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Good evening everyone. I'm excited. We're all excited to see so many people here today. We've got a lot of really happy things going on and after a tough few days, I think we could all use that. Um, so Matt, let's kick us off. Um,

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madame clerk, would you please read the adequate notice of compliance statement? Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the council annual meeting notice dated December 17th, 2025, which was properly distributed and

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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.

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>> Thank you. Um would madame clerk would you please read the roll call? >> Mr. Boyer >> present. >> Mr. Chris Foley >> here. >> Miss Cmonson >> here. >> Miss Landman >> here. >> Mrs. Saroscina >> here. President Toth >> here. Um I had asked Chief Evers uh you

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are here. There's to lead us all in the pledge of allegiance. And I think you brought your your own honor guard. arms >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

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stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Okay. Madame clerk, would you please read the notices regarding the closed session and hearings and comments? A

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close session meeting as authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda. Please be advised that council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 34 and 36 and Verizon channel 30

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and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on HTTV on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33. When invited to speak, please come to the lectern. Clearly state your name and address, spell your last name, and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be

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understood by all and properly recorded. Whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement, please give or email to the a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk@ cityofsummit.org. To help facilitate an orderly meeting and permit all to be heard, please limit

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your comments to no more than three minutes. Unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or need it for professional emergency contact purposes, please turn it off. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'm going to expand a bit on the city clerk's note about hearings and

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comments. Um this will facilitate a smoother process particularly for those watching remotely. If you're seated in the first two rows um please remain silent. Anything you say can be picked up by the recording microphones and it makes it difficult to hear the official

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proceedings. The threeminut limit on public comments corresponds to a bit less than a single printed page. So, if you're leaving your written remarks, please put your name on them and place them in the box near the lect turn when you're done. Um,

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and we are going to rearrange our agenda just a little because I know people are really waiting for our swearings in. Um, let's not keep you waiting. And let's begin with our brand new council member, Andrew Smith. Um, I think it's over to

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you then, madame mayor. Only problem is just missing a piece of paper. It's okay. >> We're going to wing this. Thank you. >> We've never We've never winged it before. Sure.

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I, Andrew Smith, >> I, Andrew Smith, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith and

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allegiance >> and that I will bear true faith and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the governments established >> in the United States >> in the United States >> and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people. >> I do solemnly swear

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>> I do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully >> that I will faithfully >> impartially >> impartially >> and justly perform >> and justly perform >> all the duties of council member Ward one >> all the duties of council member Ward one >> according to the best of my ability

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>> according to the best of my ability. >> So help me God. >> So help me God. >> Congratulations. Okay. And C council member Smith, please join us in the DAS. Thank you. Um and now we're going to move on to our fire

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department um swearings in. We're gonna keep our mayor busy here, beginning with our brand new fire chief who's had an extraordinarily easy few days of it. Um our our I was going to say um yes, Chief

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Haroi, please join us. >> First, I'm going to read your bio so we can learn a little bit about our new chief. >> Fire Chief Brian Haro has served the Summit Fire Department for over 22 years. Ryan began in Summit in October

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2004 as a volunteer firefighter assigned to the Union Hose Company. He started his career here as a part-time dispatcher, moving to the role of firefighter in July of 2007. He has been passionate about firefighting and serving others throughout his life, and he has spent his career training in

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various aspects of leadership and safety. Brian worked his way through the ranks and was promoted to battalion chief in February of 2024. He holds a bachelor's degree from Satan Hall University. In addition, he is a fire instructor, drill ground instructor,

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fire inspector, and fire investigator, and a certified EMT. Brian served as the department's training officer for the last 5 years, revamping the department's program to include more hands-on training. Brian completed the command and control series and the new fire chief program at the National Fire

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Academy. He is currently working towards his executive fire officer designation with an expected graduation date in the spring of 2027. He brings a focus on cancer risk reduction, mental health initiatives for first responders, and community risk reduction. He has served as a volunteer for the National Fallen

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Firefighters Foundation's Memorial Weekend at the National Fire Academy for the past 18 years. Not even old enough to have been there for 18 years. Brian received two chiefs chiefs awards for life-saving efforts in 2010 and 2022. Brian lives in Chadam with his wife

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Megan and his daughter Becca and his son Colin. Please congratulate Brian on his trial by fire promotion to fire chief. So repeat after me. I, Brian Harris, >> I, Brian Harox, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of

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the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith >> and I will bear true faith >> and allegiance >> and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the governments established >> in the United States >> in the United States

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>> and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people. I do solemnly swear >> I do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully >> that I will faithfully >> impartially >> impartially >> and justly perform >> and justly perform >> all the duties >> all the duties >> of fire chief >> of fire chief >> according to the best of my ability

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>> according to the best of my ability. >> So help me God. >> So help me God. Okay. >> Yeah. >> And we should be all be grateful that after the last few days, Chief Haro agreed to be sworn in. >> Next, we have

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>> He did call me and say he wasn't coming tonight. >> Next, we have a brand new battalion commander, um, Matthew Lemons. Will you please join us with your family? Hello. How are you? >> Great.

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>> Hi guys. I love your dress. All right. So, Matthew Lemons started with the Summit Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter and chemical engine company number one in February of 2013. was hired as a career firefighter in May of 2015 and was promoted to

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lieutenant in September 2023. Matt graduated from New Jersey City Union University. Why was that hard? With a ba with a bachelor's in fire science in 2022 in February of 2026. Matt was accepted into the National Fire Academyy's executive fire officer

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program. Matt has 16 years of experience in emergency services at the local, county, and state levels, including 11 years of full-time professional firefighting with the Summit Fire Department. Matt was recently appointed as the city's fire official. In addition to serving sum in summit, Matt has

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served as the chief of the Cadam Township Volunteer Fire Department, a level two fire instructor at the Union County Fire Academy, an active shooter incident management instructor for the New Jersey State Police and New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, is a lieutenant with the Union County Fire Investigation Task

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Force, and since 2019, he has participated in the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Memorial Weekend with Team Summit. Matt holds three professional credentials from the Center of Public Safety Excellence, including fire officer, fire marshal, and chief training officer. Matt holds

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certifications in the following areas: fire officer 2, incident management level three, EMT, fire instructor, level two, fire official, fire investigator, hold, please. >> Division of fire safety rapid

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intervention instructor, ice rescue technician, swift water operations. Matt resides in Berkeley Heights with his wife of seven years, Jacqueline, and their two children, Matthew and Kinley. Please congratulate Matt on his promotion to batt. I, Matthew Lemons,

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>> I, Matthew Lemons, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith >> and that I will bear true faith >> and allegiance

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>> and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the governments established >> in the United States >> in the United States >> and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people >> I do solemnly swear >> I do solemnly I swear >> that I will faithfully >> that I will faithfully

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>> impartially >> impartially >> and justly >> and justly >> perform all the duties >> perform all the duties >> of battalion chief >> of battalion chief >> according to the best of my ability. >> according to the best of my ability. >> CONGRATULATIONS. Pretty exciting.

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So excited for you. >> Congratulations. >> Okay. >> Okay. Then moving right along, we also have a new lieutenant in our fire department. Um, yeah. No. And and this would be James

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Hints. All right. James Hints began his fire service journey at the age of 16 when he joined the Berkeley Heights Fire Department where he continues to serve as a volunteer today. Driven by his passion for the fire service, James earned a bachelor of science in fire science with a concentration in fire

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administration from the University of New Haven. He furthered his professional education by obtaining certifications including firefighter 2, fire official, fire officer 2, incident management level three, hazardous material materials technician, and swiftwater

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rescue technician. In July 2019, James expanded his commitment to serving others by joining the Summit Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter and was later appointed to the career division in January 2022. Today, James resides in Berkeley Heights with his wife Amelia. Please join us in

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congratulating Lieutenant James H on his achievement. >> Repeat after me. >> Right hand right? >> Yeah. I, Jimmy Hint, >> I, Jimmy Hint, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States

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>> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith >> and that I will bear true faith >> and allegiance >> and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the governments established >> in the United States >> in the United States >> and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people

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>> under the authority of the people. I do solemnly swear >> I do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully >> that I will faithfully >> impartially >> impartially >> and justly >> and justly >> perform all the duties >> perform all the duties >> a fire lieutenant >> a fire lieutenant >> according to the best of my ability >> according to the best of my ability >> so help me guide

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>> so help me GOD CONGRATULATIONS. >> CONGRATULATIONS. OKAY. >> And finally, this also means we get to appoint a brand new probationary firefighter, Christopher Jackson, the whole family. All right. So,

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Christopher Jackson grew up in Brick, New Jersey, where he lived until moving to Berkeley Heights and attended college in 2021. He graduated from New Jersey City University in May 2025 with two bachelor degrees, a Bachelor of Science in Fire Science and a Bachelor of

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Science in National Security Studies. During his time at the university, he earned Dean Deans list honors while continuing to build upon his years of public safety experience. Chris began his fire service journey with the Point Pleasant Burough Fire Department as a junior firefighter in 2018. In 2021, at

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just 18 years old, he completed the fire academy and earned his firefighter one and two certifications, officially launching his firefighting career. During his time with station 75, he served as an engineer and was appointed assistant water rescue captain. He also volunteered with the Point Pleasant

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Burough First Aid Squad as an emergency medical responder, responding to 911 medical emergencies and assisting with patient care and transport. In 2025, Chris joined Summit volunteer ranks in Chemical Engine Company 1. In addition to his fire service, Chris previously

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served as a class one special police officer with Tom's River Township Police Department and has worked in both the construction and carpentry trades, developing a strong work ethic and hands-on problem solving skills. Chris has earned numerous advanced fire service certifications, including

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hazardous materials operations, incident command system certifications, surface water rescue operations, fast awareness and operations, advanced fire behavior, and basic vehicle extraction. He's grateful for the opportunity to join the Summit Fire Department and looks forward

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to building a long and rewarding career serving the residents and visitors of the city of Summit. Let's congratulate Chris on becoming a career firefighter. Yes. Repeat after me. I, Christopher Jackson, >> I, Christopher Jackson, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of

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the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith >> and that I will bear true faith >> and allegiance >> and allegiance >> to the same >> to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the governments established >> in the United States >> in the United States

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>> and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people. I do solemnly swear >> I do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully >> that I will faithfully >> impartially >> impartially >> and justly >> and justly >> perform all the duties >> perform all the duties >> of probationary firefighter >> a probationary firefighter

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>> according to the best of my ability >> according to the best of my ability. >> So help me God. >> So help me God. Congratulations, please. >> Okay. >> Yes. You went. Yes. >> Okay. Absolutely.

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>> Okay. >> Okay. Um, I know the the vast majority of you here are anxious to to repair to the Elks and and celebrate. We do have a couple of more things you

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you should hang out for for just a moment first. Um, because we've just sworn everybody in, we should memorialize this with the resolution. Um, and I get to turn the floor over to our brand new council member Smith.

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inospicious start. >> All right. Thank you, Council President. This resolution ID 12629 to appoint a new fire chief, battalion chief, lieutenant, and probationary uh firefighter per close session. I move to adopt this resolution.

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>> Second. Um, are there any comments from members of the public? Any comments from members of council? Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? You're all appointed.

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Um, second, Chief Haron had asked for a couple of moments. through council president. I just want to take this opportunity to thank the mayor and members of council for their continued support of the fire department. I'm deeply honored and humbled to accept the role of fire chief for the city of Summit. It's a two a

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true privilege to lead such a dedicated group of professionals who serve this community so selflessly. My commitment is to work tirelessly to protect our community, support our firefighters, ensure our department continues to provide the highest levels of service. I would also like to express my gratitude

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to Chief Evers and Deputy Chief In Bimbo for their support and their leadership. As Chief Evers retires, I look forward to building on his legacy and as we continue to serve our residents with pride, professionalism, and integrity. Thank you again. I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you. >> Thank you.

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>> Thank you, Chief. you've already demonstrated the working tirelessly part. Um and finally, um our assembly member Andrew McCertie is here this evening and he's got a few words to say about our retiring chief Evers. Andrew,

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>> thank you, Councie. >> Um excuse me. Would if you speak into the microphone, it'll get then um yeah, you can just grab that then everyone at home can hear. You'll need to flick it on. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Andrew

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McCertie from the state assembly. Just wanted to uh present Chief Evers with a resolution from the New Jersey State Legislature commemorating your 38 years of dedicated service um in this role uh to the fire department and commemorating

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your unwavering commitment to keeping the people of Summit safe for all those years. Thank you for all your service and congratulations. Thank you, Mayor Council. Appreciate it. Just want to take the opportunity to thank all the previous council members and mayors uh for all the great work for the fire department. they always

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supported me but also the support of the men and women of summit fire departments. Appreciate it. Keep supporting these men and women. They out there every day 24/7 doing their jobs for the city of the summit. So appreciate your support. Thank you. And it's been an honor being your chief for all these years. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay,

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thank you so much. Yes. Um, we welcome everyone to stay for the entire meeting. We know you'll want to hear about our audit of from n from last year. Um, but I suspect you may have other items planned for this evening.

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So, thank you all for attending. Thanks. >> After we're done. You know what? Thank you. Thank you. I'll see you back. Yes. Okay. I love how

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Okay. >> Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Once Marina gets back. Okay. >> Okay. Um shall we return to the official order of business? Um

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so we're going to move on to the minutes for approval. Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes of the regular and closed sessions for June 3rd and June 16th, 2026? >> So moved. Second. >> All in favor? >> I

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>> opposed. Abstensions. >> Abstained. >> Thank you. Um on to reports. Um Madame Mayor, >> feel like a microphone hog tonight. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. Um, first I want to just I know

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Chief Evers has left the room, but I wanted to say thank you to him for his service and I know that he's so humble. I know he didn't want tonight to be about him, but I'm very very grateful to Assemblyman Mccertie for um for recognizing his his 38 years of service.

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So, we're very lucky in this town to have such wonderful um first responders. Uh and we have a fabulous police department. I know that um Chief Horno's big shoes to fill, but um we he Chief Evers left us in in a good spot. So um

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so on with the important things. I know everybody wants to talk more about the storm. Um so want to thank everyone for your continued patience as we continue storm restoration efforts. I know it's been really difficult for residents. I know there are people that are still without power and I have been in contact

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with JCPNL multiple times a day for the past four days. Um I actually missed a call tonight. They did a mayor's call each night. Um unfortunately was not able to be there because I was in close session. Um but the our our rep um very kindly

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said that if there was anything relevant to summit, he would certainly give me a call later. So um I haven't heard from him. So, I'm hoping that uh things are business as usual and they're working around the clock. Um there are crews from Michigan, from Wisconsin. Uh they've brought in crews from all over

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the place to um to have restoration efforts. Um we have been sharing daily updates since la since Friday. Um we did post one this afternoon. Again, most of the large um outages in town have been restored. The remaining outages are very

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labor intensive unfortunately and will require some time for repairs. Um the ones that are on the smaller side if people uh if you look at the Jersey uh the JCPNL website for outages if you're showing if your address is showing that you're less than 20 um less than 20

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customers are impacted you're likely not to be restored until end of day Thursday. That's sort of the outside. Um any outages affecting 20 or more customers should be restored by tomorrow, end of day. Um so just hang tight. That that's what they're

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promising. Hopefully they'll uh underpromise and overd deliver. Um and we know this has been a long and pro difficult process for everyone. Um and we're hopeful that JCPNL can really finish up and get out of get it get out of town. And then I've actually asked

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also for kind of a posttorm debrief if there are places in town where we know that there were current issues with storms. I've been asked by some residents that you know they are people that always are the last people to be restored in a storm. They always lose power. Um so I've sort of highlighted a couple of those areas. Um if there's

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anybody that knows that they are in that area or in one of those areas in town, please let me know because I will share that with JCPNL so maybe they can um look forward and and address the infrastructure there. Um, lastly on JCPNL and storms, um, you can text stat

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sat to 544487 to receive restoration updates from JCPNL if you haven't already. And again, their website um has outage update information as well. Uh, the community center will be open as a charging center through Thursday uh, 79, which is uh,

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July 9th from 3:30 to 9:30 each day. Fun stuff. I invite you to join us on the village green this summer for our hot summer nights concert series which is on Mondays this year which is a change from tradition. Um so don't show up on Tuesdays. It now is on Mondays and Screen on the Green stays on Thursdays.

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So um movies on the on the green on Thursdays. Weather permitting. We will host our second movie on the green Thursday July 9th along with food trucks and a family dance party that starts at 7:15 with the movie shown at dark. All of these events are free and open to the public and please bring a chair or a

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blanket um and check our website for full schedule and of events this summer. And last, next Monday is community night on the village green which begins at 6:30. This annual event is an opportunity for summit nonprofits to promote their work to the community and a great chance for residents to find out

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more about local organizations. Nonprofits should contact the department of community programs to sign up as a participating or organization. and at seven we will have our hot summer nights concert. I hope to see you there. That's all. >> Okay. Thank you. Um city administrator Baldwin.

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>> Thank you, Council President. I'm going to begin quickly with a few reports. Um very brief, but I wanted everybody to uh know what was going on in terms of the storm uh with DPW, fire department, and police department. So from DPW at

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approximately 900 p.m. on Friday night, July 3rd, Department of Public Works crews were called out in response to the storm related incidents involving multiple trees down in the roadway throughout the city. At the time of the initial response, seven city trees were reported down and obstructing roadways.

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DPW crews were dispatched to address these immediate hazards. DPW continues to respond to and address additional storm related work today um as they are received. At approximately 10 p.m. that same evening, an additional DPW crew was called in to respond to power outages

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affecting traffic signals at various intersections. They remain engaged in posttorm cleanup efforts and continue to monitor and respond to incoming service requests related to that event. The fire department answered 157 calls for service since the beginning of the

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storm on Friday night. Notable incidents were the seven tree were seven trees on structures, one of which was deemed unsafe by the construction official. FD members handled a structure fire in town and provided mutual aid to a neighboring community for a structure fire. FD

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personnel handled several CO incidents due to generators being too close to the residents. Uh lastly from our police department, immediately following the storm, members of the police department responded throughout the city to assess damage and secure areas impacted by down trees,

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utility poles, and electrical wires. Officers worked quickly to identify hazardous conditions, deploy barricades, establish road closures, and detours, and ensure the safety of residents and motorists. Throughout the response, the police department maintained constant coordination with dispatch, the Summit

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Fire Department, and the Department of Community Programs, public works to prioritize areas of concern and ensure that all reported hazards were communicated to the appropriate utility providers. Additionally, police administration coordinated with the city's communications specialists to

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ensure updated information on road closures and access to resources was disseminated accordingly to the public. The police department handled 355 calls for service from Friday 8:00 p.m. to Monday 9:00 a.m. Uh, approximately 120 of those were directly related to the

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storm. I shared all of that because I wanted to preface my comments about the storm and that was that I wanted to thank our police, fire, and DPW for their efforts during our ongoing storm restoration process. I know it's been difficult for everyone. Uh, but all

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three of these departments have been working tirelessly to clear the roads, to maintain safety for residents, and it really has been a group effort. We were on several calls over the weekends, and I just want to thank everyone for their continued professionalism and their dedication to our community

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there. So, with that, there are still several downed wires and fallen trees that are causing road closures throughout the city. I'm sure you run into them here and there. Please use caution while traveling so that you're all safe. We do have that information posted on the city

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website and our social media pages. So, stay in touch with that. And as Mayor Fagan stated, we do thank you for your continued patience throughout this lengthy and difficult process. We're hoping that the last remaining power outages are restored quickly. Uh on a little happier note, the Summit Free

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Market uh July events will be held on Saturday, July 11th from 8 to 3 and Friday, July 24th from 12 to 2 at the transfer station. Summit residents with a parking disposal permit can attend, browse donated items, and take what they want for free. Please review the

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donation guidelines on our website at cityofsummit.orgfreearket before bringing any items to donate. And that concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um I'm I'm going to keep this brief because we do have a lot this evening. And of course I want to

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add my thanks to our first responders and the DPW. I keep saying the DPW crews are the unsung heroes in summit. Um because there were everybody's work was nothing short of heroic. Um, and I also want want to give a shout out to Council

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Member Calmanson who seemed to be everywhere over the weekend taking photos and sending updates. Added to the city's adding to the city's official communications. She was the one saying you cannot communicate too much even if there's nothing new to add. Um, so I

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hope everybody appreciated that effort. Um, and finally, I'm going my Monday office hours this month will be um every Monday for the rest of the month, 3 to 5:00 p.m. in in the council conference room just outside of chambers. Um, and

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with that, let us go back to our presentations. Council member Lucer Cena. >> Thank you, Council President. Oh, sorry. Uh, so it is my great pleasure to get to make some brief remarks about an amazing group of young people we have here in

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town, Teens Tackle Homelessness. So I'm going to brag on you all for a little bit and then I'll ask you to come up to take a photo with Mayor Fagan and our council president. So Teens Tackle Homelessness is a youthled organization. and they're a volunteer group that

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operates under bridges here in town dedicated to supporting individuals who are experiencing homelessness. You all are the best of us. You are values in action. You work with creativity and tenacity and an

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unwavering commitment to helping those in need with dignity and respect. In just one academic year, this amazing group of young people raised over $30,000 and packed

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uh and packed over 9,800 lunches while you all are going to school and have other commitments. And I don't know how you find the time, but it's really it's a remarkable achievement what you have already contributed to our community and those

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in need. Um even uh just in in your few short years here with us. Uh it's fitting that you all are here, I think, in our first meeting after our 250th celebration of America's founding. Um every morning my favorite founding father, Benjamin Franklin, asked, "What

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good shall I do this day?" And at the end of each day, he asked, "What good have I done today?" And I think you all are carrying on that tradition of service to the community. Your work with teens tackle homelessness is is the good that you are doing for the benefit of

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all of us. And we are so grateful that that you are doing that work. Uh America continues to be an experiment, right? And to borrow from the American classic film Mighty Ducks 2, uh America is kind of a teenager, right? Like you all. And

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I have a lot of hope um as you all are coming up in your servant leadership for the chapters that are to come because I know that our future is entrusted to amazing young people like you. Uh so we have I believe Teddy, Abby, Jack, Jenna,

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Lauren, Sydney, and Leila. And I should also say if you'd like to learn more about this remarkable group of young people supporting individuals who are experiencing homelessness, um check out their website which they have created and which they also maintain. Uh if you Google search or your search engine of

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choice, uh teens hack tackle homelessness summit bridges. Um it will take you to their their wonderfully informative website. Um so with that uh I would love to have you all come up with Rich Unak. Thank you for being here, the the director of bridges and we'd love to have you all take a photo

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with Mayor Fagan and council president >> Toth. Great. Thank you. Okay, thank you all. Let's keep the good feelings going with our historic minute. Council member Landman. >> Uh, thank you, Council President. Tonight, in honor of our country's

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250th, we invited Henry Bassman and Jim Bennett to speak. They are representatives of the American Legion Lindsay Street Post 322, which supports and honors members of the Summit community who served in America's conflicts and those who are now serving. Unfortunately, Henry is absent tonight

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due to a health issue, but we are proceeding at his request. So, I'll invite Jim Bennett up to the podium. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Landman. And good evening, Mayor Fagan, Council President Toth, members of council

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staff, and uh fellow summit residents. Thank you for this invitation to speak. uh former Henry uh count commander Henry Bassman and I represent the American Legion and note that America's 250th birthday three days ago. Uh

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America was born out of conflict and the Lindsay Street Post 322 honors members of the Summit community who served in America's conflicts as well as those who are now serving. Henry unfortunately is under the weather and I

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that's a shame because I wish he could co-present with me because he'd be terrific. He's forgotten more about the Legion than I'll ever know. Um let's start with the Revolutionary War uh first con America's first conflict. Even

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though there was no summit then the war was already underway when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The area that is now Summit was strategically vital. George Washington's headquarters lay protected in Marstown

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behind the Wong Mountains. The Hobart Gap Pass, which is now Route 24, was the main conduit between Elizabeth Town and Marstown and had to be protected. Towards the war's end, British General

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Clinton heard that a French fleet was bringing 8,000 men to reinforce the Americans. Clinton wanted to destroy Washington before that happened, but he was down south in Charleston. So, he dispatched his Hessen General Kiphousen

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to finish off Washington. Fortunately, Washington had constructed 23 signal stations to alert him to oncoming British forces, including number 10 at our Turkey Hill. And uh thank you very

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much and Rosemary for putting this together. Um we're come uh the station had a clear view of New York Harbor and it boasted what most likely was a log pyramid beacon, which I think is the previous slide. want to try going there.

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There we go. Um, and uh, it smoked by day and it blazed by night. And the, uh, signal station also had, and, if we go to the next slide, a carriageless cannon hauled from Princeton, affectionately known as Old S

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because it wallowed in the soil like a mother pig. Now, if we go to the next slide, on Hobart Avenue near the intersection of Beacon Road, there's a plaque commemorating the site where the Beacon and the Cannon likely once stood.

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The Beacon and the Cannon worked twice. General Kniphausen and 6,000 men made their first move on Washington on June 6th, 1780. The entire countryside responded to the alarm gun and beacon signal at uh signal

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station 10 and the militia kept adding to the ranks of the Americans. Under the cover of driving storm, canen finally withdrew to Staten Island. General Clinton returned and the British tried again 17 days later. Once again,

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the Beacon fires and the old SA did their job and the British finally retreated after after the Battle of Springfield, which was probably the largest battle of the Revolutionary War. The attack marked the last of the

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British attempts to invade New Jersey. But if we go to the next slide, we'll see that Summit's role in the Revolutionary War wasn't finished. The following summer, George Washington convinced British General Clinton that

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Washington was still in New York when in fact Washington was marching south to join General Roshan Bull to defeat General Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia. Roshan Buu had large brick bake ovens

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constructed where our municipal golf course now stands, simulating a permanent encampment. The ovens baked 3,000 loaves of bread a day. Now, although Hambo was French, baguette and quason had not yet been

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invented and did not come out of the oven. But more importantly, the deception worked. Sorry about the hat. This is when you try to put a normal hat on a Bennett head and just ask my daughter-in-law about what I passed on to her my grandchildren.

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So going back to the matter at hand, Clinton held back many of his forces in New York and Washington won the Revolutionary War in Yorktown. Since the Revolutionary War, Summit has had a tradition of supporting service to

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our country. And if we go to the next slide, when the Civil War ended, there was still no Summit, but there were plenty of veterans by the time Summit separated from New Providence in 1869. and became a township.

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Many of those veterans were still there when Summit became an incorporated city in 1899. And we count 59 from an 1890 document and five from a family named Swain. And you'll see that document at the Summit

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Historical Society. Now, if we go to the next slide, you'll see that Summit had two Medal of Honor recipients for the same act of bravery in the same unit in World War I. Corporal Thomas O'Shea and Sergeant

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Allen Edgars. And the fact that it was uh the same act of bravery in the same unit made this unique for World War I and probably many others. We have an O'Shea Lane and an Edgar's Court and Summit. And we have O'Shea's Medal of

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Honor and three other medals at the Summit Historical Society. And you'll see those on the slide. Now, if we go to the next slide, you'll see pictured in front of the Summit Train Station the 107th Machine Gun Company known as the

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Summit Gunners. This was Corporal O'Shea's and Sergeant Edgar's unit. Now, for years, there had only been a World War I memorial on the Summit Village Green, where Summit lost 15 of its people. But in the next slide, we'll see

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that in 2022, um, the American Legion and the Elks dedicated a renovation to include a memorial to World War II, where Summit lost 72 of its people, Korea, where Summit lost 16, and Viet six, excuse me,

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in Vietnam, where Summit lost 13. And they also dedicated a memorial to the war on terror. Now, to wrap it up, I want to make several pitches. Uh for the American Legion, we have challenge coins to send to those serving on active duty.

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And if you know someone, please reach out to our post commander, Mitchell Horn. That's mhorn80@gmail.com. If you're a veteran and would like to join us, we meet monthly at the Elks Club at 700 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month. And we have a monthly

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breakfast at the Broadway Diner at 9:30 a.m. on the third Monday of each month. We've put up a 325 hometown hero banners throughout the town last count. So, let Mitchell know if you have someone you would like to add. And finally, if you

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have someone in an ROC program, we want to hear from you, too. Contact Mitchell again, mhorn@gmail.com. So, thank you all again for the opportunity to address council and the summit community. Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Can't hear

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enough of some of those stories, can we? Um, now now to the meat of our meeting. Um, beginning with ordinances for hearing. Um, madame clerk, would you please read ordinance for hearing number 26-3391?

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>> Repeal and replace chapter 5, filming controls and amend chapter A, schedule of fees, appendix section A-27, filming permits, and section A-28, filming parking fees of the general code

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of the city of Summit, County of Union, New Jersey. >> Thank you, Madame Clerk. Council member Buer. >> Thank you, Council President. Uh once again, I'd like to uh defer to my colleague uh Councilman Christopha Foley, who uh did a wonderful job on this ordinance that we have for hearing.

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>> Very generous of you, Council Member Griffully. >> Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Councilman Ber. Uh, ordinance 26-3391 would modify Summit's existing ordinance governing governing film and video productions as part of a partnership

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with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to make Summit film ready. New Jerseys film industry is the fastest growing in the US as our state's history and natural beauty along with a dose of tax incentives is attracting more productions here. One problem has been

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that New Jersey's 564 municipalities each had its own rules for filming, requiring long and costly negotiations with each town for production. The proposed ordinance, the proposed ordinance is a model recommended by New Jersey EDA to make the rules and process

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more uniform. 65 municipalities are already film ready and Summit will hopefully join their ranks. The ordinance includes provisions for summit to turn down or take a break from productions if the bur burden becomes too great. I move to open the hearing.

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>> Second. >> Thank you. Do we have any comments on this ordinance from members of the public? >> Hello everybody. Welcome Andy. >> Thank you. >> Um Dory Gagnon 27 Bedford. Um, I have a couple questions on this just in regards

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to traffic downtown. Um, I know you guys wanted to close Maple Street and those four corners of Maple Street are under construction. Um, which was out of the blue for me since that wasn't brought up during Maple Street. But disregarding that, um,

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how is this going to be handled if we shut down the middle of downtown because that's probably where filming is going to occur. And if it's during the school year, people getting across town to go to middle school, to elementary schools, to the train station. I think the public people have asked me um specifically,

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you know, if this ordinance gets passed, how is this going to h how like affect the traffic in the incoming apartments that are going down in towards the Washington school area? Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um before as as we typically do, we get all the

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comments before addressing any of the questions. So, are there any other comments from members of the public? No. Um, how about com comments from members of council? >> Council president. >> Yes, council member Ber. Uh although I

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can't um answer the question about traffic uh at this moment, but this ordinance uh really codifies um the the police department uh the fire department gets pretty much

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everyone together. So I'm sure that the police will do a good job with traffic, but uh I will get more information about that. Uh but uh what I would like to say is that this ordinance was common sense

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>> with a camera. Um we open our doors with a little movie magic and the studios pay their own way and cover their own risk and Summit pockets the difference. That's a good deal for the folks who actually live here and I hope to one day

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meet Jason Baitman. And if you actually uh Dan, if if Dan if you're getting like heads up on stuff like let me know. So um I support this ordinance and once again Miss Gagnon I'll get back to you about traffic. >> Okay. >> Council member Chrisouli.

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>> Thank you council president. Just to address concerns, I think the toughest customer to build the case for this ordinance was our city clerk, Rosie, who bears the burden of the the entire process, including the safety, the

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police, the fire, the insurance provisions, and um between Rosie and our city administrator, Miss Baldwin's diligence in researching and speaking with other towns that have undertaken in uh this ordinance have put in place the

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the same provisions. Uh they seem to have had a positive experience and that the impacts are manageable and we do have the ability to turn down a production. >> Any other comments? >> Just >> yes.

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>> One one more quick thing. And uh the police actually um can control what's going on and it doesn't come out of the city's budget. the applicant has to pay for it. So, if there's a traffic issue, then uh Chief Peters can order a couple

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of people that needs to maintain traffic and the taxpayers don't have to pay for it. The applicant has to Netflix got to pay for it. So, um your fees may go up, but you know, it's all good. Thank you, >> Council Member Lazerena.

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>> I just quickly want to express gratitude to Council Member Chrisully. um he has spearheaded this effort and in my view it's a great as the second on the finance committee um just to put it in cold hard terms I feel like this is an important uh building block in helping to protect the economic vitality of our

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community and we can as a side benefit uh you know show uh everyone what we know to be true that summit is a really special place and and uh kind of put that on display. So I'm I'm very excited to see this go forward. >> Anything else? Ah, mayor, madame mayor,

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>> not not super additive, but um this was uh mentioned they had a whole um panel about this at the league last November, and I was very intrigued. So, I was really excited when um Councilman Chrisy came and sort of pioneered this. I know

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Rosie was hesitant. I know Tammy was hesitant. I was a little hesitant because I've seen what Rosie went through in the last year about um trying to get some of the film crews situated to to do some quick films. Um, so I know that there were some hurdles, but so I'm

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appreciative to our city staff for doing the diligence to um to make this happen. >> Yeah. Thank you. And I can only add, I know in the past year we've had filming at Fiorino and at uh the train station, it seems not to have shut down the city

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in either case. My understanding is that much of the filming is exterior of private homes. And if you think you have the next home alone house, um this is your chance to shine. Um with that, I'm

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going to close this hearing. Um and we can move on to ordinances for final consideration. So, Madame Clerk, would you please read the title of ordinance number 26-3391? >> Repeal and replace chapter 5, filming controls and amend chapter A, schedule

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of fees, appendix, section A-27, filming permits, and section A-28, film filming parking fees of the general code of the city of Summit County, New Jersey. >> Um, thank you. Um,

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maybe be sorry, council member Ber. >> I know I confused you on this one because I referred to Dan and everything, but after >> No, no, it's it's I lost my place in my script. I I would never confuse you, Council

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>> Boyer. After after just uh having a um after just having a hearing on this, I move this for uh final adoption. >> Do I hear a second? Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Ber, I >> Mr. Foley.

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>> Hi. >> Miss Kellson. Hi. >> Miss Landman. >> Hi. >> Mr. Sarosina. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> President Toes. >> I. Motion carries. Um, moving on to ordinances for introduction. Um, first

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we are pulling ordinance ID 12628 at the request of our engineering staff. Much of this institution follows directly from state regulation and those state regulations were recently suspended and

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are being reconsidered. Um and so our engineers determined that we should wait until we have final or at least more final state regulations enacted um before we go about passing our own counterparts. Um and so then this leads

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us to ordinance for introduction ID number 12631. Um madame clerk would you please read the in introduction? >> An ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-11 through streets

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stops intersections and yield intersections subsection 7-11.2 stop intersections designated. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Uh, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Council President.

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>> Uh, this ordinance ID, uh, number 12631. Uh, and this is an ordinance that will add stop signs to the following intersections. Cano Brook Parkway and Beverly Road, Colt Road and Pemrook Road, Maple Street and Lynen Place,

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Portland Road and Warwick Road, Tulip Street and Lynen Place, Tulip Street and Oakland Place, Wade Drive and Hartley Road, Wade Drive and Karen Way, uh with a hearing date of uh July 28th, 2026. I

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move to introduce this ordinance. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Okay. Um, madam clerk, roll call, please. >> Mr. Ber, >> I. >> Mr. Christopher Foley, >> I. >> Miss Calmanson, >> I. >> Miss Landman, >> I. >> Mrs. Sarosina, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> President To

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>> I. Um, okay. Madame Clerk, would you please read ordinance for introduction ID number 12633? Ordinance of the city of Summit County of Union, New Jersey, amending and supplementing chapter 35 of the city code entitled development regulations

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subsection 35-9.2 prohibited uses. >> Okay. Council member Chrisouli. >> Thank you, Council President. Ordinance ID 12633 would revise the ordinance banning data centers that was approved at our last council meeting on June 16th

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with the intention to further tighten Summit's defenses against this undesirable land use. Summit is fortunate to have many committed and knowledgeable residents who shared their ideas at council listening sessions last month and during the council meeting on

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June 16th. Following the council meeting, we requested the input of Burgess and Associates, a leading firm serving New Jersey towns on issues of land use planning and regulation, who has advised our own city government and planning board for many years. Joe

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Burgess is with us tonight and his colleagues developed a background memo and a revised ordinance based on the direct input from residents and Burgess Associates own experience in many other towns. I then requested comments on the

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Burgess memo from the planning board on which I serve as liaison uh at the planning board's June 29th meeting last Monday. The Burgess memo is now available on the planning board website. We have been working quickly and after

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the planning board meeting on Monday, there was a very tight time window to finalize the ordinance by Wednesday's deadline last week. So we work collaboratively. So and that version from last Wednesday is the one that you

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see in the packet. We worked collaboratively as council with professionals over the holiday weekend and early this week to develop a slightly revised text and we agreed on one change to add a new section 2A to

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tighten the definition of accessory data processing facilities requiring that the floor devoted the floor area devoted to such use does not exceed 20% of the gross floor area of the principal building or 1,000 square feet, whichever

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is less. That's 1,000 square feet or less. Um, for purposes of this subsection, the 100 the 1,000 square foot cap shall apply in the aggregate across all buildings on continuous parcels that comprise a development.

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While our professionals tell me this ordinance is very strong, we will even with this additional language, we will continue to monitor developments and strengthen it as needed. I move to or to introduce the ordinance with the change I just mentioned. >> Second.

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>> Okay. Thank you. And although we do not have comments on ordinances as in at at introduction, um I think it's appropriate before we take the vote to ask Mr. Burgess if there's anything he would like to add um to Mr. Chrisouli's

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introduction. >> Uh thank you for the opportunity. The only thing I would note is that you know we worked cooperatively with Mr. Christopho, Mr. Ber, the Miss Alvarez, the chair of the planning board. Um

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there had been some modifications since I had met with the planning board. This is a a very strongly worded ordinance which will basically prohibit data centers throughout the municipality and um I gather the next step would be to refer this back to the planning board

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for their statutory 35day review period and then I guess I would be sitting with the planning board to prepare their response to this revision. >> Thank you very much. Um madame clerk would you call the role please? >> Sorry. So,

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>> um I'm Yes. Council member Lyn, >> I'm not sure if we're all allowed to ask Mr. Burg's questions on the revised language that we've just heard or we should >> Yeah, I don't know. >> Fine. Yes. >> Okay. I just have a couple. Um so, mostly for the benefit of the

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public. Um, can you just explain a little bit about how we arrived at this number for the 1,000 square feet or 20% whichever is smaller and why you're recommending a square footage threshold be added. >> Okay. Um

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essentially the thousand square feet came from dialogue with the people I had just mentioned and it was because it uh relates solely to an accessory data uh data center not a principal use. Uh the

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accessory use has to be considered a very modest percentage of the entire square footage of a building. Uh we had originally talked about 3,500 square feet um but in the end we settled on a thousand square feet given the

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dimensions of that um and that was the basic rationale to make sure it was a modest component of any accessory structure. One of the revisions however effectively ensures that data centers are prohibited

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whether it be a principal permitted use or a computer center with an AI component which is now also prohibited. >> So just I'm just trying to understand a little bit better about what the issue is that we're trying to solve for by adding the square footage language. I

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think it's important for >> at this point it is somewhat superfluous because with the other modification that the group had um resolved to include over to exclude over the weekend. Um

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the ordinance now prohibits AI even as an accessory use to a principal permitted use allowed as of right. >> Right. Okay. Um, >> so >> sorry, just if I could ask just one or two more questions. So, um, we've also

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heard from the public and we've talked about this in council that this type of ordinance will need rigorous review and oversight as the tech develops. >> Did you say that? I didn't hear that. I was just saying we've talked about the fact that this will need rigorous monitoring as the technology develops

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and components of the ordinance as it's written now might need to be modified in the future. And I'm curious if this would be included in the um uh master plan re-exam that's planned to happen for later this year.

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>> U not with the master plan re-examination report. separate and distinct from that. The planning board has reviewed the DRRO in its entirety to make certain modifications and that is an ongoing process.

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Beyond that, the planning board is going to commence work on a comprehensive master plan presumably later this year and that's where the issue will again be revisited to see if there's need for change. I think there's a recognition on

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the part of everybody that this is a continually evolving um area of concern and the technology is also evolving significantly and rapidly. So uh I know with the planning board

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I'll be constantly monitoring that and reporting back to them for any modifications that's necessary. >> That's great. And I I there was one other thing we understood um but I think it's again just important for the public to understand the way this new version is drafted. Um there's no specific

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language about noise included now and we've been given that explanation but if you wouldn't mind that was a major concern of residents. So if you could just explain that. >> Well with this ordinance the way it is now written the use is prohibited.

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So the comments in my prior my initial planning report to you where I mentioned not only noise issues but other issues as well vibration and the like um that became moot because the ordinance is simply prohibiting the use.

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>> Okay. And we I think have all committed also to making some revisions to the noise provisions in our regs anyway. But I just wanted to >> and that will probably um come out of the anal the further analysis of the DRRL.

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>> Right. Okay. Great. >> Okay. Council member Ber. >> Thank you, Council President. Um first I want to thank Dan and Shantel. Uh late night conversations back and forth and um I think we we all kind of figured it

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out a little bit. and uh with your conversation today with me, Dan uh and Andy, welcome to the team. Right. Um came in like a rockstar, right? Here you go. Uh >> I I just want to go through the the cap and the reason for the cap. I know we

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spoke about it, but I want the public to understand. uh I gave the scenario that uh if you don't have a cap then someone can come in and argue well this is an accessory dwelling that's not an AI

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center we do um we are a a research um facility that does computing right and and kind of wiggle their way around the definitions and everything and guess what BMS not to pick on Bristol Myers

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squid but It's 90 acres and um our facility is only uh 8% of that, right? Which is like 90,000 square feet. So we we want to prohibit all of that. And one way to do it is to put a 1,000 square

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foot cap as an aggregate so that you can't argue against that. And and that was one of my examples that I had posed to you um Mr. Burgess. >> Yeah. And if I could follow up on that and the benefit of having a cap, even if

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you're not pro permitting this use at the moment, is that if someone were to seek a use variance, for example, to to allow this um there is that provision in the ordinance that would make it

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greater difficulty for an applicant to overcome the ordinance provision. >> Okay. and >> limitation. >> And lastly, where where we've come from with the 20 megawws, uh I just want to say that my colleague uh Shantel Lammond

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uh doesn't want AI centers anywhere, not even tablets, like computers or any so um but but thank you and um I support the way that it's written right now. My my one question and my one concern that

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we discussed was the electrical capacity uh that you had put in your memo and reason being that I personally wanted it in here as chips get smaller right well maybe we can fit something in a a

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thousand square foot um facility because I know we had 3500 first but that's the size of my house right and we were like h I don't know about that right um but something that still uh has the capacity to to uh require more power than a

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thousand homes. So with the electrical the critical electrical capacity, I hope I'm saying it right. Um that scales with technology and I like that piece, right? Because it it kind of merges with the square foot and and with that uh it it

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further protects the city. But you know, nothing's perfect and I think we're in a good place. Um but I'd like to see the planning board discuss that further though. >> Yeah. And we had discussed that today and we I will pursue that. Uh one of the difficulties

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with any ordinance regulation is how does one how does the zoning official determine whether somebody complies or not. And you know our firm represents close to 50 municipalities throughout the state. We spoke to a number of

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zoning officials and to a person they all said that's a little difficult to understand how to do that. So, I'm going to continue that analysis to see, you know, where where we can control that in that fashion, but it may be beyond the

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scope of what a zoning official does, a zoning officer does, excuse me, because basically their focus is on the the building itself, you know, in terms of setbacks, coverages, height, and that sort of thing. and this is well beyond

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their expertise, but we'll look to see if there's another way to get around that issue. >> Thank you, Council President. >> Okay, with that, uh, may we have a roll call, please? Madam Clair, >> Mr. Ber,

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>> I. >> Mr. Chris Foley, >> I. >> Miss Calmanson, >> I. >> Miss Lman, >> I. >> Mrs. Sarosino, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> President, >> I. Okay, motion carries. Moving on to resolutions. Council member Landman.

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>> Hi everyone. >> Hi Joe. >> Thank you Joe. >> Oh thank you. Yes. I'm so sorry. >> Thank you council president. Uh resolution ID12592. So municipalities go through a pretty strict audit every year and auditors are instructed to find deficiencies. An

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audit is not an affirmation of our financial position just that we've reported our results accurately. The audit of our 2025 finances was Swiggy Glean with two very minor findings related to the shared services in our court system. Um, and I'd like to take a moment to say thank you to our director

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of finance, Kabliska, and our CFO and administrator Baldwin for a job well done. And with that, I move to adopt this resolution. Second. >> Do we have any comments from members of the public? >> Do we have any comments from members of

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council? Okay. Um then um I'm I'm sorry. All in favor? >> I opposed. Now back to you, Council Member Landman. >> Thank you, Council President. Resolution 12615.

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Um as I just mentioned, the auditors had these two minor findings. And in short, we need to work with our court to improve the reporting procedures and ensure that receipts are attached with our daily deposits. These are easy fixes. We will work with the court to get this done. I move to adopt this resolution. >> Second.

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>> Any comments from members of the public, from members of council? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Back to you, Council Member Landman. >> Thank you, Council President. Resolution number 12622.

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Um, in case of an emergency, wouldn't know what that's like. uh like when critical equipment goes down over the weekend, we have a uh protocol for um who can authorize emergency spending and this resolution updates that hierarchy of approvals to reflect the current

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structure of the finance department. I move to adopt this resolution. >> Second. >> Any comments from members of the public? Any comments from members of council? All in favor? >> I >> opposed.

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Motion carries. One more time, Council Member Landman. >> Thank you, Council President. Resolution number 12623. Um, at the June 16th council meeting, we had an update on the city's participation in the Garden State Community Energy Cooperative, including

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that participating Summit uh households have collectively saved more than $48,000 during the program's first few months. This resolution allows the municipality to continue to participate in this energy co-op to help residents see cost savings in their energy bills. I move to adopt this resolution.

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>> Second. >> Any comments from members of the public? >> Any comments from members of council? I'll only note that there is the ability to opt out of this if a resident chooses not to participate and likes paying

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higher energy prices. Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Any any opposed? Motion carries. Um, Council Member Chrisouli. >> Thank you, Council President. Resolution ID 12428

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uh would award the bid for the repair and preventative maintenance of the tier parking garage structure in the amount of approximately $3.3 million. 10 bids were received and opened on Thursday, April 16th of this year in council

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chambers. Eight of the bids were determined to be responsive. this the submitted lowest responsive bidder was selected. The award is now being made due to the availability of funds. Um and I move

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>> you move to adopt the resolution. >> Move to adopt the resolution. Thank you. >> Mr. President >> second. >> Do we have any comments from members of the public? >> Do we have any comments from members of council? All in favor?

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>> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, back to you, Council Member Chrisouli. Maybe you want to bundle the next two. >> I would very much like to. Thank you. Uh resolution ID 12630 and 12640

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are to respectively appoint a building subcode official and to declare vacancy for the former position of the of that official uh in the department of community services as a full-time building inspector. I move to adopt

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these two resolutions. >> Second. >> Any comments from members of the public? Do we have comments from members of council? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? No. Um, one more for you,

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Council Member Chrisully. >> Thank you, Council President. Resolution ID12612 would appoint a new member to the Recycling Advisory Committee. I move to adopt this resolution. >> Second. Any comments from members of the

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public? from members of council. Now, um I'll only note we've had an an opening for a student member of the recycling advisory committee for some time and this young man wrote me a letter with a proposal for sports

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equipment recycling. Um so I convinced him to apply for the job. >> All in favor? >> I >> I think council president you should mention who it is. >> His yes, his name is Hayden Lee. um and and he attends Delbertton, but he's a

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summit resident and I really appreciated um the initiative he took. Um okay, all in f I did I say all oppose? Okay, this motion carries. On to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to um approve the consent agenda? >> So moved.

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>> Second. >> Do we have any comments from members of the public on the consent agenda? Okay. Um, Council Member Smith, I know there was something you wanted to say. >> Uh, yes. So, uh, we have, um, a kind of

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a unique opportunity, uh, that was brought forward by a Sergeant Rudy uh, Gada from Gereda from the Summit Police Department. I think it's a really interesting thing that uh

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he really took um to a head and and that is to authorize the use of city hall as uh essentially a um counselor service for the uh Costa Rican community here in

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Summit where individuals can come use city hall to uh have passport to you know deal with passports or any other issues. issues like that, different paperwork that they might need to do uh without having to go into New York City

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to the consulate there. Um and kind of like you know when the the mobile DMV or right department of of motor vehicles. So, I think that um this is a really unique opportunity that that he really

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took the the lead on and is kind of a no-brainer is, you know, using this facility that's, you know, open to doing. It's it's a one day kind of thing that can really help members of the community. And so, I give a shout out to him for that. >> Okay. Do we have any other comments from

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members of council? >> Council President. >> Yes, Council Member Boyer. Uh, I really like the idea about making the aquatic center a cooling station. >> So, kudos uh to that. And on on that same note, uh I'd like to thank Grace

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and David Guida. Uh I had posed a a question when I was a kid about one in 10 of us had pool passes and were able to go to camp. So, we just knuckleheads all day. Like parents didn't know where we were. They were at work. And so I

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posed the question to someone on uh a friend of mine on Glenwood. I said, "Do kids still not have anything to do? Do they still try to sneak into the pool or you know it's hard to sneak into the pool today because they have your picture, right?" So uh and and that was

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still the case. So I you know I said, "Well, can the city just pay for it?" And it's like, "Ah, I don't know." Um and the next day David called me. David Guido called me. He said, "Uh, well, we got a donation for Grace. How many kids

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do uh need a pool pass or or camp, and by the way, you got like eight hours to get me that information because the person that's giving us the money is leaving for like the summer." So, I'm like, "All right, okay, that's great." So me and a couple of people, Wanda

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Fortune and um Arthur Stewart and Charlie Stewart and a couple other people on Dennis Place calling everybody getting names of kids and uh at the end of the day we have 48 kids that either got camp, pool or both. And the parents

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were so happy. So now the parents are at work and they know where the kids are. They're at pool and they're playing with other kids, right? and meeting other kids and getting ready for the school year is such a good a good thing and this is one of the reasons why I love

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this town, you know, like that was a beautiful thing. Uh secondly, uh the cooling center, I was thinking this weekend when folks didn't have power, you know, wouldn't it have been great uh to allow them to go during the day for free, you know, as opposed to five five

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o'clock and beyond? Maybe that's something that we could think about. um that because that would have been a good a good move. So, I know there there may be some concerns with that, but for summit residents, I I thought that would have been a good uh um approve. So, uh that's it. Thank you, Council President.

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>> Okay. Thank you for your hard work and get getting that job done. Council member Ber, any other comments from members of council? >> Council member K. Um on on consent agenda, >> we're still on the consent agenda. We're

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still on the consent agenda. But I'll hold that for my council comments. >> Okay. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Motion passes. So now we're going to move on to public comments. Um and as we begin public comment, we ask that

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residents of Summit step forward to speak first. And we value input from everyone. Certainly any member of the public is welcome to speak. Um, and we ask for your courtesy in allowing our local neighbors to lead the public discussion. Um, and thank you members of

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city staff as you head out the door. >> Yes. Kick us off. >> Uh, thank you, Council President. Uh, welcome back. Welcome, Andy. Uh, couple comments, uh, on tonight's agenda. Number one, >> just your name and address. I know

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everyone else knows. >> Sure. Dillia Hamlet, 59 New England. Is my clock starting now? Thank you. Um, welcome Andy. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Um, couple comments tonight. One, on the storm water uh, management ordinance. I think a red line should be included in the next council packet.

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It's It's just complicated. There's a lot of details. So, I think a red line would be easier for the public to see. Uh, number two, it would be nice for the public to actually see the audit. I don't think we've done it in the past as as even when I sat in that seat. So, it's not a fingerpointing. I just Tammy

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knows I'm crazy and I like to see it. I used to be able to go It's on the website. There you go. Okay, thank you. I used to go get my copy. Um, what I'm really disappointed in tonight and listen, you're all new and I'm This is not a fingerpointing session. In fact, I almost texted Claire tonight and said, "Claire, please don't pass. Please don't

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introduce this ordinance." There's a lot of reasons why. As a member of the planning board, we asked, we wanted to help you guys. We wanted to say, "Listen, let's tee up our professionals. Let's look at this ordinance." And what you guys did was you took the memo, you didn't publicize it, you didn't show

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Joe's comments publicly, right? And then you took the most important piece out. It's not transparent. And this is not a fingerpointing session. Trust me, I do not miss the work you guys do up there. I still like it, but I recognize it's a

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lot of work. But understand that when you ask our professionals for advice, you got to show the public what he did. And what he did was he put 12,000 or 12,500 foot for a reason because a th00and square foot to Chantel's question is not going to be legally

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defensible. It's not sound planning. My god, you could take Oakn Null or Kent Place, it's going to exceed a thousand. We asked for his help for a reason. And honestly, Dan was at the planning board. He he agrees.

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Trust the professionals. They write these memos. They do this for a living. And I am I am probably the most I ask the most questions. That's okay. Ask the most questions up here. I'm Jamal. I tried to talk you out of voting for this thing tonight all day. And so as a

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Republican, I'm aggravated because I didn't think you should vote for it. >> And I disagree with you. >> Okay. Well, that's fine. But that just goes to show you it's not a Republican or Democrat thing. But listen, this is this is really important stuff. And it's okay to say slow down, right? It's okay to say, "Let's do it at the next meeting." Claire, I almost texted you. I

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just say, "Claire, bag it." It's not ready. It's just not. It's too important for the community. And by the way, the noise ordinance, and correct me if I'm wrong, Austo is not here anymore. And Chief, you could probably you have a provision in the noise ordinance. I believe the last noise ordinance

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was in 2008. I know you've made some provisions, but the level that you're talking about, Chantel, the DBC, was not even adopted from D until 2010. So, if that's the case, we got a lot of work to do because the people at Bristol Myers

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Squib, they're not hearing sirens, they're hearing humming, they're hearing things that we're not even talking about right now. >> So, my last comment is I have a whole ordinance written out for the noise ordinance. pass it another day. But take your time with this stuff. It's okay to

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say you're not ready. We've done it a million times up here. Just don't rush it because you know what? We're spending too much money on professionals. We have to redo it and it's going to take more time. >> Thank you. Thank you for your comments. >> Good evening. Penny Bar, 79 Tango Drive in Summit for over 50 years. Andy,

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welcome back. It's good to see you back on the uh DIS. Uh, I have a couple questions. One is about the DPW. Everyone's done a great job with this horrible storm. Uh, what is the stance on the trees that are now out or the

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limbs that are out on the street? Are the people responsible or is the town going to pick that up? I just want to put that out there. As far as the branches and the trees is that I don't know who's going to handle that, but it's horrible all over. My other concern

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is as living in this town for over 50 years, hearing about the filming. We'd love to film Summit. It's a gorgeous place. I've lived here. I've loved it. I am so appalled about the streets in our town. It is like a third world country

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town. Other towns, you go to Chadam, you go to Madison, they rip the streets up, they come back, they asphalt them. Why are ours? We get a little bit here, a little bit there down by Little Kings, down by the middle school. It's like they do half a street.

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I don't know what the answer is. Uh I've called and talked tried to talk to Aaron. Uh he never called me back. Venus is wonderful. She has gotten back to me, but I just don't want to I just Why do we keep ripping up these streets? I hear

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high streets being ripped up again. And you know, we keep ripping up and not replacing. Pine Grove has been horrible. I don't know where everybody lives. It goes back and forth, but the streets are horrible. Uh I know I live on Tanglewood Drive, as I said. Uh thanks to um

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calling probably once a week to um the gas people, we got Tanglewood Drive paved, Dale and um Joanna. But Oakidge was pulled up at the same time. How many years later? It's still terrible. So, I

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beseech the people here sitting here to not let any more ripping up either whether it's water, gas, I don't care what it is, until we get paved streets. And please don't let people film in this town because they'll think we're in some other strange place. Thank you. Thank

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you. Any other comments? Yeah. Hi, I'm Paulie Thomas, 22 Laurel Avenue. I'm And this is totally different. >> Good. >> I just want to express my concern um

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about the new proposed regulations for federal grant funding, OM 202634, and how these new regulations might affect Summit and New Jersey. Perhaps you have heard about this from the National Association of Counties and

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Cities. All federal grants are threatened by these proposed OM rules published May 29th. Comments are requested and due by July 13th. So that's my real message to the to the city. Scientists at New Jersey Medical

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School, where I work, are very worried, but cities, counties, and states that receive federal funds should also object. These rules allow the administration in Washington to easily deny and end grants, actions that have so far been blocked by federal courts.

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One major aspect of the proposal is that peer review will be under undermined. Experts and professional staff from US departments will no longer make the decisions about grants to localities for public services or for grants to nonprofit organizations. Billions in

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federal funds are sent to New Jersey and then distributed to cities including summits. The new regulation requires that instead of a peerreview score, a political appointee will make decisions about who gets funded. The stated goal is to assure consistency with federal

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priorities whether or not localities agree. A second major concern is that funding could now be terminated without prior notification or cause. The political appointee can determine whether or not the receiving institution or its affiliations are considered

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anti-American and that's in quotes and choose not to fun not to fund them. All grants would need to align with the administration's vision. We are all asked to submit public comments by July 13th. You can go to regulations.gov and

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search for a docket for docket OM 202634. I'm also hoping many of us in summit will let our legislators know that these rule changes are not well thought out. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Statement.

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>> Yes. If if you've got if excuse me >> with your written statement. Yes. If >> I send I mean >> you send if if you if you've emailed it, that's fine. >> I send it. This is a short version. >> Okay. Do we have any other comments from

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members of the public? my my air time tonight. >> Um Dory Gagnon, uh first I am uh really grateful of the students who are helping the homeless. And I think it's great that you guys all stood and applauded, but last year when uh DA Hamlet uh was

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recognized for her homelessness task force that she put on herself and went to California, >> I apologize. >> That's okay. You can restart it now, Rosie. Um, only a couple people applauded her. And I think looking back at Mayor Glatt's letter that said this divisiveness

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that's happening in town, you should all be grateful. We're all doing great work, right? Mayor Fagan, I saw your videos. You were out there this weekend, storm cleanup. I'm sure a lot of you were. And it shouldn't just be one or the other. I think we should all just be saying thank

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you. Jamal is saying thank you. People need to work together because, you know, we're helping people here in town and we don't know their political status, right? They're just kids and they're doing a good job. Um, that's one thing. Second thing, you've amended two

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ordinances this year and I've watched almost every council meeting and I have no idea what the heck is going on. Uh, Mr. Chrisulloy couldn't tell you what you said. I don't even know what the ordinance was to what it was amended to and I'm just sitting I'm public person

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out here trying to follow along and I am so lost and then you guys all have conversations uh with Mr. Burgess and I watched the planning board meeting and I'm still lost and I think it was a time when you amend an ordinance to have people like me ask a question because I

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don't know what just happened. So, you're all deliberating up here having conversations. You have your side conversations on the phone and people like us don't even know what's going on. So, um that's the second one you've done. The Maple Street one, I couldn't even follow you. I was lost and confused

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on that. So I think um when you're amending ordinances, state the ordinance in ordinance that's for introduction and then state what you're amending um and why the change is happening so we have a clear understanding of what actually is

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going on. I don't even know what the thousand what is the thousand square foot data center you're allowing or not allowing or is it megawws? I I couldn't tell you. So, um, from now on, that's a suggestion from me and I know a lot of other people are kind of confused as

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well and I'm sure it's just going to escalate tonight. So, if you could do that, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Do we have any other comments? Okay, then let us move on to council member comments. Do we have anyone with a comment?

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>> Um, I have a comment as as the new guy here. Um, and you know, obviously kind of the big thing here tonight was the data centers, I can say, you know, as as person who's now new to council was not here when you had the

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whole public comments and people up in arms, I wasn't up here on the DS. Um but I can tell you having been here and now um for the past couple of weeks getting involved in these issues that everyone on this Das I think is is on this issue

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on the same page in that we want to make an ordinance the best ordinance that we can make that's going to limit uh the use of data centers in Summit to the best degree and there was I I think uniform

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uh support for the new ordinance that was introduced tonight uh across the board except there was one provision and that was the provision that was discussed about adding the square footage and there was a lot of

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discussion among council about that particular issue um and I think that it's an important issue my understanding and again I am the new guy here um but is that this isn't, you know, that there's going to be hearing on this

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particular ordinance. I was a little bit surprised tonight about the 1000 because we had talked about other things and there was sort of a back and forth and I personally I think and I've talked to Dan, I talked to Jamal, I've talked to other members as well about this and I

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think the 12,000 square foot uh provision that was in there initially, that was the one that that I was behind. Um, but the reality is is that the the ordinance that was introduced, even as it's written exactly

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as it as it was here today, is better than the one that we had before. It's more restrictive than the one we had before. Um, and I think this is something that everybody's working with. And and and to your point about understanding it, I think there was a misunderstanding

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the last time from what I can understand about what council's trying to do. And you know, I'm an attorney and I I it's part of my job. I review statutes and things of that nature. And I can tell you things get confusing and reading ordinances get confusing. But the

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provision that we're talking about so everybody understands is that there is a definition for a computer center and that computer centers are essentially like a server room of a of a company that already has um you know dedicated

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uh equipment to store data for their own IT needs. You're talking about Overlook Hospital, banks and other institutions. uh Bristol Meyer Squib they have the need to have certain storage of data um that's what's being excluded from what

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is really an overall rejection of data centers in Summit certainly AI data centers in Summit um but you're we're carving that provision out for computer centers so that there are there is the

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ability for businesses to have part of their property part of what they're for the storage of computer data. And in order to qualify for that, they have to meet certain criteria and that criteria

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is listed out. And so when you're talking about different things, it has to be it can't be a primary use of the facility is for the storage of of data like the data center. So there's a there's I think several things A to D or

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E or whatever it is that criteria that you have to meet. And so what we were discussing whether to remove or to have it 12,000 square feet or 1,000 square feet whatever it is is an additional measure that even if so so in the event

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that some company comes in and tries to get around everything that we put in this ordinance to to do a data center that nobody wants and I can tell you nobody up here wants it. I think most of the people you know in in summit or vast majority of them don't want it. If some

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company wants to come in and go around that, then they've got to meet these certain criteria, but if they meet all of the criteria B to E, they still have to deal with A. And that is so even if you can somehow,

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you know, create a situation where you meet all the other criteria to make yourself a computer center so therefore you can operate. There is a provision that allows uh for for example you're talking about

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a 90 acre Bristol meer squib you know Bristol Myers Squib could come in and say well obviously we're a pharmaceutical but we're going to take 90,000 square feet and make it into our you know server room quote unquote where it's a computer center it's not our primary purpose and and you know not

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that that would necessarily meet all you I still got to jump through all those hoops but now all of a sudden you're saying okay wait a Second, um 90,000 square feet or 50,000 ft or 12,000 square 15,000 square feet. It doesn't meet the ordinance. Um 12,000 square feet I think is something that we talked

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about. It is def is defensible for a couple of different reasons, including that there are some existing um you know, server rooms of that of that size. But at the end of the day, if you want to look at what this particular

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ordinance is doing and why we're debating this particular thing, it is to make it more restrictive, to make it more difficult for data centers to be in summit and and all the issues associated that with energy and noise um and and

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things of that nature that people object to. That's the purpose of it. Um, you know, we're going to have a lot more discussions, I think, on this issue between now and when it comes back up on on the 28th, but I did I did want to

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say, you know, try and hopefully what I said was was helpful to some people to maybe understand it a little bit more, but also to say that, you know, as like I said, as a new guy coming in, I'm a Republican. I got one other Republican here and there's five Democrats.

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Everyone on this is not a partisan issue. everyone on the stage is going towards the same goal. We all want the same thing. We all want this to be restrictive. We're working together. We're trying to get it done in the best manner possible. And um that's why, you know, I voted to to bring this forward.

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And and like I said, we'll have more discussion on this issue between now and when it comes back up on the 28th. But um you know the purpose of that is to try to have the best ordinate

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possible to prevent uh what we all want to prevent from coming into summit. And the last thing I'll just say is um you know there's a lot of different hoops that have to be jumped through to get from you know an idea of putting a data

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center in summit and this ordinance too. it's got to go through planning board, zoning board, etc. So, um there's a lot of different machinations here, but the but the overall goal is to limit these data centers and some >> Thank you. Any other council member?

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>> President. >> Yes, council member Ber. >> So, let me see if I can do this in like plain. >> Okay, so let me see if I can do this in like plainly just talking, right? So,

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okay. Where do we come from? We had Wow, something's going on. I don't know. I gotta um uh So, we started at 20 megawws, right, as our as our ceiling. So, a couple of weeks ago, we

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passed an ordinance that said 20 megawws was allowable. And we heard from the public. The public got it. the public came out on social media. They came out here um and they said basically to council, what are you doing, right? You

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we we can't have 20 megawatts. That's way too big. That powers um you know 15,000 homes, right? You we can't have that. So what did this council do? We went back. We took out the 20 megawws.

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And I'm not going to go and relitigate what happened. That's not because we did a good job here. We took out the 20 megawws. We sent it over to the planning board. The planning board discussed it. They said, "Okay, um we we're going to write this. We're going to try to write

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this ordinance for the council because they want to prevent AI data centers in Summit." Okay. So, they gave it back to us and in that language was 12,000 square ft. Now, your council members,

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some of us had a conversation about that because 12,000 square feet is actually like I live in a two family house, so it's like, you know, four of them, right? Like I that is way too big. So

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now we're back to 20 megawws again. >> So what are we doing? We can't go back to to the 20 megawws. It's like the same thing, right? So imagine a home, right? Imagine it's the four of them,

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12,000 square feet, and putting computers in there that processes data, right? So we're doing the same thing. So we took that out and said, "Well, how much do you really need?" Right? 1,000 square feet um powers our regular

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businesses, our normal businesses. So we are in sense went above and beyond protecting the city against anyone coming in here putting a a data center in here an AI data center and the one

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thing I want to point out is preexisting nonconformance which what that means is whatever's here is grandfathered right so we're not removing what Bristol Meyer Squib has we're not saying hey you got to get rid of that because now we got a thousand

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square feet we're not doing Right? We're saying that pre-exists here. We're going to keep that here. But what we're going to prevent is someone else coming here and in the next five years calling it something that it's not. Like I said in my example, oh,

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we're doing um you know, research. We own a research company and it just so happens that you know, we're going to use the 12,000 square feet to put all of our our AI data processing things there. But we're not a we're not a data center, right? We're doing research. We don't

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want to deal with all of that. So 1,000 square feet is is enough and it prevents that. So I think that was a good move. Now, just to move on from that, um I want to congratulate the uh the chief,

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the deputy chief and lieutenant. I think uh they did a good job um uh this weekend. Uh I I didn't know I'm not on the safety committee anymore and I want to thank Michelle for putting out um all of those uh those posts and everything

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because now you're on the safety committee. You get all of those briefings and stuff. So, good job. When I was on it, I was doing crime every week. So, I'm glad I'm not doing that, you know. So, this is a good transformation. But when uh our city administrator gave us all of the stats,

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I mean, wow, the police and fire have been busy this weekend and our our folks DPW police and fire have done a good job, right? But and not but to dismiss them, they did a good job.

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But what I you know I drove around this weekend especially with the mayor and I I can't help but feel heartbroken for people like to go without electricity for four days now right is heartbreaking. People have animals it's

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hot there's trees still in the middle of the road. You know I get it. People are saying everyone's doing a good job. Everyone's trying their hardest. Yeah I know. I know. But people still don't have power, right? Like that, man,

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that's heartbreaking. So, if we could get JCPNL in here, right, do a presentation. We normally have the the utilities come in. PSCG came in once before. American Water came in once

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before to to Penny's point telling us how many roads they're going to rip up and stuff. Um, JCPNL could come in here, right? And I think when storms happen like this, you know, they should have a someone boots on the ground that people can talk to so at least they're heard,

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right? And they're not staring at the website that says, you know, look at these look at these bubbles of power outages, right? You know, because we don't have the answers. So, we can we can do better with communication. Once again, our police and fire, they're on it. They do this stuff, right? But the

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utility, we need more answers from them. You know, people don't have power. So, I think we could do a better job. I get pictures. Well, the utility can do a better job. I'm getting pictures of, you know, trees still on the road and everything. It's not like the fire

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department go pick I mean, you got wires and we we should have the utility company and and explain their processes to the to the people. Um last last but not uh least

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uh the teens that tackle homelessness that was just impressive because you know they're doing all these great things and they still have school and I know some of them um are are u uh go to the camp and have jobs and

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stuff. So, you know, that's that's good stuff. Um, and man, I had one more thing to say, but uh, this AI stuff is still in my brain. I'm like, I just want to say a thousand square feet for some reason.

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Uh, all right. I'm good. Thank you, Council President. >> Thank you, Council Member Ber. Yes, Council Member Lanman. >> Thank you, Council President. Um, first I want to say welcome to Andy. I've officially changed you in my cell phone from Matt's dad to Andy Smith.

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>> Thank you. It actually popped up as Matt's dad on my phone the other day when he called me. So I was like, "Oh, we got to fix this." Um, uh, so now you have to suffer through my nerdy finance committee updates. Um, so first I just want to give a big shout out to our finance team. Um, and under Tammy's

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amazing leadership. Um, and this is boring stuff, so hopefully you'll stay with me here, but we had a really successful bond sale. Um, following the June 16th meeting, we sold $22.3 million in bonds and a bond anticipation note for 1.4 million.

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We got 12 bids on the bond sale which is exceptionally high and that's all due to the fact that we have three um excuse me all of our rating agencies have rated usa and that is a tremendous amount of work that goes behind the scenes to get the AAA ratings from all of the agencies

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and it's really paid off. It's a tremendous amount of work as I said but it pays off for taxpayers. So, I just want to say thank you um uh for that. And as a reminder, these bonds were sold to fund capital projects that we've already discussed here in council. Um a few less exciting um but important work

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happening at the finance committee. Um we're beginning to look a little bit at sewer billing and potentially change how we think about sewer bills calculated for local residents and uh uh businesses to be more usage based. We're starting on work documenting the financial commitments that we've made through last

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year's affordable housing plan. Uh we're tracking revenue and expenses as we've talked about here multiple times. We're seeing surge pricing for fuel and of course again we doubled down on overtime pay for um city staff especially DPW employees. Um so we're keeping an eye on

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that. Um pivoting a little bit to affordable housing. Um we've been having conversations with neighbors uh in the Shunpike Ivy neighborhood um and Wilson Park neighborhoods. Those are continuing. Um you know, res residents have spoken to us plainly. Um they want

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the plan to go through a more strategic review, especially on the properties where, you know, the city is in control. Um and they're frustrated. They don't want us blaming Trenton. That's not getting us anywhere. And we've been listening. We're going to harness this enthusiasm from our residents. um and

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the great ideas that they've been bringing to us in the round four task force which we unfortunately didn't get to finalize in close session today but we're making a lot of progress. There's still an opportunity to apply um if you're interested in joining that. Um

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and you know look I I I continue to say this to residents. I'm optimistic. Um there's a better path forward for some of the plan components and we have a lot of good work to do. So please please join us. Um, and then finally, I just wanted to end on some good news out of Trenton that impacts summit residents

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and relates to topics that we talked about tonight. Uh, last week the Senate, state senate passed the end tax credits for data centers act uh, with bipartisan and almost unanimous support. This bill actually was led by summit own summit's own uh, Andrew McCarthy u,

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>> McCertie, sorry, sorry. Um, and will save taxpayers over $250 million. Um, so that was previously earmarked as tax credits for AI data centers to be built in in New Jersey and now uh that that that credit those credits have been

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cancelled. Um, and then I also want to highlight that the legislature established some incentive programs for solar energy generation and storage. Um, that will also help reduce energy costs for all of us. So more to come on that. Uh, Andrew McCertie is holding an open house on Thursday night from 5:00 to

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7:00 here in Summit at 86 Summit Avenue in his offices. and I encourage you to attend and learn more and ask questions about this or anything else on your mind. And that's it for me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Landman. Council member Calmanson. >> Thank you, Council President. Um I had

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some words that I really would have loved to share when the firefighters were still here, but they were so eager to go and of course we didn't want to hold them up for for celebrating. So I hope that um so I hope that they'll see this. Um thank you to our retiring Chief Evers for your dedication and service to the city of Summit. We are forever

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grateful to you and wish you the best for this new chapter in your life. Enjoy your family, your grandkids, and as many woodworking projects as you can handle. And of course, congratulations to our newly promoted firefighters, um, Chief Haro, Battalion Chief Lemons, Lieutenant

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Lieutenant Heights, and Firefighter Jackson. This is the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for you, the fire department, and the city of Summit. We are honored that you choose to continue to step up and serve the residents of Summit. And a big thank you to your families as well for sharing you with

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us. Uh welcome to our new council member Smith. We are excited to have you here and have a full council again. I'm excited to work with you for the rest of the year on the safety committee. And I can tell we're going to have some good laughs in between all of the very serious um serious issues that we

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discuss and tackle in safety. Uh I have some updates from DCP. The opening for maybe playground has been delayed. Among other things, the basketball courts need to cure, be lined, and have backboards installed, and tables need to be um secured. Work should be wrapping up this

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week. We are planning a grand opening ceremony within the next week or two for stadium lighting at Tatlock. Musco has come out and completed the light readings. All of them were as expected. We are still waiting the final report with the recorded numbers from Musco.

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Um, for the speakers and cameras, target installation date is September. And Jamal mentioned this um, a little bit earlier. Sorry, Councilman Ber. Um, about um, Grace and their contributions and how they supported some members of our community. Um, so thank you to

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Grace. They provided um, pool memberships to 13 families, 30 individual memberships, and 26 campers have enrolled in the summer wreck camp um through through those grace donations. And um also we did um I did

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speak with David about um the pool as a as a cooling station on the 4th of July because we would have loved to do that and in a perfect world we could have done that but you know safety is our first priority and with all of the Fourth of July festivities being

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cancelled it was very hot. We we just it would not have been safe for us to open it, you know, for us to open it as a cooling center to the entire town. So, safety always has to come first. We did, you know, we did have the um community center open as a cooling station if

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people really did need to cool down. Um and I think that's it for me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Calvinson. >> Council member Chrisouli. >> Thank you, Council President. I would also really like to welcome uh Council Member Smith. It's been great working

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with you uh getting to know your working style on several issues beyond the the data center ordinance on which we we collaborated. Um you're hitting the ground running um and your experience that you you bring from your profession

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already is adding value. Um I >> thanks. Um so I would like to comment on the data center ordinance. It's a very complex issue. It's hard for all of us to understand, right? For um none of us is a planning professional here on the

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council, although we have varying degrees of experience and we're gaining more of that experience as we go along. I requested Mr. Burgess's memo and his draft ordinance and I requested the feedback from the planning board. I thank planning board chairwoman Alvarez

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and all the planning board members for their diligent input. They gave a excellent technical review which I believe was a very high quality. Um and it at the planning board I requested that staff post that report online and

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it's now on the planning board website. Um although it did take the staff a little time to get there. They're short staffed right now. Uh my next step, my next task was that I set for myself was to get unanimous support from all

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council members. Uh and to do so, we had to tighten up the ordinance that was discussed uh at the planning board. Uh the council has different interests than the purely technical. We listened to resident input at the council meeting on

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June 16th at the listening sessions, the feedback that we saw online. And what we heard is that summit didn't want data centers. And so we tightened up the language considerably from the planning version, the planning board version,

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and we worked to get everybody on board. And everybody worked together toward that goal. and I thank everybody. Uh it certainly wasn't my accomplishment. It's something that everybody pitched in and wanted to get to. So, I just wanted to clarify that it is technical. It's hard

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to describe. It's hard, frankly, for me to describe. So, I apologize if I haven't done that in the clearest manner. I think uh Council Member Smith probably did a better job than I did. Uh and Janelle. Um but there we go. We are

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responding to residents very clear desire that we heard that they wanted to ban all data centers and that's what we have attempted to do. I believe we have done it. We will continue to monitor as necessary. Thank you.

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>> Thank Thank you, Council Member Gusouli. Council member Lera Cena. >> Thank you, Council President. uh want to first thank we had several residents come to the most recent council meeting uh who live in the Bristol Meyer Squib neighborhood to express their their

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concerns, their frustration with the noise as a result of the existing usage of what's going on in Bristol Meyer Squib. now concerns about kind of the the constant or the near constant noise and hum that emanates out of the production facilities and and other

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parts of the the campus which is a lifestyle disruption. It can cause fatigue and other issues. Um so we have reached out to uh the government affairs office of Bristol Myers. in conversation um to we which has been an ongoing

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conversation over many years but we are re-engaging in earnest to see what can be done uh in partnership if anything um to try to address those issues. So again thank you very much to the our neighbors who came out to share those concerns and we will provide updates as those conversations continue. Uh, also wanted

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to double click a bit on affordable housing. Uh, and also thank those we had a great discussion at the most recent council listening session in June. So, thank everyone for coming out on a Monday evening in the summer to talk with us about parking and signage. Um,

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but we spent the bulk of the time talking about affordable housing. Uh we continue to hear and and appreciate the questions and the concerns about overdevelopment, the strain on our schools and infrastructure and the impact to the taxpayers, right? The cost

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of it all. Uh, as Councilwoman Landman mentioned on the cost side, um, just as a quick reminder, and this information is publicly available on the city's web page, uh, we're anticipating about 530 total new apartments, condos, houses to

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530 total new units, um, as they will be comprised over the next 10 years um, coming out of the prior council's round four affordable housing development plan. Uh, work continues on the cost side. what is the impact to the

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taxpayer? Uh that work continues again, but again my back of the envelope math is that it would be approximately $20 million over 10 years kind of a worst case scenario if all of the costs fell to the summit taxpayer and we're not able to access any county, state,

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federal or or private funding. As has been said, we want to make affordable housing work better both for affordable housing and for Summit. This requires long-term strategic planning and solid financial planning. To that end, we have recently brought on a new member of of

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the Burgess firm. Mr. Burgess was here. They are our long-erving external city planner. Um, they have an additional expert in kind of suburban development who will help us take a broad view uh across the whole community, right? not focusing on any individual proposed site

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or mechanism but looking across the whole municipality um to again think about that strain on infrastructure on our first responders on traffic impact to the schools the character of the community etc. So, we're we're grateful to have that new team member on board.

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Um I have joined the um Mount Laurel at least in the interim uh filling former council member Palowski's seat. So, we'll we'll continue to do the work there. Uh have enjoyed getting to work with Councilman Smith on uh law and labor. Wanted to provide a quick update

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on uh city litigation. Uh we understand of course and we know everyone appreciates there's of course sensitivities around lawsuits. Um but we also have heard time and time again that the community wants to know more. Um and we understand because this is litigation

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against the community, right? It impacts all of us. Um so uh in brief there there have been uh two lawsuits unfortunately that have recently been brought against the city. Um I understand that some of the materials are are floating around on social media. Um so wanted to just

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provide some basic information. Uh there was one lawsuit that was filed by Beacon Church uh in connection with proceedings before the zoning board. Uh the city is technically a named party to that litigation. Um but it is it this was a a

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zoning board matter. Um so any any questions and further comment I would defer to the zoning board. Uh there was a separate lawsuit that was filed by K&K or Garden Homes. Um they were the contract purchaser. We've previously

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shared that they unfortunately withdrew from uh that contract. Um they have now filed suit against the city. Um they uh I we will the bottom line is we will strenuously defend the city's

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position and we will work as hard as we can to protect the city's position and interests. um K&K is alleging breach of contract with respect to the the purchase and sale agreement for the old firehouse site. Right. So the the sale

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was approved by the prior council in December of 2025. Uh the contract was then signed on behalf of the city uh at the end of last year, December 31st, 2025. Uh so then work continued uh between the parties trying to you know

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get through those early phases of um the the purchase and sale moving forward. Uh there was then separately the issue of a 2001 agreement that the city entered into with St. Teresa's um which we have also made brief mention of previously uh

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which in part dealt with certain parking and access rights that were granted by the city to um St. Teresa's. Uh so we have the purchase and sale agreement for the old firehouse site that was entered into in December of 2025. Uh and then

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relatedly a 2001 agreement that was entered into between the city and St. Teresa's. um in brief and this is is very early stage all all alleged um but K&K's position is that and I'll I'll just quote um the city intentionally

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misrepresented and concealed a material fact um by not disclosing the St. Teresa's parking lot agreement from June of 2001. Um those are allegations and again the city will strenuously

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defend our position and interests and we will provide additional information as it becomes available. And with that I am done. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um >> council president. >> Yes. Quickly. >> Okay.

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>> Um Andy welcome. Like I I you know I >> Thank you. >> Me I tell you man I should have welcomed you. Um uh secondly, um talking about litigations, uh I know Councilwoman Lucarino is in the in the

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legal uh committee and everything. Um but you know, I'm always told like, oh, you can't speak about litigations and everything. So, um, if the city solicitor maybe next time you can give

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us some guidance about what to talk about and what not to talk about. Uh, because I'd like to give the public a rundown from my perspective on all of it. So, um, you know, if we're doing that, let's do it, you know, like that.

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>> Uh, through the council president, if something is written in a publicly filed complaint, the council woman can read it into the record. It's already public. >> Okay. >> Um any comments further than that I

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would not recommend >> and we shouldn't we shouldn't encourage that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Anything else? >> Nope. I'm good. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um I just want

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to add one procedure procedural um note about the AI data ordinance um as as we developed it over the last few weeks. Um and I'll I I'll own most of this with the extra week between council meetings.

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Um I I certainly took advantage of the ability to get a little bit of travel in. Um, I wasn't alone, but I found creative ways to be totally unavailable and inaccessible to my fellow council members. Um, so there ended up being a lot of fits and starts and trying to

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work things in at odd moments. Um, and I am particularly grateful to our city clerk for tolerating all of it with good grace. Um, because I think I think we were giving everybody fits on that. Um, I'll be around for the next I'll be

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around between now and the next council meeting. So, so, so have at me. Um, and I just want to read an email that I received during this meeting. Um, and it sort of goes to cleanup and and some of

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that it from one of our residents. Um, credit where credit is due. I called DPW today about a huge tree branch that crashed into the street on Friday from in from from a from a tree in front of our house. At some point on Saturday or

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Sunday, some entity lifted the branch from the street and placed it on my neighbor's front lawn. It was massive and took up the entire lawn. Within two hours of my call today, DPW sent a crew and they did a great job of taking the tree, raking, and cleaning up. Such a

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wonderful service from our excellent city employees. I'm grateful. Um, yes, you're here. Um, and with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn?

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>> I'll make it second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? We stand adjourned. Thank you.