##VIDEO ID:-VRP-MTuHKs## thank you everybody and welcome to the regular monthly meeting of the mayor and Council Monday October 28 2024 starting at 6:30 p.m. Missy could you please call the role mayor nzi I am here council president mcowan present councilman big Roberson here councilman Gman here councilman D con here coun Quron here counsman kley here thank you if you're willing and able can you please stand for the salute to the flag thank you missy could you please read the provisions in compliance with the open public meetings Law chapter 231 public laws of 1975 notice of this meeting was to aditt to the record and Herald news and file with the burrow clerk on December 26 2023 and is posted on the bulletin board outside of burrow Hall thank you uh any changes to the agenda yes on page two we'll be adding resolution number 234 under resolutions authorizing an in Financial incentive to those eligible employees participating in the high deductible Health Plan benefit also under mayoral appointments we'll be adding the appointment of Lori hetel as a member of the Civil Rights Commission thank you anybody else have any changes seeing none we're going to move on roll call please a motion to check a motion please motion motion by council president may have a second second second by councilman Guzman questions or comments by the council seeing none Kev roll call council president McAn yes councilman B Roberson yes Council M Guzman yes councilman Del con yes Council Quron yes councilman kley yes thank you we're going to move on now the hearing of citizens anybody from the public wishing to speak please step forward to the microphone state your name address and please keep your comments at 5 minutes or less got my name is James um my name is James and I live in 467 Street and what would you like to say James how can we help get our Recreation a center James um so what's going to happen now is what we do here is everybody gets to speak and then we'll answer you after we speak after everybody else speaks we'll answer your questions okay okay um um how can I support him with getting a recreational Center can I have your uh name and address uh my name is Gabe and I live on 82 Woodland Avenue um how can I support him with getting a recreational center thanks Gabe anybody else from the public wishing to speak my name is Sophia and I live on Grove Street what's your question uh uh how do you keep the town safe thank you anybody else from the scouts wishing to speak hi my name is Jake and I live on 161 Livingston a Avenue and my question is how can we help get get a dog park thank you next hello my name is Oliver and I live on 138 Maple Street um I know that uh Rutherford is responsible for creating businesses but is there any way we can attract an arcade business so so that kids can come out more and be able to play more with their friends thank you anybody else from the scouts good evening Monica coard 130 Maple Street I'd just like to thank the mayor and councel for hosting us once a year as our Scouts learn about their civic duties thank you very much now we're going to move on to the rest of the public anyone from the uh public wishing to speak please St up the microphone state your name and address and please keep your comments in 5 minutes Les Robert blure 74 Van Riper Avenue Rutherford uh a lot of people don't know this but I've been a resident here for over 40 years and I would just like to reiterate thank the the mayor and the council for doing an outstanding job thank you and one other thing go Yankees if we get out of here by eight we will anybody else from the public wishing to speak thanks Chief David labruno 423 styes I just had a couple questions I hope you'd uh tell the public about when we look at the agenda this evening um first is uh there's a uh list on here about buying new police vehicles and so I was just wondering how many we have now and I see we're getting six new ones so uh just wondering you know what we're aging out or what's going on with that uh the other question that I did have was uh with respect to uh the gym that's going to be put in this uh facility so uh there's a lot of equipment that's being bought maybe you could tell us what's that uh all of those kind of things that are going on uh lastly there's something on here doesn't really have any details about uh cameras being bought for Union Park and here City burrow Hall as I understand it we already have cameras this building was built with lots of cameras around I thought the city hall burrow Hall has them um so uh maybe you could tell us a little bit about that too thank you thank you Mr labruno anybody else from the public wishing to speak Mr gun sir good afternoon I just want a little I you just got to do the name and address thing Charles Gun 19 Milton Court brother for New Jersey 07070 well I already had a small meeting in the park driveway but for the record Ron here with me he came with he came with me in reference so we can get something on the record that we spoke about the light being out I corresponded with Missy so she is aware of this but I since Rod came Le he was historian I just I just want to get something on record so he can say that yes we spoke about this and since I'm up here you might as well give me an update on the wall thank you Mr gun anybody else from the public wishing to speak just please state your name and address good evening Victoria yashar 82 Woodland Avenue um I just wanted to raise the request of putting a crossing guard at um Woodland and peer Pont during the morning and afternoon dismissal times just so that the kids can cross safely because a lot of times there's a lot of traffic going up um Woodland Avenue people are kind of speeding and there's some funky little Corners that people are kind of going around and making it difficult for the kids to cross safely thank you anybody else from the public wishing to speak seeing none now ma'am um hi my name is Lori H and I'm at U I live at 46 silen street now I came by some I think it was last year requesting that the tennis courts be resurface and looks like they were so I really want to thank you T for doing that um thanks so much um one other thing I would like to ask uh is I know that dogs are not allow our Memorial Field maybe even tamblin as well um I'm wondering um we also have a obviously you know we don't want the dog droppings and such on the field however are we doing anything to address the uh geese droppings I mean I don't know if anybody ask about that but it's a really uh you know big problem at both Tamlin and Memorial thank you thank you sorry I missed your name could you restate your name from you yes my name is Lori ha okay thank you thank you anybody else from the public wishing to speak seeing none now I'm going to close it to the public and I'm going to open it up for any Council remarks council president thank you mayor um uh first I want to thank everyone for their comments um and uh going in order for outstanding questions um by our Scouts who are here and so um I will do my best to give you my thoughts on your questions um James and Gabe you were asking about um how we could get a recreation center right yes yes perfect um I want you to know that is something that some of us have talked about for quite a number of years um and as we continue to look at um how we use our fields and resources that we have available to us that that kind of dictates whether or not we get to actually have a recreation center um so we right now as as hopefully you'll start experiencing we're updating our Fields um and so you're going to see that pretty quickly it's already starting to happen and will be happening over the next year and a half two years um and so I think that's an awesome question and I kind of loved how you both not only did you ask it but then you asked what you could do to support him so the answer is to keep coming back and keep asking it so that it stays present um how do um how do we work towards keeping our town safe so over here we have um the chief of police with us and so Chief perhaps maybe you would like to address the scouts about maybe a few samples of all the things that your team does to keep our town safe concerns about how we keep our residents safe uh so we do numerous things throughout the day every day uh we have a traffic division that that handles our uh Motor Vehicle Enforcement specific Motor Vehicle Enforcement uh they handle our crossing guards they handle our school Crossings we have our day-to-day Patrol Division that handles all the calls for service whether those are accidents fights medical calls um every so often we have a few criminals running around we handle those um and that's what our Patrol does and then we also have a detective Bureau who follow up on some of the more serious investigations uh you they're kind of behind the scenes you don't usually see them they're not in uniforms but we all work in concert together and um the ultimate goal is to keep the burrow Safe Keep The V residents and our visitors safe and you know I believe we're doing a pretty good job at that so thank you for your concerns and your questions thank you Chief um I'm going to um for Oliver um and Jake I'm going to allow my Council colleagues to answer you because I know that they have some very specific thoughts on both of those um and Mr labruno I'm going to uh defer to my colleague uh councilman Guzman who I know will answer that uh Mr gun thank you for bringing that to our attention and making sure it's on the record so that it gets addressed um I don't have any answers about the geese um pep PE mine personally so I I love that uhuh um and so I I'm I'm saying it kind of in just but um I agree with you it is a problem um thank you for coming tonight and being with us thank you everybody for your kind words um and for your good questions we appreciate having you thank you mayor thank you Council same thank you mayor um I will not repeat um what my Council colleague said uh James about the recreation center but I will say um what I think we maybe can think about is if there's opportunities to offer existing spaces for recreation um when I lived uh before I moved to Rutherford I lived in the city and um the parks there was there was not a recreation center in my neighborhood but there was a need for places for kids to gather and the parks actually had this great program where they had board games and other things at the par Park that you could borrow um sort so it sort of fostered gathering and giving people something to do because I think the kids in our community who maybe don't play sports or or or do other activities are sometimes looking for things to do um so I wonder if if there is an opportunity until we can actually get a proper Center to to think more creatively about uh places for you to go where it's safe and uh to Sophia's question our parks are kept safe by our police department so it's it's somewhere you could be so I'm going to sort of noodle that a little bit um also just in building a recreation center say this is your civics lesson um there's a lot of departments that get together to do any one thing right so for a recreation center we need to think about buildings and grounds which my Council colleague is leaz liais on Ford the Department of Public Works helps maintain those spaces um so there's a lot that goes into to offering a new space but maybe we can think about ways to use our existing spaces until then because of course there's there's cost as well right um Sophia I think our chief sort of covered your your answer better than I could have Jake a dog park so Jake couple meetings ago we talked as a as a governing body up here about the possibility of a dog park and that is something that we're looking at um trying to figure out whether it's possible so that's usually the first step is is is it even possible um because what we don't want to do is promise things that aren't even possible so I actually met with our burough administrator uh for about an hour before this meeting and there was something that that was something that we talked about um possible spaces where the dog park could go what would the cost be um admittedly there are not a lot of spaces for our dogs to be out in the community in the public spaces that's something that we know is important to a lot of residents so um it is a Hot Topic right now I think our doggy parade made it an even hotter topic because all those dogs came out on Saturday so I appreciate the question if you have more questions you could always email me or reach out and we could talk about the progress on that but that is something we're at least looking at um attracting an arcade business that's a really great question I don't know how we attract certain businesses um but it is something that um maybe we can think creatively about when we do get a recreation space but to my Council colleagues point I think there are other council members more equipped than I probably to answer that um and I think everything else can be more aptly answered by our police liaison um Mr grun I think that light which would fall for me with DPW is already being worked on that the light is out at the memorial that we already know about that but um I wanted to acknowledge that you at least raised it and I think um Mr bour is that how you say your last name it's just nice to meet you thanks for coming yeah oh yeah we I'm sorry we we don't engage in back we can't go back and forth but his name is John Russo and he's great so you yeah yeah okay that's all I got mayor thanks thank you you want to hold well I yeah yeah so I do want to tell a little story so um about Trum to get a business in town so when I was a new Council woman I was trying to get an Indian restaurant in town cuz I love Indian food so I reached out to all these Indian restaurants and I said hey I'm a council woman and I really would love to get a Indian restaurant in raford and we almost got one so the point of my story is if there's a council person that would Champion your idea and you have a favorite arcade that council person could reach out to that business and see if they could come to Rutherford so if there's a council person that would Champion it I think it might be possible one day hopefully okay thank you Council thank sir thank you all for being here and Having the courage to get up and ask questions it's no easy task I remember being your guys' age um Sophia real quick so uh regarding town Safety there's a couple other facets to town Safety and I want to touch on two of the gentlemen who are ALS also here with us uh former Chief Rob van winkl and current deputy chief Brian sori of the Rutherford fire department uh one of the really fascinating things about our department is that it is fully volunteer you guys know what that term means right so effectively that it's not a job it's something that they do out of the good of their own heart um one of the nice things about how we support them is that we have as a council previous councils and and whatnot have taken up the idea where we employ them within burough jobs for the most part now many have jobs outside you know the 07070 itself but many of them work here on dayto day and so when the call goes up and the alarms go off they are able to drop what they're doing and jump into the house and get on the trucks and go and help you our response time I had a gentleman pull up to me the other day from the building department who had just started work and he had come from another municipality and he had said to me uh we actually both happen to cross paths on a call and he happened to see me and pull me aside he saidit is amazing what you guys have here and so it is an incredible thing they uh the fire department itself does a lot of community outreach programs if you guys ever get an opportunity please stop by and see the men and women who work there um it I've been the police liaison or excuse me fire liaison for four years now has been an honor and privilege to help them uh with their duties and responsibilities to the best of my ability um gentlemen would you like to say a few words about how you keep the town safe which on the spot it's okay I know do yeah Sophia if you're interested down the road right the junior fire program starts at 16 so um and then of course I'll I'll let um council president speak to the EMT of which we just celebrated their 75th year of volunteer service on Saturday night at a wonderful galala um so again just a quick shout out to uh all the team members especially jese like fantastic time celebrating all of you and your hard work um and that's it for me this evening thank you thank you councilman um to the scouts thank you so much for coming it it's very brave to come here and talk to the council and I really admire that you did that I will just say generally that when you want you know how can you be effective in getting something that you think is a good idea to to actually happen and I think what you're doing is exactly the the correct First Step so you're thinking about what you really want and then you're coming to a council meeting and you're articulating and expressing the idea what you want or the questions that you have about the how the town works I think the next step might be to do a little bit of research or have an adult help you do research on what it would take to actually make that happen so you can assist public officials in in working that out and figuring out you know as my Council colleague uh Del con said what what does it take to actually make a Rec Center happen so I think that's a Next Step then you can follow up when you after you talk to us follow up with an email or a letter uh talk talk to friends and family about it find out who else supports it so you can get a group to support it and bring the group to the meeting that's always effective to exert public pressure and then you know just keep in contact keep talking about it keep doing research keep communicating with us uh build that support and don't give up so I think for all of you that's a lesson and you've you've done the really hardest thing which is the first step um I I do want to say to Jake on the dog park that I have worked with with my Council colleague councilwoman Del RE CO um in the subcommittee we put together to look into the dog park I have a new puppy who's five months old I would love for him to have a dog park here we're looking at spaces that she said it's you know there are so many good ideas that people can bring to meetings that we can come up with ourselves but they cost money and that's always the roadblock everything costs money and so you don't want to we you know we have to be careful about our finances we are the stewards of the Public Finance of public Trust of public money so we we need to be careful but if something is a really good idea we we can find a way to do it on a budget and we can find a way to make it happen so we're trying to do that so thank you all for coming really it's wonderful to hear from you thank you councilman Guzman thank you very much mayor uh to our Scouts first and foremost thank you very much for coming in today um this is a fine example of how to get involved in your community and making sure that those that are making decis decisions on behalf of the community hear your voices so congratulations on taking that step and I hope that continues continues throughout your lifetime um hearing from you and hearing from our residents helps us do our job helps us understand what the residents want from their community in their community so I'm uh actually going to uh Monica if I may I'm actually going to give you a little assignment because I'd really love to know what having a recreation center would mean to you and I'd also like to know what you envision in meaning what what is in a recreation center that would draw draw your attention and keep you happy um these are the things you know it's great to say we want to build a building but we need to know what goes inside that building so if you guys would do a little bit of homework for me I would really appreciate and send me an email it's always good to know what uh what goes beyond the first step of uh of an ask so thank you very much for coming in today much appreciated uh Mr Le Bruno um thank you for noticing the $527,000 on today's agenda much appreciated um I was actually going to speak to this uh later on during my liaison assignments but since you brought it up I'll speak to it now um the $527,000 I'm very happy to report is not being funded by taxpayer money um this is as a result of the efforts of our police department and uh I'd like to actually ask our police chief to come on up and explain more about uh where these funds have come hey John you want to just get your seat up here this way if you don't mind me turning my back to you okay so Mr Le Bruno um the funds on this agenda don't represent any like like the councilman said don't represent a cost to the burrow these are uh seized assets forfeited funds um that we received through through um drug investigations through a loan officer we have uh on loan currently with uh the DEA we've been lucky enough to have an officer with the DEA for several years now we had another one off and on with Homeland Security investigations and throughout the years we periodically have officers go back and forth with the prosecutor's office and the major part of that is obviously collaboration we get to work with other agencies it opens a door for future investigations for us now we have a direct contact with federal agencies uh State and and County uh but every so often as result of some of those investigations that these officers are involved in um we through a memor memorandum of understanding we are um granted a portion of seized assets through some of these investigations so um you know all of these purchases represent the money's coming in through some of those investigations and they're all police and security related um and they basically offset my Capital expense uh my capital budget future Capital budgets um it also represents items that quite frankly we would probably never be able uh to purchase when we built this building the building was on a budget um to prevent over costs we uh we pulled certain things things from it obviously we put a gym in the building we dedicated the gym to a um a retired Captain here uh but it has no equipment in it the guys can't use it so I was able to uh purchase that for the building the cameras represent um you know when we built the building we put all the infrastructure in here and the technology uh Forward Thinking to be able to add things around the town and have it uh interact with what we have in this building so that's why you're seeing new cameras go into burrow Hall they will be in directly interfaced with the cameras in the system we have here so now we have a backend system where we can go back and see what happened if if something someone was to be accused of something we can and it's it's recorded So it becomes evidence which is good um and we're adding additional cameras on Park Avenue and Union Avenue so we can actually see what's going on my dispatch Center can actually see what's going on on um throughout the entire business district right now we only have one camera uh right around Park Avenue and Glenn and that has proven to be a godsend for us we use it almost every day for something um we have cameras on the exterior of this building that we've used numerous times just recently we had an individual come into the building he was not happy about a parking ticket he received and he walked outside and he keyed three of our employees vehicles um so uh the cameras were able to show him doing it we were able to identify him right away and charge him if we didn't have the cameras we wouldn't probably wouldn't have been able to uh solve that one so uh that's what this represents I remember when I took over 12 years ago uh we had a a major problem Staffing the department with with vehicles and it's still very difficult um a new vehicle with all the you know the equipment that goes into a vehicle costs almost the same as the vehicle so it's it one vehicle represents basically a third of my operating budget so it's not very easy to keep up on the loss that we're seeing um you know the vehicles run every day some of them run 24 hours a day on their off days they're being used on road jobs so um I knew 12 years ago we weren't going to be able to get a dig out of that hole just through budgeting and that's what we're doing now we're we're offsetting uh a hole that we have in our vehicles but we're also going to I mean I have some Crown vix out there from I think one is a 2001 that we're still using so we're going to purge out some of those Vehicles we're not going to uh see a a big increase in additional vehicles on the insurance load so that's it but you'll see some more of these coming forward we're looking to uh with all the enhancements around the fields we want to make sure that they're protected and no damage is done to the field so you're going to start seeing cameras um go up around the fields which I think is a good thing we've never had that that will help us as well and uh there are a couple other items that we've purchased that aren't on for resolution because they don't meet the threshold we're going to get an additional sign board out there to help uh calm some of these traffic issues that we're seeing we're hoping and uh you know we we'll keep you posted but everything is basically security related and police related to enhance the burrow thank okay thank you very much Chief uh we'll just add uh just to be clear here that these Sease funds are can only be used for the police department for these Services um thank you very much chief for that uh very very inform informative um let see who's Victoria hi thank you very much for your concerns and bring it in I will certainly sit down with with our police chief and our burrow administrator to review the area and see and see what finding what they can find regarding Chief yes I I pulled up the I pulled up the map thank you um so we will we will get together and review that and see what findings uh the chief uh and his team can come up with um Lori where are you there you are um I wish I could help you with the geese um just so you know in uh years ago we put uh we purchased um it was I guess it was dogs painted dogs that I mean they were wooden things that supposedly they were supposed to scare the geese away unfortunately these geeses these geese are smart and they sat on top of the dogs so I don't know what else to do with the geese I mean we all been there our kids have all played there and we've all also made sure that we kept our shoes outside when we came back from the fields um it's it's a tough control there I wish I had an answer for you that's it Chief thank you very much always thinking about you Chief thank you mayor um first off to the scouts thank you guys for coming out um I think everybody's heard you um I know it's tough to up here and speak unfortunately we've been doing this way too long on step uh volunteerism and trying to get things accomplished is very important in life uh just look at your leader she served her country she volunteered so the more you can do to help everybody else is the more you can do to help yourselves um we will will continue to listen and when we can we will find a solution um the rec center I've been I've been here for almost 15 years and the rec center has been something we've been trying to figure out uh and and we'll continue to try to figure it out so again I appreciate you all coming out and I appreciate you volunteering but I do think that you you know you should you should stay with it even when you're done being a scout and you move on to the next part of your life being a volunteer is a great reward to yourselves so thank you thank you for being here uh as to the geese so we inherited those geese what happened was Pake their stadium was it hch hitch hinchcliff he um what happened was they they that was a grass field they turfed it so the geese move to Rutherford um I don't know as we move forward our project and and we're turfing areas of it maybe it'll lighten it and they'll move on to another location or maybe they'll just bring their own dogs to sit on I I I have no idea but we're we'll continue to try to um see if we can find Solutions after we can after we finish our field project Mr gun as always always uh appreciate when you're here appreciate everything you do we'll continue to work on everything uh as far as the light goes Bob you want to say anything thank you mayor uh yes I had a a nice meeting in the uh Park lot with Mr gun shortly before the meeting uh we discussed the light our DPW is on top of it they'll be working on it uh hopefully this week uh with regards to the wall so it's on the record uh Mr gun and I grabbed the burough engineer while we're outside and he confirmed the materials were purchased or on order I should say uh as soon as they come in uh the work will begin we anticipate that being completed before Thanksgiving thank you sir and Robert thank you for showing up tonight nice to see a new face we can't no you can do it offline you can go to all right uh Veronica is it Victoria Victoria sorry my apologies um yeah that is that is a Troublesome spot so is the corner of uh Woodland and park when the kids are trying to come home from school so yes the councilman will address it with the chief and the buau administrator um I grew up here and when I went to Lincoln School in P Pon school there were always issues but pure Pont yes I understand that and we will we will definitely be looking into that and I appreciate you coming out two our are two great or orders over here from the fire department thank you guys for coming out uh Chief as always thank you for everything and I will leave it at that so we're going to move on now uh consent items council president thank you mayor uh all items authorized to be consent by the council will be enacted by one motion these items are routine and nature motion I have a motion by the council president I have a second second second by councilman Guzman any questions or comments see none may roll call council president mcowan yes councilman big Roberson yes councilman Guzman yes councilman Del con yes councilman Kone yes councilman kley yes council president thank you mayor first step is resolution number 222 authorizing the submission of a grant proposal to the New Jersey DCA 2025 Recreation improvements special Grant State Legislative Appropriations by the burough of Rutherford for continued improvements in Memorial Field in the amount of $3 million motion I have a motion by the council president May a second second second by councilman quatron any questions or comments by the council see n Moll call council president McAn yes counc big Roberson yes Council McMan yes Council Del con yes Council Kone yes councilman kley yes thank you councilman council president sorry thank you next is resolution number 231 award Bergen County Co-op contracts for security cameras in the amount of $148,600 51 motion I have a motion by the council president I have a second second second by councilman Guzman any questions or comments by the council seeing none may roll call council president mcowan yes counc B Roberson yes councilman Guzman yes Council Del con yes Council clut yes counc kley yes thank you council president thank you next is resolution number 234 authorizing a financial incentive to those eligible employees participating in the high deductible Health CL health benefit plan motion motion by council president may have a second second second with Council Del con um I'm going to open I'm actually going to turn it over to the B administrator right now for comment you thank you mayor I just want to say a few words about this since it's being added uh tonight uh the burrow has multiple uh benefit plans uh that we offer to our employees uh this being one of them uh it doesn't gain a lot of traction because because it is a high deductible plan which means more out- of pocket expenses uh for the employee and their family members uh but the reality is that the plan has the same level of benefits as all the plans that we currently offer uh The Only Exception is the the the deductibles and the out of pocket expense so what we I am asking you tonight to consider uh as we are in the middle of open enrollment for our employees to potentially make changes to the benefit plan uh going into 2025 is to consider this uh incentive and what I'm asking uh if they were to choose to take this plan uh they would re receive savings uh potentially two ways one uh as we know you know 13 years ago the state required employees to contribute towards their health care we often refer to as a chapter 78 payments um if the premium is in this case 35% lower than what they're currently paying their own contributions will be 35% lower they will have savings built in automatically if they choose to get this plan what this resolution is asking you to consider today is we as the burrow would offer a portion of our savings to kind of help them close the gap to to cover the out-of-pocket expenses they would now incur so um the the the benefit to them would be creating a health savings account and that money that the burrow would contribute would go into this health savings account that is recognized by IRS as a uh tax-free plan uh the employee would get a debit card card and use that debit card for health related expenses and they can use it and let it accumulate and if it doesn't use it this year it can roll over to next year and it can roll over to the years following up until whenever they choose to leave that if they if they are young and healthy or older and healthy and never use it that money will continue to grow um it is a a significant uh benefit to both the employee but also to the burrow if this was taken advantage of right now we don't have anyone taking advantage of it therefore I'm asking to consider this incentive the amount uh of incentive has yet to be determined that is a conversation I ask that you allow me to have with the finance leasons and once we come to an agreement on a number that'll be the number we offer the employees uh in order to make it beneficial to both parties B police and ourselves that's it for me thank you Bob uh anybody have any questions uh as we're going to ultimately be having a bigger conversation after Bob meets with everybody so all right we'll move on to the roll call Council council president mwan yes Council B Roberson yes councilman Guzman yes councilman Del con yes Council Kon yes C mob yes thank you uh we're going to move on to reports council president uh mayor before we do our reports would it be okay to do the new business to discuss the best practice inventory that would be totally acceptable my bad not to worry um so uh mayor first I want to uh start by thanking um our bur administrator and our CFO for their constant commit commment um regarding our municipality's compliance efforts particularly Financial um so I just want to make sure that my colleagues Are all uh clear and also to share with our residents about the be best practices inventory it's required by law to be completed by all municipalities um through which the state obtains Vital Information about the status of municipal government practices in our state in 2024 the inventory assesses each municipality's compliance with various laws and evaluates the implementation of fiscal and operational best practices the inventory also identifies areas where municipalities May further require technical assistance in 2024 best practice inventory features questions on the following topics ethics Personnel cyber security lead remediation budget shared services financial um Financial Administration special uh Improvement districts capital projects affordable housing transparency Redevelopment procurement utilities and environment the state determines whether some portion of a municipality's final formula Aid payment will be withheld based on the results of that inventory a total of 69 questions are distributed amongst the three scoring categories of core competencies best practices and unscored surveys each municipality must receive a minimum score of 35 on the inventory in order to receive CE its full financial aid payment I am happy to share with my Council colleagues mayor and with our residents the burough of Rutherford scored a total of 42.5 for the year 2024 therefore we will be receiving 100% of our state aid so thank you for your good work this does not require um any formal action but um as always we affirm um the good work of our um are stewards of our financial status for the burrow um Bob is there anything that we left out just you know one thing I want to add to that is uh of the 69 questions 17 are not scored so at least 52 that are scored questions and of that we got 42 and a half which means there was nine and a half points that we were missing and a lot of those nine and a halfs were stuff not applicable to Rutherford um or prospective uh considerations for the bar moving down the road there were a handful of nose but nothing crazy um but you know I think Rutherford's in a very good place and uh I thank the thank the governor body for their support and helping us get to where we're at so thank you thank you uh before we move on to uh council member the aison reports we going to change Bob's name to Stuart uh council president thank you mayor um so uh under my liaison reports first I want to congratulate our EMS uh for their amazing 75th Anniversary Gaya that took place this week not just for their party but for 75 years of extraordinary uh volunteerism to this Community um and it was a beautiful night um I also want to acknowledge my other liais On Assignment the Kip Center and their outstanding Gaya their casino night Gayla that took place this week in raising money that goes back to the seniors in our community and surrounding communities that benefit from this incredible extraordinary place so for everybody who supported them thank you for coming out it was a busy busy busy time in this burrow um I not that I don't enjoy all of your uh time together but um we we spent literally almost all day Saturday together shout out to our extraordinary Recreation Department um for the events uh I'll leave that to there liaison to talk more about that but I just wanted to acknowledge their incredible commitment to this community and also to our DPW and our Police Department that um enabled us to have those public events um that were amazing and and it's so inclusive and it was just a great day for Rutherford um I would be remiss if I didn't do my good job which is to remind our community um 55 Kip Center is already getting ready for the 31st Annual Festival of trees and wreaths yes I said it before Halloween we are already planning for this it'll be November 13th to December 14th you can still donate a wreath or sponsor a uh we have been happily doing that the mayor and Council now for several years and we will once again be doing it um and so we encourage members of our community to take a few minutes out of your time it if you haven't been to the center it's an awesome time to go there and see it and it's decorated and it's festive and it's fabulous and again this is a a very essential fundraiser to that organization and for their beautiful mission to this um to this community and last but not least mayor yes I said last but not least yeah okay I know I try to make it sure that I I I went pretty good tonight um just a gentle reminder Tuesday November 5th is election day um please uh exercise your right to vote and having said that I I I cannot uh walk away from this deis without uh thanking our clerk Missy scanland and her entire team in the clerk's office they are the unsung heroes of election day in this burrow what they go through from before the sun goes up to well after it goes down um the fact that they make sure that every one of our voices and every one of our V votes get counted and they do it with such care and Mastery um we are so fortunate to have all of you so thank you in advance to all the pole workers and um and all the people who are going to make this a great experience for us to uh celebrate democracy thank you mayor thank you and if you ever wanted to figure out how to put c u Scouts to sleep you just did and you're all welcome uh next up would be Council Roberson okay so for my Recreation assignment I wanted to talk about the Raga muffin parade that took place on Saturday it was amazing amazing um we had a baby burrito um the baby literally had foil around it and had lettuce on it it was dressed as a Chipotle burrito it was so cute we had Breakfast at Tiffany's it was amazing um the creativity in our town just Soares every year and gets better and better it was such an amazing parade and then we also had the doggy parade and porade um and we we just saw so many amazing um dogs all over Lincoln Park um so I just want to thank the rec department on Wednesday we have spacular from 4: to 8:00 p.m. so please come out um the rec department is working very hard these days so thank you to them for their hard work and that's it thank you councilwoman councilman Guzman thank you very much mayor um yes this weekend was uh well first first and foremost on the under Lea's on assignments police I want to congratulate uh the PBA for this past Saturday's trunk Retreat I understand it was a great success and there was a lot of smiles on kids' faces and I love the environment that it was held in keeping the kids safe uh well job uh job well done once again um regarding the uh parades this weekend uh I was very happy to partake with my Council colleague here as MC uh we told some amazing jokes don't let anybody tell you anything otherwise um but it was uh it was great to see the community come out on is on a beautiful fall day um and really go all out and and they I mean each year gets better and better and the parade gets bigger and bigger so it was a lot of fun and it's just another great day in the burrow um that's all I have right now thank you thank you and I do apologize for their jokes and just letting you know councilwoman der K thank you mayor um I didn't want to ruin the flow of the new business discussion but I it was my understanding that I should have raised this then um and it does dovetail with the Civil Rights Commission um the Civil Rights Commission will be having its 60th anniversary this year um it started when the Civil Rights Movement started in 1960s it's gone strong since then um their celebration for the 60th anniversary uh at which the New Jersey attorney general will be attending is going to be held on November 12th at 6:30 p.m. at the library um unfortunately when they planned that events they did not appreciate that um our council meeting is actually a Tuesday that week because of Veterans Day so I was just hoping to have my Council colleagues support and of course the support of our burough employees who this may inconvenience to start our council meeting at 6: pm on the 12th just so that as many of us as possible particularly myself will as the liais on for the Civil Rights Commission will have the opportunity to head over to the library and support that event I don't know if I need a vote on that Missy okay so I'd like to um make a motion to have the November 12th count uh mayor and council meeting move from 6:30 p.m. to a start time of 6m motion I have a motion by councilman Del C second second by councilman Robertson um any questions or comments from the council um seeing none the only thing I will say that I do appreciate that's the way you brought this forward as opposed to trying to change the night so I I'm in support of that changing the night of our meeting you oh yes of course thank you yep um roll call council president mwan yes councilman B Robertson yes councilman Guzman yes councilman dely con yes councilman Kon yes coun kley yes thank you mayor um on my other Le Eyes On Assignment for the Green Team I just wanted to acknowledge that they had their most successful repair Cafe yet they served uh over 100 residents at the library on Saturday who brought in all sorts of things to get fixed for our Scouts the repair Cafe is um an event that's held multiple times a year by our Green Team where we have residents that are skilled in fixing almost anything you can think of uh to come down to the library they fix jewelry they fix sewing machines they fix Electronics um at no charge so um it's a way to promote sustainability and rather than throwing it away they fix it so congratulations on yet another successful events and finally I'll just echo my Council colleagues um I had the pleasure of being at all the events on Saturday involving the community in the park it was really that's like the easiest part of this job is to just show up and support um these wonderful events um and also Saturday night um I was at the EMS gala where um they also gave Service Awards and just for everyone to appreciate there was an individual there that served on the Ambulance Corp for 60 years um which is pretty remarkable to to uh give that sort of service to the community for that long so I was very grateful to participate I'm very grateful to Jen who is their president uh to Mike Tarantino who is um overseeing all things uh related to the Ambulance Corp um it was really a pretty special night thank you thank you councilwoman quatron thank you mayor I don't have anything on my Lea on assignments today I want to make remarks though about veterans in honor of up coming Veterans Day I'd like to talk about lessons I've learned from working with vets as many people know I am an attorney advocate for veterans and I focus on keeping them from becoming homeless I have commented before about how election day and Veterans Day are so close together on the calendar and inextricably linked in my mind working with veterans has taught me or reminded me of many life lessons I'd like to talk briefly about some of them life of service living a life of service to your community and country is a worthy invaluable existence courage and sacrifice we need to possess courage and the ability to sacrifice for others in order to do good or great things we cannot simply be concerned about our own advancement or well-being collaboration and perspective military service people as well as First Responders and other public servants must work together collaborate and trust each other their lives are on the line after all they have to work with and Trust colleagues whose personalities they may not like and whose Styles May clash with theirs they have to transcend Petty Conflict for the greater good to be efficient and achieve their mission veterans also have perspective some of them have been through hell and back excuse my language some have been given a second chance at life often they don't let the little things get to them because of that they focus on what is most important doing our part my veterans always thank me for my legal service to their Community they recognize that although My Sacrifice is not as profound as theirs is it does come from gratitude to them and from a deep love of community I tell them that I I tell them that I am privileged to live in this country to have individual freedoms and the right to vote I will never take it for granted that is the PCT I make with them next Tuesday on election day I will vote for the candidate to exemplify the principles I have learned from my veterans sacrifice generosity courage and collaboration regardless of your political leanings I hope you will all join me in thanking our veterans by making your voice heard on Election Day it is always best to vote early to make sure your vote is counted in time early voting begins this past we began this past weekend in Bergen County and is available through Sunday evening locations are in hackin saac pamis tinck and Woodridge among other towns all all the early voting locations are listed on the burrow website if anyone needs assistance in getting to the call polls please contact me or my colleagues thank you to every veteran who has served and good luck to everyone on the ballot thank you thank you councel all right we're going to move on to councilman K thank you um that was brilliant councilwoman trone absolutely brilliant and um I just want to Echo those sentiments um and want to challenge the Bureau of Rutherford and everyone with an earshot of this meeting um the last several presentations ago I presented some data for the voter turnout on our elections our last two presidential elections Rutherford came out at roughly around 80% and while that's wonderful against the Baseline average I'm challenging everyone to turn out let's push that into the 90s and Beyond this is not one of those that any of us can afford to sit out the men and women sitting in this Galley today who have fought for our country cannot afford to have us sit this one out so thank you councilwoman for voicing your life lessons we take those to heart please please make every effort to get your friends and family members to the polls to get their ballots into the boxes as we progress forward in closing I do want to also echo my colleague councilwoman Del re con's sentiments about the EMS uh organization and the gala on Saturday evening and personally extend my thank you to all of you every single member past and present and future for your service thank you thank you councilman okay um next up is the mayor's report um I would ask for Council consent for Renee Ezra improv instructor $50 for per class I'd ask for Council consent May a motion motion motion by council president M second second second by Council Roberson any questions or comments seeing none i' ask for a roll call council president mwan yes Council beg Roberson yes councilman Guzman yes Council Del con yes counc Kone yes councilman kley yes my next appointment would be Lori hle to the Civil Rights Commission I'd ask for Council consent have motion motion motion by councilwoman Del RE CO a second second second by council president any questions or comments see n Roll Call council president mcowan yes counc beg Roberson yes councilman Gman yes councilman D con yes councilman Kone yes Council kley yes thank you next we did receive correspondence from the Bergen County Police Chiefs Foundation dated October 16 2024 and East rord planning board dated October 15 2024 now we're going to move uh to hearing of citizens again for agenda items and agenda items only anyone wishing to speak on agenda items please step up to the microphone state your name address and keep your comments at 15 minutes uh five minutes or less sorry seeing none I'm going to close it to the public and open it up for any Council comment seeing none we're going to move on um ordinance first read councilman Guzman thank you very much mayor I am very very happy to put this ordinance forth today um first the ordinance I have up is established handicap spaces on Park Avenue Franklin Place Santiago Avenue and Raymond Avenue Missy would you please read the ordinance by title only and ordinance to amend and revise chapter 126 vehicles and traffic of the burough code of the burough ruford motion to move that the ordinance be passed on first reading and advertised according to law I have a motion by councilman Guzman may have second second second by councilman quatron any questions or comments by the council may I just want to thank my Council colleague uh who advocated so strongly to ensure that we had handicapped parking in the burrow and not just that we identified spaces but we made them in places that would really enable our residents to be able to utilize our business district so thank you thank you Council PR anybody else wishing to speak see I may have a roll call Council McAn yes Council beg Roberson yes Council McMan yes Council Del con yes Council K yes councilman kley yes thank you ordinances on second read councilman Roberson okay I have an ordinance on second read to increase the rate of pay for youth recreation assistance I ask the clerk to read the ordinance by title only in order to amend and supplement an ordance entitled an ordance regulating the employment tenure and discharge of certain officers and employees of the Bur Buford under the provisions of Civil Service Act of New Jersey number 3543 D21 adopted on January 25th 2021 I make a motion to move that the ordinance be passed on second reading and advertised according to law motion I have a motion by Council Del sorry councilman Ron can I have a second second second Council Del c um at this point we're going to open it up to the public for any comment on this subject in this subject matter only anyone from the public wishing to speak please step forward keep your comments at 5 minutes or less seeing none I'm going to close it to the public open up for any Council comment see none may have roll call council president mcowan yes Council beg Roberson yes Council Gman yes Council delard con yes councilman Clon yes councilman kley yes all right next ordinance on second read council president thank you mayor uh this on second reading is the capital ordinance for the fire rescue truck in the amount of $550,000 Missy can you please read the ordinance by title only an ordance providing funding for a fire rescue truck for the burough of Rutherford and appropriating $550,000 for such purpose thank you I'd like to make a motion to move that the ordinance be passed on second reading and adverti according to law I have a motion by the council president may have a second second second by councilman kley at this point I'm going to open it up again to the public for anyone wishing to speak on this subject and the subject matter only seeing none I'm going to close it to the public and open up for any counsil council president thank you mayor um tonight's agenda includes a capital ordinance in the amount of $550,000 towards the purchase of a new fire rescue truck the total cost of the truck is $911,000 normally a capital ordinance refers to funding supported by taxpayer dollars in the form of bonds or notes that is not the case tonight this ordinance is the is the method of adding funds received from a developer towards a purchase benefiting the entire community in 2021 link equities received approval for a long-term tax exemption which is known as a pilot for the warehouse they were constructing on Veterans Boulevard in 2022 link equities sold the project to UBS Financial but they needed the B's permission to transfer the previously approved pilot to UBS as part of the approval to transfer the pilot to the new owner the burrow received a one-time payment of $1.1 million from link equities half of this payment is being used tonight towards the purchase of a new fire rescue truck that Services all of Rutherford the current vehicle is over 25 years old and is the last and this is the last last company to receive an upgrade in fire apparatus use of these funds have not been wasted for other purposes but carefully set aside for the uses that maximize our entire community's benefit I just wanted to make sure that was read into the record this evening and um before we go to vote I also want to acknowledge the outstanding um advocacy for this project from councilman kley thank you thank you uh real quick sir if I may I also want to uh extend a tip of the cap to uh again Chief Brian Sartor and former Chief Rob Van winkl for their assistance in this effort um these trucks uh off the lot so to speak can run as high as 1.3 to 1.4 million uh they've done their due diligence and research and were're able to find us one that perfectly suits their needs uh and comes in well under uh those kind of list prices at 91,000 so gentlemen thank you and your company for your diligence and your effort in that regard as well thank you anybody else seeing none M call council president mcowan yes Council B Roberson yes counc Gman yes Council dely con yes Council C yes Council kley yes council president uh mayor I'm I'd like to um hand this one over to councilman kley tonight councilman K that's very kind of you thank you so much um we'd like to move forward with resolution number 234 awarding the full Cooperative contract for the that fire rescue truck as described in the total amount of 911, 741 motion I have a motion by councilman kley may have a second second second by council president at this point we're going to U open it up to the public for any com it's on it's a resolution my bad my bad my bad we just have it any Council comments real quick sir if I may uh just to kind of come full circle on this evening's meeting Sophia to your question about how we keep the town safe I know this has been a lot of words and probably very boring but this is one of the ways that we keep the town safe as well making sure the men and women women of our department have all the equipment they need to respond quickly and safely and to the best of their abilities so again thank you all for being here and effectively that's how we do it thank you missy council president mwan yes councilman beg Roberson yes councilman Gman yes councilman de con yes councilman Kon yes coun kley yes thank you uh before we adjourn I'd ask the council to stay behind before we leave uh take a picture with Scouts Kim can you uh motion to adjourn motion all in favor I amen