[Applause] and good evening everyone and welcome to the December 11 2023 East Brunswick Township council meeting everyone please please rise as we salute our flag and our nation with our Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of personal reflection I pledge Al to flag of the United States of America to the Republic of Rel one nation under God liy and justice for thank you before we uh begin the formal of the meeting I was asked to recognize Mr Neil sha Mr sha microphone is yours good evening everybody um my name is Neil Sean uh we have created a new board for uh East Brunswick's fast fast break basketball so we came here today because we've unveiled a brand new logo and in the spirit of Christmas and things like that we've brought you guys a small gift uh on behalf of the league um and ask you to support us in any which way you can by coming to games um to be able to tell your friends that this is a league for everybody in the community as well as one of our uh Council women she is also a site director and been part of uh fast break for a very very long time so we won't take up too much of your time we have a giant game to go to so we're going to go ahead and unveil um these are the hoodies that we we bought for everybody oh wow first one is a large [Music] so sir thank you yes appreciate that and the only thing we asked is that you wear it and please send it to our uh website or um our Instagram we do want this to be a very much of a community uh outreach program so anytime you guys come to a game it would be great you know just meeting the parents and things like that and helping us kind of move forward with great idea Mr I'd like to introduce um I have Bobby here Nikki tapi and her husband Rob tapki we also have another gentleman uh Dave Chen who canot make it because he's at a fast gr practice so [Music] um now the size I hope it's an extra extra I'm I'm kidding it's a youth it's a 2T 2 thank you so I'll do an excellent get the council people first then I'll do an extra large if you have left anyway I apologize size Mis calculation based on as big as I am I fig everybody's size a little WR sizes that's embarrassing okay Neil how many kids do you have in the program right now we ordered 599 jerseys this year so there's a few few extras but probably about 550 um we started off a few years before Co around 1300 and because of Co you know we lost a lot of our kids and we're trying to get back to that 1300 nice that's great though 2x yep thank you so kind appreciate that please Neil and Neil board I just wanted to say publicly that I've witnessed firsthand the fresh face you're putting on fast break this year and all the great changes that have occurred and the um camaraderie and the collaboration with everyone is terrific and great and the experience at the front end has been absolutely terrific so we appreciate everything that you're working so hard for we know how hard you work and um deeply appreciate thing again right we just you know this is the best team that anybody can have I mean you know they work like as a team we work like hours and hours and hours so I'm getting the schedule um I'll let Bobby talk about that cuz she's handled that yeah we work very closely with Parks and Recreation to use schools in the district which we really appreciate uh we used you know four elementary schools we used hammerel we use high school for our travel division so we do really appreciate it and actually on Churchill we use it for our buddy ball division which is for our special needs kids so we're always looking for volunteers to help out on Saturday mornings to help out the kids with special needs to develop their skills what time is that on Saturday mornings it is from um 10: to 11:30 we also introduced a new logo for Buddy ball as well a little bit softer bear a little more kind you know yeah we actually have the most uh we have about 79 buddies this year wow wow so we're always looking for Pals we don't have enough Pals to help out the Buddies did you reach out to youth Council we're working on that and we're having a training this week too if anybody wants to help out so very good did we miss anybody with sweatshirts don't worry about no no we have the only reason just no just single tomorrow I'm like you paid for we have and tomorrow oh yeah we have your meeting we oh yeah we grab we'll be here for a while sorry about that can we get a picture though whoever do tomorrow please join us please join put on faceb I'll have D do like a little article whatever we can do to help very good thank you so much sorry that we interrupted the beginning okay thank you thank you you're welcome I got I I receiv received the inspector thank you okay and if you're going to bring them back Mr Shaw you can just we'll put them down put them over there in the maroon chair of course thank you so much thank you for having thank you thank you Township Clerk L will you please call roll and read our statement of adequate notice councilman Bal here councilman wendal here councilwoman Winston here councilwoman ziki here council president McAvoy here also president mayor Brad Cohen here administrator Joseph kuso here and Township attorney Michael Baker here adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 Public Law 1975 by specifying the time date location and to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy on the bulletin board located in the main lobby of the East Brunswick Municipal Building providing a copy to the home News Tribune and Sentinel newspapers posting a copy on the Township's website and by filing a copy in the office of the Township Clerk which will be entered into the minutes thank you Council you have before you resolution 23 hyphen 341 adopting our meeting minutes from November 27th 2023 may have a motion motion to approve second and a second is there any discussion or correction to these minutes Township Clerk please call roll Council M Bal yes councilman wendal yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman Z Micky yes and council president M boy yes thank you Council we have a series of ordinances before us nine to be specific and we will honor each one separately first up resolution 23 hyphen 28 C CLK a bond ordinance for various Capital Improvements in and by the township of East Brunswick County of middlex state of New Jersey appropriating 4, 235,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 4 million $2 3,250 in bonds or notes to finance part of the cost there thereof may I have a motion motion adopt second second and I'll open this ordinance to the public for comment does anyone wish to comment and we'll close the public portion Council discussion or comment toship clerk lawful please call Ro councilman Bal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman in ziki yes and council president makoy yes next we have ordinance 23 hyphen 29 c clerk law will you please read an ordinance adopting a Redevelopment plan for Block 87 lot 10.07 also known as 509 Cranberry Road as shown on the tax map of the township of East Brunswick pursuant to the local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 4A 12 A-1 we have a motion motion adop and second second now open this ordinance for public comment does anyone wish to comment close the public portion any any Council discussion or comment seeing none Township Clerk lawful will you please call Ro councilman Bal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman zimi abstain and council president maoy yes next up ordinance 23 hyen 30 Township Clerk an ordinance of the township of East Brunswick amending ordinance number 22-21 fixing the grades classifications and grades and compensation of employees of the township of East Brunswick covering the United Services Workers Union Local 255 m motion so moved second second I'll open this ordinance to the public do anyone wish to comment seeing none I'll close the public portion there any comment or discussion from Council Township Clerk please call rooll councilman bahal yes councilman Wendell obain councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki yes and council president McAvoy yes next up ordinance 23 hyen 31 Township Clerk please read an ordinance of the township of East Brunswick amending ordinance number 22-22 fixing the grades classifications and grades and compensation of employees of the township of East Brunswick covering the professional Managers Association PMA executive staff and confidential employees we have a motion motion adop and a second second open this to the public is there anyone wishing to comment close the public portion and the audience will understand we'll take notice that uh ordinances 23 23 hyen 29 through 23y 36 are related to contractual matters here in town Township Clerk we have call rooll councilman Bal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki yes and council president m yes ordinance 23 hypen 32 coun clerk please read an ordinance amend an ordinance number 22-23 fix and compensation for temporary part-time and seasonal employees I have a motion motion to approve and a second second I open this ordinance to the public for comment does anyone wish to comment seeing none we'll close the public portion is there any discussion or comment from Council Township Clerk lawful will you please call rooll councilman Bal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki abstain and council president makoy yes next ordinance 23 hyphen 33 C clerk an ordinance amending ordinance number 21-21 establishing the salary compensation for the East Brunswick school crossing guards Association we have a motion motion and a second second I'll now open this ordinance to the public for comment does anyone wish to comment close the public portion any discussion or comment from Council Township Clerk law fly please call R councilman bahal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman zimi yes and council president maoy yes next up ordinance 23 hyphen 34 four Township Clerk lawful please read an ordinance amending ordinance number 21-30 fixing the salary classification from members of the superior Officers Association s SOA 145a of the township of East Brunswick may have a motion so moved and a second second we now open this ordinance for the public to comment does anyone wish to comment close the public portion discussion or comment from Council C clerk lawful please call roll councilman ball yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki yes council president maoy yes ordinance 23 hypen 35 Township Clerk lawful please read an ordinance amend in ordinance number 21-29 fixing the salary classification for members of the policeman's Ben benevolent Association local 145 of the township of East Brunswick I have a motion motion with adopt and a second second I'll open this ordinance for the public to comment does anyone wish to comment close the public portion any discussion or comment from councel countship clerk lawful please call rooll councilman Bal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki yes and council president McAvoy yes and finally ordinance number 23 hyphen 36 Township Clerk lawful please read an ordinance amend in ordinance number 21-37 establishing compensation and salaries for East Brunswick special Police Association in accordance with contractual Provisions may I have a motion motion approved second second now open this ordinance for comment from the public does anyone wish to address anyone wish to comment on this close the public portion General discussion from comment from Council as I a little bit wordy here Township Clerk uh lawful police call rooll Council Bal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki yes and council president mavo yes okay take a break we can move on to our reports uh section of the meeting mayor con thank you council president um I just wanted to shout out to our amazing Parks and Recreation Department for the winter wonderland that they had um about a week ago on Sunday unfortunately the weather was a little bit uncooperative but it really didn't deter um from what was really an incredible kind of a Hallmark moment there uh the dep Department spent a lot of time and effort uh putting up decorations having different vendors doing a lot um to uh promote uh kids and and performances that went throughout the day so that there was a cycling of people that were coming in and out of the uh the complex and it it really just turned it into truly a winter wonderland uh and uh I believe that had it not been for the weather we probably would have had record number of people here at the the township so if anybody knows a way of uh fixing that for next year that would be great and we could hire you for the all of our events in the township if you had that ability but it really was a a a a um a team effort on their part and I I think it should go um uh noticed and and mentioned here uh and so uh really not much else that I needed to say other than I know that the next uh council meeting will be after Christmas so I wish everybody a very happy merry uh Christmas and we'll see you after the holiday thank you thank you mayor con business administrator Mr Chris kulo yes just one item uh some of you might know that on sorry on Saturday we had a water main break on the highway on Route 18 um I'm going to declare an emergency for for that we called Earl uh asol company who's doing the route 18 uh High work for the state and for continuity we thought it best that they handled the project so uh Mr uh Dan loac contacted me he said it you know he wants to declare a public emergency for the health and safety of the public I agreed with him that it was necessary to get that water line back up and and going um so I'm going to uh meet the statutory requirement of informing the council at the very next meeting and at the next council meeting uh we will have a resolution uh to memorialize that but I just wanted to let you know that I needed to declare the emergency uh for the public thank you you're welcome and thank you Mr Chris gulo our Township attorney Mr Baker no report this evening council president our toship clerk Miss laul I follow suit no report today with regard to council any committee or board reports I met with the water policy committee and before this water main break the news was was that we were on our ahead of schedule and that the Northbound side would have been opening to three lanes once they installed some concrete curbing there um and that vermella is going to be hooked up soon on the southbound side great thank you that's great news thank you councilwoman Council woman zambi anything okay um I'm I'm I'm glad to report from the may I was in a little shock too I didn't know what to say then we haven't had a meeting yet it's okay she still we we appreciate the reports from the from the recreation board but uh uh um with regard to the planning board that that the mayor and I are on I'm really excited to report to you about two warehouses that were given approval on hearts on one on hars Lane and one on cotter's Lane it's it's an example of of uh correct Planning by putting warehousing where warehousing belongs and and uh not having uh our Conti in saying what are you doing that for so uh two rather large wouldn't you say mayor con Warehouse complexes uh coming into the community uh soon okay so that's my report uh let me open the meeting to the public and will Township Clerk lawful please read our public comment statement the public common portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to the the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-2a and the East Brunswick rules of council the council asked the public to limit their comments to 5 minutes or less at the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public the council president at his discretion may choose to respond not respond or ask the administration to respond thank you is there anyone from the public wishing to address the council president please good evening Council and mayor my name is Christian Kane and I'm a nurse and resident here in East Brunswick on Shin Road I'm here to continue advocating for the safe Staffing bills s304 a453 6 which would establish minimum Staffing levels for registered nurses across the state we are facing a crisis and it is going to take the support of the public and elected officials to overcome the nursing Workforce is collapsing like climate change we are facing a positive feedback loop that requires dramatic action now so as to prevent disastrous consequences for those unfamiliar a positive feedback loop is a repeating a set a repeating amplifying events that often need external actions to stop depends on if the root cause is eventually eliminated by the loop itself great example is Miracle of child birth the B creates pressure stimulating contractions and dilation which further increases pressure and it continues until the baby's born this is an example of a loop that will eventually come to an end on its own unfortunately the loop I'm here to address is no Miracle instead the American healthc care system is facing a nursing shortage that is festered like an open wound over the past couple of decades the cycle starts with nurses having poor job satisfaction this causes them to leave the bedside this Loops into itself repeatedly amplifying the the shortage this can technically resolve by itself you could just wait until there aren't any more nurses left while it seems like I'm joking around I am being extremely serious if you wait to intervene in this Loop eventually that is what will happen let's return now to the postpartum mother in recovery her blood pressures Dro to critical lows due to blood blood loss the nurse calls for a rapid response and the doctor is now at the bedside they order a stat blood transfusion and instructs the nurse to slow the bleeding until it arrives by taking Swift and decisive action the team has stopped an undesirable feedback loop if the nurseing crisis is also a positive feedback loop what is the root cause if you check any academic study or survey on the topic you will find overwhelming evidence that nurses believe their organizations are understaffed a survey performed in 2021 by the American Nurses Association determined that nine out of 10 nurses say their organization is under staffed then the American nurses Foundation performed a survey in 2022 and determined that 63% of nurses under the age of 35 either intend to or or are considering leaving their job in an article published in health Affairs by Dr David arbach the nursing Workforce dropped by a a record 100,000 in 2021 alone the majority of these nurses were under the age of 50 and the under 35 demographic experienced the largest drop he goes on to say a sustained reduction in the number of younger age RNs would raise ominous implications for the future Workforce the nursing Workforce is in shock if this crisis were a patient you would stop the bleeding and get a transfusion stat so why are we listening to hospital lobbyists who refuse to do either they victim blame by saying nurses must not have a positive enough mindset consultant groups such as Oracle say disgusting things such as nursing turnover has surprising benefits like saying that burnt out nurses are lowering morale and that if they leave voluntarily it saves the hospital money and benefits an industry that admits to seeing this as a good thing might as well be vampires they grow stronger from malicious exploitation the industry reinvests these savings into consolidating into larger networks leading to monopolies that drive up costs and insurance premiums alike the FTC recently stepped in here in middlex to stop the Robert with Johnson St Peters merger instead of worrying about patient care they build billion dooll expansions Hospital associations act in ways that harm the American public and the healthcare Workforce alike these bills have Provisions to allow for time to obtain that unit of blood that the workforce needs to survive while we act to stop the bleeding hospitals can figure out ways they can attract RNs back to the bedside there are nearly 30,000 RNs in New Jersey that have allowed their licenses to expire if evidence is to be believed many of them are young and the vast majority of them left due to poor working conditions if these conditions were to change we could bring them back to the bedside and stop this cycle thank you anyone else wish to address council president please my name is Joseph Schmidt uh Lois Avenue East Brunswick and um I have Tre syndrome so facial ticks for those who don't know every else probably knows I have that facial ticks um on the discussion before this information she actually was mentioning about nursing shortages and this information is probably about a year year and a half old but I remember talking to a bunch of EMTs and and other people in work in hospitals at the time and they actually said one of the reasons that people are leaving and trying nursing in hospitals and going to private care is because they felt they weren't treated properly and just for your information they also felt that um they weren't getting paid enough in the sense to deal with what they were doing uh that apparently some also left because of vaccine mandates as well you have the influenza vaccine mandate and the co mandate at the time those were big issues for a lot of people in the medical profession as well um although a lot of people were able to get religious exemptions so it was a bit wasn't exactly the same thing but a lot of them people more people apparently were leaving because of that from people I talk to um another aspect about the medical issues that we're having where we are not where the is a shortage of doctors Etc there's number of reasons why one possible reason is the large increase in medical need some of that natural because if people live longer they need more Medical Care once they get over a certain age say 80 or 70 there's a lot more Medical Care some people if they have other issues and they're younger depending on various factors but also there's a large increase in chronic childhood disease um aren Jr quoted the CDC I think 1983 was somewhere around like 133% and in 2017 it had jumped up to over 50% to childood cronic disease which is pretty vague because it referred to just a minor allergy to like all the way to like someone with autism who stuck in a diaper and I remember as Ms I actually remember going to people to a building in Highland Park that actually had people like people with Autism stuck in a diaper who were adults who can't take care of themselves um and the rates of people like that are actually increasing over time so that's going to affect a lot more childhood care and there's actually research about that is out there about how that's affecting the economy and affecting tax and a whole bunch of mess that's causing that in the economy because of that um that was basically what I wanted to say those Concepts right anyone else wishing to address council president Mr inani uh Tom inran dear Field Road Mr Mayor president councel I received two letters with the last week or so uh one was interesting to have a it's like a water pipe insurance it's 372 for a month and 44 $446 for a year it's up to almost $10,000 of insurance in case your water main breaks and you know I think it's very good I have another policy which I'm paying $85 for but this struck me that was pretty good so if you could pass the word on to the people and you know it's I think it's worth it in fact too bad the town could just add it to the taxes have everybody you know covered but um it's to me it's worth it if you want the number I gave it to you Jim if you want me to give it publicly I give it to you but um the number is um 1877 532 5268 it's American uh Water Resources okay now the other letter I got was from PSC and G that they're going to install Smart Meters uh within the next 90 days now I don't know if I think you should be home for this because they say it only takes a few minutes you pull it down they put it in but you could have a compressor going in the house you could have refrigerator compressor below and it should be that they let you know this way you can shut off the main and put everything on back normally I mean that's I was electrician so I think I that's used to do that you never put anything back on the load right and the other thing is too they should give you time to tighten up the lugs in the meter CU most of these houses have aluminum wiring and they oxidize and they us you loosen up and that could create an arc and do damage later on so I prefer to be home because I rather tighten it up myself and just to let you know but they're saying they're going to store with in the next 90 days so do you know if they're going to have um notify the people and just do it on their own that's what I want to know if you could find out I'll call it myself but let me know thank you Mr thank you very much yep anyone else wishing to address Council PR if not we'll close the public portion we have a resolution requiring a separate vote and that is resolution 23 hyen 342 uh Township you please read resolution authorizing budget transfers in accordance with njsa 44-58 I have a motion motion second second Mr culo will you comment on this yeah these are just the noral and the year chewing up from the budget to what our actuals are at um you noticed that we've spent a lot of money on automobile parts because we tried to get the most out of our vehicles and there's various other line items um truly are is when we pass a budget it's it's truly a budget with projections and now you're just twing them up like we do uh from November through December and actually you can do some in January too so uh you'll probably see this on the agenda again on the 26th thank you is there any Council discussion please go Council mble Hall yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman ziki yes and council president makoy yes moving on to our consent agenda is there anything that needs to be separated may I have a motion for resolution 23 hyen 343 through resolution 23y 350 some moved I on a second second roll call please council member ball yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman iniki yes and council president maoy yes and for the good of the cause counil woman I wonder I would just like to wish everyone that's here in celebrating uh Happy Hanukkah and to those that will be celebrating Christmas have a very Merry Christmas and we'll see you all the day after anything from anyone else I second that please I heard that right I'm I'm just trying to uh yeah as the mayor said the holidays are we wishing everyone a happy holiday and uh may have a motion to adjourn so move second second all those in favor say I I eyes have a good [Music] night [Music]