I don't think it's this it's a all the meeting to order excuse me just want to let you know that Jessica is on here okay she's on muted okay adequate notice of this regular meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January 19th
2025 and was posted at the municipal building in accordance withj bman 4-7 thank you would you please all please rise and join in a salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag United States
ofer council member bueri council member D benedetto council member Higgins here council member Sparta council president rudo pres for move move into our agenda I would like to ask the public
for a moment of silence for member of our community who was very active member of our the environmental commission I knew Mrs Beverly buds who recently passed away um right when
the government changed form and during that time Mrs Buds was an active member of the environmental commission she and other members of the commission also became as known as the pipeline bers uh they kept track of the number of trees that were taken down along the pipeline and
uh made sure that they were replaced uh an adequate number uh she was an active member of the uh group in securing uh grants for the township for planting of trees and uh as her term
wor on and she moved on to other interests we lost the benefit of her service she was however very deeply involved with wildlife and animals her biggest passion being horses that she rode she rode in I'm sure Mrs Buds will be
uh deeply missed by the community and by our family to whom we extend our condolences and I ask for a moment of silence and remembrance of our life thank you first
item is U regarding the installation of a solar installation at the believe at the high school and we've been asked to uh see if we can't have some of the fees waved and or the an the uh moving the project along
with this little as uh possible involvement within our you know the uh the actual papers and pens that we have to go through to get the these issues uh resolved um anybody like to com comment on this yeah I just had one question I believe Brad you were on the board at
the same time as I did when we went forward with the solar system at the board of ed so we learned a lot about it and hopefully the Board of Ed learned a lot the current members because it didn't cost us anything and it was uh was supposed to be mostly on the roof of the school it ended up that most of it's on the ground just like they're saying here behind lsbury the first year that they calculate and Brad as an expert from uh his uh use that term loosely his other his other endeavors here with sesex
rural gave us a lot of good guidance and the it cost us nothing the group that made the presentation we it took a year to get all the facts and figures and it was uh well done and then there was a little clock calculating the savings at lsbury and it was $26,000 a year oh it was running right when you came in the front uh front lobby I don't know what it is today and then over a period of time it's worth about 15 years
value and then it's yours you you own anyway they they put the money up to make the money from the savings on the solar so it's uh it's always a good thing as long as it's done right and we we've seen the opposite we've seen Susy County mors County and Warren County team up together 12 years ago and they uh committed $24 million and ended up getting nothing and it cost taxpayers 24 million because the contractor went broke they went an
entire different method paying for it so there's right and wrong ways to do things hope we do it the right way Mr Spar um from the conversations I've had with u a board member called me and and the superintendent they're doing it through an EIP program which um is supposed to self fund off the savings and we actually did I don't know if you were on the board when we did the esip back in 2012 um but we did like a $6 million EIP program where we changed out all the
light fixtures um before we did it the electric built the high school was $1 million a year and we got it down to about $350 to $400,000 a year just by doing uh light fixtures and some other things um that uh Bond was a 15-year Bond and when I was talking to uh Mr slam the business administrator when he called me about this um that bond is actually uh finished in 27 so that has been self-funded all the way through um so these type of programs that the school want to do are good programs
to have um they will benefit uh the community with uh some tax savings um the issues that they're running into I believe um our mayor is working through with them already so I don't know how much we really need to to discuss what they're looking for from us as a town but um it's you know I just want to put the the community at ease that this is not something that's going to cost them anything to do as far as a taxpayer because they're doing it through an EIP program
so um I know uh when we did the one at lsbury we're supposed to do at the high school as well and we couldn't put it on the roof of the high school because nobody can come up with the structural drawings of the roof right and that's why um the the array at uh lsbury the one behind lsbury s lsbury and Rolling Hills got bigger uh because we couldn't do it at the high school so I think they're looking for an alternative means to do something at the high school and that's what they're kind of looking for but I I know Anthony's
been or I'm sorry the mayor has been working on this um with them so yes so I mean we I'm not gonna not gonna go into details at the moment right it's still it's still new I I do support the project that they're looking to do uh I support their initiative in trying to save money taxpayer money um and you know we'll we'll work with them right we we'll see what we can do do what we can't do for them um but uh it's still early in process like
I was sping at Tina earlier same thing looking to do uh a similar project here at for the municipal building DPW as well electric course are are going up and um it's so trying to find ways I know there's a lot of companies that try to come in and they offer you all these things so we we are working with our pbaa group on on how we go about
doing these types of things trying to see the best the best way I do know I don't PS ourselves are managing that not I don't want to get involved with that so if there's way we can cut down on our course we'll go ahead and we'll do that one of the projects I think we talked about is uh replacing just the bulbs I know I tested it out in my own office um where replaced them all with LED
bulbs um so that's that's a good start uh then there's companies that that offer all of these um fixtures to be you know replaced at no cost or some you know so there's all these different things out there uh incentives rebates so it was still early on trying to figure out the best way but uh like said back to the board that just support um what it is that they're trying to do and uh
we we'll we'll try to way we can I don't I don't want to go off on a tangent here but one suggestion I'd make is reach out to jcpnl because since they're a member of the BPU they have to if you request an energy audit they have to do one and then uh see if there's an an isip or uh Energy savings program it's available um where yes we may have to take out a bond for it but that's uh supposed to be self funded With the Energy savings so didn't we do anergy before I don't
I don't know not since I've been on the counil but but yeah absolutely said to be leaning on you a little bit here when you need me appreciate it thank you anyone else wish speak no um Jess I'm sorry Jess no um I guess in the past I'm just wondering if we typically wave these fees for them I mean I I think not
doing so is like cutting off your nose despite your face I'm just curious I guess that becomes a question of how much and uh um and there things that we legally can't weigh right we have to see what all that all I think it becomes a question that we have to discuss yeah absolutely absolutely right thank you thank you the
only the only concern I might have is that I I would hope that the excuse me that uh the school board excuse me utilizes the the the offices of our L use sport because they do have the
uh they do have the expertise in terms of knowing what is required in terms of documentation and plans um to have this uh you know have this uh program uh handled and uh why not take advantage of you know certainly the fees for
you know filing fees and everything can be can be waved but you know I think the expertise that the lanu sport brings to the uh to this to the system when they begin to talk about this is something that should be taken taken advantage of um other than that I have
no further comments mayor you have comments I just want to enter some names into the record for uh some of the volunteer uh applications uh David killan or the economic devel uh the EAC it is a it's a oneye term David K joer Knight as well
will be joining the E I have Edward on expired term and 2026 environmental commissions and and my lovely daughter started to join the recreation
and beautification both committees uh unexpired term uh I know the beautification is one year and the other uh Recreation is4 2028 that term that and we received a 2024 safety uh Excellence award on uh Thursday I attended the Statewide F Insurance um
commission for their reor meeting and we were presented with the a safety Excellence award from them for uh I guess being saved we got is that our workers comp fund yeah okay right we do insurance well it's all the insurances right yeah yeah so it's it's workman's comp it's you know we have all our safety meetings they do a lot of our training it's like our risk management all
of that um so they awarded us and there was a couple other towns but they weren't around here and I'm sure since we got that our mod Factor drops so our insurance is going to be better this year I hope that's the real benefit yeah and lastly our our phones and internet have been completely upgraded um get a huge savings to burn a Township uh and we have all new equipment
and support it's it's a joy to actually pick up the phone and be able to call out we haven't been difficult so um thank you to Planet Network for their support they truly have gone above and beyond to to make that happen so so anyway so that was uh that happened last last week I think that was the final so do you have any idea when
plan network will be able to provide a rolling list of coverage in the areas of the community you're getting people calling there there's a um there's a on their website you can put in your uh ZIP code and or your address actually put your address in yeah yeah it'll tell you exactly well there I don't know the details of it but it doesn't really
say when it just says you're not covered yet um we can find out I mean I'll see if there's more information available give me some time yeah it'd be good if Mr Bole can kind of let us know what sections because I think part of the problem is they're on their rain main roads running their trunk lines and people say oh great you know I'm going to be getting Planet Network you know next week but that's just the trunk lines that's of stuff going into the house so and then you have like like say Cliff
Lake where they have to come in from 23 into that section and then they told me the power to try to go over railroads which is whole big processed along with that so um but they're making a lot of a lot of progress throughout the county so so guys but I'll look I'll ask Mr Bo exactly he can give me some timelines at some LS
um one one last thing uh to the jcpnl uh uses I know we've had this discussion about the smart meters so that meeting you met the invite right thur Thursday we're having a meeting with jcpnl uh a couple of residents one who seems to be very knowledgeable in meter testing and he's got some information we're going to be working with they engineer hopefully uh we can maybe that maybe there's there's something that U they've
discovered they've learned uh we're also going to be talking about the timelines on the infrastructure upgrades hopefully they can give us some timelines some Hard dates on when that that's going to happen and also the progress they're making with cutting back some of the trees the limbs things away from the power lines to reduce those outages so okay thank you I know they've been doing a lot of work on um 515 on the Hardison side which feeds H Brees which I know
H Brees has been a constant issue so hopefully that's going to help them out a lot oh absolutely okay thank you very much may I have a motion to open the floor to the public move just second moov by Mr Higgin seconded by Mr Sparta uh all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries the Flor
is open to the public on agenda items only only and comment is limited to three minutes per person does anyone wish to address the council seeing no one coming forward may I have a motion to close the meeting to the public moved moved by Mr Sparta is there a second second second by Mr Higgins all in favor signify by saying I I I I opposed motion carries members of
the council have received copies of the jeels list have any comments regarding have a few certainly some small some just going back to on 10-1 one there various lease payments for vehicles
that we own I guess uh they they go anywhere from 528 a month to 764 is that due to the type of vehicle is that due to when we got it it's a big spread on the cost of a vehicle can you send this stuff to us in an email so we we have this information yeah lot time I communicate through Pat and then Pat gets the information to Dell okay
and uh sometime I get answers yeah the answer for that one of those cars I believe in one of the other sessions if it if that's one of the roving cars you know the extra car for administrative use has that car been lettered with Vernon's uh Insignia on the side of
it was asked a couple months ago that's why I just never heard who asked uh I thought it was asked to one of these meetings well maybe it's not goingon to be I don't know I'm just saying if it's a company or a town vehicle will be letter yeah I mean have small yeah
do we normally DP it's some identification I think they the next few of them three of them but they add up the same thing on 63152 6316 60 no I'm sorry not that it's
63152 63181 63173 they're all snow removal invoices for various parts of towns and just going back to a question that Mr Sparta asked probably four months ago do we ever compare the cost of the outside services to the cost of having our people do the work or what it would be that was a question that was asked what I I don't know if you ever received
an answer to that and I'm just asking it again because it was a legitimate question it was promised and answer never got it the question so back in May I asked since we were through our first winter with this the contract thing is if there was any type of analysis that was done to find out um if we were better under contract or if we were better under the basically the Kelly bill right um
through the reimbursement to the associations and you know it was it was a financial analysis to see which work force so that way when this contract is up what do we do do we go back to the old way or do we keep this new way so how do we you know just compensation how do we look at that right I mean how do we go back to you know do we do we do go back to a snow storm from last two years ago that was you know three inches of
snow to what I don't know if we have history of of that I mean I would tend to Think Through The Kelly Bill the reimbursements would have to have you know snowfall on January 15th of three inches or you know there's got to be some sort of script in in there for the reimbursement and if there wasn't then I mean we kind of handle that money kind of blindly so um you know you know what the reimbursement rates were for the storms under the Kelly bill because you you should have well I would hope
that information would be there and now you know what it is you know we just had a storm last week that was or on Saturday it was what two or three inches whatever you could compare it to a storm under two or three inches that were through to Kelly Bell that's what I just yeah like I said I to me I don't think if if we don't do those things we we don't know you know which way to go next I you know I I believe in doing I even doing SWAT analysis on things you know strength weaknesses opportunities and threats and that's that's how I think you
make better decisions going forward rather than just saying you know what the Kelly bill was the Kelly bill was we were getting screwed on it so let's go out and and privatize it and and get contractors for it and just pay them you know yeah I think well said I wasn't part of that um yeah back when Kelly yeah I think there was certain things that I gu try to be so right I guess
we just kind of cut the middle man out I guess I think that was the point of of this new contract but like I said um go back to then we'll see if there's any kind of dat right yeah thanks I mean it was was a big lawsuit so I would tend to think there was more information there yeah there was one more that was on the list that was also St snow removal that I didn't mention 63181 that
was for 15 change so there was some sizable numbers on there 14 21 15 in terms of dollars the only other thing I see on here is a simple question we had a nice presentation a couple meetings ago with some ballistic Shields that were donated to the police department and there's there's a cost of 11,681 here is this in addition to those donations for the ballistic shield
or is it part of the donation in uh 6316 this was um that's the dollar amount that was donated
yeah I mean we we have you know what I I'm not going to comment on that because I don't know the exact dollar amount the check was and then we have to actually purchase it um purchase the shields so I don't know I think they they may have um there's like a a carry bed with did that wasn't part of the donation so I guess got to s pre so so we can this information
okay if I send the email and these are all monetary questions see me on who's going to answer them send it to Tina CC and we'll get you the answer okay right that's it for my questions 8: amm Monday day of
the meeting that information just in case like like Tina was out last meeting right so we want to make sure that you guys have everything you need for your meeting we want you to be successful go quickly painless right as possible I get that but even even if let's say I came up with a question tonight that I
didn't email you because I just read it an hour ago such as a question that Brad asked in May and it just wasn't answer well like I said that that stuff make sure send me the email CC that that you're question that that question can I assume that if it's discussed at a meeting and you're and on your your side you say we'll get you an answer we have an answer next meeting AB okay that's all I'm asking for we'll try to get it we'll get it to you before that before the
next Mee um and for some reason you didn't get it while me just you have my number you can always reach out and uh just send a remind okay anyone else Mr you there no okay thank you moving along uh all members of the council have received copies of minutes for
reorganization meeting of January 15 does anyone have any uh additions or deletions or comments on that particular meeting hearing none um may have a motion to place this on the floor moved moved by Mr Higgins is there a second second second by Mr Sparta um all in favor
signify by saying I I I I I oppos motion carries all members have received copies of the minutes of meeting of January 20 5th 7th rather uh 2025 of our executive session may I have a motion to place that on the floor for consideration mve moved by Mr spart is there a second second seconded by
Mr Higgins any additions deletions or comments on that particular meeting not me all in favor signify by saying I I I oppos motion carries for our minutes of the meeting of January 27th a regular meeting uh 2025 may I have a motion to place our regular meeting minutes on the floor for
approval move moved by Mr spart is there second seconded by Mr Higgins anybody have any additions deletions or comments on regarding that particular meeting hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I I opposed motion carries regarding the consent agenda consent agenda you have
any comments in terms of uh wanting to have it separated from total body please let me know and I'll do so and we can 61 62 61 62 63 right 64 anyone
else uh you want to take these first we just move on to the other one sure resolution 25-61 emergency temporary appropriation uh uh may I have a motion to place
this on the floor for consideration second by Mr spart seconded by Mr Higgins comments yeah for the benefit of the public there's a resolution to approve uh $2.16 million which is worth talking about and uh just the full explanation of that is uh that this money in the first quarter budget could not be paid so we're
doing an appropriation to place this in the first quarter that will be repaid in the second quarter or the first quarter of our yearly year is that is that the general discussion here these are monies I believe for um the the municipal contracts to pay the employees or the health benefits the health benefits under contract so they have to be um upfront it so they'll be in the they're in the budget but you have to appropriate for them
until your budget is is is passed they're in the budget these were Pierce contributions I think it's yeah it's not contractual obligations under your okay when you said health benefits it throw me off that's benefits part so these these were covered in the budget that's really my question yeah there not it's not we're adding these to the budget and then taking them out later these are all monies out of the contract for um your the employees for the you the the
police the uh DPW workers so these are obligated right to be paid okay I just didn't think it was in the current budget yeah they can't be paid yeah you have to appropriate yeah okay just so it was already in the budget yeah yes and and also in the contracts you they I would believe that they were passed by this this board yes as well so this is the be the third time you get to look at it
which is a good it's a good thing um may I have a motion sorry we do have a motion roll call remember D benedetto yes council member yes council member Sparta yes council
president rudo yes motion Carri thank you resolution 25- 62 authorizing contracts with certain approved State contract vendors under title R t- 2809 may I have a motion to place this on the floor consideration move move by Mr Higgins is there not yet
I'm sorry not yet she's sorry my is second uh second second by Mr Sparta um Mr Higgins here yeah the question is we're purchasing a $190,000 vehicle and uh off of a state contract is there a market is this a used vehicle it's a new truck all new okay
so the state contract is this the list price that we're paying for this is there is there a negotiable price yeah so so the way that um the the the state contracts work uh they pre-qualify vendors so vendors um pre-qualify different items there some police vehicles fire trucks uh asphalt any type of um material you could imagine if you know for your DPW for pipes for nuts for tools and these are all pre-qualified so they've gone through the process the
bidding um process and they've become they're considered uh the best and best quality and lowest price and that's the benefit of um joining these um these State Co Cooperative um entities because you don't have to then go out and and bond or go ask for um you know for submissions for bidding Le these items that's already been done for you okay that's I said this on purpose because on the next one the
followup will be I'm good with that answer roll Callo yes council member Higgins yes council member Sparta yes president rudo yes car resolution 25- 63 authorizing contracts with certain approved Educational Services Commission from n New Jersey Cooperative
contract vendors may I have this as a motion to be placed on the floor moved by Mr Higgins is there a second second second by Mr sparter you have yes so follow up on the previous 62 so here we have resolution 63 and uh first question is what's an educational Service Commission doing selling
uh Fire Equipment some of this isn't Fire Equipment this is below program isn't it no this is the accessories for uh an F550 [Music] this believe it or not some of these people some of these commission these these vendors get involved in areas several different types and you say what are they doing there it's a question that they simply
become a vendor under this group and doesn't necessarily have to be Educational Services like books or anything like that it's something that they so the contract is called educational called educ yeah okay that's that's fine so if we're saving money yeah excuse me kind of getting more vendors and and more vendors then my assumption would be coming from a business
background that we're probably going to save a couple of dollars in just buying something at list price so the attachments show that we're purchasing or we're requesting to purchase everything at list price this it's all listed on their attachment so what's our advantage of paying list price that list price is negotiated price through the Cooperative Services well it no I I use Cooperative services
in my business and if you list your product you're being told by the state to say what you want to discount it off of list you can say zero you can say 10% or 20% that's up to you and then you're you're living with that discount and so this says list price so these products are being sold to us at list price with we no benefit other than going out to bid you go out to bid
you may get somebody saying so they this did go out to bid the the co-op and it's reviewed by the state they go out to bid they get the the beep lowest price and and the best quality um it's reviewed by um the state com controller they they get approved and um these costs are below the State got um the savings to again the municipality is as you know the process if you had to go out each time for any any time you bought
anything over the bid threshold then the amount of money the time you'd have engineering fees legal fees you'd have Contracting it would take you probably a three-month lead time to get anything in here this this saves the municipality money and it also gets the needed material sooner and it gets it at price the same price that you should be able to get it are we getting services with this equipment or we just buying the
equipment well I I I haven't seen the agreements okay um it looks like it's just equipment to me depends on what the equipment is if it's just a uh like a a nut or a bolt or a fire hydrant no you wouldn't get service with that because that's a consumable um I think if you well I know if you did go out for um computer type Services well that would be a service so I guess would be depending on what You' get at I I don't know the specifics of it right Tina is there anything you can say to give
a specific I'm just because what I'm going to vote no if the answer is we're just buying off a list price it's it doesn't make sense to me to buy something at list price when you could go out to bid and buy it at less than list price why we asked send these questions in I I've asked the same question on three four different occasions it's it's not about a specific bid Anthony but it's about is the process of how we go about doing business
and it's t you you inherited the job it's it's not your fault that we're doing it this way it's just that you can save money occasionally if you go out to bid and I'm trying to use this as an example of how you can save some money if we're paying less price and we're saying we're using a safe contract that means it's easier for us to purchase it the the process is in place the paperwork's in place everything's flowing and the big winner here is whoever is selling it to us because
they're selling us at list price not selling at a discount off the list bill I think if you were to go and look at you know this is snow doll right some of this stuff in there I think if you were to go look at what this is being sold for to General Contractors or landscape uh companies or whatever I think you will find that this is the discounted price this is not the list price it says list price on here because it's the list price that is through
the Education Services Co-op but if this is the negotiated price that they have put in through the co-op while it does say list price there I would venture to Guess that that is not quote unquote the list price that is the discounted price that is given through the bidding process okay I'll research CH out I'll find out if that's truly list price and if it it is the list price then my suggestion would be let's occasionally
go out to bid and save some money on some of this stuff that's really the goal of my question any other comment question not roll call benett yes sorry good yes yes yes I'm going to vote no
based upon Finance yes bzo yes carries resolution 2564 amended resolution Township of Veron County of Sussex New Jersey authorizing
the procurement procuring of financial advisory and Management Services losap Program competitive contract may I have this in the form of a motion um sorry place it on the floor for a motion to consider move by Mr Higgins is there a second second seconded by Mr Spartan somebody have any comment on this yeah questions were uh the Losa program is a little over a year
old we've asked on three occasions when we're going to get an update on number of people who joined new recruits and we've been promised a presentation hasn't happened yet so this is the third request now could we could we please get that information we we had a a group of firemen and Volunteers Of Fire Department month ago and there were at least six new members and something's happening on that side looking to see what's happening on the uh on the
ambulance side and and what the program is the whole idea was to bring in uh new recruits so here this and you know we put money aside to do that which everybody agreed to it's the right thing to do I'm not questioning that I'm just saying let's give us some information on what's going on with the program maybe you need more help maybe you're making more progress think I don't know but as part of the uh as part of the package the volunteers it looks like will
be receiving some Financial benefits here and it appears that Lincoln Financial Services will be providing them and uh it looks like if we went out to bid there was really only one bidder it said in here two biders Lincoln Financial Lincoln National Life Insurance company is awarded the contract and Lincoln Financial Group is this that's the agent that's not two biders that's one bidder somebody's being an agent for their same company
so I guess we got went out the bid and we got one bidder is that the way this turned out yes that was it so it's one not two all right so if we can get an update from losap loap to also you know was to recruit right but also to keep right keep that inent not just for recruiting purposes right it's the it's the key right and for the especially it's a small price to
pay I'm not questioning that right is this in the original $80,000 or is it going to be something in the new budget these are questions that should be presented it's a new year it's new money or is it old money what are we looking at are we going to approve something that's going to cost money and then two months later vote on a new budget where it's already included because we passed it or is it in last year's kind of yes well I mean now council member Higgins
this is an amended resolution um the council passed this resolution um at the end of 2024 um we got it back from Lincoln Financial because it needed to be um the wording needed to be updated um because they couldn't the DCA wanted it a certain certain word in in the resolution that's the only reason we got it back to get approved again okay is there any way for us to be told
that before I went through this whole it's on the title question and answer thing it's just a wording change that's on the title of the um resolution resolution yeah it's a procuring a financial advisory and Management Services does it say it's rewarding what was already approved has amended the of Vernon County of susex state of New Jersey authorizing the procurement of financial
advisory and Management Services loap Program bill is this the first time you're reading this no see that's another thing that you I spend more time reading these and ask the questions and I go over it 10 times that's why I ask the question I I ask it because I I want this to be run more like a business than just rubber stamping because if if the council is going to sit up here and
just yes yes yes and not know what they're voting on and the public doesn't know what's being voted on that's half of my reasoning I want to get these questions out the public has a true understanding they may not understand it just like they don't understand assessments and reevaluations but it's our job to explain it and I'm trying to explain everything that I read for their benefit my benefit and hopefully that we make some changes if we come up
with something that's reasonable to make a change if we buy something at list price I think that's worth asking the question why we're buying it with send us those questions so you can have those answers for the public right so that's what I'm saying have those questions come to us be more than happy to give you a real detailed explanation on these things and I know mossi provides you know all the the the backups um for for most of this stuff as well so I mean the stuff is
in here but also again please send us those emails CC me on those emails so we'll make sure we get you those right answers I funnel most my questions through the council president here on a regular basis roll call council member D benedetto yes council
member Higgins yes Council yes rudo yes resolution 25 years 565 refund for totally disabled veteran block 206 lot 14 deducted resolution 25- 66 lot I'm sorry block 206 lot
14 redact cancelling taxes for total disabled veteran resolution 255-6776 Renewal by Anderson resolution
25695 d70 resolution to support publishing legal notices on official government websites resolution 2-71 a resolution in support of referend for 10 years extension of Sussex County Farmland preservation Recreation
and open space trust fund uh does anyone wish to have any of these not I'll ask for I'm sorry a a motion to place these on the floor for consideration mve moved by Mr Sparta second seconded by Mr Higgins council member
D benedetto yes council member Higgins yes Council Mida yes yes moving into our ordinance introduction of ordinance 25-3 of the township of Vernon County of suss state of New Jersey amending chapter
330 nonconforming buildings and uses of the code of the township of Vernon to allow for reconstruction of the existing dwellings within the existing footprint may I have a motion to place this on the floor so moved moved by Mr SP second second by Mr Higgins um R quot council member D benedetto yes council member Higgins yes Sparta
yes council president R yes motion carries ordinance 25-4 ordinance establishing the salaries for certain officers and employees of the township of Vernon County of Sussex may I have this in the form of a motion moved moved by Mr spart is there a second second seconded by Mr
Higgins roll call council member de benedetto yes council member Higgins Yesa yes council president rudo yes carries counc president if if I could um I I missed the 8 o'clock deadline by 11 minutes this morning so if if by the next meeting could we have um I not specific names but um
what the uh people in these positions their current salaries are and then what their proposed salaries are for the 2025 budget um their current salaries yes but the proposed because the budget hasn't been approved I don't think that's something that is ready um to give information on the only reason
why you know I think some of these ranges are are pretty broad right and and there's reasons for it and I understand those reasons for it um if somebody were to leave throughout the year and we have to track somebody you know we may need to have some some um leniency and I understand that I just um I think we need to have some sort of how about this and I know this is readily available but can we also put out with the agenda um for
the next meeting for the second reading on this can we put out the ordinance from 24 so that way we can see what the ranges are and the public can see what those ranges are you understand what I'm saying yeah see I think the last one um that was approved was in 22 oh 22 I I thought we did this every year no no okay all right then can we see the the 22 one then just as and just
in with the back up that's that's all into details about it 98% of the employees they're raised to basally like almost like a qu living rate um the only time you get the adions transferred or promoted add responsibil and by a case by case basis these are not just no and we
I I fully understand the ranges I just think there's we need just a little bit more backup or information I mean obviously if somebody is you know has a range from 100 to 140 and they're making 110 I know you're not going to pay him 130 I I know that but I think it'd be also helpful to find out at where they are in that range because if they're getting close to the to the 140 I think we need to consider is that a proper range that you know right and
I think that's what that's why this is point and I think she attached did she yeah surveys oh the surveys yeah I'm I'm more interested in our people you know so but we want want to kind of St we
close I guess no understood any other questions yeah I noticed that there's some asteris besides some of the positions so am I correct in assuming if those asteris are 40h hour work weeks that all other non- asist are 37 and a half hour work weeks 35 35 all others are 35 full-time
somewh could be 28 right so is it marked where the 28s or the 25s or we're just supp to some they're all 35 less than fulltime is
part time okay less than fulltime part-time that means you don't get any benefit corre that's correct okay so that has the aster but can also would have to mean that your benefits incl your benefits are included which is a consideration in terms of the total amount correct the
total amount as compensation compensation you're not getting benefits so compensation would right
yeah have a I'm sorry have one more question certainly do employees who are on this list not the individual they names the people are they reviewed
yearly yes written review go is that written review used to generate the request for an increase in pay or they get an increase in pay by surviving another year surviving another I think we we we whatever we give uh employees that are that have contracts right yeah these would be non non-contract people say with the two to 3% U
U cost of living um for that um of course you know the review is is a way of gaing one's one's performance um but also is it used to dictate some ra wise it depends on each individ everything is Case by case right so if an employee uh has done you
know x amount taken on more more responsibilities or um has taken a ro that would reflect view which which then can be used as a consideration for for an increase or an increase above the 2 to 3% that they would normally get that's to live so the key word there is it can be for example I'll go back to the Board of Education we were
on the board the assistant superintendent the ba were all reviewed by the board members in writing and we presented it to that person as a group and they raised if there was a raise was dictated on their performance and whatever the legal limit was that was allowed to be paid for that position if the review was not satisfactory the raise was not satisfactory non-existent that's just the way
it works excuse me I I understand having been on the board quite a while myself right procedure didn't change the difference being is that procedure for this type of government totally different we don't have the ability to query as to what why we are giving the amount of money basically it becomes a question of it's
we you know it's too little or not enough but the key word there is performance we don't we don't care about performance that's why I use the word if they survive another year we don't EV doesn't matter we don't evaluate we don't evaluate mean he means council members Council me that's what he's referring to not we don't no I I I don't want to go I'm not here day and the payer is the one who has to be satisfied with the process of evaluation if
the pro not I think I think the mayor basically said what council president is saying that he will review people if they've taken on additional work there's maybe a bump a bump in in pay so that's that part of that evaluation and then he'll come before the this board with a recommendation uh and he'll say why he thinks May maybe one person should get more because maybe they he or she took on an additional duty or took on another responsibility of of some other person then I'm taking
that as a note to my initial question is are people that are in this these positions reviewed yearly I I think the mayor said yes they are if they're all reviewed yearly is their raise predicated on your review and I think the answer was yes if they've if they've done if they've gone above and Beyond then yeah then I think the mayor said yes and if they have not gone above and beyond you're saying I heard the answer
if everybody's getting a two or 3% raise and they're retained for another year they're getting the two or 3% or as a possible they get nothing usually they would get the same uh percentage cost of living adjustment so a person doing a favorable review and a nonfavorable review would get the same race no if if someone potentially again it's up to the it's up to the mayor I guess the administrator um for recommendations I mean the other like
the DPW the police they're under contract right different story that's correct but the internal the people who walk in work in the office it you know again I think the mayor said Case by case and he reviews that and it's going to come before the board and he's going to you know say why he thinks these people should get get that and then you're going to get all that information see that and you'll get to vote on it once the salary is set this is just an ordinance to give a range so for
the next three or four years you don't have to come back for another ordinance oh I understand the purpose of the ordinance and then then thought my my questions are on the process to how this gets done you don't get to go deep into the weeds basically what you get I don't want to go deep in the W I want the mayor to go deep in at the time of the review he's he's saying that he does and but based upon what he finds you know we we can't say yay or nay
because doesn't work for us however the only thing you can say is by gumbo I think that's just too much and we're going to knock it down by 50% then you got to pay the consequences if everybody agrees with you and it doesn't really fly at 50% but the point on I'm making is we're kind it's just a numers situation that's about where you are well we'll see where the process
goes it's uh fully understand but what I'm asking is not what's on this piece of paper I'm asking the process of how the mayor evaluates his staff and does that evaluation reflect on their increase decrease or no increase on their salary that's my question so we'll see R well I think uh I think the proposal was then to table this till next time
because we don't have voted on it voted on okay we had vote council president we have I'm sorry yes we have the second reading next meeting adoption of an ordinance 25-2 ordinance Capital ordinance
providing for various improvements by the township of Vernon and the county of Sussex New Jersey appropriating therefore the sum of $55,000 providing such that such sum appropriated shall be raised from Capital reserves and the capital Improvement fund of the township may I have a motion to open
this motion to the public move moved by Mr spart is there a second second second by Mr Higgins um all in member D Ben yes council member Higgins yes member Sparta yes council president rudo yes meeting is open to
the public regarding passage of ordinance 25-2 and only 25-2 does anyone wish to come forward and uh address this particular ordinance seeing no one coming forward may I have a motion to close the meeting to the public moved moved by Mr Higgins is there a second second second by Mr Sparta uh all in favor
signify by saying I I I motion carries may I have a motion to adopt ordinance 25-2 so move moved by Mr Spartan is there a second second seconded by Mr Higgins is there any question or comment comment on this particular uh motion okay
roll call ccil member yes council member Higgins yes council member sporta yes president rudo yes motion carries thank you meeting is May I have a motion to open to the meeting to the public move by uh Mr Sparta second seconded by Mr Higgins uh all in favor signified by saying I I iOS carries
uh meeting is open to the public five minutes for discussion on any item seeing no one coming forward may I have a motion to close the meeting to public move at Mr spart is there a second second seconded by Mr Higgins all in favor signify by saying I I I oppos motion carries
[Music] um may I have may I have a motion to adopt uh we Council comments I'm sorry why do I want to keep going back to that thank you there's uh Council comments no
I think I've asked enough good uh I just have two things uh one today uh assembling Mike and Gort um I don't know if he authored sponsored or or what he's doing but he's coming out with this uh small town rescue plan and one of the things that's in it is to um ask the state to reimburse the towns for the mandated um property taxes such as the disabled veterans uh plan and stuff so
I know I think it was last uh spring or winter um I believe like the tax relief that at that time to Vernon um that was given to Vernon residents through these type of programs was I I believe it was like $584,000 which means you know the rest of the tax bases picking up that money um so I think that's that's a good thing um I appreciate uh assemblyman Gort uh trying
to help us out uh he's he is our our local assemblyman and he does uh care about uh the small town and and he understands the plate since he used to be the mayor of Chester so I want to thank him publicly for that secondly uh I think it was last summer I brought up the issue about the uh overweight truck buses on Route 5:15 and um it was it was uh misconstrued um as to why I was bringing up it wasn't to be critical
of our Police Department was more from a public safety standpoint uh this past Friday I was coming home from work come off 23 and lo and behold three in front of me is a tour bus so um I knew the tour bus wasn't going to Route 638 so I knew it was either going to nwac or it was going to Mountain Creek so um I called our Police Department on the non-emergency line um told them I was behind a tour bus that was probably heading to Mountain Creek or nwac and um when we got to the top of the
mountain top there was a police officer there pull him over and got him turned around and sent him back so uh I urge any Resident who sees that happening to not call 911 call the 764 6155 number which used to be our 911 back in the day before 911 that's why I know the number off top of my head uh and and tell them you're behind an overweight truck and they will do their best to uh come out and get them turned around because of what happened last summer and and the
issue that was raised we did change the um the fine for overweight trucks to $500 coming down that hill we have had you know just in the last week or two the oil tanker came downhill and lost his breaks um I'm doing a project up in Campbell Hall New York uh near where those um warehouses are and distribution centers and they actually have a sign up of a 5 ton weight limit sign and it has nothing to do with hills or
anything like that it's through a residential area and they have a sign up and it's a $4,000 fine if they go in that area so um I know there was a large meeting last week with um the police and the mayor with the county County's going to do a lot to increase the signage on that um on that road um like to see how that goes and um you know it's it's not worth us to put the resources there for
$500 tickets um I get that I understand it there's a lot of things that are going on in this town and our police are tied up with it and sometimes they just cannot get there um but I think if we were to um issue a more Hefty fine on and it's not the locals that are doing it before all the local contractors call me it's not you it's it's the non-locals that don't know how to drive that road that have the problems with the brakes um I'd like to to us to consider to
make it a hefty fine where one then it does um does hurt the pocketbook of those people coming down it will save lives word will get out that it is very expensive to come down that hill and uh it hopefully will end up stopping on its own but for right now let's see what happens with the county um let's see how that works and then we can go from there but I I do want to thank um Chief C uh Chief young and uh uh the other officers that were involved in getting that school
bus turned around uh it was nice to see them in action and doing it and it was nice to know that got the bus turned around and it did not go downhill so my thanks to the uh to the Vernon Police Department for carrying out um and I did not say who I was on the phone either so um they just they came out because I called so that's all thank you thank you uh I just have one item I'd like to bring to the attention of the council they probably should have read it but
I am hoping that we can get some movement on this one of the uh big half the biggest expenses that we have is clerk's office is the cost for legal uh notices and it's becoming more and more difficult to have those legal notices published because we're losing print
print papers right and that pushes us towards those papers remaining that have a higher print cost and if we could get the uh passage of uh allowing the township to satisfy the legal requirement by putting our legal notices
on our website it would be a substantial savings to the community and and I'm sure they make making it less headaches for our clerk uh Marcy do you happen to have an idea of about what that would run with the township in terms of savings yeah were that to take place I'm not asking for an ex keep back up with the resolution actually
um this um I gave you backup for um yeah but I wanted you to point it out because you're the one that keeps you know buzzing oh yeah well um a lot of towns don't have newspapers to print in because newspapers are going out of business right um there are some towns in New Jersey that are um advertising in newspapers that aren't even in their um areas so people aren't even really seeing notices um also
uh besides saving money um it would also make it a lot easier to have a special meeting um you don't have to wait you know we still wait for 48 hours but you don't have to wait for the newspaper to advertise it um and it would save the the town all around yeah so the backup I gave you was for um the clerk's um legal notices and administrations I didn't even give you the
legal notices for um the land use board right so that there's even more savings there sure thank you so hopefully we'll maybe be able to get some benefit from that save a few pennies within our budget but it is a substantial number it's especially when you look at the the cost of some of these print notices one council member on yeah yes
Mr I have no comments thank you thank you I a question certainly anytime what's a budget process so we look forward to where are we with moving forward I the budget process that I've received has been we've requested it couple of times it's not ready to be given to the council yet okay maybe the mayor has an update on that when by the
way when does the first draft have to go through come before the council that believe Mr de benetto
do you have any comments I have no comments thank you have a motion have second Mr spart is seconded by Mr Higgins in favor signify by saying I motion Carri meeting ised