municipalities uh you know
for those numbers trending down uh he also stated that he suspects that uh burglaries probably will or should continue to go down because uh Senator Buco was a sponsor of of a uh new law that enhanced some um home burglaries
um that's all I have on the uh for the Morris County League municipalities i just I know the administration went first but I would like get an update if if we can on the grant writer because I know there's certain you know uh timelines we might be missing out on some grants u and then one last thing to
this uh lady in the front that's recording about the uh mail theft right the chief could correct me if I'm wrong but this is the second time we talk about mail theft i think that mean that's within the jurisdiction of the uh postal police so they might be able to help you out with that one right Chief i
mean I think it's within their purview thank you i can give a quick update on the on the grant writing we did receive two propo two proposals um I believe I mentioned that last uh meeting we are um going with a particular firm that is actually order um offering us like on a
perdm basis so it's going to save us a little bit of money we can stay within the budget that we approved on um the 20,000 that we put together and um we're going to be securing that very shortly councilman Freder was able to make a meeting last
night at the library just uh two two quick things uh this we're in the second phase of the grant for the Hernia uh section of the library for the uh restoration of the outside so uh we're
in good shape for that and just a quick reminder that this Sunday like the chief said is the festival for the library in the parking lot in front of the library and the plan I mean everybody should be there it's it's going to be amazing this
year i mean 12 to 4 but we'll accept people to come earlier and help but that's it that was the way and just want to say shout out to my wife for 50 years that's why I wasn't here
[Music] thank you Councilman Brooks uh thank you Council President um I just want to thank uh the road department and Al for fixing the corner of Mount Hope Road and Richard Mine Road the potholes from everybody trying to make that turn
really quickly is So thank you for fixing that the other thing uh for Miss Fant uh do our construction sites have cameras on them for when we're not working you know for because of a lot of theft that happens at construction sites
so I wanted to see if you know those sites had cameras on them or maybe we think about especially the ones that we're doing our projects on so the one that does have uh materials on it does have cameras okay the contractor is responsible for securing the materials
and equipment on the site and they have installed caps okay great that's that's that's important um with me being on construction sites a lot it it it's a good thing to have them there not only for the safety aspect but also for the security aspect other than that that is
all I have councilwoman I just had a question for Miss Ferrante um the Richard Street project when is the projected end date for that the contract is for 60 days um so I think we're about 20 days in okay we had a
little rain delay in the beginning so just bear with us again yeah I know the whole street is requiring improvements so it is temporary and then we'll be out of your hair out of the neighborhood um you know as quickly believe me I want to get them out of town as quickly as
possible and I and I can tell you as we get concerns or whatever refunding them to her and uh to Allison and Makmood they're heading out there daily and addressing everybody's concerns i know that yeah because I did go by and Harold Lane was was bad that one was bad so all
right june 60 days okay council vice president um I just have the advertised budget for the school district is on their website uh it's rocktwp.net uh they're having a public hearing in the Copeland cafeteria next
Wednesday the 30th um it says at 5:30 but the public session will begin at 7:30 um and they are conducting a hearing for their adoption of their 2526 budget so if anyone is interested as well please attend and you actually can link a
hyperlink to see their proposal also on the website that's all I have thank you and I think everybody has heard enough from me tonight make a motion to adjurnn by consensus all in favor i thank you yep
very good