e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e welcome everyone to our first council meeting of March I'd just like to uh wish everyone a very happy Fat Tuesday or Marty gr depending on your persuasion
my guess is if you're watching this you're not having a really fun Marty grow but uh but welcome um so with that um Madame clerk would you please read the 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 advise that fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a lisiting system to assist the hearing
impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain the system at the deis and return it thereafter thank you very very much um roll call please Mr Boer presid Miss Hamlet here miss cmon here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here M to here
president MC president okay um uh at this time I'd like to call on if they would like to do this uh John and Jim tolv to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance father and son 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 gentlemen all right um Madame clerk would you please read the explanatory
notes regarding closed session and hearings and comments a closed session meeting is 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 the council meetings are
broadcast live on Comcast channels 36 and 34 and Verizon channels 30 and 33 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak
please come to the Lecter 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 her 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 3 minutes unless you're 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
very much uh do I have a motion now to approve the regular and closed session meeting minutes of February 19th 2025 so moved second all in favor I I
opposed motion carries all right we're on to our uh report section of our meeting and we'll start off as usual with the mayor's report Madame mayor thank you council president good evening everyone um if you don't have plans this Friday I encourage you to join join us
at the rec center for the roller skating party in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the rec center it's a great way to get active and enjoy time with family and friends and you can sign up through the Department of Community programs website I'd also like to remind Summit Juniors and seniors in high
school about the March 7th deadline for the essay contest hosted by the New Jersey League of municipalities it's a fantastic opportunity to participate in a Statewide competition and all you need to do is fill out the application and write an essay on what I like about my hometown which seems to me like an easy
topic um there will be three winners across the state each receiving a ,000 scholarship and all participants will receive a certificate if you haven't applied yet please do so and let's make sure Summit is well represented essays are due in my office by March 7th
applications are now open for the summit Police Department's Youth Academy which offers a wonderful opportunity for our young residents to learn about law enforcement and Community engagement and they have a really cool lineup of activities planned I got to attend many of them last summer um I think the walls
sit competition was probably my favorite down at the police academy in Scotch Plains um so I encourage you to check out the summit Police Department website for more details including the video that highlights just how engaging this program is um and finally I know crime and safety are top of Mind in the
community for many residents and I'd like to address that concern so to Pro provide a more detailed update I would like to call on our Summit police chief Steve zagori to come and take the floor thank you good evening I just wanted to say a few words about a recent incident uh
that has understandably caused concern within our community a little more than a week ago um on on a Friday um early morning on a Friday on February 21st a home in West Summit um on Greenbrier Drive was broken into while the residents were home and
asleep two of the suspects entered the home through a garage using a garage door opener found in one of the vehicles that was parked outside the suspects remained in the house for a few minutes they um stole some bags some items and they also located the uh key fob to one of the
vehicles that was uh parked out in the driveway they exited um one of the suspects got into a waiting vehicle and the other suspect got into the homeowner's vehicle and drove it away now when someone breaks into a home I've been over this a lot of times uh when
someone breaks into an OCC occupied home it's way more than just a crime it's a violation of the sense in security that everybody deserves and what made this even more upset uh unsettling is uh when we were doing our investigation and looking at our surveillance video of this incident
was going down we saw one of the suspects uh was armed with a handgun um going into the residence this this is unacceptable uh we take it uh in some Police Department we take it very personal when a member of our community is put in
danger and if I'm being honest um something like this it just pisses us off um I don't know what else to say uh and know this uh you know we have and will continue to dedicate all the available resources to identifying and catching these suspects and to keeping
uh the community safe our detectives um since and since didn't have been working tirelessly uh working this case following up leads and coordinating with New Jersey State Police task force the uni County Sheriff's Office um crime scene unit and uni County prosecutor's
office uh the safety of our community members remains our highest priority over the past three years we have put together an operation plan that we've been utilizing um to combat uh these types of incidents that have been pretty uh successful over
the last uh three years without going into too much detail here are some of the things that we've been doing and some of the things that we've been doing since this incident um we constantly um evaluate uh this operations plan that we're using uh tweaking it adding to it
and um and what do you call it uh and uh removing anything that's you know no longer uh you know helpful uh basically we're do we're doing data driven high visibility preventative patrols okay U we're doing covert undercover surveillance and decoy
operations we use um additional Resources with overtime uh We've bring additional resources in and we've um formed um basically Our Own auto theft task force um that when we bring them in uh using um uh just uh data driven
material we target specific areas specific times with these uh Resources with these um with this resources that we've been using this um this this task force that we've calling it um just recently after this incident um we were out there and on I believe was um around Fernwood Avenue early
morning hours they interrupted um two individuals that were trying to break into a car um they engaged him in a motor vehicle suit um chased them out of town and um we had to break it off though however but uh again you know throughout the the last uh few years we've been successful using this um this
type of method also too along with this uh task force thorough follow-up investigations which often lead our detectives out of town into Essex County cities which are often the launching pad for the uh car thefts and a return spot uh to cool off
uh stolen cars when I say that um when these vehicles are stolen A lot of times the thieves will take them into a specific area or detectives in a um they know these areas through their experience um for example and they parked a vehicle when they call cooling off spot they park it there for maybe a
few hours a day or so to see if if any tracks any police and if not they'll you know go back to that car and they may uh you know take it to the port where they'll ship it out um for example um just recently um before this one incident on Green Brier this um our
detectives and some of the members of our task force they um followed a stolen vehicle stolen Range Rover um to Elizabeth City of Elizabeth and they um located the uh vehicle parked with five individuals in it they were able to sur
the vehicle and apprehend for the individual one got away but this is all while they're you know uh we'll follow them as far as they go out of town wherever they go we're going to you know follow up with this in this most recent incident that that was on Greenbrier um
we located the vehicle that they stole fairly quickly and um our detectives and members of the task force and with assistant of the State Police we sted out this vehicle for almost like 16 hours and tamy you could have tested that cuz I think you saw some of the overtime that came in on that but just
to give an idea of the length that we will go uh you know to combating this um this problem and um I just want to remind everybody again we you know in December we talked about uh you know how um we've been reducing a lot of these car thefts
and these burglaries but uh you know I CAU that you know even though we've been had a lot of success and and we're doing a good job and the community is doing a good job in um preventing these things that there're they're still going to happen we're still going to you know it's still going to find its way into our community so I remind the community
to remain VI Vigilant as always and to continue to use um common sense um crime prevention uh te uh you know methods as far as locking your vehicle removing your key fob in this case uh it might be helpful to even you know I know it could be daunting but to uh take your um
garage door opener out of your vehicle or put it you know at a sight because in this case that's how um uh this particular Resident was entered also too I would encourage members of the public to you know to stay informed we send put out a lot of
information we put out um uh you know alerts uh when these things happen and I encourage every to our resident to sign up for our nixel and to to our um uh go on to our website sign up for nixel and our alerts and also to take
advantage of um some of the programs that we have for the residents where you could register your ring camera with us now that doesn't mean that we monitor it we just when you when I say register I mean that we know who has their ring cameras so when we have a crime in a particular area we have a list of people that we can go through right away as
opposed to you know doing a random canvas and and and trying to find out this information also too uh I would recommend to our residents to take advantage of our um uh newly um instituted uh crime prevention where we
uh do a home assessment of of your residence that's it thank you chief anybody have any questions for chief before I jump in I know we spoke about this mayor um one of the residents had made a good suggestion about is there any way to send just a constant text
campaign for residents to lock their cars you know just I don't know if that's it's something we can do people ignore our texts already so we did talk about this and actually I'm glad you brought it up we sort of T we discussed it and I think the answer is the more texts you get from
the police department eventually they kind of become white noise and so to to remind people like somebody suggested the old 1990s 1980s probably I'm dating myself um it's 10 o' Do You Know Where Your Children Are campaign um so to do something like that to remind
people to lock their doors but I'm going to take this opportunity to remind people to lock their doors and arm their alarms at night I just think it's it's a lot of the unfortunately I mean I have a 17-year-old they're in and out they're in and out and I'm you know constantly just it's not even the adults but the you know maybe the uh Board of Ed can put out a statement uh just reminding
the kids daily like go home lock your cars go home lock your cars I don't know I mean just a suggestion I have a better suggestion see this device that everybody has make an alarm on it personally and remind yourself I mean that's the easy it's probably safer and easier you
probably won't ignore your own alarm yeah um and I also want to say thank you to the police department for really stepping up and and you know doing great detective work and great um strol work um especially in this this last week um
but always um and I want to make a plug for something that Chief mentioned which is the home security assessment which I actually did I can't believe it took me as long as it did to sign up for it but I it was super easy sent an email and officer kegga came out to my house and
the first thing on my list well I can't tell you don't want you to know my weaknesses but um but yeah it's a it's a great service it's free um we have several officers I think six officers Chief is that right that are certified to do then they've actually taken a class to
certify on how to identify um weaknesses in in your security uh security of your residents so and while I got everyone's attention and the Public's attention if I could just also remind the public um you know when you're home at night if you have an alarm system to arm that
alarm system even if if everybody's in the house no one else is coming in and out I would you're watching TV arm it um so and also too um go for bit if you are you know late at night and you're sleeping and your alarm goes off a lot of times you know you thinking Call The
Alarm Company what is that is it a mistake I I really encourage everybody if your alarm goes off at night first call should be 911 we'll be there in seconds um we'll worry about if it's um a false alarm later on and um I think we
mentioned this when we did our um our Facebook presentation last year but um if you do call us up and it's a false alarm we're not going to um uh we're not going to usually get Bill for false alarms but we're encouraging you to call every time your alarm goes off when you're home um because we had a couple
incidents uh last year uh we were seconds away from a house that was uh being broken into uh once we got the call we were there I believe it was 37 seconds but the call didn't come in you know uh it it took a couple minutes for the call to come in if the Call Comes In Fast um because we're doing these
patrols we're in the residential area we're right there and again I know this is unsettling but we're here for you um we're seconds away so okay thank you Chief I I had one just one quick comment Chief I I I want to thank you for your leadership I know
when that story came out that was very unsettling and scary to a lot of residents I really appreciated the statement that you made I think it was measured it was informative um and it certainly calmed me down I know that you
were in charge and and we're on top of it so so I think that type of communication was fantastic and and I wanted to thank you for your your leadership there so thank you you're welcome council president yes no I had to say something um I I I I second that
and chief just hearing your voice right now um I Know It's upsetting and it means a lot to you to protect this town it's almost like your baby right I know how you feel about it um and that that all of us yeah all of us and and that
mess message that you put out was was heartwarming I felt it you know um thank you for deploying the auto theft task force uh thank you for the other initiatives that you did you know putting the Drone up in the air and everything else um but I want to remind
the public that uh was something that our coach told us when we were playing football is remember the mission when we first started this together for Summit team when we first elected uh we we put out there that we
wanted to hire four more officers right based on the the chief's memo and the reasons why uh this task force was deployed but these officers they came on the weekends they were with their families uh we we had to pull them away
from things you know some of these things are not sustainable and I want to remind the public why we are still looking to hire two more officers because the truth of the matter is is while other towns
invest in law enforcement criminals seek areas where there's weaker deterrence and we don't want Summit to become a Target due to lack of resources so we have to maintain our vigilance here at
Council and we and there's a must that we give the police officers the resources that they need to protect our town thank you thank you chief anything else Madame mayor no sir thank
you all right um moving on to our city administrator report uh Miss Bal thank you council president i' I'd like to start with a reminder that applications for the Hometown Heroes Banners are due by March 31st this program honors our local
veterans by displaying their photos on banners throughout Summit if you know a veteran who should be recognized in this way please be sure to submit their application before the deadline uh next I want to highlight the upcoming Summit free market events the
March events will take place on Saturday March 8th and Friday March 28th these are great opportunities to declutter recycle and give items a second life so please check the W City website for more details on drop off times and
locations and finally Earth Day is right around the corner and we will be hosting our annual Earth a cleanup on Saturday March 29th that's from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Bryant Park and Martins Brook Park this is a wonderful way to
contribute to our community and to help keep Summit looking beautiful we encourage all residents to get involved and participate in this important event and more information is available on the city website thank you very much fantastic thank you um all right I've
got a couple things I will have two things but first my first thing I'm going to to uh allow our uh councilwoman Hamlet our uh president protemp who's got wants to take over quickly for a
part of the uh Council president's um uh report uh thank you council president so uh every day I get multiple calls from residents um all day every day which I love hearing from all of you um but one resident specifically calls me every day
to remind me that there are ebike um ebikes on the street all the time and no one's wearing any helmets so this is my Public Safety announcement for everyone everyone wants to put on your helmet you can but um in all seriousness um my someone very close in my family almost
died because of a head injury a traumatic brain injury and luckily uh our fine mayor saved his life uh and Overlook um so I am very serious about helmets uh true story very true story it was just a couple years ago um you know you don't really think that it can happen to you um I see parents with kids
who are 2 years old four years old on scooters without helmets and I literally just want to stop them and chief zagorski I'm sure you you watch them all day long as well um one of my ideas recently has been um we work with a company a nonprofit called Avenues in
motion they come out once or twice a year and they do all the helmet checks uh I've reached out to them because they donate a lot of helmets and chief I'm not sure if this would be an idea that we could implement or not but I know that you're um forced is is often tasked with a lot of responsibilities so you
know you don't have the chance to write a ticket for a helmet all the time um I was if they if we get enough donations for helmets I was going to have some kept here at City Hall or maybe in your police cars if you know we see somebody without a helmet we can just give them a helmet I'm up for all the ideas but I
just think we really need to be um proactive J would you put your um your helmet on I snowboard every weekend and I wear a helmet okay all the time my head is like want recovering really wored um but in all in all seriousness I think it's something
that we should all take very seriously please um you know uh mayor did a video a couple weeks ago maybe we can recirculate that and maybe we can all pledge to circulate that as well so thanks for giving me the air time with my helmet I'm going to wear it for the rest of the me no super important uh safety uh is Paramount and especially
little kids I I know I sometimes get on my bike without a helmet and it's it's very silly and not very intelligent to do um all right uh my second part uh my report is for those who missed it we had
I want to thank Madam mayor um councilman Smallwood and uh councilwoman Hamlet they sat in on board of school estimate meeting yesterday um uh this is was the first cut of the school budget
for those listening um we are in the process of our budget and I know Tammy is working super super hard uh on that um interesting fact though this the city budget is only low 20% of your entire
property tax bill so I love the fact that people come here they care about the budget there people send Flyers out about the budget there's all sorts of uh excitement about the budget and and people should be care about it we want
to um provide a budget that um reflects our priorities but also understands that New Jersey is an expensive place and we want to uh be focused on affordability um I mention this is because the school
budget is over 50% of your property tax bill it's much bigger than the uh the city budget and they announced last night at if for those who didn't tune in that their initial cut on their uh their budg would
look to increase their portion of your property tax by 8.86% that's a big number the cap is two we G to we're fighting really hard around that number um it's I get it it's not hard and I want to thank the Board
of Ed and the professionals there it is not easy to deliver uh budgets in this type of environment where there's been a lot of inflation we didn't cause inflation we are living with inflation over the last several years um but I
would hope that numbers like that would get people engaged in the process you need to make your voices heard okay so um the next Board of school estimate meeting is uh Thursday March
27th I think is that right yeah um at the Wilson Primary Center so keep your eyes out um for announcement about that meeting and that is my report okay um at this time we're going to go on to our historical minute councilman
palowski so I'm going to hand this off to councilwoman to who has a presentation uh in honor of um women's history women's History Month sorry okay thank you council member
palowski so March is women's history month and in fact Saturday is international women's day which is sort of the app of the month um and Summit rightly touts its strong history of volunteerism for that you can thank the
women um this is a brief rundown of some of the organizations that make Summit strong and the women who created them and I know I've left so many so many great organizations out so please let me know what I missed um starting in
1897 before Summit was incorporated as a city Violet Johnson a domestic servant moved to Summit with her employers she was one of fewer than 100 black residents in a community of 6000 and there was no place for her to worship
Miss Johnson was the driving force behind what is now Fountain Baptist Church a thriving congregation on Glenside Avenue Betty Adams who until recently lived for a long time in Summit wrote the story of violet Johnson and others in black women's Christian
activism it's avail able at the library fast forward almost 60 years to 1954 the women of the Junior League saw a need for safe affordable highquality child care they founded what is now the
learning circle part of the summit area Y and today it serves 200 children with subsidies for many families who could not otherwise afford the tuition and two years later the women of the summit College Club realized that
new mothers needed help at home what began as a housekeeping and nursing service quickly became Sage elder care located on Broad Street and today Sage delivers Meals on Wheels for Summit and other area communities it hosts a
medical Adult Day Center largely for for folks with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's it provides home health care services and so much more Sage enables many of our most vulnerable seniors to age in their own homes
in 1975 Kathleen diara realized members of The Summit Community were food insecure she started by Distributing food from the back of her station wagon and today we have the Community Food Bank of New Jersey Bonnie Morrison who's sitting in the audience detailed
Kathleen's story last month so I won't repeat it here not too many years later Karen Olen then a busy advertising executive bought a sandwich for a homeless woman in Man Manhattan That Grew into Family Promise
the country's largest organization battling family homelessness with the 67% long-term success rate in housing families then more recently Amanda BL with support from the Junior League again founded Grace to provide nutrient
dense fresh food and much more to any Summit resident who needs the assistant Summit has named Grace a program of the city and 10th anniversary is next year I hope we'll all celebrate but wait there's more I
haven't even mentioned the connection the fortnightly and Junior fortnightly the Women's Resource Center the Christ child society and many other amazing women founded organizations right here in Summit the bottom line is that when
you come across a nonprofit organization in Summit you can probably thank a woman thank you all awesome thank you very much uh councilwoman to um all right uh at this stage we're going to move along to our we have a couple of uh ordinances for
introduction today um U Madam clerk will you please read ordinance for introduction from the finance committee ID number 11791 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap
Bank councilwoman to thank you council president president um I'll go into more detail about this ordinance in a couple of weeks when we have the hearing um but three points right now one is this an this is an ordinance we do every year it
is fairly routine um second although we're talking about lifting limits this is not an ordinance that is going to allow some the city to raise your property taxes by more than the statutory
2% um what it does is set aside some excess spending power not taxing power in the case of an emergency um like a natural disaster or something and we'll we'll um discuss it more in a couple of weeks but I move
this ordinance for introduction I second all right um roll call please Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president McAn I
motion carries all right Madam clerk will you please read the ordinance for introduction from the law and labor committee an ordinance of the city of Summit County of Union establishing an electric and or natural gas aggregation program councilman
palowski thank you this is ID number 11 1805 uh this ordinance authorizes the city of summit to participate in the governmental energy aggravation aggregation
program um adoption uh and and we had a a presentation on this previously um thanks to councilman Smallwood um who uh is is working on this as well um adoption will allow the city to enter into agreements with
Concord uh commercial utility consultants for energy Consulting jcpnl for local distribution and the Cooperative pricing uh agreement officially adding summit as a participating member to be included in
the upcoming uh auction Council must adopt this ordinance at the uh March 18th meeting and file all necessary paperwork by April 1st this ordinance in no way commits the city of summit to the program but it will allow the
Consultants from Concord to search for a co-op that Summit could join and give us an estimate ated potential savings I move this ordinance for uh introduction I
second uh thank you um roll call please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president m i all right moving right along we've got a few resolutions to get
through this evening the first set is from Community programs and Parking Services councilman Smallwood number one please uh do you read that or what's that it's a resolution resolution never
mind that's all you uh thank you council president this is a resolution ID number 11810 uh this is to appoint tatlock neighborhood committee members uh based on the uh tatlock Community meetings that we H held last year as well as the
um the meeting that the council president and mayor held in January uh with the tatlock community and out of all of those meetings it was determined that you know whether lights went in or not there are some issues surrounding
the tatlock fields uh whether it's you know crosswalks sidewalks parking as well as uh traffic so the purpose of this tatlock neighborhood committee is to address some of those issues and then
come back to uh the Safety Committee or the Department of Community Services with their recommendations uh so with that I would like to congratulate thank you for all of the uh residents who applied and I would like to congratulate Joselyn
Modesto Alex go Marian Longo and Katie isovic uh who will be serving on the committee along with uh councilwoman uh cmon councilman palowski as well as councilwoman Hamlet uh so we hope to um
hear back from them about some really good recommendations uh that we can we can Implement at the the tatlock around the tatlock neighborhood surrounding the uh investors field in Upper tlock I move
to approve this resolution second awesome um at this stage are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this resolution all right members from Council all right uh all in favor hi
opposed motion carries all right Community programs and Parking Services number two councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is ID number 11796 to declare a vacancy in the Department of Community programs uh this is kind of Bittersweet uh resolution
because uh a few uh I would say probably a few months ago up until recently uh you may everyone may know him as nollie uh has uh accepted a position uh on a Wall Street firm to further his
career and it it's bittersweet because uh noie deserves everything and every opportunity that he can get because he's such a wonderful person and has such a connection with uh our not only the the parents but the the
students and the the athletes that he worked with on our youth programs he was absolutely uh Irreplaceable and the past couple of weeks or months actually we've been you know kind of pacem mailing it together and there are several of our Department of Community program
employees who've been kind of filling his position uh and now we're uh actually gotten to the point where we need a full-time person to to fill his spot nobody will ever replace nollie but uh we're we're hopeful that we will find
someone uh just as extraordinary as nll so I move to approve this resolution second all right comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I opposed all right
motion carries uh capital projects and Community Services number one councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you council president one second here sorry looking at something else here uh can I bundle
uh75 11775 and 11776 the first two yes uh please do thank you uh okay so these resolutions uh will authorize the 2025 consultant
engineer Services of both Boswell and cers each not to exceed 100,00 uh the engineering division hires Professional Engineers uh from time to time for capital projects as needed uh in November the division received 10 responses to a publicly advertised request for qualifications uh all
responses were reviewed by the qpa and the capital projects and Community Services committee um obviously many of these firms have different strengths in different areas um our uh director shreer this will allow him to have some more flexibility within his uh engineering Outsourcing and I would like
to move uh move to approve this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all right uh all in favor I
opposed all right both those resolutions pass uh capital projects and Community Services number three councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president okay this is resolution uh 11779 I apologize my planning board
braing and my Council brain are looking at this easement and I'm just double-checking that it was the right thing um this resolution uh again 11779 this is the um owner of two Park View Terrace submits an application to the city's planning board to subdivide
their lot during that process it was discovered that an existing sanitary sewer line traversed the property but a formal sewer uh but no formal sewer easement exists uh the department requested one be created and it was included U memorializing the resolution for this project
and additionally the lot subdivision requires new Deeds to be prepared for the individual Lots which need to be signed by the mayor at this time the easen and deeds have been reviewed by the department and we find them all to be acceptable so I would like to move this resolution for approval and I
believe mayor this is the one we had at the planning board last weekend so we'll be extending this one at the planning board right yes do I have a second second comments from the public uh comments from Council just want to note that the planning board unanimously
voted for this as well so thank you all right any other comments all in favor I opposed motion carries all right um capital projects number four
councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president just give me one second I'm scrolling through here because I don't have my paper copy of my uh agenda I AP apologize give me one second uh this is resolution 11803 authorizing the Grant
application submission for the 2025 sustainable Jersey grants program and psng uh foundation and let me just pull up the grant real quick I apologize do you have it on your I apologize sorry sorry sorry okay here we go I got
it sorry about that uh okay so through the sustainable Jersey grants program sustainable Jersey and PG Foundation provide funding to support efforts to implement projects that help municipalities gain points needed for sustainable Jersey certification and make progress toward a sustainable
future uh funding these projects that serve as a practical and Innovative models for the rest of the state and make measurable contributions toward the long-term goal of a sustainable in New Jersey uh eligible expenses include stiens consultant or contractor Services equipment training and education materials or related expensive project
supplies and promotional items the city of summit environmental commission is submitting an application to the 2025 sustainable Jersey grants program uh and this uh they're applying for a grant in the amount of $2,000 to assist further uh pursuing the city's plan to install a
solar array at the DPW facility at 41 chadam Road that will include both solar canopies which can can double as equipment storage for vehicles currently left in the elements and on top of roofs that meet the requirements for solar installation I would like to move this
resolution second comments from the public comments from Council just have one question council president uh director shager can you remind me the last one we received from sustainable Jersey if you remember if you don't don't worry like I can't remember yes for you council president I believe and I don't want to mix it up because
there's also a tiny Forest but it was to help with our environmental resources inventory which is currently underway I'm fairly certain that was the most recent sustainable Jersey Grant it's okay thank you other comments I guess I just have one question uh director shreer so um this
is a 2000 but I see we can also apply for a 10,000 or 20,000 is this the only spot that um the um environmental commission thought might be a good spot for so a solar array
yeah so this one we have in the works somewhat already because we we do know we do still have some equipment that we'd like to get uh under at least coverage from the the rain I mean while it's not fully enclosed um uh we are definitely we have some concept plans for canopies down there and we know that
there's a sanitary sewer building there that has a brand new roof so it has some candidates um other roofs might have some issues including City Hall I don't mean like bad ises just might not have uh the surface area might not have the strength or might be du for replacement
so this is kind of the easiest lift to apply for down there uh and like I said we're pursuing it now anyway so okay thank you I just want I just want to mention a little shout out to Donna gagan Patel who is our environmental commission chair and she has been working tirelessly on all of these
things and I think correct me if I'm wrong she is very much working on the inventory is that am I right about that absolutely yes yeah I just want to make sure we thank our volunteers and shees I agree with that as well because there's a lot of stuff that she's you know picked up that that we're not able to
get to and she's doing a great job fantastic okay um oh councilman small thank you council president um as you know and Aaron knows I'm a huge fan of solar and uh I've had very several
conversations with councilman palowski as well as councilwoman Hamlet and uh you know we reached out to a um consultant that looks at all of the the buildings municipal buildings as well as
schools to kind of give us a an idea of what buildings would be actually usable in terms of solar and they are presenting or they they are presenting a um suggestions on what is most utilized
buildings and spaces uh one of the things that they mentioned were the the parking a lot at the high school so it's something that I think we should also you know bring to the attention of the Board of Ed to help bring down some of their energy costs as well considering
the large budget that they presented last night so um you know the having an an aggregate it's the key word tonight aggregate right um having an an aggregate overview of all of our
municipal buildings and our and our schools uh I think at least AE presentation on what that would look like what it could cost and also entering into a power purchasing agreement uh which allows the the Solar
Company to come in and uh install and maintain solar on our buildings and in some cases would even replace roofs that may not be able to withstand the the solar currently uh but there are certain power purchasing agreements that will
actually replace the roofs for us uh so I think that's that's coming coming soon and uh you know I think um anything that's going to reduce our cost from an electrical from an energy standpoint um and as well as increase
the you know the environmental safety of our our city is is a positive thank you other comments councilman palowski um thank you I'd also like to add um you know when we look at any of these solar projects
projects another thing that Kevin and I learned is that um the solar companies are also equipped willing and able to install uh charging stations and given the uh increase in electric cars that we
have uh have seen and and we expect it to continue um it's an important infrastructure upgrade that we're going to need as a city um you know to kind of keep up with the times and to the extent that any one of these projects that we
uh that we engage in you know we can get five or 10 charging stations included as a part of it I think we should we should really do that okay other comments councilwoman Hamill question I guess now you have me thinking now uh council president
because what's the deadline for this grant um because I noticed even in the I know we can't apply for the Board of Ed but I don't remember seeing any um like what types of things Aon besides I just don't want to miss an opportunity here if there's something else because I
can always think of ways to get grants um and this is a pretty good one but I'm looking at it right now I guess we can talk about it afterwards all right we can talk about it later like March
21st okay all right take a look at it and committing and see if there's anything else we can think of yeah okay um all any other comments all in favor I opposed motion carries all right uh capital projects uh number five
councilman councilwoman ham thank you council president this is ID 11794 uh which will appoint as discussed in closed session uh due to the resignation of the city's Municipal housing leaon officer effect of February 21st is necessary to appoint a replacement per affordable housing
regulations which require that a Municipal Employee be assigned as a municipal housing liaison now therefore be res olved by the common Council of the city of summit that per the recommendation the sorry the recommendation is Augusto deaso the city's land use manager B he is hereby
appointed Municipal housing Lis on immed effective immediately I would like to move this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council councilman Boer council president I'd just like to say that uh I
previously didn't know Augusto I didn't work with him often uh until the Caps committee and um the work he's been doing has been outstanding and as an investigator as a manager of investigators um I had asked
him to look into something and I said I need an investigation report and what he uh what he provided was was uh out outstanding I was like Wow look look at this man you could have been one of my investigators it's great uh but he wears many hats and he's been efficient
productive um and uh and on point so I I fully uh support this thank you other comments councilwoman ham just uh two comments one I just like to thank the outgoing L use uh secretary Stephanie
sulos uh she did a lot of great years of work here within the city uh we rely on her at the planning board the zoning board um she's Fielding calls all day long and uh just obviously want to wish her her the best in her new Endeavor uh as for Augusto he is doing an amazing job J uh you are in good hands with him
as the municipal housing ladies on officer especially this year uh as we go through the fourth round of affordable housing uh we will also be um he's also working on uh the cross acceptance process with the state and the state
plan and uh he he's really an asset and we're really lucky to have him so so thank you and thank you uh director shreer and Tammy for mentoring him along and Rosie good comments um no I think it's uh super important obviously as
councilwoman Hamlet mentioned we're in the thick of it around uh ending round three of our uh Mount Laurel obligations and getting ready for round four so I'm super super excited to have austo on the team um he'll be a great asset to
shepher us through to a good conclusion for the city um all right uh with that all in favor I I opposed motion Carri okay um capital projects number six councilwoman Hamlet thank you council
president this is my last one 11795 as discussed in close session declaring a vacancy Department of Community Services the division of Public Works declaring a vacancy of the maintenance sewer unit maintenance worker uh pursuant to policy section 5-1
employment procedures recruitment a vacancy is hereby declared for the position of truck driver in the maintenance and Steward division of Public Works I would like to move this resolution second comments from the comments from the public please comments from
Council all in favor I opposed motion carries all right moving right along uh we have one Finance resolution councilwoman to um thank you council president this is resolution ID 11788 it is titled amend contract and
authorized additional fees payroll HR and time in attendance contract Prime Point um this this needs a bit of unpacking for almost 5 years now um we've contracted with prime Point sort of to manage the the the back end of our
payroll system for us um and for an additional $2 per new hire they will file the all of the reports that are required when we bring a new person on board so this resolution merely amends
the existing contract um to allow Prime point to do that additional filing up to $1,000 a year um if you're doing the math that would be 500 new employees a year and I
doubt our turnover is anywhere near 100% so so we're going to be paying significantly less than the full ,000 cap um but this this will certainly take a burden off of Megan
are our who runs HR for us so I move this resolution for adoption I second comments from the public comments from Council I just Council uh yes U councilman Boyer council president uh thank you um this
is a five-year contract for payroll services um and I know we've had conversations about um Contracting with different vendors and how we choose vendor end and the best price of vendors and things of that nature uh so we're
locked in here for 5 years well we're locked in here to September 30th the original um I mean that that that's that's the first extension contract so the we're we're in the extension period we're in
extension period okay so we're locked for one year gotcha so at the end of this one year to onee period we will be kind of looking for other vendors [Music] or yes uh business administrator B can't
answer that through you council president so yes this is um councilwoman to is correct this is the first extension that we're in of a potential 5-year contract with Professional Services we can go we award one year and then we have the option to extend for up
to four years each year renewed uh before Council um I would just caution I've gotten some uh tips and and tutelage from uh councilman Smallwood on um talking to Prime Point uh when this
contract expires but changing your pay we've had great service with Primo if we can reduce it um through some methods I will absolutely try that um changing payroll nhr is
Monumental um so I think it's something that we if I could respectfully request we avoid but get the best price that we can and continue with that service that would be my wish um but we of course will look at it and see where they're
pricing they're locked in at the prices they provided for each of those one-year extensions up to five years um we can always ask for some sort of reduction and see what we can do thank you other comments councilwoman
Hamlet uh yes so one question I have um for the city administrator if that's okay council president um having spent a previous lifetime working for ADP my one question um who was handling our wage garnishments before we were doing the new hire reporting through you council president
so the new higher reporting I I can't even tell you exactly why we do this it's this manual form that you have to report to New Jersey it doesn't have to do with the garnishment and the wages we handle all of that the uction through Prime point we actually cut the checks
and pay what we need to pay in terms of garnishments and any deductions I think that this new high reporting will take care of that wage garnishment for you no this new hire reporting is a a I'll show you it's a manual form that every time we hire an employee we have to send this
form to the state of New Jersey I'm not sure why I think it's because if they're not paying child support that's this Flags the system well we already put garnishments in the system on we we answer them you know I I would just say do you know Kevin yes
what I know about the new high reporting right but I just I thought that this handled the wage garnishments that's why I was just I'm surprised it doesn't it doesn't handle it it alerts the the the state that there is an existing garnishment order out there somewhere that makes sense thank you for clarifying okay um yep that's it that's
all I got any other comments yes councilman small so just to clarify it this just alerts so if someone has a a for example child support garnishment and they leave their company and they go to work for another
another company or the city of summit the new hire reporting is to alert the state that this person who has a child support garnishment now will alert okay our city administrator that hey we to pull x
amount of dollars out of their peray roll I have another question I'm sorry sorry so one of the things that we were speaking about as Michael Rogers was still here was um our HR System and City administrator can you just talk a little bit about um so when we break this down
for $60,000 that's the payroll processing we're using them for time and attendance correct for which departments we use them for time and attendance for who for this the city this DPW council president except for police and fire
there so my question is um this actually seems Prett reasonable if you're looking at HR do we have the most basic HR package because that's someone assuming we have um I remember Megan champney really talking about the need for a more robust HR System is that something that we're looking at in the budget this year
or that we've deemed that's not this year um and just from a from a Performance Management employee performance review I know it was important last year I just wanted to get your thoughts on if if that's something down the road or if we need it through you council president um so
we did look at um quite a few I wasn't extensively involved but before we would make a switch I would need to be um we looked at quite a few human resource very robust packages um the lowest pric one that we found was over
$200,000 um that is not feasible in this budget we do have a fairly basic uh we would like to fairly basic program with Primo um there are things that I believe Prime Point can do
um with our guidance and our assistance so I think we can make it more robust they're willing to customize and work with us they they have a great um government sector um so they they work really well with us will it be
everything that we dream it can be perhaps not uh but you have to balance the price of something and the cost of something and and what it actually delivers okay thank you so much other comments my one comment would be I'm shocked that
there's a manual form you have to send out to Trenton what a shocker wonder if they put it in a uh in an what is it assault mine shaft is that where half our government records are stored um in any event uh all in favor I
opposed motion carries all right last uh moving along law and Labor uh councilman palowski thank you this is resolution ID number 181 16 a resolution to support publishing legal notices on official
government websites uh currently we are required by law to publish uh notices on um in in print news newspapers and um as we all know we're we're living in a digital world and print news has become
a thing of the of the past so uh I think we this purpose of this resolution is to urge State leaders to pass legislation uh that will authorize municipalities to publish their legal notices on their local government official website I move
to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council well I'll note only that there have been I'm sorry off you go um that that this the the state
legislature has been I guess kicking this can down the road for a couple of months at a time G giving municipalities the the leeway to do electronic publishing and I think it was last week it got kicked down to the end
of June I saw that too so yeah so we have a little wiggle room here thank you other comments yeah media media is changing got to change with it um all right uh all in favor I I
opposed motion carries all right at this time do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented council president yes uh if we want to talk about a specific item do we need we just pull the one yeah or no we don't have to
pull it you can just talk about it when I ask for comments talk about okay I'll ask for comments you can talk about the one okay okay um so do I have a motion approve the consent second okay uh do I have any comments from the public on the consent agenda any item in
there all right comments from Council councilman Smallwood thank you um this is particular to uh resolution ID number 11797 to authorize uh execution of an annual lease agreement use of sidewalk and select restaurants um one of the
things that I've I I noticed last year and it seems like once the the sidewalk cafes start going out they're in regulation they have the right size because they you know as you can see in
the packet there's a schematic of where the tables are where the the fences are but as the summer goes along they seem to be moving you know closer and closer and there's a lot of times and I remember specifically winberries who's
asking for this extension now um you know there was literally you know 2 feet between their fence and a a tree well uh and I believe regulation is I believe four must be four feet um and the four
feet is minimum because we need to allow for our residents who are in wheelchairs to be able to pass through um some of the other you know places I noticed are on Union place where we have uh Cafe you
know cafes on the outside that that are but up against tree Wells so maybe this is a Miss Baldwin question do we have someone at City Hall that on periodically walk around town and to make sure people are restaurants are in
regulation compared to where they they're supposed to be through you council president I I might defer to Rosie um I believe that code enforcement would go out and look at that and I don't know how often they do but because you handle the sidewalk
license as you may know better than I um yeah the property maintenance U unit in Department of Community Services goes out I'm not sure how regularly but they do go out and check all the sidewalk cafes uh but if if there's anyone who
ever sees or has a concern about the lack of the four feed they should um they should contact they can contact the clerk's office and we'll file uh we'll notify Property Maintenance and they'll go out and take look look I'm just wondering if if there's
any way to you know put some sort of temporary marker right so that yeah you know the rest can Tru it out I don't I don't know but it's it's something to think about how we can help them I don't know that they do it intentionally things just
kind of drift sometimes and they don't realize that it is impeding on that 4ot pedestrian passageway so um maybe marking it out some way by the property maintenance uh unit could help right
okay it's just something I I think we need to be cognizant of um as the late spring early summer comes along because it just it seems to be impeding into you know the sidewalk even further and further thank you um Madam mayor I just
have a question and I I think I know the answer but I'm going to ask it anyway for the public um C click fix could used for this also it depends on how emergent it is if it's I me it's egregious that it's there's no passageway maybe a phone call is better but fair yeah thank
you other comments okay um all in favor of approving the consent agenda I opposed consent agenda passes okay uh that's it for our business section uh at
this time um we're going to open it up uh for any and all public comments uh this is time to uh uh make comments on things that were not on the agenda I just ask that if you do poly want to speak um give your name your address and
please um hold it to three minutes so everyone can uh have an opportunity to speak good evening my name is PJ angert I'm at 16 High Street tonight I'm here representing 44 co-authors of a petition supporting tlot like T excuse me tatlock
lights project we began circulating this petition late Sunday evening uh March 2nd I'm going to read our petition for you for a second and I'll share a copy with councel as well mayor Fagan council president McAn and members of the common Council of
Summit New Jersey we the undersigned urge you to proceed with the lighting of of the tatlock fields while making reasonable accommodations to alleviate neighborhood concerns regarding parking traffic and other issues that result from day and night activities at tatlock as testimony to the widespread
support for this project uh in less than uh 48 hours we have over 800 signatures already at this point uh we plan to provide the full list of the petition at the next council meeting um but we collectively urge Council to move
forward with this project um and thank you for your time and consideration thank you if you have a statement please leave it with the the clerk thank you hi I'm Ali Sternberg I forel drive um I wanted to speak out tonight against
the recent policy changes that have been made to the Broad Street Parking Garage for residents with parking permits I'm a parent of two children who will both be attending Summit Public Schools I also am a working mom who commutes 3 days a week to New York City via the Summit Train Station the Broad Street Garage is
the closest and easiest way to park near the train station in order to commute to the city it's also a very popular parking garage if you arrive at the garage after 8:15 a.m. it is almost certain you will need to park on the rooftop of the garage however recently the policy of the garage was changed that the rooftop is no longer available
to Residents with a permit it is only now available to non-residents who book a spot online residents are forced to either arrive at the garage prior to 815 a.m. or park on the rooftop of the tier garage or near the old fire station for parents of kindergarten and elementary school children School drop
off is not until 8:05 a.m. at the earliest what this means is that is nearly it is nearly impossible to drop your child off at school and make it to the Broad Street Parking Garage by 8:15 a.m. now that Resident spots have now been reott to non-residents only we are now out of luck and unable to park there
I know the argument here is that residents also have the option to park near the old fire station or the top tier of the tier garage I would argue that this is not a proper solution for a few reasons one if you are dropping your child at school and trying to make a train time you don't have the time to check in three different locations in
order to find a spot two both options are significantly farther from the train station making the ability to catch a train even less likely and three I would not feel comfortable nor safe walking alone to these locations particularly in the winter when it gets dark early especially in the scenario of having to walk to the second level of the tier
garage what I find most disconcerting about this situation is that residents who are taxpaying citizens and pay for a parking permit are being put in this difficult situation in order to allot more spots to non-residents this doesn't feel right nor fair if the goal is to find more spots for non-residents I would propose letting them park on the
second level of the tier garage and reopening the Broad Street Garage rooftop to Residents Summit is a town known for being accessible and easy to commute to New York City however this shift in policy is now making that significantly more difficult for residents particularly working parents and realistically working mothers I hope
you'll consider this plea and reopen the Broad Street Garage Rooftop in order to make the parking situation more accessible and fair for all residents great thank you thank you thank
you other comments from the public good evening I'm dear um Nar Court um and today as council president Mike murnan said is Fat Tuesday so I thought appropriate to wear a t-shirt to show my support for brave
people Ukraine uh who are wrongly being forced to give up for Lent the weapons they need to fight for their and our freedom I want to share a historical moment of my own the Tariff Act of 1930 better known
as a smooth Holly act aimed to protect us farmers and Industry from foreign competition by placing punitive tages punitive tariffs on over 20,000 foreign Goods the law triggered retaliatory tariffs more trading partners bringing global trade to your
standstill 2 years after this act became law the S&P 500 had fallen by almost 80% the US economy would not truly recover until the end of two massive Public Works projects namely land lease
and the Marshall Plan by sheer coincidence similar punitive damages were applied to our trading partners at the same night that the summit bard of school estimate released a budget draft so while Bourbon Street is a wash in
bees and debauchery here in Summit we're waking up to the reality that this will be a very difficult budget year your neighbors put their trust in all of you to steer this community Through times of economic uncertainty I wish to remind you that
preserving cash and liquidity as well as debt reductions a are critical tools of prudent financial management in times of economic upheaval I also encourage you to share as much information as possible with the general public ahead of time so we can understand the
tradeoffs in that context I would like to request some information when will the annual debt statements be posted to the website based on prior years it was likely prepared by January 30th and filed with the State honor about February
10th number two when and how can we access the final 2023 revenues and Appropriations for context last year's budget snapshot page 142 of the budget PDF available on the city website shows anticipated 2023 and 24 revenues and
Appropriations as well as realized 2023 revenues and Appropriations however it is my understanding that the city is allowed to roll some 2023 spending into 2024 so the 2023 numbers were a best estimate we now need the final
numbers and finally how do we get a final tally for which projects in the 2024 capital budget were executed and their final cost in closing the budget questions facing Summit are not what have we to
give up for Lent but rather how do we get a fiscally responsible budget that protects the quality of our schools and our public services without significantly raising taxes thank you I will email you email it to you because I make Corrections thank you
[Music] hello my name is Henry Bassman I live at 18 heartley Road um this year we had the first appreciable snowfall in several years and Public Works did a great job
uh clearing the roads and keeping them clear bring before the snow and clearing afterward uh but what I noticed when I came downtown is the streets were clear but there were snow Banks at the edge of
the street where it met the sidewalks and the places where the snow Banks were cleared were the crosswalks and the crosswalks are typically at the end of the street so if you parked in the middle of the street you either had to climb over the snow bank or walk in the
middle of the street to the corner and so I'm suggesting that in future years if we ever get snow again uh that an additional place be carved out from the snow bank so people don't have to walk down the whole street in the middle of
the street which can be dangerous at night especially and that's just my I spoke to Mr Trager about it before the meeting I'm sure he'll do something about it but I just wanted to communicate it to youall thank you thank you other public comments
no last chance all right I'm going to close the public comment section of our meeting and we'll uh now move on to council members comments and new business who would like to make a comment
well councilwoman toe well thank you um Mi Mr Ho um I think may have been reading my mind I did want to give Summit residents a bit of a up dat is to where things stand with the budget um and yes City administrator Baldwin is
busy compiling year-end reports and getting them filed and uploaded in addition to running the city in addition to putting the final touches on the 2025 budget um the governor gave his budget
address last year there are still numbers we're waiting on to plug into the operating portion of the budget and there's likely some hair cutting to do there um we'll we'll see
how little we C we can do um the capital budget we we had the presentation back in December sat down with the department heads Whitted it down and finance committee realized it needed some more
whittling um so we went back to the department heads and also to every member on Council asking them to rank priorities uh so that we so that the finance committee really could make the hard decisions and we've come to a
number that we think will satisfy the city's immediate needs and and meet our financial goals at the same time so we're just waiting for for City administrator Baldwin to to find
the extra six hours in a day to to finalize the budget in in a perfect world we introduce it in two weeks but don't hold your breath um and anything I said wrong please correct
me through you council president Mr hoik thank you for reminding me the ads will be posted tomorrow and everything was correct Council very good other comments from anyone from Council yes councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president uh
yes last night was the Board of Education meeting uh myself as well as uh as the council president said councilman Smallwood and the mayor sat on the school board estimate uh we had had several meetings with the superintendent and the business
administrator um however full transparency the school board estimate doesn't actually see all of the detail uh until the board of EDS sends their information to the state uh which is probably today and we'll see that in about 7 or 8 days so there is very limited time to uh go through that
information uh I certainly raised some concerns last night uh on behalf of the residents that I had some questions on the health insurance number uh the health insurance number uh we partner with 119 municipalities in the uh School
transportation the school health fund um which is about 119 municipalities and typically that rate's been 5% uh that rate jumped to about 10% . 28% so I asked the administrator to go back uh and speak to What's called the shift uh
to find out why uh that increase is coming back now to our residents without using some of that Reserve uh further we are lucky enough to have our esteemed attorney mat Yobe who represents lots of school boards so uh we will be making sure that uh we do all of the due diligence from the Schoolboard estimate
uh for the residents and the other two more updates um great job the homeless task force I believe they got one more house today uh so thanks for your leadership mayor um it's been a very emotional and and passionate time I
think we have almost everybody either rehabbed or housed that was in the overnight program uh the most recent one was is getting housed in Hoboken um we're going to give a report on my visit to La for the homeless task force uh it was a bipartisan task force uh with the
Maplewood Democratic councilman uh which was excellent we were there with DCA and um Monarch housing and we're going to hopefully bring Mike Callahan here Mike Callahan is responsible for giving us a lot of the rapid rehousing money uh that we were so lucky to uh house all of
those folks and the only other two things I have to say I uh heard from Congressman Cain today that he has had some conversations about the saltbrook he's going to be calling me tomorrow trying to get him him and our council president out there uh to look at that situation so I'll keep you informed and
then lastly um I can certainly empathize um with Miss Sternberg regarding uh the resident parking I actually brought it up at the council meeting because that was one of my concerns so councilman small I would just say let's take a look at that I believe we we opened up the 35
spots at the I can't remember with what we did there but I do agree with her that it is a really tight timeline for parents who are dropping off there and going to school and I do agree that probably not doesn't make a ton of sense to walk in the dark you know that late so I think we should take her question s
um you know seriously back to committee and just just take a look at that for her and finally I love getting all of your phone calls emails and I now the mayor is starting to train me because I um I will text her something and she will say C click fix and so I just you
know it's such a great tool it's actually one of our most effective things that you can do in the city if you see something wrong you just hit C click fix you hit parking sign you hit sidewalk and our amazing Augusto handles all of that stuff uh today there was was actually three polls down near Lincoln
hubard and I got so aggravated because I wasn't sure if they were Board of Ed or the city of summit so I actually just brought them in and then I get the mayor the text from mayor that says just see click fix and so she even reminds me but is it a wonderful tool and mayor maybe we can even have Jenny do like a quick tutorial or a Mondays with the mayor
because it's just it's our best tool and in caps it's just amazing I think that is oh and the other thing about the homeless task force uh the most recent veteran that was housed in Springfield we are looking to get him some job opportunities he already has
two uh so now not only will we got him housed but hopefully a job and sent him a blender today so he's super happy that's great thank you other comments uh councilman Boer council president I just want to make a comment
about black the black history event uh last week I thought it was phenomenal um got to play musical cheers with CLA to and she gave me a rundown on Soul music uh I think she knew a little more than me you know was like all right Claire um
but Rashad uh Wright uh the poet was amazing I mean he you know I hope that next year we get more more attendance I think the community would have really appreciated these Two Brothers From the Soul music
that call BR played was amazing I I wasn't expecting him to sing but he sung Marvin Gay and again the Poetry by Rashad Wright was was amazing um secondly uh I see these helmets today uh
soon you know our our helmet um ordinance resolution will be coming out of the Safety Committee I hope pretty soon um so that we can protect our our pedestrians from ebikes and and get people to wear our our children to wear
helmets uh secondly last week there was a uh Summit Housing Authority meeting they will be meeting with one of our advisers very soon I think the residents there were almost a year and a half into this residents need some relief and
they're finally working with the city so hopefully we can make some progress there uh please Community come out if you want to go to their next meeting is going to be on Wednesday March 26th at 5:30 at 12 Chestnut at the community
room uh and lastly I know last year we had a lot of conversations about where the city's priorities are when you look at their budget and I again hope this year that we will focus and our priorities will
show that our focus is on Safety and Security because again without that uh what are what are we talking about right so I just always my number one concern that's the reason why I'm up here so I will
always ring that Bell thank you thank you other comments Madame mayor I just have to point out that councilwoman Hamlet's the one that actually taught me to use C click fix which I think is ironic now you're my now you're my C click
fix great councilman palow uh yeah just a couple quick things um I had the pleasure of seeing uh the school play last week it was called the prom was very good I I urge everybody to uh
support the Arts uh Sports is a huge huge thing in this town and and sports are awesome um but we also have an equally talented and hardworking group of of kids at our schools and um we should go out and support them as well
second it is read Across America week I'm looking forward to going reading at Washington School Jamal's Alma uh where he read earlier this week so um uh read to your kids everyone it's great sorry council
president I got to say something about that all right come on come back thank you councilman palowski yes I went back to uh the summit owls uh I went back to Washington at school this week and read the kids a book on Joe deio uh which I
realized I didn't know that much about jlin Joe um jol Joe yeah see there you go J and Joe and the kids were enthused uh it was like a 50-page book and uh Laura Madden the teacher said councilman Boyer I know you got a lot to do you can
leave when you want to you know and I read the whole 50 pages it was great so um read Across America is a great initiative I know the mayor read it Jefferson sko the other day as well so I'm glad that the council members go out and support these kind of initiatives thank
you other comments just one quickly all right I promise be 20 seconds um I just wanted to mention that uh the mayor and I had an initial meeting with Bristol Meers squib and then um councilman uh celson and I went out and actually did a site tour which was super helpful and
we're going to be sort of gathering a lot of those conversations from the residents over at Bristol Meers squib uh one of the things that I mentioned at the planning board which I think is fascinating and I can't really say the word but on one of the buildings at BMS what's it called a a a v a Venum the
thing where they put the animals in oh you're making us look bad now animal start it was an it's it's it's something with a velle I think the city solicitor got it vum or vum what's it called v no
something else I said it I said it actually right at the you did anyway anyway um the residents had been complaining oh um on one of the buildings that was behind Kent Place uh they had actually I guess it was an animal research and a lot of the residents had been complaining about the air conditioning
noise the humming for years Well turns out that now they actually just don't need that same capacity so they put some bafflers on uh and the residents are a lot happier um but it was just sort of an interesting like historical minute that I didn't even know what this thing was that now I can't pronounce um but I
think our meeting was was really helpful and we're going to be able to use that as an opportunity to really Advocate and continue to Advocate uh for the residents back there that's it that's why great any other comments councilman Smallwood thank you council president uh I just wanted to touch on two things uh
I I agree with councilman Boer about uh the Black History Month uh presentation and uh by the Department of Community programs uh it was fantastic and you know I I I got to hand it to Claire because one of the exercises that we had
to go through uh with Rashad white the poet was he gave us two lines and we had to write our our own poem and then he gave us a word that only we could use and we had to create the poem and
everybody else in the room had to guess what your word was and uh I I I I knew I knew Claire would get it my word and she was the she's the only one that got it which um I can't even remember what the word was uh but I
she knew that I don't use those kind of words so uh I knew she'd get it um so it was a fantastic time and I would actually suggest that maybe we bring you know Mr White back to to
council and give a presentation because it was absolutely fantastic um his he was so amazing right uh and then also I'm actually looking forward to him going to Washington school on Thursday um to read to the students and
I'm really looking forward to that great other comments can I make one more plug I'm sorry I don't usually talk this much but Bob uh councilman palowski reminded me as we were asking for people to support
the Arts the Middle School play which is also coming up and always is wonderful and we really do have talented students I'm not sure wow I we're very fortunate um Greece they're doing Greece uh and it's March 14th and 15th so just want to
make a PL for that gree is the word any other comments all right do I have a motion to adjourn so Mo second all in favor you broke all in favor I opposed we are
adjourned have a great evening everyone I I oppos