west Star and welcome to the township council meeting for April 22nd 2025 for those in the Zoom audience we are coming live from Council Chambers 66 Main Street at this time I'd like to turn the council meeting over to council president
thank you Mr fagan welcome everybody to the council meeting can everybody hear me out there nope i can see somebody shaking her head how about now how about now okay uh we're ready to
start the meeting Madame Clerk thank you this is to inform the general public that this meeting is being held in compliance with section 5 of the Open Public Meetings Act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to the Star Ledger and filed in the
Township Clerk's Office on January 7th 2025 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on January 16th 2025 councilwoman Castelino present councilwoman Gberel present councilwoman Ruden here councilwoman Scarpa present
council President Kroia present mayor McCartney thank you don't you usually announce it's time to say the pledge of allegiance oh not now oh so it's back to me okay
thank you you're on and draw on so as part of our conference agenda we have a a pair of traffic consultants who have looked at the uh parking uh situation here in town and have come to give a comprehensive report there'll be two
people uh the first one uh uh dynamic traffic is I don't want to botch the name I'm sorry uh John McCormack and then he will be followed by uh Jerry Giosa and we are ready to go mr
mccormack please good evening everyone good evening we are happy to be here as you heard my name is John McCormack i'm with Dynamics Traffic i have with me Jerry Giosa with Level G Associates and Nicole Dah who is
our project manager for this project and I will tell you we've been looking forward to this day this has been nine months in works um we've had numerous stakeholder meetings we've been in town I don't know how many times driving up and down videoing looking at different
things uh number of meetings with the police the fire uh with Meg when Meg was here um obviously administration etc to try to talk about the parking challenges uh that you're seeing in West Orange what we have here this is a high-level
summary presentation of a report that we put together which is in its final 99.5% it's almost ready to be finished but it's sitting next to the call it's almost as big as sheet it's this thing uh it's got all the backup um all the information that we've
collected all the detailed recommendations the discussions and everything that you want to know about it is in that physical document this is going to be about a 15 to 20 minute slideshow 15 20 slides even just kind of goes through our process goes through
our recommendations at a very high level so that you know what's in that report that way when it comes for implementation you'll have already got a flavor of it so um like I said with that um why don't we why don't we get going
um again this is really a framework this report for the town to move forward um what we noticed was there was a lot of unhealthy parking practices um and a and a significant demand in a lot of the residential areas that we're
trying to address uh with our recommendations so with that just a real brief outline of what we're going to do tonight the methodology of our of our study uh the key findings and recommendations and you see we broke it up into a couple different sections one is the residential streets the next is
the on street meters and business districts uh and the other is municipal parking lots so all three of those high level topics have been addressed separately uh Jeremy's going to get into the enforcement and the finance and the governance and then we can take take
some questions and uh identify what the next steps are so just really quickly the methodology uh the study areas and the critical zones that we looked at were significant there were three study areas broken into 13 or so zones it included
16 municipal lots five business districts not five lots by business districts it was significant um we we basically went through a information gathering process where we looked at all the information ZF could
dig up ordinance standards roadway widths uh municipal parking lot plans inventories the permitting and the regulations and restrictions within those lots all that information was gathered and tabulated we were here uh two full days they were like 12 to 16
hour days Thursday and Saturday in September uh very nice weather days when the town was busy we saw the parking activity not only on the weekdays you know morning afternoon and evening but also on the weekends so that not close enough Mr mccormack yes you're a mind
reader as well okay I can see that coming um and then as I mentioned numerous stakeholder meetings so briefly the findings on the residential streets there's a parking demand there's a very high parking demand on the residential roads uh those
fully occupied streets they result in limited maneuverability uh a lot of those streets that have the high demand have limited driveways so there's limited options for people to pull over to bypass if an emergency service vehicle comes through the situation gets
even uh even a little bit more hairy there are some inconsistencies in the restrictions um there's alternate side um parking versus street sweeping streets there's just a general inconsistency across the whole town as to how we handle uh the parking that's
set up which leads to confusion enforcement challenges etc uh the road widths most of which uh are fairly narrow and those nar those narrow streets um with a heavy demand obviously pose an emergency service concern roads
less than 30 ft in width often are too narrow to allow two-way travel with parking on both sides which is why you have some of the alternate side and you only have parking on one side so we trying to address these geometric
challenges plus the demand that we saw out there the recommendations for the residential streets like I said at a very high level are one to convert certain roads to one way so certain roads that are currently two-way and I have a list of them coming up in the
slide are are proposed to be converted to one way what that does is it allows parking to to be accommodated on both sides and it allows efficient circulation and smooth traffic patterns um the second is to adjust the
restrictions on some of the streets um some of the streets that have alternate side parking are going to go to street sweeping instead so that we can utilize both sides of the street for parking most of the time with the exception of the small street sweeping windows um
there seemed to be some outlying uh restrictions there was some outdated uh time time and day and and months of the year restrictions it was kind of we kind of uncovered a little bit of a patchwork you know after 50 years of putting the
parking plan together there's a little bit of patchwork that get happens so we tried to find all those little things and make them consistent and and remove the uh the unnecessary restrictions um permanent parking we know is already
being utilized we are recommending it be introduced in additional areas particularly in uh some of the residential areas where uh the streets are are deadend streets where there's not a lot of through traffic or there's
no through traffic and there's a very very high demand and just limited uh limited space uh to add parking and then there's also a couple areas where some of the commercial uses um impede on residential and they're trying to share
space so we're having some recommendations to address that with regard to permits and then ensure consistency it's basically just to bring everything in alignment it's to bring the signs the ordinances uh into alignment with each other so that they
can be enforced they can be uh regulated and just to make from you know one end of the town to the other make it just a little bit more uh consistent across the board uh so as I mentioned first the the first residential street recommendation is to convert from two-way to one way
and you'll see this is uh I have the number here there's about 22 streets some of which in the Heights some of which in the valley uh where we are recommending uh this conversion uh and this table just briefly shows the
streets as I said the report gets into all the detail you'll see which way we recommend a lot of these streets are streets that find themselves in a grid type of a network where the one street would be a northbound street the other street would be a southbound street and
you maintain the efficiency and the circulation of traffic in that way but and you also gain then the positives of smoother circulation smoother efficiency emergency response and you basically widen the road because you only need to accommodate uh the one direction of
traffic uh the other recommendation is to convert from alternate side which as you all know is Monday Tuesday half a day Wednesday or Thursday Friday and Saturday to a street sweeping restriction which is basically a 4hour
window one of the weekdays during the week so while we can't build more property in West Orange we can't build you know more parking on these residential streets what we're doing is we're going to use the curve that's there we're going to convert a lot of
these roads into the situation that these people deal with on Wednesdays when you have the the altered the flip day where some people are still parking on the east side and some people started parking on the west side so you have people parking on two sides and then on Sundays where it's allowed on excuse me
both sides so we're basically going to kick those allowances into effect for seven days with the exception of the small window for street sweeping so that's the benefit of converting from alternate side to a street sweeping
restriction and you see there's about two dozen or so uh maybe even more almost 30 or so rows you'll see on this slide uh we're very proud of this one column which says approximate number of spaces gained and
what that means is Monday Tuesday half a day Wednesday there are entire curb lengths of entire streets that are unused so we are going to put those curves back into use and the way you do that is you do that on roads that are
wide enough or you do that on roads where you convert from two ways traffic to oneway traffic so the total there is almost 450 spaces approximately are gained on a routine basis so we're no longer waiting for
Wednesday night or Sunday to use all those spaces and this is my last slide and I'll turn it over to Jerry but this is just a u a compilation of a few of the outline u restrictions and and uh
recommendations that we had you see a lot of them uh deal with permit parking uh some of them are just little cleanups as I mentioned some of the clean up of the inconsistencies but really this this final slide of recommendations is to implement permit parking system on on
several of the roadways throughout the town with that I'll introduce Jerry jerry will take you through the the on street the business districts the parking lots and then the the financials etc of of the plan
will you be coming back for questions i'm not leaving okay thanks uh so so my portion is going to deal with the uh primarily with the business districts where we have parking meters
and uh parking lots so uh so the issues that we uncovered and and we did the same types of studies in the business districts as we did in the uh in the residential we counted the number of
cars parking regular basis throughout the course of the day so we can we can understand the e and flow of parking and parking demand so what did we find we found out that um that many meters are either non-existent partially existent
or malfunction there's confusion whether I should be putting money in the meter or not why are there meters on this side but not having so inconsistency there there's some inconsistencies in terms of the
regulations from one business district to the other some have a 2hour time limit some have no time limit so uh in general when you're in a business district and other municipalities you would notice there's typically a one
hour or a few time limit to promote turnover of spaces and when you're not enforcing that uh what happens is you get residents you get business owners who uh who clog up those spaces which are intended to reduce by folks to shop
actually shop in the business district uh so again that's the the last bullet point there is we notice uh enforcement lapses so uh enforcement of the of the meters and of the time limits is not consistent again and it leads to misuse
of prime parties space in the business districts so you can see that in the five business districts in that chart on the right there approximately 146 spaces established by ordinance that
should be metered um and as a result of of the uh of the issues we observe uh it's estimated that those meters would be generating approximately 60 to 70,000 per year being
revenue so what do we do to turn this situation around we implement a fair structure we put the meters back in service uh at the at the existing rate not talking about any rate increases or anything like that we're just talking
about enforcing and implementing uh a rate fair structure that is already in the books uh improved signage would help to clearly convey regulations uh through improved signage time limits and so
forth uh again uh determine from one business district to another uh and be uniform in general uh there are certain time limits uh such as 15 minute and 30 minute your takeout
places that would would remain but um but in general a one or a twoh hour time limit in the business districts on the streets uh is uh is best practice again enforce regulations um you know on a
daily basis in line with industry industry standards and uh we are uh talking about adopting hybrid meter system uh whereas a lot of our current meters are outdated and damaged we would
remove all the meters and replace them with um an operation that uses kiosks and pay by app or pay by section application widely used throughout New Jersey uh we believe that the uh the
public is is used to seeing these systems and and uh and have already apps such as the park mobile and passport and things like that already loaded onto their phones um so this type of hybrid system would be uh it would it would
replace all of our antiquated meter stock so in the parking lots we found we had similar findings um again meter issues regulation inconsistencies enforcement lapses now the the municipal locks are a little different because um
you know they are kind of tailored to the uses that are immediately around them within a general um acceptable walking distance uh so we have um we have discussed in the report some tweaks
to the to the regulations and the municipal lots but um but for the most part the regulations and the municipal lots will remain as they are again the estimated revenue loss here um is is in the range of 55 to
65,000 uh so what are our recommendations in the lots again modify space restrictions to promote turnover uh implement a fair system adopt the same hybrid system using kiosks rather than meters uh improve
signage and enforce regulations this is just one example of the Georgia privileg so what's all this going to cost so here's getting into some of the economics now um the residential roadways that that John was talking about is basically an exercise in
signage striping uh and estimated cost of that is 100 100,000 the on street meters the base program is about 200,000 and then we have um you know other supporting uh supporting work that will need to be
done uh in terms of uh enforcement uh the the meters are need to be enforced on a license plate basis so uh so this enforcement system uh includes a vehicle with with license plate readers uh and
all these um uh these systems need to be integrated so we're estimating the cost of the program about $610,000 on line capital cost but there will be some recurring annual costs we
we've baked all these economics into a performance spreadsheet that we give you the results of in a little while uh but you will have ongoing costs such as meter communications data plans for tablets in the enforcement vehicles
hosting and software licenses service contracts these will amount to about 25,000 a year so how are we going to who's going to do all so uh so we looked at uh various administrative structures a
parking utility parking authority after after um discussing the pros and cons of every uh of every option available in the state of New Jersey um the group and the stakeholder group decided that a
good place to start would be with just the establishment of a parking department and that parking department would be overseen by primarily existing personnel which are shown in this organizational chart as the gray boxes
um the police department had uh had already budgeted for two park enforcement officer positions those are shown in the uh orange boxes the yellow boxes would be um would be new hires
that we also baked into the economics of our proformment and you can see one would be a supervising parking enforcement officer one would be another part-time parking enforcement officer and the third would be a parking ambassador who would who would basically
um be a full-time position and this individual would um understand read the back office of all the uh the information that becomes available uh through the kiosk through the enforcement systems run reports do
some clerical work and so forth so we put all of this financial data into a spreadsheet performer and uh the the the system as described would
definitely be problem with and u I've been doing financial projections department systems for the for many years and um and I'm confident that the system that was just described using the existing rates that you have 50 cents an
hour would generate over over 1.3 million in net revenue over the first five years and over a 10-year period um over 4 million so it uh so so the program I described
is financially so where do we go from here um we we prioritize the work again working with the you know munitional government and various committees determine what should we do first what
how should we get started uh then design the program uh put everything together for um you know for how it's actually going to be installed get the necessarily get the necessary approvals and working with the the township's
financial folks come up with a funding program so that is our the conclusion of our uh presentation and we are here to answer any questions you may have thank you to both of you you can both
come up here and field them together figure out who you have something for the council with more uh more um detailed numbers how you got to these uh yes I have a copy of the with me I don't
know if you want to ran that out yeah like I said this is a summary right so the report I'd like to know how you arrived at all it's all in absolutely all This is the maybe you can just distribute it to us i
don't I don't have Yeah well every every position is has indicated in here every new buyer um all the the monthly cost oh the mic the mic microphone please it's not just it's not just us here it's like constituents
who are interested thank you so this is a detail for that the question was uh you know how you know what is behind that summary sheet of the the and this is a tenure
this is a 10ear profile that I used and put together it has all the personnel listed it has all of the uh the revenue and the categories of revenue from uh which areas what what
classification uh it has all the operating costs personnel posting software licenses it's all included in the uh in the economic projections great thanks i look forward to seeing it
so the first thing um that you presented was that it would bring us in an annual revenue of 65,000 is that right from from the parking meters yes that would that would
be restored if we if we enforce and collect regularly from Right so how do you go from 65,000 to 1.3 million that's why I wanted the numbers uh well
we have added um a few meters here and there uh we are also uh including the uh the permit revenue in here the revenue that you collect from monthly permits uh
we're we're also including the enforcement revenue that we're going to get from writing tickets um and again we're not talking about a ticket blitz we're talking about enforcing these meters at an industry standard level so
that we promote compliance for people to put money in the meter and turnover of spaces as well so are you going to be requiring residents who live on streets that will need to be permitted to pay for permits
on their own street no only only the permits that are that are currently being charged for today are included in this projection okay there's no new fees contemplated yes so so just to piggy back off on that
um so there's two separate things happening the the first part of the presentation was the one-way streets and the mentioning of permits for the residential area and so those you know there's a process what we have now um
there is no fee for that what um Jerry's talking about is the other parking lots and the street parking strictly in the commercial areas primarily a lot of it's downtown but we also have the municipal lots up in the Pleasantale corridor as
well and what I I liked I was I want to thank them and Nicole as well they're great and and the administration and and our downtown director who is very knowledgeable with the street parking and whatnot because I mean this has been
a long time coming we have loss of revenue and we also have major parking issues right now we have business owners who park on Main Street because their lots are not conducive and you know they're they're hurting their own businesses because we don't have this
turnover with the meter parking so a lot of our issues that we have will go away uh what I hope will happen I'm going to ask council president when this is over i don't know how the administration wants to proceed but I was hoping that you know this is a lot of information
and a lot to absorb if you could um you know take the time and if there's other sessions that you need because there's a lot there but it's it's really great stuff i mean what they did and taking
our needs in the different areas especially downtown and the one-way streets it's was very professional and I think this really it's the right fit for us and I I just hope you be able to come
to that conclusion after you spend some more time on this obviously tonight is just a summary but I'm going to ask I hope all of you could take the time to dig deep uh with them and the administration because this solves a lot of our issues especially in the downtown
corridor thank you i was just a little concerned Oh sorry i was just a little concerned about creating this bureaucracy of enforcement is all of the are all of those positions necessary you know because those are you know
obviously the cost of an employee is not just the cost of an employee it's the long-term and the benefits and the retirement benefit you know that's one of the things that is very taxing on our budget well well currently uh what you have is a is a decentralized parking
system there's no um you know there's no real organiz organized effort to maintain your parking and to run it in a responsible fashion what you saw in the organizational chart
is centralizing parking operations to a a team within your within your uh government structure that will uh will take pride in the parking system and we'll we'll manage it uh and and learn
about you know the proper way um to uh you know to operate the parking for the benefit of all the people that use the system so I I don't see it as a bureaucracy i see it as a centralized department yeah just like you have
public works department you have a water department or you know whatever it may be this is just a parking thank you yes i just want to thank you for your presentation i'm very excited for us to implement um a lot of these
changes and it's much needed we get many complaints about parking especially in our downtown um and in the valley um also um over by Washington school area so this is this is going to be really great for the residents to have almost
over 250 extra parking spots is amazing and that's what our residents we need the parking so thank you guys so much thank you i just want to say that we we've worked in a lot of towns and communities throughout the state and we
got super support from from Zet and you know from you know from council and all the uh the village township officials so thank you thank you if I could follow up uh I wanted to ask you about stakeholders you used that word a couple
of times when you say stakeholders uh who exactly did you work with and did that include any community groups like people in a neighborhood especially where you want to turn two ways into one
ways objection to that yeah the stakeholder group at the level we were at was and Michelle maybe you could fill in if I missed uh it was administration jim was there police fire so it was it was administration of the
of the town we didn't get into a neighborhood group but we did get into the downtown alliance downtown um so you know yes the oneway conversions and some of those things there's probably still some public uh work to do to let them know of those
things yes like I said this is a framework this whole report is a framework for the the town to decide which ones we prioritize and how to go about all those things would have to come back to the council you know oneway street needs to come to the council all
that so this is not by any means you know the last time you're going to hear about it or the last time the public would hear about it so so it sounds like you were working with uh at least Councilwoman Castalino from the previous term council is that correct so so there
is some knowledge some intimate knowledge about what was going on okay the the reason I ask about the neighborhood groups is because I don't know whether anybody told you about the history here in West Orange but what we typically do is when somebody wants to have a one-way street we have a neighborhood meeting and we actually let
them vote on whether they want one way or two-way streets and historically I would say about twothirds of the votes fail particularly down in the really crowded uh areas uh along the eastern part of of the township uh because what
happens is there are people there who have driveways as as I'm sure you know now some of the homes there have driveways some of them don't and the people that have the driveways for some reason like to uh keep it the two-way and uh so what would be your
recommendation based upon your experience how do you how do you uh get people to agree to uh change their streets from two-way to one way yeah i think you have to pick the most appropriate streets you have to pick streets that have somewhat of a grid
system to them so that there are cross streets that are two-way um and it allows an efficient circulation that people will get used to like everything else the first week it may be confusing and you may say "Well I have to go around the block." But at as time goes
by you'll realize the benefit of having smoother traffic on your street emergency service access you won't have sidewiping and losing mirrors at night those kind of benefits will come to fruition so I think it's just a matter of uh educating people and as as the
parking demand gets more and more serious like I said we can't create more land in West Orange we're trying to most efficiently utilize the land we have okay just to again if uh I wanted to ask about the projections
uh because there was some question about the projections to the projections that you have do they include the employment of this team that you talked about yes okay now who else wants to ask questions just had a little follow-up question um
this the problem of the one-way streets because it is something that our residents do care about have you had that objection in other towns and how has it become overcome or is it unique to West Orange no it's definitely not unique to West Orange it's a matter of trying to create space so in in some
towns we're trying to create space for bike lanes in some towns we're trying to create space for parking or other things it's I mean the the roadway width is what it is right vehicle sizes are what they are so we just try to go through the the realistic uh situation and make
people realize you're never going to get 100% of people on a block to agree to anything so we know that so then it comes down to what is the public benefit what is the you know overall will of the public and sometimes it's a hard
decision but it has to be made you know for the betterment of the entire lot or the entire neighborhood um and it's just about getting information out there and and and you know like council president said we didn't have those down in the in the weeds meetings but that's what's
going to have to happen if those ideas become a priority for the county great well it's nice to know it's been overcome in other places absolutely everything's been overcome it's a matter of you know yeah thank you did you do any street evaluation around Satan Hall
um the the on on Prospect Avenue because that is an area where a lot of residents are complaining yeah we we did a ride along with the police and he showed us every area and showed us those are the seat hall kids and this is how we tried to address this
with parking and push them further and further out he said "Well there they are there's the Jeep you know the Jeep brigade you know the Jeep Wranglers." I'm like "Okay it's because that's they thought that was far enough but the kids will walk to get to school they want to have their cars." And so we have to work
through that but we did you know identify those roads and we have some recommendations on a few of them uh some of those are two-way one-way conversions and other things to try to create more space um but yeah and also around where
their um ball fields are on Mount on on Prospect Avenue you you evaluated that area as well okay yeah he he was throughout everywhere okay we have a big agenda thank you very much thank you so much and I'm sure
we'll be talking thank you i I just I just want to request too and and to all your points you know I think we have a community meeting at Edison Middle School you have something at Hazel that will help um
educate the the communities the neighborhoods but the past couple years and Z uh our director Corbal could attest to it is you know with with the past 50 years of the ordinance changes and there's been people now that
enforcement has kicked in after CO screaming about the tickets not having a place to to park i myself you know live live down the hill and you know time to time there's or many times people are
parking right up to the stop signs because they can't find a parking spot so a lot like I said there's a lot of problems that will be solved and it's a way we communicate to the public to get the buy in so thank you thank you Councilwoman we're going to move on
we're past the 7 o'clock start time for our public meeting madame Clerk this is to inform the general public that this meeting is being held in compliance with section 5 of the Open Public Meetings Act chapter 231 public law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to
the Star Ledger and filed in the township clerk's office on January 7th 2025 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on January 16th 2025 councilwoman Castelino present councilwoman Gberichel present councilwoman Ruden here councilwoman
Scarpa present council President Koviaak present mayor McCartney will everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance i aliance 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 the council is now in their public meeting good evening everybody the first uh first item on the agenda is public
comment i'm going to give you a little background on what we expect uh in public comment and then we'll get right to it our ordinance requires that speaker to first state their name and address
period uh the time limits requires conduct by public comment speakers who quote shall at no time engage in any personally offensive or abusive remarks the chair shall call any speaker to order who violates any provision of this rule end quote uh another part of the
ordinance is about the conduct of the public any person who shall disturb the peace of the township council make offensive or abusive remarks or conduct himself or herself in a boisterous manner while addressing the council shall be forth with barred by the presiding officer that's
me from further audience before the council except that if the speaker shall submit to proper order under these rules permission for him or her to continue may be granted by a majority vote of the council now under our ordinance you have up to five minutes to speak your peace
i'm big supporter of first amendment if you need the whole five minutes that's great if you can say what you want in two minutes or three minutes it will be gratefully accepted uh and also I just want to say uh I have found that if uh
you treat other people the way you would like to be treated it works out much better than if you give insults or curse so please go ahead name and address please thank you very much yes oh sorry i'm sorry excuse me we have two people who
have who have uh standing words yes yes before we get to the public so I apologize for misleading you if you'll just hold on we'll get to them mr fagan take it away president I want to advise you again i think you need to get new
classes but thank you for the recognition and good evening council president and your colleagues mayor and the administration uh this evening um I'm looking at the people that I know they want this evening uh Mr president I'd like to
start with an event that has already happened today uh of course today being April 22nd it was Earth Day volunteer opportunities i spoke to Laura Van Dyke earlier this evening and uh actually she just texted me to tell me what a raging success this day was and it's a credit
to our West Orange volunteer community there were 25 volunteers 15 of them from our junior rural DC under the leadership of Mayor Marcusini Major Marcini excuse me and they always are involved in all
our community events uh Brian Schwarz from I want to mow your lawn uh he there were over 10 homes that they did uh and a private home construction company cleaned two yards so uh once again this is a testimony to uh Laura Van Dyke and
Noelia and uh senior services and the coordination and so it was it was a great day and of course the weather cooperate uh I'd like to uh remind everyone it may seem a little bit early but Monday May 26th is our annual
um Memorial Day ceremony and on April 30th 1975 uh the fall of Saigon ended uh America's development of the Vietnam War so this year our theme is going to be we're going to honor uh we're going to commemorate uh the 50th anniversary of
the end of the Vietnam War by honoring Vietnam veterans and I've already spoken several of them who will be at the um ceremony and be participating in the event but I also want to put out an open call to uh we are seeking Vietnam
veterans uh from West Orange uh and elsewhere to participate in our West Orange memorial day ceremony and my email is up there uh you can contact me dating west.org or um you can certainly call
the mayor's office um and we had uh in 2017 we had the Vietnam travel in the wall and uh we honored during that time uh six uh West Orange veterans that were killed in Vietnam and we are going to
resurrect those signs and also to honor them at our event this year um April 26th is National Takeback Day uh um the county is sponsoring it there are I believe uh 23 pounds in Essis
County 21 of them are are are participating in this uh it's uh clean out your medicine cabinets outdated prescription drugs or any kind of drugs you can bring them in the lobby at police headquarters and no questions asked just bring them in between the
hours of 10 and two um and uh there are other police department now the other day I was driving and I seen a car pass this a school bus with blinking lights and I've seen this actually happen very frequently and I'm sure you have too so I included this tonight and I just
wanted to remind everyone that um it's it's not on the violation of the law but it's it's really a safety concern when the red lights are blinking on a school bus you are obligated to stop and the only exception to that is like the
divided highway uh on the divided highway like most of the streets if not all of them are on West Orange you see those yellow lights flashing if you're in a hurry just get up with you have to stop for that uh I also want to mention on our
website um there are uh at west.org there is a whole section devoted to uh happiness at the recreation department now there's just the recreation department is so busy so active that sometimes it's
impossible to really talk about all those things in this brief report so please check out west.org recreation department and find out there wonderful programs that our rec department offers especially as we're going into the uh to the spring uh and summer and nicer weather uh the
council connection uh April 24th from 6:00 to 7 no appointment necessary right here council chambers 66 Main Street and of course uh meet the mayor uh come in no appointment necessary may 1st 6 to 8 uh come in discuss your concerns
suggestions uh whatever it is that you might have to uh you might want to talk to the mayor council about um and Sunday May 4th there is the Lamp Beach trail hike this is sponsored by the West Star Open Space Commission
this is posted on our on social media so you can RSVP your your attendance um it's good a good opportunity to come out and enjoy the open air um Rock Spring Golf Club resident
discounts are available this is on our website um and it's uh Monday through Thursday uh all the details as I mentioned on our website uh residents can take advantage of this and enjoy the beautiful outdoors once again uh on a
historic golf place um West Orange Arts Council Garden State Arts and Weekend is happening April 24th um this is um all this information and more more information about this event can be found at
westarnarts.org and this is on our social media uh this is a New Jersey property tax relief i mentioned this at last meeting this is on our website and there's three programs in one combined application i'm sure this is a benefit to many of those
who are eligible for these programs finally this past Sunday I was not able to attend but the um if you recall the Anna Easter Brown marker was dedicated in front of the old West Orange public library now Anna Easter Brown graduated
West Orange High School in 1898 I believe and she uh went on to found be one of 15 founders I believe of Alpha Alpha which was the first black in the United States and um her marker had been
missing for a long time during construction but it was uh it was re rededicated this last Sunday and it's there and when you see it you understand what it's all about and you can contact all council members via email council westcar.org board and uh at this time
I'd like to turn the floor over to uh county collection hi I'm Nathan Lacy representing county executive Joe Deenzo joe took one item from my uh from my list which was drug takeback day which is April 26th uh 10
to two uh but all of the sites in Essex County are uh open 365 days of the year so if you can't make it on a Saturday you can definitely drop off at any time uh throughout the the 12 months um also on April 26th at Turtleback Zoo is a
sensory day for children and families who have sensory issues the zoo will open early at 9:00 a.m and there will be uh no sound so no train whistle uh the carousel will ride without any music and that's to accommodate uh children and
and other family members who like I said may have sensory issues um April 27th is our Earth Day celebration at the Environmental Center in Rosland that's from 11:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m host of uh eco vendors and organizations from
throughout Essis County um that can share uh tips on how residents can become more in tune with the environment uh and then on May 3rd is our household hazardous waste collection day uh from
8:30 to 4:30 uh that's for anything like bulbs uh fertilizer things around your household that that do contain hazardous material in them that we want to keep out of the waist stream uh that's a free event and then May 17th from 9:00 am to
3 pm is the computer and electronics recycling day obviously everyone gets new computers more frequently than they have in the past so people are always looking to get rid of them especially during spring with spring cleaning um both of those last two events are at our
uh public works facility in Cedar Grove at 99 Radford Avenue in Cedar Grove all this information is on our website which is ess.org thanks thank you thank you any
questions thank you Mr gleon now we can move to your public comment i apologize for not guiding you uh better i also just want to mention something that I' uh I figure if I'm asking if I'm asking the public commenters to uh try
to keep their talking brief that perhaps I could also suggest that we do that up here on the council deis because after uh they speak we have an opportunity to respond i would ask that everyone consider trying to keep their remarks to maybe
five or six minutes if at all possible for example you don't have to thank everybody by name who comes up and speak you can just say "Thank you everybody." And you've saved a lot of time i'm sure you can find other other ways to keep it short anyway please go ahead
so um can you hear me 1 2 3 4 5 i assume that nobody here name and address please samuel Ridgeway Kennedy i go by Ridge address is 28 Yale Terrace
it is known as Hedgehog House i don't think anybody here needs me to say anything about how noisy and annoying lawn care equipment can be you don't need to be sold on that do
you and I don't think I do think that you'd like to do something about it i saw uh I wrote a funny story i'll send you a link to it uh when uh one law was passed and it banned gasoline powered
leaf blowers and in my funny story I said that's not the problem gasoline is not the problem noise is the problem noise is measurable there are lots there are now multiple manufacturers that used
to be steel was the only manufacturer who made a 65dB uh leaf blower there are now multiple manufacturers who make them 65db sound is measurable anybody with a smartphone can
download a dB meter and you can have a ballpark idea i ran my little dB meter while we were in here the sound level actually did hit 65 from time to time it's not a continuous so that's different the bottom line is the nation
seems to be gravitating towards 65dB as a magic number make the don't try to solve the problem for the lawn care companies don't tell them what to do tell them to do whatever they
do quietly 65db and that was uh so point one was the noise point two is 65dB and my third point is if you tackle this again get in touch
with all the other towns in Essex County and let's talk about getting a countywide uh limitation on sound um have you ever heard somebody say "If you knew how much I pay in taxes," right you know it's a
laugh line my wife was a library director she knows what it's like please please help us reduce the sound equipment is available that works at 65 dB let's do this come on
thank you thank you Mr kennedy half time uh it's Samuel Ridgeway Kennedy thank you hi everyone my name is Oh thank you for the text thank you my name is Julia Greenberg i
live at 150 Watson Avenue which desperately needs to be one way so I will start with that um I'm here to talk with the council today about um immigration issues and real concerns about our immigrant community in the
context of the current political environment and to urge all of you to pass a resolution in support of the immigrant trust act we s currently have a directive but there is a push across the state to turn this act the directive
into a law which would protect all of us here in West Orange if it became a law it would ensure that there's clear separation between our law law enforcement here in West Orange and federal immigration enforcement by ICE who are carrying out the deportation
policies of the Trump administration it would also protect all of our personal information by limiting the circumstances under which public agencies can collect information related to immigration status and I know that our law enforcement officers know this already because they are following and
we've been assured that they are following the directive um this means that our local immigrant community could go to the DMV without fear of being deported they could enroll their kids in schools without fear of being detained and deported um they could get access to health care without this fear um and I
know this is a priority for the council it would ensure that our local resources for law enforcement would be directed to our local needs in this town not to um federal enforcement of immigration policies um I just want to quickly say this is not just an immigrant bill it is
a bill that would protect all of us places of worship schools hospitals are no longer exempt from ICE activity the situation is traumatic and chaotic for all of us and particularly for our immigrant community and we don't want to
see legal residents as we have seen across the nation get swept up in ICE raids detained and unable to actually bring their cases to court we don't want to see that here in West Orange we don't want to see our community members racially profiled because of the
xenophobia that's being stoked at the federal level here this can happen in West Orange if we don't ramp up our protections new Jersey is ground zero for the current government's effort to come after state policies that protect immigrants some of you will have seen that there is a prosecutor here in West
um in New Jersey that was appointed by the federal administration that is investigating Governor Murphy's immigration protection policies including the immigrant trust directive so even though I know here in West Orange we care about our immigrants and that we have called ourselves a
sanctuary town all of that is at risk right now and we can't take it for granted um it's great that we have the directive but the only way that we can make sure that the provisions of the directive can stick are as if they are laws and are passed by legisl as
legislators you should understand that it can't just be the signature of an executive um and also just to mention the our delegation to the state government supports the immigrant trust act our former mayor McKeon has um put
it on the the table for the state senate to um pass um and we wouldn't be alone we would be riding a wave of communities of conscience in um across the state who've called on the legislature to pass the ITA atlantic City Bloomfield
Chattamboroough Flemington Carney Leona Leonia Madison Marstown Planefield Patterson and Titan Trenton and West Orange should be next i really hope that you will consider this resolution um very seriously and since I had a role of working with some of the immigrant
organizations um in the state on drafting the resolution I'm happy to answer any questions if you want to move forward thank you thank you good evening my name is Frank Bars i live at 4 Ridge View Avenue first I
would like to thank the entire town council for voting in favor of bond ordinance 291525 on first reading at the April meeting u that was a great thing and a great accomplishment so thank you i'd also like to thank council member Ruden
for her response to my questions regarding safety measures as part of the road improvement project along South Valley Road and to thank council member Gabber N Gabbor Michael for her explanation of the administrative process and the council's
role in authorizing funding as well as the town engineering thank you very much for your information to summarize it is my understanding that with tonight's vote to approve bond the bond ordinance on the second reading the contract will be awarded at the first council meeting
in May and that before the second meeting in May all necessary certified documents will be submitted to the Department of Transportation once the contractor provides a bond the contract is then reviewed by the engineer and forwarded
to the mayor for sign off and the reason I'm mentioning this is because a lot of times we don't know what this process is so I appreciate your indulgence a pre-construction meeting is then scheduled with submitts and follow-up approval contractor then submits a
traffic control plan to the police department for approval prior to the start of work starting date is confirmed between the engineer and the contractor and at that time a letter is sent to residents informing them of the project
so there's not a lot that that happens prior to that in terms of informing the town about what the project involves further it is my understanding that calming measures including signs striping LED push button signs are
planned for Silver Spring Ridge View Mer Lawrence and Tmont but those are they will not be implemented until the project is completed so is this enough i don't think it is um while a traffic light along South Valley
may not be practical a three-way stop at Tmont and South Valley would slow traffic considerably coming from both directions combine that with calming measures at the other locations it may put pedestrians in better control of
their safety than they are now finally the question becomes what do we do in the interim between now uh during construction and once the project is completed to provide the needed safety
measures for this area put in more speed alert signs or move the ones now in place to more strategic positions that's possible uh periodic police surveillance hopefully resulting in writing speeding tickets uh assisting crossing guard
assigning crossing guards at key locations during high traffic days uh parking a police car in a noticeable spot along South Valley i I've seen that i don't know how effective that is any of these measures would help would be a a step toward greater safety in the area
and just in case anyone is questioning the need for increased safety measures in this area according to a private law firm hired to conduct a a series of statewide surveys in 2023 Essex County experienced the highest number of
pedestrian fatalities in the state 24 deaths the county also reported the highest total number of pedestrian related crashes with a total of 138 incidents due to its dense urban environment and
high traffic volume we need better infrastructure and we need better enforcement to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes finally our representative government gives each of you the responsibility to work in the best interest of us your constituents
you were elected to the office of town council and we trust you to do your job but by the same token the residents of West Orange are paying in part for this improved road work and these safety measures and we should expect to have some input in this process i look
forward to this project getting off the ground to its completion and encouraging you all all of us to do what's best for West Orange thank you thank you Mr for us hi my name is Eric Hammonds and I live
at 13 Carter Road i'm here to speak on two important agenda items and urge their swift passage uh both of these agenda items speak to the core tenant of our town being an inclusive and welcoming place a place that doesn't allow hate and fear of those that are different to permeate through government
and legislation they positioned West Orange as a proud town that is welcoming boldly inclusive and protects all of its residents first is a single occupancy genderneutral bathroom bill which is up for second reading um the ordinance rather um I can think of no simpler
piece of legislation to for this town to pass as you know this ordinance will require all publicly accessible single occupancy restrooms to display a genderneutral sign in other words it ensures that restrooms available to the public and used by one person at a time are not restricted based on gender it
has little to no impact on businesses and the public at large but increases bathroom access and equity for women parents disabled individuals members of the LGBTQ plus community this really is a no-brainer um we're all used we've all used bathrooms on an airplane I assume
yes um no complaints other than perhaps the smell and turbulence um yeah it's really the same thing that's it why not provide greater access and make our community more inclusive single occupancy genderneutral restroom bills have been passed in Maplewood Montlair Jersey City and Princeton and and an
executive order was was issued in Hoboken many have been in place for years new York City since 2016 and the entire state of New York since 2021 California since 2017 such legislation removes arbitrary and insubstantial signage that forces individuals to wait
for a restroom for no reason other than a sign on a door i urge you to pass the single occupancy genderneutral bathroom bill to the benefit of our entire community second a resolution in support of the statewide immigrant trust act i like many have been watching the news in
horror as individuals across the country are snatched off the streets by non-uniformed individuals and thrown into unmarked cars without the ability to call loved ones or understand the the process ahead as the federal government pushes us further into a constitutional crisis
flouting court rulings support for the Immigrant Trust Act shows that West Orange is doing everything we can to protect all residents in our town especially our immigrant population to be clear as my friend Julia just said this is not just an immigrant bill the Immigrant Trust Act and by proxy a
resolution in support of it protects us all due to recent federal executive orders places of worship schools courtrooms hospitals are no longer exempt from ICE activity we are already seeing even people with legal residency in this country being swept up and put into detention centers without being
allowed to challenge that detention through their rights under habius corpus a right we all have regardless of immigration status we don't want to see our community members profiled because of the racist and xenophobic hate being stoked by the Trump administration new Jersey is a
focal point for the federal government's heinous efforts while it is great that the state that on the state level we have the immigrant trust directive it was issued by government governor Murphy's administration in 2018 and the only way we can enshrine those protections is if they become law which
is what the immigrant trust act does trump appointed prosecutor Helina Abba is investigating Governor Murphy in connection with his policies that protect immigrants including the immigrant trust directive so the current protections we have are far from secure especially with a gubanatorial race moments
away local municipalities passing resolutions in support of the immigrant trust act are an important tool to push our state government to pass the act into law our own town legis state excuse me our own state legislators including former West Orange mayor and state
senator John McKeon are co-sponsors of the bill by passing a resolution in support of the immigrant trust act we'd be joining 11 other towns and cities across New Jersey in doing so we will be backing our mantra of hate has no home here and would be boldly and proudly proclaim that we have the backs of and
support our immigrant neighbors we again have the opportunity to show that West Orange cares for and values all of our community members if we want a safe and stable West Orange we need the Immigrant Trust Act thank you for the time and please vote yes on both of these agenda items thank you
good evening my name is Rachel Cohen and I live on Fairview Avenue in St cloud i'm just here to echo what my two neighbors and friends have just spoken to you about hi Asmer it's very nice to see those of you that I know um as a
resident of West Orange um I'm speaking today to urge the town council to support the proposed resolution in support of the Immigrant Trust Support Act to make sure that we are doing everything within our power as a town to
protect all of our residents and especially our immigrant populations the act if signed into law would ensure that there is clear separation between our local law enforcement here in West Orange and federal immigration enforcement by ICE who are carrying out
the policies and directives of the Trump administration and I need not remind you of the brutality of those uh directives as my neighbors have just said this is definitely not just an immigrant bill it's a bill that is meant
to com protect all of us as community members of this town all people in this country regardless of their immigration status have the right to habius corpus or essentially the right to challenge their detention we are already seeing
even people with legal residency in this country being swept up and put into detention centers without being allowed to challenge that detention without due process etc we don't want to see that happen here in West Orange we don't want
to see our community members and our neighbors racially profiled because of the xenophobia that is being stoked by the Trump administration and those in power we don't want to see US citizens profiled and swept up next if we want a
safe and stable West Orange we need the Immigrant Trust Act and I'm just going to use my remaining uh time to pivot to the point that my uh friend and neighbor Eric was just talking about i know it comes later on the agenda i cannot stay
any longer so I would just urge you to support ordinance 290625 that's the ordinance to require business establishments that have single occupancy bathrooms to uh designate them as genderneutral it's an absolute
no-brainer i'm a very proud and loud member of the LGBTQ community here in West Orange we have friends beloveds family members who are trans and non-binary i understand that single occupancy
bathrooms will uh will uh sorry genderneutral bathrooms will uh benefit the entire community but we know that there is a particular segment of this community that is under attack right now and that's trans and non-binary people
and we need to do everything possible to maintain our public spaces and our business establishments that they have uh an easy way for people uh to to use the bathroom of their choice it's just an absolute no nobrainer um and I urge
you to vote yes uh on the second reading of the bathroom ordinance and to uh vote yes to add the Immigrant Trust Act to the agenda for the next town council meeting thank you thank you my name is Rabbit excuse me just just before we start need to move that
microphone you There we go that way you can actually stand up straight thank you good evening my name is Rebecca Benois with the students here at West Orange Public School i'm I'm sorry we need to get the spelling of your name and your address just for the the minutes so if
you could just spell it uh slowly so you can pick it up please i'm sorry to give you so much trouble here with the mask on you sound very muffled do you mind i'll project a little uh into the mic is that okay okay hi everyone my name is Raba
Ben and I'm from a neighboring We'll spell it for you r I'm sorry yes b E C A first name it's pronounced Revica okay rebecca that's mine traditional spelling yep could you try a low shout absolutely
last name B N O I T thank you and the address uh P Box 223 Maplewood New Jersey so I'm a neighboring resident and the students
here at West Orange Public School uh fondly call me Mrs miss R and I'm here today to bring to the council's attention uh some uh remarks or comments that were made to the board of education i am a substitute teacher i have been
for nearly 20 years or so while I completed my professional certifications and uh I I have a bit of concern as to how those comments were addressed and so uh more importantly one of the comments that were made made uh had to do with
dealing with some of the students and with it being April autism awareness month the students who had who are on the spectrum and the comments that were made were very particularly uh unfair inaccurate and untrue and so today I had
the opportunity to briefly speak with the director of the human resources office and bring it to their attention that I think that it's important that they uh really take a look at how they handle that as an at will employee substitute teacher we take the risk of coming in and providing the workforce
and staffing that the school needs and I really think that the way they handled that particular incident incident in comment uh really to me I have an academic and professional responsibility to clear my name of any wrongdoing uh I'll be candid in saying that the
details were that she was distant from the students we all know that students on the spectrum they demonstrate different reactions depending on the day depending on the mood depending on the sound and I am very mindful of indivi individual education plans uh as a
student who went through the public school system myself I'm well aware that it is our responsibility to not only meet the professional policy of procedures but also adapt to the students and so I just wanted to ask for uh perhaps someone on the council to
take a detailed look at that specific incident and how it was handled because as an at will employee I do understand that every employer has the right to uh you know you could hate someone's shoe and actually have them you know discard it i mean of course that's not usually
how simple things are dealt with but I do think that there was something that needed to be um addressed and so I'm here today just to bring that to uh the council's attention and to request uh some to take a detailed look at that
um and that is all thank you for your time thank you before you go I think it's uh for the purposes of communication could you please send an email to us the email address is council co n c i l west.org
work and someone if not all of us will get back to you on that i appreciate your time your clerk was very helpful in letting me know when the time of the board council meeting would be so I will do that thank you so much thank you right greetings Maren
Robinson honor and respect to all of God's children we're moving forward i received my Excuse me can you state your name and address for the record your name and
address i gave my name didn't I oh so my address what 200 Mount Pleasant Avenue apartment J as in John thank you okay 07052 my I would like to say a special thanks
to you Mr ruden and I want to know did you get my Okay that's it and uh I want you to know to the council president that things are
moving forward still my handicap commode was installed and any other issues they can't handle them or don't handle them so they would have to move forward legally but I want you to I want
to thank you especially Miss Ruden she followed up and did just what she said and I'm a woman of my word thank you i don't know what I'm catching all have you know um but I just want to say thank
you okay that's it for me thank you Miss Robson best wishes best wishes good evening Richard Leonard Pleasant Valley Way West Orange i'm here tonight to oppose any
upcoming comments for the backpack blower for the Montlair lawsuit i want no comment stricken from uh any prior meetings especially anything that has to do with um the Montlair lawsuit there's been uh
condescending and nasty comments made don't want any of that stricken from the record or the record in September 2023 the complaint was filed in federal court in Montlair the hearing date was October the law council for that uh for the
landscapers was Roosevelt Nesmith he's recently passed away after his passing Van Nes Feldman attorneys were retained and are currently in communication with Riker Danzic the Monontlair Legal Council the federal
lawsuit is still ongoing and communication is ongoing in Montlair i've been informed tonight that Joyce Ruden wants this stricken from the record as she believes it's not ongoing the communication is attorney client privilege it is ongoing i don't need to
bring proof here i I do really believe from October till now you don't really believe that the lawsuit would have happened you can't get a parking ticket done in in two to three weeks right so this is going to take years this isn't something that's going to happen quickly
i ve vitimately oppose any communications being strien from the record as Daria Paxton was called a liar and she lied that was untrue i was
personally slandered and maligned myself my business my products and my manufacturers my attorney has advised me to be here and put on the record nothing should be stricken from the record for future correspondence if needed if you're going to strike anything from the
record it should be a third of the gas that's spilled in the ground a third of the gas that's used is spilled in the ground that a backpack blower runs a half hour on one gallon of gas and that electric batteries run 10 to 12 that last 10 to 12 years this all lacks
factual accuracy and is untrue the town's in such a mess how many times are we going to keep talking about this ordinance which has been shot down three times it's obviously all we care about is winning this backpack blower ban there's 550 municipalities in New Jersey
very few have this ordinance with all the problems in the town we don't need to be worn about backpack blowers and fireworks you've been elected here to improve the town i really believe that everybody here wants to improve the town we keep kicking this can down a road
about a backpack blower why don't we focus on the real problems in the town and do what's right for the town thank you very much thank you Mr leonardis i'll take you some more thanks beardsley at Estonia Terrace i'm I'm
sorry it's just very difficult for us to hear up here if you could just again a low shout would be great i understand you feel under duress so do what is comfortable for you but if you can speak more loudly beardsly thank you edisonia Terrace
my family knows firsthand the trauma that immigration policy can cause several years ago we were forced to live through the nightmare of family separation when my husband was ordered to leave the country in order to obtain
his green card despite having built a life here in West Orange with two children at the time a home and paying taxes he was given only three weeks notice to leave we didn't know if or when he'd be allowed to return it shook the very foundation of
our lives and left lasting emotional scars clearly as a resident of West Orange I'm speaking today to urge the town council to support the resolution in favor of the Immigrant Trust
Act we need to ensure that our town stands on the side of compassion justice and safety for all of our residents especially our immigrant neighbors who live every day under the shadow of fear the Immigrant Trust Act would create a
clear boundary between our local police and federal immigration enforcement no one in West Orange should have to fear being ripped away from their families for going to the DMV enrolling their children in school or even calling the police when they're in
danger yet that fear is very real and I've lived it this legislation would protect our personal information allowing immigrants to engage with public agencies without the constant threat of deportation it would ensure that our town's resources
are being used to support West Orange not to carry out harmful ICE directives that do not reflect our values this is not just an immigr immigrant issue it's a human issue ice activity is no longer confined to border
towns schools hospitals courtrooms and even places of worship have now been targeted and now with threats to reopen a 1,100 bed detention center in nearby Newark and the recent federal investigation targeting our own governor for immigrant protective policies New
Jersey is at the front line of this national crisis we are proud of the work our West Orange Police Department is doing under Governor Murphy's immigrant trust directive but training isn't enough these protections need to be written into law otherwise with a shift in
federal or state leadership everything we've worked so hard for could be undone let's be clear this is a moment that demands courage and clarity by passing this resolution West Orange would join 11 other towns and cities across the state that are already
standing up to say "Our communities will not be divided our neighbors will not be criminalized our families will not be torn apart." We are asking you to take that same stand because we've lived the consequences of inaction and we can ne and we never want to see another family
in our town endure what we did thank you thank you Miss Beardsley good evening council uh my name is Nick Baruchi i live at 70 Cove Terrace in West Orange uh I've been a resident for
42 years happy here um tonight I'm here representing Pro Media New Jersey it's a um TV and production company with 30 years in business in New York prior to
COVID uh just opened in Montlair two years ago couple thousand square feet to have a presence here in New Jersey and um we're here tonight hoping that you'll pass the resolution that we will be able to u enter into a licensing agreement
for 10 Rooney Circle for the lower level that's not being utilized right now uh for a three-month period we have a client um they would mostly for office space um it's that space would be office
space for 15 to 20 people max they would bring wardrobe in to get ready to go out on location for the shoots and uh furniture small small small problem no building no shooting um mostly computers
and getting things ready to go out on the job um so it it would be a nice revenue for the town that you could utilize for whatever you're looking to do additionally in the town and we would hope to be able to uh reup that
licensing agreement with another client this this is a small job for History Channel that's doing a reenactment type of moving that they're only shooting 12 days in other parts of Jersey that aren't set right now hopefully it'll choose some locations in West Orange and
could get licensing with you and bring in additional money besides the revenue from the three-month uh period um that that that's basically it it's a it's a small footprint and we're they're in Montlair right now but I'd like them
to be in West Orange so it's even closer for me to uh go to work and be bringing additional revenues for that rental they're always shopping they go to the shop right they're looking to use the hotel that's up there car rentals so
there's a lot of other things that would uh economically help the town um so I hope that you consider it and approve that tonight thank you thank you Mr fuji joseph
Panilo Essex Fells i live on the border of the West Essex Highlands i am the president of weare the objector of the planning board for the proposed development i am here this evening to make a request of this elected body and
you'll indulge me i think I'm under four and a half minutes but if I'm off by a little like to read something into the record and then ask ask this council to do something um this is with regard to a flood plane study request from WECARE to this
council from the flood plan administrator west Orange zoning ordinance IH1261420 as reported at the Essex County Planning Board on July 3rd 2024 specifically suspends all municipal bulk design and environmental
regulations exemptions under the zoning ordinance do not supersede state or federal law section 1 C5 states development of the tract shall be exempt from all bulk design environmental regulations of the West Orange land use regulations
ordinance unless otherwise indicated therein and further provided nothing shall circumvent or contravene the procedural requirements of the land use law dot dot dot the description of the authorized activities in a D permit issued to the developer November 15 2024
on the Highlands on block 179 lot 32 And lot 179.17 lots 8 and n states the department has determined the hear and approved activities meet the requirements of the flood hazard area control act rules this approval does not
obiate the local flood plane administrator's responsibility to ensure all development occurring within the community special flood hazard area is compliant with local flood damage prevention ordinance and minimum national flood insurance program requirements regardless of stateisssued
permits fema requires communities to review and permit all proposed construction or other development within their special flood hazard area in order to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program subject to the Flood Hazard Control Act West Orange Township
Flood Plane Management Regulations Chapter 2424-3 purpose and objectives are to promote the public health safety and general welfare and to minimize public and private losses due to flood conditions in specific flood hazard areas
on February 26th at the West Orange Planning Board we care storm water management expert from Princeton Hydro appeared under oath a memo summarizing his testimony is attached to a stack I will leave behind for everyone present he answered questions from the citizens living adjacent to the development site
concerned about the proposal's impact on existing flooding conditions and the effects of non-compliance as approved by D permit the West Orange Planning Board has released no meeting minutes since December 11th 2024 so if you want to verify concerns expressed by residents
you'll have to listen to the audio on the website by this submission in the interest of public health safety and the welfare of affected citizens on behalf of WeCare Corp I respectfully request the West Orange Town Council A direct the flood plane administrator to conduct
a floodplane study to address the impact and consequence of the D permit issued on areas beyond the 120 acre limit of disturbance that is the subject of the review by the D and the permit that was issued so that it remain in full compliance with national flood insurance
program FEMA each in accordance with chapter 24 of the flood plate regulations subject to the conditions of the D per the applicant and B direct the flood plate administrator to meet with weare experts from Princeton Hydro to confirm the scope of the study prior to
its commission also since Essex Falls Township owns real property in the township of West Orange along Cano Brook on Essex Falls Country Club and is permitted by D is directly impacted by the proposed plan outside the limit of disturbance we ask the Essex flood plan
administrator to be included in any proposed meetings anticipating no objection with SX file standing as a municipal property owner with valid adverse impact depicted in the attached 2023 FEMA flood zone maps and in accordance with New Jersey statute
4055D-2D to ensure the development of individual municipalities does not conflict with the development and general welfare of neighboring municipalities the county and the state as a whole on behalf of weare and its constituents we respectfully request the town the West Orange town council to
accommodate this request in the public interest provisions for costs associated with this study are provided under NJSA 4055D8 and your council will know how to view that i have copies of the permit be
flood map and the comments testified to and submitted to the planning board post the sub his testimony here with a copy of the request in hard copy for everyone here if it has a reason
mayor Weber tell me if Karen if you'd like me or someone would like me to email the PDS mr fagan could you take custody please mr fagen if you just want to leave it up there we'll pick it up at the end of the
meeting if we ever get there i thought it was maybe next time thank you and Caleb Bennett Old Indian Road um Council President I just want to note for the record that um you did allow
time and the gentleman before me to complete his comments and I I support and approve of that practice especially when it's important information to share and would just point out that that should be universally applied um when
people bring to the council's attention information um it leads me to my next comment um and I had no plan to speak tonight uh but when Mr fagan and then you had requested that members of the
public utilize the council at West Orange um email it reminded me that when I did as you asked when my comments were running over it subjected me to
treatment that no uh member of the public should be subjected to um so I'm going to read into the record a um response to an email that I wrote to the council's
attention i did not copy the police chief or interim business administrator so I'm only led to believe that my message was either forwarded or I suspect that that email does not just
go to the council i will point out that as a law enforcement officer surveilling communications from the public to the council raises um additional considerations and I would share with all of you that I
think it's improper for a police chief and an interim business administrator to be surveilling your emails particularly from constituents who are trusting that when you request that they send an email that it is going to you and it is not
being surveiled so I'll read into the record the chief's response to my email to all of you dear all oh this is um addressed from the chief to Theodore Stevens who is the
Essex County prosecutor alex Albu who is in the professional standards office as is Walter Durkin also a prosecutor in the professional professional standards office matthew Platkin who is the highest law enforcement officer in this
state he is the attorney general um subject violations of NJSA52 col17B-410 dear all the chief writes "One need not be a boardcertified
psychologist to determine Miss Bennett has deeprooted psychological disorders including but not limited to being a pathological liar as always I welcome any investigation you might wish to
undertake and I pledge my full cooperation in that regard jpa it's on letterhead and it describes James P abbott as the interim business administrator and chief of police of the township of West Orange
in response to that I brought to your attention the West Orange Police Department's written directive system uniform standards of conduct i'm going to read some of that into the record as well 1 col 6-3 general provisions as
highly visible representatives of society with this public trust we must hold ourselves to a higher standard the West Orange Police Department and the public expect all personnel to maintain high standards of conduct at all time
police officers wield considerable power over citizens power that is carefully circumcribed by the Constitution of the United States our awesome power to arrest seize property and otherwise interfere with the lives of citizens
constitutes a public trust an appointed officer hold as appointed officer as appointed office holders apologize we must adhere to these tenants further under general conduct and
behavior 1 6-5 E employees shall address their subordinates associates supervisors and members of the general public courteously and shall not use abusive
insulting your time spoking language miss if I could just interrupt you how much longer do you think you're going to need to finish your remarks tonight one sentence great thank you please continue i would ask that you insist that the
chief be held to the standards that he holds his entire department to thank you thank you Miss Bennett good evening Todd Deovi Bernette Terrace um I'm here to discuss a few things that appear on the agenda
today and I think they're all sort of related and this is a higharching over uh commentary um the the items on the agenda that I'm referring to are the library
expenditures that are being proposed um having Nishuain acting as an affordable housing planning consultant uh also the audit and the corrective action plan that's been presented in relation to the
audit um I'll start with the library uh the library was presented to us as one that would be accessible to people it's not people can't get to it
unless they drive a car the public transportation to the current location doesn't exist um and now we're being asked to fund further expenditures even though the land where the previous library was
located was given away for a million dollars um that project was a failure it still is a failure and throwing more money at it without a real plan of how
to make it work is a failure moving on to the Nishuain proposed an uh appointment a housing for affordable housing consultant would be something that would
fall under the purview of a planner in this town um actually the library too um it seems that this administration likes to peacemeal things and instead of
agreeing to employ a full-time planner that would resolve a lot of the issues and address a lot of the issues we have this administration wants to hire multiple different consultants to do these roles that could be handled by one
central person um we are lacking a full-time planner and what I haven't mentioned yet which is highly relevant is the fact that our downtown
sits even though this administration or its predecessor has proposed three different redevelopers for the site and nothing has happened since this so-called transformative action was going to be uh
presented to us back last year and and the times before the audit uh plan reading through the uh the audit itself and the the corrective action
plan there were numerous items that were pointed out that refer to six figure discrepancies in that audit six figures on on multiple of them
many of the responses in that action plan seem to dismiss the audit findings and suggest that they don't need to answer those particular questions um I believe that the audit correction
plan is or corrective action plan is is it doesn't do what it should do and should be uh rejected for that reason um until this administration is willing
to agree to face and address the issues that they've themselves have presented and created themselves their their resolutions should be turned down um and we still haven't heard
anything about the downtown uh that needs to change as well uh so I'd love to hear an update if you have one mayor McCartney thank you um and last thing I'll just quickly respond the tone
of these meetings um I think the tone of the meeting starts with the administration the indignance that comes from administration officials at council members and residents in this town is completely and thoroughly
unacceptable that's all I've got thank you thank you Mr boby is there anyone else who'd like to speak during public comment good evening council members latia from Exclusive Nail Studio 100 Harrison Avenue West Orange
so I'm the owner of Exclusive Nail Studio here in West Orange i'm here today not only as a business owner um who has been endured ongoing harassment police involvement in what I believe to be a pattern of racial
profiling and targeted treatment since opening my studio I have experienced repeated and excessive police visits due to noise complaints despite my business operating within appropriate hours and noise levels on multiple occasions I've been treated unnecess unnecessary
suspens suspicion and escalation even in peaceful professional settings meanwhile similar noise complaint levels or activity from others in the area seem to be receive little or no response
i'm here seeking accountability transparency and support not just for myself but for other for any small business owner who may be quietly enduring similar treatment i just have a few
questions unequal enforcement can the council explain what steps will be taken to ensure that noise ordinance enforcement is applied equitably across all businesses and residents regardless of race or type of establishment question two
accountability and repeat cause given that the West Orange Police has been called repeatedly often without valid cause what oversight mechanisms exist to review and if necessary discipline officers who escalate non-emergency
noise complaints safe business environment what resources or support programs does the township offer to help small businesses like mine address ongoing harassment whether from neighbor or through excessive police involvement so
we can operate without fear or disruption neighbor harassment what recourse is available through the township or its code enforcement division for a tenant experienced persistent disturbances from a neighbor
and how can we streamline that process policy review and training um will the council consider a review and retraining if warranted of police department's noise complaint protocol to emphasize deescalation and bias awareness especially in commercial
districts so I also just have some of my complaint is I'm being harassed there's a neighbor she's constantly calling the police about noise the hours that she is providing are false the information that I've been approached by
different officers is false what happens when people constantly call with these false complaints what action is taken towards that person and why is the person that is the victim being um harassed so I just put some information
some client conf um client reviews or not reviews client support documents um just saying that I've been a business here since 20 thou 2015 i should not be having to deal with harassment i shouldn't have neighbors
complaining within the hours of business about noise you live over a business it's stop calling and with false accusations here so you can take this so that's it for this evening thank you for listening thank you before you go did
you provide your contact information in these materials yes okay so if if uh someone could get needed to get in touch with you we have the information there yes okay yes thank you thank you uh good evening hi my name is Brenda at
98 Harrison Avenue i think you already know me know my story i've been here begging for help for almost a year now and um so I'm here the thing is that we all know the story about the bar next to me it's
called Leing Bar i'm not against businesses as small business i think businesses are good for the township to prosper but at this point I think you all know the story that how this business is keeps operating obstructing my life not just mine my neighbors
you're all witnesses that my neighbors came we all came together to get some solution to this which is disturbing our lives at this point if it was just me you say it's a crazy neighbor but it's not just me we're like 10 people at this
point we keep calling complain about the base the outdoor noise DJs hookah smoking people yelling cars coming parking and making abruptly abruptly
sounds so at this point it's messing up with our uh mental health i think the fact that we live in an apartment doesn't mean that we're less than any other people who are here the fact that we live in that area doesn't mean that we don't deserve respect we don't
deserve peace so I'm coming here that I thank Mrs um Joyce brought in that she's helping us with this she's constantly asking me how I'm doing i invited her
over to see to experience on her on sale on her skin what we experience day by day it's not just on weekends it goes from w Wednesday Wednesday through Sundays minutes hours days months to this day years took more than two years
there has been proof i emailed the chief proof of it of the outdoor sound i emailed it to all of you you all know here you all hear it you saw it so it's not that it's I'm making things up so
I'm begging for you for all of you to pass this ordinance uh Mayor Uccari I've been to your office so many times you heard my story uh I work in a medical field i'm I'm in medical school i save
lives and I'm asking you to save my life at this point mental health is a crucial um I don't know issue to this day we're all struggling i have a message from my ne from this guy he was here last time
you all heard of Brian and he messaged me this and you can hear you can see that he's not doing well i want to share with all of you i have some time every night I feel like I'm trapping someone else's party this deep base shakes my walls it's not just something you hear
it's something you feel in your chest and it makes it nearly impossible to relax let alone sleep makes it nearly I'm sorry the way the only way I can avoid is I can avoid spiraling into a panic
attack is by blasting loud fan fan noise through multiple speakers and wearing earplugs just to drone it out but also means that I cannot hear anything else i cannot hear my family we cannot even talk to each other either either I have a panic
attack or I isolate myself completely is already a stressful way to end each day so I ask you what happens when someone finally breaks down when this old pressure finally hits someone's health mentally or physically will we hear
again that you felt bad you could have you wish you could have done something we've been begging for help for so long so when will this ordinance take some action i know that you all warned this places that this area was a familyfriendly area and they agreed they
said they made promises to you that they will keep it that way they they broke those rules they brought a nightclub style in a familyfriendly zone it's not just like a it's not just a B1 zone i understand what is a B1 zone i I know
where I live i understand during the day some like background music there used to be another restaurant that was eat and these other places that you you wouldn't even tell that it was a bar but with them is different they changed the dynamic of the of this zone of West
Orange so they're not respecting us at this point so this I'm just letting it all out so you know already you know Brian's story you know my story you know my nervous story i hope it was not in vain they were
doubting about coming that day but I convinced them to come i told them that you can help us to trust them but I hope you all don't fail at this time it's time it's it's too much for me to be coming each day to beg for some help please your time is up
okay thank you is there anyone else who'd like to speak at public comment thank you i'm going to close with a comment at 8:29 and ask if any of my colleagues would like to respond
first councilwoman you ready um yeah I I could go thank you this folks are leaving i'm just going to wait to folks who are leaving okay so I'm going to start off with Brenda thank you once again very
articulate you come you're you plead to us and um we've been working with the chief uh ABC attorney and with this noise ordinance so it it's something we're going to discuss later on tonight sorry
it wasn't here tonight um but we want to make sure we get this right so we can help you because what we're learning uh on ABC uh committee is that although there's many charges that could be brought and the police do their due
diligence the state also does not cooperate when it comes to liquor license um you know we find that if we uh charge individuals that the state you they just pay a fine to them not even
the town who has the issue and that's been very frustrating for us as well so we're trying to work to tighten up these ordinances to improve your quality of life as much as the neighborhood i'm disappointed that um Natalie had just walked out uh Miss Bro I'm going to test
you to go talk to her tomorrow again um you know with the nail salon what's been disappointing there is the complaints there have been she comes in two hours prior to opening and and just blasts the music uh for I don't know what the
reasons is and and leaves we have the neighbors uh you know other commercial businesses also uh complaining as well so again it's been very frustrating but we will work with all to make
uh other simple solutions that I'm disappointed haven't happened already that uh don't cost money and um we'll talk about that later tonight uh Mr you know thank you for your information i'm
going to review the the FUD plane study and and everyone else I'm going to lump into um thank you all for coming down you know a lot of quality life issues here this evening and some of you are
going to be disappointed with me i and I've been stating the last few meetings are since January uh that I feel that some of these issues that have come before us of folks asking resolutions from us um I not that I'm
not supportive of the idea or I'm against it i just feel that certain items should be handled at the state level we've been spending a lot of time on various items and not getting the business of the day done um and that's
been frustrating for me but I've always been welcoming um to our community for all our community members uh Downtown Alliance we put together a pride event on Thursday June 26 we
didn't get a chance to have our council on announcements but you know last year uh for whatever reason the organizers did not put one together and worked with the town and I commend Miss McCellbell uh working with Miss Burl to get one done because we know it's important for
our community um Pam I felt my heart just goes out she's a dear friend and I know her story and and I really really it's it's heartbreaking and I know there's so much stress
um in in the country right now but again I'm just I'm sticking with you know all these resolutions that are coming before us i feel that should be at the state level i'm sure you know our Senator McCann he always uh serves us well that
he will continue that fight but I also want the when it's appropriate council president for the chief to make a statement because I think there is a misconception on uh ICE when ICE does if they do come into the community because I think some things need to be cleared
up so folks won't be so fearful and when the time is appropriate I hope that uh you know council president have the chief make that statement because um you know we always I work with the Hispanic Foundation and our deputy mayor Duff
Rodriguez and so I the chief will just make that statement because I think there are you know some fears that could be settled this evening and with that being said uh I'm done with my remarks thank you everyone for coming down thank you Council President pardon the
interruption i just need to make a quick announcement one of many quirks of Zoom we lost our Zoom feed for about 3 4 minutes i have been able to reestablish and everything is working fine i just want the Zoom audience to know that uh everything is back and working and uh
it's just something out of our control thank you Council President okay Councilman Scarpa great okay thank you thank you everybody for coming down um it appears that noise uh whether it's from Samuel Kent or Brenda who I want to
thank you or for having to come down for almost a year now to uh talk about the noise problems in your neighborhood it it we really need to curtail noise and I want to thank um Councilwoman Ruden who
has worked very hard on a noise ordinance and we've all worked with her and have looked at it and unfortunately we're just not getting enough support from our administration but hopefully we can continue to work with them to get a
noise ordinance that is measurable and they it can be measurable on for our next meeting but the noise and the quality of life issues are something that we have to deal with and what's happened in your neighborhood I am so
sorry to every one of the many residents in your neighborhood who have had to endure this it's unconscionable you've come to the council at our council connections you've been coming to our meetings now over and over again and
it's time that we give you some relief so thank you for your courage and for continuing to come um Frank Bars um I was actually planning on reading Mrs carbalo's email about the process for the Gregory Neighbors but thank you for
doing it for us and I know that Mrs carbalo will work very hard to implement as many of your recommendations and suggestions as she can uh the single occupancy bathrooms for everyone you know I voted on that the
first time we want West Orange to be safe and welcoming for all and of course I will be voting for that again in terms of the immigrant resolution it is a federal issue and a legal issue and I am grateful for our New Jersey governor and
Senator McKeen's advocacy but it is really a federal and a legal issue uh Joseph Panula thank you once again for your very thorough advocacy unfortunately I'm going to refrain from commenting because I am on the planning
board but we do review everything that you give us and take it very seriously michaela Bennett I agree with you that our public discourse needs to be respectful and uh it's one of the
main reasons I ran to try to hope elevate the public discourse and what I'm realizing is that I can only model the behavior that I think is appropriate up here and
unfortunately we all need to all do better in being respectful to one another and treating each other the way we would like to be treated um Todd Deobei once again I agree with all of
your points the library expenditures have been exorbitant um I did not I was not an advocate of moving that library i have been
disgusted every time I've had to okay these change orders the amount of money that we've spent there is unconscionable and we have failed the taxpayers and I was planning on voting no uh on that um in terms of the
Nishwain group again I will continue to insist that we need a planner to tackle all of these problems uh and be another no vote it's
another poor use of taxpayer dollars to be hiring consultants over and over again we need a planner a ASAP uh in terms of the redevelopment plan I also voted no for that
redevelopment project and I believe it was a prudent decision and um the correction the corrective action plan too thank you for bringing some of it to our attention i'm sure most of our residents have not read it don't understand it but um it is
something that needs to be taken very seriously and on that note I'll finish up okay thank you Councilwoman if if I could uh I just need to take a quick break i'm just going to turn over the council president duties to Councilwoman Castelino i will be back as soon as I can please excuse me
okay uh okay thank you Councilwoman Ronin okay hi good evening everybody um it's a lot on tonight um first of all today is Earth Day so I hope everybody um enjoyed this beautiful day and along
with Earth Day we are dealing with some very serious noise issues which disturb people so I first want to address the noise issues that our community has raised um noise is a quality of life issue and we need to take this very
seriously um the this week the in the past two weeks um the council worked very hard to put together an ordinance um that addressed the noise ordinance that addressed the noise problems and I feel personally
that we got considerable push back from the administration and we were not able to put it on the agenda this week as we had promised to we had discussed this in new matters last time um we did all of the proper procedure to get it to the
administration to have it reviewed and we're being told that we have to adopt the state model noise ordinance which is not true we can adopt the changes that all of us agreed on in um in either our noise ordinance by removing the decibel
levels or by ch changing it to a nuisance ordinance i really hope that the administration can hear in their heart and in their soul the suffering that is going on in this community and move this forward we really don't need
to spend time arguing about this there's a way to make change and there's a way to make it ch uh make it fast there are also some other things that we as a council can be doing to help the residents who are suffering there are some basic permits that are not in place
um I very much appreciate that Miss Gary Adams got back to me about the permits and that Mr fonzini from our health department got got back to me about the outdoor cafe permits these businesses do not have outdoor cafes cafe
licenses in my opinion they should be shut down immediately until the license is granted to them but I have received a message from the administration that it will take at least two weeks to work this whole thing out so I'm asking the
administration to respond quickly to the pain that you hear and if there are no proper licenses that these businesses have if they don't have outdoor permits shut them down immediately if they don't have proper um commercial business
applications filled out shut them down immediately let's respond to our community they don't deserve to suffer like this um on other on other issues um Mr mr barts thank you so much for for
coming out and for helping to you know talk about the path forward in terms of what can be done i also have concerns about what do we do with the safety for our community in the meantime until the road project is done i like a lot of um
your ideas and I hope that we can work together with the administration to institute maybe the three-way stop that you suggested at Tmont or some more calming measures that can be brought to bear for the community because safety is really a very big
consideration um uh Miss Bennett um I agree with what you're saying we have to have proper decorum starting from the top and I am really surprised at the comments of our police chief about a a
resident i think it's improper um you know I I don't know what else what else to say um we all should should adhere to a code of conduct when it comes to to residents whether we agree with them or whether we don't we should not be you know calling
name calling and also I am still very concerned about the fact that tonight three different times it was it was announced that if you want to reach the council write to us at council west orange.org or and it is not being reiterated every single time that when
you write to us and the council you are reaching the mayor the director of the law department the business administrator the assistant business administrator the chief municipal financial officer and the municipal clerk this is not transparent we have
asked for change the only change that we've gotten is that on the website it says that all of these people will be contacted but not everybody knows that and and I do think that there is some sort of conflict with having everybody
especially the different roles respond seeing all of our emails so the public should know that when you write to council at west orange.org that you are getting a paniply of of administrators that you may not intend to be writing to
as for the immigration trust act um I think it was well said this is an all of us bill um this is a small thing for us to do as a as a community um what people might not realize is yes this is coming
from the top this is a terrible thing happening from from the top down from the from the federal government where these ICE raids are are terrifying they're terrifying to all of us we're all a community of of immigrants but what people don't realize is that New
Jersey will hand over the information to the federal government so if you are an immigrant family and you have a child who needs family care that information could be handed right over to the federal government and be used by ICE
and that's just plain wrong um I'm a little frustrated with the fact that this bill might not move anywhere because we are in such a political climate and we're in you know we have a gubanatorial election coming up and it
might not be moved but we do have our local leaders who have pushed for this and I think that West Orange should take this stand because it is an enormous overreach of the federal government and and we should take a stand even if it doesn't amount to much just to tell our
community that we stand with the immigrant community mrs robinson thank you so much for coming out it's always nice to see you and I'm glad that things are moving along and I hope that the next time we see you that everything is resolved um as far as the flood plane I
would like to request from our from my council colleagues that that we do do a flood plane study because this area that could potentially be developed it risks our community and it risks surrounding communities so I'd like to maybe talk to the administration about how do we get a
flood plan study and also um more conversations about if we can do it how it would be funded um let me just see if Thank you to the Mr maruchi for bringing your business to town um I do have some
questions also about about what's what's going to happen with that and um we can we can address that later in the evening but I I like the I like the idea and I hope that I hope that it can work um I just want to say one thing that was not
mentioned in public public um comment but it's my only opportunity to say it which is that I just want to remind everybody that we have an animal shelter in town um it's located on Wong Avenue we have animals that are in desperate need of homes right now we have six dogs
and two cats and if you are looking for a pet please remember to shop local thank you so much i'm going to take back the reins that Councilwoman Castelino Council President Castelino handled so well forgive my
absence councilwoman thank you Council President um good evening West Orange and to those of you in council chambers and on Zoom thank you uh for joining us this evening and thank you all for your those of you in person for your input and for your
advocacy and and speaking up tonight so first I'm going to start with my council leazison announcement the West Orange Arts Council is proud to announce its collaboration with Pathways to Trust reimagining pain through art um exhibition featuring the artistic
achievement of artists across the country including many from West Orange and neighboring towns who live with rare diseases or use art as a means of coping with chronic pain and starting this Thursday on view at the West Orange Arts
Center located at 551 Valley Road in West Orange from April 24th to May 18th the re-imagining pain through art exhibit is curated by Cheryl Lloyd executive director of Pathways to Trust and Zakiyia Williams of Zeal Creative
Network a healing arts and cultural specialist gallery hours are Saturdays from 2 to 4 and the exhibit is sponsored in part by the Alpha Fit Club of Livingston so this Thursday is the opening wine and cheese reception from
5:00 p p.m to 8:00 p.m this Friday Symphony of Voices performed poetry of artists living with rare diseases 6:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m this Saturday creative collage workshop with Carol Jenkins which I hope to join with my son um 1:00
p.m to 3:00 p.m healing Arts Mindfulness and Meditation this Sunday April 27th 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m so for more uh to learn more please visit west uh warts.org again
warts.org um so now I have a statement on the uh immigrant trust act um so first off I want to thank the members of West Orange for humanity and um residents of this town for bringing this important issue forward as a firstg
generation daughter of immigrants from Ethiopia and Eritrea this matter is deeply personal to me i carry with me not just the stories of my parents and aunts and uncles and cousins and relatives but you know the lived
experience of what it means to navigate life in this country as a visible minority the immigration trust act is a necessary and compassionate measure it strengthens the separation between local law enforcement and federal immigration
authorities and it creates important data privacy protection so that no one has to choose between safety and survival when engaging with local agencies this is about restoring and preserving trust between immigrant
communities and our local government so let me be clear very clear right so to those of us here on the dis If if we were all in a grocery store and ICE conducted a raid I would likely be
stopped and asked for documentation not because of anything I've done but because of how I look especially when I wear my hair naturally curly the reality is the likelihood of any of you here experiencing that is
slim to none and extremely low and that's the reality of white privilege in this country and this isn't hypothetical this is real and people in our town are scared and live with that fear every day just like you heard
tonight from Mrs beersley we have a moral responsibility to protect our residents not just with words but with action and by supporting this resolution we can stand with other towns like Madison Planefield Trenton
Patterson Flemington and Atlantic City and saying our immigrant neighbors matter their safety their dignity and their humanity matter and I respectfully urge this council to place this
resolution on the next agend uh on the next agenda for discussion and a vote so let's show the residents that West Orange stands for justice let's show them that we're not afraid to lead with both courage and compassion so again thank you to all of you who spoke up on
that very important matter that some people don't even realize are affecting people because they've never witnessed or had to deal with anything in this nature ever so with that I also stand in full support of the proposed ordinance to
require genderneutral signage for all publicly accessible single occupancy restrooms in our community this simple but meaningful change will contribute to a more inclusive equitable and accessible environment for everyone um Mr bars I I'm going to defer to our
administration and director of engineering to answer your questions um Miss Robinson thank you so much for your update um Miss B it was very difficult to hear you i'm so sorry so um if you can just email us what you read to us
and to clarify West Orange Township Council has zero jurisdiction or oversight over the West Orange Board of Education or its employees and it seemed like there was an issue with the board of ed um this the board of ed's complete separate governing body with its own
elected officials and independent independently managed budget um thank you to uh Mr puchi for your comment and for your interest in investing in our community um I support this lease agreement as it brings productive use to
an otherwise unused space and generates revenue for the township so it's a win-win for everyone so thank you u Mr pulo as always thank you and we care for your advocacy uh if you could please email your statement i was trying to take notes but unfortunately you spoke so quickly i could barely write it jot
it down so um if you could please send that to us um I agree with Councilman Ruin we should have a full plan study conducted but we'd have to meet with the administration speak to the mayor and figure out how we can do that um Mr dovi
you mentioned several things and um I agree with you um except for I'm going to say the Nishwang Group i am wholeheartedly supportive of the Nishwang Group i am supportive of hiring a full-time planner but unfortunately we still don't have one and in the meantime
um we need the Nishuang Group for this critical affordable housing work um while some have expressed a presence for a full-time planner we currently don't have one and this agreement ensures that we meet our courtmandated obligations in a timely
and professional manner um so I just want to reiterate I'm wholeheartedly supportive of Nishwang Group they've done great work for us and because we don't have a full-time planner I'm I'm hoping that the mayor will bring forth their contract for them to be our planner this year because we we need
them they really have done amazing work i don't know if you've taken a look of at at what at their report from last year they've really done a lot for us and so thank you to the Nishuang group for for your service so I am supportive of this contract um regarding the audit
um this is why we wanted to have a forensic audit last year right and it was but it hasn't been budgeted for unfortunately so I too am concerned what was found in there um and I'm really hoping I don't know if anyone in the state level is watching but I hope that
the comproller will get involved and conduct a forensic audit and really it has to do in my opinion of past practices of our previous CFO which I have reached out to the state to have investigated but then we got into litigation and they said it was pending litigation you know and now here we are
with the new CFO so um something has to be done i don't think it should be ignored because this person isn't retired they're working in another town right now as an intramba so it's I'm I'm concerned with what's happened in our town under that tenure um regarding the
library I agree with Councilman Scarpa um if I was on the council then I would have voted no to move it to sell it for a million dollars um so we just spent so much money but unfortunately if we are not ADA compliant which we have to be then we set ourselves up for litigation
it is extremely unfortunate that we have to spend this money and I'm hoping we go in executive session we'll hear more from administration but I believe this is something we have to do we or else we set ourselves up for for litigation and that's no one wants that that's even more money down the road so
unfortunately we're here because of past council past administ administration or or mayor but we're here now and we have to fix their mess unfortunately or we get held liable um regarding the redevelopment project
uh Councilwoman Scarpa and I were the only ones to vote no and everything I've predicted has come true and I've said from day one I bet you they don't have a studio partner and guess what they don't so and here we are and this is why I said from since I started in 2023 as a
council person I said we should have a fair and open bid process let's put it out to bid we have the ability to um state what the specs are so we can say it has to be for a movie studio we can even set what the minimum bid requirement is right so we can make back
the money in purchasing land that we purchased right so but that didn't happen the council majority then has advocated for this when we had been ignored and then this contract was shoved down our throats last minute a few days before our council meeting over a 100 pages to read right in which I
called out many things and it came out that you know a great opportunity just seemed to present itself but then the mayor slipped in that council meeting and stated that she had been meeting with them months before so why was not not communicated with the council lack of communication and lack
of transparency so I don't think anything's going to happen with this project to be honest and I'm not surprised so um anyway Miss Bennett thank you i agree with you i spoke with
the chief i also sent him an email um so again I'm sorry um Brenda I'm sorry I forgot your last name and you spoke so fast I couldn't write it down i echo everything Councilman Ruden said we've met with you she's done a wonderful job at revising
this or this uh noise ordinance we even have it tonight she sent it to the entire council so we can give our input we have it we're going to discuss it under new business and hopefully there'll be we can just move on and pass this and then think of other ways and things that we can do but she did her
due diligence and every and I know like no council person is perfect but West Orange should be grateful to have Councilman Ruden as a council woman she uses her investigatory journalist skills to deep dive and find things out and
look into things i didn't realize that some of these establishments didn't have um the permits for outdoor dining right because they're always dining so I want to thank you for your due diligence um and thank you for putting West Orange
residents first um and at that uh and also Councilwoman Castelino thank you you're the one who brought all the residents to the last meeting um so to speak with us so I appreciate you too but I'm just talking about No I know you know like it's it's not a dig against
you i appreciate what you're doing but she's really No I know but I brought the cafe issue up so and so thank you for bringing the cafe issue up but I see a lot of the emails like that constantly come from Councilman Ruden so anyway and with that I end my response to public
comment thank you all thank you i usually don't comment uh but I just want to hit uh a few highlights because I think there's some really important stuff here i'm not going to get to everybody but I just want to hit some highlights thank you everybody for coming and I want to say I appreciate
that there were people who came here tonight who had some very pointed and very emotional remarks and they all remained civil no name calling i truly appreciate that because I think they were much more effective and I hope you
all notice that and appreciate that because that's that's the standard that we should have at our council meetings and public comment absolutely so the the first point I want to make is that the mayor has given us the 2025 municipal
budget we got it last Wednesday and it calls for a 6.2% 2% tax levy increase in the three municipal taxes we have the regular municipal property tax then we have a municipal open space tax and then
we have a library tax and all of those combine uh the levy the actual dollar amount went up 6.2% and now under our form of government now the council reviews and if they have sufficient votes can make changes to it
either increase or decrease or add or subtract uh and we will get on this as soon as possible because the sooner we get into this the sooner we find ways we can become more efficient and perhaps cut costs uh the better for for uh
residents so I just wanted to let everybody know if you want to look at the budget it's on the town website now it's uh westor.org if you go to the finance web uh page they have a uh uh in the left margin they have a finance uh
documents section and that's where the the budget is you can also look on Facebook and come some of the high volume uh uh Facebook uh pages thank you that that Councilwoman Ruden she's just
uh if you want to take a look at it and you can uh send us your comments if you've got thoughts put them up on Facebook or send them to an email to councilwwest.org and I just want to follow up with what uh councilwoman
Ruden said about that email address we have had I would characterize them as severe disagreements with the mayor that just about everybody in town if they are sending an email to council at westor.org they think it's going to
the council it's not it's going to everybody and it appears that we're going to have to um make it part of an ordinance and there's actually an ordinance that we've drafted one of the aspects of it it's the transparency ordinance one of the aspects of it is we
are the only people who get to be council at west orange.org so that if you want to until that happens if you want to reach just us you have to send to the individual five uh people uh the way it's the our first the initial of our first name and
the last name at west.org also the email addresses are on the clerk's uh uh page uh on the township website i I want to thank Miss Bennett for coming uh once again to uh bring up
issues that need to be addressed and the first thing I'll say is that this job at council this job and the interim business administrator probably the mayor and probably everybody else in the administration is at times frustrating
severely frustrating i go through it i understand it but I I totally condemn the words that were spoken tonight by anybody from our municipal government to any constituent uh there's
just no excuse and I hope that this doesn't happen again uh and uh that's pretty much all I can say about that um I also want to reiterate that that uh that we are trying to improve and
strengthen the noise ordinance and uh we've got some people up here are really taking the lead and doing a a really good job but it's a it it is very challenging in order to get this over the finish line and so we are continuing to push and I'm sorry
that that means that you have to uh continue to suffer here but we are we are trying to to move this forward and hopefully we'll have some good news in the next few weeks uh the last thing as I I want to point out because we're probably not going to talk about this later but
there's been some comment about the 2023 audit i certainly encourage everybody to look at it it's I don't know it's only 170 pages but I specifically suggest that you read the corrective action report
because I uh used to be a financial journalist i used to look at audits and quarterly statements on a regular basis i was a councilman for 10 years and now I'm back again for the 11th year i have never seen anything like this this is
truly truly disturbing the lack of financial controls and compliance in 2023 the the person who was our CFO and our business administrator he's gone but
this should never have happened and when Mr debove was pointing it out we kept $123,000 of county taxes and never never sent them over to the county i can't believe Mr plesi
didn't come down here with a duffel bag and pick them up we We had no record of nearly $600,000 in grants including nearly $350,000 in state and federal grants that according to the
audit need to be investigated for sources and purpose now I want to point out to you first of all the aud 2023 audit was unqualified all the all the numbers can be relied on i also want to point out that Mr diniac was not here in 2023 he
came in in 2024 and I think uh uh he did a very good job at putting together a corrective action plan but I want to tell you I I dread the 2024 audit which is going to be done by the same firm which showed their chops
in 2023 so I I I hope that it's not as bad as 2023 but you know buck buckle your seat belts because this this is really bad so if you if you want to take a look at it it's um uh it's resolution
123.2 uh-25 and you can start reading at page 155 i'd like you to read all of them but if you start at 155 you'll see what I mean there are 32 There are 32 um deficiencies that the audit found it was It's very disturbing it's unbelievable
anyway I'll finish that and we'll uh move on madame clerk yes sir please okay time to review the consent agenda approval of minutes of previous meeting April 8th public meeting consent
consent report of township officers none reading of petitions and communications and bids uh there is a bid out one uh 2019 model year or newer used 25 passenger Ford E450 cab with global jity
type bus or equivalent um billist are there any questions on the bills if if you would if if you wouldn't mind I just want to try to get this uh controlled so that we don't spend any more time i know that Councilwoman Ruden
has done her typical uh investigatory job and has asked a huge number of questions i don't think I don't think she's had chance to look at any of the documentation that the administration has has uh provided i did oh you did oh
yes so that narrowed down uh your your uh your questions or at least the bill it it did and I I first of all I want thank Mr diniac immensely for the amount of work that that he provided for me and I apologize for the amount of work that
I dumped on him um especially because we had a holiday weekend and I could only ask my questions on Monday and he had to get me everything by Tuesday um so I just want to um ask some questions about the um current list just one
second all right for those of you who are who are wondering whether we still have Mr tran as our attorney we sure do and um for March we received a $13,000 bill for him i would just like to put on
the record once again that a careful look at his invoices um shows that he is billing for things that were described in his role as township attorney which includes responding to council emails heads of
department and the Opras so I am not asking to not pay him because of the legislation but um I just want to point this out to the public um a couple of questions um AT&T wireless I would
really like to understand what is our policy with giving out or providing phones to um people who work for for West Orange it's up to the up to the department heads to explain who needs it and why
they need it okay so just uh looking through the stack of AT&T bills for this month we are paying $9,000 a month and I would like to just request a review by Mr diniac a careful review of that bill
because um some people who are getting phones are we're paying both for their phones and for their iPads and that's two separate charges for the same person so you know I'd like to know what the policy is in terms of that um I don't
understand the phones in the cars and the phone in the fleet cars so if you could you know give us a better explanation of why they're why we're paying for so many phones in a fleet car when the the personnel who are in those cars or trucks also have phones and or
iPads um with them um also we seem to have bills um on the on the phone that for people who are no longer with us I mean literally like no longer with us we're paying for uh Mr sers um Mr pelos
um Lenny Laapour um so each of these are getting separate bills so I just like to understand and and if just request that you review carefully who's getting the phones and that we understand you know I my from from just asking other
municipalities it generally is appropriate that that the um security people who are in law enforcement um get get phones because they they need it and certainly we would support that um but it seems like it's going all the way down to other not just department
heads but to other people who don't really seem to need a a phone paid for by by the taxpayers um I'd like to just reiterate once again that we do not have contracts for Matrix and CME um Matrix
to date has um has um rung up bills over $200,000 and they don't have an official contract i would like to request again from the administration that a contract be presented to the council for matrix
and CME i'm also would like to just question about why Mr warner's bills for the previous months were still at his um hourly rate when there was discussion last week that that the contract for Mr warner and for for both land use
planning and land use and zoning would be at the same rate but we're still getting bills for um last month that reflect the old rate um and then just finally I'd like to just question about why we are getting shut off notices from
PSEG and we're now facing a $58,000 bill why Why did we get a shut out shut off notice here we go so anyway that that that's it for the bills thank you so much do I have consent on from everyone else
on the bill list consent thank you resolutions are any resolutions being pulled this evening for the first time I think in the it's not the not I have none for me for me I'm not pulling any
okay to those in the audience and watching when you pull something it means you have a question or you want to have discussion so it doesn't get passed um on consent agenda and so therefore I don't have any questions i'm good and going to approve all the resolutions
tonight uh I am pulling 122-25 okay wait one second um I have questions on 121 121 i have questions
122-25 i want to pull it but are we going to executive session for that or no yes yes okay well m Miss Gary Adams did you want to say something if you do please come uh up here i'm sorry I didn't notice you i
appreciate Councilwoman Gabber michael um let's just hold on let's just Council President can you hear me yes we could hear you fine okay i didn't know if we're going into executive session or you want me to speak on 122-25 no we're not there we're not there yet
okay we're not there yet we're still just pulling call you up yes okay you want to talk about 122 uh I'm sorry I interrupted you uh Madam Clerk oh I have a Councilwoman Castelino pulled 122 uh 25 and has a question on
120 121 and 119 you have questions or you're following uh questions on 119 and 121 i may pull after my question okay so did you also pull 122 she did
122 and questions on 121 correct and and and just a statement on 120 okay statement yeah oh I'd like to I'd like to pull 120 123 for
questions so do you want to pull it or do you want to just ask questions well so this is a guide if there's any chance in the world no matter what the question is answered that you might uh vote against it then you need to pull it
ask your question and we'll just have to to take the vote real quick like to pull it pull it okay anyone else no because we got to go to executive session for 124 125 okay so what we have here I I I just I just
want to make sure on 124 we have a resolution for the executive session uh discussing the potential litigation that the daughters of Israel proposal we are going to need uh an authority on affordable housing
which is proposed by the mayor at 122 so uh 124 may have to wait if we do not approve 122 because that's the affordable housing uh administrator proposed by the mayor so I just wanted
to flag that there's also on uh at 1:25 there's a another executive session to discuss the uh US Department of Education uh investigation of the library property but I think we've put
that off until May considering the ordinance so is that still on for tonight we're still doing the executive session it depends on the council do you want to discuss it tonight oh I just I just didn't know if there was somebody here i noticed Mr smaldo wasn't here and I
understand he's sort of the point guy yeah he's out of town okay so table it we could table it table so we'll we'll put that on for vote so we can Okay what are we tableing 125 okay okay yeah okay so we could
Okay does that mean you're gonna also table the ordinance on first reading for it it was actually taken off the agenda earlier today yeah do you have the new agenda yeah they revised they sent this agenda
I keep switching on and off from here okay so are we ready to move forward with questions sure councilman are we ready to move forward with questions yes we are okay thank you
thank you sir okay so 11925 resolution authorizing award for historical architectural services historic preservation certified local government grant uh Councilwoman Castelino okay so I just wanted to go over this so the 19,000 for the proposal
is all coming from a grant for this for this study and I thought we did this survey just a couple years ago if if I could sure right are you the committee member yes you le I was also
when I was here on the council before uh we have had a long-term problem going back not problem we've had a long-term program to survey potential historical uh buildings and properties across the
township uh this is probably the fifth grant that we've gotten in order to hire uh the appropriate historical architect to do survey and I think this is the one that will pretty much finish doing the whole town and the purpose of of this
survey is to identify properties that we may want to preserve as historically significant uh but we can't do that until we first do uh a survey so we've done I think maybe four and the the uh the results of the survey are
fascinating uh they are online i just can't tell you where they are right now but at the next council meeting I'll I'll provide that information but I don't know did that answer your question well and then just to you know reiterate to ma mainly to the public too like the the property owner has to consent to be
on the register they we just don't put them on there that's correct and some of them don't don't consent to it okay i just want to make sure it was all covered by the grant that's all okay uh Councilman Ren um I I would just like to know whether on the website or on on the
site for the historical um preservation whether you list these 59 sites i'm interested to see where they are yeah they're they're online somewhere i just I just started back and I I don't know all of the details yet
but I I will provide that for the next meeting anything else on uh 119 madame clerk finish at 119 okay thank you 120-25 resolution authorizing execution of professional professional services agreement with Samuel Klein for
the auditor services 2025 so I I just want to go on the record and thank this group last year their reputation was um you know ex some things nicely
weren't said about them and um the some of the the minority of the council wanted them not to be the auditor services and so I was very happy to see that they really performed well with
this and um and good and good for them I I mean we've never had anything this thorough in all my years on the council and even even my years on the board of education they a lot of it's a thick
packet which is unfortunate I don't know what hap well I have some ideas of what happened in 2023 but um but again this was with Mr a tiniac coming in and um with a new pair of eyes on the
auditing that's why I was not supportive of the um the forensic audit because they're so expensive and having you know various eyes appear on things you know you know that the whatever was going on
is is rising to the top that we could see and I look forward to when we sit down with the budget and and go into more detail with Mr diniac and thank you Mr diniaak also for your due diligence but I just I just wanted to say that
they I'm glad you know they were proven worthy madam clerk Yes uh Council thank you uh Mr dan I just want to say thank you since you've been with us you've been such a breath of fresh air your transparency your
constantly answering our question getting anything and everything we need to us i truly appreciate you and I know that when you started here you inherited a I don't even know in the nicest way possible to say a poop storm you know like it you inherited a
mess and you have worked really hard to get to where you are now with getting us this budget helping with this corrective action plan and I just I want to say thank you and truly appreciate you thanks yes thank you so much Councilwoman Scarpa and please try to
keep your your comments brief very brief very brief again thank you for all you do and you've done an incredible job um I noticed they said there were uh it was an RFQ went out but I didn't see um who the So usually we get the who the other vendors are and the different price
points and I think they've done a great job and I plan on voting for them but I just was curious were they the lowest bidder were they in the range they were the only They were the only bidder okay all right well then power to them for being so courageous
madam clerk 121-25 resolution approving a license agreement between Pro Media New Jersey LLC and the Township of West Orange for the lease of a portion of 10 Rooney Circle for film andor television production and post-p production and
related uses councilwoman Castelino okay um I just wanted to I I appreciate you you uh being a lesor here um I just want to get an understanding on how we determined the
fee was it I didn't have a chance to look into what the commercial rates were for office space i just just asking the administration how they came to that number i'm not certain but I was not involved in that uh Mr was unfortunately
not here with the legal department um my understanding it's similar or same as they're paying uh on the top floor that's leased out okay it's a short-term lease it's you know it's not something we went out and advertised they came to us and we're looking to lease the space
and put some money in the golfers and it's not being used it's sitting there empty and there's not the typical buildout that commercial Yeah you know properties like the office buildings on Eagle Rock Avenue would have to do for their clients you know they're really going to bring in their own stuff and
and we're just providing space and and there's an acknowledgement of you know for the size of the the facility you know uh we contemplated like utility costs and added that into into the lease so and was is there any prep work we
need to do to accommodate them to obtain the space any fees on our part i Yeah just just cleaning out the space that's it you know we'll do that ourselves we'll do that ourselves with our DPW um and then and then they're rarely you
know the gentleman who came in we had conversations with him it's laptops and desks and you know a steamer and maybe a sewing machine it's really not It's not like a big complicated
operation no no no uh but and Mr qb what is he doing with the 22,000 books that I saw that were in there is he removing them as soon as possible if he doesn't we will okay mr samaldo sent me the email that
he sent to uh the director about clearing out because he's got some personal stuff in there too uh as far as the the changes it's basically turning on the air conditioning I think and and turning on the lights it's it's nothing substantive uh I didn't mean to interrupt you so
please go ahead no no that's okay you know and I I appreciate them wanting to use a space so I just wanted to ask those questions so I mean if you if you're looking for comparisons you know like a there's an office building on Eagle Rock and Roseland it's about $2 a
square foot but that's again there's a significant build out by the the office space you know we're at about a$150 a square foot um so well in line with commercial real estate again it's a turnkey short-term operation
okay just want to ask thank you if I could follow up I didn't see anybody else raising their Oh you do you did okay go ahead please oh you let me i us uh along here's Councilwoman Ruden
again uh we took a tour of that property I guess several weeks ago with the idea that maybe it's it could be the new home for the West Orange uh Arts Center Arts Council uh I don't know if anybody from the Arts Council has seen it but we are
spending significantly more money on the lease and the support on Valley Road for the Arts Council now uh well in excess of what we're getting so I would like to uh put a premium on finding out if if
that works for the arts council and moving them over there as soon as possible because we're talking about a lot of money we could save does anybody know uh what the situation is with the arts council i know you're the Yeah please go ahead so um several a couple
months ago the arts council requested that I reach out to the administration um to see if we can have tours of potential new places that that being one of them and um Chief Abbott reached out and said and and let us know that the
that a they're doing a study um they get back to us once the study's conducted and b that it is the executive branch and the mayor who gets to pick the location not us so we don't have like we can't just go and start scoring places and then recommend them to the mayor
sure um and and I it had explained that it wasn't our request but the the arts council's request that we do this so hopefully once the mayor has decided um which location she thinks would be best for the for for the arts council's new
home then uh or the gallery's new home then um we can all tour and become involved but I'm going to turn to Chief Abbott who who has um been very transparent about the whole process and I forwarded that email over to Patricia Matrano who's the chair of the board or
the council excuse me so Chief so I don't know that I'll be here to see it because I'm retiring on December 1st but um yeah we're we're we have a uh a company in Ferman that's doing all our space analysis and figuring out who can move where we we said everything's on
the table you know no nobody needs to stay in their office other than the fire department and the police department obviously but you know whatever works whatever the synergies are meet with the department heads figure it out what locations we have what are the cost of the buildouts you know that's all going
to have to be financed so um I don't know when you'll really have a a game plan in place but it's going to be a while okay i have a comment although it's not our immediate decision we do have a financial responsibility to appropriate money for the arts center
and right now it's probably costing us like $40,000 24 well 24 is just for the rent and then there's a security system and other costs so I imagine that it's at least you know 35 but it's costing us considerable money and I think we should
be looking at whether that would be a better utilization of the space as soon as possible right that's fine we're going to you know once we have the architectural firms results when will that we'll present do you know when they're due back see the the
architectural firms for the space for over the old library and the new library oh can we delay the decision and is he can we table it what this yeah I I highly recommend not because even running the numbers here and the numbers
you're talking about first of all this is a um you know short time period number one number two gentleman stated earlier that there are other opportunities and where it may just be this he may have
something down the road and I think we need to really think that that's why I asked for the pricing because if we clean it the space up a little bit you could get a higher premium for the space i wouldn't give it to the arts council because we'd be making more revenue off
of that i I mean I know we have to find a home but it's also partly the arts council that have to raise money right for for themselves as well so when I first came on the council we were supposed to give a a portion to for support this is way above and beyond and
I listen I I support them wholeheartedly but you know the whole idea is they also need to fund raise for themselves as well absolutely agree no our seniors don't have a senior center and we're funding in order to Well well that's who you you have Toby Cat so let's get the
study back i ho I highly recommend we we've taken this revenue now and and and and look look look at um the re the facility study and really seriously think about continuing to rent that space out
okay pardon i have questions please make it brief okay so um I would like to just have clarification about the parking situation because it references that um you're not designating specific parking
but it will include five box trucks um ranging from 20 ft to 40 ft and that's could be 20 tons of cargo located at 10 Rooney is is this going to also be used as a parking lot for all of these trucks and where will the trucks be be parked
and also I assume I I it says that it's not going to be designated but I I strongly recommend that we do designate where box trucks are going to be parked i'd also like to understand if they're going to be unloading or loading at all
at at the location and um it says the lency shall not have reserved parking and shall not park close proximity to the building that's fine but it's also not spelled out so maybe we do need to put up a sign to say where the lency may
um park so that it doesn't it doesn't um interfere with the um patrons of the library yeah I had a similar concern and how much traffic is going in and out daily so if I could it's a huge parking lot it's a huge parking lot that is not
going to be a problem for them to park out of the way and the other thing is they're using that side entrance the I guess the northern entrance not the main entrance to the library so you will not see any uh combination of those two uh uh foot traffic you will not see library
people using that entrance and exit it's it's a wardrobe roof for the History Channel i can't imagine it's going to be that visible right right i I I want to cut this off it's it's uh you know nobody wanted to pull it to uh to vote on it i I want to move forward we've got
a lot still a lot of uh a lot of things to go okay thank you Madame Clerk okay um 122-25 resolution authorizing a professional services agreement for affordable housing planner Nishwain
Group LLC for a 12-month term to expire on April 21st 2026 in an amount not to exceed $50,500 councilwoman Castelino so I pulled this because I you know I want to hear our our
director out but I have to be just interrupt one second i think we're supposed to do a motion in a second and then have conversation okay so when you're saying the motion the motion to uh approve the consent agenda and then come back no a motion to approve because
this was pulled from No no this was the library one yeah 122 is Oh this wasn't pulled this was not It was pulled this is not part This was not part of the consent this was Yeah she's right i I officially pulled this yeah so she's saying "Well
no." So we Yeah we do a motion and a second and then you have your discussion and then you vote okay but don't we first before we do this we we have the consent agenda and and it's approved right and I jumped right into the others that were pulled so I apologize for that
all right so we skip over this and then we go to the rest of the questions well that's it yes because Councilman Ruden pulled 123 correct and uh and then we were going to pull 125 uh to have a vote
to table right exactly all right so is there a motion to approve the consent agenda make a motion to approve the consent agenda second thank you all in favor any opposed the consent agenda is implemented now we can go into the
pulled 24 correct no 225 right um okay so I'm not going to reread the title but thank you thank Can I get a motion to approve then we'll do a second no vote discussion and then vote
i make a motion to approve resolution 122 authorizing professional service agreement for affordable housing planner and issuing group okay is there a second i'll second okay now you can have your discussion okay who wants to discuss
michelle okay so so that's why I'm confused are we supposed to go in executive session for for this not for this no not for this okay that's where Yeah that's why I was confused before let me let me just stop you there because it's important that we
understand this we are hiring this this firm tonight i understand and we're hiring them now so that we can go into executive session and have somebody who's uh an expert in affordable housing to advise us okay so that's what I was saying if we don't approve this then
there's no sense in having Yes but here here's my dilemma and and I don't want to make life miserable for our our director but I've been at the point for a while now since November December with
administration that we need a full-time planner and again I am I'm going to have and for that reason I'm going to vote no and let the cards fall and we'll figure it out and I don't like to do that and you you all know me and but I
am there's there's lot a lot of dissatisfaction I had with some items and I think it's time that we we have to get a full-time planner so I am I'm I have to vote no and I apologize to the
director we only have till June so when it sounds like Yes i know i sat in three I sat in three hearings down Atlantic City i've talked to multiple other towns my issue with the affordable housing I stated this publicly i'm for affordable
housing because we need it here in New Jersey the the problem that I have is that our residents aren't getting a fair shot at these units in our township that is my biggest dissatisfaction with all
of this okay so I'm just going to leave it there that's fine uh I think now might be a good time to uh hear from the director sure uh and maybe you want to I I don't know what you're planning to make a statement or answer questions or No I'm not going to answer questions but I think it's incumbent upon me as the
director of the department to give you some information before you vote no so we don't get sued um resolution yeah i I mean I like to help the township considering I am a taxpayer here the council originally adopted a
resolution right on the prospective need and the present need then we did our declaratory judgment right those are two steps the third step is you need a planner to do the plan for affordable housing by state statute that's due June
30th 2025 that is 60 days away from next week we have a lawyer here he can speak to it also if we do not do that have you heard of a builder's remedy yes a builder's remedy is a court imposed judgment in favor of a litigant
in which the court requires the municipality to reszone depending on the developer's property highdensity development this whole thing on and on and on and on the only way I'm going to skip to the bottom any community can be
protected from the builder's remedy lawsuit is to submit the housing element and fair share plan it has to be done by June 30th you can hire a full-time planner July 1st but we have somebody here today that we're already behind the eight-ball i've spoken to several towns
they have full-time planners guess what they hired a consultant to do the affordable housing plan i'm not here to convince i'm here to give you it's my responsibility as director of department as the zoning official and as the person who has been swimming the affordable
housing waters for the township i spoke to two consultants today we're behind the eightball we have 60 days or we're going to get sued that's all I want to say and until we hire him we cannot go into executive session because the
people that are asking us to be a part of the plan he has to do the plan the plan has to go to the planning board in 60 days we already have five meetings between now and June i know thank you
thank you director uh if I could I just want to just throw another factoid out in the RFQ there was another firm that responded uh it was higher rural uh I haven't heard any talk about them but I just wanted to let you know please go
ahead uh Councilwoman Scarp yeah I this is another thing at the final hour this is ridiculous this kind of management of the of this kind of project and I think we need a fresh pair of eyes on this and I'm going to vote no as well
councilwoman so I'd like to echo the sentiments of um Miss Director Janice Gary Adams uh it is crucial that we vote on this tonight colleagues I urge you to consider the seriousness of our affordable housing obligations this is
not optional you know the court has ordered us to address both present perspective need totaling over 1,000 units and the Nishuing group is uniquely qualified to help us meet this deadline by June 30th we don't currently have a full-time planner correct that is not
our job to do the hiring that is it's the executive branch it's the mayor we don't have it now i doubt we're going to get it between now and June 30th so it is crucial that we vote for the new strain group and delaying this action will expose the township to legal and financial risks none of us want that
that's even more money we always complain about money right look at the budget and now we're going to get sued and we have to spend money on hiring attorneys i mean that doesn't make sense this contract gives us experienced professionals on a temporary basis under
strict cost controls with no long-term commitment please don't let our or your because I'm voting for this your inaction jeopardize the town's compliance and credibility it has to happen now and Councilman Castino I hear you i know that you're upset that it's
not that the affordable housing units aren't only for our residents but there's nothing that we can do about that and by retaliating or just saying "I'm not going to vote for this and I'm going to say no." Who does it hurt it hurts the town it hurts the residents it hurts our pockets and it's not fair the
Nishuang Group is more than credible they are qualified they're an amazing group they've done great work for this town and we need to vote for them i know that we're happy i know that a lot of people are happy that we don't have a full-time planner i get it but saying no to this is going to hurt the town you want a full-time planner you have to
talk to the mayor and the administration there's nothing that we can do we voiced concerns about that already many times and like I said it's not going to happen between now and June 30th right don't have to repeat let's let's No you're not going to repeat you are not and I have You hear that i'm cutting
you off you cannot repeat i want to say I will have my voice heard so stop it please stop talking please not the dictatorship please stop talking very rude please stop talking i will say
what I need to say i'm No you not go ahead don't be rude you will respect everyone here and you will respect me please stop talking go ahead keep being rude please stop talking
i just want to point out that Nishuain advised us in executive session for this uh to get us here and I thought they did a very good job in advising us on what was going on so I am ready to move for a
vote i would like to this this contract doesn't make sense it is outlining $50,000 for essentially creating a plan by June 30th and then after that there
are no designated lists of responsibilities and yet there are services you know itemized services of what we could be paying for going forward um the contract does not make any sense i also I really I hear what my
council colleague concerns are but if the municipality misses the deadline that we can request a grace period for circumst uh circumstances beyond our control and what is beyond our control is that we do not have a full-time
in-house planner that is the problem here um I don't really buy the threat of a lawsuit i think that we can ask for an extended grace period and hopefully during that time we can get a qualified
planner on board who can um shepherd us through this difficult um you know plan um I also think that this whole well I won't even go into how we got to this is just another whole story but um we're
here right now and um I would like to I I will not be voting for this because I don't think that this contract makes any sense it only outlines preparation of a report and not comprehensive housing services which I think are necessary would you like to completely agree
question uh the uh principal from No I mean you can I read the contract i read the contract so So I'll just point this out factually the contract is a not to exceed $50,500 it has a listing of what
the hourly fees are it also says that this contract runs for a year and they will provide other affordable housing related assistance only with the approval of the council so there are and and
Councilwoman Ruden I respect that we need more not to exceeds and we need more fiscal control over our contracts but this is something that I think does give us uh control over our contracts um and again I I'm I we've talked this to
death nobody wants to talk uh to the experts so I Yes Council President I just jump in and just reiterate some of the comments i don't want to delay anything but our office and the law department both strongly recommend that this be adopted as well thank you i didn't realize that i appreciate that so
I'm moving for a vote now please councilwoman Castelino no councilwoman Gabber yes councilwoman Ruden no councilwoman Scarpa no council President Koviaak yes okay the motion fails
yeah I heard that story with SSS guys guys it doesn't Guys guys it's over okay let's move on let's move on so that also that also ends uh the potential for uh an executive session with the Daughters
of Israel correct and uh perhaps uh director if you want to bring there's another there's another firm that responded to the RFQ uh it might be something that we might want to consider having a special meeting to uh consider
them as well i mean that's that's up to the administration we have 60 days right i'm just throwing it out so I I mean I get on it the council is we have 60 days i I don't know if they want to call I rule they don't know our you know they've done plans for us before in the
past um obviously Nisha Wayne works with us currently so they know everything about us it's so much easier for them to do it but that's up to the administration what they want to do discuss it with the I um I'm only a director can the uh uh town get an
extension no the lawyer's right here he's right here he just said it i just wanted it on record i just want to make sure I put it on the record as a resident and a director in this town you did you did that's all I can say if they want to call higher group that would be up to
the administration i have making phone calls tomorrow 8 a.m to do the same thing thank you i'm sorry thank you okay thank you have a good evening i've been here since 7 a.m working on this by the way so this is very I have a question for the
administration please get down now council President yes go ahead please be brief thank you so if the mayor decides to go with a different planner we would have to have a special meeting i don't think we could wait two weeks i mean
there's a deadline and we will be sued and it's going to cost you money so will you send us an email and let us know because we'd have to dates discuss it with the mayor and the legal department in the morning okay thank you thank you Madame Clerk yes resolution
125 please well it's 123-25 that was pulled you pulled that resolution for the township of West Orange oh I'm sorry i missed 123 uh Councilwoman Ruden yes um I'm sorry Councilwoman you pulled right that's okay that's okay sorry people mistake
all the time yeah um I there's no way to other to say this than that the corrective action plan is eyepopping and um a lot of the um oh I
realize excuse me councilwoman I forgot we need a a motion I make a motion to to approve and I'll second um sorry about that okay which is I didn't I didn't read the
whole thing um resolution 123 resolution for the township of West Orange approving the corrective action plan for for the calendar year ending in December 31st 2023 correct
um I think that we need to obviously make a lot of changes and and and adopt new changes but I think that some of the changes that that were suggested kind of leave a lot of questions and just say we'll do better going forward um there
are several bank reconciliations that have outstanding checks we don't know what that amount is um there are differences between the MUNDEX property tax software um what are the differences that are being
investigated um the differences in the ledger the the corrective action let me just see oh um grants um there are unapplied
grants in the in for $250,000 and for $346,000 that were never applied does that mean that the grants were never received right Council President so I'll I'll
tackle the first the last thing first um so with the unapplied grants what the auditors mean by that is we receive the cash usually via wire whether that's from the federal government or state of New Jersey or the county and then the
way it was posted in the ledger in 2023 was instead of you know let's say we got $100,000 from the federal body camera grant instead of applying it to the receivable for that grant it was just put into an account that said you know
unapplied receipt so we have the cash it just wasn't recorded on the ledger properly so the investigation would then be you know what was this particular transaction and what grant receivable does it go against and that's that's the
corrective action for that one um the reconciling items uh so a deposit in transit that's the term that that's used in in the audit and that's the term I use in the corrective action plan if you bring me a check at the end of the month
and I deposit it I record it the day you bring it in but it doesn't clear the bank till the next month so on my reconciliation for that month I have it marked as a deposit in transit the the former CFO um had transactions booked as
deposits in transit that you know didn't clear for like a couple months because you know he he wanted to make the transaction he just didn't do it in that time frame and then so and it's basically moving money between accounts um so that he didn't have inner funds
great question the the auditor said that what would that that the practices were highly like unorthodox accounting procedures is there anything that you can say to us maybe criminal no I
wouldn't say they're criminal i I it just it's it's it's not good bookkeeping so as part of the corrective action you know we're doing away if if we don't move you know interest income from one account to the other we'll book it as an inner fund instead of it being a
reconciling item that hangs on a bank wreck for months and months um so I think I put in my Yeah you know if it's a deposit in transit it has to clear the bank by the 10th of the next month and that's pretty generous even 10 days
um outstanding checks you know we have a listing of all the outstanding checks an outstanding check is you know we issue a check to Joe Smith for $1,000 they don't cash that check at the end of the month I show it as being outstanding so it it already reduced our
book balance just like you would balance your your checkbook um but it hasn't hit the bank yet so it's it's a reconciling item so we have checks out there that are stale dated at this point they're over six months they probably got lost in the mail or you know whoever got them
threw it out or or whatever the case may be and even if they found them and they tried to deposit them our bank is going to reject are we going after that money to ask that question so what we're going to do is we're going to do a resolution and we're going to name all those checks
that are still dated and you're going to cancel them um be a resolution and then that money is going to go back into the coffers it's amna miscellaneous revenue not in can't we just ask that the the vendor to reissue checks even if I mean
we frequently do that you know we we put stop payments on checks and reissue checks all the time you know if we can't get in touch with a vendor or if it was a one-time thing and and and we can't make good on it then then we'll cancel it via the
resolution so I I also have a question on Oh go ahead no yes I am okay so what if the vendor then comes back and states you know hey we want the money will you reissue the check or will you not because we canled it in res what happens
there so we set ourselves up for litigation i mean if if there was going to be potential litigation if it was like a massive check we're not going to we're not going to avoid that i'm talking you know $100 checks or something like that if it was like a $100,000 check we would reach out and
get in touch um but if it's small stuff would yeah you know we can handle a case by case basis if we have to reissue a check after cancelling it we'll do so and we'll properly allocate it to the the right account prior year bills and you
know I'll do a deferred charge for it prior year bills that's the right way to do it um and we'll handle it um thank you so there were so many issues that were raised that I I find it a little difficult to go with this whole thing at you know
with all of the recommendations so another another issue was the health benefits that employees are receiving waiver payments um for those who elect to wave their health benefits and that's we pay people out if they decide not to
and apparently that's a practice here in West Orange it is it is but it it municipalities have the discretion of whether or not to offer that they do and can we change our policy so that we stop offering waiverss to people who may not
need the health benefits so it can be a a council action um that you would change the code and and do away with waiver payments you you could do that i'd have to look at the collective bargaining agreements and see I could
jump in labor council labor council we actually dealt with this in another municipality and as long as you're changing it prospectively and they have an opportunity to resign up for health insurance you should be fine we had an issue in another municipality where they said "Oh I know you already all waved it
previously expecting this payment but we're discontinuing it now." And we lost that grievance because there was a reliance on expecting the payment but as long as it's prospective and you're you're saying you have an opportunity to opt back in if you decide you want it because you were expecting this payment you're not getting it then you should be fine but it's not negotiable at all by
statute it's not something that even if it's in the collective bargaining agreement that's not enforceable so it's completely up to us whether we offer it or not okay and and if I could Mr datiniac isn't this it's it's the waiver process is done all over the country uh
and what it does is it saves the entity that is insuring it saves them money because uh they use their spouses or their partners somebody else's source of of coverage and we save huge amounts of money correct if if
that's the case the problem here was that there was no documentation of whether this is what the this is what the auditor said there was no documentation that this was actually something that we could do correct correct then that's and that's what they're recommending but to your point of does it save money yeah um especially
for you know we have some grandfathered in waiver payments where it's a percentage of the savings um but everyone else is it's a maximum of $5,000 and there's a calculation to see if they even get that you know just just
to put it out there the cost you know our calculated cost for family plan with dental is like $52,000 a year um per family so you know there is significant savings by offering the waiver program because if the person has
coverage you know they don't take our coverage and that's it's a lot cheaper to pay 5,000 than to ensure and we wouldn't be the only municipality to do it other forms of government offer a waiver program as well the majority of municipalities in New Jersey offer a w
Yeah and if you're part of state health benefits it's slightly different you know you're restricted in you know if you're covered under state health benefits you can't give waiverss to someone that's covered under but you know we're self-insured so we don't we don't fall under that plan but just you
know globally the corrective action plan and it's a lot of comments i agree um you know we're you know I'm taking a very um mechanical approach to this like we have a problem we we're assembling a
team to handle that problem and we have a goal and like it's very regimented and we submit this to the state of New Jersey like provided this gets passed tomorrow morning I'll submit this through fast when madam clerk can give
you the resolution so division of local government services will review the corrective action plan and then they are going to look at the 2024 audit and say well how much did you correct now the timing of of all that is usually get your 23 audit I mean you get your audit
a lot sooner um so they may look to the 2025 audit um but they do monitor it um and Samuel Klein is going to note all of the prior year comments that repeat themselves and the state again will look at that so you know it's not the
comprollers's office but it is division of local government services they will monitor it they will email and they will ask about the progress um and we can always you know come to this council and and speak about the progress in the future um because the goal is to you
know not just correct the problem but correct the system that allow for the problem so that whether it's me or some other CFO you know the right procedures are in place and and we don't have these issues you have a lot on your your plate to correct um the overpayment to an
employee that's just how much was that employee overpaid and shouldn't that employee have to repay West Orange so I'll talk to the engagement team um about that and if we need to go to legal we'll we'll go to
legal about that um but I don't want to say too much specifically in an open meeting absences were not accounted for so we are now going to be on the hook for paying out people who may be claiming they had absences because there's no So
the absences are accounting for it's the value of the absences in the current system that we use if you didn't run the report as of 1231 2023 and then you try to run it instead on
11204 you get the new rates applied to the old time so because that rate that that report wasn't run at everybody's 2023 rate you don't get an accurate value in the time we're moving to a new payroll system so
we're changing two systems we're changing our ERP system so our all our purchasing our general ledger um you know it's going to have a forward- facing public portal we're going to have revenues and all that that get posted online um but we're also changing like I
said the payroll system the payroll system that we're changing to has that flexibility where you could say "Hey run it from 1231 2022 and it's going to take those rates from 2022." So it's you know it's it's just the system
and and I don't know if somebody forgot to run the report at the end of the year i don't know what happened back in 1231 2023 but that's the comment is that it's applying rates from a different year to time from the year before so tonight we
discussed an issue which is that certain certain um businesses are operating without proper permits you mentioned in here that um that as well and as well as construction permits so the the comment from Samuel Klein was they do what's called fee testing so everything that
they do is is dictated in the requirements of audit that the state put out I think I don't know in the 1960s and then updated in 1984 something like that um and so they test fees so they look at our ordinances they look at our
resolutions and then they go back and they look at receipts from the prior year and they say you know somebody went and got a boiler installed what did you charge them um and so that's that's what they're noting there that some of the permits according to the resolutions and
the fee ordinances that we have were charged incorrectly so we're going to look at all of those pre-programmed UCCC fees that you know we utilize a system that prices everything out is everything up to date with our with our ordinances um so that
we don't have those issues okay i mean there are just so many things that I'm just I'm just a little nervous about approving the whole thing if if some of this will be changed and we can get back any any money for instance it looks like there were
2,312 tickets that were never paid no so that is that's part of the municipal court report um I think it's the maybe Chief will be able to speak on this more the the ticket books can only be in the possession like unissued tickets can
only be in an officer's possession for so many days and then they're supposed to return them back to the court and then they get reissued ticket books if you read most municipal court reports like every single municipality has this issue because they use the ticket books
till you know till they need a new one um but it is a comment samuel Klein writes it up every time um because again they're very by the book so you know it's that one is not the end of the world i'll say that and it's it's
really just they have old ticket books that's all it is it's not a loss of revenue no so the court's still cleaned um never mind i believe that's because we mostly use e ticketing yeah and really only use the hard copy handwritten tickets when the e
ticketing's down so those summons books sit in an officer's briefcase or duffel bag for long periods of time i if I could just make three suggestions number one local government services is going to read this and if they don't like
something in it and they'll know after they read the audit they'll know the full picture they'll come back and they'll say "No you got to do this." So we'll hear back from them if they don't the second thing is uh we can we can change
whatever accounting and uh compliance practices or policies that we want we don't have to change them tonight particularly when we are just getting misunderstood so if this is something that you really want to chase after uh that's the guy to talk to
because he knows his stuff so in the summertime you know one of our finance department projects is to write up like an SOP for how to handle different transactions and like I said if it's not going to be me it's somebody else at least they'll have something to follow
um you know it's that's just a a good practice to build like a transition so yes and just before just before let me finish the third point the the uh the third point is is that we can ask Mr
diniac to give us monthly updates formal updates just like he did uh with with with what we got today in the uh and the response and just come to us every month and tell us where he stands on all of these 32 points and then as he take knocks them out we'll knock them off and
that way we will be sure that we're following along in this if that's if that's a if that's a concern i don't you're probably already keeping track of it anyway so So it's just merely emailing us if you want to do that so anyway those are my three points council
if you can just clarify what an SOP is for people in the audience who are on Zoom who don't know what that means and you know standard operating procedure you know and it's it's internal it's not meant to be you public could see it
exceed whatever they want but it's meant to be internal for finance department employees or whoever the department is on proper way to you know whatever whatever it is posting transactions or you know creating a purchase order or you know just something to follow um and
then hopefully it it eliminates a lot of these these issues thank you Mr tiniac yes uh are we ready to move to a vote yes please Madam Clerk okay councilwoman Castelino to approve yes councilwoman Gberichel yes councilwoman Ruden yes
councilwoman Scarpa yes council President Koviaak yes the motion carries okay so 125-25 you're going to make the motion to table so moved okay is there a second second second councilwoman Castelino yes
the table councilwoman Gabber yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Samantha council President Koviaak yes the motion carries okay ordinances on second and final reading 2905-25 an ordinance amending and
supplementing chapter 28 and establishing sections of the revised general sorry that was in No yes it was oh that's Oh that's in consent for It's It's dead yes it's dead because we don't have a It is
a dead issue because you know Thank you for clarifying madame clerk you're welcome 2905-25 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 28 and establishing sections of the revised general ordinances of the township of West Orange regarding a lawn care
registry is there a motion to introduce on second and final reading i make a motion to introduce on second and final second thank you Councilwoman Castelina uh no councilwoman Gberichel yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman
Scarp Council President Kakoviaak yes thank you um public hearing now is the time for the public hearing on proposed ordinance 2905-25 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 28 and
establishing sections of the revised general ordinance to the township of West Horns regarding a long lawn care registry if you would like to speak please come up to the uh speaking microphone yeah to the microphone yeah
you have give us your name and your uh address and you'll have five minutes to speak on only this topic is there anyone who wishes to speak on this topic and only this topic please
michaela Bennett Olds Indian wrote long care registry for what why are we asking lawn care providers to create why are you creating a registry for lawn care providers it makes sense if you're also going to be
policing whether or not the type of equipment they're using etc but what's the purpose of this um I think you know it flies in the face of what you're just talking about with immigration etc and you think about lawn care providers
largely immigrant population providing lawn care services and you're going to ask them to come into a government and fill out forms to be a part of a registry or go online and fill out it for what why like why are we why are we
requiring that thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak anyone who wishes to speak at this public hearing seeing none I close the public hearing and open the uh discussion with my colleagues
councilwoman yeah I just want to make a statement obviously I've been supportive of all this and but what I did find out through the process is that up at the recycling center if you come in to uh utilize the facility as a um landscaper
a lawn care business you have to register there so there is some So if the the my some of my colleagues were concerned about getting information to the landscapers which um I I do support
that you could do it through this method and I guess you know check in with Mr uh uh Reynolds because I believe right is that his domain chief I'm sorry the recycling center is is
that Mr reynolds domain privatized i usually deal with the uh contractor myself so they have to register so if we wanted to get information to their registry there educational pieces or if we ordinance change etc can we utilize
the registry that they have created through the uh users i'd have to check their contract i don't know okay maybe you know confidential information that they have all right we're just looking to push good information out i'm sure they would
volunteer to give out anything they want you know we wanted to be given out but to actually access their database we'd have to go through legal and check their contract okay if you could find out please that
would be great councilwoman Miss Bennett thank you um for the reasons that you outlined I am not supportive of this i would be supportive of this if it came back and it was optional i know that there's no cost to the businesses um I know they worked
hard on this and it was a two-part between the other ordinance and this um it'd be nice for residents who don't know where to go to have an option to look at a list of registered
businesses um as an option though right it shouldn't be mandatory i don't think there should be any violations or penalties um and because the other ordinance um unfortunately failed I don't think it's fair to um I don't think we should be going forward with
this so for that reason I'm going to have to vote no thank you Counciloman Ruden anyone else no I I've really understand your concerns um hadn't really thought about it in in terms of
that our our intention was to be able to communicate with landscapers if we were making a change and I hope that we will be making the change um and this seemed like the like a two-part deal um
unfortunately because it didn't pass we really um I guess it it almost seems unnecessary at this point to have this so I'm I'm listening to what you're saying and and I and there was no this this there was no charge for the
landscaper to register the purpose of this was so that we would be able to communicate with them going forward council Scar well I hope in good time I I'd like to put it forward because I hope in good time we will move to change and I hope that we will have a
referendum in November so that the residents can vote on whether they think we ought to move in that direction councilwoman Councilman Scarpa it's very disappointing to hear that you say that you now support a referendum when
several weeks ago or few meetings ago I mentioned it both you and Councilman Castelino stated that you supported a referendum on the record and then I made a motion and you both voted no so changed your mind it's it's it's very
it's and now there's no support for it so it's I feel like it's not going to happen so I just add adding sounds good i I would just suggest this if we maybe you want to take it back and retool it and have the registry going
forward and perhaps you can uh we can get approval to post it on the website and so if people are looking for landscapers perhaps they want to check to see you know how many years of service or whether they do electric or
whether they just do gas and it might be something that would help uh the residents and help the the the vendors i I I don't know but it's probably not in the right it's probably not in the right form now and we probably need to get legal to look at that anyway it's kind
of what I mentioned in my uh response to public comment um I would support this the only issue is it has the violations and penalties it would be nice to have as an option for people to go they're looking for um a landscaper they trust especially if they don't know anyone so hopefully this can come back as an
option for people to to register their businesses which will only help them you know in case residents are looking to hire landscapers and without the violations and penalties and that's it that looks like it madame Clerk let's go to vote please is there a motion to
approve 2905-25 on second and final reading yes not being none okay it's a failure okay 2906-25 an ordinance amending chapter 10
to add a new section of the revised general ordinances of the township of West Orange regarding singleuse bathrooms is there a motion to introduce on second and final reading i make a motion to introduce on second and final reading thank you is there a second okay
thank you councilwoman Castelino uh no councilwoman Gabber yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa yes council President Koviaak no now is the time for the public hearing on ordinance
2906-25 regarding single-use bathrooms uh please come up to if you'd like to speak you have five minutes please come up to the microphone and uh give us your name and address and you'll have 5 minutes to speak on this subject and only this subject miss Bennett okay well
Bennett Old Indian Road I think it's funny that I came down here not intending to speak and I've stood up two times i'll be as brief as I can i just sent you an all an email with an image um accepted students day was happening you know has been happening all month um
for high school students accepted at schools and Ruckers at the dorm i just happened to be walking through and there was the image that I sent to all of you it's really simple it's straightforward you've heard from a lot of people it really costs it's a minimal cost um with
great reward for those who um deserve the um equity that it brings and uh I would urge and encourage all of you to pass this um as um evidence of your
leaning into being a more just equitable and inclusive town thank you thank you Miss Bennett is there anyone else who would like to speak anyone i know there was a lot of uh comments and public uh comments so can I
make a comment uh we've still got the public hearing we need to close the public hearing and start the discussion so uh seeing none I'm closing the public hearing and uh opening this up to my colleagues and it looks like Councilwoman Ruden wants to speak i'm
very supportive of this i would just like to know what the administration is going to do and what um anybody who deals with restaurants especially downtown is going to do to make sure that our um businesses in town
know that this is now the law well it's it's not just the way the ordinance is written it's not just restaurants this is all wherever business single occupancy bathrooms including non-publicf facing restrooms so if you work in a bank and the bank
has a bathroom in the back room that's only available to employees this applies to that as well so we're going to uh ask every department that is involved uh like fire does life hazard at all commercial establishments police are in and out of offices and so on frequently
health will deal with the restaurants and we're just going to have to kind of do it on a peacemail basis as we view violations we'll bring them into compliance is there a way to email all of the businesses that are currently registered with the town we can ask the
Chamber of Commerce to help us out but they obviously every business in town does not register them i don't believe we there's a database with every an email for every business i'm sure there is yeah the the license that everybody again the merkantile we have the license but I don't think we have a database with all those emails why wouldn't we
yeah maybe I'm maybe develop something new every day one at a time one at a time please if that's the case then we can email through that i would think anyway i would hope we I don't know we got to sign up councilwoman Ruden has the floor
it does this have a a a date when this needs to be enacted or I mean it says immediately but it's comes to law 20 days following the vote on so we need to get on this right away with emails
yeah 20 days after publication it'll be published next Thursday so and maybe put this on our website and in the any business um website that we have and on Facebook
yeah yeah our public information officer is here i assume he's taking this all in have a plan councilwoman I just want to say that and I'm hoping that there's support tonight um to pass this um that it's very simple
to all businesses have to do they can even write it on paper or print it out if they don't want to buy a plaque that just says rest room very simple rest room thank you i don't think there'll be a big push back from the community
okay uh anybody else are we ready president I want to jump in i believe this needs to just be amended to refer to chapter 2 instead of chapter 10 it shouldn't be a substantive change we can still pass it tonight um there's just a typo that it refers to chapter 10 which is a different area of the code and I think it needs to go to chapter two make
a motion to make that amendment i'll second it okay vote on the amendment first uh yeah we're going to vote on the amendment first councilwoman Castelino for the amendment yes councilwoman Gber yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman
Scarpa council President Kakoviac yes okay the motion carries chapter 2 okay uh now is there a motion to approve 2906-25 on second and final reading i make a motion to approve second reading
thank you is there a second second okay councilwoman Castelino uh no councilwoman Gberichel yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarfa Council President Koviaak no okay the motion carries
okay okay 2913-25 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7-32.1 handicap parking on streets section 7-32.2 restricted parking zones of the
revised general ordinances of West Orange is there a motion to introduce on second and final motion to introduce second thank you councilwoman Castelino yes councilwoman Gber yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scartha Council
President Koviaak yes thank you okay public hearing now is the time for the public hearing on proposed ordinance 2913-25 on second reading an ordinance about restricting parking zones of the revised general ordinances of the
township of West Orange if you would like to speak please come up to the microphone give us your name and your address and you will have five minutes to speak on this topic and only this topic please come forward now this is the public hearing is
open seeing none I'm going to close the public hearing and open the discussion to my colleagues if anybody would like to or somebody can just say move to move to move to approve councilwoman Castelino yes councilwoman
Gberichel Councilwoman Woman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa Council President Kovia yes oh you know what i forgot to do a motion in a second for what for that to make we did the first sorry make a
motion to approve okay thank you sorry about that we kind of did it backwards the motion carries okay 2915-25 bond ordinance providing for various roadway improvements buying in the township of West Orange appropriating
10,30,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $6,714,669 bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the costs thereof is make a motion to introduce thank you councilwoman Castelino yes
councilwoman Gerber yes councilwoman Ruden yes council Scarpa Council President Koviaak yes thank you motion carries now is the time for the public hearing on proposed ordinance 2915-25 a bond
ordinance authorizing the issuance of $6.7 million in bonds or notes and appropriating $10.03 million if anyone would like to speak on this topic and of course we had a lot of mentions of this in public comment please come to the microphone state your
name and address and you will have five minutes to speak on this subject and only this subject please come forward now not all at once seeing no interest I close the uh
hearing and open it up to my colleagues let's just thank everybody for coming out just thank for all the ad advocacy of the of the residents i hear um motion to vote is there a
motion to approve on second and final reading motion to approve on second and final i'll second it thank you councilwoman Castelino yes councilwoman Gber councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa council President Kakovia yes the motion carries
okay 29 ordinances on first reading 2912-25 an ordinance amending chapter 11 section 3.4 of the revised general ordinances of the township of West Orange license fees maximum number is
there a motion to introduce on first reading oh I make a motion okay I'll second it thank you um Okay and this is uh the purpose of this ordinance is to revise the municipal code setting for the license fees for liquor licenses issued by the
township of West Orange it's an increase of 10% on the license fees uh Councilwoman Castelino yes councilwoman Gabbor Michael yes thank you councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa Council President Koviaak yes the motion carries like to
say something uh if you could just Oh that's right it's it's first reading yes please go ahead so at our last council meeting we voted to well my colleagues not me voted to increase liquor license well soda I guess by 10% annually until
reaching a cap of $2,500 it was initially 20% every year until they got to that cap so I just want to say thank you to my colleagues for reducing the original proposed amount from 20% to
10% which would have placed an even greater burden on our small businesses and while clearly I remain conflicted uh and still believe a $2,000 cap would have been more appropriate I will support this measure as a more
reasonable compromise so thank you thank you Madam Clerk 29/19-25 an ordinance amending chapter 5 section 32.3 and 32.8 of the revised general ordinances of the township of
West Orange Police requesting towing and storage services is there a motion to introduce on f uh first reading well I I want to say no i mean we got to have a motion to talk about it right
i'm still going to vote no make a motion to introduce thank you is there Thank you discussion so here's the thing with this the nightmare that we have on Main Street
right now with all the towing and the storage we still haven't fixed because we don't enforce it force the number cars we occasionally do Pleas perfect example Pleasant Valley
Way and um gas station Pleasant Valley Way and Eagle Rock Avenue it's getting worse there there's more and more storage there um wh what why is the police
making this recommendation and again I don't understand why would we want this in the middle of town i don't know if you're reading this right this is this is apples and orang is what you're saying that's a zoning issue if there's too many cars on a lot this is to increase uh the availability of
towing companies because right now they have to be located in West Orange and excuse me twin towing is um the tow company from East Hanover that was leasing uh at select lost the lease on the property as a stop gap measure we
allowed them to tow to East Orange because Twin can't do it all so the law says you can have either one towing company exclusively or if you open it up you have to have as many as are willing to tow for you as long as they comply with what your restrictions are i'm hoping three miles from the center of
town is enough we may have to go a little further i mean it's great if somebody gets an accident and they live in town and they only have to go to West Orange to a tow yard to pick their car up but that's just not doable anymore yeah but here's the problem so if you put a like right now they're on the outskirts of town which is mainly down
off the main street and and they're it's a nightmare it we have they put dozens of cars this is only for the just to be clear this is only for police telling this is nothing to do with a garage that has their own tow truck and towes cars this this licensing has nothing at all
to do with that okay this is strictly it was twin and um CNL what they name it cnl telling they were the two cnl doesn't have the ability to staff where select is or lost the lease or whatever they're using their restarting yard i've
kind of just allowed that because twin can't do all the towing for us so where else in town are you looking to I'm looking to go out of town not in town they're going to tow cars out oh out of town well three miles from the center of
town and hopefully we hopefully that works i mean if we may have to come back and say we don't have enough tow companies we're going to have to go find them you understand i understand but I'm just thinking that I didn't get a chance to look at the map this is your police
towing only this is nothing to do with You know what I complain about all the time it's ridiculous but you're not complaining about the tow companies that call for the police uh no I don't i know right right so that's it's a valid it's
a valid concern but has nothing to do with this at all so Councilman Castina I hear what you're saying but I think that's something you should bring up then under new business so we can discuss next time because that's different than this all he's asking is to increase the mile radius and I feel like we're wasting time discussing yeah
yeah i'll I'll talk about it with you by the next Madam Clerk or is there anybody else who wants to speak madam clerk okay i'm going to vote uh to approve Councilwoman Castelino on first reading uh on first
reading I'll approve it for now councilwoman Gber yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwomana Council President Kovia yes the motion carries 2921-25 bond ordinance providing for various 2025 capital acquisitions and
improvements buying in the township of West Orange appropriating $635,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $65,600 bonds or notes of the township to finance the part of the cost thereof
is there a motion to introduce on first reading so moved second okay any discussion well yeah is there going to be any kind of presentation or among the director i
mean did everybody get a chance to review right i thought that this was something that um Chief Saralda was going to We don't have to yeah we have It's on the library yeah we gave out a
packet with 10 Rooney yes okay i just want to make sure everybody was good before his No this is not for the library this is not for the library this is for the Lando Park this is for the other parking lot that you want done
right did everybody yeah it included that too lando parking lot oh I know i keep I keep mixing my papers sorry i know long day for me today no indeed this is this is the
uh ordinance that failed uh yeah this got for lack of a motion to consider and then the the mayor has brought it back this is for three different projects one on Kelly Drive
for traffic calming the Lando uh parking lot downtown that's the that's the major portion of this and then also something over at uh uh the end of Dogwood at uh at Boland the administration
is this urgent or a necessity do we have to do these can it wait until we have the finances and I asked because I feel like right now with our budgetary issues we should be focusing on um
emergency or public safety i know we just passed a $6 million uh bond but that's because those have to deal with you know public safety our roads um is the Lando lot parking lot in such despair where cars can't drive on it are
there craters are there potholes um you know can it can you is there a way that I don't know they can like fix certain parts without spending this amount of money same thing with Kelly Kelly drive is this something that has that has to
be done i mean there's speed signs she needs to speak um and then I know but I'm going through each one so let me ask her my question please and then she can answer my questions and the same thing with uh Dogwood Drive at Ben Park i mean we literally told residents that we're
not going to spend money on Lafayette Park and here we are uh it just it doesn't make sense to me we can't I it should be a priority based on need and emergent need all right for the Lambo lot parking lot
which is the first one for the 425,000 appropriation i will say that right now there is a project for the Washington Street corridor which is the phase one um the parking lot is in disrepair um there's actually pieces of
like curb laying around i'm sorry I didn't hear you pieces of curb okay laying around um there's definitely potholes our DPW tries to patch them up as best as they can um there is definitely a need to mill it
and pave it as well and also to dismantle the section that is the uh basketball court so that it could actually provide um additional parking for the businesses so is it needed the answer is
yes sooner than later i actually believe that I requested this um back on 2022 it got pushed and then I think we only got like a $100,000 like the last time that we had a budget and obviously the money
went when it was expended on emergency repairs now in regards to the traffic calming for um Kelly Drive this has been a request is no different than the uh Gregory Avenue
residents as well as the South Valley Road residents that have come here to this council and made a request for additional you know striping LED signage uh crosswalk and this is due because of an accident in which a pedestrian got
hit last year um and there was definitely a community uh meeting last December with the police department so we have had multiple meetings with the residents so it's definitely
needed with regards to the Dogwood Drive at Bowling Park actually this is already done it was done as an emergency it was actually done earlier this month uh we couldn't not wait any longer him and myself when I went out there and I was
wearing flats I almost stripped and fell and so did my one of my secretaries when I sent him to take pictures so we did get somebody to do this as an emergency repair especially now that the weather is getting nice all the residents want to come to the park and we cannot afford
for somebody to fall and hurt themselves and eventually we're going to end up with a lawsuit so thank you for answering my questions um so if the work was already done for the dogwood drive at Bowling Park why are we now bonding
for it i I that does make sense wouldn't have already been paid for can we remove this line item can we make a motion because it's already done why would we bond and pay interest on something that's been paid paid for i'm just confused i don't understand well it's
not paid for i have no money in my capital budget so yeah we cobbled together money for this bowling drive um so we really took from other projects so I guess in light of that you know we
could amend and pull bowl and drive out mhm thank you yeah it doesn't make sense to keep it in there so I I would like to make that amendment if there's support from my colleagues to uh remove the improvements and pairs repairs of Dogwood Drive at Bowen Park um because
the work's already been done and paid for that doesn't make sense the bond is we just table it until we get the budget till we do the budget and see what we have i don't think we can because just just a minute just a minute this was Go ahead the contractor needs
to get paid oh okay when any contractor does emergency work you need to pay them within 30 days so I will be submitting a a resolution to the council on the next council meeting so that the contractor could get paid okay actually wait one
last thing so we just our agenda didn't approve the initiating group unfortunately and that would have been $50,000 can't you just take it from there part of part of that money i'm asking I guess I should ask the CFO i mean we were about to vote on a $50,000
contract with the Nishuang Group so why not use that money and deduct right that money is part of One at a time please yeah that money is part of a has the floor i'm sorry go ahead that money is part of a specific operating budget
it hasn't been contemplated to be used for a specific capital improvement project so you know we'd have to talk with the administration because that's that's pulling money out of a department so well you're also going to need a planner aren't you just one at a time the councilwoman still has the floor i'm
done thank you council yeah aren't you going to need that money to get a planner for this project another planner i think that money you're going to need for the purpose that it was intended excellent point Councilman so um in
regards to the parking uh lot Lando lot and I appreciate the uh the director's comments we've had multiple businesses fail at the Tory corner
because that lot is blocked by the basketball court that's not utilized and for the lack of signage and you know and and I've been advocating for this lot for about seven years now uh I don't know how long it could be delayed with
the timing i don't know what the timing is with the uh project the streetscape that's coming up with um Washington Street School and so you know I don't know there may be time that you could delay it for but I'll leave that up to
the director but it it has to get done when that project gets done because they go hand inand with each other that's number one my second comment is going to be uh with the other project on Kelly Drive liberty Middle School is on Kelly
Drive and I had met with uh some of the residents um on a Zoom call a while back and you know they were just devastated um that's a not only you know not only did you know the woman get hurt but she
lost her her her dog i I mean they've come flying by there so it has to be you know again we had the Gregory school right same same same issue here so understandable okay so the Lando parking lots probably is it more efficient to do it now while the other thing is
happening are there economies of scale of doing it you know while the other entrances i expect the Washington Street Corridor phase one hopefully going out to bid no later than the summer of 2026 which means if we want to sort of like
go hand in hand we should start designing now so that we could go out to bid right sometime next year also for the land a lot okay sounds like we need to do it um so if you say designing now
does that require this type of money to start the design in order to design I would rather I would rather like have the money so that way as soon as the design is finished we could go out to bid rather than having to come back and then it's going to be more time and so
many months before I could actually put it out to bid and how much did the Dogwood Drive at Bolan Park actually end up costing based on an emergency basis $81,000 yes thank
you $81,000 in change i had made an estimate in my head that it was going to be about 75 to 85 so I was close good job all right is there any way that we can approve um the Kelly Drive for safety reasons right now and consider
the other other projects while when we are evaluating the budget um excuse me once again the Dogwood Drive needs to get paid the work was done and the contractor has to get paid by law an x
number of days so it will be those two right i understand but is there any money to pay if we don't bond is there money to pay the dogwood the people who did dogwood yeah like I said we can we've cobbled together
okay various capital ordinances that you know I feel are in the spirit of the original ordinance so this work is in the spirit of the original ordinance I should say so what Mr diniac I think is doing is
sort of sidstepping around the issue that when we borrow money we say what we're going to borrow money for and if we change our minds the mayor has to come back to the council and make the changes but occasionally we we're sort of general
we'll say public buildings and grounds or road improvements Rooney Circle yeah that's a little more specific but um so I I review the ordinances And you know as long as they're not specific to say
you know XYZ lot you know then you know I can I can use that what about the money that was that was intended for Lafayette Park i mean that's going to sit there until you know we authorize a pro um a
specific project so can that be used for this can the money either be returned so you can you can go ahead and and cancel it you can reappropriate it um and you'll get back six bucks in your tax bill for that
to get rid of that if you canceled it because it's in a that money is you know in a short-term note so let's say it's part of the $54 million note or whatever maybe it's the smaller note but and I'll
just use an I don't know i don't remember exactly how much it was let's say it's $200,000 authorization you cancel it when I go to renew the note I would reduce the renewal by $200,000 can't reappropriate it to this you'd have to a new ordinance yeah okay so we
just reappropriate those funds to something that's urgent so you're going to take away a park for kids and everybody I'm giving town engineer the floor please be quiet with respect to the money for the funds
that are now for Lafayette Park or allocated for Lafayette Park I would recommend that the council maybe just let's keep the money for Lafayette because we actually apply for a grant for Lafayette Park so figure whatever grants funds that we obtain will
subsidize with the funds that are already appropriated in order to do the project i agree with the director what what is the amount of the grant that I don't know yet uh we actually applied for two grants uh they were actually with NJ and they were both for
recreation properties and one of those was Lafayette Park so that's the reason why I will recommend holding it holding it so in that way when we get the grant which I am sure I'm positive that we will get something that money could be utilized together
okay I just I just want to speak to on a couple of things I think we should not touch the Lafayette Park money I'm anticipating that we will approve that within the next two months once we get the debt repayment plan done um the
other thing is I think I just read an email like this week that said one of the grant applications for on behalf of Lafayette Park we didn't get it oh M did anybody else read that i heard that yes I heard that too so uh but in any case I
don't think we should touch Lafayette Park i I want to get this done in the next two months so I don't think we should touch that uh I don't I didn't receive any email you're also quiet all of a sudden a minute ago everybody was talking once
does anybody have any other questions no i I would like to just raise two additional issues and this is sort of long term so I'll try to make it fast first of all when when the administration speaks to when the administration speaks to community groups and I'm just in my mind
I'm thinking about the uh traffic and parking study we heard i wish and I know it's not required but I wish the administration would let the council know when they're meeting with the community and I I say that only because
when we get into a situation like this except I I don't know if you attended any of those meetings up at Kelly Drive it would be much more helpful to us if we heard firsthand from people at these community groups so I would I would ask for an invitation anytime and we'll
figure out if there's more than two people who want to go we'll we'll draw lots or something but I think it really helps us as a council to hear people face to face and be able to ask questions and answer questions um the second thing is the I I want to just raise this issue again i raised it once
about the use of the emergency uh statute and I raised it in this instance because your memo says that the uh that uh an employee found the problem on February 4th yes yes and and the
emergency memo wasn't uh dated until April 2nd and in fact you were saying that in the memo that the that the work actually started on April 1st uh that's correct to take advantage of the non-winter rates so what happens when we
use the emer this is the second time we've used the emergency since since we've been uh the new council in which the council does not know about this until it comes before us with a bill to be paid now I'm sure you understand the
council is supposed to have uh responsibility for reviewing and authorizing as much of the payments as we can uh but we we can't do that at all with the emergency uh purchasing and uh the statute says that the governing body
can change can can add uh additions of this and I I don't want to add to the ordinance that says you must notify us at the same time you're modifying notifying us with the statutoily required memo but I I do think in this case we might have had a chance to if
the council knew about this to maybe go out for a bid or or or do something that might help to uh reduce the cost without uh without slowing things down and I know you I know the emergency statute
I've read it it's not very long but I I just want to uh if we can just ask to be notified on the memo when when you do this just so we know what's what's what's going on what I could do with the permission of the administration would be I guess to copy you when I send the
memorandum to the purchasing agent yes yes that would that would be great but even in even in this case you knew you were going to have an emergency much sooner than the memo i did yes and and I applaud that i applaud you and the other
employees who found the problem and just and determined that it needed to be fixed i'm not in any way criticizing you about that at all actually drums around the uh area where all these craters were like you know how to say
this in disrepair everything including the base and I know it's not really and icing so like my attitude is is like we got to do something obviously I wasn't going to do it during the winter time because what is the point of me even spending more money to pay winter rates and on top of
that we're going to be you know snow plowing So I'd rather wait at least a little bit right before the spring when the contractor was available to to do it i am not criticizing you in any way you handled it perfectly i'm just saying for
the council's benefit we should know if we have a emergency expenditure and certainly if it reaches $80,000 so that that's all I'm asking and that's all I agree especially since we're going to like I said with the permission of the administration I will Yes yes absolutely
we'll copy you on the memorandum that would be great if that's what you want to do if if if you don't want to do that we'll just pass we'll just pass an ordinance so is there uh Thank you so is there any uh No I just want to agree because we're we said we're going to start looking at the budget monthly so
that would be good to know okay as we do that so have we decided what we want to do with this because we've got we've got an ordinance that says we're going to spend for all three projects and issue some bonds so with I make a
recommendation sure so being if we get to pending matters which is coming up we are going to have a budget workshop so maybe if we just what could we do mad clerk i know with noticing can
we table this tonight or instead of because I don't want it to get turned down can we move this to the next meeting and hopefully are the that will meet i'm not sure what that does to her timeline with all these projects i mean she should
really comment on that i was hoping that the ordinance will pass tonight and that way on the next meeting which will be the second reading the cont the contractor will be able to get paid right after that because it would be
literally a month and we also have the emergent situation with Kelly Drive right and you know everyone here just referenced how can you guys reference that we need the calming measures and well I'm supporting it but I didn't know if they if they need time you need four
though for bond so they're not there or if you could vote for it on first reading and we make sure we get a budget meeting workshop before the second reading good Mr tatinia
sure will you have the floor council wait i'm just trying to get you you there to feel comfortable because I know you're hesitant but I I really feel strong that I mean in years past we've had a lot more items on capital budget
in fact in 2024 there wasn't a capital budget and that's why we're kind of you know here now with a with a couple entries here and there so we're staying way under where we you know the past
history which is good but we're also you know not getting items done for the community so my concern is just that I want to get that 6% could you just speak up and speak yeah my concern is just I want to get that 6% down to two before I
could be able to pass well good good news because the the in this budget it's already it's already uh budgeted for the down payment this comes next year and if you want to feel comfortable with the debt service we talk about debt service
when we first meet for the budget and go over that first so if you do have ordinances then you could get that conversation out of the way make that our first workshop yeah I would feel or debt service that's a recommendation
okay so what do we want to do do we want a motion to table do we want to ask question we can cobble together you can cobble together funds for for to pay to pay the vendor for Dogwood right can you cobble together funds for Kelly
Drive for the signage yes do they want more than that though it's 75,000 i don't know if I can get 75,000 we have some old ordinances that had LED signage and striping but I don't I don't think
it equals $75,000 i top of my head what is the section 20 expenses that's an additional 50,000 that's for the the attorneys for the auditors for the financial advisors for the engineers that's like all the all the professional
services that go into um the capital projects like when we go out for debt you know we charge those section 20 expenses to for the bond council and all that so I'd like to go with my original proposed idea of removing the last one because you
mentioned after I spoke that you could cougher up the funds already so that's the motion I'm going to make and that way we can vote on the first and second one in this and that's my motion is there a second on that motion i'll second it thank you thank you
Councilwoman okay uh on that motion to remove line item for Dogwood councilwoman Castelino yes councilwoman Gberichel yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa yes council President Koviaak yes okay the
motion carries thank you Mr dennia so now you're welcome now we're down to bonding 500 554 you do the math i trust your math on that it doesn't matter give or take a few dollars you
took it out okay and we have some time to discuss this before the next meeting correct yeah okay do you want to take a vote on this yes councilwoman Castelina to approve on first reading yes councilwoman as amended right as amended
councilwoman Gber absolutely yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Sca council President Koviaak yes okay the motion carries okay pending matters new matters council discussion
the first uh item listed is the West Orange for Humanity requesting resolution in support of immigrant trust act would anyone like to uh start us discussion i'll just let you know this is one of these things that I I just
think we shouldn't spend any time on it's got nothing to do with the substance it's got everything to do with even if we pass this it's not going to make a difference anywhere there's there's not a good return on investments the time that we devote
to public comment and the discussion that we're going on right now i completely agree i agree also but can can the chief just explain to the public for because we had a discussion in regards to like you don't go the police
forum doesn't go out and assist ICE at all we do not enforce immigration laws we are not even allowed to enforce immigration laws there is what is called a 287g agreement with the federal government where you can enforce immigration laws we are not allowed to do so in Jersey if something changes and
we're suddenly allowed to do that I can tell you that as long as I'm chief I have no intention on asking the federal government to allow us to enforce immigration laws thank you Chief i I think that this is bigger than than
what the police can or cannot do in West Orange this has to do with almost every other department that immigrants in our town go to for instance I ref I reference that if you're signed up with NJ care and you're a parent of you're
you're not here uh your children are are American citizens but you might not be that information would then be handed over to the um to the state to the state and the state will hand it over to the federal government so it's not really just a matter of of the good policing
that is being done here it's all these other agencies that will be looking at at the records of immigrant communities that feel threatened and I for that reason I really urge everybody to support this yes I know we we voted not
to take meaningless you know resolutions but I don't think this is meaningless i think this is sending a strong message to our state that we will not put up with this and we will not share records of people who are obviously vulnerable
councilwoman and I have to echo Councilman Roman sentiments i mean we have a moral responsibility to protect our residents and um people are hurting people are scared and I think it's really important that we get this on the agenda and vote
for it and it won't take long all we have to do is add it in consent agenda and no one want wasting time going back and forth if we don't vote for it people will keep coming back and bringing it up in public comment and that will take more time um I just think that you know we always say hate has no home here but
unfortunately I believe hate does have home here it definitely does and you know I've seen it i've witnessed it others have and this is a way to protect our residents um I I would understand why anyone wouldn't want to support this and vote yes to this especially if it
makes our residents feel safe and comfortable and especially based on what Councilman Ruden said so I'm supportive of this right this has to do with with dealing with other agencies outside of West Orange and other police who are not giving our residents a fair shake but
again this isn't this is at a different level and we spend time on these resolutions which are meaningless we could put the resolution it's not an ordinance and it's meaningless and and again I I hear you i feel bad too and
but you know I you know when you say we're not friendly we don't do this well you maybe you should come down and and when you know the Hispanic Foundation is giving out the toy drive and 600 uh people show up for it and and see all of
those events and so there's a lot that we do here and there's there's a lot that we're compassionate about and I hear you with this but again my reason is we keep every every item that comes to us is important
important to whoever's coming to us with that item and and I agree with all them that come before us but again we we have to get the work done that we're supposed to be doing and I know we I think we just have to agree to disagree and I like to call the vote i just like to say
something else that this is a resolution it's a resolution that was that was authored by by um legislators who we trust um I trust Rosie Boli mhm her name is on this um is it symbolic possibly
it's symbolic because of the gubanatorial and I mentioned that before that it might not move but it's an very important symbolism and you referenced the Hispanic community that comes out and gives out all of these things it is for them that we are doing and others
not just them yes and I just want to add that I know that you think it's meaningless but it's not meaningless to a huge portion of residents there's a community in town of immigrants many of them and it means something to them they are your constituents so it when you say it's
meaningless it might you can say it's meaningless for you but you can't say it's just it's not meaningless to me one time it does mean a lot you saw a resident come here who is an immigrant pride okay so these are the people we're serving so
don't twist my words councilwoman I'm sorry are you done are you done go ahead so don't twist my words meaningless in the way of it it's not it it doesn't move it's it's it's Yes it does mean something to the folks that are asking
for it and I get that but at the same time we keep this is a pattern with you know it started with the last council and so any time that the state legislators want something that they're
working on and believe me John you all here John McCann swore me in you know so I'm you know and I hope he's successful and and succeeding to pass this through where he needs to pass it but it's there not here and we spend the time And we
look at everything else we're not spending time on and it's it's we that's why people come because they they know that we'll spend time on these items that and we're not getting to the other business and I apologize because I got
the Invisalign back in and it's hard for me to speak this evening i have to I just have to agree we're opening up a Pandora's box for all of the other nonsense to start and and you know every one of these things is important to the people who put it here
but we have to focus on the business of our town and we have a lot of work to do starting with this council I hear you but when you say it's a something that the last council started you and and Councilman Scarpa voted for
a resolution yes okay and you did it for one group of people and not another and that's discriminatory you can't do it for one group and then not follow through that is literally the definition of discrimination councilwoman thank thank you for the definition council woman
uh are we ready to vote there's no motions on the floor are we ready to motion yes i make a motion to for us to um add the resolution to the resolution the next meeting the immigrant act i second it thank
you Councilwoman Castelino i feel there but no councilwoman Gerberel yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa no council President Koviaak no okay the motion
fails okay the next item is the 2025 municipal budget and timeline for workshops and meetings oh we have to look at our calendar correct i made a calendar on the phone
okay oh yeah so Mr diniac can I ask a question sorry Council President can I ask a question yes please so Mr tiniac um are you ready to present to us i guess I should say
you have the budget prepared is there anything other if you know I've had asked for a couple other things yeah I mean it's it's my first time with you so I don't know how many sessions you typically have if it's like three four how many hours like how how many
departments you want me to bring well I guess I mean like per session yeah so what we've done historically is we sit here and the um directors very cheap are on um on a
schedule and if we're going through them quick enough then I guess the more we do and if if we're not we I guess we either just send them home or tell them to come in sooner the chief keeps in contact with them so do you do you typically
have them during the day or these weekend meetings evening evening i would like to see weekends maybe this new weekend yeah hopefully we can do it some people can do it in the last council some people couldn't do weekends i'm hoping we can do weekends i can't do a
lot of weekends i could do some last time we did it too was we used to do on the weekends were in March um but now it's and they'll be traveling in June so it's it's Aren't evenings better for them like right after work so that they
don't have to come in again yeah too many directors want to come here on a weekend but yeah I I would rather try to do it in the evenings if we could um and we kind of know who takes a long time right based upon experience so maybe no I mean in terms
of the directors that have a lot to say so maybe the administration could kind of organize that would like to get the easy ones going first you know and get it out of the way or in order of importance usually police and fire go very quickly no they don't and
so usually Yeah he's gone quick too the first year was super quick because we were on a hiring freeze it was a huge only them taking operating budget outside of salaries and wages so yeah should be easy
let's look at dates guys but again we just had a conversation about debt service so you you would talk about that first usually that's like in the back and we talk about that last yeah I'll I'll talk about the big items you know the debt service the pension the health
insurance you know that's that's those are the finance items so I think now the priority should be picking about like five to seven dates that work because I mean I remember last year we had many many workshops and sessions so yeah
definitely I think we should go week by week to see what works for everyone through the summer okay summer see here's the problem you got to try to get this done well it doesn't really have to take that long time i think it did because we had so much of a we had to get down so far from
16% i think that's why it but but here's the problem too when when do you have to have this done so so people do not the taxpayers do not get a third quarter estimated tax bill again which really
really is tough for some people so we're going to do the the estimated tax bill you pretty much have to because the state takes so long to certify the rates anyway um otherwise then then you push all the billing off
and so pretty much everyone just defaults to the estimated bill for the third quarter so Councilwoman Castino I hear you but right now the priority is getting dates so we can actually have these meetings i know the first year we passed it in September last year was October there's
nothing we can do this year we just got the budget from the administration so let's just focus on picking dates and if we don't use the extra dates we just cancel something right now we can't do anything without picking the date and when we do the resolution for the estimated bill we'll we'll get it as
close to what we think the tax rates are going to end up so you know we I I understand like those dramatic shifts between Q3 and Q4 you know we we're going to try to avoid that and and get it to so that the two three and four are
pretty much the same okay so the point being is we don't have to do a bunch of dates before that deadline that's all councilwoman I was concerned with okay so so do it whenever then we have all the time in the world i guess I
think we should go week by week okay can we do more than one in a week i don't think so between board and commission meetings ABC hearings so we're going to focus on evenings yes yeah let's start with that see how far we I'm going to request that we look at
Wednesdays and Thursdays because that's what works for me i am not available on Mondays or Tuesdays um at all okay april 30th no I cannot can you zoom we have a planning board meeting April 30th okay
it's the chambers how about May 1st it's the same thing for two years since I've been Is there a zoning board okay guys we We got to one at a time i heard somebody say "How about the 30th?" Yeah planning board
30th is out because it's planning okay and they're in this room and uh what about this uh Thursday May 1st available i'm good i'm not because I switched something from the ABC last ABC
hearing i moved it to May 1st okay so May 6th we have a council meeting so soon May 8th we have an ABC hearing how about May 7th well that's a lot of planning
board council ABC budget we we're going to wait two weeks on budget no we got to do it sooner will she want to make a weekend date well what about
Why can't we do the ETH again abc hearing can we do a Friday i can do a Friday i could even get here earlier on a Friday i can do the sec no I can't procedure on the side so you want to do it beforehand
yeah and and the May 6 council meeting I'll be doing from home what is your May May 2nd and May 16th i have two one for my lower back one for my neck close man banged me up pretty good he
didn't stop at a stop sign what about if we Can anybody do for a short meeting with the debt service and those other items on Friday the 25th wait say that again i have plans Friday listen I don't want to do it either but
I'm trying to be I could do it i unfortunately can't on the 25th i'm sorry that's Thursday's not available who needs him we do
what about May 14th yeah I'm fine may be in Italy oh yes but we can have um someone else as a third right yes you can budget meeting all right yes we'll live through you while we're working on May 14th everyone good
may 14th you do what time six does that work for everyone yeah what day of the week wednesday oh I hope they don't do a planning board so far I don't what CFO wants to do on the first for the first
meeting if it's May 14th it's Wednesday would we have department heads there oh you would okay so I mean unless you want me to just go through finance and go through debt and go through that that's the most important how much time
do you want to do per evening probably three or four hours yeah i mean I'm not going to take up three four hours with debt service so maybe the first one should be shorter you could probably do a virtual just for
that yeah I was lunchtime dead service let's keep the 14th as the evening okay with the directors coming in then because that works for at 6 i would say six i might be 5 to 10 minutes late so I'm in physical therapy every Wednesday
you can do Can we do lunchtime yeah I could do but sooner rather than later but then we can do that sooner yeah we got the meeting you have to make sure Zoomers could do it but Scott that's refresh my
memory budget workshops yes because the public has to um they they can't comment but they could watch they have to Okay and they can also come in here listen listen correct have to make sure the platform
is available and doesn't conflict with a zoning board are you voting May 14th hold on hold on may 15th and May Can't we do this 7th or 13th
but Janice said that they had five meeting yeah special meetings i don't know when they are why can't we do the 28th and the 29th just even an hour an hour each day yeah just so we get the idea yeah what's Okay
and he can give us Okay is that a regular meeting or West Essex Silence west Essex Silence how about the 20th oh wait 30th third not the 30th oh the 15th oh the 15th yeah but we said the 14th though right that's okay still can I
make So it's still okay she's trying to backtrack to that Zoom meeting so we don't forget about Okay can we Can we have a lunchtime on the 29th and the 30th for one hour each this is a Tuesday and a Wednesday i can't do Tuesday Wednesday lunch meetings i I could do
next Thursday trust me okay thursday lunch meeting thursday lunch meeting thursday oh oh what about this Thursday what about this Thursday at noon uh I can do
I can't I have a very busy day at work i'm not available at noon what about Friday at noon yeah Friday at noon sounds good 25th that's good friday i mean the first meeting with directors is not till the 14th i don't think
there's a rush to Yes debt service you got to go over the debt service no I understand that but I'm saying I don't think there's a rush to do it this week we can wait to do that next week is what I'm saying because you have a doctor appointment i have work meetings my I mean I can't move my meetings at work so why don't we look at next next week can
you do the 30th a lunch meeting on the 30th so I'm saying I cannot do lunch on Monday Tuesdays or Wednesdays okay how about Thursday the 1st how about Yeah it's still again two weeks before our first scheduled budget workshop so can you guys do May 1st thursday the next
meeting yeah I could even do this Thursday the six is a couns oh on Thursday and Friday friday what this Friday you just gave them May 1st i could do
one o'clock on this Friday the 25th okay i'm good this Friday one o'clock on Friday the 25th do you need to notice this yes I do do you have time i'll do it tomorrow yeah madam look yes friday at I have the GFOA
board meeting on Friday down in staff i'm sorry all right no no no back to the May 1st sorry yeah right may Yeah how about May 1st lunch meeting second what about the 28th at lunch if it's at service I you guys just That's a Monday
i came over Monday Tuesday Wednesday listen if you don't mind like going over with me separately yeah no I don't mind you make the meeting let them all meet if we'll work on them and I'll I'll just call you you'll have paperwork for us right we
can look at the paperwork okay all the debt for the year yeah this I'm sorry you're traveling 25th of April that the GFOA oh you just said that sorry John um I mean I don't know the difference all
right what about May 1st Thursday i I'm available that day yeah I can i keep saying I don't know why we have why we're not looking at dates that work for everyone because again the first scheduled workshop is going to be the 14th so it still gives us two weeks to have this lunch meeting right so if we do it Thursday council meetings May 6th
to approve it yeah but what I'm saying is May 1st get an idea of the debt before May 6 right before May 6 we want to have an idea of All right what time on the first one i'm available at 12 or 1 12 is better for colleagues anytime 12
okay 12 noon on the first council I won't know till that day okay what about you Council President yes but if not you're going to meet with John i'll meet with John if I can't make it I'll meet with John all right so that's two dates is that a Zoom only that will be Zoom uh
yeah right yeah Zoom yes or I could come over i mean we'll be here so yeah I could come over i can I'm right across the street sitting right here it's just down the hall so definitely out as long as the Zoom's available
um it should be the only No just do it on Zoom because she's going to be at work i I'm not available on the 28th but on the 1st I'm I'm available to come to come in person yeah no not only Zoom we'll do Zoom all right i mean by the time I go to from Newark at the Hall of Records County and then come here 20
minutes traffic all right so we have days because we're also I don't know i don't have that information tuesdays i think it might be Tuesdays and Thursdays and if it's on Tuesdays and Thursdays it may conflict
with May 1st time can we do Friday the 2nd i'm available Friday instead of this first all right friday the 2nd I have we have a press conference at the county field opening at Independence Park which I'm going to be at so I can do it at 12 i would either have to take my lunch an
hour before okay okay and then you might see my camera will be off because I'll probably be heading over or an hour after like when the press conference is over so like one I I have to be careful oh no I forgot the second i'm sorry that's my back procedure i'm gonna be
under We're back to May 1st you don't want me on a Zoom we're back to May one okay all right may 1st 12:00 noon Zoom if it doesn't work out we'll figure out the court dates joe could we do the 5th at also is that Monday at noon we do
Zoom you're not same thing if I could jump on I'll jump on if not I I can't i'll try to no that's not fair to Michelle it's Cinco de Mayo in case anyone is here we'll have lunch
yeah there you go mexican lunch okay we're doing May 5th so that's May is Zoom 14th and do you want to attempt to do another date or no i think um Wait we're doing something on the 8th ABC hearing you don't you're not
you're not doing ABC okay may 5th is what day what day was it monday we're doing Monday the 5th no no no so we only have one date no we have about the 14th we have May 1st at noon and May 14th at 6 p.m and just to
clarify Mr dinac do you think May 1st for an hour during lunch is enough time to share what you need to share with us right before our first meeting on May 14th yeah I'll I'll tackle the debt so we'll talk about that i'll talk about
the pension obligation um I'll come up with enough content for for one hour capital budget would be would need more time yeah like we would want to devote a a good amount of time to capital so I'll
just go through sort of the big what the big budget drivers um and I can do that in an hour the Friday all right so let's look at more dates after the 14th then oh after the 14th what about the 21st
i'm available that's a Wednesday wednesday no at night this is for at night time for the workshop we have a council meeting on the 20th as long as they don't do a planning board meeting I'm available i'm available well hopefully the administration can
give us a light agenda for the 20th so yeah couldn't we do like a a little before or after all the urgent resolutions and yeah do beforehand we can get here a little earlier cut out the conference agenda and do like an
hour from 6:00 to 7 even we could then all stay and then yeah and then go straight to budget if we could do do it short how late do you want the agenda that would be very light very like bills nothing but anything urgent well it
would depend on like first reading ordinances if we have them on the next meeting that would be the second reading if it's not an urgent ordinance could we delay the second reading for the June anything that needs a lot of public comment or even a special meeting
instead during lunch or just the ordinances all right we'll figure it out thinking outside the box but I will say that I'll tell them to lead it like Yeah if we could start a little earlier cut out agenda May 6 or no for the 20th we're
going to release an agenda May 20th and then the 21st have a second budget 5:30 yeah wait when's your next date after May 14th well we're looking at the 21st which is
Wednesday after the meeting that's why so that reasonable time I can't you know who we cut out conference agenda for a couple of council meetings and just meet or 5:30 completely cut it out
and go from 5:30 to 7 i can't get here by 5 what time could you get here 6 so 6:00 to 7 even I can only do 6:30 i'm sorry on on Tuesdays I can't come earlier than that
we can we do 6:30 to 7:30 and start the meeting at 7:30 you could do whatever you like i mean let's do 6:30 to 7:30 an hour on the budget and then start our meeting at 7:30 cut out the conference agenda with Is that agreeable to everyone i'm fine with cutting out the
conference agenda if the rest of my colleagues until we get the budget done let's cut out the conference agenda okay but we already have some I believe two things scheduled for May 6 can we reschedu them one was already rescheduled because of tonight's presentation
what is it yeah let's not let's cut out all the conference agendas until the budget and do we can't do the May 6 because we already a half hour is quick i mean would we take an hour we'll do 6:30 to
7:30 and start our meeting our public comment at 7:30 so we have an hour before each meeting to do something substantive even if it's one director one Listen I'm fine with that yeah but we can't do the six but let's do the rest of it until the thing so we have to focus on what's
important all right so the five meeting want to do that right and what's Well oh see 5:20 we're going to start at 6:30 6:30 to 7:30
the will be the budget and then no conference and then a light meeting right right now here's the thing abc renewals are coming up okay so oh we need to do those special conditions well
they I'm sending out letters um to the special condition lences regarding their hearings their hearings are going to be on the 20th if they choose to come in i've never had anyone come in to Well then that's perfect we
do an hour of budget and then have them come in for their ABC on the I've already had a request for the sixth and for the 20th for conference agenda all right so tomorrow let's the three let's both of us talk okay the three of us are
you doing double i'm I need to go home all right so does the 21st work for everyone oh I'm thinking Yeah let's evening Wednesday yeah that's fine six all right what time 6 6 work for everyone no we have two confirmed dates 14th and
21st so far and an hour 20th and you're going to do budget workshop yeah from Okay but we that's not definite because council president already committed to something on the 20th so we have to discuss that right can we look at the
the 28th please i thought Wednesday shorter agenda for the ABC like the way we always do 28th is good for me all right wednesday the 28th good for everyone yeah unless they do a planning board meeting weekly Wednesday budget workshop
no but they come in when they usually do talking about the ADC i'm talking about Oh yeah no they they they're told to come in around 8 and we get to when we get to it so is the 28th work for everyone yes or Hold on let me see 28th of what may follow week
that's a Wednesday is that when is Memorial Day memorial Day is the 26th right now I am done 528 meeting at 8
51 at 12:00 noon soon we have 5:14 oops 5:21 528 6:00 okay what about June 4th i'm out the first I'm out for for how long so you can look at the next
date i got um street fair that week week after that I got a wedding on a Thursday night and I'm going away for 10 days on the 16th okay so we're out for June this is
absurd okay that's fine what about Wednesday the 2nd maybe the first You're going to miss the pencil oh yeah this is This is freaking us out my birthday is June 21 it's not last year
we were doing it well into the year before thing and if you don't pick dates now then we're all going to have plans and then we're screwed later on so better and if we don't need the dates we don't need the dates i always put you know if needed if needed and we could maybe use some of our council consensus
uh Thursdays to do this you know we we're already scheduled we don't have to do we can use Oh I won't do the June because Michelle's not here how about the May one to for this one may Thursday tomorrow i can't do we have
council we do on Thursday and you'll show it this Thursday next Thursday how'd that work out they're still married in connection is this is this Thursday no no two days yeah thursday push himself yeah i have so we got
enough i think I think this is good for I mean we used to sit here for 9 hours in one shot and get it done the past two years you know we have 60% which was crazy it was Saturday it was Saturday all day and then we always had a Sunday
in case we needed it and we never ever needed it it was great i recommended a weekend and shot down i'm fine with it i I don't think you guys would take I think you need longer that's good you and we looked at every line i mean
you're supposed to do a lot of late work before we get to the Absolutely all right so why don't we just keep the four dates we have one two three four dates and go with that and then council president and I will talk about the
conference agendas on the 20th could you just send me those dates the confirmation i could not keep track of them okay me either would you send them to all of us no of course I would i'll send the notice to you once I do it in the paper here and let's really cut out
these conference objectives and get to work so I can't tell you a date for Jack present oh yes so now do you want to go on to the next item yes all right so the next item is New Jersey chapter Jack and Dill visit to town hall in September a
date is needed okay so all of you have received the email that was sent to me by uh West Orange resident who's excited to get the Jack and Jill group in to meet with the council get to learn about what we do um so if we can look at dates
in September it's a conference agenda thing instead of a conference agenda do it before we're on a different topic now no no no i mean the same during conference a half hour or an hour before one of our meetings so we don't have to like keep I think it was
longer than just a half hour i think we could do this in an hour let's do it at little kids too right yeah they're little kids so let's have a four and forget the conference agenda for that this is what I would be careful we can't just forego
all the conference agendas i think it should be just a separate day we think we pick one of the council connection days and have them come in our important it they actually are because there are certain things that we discuss that we give certificates out to whether it's our sports teams members in
the community so we're engaging i know but again we don't need that wait wait wait one at a time one at a time councilman Gber Michael has the floor and then I'll let you respond please anyway I So I I would like for us to look Well at the September date that we
have our um And what is the date council townhouse i don't remember either this is just a discussion for anyone who's interested she initially just sent it to me and I had the idea to open it up to everyone because I think it would be great if they saw all of us up here and we can do like role play and then let
them come up here and Yes so how old are they i I don't remember i don't have the email in front of me off the top of my head but if we if we can just look at We can even do this by email we don't sit here and talk about this all night okay so I'll figure out what the council connection date is and you'll want to
bring them in that night yes what time um our council I think we should do the same time at 6 and then or no we should do 5:30 to 6:30 and do a council connection that night from 6:30 to 7:30 see I think it would be better to do it as before a council meeting and then if
they wanted to stay and actually watch a council meeting kids they have homework yeah but they're not going to be able to sit and stay okay my son came to one that's because it was our Orthodox Christmas Eve on the first meeting this and then almost fell asleep i know you
left at 10:30 to go to church okay so council connection in September you want to start at 5:30 yes to 6:30 yes and then do the council connection at 6:30 correct until 7:30 for the hour until 7 okay gotcha i got to notice that
too thank you we'll see okay perfect she's going to get a Well there's one thing we got to add the 24th yeah we're scheduled to not councilwoman Deborah Michael so will you notify i will once I get an email from you okay good i'll send the actual
announcement confirms with you directly and you let me know there's confirmation then I can Perfect because we have time i just wanted to radar thank you council colleagues okay the next one is Daughters of Israel fourth round housing obligation that's Is that off now well
temporarily we don't have a planner okay table that's out um and council president you'll be very happy to hear that the ABC hearing is being moved to May 6th because the Robert Williams called today and said his client was not available this
evening to come in so he asked me to move it to May 6th and I told him sorry the ABC hearing forth BK Lobster at the trading hours the six council meeting yeah right it's the eighth at the end of
the night it's not it's not that on here I know it gets a little confusing so madam clerk with with that yeah um with that the um I did call the the landlord and They don't think they're coming so I
don't know maybe they're trying to resolve it then because that Yeah I don't know you have to ask them tonight so I I don't know i don't know the behind the scenes i'm not involved in that so and then and and then Excuse me Council
President please go ahead i just have a note here if you could just let the chief know cuz they had left right um I I neglected to mention when we talked about the resolution uh for the um pro media right that with
all those containers in the parking lot can someone tell uh Mr kio tomorrow about this because I'm not sure if he was planning on doing his Fourth of July celebration in that parking lot again that may Yeah being uh okay an issue all
right i'll for him you may okay only if it's basting weather like last year okay thank you i think now is a motion to adjourn no i would like to again under new business talk about the noise
ordinance that that I would like to see on for first reading next time so the noise ordinance that I'm proposing does not relate to decibel levels the discussion is whether or not
it should be considered a noise ordinance which it could be considered a noise ordinance by adjusting the noise ordinance that we have and just remove the decibels and make all of the changes that all of us already agreed upon thanks that's I agree that has to happen
one option the other option would be to adopt the model no noise ordinance from the state this is much more involved it would involve training of our do and it would by involve purchasing of equipment
I think we're better with your first option so I would like to to move forward with revisions to our noise ordinance i'm okay with if legal wants to to to describe that as a nuisance can
he yes can our special counsel get Can you get involved in this noise ordinance helping us amend this we don't want to adopt the the state noise ordinance because it relates to decibel levels and that makes things that makes
more complicated so we'd like to Sorry go ahead yeah so we we made all of the changes um we'd like to address hours of operation and we'd like to address um the B1 district
okay so can I just Sure so Mr train sent a memo around today did you get it did you see it i believe so yeah okay so I don't know if it's appropriate that you're asking another attorney to get involved when he's obviously handling it
um did everyone But we're attorney shopping that's right he's our special counsel because of the conflict right so I Why don't It's not really a conflict it's I think it's a difference of opinion but did everyone see yes I did
and I would like to respond to that okay the first allegation in I'm so sorry the U Mr mr tran um sent a letter in regard to the noise ordinance that this council tried to put on for first reading
um this time that we discussed at new new business the last time um and his first uh statement was that we did not discuss this councilwoman can I just ask uh is this something that we need to
discuss tonight yes because the memo speaks for itself doesn't it well the memo the memo in my opinion does has some errors in it so um Miss Cornel just asked if I would address the the um memo
okay do Do you think it might be better if you addressed it in writing perhaps when I will about a night's sleep yes no seriously seriously yes question and I was like if I
recall briefly glancing at it I think Frank said that we need to do it this way by voting for it under pending new matters and then he'll add it on the vote for it just vote on matters and it
on the agenda yes but what we approved at the last meeting was to amend the existing noise ordinance yes and that's what we want to what his challenge was that now we're doing a different order we're going to
do the state we were that's what we were saying we were going to do absolutely and he said if you're going to do something along the lines of the state model ordinance you had to come back to uh new matters and vote for it again
correct why do you keep shaking your head because we want to go back to the first one i'm not talking about what we want to do i'm talking about what Mr frank said "Yeah what happened in his memo i don't know if you've had a chance to read it." No I didn't read that it's three pages long it's quite a read okay
we'll take a look so what we're what we're at now if we are agreeing that we're going to go back to the noise ordinance we have already approved that as uh Madame Clerk said in her email so I don't I guess we could take another
vote if you wanted to but it seems to me we've already taken the vote so it' be good just in case and can we get a second opinion hold on i got you with your hand up okay so so I spent time with Councilwoman Ruden on the phone last week
um going over changes so I guess my question is were those changes substantive that or then Well that that's we can solve the issue excuse me for another We can
solve the issue we'll just take another Well that's what I'm saying is it clean or what's the cleanest way to get this done quick so this is what is the two questions were from Mr tran does the council want the state model ordinance to be presented if so that will be on
the May 6th agenda you vote for that to be on the May 6th agenda if not please respond to the above items as to the form of the ordinance that form will be sent to the D for review okay so that's where there is a
misunderstanding if you do not in if you do not use a decibel then you do not need review from the D i have a letter from the D I will send it to Mr tran tomorrow we're going round and round in circles yes if you do
not use a decibel meter and you do not get the training and you do not adopt the model ordinance from the state any municipality can have any noise ordinance that they want the only conflict comes if we adopt the model
ordinance and if we choose to go stricter than the model model noise ordinance so no we do not wish to to we can take a vote right now we do not wish to use the model ordinance although it might be a wonderful ordinance it is too
complicated and it will delay the change that our residents need so I put no on that so does does the legal department have the ordinance that you want on I sent it to you on the date that that I was supposed to get it to you after I
spoke with every single person and I looked at it and and that was what what should have been used if Mr tran would like to designate that as a new in in the nuisance code that's fine okay is that fine with everybody yes so as long
as we get as long as we get it done quickly for the res for the next meeting we want it all did you review it no no the the the ordinance yes and he sent me all his written changes okay so we all looked at it
yes so the cleanest way okay so let's make the resolute just so so so just so we're because there's been so much change why don't you send the final one to Madame Clerk and all of us we'll get it and approve it yeah that's
a really good idea everybody has looked at it and everybody got the final version but I'll do it again do it again we can work on it again too because we've had that those situations before when a few different copies have been going around and then there's assumptions of what was the
final version to that we can make we Okay so the the I would like to make a second motion what was the first one oh I'm sorry okay so So we are getting the noise ordinance adjusted either as noise or
nuisance whatever legal says is the way to do it okay but we do not need it reviewed by the state okay i second that okay so that's number one number two is that it was recommended to us when we were at the ABC meeting that another way
to deal with this problem is to get an ordinance um restricting or um entertainment licenses yes want to do that too i would like to very much model that after the Jersey City's ordinance however Jersey City is using the model
model state ordinance and they use decibb there's a way for us to craft it that without the decibb by designating areas and licenses okay I it lost me so let's just go to
first one first yeah let's let's do the first one so basically the decibels because you got the complicated but so my question is you know so councilwoman Ruden sent a noise ordinance the day the
meeting material material was due but now there's some discussion that you might want to change an additional yes she's going to send you tomorrow morning or tonight copy all of us her final draft all right okay so why are we
making first one this is a second well we're making first motion again because apparently it wasn't okay but why is there a second motion oh the second no second motion the second thing she wants and Mr antonelli and maybe that's the best way to get it from Mr antelli these
are ABC can we just do one person at a time because I can't follow yeah so Councilwoman Ruden you have the floor please okay so I I am proposing two new matters let's do the noise ordinance first and okay I think that's where my confusion
was all right so let's just do a first and a second vote to put the noise ordinance that Councilwoman Ruden emails me tomorrow on the next agenda and I will let uh Mr tran know whether he wants to do noise or nuisance it doesn't
so moved second second okay so you're welcome councilwoman Castelino yes councilwoman Gabber Michael yes councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa yes council President Kakovia yes all right so the motion carries so I'll get in touch with it tomorrow when I
receive that all right okay now the second second second issue is that I would like to propose that we add to our um ordinances an entertainment license
licensing um for also for the same purpose to try to regulate civil disturbances and noise and to make sure that entities that are using uh live sound including DJ systems
are regulated we could have Mr antonelli recommended that that would be the way to deal with live performances may I second it i don't care okay so
um you're going to write that or where are we getting the union has one you said Jersey City we We're gonna have to cobble this together and I will send a draft version okay without the decimals without the dec no decimals on this one
either wow you're keeping away from decimals yeah you need the You need the train and Okay so difficult it's proposal of an entertainment ordinance got it and then All right so I'm gonna take a vote because we have a motion in
a second uh and Okay so I just want to make this clear again though so you're going to send this to uh me or legal or both yes um copy all this right they're going to review it they're going to format it again I want to just say it
may not make it onto the May 6th agenda it may be the one after that because they do need time so I just want to make that clear because you know I know everyone wants this tomorrow at the mall two weeks enough time should be stop that one should be okay because
obviously right it's been going around and around and around i get that but the new one is what I'm saying okay you know cuz we may have discussion you know and emails and you know all of that stuff so all right so Councilwoman Castelino yes
councilwoman Gabber Councilwoman Ruden yes councilwoman Scarpa Council President Koviaak yes all right so the motion carries so you'll get that to me i will when you Right when it's available all right good to adjourn
so soon hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on everybody please mr fagan pardon me interruption but I do have an emergency announcement don't forget these you see this from Chief Beck just moments ago actually and the West Orange
Fire Department is currently operating at a multi-acre brush fire reservation new Jersey Forest Service uh is to the scene as is Chief Techio uh so
wow chief Pacio as always will keep us updated uh as they become that's awful oh that's why the chief sto in the res did we get a motion did I hear a motion from the journal yes thank you
all in favor any opposed motion carries thank you thank you for all your work it is a lovely good night West Orange good night good night Miss Orange i'll try again to
have a shorter meeting