Welcome everybody. Happy October. Um, welcome to our first meeting of the month. Uh, at this time I'd like to um call the meeting to order and ask our our esteemed clerk to 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 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 deis and return thereafter. Uh, thank you so much. Roll call, please. Mr. Ber, present. Miss Hamlet, here. Miss Calmanson, here. Mr. Powski, here. Mr. Smallwood, here. Miss Toth, here.
President McTurn, present. All right. At this time, I'd like to call on firefighter Lemons to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Okay. Um at this time, Madam Clerk, will you please read the explanatory note regarding closed session and hearings and comments? A close 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 that council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channels 34 and 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on
sat Thursdays and Saturdays on HGTV on 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 at citycler cityofsummit.org. To help facilitate an orderly meeting and to print all to be heard, speaker 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. Uh thank you so much. Um do I have a motion at this time to approve the regular and close session minutes of September 16th, 2025?
So moved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Council President, I just just Yeah. Uh for the record, I'd emailed Rosie just one change in those minutes. uh one scrier's error. Perfect. Thank you. Um all right. Uh
we're on to the our report section of our meeting and we'll start as always uh with our esteemed mayor. Thank you, council president. Good evening, everyone. I have a lot to say tonight. Sorry. I'll try to be quick. Um first, our bike rodeo series is underway. Um these events are a great
opportunity for our kids to get their helmets checked and to participate in an obstacle course while learning safe cycling. First one was today at the pool. It was fairly well attended, so that was great. And the next is on October 9th at 3:30 at Tatlock Park.
Participants will also get ice cream. Speaking of bike safety, Officer David Gotiga and Lieutenant Tom Rich recently gave an ebike safety presentation to all Summit Middle Schoolers, informing them of our city ordinance and how to ride safely. You'll also soon notice new signs downtown reminding cyclists, both
traditional and motorized, to walk it, not ride it, on downtown sidewalks. Our city ordinance prohibits bicycles and scooters on sidewalks in the central business district and bans ebikes and e- scooters on all sidewalks citywide. These rules are in place to keep our
pedestrians safe. If you missed our live Q&A on ebike safety, you can watch it anytime on the city of Summit YouTube channel or our Facebook page. And I always say, America runs on Duncan, but Summit runs on volunteers. We are currently accepting applications for city boards and commissions. If you're
interested in volunteering and helping shape our community, please visit cityofsummit.org/vunteer to learn more and apply. Our popular haunted hike is back this weekend at Martinsbrook Park. Join us for two nights of spooky fun Friday and Saturday. From 6:00 to 7:00, we'll have
a less spooky trail, perfect for younger kids. And from 7 to 8, we'll turn up the fright with our super spooky trail. Um, which is still familyfriendly and fun for all ages. And hopefully there will be no bears this year. It's a wonderful annual summit tradition and we hope to
see everyone there. And don't forget to register to vote if you haven't already. The deadline to register to vote in the November 4th general election is next Tuesday, October 14th. The city of Summit clerk's office will be open until 900 p.m. on October 14th for voter registration.
Also, October is breast cancer awareness month, and as a physician, I'd just like to remind everyone to keep up with their checkups. And finally, I didn't get to do this at the last meeting, and it hadn't come to fruition yet. So, I wanted to offer my sincere congratulations to Lieutenant Mike Burn
on his retirement and thank him for his 29 years of dedicated service with the Summit Police Department. We miss him already and we wish him well in his new chapter. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, we're on to our city administrator report. Miss Baldwin. Thank you, Council President. I do have
a few community updates tonight to share with all of you. Um, first of all, the Summit Free Market is coming up on Saturday, October 11th from 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the transfer station. This is a great opportunity to give unwanted items a second life and pick up
something new to you all for free. So, um, please go ahead and do that. Remember that a valid transfer station permit is required to enter. Speaking of permits, all current Summit resident transfer station and parking permits expire on October 31st of this year.
Online registration is now open, and new permits will be valid from November 1st through October 31st of 2026. These permits are required for residents who park in long-term municipal lots and garages or who use the municipal transfer station at 40 New Providence
Avenue. Registered permit holders with an existing online account can renew their permits at cityofsummit.org back/permit renewal. There are step-by-step instructions available in the help section of the online portal for anyone who needs assistance. This is
also fire prevention week and our Summit Fire Department is reminding everyone to keep an eye on your rechargeable batteries. Damaged lithium ion batteries can explode when damaged or old. These batteries are in everything that's rechargeable, from your phone to power
tools to ebikes and tablets. Dispose of them properly if damaged. Check out our Facebook page for an informative video on what to look out for and how to dispose of them properly. A reminder that city offices will be closed on Monday, October 13th in observance of
Columbus Day. That is also a parking holiday, which means parking fees will not be required for on street parking or in municipal lots and garages. However, short-term time limits will still be enforced. So, please keep an eye on the posted signs. Finally, Mayor Fagan and I
had the pleasure of meeting with visitors from India and Romania this week who were in summit with Beacon Church. They asked thoughtful questions about how our local government operates. It was a great opportunity to share more about how Summit serves its residents. They took a tour of our facilities and
and we discussed back and forth how government and things work uh in their respective countries and it was it was very interesting. So that was a lot of fun. And that concludes my report. It's awesome. Thank you. International outreach. It's great. Um all right. All right. Uh, so my, uh, council
president's report, I wanted to give everybody an update on our, uh, Mount Laura round four. Uh, I guess we had a mediation session a week ago from yesterday. Uh, these are all, for people
who have been following, um, this is all part of the process to get our our, um, round four plan approved. For those who haven't been following, and I know there are a lot of people out there who have no idea what I'm talking about, which is a little scary because it could have a
big effect on our town, but we are uh uh we are our our next 10-year plan to provide affordable housing uh in inside Summit. The legislation was created last year and we are going through the
guidelines to make that happen. Um there's a lot of uh question marks around it because the way the law was written, some of the numbers are unclear on how they're going to all pan out. Um but part of the process was we would file a plan, which we did on June 30th.
Uh this uh this council approved it. It it uh continues our builder remedy lawsuit immunity that we have, which is super super important. Um and then we began this process of challenges to our plan that was written into the
litigation. Um we had two developers who challenged our plan. Uh one of which would like to build 250 units down on River Road across from the uh Mun Golf Station which is now the Wells Fargo building. So they've challenged our
plan. We have another developer who would like to build 300 units uh right where the Kico station is, which is uh Broad Street and Summit Avenue, right across from the tier garage and the um not the tier garage,
the Broad Street garage and um the Village Green. Their proposal is an eight-story building. So, let that sink in. That's what they're asking for. The process created by the legislature allows this to happen. We have no choice
but to sit there and and listen to their proposals and we are now going through mediation. Um our first mediation session uh we did not come to any agreement with uh either of the developers. Um the the plan is that we
will have a follow-up mediation session and we'll see where we go. Um, you know, our uh position is we stand by our round four plan. We think it's sound. We think that the numbers that we uh promoted make sense. We have some of the best
planners and legal advice uh that we can offer and that's how we're going into the negotiations. We've also been challenged by Fairshare Housing, which is a housing advocate. uh they challenged 400 odd municipalities throughout the state and we're
negotiating with them um as well. So uh that's the update. I wish I could say more but this is uh legal ease stuff. Um but we should have another mediation session uh sometime before the end of the month. the way the legislation was
uh set up. If we can't come to any mediation, uh we'll go before a court master with recommendations from the mediator and the presiding judge who sat in on the mediation. Um and then we'd have to uh debate our
positions in front of a judge. Um and we'd see where that happens. So, this this process is going to pick up speed and I would urge everybody to stay tuned because it does have the possibility it could really really impact um our town
if you know these developers get their way. Hopefully, they won't. Um again, we we uh we pretty confident in our numbers, but it is something to uh be aware of. And again, this is a process. It's dictated by legislation and we're
and we're going through that process. Okay. Um, and that is my report. Okie dokie. Um, all right. Uh, Madame Mayor, we have a a proclamation this week. I understand we do indeed. Chief Evers and Lieutenant Lemons, thank
you for joining us. All right. Whereas the city of Summit is commun committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in and visiting our city. And whereas fires are a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally, and the presence of lithium-ion batteries in many
household devices introduces unique fire risks. And whereas most of the electronics used in homes daily, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, ebikes, e- scooters, and toys are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which if misused, damage, or
improperly charged can overheat, start a fire, or explode. And whereas the National Fire Protection A Association reports an increase in battery related fires underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium-ion batteries. And whereas residents should
follow three key calls to action. Buy only listed products, charge batteries safely, and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery related fires. And whereas lithium ion batteries store a large amount of energy in a small space and improper use such as overcharging
using off-brand chargers without safety certification or exposing batteries to damage can result in fire or explosion. And whereas the proper disposal and recycling of lithium lithium ion batteries help prevent environmental hazards and reduce fire risks in the
home and community. And whereas Summit Fire Department is dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety education, and community outreach. And whereas the 2025 fire prevention week theme, charge into fire safety uh lithium ion batteries in
your home serves to remind us of the importance of using, charging, and recycling lithium ion batteries safely to reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities. Now, therefore, I, Dr. Elizabeth Fagen, mayor of Summit, do hereby proclaim the week of October 5th to 11th, 2025 as fire prevention week
throughout this city. And I urge all the people of Summit to reduce fire risks in their homes by ensuring safe use of lithium-ion batteries and to support the many public safety activities and efforts of our Summit Fire Department. In witness whereof, I have here onto set my hand and caused the seal of the city
of Summit to be fixed the seventh day of October in the year 2025. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, my name is Lieutenant Matt Lemons. I'm with the Summit Fire Department. Um, from phones to power tools, Summit Fire Department
urges residents to know the risk of lithium-ion batteries this fire prevention week. The theme for fire prevention week, October 5th to the 11th, 2025, is charge into fire safety. Lithium ion batteries in your home. The Summit Fire Department is teaming up with the National Fire Protection Association, the official sponsor of
Fire Prevention Week for more than a hundred years to promote this year's Fire Prevention Week campaign. Charge into fire safety. Lithium ion batteries in your home. It highlights how important it is to buy, charge, and recycle lithium ion lithium ion batteries safely. Most of the
electronics that we use in our homes every day, smartphones, tablets, power and lawn tools, laptops, ecigarettes, headphones, and toys to just name a few, are powered by lithium-ion batteries. In fact, most everything that's rechargeable uses this type of battery.
If not used correctly, or if damaged, lithium-ion batteries can overheat, start a fire, or even explode. To reduce these risks, look around your home. It's important to know which devices are powered by these batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are powerful, convenient, and they're just about everywhere. This
year's Fire Prevention Week campaign helps people understand the importance of using these batteries correctly to prevent fires in the home and to follow the buy, charge, and recycle safely approach. Buy only listed products. When buying a product that uses a lithium-ion battery,
take time to research it. Look for a stamp from a nationally recognized testing lab on the packaging and product, which means that it meets important safety standards. Many products sold online and in stores may not meet safety standards and could increase the risk of fire. Charge
devices safely. Always use the cords that came with the product to charge it. Follow the instructions from the manufacturer. If you need a new charger, buy one from the manufacturer or one that the manufacturer has approved. Charge your device on a hard surface. Don't charge it under a pillow, on a
bed, or a couch. This could cause a fire. Don't overcharge your device. Unplug it, or remove the battery when it's fully charged. Recycle batteries responsibly. Don't throw lithium-ion batteries in the trash or recycle regular recycling bins
because they could catch fire. Recycling your device or battery at a safe battery recycling location is the best way to dispose of them. Visit calltorecycle.org. org to find a rec recycling spot near you. The Summit Fire Department encourages all residents to be aware of
their devices, follow the buy, charge, and recycle safely approach and support this year's fire prevention week theme, charge into fire safety. To find out more about fire prevention week programs and activities in Summit, please contact the Summit Summit Fire Department at 908-277-9351.
And for more information on fire prevention week and lithium-ion battery safety, please visit fpw.org. org. Thank you, Mayor. [Applause]
All right, that was great public service announcement. Um, at this time we are up to our historical minute portion of our meeting. Uh, Councilman Palowski, do you have a historical minute for us this meeting? I do. Thanks very much. Tonight I'm going to present on our good friend
Gilbert Einer Orin. We all knew him as Gil who departed this life on September 24th. We just have a quick moment of silence before I start. Gil was born in Planefield on December 14th, 1940. He moved to Summit with his
family at the age of eight or nine and metriculated through our public schools, attending Brighton Elementary, Summit Junior High, and Summit High School, graduating in the class of 1958. As a youngster, Gil spent most of his time at the field, which most of you
know as Memorial Field, playing football, baseball, and other sports. sports were his first true love. But if you back Yeah. Um I I I'll tell you one. Okay.
Um but if you grew up in Summit before the turn of the century, we called Memorial the Field. Gil explained this at a council meeting last year. It was the field because it was the only sports field in town. a nine-letter winner. In high school, Gil played varsity football, basketball, and baseball in
each of his three years at Summit High School. He was among the inaugural class of the Summit High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014. His yearbook quote, which is up on the screen, says it all. Threeletter man,
handsome, easygoing, solid build, sports, and more sports. the his classmates even voted him best looking. There's a cartoon of him up there with his flat top. Um
uh that's probably what first caught the attention of another of his true loves, his wife of 58 years, Fran, when they met at a parking meter on Union Place in 1966. There he is with Fran in his Summit football gear. I've got my Summit
football tie on tonight in honor of Gil. Before that, Gil graduated from Mbury College in Vermont in 1962. He played football all four years, as well as freshman basketball and baseball as a sophomore and a junior. He was president
of his fraternity, Sigmafy Epsilon, as a senior. You may notice on there it says he was living in Jackson, Tennessee. The family moved there for about a year. uh during which time they either took a train or drove to every one of his
football games up in and around Vermont. Thereafter, Gil attended Satan Hall Law School and graduated in 1965 before joining the Marines where he served as a JAG officer. A proud Marine like his father, he enthusiastically greeted fellow Marines with seerfi. In 1967, Gil
opened Drummond and Orin, where he practiced law for 57 years until retiring earlier this year, serving Summit residents as a general practitioner, first focusing on real estate and then trusts and estates. The highlight of his career was winning a case before the New Jersey Supreme Court
in 1982, captioned Spewac and uh versus the Board of Education of Rutherford. For all you lawyers out there, the citation is 90 NJ63. In that case, Connie Anderson, the wife of long time, he represented Connie
Anderson, the wife of longtime physical education teacher, football and baseball coach, and Summit High School athletic director Howie Anderson. She was a teacher in Rutherford, who along with some others were wrongfully denied their earned pensions. Another highlight of
his legal career must have been representing Summit High School football, basketball, and baseball phenom. Uh Willie Wilson, who was also a member of the Summit High School Athletic Hall of Fame inaugural class in 2014. He did that as a young lawyer uh
in contract negotiations uh with the Kansas City Royals where Woody played 19 years and is a member of the Royals Hall of Fame. This was his one and only business trip according to Fran. Further demonstrating his dedication to his hometown
seem to get anywhere else. It's not moving forward. Okay. Um well, there was a picture that I was going to say. Here he is at Super Bowl 21 with Howie and Connie up front and Willie Wilson two to his left. He and Fran uh made Summit their home for n
for 58 years where they raised their children Jenny and Eric. He was known as pop to his grandchildren Gilbert, Grace, Gus, Jake, and Avery. We all know from his many comments at council meetings what a great storyteller Gil was, and I hope I'm doing justice to him here tonight. Gil had a passion for youth
sports, coaching all sports for his children, soccer, football, basketball, and baseball. He also coached football for the city for many years, founding the suburban football conference for our youth football. Um,
there was a picture of him accepting the Stuart Reed award presented by the YMCA in 1988 for his service to Hill Topper youth. For years, G Gil also scouted for the Summit High School football team as well. Along the way, he mentored so many of us as children and me as an adult
when I decided to run for council. He always made himself available for good advice, and for that, we thank him sincerely. Always civic-minded, Gil was a fixture at council meetings in recent years. And as a building owner uptown, and Gil will tell you it's uptown, not downtown in this city. He served with
SDI, the substandard housing board, and other civic organizations. Gil also spent a good deal of time looking after Andy Anderson, one of our special needs residents, you may have seen a gazillion times, walking around town. Gil drove him to away football games for decades
and was the best man at Andy's wedding. If you ever wondered how you saw Andy walking as you left for a game and he still beat you there, now you know. A man of God, Gil was active in his church of 50 years, Central Presbyterian, larger than life. Um,
there was a photo of him mcing an event in a Celebrate Summit t-shirt. Um, what I will remember most about Gil is uh is that his passion for Summit was contagious. Uh, Gil remains an inspiration to me and others I know to give back to the city that has given us
all so much. Gil passed at Overlook Hospital in Summit on September 24th, surrounded by his loving family and listening to the classical music he so adored. services and an SHS football celebration will be held at later dates which will be announced on the Bradley
funeral home obituary page. Condolences may be shared with Gills family by mail or through the www.bradley funeralomes.com website. We'll go. Thank you, Counciloman Palowski. I think we all will. He's a great great a great
man and um a fixture in Summit and I think our community is going to miss him as well. Um okay. Uh we're now on to our ordinance for uh for hearing section of our meeting. We have three uh to get
through uh today. Um so at this time uh madame clerk will you please read the first capital projects and community service ordinance 25-3356? an ordinance of the city of Summit, County of Union, New Jersey, repealing section 2-29, Historic Preservation
Commission, other revised general ordinances of the city of Summit and creating a new part five historic preservation of chapter 35 development regulations. Thank you very much. Um, Councilman Smallwood, I think that's me.
Oh, uh, you're going to do this one. I am. Yes. Mr. Councilman Palowski. So, thank you. This is ordinance number 25-3356. I think a little history will be helpful in starting this hearing.
This ordinance is a long time coming. Decades ago, the historic preservation or HPC expressed interest in a stronger ordinance than the one that we have. The HPC has always been an advisory board and when a historic property owner wanted to do something that needed sign
off of the zoning board, it would refer the file to the HPC for review. Uh now the HPC wanted uh at some point the HPC decided they wanted a very strong ordinance, one that would allow the uh HPC to reject requests for certain
demolitions and proposed renovations. that would have required the HPC to become a judiciary board with a budget, open public meetings, and its own legal counsel. Under the prior common council, the city paid $10,000 to Barton Ross,
the foremost expert on the subject, to draft a strong ordinance, and I believe Councilwoman Toth was on uh the HPC back then, and she still may be in favor of a stronger ordinance, but I think she would agree that the one we're introduced or having a hearing on here tonight is a good start. Um, and I know
my dad would like a stronger one, too, along with many other Summit residents. But the council and most of Summit never had an appetite for that kind of an ordinance. A person's home is their castle, and if they want to knock it down, that's their god-given right. Still, we lose historic homes every
year. It alters our streetscapes and the character of Summit along the way. And there's a gaping hole in our current ordinance. Although property owners who seek a variance to renovate an historic home uh will have their file
referred to the HPC, a property owner who who wants to simply demolish theirs and start from scratch does not get referred for an HPC review under the current ordinance. To find a happy medium, the HPC and our planning professionals had to perform quite a
balancing act. They had to provide an ordinance that would not take away homeowners rights, but at the same time would slow down demolitions and educate the public. I believe this ordinance accomplishes that. So, this ordinance maintains the
Historic Preservation Commission as a purely advisory body whose focus is both to educate the public and help protect Summit's historic character. The primary changes demonstrated within this ordinance are as follows. Any real property within the city of Summit, which was constructed a minimum of 100
years ago and/or is located within a historic district, is deemed historic property. To provide the Historic Preservation Commission with the opportunity to educate the owners of the historic home, the city will be testing a new form of historic review referred
to as historic site verification. Prior to filing for a demolition permit application with the construction division or filing for a zoning permit application that would demolish a significant portion of the front of an historic home with the land use division, property owners would first
apply to receive a historic site verification with a filing fee of $50. The HPC holds a responsibility to the property owner that they must first respond to that request uh for an application within 7 days. If they
decide to make that um to to make a review, they would then have uh up to a total of 30 days, so 23 days after the seven to provide a written and signed report.
If they decide not to do a review because the home has no historic significance or is uh not in good enough shape to save, they will pass on it and the owner can then go and do whatever they'd like. This historic ver site
verification is required but non-binding uh commentative and educational report on a particular home that we hope will demonstrate the value and historical significance that a particular piece of property contributes to the character of Summit and maybe uh instead of
demolishing uh so many homes folks will uh try to renovate instead. I would also offer that you may have heard of some things about this ordinance on social media and or at
prior meetings and I anticipate you may hear some of those same things tonight. First, as I just said, this ordinance in no way empowers the HPC to make a binding determination about what a homeowner may and may not do with their property. Our development regulations
ordinance or DRO already does that to a degree with zoning. Nothing will change in that regard as a result of this ordinance. Second, uh, one resident claimed that he might have to get a permit to replace a window or paint the front of his house under the ordinance.
That is false, too. Such comments come either from a place of ignorance or political gamesmanship. You may also have heard complaints that this council doesn't know what it's doing because it has tabled a few ordinance after introduction and then passed them
without revisions. I'll remind everyone of the reason passive with revisions. I'll remind everyone of the reason a governing body is required by New Jersey law to have two weeks between an ordinance's introduction and its adoption to allow
the public to digest the materials and to allow the council to incorporate public input if it chooses. That happened here and I'm glad we were able to uh make improvements as a result of those public comments. That is our job. Had we simply passed the ordinances originally drafted, those same people
would have probably complained that the council ignored the public and operated with no transparency. I think the former is better. We can live with the criticism. Um, we all knew what we signed up for when we took our oaths.
But the public should know all the facts so it can decide for itself what's a valid criticism and what is just politics. With that, I move for a hearing on ordinance 253356. Do I hear a second? Second. Okay. I'm going to declare the hearing
open. Uh at this time, would any members of the public like to comment on this particular ordinance? Come on down. My name is James Bergmooer. That's B U R G M E Y E R. I live at uh 167 Ken Place
Boulevard in Summit. I'm also the uh vice chair of the uh historic preservation committee. Yes. Um, I've been a a member I've been a citizen of of Summit for uh 73 years
and uh over the past decade I've noticed uh some changes in in Summit. There's been a lot of tearowns and uh I just think that uh a lot of people come to Summit because it's the architectural character of Summit, but
if we keep tearing it down, we'll lose all that character. I think that uh you know right now on the historic preservation committee, we get applications from the construction department where
a uh applicant wants or or they ask us on the historic preservation committee what they what we think about putting an air conditioning unit on the sideyard setback. But tearing down a house, we
have no say. And I think we should. I think right now, um, there's not a building in Summit that's not protected. Uh, if you take, um, Twin Oaks, excuse me, Twin Maples, uh, that's on the, uh, historic U,
um, uh, registration. and uh if for some reason they wanted to uh you know sell the property and the developer came in there, they could easily rip it down. What really protects homes like that or any building is the
uh you know a strong um ordinance in the council. So, I mean, an example of a a historic home that was torn down about a month ago or less was the 68 uh
Valley View. Uh it was a beautiful little U 1895 uh bungalow. And uh I don't know if you heard that uh Mark Donahghue was the race car driver that uh you know he uh you know he went won the Indianapolis
500 and several other races. Uh he was in uh the uh international motor sport hall of fame. Uh team Pensky Hall of Fame. uh when it was uh had the funeral mass in summit uh they had uh
over a thousand mourners along with Mario Andredy and uh Pensky. So I think uh I think this ordinance is very important. I think it's really kind of a first step but uh I think uh the board should have the ability to just review
some of these things before they just you know get hammerred down. Right now, it's just all you need is a u um fill out a one-page form and a check. So, I think uh I would like this to be passed. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments and the little historical minute as well in there. Uh other comments from the public. C can I just add one thing? Sure. I forgot to mention we're doing this as a pilot. Uh, so we're going to see how
it works out for a while and um if we need to make changes or repeal it, we can do that. But we're hopeful that it'll be a success. Good evening. I'm Diego Hoy Aralort and I'm sure Bob is not surprised to see me here. Um, this ordinance is an
exercise in taking away Summit's homeowners property rights. The proponents argue that it is merely advisory and has no teeth. Hogwash. If it has no teeth, then this council is passing an unnecessary tax and an even
less necessary delay to any project. We have enough red tape to start any project as it is. But I don't think that this is merely an attempt at doing nothing. I suspect that the proponents of this ordinance are serious and really want to
regulate taste and tell their neighbors what they can and cannot do on their property. At a minimum, this ordinance creates uncertainty that may reduce homeowners property values for two reasons. First, we have no idea how seriously the so-called advisory opinion
will be taken into consideration by the city and its offices. And also there are no criteria as to what constitutes a historic home other than age. The point about criteria is critical. Today a homeowner can use the well-
definfined criteria outlined in city's development regulations to challenge any decision. For example, to deny a permit. However, due to the lack of criteria in this ordinance, a homeowner would be hardpressed to find a basis to a
challenge a challenge to a historic preservation commission decision. I agree that preserving historically significant homes is valuable, but this ordinance does not do this. This ordinance is a paragraph that could convert a historic preservation
commission into the summit HOA. Einrand her architect hard work has become a beacon of freedom loving people around the world. At some point in the fountain head he is asked my dear fellow who will let you build that way his
retort that's not the point. The point is who will stop me? Well this ordinance will. It gives our city government new powers to stop property owners from exercising their property rights. If there is a genuine desire to preserve
historic buildings, then this ordinance must be amended to reflect what criteria other than age, make a home historical, and what changes are permissible. Similarly, to have a car recognized as historic, its owner must satisfy many requirements related to original
components. Please get this right. Vote nay on this draft and reintroduce this ordinance with clear historic preservation standards. Otherwise, you're merely taking away the rights of your neighbors, the summit property owners. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
Other comments from the public? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to declare the public comment portion of this hearing closed. Uh, council member comments on this ordinance. Councilwoman Toth. Okay. Thank you, Council President, and I am happy to support this ordinance.
Um, as Council Member Palowski suggested, in my nine years on the Historic Preservation Commission, we tried twice to give the HPC some teeth with no success, and this is a small step in that direction. As this ordinance goes into effect as a pilot,
as you suggested, um I would like the HPC to evaluate the historic site verification process as it relates to historic districts. And here I'm specifically thinking of the Deantown historic district, which is notable for its social history more than for its
housing stock. um a ranch house in Deantown must go through the site verification process when an identical house on West End Avenue would not have to. Um so I think going forward perhaps not every structure in an historic
district should be subject to the ordinance and that could be refined. This concern won't stop me from supporting it. I'd just like to see the applications monitored so we don't unfairly burden some of the newer homes in historic districts. Thank you. Thank
you. Other comments from council. Councilwoman Hamlet. Uh I would just like to say thank you for all your hard work, Austo, and your staff. I know this was a bit of a um a push between you and Councilman Palowski trying to figure out all of the details. So I thank you and your staff for
reworking this and Bob and the HPC. And the HPC. Yes. And um Claire, I think your comments are are great. So thanks for supporting this ordinance. Um, and to the gentleman who came up, James, um, I used to live at 89 Kent Place in Joe Fitzpatrick's house. And if you know Joe
Fitzpatrick, um, unfortunately since then he's passed away, but, uh, Joe had preserved that house to, uh, it was just something spectacular. And when you walked in, you didn't want to touch any of the woodwork. You just wanted to preserve what he had done. Um, and it was it was important. It inspired me,
um, to always maintain that house a certain way. Um the frustrations I had sometimes with that house was it was a small family room for a growing family of four or five. Um which is I think sometimes some of the challenges that uh families who are moving into these historic homes have right they want to
maintain it but they also just don't know how they can live in these older homes with with limited footprint. I think what this will do is we have some amazing people on the historic preservation committee and it it might give a family who's considering tearing down some options and some education
from our architects and and experts like James here who say maybe you can do it a different way. Maybe you can keep the front of this house. So, you know, thank you for for all of your um uh your passion around the HPC. I want to say thanks to Caroline King and uh this was a long time coming. So, I agree with
Councilman Blaski. Great job. Thank you. Other comments from council. Uh, Councilman Ber. Thank you, Council President. Uh, I just want to reiterate what, uh, Councilwoman Hamlet said. Um, Austo, great job. We've, we spent the summer going back
and forth. You know, um, this is going to be overly burdensome and, um, but I I think that, uh, Summit um, is a beautiful town to preserve. I know that a couple years ago, um, Councilwoman,
uh, Toth just mentioned the one in Dean Town by the Summit Pool. Um, I, you know, I sent out flyers to the community. I didn't want to see that house, uh, ripped down, right? That was a beautiful home. Um, the homes there now are, you know, I don't want to
disrespect anybody's new homes. You know, they're nice, too. But that was a beautiful home. And uh I think this ordinance says, "Hey, let's take a pause. Uh let's uh let the in interested buyer or the homeowner know that there
may be money available uh to restore some parts of their home. Um and and I and I think it's a it's a good pause. Um and I also have to say that uh you know there's been studies from the uh US
historic districts uh the national register listing uh that found that this increases the property values 9 12%. So and that is and that's conversely of what someone else just said. So I think
this is a good thing. I also think that uh I'm happy that it's a pilot because I don't want it to be overly burdensome also on our uh our city staff. Uh they have a lot to do and I'm sure our administrator will be keeping an eye on
that. Right. So, um I am in support of this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments? Uh Councilwoman Camelson. Thank you, Council President. I have a question about the um the fact that it's a pilot, but we're passing it as an
ordinance. So, when does that pilot end? I don't know if Bob can answer this question. Like, we say it's a pilot, but it's being passed as law. So, is that is that really a pilot then? You want to handle that, Councilman Pilowski?
It's really a pilot. Um, you know, we can change anything in our ordinances with a a two week period between introduction and hearing, but we didn't put a time frame on it because we have to change the ordinance in order to
implement it. So, we'll be monitoring it and the council can, you know, after a few months if it seems like it was a bad idea, we can change it or if it seems like we needed some changes, we can change it. But after many years of deliberation and trying to work out
exactly the best way to do it, this is what we've come to and we're going to try it out. Okay, that that's fine. I just don't think it's a pilot at that point. I think we're just passing it, which which is fine, but I I did have a comment. Um we I think we can all agree that
preserving historic buildings is important and it's valuable. Um my problem with this ordinance is I think it goes too far. I like the portion about um the historic preservation being notified before anything is demolished and having a say and coming and you know talking to the homeowners, but I feel
like it goes too far um in, you know, if somebody has a problem with maybe their porch gets damaged or something like that and they need to do something more quickly or perhaps maybe they know they're not going to be able they they know they're going to be able I'm sorry
um they're going to need to go the most affordable route and they're not going to be able to take this advice. There's no provisions for anybody to bypass that. Is that is that right? Through your council president. Uh to clarify,
so the scope of work that would be encompassed in a historic site verification as is defined in the ordinance as for the purposes of this ordinance, a demolition or a partial demolition. It's to the frame of 50% or
greater of the principal facade of a structure. So 50% of the exterior walls of the front side of the structure facing the street or 50% greater of the total volume of the building if that is being demolished or plans are presented where this is being demonstrated. This
building would be sent for historic site verification. So, and the bits of feedback that our office received uh when we were working with the planner and zoning officer to prepare this and HPC is that one of the primary comments was we do not want to tell people what
siding to put on their house particularly. You know, we we could recommend it. We're not going to make you do that. We do not want to tell you what kind of windows you should put in. We'll make a recommendation, but we're not telling you to do it. Um, so if
someone were to come in for a permit filing for a regular maintenance item, uh, historic site verification would not be prompted. So let's say you want to replace the the boards on your deck, you want to, uh, just redo your sighting. Anything that would fall under regular maintenance, that would not be sent for
historic site verification. Um, this would just be a preface towards anything that materially alters a large portion of the structure, uh, the structure itself, um, and, uh, and preface a UCCC
demolition permit application, which has a specific standard. Thank you, Austo. So, so if I have a porch and it's decaying and it's falling off and I need to get I need to get it taken care of and I know that I'm not going to be able to rebuild it and I'm
just going to have to do the least expensive option of maybe steps or something like that. Is there any way to bypass that this ordinance or no? Does it still it still needs to go through the HPC? I don't believe that that kind of work would be flagged for reference to the
HPC in the first place. Um, so I do not believe so. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Councilman Smallwood. Uh, thank you, Council President. I actually agree with Mr. Ho that, you
know, just because something is old doesn't necessarily mean that it should have to go through rigorous regulations. Um, I I think this is something and a good opportunity for us to streamline our permit processing
as it is. Um, yeah, I know I hear quite often that it's an arduous process to get uh to get permits. Um, so I I would I would encourage us to to review uh our process of getting permits in the first place.
Uh, secondly, just as a side note, um, I happened to buy Gil Orin's house in 2007 and it was built in 1922. So maybe we can take a look at that, see if we can make that a historical in honor of Gil.
Thank you. Uh, other comments? Uh, Councilman Boyer. Thank you, Council President. I just um I I just want to respond to whether or not um an ordinance can be a pilot. Um, and I may stand corrected, but in uh 2021 there was a leaf blower ordinance,
right, which was a pilot. So, I believe this is not the first time that this has happened. Um, and I may stand corrected if anyone else uh has any information on that, but I believe that was a pilot and it was an ordinance. So, um, if you want
more information on how that pilot may work, you can probably um, go back and take a look at that one. So, thank you, Councilman Palowski. Yeah, ju just to clarify a couple things and I I have a couple comments and questions for Austo.
Um, under what circumstances can we deny a demolition permit? The only person who can deny demolition permit is the construction official and for code related matters for code related. Yeah. Whatever it is, I I don't know what they particularly are, but that'd
be it. Okay. So under but under this revision to the ordinance once the 30 days passes and the report it's not the HPC doesn't make a decision and doesn't have a say in whether there's going to be a
demolition. It's just um to educate and make some recommendations that hopefully the homeowner will um go with. Yes, they're purely recommendative. None of the commentary provided would be
binding. It specifically stated in the ordinance that it is advisory only. Um and to address a prior point uh whether there is a question on whether the zoning officer would be in uh would look to a historic site verification for an
enforcement matter. He would not. It is very well understood that uh in the zoning office we are not historical experts. We are going to leave any commentary to the historical experts and that's why we created this system for
recommendative reference to HPC and not provide enforcement capacity and um is there any criteria other than age for what would fall under a verification requirement? So the
criteria right now is whether it falls within a historic district and whether it is uh 100 years or older or whether it's specifically designated as a landmark. Um and as of now that's it. I know that seems like a broad scope, but
I do also want to clarify that as the natural cycle of development for single family, two family homes happens in Summit, as uh as homes are added onto that list, they are also removed from that list. If a home is demolished,
that's one down. Um if a new home's put up, it's not included for another hundred years. And uh this has been also a point where there's been much back and forth conversation with the uh HPC chair to say uh you know there's recognition that just because a home is old does not
mean it is historic and the factors uh considered are does it contribute to the streetscape? Is it mentioned in the uh New Jersey dev New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections Historic Preservations Office um assessment of u
historic properties in Union County. Uh those are the criteria and those are the criteria the recommendations will be made along but that's about it. Okay. And then I I don't like extra red tape um you
know when it comes to somebody doing something with their home. And this certainly is a little bit of extra red tape but um I think it's worth it. I wouldn't call this a rigorous uh regulation. It's a up to a one-mon delay
in the demolition of a home. So thank you. Other comments? I'll just make a couple of comments. Um, I think I was on the historical preservation commission 10 plus years ago when there was a
movement to create an ordinance that had a lot of teeth in it that would have made the HBC a more of a judicial body that could, you know, tell homeowners how to do things and what not to do. And it became very clear that there was no
appetite for that type of uh ordinance in our community. Um, so I I do give the HPC credit and and Councilman Palowski has worked really closely with them because look, I I I'm a big fan of private
property rights. Um, you know, the the home your home is your castle type of thing. Um, I have a lot of sympathy for that and being told what you can and can't do around your home. There's parts of me that that really irks me to have that happen. However, I
also love history and his and Summit has a lot of history and it is really really sad when these houses uh get demolished and I get it. There's a lot of economics around it and some of them are just not
savable because they haven't had any uh investment in them in decades. Um, but it's still sad. And so when I was thinking about this ordinance, it was trying to weigh the added uh burden that
we're placing on someone who wants to uh buy a property or even sell their property, what that might affect from their market and versus what that might do to someone who wants to buy a house and kind of make it their own. And I was very happy to see that there was a real
willingness among among the HBC and this uh and and Councilman Palowski steering the council to really compromise and figure out what was something that we could come up with that would pause the process to have someone who
bought a historic home think about what they were doing with it to be able to give them some options to like Maybe there are things that we can do to save this piece of property without unduly burdening them. Th this ordinance um if a property owner wants to tear down a
house, they can tear down a house. That's just the fact. The the HBC cannot stop them from doing that. So there, so you know, I know there are some people in the community wishes they could. Um but this ordinance is not that. Uh this ordinance is an advisory thing. They
they make a recommendation. It's supposed to be to allow the the property owner, the new property owner to think about some options. And the way I look at it is, you know, most of these properties, sadly, we may not save a lot
of them uh through this process, but if we save one or two, that's that's a win. That's one or two houses that um we we keep that, you know, would have gone away. It's like the dodo bird, right? you know, we only have so many of these historic homes.
Um, so we wanted to make every effort uh to do that. So, um, I I I the other factor I think that concerned me was the uh putting a burden on city staff and I know we've had lots of conversations about that. Um, and I do think it's
important when we think about this to revisit this ordinance and this Baldwin working with um, Austo to see how many applications are we talking about? How how much time is it taking city staff to to process these? And if if it's not a
lot, then maybe we can think about uh to your point um Councilwoman Toth, we maybe adding some additional properties. Um or if it's too much, we can maybe scale it down. Uh so I I would urge the
council to kind of set, you know, a 9-month limit to see how this is going and maybe revisit this next summer. And I would suggest having a full report from your department on applications and how many are due, have we saved any homes, that type of thing, so we can
make an informed decision to maybe alter or tweak this ordinance if we need to um sometime next summer. So, um but with that, I am in favor of this ordinance. Okay. Uh any other comments from council? I just have one. Yes, Councilwoman H. I would just say if
Austo is in charge of uh doing a data analysis on the uh historic preservation ordinance, we're all in good hands because he can find his way around a pivot chart better than anybody in town hall. So, I think he I think we're in good hands with him analyzing this data. Uh if anybody anyone's any data, just uh
go to that gentleman right there. All right. Uh with that, I'm going to uh uh close the hearing on this ordinance and we're going to move on to the second uh ordinance for hearing. Um madam clerk, will you please read the second capital projects and community services
ordinance 25-3357? Ordinance of the city of Summit, County of Union, New Jersey, amending chapter 35 development regulations by repealing the existing Morris Broad crossroads overlay zone district to be replaced with a new zone district that retains
the intent of the overlay zone. Thank you so much, uh, Councilwoman Hamlet. Uh, thank you, Council President. This is ordinance number 25-3357. Uh this ordinance uh the Morris it's it's a little long so bear with me. Uh the Morris Broad crossroads uh overlay
zone otherwise known as the MBC was originally created in June 2024 to replace the prior Broad Street West redevelopment plan. These parcels collectively known as the firehouse site include the Chestnut public parking lot, the privately owned finger lot, the old firehouse site, and the office building
which is lot 4. Uh these parcels comprise a total tract area of approximately 1.5 acres uh with frontages on Broad Morris and Cedar. Uh this NBC overlay zone ordinance created a new zoning framework for the site which established the permitted usage and development criteria based on
extensive community input. Thanks to all of you, the NBC overlay zone was designed to achieve several community goals. Repurpose the site given the loca relocation of the fire department. generate revenue for the city at the point of sale and annual tax assessment, satisfy a portion of the city's
affordable housing obligation, and maintain existing public parking and designated parking for St. Terresa's Memorial Hall, and develop the site in a comprehensive manner that is consistent with the character of Summit and complements surrounding land uses. Now, why are we here tonight? On September
3rd, 2025, the Summit Common Council introduced the ordinance 1212144 to repeal the existing Morris Broad crossroads overlay zone to be replaced with the new ordinance which maintains much of the original zoning framework. This ordinance was prepared for two
primary reasons. To modify the bulk requirements to account for the approved land swap with the private owners of lot 2. It also modifies the over overlay zoning to standard zoning in accordance with the city's fourth round housing element and fair share plan to maximize
its affordable housing credits. So one of the reasons why we had to go from an overlay zone which was initially uh the recommendation from our planners to a true zoning is so that we could be in compliance with our housing element and fair share plan. Uh we are doing this
also to create a comprehensive track because that will that will obtain a better uh hopefully a better bid price when we sell the property because now it's a comprehensive track that includes the finger lot. So if you're wondering why we had to do this a few times there's there's a lot of very specific
reason for that and I just want to thank our planners um and our city staff for doing all of this work and hopefully we'll be able to get these properties out for sale and get the best uh price for Summit. So, with that, I would like to introduce this open the ordinance for here. Awesome. Do I have a second?
Second. All right. Uh, I'm going to declare the hearing open at this time. Would any members of the public uh like to speak about this ordinance? Hi, Dory Gagnon, 27 Bedford. First of all, I want to thank you. This is a long
time coming. Five of you up here were elected to stop Broad Street West a couple years ago. The five of you were on this side and now we're on that side. So, I want to thank all of you, not just the five of
you, but all of you for pushing this ordinance to vote for tonight. Um, a couple years ago, we could be having a monstrosity on that site with a pilot program. And now you have this whole builder's
remedy issue that you're having to deal with. Um, and now we can have some, uh, hopefully some revenue coming back into the city. And, uh, I want to thank all of you for doing what you're doing because I know
it hasn't been easy the last couple years, but uh, the five of you specifically were voted to stop Rod Street West and now you're pushing this ordinance through. So, I want to thank all of you. Thank you for your comments.
Other comments from the public. All right. Seeing none, I'm going to declare the public comment section of uh this um hearing closed. Comments from council. Council comments. Councilman Palowski,
just one comment and I guess it's mildly related to the ordinance. Um, we've heard uh builder's remedy and immunity come up a couple times during the meeting so far and I just want to remind everybody that under the new
legislation, we have our immunity because we filed uh our plan on July uh June 30th and that immunity will continue unless and until we stop
negotiating in good faith. with our challengers and we're doing that. We are providing viable options for affordable housing to meet any obligations that any court may impose.
And as long as we continue to operate in good faith, even if we don't come to a settlement, we don't have to come to an agreement. As long as we continue to operate in good faith, we will be able to maintain our immunity. And I'm confident that we're going to do that. and this ordinance here tonight is a
good step in that direction given the set aides that it requires for affordable units. Thank you very much. Other comments? Yeah, I would just add um you know this ordinance was a long time coming. This has been for those for you uh people at
home who've been following this. This is complicated stuff. you know, um, Miss Gagnon talked about this kind of coming out of the, uh, the Broad Street West issue that we had went through several years ago. Um, and we are, this council
has been pivoting now on this for couple of years. Um, it's slow. Real estate takes a long time to kind of make changes on. Uh, we had to, uh, acquire this finger lot. We successfully did that over the summer. Um, and then looking at this uh through the lens of
uh Mount Laura Round four, um, we had to change the ordinance to quote unquote harden it to tell any builder who's going to bid on this is going to have to have an affordable housing requirement. Um, as part of uh, and they'll know that going in uh, when they look to bid on
this. Uh from that perspective, we're hoping that we can line this up and um we will have a ratable for the city to that'll provide revenue not just for the city but for our schools and the county gets a slice too. Um uh that that can
pay for the services that we all deem so important um uh in in town, including hopefully a price where we can maybe pay down some debt uh would be my recommendation uh for what we do with the sale price. So, we're getting closer. Stay tuned. I'm hoping that
we'll have uh we'll further this, but this is a really important first uh not a first step, but I don't know a third, fourth, fifth step uh along the way to to make this happen. Okay, one more comment. Just a quick comment. Um just for for to
remind everybody who who didn't know, we just passed at the planning board a master plan consistency review. So, that was another step in this process. And then once the public auction is complete, that developer will need to go through a full site plan application. So just two things.
Yep. Okay. Any other comments? All right. I'm going to declare this uh hearing closed. Um now there's a third uh ordinance for hearing on the uh on our um on our packet today. However, because
they didn't get to this at the planning board the other night, and I think for those of you who are there, it went till 2 in the morning. Um, so they had to defer the review of this particular ordinance. So that means we need to defer uh the hearing on this ordinance
um until November 5th. That'll be after the next planning board uh meeting. So um so we'll we'll get to that then. Uh, council president. Yeah, I think there may be an intention to table this ordinance if it's Oh, that's right. Because there might be an opportunity to
change because the introduction replaces this one. So, you may want to consider Thank you for the correction, Madame Clerk. So, if you noticed, we do have an introduction. I think um we are going to take this opportunity uh because this has been deferred. Uh
there are one or two little changes that we're going to make in the ordinance to give a slightly different version uh to the planning board with some improvements um that will be introduced later here. So I think what I'd like to see if there if there's a motion then um
to table uh this ordinance that was up for hearing today. So moved. Okay. Um do all in favor? No. Second. Oh, do I need a second? Second. Second. Do I need a roll call? Um, can I just make a comment?
All in favor? All right. All in favor? I I opposed. All right. So, this is tabled. Okay. Council member. All right. Um, now we're on our uh
section for ordinances for final consideration. Uh, we'll just have two. Um, madame clerk, will you please read the uh capital projects and community services ordinance number 25-3356? An ordinance of the city of Summit
County, New Jersey, repealing section 2-29, historic preservation commission of the revised general ordinances of the city of Summit and creating a new part five historic preservation of chapter 35 development regulations. Thank you very much. Uh, Councilman
Palowski. Um, this is a ordinance for revisions to the historic preservation ordinance. Having just heard the hearing, I move to adopt this ordinance. Do I hear a second?
Second. Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Ber, I. Miss Hamlet, I. Miss Cominson, nay. Mr. Pilowski, I. Mr. Smallwood, I. Miss Toe I. President McTurn. I motion carries.
Okay. Um we're on to Madame Clerk. Will you please read the second ordinance for final consideration capital projects and community services 25-3357? Ordinance of the city of Summit County of Union, New Jersey, amending chapter 35 development regulations by repealing
the existing Mars Broad Crossroads Overlay Zone District to be replaced with a new zone district that remains retains the intent of the overlay zone. Thank you so much, uh, Councilwoman Hamlet. Thank you, Council President. This is
ordinance 25-3357 ordinance of the city of Summit County of Union uh amending uh the chapter 35 developmental regulations by repealing the existing Morris Broad crossroads overlay zone to be replaced with a new zone that retains the intent of the
overlay zone. Having uh just introduced that ordinance, I would like to uh you had the hearing. Yes. Sorry. As we just had the hearing, I'd like to introduce this for final consideration. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. Roll call, please.
Mr. Ber, I. Miss Hamlet, I. Miss Calmanson, I. Mr. Palowski, I. Mr. Smallwood, I. Miss Toad, I. President McTenan, I. Motion carries. Okay. So, we're not doing number three.
Uh, all right. That'll take us to um ordinances for introduction. Uh at this time uh madame clerk will you please read capital projects and community services uh ID 12211 an ordinance amending the code of the city of summit chapter 35 development
regulations ordinance article 7 terminology various subsections of article 9 general zoning provisions article 14 design and performance requirements and relocating the development design guidelines from attachment one to part two zoning.
Thank you so much. Uh, Councilwoman Hamlet, what page on the packet are we? Ordinances for introduction. Page six. Six. Six. Was I thought we were You're just reintroducing with some minor changes.
This isn't re We're just tabled the ordinance. We're reintroducing with some minor changes. So, it'll go to the planning board for their review and then it'll come back for hearing. So, you just want to introduce the ordinance, but don't we want to just table it?
No, you previous This is the new version. Got it. Okay. The insert. The insert. Okay. Oh, so you've got So, the the correct one is the correct correct. Okay. Got it. Sorry. I apologize. This was this was a tricky one for our computer system. Uh,
so this is um ordinance. City of Summit, County of Union, New Jersey. City of Summit adopted a new chapter 35 developmental regulations ordinance DRRO of the city code in 2020. The DRRO is a living document which is intended to be updated from time to time as deemed to be necessary for the purposes of
refinement, adjust policy decisions, and address emerging land use issues. The DRRO amendments contained herein are based on the planning board's recommendations derived from a periodic review of the ordinance. Uh these ordinance amendments will better align the city's developmental regulations
with its adopted master plan goals, objectives, and policies. Um so I would like to uh introduce this ordinance to then send to the planning board. And I would say that uh I would thank uh Councilwoman Toth for her comments. We've been going back and forth uh with
the uh plan the uh chairman of the planning board. Uh so obviously value her comments as a longtime zoning board member. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Um, roll call. Mr. Boyer. Hi. Miss Hamlin. I. Miss Kelson. Hi.
Mr. I. Mr. Smallwood. I. Miss Toe. I. President Mc. I. Motion carries. All right. Um, thank you all for going through these hearings. Uh, we're on now on to the resolution
portion of our uh meeting. Um, yeah. Um, Miss Hamlet, I was wondering if we could do the uh the two maybe playground resolutions first. Sure. Would it be okay to bundle those? Yeah, that would be great. Great. Okay, these are resolutions 12148 and
12147. One second here. Just getting in my notes. Sorry. Apologize. Okay. All right. Here we go.
Okay. So, these two resolutions will be bundled and both of these bids were received for maybe playground improvement on two occasions, May 13th, 2025 and July 15, 2025. All of these
bids were rejected on both of those dates pursuant to um NJSA4A1-13.2 two where the lowest bid substantially exceeded the contracting units appropriation for uh the goods or services. So common council authorized
negotiations for this project on July 29th uh pursuant to that which also proved unsuccessful. So both of these we are very excited uh in summary to finally uh be able to award the two contracts to bring the maybe playground uh to to life. Uh so I
want to thank uh our parks and recreation department David and Mark for for all of and the advisory committee for all of their hard work on this. It's been an extremely long process uh dating all the way back to 2022 and including Mayor Raidest when the playground master plan uh and the playground subcommittee
uh went through just so much work in order to get this done. Uh several meetings were held with stakeholders including parents of children with special needs, seniors, neighbors of the park to come up with a design that would bring Summit's first 100% ADA accessible sensory friendly intergenerational
playground to life. I've heard David say that a thousand times. Uh $1 million was fundraised for this project, including the Green Acres Jake Law Grant Jake Law grant along with other state, county, and local grants. meeting of meeting all of the requirements of Jake Slaw's playground was an extremely arduous
process uh but one that was well worth to bring this amazing playground to fruition. Uh thank you to all the residents who have donated to this project. Uh you really have helped make this a reality and uh we could not be happier with the results. Uh playground where all the components are accessible
to all the children regardless of their need level including those uh who are bound to wheelchairs. Uh the communications board will give individuals without a voice a way to communicate. The dual lane zipline will be a fan favorite and the beautiful main structure guarantees equal access for
all. There will also be an area with a sensory musical garden, special swing benches designated with senior citizens in mind, game tables where all of the different generations can come together. Uh there will also be the beacon climber in the playground uh which will bring Summit's history to the center of the
park as well. And uh I would just like to it will also include a beautiful new basketball court being completed as a part of this project. So I am very excited to uh have been a part of this. I just want to thank everybody for all their support. Like to move forward with this resolution.
Second. All right. Um at this time uh is there any members of the public like to comment on this resolution? All right. I just want to say we've got uh young Mr. Ho is coming up to the lectern. Uh he has a comment that's related to recreation. So, I thought it
would be very permissible to have him give his comment because I understand you have a big test tomorrow. Is that right? Well, yeah. Yeah. Good luck with that. Uh, hi. Good evening. Uh, I'm Carlos Ho, a seventh grade student at LCJSMS. Uh, I'm here to speak with you guys because
I disagree with the new policy banning traditional bikes on sidewalks in the downtown area uh of Summit. Uh because on October 3rd uh 2025, we had an assembly at the middle school on the use of bikes and ebikes in town. As you guys
just heard in the beginning, uh in this assembly, uh it was stated that it's now illegal to ride a traditional bicycle on the sidewalk in the downtown area. The penalty that was stated at the middle school was that your bike would be confiscated and you have to pay a fine
of up to $500 for riding your bike on the sidewalk. Um, I believe that it is unfair that bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks because it's unsafe for kids to be riding on the streets with cars. Uh, for example, my little brother, uh,
he's eight. What if he falls on the street and gets run over by a car on the way to sweet nothings because he's on the street and that's like really dangerous for him? Uh like cars are bigger and faster than us. Uh I'm not
particularly very tall. Uh and what if a car doesn't see me and I get run over? I'll probably die and uh I don't want that to happen. Uh, I love to ride my bike around town with my friends and go to like the cools or
like CVS or stuff and I know that this new rule would make it more dangerous for me to do that because I have to be on the street with cars. Uh, I understand that it's dangerous for ebikes to be used on sidewalks and I agree with that, but in my opinion that's not the case with a traditional
bike. I have a question for you guys. When did the complaints start about people on on bikes? We started hearing complaint so many complaints and about about so many complaints and accidents when ebikes became so popular. Before that, there
was no problem with riding your bike on the sidewalk. Yet now we have this new rule that makes it less fun and more dangerous to ride your bike in town. I hope you consider changing the policy. And thank you for your time. Thank you for your really good comments. If you have a statement, could you leave
it with the the clerk? Thank you. Good luck with your test tomorrow. All right. Uh other uh comments from the public. All right. Comments from council. Councilman Boyer. First of all, I want to thank that young
man for coming up and expressing himself. Um that was that was truly awesome. And that's what it's about to be at such a young age to come up and um state his opinion. uh about what he thinks is fair and is right. Um I
applaud that young man and uh Diego is is uh raising his son right. Um, so, uh, I will also say that there's been an another young man who reached out to me on, uh, on Instagram, um, who is a classmate of my daughters
and said, "Councilman Boyer," and this kid like flies up and down the street, you know, he's finally wearing a helmet on his ebike, says, "Councilman Boyer, it's unfair um, that I have to ride my ebike in the in the street, you know, can you change the laws?" Um, and you know, I applauded him, too. I said, "But
you know what? You know, you're 12 and you're like reaching out to your councilman on Instagram, right? Like, you know, that that is that is really that is really good." And I told him, I said, "Give me a call and we'll we'll uh we'll we'll discuss um we'll discuss it and wear
your helmet." Um so, uh riding bikes downtown. Uh listen, we have a we have a nice commuter bike storage place now. Um there have been some incidents, you
know, we our downtown is is is very populated. Um and unfortunately, um kids ride their bikes pretty crazy downtown, right? Um people are walking their dogs, people, you know, in baby carriages and
stuff like that. So, um I think it's a good thing to just park your bike, walk around town, and uh get some pizza, and then when you get ready to go home, hop back on your bike and, you know, be off. But you can ride on the sidewalk, um
anywhere other than uh our downtown. So, um we did think about that. So, it's different from ebikes. We do want kids to be safe. Uh, so the prohibition is just in our downtown. But, uh, again, I applaud that young man for coming up and
speaking. Thank you, Council President. Other comments. Councilman Smallwood. Thank you. I I really would like to echo Councilman Palowsk's uh comments about Carlos coming up and and speaking. Uh, it's not easy. It's it's it's nerve-wracking when you get in front of
uh, you know, this this council. And I mean I remember when I was going up there I was actually more nervous there than I am here at times. So congratulations to Carlos and thank you very much for for coming. Um you know I
I think you know I actually do think there's a difference between a regular bike and an ebike and um you know we need to do is really balance safety with you know the also the safety of our children being in the street. So, uh, I
I think that's this is something that is going to be evolving and, uh, we really need to take a look at this because I'm during my council comments later on, uh, I'm certainly going to address some more ebike issues. Uh, but again, I applaud Carlos for coming up.
He's following in his father's footsteps and that's that's a great thing. So, um, that's all I had. Council President, thank you so much. Other comments from council? Councilwoman Hamlet, I would say maybe it would be nice to have um more bike racks even around city hall in this area and that way the
children can park and walk around town because it is it is pretty busy down there. So maybe um we could look to do that and they could park their bikes right here, more of them, and uh and then walk to to town. Thank you. Other comments Councilman
Smallwood. Sorry, I I uh I I totally got uh thrown off track here by by Carlo Carlos because he did a great job. Um I I am uh I do want to talk about the resolutions as well. Uh first of all, I I want to thank uh Mark and David from the
Department of Community Programs for working so hard on this. This has been a a long time in coming. Uh it's been years of progress and I'm really looking forward to this being the very first uh fully ADA accessible uh playground for
for our children and uh and our and our neighbors. Um in fact, you know, it it's almost, you know, a blessing that it took a little bit longer than expected because David was actually able to find us some savings. Uh so it was not actually not as expensive as we had
actually anticipated. So, uh, I applaud David and Mark for their hard work and I'm really looking forward to the, uh, the construction of this. Thank you. Other comments. Oh, yes, Madam Mayor. Two quick things. Um, one, I want to say
that I'm really excited about the playground. Um, and I think this is the first of of many. Um, so I know that I've heard a lot from young families especially about our play playground situation here. And so we're on the road
to um to fixing what we believe is is a problem. So I'm grateful to David for all his work and to Mark for for engaging the community and really getting this done. And then second, I just want to address Carlos. Um we do there are the signs that are coming do
say walk it, don't ride it. So you can still bring your bike downtown. You just need to walk it so that we keep our pedestrians and baby strollers safe and bikers too. I'd like uh other comments from council. Council president really. Yes. Councilman Boyer.
I too like Councilman Smallwood um uh got sidetracked by this young man. Uh I just I remember years ago there was a resident that came up was talking about the uh sensory music climber. And man, I'm so glad that we put that in there.
uh she I mean it was it was heartfelt what she was saying about her her son and how much this how much this will help him. So I remember that. Um, also, um, I'm excited to continue the beautifification of our village green as
long as we move that hump that goes across from, you know, um, you know, so we're making progress there and and I hope, you know, uh, that we will put a dog park there at some point as well. So, you know, I'm very excited about our
village green. It's supposed to be a gathering place and and we're we're beautifying it. So, thank you, Council President. Thank you very much. Other comments? All right. All in favor? I opposed. All right. Those two resolutions pass.
All right. Uh, capital projects and community services number one. Councilwoman Hamlet. Sorry. Sorry. Just one second. So many papers up here. I apologize.
Let me find it on my thing here. 12196, right? No. Um 12158. Sorry. No. Uh Kevin's doing this one. Councilman Smallwood. Sorry. Okay. Thanks. I apologize, Councilman Smallwood. Apologies.
That's all right. I didn't get the memo. That's why I was so confused. I'm like, wait, I thought I didn't have one until seconds. I didn't get the memo. So, there you go. Thank you very much, Council President. This is ID number 12185 to authorize the ES CJ co-op purchase Musco Sporting
Lights LLC upper tatlock and investors field lighting project for1 million2 $21,343. Um tonight is a big night for Summit Sports and our entire community. Uh unfortunately Gil Orin is not here with us because I think he would certainly be
in our audience tonight. We are voting to award a contract to Musco light musco lighting for the installation of state-of-the-art dark sky compliant lights at both upper tatlock field and investors field. These modern energy energy efficient lights
will allow us to comfortably meet the glowing the growing demand of our youth and community sports programs while respecting our neighbors and our night sky. This has been a long time coming. The vision of lighting tatlock began nearly a decade ago with the tatlock
redevelopment plan over and over ye over the years it has been studied discussed and refined. A formal lighting study was approved in 2021 setting the stage for tonight's milestone. Since February 2024, council and the
department of community programs have worked with the residents of the Tatlaw community, listening carefully, addressing concerns, and collaborate collaborating to make sure this project reflects both community needs and
neighborhood considerations. Many of the concerns have we've heard extend beyond lighting and we remain fully committed to continuing the dialogue and resolving those issues that matter to our neighbors. At the same
time, we've heard strong support across summit from boo from booster club meetings, public feedback, and community petitions, all underscoring how important this project is for our youth, our youth, our families, and local sports programs.
That support culminated in residents in the Summit Foundation stepping up to lead a private fundraising campaign, raising $500,000. A tremendous show of community commitment. By lighting both fields, we received a discount of over $100,000.
Investors field cost $525,121 and upper Tatlock $476,222 and $20,000 for electric electrical design bringing the total to1,21,343, far below the original anticipated cost of 1.6 million. And we're not stopping
there. The lawn and labor committee are currently finalizing a new lighting ordinance that will ensure responsible use, balancing athletic needs as well as neighborhood impact. So tonight, by awarding this contract to Musco through
the state contract program, we are delivering on a shared vision, one that supports our student athletes, strengthens our community, and ensures Tatlock remains a source of Hill Topper pride for years to come. Council President, I move to pass this
resolution. Second. All right. Um, would any member from the public like to comment on this resolution? Okay. No public comments. Anybody? Yeah. Come on up. Hi, Kelly Ikelli, 151 Colonial Road um
Summit, New Jersey. Um 55 plus year resident of town. I just want to thank um council for moving this forward, doing the due diligence. I have been a coach along with my husband in probably six or seven
different sports in town. Been active in um field usage and scheduling. And this will be a great asset to all sports from track to soccer to baseball, alleviating the shortfalls we have with our sports fields in town. So, thank you all for
all your work. I know it's not been easy and I listened to the zoning board meeting last week where the suggestions were noted about limiting different things and I think it was uh very well thought out. So, thank you all. Thank you for your comments. Other
comments from the public? All right. Um, comments from council. Council president. I don't know how much we can uh we can actually say since it's the lights, right? And talk about the resolution. Councilman Boyer. Uh, yeah. I'm in support of it. Um,
so thank you, Council President. You're very welcome. Other comments from council. Councilwoman Hamlet, I would just like to say this is a huge victory for the community. Um, these children uh need these lights. And as uh
Councilman Smallwood mentioned, uh our intention is 100% to lead this project with integrity, transparency, and and keep the neighbors uh included. And that's why we're doing the usage policy in the
law and labor committee. On uh June 14th, we it was flag day, and I remember we had a little bit of a tattered flag, and I was in a bad mood about it. So, we went out and got a new flag and we called up some of the elks and maybe a
Legion person or two. I can't exactly remember. And uh I think I called Director Shreger and I said, "How do I get this flag down?" And there's a key outside. And so we we got a flag here. And and that day, this this is coming back to the lights, by the way. Um that day, Gil Orin uh changed out that flag.
And so what I would hope is we can take that flag um maybe tomorrow or as soon as we get a new one. Director Shreger and we can either present that flag to Fran or we can put that down with those lights and uh when we turn those lights on we can remember Gil at that ceremony.
So uh huge win for the community. Those are nice thoughts. Thank you, Councilwoman Hamlet. Other comments from Council. Madame Mayor, sorry I don't usually talk this much, but um being part of the planning board,
this was um something that we spent seven hours discussing to get it to this point. Um I feel very strongly having been involved in youth sports in this town for probably 20 years, actually. No, definitely 20 years. Um uh that this
is this is a real win for the community. It's something that's a need. Um it's really not a want. It's something that, you know, will will really um put us into the next generation um as as a city. And um I just want to say thank you to everybody for the hard work on
this. But I also want to point out that the planning board meeting did go so long because we were talking about how can we make compromises so that the neighbors have as little impact to their lives as po lives as possible. So this
is a really important thing. It's not finished yet, but but the lights really are going to impact very in a positive way the community at large and and that's our job. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Councilwoman Camelson.
Thank you, Council President. Um, I watched the planning board meeting and I didn't I saw a few suggestions thrown out, but they were immediately undermined by another comment. So, I didn't see any recommendations that came out of the planning board um meeting,
which was disappointing. And I'm hearing about this lighting and noise ordinance um for the first time, which is great. But um we haven't seen anything yet. And there's nothing I can do to get my fellow council members to care about the neighbors around Tatlock. Your
unequivocal support of the lights means you don't care how long whistles are blaring and lights are on every night. You don't care because if you did, you would have presented a plan to protect the quality of life for the neighborhood instead of racing through your madeup process to say you've checked all of
your boxes. If you cared, you wouldn't have rolled your eyes at residents in neighborhood meetings. If you cared, you would have turned you would not have turned the neighborhood study meetings into a pep rally, inviting the entire town to intimidate and heckle neighbors
with genuine questions and concerns. If you cared, you would have completed accurate studies instead of an offseason environmental study and a traffic study on a rainy day football game with low attendance. Since the beginning, DCP and Councilman Smallwood have treated the Tatlock
neighborhood like an obstacle to overcome rather than good neighbors. They have been more concerned about checking off boxes than whether or not the results they received were accurate and realistic. more concerned about checking off boxes to show the appearance of listening rather than doing the work to make sure the
neighborhood is protected. Now is the time to act. With today's votes, there can be no more we don't even know if this will happen or trust us. The city must enter into a binding agreement with the residents in the neighborhood that places restrictions on
when and how the stadium lights can be used before any construction begins. We need to continue to work on improving traffic and parking. We've made some progress, but this remains a challenge and results are not consistent. And as a reminder to my colleagues, this is our
job. Maintaining safe streets for all residents, not just the ones who agree with us, is our job. It's not going above and beyond to preserve the quality of life for the neighborhood. It's our job. So now I ask my fellow council members to prove me wrong. I said, "You
don't care about Tatlock neighborhood. Prove me wrong. Let's work together and replace the empty promises with action. Let's put lasting protections in place to show our neighbors that city leadership respects and cares about them. Thank you. Other comments?
I I just have one. Uh Councilman Smallwood or do you want to go first? Counciloman Hamlet, please go. Oh, yeah. Um Council Member Camelson, I was just wondering, you mentioned that we threw out some recommendations. Can you just tell us a little bit more about
um whether or not we memorialized those at the end of the meeting at 1:30 in the morning and what they were? I I don't know if you memorialized them. Would you do you understand that that's part of part of the process at the planning board? I maybe you missed that,
but we we specifically wrote down um just for the public, we specifically wrote down all of our recommendations for how we could improve the project and that will that actually goes through the planning board secretary. So, if there was something specific that we didn't hit, I'd be happy to discuss that with
you. Well, one one person said, "How about we restrict it only to people in summit and not rent it out to other towns?" And then another member said, "Well, I don't want to do that. I don't want to take that off the table." Sorry, which member was that? I don't remember. I was at the meeting the entire time. I I don't remember that.
It was Susan Bowen said, "I don't want to take that off the table." Paul Paul Stern said, "Let's limit this to Summit and not anybody out of town." And Susan Bowen said, "Well, I don't want to take that off the table." Okay.
Right. Okay. And then um I think um Jennifer Balsson Alvarez said something about how about let's have lights should be off until off off at 9:00. And then I think Austo said, "Well, this is more of a conversation about when things are ended and maybe they should be off at 15 minutes after, maybe they should be off
30 minutes after." I mean, the the recommendations that I saw, like I said, were undermined. So, I did not see I did not see any confirmation. So I would love to see I would say that I think that on in total the planning board was was very much unanimously in agreement with with
many of those recommendations including uh not having organizations outside of summit. Um and again all of these recommendations are in the memorialization of that
consistency review and the next step to that is the light and usage policy which is what is happening at the law and labor committee. So as as a consistency review, our job our job that night is just to make sure it's consistent with
the master plan as a capital project, right? We can't develop the the light and usage policy. That's not our role on the planning board. We are there to verify that it is consistent or not inconsistent. That's actually the term with the master plan. So as a planning
board member, that's that's our only role in that job. It has to go back to committee for the light and usage policy. Okay. Well, but they're good good comments. I'm not Well, I mean, whatever. Okay. Other comments from council. Councilman
Smallwood. Yes. Thank you, Council President. Um, Councilwoman Council, you know, you you you were in every single one of those meetings uh from day one. I I was not. Okay. May maybe you missed one.
Um, I was I was not But yeah, actually, well, David could check the the notes. We have over 50 pages on the Department of Community Program site, questions and answers. This program
began before 2018. This has not been rushed through. Uh, you know, this is something that was presented to council in 2018 when council president McTurnan was
originally on this council and I think his comment was, "Have you met with the residents?" And no one had at that point. We started meeting with the residents last February and we had four other subsequent
meetings after that. Um, just because we don't always get the answers we want doesn't mean we're not listening. We are listening. The traffic at the football game on
Saturday is much better than it was a year and a half ago, two years ago. The parking situation much better than it was two years ago. We are listening
and we're not stop we're not done listening. We don't want to make your life miserable. We're trying to add to our children's youth sports. And to be honest, when if if it were up to me,
I would never rent these lights out these fields out at night to an outside community or an outside vendor. This is for our community. This is for our students. We're fighting for field space for our youth programs. It's
9:25 right now. Youth football has already ended. There's nobody at Talic right now. And they have they practice on upper Tatlock where there are lights, but it only lights a quarter of the
field. So, sixth graders pretty much practice in the dark. Seventh graders practice somewhere in the middle. There's a little bit of light. And eighth graders actually practice under the one quarter of the field that is actually lit. Those are sixth, seventh, and eighth
graders. No parent that I know of wants to be picking up their children at 10:00 at night on a Tuesday night. When lawn labor finishes with their lighting plan and their usage plan, I
guarantee you that there is nothing in there that will say that these lights will be on till 10 p.m. 365 days a year. If they are, I will vote no for it. But I'm not worried about that happening.
If it says that we can rent these fields out to outside vendors, I will vote no for it. This is for our children. Let's get them off their screens, off the couch. Give people who want to walk around the
track some a safe and lighted space to walk rather than on dark sidewalks. This is for our community. Nobody's trying to ruin Tatlock neighborhood. If I lived where you lived, I wouldn't
want them on till 10 p.m. 365 days either. But what I do want is to get give our children the ability to practice until 8:30 at night, which they can't right now. It gets dark
at 6:15 6:20 and when the you know the time changes it's going to get dark even sooner. We we are listening. Do answers come immediately? No. This is
a work in progress. But we have taken David and Mark has taken all of those notes, put them on the website and has answered those questions as best as we possibly can with the information that we had at the time.
This is a work in progress and we will continue to make it better. This is summit. We will make things better. I understand that you don't want the lights. Period. And that's okay.
We all have, you know, I have one vote here. You have one vote here. And it's okay that we disagree on something. But my vote is definitely going to be a yes because not because my children are going to benefit from this,
but because someone's six-year-old, someone's 8-year-old, someone's 13year-old will benefit from these lights. We have so many high school students
that go on to play college sports. And it doesn't start at the high school level. It starts at our youth programs. We have such a tremendous community built around our youth sports and it
starts in our elementary schools and we're lucky enough that we have 90% of our youth programs taught by parents. This is such an amazing community. And again, we're not trying to ruin anyone's
neighborhood. Would I love to put lights at Memorial Field? It's a huge field, yes, but that's our last piece of green space. And by putting it on grass fields, the utilization of that would just
simply ruin the entire park. So, having the lights at Tatlock makes the most sense. And again, this is not for our high school football team. Are they going to be able to benefit from it? Yes. And that's a great thing. I've
already talked to coach Kosabos. He said, "Summit's tradition is playing their football games on Saturday. Would it be great to have one or two football games at night?" Yes. Maybe a senior night. Same thing with lacrosse. Boys
and girls lacrosse, soccer, boys and girls soccer having senior nights on Friday nights or whenever they would like to have it. There are TV shows and TV series that are called Friday Night Lights and
they're great, but it doesn't We have four home football games this year. So, even if they decided to have all home games at night, there's only four. But I don't foresee that to happen
because Kabibos there's there's a tradition about Summit football and that is playing on Saturday afternoons. And that's that was his words, not mine. So I again I I am fully supportive of this. Um
and this has been a long time coming, not just since I've been involved, but since back in 2018 when they originally presented to council. So I I just last thing I want to say is the fact that we are listening. I know it's not necessarily what you want to
hear, but we are going to adapt, make things better so that the neighborhood benefits from it as well. Thank you, Council President. Thank you. Other comments, Councilman Palowski. Yeah. Um, I care about the neighborhood.
Um, and I think everybody else up here does. If we didn't care, we wouldn't have had so many meetings. We wouldn't have created a Tatlock neighborhood committee to address some of these concerns. Um, we've done so
much already to improve things down there with regards to parking, single side of the street parking, coming up with a plan for our buses, coordinating better with the BOE. We've done independent research.
um the Q&As's that David took and answered uh so that the public could know what we've considered in the alternative, why we haven't gone that way. I mean, Memorial Field, Memorial Field gets overused already. So, putting
lights on Memorial Field with grass there would be counter to what those fields actually need, which is rest. Putting turf there is cost prohibitive. and putting lights on upper and lower Tatlock field was cost prohibitive until
we had a bunch of uh generous donors who um who helped us uh bring this across the finish line earlier than we had originally planned and and I'm grateful for that. As for Susan Bowen's comment, I think it was
kind of this extreme situation where I don't know, Milbour's Field became unusable uh for a season and you if if we said that we wouldn't rent it out, you know, we wouldn't be able to help our neighboring community.
And so, you know, I I don't know that that's going to happen. It has never been our plan to use this for anything but our own youth sports, which by the way have grown in leaps and bounds. Uh, in the past decade or so, when I played
in the Summit Lacrosse Club, there was a boys fourth, fifth, and sixth grade team for the entire town. There was a boys seventh and eighth grade team for the entire town. And there was a girls seventh and eighth grade team for the entire town. Now
there's two or three teams per grade for both sexes. We have spring field hockey in addition to fall field hockey. Soccer's always been all year. Baseball plays in the fall now. Lacrosse plays in the fall now. And
there are even some football programs in the spring. Not to mention girls flag football which is one of the faster growing sports. And it's my understanding that they're even giving out scholarships now. Uh colleges are
having it. So, you know, given and there are no more fields. So, um something has to happen where one, you know, I think 80% of municipalities in the state of New Jersey already have lights on their
football field. And I'm glad that we're going to join them. and we need we need the space, but we're going to keep listening. Um, and we're going to keep doing everything that we can to improve the conditions for the neighbors down
there. Um, and we are working on uh a usage policy that will provide some limitations. To my knowledge, one council can't bind another council uh with an agreement with a particular neighborhood. So, I I
I don't see how we could do that. Um, but I'm I'm going to vote for these lights. I've always been um in favor of it. And, you know, I kept an open mind when we had all of these meetings and you were at several of them that I was at on the track at Tatlock in an
informal meeting, some sitdown meetings, presentations. I really do feel like we've done our due diligence on this. So, I think this is a measure that's ready. Thank you. Other comments? Yeah, I'll just Oh, yes. Councilwoman
Counelson, thank you. Um I I just had a few things. Um everybody keeps talking about community and the neighborhood around Tatlock does not feel like a part of the community. And I think it's really important for everybody to hear that.
Somebody said to me, they knew this was on the agenda tonight and they said, "You know what? this isn't my town anymore. It's just somewhere I live and that's sad. So, I hope that you will go into a contract
with the neighborhood. I think it's important and that's something the council president and I had discussed um as as as an option as you know something that um that the city should do. Um, and regarding the the current coach, I
understand the current coach doesn't want um several night games, but when that coach leaves, we don't know what the future holds. So, I think it's really important to get um to get a a binding agreement with the contract um I'm sorry, binding um agreement with the
neighborhood and I think that would go a long way. Council comments. Councilman Small. Yeah, you're you're absolutely right, M. Michelle. you know, coaches do come and go, so maybe it's something that we could address with the board of education. Uh maybe a contract with
them. Yeah, I was going to say that. I think that was my suggestion that we had. It wasn't with the neighborhood, but it was with the board of ed. Say these are and make it some amount of time that would at least give the residents certainty that something's not going to change for
several years. And the contract's binding. You know, if you want to break it, there are consequences to breaking that. And at least that would give the residents in the neighborhood an understanding of at least how um the board of ed which is you know the high school sports which I think are the
biggest concern of the neighborhood um they'd have some clarity around that. Um and look and the board of ed is as people have mentioned up here have their own uh ideas about usage. I know I've spoken to some of the administrators at
some of these uh at the high school and they have they have strong opinions about usage at night and night games and things like that and and all that would be taken into uh consideration. Um I I I would just um you know respectfully
disagree with uh Councilwoman Comlson's uh view that at least speaking for myself that I don't care about the neighbors. Um you know as I mentioned like 10 years ago when this came up you got to talk to the
neighbors have you? And um when I first kind of parachuted in here um I was we were in the middle of a a huge engagement with the neighbors. And look
the you know when you're having an open meeting. You can't you know there were there were meetings for the residents but there are meetings for the entire town. The town gets to express their view. uh we just can't restrict it to one neighborhood when there's a huge amount of people who
have maybe differing opinions. They should be heard too. And again, maybe the people in the neighborhood didn't like didn't like to hear the their opinions, but they have every right to express them as well. Um
so I I think there was a a pretty um you know meticul or a strong process. it we they addressed many many aspects of uh neighbors concerns and I I I'm proud to say like I think councilwoman Hamlet
was the first one to suggest on this uh day the uh neighborhood committee tatlock neighborhood committee it's a freaking great idea excuse my um slur um it was it was a great idea you know when I sat in all these
meetings it became abundantly clear to me that uh the um there were people who were adamantly against the lights. That is true. But they also listed a litany of issues that they've been dealing with for years.
Parking issues, traffic issues, concerns about safety, all these things that as far as I know, and I've been up here and down here, no one in this community ever addressed. It bounced off the walls and no one took them seriously.
I give Councilwoman Hamlet a ton of credit for suggesting this idea and Councilwoman Palowski sat on this committee along with uh Councilwoman Camelson and they listened. They came up with ideas and I'm really happy to uh
that Councilwoman Camelson acknowledged that things have begun to improve. That's a huge win for that neighborhood. Nobody has addressed this for the community since they started playing football down there. So to say that,
again, I can only speak for myself that I don't care about the neighbors is just patently false. Patently false. This is a process. I think people have articulated that very, very well. This isn't done. We're finished. Thank you.
Drop the mic. This is a process. I'm glad that law and labor is working on this. There'll be engagement around this. There'll be feedback around this um on what's the right way to to move forward. Um and I I hope that the community in in that neighborhood is
open to having those discussions because not to engage is the worst thing you can do because they are part of this town and we do care about them. At least I know I care about them and they should be here to talk about it. But but with that I am going to support
the the resolution. Other comments. Okay. Uh all in favor? I opposed. I Okay. Motion carries. All right. Um we're now on to the consent agenda
portion of our meeting. Um do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Um I have a second. I'll second and make a request that I had wanted to to comment on some of the Yeah, we'll have a chance to comment. Okay, great.
Um, thank you. Okay. Uh, comments from the public on anything on the consent agenda? Comments from council? Yeah. Yes. Councilwoman Toe. Okay. Thank Thank you, Council President. I'd like to explain the first
three resolutions on the finance portion of the consent agenda. Um these are the ones that that are cance cancelling um cancelling improvement authorization funds. City budgets for capital projects are based on estimated or actual
pricing. Um once a project has been completed, there may be an unspent balance and these unspent funds can be cancelled and returned to the capital fund balance where they can be used for various purposes including paying down our debt or funding future projects. So,
the first three resolutions on the consent agenda do just that um and return a total of 2009 98,184.51 to the city's coffers. Thank you. Good. Uh other comments from council
one. All right. Uh all in favor? Have one. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Councilwoman Hamlet. Uh yes. I just wanted to mention that uh one of these is very important. The Bridges Outreach 5K run uh will be on the Village Green on Sunday, November
2nd. Uh so that's going to be a really exciting time uh for you to come out either support bridges or uh it's a really always a fun time. So just wanted to point that out. And then there's also in this consent agenda is um some
fencing for the DeForest lot for the farmers market. So, I think that, you know, as we hear from the community on things that we can improve, uh, the summit downtown has agreed to put an extra piece of fencing around the farmers market. So, um, we've done a lot of great things there at the farmers
market, including adding some electrical outlets this year. SDI has done a nice job and I think everybody really enjoys that. So, that was it. Great. Thank you. Other comments? All right. Uh, all in favor? I opposed. Okay. Consent agenda passes. All right,
that's awesome. Um, city officials, thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Go home. Do we There was supposed to be a roads update. Do we want to give that quick? Oh, yes. We forgot to do that. Oh my god. Wow. Uh, Director Shrager, thank you so
much. Yeah. Um, I forgot. We have uh I know I'm not alone. Uh, a lot of council people have heard uh from residents. There's a lot of work on on city roads. Most of it is being done by the uh three utility companies uh as
part of infrastructure upgrades. Uh it can be very frustrating because some of the roads have just been completed and then they get dug up and um I get it. It's very frustrating if you've got a brand new road in front of your house and then it's not so brand new right
away. And and um so we thought it was be very important for director Shrager to give an update on what we know and the coordination that we're we have with the utility companies um and some sort of timeline if we have it on uh different project completions. So thank you.
Certainly. Uh, so we certainly appreciate the construction fatigue that most neighborhoods have. If you don't have it, then please let us know what neighborhood you're in because it seems to be everywhere. So I will just say there's, you know, in terms of paving and major construction, there are three entities doing work. I'll take Union
County is the easiest one. We don't have an exact date, but they're paving Gladside Avenue in the next few weeks. The original date was listed as September 25th. they're running behind, but that's as part of their annual road uh paving program. We'll post it on our site. They have it posted on their site
as well. Um then your two utilities. So, we'll start with New Jersey American Water. Uh they're more centrally located in the northern part of Morris Avenue. Uh and they are completing their work
there. uh to put a positive spin, there was numerous water main breaks in this neighborhood over the last few years. So they did uh come in and accelerate a capital project there uh to you know remove the uh aging infrastructure to
you know so that won't happen moving forward. um they will begin their paving of their streets and really they will finish all their work in a couple of weeks uh in terms of the replacements. Uh but their paving will start on November 3rd. Uh again, this will all go
to the information office. We'll post it on our website as well. Um but they will be responsible for paving Weaver, Lincoln, Madison, Lowel, Montrose, Lafayette, and Plane.
That's just what their contractors paving. Some of those streets overlap with PSE and G work. So um but that is all the area that New Jersey American Water uh has active projects. So once they're done, they are out. They have nothing planned for next year. Routine emergency services and upgrades will
always happen, but uh they have no capital projects. So hopefully weather cooperates. They will be out of here by mid November. Um and we appreciate their upgrade, but that'll give some um relief of projects. Uh PSENG is still ongoing
pretty much all over town. Seems to be more on the western side right now. uh they will be in to start paving streets that have been prepared and are ready on October 27th. Um just to keep things though uh Halloween related, all
utilities have been told they cannot work on Halloween uh and have been warned to have their streets cleaned up and their equipment protected for the night before, which uh some call mischief night. But either way, they will not be out on Friday, October 31st, um doing any work. They were instructed
that uh their first this not their first it's actually their third round of paving for this year includes uh Springfield Avenue where they have trench work obviously not the whole thing uh Evergreen an
additional part of Colonial and Madison Muy Aubry Lewis the remaining part of Beakman a portion of Ashlin where they did work. Uh Pine Ridge and Baltus Roll Place. Uh
those are the roads that will start on October 27th. Anything that has not been paved yet will likely be in the spring. We'll try to accelerate a few more uh if the roads are ready for it. Uh in addition to that though, it doesn't mean if there is trenches that are failing,
if the roads are not in good condition, they will be fixing that uh much quicker than obviously their paving schedule. So, we have engineers going out just to evaluate to tell them that certain roads are just not going to cut it and not going to wait till paving. Uh, and they're aware of that as well. Where they're actually working, uh, list is
too big to just go through here. We'll post that on our website. Um, but they do have a lot of active permits. So, again, to look at it half full, there's a lot of infrastructure getting replaced. There's a lot of roads that are going to get paved. Uh, not in the city's dime. Obviously, it's an
inconvenience and there it's becoming, you know, we're all becoming a little fatigued from it. So, that's one way to look at it. So, but yes, if if residents do have roads now that uh need a little repair to the trenches in advance of paving, you know, please reach out to us
and we'll we'll convey it to PSNG and we'll be routinely checking them as well. Director Shger, is the best way to do that through C click fix or should they call? What's the best way for residents to make that happen? Cclick fix. we just get them quicker. So that would be, you know, especially if
it's on the weekend, but we'll direct them right to to PICG. But if they have my information or anyone in the the department, they could reach out as well. So, and we stay on top of them. So, any other questions for Director Shger? Madame Mayor, um, director, uh, do you have any, have
they indicated any length of time for when they will be moving on to a different municipality? What? Well, they they just they like it here so much they want to say. I mean, we're very welcoming, very inclusive. Uh, no, it's at some point next year.
They So, they say so we'll uh we'll both utilities. Yeah. Well, New Jersey American Water should be out this year. They're done. No capital projects. I mean, routine, you know, any emergency work. Yes. But PSNG will be ongoing with their
projects. uh a lighter winter and they can push through a little bit but you know paving would be in in the spring. Um unfortunately in the spring we will have a lot of projects out as well. So um you know again infrastructure getting upgraded great some convenience not so great. So we'll coordinate with police
and keep the information office posted. Thank you. Great. Thank you Councilman Palowski. May I make a quick comment before public comment and there's a reason for it? Sure.
The high school newspaper is called the Verve. They're about $1,800 short this year. And uh in order to print all nine of their issues, uh they're looking for some additional subscriptions. I've left a pile of uh paper on the counter.
Please take one on the way out. $50 you can spy on what your kids are doing at school and um encourage your friends to help out too. Thank you. Okay. Public service announcement. Thank you. Um All right. Any other comments for or questions for Director Shreger?
Okay. Thank you for the update. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh now we've got to uh end of our meeting. Um this is a time for the public to come and uh make comments for anything that has not been was not on the agenda. We just uh remind the public
to come up, give your name, your address, and please try and uh limit your comments to 3 minutes. Okay. Hi guys. Hi. Rachel Kramer, 88 Elm Street, Summit, New Jersey. Um, over the past few weeks,
I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go with my three minutes. But then I saw a recent post that made it clear, a post on the official Summit Democratic page by a vocal Democratic surrogate that read, "If you support any Republican,
you support the destruction and harm the GOP is doing to this country." There is no separation between being a Republican on the national in the on the national arena and a Republican on the local stage. That post was liked by the summit
Democrats account effectively co-signed by local Democrat leaders such as Michelle and Claire and candidates Jacqueline, Dan, and Shantel. That post and that endorsement reflect what's happened to our local political culture.
It's no longer about dialogue or community. It's about division, hostility, and the belief that if you disagree, you're the enemy and you don't care. Four years ago, I might have read that post and nodded along before I was blocked from their page. But that
changed when the Democratic le council introduced the gas leaf blower ban as the pilot in March of 2021. I spoke out against it, not because I opposed cleaner, quieter landscaping, but because of how it was done without meaningful input from residents and the
workers it affected. Despite being a lifelong Democrat, I was met with hostility from the former chair of the SMDC. I was told I cared more about profits over people, and I was even asked if I was fluent in Spanish after mentioning I'd spoken with landscapers.
That pattern continued when I raised concerns about Broad Street West. I was public publicly scolded by a vocal summit mi m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m municipal democrat supporter and the community was told that opposition and questions were somehow connected to redlinining and racism.
When I asked questions about the closure of Maple Street, questions we now know were valid since DOT approval was never received. I was labeled a troll, a bot, and a Republican surrogate. And most recently, after asking candidate Dan Chrisouli whether he
supports the at home insignment project and whether he agrees with the SMDC's brand of campaign attacks, I was accused of threatening him and pursuing him to his car. Claims that were later found to be entirely unfounded. Thank you, Summit Police Department. Let me be clear, no
one should ever hesitate to call the police if they feel unsafe or need help. I do not believe that's what happened here. What happened was an attempt to weaponize law enforcement for political gain. The evidence to support these claims is now publicly available through Oprah Request and it consisted only of
public questions and emails to his campaign email address. This is what political violence looks like at the local level. It doesn't begin with political harm. It doesn't be it begins with the dehumanization and vilification of people who ask questions and
disagree. And it worsens when others stay silent and encourage, enable, and like it. This is about more than Dan Chrysuli's false police report and lies. It's about a culture that rewards silence, punishes, and confuses control with leadership. If
that's what passes for politics and summit now, then every resident, regardless of party, should be alarmed. And we should all demand accountability, honesty, and basic decency from those who want to lead us. Anything less is an insult to this town and its residents. Thanks.
Thank you very much for your comments. Other comments from the public. Hi Dory Gagnon, 27 Bedford. Wow, that was really moving. Rachel. Um, I have to say I met Rachel and Dileia during Gas Leaf Blowers. I didn't know them. Um,
they're some of my best friends now. Um, and I have to say what's happening here in this city is not okay. It's not okay. And I agree with Rachel 100%. We ask questions. Um, I come to
council meetings. I've been coming to council meetings since castle leaf blowers. I was never politically motivated ever in my entire life. Uh as as the mayor says, Dory always speaks. I'm always speaking. Uh I want to learn. I've been a lifelong resident here my
whole life. I give back like Gil. Uh the speech about Gil was really motivating. Uh coaching, living, working, being a part of this town is really personable and I I thank everybody who's up here.
Jamal, growing up with him, giving back. Um, Michelle, I asked you to recuse yourself the last meeting and now hearing the debate go on tonight. Uh, you one thing that Councilwoman Jamie Lavine did is she recused herself those sidewalks going in
at the arburetum because I think believe she was on the board. now recusing yourself because you live across the street from Tatlock um or because you're involved with the PTO there or you're you you have this
whatever is going on with the United for Tatlock group that you started um you should ethically and morally recuse yourself because you're so closely involved with that organization. It's something that you would do we do or Mr. Palowski would do if he was involved
with a firm that was closely associated with here or that you should do. I think anybody who was on here, if you, Mr. Smallwood, were involved with a firm or something with your group, I would hold you to that just like I would hold Miss Conson to that. Whoever it is, I
don't care if you're Republican or Democrat. It's the right thing to do. I'm glad you passed the lights tonight. I didn't like the lights, but like I've said before, I want them now because of this whole process and how it's gone about it. Um,
again, I think the way the politics have gone in Summit, it's not about being a Republican or a Democrat. It's doing the right thing. It's holding people accountable. And I'll hold everybody up here accountable. You might be my friends, but I'm still going to hold you straight. I still call you and say you're not doing the right thing. Like
that camping ordinance, whether Mr. Powski said, "Wow," to that email I sent him. Yeah, I'm still going to call you out on it. So, just remember that we're all here for the the better good of this town. And um I want to thank you again for everything you guys have done. And uh Gil, I know you're watching from up
there. So, thank you. Thank you for your comments. Other comments from the public. Tracy Keegan. Um I'm a resident of Summit. I first moved here in 1994. Uh over the past few months, local
Republican leaders have positioned themselves as defenders of free speech. But for years, they've worked to silence opposing voices. from putting up barriers to a first amendment protected rally on the village green to tolerating aggressive and slanderous behavior from
their supporters to degrading public safety by allowing council members to weaponize Oprah police calls. I recently found out that this effort to suppress goes much deeper. In April, Dileia Hamlet was CCd on an email from
her supporter to a nearby town clerk asking whether it will be possible to block non-residents from speaking at our council meetings. This inquiry came just before the controversial vote to criminalize homelessness when Miss Hamlet knew that people would be coming
in droves to speak out against it. From the email, I am a resident in Summit and I am on the board of health. At a recent meeting, one of your council members mentioned that you do not allow outside residents to comment during public comments. I mentioned this to one of our
current council members, Dileia Hamlet, who I have included on the email, and she is curious how you went about establishing that in your bylaws. Can you please point us to your city attorney andor any current information that you may have so they can work on
implementing this in summit? The town clerk replied, "Good morning. I am unaware of any council member making such a statement. All members of the public are welcome to speak at any public meeting. If you have more information of which the count of which council member said this, I will
investigate the misunderstanding. To that, Miss Hamlet's supporter clarified. She was at a board of health meeting a few weeks ago and mentioned that outside residents are not permitted to speak. I believe it was Chattam Burough, not Township. If this is not them, then don't worry about it. Summit
would like to implement this if there was such a bylaw. It turns out there is no bylaw. And since it's likely viewpoint discrimination that makes it illegal. This email, which I am submitting here tonight, makes clear that there have been active efforts behind the scenes by
Dileia Hamlet, a government official, to limit free speech. Free speech is a bedrock American ideal and any attempt by government officials to limit who gets to be heard should alarm every person no matter their party who values democracy. This is disturbing behavior
and our community deserves better. And just as a side note, I wanted to mention that in terms of the uh police findings that harassment did not occur. Um just because something doesn't rise to the legal level of harassment does not mean that somebody did not feel attacked. So
the fact that people are saying that he lied and filed a police report, false police report is really disturbing and and council members are participating in that. Um, as you all know, I have also been the victim of people uh overing
police calls and I have spoken with you both for many, many months. Um, you can you finish up, please? I will. You've never uh made any attempt to uh tell the public that they should not be afraid to call 911, that they should not be afraid their neighbors are
going to open police calls and shame them. Um, because that's a real threat to public safety. Thank you. Yes. you you allow people to shout out from the audience and now you're Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments from the public.
Good evening, Mayor Council President. Um first I want to say my condolences to the family of um Gil. It sounds like he was a very dedicated community member. Um and my condolences go to his family. Um, also want to say I'm glad that we
made up Mr. Jacob. Uh, good man. You know, my whole team loved you. You know, because you you let you let the presider run the meeting. You know, we collectively we've been to over 500 meetings probably in the last few years. And, you know, it's nice to see an attorney who uh I'm glad we made up. It's nice to see an attorney let the
presider run the meeting. And I'm glad we made up, Mr. Bor, cuz when I first came here, I was giving you hell, hell in a hand basket every day, you And after we had a discussion, I realized you're a good guy. You know, and I'm glad we made up, Mr. McTurnon. You know, you have thick skin. You know, I played a song, I mocked you, I did all these
things and you took the criticism. You know, you took it well. You know, it's a big part of uh government being able to uh take criticism. You know, uh last time when I was here and I was speaking with my team, I didn't realize what was happening behind me, but uh Mr.
Chriselli wound up when I said the name in the spirit of Charlie Kirk, I noticed he started doing some signals and it seemed as if he was signaling to Claire and possibly Michelle. I don't know if there's any sort of, you know, if you want to touch on this, I'd love to, but it seemed like he was telling you when
you heard Charlie Kirk to like leave, get away from the podium. I'm not sure what happened, but after I handed you a flag, you did get up and leave. And I don't know if maybe you want to touch on that if what was that all about? maybe you just had to go and that's understandable. And I've been in meetings all over New Jersey and a lot
of you guys are very attentive. All of you you you stick with it. You don't leave, you know, you don't you do have to go to the bathroom every now and then, but for the most part, you were all very much, you know, um like taking part and you take your role seriously. So, I do thank thank all of you across the board for that. Um there was a
recent you.gov poll and um it was talking about political violence and um this was this was from the government. It said 77% of conservatives said that violence is never accepted, should never be accepted, where only 38% of
left-leaning liberals said that it was never accepted. Just to give a little bit of insight into um you know, the political uh dealings with um you know, party politics and everything like that. Um I thought it was disgraceful with Mr.
Chris Fel when he went and he made his video, his campaign video talking about how he was threatened but then told the police that he felt threatened. You know, he used that opportunity to, you know, try to leverage the whole situation with his phony bologoney persona. You know, trying to say that uh
council councilman Smallwood attacked two other council members for giving an overexaggerated account of another council woman's um you know uh uh stuff working with the homeless. I used to be homeless for a little bit and I'm pretty uh you know that that touches my heart
and there's a way to make your point without looking like completely like just so just one-sided like you know just shame somebody for the work they do you know um I think it's better way to go about that. Please uh wrap it up. Sure. Um, yeah. And then I also thought
it was pretty disturbing how Chief Peter's over here sitting, kind guy. You know, you watch Dan Chriselli come over and he's belittling him. He's berating him and everything like that. That persona that you see when he makes his videos, that's what he wants you to believe, but we all got a good insight
of how he really is hotheaded and does not have a uh a way to level himself out or whatever. Thank you. This is why three minutes is not good enough. And then I'm going to give every meeting I'm going to bring this up. Thank you for your Thank you for your comments.
Uh, other comments from the public. Kevin McGoy, 113 Woodland Avenue. Um, I I want to talk about the uh what what what Dan Chriselli did with respect to his police report. Um,
I think it's a very dangerous precedent that was set and actually he turns out I don't think he was the one that said it in his interview. Like when he when Dan came out on September 5th and said that he was threatened at his car and followed by two supporters of of of
Kevin Smallwood and they were following his lead. That was very disturbing, you know, that we reached that level where people are actually threatening a candidate. Um, so and then that was followed up by the tap into everything else. So this went out broadly. Dan
spread that around and then when somebody operated his body cam footage and actually when he had the footage of his interaction with him, you saw that it really wasn't that. And then when you really listen to what Dan said and all the evidence, the cameras that are in
here, you clearly saw something was constructed that didn't happen. Now, if somebody's really genuinely threatened and feels worried, of course, they should go to the police. But if if if there's a real basis for that, you shouldn't have to lie and manipulate
things to to frame it that way. So, you know, I think that what Dan was really tired of and what the evidence he showed was people just asking him questions. Nothing was threatening. There was no vulgarity. And he actually did say threats. He changed what you said, you
know, literally he gave this testimony less than an hour after it happened and said that you were gonna you said you were gonna follow him. And if you really think about the balance of power, you're talking about a wealthy man, right, with two Ivy League degrees going to the police, you know, telling them that this
man threatened them. And I don't think you have the same means as Dan. So there's a real imbalance of power. And you kind of came out of nowhere and you're kind of unconventional. It's easy for somebody to say, "Oh, here's a troublemaker." And then just believe him. I mean, this is really dangerous
stuff that Dan did. And it's criminal. It's criminal to lie to the police. It's criminal with an investigation to lie to the police. It's literally a criminal offense. We have somebody running for office that did this. And then nobody's condemned it. The SMDC's actually
condoned it and turned him into the victim. You know, he did the same thing to to to Rachel. She's a resident. There's nothing. Yeah, she's she I get she's annoying if she's asking a lot of questions you don't want to answer. But if you just answer them, you guys, Michelle and Claire, you don't answer
any of my questions. I mean, I you win cuz I eventually stop sending emails. But like to to to construct this in a way that it's not. And then, you know, Dan said that there was another council member that did it. And then it's like, okay, well, who else did it? Opraid. Jacqueline did the same thing. And for
Jacqueline took stuff out of context, used words like m Rachel sent her a bizarre number of emails. It's like four or five. And I think she CCed like almost everybody else up here on it. So, I think these things I'm worried that the city's not taking
what happened nearly as serious as it needs to take it because politics have gotten to the point where people are literally using the police. And this is a valuable resource that we all pay for to go after people who are literally asking people who are running for office
questions. Not using vulgarity, not threatening them, just asking them questions. And you guys can't even condemn it. Kevin, can you wrap it up? Yeah. So, I don't know what else to say. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
Other comments from the public. There's no further comments from the public. Close this portion of our meeting. And we are now on to council members comments and new business. Are we using the time? No. Yes.
Yes, you should. Yes. Uh um anyone like to make a comment? Councilman Smallwood. Thank you. Um I have I'll do three minutes just to make it fair. Um just a public service announcement that uh parking services agency has announced
the annual permit renewal process began believe yesterday. Uh residents are resident permits are $10 each if seniors 62 and older are $5 each. Uh, your current permits are valid through October 31st. This is for resident
parking as well as the transfer station. Residents are encouraged to renew their permits online at cityofsummit.org/permit renewal. Step-bystep instructions are available in the help section on on the online portal. Uh, if you need further help, please uh do not hesitate to come
to city hall in person. Renewal appointments are available Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 1 pm. Please call to make an appointment. Uh the other thing, I mentioned this uh a couple of meetings ago, and there's been quite a few incidents that have happened
since. Um again, I'm going to leave this up to our safety department and our chief of police and uh his force to to come up with something or to recommend that this council can do. But ebikes it
is um there was a I think there were two either two or three kids in Jersey City um last night. Four kids from Jersey City last night that were uh involved in a hit and run and I believe they're in
critical condition in the hospital. Uh last week there were two young ladies that were run down by a uh a young man, 17 year old boy um doing 70 mph in a 25 mile zone. Uh I I think that
was a different situation, but it the fact of the matter still remains that we need regulations for these ebikes. I am going to propose this. I'm just going to throw this out there. Um, I think I would really like
to see that anyone under the age of 17 who does not have a license must complete a safety course and a written course here in Summit, get a Summit license or Summit registration for their ebikes. Our children do not know what
the rules and regulations are of our roads and yet we're we're forcing them in downtown for ebikes to be on the street. Um we we have to do something before something happens here in summit
and I don't want to be on the stasis explaining it talking about it and mourning it. I hope we do. I hope safety committee will get on this as soon as possible in their next committee meeting um and we can come up with a resolution
very soon. The other uh situation I want to talk about is the light, the beaking light at Union Place in Maple Street. Um there is no stop sign there. And Chief, I don't know if you want to
pine on this, but if if there's no stop sign and if I'm on Union Place going to towards Maple, I I guess I don't have to stop. I'm just getting a yellow flashing light. Um, I would suggest and possibly if if we could, maybe safety needs to
look at this as well, at least on Union Place going towards Maple, change that light to a red flashing light and the other two lights on Maple Street, keep them yellow flashing. Um, I still don't
know the history behind that that island in the in the road. I don't know if it's necessary. Uh but at least if we could make the light on Union Place going towards Maple Maple Street a at least a
flashing red light so that we have three crosswalks there. One crossing over Union Place and two crossing over Maple. Um I I'm surprised there hasn't been more accidents there so far. That's all I have. Council President, thank you.
Other comments from council? Councilwoman Toe. Okay. Thank you, Council President. Um, at our last meeting, council passed a resolution authorizing the sale of notes to fund the 2025 capital budgets for the city and for the sewer and parking
facilities. So, last week, uh, we successfully issued a 9-month bond anticipation note for 10,338,500 at an effective interest rate of just 2.609%. Um, that's a spectacular result and we
should all acknowledge the hard work of CFO Baldwin, finance director Kobisa and their team in securing such favorable terms for the city. Um, these notes are time to mature with already with other notes that have already been issued.
They'll all be rolled into one long-term bond issuance to maximize the economies of scale. That's what I have. Thank you so much. Other comments from council. Councilman Palowski. Thank you. Um, on the ebikes, it was a
different situation in Cranford. I believe those girls were targeted, but they also weren't wearing helmets and they were doubling uh on the ebike. I'm not sure if there are any laws against that um or if that's something that we
could consider here in Summit. Political violence is never acceptable. Whether it be physical or weaponizing the police against your neighbors, I'd be good with four and a half minutes. I've said that before. Nobody should feel like they can't call
the police for fear fear that they'll be shamed. On the verve, one more time, they'll also take donations. I will put something up on my council page uh with directions as to how people can contribute in whatever way they're
comfortable. As You Like It by William Shakespeare will be produced at the high school on November 13th, 14th, and 15 at Summit High School auditorium. These kids do a great job. Um it's we
don't just have a talented group of young athletes in this town. We also have very dedicated and talented performers in various arts and I encourage everybody to go and try and check it out. The dog park is staying up for at
least a couple more weeks. Is that right, Tammy? And we are looking into how to make it permanent. The grass has been a challenge and we're trying to figure that out. But please everybody continue to enjoy that for the next couple weeks at least and hopefully shortly
thereafter we'll come up with a more permanent solution. Basketball courts at both Wilson School, outdoor basketball courts at both Wilson School and at the community center are going to be
revamped. I think we're going to dig up some of the old asphalt and put a nice new layer on it so they'll be smooth. We we've also talked about putting pickle ball lines and nets out there so that people can enjoy uh the fastest growing
sport in America. First Amendment will take all comers from wherever you are. Come up here and speak for your three minutes. Maybe someday it'll be four and a half. We don't care who you are or where you're from. Uh there is a carveout in the sidewalk on
Beachwood A at the corner of the forest and I believe before she retired, Mr. Cheese's wife, Mrs. Yang, used to sell hot dogs there. That might be a great spot for a bike rack where kids can leave their bikes and walk around town when they're coming from that part of
town. We probably could find a couple more spots for that to alleviate and make safer kids who can't ride traditional bikes on the sidewalks in the uptown area. That's it. Thank you,
m Mr. President. I wondered if you'd give me a couple of minutes to make a comment. Door was locked. I feel compelled the door was locked. Were you here for a long time out there? A little bit. Yeah. long enough. The door was locked. I mean, I had to
tell you, I'm just letting you know. Okay. If the door was locked and you couldn't get in, sure. Um, I'll be brief. Three minutes. Yes. I just wanted to comment about the Can Brook Parkway neighborhood. Miss Camelson, you and your click do not represent me or my neighbors.
uh you've made a lot of statements about certain council people which are wrong and not true. You know, over 2,000 people signed a petition against Broad Street West. Over 2,000 people signed a petition for
lights at Tatlock Field. I moved to my home on Canad Parkway over 15 I mean sorry over 30 plus years ago because of its proximity to Washington School and Totlock Field and I've enjoyed it every
minute of the time I've lived there and I've had absolutely no problem with the activity or the traffic or what goes on. In fact, I enjoy listening to the children playing during the day. I enjoy the activity at the field at night. I
enjoy listening to the sports and I participate and I have coached youth sports for many years. So I think you need to redefine who represents the Kubric Parkway neighborhood because you don't. You represent a click and I can
guarantee that you will probably be moving out of this neighborhood long before I do because you'll be tired and done with summit. And I just would like to thank this council because you know the the neighbors don't get everything
they want. I didn't want sidewalks on Kubber Parkway, but you are getting them on one side of the street. Okay. I don't think they're needed. And I think but of a bunch of people, a small group of very loudmouth people yelled enough to the
point that a couple of councilmen couldn't had to listen to it and now we're wasting taxpayers money on sidewalks. Well, you have. So, there's compromise. And I think these lights are a great move and I applaud the council
for doing it. I sat on the planning board till two o'clock at night to listen to some of the opinions and take them under consideration. And we did put a number of things and our attorney was
writing down uh conditions in for our memorializing resolution which is going to be sent back to the law committee. So I think for you to stand there and sit there and say you represent all of Canbrook, count the number of signs on
the street on the streets that say stop the tatlock lights. It is minimum. There are very few. You don't represent us and you don't represent the majority of the people that live in that neighborhood. And that's my opinion. Thank you. And
thank you council for listening and for the hard work you do. And this comparison to Washington politics is just insane. And if any taxpayer votes for that, you have to be crazy. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. All right. Council uh comments. Councilman Ber, you have something you can say. Um, I'm going to be brief because, uh, Councilman Smallwood and Plowski, um, have totally taken my spot these last
couple of meetings. Yeah. Right. Um, I don't know if anybody knows how it how it feels. Um, you know, Mr. Joy was going to say 15 years and then he corrected himself and said 30 because um his wife was my teacher and I
you know to be elected councilman when I see my teacher and the way she looks at me with like pride you know um it warms my heart you know and uh it was the same way with Gil. Um, I remember Gil handing
out equipment when I was in fifth grade, football equipment. Uh, him and Coach Woods, Jay Woods. Um, Gil was a special human being. Um, there is a I look at Summit in the black community. It's like the Inkwell. There's a movie that came out and um,
and he knew all of us. He knew our parents, you know, he he helped us. He was some folks attorneys that couldn't afford attorneys. Um, I mean, I don't know how many wills he he's written for
free for people. Uh, you know, I I was going to work all throughout high school and freshman year, you know, he came up to me and I was on the sideline and, you know, and I was just looking at practice or whatever. He came, he said, "What are you doing? Um, what are you doing on the
sideline?" I said, "Well, you know, I want to work or whatever." He's like, "They need you out there in the field." you know, and it was like one of the best decisions of my life to, you know, play Summit football and just have him as a coach and a mentor. And his support
during my campaign run was like was amazing to see how proud he was of me. Like, yo, look at this guy. He's on counsel. This is crazy, right? So, um, I loved him. I loved him dearly. Um,
lastly, uh, last week there was a Summit Housing Authority meeting and listen, I am I You know what? Every council meeting I want to talk about it because this is serious. So, I wrote an email to the Summit Housing Authority and I said,
"Listen, I think you're violating laws." Their attorney, they looked at it and they had a public meeting. It's public. You can look at the notes. They said, "Councilman Ber, we agree. Um, we have been charging excessive increases beyond the 10% limit for continuing tenants
violating NJSA46-8-21.2. Basically, if I paid $1,000 in rent and I paid $1,000 security deposit my first year and then the next year my rent went up $2,000, they would charge me an additional
$1,000 for a security deposit. That is that is against the law. You can't do that. They've been doing it for years and they admitted to it. I'm like the crazy person like saying this up here. Like I had to go and investigate and and
find this out. This is 195 units. Weaver Street, Glennwood, Vita Gala, elderly people, folks section 8 taking money from them, miscalculation of rents,
people in there that don't have leases. I got an email today and there was a group of folks over there um and I guess we went a little late and um there's Miss Mitchell was going to make some comments because she sent me an
email and said that she was being evicted tomorrow because they wouldn't accept her personal check which she um which she got from her pension. um they are having an auditor come in to
audit their financial records. You know, I and I don't know if city solicitor um may opine on this, but I think they should halt any evictions that are in process in those three areas
until the financial irregularities are worked out. We call ourselves a town that fights against homelessness, but we're going to put somebody out in the street that has a kid
for because you wouldn't accept her check. I mean, this isn't something. And I hope everybody in town watches this. We all should stand up. You know, the housing authority is out of pocket. This
is ridiculous. And I'm going to They're going to hate me. Oh, Jamal, why do you come up there? This is not for city. You know, people should notice. Yes, they should. Yep. And I'm going to tell I'mma tell on you. Absolutely. I'mma tell it. I'mma tell
it. Every time I come up here, every meeting I go to, every email I get, I'm going to recite it. I don't know if we can do this, but I think this council should do a resolution telling the Summit Housing
Authority that they cannot evict anybody until the financial irregularities are worked out and they finish an audit. I don't know if you want to appine on that. I don't know if we have the authority to do that. I know we got to go to HUD, right? But come on. Yeah, we have to go to You'd have to go to HUD, but we could we could write to
HUD if they're doing this audit and ask them to intervene. Well, maybe we can we can talk about it because I would hate for somebody to get evicted, especially for back payments of a security deposit when they're being
audited. You know, that's all I got to say and I'm going to continue to say it. I don't care how much. Well, I mean, I I think that that if there's a wrongful eviction, too, that could expose them to liability. So, it probably behoove them to hold off on doing anything until they make sure that
their audit is correct, they've charged the correct rents, they have the right security deposits, the security deposits are in interestbearing accounts, which is required under New Jersey law. Evicting somebody is not an easy thing it should and judges don't look very favorably on it.
Um, it it shouldn't be and I don't mean to interrupt you, but what's happening is that the Summit Housing Authority has an attorney. the the person that's that's going to court doesn't have an attorney who argues for them. Who's their voice?
You're in the court. Everybody knows this. If you ever been in a courtroom, if you're not there with an attorney, you you're you're missing out, right, on the whole procedure. So, they have an attorney. This person doesn't have an attorney. I can reach out to the summit housing attorney and rec and say that the
council's made it known that they think everything should be held in the bayance until your audit's done. Thank you. Thank you. Uh um city solicitor Jacobe, please do that. I don't think anybody should be evicted until the financial irregularities are worked out in the summer housing
authority. I think that would be a horrible thing for us to let happen. Thank you. Other comments from council? Councilwoman Camelson. Thank you, Council President. Um, regarding the ebikes, um, after the tragedy in Scotch Plains, I immediately
asked to discuss this in safety again, and it's something that we discuss quite a bit in in safety. And I don't know, not to put you on the spot, Chief Peters, but there there's a lot of challenges regarding us. We're still Would you mind just sharing some of the
challenges that we have with restricting ebikes? And it's it's we continue to discuss this, but I I feel like it might be helpful for for you, council president. Good evening. Shaking back there. It's freezing in here. Um so, uh first and foremost, I
just want to touch on a few things that we have been doing because I know um some of if certain people were busy, right? We're all busy. Um you might not be paying attention to to a few of the uh social media posts or some of the other things that we're doing to uh try to mitigate some of these dangerous acts that we're seeing out on the roads. Um,
so we made flyers back in May um on the newly adopted ebike ordinance. Uh, we had them translated to Spanish as well. They were disseminated to um certain establishments in town that um often have patrons that are Spanish uh speakers. They are posted um they're up
and easily viewed. They're also in some other businesses in the central business district. In addition, we adopted a summer program rewarding safe biking for July and August, handing out gift cards through the um uh Summit Downtown, Inc. Um, signs are going out uh up this month. I spoke with Director Strager
last week uh regarding signs that uh encourage people to walk it uh not ride it in the downtown and also um reiterates the ordinance uh with a QR code actually on the sign that uh takes you to the Summit City of Summit Police Department's website that gives you a ton of information on eBike safety, bike
safety, videos, um all types of literature. Uh in addition, we did a PSA uh public service announcement on social media which actually had over 30,000 views u to date that was posted on September 12th. Um we did a Q&A with an ebike expert last week on Facebook Live.
I'm not sure if you guys saw that with Officer Katiga. That was very informative. Um Officer Katiga also presented at PTO meetings uh as well as the middle school last week. Um not to say that we were looking to scare people or Diego's son. I appreciate him coming up here and giving his comment, but you
know, sometimes taking a firm position with uh teenagers and trying to drive our message home is the right approach. Um I think one of the slides did show an ebike that was on a flatbed. We do reserve the right to impound these bikes if we find that they are being operated reckless. Uh but the impound is not
permanent. All the it's a 24-hour impound, and it just gives a reason to have the parents come in and have a discussion with them about how the uh the ebike was being operated. Uh, our bike safety page is on the city of Summit's website. Um, hashtag uh or I'm sorry um forward/summit police. And then
I believe the the mayor is going to comment on um or did you all already on your Monday with the mayor with the ebikes? Did that go up? That's coming up. Um as far as the challenges, um I do think that the state we saw Union County last week um they did an emergency um
declaration to ban all ebike and e- scooter operation in county parks. I know there were some questions about municipal parks that does not cover municipal parks. It's only county parks, which is Bryant Park in town. Um my understanding is they are going to pass um some type of directive that covers the whole county, but that was just an
emergency use um after what happened in Scotch Plains. Um there was also a horrible accident up in Montville, I believe, or Montil. Um but that being said, you know, it's difficult with these uh ebikes because a lot of the classifications aren't outlined within
the DMV. Um the class 3 bikes do fall under the same standards of um a moped which requires registration insurance and a driver safety course through the DMV with a license. That being said, some of these class two one and two models which if we did a simple Google search as a you know field officer that
makes a stop out on uh out on the street uh we might find that they are only a class one or class two. But we're also finding now that a lot of kids are altering the governors on these devices and allowing them to go 10 to 15 miles an hour faster. Um, I don't want to get into how they're doing that. I'm sure you could do a quick YouTube video, but
there's plenty out there. Um, but that's a challenge for our officers because again, we might stop them for reckless driving. Google the make model of the ebike, it'll show that it only maxes out at 12 or 14 miles an hour, not knowing that they might have tampered with the governor, which now allows it to go 25
or 30 miles an hour. Um, to council um I think it was Councilman Smallwood that referenced the uh one of the accidents where the helmets are were being worn. Um, often times these kids that are riding the ebikes are wearing bicycle helmets and unfortunately bicycle helmets aren't rated for a crash at 30
40 mph. Um, so it is a challenge for us. We're going to continue, we're not going to give up. Um, we're working through safety committee. We're working with the schools on messaging. We're working with uh the council. U, we're doing everything we can to sound the alarm because I do feel um we're at that point. Um, I do not want any of anyone
in this town uh to experience tragic accidents that have happened to date. Uh but I am generally concerned about um these ebikes and and where this is going. I think that the the state is moving in the right direction, but I do think it's going to take time. So um
that's where we are right now. Chief, quick question. Yeah, please. Um I I hear a lot about ebike regulations, but um they have to follow all the rules of the of the road, right? Yeah. Just like any other
anybody else, right? running red lights, right? One of the things that I think Michelle also I brought up in safety was when our officers get behind and if you if you go on YouTube, you can do a quick search uh Westfield actually had an incident not too long ago where there was a couple dozen kids riding down uh Central Avenue. They ended ended up on South
Avenue. Very busy roads in in Westfield just coming out of their central business district. And uh you know, some of the comments on the video were why the police do nothing. We we have to weigh the balance. Same same thing when we chase a car. what what's the what's the potential dangers to the driver? What's the potential dangers to the
general public? Um because the last thing we want to do is, you know, illuminate our lights and get our sirens going and then all of a sudden we cause the crash. Um so often times our officers will monitor and then, you know, possibly effectuate a stop after they're out of traffic view. Um but if
they take off on us, we're we're not in the business, you know, of necessarily causing an accident or causing harm to a teenager who's operating a a bike carelessly. we might create even additional danger for that teenager or for other people on the road. So, that's that's a challenge that we face as well. Um, but again, we're doing everything we
can to work through it and uh really sound that alarm to the parent. At the end of the day, I think um you know, I'm a parent myself, refuse to buy my middle school or an ebike. Um but if I did, I would have a conversation with him and how to operate it because I see it in my town as well. And uh you know, they're
they're moving. You know, they're definitely going faster than I think what what these things are designed to do. So, Chief Peters, quick question. Um I think uh someone suggested maybe Councilman Smallwood about um some sort of safety test and and such. Um I just I
think when I was a kid, embarrassingly to say, I think I had a moped and um I believe I had to pass some sort of safety thing before I was able to operate that thing. that thing goes a lot slower when than I see these ebikes
zipping around in. Is that a possibility? I'm not holding you to it any or anything, but is that something that potentially we could think about? You're in town. I think I think we put it on the agenda for the next safety to talk about it. I think there's a lot of logistical measures that have to get
worked out. Um I know the state's moving in that direction. Like I said, for a class 3 ebike, they do require that now. But, you know, to the point I made earlier, some of these class one and class 2s, simple Google shirt search will show that they only do limited in miles per hour when we find out that they've been altered and they're actually going a lot
faster than than even the parents know because again, you might purchase one for your kid on Amazon. We had a situation where a parent purchased it for their child on Amazon. I heard this from one of the employees at the bike rodeo today um who works for track where they brought this ebike in where the front tire was all mounted wrong and
they said our son wanted to put it together. So they let their teenage son put together this this bike that's electrically charged that goes 20 30 miles an hour and the safe I mean you should have seen the the person from Trek that was their mind was blown but um that's a concern of mine because
parents might not necessarily understand what the potential is for this bike when they buy it because it might list 12 miles an hour 10 miles an hour and then it gets altered um because teenagers are going to do what teenagers do. Yep. Thank you. Did you have something too? Yeah. Uh council,
one quick comment on this and thank you Michelle and the safety committee for all your work on this. As a matter of deterrence, couldn't we do a recorded message? Um Ryan Peters, chief of police and Summit.
You may or may not know this, but if you're riding an ebike, you must wear a helmet. You must stop at stop signs. You must obey stop signs. Um you must o obey speed limits. You must ride safely. If you ride recklessly, the police can and
will impound your vehicle. If you make any of these violations, we will ticket you. Uh, class 3 requires a license. A modified class one and two will be considered a class three and you will be ticketed accordingly.
Yeah, we've done all that. I mean, if if you think it's going to carry more weight coming from me, I mean, like a pre-recorded announcement, make a play periodically. We've literally touched every kid. Not literally, but um in the middle school, we presented to every kid um about everything you just said. Um we were
just there this week. We did an an hour plus long, you know, Facebook live, sending that message home. And I'm just, you know, again, I'm sound we're sounding the alarm. The mayor and I have have had more conversations about ebike safety and what we're going to do to kind of mitigate any of these dangerous situations that we all see. It's not
like just it's limited to the just the police. Everybody sees it and it's almost like a, you know, a train that's gone out of control. We're just waiting for something bad to happen. And uh and I'm I'm very concerned. Um um if if a message from me will carry more weight,
I'd be happy to do it. Um I think the mayor said it the other day, there's not a person I won't talk to. I'll talk to anybody anytime. Like I like to talk. Put me on camera. I'll do them. Jenny put me on camera. But I just um you know I think at the end of the day we have to make sure that the parents are having these conversations as well and that
they're they're they're monitoring what their children are doing and if they are altering these ebikes because it's going to create a more, you know, unsafe condition for them to be operating. Anything else? Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Other comments from council?
Yes, Councilwoman Camelson. I have more. Um and thank you, Chief. That was really helpful. I think I think it's good for everybody to hear that. Um I I appreciate that explanation. Um there were a few things. Um Dory left,
but last meeting she accused me of several things. I see she toned it back today, but um you know, she mentioned recusal. One of the first things I did after I was sworn in was I reached out um to Mr. Jacob and um we discussed the
situation and he you know said let me let me look into it let me do some research and he wrote me a memo that said he didn't see any conflict of interest so you know it's something I discussed with him earlier this year um
last week she she accused me and or me and or my husband of suing the city of being part of that law lawsuit and that's not true. She knows that's not true because she was told that's not true. I didn't I mean people called me the next day and they said why why why
didn't you say anything? Why'd you let her say that? And I said well it's Dory. She defames everyone. I you know like this is no different. But it wasn't true. She's defamed many people. Many people. So I'm just the latest person
that she's defaming. But that's not true. And you know, for her to say that she's mad about the way the neighborhood went about it, I mean, my neighbors, they have all the same rights that everyone else in this city does. They have all the same rights that the
neighbors that live near the Red Cross building have because those neighbors were in here with a lawyer last night. My neighbors have those same rights. You know, they have all the same rights that Dory and her neighbors had when Orator
when Oratory expanded. They have all the same rights that um residents for Summit had. She got up in that planning board and said, "Well, it's a conflict of interest for Rob Simon to be representing the neighborhood because he
represented me and 75% of the planning board." So, I mean, they just have all the same rights. And you know, I I I just I really have a problem with, you know, the picking and choosing which neighbors have which rights. Um,
see, I I'm thrilled that sidewalks are going on Canoe Brook because it's a safety issue. Um, the the kids need the sidewalks. They need the sidewalks. So, I know Mr. Lee Joy isn't happy about that, but I'm
I'm thrilled. And um I can't think of anything else. So I think that's it. All right. Other comments. Councilwoman Hamlet. Well, a lot to unpack there. Um sure where to start. I'll start with uh
breast cancer awareness month. I got my uh mammogram within the last couple of days. That was a it's a good reminder to get your mammogram. Uh on a lighter note, we are making some progress with the noise at Overlook. Uh
we've had some conversations with the CEO and the COO. Uh and our wonderful city communications officer has put out a uh press release to local residents so that they have a better understanding for the timeline around uh when the generator will be going on for the
electricity transfer. Um, it's been pretty painful for those residents. And I would say that this is a good example of how when residents complain and you get an answer, sometimes you got to dig a little deeper. And sometimes you got to go to a neighborhood at 10:00, at
10:20, at 10:40, at 11:00 because generators switch on at different times and the electricity load changes. So sometimes when our board of health would go out, they wouldn't hear it. But 20 minutes later, when I would go, boom, trigger. And so sometimes residents and
in fairness to the city employees and and even the board of health, everybody thinks they're going crazy because they say, "Well, we've heard these complaints, but you know, we've addressed them and we've had decel readings." Um, but it just shows you that our job as elected officials is to
advocate for you, not to degrade residents. We don't degrade residents. We advocate for you whether we like you or not. Peter Lejo is one of my biggest supporters. He didn't want the sidewalks, right? I got more hate mail that week from some Republicans than
I've ever seen. We still we're still buddies, but you know, he didn't want the sidewalks. Now I got I got a bunch of Republicans not voting for me and a bunch of Democrats not voting for me either because they weren't going to vote for me either way, right? And that's what that's what this is about. It's about representing people, not
demeaning residents. It's about it's about doing the right thing even when you don't agree with them. So, I'm happy that Overlook is is getting solved. You know, as far as the Summit Housing Authority, I've been screaming about the Summit Housing Authority for years to
the point where they told me, some of the members on the board, I was harassing them. I'll never forget that I was harassing the Summit Housing Authority board because I was asking a couple of questions about a 17 to 20 million project. You got to be kidding
me. Of course, I was emailing and asking and asking questions. And I agree with Councilman Ber. You know, tonight was a perfect example. We had three residents from Summit Housing Authority sitting in the corner. They didn't even get a chance to speak.
They didn't even get a chance to speak. So, when a resident came up here tonight and she said, "I was copied on an email." I'm copied on a lot of emails. I got news for you. And yes, I was copied on an email the date of April 22nd, which was when I think we met uh Mikey here. I think that was your first
experience here at Summit. Uh yeah, it was that day. I think it was that day. So that was the first day where we we met our special friend here and all of his friends and and and and everybody was bust in from outside of the community to talk about the homeless
ordinance, the anti-amping orders. And you know, I've been to more meetings till 2 a.m. than than most of y'all up here. Not to say that you're all not in them, but I'm at the planning board and I'm just at some late meetings. And so to say that I was part of an email exchange where I was advocating
that the public people members from outside of the the public can't come to our meeting, I will tell you this in all transparency, sometimes I wish that those three residents, if they were there that night on April 22nd, I think sometimes they have a right to speak first.
may not agree with me, may not disagree with me, but the facts are we're all here rambling and three people from our Summit Housing Authority who are living in poor conditions, being evicted and overcharged on their rent or security deposits couldn't speak tonight. And so when that supporter came to me that
morning and she said, "I'm telling you, I just heard I just heard that Chadam's not allowing non-residents." I'm now this is 9:22 in the morning. I put I pulled up the email 9:22 on the date of April 22nd. and she copied the Chattam Burough clerk
and said, "I heard that at your meetings, you're not allowed non-residents. How did you do that? Because I think Summit might want to do that, too. I I to I don't think I responded. I'll have Rosie check all my emails, but I didn't I don't think I responded to this particular chain." Um, and the burough clerk comes back and she says, "Well,
that's not us. That's a mistake. Maybe it's another burrow." And so, the supporter kind of rests their case. And and you know, I I mentioned that night at the as as long of a night as it was, I said, you know, it's it's important to hear different perspectives from the
community. That's why we do this, right? The last council had zero dialogue. It was like robots up here, right? I've disagreed with with my colleagues up here, right? We don't think the same. I'm sorry I'm talking too much, but it's
very frustrating when somebody says that I'm trying to silence people. That's the last thing I'm doing. I'm listening to everybody. I got more emails than I even know what to do with. Um there there are no more minutes in my day to listen to people. I I've tried. I
can't find anymore. And so the accusation that I'm trying to shut residents out is patently false and could not be more could not be further from the truth. And what happened to our residents, you know, I didn't I didn't know a lot about
filing false police reports until recently. I I had never never been involved with any of that. So, I'm learning as as we go. And I think one of the things that I think I've learned in having some of our non-residents come is asking tough
questions that we may not know the answers to that somebody else knows, right? And pushing the envelope a little bit. But you know, that's what makes us good elected officials. And you know, tonight I will say this, I think three minutes was a
little too short in a few instances. Yes, I do. I think four minutes. I'm just saying. I know Rosie's not going to be happy with me, but I I've noticed every every speaker up here was was almost about to be over 3 minutes and and they
had important things to say at the end of that 3 minutes. Now listen, I don't think everybody should come up here and speak for 5 minutes, but I think maybe like 3 to 3:30, 3:45. I think people have important they've been listening to us for five hours. Yeah.
The the last thing I will say is I do think that as far as the the the the false accusations from from certain individuals to police reports, I think it's really really important that we take it very seriously. Our police officers
are our most valuable asset in keeping our community safe. and every minute we waste of their time is is time that could be spent helping someone who has a another really really important and serious issue. So, um, if if those
accusations are are false, then I think that that we should all uh hold those individuals responsible and and as as someone said tonight, it's a really really big deal. And and people should feel safe to call the police, but they
should not feel safe to file false police reports. That's not okay. That's not okay. Um, yep. I think that's Oh, I I have one other thing. Um, if if you notice uh the
Union County meeting recently uh I had to Oprah the resolutions to get them or Rosie had to help me, but there was a resolution by um why I have to why I have to opra things as an elected
official is sometimes peculiar. um I feel as though they were passed at the county and I should be able to just ask for them. So it took seven or so days to actually get the resolution. So I got my open request tonight while I was sitting in close session and um because you know
there's a lot of money that Union County is getting in bridge repair and there was um I wanted to know well what what bridges are getting repaired. I want to see the details because they weren't in a packet and I'm not trying to blow up my Union County buddies because they're actually we're working well together.
Um, but I will say that the other thing that was in the p the meeting last last week was the county received $2.1 million for the senior citizens and disabled residents transportation assistance program. I want to know how much Summit's getting. If if we can get
money through Sage, if we can get money I just want to know the details. I want to learn. At the last meeting, they also passed uh a resolution. Was a resolution, Rosie, or an ordinance? Resolution. resolution um regarding the Saltbrook. We now have their commitment to fix their portion of the Saltbrook,
but you know, I wanted it in writing. I want that on record. And tonight, I'm going to submit that to Rosie so in three or four years when I'm not up here, somebody can say, you know, I remember she pulled out that resolution and we're going to hold the county accountable for that. I'm hoping it gets fixed this year. Um so, I'm hoping
that's not the case, but you know, I would encourage all of you just to pay attention to what's going on in the county. these are your tax dollars, right? And and let's let's hold everybody accountable and work with them so that you get the most from your tax dollars. Those meetings are tough to watch because they're fuzzy and they're
grainy. Um you just can't really understand what's going on. Um but I think we've done a nice job working with the county and and I appreciate that that our resolution that we had on June 16th, 2025 went back to the county and they responded and I appreciate that and
that's good for our residents. That's all. I'm so sorry I talked so long. It was just a long night. Council President, thank you. Councilman Boyer. Yes. Just one statement. Um I just want to say on record that um I want to thank Union County for all of their support to
the city of Summit. Um I appreciate everything that they have done with the Bryant Pond and things that they will do in the future. Very supportive of the county. um we need their help on a bunch of things and I look forward to
partnering with them and working with them. So, just want to make that statement. Thank you, Council President. You're very welcome. Other comments? All right, I'm going to try and wrap up relatively quickly. I got a couple of things to talk about. One is um I think everyone who has been paying attention
when they see their monthly electric bill has been shocked about how much it's gone up uh uh over the past several months. and there's lots of fingerpointing on who's to blame, but uh it's up and that they've been up a lot.
Um I want to congratulate Councilman Smallwood. He got us involved in this electricity aggregation and we just found out that we had a a successful bid through them where if all things go to plan, I think the number is we can have
we can have our residents who are um all Summit residents who qualify, which is the vast vast majority, will see their electricity bills go down 7%. That's a big big deal and I want to congratulate Councilman Smallwood around
that. um that's gonna uh that person's coming in. I think we're going to have them give a whole procedure on how it'll work um uh at our next council meeting. So, that's a huge thing. Um dog park is the dog park at the dump just done. My
wife goes there all the time and she's like she likes to go to the book place. She likes to exchange the books. She she she dumps she likes to get rid of garbage and then she brings our dogs and runs around the dog park and she says it's looks a little bit like a disaster. Are we
are we move? I wouldn't say I wouldn't say that it was a disaster and I think that the dogs are perfectly happy there. Well, they have lower standards than the rest of us do. But I'm just my There are a lot of challenges there are a lot of challenges with the dog park at
the dump. It's never open on Sunday. It's only open two Saturdays a month because when the free market is open, the dog park is closed so that they can have the parking. And it closes at 3:45 every other day. Now, I spent a lot of
time at that dog park before the other dog parks opened on Saturdays, and I never saw anybody there. Like, the most I ever saw were two or three other dogs. And now I've been spending a lot of time at the dog parks uptown, and they love it. People come after work.
Your your point is fair. My wife says she's usually the only one there. Yeah. When she goes. But she likes it. So I had to ask on her behalf. I thought it was a bad location from the beginning and that we spent $50,000 on it. I wish we could get that back and spend it someplace else uh for a
different location for the dog park. I don't know if we can re repurpose any of those materials, but I think that that location is I mean, we can't we can't we don't need to change it. Some people can still go there, but
the other ones are far better attended. We've been to those, too. Council President, could I just add something to that? Yes. I I think more importantly, you know, the it's not getting the use that it it should. Um, but more
importantly, it's actually honoring a former council member. I know, Councilman Gould. And I and he was a huge proponent of this, and I just hate to see it kind of Well, I I I think that's another reason that it's doing these temporary dog parks have
been so successful that we should make them permanent. And I think we should actually, whether it's the Village Green or Memorial, um, rename one of those parks where it's an actual park where it's more visible to really honor, uh,
former Councilman Mech Gold. Good comment. Um, as far as a comment around, uh, you know, going to the police, obviously people should feel free to go to the police, I think Councilwoman Hamlet or Hamlet articulated very well
what the nuances around that are. So, I applaud her for saying that. Um, I I do think I feel sorry that you two, Miss Kramer and Mr. Anonymous went through that. It No one should have to go through that. It's It was sad. Uh but I do want to applaud the our police
department who as I uh knew they would was very professional in how they handled um the situation there. Um people should feel uh as I mentioned they should go to police. They should call the police when they have issues. Um Summit is a we've we work very very
hard up here to make Summit a safe community. Um and so we we take that very very seriously, but we do have scarce resources. Um, our police are stretched thin even though we've added uh police officers particularly at night. We have four four police
patrolling usually something like that maybe. We don't discuss it. Yeah, we don't want to discuss it. Sorry, but we have plenty. But um but but my point is we have a whole team of them. Yeah. My point is no, we no one has uh unlimited resources. So we we should use
them wisely. As far as opering police records, you can't have it both ways. We get opered all the time. Government is made to be operate. It's a it's a free a freedom of information act. And we work
for the the community, our citizens. The police work for our citizens. Um and if a citizen wants to look at something, they have every right uh to look at it. And you can't restrict it in any way, shape, or form. particularly I know with the police that's a social justice
issue. It's a safety issue. Um there's lots of reasons why um information like that is operable. And so I I think that that is a bad idea. Council President, the Supreme Court of New Jersey has said that all body cam footage is operable. Exactly. And there's a reason for it.
And I think there's a very good reason for it. Um, uh, Police Athletic League. We, there was a golf outing last week, um, that I think a lot of council members, uh, came to. Um, Councilman
Smallwood uh, did real yman's work on this. I am a police athletic league alum, was president long, long time ago. Um many of the alums got together. I see one in the audience here. Um to really revitalize uh this golf outing and uh we honored uh
coach Davidson um who was you know the second winning as coach I think in New Jersey. Uh he's a legend in the game and it was a really really cool event. Uh so many people in the community came out for it and they raised a lot of money. money which will get put back in to um
engaging children uh with our police officers in in a way that's open and friendly and that they can understand that their police are there to help them and um uh in in a in a way that they feel comfortable going to them. So, it's a great organization. I want to applaud
Councilman Smallwood for really driving that to get that golf outing going again. It was really really good. Um, the last thing I'm going to say, um, I've gotten several calls and the first one I'm like, "Come on, this this is real." I keep getting calls that people
are confused on how the school budget works. I I I kid you not. I I I wish I could go back in time to the uh candidates forum uh whenever you guys had that in September or whatever
and put in a question. Please explain to the public that you know how the school budget process works cuz it's pretty clear that there's a lot of misinformation that's floating around around how it works. Um the uh I've been
asked multiple times, does the council control who works at the schools and what teachers get hired or where the summer programs uh go to? And I'm just going to unequivocally say we don't have
anything to do with line item issues on the school budget. If people are telling you that, I'm going to say it in a nice way. They are fibbing. They are spreading misinformation. That's my nice way of saying it.
what the board of school estimates does, which where I think the mayor, Councilman Smallwood, and Councilwoman Hamlet were on, they provide oversight to the school budget process. The school budget, just to reiterate, they came
with a proposal for a nine basically a 9% increase for your taxes. The school board, which was appointed by the former mayor, the majority, sat at the meetings and nodded their heads and said nothing.
And they agreed to a 9% budget. That would have raised everyone's taxes on average by $1,000. There was no questioning on why. What were you doing? It just was. the board of school estimates did their job
in my opinion and pushed back on it and said why we've been running we've have an excellent school system in our community. It is one of the gems of our town. It's why people one of the reasons people move here. We have been able to
do that for 10 20 years keeping the school budget under the 2% cap. It's doable if you plan and you have foresight and you budget ahead, which is clearly something that the the
the school board hadn't been doing because they ran off a fiscal cliff and no one on that board provided oversight to it. So sadly, the the uh board of school estimates had to push back and said, "Sharpen your pencils and you need
to reduce your ask. It's not fair to the community what you're asking them to do. It's possible to have an excellent school system if you prioritize what you're willing to spend. They didn't tell them who to cut or what money to
cut. That's not their job. It's the business administrator at the board of at the board of ed along with the board of education members and they went back and they did it. They are best capable of doing that. If you want to blame anyone for why, I don't know,
someone said the summer school program was cut, the thing you should blame is the board of ed members who for years sat there and provided no oversight and let the situation get out of control. So, the process worked and and I'm super
happy that these guys pushed back on it. Honestly, I think the budget was still too high at 3.95%. But I get it. They dug themselves a hole that was almost inescapable. And I'm give them credit for figuring out a way
to um lessen the impact on taxpayers while still providing excellent uh education for our children. But again, I can't believe I'm actually having to waste everyone's time talking about this because people are just spreading
misinformation around this. It's insane. It's insane. Um, just be honest with people around how things work. It's It's better for our community. It's better than I don't want people to be confused and go to the wrong people because we
don't we don't hire teachers. We don't. The school board does. Um, so, so that's my plea. If you hear stuff like that, push back and say, "No, I know you're not completely being honest with me." Another nice way to say it. Okay. um
when when you hear that happen. Um and that's it. Okay. Council, I'd like to increase my percentage to 96% and make a motion to adjurnn. Uh so move. All in favor?
I opposed. All right. We are journ