just waiting to make sure we started this stream we're good okay good evening and welcome to the July 18th Township council meeting in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting was provided on December 21st 2023 by sending written notice and electronic notice to the carrier news and the breeze posting on the website and the bulletin board in the municipal building and filing with the Township Clerk roll call please councilman kers here councilman cordella here councilman naralis here councilman proso council president ring here and we have minutes for approval the June 27th close session I'm sorry the Pledge of Allegiance my bad yeah I'll I'll lead it I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible all right now we'll try the minutes the June 27th Clos session are going around do I have a motion for the June 27th 2024 I know there was some revision circulated I'll move it as amended do we have a second I'll second okay all those in favor I I opposed all right Township Council reports we'll start with councilman kersch so so first uh for the benefit of the of the audience not two minutes before the meeting council president ring said are you willing to lead the pledge I said sure and then we almost skipped it so uh it it was it was prominently on everybody's mind so uh my reports this evening uh we are introducing a budget during this uh during this session and that was the result of many um collaborative budget conversations that have occurred over the last few weeks um uh my second report July 4th uh I had the pleasure of attending the ceremony um at the Middlebrook encampment um for those who are not familiar with it um I'd recommend putting it onto your calendar for next year uh it really is a very special uniquely Bridgewater event uh beyond the welcome report remarks from the mayor which were clearly the Highlight that day um the two items that occur uh one is the lowering and then raising of a new Hopkinson flag um uh and that's uh same as the one uh same as the design shown on the back wall of our chamber here uh and then a reading of the Declaration of Independence uh and that's really a nice as I said uniquely Bridgewater event the flag that comes down has been up uh 36 5 I guess maybe 366 days because we've had a leap a leap day in there um it is authorized by Congress to be flown 24 hours a day uh and so the flag as you'd imagine when it comes down after a year um it's maybe a little more orange than red and maybe a little more medium blue than deep blue um but it certainly represents the passage of time in Bridgewater one year to the next and um certainly is something I recommend uh that everybody consider uh for uh 2025 uh the zoning board met on July 9th there was a residential case a conditional approval was provided the planning board met on July 16th continuation of discussion on a subdivision on mountaintop Road uh last night on the 17th I had the uh opportunity to attend the uh pre-opening night um at um the big chicken restaurant over at the commons I think some may have been there today for the ribbon cutting uh and then finally I wanted to share the news um uh with my colleagues and uh um uh any members of the public I have been named uh to the Board of Trustees of Home Sharing uh Inc um uh volunteer position uh but I am on the Board of Trustees that's an organization that links those in the in various communities across New Jersey who may have excess housing may have an extra bedroom a couple of bedrooms uh and and uh connects those with the with with individuals who may need housing and the reason why it's such a special organization is the most common use story is potentially an older couple or a widow or a widower uh who may again have that extra space um and may need an individual who can do certain chores um you know rake leaves and make sure the garbage gets put out help with the uh grocery shopping um so that can be a real win-win for everybody and that's my report thank you councilman cordilla councilman nor gallis thank you Mr President happy birthday to our country as we cele of bridge local emercy Ed consider oper for thank you councilman pedroso thank you sir I attended numerous things have been mentioned already um not going to repeat them to thank Mr papis for uh inviting me to uh for a budget meeting which I attended as long as councilman kers was there with me keeping me on track um and I do want to welcome uh big chicken and F at the bridgew township but more importantly to the Bridgewater Commons Bridgewater Township has a partnership with the Bridgewater Commons and we do share and some of their profits share so a win for the commons is a win for the Bridgewater taxpayer so uh it's nice to have quality businesses uh come in uh and uh into our into our mall that's all I have thank you all right thank you for myself um numerous budget meetings over the last couple weeks participated in uh as been mentioned uh several of us attended the ribbon cutting of uh Fogo deow one thing I will just additional comment on that um it's a business that is already showing itself to be an active member of our community um they donated a percentage of their opening week sales uh to the food bank network uh here in Bridgewater uh and they U during the um Opening Ceremonies they presented a check for 10% of their sales for the first week which was a check for $27,000 to the food bank so Fogo toow is uh only been with us a couple weeks but is already stepped up as a as a you know active member of our community and supporting folks in town um obviously speaks volumes for their business the first week I tried to actually go this week with some friends and couldn't even get a reservation so um they're apparently doing very well uh and then I also attended the pre-opening last night of the uh Hot Chicken which is a Shaquille O'Neal franchise Shaq is supposedly coming to town in a couple weeks we don't know when but his franchise has opened over in the village that is my report um mayor's report thank you just a few items um one the the tur fields at the high school uh are almost complete as everyone knows we have a deal going back with the school district for since they first put in uh so we're partnering with them to get the tur Fields there done as well as Municipal turfield um so I have um reports for anybody who's interested I will pass that down for the council and turfield status update um but the um that's almost complete I if I have enough here pass um High School's almost complete and it will be finished in time for the school start of the school year and our field will begin shortly uh we had a note sale recently this is uh um not permanent financing but this is uh for uh year length of time we Bridge orderer was the lowest rate in the in the state so um that was a positive and our Anthony Vero our financial advisor uh you know pointed out that that was a big deal for us so um I have that for anybody who's interested uh notes on on that as everyone is aware we had a lot of flooding issues uh you know the storms at the end of um end of June uh so we have reports from Tom janova our director of Municipal Services andur utility as well as from uh DIY Shimp from Public Works just outlining the status of of what occurred any issues that we saw um and uh you know the status of correcting them or you know issues that we may want to look at in the future so I have both of those reports I will pass those down for the council as well um couple other quick items um I did forward to uh I don't know if I voted to all the council members I voted to some that uh there was a piece of legislation sponsored by our Congressman Tom Kaine with regard to Grants for fire safety um so I forwarded that to uh uh some of the council members here who uh may have relationships and connections with the fire and rescue Community to see whether or not any of our rescue squads or fire departments or other emergency service responders may be able to take advantage of the grants through the federal program um we were also honored to host a congressman Kan uh who came in for a breakfast with police CH police Chiefs uh throughout the district uh that was hosted here in Bridgewater um so we're glad to be able to accommodate him and uh last thing I have a chief is here um several months ago Council may remember we had a resident come forward who raised uh concerns and allegations with regard to interaction with our uh one of our police officers um with a uh with his son the Son and the father were both here made accusations against our police officers um and uh Chief mitac has reviewed that matter and I'd like to since it was discussed at the last or well when they were here discussed the public I'd ask Chief to just give a status report on that you can come up [Music] Chief okay good evening uh like the mayor said just like to talk about the investigation of alleged racism Prejudice and profiling against offic of hosel as presented by Mr Ashish Joshi at the public council meeting this in this room here on January 18 2024 uh what led him here was on December 20th 2023 officer holdo was dispatched to Sunset Ridge for a burglar arm on January 18 2024 Mr Ashish josi and his 14-year-old son came to the council meeting during public comment they alleged that from the incident on December 20 2023 officer hosel was racist he profiled and failed to dis deescalate the situation Mr josi alleged that he had video of the entire incident council members all you here present tried speaking with Mr josi council members inquired if there was any racial slurs used the 14-year-old stated there was no racial slurs but there was obvious Prejudice towards him he further stated officer hosel taught him that racism is real and that was the first time he had been racially profiled by anyone Mr Jos related that he saw the video and it made it very uncomfortable council member pedroo asked Mr Josie what racism was experienced and Mr josi responded there was racism absolutely 110% I've seen the video all this interaction was recorded every council meeting is recorded and you could see that on YouTube if you want to go back and look at his comments once I heard Mr josi's comments I immedately tried to speak with him to inquire about his allegations he refused to speak with me and walked out of the room I merely walked up to the de and I ADV all the council members and the public that a thorough Internal Affairs investigation would be conducted to investigate claims as you can all imagine I was appalled at what I heard I was concerned Disturbed worried about what I was going to see on that camera on that video I was upset that no supervisor brought this to my attention at that time on J uh January 22nd 2024 Lieutenant Peter Ox was assigned the internal affairs investigation into this matter I would try to set the stage for everyone of what occurred on December 20 20 23 the entire call for service was recorded on body warn camera from the moment officer hoso arrived on scene until he left the scene officer hosel was dispatched to an activated burglar alarm at 5:16 p.m. now again this is December it's dark now the house was located on Sunset Ridge it was completely dark outside on this night officer hoso parks on the street and starts to walk up a long driveway at the top of the driveway is a person wearing a hoodie standing there with his hands in his pockets officer hoso shines his flashlight on officer oam ask asks him to remove his hands for his safety from his pockets officer hos asked him for identification and he provided a California driver's license the individual advised he is at the house with his friend shortly thereafter the 14-year-old josi responds outside the 14-year-old advised officer hosel that he's on the phone with the homeowner officer hosel is handed the cell phone officer hosel puts the phone in his vest over here like this this with with the speaker on officer hos was asking relevant questions and writing the information down on his notepad officer hoso confirms that the boys were allowed to be at the house also proposal gives the phone back and starts to speak with the adult male in the driveway telling him that it's not a good idea to be in the dark with his hands in the pocket when an officer approaches at this time the adult mayor didn't respond he kind of ignored him officer hosel stated to him that's okay you don't have to answer me officer hosel then thanked both of them and said have a good night guys and then he walked away Lieutenant o conducted a thorough investigation he tried to interview the joies but they were not Cooperative he responded to the house where the burg alarm was activated to see if there's any other video that was captured besides what was on our body warn camera the homeowner never called back you officer or Lieutenant Ox also looked at other homes in the area that might have surveillance camera which was never located or provided Lieutenant ax reviewed all the evidence and determined that officer hosel did not violate any AJ guidelines Bridge Township Police Department policy and procedures or bridor Township Police Department rules and regulations to confirm our findings I also sent all the evidence to the Somerset County Prosecutors for an independent review of these allegations first assistant prosecutor Brian stack reviewed the case and provided a written report I'm not going to read his report but I am going to read some highlights of his report I'm the deputy first assistant prosecutor and the legal advisor to the internal affairs unit and the bi crime unit for the summerson County prosecutor's office I have reviewed body warn camera video from your officer's response to December 2023 activated Burger alarm as well as video from January 18 2024 Town count at the Town council meeting of which Mr Jose and his son alleged that his son and a cousin experienced racism during the incident after reviewing the video I see no evidence to support Mr Josie and his son's claims of racism of or other improper conduct by law enforcement do so know the entire interaction with officer hosel and the people at the scene lasted four minutes um the body work camera uh video does not support any of these claims by Mr josi as for being profiled in approach for no reason these claims ignor the reality of this situation an officer responded to an activated residential Burg alarm in an area of town with frequent burglaries and found a man with his hands in his pockets standing in the dark in the driveway of the residence far from no reason these facts instead constitute articul suspicion to lawfully detain and question the cousin and the son in fact officer hosel would have been derelict in his duties had he not stopped and questioned them granted officer hz's tone in speaking was firm but it was appropriate command presence for an officer dealing with two unknown actors standing in the dark outside of a residence with an activated burglar arm unfortunately Mr Jose and's son appeared to view this incident from a very egocentric perspective Ive and failed to appreciate that unless until officer hosel investigated this matter he had no way of knowing whether there were a a juvenile neighbor and his cousin watering the plants who accident accidentally activated the alarm or B two career criminals who were interrupted in the middle of burglarizing a vacation resident home in conclusion your officer's conduct was appropriate please conduct contact me if you have any questions just so everyone's aware myself and the captains are usually sitting in that back room at every council meeting if there's ever a concern that's why we're here you can come talk to me at any time if I'm not here you're welcome to come to my office and speak to me anytime spreading false information can have serious consequences including misinformation confusion harm to individuals or or organizations erosion of trust and societal division in closing what was alleged by Mr josi and his son was not was was not what was betrayed on the body War camera to come for the council and public an alleged racism and prejudice against officer hosle without providing any proof or allowing a thorough investigation to take place before coming in front of council is slander character assassination and public humiliation that is my report Mr M thank you Chief I appreciate uh that uh given that the initial complaints was made in public uh we thought was appropriate to respond in kind in public and I would just you know I would further add the Chiefs too nice to do so but I uh relates in public to our police department and our officer so Chief I appreciate uh the investigation that you've done and uh for anybody council members uh you know the um body warn camera footage is there so if anybody doesn't believe uh or or uh feels they need to review it themselves um you know that's a public document so could we make it could we he already provided a copy we that video easily available to be seen since it's we it's now a public issue um if anybody wants a copy they can get it from from the clerk's office I don't believe we're going to post it online so like mosquitoes I don't know if that's part of that property also already down there we've uh contacted the property owner to indicate that they have an ordinance that requires Property Maintenance and that they have to maintain it and if they don't they will be cited so we are uh this is I think there Brady was out this week yes out this week um so if you um hopefully you'll see a quick Improvement um but uh if not we're on top of enforcement with them and uh you know you can always reach out to the township if you want an update um you know unfortunately if property owners don't comply it can the enforcement process can be a little slower than you'd like um unfortunately we can't manage the court process but um we'll give you update if you reach out to us okay yesterday there were a couple of guys trimming some of the high grass around the the outside of the perimeter fence nothing nothing inside yeah we this has been a couple folks that brought this up so um you know we'll check a look if they've made some improvements but not all of them we'll remind them that they have to do everything we appreciate it thank you no problem hi my name is Janice Reno I live at 30 to Jamestown Road um in regarding to the storm drains so um there's a few of us here but I just want to let you know I mean I've been a resident here in Bridgewater since 1997 um we had moved to Jamestown in 2018 um since then with Ida I just want you to see a face to besides water problems my house was surrounded by water and I'm not even on the Brookside it had caused damage to my Foundation there was a six to 5 foot hole that came in we were actually dry vacing and it we just ran up it not only affected our basement affected the first level of my home I I'm I'm not exagger exaggerating but it must have been about 100,000 to replace you name it the garage had to be fixed the first level the bathroom things that I've lost in the basement washer dryer uh furnace um things that my parents both are deceased I have lost I can't get them back I was displaced I couldn't get back to my home for about four months so yes water drainage it might be not as a problem to you but when you're affected I don't feel safe in my home and I'm concerned about you know the property like I can't do this again there's other people that been living on that street has been dealing with storms I don't even know how to me they're like Heroes because once is too much but I just wanted to voice this to you um basically we just want to be safe in our homes safe in our neighborhoods and keep our properties uh not damage so thank you for your time on the uh on the agenda tonight we are uh hopefully approving um award a contract for improvements on Acorn lilac Jamestown York town uh which will also include uh some improvements to the uh to the drainage to the storm water to the extent that it's in the street uh you know in your area I think behind your house is um uh you have a a stream so the drainage improvements and the storm water that we do as part of the road project may or may not address um if it's uh if it's uh you know flooding issues coming from streams but it should improve at least the storm water uh from the road system over there I'm s to good evening Mr chairman um I got a question the question is that's a good question William gats I'm at the 2915 Court Bridgewater New Jersey and I got a question why is our water being poisoned the American Water serves 65,000 people in our Raritan Shamong District I found this document I want to pass it up to the uh chairman it's from American water and it uh it labels all the contaminants in our water ewg environmental working group it's a 501c3 down in Washington you know I'm a single guy I pay $45 a month for water I remember when it was $45 a quarter and all of a sudden they switched it and it became four times the amount profit for them then when you call them they have the standard answers so at 615,000 people you divide that by four let's say four people per family you divide that by four that's 153,154 households those 800 so that 15 53,856 households times $45 $45 is what a single person pays family of four would use more water than that probably four times the amount so these numbers are conservative $45 time 153,000 857 comes out to 6,923 587 per month so this is $7 million a month going to American Water 7 million a month so what are we getting for 7 million dollars a month well we're getting 34 total contaminants I put my glasses on the wreath say this way say you notice this well you could look into ewg environment environmental working group environmentals drinking water quality report shows results of tests conducted by the water utility and provided to the environmental working group by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as well as information from the US EPA enforcement and comp compliance history database for the latest quarter assess by the usepa January 2021 March 2021 tap water provided by this water utility was in was in compliance with federal health base drinking water standards then you go to the next page and it says legal does not necessarily equal safe getting a passing grade from the federal government does not mean the water meets latest health guidelines legal limits for contaminants in tap water have not been updated for 20 years the best way to ensure your clean water tap is to keep pollution out of the source so we're P $7 million a month the residents of the Raritan Shamong District what are we getting you there a lot of names I can't read but right off the top we're getting 69 times the amount of arsenic according to ewg's health guidelines I don't know anybody uh I don't know I guess if my wife was giving me arsenic every day I'd say she's poisoning me right so is American water poisoning us that's just one out of 34 and there's so many big big words chromium chloroform chromium 12 times the amount chloroform 69 times the amount and there's forever chemicals in there as well so uranium two 2.7 times the amount of uranium that exceeds the the guidelines sure so I want to give this to the chairman maybe you can move you can look into this who who who who has oversight thank you and if anyone wants a copy I have a few extra copies good evening Kathy Franco 766 weac Road first let me start by saying that I had absolutely no intention of coming this evening um however the live stream stopped right after mayor mench stated if anyone wants a copy of the body cam video they can get it from the clerk's office um it will not be posted online um the live stream video only came back on at 8:19 p.m. I did send emails to OCR regarding my concern about the fact that the live stream was not working and excuse my breathing I have a back injury and that's why I actually had no intention of coming this evening in addition um councilman nalis and Cella when you speak either giving you reports or speak to the council would you please remember to turn your microphones on because they cannot be heard on the live stream at all um but since I'm here I want to mention the budget which I know is going to be proposed tonight it's about time and it's long overdue according to the DCA regulations and standards when will the proposed budget be available online for residents to review and when will the public hearing be held and finally I want to thank all my fellow residents for coming tonight and speaking about whatever your concerns are to this Council and to make your concerns public because I think that's very important thank you Miss Franco once the um budget's introduced it will be available short I don't know if it'll be available immediately online but I Mike says it will be available tomorrow and the final action on it will be August 15th okay John R 1110 Washington Valley Road I have um gu a question U about uh not the budget but U the note sale that just went uh through this July um uh I know it's very hard to you know get information from this town on financial matters but uh can you give me some brief details of the princial amount and the interest rate for the notes of sale yeah you know if you uh if you email just two numbers uh yeah I don't have it in front I pass it down so if if you well somebody has it here I mean give you the chart at some point if I can find it just give a that's uh was just read can you read off uh you know it's correct the no sale oh so Bond you went for long-term bonds that's what notes it's notes notes one year note well still would like to know the number how I can I'm sorry I I beg your pardon uh I I say again the amount of the bond was 23, 83900 000 uh the uh the one rate was 3.44 2% and the yield was 3.4 and it was of course a tax exempt Bond and of the 369 actually it's 10 offerings that went in we got the best rate oh so that's that's about $800,000 in interest for the year then okay uh second question is um um just recently the um oh let's go back previous history uh in 22 the uh planning board changed the Zoning for a pars of land behind kid Street for a electronic billboard uh that was put into the master plan uh the council did a first reading of unanimous approval for of voting for a a lease of public property to a private entity called Catalyst experimental Catalyst experimental has defaulted on their payments and their Pro their bill boards are sold in light of that can I get some promise from the C the council the or the mayor that the Zoning for the uh kid Street parts of land will now prohibit U things like the Billboards now that this chapters closed maybe we we haven't thought about it quite frankly uh until you make you spend all this time changing the master plan in 22 and then going forward with the you know you're the exclusive seller to an exclusive buyer the buyer has crapped out I think I think you may want to you know revisit the master plan well yeah in all seriousness uh you know what we we're doing the master plan process right now I think as you know so uh you know right now we're not going to do any like special zoning just on that property but to the extent that we're looking at the master plan and we're looking at overall uses of all of our properties um that would be one of the things that we look at to see whether or not what's currently permitted should continue to be permitted as an option or whether it shouldn't be I think I think since the Folly of it has been proven uh I think it's about time to just go back to the way things were thank you we agree thank you seeing no additional movement I move we close public input I'll second all those in favor I I opposed all right public input is closed make sure I don't skip anything this time I'm going to put the glasses on um next up is 10A uh well we have two items under Section 10 related to the 2024 Municipal budget a is a calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the missable budget Appropriations limits and to establish a cap Bank under njsa 4A col 44514 only only two comments uh as a general matter you know the cap bank issue I think as the council knows that's a municipal accounting matter which is relating to has nothing to do with tax increases or tax expenditures it's a accounting over if you don't raise uh expenditures within a certain amount per year you can essentially Bank it that way towns don't feel the need that they have to raise expenditures uh just to preserve it for the future so um that is what it is uh we've done it every year as far as I know for the past 20 years um with regard to introduction to the budget I just wanted to thank the budget subcommittee for uh their work uh with the administration on this and uh obviously now the full Council has the budget so um look forward to any additional comments that the council has and uh you know will be available to the public for comment and review and we'll have a final entertain a motion I'll make the motion to approve 10 okay I'll second it okay roll call please councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman orales yes councilman proso no council president ring yes all right 10B is the introduction of the municipal budget um as you've heard the mayor say there will uh well the introduction of the budget is simply the council acknowledging receipt of the budget from the administration uh this vote tonight does not approve the budget it's starts the legal process of that um we'll have the the clerk will read an official um statement assuming this uh passes but this is just simp e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e soon as we get the word from Suzanne Monday Monday it was Monday right can I have a motion to uh resume public session I make that motion I'll second it all those in favor I I opposed motion carries all right so we have completed our closed session and as I mentioned uh prior to us going into close session there was the potential for us to take further action I believe at this point we are going to uh propos introducing an ordinance authorizing a quick C deed releasing affordability controls attached to certain affordable housing units at block 526 lot 16 and 17 on grigs drive like to know what the include the street addresses we don't have yeah are those the items that are in schedule they're in schedule a correct I'm here we we have are they there we have oh they're in there they're in schedule a so for the public record that is 203 Gregs Drive 206 Gregs Drive 208 Gregs Drive 301 Gregs Drive 41 G Drive 402 G Drive 1404 Somerset and 1407 Somerset so this is the same person owns all of these units no is it same person noex instrument I don't know how they retain repres that's got it so this is just for the Public's benefit these are properties that have been in the affordable housing program for their required 30 years and the ownership UNS also anybody have anything else entertain a motion to introduce 15a I'll make the motion to introduce 15a I'll second the motion councilman Kur yes councilman cordella no councilman oralis yes councilman proso put yes to introduce council president ring yes if you could set the public hearing yep final action is scheduled for August 1st 2024 at 7:30 p.m. here in the municipal court room public inspection of this ordinance is available on the township website Bolton board and through the clerk's office um I make the motion to adjourn this August body second it all those in favor I I