##VIDEO ID:pr2yPMDJexo## guy all right good evening everybody we are up here busy admiring the new soundproof panels in the back of the room and uh I noticed a difference actually really do it's amazing can we put artwork on those panels yes that would be great okay 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 at the Town Council on December 17 2024 the notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building provided to the Westfield leader and the Star Ledger and filed with the clerk of the town of Westfield Miss ly may have a roll call Mayor brindle here council members H here D here dagala here kefir here Saunders armento here Contra here he here please rise for the invocation which will be given by councilman dardia and then remain standing for the salute to the flag in this moment of coming together let us reflect on the shared Humanity that unites us all regardless of our individual beliefs let us commit ourselves to Justice fairness and the common good May our deliber ations be marked by empathy and our decisions Guided by wisdom together let us strive to create a community where all are valued and respected Al to the flag the United States of America any nothing specific mayor just just to mention again the acoustical panels on the wall are new we have two um new monitors on the outside of this room one in the in the room next door one in the front which will ultimately take place uh we'll be able we have events that are happening in this room whether it be swering ends for police and fire members uh could be other events people if it couldn't fit everybody in the room they can watch outside what's happening in here on the Overflow screens uh and the acoustical panels are beginning of the process here to uh have the sound not so echoing in this big room but uh so the process continues nothing else to report tonight there'll be a lot more report in future meetings about all the work we're doing great thank you um so just thanks for everyone that's joining us in person and online as a reminder public comment is only accepted in person and we're streaming live on YouTube live and you can find the replay in Facebook YouTube and tv36 um and just a few uh fun announcements um there are more new business openings in to celebrate in downtown Westfield um had the pleasure of uh extending the to the Grand open of explorator um it's a located at 29 219 East Broad Street which is the second floor of the former Farmhouse store above sweet green um Westfield residents and owner do Dr is israk manic a psychologist and Dr Boris uten a physicist they have been running the stem Club at the Franklin Elementary for the past few years sharing their love for learning curiosity and physics with interested students and they loved it so much they now want to expand the opportunity to all of Westfield um uh dren I know he's he's the counselor to many Olympiad robotics teams and so forth um really incredible asset to have in Westfield so um the space is amazing right now they're doing looking on elementary school programs but can expand to middle school and high school um great place for scout meetings birthday parties and ongoing child enrichment so a great great addition to town um also had the ribbon cutting for elite massage and facial spa it's located right next to Hershey Hershey's Deli great uh place for wellness and beauty treatments and also the Westfield Barber Shop which is right on and shade parlor is at 23 Elm Street it was formerly the Beyond Trends um incredibly go in there the mural on the wall by Ricardo Roy is amazing celebrating the history of downtown W of Westfield um so please go and say hello and we have the highly anticipated sweet green which people are excited about that's G they're going to be opening their doors next Tuesday um lots of great uh momentum downtown and I think we'll have some more opening announcements in the next month so great great time look forward to lots of new businesses in the spring and summer um I know Council and hapgood is very excited that it's budget season um do you want to give a little shout out to the meeting on tomorrow Thursday so anyone who would like to join us um in this room at 7 pm on Thursday evening we're going to be having our um report against last year's budget so this is an annual event where we invite people in so that we can talk about how we did against last year's budget all the things that we accomplished over the course of 2024 and then also take comments from um all residents uh as it relates to the upcoming budget because we are starting our budget meetings and it's always good to hear from the public um as it relates to um interests or comments or opinions so come share them with us at the meeting on Thursday if you don't if you're not able to make it in person we will be also um showing it online and then you can also just email us if you want to submit any comments to us thank you mayor Thursday at 7 o'clock great right here right here um and I do want to mention um many of you might have heard that we recently lost two beloved members of our crossing guard Community uh Bob Lewis was a treasured part of the Washington School Community for several decades I think we have four Washington School parents um most of us remember Bob we probably many of us I know my kids still have the carved name plates that he made for every fifth grader when they left school and he presented us with a Westfield 300 plaque that he had carved so um really condolences to his family also Tom lauli who was a longtime crossing guard for tamaka School Mr Tom as he was known he touched the lives of many students and family in the course of his work and he will be greatly missed so condolences to both Bob and Tom's families and thank them obviously for their many years of service in keeping our students safe I also want to remind everybody that we are approaching the start of Black History Month and there's incredible line programming lined up by the friends of the West CO Memorial Library um in partnership with the Martin Luther King Association the theme of the celebration is Americans who tell the truth as it relates to the black experience um and the program is a vibrant combination of a portrait gallery and a speaker series highlighting the impact and accomplishments of the featured historians building on what we heard from councilman Jim Healey at the MLK day uh celebration um there's going to be 14 portraits on display throughout the month of February um and discussions will take place from 7:00 to 8 on select nights in February and I think the first one opens up next Tuesday the 4th at 7 o'clock so please um visit the library's website for more information um and I also want as I mentioned in the state of the Town address I had mentioned that there's going to be an exciting announcement about the status of the Rialto by the Board of Trustees they now it's the center for a creativity at the Rialto um revealing their long-term plans for this iconic landmark and with the um idea will to serve as an anchor for a downtown Arts District happy to announce that members of their board will be at the next at our next council meeting on the 11th giving a presentation with details about the work they've done to date the Strategic plan they just completed and opportunities for the public to get involved so it's very exciting and if you haven't been by the Rialto the last few days I was just checking out the other day there's this sidewalk Gallery exhibit that you can look inside called Planet Rialto by Patrick morondo it's very cool um a 3D very cool exhibit and the idea is you have to find three of the three items that don't belong please bring your kids there too because it's a whole thing about SP space exploration very cool and very creative um so regarding tonight's agenda basically we have a fairly short agenda the biggest highlight is an ordinance on second reading modifying theun Municipal um storm water Control Ordinance which is an action that is required by the state to achieve compliance um some of the key benefits are included in this new state version are green infrastructure emphasis applicability to major development storm water management plans and compliance with best practices um so we after this we'll all be codified for Westfield but they serve as further enhancements to the two recent ordinance changes that we made in 2023 addressing storm water issues um so that's the big item on the agenda tonight probably so with that we can get right into it Miss ly are there any advertised hearings yes mayor we have advertised hearing for General orance 20251 in ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the town of Westfield to modify the municipal storm waterer Control Ordinance anyone wishing to be heard on General orance 20251 please come to the microphone state your name and address for the record seeing no one mayor close this hearing is closed councilman contract please move for the adoption of this ordinance thank you mayor I would like to move for the adoption of General ordinance number 20251 an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the town of Westfield to modify the municipal storm water Control Ordinance yeah I have a second second by councilman dagala any discussion please call the role council members H yes Daria yes doala yes keeper yes MTO yes contract yes yes yes this motion is carried may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the Town Council conference and regular meetings of January 14th 2025 so moved so mooved by councilman Daria second second second by councilman hag good any discussion all in favor yes yes opposed this motion is carried now it's time for open discussion by citizens anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the councel 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 evening my thank you that's better 322 orenda Circle um I think I'm going to give you a dovetail between the Board of Education and the council because I think this hasn't been discussed and I apologize if I'm going overboard a little bit our schools are facing a budgetary crisis as evidenced by the need for additional school taxes as well as a referendum and this crisis will be exacerbated by the future introduction of all day kindergarten and its necessary Financial infrastructure personnel and administrative costs the Westfield school system has been a main draw of residents to our town we cannot afford not to support it we cannot fail to meet their necessary physical upkeep their safety their reliability in providing a proper education however on the other hand we cannot Willy willy-nilly do everything and anything anybody wants because that Financial Bur burden will be placed unfairly now in the future on property owners we'll be seeing a great increase in their property taxes as opposed to what some people think sometimes keeping up with the Joneses may not be the best interest to everyone we have to have a great school system and that relies on it being administrated and managed correctly that means it has to have enough economic support without breaking the Public's bank and that takes courage and Savvy I have seen the reports that our town Administration has held on Municipal property taxes in check but I clearly see that this presentation of stabilization of property taxes is really not true all of our property taxes are comprised not just of our local one Municipal tax but also of County and school tax you cannot separate the three as they're intertwined and sent to us as a package almost 2third of our real estate taxes are for schools it does not seem reasonable or feasible that our property tax owners can accept the full burden of the forthcoming changes in Westfield without additional financial support people on fixed incomes families that rely on two incomes to survive and those desperately dependent on expensive Child Care do not have unlimited budgets for all property tax increases neither the Board of Education nor the town Administration can have open open checkbooks for their unlimited increases for the current or future needs it seems to me that by taking out these exorbitant bonds we are mortgaging today for tomorrow's future the One Westfield Place project the all day kindergarten the need for renovation and restoration of of our public places and school properties will demand additional costs the Mount Laurel project has placed undue stress on our municipality in its demand for 3 to 400 additional afford affordable housing units in true numbers that works out to my estimation to builders having to to construct approximately 1,500 new units if this estimate is correct and you consider one and a half new school children per unit I could be right or wrong we have approximately 2,000 new school children in our district at approximately 20,00 000 per children per year this works out to an additional $40 million need and this is on top of our obligations for our existing students and the increase in infrastructure requirements even if it was half this number of student tally we still are talking about 20 million there are several pilot funds in New in in Westfield that have been initiated none of these income debt services are earmarked to support our Public School System Westfield Crossing whose funds were supposed to support the defeated Edison field project have not been discussed as a possible direct funding for the schools nor have any of the other pilot programs yet these programs are and are going to increase the number of children that will now be living in Westfield these pilot programs are denying our town of reasonable direct school taxes and often kick in in much later years I ask why have towns like chadam and Cedar Grove earmarked some of their pilot funds to share with the Board of Education or directly support them and we in Westfield have not why have we collaborated with conglomerates to give them a sweetheart deal without taking a fair Shake in our school taxes that will ultimately be placed on the burden of our homeowners we should reassess our judgment Our Town Council should reconvene with the Board of Education to find a fair way to assess property taxes to control cour to maintain our school systems economic needs thank you Jean Lamberg 528 Grove Street good evening mayor brindle and Town Council Members addressing climate change should be a bipartisan effort but eight days ago a man who called climate change a hoax became the 47th president of the United States and promptly withdrew the us from the Paris climate agreement a Le legally binding International treaty on climate he also made clear his intention to undo the environmental policies and progress made by the previous administration any efforts to limit the worst impacts of climate change and leave current and young people and future generations with a habitable planet will fall to each of us and to State and local governments the Westfield Green Team web page includes many topics related to sustainability as well as instructional materials that provide residents with information on eco-friendly Leaf management organic land care and tips for protecting pollinators among other things while we should all aspire to do more to protect the environment and climate the actions of elected officials will always have a greater impact than those of individuals mayor brindle several of the objectives in your 2025 stateof th Town address offer hope that your Administration will act to mitigate climate change you stated your administration's intention to expand sustainability initiatives including storm water improvements recycling efforts and climate actions you also listed enhance enhancing Town Parks and Recreation offerings as a key objective for 2025 including a design plan for tamaka Park and utilizing the dpw's dedicated and expanded parks and field division to upgrade all town and school Fields I hope the athletic fields schoolyards and town property will be maintained using organic and regenerative practices enabling these acres of land to serve as carbon SE sequestration and storm Management Systems in addition to places for recreation and Leisure I encourage you to put a moratorium on artificial turf AKA plastic grass and poured in place surfaces and to direct the design firm to create a plan that does not add any additional impermeable surfaces to tamaka park including an ice rink the Conservation Center is already several Acres of an impermeable surface and therefore would be more suited to a semi-permanent or permanent structure if residents follow the guidelines for organic lawn care and leaf management offered by the Westfield Green Team then there would be no need for the Conservation Center to continue to serve as a transfer station for organic waste by careful planning careful planning would enable the recycling stations that are there and are wonderful to continue and to expand and still have room for an ice skating rink finally I hope that pollinator Gardens and native trees will be added to tamaka park and throughout the town thank you for your commitment to creating a better future for all inhabitants of planet Earth and do I have another minute yeah you got a minute and 10 seconds okay um councilman Healey I saw saw you kind of cringe when I referred to the Conservation Center as an impermeable surface but when I looked used Google Earth to look at it there are areas that are paved I know for sure because I go there some but the rest of it is technically impermeable because it is very highly compacted from years of having the heavy equipment on it so we could beg to differ on it but there is some and it just it's really up to all of us we can't change what happened in in DC for two years and technically four years but we can all work together we have to the children are really depending on us and Westfield is a community whether we agree or disagree on how to accomplishment accomplish it that is really all about kids and so I hope that you will really take these ideas to heart thank you very much thank you Susan Goodman 322 Renda Circle I'm going to carry two subjects number one first what jeene Lumberg just got done talking about she's right on she's investigated this for years and she knows what she's talking about I'm going to make it simple no one thought the Palisades Pacific Palisades were going to burn that way nobody thought northern Jersey was going to burn the way it did this fall nobody thought that South Carolina Western South Carolina was going to be devastated with Med slides and we can go on and we can go on climate change is not coming climate change is here now you have tamako's Park and it's absolutely beautiful and I hope you are going to leave it natural and not put in the plastic crap just because the sports teams want it this is a big populace of 30,000 people in this town the sports teams are a small part of it and you know what if you want exercise you could actually walk around the block you could run with your friends you could play in the park you don't have to have AR official Turf now it was mentioned that a me a resident in the town was worried about a fire here in town after what happened in California that's still going on and we were assured by you mayor brindle that that would never happened here no one can assure us that we left 24 in a drought we're still in a drought we have no idea what 25 is going to present we have no idea where we're going in 26 and we are in climate change we are so if we have a drought and if there's a bad wind coming through and if someone Sparks a fire and it's close to your turf fields I certainly would rather have natural grass go up in fire than I would plastic crap that's going to toxic your whole neighborhood and everybody's livelihood so please when we come down supposedly February 7th we're supposed to get a survey do you hear that everybody who's listening February 7th a survey is going to come out that you can say what you want for chamacas Park I want as many people to fill that out and I hope that it will be looked at like it's supposed to not like the 790 that did the master plan in 2019 when there's 30,000 people that live in this town and then I hope that it will be open to public comment like it's supposed to be and it will be listened to because a lot of the people don't necessarily want a ice ring and a lot of the people don't want plastic Turf and a lot of people want that part to stay natural and you love to be proud that television stations and movie people like to come here and use tamaka to film that won't be if you put in plastic grass and a whole bit other buildings in that area that's number one number two I second my husband's opinion about everything that has to do with the raising of the taxes in the future because of what's going down with the need of the schools and the pilot program taking 60% of the taxes away and you can say there that you didn't raise Municipal Taxes and the schools always get funded but what people don't understand is that they're two different separate entities and while you're holding the Municipal Taxes at zero our school taxes are going to start to go through the roof and I can move I'm retired but what about the families that can't do you want to see them have to foreclose because they can't afford it start to designate those pilot programs to the schools so we know ahead of time what it's going to be used for whether the firehouse or the schools or whatever we cannot trust you or any future administrations that you will designate that money properly to help US citizens and residents and tax keep our properties and stay here we don't trust you that you necessarily can handle the money I haven't seen any proof I would like to start to see that called was uh Cedar Gro did it chadam did it you say that it can't be done with the pilot it's not routine but it can be done and they can designate when you're going to start it and when you're going to stop it how much you're going to designate every year and what it's going to go for and I think it's about time now that the pilot monies are supposed to come in and Essen field project is debunk we know what Westfield Crossings is going to be spent on I don't trust you because you might do your wants and not the town's needs Rich panuski 233 Char Street um I have a pretty simple request tonight uh it relates to the January 14 2025 um report by topology regarding the the um let me just get the exact the fourth round affordable housing assessment of the DCA number um appendix a to that report basically shows uh outlines of properties and acreage calculations but there are a number of important factors that are used in calculating and arriving at the ultimate number um for which there's no backup in this report um I'm a licensed professional engineer uh part of my practice involves construction litigation I've seen these calculations for other towns I know these calculations exist uh topology should provide them uh if we're going to if we're going to bank our chips as a town on their number we better make sure that their number is the correct number and mayor I asked you that you get those calculations or a spreadsheet or something backing up all these assumptions that are used and arriving ultimately at the 364 units that they arrived at uh let's get those calculations and you know it would be nice if you published them on a town website um you know I could ask them through an open request but I thought any interest of transparency you could just reach out to topology you PID them to do this work get the calculations put them on the town's website that way everybody can look at them thank you hi good evening Carla Bonacci 603 Lawrence Avenue this is in reference to the fourth round affordable housing and the time frames I found on the new jersey.gov website on the league New Jersey League of municipalities website the Milestone schedule from January 31st through December 31st 2025 and so I as I always ask every two weeks about process um and important date is March 31st 2025 for the deadline for program decision on Fair Share obligations and so for those committee members who are working on affordable housing I would love to know what the process is from now until then um what the deliverable is what topology is doing for us and whether or not there's any type of resolution and whether or not you would share anything with the public before that preferably not um one night before March 31st so th those are my questions thank you hi uh Carrie Murphy 502 cting Road um I'm actually here i' I've come up here several times and probably replied on Facebook posts and things like that several times and I've spoken in the pre-council meetings several times um regarding something that I feel is a really simple request and I don't know that I've ever gotten a solid answer as to why we're not getting one but I do think that the town the residents the taxpayers I think we deserve a town meeting there's been so much going on in this town over the course of the last four years um new people moving in who may not be aware that they need to be so involved with these meetings and you know really PID laser focus attention to what's going on I just you know I have this feeling that down the line a lot of people are going to be surprised and not in a good way so mayor I know that you're super busy um I know you have a lot going on you're rebuilding and re imagining Westfield um and I'm sure your time stretched really thin so uh luckily you're surrounded by really super smart council members um if you're not able to host a town hall meeting perhaps they can you know some of them all of them maybe you know my w reps personally I'm asking you can you somehow get together at town hall meeting for the taxpayers um we come up all the time asking questions we get a very small percentage of them answered and not necessarily fully answered but how maybe you've taken the question um but you know enough is enough really um we all need to come together as a town we have put our faith and our trust in you this is our town we're raising our kids here we're spending a lot of money to live here let's get to you know let's get together in a room as many people as we can and ask question questions hope to get answers and not just stand up your ask questions and possibly get answers I bet mayor if you put it out on your Facebook page and all of you guys put it out and sent emails we could jam-pack any Auditorium in this town with people who have really important questions about what's coming to this town um you know it come November I don't think you're running again right so you may not be here to answer all the questions that come once the shovel start hitting the dirt I think people I think we deserve the right to to ask questions and get answers so that's it for me please consider talking to other council members and try and get a town hall I know mayor stretched then thanks anyone else okay hearing none um I close this portion of the meeting um happy to address um um some of those comments and I'll just uh Mr Goodman and um since your wife also piggybacked on your comments I'll just address them both simultaneously um I couldn't agree with morea your assessment of the schools completely agree um they have they have kicked the can down the curb for decades in terms of NE not even talking about full day kindergarten but about necessary repairs and upgrades that uh we've all experienced for all of us who have kids to the schools we all are all in agreement that that needs to happen um I'm a big proponent of full day kindergart now the government Governor has also come out it's going to be mandated um and I hope people realize even if you don't have kids in kindergarten that uh when every other town but eight have full day kindergarten it puts us at a disadvantage even from a real estate pers value perspective so I think it's really important beyond the service it provides I think Beyond why everybody should have a vested interest in that um just to address some comments um the Westfield Crossing pilot dollars which we've just started receiving um they actually have been allocated towards um uh I think Miss lenberg mentioned the partnership that we have in the schools we we have said all along in absence of the Edison field project we're redirecting a lot of those and they're going towards the uh the investment that we've made in DPW and Fields and upgrades equipment also with the goal of taking over all the school Fields so that is an investment that we're going to be using um I also just want to be clear about pilot dollars you can't give away money that you don't have and you keep referencing one Westville Place dollars we don't have that yet and I also wanted to be clear that even if today we gave away money that we don't have in said it was going to the schools it would not change this Bond referendum one bit even if we made a definitive commitment it's not allowed by law and so it will not I'm I'm sorry I'm sorry public comment is over so I'm speaking please um so it's uh it is it wouldn't change the referendum and so the bonds on the schools don't come new they won't come they won't go out until like 2027 so um there's no point in actually trying to have a conversation until those bonds do and we actually have money real money coming in to talk about and you did make a few um I just want to correct some of the misstatements that you made I don't know where you got your one and a half student per unit but that is completely wrong um and related to one One Westfield place as you know the majority two-thirds of the units are over 55 even the school's demographer acknowledge that there are no kids associated with over 55 development and you also mentioned someone said we're taking taxes away we're not taking taxes away currently if you look at One Westfield place two of the properties that are looking to be developed are currently Municipal parking lots that are delivering zero taxes today to any entity so we're not taking taxes away from anybody now that being said I have said publicly and repeatedly we have a vested interest in in in making our schools maintain their exceptional reputation and I also acknowledge that basically taxpayers don't care what pocket it comes out of they just pay one bill and they know some goes to the town some goes to the uh schools and too much goes to the county but so we agree that it's all the same but by law I think you mentioned that they could be conflated by law they cannot be conflated now that's not to say that ultimately there can't be Arrangement that we could help defray Capital costs and that's a conversation we've already committed to the schools and the other key part about pilot programs a best practice is they do not support operating costs because pilot programs do run out and the last thing you want to do is have anyone dependent upon pilot dollars to fund operating costs that are going to go away the best use of pilot dollars to fund Capital expenditures so when the when the pilot goes away it's the same time the loan sunsets on whatever the capital Improvement is that's what we'll be talking to the schools about we have already verbally committed to the schools that we absolutely anticipate and want to partner with them and and they all agree and I would suggest talking to rob bonao the chair of the board of who is very supportive of our pilot and very supportive of our of our um our collaboration so I don't hear from the school district that they're screaming that we haven't made it the only one I hear from are people who come out for variety of reasons that's not legitimate and so we are all vested in the same outcome and we absolutely will sure at that point in time when we actually have pen to paper and money to talk about what how that should be dived up once we also achieve our own priorities so I I I've said that over and over and over again um and the and there I don't hear from the school district that are screaming about it and it's also very clear regardless of what we do it's not changing what's going to happen at the referendum the bond referendum vote on April 15th but I will put a plug for everybody because it is unfortunate that that vote on the referendum is happening during spring break and I would vely encourage everybody to get a vote by mail ballot and be if you're going to be away and vote by mail um so I you know I I don't know what else how I've answered this a gazillion times and uh I we work very collaborative with the schools and we've made that very verbal commitment and we will do that when we actually have pen to paper and dollars to know what we're talking about and what their dollars are needed um Miss lenberg um completely agree with you on the on the climate crisis there's no question and the other thing I do want to mention on Miss Goodman I guess she left but Mr Goodman perhaps you can let her know um I never said that this what happened the fires would never happen here I never said that what I did say is that we had invested in personnel and equipment to make sure that we are adequately prepared if God forbid that ever did happen there's a big difference in that um I just also want to say um she mentioned is it February 7th survey I don't know anything about a survey oh okay yeah can you mention that I don't know anything about it you want um yes def yeah I just didn't know about that so uh and the other thing I do want to say Miss lber um and maybe Mr kefir can talk about Council kefir can talk about it but there are going to be several beginning of a lot of public Outreach with public people the the public are welcome to come and give their input I would suggest come to those meetings and give that input um and talk about what's um you know what your what your concerns are what your desires are along with everybody else so councilman keer you want to follow up on that thanks so uh I think what U Miss Goodman was referring to is a survey that should be coming out uh I think February 7th this is Target dat um and I'll find out tomorrow on our bi-weekly call with the design uh Team to confirm that but um the design team for the tacis um project is going to issue a very short uh survey to Residents again I believe February 7th um and it's going to ask some basic questions like do you use the park if so how often what do you use it for and kind of what would you like to see in it um and that's going to be not a determinative thing to to determine what the basis of design will be but it'll be informative for them to give them a baseline understanding um and then from there to about May will be a public input process with at least two uh live opportunities for the public to speak in front of the Recreation Commission and the town hall about what they'd like to see in the tacas redesign project so I encourage everyone to stay involved um I'll have I can confirm all these dates uh tomorrow when I speak to the designer and um certainly to uh you know we can let everyone know but definitely if you have if you have strong feelings about the tamaka park like I do please stay involved because that'll be your opportunity um and while I have the microphone um Miss Murphy is a resident in my ward and she's not here anymore but she she kind of mentioned that she'd like to have more discussion about to town um issues and I just want her to know if if she's listening that I do have a monthly call Via Zoom that everyone's welcome to especially Ward for residents where I try to answer as many questions as possible and I stay on there as long as I can so I invite her to to join I I don't know about doing a town hall the way she's envisioning it but I certainly virtually have a town hall that I do and she's welcome to join thank you Council ha I have a question councilman so where is the survey going to be available to everyone so my understanding is uh both online and then they we're going to hand out uh surveys at events at tamaka okay yeah and the first I heard about this was at the last call and we'll put it up on the town website on the scrolling bar so see it yeah it was it was in a call they do they do a b like update and that's what they said during the last bi-weekly update and I was hoping to find out more tomorrow we'll put we'll put information out in um my Friday update as well which goes out and Kim we'll work on a whole communication plan for that but I think obviously it's in our interest to make sure as many people respond as possible I just I just want to make one clarification so it was discussed on the last call but you know it's a Target date right now the question still have to be formulated the committee has to review it tomorrow on the call and then of course if February 7th is the date that's it if not it'll be moved but then of course we'll do the normal process of website social media the whole thing um so uh again look kind of finalize tomorrow date time and how we're going to put it out and and Jim while you're up there I don't know is um Miss Bachi had mentioned about the affordable housing process by March 31st do we have any insight into that yet I there there's there's really two um March 31st dates one is 2025 which is the end of the challenge period um and so right now I don't know what deliverable she's expecting but but what's happening now is we've done our due diligence we've expended our declaratory judgment to the state uh we're in the review process now like everybody else uh and then if there is a challenge to our numbers then there's time frame for that to to be adjudicated by March 31st understand there's no deliverable or resolution there's nothing we do by then it's just a matter of No and then of course what's starting uh behind the scenes and the committee will be involved in that is while that process is going on um uh the professionals are beginning to work on on the background information for the uh fair share and housing plan which we'll be getting back to and that will be after we finalize our number and uh or hear about our number and see if there's any challenges then really March April May and June March April May particularly will be the work of uh creating uh the fair share housing plan and getting to the planning board we have plenty more members participating in that process so every deliverable or or public part will be done here at a council meeting or it will be done at the planning board whether there's public hearings of the planning board for the plan so those are the times when the public will be uh involved and that's that's the plan due by June 30th correct yes and then while you're up there and um the question about the appendix a the calculation for yeah I I know we talked about in the committee at length I you know I so I'm more than happy to ask Graham who was here um in Westfield's case the calculation is very simple because it was only really one calculation because the the free factors that affect the uh how you derrive of the number two of the factors for Westfield there was really no change in the calcul calulation was we're at the top level it was the uh what I'm going to say the vacant land uh number but it's really a different name on the initial calculation uh which was the slight change was brought from 394 or 392 whatever was 397 down to 364 so if it's not in the the details we gave out we're more than happy to share it's it's very very straight forward great thank you sure I just for a second yeah and I know that uh councilman contract can probably speak more eloquently about this but the involvement that the green team has with all of us as a council taking a look at two-cylinder engines and things like that that uh lawn companies might be using I these are things that are coming up that we're discussing in our normal meetings at this point so as far as environmental concerns talking about pros and cons of different things that we might go ahead and do in town they've come up numerous times and if you'd like to speak to any of those yeah no no Miss lenberg uh I fully agree with you about climate change and I do think the green team has helped make our community more sustainable we do have a a full agenda this year to continue that effort in fact we'll be meeting with the mayor with some initial uh our initial plan uh a climate action plan in the near future so uh but to council mavag galo's perspective we're looking at um you know two-stroke gas leaf blower uh engine use we're looking at solar panels there's a second round of community solar that uh the town will be participating in which will which uh um you know we'll be issuing a resolution next month on to allow residents to participate in solar off basically off property or off- premise solar you know if you can't put solar in your house so there's a number of ways that the green team is trying to help this community be more sustainable you know and those are just a some of them so appreciate it and we are getting our first electric police yes and also we want a grant so our P first EV police cars coming later this year which is great um and a step towards with infrastructure yes exactly exactly so um and then I while we're talking about it you know I was pleased to see so the food waste recycling one of the many recycling programs at the Conservation Center those four big toter or big garbage cans were completely full on on uh when was I there Saturday on Saturday so residents are taking advantage of the recycling if you put your food waste there instead of in your garbage that's a big win for the environment right that is going to prevent you know a lot of unnecessary gas to be created and not used thank you um and lastly yes Miss Murphy left okay the irony is not lost on me that she went to town hall meeting to hear answers and she left before we were able to provide any answers so um just noted yeah and I just wanted to say that I started out this meeting talking about a town hall meeting that we're having on Thursday night um to um something that we started in my first year in office to to report out on the budget so that we weren't just telling you at the end of the um budget uh creation process what the budget was going to be but actually taking the time to report back to you about how we did against that budget um and there's plenty of opportunity during that meeting to bring concerns in fact I just invited it at the beginning of this meeting but I think Miss um Murphy walked in after I said it so I just you know we are available all the time to you all um you know councilman Kefir is doing um you know his own town halls you know Cong PE members of Congress have Town Halls because they're not always here in their districts um our congressmen should do more of those I think um but we are here um our phone numbers you can come knock on our doors if there are things that you want to talk about we invite you to bring these things to our attention and please come on Thursday because we are gathering all your feedback as we go into the budget process and then I just wanted to say um councilman that um I really appreciate miss lenberg holding us to higher and higher standards on the environment because we really need to but it is incredible the work that the green team in this town has done all at your uh under your leadership um we've gotten a a silver award for all of our sustainability efforts multiple years and so um you know maybe it's something that we should highlight on the website you know just all of the things that the green team has done over the years and the things that will continue and the new things that we'd like to invite in because it's it is a constant um effort that we need to undertake but I for one really really thank you and the green team for everything that you have done over the years it's true I always have to remind people though we get the silver award but there is no Gold Award so I would say it's not like in second um so um okay so with that um okay we're going to close public comment and we're going to move to bills and Claims counc One have good Mr panuski we're done with um [Music] comments well you can go back and look at the presentation from last from last year we presented the budget there budget presentations the whole budget is there everything is on the website so if you'd like to go back and see what it was it's it's all there it's all there um so um right right right exactly budget at Westfield nj.gov is for any um feedback that you'd like to provide to us it's always open um but it there's nothing more that I could send at this point where on Thursday night we're going to be talking about um the report that we just got from our Auditors uh last night so we asked for a town hall and we're having a town hall on Thursday exactly look at that immediate response let it maybe state it another way Thursday is sort of the beginning of the process of formulating the you know what I mean like it's not like Thursday is some kind of being all end all it's just an update oh I yeah no Thursday night sorry maybe you all are misunderstanding but Thursday night is looking at how we did against the 24 budget we are starting the process for the 25 budget this week um we will have multiple meetings over the course of February with every single Department we'll talk about this more on Thursday night um but that's why we're inviting people to come because we want to hear your um we we want to get feedback from you as we start the process and priorities for the 2025 budget so thank you councilman um okay so bills and claims here we go um I'd like to move bills and claims in the amount of 1,479 65380 may I have a second second second by councilman Don Gala any discussion all in favor yes opposed this motion is carried next reports to standing committees be the finance policy committee Council and ha good thanks mayor um I have six resolution utions five of which I'd like to move as a package the first a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Police Department fees the second resolution authorizing the CFO to refund overpayment of planning board and board of adjustment fees the third a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Recreation Department fees fourth the resolution authorizing the CFO to draw warrants pursuant to the tax Court of New Jersey and the fifth a resolution authorizing an award on contract for profession for professional engineering services for the Westfield Memorial Pool you have a second second second by Council and contract any discussion all in favor opposed this motion is carried and lastly I'd like to move a resolution authorizing the CFO to make a budget transfer you have a second second Council contract any discussion please call the role council members H yes Guardia yes doal yes Keir yes armento yes contract yes yes mayor yes motion is carried may I have a motion to adjourn so moved by councilman Daria second by councilman contract all in favor yes yes oppos this motion is carried this meeting is adjourned good night everybody thanks everyone