e e e e e good evening everyone I'm going to call the meeting to order would everyone please stand almighty God grant us the wisdom to make those decisions that are in the
best interest of all our residents May the heavenly father of us all bless those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation and may He watch over and protect our service men and women now guarding the gates of Freedom salute to our flag I
pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all mayor before we all sit down y can we recognize a moment of silence for Joseph
asona a 26-year-old 5-year veteran of the New York Police Department who's dead after being shot and let us remember that all of our police First Responders put themselves In Harm's Way to protect us every day we thank them for their service and pray for their success
protecting our residents and returning safely home to their families thank you statement of publication take notice that this regular agenda meeting of the mayor and bur Council being held on this 10th day of March 2025 has been posted and advertised in accordance with the open public meetings act chapter 231
Public Law 1975 roll call Council person's valala kisi here Novak here Roberts here senari here zabowski here let the record show that uh councilman Bala has an excused absence he did call
in earlier that he was feeling under the weather um that being said um are there any proclamations or presentations we have approval minutes oh I'm sorry Donna if you council president I move the following minutes of the mayor and Council be approved on
roll call vote subject to correction if necessary and that would be for the February 24th regular and agenda sessions second okay all in favor I got to do roll call Council person's Roberts kesy yes Novak yes sinari yes
Browski yes okay we have it we do have executive session at this uh time I'll take a motion to go into executive session I got to read the reso first whereas section eight of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 permits the exclusion of the public from
a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist now therefore it be resolved by the mayor and bur Council the B of saal County and middlex state of New Jersey as follows the public portion of this meeting here is hereby adjourned in order that the government governing body may meet and close
private SE session for approximately 30 to 35 minutes discuss the following matters attorney client privilege litigation affordable housing and litigation following the conclusion of said Clos session the governing body shall reconvene the open portion of this public meeting to consider any other matters which may be properly brought
brought before it at this time the nature and content of the discussion which occurs in closed session shall be made public at such time as the need need for non-disclosure no longer exists this resolution shall take effect immediate mediately I'll make a motion to go into
closed second roll call Council person's Roberts Ki yes Novak yes sinari yes zabowski yes we're going to go to 30 e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e e
a motion to reconvene have to wait for the oldtimers to get back all right take a motion to reconvene make a motion to reconvene there second
second all in favor I opposed okay next item public hearing on the following ordinance ordinance number 8-25 and ordin ordinance supplementing and amending ordinance 40-23 fixing the salaries of certain bur officials officers and employees for the years
2025 to 2027 at this time I'll open uh the this uh to the public for hearing on ordinance 08-25 anything being nothing who is second uh councilman zasi councilman zaski if you would move the public
hearing be closed the ordinance adopted on second and final reading and advertised according to law second next item I the roll call council person Sor zabowski yes poliy yes Novak yes Roberts yes sinari yes public hearing on
ordinance number 9-2 5 and ordinance supplementing and amending ordinance 3-24 fixing the salaries of certain B officials officers and employees for the years 2025 to 2027 this time I'll open the public portion for questions or comments on ordinance 09 d25
Jim thank you mayor Jim Robinson Parlin looks like I'm the only member of the public here I guess the 80-year-olds didn't change their clocks um I'm happy to see that the uh Recreation Department employees will be getting AR raise my
only question is this I see uh for the junior counselors and the senior counselors the rate is to be determined with the minimum wage law I don't think seasonal Park counselors are subject to the state minimum wage law is that
correct in fact I know they aren't I you know okay so I just think that maybe you want to amend that to to reflect the number rather than rather than have them reflect something that they're not subject to we'll take a look thank you
all right uh anyone else uh that being said councilman zabowski I move the public hearing be closed the ordinance adopted on second and final reading and advertised according to law second zabowski yes polii yes Novak yes
Roberts yes sinari yes appointments council president yes I would like to appoint VJ Shaw to Cultural Arts for a one-year term I'm second well yeah second R
call Council person's Roberts yes kisi yes Novak yes Roberts yes sinari yes zabowski yes a new business introduction of the following ordinance ordinance number 10-25 bur of sville County of middle sex
ordinance EST lishing regulations for the planting of bamboo throughout the burrow councilman zosi I mean I move the ordinance to be approved on first reading advertis the coring of Law and public hearing to be held on March 24th 2025 there second second roll call
council person abosi yes policy yes Novak yes yes really uh uh SAR yes Roberts skipped over you sorry it's okay ordinance number 11-25 bur of
saille County of middle sex ordinance updating the Burrow's regulations for burough sponsored athletic or organizations Council councilman councilwoman Roberts may I move the ordinance be approved on first reading advertised according to law in a public
hearing to be held on March 24th is there second roll call Council person's Roberts yes Lei yes Novak yes zarski yes zabowski okay this time I'm gonna open
the public portion for questions or comments on resolutions Jim thank you mayor on the bill list 20271 I see on the bill list jcpnl is being paid $67,000
for electricity this month 38,000 of that 67,000 that they're getting paid this month is for street lights now in order for that bill to be paid for the street lights anyway the administrator has to sign the voucher that's as I having knowledge of the facts certified
that the materials and supplies have been received or the services rendered have we received all those services are all the street lights that we're paying for on we all know that street lights aren't metered so we pay whether they're on or they're
off what um are we getting $38,000 worth the street lights uh this month yeah for the past uh few weeks they've been uh this is an ongoing operation but you've seen them everybody's seen them they're replacing
them and they're super bright uh I've seen a few I've seen a few but there there are more than that have gone out since I first started talking about this then have been replaced and are we still
paying for it I know councilwoman Novak you asked question should we be paying for lights that aren't on and I'm asking the same question and I guess the administrator certifying that we receive those Services that's pretty serious
certification I yes the attorne I asked the attorney to check into it and as of the last meeting he still didn't have the answer have you found out anything I may go ahead um yes I I've been looking for and and the reason why is that I didn't have anything at the
last meeting it's because all we had was a an agreement back from 1985 yeah uh that appears to be the last agreement that is in place and we're just operating while it might have expired by term we're just operating as a continuation under that that agreement does allow for us to withhold money when
lamps aren't uh or street lights aren't uh in operation uh until they are so um that is something that moving forward we can do and we will monitor that and and see if it's something that you know it's necessary when when we dab a number well again what I what I had suggested was you know give them 30 days
you know but there are some that have been out probably six months so you know if we can get into accounting and anything that's over 30 days I mean I I say to myself does Jersey Central pay for things that they don't get I bet you
they don't so as a burrow right now the priority is Main Street and Washington that's a priority good good and you all might think I'm being pedantic about this or a pain about this and you might
not take it as seriously as I do but you wouldn't believe how many people when they when I posted about the nine that I saw that were fixed on Washington Road either stopped me or texted me or people I don't know instant
messaged me for for staying on this so that's why I'm staying on it we're paying for it the police chief has said it's a matter of public safety it ought to be done and I'm glad that we finally looked into saw that I I think I had a copy of that 1985 contract by the way and that's why I raised the issue about
not paying quite a while ago so all right so we'll give them is that we'll give them is that the suggestion we'll give them a certain amount of days and tell them we're then going to stop paying GL I think one of the things too we did ask for representative from JC I
think'll here at the next meeting so perhaps maybe that's what we should do is when we can engage in that conversation is it definitely at the next meeting because I got a a letter email from Zach that hasn't been set up yet so future meeting but it's in my report and I'll give you to report when
we get there thank you okay thank you this that this bit of entertainment has been worthwhile then hey Jim I just heard excuse me Jim I just heard how many lights are out from Green Valley to Dunkin' Donuts on Ron Street and I forwarded that to Mike Mike's in charge of that not in charge of that but
working with that and so we everybody here is doing trying to do something in charge of it s we're all pay we're trying to do something yeah okay good thank you this is something that unfortunately proceeds probably we started to talk about this five years ago and we really haven't gotten a
sufficient you know oh we'll get to it or the it's not the light it's the wiring and we have to dig it up there was always an excuse so at some point I thank you very much I can honestly say I wasn't here in 1985 so that's not my screw up okay thank
you uh anyone else out there for questions or comments on the resolutions being no else uh council president entertain a motion move the public hearing be closed and the consent agenda resolutions be approved on roll call
vote roll call you need a second second oh I'm sorry yeah Council person's Roberts kisi yes Novak uh yes except for uh jaffy public information I I wanted some
sort of uh better breakdown as to exactly you know what we're getting for that $3,000 a month on the bill list yes sorry everything else yes tarski yes zabowski yes
correspondence need a motion to accept the correspondence as listed I make a motion to accept the correspondence as listed second roll call council person Roberts kisi yes Novak I'm gonna abstain this month only because I just got my email so I didn't get a chance to read
it okay sinari yes zabowski yes okay uh mayor and Council reports Administration and Fin Finance uh John if you would do both uh progress for administrative and finance and as far as planning is zon is concerned uh just
have a couple items one for the adult uh Active Adult Center we have two activities coming up in theth month of March one is this Friday the basic of staying healthy presentation provided by the M County Office of health services and also we have a free health screening for blood pressure cholesterol glucose
stroke risk assessment BMI and pulse that's offered by Ron Bay Medical Center to our res presid that's Friday March 28th uh both of those item both of those events are at 10:00 a.m. and if you have to register so please call uh Jen and her staff at
390758 and then finally as far as Planning and Zoning concerned just an update on our fourth round affordable housing obligations that's still in progress we did file for a deduction uh that matter is moving forward and my understanding is that the way things are working we should have some answer uh
probably by the end of March May that's my report thank you uh Public Safety councilman Kacy okay all right starting with the uh with the fire the report from the fire chief
currently getting ready for their ISO meeting with the insurance company they've been busy with fire calls and we'll be attending the parade in south dboy on Sunday and have an officers meeting tonight so when you see them at the parade say hello
next they have the office of emergency management uh OEM is actively working on its Emergency Operations plan which is due for submission by the end of April this involves close collaboration with state agencies to ensure comprehens uh a
comprehensive and efficient plan a disaster simulation exercise is scheduled for April 26 including our C team which stands for community the Emergency Response Team and which I am a member of additionally OEM is partnering
with the Board of Education Safety and Security team to develop a reunification plan this includes participating in drills within the schools and making adjustments to improve their approach looking ahead OEM will attend the
emergency preparedness conference in April in Atlantic City this will allow them to renew their TR TR and explore the latest technology to enhance their capabilities going forward I have the police chief's
report so there are a few items listed on here New Jersey Law Enforcement entry exam uh it's called the Lee for short the New Jersey civil service commission is now accepting applications for the law
enforcement uh entry exam until March 31st so there's just a few days uh left into that you'll see them on the signs on our electronic uh Boards out in the streets so anyone uh interested candidates can apply online through the
Civil Service Commission website more details and reg and the registration link are available on the Sarahville police department social media platform second thing I have is a 2024
annual report so PD is finalizing their first ever annual report which will offer transparency to the community by highlighting their activities crime statistics accomplishments and
initiatives for 2024 this will demonstrate our community to Public Safety next we have a wellness app lanch uh launch it's called
Cordo the department is launching the D Cordo Wellness app to support the mental health and well-being of our officers retired officers and their families this app provides confidential 247 access to
Wellness Resources including self assessments videos and local mental health support it's part of their broader efforts to ensure ongoing Wellness throughout our officers careers the PD has uh partnered with Cordo using
grant funding from the Department of justices law enforcement mental health and wellness act so now I'd like to provide an update uh regarding the ongoing concerns with jcpnl electrical service throughout the
bureau there were seven uh key issues here so the first one we just touched upon a little but over the past two weeks jcpnl has been working on replacing malfunctioning street lights throughout the burrow while progress has
been made there's still currently no uh definitive timeline for Full Resolution Additionally the burrow attorney was investigating potential options for withholding payment we got that answer today and that's a yes so temporary
submission uh substation at Main stre um remains in use uh due to delays in obtaining the necessary parts for permanent repairs jcpnl has cited uh backordered components as their
primary cause for that delay with some parts potentially taking over a year to arrive unfortunately no firm timeline for permanent repairs has been provided so uh um many residents have
experienced multiple power outages uh recently um raising concerns about the temporary substation role however jcpnl has stated that um the outages are unrelated to that substation attributing
them instead to the external factors such as high winds and fallen tree limbs so our high Municipal bills that have been rolling in lately um that included the firehouses and first aid
stations um an investigation is underway to determine whether billing errors um unusual usage patterns or other factors may be contributing to these elevated costs so in our next
steps uh the burrow Council has invited jcpnl to send a representative to one of our upcoming Council meetings to address these issues and F and provide further updates so we understand the impact
these issues have on our community and we remain committed to keeping you informed as new developments arise um so that's all I have for Public Safety reports this evening bringing your concerns to the Forefront your
counseling always in your corner mayor thank you Mike uh Public Works councilwoman Novak well I I really like to thank the public works department for making sure it didn't snow most of
this winter they really did a bang up job with that but as we all know spring is arriving thank the Lord and uh the uh the parks department is very busy you know they're getting trying to get all of these fields in order for all of the
different sports particularly baseball I believe Little League opens April 4th I mean this is where Donna and I kind of overlap a lot but uh you probably have the dates better than me I just went to look it up my phone went dead Story of My Life the kids keep playing games on
it all day um uh other than that I mean if you if you have a sport and you want a particular field lined or whatever you need done special please make sure you get to the public works department and give them sufficient time to do it they're not sitting around waiting for
your phone call they got a lot of things to schedule so please to them also my my favorite my favorite things um I actually uh I haven't been getting a lot of answers as to my my pet projects I
just keep hearing nose up here but I did talk to a counsil person who explained to me why they were not in favor of Zoom calls and uh I was very happy that uh they explained to me um I agree with them and uh if I the problem s that they
see are the fact that people that are on Zoom they don't identify themselves all the time they don't have their cameras on and uh and I I realize that there's a safety issue we as a council really haven't had too much of a problem with
that but other you know meetings have so uh I'd like to see if there could be something that we could do we could work with that and then perhaps at a later date go back to participation with the uh Zoom on Zoom calls okay mayor see I
people talk to me I listen I'm not uh you know thickheaded um but I will go now to my really Pet Project I'd like to make a motion that we I know it's not going to go anywhere but still I'd like to make a motion that we declare the
firehouse uh you know a uh historical location for the B sble motion made is there a second being no second the motion does not carry thank you could oh okay anything else councilwoman no thank you
very much mayor okay uh water and sewer councilman sinari thank you mayor uh water and sewer I made all the necessary appointments with David and I will start doing tours soon as the weather gets a little better like it continues like
today we'll be out there uh we had our first guard community garden meeting last Monday night uh there's 42 plot available at $40 a piece uh there's a meeting tomorrow night in room 308 at
7:00 here uh to discuss anybody that's interested in a plot there'll be another freestanding meeting probably at the library where Anton's probably going to be at the library and he'll be discussing everything that he does with the library uh there'll be one more here
uh later in the month if we don't get enough people on that we're trying to work with the high school we're trying to work with with st stands to get them plots in here I think it's great for the kids to have something like that uh that's the end of that on the community guard the next day we had the
environmental commission meeting it seems like that's reestablished and we have a bunch of good people involved in that and I think that's going to go good this year other than that it's the end of my report thank you mayor thank you councilman uh council president Recreation thank you mayor um I've went
to a lot of meetings this past week first I'll start with um wreck summer camp and information is available and registration begins on Monday March 17th at ser and at seral rec.com Farmers Market on Wednesday 3:12 we'll have live
Irish music that passed no 3:12 is coming up okay all right live Irish music from 11 to 2 to celebrate St Patrick's Day Easter egg hunt is April 12th 9 a sharp at Veterans Field because you know at
9:02 everything is gone and that'll be at the blue turf field um children's Bingo age 6 to 12 is March 25th 6: to 8:00 pm limited space pre-registration is required at seral rec.com um Cultural Arts is currently
working on their upcoming project is their second year and they have a really good slate of projects that they want to present so we're going to be looking forward to that on the we're hoping for that Master calendar of all the events from Wreck in Cultural Arts and um human
relations commission at the library um they run a very tight ship over there but I did want to highlight there's a big change that happened in the newspaper collection of popular newspapers out of print a Aiza who is the librarian quickly acted to activate
the online subscription also with Leah's approval Aiza subscribed to the online newsbank collection of 4,086 sources of newspapers online full text with photographs patrons can use the service by authenticating with their library
card in the library or remotely so that that'll be a good service but it will be a challenge for those who are used to the print newspaper but the library staff is there to help them if they need to and then on the human relations commission we now had a quorum so we
were able to have our reorg meeting we swore in new members and Manesh I want to congratulate Manesh CH I can't say his last name Manesh as the chairman um because he has he has experience behind him Mindy will be the vice chair and
Lori sinari will be our secretary so I'm looking forward to all the great programs that we have in our future and spring looks like it's here I hope it stays uh can we um take a motion that spring stays and summer gets
here thank you mayor thank you uh with that General discussion items Point TOS request for the corner of Washington and ernston Road received from seral Junior bombers football on July 12th and 13th and seral Junior bombers cheer on August 9th and 10th any
objections next item application for special event from First Presbyterian Church to conduct a yard sale on April 26th rain date May 3rd and a flea market on September 13th rain date September 20th on their property any objection
next item authorization to award a contract to Starfire Corp for their 2025 Independence Day fireworks display to be held on June 28th rain date June 29th in an amount not to exceed 177,000 any objection that's it for me business administrator one item mayor
authorization to appoint Sarah logman and Linda Kelly as cashiers in the tax department effective March 16th 2025 any objection are they replacing somebody Glen or they knew we had uh when we replaced Danielle it
created a synergistic effect so we're backfilling okay uh cfo's report budget transfer resolution okay um borrow Engineers report thank you mayor just one item the burrow is installing a water main from the bording toown Avenue Water Treatment
Plant to Journey Mill Road that water m is going to have to cross the J jeras complex property which is on the green ACR inventory so we need to make an application to Green Acres to get approval for that and there's a resolution needed to support that application so we'd like that listed for the next meeting that's all I have thank
you thank you uh B attorney's report uh thank you mayor I was just is going to report on the jcpnl issue so we've already discussed it so nothing further thank you okay this time I'm going to open the public portion for questions or comments on any and all issues Jim thank you mayor Jim Robinson Parlin
I was very happy to see that you went to Executive session to discuss affordable housing I'm assuming that's current numbers and future numbers and um that's a good thing so that we don't have the mess that we got into about six seven years
ago result in US building all these apartments I would note this that of the towns that successfully challenged their numbers you know the numbers you had to report January 31st most of most of them were successful in fact Matt's bridgeo
the former burough attorney's town uh he challenged I think he went from something like 475 to 400 so he got his number reduced by cille opted not to challenge um so we'll see what happens I want to talk about something that's concerned so many people lately it's
been given a name by a parent who contacted me Goose gate and as late as today I saw a notice on channel 15 that said quote none of the dead geese discovered in Kennedy Park tested positive for Aven flu what a relief some
might think the truth is that none of the birds were tested so none could have tested positive I could say I never lost about to be the heavyweight champion of the world or the administrator never lost about to never lost a pageant to be
Mr Universe technically both statements would be true but those who know us uh might wonder about that the fact is no Goose can test positive for a test it wasn't given and I would like the burrow the
mayor and councel council president the folks in charge to please set the record straight and finally tell the residents if the geese were tested yes or no it's that simple did was that deliberately
misleading statement approved and if so who approved it and what is the current number of dead geese I know it was six then it was seven wondering what it is now and some tried to say that the misleading statement was suggested by the
njde that's not true you know I check into things it is true there was no directive from D or any health authority that testing was necessary but it is not true that the D suggested the burrow put
out the misleading statement it did and you folks up there know that employees were given ppes before they handle a bird so something was suspected and I think the people deserve timely truthful information and when they are called out
on misleading information as I my email email to the administrator that that be corrected we're entitled to that were the geese tested we should know that yes or no and if they weren't why put out that statement that said none tested
positive you know that's misleading okay and at the last meeting I found the response that AI had blocked my emails to the mayor to be laughable but I checked into it the mayor already admitted that he blocked my phone calls
but the email was AI I I was told so I did some homework AI does not block things on its own so it begs the question out of tens of thousands of emails the mayor said he gets why did it block mine there must be Direction
parameters Flags I learned that government is using AI to monitor people's social media accounts we know that his chief of staff has been monitoring mine so I wondered what flags or keywords that AI might be told to
look into to block a resident's email I was told AI could search social media to see if to see whatever you want to find who objects to pilots who posted about the mayor's calling senior citizens Dopey a-holes or people without lives AI
could search social media for people who posted about the mayor's $888,000 dark money political account that is chaired by his chief of staff AI could flag members of the public who objected to the mayor deriding and disrespecting senior
citizens as he did last year and as he did again on February 10th or expressing concern about the tens of thousands of trees that have gone out so is that what's being done was AI directed to reject the emails of people who object
to on social media to the things that this Administration is doing I'd like to know that you know we spent $160,000 on new a to and re the mayor you said the reason we did that was so that they could
answer your emails tens of thousands of emails but now we have ai to block emails from at least one person am I the only one or were others blocked thank you very much okay is there anyone else okay being no one else uh couple of
uh comments uh I wanted to talk uh about um my chief of staff and my Deputy Chief of Staff uh my chief of staff his name is Ken Kelly he was my chief of staff
um in my third fourth and fifth term uh as a volunteer and then we just have so much so many we have a population of 45,000 we're a larger town now and we needed uh we need better customer
service uh just a just to fill people in Ken Kelly um volunteered and he was a medic in Vietnam during the Ted offensive and his job was to um take care of the wounded soldiers
and to take care of the dying soldiers when he came home from Vietnam he became a police officer and did so for over 30 years um most of the time as a detective he is the past
um uh commander of the VFW he has done most of the veterans monuments in town and he he is uh just an really outstanding guy so for anyone
to really cast any aspersions on his character his patriotism his dedication to Country and Community is is just wrong the second person um that I have there currently is Andrew
ORS Andrew left Poland uh when it was under communist rule he landed at JFK airport with about $100 in his pocket uh he he captured the American
dream um he retired recently from a long career with the mcua uh and and again he embraced America he embraced his new country he's very very active in his house of worship
in his church um but more than that he has a son and that son is a graduate of West Point and is currently uh an officer and he currently teaches at West Point as does his wife who's a graduate
of West Point so the caliber and the quality of of the staff down there is exemplary and they take their jobs very seriously now some people uh may may just think we don't need them well they should run for mayor
and then they can do what they want to do but I believe that customer service is really what we're here for again what we do is manage a small service business we have about 300 employees we do police
fire and first aid we do sanitation we take care of 70 Parks we take care of the library and we try to provide all of these services at a reasonable price uh that being said uh currently we have uh uh a
person uh Zack schlicker who served as a deputy chief last year prior to that he had been chief of staff for an assembly person he is very familiar with government uh he's done so well he has
been become a very important Aid to our business administrator and and you know there's a lot of things going on uh here in sville and um you have to address them um so that
being said I'm very proud of the people that we employ we have about 300 employees and Monday through Friday 8 to4 they're here to answer your questions so uh the the thing is nobody
would waste their time blocking anybody I blocked Jim Robinson from my personal cell my personal email and my home phone number because I don't like him and I have no interest in what he has to say
uh and I don't want to be disturbed in my private life that being said I'll take a motion for adjournment close the public portion and a motion for adjournment I make a motion to close the public portion and adjourn
sir okay just to wrap it up on Zoom tonight we had nine people watching six of them were employees and on YouTube we had nine and in person we had two so
Mary when you talk about Zoom I I think people oh the other thing I asked Ken Kelly he is the liaison to the veterans Alliance sence and I said do the veterans feel neglected is there something we are not doing and he said
absolutely not the veterans are very pleased with with the the governing body and and and he feels that there that their needs are promptly addressed and promptly taken care of so
between the service we have here in the burrow and the service that the county provides the vet there's no homeless there should not be any homeless veterans and any veteran with a need is promptly taken care of so that being
said I wish everybody a good night and we'll see you next meeting second just a again yeah I make a motion to adjourn we we even vote on closing the public portion we did we did okay I missed that