welcome everyone to our first council meeting of March I'd just like to uh wish everyone a very happy Fat Tuesday or Marty gr depending on your persuasion my guess is if you're watching this you're not having a really fun Marty
grow but uh but welcome um so with that um Madame clerk would you please read the adequate notice of compliance statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dated
December 16th 2024 which was properly distributed and posted per statutory requirements please be advised that fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain the system at
the deis and return it thereafter thank you very very much um roll call please Mr Boyer pres Miss Hamlet here miss cmon here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here M to here president mcne president okay
um uh at this time I'd like to call on if they would like to do this uh John and Jim tolv to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance father and son to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it
stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you gentlemen all right um Madame clerk would you please read the explanatory notes regarding closed session and
hearings and comments a closed session meeting is authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda please be advised the council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channels 36
and 34 and Verizon channels 30 and 33 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the lecturn clearly state your name and address spell your last
name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give her 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're using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you very much um do I have a motion now to
approve the regular and closed session meeting minutes of February 19th 2025 so moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries all right we're
on to our uh report section of our meeting and we'll start off as usual with the mayor's report Madame mayor thank you council president good evening everyone um if you don't have plans this Friday I encourage you to join us at the rec center for the roller skating party
in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the rec center it's a great way to get active and enjoy time with family and friends and you can sign sign up through the Department of Community programs website I'd also like to remind Summit Juniors and seniors in high school about the March 7th deadline for
the essay contest hosted by the New Jersey League of municipalities it's a fantastic opportunity to participate in a Statewide competition and all you need to do is fill out the application and write an essay on what I like about my hometown which seems to me like an easy topic um there will be three winners
across the state each receiving $1,000 scholarship and all participants will re receive a certificate if you haven't applied yet please do so and let's make sure Summit is well represented essays are due in my office by March 7th applications are now open for the summit Police Department's Youth Academy which
offers a wonderful opportunity for our young residents to learn about law enforcement and Community engagement and they have a really cool lineup of activities planned I got to attend many of them last summer um I think the walls sit competition was probably my favorite down at the police academy in Scotch
Plains um so I encourage you to check out out the summit Police Department website for more details including the video that highlights just how engaging this program is um and finally I know crime and safety are top of Mind in the community for many residents and I'd like to address that concern so to Pro
provide a more detailed update I would like to call on our Summit police chief Steve zagorski to come and take the floor thank you good evening I just wanted to say a few words about a recent incident uh that has understandably caused concern within our
community a little more than a week ago um on on a Friday um early morning on a Friday on February 21st a home in West Summit um on Green Brier Drive was broken into while the residents were home and asleep two of the suspects entered the
home through a garage using a garage door opener found in one of the vehicles that was parked outside the suspects remained in the house for a few minutes they um stole some bags some items and they also located the key fob to one of the vehicles that was uh parked out in the
driveway they exited um one of the suspects got into a waiting vehicle and the other suspect got into the homeowner's vehicle and drove it away now when someone breaks into a home I've been over this a lot of times uh when someone break into an OCC occupied
home it's way more than just a crime it's a violation of the sentence security that everybody deserves and what made this even more upset uh unsettling is uh when we were doing our investigation and looking at our uh surveillance video of this incident was going down we saw one of
the suspects uh was armed with a handgun um going into their residence this is unacceptable uh we take it uh in some Police Department we take it very personal when a member of our community is put in danger and if I'm being honest um
something this it just pisses us off um I don't know what else to say uh and know this uh you know we have and will continue to dedicate all available resources to identifying and catching these suspects and to keeping uh the community safe our detectives um since
inent have been working tirelessly uh working this case following up leads and coordinating with New Jersey State Police task force uni County Sheriff's Office um crime scene unit and uni County prosecutor's office uh
the safety of our community members remains our highest priority over the past three years we have put together an operation plan that we've been utilizing um to combat uh these types of incidents that have been pretty uh successful over the last uh three years without going into too much detail
here are some of the things that we've been doing and some of the things that we've been doing since this incident um we constantly um evaluate uh this operations plan that we're using uh tweaking it adding to it and um and what do you call it uh and uh removing
anything that's you know no longer uh you know helpful uh basically we're do we're doing data driven high visibility preventative patrols okay uh we're doing covert undercover surveillance and decoy operations we use um additional Resources with overtime uh we bring
additional resources in and we've um formed um basically Our Own auto theft task force um that when we bring them in uh using um uh just uh data driven material we target specific areas specific times with these
Resources with these um with the resources that we've been using this um this uh task force that we've been calling it um just recently after this incident um we were out there and on I believe was um around Fernwood Avenue early morning hours they interrupted um
two individuals that were trying to break into a car U they engaged him in a motor vehicle suit um chased them out of town and um we had to break it off though however but again you know throughout the the last uh few years we've been successful using this um this type of
method also too along with this uh task force thorough follow-up investigations which often lead our detectives out of town into Essex County cities which are often the launching pad for the uh car thefts and a return spot uh to cool off uh stolen cars when I said say that um
when these vehicles are stolen A lot of times the thieves will take them into a specific area or detectives in a um they know these areas through their experience um for example and they parked a vehicle when they call a cooling off spot they park it there for maybe a few hours a day or so to see if
if any tracks any police and if not they'll you know go back to that car and they may uh you know take it to the port where they'll ship it out um for example um just recently um before this uh when inent on Green Brier this um our detectives and some of the members of
our task force they um followed a stolen vehicle stolen Range Rover um to Elizabeth City of Elizabeth and they um uh located the uh vehicle park with five individuals in it they were able to S around the vehicle and apprehend four the individuals one got away but this is
all while they're you know uh will follow them as far as they go out of town wherever they go we're going to you know follow up with this in this most recent incident that that was on Greenbrier um we located the vehicle that they stole fairly quickly and um our detectives and members of the task
force and with assistant of the State Police we staked out this vehicle for almost like 16 hours and Tammy you could have tested that cuz I think you saw some the overtime that came in on that but just to give you an idea of the length that we will go uh you know to
combating this um this problem and um I just want to remind everybody again that we you know in December we talked about uh you know how um we've been reducing a lot of these car thefts and these burglaries but uh you know I question that you know even though we've been had a lot of success
and and we're doing a good job and the community is doing a good job in um preventing these things that there's they're still going to happen we're still going to you know it's still going to find its way into our community so I remind the community to remain VI Vigilant as always and to continue to use um common sense um crime prevention
uh te uh you know methods as far as locking your vehicle removing your key fob in this case uh it might be helpful to even you know I know it could be daunting but to uh take your um garage door opener out of your vehicle or put it you know at a sight because in this
case that's how um uh this particular resident uh was entered also too I would encourage members of the public to you know to stay informed we send put a lot of information we put out um uh you know alerts uh when these things happen and I
encourage every to our residents to sign up for our nixel and to to our um uh go on to our website sign up for nixel and our alerts and also to take advantage of um some of the programs that we have for the residents where you could register your ring camera with us
now that doesn't mean that we monitor it we just when you when I say register I mean that we know who has the ring camera so when we have a crime in a particular area we have a list of people that we can go through right away as opposed to you know doing a random canvas and and and trying to find out this information
also too uh I would recommend to our residents to take advantage of our um uh newly um instituted uh crime prevention where we uh do a home assessment of of your residence that's it thank you Chief
anybody have any questions for chief before I jump in uh I know we spoke about this mayor um one of the residents had made a good suggestion about is there any way to send just a constant text campaign for residents to lock their cars you know just I don't know if that's it's something we could do people
ignore our texts already so we did talk about that and actually I'm glad you brought it up we sort of T we discussed it and I think the answer is the more texts you get from the police department eventually they kind of become white noise and so to to remind people like
somebody suggested the old 1990s 1980s probably I'm dating myself um it's 10:00 Do You Know Where Your Children Are um so to do something like that to remind people to lock their doors but I'm going to take this opportunity to remind people to lock their doors and arm their alarms at night I just think
it's it's a lot of the unfortunately I mean I have a 17-year-old they're in and out they're in and out and you know constantly just it's not even the adults but the you know maybe the uh Board of Ed can put out a statement uh just reminding the kids daily like go home lock your cars go home lock your cars I don't know I mean just a suggestion I
have a better suggestion see this device that everybody has make an alarm on it personal and remind yourself I mean that's the easy it's probably safer and easier you probably won't ignore your own alarm um and I also want to say thank you to the
police department for really stepping up and and you know doing great detective work and great um strol work um especially in this last week um but always um and I want to make a plug for something that Chief mentioned which is the home security assessment which I
actually did I can't believe it took me as long as it did to sign up for it but I it was super easy sent an email and officer kegga came out to my house and the first thing on my list well I can't tell you don't want you to know my weaknesses
but um but yeah it's a it's a great service it's free um we have several officers I think six officers Chief is that right that are certified to do then they've actually taken a class to certify on how to identify um weaknesses in in your security uh security of your
res so and well I got everyone's attention and the Public's attention if I could just also remind the public um you know when you're home at night if you have an alarm system to arm that alarm system even if if everybody's in the house no one else is coming in and out I would and you're watching TV arm
it um so and also too um know God forbid if you are you know late at night and you're sleeping and your alarm goes off a lot of times you know you're thinking Call The Alarm Company what is that is it a mistake I I really encourage everybody if your alarm goes off at night first
call should be 911 we'll be there in seconds um we'll worry about if it's um a false alarm later on and um I think we mentioned this when we did our um our Facebook presentation last year but um if you do call us up and it's a false alarm we're not going to um uh we're not
going to usually get build for false alarms but we're encouraging you to call every time your alarm goes off when you're home um because we had a couple incidents uh last year uh we were second away from a house that was uh being broken into uh once we got the call we
were there I believe it was 37 seconds but the call didn't come in you know uh it took a couple minutes for the call to come in if the Call Comes In Fast um because we're doing these patrols we're in the residential area we're right there and again I know this is unsettling but we're here for you um we're seconds away
so okay thank you Chief I I had one just one quick comment I I I want to thank you for your leadership I know when that story came out that was very unsettling and scary to a lot of residents I really appreciated the statement that you made
I think it was measured it was informative um and it certainly calmed me down I know that you were in charge and and we're on top of it so I think that type of communication was fantastic and and I wanted to thank you for your your leadership there so
thank you you're welcome council president yes no I had to say something um no I I I I second that and chief just hearing your voice right now um I Know It's upsetting and it means a lot to you to protect this town it's almost like
your baby right I know how you feel about it um and that that all of us yeah all of us and and that message that you put out was was heartwarming I felt it you know um thank you for deploying the auto theft task force uh thank you for
the other initiatives that you did you know putting the Drone up in and everything else um but I want to remind the public that uh something that our coach told us when we were playing football is remember the mission when we first started this
together for Summit team when we first elected uh we we put out there that we wanted to hire four more officers right based on the the chief's memo and the reasons why uh this task force was deployed but these officers they came on
the weekends they were with their families uh we we had to pull them away from things you know some of these things are not sustainable and I want to remind the public why we are still looking to hire two more officers because the truth of
the matter is while other towns invest in law enforcement criminals seek areas where there's weaker deterrence and we don't want Summit to become a Target due to lack of resources so we have to
maintain our vigilance here at Council and we and there's a must that we give the police officers the resources that they need to protect our town thank you thank you Chief anything else Madame mayor no sir
thank you all right um moving on to our city administrator report uh Miss Baldwin thank you council president I'd like to start with a reminder that applications for the Hometown Heroes Banners are due by March 31st this
program honors our local veterans by displaying their photos on banners throughout Summit if you know a veteran who should be recognized in this way please be sure to submit their application before the deadline uh next I want to highlight the
upcoming Summit free market events the March events will take place on Saturday March 8th and Friday March 28th these are great opportunities to declutter recycle and give items a second life so please check the W City website for more
details on drop off times and locations and finally Earth Day is right around the corner and we will be hosting our annual Earth a cleanup on Saturday March 29th that's from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Bri Bryant Park and
Martin's Brook Park this is a wonderful way to contribute to our community and and to help keep Summit looking beautiful we encourage all residents to get involved and participate in this important event and more information is available on the city website thank you
very much fantastic thank you um all right I've got a couple things I will have two things but first my first thing I'm going to uh allow our uh councilwoman Hamlet our uh president protemp who's got wants to take over
quickly for a part of the uh Council president's um uh report uh thank you council president so uh every day I get multiple calls from residents um all day every day which I love hearing from all of you um but one resident specifically
calls me every day to remind me that there are ebike um ebikes on the street all the time and no one's wearing any helmets so this is my Public Safety announcement for everyone if everyone wants to put on your helmet you can but um in all seriousness um my someone very
close to my family almost died because of a head injury a traumatic brain injury and luckily uh our fine mayor saved his life uh and Overlook um so I am very serious about helmets uh true story very true story and it was just a couple years ago um you know you don't really think that it can happen to you
um I see parents with kids who are 2 years old four years old on scooters without helmets and I literally just want to stop them and chief zagori I'm sure you you watch them all day long as well um one of my ideas recently has been um we work with a company a nonprofit
called Avenues in motion they come out once or twice a year and they do all the helmet checks uh I've reached out to them because they donate a lot of helmets and chief I'm not sure if this would be an idea that we could implement or not but I know that your um Force is is often tasked with a lot of
responsibilities so you know you don't have the chance to wrak a ticket for a helmet all the time um I was if they if we get enough donations for helmets I was going to have some kept here at City Hall or maybe in your police cars if you know we see somebody without a helmet we can just give them a helmet I'm up for
all the ideas but I just think we really need to be um proactive Jim would you put your um your helmet on I snowboard every weekend and I wear a helmet okay all the time my head is like my head is recovering worried um but in all in all seriousness I think
it's something that we should all take very seriously please um you know uh mayor did a video a couple weeks ago maybe we can recirculate that and maybe we can all pledge to circulate that as well so thanks for giving me the air time with my helmet I'm going to wear it for the rest of meting no super important uh safety uh is Paramount and
especially little kids I I know I sometimes get on my bike without a helmet and it's it's very silly and not very intelligent to do um all right uh my second part uh my report is those who missed it we had I want to thank Madam
mayor um councilman Smallwood and uh councilwoman Hamlet they sat in on board of school estimate meeting yesterday um uh this is was the first cut of the school budget for those listening um we are in the process of
our budget and I know Tammy is working super super hard uh on that um interesting fact though this this city budget is only low 20% of your entire property tax bill so I love the fact
that people come here they care about the budget they're people send Flyers out about the budget there's all sorts of uh excitement about the budget and and people should be care about it we want to um provide a budget that um
reflects our priorities but also understands that New Jersey is an expensive place and we want to uh be focused on affordability um I mention this is because the school budget is over
50% of your property tax bill it's much bigger than the uh the city budget and they announced last night at if for those who didn't tune in that their initial cut on their uh their budget would look to increase their portion of
your property tax by 8.86% that's a big number the cap is two we going to we're fighting really hard around that number um it's I get it it's not hard and I want to thank the Board of Ed and the professionals there it is
not easy to deliver uh budgets in this type of environment where there's been a lot of inflation we didn't cause inflation we are living with inflation over the last several years um but I would hope that numbers like that would
get people engaged in the process you need to make your voices heard okay so um the next Board of school estimate meeting is uh Thursday March 27th I think is that right yeah um at
the Wilson Primary Center so keep your eyes out um for announcement about that meeting and that is my report okay um at this time we're going to go on to our historical minute councilman palowski so I'm going to hand this off to
councilwoman to who has a presentation in honor of um women's history women's History Month sorry okay thank you council member palowski so March is women's history
month and in fact Saturday is international women's day which is sort of the apogee of the month um and Summit rightly touts its strong history of volunteerism for that you can thank the women um this is a brief rundown of some
of the organizations that make Summit strong and the women who created them and I know I've left so many so many great organizations out so please let me know what I missed um starting in 1897 before Summit was incorporated as a
city Violet Johnson a domestic servant moved to Summit with her employers she was one of fewer than 100 black residents in a community of 6,000 and there was no place for her to worship Miss Johnson was the driving force
behind what is now Fountain Baptist Church a thriving congregation on Glenside Avenue Betty Adams who until recently lived for a long time in Summit wrote the story of violet Johnson and others in black women's Christian activism it's available at the
library fast forward almost 60 years to 1954 the women of the Junior League saw a need for safe affordable highquality child care they founded what is now the learning circle part of the summit area
y today it serves 200 children with subsidies for many families who could not otherwise afford the tuition and two years later the women of the summit College Club realized that new mothers needed help at home what began as a housekeeping and nursing
service quickly became Sage elder care located on Broad Street and today Sage delivers meals on wheels for Summit and other area communities it hosts a medical Adult Day Center largely for for folks with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
it provides home health care services and so much more Sage enables many of our most vulnerable seniors to age in their own homes in 1975 Kathleen diara realized members of The Summit Community were food insecure she started by
Distributing food from the back of her station wagon and today we have the Community Food Bank of New Jersey Bonnie Morrison who's sitting in the audience detailed Kathleen's story last month so I won't repeat it here not too many years later Karen Olen
then a busy advertising executive bought a sandwich for a homeless woman in Manhattan that grew into Family Promise the country's largest organization battling family homelessness with the 67% long-term success rate in housing
families then more recently Amanda block with support from the Junior League again founded Grace to provide nutrient dents fresh food and much more to any Summit resident who needs the assistant Summit has named Grace a program of the
city and its 10th anniversary is next year I hope we'll all celebrate but wait there's more I haven't even mentioned the connection the fortnightly and Junior fortnightly the Women's Resource Center the Christ child society and many other amazing
women founded organizations right here in Summit the bottom line is that when you come across a nonprofit organization in Summit you can probably thank a woman thank you [Laughter] all awesome thank you very much uh
councilwoman to um all right uh at this stage we're going to move along to our we have a couple of uh ordinances for introduction today um Madam clerk will you please read ordinance for introduction from the finance committee ID number
11791 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank councilwoman to thank you council president um I'll go into more detail about this ordinance in a couple of weeks when we have the hearing um but
three points right now one is this an this is an ordinance we do every year it is fairly routine um second although we're talking about lifting limits this is not an ordinance that is going to allow some the city to raise your property taxes by
more than the statutory 2% um what it does is set aside some excess spending power not taxing power in the case of an emergency um like a natural disaster or something and we'll we'll um discuss it
more in a couple of weeks but I move this ordinance for introduction I second all right um roll call please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet hi Miss cson hi Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I
president McAn I motion carries all right Madam clerk will you please read the ordinance for introduction from the law and labor committee an ordinance of the city of Summit County of Union establishing an El El and or natural gas aggregation
program councilman palowski thank you this is ID number 11 1805 uh this ordinance authorizes the city of summit to participate in the governmental energy aggravation
aggregation program um adoption uh and and we had a presentation on this previously um uh thanks to councilman Smallwood um who uh is is working on this as well um adoption will allow the
city to enter into agreements with Concord uh commercial utility consultants for energy Consulting jcpnl for local distribution and the Cooperative pricing uh agreement officially adding summit as a
participating member to be included in the upcoming uh auction Council must adopt this ordinance at the uh March 18th meeting and file all necessary paperwork by April 1st this ordinance in no way commits the city of summit to the
program but it will allow the Consultants from Concord to search for a co-op that Summit could join and give us an estimated potential savings I move this ordinance for uh introduction I
second uh thank you um roll call please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I miss cinon I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I miss to I president MCT I all right moving right along we've got a few resolutions to get
through this evening the first set is from Community programs and Parking Services councilman Smallwood uh number one please uh do you read that or what's that it's a resolution
never mind that's all you uh thank you council president this is the resolution ID number 11 1810 uh this is to appoint tatlock neighborhood committee members uh based on the uh tatlock Community meetings that we H held last year as well as the
um the meeting that the council president and mayor held in January uh with the tatlock community and out of all of those meetings it was determined that you know whether lights went in or not there are some issues surrounding
the tatlock fields uh whether it's you know crosswalks sidewalks parking as well as uh traffic so the purpose of this tatlock neighborhood committee is to address some of those issues and then
come back to uh the Safety Committee or the Department of Community Services with their recommendations uh so with that I would like to congratulate thank you for all of the uh residents who applied and I would like to congratulate Joselyn
Modesto Alex go Marian Longo and Katie isovic uh who will be serving on the committee along with uh councilwoman uh kelmanson councilman palowski as well as councilwoman Hamlet uh so we hope to um
hear back from them about some really good recommendations uh that we can you we can Implement at the the tatlock around the tatlock neighborhood surrounding the uh investors field in Upper tatlock I move
to approve this resolution second awesome um at this stage are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this resolution are members from Council all right all in favor hi
osed motion carries all right Community programs and Parking Services number two councilman Smallwood thank you council president this is ID number 11796 to declare a vacancy in the Department of Community programs uh this is kind of
Bittersweet uh an resolution because uh a few uh I would say probably a few months ago up until recently uh you may everyone may know him as nollie uh has uh accepted a position uh
on a Wall Street firm to further his career and it it's bittersweet because uh noie deserves everything and every opportunity that he can get because he's such a wonderful person and
has such a connection with uh our not only the the parents but the the students and the the athletes that he worked with on our youth programs he was absolutely uh Irreplaceable and the past couple of weeks or months actually we've been you
know kind of Pac mailing it together and there are several of our Department of Community program employees who've been kind of filling his position uh and now we're uh actually gotten to the point where we need a full-time person to to fill his spot nobody will ever replace
nollie but uh we're we're we're hopeful that we will find someone uh just as extraordinary as nollie so I moved to approve this resolution second all right comments from the public comments from
Council all in favor I opposed all right motion carries uh capital projects and Community Services number one councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you council president one second here sorry looking at something else here uh can I
bundle uh 1175 11 775 and 11776 the first two yes uh please do thank you uh okay so these resolutions
uh will authorize the 2025 consultant engineer Services of both Boswell and Colliers each not to exceed $100,000 uh the engineering division hires Professional Engineers uh from time to time for capital projects as needed uh in November the division received 10 responses to a publicly
advertised request for qualifications uh all responses were reviewed by the qpa and the capital projects and Community Services committee um obviously many of these firms have different strengths and different areas um our uh director shreer this will allow him to have some more flexibility within his uh
engineering Outsourcing and I would like to move uh move to approve this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all right uh all in favor I
opposed all right both those resolutions pass uh capital projects and Community Services number three councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president okay this is resolution uh 11779 I apologize my planning board
brain and my Council brain are looking at this easement and I'm just double-checking that it was the right thing um this resolution uh again 11779 this is the um owner of two Park View Terrace submits an application to the city's planning board to subdivide
their lot during that process it was discovered that an existing sanitary sewer line Traverse the property but a formal sewer uh but no formal sewer easement exists uh the department requested one be created and it was included U memorializing the resolution for this project and additionally the
lot subdivision requires new Deeds to be prepared for the individual Lots which need to be signed by the mayor at this time the easen and deeds have been reviewed by the department and we find them all to be accepted so I would like to move this resolution for approval and I believe mayor this is
the one we had at the planning board last weekend so we'll be extending this one at the planning board right do I have a second second comments from the public uh comments from Council just want to note that the planning board unanimously voted for this as well
so thank you all right any other comments all in favor I opposed motion carries all right um capital projects number four councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president just give me one second I'm
scrolling through here because I don't have my paper copy of my uh agenda I apologize me one second uh this is resolution 11803 authorizing the Grant application submission for the 2025 sustainable Jersey grants program and P
CG uh foundation and let me just pull up the grant real quick I apologize do you have it on I apologize sorry sorry sorry okay here we go I got it sorry about that uh okay so through the sustainable Jersey Grant
program sustainable Jersey and PG Foundation provide funding to support efforts to implement projects that help municipalities gain points needed for sustainable Jersey certification and make progress toward a sustainable future uh funding these projects that serve as practical and Innovative models for the rest of the state and make
measurable contributions toward the long-term goal of a sustainable New Jersey uh eligible expenses include stiens consultant or contractor Services equipment training and education materials or related expensive project supplies and promotional items the city of Summit environmental commission is
submitting an application to the 2025 sustainable Jersey grants program uh and this uh they're applying for Grant in the amount of $2,000 to assist further uh pursuing the city's plan to install a solar array at the DPW facility at 41 chadam Road that will include both solar
canopies which can double as equipment storage for vehicles currently left in the elements and on top of roofs that meet the requirements for solar installation I would like to move this resolution second comment from the public comments from Council just have
one question council president uh director Sher can you remind me the last one we received from sustainable Jersey if you remember if you don't don't worry I I can't remember yes for you council president I believe and I don't want to mix it up because there was also a tiny Force but it was to help with our environmental resources inventory which
is currently underway I'm fairly certain that was the most recent sustainable Jersey Grant it's okay thank you other comments I guess I just have one question uh director shreer so um this is a 2,000 but I see we can also apply for a 10,000
or 20,000 is this the only spot that um the um environmental commission thought might be a good spot for so a solar array yeah so this one we have in the works somewhat already because we we do know we do still have some equipment
that we'd like to get uh under at least coverage from the the rain I mean while it's not not fully enclosed um uh we are definitely we have some concept plans for canopies down there and we know that there's a sanitary sewer building there that has a brand new roof so it has some
candidates um other roofs might have some issues including City Hall I don't mean like badish just might not have uh the surface area or might not have the strength or might be do for replacement so this is kind of the easiest lift to apply for down there uh and like I said we're pursuing it now anyway so okay
thank you I just want I just want to mention a little shout out to Donna gagan Patel who is our environmental commission chair and she has been working tirelessly on all of these things and I think correct me if I'm wrong she is very much working on the
inventory is that am I right about that absolutely yes yeah so I just want to make sure we thank our volunteers and she I agree with that as well because there's a lot of stuff that she's you know picked up that that we're not able to get to and she's doing a great job yeah fantastic okay um oh councilman
small thank you council president um as you know and Aaron knows I'm a huge fan of solar and uh I've had very had several conversations with councilman palowski as well as councilwoman Hamlet
and uh you know we reached out to a um consultant that looks at all of the the buildings municipal buildings as well as schools to kind of give us a an idea of what buildings would be actually usable
in terms of solar and they are presenting or they they are presenting a um suggestions on what is most utilized buildings and spaces uh one of the things that they mentioned were the the
parking lot at the high school so it's something that I think we should also you know bring to the attention of the Board of Ed to help bring down some of their energy costs as well considering the large budget that they presented last night so um you know the having an
an aggregate it's it's a key word tonight aggregate right um having an aggregate overview of all of our municipal buildings and our and our schools uh I think at least a presentation on what
that would look like what it could cost and also entering into a power purchasing agreement uh which allows the the Solar Company to come in and uh install and maintain solar on our buildings and in some cases would even
replace roofs that may not be able to withstand the the solar currently uh but there are certain power purchasing agreements that will actually replace the roofs for us uh so I think that's that's coming coming soon and uh you
know I I think um anything that's going to reduce our cost from an electrical from an energy stand standpoint um and as well as increase the you know the environmental safety of our our city is is a positive thank you other comments
councilman palowski um thank you I'd also like to add um you know when we look at any of these solar projects another thing that Kevin and I learned is that um the solar companies are also
equipped willing and able to install uh charging stations and given the uh increase in electric cars that we have uh have seen and and we expect it to continue um it's an important infrastructure upgrade that we're going
to need as a city um you know to kind of keep up with the times and to the extent that any one of these projects that we uh that we engage in you know we can get five or 10 charging stations included as a part of it I think we should we should really do that
the okay other comments councilwoman ham question I guess now you have me thinking now uh council president because what's the deadline for this grant um because I noticed even in I know we can't apply for the Board of Ed but I don't remember seeing any um like what types of things Aaron
besides I just don't want to miss an opportunity here if there's something else because I can always think of ways to get grants um and this is a pretty good one but other I'm looking at it right now I guess we can talk about it afterwards all right we can talk about
it later like March 21st okay all right take a look at it in committee and see if there's anything else we can think of yeah okay um all any other comments all in favor I
opposed motion carries all right uh capital projects uh number five councilman councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is ID 117 94 uh which will appoint as discussed in close session uh due to the resignation of the city's Municipal housing liaison officer
effect of February 21st is necessary to appoint a replacement per affordable housing regulations which require that a Municipal Employee be assigned as a municipal housing liaison now therefore be it resolved by the common Council of the city of summit that per the recommendation the sorry the
recommendation is Augusto deaso the city's land use manager B he is hereby appointed mun housing lays on immed effective immediately I would like to move this resolution second comments from the public comments from
Council councilman Boer council president i' just like to say that uh I previously didn't know Augusto I didn't work with him often uh until the Caps committee and um the work he's been doing has been outstanding and as an
investigator as a manager of investigators um I had asked him to look into something and I said I need an investigation report and what he uh what he provided was was uh out outstanding I was like Wow look look at this man you could have been one of my investigators
it's great uh but he wears mini hats and he's been efficient productive um and uh and on point so i' I fully uh support this thank you other comments councilwoman Hamlet just uh two
comments one i' just like to thank the outgoing land use secretary Stephanie sulos uh she did a lot of great years of work here within the city uh we rely on her at the planning board the zoning board um she's Fielding calls all day long and uh just obviously want to wish her her the best in her new Endeavor uh
as for Augusto he is doing an amazing job uh you are in good hands with him as the municipal housing Lon officer especially this year uh as we go through the fourth round of affordable housing uh we will also be um he's is also working on uh the cross acceptance
process with the state and the state plan and uh he he's really an asset and we're really lucky to have him so so thank you and thank you uh director shreer and Tammy for mentoring him along and
Rosie good comments um no I think it's uh super important obviously as councilwoman Hamlet mentioned we're in the thick of it around uh ending round three of our uh Mount Laurel obligations and getting ready for round four so I'm
super super excited to have austo on the team um he'll be a great asset to shepher us through to a good conclusion for the city um all right uh with that all in favor I I opposed motion carries okay um capital
projects number six councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is my last one 11795 as discussed in close session declaring a vacancy Department of Community Services the division of Public Works declaring a vacancy of the maintenance sewer unit maintenance
worker uh pursuant to policy section 5-1 employment procedures recruitment a vacancy is hereby declared for the position of truck driver in the maintenance and Steward division of Public Works I would like to move this resolution second comments from the comments from
the public please comments from councel all in favor I opposed motion carries all right moving L along uh we have one Finance resolution councilwoman to um thank you council president this is resolution ID
11788 it is titled amend contract and authorize additional fees payroll HR and time and attendance contract Prime Point um this this needs a bit of unpacking for almost five years now um we've contracted with prime Point sort of to
manage the the the back end of our payroll system for us um and for an additional $2 per new hire they will file the all of the reports that are required when we bring a new person on
board so this resolution merely amends the existing contract um to allow Prime point to do that additional filing up to ,000 a year um if you're doing the math that would
500 new employees a year and I doubt our turnover is anywhere near 100% so so we're going to be paying significantly less than the full ,000 cap um but this this will certainly take a burden off of
Megan champney our our who runs HR for us so I move this resolution for adoption I second comments from the public comments from coun I just Council uh yes U councilman Boyer
council president uh thank you um this is a 5-year contract for payroll services um and I know we've had conversations about um Contracting with different vendors and how we choose vendors and the best price of vendors
and things of that nature uh so we're locked in here for 5 years well we're locked in here to September 30th the or original um I mean that that that's that's the first extension contract so the we're
we're in the extension period we're in extension period okay at so we're loed for one year got you so at the end of this one year to one year period we will be kind of looking for other vendors or
yes uh business administrator B can answer that through you council president so yes this is um councilwoman to is correct this is the first extension that we're in of a potential five-year contract with Professional
Services we can go we award one year and then we have the option to extend for up to four years each year renewed uh before Council um I would just caution I've gotten some uh tips and and
tutelage from uh councilman Smallwood on um talking to Prime point uh when this contract expires but changing your pay we've had great service with prime point if we can reduce it um through some methods I will absolutely try that um
changing payroll nhr is Monumental um so I think it's something that we if I could respectfully request we avoid but get the best price that we can and continue with that service that would be my wish um but but we of course
will look at it and see where they're pricing they're locked in at the prices they provided for each of those one-year extensions up to five years um we can always ask for some sort of reduction and see what we can
do thank you other comments councilwoman Hamlet uh yes so one question I have um for the city administrator if that's okay council president um having spent a previous lifetime working for ADP my one question um who was hand our wage garnishments before we were doing the
new higher reporting through you council president so the new higher reporting I I can't even tell you exactly why we do this it's this manual form that you have to report to New Jersey it doesn't have to do with the garnishment in the wages we handle all of that deductions through
Prime point we actually cut the checks and pay what we need to pay in terms of garnishments and any deductions I think that this new high reporting will take care of that wage garnishment for you no this new hire reporting is a a I'll show you it's a manual form that every time
we hire an employee we have to send this form to the state of New Jersey I'm not sure why I think it's because if they're not paying child support that's this Flags the system well we already put garnishments in the system on our we we answer them you know I I would just say
do you know Kevin yes what did I know about the new hire reporting right but I just I thought that this handled the wage garnishments that's why I was just I'm surprised it doesn't it doesn't handle it it alerts the the the state that there is an existing garnishment order out there okay that makes sense thank you for
clarifying okay um yep that's it that's all I got any other comments yes councilman small so just to clarify so this just aler so if someone has a a for example child support garnishment and they leave their company
they go to work for another another company or the city of summit the new hire reporting is to alert the state that this person who has a child support garnishment now will alert okay our city
administrator that hey we need to pull x amount of dollars out of their per I have another question I'm sorry ahead so one of the things that we were speaking about as Michael Rogers was still here was um our HR System and City administrator can you just talk a
little bit about um so when we break this down for $60,000 that's the payroll processing we're using them for time and attendance correct for which departments we use them for time and attendance for who for this the city this DPW council
president uh except for police and fire except for Poli so my question is um this actually seems pretty reasonable if you're looking at HR do we have the most basic HR package because that's someone assuming we have um I remember Megan champney really talking about the need for a more robust HR System is that that
something that we're looking at in the budget this year or that we've deemed that's not this year um and just from a from a Performance Management employee performance review I know it was important last year I just wanted to get your thoughts on if if that's something down the road or if we need
it through you council president um so we did look at um quite a few I wasn't extensively involved but before we would make a switch I would need to be um we looked at quite a few human resource very robust packages um the lowest price
one that we found was over $200,000 um that is not feasible in this budget we do have a fairly basic uh we would like to fairly basic program with Primo um there are things that I believe
Prime Point can do um with our guidance and our assistance so I think we can make it more robust they're willing to customize and work with us they they have a great um government sector um so they they work really well with us will it be
everything that we dream it can be perhaps not uh but you have to balance the price of something and the cost of something and and what it actually delivers okay thank you so much other comments my one comment would be I'm
shocked that there's a manual form you have to send out a Trenton what a shocker wonder if they put it in a uh in an what is it a salt M shaft is that where half our government records are stored um in any event uh all in favor I
opposed motion carries all right last uh moving along law and Labor uh councilman palowski thank you this is resolution ID number 11 1816 a resolution to support publishing legal notices on official
government websites uh currently we are required by law to publish uh notices is on um in in print news newspapers and um as we all know we're we're living in a digital world and print news has become
a thing of the of the past so uh I think we this purpose of this resolution is to urge State leaders to pass legislation uh that will authorize municipalities to publish their legal notices on their local government's official website I
move to adop this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council well I'll note only that there have been I'm sorry you go um that that this the the state
legislature has been I guess kicking this can down the road for a couple of months at a time G giving municipalities the the leeway to do electronic publishing and I think it was last week it got kicked down to the end
of June I saw that too so yeah so we have a little wiggle room here thank you other comments yeah media media is changing got to change with it um all right uh all in favor I I
opposed motion carries all right at this time do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented council president yes uh if we want to talk about a specific item do we need can we just pull the one yeah no we don't have
to pull it you can just talk about it when I ask for comments okay I'll ask for comments you can talk about the one okay okay um so do I have a motion approve the cons second okay uh do I have any comments from the public on the consent agenda any item in
there all right comments from Council councilman Smallwood thank you um this is particular to uh resolution ID number one 11797 to authorize uh execution of an annual lease agreement use of sidewalk and select restaurants um one
of the things that I've I I noticed last year and it seems like once the the sidewalk cafes start going out they're in regulation they have the right size because they you know as you can see in
the packet there's a schematic of where the tables are where the the fences are but as the summer goes along they seem to be moving you know closer and closer and there's a lot of times and I remember specifically wind berries who's
asking for this extension now um you know there was literally you know 2 feet between their fence and a a tree well uh and I believe regulation is I believe four must be 4 feet um and the 4 feet is
minimum because we need to allow for our residents who are in wheelchairs to be able to pass through um some of the other you know places that I noticed are on Union place where we have uh CAF you know cafes on the
outside that that are but up against tree Wells so maybe this is a Miss Baldwin question do we have someone at City Hall that on periodically will walk around town and to make sure people are are restaurants
are in regulation compared to where they they're supposed to be through you council president I I might defer to Rosie um I believe that code enforcement would go out and look at that and I don't know how often they do but because you handle the sidewalk
licenses you may know better than I um yeah the property maintenance U unit in Department of Community Services goes out I'm not sure how regularly but they do go out and and check all the sidewalk cafes uh but if if there's anyone who
ever sees or has a concern about the lack of the four feed they should um they should contact they can contact the clerk's office and we'll file uh we'll notify Property Maintenance and they'll go out and take a look I'm just
wondering if if there's any way to you know put some sort of temporary marker right so that yeah you know they can Chu it out I don't I don't know but it's it's something to think about how we can help them I don't know that they
do it intentionally things just kind of drift sometimes and they don't realize that it is impeding on that 4 foot pedestrian passageway so um maybe marking it out some way by the property maintenance div uh unit
could help right okay it's just something I I think we need to be cognizant of um as the late spring early summer comes along because it just it seems to be impeding into you know the sidewalk even further and
further thank you um Madam mayor I just have a question and I I think I know the answer but I'm G to ask it anyway for the public um C click effect could used for this also it depends on how emergent it is if it's I mean it's egregious that it's there's no passageway maybe a phone
call is better but fair yeah thank other comments okay um all in favor of approving the consent agenda I opposed consent agenda passes okay uh
that's it for our business section uh at this time um we're going to open it up uh for any and all public comments uh this is time to uh uh make comments on things that were not on the agenda I just asked that if you do appr the want to speak um give your name your address
and please um hold it to 3 minutes so everyone can uh have an opportunity to speak good evening my name is PJ angert I'm at 16 High Street tonight I'm here representing 44 co-authors of a petition supporting tlot like T excuse me tatlock
lights project we began circulating this petition late Sunday evening uh March 2nd I'm going to read our petition for you for a second and I'll share a copy with Council as well mayor Fagan council president McAn and members of the common Council of
summon New Jersey we the undersigned urge you to proceed with the lighting of of the tatlock fields while making reasonable accommodations to alleviate neighborhood concerns regarding parking traffic and other issues that result from day and night activities at tatlock as testimony to the widespread
support for this project uh in less than uh 48 hours we have have over 800 signatures already at this point uh we plan to provide the full list of the petition at the next council meeting um but we collectively urge Council to move
forward with this project um and thank you for your time and consideration thank you if you have a statement please leave it with the the clerk thank you hi I'm Al Sternberg I at 4el Drive um I wanted to speak out tonight against
the recent policy changes that have been made to the Broad Street Parking Garage for residents with parking permits I'm a parent of two children who will both be attending Summit Public Schools I also am a working mom who commutes three days a week to New York City via the Summit Train Station the Broad Street Garage is
the closest and easiest way to park near the train station in order to commute to the city it's also a very popular parking garage if you arrive at the garage after 8:15 a.m. it is almost certain you will need to park on the rooftop of the garage however recently the policy of the garage was changed so that the rooftop is no longer available
to Residents with a permit it is only now available to non-residents who book a spot online residents are forced to either arrive at the garage prior to 8:15 a.m. or park on the rooftop of the tier garage or near the old fire station for parents of kindergarten and elementary school children School drop
off is not until 8:05 a.m. at the earliest what this means that is nearly it is nearly impossible to drop your child off at school and make it to the Broad Street Parking Garage by 8:15 a.m. now that Resident spots have been now been reott to non-residents only we are now out of luck and unable to park there
I know the argument here is that residents also have the option to park near the old fire station or the top tier of the tier garage I would argue that this is not a proper solution for a few reasons one if you dropping your child at school and trying to make a train time you don't have the time to check in three different locations in
order to find a spot two both options are significantly farther from the train station making the ability to catch your train even less likely and three I would not feel comfortable nor safe walking alone to these locations particularly in the winter when it gets dark early especially in the scenario of having to walk to the
second level of the tier garage what I find most disconcerting about this situation is that residents who are taxpaying citizens and pay for a parking permit are being put in this difficult situation in order to allot more spots to non-residents this doesn't feel right nor fair if the goal is to find more spots for non residents I would propose
letting them park on the second level of the tier garage and reopening the Broad Street Garage rooftop to residents Summit is a town known for being accessible and easy to commute to New York City however this shift in policy is now making that significantly more difficult for residents particularly working parents and realistically
working mothers I hope you'll consider this plea and reopen the Broad Street Garage Rooftop in order to make the parking situation more accessible and fair for all residents great thank you thank you thank
you other comments from the public good evening I'm um n Court um and today as council president Mike M turn said is Fat Tuesday so I thought appropriate to wear a t-shirt to show my support for brave people Ukraine uh who are wrongly being
forced to give up for Lent the weapons they need to fight for their and our freedom I want to share a historical moment of my own the Tariff Act of 1930 better known as smooth Holly act aimed to protect us farmers and Industry from foreign
competition by placing punitive tages punitive tariffs on over 20,000 foreign Goods the law triggered retailor tariffs more trading partners bringing global trade to a near standstill two years after this act became law the S&P 500 had fallen by
almost 80% the US economy would not truly recover until the end of two massive Public Works projects namely land lease and the Marshall Plan by sheer Co instance similar punitive damages were
applied to our trading partners at the same night that the summit bard of school estimate released a budget draft so while Bourbon Street is a washing bees and debauchery here in Summit we're waking up to the reality that this will be a very difficult
budget year your neighbors put the trust in all of you to steer this community Through times of economic uncertainty I wish to remind you that preserving cash and liquidity as well as debt reductions a are critical tools of
prudent financial management in times of economic upheaval I also encourage you to share as much information as possible with the general public ahead of time so we can understand the trade-offs in that context I would like to request some
information when will the annual ual debt statements be posted to the website based on prior years it was likely prepared by January 30th and filed with the state onor about February 10th number two when and how can we access the final 2023 revenues and
Appropriations for context last year's budget snapshot page 142 of the budget PDF available on the city website shows anticipated 2023 and 24 revenues and Appropriations as well as realized 2023 revenues and Appropriations however it
is my understanding that the city is allowed to roll some 2023 spending into 2024 so the the 2023 numbers were a best estimate we now need the final numbers and finally how do we get a final tally for which projects in the
2024 capital budget were executed and their final cost in closing the budget questions phasing Summit are not what have we to give up for Lent but rather how do we get a fiscally responsible budget that protects the quality of our schools and
our public services without significantly raising taxes thank you I will email you email it to you because I made Corrections thank you hello my name is Henry Bassman I live at 18 heartley Road um this year we
had the first appreciable snowfall in several years and Public Works did a great job uh clearing the roads and keeping them clear brightening before the snow and clearing afterward uh but what I noticed when I came downtown is
the streets were clear but there were snow banks at the edge of the street where it met the sidewalks and the places where the snow Banks were cleared were the crosswalks and the crosswalks are typically at the end of the street
so if you parked in the middle of the street you either had to climb over the snow bank or walk in the middle of the street to the corner and so I'm suggesting that in future years if we ever get snow again uh that an
additional place be carved out from the snow bank so people don't have to walk down the whole street in the middle of the street which can be dangerous at night especially and that's just my I spoke to Mr Trager about it before the meeting I'm sure he'll do something about it but I just wanted to
communicate it to you all thank you thank you other public comments no last chance all right I'm going to close the public comment section of our meeting and we'll uh now move on to council members comments and new
business who would like to make a comment well Council to well thank you um Mi Mr Ho um I think may have been reading my mind I did want to give Summit residents a bit of a update as to where things
stand with the budget um and yes City administrator Baldwin is busy compiling year-end reports and get getting them filed and uploaded in addition to running the city in addition to putting
the final touches on the 2025 budget um the governor gave his budget address last year there are still numbers we're waiting on to plug into the operating portion of the
budget and there's likely some hair cutting to do there um we'll we'll see how little we C we can do um the capital budget we we had the presentation back in December sat down
with the department heads whittel it down and finance committee realized it needed some more whittling um so we went back to the department heads and also to every member on Council asking them to rank
priorities uh so that we so that the finance committee really could make the hard decisions and we've come to a number that we think will satisfy the city's immediate needs and and meet our financial goals at the
same time so we're just waiting for for City administrator Baldwin to to find the extra six hours in a day to to finalize the budget in in a perfect world we introduce it in two weeks but don't hold your
breath um and anything I said wrong please correct me through you council president Mr hoik thank you for reminding me the ads will be posted tomorrow and everything was correct Council M to very good other comments from anyone
from Council yes councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president uh yes last night was the Board of Education meeting uh myself as well as uh as the council president said councilman Smallwood and the mayor sat on the school board estimate uh we had had several meetings
with the superintendent and the business administrator um however full transparency the school board estimate doesn't actually see all of the detail uh until the board of EDS sends their information to the state uh which is probably today and we'll see that in about seven or eight days so there is
very limited time to uh go through that information uh I certainly raised some concerns last night uh on behalf of the residents that I had some questions on the health insurance number uh the health insurance number uh we partner
with 119 municipalities in the uh School transportation the school health fund um which is about 119 municipalities and typically that rate's been 5% uh that rate jumped to about 10.28% so I asked the administrator to
go back uh and speak to What's called the shift uh to find out why uh that increase is coming back now to our residents without using of that Reserve uh further we are lucky enough to have our esteemed attorney mat Yobe who represents lots of school boards so uh
we will be making sure that uh we do all of the due diligence from the school board estimate uh for the residents and the other two more updates um great job the homeless task force I believe they got one more uh housed today uh so thanks for your leadership mayor um it's
been a very emotional and and passionate time I think we have almost everybody either rehabed or housed that was in the overnight program uh the most recent one was is getting housed in Hoboken um we're going to give a report on my visit to La for the homeless task force uh it
was a bipartisan task force uh with the Maplewood Democratic councilman uh which was excellent we were there with DCA and um Monarch housing and we're going to hopefully bring Mike Callahan here U Mike Callahan is responsible for giving us a lot of the rapid rehousing money uh
that we were so lucky to uh house all of those folks and and the only other two things I have to say I heard from Congressman Cain today that he has had some conversations about the saltbrook he's going to be calling me tomorrow trying to get him him and our council
president out there uh to look at that situation so I'll keep you informed and then lastly um I can certainly empathize um with Miss Sternberg regarding uh the resident parking I actually brought it up at the council meeting because that was one of my concerns so councilman
small I would just say let's take a look at that I believe we we opened up the 35 spots at the I can't remember what we did there but I do agree with her that it is a really tight timeline for parents who are dropping off there and going to school and I do agree that it's
probably not doesn't make a ton of sense to walk in the dark you know that late so I think we should take her questions um you know seriously back to committee and just just take a look at that for her and finally I love getting all of your phone calls emails and I now the
mayor is starting to train me because I um I will text her something and she will say C click fix and so I just you know it's such a great tool it's actually one of our most effective things that you can do in the city if you see something wrong you just hit C click fix you hit parking sign you hit
sidewalk and our amazing Augusto handles all of that stuff uh today there was actually three polls down near Lincoln hubard and I got so aggravated because I wasn't sure if there were Board of Ed or the city of summit so I actually just brought them in and then I get the mayor the text from there that says just see click fix and so she even reminds me but
is it a wonderful tool and mayor maybe we can even have Jenny do like a quick tutorial or a Mondays with the mayor cuz it's just it's our best tool and in caps it's just amazing I think that is oh and the other thing about the homeless task force uh the most recent veteran that
was housed in Springfield we are looking to get him some job opportunities he already has two uh so now not only will we got him housed but hopefully a job and sent him a blender today so he's super happy yeah that's great thank you other
comments uh councilman Boer council president I just want to make a comment about black the black history event uh last week I thought it was phenomenal um got to play musical cheers with CLA to and she gave me a rundown on Soul
music uh I think she knew a little more than me you know I was like all right Claire um but Rashad Wright uh the poet was amazing I mean he you know I hope that next year we get
more more attendance I think the community would have really appreciated these Two Brothers From the Soul music that car Brer played was amazing I I wasn't expecting him to sing but he sung
Marvin Gay and again the Poetry by Rashad Wright was was amazing um secondly uh I see these helmets today uh soon you know our our helmet um ordinance resolution will be coming out
of the Safety Committee I hope pretty soon um so that we can protect our our pedestrians from ebikes and get people to wear our our children to wear helmets uh secondly last week there was a uh Summit Housing Authority meeting they
will be meeting with one of our advisors very soon I think the residents there were're almost a year and a half into this residents need some relief and they're finally working with the city so hopefully we can make some progress
there uh please Community come out if you want to go to their next meeting is going to be on Wednesday March 26th at 5:30 at 12 Chestnut at the community room uh and lastly I know last last year
we had a lot of conversations about where the city's priorities are when you look at their budget and I again hope this year that we will focus and our priorities will show that our focuses on Safety and
Security because again without that uh what are what are we talking about right so I just always my number one concern that's the reason why I'm up here so I will always ring that Bell thank you thank you other
comments Madame mayor I just have to point out that councilwoman Hamlet's the one that actually taught me to use C click fix which I think is ironic now you're my now you're my C click fix great councilman palowski uh yeah just a couple quick things um I had the
pleasure of seeing uh the school play last week it was called the prom was very good I I urge everybody ready to uh support the Arts uh Sports is a huge huge thing in this town and and sports are awesome um but we also have an
equally talented and hardworking group of of kids at our schools and um we should go out and support them as well second it is read Across America week I'm looking forward to going reading at Washington
School Jamal's Alma uh where he read earlier this week so um uh read to your kids everyone it's great sorry council president I gotta say something about that all right come on come back thank you councilman palowski yes I went back
to uh the summit owls uh I went back to Washington at school this week and read the kids a book on Joe de magio uh which I realized I didn't know that much about J and Joe um jolon Joe yeah see there you go jol and Joe and the kids were in
used uh it was like a 50-page book and uh Laura Madden the teacher said Council Boer I know you got a lot to do you can leave when you want to you know and I read the whole 50 pages it was great so um read Across America is a great initiative I know the mayor read it
Jefferson scho the other day as well so I'm glad that the council members go out and support these kind of initiatives thank you right other comments just one quick one I promise 20 seconds um I just wanted to mention that uh the mayor and I had an initial meeting with Bristol
Meers squib and then um councilman celson and I went out and actually did a site tour which was super helpful and we're going to be sort of gathering a lot of those conversations from the residents over at Bristol Meers squib uh one of the things that I mentioned at the planning board which I think is
fascinating and I can't really say the word but on one of the buildings at BMS what's it called a a a v a Venum the thing where they put the animals in oh you're making us look bad now
animal it was animal it's it's something with a V I think the city solicitor got it vum or vum what's it called aary No something else I said it I said it actually right at anyway anyway um the residents had been complaining a
lot um on one of the buildings that was behind Kent Place uh they had actually I guess it was an animal research and a lot of the residents had been complaining about the air conditioning noise the humming for years Well turns out that now they actually just don't need that same capacity so they put some
bafflers on uh and the residents are a lot happier um but it was just sort of an interesting like historical minute that I didn't even know what this thing was that now I can't pronounce um but I think our meeting was was really helpful and we're going to be able to use that as an opportunity to really Advocate and continue to Advocate uh for the
residents back there that's it that's I great any other comments councilman Smallwood thank you council president uh I just wanted to touch on two things uh I I agree with councilman Boer about uh the Black History Month uh presentation and uh by the Department of Community
programs uh it was fantastic and you know I I I got to hand it to Claire because one of the exercises that we had to go through uh with Rashad white the poet was he gave us two lines and we had to write our our own poem and then he
gave us a word that only we could use and we had to create the poem and everybody else in the room had to guess what your word was and uh I I I I knew I knew Claire would get it my word and she was the she's the only one that got it
which um I can't even remember what the word was uh but I she knew that I don't use those kind of words so uh I knew she'd get it um so it was a fantastic time and I would actually suggest that we we bring
you know Mr White back to to councel and give a presentation because it was absolutely fantastic um his he was so amazing right uh and then also I'm actually looking forward to him going to Washington school on Thursday um to read to the students and
I'm really looking forward to that great other comments can I make one more plug I'm sorry I don't usually talk this much but Bob uh councilman palowski reminded me as we were asking for people to support
the Arts the Middle School play which is also coming up and always is wonderful and we really do have talented students I'm not sure wow we're very fortunate um Greece they're doing Greece uh and it's March 14th and 15th so just want to make
a plug for that gree is the word go any other comments all right do I have a motion to adjourn some of second all in favor you broke his stre all in favor I
opposed we are Jour have a great evening everyone I I opposed