WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=b1n4q3DUJXw

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: b1n4q3DUJXw):
- 00:00:30: Meeting Call to Order, Roll Call, Flag Salute
- 00:01:26: Proclamation: Jewish American Heritage Month Declaration
- 00:03:50: Extended Remarks: Haim Solomon, Anti-Semitism Awareness
- 00:08:24: Invitation of Community Leaders, Moving to Next Proclamation
- 00:10:30: Proclamation: Asian American Heritage Month Declaration
- 00:14:01: Public Comment Period One: Sylvia Escarelli, Bike Alliance
- 00:14:56: Administrative Comments: DPW Updates, Website, Skate Park
- 00:20:44: Mayoral Comments: Leaf Pickup, Skate Park, Clarksville Road
- 00:26:25: Council Inquiries: Clarksville Bridge Options, Resolution
- 00:28:35: Council Member Comments: Dan, Linda, Joe, Andrew
- 00:39:59: Council Member Comments: General Reminders, Alison Adds Dates
- 00:43:15: Public Hearing One: Exceeding Budget Appropriation Limits
- 00:44:24: Public Hearing Two: 2026 Budget Presentation Begins
- 00:45:45: Mayoral Remarks: Finances and Future Tax Challenges
- 01:19:09: Budget Presentation: Detailed Financial Report by John
- 01:35:38: Budget Hearing Closed, Motion to Adopt Approved
- 01:36:30: Consent Agenda: Resolutions R100 Through R107
- 01:40:46: Public Comment Period Two: Nobody Speaks, Council Reports Begin
- 01:44:58: Council Reports, Administration Updates, Adjournment


Part: 1

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I call to order um the business meeting of uh May 11th. >> Can we have the roll call please? Charles >> here. >> Garas >> here. Chvers >> here. Mandel >> here. >> Weiss >> here. >> And are we adequately noticed? Yes, this meeting was adequately noticed on

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January 23rd, 2026 to the Times in the Princeton packet filed with the municipal clerk and posted here at the municipal building and on the township website. Please stand for the salute to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

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stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, under ceremonial matters, we have two proclamations today. And I would request um,

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um, Council Vice President Andrea Mandel to read the Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation. >> Yes. Um, proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month. Whereas West Windsor is proud of its rich cultural

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history and the many people who call our town home, and our vibrant and diverse Jewish American community constitutes a vital element of the township's diverse ethnic and social fabric whose languages and cultures have enriched the lives of

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its citizens. And whereas the United States of America has proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month since 2006, recognizing over 350 years of the Jewish people's contributions to our culture and community. And our era's

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Jewish Americans love family, community, and hard work, as well as their commitment to freedom and justice for all people have helped to strengthen and uphold the founding principles of our nation for generations. And whereas JewishAmerican entrepreneurs,

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researchers, and educators strengthen our economy and our community through their dedication and ingenuity, inspiring the next generation of American innovation by example. And whereas Jewish Americans have made significant contributions across all

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fields, including science, education, medicine, law, politics, business, culture, military service, charity, sports, and more. And whereas Jewish Americans in West Windsor contribute to our community every day as volunteers,

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first responders, educators, medical professionals, business owners, professionals, service personnel, and in government. And whereas during the month of May, the Jewish community comes together to celebrate its thousands of years of heritage and tradition rooted

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in Israel and the diaspora throughout the world. And whereas we recognize the many contributions the Jewish American community has made to our beloved nation, state, and township, and reaffirm our total rejection of anti-semitism in all forms of big

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bigotry. Now therefore, be it resolved on this 11th day of May, 2026 by the mayor and township council of the township of West Windsor, County of Mercer and state of New Jersey that the mayor and township council recognize May as Jewish American Heritage Month in

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perpetuity. Um, I'd like to say a little bit extra tonight. Um, first of all, I'd like to add something. Uh this is the 200th50th birthday of the United States and Haim Solomon was a Polish-born American

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businessman and the prime financeier of the American re revolution and was critical to its success. Originally a member of the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty and involved in espionage for the cause, he was arrested

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by the British, sentenced to death and escaped. He became a financeier and when Washington's army was out without food or supplies before the siege of Yorktown, Washington sent for Solomon to save the day. Solomon continued to work

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to finance the war and is credited with getting the money that allowed the Continental soldiers to continue to fight and win. He later fought for freedom of religion in the new country. He himself died penniless. I remember proudly learning about Haim Solomon and

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his contributions as a child. Today he is the victim of rising anti-semitism much as are many current Jews and Jewish historical figures. How is he currently a victim even though he's passed away?

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Eraser and margin marginalization. His contributions are frequently omitted from history textbooks. A trend scholars view as a systematic exclusion of Jewish figures from the American founding narrative. Conspiracy theories.

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Anti-semitic groups often distort his role in finance to fuel the Jewish banker counters. Historical distortion. Extremist rhetoric often uses halftruths to downplay his personal sacrifices to

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delegitimize his status as a patriot and what are called narrative attacks. His memory is frequently targeted online by those attempting to associate early Jewish American history with modern financial grievances. He is just a tiny

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part of a wider orchestrated and too successful campaign of anti-semitic propaganda. What started out as hateful rhetoric from a few ostracized fringe extremists a few years ago has now become

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normalized when it comes to Jews. About five years ago, I reported that Jewish students in Princeton were warning they were becoming marginalized on their own campus. Now it has spread it to many every corner of the internet and many street corners of the United States,

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including the halls of Congress. What is wrong, racist, and unforgivable behavior against any minority group, no matter the actions of any of its members as groups of individuals, is now business as usual when Jews are the target. This

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Jew hatred has gone beyond rhetoric. Synagogues and Jewish schools have become armed barricaded camps. Frequent physical attacks against Jews of all ages, from tiny children to the elderly, do not even make the news anymore. When

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it does, more than half the comments are laughing emoticons or thumbs up, with many saying that not enough Jews had died and glorifying Hitler. The commenters are not afraid to sign their names, unlike the hopefully majority of readers who stay silent for fear of

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being cancelled or worse. The American Jewish Congress report for 2025, which was released earlier this year on American Jews, states that 41% avoided publicly wearing, carrying, or displaying things that might identify

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them as a Jew. 39% avoided posting content online that identify them as a Jew or reveal their Jew views on Jewish issues. and 30% avoided certain places, events, or situations out of concern for their fear

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or safety or comfort as a Jewish person. So, what can we all do to keep this hatred out of our town, our country, and our world? First, if somebody repeats these hateful comments, question where they came from and why. Second,

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privately and publicly condemn this hatred wherever it raises its ugly head. Bigotry may start against the Jews, but remember it never ends there. Thank you. Um, at this point, I'd like to um invite

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the uh representatives from uh both uh Beth Cayam, uh Josh Rushkin, I think found our place here, and there are several people from uh the Kabad if you'd like to come up. Um Mary Sullivan who was here last year, like to come up,

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please. Thank you. Can I invite mayor and council to come up please? Okay. invite That's not a blessing. Yeah, there. All right, I'm going to read the um next

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proclamation which is the Asian-American Native Aine and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It's a wordful mouthful of uh acronyms, so bear with me if I missed something. Um

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whereas the township of Westminster cherishes its rich tap tapestry of cultures and the diverse individuals who call our town home. And whereas the vibrant and multifaceted AHPI

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communities form an indispensable thread in the township's social fabric with their varied languages and traditions adding immeasurably to the lives of all its residents. And whereas the United

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States of America has designated May as Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to acknowledge and celebrate the profound history and enduring contributions of AAHPI

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Americans to our nation's story. And whereas the values of family, community spirit and diligent work ethic exemplified by AAHPI coupled with their unwavering commitment to the idols of our country have played

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a vital role in fortifying and upholding the fundamental principles of our nation across generations. And whereas Ahi entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators fuel our economy and enrich

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our community through their dedication and innovative spirit serving as powerful role models for the next generation of Americans. And whereas AA NHPI have left an indelible mark across a wide spectrum of

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fields including science, education, medicine, law, politics, business, culture, military service, charitable endures, and athletics. And whereas AA NHPI actively actively contribute to the well-being of

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Westminster as dedicated volunteers, first responders, teachers, healthcare providers, business owners, professionals, service personnel, and government officials. And whereas throughout the month of May, the AA NHPI

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communities unite to honor their rich and diverse heritages and timehonored traditions. And whereas we deeply appreciate the multitude of contributions made by the Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and

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Pacific Islander communities to our beloved nation, state, and township. and we res resolutely condemn all manifestations of prejudice and discrimination. Now therefore be it resolved that on this 11th day of May

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2026 the mayor and township council of township of Westminster County of Mercer state of New Jersey hereby recognize May as Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in perpetuity. Thank you.

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Okay. Um, I now open the first round of public comments. Um, it's a 30 minute comment period, 3 minute limit per person. Um, please, um, recite your name and address for record purposes. Do we have Alyssa? >> I have Alyssa. Sylvia Escarelli.

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>> Hi, Sylvia Escarelli, 27 Melville Road. On behalf of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, it's exciting to see the town's o uh the township's openness to creating safer streets for all as shown by the two contracts on the agenda tonight for demonstration projects. That would be resolution 105,

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R 105 and R 106. We look forward to seeing the engineering firm's plans and for learning how and when the public can weigh in with their comments on the demonstrations. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else? I have no one else on the

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list. Anybody um in the audience want to give any public comments? Seeing none, um I'm going to close the public comment period down. Um let's move on to administration comments. Marina, >> good evening. Um DPW is in

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zone three this week and they'll continue to um play catchup. Um, and you can check the website on Fridays for an update as to where the crews are

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uh present at the end of the week and where they're expected the following. >> So, they're still behind and they're catching up. Yes. >> So that's why there's a shift in how the zones are being picked up because there was some confusion on that >> and there's a lot of material that's

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been put out um at the curb because of the storms that we've had and there was I think the last storm was a windtorm, >> right? >> Yeah. I think that is one thing that we're going to have to deal with and have a discussion on because some people are putting out 25 50 feet worth of

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trees, um, branches, all sorts of debris that you could fill a whole truck with just one with one house and there's there's a lot all over that I see. So, uh, I I thought maybe it's five feet was the length, but whatever our regulations are,

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>> it's uh, stated in the ordinance and it's detailed on the website, >> right? cuz maybe we need to publicize that a little bit because there there's too many houses that are far exceeding that. >> Yeah. >> And I assume we're taking it. I assume

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we're actually taking it when they put out that exceeds. So >> I think so. I don't I don't know. I guess maybe we can just ask you some pictures later. >> DPW to just publicize the information. >> I don't need to see pictures. I see it firsthand every day when I come to

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>> come into the office and when I leave it. So, I'm well aware of what you're speaking. >> We just have to make sure we're treating each each house equally. Either we're taking it or we're not taking it, I guess. >> All right. >> Where where on the website do we have

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the Friday um report? >> I'm sorry. >> Where on the website is the every Friday report for telling everybody where the where they're going to be next week? It's it's >> posted as a current

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>> every Friday it gets updated >> and you can see it on the um website page. >> The home page. >> The home page. The home page. Thank you. >> It's on the homepage. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Right. >> Um skate park repairs update. Uh I know

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council's been asked about um what's going on in skate park. The asphalt surface of the skate park is severely cracked and is unsafe for patrons to use. The township is currently working with an engineering firm to go out to public bid for this

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project. It is anticipated that this project will be completed sometime during the summer. Um the other reason the township has to work with an engineering firm is we have to have plans

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to um minimize our liability. Um >> um I have seen some holes in the cage and I've seen kids going through the holes and going inside. Is there a way we can secure them? because >> we can secure them, but as soon as

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they're secured, they are opened up >> and we can put a no trespassing sign on, but people are getting in there somehow some way or another. So, I don't think it's

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beneficial to put a a person out there 247, >> right? Um and then I have a few announcements because the next meeting will be after Memorial Day. So, municipal offices will be closed on um

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Monday, May 25th, 2026 in observance of um Memorial Day. And the DPW facility will be closed on the Saturday prior to Memorial Day, and that

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day is Saturday, May 23rd, 2026. There will be no trash pickup on Memorial Day. I reached out to the hauler to get an idea of when the makeup day would be and they have not yet made

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a decision. So, that too will be on the website. It's also very helpful. I went um to Waste Management's website. That's the contract that's the contract hauler and their website is very helpful too. I encourage residents to register their

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account and they can get notifications if there is an issue with trucks and the like. >> I think the recycle coach app also updates it um very efficiently. >> But there are various resources and I did a chatbot with one of the

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representatives to get an update >> and you can do recycle coach without putting the app on your phone too. It's a it's online so you can go at it either way. And then um lastly,

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curbside recycling is not affected um by the Memorial Day closure. Just a reminder to residents that curbside recycling will be on May 21st. That is all I have. >> Thank you, Mayor.

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>> Thanks, Sonia. So just just to reiterate couple of things that Marina said, leaf pickup the DPW is running approximately two weeks behind. I do see people posting on social media that it's not

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been picked up. We are aware of that. Uh we do update on the township website when they are running behind and this has become um uh I did talk to the head of DPW and we have come up with a proposal which I did share with you at

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the uh budget uh at the budgeting time. So I will after tonight's meeting I'll send it back to you and we will have an official uh discussion of it. Uh hopefully at the end of next uh council meeting just so that we want to change a

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few things which will speed it up. Uh the number of uh brush and leaf pickup keeps in uh increasing and it's getting very difficult to keep up with it. So we we do want to make some changes to make it more efficient. So I will send it to

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you the council and we will schedule we will give enough notice to the residents so they can read and send comments and nothing will change until uh a few months once we everybody has an opportunity to give comments. Council

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has an opportunity to give comments and then we will come up with the final proposal as to what works best for us. But uh unless something is not done, this will keep will keep backing up backing up every time. Um regarding the

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skate park, we have put close signs many many times and people do take it off. Uh so I will talk to the police chief and see what we can do. But it's very dangerous because the concrete is cracked. So nobody should be skating

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there. Um there's a lock on the door, but people um do all kinds of things to get inside and that's not safe. And if you have a child who is going there, please please please don't let him go there or her go there because it's not

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safe. Uh and we are making every effort to let everybody know that it's not safe. Um and lastly, the Clarksville Road update um bridge. I did meet with the uh NJ DoD commissioner Priya today.

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She was she visited here at 5:00 with herself assisting commissioner chief of staff. We did go to the bridge and walk the bridge. Um NJ do has finished all their analysis um of the situation and

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have come up with certain options. They had offered to host us at their headquarters to discuss those options, but I requested that they come here uh rather than we going to the um their uh to their uh um quarters and she has

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kindly agreed. So we will be meeting with them tomorrow in this room and they are going to give us options and they have said we can uh we can choose but again um I will update the community at the end of tomorrow. We may not end up

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choosing an option tomorrow. I want time for our engineers and our uh emergency people and police to process them and think about them and then give me their input before we agree to whatever option. So it may take up to a week to decide. She did tell me that they have

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lined up all the contractors and they have told the contractors to collect all the materials that may be needed so that there's no um no time loss or time delay once we know what options we are going to uh we are going to choose. Um but

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again as usual I my caution it's in a very very bad shape. Uh and it's not going to be a overnight fix. It may take few weeks few months. I don't know. Tomorrow I'll find out how long it would take and it's unlikely to open 100%

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um both directions in traffic. The NJ dot has already advertised the replacement bridge was not supposed to be done in uh till 2030 or 2031. It kept getting pushed back. They've already advertised for uh bids to do the design

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for that bridge. um she is going to check and let me know tomorrow how many bids were received and what stage the analysis of those bridge uh bids are. We are trying to push that as well. But again they kept telling us

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that it will be not a quick rebuild because it depends on Amtrak and how long Amtrak can give outage once they start doing the rebuilding. So I'm very happy that she's very reachable. She does call on the weekends. Anytime I

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call her, she does pick up the phone. Even a chief of staff called me on the weekend. So, uh I'm optimistic that things will be f um things will be fixed as fast as they possibly can be given all the constraints that both they have and we

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have. Uh so, uh again wait another week. Hopefully we will know um what the plan is and rough kind of rough timeline and then I will ask the council members to put pressure on Amtrak to give outages and all of you to reach out to our

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senators or Congress people to get make sure Amtrak gives us the necessary outages that we need to get that done as fast as we possibly can. So >> Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Just quick question on it. um on the options when

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you when you get them can council receive um a copy of the options or we can that's decision is going to be made by engineers and EMS and this is not this is an engineering decision this is not a political decision or this is not this decision it's an engineering

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decision and the longer we take to analyze the option and give an opinion the longer it takes to fix the bridge so I may I may talk to you about what the options we are given And to be very honest, I mean I roughly know what the options are. They're not good options. There are not too many good options

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left. Yeah. >> Right. The bridge is in very very bad shape. >> Oh, Joe will tell you he has been under the bridge and looked at it and uh when we walked the bridge, I mean we were joking but six or seven trains went under and that's what I kept telling her

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that we were afraid something were going to fall on one of the Amtraks which go very fast. So >> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> All those vibrations. >> Yeah. Did would council have anything in terms of supporting a resolution? >> Yeah, like they require these things.

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>> Once once we know what the options are and where the I did tell her where she needs help, we will help her to push uh Amtrak push political people push the governor is supportive of that. I mean she told me that the governor will

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support whatever options we choose jointly. Governor is very supportive of that. She had told me that she had authorized over time and we can work to get this done. So, um at least based on my interaction with her, I can say that she has taken ownership and she's doing

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everything that she can to uh uh to do. Yeah. >> Yeah. I think I think council has been reaching out um and we have passed multiple resolutions. I think the latest push is to make sure um um there's budget in the state budget for this

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bridge um because u state budget budget is in session right now. So >> that's what we passed last at our last meeting >> as well. So we'll we'll keep pushing we can keep calling um you know so thanks for the update.

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Moving on um let's move on to council member comments. Um let's start with Dan. Thank you. Um, regarding the bridge, I still continue, as I imagine many of my colleagues get to get questions from

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residents, whether it's um, when I'm out and about in public or at events. As I think the mayor has seen, there's still a lot of chatter on social media about it. Um, so and a lot of people are asking questions that the answers should be

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readily available or or already available, but they're just not getting the information. Um, I did notice that the website's um sort of bridge update hasn't been updated since late March. So maybe we

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can, especially with this new information, put up um a summary of sort of where we are now so that we can refer people back to that just to get people accustomed to looking there and getting up-to-date information. >> Yeah, I mean after tomorrow, I mean, as

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soon as we know what the options are, I will definitely update it. But again, I keep cautioning the public that it's not something that every week something new is happening. I mean they took four or five weeks to analyze once they did the did the measurement. So I mean I I I

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just want people to understand that they can't expect something new every 3 days or every week because once we give them the options then all we can do is to keep on top of their head to make sure that everything is moving as fast as it possibly physically can.

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>> Right. And I think that's the message that we need to tell people because there it's been six weeks since there's been an update. So that's kind of a long time. So um doesn't have to be all the details but just to give people confidence that we are actually actively working on it because when there's no

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information people assume nothing is happening and clearly a lot is happening and uh >> a lot has been happening and but like these last six weeks it was all the >> I mean I'm just relaying the story because I get asked this question so often and

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>> and it it's easy to say well people are not doing the work they'll find the information, but that we should collectively make it easy for people to find information and updates so that they don't have to constantly ask us. >> Well, now now that we have a new update

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and possibly after tomorrow's tomorrow's meeting, we have a little more. So, um, >> and if there's if there's a need to help draft any of that, I'm happy to help with that. Um, just, you know, give the word and I'll I'm happy to do the work. >> Okay. All right. >> That's all I Thank you,

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>> Linda. Wow. Um, well, I support uh everything that Andrew had said earlier about anti-semitism. I mean, this is really horrible. This should not happen ever in our township, in our state, in our country, anywhere in the world. And you just start watching the news and and

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you're seeing more and more reports and people getting um almost killed, injured. There's graffiti there. there's I mean it's really a lot of unrest and and it's really I find it very very disturbing what what's what's going on. So um you know that anti-semitism is is

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wrong. It's horrible and I I hope that uh somehow we can find more peaceful ways to um you know to live with each other. Um thanks to the uh WWP school board and Dr. Adderhold for the uh special school school budget uh

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presentation on April 28th. Um, every every year the the council members, the mayors and council committee members from Plansboro and uh, West Windsor get together uh, prior to the budget hearing uh, which was on um, April 28th. So, uh, one of the big topics I guess was this

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skyrocketing health care costs um that it's it's almost um they're calling it the the death spiral. It's just getting out of control. So, that is a big concern for them, for us too. Um, so I just wanted to thank them for for that. And if you're interested in uh school

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district's budget, it is on their website. You can look that up. And the whole presentation um is there and it the uh budget was approved that evening. Uh May 4th, I attended a zoom on a DVRPCformational session on municipalities

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uh planning for truck uh parking in that regards to uh zoning and land use. So, there are some safety issues with uh truck drivers needing to locate uh legal spots that are secure and accessible. Um, truck drivers everywhere have a certain number of hours they can only

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drive. They have to take breaks. Um, and then they have to stop and they have to find a place to stay uh to rest or stay overnight. So, apparently there's not a lot of parking spots that are evenly uh distributed throughout our region. So,

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that was the topic. Uh on Saturday I was helping with the West Windsor Lions Club uh fundraiser outside of McAffrey. So uh thank you to all our West Windsor residents who contributed and um and others from out of town who donated. So the money in part goes uh to assisting

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those with eye problems, pediatric care, and high school scholarships. So if you'd like to donate used eyeglasses or um hearing aids, uh please put them in a box outside of Macaffry. If you look at Macaffies, it's off to the to the right

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there. There's a like a mailbox type of box. And then also in the West Windsor Senior Center. Um there's a box for that. Uh and after that, I went um shopping for for buying some plants and for the planter that's right outside here. Uh that was also donated last year

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by the Lions Club. So I picked up some uh new flowers on behalf of the Lions Club. I'm a member. and uh and planted those to sort of brighten up the uh entryway uh to this building. >> Well, thank you, Linda. Um Joe,

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>> uh I hope everybody had a good Mother's Day weekend. I know there's a number of mothers and and grandmothers in the room here, so I I hope you all had a fantastic uh fantastic Mother's Day. Uh want to say congrats to the Dutch Neck Neighborhood for holding their first ever PorchFest. Uh thought it was a very

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successful event. There were 12 bands playing on three different porches. I thought there was a great turnout despite the bit of rain that occurred. Uh so thanks to Pastor Rory Chambers from the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church and others who organized that event. Hopefully it's the first of uh many. Um

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when I was there, I was actually speaking with one of the local residents who previously had written to the township and and came to a council meeting about the feral cat issue that was there. He uh I was glad to hear that he said there was a night and day difference uh since the police

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department got involved in in animal control to uh manage that issue. So uh thank you to the West Windsor Police Department, animal control and and others who were involved uh in that. Um lastly regarding the bridge, uh glad to

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hear that you're having a meeting tomorrow, Mr. Mayor. Um I I would say that um you know NJ dot is responsible for the lack of timely inspections on the bridge that put us in this situation in the first place and I think they need

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to be accountable to uh address it as quickly as possible. So I I certainly hope that's a big part of uh big part of the discussion tomorrow and look look forward to hearing more on that. >> Thanks. >> Thank you Andrew. >> Yeah I think we've all become bridge

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experts. Uh I'd like to count out the number of hours. I think I've talked to people about this bridge. Um one thing I know you mentioned the um uh the uh contract that they have out now where there the

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bidding has been completed. I think it was due in on April 26 for the new bridge. And then what they do is they have some sort of committee that reviews this is the DOT that reviews these types of contracts. and that committee takes

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some time. So, one of the things I would like us to uh brooch is if we're a high priority, I would hope that that committee is reviewing that contract right now. And um one of the things I would like to see kept on our website

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once we've made these decisions or you've made these decisions is um a dual track as to uh what the plan in and time timeline is for a new bridge and the plans and timeline forever whatever we're going to be doing for a

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replacement a temporary replacement of some form. And I think that way everybody can keep good track of um where we they said we're going to be and where we are. Um, and that would give people a little bit more opportunity to

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plan around, uh, plan around that time. Um, other things, uh, I want to remind everybody that we have our West Windsor Sustainable Jersey PSENG Energy Efficiency Partnership Program. Um, we should probably be putting out an e- bulletin on that. I'll I'll send some

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information to administration. And there's uh we have a new special website that gives um uh a link to the free energy assessment with PSENG. Uh I want to congratulate the first FTC

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robotics team cool name pending from West Windsor based leap education for the great performance and winning the neck connect award at the world championships in Houston last week. I was thrilled to be there as a mentor for the team and to run down the stands with

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everyone to high-five the judges when the award was announced. Um, I want to recommend first as a great program for all young people because it's not just about robots. along with everybody else, I attended the West Windsor Plains Board of Education uh meeting with the mayor and

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council and I agree with Linder's assessment that the probably the biggest takeaway from there was the employee medical benefit expense increases that are affecting every level of government in New Jersey when we've been at the

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county. We've heard the county executive talk about it. We've heard the state talking about it. Um it's affecting absolutely every level of government and every board of ed. There are boards of ed throughout the state that have been uh eliminating jobs and eliminating

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programs and and this is a big contributor. Um I don't know the solution. Um, but I hope we come to some kind of terms with it because uh it's affecting how everybody's budgeting as we're going to see when the budget

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presentation tonight. On Saturday, May 9th, I also attended the Dutch Neck Po pork porchfest. I'm starting to lose my voice here. Thank you to Dutch Neck Neighborhood. Rory, who was from the Dutch Neck Church, and everyone who organized, lent their homes, and performed. I heard at the end there Rory

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said made some kind of promise like yeah maybe we'll try to make this an annual event and I think that would be a great thing and I want to remind everybody Memorial Day parade it's going to be early this year May 25th there'll be a number of groups that are coming I urge

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everybody to either participate or to intend it by standing on the sidelines and coming to our uh ceremonies at the end. So I look forward to seeing everyone. Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I think I'm I'm I won't repeat everything that my

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colleagues have said because again we all have been doing similar things. Just want to um remind everyone that this year's um uh Westminster gives back recipient is Westminster Little League with two upcoming events. On May 23rd is

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the cricket championship at Carnover Field and then dive into summer is on June 26th. Um, I want to take this time to congratulate our um, high school North track and field uh, team for

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winning the championship. The girls team won the championship and the boys team um, took the second position. Um, it was very thrilling. Um, I was on the field um, yelling and screaming and running and I think Joe saw me do that. Um, it was um, really wonderful event. We were

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um, High School North hosted the um, conference this year. So, um it was a super busy weekend. Um but very nice to see our um township um athletes on the field and they did a fabulous job. Both North and South kids did a fabulous job.

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North Trip to play Championship. >> Um that's it. Um Alison, do you have anything to add? >> I do. So, um getting back to the Memorial Day parade will be on May 25th. Um there's a participant sign up um form

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and information on the township website. Um or you can contact the clerk's office if you're interested in participating. Um some important election dates coming up. Uh tomorrow, May 12th, is the voter registration deadline for the primary election. May 20th is the mailing of

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sample ballots for the primary election. Early voting period is May 26 to May 31st. Um, and those uh those more information on that is on the website. May 26 is also the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot by mail for the primary

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election. Uh, June 1st is the deadline for in-person mail and ballot applications for the primary election at the county clerk's office. And primary election day is June 2nd. Um, important to note that the board of elections uh redistrict for West Windsor this year

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and added six new districts to West Windsor. We have the new election district map. The official map is online on the website under the clerk's office page under elections. Uh that means we have new polling locations. This list is also on the website. Uh but please check

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your sample ballot because your sample ballot will note where your polling location is. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. >> And everybody can vote in any early voting location in Mercer. >> Early voting is any location in the county. That's correct. And I'll be

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>> and we have a a location right here in Wester. >> Yes, that's correct. In West Windsor Township as of last year, uh we have the county of the library um where residents or anyone in the county can go and vote for early voting only. >> All right. Okay. Moving on um to public

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hearing. Um, the first one is the 202613 2026-13 calendar year 2026 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank NJSA4A 4-45.14.

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>> All right. Um, I open the public hearing for public comment. Um, is there anybody in the audience want to um give any comments specific to this ordinance? All right. Seeing none, um, can I get a motion to close?

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>> So move. >> Second. >> Charles, >> yes. >> Jivers, >> yes. Mando, >> yes. >> Weiss, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Can I get a motion to adopt? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Charles, >> yes. >> Jivers, >> yes.

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>> Mandel, >> yes. >> We >> Yes. >> Gas, >> yes. Right. Next is our 2026 budget presentation. Yep. 2026 budget presentation hearing and adoption. >> All right. Um going to open the public

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um open the public hearing for public comments or are we going to do the presentation? >> The presentation. >> All right. So John, you have the >> mayor is gonna start first. He's going to give a littleation. >> Log off for you. >> Oh, you will vote. That's what

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>> and then I will find >> And then you are connected to >> want to do John first or the mayor is going first. >> Mayor Mayor Scott may >> and I think we have some extra copies of the presentation for our public if anybody's interested.

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Um, I do I have one extra copy just in case anyone else. I'm just going to log out. Okay. So, thank you very much. Uh, this year we tried to do something a little bit different. We tried to do a a

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two part presentation. I'm going to do all the fun part and John is going to do the regular just numbers part. Um just want to thank the council to for their uh thorough review of the budget. Um I I

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told John this is the first year in 8 years that council adopted the budget as presented didn't uh change anything. So thank you very much. Uh so I'm going to talk about uh the budget. Uh this year the tax increase is substantial. So I'll

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start directly by talking about the bottom line first. Uh these are the 2026 tax increases. The municipal tax increase is 3.4 cents. The school tax increase is 7.8 cents. And the county is not finalized yet 100% but as it stands

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today it's 2.2. So the total amount of increase per year is about $7523 or about $58 a month. $59 a month. Hold that thought because I'm going to come back to that $59 at the end again. Um uh

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the 3.4 cents increase is probably more than all the tax increases I have had as mayor uh beginning in 2018 through last year. And I will come to why we had to do that. I mean the easy part of uh

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being mayor is over now. It's going to be more difficult to uh in future budgets and I'll come and talk to talk about why why that is so. Um so this is the history of tax increases. This year the tax increase is

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substantial but over the last 5 years uh the average uh municipal tax increase is still uh less than 2% 1.93%. Um some people believe you just keep doing a steady uh 1 and half cent

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increase every year. Um I believe I don't have to raise taxes if I don't need to. And I will tell you I didn't need to for last six seven years and municipalities have some freedom not to do that which school districts don't have and that's like getting into weeds.

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If anybody is interested I can explain why why that is so but uh even with the high tax increase this year the average over the last 5 years is still uh less than 2%. U municipal budget is a little different than household budget and it's a little

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confusing to uh a little confusing to people. Um the the council when they adopt a budget don't vote on the tax rate. I mean they're not directly choosing the tax rate. The tax rate is calculated this way. uh the

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administration proposes the expenses and the incomes that we hope we will get from various sources and I'll talk about sources of income. Um so the total income for the budget comes from the income we get from UC from police fines

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etc etc uh plus the state aid we get and then we borrow from our surplus. Um this is unique aspect of municipal budgeting. Uh we have a we have a savings account and for the budget we borrow from surplus and people may ask why you

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borrow from surplus. Um that will smooth things out. The other thing is our first tax payment for the year is not collected uh until February but we do need to start paying on January 1st for whatever the uh budgeting is. So the

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total taxes that's what essentially with the school district or the council what they are essentially voting when they're approving the budget they are voting on giving the authority to the administration to collect x number of dollars in taxes. So this year's the

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taxes to be collected is 28,550,275. That's what they are approving that that we can collect that many taxes from public. That tax gets divided by our total assessments. Total assessments everybody's house value, every business,

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everything that's assessed. Uh now your home assessment um hasn't changed doesn't change unless you do a project in the home. But business assessment changes every every year based on um a lot of factors. So our total assessments

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did go up uh slightly this year less than 1% but it did go up. The total assessment is a little over $6 billion. So you divide the total taxes to be collected 28,550 275 by the um by the assessment and you come up with a tax

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rate that's 461 per dollar 100 of assessed of uh of your assessed value. So if you need to find out how many how much tax you are going to pay, you essentially get your assessed value every I believe every April you get this

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small uh green postcard which shows your assess value both the land component and your house component and the total assess value. You take that assess value, you divide it by 100 and multiply

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it by 461 or just multiply that by 0461. That is your total municipal taxes that you pay. So that that that is how we come up with how many taxes that you are going to pay. Um municipal budget once if the council

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approves the budget, we are bound by it. we can't say oops and something else emergency came up. There's a whole long difficult process to reopen it if if something happens. So that's why we are very conservative when we budget. Um the

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whatever we don't spend at the end of the year it gets added back to the surplus. As I said we start the budget by borrowing from the savings account. At the end of the year whatever we don't spend gets added back to the savings account. And my aim as mayor has always

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been either to increase or keep the surplus unchanged every year. And I have successfully done that so far this so far in last 8 years. So surplus is a rainy day fund. So you you build it up when you need it uh when you can do it

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and then you use it when it's needed. So this year it was needed. So, we did uh borrow a little more uh I believe $500,000 more than we borrowed last year. And in future years, we will um we may need to borrow again. Again, that's

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to keep taxes um at a reasonable level. Um the surplus is misunderstood sometimes on purpose, sometimes uh completely because people don't have knowledge of it. So I would like to explain what a surplus is uh to people

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who are uh who are truly interested. So we have an operating budget and we have a capital budget. The surplus is associated with the operating budget. In the capital budget, we don't borrow the money until we actually need the money to use it. Uh so come sometime in July

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the council will approve a bond ordinance which will bond for everything every item that's in our capital budget uh this year. Even though they will approve the bond ordinance, John doesn't run out next day and issue the bonds. He

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will just wait. uh sometimes we don't issue long-term bonds depending on we do have a bond council which advises us uh how to uh minimize the interest expense. So sometimes he may just issue a one-year notes just to hold it off

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hoping that the interest rates will um go down future years. As you know uh during the past year uh rates were going down so we just issued uh one-year interest rate notes but none of the money from the um capital budget is

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counted towards surplus. Uh there was a discussion going on that all the projects that we have not done that have been approved for last 2 three years um that is the reason why our uh surplus uh was so high. uh that's completely bogus

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argument because that doesn't contribute to the surplus. Surplus is purely what's not spent from our operating budget and we are very conservative and council will tell you I'm very stingy guy. So we don't spend unless we have to spend and

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we have built a very healthy surplus. But that has nothing to do with the fact that some capital projects are taking little longer than what we would have liked or capital project in general takes 2 3 years to complete once the council has approved it. But none of

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that money even when the bonds are issued that's a separate account that doesn't get counted towards the u that doesn't get counted towards our surplus. So as I explained for every budget we borrow from our savings account.

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Whatever is left in the savings account is called a reserve fund balance. That's the amount of savings we have in the account at the end of once the budget is finalized by the council. that is not to be touched until the next budget happens

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in 2017 December 27 31st 2017 when I became the mayor the reserve fund balance in the account was 987,000 $987,000 in 2025 the reserve fund balance is expected to be roughly around $10

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million about 10 times 10 times what it was in 2018 and I will I will again talk about why that is so but now I do expect every year the fund balance to go down uh

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starting decreasing this year so for example if you look at this year's budget uh it estimates that the fund balance at the end of this year will only be $8,325,000 so we have been planning for these things coming up over the last few years

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trying to manage the budget as best as we can. So why why was surplus generated in all these years? Of course you can say the mayor is brilliant businessman and he knew how to run the township and generated a lot of money. Uh that's true

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but on a serious note it's um we did a lot of construction since I became mayor. We did a lot of construction and there's something called UCCC fees. Every every time uh you build something um you pay permit fees to the township.

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uh the UCCC fees went from two roughly 2 million in 2017 to 4.82 million in last year's budget. Um again, but that was down from 5.773 is the history uh is the record in history of Westminster. Uh that was the

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highest UCCC fees we collected in 2024. Again consider uh Princeton University what the projects they did and they paid a lot of fees for those projects. Now some of these fees we have to keep because the way things work is they pay

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the fee once when they pull the permit and then we are responsible for all future cost associated with the project. So let's say the Princeton University project goes on for next four years all the inspections all the thing uh all the

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plan reviews all the inspections we are responsible for until the project is finished. So uh it's a a tricky situation that you do collect the fees up front but then you have to budget that next 2 3 years you do need people

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to do the inspections uh but you're not going to get any new revenue from that particular project. uh when you when you change uh use for example when you change from farmland assessment to uh let's say Princeton

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building buildings or somebody building housing you are required by state law to pay uh roll back taxes that those are taxes you pay for essentially you pay for last 3 years of taxes um

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as if it was the use that you are intending to do right that it was not of farmland. So we collected lot of roll back taxes during these six seven years and we did generate we did use certain revenue generating opportunities um that

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we had available and every time we uh think we can get uh revenue we do go and uh use that opportunity but most of the easy things that I thought could be done have been done so that's why I expect

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the uh surplus to start going down because most of the things that we could have uh we could have done most of the uh construction is winding down as well. So I don't expect uh I continue to expect UCCC fees will continue to go

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down back to roughly about a million and a half 2 million. Um that was the norm before 2017. Um most of these fees are from big projects. I mean you finishing your basement or deck won't move the needle

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much but uh the projects like Princeton University that generated a lot of fees uh those are the projects that helped us uh generate that surplus. It wasn't any black magic or uh the mayor trying to hide money or hold money uh that

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generated. We just didn't spend like drunken sailors simply because we had the money. We were very responsible uh keeping that. Um I'm going to talk about major increases in expenses that have a tax impact. Um

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you heard several uh council member talk about health insurance costs for the school district and when we went to the school district budget um the superintendent spoke more about group health insurance costs than about their

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other other projects. um uh he was very worried and again anybody interested I can talk offline they have a little different rules they have chapter 44 we have chapter 78 again getting invited anybody interested um I'll talk to you

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but they have a much tougher problem than we do have but we do have a problem too and our uh group health expense went up by 36% uh the second increase was salary and wages 37% and That's partly because of

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3% uh regular salary increase that was negotiated with various unions but majority of it is um the seven people that we hired last year in last year's budget uh two police officers uh two EMTs, two DPW people and one fire

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engineer. Last year's budget because the people were hired uh during the middle of the year, we didn't budget 100% last year since we didn't need the money. this year's budget reflects 100% of their salaries. Um and again I will come

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back at the end of the end of the presentation about that line item as well. And then garbage collection. Um again some people were unhappy. We went from twice uh summer pickup to once uh

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once uh pickup throughout the year. At least Marina didn't have to worry about making that announcement after Memorial Day that we are going to change. No change now going forward. But even with that change and even with the first year

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adjustment which was quite substantial, garbage pickup is still going up about 5% every year and recycling pickup is going to go up 7.5% every year. Again another issue that I keep some of the people keep saying oh just spend the

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money you have the money um in surplus so why don't you just spend the money to fix whatever they want it fixed as I've explained in the past there's a cap on our taxes but there's also cap on our appropriations which means we can only

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spend x% more than what we spent last year and that cap changes every year by minister which will amount little bit here and there. For example, this year uh the state will give us a bigger cap because the group health insurance is much higher and that's higher for every

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municipality in in in New Jersey. So, everybody is dealing with the same problem. But still, it's nowhere near 5% or 7.5%. Which means when I spend 5% more for garbage collection or 7.5% more for recycling that additional expense has to

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come from some other budget line item because my overall budget expense can expenses can go up only by let's say 3%. If 3% is the cap then that 2% extra that I spend on garbage and 4.5% extra I

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spend on recycling has to come from some other budget line item. And we run budget pretty uh pretty tight. So it's not like we have a lot of leeway to say okay we will spend little less here little less there. That's why you will

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see in this budget there's no new hiring. Although both the police and EMS will tell you they need a lot of people to keep up with the growth that the township is experiencing. major increase in income um interest in

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investment deposits I mean few years ago during COVID when the interest rates were zero we are hardly collecting anything we do use our surplus very wisely we do invest it very wisely we are not we are not allowed to speculate we can't buy stocks we can't even buy

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tea bills I mean that's so frustrating I kept telling June I wish I can just buy a a tea bill which pays almost 4% but we are not even allowed to build T bills. So, uh we can't get into trouble like Orange County in LA. We are not allowed to do

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any of that. But even with conservative um investments, we did generate $500,000 extra income because the interest rates were high. Again, this year interest rates have gone down a little bit. So, this year, I do expect the interest

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income will go down a little bit. Uh uh not substantially, but still a little bit. But we do use we do use our surplus very wisely to generate something that's beneficial to the taxpayers. Uh second is we now getting substantial

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contribution from Princeton University. When I started when I got elected as mayor in 2017, I had written the figure down somewhere but I forgot to bring it with me but it was less than $80,000 or $70,000 uh we were collecting from Princeton at that time. During my first

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term, I negotiated a a contract with them and quadrupled that money to roughly about $200,000 at that time. Um, and then because they were building so rapidly, we just made a very short-term contract because we didn't know that

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they were going to build more in our township. So last year, we we negotiated a contract where they are giving us $800,000 unrestricted, increasing 4% every year. So that's a substantial that's almost a penny in taxes more than

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a penny and a quarter in taxes that we are we are saving. And as I said in the beginning we borrowed from the surplus roughly about $225,000 to to to uh contribute towards this budget.

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Uh these are some of the facts about the budget that I want people to realize. Majority of the budget whether it's a school budget or the township budget is paid by local taxpayers. We are considered a rich township. Um the state

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divides the township between A to F categories based on average income. Uh some of our folks makes too much money. So we are in the topmost F category. Uh so even the school district suffers. School district doesn't get as much aid

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as some other school district does. and we don't get any a as much. So the state contributed only 3.84% of the entire municipal budget. And again I'll come back to the state part of it a little bit later and that percentage keeps going down every year.

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As I said we have built a rainy day fund over the seven years as I was mayor and future budgets are going to um future budgets are going to need it. It's going to be a little tougher um in future budgets. We do operate a very tight

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ship. The general uh perception in public is oh it's government they spend money this that and so on. So I did borrow I steal stole one side slide from John it's a little u too small to read

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but two numbers I wanted to point out to uh the clerk and the governing body uses less than 1% it's 97%. and the administration which includes uh mayor and everybody in the under administration still uses 4.77%.

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So combined administration expense is less than 6%. You know all of us the largest expense for the budget is the public safety which is at as it should be which is about 21%. Uh that's what um and and since I became mayor, we have

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hired roughly about seven new police officers, seven or eight new firefighters, and uh two or four EMTs. Uh that's where most of the money and most of the hiring is going up. Um I'm also going to point out to the uh

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council that the refuse collection if you see is roughly about 6%. That is the part that also includes leaf and brush pickup this that and so on. And that's why I'm going to come to you with a proposal to change that to make it more

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efficient so we can operate and keep up with the schedule that we have uh we have promised the people that we will do. So I will talk about challenges in future budgets as I mentioned the health care cost and that's a

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problem all over US not just for government but private industries too but if you look at our health care cost they are all over the place that starting from 5% decline in 21 to 23% increase this year but over the 5year

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peri period the average annual increase is still 8.75%. So that's again when I keep mentioning the cap is 2% or 3% that 5.75% extra has to come from somewhere and the school

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board also was con constantly talking about this as being their biggest challenge. Um and this is going to be biggest challenge for most municipalities not just us and state is facing that problem as well and this is

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expected to continue in future years. Uh higher spending to support higher density residential developments. I mean people feel we should build affordable housing. We should build housing as much as uh we can. Um I've often said that um

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each new person coming in town is being subsidized by everybody who is here because of the school taxes. But this is the second effect of um effect of that uh highdensity development and especially in this fourth round the

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state is forcing us to build highdensity developments. If you look at our plan there's no single family homes. Not a single single family home is being built. They are all high density plans and the state I mean my regular complaint the state cheated to force us

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to build that highdensity developments but that also means that the chief will tell me I need more police officers. The EMS chief will tell me I need more engines that can reach taller. I need a taller ladder. I need more firefighters.

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I need more um EMT uh EMTs. Um the increased uh residential development also means increased traffic. It takes longer for emergency vehicles to reach where they are going to reach. So that

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is going to be a future challenge. I'm sure this year although we didn't hire any new people um we will have to uh adjust our workflows uh in coming years because there is going to be uh more

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people coming. I mean our our population has reached roughly 34,000 now and it will continue to increase. A lack of state aid and people ask me what they can do. Talk to your talk to your legislators. I mean this is

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absolute travesty that the state has not increased the aid and and let me be frank. This is not just Westir. This is every town, every municipality in West in in New Jersey. But they didn't increase aid from 2011 to 2025.

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Think about it. For 14 years. And if you look at the state budget, the state budget ballooned during those 14 years. They collected all the money but they didn't increase the state aid by a penny in those 14 years. Now even if you even if you consider 2% and and inflation is

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higher than 2%. But even if you consider 2% that is like losing 2% in state every year because they are giving you the same money um like they did last year. Um you won't work for a company if they give you the

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same money every year because it's like losing 2% 3%. And if you compound that 2% over those 14 years that they didn't give you stated that's 35% loss of stated. So essentially the township lost

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35% of state aid between 2011 and 2025. So my favorite saying is it's essentially we are collecting state taxes and giving it on their behalf and giving it to them. Um because they are not giving us they are not giving us

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increase in state aid at least keeping up with inflation. If they allow us to increase the budget by 2% they should increase the aid at least by 2%. That's fair. But again, because nobody complains to the state, everybody wants to beat up on the mayor and council.

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They are happy campers. I mean, they take the money and use it whichever way they want. Um, Mr. Church is happy he got rebate this year. Uh, but don't know next year's uh not a this thing. But that is very unfair system that they

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need to keep up with that. And um I didn't I didn't have hard to count cumulatively how much the township has lost between 2011 2025 but I'm sure it's several pennies of taxes. I mean essentially 2% of our uh 2% of our state

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aid is roughly about $45,000. So every year I lose $45,000 and it keeps compounding every year for 14 20 uh 14 years. In 2025 when all the municipalities hollered and screamed

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they increased the state by a minuscule amount. Again I had written it down somewhere but again this year there's no state in increase. So probably they will go another 10 years without any state aid increase unless people just call and tell them that this is unfair that they

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need to give uh at least 2% increase in state aid to every municipality. Lastly, as I said, um the most of the ways I thought I could raise additional revenues, we have already done that and we continue to looking at

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opportunities but most of the easy pickings have been done. So now it's the heavy lifting that will have to be done uh in future years to generate revenues and to control expenses to keep make sure that the budgets and tax increase are in a

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reasonable form. Um and again um increase expectations from public. I mean Westminster is uh strange. I said the average tax increase between uh school township and county is roughly

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about $58 uh $58 a month. Uh for some people it's nothing. There are people in town who will tell me that oh don't worry just tax me more but fix they want every lawn to look like a manicured lawn like a golf course. But there are other people

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who for whom $58 a month is a lot of money. It's not easy to live uh easy to come up with $58 a month every month um every year. So the council and mayor has to strike a balance somewhere in the

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middle and um when people tell me uh uh oh I expect XYZ to be done because I paid $20,000 in taxes and I want to tell you you don't pay 25 $20,000 in taxes,

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you only pay $2,800 in taxes to me. That's $233 a month. And for that taxes you get all that pie chart that John will again show you. You get the police, you get the emergency vehicles, you get the uh roads, you get snow cleaning, you

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get garbage pickup, you get um recycling pickup. We are a full service municipalities. Uh former mayor she always used to point out that we are a full service municipalities. We don't charge for anything extra like some other towns will charge will ask you to

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do your garbage pickup yourself, pay outside. We pay for everything. Once you pay your $233 a month in taxes, we don't ask for any other money. That's all we get and that's all we use. And if you have a HOA, you compare that to your HOA

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charges and you will and and how much service they provide and how much service we provide. The county charges $416 a month. So, um, ask how much services county provides you and compare that to how much

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services the township provides you. So, I am very unhappy when people expect that, oh, they should get all the services they want because they pay $20,000 in taxes. I wish the state didn't force me to collect all those taxes and give it to other people. I

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wish the highest either the county collects them on behalf of everybody or the school which is the highest tax collector collects and gives it to me then I don't have to answer the question that they pay $20,000 in taxes. They don't. They only pay $2,800 in municipal

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taxes. So um just wanted to um get that out there, explain how the budget is constructed, what we are facing uh in future years and what efforts we are making to make sure that future year tax increases are

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as minimal as possible. Um um but this is the this is the reality that we are dealing with and I'm thankful that I have very competent uh professionals in the township who are very diligent in uh

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keeping taxes low. Um I always tell uh uh John that if anybody anybody says nice things about him, I'm going to be worried. His job is to keep saying no. If he ever says yes, I'm going to be worried. Uh and that has been my mantra.

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Even when I was schoolboard president, I had told Larry Shannik that if anybody says nice things about you, I'm going to be worried. But we are very competent uh professionals who work very hard on behalf of the taxpayers to make sure that we don't spend money we don't have

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to spend and we collect all the revenues that are owed to us from every source that we have. So that was my spill as the mayor and now it's the official budget presentation from John. Thanks John.

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>> Thanks mayor. Um Allison, can we um get a copy of this presentation emailed to us? >> Sure. From the mayor. Sure. Well, I'll have I'll request the mayor forward uh your presentation. >> Thank you. Distribute it to council. >> Yep. Thanks, John.

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>> Uh good evening um council and mayor. Thank you very much. Once Allison gets the slides up, I'll I'll start. Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Okay. I bet you're still connected on that one. Did you disconnect me? I don't

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think you're disconnected all the way. You're going to be asking what screen is different than the other. >> No, that this is a different screen different than that screen. >> Those two >> still matching. >> Oh, there it is. >> This one This one is >> Yeah,

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>> those two are This one is although >> that one's all right. Well, everybody move so you can see the screen. All right. Okay. Yes. Thank you again. Um uh welcome to the West Windsor 2026

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mineral budget. This is the public hearing May 11th, 2026. First, I'd like to thank um >> that the right one. >> No, go back. There you go. I just like to thank council um uh as you guys well known

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because you you were all there. This was a three-day process that was open to the public and um where we went over uh the budget in great detail. There's a this budget book that's on the website. It's over 200 pages. um each department head came along with

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division managers and we went through the budget process which is something we do every year. So thank you again. Okay, so we'll start with the total budget comparisons. This is a a graph that shows where our budgets and the increases for the last five years. Our

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total budget for 2026 is 57,685,650. This represents an increase of $4,219,730 or 7.89% over the 2025 budget. Total salary and wages increased $1,565,155

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or 7.98%. Other expenses increased $2,654,575 or 7.7%. Uh the 2026 budget major appropriation increases. Um group health insurance was number one

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as we've all seen. This seems to be a national is dealing like um council have said is is trickled down to every form of government. So it's something that really needs to be addressed at a national level before anything can

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really be done. Uh we do hire a consultant who is a uh works for us. He's not a broker. So he doesn't get a fee based on the percentage of the premium. He works for a flat rate. He markets our plan and we are not part of

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state health benefits plan and that's why we haven't had the massive increases that they have had over the last five years. We've been fortunate that our plan has been pretty decent but uh the future doesn't look good as far as the health group healthcare insurancees. Salary and wages as the mayor spoke

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increased by 1,565,155. Um our debt service increased slightly this year. Um 396,537. Um the next category was Stony Brook Regional Sewage Authority, $144,336. Um even though it's an increase in the

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budget that we do recoup that through our billings for the sewer rates. Uh come July, I will give you a new calculation and we take all these costs. there's just like a basically a six-month delay on the rate increase based on usage, water usage. And the

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other big uh expense driver is the refuge collection which comprises of garbage and recycling. >> Hey, John, one second. Yeah, I I meant to mention I didn't in the list that I talked about um expense increases, I

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didn't talk about the sewer authority. I don't want people with septic to think I'm trying to hide that. That's a completely passed through as John said. >> Correct. >> I'm I'm just saying in simple terms it's completely passed through. It has no budget impact. Whatever it increases, we

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just collect through sewer rates. So that doesn't it's not paid by anybody who doesn't have sewer. So that has no impact. >> Correct. But it it is one of the you know top generators as far as you know with the growth in the township. does

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impact the cap. >> It does impact the cap. Correct. >> Even though it's passed through. >> Correct. So that is the impact on the budget. Um actually no st I'm sorry. Stony Brook is outside cap. >> It is. >> And if I remember we didn't increase the

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sewer rate last year. >> Um we did not. >> So this year there will be and probably >> it really depends on because with the growth it was able to make up for the increased costs last year. that I won't really know for about another month or so.

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>> But but they have given us an increase per gallon, I assume. >> They did. Yes. >> Yep. And that's based on actual flow and there's there's a year delay. They do estimates for this year on a yearly basis. They run on a fiscal. We run on a calendar. So there's a little bit of a

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delay. Uh we've been um fortunate enough to get refunds back for the last couple years. Small amounts, but at least we can get additional billings. So that means our rates been pretty close to where it should be. Um, we'll know more in the next month or so and then in July is when I bring the resolution for

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council to approve. Okay. Department percentage to total budget. Um, as the mayor said, um, the top percentage goes to the public safety, which is police, EMS, and fire, which

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represents 21.79% of the budget. Um, the next one is statutory at 18.36. Statutory represents pension costs, social security, a magical line item in the budget called

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reserve for uncollected taxes, which nobody really understands, but it's a cash flow item in our budget that we must raise to allow for the delinquencies of tax collection because there are some people that don't pay on

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time. and we have a a a duty to pay the schools and county regardless if we collect it. So that this allows us a little bit of a cash flow and that figure is over $2.1 million. So it's pretty substantial, but there's a reason we have it and that's so we do have cash

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to pay and operate even though we're collecting late on some taxpayers and those taxpayers usually we we cannot go to tax sale to the end of the year. So it takes a little time. So that's the big driver as far as the statutory goes.

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>> Could you clarify I think mayor had said something with the refuge collection and how that was related to brush but is I don't think that I don't think that includes like what we what public works salaries for that. that does is we have it's part of the of that budget line

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called refuge collection because we have to get rid of the dispose of the >> so it's just like a tipping fee or whatever we pay but but the DPW coming around that's al that's all under DPW >> yeah that's under works but the the tipping fees uh we have a shared service

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agreement which will be up this summer for renewal >> with Hamilton Township >> and they have agreed to increase it 2% so that's pretty good Okay. So, >> so but so none of that is like DPW salary or anything like that. Totally

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tipping fees. >> Totally tipping fees. >> Thank you. And let's see the last one is um let's see insurance 15.78% of the budget which is health workers

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comp and liability insurance as we've been saying all along healthcare is is the big driver in that category. Now we go to uh total revenue percentage to total budget. Our total revenue is also increased by 4.21

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$4,219,730 or 7.89%. Uh in the state of New Jersey, we must have a balanced budget. We're not like the federal government and could run a deficit. So if you increase expenditures, you have to increase your revenues. Uh so this year um

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the top five increases in revenues is number one was as the mayor spoke earlier the Princeton University agreement $800,000 and that's a a volunteer payment they make to us in le of taxes uh because they're not required to because they're

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non nonprofit but um as a good neighbor um they have negotiated this fee with us. So, this is a a year-to-year an agreement that u we hope for years will come. Um interesting interest on investments

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which has increased by 500,000. Um we've done very well with our interest income. It's kind of stayed at a pretty stable level for the last three years. It it is dipping it dipped a little bit this year. Um we don't anticipate it will change it much between now and the end of the year. So, uh that revenue item

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should be stable. sewer connection fees are up because of the growth in the town. So, that's just a natural byproduct. Uh capital fund balances increase because the in 2025 we did do a one-year note because it was more advantageous

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for the town to do a one-year note and um that is the what we call a premium on the sale of note. Uh, one of the builders who won the note sale gave us cash to effectively lower the interest rate, but they can still market it at a

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higher interest rate even though we pay a lot less. Um and then amatory services that's a third party billing that is um when any you know that we charge when we use anybody in the town or outside of town

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uses the EMS services the top three revenues highest percentage of the total budget as the mayor said it's the local tax for municipal purposes which is almost 50% of our revenues historically

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surplus anticipated ated is the next category at 23.27. Um, that's one of the reasons we're asking for a rate increase this year is because we anticipate our surplus balance to start declining over the next three to four

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years before it starts going back up. And then local revenue comprises of 12.81, which is all the other fees and permits that we collect throughout the town. In the next slide is the overall municipal tax impact. Unlike the mayor,

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I still stick to my municipal budget because the only control I have. So our municipal tax levy for this year is a 28,550,27518. That's represents an 18.63% increase in the levy. Our total assessed

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value increased to 6 million 6 bill198,749,900 or 74%. So when you net those two out, that's where we come up with the 7.89% tax rate increase. Um, based on our assessments, the

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average residential homeowner assessment for 2026 is $522,396. Our municipal tax rate is struck at 4.61 cents or a 3.4 cent increase, a 7.96% increase.

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Bottom lines, this translates into an average residential household municipal tax of $2,48.25, an increase of 17761 a year or $14.80 a month. And let me just restate that's

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just the municipal tax levy. Um with that said, any questions from council? >> So when people get their tax bill in August, you got to remind them that out of that pie chart is what what would you say 14.9%

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of that is for the municipal taxes because >> we actually give them a card with the pie chart. >> Yes. Um, and we do try to reinforce that, but most of the time we just try to listen because >> the chart >> there you go chart. >> Yeah. >> And we've been historically around 14%

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for the last oh god at least over 10 years. So >> because a lot of people don't understand that. >> They don't. We've actually gone down. We were like a little over 15 and Yeah. >> 15 16 at one point. Now we we're down at 14 >> because they went up so high. >> Yeah.

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>> Yeah. Last year it was 14%. >> So basically for an average house we're talking well under $200 for the whole year for municipal >> right 177 change >> or $15 a month or couple of cups of

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Starbucks. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Um does anybody have any other question? Well, I just want to remind everyone we did have um inlength hours of um budget

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presentation um discussions in March. So, this is not the first time um we are looking at the budget. We did spend um three full days um department by department each line item. Um so, and it was an open public meeting. public was

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allowed to come in and um listen in on the discussions, give public comments. So, just want to remind everyone on that. Um >> and we spent a bunch of time looking at before that. So, >> yes. >> Um I just want to open the public hearing for public comment. Um anybody

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in the audience, do we have any comments? >> Nope. Seeing none, can I get a motion to close? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Charles, >> yes. >> Gvers, >> yes. >> Mando, >> yes. >> We >> Yes. >> Gawas,

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>> yes. Can I get a motion to adopt? >> Yes. Um, I adopt the budget for 2026. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Charles, >> yes. >> James, >> yes. >> Mandel, >> yes. >> Weiss, >> yes. >> Gowas,

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>> yes. >> Thank you again. the budget. Thanks, John, for all the hard work for you and your department. I know it's a difficult um budget, but you have done a very thorough job. So, thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

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>> And um Allison, we'll have this presentation up on the website for public. >> Yes. >> Okay. Let's move on to consent agenda. >> Um, bills and claims.

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>> Does anybody want to pull anything? >> No. All right. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So move. >> Second. >> Charles. Yes. >> Chver. >> Yes. >> Mandal. >> Yes. >> Weiss. >> Yes. >> Dallas. >> Yes.

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>> Recommendations from administration and council >> 2026-R100 authorizing the business administrator to purchase HP toner from SHI International Corporation under the New Jersey Cooperative Purchasing Alliance

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contract CK04 subcontract 24-38 with the county of Bergen. $20,000 2026-R101 authorizing the business administrator to purchase laptops, monitors, and miscellaneous items from SHI International Corporation under the New

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Jersey Cooperative Purchasing Alliance Contract CK04, Subcontract 24-38 with the County of Bergen, 19,452.81, 81 2026-R102 authorizing the award of contract for

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the sprinkler system upgrades at Princeton Junction volunteer fire station number 44 project to K&D Contractors LLC and authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute said contract $537 uh $537800

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2026 R103 authorizing the business administrator to purchase mobile data terminals automatic vehicle locators and wireless communication equipment and installation services for the Township Fire and Emergency Vehicle Fleet from Newcom Wireless Services LLC under

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Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Contract number 030425- New quote number 000150274,94725 2026-R104 granting reservation of sewer capacity

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to future lot 2.01 01 as part of ER UDC West Windsor LLC project PB22-02 located at block 47 lots 2 through 6 2026-R105 authorizing the mayor and clerk to

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execute a professional services agreement with Van Clee Engineering Associates for professional engineering services for the traffic engineering study and complete streets demonstration for pedestrian improvements for the North Post Road Kourtney Drive municipal

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drive project $27,500 2026-R106 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a professional services agreement with Remington and Vernick engineers for professional engineering services for the traffic engineering

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study and complete streets demonstration for pedestrian improvements for the canal point boulevard Emmens drive wheeler way intersection project $26,000 2026-R107 Seven, authorizing the award of contract

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for public lands maintenance, Culdeac Islands Maintenance to Custom Landscaping and Lawn Care, Inc. and authorizing the mayor clerk to execute said contract $18,000. Does anybody want to pull anything?

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No. Um, can I get a motion to approve resolution 2026 R1000 through 2026 R107? So move to >> second. >> Charles, >> yes. >> Jivers, >> yes. >> Mando, >> yes. >> Weiss,

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>> yes. >> Bellis, >> yes. >> Um, we don't have any introduction of ordinances. Um, we move on to the, um, second round of public comments. Um, same rules apply. 15 minutes comment

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comment period, 3 minute limit per person. Anybody does anybody want to say anything? Nope. All right. Um, so I'm going to close the public comments. Moving on to

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council reports. Um, let's start with um just uh yeah, for the rec commission um the waterworks bathroom floors uh are scheduled to be done by Memorial Day. The rest of the bathroom upgrades should be mid to late June. Uh the rec

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commission is also working on some sponsorships. They're trying to do some fundraising and working on some sponsorship forms and things to to see if we can get some more local businesses or organizations to sponsor some different things. More to come on that.

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Um Marlene already covered the skate park um repairs but that will eventually there will be a um you know come to council for approval for for a contract uh on that. Uh parking authority didn't have a official meeting but they did

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there were some members of the parking authority met last week with the representatives from a couple of solar developers to have some exploratory discussions on uh the possibility of putting um solar canopies over some of the parking lots in uh in the train

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station. Uh so this was sort of an initial meeting and discussion. Um so I think you know more to more to happen on that over over time. Good. Okay. Um, Andrea, >> um, the Environmental Commission is not

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going to meet until Thursday, so there's nothing new on that. Uh, emergency management council has not set a date for the second quarter meeting yet. >> Linda, >> the planning board met on May 6 and approved PB26-02.

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And this is for Market Fair Mall tenant improvements. Uh they will be completing an internal and external remodel of four tenant spaces. The old Bahama Breeze restaurant will be renovated for a new restaurant called Lascalia's Fire. So it

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will be um Italian cuisine. The board also discussed PB26-03 Princeton Ascend Development LLC. The applicant is seeking relief for a signage accessory to a mixeduse building at 43 Prince Heightstown Road. The board

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decided uh to carry further discussions uh and the public hearing to the board's May 20th meeting. >> Dent >> uh affordable housing didn't meet this month. Um the other meeting was the

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board of education budget meeting which we're all at. So I won't repeat that other than um one of the reasons why the board of ed budget is so impacted by the health cost increases is just by the sheer number of people who there

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>> um the uh there's hundreds of people and that is a much larger percentage of of compared to a municipal budget. >> Um one of the interesting things that Dr. out of Holden mentioned is that despite this

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um problem that's not unique to the Westminster police school district, but it's across the entire state is that there aren't yet any types of um committees or subcommittees or any organ organized um programs put together to

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assess and evaluate and come up with recommendations. So that's something that we can all keep an eye out on for as that moves forward because the only way that this is going to change is just not going to change magically by itself. Um it requires people to take the

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initiative to to make make the change. So next board of ed meeting is tomorrow evening. >> Right. Thank you. Um human relations uh met uh last week on May 5th. Um they're continuing to uh with their planning um

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plans for diversity day um with um hel holding a community picnic um on June 13th with rainade on June 5th 14th um so if if there are any um food vendors

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local food vendors if they're interested um please um reach out to the human relations. Um that's about it from me. Um do we have any additional administration updates? >> No. >> Mayor. Nope. Okay. Um we don't need a

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close session. So um can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. All in favor? I I Great meeting at 8:45 p.m.