##VIDEO ID:nopQeHCgOLE## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right uh welcome everybody uh uh to our first real business meeting of 2025 uh so uh our last meeting was more of a celebratory meeting uh where we welcomed uh our two newest Council uh members and we said goodbye to um our uh uh old council members as well as uh thanked a lot of our Volunteers in our city so now we're getting down into business which is why we're all here um so at this stage um Madam 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 IL annual meeting notice dated December 16th 2024 which was properly distributed and P posted per statutory requirements please be advised the fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain the system at the deis and return it thereafter thank you very much uh roll call please Mr Boyer present Miss Hamlet here Mr miss cson here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here miss to here council president McAn present all right at this time I would actually ask our fire department to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you for that all right um Madam clerk would you please read the explanatory note regarding a closed session and hearing and comments please a closed 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 the council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the Lecter clearly state your name and address spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes unless you 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 very much all right um at this time do I have a motion to approve the regular and Clos session meeting minutes from December 17th 2024 four so moved second all in favor I opposed all right uh as well do I have a motion to approve council president I believe that there may be one member who wishes to recuse from that Vote or abstain AB yeah we weren't here okay we were here okay so you don't want to abstain or she didn't say anything yeah okay she was just looking at me like all right so we'll approve it then uh unanimous unanimously for those who are voting um secondly do I have a motion to approve the minutes for the organizational meeting of January 7th 2025 so moved second all right all in favor I opposed okay motion carries all right we're on to our report section of our meeting uh Madame mayor your report please thank you council president I have some exciting updates to share with you all tonight I'm really proud to announce that thanks to the tireless efforts of our mayor's homelessness Task Force One individual who has been homeless for eight years will be moving into permanent housing next week and just today our dedicated team helped another person who has experienced homelessness for two years view an apartment additionally we have one individual moving into transitional Supportive Housing and another into senior housing so this is really incredible progress and it's all happening really quickly because of the UN faing commitment of the task force and our volunteers and our service providers in Summit um and this has been only since July we've made a lot of progress uh so their focus and on finding long-term Solutions is really making a difference so thank you to all of all involved um I also want to highlight two exciting events this weekend summit's free public library in partnership with the YMCA will host the their Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday unfortunately if you have not already signed up the 600 100 person registration filled up so quickly um but I encourage you to mark your uh calendars for future events and on Sunday if you missed the opportunity on Saturday the summit Chinese American Association will host another fantastic Chinese New Year celebration at the Summit Middle School both events will feature incredible performances and activities to celebrate the year of the snake last year both events were really phenomenal so I encourage you to get out if you if you didn't if you've missed them in the past um in add addition despite the weather we had a great turnout for many of the MLK Day of Service events around town I had the privilege of visiting and helping out at Several of them and um one important note one of the things um at the Arboretum was postponed because of the weather uh the Valentine's Day uh card making activity um at the arum has been rescheduled to next Saturday morning from 9:00 a.m. to 12 and the cards will be created for uh clients at Sage elder care and lastly I want to express my sincere thanks to our Department of Public Works staff who worked tirelessly long 12-hour shifts around the clock this holiday weekend to prepare for and respond to the snow event um and it's because of their Dedication that our city continues to function smoothly no matter what Mother Nature sends our way so that's all I have thank you thank you very much great report um all right uh now on to our city administrator report administrator Baldwin please thank you council president um starting off with an important update Yuki county has issued a Code Blue Alert which remains in effect through January 24th due to the very low temperatures outside uh anyone that is in need of shelter can go to the Union County division of Social Services during business hours for assistance there's a flyer also on our website and has been shared on social media so please share that with anyone that may need that assistance um on a different note and very timely since all of our firefighters are here um I'm pleased report that the new Firehouse at 281 Broad Street is now fully operational and The Old Firehouse is no longer in service um trees the curbside tree collection is ending on January 31st so make sure that all residents have your Christmas trees outside before then to be collected and lastly the summit free market will be held this Friday at the transfer station from 12:00 to 2: for anyone who is looking to pick up or drop off items and that concludes my report thank you very much all right uh for my report I have two items one is um I'm going to I'd like to announce a correction to the notice in the papers and mailings that the city of summits affordable housing committee will hold a zoom meeting on Tuesday February 18th at 6 pm to provide its annual status update of the city pursuant to the requirements of its settlement agreement with the fair share housing center and Judgment of compliance and Repose granted on January 22nd 2019 by The Honorable Camille Kenny JSC this final we're about to end round three this final annual status update will address all affordable housing activities that have occurred within the city in the past year the zoom meeting information is located on the notice for the meeting posted on our City's website the notice mistakenly said Monday instead of Tuesday so this is a correction make sure everyone gets it so the meeting will be taking place on Tuesday February 18th 2025 um and then my second um report is uh some of you may have uh heard or seen but I wanted to make sure uh I announc this in public is that the city's ride share program that we had been running for seven or eight years um the uh Council decided at the end of last year that we were not going to re-up it with our vendors uh I think it was Lyft so if for those who are familiar with the program this is where the city subsidized uh residents to use a a rod share app uh to get dropped off at the train station get picked back up on the train station they could um uh they could schedule a a ride with one of the with the app um the the reason for doing this was way back when our Our Miss Baldwin's uh predecessor Michael Rogers suggested this as an alternative to try to take some pressure off of our very limited U Commuter or I'm sorry resident commuter parking spots and the thought process was if we could be creative and allow people to maybe use a ride share program it would save the city millions of dollars uh by not having to build a new uh parking garage so the council adopted it at the time and it's been running uh ever since uh we made the decision in December not to do this it was it's been it usually you have to sign a new contract starting January 1st um and we did this because last year it cost about $80,000 of our taxpayer money to to subsidize uh these rides and again the thought was that money made sense in the context of not having to build a new garage well lo and behold I don't think anyone's really looked at the numbers recently um after covid the fact is not as many people are commuting uh into the City and uh we were running about 30 rides a day was kind of the peak amount that was being demanded and it made no sense to continue to subsidize this because we have a lot more commuter parking spaces available than 30 um so this was 80 odd th000 that uh we just did not need to spend and we made the decision to cancel it so for those people who were using it I apologize but um it you know we have to watch our you know nickels and dimes and and $80,000 is more than nickels and dimes so we made the decision to discontinue it and I just wanted to make sure that people were aware of that if they were trying to find the app and wonder why they couldn't get an an a city subsidized uh lifter Uber to the train station and that is my president's report okay all right so um oddly may I it looks to me like we may have a swearing in uh ceremony or more than one possibly yes so all right we're going to begin with um Jacob Basque and so um why don't Jacob why don't you come up and anybody you choose to bring with you good evening everybody thanks for coming out appreciate it um it's always very humbling to see the fire service come out for all our SP Personnel I think we have members from brookley Heights chadam I think Elizabeth and blomfield appreciate it coming out um thank you guys to far Cree for stepping up I know it's a big deal went through a lot to get to this point congratulations and to the families thank you for sharing your loveing with us our department is composed of a bunch of Highly dedicated firefighters and officers we promise we will train your recruits give them the resources needed so they can fill the mission safely and thank you for sharing with us with that I'll hand it over to the mayor thank you Chief let me do a little introduction here Jacob Basin became a volunteer with the summit Fire Department in August 2024 and served in the volunteer divisions Hose Company number two Jacob has completed firefighter 1 and two and has received training as a nationally registered emergency medical Tech he's also an active member of the Morris Township volunteer department since 2022 Jacob has an Associates from associates degree from RIT and Valley Community College V Vocational Technical programs in environmental control technology and Commercial and energy management technology could you have found a longer okay just checking Jacob also holds several safety certifications probo proboard Hazmat awareness and operations rapid intervention crew Advanced Auto auto stabilization heavy lifting operations and advanced forcable entry congratulations Jacob on your appointment as a career firefighter with the summit Fire Department okay raise your right hand and repeat after me I Jacob Basin do solemnly swear I Jacob Baskin 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 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 swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the position of probationary firefighter of the position of probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God thank [Applause] so next familiar name here uh Joshua Evers come on up while you're coming I will I will start introduction here Joshua Evers come on up became a volunteer with the summit Fire Department in August 2024 and served in the volunteer divisions hose number two Josh has completed firefighter 1 and two since 2023 Josh has been an active member of the Oldwick Township Volunteer Fire Department Josh graduated from Vorhees High School in 2022 Josh holds several certificates Hazmat awareness and operations IC 100 700 and 800 you skipped a couple um rapid intervent rapid intervention crew congratulations Josh on your appointment as a career firefighter with the summit Fire Department raise your right hand repeat after me I Joshua Evers do solemnly swear I Joshua Evers do solemly 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 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 swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the position of probationary firefighter of the position of probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God [Applause] that's all right next and I meant to wait I got a whisper little pronunciation check Nicholas srao come on up and bring your friends and family and as you approach I will introduce you Nicholas srao became a volunteer with the summit Fire Department in June of 2023 and served in the volunteer divisions chemical engineer company 1 Nick has completed firefighter 1 and two he's also an active member of the Berkeley Heights volunteer fire department since 2017 Nick graduated from Governor Livington High School in 2018 he holds several certificates Swift water technician fire instructor level one and rope technician congratulations Nick on your appointment as a career firefighter to the summit Department raise your right hand and repeat after me I Nicholas srao do solemnly swear I Nicholas sraco I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States I'll 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 truth faith and I'll will bear truth faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the government established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under authority of the people I do solemnly swear I do solemly swear that I will Faithfully that I will Faithfully that I will Faithfully impartially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties and perform all the duties of the position of probationary firefighter of probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God [Applause] just and last but certainly not least Braden alren come on up Brayden became a volunteer with the summit Fire Department in June of 2023 and served in the volunteer divisions Union host company 1 Nick has completed sorry bad Q Braden has completed fire firefighter 1 and two he's also an active member of the chadam township volunteer fire department since 2019 presently Braden is attending the County College of Morris some of the certificates Braden holds are rapid intervention crew operations incident command systems 100 200 and 300 vehicle rescue operations and Machinery rescue awareness operations and technician levels congratulations Braden on your appointment as a career firefighter with the summit Fire Department raise your right hand repeat after I Braden alren do solemnly swear I Bren alren do Solly 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 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 swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the position of probationary firefighter of the position of probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so H [Applause] God for all right that the presentation uh Council thank you again uh always very support the fire department you always fill up vacancies and a very tumy man we appreciate it so I'm B the fire depart thank you all for your support and we appreciate it also like to request a five minute recess so we can clear the chambers after that I just want to say welcome gentlemen and I also want to tell everybody here that I had the privilege of being part of the interview process and these gentlemen are very impressive so we're very fortunate to have them welcome to [Applause] Summit council president if I could just have a couple words be while while you'reall walking out but I I I just want to say congratulations to the parents um you've raised some very impressive young men and this is only the start um and I'm I'm very I'm very very uh happy for you what I'm seeing here makes my warms my heart you know I have children of my own and and seeing them go off into a career is just it's very exciting so congratulations all right uh with that we'll take a five minute recess for you guys to go celebrate and uh congratulate each other so well well deserved and congratulations uh gentlemen e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're going to continue on with our meeting now um at this time I'm going to ask uh councilman palowski for our historical minute and we had such a good crowd I know I don't know what they're going to miss they're going to wish they had stayed well I you know I uh we don't have a volunteer for tonight um so sometimes when that happens I I look back on the library website and I dusted off a couple of old historic minutes um about uh the history of summit as interpreted by some of our former uh high school students so first one's about the township of summit and the second one is about the city of summit so and I'll I'll cut some of the redundancies but uh this first one is by uh Josie coats who um was a Summit High School student April 3rd 2018 uh Summit has a history of Independence and its story of becoming a Township provides a lesson in the strong will and Keen foresight of a few select people Springfield Summit and New Providence were part of a larger area consisting of 1 half a million Acres purchased from the lenpy Indians in 1644 and named Elizabeth Town after England's Queen Elizabeth in 1793 Springfield Township which included New Providence at the time uh was known as Turkey Hill and as turkey and Summit was known as Turkey Hill separated from Elizabeth Town in 1809 New Providence and Turkey Hill separated from Springfield but Turkey Hill operated politically under New Providence Township by the late 1860s Summit Township was growing increasingly irritated at New Providence Township's lack of care for Summit um another reason for summit's increase in demand for Independence was its growing economy due to the railroad coming in 1873 thanks to a local Saw Mill owner Jonathan crane Bonnell who had offered land at no charge to the Essex and Morris and Essex railroad to build the rails through Summit because of the railroad Summit began to shift uh from a largely farming economy to a capitalist Resort for the wealthy um another notable person in summit's history is GJ uh tibit a New York lawyer and Resident Summit who not only ra rallied residents to seek independence from New Providence but secured the introduction of the bill to uh the New Jersey House and Senate as the bill was being passed through the House and Senate he found a clause that had been slipped into the bill requiring a vote of the people in each Township which surely meant defeat for the people of summit uh thebid alerted the governor to this and the governor demanded the bill be return to its original form which was easily passed as the ACT to form Summit Township and was approved uh March 23rd 1869 fast forward 30 years um and this one's by car wo from 2015 Summit was incorporated as a city at a special Charter election on April 11th 1899 by a vote of the Township's electorate 804 to 163 the step followed approval of the New Jersey legislature uh to Grant its City status despite a 5:1 voting margin this was not easy to do Summit became a Township in 1869 was governed by a three-man committee dominated by Democrats the reason for the change to a city form of government was the township was getting too large uh 1899 population was over 5,000 for three uh people to handle its Affairs and the committee did not have sufficient Powers Republicans led by one of summit's best known residents again Jonathan Bonnell were pushing the city plan and the Democrats dominating Township government were generally opposed William lned that's a familiar name uh was a key figure in these discussions and as he was in many other aspects of summit's history as the first president of Summit Bank he chaired a committee in late 1898 to explore the best way to change the form of government he concluded that the change should be from a Township to a city Laur suggested when one is grown to a man's size he can no longer wear child's clothes and it is the same with a town when it is grown to the population of a city its Township clothing was outgrown in the weeks leading to the election there were vigorous debates compromises shifts and opinions and votes eventually there was strong support for the change the April election introduced the first mayor of the city George H Wilcox a Republican and the new seven-man common Council representing five Republicans and two Democrats three representatives were from each of the two Wards and one at large Charles day was elected the council president the new government wasted no time and we've heard this before in the Tammy Baldwin historicals um a few days after the vote the first comment Council adopted the first ordinance providing the mayor and Council would serve without pay an ordinance that still stands today which is rare in municipalities is it really okay other early actions included matters that are somewhat entertaining from today's perspective at its meeting in May 1899 Appropriations for the uing year were approved and included $1,500 for fire 500 for health 4,000 for police 5,000 General City expenses $18,500 for roads lights and water 1,000 for the poor totaling $ 32,200 in June the council adopted Nordin to prevent Vice and immorality to possess public peace and uh good order in the city of summit in early 1900 an ordinance establishing the speed limit of anybody want to guess 7 miles hour for Autos in the city right thank you councilman palowski it's always great to get uh the history of our great Community uh so and especially told through you but from uh high school students perspective so that's great um at this moment we have a treat it's not on our agenda so uh it's a nice little treat we've got a presentation um our presentation tonight is by Michelle Delano I hope I said that correctly um and she's going to tell us a little bit about our house and how it operates in our community please thank you hi everybody thank you mayor thank you Town Council for having me here tonight and allowing me this time to share our story with everybody I'm Michelle Delano I'm the CEO of our house um our house is a nonprofit organization that serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and we started Our Roots right here in Summit 45 years ago when a mom wanted more for her kids and as a mom I would want as much as I could give my kids so I understand our first house opened on Greenfield Avenue 45 years ago and since then we've grown to have two houses in Summit plus six condos and then throughout the state of New Jersey we have 16 houses throughout Union Essex Maris middle sex and Somerset counties in addition we have eight day programs and we serve over a 100 people in our employment services division this however is just the story about our house and I here tonight I am here tonight to ask for help from this wonderful Community that's always been so welcoming to us as I mentioned we have six condos and those house about or home to about 12 individuals and we have this strange phenomenon that keeps going on it's happening to me right now I keep aging just like they do and they have more um things that happen to them just like that happens to me more aches and pains and things that change as the decades go by but they deserve the absolute best and so as I watch them get old I want only the best for them and as we do our strategic plan we try and figure out what we're going to do with with them and their situations right now they all live in condos which are not appropriate to age in place it's not they don't have um they have steep stairs they don't have U uh doorways that are wide enough and so it's up to me to try and figure out what to do some of you may know um who I think is kind of like the second mayor of Summit Andy Anderson who allowed me to talk about him tonight he's a well-known Summit resident um and he is served by our house he is getting older and he does live in one of those condos and as I watch him age started to get really nervous and so I have met um with the mayor and I have shared my um my concerns about Andy Andy loves to spend his time in in the city here right I'm sure most of you have seen him he loves to go to the football game he tells me all about them I don't understand cuz I don't come to them so I don't know anybody um but he is um he loves to go to the salon and hang out there all day with the ladies he uh loves to eat here he loves to just be a part of his community and my fear is that I can find him a new place to live but it'll take him out of his beloved city of summit and so my hope and dream is that I get to keep him here in Summit where he is happy and that is where I need this this community's help I am looking to develop a ranch style house for Andy and three or four or five of his friends that is walkable to downtown the biggest challenge is that I need four parking spaces um which I know is always a challenge whenever I'm looking for any kind of of program or housing and while we've been the mayor has been very supportive of this dream I have not been able to connect or make anything happen um and so I would love to come to to this community and see if there is anything that anybody knows of that we can do to help make this this dream a reality um Andy is getting older and time is ticking so I would like to act on this as quickly as possible um so anything that we can do I never even put went through my presentation here I forgot all about it um but the um I do have my information here and I do have business cards with me so I can be found on the ourhouse website as well that's easy enough um and if anybody has any ideas I would love to hear about them because I know that in my heart I know that we're going to make this happen and this is going to be one of the greatest news stories as a community comes together to me to help one of their own there's a lot of uh bad news every day and so I would love to put some good news out there can I answer any questions for anybody questions council president so uh Andy when I was in fifth grade he would come by every foot he he's seen like every football game from fifth grade all the way up to um high school and he always reminds me of every touchdown that I dropped even to this day you know he's like Jamal you dropped that touchdown against you know against Irvington I remember that like like Andy you never forget man so but uh I Andy is remarkable uh human being and he's loved and adored by everyone in town I mean so um I don't know whatever we need to do to to take a look at this would be great you know yes please Madam mayor Michelle thank you obviously for being here tonight but also for all your efforts um I'm going to make a little plug just piggybacking on your presentation because I think it's important um to make suggestions to the vulnerable Minds um Realtors landlords people that you know are cruising through town and see a piece of property that might work um please you know talk this in the back of your mind and and look around town if you see anything that looks like it could even be a conversation please reach out to Michelle reach out to myself I I'm happy to connect you with Michelle um I think this would be a really um big win for for people we care about and and it's just another place where our suit and the people that live here can show how awesome we are so very true also we we hope it's affordable being a nonprofit council president yes please councilman Smallwood thank you Michelle thank you very much for for coming and and presenting this I think you know we are elected officials here but Andy is a lot more popular than we are uh if he ran for if he ran for Council I'm sure he would beat all of us so um you know are there I mean obviously this is probably a completely different conversation at a later date but you know I would be interested in finding out the the areas or you know the homes that you've looked at so far um you know I I'm hoping that there's 23,000 residents watching this tonight so that they know uh that you need help Andy needs help and you know as the mayor mentioned you know we can be the summit that we are the what what was it what was that what was that quote that you gave last night on volunteers yes dunk America but Su runs thank you very much so uh I didn't want to take your Thunder thank you I appreciate that uh so footnoted once our residents know that Andy needs help you need help our house needs help uh I'm hoping that we will rise to the occasion and and find a place because it would be a true tragedy if we lost Andy yeah I agree I agree thank you Michelle I just I mean for the people watching at home um it might make sense that people who don't really know how much you guys do in the community and the number of residents here it might be helpful if you just explain that a little bit for them so they know if they are willing to get involved just the scope of everything other the other stuff that you guys do sure sure so we in Summit we serve um two four bedroom houses so that's 128 obviously and then the six condos which is I think it's actually 11 but it could hold up to 12 um so that's what we serve but overall at our house we serve about 300 people um we're well established in the state of New Jersey we have an excellent reputation um we do phenomenally on all of our uh annual inspections and things like that so we hold ourselves to a higher standard I hold us to a higher standard um our employees are dedicated we have almost 300 of those employees who come in who give up their holidays that this is their family um and that they are dedicated to the people that we serve they love them like they're their own um and our guys love them like they're their you know their family um and you know it's just it's great what we do and it's great to be able to uh wake up every day and do this as my job and to be a part of something that is so REM remble because it's not just the people within our house but it's the people around our house too right it's the communities that we're in we're in so many of them and you know people are so generous and so kind to us and uh and that you know overshadows the ones that are not but uh it is very um you know there's a lot of good that happens and that I get to to see every day that's great I think I was on Council my last go around I think you guys require acquired a one of your properties in town and um nothing you guys are just great neighbors um and uh they fit great with the community and I guess you know one of the benefits of being able to do this not just to help Andy but you could backfill the other four or five different spots so it's not just helping one that we all know it's also helping a lot of other people that we don't um which is always a great goal and and um this is just the mosaic part of the Mosaic you guys are a great part of what I would call that Mosaic in Summit that really cares and cares for people who need help and um it it's so appropriate I think you guys have started here and you're still engaged here and it's one of the things that I think everyone can be very very proud of all the hard work that you guys have done so thank you thank you good any other questions all right thank you very much all right thank you everybody thank you Michelle okay all right um we're getting on to the uh big business part of our meeting and we're going to start off we have a ordinance for hearing today so uh Madam clerk if you want to read the ordinance ordinance number 25- 3327 an ordinance to amend an ordinance entitled an ordinance to establish the 2024 salaries wages or compensations of and for the officers employees of the city of summit in the County of Union New Jersey thank you uh councilwoman toe okay thank you council president um this ordinance amends the 2024 salary ordinance to create a new position entitled Finance director and when Tammy Baldwin was appointed the city administrator recently she and the city agreed that she would retain the the title of Chief Financial Officer and provide oversight for that function Miss Baldwin unlike her predecessors had has the certifications and the licenses to do that um however we still need someone to run the city's finances on a day-to-day basis and that's what this new Finance director would do so the position is not adding to headcount and instead it's merely filling a hole in the city Administration I move to open the hearing on this ordinance second all right I'm going to declare our the the hearing for this ordinance open does anyone from the public have comments on this ordinance comments from Council all right I'm going to uh hearing now I'm going to close the hearing um at this time uh we have ordinance for final consideration uh Madam clerk ordinance number 25- 3327 an ordinance to amend an ordinance entitled an ordinance to establish the 2024 salaries wages or compensations of and for the officers and employees of the city of Summit County of Union New Jersey councilwoman to thank you council president having closed the hearing on this ordinance just moments ago I moved to I moved this ordinance for final adoption so moved all right uh roll call please Mr Boyer hi Miss Hamlet hi Miss cinon hi Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president McAn I all right right ordinance is adopted all right moving right along we have a couple of ordinances for uh introduction first is a finance ordinance uh please read the ordinance Madam clerk ID number 11729 an ordinance to amend an ordinance entitled an ordinance to establish the 2024 salaries wages or compensations of and for the officers and employees of the city of Summit County of Union New Jersey thank you councilwoman to okay thank you council president um this ordinance would add director of Public Works and Engineering to the Department of Community Services um this would permit the city to reorganize DCS and um realize efficiencies do I have a second second I'm okay um I'll uh we have to roll call to intro all right roll call please Mr Boyer hi m Miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss toad I president McAn I all right the hearing will be on no so the the hearing date for this ordinance uh will be on February 4th uh 2025 all right uh we have another ordinance uh for introduction um Madam clerk ID number 11 1689 an ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-25 regulations for the movement and parking of traffic on Municipal property and Board of Education property subsection 7- 25.2 Municipal parking lot areas thank you uh councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is ordinance number ID number 11689 uh as the clerk had just uh read this is to amend a current ordinance uh what we're looking to do is at the Broad Street Garage to designate the top section level as non-resident parking currently there are 128 spaces designated for non-residents uh there are 43 resident permit spaces as we have since we've opened up the Broad Street East parking lot which is the ground level uh parking that is that has given us we've regained back 32 spaces and that is currently designated for Resident parking so by opening up those spaces um we felt like it was because we have a huge demand being a commuter town uh from non-residents to have more parking and obviously this does generate some Revenue because we charge non-resident parking a lot more than we do Resident parking so I moved to uh move this ordinance to for introduction second all right right um roll call please Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet Miss Hamlet I'm sorry we're just introducing this just in did you have a question or comment um on the process or on the ordinance on the ordinance that's we're just introducing it we we'll have the hearing in two weeks all right I think she okay yeah Miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I toad I president m i all right motion carries um all right uh we have another uh ordinance uh for introduction from the community programs and Parking Services uh Madam clerk will you please read the ordinance yes ID 11702 in ordinance to amend the code appendix a schedule of fees contained in the revised General ordinances of the city of summit thank you councilman Smallwood thank you council president uh as the clerk mentioned this is the ordinance number ID one ID number 11702 uh this is an ordinance to amend our current me membership fees at the Aquatic Center as well as the uh Golf Course green fees the last time the Aquatic Center and the golf course fees were raised were in 2016 membership increases in 2016 were approximately 5% even with a 5% increase this year in each membership category Summit would remain one of the most affordable aquatic facilities uh Aquatic Facility options in the surrounding area I'd like to move this ordinance for introduction second roll call please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palaski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president McAn I motion carries all right uh we're on to the resolution portion of our meeting we've got a few from Finance uh this evening um and want you take us take it out uh councilwoman toad okay I'm going to defer to Mr Smallwood on the first okay thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11693 this resolution transfer oh I'm sorry I should read it umth authorized transfer of Appropriations as of one January 21st 2024 operating budget um this resolution transfers funds from 2024 operating budget as of 1231 2024 with a balance to operating accounts with insufficient funds the total amount transferred out of uh the total amount transferred must equal the total amount transferred in these transfers are allowed only during the last two months of a fiscal year in the first three months of the succeeding year thank you doare second second all right um this time are there any uh comments from the public on this resolution okay comments from Council yeah um councilwoman to yes I'm deferring to I'm deferring to M Mr Smallwood on this one um because I'm going to vote against this resolution this um was funding for HomeTown television that is not emergency funding I believe procedurally it should have been part of the regular budgeting process and should have been handled in that manner thank you uh other comments from Council all right um I think we're going to need a roll call vote on this Mr Boer I miss Hamlet hi Miss cinon I Mr palski I Mr Smallwood I miss toad nay president McAn I motion carries all right moving along to uh Finance number two councilwoman to okay thank you council president this is um um resolution ID 11694 it is titled um as a as resolution authorizing issuance of not exceeding $170,000 special emergency notes um this is not an emergency and we're not issuing notes um so it takes a bit of an explanation um this comes out of the pandemic Summit lost significant amounts of parking Revenue um and if I do the math quickly I believe it's $850,000 um that we were able to issue these emergency notes in 2021 and we are paying them back ratably over five years this is the last $170,000 tranch and it's a bit of a two-step authoriz passing this resolution allows us to set aside the funding so we can pay off the notes I believe next year if I've got that right um but feel free to correct me please administrator Baldwin through you council president um we are in fact issuing a note okay for $170,000 so what this allowed us to do was over five years uh they call it a special emergency the state allowed it for Revenue because of the losses that municipalities um uh were subject to during Co especially those of us who had parking utilities so over 5 years we pay back 170,000 a year so each year there is 170,000 budgeted in the parking utility to pay the note and so we renew it each year at $170,000 left next year will be in fact the last payment on that thank you great do we have a second second all right um at this time I'd like to open this up for comments from the public comments from Council I'd like to your emergency non-emergency [Laughter] um all right uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right Finance number three councilwoman to okay thank thank you council president this is resolution ID 11682 um I get the long titles established procedure authorizing special tax appeal attorney upon advice of and after request from tax assessor to file corrective appeals counter petitions and counter claims and stipulations of settlement with the Union County Tax Board and the New Jersey Tax Court um we do this annually we the city hires um an attorney to represent us on tax appeals and as the resolution title suggests to file counter claims when appropriate um and th this you know we we save more than we spend on this attorney um so I move this resolution for adoption do I hear a second second comments from the public comments from councel all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries Finance number four councilwoman to thank you council president this is resolution ID 11722 to authorize a shared service agreement with the buau of Madison um for information technology Support Services not to exceed $ 54,4 5432 um this is a six-month agreement we've been sharing an IT specialist with ma with the buau of Madison for some time um but he is going to work full-time for Madison so this buys us six months to come up with another solution and in the meantime we'll still have his services I second comments from the public yes council president so uh the Public's first oh wait your turn any comments from the public all right comments from Council Council and Boyer there's so many benches in between you know the people and the mic and um yes so uh we have six months to uh take a look at our cyber security posture right and um I'm going to engage and work with our business administrator um because I I think there was events that happened in Hoboken um with Ransom attacks and uh I think we we need to really take a look at that and also take a look at having somebody full-time I mean I don't know if it even works anymore to have somebody part-time in the city doing all of our it matters so I think there's a lot of discussion and we have we have some several months to do it so but I I think we need to take that very seriously um I've had some conversations about people that will come in and and review our cyber security posture for free because we live in an amazing town with smart people and uh had some good phone calls so I'm excited to talk to you about it Tammy thanks other comments from Council uh councilwoman Hamlet uh just something that I me me mentioned earlier which was the $1,500 uh with the additional Insurance fee we may just want to double check uh with Megan champney on that because as I kind of read into the further details it doesn't look like they can add us as an additional insured so I don't know if we would owe them that, 1500 by January 15th and then I guess my only other question is I guess it's a mute point because it's only six months but I can't if somebody can justify the $614 and $77 base monthly charge doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me but um I guess it's only six months so I just don't understand what that uh what are we paying for there right we're they're giving us hours so it doesn't doesn't make sense I think I can answer it go ahead thanks man it it covers not only the location the equipment but also the Personnel because the it's the joint uh service with all the dispatchers no no no this is this is the it oh the it um I can answer that too what that does is they they they give you um 24hour 7 coverage in case you do have not just Ransom any type of shutdown and you guys have been in this for I can't even tell you how long because I also represent Madison you guys have been in shared service with Madison probably in excess of a decade um to to consolidate and share services for the it support because you don't need it every day but you do need people if there is a a crash a virus um you know just just for example if your internet goes down you have to reset all passwords everything that's why they're there for right I get that but there's also other charges for if they if we use them for X number of hours past you know on a weekend or so I I guess it's just I wish they would explained that B I mean I think I that it's just it's the cost that they pay the people overtime for personnel because they have to come in on the weekends too C council president don't I mean don't they they do our Oprah requests as well right don't they do they do they pull emails for us and everything that that we need so they support um the city clerk's office and administration which is my point we've been using them for over a decade technology has changed drastically um and uh I think um our city clerk would agree that having someone on site to help with these thousands of op requests would be beneficial not only the cyber security issues that that happen that are da that we don't even know about so yes uh uh Miss Baldwin please thank you through you council president um I'll take a crack at this councilwoman Hamlet um the insurance piece for the 1500 that is um their policy went up so they pro-rated it and that $1,500 is what they say is our share of the increase in their policy so that's how they're handling that um often times when you enter into a shared service and you are the municipality supplying the service you get a little bit of something for that that may be without me going having done the research on it that might be what that base charges okay thank you um yeah the only thing I I would say is you know I I think this has been a very good valued relationship that city of summit has had for um as Mr giobi says I believe for a decade and there the history around this was you know with technology moming we could go down the route of having a Chief Information officer we have staff um or we could go with a shared service and it just made much more sense for our needs at the time to go with the shared service and um I I think it I think in uh both at the time and and and also with 2020 hindsight it's been a very good relationship ship um that the city's had with with Madison around this so um I fully support the resolution um I agree though with councilman Boyer times always change and we should always revisit something that work uh yesterday doesn't mean it'll work tomorrow um so it's worth uh having a review and and I think that this six-month window uh offers that review so all right um all in favor I opposed motion carries all right uh Finance number five Council okay finally a short one um th this resolution is ID 11719 authorizing um acur time payout to a fire retiring fire department employee um the gentleman is retiring and we should pay him you know his his bank's personal days so I move this this resolution for for cons would adoption for adoption thank you a second all right uh comments from the public comments from Council council president does the the amount that uh the retiring firefighter do we need to make that public that they it's in the packet it it is okay I wasn't sure if it was only in the Clos session packet or I I believe it was in the packet no no no okay so the question is should it's it's it's a nominal amount it's a nominal amount yeah I don't know because I don't want people at home saying well how much is this person getting right no um they're owed it but I just you know it's not a problem to disclose the amount at all it's not that under the open public records ACT people can open people's salaries stiens Etc so the the payout for a retiring firefighter for the money that's doing owing is absolutely could be disclosed sure so um I'll just round $3,700 okay other comments uh from Council all right all in favor I opposed motion carries okay all right moving right along all right um capital projects and Community Services number one councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is resolution ID 11728 uh this is an important step in our round four obligation and this resolution commits to the fourth round present and perspective need affordable housing obligations uh the city of summit has demonstrated a history of voluntary compliance as evidenced by the third round for reasons set forth in this resolution the mayor and common Council hereby commit to the DCA fourth round present need rehabilit ation obligation of 59 and the DCA fourth round prospective need new construction obligation of 345 as described in this resolution subject to all reservations of rights which specifically include without limitation the following there's three items here which are the right to adjust the city's fair share obligations based on a windshield survey or similar survey a vacant land adjustment a durational adjustment and all other applicable adjustments permitted in accordance with applicable Co regulations or other applicable law and the right to revoke or amend this resolution in the event of a successful legal challenge or legislative change to the amended FHA and the right to contrary position or adjust its fair share obligations in the event of a third party challenge to the city's fair share obligations I would like to move this resolution for adoption do I hear a second second all right at this time I'll take comments from the public sorry on up no comment question I'm Andrew Walker the mic I'm Andrew Walker from 242 Kent Place Boulevard can we just get a uh a watered down explanation of what you just said commissioner or council person thanks yeah um we have our our planner here uh Joe Burgess I think what we'll do is what if there are other questions from the public he'll he'll consolidate them and we'll answer all of them after the end of uh public comment sector thank you you're welcome any other comments from the public or questions all right uh Mr Burgess you want to tackle that I appreciate Mr Walker's ask of a wood or down explanation um I'll try to be brief um every 10 years uh the state of New Jersey publishes new housing need numbers for municipalities throughout the state uh in this fourth round uh which covers 2025 to 2035 um the state has given Summit a number of 345 perspective need units um you have a choice at this moment to either accept that number um and the determination is really a function of whether or not the DCA has used the appropriate methodology has spelled out in the legislation our review of the information is that they have in fact used the proper methodology which results in a number of 345 we are obligated to file that determination with the state by the end of this month and then after that we begin the preparation of the housing element and fair share plan where we were undoubtedly consistent with all of our prior reals uh seek a vacant land adjustment which will substantially lower that number um but this is just the first step in a long process which presumably consistent with the legislation will end uh with the adoption of our housing plan by the end of June of this year great um while you're here Mr Burgess I guess if if if there's no other we I think uh we're closed public comments um are there other comments or questions from Council on this resolution comments or questions okay thank you Mr Burgess okay um I'll just end it and just as Mr uh Burgess mentioned this is a one step in a multi-step process to get to June 30th um and we have a bunch of obligations including engaging with the planning board uh to come up with a plan Etc I don't know if you want to just speak to that going forward uh very briefly what happens after January 31st um any objectors to the selection of a number have the month of February to file an objection um we are not objecting to the number that has been prated for us so consequently we should not be receiving any objection um all the objections for Statewide U the affordable housing dispute resolution program will be reviewing and coming to a conclusion about those objections in the month of March and then following that um we proceed with the preparation of our housing plan and we are in fact obligated um to adopt that housing plan by the end of June or if we don't meet that deadline uh we may lose all immunity from affordable housing litigation so it's important that we meet that up that deadline great thank you all right and no other comments uh here see any okay um all in favor I opposed motion carries all right moving later along to capital projects and Community Services number two councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is resolution ID 11620 excuse me um whereas the summit downtown in has offered to donate the funding to the city to install fencing and landscaping around lot one on DeForest Avenue and will enter into and manage the contract directly with artistic fence to install the fencing with an estimated value of $833 40 and with Castle Point landscape design for the Landscaping with an estimated value of $5,610 181 both artistic fence and Castle Point landscape design have been fully vetted by the city as contractors and meet all requirements which will allow them to work on public property I would like to move this resolution your second no second sorry all right comments from the public comments from Council yes yes councilman Smallwood no no to you thank you council president and councilman board uh I I guess I I have a little concern about the the wording of this and maybe I'm just reading into the words but um we'll enter into and manage the contract directly with artistic fence um is this something that SDI is going to be managing without the city or because in my feeling because this is city property this is something that DPW should be managing so um administrator Baldwin or director Sher we we had a couple of I guess we had a couple iterations around this around prevailing wage we had a couple questions from the qpa so do you want to talk a little bit how how about the process how this project will be managed who short through you council president yes well it might detail who manages it we obviously and absolutely would have staff out there to see it I mean the fence will just take a day we'd have someone out there to make sure the layout's where we want that the fence is what we want uh the quality is what we want and the same for the Landscaping itself so um in terms of managing the actual construction yes we will oversee it cuz then own it so it doesn't help us to accept you know dead shrubs or fencing that's crooked or in the wrong spot so if that helps alleviate some concerns yes it does thank you um the other concern is about the quality of the fencing uh is this the same type of quality of fencing that we have on Summit Avenue that's across from the Broad Street Garage that we tried to put up that we put up to pre to prevent commuters crossing the street any at any point on Summit Avenue because in my view that that you bump into it the wrong way and it bends um that area where we're putting this fencing up now I I believe has a lot or will have especially during the farmers market have a lot more uh you know pedestrian traffic and I'm more concerned about us putting up this fencing even though the city's not paying for it well technically they are since it's some of downtown inks taxpayer dollars um my concern is the quality of the fencing itself um could you could you speak to the the actual quality itself and is it the same that we have on Summit Avenue yes again through you council president so the fence would be essentially the same as the Summit Avenue fencing just so it's easier to maintain and I don't want to say stockpile but just easier to get it and that we have familiarity with it when it needs a repair replacement so in that regard yes the Summit Avenue fence for the length that's been up and for the abuse it I mean it's right up on the curb so it is getting snowplow pushed so it's done reasonably well we have had to repair some we feel this one here with the way it's set up could an erand car hit it yes could um you know kids put too much weight on jumping over it yes but I think it'll hold up pretty well so okay thank you other comments council president yeah yes Council so for the last uh as I can remember in my short um uh public office life um SDI sent out a notification to candidates in the summer um I had a question for our city solicitor the other day and sent an email um last summer uh this notification said while our events happen on public property when the event is in progress SDI has set rules in place in order to make the attendees experience at our event the most enjoyable experience possible possible for this reason we do not allow any political campaigning within the confines of our event for example while we don't disallow politicians campaigning outside of the farmers market we do not permit them to do so inside the market the same is true for our other events downtown such as the Arts and cars and family fund night um as a summit city council member uh I you know I I I respect what SDI does I I'm all about you know Community engagement and I'm all about the business owners and everything but I just want to make sure as we put up uh fencing around it the council it's still a public space right and the council sets the rules in terms of what goes on in public spaces and uh right SDI having this fence up and confining this space doesn't open the door to SDI having some internal policies where they can adopt and um prevent people from campaigning or other forms of public speech answer that question yeah please U I have an opinion on it but I'm not a lawyer yeah so so there's a uh a little document that we all enjoy in the United States called the US Constitution I was going to go the First Amendment uh provides for the freedom of speech one of the highest forms of speech in our um democracy is political speech so you can have reasonable time place amount of restrictions on it this would be a prior restraint on Free Speech you you can't do that you can't prohibit it and it's taking place on public lands so Ju Just Like You couldn't prohibit um people from you know uh you can there's things you can prohibit campaigning on school property with school's in session that's permitted um that's a reasonable time place amount of restriction because the children aren't voters generally um but here that would not be prohibited we we addressed that back in August so just because you put up a fence doesn't in any way take away the fact that it's still on public lands and so people members whether they're citizens of summon or not they have the right to be on public lands and exercise their first amendment rights I'd like to thank our city solicitor for that um explanation and based on that I'm in support of the beautification of that uh parking lot thank you um councilwoman to you may have raised your hand first council member palowski um and I speak because um I did spend seven years on the board of summit downtown Inc as its Treasurer and once um that that there is already a fence around the farmers market it's first iteration was one of those orange plastic silt fences um I mean the purpose has been to keep the market to keep people basically out of the farmers market before it opens in the morning people are so anxious to come to our farmers market that they honestly are there before 7 8:00 in the morning on Sundays and the vendors need the time the space they've got the the vehicles they need to be to be able to set up and set up safely um so we origin there was originally an an extraordinarily ugly orange silt fence um director shra or you know Mr shreer at some point kindly replaced that with basically a beach fence the kind that keeps the sand out um which is better looking but still not particularly attractive and SDI for years had been advocating for a more attractive fencing solution something we would all be proud of um to keep the farmers market you know safe as as as the vendors were setting up and it this reads to me as the first step they're they're trying to um secure the most common way that people come into the market when they're not supposed to um and if this works then they can as as they suggest may work their way around the the entire parking lot but this is definitely an aesthetic upgrade over what what there is now um and it'll also help provide additional Landscaping um along the alley I mean there are two ways people enter downtown Summit from the train station they see the liquor store um or in a Parker Park Parker shop ah sorry Shopper parking lot and they see the alley um so any visual upgrade we can provide I think is a good thing and because SDI is funded by downtown Property Owners not by General City revenues this really is no cost to direct cost to the city taxpayers thank you other comments councilman palowski U thank you um Miss to answered some of my questions I still don't know why we really need to have a fence there I've asked this question before I I accept your explanation and certainly it sounds like it's going to be a a nicer fence than we have had over the past couple years but I don't know we don't have fences at the other lots and I kind of like that so that was it other comments yeah I I would just uh wrap up saying um you know I I think it is it would would be an upgrade over like a dune fencing um if they do need it it sounds like there is a rational reason why they offence makes sense uh with for that particular lot it's where the farmers market obviously is um I do I'm I'm happy to see SDI spending money to beautify parts of our downtown um I think there are other parts of our downtown which I would love them to focus on and spend some of their money on doing that as well so this is uh I'm not going to I'm I'm happy that this is happening I look forward to seeing more proposals to spend more money that they have um on doing that um so I I do support this resolution all right uh all in favor I I oppos motion carries okay capital projects and Community Services number three councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president uh this is ID 1168 three uh the city regularly regularly utilizes on-site vegetative waste Grinding Services throughout the year uh this process is also known as tub grinding which is utilized to grind Branch brush and leaf debris that is collected by the city as well as vegetative debris that is brought to the transfer station by residents and Commercial landscapers uh the city's current two-year contract is expiring and the department bid this service out instead of extending the current contract four bids were received on November 13th the lowest bit bidder from Frank galra and Son offered a half day rate of 3,000 per day and a full day rate of 3850 per day I would like to move this resolution second thank you uh comments from the public comments from Council yes council president councilman boy I couldn't help but read this um director CER and think we can't just ship this out somewhere like we do we have to spend $3,000 was a day to grind it up we can't put it in a pace some when to come and get it like any other garbage or anything like that is there yeah I'll let you yes through you council president excellent question so about a decade ago that is what we did so we would collect it and then haul it off and the price typically ran 50 70,000 just to haul it off so uh based on last year using this service and now I know the day rate makes this you know seem like it's astronomical but we really don't use it till later in the year uh and you know if we do have an event I don't want to jinx it but that creates a lot of vegetative waste for us uh so last year we used about $70,000 now the difference is one without hauling it and just dumping it somewhere it's friendlier to the planet but now we're also producing a product that the city and its residents can use so essentially we're paying the same but now we have an end product that has some use to the to the citizens so um so but but great question and yes that is what we used to do um and now you'll see that finding places actually accept this cuz uh there's rundi across the river rumors it did sell so we don't know how long they'll be in business so this is definitely a commodity that's uh um that's good to have the ability to to create this and and to not have to just truck it off so yeah thank you for your explanation other comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet uh thanks for your question councilman Bor I thought the same thing so I've been asking director sh more about vegetative uh grinding today than I probably ever wanted to to know but uh the one thing that we're going to look a little closer at in in in the next few months is you know what we looked at in the last week or so over this was how much did we actually uh bring in from contractors landscapers who are buying coupons at the transfer station I think last year we brought in $18,000 um we also looked at the Historical use in the last seven or 10 years of you know I think six or seven years ago we were spending 50 Grand now it's kind of gone up to 70 grand but um especially with the closure of of a nearby place there um looking at how competitive we are and and you know with some of those other entities so I think it's a good question and um we'll be talking more about that in committee as well thank you other comments councilman uh palowski so just to give a little perspective right because people are just looking at this and seeing numbers um director sher's right it does create a product and um I don't know maybe it cures for a year and then they they move it around but there are piles of free mulch there I have mulched my entire property with it uh a number of times and I'll tell you what it's not all always even there so people in this town are using it um and it seems like the numbers make sense I like having it so how do you get the I I borrow a trailer from uh Mr Kevin oconor thank you you're out there um and I I got a pitch for and you get your wheelbarrow out what's your hourly rate I'm going to hire you um all right other comments all right all in favor opposed motion carries all right um capital projects and Community Services number four councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president I think we should use some of the uh the product to put on our tree tree Wells next year we could get a couple wheelbarrows uh okay so this is ID 11704 uh this is a resolution uh whereas NJ do is requesting a resolution in support of their project to rehabilitate the bridges on Route 124 on the northern border of summit with chadam a kickoff meeting was held on November 6th 2024 with representatives of the city and NJ do and I recommend supporting uh moving this resolution I think we have a picture somewhere but I don't know if it's up but it's I don't think we need it Rosie but in case anybody had any questions we have some further documentation it's on the it's in the packet it's in the pack on the web right oh perfect I don't think it's here but we have it here yeah okay um comments from the public comments from Council on favor I opposed motion carries all right uh capital projects and community Services number five councilwoman Hamlet council president can I bundle the last four yes yes please do uh council president this is ID 1170 11699 11717 11716 these are declaring vacancies in the Department of Community Services Division of Public Works as discussed in close Clos session recreation parks and shade tree unit uh the assistant Foreman the second one is declaring a vacancy in the DCS division of public Public Works recreation park shade tree maintenance worker the third is declaring a vacancy again as discussed in close session uh Department of Community Services Division of Public Works lead driver sanitation unit and the fourth is declaring a vacancy in the Department of Community Services Division of Public Works the roads unit I would like to move all four of these resolutions second comments from the public comments from Council yes council president councilman Boyer ments tonight uh so as most of the council knows uh I've been chomping at the bit on this uh for about a year now I would like to really see Summit expand their reach in terms of employment and uh diversity within Summits um Workforce uh these are these are good jobs these jobs put kids into college right I've seen it uh I've had my experience in high school I know people Dads Moms who's worked for the the city of summit and put their kids through college their kids are doing well now they have kids and everything I you know I really would like to see our human resources department expand the reach of who um uh we're mark employment to um our our our chart our employment chart is uh you know yeah I'll leave it at that so thank you other comments yeah I I just wrap up I would agree with councilman Boer and I know councilwoman Tolson and I have spoken about this and uh it's one of our initiatives for this year that I think know admin the admin committee is going to spearhead working with our human resource area to make sure we cast a wider net I mean I think um obviously we want to hire the best people for Summit and I think the way you get the best people is you cast a wide net so the best people know about these positions um can apply for them and we should all want that and so I think it's a great initiative I look forward to seeing what the admin committee comes back with all right all in favor I opposed okay motion carries all right moving right along safety and health councilman Boer number one see Council woman Hamlet bundled all of those and now I'm not prepared you know that's not fair um I'll get there one sec okay here we go thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11669 uh the resolution on the uh alcohol test 9510 okay so the state of New Jersey has mandated that all law enforcement agencies transition from the alcohol test 7110 breathalizer which has been in use for more than 20 years uh the new tests 9510 or there will transition to the new test uh 9510 by 2025 this upgrade is critical to ensuring compliance with state regulations and maintaining the accuracy and reliability of the breathalizer test uh the Su Police Department department has secured a quote for the new machine at a cost of $ 22,8 22.50 to mitigate the financial burden of this transition the state of New Jersey has suspended its typical 50% reimbursement Rule and will instead provide 100% reimbursement for the purchase through the drunk Drivin enforcement fund the DDF uh currently the summit police department has $838 44 available and is ddef accounts with an additional 13,449 held by the state which will be reimbursed shortly after the purchase uh this allows the city to offset nearly the entire cost leaving a financial the final net expense of only $1,395 20116 I move to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council councilman uh uh councilman palowski yeah I see that Drager Inc uh makes these $22,000 um breathalizer does anybody know if they're publicly traded want to buy some stock and other comments councilwoman Hamlet I don't mean to put you on the spot councilman Boyer but do I feel like I remember this being in our budget last year or was that something else you remember uh I I don't I don't recall um you remember Tammy you council president um actually when we did the capital presentation the capital budget presentation um Chief zagorski had that in the budget but now that we have matching ddef funds we're only paying for a small portion so I've moved it out of the capital and over into their equipment line I was in the 2025 budget I was either dreaming it or remembering it okay so we got kind of Lucky in regarding the screen okay thank you very much good question great other comments all right all in favor I opposed motion carries on to safety and health number two councilman Boer thank you council president this is ID number 11724 authorized sponsorship of the no to protect program presented by the Department of Homeland Security uh this is this has been a very um uh close to my heart uh I've been pushing this for a while now um and as part of the partnership between the city of summit and the summit Board of Education uh have arranged for Special Agents from the Department of Homeland Security to deliver the not to protect program at the lawon C Johnson Summit Middle School auditorium on January 27th 2025 uh the no to protect program is a national public awareness campaign led by Homeland Security that aims to prevent and combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse educate attendees on how to report online uh enticement and victimization provide resources and support for victims survivors and their families uh the event will take place in the auditorium and as part of the approval process the summit Board of Education requires a Certificate of Insurance naming the board as an additional insurer this resolution seeks Council approval for the city to sponsor the event and authorize the city's risk manager to issue the required Certificate of Insurance I move to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council councilman palowski I just want to uh applaud councilman Boer for uh this initiative um this isn't just something that's out there right um Council and Boyer identified the problem uh he found the program and he made all this happen so um I just want to thank you thank you other comments yeah I just would reiterate you know one of primary responsibilities of government is to keep our citizens safe and um so I I completely agree with councilman palowski comments thank you councilman Boer for um driving this from start almost to the Finish but I know you'll get it over the Finish because uh it's going to happen at the end of the month so thank you so much uh for doing this and thank thank the council for their support on this I appreciate it um all right all in favor I opposed motion carries okay safety and health number three councilman Boer all right last one triple double uh 11735 excuse me council president this is 11735 approve the lease agreement between New Providence Summit and Milburn emergency dispatch Center and the burrow of New Providence uh so Mountain Valley Emergency Communication Center uh established in 2014 the Mountain Valley Emergency Communication Center Unified dispatch services for the burrow of New Providence the city of summit in the township of nurn with a contract with Springfield uh it's Mission included providing centralized emergency reporting coordinating law enforcement fire and em responses uh the current status as of 2024 only Summit and Milburn remain as full members and Springfield and New Providence have left the program and is with Union County's Regional Dispatch Center which offers lower costs and economies of scale uh creating challenges for the Mountain Valley emergency communications sustain stainability um the council today is considering extending the lease with New Providence to maintain current services but discussions about the future of the dispatched services are underway they have begun actually um but key considerations for our next steps will include service quality uh costs verse benefits and location options exploring a share agreement with murn to possibly bring dispatch back to summit's Firehouse or transitioning to Union County's system but again we have a lot of work to do to get there to make that decision uh however right now currently extending these lease this lease provides sustainable uh sustainability Excuse me while Summit continues um a path forward urance ensuring that any decision balances cost savings with maintaining high quality Public Safety Services so I move this resolution for adoption [Music] second uh comments from the public comments from Council all right I I would just Echo what councilman Boer said this this was a great idea a dozen years ago in in fact it was a brand new idea to to combine towns and look at a shared Service uh the original idea was to uh provide excellent Quality Service people in uh emergencies um but to do it at a lower cost um the it made sense if we could go from the original Three members to add a fourth member and a fifth member and a sixth member so we could build higher economies of scale that did not happen in fact sadly over the last year we've had dis economies of scale because we lost one of the original members so this this is pretty expensive um there's a a a um consent agenda item later on uh here that's going to give talk about paying our quar fee which IS300 and some odd, um so we're paying currently over $1.2 million for our our dispatch and I completely agree with councilman Boer you have to look at that about what you get um but clearly the the the county provides a service that is cheaper that other municipalities have seemed to make that decision that it's a uh it's a good um service for the money they spent we have work to do including the fact that currently the the counties um they're not accepting new people New Towns so that's a bit of a problem um but that doesn't me but this does give us a window to really dig in explore the cost benefit of staying with our own system versus exploring something different um but you know we live in a time where there are real uh calls on our taxpayer dollar um what we spend there's a lot of people who want good services and such and this I think if I look at how we're set up to me this is one of these big opportunities we can really get our hands around what we need versus costs out there that we can um save a significant amount of money for the taxpayer uh if if we can find something that um has more economies of scale than what we currently are using now so um so I I think this is great the lease does has has a six-month cancellation option to it um we're not going to figure this out with in the next couple of months it's going to take a little bit longer than that so we we do have optionality that LE this lease gives us that to come up with a um uh a good plan going forward so I support the resolution all right um all in favor I I opposed motion carries okay um we're moving along to um Community programs and Parking Services uh councilman or number one uh councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11736 the Department of Community programs is requesting a resolution authorizing the submission of a Grant application to the Union County Department of Community Development we will be requesting $5,000 for the senior connection bus along with $10,000 for the share the fund Club share the fund Club after school program this grant has allowed the DCP to expand their program offerings over the years and to continue to help fund our senior connection bus I move to approve this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council yes council president councilman Boer um you know I I support this totally I but again looking at the budget um wasn't wasn't there a nonprofit that did this prior to the city taking us on the transportation of the seniors the senior boss yes yeah this was a um a Junior League funded uh program they did it for years and years and years and then they needed some help because the bus was starting to break down and they and so the city over time effect ly took the program over um and the Junior League does lots of great things in town um so they've moved on to doing other great things in town but we now own the senior bus got you I I just um I personally I think we perhaps we're a volunteer town right I think the mayor just said it before um you know as a council I think maybe we can look at a lot of a lot of this stuff that has been shifted over to uh the city government and see if we could put it back in the hands of some of our volunteers and you know um it's just an opportunity to just take a look uh seems like over the years uh a lot of what our volunteers have done um either uh they moved on from it and the city picked it up but you know it's it's uh you know it builds up over time so maybe that's another opportunity to look and see you know who can maybe step up and and help out with you know our senior Transportation or you know even other things uh Department of Community programs uh love them so much but they have a huge budget uh so yeah that's it other comments from Council all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right Community programs and Parking Services number two councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11737 this is the local Recreation Improvement Grant uh it funds and repairs and upgrades to public recreational facilities with a recommended Max maximum of $100,000 the city of summit's Department of Community programs is seeking $100,000 to replace aging equipment at Memorial playground with safer and more accessible structures for children including those with special needs a resolution is required to authorize this Grant application and I move to approve this resolution second comments from the public comments from councel all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right Community programs and Parking Services number three councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11691 to declare a vacancy in The Parking Services Agency two employees have been promoted leaving the staff assistant position open and I move to approve this resolution I hear a second second comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I opposed motion carries all right moving along to law and labor number one councilman palowski so I'm recused for both of these I'm going to just step out all right we will call you back when you can okay all right that means it's going to fall on you councilwoman to I know I hope I'm up to this thank you council president let's wait for him to leave okay okay great Okay resolution ID 11673 is to amend our Professional Services agreement for 20124 um with special counsel to pay an additional $10,000 there's a backstory here um when the Broad Street West managers sued city of summit in the fall of 2023 um the the we gave the attorneys a budget of $50,000 and then in the spring of 2024 um the the Broad Street managers submitted um a they large Oprah request to the city of summit rather than engage in legal Discovery um on on you know with advice the city went back to to the Broad Street West manager said this is vague this is over broad please refine refine your your Oprah request and instead they sued um that incurred additional legal fees and I guess in the past week that suit has been thrown out of court um but we still have to pay the lawyers so this resolution would pay the attorney's fees um for the additional Services they rendered last year right thank you do I have a second second all right uh comments from the public comments from Council council president uh councilman Smallwood yeah I I think this would just go to show that the Oprah requests are expensive The Good the good news though is from from a cost shifting perspective um the legislature did make changes to Oprah so this was filed right before the legislature made the change where if you got it wrong and basically what getting it wrong is if somebody files a suit and that lawsuit is the Catalyst for turning documents over you have to pay the other side's attorney's fees so we prevailed in that now what the law says is that if if they file a lawsuit it's not the Catalyst anymore you have to they have to demonstrate that there was like really obstructionists uh really based on M Li not turning over documents hiding documents it's a much higher burden there'll be a lot less fee shifting in opras which is actually of a huge benefit to towns because there was like an entire cottage industry that makes a lot of money off of or did off of op requests but luckily the city prevailed here it's good news other comments councilman Boer just to clarify our city clerk has never hit a document before in her life so I just want to by the book that's right by the book all right uh all in favor all opposed motion carries all right law and labor number two councilwoman uh toe thank you council president this is resolution 11674 authorizing professional fees for for special counsel um for 2025 of $775,000 um prices are going up and although we W um you know prevailed in that Oprah lawsuit there's still another lawsuit going on Discovery is getting underway and um we hope that we don't to come back if if we ask for this much at the outset of the Year hopefully we won't have to come back and ask for more so I'm I move um this resolution for adoption do I hear a second second comments from the public comments from Council Broad Street West the gift that keeps on giving all right uh all favor I opposed motion carries welcome back councilman palowski all right um at this time do do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second second all right comments from the public on our consent agenda comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet uh can we just pull 11695 this is the joint meeting quarterly assessment yes okay pull that one any other comments from Council all right so we're voting to approve all the consent agenda except for finance number one um all in favor I I opposed all right motion carries all right um consent agenda Finance number one councilwoman to would you like to introduce good um actually I I I was not prepared for this one um could I you should be it's okay could I toss this to to our city administrator um I'm Happ take it I can explain what the problem we need to introduce it we need to int I well I am introducing okay I'll introduce the agenda 11695 to authorize the The Joint meeting quarterly assessment um perfect but that's about as far as I can go with it all right do we have a second second all right uh uh at this time since uh is there um City administrator Baldwin do you have any info on on this that you'd like to say at this time uh through you council president I'm not sure what councilwoman hamet's question is this is a annual bill that we get the joint meeting passed a resolution I know that councilwoman Hamlet is the liais on to the Joint meeting of S6 Union counties um so she may have more information uh but they do provide an assessment and a breakdown to all 13 member municipalities um the payment is due February 6th so it's pretty timely um and I would open it to councilwoman Hamlet for any questions she might have for me that I might be able to answer all right let me um let me just ask the public if they have any uh comments at this time all right uh comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet sure um my computer's Frozen on me but I just wanted to P mention a couple of things um first I just got this email today as a member of The Joint meeting I think it was today so I just wanted to clarify by a couple of things number one uh the cost of the quarterly payments is $639,950 um secondly the dates uh there's a couple scribers errors so the first quarter payment will be due on February 28th the second quarter payment will be due on April 21st the third quarter payment is due July 21st and my computer just broke on so I can't tell you what the fourth one is um but I either just wanted to get it correct on on the record with the dates and the amounts or we can table it till another time as I just got the information but I also we don't have the resolution from The Joint meeting so I don't if that's important or we can put it in later but since the dates have moved on to February 28th it's really yeah through you council president um the problem was that we usually get it on the last meeting in January I literally got it um I think on Friday was when we all received it I was hounding them I was the squeaky wheel every day saying where is it where is it where is it I think they were getting annoyed with me but I wanted to get it on the agenda so I may have I know that the numbers are right because I've gone through them four times um but I may have missed a date so I think that could be a scrier error and we can just change yeah and also the resolution they just sent that so I didn't have it in time for anything I didn't even have it we just got it today right I don't know is just for transparency purposes if you know February the way I would correct the the the current resolution is I'd leave it the way it is and just say honor about the date set forth okay because the date that's set forth in here is earlier than the one that councilwoman H just said so you say honor about the date set forth you're fine and then can we attach the actual resolution to the minutes for the next yeah sure okay perfect you're going to attach it to this so just say in accordance with the attached resolution onor about about great perfect thank you thank you any other comments uh from Council yeah um I I just see as we're talking about the joint meeting um you know we are it's called a joint meeting because I think there are 13 communities is that right Mr Sher yes yeah um as part of this we are Equity owners um in our sewage treatment plant Elizabeth is a um they they are customer I guess um but um this is where everything flows downhill uh to the treatment plant right next to the um the bridge uh is it the um the gothel's bridge uh down there in Elizabeth um just as a a point of fact I know aon's worked on this a lot where um we've done a ton of work on our our uh storm water management and our systems um a lot of the fees that are paid or are paid by the members are based off of flow and one thing we've worked really really hard on is to separate out our storm water management from getting into our sewer system um because that's water that we would then have to pay for and um our percentage of the joint meeting uh payments because we've done that over time has really gone down relative to other towns so I think it's a a real uh complement for forward planning and thinking um from our engineering department manages our sewer system um it's a real tax savings uh for a community and um just as you're aware you could not replicate this system today um to actually have the towns own something like this it would be just cost prohibitive but because Summit and these other towns did this in the 20s I believe um this this system works and it's a great asset uh for our community so um all right so with that oh yes counc real quick I just want to mention for those of you who are really looking for Light reading tonight uh at the at the end of your Council packet is the actual joint meeting audit um from last year so in case you're really really bored um some goodies at the end of the packet for you yeah all right um all in favor opposed motion carries all right uh that is it for our business um City professionals Aaron Mark is taking off already I guess um you guys have a great evening Chief as well you're you're hanging okay um protecting us as always uh so at this time um I'd like to open up our meeting uh for public comments for anything that's not on the agenda please feel free to come on up just state your name and your address and please try and hold your comments uh to 3 minutes or less can I ask you please to pass yeah absolutely I apologize thank thank you hi my name is Larry Cohen uh I live in Fanwood New Jersey and I'm a volunteer for Associated Humane Societies the largest animal shelter Network in the state um you've seen me before but in the spirit of New Year and a new Council I am back to ask you once again to pass a resolution supporting State bill s251 a451 which would uh prohibit pet stores shelters and rescues from from the retail sale of dogs cats or rabbits that they had purchased themselves for resale um what I emailed you this morning if you had a chance to look at it yet as well as what I've just passed out to you is a pictorial and written description of the current state of the pet selling puppy store industry in New Jersey and it's important that I point out to you that each of you has a different page one so the pictures on one person's packet is completely different from the pictures of the other nine and that's important to me because it shows that this is not a rare occurrence what's going on with this partnership between pet stores and these puppy mills it's prolific it's systemic and it needs to come to an end unfortunately these puppy mills are not in New Jersey and so we do not have legal reach for them when the state overhauled its smoking laws their efforts did not include legal efforts to get rid of tobacco farms in North Carolina we can't do anything about the mills in Missouri and Iowa and Indiana etc etc so what we're trying to do is what we can to protect citizens and animals here in New Jersey um I'm not sure why you chose not to take this up last year but I just want to make a couple of comments that may help as you consider it this year first of all as I was researching this I came across uh in tap into Summit some discussion when you were considering um marijuana dispensaries in town and a couple of things stood out to me number one was that there was um there were statements that said that you have in fact in the past on occasion regulated businesses you said it happens with fast food drive-thru restaurants it happens with strip malls and the other thing was a quote that was part of a Q&A I think which said we considered whether we should permit a new use in town and if so whether we wanted to allow it with restrictions we regulate all types of store and activities just because a use permitted does not mean that we forgo regulation so I understand just finish up I understand you know your reluctance to regulate things but I would even argue that this is not about business this is about animal cruelty and whether or not these businesses that are doing this in plain sight really deserve to be protected and to have this privilege continue to be extended to them um it's a simple ask it's it's just a resolution we're trying to get all of Union County the two pet store owners in your town support this your two Assembly women are co-sponsors of this so I would please urge you to pass a resolution and support of this thank you thank you thank you other comments from the public all right seeing none I'm going to close public comment uh section of our hearing at this time uh we're going to go to council member comments and new business how's your shot come on I know people want to speak yes councilman palowski thanks for uh of course taking us out so I um we've been talking about uh tatlock lights um and uh we had a what we call it a town hall um but you know when we were at the Town Hall I was thinking about a lot of things that have happened over the past year and you know once these lights came out um you know as as a potentiality um I spent a lot of time down around tatlock and in the tatlock neighborhood um during the ball games during other big events um just trying to you know see what happens down there and really how we can improve it and um it's not lost on me at least that uh you know there are some challenges that are down there and we've taken a bunch of steps in safety um to try to improve that uh some of the narrower roads uh we put up single side of the street parking we have encouraged successfully some of the youth programs who to um have special events down there to hire additional police officers I've even called the police a couple times especially on Lewis where people were um loading and unloading um where they shouldn't be because that's a blind curve so um I'm GNA um keep keep looking at that and one of the other things that bothered me um about something that's happening in that neighborhood stemmed from my work on the shade tree um committee there's a there's a gap in the trees I think it's really supposed to be trees really surrounding uh tatlock uh to provide cover for the residents and there is a big gap on Butler Parkway and and we have talked at shade tree and and I'd mentioned this to Michelle before who's now on Sha tree um if we could get some um uh some additional plantings there but also just kind of like maintaining some of the other wooded areas that are there um and with everything that's happening in Los Angeles I know this isn't an area that are that's really prone to forest fires but even this summer during the drought uh if you drove on Route 24 you saw trees and brush on fire there are down trees and there are down branches and as I continued along that street um you know Martinsburg Park it's supposed to be a park right I mean I don't know if we've ever done anything to to make maintain that um and I don't know I don't know what it would cost to do that or if it this is um uh maybe a community effort that we could pull together around Earth Day there's there's a tree out there a fallen tree that's leaning up against another tree and that must have been done by a human but I'm not so sure it should be that way um so anyway the point is um you know we should all be looking for for uh things around town that we can improve and um and I'll will continue to look in that uh that neighborhood in particular thank you other comments from Council councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you council president uh thank you for everybody who came to the meeting tonight uh but councilman palaski I concur we did have a meeting with a bunch of residents I gosh was it a week ago or two weeks ago I'm losing track of time um but the residents of that tatlock area certainly came out and I think it was very evident that we uh need to take every effort to unburden that neighborhood in whatever way we can so you know I think B maybe what we could even do is create a task force um we're looking at number one tatlock lights we're looking at Cano Brook Parkway sidewalks which is a million-dollar project the one thing everybody seems to have in common down there is people are going too fast um they're worried about kids going to school they're worried about flooding and it doesn't seem like a lot of them down there want the lights um but in any event I think it's important for elected officials to take it really seriously I've asked director shreer to look at possibly uh lowering the speed limit there or look to what we could do to uh lower the speed limit in some of those areas down there um to unburden that Community I think we need to take a really close look at uh those neighbors concerns around uh speeding enforcement uh game time uh traffic patterns and things like that I think we have a lot of smart people in this community and we should work together to find a solution as we uh go through this light process council president so so um that was my comment on that Bob wasn't prepared to talk about that but uh secondly I'll be meeting with the office of homelessness prevention uh on Friday uh there's a few of us who are hopefully headed to LA in February uh to work on a bipartisan uh Council uh panel for homeless prevention so I'm I'm excited to represent Summit and be a part of Union County so uh stay tuned but I just wanted to reiterate uh what the mayor said today what a huge win for our homeless task force um for getting so many people housed uh I thank Leah Griffith and the task force for just truly digging in uh a lot of people that care and um and it's just an exciting thing to be a part of so thank you for all your hard work for everybody who's contributed to that thank you other comments yes uh councilwoman cson thank you um was it Mr Cohen that was up here um I'm new here so I don't know quite all what we can do but I'm going to look into it and I just thank you for coming animals can't speak for themselves so I thank you for coming and coming to our meeting and speaking up for them because they can't so so thank you the comments from Council thank you council president Bo you know I like to I like to I like to Second um Council woman uh Common's uh comment about Mr Cohen Mr Cohen I read your email and um you said I guess I didn't do a good enough job explaining what I'm asking you to do and that caught my attention because I don't remember a lot of things but I remembered that and uh my my question to you would be explaining the significance of the third party cell of animals and we the second party like so you explained that um you have uh the animal shop buy the animals and then they sell them right and that's something that you want to prevent right yeah so maybe we could have a conversation and you can explain to me uh the significance of that because I don't I don't understand but I am an animal lover I got my dog Ali is chilling at home right now probably sleeping um uh secondly uh this weekend was uh an amazing weekend for celebration honoring Dr Martin Luther Martin Luther King um the uh Unity uh church services at the Presbyterian Church were uh were amazing I got an opportunity to go a little earlier to hear uh the rehearsal um just excellent excellent voices um and then the following day just to see the kids put together uh the rock of hopes and the um the plac mats for the homeless and the the other different uh things that they were doing with family members and everything was was just a uh was a phenomenal experience uh I know our council president spoke at found Baptist Church uh Pilgrim Church had a celebration honoring Dr Martin Luther King as well so it was just two days of a lot of different events honoring a great man um you know I I play this for my my kids every year and it's one of I believe Dr Martin Luther King's uh best speeches and it is what is your blueprint what is what is your life's blueprint um it is it is if you never heard of it uh go on YouTube listen to it listen to the words uh they are great uh Dr Martin Luther King Jr encourages young people to build their lives with purpose integrity and Excellence he outlines three key principles for creating a strong life blueprint believe in your own selfworth a commitment to Excellence and uphold love and Justice and he reminds the students that life may not always be easy but perseverance selfworth and a commitment to doing good can lead to a fulfilling and impactful life one thing that uh is is always covered is um we're always looking at the government you know when when we're looking at Dr Martin Luther King you know the the history of the government um the history of this but you know I I I tend to want to ask the public um each and every one of us can changed the trajectory the trajectory of someone's life you know in Summit there are we're surrounded by CEOs directors business owners uh individuals that have the opportunity to give someone an opportunity I mean I as a as a manager in my own life I do it all the time if if I meet somebody at a restaurant um that I have a conversation with I say hey man what do you you know what do you you doing what are you doing for your what are you doing for your career you know um I give them an opportunity you know uh yes pass them a card you know I I like to see each one of us just try to give someone just an opportunity um I think I think that moves the dial and always putting it on the government what can the government do what can what can you do what can you do as a person to help somebody thank you council president thank you other comments from Council councilman Smallwood thank you council president please remind me at Future meetings to go before Jamal you make it so hard to follow um you're awesome over the week so over the weekend um I I did receive a call uh from the organizers of the summit for La uh due to their overwhelming support they expressed their need for more space because they outgrew the garage which is amazing so I'd like to thank the fire CH I'd like to thank fire chief Evers mayor Fagan uh administrator Baldwin uh city solicitor giobi councilman palowski and and councilwoman Hamlet uh for their hard work over the weekend so that we could secure the old fire station as a drop off location uh for the summit for La team who have also partnered with Nordstroms to ship their second phase of toiletries and baby Essentials so I encourage you to follow them on Instagram at Summit uncore lacore I'm sorry I'm going to start over follow them on Instagram at Summit 4ore La so you can see their full list of items they're looking for um they also has have a list of times for drop offs uh and would highly encourage you to uh take a list take a look at the list that they need because obviously this is something that uh is affecting many people and when you're talking you know clothes can be worn over again and again however toilet trees baby Essentials those things they come and they go so that's going to be a constant need uh for the residents of LA and I'd really like to thank the administrators or the the um organizers of Sumit for La for doing such a wonderful job so thank you thank you other comments councilman I actually just have the times um if anybody is interested in donating uh tomorrow from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and from 5: to 7 p.m. Thursday 9:30 to 1:30 Friday 9:30 to 11:30 and then again on Monday 9:30 to 12:30 p.m. and that's at the in the East Bays no I'm sorry the West bays at the uh at The Old Firehouse right thank you other comments from Council and I just have a couple one um thank you Mr Cohen for coming you you jogged my memory I I think around 10 maybe it was eight or nine years ago um we had someone who came and uh had a was also about the horrors of puppy mills and was talking about um things that Summit should do and Summit actually passed an ordinance um at that time as a result of that we we don't allow I believe um Madam clerk can correct me if I'm wrong I'm pretty sure we do not allow the sale of uh puppies and dogs in our town so we have as you mentioned some pet Rel Rel ated stores that service pets but we don't sell and that and it was a direct um result of that advocacy so me that was you okay great um yeah so thanks for coming back I mean um part of our ordinances now 10-4. yeah so this is more I get it is really um advocating at the state level so thank you for this um the other comment I I'd have is I just wanted to um kind of close the loop because I know our mayor spoke about this at uh about the accomplishments that the task force has and I saw a news article um that came out a couple of weeks ago about um and I want to thank the mayor but also thank our uh congressional representative Tom Kaine um for really working uh I think um uh for the homeless and I think this sometimes um gets misconstrued or maybe criticized but they worked very very hard to actually close the post office vestibule that was being used by a few um unhoused uh people as an overnight place to sleep and I um so when they mentioned that I was like you're going to get the post office to do anything good luck with that um but our mayor she said I'm going to do it and um and working with Congressman Caine they were able to accomplish that and I I someone forwarded me a screenshot from Facebook because as you guys have heard I don't go on it um that was very critical of that and I just want to say you know I think what what they did was it it want to be careful in my words it's important to help people and and as the mayor mentioned this task force is doing incredible work and and I I want to thank councilwoman Hamlet I know she's been involved in that and was one of the first ones to really get this thing going and the the things that they've done have been amazing because they are helping people and they're not just throwing up their hands and saying it's okay for for people to live in a post office vestibule it's not good for them no one would do it if they had a choice um or if they were thinking other options and um and it's I think it it it takes courage to go and try and do things and really say like we're going to try and help these people to not have to sleep in vestibules and not to accept that that's okay cuz it's not it's not okay for them it's not compassionate to them and I really really applaud the work that the homelessness task force has you know the the comments I saw on online were like you know you're not we have to deal with root causes we have to deal with this and that and there's incom in equality and a lack of shelter if you think that way nothing will get done and I'm really really proud of the work that these people have done in town um led by our mayor and and all the other volunteers because don't take that for um granted they they they're going to do something and they have done something and that's really amazing I mean I I honestly think other towns are going to start to emulate the work that we've done in here in Summit because we we're effective they are they are putting people who have been homeless in homes they're connecting them with social workers to get the help that they need for long-term Solutions and that's really amazing so I really just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you you guys are doing amazing work um and that's the end of my comment so all right do I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn do I have a second second all in favor I I opposed we are adjourned for