evening I call to order this regular meeting of the Arona Township Council for Tuesday the 18th of February 2025 Madame clerk would you please read the open public meetings that compliance statement the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied with respect to this meeting
of the township Council the meeting time and date were included in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link and telephone call and information said notice and the meeting agenda was posted in the municipal building and sent to the official newspapers of the township The veros Grove times and Star
Ledger at least 48 Hours preceding the start time of this meeting the agenda and public handouts can be viewed online at Verona nj.org counil meetings 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 cler would you call the all please Council woman Holland here councilwoman McGrath here councilman Roman here Deputy Mayor makoy res mayor Toro here may also present
tonight's Township attorney Brian Oya Township manager Kevin oin myself municipal clerk Jennifer Kieran and CFO Jennifer mcar thank you whatever please stand for publics pledge Al to the flag flag of the United States of America
for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all I did not see Mr CTR this evening so I'll get right into my report just a few quick items first I wanted to take a minute to recognize B Lambert a senior
high school and the valorian of the class of 2025 for being recognized as a um candidate for the presidential Scholars Program which is very highly selective so I wish that all the support from the township as she moves through several
rounds to keep going she's an extraordinary um student and wonderful individual um so she's very preserving uh this recognition I had the opportunity on Saturday to go to the grand opening of Stacy's sandwich
joint um I was treated to a wonderful p tree made in house um and later did have one of their sandwiches which I have to say was quite good so I hope that everybody will patronize um Stacy sandwich joint uh the
family are volunteers in town um so it's great to see them start this Venture as well over the weekend um I was very surprised to get a text message from alert Verona saying that there was a water main break in front of my house um so that was a bit of a surprise walking
out this morning so uh for it was actually in front of my neighbor's house but um I want to thank DPW for getting there very quickly and having the foresight to let us know prior because my neighbors were able to get their cars out of the way um and they were working out there in the bitter cold and got the
uh the Water M fixed prior to snow coming down um and the crew that was there went right from there to snow removal so I give them a lot of credit of the opportunity to talk to them and um and they just kept working work and working uh so it was very entertaining
for my neighbors two houses down their three children two dogs two pets three birds all were really fascinated by this as well um we are entering budget season which is Council M Roman in my favorite time
of the year for sure um but I just wanted to thank in advance our CFO Miss mcara as well as all of our department heads and our tat manager and our former tent manager for their work on getting this together um it's always enlighting
to see how the government spends our money and really how lean we are here in Verona in many ways uh speaking of that I would like to recognize that our new tent manager is sitting up here so everybody will be able to hear him all the time uh right up in the front so
Kevin welcome to the the Das we're happy to have you here and we look forward to um your official report from Right Where You Are um the last item I have we were invited by uh Denise Rella the president of the Bron Board of Education to participated
in a joint meeting um and that went to all the council members correct everybody saw that so I would like to bring up a new business our discussion response on that so I'm just going to put that in new business and that concludes my report I will turn it over
to Mr oin our Township manager thank you mayor um as you mentioned we do have uh some some discussions regarding budget tonight so I'll be brief on my on my report um a lot of this is recycling what we've discussed in Prior meetings
we do have a number of projects that have contracts awarded and we are currently just waiting for warmer weather to break ground on a number of them that includes the uh the main pool improvements uh finishing some manhole repairs on the Derwin Steward shrunk
line it includes the Cy's repay Bloomfield Avenue uh the pickle ball and Tennis Court project that we have lined up and the town hall windows and repointing project number of those projects are ready to go as soon as we do see warmer weather uh we did also
receive bids for the clarage drive Pump Station uh we receiv received eight bids for that on February 12th they are currently under review and we expect a summary and award recommendation for uh the next meeting
uh we do have a number of other projects that we are continuing to move forward and into uh through planning and design phases uh that includes a summary of our smoke testing that we performed throughout the town we'll have recommendations from Boswell you'll see
that uh in budget discussions later we are anticipating some Capital uh line items for smoke testing response our Fairview Avenue well project is still working through the final uh the final few steps of the Green Acres
authorization on our exemption application uh then we have a couple road paving projects which we are anticipating we're working through the the planning and design phases for Lyndon Avenue and then the do Terrace after glow and Summit road projects
which were um those are all dot funded projects aside from that I will be happy to answer any questions from the council any questions for ATT no we appreciate your detailed memorandum it definitely helps to
prepare and uh ask in advance you just have to sign a Township manager now yes one one little day uh but thank you very much we will move on to the budget discussion come on up I might just make
sure the mic is on please mic is on just will see that right um I think we can put in capital some TV so we can actually see those are getting a little blurry we do have that in capital
that's yes I'm sorry before we get Sor do we have a hard copy there's a PDF in that oh okay and is there a copy for the public or they they're just going to follow okay let me know when you're ready you
could start okay so good evening it's been a while since we talked about budgets so last year our results of operation our collection rate again was above
99% um as you you can see the last few years our our collection rate consistently stays pretty high um between 98 and 99% all of our Revenue categories last year came in higher than what was
anticipated in the 2024 budget which was fantastic obviously um on the rightand side I put a percentage just to kind of give you the difference of percentage of collected versus anticipated our expenses uh so our
garbage and a recycling contract were bid out in 2023 uh for 2024 and through uh 2028 um and that contract came in 5% per year our medical expenses do continue to
Rise um about 14% each year uh we'll see what 2026 brings our OPI contract um has expired as of 2024 so that is in negotiation um our Forester expenses is
something that we haven't really budgeted for in the past which you'll see when we talk about um shade trade um but that keeps Rising um and I think that will be a a future conversation about Forester um but overall the department
heads did well in um there were couple cars that were needed in the fleet uh that were not expected so uh they were able to kind of pull that from their own budgets and
work through that um as well as other expenses that came up that were unexpected um last year but they were able to work within their means questions yes I do have a question thank
you um so the medical expenses so just remind us in the public we are not in the state plan we are not in the state health benefits plan um is the rise based partially on Verona experience are we in a pool can we just um we are in a
pool um I believe most of it is based on Verona's experience okay which they look at annually and is there a plan or you know some analysis on you know how to mitigate those increases in the future and I know the state plan is also
going up the state plan is going up um it is still higher than where we currently are at um they had I think two years ago a 24% increase so they are still much higher um than we are we are
at in our current health plan the um on that the bed does mitigate some of the risk that we have some of that experience risk um it should at least the as far as our offerings of plans is
everybody in One plan or are we offering different levels there are different levels so they can people can choose yes to go down a level or whatever yes there there's been some success I'll talk to you offline with some that I've done my
work with some creative ways that we could potentially um incentivize people to take a plan that and do a difference card or something like that that could potentially reduce the premium because a lot of Premium is based on
um prescription co-pay things like that emergency room believe it or not yeah um and if we are able to do you know High deductible plan by a difference card it could end up by actually saving everybody money but we'll I'll talk to you offline about that that's coming up because without these 15 increases we
need to pick little outside the box I think and mayor I would love to participate in that conversation this was actually my area of focus when I um spent 13 years in Corporate America so I would love to be part of that certainly um had a um extensive experience in this
which is why I asked so yeah I think it's important to keep an eye on this and in relation to the state plan um but certainly medical inflation is a top story um as a TR room you know those costs are rising everywhere great thank
you council do we offer a wellness incentive we talked about doing a program um within the last few years uh it has not rolled out fully I think bed is also exploring
potential opportunities for wellness program run through the the B themselves so uh it's it's not a a Deb topic it is something that is is being discussed right I worked for a couple of companies where we did self-insure and where we
had high plan utilization rates and we found very substantial positive results from offering that uh just you know basically for those that aren familiar that gives you a little bit of a discount off your premium if you do you know five Wellness tests go and actually
get an annual physical you know uh not smoke do a couple other things and it actually brings the employees plan utilization down it's pretty effective in in bringing down your overall cost of care so certainly bed is doing it that would be an ideal way to do it but uh that's a pretty well tested strategy we
can encourage that it um just to follow up on that point I you know when a few years ago we did those subgroups and you and I did the health and wellness subgroup and it occurs to me that maybe um our new town manager um Mr oin does not have a copy of that and work product
so I'll make sure to send it over since we worked so hard on that and focused on employee Wellness just own employee Wellness so I'll send that over to him we'll continue this conversation offline thank you okay this is a
comparison um between 2024 and what is projected for 2025 um each category you can see there um you uh miscellaneous Revenue anticipated which is your fees um your
delinquent taxes your fund balance uh the the library who is here tonight um as well as the difference which is your amount to be raised by taxation on the bottom you'll see your expenses which is categorized between your salary and wages your statutory expenses your debt
service your library as well uh your reserve for uncollected taxes and your other expenses relating to salary and wage do we know what our comparison of a full-time headcount is your over year did we go up right I I did that last
year I could provide something as an update between last year and this year between full-time and uh part-timers okay this shows you the uh Municipal budget comparison between last year and this year the increases in the tax rate
uh the average property valuation um the average tax tax per per average uh property um and the assess valuation this gives you a history for the past uh six or seven years six year
seven years um showing you our Municipal Levy uh this Levy also includes the um Library as well and then breaks out the municipal tax R only I'm sorry no it includes the
library as well and shows you your your changes over year a year so if our total change in operating expenses is only going up 2% so why then is the total change including the
library going up 3.2% what is what is making up that additional is that salary Deb service or Debt Service or can you explain those differences or things outside of the cap well the B you're talking about the bottom number change
prior year that does not include um grants so your grants at the bottom are not included in your total expenses where last year we had some more grants than we have had that we have on the books for this
year we also have um you mean like the American Rescue plan in particular uh specifically that Grant yeah Grant um was 700,000 so we are missing that Revenue as well
um so the difference is partially because because of Revenue changes Revenue changes yes okay which you will see um in one of the next slides as well so the municipal change itself is um out of that
3.20 is 2.88 right on the previous SL uh these are some of your major 2025 um expenses that have increased uh we talked about garbage and recycling so that bid has increased our
medical benefits uh police pension was an increase but in comparison to others not not that big of a deal our salary and wages has increased um like I said our OPI contract is pending
currently um the PBA contract is finalized through 2026 um and then lastly the capital Improvement fund last year was 250,000 and I increased that to
$350,000 to include your Capital um that we will go over so we saw a 7% increase in wage we're projecting a 7% in rages so this would be as a result just for the public cerification M contract
settlement with the PPA was 2% per year however that's exclusive of the cost of moving them between steps so a lot of this was step movements right we have a younger Force we have people retired yes so that is the that is the step movement
that is there um the the non-affiliated staff saw last year that you know something to consider I know I asked um for an Eva contract piece to really
get a an understanding before we approved it of how much the the step increases were actually going to cost and we know that um their you know the OPI is is currently pending but it would be helpful for us to see that
before making a a decision on that to see what that step movement and any other related restructuring would cost as well these are significant amounts that's also I was curious to see what portion of that is additional
headcount as well yeah I'll get that for you here's the breakdown of what the average annual tax bill is on the top and what the monthly average tax bill is at the bottom broken down by
Department um um specific so average tax bill is projected to be $3,315 and then it breaks it down by Public Safety the capital projects the
debt the Public Works uh gas electric garbage recycling admin community service and Recreation liary and other mun uh miscellaneous services this is a breakdown of uh your total tax
bill of how it's broken down uh where about 50% goes to the schools um I don't have the actual percentage in front of me but I believe it's about 20% goes to the county and about 30% goes to the library and the
municipality uh we talked about the ARP funds as of 2024 all of the ARP funds had to be allocated or spent which they were um we used all of our ARP funds as Revenue
loss um so that has been reported and that is shown there open space trust fund um as you recall recently we um changed the ordinance or updated the ordinance by
referendum to um from two cents per $100 assess valuation to three cents which then will bring um the 2025 estimated open space funds to be raised this year to
$72,900 which is an average residential tax of $130 73 is to note for the public there that a lot of that is being used to pay off
existing purchases that we reserve this open space do we know the status we have we finalized the Green Acres payment for the the land between crookside and and Commerce Court yet we have we have
cleaned up the issues that Green Acres identified we resubmitted those requests to Green Acres at this point but we add everything to asked so at that point we actually because right now as it stands right now even with this we're having we have to have that Revenue actually to
pay our bill so correct yes um so this is not at this point this open space tax does not necessarily give us that much of leeway to acquire more property it will in some out years but currently the way that this is is operating we're
still actually need that Revenue in order to in the next couple years um Mr mcar did it a detailed presentation of this at the open space committee meeting and we will be having another one coming up uh soon as well so it'll be helpful that update on that as well Council um I
would love to I was going to ask for that kind of breakdown multi-year breakdown where we are so if it was already done that's great if you could if that could be circulated to the entire Council that would be wonderful it's been a little while so probably need it probably needs to be updated yeah that would be great as part of this
process because that was my question as well it's one thing to say how much money is coming in but again we made a lot of purchases and and granted if we then get the Green Acres payment then we should get a refresh of like okay now that we got the payment this is how the
open space trust fund looks every time money's going in Miss mcar did anticipate that into her last presentation so when we have the update and we have a little better they will know you'll be able to see the anticipated release that's great thanks
um after tonight you're going to hear me talk for a long period of time um but after tonight you we have um budget discussions again on March 3rd uh for the other half of the budgets we're looking to introduce um on March
17th and have our public hearing and adoption on April 21st any questions fality I just had a one item uh Miss mcara we we are hearing from the public thoughts about the property
revaluation and that this is intended to increase tax revenue and I just want to clarify that this will not increase our tax revenue uh B with property tax revaluation it leaves the same tax revenue it's just a different point if
you want to get into that a little B sure so um our with the reval uh the proportion of the taxes will be reallocated um to each property based on
current assessments um based on I'm not an an assessor or a reval person but um I'm I'm sure that they look at comps and based on um what is currently trending
without square footage um that will then come into play and reallocate throughout the whole municipality which will then in turn make your tax rate go down um in
2026 um because now your assessed values are higher than where they currently are at um because we haven't had the reval done since 20 well it was done in 2018
for 2019 taxes but a lot has changed in the past last um six years as far as home sales um so that will repr proportion basically The Whole Town's taxes and um so I think that's important
when you say you say tax rate can you tell the public what you mean by tax rate because some people are going to look at this and say oh my taxes are going to go down well some people's will go down some people's won't change some people's will go up so what do you mean by tax rate you're talking about the amount per
of assessed value right yes exactly yes and everybody in the municipality is charged the same tax rate so it's tax rate times the times the assessed valuation divided by 100 gives you your taxes
buil think that is important to to clarify and to report as much as possible out there because there are some concerns about this and we did not ask for this this was mandated because of the unfortunate fortunate Pro we have which is that home sales are
dramatically increasing in this down in the last in the last five years yes the county ordered that as a result of those home sale and the tax rate is just not the municipal rate um it's also the county and the schools and the libraries and the county open space and our open
space so it takes all of that to come up with a rate if it would be possible to maybe put like in this there was a good explanation I think that did go out to the public okay maybe just a couple bullet points on how that will affect you know just because people are going who are interested in the budget are
going to look at this presentation and if we can insert it or put a link or a reference or something in here okay it to put people to the right spot that would be helpful to get information okay we will move into the binders I'm
gonna have Claudine come up um first that way she doesn't have to wait to hear me speak for a long period of time so that is um tab 26 thank you for joining us this evening you know how much love coming
here for having me um so this year the library is not requesting funding above the mandated minimum so New Jersey statute sets the minimum funding for municipal public libraries at 13 mil or 33 cents on each
$1,00 of equalized value of all accessible property of the township the mandated minimum for 2025 increased by 91,4 186 or 8.73% over 2024's
minimum so 2024 was another busy year at the library total circulation was was 112,113 over 2023 digital borrowing increased by
25% we offered 145 additional programs with over 1300 more attendance and these increases match the increase seen in 2023 over 2024 2022 sorry and we've exceeded the goals set in our current strategic plan
of reaching 90,000 total circulation by 2025 last year we were able to promote a part-time employee to full-time bringing the library back to its pre-renovation Staffing levels this year's budget allowed us to expand Sunday hours and we
are now open 12 to 5 on Sundays the book budget gets a healthy increase this year to allow us to grow our graphic novel collection buy multiple copies of bestsellers to better meet demand for the latest titles add more Vox books to the children's
collection refresh our large print collection expand the foreign language Collections and replace outdated non-fiction books we will expand our library of things collection to match what neighboring libraries are offering we
will soon bring Android tablets into circulation and we already offer free Wi-Fi hotspots to meet the increase in demand for ebooks and audiobooks the digital materials line item has been increased substantially to allow us to purchase
more titles and expand our offerings we will also soon add Comics plus as a digital offering we've added udemy to the technology line item and I encourage everyone to take advantage of the courses available to them for free with
their library card Pals plus annual assessment increased this year and the line item reflects the cost of participating in in this shared service the library board and I will soon begin working on the library's next
strategic plan we will we see this planning process as an opportunity to assess how well our current approach is working and update our strategy to meet the community's current needs and interests we will begin soliciting feedback from the community later this
spring I'd want to thank the council for its continued support and I welcome any questions so I want to thank you for doing amazing work at the library it really is one of the gems of this town um and the fact that you're able to to
keep it within the statutory minimum is certainly audable um obviously it's increasing significantly as year which helps um but it's also a testment to the Ron Public Library foundation and the friends of the library who provide the support as well for additional programming which is wonderful so I
thank you for your leadership um we hear nothing but great things about the library and it's really the gem there I just have one curiosity I think more than anything else yeah your contractual cleaning service is anticipated to go down is that because we're sharing that
is correct a a cleaner with this building department of publics correct um so that okay so that's that's one item and um the for one thing I guess um for Jen mcara is
is we don't so when if they're if the buildings grounds is providing a a cleaner we don't um did we put that in as salary in this some that is in salary so a portion of that salary is in he yes okay that is
uh that was my question on that piece just as we're getting very uh we're paying a lot of attention to breaking things down by utilities and different departments and things like that that is helpful to have um that's really my only question thank you
anybody else Council R um will reiterate the uh mayor's comments about appreciation for your leadership of the library I really enjoy the fact that um a lot of the metrics go into the utilization of the services and that you're really trying to match what the library offers with what the public
demands and to continually evolve uh you touched on the library of things I just I I know of these programs at a lot of libraries and I was kind of curious if you might just give us sort of the capsule summary of what the Rona Public Library offers in that realm sure so the library of things is essentially anything that's not your traditional you
know books and audio books that we lend to the public So currently what we offer is um we have a pretty extensive board game collection we offer ukuleles to the public we offer hotspots to the public and so the library of things um how I
would like to see that is expand is by offering tablets potentially maybe some Chromebooks in the future um but things that you know it's kind of buzzing are um things like uh um actually wrote it down so um like outdoor games DVD
players snap circuit sets that kids can take home and and experiment with that home a portable projector and screen that people can use in their backyards um during the summer time if they want to have during you know block parties so items like this that are non-traditional
item items that typically circulate in a in a library those are all part of what's called library of things and um it's kind of you know become popular in other libraries and I want to see us be so offer the same I've heard of libraries even offerings such things as sort of specialty cooking utensils and
tools or hand tools Etc yeah it's it's a really interesting program and it's you know you think about it we're saving people money is you know hopefully everyone is able to use these things and they don't need to buy things that just end up cluttering up their house after they
you don't have to buy it greatr I've heard great things about the um Museum passes oh Museum very popular they circulate all the time that matter uh CL I too just like other council members thank you for your what you do with the
library and your staff also obviously there's a staff behind you that that supports you and does what you direct uh I would say as a council person throughout town you know we get a lot of complaints about things the library is one I don't think I can go through any
emails and find a complaint in my email box job welcome thanks are too nice they don't yell Council councilwoman H thank you um obviously very successful here at the library congratulations and I just want to State
publicly and we've had many conversations about this over the years I am thrilled that the hours were expanded on Sunday I think offering moving from 2: p.m. to 12 just really opens up the possibilities which I'm sure you're already feeling in terms of
doing programming allowing people to use the meeting space and just having a set of hours that you know kind of expands those opportunities especially for families uh to gather on the weekend so thank you so much for finally you know finding a way of making that happen I'm
really excited to see um those expanded hours and I know my book club will appreciate um all of the um additional copies of those hot bestsellers because they're always hard to get their hands
on so thank you C Holland I just want to Echo the remarks of several of my colleagues um we get a lot of benefit out of the public library my family is there frequently my daughter is there very frequently um and I'm really
looking forward to some of the expanded programming and offerings that you referenced um I even wrote down uh that this comic book Comics plus Comics plus like that that will be heavily utilized in the Holland household so I've made
note of it thank you thank you thank you pleasure all right who's next M just me just me all right what have all right so um we start from the
beginning tab one we kind of went over in the presentation unless there's questions on Tab one same with tab two and three well tab two and
three are basically summaries of Revenue and expenses so if we don't have questions on one two or three we can jump into four sorry
yeah just give us one second on uh on T any questions on Tab to um yeah so a couple things um that maybe are minor but number one um on the Alcohol licenses we did raise that fee
so uh why are we not kind of bumping up a little bit the budget so the revenue aspect is is sort of a game and what I mean by that is you don't want to anticipate too
closely to what you actually are anticipating because then you're not going to build your Surplus okay uh without building Surplus we don't have future fun balance fun balance yeah okay so it a lot of them are are a game of
seeing art and the science yes exactly um um then my additional question is under the pilot so we now have Verona Flats so why I know the Verona flat pilot just to be very clear what the public is going to look like a rounding error
compared to some of these Pilots that are that we see especially uh yes the hilltop and an LOF it's going to be a very small amount of money but why is that not listed um because that will start in 2025 okay we have not start we have not
started filling it yet okay and because we never had it before you can't anticipate it correct okay I did recall it coup things um my other major thing is on the end of the last page I've seen a lot of talk from Trenton about the
state energy tax receipts and last year we got a bump up and there's talk that that is going to be clawed back again uh which again for the public certification the Trenton has kept I think we calculated at least $1.8
million of money that is owed to Verona um you know by over the last 10 to 15 years not giving us our full State and energy tax receipts so but I was curious with all of this talk why is that anticipated to be the same if we are
concerned it may go down so those numbers have not been released yet right the state of New Jersey uh typically releases those in early March so you may make we may have adjustments there okay
obviously it will come in before we introduce and adopt so then we can make adjustments okay yeah hopefully we'll get our same state aid right any other questions on revenu anything on tab two thought we call that
state aid where realistically it's just going off of the utility bill in every single you household techically ours yes yep tab three tab three is a summary of all of the expenses which we'll go over in detail so I think we could skip over
tab three if that's okay with all of you because they will go over in detail in the rest of the tabs um on Tab four is Administration
my plan for toight unless you see otherwise is basically to go over the differences so that I'm not keeping you here that's usually for hours get ahead of it okay so salary changes um obviously you know that we've had a town
manager leave and we' have a new town manager uh we also put in there a part-time salary um there was an intern who um worked last year that was not budgeted for um and that is anticipated
to happen again in 2025 so that's the major change up on the top in salaries on the bottom um most of the changes is basically so the public
information officer didn't have a budget the state of New Jersey doesn't recognize it as a foca code which means it doesn't have its own own specific code associated with public information so we moved a lot
of the items that were for public information out of communications and into admin um only because that person reports to the manager so most of the changes you will
see here are basically the website hosting um which increase because we're moving stuff out of communications into admin we're also using the grant writing specialist um to provide more grants for
us um which is been very successful and helpful to offset our budgets any questions on that one don't I'm sorry just the community
revitalization line um we're going to we no it's page two two four so in uh Administration and economic development uh the large increase here is um there was a request
to update the shop local banners um in on Bloomfield Avenue uh replaced the Christmas tree um not Christmas tree I'm sorry the Christmas uh Lighting on we started last
year with replacing some of the um Lighting on the poles uh there's also a cost to for them to store it and to put it up um so that is all encompassed in here just on that
item the the new ones didn't go over very well with the public so perhaps we can you know maybe buy snowflakes in the future again the people were having a veryy difficult time interpreting the Calypso it was yeah like what exactly
that was so the snowflake seems to be a you know a nice way it was a crowd pleaser people people like the wreaths but obviously there's a religious connotation that to some extent so the snowflakes seem to be a good good piece but yeah the new
ones not not as popular uh we actually got a lot of I least me got a lot of communication about that more more than I will get about the budget people emailed about that on or texted or send me is saying what is this um thankfully
councilman Roman explained it to me on the next page still in Tab four is your budget which you know I know just note for the public we have in how many
years K say at least nine yeah we should get cost of living increases a long period of time I think it's at least 15 years at least 15 years a long period of time that's the in town moving to tab
five if there's no questions on Tab four no um so this is the clerk's budget uh the major difference on the top is um hiring a part-timer there is a maternity leave
um in that department so so uh the part-timer it will hopefully smooth things over um while the leave is happening on the bottom so you may recall or you may not
recall last year was the also the first year that we had a clerk clerk and elections budget it used to be an Administration um so that created that created this budget but this budget was
massage then again this year and seeing really what um the clerk needed and breaking out some more lines which is why some of the lines show zero for budgeted in 2024 because we needed to understand what was
needed and what wasn't needed why do we have a local elections budget when we're not having a May election this year that is in case there is a a special special election holder so that should be
one of those hopefully fun balance items hope hopefully any questions on Tab what's the software the software the software is the uh if you want to speak but it's the Oprah software that's tie our system
I have five modules um so yeah that's the ties into all of that and then also codification um just a signicant increase there just curious to why that might be anticipating the
zoning yeah Zing zoning okay have six salaries really um didn't change too much it's contractual so that's on the top on the bottom you will see that they did increase their annual assessment
notification mailing uh postage just keeps going up as well um but a pretty minimal increase across the board on this budget have seven tab
seven so this is the finance and tax collector um budget this year um again you will see on the top the only new item is a part-timer so um through the Verona High
School we had interns last year uh through the Capstone project project which was very successful um and ended up H I ended up hiring uh one of the Capstone um students to come back and work during
the summer she also performed work uh over holiday break and would love to come back and work in the summer again which will be very helpful again um we deal with um maternity leave and um
Congratulations by way and everything else so um that that was a great experience um highly recommended experience and and she's been a great asset so that's um that's why there's a
small budget um on the top on the bottom again um main increases are postage postage I think is now 73 cents
yes uh and continuously goes up um in number six we also are some of our internal records to um Prime point which is our software who does our uh payroll system that they're
going to start doing our personal action forms online they're also going to be having our um which is more of an internal document um they're also going to have uh our we we're using power DMS
to uh push out the notifications for the policies and procedures so this is going to streamline that uh which is why you see a slight increase there as well in under computer support okay T eight tab eight legal uh
your main difference here is your fourth round of affordable housing costs uh which are anticipated in line three with no oh I thought your hand went
on purple vision is failing okay tab nine uh the shared court with North Pall um I have a proposed amount um put in there of 75,000 which is based on
55% of all of the shared pts Verona is 55% of that share um and that is what they are proposing for 2025 our expenses to be and that was just that was right around what our income is right this is
a cost neutral yes department for excellent Tab 10 is our boards uh planning board um on the top again contractual salary
increases um on the bottom a slight increase their um their attorney's fees were July through June which is now changed um and their attorneys will now be paid January
through December just like everybody else um but with that change uh the board attorneys recently got a raise a couple years ago so that's kind of offsetting there zoning board the same on the top is
contractual um on the bottom there was a $750 increase um in general but mostly flat on that budget and then on the third page in Tab 10 is
your rent leveling board uh the top has remained the same uh the bottom remained the same as well the only difference here is that the attorney was recently approved um he also has not had a raised
in many years um so he's more now in line with the rest of the board attorneys moving into tab 11 is your it Budget on the top the main difference is
um that there is a possible new hire potentially for um this department um to assist the current full-timer um as well as the part-timer
that works in that office so that's the main um difference that you will see at the top on the bottom uh it's mostly contractual agreements have increased it's just I guess this
question um has the the increase signicantly so what is the justification for adding another another staff member there there has been uh I think there's been a slow climb in
workload and uh there have been um instances in which the IT department finds itself uh stretched too thin to be able to respond in a timely manner to some of the more immediate impress needs so we looking at this person to be more
of like a support technician or somebody something like that versus a network administrator uh it would be uh somebody likely um at a similar level to the existing govern a general systems
administrator exctly right okay 12 uh nope we're going to jump to 22 which is civic affairs and then we'll jump into capitals civic affairs um the decrease you will
see is $330,000 was moved out of this budget and moved into Street and Highway's budget Street and Highway will present at the next meeting so we will see that there but that is the decrease
um decrease there if there's no questions on those tabs we will move into the very long Capital sheet mine's highlighted so I'm only going
over basically half of them and can we just um the very first page didn't have column headers so can you just I think I figured it out on the following Pages just reconfirm what the columns are that would okay sure so the First Column is the total
amount of what the bond ordinance would be um projected out um based on whether it's quotes that we've received or whatever so that's the First Column the second column is the minimum down
payment that would be required not all projects are required a minimum down payment uh payments come from the capital Improvement fund um which you will see at the top is our balance of the capital Improvement fund and how it works its way up and down depending on
what is happening uh projects that do don't require a uh minimum down payment are your grants like cdbg uh your local Recreation Improvement Grant your NJ doot grants um
so those don't require um which is why you will see zero in the middle column the third column on the right uh is your balance of your Capital Improvement fund after the projects have been minimum down payment has been taken
out of the project so I will jump through these um and really only concentrate on the administration ones um because in the next meeting you will have uh the
department of public Works come in and they will go over theirs uh you will have fire and Rescue come in so I will only jump through um which I probably should have categorized them that way but um so the first
one is the digitalizing records which is about I don't know 10 down this is phase two for the clerk and uh construction code um we talked about doing a fiveyear roll out of
digitalizing the records last year was phase one where we did $120,000 and we're projecting to do another $120,000 to digitalize those records jumping um so the digitizing will help
eventually to reduce our storage costs correct yes I mean it's also required because we have so many op requests so in um we did not go over construction code today because construction code um is in the next meeting however you will
see a reduction um we typically budget about 45,000 there and I think this year we're budgeting five which is the record retention um so you will see a large decrease okay um specifically in that budget um as well as the clerk's budget
but more of a decrease in the construction code Department's budget I did notice that in CLK there was a pretty substantial decrease I think down to like 2,000 or something like that relatively low yes great um jumping
down four from there is facilities assessment audit um you may or may not be aware of a facilities audit that we are doing um on our buildings um so that cost um is there
that will then give us an idea of what our facility needs are in the next cost as well as um some mitigation that we're currently going through now um if you jump two down two more
down from there last year we did a partial of the Franklin Street Bridge um this will be the balance of the Franklin Street bridge last year we did 150,000 as a reminder so we haven't actually seen
what those plans look like we haven't had a conversation about what is needed there right the initial um the initial plan uh was to attempt to rehabilitate the existing pedestrian bridge which is
why 150,000 was budgeted in last year's budget uh Boswell performed an assessment riew the current condition of the bridge while a repair could be uh made to the bridge complete reconstruction was the recommended
course of action because of the life expectancy of the new bridge to the repair of the bridge so they have not yet completed the design drawings for those but uh this is the supplemental funding to do a complete reconstruction of that bridge at which point they'll
they will fully design those plans and be presented to the council the 150k bonded for and drawn down or is that just still just an authorization is in notes currently in notes that one as just as a reminder we
did a whole long Bond ordinance um last year so it is part of a note in that one yeah councilman and with regard to the facilities audit um do we already have a firm doing that is Boswell doing that
with you or we have a proposal from Solutions architecture for an audit of all the township facilities uh and then that second line item facility needs uh that is partially based upon certain needs that we know exist in addition
to a little bit of a guess on some items that we are assuming will be found in the audit but that audit uh once it's performed will also provide road map for subsequent years on what will be need in our facilities thank you moving down uh the
next one after Franklin Street bridge is DoD Summit and Afterglow I believe that you are all aware of that project since Kevin talked about that one I think in his and his manager report um that is um the cost estimate that we received from
Boswell for that one um the next one is the pekman stabilization for $310,000 after that we've have South Prospect drainage investigation and Design
um from what I'm told is that a lot of that has been done internally through the dep Department of Public Works um but there will be some additional work that will need to be done there that's uh the there have been
some modifications to some of the existing catch basins in the drainage infrastructure in that U on those streets however we did want to be able to reserve uh some additional um some additional Capital expenses for continued investigation and potential
design if there are any instances where we have repairing flooding since the the repairs that were were made was helpful thank you after that you have um design of your 2025 NG doot projects um that is a
placeholder for the design obviously of the projects that are upcoming uh next you have your Open Space Trail design again a placeholder for that project to happen for the design work only on that
one um technology at Town Hall and the community center we talked about that with the TVs and uh earlier um so that we just received a quote for that one um there is also a is that official 70 uh
it's been discussed uh we have an official approved the ordinance but there is anticipated some some grant money which should be offsetting that estimated 200,000 to clarify this is more than just TVs this is all of our you know
conferencing and video recording and public participation systems in these rooms which are sorely needed well or not existent we have none may yes Council thank you um with regard to the Open Space Trail design is
this the pekman river trail that we're referencing so that is uh that is the placeholder what it's intended for I know there we are going to be scheduling uh another open space committee meeting uh there was some discussion about uh how to best utilize some of the open
space that exists and has recently been acquired so this 50,000 will allow the township to pursue Concepts and preliminary design so we can then also pursue grant money uh without having some some solid concept and design plans in place uh it becomes difficult to
pursue those grants so so if I'm hearing you right it's not necessarily for along the pekman but it could be applied to the Commerce Court property because we've again we we haven't you know we we kind
of when we bought it told the public we would be evaluating different options this money could be used for that evaluation it would be intended for any of the existing open space that is right within the vicinity of the pekman so I think it does correlate to what that concept
could be all right thank you there Just one thought I think we have some other things that might come up in the open space committee meeting that they're going to riew so this may be not even an option at that point if the open space
committee recommends something else right so we just need to keep this this is it's an open-ended uh placeholder to make sure we can move forward with whatever the recommend of the committee after the technology you have streetscape design after that uh we've talked about
solar um you had a presentation about solar uh we anticipate going through the ECI a for um that bonding since it's a a larger um item so that's why that one's
kind of start off to the to the right um there's also we would have to discuss if the solar option doesn't work and is not pursued uh roof for pairs would be one of those items that we would need to
discuss after that which is why that's kind of off there as well next is electric vehicles um we have a grant for electric vehicles um which we haven't utilized
just yet but um moving in that direction um we're putting in $50,000 for electric vehicles and how much is the grant there's uh so there's there's two incentives that exist there's the the
Federal Direct pay uh incentive and then there's also the BPU Grant which the total Grant value for that BPU Grant was I believe it was 150,000 uh that was intended to be partial offsets for both charging stations and electric vehicles so in
order for us to be in drawing down on that Grant it's a reimbursement Grant so we need to utilize both of those the Federal Direct p and BP after that you have the municipal parking lot parking place extension
design Municipal parking lot to design again these aren't construction these are just the designs of those parking lots um charging stations as well as going along with the
moving in the electric vehicle Direction um we will need additional charging stations um Evert field we've talked about um a lot um that one also has a CD E Grant of
$100,000 we received a $750,000 Jake's law Grant um and there's fundraising currently going on for that one um some of the it additional it um work that was given to be to put in for
capitals or extend the wastewater treatment plant fiber Demar I got to tell you I'm not an it person so I can't answer questions on what that's phally physically moving the fiber what what these specifically are
so if you need clarification I could get it for you but I will not have answers probably um a router replacement a management server uh
psng is also um updating the fiber optics and we were told that the township would be responsible for part of that upgrade right there's a responsibility as PSG has come through
and replac a number of utility polls the township is uh responsible for um relocating fiber optic cables and then uh this also allows us to uh begin a health check on the fiber optic Network to see if there's any breaks in
the fiber optic line that need repairs but it's it's time for us to start assessing the existing structure to see if there's any on the fioptic these are our fiberoptic lines and so they're replacing their poles but we're attached to their poles so as they
go through that we need to upate we're yes we are relocating our fiber optic lines and we also need to do an assessment on the existent fiber optic lines as well okay that was helpful because when I saw PSG fiber optics I'm like why are we paying for PSG stuff
um and last in in the administration um is the linding Avenue NJ doot Grant um so that amount is $840,000 and we have a grant uh that will cover
38712 and since again that's njdot we don't need a down payment on the following Pages um shows you our projections for 26 27 and 28 just to give give you an idea obviously I have to prepare a six-year
plan but every year we kind of go through this and we'll adjust um accordingly uh I will save water sewer Capital as well as pool capital for the next meeting when um the department heads are here for those as
well any final question sorry 2026 question why are we still using tape backup I don't know I'll get I'll have yeah it's kind of not done that often anymore unless there's air for it you used to
ship data tapes offsite Tire mountain or what that's all B yeah with an operating expense but tape for that's where our it questions go yes exactly thank you Miss mcar of course
and then I will see you in two weeks I have the out when you guys got your last ra oh good year 99 all right anything else Mr solivan no all all right my Council
colleagues Deputy Mayor your report thank you there uh I to was at the ribbon cutting for Stacy sandwich joint with the mayor and Council McGrath
uh one of the newest businesses in town uh it's nice to see these vacant buildings getting filled to uh two in particular that were both dry cleaners in the past so it was a very nice event and I I wish
well uh they are one of the most recent members of the Chamber of Commerce and that leads me to my uh announcement that restaurant week for the Chamber of Commerce is next week starting February
23rd Sunday to March 1st Saturday and we will be having a kickoff event at NADA the other newest place in Verona from 3 to 5 and we're actually finalizing I think it's going to be uh business
owners uh members and they asked me to extend an invitation to the council also uh most businesses are going to do either a prefix menu discounts or some type of special uh you can look at the
Verona Chamber of Commerce uh website to see what there's 16 restaurants now participating uh food establishments participating some are just doing lunch specials others are doing dinner specials so look at the website please
support our local food establishments by joining them and one other thing the Chamber of Commerce has on the fourth Wednesday of the month they do their our second meeting uh which is at 5:30 in
the evening uh and this week coming up on the 26th uh we have uh Brinn Tilman she's a CEO of social sales link uh at these meetings at 5:30 at the library uh we bring someone in to do a presentation
for about a half an hour and she's a LinkedIn specialist so if anybody would like to join the uh presentation starts at six o'clock and that's all I have for this evening thank you Mr Mayor thank you deputy mayor council Roman in light of
the extensive uh evening I will wave my time that is much appreciated councilman thank you councilman gra thank you um I too enjoyed a Stacy sandwich shop opening the pork sandwich is amazing um
I congratulate her and her family for this great business it really was a lot of fun uh the shade tree committee did have a meeting they are finalizing recommendations for the administration and Council on the Civic Center and some
long-term planning that needs to happen um and so our I wanted to give our Our Town manager Mr oan heads up that should be coming shortly they also talked at length about some work that's happening at Wedgewood Commons or Gardens excuse
me um the neighborhood traffic and Safety Committee is having their first educational webinar um this Wednesday on zoom on walkable communities they will be using uh materials that were um part of the grant that we received from uh
the Ruckers Institute you can register online uh through our website and it is at 7 p.m. and I'm so excited that members of the Multicultural inclusion and accessibility advisory committee are here and I want to thank them for all their hard work and volunteerism their
next meeting is on um Wednesday February 26 at 7 p.m but most importantly we have an amazing event for Black History Month this Thursday at 6:30 pm at the library we have Rona entrepreneur or Linda M who
will be put on a fashion show and a talk about her experience long career in the fashion industry um her business is based in Verona this is very exciting so again 6:30 p.m at the library um and I'm very excited for
restaurant week should be really great and that's my report thank you thank you councilwoman Hollands thank you um I'm also excited for restaurant week because out and reminds me of vmac because we have um our family night
coming up in March um where which is always a really good and successful event uh vmac also on February 12th hosted a webinar for parents and caregivers of younger children about um parenting and positive discipline we do
have a number of other webinars and events coming up I just mentioned family night in March we also have another webinar about building self-esteem coming up on March March 19th usually we would be having a recreation advisory committee meeting tomorrow night that's
been res or actually tonight sorry that was rescheduled because of the council meeting um it will actually be next week on February 25th um during that meeting we will be having a discussion about Turf vers grass fields there will be
Representatives um from sustainable Verona there to discuss their report and their recommendations for grass fields as well as a representative speaking about turf fields um with a lot of experience in the in in the industry um
with regard to turf fields so that should be a very positive discussion um with a lot of feedback from residents and the record advisory committee um in addition I just want to note the extreme cold temperatures um our DPW is doing a
great job I'm sure that we've had residents that have been similarly affected or have had pipes similarly affected um and I just want to remind residents that during these times of cold weather if you're having difficulty paying your utility bills the winter
termination program continues until the middle of March um so please Avail yourself of that program if you have a need thank you that concludes my report thank you councilwoman this time I'm going to open the meeting for public comment on any item any member of the public wishes to bring before the
council Madam clerk would you please read the public participation statement the public wishing to speak on any matter please if you're attending by Zoom raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor if you're dialing in by phone press star n if you are attending in person please
raise your hand before approaching elect turn once you recognize clearly state only your name and Township of residents 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 and addresses will not be redacted for any purpose you'll have
four minutes to address the council there will be no cross dialogue during this public portion after everyone wishing to speak has been heard the council May address your comments and or questions thank you mam Clark anybody in the gallery Daniel anything to
say anybody at home okay everybody close follow comments uh we are moving on to our hearing adoption amendment of ordinances and clerk the next item on the agenda is ordinance number 2025
5-3 on second reading would you please read the title of this ordinance into the record an ordinance to amend chapter a565 D1 schedule of fees of the township code to clarify storm water permit fees thank you madam clerk with somebody care
to move this ordinance move motions made by the deputy mayor is there a second second second is made by councilman Roman this time I'll open for the public comment and public hearing on ordinance number 202 5-3 the same public comment statement
applies as read before however comments are limited to this orience hearing none I close public comment any Council discussion heing no council discussion Madame clerk would you please call the rooll councilwoman Holland yes
councilwoman McGrath yes yes councilman Roman yes Deputy Mayor makoy yes mayor tamboro yes mayor ordinance 2025 d03 passes 5 and it will be published according to law thank you madam clerk the next item on the agenda is ordinance
number 20 25- 04 on second reading would you please read the title of this ordinance an ordinance to amend chapter a 565 D7 of the code of the township of Verona pool fees thank you madam clerk would something move this ordinance please so moved motion is made by
councilwoman Holland is there a second second second is made by councilwoman McGrath this now is the time for public hearing on ordinance number 202 5-04 same public comment statement five see no public comment I close public comment on this item is there any
Council discussion CH recognizes councilman MRA I just want to thank the public for providing a lot of feedback during this very comprehensive process as well as thanking um the administration for its
hard work on um being very responsive to our concerns the concerns raised by the recreation advisory committee and the public there's a lot of ideas that have been shared and requests made of the administration I look forward to uh you executing on that plan and I look
forward to um what I hope to be a very funol pleas thank you Deputy Mayor I doo would like to Echo uh thanks that uh Council woman McGrath uh all the people she but also uh Ed our rec department
who did put a lot of time and presentation of that and really got us all the information that we needed uh during this whole process which took a very long time so thank them and thank everybody else the administration through all their help thank you Deputy Mayor councilwoman the Holland thank you
um I would like to thank the administration and the rec department for putting the effort in to truly analyze the costs associated with running the pool um this is the first year that we've had such a comprehensive
analysis um going into formulating the rates it felt challenging at times but I think it was necessary because I found that prior years the budgeting process and the rate setting process for the
pool um felt like very much like it was based on feelings and kind of guesswork and you know actually having a data driven process as best we could because there is still a lot of feeling associated with this um was a step in
the right direction so I really do appreciate that I want to thank the rec committee and a lot of our engaged citizens um in and outside of that committee for their feedback on this process I think that made this a much
more comprehensive and robust process um getting that Resident feedback that pool member feedback the reports and recommendations from the rec advisory committee um was really tremendously helpful and I think it led to some of
the compromises that we see in this ordinance as well as in the pool rules um which were a second a separate item not in incorporated into this ordinance I recognize that not everybody is going
to be happy with this outcome um but that is a compromise and that's what this represents um so I do think that uh you know I do want to appreciate that the administration compromised that the
rec committee worked on compromised uh positions as well with the administration that there was a lot of collaboration that led to this um and so I think that we have a lot of opportunities this summer I'm really excited for those opportunities I think
there's a great chance that this could be a very very positive pool season some of those factors are well beyond our control such as weather and the like but nonetheless um I think there have been some great ideas I know the Administration has some great plans um
and I really am looking forward to bringing my family to the pool this summer so I hope that many other residents do the same thank you thank you councilwoman um anything Council Roman ditto okay noted for the record we have
that on the record I will reiterate all my colleages comments I uh guess I will close comment um I do want to reflect everybody's thank you to everybody mentioned um without repeating but I especially want to thank our pool
subcommittee Who provided some great recommendations and uh and leadership in that area I think that was a good move on the part of the rec committee um and this is really good example of a working committee I talk about our shade
tree and our environmental commission very much being working committees I think this is another example of a working committee really doing making recommendations to the township um and that's really what we're what we're looking for we rely on this advice and this feedback um so I I thank them for
that um immensely I will just kind of reiterate my comments from previous meetings um I think there is some room for cost savings um that we can Implement through some economies through some strategic deployment of Staff um
through in the future our um our food uh vendor you know um agreements things like that um through real analysis of some of the services like the recent to see what the the usage of that is and and uh how many people are paying SL
using that that uh facility and deciding whether that remains part of the pool fees or as some kind of extra or subscription or something like that um I think those are all options and we have to really carefully review I do not want us and our our staff our department
heads our full managers to fall into this thing say okay the council approved these fees let's kind of go on but business as usual um I I am going to ask that we have in our uh in our August meeting a um an interim or even in our I
guess in our July meeting an intern discussion with our um our Recreation um our director Community Services to see what's going on what are and I think we'll get numbers in the meantime to see uh what our registrations are looking
like but I want us to remember that we have a responsibility even if we meet our Revenue Targets this year to offset increases next year this is the first year of a three-year projected the
increase um and we need to be cognizant that it is our responsibility in every way possible to minimize the fee increases in the future so think this is what it needed to be but we need to work hard to even stop those potential uh
increases from happening because eventually we are going to get to a point where people are not going to be able to to afford this and it is you know they I will spare you the economics lesson um but you know there is a point
at which um you know people will not simply not be able to afford have to make decisions um so let's just keep that in mind and and I look forward to speaking with all of our pool leaders um as the season begins Madam clerk would
your call R please Council woman Holland yes yes councilwoman McGrath yes councilman Roman yes Deputy Mayor makoy yes mayor tamboro yes may ordinance 20254 passes 5 to Zer and will be
published according to law thank you madam clerk the next item on the agenda is ordinance number 20255 on second reading would you please read the title of this ordinance in fixing the salaries and compensation of the seasonal employees of the gwn sh
thank you madam clar somebody move the ordinance so moved motion is made by Council Mor Roman is there a second I'll second second is made by the deputy mayor now is time for the public hearing on ordinance number 20 25-5 the same public comment statement
applies hearing none I close the public hearing any Council discussion hearing none Madam cler would you call the RO please C woman Holland yes councilwoman McGrath yes councilman Roman yes Deputy Mayor makoy yes mayor
ttim yes mayor ordinance 2025 passes 5 and it will be published according to one thank you madam clerk being that we have no ordinances for introduction this evening we will move on to our consent agenda which includes two sets of minutes and um five
resolutions anybody need to call anything from the agenda no would somebody care to move the consent agenda so moved motions made by the deputy mayor is there a second second second made by the councilman uh this time I will call for
public comments on the consent agenda items only the same public comments St heing none I close public comment any Council discussion very glad to see item A4
yes I I thank um the our municipal clerk for putting that forward I was happy to add that to the agenda uh so thank you Jen for that um I'll just make one comment um we are doing our loap approvals that's the length of service
award program for our fire department um and this is a tax deferred um retirement plan that the uh the township contrib used to uh for the firefighters to meet certain uh thresholds as far as call
response meeting attendance drills things like that um so the individuals on the list that we were provided have made measurable contributions to the township um through their participation so I want to thank our firefighters for
uh for doing this as somebody who uh has a lowp account from a previous municipality uh that I just found out actually has money in it so I'm really psyched about that um this is a nice benefit and um it uh it does grow uh it's it's funds
that are managed quite well uh it is a really good reward for what the fire department is doing and I have to say their requirements are stringent to get this um we're not giving away money there so it's a it's a very valuable program I thank all of the uh firefighters out there who have uh have
made contrib tions in order to get these payments um and they're really the the backbone of of what we're doing the the cost of this is a minuscule fraction of what it would be Prov a career fire department from this
municipality any other discussion hearing none Madam th to call the RO please Council Holland yes Council McGrath yes councilman Roman yes Deputy Mayor M Boy Yes mayor
yes may K1 through K5 will be numbered R 52 53 54 55 and 56 thank you madam clerk we Have No Agenda this evening so we have new unfinished business I did walk
on one item um which is the invitation from the Board of Education um I imagine everybody had the chance to review that correspondence correct um want
to hold that up uh just for the Public's education as this is a a public document um The Rona board of education has invited the township Council and our Administration to join for a joint
meeting of the organizations uh in order to build communication and collaboration um Ives include openly discussed topics that impact both our areas responsibility work toward common goal for example we can discuss areas where we already have overlap such as
our shared services agreement determine if any adjustments should be made also discuss if there are other areas where we may coperate to better serve the residents of Verona adds residents would have the opportunity to ask questions May overlap for areas responsibility um so just want to open this to the the
council for for thoughts we were provided two dates but before we hit on the dates um is there a consensus on participation does anybody feel strongly one or the other I have comments but I do want to
hear everybody else's ver anybody okay Council m i I just have a general question for U Mr oin on where we are we don't have a shared service agreement with the board of v it was
being worked on but we I'm not sure sure if we ever reviewed a copy and where its status is so I actually have that as my question uh there was a list of services uh provided from both sides that was
circulated um I I do believe it's it's in its final form it's been reviewed by Board of V I believe it is uh ready for final approval at this point um but we do have we do have that shared service agreement in it's final form for final
execution it just needs it needs a final approval Al execution on both sides we can recirculate to both parties and or circulate to both parties I don't think we've seen it I think we maybe saw a
long time ago but yeah not rec were there any points of disagreement between the administration and the superintendent that can be shared or is that a closed session item I don't think there was any items of disagreement it was just a matter of putting pen and
paper on what all the items on the shared services actually were there's no there were no disagreements on what was actually on that list though what should be provided on that list okay um other
questions comments this this something that have been done uh did one of these uh yeah 2018 maybe maybe something 17 or 18 yeah in my opinion it's good idea to
elected bodies to meet on occasion it's been seven years I guess um my suggestion is we would um ask to form a uh a working group of the board president vice president mayor
the deputy mayor and our Administration work have an agenda I think we need to have an established agenda of topics that we can be prepared for to discuss um so everybody has all the data we need I don't want us to be in the meeting they a question or offer a question and
not have the answer either party have an answer to um and I would ask that aside from public comment and US answering questions that we stick to that agenda does that make sense to everybody any objections on that okay um as far as dates they offer
two dates I know one is immediately after our town council meeting the second I'm sorry can you reiterate the dates please the it was March Tuesday March 25th they're offering I believe regular board meeting dates and then April 8 uh Tuesday April 8 Tuesday April 8th is the
day after the township council meeting so honestly I would like to potentially avoid that one and then you're you're not around no that we okay um March 25th um anybody any other thoughts on March
25th right open I did double check some other meetings all right so why don't we um T all right can we let me and Mr rivan and Miss Kar know our availability in next couple days on that and if we
don't if we can't do one of those we can always offer an alternative U date as well do that um so let's uh we need a a vote on this but Jen how much time do we need to notice
this meeting um five because the board has already noticed for the board if it's one of their regular meetings if it's not there to notice it as well we would call this a special meeting because we're not we're not making any
decisions as as joint bodies right there's no business really to be discussed you know well there's bus to be discussed but there's no official action going to be taken at all so we can call this a special meeting the board it would be a regular meeting of the board a special
meeting of the council right ask yeah sure okay even with the special meeting you can take action but you shouldn't go off your agenda correct corre that's why I want to be very prepared Council we're starting at their usual
starting time I'm looking at her letter and it doesn't actually speak to when we would be starting I'm assuming it's their normal clock yeah I'll confirm that would be helpful in case they had any business they needed to conduct before they did this joint meeting it's
just not clear from The Correspondents correct yeah there may be they may want to do something well if they do their closed it's usually at 6 their Clos they usually done in the meeting by they have some standard they have some standard items and resolutions and personel stuff they may have needed to
take action as their body before we have the joint meeting so I just wanted to clarify in past joint meetings they passed their uh consent agenda basically at the end of The Joint meeting just very quickly they just take that action go through public I believe both
the board president vice president are joining us from Zoom right now so they are picking up on our comments and we'll be able to great provide that information um currently um so all right let's um work
on that that would be yeah they have the ability I guess we would for the facility we'd have to do it yeah there I think that's how it was done in the past right guess the library theorum or something like that so they would handle it the one issue is they do not have a they don't have the capacity
with with their technology or the the setup to do Zoom participation so I'm wondering if that might be something that we might be able to I mean it's so permanently installed here that it might I let's maybe we can
work together to see I know that is a big I think we're so used to having that Zoom participation now to get people involved that that should be one of those things that we that we work out so I mean somebody can carry this device so it might have to I don't know it
might have to be us that hosts it for this to work but we'll figure it out re notice their meeting I don't well you know we'll let Mr figure that out yes Council woman if you were G to do something to
definitely have runr throughs in ahead of time so I'll just say that you know lessons were learned with live streaming from band concerts recently so um definitely do run throughs if you're
going to bring our over we have put this on the road before for um meetings about road construction and it worked uh remotely so but that is on our internet so we're going have to figure that out um so lots of lots of learning and
growth to do or you know again we are we have been very committed to transparency and work through our technology issues to make sure that there was the zoom op option um you know and that is our standard it would be great if you know
we we want to invest in technology to meet that standard for all of our facilities and it would be great if that was a townwide thing but you know I think we need to if we want to do this in March we have to you know I'm sure the administration can find the way forward and you know we would love to
see the public in person if they have a question to ask so I think I think both options are are helpful if we can if we can do it um and in the meantime I've confirmed that I can do March 25th I can right now it's
free on my calendar as well all right so it looks like we have consensus I have something I can move which is fine um we just we'll wait to hear from Council ran right now it's looking like I probably yes
yes all right so Madam board president vice president right now looks like a guess will confirm with you and discuss um details in com face Council um I have another matter of new business just following up on Miss kieran's email to
us about um committee appointments I don't know if you were planning on oh okay um well there were um there were multiple committee appointments I just want to comment about the fact that we do have a current opening on the Multicultural inclusion accessibility advisory committee um and
there is one applicant and I did have a chance to speak with her today today and um I'm really um thrilled that this uh resident applied and has some skills that would be of great benefit to the committee um and so I was hoping we
could move on her appointment tonight um as uh one matter I the other you know candidates all look interesting for the environmental and sustainable but I don't know if those of you that serve on those committees had chancel of food no
I honestly haven't been able to talk to anybody and I usually like to talk to everybody for every committee so I'm going to ask that we table that appointment for niac until the next meeting just so we have that um that opportunity unless I mean if somebody wants to to move the appointment I don't
I you know that would if you have three votes go ahead yeah I mean I you know I I was hoping that we could move it tonight because we do have an opening we have one person I don't remember the
name um the name was um Miss Rosco one second so I can it would can go my only I was looking at this because obviously I focus on the Green Team because on the Lea's on there that group they need
applicants they there's six openings on there and there's others that are listed that I think there's more than six openings uh I don't want to be greedy but if we can get as many people as possible on that team I mean they did a tremendous amount last year yeah I just
and and I think they could use some extra people on there to to Really help out or I honestly I see people getting burned out okay I don't want to see anybody drop off maybe we can table it and maybe you and I can have a sidebar specifically on all of the candidates
because there are some other great ones um and just reconfirm how much green team needs that would be great because um I don't Green Team even has a form business so that problematic yeah okay that's the I saw all this okay so why
don't we I guess we'll call our people and and then talk about this at the next mean yeah but that's that always good um okay that item we don't have to table anything because we didn't move anything so by end it next week yeah um okay any
other new business we will be going to we're going to do public comment then um at this point any item anybody wants to discuss same public comment stat appli yeah uh Miss
Pearson evening um just a suggestion and I heard councilwoman McGrath mention it at the beginning of the meeting um it would be really helpful for members of the public to be able to
access A draft copy of the budget while you're running through it um it is very difficult to follow along with the discussion that you guys had I was incapable of putting numbers together or even understanding what those numbers
were associated with because again there's nothing in front of us and I do remember in years past they put draft budgets up we understand their drafts that they're subject to immense amounts of changes because this is just the first run before
finalization but let's also remember that every single ordinance and resolution you put up are also drafts that are subject to change before passage and adoption so um I'm just asking if this Council our clerks and uh our CFO could
put that up online before the next draft uh I'm sorry before the the next budget meeting and thank you thank you Miss Pearson any other public comment you're none I close public comments
um I don't see an objection to putting up the draft budget I mean we just know it's subject to change um it is a public document already because it's been created so it could be opened so we might as well just put up on the website right it's not deliberative
so let's just put it up there any objections from anybody okay this uh you see thank you Miss Pearson for the reminder sometimes we don't uh remember the public doesn't have access to those things because we get them in nice notebooks in front of
us we have already made a motion to go into executive session we pass resolution in fact will we be taking any official action no okay hearing none uh we will be moving to Executive session from
which the public is excluded let's take about a five minute break or two minut break