all right good evening everybody Welcome uh adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meetings Act was provided through the posting mailing and filing of the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings of the Town Council on December 12 2023 the notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building provided to the Westfield leader in the Star Ledger and filed with the clerk of the town of Westfield Miss L we have a roll call Mayor brindle here council members here D here dagala here keeper here Saunders here armento here contract here here please rise for the invocation give my councilman dardia and remain standing for this as We Gather here today to conduct the business of our community we take a moment to reflect on unity and acknowledge the div diversity of beliefs and perspectives may we be guided by the principles of wisdom compassion and Justice as we we work together for the betterment of our community by listening with Open Hearts to understand each other with empathy and to make decisions that reflect the values we hold dear to us States of America the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all any comments J I do uh a couple quick things may if you don't mind um just two items really um one is about tax collection obviously uh Thursday is February 1 uh exciting times in the tax office um so I just want to remind the public um that there is a 10-day grace period but of course the 10day February 10th is on a Saturday so uh we then actually count Monday as the 10th day so anything that comes in after Monday February 12th uh is treated um as a delinquent uh and therefore uh everyone should get their taxes in we have online payment opportunities we have in person we have the after hours drop box both at the police department and outside the the door here um but if something comes in the Dropbox after 4:30 on Monday the 12th it's considered delinquent so um you get a couple extra days um which is good and just a reminder we again finance committee knows this from discussing our budget process already we had excellent tax collection in this town always and really one of the better years in 2023 so thank to the residents for paying their taxes on time and paying them regularly so um other thing is the Conservation Center um we um new Public Works directors as you know we have uh done the recycling opportunity hours during the week Monday through Friday 9: to 12 which has worked very well past few years we've done that in January we also have our Saturday hours in January is every Saturday mostly for Christmas trees and other events other debris um we uh talked to Richie Eubanks who manages the center in public works and Craig Gibson new director they both would like to continue the uh Monday through Friday hours in February and March up until the uh Center opens which is March 21st so that will continue Mar uh February March 9 to 12 Monday through Friday uh and The Saturdays that were're published which is two Saturdays in February and one Saturday in March will continue to be open on those Saturdays the second Saturday in March is the opening of the center for the season so um it's just it's a great service to extend we have a lot of people that like to recycle and um and I again want to thank Craig and Richie for continuing to provide that opportunity it is a staffing issue but it works very well and um it's something we like to continue so anyway Center opens up on March 21st between now and then Monday through Friday 9: to 12 for recycling and two Saturdays in February and one Saturday in March for normal uh collections in debris that's it excellent thank you Jim um and good evening everybody I do want to thank everybody for being here for those of us in person and online just as a reminder public comment is only except in person and we're live streaming for Facebook and you can always see the replay on Facebook YouTube and tv36 just a few little updates um for the evening and comments on tonight's agenda um first I want to welcome some downtown businesses several of us up here kefir and Linda and councilman contract all attended the expansion of Club Pilates um and the grand ribbon cutting on East Broad Street on Saturday which is great and what was even greater news is um the story behind the expansion and and how far we've come over the last few years when the adjacent business closed the owner of Club Pilates immediately um jumped in and and renewed an expanded lease for the adjacent store so there was absolutely zero vacancy between the time the previous B business closed and Club Pilates expanded now making them the largest Club Pilates on the um on the East Coast so it's just a really I think I know I've said it multiple times but when you have current business owners who are reinvesting or doubling down on their invest in town it says a great it's story about their confidence in the prospects of our town we are also some other openings hopefully if you guys haven't been to Second Street I hope you'll stop by it's in the former Ann Taylor selfie station location and brase Italia which is a new Italian jewelry store um and then there's several others that are about to open including hummus Republic fary Rush Bulls smalltown play Cafe and of course the one we're all very excited about maze cocktails and coacha in the um North Avenue train station spot which should open late spring um I do want to remind everybody at February is Black History Month um and there are many upcoming events uh all of which will be hosted by the Westfield Memorial Library in a great collaboration with the MLK Association of Westfield on Sat this Saturday at one o'clock we'll be kicking off the event I'll be joined by Liz wolf who's president of the MLK Association Library director Alan McKinley McKinley and other local representatives and there's going to be lots of different events and Exhibits through February and if any of you had gone to the African-American history event exhibit those in the Rialto last year it's now in the library through the month of February so um you can go to library and check out all the events but um it really is going to be a great month of celebration of Black History Month uh and I do want to just tell everybody I think after we had our reorg meeting in January and I think all of you hopefully know by now that there's four committees comprised of various members of the council and those committees have been formed and they're starting to meet um and there's Finance Public Safety Public Works and code review and um they're meeting regularly I think um full the budget is in full uh full swing which finance committee which I think um councilman hain's going to speak about uh a public safety Public Works and code review will all be meeting in the coming days and weeks um so I'm actually going to ask councilman haa as chair of the finance committee if she'll just give a little brief update about what the finance committee is up to thank you mayor um so it is a good time to give a quick update on where we're we are in the budget process um I mentioned it last um meeting we've now had um a week night meeting we've had a Saturday night a Saturday morning meeting not a Saturday night meeting that would be terrible yeah exactly and uh and we had our 2023 budget and review meeting in this room last Tuesday night um well thank you very much to councilman dagala and kefir for joining the committee this year and um getting up to speed quickly because it's a lot to learn Municipal Finance is definitely its own animal um and I also wanted to thank everyone in the public who was able to make it for the 2023 budget and review meeting we had our largest turnout ever um which was very exciting lots of good questions from the audience which we welcome because people don't always understand exactly how the municipal budget process works and so um we were very happy to answer those questions it was not live streamed um but you can tune in and see that presentation um by going onto the website it's um Westfield nj.gov back um budget budget budget 2024 Dash budget so if you want to take a look um but if you ever have any questions that aren't answered by that presentation or otherwise in information that we're posting on the website I would really encourage you to reach out to any of us on the um finance committee the new members may still need to defer to councilman contract or me because they're still getting up to speed but we're here and um right now interested in getting your questions and also seeking input for the 2024 budget process which um continues Thursday night with the tax offices and Morin's office the clerk so um and then those will continue through the end of the month and we'll get be getting ready for taking our recommendation for the budget back here to this Council very exciting it is I love it I know you do um so in terms of tonight's agenda I just wanted to highlight a few key legislative items um the first of which is ordinance related to the work done being done by the finance policy committee on this year's sewer fee and I know there's been some chatter on social media I think there's been a little bit of confusion so I'm actually gonna ask Jim G to get up and provide a little context for tonight's ordinance sure thank you mayor um so tonight uh is the it's ordinance on first reading which means it's ordinance is being introduced um and this ordinance sets the not to exceed or otherwise known as the top of the range for uh what the sewer fees could be charged um this is not unusual uh you first do an ordinance to set the not to exceed prices we do this for pool rates we do it for building department rates we do it for sewer fee from time to time and you do it obviously to create more flexibility as we move forward in the future um I think it's important to note that the rates that are in this ordinance are not the rates that are going to be set for 2024 they're this not to exceed prices that are being set to provide the council with flexibility going forward in future years um so again we've uh the finance committees discussed this every year the sewer fee is Set uh in in early February to allow the tax office to finalize the uh the bills and send out there's statutory compliance to have the bills due and of course our first bill is due to the Sewer Authority in April which is why we send the bills out they're due in April um uh so again that's the ordinance tonight is not the actual rates for 24 it's just that not to exceed prices in the various categories and the commit will be talking about the actual rates for 24 and probably the next meeting February 13th we'll actually have a resolution uh that would set the rates for 2024 and right now there's been some discussion of course subject to change that um uh for a single family home for example the rate might be in the neighborhood of $20 additional for 2024 for the year for the year um so that's just a little over a dollar a month or close to$ a month so um that's the kind of idea we're talking about at this rate so at this at this point again subject to the final decisions and the other the Council and the committee recommendations so uh again much smaller increase than the rate that's in the ordinance now it just gives the council flexibility but that's what's being talked about right now so and Jim can you just mention um and I know we talked about it a lot of people aren't aware of the subsidy that we provide and what happens in other municipalities so maybe you just provide a little bit of context which also speaks to why the rates are not to exceed rates is just a reinforcement to remind the public how much of the sewer bill is actually being subsidized by the municipal sure so our our sewer fee was put into place in 2012 um and it was put into place and it's being charged by property tax classification which is the type of property you own not based upon your use and that's been a discussion we've had for many many years and we're trying to work towards that because that's what we feel is the fair model but it's very it's not as easy as people think it's very complicated um and so we charge a flat rate and we've always tried some years is different depending on what the bill is and what we're able to do each year at budget but we try to subsize 50% or less uh uh any given year so that the resident is only getting really half the bill the other half of the bill is borne by the budget uh and that was decided back in 2012 we try to carry that through uh even through to today so um so a $20 increase in the single family homeowners this year will continue that subsidy in that realm um but just give you some example um sewer rates are charged all over the state and they're charged in many different ways sometimes the sewer utility that's collecting and the water uh will actually build the residents themselves very much like your PNG or your American water or your Elizabethtown Gas is building you directly at your home um uh that's not what happens in Westfield we're a member of the Raleigh Valley sewage Authority with many other communities um and they do not Bill directly um they pass the bill to the communities and then the town has to either do what it wants to do um but the subsidy is is unique um in the sense that um most places bill for your full Freight or your full use um so for example in the U ordinance tonight on the single family homes um $565 is the not to exed price that's listed in there that's not we're going to charge in 2024 but that's probably not far off from what the actual rate might be for an average assessed home in Westfield if we were charging them the full Freight um so just so we're you know 50% 45% you know 52% depending on the year um but it's not a small subsidy uh and we can we've done that for now since 2012 in some way shape or form we're continuing that but all the while and this new committee members have learned this and the Council of course will be discussing this in the future we're trying to move towards a user based model so that it becomes fair but there's a lot of complications that a lot more education needs to be done internally and externally so that's probably a few years away but we're working towards that great thanks sure so to recap we received our largest percent increase from rvsa ever 8.3% if we kept the subsidy the same it would equate to an increase of $20 per household for the year about a little over a dollar a month yes that's correct right and we are looking to see how we can move to a usage based model which is fair so people pay exactly what they use but it's fairly complicated and will take that's a long process you said it much better than I did yes got it okay just want to make sure everybody understood thank you um and then just lastly on tonight's agenda we have two ordinances on second reading related to Financial operations within Public Works um one that amends the existing ordinance to properly create the position of assistant director of Public Works and and one that amends the existing ordinance to um amend a few DPW DPW salary ranges and U both of these ordinances are intended to prepare for the reorganization of the DPW under our new director Craig Gibson so with that let's get on to tonight's agenda uh Miss ly are there any advertised hearings yes mayor there are two advertised hearings tonight starting with general or 20241 in ordance to amend the code of the town of Westfield chapter 2 Section 89.1 anyone wishing to be heard on General or number 20241 please come to the microphone state your name address for the record see no one may may close the hearing this hearing is closed next is general or number 20242 in ordinance to amend the quote of the town of Westfield chapter 2 Administration article officers and employees division 3 Personnel positions and salary schedule section 2-12 28 schedule any wish be heard on General or number 20242 please come to the microphone state your name and address for the record see no one may may CL this hearing is closed councilman hap could please move for the adoption of General ordinance number 202 24-1 thank you mayor I'd like to move for the adoption of General ordinance number 20241 on second reading an ordinance to amend the code of the town of Westfield chapter 2 Section 89.1 may I have a second councilman Mackey any discussion please call the rooll council members Hava yes dardia yes D yes keeper yes Saunders yes armento yes contract yes Mackie May yes this motion is carried and I'd also like to move for the adoption of General ordinance number 20242 on second reading an ordinance to amend the code of the town of Westfield chapter 2 Administration Article 2 town officers and employees division three personnel positions and salary schedule section 2-1 12.28 schedule May I have a second second so goodbye Council who said that right um sorry any discussion please call the role CC members good yes Daria yes yes keeper yes Saunders yes yes contract yes Mackie May yes this motion is carried may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the Town Council conference and regular meetings of January 16 2024 so move my Council contract second second second my councilman hap good any discussion all in favor yes yes this motion is carried now it's time for open discussion by citizens anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the Council on any subject on which we have jurisdiction please state your name and address for the record and please limit your comments to five minutes good evening mayor Town Council I was privileged to attend last week's budget meeting and I want to thank uh Mr could you please 322 are in the circle sorry Stephen Goodman I was pleased to attend the last week's meeting with a budget with uh Linda and Jim and I learned a lot about the $15 million surplus that money as we know we can utilize in a smart way to lower property taxes and to make this town better and more efficient let me remind you mayor Town Council many of us were never given a golden parachute on leaving or retiring from our employer let me remind you also mayor and town counil most of us do not work for Goldman Sachs Google or a high- powerered prestigious high-paying firm as costs continue to rise not only do families with school children but many retired and empty nesters realize how important your control control over the cost and budgeting really is the affordability of Westfield cannot be justified on an apparition of some senior apartments for the elderly as we know they will cost even more than staying put in your own house while we rely on you to deliver a comprehensive balanced Equitable budget you should also rely on input from your citizens to which projects should be given priority and greater emphasis and the reduction of property taxes and the elimination of layering costs in addition to those taxes should be given our first priority as it affects all of our citizens the sewer tax is just one small issue the addendum 5% tax on the school budget is another with the proposed One Westfield place and the addition of a thousand new apartments there are many doubters that our costs will be controlled their increase in infrastructure in Personnel costs uh and will obviously go up along with the demand for additional educational space and resources from newly entering students with where will the firehouse on the North side be located is this to be as Jim Gala said a satellite how will its multi-million doll cost be funded we know the school budget always gets funded but by whom and how that's how we want it figured out now we want an atmosphere of Integrity responsibility respect reason choice and transparency much of the Town Council was replaced in the past election because of these issues but let me remind this mayor and Town Council that good people can sometimes make very bad mistakes it is important not just for you to review your plans yourself but react and interact with Town's people to create a check and balance of any foreseen miscues Boeing Corporation was once a very well resective company they had the best planners the best Architects the best Builders yet because of several oversights of two of their planes crashed and killed hundreds of people and even more recently a side segment of their door covering fell off the plane narrowly avoid avoiding a c catastrophe reinspection of many of these planes showed additional loose or missing bolts holding their fusilar together mayor brindle let our town go let's go back and reinspect the One Westfield Place project let's go back and renegotiate some of the contracts that many citizens feel is a bad deal for Westfield I also believe the citizens of this town should have a major say which of these projects in the budget are are take presidence for Surplus I can understand why we are FASTT tracking Quimby Street and squiggle way which are obviously not top priorities why are we the taxpayers paying layered costs to additionally fund the school budget and Sewer cost when the pilot programs should already be doing this let's not allow our bols to fly off our town rather than risk disharmony you have the ability to bring this town together by a new exchange of ideas with your citizens that we really didn't have before let us be your second pair of eyes just like Boeing Corporation it doesn't take too much to discriminate between travesty and responsibility thank you good evening my name is Tom white I live at 222 Edgewood Avenue I'm here to talk about the problems we have with auto theft and break-ins and I know you're all very concerned about it I see I sense an increased attention to the subject and more support for our fine police but I think we need to think outside of the box I'm concerned number one it's little things that are going on uh it's sometimes when I think about the police and the job they have to do almost at night it's like they're chasing mice in the dark I mean it they need more they need more support and it needs to be coming out of Trenton I think part of our problem is underaged kids that are coming in and stealing and there aren't laws that that pin them down have an idea it's out of the box maybe it's good maybe it's not what if the Town Council came up with a suggested law and send it to Trenton with our with our legislators the law could be something as simple as anyone anyone found guilty of stealing an aut stealing a motor vehicle or parts of it would immediately lose their license for a period of time this is all in addition to whatever laws are in the books two three four years whatever it is if they're underage when they become of age they can't get a driver's license for a a particular period of time anyone that loses their license or or drives a car car before they can get the license goes to jaill for a month what would happen you might have people thinking a lot more seriously about breaking the law if the law was valid you supported it you sent it to Trenton and our reporters tracked the progress in Trenton we could see what could happen if they signed off on it if we got if they got Pennsylvania and New York to support it you might have cooperation across the across the three states it's more than just car theft it's it's people it's people commandeering cars with people in them like up at Short Hills Mall there was somebody I believe that was killed on South Orange Avenue with a theft it's even more than that most of you haven't been around here that long the president of one of the Exxon corporations was kidnapped and held for ransom and I believe he was killed that was prior to Exxon moving down to Texas I did business in a previous career with a fell that was kidnapped held for ransom and a New York sewer for 10 10 days it can happen here I'd like you to think about it I've got the suggestions down change them if you will but we need to do more we need to do more and it's not a West field issue only but we can we can start it thank you thank you thank you for your time uh my name is Tim quell I live on 1060 Lawrence Avenue uh I moved to Westfield last year I left New York City like many people to post-pandemic to provide for a better life for my wife and children and a nice town with good schools and a manageable commute it was everything that we had hoped for however we had no idea what we'd be exposed to shortly after we moved in a month after we moved there was a home invasion a few door doors down similar house similar alarm system it was devastating for that family and for our community what was so surprising about that particular case was that the alarm system went off and the thieves still entered the home I remember discussing with my wife at the time how could they how could they be so Brazen and confident not to be phased by an alarm then I started to realize the scale of this issue and how personal it was becoming for my family numerous other instances started occurring one after the other someone coming on our property without permission taking pictures of entries and exits and cameras a group of five criminals trespassing my property uh attempting to gain entry to my house as they run from the police after having stole a neighbor's car numerous high-speed car chases D down our street in the middle of the night including one on Father's Day morning that was so loud it woke woke our three-year-old up on the back side of the house over her sound machine count add in countless other break-ins and car thefts in our neighbor neighborhood given the proximity to 2022 my wife is scared my children are scared about scary monsters coming into their house what's more disconcerting is the response that we've gotten from policy makers everything we've heard as we've looked into this deeper has been either there's nothing we can do about it it's the laws of the state vote when the time comes or don't worry about it don't be scared they're just opportunistic thieves just call the police and we'll take care of it the only advice we get is to address the symptoms of the problem buy a cheaper car don't buy a BMW or Mercedes fortify your windows keep all your lights on light up your property like it's Friday Night Lights even a member of this Council suggested we put bear traps around the house is this what it's come to in Westfield now I understand there's a lot of what someone on this Council called fatigue on this issue uh but this circular discussion of it's the laws of the state and we're doing everything in our power lacks any accountability and the residents of this town and the police who are charged with combating this issue are left out to dry we're the on who are fatigued we're the ones who are up all night worried about it and we're the ones who are desperate for Change and I'm here tonight because at this point we are desperate and I know I speak for many because I hear a lot of their stories I know the objective of the state is to focus on violent crime and resources are focused on combating that as much as possible particularly in those concentrated cities where it's most prevalent but in so doing the strategy has allowed this issue to get completely out of control it should not be at the expense of other serious crimes as it is now after speaking with our state Senators one of the biggest issues I see is that the laws of the state are as lenient for car thefts as they are for those who break into homes these should not be treated the same a s a home invasion is much more personal and dangerous crime the laws for home break-ins and the ability to charge and keep criminals who do this must change and must change now car thefts aren't great but a car is replaceable what's not replaceable is our peace and sense of security at home home invasions or evasion attempts are becoming just as common as car thefts I'm sure I don't have to tell this Council the psychological impact of someone on your property trying to gain entry to your home on anyone never mind a child that in my mind is just as serious as a violent crime not to mention the very real possibility of something violent happening every no noise you hear after that every Creek in the floor every gust of wind every branch falling is it happening to us I mentioned attempts before because that's not being reported by the number we numbers we hear in these town halls and I think they amplify the scale and ity of this issue the status quo cannot continue we cannot expect our Police Department to kill themselves every day just to keep crime lower than other towns another dozen license plate readers is not going to solve this issue we feel helpless and there's not we have no power to stop it um and it's just a matter of when someone is going to get hurt or killed now I'm not a politician so I don't know who's coming up with these laws and who's standing in the way of changing them if this is really an issue that's outside of your control then we need help from our elected leaders to push the right leg legislators in your respective parties um and to help us organized if you can't do it effectively I can speak speak for my entire neighborhood and I imagine all of Westfield and surrounding towns when I say we're all ready and willing to call and write letters and make noise my questions are What specifically are you doing to prevent home invasions and what specifically are we doing to make a change here this Council approves uh contracts for hundreds of thousands of dollars all the time it seems sensible that we can perhaps hire a few more police officers for overnight shifts and put them at critical access points like Lawrence Avenue near 22 that would be a start thank you very much anybody else uh good evening Carla Bonacci 603 Lawrence Avenue uh first two issues I hope I can fit in the five minutes first I would like to thank the four new councilmen for acting quickly to address concerns of commuting residents about the poor construction safety conditions at the North Avenue train station public space where the utilities are being extended into the maze restaurant and I would like to thank them for having Jim Gilda I believe address these concerns quickly by having bike racks installed uh that at least isolate the sporadically placed construction materials and Equipment located throughout the public space from the pedestrians and vehicles using the area to get to and from Mass Transit during their commuting days as construction continues in this public space and in the future throughout the town I look forward to the four councilmen continuing to add value by listening to the to the public and taking actions to have the town Administration Implement best practices when construction is occurring in pedestrian and vehicular areas of town my second issue mayor is at the first meeting of the new year you stated that you would be accelerating the Quimby Street renovation we are interested in why this would be Advanced now and how this would be funded this is not even the first project in the One Westfield Place deal or is it even identified as being a required project is actually defined as a nonrequired project in the Redevelopment agreement and in the public it's not infrastructure finance agreement public Improvement finance agreement um so if this is being funded out of the Surplus then I believe there are better projects to prioritize and accelerate um for instance maybe replacing the sidewalks on Broad Street which is a major Avenue of the downtown retail District so again I'm very curious how you're planning to fund this project and how you're dealing with the impacts in the uh One Westfield Place agreement because per the exhibits um it's not required and it's at the end of the project thank you Bob mamero 603 Lawrence Avenue on Friday in argu arguing in court in favor of the O outrageous overreach which is one Westfield place the town attorney who is so supposed to represent the town resident pres use the term blighted in describing our town our town is not blighted and to characterize it as such as a travesty no town with a AAA Bond rating is considered blighted I would ask the Town Council to renounce that Cate categorization of our town as being blighted and to pass a resolution to repeal the designation of our whole town as an area in need of Rehabilitation Thank you Rich panuski 233 Charles Street I'm sorry what's your last name panuski ready yeah okay thank you so I came here tonight to learn a little a bit about this um sewer number that everybody seems to be talking about and I did learn a little bit but I'm still unclear about it so I'm going to just voice my questions here I'm not really here to you know talk protest anything or make any suggestions or anything but I am going to voice some questions and I guess these questions really are for Jim um the 565 number I'm just wondering where that number comes from how they came up with that you know we're being told that well that's a Max number or whatever but you know H how do you establish that number how is that number established um you know RV rvsa hit the town of Westfield pretty hard this year $4,899 one22 that's it's a lot of money as the mayor appropriately pointed out it's uh an 8.25% increase but back in 2018 we saw a 7.35% increase and in 2019 we saw a 7.91 per increase and and you know if we learned anything from history uh in 2020 the sewer rate was raised from 165 to 195 for single use for residential so that's $30 so again congruent to my initial question about the 565 why didn't we just apply what we know from history that 30 or 40 or $50 and apply that to the 245 that we're paying now my other questions relate to when I look at the the rates that are listed and compare them to the same uh ordinance last year I see that the single family rates have are more than significantly doubled it's almost two and a half 2.6% uh 260% increase the multif family rates are double 20 and the commercial and Industrial rates are far less than double so once again it seems like the the burden of all of this cost is being put on the single family used housing and with almost 1100 new apartments coming to town in the future I think that should be a little bit of a concern thank you anybody else no seeing none um uh I close this portion of the meeting and um actually Jim I'll ask you to address some of these then I'm going to ask the chief to come and address some of the comments on auto thefts and break-ins so which want to do that first J why don't we do you wanna Jim do you want to address the questions that this gentleman just asked about the sewer fee sure and maybe talk about Miss bonach what she said was what she thought was happening with the maze utility issues and potentially quinby Street sure um so first on the on the surfy the last speaker here um I let me figure out what he remember what he said here so basically as I said before the the ordinance tonight sets the not to exceed price the 565 number um actually was the the rationale behind it so the current RTI are 245 we know that we have roughly a 50% subsidy so that number was doubled and I talked to some utility companies that do this kind of work and they basically recommended that there should be a percentage added to that if you were charging the full Freight which we not but if there was you have to add in a percentage of about um maintenance infrastructure repairs those type of things which is 15% so it's the current rate 245 of all the different you know categories doubled plus 15% that's how that maximum number has been achieved in the ordinance as we said before that's not expected to be done and the original ordinance um to creating the sewer fee in 2012 started the sewer fee for a single family home at 170 so doubling that would be 340 uh we're not there uh has not doubled we're at 245 right now now and if indeed things move forward on February 13th as been discussed so far that would go to 265 potentially or whatever the council does so we're still not even at Double for the single family home rate and the commercial rates um on a percentage basis may not have gone up as much but from a dollar perspective gone up much more than the um single family homes where apartments or condos or town houses and that was done obviously because we have a lot of you know commercial use is usually much larger than a single family home or condor or townhouse so on a dollar for- dooll basis the commercial rates have gone up dramatically over the past number of years um so um I guess I don't know that answer all the questions on the sewer feed but I think there was some of the things you mentioned the doubling the Fe which is not true for for homes or other properties and uh the rate how the maximum rate has been um achieved for this ordinance which again only sets the maximum is not going to be the rate for 2024 um on the uh the comments about maze um about well the utility worth that's going on um to get utilities to maze from the street Street um there were some concerns brought to my attention about the construction going on so of course great news is we have um our parking director has been out there every day working with the company putting up barricades helping with cones they're doing some of it on their own of course we've been bolstering it as necessary to make sure it's a safe area but it's been in very good shape for the past uh few weeks and that project expects to be another two weeks to go and that'll be done if not sooner um so that'll be over very soon but um I think that's you know it's it was brought to my attention and I was out there myself frankly two weeks go to see it myself so um um you know the the uh barricades and Cones of it up to make sure that the pedestrians and Walkers and drivers are safe one other thing to mention we made a point to make sure that the construction company doing the work um except for what might be happening this week on a limited basis because PG is coming to do some work the utility work is from the street Andor The Vault there's a vault PG vault in the parking lot Underground Construction Company must connect the what the utilities to the vault only Pac and because they own the Vault can connect that to their vault so they'll be out there doing some work and there'll be part portions of the lot closed for a couple hours a day but we made a point to make sure that the operational lot is operational every day and after the daytime uh so that for um at night everything's buttoned up to make sure that people can pick up their people and drop people off to the train and so forth so it's worked out very well I haven't really received any complaints about that um those are the two things right quinby Street oh quinby um so in quiny uh uh so that one right now obviously there's as she mentioned talked about accelerating that project right now um uh the there's discussion with Street Works U about um it is correct that in the in the agreements it is one of the public improvements that's listed um and right now it's not a quote unquote required Improvement but it's still already been the money has been authorized for that project like all the other public improvements and so uh we'll be talking to them about doing it but that public Improvement would act the same way as other public improvements where Street works is the general contractor doing the work and then money that would uh be paid back to them for any public improvements including Quin we pay back at a later time with pilot money or other funds the towns may have that's how it's designed and that's how it right now be Vision to work so thank you um before we move to the police chief Tom do you want to address the comment about what happened in court on Friday champing at the bit yes mayor I mean um I will say I've known Mr mcnamer for long time and um the point almost doesn't matter but because the Press is here and because we're taking minutes I just wanted to make sure the record is correct um and I'm sure uh I don't put any ill intent on Mr mcnam I'm sure he thought he heard me use the term blighted um but never once during the argument on Friday did I use the term blighted uh to describe the town of Westfield I don't have any particular uh particular problem with the term blighted but uh just for the record I never use that term to describe the town of Westfield thank you um Chief do you want to come up and address some of the uh Auto that issues I do want to mention that Chief Alor I had a meeting with the Union County prosecutor and some of his detectives on Friday I think it was um and I'll just say a couple things uh to both U Mr White and I'm sorry um Tim I I couldn't get I couldn't say it correctly um let me just say that regarding legislation and laws needed agree with you 100% we actually already working and have proposed laws um uh including uh reaching out to a mayor in mouth County I think there's some issues about charging juveniles as adults who are repeat offenders which is one of the big problems and I completely agree with you that home invasions needed to be treated more aggressively than Auto thefts and that's something that we've been talking to legislators about too so um uh but I'll let please I'll let chap Bor address specifically kind of his perspective on what's being done well I'm not sure there's much more I can say than what I gave in my my statement at the last council meeting I I can tell you that this Police Department is aggressively policing this town every single day every single night I am satisfied with the resources we have I am satisfied with the way they are being deployed um I read every single incident report um last year we answered almost 58,000 calls for service I read tens of thousands of incident reports I know exactly what's going on in this town I know where it's going on I know when it's going on and we are deploying our resources appropriately um we are aggressively pleasing this town um but unfortunately um you know we are are are simply displacing the problem we are simply displacing a problem um we are looking to to force it out of our town and force it somewhere else um I think um you know policing is one thing but having your your prosecutors having your courts um having your correctional system all the elements of of the Criminal Justice System coming together and starting to support our efforts is really what is needed that was the whole purpose of our meeting with the prosecutor the other day um one of the things that I wanted from him and I and I do believe I got a commitment from him was that we will seek to aggressively prosecute um our car thieves um and yes they are becoming more more Brazen um but um you know our tactics uh here are are are addressing that I can tell you in the first four weeks of this year we've engaged in um four high-speed Pursuits once a week um we are engaged Pursuits once as recently as two days ago we are engaging these criminals we are chasing them out Knock on Wood thus far this year we have not had a a vehicle theft so I know our officers efforts are are are producing results because I see the statistical data and read can you just speak a little bit about deployment because I think he had referenced the idea of putting more officers at night and known well I I will tell you as as I stated in our in my statement last week we've um reallocated Personnel we have more officers working at night presently at least for this period of time when we're seeing an uptick in vehicle thefts um and we're continuing to aggressively deploy our our all of our resources our our Patrol Vehicles we're adding 10 more license plate readers we're looking to do interior locations of town I can tell you three of the four Pursuits that we've had thus far this year were Direct result of LPR hits for stolen vehicles entering our town so I I I know what we're doing uh I I can tell you what other towns are doing and what they're not doing um and we are far more aggressive in our tactics here in Westfield uh in engaging criminals than they are elsewhere so thank you um okay with that uh let's move on to bills and claims Council and have good thank you mayor there was one um comment that was made at the mic tonight um the Mr Goodman can I just take a minute to sure um because I feel like he had some questions that um I have talked with him about before but um the so I just want to assure Mr Goodman and anyone else in the audience that um we take the budget process very seriously and um are working extremely hard to find new sources of revenue that come into our budget process so that we can control the amount of tax burden that falls on the property owners in town um so um we're that's that's a huge priority of ours and so I just want to reassure you that the monies that uh increase the Surplus this year because we did actually report last week that we have a $5.4 million surplus at the end of 20123 which is the highest it's ever been in this town and we intend to put those monies back to work for the taxpayers of Westfield um so I I hope that um that helps to address some of your concerns um we try to have as open and transparent process as possible not only in the budget but in a lot of other things which is one of the reasons that we have the meeting that we had last week as a review on the last year's budget and how the town performed against that budget because personally I feel it's very important that um you know we take the opportunity for um Our Town Administrator and the Departments to talk about how they did with that budget what we need for next year hear from the residents to see what they would like um to include in the 2024 budget so um I just wanted to um make sure that your questions and concerns were addressed Mr Goodman Linda can I add two things to that of course so Mr Goodman we have not talked about this but talked about other things so I've been on the finance committee five of my six years on the council happy to be back on it this year it just I think there's a data point that would be valuable and I don't know the exact specifics but the tax increases of our Council I think averages about one 1.1 yeah actually it's closer to 1.1 over the 1.1% and the prior six years before many of us were on this de it was closer to two so again if you're looking for a council that is absolutely trying to manage Our Town finances effectively and keeping tax increases as low as possible I think our track record does speak for itself and that's what I we absolutely will plan to and hope to do this year as councilman kefir and dagala who are joining us this year on the finance committee know a lot of the increases are out of our control they're non-discretionary so we do what we can to manage them and still deliver services and improvements in this town so I think that's important because I think that's a representation of the entire process right what is ultimately the tax increase so I think that's important for the public to know the second thing I think it's helpful for you to know what in the world we do on the finance committee we sit down with every department head and literally go through the budget line item by line item and even talk about buying paper and paper clips so that's why we spend nights and weekends doing this hours of time to make sure that your money is well spent thank you I would just add one thing I'm sorry M yes yeah um and just to picky back real quick I don't want to take any more time but as David and and Linda mentioned Mike and I are new to the finance committee and it's been fascinating to learn the inw workings in the town and I just want to say one thing which of course Jim touched on when you presented to the town but I found very interesting which is nearly 40% or I think actually pretty much 40% exactly of the town's budget does not come from from property taxes it comes from other sources now some of that's revenue from uh municipal court and what have you but a lot of it is from really um interesting sources of revenue that are creative and put um some good ideas to work and so I just want to I think it's another thing that c the town people should realize is it's not just that every penny we spend comes right out of our pockets we're really supplementing the property tax base in a lot of ways so thanks um thank you thank you for that one of the biggest things I'm glad to hear you acknowledge that because we had actually made driving incremental Revenue non- tax revenue is a huge priority to enable us to alleviate tax burden on taxpayers so um it's been a very concerted effort of the last six years so thanks for acknowledging that okay to bills and claims yes okay next page yeah got it um I'd like to move bills and claims in the amount of 549,000 198 I have a second say my councilman Macky any discussion all in favor yes opposed this motion is carried and I'll continue I have six resolutions I'd like to move as a package a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant for the board of adjustment escro monies a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Recreation Department fees a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Police Department fees a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant for unused parking permit fee a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant for dog licenses for December 2023 and a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant for Health Department over payment may I have a second so by Council and contract any discussion all in favor yes yes yes this motion has carried and I'd also like to move General ordinance number 2024 d03 on first reading an ordinance to amend the code of the town of Westfield chapter 20 I have a second Council mardia any discussion please call the role council members hav yes dardia yesal yes keeper yes Saunders yes armento yes Contra yes Mackie yes mayor ble yes this motion has carried last uh that's you sorry I'll just do my last comment for tonight I'd like to move General ordinance number 20244 on first reading an ordinance entitled an ordinance fixing the salaries of certain employees of the police and fire departments in the town of Westfield and various amendments there too you have a second second counil sorry I gotta get these voice is Right today it's all right apologize any between the two of them I'm trying to get it right sorry about that any discussion please call the role council members H yes yesal yes ke yes Saunders yeso contract yes maie yes may yes this motion has carried may I have a motion to adjourn my councilman Mackie second second councilman Daria all in favor yes yes oppos this motion is carried this meeting is a Jaren thank you and good night everybody very good