Good evening. I call to order this regular meeting of the Verona Township Council for Monday the 23rd of February, 2026. Madame clerk, would you please read read the open public meetings act compliance statement?
>> The notice requirements of this open public meetings act have been satisfied with respect to this meeting of the township council being held via zoom during the state of emergency. The meeting and the meeting time and date were included in the meeting notice along with the public internet link and
telephone call and information. said notice and meeting agenda was posted in the municipal building and sent to the official newspapers of the township, the Verona Cedar Grove Times and the Star Ledger at least 48 hours preceding the start time of this meeting. The agenda and handouts can be viewed online at
veronenj.org/countsil meetings and a public comment period will be held in the order it's listed on the meeting agenda and instructions on how to comment will be provided at the appropriate time. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Would you call the role, please? Councilwoman Holland
>> here. >> Councilwoman McGrath >> here. >> Councilman Roman >> here. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy >> President. >> Mayor Tambbor >> here. >> Mayor also present tonight is Township Manager Kevin O Sullivan. Deputy
Township Manager Michael Krauss, Township Attorney Brian Aoya, myself, Municipal Clerk Jennifer Kieran. >> Thank you madame clerk. Would everybody please stand for the pledge of allegiance? Oops, that's not it. >> I pledge allegiance
>> to the flag to the >> flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands >> under God indivisible with liberty and for all.
All right. Thank you. All right. For the quick mayor's report tonight, um first the planning board had a special meeting to go through our a lot of our affordable housing items and morale's resolutions from some past actions. Uh
and the planning board has a regular meeting this Thursday as well. Uh, congratulations to the fifth grade girls suburban basketball champions. Uh, I had the opportunity to to go to the game. It was it was wonderful to see our young
ladies in action. Um, and they had a pretty decisive victory over Nutley. So, well done. We'll be bringing them in next month to recognize their work. Um last week or this weekend I had the opportunity to be interviewed by a
member of the Milbourne Charter Commission about our system of government. Um and uh provided some some insights and um and really shared my satisfaction with our system of government. So um I hope that uh that
assists them in their process. And uh finally, I want to thank the Rona DPW, our police department, fire department, rescue squad, emergency management, buildings and grounds, and everybody else who jumped in. Um you know, obviously it's going to take a
little while to dig out of this storm for sure. Uh but in the meantime, it was really a just a great job done by everybody. I also want to thank all the residents who were out helping their neighbors as I was walking my dog. I saw a lot of people out um helping each other and that's really the Verona
spirit. So, thank you to everybody who is um who is doing that and I look forward to a a safe return to school on Wednesday. Um we have Mr. Coltree on. Um there he is. Uh Jay, you can come off
mute. You're promoted. There we go. Unmute. Hello. How are you? And hopefully we all survived the snow. Uh I have two things. Number one, we have a job fair at Turtle
Back Zoo on March 7th from 12 to 3:00 p.m. at the Bur Building. Uh we're always looking for young people to participate in the summertime. And this is for deputy mayor uh the deputy mayor. We have the Cherry Blossom 10K on April
12th. I know you may think it's early, but April will be here before we know it. And uh Deputy Mayor, you're more than welcome to run. minute. >> You better start practicing now.
>> Well, that's it for me. Uh, you know, I was through Verona uh this morning uh bright and early and uh the roads look pretty good and uh the county was out all night and uh our roadways are doing
a fine job right now. Apparently, the county executive was in uh walking around the um reservoir at South Mountain Arena. The roadways were clear, so if uh deputy mayor wants to go out for a quick jog later on, he's more than
welcome to. >> Well, that >> Jay, the uh the job fair, that's for 18 year old and older, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Just want to clarify because I know a lot of teenage folks are looking
for looking for work as well. All right, Mr. Coltray, anybody else have any questions for our friend from the county. Okay, hearing none. Thank you, Mr. Coltray. >> Thank you very much. Pleasure being here. >> On to the town managers report. Mr. O
Sullivan, >> thank you, Mayor. Uh I will be brief as I have um the township planner, affordable housing planner and our CFO here tonight on presentations for both affordable housing and the budget. But um uh just on a couple key items on my
report, uh we are moving through a number of our construction projects. We unfortunately are delayed a little bit further because of the snow. Uh we were anticipating uh start up at the Fairview Avenue well in in the upcoming weeks. We are still
expecting materials to be delivered. Um that said, I'm not sure if that's going to be delayed by this snowstorm or not, but we do have another progress meeting with the contractor uh later this week. Um from uh some of our road projects, uh we were looking to mobilize uh on Lynen
Avenue and start checking water services so the contractor could get into some of the concrete work on the road in the next two to three weeks. That schedule's probably delayed as a result of the snow, but as soon as we get a thaw, that project will begin as well. Uh from the
um we did receive bids for Dodd Terrace, Afterglow Way, and Summit Road uh last week. We received 12 bids, very competitive within the uh budgeted amount. Uh we will have an award recommendation for the next meeting. Uh we also had some uh meetings with the
county since our last uh council meeting. the uh a couple of the highlights. The county did receive a grant for uh signal upgrades on Bloomfield Avenue. Uh we are continuing discussions with the county to based on
on the current scope as it was relayed to us. It does not currently include an additional signal at um at Verona Park, nor does it include uh it also misses two other signals. So, we are in communication with the county to see if there's any opportunity to uh either expand the scope or if there may other
be another project already in the works from them. Uh we've also had some discussions with them about u Boswell's ongoing assessment of the speed limits on the county roads. So, uh they were uh very helpful and uh were looking forward to collaborating with us on that
discussion as Boswell advances their study. And then they also did have their pre-construction meeting for the Fair View Avenue and Person Avenue signal. Uh that was part of I believe an 11 signal project that they recently just put out to bid and awarded. Uh they did say that
out of the uh the 11 signals, Verona is uh the first of those projects to be cycled through construction. So it'll it'll start with some demolition. Again, as soon as the weather thaws, we'll probably start seeing some demolition and some some subsurface work there in
the March or April time frame. Again, as we get a better idea of the schedule, we will present uh circulate that to the to the public. Um, and again, there will be there's going to be moments of pause as they move through their other 11 cycles before they come back to continue with that work, but the county is going to be
moving forward with that project as well. Uh, the big one is our Everfield project. Uh we did recently get some progress out on the site. The contractor had uh ground heating um equipment to get some some concrete pores in, but uh and if you had driven past the site, but
most of the snow is gone until today. So uh here we are. We're we're losing a little bit more time on that because of the snow, but we're continuing to try to push that project forward as quickly as possible. Um uh we uh we continue to move forward with our
Bloomfield Avenue streetscape project. We have a kickoff meeting with the uh NJTPA uh in the next uh two weeks. We will be um having that discussion with them to make sure we remain compliant with the
$1.5 million grant we received from them. Uh and then we are moving forward with our age friendly audit that is currently on the website. We have uh close to 130 uh responses so far. Uh we
are continuing to push for 200 responses but that project is is moving along and that will turn into an action plan which will be presented to the council at a later date and uh in uh probably in early April we'll kick off our inclusive
healthy communities efforts as well. Uh that said, I'll I'll pause for a moment if there's any questions from the council on any other items in my report. >> Any questions for Mr. O Sullivan? >> Okay.
>> Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Uh the if if I could then uh hand the meeting over to Mr. Habin uh and um San as well. We have our two planners here tonight. Uh Mr. Habin is uh here to present uh some of
the affordable housing uh specific discussions. Uh we have an ordinance that is specific to the affordable housing um compliance that we need to achieve with the state and then Sam will will present afterwards to discuss some
of the specific uh redevelopment plans, the the compliance mechanisms of our our housing plan. So see they're both promoted. So, I'll turn the meeting over just to to Dan for for starters. >> Why do I feel like I'm muted?
>> All right. Now, can you hear me? Yay. >> Great. All right. Uh, thanks Kevin and good evening everybody. Hope everybody uh is uh surviving the snow. I think it's melting already, so that's good. I'll um jump right in. So, uh, I'm here tonight to just talk to you briefly
about, uh, the ordinance. I think it's item I7 on your agenda. It is the entitled repealing article XIX and XXI. I guess that's, uh, 19 and 21 of chapter uh, 150 of the code of the township in its entirety and replacing with a new
article uh, 19 affordable housing and article 21 development fees. So these are uh these two articles are the articles that are uh already exist in your uh code and they regulate the uh creation um administration,
rent prices, sale prices, uh occupancy uh requirements for affordable housing as well as the requirements for the collection and spending of money out of the township's affordable housing trust fund. So the last version of this I believe
was amended in around 2023 when we had done the third round uh housing plan and since then uh obviously quite a bit has happened in the affordable housing realm. We have the new statute in 2024 uh that was adopted. Um uh and then in
the last uh few months the uh New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the DCA uh adopted a new set of rules regulating um affordable housing trust fund uh collection and spending as well as some other things. and the uh NJHMFA, the
Housing Mortgage Finance Agency, adopted a new uh or updates to rules from 2008 uh called the U-Hack, Uniform Housing Affordability Controls, and those uh are regulate how uh some of the things that I had just uh uh identified before, the
the uh uh um selection of uh occupants and the pricing, um the the development and design of affordable housing units. And so, uh, what we are required to do, uh, by the state by March 15th, in order
to, uh, uh, limit our exposure to builder lawsuits or any further affordable housing litigation, we're required to amend, uh, our, uh, your ordinances in those in those chapters to reflect these new rules from the state.
Um there's not a whole lot of wiggle room uh with the exception of um some of the language about your mandatory townshipwide affordable housing set aside was just something you're required to uh to adopt uh originally as part of
your third round settlement agreement with fair share housing center and now it's been slightly uh refined um to uh now require a township 20% set aside whereas it used to be 15% for renting rental units and uh 20% for for sale
units and for the public set aside is when a portion of your portion of units in a development is uh limited for uh low and moderate income households. Um another thing that you have some flexibility on is development fees
collected on residential development which uh I had maintained the language from your uh the ordinance that we had adopted in 2023. Um, and then there's little bits here and there throughout the uh, ordinance
that you have some flexibility on in terms of rounding up and down, but for the most part, uh, this is is language that is the state creates, we have to copy and codify locally. Um, so if you have any questions about it, I'm here to
to to help. >> Questions for Mr. Havin? Anybody just feel free to put your virtual hand up if you have any questions. >> I can also see you. So you can put your actual hand up. >> Actual hand up as well. Yeah, I it's easier for me to see the virtual hands.
They pop up quickly. >> All right. No questions on that item. Mr. H. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh Mrs. Helvin, would you like me to uh go ahead? Uh yes, Sam, if you could present uh the items that are
on the agenda that you're here to present on a number of the redevelopment projects. >> Sure. Good evening everyone and um I I'll make it brief. So there are three ordinances we'll be uh introducing and as uh Mr. Sullivan mentioned and as of
course Dan went into detail, they're all part of uh your fourth round affordable housing fresh air plan. Uh number one, uh I'm going to start with 420 Bloomfield Avenue redevelopment plan. Um I think two weeks ago you designated
this area as an area in uh need of redevelopment and one of our requirements as per the settlement uh agreement was to uh uh write a redevelopment plan. um we are getting 10
affordable units out of this uh which kind of um satisfies a chunk of our RDP and um the plan has been um prepared uh based on the concept plan that Mr. Oalvin and I have been negotiating with
the developer and um I'm uh you know there's a we set a cap of a maximum of 65 units and uh 10 of which will be affordable. Um, and I'm ready to take any questions. Uh, if you would have
regarding this >> questions for Miss Siobhan, >> um, Sam or or Mr. O' Sullivan, if you wanted I don't know if you if you can do this at this point, but did you want to educate the the public on how many units the
discussion started with and and how we got? I I'll be very happy to cuz it's all um memorized. Um the first ever u iteration that we actually uh
uh saw um almost two years ago was 414 more than two years ago was 414 units. Um we shut that down. Um then they came back with 96 units. Um then we you know
uh worked uh they came back with 80 or 85 Mr. O'Sullivan isn't that right? Um and then finally they came back with 67 units. We negotiated further with them and brought it down to 65. So it's a
reduction of more than 40 units. Um one of the things that we also talked to them was that this is the Richfield Regency. Um, one of the things we did um discuss and negotiate was the property
to the rear uh that was uh supposed to be uh which is currently used as a parking that it would be uh it would not get developed and would continue as a parking lot. So, uh that's about it. And I see uh
Councilwoman McGrath's hand raised. >> Go ahead, Councilwoman. >> Thank you. Um, uh, thank you so much for this. Can you just also provide for the public just in your own words, um, a little bit of what this site will look like, um, especially if they don't have
the documents in front of them, how it's a mix of retail and residential. >> I will be happy to do so. So, um, I've been working with the township of Verona for the almost five years now. And one of the things that when we wrote the master plan was to revitalize the
downtown area to bring in a mix of commercial and retail. And this project pretty much um is as per the master plan. Um it there it's ground floor commercial and um two stories about that which will be residential. Um most
importantly we were very cognizant of the impact on the street. So um the the administrator um sorry the township manager and myself worked um very diligently to try to continue to
maintain the character of Verona. So ground plus two but there's a natural slope um that we um you know uh push back and ask the de uh developer to uh provide an offset and I tried to put all
of that in the plan uh which you know the members of public can see. So this your the members of public are looking at it now but this has been in uh making for two years now. And can you also touch
Oh, >> sorry. Council Roman, go ahead. If you um and if we can also touch on I'll I'll just offer a comment and then I'll ask a question. Um, just on the on the street facade, this >> was a giant point of emphasis in this
that we're going from basically a site that is not interactive with Bloomfield Avenue to um one that really reflects the character of the architectural elements that we're trying to have in the downtown area and um that provide some very attractive retail space that
we hope will uh will fill up. Uh could you discuss parking a little bit because that's the other uh you know all of these >> Yes. Yes. So regarding uh the parking we um basically the they they are required
to provide 124 off- streetet parking and uh we reduced the number of units so that we could get uh off off streetet parking and um the final concept or
rather the last concept uh they seem to satisfy both the commercial as well as the residential portion uh that they won't depend on on street parking or anything else. So um that's been uh another achievement that uh Mr.
O'Sullivan and I were able to do while negotiating with this particular developer. >> Thank you >> Mr. I'm sorry. Uh yes. Uh Sam, could you just speak just very briefly on the um
the the the bedroom unit count just to kind of uh provide an explanation on the uh how the 65 units are divided on this project? >> Certainly. Um I uh just bear with me for a second uh
till I actually uh just pull up. But I I all I want to tell the group is that it's predominantly one-bedroom units and there are few uh two-bedroom. Now they the uh affordable housing I can I can quickly uh give you
uh so they're predominantly one-bedroom uh units. Um and they're about uh 52 one-bedroom units. The two-bedroom units are um a total of nine and three bedrooms are three. And the these um uh
bedrooms the two and three are as mandatory as per the affordable housing um uh uh hack requirements um and that's why you know the market rate units would be mostly onebedroom. >> Thank you. Any other questions on 420
Bloomfield? Councilwoman Holland. >> Not necessarily um a question, but I just think that as we consider this moving forward, we have regularly had certain residents attending our meetings and expressing
concerns over the traffic situation in that part of Bloomfield Avenue. So, I do think that it's going to be really important to get that resident feedback and to continue to engage with the county um as we move forward with a project like this. I don't dispute the
fact that, you know, this this may be a beneficial um kind of redevelopment for Bloomfield Avenue, especially considering the existing use there. But um I do think that it's going to increase engagement um if that might not be the correct word for it, but it's
going to increase traffic around that area which is already a challenged area. So I do think that we need to have that engagement with the county about Bloomfield Avenue. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next item, Mr. Oullivan.
Um so the next item is um 885 uh Bloomfield Avenue or the Valente tract as we all know. Um so 885 Bloomfield Avenue was an intervenor in our affordable housing um uh plan. um we
negotiated again before I'm asked I I can completely you know explain that what we're proposing first um as a part of our settlement agreement uh we're uh they will be providing 28 town homes uh
of which uh six units would be we would get six affordable credits uh which are basically three family housing and one three-bedroom room unit which will be affordable. So that also satisfies um a
chunk of our um of our uh fair share plan and I you know I know everybody would be interested. So before I'm asked, I'd like to volunteer and say that in this particular case also um
they came with a 60 unit plan and um we negotiated um uh down to um from 60 it went uh they went to 38 and we further negotiated it to 28 units. So today what you have is
um almost more than half of what they originally proposed. We also negotiated with them with the building height etc etc. Now there's one thing I do want to specify is on page 15 uh of the plan. So
there the township settled with all the interveners and uh uh this particular um ANR skyline or um Valente tract as we all know. Um we entered into a memorandum of understanding and in that
um they provided us with a concept plan and um we my office calculated uh based on the concept plan and this plan was uh what you saw was also submitted to them and uh they asked us to make certain
changes. One of which is the maximum improved lot coverage that we had uh uh I had put in the plan was originally 7 uh 65% uh they said that as per the MOU it should be 70%
um and then the second thing was that the minimum frontiard setback was 6 foot and I measured it based on the concept plan they provided. However, there are steps that encroach into that. Um, and
so they've asked us to um m uh clarify that so that you know we uh provide uh we maintain um a minimum setback of one foot and this uh correspondence happened an hour before the meeting but I would
like to bring that to everyone's attention because especially because it's a part of the settlement agreement. Um so that this is it from uh my end and Mr. Oalvin would you like to add something beyond that?
>> No s I think you covered the history uh and again I guess just refer to the the parking um count as well if you could just speak to that briefly. >> Sure. So um we also negotiated parking
with uh with them and um currently based on uh the RSIS standards and they will be providing some um EV uh they they seem to comply with the parking requirement and we put in
standards um parking standards in the plan so that there is no um there is no opportunity for on street parking on that road especially and we wanted to ensure that the residents as well as any
um people coming into you know guests or whomever have adequate off- streetet parking. Now one of the um beauties of the RSI standards is for a group home or a special needs housing um you know typically a two threebedroom would
require 2.1 uh spaces in in this case it's only 25. So even the parking requirement uh reduces substantially. >> Johnson Roman. >> Yes. I just wanted to clarify and go through the um setback uh a little bit
more. Um >> Sure. >> So you said it would be a one- foot set back to the steps and a sixoot set back to the building. Is that >> That's correct. >> Yes. Yes. >> So essentially you'll have the lot line at the at the street.
>> A foot back from that the staircase will start. Correct. >> Um six feet from the lot line it will be the building. So the stairs will be 5t deep overall. Um correct. >> And then in between the staircases to the units is that landscaped area or what's going to be in those areas
between you know from left to right from from side to side uh what are going to be in those five foot by however many foot wide the unit are spaces. >> Um so uh it they're proposing some landscaping. I can share with you. I
don't know Mr. O'Sullivan. Can I share? Am I able to share? You >> should have sharing ability. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Give me one. >> Okay. You should be good, Sam.
>> Okay. All right. Okay. Wonderful. Let's see. Okay. Here we go. So, this is a concept plan that was attached to the U memorandum of understanding. And I'm going to uh blow
it up um so everybody can see. Um so what they're proposing is some sort of um you know planting uh between the steps. So these are the steps and they're proposing some sort of landscaping and planting
um and uh they're proposing landscaping throughout. And if you think it would make sense, I can include that um in in the redevelopment plan uh when I'm making the edits right now. So So this is what they're proposing to do. So landscaping
along the building buildings along the sides um as well as along the frontage. Okay. Um and obviously maintaining a dense landscape buffer to the uh single family residences to the rear of the property. So that's shown on this plan
but if we're going to do anything that should be you know documented as well. >> Correct. They are proposing uh a lands a landscaping. Um we had we had spoken to them during you know our negotiations. Um and what they showed like this
portion doesn't show much of a setback but there is no house. It's um it's uh it's Fels Road rightway area. So, so that's that's something that I I would like to point out. Um, and uh, so there
these are the houses and I think this is around 15 uh or 20 foot uh, setback along those uh, those sides >> and here it's Fel's road. >> Right. Okay. Um I would just like to make sure that we obtain a commitment as to the you know locations and the
density of the landscaping um that's going to go both both on the Bloomfield Avenue facing side as well as on the rear side of the parcel. >> Sure. >> Councilwoman McGrath. >> Yes. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about traffic flow um in and out of
the property? Um I noticed in the plan it says specifically only Bloomfield Avenue. Can you elaborate on that? Sure, I can. Um I and I think it's easier for me to share my screen again so everybody understands. So uh basically
um the way this is everybody knows it's a narrow uh narrow lot with frontage along both Fels Road and uh Bloomfield. What they are proposing to do which is reflected um in in the reed weapon plan
is the entry. So this is um a burough of Verona uh not burrow it should be township I don't know why they write that with SX spells there's one um there is one driveway here and there's another 20ft driveway so ingress and egress is
through these two um driveways >> where where cars will be able to both go in and out there. >> Correct. That's correct. Okay. I'm sure there's going to be some a lot of questions at the planning board level about the safety and and what kind
of turns people can make. >> Oh, absolutely. Uh, absolutely. And that, you know, and again, let me remind everybody that this is a part of the settlement agreement. Uh, but we were able to negotiate us, you know, quite a
bit with them. Uh but yes uh those details would be um really uh finalized during the planning board. >> And then one additional question. So the building height I think a lot of residents are very familiar with the
town houses that are in Essex Fels. Do we know the height of the So we're allowing and you said that you negotiated building height. um how does that um reflect on what we're used to seeing on the Essex FEL side? Is it
similar? Is it actually taller? >> Similar. >> It's it No, it is similar. And the other thing too, it's uh you know, we specified three stories and 40 ft. Um the other thing that I really would like to point out too is when you look at
building height, right? Um all the houses that are along SXLs are at a higher elevation. So they'll be looking down. So even if it's 40 feet you know uh in and about its maximum 40 feet and three stories um we uh basically
um uh you know the impact along SX fells would not be as much because it's at a lower level. >> You mean the houses on Fels Road specifically? Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Councilwoman Holland.
>> Thank you. Um if you could go back to sharing your screen um with the uh actual design plan where you were showing the parking spaces. Yes. Thanks. If you could go to the parking spaces where you were referencing the buffer
and how it's near in proximity to Fel's Road. I don't know if I could maybe I'm too zoomed in or something on my screen. I don't see it. Oh, now I do. Okay. Um so I I think that there's going to be some concerns. I appreciate that there's showing of of I I guess some buffer
between the parking spaces and Fels Road, but I just want to again flag a comment that I think we're going to have residential concerns about um kind of the proximity to Fels Road over here and the lack of a meaningful buffer at least
in this one portion over here. Um, I do appreciate that there isn't necessarily a resident immediately behind it, but I do just want to flag that there may be some concerns there. I also just wanted to echo some of the concerns about the ingress and egress from the property
because it is a pretty active intersection over there um at the community center. There's a light. Um, Fels Road has kind of that interesting kind of island effect where you can go in different directions and so you do
sometimes have a lot of cars going um in different ways. Um, so I do just want to flag that I think traffic concerns and that buffer are going to be um some significant concerns. Thank you. >> You deputy mayor Makavoy.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh s I just want to confirm you have uh here front yard setback is 6 foot. Uh >> correct. >> My concern is we have a rear yard setback of 20 foot but there technically
is no rear yard on this property. Am I correct? Uh I mean >> there is I mean uh all the prop all the properties if you look at uh the rear this is the
rear property line. So there is a rear yard. >> Okay. But so we're calling that the rear yard. However, it fronts on a on a roadway. >> No it no actually it does not. Uh let me
just sh um so it's a corner lot as you know so there is a frontage along Bloomfield frontage along uh Fels and then this is the rear yard. Uh so if you if you look
at this point can you see my uh >> Yes. >> Okay. So so Fel's Road is up till here. So there's a portion that's um along Fels Road and if you look at the rest of
that um it's that's all all this is the rear yard. >> Got it. So there is a portion there that's basically front yard. Uh, and so my question is, uh,
with, um, obviously the topography of this property, there's going to be some retaining walls in the rear. Do the setbacks pertain to those retaining walls also? >> Um, no, those setbacks are just overall setbacks, but if there are retaining
walls, they'll have to engineer this in such a way that they are compliant with our zoning code. And when we were in negotiation with them um these were quite a few times we did um
raise these questions because we have rules about how the retaining walls are going to be you know steep slopes etc etc. So those were questions that were asked. Um and a concept plan unfortunately is not as well engineered
as perhaps a site plan. But I am at this point um uh uh deputy mayor if you'd like to make some recommendations I can take a look at it. >> Uh I mean I would agree with my colleagues that this area should be an
area that has as much uh buffer as possible. >> Yes. Uh and now you you also brought up uh uh something about the improved lot coverage. Uh in here it's 65%. Are they
asking to increase that? >> They said that as part of Correct. So there was an email that was sent to um to the township which was forwarded to uh to uh myself uh by Mr. uh O'Sullivan
and Mr. Krauss. And um one of the things uh that they said was as per the uh memorandum of understanding that the maximum imperous surface coverage was supposed to be 70 um as well as you know
the setback along Bloomfield had to be one foot. So what I responded back is that 65% that I calculated um they did not provide us with any calculations. Um what we did at H2M when we were writing
the redevelopment plan is we guesstimated what the maximum impervious surface coverage is and it was 65% and they've come back saying that it should be 70 and that uh the frontiard setback
had to be one foot which I'm if I go back and I think I I can just go back to this um you know when I reviewed this the 6ft front yard was based on based on this
which is the building line >> and and this and the uh stoop or the steps go a few step uh a few feet into the property line. So, um what I suggested then um that
you know we revise this to um have uh bear bear with me for a second. um to have a front yard setback um front yard setback of uh
>> six foot >> six foot and then I put in an asterisk saying steps can encroach into the six-foot setback provided they maintain a minimum setback of 1 ft from the property line and then uh the building
coverage um I increased it to 70%. Okay. I would I would push back a little bit on the 70%. Uh this is going from a basically a wooded lot to a developed piece of property. And uh I mean they
are interveners and we had to negotiate with them. However, I think we're giving them a little too much with 70%. Considering the current zoning on the property is I believe it's 55%. >> It is 55%. That's correct. >> Yeah. the A3 zone. So, I really think we
should push back and keep it at 65. Uh, I was going to suggest keep it as what it's zoned currently, but it's definitely not going to work with them, but I don't think they should be any more than the 65% that that they had.
Uh, and that's just my opinion on that. Uh, one last thing. Uh, actually two things. In the agreement on page 21, uh, you talk about storm water management. If you can hit 21, it'd be easier. Yeah.
For everybody to see. >> Yeah. >> Uh, >> just bear with me. >> Yep. >> Yes. >> And in there's there's one simple line there. It says, "All developments in the redevelopment area shall also comply with all pertinent provisions of
the zoning code." >> So, what would you like me to write? >> I I I just I just want to make sure I I maybe it should be more specific to the Verona. >> Verona's Yeah, be more specific as to
Verona's uh obviously NJD and Verona's storm water management uh regulations. Uh, I think that would be just so it's clear for all parties involved. >> And then lastly, just one quick one as
far as the driveways go that uh others have brought up. Uh, I did notice uh between buildings one and two. Uh, yeah, if you can get out. Sorry. >> No, no, no. Don't apologize. Uh,
>> yes. >> Is it buildings? Can you back out a little bit? Go to the left. Uh, >> yes, I am. >> The south side. There we go. >> Just bear with me for a second. Yeah, it's it just Can you see my screen? >> I can. Yes.
>> Okay. So, if you if you look between buildings one and two, my only concern is if you make that a little or scroll down a little bit, you'll see across the street on the uh east west north side
is the Essex County driveway for their So, I obviously the the county of Essex is going to be looking at this. uh they may want to have the driveway between buildings one and two instead of offsetting these three driveways. So I I
mean maybe just something to uh that the county may bring up. >> Okay. >> And that's all I have. >> Okay. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> thank you. So I just um just for a point of clarification what was printed out in
our packet is not the final plan. I see that you know you had a different chart on the setbacks and uh or on the 65 and the 6570 debate and we're you're making additional changes now. So this is what
we're introducing is what on is on your computer. I so I made these changes so that you can understand what they are requesting. Um and I I
what I gave you was the intent was that for that to be introduced but when we got this correspondence saying that this should be a that this was a part of memorandum of understanding and it was a part of our settlement is why we um I
changed this. So I believe um this is the way we introduce it right Mr. Oullivan that's how we should be introducing it correct >> I think it needs to be introduced uh uh in an amended form as Sam is is presenting it tonight to reflect the the
request and and I do see um yes Mr. check is that I have my camera off just because I'm sick and nobody wants to see me, but uh but yes, that's correct. >> Okay. >> Okay. So,
>> uh thank you for that clarification. I want to go back to the trees and the landscaping. So, in this master plan, we does this development have to follow our tree ordinance? Um, yes, I believe so.
>> Yes. Any any any uh thing that's not specifically addressed, you know, just like everybody else is, they're still subject to, you know, anything else that's out there. So, if there's something that they think they need that they haven't come to us, say, and then we do this and and then down the road
they say, "Well, what about, well, you should have brought it up." You know, everybody's subject to everything unless we, you know, this this um is opposite to it or provides differently. Okay, perfect for that clarification. Thank you. And then finally on the
landscaping, I know in our other project we negotiated very mature trees to be planted. Did we I see that the landscaping under 3.14 um is only three points. Is there
um is that to follow up on Councilman Roman's questions? Is that an opportunity to, you know, make some improvements there or is the landscaping still going to be since they have to follow the tree
ordinance, we still have an opportunity to make it more robust? >> They Yes, they have to uh they have to follow the tree ordinance. So, that's their opportunity to make it more robust. Correct. Our opportunity to get them to make it more robust.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. And I believe we have just the uh the zoning code, >> correct? Yes. Uh so last but not the
least, um the TCMU zone. Um so we adopted the TCMU zone at the time of our third round. So sometime in 2018 2019 um during our settlement discussions the T
TCMU zone um addresses our unmet need a percentage of that and one of the recommendations uh by either fair share or uh the special adjudicator uh was that we strike out the language uh which
was 15% for rental and 20% for for sale. So strike out the 15 and just have 20% affordable for both rental as well as for sale. So our ordinance got amended accordingly and that's what we um are uh
introducing tonight. >> Okay. Um All right. At this point we have we have basically discussed ordinances I four, five, six and seven. Um in order
to not keep our experts on um does anybody have an objection to moving these for introduction at the present? >> Okay. All right. I'll hear a motion to I'll make it more formal. Next item on
the agenda is ordinance I3, I'm sorry, I4 on introduction. Madame clerk, would you please read the title of this ordinance into the record? >> I have four. Adopting the redevelopment plan for 420 Bloomfield Avenue, redevelopment area, block 701, lot
three. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Would somebody move the ordinance, please? >> So move. Motion is made by the deputy mayor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second is made by councilwoman McGrath. Is there any further council discussion on this item?
Hearing none. Madame clerk, would you call the vote, please? >> Councilwoman Holland. >> Yes. >> Council Councilwoman McGrath. >> Yes. >> Councilman Roman. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy.
>> Yes. Mayor Tambboro. >> Yes. >> I4 will be numbered ordinance 2026-05. It will be referred to the planning board for consistency review.
>> Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is ordinance I5 for introduction. Would you please read the title of this ordinance into the record? >> I5. Adopting the redevelopment plan for 885 Bloomfield Avenue, redevelopment
area, block 2205, lot 6. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Would somebody move this ordinance, please? >> So moved. >> Motion is made by Councilman Roman. Is there a second? >> Is this with the changes?
Yes, this would be can. Yeah, we'll discuss that in in the discussion updated with the changes because we right now what removing is what's in the packet. So then we have to update that with the the changes in discussion and we'll go on. So >> So we have a second.
>> I'll second it. I'll second it. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right, for council discussion, um Sam, can you just outline the changes you have made and then we'll make a motion >> amend this with that purpose? >> Uh just bear with me for a second so I
can just pull up uh what I wrote so there's no um error. So the changes we made is we uh changed the maximum improved lot coverage from 65% to 70% as per um theou and the frontiard setback
um which remains at 6t with with the understanding that steps can encroach into that six-foot setback provided they maintain a minimum setback of one foot from the property line. >> Okay. All right. Uh, would somebody move
those amendments? >> Wait, sorry, mayor. Point of order. >> Yeah. >> Um, she also made changes to the She's just going to strengthen the storm water management. >> Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Sorry about that. Yes. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilman. >> Page 21. >> 21. >> Council Roman. uh discussions regarding density and placement of landscape buffers and landscaped areas. Does that go in at this time or is that for future?
>> I I can look into it. I can look into it and just see if I have any language that I can augment it. So basically based on um based on the discussion this evening. >> Okay. >> So it's it's going to be dimminimous whatever it is.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. And we can put that in before second reading if we have to because we don't have a specific item. We we need some specific language before we can amend it. We can't amend uh concept. So we have to amend on a specific set of
language. Right. >> Right. >> Yes. Would somebody move those to um amend the redevelopment plan ordinance with those three items? >> I'll make that motion. Motions made by
Councilman Roman. Is there a second? Well, seconded. What the heck? Okay. All right. Um, any discussion on the amendments? Okay. Hearing none, we can just do a voice vote on the amendments.
All those in favor, voice and hands or just do hand. Okay. All right. The motion carries and uh madame clerk, would you call the role on the amended ordinance, please? >> Councilwoman Holland,
>> abstain. >> Counciloman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes. Mayor Tambboro.
>> Yes. >> I5 will be with amendments will be numbered 2026-06. It passes 4 with an abstension. It will be referred to the planning board for consistency review. And Sam, you'll get
me a clean copy of that. >> Yes, I will of everything. >> Thank you. All right. The next item on the agenda is ordinance I6 on introduction. Madam clerk, would you please read the title of this ordinance
into the record? >> Amending and supplementing the standards of the town center mixed use zone district in chapter 150 zoning of the code of the township of Verona. >> Thank you, madam clerk. Would somebody move the ordinance?
>> So moved. Motion is made by Councilwoman McGrath. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second is made by Councilman Roman. Take discussion on this item. Um there's only
uh one uh I I'll reserve that for the the time being. Any other council discussion? All right, Madam Clerk, would you call the role, please? >> Councilwoman Holland.
>> Sorry, I was on mute. Yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Tamburo, >> yes. I6 will be number 2026-07.
It passes 5 to zero on introduction and will be referred to the planning board for consistency review. >> And the next item on the agenda would be ordinance I7 for introduction. Madame clerk, would you please read the title of this ordinance into the record?
repealing article 19 and 21 of chapter 150 of the code of the township in its entirety, replacing with a new article 19 affordable housing and an article 21 development fees. >> Thank you, madam clerk. Would somebody
move this ordinance, please? >> So moved. >> Motion's made by Councilwoman McGrath. Is there a second? I'll second it. >> The second is by Councilman Roman. Any council discussion on this
uh ordinance which we're being forced by the state to adopt. Any discussion? No. I would like to thank the state of New Jersey for forcing us to adopt an ordinance. Madam clerk, would you call the role, please? Councilwoman Holland.
>> Sorry. Sorry. Hold on. Deputy Mayor, >> I'm I'm very sorry. This is what I was I was looking for. Uh in several areas of this, they're kind of repeating stuff. Uh on page 13 and on page 12,
uh like on page 12, it says each bedroom in each restricted unit must have at least one window. That's a requirement in state code. like we're not putting in there that they should have five outlets in a room. That's state code also. It's
in the design standard up top. It's in so if someone can go through before we finalize this and just clean it up because it's so repetitive. Uh it's in on page 13 also. Uh each bedroom, same thing, must have one window. But uh
restricted units must include adequate air conditioning and heating. Uh further on they just talk about how each unit should have the same utilities uh and appliances. So I think it's just each separate area has the same exact thing
and we can clean it up a little bit just to make it a little better. And that's all. Sorry to disrupt. >> Mr. Hindin, did you have a thought on that? >> Uh no. I think those are dimminimous changes that um that that could be made
for the the final um the final version. and I'll go through to see if there's anything that's duplicative without uh risking the uh the the wrath of um some other organizations. Yeah, I think
that's okay. >> Okay. All right, Madam Clerk, would you call the role, please? >> Councilwoman Holland, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Chambro,
>> yes. I7 will be numbered 2026-08 and will be referred to the planning board. >> Thank you. All right. Um, thank you to our experts for being on at this point.
You get to enjoy the rest of your your evening unless you would like to stay and listen to our budget presentations. >> Thank you everyone. >> Okay. Thank you. All right, Mr. Oullivan, the next item is our library strategic plan. Yes, mayor. I I know the council had
received a copy of the annual report from the library and I believe there are members from the library that are present on the call this evening. I don't know if the clerk could
potentially uh move them into panelists if they wanted to present any specific items or hit any of the highlights for the council for this uh for this meeting. >> Township manager O Sullivan. Yeah. Um Claudine the library director
is going to um speak. I'm trying to find her. >> It's she's at the end. It's under >> Verona Library. Thank you. Yeah. Hi. Can everybody >> Hi. >> Hi, Claudine. Welcome.
>> Hi. Thanks for having me. Um, okay. So, I was just going to go over the um the library's 2026 budget and highlighting some of the things that you
find in the annual report. Um and then if you had any questions about the strategic plan, I'll be happy to answer those as well. Um so, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present the Verona Public Libraries 2026 budget.
Um, the total library budget for 2026 is 1,237,87, an increase of 8.59% in the adopted 2025 budget. This proposal represents only the minimum level of funding required under New Jersey law to maintain library
operations and services, and we are not requesting any funds above that statutory minimum. Um this budget adjustment is driven by predictable cost increases and operational necessities including staffing costs and employee benefits.
Um the salaries and wages line is increased to support annual salary adjustments. um the addition of a part-time community service uh community outreach librarian position as indicated in the library strategic plan and um the expanded
weekend staffing. Health insurance and related benefit costs continue to rise representing the single largest driver of increased expenditure and these changes are essential to sustain current service levels. The Verona Public Library continues to
be a highly utilized community resource. The library's annual circulation has remained robust with over 120,000 items loaned in 2025, which is an overall 7% increase over 2024.
And this reflect um this reflects sustained and significant demand for our materials and services. Circulation of our Library of Things increased by 94% and our museum pass circulation increased by 15% over 2024.
Um digital borrowing increased by 15% in 2025 and funding for digital collections and access to platforms such as Hoopla, Overdrive and Canopy remain strong to meet resident expectations for e- resources.
Last year, 721 new library cards were issued, demonstrating continued community engagement with the library. In 2025, we hosted 854 programs, an increase of 13% and 14,911
people attended these these programs, an increase of 16%. Almost 850 tutoring sessions happened in the library and roughly 1,700 people reserved our meeting rooms and conference rooms for their own personal use.
This year, I've added a marketing and PR line item to the budget to print and mail a newsletter to every address in Verona twice per year. Last year, we sent a mailer advertising our fall events and promoting our online services, and it was very wellreceived.
The mailer is a way to reach residents who are new to town, don't follow us on social media, or subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. And in our strategic plan, one of the things that we're really going to try to do um moving forward is um bring greater awareness to
all of the uh resources that we have at the library. And we thought that this was a great way to reach um people who are not actively engaged in and using the library already. So, um, in conclusion, we are proud of the services the library provides and we
remain committed to fiscal responsibility and service excellence. Thank you for your time and your continued support and I welcome any questions. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for our wonderful library director, Councilwoman McGrath?
>> Thank you. um thank you so much um for your wonderful presentation and hard work and it's wonderful to see um such a thriving uh cultural institution in our community. Um so I have two sets of questions. one is I've been reading a
lot about a lot of drama um in the library world in terms of purchasing uh books and now I read a second article about monopolies in in the digital um uh book space that libraries are facing. So
I was wondering if you could address that and then second um if you could expand on what a community service librarian would do and focus on. that would be also helpful. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, um, one of the largest book
providers to libraries across the nation was Baker and Taylor and we relied heavily, I want to say we we purchased about 90% of all of our materials, physical materials through Baker and Taylor. And um, they offered services
like collection development resources, mark records for the catalog and it was just everybody used them. And then unexpectedly they shuttered. And so we did have a period of time at the end of 2025 where you know we pre-order a lot
of materials and we never got those materials. So you may see some items in the catalog being marked as on order and it's one of those items that may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Um so um we
had that yanked out from under us and so there are other vendors Ingram um Broadart they are no longer at this moment taking on new um libraries as um customers because they have been so
overwhelmed with the um response from other libraries because again this is nationwide um so we have been purchasing through Amazon and so that's where we are doing most of our purchasing now for books is through Amazon and they do offer mark records
however they're not they're AI generated um and they're not as great as what we were getting through Baker and Taylor um so the workflow is a little bit different um we used to be able to buy all of our large print material through Baker and Taylor everything was
centralized and now we have to go through different vendors to you know purchase different parts of our collection um I think things should be kind of um you know it was bumpy at the end of 2025 but things in terms of purchasing have
um we've we've gotten a hang of u making sure that we're purchasing the materials that we need to meet the demand and oh the e materials you had mentioned so um I think I had mentioned in the past the
need to increase the digital materials line significantly because e-materials for libraries cost significantly more than they do the average consumer. So, take for example the latest ebook, The Correspondent. Everybody wants The
Correspondent right now. I've purchased five copies um of physical books and then we can only really afford to add one copy because what cost, you know, $20 in paperback or hard cover cost the
library $65 for an ebook. Um, e audio books cost even more. They can cost up to $1, $110. And then on top of that, the publishers have put restrictions on these materials. So, um, either you can only have them for 12 months, you could
lease them for 24 months, or um, 26 checkouts. So, in addition to these e-materials costing libraries significantly more money, they also put restrictions on how long we have to offer them to the public before we then have to purchase an additional copy.
Um, I know that NJA is really advocating and I know there's something going on um where um they're discussing possibly um like um not making it possible for for libraries in New Jersey to purchase e
materials from these publishers unless they change or do away with some of these unfair practices. It's kind of tricky. um don't know if just one state pulling out of um you know purchasing from Overdrive, let's
say, um would make the publishers change their their policies. But I know that Massachusetts, I believe it's Massachusetts or Connecticut has has passed a law um but there is um it only goes into effect if another state passes
a similar law. So there is this attempt to try to kind of force the publishers to um to um have more fair um practices in terms of you know purchasing or selling to libraries, public libraries.
So that's something that is ongoing right now. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Claudine? >> No. Uh thank you Claudine. >> Okay. And just to touch on Christine's um I'm sorry, Councilwoman McGrath's
other question about the community outreach librarian. And so that position would be um somebody who we would bring on to um go to all of the township events. Uh make sure that um they come up with other way creative ways to make
sure that the library is in um information about the library is in um all these different avenues rather than our traditional avenues. Um, and yeah, focusing on promoting our events and our resources, >> right? >> And I think the important point for the
public is you're fitting this in the mandatory state minimum. >> Correct. >> Which is which is really the great part of that. >> Correct. >> Right. Well, thank you, Claudine. It's good to see you. And we'll move on to uh
Miss Mascara and the rest of our budget conversations for this evening. Good evening. Uh I apologize my camera does not work um on the laptop so you won't be able to see me but it is good
to see all of your faces. Uh we'll jump into the budget presentation and I will try to be fast but thorough for you all since you've already had a long night.
Okay. 2026 Verona Municipal Budget starting today. Next slide, please, Miss Kieran. Um, as you can see, our collection rate has been pretty steady for the last few years. Uh, about 99% um, not including
2021 where we were still dealing with the, um, aftermath of COVID. Next slide. Our miscellaneous revenue for 2025 had good results overall. Um the screen will
show you what the top um percentagewise versus anticipated versus collected um which was interest on deposits, our licensing, community center rentals, parking meters, municipal court, uh
uniform fire safety act, alcoholic beverages, and recreation fees. Next slide. results of operations on our expenses. Um, as you know, our garbage and recycling contract were bid in 2023 and
they cover through 2028. Um, our medical expenses continue to rise like Claudine um had just mentioned. Our pension amounts also continue to increase. Um, and our OPIU contract was settled in 2025. So
currently there's no um outstanding contracts for um unions. This slide is showing you um the comparison to what is proposed for 2026 and what was budgeted for 2025. Um on the bottom in the expense
appropriations, you will see that um it's about $2.2 million in an increase from 2025. 300,000 over 300,000 is salary and wages. Um we've have statutory expenses
which is your pension which um is about $200,000 increase. Our debt service continues to remain similar um a slight increase of $50,000. the library as we just discussed. Uh your reserve for uncollected taxes is remaining the same
and your other expenses also includes um the $ 1.5 million grant that you received uh which is most of the difference um in your other expenses. Last year we had almost $500,000 in
grants and this year we have almost uh well a little over $1.5 million in grants. So the increase there is a million dollars in grants. Here is the difference in the municipal tax rate.
Um as we know 2026 we had a re-evaluation which went into effect. Um so the municipal tax rate decreases um from 2025 to 2026. The average property valuation increased
from 435, a little over 435 to 7044 this year. The average municipal uh property increase is about $230. This slide is showing you a tax history from 2018 through 2026. Our last reval
was in 2019. So I thought it was important to show 2018 and 2019 the difference there um as well as all of the years in between and then the difference between 2025 and 2026 as the
reval in 26 has now hit. Material changes um for 2026 are shown here. Um, general insurance increased over 5%, our medical benefits increased $320,000,
um, which is over 14%. Um, police is only mentioned here, but, uh, regular PERS also went up about $80,000. Uh, salary and wages, you will see, is about 300,000, a little over 300,000.
And we increased our health waiverss line from 75,000 to 85,000. um which is a $10,000 increase because more employees are continuing to wave medical insurance. This slide shows uh the representation
of the average annual tax bill for the municipality as well as the monthly tax bill. Um average tax bill is $3,544 annually. The monthly bill comes out to about
$295. This is the breakdown of your municipal, your library, your county, and your public schools. Um, this it becomes basically your total for the taxes that are paid every year um for each resident and the percentage that it's broken
down. Our open space trust fund um started in 2019. As you know, we've increased it in 2023 um from 2 cents to 3 cents per 100 assessed valuation. We are estimating
based on the new um net valuation, the amount to be raised this year in taxation is a little over 1.15 million. And that average residential tax is $21.32. We will discuss um obviously tonight
some of the items um in your budget binders. We will then continue on March 9th. We are looking to introduce our budget on March 23rd and have the public hearing in adoption on April 20th. Um
just a reminder state statutoily we have to introduce by the end of March and we have to adopt by the end of April. Are there any I know that was fast but are there any questions overall on that
presentation? Um, Jen, I suppose I have one if you could go back to the the tax levy increase. >> Yes. >> Um, slide so I think you you had it at one point. >> Go back.
>> Okay. So in in looking at this significant um suggested or proposed levy, how does this reconcile with the the state um hard cap on tax levy?
>> Uh well we are within caps. >> We are. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um is that did we have a a waiver for the for health insurance? They do allow waiverss for health insurance. They allow waivers for part of the
pension um increase. They allow waivers for part of the debt um that increased um those are the three main items that they allow waiverss for.
>> Okay. And could you just describe the process as you work with department heads and and where you started? Um, as far as, you know, did you ask every department head to maintain a a um a zero increase budget? Did you ask for
department heads to reduce their budgets? Like, how did we get here? If you could just provide some >> Sure. Um, so this process really starts in October of 2025. Um, when they're given their budget sheets back to me,
um, I start to input everything into the state document. Um in December we get the pension number which is obviously a huge factor. Um in beginning of January we get the general insurance number and basically our
health insurance numbers and those factor into the what's called the tax levy uh cap workbook. um in using that number that allows me to know what can be moved outside of caps as we've
discussed. After that process, um I then went back to department heads and anybody who had a increase a large increase um in well obviously I can't touch salaries
because salaries are pretty set um based on the contracts but um anybody who had a large operating um increase request um it was factored in to see where we needed to be and um a percentage was
taken off of most people's requests. Um if there was anything outlandish or a large request, it was modified um in discussion with uh Mr. O Sullivan and Mr. Krauss. Um and that's
kind of how it was worked down to the numbers that we've um come to basically. Councilwoman McGrath, >> thank you. Um, thank you so much for your presentation and I would uh I'm
sure that a copy of this uh is going to be emailed to the council post the meeting. I I have mine going back to the beginning. Um, and they're always interesting to look at. I actually wanted to go back to the total operating
expenses line. So remind me these numbers match up with what the the similar version of this presentation yeartoear right it's not based on actual but what was budgeted >> so these numbers are based on well 2018 through 2025 are based on actual numbers
in this presentation >> okay so explain the negative in 2025 that we actually had a decrease can you just adjust that or explain that >> sure what led to that so the difference really was um grants. Um we received
more grants in 2025 that we did in 2024, which is why it it looks a little funky and the total operating expenses does not include grants, which is why it's uh looks like a decrease. >> Okay. So then if we get grants
>> in in 2026, I know we received a very big one right off the bat, >> but we're going to hopefully make get more grants. Um so then that total obviously the operating expenses go down the more grants we get and when we see
this presentation in 2027, this 28.487168 number may be lower. >> Correct. Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Councilman Roman, >> what are our trends uh with regard to
headcount, both uh full-time and regular part-time? >> I will have to get you numbers. I I think I did that last year for you all. So, I will update it for 2026. >> That'd be great. Thank you. >> Sure.
>> Okay. Any other more general questions before we go into the specific departments? Okay, seeing none, uh, Miss Mascara, what's first? >> Okay, so um, if you open up your budget binder,
um, we're going to go 1 through 10 and hit number 22. And you've already heard discussion on 26, but we can circle back to 20 tab 26 if you would like. um big difference in this year's budget binder in previous years. On the left hand side
of your binder are all of the capital requests um by year and by uh fund, general cap, water sewer cap, and pool cap. Behind each department, if they had a capital request, I put it inside their
tab and just generalized it. Um, so tab one, two, and three are similar to what you've just seen in the presentation. Um, so I'm going to jump to tab four, which is administration
and I'll give you a second to get there. Okay. Um administration salaries um has increased. Um as you know there are salary ordinances in place. Um you have
contracts that have been settled. So um that is pretty set. Um as far as you know that goes. Um, on the bottom of that page, you have operating, which increased um about $4,000, a little less
than $4,000. Uh, as you know, number 14 is, um, one of your drivers. Other lines have been manipulated down to include that increase as well. But, uh, 14 has been included in this year's budget, as
you know. Um, that was one of the items that was discussed last year. Um and an ordinance was adopted to have some sort of transfer between the current fund to the pool um for fire and rescue.
>> Just just for the public certification. Yeah. Just want to clarify that number 14 is the is the money that the township is transferring to the pool utility for that purpose. >> Jen, could you >> Yes. go into like line 11 which is
public information website hosting maintenance. Um it looks like the the budget number um proposed of 21,500 is being carried over from 2025 but the actual expense that we had on that line
was less than half that. So um is there a reason why >> let me pull up the budget. Hold on one second and let's see what's going on in that specific line. Okay. So, I believe part of this um is a
three-year part project um driven by the uh public information officer um for the social media and web archive. part of it is web hosting. Um, but I can clarify further with her um to see if
maybe that item can be reduced if >> that isn't going to change in 2026 or further. >> Thank you. Yeah, you don't have to answer tonight. I just I don't want to budget too far away from actual because, >> you know, it just because we've had
those numbers in the past, >> you know, as we're looking to to do this. I know obviously you want to build some fund balance but at the same point it's uh >> I think we need to budget as close to actual as possible um and potentially you know we got we're going to have to tighten
>> um I think a lot of this just as I'm going to make that comment now uh >> so it's not a surprise in the future. Is there a possibility uh Jen that you could share the um the Excel spreadsheet so that you
know on your screen so that or or Jen Kieran could do that just so the public can see what we're we're looking at as we go line by line. >> Uh let's see. >> I can just give me a second because it's going to be hard to follow. Um it's on
the council docs web page for the public. But just give me a second. I'll pull it up. All right, Jen, you can keep going as >> Okay, >> the clerk does that, please. Thank you. Um the next page is uh administration and economic development that um was
50,500 last year and we are proposing that it remains the same at 50,500 >> the next page. >> Sorry just throwing this in just other place where >> we might be able to
you know, look at like line three. You know, my my general comment is going to be any time where our just as we we go forward and I know that I bring this up every year, but I'll just put this forth. Is that any time where we have a a pretty significant like, you know, I
mean, this is a a very significant it's uh difference between the the actual expended in the prior year and the proposed. I'm going to want an explanation for, you know, for why we're there. Um, and I know that there's some,
you know, just sometimes the just a simple explanation is helpful. It doesn't have to be super complicated, but to understand that, um, and, you know, looking at like line two where we expended $1,500, but we're proposing $7,500, which is like 500% higher than
past years. it would be helpful to know um all of that or you know identify those as areas to to uh to tighten as well. >> Sure. So I usually reach out to the um environmental commission sustainable um
and you know try to get their um ideas on what they anticipate spending um typically sustainable has told me 7500. they've received quite a few grants the last um few years. So, they haven't been
touching their operating expenses as much as the grants have been taking over um and using those expenses, but I can clarify with them if they still in line two still will need um 7500 for 2026.
>> Thank you. Yeah. and and line three, whatever the contracts and services are. >> A lot of this um this past year was updating our um holiday decor um on Bloomfield Avenue.
>> Yep. No, I mean last year the number looks fine. It's the it's this year that >> I'm just respond to that question. I think the that particular line item that generally um houses the the installation and the take down of the Christmas uh or
the holiday decorations. Uh the thought here was that there uh maybe some additional money reserved for the America 250 celebration and this would be an appropriate line item to try to pull additional contracts and services for that celebration. So that that's for
line item three. Um, again, I Jen had already answered line item two on that for regarding the sustainable budget. I think that might be a place that we can look to to reduce that number slightly to reflect actual expenses and the the grants received. >> Council Roman.
>> Yes. And one of the challenges structurally with the municipal budget is this is also where we build surplus for the following year. Um, this is one of the things that has always driven me crazy about the New Jersey state budget formatting is that we aren't able to explicitly have a line for our surplus.
Um, so we always have had to ask this question is okay, what are we actually going to spend on this versus what are we required to, you know, what do we need to budget so that we do that. Uh, Mr. MCO, if you want to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a structural challenge in building these budgets.
>> It definitely is. Um we are using $4 million in surplus um to offset budget costs um if we our revenues don't come in that high or our surplus from um not
spending our expenses every year or our revenues don't come in as high as we anticipated um our surplus obviously decreases. Um we regenerated the four million that we spent last year in the
2025 budget. Um but it every obviously that is not guaranteed and it is um a little bit of a trying game to try to figure out whether you leave something
in as higher anticipating it be spent lower so that you do create surplus or trying to anticipate revenues coming in lower to increase surplus that way. Um, but it is a little bit of a mind game to
decide early on what is going to happen for the whole year. >> And for the for the general public edification, this dollar amount is basically so that our bank balance never goes down to zero so that we always have some, you know, basic level of cash in the bank. And from an accounting perspective, we have to spend it or
consume it down during the course of a current year while also regenerating it for the following year. And we aren't permitted really to have a line in the budget where we just sort of retain surplus. So unfortunately we can't actually budget every line every other
line every other expense line item down to the wire and every revenue down to the wire. Otherwise we end up with this problem where we aren't able to generate surplus that we actually need to have for cash flow management purposes. So like I said that's a state requirement. It is something I don't like about how
we're forced to build budgets, but uh if anyone wonders, that's very frequently why these lines look like they do. So, >> and rent. >> All right, moving on, Miss Mascara. >> Okay, on your next page, you have uh
your salaries. As you will see, um this remains the same. >> Where are we? You're under uh exec over to the left. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. >> I know not what you wanted to hear, right? Um on the on the next page, you will see the uh administration's three-year capitals. That is not going to be in the budget worksheet that Miss Kieran is presenting because that was a
separate worksheet. Um but I can if you want provide that separately um if you want that posted on the website or >> Yeah. would be helpful. I just had a question on just the placement of the
resurfacing of turf fields. So just wondering why it's in administration rather than in recreation as a I mean it all comes it's all the same thing but it just the turf field replacement somehow ended up in administration versus uh
>> it was more of administration's request. Um as you know last year we had um turnover in our uh director. Um, so this was a previous request that's kind of stuck with administration, but I can obviously move it to recreation
>> just for organizational purposes. >> And Mr. Sullivan or or Miss Mascara, if you could >> um hit on the $245,000 for municipal lot 2, that's the lot off of Grove Avenue. Um, what is that? A resurfacing project?
>> U Miss Kieran, it's not going to be in this document. Okay, >> just so you know, >> just let me know if I'm >> This is a separate The capitals are a separate document. Um 245 uh,000 was for the design concept for municipal parking lot too
construction. >> That uh that would be for the design and it should be also for the reconstruction of that parking lot. It's a relatively smaller parking lot, but Boswell prepared a a cost estimate for us to review, redesign, relay out, and then to
also then um the construction estimate as well. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions on tab four? >> Tab five. >> Tab five. >> Thank you, clerk.
>> Yep. You have the clerk um on the top. salary and wages again statutoily and by ordinance. On the bottom you will see um their operating expense. Um the major difference here is the
software request um by Miss Kieran um in this budget. >> I'm sorry. Could you tell us what specifically that software is? >> Can I speak? >> Go ahead, Miss Karen. >> Okay. Um,
well, first of all, Gov Pilot has acquired SDL. Um, we're probably going to be making a a bigger shift there. I have a meeting with them in the coming weeks. The additional software is for licensing tree contractors.
uh most of the licenses that um are covered by the municipal clerk's office which will incorporate online payment. So it will um especially block parties just so the public and the residents have um easier way of submitting
uh licenses and permit requests. So it's an additional um it will be 10 modules overall and that is um combining it with as a package we get a uh reduction uh per module.
So I'm getting I have four now I'm getting six more modules. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Uh Deputy Mayor M Jack, you're uh you're muted. >> Uh I'm just questioning line five, the
35,000 for local elections >> because I have to have something in case we have a special election unforeseen. >> Got it. Thank you. And >> we have to decide who Mr. Ceniality or Miss Congeniality is. Well, we have that
money. Councilman McGrath, >> thank you. I actually wanted to talk about legal advertisements. I know there's been a lot of change um in the law. What is your anticipation? Uh I see that you're decreasing the line item. Could you just speak to that
briefly? >> Well, there's uncertainty as to whether or not we'll have to still uh publish online. Um, I've only spent half of what we budgeted last year, but we do have um
an increase in fees for the Starled Ledger Edj.com if we have to continue with them. So, um, their prices are the same whether they're posted online or in print and their deadlines are the same as well.
I know the state's working on having a central state system for all of this that could potentially replace all the newspapers, but the news the media companies are not happy about that, right, Jen? >> Yeah. And um we'll still have to what the state website would be would be us
submitting our um link to our local I mean uh legal publications page so that anybody can just go to the state's page and see every municipality's uh link to their legal um web pages. It's just there's supposed to be a
couple um representatives from the state next week at the um this coming week at the education conference so we can get some idea on where the state will be going on publication of legal ads and for what I
believe like land use may still have to do it the land use boards but whether or not all legal um publications need to be sent to the newspapers will be determined. hopefully before March 1st when it goes into effect.
>> Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it? >> Yeah. >> All right. Uh, moving to capital requests for the clerk. I I'll just note that these requests are um part of a multi-year project that we have we
started already to digitize um records so that they'll be more available to the public and we don't have to pay storage fees and Oprah requests will be less um time and money uh intensive to do that as well.
>> Correct. >> All right. Um >> tab six. >> Tab six. >> Yep. Uh assessment. >> Assessment of taxes. >> Yes. Um you have your salary and wages. As you will see, um there was some shift.
Um we have a full-time employee and a part-time employee. Um so there was a shift in the full-time employee has taken another position. Uh which is why you see a reduction in the salary. uh and why you also see that longevity is
no longer um available on the bottom. Um slight increase of about $2,000 in their operating expenses. Uh is the reason, Miss Mscar, that the appraisal budget was so low in 2025 was
because the you know we we had to pass a separate funding mechanism to do the uh the townwide reassessment. >> Correct. Yes. >> Any other questions on tax assessment?
Okay, moving on to >> uh finance >> seven >> FNR on that tab go to the left. Yes, correct. Thank you. Um salary and wages again on the top. Um our operating
expense expenses um increased on the bottom. Uh we are implementing new software to help um make the process um the onboarding
process through payroll um a little bit smoother and cleaner. Um which this process includes uh the administration office um it includes payroll in my office. Um so
having the onboarding um system streamlined through uh Prime Point which is our um payroll system currently. Um that is one of your drivers for your computer support
increase. Um postage is always an unknown. Um postage seems to increase I don't know at least twice a year. Um, so this postage line did not increase
for 2026, but I can anticipate it probably the amount spent in 25 to increase in 26 as postage just seems to keep rising. Um but the main driver is your computer
support um which is your prime point um and this additional software to streamline the onboarding process of new employees. >> To to this point um Miss Mascar on the postage I know that a lot of um service
providers that I use for my home give you the option of electronic billing which saves them a lot of money on on postage. Um, and I'm wondering, we get a, you know, we get a lot of mail from the township, you know, whether it's a
um, um, you know, sewer bill or, you know, reassessment stuff. Is is there a way maybe not this year but down the road that one of these soft more software platforms could potentially have an ebilling uh module so that we could save a bunch
of money on postage on something as simple as like the the quarterly water and sewer statements or the notification of estimated taxes and all of that stuff or does that legally have to be sent by mail? >> So statutoily tax bills have to be
mailed. um they don't allow us to do e billill option for tax bills. The water and sewer bills there is an option and it is in place and has been in place um to do e billill um for those postcards that come quarterly but statutoily we
have to mail tax bills. Maybe that will change in the next 10 years as they as they continue to upgrade. Like you said, the advertisements are now going um all digital. Um but maybe that will change,
but currently we have to mail tax bills. >> Thank you, Councilwoman McGrath. >> Thank you. Can you touch on um the overtime line item? So, how does overtime get acred in your department?
>> Um, so anybody who works over their 35 hours um is entitled to overtime except for myself. I'm not entitled to overtime. Um most of the driver for this um was specifically one employee um who does
payroll and the contracts had um progressed last year for OPIU um which there just wasn't enough time to get the contract in place and pay the
retros and everything else um during normal business hours as as you can imagine one employee doing payroll for about a 100 full-time employees and the amount of I don't know three 400 3 400
um part-time employees through the summer um there there doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for um slacking off if I can say that. Um so any additional kind of project um that
is necessary to move whether it's contracts along or the aftermath of a contract like um the OPIU contract um that was settled kind of entails a little bit more hours than the 35
provide. So, you're increasing this line item because you're anticipating um more overtime this year. I mean, >> uh I would anticipate probably similar overtime this year.
>> Okay. Even though the contract's been worked through. >> Yes. Can there's um again there's only one employee that does payroll. Um, so it makes it difficult to do um
more tasks that are requested um within the 35 hour work period. >> Okay. >> I mean, hopefully she doesn't have to work cuz I would prefer her go home at 4:30, not just for overtime, but just for her own sake
um to not have to stay late on some occasions. But um if that's what it takes, that's what it will take to process the payroll and get everything done. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome.
>> Okay. Any other questions on finance and revenue? Moving on to legal services. >> Um your legal services uh was 250,000
last year. Uh this also included a um transfer from last year. That's why it chose 2675. Um, we are budgeting 2525 with anticipation of hopefully some of
the legal matters that have been ongoing with affordable housing um to hopefully drop off um or be moved to the affordable housing trust. >> Any questions on legal services?
Okay, moving on to >> municipal municipal courts. >> Yes. Um, so last year was 195,000. This year we're proposing 210. The 210 basically comes from an estimate an estimate number that comes from North
Cwell based on the number of cases and our case load percentage that we have um been driving for the past few years. Um so that 210 is just an estimate based on what they've provided to us.
>> Any questions on the court? Moving on to tab 10, planning board. >> Yes. Uh planning board salary and wages are on on the top. Uh there was um a lot of secretary moves last year um
with planning board and zoning board. Um so they I'm sorry, are you good, Jen? Okay. Um so you will see that the salary um has been finalized and has decreased um in comparison to the 2025 budget.
um in their operating expenses. They had requested um additional funds, but this was one of the items that was already cut back um based on a
percentage that they have requested and the percentage we need to decrease to come within caps. Um so this number is they were 214 last year and they are requesting 27250 but their original
request was higher than that. questions. >> The next page is zoning board of adjustment. On the top you will see salary and wages. On the bottom you will see their operating expense pretty much stayed
flat. Any questions on zoning board? Last is rent board. In this tab, the salaries remain the same and their operating remain the same for 2026 as 2025.
No questions on those. we will jump to tab 22 which is civic affairs and in Miss Kieran that will be towards the very end well not the very end but yes it's under civic
okay thank you um so civic affairs last year's was 70,000 this year they're requesting they requested more than the 78,000 I think their original request was 81 which was reduced uh the main drivers between for this is um the
fireworks are increasing about $5,000 this year. And another driver, as Kevin mentioned, this would be an another opportunity to um include some additional funds for the 250th anniversary.
um whether it's spent out of civic affairs or A&E um will have to be decided, but there there was requests from the public information officer to include additional funds for
the 250th anniversary. >> Councilwoman Holland. >> Yeah. Regarding the fireworks, is that just an increase from the vendor that we're anticipating? because I know that we've at times been strategic in our
choice of dates to try and mitigate the expense of um the fireworks. For example, I know that the cost exponentially increases if you do the fireworks display on July 4th versus like we've done it on June 30th even at
times. Um, can you speak to that and and like if so again whether it's just an increase based on the date or if that's just something we're anticipating from the vendor? Uh, that is something we're anticipating from the vendor. Um, that's what the recreation director and the
public information officer were told um that they're going to see an increase um for the fireworks. I don't know if the fireworks date has been selected or if that factors in currently um but they have mentioned that the fireworks will
increase and that came from the vendor. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Just one question, Jen, as well. I know that >> a lot of these events like flag raisings and things like that uh require our
buildings ground staff to be there. Is their overtime included in this or is that in their buildings and grounds budget? >> That would be in their building and grounds budget. There's no um salary and wages in this budget.
>> Okay. So, just >> go ahead. >> Yeah. If we could disagregate that at some point, I would I would really like a clear picture of what um these events are costing as far as uh personnel as well. >> Sure.
>> Okay. Any other questions? >> Lastly is tab 26. I'm not sure if you wanted to see the library um budget in more detail um or in Miss Kieran this has actually two tabs just so you know um in the spreadsheet but
>> um Claudine obviously has spoke earlier um about the mandatory minimum um but this breaks down the specific lines that her board has already approved um to budget for specifically but I'm not sure if you it was on the agenda But I'm not
sure if you have any questions specifically on her budget or um if not otherwise that would conclude tonight's discussion on budget. >> Any closing questions on these items?
Okay. Well, thank you, Miss Mscara. >> Thank you. I will see you in two weeks hopefully in person and no snow. That would be ideal because we can because we're going to talk about how much the snow is costing us this year already. So that's going to be cost a lot of money
so far. Yes. >> All right. Uh >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, Mr. O Sullivan, we're still in your report. So, what's next? Uh, mayor, the last item that I uh I failed to mention in my report earlier and and this will conclude my report was
just uh a a quick discussion on the um the emergency services building. I know there had been some discussion at prior meetings. We're trying to target a presentation either this evening or at some uh future uh uh upcoming meeting. Um again, just to provide a quick
summary as part of an ongoing uh effort to ensure fiscal responsibility, we're uh we we continue to review that project uh to identify additional cost-saving opportunities while still preserving the project's core objectives. That included
a number of redesigns with both solutions and also bringing in an independent audit from H2M's architectural team. Uh again, this wasn't a reset of our project, but rather a deliberate step to stress test that that current design. And uh just
quickly to summarize, um H2M did believe that there were still meaningful efficiencies that can be realized within the existing design framework. Uh these refinements may reduce overall square footage and may improve functional flow
and site utilization. So uh um in response to those findings from H2M, I have begun engaging in discussions with uh a number of of specialized national firms uh which would would serve as a
potential subject matter expert partnered with uh solutions architecture to continue to uh further this discussion. Um that will be something that uh Miss Mascara does not have in her budget
presentation currently, but it'll be um it'll be incorporated in uh the the budget. Um, but I just want to provide that update to both the council and to the public that the discussion on the um on the building design is paused
currently to undertake that ongoing effort to continue to try to um find additional efficiencies within the building. >> Thank you. >> And that concludes my report. Uh I know
uh Mr. Krauss was looking to uh forego his report this evening unless the council has. >> Too bad, Mr. Krauss. Too bad. >> He looks very He was very cozy looking uh in his chair there. So, we'll uh
we'll let him enjoy. You're Mike. If you're trying to talk, we can't hear you. I don't know why. You're not muted, but we still can't hear you. Well, even if he wanted to give a report, he couldn't. So, uh maybe we'll
come back to Mike and uh later in the meeting if he has something to add there. Um, and moving on to council member reports. Deputy Mayor Mackoy. I remember to unmute myself this time. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, very brief,
especially with the length of this meeting and the budget. Uh, I too want to congratulate the fifth grade uh, girls. I went to three of their games this year. Uh, the last two were the playoff games. And I hope these girls stay in Verona and go through Verona High School playing basketball because
we will win a championship if they do. But they are that talented. Uh I was very impressed by a number of girls on that team that can play. But congratulations to them for winning the championship. And that all that is all I have for this evening.
>> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Councilman Roman. U just wanted to echo the earlier uh thanks to uh the township's department of public works uh office of emergency management, all of our emergency services and the township administration um for dealing with this
storm. Uh this was a big one and uh they did they did well. The roads are are pretty solid and passable and uh just appreciate all the hard work that goes into uh making sure that the town is in good condition after these sorts of events. So thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman
McGrath, >> thank you. I too want to echo a thank you to all of the staff um for their efforts in the last uh 24 hours um plus and u with all of the storms this winter. It's been incredibly
challenging. Um and I uh briefly I did represent Verona at the county executives Black History Month celebration which honored our new lieutenant governor, Dr. Dale Caldwell and Rucker's Newark Chancellor Tanya
Smith Jackson. Both of them um spoke um so well about the importance of Black History Month and Black Excellence and it was really an inspiring program. You can go to the uh county executives um uh
page on social media and watch the full presentation. And that's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Holland. Thank you. I will echo statements um made by my colleagues uh thanking the
DPW. I think when we have a significant blizzard like we just experienced, it makes it incredibly important for us to have very capable DPW clearing our roads. I got specific compliments from
uh res residents about the status of Verona's roads con compared to uh neighboring communities um as well as even some of the state and county roads. So I think that's a major complement to our DPW. Um, so I'm mindful of the cost
associated with um the the in incredible work that goes into clearing our roads, but I think it is a really important community service and I know that our residents are grateful for it. I do also want to remind residents about the
winter termination program which uh continues until March 15th. Um that's not much time left. So if residents haven't available need to that they get that information and we
can provide that information as necessary. Also alternative arrangements should be made as we transition into the spring which seems like a far way away when you've got like 2 ft of snow on your front yard but it is supposedly
just around the corner. Um and so the winter termination program will be coming to an end. So, I do ask that residents that do have a hardship and would otherwise qualify for that program make sure you avail yourselves of it and that you make other arrangements for as we approach the spring and the warmer
weather which hopefully is coming very soon. Thank you. That concludes my report. >> Thank you. This time I will open for public comment on any item any member of the public wishes to bring forth to the council. Madame clerk, would you please read the public participation statement?
Anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter, please raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor or if you're dialing in by Zoom, please press star 9. If you are attending in Oh, you're not attending in
person. Once recognized, clearly state only your name. Township of residence. For the record, you're not required to provide your street address. However, if you do, please note that these meetings will be posted on the township's YouTube channel. Addresses will not be redacted for any purpose. You'll have four minutes to address the council and
there'll be no cross dialogue during this public portion. After everyone wishing to speak has been heard, the council may address your comments and our questions. >> Thank you. Uh, we have Fred. Fred, you are up.
>> Oops. I lost Fred. >> Well, you you brought Kevin Ryan in, so uh why don't we >> Oh, now we got Fred again. Okay, Fred, you can you can unmute and uh and speak. Thank you. Me now.
>> Yep. Thanks everybody. Hope everyone's doing well. Uh Fred, good Verona, New Jersey. Um just want one thing real quick. Uh Mr. O Sullivan, last week, early last week, I sent you an email and a voicemail. Did you receive them? Because I hadn't heard back from you.
>> He he can't answer until all the public comment is over, Fred. >> Okay. Well, all right. Well, just wanted to confirm that. So, um I'm calling again about the service uh emergency services project. Hadn't heard anything. And I've had conversation with neighbors and some other people in town and wanted
to provide some feedback. And I'll start by, you know, saying I've lived in Veron for 27 years. And in my time here, I did chair the budget and finance committee under prior administration. And our goal there was to work to make sure that we're con working in a in a manner to make sure that we're controlling costs
in the town. The neighbors in in my area, we we do believe that a firehouse on the Pompton Avenue lot is appropriate, but we also believe that the police station on the Lakeside Avenue property is also appropriate. In the August meeting, I
pointed out that the Cedar Grove North end firehouse was built for a cost of $3.8 million. And uh Mr. O Sullivan, I think you made the comment that it was a barebones project. But even as a barebones project, it still has to meet the necessary state fire standards. And
um I also did some research and the Cape May Police Department is building a new police department for a cost of $8 million which is an 8,000 square foot building. So let's say we took the Cedar Grove Firehouse and doubled that cost.
Say we need we didn't need more to $8 million. And let's say we took the cost of the um Kate May project and doubled that to 16. Well, that that's a $24 million cost right there. The last proposal that you had made to us was
that it was a $39 million project. So that's a $15 million saving. And I know one of the points has been the cost is is less because you were uh combining them into one location. But I can't understand how $15 million is is not a
significance cost savings. And even if it was a little bit more than that number, the two locations are significant. I mean, you you own the lot on Lakeside Avenue, which means you could very easily put the police station there. And the other thing that it does do is that it reduces the amount of
traffic on Pompton Avenue. And when I was walking one of the guiding eyes dogs that I raised one morning a few months back at 7:15, there was an emergency going southbound on Pompton towards Bloomfield Avenue. And the traffic at the Claremont Avenue light was about 150
to 200 yards long. The Verona Police Department officer actually pulled into the oncoming traffic lane going northbound on Pmpton to get through the red light at Claremont and to get to the light at Bloomfield Avenue to turn
and that's just in the morning. So adding additional traffic to that area is really going to be challenging. And the last point that I would make is also by taking the police station and I know our police chief had made the comment at an earlier meeting that our officers are
on duty in the community but when if when and if there's an emergency on the west side of Verona and we know the types of emergencies that occur in our society every day where they need to get those support materials to them. They're going to have to come all the way across
Verona as opposed to having to go from a Lakeside Avenue lot to that emergency But we lost you for a second or even if you went down Lynon or one of the other side streets with those with those police resources is going to impact your response time. And I think
that's something that needs to be taken into consideration when you look at this project and the placement of the fire department on Pompin and the police department on Lakeside. Hey, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Good.
And next up is Kevin Ryan. Go ahead, Kevin. >> He's muted. >> I'm asking him to unmute. >> Uh, good evening, council. Kevin Ry in Verona, New Jersey. Uh, hadn't planned on com commenting on this, but I'd like
to uh commend Mr. Good for the comments that he just made uh about the uh the public safety building. I'd also like to commend Councilman Roman for his very cogent explanation of the entire budget process. which in in my opinion uh has
just been totally designed to confuse the taxpayers in New Jersey as exactly how their property taxes uh are determined. And I've said that many times while I was on the council, so it's nothing new, but I just wanted to to repeat it. And also the uh um with
the recent snowstorm and you probably collecting this data with your senior survey, which I commend you for doing. Uh I on social media posts I've seen a number of requests I guess mainly from seniors to wanting to know how they can get help okay to meet the requirements
of of the ordinance about getting their sidewalks uh cleared within 24 hours after the uh the storm uh ends. And I was wondering if there was any consideration to perhaps establishing a uh a database or a central location
where referrals could, you know, could be uh made to seniors. cuz I I know there may be many legal uh implications regarding that, but I think it might be something that you might want to explore where somebody could just call into a centralized number and say, you know,
I'm, you know, I'm 65 years old or I'm disabled and I I need help in in getting my sidewalk uh uh cleared. Just something to consider. And also I'd like to echo the comments about the great work that the Verona uh DPW does in
getting the streets uh uh cleared uh very uh expeditiously and uh thank you for the opportunity to comment. >> Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Uh we have Droppy. I don't know which Droppy this is, but
go ahead. >> Uh hi Sarah Drappy, Veron, New Jersey. I just want to thank you uh thank the council members who were able to attend the fifth grade girls basketball game the other night and thank you for your comments on that game. Those girls worked incredibly hard this entire
season and a big thank you to coach Kieran and coach Jen and coach Dave for uh guiding those girls towards their championship and we also look forward to watching them play in high school. That's all. Thank you.
>> Thanks Sarah. Anybody else? Okay, I close public comment um respond. Mr. Good, I appreciate your comments. These are some of the the same um concerns that I I have brought up. I
know the deputy mayor has brought up and that we've communicated um and I look forward to now seeing some of the comments from additional experts uh on this. Uh to Mr. Ryan, I I would leave your the discussion of your um
suggestions to our community services and administration. Um but I appreciate you making them regardless because there are good ideas in there. We would just have to protect people from things like that being opened. We don't want a list of people who are less mobile out there
and accessible to members of the public. So we'd have to be very careful about that to try and find an exception to that and so on. And uh and thank you Miss Droppy for joining in and your comments and and once again congratulations to that team. Um they're
a really good group and uh we look forward to seeing them hopefully every year at the council. Uh that would be they're very very nice. Maybe we can get them a run um every year uh which would be phenomenal. Um any other council comments on the
public comment? All right. Uh hearing none, we're moving on to the three um remaining ordinances for introduction. The next item on the agenda is ordinance I1 for introduction.
Madame clerk, would you please read the title of this ordinance into the record? >> Amending chapter A565, fees of the township code, specifically sections A565-1, schedule of fees. A565-3
administrative fees and other fees and A565-6 uniform and construction code fees. >> Thank you, Madame Clerk. Would somebody please move the ordinance? >> I'll move the ordinance. Is there a second?
>> Okay, I'll I'll let the deputy mayor have that one and I will second that motion. Um, any discussion on I1? >> Mr. Mayor, >> Deputy Mayor, go ahead. >> I have one question on the uh the fee,
the duplicate tax bill uh first duplicate copy is $5. Each subsequent is 25. Is that supposed to be reversed? Usually when you get multiple documents, the uh extra ones are less expensive. Was the first copy supposed
to be $25 and anything after? Just a question. You can I'm probably not going to get an answer now, but uh something to look into. It just seems like it should be reversed. That's it. Thank you. >> My only Scott Kevin.
>> Uh yeah, mayor. I was I would just say um I don't think this ordinance is intended to change that specific fee, but I can get an answer on that question for the deputy mayor. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. And I appreciate you adding in um the comments that we made
in the last um uh last council meeting about the credit card fees and and so on. um and the uh the body camera um limitations on the body camera who would have to pay. So um
okay, Madam Clerk, would you call the role, please? >> Councilwoman Holland, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes.
>> Mayor Tambbor, >> yes. I1 will be number 2026-09. It will be published according to law. Public hearing will be held on March 9th. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. The next item on
the agenda is an ordinance labeled as I2 for introduction. Would you please read the title of this ordinance into the record? Amending chapter 150 zoning of the code of the township specifically article 16 administration and
enforcement section 16.1 16 to 16.8 Eight. >> Thank you, madam clerk. Would somebody please move the ordinance? >> Moved. >> Motion is made by Councilwoman McGrath. Is there a second? >> I'll second it.
>> The second is by Councilman Roman. Is there any council discussion on this ordinance? Hearing none. Madam clerk, would you call the role, please? >> Councilwoman Holland. >> Yes. Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes.
>> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Tambbor, >> yes. >> I two will be number 2026-10 and it will be referred to the planning
board for consistency review. >> Thank you. The next item on the agenda is ordinance I3 on introduction. Madam clerk, could you please read the title of this ordinance into the record? >> Amended amending chapter 390 property
maintenance article 2 leadbased paint hazard inspection requirements for rental dwellings specifically changing paragraph 5-G. I will move this ordinance. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Move.
>> The the mayor made the motion and Councilman Roman seconded the motion. Uh, I just have one item of council discussion. Um, this came out after our um fire prevention bureau
uh inspectors got certified to do the lead inspections. So, this should potentially save um our our residents uh and landlords um money on that. So, I I appreciate the
their willingness to step up for that. Um, and also, you know, appreciate the revenue that that'll bring into the township with that savings. >> Madam clerk, would you please read uh call the role? >> Call the role. I'm sorry.
>> Yes, please. >> Okay. Councilwoman Harland. >> Sorry, Cynthia. We didn't hear you. >> Yes. Sorry. Um, Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes.
>> Mayor Tambbor, >> yes. >> I three will be number 202611. It will be published according to law. Public hearing will be held on March 9th. >> Okay. Thank you. We're moving on to the
consent agenda in which we have one set of minutes and 10 resolutions. Does anybody need to pull anything from the consent agenda? >> I'm sorry. Was the minutes only in the electronic packet? I >> I didn't see them in my physical.
>> No, there are no I didn't finish the minutes off. Okay. >> Ch changing the minutes. I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Because I also did not receive a copy of the minutes. >> I didn't I was going to give them today. I didn't get to. >> So, it's L1 through L10. Anybody need to
remove anything there? Okay. All right. Would somebody move the consent agenda? >> Uh, one one quick one. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. >> On L4. >> Uh, if you have discussion, we can do
that after we move it. >> Okay. >> Unless we're pulling anything we don't have to discuss now. We'll we can discuss it after. >> Somebody move L1 through L10. >> So moved. So moved. >> The motion is made by Councilwoman McGrath.
>> Deputy Mayor, would you like to second it? >> Second. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. On L4, Deputy Mayor, I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. >> Uh, on L4, uh, in the >> It's all last year. I'm sorry.
>> Resolution, it says 13,000 >> and it gives you 2020. Um, okay. It should be 15. Yes. >> 155 in the uh contract. Yes, >> correct. Sorry. >> At this time, I'm going to open for public comment on the consent agenda.
Same public comment statement applies. Okay. Seeing no public comment, um any other council discussion? That closed public comment. Is there any other council discussion? No. Madam clerk, would you call the role, please?
>> Councilwoman Holland. >> Yes. Do you not hear me? Sorry, I said yes twice. Okay. >> Uh, Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes.
>> Mayor Tambbor, >> yes. where L1 through L10 will be numbered 049 through and including 0 58 and I'll make the change to the resolution in L4.
>> Okay. Thank you. All right. Moving on to new unfinished business. Um the first is the ordinance 2020. Well, I'm sorry, ordinance uh 01A. Um Mr. O' Sullivan, Mr. Krauss
>> or mayor. I'm not sure if Mr. Krauss has his audio. >> Is it working now? >> Yes. Um so on the pest control ordinance,
this is a recommendation from both construction and zoning to require um baiting for things like rodents before any demolition occurs on properties. Um
the ordinance is modeled after Bloomfield Health. Um they have reviewed it. they have given their comments. Um it's almost a carbon copy from their code. Um it is also recommended with the amount of construction we are expecting
in town over the next several years to have this in place. Any questions for Mr. Krauss? I think it's a an ordinance that makes sense. Um anybody have any objection to first
reading at the next meeting? No >> hearing. None. So I'll be done. Moving on to um B. Back to you, Mr. Um
Oh, Sullivan and Mr. Krauss. Mr. Svin, you're muted. >> Apologies. Um, so this is an ordinance that is uh being referred by the planning board and the zoning officer and the construction department. Um this
is to correct an inconsistency between the uniform construction code, the electric code and the current zoning code of the township uh regarding the placement of uh where accessory equipment for pools can be located. Uh
township zoning code is in conflict with what the electric code requires. Uh so this would correct that. Any questions on the text of the ordinance? Does anybody object to putting this on
first reading at the next meeting? So, be done. All right. Um, moving on. We have an appointment for the Open Space Trust Fund Advisory Committee for Mr. Cory Shore for a public member
expiring 117 2027 is an unexpired term. Would somebody like to move that appointment? >> I'll move that appointment. >> Motion is made by Councilman Roman. Is there a second? >> Actually second it. >> Second is by the deputy mayor. Any
discussion on this appointment? >> How many openings do we have there? Uh it's this one one more. >> Yes. >> So there's this appointment. >> This appointment fills. Yes. And we have
one remaining if this appointment goes through successfully. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh Madam Clerk, would you call the role, please? >> Councilwoman Holland. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councilwoman McGrath. Yes.
>> Councilman Roman. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Tambbor. >> Yes. >> Uh the appointment of Corey Shore, public member open space trust fund advisory committee on expired term
ending 117 27 2027 passes 5 to zero. >> And Mr. Sure. Thank you for your willingness to volunteer on this committee. And uh I just have one item of
additional new business. Um just on the agenda itself, since we've added the public comment uh portion uh after the council members report and before hearing adoption of ordinances, would Envy object to changing the agenda to not have a
separate public comment section on the consent agenda if we're already calling for an early public comment on anything? >> I think Oh, I'm sorry. No, go ahead, Gosman. Just >> um I like the fact that it's just
specifically on the ordinances. So, and it was something that we worked in several years ago. I love the fact that we have I I actually thought you were going in a different direction. I would like to add formally to the agenda that we have the public comment, you know,
early on any matter. Um >> No, that was formally added to the agenda. >> It was I'm sorry. >> Yep. Yes. Yep. The public comment matter is >> Oh, yes. Oh, okay. Great. >> Yes. Yeah. I think it's, you know, people may come in later in a meeting.
They may not get there. So, I love having that public comment on a consent agenda, and I wish other governing bodies uh did it the way we did. So, that's my opinion. Thank you. >> It certainly doesn't hurt us to have it just for the sake of
>> of of time and calling for it. Go ahead, Councilwoman Holland. I would just echo that I I do think it's worthwhile. I think we've seen examples where residents were on and maybe didn't take the earlier opportunity, but then
when we got to the consent agenda, they did specifically comment there. Um, I don't see any harm in it. It doesn't usually result in any unnecessary or burdensome lengthening of the meeting. Um, and so I I've not found fault with
it and I think it's a good opportunity to provide for that public engagement. >> I'm not tied one way or another. Okay. Uh, any other new business? Okay. We will not be having executive
session tonight, but we will have one final public comment session. Same public comment statement applies. We are open for public comment. All right. Hearing none, I close public comment. And at this time, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn.
>> Move. >> Motion is made by Councilman Roman. Is there a second? >> Second is by Councilwoman McGrath. All those in favor? >> I. Anybody opposed? Mr. Krauss?
No. Okay. The motion is carried. This meeting is adjourned and we will see you in a couple weeks. Thank you everybody for your participation. >> Bye.