for Rutherford residents in excess of the minimum standards established by this chapter or other similar facilities. So that garage is an oversized garage. It was built 429 units for a 40,000 foot office building. The
48 condo units have their own garage with their parking. We do provide additional 20 spaces in the garage, those condo unit owners, and we intend to continue to provide that uses, but the garage by any stretch of the imagination was oversized. We think what happens when the bank was building it
years ago, they were either making a deal with transit or making a deal with Rutherford. The deal never happened. They didn't want to change the plans and they assumed parking would be valuable. Let's just build it anyways. So, we have an overabundance of parking. So, what can we do with that parking? Well, we
could rent it out. We thought the better thing would be in terms of showing a commitment to um uh to our the local municipalities in which we develop in wouldn't this be a great opportunity to provide additional parking for the burrow of Rutherford downtown. So what
we are proposing is that the 45 units per acre be increased to 75 units per acre in this section in exchange for providing about a 100 parking spaces in the garage to the burrow under a parking agreement that is rent free.
And um we've met with some of your professionals to discuss sort of how that gets put together, but we believe that creates a great opportunity to decant some parking from existing in town parcels for commuters to put them in this garage and pay free up additional parking for your retailers,
right? Um uh in in town garages as well or however you decide you think you best allocate in terms of your permit uses and how you handle parking. So, we're asking for 130 units in total, right? Which is really 68 units um in addition to what would be permitted as of right
today by making that one simple change from 45 to 75 in exchange for almost 100 parking spaces. Here's how the parking analysis would work. Quite frankly, um we have 429 garage spaces. We have 27
units total allocated to the um Orient way existing residential condo unit owners. We have 98 units that we would allocate continue to allocate to our res to the retail condominium. We have retail users at the base of that building. Club Pilates and Jag Physical
Therapy, Avis, uh and and UPS. Uh and we have a new tenant coming in now to fill the last remaining vacancy there. We would allocate 98 spaces there. We would use a ratio of 1.55 sort of per unit in the new building. So 1.55 times 130 units is 202 parking
spaces. That would leave 102 extra parking spaces left over. And those are the 102 parking spaces that we would enter into an agreement provide to the uh burrow of Rutherford as part of this 13151 F9 contemplated bonus density.
Now, we would as well, we know everybody has fair share housing obligations. Having the fourth round rules recently to come out, we would commit to 15% of these units as well to help meet your fair share obligation. So, almost 20 affordable units, right, of 130, right,
would be uh would satisfy uh the uh affordable housing requirements in in accordance with the bedroom distributions that uh requires. So that would be a benefit as well in terms of helping you meet and satisfy those affordable housing obligations.
Whether you have prior rounds or no future rounds yet, I'm not certain, but um that would be there as well. Um let's talk about other benefits. Well, certainly favorable property tax impacts. Now, I've joked about this before to some of your professionals,
but um if you look at the current taxes, it's rather odd when you pay more in taxes on a garage than you do on the actual office building that it supports. So, um it does seem uh uh a little bit out of whack, but we're talking about
collecting $354,000 a year from the property today in in total tax revenue, right? um that residentially just assuming 6,500 to $7,000 a unit in taxes in terms of market rate taxes including
the garage and then the retail we're talking about $900,000 a year almost an expected tax increase of more than half a million dollars right so again another phenomenal win for that someone says well what's the negative well you know how about
favorable traffic impacts in addition we all know that residential actually from a traffic standpoint generates the least additional traffic, right, as opposed to commercial uses. We had our traffic consultant, Stonefield Engineering, prepare a comparative trip generation memo and we can provide that full memo
and they'll obviously in front of any site plan application ultimately they would provide a full traffic report. But one of the things we can see from that full memo uh from that memo is that um if we were to reent this office building as medical office, the reason we said
that first is because medical seems to be the most in downtown zones these days and that we have had the interest that we have had that we've been unable to consummate any transaction with has been from medical users. Medical has a higher trip count ratio during the day. But if we use
medical and the medical trip counts versus the residential trip counts redeveloping this with 130 units is a net reduction of 70 trip counts weekday morning peak hour. 91 reduction weekday
evening peak hour for Saturday midday peak hour 52 total trip count reductions right by converting this to residential as opposed to rerenting this as potential medical office space if it were just traditional standard commercial office space insurance
company or whatever the like that's out there um there is still weekday morning peak hour savings of almost 23 trip counts by going to residential 17 in the weekday evening by going to residential and you have a slight
increase Saturday uh peak hour if you don't have commercial uses working that parking on Saturday we think that's more than offset by the benefits in terms of the weekday because overall traffic is less uh at that point in time on these roadways to begin with so favorable traffic impacts tax increase if I can
sum this up right beautifification on Feronia way right affordable housing help assistance favorable property impact um a uh favorable traffic impacts and one last
thing I didn't mention we all know that there's a problem with the storm water that runs down way I think it's Glen road that comes straight down there's a design yeah it's our front door we need to fix it by being able to invest this kind of
money private capital to redevelop this gives us a great opportunity to work with your engineering professional finally that problem and clean up that problem as part of this red. So other than giving you some vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles on it, I don't know what more we could add in terms of this
being a win-winwin for the burough level. So um I'm happy to answer any questions, but would respectfully request that this governing body refer to the planning board a study to study the change and amendment of this zone ordinance to permit up to 75 units for
the acre in exchange for a parking agreement. those additional 100 parking spaces for the >> Thank you, G. Uh, anybody from the council? I know that U Councilman Delray Co and Councilman Guzman and Councilman Ero were lead on this. Um, do they have
any questions or does anybody else have any questions? >> John, >> uh, thank you so much for the presentation. I think it'd be helpful if you could um maybe explain a bit for for my colleagues in the public the the parking arrangement. Um maybe the details of that would be helpful to
understand more fully. >> Sure. So um what we've proposed is uh that the uh the spaces uh the 100 plus spaces be um done on a easement basis to the municipality. So um and that there would be no rent but you would pay the
proportionate share of the operating expenses of those spaces since you would be using them. um how you choose to use them, whether you issue permits for them or um you decide to to to sell, you know, monthly stickers or have just it be um daily parking, that's entirely up
to the municipality. We would work with with the bureau in terms of creating the necessary security and access to those spaces separate and apart from uh the residential users and the retail users, right? But um uh that uh basic agreement would be that. So the burrow decided in
the future, hey, we don't want these spaces anymore. These spaces don't do us any good. People aren't driving. It's it's everyone's using uh Tesla robo taxi, right? Um and you know what, then you have the ability to to exit uh and terminate that arrangement as well. So
it's highly flexible. Uh but it provides an opportunity uh for the bureau to utilize that parking today. How in terms of how the bureau sees fit to utilize it? Um assuming you would get to get all of your approvals, what is your estimated time frame for build?
>> Well, so one of the beautiful things about adaptive reuse is a third of the building is here today, right? So, so that's great, but we would need, you know, in all likelihood assuming from from the date um we would have site plan approval. We think this is a 14 to 15month build process.
>> I have a quick question just to clarify the for the public, you're not asking for a pilot, correct? Yeah, this this building is not in a redevelopment area, so it does not qualify for a payment in le of tax agreement. While I'm a big proponent of those for for municipalities and think
properly structured um you know, burrows do particularly well and I I do like to quote this and that is if you all you all know John McCormack, the former state treasurer and mayor of Woodbridge. Um so this is a guy that understands the inner workings of of finance at the state level. Um, he likes to say he
likes pilots so much that Woodbridge has more pilots than American Airlines. So, if properly used and properly structured, we think pilots do well, but this property does not qualify for a pilot. It is not an area in need of redevelopment. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? We're good. And Jean,
thank you for your presentation. We'll take it under adisement, consult with our engineers and our bur administrator, and we'll let you know our next steps. >> Mayor, council members, thank you very much uh for the public. Thank you also and happy Halloween. Thank you guys. [Music]
The fair housing aspect be referred uh you have unfortunately to the end of December on your fair housing plan and respectfully this is a practical realistic uh plan that could help you in your fair housing litigation because
some other sites in Rutherford as I'm aware of are more ambitious. They don't have sewer. They don't have access. they don't have the practicality. So if you put this in your fair housing plan, you pick up 20 units and helps you when you're over. So I'd ask that not only
you refer the matter to the planning, but also you refer it to uh Negle Engineering and their planners to include in your amended plan that's due by the end of the year. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Brian, you have anything to add?
>> Uh oh. All right. I'm sorry. Bob Bob said you guys got this. All right. Thank you guys. Have a good night everybody. Missy uh changes to the agenda. I'm sorry. >> Oh, go. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I I
>> Thank you, mayor. Um, so uh before we move on, uh we were to have a presentation uh proclamation this evening uh done by Assemblyman Clinton Calibris um regarding uh Fjantini restaurant. Um so I just wanted to share
with everyone uh and to make sure that I believe most of us are aware of this to make sure everybody was aware. Um the assemblyman had reached out to Furantini and um shared like how great it is that we come here and do this. But the truth of the matter is he wants to celebrate
the restaurant and encourage people to go there and eat and and learn more about what makes them so amazing. And so his request to us this evening, which is why we are not moving with it here, is to actually schedule this with the restaurant and do it on site and then invite members of the public to come and
and enjoy it and see why we're celebrating it and why he wanted to bring attention to the um the beautiful work they were doing. Albeit it won't be in the month of October, which was what their intention was. Uh but I did say that I would share that sentiment. He's already been in touch with the
restaurant who's most excited to plan this and information will be forthcoming. >> Thank you. Can we do a council meeting from there and have dinner? >> Um uh funny you should bring that up, mayor. Um they are not open on Mondays and so uh they they said that they were
hoping that would not uh sully this and I said quite the contrary. Any excuse to go to Fantini and enjoy their amazing food could be every day of the week. So uh thank you except Monday. Uh so thank you assemblyman um Calibri for always supporting Ratherford and highlighting
the incredible businesses we have here. Thank you. >> Thank you council president. >> Changes missy. >> I have none. >> Anybody else have any changes to the agenda? Seeing none have a roll call. I don't need a roll call. That's right.
Ordinance on first read. Council president. >> Thank you mayor. Uh this evening is amending the salary ordinance. um for members of the municipality. Missy, can you please read the ordinance by title only? >> An ordinance to amend and supplement an
ordinance entitled an ordinance regulating the employment, tenure, and discharge of certain officers and employees of the Burrow of Rutherford under the provisions of the Civil Service Act of New Jersey number 3702-24 adopted on October 28, 2024. >> Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to move that the ordinance be passed on
first reading and advertised according to law. >> I have a motion by the council president. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Guzman. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, may have a roll call. >> Council President McGowan. >> Yes. >> Councilman Dary Con? >> Yes. >> Council Quadron? >> Yes. >> Councilman Kley? >> Yes. >> Councilman Erico?
>> Yes. >> Councilman Guzman? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Seeing that we have no ordinance on second read, we're going to open up for the hearing of citizens. Anybody wishes to speak, please step forward to the microphone, state your name and address, and keep your comments to five minutes or less, please.
Frank Wilson, 171 Montro, Brotherford. Timing is everything. Um, I'm just here to talk about the ordinance and it's not what a raise, you know, everybody involved as a raise automatically, but what could be.
But my question is it's the ordinance changes what could be $106,000 and my question goes back to what are you getting rid of to offset the $100,000 that you're changing the salary
structures because if there's not a negative to offset the positive that means you've already put in for whenever this kicks in going on the taxpayers of Rutherford. So, I'm not saying anybody's not worth this money. What I'm saying is if you
plan on giving somebody $100,000, there has to be a negative to take $100,000 away to add. If not, you've already planned the residents of Rutherford to pay for this. So, my question is, what's the $100,000 that
you all are going to cut to pass this ordinance? If you don't have an answer tonight, I'll respectfully ask that on the second reading you provide the answer to this of what the cut's going to be to get it down to net zero. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Frank. Anybody else from the public? >> David Laberno, 423 Stasono, IF75. Just want to sync up with you. >> Me, too. Thanks. Starting now, uh, just want to follow up a few things from, uh,
a few meetings ago when we last passed that pilot, there was some discussion about link Holdings or now called UBS and obtaining the, uh, reports, audits they're supposed to give yearly. And then there was a mention that uh, there was some discrepancy that they hadn't
paid us a correct amount. And and I'm wondering because the agreement calls for a flat fee of $2 a square foot or 11 point whatever percentage of gross revenues. How would we know that there is a discrepancy absent the audit that gives us their gross revenue? Um
secondly following up on uh other things. Um, with the pilot, we got a couple of uh spreadsheets of information. That was our legal analysis. And so, or not legal, but financial analysis. And then
with that, it was noted that we're going to get $3.6 million over the next 28 years. Just for future reference, I wanted to point out the average home in the town, which assessed at 441. Maybe Bob could inform us if that's uh
increased over the course of time given that we had so many outstanding building permits that were going to be cleared and assessments redone. And I would imagine that those were cleared now. But uh absent that, there's been so much redevelopment in town and homes. I was
wondering if that number still holds. But even if it is 441, I just like to point out, you know, when we do 28 years, it looks like large numbers, but the average home 441,000 assessment will pay over those 28 years
$525,000. So, um, if we do the 2% increase that was noted on here, but when we did years ago some other pilots, we noted that the tax rate has gone up larger than that 2%
uh, annually. And while the city has kept the municipalities kept at 2%, I believe the school system is 2.5. So, we get a mixed rate, it's going to be, of course, above 2%. Um, this is just for information for future purposes because
while this one's not a pilot, we'll see what happens in the future. As Mr. Wilson noted, there was uh this um agreements or ordinance to raise salaries. This is for nonuniformed
or regular employees, let's say. And I understand those contracts are still outstanding. So we do have some budgetary issues and of course this is a a very important issue in the state right now as we see from all the commercials that we do read with both uh
people running for governor talking about affordability in the community and uh community of New Jersey and then of course our own municipality. Um, it would be interesting, of course, that uh or one other thing to note that
I noted in our agenda here tonight was uh a tax agreement or a lawsuit I guess was filed against us and we're talking about $147,000 that had to get paid out to AVR realy. was just wondering who that might be or
what's the address and how many years that might cover because you know that's a significant again hole in the budget. Um again impacts the community and future tax increases that will going to have to be coming absent some other
development. Um, as far as this development that was noted tonight, it'd be great if we could get that presentation from the entity and then put on the website so that we could easily access that and actually see what they what they had in there because of
course it was a quick presentation. Um, 130 units does seem like a very large project. I would note that they didn't say what the mix of units was going to be. While we might get five thou a $500,000 increase for 130 units, that's
not a terrible amount, terribly large amount of money to offset all of the other costs that can be associated with that. Imagine 130 units. Maybe they'll calculate like we did on the uh on the project over there that uh you know will
create like three children. So um the big one that we have 150 to eight story that was cut down to six that said eight children in that in that development when we passed the pilot some years ago. So all these things have major impacts.
Um and I hope they're all considered especially even with the traffic those numbers. Anyone can see driving through town now how traffic is to get out of town. Takes you 10 minutes if you go that way. So, um, and in conjunction
with what they're doing over in East Ratherford, right under the tracks, going to create a very interesting ins and outs to our barrow. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Leo. >> Anybody else from the public wishing to speak?
>> Pur 86 Hobart. Mr. Mayor, I read your uh letter to the town about all the work that's going to be done down in Carton Hill, but it's going to start in 27 according to your That means we're not going to get a light down there until 28. That's a dead trap. I'm telling you
guys, you're waiting for somebody to get killed down there. If any of you guys want to meet me down there between 4 and 6 on any given day and see how you could get through that intersection without getting hit, I'll be willing to meet you there. I'd like to know if we can get the county to put a temporary light up
until they get it done the final way. Like they do when they change a roadway, they put a temporary light up and make it make it work. Somebody's going to get killed. I bet you there's an accident there once every other week. I find parts of cars all over the street. And I'm sure the chief can tell you that.
Other thing, uh, Mr. Bob, I was I always talk about the reassessment of the town. You said there's only one or two companies that do it. Have we contracted somebody out for this for the next year or down the road so we could get this done before we wait until 28 for that
too. And also I mentioned last time at the meeting that diamond six home plate is sinking. We put a lot of money into the field and one of the girls could twist an ankle or break a leg on that field. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Anybody else from
the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, I'm going to close it to the public and I'm going to up for any council comment. Um >> I I I just have something quick. Um Mr. Sherro, I'll ask DPW to go down to Diamond 6 and check on home plate. I'm
not aware of an issue there, but I appreciate you letting me know and then I'll let you know once I check in with Chris about it. Thanks. >> Anybody else? Seeing none. Um Pete, we are fighting with we we we signed our
contract with the county a couple years ago to put that light in. Apparently FIFA is more important than the Burough of Rutherford and we're now back on a waiting list. Um the resources have been tied up. Uh the new changes with the uh
the road work to be done for the rails to trails project has also held that up. I don't I can't speak uh I'll let I'll let let the burough ad minister speak to their project but I don't think that's inclusive of that traffic light Bob.
>> Thank you mayor. So uh yes or no. So the county just awarded a contract uh for the design and engineering for the Carlton Hills project. uh now that that company is uh engaged with the county and with the design of this this uh
future trail uh they'll be working with the county engineering to kind of coordinate the traffic lights. So it is it is interrelated. Um uh as we've said before and unfortunately and the mayor just referenced it uh we are taking a little
bit of a backseat to uh all the uh engineering projects that are prioritized for World Cup purposes. So we've been put on a little bit of a back burner. Uh but they've also told us that they can't really work on it until the design engineering is completed for the Carlton Hills. So, uh, yeah, I think
there a little bit of a double talk on the county's part, but, um, you know, we we do ask, uh, you know, regularly what's going on with that. Uh, I think we are looking 2728 is the earliest on that. I would say 27. I hope to see some progress. Um, if I may, can I address
Mr. Luna? >> Thank you. Uh, I tried to write a couple things down, Mr. Labuno, so I may have missed some stuff. So uh I want to clarify you're referencing the financials on the UBS link equities uh project. So you know when link equities
sold it to UBS UBS is this big conglomerate you know worldwide uh and the Amazon warehouse is just this one little thing in this huge portfolio of theirs. Uh their their business practice is not doing an individual audit for that specific project. So, it took our
financial advisor a little bit of uh digging in with their people to kind of get the financials out of them. It took a little bit of work, not that they were resistant, it was just new process for them and we had to go dig through their their their financials and we got the
information we needed and as a result we found out that they owed us $400,000 which they've paid. So, they are current. Um I think you referenced $3.6 $6 million over 28 years. Is that was that that's that that that number is I
don't know where you came up with that, but they're paying us $600,000 per year. So over the course of 28 years, you're talking almost 15 plus million dollars. So um not so sure what spreadsheet you're looking at. Oh, you I thought you were talking about
UBS. I'm sorry. Okay. Um yeah, so mis misconnect there. Sorry. Uh, yeah, that's all I got. So, I don't have the 51 union stuff in my head right now, but that's where we're at. >> Thank you, everybody else. >> Just one thing. Um, thank you. Um, Bob,
do you know if the the Prism presentation will be available to the public? >> It is public, but it's it's on the website. >> Well, we we just got it tonight. So, >> but will it be on the website? >> I will put it on the website. And for those at home, you probably noticed that the YouTube crashed for a short period
of time, so you missed a portion of it. So, that's another reason why I will definitely have this presentation put on the website so those of you at home could uh catch up on what you missed. >> Thank you. Resolutions. Council President. >> Thank you, mayor. Resolution number 229
authorizing the execution of employment agreement with the burough administrator. Motion. >> I have a motion by the council president. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Guzman. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, may I have a roll call, please? >> Council President McGowan. >> Yes. Council Del Conn,
>> yes. >> Council Kron, >> yes. >> Councilman Kley, >> yes. >> Councilman Eric, >> yes. >> Councilman Guzman, >> yes. >> Consent items, council president. >> Thank you, mayor. All items authorized to be consent by the council will be enacted in one motion. These items are
routine in nature. Motion. >> I have a motion by the council president. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilwoman Delray Con. Any questions or comments? Seeing none roll call. >> Council President McGawan. >> Yes. >> Counciloman De Con.
>> Yes. >> Councilman Coachell. >> Yes. >> Councilman Kley. >> Yes. >> Councilman Eric. >> Yes. >> Council Gman. >> Yes. >> Thank you. We have a new business discussion item. Council President. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um this evening I just wanted to share about our best practices
survey. Best practices inventory is required by law to be completed by all municipalities through which the state obtains vital information about the status of municipal government practices in New Jersey. The 2025 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 require further technical assistance. The 2025 best practices inventory features questions on the
following topics: ethics, personnel, emergency services, lead remediation, budget, shared services, financial administration, opportunity zones, capital projects, insurance, transparency, redevelopment,
procurement, utilities, and environment. The state determines whether some portion of the municipality's final formula aid payment will be withheld based on the results of this inventory. A total of 70 questions are distributed amongst three scoring categories. Core
competencies which are 37 questions, best practices which is 13 questions, and unscored survey 20 questions. Each municipality must receive a minimum score of 32 on this inventory to receive its full aid payment. The Burough of
Rutherford scored a total of 38 for 2025. Therefore, we will receive 100% of our state aid for this year. Um, I would like to acknowledge and thank our burough administrator, our CFO, all of
the staff that were involved in this process and in this questionnaire in the completion of it in a timely way. Um and I think that this yet demonstrates that not only um do we hold ourselves accountable and making um good decisions and have done for quite some time but
the fact that we are uh evaluated through this survey um external of the burrow and receive such accommodation um should be recognized and I think everyone involved uh with this for their service and I open it up in case anyone has questions for the burough
administrator. Any questions for the B administrator? Anybody want to say you did a good job, Bob? You did a good job, Bob. Thank you. Uh committee reports.
Council President. >> Hi again. Uh so uh quickly this evening um I would like to thank everyone in the community that either came to the Kip Center Casino night or who sponsored and donated uh kindly to it. It makes a
difference for our community and for that center. It was an incredibly successful evening. I thank Kathy Babiello and her entire team at the Kip Center for their extraordinary work for the seniors in this community and beyond. Uh, congratulations to Rutherford Wreck on an incredible raga
muffin. I'm not going to comment on the MC's and the quality of the jokes told because I'm sitting between You'll take that shot because I'm sitting between the two people who uh who who MCed for the day. Uh, but uh, you know, um, they
say be weary of pointing fingers that they don't do a good job because then they'll make you do it. And I'm definitely not the right person for that job. I can't rock a red wig or uh your Yeah, the Dr. Seuss hat with a lot. Um
and I do want to acknowledge today um we had the extraordinary honor of naming um uh what um no no what the >> Elm I want to say as Elm. Uh we renamed
Elm or you know we um poshumously named Elm Reverend Ray Frasier Way. Uh and I I just want to take I just want to say two things very quickly about that. Number one, I had the extraordinary uh privilege of knowing Reverend Ray
Frasier. um when I was becoming a council woman um and thinking about this, he sat with me and had coffee and he shared with me about the awesome responsibility of this um and he told me that it was very important to never get lost that it's about you but it's about
us the collective and the royal we this whole community and and anybody who knows him and knew him knows that that he gave that very freely. It was always about bringing people together and I want to commend uh the family, all of
the family and friends uh incredible turnout today, but particularly to Dave Frasier and his words today. Um he very aptly said that it's called Reverend Frasier way because it was the way he
did things. Um, and so I hope that as people walk by and they see that and they ask themselves, who was this guy? I hope they think about what way they could give back to this community like he did. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Council President.
Uh, Councilman Derek. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, so I'm hoping to discuss um a little call to action of of the community. Um, as many of you may know, um, there's been severe cuts to,
uh, government aids and government payments over the course of the past few months. And it's just been cons confirmed that, um, folks that receive SNAP benefits, which are supplemental supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits are not going to be
receiving their payment on November 1st. Um, I've confirmed with the county that there are 305 households in Rutherford that do receive SNAP benefits. So, less anyone thinks that um they are not um this is not an US problem, it is it is
definitely an US problem. So, I met with the burough administrator today and and we're still putting this all together, but I want to at least mention it now because I have the opportunity to do so. Um, we're going to work with Genevieve and in and our food pantry to assess what our food pantry might need. Um, but
also we're just going to be um trying to assess food pantry needs throughout the county and trying to help them. Um, Genevieve does tremendous work. Um, I had the chance to meet with her today on any variety of things and I cannot
stress um, enough how far beyond her job this woman takes her role. Um, so I'm excited to get to work with her on this. So, what I'm going to ask of all of us is that we find a way to infuse into our philanthropy this week um, the the
thought of feeding each other. Um, it is a big week for eating. Uh, especially with our children, they will hopefully get lots of delicious candy to eat. Um, and with that in mind, uh, Bob has given me permission to put a box for, uh, food collection at our spooktacular. I will
also be outside Burrow Hall, hopefully with some of my colleagues on Halloween to catch families as they walk by Park Avenue for trick-or-treating. Um I will put out through social media and and perhaps I can work with our public information officer to get it out
otherwise of the types of things that we would be collecting. Um folks that are food insecure often do not have a microwave, a can opener. Um, you know, I I remember when I was younger, I my mother always gave mac and cheese. And then I learned that that's a terrible
thing to give because um to make box mac and cheese, you need milk and you need butter and you need a stove and heat. So, um, I'm going to try to do what I can to gather information. What we're really going to be looking for are non-p perishable proteins. Think like beef
jerky or canned beans perhaps with the pop top in case someone doesn't have a can opener. um as well as canned vegetables. But the other thing that Genevieve mentioned, which is an idea I like even more, is she often asks folks to donate uh small gift cards, $25 or
less, to grocery stores that allows families to then purchase perishable foods because we all want to be able to give our families fresh food if we can. Um, so I'm going to try to work to secure some lock boxes to put around um, Spooktacular and Epero Hall where folks
can just slide in uh, gift cards for that purpose. So um, bear with me while we put this information together, but I really think we are such a giving community and um, this is really a scary time uh, for a lot of families and there's not really a lot of indication
of when these benefits may come back. So, um, all I all you know is that there are families that are used to getting checks to feed their families and they're not going to get them. So, um, if I can count on your support, again, I'll try to disseminate as much information as I can and make it as low
effort as possible uh to get everyone as many as we can involved. So, that's the first bit. Uh, secondly, I just want to echo everything that uh, the council president stated about the events over the past couple of weeks. Um, they're really Rutherford at its finest. Whether
it's the casino night for the Kip Center, uh, just confirmed for me, I'm terrible at gambling. Um, I just think it's fun to say, "Hit me." And apparently that's not a good strategy. So, um, you won't see me at any blackjack tables in real life, but when it's Kip Bucks, it felt a little sa
safer. Um, I also really, um, I have to just ask folks to take a look at whatever pictures you can find of the Raga Muffin Parade. the amount of creativity that these families put into this effort. It's really just such an
example of beauty and love. Um where these families come together this year really particularly blew me away. Um so if you have a chance to look on social media, I know that Jenner Lisi does a beautiful job of covering it in This is Ratherford online. So um if you want a
little joy infused in your day, you'll take a look at those pictures. And finally, again, echoing uh our council president, I had the chance to go to the street naming today and um it was a really beautiful thing to hear uh David Frasier, who is our athletic director at the high school, but also one of
Reverend Frasier's children, um focus on how he experienced his father on that street and how the community experienced his father on that street. Um and it really makes me so grateful that uh the burrow was able to give back to them in that way. And that's all I have. Thank
you. >> Thank you, Councilman Quattron. >> Thanks, Mayor. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge uh the terrific work of Jake Schuman, who is stepping down from the
Rutherford Volunteer Fire Department and going to focus uh full-time on being a police officer in town. He has been a firefighter for several years and as we know, it's a hard job. It's a stress stressful job. It takes bravery and
anyone who's willing to voluntarily sign up for for such a job is a special individual. So, thank you so so much for your service and good luck in the future. Thanks. That's it. >> Thank you. >> Uh, Councilman Kley. >> Thank you, sir. Uh, just a brief one.
Uh, last weekend I had the privilege of serving as a judge uh for the Rutherford Arts Council's very first and what will hopefully be an annual event, Rutherford's Got Talent. Um I special props I won't be able to name everybody this evening but just a special shout out to Jennese and Sarah or Laritz um
for a absolutely phenomenal phenomenal show. Um it was just held in the gymnasium um at RCDN. Uh the sound system and um acoustics were provided by the school of rock and it blew my socks
off. I there was a several um uh talent talent entrance uh who literally brought me to tears. It was that moving like it was unbelievable. Everyone from a 90-year-old man reciting poetry to a four-year-old girl uh singing Let It Go
from Frozen, which brought me back to my two little girls being that age and singing that song. Um but anyway, if you can uh and you run into any of those members, comb uh the social media, look for video, look for uh photos. It was absolutely a breathtaking uh event put
together by Rutherford's own, most of whom were volunteers uh one of whom is sitting in the audience right now. And so I just want to say thank you uh one for the opportunity to be a part of it and two for putting such an incredible thing together. Um we are going to need a bigger boat next year. That's for sure. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Erica. >> Thank you, Mayor. I I want to add my thanks and appreciation to the bureau and particularly the rec department for all of their hard work uh around the holiday season, particularly uh recently been so many events that were fantastic. We have spooktacular coming up on this
Thursday as I think we all know which will be uh fantastic uh and the different contests and decorating and and all that. Uh it's a tremendous effort and I want to extend my thanks to them. Uh and on a different note, I I do want to remind everyone that uh it is uh voting season. We have elections coming
up next week um on Tuesday. And uh regardless of your political persuasions or whatever else, I do think it's important to acknowledge that voting is a tremendous privilege uh that we're able to enjoy in this country and I would encourage you all to uh uh vote uh and exercise that privilege. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Guzman. >> Thank you very much, Mayor. Um, couple of things, but uh, before I get into my thank yous and my congratulatories, um, Councilwoman Delray Conn, um,
305 families is, wow, that's an impact. And the average four uh, household of four will lose about $992 a month in
SNAP benefits. a single person will lose just under $240 thou40 a month. These are serious numbers and serious impact to people. Thank you so much for bringing this up. Um I would love to partake in this with
you. >> Um I'm sure all all of our council colleagues would love to join in this as well as our mayor. Um, this is this is serious and it's scary and this is where we really need to step up and help out
the community and make sure that they're well taken care of with all the resources that we have uh at our level here and at the county level as well. So, thank you very much for bringing this very very important subject up. Much appreciated. Um, I'd like to uh
thank our rec department uh once again for another successful costumepacked rag and muffin parade. And I'd like to uh also applaud the two MC's that I thought were outstanding and great jokes. Um, but uh, no, it's all seriousness, thank you once again to our
rec department, our DPW department for always setting up and having things ready to go. Um, also I'd like to congratulate the Fraser family um in the naming of the of uh Elm Street to Reverend Fraser Wei. What a great way to
uh honor a compassionate, respectful member of the community that truly truly loved where he lived. So once again, thank you Frasier family for all your service to the community. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman.
That would be me. Um, all right. Um, before I do my appointment, uh, I would just like to say today was very moving. Uh, I've known the Frasers my entire life. Um, they're a wonderful family.
Mr. Frasier was somebody who really loved this community, served this community, and believed in this community. So, today was a very moving day, and I just thank everybody for being there, and I'm very happy for the family. Um,
I would like the recreation department to be written up for making the praise so good that the jokes had to go on that long because it was painful. Uh, >> uh, I also blame my wife for that for
that forcing them to deliberate for so long. >> Um, so it was it was a really wonderful event. It was the best one we've ever had, the most people we've ever had, uh, and the best costumes I've ever seen. So, I thank you all for participating. I
appreciate you two MCing it. That hurt, but I said it. Uh so uh the only thing I have tonight is the appointment of Emily Ferrar as a provisional appointment as clerk one
Bureau of Fire Safety effective November 10th, 2025 in accordance with the rules and regulations of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission. I'd ask for council consent. >> Motion. >> Motion by council president. I have a second. >> Second. >> Second by council Quatron. Any questions
or comments? Seeing none, may I have a roll call. >> Council President McGawan? >> Yes. >> Council Derek Conn? >> Yes. >> Council Quron? >> Yes. >> Councilman Kley? >> Yes. Council >> Erico? >> Yes. >> Cuz >> yes. >> Thank you. Um I'll now open the floor up
for hearing of citizens on agenda and agenda items only. Anybody wishes to speak, please step forward to the microphone. Keep your comments at five minutes or less. Seeing nobody, I'm going to close it to the public. And um I make a motion for German.
>> Motion >> motion by council president. All in favor? >> I. >> Have a great night everybody.