All right. Good evening everyone. Madame Clerk, the time is 7:01. It is now 7:01 and I'd like to call the regular township council meeting to order. Councilwoman Peron, >> present.
>> Councilman Anderson, not present at this time. Councilwoman Macintosh, >> present. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy, >> present. >> Mayor Whitfield, >> present. Please all stand for the flag salute. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Notice was provided in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975
to the Burlington County Times, Trenton Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer stating the date, time, place, and the agenda to the extent it was known. Additionally, notice was filed in the office of the township clerk. Thank you. All right. Um we will uh open
up with our prayer from Miss Cia Dixs, our chief of finance. We pray oh God that you will give our governing body wisdom, understanding and patience as they deliberate on the
welfare and well-being of this town. We thank you for your presence. We thank you for all that you have done and continue to do in our lives. We bless you now in Jesus mighty name we have prayed with thanksgiving. >> Amen. Amen. Thank you, Miss Digs.
All right, so we're going to move right along with our meeting. We had an exciting day today. Um, today is actually Youth and Government Day. So, myself as the mayor and Deputy Mayor Worthy met with about 18 high school
students at the JFK Center that exposed them to different careers within the municipality. Um they went through some workshops and activities where they got to interact with township officials and ask questions of myself and deputy mayor
and all that were there. The sessions were focused on public safety where they met with two detectives. um planning and zoning where they met with our senior code official and or zoning official and then also recreation
where they met with our uh recreation lead or not lead >> director. Thank you. The the word escaped me. Um our recreation director uh Gary Lowry. So at this time I'll have our students come up to the mic and talk
about their experience today. Please introduce yourself. We're going to do the same thing we did. So, introduce yourself, what grade you're in, and uh your plans. >> Okay. >> Good afternoon. My name is Carla Sansa Ramirez. I'm a junior and after high
school, I would like to go either into criminal justice or medical terminology. >> Hello, my name is Natalyia Hannah and I'm a junior and after high school, I want to be an educator. So tell us ladies um about what you got
out of the event today you like to confess. >> So today I was in two workshops. I was in planning and zoning and also public safety. The one that intrigued me more was public safety with the detectives. Today I learned about how to not profile
in a in a case and our case was about a stolen book bag and the book bag was on the ground. and we got shown a picture and we had to all remember what was in the picture for 30 seconds. And after the 30 seconds, we decided to discuss we discussed it amongst each other and we were actually really close to what what
what was actually happening. And in this in that station, I feel like it really intrigued me more to pay attention to certain details and also to not profile anybody and also make sure no one is
guilty into proven innocent. >> Very nice. Thank you. Um, today I met with the recreation director and I met with the mayor and deputy deputy mayor and we talked about a lot of like you have to make decisions
and you can't always like able to pour everything to each other things. So you have to discern what each part of the town it needs most. And sometimes like telling us basically what it means to the mayor and to be a mayor and to be the leader and that why it's so
important is because you need to be able to like each city has its own voice and it has different needs. So to be able to get its needs and have everyone's voice everyone's voice reached out it's important to have those people there and
recreation is just to have so we can bring more people to Willing Bro. have people bring different families and just build it into a better community. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions for our students? All right. Thank you ladies. We hope you
enjoyed today and thank you for coming and sharing this evening. >> Thank you. >> Feel free to say. Okay. And now we will move on to our manager's update. Um, Mr. Harris is out
um today. So, our deputy manager, Ivy Carmichael, will be giving the report this evening. >> Good evening. Good evening, Mayor, deputy mayor, members of the council, and William residents. Um, we do have two directors here who are going to give their reports today, but I'll um, before
they come up, I'll just give you since last time we met um, for the month of April, our public works department has been preparing various locations to get them ready for our public for our summer use. Um, so public, you will see that windcreens have been installed at Mil
Creek Park, tennis courts, sun shades installed at Country Club Pool, and we're very excited to be a for residents to be able to enjoy the pool. um soon. They've also done repairs to our bathroom facilities at Bordio Park.
75 potholes were addressed this month. In our inspections department, they have completed a total of 1,242 inspections issued, 620 violations, 52 summons, and 189 construction permits.
And they also brought in a revenue of um 82,000. revenue is standing at $82,667. Facility rentals, uh, revenue, I'd like to speak on that briefly. For classroom and banquet hall space at the Kennedy Center, the revenue was $15,452.
For spaces at Mil Creek Park, which represents our pavilions, that revenue is $16,57 and revenue for Lizzie May Morris Memorial Field, $600. Um, our fire department unfortunately
had three uh major in town incidents that they had to report to. Two vehicle fires and a house fire on Nolan in assistance with a mutual aid. They were able to successfully rescue one pet um but there were no persons at home at the time of the fire. And then they did
assist our mutual aid departments in Beverly, Burlington Township, Deleno, and Del Rand. They also have three new hires in that department. So, we welcome Devin Ericson as a part-time EMT, Jada McBride, and Peter Therinia as full-time
EMTs. And also on Friday, May 8th, um I had the pleasure of attending the retirement ceremony where we celebrated Captain Matt Thorough um and celebrated his 32 years of dedicated service to the township of Willingboro. In our vital statistics office, they issued 92 birth
certificates, 24 marriage licenses, six death certificates, and we had seven weddings. Mayor, you were a little busy in April. And I would like to call up at this time uh director of recreation, Mr. Gary Larry, to give his department report.
As Mr. Lowry is coming, I just wanted the public to know that the young people taught Mr. Lowry the Camden bop and the burrow bop during Youth and Government. Madame Mayor, if you wanted to see that. >> Yep. very unsuccessfully as well. So, we won't be putting that on display this evening.
I'm also not cool enough to be in Tik Tok. So, there's that. Um, so good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, council members, members of the public. I will go through uh my brief report, just a few updates from the recreation department. Um, we are planning summer camp. Of course, like we
discussed a few times already, we have a total of 58 campers already registered for our summer camp program, and we're looking to take on 120 for this summer. Um, in preparation for our camp, our recreation leader, who we just brought on board back in April, I believe, is when she started, um, she's already
planned 17 trips for our students this summer, that includes one trip for each um, week for the Discovery Day Camp. Discovery Day Camp will be for the kids that are 5 to 10 years old and as well as the Burough Explorers for 11 to 14 year olds. They'll be going on two half-day trips per week and then one
full day trip uh per week as well. So, three trips for the older kids during the week. They'll have one day in the building where they're getting a plethora of different experiences. We're going to be bringing in uh speakers and they'll be going through different workshops. Uh so, they're going to get a real uh good enriching experience this
summer. Um, in addition to the scheduled trips, both camp groups will participate in a special end of the year celebration to recognize their participation and conclude the summer on a positive and memorable note. Um, notably for the burrow explorers, their end of the year trip will be um the lunch cruise on the
spirit of Philadelphia. Uh, they'll be uh doing that. So, they'll be getting all dressed up in, you know, their nice little attire and uh they'll be cruising to Philadelphia, um the Delaware River over in Philly, uh for lunch. As we wrap up our camp planning, uh for this year,
we are still seeking instructors for our art uh class and our cooking classes. Um I think I faded out a little bit, so I said art and cooking. Uh we are launching our summer emotion series. uh that will take place the
first iteration of that will be on June 24th and that will continue until August 19th. It will be every other Wednesday of uh for the summer. Uh the block series is designed as a mobile pop-up recreation and engagement experience that activates neighborhood parks and
courts through a consistent blend of recreation, music, food, and resource connection. Some of the resources that we'll have out there for the families to take advantage of will be, of course, the recreation department's table. We'll be signing people up for our programs. Uh
both the fire and police community engagement units will be out there as well. The school district's breakfast and lunch program will be there as well as the family engagement specialists. Uh the beloved project, Burlington County uh prevention plus of Burlington County. And we are working to confirm the
virtualist pediatric medical service uh so that they can bring their mo virtual well mobile um service out as well for that initiative. This initiative reflects the department's continued commitment to bringing recreation directly to neighborhoods while creating meaningful opportunities for community
engagement and positive interaction. Beyond that, um we are excited to share that through the $10,000 anxiety and depression initiative grant that we received just a few years ago, uh we'll be facilitating our Move Your Mind community wellness challenge that will
begin on June 1st and last through uh Sunday, July 12th. That challenge encourages residents to prioritize both physical and mental wellness through movement, connection, and healthy habits. Participants can register through the Move Zen Go app. move Zen Go
that can be downloaded on your mobile devices or you can also go to the website um to track your activities, earn points and compete for prizes while engaging in wellness focused challenges and community events. Along with that and as a part of the funding that we did
get that $10,000, our fitness classes will be offered complimentary uh for residents um for the duration of that challenge. So, make sure you stay up to date with what we're doing. Um those fitness classes you can register through
willing.com. For the summer pool access, the pool will be opening this weekend uh for Memorial Day. Um there is rain in the forecast. If that does happen, the pool will still be open. However, the big community celebration that we plan to do
on that day will be postponed to potentially June 6. Uh the recreation department has also we've been talking about the procedures and the policies for our daily pool access during the summer. Um individuals interested in utilizing the pool will be encouraged to create an account through
my wreck which will efficiently assist with verifying addresses to determine residency relating to the fees. We charge $5 to residents, $8 for non-residents for daily passes. Upon arrival at the pool, attendees will be asked to will be asked about their account status. So, if they have an
account, um if they do have an account, um their day passes will be charged to their account and they will be asked to pay at that time. Um an alternative option uh will be paying online in advance and displaying their receipt at the gate. Um we do encourage the advanced payment. They can go on on
Saturday. On Friday, we'll activate the portal on my recre so people can go on to willing.com and they can purchase a daily pass to the pool. For those without accounts, our staff will be trained on point of sale and we'll accept cash or credit payments at the gate. We'll just ask for some sort
of of verification of residency. So, an ID, state ID, um driver's license or a school ID for the students. And of course, every Friday at the pool will be free for prek3 what's prek prek? Yeah, prek3 uh through
12th grade uh res student residents. And again, in all cases, we're encouraging advanced payment online uh for a seamless check-in experience. Uh season passes will be available for purchase online as well. Season pass holders uh will have their membership verified at check-in.
And finally, we launched our new department Facebook page where you can stay plugged into recreation specific events, activities, and initiatives. Um we saw that we were overloading the township, the township Facebook page with a bunch of information, and we don't want to overindate. We don't want
people to miss uh information that Miss Jackson's putting out for various things. So, we created the William Township Recreation Department Facebook page. That's all I have. Thank you for your time. I'll take any questions if there are. And if not, I will gladly return to my seat.
>> Any questions for Mr. Lowey? >> $5 for residents. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Lowey. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lari. And at this time, we will have Chief Bucks
>> as uh my PowerPoint is being pulled up. I'd just like to go on record that I am cool enough for Tik Tok. So, probably not according to my kids, but according to myself, I am. So, uh, good evening, uh, mayor, deputy mayor, council, Willingboro residents. Uh,
thank you for this opportunity. Tonight, what I'm going to do is I'm going to present to you our 2025 annual report. I've done this every year, probably for the last four or five years, easy. Um, it was a little delayed this year because of my schedule. So, I'm here tonight to present you with our 2025
annual report. Next slide, please. So, 2025 year review. We accomplished a lot through the police department, whether it was personal or professional. So, these are some of the pictures uh throughout the year. Uh we brought our youth police academy up to West Point for one of their trips that they did
during our 3-week program. Some pictures from the jazz fest and awards ceremony and then the Grinch, you know, he was a part of uh Christmas for us, too. Next slide, please. So, what we're going to cover, we're going to cover our calls for service, cases, motor vehicle thefts, uniform
crime report, use of force, internal affairs, promotions, new hires, community engagement, and future projects. I'm not going to read everything that's on the slide because I don't want to stand up here for 15, 20 minutes and prolong the meeting. So, we'll hit some key points on each one of these slides. Next slide, please.
So, our call for calls for service. This slide uh depicts, you know, the last seven years of our calls for service. And calls for service is anything that we are called to, whether it's a uh barking dog complaint, um if there's a a any type of residential complaint,
anything that comes in through 911 or anything that we're dispatched to, that's what a call for service is. And you can see over the last seven years, the increase of our call volume throughout the municipality. Next slide, please. This one is just going to break down our uh our higher
numbers of calls for service. The ones that are highlighted in yellow, that's 2025. The ones that are in white is what they were for last year. So, you can see that some were up a little bit, some were were lower a little bit. You know, if you take a look at uh you know, our traffic stops, our traffic stops were
were down a little bit, but our ordinance violations, they were up a little bit, showing that we were doing more ordinance enforcement uh this year as opposed to the year before. Next slide, please. So, our cases, our cases, again, the the
yellow is 2025, the white is 2024, and cases are anything that a uh a call for service may turn into a larger investigation. So, that's the difference between a call for service and a case. Next slide. There we go. So, motor vehicle thefts,
uh, in in 2025, unfortunately, we did have an increase of about 48% in motor vehicle thefts. Uh, and but, you know, throughout the state of New Jersey, there was a decrease. So, the the increase was was due to to a couple
reasons. Um, it was a lot of thefts throughout the area where people were leaving their key fobs in the car, their cars unlocked. uh they've come out with these uh these technical devices where if your key is in your house, but it's
close enough to your car, this device would be able to unlock your car and a person would be able to go in the car, start it, and then just drive away from it. So, that has been an issue that we've been dealing with with, you know, the all of last year and the beginning parts of this year. Uh there are certain
things that you can buy online to kind of protect your your key fob from uh from being infiltrated, I guess, from those types of devices. Um it's it's technology and and and unfortunately, you know, there's people are finding out
different ways to to steal vehicles. So, next slide, please. So, this is our uniform crime report. A uniform crime report is what we report to the uh the FBI and to the uh state police. It's broken down into seven different categories. There's violent
crime and nonviolent crime. So again, this depicts the last uh seven years. And if you see the numbers, you know, where they were 2020 was, you know, 266. That's that was that COVID year. So that's why that number is so low. Um we did we did drop about uh 16 16 points
this year. So, and you can kind of see through those numbers, you know, where where the uh the increase or the decreases were. If you look at burglary, uh burglary, we had a uh what six or 11 11 uh there were increase of 11. So, we
kind of use that as as a guide to see how, you know, technically how safe or unsafe a community is. Uh if you compare our numbers to some of the our surrounding municipalities, our numbers are better than some that you may think. You know, so everyone say, "Oh, they'll look at like the Mount Laurel, the
Morristowns, this that and the other." Our numbers are better than those than those other municipalities. Next slide, please. One of the big things for us too and as our detective division as a collateral duty, they uh they have to do all of our backgrounds for anyone that's applying
for a permit to carry uh concealed or or purchase a handgun. So, it's it's a big lift for, you know, for our detective division because they have to do a thorough background, thorough investigation uh on anyone that applies. So, these are just kind kind of the differences. On the left hand side, you'll see the permit to purchase uh
which is a either for a uh a handgun or a a long gun. And then on the right hand side is you'll see the concealed carry which is to get a concealed carry you have to go through additional training and that you have to renew that license every two years. So you can just see the difference you know the amount of work
that goes into um those types of requests. Next slide. We also look at our use of force. So use of force is broken down into a bunch of different categories. You have constructive authority, physical contact, uh physical force, mechanical
force, and deadly force. So next slide, please. So if you take the number of calls for service that we had in 2025, we had 42,385 calls for service in 2025. Out of all
those calls, we only had 31 situations that required our police officers to use force. 14 of those 31, we were dispatched for some type of mental health incident. And out of those 31 situations, we had
to you we had to complete 31 use of force reports. What that means is any officer who uses force has to do a report. So that's where you'll see 30 to1 situations, but you could have one situation that three officers might have had to use some type of force. So you
break that down, you know, uh, force was only used in 0.073% of our calls for service. So what does that mean as a citizen? It means that you had 0.73% if we had some type of contact with a citizen, that force would be used. Next
slide, please. So then what I do is I like to break that number down a little bit further. So we had 514 arrests were made by our patrol division and our street crimes unit in 2025. So out of those 514
arrests, force was only used 20 times. So what does that mean? In 2025, if you were arrested by the patrol division or a street crimes unit, that there's a 3.8% 8% chance that force was going to be used. So then I break that number down a
little further. What type of force is being used? Next slide, please. So 84% of force being used by our officers was their hands, arms, or some type of takedown. 21% was either an arm bar, a pressure point, or a leg strike.
We also had one incident where we had to discharge our duty weapon that one of our officers had to discharge his duty weapon uh as a dog was trying to attack him. And then we had two incidents where we had to use or where we had to discharge our taser. So one incident the subject was uh reaching for a gun in his
waistband and we're able to discharge our taser and have a successful uh deployment of our tas taser and that that uh subject was taken into custody. And a second incident, a subject was actively fighting police officers. And again, that note, you know, uh an
officer must list every type of force. So if an officer uses a knee strike and then a takedown, both of those have to be listed on the use of force report. It's not one or the other. It has every type of use of force that you use has to
be listed on that uh on that report. Next slide, please. So what happens after force is used? It has to be reviewed. We have three levels of force that make sure that our officers are in compliant with any laws, our policies and procedures. It's not
just one person looks it over. It starts with the frontline supervisor. It goes to the lieutenant and then it goes to the uh to to the the captain of the internal affairs. And if there's any issues when we review that, then we take the appropriative action against that officer. Next slide.
And this is just a breakdown of the types of internal affairs complaints that that we received. Excessive form, improper arrest, improper entry, improper search. Uh so for 2025 that you know um so what could happen is this right? We had 33 total internal affairs
uh investigations that were opened up and some of those investigations can be opened up because during a administrative review of our of our body cameras or anything else, we noticed that there was an issue. So we take action ahead of time and we open up an
internal affairs investigation and go through that whole process. Next slide please. This one is just the dis the the dispositions of those types of cases. They can be sustained, exonerated, not sustained or unfounded. Next slide
please. 2025 we had uh five new hires. We had Officer Wells Green, Officer Luis Montenegro, Officer Scott Cuni, Officer Robert Nunees, and Officer Corey Scott. Uh, every we they all were sworn in in front of you guys throughout that year.
We also had two promotions. Next slide. We had uh Sergeant Brandon Thomas was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and officer Mark Klouse was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Next slide, please. We attended or participated in over 104 community events and we raised over
$12,000 for various charitable organizations. Our community engagements sometimes we hosted some things on ourselves ourselves or sometimes we partnered with different um uh organizations throughout the municipality. Next slide please.
So our projects for 2026 uh you know we we implemented a training unit. Uh we purchased a Polaris last year. We're in the process of getting that upfitted and ready to be right uh on the road. The Polaris will help us uh reach those areas where our patrol vehicles can't
reach as far as you know the back areas of Mil Creek Park up at Olympia Lakes and so on and so forth. Uh we purchased implemented the new Drager Alcata test. That's for uh DUIs. So uh police vehicles. We're in the process of purchasing some some new police
vehicles, new hires, and two of the two bottom ones, you know, is something I think is uh is extremely important. We're looking to do a voluntary physical fitness and well wellness program. And we're also want to increase the departmental awards program. Next slide,
please. And that is the end. So, I will take any questions or comments. >> All right. Any questions for Chief Books, >> Deputy Mayor? Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, thank you, chief, for the report. On one of the slides, um, I think it was in terms of
the different reviews. One of the categories said demeanor and was six. Can you talk about that? >> So, demeanor complaints are or any type of complaint that a whether you know that is reported to us, whether they a a person feels that a officer's demeanor
was negatively uh was negative against a a member. Let's say if it's a car stop, they treated me rudely or they treated me unfairly or something like that. So any one of those, we would continue. We would open up an internal affairs investigation. And one of the things that's is extremely beneficial to us and
we've invested uh I think back in 2025 is body warrant cameras. Every single call we go to, we act we use our body warrant cameras. So those complaints for us are are easily looked into because you just go back and you watch the body
warrant camera and whether there you know whether uh if they if it was if it was um sustained that there was a demeanor complaint and the officer was we'll say rude or yeah rude then we would take corrective actions as whether it is a written reprimand suspension and
so on so forth. we would use progressive discipline um if it would if it called for that. >> And my follow-up question is um is the data from the school resource officers included in the data that is shared today >> as far as >> any anything that happens um officers
are serving as school resource officers. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Anytime that we're dispatched or any call any calls that we have whether they're generated at the school or anything like that, it's all reported back to our central dispatch and that's where we get all of our numbers. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you, Chief. >> You're welcome.
>> All right, Chief, can you also talk a little bit about the um Youth Police Academy that's coming up. >> I sure can. That's uh a project that's near and dear to my heart. Uh the Youth Police Academy came to existence back in
2009. I had a vision um you know, for what I wanted to see for the youth in Willingboro. you know, we had a bunch of different programs, but we had we didn't have anything that was geared towards our high school kids, our high school students. And, you know, I came up with an idea that we were going to gear a at
the time it was only one week. Now, it's a three-week program where we take students that are interested in a career in in law enforcement or the military and we expose them to those types of environments where, you know, we do physical fitness, we do military
drill, we bring in a bunch of different instructors from different branches of law enforcement to give them options and just kind of show them the opportunities that are that are out there for, you know, for for law enforcement. whether
it's federal, state, you know, county or local municipality. Uh this year it starts July 13th. We are currently accepting applications. So if anybody's interested, feel free to uh feel free to fill out an application. And we have a good time. You know, we we you know, we
do PT. Uh but it is it is a I would say more of a mentoring um type of academy. And you know, we've had I think we have five officers, current officers now that have came through our youth police academy and now our our burough police
officers. And we've had countless numbers of cadetses, what's we call them? Cadetses that have gone on whether, you know, to, you know, into the uh the military services or into the workforce or into Ivy League colleges. It's a great opportunity for a, you know, for a high school student to kind
of get a look into the profession without having to be in the profession. >> Great. Thank you. And how many students are you taking this year? >> We usually around 20 to 25. >> All right. >> The instructor student ratio, we kind of
try to keep it around 20 to 25. I don't like to say no, though. So, >> all right. Thank you, Chief Books. If there are no more questions, thank you for your report. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chief Bugs. We can move on to
our agenda. You have an ordinance um ordinance 202617 before you for introduction. It's the ordinance amending the municipal code to add a new chapter providing for the establishment of a municipal performing arts center utility fund defining the
governance structure and provide professional administrative management of the utility. Um and so it lays out the um the functions, the budgeting, the accounting for managing the revenue costs associated with operations management of the theater, the
performing arts center and um it also speaks to the um the structure of management structure and breakdown. And then for your consideration there in article F, the compensation of the manager for the for the theater for the
utility for the theater theater, excuse me. Ordinance 26 202615 for public hearing and final adoption is ordinance amending chapter 350 of the township code entitled towing to update the procedures
uh for for participation in the towing rotation list ordinance 202616 entitled uh peace and good order to add article for for special events and establish lishing formal process for permitting,
review, coordination, and regulation of special events within the township. And those are the ordinances that we have on for tonight. And then we'll move on to our resolutions. Resolution number 109 is our bills list.
Resolution number 110 authorizing the approval of the emergency appropriation for Plum Tree Lane. Resolution number 111 ratifying emergency procurement and awarding emergency contract to Lambert
Construction for those I'm sorry for the work. I just had a project. >> Yeah, for the project. Sorry. Resolution number 112 and 113. These are um the resolutions for
jazzfest artists. So 112, 113, resolution number 114, resolution number 115, and resolution number 116. And those are all the resolutions we have on our agenda today. All right.
Thank you, Miss Carmichael. And for resolutions 12 through 116, the artists for the jazzest are Gerald Beasley, Eric Roersonson, Karen Briggs,
uh Mesa, and Mike Phillips. Um, all right. At this time, we will open up for our first public comment. This is public comment on agenda items only, any of the information shared in
the reports or um any of the ordinances or resolutions that we'll be discussing tonight. If you have comment, question on those, we will take those now. You will have two minutes. Um, please come up to the mic. And there are also comment cards in the back um to provide
your information should we not be able to answer your question uh this evening. You'll have two minutes. Public comment on agenda items only is now open. Come on up. Miss Holly, >> are you doing
doing something outside of the spoken? >> Yes, we have a general public comment later in the meeting. Okay, I just have one question pertaining to uh Chief Book's presentation.
See if I can read my notes. Um, can the community get a list of the donations and the organization that you um supported or should I put in an open request?
Okay. So, please submit that information. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Holly. >> You can come up and and make a line on the side. That'll be helpful. >> Good evening, honorable council members. >> Good evening. and uh citizens of
Willingboro. Um just had a couple of questions um for the chief. >> Oh, can can we have your name, please? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Janice Brown. >> Thank you. >> Um as far as the youth council, the uh what is it called? The youth academy.
Is this um an academy that perhaps can allow children or not children but youth who have um trouble some trouble have had trouble with the law maybe uh need to have this kind of mentorship. Uh is this something that could possibly allow
them to participate? Are there certain criteria that would prevent or you know certain youth from not participating? And what is the age limit on it for for youth to participate in it? Also, um I
might be naive, but what is the Polaris program or what is Polaris when you said that there's that being established or something like to that effect? >> All right. >> Okay. >> Is that it? >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Jenn. >> Thank you. >> Any other public comment?
All right. Seeing none, public comment is now closed. chief will ask you to come up and all the questions were for you today. >> That's good. That's good. So, the uh the officer's donations, their donations that the officers officers personally donate. There's not township funds or anything like that. So, and then the um
the the other question, the Polaris program, that Polaris program is it's a it's a alter off-road vehicle, all-terrain vehicle, a UTV that's a uh just that we're going to be able to use uh as another vehicle for the
municipality. So it's it's does that kind of answer your question? >> No, no, no. Just to be able to go back like so like instead of riding a bicycle throughout Mil Creek Park or in the in the back, it's going to be a motorized vehicle that we can use through the back trails to kind of make sure um nothing
inappropriate or unlawful is happening back there. And then the other question was for the uh the youth police academy. This program is for isn't for uh troubled youths. There are other programs that are out there. This program is is specifically designed for youth that are interested in a career in
uh in law enforcement or the military. >> All right. And what's the age range on >> uh age range is high school age. Uh we do so we say we'll say like 13 to 18ish. And the reason I say that is because sometimes high school students, you know, are a little bit younger or a little bit older.
>> And before you go, can you just expand a little bit on the charitable giving? So it was individual officers pulling money together to donate to different charities within the municipality or >> some are within the municipality, some through the through the uh like to the
PAL program to the wrestling program. Some of it like kind of with you know in coordination or conjunction with our our FOP or supervisors uh association. We made donations to um you know during the month of October to the to the uh the Susan B. Coleman Foundation. We did uh
wounded warrior uh wounded warrior project. We made a donation to the wounded warrior foundation and things like that. uh during November, we typically, you know, make a donation um to uh uh for, you know, No Shave November. And then, uh December, what we do is a lot of times in December, we'll
take the officer's donations. Um and then we would we would go out and we purchase different, you know, uh uh gifts or gift cards for the community and give out, you know, uh gift cards or uh pro uh presents to uh children in our community. >> All right. All right. Thank you, Chief.
>> You're welcome. All right, we'll move on to our ordinances. So, madame deputy clerk, if you would. Uh, ordinance 17.
May I get a may I get a motion to introduce ordinance 26-17 entitled an ordinance of the township of Willingboro and the county of Burlington, state of New Jersey amending municipal code to add a new chapter providing for establishment of the municipal performing arts center utility fund
defining its governance structure and providing for professional administrative management of the utility. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved by councilwoman Peron, seconded by Deputy Mayor Worthy. Any discussion? >> Council pro. Thank you. So, I have some
serious concerns about this ordinance because I do see as the clerk eloquently read to us that it is to um establish utility management of the funds for the JF, I'm sorry, for the performing arts theater. Um, under section two, it says
functions. I'm not going to read the entire thing, but I did highlight some of my concerns. Okay. Um, it shall function they it shall be the function of the utility to budget account for and
manage all revenues and costs associated with the operation, maintenance, programming, and management of the Willingboro Performing Arts Center. This includes but not limited to the collection of revenues from ticket sales, facility rentals,
uh concessions and sponsorships and payments of costs related to artist fees, productions, advertisements, permanent staffing, facility maintenance, utilities and debt service. Just put a thumb tag in the wall there.
Now move to surplus and deficits underneath financial which is section three financial aars I mean affairs surplus and deficits in accordance with the NJSA4A 40-35
if the operation of the utility results in a surplus such surplus may be included in the township current fund budget as miscellaneous revenue if the operation of the utility results in a deficit or in an anticipated deficient,
the appropriations for such deficiency shall be included in the township current uh fund budget to subsidize utilities. So now when I read that um the issue that I'm having is number one, the performing arts theater is already located in the building where we have
staff. We're managing that building, the custodian parts of it, the maintenance, that's the building. This is not a separate building that we're building. So, number two, um you already voted to pay one individual over $200,000
to come up with these amazing artists that supposed to bring revenue to the township. We pay him and his staff in addition to um we've not seen anything happen yet with that part. However, that idea with him bringing the artist
was because it was supposed to produce revenue. So why is it that if he does not produce the revenue and it becomes a deficient that you're now trying to say we're going to take it out the the uh the township budget? That's not fair because that program or building, not
the building, the actual performing arts theater is supposed to um fund itself. Um we were promised a lot to supposed to happen with the money coming in. And I recognize it's not the gentleman's fault because of the building structure of it, but this right here is like a little
sneak in where um now basically you're asking the taxpayers to pay again. And that's what I when I read both of those, that's exactly what it says. Um the staff, isn't the staff the JFK center, our workers that work there? Who's the staff exactly?
only additional staff that I recall is the person who's supposed to bring these amazing artists and his staff. So now we're supposed to if he can't afford to pay the artist now you're going to take it out of the township's current
township fund. So I know this is a first reading but this seems very fishy and I don't like it. >> Right. Thank you Councilwoman Pron. Any other comments? >> Why? Yes. cuz I have a question for you, Madam Mayor. >> Can Can I answer the first one or just
go ahead question? I'm sorry. I didn't ask it. I didn't ask the question. I said I have a concern cuz I know you put this together with the solicitor. I guess the township manager. >> So, the township manager put it together with the solicitor. >> Okay. So, >> and we're all reviewing. >> This is the first time you're viewing it, too? >> Um, I saw it during prep. Okay. But
>> Okay. Because I was just going to only ask what was your intent and ideas about this if you had input on putting it together. >> Yes. So I think the the theory behind creating this utility is to be able to
track the theater fund separately um to be able to record those returns on investment. Um it's still a township entity and um we are looking to hire because we need accountability for the
management of the performing arts center. Right? we can't necessarily have a outside contractor managing the entire theater. Um so we're making sure that Willingbar is stable as we enter this
new endeavor for the performing arts center. Um so that's what this is laying out. It's a structure to be able to manage and facilitate the finances of the performing arts center. And so that the money that comes in from the performing arts center doesn't just go
into the general operating fund. We can track how much is coming in, what's being spent just on that project so that we can have an accurate accounting and make sure that we're getting the return on investment that we're looking for. >> But however, if there's a deficiency, then you're taking the money out the
general fund. And you're also saying in here any payment or cost related to artist fees, we're going to have to fit the bill if we can't afford it. So that's where it gets tricky. That's the gray area that I'm seeing. And those things will still have to be approved by council. So it's not like that person
can just do whatever they want. They'll have to be approved by council, but also it's still a public entity. Um and we're looking to have the director um be an employee of Willing Ball Township. So, just like if there's a deficit in the
recreation department, um we don't say, "Hey, recreation, you're on the hook. You got to figure out what you're going to do." It's still an entity of the Willing Township. But it does say here that the township manager serves as a chief executive and administrative official or the municipality and executes all laws and ordinances and
does not and to appoints, supervises and removes department heads, etc. So we giving him the power over the staff of that performing arts like this is >> just like he has power over the entire staff of the municipality >> to us. But this is what I'm saying is why is it we have a we have a finance
department. I think she can do a very good job at separating the money. I'm not sure why are we creating a separate ordinance other than how fishy it smells why we're doing that. I don't see why we need a separate ordinance to articulate and say if we can't afford
to pay what we're anticipating to have, then we'll just take it out the general fund. That gets tricky because when the general fund, we we vote for it at the beginning of the year, right? We we decide on what we're planning and anticipating, but why are you trying to
separate what's coming in and then? So all of our accounts and departments have their own different accounts. So this is just establishing an account for the performing arts center. Um currently it doesn't have an account because it
didn't exist before. So just like inspections has an account and um all of their expenses and um you know revenues come into the inspections account or the recreation account. This is establishing an account for
>> This is not just an account, Madam Mayor. This is this is an this is aishlishes an account and a structure for the management of the performing arts center. >> But that's what I mean. We have a finance department. The finance department can absolutely create an account for monies for performing arts
center. We don't need to. >> Yes. But they can't do that without an ordinance >> to create an account. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, where does it say account on here? that just point out one word where it says where where is it that that's that's where it has the financial
affairs part >> I don't see account this is not an account okay this is this is an ordinance to establish it's like we're creating a whole company within >> no it it says an an ordinance to establish a municipal performing arts
center utility fund >> yes utility >> that's the account part and defining its governance structure ure and providing for professional administrative management of the utility. Um, but I understand your um questions and
concerns and I look forward to discussing them between the next meeting so that we can get all that ironed out um in the next reading of the ordinance. >> Okay. And so for the next meeting, can you also bring um the the gentleman who we're paying 200 over $200,000 to bring the artist bring that contract because
that contract outlines what he's supposed to be doing. And if he does not I remember it says if he does not come forward then he owes us. I want to see that attached to this because this says something very different. Okay. So let's just >> right because we haven't established the
utility and we didn't track right. He does have a contract but we haven't established the structure because the performing arts center wasn't open. So we talked with um Mr. Hall our solicitor. >> It is true. He does have a contract, but
because we don't have any structure to the performing arts center because it wasn't built or operational yet, >> let's just let's just let's just get it. >> He had a contract for management and for for managing the staff, he had staff. He had it all in there of why he needed that amount of money and that what he
was promising to bring back and if he did not come through, then we would say, okay, here's, you know, etc., etc. So what I'm saying is bring the contract because this says here um hiring staff, permanent staff, facility maintenance. So these are the type debt services
because we're looking to transition from a side contract to municipal employees to run that. >> See, now you're coming up with more fancy words. >> I'm not coming up with fancy words. Rebecca, you voted Council Peron. Let's just get it. >> You voted for it as well. So we'll take
that note down. Um, also, madame deputy mayor, if you would send the contract to Councilwoman Peron again, um, that would be helpful so that she has all to me. I need you to read it and make sure that we're looking at this document that you sat with Mr. Harris to read and put
together that it's not conflicting with that agreement that we are already in that we have not received anything back but been paying more out to that person. >> Okay. Thank you, council. >> You're very welcome. >> Thank you. You're most welcome. >> All right. Any other questions on this ordinance?
Seeing none, we'll go to Oh, go ahead, Councilwoman Macintosh. >> Thank you, Madam May. With those concerns, can should we hold this off and really go that before um it's voted on? Um some of the concerns just to make >> Yeah, we can table it. That's absolutely
fine. All right. So, we'll table it to um I just want to give us enough time. We'll table it to the June the June 16th meeting. >> All right. I need a motion to table. So
moved. Oh, because we already did the motion in a second. Okay. Will you withdraw a second? >> Okay. And motion >> withdraw my motion. >> All right. Um, so the motion and second has been withdrawn. I need a motion to
table ordinance 2026-17 to the June 16th meeting. >> Moved by Councilman Anderson, seconded by Councilwoman Mintosh. Any other discussion? Seeing none, uh, roll call.
>> Councilwoman Peron, >> yes. >> Councilman Anderson, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Mintosh, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy, >> yes. >> Mayor Whitfield, >> yes. >> All right. Ordinance 15, please. >> I'd like to open up the public hearing
on ordinance 26-15 entitled an ordinance amending chapter 350 of the township code entitled towing to update procedures for applications and participation in towing rotation lists. Anyone wishing to come forward to
comment on this ordinance only, please. All right, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Madam Deputy Cl. Okay. Can I get a motion to finally adopt ordinance 26-15? Moved.
>> Second. Moved by Councilwoman Peron. Seconded by Councilwoman Macintosh. >> Councilwoman Peron. >> Yes. >> Councilman Anderson. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Macintosh. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Whitfield. >> Yes. I look to open up the public hearing for
ordinance 26-16 titled an ordinance of the township of Willenboro, County of Burlington, state of New Jersey, amending chapter 252 of the code of the township of Willenboro entitled peace and good order to add a new article five.
Right. Entitled special events establishing a formal process for the permitting review coordination and regulation of special events within the township. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Councilwoman Pon, seconded by
Councilwoman Mintosh. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, roll call. Oh, that's the public hearing. Yes. All right. Anyone wishing to comment on this ordinance, please come forward. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Roll call.
>> Councilwoman Peroon, >> yes. >> Councilman Anderson, >> yes. With the correction, it's article four. No. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Councilwoman Macintosh. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Whitfield.
>> Yes. >> All right. for the resolutions. Are there any resolutions that council would like to pull from a consent agenda? >> Seeing none. >> Oh, one madame may um 2026112.
>> Okay. >> And also um 2026 113. It looks like all of the everyone that says ducket that's the contract we're just talking about. So, um 20 I guess it's all let me see. Okay. From >> it's 12 through 16.
>> Okay. And I see 15 as well. >> I said 12 through 16. >> Oh, 16. I thought you said 15. Okay. Yes. So, that's looks like all of them. >> All right. Um, so, uh, for a consent agenda, I'd like to ask for a motion to
do a consent agenda for resolutions 2026-109 through 2026-1011. >> Second moved by Councilwoman Mintosh, seconded by Deputy Mayor Worthy. Any discussion? Roll call. Councilwoman
Peroon. Yes. Councilman Anderson? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Macintosh? >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy? >> Yes. >> Mayor Whitfield? >> Yes. >> May I get a motion and a second to approve the same? >> Second. Moved by Councilwoman Macintosh. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Worthy. Any
discussion? Roll call. >> Councilwoman Peron? >> Yes. >> Councilman Anderson? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Macintosh? >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy? >> Yes. >> Mayor Whitfield? >> Yes. >> We can move on to resolutions for separate discussion. a separate.
>> Yeah. Thank you. >> We got to open it up first. You want me to list them all together or do you want >> um No, we have to do them. So, >> okay. For a separate discussion, we have resolution 26-112, a resolution authorizing the township of Willingboro to enter in professional
service contract with Ducket Entertainment Group LLC representing Gerald Beasley for the music performance at the 2026 Willenboro Jazz. >> All right. Um, we need a motion. So, moved and a second.
>> All right. It's been moved by Councilwoman Peron, seconded by Councilwoman Mintosh. Discussion. Yes. First part of my discussion is can we identify um the item um 2026-
112 in the packet? I'm not seeing that. I see I have 13. There's There's 12. Let's get to 12. There's 11. I see 11 12. Okay.
So, you've broken out um one, two, three, four, five. Five different resolutions for um the same entertainment contract that I just spoke about with regards to the performing arts theater. Now, docu
entertainment group. What type of group is that, madame mayor? >> That's group that books our um musical acts for the jazz festival, >> right? Okay. And that group is that the group that's also going to be responsible for the performing arts
theater um that we just spoke about the utility management administrative management utilities. Not necessarily. No. Not necessarily. >> Well, what do you mean not necessarily? Because this is this is
>> we haven't established the utility and the operator or the director of the utility. So, it may not be Ducket Entertainment Group. >> Okay. So, then let's talk about what is Ducket Entertainment Group doing for resolution 112. You put the you put the
you put this packet together um with the township manager. So, please describe to me what was your intent for um item 112. These are the contracts for the um entertainment acts for the jazz fest. We do these every year. So what act is for
112? It's Gerald Beasley as stated in the title. It's where is it? >> Gerald Beasley as stated in the title. Where? Okay. So Gerald Gazy. Now we see for $8,000
$8,000 to perform this act. >> Yes. >> Right. Okay. And as far as $8,000, this is to come out of our general funds. >> Yeah. It Well, out of the money that we set aside for the jazz festival.
>> Okay. So, this back to the um utilities management item that we just spoke about. Um how does this correlate? >> It doesn't. >> So, the performing arts theater is going to be separate from the jazz festival. Yes. >> Okay. So, there'll be two line items. So
when we talk about the jazz festival, that would be coming from the the the general fund. >> Well, I mean, all of it comes from the same bucket. >> Okay. Because my understanding is Ducket was hired to bring artists to the performing arts theater. That was his
that was in his contract. Bring artist. >> You still have to pay the artist. His contract, his initial contract that we have with him was 100% bring artists for the performing arts theater.
Manage those artists, bring the artists, revenue. So now I'm seeing he's managing the jazz festival when initially that was coming from the JFK center um recreation department and last year he
took a percentage of each artist and I disputed that because he was already paid how much money is the finance chief financial officer here he's paid every single month what like $6,000 how much does he get paid a month how much does ducket get paid I don't have that
figure. It's in the bill list. >> In the bill list, $6,000 a month in addition to $8,000 for one artist. >> No, this is this payment goes to the artist. >> We went over this last year, too. I asked I asked for the artist to to show us
their bill to show us their how much they're charging us. We did not receive that and we're still not receiving that because this figure is coming from Ducket who we already pay. So, I understand if he's paying for an artist, but where's the invoice for the artists?
Could this says a resolution to pay Ducket? It doesn't say to pay um the artist. So, if we were to hire, I don't know, Bobby Brown, we would get in contract from Bobby Brown and pay him for whatever he's required. So, with
this this here, this resolution, it says to pay Duck. It doesn't say to pay the artist. Where's the artist's contract? Councilwoman Macintosh, >> just for correction, um, Council Peron. Okay. Um, previously, even 10 years ago,
they there was always a vendor that brought the X. So, this is not new. What I mean, if you're arguing that Ducket Entertainment, if you're arguing Ducket Entertainment Group doing it, that's one thing. But there's always, you said it was the recreation did wait. You said the recreation
brought them on, but they all the recreation always hired a a contractor to do that. Prior prior to Ducket, it was I don't remember who the group was. >> Where's the the contract for the artist like Vley? Where's Where's Gerald's contract >> that would come through? It was always
it always prior to prior I'm saying even 10 years ago there was a group there was a or a company that would bring in that the recreation would um >> okay >> bring in artists. >> I remember that what I saw last year the artist needed a hotel. The artist wanted
water. There was little little different things that the artist wanted. I don't see that in here. I just see $8,000 goes to Ducket and I know that we already pay Ducket every month. So, we're paying him twice. So, and it's each one each one is
a different artist. >> And just keep in mind it's two different things. So, there's the performing arts center and then there's I'm just saying that that's all I'm saying. There are two there's we didn't have a performing arts center prior to now. So, now there are two different
two different things, which he is a facilitator for entertainment. You may disagree with that, but that there are two different um >> Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. Thank you, um um Councilman Macintosh. That's exactly what I'm saying. His job was to bring artists to the performing arts
theater, not to bring artists to the JFK Center. His job was performing arts. That's it. Now, all of a sudden, ever since he got here, he's been this resolution. Pay him more. Pay him more. and we don't see a contract for any of these artists. I've asked for it
last year. It seems like I'm the only person that's concerned about looking at a contract. Even if it's him bringing the artists, we should see a contract about what they're requesting. What are we paying? Okay, so it's 8,000. Wouldn't you want to negotiate? Well, you know what? Maybe maybe we don't need all of
that. Maybe we want to look, you know, right this year we're looking for artists around 4,000 6,000. You just want to say 8,000? That's okay. Are they all $8,000? What are the other one? I mean, like it's just like we're blindfolded just spending money and nobody wants to see
the contract. Nobody wants you. You're already paying Ducket. You're already paying him every single month supposed to be for the performing arts theater that's not open. And now you want to pay him more for each artist. >> Deputy Mayor Worthy. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Going to be nos
for me. I can tell you that right now. >> Thank you. the contracts in terms of these um resolutions. The reasons that we don't have the contract is because the agreement is with Ducket Entertainment Group, not directly with the artist. Um so we don't have uh those
inner workings, but um Ducket Entertainment Group and whoever managed previously also helped figure out the order of show, how long the different performances are. They manage all the writers. They manage the hotel accommodations, transportation, all of those things that the council never um
gets involved with how to manage artists. So, this is on par with how it's been managed um in the past and determining um what those rates are. Those are negotiated prior to getting to this point. My other point that I'd like
to bring up is we have the same conversation um each year when it comes to Jazzfest, which is fine, but if it really is a concern, it seems as though those questions would have been asked prior to tonight when we have the resolutions in May for Jazzfest in August. And that way, you could have had
time, ample time to sit with Ducket or whoever you wanted in the administration to ask questions um about whatever contract or if you had concerns that it would be an issue again this year. Um, but I understand your vote is a no. Um, I just want to be clear. It's not that
I'm not interested in reading contracts, but I understand how the process works for us to be able to secure um talent for the JASFest. If the council wants to provide guidance next year and say we don't want to exceed $8,000 or we don't want to exceed $5,000 per act or whatever that number is, if we want to
do that, we absolutely can do that um at the beginning of the process and we can um make sure that we don't exceed a certain amount. But the residents as well as the council said that we wanted to have secure talent. Um we got names of different artists and these are the
artists um that were that were selected by duck entertainment with the administration. Thank you madame mayor. >> Deputy mayor. I would like to respond to deputy mayor. Thank you deputy mayor. >> Thank you. Uh I understand that this is not a huge concern but remember our last
council meeting. We don't have enough staff to cut our lawn. We need people to do our maintenance. We need public works bodies. And right now, you're sitting here about to vote on $8,000 for this artist, $8,000 for that artist, $8,000
for the same person. And mind you, not even look at one contract for the artist. Each one of these documents, resolutions says to Ducket Entertainment, the person who's on our staff, on our books that we pay him and his staff to do what yet? Nothing. He's
done nothing yet as far as the performing arts theater. And again, I'm not blaming him for that. But again, that could have been on hold until we got the performing arts theater up until we get artists in there. Nobody agreed that he would be the art the artist for the jazz what the the organization or
the company to bring artists to the um to the JFK Center, I mean to the jazz festival. That's what the JFK Center um department did. And whoever they hired to bring the artist, they were able to do that. And you know what? they would pay their salary for the year, whatever it is, and they got it done. We had
artists at the jazz festival. Again, this is not something that we're paying, we're charging people to enter this. It's not a concert. Let's get that correct. The taxpayers are paying for this, okay? And then they got then when they get there, they got to pay for parking, by the way. Okay? So, it's like
it's it's really gotten so out of control. And every year I speak about this. So, as far as you to talk about why am I asking my questions now, you know why? Because it's on the agenda now. And you know why else? This is the time and place to speak about it at the council meeting.
>> And and I and I just like to say that um thank you uh council. And if the council is no longer interested in doing the jazz test, that is okay with me. We can take a vote on it and cancel it. We don't have any of these contracts spending. You're absolutely right. And
if you'd like to cancel it and if you'd like to cancel the trash, can I finish speaking, please? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If All right, I'll give you a chance to speak, but let me continue. So, if the council would like or any member of the council would like to not
spend this money on the Jazzfest, put a motion on the floor. We'll cancel the Jazz Fest and that will be it. We don't have to spend this money, but the community wants it. We continue to have it. And if we don't want to put this
much money into the jazzest or if we want to um put a cap on the amount of artists or the um number of uh how much money we spend on artists or how much money that we spend on the jazz fest in in total or cancel it alto together. You
can put a motion on the floor and we can do away with the jazz fest. I'm not saying to do away with the jazz fest. It is something that we're offering to the community. What I'm saying is be more responsible for how much we're spending on it and not to want to look at the contracts for the artists. Why wouldn't you want to see the contracts? That's
what we here to do. Look at contracts. Make informed decisions on informed information. We don't have the information in front of us. Ducket could have gotten the artist here. Here's the here's their contracts. Take a look at it. Council, let's see if you approve. Not just give me a dollar figure and say
vote on a resolution. And as far as um as far as uh cancelling it, that's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is we have a budget here that we just started discussing last couple meetings ago, right? And serious concerns where we going to find the money to guess
what? Cut our lawn, maintain our properties, and then you want to charge the taxpayers more money to pick up their trash, which by the way, that's for the ones who want two trash bins. They got to pay additional for the bin and additional every year. But then you
want to spend $8,000 of their money that they already gave you so you can sit on the grass and look at people sing to you. >> I think we getting we getting out of perspective of what we're giving back to the community. The jazz festival is a nice event. I'm not saying cancel it, but I'm saying we need to take care of
our bills first. And if we don't have enough money to pick up the trash and not charge the taxpayers twice, then guess what? We do need to take a look at these artists. And maybe we only need one and not four. And you know what else? The law needs to be green and not brown. And if the director says he needs
staff, get him the staff. And guess what? This year, community, we're going to have one artist because we can't afford that. We have to put the money to where it's supposed to go. >> Is that your proposal? >> Yeah. I'm not canceling. I'm saying we don't need to. >> Okay. Are you saying that we should only have one artist this year?
>> That's one. And look at the contract. Look at the contract. >> So talk. She's making real. >> Excuse me. Excuse me, sir. >> Just concede me. >> Which artists do you want to keep and which ones do you want to eliminate? Madame Mayor, I would like to look at
the contracts. Look at what we have and then take a look at the budget as far as what we have to to get. We we have to vote on the budget coming soon. The township manager is not here. We're supposed to talk about the staff to to fill the public works department because he's under staff. He explained that to us at
our last meeting. We've not sat and t discussed that. So what I'm saying is not cancel the jazz fest. Let's get our budget in order as far as what we need done. And what we need is to maintain our properties. We need this the department's staff so they can do their
jobs. Um and whatever materials they need, we need to look at that first. Um the other thing is the trash. We're charging our community more money and they already paid taxes. There's certain people that are being charged more money to pick up the trash. So, I'm
just saying I can't sit here and vote on all of these the thousands and thousands of dollars for a special event when we we've not paid our bills. We've not taken care of our home first. Madam, >> thank you, Councilwoman P. Any other comments? Deputy Mayor Worthy.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor. I just want to and for those who are are watching for the public, the mayor does not put the put the resolutions together. the administration works and does a proposal for the entire council. We're one body and we're here to discuss this together.
So, while it looks as though um a council member is coming for the rest of council as if the rest of us don't care and don't read contracts and don't that is not for whatever reason that's how things are being presented this evening but that is not the case. Also in terms
of the budget, we had several budget meetings. Um budget money was budgeted for the Jazzfest. There are times to be able to bring up at any point in time the amount of money that's being allocated for different events. Um there's opportunities to talk about artists. There are opportunities to talk
about whatever any council member wants to talk about at any point in time. Some prefer to do it while the cameras are rolling in front of a live audience. And others prefer to just ask questions, go see the manager, talk to Mr. deduct it and all, you know, everyone has their own way of working and how they like to
have discussions or argument or comfort people when they're trying to do their job. All I'm saying is that I don't have a a preference of any of the the artists per se. I'm open to the discussion. I think everyone on the council is it's the timing and the attack that is just not appreciated. But in terms of having
a discussion or even seeing or even seeing what happens if we were to table these and see what happens in terms of how long um we can hold off or making these decisions. I would be open to that. But it is May. The conversations have been had with the artists. We have
this conversation every year at this time of year. My only concern is if this truly is an issue instead of grandstanding at the meeting right as we're looking to make the approval is just to start the discussion earlier when we're when we're planning when we're saying we're allocating a certain
amount of money for the Jazz Fest. Let's have the the conversation in totality so we can stop having this type of standown every year when it's time to to to actually make the decisions. We can ask Mr. Ducket for the contracts. We can get
Mr. Miss um Carmichael get uh Mr. Docket let them know that the council wants to see the contract. We can do all those things. We will and we can but the question came forth this evening right now. So we I can so we're
>> that's why the question came up because you didn't do >> you did not do it and I did ask for the contract and I didn't >> there was no there was no request for the contracts. There was no request for the contracts council woman and we started talking about how much we were going to allocate for the jazzfest in
November last year when we had the budget discussion and there was no excuse me and there was no and we did agree that we need to see the return on investment. We we agreed on the number that we were going to spend for this year and evaluate and and if you don't
if you don't agree that that's how that happened then you don't have to. But we we discuss this at many times throughout the year and it always happens when it's at the last moment that things happen table at this council at this on this budget packet and that's what we're here
to do. >> This is not the first time we've talked about the jazz fest budget of your job as mayor. >> I do not set the budget. That is not my job. I do not set the budget. We're not going to go back and forth with that. This budget is where we're supposed to discuss this. We are not allowed to meet
three anywhere to discuss anything about the budget. It's >> and we haven't but anyone can >> public. This is not grandstanding. We're supposed to discuss anything having to do with money for the township in public. We're not supposed to meet at lunch and have sidebar meetings for who we like each other, who doesn't like
each other. Let's vote for this. It's supposed to be done here. So that's not grandstanding. I'm asking a question of concerns. But each of us have the opportunity to go speak to the manager at any time if we have questions. we have the opportunity to um talk to the clerk to get us information on things
that we're missing throughout the week, throughout the week, throughout the month, throughout the year. We can ask for any information that we have questions on. The packets are released prior to this meeting so that you can review and ask any questions, get um
documents acquired of anything that you need um to make a decision. Other council members do that. Some of us do not. So, this is not the first time that you're seeing these resolutions. This is not the first time. Not the first time.
Not the first time. Excuse me. Excuse me. Is the contract. >> I let you speak. Councilwoman Peron, if you would let me if you would give me the same courtesy. We all all have the opportunity to ask the same questions of the manager to ask for any documents prior to the meeting.
>> Prior to the meeting are released before this meeting so that we can review what is going to be discussed on the agenda and acquire any additional information that we need. >> Okay. Contracts is a no-brainer. If you're going to give somebody money to sing for us, I think we need to look at the contract. Fact that you don't want
to see the contract is concerning. That's so this >> I've already I've already talked to the manager about >> contract could be a part of this so we can review it and discuss. >> Okay. So would you like to table it >> and get the contract? >> I think it should be tabled. >> All right. So um
we we will um I'll have a motion to table resolutions uh 26-12 through 26- uh 16. >> So moved. Oh, recall recall the other one.
>> Um, do we have >> So, we'll recall the um previous vote >> that was only >> for 112 recall I recall the motion. I don't know who second it
>> second that Nikki. All right, we've removed the fir the motion and the second and um I'd like to or there I'd ask for a motion to table resolutions uh 2026-112 through 2026-116.
>> So moved. Moved by Councilwoman Peron, seconded by Councilwoman Mintosh. Any discussion? One. Yes. um with tableabling once we we we reconvene this discussion can we have
Ducket's contract and every artist on here their contract? >> Yes, we'll have those contracts sent out in the interim. Um madame deputy clerk, if you would ensure that all council members receive the artist contracts as
well as uh the contract for uh Duck and Entertainment Group. Roll call. Councilwoman Peron, >> yes. >> Councilman Anderson, no. >> Councilwoman Mintosh, >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy, >> no.
>> Mayor Whitfield, >> yes. >> Okay. With three yays and two nos, the motion to table is approved. All right. Um, we do have executive session this evening, but
before we go to executive session. Um, we have a couple other things to do. Um, madame deputy clerk, the approval of minutes. May I get a motion to approve the May 5th, 2026 regular meeting minutes and executive meeting minutes?
>> So moved. >> Moved by Councilwoman Pon, seconded by Councilwoman Macintosh. Roll call. >> Councilwoman Peron. >> Yes. >> Councilman Anderson. Councilwoman Macintosh. Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Whitfield.
>> Yes. >> Madame Clerk, your report. >> Yes. >> Good evening. The update for the municipal clerk's office. Just a reminder, we are two weeks away from the primary election on June 2nd. Sample ballots have been mailed from Burlington County Board of Elections. Early voting
begins on May 26 through May 31st at the Willingboroough Library, which is at 220 Willenboro Way in Willenboro, New Jersey. Key points for early voting in New Jersey. You can vote early at any designated early voting site in the county. No appointment is required.
Early voting is available for both the primary and general elections. The hours for early voting are Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 6 pm. You can find more voting information, early
voting information and locations on the SRB website. Uh, vote by mail application deadline is May 26. Vote by mail application deadline in person is June 1st by 3M.
And for more voting information, you can visit voter.sv.nj.gov. All right. Um, also as I said last meeting, everyone please ensure um that your
voter registration card and your um uh license match. um we don't want any issues um when people go to vote. Also, make sure you check uh your mail one for the mailer about the polling place change that was sent out by the
township. Um there are some of those in the back and also the location on your uh sample ballot because that will have changed by now as well. So, it is another reminder of where your polling place is. Once again, we did have to
move some of the polling places because of construction happening at the schools. We do have um many of them moved to the JFK center and we have a number of uh procedures in place to assist those who are handicapped and
getting to and from the building. Um as well as uh uh technical services on site at the JFK building should anything happen um with that. So, uh, if you have any questions about that, you can please see the
clerk, um, after the meeting or contact the municipal clerk's office at any time before election day to get your questions answered. Any questions for our clerk? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to
unfinished business. I had no unfinished business submitted before the meeting. Uh, Councilman Anderson, >> like to ask the chair to come up for the golf tournament that we're having on May uh, 29th. >> All right.
>> For >> Can you state your name, please, for the record? >> Karen Wells, Thornhill Lane in Willingboro. Um, for the golf tournament, the report currently income to date is 23,42923.
Our expenses are $14,235.89. Uh, leaving us a current profit of $9,000 and change. Uh, we are still getting money coming in to date. Uh, we have sponsorship from Chase Bank. uh the
Willingboro branch. They've been very generous. She's very excited. Their communities community affairs person. She's very excited, very responsive. She is going to volunteer. And they also donated a golfer spot. So, we had that um sponsorship from them. They also gave
us things to go into the swag bags for the golfers. CVS Warehouse has also donated to the swag bags for the golfers. Foster Military Lodge and Army Chapter number 62 have also donated donated to the swag bags for the golfers. Um I do want to apologize, the
link did um go out for um I'm sorry the scholarship application, my daughter who is doing the changes for me, she's getting ready for graduation tomorrow. She's graduating from Keen. So I do apologize. We have a little hiccup there. She said um she will work to get
that done, get the link corrected. I just made some verbiage changes. So, she's doing that for you. You should have that hopefully um later on tonight. Um and I think that is it. Again, we are um still getting money coming in every
day from every entity and we are excited about the golf tournament. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Wells. One question. Um when will the scholarships close the scholarship application period? >> Uh so we did we made it kind of generic so you can use it again. Um so the
information that I put on there the change I put that the scholarships will be due by June 30th. The applications will be due by June 30th. the um whoever is awarded a scholarship that information will be given sometime
during the summer and then um the awards will be presented also after those um awardees have been notified. So it's pretty generic. If you want it to be more more specific, we can do that but kind of want to leave it open-ended. So
next year like it doesn't say 2026 or you can use it next year for 2027. >> All right, that's good. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> As far as the uh scholarship dollar amount, >> what is the targeted goal? >> I don't have that information. We
haven't had that discussion. We would like to have in excess of $10,000 to award to our recipients. >> All right. Any other questions? >> All right. Seeing none, thank you, Miss Wells. >> You're welcome. Thank you.
Oh, we can go to unfinish. >> Madame Mayor. >> Yes, >> that's something else for unfinished business. >> Councilman Anderson. So uh we did speak about the uh vehicle policy which I did get a response back from administration but it was also brought to my attention that there is an application that needs
to be filled out day-to-day uh use for the pool which now being identified as the pool vehicle. There's an application that needs to be filled out. So if a township employee wants to go from let's say the recck department to Mil Creek Park that vehicle is a day-to-day application. So I just want to get some
more information on that. Okay. You're welcome. >> All right. If that's all the unfinished business from the Mayor Council, thank you. Um, so as we know, Memorial Day is
right here on Monday. I have been asking about the council to supporting me in establishing a hometown banner hero program whereby uh we recognize our past veterans and also um current veterans where we would um wave a flag in their
honor with their names and um I've been asking for a resolution. Uh that was the takeaway. I did provide the the cost and expense for it and um I believe I talked about yes I brought this up in December 2025
and at every single council meeting I've asked where are we with the resolution in order to establish the program. So madame mayor do you have the resolution? I know that um the clerk did uh say she was still working on the resolution. So is that where we still are? >> Yes I do apologize. just trying to get
the election stuff done, but I do have to just update the the resolution that you gave me so that I can submit that. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, are we doing anything with Memorial Day?
>> Um, that would probably be Miss Jackson. Okay. Because I didn't hear a report from >> Yes, I forgot to ask Miss Jackson come give her report. I apologize. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, members of council, and all those assembled. Yes, we are. So, our Memorial Day observance will be on Monday, May
25th at 11 o'clock at the Mill Creek Park. >> What What What are we doing? I guess this >> So, we will have a keynote speaker. Um, retired command sergeant major Dr. Maurice Mims will be this year's keynote
speaker. We have also uh sent out information to the residents asking them if they have loved ones that they would like us to pay um honor to during their um observance. So we are collecting that information and we will take a moment to
do that. But in addition to that, we'll just have our relaying and um somebody will sing the national anthem. We'll play tabs. Just a typical activity we've normally had every year. Great. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um if that is all for um
unfinished business from the deis, Miss Carmichael, um will you please discuss the amendments to the budget? >> Yes. Um, so we there were some suggestions sent um via email for the budget amendments and we're asking that
council um that we hear from all of council for their suggestions for the amendments so that the CFO can present to the state by this week so that we have time to introduce at the first meeting in June and then potentially
have public hearing and final adoption at the second meeting. Okay. Can you present those? Good evening. Madame Mayor, Deputy Mayor, governing body, residents of Willingboro Township.
So on April 7, was it we introduced a budget which was submitted to the state of New Jersey for review and approval before we go to the next step. And the reason why
we do that um our municipality is under state review. In order for us to even adopt a budget, it has to be reviewed by the state, the division of local government. And the reason being we receive urban aid from the state. So
once a municipality receives urban aid from the state, we are subject to review. So um we introduc we introduced a budget of 54,145,000 if my memory. So we submitted that to
the state for review so they could tell us okay now your budget looks good. It's time to do the public hearing. It's time to do your possible adoption or amendment. So when we send the introduced budget to
the state, the state revised the calculation of the health insurance appropriation. So that allowed uh certain portion of it to be inside the cap and outside of the cap. So being that um we we the township
already re reached it its maximum appropriation cap we had to deduct $345,000 from our introduced budget to be in compliant.
So with management township manager the different department heads we went to work and and because we let me go back because we reached the max if we had to add anything on we had to deduct from somewhere we couldn't add add on to
where we already introduced the 541 145 million if we're going to add on and because the state asked us to add on 345 we had to look for 345 to cut. So we had a discussion we're able to find places
un fortunately we're able to find places to cut from. So we send the budget back um we send the amendment the first amendment that the state required to them. So now it it you
know the governing body has the opportunity to review the budget line by line and then you come back and say hey we need you to do this this this this in order for us and that's a that's an amendment in order for us to even
introduce an amendment this amendment needs to go to the state review everything but you have to agree to say hey Mr. Harris or CFO this is these are the amendments we need we're going to submit those amendments to the city the state we're going to review
those amendment again and come back and say okay you're good to go to introduce your amendment so this is where we are >> all right >> we need to >> can we talk about the amendments >> yes okay so we did several we got several um recommendation from
council we put those amendment in This this is my sheep. >> One of the amendments we talked about um last meeting, Miss Diggs, was the appropriation for the salaries and wages for the uh Department of Public Works.
How many um employees were budgeted in that line item? >> Okay. for um excluding the director, a superintendent.
I'm going to I'm getting it. The director, superintendent, uh two admin staff and three supervisors. We have 26. So that's 26 plus 2 4 six. That's 30 in
that budget line. 30 that uh and 26 liberal mechanics, truck driver, etc. So, um it was recommended that we add $100,000 to hire several laborers in
the DPW department. In order for us to add the $100,000 in that department and because we reached the appropriation cap, we had to look for other places to cut from. So, council made a recommendation where to cut from, but I
just want to let you know that 100,000 was added to the DBW line. >> Where did those cuts come from? Uh there were 22,500 from uh communications vacancy that was available
75 of a um stipen for a clerk for tax assessor 225 remain of the stipen for the tax assessor and 25,000 remainer of the engineer's
salary and 25,000 remainder of a part-time clerk salary in the manager's office. That's total $100,000. >> Okay. >> Were there any other amendments made? >> Yeah, there were several made
a management prior to this recommendation. It's a lot. And I can give you copies instead of reading through them because a lot. But we actually um did an amendment
adding um 345,000 back into the um healthc care line due to the um discussion that um the township would be covering the health care of the library. In order to add
345, we had to cut from several places. I have a copy because a little long list. I don't know whether you want me to read a list. and can provide um council with that list. >> Okay. So, you're going to provide us with the amendments, but if
>> Yes, ma'am. >> If we don't have them tonight, we can't >> Oh, no. I have them. I came ready for you know >> I'll give it I'll give it to the deputy clerk. >> All right. I came ready with them. >> But I don't I don't think we're going to be able to discuss them. And
>> No, I mean, you don't have to discuss it tonight. you know, you can discuss it and you know, get back to the township manager or myself so we can send off what you agreed upon to the state for
review and then approval with possible introduction. June second, >> can you um pass the amendment to Yeah, but all these already. >> All right. So, we'll have to um review
all of those since we're just getting it right now and the council will have to provide back after. Okay. Can you also email that email this to us? >> Okay. >> The amendments. >> Okay. >> Have it electronically? >> Yes. Yes, ma'am.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Miss Carmen, did you have anything else on the amendments to the budget? No, I don't have anything to >> add. And Mr. Dix, would you also be able to send an updated budget to the council as well? Thank you.
Okay. All right. Did you have anything else for unfinished business? No. All right. Thank you, Miss Carichel. >> Any new business? >> Yes, Madame Mayor. I was over at the um Kennedy Center. I noticed that the chairs in the front lobby are
disgusting. They need to be cleaned. So, I'm not sure where that falls at, where the responsibility is, who's in charge, and also over at the senior center. So, one of the uh young ladies over there had sent uh sent me a picture of what it would look like with a cover that you could pull off. Actually, one of the
security guards that you could pull off and wash, but I just wanted to find out who's in charge of the cleaning because if that's going to be a theat's opening, you know, we really need to maintain that area. So, if we don't have nothing in place, it's something we need to consider for there and the senior center. >> All right. Okay. I can get you to answer
that. I do. Um I know that furniture in the senior center is part of the remodel and I will have to find out I will get back to you about the lobby. You are right. All right. If there's no other new business, um Miss Jackson, would you be
able to give us the um event update for this meeting? I know we have a lot of things coming up. >> Yes. Good evening again. So, let me quickly go to the events. Like we talked about the Memorial Day event. We talked
about our mayor's golf classic on the May 29th. Our Friday night live series will kick off on Friday, June 5th with the um Renaissance Band and we will be performing hosting performance every Friday until
August 21st. weather permitting, excluding holidays, and we are collaborating with House Heads United who will be hosting several Friday evening sessions as well. Uh this year's June team celebration will be held one month from today. So that will
be held on Friday, June 19th from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 at the Mill Creek Park. Um we are looking forward to a festive event, an opportunity for the community to connect and we are pleased to welcome um gospel artist Anton Milton and friends as our featured performers this
year. Um I believe regarding the events, Mr. Li talked about the events that are coming under the recck department. So I believe that is everything as it relates to events. >> The ribbon cutting. >> Oh, that was the first one. I'm so
sorry. Yes. So, the ribbon cutting will be tomorrow at 5:30 at the track. Um, we will be sharing the celebration with the intro to track club and then after the brief ceremony tomorrow, the residents will be invited to take a stroll with
the mayor around the track. So, thank you for that reminder. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Jackson. >> Yes. Any questions? Good. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, ma'am. All right. Okay. We've reached the part in our the
point in our meeting for public comment. This is our general public comment. You'll have four minutes. Please state your name and address. There are comment cards in the back um for if we need to uh get back to you with any answers. And
um if you would make a a line or some sort of cue just so that we know um who's speaking, that would be great. Public comment is now open. You have four minutes. Please state your name and address. >> Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Council
Will. I was Oh, Carolyn, Providence, uh Writtenhouse. Um I was in the senior center two months ago and I went to the neighborhood watch meeting and I noticed that on two
different occasion there were rats running around in the room and it went onto that piano. If you know where the piano is, it's covered over. So, I don't know what you're going to do about that, but that was very disturbing to me. And um
this is a senior center in at at the JFK. So, that was one thing. Uh, I have groundhogs in my backyard. I don't know what to do about it. I've done everything I could possibly do to get rid of it. What can be recommended uh to
get rid of them? And then on two different occasions on Rayburn Lane, uh, around 11 at night, there's someone lurking in the neighborhood. and me, my two neighbors, we're all very concerned
about who this individual is. Uh, can we have some sort of camera or security measure put up in the neighborhood because it's not a person that's known to us and they just stand there. They're looking around and then they leave after
about five minutes. So, those are my concerns this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Providence. Good evening again. My name is, excuse me, my name is Janice Brown. I live at 132 Glen View Lane, Willingboro.
And um I am appealing for all the residents on Glen View Lane for problems that we've been having on a regular basis for years in fact. But one in particular that is fairly new since last year are pop-up parties that we're having. And I submitted two emails uh
one to a council member and and to the manager and one to the manager concerning these problems. And um they're very serious and the neighbors a lot of our neighbors in the on that street are elderly. They're senior citizens. A lot of their spouses are
sick. A lot of them are sick and dying. And so I'm here. I used to be the co- captain. So, I've always I've been in this role. I've been here for 36 years going on 37 years. So, I've always been the eyes and the ears for my community. And I see a problem and I'm really
concerned about it for my neighbors, for myself, for our safety. Uh the pop-up parties, they're advertised apparently on the internet. Somebody gives a party. There's a neighbor down the street that's a renter. She gives the parties, everybody comes. People that don't even know her, they're in the street. is like
it's like um spring break without the water and without the square footage. There's at least 200 people because I called the sergeant at the police station and he he confirmed that there were over 200 people, kids, youth of all ages down to it looked like 12 maybe
scantily dressed walk running up and down the street cursing on our land, our property, our cars. I was in my car. Some poor girl sat in my car while I was in it. Um they're cursing cursing out the neighbors. They're going up on their land. There's no respect. They're dra trashing, littering, um disturbing the
peace, all kinds of noise and chaos going on until like 1 in the morning. So, they're beyond their curfew. And so, they're they're violating all kinds of ordinances already, but I'm wondering I don't know what the process is. I'm wondering if you would consider how we
go about doing an ordinance sort of like what the uh Glouster County or uh did county did in terms of they I think it's called the no popup party um ordinance and was just recently passed I believe last year and I think this is what we
need where the parents are being held responsible. These kids are coming around there's Garfield Park Academy that's right around the corner. They have basketball courts there and they play basketball. But the real reason they come around there is because they have privacy. There's nothing but woods there. There's nothing but trees, woods.
They go back there, smoke, have sex, everything. It's just ridiculous. They litter up the whole area. And then they're up and down the streets. So 1:00 in the morning, we call the police. The police say there's nothing they can do because they're at danger. There's too many people out there for them to stop
and respond. And so we're really concerned about this. And now also uh what's been ongoing for years and which has gotten worse is the speed the drag racing that we're having on our streets. The speeding on our streets, the car
speed, the buses in the morning speed, the bicycle speed, the the motorized bicycle speed, uh the lawn care truck speed. And I can see this. I can hear it in my in my room, in my bedroom, where I am in the house. and I can see it
through my my um my uh ring phone camera. And so I can see the cars zooming by and I've been out there. In fact, I've had a car last year our car ran up onto went onto my neighbor's house to the right into their lawn onto
my lawn. Uh banged into my car, the front of my car. I was so thankful they didn't hit my property. They didn't hit my house or my new fence that I just put up. Um, they ran start going into my other neighbor's yard, but there was a big bush that stopped it. Thank God. Had
I been out there with my dog walking my dog, had my lawn care guy been out there at that time, which she should have been. Had my neighbor been out there. >> Sorry, Miss Brown. That's your time. >> She would have been. >> Sorry. Thank you for your comments. >> This is my cons. These two concerns. I hope something can be done.
>> Thank you, Miss Thank you. test. Okay. Hi. How y'all doing? >> What's your last name? Sherry. >> Thank you. All right, there we go. There we go. Um,
h I haven't I've ne I never come to one of these meetings before and I decided I was going to do it because I've gotten to the point where I'm just tired of watching Willing Burrow go to I've been here since 2001 and it was really really nice when I moved here, but even
then I can see it going down and it's gotten to the point where it's almost like a ghetto township because of the way that it's being ran. I came in here upset and pissed off and ready to just completely black out on all of you. And I realized as I was sitting there that I
can't do that because I don't know you. I don't know what your mindset is. And I don't know where your heart is when it comes to this this this this uh this township. One of you hyped me down just by the way
that she responded to a scenario that y'all was dealing with, making me understand that not everybody is just sitting there just to be sitting there. Not everybody is actually going to sit there and just allow this township to
just let this place run into the ground. And I was happy to see that. So considering the fact that there was a lot of things I wanted to discuss, there was a lot of things I wanted to put out there, whatever, and I'm not going to have the time to do that now that I see how this thing uh is working, whatever,
what I would want to do now is actually understand more of the process and how these people are say you these people, you ladies and gentlemen are in these seats. How do we get our mayor? How do we how do we council people? How do we get deputy? Is it is an election? I
heard someone said in that in order for a mayor to be elected that um the council is actually who the one you know who actually uh selects the mayor and stuff like that. To me this is just insane. But this is what it is. I need to understand the structure and how this
actually this this township is being ran from the garbage to I mean it's the the the uh what do you call it the public works. I take this phone and I call the Willingboro. There's only one number in the 25 years I've been I've been I've been calling Willing with issues when it
comes to sanitation or whatever the case is that would actually answer this their phone. Those numbers through f one two through five they never answer but yet they're working or supposedly supposed to be available to us. Number one that
option one. Yeah. Every time if they don't if they if if they don't pick up they probably in the bathroom. I call five 10 minutes later they pick up one two three two two through five never pick up and in 25 years I might have gotten twice two people to pick up at
one point bottom line is there's so much that needs to be changed and I'm realizing as I'm standing here and listening and seeing what's going on I have to actually start to understand Willingboro and get involved with this scenario that's going on here because it's a piece of crap. It's a piece of crap the way this place is being ran.
It's being ran down and I'm sick of it. Taxes are going up and I don't see where or why it's even going up. We've lost banks. We lost pools. We lost this. We lost that. Everything is just going to hell. I got 10 seconds. I'm just going to bid you a good day. You will
see me again. I need to figure out what's going on with Willboro. And from what I see here today, this right here, this is not working for me. This is not working for Willing Brow. It's not transparency. That's all she's looking for. Transparency.
>> Thank you, Mr. Pal. That's your time. Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is J Green. Uh 132 Written House Drive. Uh this is my first uh meeting here. So I'm I'm very uh blunt and like to the point.
I don't know any of you. not one of you. Um, point blank period, I've been here for three years. Um, I don't want to piggyback off of what the gentleman said, but it is very disheartening to see what's happening to this community, right? It's even more
disheartening for me to be my first time at a meeting and I can't take away a person's feels and I can't take away your passion. Right? One thing about me, um, I've learned this when I was a little girl, people's faces never lie. Never. Right? So when you look like you
don't care, when you look like you're in such a dismay, like you know when uh uh Deputy Mayor Dr. Tiffany Worthy had indicated for uh I don't know how to say it correctly, but uh Rebecca Peron, a council woman, you know, you stated what you had to say and then you indicated
and then you said, "Well, you know, just for it to be such a sporadic moment, we here are going to move by your leadership, right? Because this is who we go by. But when I come here and I see that there's, and no disrespect to anyone here, there's no reason why we
move the way that we move and we look like we are so dismantled and have such a disconnect from where we live. $200,000 for this gentleman is absurd, right? I live where I live. We don't have any cameras. We don't have
security. They take our And I work from home. I have two jobs. They throw our trash cans, right? They bus up my cars. They just throw them in the streets. But it's not even that it's that it's your fault, right? Because I don't do the blame game. I have to take
accountability for where I live. I'll call the police in two seconds. I'm not a snitch. I just believe that where I live matters and everyone else should think the same way in accordance. It's not just a we're at a township meeting. We as owners who live in this community, we have to take responsibility, too,
because everyone is elected for these chairs, right? I don't have anything against a senior citizen versus a child. I think everyone needs to be heard. I think every voice matters here. My issue with this particular meeting at hand, I call the police, no offense, they don't
come. But then when there's a fight, you get 75 officers, right? The money that we pay for people to do their jobs and for the people who don't do their jobs, it is a very big disconnect from that particular situation. Even in the community, businesses are leaving,
right? people. There's not a lot of family, which is what you want when you come here. When you drive through here, that's what you're supposed to see. But you don't see that. You see abandonment. You see neglect. You see abuse when you go do these events that we have. People don't take care of the property. So,
it's not just a you thing. It's a us thing. So, we have to find a way to come up with some kind of solution. I've only been here for 3 years. I no offense. I can't be here for 25 years and not have an idea of what's happening, what's going on, where the money's going, why am I paying taxes. Like, you look at the
light bill. I got the whole packet over here. It's millions and millions of dollars there for allocations, transactions. I get documentations about ordinances, allocations, payments, and vouchers. Okay, that's fine. But at the end of the day, where is all this money
going? This is my issue. The money needs to be put in places that we can understand what's happening. I'm one of those people. I'm a reader. I understand verbiage, right? I don't have any issue with any of that. You don't have to dummy down anything for me. I care about
where I live. What I say matters. Verbage is very important. I don't believe in underline. I read between what you say and what you don't say. We need a solution because we don't have any. This the meeting for June 16th, you can come with the contracts, right? No one should be getting paid. No one
should be double dipping. That's a concern and there's too many people here that suffer and there's no solution. Thank you. That's my time. >> Thank you, Miss Gray. >> Good afternoon everybody. My name is Justin Augustus 68 Twisting in Willingboro.
My concern is I have like three concerns. One is the water. One is the water. So apparently I'm paying a water bill just to bathe and to flush my toilet and to water my plants because I cannot drink that water.
Two, it have a groundhog living on my property as well pertaining to the property. I've I came here. I'm here. No offense to this gentleman. I'm here 5 years now. And I came to this place and
I made many I had problems pertaining to my neighbor. He is on my land. He have a he have a retaining wall on my land. I came here to dispute that 5 years ago when I when um it was almost done. They told me
the guy Rick got fired or he left or whatever. I came back again. I heard nothing about the situation with the retaining wall on my land. So I have a problem with
certain things here that I seen that is not being addressed. And this is my first time coming to a town hall meeting with my neighbor little. So it's simple with me. I I didn't come here for the fun and the games. I just
come here to make sure that which part I am living I am comfortable which part I am living because I pay a lot and is me alone and I that's my time. >> Thank you Mr. >> Good evening. Um I came to speak on behalf of my husband because you won't
allow Oh Glen View Lane. Um you won't allow people Tanya Brown. Thank you. you won't allow people to make comments via Zoom and unfortunately some people work overnight as he does. So, he told me to come speak for him. Um, the one concern
is on Veterans Parkway there's like a dip. I don't know if you drive it, but it's like the dip is getting deeper the more you drive. Like sometimes you have to brace yourself. It's like a roller coaster cuz you're going to go down just to make sure that you take care of that
before it becomes a sinkhole. And his second most biggest concern is he moved from Newark. I grew up here and the one thing that attracted him here was at the medium, how well it was maintained. Um, but as of lately, it looks deplorable.
My husband takes care of our lawn. We don't hire a lawn service. He does it. So, he's like, if you have people, we're paying our taxes. They need to do better. They need to rake up that dead grass, put dirt down, plant grass seed. They need to rip up the weeds when they put down new flowers. He was so upset
the other day. He said one of the damn guys from the township looked like they was throwing mulch out there around the dead grass when they should have just raked up the dead grass. He's like, "And all these dandelions and white flowers down weeds down the side. You need to put some weed and feed down there with
our tax dollars. It looks deplorable." So instead of them using weed killer to kill the weeds from the side, they need to get out the um rotten lawn mower and get a weed whacker. He said, "Take the time, put the cones out so cars won't drive by to secure yourself. Use the
weed whacker and cut it with the weeds, and you won't have to do it that often if you do it right the first time." And those are my two concerns. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Brown. >> Good evening, Miss Mallerie on Hudson Place. I ran out of time the last time,
but I was looking at the um check registry register by check and I noticed that the name of um a former uh employee, Mr. Bogle, is on this list.
And um it appears that in the month of April he was paid $2,315.72. And I'm just wondering why are we paying Mr. Bogle? Um he's no longer
uh an employee. And I did ask the question um but I did not get an answer. Uh the next thing is that it appears that now that the weather is warm, we have more and more scooters and electric
bikes and those kinds of things all over town. Uh the young folks are not wearing helmets. They are darting uh in and out of the traffic, especially on Charleston Road and on uh Veterans Parkway.
um this could be a disaster and hopefully um you know I'm not involved in it but it's dangerous and I think we need more patrol around town um chief um to try and do something about this
because it's really an issue today. For instance, I was on Charleston Road between Veterans and um Kennedy Way and I saw at least three young people riding um scooters, no helmets, cutting in and
out of the traffic. Um I'm glad that the taxpayers are informed at these meetings about what's going on. Um, I don't recall getting a survey asking me if I'm
in favor of having a jazz festival. Um, I also learned that the budget meetings that were held were held at 4:00 in the afternoon and of course were not convenient or
accessible for all council members and for many taxpayers at work. So, you know, to say that we had a budget meeting, it was discussed, uh, you know, I'm confused about that as well. Um,
let's see. Uh, the planners next to St. Paul United Methodist Church on Charleston Road have not been um taken care of. And we would like to see our the side of our church beautified like the other planters are
in town. And on that I'm finished. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Mallerie. >> Hi, good evening. Um, I've been living here. >> Your name and address, please? >> My first name is Joy. J O Y. The last name's Green G R E N E. Okay. I've been
living in Willingboro since 1965. I wasn't born here, but we've been living here all this time. When the jazz festival first started out, it was in Brody Park in Twin Hills. It's a credit to this town, the size of this jazz festival with no problems, no killings,
no deaths, and people talk about it all over the place and how nice it's put together and how well it's put together. Another thing I want to talk about is the veterans in the town not being allowed to park in the handicap spots. This is a veteran town. I know other people live here also, but we're not
taking care of what we should do with the veterans. If somebody's going to represent this town with the veterans, they should be have something to do and know something about veterans. My father was in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the 1990 war. My sister was in the Marine
Corps. My father lost her brother in the Vietnam War. I could go on and on and on. I don't want to be represented by somebody who knows nothing about the wars or anything else that goes on in the town either. Another thing that I want to say is when someone sues the town, I'd like to
know where that money goes to line item by line item since everybody wants to know where the money goes. I want to know where that money goes when the township gets sued. Okay? This town is not the same town that it was in the beginning. We did not have medium strips in the beginning of these streets. We
didn't have them on Route 38. We didn't have them on 1:30. We didn't have this grass growing in between. We didn't have those extra trees. We have municipal people doing a job every day before most people get up in the morning. They're out there at 7 in the morning. They risk their lives being on the road while
people are speeding around, going up on the curbs. That spray that's sprayed around to keep the edges clean is sprayed on Route 38 and everywhere else to protect their employees. I resent when I have people stand up in here who've been here for five minutes
and try to put down the work that people in the town try to do and spend their time trying to do that are sitting up here. So if I don't care if you've been here 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, when you say 1965, my sister says you might as well be saying before Christ because it doesn't register and it
doesn't relate to anything. Now we lived in this town when it went up to Hawthorne and all the other parks weren't even there. So, we know what's going on here. We know how it looked. We know what was happening. We only had one supermarket at that time. It was the AM. It closed at 5:00. You depended on the
one 7-Eleven that was open and we had one 7-Eleven on Charleston Road. Now, when people move here and they start complaining that the town is going down and it's this and that. Let's put the blame where it belongs. the Johnny come lately city slickers who come here and cost us money by defacing and defaming
the school systems which are costing us a fortune which we didn't have that before. Our municipal taxes were low. We didn't have an income tax in this state and we had caps on things but the caps might as well be like Swiss cheese. The holes in them you can't get around
everything. This insulting that goes on when we're at this meeting that was talked about all over the place. has had business people calling us about the remarks that were made three meetings ago. People are offended that the mayor had to apologize for somebody else's remarks. We don't want an apology from you cuz that isn't where the remarks
came from. And this is not fair at all. You're going to insult people who are up here who have done more and you won't look at what's really wrong and you're here for five minutes in this town. Thank you. And that's it. Hi Mrs. Holly. Hi
Thank you, Miss Green. >> Joy, my dear friend. I'm going to >> I'm sorry. You have to address the >> Holly Non Tyogga. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to have to disagree with some of the comments that you've made. Um but you know what? Since you're talking
about um what happened three meetings ago, I wasn't going to say this, but I had some other things. One of which was had to do with my conversation with uh the mayor. Maybe I should talk about this first real quick. Uh there are some
major concerns around the county and the country about the citizen bank and their support for funding the ice facilities. I called Mayor Whitfield yesterday. She actually picked up the phone and talked to me which I was surprised. Uh, and I
voiced my concern about uh, Citizen Bank and whether or not the municipality municipality had any accounts in uh, Citizen Bank. She said she didn't know that she would get back to me. I just would like to inform the community that there are several organizations around
the county that are currently picketing uh, protesting in front of Citizens Bank. So I hope that we do not have any money in citizen bank because they should not be funding those detention
center ICE detention center. Now, I'm going to run out of time, but I know that at the last meeting, we talked about the comments that were made and there was a a effort to start a recall. And I got up at the last meeting and I
talked about the 10 um 10 ways by which a council person can be recalled. And I'm not going to have enough time to go through all of these, but a council person cannot just be cannot be be recalled just because of some comments.
There are some other things going on by which council members can be recalled. And looking at you up there, every last one of you can fall in one of these categories. Everyone. And just because you just voted for something, it's still
unethical and it's illegal. There's a lot of stuff going on. Uh, and I know my time's going out. One, misuse of tax payers fund. Ethical violation of conflict of interest, criminal charges of or convict convictions, ignoring constituents,
that's what you did tonight, excessive tax increases, nepotism or favoritism, poor governance decision again tonight. Lack of transparency again tonight, absenteeism from meetings and from the community. Now next meeting I'm going to
give you some examples of each one of them and one of which is al that allegations. I'm going to tell each one of you how you are violating these ethics convent uh uh ethics
statutes cuz all of you are violating them in some way, fashion or form. And I've been here for almost 50 years. And these people, if they're paying taxes here, they have a right to say whatever the heck they want. And if you're not paying taxes
here, you should keep your mouth closed. >> Thank you, Miss Holly. >> All right, seeing no others, public comment is now closed. All right, we'll start on um some comments about the senior center. Um,
Miss Carmichael, I know there's been some extermination efforts in the senior center and in JFK building. Can you talk a little bit about that? >> Yes. So, the administration is aware of the rodent issue and on we regular the
township regularly had regularly, excuse me, has um pest control come out. I don't I can get the schedule. However, in addition to the rodent issue, we've added an additional service to remediate the mice
issue just at that building. And so, all the staff have been asked if they see anything that the company will come out as often as we need to until the issue is until they're gone. So, if you see them at noon, they'll call and come. And
if somebody says they see them at three, they'll come back. If you see them on Tuesday, then you see them again on Wednesday and they'll come back. And they've been coming back. So, it's kind of been double duty for the pest control, >> but we're aware and we're fixing it. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, there were a few for our police
about police. Um, we'll start with uh suspicious behavior in uh written house. >> So, uh in reference to any suspicious behavior or any type of activity that seems out of the normal, you know, go ahead and dial 911 and we'll respond out
to that location. I know they mentioned something as uh you know cameras. That's up to the uh you know the it was in written house. That's up to that association to figure out if they want to put uh any type of surveillance cameras out there. Um but anytime you see anything suspicious or out of order,
dial 911 um and we'll respond. We'll respond. Get a good description uh location, direction of travel, and yeah, we'll respond out every single time. >> All right. And there were a couple um questions about popup parties that >> Yes. So, uh, pop-up parties have been an
issue, uh, throughout New Jersey. Um, we've worked in collaboration with, you know, with with, uh, the county. They monitor social media. Some of the things that you get into the, uh, into the issue with is is identifying the location or and or the promoter. So, normally they'll come out on social
media, hey, you know, this is a big type of party, you know, DM me or do whatever for a location. And then we, you know, we try to find out those locations. In January, Governor Murphy signed a uh signed a law into effect was it it it holds promoters or residents more
accountable for those popup parties. And also with the adoption of the new ordinance that we that was adopted today, it gives us a little more teeth to be able to hold people more accountable. I am from somewhat familiar ordinance that would happen in in Gloucester uh in Gloucester Township.
that ordinance was uh there's a lot there's a lot of steps in that to be able to hold the parents accountable. Um but I am aware of that ordinance that was down in Gloucester Township, but I think what kind of helped us a little bit more was that the governor signing that you know that law into uh into effect uh back in uh in January of this
year. >> Okay. So, we do have some things in place and if a pop-up party happens on someone's street, what should they do? >> Call us. Call us. Definitely call us. And we do run into situations where there are large numbers of of children, you know, or a large numbers of I say
young adults where, you know, we could have, you know, let's say we say we have 10 police officers working. There could be 200, you know, 200 or 200 plus young adults in participation at that type of party. We will call for mutual aid. And then it's kind of, you know, it's one of
those things where you're you're put you may be putting yourself at risk if you start arresting with say there's 15 20 police officers there verse 200 300 you know young adults. Um those are kind of some of the things that we that that we run into. Um and some of the challenges
that we face when we have these large gatherings and large parties. >> Okay. But you do respond to the calls. >> Yes. Um, also about the speeding throughout town, either in vehicles or on the electric bikes and scooters. >> I know, uh, Glen View Lane was was
referenced earlier in the, uh, in in the questioning. We had put, uh, we have put speed trailers out on Glen View Lane to monitor that speed. We do have a traffic uh a traffic safety unit that that works Monday through Friday uh you know 40ome hours a week that target different
locations alongside our patrol officers you know 24/7 that work uh uh work throughout you know the municipality enforcing motor vehicle violations and motor motor vehicle laws. >> Okay. All right. >> Ebikes. >> Yeah.
>> So the next one is is ebikes. Ebikes again has become a issue throughout the state. Uh the the state has just I think the governor uh uh Cheryl she just uh introduced or a law has been passed in reference to ebikes. It comes in effect
July 19th of this year. So there's a lot of information that goes out with that has come out with the ebikes. You have to have the bike registered insured and be licensed and no matter what age you have to wear a helmet. Some of the challenges that we get into with ebikes
is the same challenges that we have with motorcycles, dirt bikes, and and vehicles. If we go to stop them and they don't stop by New Jersey a guidelines, we can't pursue any type of vehicle for just a motor vehicle violation. So, we
have to have a lot more justification to pursue whether it's a ebike, uh, motorcycle, dirt bike or or vehicle. So, those are some of the challenges that we have when we go to try to enforce, you know, these motor vehicle laws is, you know, we attempt to stop the vehicle or
stop the ebike and next thing you know, they're a lot more mobile than our our police vehicles and they take off take off on us. If we pursue that veh that that bike for a motor vehicle violation, we're in violation of the departmental policy plus we're in violation of the AG guidelines. So, those are some of the
challenges that we have with, you know, the ebikes. uh fif I believe the ebike law 15 years and older have to be licensed but if you have a regular driver's license that qualifies for you to drive or or buy an ebike and I think it's if you're 15 years and younger I
believe you can't drive an ebike. >> So we do have those ordinances already in place and >> that's not that's actual law. That's a motor vehicle law that'll that'll come into effect July 19th. They gave a six-month grace period to get us and to educate, you know, the uh the
communities of what these new changes to the laws are. And July 19th, those motor vehicle laws will come into effect. We would be able to effectively enforce those laws. >> Okay. And I know that's um very helpful. I know a lot of the um our young
residents have a lot of questions about um ebikes and uh the motorized scooters. So, um, if the department can work with the communications team, um, to put that information out, make sure that the residents have that and
>> and there is a difference between an ebike and one of the motorized scooters. Correct. >> Okay. >> And they are and I I agree they are dangerous. You know, some of them go up to 354 miles an hour and they don't they they ride them like recklessly.
>> Yeah, they do. Um, so I guess we'll, you know, do our best, continue to do your best with the youth and make sure that that information goes out, um, so that, uh, students and ebike riders, motor scooters riders have that information as
a new law. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I believe we've already put stuff stuff out on our our social media, but I'll make sure I'll get with Miss Jackson. I think that might have been all for that. That was this speed meeting. The
Jaguars meeting. All right. I think that was all for the police. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> uh, Chief Bucks. >> Um, and can we talk about the groundhogs? We had a couple residents talk about groundhogs on their property.
Um, Miss Carmichael, is there a policy with our um animal control or um Oh, Chief, that might still be you. >> So, our our animal control, they do not they don't deal with uh they deal with
domestic animals. They do not deal with um with wild animals. You know, we have we get we get calls for the grounds. We get calls for, you know, birds in the attic. That's that's pest control. That's that wasn't even even when we had our own animal control, that wasn't something that they did. Um, it's pest
control. So, anything groundhog related, mice related, you know, we've gotten calls for, you know, raccoons, you know, in in the attic, birds in the attic, squirrels, though, that is that's pest control. It's not animal control. It's nothing that we, you know, we'll respond out there and give that information if
somebody calls us. But, yeah, it's it's pest control. >> Okay. Madame Mayor, >> go ahead. Um I'm I'm sorry we can't take comments from the audience at this time. Go ahead, Councilwoman. >> So I just want to add to um Chief Chief's comments. Um I recently had a
situation. So I have birds in my attic. So I did call the police and they came out animal control animal control came out. The first thing that they do is a police officer comes to your house and inspect to see if if it's something that we would they would handle. So like
chief said um dogs, cats, things like that. Um, however, anything that's a wild animal, you would call New Jersey Animal Control and they work out something with you where they come out, inspect it, and they will take care of um what they need to do cuz they are the
professionals. So, um if an animal was dead in your property um like um a deer or or um what is it? The um the groundhog, the animal control can pick it up and take it. But if it's alive and
disturbing your property, that's when you were called New Jersey Animal Control. And um they were very responsive. They're still working with me. So just wanted to share my um recent story um about that. >> All right. Thank you, Councilwoman.
>> Um we had a question about the government process. Um so yes, Mr. Pal, thank you for coming this evening. We are under the Faulner act here in this uh municipality. So we have five council members as you can see. Um each are
elected to the council and then the council selects amongst um ourselves who will represent uh the council as the mayor and deputy mayor. Um we don't have a strong mayor system. So with that um the
council has to vote on the issues. um the mayor uh does not uh or the council even for that matter does not interact directly with the um employees, direct the employees to do that. All that is
done through the township manager. Um so we're under the Faulner Act. It's called the mayor or the council manager form of government. So if you should need more information on that, you can grab some um from the municipal clerk's office.
Um there was also a question about uh township phone numbers not picking up. Miss Carmichael, I know um we've been working on or doing some maintenance on the phone system. Would you be able to talk about that? >> Yes. And I can follow up with our office
and then um have a complete answer back to you. But that is something that we're working on. I am not I don't have the phone sheet memorized. So I'm not able to say what press one, two, five. I can't give you a direct answer so I'm not but we will look at what departments those are but that is under construction
so we it will be coming soon to be a new phone system >> and um Mr. Pal, if you can make sure that our clerk has your information, email address and phone number so that we'll be able to get back our deputy clerk, Miss Scott. Um, we'll be able to
get back to you with uh that information that >> Madame Mayor. >> Yes. >> Just regarding the um the form of governance, additionally, uh so the form of governance um each council member is voted by the community
uh and they serve a four-year term. So amongst the body of the five they amongst themselves pick one person to represent as mayor and deputy mayor. Typically they pick whoever they like. Um you can see that right? Okay. So the
mayor the mayor is considered a superficial title. Uh what she or he does is they do operate in setting the agenda for this meeting. uh they more on a daily basis work with the township manager to make sure that they've contacted the attorney and gotten
everything that we're going to discuss at this very same meeting. And um that's pretty much um how it's ran in this. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. >> All right. Um there was also some
questions about um from Miss Green about the um governance or I guess issues that are happening in written house. I also am a resident of written house and I understand your frustration. Um unfortunately
there is a line between what the township can control and what the HOA can control. Um the HOA I can't speak too much about it. Um but there are some things happening in HOA and they uh were mandated to have uh
some elections just recently. Those elections got rescheduled for I think the third time um and they did not take place. So, um, written house residents, there are some folks, um, that are getting together to discuss the issue.
Um, and I suggest you contact, uh, any of the information that has been, uh, given out in that, uh, park to, uh, discuss some of the issues and what's going on in the HOA. Uh, Mr. Augustus, you had a question
about uh, the water bill. So, here in Willingboro, we have three separate entities. We have the school board um that are separately elected. We have the Willingboro municipal the W MUA Willingboro municipal utilities
authority authority um who are appointed members that uh govern over the water source and our utility authority and then we also have the township council. So the um water authority does have
their own separate meetings where they talk about all the issues um and and any challenges with the system. They can answer your questions um more fully there and um Miss Scott, our deputy clerk, will be able to get you the
information over there. Their website is wua.info info if you want to see what's going on um in the water authority and have any questions on that end. Uh there was another groundhog and then
the retaining wall. Um Miss Carmichael would Mr. Tonsel maybe be able to come up and speak to that. Do you know anything about that? Okay. If you don't know anything about it, maybe you can um get the information.
>> Okay. At the mic. >> An issue pertaining to property lines are typically civil issues that are resolved between both property owners. Yes. Can I finish?
We can assess whether or not an item is on the property line, but in terms of any type of legal actions, that has to be a civil matter. Uh I haven't been made aware of an issue with a retainer wall, but if there is something we can
do, we can help them review their their uh surveys and try to give them an opinion. However, it becomes a civil matter. >> Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chancell. And uh Mr. Augustus, if you
could make sure that the comment card uh >> if the comment card can be given to the clerk, then then um we can make sure you get the contact information for inspections department and be able to discuss the
issue further. All right. Um, Miss Brown had a uh made a comment about the Veterans Parkway dip. The dip in the road on Veterans Parkway. Veterans Parkway is a county road, but um, Miss Carmichael, I know they're doing some work on that.
>> Yes. And I can, as long as the clerk has her information, we can get back to her. I know that DIP has come up in discussion to be placed on the list for remediation. So we are aware and we'll look into that and I will get back to you. >> Okay.
Thank you. Um the medium maintenance the me the maintenance of the medians is underway. Um we had lengthy discussion about it uh here at the council meetings and um public works has been out there edging
putting uh raking up the dead grass, putting down uh fertilizer and um compost to build up the soil around the edge after years of damage. Um I see them out there when I drive around town.
So it is being remediated. It isn't going to happen overnight. Um, but uh, Department of Public Works is working on that. Uh, Miss Mallerie, you had a question about a checkmate payment to Mr. uh,
Bravogal. And, um, I had the same question. I'm not even going to lie to you. I saw that on the bills list and I had the same question. Um but our employees after they retire they do um get a health insurance stipen that's for
all um employees that retire from the township and that's what that check was. Am I correct Miss Carmichael? >> So reoccurring >> I'm sorry. >> You're correct. >> Okay. So is Mr. Can you got to come up
to the mic ma'am? Retirees who have worked here for 20 or more years uh get 50% of the health care reimbured. >> Okay. And is that a monthly payment? >> Yeah, it all depends how frequently they send a bill to get reimbursed.
>> Okay. >> Thank you. All right. A little bit about um the budget meetings. Yes, we did um have the budget discussions um and reviews at 400 p.m. Um we've had
them at 4 p.m. for the last few years. Those meetings are also that it's an introduction and a discussion, but those meetings are also available online and um the township manager as well as the staff is open for discussion at any time
throughout um throughout the week and at any time during budget meetings. So, it's not the only time that we discuss the budget, but it is a time that we um have live public discussion, but it is open to any council member um to discuss
further, make an appointment with the township manager um and discuss the budget uh separately to air their concerns, thoughts um and anything like that. Um the planners next, >> Madame Mayor, with the budget meetings.
So, the budget meetings that were held at 4:00, I did express that um part of this position, it's a part-time position, which is why we we meet at 7:00 p.m. I did express that at 400 p.m. I'm at my daytime job. I did express
that we have technology that we pay for so this way we can have intra dialogue where I can speak if I'm observing the meeting. You voted not to move forward with dialogue via Zoom. Thirdly, those
meetings that took place are not available virtually because when I went home, I did try to play it back. They're not up there. None of them are. Okay. So, not only did you exile the community from speaking during the budget meeting, you also did not allow it to be a
available to even view. And what you said at the last meeting was, "Email me your questions." So, I think you're doing the community a disservice by continuing to ignore the fact that they want to speak. They want to have input about the budget. And honestly, I want their input, too, because we're just five people. We are
one community. Yes, we're elected here. It's five, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of intelligent people here as well. So, a dialogue on what we would like to see with our money. I think we should do better as far as engaging them and making it available at 7 o'clock when we discuss the budget and not at
four o'clock when the community is at work providing for their families so they can pay the high taxes. So, wanted to add that to the discussion because this is not the first time you've heard me say that. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. >> You're welcome. Also, speaking of um the Well, I'll come back to that. Um, we had
some planters. Um, a question about planters from Miss Mallerie. Um, Miss Carmichael, if you would, uh, talk to DBW about the planters uh, next to St. Paul's Church. >> Yes.
Um, we had another questions about uh taxes, uh, money from lawsuits and, uh, like the breakdown of money. Um, so
just for public knowledge, the tax rate is made up of a number of different entities. is it's the municipal tax. It's also the county tax, um the library tax, as well as the school tax. I will tell you because I've been working on
this budget for um and on this council for the last seven years, over the last four years, the municipal tax has either gone down slightly or stayed flat. And we've worked very diligently to do that. Um, on the other hand, the schoolboard
tax has noted and the schoolboard tax has gone up, which negates the effect that we've been trying to have in maintaining flat m municipal taxes. Um, the appearance is that we keep raising taxes because the schoolboard tax
continues to go up and it's anticipated another um increase this year. So, I understand the frustration. I am also frustrated because we put a lot of work into trying to balance the budget into trying to um optimize the expenses and
it's not felt by the community because the county tax goes up and the schoolboard tax goes up. So yes, I am also frustrated as well um with the tax rate, but that is how the tax is broken down. If you have questions on the schoolboard tax, those have to go to
those elected officials that are over at the school board managing the school budget. We pay the school board what they are owed in taxes because that is how the taxes are collected. The taxes are collected by the municipality and then we make a payment to the school
district. But all of the taxes that you pay, whether it is school, whether it is county, whether it's the municipal tax, all comes into the municipality and then gets paid out to the other entities. Um
there I think well yes you can if you have any questions on lawsuits money how those um lawsuit payments have broken down you can put in an open through our um clerk's office and they will be able to get that information for you. Um and
then there was a question about veterans using handicap parking spots. Um, I'm not sure if you have any information on that, Miss Carmichael, but if we need to, we can get back to Miss Crane on that. >> Yeah, we can get back. I would I do need a little bit more clarity on what
specifically she's speaking to. >> Okay. Um, if you can just make sure that we have your contact information, the clerk has your contact information so that we can discuss. So, >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Green. Um, so if
we have your contact information, we'll be able to um speak with you a little more in depthly or yeah, a little more fully about the uh handicap parking spots. Um, and then Miss Holly, you had a question about um, Citizens Bank. I
did um, talk to the administration. We use TD Bank, so we do not use um, Citizens Bank. Um, I'm glad I get a clap from you today. That makes me feel good. Um um so yes, we we are not into that whole
citizens uh bank issue. Um and I'm I'm glad that we're not, especially with the issues that you laid out. So yes, it's um very concerning what people are supporting at this time. We especially don't support um ICE raids and
unsanctioned uh activity. ICE activity within our municipality. Um, and our police are always alerted to when ICE is active. Um, sometimes I will have to say sometimes it's not always ICE.
Um, sometimes it may be a SWAT operation or um the FBI that is conducting a search. So, I know we've had some reports of ICE within the community. Some of those were police operations from other agencies and not ICE. Um, so just for that information.
Um, all right. Council, did I miss anything? I got pretty much everything. All right. >> All right. Thank you all for the comments. We'll have to talk to you after because public comment is over. I'm sorry, Mr. Pow. I wish I could, but I can't.
Um, so with that, we will go to council comment. Any council comment? All right, Councilwoman F. >> Thank you. So, um, our last meeting was May 5th, which was actually Cinco de
Mayo's day. Unfortunately, the mayor decided to talk about a council meeting and not recognize a group of people who um, we are so proud to recognize them. So, Cinco de Mayo, I will attempt to do that this evening. Cinco de Mayo. It's
celebrated based off of 1862 when there was a French war when the French invaded Mexico and Mexico having being the smaller army beat and defeated the French. So in America they started recognizing it and it started in
California in 1983 to celebrate their victory and how amazing they were at their battle. Then um we started celebrating all over the US. So now it's known as a national holiday. So but it's not their independence day just so
people understand that as well that it's not the Mexican um independence day but it is a time that we recognize how they were amazing and strong and beat the crap out of the French at that time. Okay. So according to her statement she
said it's about inclusion. Single deio is not about inclusion. Single de Mayo is exactly what I just said. It's about celebrating their victory. So, madame mayor, before you write a statement, again, that must be voted on by the the community. That's another point about
the five. Nobody singularly goes and makes a public statement about anyone, regardless of your feelings about the council member. I know that you don't really care for me very much, but again, if you want to write a statement about anybody, you must get it voted at this
meeting and not in your own opinion. And before you read about any nationality's history and recognize their celebration, open up some history books and bring the facts because also who are who are the
experts with landscaping? Research that too. That's at the April 17th meeting. Okay. No apologies needed. Miss Green. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Peron. Any other
uh council comment? Deputy Mayor Worthy. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I just wanted to let the community know that the work of Wenboroough Township happens beyond just the meetings um on first and third Tuesdays at 7 PM. Council members
are available via phone and via email. If you have questions or concerns, if you see something on the agenda and you'd like to discuss it, um, you can always reach out. Um, if you have, um, questions about the process or how to become an elected official, you can
reach out to us. My email is tworthywillingboroenj.gov and everyone else's contact information is on the website as well and I encourage residents to continue to get involved and stay involved. Welcome to those whose uh first time is coming out
tonight. Um and we look forward to seeing more of you coming out to ask your questions. Um, if you're interested, like I said, in having more conversation beyond the four minutes, we're available beyond just the meeting so that you can um you can ask your
questions and um help us to be part of the solution and solving some of the challenges that we have in Willingboro. Believe it or not, we are one team. We are one council and our goal is to work together to serve the residents. While we have different approaches, some of us
like to do everything on first and third Tuesdays, others try to do some things um before the meeting. We all just work different. We have different approaches, different styles, but the goal is to serve Willenboro residents and to make sure that our community is a place that
we can be proud of, a place where we're able to bring businesses, where our community can flourish. So, it is a common mission and a common vision, a common goal. how we get there is sometimes we have um some uh creative tension but the goal still remains the
same and that is to create a community that we're all proud of. Thank you, Madam Mayor. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor Worthy. Any other council comment? >> Oh, um you already um January 1st, 2027, there are three seats that will be vacant. So if you're interested with
your petitions in it, >> that's I wanted just to add that January 1st, 2027, three seats will be vacant at the council. >> Petitions will be due April 20, 2007. >> All right, great. Thank you, Councilwoman Pora. You're welcome. Um
so, uh I know we had a lot of uh new faces here tonight. I want to say welcome and my time for uh public comment. Thank you for coming out. Um, I wasn't born in Willingboro, but I've been in Willingboro since I was four years old. I'm a product of the
Willingboro school system. I care deeply about this town. I went back to school and got my master's degree in city planning and community and economic development for this um for this town because I was inspired by um the work
that I uh didn't see happening on the council. Um, and I s helped successfully pass a new master plan this year using the education that um, I was inspired to go get because of what was happening in
this town. Um, I will just address some of the things that um, were just accused of me. I did acknowledge Senco Deayo at the last meeting. I did not say that it was about inclusion. I did not say that it was Mexican Independence Day. And I I
realize that some of the council members have made statements that were um insensitive and um in poor taste about certain ethnic groups in our community. They were called to the carpet about
that and now they're trying to uh deflect the attention to get the heat off of them about that by I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is your poor. Sorry. This is my time. You had your time posted. You said it's about inclusion. Please read what you posted. >> And I and I didn't say that the
statement that was not about inclusion, nor is it about meeting. >> Did you vote to post a statement about me? Now you want respect. Yeah. Respect begins respect. So what so what I what was posted was a
statement correct not that I made at the council meeting. Not about you said I did acknowledge the conclusion of all people. Please, please, no more. I I don't want to hear any more garbage out of your mouth. >> What I'd like to say is that you get >> You want to make a statement.
>> What I say, what I would say is that your statement get the say nothing more. You get the >> nothing more. >> Councilwoman Peron, I gave you respect. I allowed you. You talked lies about a celebration of Cinco de Mayo and now you
want respect. Please earn it. Counciloman, earn it. I'm not going to repeat it. about that community. >> I've already made it clear. >> I'm not going to be clear about that community, but it's not about you. But I digress. >> Yes. I'd like to I'd like to finish my count.
>> It depends on what you say. >> It depends. >> I allowed you to have your about me anywhere. >> Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Have a good night. >> To encourage you to not just come tonight. Don't make this about tonight. There are things that are happening and
I'll tell you it's not for dollars and I sometimes pick up the trash when you only come to one meeting you only get the a snippet of one episode that's all they're going to encourage you I encourage you to stay for the entire seasonary
you to follow the stage from the board week after week when people do not engage with >> when you don't know what's going on you're only going to hear partial >> come on one meeting when it's time to vote on an issue I just hope you finally know what single de is about
>> to follow the full season meeting about real life council meeting and willing to to make your decision about who we are and who cares about this community and who does not $7,000 years and things only started happening
with your change for coming tonight we do have executive session u madam deputy clerk Before we do executive session, I'd like to extend the meeting for another 30 minutes. Mr. H.
>> All right. 30 minutes until um 10:30. >> Second. Moved by Councilman Anderson, seconded by Deputy Mayor um Deputy Mayor Worthy. Um all in favor? No.
>> Any opposed? Yes. All right. Um, because we had an opposition, let's do a roll call, Madame Cler. >> Councilwoman Peron, >> no. >> Councilman Anderson, Councilwoman Macintosh, >> yes.
>> Dr. Excuse me. Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy, >> yes. >> And Mayor Whitfield, >> yes. >> Thank you. Now, the um resolution for executive session. >> Yes. Can I get a motion for resolution authorizing a closed executive session in accordance with the New Jersey Open Meetings Act for the matters of
personnel, attorney client privileges? >> Um, no, not personnel. Okay. Attorney client privileges. Can I get a motion to go into executive contracts? >> Second. >> All right. Roll call. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Peron, >> no.
>> Councilman Anderson. Councilwoman Macintosh. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Dr. Worthy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Whitfield. >> Yes. >> I'd just like to point out who's staying for executive session and who's not. Madame Deputy Clair.
>> Yes. May I get a motion to come out of executive session? Moved by Councilman Anderson, seconded by Councilwoman Mintosh. Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions?
All right. Uh we have no decisions after uh coming out of executive session. So I ask I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Moved by council Peron, seconded by counciloman Macintosh. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed?
Any abstensions? Good night Will. The time is now 10:31 and Willenboro council meeting