e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e uh good evening everyone uh Welcome to our common council meeting uh for this
Wednesday a little odd but uh because of the President's Day weekend uh we uh we're having it this Wednesday rather than our normal Tuesday um but we're here nonetheless uh so at this time um Madame clerk would
you please read the adequate notice of compliance statement yes adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dated December 16 2024 which was properly distributed and posted per statutory
requirements please be advised that the 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 it thereafter thank you so much um all
right uh roll call please Mr Boer presid Miss Hamlet here miss cinon here Mr palasi Mr Smallwood here miss to here council president turn present all right at this time um I'd like to ask Reverend Tanner to lead us
in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you
rob all right um at this time Adam clerk will you please read the explanatory note regarding closed session and hearings and comments a closed session meeting in 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
clo uh uh published close session agenda please be advised that Council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 36 and 34 and Verizon channels 30 and 33 and rebroadcasts on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and
Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the lecturn 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 a or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and permit all to be heard speakers are shall limit their comments to 3 minutes unless you are using electronic device to follow
the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you right thank you so much um all right at this time do I have a motion to approve the minutes of regular and close session for February 4th
2025 so move second all right um all in favor I opposed motion carries all right um we're on to the report section of our meeting um as always U Madame mayor
could you take us out please thank you council president good evening everyone it has been a busy few weeks in Summit and I wanted to take a moment to share a few updates um I had the privilege of speaking with the to the Old Guard yesterday about where we are as a city and where we're headed and I'm happy to
report we had about a 100 participants who asked some terrific questions I also met with uh our Suburban Chamber of Commerce last Friday and gave an update on what's happening in Summit along with the mayor of New Providence and a council member from Berkeley Heights it was a great opportunity to strengthen
our regional ties and work together on local initiatives and learn uh from one another on Thursday February 27th the Department of Community programs will host a Black History Month celebration at the Summit Community Center there will be two separate programs for adults and children workshops will take place
from 5:30 to 7:30 Rashad writes will present a workshop on Slam poetry and songwriting and Maurice Chestnut will also present a workshop on the history of African-American dance there will be light Refreshments served as well and there is no pre-re registration
required as always please make sure you're following us on social media and sign up for notifications through our website so you can stay updated especially with winter weather notices quick reminder to move your car off of the streets when it snows um remember we have the tier and Broad Street garages
for overnight parking if needed in an impending storm so that we can clear the roads um and please if you do use those garages to be sure to move your uh cars by 8 a.m. the next day I have an update from New Jersey Transit for commuters using the Summit Train Station asking
about when the stairway will be repaired uh design drawings are ready for the state historic preservation office to review and that review can take about a month or at least a month um and anticipated construction is planned to start second quarter of this year depending on the state historic
preservation office review and board approval um I am often out in the community and hear about potholes and other issues that people spot and we do rely on your eyes and ears to help us stay on top of things so please use the C click fix app to report any concerns
you come across it is a free app and you can download it from the App Store alternatively you can use the report to concern button on our City website was a great way for us to help keep Summit running smoothly and I know director shreer will be grateful for any uh input
into clip fix um finally as you may have ascertained from the agenda our police chief chief zagorski has announced his retirement Chief zagorski has served Summit for 36 years the last three as Chief we are incredibly grateful for his
service his dedication and his leadership of course we will miss him and we wish him well in his next chapter but I am confident that as a result of his guidance our police department will continue to thrive upon his retirement as a result of Chief zori's announcement
we have begun the process of identifying his successor thank you that's all I have all right thank you very much Madame mayor all right we're on to our city administrator report Miss Baldwin thank you council president good evening everyone uh first Please be aware that
Union County has issued a Code Blue Alert from February 18th through February 23rd due to severe weather and below freezing temperatures if you or someone you know needs emergency shelter please contact two 21 or visit New
Jersey 211.org newjersey codeblue for assistance also Summit is now participating in a countywide textile recycling program through helsy this initiative allows residents to drop off unwanted clothing
and accessories at designated bins throughout the city helping reduce the waste and support sustainability more details are available on the Union County website the summit free market will be open this Friday February 28th from 12: to 2:00 p.m. so please stop by
to recycle or find something new and finally we are in the process of finalizing the city's budget for introduction and we will be sending out a budget snapshot to all residents in the coming months and this will show you where your tax dollars are going and it
will highlight any rate changes and provide a breakdown of expenses so look forward to that thank you great thank you very much all right uh for my Council president's report I just have one thing I I do want to just thank um
director shreer and all his guys who uh do work tires tirelessly particularly this time of year um Aaron sends out notices on when people are getting deployed and stuff and this is at like 2 in the morning or you know they've
worked all over night grining or or plowing or what have you and it's uh it's a Herculean task and they do a great job keeping our City's uh Street streets plowed and safe for for us to move around so thank you for that and I would say um Jenny Hoff has put on a
great video If you haven't seen it I would suggest you check out it's on our Facebook page is that right I think someone told me that um and uh it's a it's a ride along in one of the uh the plow trucks and it's pretty cool um so you can you
can see the people the uh one of of our our dedicated workers who's driving it it tells talks about what what he does and things like that and it it's really pretty cool so I think it's a great tribute to all the hard work that our DPW guys do so thank you so much um and that's my
report all right uh let's move along uh we've got a pinch hitter we're going to the bullpen for our historical minute uh councilman Boer thank you council president uh for this historic minute as we all know know it's a black history
month and it is time to recognize the trell Blazers whose contributions has shaped our communities our institutions and our future tonight I have the privilege of honoring one
such leader a man whose service mentorship and steadfast commitment to Summit left a lasting impact Gerald Jerry Holmes was more than an offer he was a pillar of our community a mentor to many
and a force for a positive change Jerry came to Summit in 1964 after serving in the US military he joined the summit Police Department in 1973 where he was promoted to detective
in 1980 and dedicated 25 years to protecting and serving his community before retiring in 1995 but his influence extended far beyond the badge he paved the way for future Generations by fostering trust
between law enforcement and the people they serve he he understood that Public Safety was not just about enforcing laws it was about building relationships investing in young people and leading by example Jerry played an instrumental
role in shaping youth programs that still impact Summit today he was actively involved in the boys Girls Club and police explorers he helped launch summit's dare program even dressing up as McGruff the crime
dog to make a difference in kids' lives most notably he mentored six young people guiding them in the creation of summit neighborhood Council which later evolved into the summit Youth Center in
1973 Jerry's dedications service to the community was recognized when he was named the new Province United Way citizen of the year a tesate to his leadership generosity and heart Jerry
was not only a devoted public servant but was a remarkable father and Mentor he lovingly raised five children of his own while also extending his home wisdom and support to many others in need his
selfishness and generosity knew no bounds he was a steady hand and a Guiding Light for so many his legacy lives on in the officers he trained the young lives he he touched and the community he strengthen Summit was not
just where he worked it was his home his heart and his purpose and I'm happy to say that Jerry was my Uncle M Stevens father-in-law uh so this acknowledgement
means a lot to me so um happy Black History Month detective Holmes thank you council president thank you that was well spoken awesome um all right uh we've got
a couple of presentations uh uh this evening the first one is from our capital projects and community service we're happy to have Nancy Holmes our for aable Housing Council here who's going to give our 2024 affordable housing annual status
report so thank you for being here absolutely uh good evening everyone um the affordable housing committee um met last night um and held its annual update meeting uh this is held in accordance with the city's Court approve settlement
agreement with fair share housing center uh which requires that an Ann annual meeting be held with notice to fair share housing center and local clergy where the city can report on its affordable housing efforts from the past year and provide time for public comment and questions uh we had a great meeting
last night I believe uh there were about 40 people that attended by Zoom um full of great questions from the public um and I'm actually adding some information um based on those questions tonight um into this report um there will be a
revised report published hopefully y within the next week as long as um I'm make sure that everything's reflected uh that was asked last night and um and some changes that we knew we had to make before the meeting so
um um I'm not going to read the entire report to you because um that would be tedious um this is already such exciting uh subject matter to begin with um so I'm going to add um a few things uh under the first quarter um it the common
Council adopted a resolution of need supporting the Summit Housing Authority's efforts to apply for hmfa State funding for large scale res renovations to The Summit Housing Authority buildings and units uh ultimately they did not pursue that
funding um but that did that did occur in the first quarter of of uh last year um the municipal housing leison uh Matt delori uh met with the Civic Summit Civic Foundation to uh to request that their 24 privately
owned affordable units uh that are that they keep affordable to households um be deed restricted so that we can use them as credits um toward uh the Mount Laurel program um and they um but they declined that um in February of 2024 the council
created the Mount Laurel subcommittee uh this is to work on uh the legal components of round three and round four uh it meets regularly um and is meeting a lot very soon since we have a deadline of June 30th to create our new affordable housing plan
um also in um in February 2024 we held the 2023 annual update meeting uh that was properly noticed um and in conformance with the court approved settlement agreement with fair share housing center um and then we also provided the update at the council
meeting uh which is also required by that uh by that agreement um if anyone in the public is looking for any prior annual update reports they're all online at city of summit.org um and this one will be a revised
version of this report will be published there as well um The Summit affordable housing Corporation presented a 42 unit 100% affordable housing project on The Old Firehouse site at a council meeting um during the public comment period that was
that proposal was immediately uh forwarded to the mat Laurel subcommittee for review um and you'll see at the bottom of uh the first quarter where it says that there were meetings scheduled with special needs housing groups Overlook
hospital and other entities uh for possible affordable housing projects um if there is anyone in the public or on the council who knows of a church or another um another entity that's looking that has property or would like to
further their mission of their Church uh to create affordable units please let us know um we're always looking for new opportunities um in the second quarter uh the mount members of the Mount Laural subcommittee met with um The Summit
affordable housing Corporation um about the 42 unit project uh the subcommittee reviewed all of the plans um and all the options and presented recommendations to council um
Council ultimately um decided to pass on the project and uh create an overlay zone for the larger area um that included several other uh several other lots that that overlay has a minimum number of seven affordable units that
have that can be uh constructed on that site it can obviously include more um there was also a mailing asking landlords if they would uh wish to deed restrict their units in exchange for a subsidy um to create affordable units
out of market rate units uh so far there's been no interest um meetings in the second and third quarter were held with our house Summit Housing Authority Rose house which is a supportive and special needs provider uh St Teresa's Pilgrim Baptist
Church and the United meth Methodist Church about possible affordable housing projects um all of those uh uh all those entities are in various stages of uh whether they're considering affordable housing projects uh Pilgrim
Pilgrim Baptist Church decided to go another route um in the third quarter Stephanie suos was appointed as Municipal housing housing leaon um and I wanted to give her a large amount of credit she did a fantastic job in
putting all of the all of the city's unit data and trust fund data into the new affordable housing monitoring system she and Mark leckington did a fantastic job and it was a huge effort um so and they they met the February 15th deadline
that just passed um and everything is in now to the DCA which is a huge task because they had Stephanie had to input every line item from the trust fund since the city started collecting funds
so that was a big deal so she did a fantastic job and I wanted to give her a lot of credit for that um in the third quarter uh an offer was made to our house to deed restrict one of their existing four-bedroom group homes um which was accepted and in the fourth
quarter uh the city executed an agreement with our house um provided a subsidy and the deed restriction was recorded so it will remain um there will be four bedrooms uh deed restricted for 30 years for special needs individuals
in the city of summit they are also actively looking as part of that agreement for a another 4bedroom group home uh within the city so if anyone has any ideas they're looking for property um they do have specific
requirements um and they are looking for uh our house does own uh Condominiums throughout the city um and there are several special needs individuals who are getting older and need more of a group home environment rather than living on their own one of them I think
everyone knows is Andy and he they would like to keep him in Summit and so this is something that I think Summit citizens can get get behind um the state really is very very low on supportive and special needs units uh it's really
actually a quite a crisis so um if everyone can work together that would be great to um to see if our house can build another uh Group Home in town uh in the fourth quarter I'm sorry third quarter the council also passed a
resolution Divi defining a clear process for developers when they're approaching the city uh with uh projects that include affordable units um we the M Laurel subcommittee has used this process uh several times to meet with developers over the past year um in the
fourth quarter um the Habitat for Humanity project on 146 Avenue began um began closing on units they're still in the process of that um housing affordability service is the state run administrative agent and they're the
ones that process all of the applications qualify the households and um execute the closing so we're wait we're hoping that either this quarter or the next quarter that project is completely full so um so that would be
great to have all of those units filled um in October of 2024 the DCA released the round four numbers in accordance with the new um the new statute that c that was um adopted and signed into law
in March of 2024 uh and the city's round four numbers are um a 59 unit Rehabilitation obligation and a uh new construction obligation of 345 and as I said before the meeting was
held last last night um and it was a great turnout um I did want to um note there were some questions about the trust fund balance on page believe it's page three
um that is just as of December 31st of 2024 it's not meant to be um an accounting at all it's just to show what the balance is what some what the expenditures were in December um it's there basically to show the current
balance uh in the trust fund um as I mentioned Stephanie um has input all of the trust fund data into the state system um and I did confirm with Mark leckington our administrative agent that everything
is in the unit monitoring and the trust fund data is in it's not clear when the public site will be available um on the dca's website to to check that information um but that should be fairly soon we
hope so um when that's available I will make it part of my affordable housing update that I do every month and bring it uh to everyone's attention and I could ask the public just to check the website we'll put um put that monitoring
data up as soon as we can um I did want to I made a few new charts um that is the old one but I think I sent two new ones did they give
you those that's all I have no okay um no problem um so that the chart that's in the report now uh needs to be updated we actually had some um some projects fall out in
the last few weeks and some new projects uh come to fruition so um I'm just going to review those really quickly um and this is related to the 50 new unit obligation so you can kind of see it um
okay so we have um and also I've added some information that um members of the public had asked for uh last night um just to um help them understand uh what type of units we have and what the
status of those units are so we have one unit at 412 Morris that is a family unit and it is current it is constructed and occupied uh 146 Morris is Habitat for Humanity as I uh just spoke about that is fully constructed and they are
filling the units as we speak um 123 to 127 Summit Avenue um there are three units there they are family units and they are constructed and occupied uh Ashwood Court is part of the settlement with Habitat for Humanity uh that
agreement states that up to two units could could be built there um they would be in accordance with our settlement agreement if that's uh how those units get built uh they would be family units because we have an obligation of at least 25 of those units to be family
units um that that is still pending um it's it's not clear how many units can be uh built on that site um 557 to 565 Morris uh is an approved project of seven family units uh the Morris and
Broad overlay Zone um has a minimum number of affordable units of seven those will be family units and uh my understanding is that the bidding process will begin soon uh in the next couple of months um our house as I
discussed uh is a group home that exist that is constructed and occupied it is now deed restricted for 30 years uh that's four credits um the credits for group homes are based on the bedroom uh so there it's a bedroom units so therefore it's four credits uh Brandy
Wine assisted living facility uh is constructed and occupied they fall under a requirement uh by the state that at least 10% of their beds be available to Medicaid recipients so 10% of their uh
of their facility gives us 10 senior units which are constructed and occupied I believe it was constructed in 2021 um and within the last week uh we had a final um a final unit confirmation
of 12 units for a 100% senior uh affordable senior project with Bergen County United Way um that's still being finalized as far as um legal things and uh um a developers agreement um and
those things so uh as soon hopefully we can add uh more information very quickly um so that gives us a total of 62 out of 50 uh 50 units toward the 50 new units
by June by July 1st of 2025 um and I did want to uh explain as I did at the last at the meeting last night um everyone is focused on the 50 units always and
that's okay um but I did point out last night that the city did have another obligation which is called The Realistic development potential and that happens uh you get your number from on high and then you adjust it based on how much
vacant land that you have and Summit had a combined realistic development potential which is you know in in my jargon called an RDP um of 36 units uh the city fully
satisfied that with a 13 unit Surplus um so not only has the city now facilitated the construction of 62 out of the 50 that were um that were um in the ter in our settlement agreement but we also
have 49 credits from our realistic development potential um and those are all constructed and occupied so um I know everyone was focused on the 50 but though but I wanted everyone to ackn
also acknowledge that Summit has created affordable units and a and a significant amount based on the lack of vacant land that it does have so um those were those were clarifications that we discussed last night so I just wanted to bring that to the Public's attention as well
so do you have any questions all right great um thank you so much Nancy um I think at this time I'm going to ask if anyone in the public would like to uh maybe ask a question of Nancy while she's here and then we'll open it up for Council questions anyone from the public
is it just questions or is it comment as well comments you can answer yeah oh you can make a comment too if you'd like sure if you're commenting keep it to three minutes I sure will thank you yeah good evening everyone my name is Ellen
boand I live at 137 Tulip Street and I'm a member of at home and Summit um I first want to just start by recognizing and acknowledging that this Council and mayor inherited this problem of getting over the Finish Line um for four months
from now um and uh and I appreciate what you've been doing to try to get us over the Finish Line um and even though you didn't create the problem I do think you have a responsibility to fix it and do what you can I I'm at I feel like I'm at a great
disadvantage and I said this last night at the meeting because we don't really have a report that has concrete data and hearing Miss home to say today what they've done haven't done what's family what's not family it's not helpful I need to see numbers in front of me
otherwise I can't really analyze it um I've looked at the data that is available and I have two concerns about where we are right well I have three concerns actually but one is uh 50% of the units under round three are supposed
to be family units so that's 25 family units and I have counted um 14 for sure and possibly four more at 557 565 Morris
Avenue which is short of the 25 and also 133% of the 50 are supposed to be very lwi income units that's seven units and I've only counted um one that's done and one that's in the pipeline so that's
deficient by five units at least so that's you know part of the problem is we don't have concrete data things to look at analyze and the other part is from what I put together there are deficits and I also have to note that um the recent efforts that you've been
putting into getting us over the Finish Line have involved units for single individuals the um the project that's proposed by um United Way that's listed here the r our house group homes we
desperately need special needs housing and housing for seniors but we really need housing for families too and I know how we're going to get there if we're just going to do peace meal um little developments and I just want to also bring to your attention the main concern
that I have right now is with round four um the city's working on the plan right now that I'm sure that Consultants planners are working on the fair share plan and housing element that's got to be done in 4 and 1/2 months um and part of that as you know is the city's been
given the number of 345 I'm sure that number is going to be reduced and part of that is a vacant land analysis and I feel it's really um not serious if the city's selling the
property at Broad Street West while this process is in place you're going to come to a conclusion there's no vacant land when there is land that's buildable and if you're serious about affordable housing I urge you to hold on to that land at least part of it to build
housing thank you thank you very much for your comments um just to clarify 35 of the 50 units are family units in the in that please come on Dennis white 137
tulip thank you um I mean you know I spent a lot of time looking at these affordable housing issues I think you all know and you know tonight we got a report um that is totally inadequate really doesn't let us look at it this is a report that was distributed by the
city clerk on Friday and then last night we saw a completely different report and now tonight we're seeing another report so it's kind of frustrating to come before the group here and try to make some you know analysis of what's going on and I think if you can turn to the uh
trust fund numbers I mean this is a trust fund right and the city has an obligation to report on the money that comes in and the money that goes out and how that was deployed and yet we just get this very inadequate uh balance for the year and
you know the city had a year to do this so I mean if you could turn to that page with the trust fund balance I mean that's not an accounting of a trust fund for an annual an annual report so you know I would just urge the council to try to do a better job in preparing this
information again we don't know the composition of the units that are coming up you know we're the best we can do is look at the look at them and think you know what how much are affordable how much are low income how much are family but the information is not being provided so I think you know this Commit
This Council has talked about transparency and we're not getting that uh and I I just would urge you to provide the information and just one last comment and I think you heard is that as we go into round four the firehouse site is the one remaining site
where the city can really make a real impact on affordable housing and yet I think the mayor last night and Miss Hol just just re just said they're they're kind of running to get rid of that property you know kind of get want to get rid of before the June 30th deadline
and I think if this group was really committed they would hold that and put it into the round four discussion to develop affordable housing in town thank you thank you other comments comments all right
uh okay we'll move on then to comments from Council any comments from Council or questions for Nancy councilwoman Hamlet um I to say thank you all for your comments um I think this is a meaningful day for us because we have spent a lot of time and
energy and just trying um to facilitate getting to 50 um and obviously we' we've made progress towards that but I don't think it ends there I think um to everybody's point we have to continue to work together in this progress and it's really important for all of us to get family units as well um we have another
call I think tomorrow with our house um I'm your planning board liaison so uh I know Steve spur is is very much uh aligned with with our vision especially of providing uh public input in the fair share housing element plan uh and making
sure that uh the desires of the community such as family units is is heard and you're a part of that so um thank you for coming and thank you for caring um appreciate it and we'll get you those trust fund numbers I promise and I think Mark luckington I think he actually did them Rosie what the it's
all finished yeah it's all finished we'll get this week like I said it's a new system and I asked him today to figure out how to print out for 2024 um the trust fund data he's trying to work on it it's a brand new system um that
DCA had about a couple months to figure out there's still working out the the bugs there there's a lot of actually municipalities that still can't even log into the system so it's been it's been quite a process but um hopefully soon um
based on what what Mark said that hopefully in the next month or so that there'll be a public interface that um on this on the dca's website so that that information is readily available to everyone
so thank you other comments from Council Members yes uh councilman Smallwood please thank you council president um you obviously this is an extremely complicated issue and for a lot of people to really digest everything that
is required what is talked about in our agreement with fair share housing um including myself right so it's extremely difficult to completely understand so for round three how many affordable units did we
provide okay so for for round three um we had the realistic development potential which is when you take all the vacant land in the city and decide what is suitable for inclusionary
development um at a presumptive density and then you come up with this number so you presume a 20% set aside so I I will try very hard not to put everyone to sleep um so you take all the land and let's say there is 10 acres and your
minimum density is 10 units an acre right so then you calculate it's that many units and then you take 20% of that and that's your that's how you get your RDP so um so the our number is
36 um we had 40 um 40 actual units um four of which were group home eight of which were seniors and the remainder are all family
units um that so that and then there's a rental bonus that you're allowed um on any uh to incentivize the construction of family rental units uh which we satisfied which you have a maximum number of nine so we had a total of 49
credits toward our 36 so we had a 13 unit Surplus um so that gets applied um to the overall number uh once once your number is adjusted down there's this thing called the unmet need and the
unmet need is your number minus your RDP so that you um try to find areas that will develop and redevelop so that you can capture affordable housing we have a mandatory set aside ordinance to capture that we have overlay zones um we also
have developers come in who want to propose projects uh different places so um we also have uh what's called a regional contribution agreement with elizab with the um city of Elizabeth uh where we paid for the construction of uh
26 affordable units that is no longer a mechanism that's allowed they uh they removed that uh by the legislature removed that so then um after that we um so our unmet need just to backtrack a little bit is
702 for round three we have the 36 RDP and then we have the unmet need of 702 with the RCA the Surplus and the credits toward the 50 new unit goal our
unmet need balance is now 61 so we brought it down 100 units okay so so but in in round three we were required to or it's the the 50 number unit right how many did we create
um we the so the requirement is to facilitate the construction of and obviously we can't force a developer to to construct anything um so we as of today uh have facilitated the construction of 62 out of 50 that
doesn't mean they're all constructed yet that means that they're in various stages of either we're getting a um developers agreement finalized for the senior project um con there are some that are constructed in occupied and then there's
others that are uh still in process so so a total of 61 two 62 yeah 62 out of 50 but only 16 have been created so honestly sorry so that is not true but anyway according
to fair share housing they're recognizing 62 um we're we're still working with fare housing on on getting them all the all the information but they were they were on the uh uh the meeting last night they they didn't comment or anything but
they were there so okay so they they have all the information okay thank you great other questions or comments from Council no I'll just wrap up then uh ncy I just want to thank you I know you've been working really really hard here and
uh it doesn't help when the state changes their reporting software in the year that they change the rules around four um but there you have it uh so I know you've been under a tremendous burden to get a lot of this
stuff done and I know you're working really really hard and I know you will continue to work very very hard as we get to uh the end of June um so thank you for that um yeah so I I think the feedback from the public was was good I
I also see that we do seem to have done over 50% of family units here based off these numbers but I do think it would be great if we had a category for the very low income ones on here too so that we could see that would be great um the the
only other thought thing I have is you know as you mentioned we had an obligation to facilitate uh up to 50 units so um so we have been obviously trying very very hard to facilitate that and uh it's
happy to see that it looks like these units have been facilitated which is great um because I know you know Summit has a very long history of promoting affordable housing and continues to do so question I have though is you know some of this stuff um as we've just
heard is is being uh is in the planning stages and obviously plants change so how does this work when plant change like say say the moris broad overlay where putting the
seven in there as a minimum MH um I think all our hopes are uh whoever does develop the site will have more than that does that mean that if say that number eventually comes out to 14 units for instance which I think would have been the
number if the original bid uh or the original um Redevelopment plan if it was a 70 or 80 unit uh apartment building that was uh originally thought to be uh on that
space would have provided say we get something like that where does those extra units go do those go to round four or do they get still stuck in round three because it do does it follow the property or does it follow how many units get created so the new statute
requires that municipalities go back and look at their round three plan and if uh like you said plans change uh I have several municipalities where developers have walked away from projects and so you have to go back and fill a gap in
your plan first and then you take your credits um that you have and you apply them either to your round four plan or to holes in your um holes in your round three plan so it's a long convoluted
explanation but we're going the Mal Laural subcommittee is going to look at every single credit you know beat beat down the bushes to find some things that may have been overlooked um and take all of our credits and make sure that they get first applied to round three and
then um applied to round four uh once we do the vacant land analysis okay great all right thank you that's all I have um all right with that uh Nancy thank you very very much appreciate it you thanks everyone all right um we've got a double header in presentations uh tonight which
is great um so second presentation is from Community programs and Parking Services uh David Guida our assistant director is going to give a presentation on the tatlock playground thank you council president very excited to be presenting these hot
off the press designs tonight um so this is what um what you're seeing right there is of what is hopefully coming to tatlock playground by and I keep saying this if we put this good energy out in the air it will happen by
the end of this year um it on did you turn nope I didn't I always have an issue with this I should know this by now thanks n thank you okay so just a little bit of background on how this design was created so um we've been talking about Playgrounds for a
while now um in June 2022 Suburban Consulting delivered a full playground assessment to us with a $1.3 million estimate for the tatlock playground um and looking at all of our playgrounds in town knowing very well that pretty much
all of them need a decent amount of work we kind of took the analysis and said hey each playground needs to have a unique feature that makes it special makes gives everybody a destination to go to in Summit so our tatlock playground we decided on the theme of
nature so everything natural over there at tatlock um in the spring of 24 um along with May Fagan working with the ideas classes at all of the elementary schools we solicited feedback from all of the students in those classes and they gave us some really amazing ideas
um in the fall of this past year we sent out a survey including many many many of the top elements that the students were requesting um in a survey and the survey was sent out also by the Washington school PTO to solicit further feedback
on what parents would like to see for their children within all of the playground November December of this past year met with a couple different playground providers to gain information and different ideas compman kind of rose to the top and we ended up with some
pretty cool designs to address a couple questions that have been raised throughout this process at um tatlock playground there is about 20% of it that is owned by the Board of Education um we are working on with the board of education on these plans however
playgrounds apparently at the schools are also Al becoming a hot button topic right now um the board of EDS plan is to renovate Jefferson School this year they then plan on moving on to hopefully pending grant funding redoing the playground at the Brighton back top
blacktop in fiscal year 26 currently there are no plans for them to redo the Franklin or Lincoln playgrounds again those are board ofed properties but just for the completeness of this presentation thought it was important to mention that because that has become a
topic of conversation within these discussions purchasing because I have a feeling that this question would come up all of the playground equipment is itself on state contract so we'll be able to buy it through the state contract and compman also works with an installer who is on the Bergen County Co-op so we can also have the
installation and Equipment removal all done through the co-op which makes everything easy don't have to go out to bid um because they are on these contracts so kind of just putting up some more images the playground will have the same existing footprint same
entrances that currently exists we'll have the area for the 5 to 12y olds the area for the 2 to 5-year-olds and the real highlights of the playground are the Owl's Nest the owl uh the tree structures and um the there's two tree
structures there and also a nature exploration area for the younger children so just kind of ooh and awe everybody can look at oh that looks so great um all of these renderings will be
available online as of tomorrow pending a affirmative action that we're good to go with this design um tentatively to begin some fundraising campaigns so that's the exploration area for the little ones the tree structure lots of
great elements within the playground and you can see that even with the swings and everything we're going for that very natural wood look um which is really cool I think bird's eye view of what the playground will look like I'm biased I think it looks great um so now the real
fun part to talk about is there is an option a and an option b option A comes in at 1.3 million option b is just over a million uh the two options uh basically work off of each other option b obviously take some things out just
kind of included at the bottom of what would be removed and what would be replaced within the playground so the thought process basically Bally why I'm here tonight is to ask Council to say I know it's not a formal um formal action but to kind of say hey yeah have at it
with the fundraising So currently we do have 852 th000 in funding pending $500,000 in this upcoming budget cycle that has not been approved yet but I know that that has been part of the discussion process so assuming that
that's approved we have the $852,000 clear distinction there cuz it hasn't been approved yet so I apologize for jumping the gun saying that um but assuming we get that we would have a fundraising goal of $191,000 for playground a um to get the
full shebang we would have a fundraising goal of $463,000 uh compman has also said that they have other ways that they can reduce the price especially as we see how the fundraising campaign goes uh so we can obviously cross those bridges
when we get there uh playground timeline March through July and again the maybe playground project I think we can all agree has really taken a life of its own has moved at a snails pace so when we put this on paper and really see how this is going to go we see that
fundraising it's not going to be a long drawn out fundraising campaign we're going to do some real distinct events where we try to raise some funds for it um a distinct um fundraising campaign with bricks and also working with local nonprofits the Elks have expressed a
great deal of interest in working with us they said typically they can get about $100,000 in fundraising from an event um so that's kind of what has been thrown out there in may we would look to probably go out based on how the fundraising is going and at least commit
to The Owl and the tree play structure because these items do need a seven-month lead time so once the budget is hopefully adopted we'll be able to go out sign a contract basically to say begin constructing these play structures for us September is when we would need
to have all the fundraising done by so that's why say in July give us a little wiggle room by September we would have the full contract and then by November December we could see some construction on the site um so that's it on um tatlock just I have a feeling that these
questions would come up so just real quickly to Breeze through it maybe playground we're getting there hopefully by the summer right now we just have an outstanding um soil permit um once we get that we're to send everything down to the D the pr has already been sent
for approval um but then the bid backs go down after we get that done hopefully in March April we'll be getting the bids out and then awarded in April to begin construction as soon as possible following that and because playgrounds are the hot button topic and it gets a
little convoluted because we have three projects going on at the same time essentially we've now started applying for grants for the memorial playground so I'll I'll go back to the pretty looking picture cuz that's that's where we make friends when people see the nice
stuff so that's that's it so basically what I'm here to ask for is just to say hey these designs look great good luck fundraising thank you David um are there any uh questions or comments from the
public on our playground plan n okay let's move on Council any Council comments or questions Madame mayor usually don't do this but um so a couple questions one is I know that part of the reason we're having this conversation is because we got to a
point with our 20 and 25y old playgrounds where we couldn't replace things and we couldn't repair things so I guess one of my questions is what's a warranty situation for any of this stuff and then sort of with that you mentioned
wood which outdoors in New Jersey feels like a sort of scary concept for something that's going to live outdoors so it's not all wood it's it looks like wood it's this recycled plastic material so it's not the aluminum that you look at on most playgrounds and um what was
the first part of the question just a warranty oh the warranty there's actually a full warranty page in a presentation that I can circulate to everybody on the main play structures it's like a it's there there is a lifetime warranty that exists and then there's exactly but then there's a bunch
of tear certain things that are 5 years 10 years 15 years um and I think there's a 25 year one as well so I can circulate that around everybody thank you of course comments Council presid uh just one question so I'd like to remain
optimistic uh but if we appropriate $500,000 and we don't come up with the fundraising money what happens then we just have to scale the project back a little bit but a playground will be installed by the end of this year
[Laughter] okay that's the goal okay all right uh all right other comments or questions from Council council president yes uh councilman small uh I'll be really quick uh David great job and I would like to
give David credit for recognizing the fact that tatlock uh mascot is the owl and a lot of these renderings or I guess the final rendering came from the students of tatlock uh I I love the idea
of was I'm sorry Washington school elementary school um so I love the idea of you know reaching out to the kids who actually use this and uh hopefully you know at least the second third fourth graders will be able to use this next
spring and fifth graders yes so thank you other comments are council president I just have to point out that I am ashamed as a Washington owl I did not pick up on that so it's funny for about a week I was walking around in the office saying this owl this owl's so
cool and everybody was just looking at me what is he on about with this owl and I finally had to say it's the Washington owls was it's pretty cool so I just have one question what what do you do on the owl
I mean do you climb it like I mean what is there's act like it's you can climb it and then there's a rock wall there's different platforms that you can climb up and down on it so there's like a so the rock walls on the the two sides like those back wings or what wow and then
I'm pretty sure that there's actually even a a small slide on the back of it as well the I when I post the uh renderings Tomorrow there's so many pictures of everything uh you can see the whole the whole owl yeah very cool
good oh wow good one good and resist all right with that thank you very much David all right all right um so that's it for our
presentation part of our meeting we're we now we have one two three ordinances for hearing and for final uh consideration so um our first one madame clerk will you please read uh our ordinance the first ordinance for
hearing from safety in health yes uh ordinance number 25-33 31 an ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-19 midblock crosswalks thank you very much uh
councilman Boer thank you council president uh this is ordinance that our esteemed clerk just read uh 25- 3331 which was introduced at our last meeting and is now before us for a final adoption
this ordinance formalizes the existing midblock crosswalk at Norwood Avenue and removes a previous approved previously excuse me approved but unconstructed crosswalk at one springful Avenue uh the rationale for this
adoption enhances pedestrian safety maintains uh accurate and up-to-date city ordinances supports efficient city government uh this ordinance has been reviewed and approved by the Caps
committee and Safety Committee and has undergone undergo excuse me the proper instruction geez I'm am off tonight the proper introduction and public hearing process at this time I respectfully move for the final adoption
of this ordinance we're going to open the hearing open the hearing open the hearing do I have a second second all right I'm going to declare the hearing open uh at this point uh in time does any member of the public wish to speak on this ordinance all right I'm going to close
public comments for this ordinance and move along to council person comments all right uh we're going to close the um hearing on safety and health ordinance number one um moving right along Madame clerk will you please read the ordinance from the community
programs and Parking Services ordinance number 25-33 32 an ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-25 regulations for the movement and the parking of traffic on Municipal property and Board of Education property
subsection 7- 25.2 Municipal parking lot areas uh thank you so much um councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is uh ID ordinance ID number two 25 3332 this is to amend the current
ordinance to allow the resident communs to to be able to park in the tier garage currently there are on average over 50 available spaces each day in the teer garage it would give us approximately a net increase in Resident Community parking between the Broad Street East parking lot and the tier garage I move
to open this ordinance for hearing I have a second I'll okay awesome um all right I'm going to declare the hearing open at this time would anyone from the public like to speak about this ordinance all right I'm going to close
public comments uh Council comments yes Council woman H please this may be a question that you're all going to laugh at me for but is there a reason why when we do a hearing for an ordinance that we just can't we don't get public comment afterwards so why can't we just vote on it
afterwards because we have to close the hearing right once we close the hearing why can't we just go back in and vote on this because I feel like we talk about it and then we do a couple things then we go back and we do it again it's just because um the way our uh agenda is it's it's done in sections so we have
ordinances for hearing then we have ordinance of final consideration and sometimes we'll have ordinances for introduction okay so it's just we bundle the type of um activity that we're we're talking about it council president may I
Madam clerk knows a lot more about this than me I'm just curious only because I've I've heard this before from other council members that it kind of gives you a second to digest what you've just heard in this case there are no hearing there are no comments but you know you
close the comments and then before you vote you've had a moment to think about it and that's really what is I was just curious thank you thank you uh other comments from Council all right I I would just say it's it I think it's great that um
Community programs and parking they're always thinking about utilizing numbers we are going through a period where uh with working from home ride share uh you know we're going to be dealing with automatic driving cars at some stage in
the future they're already doing it in San Francisco for cabs for instance um these if we're not always looking at how our parking uh assets are being utilized then we're going to miss the vote so I I commend um Ni Call and everyone to and
and the committee for for doing this so thank you um all right any other comments all right I'm going to close the hearing on this ordinance and moving right along to our third ordinance for hearing Madame clerk will you please read the capital projects and Community
Services ordinance yes number 25-33 33 an ordinance amending the code chapter 2 Administration Article 4 departments created section 2-14 Department of Community Services uh thank you so much uh
councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you council president this is ordinance 25-33 33 this ordinance amends section 2-14 of the city code to memorialize changes in the organizational structure of the Department of Community Services specifically this ordinance provides
that the department shall be divided into three divisions the divisions of sorry the division of engineering and Public Works the Construction Division and the land use division this ordinance specifies the functions of each division and provides that in the absence of a director of community services the head
of division of engineering and Public Works shall be the director of engineering and Public Works the head of the land use division so shall be the head of the land use manager and the head of the Construction Division shall be the construction official so essentially uh the new department will
have three uh division heads reporting directly to the city administrator I'd like to introduce this ordinance open hearing sorry open the hearing do I have a second second all right I'm going to declare this hearing open at this time any uh
comments from the public on this ordinance no okay um close that section of the hearing and we'll go to council comments uh or questions on this no very good uh seeing none all right I'm going to close the hearing uh
and that uh has us finishing up our hearings uh portion of our meeting and now we're going on to the our ordinances for final consideration which will be the same three ordinances um Madam clerk will you please read the uh ordinance for final
consideration from safety and health ordinance number 25- 3331 an ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-19 midblock crosswalks thank you so much uh councilman Boer thank you council
president having just closed the hearing I respectfully move for the final adoption of ordinance 25- 3331 second thank you all right roll call please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I miss
cinon I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president McAn I motion carries all right um Madam clerk will you please read the uh ordinance for final consideration from Community program and Parking Services number 25- 3332 an
ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-25 regulations for the movement and the parking of traffic on Municipal property and Board of Education property subsection 7- 25.2 Municipal parking lot
areas thank you so much councilman Smallwood thank you council president having just closing having just closed this hearing on ordinance number ID 25332 I moved to open the uh ordinance for final consideration second thank you all right
roll call please Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss kinson hi Mr Smallwood hi Mr to miss to I president McAn I motion carries all right our last one Madam clerk will you please read the ordinance
for final consideration from capital projects and Community Services ordinance number 25- 3333 an ordinance amending the code chapter 2 Administration Article 4 departments have created section 2-14 Department of Community Services thank you so much
councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president uh as we just closed the hearing for ordinance 25- 333 uh I would like to open this ordinance for final consideration so moved that a second
second all right um roll call please Mr Boyer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss cinon hi Mr Smallwood I miss CH I president McAn I motion carries all right thank you everyone um
as we move right along uh to our resolution section of our meeting this evening first up is uh there's a couple from Finance uh councilwoman to finance number one please okay thank you council president this is ID number
11789 authorizing tempor emergency temporary Appropriations to the m Municipal operating budget the explanation for this resolution and the immediately following one are essentially the same um until we pass the 20125 budget the city is operating
under the temporary Municipal operating budget the council passed on January 7th and that budget allows the city to spend 26.25 of the 24 2024 budget line item by line item and in the real world expenses
don't flow evenly throughout the year much less throughout a quarter so Summit spends more at the beginning of the year on some of the some of the budget items and the only way to authorize this needed spending is via this resolution we're required to call it an emergency
but it's standard operating procedure I move to adopt this resolution second thank you very much um do I have any comments from the public on this resolution comments from Council all right I believe we have to
have a roll call on this yes Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet I miss cson hi Mr Smallwood hi Miss to I president McAn I motion carries all right on to finance number two councilwoman to thank you council president this is ID
11773 authorizing emergency temporary appropriation to the Sewer utility budget this is the same situation as with the immediately preceding resolution on the on the municipal operating budget I move to adopt this resolution
second thank you uh comments from the public comments from councel all right roll call on this one as well please Mr Boyer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss cson I Mr Smallwood I miss toad
I president McAn I motion Carri all right Finance number three councilwoman to okay thank you council president this is ID number 11767 authorizing the city to approve the documentation needed for Capital
Improvements to the Joint meeting this and the immediately following resolution cover the same situation so I'll explain them together The Joint meeting is essentially a coop sewage treatment facility of which Summit is part owner
it's existed for about 100 years is very well-run and is even more costeffective part of what keeps it so well-run is that the joint meeting has a biannual Capital Improvement project and for a variety of reasons the 2019 Capital Improvements were not completed they're
happening this year and the joint meeting is issuing bonds with the New Jersey infrastructure Bank to fund them ibank loans tend to be very low cost and Summit share is $720,000 this resolution authorizes Summit to
enter into into the agreements necessary to issue its share of the overall bonds and the next resolution authorizes the issuance of the bonds themselves I move to adopt this resolution second uh comments from the
public comments from Council the um I just have one comment again um this is something I I think councilwoman to said it we pay a share of the uh expenses from The Joint meeting we are an equity holder um the
way they allocate our share is based off of our our what we send there so without getting too into the weeds um it's the flow that goes in there uh one of the things I know uh director shager has worked very very hard on is our storm
water management system um it's to keep rainwater out of our sewer system because if it gets in there we get charged for it it it's it becomes flow so we've done a really really good job I know uh over the last uh several years
decade really I know Aaron youve focused on this and and it pays real dividends because it means our cut of all these expenses goes down which is awesome so thank you for that okay um any other comments all right uh roll call please
Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss cson I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president McAn I okay motion carries let's go to finance uh number four councilwoman to okay thank you council president this is ID number
11765 authorizing the city to issue up to $720,000 worth of bonds to fund The Joint meeting Capital Improvements as explained above I move to adopt this resolution second thank you uh comments from the public
comments from Council okay another roll call I believe Mr Boyer hi Miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president mcon I thank you okay uh moving along Finance
number five councilwoman to okay thank you council president this is ID number 11765 authorizing the city to extend the deadlines for the municipal budget the default date for introducing the budget is February 28th and that's as a
practical matter unworkable the budget can't be readed for submission until after the prior Year's books are closed and the municipal annual financial statement is prepared that whole process takes several weeks and there just isn't
enough time to do it all so with absent the state legislature amending the statute to comport with reality each year the division of local government Services extends the various deadlines and this year the extended deadlines are March 7th for submitting last year's
annual financial statement March 31st for submitting the 2025 budget and April 30th for adopting it and given the Myriad of rules and regulations governing Municipal budgets we need this extra time I move to adopt the
resolution second thank you uh comments from the public please comments from Council all right uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries last Finance
number six councilwoman to okay thank you council president this is ID number 11770 authoring us to authorizing us to request bids for IT services um for some years Summit has sh has had a shared services agreement with Madison with one
person working for both municipalities effective July 1st that person will work for Madison full-time and we need a new contract in place with sufficient time for the transition this resolution author authorizes us to to advertise for
the IT services I move to adopt this resolution second all right uh any comments from the public comments from Council council counc president councilwoman Hamlet first sure uh thank you council president um as councilwoman to just
mentioned uh we will be severing the relationship with the shared services with Madison um I think as we depart this relationship we should uh have some discussions around whether or not we want to pursue another shared services with another municipality um I think in the meantime we have an incredibly
talented group of residents on the information technology committee uh councilwoman to and I hopefully by the end of this week we've been super busy we'll have our first uh technology meeting in the next week or two uh historically this committee hasn't met very often um but I think we really just have to think about you know what does
it mean um to have a digital strategy for Summit what do the residents want um what do we have today what are inclusive of the services what are the roadblocks uh ultimately what is the bigger strategy and I spoke with um our city administrator today and it sounds like uh those wheels are already in motion
she's uh taking a deep dive into all of the services seeing what the redundancies are um speaking with all the technology speaking with all the department heads um and I think ultimately we may find some redundancies and that's a good thing right it'll ultimately save taxpayer dollars and we
have a ton of residents who can streamline this process so I think it's a really exciting time to evaluate all of our systems and and streamline the processes great thank you councilman Boer thank you council president uh in addition to what uh councilwoman Hamlet
had said uh we actually had a meeting uh this morning to talk about something that's dear and near to me which is uh Cy C security and our cyber security posture and inclusive of you know it services and I'm in agreement that we
need to look at this holistically uh there have been other municipalities in recent news you know ransomware is a really serious thing uh and we need to look at whether shared services is something that Summit wants to do or uh
if Sumit needs uh some in-house uh security uh posture um especially these days that can also provide IT services for ecovery and different things so uh I think I just want to thank uh uh our
business administrator and our mayor for taking these matters very seriously uh sometimes especially in the corporate world uh cyber security is kind of the last thing that gets funded until something happens so I'm I'm very happy
that we are doing this right now and I think uh end of the day we'll leave Summit in a very secure situation so thank you thank you uh other comments all right uh all in favor I I
opposed motion carries all right we're moving along to safety and health uh resolution number one councilman Boer thank you council president this is resolution ID 11782 uh this authorizes the purchase and installment of a new surveillance
camera system at City Hall this resolution is brought forward to replace the existing surveillance system which is nearing the end of its operational life and is no longer under warranty the new system will not only improve security at City Hall but also
provide the tech or technological Foundation to expand the city surveillance Network into key areas including parking garages the central business district and additional Municipal locations as
needed this project is fully funded through uh the previous capital accounts um and with this I move this resolution uh for adoption second thank
you uh comments from the public welcome I don't know how I did this for six years it's uh don't start my clock yet it's amazing commitment what all of you are doing it's um before I left tonight I was just calculating with my wife a three-year term on Council is
about 200 minimum mandatory meetings that you need to go to uh 6 years is 400 so do the math and there's about a couple hundred more after that so uh I do thank you for all this and I've only been back here I think twice this being my second time so
um now you can start my clock name and address don't forget yeah I will uh my name is Pat Hurley my address is 192 Ashen Road Summit New Jersey um so just a couple comments on this and and I I do thank councilman Boer for spending a lot
of time listening uh to me because this is something that's near and dear to me because I've been involved with security um security technology um security assessments Security Programs complex assessments all over the world for the last um uh collectively about 20 25
years uh especially with um artificial intelligence and you know AI Etc video analytics and everything that we're looking to lay the foundation for and this being the first step in it um I think this resolution with the resolution I really do applaud the vision in the city's um efforts to
update the existing security infrastructure here and establish the uh you know the foundation um as implied in the documents what councilman Boer just said for the integrated video system powered by Advanced AI in the downtown um but that's a significant
undertaking and uh I think that must be carefully planned and designed the the specific resolution I uh that you're voting on tonight I only see an invoice asking for Council to approve about $110,000 on security cameras nothing
more The Proposal from the vendor it's all it's fairly typical from the industry is sloppy it's kind of fraught with project uh and Technology risk I think for the city for example I see a reference to a firewall but I don't see any references to existing or required
new switching to power the cameras or the necessary bandwidth uh for the data second I see the common industry disclaimer on cabling which forces the city to assume the project risk in additional expense of running new cables
should the existing ones being compatible this analysis should have been completed before the job was quoted not added as a disclaimer to the invoice third there is no camera schedule or map depicting what types of cameras will be deployed and where or why a particular
camera was selected for each location and how it is expected to perform versus manufacturer published specifications additionally there is no power or storage budget presented to demonstrate the criteria used by the vendor to select the device determine the required network
configuration cable type and cable runs I could go on but in the interest of time I uh I won't I think a vigil line cameras are um vantastic but I think this proposal is sloppy and it's not clear if the city is getting the best possible benefit for the taxpayer
dollars being sent spent additionally this proposal does not demonstrate how the project is laying the foundation for the proposed future expansions but it does highlight a more important issue Council has done some great things and Public Safety along with the police the mayor and everybody over the last year
but this idea of an expanded um security infrastructure throughout the city you know it is the next logical and the most intelligent step going forward it's extremely important the city develops a detailed plan and establish clear requirements for the selection and
integration of the new Public Safety uh infrastructure can I have 20 more seconds got to wrap okay most importantly we should learn from our joint joint Dispatch Center our effort which is clearly a disappointment with founding participating municipalities including some at looking for
Alternatives after less than 10 years in operation and a basically A1 million dollar Grant frustrate uh wasted and I will stop with that thank you uh former councilman Hurley and thank you for all your service on the council in the past
your comments Mr President all right thanks everybody uh other comments from the public council president if he has a statement to uh Mr Hurley if you have if that's a written statement uh could you please forward it to the clerk when you get I CH PR thank you very
much thank you um other comments from the public all right comments from Council uh councilwoman Hamlet um thank you council president I have to say I called
councilman boy here today and my comments were um it's $100,000 so contract why is the labor so high why is the labor not detailed out and the other couple of questions and this all goes back into it right as a council person you're not exactly supposed to know what
a $155,000 port is but when you see two of them on your bill list in the same week and you see $100,000 worth of cameras you start to ask some questions and just just so that you understand what you're actually voting for and my question today was you know is is it okay to do a purchase order for this and
of course it was okay because it was a state contract but I was struggling and I'm just and jimal this is I was just struggling with not having the big picture around you know where exactly are these cameras going and you know are we getting why are we paying so much for labor and Jamal explained it to me well
we're taking all these cameras down but I think going forward if if the Departments could give a a better clear understanding and just truly walk us through exactly where the cameras are going and and this also goes back in to I think having our technology committee
or person who's handling that just take a look at this because to Mr Hurley's point a lot of these cloud-based Services could be shared they could be overlapping you know are the two ports here tonight that we're spending you know $28,000 on are they going to be able to support all of this equipment so
um I would have liked a little more information but I am comfortable that the I'm sure the department did their work but I was struggling with the invoice as well I just thought there wasn't enough I looked them up all day today that it's um ctmb I was I literally looked them up in the
Cooperative purchasing because I I thought I thought the purchase orderer or the um receipt whatever you call it was was I agree wasn't enough detail thank you other comments council president yes councilman Boer first I want to thank uh former councilman
Hurley for uh all of his advice um we've had multiple different conversations about drones and everything else and uh and cameras and uh the councilman is a subject matter expert I mean it knows
more about cameras and um you know ports and uh I mean it is it it's it's really outstanding and I enjoy our conversations and it actually really equips me to go back to the police department and follow up on these
matters um first uh the SU police department will do a camera master plan and this year and lay this all out what our future posture will be for our AI cameras this is amazing technology uh
when I was down at the league of municipalities uh I saw a demo on what these cameras can do and it is absolutely uh astonishing and this will certainly equipped our Police Department with Next Level uh um type response
surveillance evidence collection all types of things um uh secondly with this uh funding this came from several years ago for from a capital expense um I don't know if the
business administrator would like to opine on that um but this was in a previous capital budget and it was coming to the end where we needed to actually make this purchase um and start
this process so this initial purchase will be replacing the cameras so the cameras that are up they'll be replacing them so we could put a diagram where the cameras are now which I don't think we should make public anyway um by the
way also um the technology that's involved uh we could lay that out right I think you would probably need several manual to read even to understand the schematics of it if we want to get into the granular detail uh this company that
the city of summit use is one of the same companies that uh was involved in our lprs we we are we we know them we we trust them they actually came to City Hall they looked at all of our infrastructure they looked at the cables
and everything so uh I feel comfortable with that um but I think what's really important though and the former councilman pointed this out is that we do need a we do need a plan we can't just put up cameras say hey in the
parking garage or the park line and we just put them up no we we actually have to do what makes sense we have to plan this out strategically uh because these cameras can be used in a very strategic way but they have to be in the right places so
this year we will the police department will be taking their time like how we do a master plan for the city we're going to be doing a master plan for our cameras and um I personally uh will be seeking some
advice from some of our subject matter experts I won't name who they are uh but I'm sure that we'll be in conversation so that this city is left with the with the best strategic uh AI posture that uh can be
incorporated and just one one next thing last thing we have a new Firehouse right um just think about a future where all of this technology leads into one Hub where our um where our Emergency
Management uh um Hub is right so you have your Police Department your fire department you have your mayor there and we're there's a storm and we're looking at all these cameras what about Avenue what's going on in Springfield what's and it's all populated and you can
follow things you can type things in hey there was a car that's missing right we don't know it got blown off the side you type it in the camera follows the car something I mean this is like next level stuff it really I mean it really is so but we want to make sure everything
feeds in the right area um and and and do it right so uh I'll I'll leave it at that though but I'm fully in support of this initial plan to start thank you other comments councilman Smallwood thank you council president um obviously
coun councilman boy I'm I'm certainly going to defer to you and uh councilwoman cson since this is your committee um but I just have to I have to ask for my own personal you mentioned a master plan and uh former councilman
Hurley's uh comments um is this something that we should hold off on to we do the master plan or is this the beginning of the master plan I'm just thinking would it be more coste effective to put the master plan
together and then purchase the cameras so the problem with that is that the existing cameras that we have right now are there there are no warranty on them uh and they're expiring they have their operating life has ended so if we don't
replace these cameras I think that um that would impact our current security posture so we need to move forward and also I believe these are capital funds from several years ago um and I can defer to our business administrator if we don't use these funds I believe they
have to go back or um but I think the main goal is that we need to really replace our cameras and why not replace them with the next level technology right good I don't know um sure you Council
Pres yes pleas um I I don't recall exactly it was either 22 or 23 when this was uh first brought up by the police department um that we were coming to the end of life on the current system um so it took some time for them to obviously
vet out what was the best way to go um here we are the funds won't expire um however the cameras will as we can see they're nearing the end of their life this was a a suggestion and recommendation by the Police Department
um these cameras uh if I recall I can remember them talking about it because it was interesting but this is the first step in being able to get cameras into other locations within the city getting them into our parking garages for example getting them into the park line
so this is just the beginning um the master plan of cameras is coming but this step needs to be taken so that we can evolve and grow the system if you will thank you councilwoman Hamlet my only
ask would be um if we could table it for one more meeting would it be would it would it be that um would it be a tragedy I I looked into the the price of the cameras and and received advice from a few people that the the price of the cameras is very high and I'm not sure if
that's correct or not but I guess my question is just because we have a state contract that may not be the best price I mean that that truly just because it's state contract doesn't mean that we're we're getting the lowest price it's just not true Council council president right
well let me just opine real quick so councilman Boer there was a vendor that initially gave us a quote for these cameras and it was way overpriced and a j who's our it um Our IT personnel looked at it right and then we went with
a second vendor which is the vendor that we're we're with right now and the price was substantially uh lowered um um so if tbling it tonight means that um you're going to effectively go out and try to
find another vendor to get these cameras um I think the vendor that we have right now and the cameras that we have right now and the um the leg work that the police department has already put in is
sufficient uh I I I would defer back to council woman HL it I mean if you believe that tbling it now and uh taking the time to go out and doing um some other leag work with someone else you
know other than the police department that's already done it um I I guess I don't know my question is you know when were the other so we didn't bid it out right it was just we got another quote from another state contract vendor is that how it works I'm just not privy to that information so I don't know through you
council president I don't know where the first quote came in uh but we were able to find and direct it to the state contract if you want to go out to bid we have to prepare bid specs this is over the 44,000 so if you don't use a state contract you do have to go out to bid
you do have to prepare the bid specs for it you do have to leave it up you have 60 days to award so we're we're probably looking at a few months before we can I don't know what the impact of that would be on the system currently running but you're definitely looking at a few months before you could award if you're
going in a different direction or even looking into it and accepting bids and then throwing them out it's still a lengthier process uh respectfully I've had a long two-hour conversation with Captain Peters about this and um I trust
his judgment that we had a vendor the price wasn't good we went to another vendor and um he had searched a market for these cameras so um at this point respectfully I would be voting against tbling this so I just want well there's
there is no motion to to table yet just pointing out what what my vote would be yeah um okay uh other comments from Council I'd like to make a motion to table to table all right there so there's a motion to table do I have a
second okay so hearing no second we're going to move along um I have I have just a couple of comments one one's a question so I I think the f well I have two questions the first one I think has been answered so this these cameras
are just replacing existing cameras we're not adding any cameras and and we're replacing on a one for one basis all the cameras that we have now corre that's correct council president okay great um great second
question is um this this cable coaxial cable issue that uh former councilman Hurley brought up if it's not compatible do we have funds
available to change out the cables council president I was told by the police department by Captain Peters that they came in and they actually looked at the cords and they that was my question to Captain Peters um and that
uh the equipment is um compatible with what's going to go in and he actually also reassured me that this vendor quote unquote doesn't do any funny business you know they they they say what they say and they they do what they do so um
I think if there is an issue somewhere down the road where they come in and say uh this is not this this cable is not compatible um I think we have [Music] some other business that we would be
maybe possibly not doing with them in the future so uh yeah okay fair enough um yeah um dealing with you know approved vendors you know a lot of the leg work
in vetting has has been done and again I I I I share councilwoman Hamlet's uh desire to get the best price on things absolutely so I I'm as an aside I've seen no one dig into numbers
like you do so thank you for keeping to do that um but uh I I do trust Captain Peters uh for really uh doing the work on this and and this is um I guess it can always be better uh that being said
um I know this is a replacement and I'm happy to hear that there's going to be a master plan although the little part of me that self-identifies as a Libertarian is a little worried about this stuff we have cameras that watch us as we walk
around uh in the community I know that's reality but it still kind of freaks me out a little bit um that I'm always being watched um but I do know it's an important part of keeping Community safe and the technology um is changing and getting
more amazing every day so um I I do support this so okay uh other comments I have yes Council so where's the warranty information on this maybe the chief can answer the questions because the one um the one reason for suggesting that we
change these cameras out uh is that the warranty was up so I was wondering if maybe the chief could speak to that because I don't see the warranty information in here I just want to know if it includes a warranty because the quote doesn't include a warranty I don't think I don't see the warranty for the
cameras the warranty on the expired cameras or the new no the new cameras because one of the reasons that the the memo says the there are no longer warranties on our camera but I don't see a warranty plan for the current cameras that the vendor is recommending Chief the replacement
they're not replacing them because the warranty is out the warranty is out on the cameras that we have they're replacing them because I think we're at maybe 60% working um that's that's the reason not not not that we're anticipating them going down they are
down a good portion of the cameras that we that we presently have I guess one of the questions that councilwoman Hamet had though was these new cameras are under some sort of warranty uh is your understanding oh
yeah of course okay but we just don't know whether it's two years three years whatever what's that I um is thiser no not really the evil well the evilon equipment is a two-year warranty which is one of the lower ones in the
industry but they're also some of the best cameras in the industry so it's kind of a trade off um my only so that I think that answers your question I just did a huge project on this so I know out um in Ohio um the issue is that as soon as you buy the cameras which is tonight
that clock may start ticking and you got to be very careful about that because I've had cameras sitting on the shelf for a year a year and a half and the client gets them and they're mad cuz they only six years so but that answers the warranty questions two years but he should have put that in the like your
point thank you okay other comments from Council and I will charge it for that all right um all in favor well we have a motion to table I have a motion to table I know but we didn't have a second oh we didn't have a second nobody
second right so the motion didn't pass um all right all in favor I I opposed I all right motion carries all right uh councilman Boer safety and health I understand you might
want to bundle two and three yes so thank you council president I'm going to bundle resolutions 11757 and 11759 uh which formally declares six vacancies if you bundle them together
within the police department due to the upcoming retirement of our steam Chief uh Steven zagorski on April 30th 2025 and the subsequent promotions uh that will follow in
addition to the retirement of one police officer so that would make it six uh I would like to uh move this resolution for adoption second
two resolutions uh yeah they're both those both of resolutions these resolutions excellent okay uh comments from the public comments from Council yes council president uh just want to make one statement um when I read the chief of
police uh retirement letter uh I got to tell you I was moved um and I called them right away it is when when you when you serve for uh over three decades it's
leaving a job is uh is tough um I'm sure the chief as as a detective solve many of crimes save lives uh his Devotion to the city has been tremendous and it is
uh it is it is heartwarming um and I just want to uh thank the chief for his service and we will will be recognizing him fully at a later date absolutely uh but thank you Chief I
appreciate you yes madame mayor Chief you missed what I said earlier so I'll send you a note no kid thank you for your service and and obviously um it will be a void but we are in good hands you have made sure of that so thank
you great thank you other comments from Council councilwoman H just like to say thank you chief for all all your hard work your dedication your service to Summit um you you work and and lead the dep Department in such a respectable way um we're honored to to have you for so many
years and uh just thank you for your service sorry I voted no against your cameras tonight um but thank you very much other comments from Council I would just say didot to that I know we're going to uh have a a larger
uh uh retrospect of your career and all your service to uh to Summit Chief but um I know on today we're announcing it and and I want to say thank you as well for everything you've done for our community okay um all right uh all in favor I I
opposed motion carries all right uh safety and health number four councilman Boer thank you council president uh I move to adopt resolution ID number 11758 which authorizes the appointment and promotion of detective Kathleen muli
to the rank of Sergeant effective February 20th 20125 uh this resolution um excuse me uh detective muli is one is it sorry council president I got
my uh my notes we bundled things up here uh detective muli has demonstrated the necessary quality ification skills and experience to effectively assume the responsibilities of the position her promotion will ensure that the dep Department maintains its current
Staffing levels within the rank of Sergeant uh the rationale for this adoption promoting detective muli ensures that the police department uh maintains adequate supervision and Leadership within its
ranks uh I want to be clear about this this is a merit base promotion detective muli has undergone rigorous testing evaluation and has proven her
performance and experience and I have to say I've interviewed for my incorporate and even in the city I've interviewed you know dozens of people and during
uh detective M Julie's interview she blew me away uh she is the most most qualified for this role uh that personally i' I've ever seen um I I am actually
honored uh to be reading this and I'm honored to be a council member to promote uh the first female uh that will be the highest ranking
um uh police officer in summit's history and that is a honor to be reading this so um with enthusiasm and respect for detective muli I move this for a
final adoption second comments from the public comments from Council yes please Madame mayor thank you um I am also very honored to be a part of this uh I'm excited to uh to
swear Kathy in off um officer muli in tomorrow at 4M that is the schedule we weren't allowed to talk about that until um well we as long as everybody approves of this guess I'm jumping the gun sorry Rosie um but 4:00 tomorrow as long as
everyone approves um we will be swearing Cathy in as the most senior ranking female in the history of the summit Police Department so that feels really great for our city thank you really does thank you other comments yes councilman Smallwood thank you council president uh
I've I've known um Kathy for a very long time uh working on the uh the palal and you know not only does she do her paid job as an
officer extremely well but she also came to all of our pal meetings every month and which is not paid time that's all her volunteer time and I don't know if I should share this information or not but one of the most
important jobs that she did on the palal was she was the Easter Bunny I was going to say that and there are pictures right so I hope uh I hope she'll still cons I don't know if she still is I haven't been on the PA she awesome so I hope
[Laughter] so um Kathy I hope that you'll be able to choose your successor and as the the palal uh bunny for um uh for that group and I want to thank you very much for
all of your your volunteerism that you you've done for the palal and support and I look forward to to being at your uh confirmation swearing in for tomorrow great thanks thank you councilman Smallwood other comments all right uh hearing none um
all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh moving along to capital projects and Community Services uh resolution number one councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you council president this is resolution
1178 whereas the director of the Department of Community Services advises the Kent Place school has expressed the desire to have the city install a rapid rectangular flashing Beacon at the existing midblock crosswalk at Norwood Avenue that connects Oak that connects I think we have uh Oak in here but that
might be a scrier eror we've already corrected okay uh that connects uh Kent Place school parking lot as well as the intersection of Norwood and Sherman uh these flashing beacons do not currently exist at these
locations and I would like to move this resolution uh second approv I hear comments from the public comments from Council uh just one comment yes please councilman Boer these uh rapid rectangular flashing beacons
will be donated by the K play school correct yes thank you sorry I should have to point that out yes so that is a great thing absolutely uh so um other comments from
just wanted to one question um are so are these going to be installed in the the uh the new crosswalk that we just approved today is the that's what my understanding is right yep okay so that's great wow the city's efficient you prove it and then we get the the
beacons in which is awesome so couldn't have worked out better that's great I was actually thinking why we didn't bundle it I was all right any other comments my only other comment comment was I think that and we've talked about this a ton but I love I would love to see safety take on all of the cross crossing rapid flashing
beacons um this one's okay CU we can kind of explain it but I think it's important for going forward if you could do these it's helpful because then we actually know why we're putting them in and what were the safety if if we can possibly do that I'm happy to do them but great I have to spend two days asking you why we are doing it but this
one is an easy one so and and council president uh just to uh comment on councilwoman Hamlet's uh comment I should have read this you know I so um next time I'll read it so I can correct
my grammar word Smith it um but thank you thanks for the comment I I agree with you it should go to yeah all right great um all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries capital projects and community service number two
councilwoman Hamlet yes I'm just pulling this up here apologize yes this is resolution ID 11778 uh which is authorizing uh sorry authorizing the
execution of a sanit sanitary sewer easement agreement on 71 Pine Grove Avenue the owner of 71 Pine Grove Avenue submitted an application to the City Zoning Board of adjustment during this process it was discovered that an existing city sewer sanitary sewer line traversed the property but that no
formal sewer easan exists as such the department requested one to be created and this is included in memorializing the resolution for the project I would like to move this resolution to the council second thank you uh comments from the
public comments from Council all right seeing none um all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh capital projects and Community Services number three councilwoman Hamlet yes sorry I had a question in my
mind but I'm just going to move ahead um Aaron doesn't kill me this is ID 11774 authorizing the state contract purchase of spatial data logic sdl through Dell Marketing in the purchase price of 54,9 um for those of you who don't know
this is the um Aaron can probably explain it better but our system that handles basically the brain of DCs and Engineering um for all permits and uh important data within the city that we use all day every day so I'd like to move this
resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries uh capital projects number four Council will Hamlet uh thank you council president this is
ID 11745 as discussed in closed session which will declare a vacancy in the Department of Community Services Division of Public Works roads unit lead Foreman I'd like to move this resolution do I hear a second second
comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I I opposed motion carries and then uh capital projects number five councilwoman Hamlet uh yes
thank you council president this is ID 11792 declaring a vacancy in the Department of Community Services land use division land use assistant Planning and Zoning Board secretary I'd like to move this resolution do I hear a second second
thank you uh comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh councilwoman to you're doing double duty tonight I know
I'm back right uh law and labor number one please okay thank you council president this is ID number 11780 amending the Professional Services agreement with our special Council and in the first part of 2024 the attorneys
representing the city in the Broad Street West litigation emailed bill for $1,831 68 to the former city administrator and that bill was never forwarded for payment um it sort of disappeared Into The Ether the law firm
only followed up on it this year we owe the money and therefore we need to amend the agreement so I move to adopt this resolution second second oh sorry all right uh comments from the public comments from
Council so um councilwoman Hamlet so councilwoman to so this is going to this is changing the not to exceed but it was an bill is that right right okay it was an old bill that was never paid so that because that's what I was wondering so that's why we have to change his not to
exceed for this year correct well it's for last year we're still fixing 2024 okay if we could just get maybe during budget season just a total cost of I guess um the litigation cost it doesn't have to be now but ju just curious we don't have to do it now but some at some point when you catch up your breath
Tammy it's not urgent no next week is fine thank you for explaining that yeah well it just got $188,000 more expensive so yeah um any other comments from
councel all right uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries okay all right law and labor number two councilwoman to okay thank you council president this is ID number 11154 uh per the Clos session discussion
this resolution excuse me confirms the mayor's appointment of a municipal municipal court judge and I will let the mayor take it from here thank you councilwoman to um so Judge John deasi has been our municipal court judge for
several terms um it's a three-year appointment and uh I am going to we re I recommend that we reappoint judge deasi okay and thank you mayor I move to adopt this resolution second
comments from the public comments from Council just uh one comment just uh I think you said this this is a reappointment so this is how many years uh would three years so the the
appointments for three correct and uh judge damasi served as our municipal judge since when I can't remember I think this might be his fourth three-year term so the last it's either his third or his I think it's his third third so this so he's been municipal judge for the last six years that's
correct good okay thank you other comments all right uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh we are now at the consent agenda portion of our meeting uh
do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved do I hear a second second all right um do I have any uh member of the public who wishes to comment on the consent
agenda any comments from Council council president just one comment uh this bill here for the shared Dispatch Center uh this 1 million uh 1.4 I'll round off um I just want to let the public know that
the Safety Committee is working working hard on finding a solution to our um our dispatch for the future so I know uh this seems like a high dollar amount um
but we are I I think that we are all um have a um it's it's a promising future that we can get this number down uh big time so we're working on that our fire department our police department and our business administrator and even with
combined with the city of Milburn we're all looking at it to uh to reduce this cost thank you other comments from Council all right all in favor I I opposed okay the consent agenda passes
all right uh we are now at the public comment section of our meeting if there are any members of the public who'd like to comment on anything that wasn't on oh and Mr Sher you may leave thank you um thank you for uh coming and staying um
if uh any member of the public would like to comment on something that's not was not on the agenda now is your opportunity pass feel R okay I'm going to close public comment
uh section of our hearing um we're on to council members comments and new business any council member like to say anything comment I'll be quick councilwoman Hamlet I promise I'll be quick uh I just wanted to update the community um we have a meeting with
Bristol Meers squib on Friday with the mayor I think um council member celson may be attending as well um we've been hearing some complaints recently from the residents around uh Bristol Meers squib um so I've been speaking with them for the last few weeks some of the issues down there are um a humming from
the air conditioning systems and there's also been some complaints about about uh the backup noise alarms in snowplows so there's been a bunch of residents who've been looking into uh OSHA compliant uh Broadband noise level uh for backup alarms um which I think is interesting
I've been working with the D uh noise control Council to get further guidance on not only that issue uh but Bedrock drilling up in uh up near Oakridge um and and they've been really really helpful um spoke with Michelle fil uh who's on the noise Council and they've
been they they've even we've even been discussing the gun range so we've been hearing uh a lot of uh residents um complaining about those and I found the noise Council to be really valuable and um never really thought I'd be into a noise Council but they are some of my new favorite people so I'm looking forward to reporting back to the
community um Bristol Myers squib has been kind enough to to have us uh so looking forward to doing that couple quick updates uh Ashlin uh the survey Ashen sidewalk the survey was recently uh received it's my understanding that concept plans will be developed by the
end of March beginning of April um we will also be scheduling another meeting with the residents of canu Brook hopefully in March uh there are some funds for 2025 for sidewalks in the amount of about $150,000 um and then the last thing I would say is I think that it's important
um council president I'm just looking for some guidance for you uh from you regarding the saltbrook um I think that having a conversation as a a line item in the budget um is not the best way to handle I think we should put it on the council's agenda um I've had an
committee still a little stuck on what to do and I think it's an important enough Topic in the community and I I'd like to hear what um my colleagues how they would like to address it um outside of the budget so I was just looking for guidance from you on that um as you know we've engaged with the lobbyists in DC
we've received a proposal um to have them Advocate uh for us and New Providence in Berkeley Heights um or we can also you know potentially but this issue stems all the way up from Memorial Field I've been in in those residents homes homes um and I think that taking up director sher's time on this is
probably um too much to handle so I'm just looking for some guidance on how we can talk about it as colleagues up here okay well let's talk and we can brainstorm thank you uh other comments council president yes councilman Boer the salt broke
currently is in the budget as a line item for I think $5,000 to build a retaining wall um I agree with Council woman Hamlet I think it's in our committee I think we we we just we take
it out of our committee and as council president to put it on the agenda right and I think we do it that way so yeah well it's a capital item right so we'd have to be part of the capital budget yeah I think I think we should I think
we should talk about that for $50,000 as a capital item as opposed to yeah MH other comments cman Smallwood sure like to make a motion to adjourn hold on we haven't haven't asked
everyone if they had stuff to speak yet uh I did have something I wanted to say but now you've completely cleared my mind about it U maybe it's wasn't maybe it wasn't all that important um what I want to say uh any other comments from
Council so I think no no no uh all right then I'm going to not hold us up there um we had a motion to adjourn do I hear second second all in favor I I opposed all right we are adjourned have a good
evening everyone e