[Music] [Music] good evening at this time I will call this meeting to order Clerk of the board please call the role uh certainly chairwoman commissioner Baker commissioner bodc present commissioner delis forfor commissioner granados here commissioner Kowalski here commissioner Mirabella president commissioner Williams Vice chairwoman Leon here and chairwoman P mudad here chair let the record reflect that you have six uh Commissioners present for this evening's agenda setting session thank you Clerk of the board please lead us in the prayer and salute to the flag humbly we ask God The Giver of peace and the lover of Charity to give the entire family of Nations true agreement with his will and to Grant the light of his Spirit on all who work for justice and peace amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all okay good evening tonight the board has two presentations chairwoman if I may point of order if we can just uh announce the statement of compliance with the open public meetings act yes thank you sorry about that word please read the statement of compliance with the open public meetings act uh the chair wishes to announce that pursuant to the requirements of New Jersey statutes annotated title 10 chapter 4 section 10 of the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting of the board of County commissioners of the county of Union has been given by mailing the annual meeting schedule for the year 2024 along with periodic changes necessitated by circumstance to the newspapers circulating within the county of Union who are designated to receive such notice and by posting the annual meeting schedule for the year 2024 in the administration building and further by filing the annual meeting schedule for the year 2024 with the office of the county clerk thank you thank you so tonight we have two presentations for the first presentation of the evening the board of County Commissioners would like to give out certificates to recipients of SC recipients of scholarship winners who are present with us today which was presented by the New Jersey assoc Association of counties foundation and their Board of Trustees this year they have graciously awarded scholarships to 2024 Union County vocational technical graduates all across the state who plan to continue their education in the fall at either a County College or a state college or university I would also like to recognize John zadoo executive director of njac Walt smeski assistant superintendent of schools um as well as David Vitali of Amazon Joe Greco of AT&T and Pat Cohen of sji utilities who are all joining us here tonight the following students that I'm naming here right now are unable to be with us tonight um but we would still like to recognize Danielle Rodriguez Lopez who will be attending Rucker University and is receiving a $1,000 scholarship courtesy of Amazon Ian Z who will be attending the New Jersey Institute of Technology is being awarded a $11,000 scholarship from broad broadcom VMware Emma uska aess ramsha Nath who will be attending the New Jersey Institute of Technology was awarded $250 from the Shi international corporation I would now like to call upon my commissioner colleague alir Rella to join me at the microphone as well as um if they would so so like to join us John Walt Dave Joe and Pat please come forward as we present our other certificates [Applause] [Music] okay okay so for our first recipient who is here today we have arav Joshua kadali come on forward uh he will be attending Rucker University and will receive $1,000 from AT&T [Applause] our next recipient is Savannah maroquin Savannah will attend Rucker University and is receiving $1,000 from South Jersey in Industries [Applause] and last but not least Kina sorz Pina will also be attending Ruckers University and is receiving $900 courtesy of [Applause] PS before we take a picture I wanted to turn it over to my colleague uh commissioner Marabella for a few words well thank you madam chair one of the great things about njac the New New Jersey Association of counties and John Donado is the executive director is um getting scholarships and working with great companies that give back to the community and uh we're rewarding these great students that are going on to County Schools or state schools in our in our state and it's really a pleasure to be uh here representing a little bit of NJ too because I am on the foundation scholarship board and the executive board at n Jack and uh I'm doubly proud today to be here and and see these students that have such great Futures ahead of them great I'm gonna ask John denado if he would say a few words too John thank you sir I'm happy to do that again John denardio with the New Jersey Association of counties and just want to first thank commissioner Amir Bella who again is an executive member of the New Jersey Association of counties and a new member to our Board of Trustees which this year alone due to the the generosity of the gentlemen that are here today and their companies we're giving away over $90,000 Statewide to County vocational technical school graduates and for us it's really important that they're continuing their education right here in the great state of New Jersey and I can tell you that every year the candidates of students that we get just get more and more impressive and I feel really bad about myself because I barely graduated high school I had to take a typing class in order to graduate so I see some of the resumes here and it's just incredible you guys did a fantastic job so thank you to to all of the companies that are here today and their continued generosity congratulations to the students most importantly and to their families and we wish you the best of luck so thank you yeah we could just all of move this way if everyone could just take three big steps to your right [Applause] okay and for our second presentation tonight the board of County Commissioners is proud to recognize a group of students who have earned scholarships for this year's summer Theater Camp hosted by theatrical Arts prep and the Union County Performing Arts Center this scholarship program was initially launched as part of Comm commissioner Granado's 2023 initiatives building a stronger Union County last year I was so amazed by the exceptional talent and the incredible opportunities it offered for the students to develop their skills and Shine On Stage inspired by its success I decided to continue the program this year under my 2024 initiatives growing together in Union County this year we have awarded a total of 21 scholarships to gifted students from across Union County these scholarships cover all Camp costs ensuring that Financial constraints do not hinder their artistic as aspirations the camp held at the Hamilton stage will feature professional guidance as students perform two Productions juny B Jones for our 8 to 12 year olds and Mean Girls for our a our students ages 13 through 18 I'm very excited to see both of those shows I have to tell you uh we would like to extend our gratitude to Deanna hunt the director of UC Pac and Sam Han Simpson the owner and artistic director of theatrical Arts prep for their support and Leadership their dedication to de Ving artistic expression has significantly contributed to the success of these students so at this point I would like to ask commissioner granados as well as our vice chairwoman lordis Leon to join me in front and we are going to give out our certificates look this that we are also joined here by Dena hunt who um as I said is our director at the UC Pac uh today we are presenting certificates to our scholarship recipients which celebrate their dedication hard work and outstanding Talent all of which promise a bright future for the Performing Arts so on behalf of the County Commissioners I want to wish you great success for the remaining of the month and I know I said it and I know my colleagues are going to share as well how excited we are to see your show because if it's anything like last year you guys are topnotch so we cannot wait to see the shows this year uh Sergio would you like to say something and then we'll go down the line sounds good well I had a sneak peek yesterday and I'll tell you right now you have to go no further than Union County New Jersey see some amazing talent so many times you talk about going to Broadway New York City but right here in our hometown we have such amazing you such amazing talent so let's continue to make sure we invest as a chairwoman is doing this year with these scholarships and we thank each one of you cuz we really can't wait and I also want to acknowledge open space for helping uh run this program including director Victoria deran Drake Angelica sedeno and Maria also thank you very much I'm really excited about this and I just can't wait to see the shows so much talent here here nothing better than the Arts and I'm going to get a lot of autographs after the show right okay looking forward guys yes please yeah thanks um on the on behalf of the ucac and Theatrical artist prep uh I'm Deanna hunt the executive director at the UC Pac I just want to again thank the Commissioners for supporting the Arts and thank you to last year's chair gonad for for recognizing the importance of the Arts and starting this program and thank you to Madam chair um palmary mudad who recognize the importance as well and is continuing this amazing program and so we have 21 very talented students that were awarded scholarships among very numerous uh we we had a number of applicants so be very proud parents of your children and thank you for supporting them and helping them with their applications I also want to um thank Vicki Durban and Angelica Sedano they're the ones that orchestrated the scholarship program and and put it together and without their help um we wouldn't have gotten it out to the community so I really do appreciate how they work with us on a regular basis and um again thank you to the parents for getting your children there every day um from Monday through Friday these students are working very hard for the month of July to put on two amazing performances as was mentioned these children are from the age of 8 to 16 and where you will be seeing juny B Jones Jr and also mean girls and um the shows are Friday and Saturday junly 26 and July 27th at 3 p.m. is juny B Jones and the Mean Girls is at 700 p.m. on those same dates um tickets are available at UC pac.org um please I encourage everyone here to come and see not one but both shows and see them twice and um I just want to thank all of you again um you're are stars of the future and we are all so very proud of you thanks thank you so what we're going to do now is we will call you up um based on the certificate here if for some reason you are here and your name is not called it was just a miscommunication between whether we knew you were coming or not but we have your certificate so just let us know come up for the picture and then we will get you that certificate at the end uh so our first student is Sophia Zuniga [Applause] and if you don't mind staying up here so we could take a picture congratulations thank uh our next student is Joseph [Applause] Estes our next student Mia Rico Jordan benedicto Isabella [Applause] ales Zoe [Applause] given Lea caress thank you Milano Smith [Applause] Jaylen w [Applause] worldles s Sophia [Applause] Rivas Gabriella [Applause] Garcia Natalie faak [Applause] Gabriella Marquez Daniela [Applause] Marquez Elana galleo Xavier [Applause] and Phoenix laava if there's there's no one else right that didn't get their name called okay so we're GNA just take a quick picture make rows up on little little platform here we have such a big group thank you so much maybe like three rows at this point thank you everyone awesome this is there you go there you go all right guys so I'm going to count to three and I want you to hold your smile as long as possible because all of your families want to take the same ready one two [Applause] we've never seen that many cameras before you guys ready they're going to get ready for open okay great job thank [Applause] you thank you guys thank you so much we're good yes thank you guys so much yeah famous too and as Dianna said go get your tickets because the shows will be fantastic yeah sure go ahead hello my name is Robert LaCava my daughter is Phoenix and I just wanted to I know everybody threw out all those thank but uh as a uh citizen of Scotch Plains of New Jersey uh I love Union County I love everything about this County I've never seen any of you before in my life but um I know that you're here working for us whatever it is that you're doing thank you for doing it and we appreciate you so very much because not only my daughter but all of these children they shine so brightly and it's because of this giving that you are receiving we all are so again I just want to thank you all and thank my children because it's fantastic thank you thank you we will adopt the communication okay yes at this time we are going to begin our regular meeting so if you want to head out you can head out head out we'll give you a minute unless you want to [Laughter] stay you never know thank you um I think I'm good I left it there you're I putting together the people with yesterday's performances like who [Music] was yeah it is which show are you in you're J B Jones okay oh cannot wait to see it and your first name again Lea okay I'll be looking for you thank you thanks so much for coming thank you thank you so much thanks for coming are you ex which show are you in Jun B Jones I cannot wait I cannot wait have a good night thank you okay okay we will adopt the communications and the June minutes during tonight's regular meeting at this time I will first call upon um our Deputy County Clerk Clara Fernandez who is representing the county clerk's office items for your consideration can you hear me now okay we have for items for your consideration I'd be happy to take any questions that you may have thank you thank you Office of the Union County prosecutor first assistant prosecutor James tany will be here to represent the department evening Commissioners County Council uh we have two items on the agenda for tonight and I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you thank you Board of Taxation County Council Bruce Bergen will be representing the department thank you chair the board of Taxation has a single resolution I'll be happy to answer any questions from the board commissioner mayor Bella um Bruce I don't know if you're if you know this but um a 10-year contract is pretty long with the county of mm are they always that long um yes in this case this is a shared service agreement where um the uh County of Mammoth has a uh computer program that a number of other counties share as well and um in fact we've been in using it since 2012 this is a a 10-year renewal um and uh we essentially pay a set fee and then a per appeal uh fee so this is a not to exceed amount this may not be what we spent over over 10 years it depends how many tax appeals get filed thank you Bruce thank you B chair thank you Department of administrative Services Laura scari good evening the department of administrative Services has two resolutions on the agenda happy to answer any questions thank you Department of Economic Development Deputy County Manager uh and director Amy Chris Wagner good evening the Department of Economic Development has four resolutions for your consideration and I'd be happy to answer any questions uh Deputy County Manager can you elaborate on number three please and just give us a little bit more about that yes absolutely this project um in raway will be a 52 unit uh excuse me 58 unit uh new construction 35 of those units will be receiving this $7 million to help fund them as affordable housing um we get about um 1.3 to $1.5 million every year for the home investment partnership program we go out to bid every year and we just really haven't gotten any good quality projects that we felt could meet the home guidelines because it's very strict they have to remain affordable for specific amount of time the uh residents have to be recertified it's it's a challenging program to administer uh but this project we're very excited about uh so we haven't awarded any money which is why we have 7 million to give this project but we're very excited to um see it come to fruition and we know that we have a significant issue with um lack of affordable housing uh really all over the country but also most especially here in Union County so we're excited to have a project of this quality coming before us that's great and how many you said how many units of affordable housing it's 58 units 35 of them will be affordable they'll be funded through the home investment partnership program Wonder that's wonderful thank you any additional okay thank you uh department of engineering Public Works and Facilities Management Joe po acting director good evening Commissioners the department of engineering Public Works and Facilities has 13 resolutions we' be happy to try and answer any questions you may have commissioner bodak director number six director number six um approximately when would the work start and how long is it anticipated to take just as soon as we maybe the work will start and maybe two months it'll take it between a year and a year and a half for completion thank you sir thank you thank you uh Department of Finance at um uh Kathy Campanella who is our our reimbursement director good evening M Madam chair and board members the Department of Finance has 14 resolutions for your consideration I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you thank you Department of Human Services director Debian Anderson good evening chair members of the board the Department of Human Services has six I'm sorry 10 resolutions on and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have uh director how are you um I when we were going through this earlier um there's so many part great partners that we have listed here um just kind of curious off the top of your head is there like an approximate number of residents that you know um utilize those um organizations I know that's probably a tough one to answer it is tough but I could um say through the funding of the board um and all the Community Partners that's listed on this agenda and through out um our Human Service Network in the county we're servicing um I would say a quarter of the residents of the population is over 600,000 residents most of them are going through um our Gateway Y and other nonprofit Partners throughout the county so a third over 200,000 that's wonderful thank you Department of Parks and Recreation our director uh Vicki Durban Drake good evening chair and Commissioners the department of Parks and Recreation has one item on the agenda and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you thank you Office of the County Council uh County Council Bruce Bergen thank you chair County Council has two resolutions and I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you thank you uh and Office of the County Manager Deputy County Manager uh Amy Wagner yes Commissioners the office of the county manager has one resolution for your consideration and I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you all auditory resolutions and resolutions of condolence are from the entire board are there any comments from my colleagues okay uh may I have a motion to adjourn so mooved Madam chair second all in favor I I okay this meeting is adjourned [Music] [Music]