##VIDEO ID:B67C_IIHrZQ## yeah hello good evening we will now uh we call the meeting the order it is now 7:00 the requirement of Sunshine Law been met the meeting was sent to be advertised to the Burton County time electronic news was given to the njac 5 col 39- 1.5 we will now start with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God IND with liy and justice for all we will now have a moment of silence uh if we could to direct this moment of silence to uh the fires that are in California thank you roll call committee woman Dr calwell president committee woman Maddox C Miss Maddox Canen president committee man Mr car pres committee woman Miss  and mayor Henley pres or present monthly reports construction police Public Works courts Fire EMS and tax collector we now open a meeting for public comment on agenda items only please remember to state your name address for the record reminder this is for comment come on up nah you're wearing the right hat wait a minute I was a little far away I mean that had to do but I thought you was the Eagles at uh bearing 138 Winstead um the the PDF packet for tonight's meeting with the agenda Etc I didn't see attached to it the police report the court report or the tax collector report so I it wasn't part of what was made available online so if somebody can summarize those reports it would be helpful and then I had a a comment about the uh an 8 it was e 34-25 the resolution around the fair housing it mentioned in the resolution it mentioned the year 2035 and um I don't know maybe I didn't read it right but it looks like the 165 units don't have to come online until that year is that is that right maybe somebody could give some context around that thanks absolutely you want to do it now about yeah I can I can address that now um I forget to process um so the under the fair housing act the um compliance periods are U broken down into 10year rounds with the present round being 2025 through 2035 uh it is what culmination of this process is going to be the adoption of a housing element fair share plan which is a component of the zoning ordinance and U plans for and provides the opportunity for the development of the 165 credits during the next 10 years so kind of your conclusion is correct that they don't have all have to come online now it's just providing the township has to provide the opportunity for those units over the next 10 years got it Gary yes thank you perfect any other comments with none uh motion to close all in favor all right consent agenda resolution consent agenda resolution resolution notes consent agenda it are considered to be routine and will be enacted with a single motion any items requiring expenditure are supported by the certification of availability of funds any items requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda do we have a motion or removal I'd like to make a motion Mr Mayor for the consent agenda anyone a second I'll second call any discussion uh just like to note for the record of committee woman MOS here for the vote y roll call Dr yes M mad P yes Mr car yes M  yes mayor Henley yes uh I'm sorry motion passes we're now open the meeting for public comment please remember to state your name and address for the record reminder this is for comment only my name is asley fanc I live at 46 D Road um since you guys canceled the meeting in December I was not able to follow up on some of the questions we had regarding the emergency shelter shelter did they provide the EPA statement to you we need to know if they were providing that because they said they had it and it was not available also did you get in writing that the homeless shelter would not financially impact any of the West anthon residents that we had spoken about in the November meeting uh G bararan 138 Winstead so I happen to be watching C-SPAN on December the 11th in the morning and to my astonishment I saw Congressman Lauren bobbert introduce a bill um and it was about the post office and she had introduced to Bill believe it or not it's only like a couple of pages but what was interesting about this particular bill is that it authorized the post office to create zip codes for small municipalities and I read through the bill and quite a few of them were obviously were in Colorado but one was in New Jersey in Morris County a Township or a burrow called canel similar in size to our Township about 10,000 people so the bill passed it was sent to the Senate on the 12th of December unfortunately it was received by the Senate they took no action so we all remember Schoolhouse Rock we know what happens to these bills right they're officially quote dead um here's the thing if you all remember maybe about 10 years ago when Andre was the mayor and ab Lopez was Deputy Mayor there was an effort to create a zip code for our Township and I think uh it's a lot of you know bureaucratic red tape and once the once the post office says no it's a 10-year waiting period to reapply m so that's apparently what set in motion uh congresswoman boer's decision to try to you know accelerate the creation of these zip codes um according to the bill it would take 270 days once the bill passed for the post office to create the ZIP code so here's the thing we didn't have a sitting um member of the House in our Third District at the time if you recall uh Mr Kim moved over to the Senate and got sworn in or he was appointed and then sworn in otherwise I would have made a phone call and see if we had anyone that would be interested in trying to amend the bill new Congress sworn in on January 3rd so I just looked at the um uh all of the daily digest from the past two weeks I didn't see that she introduced the bill new to the new Congress my guess is she doesn't have a big track record introducing legislation my guess is she'll probably try to introduce it again here's what I'm going to suggest um I know we've talked about having a zip code before um if we're on the fence about getting our own ZIP code for our Township you know what maybe we get in on this bill um maybe someone can call conaway's office and see what he can do um like I said read the bill yourselves I can give you the site you can go pull it up it's HR 8753 y so you know some of the reasons cited by the smaller municipalities in Colorado are the same reasons we've cited them before right confusion issues with collecting sales taxes the fact that we're you know a municipality with growing needs and concerns uh you know personally I think it's helpful to have our own ZIP code I don't know how many times I've typed in 0806 when it comes up Mount Holly and other people will insist and say no no you live in Mount Holly I can't do anything for you and it's it's just frustrating so she's she came up with something I think pretty creative here and uh hopefully you know maybe Conway wants an easy layup on some bipartisanship here um if I call his office nothing's going to get done but I know you guys can call his office and something will get done so that's my comment you call his offers I don't know if someone's going to get well I can't say that I will we do have a liaison for for all for them all like uh Kim Conway and even up to Governor Murphy so um we can reach out to them no other comment uh all in favor to close than to remember next house committee meeting is February the 4th at 700 p.m. Land Development board meeting is February the 5th at 7 p.m. historic commission is January the 22nd at 7:00 p.m. Recreation committee meeting is February the 12th at 7:00 p.m. do we have any commit leaz reports and comments yes I start you want to start I can start um I have a report also a request and a friendly reminder for everyone um so I attended the reorganization meeting of the West Hampton Board of Education last week it was virtual if you remember that was a snow day last Monday um so also January is um national board recognition month so if you come across a board member I just from doing that uh rule it's very underappreciated uh you have to have a large time commitment so if you see one of them just recognize them and thank them for their service um also congratulations to a new new board member who was appointed her name is Dr Tiana Brown and um was also sad to hear that Morin mlei um longtime guidance counselor and then board member um has resigned from the board and so now there is one more seat open so if you know anyone who interested please have them apply um um when I used to sit um in the pews and come to the meetings last year uh one of the areas of focus that I noticed that we needed um was better communication with the county office so I started thinking of ways that we can be more proactive and Bridge the communication gap and so what I came up with is um I'm volunteering to be a liaison to the Burlington County Board of Commissioners so I'll be asking the township committee if you guys would support that um uh but I'm volunteering to go to the meeting meetings um get information that's necessary uh but basically the purpose of uh being the leadon for that will be to establish and maintain a relationship um with the county office facilitate any Communications bring it back to the township committee meetings um and just to identify any short-term and any long-term challenges that's going to directly be related to Westampton um i' like to get on those sooner rather than later so my request is that you appoint me as a liaison or caison to that commit committee um and just a friendly reminder to everyone um about the trash collection it's now Thursdays going forward I myself was uh packing my trash on Sunday night and remembered so I thought I'd remind everybody thank you thank you good evening everyone um I had an opportunity to attend the Burlington County annual organization meeting the O office um for Commissioners Tyler Burell and um Dr Felicia Hobson the theme of that event was strength and depth in our community and it was great attending that because uh Dr Hopson laid out a lot of things that they're going to be doing that directly and indirectly affect us one is the Longbridge park playground renovation um yes she touched on the emergency shelter the work World Cup in 2026 uh firsttime home buyers program the health building uh being renovated and also preserving Farmland Dr cwell and I have had many discussions when it comes to um playing an intrical part with the county and trying to establish a relationship as she has said and what we are looking to do is we're looking to work closely with them to be able to find out what's going on in the county and bring that information back to the township of Westampton if I had not attended that meeting I wouldn't know about uh Long Bridge Park playground being renovated my kids play there um World Cup in 2026 so many different things that will be taking place so um Dr cwell and I have spoken about doing something where we can play an ingal part working with um the county and looking to bring some information back to the citizens of West ampton so looking forward to that in terms of our Recreation committee we did not have a meeting on the 8th however we did have and I attended the girls and boys basketball assessments um the basketball program will go between now and March we have 36 teams over 400 children peeeee bantom Junior majors and seniors and they go from little children all the way to the ninth grade um very well attended over 400 children and that's excellent we have indoor soccer going on between now and February over 325 children adult indoor soccer with 16 teams men's open basketball they play every Tuesday women's volleyball they go goes between now and through uh May um so they're super busy they're doing some great things and look forward to perpetuating success of the recreation committee as far as timbuk 2 is concerned um it's a place of commercial wealth and opportunity um that phrase was coined a while ago and I'm looking forward to uh having multiple events this year uh as far as timbuk 2 is concerned I'm learning about this gym in our backyard there's a lot of history a lot of information there and I'm looking forward to uh doing some great things we're continuing to perpetuate the success of this Committee in helping to make West ampton the best ampton how do we do that we're all on the same team we're looking to do some great things here we have been approaching to do a number of improvements uh Deerwood Country Club the crosswalks um I live in dearwood and a number of people have asked me about that spoke to Public Works and uh they're going to be completing that in the spring one side is done they're looking to do the other side the mayor probably is going to address some of the things that are going to be taking place in The Villages and we're super excited about that um I am looking forward to uh doing some great things and uh working with all of you and I am continuing to be humbled and honored to work with each and every one of you I want to end this with a quote change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time we are the ones we've been waiting for to make that change we are the change and we seek the help and assistance of everyone in this community to make that change thank you thank you I don't have any comments uh Happy New Year again just want to say thank you to our Public Works police for fire for all your hard work during our last snowfall really appreciate it kept our our residents safe um we're already jumping into some work on our code book um keep an eye out for that for example uh we're looking into the historical preservation committee looking to make that stronger um for our residents in the village that are affected by some of the development there um in a stronger say in the matter we're also looking at some updating other ordinances that just haven't been updated in a long while also trying to organize some labor to fix some safety issues at the Veterans building so we a lot underway um mayor has been heavily involved with that one and some grants that they got so thanks everyone for coming appreciate your time happy New Year again uh um Ashley wanted to be a to speak to your question that's what we're doing like we one of the things that we heard from when when it's all started was that you guys really didn't know right really didn't know what was going on and I think that that's been addressed from Ashley and Dr Carwell Dr Carwell and um Miss Max many Max canteen about being in liaison um to the county right and and being able to bring back the information that we're looking for right that information that you're asking about we didn't completely get everything back yet but that's why literally we're going to have a uh the the uh resolution next meeting to make it official but it's something that we have been talking about to be proactive versus reactive and to let the residents know that we do hear them and that we do understand it and we are here for you guys so one I appreciate you and ma'am I'm sorry I don't I don't know your name but I know that you're someone else deeply cares about the emergency shelter and I do respect that I respect that you guys you ladies I'm sorry continuing to come up continue to ask questions voice your concerns and it's our job to help make sure that those concerns are met now I have done some some of the work but the fact of the matter is we're a full committee and they're going to take that into the work and bring this information back and make sure that we're addressing that so I don't want you to think that we're not paying attention and I appreciate appreciate you coming up but that wasn't by happen stance that conversation that's been something that we've been working on to get done so thank you um number two so oh stop signs so I had an opportunity to speak with um our Public Works we're going to put stop signs in uh a four-way stop that they've been asking about in the village for quite some time they have some trucks that have been coming through there that we put signs up we've been taking step after step after step to not I listen I continue to say that we live here so a lot of things we see I've had somebody pass me because I'm so afraid of going over 25 miles hour somebody passed me on that street and I actually blew my horn at him because I'm like somebody's going to complain to me about you right so um that's something that we recently talked about so that's going to go in I can't tell you when but I'm before the end of the month is that fair to say Chris yes and then we're also adding a four-way stop over at the school to help people slow down and protect our children um the other the walkways I spoke to to our chief and he's going to meet with committee one the name because I now I'm messed up committee uh committee woman canteen maddo M no in the first part of the whole V said name wrong so now I'm all messed up Max canteen so and and talk about the walkways we want to put in not just in Deerwood but all over our town to continue to address the speeding issue and the way that came about I'd like to share these things so that you know that you matter right when she's knocking on doors she runs into someone who works for our town and they talk about that aspect right so once she was elected we spoke on the phone and she's like can you get me this person's information because I want to go back and talk to them because I talked to them when I was knocking on their door and this was a concern and this is what she brought back and just to make sure that we're not overstepping our our our our bounds right we talk to our chief of police talk to our Public Works and to see how that can get done so that we can take yet another step and slowing down and believe you me it's our own residents that are doing it to slow them down to keep our children safe um trees in the village we also talked about that I know one of the issues was that PSG came out and they cut down some trees that were dying and so I had an opportunity to meet with some of the people in the village and they talked about the trees being a sound barrier um I would assume sometime in either next meeting or the meeting after that we're going to put out that we want to have a meeting with the people in the village to come here because we want to talk about the trees that we want to put in but we also want to present options we can cut down a lot of the trees that are there and start fresh with a whole bunch of new trees or you're going to have you know Mitch Match trees like which you know how do you want it and it's you know it's it's something that we want to hear what what people have to say and it's and what it and what does it mean and what's the best efficient way to do so so um that's coming as well we talked about Recreation what I would say is is this so when you're talking about the levels of of people or kids playing basketball both of my kids play basketball one was good the other but anyway it doesn't matter when you're coaching when you're coaching the kids what I would say is is that if we're going to have involvement in our community right these are the things that you want to be involved in I know the recreation has a history of searching for coaches over and over and over over and over again to be able to come out and help the kids now what I will say is you don't have to be a basketball professional you don't have to be great at basketball you just have to engage the kids and help them um Ivan who's now on our Recreation board I talked him into being a coach two years ago he you know they're looking for coaches you know I sign my kid up and I spoke I talk to him and he'll tell you I said well you be a coach well I don't know basketball like that well it's not about that you live here you be a coach coach your kid coach all the other kids get to know the kids now his highlight is coaching recreation basketball spending time with the kids so we have a huge Recreation program I would ask everyone if you want to give back to your community that's the perfect way to do it you get to meet a bunch of other parents a bunch of kids that your kids go to school with so you know who they're hanging out with you know a little a little bit more about the community this is a perfect way to do it and last but not least when we're talking about timbuck 2 last year we had a movie day um there wasn't a lot of people who showed up for the movie day it was for African-American history month we're going to have a movie day again what what I would suggest we continue I listen I read everything I read a lot of things I won't say everything but we continue to say what is our community doing I've named a bunch of things our community do our community does and I don't always see some of the same people there who ask what our community is doing there at these community events James Church is a big part of our community they have done a lot they have given away book bags they have they've had they've given they've had food trucks that they've paid for where they' had um kids coming getting book bags and getting on rid they've done in their parking lot they've done a million they've given to the homeless they've I don't I know if you guys know about the DCF School over there for pregnant teens the only way that I got to know about the DCF School is because chains church called me over because they were presenting a check for $5,000 the school said that they've never had any money let alone of $5,000 check and then I was able to help them use their uh use the Ampitheater across the street for graduation because they could never they never had the money to have an ample graduation for the kids and the mothers to graduate um and along with giving them coats and things of that nature so what I would say is change church was nice enough to let us have it in their uh in their room last year they have a huge screen and they're trying to work it out now where we can do it again next month I'll continue to report where we're at with that but I would hope to see people there and I'm and my apologies the police were there they gave out food popcorn snacks uh the fire department was there there was a community event that everyone in the township engaged in it was just a shame there was 15 people there what I would say is is that you want to have a great free movie day and learn about African-American history that when that program comes out I will have my fingers crossed I hope to see you all there on this side not on this side but um with that being said we're going to go into executive session resolution huh you I say something about you're a resolution to formalize yes like a county commissioner liaison like so they can come back like how we just gave a liaison report they can give a liaison report to what they've gotten from the County Commissioners we have been in contact with Dr Felicia and H I was saying for last name Hopson and she's game and then and she's actually had a Rel reltionship with with Ashley because they've walked together and knocked on doors so Ashley already has her information it's already a go so that gives us an opportunity because here's here's what we didn't want this was kind of the back and forth right the back and forth was let's make it about the emergency shelter right like we're going to report on emergency shelter we're going to report on emergency shelter but we can all admit here that the county has a campus in Westampton maybe if we broaden it to make sure that we report on everything that the county does that incompasses West Hampton then we won't be taken by surprise at all so that's why we made it a county liaison versus an emergency shelter liaison I'm not but I don't think you can do it by resolution only because there's already an existing ordinance on the books which would sort of uh supersede any policy change by resolution the ordinance is 4285 so I think you might have to do it by ordinance and amend that possibly turn I don't see why you couldn't procedure orders only motion second second to in that capacity since you oper well I would say this Gary and more or less than what what's involved by the legality of the whole thing is about the accountability right like so we could have had that the whole time right we've had that the whole time but when has it been done so we want to make sure that legality wise whether it's an ordinance or whether it's a resolution we have two people up here that want to make sure that it gets done and by speaking to the microphone and making it a part of the comment we're making it we're making the assessment of the accountability to make sure that it get Stu I apprciate that think going to say is possibly that I believe fici she'll take word she's going to honor this sort of dialog however there's always the possibility that the County Commissioners could could theoretically say well we're not going to give any weight to whatever presents because not sort of you know legally appointed by the mechanism of the township which is traditionally be orance that officially designates that individual to be the officially a um also I used to go to the meetings and on their agenda they do not have I haven't looked at their agendas recently but there is no specific line item on their agenda for the Aon reports so the person and I remember uh lton she was LE she had to approach the County Commissioners um during the public comment portion she was only subject to just three minutes of public comment in her capacity with the so in order for this to work in my opinion the County Commissioners need to amend their bylaws to change their agenda to have a line item specifically for officially aison so that way official Aon get more than minutes public come they get or five whatever they want to do so if we really want to affect change which is what I heard there we need that structural change on both sides well I can tell you this I had a conversation and it wasn't a long conversation but it was a conversation with Dr Hobson who wants to affect change and and so it's not just about the meeting they're going to meet separately without there even being a meeting just so they've made that commitment to be able to do that whether it be weekly month monthly quarterly to have a meeting amongst themselves now if do if that the meeting doesn't deem effective because we all know that you can be elected or not be elected right but we you have to continue with business so it doesn't have to just be with the Commissioners it could be with some of the people who are in the office that are in the county commissioner's office so it's going to be about more or less also building a relationship so I don't think that it's not going to be something that's done on the surface it's something that's going to have to take work and that we're going to have to dig deep to build that relationship now listen it's up to Bob heard what you said he's going to make sure that that part takes effect and and legally how that has some stick them to it right now at that point and you know I know that your heart's in the right place at that point judge us on that because this is the first time that we're actually announcing something like that and he's going to make sure I've made the call Ashley's got the phone number we're all taking those to make sure that this thing has some some ump to it and that we're able to put things in the proper perspective I so mayor if um just because it's going to be very difficult to do the minutes um if you do want to reopen oh yeah speak I think that we can what we can do is and this is something I have learned from the County Commissioners we we can talk when this is over we can talk when it's over cuz this part is over I promise you I will talk to you I know but we what we didn't do is we're pass that part okay and we can talk when it's over I think that everyone knows that I'll make sure I stick around I'm not a runner at least I'm not anymore you have yeah I'll take a I will see you um with that being said where is I at oh resolution number did I read that oh res resolution number 35-25 resolution authorizing the township committee and supportive staff to meet in private session and authorizing the exclusion of the public from this portion of the meeting dealing with specific issues require non-public discussion attorney client privilege Personnel do we have a motion motion second any discussion roll call yes m m yes yes yes I'll be right there than have a good night