allergy issues. Have lots of cough drops. Welcome everyone to our uh second uh council meeting for in May. Thank you all for coming. Uh this is an exciting night for us. It's our budget night. Um, and so with that, um, I'd, uh, love our
madame clerk to read our adequate notice of compliance statement. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the council annual meeting notice dated December 16th, 2024, which was properly distributed and posted per statutory
requirements. Please be advised that fire exits are to my right, your left, and at the back of the room. The city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired. If anyone needs hearing assistance, please obtain the system at the days and return it thereafter. Thank you so much. Uh, roll call,
please. Mr. Ber, present. Miss Hamlet, here. Miss Cmonson, here. Mr. Powski, here. Mr. Smallwood, here. Miss Toad, here. President McTurn, present. All right. Um, at this time, I'd like to call on Alexander Hos to lead us in the pledge of
allegiance. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so
much. All right. Um at this time, Madam Clerk, will you please read the explanatory note regarding close session and hearings and comments? A close session meeting as authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda. Please
be advised that council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channels 36 and 34 and Verizon channels 30 and 33 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on HGTV on Comcast 33 and Comcast 36 and Verizon 33. When invited
to speak, please come to the lectern. Clearly, state your name and address, spell your last name, and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded. Whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement, please give or email a copy
to the city clerk's office at city clerk@cityofsummit.org. To help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard, speakers shall limit their comments to three minutes. Unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or need it for professional emergency contact purposes, please turn it off.
Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Um, do I have a motion to approve the minutes from regular and close session meetings of April 22nd, 2025. I'll do these two separately.
So moved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion carries. Now, do I have a motion to approve the regular and close session um minutes uh for the meetings of May 6th, 2025? So moved. Second. All in favor? I
opposed. Motion carries. All right. Uh we're on now on to our report section. Um Madame Mayor. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. First, I would like to note that our city clerk's office is open tonight until 9:00 p.m. for voter registration. This is the last
opportunity for you to register pri prior to the primary elections on June 10th. I want to remind everyone that Summit's annual Memorial Day parade is coming up next Monday, May 26th at 10 a.m. The parade kicks off at 25 to Forest Avenue in the parking lot behind
the building and will make its way to the Village Green. If you're planning to come out and watch, some great spots are along Deorest Avenue, Beachwood Road, Union Place, and Maple Street. Once we reach the village green, we'll have a special ceremony with music from the Summit High School band, a rifle salute,
and a wreath laying to honor those who served. This is always a meaningful community event, and I hope to see many of you there. The rescheduled date for the PL Pet Show is Sunday, June 1st. It's happening on the Village Green starting at 1 p.m. If you're entering a pet, whether it's a dog, a cat, a bird,
a reptile, or something more exotic, you can register when you arrive. There will be prizes in several fun categories and every participant will go home with a small gift from the Police Athletic League. It's always a fun time for families and animal lovers. So, even if you don't have a pet, come out and join
us. Um, I spoke about this in yesterday's Mondays with the mayor video, but in case you didn't see it, our wonderful city clerk, Rosie, has been working hard with the publisher of the circulars that are left on our driveways. Um, there has been a form put together that allows residents to opt
out of receiving them. If you'd prefer not to receive the coupon circular, visit the city of cityofsummit.org/ opt out and fill out the online form. You can still also call the phone number on the bags if you prefer to use old technology and call.
Um, and finally, I want to share a quick update on the Bryant Park restoration project. I've been in close contact with Union County to stay updated on the project and just today I received word that the contractor has started mobilizing equipment and plans to officially begin work tomorrow. No,
today rather. Yeah, this was yesterday actually. I lied. Um I received word yesterday that work was supposed to start today. Project is currently expected to wrap up by July or possibly August depending on how things go on once work gets underway. And we'll keep
you posted as progress continues. Thank you. And I look forward to seeing everybody at the Memorial Day parade. All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. All right. Uh, city administrator report. Uh, Miss Baldwin. Thank you, Council President. Just so everyone is aware, the summer hours at city hall are
starting next week, uh, beginning on Tuesday, May 27th through Friday, August 29th. City Hall will be open Monday through Thursday from 8 to 4:30 and on Fridays from 8:00 to 1:00 p.m. The construction office will also operate under modified summer hours during this
time period. Monday to Thursday open from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 and on Fridays they'll be open from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Um, this Friday, city hall and the construction office will close at 1 pm. So that starts the the kickoff for the
summer hours for Memorial Day weekend. uh Memorial Day week recycling changes. There are some other schedule changes due to Memorial Day. City uh in addition to city offices being closed on Monday, May 26th. It's also a parking holiday
and summit. Uh modified recycling collection is scheduled next week due to the holiday. So there's no recycling collection on Monday, May 26th, and all collections for the week will be picked up the next day. Monday collection moves to Tuesday, May 27th. Tuesday collection
moves to Wednesday, May 28th, and so on. Um, animal license renewals. So, the deadline to renew dog and cat licenses is Monday, June 2nd. Renewals received after the June 2nd deadline will incur a late fee of
$10. There is no late fee for the firsttime registration. Please visit our website at cityofsummit.org/analicenses org/animal licenses for more information and to submit your renewal today. And lastly, the Summit Free Market. Uh the
next free market will be held this Friday, May 23rd, from 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the transfer station. Summit residents with a parking disposal permit can attend and browse donated items and take what they want for free. And they
can also um donate items. There are donation guidelines available at the cityofsummit.orgfreearket on the website. And that concludes my report. Thank you very much. Um, all right. So, for my president's report, I only have a couple things. One is just for the
public, um, uh, just to make sure everyone's aware, we la at our last meeting, we did vote to move our scheduled meeting, uh, because the primary was moved. So everyone, uh I know there's a few things on the calendar for next meeting. Don't want
anyone to miss it. It's going to be Tuesday, June 3rd. So we went back to the normal first and uh first Tuesday of the month. So just mark that on your calendar. Um the only other thing I'd like to say is uh sad news uh that came
out I guess over the weekend about uh former President Biden and uh his diagnosis with prostate cancer. I'm sure I reflect everybody's sentiments that we hope that his treatment goes well and we saying uh prayer for him and his family.
Um it is however also a good reminder uh that is a a a cancer that is is treatable if you catch it. And um I know I'm wearing green. I think I'm the only one still wearing green. It is mental health awareness month still. I need
that. Um, but it's a great, you know, that's a reminder. Please go to the doctor and get checked for for men in particular. It's a very easy uh check to have done. And while it's sad about our former
president, um maybe some good can come out of if people actually go and and take care of themselves. So that is my report. Okay. Um so let's move on. Uh, we have a couple of awesome awards
tonight, I think. Madame Mayor, we do. All right. Okay. So, um we had uh 18 um submissions for uh the Lewis Bay Memorial um municipal leader
scholarship essay contest. Um and this year, which is a ton, we have years, I think we've had one or two, and this year we had 18. So, I'm first of all really proud of that. Um way to go juniors and seniors in high school and summit. Um, and with I have I only know
of one of the submissions um that's here. So, I'm going to present a certificate of um recognition or participation. Uh but there I'm going to read all of the names and then Valentina, I think you're the only one here, so you'll come up. But um so the
participants were I hope I say all these names right. Darlin Berea, Oliver James Cheney, Joseph Garcia, Tiffany Gman, Lucas Hadingham, Chris Lopez, Christopher Anafrey Meda, Lincoln
Marsac, Edwin Martinez, Valentina Moretti, Ignacio Muro, Annabelle Solano, Palasios, Kevin Roman, Alex, this one's a tough one. Satakov hopefully um Riley Steinol, Charlie Vlass, and what did we
decide? Zakaya Zakaya Zakaya Kiana Wick I don't know um so Valentina come on up and we do there is another person in the audience that's going to actually share her essay because there's something special about that um this is a certificate of part participation come
on up and this is presented to Valentina Moretti for your interest in civic contributions to the community as evidenced by your participation in the Lewis Bay second future municipal leader scholarship uh competition. So, thank you very much for your submission. All of these essays were really incredible
and um it was really about what summit means to you and and why your community is special. So, was really cool. So, congratulations [Applause]
and always being here. Of course. All right. And then very exciting because we also in summit we know we're summit summit is very special. Um but we have proof now that summit's especially special because
we also we sent our finalist to the state and she won. She's one of three winners in the entire state of New Jersey. So um she is here tonight. Her name is Alexander Hass. She did an excellent job with the pledge of allegiance and I'm going to this is a
certificate of participation as well. Come on up Alexandra. Um so presented to Alexander Hass Summit City State winner for your interest in civic contributions to the community as evidenced by your participation in the 31st annual Lewis Bay second future municipal leaders
scholarship competition. And the very cool thing is I also have a check for $1,000 for your excellent work. So very cool. [Applause]
This is the most important piece of paper. Hi, I'm Alexandra. Um, many of my fondest memories from my childhood involve watching movies under the stars and enjoying concerts on the
green with my family. Our routine consisted of grabbing our blankets and folding chairs, packing a bag of snacks to feast on, and parking in the library lot before crossing over to stake out our seats. Every summer, Summit holds outdoor movie nights and live concerts on the green, a tradition that brings
people of all ages together. These simple but nostalgic experiences have shaped my sense of community, creativity, and appreciation for the arts. Screen on the Green was an event I always eagerly anticipated. As the sun would set and the inflatable screen
would light up, families and friends would cozy up on blankets sharing snacks. A variety of local businesses lined the perimeter, offering games and prizes and as entertainment, while vendors sold food and kids lined up for free ice cream. In hindsight, these nights weren't just about the movies.
They were about the connections created in these unassuming moments. Films have the power to bring people together, no matter our backgrounds or differences. and Summit uses this to draw our community closer. It was these organized movie nights that made me realize the privilege I have to live in
a city that supports its community and strives to unite us, whether through the arts, athletic events, or educational opportunities. The livelier of events were the concerts on the green where local musicians performed everything from jazz to rock, filling the evening
air with music that resonated across downtown, stopping people along the sidewalks and attracting crowds on their post-dinner walks. The energy is infectious. People dance in the grass, clap in their chairs, and sway along, creating an atmosphere of pure joy.
These concerts reflect not only the importance of supporting musicians but also how vital art is for society. I came to understand that these events were not just entertainment. They were a celebration of who we were as a town and a reminder of the joy created from
coming together as a community. Beyond the fun and entertainment, these events have played a role in shaping my sense of belonging and connection here in Summit. As a teenager now, often if someone brings up town events, others will chime in and reminisce fondly on the memories created. These community
gatherings produced by the city of Summit have given generations of re residents a shared identity. Every experience, whether a float night at the pool, live music, or a visit to one of our many public parks, has transformed Summit from somewhere I live to my home.
The green serves as a gathering place to bond, share, and learn from each other. It's here that I fell in love with live music and film, but more than that, it's where I experienced firsthand the connections that art and culture can build when they get the chance to thrive. Thank you.
[Applause] That was wonderful. They should have given you $2,000. Um, all right. Well, thank you for that. Um, all right. Uh, at this time, I think it is time for our historical minute. Uh, Councilman Palowski, thank you very much. Uh,
tonight we have Katherine Griffith with us. You can come on up to the podium. Katherine, uh, Katherine's a Summit High School junior, vice president of the student body. And that's, is it called Gio still? It's called the student
council. Student. So, the the schoolwide student council, um she plays field hockey, runs track, volunteers uh with unified basketball, and also volunteers for Sage Elder Care. And she's going to hum a few bars about SAGE and its
history tonight. Thank you for introducing me, Councilman Plowski. I'm honored to share a brief glimpse into the incredible history of an organization that has been a cornerstone of our community for over 70 years, Sage Elderare. Sage was founded with one clear mission, to help older adults
remain living in the place they most want to be, their own homes and communities. And since 1953, they've done just that. It all began when the Summit College Club, part of the American Association of University Women, recognized a need for our
community, a project entirely and focused on supporting older adults. Their vision led to the formation of a local council on aging made up of churches, civic groups, social agencies, and summit residents. From their efforts, Sage was born. Fun fact, the
name SAGE stands for Summit Area for gentrological endeavor, although some of its early founders jokingly said it meant some are getting elderly. In in 1954, with the support from groups like the Junior League and the Fortnitely Club, Sage officially became
a n a nonprofit first home. The basement of a nursing home in Summit with a vacant carriage house nearby turned into a furniture repair workshop. From these humble beginnings, Sage grew, moving locations a few times before settling into its current home on 290 Broad
Street in 2004. Sage's original organizers instituted innovative programs such as an employment service for older adults, the visiting homemaker service, which which involved into today's home care program, and even substitute grandmother's short-term help
for families caring for elderly relatives. By the 1960s, Sage had become a vital part of Summit life. One flyer from that era read, "Who cares when you retire? Summit does. Through Sage, the community's way of caring." And care they did. In
1966, Sage launched into one of New Jersey's first fairy meals on Wheels programs. With meals prepared by nutritionists and delivered by volunteers, it quickly became a lifeline for seniors. By 1985, more than 200 volunteers were delivering meals to
homes across the area. In 1975, Sage introduced one of New Jerseys first medical adult day programs, now known as a spend a day program, offering a welcome, stimulating environment for older adults with cognitive challenges. From games and group discussions to on-site physical therapy and
individualized care, spend a day remains a beacon of support for families. Throughout the years, Sage kept expanding. In 1989, they launched a grocery store service for homebound seniors. And when the CO 19 pandemic hit in 2020, Meals on Wheels never stopped.
In fact, they delivered more than 50,000 meals in that year alone. 7,000 more than the year before along with essentials like masks and paper goods. But it wasn't just nutritionist foods that made this service so crucial during co many members who were unable to visit
and offer support to their older relatives called Meals on Wheels for help. The meal service became increasingly important resources for food and means of having someone check on a loved ones. Today, Sage continues to serve Union, Morris, Somerset, and Essic counties, providing essential
services and heartfelt care to thousands of older adults and their families. As a student, it is incredibly inspiring to see what is possible when people come together to care for one another across generations. And I know this firsthand. As a fifth grader at Lincoln Hubard, my sister and I first visited Sage as a
part of the school program. Since then, we've continued to volunteer our time visiting with the Spendday clients, playing bingo, and more recently organizing a gluten-free food drive at the high school. Thank you, Sage, for being such an important part of our community's history and future. Very
nice. That was wonderful. Thank you. Wow, these meeting started out great. Now we got to talk about the budget. May I make a recommendation that anybody who's here for the that what already happened may want to duck out. Yeah. Like if you came for the the those
amazing inspiring parts and not that the budget won't be inspiring, but you Sorry, Tammy. Thank you all for being here. Thank you so much. Congratulations. All right. Um, for people at home, you'll see that we're about to start our budget hearings, but due to some back
and forth with the state of New Jersey about getting something last minute certified, um, we are going to have a I believe an amendment from the floor. Councilwoman Toth. Thank you, Council President. Um, the state budget examiner reviewed Summit's 2025 budget and
requested two minor changes, both of which move dollars from one column to another. Um, and city administrator Baldwin, if you want to expand on that, you can, but there's no effect on our bottom line. And the total dollars moved
come to all of $47,000. Um, this resolution would make those small adjustments to our budget. Um, and in order to pass a budget that complies with the state budget examiner's directive, I move to adopt this resolution via a roll call vote. I
second. Uh, do I have any comments from the public about this? Comments from council. All right. Roll call, please. Mr. Ber, I. Miss Hamlet. I. Miss Calvinson. Hi. Mr. Palowski. I, Mr. Smallwood, I, Miss
Toth, I, President McTurn, I. Okay, motion carries. All right. Now, we can talk about this amended budget in our budget hearing. Um, I think it would be appropriate, uh, we we announced the budget hearing at our last meeting. Um, but at this time, I think it might be
appropriate for, uh, Miss Baldwin maybe to just give a a little recap before we open the hearing. Thank you, Council President. Um, real quick before we get into that, I just want to um touch on what council member to just everybody
just voted for that amendment. Um, I think copies were furnished for everyone to see, but there is no change to the bottom line um to give you a little detailed explanation. Uh, one item was deferred charges for unfunded um to
future taxation. There are unfunded ordinances from before the previous administrator was here. they go way back and we raised $25,000 a year to pay those off and the one that I had put in the budget had already been paid off. So
they said, "Nope, you got to change it." I said, "It's okay. I have more." So we changed it from ordinance 2432 to ordinance 2447. No financial impact at all in the budget either way. Um the other one was a reserve for debt service
appropriation line of 22,000. I'm going to be quite frank and honest here. I'm not sure how that got in there. The auditor and I were going back and forth because there is no appropriation line item called reserve for debt service in the sore utility. So, um that was moved
over. I it was supposed to be a part of the the interest on the sore utility notes. I'm not sure how it got broken out. So, that solved. Again, no impact on the financial aspect of the budget at all, just so everybody's clear. So, um, we needed to do that because what
happens is after we introduce the budget, it goes to the state. They assign it to a budget examiner. It took them three weeks to do that. I'm not sure why, but it was last Monday when they finally assigned it to an examiner. On Tuesday evening, he comes back with a
list of findings. That's very common place. We spent a few days going back and forth and responding to those findings. And um we were informed today, which is why it had to come from the floor, that these couple of little minor changes needed to be made in order for
the state to approve us to hold this hearing tonight. So, um that's just a little bit of background on that. Um but I do thank you for allowing me the opportunity to provide a brief recap of the 2025 municipal budget. Uh we did an in-depth presentation back on April 22nd
and that presentation can be found on the website for anybody who's interested in more details. Um this is the budget that is being considered this evening for adoption um as amended just a few minutes ago. And this budget allows the city to continue to deliver the high
level of services that the residents deserve and expect here in Summit. It also preserves financial resources and it provides for infrastructure and facilities improvements to meet the needs of our community. Budget preparation was especially challenging this year. There
were staffing changes, competing interest, minimal resources, appropriation increases which outweighed non-tax revenue sources. So all all of these issues combined to create quite the task in putting this budget together. uh with the help of all the
department heads and uh over several months the finance committee met weekly to review, examine and discuss all aspects of this budget. Uh in fact, our finance chair, Councilwoman Toth, immersed herself in the capital budgets and and put together a spreadsheet and
was really helpful in um prioritizing the capital projects for the city's plan with all the department heads. Um, many of you know that the municipal budget is a financial plan, and I may be biased because I spend all this time working on
it, but I believe this is a sound financial plan that uh we're considering tonight for adoption. The tax base increased by almost $26 million in 2024. So, that automatically generated about
$245,000 in additional tax revenue. So that kind of growth is excellent because that's a uh some tax based growth that doesn't increase your tax rate. The total general budget for the city is 59,769,230. That is up 4.6% from the
2024 total budget of 57 million and change. However, it is not up 4.6% in the tax increase. Uh the appropriation increases were 2.6 million. That included almost half a million in health
care costs, increases in liability insurance premiums um largely due to cyber security that's becoming uh an ever growing consideration and concern. So premiums are going up in that vein. Um, there were various other increases
in operating expenses and just under $300,000 in salary increases across all departments citywide. The municipal tax levy rate is not is 943. That's an 18 cent increase over
2024. Um, actually that's coming down a bit. Uh, 2024 was a 21 cent increase and 2023 was a 23 cent increase. So, um, it's coming down just a little bit. The full tax rate is
4.48. That is an increase of 1.24 over last year. I know I'm throwing a lot of numbers out here, but these are these are the facts right out of the budget. Um, and in large part, u, as we all know, we've heard a lot about what's going on with the schools and and the increases there. So, um, we'll get to
how this plays out, but the municipal tax levy in total is $31.8 million. um that accounts for 21% of each tax dollar. So everything that we do at the municipal level is covered in 21 cents
on the dollar of taxes. Um I've been doing budgets for I think this is my 25th year of doing budgets and um I always say at the local level, this is where you get the most bang for your buck. You get most of your services right here. This is where you're
connected and these are the services that all residents use, not just certain residents where it's schools or maybe some county facilities. Um that 21% of each tax dollar um equates to let's talk about the average
assessed home. So the average assessed home for 2025 is valued at $440,641. I know that's not everybody's assessed value, but I have to take an average so I can look at this and and describe how that plays out. Um, so the increase in
the municipal portion based on a home with that assessed value is about $79 for the year. So that's under $7 a month. The entire tax increase is $542 on a home valued with that assessed
value. So last year the tax bill for a home with that value would have been $19,195. This year it's $19,737. Um of that $542, $374 is the school's portion of the increase. Um, as I said,
um, the municipal the municipal increase is about $79 and the rest is the library and the county. Um, important to note that we were under the 2% property tax levy cap by
$718,000 and change. And we're also under the appropriations cap by 2.3 million. Um, and the last number I'm going to throw, well, two more numbers. Our net debt, which is um is how much debt we
have outstanding, is at 678 as of 123124, and that is well below the allowable 3.5%. It's under 1%. Um, and lastly, the proposed capital budget, which um is just a plan at this
time. The the way that municipal budgets work is you have your operating budget and that's what we're considering and depending on the size of your municipality, you have to submit a three or sixyear plan. The plan is a plan until we consider um capital ordinances
for adoption and then they they become a reality. Um so right now this capital plan in the general portion for general improvements has 5,256,000 in general capital projects and also you can see on the website a
very detailed breakdown of all of those projects. Um, I just like to remind everybody, we we everyone is aware of the economy and the effects on all of us personally and and as cities and um organizations and
businesses, but you know, city hall is not immune to inflation and rising costs just like the rest of us are not. Um, I think this is a very sound, reasonable financial plan and I I thank you all for
your attention and I earnestly recommend that council adopt this budget as introduced and amended. Thank you for the uh the reflection and um I agree with you. But uh but we we're getting ahead of ourselves. We are. Oh. Uh, at this stage, um, I'd like to call,
uh, on Councilwoman Toth, uh, to, um, introduce the hearing. Okay. Thank you, Council President. Um, and we have just heard city administrator Baldwin give a brief overview of the budget itself. I wanted to talk a bit about process and begin by thanking you, Council
President, Mayor Fagan, Council Member Smallwood, and City Administrator Baldwin for all the work that did go into this budget. As as was previously stated, we met weekly for more than three months um along with department heads and um some other council members
on occasion to produce a responsible budget. No one got everything they wanted, but it's something we can all live with and I think that's a hallmark of a good compromise. Um the budget, as as Administrator Baldwin said, really has two parts. And the operating budget
is where we focus when we look at residents property tax bills. And as most of us know, the state imposed a 2% cap on annual property tax increases with some exceptions. Um, and I'm pleased to say our operating budget
increased by 1.9% over last year, and we really must credit city administrator Baldwin for that. She squeezed every penny she could to keep us under that 2% cap. Um, the capital budget is the stuff we buy and it's for what for what we
issue bonds. This year we have a capital budget of just over $5 million and of that about 1.8 million is recurring capital costs. Every year we replace a certain percentage of city equipment so
that it doesn't all fall apart at the same time. Um almost everything else in the capital budget addresses maintenance that's been deferred for a long time and critical infrastructure. And our process to getting to that capital budget was a little bit
different this year. Um in December, as is typically the case, the department heads come in in a public meeting, present all their proposals. Um those requests totaled about $13 million. And then the finance committee met individually with the department
heads and really held them to account. What do you need? What's a wish? Um and we whittleled that down to about 8 million. Um, Ms. Baldwin had wanted a $5 million capital budget. I was aiming for four. Um, but for the first time, what we did
is we went back to the department heads and asked them to rank their priority what the remaining items in priority order. We sent the same list to all the council members. So, the first time everybody on council had the opportunity to weigh in on which capital projects
meant the most to them. and it was challenging, but we got the budget down to the capital budget down to about $5 million. Um, the sewer and parking utilities are self-funded. Their budgets are also included in the package we're considering tonight. And the parking
utility capital budget includes some necessary repairs to the tiered garage. Again, we don't want things falling down. I do want to add one more thing before we open the public hearing on the budget because many residents have expressed concerns about federal budget cuts and
the effect that might have on grant money the city receives for some of its infrastructure projects. And to the extent that anything in this budget relies on grant money, we already have those funds in hand. Administrator Baldwin wouldn't let us have it any
other way. So with all of that, I move to open the hearing on the budget. I second. All right. Um I'm going to declare the hearing open then. Um at this time, would any members of the public like to comment on our uh our
budget this year? Um I will say um uh when you do come up just as in uh public comments please state your name uh and your address and please hold your uh comments to three minutes please. So, uh, good evening, Mayor Fagan,
Council President McTurnon, members of Common Council, and Administrator Baldwin. I'm Jim Bennett, BNE TT, 38 Fair View Avenue. I commend city administrator and treasurer Tammy Baldwin and the council for their work
on this 2025 municipal budget, particularly one item. When I receive the municipal budget snapshot each year, my eye goes to the bottom right corner of page three. This is the corner that addresses
debt. Uh this is the item that council can probably best control uh because debt service is the third largest item among the municipal service costs. If the city were to raise an additional constant amount to further lower debt
beyond normal amortization, uh it could reduce municipal service costs over time by nearly 15%. The effect in the early years would be minuscule but would snowball. To your credit, municipal debt for each budget
snapshot I've reviewed back to 2022 has declined every year in absolute numbers from $69 million to $62.8 million. Expressed as a percentage of
net debt to equalized valuation, the number has dropped from 0.92% to 68%. Debt is often needed as a tool to maintain physical plant and I do not advocate the false economy of deferring
maintenance for the appearance of reducing debt. My caution, however, is to keep an eye on the ball. The decline in debt from 2024 to 2025 is less than it's been in previous years. Nevertheless, I thank you for once again
presenting a responsible municipal budget that effectively manages debt. Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Sorry, I forgot to Good evening. I'm Diego Huik. Um, I would like to echo actually uh Mr. Bennett's comments about
debt. I think that did service the way that the treasury interest is behaving which is the baseline rate for everything else. Uh we have to worry about that. First a little historical thing I' I've gone back about 20 years
on our residential ratables and the last three so for the last three years our residential ratables have grown higher than 1.2% per year when the long run average is 7%.
Last time that happened 2006 to 2008. Then came the financial crisis and for four years our residential rate levels did not increase. So this is a warning or an or just keep that in mind going forward um
that we're going to have to address tariffs and a whole bunch of things and we're going to have to figure out if people can close out their projects and whatnot in the future. Um, I also want to talk about how fortunate we are to live in Summit
because we buy our homes, we pay our taxes, and our children can attend to some of the best schools in the country. Summit has more than 80% of our eighth graders meet or exceed ELA standards. That compares to the 30%
national average as f we came out uh in Congress last week and a 50% state average. Our good fortune did not build itself. Summit taxpayers, past and present, invested in our educational ecosystem. Our district ranks 12th among
se almost 700 districts in New Jersey, the number one state for education. A high quality education costs money, a fact that is not lost on those who would gut public education to lower their taxes but then send their kids to private schools.
Summit homes are more valuable and keep value better than average because the quality of a public school in Summit is recognized around the world. Our good fortune was also built on our governance. Let's be clear, taxpayers pay one property tax bill. Summit residents voted eight people on this day
as to allocate our tax dollars. And every elected official pledged on campaign trail to fully fund our schools. The city council manages the city levy. The board of vet to school levy and the board of estimate is the link to avoid political interference in
our schools while ensuring overall taxes are reasonable. Improving our schools is a good business decision. Our property values are determined more by the quality of our schools than by the quality of our pavement. And I encourage you to find savings in our city budget rather than in our children's education.
And I offer my help to do this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Other comments from the public Jocelyn Modesto 61 Butler Parkway. I'm here to object to the inclusion of stadium lights at Upper
Tatlock in the city's budget. The fact that the city is requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars for an expenditure without performing its due diligence is astounding. But I've already outlined many times how the process has been imbalanced and inadequate. So I will move on to other reasons for my
objection. The city does not have a comprehensive lighting plan for the site. There is only a rough cost estimate from 2014 updated in 2017 which we all know is no longer accurate. But there are no specs or plans for the site as a whole. And without plans, there can
be no analysis of the ongoing costs or the illumination impact once you add in the pathway lights, seating lights, track lights, upgraded parking lot lights, and new sidewalk lights. The cumulative effect these additional lights is a huge unknown both in terms
of costs and effect. Additionally, the projected costs for later years in the budget for additional stadium lights at Investors Field is intentionally misleading as it is significantly lower than what the DCP knows the actual cost to be. Proceeding down this road with
stadium lights with inaccurate and incomplete information is careless and negligent. It is also fiscally irresponsible to include expensive stadium lights in the budget at a time when there are more pressing items to spend tax dollars on. The school budget and the county budget are both
increasing significantly this year. I understand these budgets are considered different buckets of funds, but they all come out of one check written by a resident. So, it should all be taken into consideration and balanced. If one budget goes up, every effort should be made to keep the others as costconscious
as possible. And let's be clear, these lights are a want, not a need, as evidenced by the frequently empty, newly turpped lower high school field. There are also huge gaps of time when both fields at Tatlock are empty on both weekdays and weekends. The fields we
currently have are not being used to maximize efficiency. That is the problem, not a lack of field space. This multi-million dollar project that will contribute to the overdevelopment of a residential neighborhood is detrimental, expensive, and not necessary. Additionally, in the short time since
its formation, the Tatlock neighborhood task force has identified a large variety of issues that impact residents around the field. The task force needs time to remedy those problems that currently exist during the day before adding additional and larger problems at night. And perhaps even more alarming as
council is looking to approve a large sum of money for this project is that these lights violate the city's own current ordinance for light height. What is the purpose of having ordinances to protect the residents and their quality of life if you are just going to disregard them? For all these reasons, as well as so many more that I've
discussed previously, I respectfully request that council remove Tatlock stadium lights from its budget. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Pedesto. Other comments from the public? Okay, I'm going to uh close the public comment portion of our budget hearing um
and move on to council comments. Council President, Councilman Smallwood. Thank you, Council President. Uh, first and foremost, I would like to um commend Councilwoman Toth um for leading this budget. You did a
fantastic job. Uh, you know, we met many, many times and I can't, it goes without saying that our city administrator, uh, Nancy or Tammy Baldwin, sorry, I don't know where I got
Nancy from, um, did a, uh, a an incredible job on on keep us keeping us on task and the the level of detail that we go into these finance meetings
is is incredible. Um, Councilwoman Toth had a a fantastic idea of doing something a little bit different this year and you know, as she mentioned earlier, you know, every December the department heads kind of present their wish list and then we go
from that wish list to all right, what what is actually really needed? and she went back to the council to the department heads and said, "Hara, out of your December budget or presentation, what is your absolute number one and
number two items that you must have this year?" and they did that and then we distributed to the rest of the council members because I remember last year, you know, as a council member not being on the finance committee, I I didn't
feel like I had any any part of the process and you allowed the rest of the council members that are not on the finance committee to actually have a part of that. So, I I thought that was a fantastic idea. So, I really applaud you for that.
um you know given what the from a capital budget standpoint what the department heads came back with in terms of what their absolute needs were for this year. Um and we're able to even narrow it down from there to you know
what the original number was $13 million down to a $5 million number. Uh because the most important thing when you consider the entire budget um is to minimize the impact on our residents uh and staying within you know
a 1.9% in increase in tax levy. We also need to consider the the board of education and I'd like to talk about that for a minute because being being on the finance committee as well as the board of education and Mr. Mr. Hoy, I agree with you. Our schools are our
driving force and and and summit and they it drives people to want to to move here. Uh education trained second, I think. Uh and that's the reason why we approved the largest board of education
budget we've ever approved in our in the history of summit. uh and having the the level of detail that that we worked on for for months and months and months. Uh I I will support
this budget 100% because I think Miss Baldwin did a fantastic job. Councilwoman Tol did a fantastic job and obviously under the leadership of our mayor and and council president. So I will uh I I'll leave it at that. I think this is a fantastic budget. We tried to
maximize the number of projects that we could do to maintain our our infrastructure as well as add to uh the enjoyment of you know items. You know we have you know 600 $600,000 just
appropriated for for parks and um I think they're well needed parks that need to be revised maybe playground as well as the Washington school tatlock park as well. So, uh, with that, uh, I will wholeheartedly support this budget and thank you.
Thank you, Councilman Smallwood. Other comments from council? Councilman Palowski. Thank you. Um, I I also want to thank uh Councilwoman Toth, Councilwoman
Smallwood, City Administrator Baldwin, Councilman uh McTinan, Mayor Fagan, and all the department heads uh for their hard work. I think it's a very good budget. Um, and I'm very happy to see um that we've budgeted for two new police
officers and two new firefighters, which we need to keep this town safe. So that's how we do it. Thank you, Councilman Pilowski. Other comments? Yeah, Councilwoman Camelson. Thank you, Council President. Um, I am going to
vote for this budget because we have bills to pay. That being said, I object to an item in the capital projects. We talk a lot about overdevelopment, how Summit should look like Summit and not our surrounding towns. We look for ways to save residents money and be good
stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars. We take pride in saving money by sharing services with nearby municipalities. Yet, for some reason, all of these sentiments go out the window as soon as the subject of stadium lights comes up. Suddenly, it does matter what other towns have, and it's
shameful to share field space with the next town over. The need has still not been proven. This is a want. DCP outlined a list of programs that would use the extra field time we get from stadium lights. All but one of those programs is already running with field
space that we have and the other girls flag football is using new Providence fields. Also, we now have the option to rent space from Kent Place for $150 an hour. If you assume the worst and add up the total time the programs in DCP's
list would use, it comes out to 250 hours per year. At $150 an hour, we could run 250 hours of field space for approximately $37,000. Why isn't this council trying to save taxpayers money by insisting we try
every available option before spending $650,000? Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Conlson. Other comments Councilman Boyer. I'm sorry. Uh this budget is
fantastic. Uh I would like to thank our um administrator Uh, Miss Bowwin, uh, you joining this team has been, uh, amazing. Thank you for putting up with us. Um, Councilwoman Toth to O T.
Wonderful job, Claire. Thank you. Um, and Councilman Smallwood. Um, fantastic, fantastic focus. Uh, I was kind of wondering where you've been the last couple of weeks. Uh you've been working on the budget. Yeah, there you
go. Um to uh Councilwoman Hamlet, uh I know a lot of this Listen, CAPS is a really really important committee. Uh and a lot of money goes into CAPS and capital
projects, our roads, our streets, our sewers, our utilities. Uh you know, fantastic job uh getting us through another year. Uh, and to the rest of the council members, I think these last couple weeks, uh, no one's going to be
happy with everything, but I think as a council, I have to say that we've all have come together on some really, really important issues for this town. And, uh, I think the resident should be really happy with with all of us.
Actually, um, this budget advances a vision of a city that is safe. I know we always say that your your budget reflects your priorities and with our fire department,
I think our fire chief knows that for the last two years I've been saying uh you know, sorry, we're not going to get any firemen and uh I know I know he was happy. He's like, Jamal, you were messing with me this whole time, right? I'm sorry. Um but uh this budget is
solvent and it's service focused. you all know where your money is going. Uh we're only hiring where we need to. Um we're up upgrading our infrastructure to prevent costly failures and we're investing in programs that bring the
community together and we see that in our parks. Um you know, a lot of the debt comes from the school and I also commend the council members for bringing that down. Um, we tightened overtime. We used
grants strategically. Thank you, uh, to our administrator. Uh, and we held the line on spending in departments that could absorb it. So, this budget isn't flashy, but it's responsible and it's built to withstand the risk and deliver
value on every dollar, and I fully support it. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments from council? Councilwoman Hamlet, I'll be brief. Excuse me. No, I'm the last one to go here. Um, I just want to say thank you to city administrator Baldwin. Uh, thank you to Councilwoman Toth and Smallwood. Uh, you
guys did a great job. It was nice to be able to take a back seat this year. I feel like I have gained weeks of my life back. So, kudos to both of you and Council President McTurnin. Uh, it was just a huge sigh of relief for all of you taking over that task. So, Claire, great job. Um, hats off to you. I think
it's a great budget. It's a solid budget. Um, we've been working hard since the schoolboard estimate and now you're seeing the final culminating product. Um, really happy for uh, Chief Evers that we were able to get, uh, two firefighters and and two more police. I think that, uh, your safety is our
number one priority and that's reflected in this budget. So, uh, well done. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments, Councilman Smallwood. Thank you, Council President. I I did want to mention something uh m Miss Mal Councilwoman Calison mentioned uh regarding the the Kenplay school.
Yes, it is $150 per hour and we did look into that. Uh in fact, actually at the same time we found out that they're also using our Tatlock track as well as oratory prep and weren't paying any money for it. So we actually started charging them for using our track. Um,
so we've already received a $10,000 check from Chem Place that went into our field user fee. But in terms of the $150 renting their fields, they were not able to offer us a consistent regular schedule. And if anyone has children who
play sports, when you practice, whether it's in the fall or spring, you have practice times. and they were unable to they we could rent it on a one-off here and there, but they were not willing to give us a set schedule. And that's the reason why it doesn't work to have a
specific whether it's soccer, lacrosse, or uh you know, baseball, whatever it may be, softball. Um they just aren't able to offer us a consistent weekly schedule that we could rent their fields for. So, that's the reason why it it
doesn't work on a on a we can calculate how many hours uh a team practices a week, but since they're unable to give us that regular time frame, uh it just simply doesn't work for our our our teams.
Thank you, Councilman Smallwood. Other comments? Councilman Ber, one more thing I forgot to mention. Uh just so the public knows um the the city has not hired firemen for in the last 50 years. They have been
operating in the with the same capacity for 50 years. So, as our town has gotten a little more dense, more vehicles, flooding, rain, storms, um they have been doing this job for the
last 50 years at this with the same capacity. And um it this council actually came together and found uh the money to get it done. And that's really really important. It really is. And I I just had to tell the residents that it's
a big deal. Thank you. Other comments? All right, I'll just wrap it up then. Um I think I'm going to paraphrase Councilman Ber. Uh you know, a a budget doesn't reflect just your priorities. It
it reflects your values and I think this um budget does. Um I'd also like to thank city administrator Baldwin. You did a great job. I know there were many late late late late late late late nights in doing that. Um you were
wearing multiple hats while you did this and um I as was alluded to we couldn't be more happy and lucky and I think everyone in our town um should understand that how lucky we are to have someone as talented as Miss Baldwin uh
running our city administration. So thank you so much for that. Um, I'd also like to thank all the department heads. Uh, you know, we dove into this budget big time over the last few months. Our department heads start the budget process in the fall. So, they've been up
to their necks in these numbers for quite some time. And, uh, they've been um asked to make difficult choices, asked to really think deeply about their priorities. and um they've all done that
in a way that um prioritizes um the citizens of summit but also the citiz their needs but also their pocketbooks. So I want to thank all the department heads for your participation and the way you participated. In addition, um I'd like
to thank Councilwoman Toth. Um, it's hard to parachute into a council and actually be chair of such an important committee. And when I was thinking after the elections last year, how we're going to run different
departments, uh, Claire, you've you've been in so many different committees and have volunteered so much time. Uh, I can't say enough how well she ran our finance committee. She got people involved. She brought in new ideas. um
as she alluded to, we didn't agree on everything. Um you know, we had some really very uh heated discussions, but they were all very cordial and it's okay to have differences. Um and I didn't get everything that I wanted in the budget,
and there's stuff in the budget I didn't want either. Um but at the end of the day, Claire managed the process in such a way that we all left thinking, well, we can all support this and that's how it should be. Um, you know, the budget isn't a time to be political. It's about serving the city. And, um, I think the
process this year was fantastic. Um, you don't have to go back too far to see where the process was less than perfect. Um, so this was really, really great. And, and I do want to thank, thank you so much, Claire, for that. Um, also want to thank the mayor, Councilman Smallwood. Um, you guys were great to
work with as well, and you you spent loads and loads of hours uh, as well on this process. um around the the budget itself. Um as I said it, you know, reflecting your values, um as Councilman Palowski said, you know, we want a safe
town and this budget invests in that. We've hired we've got two new police officers uh in the budget as we have two new firemen for uh for Chief Evers. As Chief Evers knows, um I think for 20% of
those 50 years, I've probably been a big no around adding adding firemen. Um so I uh appreciate his patience and his willingness to work with the city around that. Um but I think it's a good investment. Um, in addition, you know,
we've got money for parks, we've got money for infrastructure. Um, we've uh we've invested um in all our departments in order to again our goal is to service the city. We pay a lot of taxes in town.
people expect highquality services um to for their money and I think um you know this budget invests in the ways to keep um our our community well serviced where they get value for their tax dollars particularly around the
municipal budget. Um the other thing I'd say around uh the capital budget you just have to look to what's going on in Washington. We have $38 trillion in debt down there. Moody's just downgraded US debt last
week. This is the the uh the fiscal budget in Washington has been a slowm moving train wreck for decades. It is a bipartisan disaster. Everyone has uh uh you know a
say in why we're at where we are. Um, City of Summit is one of the few municipalities in Jersey that's AAA rated by all three credit agencies. That is amazing. And we talk about that in
finance a lot on how to keep that. It keeps our borrowing costs down. Um, we borrow just a few basis points above uh the United States government. That's pretty incredible. um and it allows us to invest where we need to invest um for infrastructure and we spend a lot of
time thinking about how much debt we want to service etc. So this budget um invest in infrastructure we did not there were a bunch of tough decisions um that we had to fund and you can't just keep kicking uh capital investments down the road and hope that it holds up for
another year and so we made some tough choices and added those to the capital budget. Um so all in all, like I said at uh under the appropriations uh cap, the um the tax cap, um this is a really good budget. I'm I'm very proud of it. As I
said, didn't get everything I wanted. Um but it's certainly a budget I think all of us can be proud of. Uh and um certainly I do appreciate all the hard work and input from everybody up on this dis and in uh city hall. So thank you.
Okay. Uh, with that, um, we're going to go on to our next budget hearing. Just Oh, I'm gonna I'm going to close the hearing right now on uh on our budget uh for this the municipal parking and sewer operating
budgets. And we're going to move on to the 2025 special improvement district budget that was also introduced on April 22nd, uh, 2025. Uh, we do have Mr. Bill Rob from SDI here. I don't know if you
want to give a uh make a few comments uh just to give some background on the budget before we open up the hearing. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Bill Rob. I serve as the treasurer of Summit Downtown, Inc. and I'm joining
you tonight to present uh the SDI 2025 budget. Um for those of you who don't know uh Summit Downtown, Inc. Well, we are a special improvement district uh known as a SID set up by Summit under the New Jersey statute um NJSA uh
4056-65 to89. Uh that was a lot. Um it allows uh for designation of a pedestrian mall or special improvement district and for the collection of assessments from properties within the SID that are then turned over to SDI for operations. Um, Summit's uh, SID, uh,
Summit Downtown, Inc. is a little different than most municipalities in that it does not receive financial contribution from the city of Summit for its operations. Um, we are governed by a board of trustees, um, including those that are assessed, uh, three city
officials, including the mayor and two council people. Uh, that board voted to approve the budget that you have before you at our meeting on December 11th, 2024. Um, I know the SGI budget was introduced um at last month's meeting on April
22nd. Um, so I'm here to answer any questions you may have, but before I do so, I'd like to just provide a brief overview of what SDI is and what it does. Uh, so SDI's primary focus is marketing and events, which draw people
and families downtown and, uh, plays an important role in helping uh, maintain our vibrant community. Those include the farmers market, family fun night, art and cars, summit street sounds, um, and special programs surrounding the holiday
season. Uh, so farmers market um, it's doing great. We have the highest number of vendors ever at 62 uh, in 2024. That was 58 in 2023. We've had consistent growth since moving to lot number one during the pandemic.
Um, family fun night um offers young families an introduction and uh you know way to keep coming back to our vibrant community. Um art and cars uh we developed uh even further last year by um taking on Potts Auto Body and Spa as
a partnership. Um, Summit Street sounds, all that wonderful music that you hear in um, June and July on Thursdays and Fridays and Fridays in September and October and for which we receive uh, wonderful
positive feedback uh, from people about the atmosphere uh, downtown um, that's part of SDI. And then um, lastly um, the holiday season. Uh so we run uh two horses and carriages uh during the
holiday season. We have had um the elf hunt in many years. Uh we do a gift card giveaway. Sold over 20 $27,000 in gift cards uh in just four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year.
The important part about that is all that money is effectively captive to downtown businesses. Um, so you know, SDI is an important part of um, Summit's downtown business community. Um, there's
a couple key things I'd like to point out about the budget and then we can get to the Q&A. Um, for 2025, our budget is $6,800 lower than it was in 2024. That's a 1.4% decrease year-over-year. Um, you don't
often see that. Uh the major drivers for that decrease in funding um were less in the way of facade grants. Um a little bit less in expenses for tree wells. Um we increased uh our expenses um taking
on our own liability insurance expense for events. Um and we um on the income side um reduced our expectations for grants uh given it's kind of a tough environment out there right now. Um, that said, we did just secure a very
significant grant earlier this year, um, for which I'd like to commend our executive director, Nancy Adams, um, who over the last few years has done a great job, um, going out and getting those funds and, uh, enabling us to operate with basically a flat budget and, uh, no
increase in assessments. Um, those are pretty much my prepared remarks. Um, just maybe a little bit about the grant because I think it's pretty cool. Um, Summit Downtown, Inc. was awarded
$150,000 grant from the Main Street, New Jersey Transformation um group uh or grant uh the things that that will enable us to to do um it will cover our statemandated annual audit. It
will enable us to um support the paving and restoration of the much dilapidated alleyway between um Summit Avenue and Beachwood Road uh behind Bank Street and um offers us the ability to leverage
technology um including um Placer AI which is a software that helps us um get a sense of who's coming downtown um during our events. um also the fencing, electrical, and um potentially shrubs
surrounding the the lot at the farmers market. So, all wonderful things um happening in our community um as a result of some of downtown, Inc. So, with that, I turn it to the council and and uh ask if you have questions.
You know what, Mr. Rob, I'm going to ask we open the hearing and if you can stay for a bit in case there are questions afterwards and I'm going to have the public go first. Um but but I'm getting ahead of myself. Uh Councilwoman Toth, would you like to Thank you, Council President. Um and you know, by way of
opening, I'll reiterate what Mr. Rob said that SDA SDI is not funded by our property taxes. It's funded by an assessment on the people who own the property downtown. and um the farmers market vendors pay pay to be part of
that and state law requires that council approve the SDI budget even though council doesn't fund SDI and that's why that the the driver of why we're here but we love the updates. Um to do it and with that I move to open the hearing on
Summit Downtown Inc.'s budget. I second. Okay, I'm going to uh open the hearing and uh we're going to start with any uh public comments. Do you want me to stay here or uh if you could just sit until uh we and I'm sure there'll be some questions or maybe not. Uh no public
questions or comments. All right. Uh any uh I'm going to close the public portion of the hearing. Any uh comments from council or questions? Councilwoman Hamlet. Um, I'll just make a quick one and I think it's uh just
a matter of I guess procedure, but I think it would be nice maybe next year if we could um I know it was in the I think it's in the coun the budget's actually in the council packet from the previous meetings, right? Um, but it would be nice to maybe sync the two up for the presentation for next year. Um,
so that because I'm not sure that the residents understand what might actually be in the budget. Um, I don't know, just a thought, but maybe we can do like a presentation of what it is on that night. Um, I think it just might be helpful. That was all. Um, but I think it was great that you got that grant.
Um, I think that that's going to be very, very helpful. Um, I think the vendors from the farmers market were very appreciative. Uh, and thank Director Shreger and DPW for putting the electrical outlet in for the farmers market. So, um, just want to say thanks for your volunteerism and and thanks for
everything you all do. Thank you. Other comments, questions from council? Councilman Palowski. Well done, Bill. Well done. Um, as you know, this area on Springfield Avenue here in Dal knows to historically been called
Uptown. If I vote for this budget, would you consider changing this to uh Summit Uptown? That's the way I know it. Uptown. I guess that's a good suggestion perhaps. Um maybe a historical minute about that is
other comments or questions from council. I guess I I just have one. I mean um I know you mentioned uh that a big part of your mandate is is marketing and events. I know in the in the uh the charter for
SDI. The other part is beautifification of the downtown. And I always think about you know some of the things that draw people to Summit. Uh, I think Mr. Hoy mentioned schools which I think is probably the number one thing. Um, train
as someone mentioned up here. The other places obviously are downtown. It's beautiful. It's unique. Um, I say it's the best downtown in New Jersey. Uh, uptown in New Jersey certainly. Yeah. Um
but um on that it you know I know SDI I do hear people at times say that maybe it it could use a little little more pizzazz you know they look a little shabby sometimes. I just would say that you know as part of the budget um I get
a lot of talk from people about tree wells for instance and I know you mentioned tree well uh expenditures is down a little bit. I would just ask the board as they're allocating and thinking about um how to spend money not to forget that important part of this. Year
over year uh it was down but the you should come to you're correct. Year-over-year it had been budgeted slightly lower um to reflect the fact that we had not had quite as significant an expense um in 23
as as expected. Um but part of um the grant is going to be you know um allocated toward taking care of the tree wells which is um a project of great importance to us and uh also much
consternation within ACI us. Yeah. Um thank you. Um yeah that's my my only comment and question. Any other comments or questions? Okay. I'm going to uh close the hearing then. Uh, I just want to say thank you for your support and I
appreciate the opportunity to be here. Thank you for coming. Um, all right. Uh, that is it for our budget uh portion of our meeting. Um, we're now moving on to uh resolutions. Um, we've got a few from
finance uh today. So, uh, Councilwoman Toe, uh, finance number one, I believe you're going to swap that out with a a resolution from the floor. Um, okay. Thank you, Council President. And haven't recently concluded the public
hearing on the 2025 budget. Um, this resolution is to adopt the amended city budget, the parking utility budget, and the sewer utility budget for 2025. Um, and I move to adopt this resolution
via roll call vote. I second. All right. Do um I know we just talked about this. Uh, do we have any comments from the public? Comments from councel? All right, roll call, please. Mr. Ber, I. Miss Hamlet, I. Miss Camson, I. Mr. Palowski, I. Mr.
Smallwood, I. Miss Toth, I. President McTurn, I. Motion carries. All right. Uh, finance number two, Councilwoman Toth. Thank you, Council President. This is resolution ID 114. And having recently concluded the public hearing on
the 2025 budget for Summit Downtown, Inc., this resolution will approve that budget. I move to adopt this resolution via a roll call vote. I second. Comments from the public. Comments from council. Roll call, please. Mr. Ber, I. Miss
Hamlet, I. Miss Celmanson, I. Mr. Palowski, I. Mr. Smallwood, I. Miss To. President Mater. I. Motion carries. All right. Finance number three, Councilwoman Toth. Thank you, Council President. This is resolution number
11893. Uh, the city collects property taxes on behalf of the board of education and turns them over in monthly increments. This resolution sets forth those monthly transfers for the first half of the school's 2025 2026 fiscal
year. I move to adopt this resolution. I second. Comments from the public. Comments from council. All right. Uh, roll call, please. Oh, no. We don't need a roll call. Um, yeah. No, that's okay. We'll just do a vote
voice vote. Um, all in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Uh, finance number four, Councilwoman Toth. Okay. Thank you, Council President. This is resolution number 11851. Summit's contract with its current information technology pro service
provider ends in June and the city had issued a request for qualifications with the intention of entering into a new contract before the old one lapsed so there would be a smooth transition. Um and in accordance with the procedures required by state law, the city selected
Quick Text as the new IT provider. Our police department currently uses this company and is very happy with it. I move to adopt this resolution. I second. Comments from the public. Comments from council.
I would just make one comment. Um, you know, this is we're doing something new, right? We've had a a contract with Madison, I think, for several years. That's worked out well. Um, this this is they're moving on from that. Uh, they're internalizing their their process. So,
we need someone to run technology. I think someone mentioned uh how cyber security is such a big thing. Um I think we're very confident that u this will handle all of our needs. Uh it's been very well vetted and um I'm happy that
we've got this done now so there'll be overlap um so we can have a very very smooth transition as we trans uh go from one tech uh support to the next. So, okay. Uh, all in favor? I
opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Uh, finance number five, Councilwoman Toe. Okay. Thank you, Council President. This is resolution number 11 1927. And this resolution authorizes the city to settle a tax appeal case brought by Cell Gene
for its East Summit campus behind the community center. The appeal centered around a building which has since been demolished and the settlement reduces the total t tax the total property tax liability by a bit more than 11 million
but does so without requiring summit to issue a refund and instead this tax payer taxpayer will re receive credit against future tax payments. Further um this this settlement re relieves some of the obligation to pay interest on the
excess taxes it collected. Um both our city tax assessor and our tax appeals attorney recommend that we enter into this settlement. I move to adopt this resolution. I second comments from the public.
[Music] I don't really have a comment. I have a question. of Diego Nag. How are you? Um so uh last year we had record uh increases in our ratables for industrial sites because of the Bristol Myers site.
This year any summit it's coming down. Um I presume that at some point we'll have Ken View get reassessed and it might go up again. Um, looking at the history, the 20-year history of uh, ratables, industrial
sites go up and down by a lot in unpredictable ways um, because of these type of lawsuits. So the next time that we have an increase in our industrial ratables, it might be wise to pocket that and not use
that to increase our city budget. Uh especially since the next couple years are likely to be somewhat challenging. Um it's not clear how small businesses can survive terrorists and so on and so forth. Thank you. Thank you for your
comments. Other comments from the public. All right. Comments from council. Just Yes, please. Councilwoman Ham. Uh, so it seems like the only the major changes in this one were 86 Morris Avenue. Uh, I guess city administrator Baldwin, can you just educate the
community a little bit on just the background of this settlement? Um, from what I understand, uh, that building got demolished. So that's the reason for the the decrease. Correct. That is true. um they had five years under appeal and with this settlement um the stipulation
is staying the same for the first three years and they're only getting a credit for the other two. So it's a very favorable to the city. Okay. Thank you, city man. Other comments from council? You know, I would just
um echo what councilwoman Tote said. Um our uh our tax person Tim Oconor did an amazing job I think with this. Um this has been a long time coming. Uh and as was mentioned there's no outlay. um you
know we have a a reserve for these types of things but this was a big appeal and the way it was negotiated um our from a cash flow perspective this will be very favorable for the city and I I want to also thank Celgene/Bristol Meyers for
working with the city as well. Um they were they were great partners in in working this out. You know they didn't have a building so uh you know that that's going to change the value of the property. Um but they really did work that way and and the the good news is
the new owners over there uh Onyx um they're investing in the property. So from that perspective um ratables in that site we'll see what happens. Um but should move in the other direction uh which is great for Summit going forward.
So um okay um all in favor I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Uh, finance number six, Councilwoman Toth. Thank you, Council President. Resolution 11 1926 requires a little bit of a history
lesson. Um, when the gas and electric lines were first installed in town, the utilities began paying Summit and other municipalities around the state annual taxes because the the lines were installed on public rightways that the municipalities owned. Um eventually the
state began collecting those taxes on behalf of the municipalities and then doing them out. Um but over time that that pot of money became irresistible. State legislature started dipping into it and returning less and
less of these taxes to the municipalities. Uh cumulative cumulatively this has had a significant negative impact on municipal budgets. And so what this resolution is doing, Summit and many other communities
throughout New Jersey um are asking for it their own money back um and we're urging state and national elected and appointed officials to support this effort. And I move to adopt this resolution. I second. Comments from the
public. Comments from council. I can't help myself. Um, this is our money. It's that simple. They are literally taking our money. Um, we should have it back. And, uh, you know, I hope this makes a difference. We'll
see. Um, but, uh, this is one of those things where, as you said, you know, we can only do so much. Um, if you agree with me, call your state representatives um to ask them to support this. All right. Uh, all in favor? I I
opposed. All right. Motion carries. All right. Uh, last finance one uh number seven, Councilwoman Tote. Thank you, Council President. This is resolution ID 11886. Um, police captain Triber is
retiring at the end of the month and this resolution will pay him his acred time off. Um, he deserves it and he has earned it. So, I move to adopt this resolution. I second. Comments from the public, comments from
council. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right, moving along to capital projects and community services. Uh, Councilwoman Hamlet. Uh, thank you, Council President. Uh, Councilwoman Toth, nice job on seven. That was a long
one, so uh, give you a breather. Eight. Was it eight? Jeez. Uh, this is resolution 11 1923. Uh, for the uh, microp paving project. Bids were received on Tuesday, April 22nd for the annual microfacing project. The project was bid through the
Summit City Cooperative pricing system. The members of the cooperative pricing system include Chattam Burough, Chattam Township, Floren Park Burough, Milbourne Township, New Providence, and the city of Summit. A sole bid was submitted by the loan prospective bidder, Asphalt Paving Systems. Uh their bid price was
$4.38 per square yard, and the total project cost is $144,513.72. I'd like to note that the pricing, shockingly, has not changed, has not gone up since 2024, which is uh good news. And I would like to uh move this resolution.
Second. All right. Any comments from the public on this resolution? Comments from council? Uh yes. Uh Councilman Smallwood. Yeah. I just had a question for uh Director Shriger. Um what I I noticed the the list of of roads that
are uh proposed here. Fernwood Road, Beachwood Road between Uclid Hillrest, Franklin Place, Hobart Avenue between Wit, Whitridge and Franklin Place. Um, what what goes into the deciding factor on which roads get micropaved versus
others? Yes, through you, Council President. So, the micropave process is really a pavement preservation system. So, it's you could liken it to when you have your driveway sealed, but this is a more commercial grade to preserve the life of pavement to extend it. you know, it
could be five, seven, 10 years. Uh, which is great because asphalt as as they add recycled product to it and if they've been uh playing with it to make it more environmentally friendly, asphalt isn't lasting the way it was or asphalt roads aren't lasting the way they were. So, this is a far cheaper way
to uh preserve the life of the pavement and kind of prolong its life. So, um, the roads that are selected, it's a balancing act because you have to catch the roads before they're too far gone. Um, and as you may have seen on Fernwood Road, DPW has been working recently
where they're just prepping areas that are a little too far gone just to to make sure that they can accommodate this surface because otherwise you're just putting the band-aid on a, you know, a gaping hole. So, there's some spots that they do fix. So, the first thing is is the road, you know, salvageable or is it due for just full pavement? Um, and
these are roads they generally stick to the more, you know, welltraveled roads just because, uh, you get more bang for your buck, but you get more use on them and they they wear quicker. Uh, and then we do the balancing act with the utility companies. So, this list has probably changed nine times since we started it
last year. Uh, part of it is good because utility companies are, you know, paving a lot of streets, but part of it is a challenge. If you remember last year, we switched half of our micropave roads, you know, mid- project just because of the PSEG. So, I mean, in short, just to summary, it's it's
streets that are nearing their life, but not past that critical point um as as a means to to prolong their life. So, that's how we do it. Great. Thank you for that. I I didn't know that in in entire details because I I I drove actually drove on these streets today.
I'm like, what's what's wrong with these streets? Um, but now that I understand that you're doing this to help preserve the the or give it extended life by doing this, that makes a lot more sense. So, thank you. Right. And those those roads you drove on look uh, you know,
say like the they don't look like they really need something, but next year then overnight they could be just gone and now we can't do this. So, right. That's how we do it. Great. Thank you. Other comments, Councilwoman Hamlet. I I was just going to say um thanks to Director Shreger for explaining that
because I think correct me if I'm wrong um Director Shreger, but the ability of our DPW team to come in and do the initial fixes actually makes it more cost effective for us. So for instance, if you go down the streets now, there's a there's a long mil piece that they
fill in. So I think that actually makes our cost from what the research that I've done a little bit less because our DPW team gets involved. Yes. Through you, Council President. AB: Absolutely. So, um, otherwise, you know, the cost to have a crew come in just for small work like that would be, uh, significantly
higher than having DPW do it. And if you don't do it, this pavement will only last a year or two. And, and to your credit, is Fernwood Road, I know, is paved 2015. So, here we are at that 10-year mark when you want to kind of catch these roads. So, thank you. Other comments, Council
President. Yes, Councilman Ber. Uh, Director Shger, tonight's your night, right? That's it. Um, but thank you for answering that first question. That was that that was a good one. Um the second one is uh I had a chance to talk to some residents this weekend and uh there are
roads especially in East Summit where PSEG whether it's the American Water or JCPNL uh has ripped up the street. Some of those roads uh haven't been repaid for according to one resident five years. Um what can the residents do
about that? I know uh uh PSEG came in and gave a presentation uh and I know some residents probably didn't watch that one, but uh I told them to watch this one. So, if you can advise them on that, that's one thing.
The second thing is it appears that in multiple properties around Summit when uh when the roads are paved, they're flattened out by folks driveways and I know that's an issue um uptown and it's
also an issue in East Summit which uh which I noticed this weekend. What can the residents do in that situation because they can't go out and pave in front of their driveways. So, uh, how do they fix go about fixing these situations?
Yes. And through you, council president. So, I mean, PS&G especially, but also New Jersey American Water has turned the roads into essentially Swiss G's over the last half decade. So, uh, if there are streets though, we try to drive them as often as possible. If they could reach out to us,
we could just check because the first thing is when they do the work, they are required to get a permit and that permit would detail the restoration. So, it doesn't necessarily mean that PSCG was in that they were required to do a full pavement. Um, I don't know without knowing the roads specifically because I
know some some of the roads in in the eastern part of Summit have uh uh you know were either slated because New Jersey American Water would come in or the city was planning on paving it. So, we may not have made them or it could have been missed. They've missed roads. So, so if you if you could get those reported to us, we'll take a look. Um,
as for, you know, in front of a driveway, you typically want to have about an inch and a half of of lip there, so the water does run uh still. So, if that's not happening anywhere, I mean, it should be caught during construction, but just let us know. DPW can edge mill and and correct that. Uh,
the micropave doesn't really impact it because it's really just a half inch to quarter inch surface. So, um, but if if paving that's that's not how roads should be paved. So, we'll we'll we'll monitor that and correct it if there's specific locations. Thank you. And should they reach out to
uh to our city clerk? Sorry, Rosie. I don't know. Or or maybe I won't. Um it's if they send directly just to to us at DCS and engineering would be great. I'm sure Rosie would enjoy having less emails, but if if you want them, Rosie, you
could take them, but but yeah, through through engineering and public works would be great. So maybe see click fix. Uh you you could those will get re responded to so yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um other comments from
council. Yeah. I just like to say I know we started this program what about a dozen years ago perhaps something like that. Oh it's been ongoing for my 17 years. It started before that the product changed some probably about 20 years ago and it it's you know we we do see a
benefit to it and some of our member towns do do take advantage of it not all but um so yes. Yeah. Know I I was going to say this is one of those things where um you know it's a it's an investment but it's a smart investment because it extends the life of our our
roads. Um, paving a road is a lot. And as we just did on our capital budget, you know, that takes up a big chunk of that five odd million dollars is investments in our infrastructure, roads being a big part of that. By extending
the life of the roads, um, this saves the city money and it's a smart investment. It's a good way to use taxpayer dollars um, to get more bang uh, for our buck um, for residents. So, I'm very happy that we're doing this. Um, okay. All in favor? I opposed.
Motion carries. All right. Uh where are we on here now? Consent agenda, I think. Right. My consent agenda go. Um uh do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?
Second. All right. Um any comments from the public? comments from council. My one comment is I'm very psyched to see um cars and croissants back. Uh I know there was some issue around that um coming back to the
downtown and I'm psyched for Father's Day. It's a great event. Um okay. Uh all in favor I opposed. All right. Motion carries. All right. That's it for our business portion. Before I let city staff leave, um I just want to uh
mention and uh have a moment of silence. Summit lost one of its own earlier in this month. A firefighter Lon Mullen passed away after a long bout with cancer. Uh very brave. And um I just think it's appropriate to have a moment
of silence for him. Thank you everyone. Okay, with that, if you guys want to take off, please do go hug your family. Thank you both. Thank you. All right, we're at the public comment portion of our meeting. Um if you have uh the public at this time would like to
comment on something that has not been on the agenda, please feel free to come on up and uh and comment. Um if you do come to the dis uh please state your name, where you're from and please limit your comments to three minutes.
Good evening. Jacquellyn Laserosina, L A S A R A C I N A. I'm a resident of Summit. As we are always in a beautiful budget season, uh I'd like to briefly revisit the school budget. I'll put the bottom line up front. Uh now with the
benefit of several weeks, I'm wondering what the plan is to improve the budgeting process for the schools for next year. At the council meeting several weeks ago, a few of us asked questions about the school budget. And I know it was 2 o'clock in the morning, but rather than
being empowered with information, we were instructed that we should not ask the council about the minutia of the budget and that if we wanted information, we should submit a public record request. With due respect, that did not sit well with several of the members of
the community. You all, our elected representatives, are here to be responsive and accountable to the community. The board of ed, in contrast, is appointed by the mayor. Appointed, not elected. As I've been talking to neighbors, I'm hearing a lot of
frustration and worry over next year's school budget. Cuts to computer science and technology coaches so our children are less prepared for a technology forward economy. cuts to mental health and counseling when we have a youth mental health
crisis. Cuts to special education, cuts to the summer school program, which is a highly regressive cut. And recently, information is out that the median teacher salary in Summit is nearly 10% below the state median. We
are one of the wealthiest towns in the state and we are not providing competitive compensation to our teachers. The community invests nearly half of each tax dollar, as we've been reminded recently, in our schools. That's a lot, and as it should be. We have excellent
schools, and we're tremendously fortunate. The taxpayers deserve more accountability from the people we elect to represent us. So, here we are again. We do have a group of community members working on a plan from the community side to improve the process for next
year, and we look forward to hearing your plan. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments from the public. Hi, Jim Bennett, BNET, 38 Fair View Avenue. You're getting an encore with me. Um, I just want to well, I will not
be able to be at the June 3 meeting. So, I want to reiterate my support for the uh camping ordinance that will be taken up at that meeting. Thank you. Other comments from the public? Good evening, council. My name is Dan
Chrisulli, 25 Greenbar Drive. It's great to see you all tonight. As member of Summit's environmental commission and appointee of the mayor, I spoke with the mayor recently regarding Saltbrook uh at the March 18th council
meeting with the idea of taking a look upstream to the stream source at Memorial Field. Today, the mayor and I had a great meeting during which the mayor expressed interest in exploring a more systemic approach to this growing
and recurring problem. Options to retain storm runoff before it causes a flood include subsurface detention systems, permeable paving, infiltration basins, and rain gardens. These systems then
release the water slowly, helping in periods of drought. they can have significant environmental benefits while helping to avoid floods. The cost of this approach is likely to be higher than the city budget could accommodate. So, I plan to raise the issue at the
environmental commission on which I sit uh to discuss with the other members uh to explore options for collaboration with Ruters uh and other state resources to hopefully identify grant and other technical sources of assistance. Thank you.
Thank you. Other comments from the public? Hi, I'm Diego Hoy. Um, and I want to talk about taxes, but not local taxes. I want to talk about federal taxes. And I want to talk about the
state and local tax deduction. Um, we're fortunate in Summit to have good schools because we pay high property taxes nationwide. There's a direct correlation to the amount of property tax that gets paid and the
quality of the school. Uh, it's a fairly good correlation. Um, New Jersey is number one for education. Alabama is 45th or thereabouts. Um, fortunately, our representative is
working hard to try to get the state and local tax deduction um, reinstated. And I am wondering whether we can do something in a bipartisan manner to send some kind of a note of support to our representative to make
sure he actually helps us get that state and local tax deduction back. I think it would be benefit everybody in summit and would help alleviate a lot of our tax problems. And we have a history of talking to Trenton about um
overdevelopment, talking to Union County, about Brian Park. I think that we could by in a bipartisan manner talk to Washington about our state and local tax deductions not going to pay for hurricanes um in areas that should not
be built in locations that have chased away their um homeowners insurance providers. So, thank you and I hope you can consider this and I and you know I'm happy to help. Thank you so much.
Other comments from the public? Okay, I'm going to uh close the public comment section of our meeting. We're on to council member comments and new business. Who would like to make a comment? Matt. Yes, please. Madame Mayor, um two
things. one, I want to go back to um our firefighter Lon Mullen. Uh the tribute to Lan was really incredible and I just I just want to take a moment to sort of express that. It was it was really remarkable showing of support um from
surrounding fire um fire departments and from our own and from our police department and our our first aid squad. Uh it was really beautiful. Um it was a nice sendoff for a man who served our community so well. So, I just want to mention that. And then secondly, I I should have said this when we were
talking about um there was a resolution presented, but um it's an opportunity for me to say uh thank you to Captain Triber. Um he has served our community for over 25 years as a police a police officer and now as a captain. Um and he
takes with him a vast um knowledge and experience. uh hopefully he bestowed that upon some of the younger officers that we have. Uh but we're we are very very fortunate to have had uh Captain Triber for as long as we did and um I
just want to say thank you publicly. So thank you Madame Mayor. Other comments from council councilman Palowski. Thank you. Um couple notes that I took along the way that I thought were worth mentioning. Uh, with the free market on
Saturday the 24th being open, that means the dog park's closed. So, if you don't want to show up with your dog and and disappoint him, uh, or her, um, be careful. Uh, Sage, we had a a presentation on Sage, uh, elder care.
Sage Elder Care runs largely on donations. Um, so please consider giving if you can. You can go to their website sageeldercare.org and find the appropriate
link. Also buried in our consent agenda I believe is a authorization to display joint summit EMS sign. Summit EMS is the summit volunteer first aid squad and it's just that. It's a volunteer group
that serves our city 24/7 and they need more bodies. So, please consider volunteering and or contributing in some way. Without the EMS, taxpayers would have to hire professionals to fill that
role. With regard to uh stadium lights, I don't like that term and I I spoke to Ms. Modesto about that the other day. I I feel like it's a misnomer. We're not talking about stadiums. We're talking about fields. And I fear it could create
some division among the residents. But as far as field lights go, we're going to have many more discussions about them before any lights ever go up. So tonight, I'm just going to note that youth football practices in the dark.
It's unavoidable because of the time of year and it's not safe. The current lights that we have at Tatlock, they're not safe. They're not bright enough. So, lights at Tatlock is a need and I'm glad that we have budgeted for
it. On the BOE budgeting process, I went to the last board of education meeting where we introduced two new members and a new president. And I did hear some plans that they are planning to be more transparent
in the budgeting process next year to answer more questions during board of ed meetings. And uh with the addition of Rick Henley, who's a a veteran board of ed member, I
think the public will see some improvements in their their budgeting process and in terms of communicating with the residents. I'm not sure what we would have to say about their budgeting process. I don't think much as members
of council, but the board of ed is working towards improving that process. So that's all I have. Thank you. Other comments from council. Councilwoman Camelson. Thank you,
Council President. Um, regarding the term stadium lights, that I mean that that's what they are. I believe that's what Moscow calls them and they're 70 to 80 foot light poles. So I mean that's taller than Broad Street West uh that we
talked so much about. I just wanted to say that real quick. But mostly what I wanted to say is that um I wanted to give a shout out to Donna Patel. She was named Sustainability Hero by Sustainable Jersey for May 2025. Um so I'm happy to
see that Sustainable Jersey recognized what we've known for years. Um she's our fearless leader and thank you for all the work you do. Donna, it's great. Thank you. Uh, Councilwoman Camelson. Any other comments from council?
Councilman Boyer. Council President. Thank you. Um, a I'm I'm happy to hear that Union County is uh is starting back up at Bryant Park. Um, so I will absolutely be nice.
Um, recycling. Uh, I meant to say something to Director Shrager when he was here. Um but the re the recycling folks when they when they come take the recycle and it's just um you know they put the garbage the recycle cans like in
the street and in front of people's driveways. It's almost like they they put the recycling in and just they just throw the cans. I mean it's um we gota we got to do something about that. Um uh secondly, uh Alex Alexandra who came
up and gave the speech and that was wonderful. I mean like you know that that is absolutely what this town is about. I am if y'all don't know it. I'm 47 years old getting up there. Um but her speech like got me
all choked up because it brought me back to when I was a kid. like I I remember those days. It never leaves you. Um and that's what this is what makes this town so special. Our village green, you know,
our our pet show. Um the movie night, you know, the sounds of the city, like these things matter to these children. This town is wonderful and I'm glad our budget reflects such a safe town and
we're still committed to these community events. Uh we have a lot going on in CAPS. You know, I I could give a rundown and I don't want to put uh Councilwoman Hamlet on the spot, but uh we are making a lot of progress with sidewalks. We,
you know, we became a sidewalk town. Um I've embraced that. So, uh, you'll you'll see a lot of that coming up. Um, also floated an idea about a dog park, um, in different areas of town just to try it out, you know.
Uh, listen, I see people Summit's a dog town, right? I see people walking their dogs all the time. And I've always thought, wouldn't it be great to walk your dog to town and stop at the Village Green, let your dog run with other dogs, and have a cup of coffee and actually
meet and talk to people. I mean, that's a great idea. Um, secondly, uh, Captain Shriber, what an amazing career. And the police know how to send someone off. So, I can't wait to see when that's going to happen.
I'm sure our chief will will tell us. and we're going to send Captain Shriber off in style. Um, firefighter Mullen, uh, hero, right? Um, one word. And Chief, the way
that you all um got everyone together with the old firehouse and the hundreds of people that were there was was I mean he was loved, you know.
He was he was loved. Uh um yeah, lowering taxes. Uh Mr. Ho, I agree. I'm going to give Congressman Kaine a call as soon as I get out of here. Um, and uh, Alabama is a great
state and they have they have smart children as well. Um, let's see. Oh, little slight plug on I lost it. Hold on one second. See, these kids are like really talented. So,
uh, school's going to be out soon and there are three bands that's going to be performing on Friday, June 13th at the Nights of Columbus. Uh, No Pursuit Funk and a band called Lorraine. And they performed about a month ago, and I tell
you, there was about a hundred people there. The adults loved it. These bands are like from seventh grade all the way up until, I think, juniors. Um, and they're they are excellent. They are talented kids. They perform uh in our schools
uh and they we first of all we have the best band like in in the area. I mean the big band is like amazing. Uh Councilwoman Toe knows her son used to play. He's awesome. So come out and watch these kids. Uh they they'll play
like 90s music. So um I'll be there like as soon as they open. Um and that is all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Ber. Other comments from council? Councilman Smallwood. Thank you, Council President. Um, one I wanted to Some of you may have
noticed some of us are wearing uh gray ribbons uh on our lapels. U Mcaran is still wearing his his green because they kind of go hand in hand. Uh it's me mental health awareness month and I would like to uh condemn every of the
everyone on the council who actually did the um commend. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm I'm just I got a lot of things going on. Um commend all the council members who did the uh ice
bucket challenge. Um, I know it was uh extremely cold, so it was fun watching the videos and uh I hope it uh it does bring some awareness, but it's also uh uh brain tumor uh cancer awareness month
as well, which goes handinhand with mental health awareness. So, I just wanted to just kind of uh recognize the uh the gray ribbons. Um when it the uh resident that came up and spoke uh regarding the budget, I believe she
left. Uh you there I believe council president uh at the last meeting or the previous meeting really went into detail the differences between the the school budget and the the municipal budget and what the role of the board of school
estimates really is. So, I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail, but yes, the the board of education is appointed by the mayor and I believe the previous uh the current makeup of the board that approved an 8% budget. Um, you know, the
majority of that that board is made up of the, you know, the the previous mayor's appointments. Um so with the two new appointments hopefully with those joining the the board for next year uh
will encourage more transparency and more detail uh that that is in that budget. Uh, I think we all can agree the fact that there's no possible way that we could as a board of school estimates that makes up almost 50% of
the municipal budget could possibly approve an 8% school budget. Yes, money towards our schools and funding our schools is primary. It is one of the most important things that we need to do. But we also have to be responsible
um going through, you know, the budget process for the board of school estimates and comparing it to the actual budget process that we had to go through from a municipal standpoint to me was app, you know, comparing apples and oranges. Uh this was weeks and weeks and
weeks versus trying to get information from the board from the board of ed. I I I have to be honest with you. I I I'm not even sure that the entire board of education knew what was in the budget. Um I I really would like to sit down
with the the board of ed members and find out what what they knew and what they didn't know. Um by approving an 8% budget was just to me, you know, unrealistic. So, what I'm my plan is as
a parent, I'm going to continue to go to the board of school as board of school meetings and I'm going to continue asking questions about their budget process. Uh because I think it's important for it to be as transparent as the municipal budget is. And um so that
that's my plan. And ah there was something else I wanted to say but I forgot. I was you I I got you know mental health awareness month. It is mental health awareness month and I was I was condemning commending you know I mean I Yeah.
What? Yes. Um were you going to remind Jamal and Mike that we still haven't seen their videos? Well, that's why that's why I was commending those who actually did it. I thought you were condemning. You
were condemning and condemning those who did not. That's where I was going. Thank you, Councilman Pilowski, for for pointing that out. Um, I I think that was it. Um, thank you very much. And, uh, again,
I I I do want to say what a great job Miss Baldwin did on on the budget. I know that you spent way more hours than we did and many long nights and many weekends putting this together and you you actually really deserve a an
applause for that because you did a fantastic job. [Applause] Other comments from council? Yes, Councilwoman Hamlet. Uh thank you, Council President McTurnan. You know, I wasn't going to read this email at the
last meeting and last meeting because I thought it would die down. But sometimes you just have to for for matter of educating the public and informing the truth of the matters around the school board estimate why I told the resident up here to Oprah the
uh document. It certainly wasn't because I was tired or because I didn't want to give her the information. Um I want to read an email that I sent to the actual state department of education. Uh this is back in March. I said, "To whom it may concern at the Department of Education, would it be possible, because
I didn't have it at the time, to obtain a copy of the school budget submitted from the Summit Board of Education? I believe this is a public document as it was submitted yesterday, and I was hoping to review the details as I am on the School of Board estimate. Thank you, Councilwoman Deia
Hamlet." So, I open up my email couple days later, day later. Let me look. Good morning, Councilwoman Hamlet. Please be advised that you may obtain a copy of the school budget submitted from the Summit Board of Education by filing
an OPER request through https www.nj.gov/education/opra. So for matter of public record, it's certainly not because I didn't want to give her the information. It was because I was also informed by our city solicitor that I was not to pass the document because the board of education still hadn't passed
the document. it's not my job to pass a document that wasn't even given to us as a public document. So, just to clear up that record. Um, another thing I would like to clear up and I'll go back to the minutes from the meeting because I don't have the exact words. Um, but they will probably
be approved at the next board of education meeting in which I will attend. And the superintendent was very clear around summer school that we were not cutting or the board of education was not cutting summer school that they children would still be able to have
summer school and it would be through a different mechanism. So we can get the exact minutes from that meeting but I just wanted to correct that uh information as well. and couple of other items. Had a great meeting yesterday with Debbie Anne Anderson, uh,
who is the director of human services and county manager, uh, as well as, um, uh, and her name is escaping me right now from the uh, from the COC, but we had a great meeting. One of the things that the homeless task force is trying
to proactively look at is looking at how to improve our code blue uh, for next year, how we can help, if we can get involved. um what the expectations are, also how we can improve conditions at the Salvation Army. Uh I know our director of uh our homeless task force, Leah Griffith, uh went on some tours
today that I wasn't able to go on, but we're really trying to think uh forward about our code blue, about our shelters, about our shelter availability. Um one thing that they were very clear, and I think Debbie Anderson is probably one of the most wellrespected uh ladies in the
county. Um, and I said, you know, we give a lot of tax money to Union County. And I said, let's let's start educating the public on what we actually get from that money because a lot of times I hear we don't get anything from the county. Well, when it comes to human services, we really do. There are there is a lot available. Um, we're actually going to
get physical copies of what they do provide for our taxpayers. Uh, whether it's social work, uh, health, mental addiction services. Um, there are so many options for our residents. and I was proud to be on that call yesterday because I think it is uh she want she
runs one of the best uh programs in Union County I think so uh a lot of credit is given to her um as well as the COC for um just giving us lots of ideas on how we can help our residents. So just wanted to give you that information and I think that was about it. Um, the
only other question or comment I'll make is uh regarding Director Shreger, Council President, just a reminder, we're going to get him on the June schedule to give the residents an overview of the projects. So, if I forget, um, I think that would be helpful for the community to know which roads are getting paved, um, micropaved,
etc., and you can ask him your questions. So, maybe first or second week in June. Second week. So, that was it. But thank you again, uh, for all your hard work on on the budget. And Chief, thank you for all your work with with Lon this week. It was very emotional and uh thanks for bringing the community together. It's nice to see
what summit's all about. Thank you. Uh other comments, Councilwoman Camelson. Thank you, Council President. Um I had a question for Councilwoman. Um sorry, I almost said my own name, ma'am. And by the way, we had the best
time at the AAPI event. And um we still have some pink in our hair. So we have to tell David it is not washable. We still have pink in our hair. But um because you brought up summer school, I had a question because I've heard a lot of like rumors swirling too. So I didn't know if you could um help clarify
something. What is the different mechanism that is going to be available to people? Do you know for summer school? Like is I don't want to speak out of turn, but I what Scott mentioned to me that it would be online. Uh I don't know how the how he's planning on doing it, but one of the questions I asked was I'm seeing it all over social
media. Are we cutting summer school? And he said, Dillia, we're not cutting summer school. children who need summer school will be able to get summer school. We found a different way to do it. Um I don't I'm not on the board of ed so I don't know but I I have a meeting we have a meeting with him on Thursday I think. I think is it this
Thursday? A week from um but I can certainly tell him or ask him to um educate the community or the the school board on that. Okay. Thank you. It's a good question. Thank you. Other comments? I'll uh just wrap it up. Um,
so thanks for everyone who came out and spoke today and and um got through the budget, which is awesome. Um, I'm just going to again address this school thing and um, you know, the the fact that uh,
Councilwoman Camelson asked a very good question. The the problem with this is, you know, there's been so much disinformation around the school budget. Sadly, I think for political reasons, just going to throw it out
there, um that it confuses people. It confuses someone up on here on council around who to go to, where this should be. This should be done at the board of ed level. That's who decides these things. Despite this effort to try and
link people up here for making micro decisions about the school budget, we don't do that. And all your people who continue to bring this up are just confusing residents. They have a tough enough time
figuring life out. It's difficult without confusing them even more. So, please stop. It's not fair to them. If you have questions about transparency on how the school budget should work, circle your
calendar and go to a board of ed meeting. They control that process. Someone who's out there and is involved in the community should know that. I can't tell you how to run they're going to run a their budget
process. They are a legal entity. They're appointed by the mayor. They have their own rules. They make their own rules. If you want to change it, go talk to them. I'm super psyched that we have two new board of ed members. We needed change on that board
because I will agree with um the speaker. It does need to be fixed. It does. But it's the board of ed that'll do that with comments from the public to make it better. And I would encourage
everybody to focus their efforts to actually do something rather than coming up here and talking to us when we have nothing to do with that. And and uh and we can have shorter meetings too. Um but uh that is my
comment. And with that I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. Okay. Do we have a second president? Oh I'm sorry. Please. Yes. Just two things real quick. Um on behalf of the Melon family and fire department very humbled um the outpouring of
support that this governing body gave us the police department not only on the funeral but events leading up to it and the neighboring town support us. I think it's a very well acknowledged tribute Jalon and his third years of service to the fire department. Secondly, I want to thank this council for including staffing in this year's budget. I know
it's been a big topic for years. I respect the fact that this council held our feet to the fire, no pun intended, on justifying our cause and just not saying we need staffing. So, I think we did a good job justifying it and ultimately it'll make our jobs more efficient, make our fire department safer to ultimately increases public safety. So, thank you very much for
increasing um or supporting the staffing in our budget this year. Thank you. Thank you. Good comments, Chief. All right. Now, uh do we have a motion to adjourn? Yes. I have a second. I'll second. Okay, we are journ. Thank you, everyone.