sorry for our delay uh welcome everyone for our second uh March council meeting um it's nice I'm hoping that we won't be the longest uh meeting that's in this chamber uh this
week so uh but we are going to get going uh today so um Madame clerk will you please read the uh adequate notice of compliance statement please 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 16th 2024 which was properly distributed and posted per statutory requirements please be advised that fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain
the system at the deis and return it thereafter thank you so much uh roll call please Mr Boer pres Miss Hamlet here miss cson here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here miss toad here council president McAn presid all right um at
this time I'd like to call on Rabbi fredman 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 so much all right um Madam clerk you would you please read the explanatory note regarding closed session and hearings and comments a closed session meeting is authorized by
state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda please be advised the council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channels 36 and 34 and Verizon channels 30 and 33 and rebroadcast on Thursdays
and Saturdays on httv on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the Lecter clearly state your name and address spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be
understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give or email a copy to the city clerk at city clerk city of sun .org to help facilitate an orderly meeting to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to 3
minutes unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you very much um do I have a motion now to approve the uh the minutes for regular and Clos session
for March 4th 2025 so moved second all in favor I opposed minutes are approved all right we're at a report section of our meeting uh as always uh Madame mayor please uh deliver your report for us please thank you
council president good evening everyone uh a few updates for the community tonight first um our first virtual Town Hall of the year will be on March 25th from 7 to 8:00 pm focusing on public safety with Captain Ryan Peters I will be moderating asking questions submitted
ahead of time to our Communications Department as well as those coming in live during the session we'll try to get in as many as we can but we encourage residents to submit questions early you can watch the event on the city of summit Facebook page or just search city of summit Facebook on Google if you
don't have a Facebook account Mike um next the city's College internship program is back for the 16th year applications are open for Summit residents through April 11th we encourage college students majoring in political science public administration
HR Finance or Communications to apply interns will work 20 24 hours a week in junee earning $15 an hour a final reminder that the summit police department will is still accepting applications until April 1st for the Youth Police Academy um kids ages 10 to
14 uh as of July 21st can apply H with sessions running from July 21st to 25th and July 28th to August 1st and they do want it can do both but they do one or the other you can do one or the other you don't have to do both weeks um right
right uh and that's a really really fun way to have kids get to know our police officers um and they learn a lot about law enforcement and um the noble noble profession so very cool very cool couple of weeks um also mark your calendars for
April 10th it's a celebration of local government week and the city will host a summit showcase at the new Fire Station from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. on April 10th it's a family fun F family friendly event with fun activi including a chance
to check out the fire trucks and police vehicles grab some swag and learn more about City resources and volunteer opportunities we hope to see you there and last tomorrow is Council councilman Smallwood's birthday so if you see him around town please wish him a happy one no it's not in my calendar is tomorrow
no don't wish Kevin Small would a happy birthday tomorrow it's in case if you want to it's October 15th why isn't myar that happened to me too remember all right forget I said anything I mean we can celebrate my like is my half
birthday yet sorry about that that is all I have all righty thank you Madame mayor all right we're on to our city administrator report uh Miss Baldwin thank you council president uh good evening everyone we have a few wonderful community events coming up in the next
month that I'll share with you tonight um the second annual women's History Month event at the community center is taking place this weekend on Sunday March 23rd um the event will feature a luncheon a movie showing and the opportunity to hear from a couple of
summit's most impactful women including our mayor Elizabeth Fagan and Sergeant Kathy muli of the summit Police Department attendees are encouraged to bring a photo of a woman who has inspired them to share with the group and place their photo on the wall of
inspiration the annual P Easter egg hunt will be held on Saturday April 12th on the Village Green the fun will begin at 1:00 p.m. with musics Arts crafts and a magic show and the Egg Hunt will begin at 1:45 there will be three races separated by age and
after the egg hunt attendees can take photos with the Easter Bunny and collect prizes two quick reminders the earth a cleanup is taking place on Saturday March 29th at Bryan Park and at Martin's Brook Park and applications for the
Hometown Heroes program are due at the end of the MCH month March 31st and you can find additional information on all of these events on the city website at cityofsummit.org that's it for my report thank you very much yeah the uh the Easter icon I think is the uh most
exciting 30 seconds in sports it's pretty amazing you've never been to S meet yeah um all right uh my Council uh president report be quick um I mentioned this last uh meeting we are in the thick of budget season uh we are working on
our budget here for the city we should have more information for our budget next month uh so stay tuned for that I know uh Baldwin in her two hats that she wear she's been working really really hard as our our CFO in getting our budget to look good and and we're
confident we're going to have a really good one uh to show um that's that's about 20% of your tax bill the other 50 odd per of your tax bill is the school budget so keep this on your calendar uh I think there's a board of ed meeting that they'll talk about their budget on
the 20th uh it's at the Middle School auditorium and then there is the board of school estimate meeting which will take place at the Wilson Primary School Center at 11 a.m. not sure why it's in the morning
but I don't make those decisions on Thursday March 27th um that's 50% of your your tax bill the the proposed budget is a bit out inside the the cap um it was at almost 9% I believe uh
we'll see what they come back with at the next meeting um but again this is the opportunity for the citizens to make their voices heard whether you're for or against it what have you um you should be engaged because it it's going to affect your your tax bill one way or the other um and that is my report um okay
uh we're going to go to our historical minute uh at this state uh time uh councilman palowski thank you uh in our continuing uh continuing to celebrate women's history month we have two Juniors from Summit High School here to discuss women's
history in Summit Athletics so uh one's named Alan Friedman she's a softball player and Audrey carrian who participates in cross country and winter and spring track good evening my name is Alana Friedman and I'm a junior at Summit High
School and I play on the softball team good evening my name is Audrey I'm a junior and um like you said I participate in cross country and winner in Spring Track the summit history minute in honor of women's history month and the accomplishments of women athletes in Summit comes from a 2004
article from the summit Historical Society written by Art codell who for many years led the summit historical society and was a beloved and respected history teacher coach and supervisor in the summit Public Schools many people think that girls
High School varsity teams are relatively recent Innovation which came about as a result of the passage of Title 9 in the last 50 years Title 9 mandates equal opportunities for men and women in inter Scholastic Sports however a 2004 search of the files at the Carter House
revealed that Summit High School had girls championship teams many years before Title 9 legislation was enacted in the 1918 1919 schol school year the girls basketball team at Summit High won the championship of the Morris and Essex League further reading in
later editions of the paper indicated that the team had finished with a record of eight wins and only one loss another interesting statistic was that the team had not lost a game on its own Court in over 3 years a picture of the team appeared later in the New York Sunday call
identifying the seven girls who played on the team Mariel havland Margaret seeler Billy finnean Ruth Hall Clara MCN Margaret bin and Florence Anderson standing in the back row at the right is Miss Grace Jones who looks to be one of the
players Miss Jones at the age of 22 had come to teach in Summit in 1916 and was the only educ physical education teacher in the whole school system which had 1,616 students she became the supervisor of physical education in 1927 when a
second fed teacher was hired Miss Jones held that position until her retirement in 19 1957 thus completing a 41-year teaching career she was responsible for Designing and leading what had become the entire physical education program for the city schools and at the time of
her re retirement was the only woman to head a physical education department in New Jersey curell continues to write that Howe Anderson longtime football coach and athletic director at Summit High School had told him that when he was hired in 1956 it was customary to take
the new teachers on a bus ride around SU suit to introduce them to the community Miss Jones told hoe that when she was hired they were doing the same thing the only difference being that she was taken around by horse and buggy Grace Jones was widely known
throughout the country for her work in physical education upon her death in 1977 at the age of 83 the summit Herald had this to say about her well-known reputation besides her pioneering efforts in the field of physical education Miss Jones was a nationally known Authority on women's back
basketball rules for 6 years from 1924 to 1930 she was the editor of the official basketball guide for women and girls during that time the first official guide was translated into Spanish for use in South America in 1939 Miss Jones was elected a fellow of the
American Association for health physical education and Recreation thank you for providing this opportunity for more people to learn about the history of women and Sports in Summit as Summit student athletes we can assure you this tradition of commitment and Excellence
continues thank Youk you well that was awesome I learned a ton thank you so much for that um okay uh all right so we're done with our we have no presentations to speak of uh for this
meeting so we're going to go right into ordinances for hearings uh so Madame clerk will you please read the first uh Finance ordinance for hearing please ordinance number 25- 3334 ordinance to exceed the
municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a a c bank thank you so much uh councilwoman to thank you council president this is an ordinance that allows us to exceed our Municipal budget Appropriations
limit and establish a cap Bank the municipal budget is subject to two different Caps or limits on increases most residents are familiar with the 2% limit on annual tax increases there is a second 2 and a half% limit on most but
not all spending increases municipalities are permitted to pass an ordinance each year to increase the spending limit to 35% this does not raise our ability to tax the residents just our ability to
spend this increase is good for 2 years and then it lapses Summit routinely passes this ordinance its purpose is to permit us to handle an unexpected situation for example if our property in casualty insurance premiums jumped in the middle
of the year without this ordinance we'd have to go back and amend the entire budget we don't expect to need to spend funds above the 2% spending cap this year and in Prior years we have not done so this is a form of self-insurance I move to open the
hearing on this ordinance second all right I'm going to declare our hearing is open uh is there any member uh from the public who wishes to speak on this proposed ordinance good evening Diego H Court I have a few wonky questions to understand
the numbers perhaps they're better directed at our city administrator first one the amount on which the cap is applied is 36 m573 136 it matches the 2024 budget Appropriations for municipal operations
line by line but for a $140,000 difference can you please explain what causes this difference which seems to arise mathematically from changes to deferred charges and reserves the second question is that last year um Council approved a similar
cap increase but the 2024 proposed budget Appropriations represented a 4.9% increase and we now know that the cap was not used during 2024 can you please help me understand how the budgeted increase was 4.9% in
light of this cap perhaps there's lines that are not subject to the cap um I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to ask three additional questions what was the dollar amount actually expended for municipal operations in 2024 originally appr appropriate at 36433
136 what were the total realized revenues and total expended Appropriations for 2024 both budgeted amounts were 57,6 641 and I understand that we're using different software this year that will make operations more efficient but
change the reporting kudos for making work more efficient but can you confirm that the city will continue to publish the onepage budget snapshot in closing I have no concerns about this ordinance passing uh I simply wanted to understand
and I will give you my notes when I with my ADD thank you thank you we'll uh address everything after we're done with uh questions or comments uh any other public comments or questions all right I'm going to close the public comment section of our
hearing uh do I have any comments from Council Members City administrator CFO Baldin would you like to tackle that Mr Ho's uh question you council president yes um I'll put my CFO hat on um the amount on
the cap does match 2024 deferred charges and Debt Service are outside of cap so that accounts for that number being different by The 100 4,000 um the second question so we don't
necessarily use this cap we we people get confused by it thinking that it's actually money in the bank it is not right um it is just allows us to go up with the items that are within cap if you look at a municipal budget there are items within cap and items outside of
cap there's less and less outside of cap as the years have gone on and sometimes the state will do um the division local government services for the state of New Jersey will enact a local Finance notice and say hey we're going to let you have last year they let you have sanitation outside of cap if you wanted to um but
again as councilwoman to said it doesn't permit you to go above the 2% tax levy it just gives you maneuvering room inside of that within cap number in the budget um so if you don't need it it's banked not as money but as a number that
you can go up to so we kind of do it as a matter of course um I've been a CFO for 24 years now and I always do the ordinance often times you don't need it but just in case you do now or in the
future it's good to have it on the books so that's what it's there for um Mr H the the questions with regard to 2023 final expenditures and you said 24 revenues I thought you said 23 final my okay all 24
okay my apologies um those numbers will come out when I finalize the budget um we are still spending paying some bills from 2024 obviously into usually at least the first quarter sometimes a little bit late all of our vendors don't
bill us very timely so we chase them sometimes um revenues I have a very good idea I just haven't published them yet um and the annual financial statement will be coming out which will show all the revenues too um um and
then the last question was to read my own handwriting oh the budget stsh shot it absolutely will be coming out our Communications um Chief Communications officer and myself will work on that as soon as we have the numbers finalized and we introduce the uh Municipal budget
then that'll go out to all the residents as it always has thank you that was very thorough thank you Miss Balwin um yes any other comments from Council no I would just reiterate um it
you know this is we use these terms because this is what the state uses as a cap Bank um but again there it's a bank with no money there is no money in here if we were to go and spend it the money would come from everybody out here okay
it's be tax ability and it is done um to be prudent just in case uh but it's not something that we do because we want to use it it would be if there was an emergency or such so I I am supportive of the ordinance all right if hearing no other
comments I'm going to close the hearing for this ordinance um Madame clerk we have another ordinance for hearing today please read the one on Law and labor ordinance number 25- 3335 an ordinance of the city of Summit County of Union New Jersey establishing an electric
Andor natural gas aggregation program thank you so much uh councilman palowski thank you um we introduced this ordinance at the last uh last meeting um
so this ordinance authorizes the city Summit to participate in the governmental energy aggregation program um we had a prior presentation from Lisa Hibbs of uh commercial utility Consultants Inc she's here tonight actually thankfully to answer any
questions people may have on this adoption will allow the city to enter into an agreement with um uh Concord energy Consulting uh and jcpnl for local distribution and the Cooperative pricing
agreement officially adding summit as a participating member to be included in the upcoming GSC auction Council must adopt this ordinance tonight and file all necessary documents by April 1st this ordinance in no way commits the
city of summit to the program but it will allow Consultants from Concord and um CU to search for a co-op that Summit could join and give us uh an estimated savings I move to adopt this ordinance I
second it open the hearing yeah we're I move to open the hearing on this ordinance thank you right I'll second that as well okay we're not all right um all right I'm going to declare our hearing on this and labor ordinance open to public comments at this
time okay no public comments all right I'm going to close the public comment section of our hearing uh comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you council president uh councilman plasy you mentioned that Concord could find the third party suppliers but uh can you
just correct and maybe um she can answer I Bob you might know it as well um but I believe that's through a bid process if you could just correct that and then my second question is we talked about it a little bit uh the opt-in and opt out um can you just remind the residents again about the opt-in and the opt absolutely
this is my name is Lisa Hibbs for the record I am with uh commercial utility consultants and also representing Concord Energy Services this evening uh we represent and are appointed the energy consultants for um several cooperatives in the state of New Jersey
um one of which is the Garden State Community energy Cooperative which is um we think a great fit for um the city of summit just based on geography um so this ordinance is a tow in the water it allows you to establish the program it
does not mandate that you establish the program so um it's again it's just a savings program in order for us to um find out uh if we can get a lower bid um than what jcpnl is charging through their basic generation service rate
there is an auction process um that does happen um if you join the Cooperative um at the cooperative's um behest uh we would councel of course um as to timing in the market that might be beneficial um if we do not get a rate that is lower
than jcpnl J uh basic generation service rate we cannot make an award there must be a savings in order for us to move forward it is an opt out process um we have done this with 99 towns in the state of New Jersey um this is not a a
trailblazing moment um by any stretch there is um a lot of um feedback that you can uh call um our current clients and and find out how the process works um it's not meant to be disruptive um
unfortunately right now there is no program for residents in the city of summit to opt out of um this would only be if and when we go out to auction an award is made and uh a contract is in place with a third party supplier at that point it triggers the opt out
process we make it as easy as we can uh there's an 800 number that folks can call there's an online portal that they can utilize they can call jcpnl directly they can call our customer care team directly there's also an opt out card in the information packets that will be
mailed uh according to regulations we must mail USPS um information packets to every eligible resident um giving them the opportunity uh to evaluate the option to participate uh realizing they can absolutely opt out there is also a
permanent opt out feature meaning that if the city of summit were to do this initial program um and it's two years down the road we go back out to auction there's a new program term so there's a new program for folks to opt out of anyone that permanently opted out in
round one would not be automatically included would not have to opt out again did I cover it than so do you have other questions councilwoman have uh just the only one I think this this is a complicated subject for some of the public to um to understand so I would
ask council president that we just um mention that we had a presentation maybe in a former another press release because we did give you gave a very thorough presentation and we might be able to just kick that back up on our Instagram or something I I just want to reiterate what councilman um palowski
said this ordinance in no way shape or form is committing us to the program um I just want to be very clear this is to for us to understand whether or not there would be potential savings for our
residents um on their electricity bills everybody knows that uh costs have gone up a lot this is an opportunity where we can aggregate um our demand from our town and possibly be able to save our residents I don't know bucks a 100 bucks
a year whatever it is I I I'd take 100 bucks a year um if I could save it it's the same thing your lights go on just like they normally do but I do understand it this will take a lot of education for the residents um to
understand what they're doing uh why we're doing this so I I just want to make sure when we when we're voting up here that we are committing to nothing and that before we would actually agree to do this we would have some a public
meeting uh to for residents to come and ask questions to understand what the program is just so everyone can be as comfortable as possible so um the vote tonight you're not your energy supplier is not changing tomorrow okay so just trust me we will have plenty of time to
talk about this before we finally adopt this okay council president yes uh councilman boy uh thank you for mentioning that because the last time that we spoke and your presentation was great and you did go into detail and there was a lot of questions that was asked like one of which is uh there was
a situation that happened in Texas right there was a storm and having this type of uh of of energy can disrupt that and there can be some variables in terms of how much you pay uh because your third party cannot provide the energy sources
you have to go to to to a different um you know uh utility supplier so I would encourage all residents to go back and look at that I wish I knew when we actually talked about that October yeah well thank you small October 22nd
October 22nd great so um check that out because uh you know I I would like the dialogue because I had some concerns that you know I'd like to walk through with the residents as well so but thank you explaining that our vote here tonight does not um uh enter us into any
type of deal the city into deal any residents into any deal you're not going to wake up tomorrow with a new utility bill so okay um and if I could one more piece of information even if you join a cooperative and the Cooperative says hey
we're going to go out to auction on May 24th uh you do not have to be a part of that auction you can say hey you know what gly was we've got a lot going on in town right now now is not a good time leave us out of this auction
okay as long as we have that information before we submit the bid documents to the Board of Public Utilities division of Ray Council Department of Community Affairs for review we can pull you out of that you again you're not obligated once we go out to auction you're you're
committed um but we would have done a lot of Outreach and a lot of communication prior to that I mean you're months and months away from that right so um yes councilman palow how do we know um well two questions first
what's I mean what are the typical savings that um prior to 2021 uh we were around 7 to 10% depending on the co-op um different load factors um different load profiles um for different co-ops um just they
receive different bids um so the best way to describe that um currently we have two cooperatives that are under uh contract we have the 100 in area energy Cooperative 14 towns there we have the Sussex Warren area energy Cooperative 13 towns there the savings is about five
and a half percent um certainly not the 7 to8 to 10% that we receiving we were receiving prior to 2021 um but the savings is at least back those programs were dormant from 2021 to um just uh
recently October 2024 just because we couldn't beat jcpnl basic generation service price um so I do have figures for you though um so since October of 2024 um those 14 towns in the Hunan area energy Cooperative have saved
$211,000 for their residents um that Cooperative prior to in previous rounds um so from February 20 uh 2019 to December 2021 their savings was $1.7
million and for the Sussex Warren Co-op um currently under contract since October uh through January 1 St have been $109,000 um smaller towns uh smaller aggregate um but prior to that from March
2017 through December 2021 their savings was over $2 million and so uh the second question was we you know um we don't commit ourselves to being a part of this until we hear what the savings will be so that
if it comes back and um it's not that big a saving savings um or the feedback that we get at another meeting that we hold is yeah it looks like it's going to be a little bit of savings but I'm not comfortable switching we can always just decide we're not doing this so if you are part of a Cooperative there is a
lead agent that makes that decision for the Cooperative um so the the I'm talking about the for the very first uh time if if you're in so if you go It Alone yes you have ultimate um right of
refusal now if you go in the first time in a Cooperative same rules apply the lead agency will make that decision for the entire Cooperative now the good news is um the lead Agency for uh the Garden State Co-Op is the burrow of Lincoln
Park they have been a participant in government energy aggregation since 2015 they're seasoned they know what they're doing they will not take less than 5% we would never recommend less than 5% savings we're hoping that I hate
to say this but um there is a huge increase coming through m in jcpnl basic generation servic and it's not just jcpnl it's it's all over the state it's all over pjm territory um so we are hopeful that we can help eliminate some
of that increase we're looking at 17 to 20% increases coming through just on the supply side it's not on the entire bill um but on the supply side so we would hope that um that sort of levels our playing field in the market and we can be competitive and get you more like the
the seven 10% savings um to at least absorb you know 10% of that 20% 177% increase thank you councilman Smallwood thank you um Le it almost feels like a year since we
actually had this conversation uh time flies right um so uh I would like to give actually credit to Donna Patel with the environmental commission to making that introduction um you know we met and I think we actually finally had our first conversation in April or May of
last year um and you know you had said in in that conversation that in July jcpnl were going to raise their fees and I I I remember in August and September there were residents that came
on that came here to a meeting and complain like my bill went up and there were several conversations online through social media about you know asking other residents if their electricity bill had gone up and you know now and I would encourage for all
the residents with any questions that to to go back to the council meeting of October 22 to to review your presentation um and now you're saying that this year they're estimated at 17 to 20% increase yeah right um yeah and M
Miss bman correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the city for its own municipal buildings are currently in a co-op is that correct so this the municipality itself is already in a co-op and this Co-op would be specifically for
residents um and I I think you know it it would you know benefit us to at least go out and look to find out if there's a possibility for us to be able to save at least 5% or more uh for our residents
and I believe there's also an option for those that you know there's an opt out well if you don't want to participate and again is this is just for your supply you're still going to get your jcpnl bill um it's all going to come from JC panel that no one's going to come in and switch lines to your house
uh this is just the supply of electricity jcpnl will still deliver it to your home um but there's an opt out option so for whatever reason you don't want to save 5% or more uh but there's also I
believe an opt up option as well yes could you explain that sure so for those um residents that are interested in additional renewable energy um in their supply we do offer uh in all of our programs now the option for residents to
opt up into a 100% renewably sourced energy Supply um it is it's mostly National when coming from uh the Midwest um it is not anything homegrown here in New Jersey we certainly could if you want to get nitty-gritty with it but the
more nitty-gritty we get the more expensive it gets um but the the cost difference for the 100 area energy Co-op um their basic so the basic minimum required renewable their rate is 11.19
cents right now jcpnl rate is 11.88 um and on the renewable the um price is 11.76 versus that 11.88 now that 11.88 on the jcpnl side They do change their
rate every quarter when we started the program in October the rate was 11.66 in December it switched to 1133 in uh March it switched to 1188 so it does bounce around which is why we say don't take anything less than 5%
because you can absorb those changes right but yes there is an option for residents to opt up into that 100% renewable and we'll help you with any sustainable Jersey goals that you might have there's not s sustainable Jersey credits for that but it will certainly
um help you with any climate change goals that you might have in in the city and for those of that have currently have solar this would not affect them no we would opt them out it will disrupt um their credits uh on their their net meter credits so we would sweep them out
and if there already in in contract with a third party supplier jcpnl will not identify them as an eligible um an account holder so they they would not be included in that they could certainly join if they wanted to um we would just
recommend that they check with their current third party supplier to make sure there's no early termination uh fees or penalties um but the the recommendation is usually hey wait for that contract to end and then come on over okay thank you m thank you other
comments from Council yeah I'll just close out um I know when I was on Council first time around this came up I want to say around 2014 or so or 15 and we talked about it then and I remember thinking this is
actually a really cool program that the state has put together that would allow residents some buying power some purchasing power and um we started going down that road and I think the market changed or somewhat so there were these
savings involved and it's you know Futures market and contango and and backwardation Etc but it went away and so we dropped it because it wasn't worth spending City staff time on it but I'm pleased to see that councilman Smallwood
I'm I'm glad um he got the uh the nod from uh from Donna to start to look at this again because I I said it's it's a pretty neat way that we as individuals can work together as a community and save each other some money and in this day and age I think that's a pretty
important goal um that we can begin with this process to pursue so thank you all right uh if there's no other comments I'm going to close the uh the hearing on this ordinance and then we're going to move on now to ordinances for final
consideration uh Madame clerk will you please read our first ordinance from Finance ordinance number 25-3 334 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank thank you councilwoman to thank you
council president and having recently closed the hearing on this ordinance I move the ordinance for final adoption a second all right roll call please Mr Boyer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss cinon hi Mr palaski I Mr Smallwood i m to I
president McAn I all right motion passes all right right Madam clerk will you please read the ordinance for final consideration from law and labor ordinance number 25-3 335 an ordinance of the city of Summit County
of Union New Jersey establishing an electric Andor natural gas aggregation program thank you very much uh councilman palowski thank you this is ordinance number 25335 having just had the hearing on
this ordinance I move to adopt it second roll call please Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president McAn I all right motion carries okay um thanks
everyone uh we're now moving on to our resolution section of our meeting we have quite a few tonight um we're going to start off with uh pushing that oh we're pushing this one yeah so this our uh resolution number one on safety and
health we're pushing so we're moving along to safety and health resolution number two councilman Boer um I'm sorry so ID number 11 1831 we're we're no that's one we're doing oh
okay okay I only have two on here so maybe I have a outdated copy all right um yeah no I all right thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11 1831 uh confirming the mayor's appointment of a
new police chief uh it is with great pride and confidence that we introduced the mayor's appointment for the next police chief of the summit Police Department Ryan
Peters a dedicated public servant with nearly two decades of law enforcement experience Chief Peters has built a distinguished career rooted in Integrity leadership and a commitment to community
safety from patrolling the streets of summit to Leading specialized investigation units Chief Peters have served in critical roles including Captain detective sergeant and SWAT team
leader each demanding excellence in decision-making crisis management and strategic Vision his tenure as commander of the support service division reflects not only his operational expertise but
also his deep investment in community engagement officer training and public trust beyond the badge Chief Peters has fostered meaningful relationships with residents schools and local
organizations always championing initiatives that enhance safety education and collaboration his extensive training in crisis response tactical operation ations and law enforcement leadership ensures that
Summit remains capable and compassionate hands tonight we proudly affirm this appointment knowing that Chief Ryan Peters embodies the core values of
service accountability and Excellence that defines the summit police department and we welcome him to his new role with great expectations for the future future of our City's Safety and Security do I have a second second all
right not so fast uh do I have any uh comments from the public comments from Council councilman Smallwood thank you uh this uh
it this really warned my heart when they told me today in close session that uh you you will become our our new chief of police so uh I've known you for several years uh back in our our palal days and uh so thank you very much for for your
service and uh really looking forward to um leading our our awesome police department and I know you'll do just as as well as our current chief zagorski and uh really looking forward to it so thank you very much for all of your
service and uh thank you congratulations other comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet uh just want to say congratulations as well um we're very excited for you very proud of you uh excited for what the future holds um and chief zorski obviously thank you for your service we'll be many more uh
celebrations and uh looking forward to uh you know to to sending you off in a proper way um so thank you for all all your service thank you other comments from Council there will be a like a ceremony right yeah okay there
will don't worry I was going to say there's no police officers here like yeah do you have any friends um still here yeah um I'm gonna I'll just wrap up comments and say um I'm very excited uh to have our our new
police chief be Captain uh or Captain Peters uh we we had a very very long conversation a couple of weeks ago um it was long but it was super super informative I learned so much and it you know you just see the passion for this
community and the passion for the the the job and the role and not just that the ideas about uh all the things that it's going to do just really lit up a room um so I'm super super excited couldn't be more excited and I know uh
gonna have big shoes to fill from Chief zagorski he's left uh our Department in amazing shape and our community uh very safe and um um with the with a great relationship with our our community as well so I'm excited but I am excited for
our our new Chief all right that um we just do a roll call not a roll call no you don't need roll um all in favor I opposed all right motion carries um
U Madame mayor would you like to make a little introduction here I would so hold on Captain um I just want to say that I've known Captain Peters for several years chief chief chief well he hasn't been sworn in yet so technically okay um
and as much as I have enjoyed working with and getting to know Chief zagorski I am proud for this of this appointment um as as Chief's successor um I think I've known Ryan for over a decade um
Chief sorry Captain I'm not sure what to call you these days some things I won't call you but um I just want to say uh his resume May is very impressive and and when he submitted it I teased him a little and said could he please cut it down it was too long uh because he
really is an accomplished uh young man and we're very very fortunate um captain Chief Ryan has adopted Summit um as his town and that's really evident in the way that he uh behaves himself and and um
it's also really nice to see um how well respected he is within the department by all of his peers and all of those who look up and and report to him so we are in great hands um thank you to Chief zagorski obviously for for setting us up
um but I want to I'm really really proud to be able to appoint you thank you to Chief through you council president I stand before you tonight deeply honored and humbled to accept the role of chief of police this is not a responsibility I take lightly and I am grateful for the
trust placed in me to lead this department and serve our great Community First I want to extend my sincere thanks to Mayor Fagan members of council Rosemary Tammy I appreciate your confidence and my ability to lead additionally your commitment to Public
Safety and support of the police department is greatly appreciated I look forward to our continued partnership while ensuring the safety and well-being of all residents I also want to express my sincere heartfelt gratitude to chief sagorski chief your leadership wisdom
dedication to the city of summit over the last 36 years has left a lasting impact not only to the police department but to me as well your experience guidance and friendship have shaped the officer and leader I am today and there's no doubt I will carry those lessons forward as we build upon the
strong Foundation you leave behind to the residents of summit I pledge to you to lead with transparency and accountability your safety and well-being will always be my top priority and I will work tirelessly to foster a department that is deeply connected to to the community together
we will create a safer stronger and more united Summit thank you again and to council councilman Smallwood these are all my friends I invited all just not well done thank you very much Rosie did you need this
I am going to miss cap though I call him cap like Captain America so it's like you know what I call like what up cap you know all right you got to top that one councilman Boyer you've got another uh resolution from safety and health nearly thank you council president this is
resolution ID number 11819 authorizing the state contract purchase of two Dodge Durango Pursuit all-wheel drive vehicles uh for the price of $89,300 and3 C uh the proposed resolution authorizes this
purchase uh this acquisition is necessary to replace one vehicle that was total in an accident and another that is no longer able to perform as required uh it is important to highlight that this is a purchase not a lease uh when vehicles are replaced for reasons
other than damage they are repurposed for utility work uh you know jcpnl or psng uh where they continue to generate revenue for the city um at some point I would like our city business
administrator to kind of break down how much these vehicles uh bring into the city after they are no longer usable for patrol uh I think the number is is may may shock people uh about the the life
of the Vehicles if not damaged in a pursuit or otherwise uh so I move this resolution for for adoption council president second all right uh any members of the public uh wish to comment on this
resolution all right members of from Council I just have one question so so this is a this is a I know it's a leas SL purchas is the way it it reads here yeah this is this is a it's a purchase though it's not but we're paying it in
two two two installments we're financing it okay got it right yeah we closed the hearing sorry um it's all good uh all right any other comments all right all in favor I
opposed motion carries all right we're moving right along to capital projects and Community Services resolution number one councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president uh this is is resolution 11802 whereas under the authority granted by the city of summits or ordinance 17-
3153 the qpa awarded Professional Services agreement to neglia Engineering Associates for 2024 Planning and Zoning supplemental services in the amount not to exceed $40,000 whereas the contract was amended for new not to exceed in the amount of 65,000 the DCS director advised that the
contract needs to be increase to pay final Billings from 2024 and recommends the amending amending the contract for an initial $10,000 total contract amount uh not to exceed $75,000 I would like to move this resolution and I can explain it in some
comments afterwards so move uh comments from the public comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet uh just one so just for matters of the public for probably geez I guess it was probably
nine or 10 months ago when Christa Anderson left I'm losing track um our zoning officer had retired and so in the interim we had neglia handling a lot of our zoning um back office work um she also does some of our escro fees so
there was one final outstanding bill um although this is not to exceed any amount of $110,000 I've been told um City administrator the last bill is$ 6,900 so um neglia has now moved to be our in-house planner uh so that separates our in-house planner from our
um board planner and our affordable housing planner so I think that that was a nice um idea by director shreer uh and and Augusto to sort of simplify these processes so I think we're making a lot of Headway great thank you any other comments from Council yes councilman
Boer uh and I I had this conversation with uh with with our city engineer and it's about this resolution and the other one so I um I could talk about both of them right here um this not to exceed
you know when I was looking at this was one contract starts out at um $40,000 then it's amended to $25,000 and then it's $65,000 then we add another 10 um what's the purpose of a not to exceed when
you're exceeding it consistently and and that was my question to our city engineer so Aaron can you and you wrote a response to me I mean can you can you talk about this a little bit why this is happening
absolutely through you council president uh first the mission is always to provide the services that the city needs just to function in this case it's a planner and for the next resolution we'll be a affordable housing attorney uh and second is to be as efficient as as possible uh getting the maximum
amount of results from the minimum amount of dollars spent so we are always trying at the beginning of the year to estimate the best we can which is essentially going to last us the next 12 years which the unforeseen uh is is well you can't see it uh so
when changes happened in this case here with uh the zoning officer having retired despite her announcing her retirement date probably a year before the replacement process did take longer so we did uh opt to keep neglia here uh
in a lengthier term that was not anticipated uh and that was to First provide the service that we had a gap in second was to then train the new zoning officer coming in because she was able to help bridge that Gap so as a result cost did go up and additionally she did
do some work for the boards as we lost the service provided by the previous zoning officer uh and though some of that may have come from escrow the the contract still has to be done by the city for the amount spent regardless of where the funding comes from so uh as was mentioned neg will now be our
in-house planner and and won't be just kind of used sporadically where it's a little harder to manage it they will be you fully inhouse we know what days they'll be in we have a cut purchase order so we'll we'll be able to track it much better our Consultants all could be better at billing which is bizarre
because um you would think they build right away for the work they did but some did lag behind uh so we are staying on top of them we do essentially yell at them and we do not have the ability to hold payment if it's work they had done so thank you thank you other comments
from Council yeah just to um just to add to that uh Ain you made a good point in your email to me that you you are changing the way um that you will be
using planning uh Consultants this year and going to that specific po based system uh so that when historic items come up such as you know the historic ordinance uh we can set cost work uh on
on it and manage that individually so there's no surp rise billing all year right so we had some some bills that come up that were 7 8 months old right and with a city budget you know that that can that can
throw a wrench into things so um I I anticipate this year that uh we we are closer to those do not exceed numbers thanks thank you other
comments all right uh all in favor I opposed motion carries all right capital projects and Community Services number two councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president resolution 11801 uh this is amending Professional Services agreement 2024 legal services
for affordable housing attorney uh additional fees not to exceed $108,000 under the authority granted by the city of summit ordinance 17- 3153 the qpa awarded Professional Services agreement to seran Edwards buaka Nolan for the 2024 affordable housing counc Council not to exceed
$40,000 that was amended not to exceed $70,000 that was also amended not to exceed $96,000 and now the director advises that the contract needs to be increased to permit the department to process any final billing for 2024 and now is
recommending a not to exceed for $108,000 uh the funds should not exceed an addition $12,000 uh I will say before I wrap up that we went through an exhaustive process in 24 reconciling every single invoice in fact I was
really excited to throw them all away until Claire um wanted to see all of the bills today so I'm going to drop them off all to her house tomorrow um but I think that you know one of councilman councilwoman toast questions was well I really want to see all the bills and it's it's hard as a new council person to vote for things like this when you
don't have all the history so you know I give Claire a lot of credit for for asking about the details as painful as it is uh we're I'm just like her so um we're going to get her that information I will say that um for this specific one uh this is a really important one because as we move from the third round
in affordable housing uh to the fourth round right now we're working on our fair share housing and element plan in the planning board uh we are pedal of the metal right now um through June and it's going to be an exhaustive process but these are literally our sixth man or woman on our basketball team all these
Consultants are we can plug them in uh they're in the game they know what we're doing they they advocate for the city and uh I'm just really confident and excited to have all of these Consultants as a part of our team so I'd like to move this resolution so moved comments from the
public all right comments from Council council president yes please councilman Boer I can't help but think that if you are an attorney and you're not involved in the housing game uh you are dropping the ball because this is a racket I mean
the original contract at $40,000 tripled tripled from4 to $108,000 over affordable housing whether you like it or not you know whatever lawyers are making a ton of money I mean
we we could have built at least one little tiny house with with 108,000 I mean this is such a racket I when these bills come in and I look at these attorney fees I'm like what is going on here I I'm sorry that's more of a
comment than than anything I just I this this affordable housing stuff is so expensive I mean y'all don't even know right I mean when when the government came out with this they must have sat in a room full of lawyers who
all said this is a great idea you know CU thank you council president I just thank you councilman Boer no offense Mr jacobe I don't do affordable housing I'm a
Fool other comments from Council councilwoman to thank you council president um C council member Hamlet um you know previewed a fair amount of it I just wanted to add I I know that in addition to our affordable
housing Council we have an outside account count um outside consultant we have an in-house Municipal housing liaison and I want us as a group to ensure that we are paying the right
person to do the right piece of the job because the lawyer always seems the most to to have the highest billing rate um the other two are sunk costs and and that that I think is a group I'd like us to commit to thank you other comments from Council
just one more quick one councilwoman and it even gets further complicated now we're looking to approve the state plan and do cross acceptance which probably means not too much for all of you but um when you look at some of the D duplicative processes that our Engineers have to do with the mapping and and the
lawyers fees it becomes even more mading um and I've expressed my frustration at the Union County meeting um a month or so ago around just really uh keeping that taxpayer dollar safe and that if if we see something that we've already paid for we're going to let them know um because that's probably the most frustrating thing is of being an elected
official is is wasting taxpayer dollars that's something we don't want to do but uh note that we are we are 100% every day Tammy uh we're at her door and if we have questions um we're looking out for your tax do as much as we can in this in this uh environment thank you I'm just going to
finish out I mean two things one the the the funds for this uh uh Miss Balwin if I'm not mistaken these come out of our affordable housing trust fund correct in large part most of them yes right so the vast majority of this is not being uh
built to the taxpayer it comes from our trust fund that as development happens um there's a fee that Builders have to pay into this fund which in theory is supposed to go and support affordable
housing councilman Boer pointed it out I think you know and there is it it it is funny except it's really sad and makes me angry actually because he's right the this money that we have should
be going to build affordable housing and it goes to pay lawyers and city planners and Consultants everything but housing and the people in Trenton who wrote this Byzantine
Arcane legal language they all know it they all know it it's a scam and the and the sad truth is it means we have less affordable housing than we should have because of the the rules that they put
in place and you need hours and hours hours and hours of legal people to deal with all this stuff um and the people who make money are the lawyers the consultants and the the ultimate beneficiary of all this stuff are developers who want
density and the the the least the the um the the persons who really need this stuff who are the people who need housing they are last in line and that's what's really sad about this resolution so council president yes just
let me follow up with one thing so that we all can um put this into context right I I I'm in negotiation talking to The Summit Housing Authority and they want to know how much money we have in our um our our fund our affordable housing fund right so now we're talking
about $108,000 and that's not including last year and a year before that and year before that and so I'm looking at uh the work that needs to be done on Weaver Street Glennwood and VA Galla our senior our senior citizens building right
stairs Windows elevators you know AC units I mean how many hvacs could this have have purchased right how many you know the crumbling stairs right the um the ele getting the elevators working so
I just want to put it in like context so that our residents so that you can see well man that money is coming out of this fund that could be helping these folks in our town you know and you know it is sad it
really is sad so um yeah call your politicians in Trenton if you're a little outraged about it you know they're tired of hearing from me so but I just wanted to point that out just to put it in context thank you all right uh all in favor I
opposed motion carries uh capital projects uh number three councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president resolution 11777 this is authorizing a Grant application submission to the 2025 infrastructure and Municipal aid grant program and execute Grant agreement for
the Tulip Street Improvement project phase two which would be Ashlin road to Springfield Avenue uh whereas the Union County infrastructure and Municipal aid grant program provides matching grants to Municipal governments in Union County for assistance in stimulating the development of public projects uh to
local municipalities uh therefore it is resolved by the common Council of the city of summit that the appropriate City officials are hereby authorized to submit a 2025 Union County infrastructure and Municipal Aid Grant application to the Union County uh to sorry to the Union County Board of County Commissioners to provide funding
assistance for the toolup Improvement project phase two with an estimated total project cost of $500,000 if the grant is awarded the city of summit is responsible for match 50% matching funds um with that being said I think this is
a great uh Grant excited about this I'd like to move this resolution second comments from the public all right any comments from Council all right all in favor all opposed motion carries capital projects
number four councilwoman Hamlet get all the fun ones tonight uh thank you council president this is uh id11 1821 which authorizes the submission of an award extension request to the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the Cano Brook Parkway Improvement
project uh this resolution uh the is the resolution authorize a bid advertisement for the project was scheduled for April 22nd uh however the director further advises that the details regarding the upgrades to traffic calming and pedestrian safety improvements took a significant time uh and Spann multiple
governing bodies and several public Outreach meetings uh in order to rebid sorry uh in addition to the time it took devoted to traffic and pedestrian Improvement discussions if the city does not receive any successful bids for the project it would result in the need to rebid the project and therefore in order
to main the grant funding uh the director is recommending a request be submitted to NJ to uh so this would give us a six month extension um if I can just dumb it down for all of you this is the canook parkway Paving drainage and sidewalk
plan we had one meeting with residents uh geez four or five months ago we had a second meeting uh within the last 10 days my memory escapes me but within the last 10 days uh so we've revised those plans but now we need to uh authorize an extension so so that we can and we're in
compiling all that information right now for can Brook so I would like to move this resolution second comments from the public I thought we were going to have a comment I was excited I was really excited um all right uh comments from
Council council president yes please councilman Boer I'm on to roll here um so there's a lot of work to be done with this project though uh councilwoman Hamlet I know that the residents came in you met with the residents they like some proposals um but uh we still need
to get there I know in committee we talked about some things like trees like fully grown trees that have been there for 800 years being removed I'm I'm concerned about that actually you know I like trees I like our old trees um and
knocking 20 25 of them 15 of them down um concerns me so I know this isn't a done deal this is just extending uh the the the contract so that we can make sure that we have the money uh but I know this is an ongoing
ongoing process though right y I mean the the original Grant was to actually pave most of the road and then I think I apparently walked some kids to school one day because the parents were complaining that the kids were falling into the holes so then subsequently PS paved the whole road so now we have a
million dollars without any road paving and we still want to do the sidewalks and the drainage and we did come up with some really good Traffic caling Solutions I think Aaron and carolos you guys did a great job um I think hopefully we get there um council president you gave some comments around uh we just really need to make sure that the majority of the residents on this um
Street want this so send your feedback uh soon to director Sher y other comments councilman palowski yeah and so um and we talked about this at the last um caner Parkway meeting um but I wanted
to say it um that wasn't recorded or anything like that um like councilwoman ham Hamlet just said the original purpose of this grant um was to work on drainage right A lot of people don't know this drainage and road paving a lot
of people don't know this but um this area of summit is built on a lake uh that they filled in at some point in time and so I just want to make sure because I know um a lot of people it is morphed into a sidewalk project um and
so that's great people want sidewalks um you know we'll figure that out but um I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of the drainage issues because when you in adding the sidewalks we're not taking away from the street right so we're going to be taking away
from um you know pervious uh uh ground where water goes and we're also gonna have to take down 27 trees and we can plant more trees and they'll grow probably quicker than 800
years but um they'll grow but those trees that are there now also soak up water and so if water and drainage is truly an issue there I just want to make sure we don't lose track of that um
while we're hyperfocused on side walks so councilwoman comson thank you um director shreer we talked in when when we spoke you mentioned that this grant was for safety and you threw a lot of things in there right and drainage was one of them but I don't know that it was
specifically for drainage I think it was it was really about safety overall so I just I I just wanted to make a few points one we're a walking town okay kids starting in third grade children are allowed to walk to school they need a safe route to walk to school
and they don't have that on cano Brook Parkway right now and it's something that I hear quite a bit uh for years people have been asking I me long before I was really even involved in politics at all people are like when are we going to get sidewalks on can Brook Parkway um
it's a million dollars of grant money okay so it's we should take this money we should get the sidewalks I know director Sher is going to do his best to mitigate you know pulling out any trees he's going to do his best he's always
really really helpful with the neighbors and you know he just I can't say enough good things about him so I I know he's going to do a great job and we should take this money because I mean I think we lost our funding for Glenn side like any sidewalk money that we can get we
should take thank you thank you want to comment uh director Sher sure for you council president just to kind of piggy back on what council member Hamlet had said is we we had an initial July kickoff meeting last year which was really it had no plans it was just kind of getting
feedback so from that we prepared the first round of concept plans that were distributed at the end of last year had a very well attended meeting towards the end of last year which resulted in some more tweaks to what is still just a concept plan uh which is posted on our
web page and has been circulated uh amongst I know the governing body and the neighborhood uh so we did have a meeting last week where we obtained more feedback and from that we'll we'll be working on more of a final design so we can kind of hammer down what we will do drainage wise how can we reduce any tree
loss uh and items like that but you know the consensus has generally been more in favor of sidewalk than not very much um in favor and of traffic calming not in favor of medians or reducing uh the width of the road uh so that's all been
taken into consideration keeping trees planning trees will be done and then upgrading the drainage as much as we can um as part of this project so Paving will be limited because a lot of it was done but that's the plan right now so we are still in the um you know moving from concept to a more final design phase uh
and we'll have some of those details then so great thank you through you council president yes Council director Sher have you uh received a response about the the grant for Glenside Avenue uh yes through you again council president so as was mentioned there the
Glenside Avenue which is the the grant that we we have lost or we were earmarked and ProMed through the federal government was for Glenside Avenue which is drainage and sidewalk so we have through our grant writing team Millennium has confirmed that the 2025
go with that has um is is not going to happen uh so we will be in the next few weeks or months at a council meeting be seeking to apply for that again through their next round of funding but yes we it has been confirmed that that Glenside funding that looked very good is is not looking so good right now so thank you
thank you for confirming um the one thing I can confirms that uh we can plant trees but no one in here will ever see them grow so um it takes a long time for that to happen but uh there there used to be a time when uh when we were
all talking about you know Green spaces and save the trees but uh I guess we moved on from that era so um thank you thank you councilwoman Hamlet and I would just say uh the mayor and I were on with uh Congressman Kane's office today uh and it does look like if we
want to submit that for 26 that we can so we'll obviously advocate for that um as director Sher said today thank you yeah um I I would just um be to wrap this up you know we're just extending um this grant opportunity
there hasn't been anything finalized yet so if you do live in that Community please uh reach out to one of your elected representatives or director shreer give your feedback on what you want you know we we want to hear it obviously you guys people live there um
we have some money uh we should use it um but we should use it in a way that people in the neighborhood um want want to see so give give feedback please all right um all in favor I opposed motion
carries okay uh capital projects number five Council woman Hamlet promise I only have two more uh thank you council president this is resolution 11 11804 as discussed in close session uh the superintendent of Public Work Works
advises that as a result of the retirement of the former roads Foreman effective June 1 vacancies will exist in the Divi division of Public Works in the positions of assistant Foreman operator and maintenance worker and therefore recommends declaring vacancies for these positions assistant Foreman equipment
operator and maintenance worker uh I would like to mention Rosie I just realized this in Tammy uh the effective date on this is June 1st 20 25 but I think that's changed so I don't know if that's a scribers eror we need to change that I'd have to look back at the the vacancy form to because we just approved
that yeah I think it I think that might be a little bit off um but I'd like to move this resolution to uh declare the vacancies for assistant Foreman equipment operator and maintenance worker thank you comments oh we need a second second comments from the
public comments from Council all in favor I I opposed motion carries capital projects number six councilwoman Hamlet okay last one I promise uh thank you council president 11830 uh as discussed in close session
members of common Council uh would like to appoint Lauren rugiero uh as a resident member uh of the Arts committee and I would like to move this resolution this is a three-year term and congratulations to this uh appoin we
vote for Mo this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I opposed motion carries all right councilman shreer thanks for hanging out thank you or
director shrer sorry like to you can stay if you want get out of here thank you um all right uh we're moving along to community programs and Parking Services we have one resolution from that uh committee counc councilman Smallwood thank you
council president this is ID number 11839 to declare a vacancy in the Department of Community programs Administrative Assistant um this is to replace uh an Irreplaceable uh an employee uh Maria Hughes who has worked
for the city for over 40 years and has been with the Department of Community programs for the last 25 years uh and if you remember she uh was married to the former clerk uh not you not me um I'm current current uh the
former Clerk and for his so between the two of them they had have worked here for 100 years right well David Hughes was here for 42 I believe and Maria's here 46 so so 90 almost 90 years yeah so we like to thank her for her service um
and with that I would uh like to move this resolution do have a second all right comments from the public comments from Council uh all in favor opposed motion carries all right
we have one resolution from uh administrative policies and Community Services councilwoman cinon thank you council president this is ID number 11 1842 and this resolution supports the state Bill S5 I'm sorry s251 1-
a451 the Humane pet store bill at the council meeting on January anuary 21st of this year Larry Cohen a retired lcj SMS teacher requested this resolution I think I might see Mr Cohen in the audience since that time I received many emails and calls from residents in
support of this resolution the Humane pet store Bill aims to prohibit the sale of cats dogs and rabbits in pet shops within New Jersey the importance of supporting this bill stems from concerns related to animal welfare and the sourcing of these animals three key reasons to support this bill is
combating puppy mills and Kitten Mills a primary goal of the bill is to curb the operation of puppy mills and Kitten Mills these are large-scale breeding facilities that often prioritize profit over the Health and Welfare of the animals these facilities frequently have poor living conditions inadequate
veterinary care and contribute to the overpopulation of animals promoting adoption by restricting Pet Shop sales the bill encourages the adoption of animals from shelters and rescue organizations this helps to alleviate overcrowding shelters and provides homes
for animals in need this bill does allow adoption events to be held at pet stores consumer protection this bill aims to protect consumers from unknowingly purchasing animals with health problems that are often prevalent in animals sourced from Mills it also promotes responsible
breeding practices this bill is co-sponsored by our local Assembly women Michelle matutas and Nancy munus Summit has had a similar ordinance since 2019 and this will not change the way business business is conducted in Summit with the passing of this resolution Summit will
join 14 other Union County towns in asking the state to pass this bill to prevent supporting puppy mills I move to adop to adopt this resolution second all right comments from the public comments from Council yeah I I would just say um I
think I was on Council when we adopted the first or or resolution that banned pet stores I believe yeah we prohibited retail pet stores in town even though we don't have didn't have retail pet stores but we did it um to kind of go along
with what the state of New Jersey uh has done and I'm I'm I'm happy to support uh this resolution um I think you know I know for years it has been illegal for pet stores in New Jersey to sell these
poor poor animals from puppy mills but I guess this is yet another step I don't know if there's been bad enforcement or what have you but um I'm I'm happy to join in and uh support this um this resolution and I'm super happy that the
the law that our Assembly women have um helped sponsor in Trenton um at least continues to allow adoption which I think is super super important um to give these some animals uh who need homes homes so I I'm fully
supportive uh councilman Kow and I think um it's still legal to breed it's all puppies yeah um breeders are are fine yeah MH y uh all right all in favor I I opposed motion
carries all right moving along law and Labor uh one resolution there councilman palowski thank you this is resolution ID number 1181 two resolution authorizing the execution of government energy aggregation program agreements which
will allow us to move forward with our exploration of a GAA program we've discussed this quite a bit already tonight um with a couple of scrier errors that I can um uh work out with
the city clerk I move to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from C IL all right all in favor I opposed motion carries all right moving along to
uh Finance uh Finance number one councilwoman to thank you council president um this resolution is ID 11807 authorizing an emergency temporary appropriation
um until we have a budget we are operating on under a temporary budget that allows us to spend 26.5% of what we spent last year um that operates on the theory that we
spend on a straight line throughout the year but spending is Lumpy a lot of it is front loaded um so we need to pay our bills and we need to spend more than essentially a quarter of our budget in the first part of the Year state law
require calls this an emergency it is not an emergency it's fairly routine we do it several times every year during the first quarter um and I move to adopt this resolution a second comments from the
public comments from Council all in favor Mr President we need a roll call oh roll call okay thank you thank you uh Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood
hi i m to I president McAn I motion carries thank you Madame clerk um all right uh Finance number two councilwoman to I believe we're pulling this is that correct City administrator Goldwin or
did I don't believe so I think uh did we we were expecting some documentation from us from Summit downtown on this no we we actually sent I Megan chne sent a letter a week ago telling them advising them
they had said that they had they had secured insurance and she just sent them a letter saying this was on the agenda and if you have any problems with us no and I don't believe they've ever heard also if I may add um uh Megan mentioned that every time
there's an event they would provide the proof of insurance and uh we would have it reviewed by our risk manager and confirmed that it was the appropriate coverage so it'll be it'll be checked every time okay okay I'm I'm I am mistaken then
this is um ID 11814 authorizing the removal of summit downtown Inc from the city of summit's insurance coverage um this is not about saving us money unfortunately this is about risk
management um if this if Summit downtown is covered by our property in casual Insurance um they are responsible for providing the city with all of the sub insurance
information from all of the performers all of the vendors everyone who shows up at any City Event um and this became particularly onerous for them they've decided to get their own insurance so that they are so that
um they are not the conduit to the city but they simply that the vendors have to provide them with the with the assurances that SDI requires um I think it simplifies things for them um maybe it saves us a little bit of money but
not a whole lot um so I move this ordinance for for for adoption or I move this resolution for adoption I'm sorry I second comments from the public comments from Council through you council president yes councilman Boer
councilwoman Hamet do do you have any because I didn't I read to not Hamlet councilwoman toad you're right I'm sorry shame on me it's getting late I guess but you know I I hear some concern um and we didn't talk about this previously
I read it but do you have any concerns I'd like to hear no no um oh we're going to get weedy and so many people want to talk to us um historically I mean many of the vendors that that appear at SDI events I mean if
the guy with the guitar on the street corner um it's the person selling crafts at arts and cars or the person with with with the the antique car um and historically Summit downtown had gotten hold harmless agreements from these
folks um and in recent years the city's risk manager wanted certificates of insurance from them adding the in the city as an additional insured um and the the um assistant director of SDI was spending
all her time chasing down the vendors trying to get these certificates um because again the guy on the corner with the guitar it's not his top priority to go talk to his insurance agent and deal with all of this um so
SDI eventually decided they'd get their own insurance and one that would allow them to to just take the whole harmless letters rather than the certificates of insurance so do you see liability I do not see an increased risk um SDI has been operating
Su successfully this way oh since long before I was their Treasurer since probably long before council member Smallwood was their Treasurer so that goes back a couple of decades all right um and if I've got that I don't know about
decades thank you thank you councilwoman okay um and if I totally misstated it uh the city administrator will correct me all good okay all right um any other comments
from Council yeah the only com I'm going to make a comment I think SDI is a a um a standalone entity the state created uh the ability to
create these special Improvement districts and SDI is that entity that helps manage events in downtown they have two real uh primary objectives is to increase foot traffic to our downtown and to beautify our downtown we can
argue with you know how much we're doing one versus the other and and we we're we've been talking about that um it takes money to do that I'm honestly just very disappointed about this uh request because Insurance
costs money they're basically a free rider off of our GIF our GIF right now they have to do some work in order to be a free rider off of that now they're going to have to take
money that they were that they could use to beautify our downtown or to uh increase foot traffic for our downtown and now they're going to have to spend it on getting their own insurance and I just don't think that that's right so I'm going to be voting
no on this um but uh that's my comment oh yeah Madam mayor um I was going to ask our city solicitor to just correct me if I'm wrong but um I I still believe that SDI if they're holding events on city property and they're still going to
have to go through our risk manager absolutely so I just want to clarify that me for non city property events um and and there my understanding is there's a representation made to Megan they got their own insurance so
right no point having double Insurance correct I just want to be clear that there's still work to be done on their beh on their part in order to hold events doesn't take away their work and council president if I may the the they I think this is in response to a
change in the city's risk management requirements that they just weren't able to to meet in a timely manner fair enough other comments councilwoman Hamlet yeah I'm council president with all due respect I'm not sure I
understand you're voting no but I'd like to learn more if if you're voting know on it that I'm concerned that we don't have enough information because did they want to come off of the insurance or was it risk management what was the I just don't know who who
initiated the the request my understanding councilwoman to corrects me if I'm wrong that they initiated this they gone out and said I think you're you're right we have requirements for insurance that they found onerous uh to
to do so they've decided to go and get private insurance we will still have them uh requirements for them to hold events on city property that are going to indemnify us against damages but they'll they'll do that through their own uh Insurance uh people previously if
they had all the right documentation we would be doing that through the the GIF which is the government government Insurance Fund that municipalities used um in case they there's some um unforeseen event that we need insurance on so that that's what happened but this
is this is uh from SDI right considering that I'm one of the representatives on that board can we uh can I motion to table this until the next meeting is it is it you can motion it I guess my question is is the timeline is the timeline where they need to do this I think I think that they they were
notified that they don't have insurance there's a letter last week from Megan to them it was either Thursday Wednesday or Thursday of last week Thursday uh the letter went out um you know I mean I think that the
issue here is that your insurance carrier wants an answer so you don't want to have something on your insurance if they're not complying with their requirements so you can always if if they change their mind we can always put them back on but they did represent that they have
insurance I second I second your your motion thank you Jamal okay so you have to move on yeah so we're going to have to move on the motion to table any comments on tbling it I I have a comment about it period because it's you know if if they're
talking about insurance not on city property I mean the whole point of the summit downtown Inc is within the Sid which is a special improvement district which is all city property so where are they holding these events because they're not holding the
events outside of the S right I don't think so but may I yes please Madam clerk so um in the past SDI with their property use application has had to provide us with insurance certificates and proof of insurance for all of the
vendors that participate in every one of their events we've also asked them to provide hold harmless agreements signed by each vendor they found that onerous and so they figured they could bypass some of that paperwork by perhaps
finding their own policy but my humble opinion they still in their it's in their best interest to still collect those Insurance certificates from every vendor even though they're not coming to us anymore so I don't know what
paperwork they're saving but they have they have advised us during a a property use application meeting that they had their own insance insurance so with that we reported that to the um Administration and we explained that
since they have their own insurance or why are we still paying for insurance to additionally cover them and so that's when the conversation began you know show us your proof of insurance so that we can with all good conscience
remove you from our our policy and they've they've assured us that they have it and with every event that they have they have to provide us now one insurance certificate from SDI instead of giving us all but we reserve the
right in this resolution to ask upon written demand for proof of insurance from every one of their vendors if we so choose so that's still in here so they're not they're not saving a lot by doing this and I'm sorry council
president yes Council small we we know that Megan sent out the letter I saw it right yeah but did we we got nothing back to show proof that they have insurance my understanding is that Megan requested it many times and and didn't get anything did not get anything City administrator
Balwin do you have any insight on that yes through you council president and I think that probably added to councilwoman till confusion for a moment because I have not received any proof I asked for a declaration page um Megan champney asked for documents we've not
received any proof other than an email assuring us that she is obtaining that from their insurance broker and then their insurance broker was on an email but there was no real confirmation saying he was looking to get further confirmation so it's a it's a little bit
confusing I I don't they assure us that they have it we've we've sent a letter um they're aware that we're removing them from our policy uh I couldn't tell you right now what the cost difference is of having them or not having them um
I'd have to look into that I I don't know if that's broken down in our insurance bill for me to see so I'd have to check into that um but right now this was the path recommended so yes I'm sorry madam mayor say I think
I think the sort of Crux of the conversation should be around you know liability to the city in if we make this decision and I think um our city solicitor advised uh Megan champney in exactly how to word this letter so that
we are protected so can you clarify that yeah the the letter was uh clearly worded saying that you've made representations that you have it we want a copy of it and be advised that you'll be removed from the city's
Insurance uh as of this date so if you guys you have a motion to table so you have to vote on that um so it'll be tabled but you need if they're not going to provide proof they have to go through all the uh imaginations that said these
aren't imaginations that the city council made up this is done by The Joint Insurance Fund that doesn't just Ure you it ensures Mis palities throughout the state um there's multiple joint Insurance funds but they do that because of of the potential liability
and you know somebody slips and falls on the sidewalk or somebody gets hurt at an event there's typically L litigation and that's who's defending you so they have very strict requirements that if you're involved on city property you have to provide proof of insurance is no
different than when somebody leases out a gym they get proof of insurance that you know if something happens you're going to help your insurance is going to help cover the costs so if you table that's you know you have to vote on that but you know within two weeks hopefully
you'll have your declaration page so I guess like we we do have a I'm sorry councilman paloski yeah so you just said hopefully we'll have a declaration paid P um any any anyone who's ever looked at a Certificate of Insurance knows that at the very top of it it says this is not
evidence of insurance um so I'd like to see a declaration page that notes us um as a uh as an additional insured I'd like to see the whole policy and probably also the um endorsement that names us um also you know sdi's
insurance cover coverage will serve as the primary policy do we know what the limits are okay are they going to have are they GNA have so I'm gonna I'm G to um make a comment I think there's been enough comments around that there's a lot that we don't know about this that maybe The
Prudent thing to do is to table it I think councilwoman to had good uh instincts right out of the shoot on this um so uh I think there is a motion from councilwoman Hamlet with all in favor of tbling this
resolution hi opposed all right we're going to table this that was fun Should um all right uh that was a dooy at the end of our uh our
resolutions we're now on to our consent agenda uh at this time do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so move second all right uh any comments something out I'm gonna ask for oh would you like to yeah uh please
sorry not to further complicate the evening with the summit downtown but um I think we need to think about the fact that we are about to vote on all of the events for Summit downtown and we don't have insurance well I don't think that that's right we they are currently covered by our GIF soon that they get
all the documentation to us yeah and their their first meeting is very soon okay so okay um but my second the reason I actually pulled the reason I was pulling it out to begin with um I just wanted to confirm I didn't see maybe I missed it I believe that they used to
pay us for parking spots on days where they would have an event that they were taking like for instance the bank Street lot um and I didn't see anything maybe I missed it but I don't recall them paying for parking spots they have paid overtime
for DPW assistance and police maybe not parking I'm I'm like I'll look back and see if maybe it dropped off and and we'll Kevin do do you know that we they used to pay or Claire do you know they used to pay we they they paid a preset amount for
events where they were taking our parking away um I remember hold on one sec we're we're our meeting's getting all confused are you requesting to pull the safety and health uh resolutions from the consent agenda is that what you're
asking for Council H um sorry no I think what I think my conf never mind just the first one I'm sorry just the first one number one yeah okay so let's no I'm losing so at that stage
um councilman Boer uh would you want to just introduce uh safety and health on the consent agenda um at this time through you council president so you want to pull all no no just we're gonna no I understand that but that is
inclusive of like 10 events right I no no we're not pulling it we're going to talk about it and then vote on it is that yeah that's all it is you're just going to introduce it we're going to talk about it as a normal resolution rather than being bundled
with the consent agenda thank you council president this is consent agenda 11798 granting permission to set forth condition to the 2025 Summit downtown Incorporated
events do I have a second second do I have comments from the public comments from Council councilman palowski I'm going back to the insurance I'm sorry
um So currently SDI is covered by our policies and until we pass a resolution removing them from it they'll continue to be covered by our policies so if we're if we okay all of these events and
we're not satisfied with the insurance that SDI has procured for itself we can keep them on our insurance if we are so inclined correct I think that's right but um Mr
Jacobi could probably answer this if if we were to do that we would require them to all have give us all the documentation or we would not allow them to hold the event on city property either way right now that since you tabled it they're still under our
insurance and they have to comply with all of our joint Insurance funds and risk manager uh requirements which is to provide the Home Health harmlessness the proof of insurance Etc if they don't do it the event doesn't happen Okay the resolution language has
to change because this was based on them having the insurance and US removing it so there's some language changes that have to happen in here so we need to table this as well yeah okay um so do I have a motion to table this resolution so moved I have a second
second uh sorry all right all in favor opposed all right that's table too okay so now we've got the consent agenda um so going back do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which would
be set safety and health number two and uh two from law and labor and one from Finance as a as a uh as it's presented so move I have a second second all right uh any comments from the public on the consent agend comments from Council is the uh
Department of Community is Department of Community programs insured to coordinate these events they're in our insurance yes um other comments all right all in favor hold on what sorry council president um
so we just tabled both of the summit downtown yeah yeah the two SDR right yeah okay so because that I mean they have an event coming up soon I believe we still have one more council meeting okay yeah yep
okay all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh that concludes the business part of our meeting uh we're now on to our public comment section I know there's a lot of people in the audience of waiting patiently thank you
so much for doing that I would just say uh if you do want to make a public comment please line up when you do approach the podium please give your name and your address we'll have a lot of people talking um just to uh please keep your comments uh under three
minutes uh please Matthew fonso 12 Washington Avenue uh thef o NZ you said I had to spell my name so um I've been a volunteer coach for summer youth football uh the upcoming season marks my
26 years as a coach I'm also head of Summit youth football I've been aware of practice game issues on our existing fields for years for various teams because of lighting I would like to express how the light project would impact not just football but also Lacross and soccer as well coaching the sixth grade team for multiple years I
can say firsthand the practice is challenging in the dark so also makes practice unsafe because of grade priority sixth grade is pushed to the far end of the field where lighting isn't as bright while I do not coach these other sports I can attest to back-to-back practices with soccer and see Darkness to sends on the playing
field that the vision is compromised this project would assist our limited site for the sixth seventh and eighth grade football this would be beneficial The Varsity soccer with whom we share the practice field in terms of back-to-back practices under games for those who do not know Varsity Sports have precedence
over the youth sports that means the varsity games have priority over youth football practice having lights of tatlock would ensure would enable holding late season games I'm sorry enable soccer holding late season games now to be safer and for players not to have gam that be called because of the
darkness lacrosse would also be able to practice Youth and varsity without running out of daylight Friday Night Football is the welcome fun activity for our youth in all grade levels and disciplines given my expensive use of Sumit fields and having been exposed to other sports practice times and games I
a full support of lights on tatlock field for sports to benefit from thank you thank you if you have a written comment oh you have it okay just for people do speak and have a uh a prepared comment please just make sure you get it to our clerk
so they can put it so she can put it in the record please hi I'm Vicki Freeman 46 Shady Side last council meeting a fellow resident shared that a petition was created urging Council to move forward with the project to light tatlock Fields the support of this petition has been
overwhelming in 2 weeks we've gathered over 2,000 signatures and we're not stopping by comparison opposition to Broad Street West had 1700 signatures over 5 months the Swift response to our petition clearly indicates that we have broad support for tatlock lights we
represent all ages from 18 to 75 members of both political parties and residents from all over town including all school districts we're also proud to share that the petition is split roughly 40% in W one 60% in W two including over 30
signatures in the neighborhood around tatlock we also want to highlight that we have taken the Integrity of this petition very seriously specific measures were employed to ensure signatures are all Summit residents no one under 18 and no duplicates we've heard some chatter
online accusing our broad Coalition of including younger residents of college age yes it does who better understands how lights at tatlock would benefit Our Town than those citizens who just recently grew up here they have a unique understanding of the issue because they
have lived it and for those still living it here here's the problem we need to solve currently half of wreck football practices are in the dark soccer and lacrosse practice in the outfields of baseball fields which means baseball and softball can't play Then There is demand
but no room for more players or Sports a newer sport girls flag football has to practice and play games in New Providence even worse Summit will soon lose control of scheduling at Glenside fields to Union County 70% of Summit High School Kids participate in sports
and our Rec Sports programs are great community building for our town just think of the friends made on a summit sideline and don't we want more of our kids outdoors especially in winter when the sun sets at 4:30 and spending less time indoors on screens we the
co-authors believe that lighting tatlot Fields is the smartest most cost-effective solution to Growing to the growing field space problem it means our children won't have to sacrifice a valuable practice time because the sun sets early it means we can finally meet the demand for field space without
burdening taxpayers with expensive Alternatives it also creates a new safe lighted outdoor space for our citizens to play outside and exercise during winter evenings our petition also importantly Advocates reasonable accommodations to alleviate neighborhood
concerns over traffic parking Etc we believe these concerns can and will be addressed these lights have been designed with the utmost care to respect the community the light pollution created by this project is effective zero for the surrounding neighborhood
and the impact of the environment is negligible so now that the voters have spoken the question sits with the council where do you stand and when will you act thank you if she could email her statement if you could email your statement or just
drop it off bring it up yeah that works too thank you thank you very much good even Adriana aleran Al a RC n Springfield Avenue okay this is referenced the
ongoing issu issues with Sal brck we purchased our home in 2011 and have been experiencing significant property loss particularly following major weather events we observed and reported to the town land
loss after Hurricane Iran in 2011 the damage worsened after superstorm Sandy in 2012 and each following year we lost more and more in August 2019 the devastation was so bad that we had to file a claim through our
homeowners insurance to cover the loss of landscaping Sprinklers and fencing fencing which we've had to replace many times since as of 2011 we have been in contact with the town reporting damage and relying on assurances that the issues were being addressed despite
these assurances and my adherence to all relevant laws and regulations we have experienced devastating land loss and are left with very little land and hope a huge culprate of the damage is the neglect of a broken County pipe that runs under our
property and empties water runoff from Springfield Avenue into saltbrook during rain water from the pipe erodes the Earth underneath the pipe eventually leads to another break which causes a chain reaction of land all around the pipe eventually trees collapse into the
brook as well subsequent breaks most not after Hurricane Ida in 2021 have exasperated the problem altering the water flow and washing away more land the damage now occurs even with moderate rainfall to this date we have lost
two3 2/3 of our land in the area around the pipe adjacent to that we have lost half of our land half of it furthermore we have increased water runoff due to local Construction in two in 2015 the property across the street was redeveloped from one house into three
which increased the amount of paved surface area with a recent sale of an adjacent property this issues likely to get worse with the construction of two new homes this means the local area went from two homes to five in just 10 years I'm concerned that the increased runoff
will inevitably lead to more damage to my property and the surrounding ones as well as it stands the brook as it approaches our property and in the area of the broken pipe is starting to now cut a path on trajectory towards Springfield at this part of the damage includes two other properties in
addition to ours putting emotional and financial distress aside the ongoing land loss is a critical concern and every rainfall causes additional worry I would like to thank councilwoman Hamlet councilman Boer and mayor Fagan for
their e efforts thus far for the rest of the administration I implore you to give immediate attention to this critical matter stabilization as soon as possible is essential until a larger solution can be implemented I would like for all of you
the next time you look at your backyards imagine half of it gone imagine watching it wash away with every rainfall with your hands tied behind your back thank you thank you she emailed me that's a bigger problem than anything
else going on uh Maggie Bowman 40 Lewis Avenue B M A year ago I was talking with my father-in-law in Ridgewood about the light the tatlock like tatlock light proposal he listened to my concerns and said you know they're going to put them up right I told them they probably would
but that I have a voice in the past year there have been hours of listening sessions and Community forums hundreds of comments on the Google Doc and countless one-on-one conversations about The tatlock Proposal steps three and four of the plan laid out by Council a
year ago focus on revised plans the word compromise was used I looked at the plan today and I don't see any changes are we to believe that no one has had an idea to Warrant a revision to the plan I always think of summit as a town
full of smart High achieving people it's remarkable that there have been no good ideas to prompt an update to this 7-year-old proposal my biggest concern is safety caused by insufficient parking tlock and Washington have 155 striped
spaces compared to over 300 at the high school and over 250 at Jefferson Street Parking during the day is annoying but whatever it is what it is but at night it's a completely different story a theft recently happened in the middle of the day on Bedford the suspicious
vehicle was not identified because the street was filled with cars for an event in oratory consider every Street around tatlock lined with parked cars at night how will police determine who is suspicious and who is app parent or a
fan is a group of people walking down the street headed to watch the game are they looking for empty houses and unchecking for unlocked doors the case for lights centers around wanting more practice space for Rec Sports I have an idea that supports practice and reduces
the safety concern of jam-packed streets at night my idea for compromise is to add additional practice lights on the butler Parkway side of upper tatlock this reduces the height of the lights to not much higher than the tree line the residents there would be impacted but if
what we are told is true the new technology will minimize spillover maintaining the field as practice only means that there won't be nighttime games and as a result minimal nighttime street parking the field at upper tatlock can be easily accessed from
Morris Avenue reducing traffic on Butler this solution benefits Everyone by increasing practice time and decreasing the negative impact on the neighborhood it's not easy being on the unpopular side of this issue I've received the petition and I'm friends
with many of the sponsors but I do think the conversation would be very different if we are talking about lights at Memorial or anywhere else in town the sports Community I include myself is strong and passionate but at the end of the day it's not about who is louder or
more popular it's about protecting summit's neighborhoods it's about this Council truly looking at all the facts and considering the permanent negative impact on the quality of life that eight Stadium lights would bring to the TLA Community
former council president Lisa Allen once spoke about political courage I hope that this Council has it Stadium lights don't belong at tatlock or any other field in Summit thank you thank you for your comments thank
you other comments from the public Joselyn Modesto 61 Butler Parkway before the informal meetings with neighbors around tatlock you may not have been aware of the impact that parking traffic and noise from practices
games and events have on the tatlock community however now you have been informed and Council even acknowledged at the January 21st meeting that quote there are challenges it is evident that we need to take every effort to unburden
that neighborhood in whatever way we can we need to take a really close look at those neighbor concerns around speeding and enforcement game time traffic patterns find Solutions as we go through the process Council solution was to set up a task force to alleviate those
negative effects but this task force has not even met yet so how can you possibly continue considering a project that will bring additional problems to Ed to an admittedly already overburdened area at night no less without first fixing those
issues that occur during daylight hours this project should be off the table until the task force has time to at least attempt to unburden the neighborhood and if you choose to move forward with this project you are doing it with eyes wide open that many of your constituents are already negative
impacted and your actions will only further harm the tatlock families there is a LaCrosse wall and fence practice area being installed at tatlock soon why aren't we waiting to see how that will help practice issues as well as see the impact it will have on tatlock too many
changes are trying to be forced into a small area too quickly this also brings up another question what major improvements have been made to any other field in a residential area in the last 20 years that are on par with the changes at the high school and tatlock
what other neighborhood has shouldered any more burden for the increasing demand for sports Washington is the only district with turf fields and lights that directly impact neighbors so when is it other people's turn to step up or will it always be Washington getting bullied to take on more as neighbors
have repeatedly said most of us have grown to enjoy the hustle bustle whistles cheers and band playing during the daytime we are opposed to losing the right to Peace Quiet and darkness in our neighborhood at night like every other neighborhood around a field enjoys there are alternatives to this field shortage
crisis and Friday Night Lights can still happen with a different type of temporary light but some people have blinders on so they only see their own benefit regardless of the detriment and harm it would inflict on tatlock so I say to council it is turned into a circus this
is not a decision that should be made as if voting for prom king or who yells the loudest it should be about facts how are you going to balance the benefit that a resident may get get from lights against the persistent and harmful burden the tatlock families will be forced to Bear every night it is council's duty to
ensure proper balance of Burden throughout town and that has not been the case the tatlock community is waiting for you to correct this imbalance instead of worsening it thank you thank you other comments from the public hi my name is Lynette mck and I don't
have written comments but I did want to just speak kind of off the cuff I am the neighbor across the street um actually I should say across the creek from Adriana she's the one that spoke about losing her property on Springfield Avenue and I
have a unique perspective of what's going on because I am up on the hill and my view from my kitchen windows shows exactly what's happening with this storm water drain and how much land is being
lost um my heartbreaks for this family because every time we have a storm we look outside and we see more and more land sliding down she's lost fences they've lost they're they're getting very close to losing theyve like
detached garage with a little porch area and I Can Only Imagine and what that family must be going through right now all of us on the creek are concerned about the damage drain um I know we have all kind of voiced our concerns over the
years but I will tell you at this stage in the last seven years or so and more probably rapidly over the last three it's just getting worse and worse and it's really becoming kind of an environmental disaster I mean these are
people are at threat of losing their property and especially you know their properties their property values everybody along the creek is affected I've lost um several trees as a result of it but fortunately my elevation is
keeping me you know at least our yard and our home safe but the people on Springfield don't have that luxury and I think this is something I mean I I mean I personally feel like this is what we have a Town Council for you know when
somebody hasn't a crisis like this that that we need to do what we can to come together and try to save and help these residents of our community so I just wanted to put that out there I also wanted to offer up I have several photos and I have videos of what happens um
during these storms if anybody's interested in looking at those I'm happy to pass those along thank you very much for your comments I'm sorry I promised my husband I wasn't going to say anything but I I have I can't I I'm going to rig on that so
um couple things name I'm getting there hold on Mary doono 12 Washington Avenue D E capital f o n zo um I didn't prepare anything I'm sorry because I wasn't planning on saying anything but I have
to tell you I grew grew up here now my kids have grown up here all my kids were three season athletes and for this um lighting thing to become an issue I know that my husband is where his heart is coming from because he's been coaching
for so long and having had three kids who are athletes I myself was one I I was a one season athlete um I I can attest to the fact that these lights are necessary um that being said um I invite anybody who is complaining about the
traffic can come down to my side of town Bryant Park my family lives across the street my daughter lives across the street and my mother lives across the street I grew up there my kids grw up there and when I tell you that we have 24/7 because now the county has decided
oh the Park's going to be open 24 hours a day so you want to talk traffic you want to talk uh commotion there's people using that Park all the time it's County Park so when I fought the uh East Coast Greenway thing going through with those with this park line I was told it's it's
progress It's progression well you know what I'm going to say the same thing installing these lights is progression thank you thank you very much you all want to see somebody uh hold a breath for three minutes um miles cinon 67 Butler Parkway
so I'd actually like to take a slight detour um from the topic of Lights to talk about something much less controversial want to talk about hamburgers now hamburgers are one of my weaknesses I don't I don't have much of a sweet tooth um but I do love a good burger I especially love the Chipotle
bacon burger over at the Committed Pig downtown um you know the one with monster cheese and the onion ring on top it's that one's probably in my top five maybe even top three burgers of all time so speaking of the Comm Committed Pig you all know the story behind the Committed Pig or at least the name
so it goes like this a pig and a chicken are walking down the road the chicken says Hey Pig I was thinking we should open a restaurant the pig replies hm maybe what would we call it the chicken responds how about ham and eggs and the Pig thinks for a second and says no thanks I'd be committed but you'd only
be involved and I think that's appropriate when we talk about the lights tonight uh Miss Freeman uh said the petition has a couple thousand signatures and I want you to ask yourself how many of those signatures are chickens and how how many of them are pigs how many are just involved and
how many are really committed really really wanting something is not Commitment if their quality of life won't be affected by the increased traffic or noise they're probably not committed they might have kids in sports but if their kids aren't being turned away due to lack of field space they're probably not committed if they don't
live in the neighborhood or have any kids in sports and just sign the form because they got an email asking them to sign well they're definitely chickens now I get why people would sign when I first saw um the the field signs uh up in my neighborhood um my need your reaction was supportive I mean he
doesn't like Saturday Night Lights of course that was before I learned the details it's easy to get behind something when you have incomplete information and I've heard a lot of people say let's compromise but that's been a euphemism for uh suck it up and do what I want um the petition authors
have have G have given in a little bit um they've moved from suck it up to trust us we'll make it better um but fun the lights anyway but that's still not real compromise um so I'd like to throw an idea out here um actually what I'm going to do I I had an idea and then I heard uh Maggie speak and I'm going to
rip off of that a little bit um I get there's a sense of urgency here um from everybody um they get one shot a year at funding um where uh we've got three Council seats up so who knows what the situation will be uh in the fall and we've also got a looming recession um so
there's a good chance like this could be the best shot for a while if uh if the economy terms so if you really feel that you have to fund the lights um because time is running out uh do what Maggie said fund it fund it for for the upper field and do it with a caveat set the
money aside and only release the money once certain criteria is met it takes the urgency out of situation so we're not like fighting like one month out of the year and then it gets us all working towards the same goal and that goal is
making traffic and noise better in our neighborhood um and that's that's okay I guess I'm out of time thank you Mr thank you do you have a statement to I will I have it on my phone I'll email it to you perfect thank you so
much other comments hi my name is Julie bradrick I live at two Sunset Drive in Summit um I just I have no prepared remarks but after hearing a couple of of people speak I just want to remind everyone and and I know everyone knows this but the
thing that sets us apart as a town is our love for the community our love for our children and a sense of um spirit for our Sports um the fact that we have to go off to New Providence to to borrow
their fields is kind of shameful to Summit I mean I I just feel like we we're such a great town that we actually have to go to another town to to play sports uh it it just doesn't make sense with all the the the funds that we have the people that are supporting this it's
not a popularity contest it's about what's best for the kids and at some point I understand there's going to be sacrifices that have to be made but it's not a situation of The Have and the have knots it's it's a situation of when you have kids that are playing sports and I
think some of the people around tatlock may have younger children that are not in that space yet when you get to that place you'll understand the import importance of having space for your kids for lights to be on after dark and I don't think I think some of the people
misspoke when they said they going to be lights every night that there's going to be games all the time that there's going to be traffic and that Council hasn't listened to their position I think the council has bent over backwards with um with meetings with forums with um
booster meetings too where where councilman uh Smallwood showed up to answer questions I think that uh you should be commended for having the patience and the diligence of all of the stuff that you've done to research the
lights and to provide an opportunity for all of us as um citizens of summit to come together and discuss an important issue um I don't think it should be tearing us apart it shouldn't be controversial I think we should just get
together and remind ourselves why we're doing this and it's for the kids thank you thank you hi Sue Maguire Madison Avenue so the only thing I I did want to say something and I heard some some weird talk about this but this is not a partisan issue I
heard people are afraid that people AR going to vote for them if they don't you know support the lights or don't support the lights along party lines I mve to Summit as an independent I moved near the Washington school and the high school for my kids so they could be the other fields they could be
in the other activities I knew what I was getting myself into there's a lot of hustle and bustle that goes along that part of town the property values have increased 30% since 2020 they're not going down um also you know Summit
is the was ranked the 26th most wealthiest suburb in the United States it was ranked um it's ranked in the top five in in New Jersey there's 339 high schools in New Jersey 80% of them have lighted High
School varsity fields we are Summit we should have a lighted varsity field for our community I mean that having to go to other communities because we don't have the lights just doesn't make sense that's it thank you
good evening Dennis mckever 16 clear viiew Drive uh I'm not here because uh my wife made me I'm here really I'm here because um I've worked with the kids in this community for a very long time whether it's volunteering for Youth Football uh Youth Baseball um
and I am very very S as a as a community member who lives along Memorial Field I'm very very sensitive to parking issues um and the fields themselves whether it's for baseball softball football across um our fields are are in
need I've said the word dynamic at all of the various um meetings that I've been able to attend that council's arranged um and I think having lights on that field is a step in the right direction I think having as Miss Balman said having adequate parking around our
Fields is also has to be a very important consideration I I wish there were more adequate parking around Memorial Field because every Saturday and Sunday I can't get in and out of my driveway so I'm sensitive that we're unfortunately a landlock community and there's not a
whole lot we can do about that um but I think our light our children the students of the high school the students in the youth programs do deserve to have enhancements uh inclusive of the fields and I I am sensitive to those Park needs
that have been discussed at every one of the meetings um because I think there is probably going to be that traffic impact you can't deny it so thank you very much thank you for having me hopefully I'm not in troubled thank you Mr mver you have incredible taste and ties any other member of the public wish
to make a comment hello Zach diosi Manor Hill um didn't have anything prepared today or written down but I just wanted to share my sentiment on the lights and tatlock um I have two boys 10 and seven fifth grade and
first and I've coached them in every sport as much as I can throughout their entire um athletic career although shortlived um but look there's a real need for for proper um lighted fields in Summit um in
the fall when when we're running out of light it's very difficult for these players to safely compete and practice and participate and be part of a team um I played in the NFL for 13 years uh Sports have been a big part of my life
my father played in the league for 12 years and I think it's Paramount that these kids have the the proper experience um not to mention a lot of these moms and dads are trying to unplug from work to get home in time for their slotted practice whether it be baseball
lacrosse soccer football etc etc um that's tough at home to do that and professionally these these parents are trying to grow their careers so to be able to unplug from New York at 2:30 to
get home multiple times a week just so you can fit in in a certain time where where you where you have sunlight is borderline impr practical and tough so you know safety the safety reasons Alone look I I understand the sentiment
for for those who live around tatlock but this this is very needed for these kids and I would hate for any dad that comes into this town or Mom to not have the opportunity to coach their kids because they're we just don't have the space the field space and the proper
lighting and it's a safety issue in my opinion so appreciate it and thank you for your time thank you for your comments how you doing uh Hal Dyan 269 Ashlin Avenue Ashen Road rather um thank you for having us tonight and listening
to all these comments um I'm here to strongly urge the council to maintain the budget line item for installing the lights at to I am currently the president of the Su Lacrosse Club um I am intimately on a
daily basis aware of the challenges of finding field space um we've got 700 boys and girls in the lacrosse program and we've been growing year-over-year um I spent a lot of time with my compatriots and the other uh
youth leagues soccer uh and the spring specifically but you know soccer baseball field hockey we've got football in the spring now and we spent an exorbitant amount of time really playing Tetris with the few fields that we have
we we are massively constrained in in the meeting we had this year you know we there there were some sports we decided we couldn't do and the these were activities uh you know around some of the flag football programs especially on the girls side that are now playing in
other towns uh we've got a a new field hockey program um that's just getting off the ground and being able to get some spring reps and is important and and they don't have enough time um so I'm I'm here representing the Lacrosse
Club but I'm advocating for all of the youth in Summit um we we spend time and when I say every day I mean every day um navigating this this Challenge and it's not sustainable
we do a great job it's it's by a handful of people across all these leagues um but it's getting tougher and tougher and tougher um the other thing I I that I'd like i' really like to point out we've got strong recck Sports in Summit we live in a world of pay to play where
there's club sports everywhere right now they're incredibly expensive and and we offer amazing programs for the Youth of summit all of the clubs that I just talked about plus plus the ones in the fall that I didn't discuss we we offer
Youth Sports that that are economically affordable for the children in Summit we hand out an enormous number of scholarships that most people are probably not aware of but if we don't exist and we can't continue to grow and offer these Services it's the the kids
are going to suffer um and and and and trust me when I say that I I empathize with the challenges thank you um my thesis actually is we have to schedule everything back back to back to back to back if we had a little more air with
with that the lights would give us at night I think traffic and parking would actually get better because we could get a little bit of air in between all of those practicing games um so listen got 3 seconds um I think the lights are incredibly important so I
urge you to please keep those in the budget so thank you for your time thank you for your comments John Flack 15th Carly Court uh thank you mayor thank you Council appreciate your time tonight I know it's a late night um I'm here to speak to you about the
tatlock field lights uh I've been a resident for 16 years I've got three children a daughter in eighth grade a freshman son and a senior son coached every sport in town soccer football flag football uh basketball and baseball so I know the full picture from
all the all the sports um the people of summit voted for you sometimes as a public servant you need to make difficult decisions this decision is not a hard one the light do you know how many children are in Youth Sports and Summit does anybody on Council know how
many children are in Youth Sports do you want anybody want to guess all of them 3,200 in Youth Sports 3,200 children that's not that's not including that's just the Outdoor Sports okay that's not
including the high school athletes you have approximately thousand kids in soccer boys and girls you have 700 you heard from Hal you heard 700 boys and girls in Lacrosse you have 400 in football boys and girls because we now have a flag football program that
requires more time you have a growing field hockey program for girls 30 girls three years ago 50 girls two years ago 80 girls this past year that that program continues to 3,200 kids we're talking about in this community when you add in the high
school kids you're looking at close to 3,800 but that includes band because the band needs to use the field as well not just athletes but extracurriculars as well need to use that field where am I I have a lot of chicken scratch here sorry um so how can you disregard or
vote against something that will benefit close to 4,000 children in our community I don't even understand how we're having a discussion about this this is a no brain you need to put the greater good of the community above the minority we not to mention there's two
safety issues regarding this issue the first one as you've heard our young athletes are having practices in very dangerous locations um I Heard uh Miss Hamlet talk about kids falling in holes walking to school miss
cinon talking about sidewalks kids getting School Mr I'm sorry I don't know how to pronounce your name Jobe uh mentioned about uh risk management and people hosting things in town and we need insurance kids are practicing in parking lots I've seen kids I've coached
I shouldn't say this but I've coached kids my play fingers at Franklin School in the parking lot we've had co uh practices at Wilson School in the parking lot there's a small area at Memorial Field by the batting cages up again where the houses are there's like
a little triangle area with like a twft cliff you see kids practicing in these locations I dare you to go walk in that area without spraining an ankle it's not safe we don't have enough what no way great wow okay if you have written
comments you can leave them with the clerk okay fast thank you other comments from the public I she can't read them so I'll I'll yeah that' be perfect thank
you any other comments PJ angler 16 High Street um I'm also formerly from 258 Woodland da so very close to the the tatlock area so I'm very familiar with some of the concerns and the traffic patterns and issues that they encounter and and I
assure anyone that that you know thinks otherwise we we do take that into consideration it's not something we haven't thought about and don't consider it's uh it's something that we think Council has actually done a pretty good job of addressing through the various studies that they've done the tatlock commission tatlock neighborhood
commission that they've uh started last council meeting which I believe is meeting this this Friday I know there's issues that we have to resolve but some of the concerns I think resolved primar primarily around the traffic issues and
some of the descriptions you hear are from only a handful of events that can actually draw this size of a crowd the majority of what this field space is needed for is for practice yes there'll be some games for for youth but the events that would draw this major
traffic that everyone's concerned about is is minimal you're talking a few you know few events a year the majority of time is going to be spent on practice anyone that's coached or been involved in Youth Sports knows you know from an average week for any one of these Sports it's the ratio practice to games is
usually like two or 3 to one so just think about that math at the high school level it's even probably a more extreme ratio so the amount of games where there's going to be outof Town traffic that's drawn in is very minimal um with regards to some of the comments about
the commitment of our signatories um I mean I think the the total number and the duration it took to get it shows that we're committed I mean over 2,000 signatures in in basically just two weeks shows that there's a huge commitment and a huge push for this in this town um it's important to us this
is not a self-interest project is something that we truly believe is important for this town because we all believe that Sports uh and all youth activities are the Cornerstone of of summit so thank you thank you very much
I didn't I didn't speak about what I any other uh member of the public wish to speak going once going twice all right we're going to close public comment uh section of our meeting uh thank you all
for uh for waiting and speaking uh we're now on to our Council comments and new business section anyone from Council have anything they'd like to talk about thank you council president I'd like to speak you you may
speak Council Boer I'll wait a second yeah wait a second till everyone I think this said April 1 all right councilman Boyer why don't you to take us out thank you once again council president uh around March 10th
there was a a Facebook post about an incident that occurred on maybe playground where there were two individuals who were uh intoxicated and uh the Facebook post had mentioned
that one of the individuals had grabbed the child um I had spoke to the person who uh posted this and got a little more information um it wasn't that person's
child the way it played out was this child had saw uh this person allegedly grabbed another child and told the mom and the mom had spoke to the nanny who didn't want to report it to the police because
she was fearful that uh she would lose her job uh so the police when they responded they weren't aware that this individual had did any of that but they did handle uh the situation appropriately
with the intoxicated individual that same day I was driving back I took the day off that same day driving back from in the mountain snowboard and my daughter had called me and middle school left out early they had a half a day and she said dad I was
up town at Lula lemon with a bunch of uh my girlfriends and my daughter's 11 by the way and she said there was a panhandler out there asking for a dollar we refused and he brandished a knife and she said that they had
Ran So upon hearing this when I got home me my wife my daughter we immediately went to the police station actually the first call I made was to the new chief chief Peters and he said councilman Boer go to the police station and report it so that's what I did so we all went down
there and my daughter uh gave a a very great statement she's definitely um a detective's child uh time date area everything who she was with names of all individuals surrounding her uh the only thing she didn't do was tell the police
officers where the cameras were um but needless to say that was a busy day for the police um a day or two later the police arrested this individual uh he is known to the
town and I'd like to say that uh our system not our police but our system has failed us our system is failing us they're failing to keep repat offenders
uh incarcerated in prison so let me tell you something about this individual and you can find this with a via Google search April 19th 2023 this guy was arrested for disorderly conduct he was processed and released October 10th
2023 he was arrested for burglary and theft transported to Union County processed release December 25th 2023 he was arrested for simple assault processed and released October 12th 2024 he was arrested on an
outstanding warrant processed transported and released needless to say this week he was finally arrested and it took a first deegree attempted robbery for him not to
be released after all of these charges our system has felon us it's not our police officers it's our system there was once a time where I lived in a community and it reminds me of being down South we had this phrase called
your mama my mama right so your kid was also my kid and I still feel the same way cuz I want to tell a community what what we should do uh we need to reclaim that Spirit we have to report these
crimes every single time that we see them urinating in public drinking in public drug use inap appropriate behavior whatever it is report it our police officers can handle it they did 50,000 calls last year maybe even more I
maybe downgrading that but they can handle it we have to get these people off the street you know there are some passionate folks in this town um we rally for Ukraine we rally for Palestine uh for Israel for social
justice you know eradicate Elon Musk uh more Doge um but where's the outcry for our safety regardless of whether you're a Democrat Republican liberal whatever it is where is the outcry why are we not rallying in the middle of springf Avenue
telling our governor our legislators that we had enough that this Catch and Release nonsense has to end does it take one of our children being assaulted having someone pull a knife on
them is it going to end when it's your child or mine you know I thought today I said why you know it's amazing that it actually happened to a current councilman right like mean God is like you know saying and hey wake up you know you need to
tell the people about this like what here's the cause well this is the cause if we can mobilize for international and National incidents we can't all mobilize here in
Summit we can't rally here can't we all unite whether we're Republican Democrat or what ever around the safety of our homes and the safety of our children thank you Council
pres thank you Council councilman Boer other comments councilman Smallwood um I don't know why I'm doing this to myself it's always following Jamal um but I actually thought of a few
things you know with uh councilman boer's comments you know when you're an elected official you're you're required to to make decisions for the community and um sometimes they're easy sometimes they're
difficult um sometimes they're beneficial sometimes they're not uh to some people but the mayor and I and director shreer met with a resident earlier today
and they have drainage issues and their backyard is starting every time it rains starting to fill up and then we have a resident here who's been coming and complaining to the
city since 2011 about losing portions of her of the her yard and nothing's and it's 2025 um I understand as Municipal elected officials we sometimes are are limited
to what we can do um but this has been going on since 2011 it we can't keep blaming Union County you know it's Union County it's you know Union County because she's lost half of her
yard I would really hate to see in 12 13 years from now the president that we met with today come to a council meeting and express the exact same thing um we we have to figure out a way
and stop blaming Union County that oh it's part of Union County it's saltbrook it's part of the state or it's we have to we have to come up with a solution and this is one of the hard things that we have to do and work with
the right people to fix half of her yard and to prevent another Resident from losing half of her yard um I I it's it's unbelievable to me that this has been going on for you
since 2011 and and nothing has been done you know I again our time is here limited but whatever we can do as a governing body we need to put full support behind
it right away and stop pushing the buck down the road and you know blaming other people it it the squeaky wheel gets oiled right and unfortunately for you you've
been you've been oiling or you've been is it squeaking squeaking you've been squeaking since 201 right and it's you know it hasn't been oiled yet um and I'm sorry for that so I I think I I would like to challenge
the rest of our time here to help get this fixed as soon as possible contact the people that can really make it happen because the next storm that comes through you know it could be the garage
that's in the back of her house or back of her yard and then what's going to happen is half of her garage or the entire part of her garage is going to be insult Brook and then it just makes it it it exacerbates the problem is that what it's going to take to actually get Union
County to do something I mean I don't understand and I again I'm I'm not I'm not a politician I'm not a lawyer so I don't understand all the laws of why we can't actually help our
residents to me it's it's common sense and I I hope that you know I I would love to work I know dilia you've been working on this for a long time and councilman Boyer um but I I mean I would love to be able
to help in any way I possibly can contact whoever I can to get it moving and so that she's not here next year saying the exact same thing I just lost my garage council president yes councilman boy very
quickly I just want to say um uh the wheels are moving I just didn't want to use oil but the the wheels are moving and um our city solicitor will will look at what we have um and then we'll put it forward it's
been in our committee I mean we are getting it out of our committee just out of our committee almost um and so we are there I think we have all the pieces together we know what we need to do short and long-term Solutions so um yeah I I think uh councilman Smallwood I
think we're we're there so thank you other comments councilen Hamlet uh a couple of comments so on the on the saltbrook I'm pleased to uh mention that we'll be meeting with the uh with commissioner Mirabella
Congressman Caine uh his team as well as Amy Amy Wagner uh from the county this week uh I couldn't be more pleased with the partnership from Union County um and I believe Rick Matas will be as well the County engineer so we've made True progress um we are literally knocking on
every door um even spoke with Congressman Kane's office about it today again um and our conversations today are just how do we get prepared for the meeting because it's a really complex issue right the saltbrook starts all the way up at Memorial Field and I've spent time in those residents homes where the
saltbrook is overflowing in that area so it's a really complex problem so In fairness to other councils it's a bear um but as as the woman set up here tonight we should be putting placing this as as one of the top priorities um as as a council because this is truly why you're
an elected official uh and it's really complex uh we've spoken to lobbyists we've spoken to d uh I think we're finally kind of getting there um but I'm really excited that Union County uh is is meeting with us on the ground this
week um it took a lot of attention we had helicopters we had um and sometimes that's what you have to do and and and Mr giobi what I will say is I challenge you with all of these issues all of these residents who are coming to us with problems you look at the drainage
at the Dell you look at the saltbrook a lot of times the staff's scared to handle all this stuff because we've got we've gone back and forth with the lawyers about drainage and stuff we have to get away from from being afraid and I'm not saying this is this is something we're that you do but we have to
function and allow to allow ourselves to advocate for the residents if they have a drainage problem and it's been going on for years let's just huddle up and try to fix it um there are instances I'm sure where there are lawsuits and we can't but we have to we are here for these residents and and to fix these
problems and and I encourage you in law and Labor uh Bob to to really take some of these issues and and understand if there aren't legal challenges then let's let's get it done right tired of talking about it too much to do um so that that's this week so we'll report uh back
next week uh on the the school aboard estimate we've had some really productive meetings uh I had a meeting today with Scott huff and two members I'm on the school of board es along with councilman Smallwood and the mayor uh so
we we can't we have to avoid a quorum uh so I had a meeting today with uh assistant business administrator Kathy Sarno uh superintendent Scott Huff uh as well as uh two members from the school board which is great um it's supposed to be a collaborative effort the board of school estimate is there to not only uh
you know represent uh or help the school board but it's a collaborative effort so we can represent the taxpayers um because they are requesting one of the largest tax increases in in history and if you look back there's only been two times I believe in the last 10 years
where we've exceeded that 2% cap and we're about to do it real quick so we're looking under the hood aggressively in every operation every Department we've told them to go back to the drawing board um because without without looking at cutting teachers or books uh because
that's not what we want to do our goal is to keep every professional that we can um but we're going to challenge them on operational costs on shared services it's not a fun process but if you would have seen the tax increase that you were about to get you would have been lined up that at that door during budget
season um so these are some really important conversations uh the school board meeting is this Thursday and the school board estimate meeting is on March 27th so we're looking at all sorts of things um even Pro even passed Audits and projected forecasts for electricity
um we're having some some really good conversations and I think today's meeting was was really productive and we came away uh really excited um sort of came in the beginning we were kind of button heads but I think it's actually proved to be a fun process and we're all uh learning a lot and uh I think it's going to be a good product I think we're
actually going to come up with some good ideas to save the taxpayer money um so and I thank all of you for being here I know this is a long meeting and I'm just tired of talking so thank you for your engagement uh and your participation thank you other
comments councilman palowski this is like um the best Council comment period I've ever seen you guys are awesome tonight I'm proud to sit up here with you um so a few
things I'm crying out for Public Safety um here's my outcry more police more foot patrols enforcement cre ative ordinances like the resident protection ordinance um let's go I mean you know we
got to do everything that we can especially when you know at the state level I think things are maybe getting a little bit better but they're not helping us so we have to help ourselves um there was a a a a former council
person who um who once commented uh his great respect for the slow and deliberate pace of municipal government I cannot abide that um I mean you know maybe maybe there's little we
can do about the pace but we we don't have to accept it let alone celebrate it um we got to keep moving with everything um you let me know when you hit a legal roadblock and uh we at law and labor will work to clear the path if it's it's
at all possible and if it's not then um we'll have to just find another route um who saw Greece this week last week awesome support the Arts everybody and I want to thank um Hal Dylan who I know
encouraged uh a lot of the players uh from the Lacrosse Club to go out and support their uh their classmates and and help them get a full house um I'm planning this will be next year I guess cuz pretty much everything's done uh to
work with all of the there there's some overlap between Youth Sports in the Arts but not enough and I think that um a lot of the a lot of the athletes that don't participate in it don't also go to see it and
support it and so um I'm I'm planning to reach out to uh the presidents of the various youth clubs to encourage their players to go do it because you know th those uh buting thespians and musicians um and
dancers they deserve it they work as hard as anybody else and uh it's a lot of fun so that's all I have thank you other comments from Council uh just real quick council president please councilman Boer so I
just want to make this the three is the charm and this is this is the last one because I just want to make sure that um Adriana knows this dilia councilwoman Hamlet and I make a great team because on on this on the saltbrook issue and
this is like the first time I'm not at a 20,000 foot level and councilwoman Hamlet is at a 20 foot th000 level and and she's like we gota we got to jump on this whole thing and I appreciate that
and she's been working hard to get all of you know the state the federal and um the county involved but what is in our committee right now is
fixing that property so that the county can come in and fix their drain like shortterm I'm only here for another year type goal right and I want to see it happen so I just want to let you know that this is not I don't mean to say
that but this is not like a bureaucracy thing like oh we're going to have all these people come or whatever in our committee right now is like we need to do this before the house falls in the saltbrook right so I just want to let you know that that is in the committee
and and and Bob and our city solicitor that is the legal thing that we want you to look at so that we can get it out of our committee and get it here to vote on it because the money's already on the budget and everything is already we just need to make sure the legal stuff is
just pushing through thank you any other comments I'm going to wrap it up just real quick um so just a comment on safety um I'm you know we started the the meeting focused on a new police
chief and as I mentioned I'm excited uh Chief Peter's has Amazing Ideas around how to engage engage the community and keep and keep our community safe um we are a safe Community the police do an
amazing job however there is also occasional crime in our community and we have to take it very very seriously one home burglary is one too many one uh citizen feeling threatened is one too
many and I think what sets this Council apart is not to say well there's it's New Jersey it's the state there H there's nothing we can do about it that I completely categorically reject that
that Viewpoint there is things we can do and I applaud this Council for always looking to add uh boots on the ground um to look at legal remedies um in order to strengthen our ordinances um to uh you
know go after people who do bad things in our town uh We've invested in technology that leverage the fine people in the summit Police Department to do a better job there is no Silver Bullet we sadly human nature is We're
Not Angels um however I I you you'll continue to see this Council stay laser focused on making people safe it's the number one thing that government should do for
its people and we're not going to rest until we you know people feel safer um and like I said um there is no Silver Bullet for this but we're not going to just throw up our hands and say there's nothing we can do so I I really appreciate um the attitude that my
fellow Council people have and I respect our professionals who are out there every day doing this and we're going to keep doing it so thank you all right uh do I have a motion to adjourn i' like to make a I'd like to make a motion to adjourn all right uh
all in favor we are adjourned thank you people