You're on. >> Yes. The notice requirements of the open public safe of open public meetings act has been satisfied with respect to this meeting. Specifically, the time, date, and location were included in the annual
notice of meetings adopted by the municipal council of the burough Waldwick. Posted in the administration building 63 Franklin Turnpike, Waldwick, New Jersey by the municipal clerk's office sent to the Bergen record. Additionally, to the extent known, in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, the agenda for this meeting and
whether formal actions will be taken were posted in the administration building and per 2025C72 was also posted on our official Bergen Burrow of Waldwick's website. Clerk, please take the role.
>> Mayor Giodano here. >> Mr. Brick, >> here. >> Miss Sakola Drake here. >> Mr. Martinelloo, >> here. >> Mr. Richie, >> here. Everyone kindly rise for pledge of allegiance. Pledge >> algiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Let us have a moment of silence for our veterans, all veterans across our country who have given the ultimate sacrifice to serve our country. some
never returning home to we can live in a land that is free and assembled the way we are tonight. Would the clerk kindly do a prayer? >> Dear Lord, we start this meeting asking for your guidance and wisdom. May we find unity and fairness. The outcome should reflect our wishes to assist the
burrow in all their endeavors. Thank you in his name. Amen. >> Amen. Tonight I am honored to recognize Emily Tambboro who placed third receiving the bronze medal at the United States of America Special Olympics National Games. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Emily is a
lifelong resident of the Burough Wallick. She graduated from Walpick High School. She then attended Bergen Community College, receiving a bach bachelor's degree. Emily had been participating in the Special Olympics National Games, playing a variety of sports since she was 8 years old. Emily
played tennis last year for our local team, the Bergen County Aces, participating at the state summer games. Emily received a gold medal in singles and in doubles. Those gold medals earned Emily an invitation to try out uh for
canoe for team US for team New Jersey. Team New Jersey selects a limited number of athletes to represent the state of New Jersey and the United States Special Olympics National Games in Minnesota. Emily is very proud and honored to represent New Jersey and mostly her hometown.
Emily began practicing with her team, traveled a lot, and did a lot of fundraising. Through it all, Emily's main goal was to be the best she can be to win and make everyone know how great New Jersey and Walwick is. Emily continued to play tennis with her local
team, Ace Project Love Match Program, her local instructor, and team New Jersey, traveling to Leblon, New Jersey on weekends for team practices and to prepare for the national games. Emily and team New Jersey was filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and so eager to
tackle the challenges that await them. This was truly an experience of a lifetime for Emily and for everyone else that was part of this the team. Team New Jersey arrived along with the rest of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the games began on June
20th. That week began with three to four matches plus daily and daily practices while qualifying during the preliminaries. Then moving on to the competitions with the rest of America. As Emily competed, she played extremely
well. Also, I was told that she had a knee injury and she has the brace on her knee right now. But through all that, she did not give up. She was determined with courage and ambition to be the best she could be. She pres she persevered through it all with the knee injury and
at the end Emily never became a quitter. She was always representing her country and representing Waldick with pride and honor. Emily went on to to become in the third of the women's tennis winning a bronze medal. We are very proud of Emily
for winning this bronze medal. Emily made New Jersey proud, especially our hometown Waldick. And Emily, you should be very proud of yourself. You are truly a champion. We want to thank you for your dedication and hard work for to the Special Olympics of New Jersey and for
representing our great state of New Jersey so well as you did with grace and with sportsmanship. Emily, you trained hard and every bit of this and you deserve every bit of this moment. The bronze you received proves your amazing power and focus. You showed all of us
what it means to be a true champion. Your big heart and strong spirit brought you to the podium as a hero. We want to thank you very much and on behalf of the mayor and council of Burough Waldick, we would like to present you with this certificate of recognition that congratulation congratulating you on
your win and making us so proud of you and you are truly a Waldwick hero. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> home. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause]
>> And now what we'll do is we'll have our uh finance uh chair of the finance committee, Mr. Monalo, give us a little update about our finances of the burough. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This will just be uh brief this evening. Just a couple of updates and then we'll take any
questions from the council on on budget process. So um uh tonight we we did get a letter from our adviserss on the cell phone towers. Uh looks like there are some expiring leases and some upside that we might be able to take uh
advantage of. We put it out for for bid on those RFPs. uh potentially bring in a couple more thousand dollars a year in terms of revenue um for the tower by the DPW and the one by the uh the mulch pit. U Tatiana, anything you want to add to
that on that one? >> Uh so for for residents who might not be aware, we do have two telecommunication sites in town. One's at the mulch uh site and the other is at the TPW. And as the councilman noted, uh some of those agreements are expiring. And when we uh
when the burough brought Peter Lupo on from Hop Lake Telecommunications uh to do an assessment of the rents that we were collecting, um there was at the time there were things going on in the market that um made him advise the
bureau to um pursue the avenue of uh of actually taking ownership of the polls. Um, since then there have been some rapid changes in the uh telecom telecommunication space including the recent spectrum sale and chapter 11
bankruptcy filing by Dish Wireless. And so this model um is not uh in the best interest of Waldick at this time. Um Peter believes that the bureau can better achieve immediate objectives by rebidding the two expired prime leaseold interests and um this should bring in some competition and some additional
revenue um than than we've been seeing. Uh in addition, his office has been looking through all the agreements and uh there's opportunities to um you know, make sure that all of the uh rents are are being paid uh in a timely fashion by these uh companies and that uh any of
them who are potentially um receiving undisclosed rent amounts to Crown Castle that uh the burrow was able to capture um those amounts back uh to the burrow. So um Peter and his office have been working diligently on this. We've been um checking in with them and uh you know
we are maximizing to the best of the burough's ability the uh telecommunication uh services that we have in town. >> Thank you. Um next up was you'll start to see that there is uh quite an inventory of vehicles that are building up in our in our lot here. That's from all of the replacements that we've done
for DPW and and the police. So those vehicles and trucks with plows and everything will be going up for for auction. Um um our Lindsay will be working on getting that auctioned together. We look forward hopefully early this fall uh being able to sell
off some of those units and recoup some cost and uh bring that into the burrow. Um additionally, we're continue to monitor the the budget lines. We're continue to stay on budget so far this year. The only line that we um had any kind of over John so far was on the snow
removal. Clearly, it was a very difficult summer. Um, so we'll continue to watch that. Um, we'll also continue to watch other other lines with uh with department costs. Um, especially as we head into the summer months with vacations and overtime and things like that. So, we'll we'll continue to
monitor those things. Um, Tatiana, I think you want to add on that topic. >> Uh, no. We can give a report at the next meeting in August. Uh, we'll look at those lines again. And, uh, as you mentioned, we are we are on course for about uh, mid year uh, for right now.
>> All right. So, at this point, we have no other contracts that are uh up for negotiation other than that cell phone tower that we're out on. Um, our PBA contract will be in our uh open meeting discussion today to finalize that. Um,
DPW contract was finalized uh late last year, so we're in good shape on our labor contracts. Um, the next thing that's out on the horizon is obviously our waste management bill, which is a large portion of our budget. Um, that's something that we'll we'll start to look at. uh open it up to any members of the council if you have any questions on
>> Just want to make one other note on the contract the council has on their agenda this evening an extension of a contract with uh ERRI down at the mulch pit. Uh we have concluded the first part of the agreement with them and um on on tonight's meeting uh the council is
being asked to authorize an additional 2-year agreement with them um at an increase of revenue for 2026 uh to 27 27 to 28. >> Thank you. Forgot about that. Um any members of council have any questions related to budget that you want to bring
up or any ideas? >> Great. Thank you everyone. look forward to uh next uh presentation in a few minutes. Mr. Mayor, that's it for now. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Under my report, just a couple of items. Uh first of all, I attended the the junior police academy graduation. I want to thank uh
Chief Seafford and the police department that did a great job this year. I think they broke the record of how many students were there. It was a great turnout and I think they learned a lot about safety and learned about our community. Also, I attended the uh bike ride in honor of police officer Christopher Cadell. Uh on Friday, it's
his 12th anniversary of his death. So, keep him and his family in your prayers, please. I also went to the Walwick pool on on Monday to uh say hello to our new pool manager and to see if everything was all right. I met our pool manager. Everybody there seems that they're very happy what was going on. Uh he told me
that there was a save last week, which I didn't know about. So, what I did was I did tell him that I will uh reach out to the young woman that did the save and I will see if she could come to a meeting and honor her like we honor everybody else. Also, I just like to make a quick
statement and then I'll turn it over for for the next committee person. It seems that a couple of days ago a resident posted something on social media about me recusing myself from the Harrison Avenue project. Not only did they say that, they said some things that uh they
thought that other they thought that things were being done shady or whatever and that uh he would like an answer from me. Uh the person of the moderator of the site said why don't you call the mayor and speak to the mayor directly instead of going on the site. Somebody else went on the site too and agreed
with him. So what happened is he re he called he sent me an email telling me he wanted to speak to me and I sent back an email saying there'll be no problem. How about we meet on Monday at 4:30 to talk about this in my office face to face instead of on a on uh Facebook or anything like that? Uh please let me
know the time and time is good for you and I still didn't hear back from him. So I will make a statement to him and to everyone else and I hope this addresses everyone's concerns about my recusal. I want to address questions that have been raised regarding my recusal from the
Harrison Avenue redevelopment application. From the very beginning of this process when the application first came before the planning board, I recused myself from the decision and decisions relating to this matter. This decision was made before the application was ultimately forwarded to the burough
council. Prior to doing so, I sought guidance from the planning board attorney, the applicant's legal council, and the burough attorney. each advised that under the circumstances recusal was the appropriate course of action. Throughout my years of public service, first as a councilman and now as a
mayor, I have always relied upon the advice of our legal professionals to ensure that every matter is handled ethically, fairly, and in accordance with the law. At that at the time the application was before the planning board and later before the burough
council, I intentionally chose not to publicly discuss the reasons for my recusal. My decision was made out of respect for the integrity of the process and to avoid influencing or appearing to influence the independent judgment of either board and the members. My goal
has always been to ensure that every applicant, every resident, and every public body receives a fair and impartial process. Unfortunately, there have been rumors and speculations suggesting that my my recusal was motivated by personal gain, financial
interest, or favors. Those allegations are completely false. My decision was based solely on following the legal guidance I received and maintaining the high ethical standards expected of public office. Anyone who knows me understands that I have always acted in
what I believe to be the best interest of the burrow and its residents. While I respect everyone's right to ask questions and seek transparency, I also ask that we engage in these discussions responsibly and avoid spreading unfounded accusations that unfairly
question the integrity of those serving our community. I'd like to thank you for understanding this and allowing me to voice my opinions to you. Some of you might say, well, he's just saying what he wants to say or to hear what he want what you want me to hear. This is not
true. And if anybody wants to speak to me about it, you know my email address. You know my my phone number down in town hall. I'd be more than happy to talk to you face to face [clears throat and cough] >> financial administrative committee. Mr. Monell. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Unfortunately, I
won't be as brief this time. Um, just one other note before I get into the u meat of the topic here. On the agenda tonight, council, you'll see um a consent agenda item for the body cam equipment. This is part of our budget that we did earlier this year for the police equipment uh for body cam, the
upgrades that were needed for that. So, that's the large purchase that you'll see on the agenda for tonight. Um that was part of our our capital expenditures for the year. Okay. So, um, I wanted to give the community kind of an update along the lines of what's been going on with, uh,
the Harrison Avenue redevelopment project. Um, so to be clear, there's nothing on the agenda for this evening. Uh, there's no introduction, there's no public hearing on that. Um, but of course I wanted to present some
information since there's a lot of uh incomplete and some misinformation that's floating around and uh even the fact that some folks were posting that it was going to be on the agenda tonight before an agenda was even released. So surprised by how that spreads out on
Facebook. Um so the history of uh where we are right so first the area uh that includes the right aid block down to Harrison Avenue um the rocket property and properties down on Houston was declared an area in need of
redevelopment by the council about five or six years ago in a unanimous vote. Um that was done because at that time the the council was looking at the future of the budget and surplus funds and looking for ways to increase income to the
burrow to offset some of those things. So a redevelopment plan was created for that area. Over time, we got multiple proposals submitted from different um developers or different owners of the properties and many were rejected for
too high of a density, no retail, uh too tall of a building and so forth. So, multiple councils rejected um plans for different plans that were submitted. Eventually, a plan was selected um only
for the Harrison Avenue project uh which was purchased those properties were purchased by Harrison Avenue redevelopment LLC which is an affiliate of DMR which is a a company here located in Waldwick. This was done unanimously by vote of the
council. Um everyone approved that plan. There was a meeting uh an introduction of ordinance and a public hearing where many folks came out like tonight um to voice opinions and the council at that time voted 6 nothing to approve that um
plan. The redevelopment plan was then sent over to the planning board. It was reviewed and accepted u by the planning board. the professionals in town, police, fire, um, and building maintenance, had plenty of opportunities to ask questions, made changes to the
plans, increased fire suppression, etc., etc., and it was unanimously, uh, was eventually approved by the planning board and sent back to the council for final approval, which was done unanimously. Additionally, the planning board approved the redeveloper site plan.
Right? So, the site plan is what they're actually going to build there. So redeveloper approved or the um a planning board approved that site plan. The council hired independent financial adviserss and specific redevelopment attorney Anna who's sitting up on the
deus with us today um to represent the burrow in those negotiations. So no one um is sitting up here on the back of a napkin at uh Nelly's or W's and figuring it out. We actually hire professionals um to do this work for us. A
redevelopment agreement was then signed by both parties for the area which set parameters for construction timeline etc. with protections for both the developer and the burrow. That was unanimously approved by the this council
earlier this year. So why redevelopment? There's a lot of questions about why we need to redevelop. [snorts] one, it addresses budget concerns and identifies additional areas of revenue sources. We don't have many different revenue
sources. We don't have a lot of um industry in our town like many others do or retail that many others do. So, uh we looked at ways where redevelopment could bring in additional revenues to the town. Our surplus, as we discussed
earlier in the budget meetings where some of you were at, is depleting faster than we could tax you out of it. Um, what that means is every year we have to balance our budget. We have a bank account, if you will, a surplus that we've built over years, and we use that
surplus to fund the additional part of the budget. We aren't the federal government, so I can't print money, and we cannot deficit spend. So we use that surplus to plug the budget in hopes that you will recoup some of that budget. How
do you recoup it? If you don't spend some of your budget lines or you bring in other non- tax revenue which is higher than anticipated just like any other uh company or your own personal budget. So [clears throat] for the past few years, that pendulum has shifted to
where we use more of our surplus than we're able to generate to the tune of a million dollars last year. This year we had to raise taxes to stem the tide there because there's nothing further to cut any deeper in terms of
our budget um without um putting into risk services, police, fire, DPW. Those are things that we want to make sure our town has every service possible. So we keep those in the budget. So, we had to raise taxes,
unfortunately, this year over 9% to plug that budget gap with agreement from the council that we would seriously look at uh additional forms of redevelopment to bring in more money. So, why is our budget going up every year? There's increasing costs from the
state around benefits are killing small towns, boards of education everywhere. The percent increase is astronomical. those things are not uh trending in the other direction at this point from our our state government unless those things
change. Um the cost will continue to go up. If we want to continue to provide uh multiple days of trash pickup, that cost will continue to go up. We have to look at ways could we um look at shared services to continue to bring down other cost, but our budget continues to go up.
And our biggest lines on our budget are salaries, right? and pensions and things like that. Those are non-negotiable for me. I want to keep everybody employed. I want to keep everyone in the town protected and safe. What else does redevelopment do? It
encourages business growth growth and local econ economic activity. So, we look around town, right? 8 probably our biggest retail spot in in the area is vacant for multiple months now. It's owned by someone and they can't fill the
property right now. You know, when you go by Food Emporium, it's a brand new uh store in town and they're not quite as busy as they were when they first opened, so maybe they need some additional uh foot traffic to those stores. We have the Odyssey Gym,
which is probably a second one of our biggest properties in town. It's vacant. Um so, some claim that we don't need a pilot to revitalize or to invigorate investment into the area. I' I'd say the
opposite because we can't fill some uh pretty vacant spots in town. The right a you have thousands of cars that drive past there on a daily basis. It's a huge parking lot. It's a great opportunity for someone to come into that spot for some reason. Um it's sitting vacant
still and I think they changed the sign up there over the last couple days saying uh you know space for rent. You want to put underutilized land to more productive use. So if you look at the area on Harrison Avenue on the corner past hair cottage there, there was a vacant lot for multiple years when
after the the old hair cottage was was taken down, that spot has been empty. And then there's been those few houses that were next to it. You know, they were fine houses, but on the older side maybe could bring in some more revenue. You also have Rocket Property, which
that um business has closed or reduced operations. So that property is underdeveloped and it's in prime location. It's in student transit location um which is highly soughta for people who are are looking to commute into the city.
We also have from the state of New Jersey requirements on low-income housing, fair share housing. We had people come here at a at a council meeting and speak passionately about increasing the burrow's um um use of low-income housing in the town. We have
submitted a plan to the state of what 144 units that we have to hit. Part of this plan uh includes six affordable um housing units which we get credit for and some that one and a half times credit which help us meet the 144 units
that we have to provide. If we don't provide it there, we have to provide it someplace else. We're mandated and audited by the state to provide low-income housing. The re redevelopment plan gives the burough control over what is to be
developed and where. No one in town wanted a five-story building. No one in town wanted a six-story building. No one in town wants a full low income um unit down there of 100 um rental units. I'm sure we don't want that. Um we want
something that is lower density. We want something that brings potential retail and brings um you know interest in other areas around that spot. So then what happened with a pilot?
Pilot was proposed several months ago not when the original application was submitted as the right of any redeveloper would be. The burrow has independent financial adviserss in Phoenix and our legal council Anna have
been working with the redeveloper to evaluate that proposal. The agreement would establish a percentage of project revenue paid to the burrow in lie of conventional tax payments. Under New Jerseys long-term exemption
framework, pilot payments are structured as annual service charges rather than a traditional tax bill. The county still gets their 5% share which is stat statutoily obligated under the current exemption law.
Further profit for the redeveloper is capped at 12% by law. So if they make any profit after expenses from that gross revenue, it goes back statutoily to the municipality. So, if they're killing it over there and are able to
rent all of their properties and eventually raise rents or whatnot, that additional income comes back to the burrow over the length of the of the agreement. Also, over time, there are percentages within that agreement where conventional
tax is compared to the percentage of revenue that the bureau would collect. So, 60 to 80% later in the agreement. whichever is higher the bureau would receive. So if the conventional tax at 60 or 80% ends up being higher than the
percentage of revenue we're taking in, we get the higher number which comes into the burrow which brings in more money. So the the developer, the redeveloper, the owner of the property is capped at what they can profit by law. It's not because the burrow's
playing nice. It's because it's by law, [snorts] right? Additionally, there's also what thing called land tax credit. The developer or redeveloper has to pay the tax on the land, not the um um
improvements, but the land itself. That credit is then given back in some accounting treatment, right? But the land tax would still be included in the schools appropriation for collecting that part of the money. So if you we'll
go into an example in a few minutes, but you think about it, the four or five properties that were there were paying a tax that was roughly around 65,000 of that and a portion of that was going to um the school. So now the land tax would be potentially um in that number. So it
would be a little less than 60, not much because there wasn't a lot of improvements there, but that portion would still be attributable to the board of education budget. Okay. The pilot is expected to increase
revenue to the burrow no matter if it was conventional. The portion that the burl uh talks about when we talked about budget several months ago, we talked about how the burrow maybe keeps about 20% of your tax revenue comes to the to the municipality. Uh 60some percent go
to this to the board of education and some percentage goes to the county. So, if you look at a comparison of the revenue generated by the pilot, which I can't get into specifics tonight because that agreement is not ready for um
presentation to all of you, we would still bring in more than what the conventional tax would bring to the burrow. So, win for us, right? The project is limited in density and number of units and includes retail
and low-income housing. So those things take down the financial benefit to the owner of the property. If we're telling them you can only build x number of units, that's how much rent he can take in. If we're telling him you have to
include affordable housing, that's less rent to him. So, if you know how the low uh low-income housing works, the rest of the community in that development have to compensate for the lower income of rent that's coming in from the folks that are paying
low-income housing pricing. We also asked for retail on the first floor. The retail space, which might be subdivided into three or four locations, will bring in less revenue than a rental would bring in. So that li further limits the developer's ability to uh
have revenue stream on it. The smaller scale and lower income potential uh reduces developers projected return. Right? When we compare that to what happened at the station, right? The station property was 120 units or so so
far about more than double the number of units that we're putting in here. So the station didn't need a pilot program because they had higher number of units to tell their bank here's the revenue I'm bringing in. I don't know if any of you are developers or builders or what
whatnot but or investors but the way it works today as I understand it from reading is people want to make money on the bank's money. I'm not going to put out all the money that I have in my bank account and then try to make money from it. I'm going to borrow that money and try to earn income at a higher rate than
I'm paying in interest. That's called cash flow. That's what any developer will try to do. So, they'll present a plan um to the financial adviserss and look at it and say, "We need a pilot to make these numbers work because if we're paying at the conventional tax rate, um
the rate of return won't work." And no matter how good uh a redeveloper is or a business owner is, none of us own a business um from the goodness of our heart and to make money. A project must be financable by a bank.
So the bank needs to have asurances by looking at the structure of a deal and sign off on that to give funding to whoever a developer is. Just like you were in a small business, if you would say, I'm going to open a business and I need a small business loan. I need to
provide projected financials. I need to provide P&Ls. I need to say this is how much money I bring in. How can I get that loan? The redevelopment agreement that we signed and that the developer signed also includes safeguards for the burrow, including timelines on construction,
[snorts] payment obligations, and other compliance requirements, including audited financial statements, which are required by law um from a CPA. uh can't be uh you know me fiddling it out here. I'm not a CPA. Has to be done
by a CPA firm and submitted annually. So we move on now to school impact which is another uh you know big point of this. So um as our financial adviserss have said here the school district is funded at 100% of its approved budget.
I'll repeat that line. It's 100% of its approved budget. So how does it work Joe? Right. [snorts] So the school budget tax levy for the last three years, okay, 2024 school year was 33.5 million. For [clears throat] the 2025
school year was 34.6 million and for the 2026 school year is anticipated to be 36.3 million. That's your tax revenue. Add in the state and federal aid and other income from capital or whatnot
that they have. If you start looking at their financial statement that's that's produced on online just like ours are is in 2024 was 44.5 million. In 2025 42.7 million and in 2026 44.2 million. So in
our example we're going to take 36 million is what you all pay. Okay. For simple math I'm going to make the assumption that there are 4,000 taxpaying residents in Waldwick. That's a little bit high, but I'm trying to make the assumption and make the math
work because it's late and I don't want to make uh decimal points. So, if I take 36 million and divide that by 4,000 taxpaying homes, I get $9,000. $9,000 each of you is what is attributed to uh the school to the Wal Board of
Education. Let's estimate that all of the houses are worth the same in [clears throat] that scenario. My house is worth less. I pay a smaller portion. If the mayor's house is worth more, he pays a higher portion. Right?
So, it's all proportional. It's filled out by u the county and they fill out those those calculations for us. Let's estimate that that 9,000 is roughly 65% of your total tax bill. Let's estimate that your total tax bill is around
14,000. I know many of you will say my tax bill is much higher than that. Sorry. Um the balance of that difference between 14,000 and 9,000 is the portion that goes to your county tax and the portion that goes to the municipal tax.
Right? So large portion goes to school. Small portion goes to the county. The rest of it comes to the municipality. Now let's build 10 new homes. Let's knock down Burough Park and build 10 new homes. Nobody owns that property. I'm going to build 10 new homes there um for
development. The school doesn't get the additional 10 * 9,000 of 90,000. So they don't get 36 million and 90,000. Their budget remains the same. The
increase of 9,000 is then spread out over all of the 4,0 homes now. So now your uh bill is $8,977 that's due to the board of education. So maybe it's 64%
of your tax bill. Your municipal taxes are not impacted in that calculation. Your county taxes are not impacted in that calculation. Those are calculated separately. It's all put together. That's how they come up with these fancy number of 65% of your your bill is
school. That's not the way it works. It doesn't say your house is worth 500,000. I'm multiplying it by 65,000. That 65% I'm taking that tax revenue and giving it to the school. That's not the way it works. It's a budget-based number. It's divided across the the community.
Okay. The dollars for the new home are just added into the pool available for the board of education calculation. It's like if we were to take um homes off of the role, that's taken out of that pool. So then your portion of the
school budget would go up because there's less homes. If we knock down three homes, consolidate them, and the the the council approves a tax abatement on three homes because they're combining it to one, whatever, it could come out to a little bit different.
So adding a new home does not automatically increase the total amount of funds going to the board of education. So dispelling that myth instead a new taxable property can affect how this existing school tax level is spread across the tax base.
School budget is not directly proportional to the number of students. Enrollment over the past three years from the school budget has decreased. In 2024, we're at 1563.
In 2025, 1,529 and 2026, 1,517. Out of those, there's 252 students who are special ed, that number was the same for all three years. Maybe in 2024 was 253.
So, you could see even though the number of students reduced, your tax bill continued to rise. So it's not proportional. Even if I added 20 students, I'm still below the number of students that was there 3 years ago.
So keep that in the back of your mind for a few minutes. So the Rucker study, we had professionals, the financial adviserss look at it and study uh bringing in 44 new units or 42 units, whatever the number is. What's the potential impact
to the school? So Rucker's calculation comes up with about 20 potential students for the development. We look at anecdotal evidence and look at the station apartments which is we already said earlier about 120 units. Uh
current students on the roll from station apartments is nine, right? So that's a lot lower than 20 at a a complex that's more than double the size. So we can still use 20 as our our estimate for what we're looking at.
Another thing I saw on Facebook was the cost of pupil, right? So, someone took the math and said, "Uh, look at the board of education budget. The number is about 23,000 for a total cost of pupil. You multiply that by 20, you get $400,000 a year. How's the math work,
Councilman?" Well, that's not quite right. That total cost is everything in the board of education. That's the principles. That's the superintendent. That's the school nurses. That's the building facility staff. That's the coaches. That's the basketballs. That's
the footballs. That's the gym uniforms. That's everything else that gets there and divided by 1500 and it comes out to somewhere around 23,000. There are certain lines that come out. Couldn't quite figure out the the number of where that comes from, but it gets pretty close.
Then there's a line that says classroom instruction. The classroom instruction per pupil is about $15,000 per pupil. And then the next line says the classroom salaries and benefits, so teacher salary is 14,000. So when I start looking at those
numbers, uh the cost to me is the marginal cost. What's the marginal cost of adding a student? It's probably somewhere between 1 and 5,000, not 23,000, not 15,000. It would only be that if I needed to add teachers. So how
do we add teachers? So, if we said we're going to take 20 kids at the high end of the estimate compared to the nine at station, we're going to take 20. If all [clears throat] the kids were in the same grade, all in fifth grade going to Crescent School, all 20 kids, maybe I
need to hire a new fifth grade teacher to come into that classroom. But in actuality, those 20 students are spread over three schools, Crescent School, Waldo Middle School, Waldo High School across 13 grades. So, what's the likelihood of all 20 kids
being in the same grade? Probably pretty low. Some won't be school age. Some will be over school age. Some will be in first grade. Some will be in eighth grade. So, it's probably an average. If you took 20, divided by 13, somewhere a little over one um per grade. I don't
think we would have to be adding too many teachers at one per grade. I don't think we're building new buildings. I don't think we're adding a new principal. I don't think we're adding a new superintendent. So really in my opinion from looking at the numbers it's the marginal cost that you have to look
at not just the total cost per pupil. Okay. And I'll further add right so we're talking about 20 we're talking about 42 units. Seven of those units are singlebedroom homes or apartments. So [snorts] that the likelihood of those
producing additional children for the for the uh system is low. So, we're really talking somewhere around 35 units that could produce additional kids because they're two and three bedrooms. We're also talking about a commuter
location which is close to transit. So, you're looking at people who are maybe single, maybe working in New York City and commuting into work and looking for a place that's close to train station to improve their their commute. I commute to New York City sometimes. I know it's
not fun even from Wald. All right. So, in summary, a lot of due diligence, as you can tell, has gone into this so far. A lot of learning, a lot of reading. I didn't know anything about a pilot program about six months ago. I've listened to our development
experts and Anna and Brian. I've done a lot of reading. I've looked at the bad pilots that people post about Hackinack and Jersey City and Mount Laurel um and Patterson. Um, those towns are are
different than than Waldo for sure. They're talking about mega projects, hundreds of units, much different scale than we're talking here about 40 units. [snorts] Also, I look at the DCA website, which I learned from actually one of the folks that sitting out here
tonight where they list all the pilots. I look at Allenale has five pilots. People are saying that Waldwick doesn't need to incentivize development. Um because we're, you know, in Bergen County, we're a good town. We should we shouldn't need to do that. But Allenell
is probably more affluent than us. And they have five and five pilots. And I don't hear anybody reporting that Allenell's pilots are going poorly. You know, I'm hearing about Hackin Saxs for sure. Um it's a different different community. So, our professionals and council have
worked on negotiating a financial deal that would benefit the burrow and we are doing this on the back of a napkin at the bar. Without a pilot, the redeveloper will have to determine if the project is achievable in the current plan. They would have to either leave it
vacant, try to do it without a pilot or potentially come back to us and say, "Council, I can't do this project the way you want it at 42 units and still get it financable. Can I build 20 more units? Can I add a floor? Can I do these
things?" And I know we hear from all of you, we don't want to do that. We don't want to make it taller. We don't want to make it higher density. We want to have some green space there. So [snorts] those are things that I don't think we really want to do, right? So the redevelopment helps us
meet our fair share of housing, which we worked hard to be in compliance with. A lot of communities are not as well off as us. Thanks to Craig and councils before us who have worked hard to stay in compliance with that number, and we are compliant. We are 144, 147 units,
whatever it is, we are in good shape there for the next 10 years, meeting our requirement without having to build a um a housing low-income housing project, which could be bigger and we wouldn't be able to control it because the state
could sue us and tell us to do it. A pilot program could bring in more non- tax revenue to the bureau than what we were currently collecting on those properties, much more than what we were currently collecting on those properties. When a full presentation is made for a public hearing, all residents will be
welcome to have questions, make their opinions known. I do ask that everyone come with an open mind and listen to all the facts, not just the one-sided opinions that are on social media right now. In the end, the full council will need
to vote on the presented pilot application. [snorts] We'll need to listen to the concerns of all of you and those who support the pilot and make a decision that we think is best for the bureau. That's all I have to report tonight.
Obviously, an open comment. Any of you welcome to answer questions, but there will be no public debate on this tonight as it's not on the agenda. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Sorry for length. >> Thank you. Fire and Police Protection Committee. Mr. Bren. Uh, >> Mr. Mayor, and uh,
in lie of the time, I think I'm going to uh, keep my comments till uh, next month. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Public safety committee and recreation and health committee. Mrs. Miss Windgate is out of state with the family on vacation. Before she left, she told me
that she'll do a double uh, review of everything when she gets back. And also, um, Mrs. Smith. She's in another country on vacation. She'll do the same thing. Public works committee. Mr. Richie. >> Thank [clears throat] you. And it's so good to see everyone here. Packed room.
Every every seat is full. It's a It's not something that we're used to seeing. So, it's uh I welcome the community involvement. I uh first want to say uh you know, big up to the uh public works committee. We've had some big storms over the last uh couple weeks to to
month. Um, and as a an avid runner, uh, going through town and through other towns, you can see the, uh, it's not pretty. Katie's laughing. It's not a pretty sight when I run, but as an avid runner, you you come across all the debris that falls. And what I will say
is, uh, my traditional route to run goes through Waldwick down Sheridan Avenue. And what I can say is Waldwick's uh, sidewalks were very clean. And as I run through other towns, there was debris up into and including this week from the the past storms. So, I think our DPW
does a really good job of kind of cleaning up after uh these storms. It's it's a lot of work in in addition to everything else that they've done. Uh I have some other comments that I'd like to make on on redevelopment because of uh I I I surmise you're all here for uh
comment or to hear on that. So, uh I can say that now or wait till old business mayor. It's >> Yeah. So, thank you. So, I'll I'll do it now. I won't be as as long as uh the council president. That was really eloquent. I just want to say that I agree with double down with and uh uh
empathize with everything that you've said. Uh I too have though um you know thought to myself uh this is a process that's been going on for the last 5 years. Uh we uh we really initiated the idea of redevelopment uh when when when [clears throat] really I think Katie and
I won back in in 2021 2022. I honest I can't even remember anymore. But um but uh I think that obviously the community is now very interested in what we're doing. Uh which is great and I welcome the feedback. I welcome the support or
uh the uh the the opposition. Uh I think community involvement is what makes these decisions fun and I think it's what makes them uh ultimately the right decision. Um I will say that I understand your frustration and I sympathize with it. We're taking uh uh we're taking our time here as we uh
evaluate the pilot. We are uh we're not going to rush to a decision, right? We're going to try to make the right decision. What's in the best interest of the bureau, what's in the best interest of you. We also live here, right? It's sometimes I think people forget that we also live here. We're also taxpayers. We're subject to everything that gets
passed up here. Uh but we're not going to rush. We're going to take our time. We want to make sure that this is the right decision. This isn't uh an undoable uh decision, right? Once we make this, it's not like we can uh, you know, call time out and do over 16 months from now. So, I do appreciate the
the patience. Um, and when the time is right, as as the council president said, we will have a uh give everyone an opportunity to speak uh in support or or against it. Uh that notwithstanding, I I am intrigued by some of the things that I've seen on social media of late. Uh
particularly associated with the comparison of Waldwick to uh the Hackinack redevelopment and and pilot projects. Um I have an office in Hackinack, so I spent a lot of time down there and I can tell you that uh subjectively Hackinack is not is not
Waldwick. Um it's a big city. You'd have to combine Waldwick with Allenale, Hocus, Saddle River, Ramsay, and Midland Park to get a applesto apples comparison on a per capita uh analysis of of
Hackinack to to Waldwick. So, um I found it intriguing that there were uh there's a group in town uh led by formal council uh uh folks who uh voted unanimously uh in support of this project. uh comparing
this to to Hackinack. Um I just don't think that that's the case. Uh so I dug I dug deep and I will agree that I think Hackinack may have they they may have overdone it. All right. They may be overutilizing this tool. Uh I believe
that in the near term they have implemented 28 uh pilot programs, right? Uh with no no less than 3,000 new uh residential units placed within that city. Um, I did the math and I had people check it. That's 28 times more
pilots than we're discussing now and 50 times more residential units that we're even considering for this project. Right? So, uh, it's it's it's really not a fair comparison and uh, and I think it's misinformation. And I would urge uh those of you who are interested in looking at success or lack of success of
pilots to look at our neighbors in Midland Park and uh and Allenale as the council president said who have both implemented pilots. Uh and I'll and I'll leave it to you to decide whether it's been successful or not. Um uh and and uh and so I think that um you ought to look
at uh the folks that are putting this information out there, right? Uh we've also seen kind of claims on social media that uh this will absolutely raise our taxes, right? Um and and what I would say is I welcome the detailed financial analysis on how this will raise our
taxes, right? I'm just a lowly uh a lowly civil servant. So, um you know, I would like to incorporate that information into the information that we have uh at hand as we uh as we decide on this pilot. And so if a detailed financial analysis was performed by a
business owner in town, um, uh, I'd welcome the opportunity to see that. I'd like to look at the variables. I'd like to look at the, uh, the, uh, the the basis. I'd like to look at all of the, uh, the details that went into that to to basically say, hey, uh, this is really bad for for the town. Uh, I think
that's information we should all we should all have, uh, as as we move forward. So, I welcome that information. Um, and you know, as the council president said, as as we went back to 2022, we we were looking at a number of issues. Uh, the first issue is the financial uh financial crisis. I will
I'll call it a crisis of the town, a 2.5 million budget deficit. Um, we don't we basically lack $2.5 million every year to fund our budget, which means we have to take it from our savings account. That savings account is dramatically reducing every year, and we are simply
running out of money as a town. >> [snorts] >> uh some of the folks who are are putting information out there about uh how pilots are destroying towns uh denied this financial uh uh uh financial problem uh within the bow. So again, I I I urge you all to kind of question the
sources of the information uh who's putting it out there. Um but as we looked at the financial problems within town, we also looked at the you know you know simply unoccupied properties, the unoccupied businesses in town. Um when I when I joined council, uh I think the
biggest in my in my view eyesore of the downtown was the property that we're talking about right now on Harrison and uh Prospect which I believe was vacant for for uh about 10 years. Um we have the rocket property as the council president said behind it that uh has
been inoperable or vacant, whatever you want to call it. We have the right aid which is now vacant. We have Odyssey which is now vacant. And what we don't have is a line of developers wrapped around the uh corner who want to put businesses and buildings within this
town. So uh we sharpened our pencils. We implemented this uh procedure to uh you know designate these areas ne in need of redevelopment. Uh as the council president said uh we don't want massive uh buildings. We don't want 10-story
buildings. We don't want hundreds. We don't want thousands. We don't want to be hackinac. We want nice small lowdensity uh buildings. We want retail uh you know we want town homes, not just apartments. We need to meet our our our affordable housing mandate. Um and so we
were very picky with projects that you know that we uh agreed to. As the council president said, it went through process after process after process through the council and through the planning board. unanimously approved by multiple councils over a period of six years. Uh the planning board approved
it. Um and you know quite frankly as we look at the tools available to to recruit these types of properties into town uh a pilot was one of them. Uh we haven't uh made our decision yet. I think we will uh you know in in the coming months. Uh but but rest assured
we are doing so with all of this information as Joe said with all of the diligence with professionals uh on the financial side with professionals on the legal side. Um you know we we want I think the same thing everybody else does which is a a vibrant community. Uh we
don't want high taxes. None of us I don't think any of us want uh high taxes. Um we none of us gain anything from that. uh and and and I think that when you are asking yourself whether this is the right project or not uh ask
yourself about the alternatives right uh take a stroll down prospect and ask yourself whether that's what you want uh or go to Hackinack and look at the massive developments that are being put up there and ask yourself whether that's what you want right because those are the two alternatives to I think what is
before us right now um and so I'll welcome your feedback and your comments comments uh tonight and uh to the to the meetings that come in the future. Um [snorts] and I think it'll be a good conversation. So uh mayor, that's my report this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Building and
Grounds Committee, Miss Eric Colola Drake. >> Thank you, Mayor. I spoke with Tatiana. No update on the buildings and grounds from the last meeting, but if I could make a couple of quick remarks on the redevelopment. I know that everyone has their own um opinions that they want to speak on, so I'll keep it brief if that's if that's okay, Mr. Mayor.
>> Sure. >> Thank you. So, I proudly support the revitalization of Waldwick. I think that's been pretty clear uh a number of reasons, but I think as some of you were here in that meeting in December of 2024 when the room was just as full as it was
tonight. And there was so much support for this project and a brighter um downtown revitalized, more people, more businesses. Um, and as someone who grew up here and I chose to stay here and plant my roots here, I think we need to think about the future and um, with the
dwindling surplus, that's a huge issue. I voted no on this budget because I just don't think that a 10% tax increase is responsible or acceptable for the residents of Waldwick. So, that's one of the solutions that we can have moving forward is hopefully plugging this um,
issue we have in our budget with some redevelopment funds and the revenue is very important. Um, I know there's a lot of misinformation surrounding the project, so it's encouraging to see everybody out here today. I'd also like to thank Joe, Councilman Joe, for um his wonderful, thorough remarks. I hope that
you learned something coming here tonight, and I hope to see more of you at the future meetings. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Burough Administrator. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, just wanted to echo the mayor's [cough] sentiments on
um the pool. who've been having a fantastic season. Uh happy to have all of our guards back. Uh our management team is really enjoying their time getting to know the residents. Uh every day they they call and and say that, you know, they're they're so happy that they're there together as a team with
the guards and uh it's been a great experience and a nice feeling down at the pool. Um our swim team is underway. They're doing fantastic this season again and um it's a really good opportunity for you know community to come together and enjoy the facilities.
Um registration is still open. It's on our website. So um if you haven't uh signed up yet, it's still available. Um and you know any questions you can always hop into Burrow Hall and and give us uh you know ask us any questions that you have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you.
>> Borrow clerk. >> No report. >> Okay. Borrow attorney. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No report this evening. >> A redevelopment turn. >> Um, >> thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have no report, but I'm happy to answer any questions if
anyone has questions. >> We will do that in the public. >> Consent resolutions and resolutions of the governing body. >> Be it resolved that the following resolutions herewith listed by consent, having been considered by the governing body of the Burough of Walde, are hereby passed and approved. 2026 204 approval
of consent. 2026 205 approval of minutes regular meeting in close session meeting June 23rd 2026 policy votes A. Tracy Britain requests to use pavilion B on Sunday August 2nd from 1 to 6 for a birthday party with alcoholic beverages being served. B you and Associates
request uh to use pavilion A on Saturday, August 8th from 2 to 8:00 p.m. for a picnic with alcoholic beverages being served. C. Lisa Pichinini, request to use pavilion A on Sunday, August 30th from 9:00 am to 7 pm for a birthday party with alcoholic beverages being
served. D. Alyssa Frisco, request to use pavilion B Saturday, September 5th from 12:00 to dusk for a birthday party with alcoholic beverages being served. E. Midland Park Community School request to use the Waldo Municipal Pool on Tuesday starting July 7th for campers. 2026 206
change order number one final and current estimate number four final to sovereign consulting inc for the rehabilitation of the Malcolm Street pumping stations in the amount of $51,2771 2026207 award a fair and open contract to Axon Enterprises for police integrated equipment suite in the amount
of $413,186.926208 award a fair and open contract to DSER Enterprises LLC for the20 26 curb ramp improvements in the amount of $88,17 2026 209 authorize amended lease agreement with environmental renewal LLC
for the lease and operation at least and operate the vegetative waste transfer station 2026 210 authorized autocap license for all county car and limo 2026 211 authorized premium of 65,000 to uh
eset from ATFC ljlc to the burough for this tax sales certificate 20-0625 2026212 over tax overp payments various and 2026 2113 uh payment of vouchers. >> Do I have a motion and a second to
accept? Motion by Joe, second by Andy. Anyone from the council? >> Uh Mr. Mayor, regarding 20 2026 208 the award of the fair and open contract to DS Meyer for the curb ramp improvements. We had that bid opening last week. I oversaw the bid opening. uh Boswell
Engineering reviewed the bids that we were that were received and uh it is being awarded as such to DSME Enterprises. Just to give you an idea of uh the area of of focus, we start to look at the areas um that we anticipate in the future will be paved. Um [snorts]
and so these curb ramps are all along Long View Drive at the intersections of Pine View, Lindberg, Mary Lane, Chestnut, Long View Court. Um as well as the intersection of Van Dyke Road and Birch Lane and Wilder Lane and Cecilia Drive. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Clerk, please take the role.
>> Mr. Bick, >> yes. >> Miss Colri, >> yes. >> Mr. Martinell, yes. >> Mr. Richie, >> yes. >> Okay. We have two public hearings. Number one, would the C clerk kindly read ordinance number 2026-10? >> Ordinance number 202610, an ordinance
amending ordinance number 20201 fixing the compensation, salaries, and wages of officials and employees of the burrow of Waldo for the police. Anyone from the council would like to comment on this ordinance? >> Yes. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is in agreement with our PBA contract that we
negotiated with the uh the local. Um, this is everything that we've discussed through there. Happy to report that we'll have a labor agreement in place that will take us through the next several years and uh uh keep our men compensated fairly. >> Anyone else? If not, I close the public
comments and I'm sorry, I close the council's comments and open up to the public. Anybody from the public would like to comment on this ordinance that was just read? If not, I close the public's uh comments and uh ask the clerk to authorize to advertise on local legal newspapers
required by law. Clerk, take the role. >> I need a motion first. >> Do I have a motion? >> Joe, second by Mike. >> Thank you. Mr. Bren, >> yes. >> Miss Sakre, >> yes. >> Mr. Martinelloo, >> yes. >> Mr. Richie, >> yes. >> And then we have the resolution, right?
>> Okay. So this is resolution 2026 214 approval of public safety, excuse me, public safety salaries for the years 2026 through 2030. >> Anybody from the council comment? [snorts] >> No. Close the council comments. Anybody from
the public? >> No, this is just a resolution. >> Just >> just need a motion and a second. >> Do we have a motion and a second to accept it as a resolution? >> Motion. Motion by Mike, second by uh Joe. Clerk, please take the role. >> Mr. Brennick, >> yes. >> Mr. Coldrick, >> yes. >> Mr. Martinelloo,
>> yes. >> Mr. Richie, >> yes. >> We have two introduction of ordinances with the clerk ordinance number 2026-11. >> Ordinance number 2026-11. An ordinance amending chapter 63 park and ride lot section 63-2 parking fees
uh 63-3 restrictions B and C and 63-7 violations and penalties. Clarify hours, overnight parking regulations, and penalties. Motion and second is in order to accept this on first reading and that the clerk be authorized to advertise it in a local legal newspapers required by law setting a hearing two weeks from
tonight's meeting or soon thereafter as the matter may be reached. Do I have a motion in a second motion [clears throat] by Mike? Second by Joe on the questions. >> I'll cover this. Mr. Mayor, this is an update uh based on the new uh lease agreement that we have in New Jersey
Transit for the lot. We had to do some tweaks to the existing ordinance. So that's what the 202611 is and 202612. >> Okay. Anyone else? Take the role. >> Mr. Brennick. >> Yes. >> Miss Sakol. >> Yes. >> Mr. Marello. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Richie. >> Yes. >> Cler read ordinance number 2026-12. >> Ordinance number 2026-12. An ordinance amending chapter 48 fees section 91-12.2A vehicles and traffic pay parking fees to clarify days and times for fees.
>> Motion. Second is in order to uh to accept this on first reading and that the clerk be authorized to advertise in a local legal newspapers required by law setting up public hearing tonight two weeks from tonight's meeting at 7:30 p.m. or soon do thereafter as the matter may be reached motion in a second by
Andy second by Joe is what the attorney said [laughter] >> same idea >> same idea the attorney said anyone else okay clerk please take the role >> Mr. Bren Sarak yes >> Mr. Carnelloo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Richie. >> Yes. >> Okay. Anybody on the council have any
unfinished business? >> Anybody from the council have any new business? Any new business? Okay. Public comments. Anybody Anybody in the audience would like to comment on anything? You could kindly come up to the microphone. Just please give us your name. If you're going to do anything about the pilot program, please address
the council president with that uh issue. I have to recuse myself from this, but I'll still sit here and look at your faces and listen. I thought you liked my face. >> Hello everyone. Ray Cruz, 15 Cypress Court.
>> No addresses required, sir. >> All right. I'm old school, man. [laughter] Sorry. I remember how you guys used to run me through the ringer here. I got several one statement and several questions. The statement and I've never done this, Michael.
>> Yeah. that came ac you know exactly what came across as condescending and and >> dimunitive >> when >> when you mentioned that I like to see the details of their financial analysis. I'm sure there's plenty of people here. >> Can you speak a little louder?
>> I'm sure that there's plenty of people here that can do the financial analysis and then state factual concerns on Facebook or wherever they're doing that. But as a public official, it just came across that way. >> I mean, listen, I I just want to
integrate information that's correct into our assessment. If someone >> I get it. I get there's a lot of people that throw a lot of a lot of crazy stuff out there without facts and there it's uninformed, but >> I here it's just asking for facts. I'm sorry that came across as uh
>> next time next time I'll ask for opinions. >> Yeah, it's just it's just a matter of you have a lot of anxiety around this project. Yeah, we have a budget deficit that we're trying to plug, right? As you mentioned, we have uh issues around uh you know, ensuring that our schools are
well funded, I assume. Now, I got several questions I actually wrote down here. >> Would you would you would you prefer that we we don't use facts when we make our decisions? Is that what you're suggesting? >> I'm not the one. >> I mean, Michael, Michael, I'm not the
one or the two. You're accusing me. You're accusing me. >> I did not accuse you of anything. I said you condescending. >> Yes, you came across condescending and that's my opinion. >> I'm sorry. >> That's my opinion. I did not say that. I I I'm going one way or the other on anything. >> Well, it is.
>> I am not the person to go after. >> You're calling me condescending for asking for facts. >> I'm sure others will agree. >> All right. >> The uh statement >> in regards to the pilot program, uh was the June 29th meeting with the board of ed actually held?
>> Yes. Okay. So, you found time to actually do that uh with with that? >> Yes, both parties found time to to meet at that time. But was uh any sort of uh agreement made to push for inter you know I guess I don't know what they call it inter agreement in which the board of
ed and the council for the next four five years 30 years whatever there's an actual agreement to ensure that the council can pay them when they do need a a relief from u you know any of the pilot money that may be going towards
>> from from what though so I explained earlier right so that the the the board of ed budget and stop if I say something wrong, Board of Edge budget would be funded 100% as always, right? [snorts] So, we we talked about how um any new
revenue from the pilot is not included in the pool, right? We also talked about how if there's a land tax that's still attached to that property, that land tax would still be part of the pool that would be given to the board of education. So we talked about how that
would be almost still full of what they were getting today, right? So we talked about how um the increase in students might not be directly proportional to uh the number of the budget, right? Because the budget increases to the cap every
year of 2 and a half% or 2% whatever it is. It will continue to increase that will continue to increase um the school tax as normal, right? And you know that's what we have at the time when we had the meeting you know in full transparency right we we still do not
have an agreed upon agreement so we cannot share terms of that financial agreement with anyone including the board of education. >> No [snorts] I'm really just focused on an agreement between the board and the count and the council. Well, again to so there's a bill actually there's the bill that's S1807 I think right that's coming
out >> prior to that bill going or even maybe deciding to wait for that bill to pass >> you know to try to get ahead of that can you make an agreement with the board of ed to commit to them that you will fund them as you say you are right in to
ensure that that actually happens that may allay some of those questions and some of those assertions >> but right we always have funded the board event and we're always obligated to fund the board of ed. >> So we wouldn't not fund them >> and not not from pilot money. I don't think that that's >> but that's different. Right. So and
maybe you can explain this better than I am. I'm obviously >> as I understand you can't you you don't necessarily have to pay use the pilot money that you're receiving. >> The pilot money does not go into the pool of funds that's allocated to board of education payment. >> Correct. Correct. So that's that's what
I'm talking about. Figuring out a way to carve out some money for them. >> Well, so we would still keep their budget whole at 100%. Okay. Um, that's sort of haven't been discussing it and there's an obligation. Either the bill will obligate the councils to do that
>> or you guys have an agree. >> It will not. It will not. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. Can I just address that for one second? Right now, it is a bill, right? It's not law. So, we're going by the long-term tax exemption law, >> which does not provide for any portion
of the pilot payment to go to the school board. It's just the municipality and the county. However, um I just want to clarify if they is a [clears throat] if they are still paying land taxes, then there is a land tax credit and that
portion of the pilot payment will be reduced. that portion comes out of the burrows um pilot and what happens is the portion that continues to go through conventional taxes that percentage that
goes which I think is 60% here to the board of ed they still get that they still recoup that >> right whether it's that 2% or whatever that is they're getting >> it's based on their conventional taxes so I believe it's 60% >> 60% >> well that's based upon math right That's
depending on the point. >> We don't do public math here. We do. >> Yeah, >> we try, right? [laughter] >> Uh, Phoenix advisors, have they completed the evaluation regarding the potential sale of our water utility? I know that that was on the agenda at some point. [snorts]
>> We have not taken any further action on sale of water. >> Okay. I'm just looking at ways we could raise that that you know plug that budget deficit because even if we do Harrison right even if we do some of the other uh projects which I as I understand are not using pilot
>> uh and these include >> Houston they came and presented a couple couple of mount councils ago they came down >> properties >> what's that >> Durant properties >> well Durant properties who knows what that would do. Uh we rejected any other plans at this point for density. >> Right. So 30 high-end town homes, that's
what they were offering. >> That's what the Houston project was, right? And the Houston project, what they presented to the council that night was that would not be pilot based >> because those would be owner occupied, sellable, pre-sale type things where
then they wouldn't need to do pilot financing on those. >> So So the challenge is this. And also, Ray, let me just say, if we sell the water, we we can't just use that money to plug our our budget. We have to actually pay down our debt, >> you know, which we we spend about 500,000 a year on debt. So, we would we
would sell effectively sell our water to a third party. They'll double your rates, everybody, and then we would make almost no adjustments to our operating. >> Got it. >> And it's a one-time thing, right? So, if we if the if this council eventually goes through that um financial analysis
to say we're going to sell the water, it's a one-time fix that we could do now. In 20 years, a council that's sitting up here might say those idiots 20 years ago should have held on to the water and and made that investment. Now, you brought it up, right? We have to
continue to make capital investments in our water no matter if we decide to sell or not to continue to improve the quality and whatever H2M who was the analyst that came back uh they're due back this fall to give us some further data after the settling period that will
determine what future capital investments. So you can't make capital investments without additional income too, right? >> Have uh and who does the actual financials here? Is it uh you or >> the financials? >> Yeah, all the financial projections. Is it you? You, Joe?
>> No. So we have our CFO, our CFO who does the our financial work here. I I'm not a paid financial adviser of the world. In in my private life, I was an accountant at one time. I'm an IT guy by choice. the way I am. No, no, >> I just listen.
>> No, thank you for all the work you did on on, you know, and and the statements you've made to try to clarify some assumptions. >> Sure. >> The what I what I do want uh to state is um that this is a a mode of confusion. You guys are in the weeds every day on
this. You're trying to plug I believe uh what the auditor said a multi-year multi-deade hole in our taxes. Correct. The auditor said we have a surplus problem coming. They rang the alarm this year. >> Well, it's what? $6 million or surplus right now? 5 million. Yeah, just >> roughly,
>> right? And that will be depleted within two years. >> Not two. They said probably within five. >> Within five, >> right? >> This project goes forward with pilot. We're not even going to see revenue until it's completed. Right. >> That's correct. >> So, what's that? Two years construction,
three years. So, we now have to pl I'm saying I'm doing this public math here. We we have to figure out how to plug that budget deficit and not eat away at that surplus for the next 2 3 years. >> That's correct. >> And even if that pilot program is approved, right, for this harvest
property, it's a small dent in the [laughter] deficit. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Okay. That's I think having some sort of easy to understand. >> Yep. So right >> presentation to the to to the community on that it would probably help allay
some of these assumptions that are coming up >> these pseudo social media experts >> right so the financial advisors will come back and do another presentation but the idea of a pilot and the idea of redevelopment is that this is a first domino right so you do that project
maybe the Houston project happens maybe the Duranti project is spurred on to do something else maybe somebody comes in to write aid and puts a new store in and starts to bring additional revenues into into the town. That's the idea to generate new construction, to generate
new um taxable ratables for for the uh for the community. >> The uh I won't take I'm sure there's plenty of people here who want to uh come up here, but uh the I'll I'll say one more thing. Um, I think if if there's a committee that can put
together something for the public to see of how we aim to do this for the next 10, 20, and 30 years, depending on how, you know, the I I I would hope that this uh pilot program is only for like 10 years or 15 years, not a 30-year pilot program, but I'm sure we have the
leverage, right? This is the hottest town in in in Bergen County. For all the realtors behind me, they will attest to it. >> But but Ry, I think we disagree, right? There's no there are no developers lining up to do anything in this town. Maybe residential properties go very
very quickly which is fantastic but that that property is sat vacant for for how long? Rocket has sat vacant for how long? There's not there aren't a lot of people looking to come into Waldwick to do anything. Well, maybe that's what I what I was trying to head to is really put together a committee that looks at
the next 20, 30 years and what we can do to do this, not just from a, you know, pilot, cutting budgets, you know, doing these sorts of things, but looking at things like how do we attract more business, attract more people to to Waldwick, right, that are going to
invest, reinvest into Waldwick, but at the same time figure out ways without raising our taxes so high because they are already extreme. extremely high to really give give our residents some tax relief and at the same time give us more
amenities. That has happened. You see it all around us. All the other towns have been able to figure that out whether they're doing shared services. >> Who's figured it out? We had Glen Rock had a 15% tax little town, right? >> Moa had a tax increase and they have more industry than all the towns around
here combined. >> I was had a large tax increase. >> I'm just throwing ideas out there. You're throwing ideas out, but you're also saying that all the other towns have figured it out except for us. Allenale has has five pilots and they don't have a budget problem. >> I said some people have figured it out, >> right? >> When and I was about to say before you
you you you started speaking uh shared services is a way to do this. >> Yes, absolutely. >> As you mentioned, >> we already have some and we're looking at others, >> right? But I also like to uh propose and I'm about to get stabbed here, maybe even discussing that with the board event. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Rick. This is a big pair of shoes. Um, Tammy Moses, I'm not a Democrat and I'm not a Republican. I just vote for the right person. Um, this I think really is blowing my mind that like two
months ago you started talking about this pilot. Okay, the, you know, the redevelopment is a done deal. Okay, we're getting this big condo. are getting, you know, businesses on the bottom, whatever. That's a done deal. But nothing was talked about in a pilot,
which means why should this developer pay part of the money? And you, I know you've explained it, but to me, I'm not a rocket scientist, >> but it just doesn't seem right. Why do we all have to pay full taxes every year and this guy pays a portion of it? It
It's just does it seem possible, >> right? It doesn't It doesn't. Right. So, people who who are wealthy building uh >> why me? >> People who are wealthy who are building projects and trying to make income off of it, right? And and me and you are paying our full taxes. I get it. But the
the problem is, right, a business, you're a business owner. You don't you're not in business to lose money. >> No. >> Right. So, they have to build a property. They had to acquire properties that were already owned by somebody else. They weren't free properties. the burrow didn't own them, right? So, they
had to go spend money in this economy, in this market that Ray was talking about, probably overpay for that land. So, they have to pay for that. Now, they have to develop what we tell them they're allowed to develop. That would be like me telling you what you're allowed to sell on your store. Right?
But what I'll finish, right? So, that we tell them what they're allowed to build. You have to build us a low density. You have to include lowincome housing. So now they put all those rents on a piece of paper and they take them to their bank and their bank says I can't approve
this project because you don't have the cash flow to make the payments that I I require. So they have two options. They can come back to us and say borrow I can't do this at this um density. I need more. I need 60 units. I need a 100
units. And we're going to say we're Waldwick. We don't want a six-story building, right? We don't want that. So, no, I can't let you do that. >> And they're gonna say, "Okay, you need to >> What's that?" >> Then what would the developer do? >> The developer can either sit on the property and do nothing. >> Mhm.
>> Or try to sell it to somebody else who will probably come and ask for a pilot. >> But why should the town be voting on the pilot? Don't you think the residents >> voting on the It's not legal. >> It's not something that can go into a >> See, like I don't know this kind of
stuff. And yeah, I was the one on Facebook blurting and and on the soap box. That was me. But I'm not into this kind of stuff. And when I when I know when I read about this, I was really picked, >> right? >> Why should everybody, especially our seniors, have to pay full taxes?
>> Seniors don't pay full taxes. >> Whatever. I know, but you know what I'm saying. They have to pay every year. So do. >> So, but the the idea here, >> just it just really bothers me, >> right? So I it bothers me. >> They got more money than we do, >> of course. But the idea is right at some point race correct. We're not going to
see pilot money tomorrow. They have to finish it. They have to start having >> probably back. You know, they'll probably drag their feet. Oh, the door knobs aren't on yet. We can't, you know, open it. >> Would you not want to open your business as fast as possible? >> Yeah, but they they're going to drag their feet. >> Of course, there's always construction
delays. We're not going to see that revenue until they start getting rentals and they till they start seeing that. >> But Tam, we can control the timing in the It's in the redvelment. >> It's in the redevelopment agreement. So there what >> there are safe there are safeguards that dictate that they need to start and complete construction within a specific
time frame and um and if not they break the redevelopment agreement. But here's my thing, you know, like nobody [snorts] knew this. Half this town probably didn't even know what a pilot program was. >> Does anybody here know what a pilot? >> Correct. So Tammy >> pilot >> Tammy >> two months ago
>> Tammy that's not true. Right. So the fact is about 6 months ago the developer and go back further in time we had residents over a year ago come to the council and start talking about a pilot before the developer even asked for one.
So we could have spoken it into existence. Number one. Number number two. So several months ago, six months ago or so, they presented for a pilot. We had at this council meeting, Phoenix Adviserss came in and did a
presentation. >> I never come to a council meeting. Always watch them on Zoom because I open my mouth. >> So they they gave a presentation. >> Open my mouth. >> And you're allowed to open your mouth. They gave a presentation on what a pilot program is. I didn't know what a pilot program is either until about 6 months ago until I started doing studies.
>> But I feel we're going to be stuck with the extra taxes that you know the taxes are going to go up. We're going to be [laughter] stuck with it and if we do a pilot down on Houston Avenue that's more >> well we said there would be no pilot on Houston Avenue. >> Okay. I just mean I think that's why I'm pushing back. We don't know that taxes are going to go up and in fact we're
doing that and in fact we're doing this to avoid further taxes going up. Well >> I think we're still going to be tax but I have a question. doing a financial analysis and that's the decision that's what we're going to base our decision on. We've hired >> financial experts to do an analysis to
show us and and hopefully at the next meeting and I know everyone's frustrated you haven't seen it but hopefully at the next meeting we'll be able to present the financials end to end to show you what we're looking at. But I promise you the the premise of all of this is so that we don't have to continue raising
your taxes 10% every year. Okay. The thing is >> I'd like a show of hands. Who voted for this p for this? >> We haven't voted on vot the redevelopment. >> Every council member from the last >> unanimous last multiple multiple
councils. >> Okay. >> But um I just I just kind of thought it was wrong having a meeting the night the week before this meeting. >> That was a club that was completely >> Yeah. But still it was just kind of ironic. political club. It was a
political club. The other side could have also had a meeting. Hey, the EMS could have like the public safety could have had a meeting. >> And my last my last comment is there's plenty of businesses in town here. >> Yep. >> That are vacant. >> Yes.
>> Okay. Do you think these are going to get filled quicker than the ones that are vacant? >> Well, the idea is to bring in more business, right? >> More people. More people. more people >> and more people. >> So they're not they're not being filled right now, right? Aid is is been vacant
for multiple months. >> Not the little ones, >> you know, >> little ones, right? So the the place the uh flavor on fire has gone out three different times. People aren't supporting it. >> There are there are places that are killing it in town. Try to go to W's, Nelly's,
Elasta, uh to go get dinner at some point and and they're crazy busy on a Friday night. Charlie's Place, you know, Bagel Nash on the line on a Saturday morning's around the corner. There's there's there's uh plenty of business in Waldick that kill it and do great. But what we need to do, we all talked about
wanting to have a food market in town. We didn't have one for for a while when uh the farmers market went out. Now we have the food emporium. Everybody was excited to have that in there. And you know, they're going on Facebook saying, "Well, help me. How do I do better for you?" Yeah, because I drive past there
and the parking lot's empty. >> Yeah. >> Uh, you know, maybe if there's 40 new homes there, 40 new people, maybe they need a place to go shop and they're going to walk to food important. Maybe they're going to come and get ice cream at your place right across the street. >> Maybe not. >> Look at the railroad across the street,
>> right? That's on the other side. That's hard. This one [laughter] STILL WANT THE FARMERS MARKET or the emporium. They're going to have to walk over that rickety old trestle that's all rusted. >> Yeah. Don't start me on that. So, well, that's another subject. >> But anyway, I just want to know who's
who's running for council next this year. >> You are. >> That's right. >> Is running for council. >> Andy, >> you'll never see me do it again. >> Huh? >> You'll never see me do it ever again. >> Well, [laughter] >> this is my last year. I promise you. >> I just I just had to speak my peace
because most of the people who talked to them, they didn't know about this pilot. And then two week two months ago you know all of a sudden >> well that's when the developer >> what's this oh they're going to raise access all that >> that's when the redevelop but that's when the redeveloper submitted for a pilot right we can't assume that the
redeveloper is going to submit for one when they submitted for it that's when the process started >> well that should have been brought up a long time ago >> it was right we we sat at this meeting we had people here >> it was really quiet >> it was in every council meeting there was a there was a gentleman that came here every meeting and I give him credit
because I learned from him. He gave me some things to go research. I give him credit because he was very persistent about it and coming every meeting. He was here every almost every council meeting asking about what we were going to do for a pilot program. >> Wow. >> So that was not >> I don't think it stinks that he does he
has to pay or she has to pay a portion we have to pay for and that's all I'm saying. >> But they're but they're they're paying a portion of their revenue. >> It's not of their taxes. >> And then what if they don't fill them all? Well, there's safeguards in the redevelopment agreement. And also at that point, right, there's a couple things.
>> We can't get less than we could get. Right. Right. Correct. >> The bank has to >> the bank has to keep them going, right? They have to make enough money to keep the bank or the bank will repossess the property. We also have condemnation rights on the property. You know, there's a lot of safeguards in there
that help. And if he's killing it and making a lot of money and going over 12%, >> then he's got to pay >> profit. He's got to pay more. >> Okay. Well, then good. let them pay more because they should be pay more. >> And it has to be audited financial statements. It can't just be I made $5. It has to be an audited financial
statement that has to be submitted. >> This kind of seemed a little bit, you know, like little, >> right? Thank you, Tammy. >> Thank you. >> Next. >> Hi there. >> Hello. >> I'm Sharon Corbett, Lotus Lane in town here.
I'm the former project manager. Okay. I'm just gonna lay that out on the line. And I'm from the south, so I'm just going to use my southern accent. But anyway, I don't have a problem with the pilot itself. What I'm more concerned about is
I'm not hearing contingency plans if something breaks, if something fails. >> Meaning >> meaning okay, you're using status quo uh numbers and everything for the students. That's great. uh we're we're not taking into account, oh major floods could happen, oh
snowstorms, unbelievable snowstorms can happen and everything like that. Where is the money that it we're getting on a monthly basis or yearly basis, where is it going to be fed into in the uh budget? >> Our operating budget. >> Your operating budget. Okay. So if for
some reason something happens and couple of trees fell down by the school and now school's going to cost some, you know, additional things and everything, you're going to pull that money out. >> No. So the school would have if the if trees fell down, the school would have insurance which would pay for that.
>> Okay. Well, I mean, I'm hoping to God we do, >> right? >> And everything, but you know, I we we need to know we need to know >> where the money is going. Y >> how it's going to be fed in if there's problems. Mhm. >> And you know, we don't want taxes raised. And I know you said, "Oh, no.
We're not going to have that." Taxes will always be raised. >> Always will always go up. >> What what what bothered us was we're hearing, "Well, you know, they're not going to pay taxes until 10 years down the line, but yet we're going to be
okay." And I'm just worried that we don't have a plan. And also the second thing, well, first of all, I'm glad that Allenale has five pilots and everything, but if they jump over the Washington Bridge, we don't need to go. I'm just saying that.
Um, the the other thing too is for God's sake, uh, yeah, we have a CPA that's going to check the books and and that's good. However, I looked up I learned about the uh you know the pilot today
and it says that really the best way to go for any town is to work with the PFAF which is the local government services that deal with pilots to make sure strict audits are in place. Now the big
concern and maybe that's what happened at Hackinack and what happened in these other places was that I'm not saying this developer is going [clears throat] to do that but they understated the revenue at one point and they also put in uh
inflated costs so that their pilot payment was less. And if they jiggle the books and they hand it to the CPA and the CPA looks at it, says, "Well, let's see. This adds up. That adds up. Oh, you're fine. We're screwed."
>> So, you don't think a CPA who's a public servant has >> CPA can do a lot of things, but I also trust I I like to trust our government agencies. >> So, let's let's ask Anna for a second. Anna, what what are the requirements for the financial audits? Where do they have to go?
They they have to be um prepared by CPA and they are um authorized. >> Okay. But what about the state getting involved too? >> The state doesn't get involved. >> Well, they should be because they have a whole department for it. >> But have y'all knocked on the door at
least? They said, "Look, that's not our job. That's not what we do. Good luck. You got it all in impaired." But did we even knock on her door? >> But they're audited statements. So, the the state has prepared this legislation, right? The long-term >> Yeah. In fact, they're also made a new
legislation that I don't know if you heard about, but if it gets passed, your developer will have to send them the report of their employees paychecks to make sure that what if they're saying, "Oh, I've got, you know, 150,000 in cash here and everything. They got to pay my
employees." Great. >> That's actually what they get. If that gets passed, you should also make sure that's in part of the contract, too. that they have to they abide by what the state says. >> Concious. >> Well, they will. They will abide by all legal rules.
>> Well, I hope they do and there's a process in place. >> I had an uncle promised me he'd never drink. And then I found him on the side of the wall drinking up his bottle of beer. >> But he promised me and he said he wasn't going to do it, but by God he drank it and he said, "Wonder what happened to
it." >> Anyway, >> it's hard to argue with a southern accent like that. >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm from San Antonio. >> I like it. I like it. >> And uh you know the thing is you know I just want to make sure that when you go through the effort and you're going to
present it, you get all these people involved and we walk through and we figure out that not only are we ready for this, but this is what we do if we have problems because that's a biggie. I I I hope I hope that we can uh present
that at the next meeting and take the feedback and okay comment. >> Don't make me wear my waiters here and everything. I I >> I have to be stepping in a lot of stuff I don't need to set into. You know what I mean? >> I think that would make for an interesting meeting. I appreciate it.
>> Okay, so that's it. I'm going to go do my twostep and sit down. >> Thank you. [snorts] That That's a hard one to follow, folks. >> Hi, my name is Jackie. I just have a genuine question. [clears throat] Just genuinely want to understand better. So,
please be compassionate. If there were kids who entered Crescent and somehow were all in the same grade level, say they were in my daughter's grade level. >> Yep. I I genuinely want to know where and the teachers went to the principal to the superintendent said, "Hey, listen. We we need another teacher for
this grade level." Where would that what what would be the thought of where that money would come from? The school board just combined my daughter's grade level, cut a teacher, can't afford to hire another teacher. >> They're down. They're combined. My daughter's class just went from 14 kids
to 22 23. There's only two second grade teachers now at her school. they shifted things around to accommodate other grade levels, whatever was going on that I'm not privy to. But I I if for some reason, you know, and then people come, people go and they all end up being
>> in a grade level, you know, what are the odds? But and the board came to you and said, "Hey, we need some money to hire a new teacher or I what would that process look like? What would happen there?" >> So, I I can't speak for what the board of education would do, but I I imagine this is what the process would look like
a little bit, right? Right? So, they have a cap of what they're allowed to raise taxes every year, 2%. If it came to their um knowledge that they needed another teacher in a certain grade, either they're going to reallocate resources or if they need to go over and
above that 2% cap, they need to apply for a waiver. I forget what the name is. Um, President Maro and I think C um Trusty Frey talked about what that process was to go over that cap. If they go over that cap, they could get approved. So if that were to go over
that, then the increase in tax would fall to the to the burrow to accommodate an additional expense. >> Okay. So then, right, that would have >> right. So an additional teacher, we talked about earlier, right? About $15,000, >> right? So they would so they the the
programs wouldn't work together. They would kind of be on their the board of ed would kind of be on their own to do what they would >> Board of Ed would have to make up their budget. They would they would create their budget. if they passed their budget, it would get submitted to the to the um to the town and we would have to pay it. >> Is there a provision like the pilot
program that says, "Hey, this Waldick specifically, maybe Aladdel doesn't do that. We we can siphon off a small for emergencies for the school system." Is there, you know, I know somebody had said that it's not part of it or it's it's, you know, not something that they do, but is there something in there
where it's like, you know, this this could happen? Well, listen, there there's always things that this burrow and the board of education have done together. We share services with them. We pay for SLOs's in part for for the for the board
of education. So, there's always ways to help the board of education or to do other things that are not part of the budget. So, will I sit here and say that we can put that in a piece of paper on the pilot? No, because it doesn't belong there legally. But can we do something to help the board of education in a
couple years? Absolutely. We always have. >> You know, when there's when when the construction happened to do all that, we waved every single permit fee. >> Sure. >> Right. That takes money out of the taxpayers's pockets to pay for that. Yep. >> Right. That's not free. Um so that happened, right? If if we cut the grass
at Trap Hagen, if our DPW guys do that, that's not free. That that costs that cost money to do that. They we utilize the same gas service that's paid for by by the council. It's not free. That happens. The CEOs aren't free. That happens. So, these are things that that we do in conjunction with the board of
ed. And we would always help the board of ed. There are kids, too. My kid goes to Waldwick High School. Uh Mike has um [clears throat] kids here, but not here. Katie might have kids someday. Councilman uh Councilwoman Smith had a kid that went through the the program. Councilman Bick has grandkids that
probably go through the program. Councilman Windgate has people in the program. So, we all want the schools to be funded for sure. >> Right. >> Um, and we'll always work with the school >> right there. You know, that was a draw of us moving to Waldo. Has is there a way for us to know if the board of ed
reached out for for the upcoming school year of, you know, they said that they couldn't >> listen the the upcoming school year has nothing to do with a redevelopment or a pilot at this point, right? And uh um uh coun um board of ed president Maro at
the last meeting that we had said they already had a $ 1.9 million budget problem for next year. He said that publicly. Right. So that's already a shortfall and we haven't even talked about pilots or anything else yet. >> Right. Right. >> So it's more work to be done.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> I'm on the education portion of this too. So hi, I'm Lisa Kilgallen. I am a teacher. >> Um, >> and I am in a district and a town where a pilot program right now has caused a bit of a struggle. So, I have some
experience on what's happening. So, I'm going to give you some scenarios to to think about. Um, so actually the best case scenario would be if we had 20 kids, they all went to one class and you had to hire one teacher. The worst case scenario is you get 25 30 kids that you
then have to place three kids in this class, four kids in this class, two kids in this class, five kids in this class into classes that have already been like that person before me was saying combined. So now not you don't have to hire one teacher, you have to hire five
teachers because you've now filled these classes so full that they can't sustain them and you have to split them. So, that's some food for thought. Um, when I was doing some pilot research, not only for my district, but for um tonight, I
did read that there are some places um that have advanced ordinances to permanently dedicate portions of pilot revenue to public school infrastructures, capital funds. Now, I know capital funds, they have to use them for certain things, but they can
move it in ways that they can do that um you know, that gets approved, etc., etc. So, um, and then I also learned that there is a Senate bill, which I heard someone address over here, um, that I did not have a chance to read, but I'm encouraging all of you to read it to
maybe we can get ideas from that to get ahead of this kind of problem, which is a very real problem. And if we are already seeing not just Waldwick but every school district in all of New Jersey is suffering um from budget problems
because of the rising cost of health benefits costs that we cannot control. Um we really need to get ahead of we need to get ahead of this. So um by reading into what things have been proposed um I really think we need an
agreement in place to protect the schools. I think it's great that we say we've done it in the past. We've helped them. And I'm not saying that to be sarcastic, Joe. Right. >> I it is it's wonderful. But >> the problem that we're having um under this pilot is not only is the school
going to the town, the police department is going to the town. Everyone is now going and saying, "Well, we need some of this pilot money." So, if you don't look at it ahead of time and say exactly how many kids are in each classroom, exactly how many officers do we have to patrol
these areas, exactly how much, if you're not really digging into those numbers and looking at what extraund and something people, 20 kids in each class, if you're not looking at those real numbers, it's it is going to come back and it's going to be a problem,
>> right? Um, so from my understanding is that there is no agreement reached with the board of ed right now. >> That's correct. >> Correct. Okay. Correct. So I highly encourage you, please, please, please, please look into that. Make, you know, really dig into real actual numbers, not
um hypotheticals. Find out how many kids are in each classroom. Find out how many, you know, what what the limitations are. I don't know how many kids can be in a class in this district. I haven't read their contract. I don't know what their guidelines are. Um, but
those are very real scenarios that are going to come up really fast. So, you did say that you fund 100% of the budget. Correct. So, that's the approved budget. Correct. That's >> correct. >> So, these people who like people who come in after and like she was saying
catastrophes and things that happen, those are not budgeted things. >> So, that would leave the school in a bigger shortfall than they all are already in. So if we get 40 kids who come in that were not budgeted for, even if you are saying to us you're going to
pay 100% of what was budgeted for, that still leaves those 25 kids or 40 kids, whoever showed up at the door that were not budgeted for that you're not taking into account for. >> Well, I I I'd say a couple things there. So one, those kids are not coming in
tomorrow, right? So for approved budget for 202627 school year if I would imagine that they the board of ed would look at their budget when that pilot was or that building was close to being developed and take into account the potential for increased students and
take that into their budget. I I'd also point to the fact that our enrollment is is still below what it was 3 years ago. And even if we took 30 kids and added in, we'd still be below the enrollment of where we were 3 years ago. And during those three years, the budget still
continued to go up. So I'd argue that it's not proportional, right? So enrollment came down a little bit. So maybe um you know, there's something there that uh that doesn't add up to what the budget is coming back to. I think that the board of ed has been
responsible and always increasing to their cap every year so they can keep bringing in as much dollars as possible, which is what they should do. Um so I applaud them for that 100%. But it's not directly proportional to the number of students. If I look at that, if the number of students are
coming down, even if I go back 10 years, it's probably even less as more kids. I think when our kids graduated, the the class was was bigger than what they are now. Um, so if it's not proportional, how do I do that? And you hit the nail on the head when you said it's coming
from the state and the state health insurance. And you I'm telling everybody here, all of our voters, if the state doesn't do something to change that health program, all small towns, all booster vets are in the [snorts] same trouble that we are, and they're going to all be scrambling
to do stuff, whether more shared services or whatnot that come of it. But the state needs to do something to give all of us some relief. It's it's a fact. >> Yeah, I think Governor Cheryl needs to do something today. >> I I do have a question. Is our board actively uh or council, I'm sorry, I'm
I'm usually a board event. Our council, are you actively petitioning the state in any way about on that topic about um health benefits for town? >> Send a resolution after the last meeting. >> Yes. Okay, good. Thank you. Um uh okay
so on a different note um I also learned that well so you mentioned several businesses that are not surviving or are are are empty uh I don't have I'll I'll just say right aid odyssey etc etc over and over
again so when I was doing my research as to what the benefits for a developer was like what why would they want a pilot it said that [clears throat] they get protection ction from market downturns because pilot payments are frequently calculated as a percentage of
actual rental revenue. The developer's tax liability drops if the building suffers from vacancy. Is that is that true what I what I learned? And what are we doing to protect ourselves if that is the case? Since we can't already fill the
businesses that we have, what if that they open, they have six businesses that they can't fill. What are we doing to safeguard our town? >> If you want to take anything out about the redevelopment, I mean the retail is
a small portion of that development. First of all, it's like how many square feet? I can't remember 4,000 ft of retail space. So, the majority of the building is um lease, rent, apartments, and condo and town houses. So the taking
the experience from what has happened at the station across the way, it's fully occupied. We anticipate that those rentals would be fully occupied as well. And and that's what's in in the agreement. As far as the retail, great point. We don't know how quickly that
retail will be filled. And I don't know what's in the uh protections in the redevelopment plan for around those percentages. I don't know if Anna, if you could look into that or come back to us on that. >> I can look into that. But one of the um there's 5,000 total square feet of
retail, but one is already an existing barber shop. So, it is a very small portion, but I can look into that would be helpful because I I do think that's a very um viable I mean that's we've we've we've seen in town that we have a hard
time and it's not just our town. You drive through Rididgewood, there's space after space after space that's open any town, every town around us. So for us to imagine and and pretend that they're just going to fill up and give us all this money, I think that as an
assumption is a dangerous one to um to use towards the um >> so we Yeah. So we you know I I think it's it's I'd be I'd love to hear your feedback. We were really trying to envision a scenario where, you know, from end to end on Prospect, we had
retail that kind of matched across the street. Um, you know, to to to do two things. One, diversify kind of what's down there, but but two, uh, avoid kind of the overcrowding of of the apartments. So, um I hear your concerns
about the retail, but uh the alternative is to just put apartments there and that's going to only increase the number of people, students potential, and then it's just going to it's going to chop up, you know, kind of what I think we're trying to achieve with this kind of
quaint downtown uh view. So, uh I hope >> and for the record, I'm I'm all for it. In a perfect world with my I am all with you. I would love to. And some of you probably even saw my comments on Facebook when I was talking to whatever the giant market what's whatever the
market is now saying, you know, they need to get what we want in that store. They need to listen to us as, you know, town folk because I really um I had high hopes for them and I do. So I I'm I'm with you. I hope it takes off. But having
experienced it firsthand in this district that I am in and seeing when they did not do due diligence and ask the questions that I'm asking. Nobody asked in our town and all of a sudden everybody's like, "Well, everyone has their handout asking for that pilot money." And the town council is now
saying, "Well, how do we figure out who we're giving it to?" So, you need to figure out the plan of who you're going to give it to and how you're going to give it to them before you just blanketly say yes to this builder. And one of the things that the develop the um financial advisor did was do a performer, right? So take the potential
income to the bureau and do an analysis of what would be the percentage of additional operating cost that we might have and take that away as our potential benefit. So if uh the chief came to us and said I need to add another officer because of all this or DPW needed
additional um services for whatnot and we factored that into what D.