meeting call to order Council memberz Anderson here council member Chapman here council member clayon here Deputy Mayor twin here mayor here please stand for silent prayer B [Music] reflection we will now salute the flat PL toag the United States of America stand na indivisible withy and Justice all as to comply with the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 adequate notes of this meeting has been provided in the following manner the anual notice was forwarded to the Asbury Park Press the coaster and the Star Ledger on January 22nd 2024 posted on the bulletin board the same day all notices are on file with the city clerk moving on proclamations I'd like to announce that we have Proclamation recognizing April 26 as Harbor day and we are now on special fent applications from Recreation director [Music] Bishop good evening mayor and Council uh all the applications before you are returning events and in addition to that we have three wedding applications are there any questions on any of them any questions it's not thank you thank you okay thank you we're now on to a presentation by director of Transportation James banano for the complete streets policy [Applause] update on yes good evening everybody hello Council hello members of the public I'm just here to give you a presentation on a complete treats policy update that we are doing here at the city we have a complete treats uh policy that we adopted a few uh years back and every few years we do a revamp take a look at what's new what's uh going to improve our policy and kind of improve our transation Network so um you know if you're not familiar with complete streets uh it refers to an approach to make transation decisions uh that basically takes safety and mobility of all roadway users into consideration um it guides Us in how we should take a look at the roads when we uh come to projects say you know what's uh out there right now what should be out there what can we accommodate and how we should move forward so the policy is is a guideline for me as staff and for my staff as well when we are doing out projects out on the street in a park we had a policy that we originally adopted in 2015 and was updated in 2017 and now while we're keeping the framework of the original policy we are adding we're looking to add six new features uh the first of which is two new additions to our complete Street checklist um a complete Street checklist the checklist that we have that we go through every time we do a road project we uh evaluate things like what kind of infrastructure is currently there is there bike Lanes is there sidewalks should we add sidewalks should we add bike Lanes is there Transit access what kind of ADA ramps are there the list goes on through a lot of different features of the roadway and we write down what we see out there and how we can improve them uh two new features have been added to basically the state model policy which I think would help us here in aie park as well it be the inclusion of opportunities to improve Public Health through physical activity and Mobility options and looking for opportunities to manage storm water through green infrastructure so this is really just adding these two features to our already existing complete Street checklist and building a stronger checklist for us as City uh staff when looking at roadway projects the second would be for me myself and my staff to conduct an inventory an audit of procedures policies and documents and training programs within the city this is a very internal thing for us basically it's me looking at how things in the city operate and saying okay are we overlooking our complete streets policy and our our policy guidelines when we're doing these projects and how can we incorporate them um this is something that we've already done in my department but I'll be looking at for some other departments and just seeing how we can make sure we're not missing good opportunities to improve our ways to improve shade trees and improve other green infrastructure options within the city as we move forward we're also looking to Foster more public participation with projects uh we want to bring more people in on Bigger Road projects that could be it could potentially be an a for public meeting or uh online surveys or even encouraging more uh participation in our public committees like our you know any way that we can kind of get your input on roads and what you think is the what do you think could be improved that way it gives us more options and more thoughts and more things to think about when we're doing our projects so we're looking for ways that we can and we're going to build you know a new participation kind of program as far as projects on the transation side are going to go we're going to establish benchmarks which basically are just goals goals for how we can improve our system these can be related to anything for you know how many new mileage uh of existing bike infrastructure or how many linear your feet of um pavement was replaced number of New Street trees or uh Improvement in the fewer fatalities and collisions in general we're going to build kind of a framework of what we want to meet in 10 15 20 years and my department is going to try and improve ourselves to meet those goals by those guidelines and we'll kind of report that every year to city council and say hey we're halfway to this goal we're a quarter the way this goal this is how we're meeting them and it gives us something to work towards and it gives us clear goal what we want to achieve we want to establish an advisory committee for our complete trats policy we'll looking we're looking to deputize an existing border committee to meet three times a year to discuss complete streets the the the basically the parts of this policy and how they're being implemented and I would report on the products we've done what we're looking to do in the future as well as how we're meeting our benchmarks and that would be a great opportunity for public input the advisor committee to kind of keep us on track and report back to City Council on what they think um would be helpful also for completing those benchmarks and the last is the development of reports uh I would be reporting annually on the progress of our comple policy of those benchmarks and what projects were done and how they were completed and how we met or had to uh exclude complet policies for whatever reason that might be um those are kind of the new features that we're looking to add into our completion policy I would love the Public's input if you have anything that you any questions you want to ask or anything you think is important to include or should uh you know given more weight I would love to hear that I love to hear your thoughts about it and you're welcome to speak now or you're welcome to reach out to me via email with any thoughts or questions so uh if you would the council will allow people to give me some comments right now uh we'd really appreciate before we have to wait to public you want me to wait to public comment please I apologize please wait till the public comment but I will be here and I'll will remain this on the screen in case you want my uh email thank you thank you thank you thank you we now on to Mar from city council council member Bez Anderson yes I do uh good afternoon or good evening everyone um the recreation uh department is offering a women's mentoring program it will be an opportunity for women to meet greet each other share and um Inspire one another it begins next Saturday here at the chambers and it's from 1 to 2 so I hope that you'll join us that's all that I have thank you thank you council member chap hi I also wanted to let everyone know that the sunset Lake commission will be hosting a cleanup of sunset Lake and park on the 21st from 10: to 12 people will meet on the corner of Bond and sunset I'd hope to see you there thank you council member C hi and the Asbury Park fire department is having a special event touch a fire truck so children can come out and play with the fire hoses and is taking place on Wednesday between three and four thank you coun uh Deputy Mayor Quinn and uh mayor Moore nothing I did thank you all right moving on to maners from the city manager n thank you and maners from the city attorneys nothing for me we are now on to public participation may I have a motion to open the meeting to the public move to open second all in favor I James you might as well come back up the public participation portion of the meeting is now open any members of the public who wish to speak please use the microphone please state your name and address for the record and there will be a three minute time limit for each speaker hi Doug McQueen for Wesley I'm one of the founding members of the Asbury Park complete streets Coalition over the last 10 years our Grassroots group has brought together diverse stakeholder voices interested in creating better public spaces for residents visitors and businesses in Asbury Park so I'd like to thank James for putting forth some of the ideas that uh are being discussed today because frankly the last couple of years have been a little bit frustrating for streets and public space in in our town it seems that we've made relatively little progress in implementing some of the ideas that are enr enshrined in our current complete streets policy um and even more maddeningly we've missed a handful of really good opportunities to make some changes so like most developed communities streets are by far the largest type of public space in Asbury Park and improving that space for the benefit of everyone in the community takes a holistic approach so we must take into consideration a variety of factors and interests including safety uh the most important aspect of which is speeding drivers Transportation options not only the option to drive but the option to walk ride or take public transportation parking including some of the revenue that is generated with storing private automobiles in public space for the betterment of everyone Equitable Mobility for those who may not be able to drive even if they wanted to or could afford to zoning because we'll never get what's allowed in our zoning laws uh what's not allowed in our zoning law so we should note that the most popular public spaces in the world are spaces that would probably be illegal under Asbury Park's current zoning laws another one is quality of life being able to safely and freely move around one's neighborhood that's certainly a quality of life issue business a study after study has shown that places built for cars drive people to the Hinterlands of big box stores and not into healthy downtowns whereas places built for people walking and biking Prosper financially the environment so we've recently seen here how uncontrolled storm runoff can be both uh devastating physically and financially we can redesign Street space to mitigate storm water damage and beautify that public space so whatever changes are being discussed here tonight and throughout this process they must take into account a holistic approach to the use of public space in Asbury Park and complete streets concept Concepts can provide a blueprint blueprint for all of those considerations on the flip side though pigeon ho holding Street design into some secondary committee uh to make such that runs the risk of making such important designs and afterthought so our recommendation is to cross-pollinate a variety of existing stakeholder groups into a new commission that can take into account all of these factors namely create a broader Mobility commission that Mobility commission could work directly with our transportation director and a variety of shareholders to implement the elements outlined in the city's own plans and policies to optimate optimize public space for everyone thanks thank you and I'll provide those comments to anybody that wants to thank you thanks Doug hello my name is Susan midus and I'm from Atlantic Highlands though I represent food and water watch and I'm here to give a great shout out um to the the city of Asbury Park uh for great support in helping us defeat the Woodbridge power plant also known as cpv congratulations on helping us do that competitive power Ventures cancel their plans for a gasf fired power plant in Woodbridge we want to thank you for helping to collectively protect the health of your residents and taking action to help address climate change we want to make you aw of a couple of other issues that we're working very strongly on uh projects in New Jersey that will threaten again the health of our residents one New Jersey legislature is now considering clean energy standards and food and water watch is working to make sure the definition does not include false Solutions such as burning trash or renewable natural gas which is a gas industry scheme to promote the use of fossil fuels and their infrastructure if you're interested we can certainly provide further information for your uh consumption we encourage you to reach out to your state representatives in favor of 100% clean energy standards and to oppose renewable natural gas the second project that we're concerned with is New Jersey Turnpike Authority which is a Statewide agency is moving forward with plans to widen the turnpike so that additional Lanes will still bottleneck into the same Holland Tunnel at a cost of over 10 billion that's with a B billion dollars this will lead to induced demand and affect all of us because transportation is the number one emitter of pollution in New Jersey further it will add to the climate crisis taking us in the wrong direction at a time when we just had the hottest year on record when we can see the terrifying effects of climate change in our own backyards remember the unbreakable orange particulate matter air from the Canadian wildfires in this summer of 2023 and when extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and dangerous so we thank you again for your support and hope that we can continue to uh count on Asbury Park uh to help us win this battle thank you thank you very much and uh we got a thank you uh email today from you and I think I was looking for it now like only 18 cities supported you which is kind of disappointing but I'm so happy as we park was one of the 18 and any other initiatives you have please keep on sending them to us we will certainly do that thank you very much for your time thank you for driving down to thank us okay thank you motion to close well then somebody get up yeah I wasn't talking to you there's two people behind you fighting who's going to talk next so I was trying to speed them up probably going to be quick because it is something I'm oh sorry cut you off um Alise Davis I live on rid Aven Park lifelong resident um my concern is something very specific in terms of traffic flow and I do have it written out and I will give it to James when I'm done but I have tried to address this with Asbury and with Neptune because it contains concerns both I live on Ridge Avenue right between third and fourth the corner of Ridge and third is absolutely a nightmare in terms of traffic Ridge Avenue has the right of way Third Avenue has a stop the issue is the speed of the traffic on Ridge and that people crossing third coming into and heading out of Asbury try to beat the traffic and not stop within the past year there have been at least five accidents and as I said I live right there so I hear the honking horns constantly because the people on Ridge are honking for the other people to not cross them off so there isn't an accident and my suggestion to solve this problem was to make the street from Ridge to Asbury One Way heading out of town and that would at least get rid of one part of traffic that's causing all these accidents I did find out that that's property that street belongs to Neptune so I did present this to Asbury I did present this suggestion to Neptune and I haven't heard anything and I I feel very strongly about this I've lived in this house for 40 years and as the traffic has gotten bigger better worse as the town gets bigger the accidents have increased so I just wish someone would take this seriously and really see what can be done with that intersection and if anybody here drives through that intersection you'll see exactly what I mean it's horrible it's horrible so I will I didn't know how else to do this publicly except to come to a council meeting and since this dealt with traffic I said it's the perfect time for me to bring this to somebody's attention to have it be given some serious consideration no well thank you very much and uh I agree with you and you you lived there years you live four so I'm sure that you but you live there 40 years but it seems to have gotten worse for the past like three to four years exactly within past five years because of increased traffic and it's fantastic traffic it's also increased speeding where the mayor and Council keeps on asking the city manag to ask the police chief put out more radar details and everything because you know unfortunately unless people start getting tickets for speeding they're not going to slow down and some towns are known you don't speed an hours don't speed in L because they don't get warnings they get tickets exactly and so whenever we see a stop my first question is ticket or warning because I believe in a zero tolerance uh hopefully the police department is doing that but I can't answer for that I can understand that we you can only do so much in terms of the speed limit 25 which it is but it's a lot faster than that coming down r Avenue but my concern is the flow of traffic and what's causing all these accidents and I really believe that if that block from Ridge to Asbury is one way going out of town that would at least be one less bit of traffic that's causing all these accidents because the majority of the accidents that I see there come from people coming into Asbury trying to obviously avoid the traffic on Asbury Avenue and take that shortcut that's the cause of most of the accidents right I see and you're right we'd have to work together with Neptune because half the block is ours and half the block is theirs going down to where narcissos is that's Neptune so uh no and I'm glad you agree with me because I'm like you know I've been here all my life there's never been this many accidents to the last couple years James I'm sure you're on top of this thank you I guess my time on before or maybe your neighbors I and we did because in fact we stood there and looked at it I remember I talk to you and after I spoke with you I did speak with Neptune when you told me that BL NE I have heard nothing from them at all so all right well I have to topics I can bring it up too I discuss it with them apprciate see how they feel about it it was Whitesville Road just for saying from One Direction right exactly and I I will be doing some um traffic counts and speed studies in the area uh I will also plan doing a little bit of a temporary Road narrowing to see if we can kind of um qu some of the issues that are happening in inter section we'll see kind of what's working a little bit and then what would do current okay thank you very much and thank you for your time app it I also follow up the police department I a little M re no I will also follow up with the police department thank you hi Linda Ley Fifth Avenue um I have a complaint about the same thing that she's complaining about about the speed Speeders on Avenue um there doesn't seem to be anything being done about it but um what about I asked this before what about four-way stop signs or at least a stop sign at the end of Fifth and Bridge if they could slow down there maybe it would help I don't know but and then the other um electric bikes that's a a question in my mind about do they have a license to drive those things cuz they're kind of shooting around a lot pulling out in front of everybody and do they have a license I don't know even even the people that ride their bikes are are a little crazy and then uh let's see oh pesticides can't we ban pesticides cuz they're going into the lake they're going to be killing the fish I know you said one time that the state has to do that but uh I think that the town should be able to do that and the uh last thing is um how much of your property in front of your house where the sidewalk is belongs to the city do you know how many feet like it is from say the curb up to your onto your property is it 50 ft or 25 ft does anybody know I'll let you finish all your questions then we'll go from there Lind oh okay that's it that's it yeah it's 15 I'm going over James are you able to answer that or it depends on the street right the right the right away I don't think there's any set number so the city right away could be 10 ft on this block and 20 ft on this block and 5T on this block so I don't think there's any set number and from the side you have to know you're plotting land it it changes per roadway how far from the curbing is your property versus the city's property I thought I thought it was 50 feet no there's there's no set number and then James if you want to explain to Linda the process of getting a four-way stop sign sure so four-way stops traffic signals two-way stops all that is dictated by engineering studies it's called War analysis it's what it's dictated by engineering studies called warrant analyses um there has to be to legally do a four-way stop there has to be enough flow in both directions the intersection to Warrant that so the traffic along fth Avenue right now is high enough to Warrant stop signs on the side streets but the side streets don't have enough traffic to Warrant stop signs on Fifth Avenue so we can't do four-way stops because it's not warranted by the studies Bridge Avenue Bridge yeah we wouldn't want to have you stop on a bridge it's Bridge Avenue itself does not have the traffic warranted for it doesn't have the traffic not not saying that Sunset they go pretty fast Bridge Sunset would have the priority because it has more Vehicles than Bridge yeah it has to be a more equal number of vehicles with more interaction have you studied that now that specific location yeah but and many others we have which is why we recently were able to do the Grand Avenue as mostly fourway stops because we found that we could through stud right but I he you with Fifth Avenue and Speeders it's um you know not to the it but it's Fourth Avenue Third Avenue Fifth Avenue we're trying impl new traffic coming things and new techniques and things to try and address a lot of the speeding um you know it's it's all over the cities we're trying to do what we can what we can if you want to communicate with me outside this meeting we can talk about things okay um it's something that we have to work a lot at moving forward yeah City yeah CU a lot of the worst times are probably when people get out of work and when the school the high school gets out you know and there's a lot of people coming down towards bridge and the school buses too there's a couple of school buses where the drivers are going a little too fast down fifth so right and Electric I do not have a clue if you need a license they are not licensed electric bikes are supposed to regulate to speed and since they're 25 M Power maximum you don't need a license to drive it or registration for the vehicle you're talking about the electric bikes yes right they don't need a license they don't need a license or or registration yeah registration well they're almost like a motorcycle really yeah okay okay thank you Linda thanks hi Carrie Butch um deal Lake Drive and while we're talking about traffic I feel like I'm in a game of Pacman if I'm if I park on the other side of Dake Drive which is a four-lane highway I usually don't make it across the street without going back a couple times so I don't know if there's a way that you could do some traffic calming there cuz I think it would be a lot safer there's a lot of people that live over there and there's a lot of traffic that comes pretty fast on Deal Lake Drive over even even when it turns on to Grand so if people are walking their dogs they really have to pull their dog out of the way in order not to get hit because the cars are coming that fast so anyway that's my um traffic uh experience in Park the other thing I wanted to just mention and John help us out here there's going to be a CBD public information session or public comment session I guess on the 16th of this month I don't have my calendar in front of me if you telling me yes it's the 16th of this month okay I believe it's 10 o'clock in the morning I could be wrong it might be 11 o'clock in the morning but that is being done via Zoom so so if we want it's a public comment period I just wanted to kind of get a sense from you or from the city manager how that process is going to work are we going to be able to call in and make comments or ask questions or how is that process going to work I don't have a clip I I don't have that information for you right now okay um it would and also just so everybody knows that the CBG funding the proposed funding is on the website I don't think the numbers are on the website for the zoom yet but the plan is on the website I think it's over a little over $400,000 for CBD funding there might be more funding we have to take a look at the entire budget so all of that is up for discussion right at that meeting and I'm hoping that when you guys do do that session you kind of explain what [Music] cbdgrandma10.com we come to the we've come to the decisions that we've come to with those line items and if there's a potential to impact any of those line items you know um but thank you very much no uh yeah what did you say the date is the 16th because I don't I okay and James just so you know the part of D drive she's talking about is the State Bar I fig right okay it's right now it's on the Asbury Park report website also if people want to see it and we are going to be live streaming it thanks for the information go ahead read it okay I'll read them Moro 8th Avenue oh I wasn't going to talk about track but I think those two women should know that they're going to have 130 cars on Memorial Drive living there and they'll be going up and down your streets so I mean this council is responsible for that too they you get these buildings the land grab as I call them they come into town they change the zoning on Memorial Drive it used to be all commercial now they're going to have residential and all those streets have neighborhoods behind them and they're going to be horrendous I don't know how you going how you approved such 130 apartments and they're not even they don't even have enough parking and I don't know what you're afraid of but I think the parking guy should be at all the meetings to see that there's no parking it affects every street and what are you going to do about it ladies living there for 40 years it's it's not right but anyway I want talk about black black history luncheon 5 hours wow city employees are allowed to leave the business for five hours that's why there's nobody answering the phones I guess but I don't know if they all attended but I want to say how do you ow I I got some of the bills Manville you bought from Manville you bought from Lebanon and you bought from uh uh someplace in Trenton don't you think that's outrageous to do something like that and you have every facility here you have a restaurant supply place I understand you got the room for nothing so what does that mean now the Berkeley can do anything they want CU you got something for nothing and now the stone ponies the same thing you're going to have an affair there are you going to pay rent there you shouldn't be taking things like that because then you're obligated to all these people and and it's just horrendous what's going on and I know that it's an election year and I know you have to create events so that the three women up there can get well known but not on the taxpayer's back if they want to do something let them pay for it themselves but they shouldn't be H creating events one of the events is the recreation you took money out of there to have the black history lunching now you're going to put it back I mean like I I don't understand how things work I ran a business for 22 years I could never run it that way borrow from here and pay from there and all this stuff you have budgets it's pretty hard to follow too it's getting worse so I want to know time up I can't see the clock okay okay well read a wait a minute times up okay go ahead why did you buy from those places that was a question you asked before and I think the answer was the the restaurants used to be in asur parks that they bought from them I've been told it won't happen again but the insinuation that the Berkeley Carterette or The Stone Pony are going to get some type of backroom or sweetheart deal is really insulting to me and do we pay to rent The Stone Pony to raise money for kids for recreation absolutely we'll give you I'm sure you looked at the bills they charge us for everything going do they maybe cut us a break I mean I'm going to like take up everybody's time and like you know like not scold you a little bit and tell you how that came about well why do we have to be your time's up your time's up and you're struck a nerve I mean just because every sir please no cross conversations all right I'm going to give you some background just because you brought it up so the event on April 25th the rock and roll for recreation Mr MCN you keep on talking and I'm going to have to please okay I'm not talking quiet the chambers please quiet in the chambers thank you if you can't be quiet you be sorted out so Rita in 2015 when the city was still on transitional Aid you a department head came to me and said we had to turn 50 kids away from Asbury Park 50 children from Asbury Park we had to turn away for recreation because we were on transitional Aid and we didn't have the money so like basically the next conversation was hey John like you know Mayor Johnson always had a mayor's ball what do you want to have I said I don't wear tuxedo so we're not having a mayor's ball so we decided to have a first it was a rodeo for recreation and we solicit funds from some very generous people that donate and in the we did in 2016 2018 2020 we got covid out so we did 2022 and in those three events we raised netted over $180,000 after paying all the bills you can open it and see we paid The Stone Pony and if the guy that owns a Berkeley Carterette is generous enough to say hey guys I'd like to give back to the city and you can have the ballroom for free you want us to pay for it instead so I mean I think you're a little off base there read to insinuate like you know back room deals is like and to insinuate like this is being done because of an election when it's been done every two years and it's like sorry it's the same year as an election it's this that's not you it that's typic that's not you typically so I'm just going to mark it down as a bad night so but uh as far as like buying the food from the places you addressed that two weeks ago and I agree with you and that won't happen again and it's not happening again for the event on April 20 5th uh I'm not guaranteeing you it's all going to be bought from Asbury but we all be bought from local businesses yes okay okay thank you you w me to no finished thank you re oh hi Ernest moli former sander resident so uh everybody here should know uh Deborah Nagel the uh lady who was the dog um for the s for the city of Asbury Long Branch Neptune and and then when the SPCA took over she got like her her position in everything changed Etc well now I think everybody should know that at the SPCA in eent toown there has been a lot going on in that building and there's a lot of uh things causing like divorces and fighting and and and all kinds of stuff about pregnancies out of wedlock and everything and now Deborah Nagel was arrested and and charged with supposedly they're going to because she she reported Ross litra for having a bunch of Affairs and stuff and so now Ross L Citra got together with the prosecutor and charged Deborah Nagel and and uh Dana pagee who's another female officer from Long Branch that they went into someone's yard that was training pitbulls to fight and that they violated that person's Fourth Amendment rights and Deborah is was arrested and charged with felonies and she's facing 40 years in prison and so is the Long Branch officer who was with her and in the final analysis when they did finally go on the property they found the dead dog which the which the dog trainer fighter lied and says oh you know that that police officer and that dog catcher is lying about everything they violated my rights so now the trial the reason I'm up here is the trial pre Tri with Melanie Falco of all people Prosecuting was supposed to be tomorrow right the pre-trial conference because they're they're both charged with felonies now what I'm appealing to is I know there's people on this board in an Asbury who work in a lot of agencies in eent town for women's rights and for everybody's rights and I'm appealing to whoever Mayors Deputy Mayors City attorneys whatever to get involved with these cas is against uh uh uh Deborah Nagel who was was is beloved in Asbury long branching everywhere as one of the greatest dog whatever Prevention of Cruelty prevention of dog fighting and everything right so now they're threatening to take her house bankrupt her her her her ex husband uh got so upset over this that he got so sick he just died and and now she can't afford the lawyers and they keep threatening her and and and I'm going to ask especially the attorney up there U uh Deputy Mayor Quinn because I know you work in eent toown please get involved with the two cases against uh uh Deborah Nagel and and uh uh Dana page and also uh with uh K uh Derry uh Kathy Derry who was just time up your three minutes are up something happened to her in the SPCA and she got fired I'm asking you Deputy Mayor Quinn please get involved please help them Mr mnol thank you and just for just for your extra 10 minutes just for your information Deputy Mayor Quinn does not work in eaten town maybe since you moved to Florida you weren't aware of the I don't have to listen to you now okay well thank you for the information which was nonsensical hi my name is Gloria par I'm at 305 6th Avenue I have two questions last time I was at the this meeting um mayor you said that our taxes are going to be going up roughly 24% somewhere else I read it was actually a response by Dan Jacobson on the Tri City that it's actually 11% because it's just a school budget part of it can you clarify that certainly that what you're I thought you had two questions the other one is I I thought we were going to be speaking about the proposed project at 2011 6th Avenue massive project is was that on not on the agenda for today Michelle that's look it up that's where the motel used to be I think that's where it's right on right on there's no setback on 6 Avenue correct correct okay so no that's not on tonight's agenda oh it's not no oh okay somebody and as far as you're right I I said 20 I they gave me credit a little bit I said 25% I should have said the Board of Education taxes are going up 25% Mr Jacobson's correction is fairly accurate what we have though is like uh even he said if it's 11 or 12% increase that's nothing to be happy about because last year was 11 to 12% increase so two years it opened up 24% I apologize for saying something wrong I did say it wrong it wasn't intentional but because it started a conversation people are actually like you know waking up and realizing like hey guys the taxes are going through the ceiling I wish I had done this two years ago and like you know given the warning because everybody knew the S2 bill was done in 201 12 12 okay and they saw these $8 million $6 million cutbacks coming but uh again on Monday I met with Board of Education members the superintendent and people from the education Law Center as far as like what Asbury Park can do and the board of education is looking at anything and everything they have to adopt their budget on April 25th the same night as The Rock and Roll for recreation and uh they they need help from the state and that's why by saying something wrong again which I apologize for I should I should have been more correct the Board of Education increases 25% if that's 11% increase for the city that's still not acceptable either just because last year was 11 so it's just going to compound and just because the S2 Bill ends either this year or next year doesn't mean it's going to get better in the future the bill itself is just totally unbelievable where people keep on saying Pilots hurt Pilots do not hurt funding because say the city's assessed for I'm making these numbers up the city's assessed for $2 billion and we have a billion dollars worth of Pilots we're only being charged like the $2 billion but what I found out Monday part of the bill that makes no sense and isn't like you know keeping everything on equal place Fields but if a pilot is giving and somebody moves in there and they make they own a tech company and they make $50 million a year the city's income is held against the city so everybody moving in these con condos that are generating High personal incomes and I asked the young lady well how does the state do that they say John they check everybody's tax returns I'm like said well hell they can't even check my driver's license how do they check tax returns but uh so that's part of the bill the bill is totally flawed the board of education's got to fight it the city will be fighting with them and but to get through like this year we need some type of uh rabbit out of the hat from our state legislators just because again long uh Lakewood is getting $130 million loan and they're going to get it every year because they have a unique circumstance that they have busing that's killing them so I explained to the board and I explained to the lady from the Law Center has park has a unique circumstance no other town in New Jersey that I know of has this circumstance in 2002 the council at that time okay 3,000 I'm going to be close on this 214 potential condominiums on the board in the beach on that in the Waterfront Redevelopment area that by have to get a pilot so that money does not go directly to the school so I mean that's a unique circumstance so go to the state and say hey Lakewood has a unique circumstance busing asby park has this unique circumstance that 3,200 condos can be built and we're getting hit by both like they they automatically get a pilot we can't fight that and now the people moving in who are making a ton of money because if you can afford a $5 million condo you're making at least that a year like you know we're getting double hit and to fight it that way and like look for some relief so we are working together to fix it you're right I did make a misstatement on that I apologize so in essence our taxes not going up 24% based on the assessed value we don't know what they're going to go up because the board of education is still working on their budget and they're looking at anything and everything so until they and we haven't done our budget yet our budget is going to go up the city's I'm not going to FIB to you as much I'm going to be correct on this one I wasn't correct the last time the city I think last year had a $111 increase on the municipal end and I would be surprised if it's not at least that this year just because the three years before that we kept it no increase or anything KN the Board of Education was going up so high but you can only you know put your fingers in the Dyke so many times before you got to start paying in the were last year the health benefits went up 23% by the state of New Jersey so there's some things like you know we can't avoid but we're going to be very frugal on our budget knowing like you know that board of education is basically going to hit and hit hard and again it's not the board members fault it's S2 which has to be revised and there's talk and Trenton it's going to happen hopefully it happens before you know this year's budgets are announced and there's also know the board of education is on a fiscal year July through June and we're on a calendar year so there's that six-month carryover also that goes where where Mr Jacobson said I looked at my tax bill and it's like this percent that percent but it also had like a missing like I so I looked at my tax bill there's a miss like $500 there because that's a carryover uh so there's going to be a tax increase we don't know how bad it's going to be but everybody's working to make it as soft a blow as possible thank you now uh I have a question regarding the pilot program you mentioned last time how many years they get the developers get to have this incentive of the pilot program and you mentioned how many years but I forgot how many was it again the majority of them are 30 30 no I mean going forward if developer comes in 10 years from now they they would get 30 they would get 30 years until the Redevelopment agreement runs out which I believe is a 30 year in 2002 so I'm guessing 2032 then the deal2 expires so 2032 it expires that's what I'm guessing I can't get an honest answer from anybody on that but that's what I'm thinking it is Michelle am I right or wrong well because as that was amended then wait a second read the expiration of the Redevelopment plan is areas to the exact what determines the exact date of exporation see I told you I couldn't get an answer uh so the the people who are part of the pilot program who are buy the Condominiums does it do do they contribute to the school budget at all when they pay their no anybody that's getting a pilot is not paying into the school okay so every everybody on the any condominium building in the Waterfront Redevelopment area has gotten a 100% pilot so none of the payments that they make payment in Le of taxes none of that portion that they pay goes towards the school budget correct that is so unfair for the current residents who've been here for over 10 years and we are caring the only good thing about it and is again when this was done in 2002 you know the schools were getting so much money nobody thought about the schools so again it was wasn't done on person on purpose it wasn't done intentionally in a conventional scenario like say a normal town the Board of Education will get 45% this the tax bill would be 45% Board of Education 40% Municipal and 15% County with the pilots it's 95% City and 5% to the county so we're getting 95% where if you did the Board of Education and the city together it'd be 85% and then the countyd be getting the 15% the ones who are getting really beat is the county and every other resident in the county like let's say we got $700 million of Pilots that's $700 million not going to the county also is like as much as it's not going to the school and 15% should be going to the county and only 5% is going okay thank you no thank you and again I apologize for throwing out the wrong number but I'm kind of happy I did because at least we got people to start talking about the tax situation good evening Chris Rodriguez I'm at 13062 Avenue I've lived there for the Last 5 Years prior to that we lived on the corner of six and park for three years and over the last eight years we lived in labur park we've made considerable use of the ride sharing the weather they were the bikes the scooters that came after and we love them we tell all of our friends about them anytime we have friends who come into town you they like oh how are we going to get downtown like I got you download the app do this uh so obviously when super production under uh we were kind of at a loss you know it indirectly affected how many trips we made downtown because we all know parking is a little iffy um but it's also it feels a little nicer to on a nice day like today you know be on uh open air getting downtown and I know I think Amy you might have posted this on Facebook that uh shortly after super prodes went under you were looking into Alternatives and I know last year Jersey City put out um public protected bike lockers uh which I see as an alternative a long-term alternative uh we do have bikes previously when I lived in apartment there was about room for one so the bike rentals were great now I have room for a bike but I don't feel safe locking it up whether I'm going to the train station to go out of town or if I'm going to the Beacher downtown and I think these uh protected bike lockers could be an easier solution for that um obviously there are concerns with safety with ebikes E Scooters or just bikes in general and I think no matter what we do you know even somebody on a skateboard if they're going to be riding irresponsibly they're they're going to do that regardless of the medium but I think for the most part my experience my witnessing of how people used them was relatively positive and it helped bring us from the west side of town into the commercial District which again we really really do miss that uh so I wanted to ask uh if there's been any Headway made on finding an alternative and whether considerations have been made for a little more secure way of storing bikes whether it's at City Hall the train station down by the beach where I'm not worried about coming back to my bike and finding a missing Tire or you know not finding the bike at all right so and just the last thing I wanted to say was um over the years we've noticed all the improvements the city has made with cross swaps and bike lanes and all this and I work in engineering so I'm familiar with everything it takes to make those things happen and we love it you know we're thankful that you guys have been putting you know putting efforts and budget towards making the roads a little safer for everyone who isn't in a vehicle um so wanted to thank you for that and get a little information if you have any on sharing thank you for uh Thanking us and uh we did go out for an RFP and I know it's due very soon I 15th or 16th yeah it's a couple more weeks yeah and I equally missed the scooters and the good news as much as like two big companies went under there's still like uh lime is still out there and another one big companies are still out there so we did go out for an RFP we're waiting to get the results as soon as we get them I mean if it comes in halfway decent you know we're looking to re-up it so uh the rfps I think in a week or two Max are due back to the city so we'll know more then perfect thank you thank you Linda you only get to talk once Linda what you only get to talk once okay you can call me up and tell you can call me up and tell me I just want to know why the trains have to honk their hor Linda I'm calling you Rita Lind okay on your mind I always have Rita on my mind R you can call me up and yell at me too so go ahead ma'am hi Kathy it's uh 6th Avenue I I thought we were going to talk about the uh new development at 20116 isn't this not the right time no I don't know why two people thought that tonight I mean I don't know it's not on the agenda there's nothing on the agenda there's nothing on the website so no not whatsoever and uh when we will you know it'll be well advertised on the website and everything when the agenda goes out but I don't even think they're scheduled for the next well I was going to say this is not a workshop issue of this project they already did a workshop to the council I and I again I don't know what the confus the confusion is because this is a project that is um have yet to go to council for a subsequent redeveloper okay so they made a presentation but since then it's just been radio silence okay I'll I'll keep my eyes open for it yep and uh since two people came tonight and when we do do it I'm going to suggest we advertise it on nixel or something that we're going to talk about that night I came for that as well okay thank you guys for everything you do I just want why did everybody think we were GNA talk about I got an email from somebody else who said it was tonight and I didn't see it on the agenda but I just came anyway and I was confused as well no you make me feel bad that we I got the same email okay we all got that information I'm happy we didn't put it up wrongfully so I mean no no I I look through the well when we do talk about it we will advertise it either on next door or nixel or something so everybody will have plenty of warning thank you thank you hi everybody just to wrap it up paully Shula I'm also representing Asbury Park complete streets Coalition and James I want to say thank you for your work on the update of the complete streets policy it's a big deal it really is and and I think the biggest deal of it is that it's bringing awareness to what the meaning of complete streets is I don't think that was even in our lexicon until I don't know just a few years ago and it's becoming more and more a thing that streets need to be safe for everybody especially the most vulnerable Road users which is everybody outside of cars so thank you um I do have a question um we may not be able to answer it tonight but we have we have had a complete streets policy since as youve mentioned 2017 even 2015 and I thought it was even updated in 2019 but um this update is is very much in order um policy as we know from what we've seen across the country policy is almost like just a suggestion and we have a complete streets checklist which is also kind of a suggestion of things that should be done um what can you explain the difference between a complete Street's policy and an ordinance I mean an ordinance is a law right so if if a development is taking place whether it's Street Paving or development of a piece of property we have a checklist that states that that certain guidelines are supposed to be met um whether it's has to do the sidewalks or setbacks or whatever and or or um treatments like bike Lanes any infrastructure for traffic calming some of that's on the checklist but it's not required by law so it's not ordinance so that's kind of my general question it might not be something we can figure out right now but is there such a thing as a complete streets or complete streets checklist ordinance that you know of notw Fred or James answer that I don't know any towns that have done it by ordinance but I know that is one of the things they the state will say um there like list national thing they tell you by either do a policy by resolution or do it as an ordinance I don't know anyone who's done it by ordinance and I don't want to speak to the difference between ordinance and resolution I think that's kind of FR to talk about but um town could do that uhuh I I would look into it I mean I can I can research it myself but I was just you know we've talked about complete streets policy for a long time and I believe we also have had if not currently a complete streets resolution and the difference between policy and resolution I'm not so sure about that either um but again a policy a lot of the time cities will adopt a policy and it just becomes a you know check the box we have the policy and then some cities get an award for having adopted a policy which has no teeth you know but wow we have a policy but you know so we need to be able to figure out how these um the guidelines can become if not law become something that's really concrete measurable and um you know definite changes implemented in the city to protect everybody so there's my time thanks good good question something we should look into because sometimes we adopt ordinances they can't be enforced also so like you know riding bicycles on curbs on sidewalks about thato so I mean right but definitely a good good talk and point that we should look into it might give teeth to some of the things that we really want to do and we see that are necessary so thank you thank you see nobody else the motion to close move to close second all right we are now on to the minutes I have the executive meeting and regular meeting minutes for the March 27th meeting do I have a motion move it do you have a second second council member be Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes may here yes we are now moving on to individual resolutions resolution 2024 191 resolution approving payment of bills have a motion move it second second council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes may no resolution 2024 192 resolution approving special event applications move it have a second somebody MZ Anderson oh yes council member Chapman yes council member clayon yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor yes resolution 2024 193 resolution amending temporary budget Appropriations for 2024 budget move it second council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes resolution 2024 194 resolution authorizing the award of a contract for the operation of pedal boat concession on a portion of the Wesley Lake within the city of Asbury Park council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes resolution 2024 196 resolution appointing pem wall LLP to serve as labor Council for the remainder of 2024 and authorizing the extension and authorizing the execution of an agreement Associated there with yeah little bit second council member Bez Anderson council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Stephanie mayor Quinn yes mayor yes resolution 2024 197 resolution authorizing professional service contract to aari and iino for architectural services for the beach restroom conceptual study move it do I have a second second uh Council memberz Anderson council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes resolution 2024 199 resolution of the mayor and Council of the city of Asbury Park ACT acting as a waterfront Redevelopment entity granting a 2-year extension in accordance with resolution number 2022 2026 adopted by the city council of the city of Asbury Park on May 11 2022 as amended by resolution 2023 235 adopted by the city council on May 10th 2023 and subject to further condition regarding the operation of the food truck court and the Green Acres parcel in Block 4502 vot 1.25 move it second council member be yes council member Chapman council member Clayton mayor Quinn mayor yes resolution 2024 200 resolution of the mayor and city of Asbury Park uh to approve the execution of the subrecipient agreement within the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs regarding the receipt of a boardwalk restoration fund Grant award for a grant in the amount of $20 million move second council member Bez Anders yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Stephie mayor Quinn mayor Mo yes we have an addition item an additional item for tonight's agenda resolution 2024 198 resolution authorizing appointments to the mayor's Wellness committee Holly rapport with the term to expir January 15 2025 move it move it do I have a second second council member Bez Anders yes council member trapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes we're now moving on to ordinances for introduction ordinance number 20249 ordinance amending section 20-3 entitled plastic bags of chapter 20 environmental regulations of the code of the city of Asbury Park with a public hearing date with April 24th move second second council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes ordinance number 2024 ordinance of the city of Asbury Park amending and supplementing chapter stc1 entitled rules and regulations of the shade tree Commission of the code of the city of Asbury Park with a public hearing date of April 24th move it second council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes ordinance number 20241 ordinance of the city of a park approving and adopting a Redevelopment plan for property located at 121 Memorial Drive block 203 lot 5 with public hearing date April 24th move it second council member bz yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Moore yes ordinance number 20124 12 Capital ordinance providing for roof replacement and appropriating 2,53 $2,538 187 therefore authorized in and by the city of Asbury Park in the county of Mammoth New Jersey with public hearing day of April 24th council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member Clayton yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor yes we're now on to ordinances up for second reading and public hearing ordinance number 20245 we didn't have it needs to be the public yeah 20245 do you want to just do one public comment well it needs to be open to the public so they're saying something else ordinance 20245 uh 2024 cap R ordinance our CFO Julian booze will provide a brief overview of this ordinance Joan Joan she's going to she's going to the the resolution 19 the okay this is our 2024 cap rate ordinance required by state law to be passed prior to the introduction of our budget it gives us the allowed maximum our operating budget can be increased by um it's normally 25% and this allows us an additional 1% so our total that we could increase our operational budget is 1.66 4 million thank you go ahead do I have a motion to open the meeting for public comment on ordinance 20245 move to open second all in favor I public comment on ordinance 20245 is now open any member of the public who wishes to speak please use the microphone and state your name and address for the record comments may only be about what in 2024 well AR read Moro 8th Avenue I'm a little on the simple side could you explain that again I'm a very simple person I like things in simple terms the state allows us to increase our budget 2 and a half% our operating budget and an additional 1% with the passing of this ordinance it it doesn't mean you're going to use that money or increase it by that amount but this is required in order for us to introduce our our budget um so for us the maximum would be from last year's was 47 million our operating budget we could increase it by 1.6 million which would make it a maximum of $49 million what's the reason excuse me I didn't hear you you said what's the reason what what's the what's the reason for what what's the reason for the increase it's just a a a calculation that's done so the state knows our maximum amount we can have as our operating budget and as Joanne indicated that doesn't mean the city is going to go up to that amount but that it gives us the flexibility if needed to go up to the full 3.5% as opposed to the 2.5% that we're limited to by law in the annual increases in the budget why why don't you just go up to the what you can do why do you have to increase it well it allows us that extra breathing room if we have to for some emergency or for something that's unforeseen and it's something that virtually all towns do this is a a routine matter of business that's on every agenda at every other council meeting in every other town it's required by state law want the increase no to do this every year well nobody really knows what her department does besides planning okay it' be nice if she explained what she does wouldn't that be nice but we we got to stick to the ordinance has to do with the increase right thatal to do with this ordinance extent of the increases in the budget that's an a a lot of money to increase it but we're not we're not we're not going to increase unless we have to because of emergency but this gives us we have to do this by state law in case we have to okay track we're hoping we don't have to who's keeping track me Jo Jo and nobody else motion to close second all in favor I I do have a motion to adopt ordinance 20245 move to adopt second council member BZ yes council member Chapman yes council member clayon yes Deputy Mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes ordinance number 20248 ordinance amending chapter 7 section 13 and 14 to establish prohibiting parking regulations along Emer Street and Second Avenue director of Transportation James man will provide a brief overview of this ordinance hello again this ordinance establishes a No Parking regulation on Second Avenue 50 ft just west of Drive can't here sorry the ordinance establishes two no parking areas one that's 50 ft long on 2 Avenue just west of Memorial Drive it's to help the trucks uh enter and exit from the laundromat that's there there is a lot of close call between the trucks and the park cars across the street and this is just going to help the ease and avoid any uh unnecessary collisions uh the other is for uh no parking on Sundays in uh uh Emory Street between Lake and cookman uh as refresh will be taking place in that area so we have to just accommodate for the space uh and have the ability to um remove cars if necessary but hopefully we do not have to that is all we should James just we should just blast that out to that area too yeah we're g to do um a bunch of blasts probably on nixel we'll do some uh some letters and messaging as well as do the permit holder um links and no no temporary no parking sign as well as warnings if we have to when we first start great that would be wonderful yes do I have a motion to open the ordinance for public hearing all in favor right public comment on ordinance 20248 is now open any member of the public who wishes to speak please use the microphone say your name and address for the record your comments may only be about ordinance 20248 move to close second all in favor do I have a motion to adopt ordinance 20248 move to move to accept council member Bez Anderson yes council member Chapman yes council member clayy mayor Quinn yes mayor Mo yes if that is all for tonight you have a motion to adjourn the meeting yes all in favor thank you