starting welcome to the regular monthly council meeting of the mayor council monday May I'm sorry March 24th 2025 starting at 6:30 missy could you please read the role mayor Nazi here council President
McGawan present councilwoman Delton here counciloman Cotton here councilman Kley here councilman Eric here councilman Guzman here thank you thank you if you're willing and able please stand for the salute to the flag thank you everybody
missy could you please read the provisions in compliance with the open public meeting law chapter 3 231 public laws of 1975 notice of this meeting was transmitted to the record and Herald News and filed with the burough clerk on December 23rd 2024 and is posted on the
bulletin board outside of Burrow Hall thank you we have no presentations this evening um to the uh proposed agenda um during the last appointments as far as OEM I overlooked Matt's influence as the
OEM uh deputy coordinator i'd like to add that and we'll also be adding a closed session uh item 14 on the agenda to for discussion related to appending litigation thank you as
item 14 I'd ask for a motion motion by council president i have a second second second by Councilman Guzman any questions or comments seeing none Messi council President McGawan yes council Delray Con
yes catherine Quron yes councilman Kley yes cro yes cuz yes thank you we have uh one ordinance on first read council President thank you Mayor um tonight I'll be doing the ordinance to exceed
the municipal budget and establish a cap bank for the fiscal year 2025 missy can you please read the ordinance by title only for calendar year 2025 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank 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 by the council seeing none may have a roll call council
President McGawan yes counciloman Del Conn yes counciloman Coach yes councilman Kley yes councilman Erica yes councilman Guzman yes thank you uh we have no ordinances on second read i now
open up for hearing of citizens anybody wishing to speak please step up their microphone say your name and address keep your comments to five minutes or less david Schneider 8 Eastern Way on my block in front of my house there's a sign that says no parking
Monday noon to 3 every Monday at noon someone from the police department faithfully shows up to ticket anybody who disregarded that sign on my block across from my house there's a sign that says no parking Tuesday noon to 3 every Tuesday at noon someone from the police
department dutifully shows up to ticket anybody who disregard that sign every road in town has a speed limit the council president though says that she doesn't want to get to the point where the police need to pull people over and write tickets i say we already past that
point and have been since the first car hit the road i say if you want a good answer as to why drivers have their sense of entitlement that's much better than any that I could give you when I spoke to the deputy police chief after the last meeting he told me that the low
number of speeding tickets is deceiving sometimes they may pull someone over for speeding and instead give a warning or a ticket for a lesser crime like not wearing a seat belt i went home and thought about this and I still can't make sense of it why are the police so eager to write parking
tickets yet so hesitant about moving violations why replace a violent crime with a nonviolent one someone not wearing a seat belt is a danger to no one but himself someone recklessly driving 5,000 pounds of steel glass and
plastic down a residential road is a danger to everybody and everything around him in any case I had a look and found the police wrote exactly zero tickets for not wearing a seat belt on Orient Way last year 475 of 637 tickets written on
Orient Way last year were for parking violations that's 75% the rest are mishmash of various lesser offenses maybe these are the ones given to people pulled over for speeding i don't know at the last meeting the council
president made statements to the effect that every driver has gotten a license and is qualified to drive having a driver's license isn't the same thing as being a good law-abiding driver a common joke I'm sure you've heard is that the only requirement for driver's license in this
country is a pulse i don't know about the rest of you but the last time I was tested on my ability to operate a motor vehicle was 1986 that same year I was also tested on my ability to not blow up 10th grade chemistry class i passed both tests but
if you handed me a Bunson burner and match now I'd be just as dangerous as our roads are i hear the feedback to all the new signs going up around town has been generally positive just like speed limits stop signs red lights and those flashing pedestrian signs on Orient Way
in West Pose and every other sign that's come before people see them and say "Thank God they're finally doing something about those out of control drivers." But don't be surprised if that phrase quickly turns to complaints about the signs being ignored as it has so
many times before thank you sir anybody else from the public wishing to speak seeing none I'm going to close to the public mayor if I may I we have two guests that came in a little late and I believe they wanted to make a statement so I just want to make sure they
understand this is when they can do it do they want to say something i I'll Okay thank you going forward you could just address it to me and then you spoke
um you sure you don't want to get up okay you could pull the microphone off you can pull the microphone off and hold it for me state your name and address hi my name's Sebastian and my address is
53 Eastern Way hi what's your name my name is um James but um you can call me Jimmy um my address um is 53 turn white and
the town I live in is Rford i was who invited you to come to the meeting um the um this the council woman that visited our meeting and boy scouts last Monday asked us if
we wanted to come and we decided to come well if they'd like to uh have a more uh thorough discussion with the uh police station they could speak to the police chief all right perfect thank you so much you're very welcome
thank you guys bye bye sorry thank you seeing nobody else from the public we'll close it now to the public and open up for any council comment anyone from the council wishing to speak
council President thank you Mayor um I I just want to uh thank Mr schneider for um um continuing your advocacy for public safety albeit I'm not sure that you and I have the same recollection of
purpose of my statements but nonetheless I appreciate um the fact that you are so passionate about this thank you oh and and I want to thank our our two very very wellspoken young members who came tonight who were so brave to come up and
speak to the microphone i hope this is not the last time that we get to see you thank you mayor thank you anybody else from council councilwoman thank you um I just wanted to acknowledge Sebastian and Jimmy as they said um I had the opportunity to meet with their uh den
last Monday and um these two young scouts in particular had tons of questions about what we do at meetings and then they were very excited as their mother said to learn that our meetings are open to the public so God bless you so I'm um I'm very happy that you came
and it's very brave thing to come in front of a group of people and speak into a microphone so you should be really proud of yourselves thank you anybody else from Yes m council yeah thank you i also want to say to the two young gentlemen that that
is a very good sign that when given the chance to come up and speak you could have declined you could have been shy you could have said no but you chose to do it at such a young age in an intimidating atmosphere i think that bodess really well for your future and I
don't think most kids would have done it so congratulations and thanks for coming thank you anybody else uh I'll just add if you would like a more thorough tour um or conversation with your troop you could uh go through
our public information officer uh to speak with the chief about maybe arranging a tour or something you're very welcome okay we're going to move on to resolutions separate from consent uh resolution 98 authorizing the
execution of a settlement agreement with general release with Robert Simquitz i'd ask for a motion motion i have a motion by Councilman K may I have a second second second by
Councilwoman Quatron any question i'm sorry any questions or comments by the council seeing none may have roll call council President McGawan yes counciloman Del Cohen yes council Quattroen yes councilman Kley yes
councilman Ero yes councilman Guzman yes thank you now we have the consent agenda agenda council President thank you Mayor all items authorized to be consent by the council will be enacted by one motion these items are routine in nature motion
i have a motion by the council president a second second second by uh Councilman Guzman any questions or comments seeing none roll call council President McGowan yes council Del Cohen yes council
Quattro yes councilman Kley yes councilman Ero yes councilman G yes thank you there are the minutes no new business uh committee reports council President thank you Mayor um I'm happy
to share that the um women's event co-sponsored with Felician University on last Wednesday was an incredible success the panelists were um extraordinary it was a huge honor to uh serve as moderator i'd like to thank both my
council uh women colleagues for coming up with brilliant questions um and uh and again thank you to President Mildred Milon and Felician University for um not just hosting us in a room but also putting out a lovely welcoming um
atmosphere we had well over a hundred people in attendance it was incredibly well attended and um just a really wonderful night to celebrate um achievements of women uh and to be
inspired by the variety of stories um and and I I hope uh that we can continue to do this moving forward and um increase the participation and um max out the room that would be amazing um
also I'd like to thank uh Pastor Pate and the Mount Arat Congregation for the invitation yesterday um to speak at their Women's History Month celebration it was indeed an honor um I had that honor a few years ago during COVID when
all of their services were done virtually um it was lovely to be with them um in um in um community together um and uh Councilwoman Del Ray Conn was present as well they invited her up to
come speak as well which was lovely um and as always they extend uh their heartfelt appreciation for all that the town does and and willingness of course to ever partner with us if so called upon and um I also had the occasion
yesterday to attend the community forum of which I won't speak much of because I imagine it will be on someone else's um statements tonight but I just wanted to uh thank Chief Rouso for being present um and I want to acknowledge the incredible turnout of individuals who
are present um many of whom are Rutherford residents and I want you to know that you are heard and um this community will be there to support you thank you Mayor thank you Councilwoman Delray Con thank you Mayor
um I without too much fanfare will just echo a couple of things that the council president said uh specifically um how honored I was to attend and uh bear witness to the women's event at Felician um all of the speakers were very uh of
course very well spoken but on top of that were extremely vulnerable with their stories about uh navigating uh frankly folks efforts to silence them throughout their careers as women professionally um and I would say that our council president did a phenomenal
job of moderating that event um similarly I just want to extend my own gratitude to Pastor Pate for anyone who's never been over to Mount Ararat Church it it is worth a visit um it is an institution on the west end it has been there for decades and that
community has really been um strong contributors to the fabric of Rutherford so it's sort of the similar pitch I made to the Medallands Museum if you have the chance to visit Manau at church regardless of uh what religion you practice uh Pastor Pate and his
community are pretty wonderful about accepting anyone who wants to visit i think you'll learn a lot um and finally as the council president alluded to um at the end of what was a very busy day yesterday she and I had the occasion to attend an event that um I I planned with
the Rutherford Pride Alliance and the Rutherford Cong United Congregational Church specifically Pastor Annie um the Rutherford Pride Alliance did a really wonderful job of organizing and I just would like to um thank specifically our speakers as the council president
mentioned um Chief Russo um as I said to him in a note this morning was there both literally and figuratively um he gave some really comforting comments about safety in our community for those communities that may feel uh vulnerable during this time in history for whatever
reason um he spoke to really concrete statistics of how he on the state level with the help of the state's team and certainly with our local police department um are keeping us all safe um I think that having your local leaders which I would include among Chief Russo
showing up for these events and speaking to uh their accessibility is really important so again I thank him for doing that similarly um resident and uh civil rights commissioner Jared Schaefer um gave really important remarks about um
what is happening legally in the country i think that there's a lot of confusion and and it was a really nice by um nonpartisan way for him to share um what executive orders mean what they don't mean um and he was really patient and
answering a lot of questions and finally um Kirsten Burns who is actually an East Rutherford resident but she spoke um really wonderfully she's a therapist and spoke about coping strategies and ways to intake the news and how to process and then finally and and certainly not
um least importantly is Pastor Annie Allen who is um one of my favorite community leaders in town because she does always show up for everyone and um she gave some really uh powerful and helpful tips about um activating your
own energy when you feel like you want to help in any situation so um community discussion is super important to quot to quote Pastor Annie some of the most um important discussions in any community over the history of this country started in church basement so um there were 50
plus people that came from the county um and from town so again I'm just really grateful that we were able to pull that together um on a Sunday afternoon to uh Dr mcgawan's point I think a lot of people needed it and I think that is it
thank you thank you Councilman Quattro thank you Mayor um in honor of Women's History Month and all of these wonderful female oriented events that I've been attending with my colleagues this this in the past
month and also a we do event that a Bergen brunch that happened yesterday that I wasn't able to attend unfortunately i'd like to talk a little bit about women in politics um so so please um allow me to do that for a couple of minutes thank you weedo of
Bergen County has a very success had a very successful brunch this weekend i have been a member of Wedo and Emerge for years i um was a trainee at both for both organizations i learned a ton from them got a lot of practical advice and
wisdom about running for office when I didn't have a clue how to do it and got a lot of great mentorship from them so they are one of the reasons I am here for sure and everybody who works for them we do does we do and emerge don't exist just to just to celebrate women in
politics although that's part of what they do um but they exist to address a serious systemic problem in our government structure in the nation and in New Jersey the problem is that women are not represented in political office to the extent we should be given that we
are roughly 50% of the population of the country and of New Jersey an article from a few years ago indicates that women hold only one-third of local municipal offices like the one I hold for mayorships it is even less than that less than 20% of mayors in New Jersey
are women this is a problem because one it is important to have women at the table when important decisions are being made so that our perspective can be heard it is we aren't monolithic in our thinking of course but we do have a a
specific way of of of seeing the world generally that needs to be included when decision decisions are made and two local offices are the pipeline for higher office uh where true power lies
so most of us can agree that we want more women in that pipeline there are many reasons why women are still underrepresented in political roles in New Jersey and elsewhere one reason is that politics can be mean nasty and cutthroat and a lot of women are turned off by it i'm turned off by it i think a
lot of residents are turned off by it uh I think men are turned off by it too but women are even probably more over it and don't want to enter politics for that reason another reason is incumbency incumbency is very powerful usually incumbency means that you're hard to
defeat because the party supports you um and usually incumbents are men so that's makes it harder systemically for women to get into power third reason that women are often don't run for office or rise high in office is that we have more
domestic responsibilities than men including child care and elder care and so I think even though women can balance a lot and we hold a lot of hats we wear a lot of hats I think some people think we can't balance everything and so we
tend to be uh boxed out of office for those responsibilities and it's really sad and tragic honestly because we need we need people in office who take care of the elderly and take care of children and are incredibly
compassionate we need that voice at the table and if there not enough women at the table they're not that voice doesn't doesn't exist it doesn't get heard enough and those vulnerable groups are probably then disadvantaged and you know left left to not have someone to
advocate for them um so I want to just say that usually we bring up events like the Wedi Brunch to talk about why we were there celebrating women but I'm here to say why I wasn't there i wasn't there because I was
collecting signatures for a run for reelection i'm the incumbent i'm running for reelection my daughter was with me gathering signatures we talked to the residents it was a wonderful week and yes yesterday and today we filed um I
think I've done a lot for in for this town i am very passionate about what I do here i'm very passionate about the town I grew up in and the town that I want to lead forward into another era i have done work on on the softball fields
i've done work on the subcommittee on Memorial Field i've done transparency work and I'm just I just I'm just getting started i can't wait to do more um I hope that I inspire that being a council woman inspires other women young
and old in town to strive for what they want to do to take risks to try to get on into that you know into those halls of power and I know that I thank everybody who supports me and I know that my daughter is very proud of me and the welcoming community that has
embraced me in the last three years thank you very much thank you Councilwoman and to that point I'm proud to say that 70% of our department heads in Rutherford are women so I think that's fabulous
um Councilman Kley thank you Mayor um going to keep it brief this evening uh on consent agenda earlier this evening there was an authorization for a street closure uh just for those of you about a little over a month from now the uh Shade Tree Commission will be putting on their
annual uh tree festival or Arbor Day festival on Saturday April 26th in Lincoln Park so uh put that on your calendar uh God willing we have some really great weather another beautiful day i want to applaud uh Chairman Frank Sasso and all the other commissioners and their hard work and pulling this
together few more pieces of the puzzle to go but um I really appreciate the burough administrator and uh burrow CFO for helping contribute uh to the successful continuation of this lovely event to celebrate the Burough of Trees thank you
thank you Councilman Ero thank you nothing for me this evening thank you Councilman Guzman thank you Mayor um in library news um just a reminder to the public that uh Saturday May 3rd is the
Rutherford Library Foundation GA gala um if you haven't purchased your tickets please uh try to get your tickets uh early this is a a very fun event and it's uh at the end of the day it does a lot of good uh by raising funds for our
public library and it allows them to continue to offer uh other programs and fun events for the Rutherford residents and and other residents outside the barrel um so if you haven't uh got your tickets please
consider getting your tickets um again that's the event is Saturday May 3rd at 6:30 um at Valagio and if you haven't got your tickets they're available at rutherford library foundation.square.site i hope you all uh I hope to see all all of you that night
thank you very much thank you Councilman i'll move on to my report um also I have one appointment um Matt Simquitz deputy OEM coordinator i'd ask for councilman uh council consent motion motion by
council president second second i'm sorry I missed that second right i'm sorry councilman Guzman um any questions or comments seeing none may have roll call council President McGowan yes council Devi Con
yes council yes councilman Kley yes council Ero yes councilman Guzman yes thank you i'm going to once again open it up for the for the hearing of citizens for agenda items and agenda items only anybody wishing to speak please step forward to the
microphone seeing none I'm going to close it to the public uh next up we have a resolution to go into closed session missy whereas the open public meetings act requires that a public body adopt a resolution at an open meeting before
going into a closed session to discuss a matter which excludes the public as permitted under section 7B now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and council will hold a closed meeting at 6:58 p.m on March 24th 2025 at 18 Donaldson Avenue to discuss the
following matter: petting litigation thank you um I ask for a motion motion motion by council president may I second second second by Councilman Guzman any questions or comments seeing none may have roll call council
president McGawan yes counciloman Del Con yes council councilman Kley yes erico yes cuz yes thank you at this point we have two options um if you feel the need to stay we'll go upstairs uh if
it's okay and you are all Frank if you guys are good um you you guys could leave and then um we'll do it down here there's no action being taken tonight thank you guys for coming out thank you