meeting call to order council member Bez Anderson here council member Chapman here council member Clayton here Deputy Mayor Quinn here mayor Moore here please stand for a silent prayer moment of [Music] reflection will now salute the flag I pledge aliance 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 ask to comply with the open public meetings act chapter 231 pl1 1975 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner the annual notice is forwarded to the Asbury Park Press the coaster and the Star Ledger on January 22nd 2024 and posted on the bulletin board the same date all notices are on file with the city clerk we're on to special events [Music] applications good evening mayor and Council there are six applications before you uh just one of them is new and the new one is the first Friday of the month art and music which will will be held in Transportation Center that would be beginning in September 6 the first Friday through December and the other applications are returning with no changes from previous years any questions SOA who's who's putting on the first Friday that's um Cassandra and Cultural Arts committee or whatever yes want to get that out there oh okay thank you thank you you all right we're now on to items to be presented we have a presentation by Harry Delgado who's a program director of New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police this is a reaccreditation certificate Harry I I come here tonight to recognize the police department because they have actually reached the reaccreditation for the second time and I emphasize that because it's very important out of all the agencies in Mr New Jersey that would be El to apply for accreditation um about 54% I made it once about 32% I made it two times of those that I made it twice in terms of accreditation for a very exclusive group of less than 12% of all the agencies in the state of New Jersey that made that commitment to Poli that is to adher to B practices so if you indulging for 2 minutes even though I done several times I don't know it by part I'd like to share with you the significance of the achievement so the ash rep Police Department have once again made a commitment adhering to best practices at the state and National level in a highly regarded Statewide law enforcement accreditation program this program administered to the New Jersey State Association and Chiefs of police and the New Jersey Law Enforcement accreditation commission has s to transparently demonstrate the professionalism and prepar of States law enforcement agencies it is purposefully designed to enhance professionalism in fansing the state's public safety system and we would all agree that during this uniquely challenging times and the threat to health and safety encouraging LW enforce agency to follow standardized practices and policies such a potential life saving and cost effective investment of time and resources creation gives an agency a prepar plan a verification of excellence and I won't go into details just to Simply tell you that in the state of New Jersey is 112 standards and out of those may require multiple rules of compliance perhaps over 400 so is a very labor intense process that actually holds the uh the agency accountable to us as the crediting body and to you as the government body I just before I close I want to paraphrase some of what was said in that report at the end of that three those three years we have an onside assessment and basically we come here and we try to look for um items are not compliance I must say that in the case of the police department we didn't find any which is you know is a rarity so that's that's clearly remarkable so I like to say under the leadership of Chief uh gu Thompson high level of competence leadership professionalism is evident with the agency this is evident in the over 12 initial initiatives that they currently consider that excuse me are currently under consideration for future uh as future reaches for the agency this range from contined adhering of best practices to the welfare of their own employees officers and staff to community engagement and certainly technology I think that that's remarkable that's what we consider having a strategic uh plan so it is the opinion of the assessment them that the SB Park Police Department is a highly professional committed agency which exemplifies of the tenants of law enforcement agation at the state and National level for is indeed my honor here tonight on behalf of New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police and the Jersey Law Enforcement creditation commission congratulate Chief guy Thompson creditation manager Michael Casey and members of the Asbury Park Police Department the mayor the council and those citiz in that theyo are proudly serve for achieving their second reaccreditation joining a very very exclusive group of law enforcement agencies and I made that commitment to ex polies so to all indeed congratulations this is where you get the CL police dep thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you you want to say well yeah only that uh obviously it takes teamwork the officers have to buy it takes a lot of extra money that the city is uh paid for to make this happen as far as like technology and stuff we uh in order to implement these things we push this out again the officers have to buy in they have to follow these policies and that's where we uh get the proofs for the accreditation standards Mike did a lot of hard work with this Sergeant Casey I think he deserves a round toose more than thank you Mar we appreciate the I'm sorry I just want to Mark dri here actually helps a lot too so he actually for him he keeps us in check doing our things too so thank you everybody appreciate thanks okay thank you Harry uh we're now on our presentation by our Municipal auditor daveid Ganon from pkf o Conor D and our CFO Joanne boo uh of the 2023 municipal audit it's already on I'm sorry uh so good evening everybody just make sure Arrow right arrow right [Applause] the Arrow's not working not working start talk I [Music] get I forgot to [Music] awesome thanks I'm going try it like that so it just arrowed to the right just can't do a full screen got it thanks all right good evening everybody even uh so just to go through the uh annual order for this past year 2023 uh first I always like to recognize the staff of the city uh because you know we come in for about four weeks during the audit we request a lot of information uh so their daily uh routines are disrupted obviously and we always appreciate their cooperation and professionalism throughout the audit uh this what has been filed in accordance with the statutory deadline this year we're here a little bit early the last five years or so because of the effects of covid uh the statutory deadlines been um Extended each year it's either August 31st or September 30th uh this year you as we move out of co uh back to June 30th uh so we have filed the uh report in accordance with the deadline the stat story deadline uh just some brief objectives of you know what our objectives are for the audit sometimes there's different audits uh forensic operational but you know we're we're being engaged to do a financial statement audit uh so we're we're we're ating the financial statements to make sure they're in accordance with uh the requirements of the division local government services uh one of the other items that we have to do because of the federal and state funding that you receive is that we have to also do our order inord with the government ordering standards that requires a separate report uh to those charters of governance uh and if there's any significant items that we would the report those would be communicated and writing in that report uh in addition the because of the level of federal funding were also required to perform a specific Federal compliance single audit uh so we look at inome controls and compliance and we provide an actual opinion on whether the city complied with that uh we have certain standards that we have to uh follow uh there's auding standards accept the United States uh there's order requirements described by government Waring standards which is issued by the com patroller General of the United States uh as well as Federal uniform guidance uh and you know some sometimes not not very widely known but us as Auditors we're also audited uh we're required to have a a peer review done by another accounting firm every 3 years to review our work papers and processes uh as well as internal inspections by other partners in my offices look at our engagements every year to make sure again we're following appropriate standards as far as the audit results uh regarding uh the city's financial statements we've issued an unmodified opinion uh in accordance with the regulatory basis of accounting so unmodified meaning a clean opinion uh the city's following all the requirements from a financial St perspective uh that the division prescribes uh we found the financial records overall an excellent condition uh we didn't have any issues in which the city was not was was not able to provide us support uh supporting those balances and transactions all that information was being was was provided and we found that the city overoll is in strong financial position uh the current fun fund balance at the end of the year was $1 million compared to 10.7 the year before and again you have to remember that you know part of using you use fund balance every year to balance the budget you know in 2023 it was about 6.3 million uh but the city was also able to have other revenues uh restore that fund balance amounts in order to continue to use in in in in subsequent years uh buiness Revenue anticipated $2.4 million prior Appropriations that had not been spent that lapsed of 2.7 uh then overall from a budget perspective uh there was $1.8 million of of revenues that exceeded budget amounts uh and all that kind of assist in rebuilding that 6.3 million do that was utilized as part of the budget process for 2023 the city has three utility funds uh the first one the SE Utility Fund the fund balance was $6.5 Million at the end of the year uh an increase over the 3.8 from the prior year uh for several years the SE utilities fund balance was was rather low uh some of the Debt Service uh was paid off uh has kind of made the Su to fund fund balance higher than than prior years uh also the sewer connection fees in 2023 were a little over $2 million the Beach utility funds fund balance was 7.9 million an increase of about 900,000 uh Beach SE were about we about a million do in excess of what was anticipated in the budget uh and important to note that the Beach utility also contributed $700,000 to the current fund operations uh the transportation Transportation Utility Fund balance was $15.3 Million uh which was fairly s you know similar from the prior year uh $3.2 million of parking fees were in excess of what was anticipated in the budget and again very important to note $4.9 million was contributed to the current fund to fund current fund operations tax collection rate continues to be over 99 uh% at 99.95 uh the city continues to have an Accelerated Tax though each year uh the net debt of the city was $41.5 million or 1.65% uh of assess average assess valuation St statutory limit of that is 3.5 so the city's you know well below the the statutory limits uh for debt uh and $ 46.5 million remains of as far as bar borrowing power [Music] goes I mentioned that we do a report course goverment warning standards you know in that if there's any significant findings that we thought were more material weaknesses or sign deficiencies we would communicate it there I'm happy report that we didn't find any such uh deficiencies that we thought were that significant as I mentioned we also did a federal single audit and we we we we we looked at uh the ARP Grant uh we found and and CB Grant and we found that uh the state was complying in all respects we issued an unmodified opinion on compliance uh as it Rel to the federal single audit we do do a lot of different various testing of internal controls and uh different statutory Provisions uh that the state prescribes uh so we do offer uh typically when we do our audits uh other findings other matters uh other other uh suggestions for improvement uh so in that we' we've we've included four items that we uh set forth and provided as comments that the city is going to take corrective action on uh the one was there was one instance uh so we test multiple uh transactions when it comes to local public contracts law but we found one instance where uh an item wasn't um publicly contracted and department and a contract was provided uh without public bding uh we found another instance within Financial records where um a chapter 159 where you know a insertion of Revenue expense during the year uh was recorded in the financial records but that resolution did not go to the governing body for approval and therefore then wasn't approved by the state it it was a mishap uh we found instances where purchase orders were or orders were um made without purchase orders being first established uh those are considered confirming orders or you know traditionally what they're called uh it's a pretty common common finding throughout the state uh there was only two that we found but we thought it was worth mentioning uh and then just the overall compensated app the ACW sick and vacation compensated ABS since leave for the police department is a very manual uh process and we thought that would you know strengthen the integrity the the the records by having an automated system uh which is my understanding that uh the puring Departments is preparing our P already correct that you know take corrective action on that um and with that there's any questions i' be more than happy to [Music] answer no I thank you for uh the report thank Joan for and her staff for working together with you and uh I would say it's not a bad audit report not I question no at the public session any other questions yeah just have them hang okay we're good so if you just stick around in case the public have any questions that you might be able to answer okay and that'll be coming right up and then after that understood you can take them off no problem thank you thank you thank thank you thank you [Music] we're now on public participation may have a motion to open meeting to the public move to open second all favor I public participation is now open any member of the public who wishes to speak please use the microphone state your name and address for the record there will be a three minute time limit for each speaker yeah we should probably mention that that you know just it should be mentioned that this the audit report is on the count on the city website if you would like to see it it's in PDF form correct not okay thank you I have two questions read eth Avenue uh one of them is I didn't hear what the bonded and indebtedness was of the city that's number one and number two do you look at all the compensation time too when you do the report how many people get compensation sick leave and vacation those the two question one answer so it wasn't one of the slides but maybe I went through too quick um the net debt of the city so that's a little bit different that doesn't include the utility debt because it's not included in the stat story calculation the net debt of the city was $41.5 million or 1.6% of uh three years average equalized value and in the statute 3.5% is the limit 3% what of average equalized valuation right so the city's 2% under the maximum allow that allows in 46.5 million of additional borrowing power right and then as far as your second question go you do uh perform test of control or compensation and related it it's it's not 100% testing it's random sampling and then we ensure that those sample the S are being paid according to orance baring agreement but again this a financial statement order it's not a forensic or operational those Scopes and objectives are different wow that it that's it cuz uh that's kind of a loose operation people write out their own sick they used to I don't know if that's the way it is but anyway I the other thing I wanted to ask you about was being you don't do a thorough study of that uh don't you think he should there's a lot of money and you know there we had a problem with that years ago where people were getting money after they left so I don't know that's I know that's been corrected but it wasn't in an ordit and by the way it how many pages is the audit it's very hard to read on the it can we get a hard copy thank you so 194 Carrie Butch 500 deal Lake Drive can you tell me the public contract that was awarded that should have been publicly announced can you tell me that contract who received the the contract and how much was it for I think it was it was it was through the uee I want to say it was about $64,000 yeah and it was I think the company that got it was KET MH okay all right thank you thank you it was related to maid in Asbury Park remember the event made in Asbury Park at at the Berkeley see no other questions motion to close Mo to close second all in favor public participation portion is now closed thank you David thank you hi Dave thank you right we're now on to the minutes I've had the executive meeting and regular meeting minutes of the July 17th meeting may have a motion second second council member buz Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes we now on to consent agenda resolutions all matters listed on the consent agenda are presented collectively to the city council and will be considered for approval with one vote these matters are considered to be routine in nature and there will be no individual discussion of these items if discussion is desired by one or more council members as to any particular item then said item shall be removed from the consent agenda considered separately on consent agenda tonight we have resolutions 2024 366 through 2024 370 and 2024 380 do I have a motion move it second council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes we're now on to individual resolutions I have resolution 224 371 resolution approving payment of bills move second council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes resolution 202 4372 resolution authorizing a Professional Services contract with tnm Associates for professional engineering design and construction Administration and inspection services at First Avenue roadway improvements move it second council member Bez Anderson yes council member chap yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes resolution 2024 373 resolution authorizing execution of a shared services agreement with Eaton Town sewage Authority for technical Rescue Services move it second Council memberz Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes resolution 2024 374 resolution requesting permission for the dedication by Ryder for lead based paint Inspection Services required by njsa 5227 D- 43716 move it second council member bz Anderson council member Chapman yes counc member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor MO yes resolution 2024 375 resolution adopting a corrective action plan in response to the recommendations contained in the 2023 report of audit and summary of Prior year findings and recommendations move second Council memberz Anderson yes council member chap yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Clinton yes mayor Moore yes resolution 2024 376 resolution accepting the 2023 Municipal audit mve second council member bz Anderson council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes resolution 2024 377 resolution of the mayor and City Council of the city of ASB Park authorizing the city of Asbury Park to enter into a redeveloper agreement with Asbury Avenue owners LLC regarding a mixed use project on property located at 1012 Asbury Avenue identified on the city tax map as block 501 Lots 1 and two move it second council member Bez Anderson thank okay thank you yes thank you council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Clayton yes mayor Moore yes resolution 2024 378 resolution of the mayor and City Council of the city of Asbury Park authorizing the city of Asbury Park to enter into a financial agreement with the Asbury Avenue owners LLC for an hmfa tax exemption for the Mixed use project on property located at 1012 Asbury Avenue identified on the city tax map as block 501 ls12 move it second council member Bez member Chapman yes council member F yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor M [Applause] no resolution 2024 379 resolution authorizing appointments to the Asbury Park TV committee the appointee is Danielle bulock with a term to expire January 15 2027 moov second council member Bez Anderson obain council member chap yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes resolution 20 24 381 resolution authorizing Union County cooperative pricing system membership move it second council member abz Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes resolution 2024 382 resolution of the mayor and Council of the city of Asbury Park acting as a Redevelopment entity authorizing a temporary cellular installation on the property located at block 4104 lot 13 this is 210 5th Avenue within the Waterfront Development Area move second council member Bez Anderson council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes depy mayor Quinn yes mayor moris yes we're now on to ordinances for introduction ordinance 2024 27 ordinance establishing restricted parking space for use by handicapp persons in the city of Asbury Park along Grand Avenue and amending and supplementing section 7-36 entitled handicapped parking of chapter 7 traffic of the revised General ordinances of the city of Asbury Park New Jersey with a public hearing date of August 14th 2024 do I have a motion move it second Council memberz Anderson yes council member chap yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes we're now on to Second reading of ordinances public hearings this ordinance 20242 ordinance establishing a restricted parking space for use of by handicap persons in the city of asber Park an amending and supplementing section 7-36 entitled handicap parking of chapter 7 traffic of the revised General ordinances of the city of asra Park New Jersey um so brief overview of this ordinance at the request of a resident uh the request of this handicap parking space was reviewed verified and approved by our transportation director James Bano and the police department this handicap parking space will be located in front of 510 Su Avenue which is located 209 ft east of the southeast corner of su Avenue and Grand Avenue may have a motion to open up the public hearing on ordinance 20242 move to open second second all in favor I public on ordinance 20242 is now open any member of the public who wishes to speak please use state your name and address for the record use the microphone your comments may be regarding regarding ordinance 20242 only one second well Peter plants uh good evening to all uh I'm laughing CU kind of synopsis your name and address sir I'm sorry your name and address Peter plants for Pine Tree Lane in alipin New Jersey Peter plants thank you okay good evening to all basically we need help on this rent leveling issue okay sir we are just sir I'm sorry your your comments may be regarding this ordinance only this is a public hearing on on a handicapp parking space do I get to speak at any time that that had just passed that was the public portion where Rita just spoke over so I won't be able to speak anymore the public participation portion was open and then no one else spoke after the two people spoke so we Clos that portion so close so I can't speak tonight you don't want to hear my John my dvance or anything well corre arent level it's okay correct I can read my little synopsis for you you you can leave you can leave it with us and we'll get back to you tomorrow no no no you got to hear me you raised my taxes 40% and then you come on you got to hear me out we we opened the public portion and well I'm a little harder hearing so there's no acceptance I got to come back next month right two weeks is that what you want me to do two weeks I see the cooperation here W is on the wall but meanwhile you can you can leave it with us no I don't want to leave it with you I'm I'm going to tell it to you okay since you don't have time for me 3 minutes right 3 minutes everyone of your life don't have time the public it's not ridiculous public Ric all good I just have a question about the handicap go ahead if you talk in the public handicap do you have to pay if you're you know like be if you have a handicap cler I believe not you not correct John right correct correct because a lot of people don't know that have a handicap I think motion to close second all in favor I public hearing on 2024-25 is now closed may have a motion to adopt 202442 move to adop Second uh council member abz Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes thank you we're now on to ordinance 2024 26 this is B ordinance providing for the acquisition of various vehicles and Capital Equipment appropriating $3,975,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 3,7 77625 in bonds and notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof authorized in and by the city of Asbury Park in the county of M state of New Jersey our CFO Joanne boo will provide a brief overview of this ordinance uh this is to buy various vehicles and equipment for our fire department it Department police and DPW thank you thank you Joan may have a motion to open up the public hearing on ordinance 202 2426 move to open second all in favor I public hearing on ordinance 20 2426 is now open if anyone would like to speak on 2024 26 please use the microphone how many vehicles is that for which department many which department oh yeah well how many for the fire department one what is it what is it well there's actually two comfor truck and command vehicle and where's the other Police Department police are going to 10 police vehicles but we are replacing we are replacing 10 old ones that go back as far as 2003 that are pretty much falling apart 10 of them correct you haven't purchased anything in two years I don't know it seems like that's that's the read That's the maximum if everything was bought at the maximum price hopefully the prices will be a lot less than what you see the 3.5 million and nothing can be bought without it coming back and US voting yes on it so it would be on individual resolution well you'd be surprised motion to close second all in favor I public hearing on ordinance 2024 26 is now closed may have a motion to adopt ordinance 2024 26 move to adopt second council member Bez Anderson council member Chapman council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes no one has anything else I will take a motion to adjourn second all in favor thank you everyone meeting is now adjourned you're welcome