e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e just come back trip all right it's 7:05 calling the regular meeting of Wednesday March 13th to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Al to the of the United States of America to the stands Nation indivisible andice for Madam clerk roll call council member brusher here council member Co here council member Harris here council member Patel council member ptil here council member pointer present council member schmuel here all right Madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the on notice sent to the home News Tribune Star Ledger Desi talk new Zia times on December 12th 20123 and post domain Lobby missal complex on that same date thank you madam Clerk uh approval of minutes the work session of November 27 2023 a motion to approve motion to approve second all in favor actually I have to abstain I was away then okay and all the rest of us all in favor in terms of president's remarks uh I just wanted to discuss what transpired on Monday and uh first I want the legal to explain the First Amendment issue versus the decorum of the deis and the council meetings so uh after uh what occurred on Monday night um went back consulted with the director of law um looked into the matters that were brought up uh from the podium and I want to make it clear that Council meetings are what is considered a limited public forum which means that the public has the right to speak the public has the right to be heard the public has the right to express their Viewpoint however limited public forums are and have been for a considerable period of time uh subject to reasonable time planner time place and manner restrictions we limit the public speaking to 6 minutes we limit where you can speak from you can only speak from the podium uh we limit um you know that you can't speak before being recognized by the chair uh manner restrictions so long as they are content neutral uh including uh a Prohibition in the decorum rules against the use of profanity um are not violative of the Public's First Amendment right you can accuse the council employees uh the world of whatever you want uh the content is not the problem the issue becomes when you speak in a manner that is profane offensive uh and violates the rules of the Quorum set forth that are the sole reason why the council is able to conduct the business that the council meets to conduct thank you and so moving forward uh if you are out of order I will ask you to stop speaking and if you continue your time will be forfeited and I'll ask you to sit down and if you don't sit down I will ask the nice gentleman over there to remove you from the room uh that will be the procedure moving forward so let's everyone have a good meeting and uh let's start for new business uh proposed on ordinance public hearing set down for Wednesday March 27th Madam Clerk please read the ordinance ordinance adds a residential parking Zone to Christopher Court uh can I get a motion to introduce I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday March 27th 2024 may I have a second second all right a motion from Council vice president second by councilman P any Council comments I see none uh roll call Madam clerk council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member Shel yes council president Patel yes public comments on the resolutions going from the no anybody would like to speak on the resolution come onc pres just before she comes on the podium do you want to add this resolution or we're going to hold it oh you're going to hold it okay thank you Lois tar Rita Road Edison New Jersey I'd like to commend the mayor and the Council on resolution 119 that in the rapid way that they appointed these people to the commission so the commission can get to the business of expanding the diversity of cultures in Edison and let the people know and thank you so much and I hope you passed this resolution tonight thank you anyone else would like to speak to the resolutions come on up on the resolution of appointing for the of Joy ship Freeman you recognize that's right Main Street in Edison um I would like um to you know I speak on the cultural commission also I'm glad we have it but I would like it to reflect our town so that it be a real cultural commission number two uh the 122 uh du a Corp I was just think that's an exorbitant amount of money because I spoke to some other people today that do big stuff for the state and they said that's a lot of money they said it' probably be easier to hire somebody have them in house to do what you need them to do and also on 123 I'd like to commend uh the township regarding the crossing guards uh for union wages because I think that's very important I was a union president so I'm glad they took care of that and the last one uh about the drainage project at all I'm hoping this goes on you know throughout the town because we seriously need to make sure that puddles of water is not sitting in people's yards thank you thank you anyone else Joel bass off 17 Beach Lane is this an appropriate time to speak on the resolution on Amboy Avenue that's going to be okay well um in terms of the U proposed resolutions on the consent agenda um I hope uh someone on the council will bring up the issue of the contract to exd for municipal website consultant I know at the work session some questions were raised at as to uh why we're accepting a bid that was considerably higher than than the others and I think that that's worthy of further exploration thank you anyone else thank you council president am I recognized you recognize I I like that this is closer um uh just let me get us a name for you huh a name any name what do oh no sorry I couldn't hear you uh anonymous anonymous are you recognized concerned citizen good citizen um r122 which one uh r122 r122 okay Okay resolution accepting bid for exus say Court Municipal website consult it's 144,000 we already have a municipal website I looked at it today it's a very very nice website everything's there um is there something that's that's not on the website that that through the council president to council you will address me sir thank you I am addressing you but through Robert's Rules of voter I'm allowed to go through the chair to another council member which I'm doing now sorry can you stop Christo's time for a minute so that you understand sir when it says that you're allowed to address or ask questions of other council members through the chair those questions are still addressed to the chair and it's up to the chair whether or not to refer those questions to that individual council member employee or whatnot so the questions that you ask do have to be directed to the chair I I know that I don't understand what the back and forth is that's exactly what I was trying to do and I'm being prevented from that um did you start my time through the chair councilman Brasher um find that rather odd what's going on today $144,000 um for website consultant Municipal website consultant it's rather wasteful you know so many Municipal Employees they're losing their jobs they're getting fired and we're going to pay someone you got to face me thank I am it I I can it doesn't matter where I face uh uh you're you're you're now interrupting my my thought process and you know that that's a violation of my rights I feel but how much time do I have left Marina three minutes three M minutes through the chair councilman brush $144,000 you know for for one person it's rather strange to me what what's not being done on the municipal website is this person getting the $144,000 a friend of the mayor or friend of people up there that's a good question um were there other bids that were much less than this that's another good question I believe there were and uh we're doing favor and I I don't like this so much to the point that they they don't they're afraid of what I'm about to say up here that they're preventing me from speaking um who is the municipal website consultant what's the name of the municipal website consultant his name it's exd okay that's the corporation but who who who's going to be the the consultant in the human being do you have any other questions okay you're not going to answer that anyways at then that's why I say through the chair councilman brusher because no one answers questions sometimes he likes to answer questions he's the okay well I'm disgusted I'm disgusted for R1 122 I think it is a friend of the mayor and I and I think they're going to get overpaid to do nothing that's more money than they paid Ray alcanta so I mean and look at all the all the stuff he he was supposed to be doing but never day um yeah Municipal website consultant 140,000 I'm absolutely disgusted by that you you could we can pay three Municipal Employees we can hire them back the ones that Sam Joi hired with that amount of money I believe anyone that votes for this is corrupt but that's my opinion and I and and I hope uh they take this are 122 off everyone votes no on R 122 I hope everyone agrees with me we have a beautiful Municipal website that's how I knew to come here I checked the municipal website it's always up to date it always says the agendas up there chairman is there something on the municip municipal website that you feel is not being done sure do you have any other questions it's not supposed one minute do they do they want to turn it into a Mayor Sam Joi uh promotional website or I mean website through the chair to councilman coil do you have do you think we need uh you're smart guy usually do you think we need 140,000 for municipal website and so on you don't have to answer it's up to you how much s do I have left Mar seconds 27 second well you can answer at the end if you want to answer that um yeah I hope everyone vot votes now on r122 and I and I think the statements you made at the beginning of the meeting are rather odd and and unlawful and I don't go by the decorum I go by the law deorum can be somebody's of personal feelings it's not in regards to resolutions thank you all right uh anyone else all right seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close public portion got a second second all in favor I okay uh do we have anything to pull for a separate vote from the conscent agenda I would like to move the motion to add the the resolution that I received in the email this afternoon on the the clar section uh sending this resolution to the planning board okay I have a motion do I have a second motion do I have a second I thought that was a motion from I move the motion to add second okay I have a motion by councilman Patel second by Council vice president may I get a roll call any Council comments uh yes Council comments anybody wants to make a council comments council president I I think this resolution is premature uh there are several businesses and residents that could appreciate the investment versus the argument of what is happening on Amoy Avenue I've given some thought and time and I've spoken to a few people in the town and we are hoping to have a further discussion sometime this week but overall as we look at this opportunity for someone who's put a lifetime into Amoy Avenue um probably a good 30 years since the begin beginning of George pororo's Redevelopment plan and the CBG money we got to do sidewalks and new poles and benches and things that are certainly outdated which are correcting now but what lies is the the misunderstanding of what development does for communities and there are some good points of what residents bring to our attention which is parking and sidewalks and the actual following the plan that's set forth in the designed standards for this area and I can agree with them on that part but point is for close to 30 years 25 plus units were built and that's it three buildings have going up in 30 years when you look at the community and its rise of of appreciation for part of this resolution that states here that there's it's had a negative impact where's the factual data for the negative impact on here and I just speak clear tra the the discussion of traffic and factual traffic and the discussion of investment versus the argument of investment if we have a developer that to invest $30 million into the community that is a good thing now you know I understand height in three stories and versus four stories but at any of the argument whether it's five more feet or eight more feet or three 3T less that does not change the building going up what changes is the economic power of the investment the seller who wants to sell for the for the time they put into the property how long they paid taxes and they waited uh no different than the Jay Don she waited worked worked 35 years here to sell she deserves to sell at the price she can get now when we don't do anything that seller that person decides to rent it's it's worse that we leave it in in a neutral position to rent because it can be rent they can rent to anybody they choose to within the ordinance the Jade the dynasty becoming a dollar store would be a failure for the community and we don't know what it could be when you look at development it brings in an opportunity uh for other people to move in that have disposable income to spend money in the community and if you look at the local store sit in there for a while see if some of the obors shop there they don't they don't patronize the local community doesn't patronize as much as you You' want it's the outside community that patronizes these coffee shops the ice cream stores the Indian restaurants and so forth it's so important that we look at this in a more digest matter and just ask as a courtesy for those on this Council just see the point and the time that's been put into this how long it takes uh developers not running to build on Amboy Avenue I've had this discussion with octar we we sat down for an hour there are some understandings of what we agree to and disagree to but the fact of the matter lies in the investment vers the argument it it you know spending $30 million on a block is a good thing if we get people to spend that money but we're not today taking this putting this resolution up and changing renue would only hurt the opportunity for development this is still a blue collar neighborhood and and people don't have a lot of money as we bring in new uh people to the community who can spend money in in the neighborhood that's important it it truly is important how we decide to that a property will no longer be a rental property for for whatever it choses to be we we steer direction of how the neighborhood is built andan and and if you look at the neighborhoods that have lost the fight to keep up a downtown you know take a look around New Jersey visit some other towns before we do this talk to all the neighbors and I know there's a there's a majority that comes here and they spend a lot of time on speaking against us and they have every right to but they do not speak for every single resident in clar Bart they don't speak for every single business in clar Barton and if you go back to those who you're hurting the most all the businesses that waited that been there for 35 plus years waiting to hold out and then sell one day or leave it to their kids all of a sudden we decide that we're going to take away their economic utility to sell that property that's where we wrong them because they paid 30 years of taxes if we're going to do this and give them a rebate hey that's something to consider but we're just taking it away because in here it says it's a negative impact on the surrounding residents what negative impact have we had and what study has been proven for that I don't want to go on and on I want to you know curb my time on this but I think it's premature no development is on the Block yet but one site at this time which I agree some of the portions of that should be changed in that development but whether you get eight more feet or one less sidewalk or or two less parking spots somewhere we have to encourage development on the Block at the design standards that are set to this resolution that was passed in 2016 has it all written out if anything this count just has to push the planning board to make sure they follow what's in the the the Redevelopment Zone itself because it's all laid out and so I just ask this Council to consider the future opportunity and where the town will go by taking this away less investment will come to the block and again investment versus the argument is my point I definitely understand the res argument and no to this no to that but you know if you look at what's been done 30 30 units you know 25 plus units in 30 years that's it show me where the traffic is stand with me in front of a building and show me how this building is causing a big problem in the community and look at the investment versus the argument that's all I ask I'm here I always have the time I'll meet with anybody in Clara Barton they can reach out to the clerk and set up an appointment with me uh I'm in the neighborhood every day and I'm open to to definitely review VI the these obstacles that people see as a negative impact and what is the positive approach to this so thank you council president council president thank you Council MCO Council m i I hear the uh concern from my Council colleague here and we have gone through the 11th or resolution many many times in fact many times even I I asked for the courtesy which was denied without even emergency but having said that this is not the topic of this is not the topic that was discussed yesterday yes Monday there was a discussion on this Council Das but I was on this Council Das six years ago when this area was put in for in need of Redevelopment now fast forward from uh from 2016 to 2024 we have one or two building that came up that shows or that signifies there is really no need for the four stories in that neighborhood that's number one number two is if you're talking about economics we are in the peak real estate market yet no redeveloper is coming there and filling up the space we have the vacancies retail store number three you know my Council colleague said that the the not the real estate but especially about the businesses I don't think three story is going to eliminate any business the ground floor is still going to be the the the business we you will still get the coffee shop you still get the flower shop you will still get the doctor's office you will still get the monies so what we are talking about here is reducing the density that fourth floor which probably is going to attract more residential and that is not just increasing the traffic but also not good for our school system and hence you know I think uh we need to act fairly quickly I said that on Monday the problem was there yesterday the problem is today and if this Council doesn't act the problem will be there tomorrow my last Point here is we are not rushing through once this resolution goes to the planning board they are going to take 45 days to re-evaluate whether this resolution really makes sense from not only the business sense but you know land use standpoint of view the residential there might be hearing once that happen that due diligence happens it will come back to this Council for adoption so we are talking about Good two months three months process so nothing is going to happen so I hear that it's two weeks I don't think anything is going to change in two weeks because this resolution was drafted by our own attorney uh this is not something coming from the floor or this is not my own language which had had happened in the past and that's what I would say that I would appeal this Council to support this resolution at least give a chance let planning board hear this one let them hear the concerns of the residents and let's do our d uh d on this thank you Council pres thank Council P council president Council vice president I could not agree more with councilman ptil on what he just what he just said again octar took me on a really enlightening Tour on Friday and I look at the present and moreover I look at the future of what what could be in store for Clara Barton under the current situation and there's no question the the traffic on Amboy has gotten worse I actually have a patient who had gotten into an accident because her car was rear ended on Amboy it's very very tight there and to Vis to visualize monolith types of four-story buildings I agree with councilman patile that it's a strain on the school system and it takes away from the character of that section this is the this is really the one section of Edison that has a town feel to it and that has some real character and charm to it and so I will be fully supporting this resolution and it's I don't think it's premature I think it's overdue thank you thank you Council vice president anyone else council president pointer before any comments just a a point of clarification or a question to Legal if possible um I notice in here it says that uh the planning board has the ability to make any other such revision to the Redevelopment plan as are required to prevent inconsistencies with the Redevelopment plan so the planning board then could come back with either saying that this is consistent inconsistent and or any other design or recommendations as they see fit or so the the Redevelopment plan is roughly a 100 page document or so um with a number of design standards architectural standards number of different building types that allow third three stories that allow four stories uh mixed use commercial residential mixed use retail um so simply sending over and saying hey just eliminate the fourth floor from anything that's mentioned in here doesn't authorize them to make any other changes that that change would require so rather than send it over to them say pull this out and we'll deal with any problems it creates after after the fact it authorizes them to do a complete evaluation of the Redevelopment plan and what the impact of the removal of that particular aspect of the design and Building height standards might have on the rest of the plan so that they can make any other changes as necessary to keep the plan consistent with the new height requirement just trying to process um no no if you have any questions about it please so as an example I'm just going to throw a random thing out we have the design standards in the overlay Zone says it will be consistent with the clart and Heritage say I think that that standard should actually be more defined in the sense of a specific color brick tone and within the variations there with the planning board if this goes through today be able to make such recommendations when they hear it before there no uh because that has nothing to do with the requested change to the height uh aspect of the design standards and a change to the colors that are permitted or a restriction that's added in there as a result of them doing so wouldn't address the underlying issue nor would it be in furtherance of maintaining consistency within the plan based upon the requested um review and Amendment so if they were to come back with something that is outside of the they go okay yeah we're going to reduce things to three stories um but we're also going to require that every second story has at least 14 windows and that's not part of it has you know three fire escapes on three sides of the building whatever it is um and that comes back as the recommendation this board then has the right to go that wasn't part of what you were authorized to review that wasn't part of what the review and amendment process was designed for and we think that it creates problem problems and just reject that part of the the amended plan uh when you adopt the plan itself so uh it doesn't authorize them to do so I mean obviously nothing can stop them from doing so if they choose to act outside of their authorization but it authorizes them to address the issue that the the board uh that the the the council has requested be addressed and if a modific ation is made could an additional amendment is there any limitation on when a another amendment request could be made now I I I just if I can preface real quick there are certain standards in the overlay Zone that I think should be changed in addition to what this is suggesting I think that there's a way that the four story can be comingled into it but different standards need to be applied so as an example if you look at other downtowns around the state those four-story buildings are usually on lots that are over 150 200 feet right so as like a potential compromise having that type of standard associated with this where it would alleviate many of the residents concerns because if you look at the blocked lot width of many of the developments on Amboy they don't meet that criteria so having it in a smaller lot may not be as suitable but a wider lot maybe that is suitable and so that's part of why the referral to the planning board is the way to do this as opposed to Simply an amendment from the council send it to the planning board to review or a repeal of that particular Redevelopment plan um so that the planning board can review those changes make recommendations based upon their experts and expertise p as to how those would go through now this particular resolution wouldn't do that if there are other aspects that you want reviewed that would have to go under a separate um it wouldn't have to go under a separate uh but if you were to add this to the agenda tonight um and then vote on it a separate request for a review and Amendment would have to be put forth with whatever it is that you're looking for them to review the design standard on or um as Mr Coyle has requested uh we could make some changes to this have it at the next Workshop session I believe the next the next session is a combin session have that on there uh in two weeks at the next work session for review and then submit it that night for approval with any additional design standards that you want them to review and make recommendations on it's it's it's 601 half dozen of the other um but that would be what would have to to happen if you wanted them to review other designs standards that you you you think may require some some review again the the planning Board review of that um is really going to be I think Paramount to making sure that we're not making a hodgepodge of changes to the overlay zone or to the underlying zoning um and creating conflicts that don't already exist so that it's coming back to us and we go oh wait we created a problem here now we've got to go back again we've created another problem now we've got to go back again so by sending it to the planning board this way or by delaying briefly and sending it to the planning board after you've had a chance to review I know this was rather rapid coming from uh Monday to to tonight um May in fact provide you with the opportunity to address those standards that you're you're concerned about getting some kind of feedback on alternatively you know there's there's are options outside of the planning board to have those reviews done as to whether or not they are even appropriate for the council to recommend to the planning board such as you did U with the the initial area in need of of Rehabilitation followed by the the initial Rehabilitation Zone followed by the Redevelopment plan and the overlay zone so there there's there's a couple of ways to go about it sorry if that gets a little bit too it's all right too far off in my mind I'd rather just do it once do it correct and have whatever the recommendations be comeb back right um that's just my viewpoint Others May disagree but I think that there are other items of consideration in regards to the overlay Zone that play a role into it but those are uh those are my uh my thoughts thank you po anybody else council person one second I just I I agree with uh Council pointer I would I would like to see before we vote this down I'd like to see the Redevelopment Zone as a whole from the planning board on on what the standards are um what how does that work with a parking how does that work with a sidewalk how does that work with a four-story building um and before we would proceed on the resolution thank you Council mtion well uh councilman or councilman Brer um I disagree with a couple of my colleagues um again as the public knows when the public comes and and they ask me for things I listen to the public right I don't try to rethink what the Public's asking for the public has been very clear that what they were asking for was to go from four stories to three stories they did not ask this body to go through a whole Redevelopment plan to see whether we wanted four windows or six windows or brick or anything of that nature so I'm asking this body to put aside what you want and do what the public that elected you to do is asking you to do and has come here and asked you to do but I will tell the public and I've put this out before um this has been going on clar Barton for many many many years I mean I I was born here in this town I I've seen claraa Barton my entire life there is no when they came with this Redevelopment plan the idea was to put forward a vision we've now been seven years with virtually no improvements so as anybody that would be in business you know you give it two years and with no improvements and no bites at the Apple right you up with a new plan so that's not this council's uh fault or or the clar Barton residents but if talking about going through and looking at everything yes I have like a three-point plan that I think could Revitalize clar Barton except it's not my neighborhood so if they were to invite me to a meeting I would explain how I believe I could Revitalize claraa Barton um but that would only be if if that was what their vision is again I'm not here here to impose my vision on anybody in anyone else's neighborhood um but we've tried we've put this forward it hasn't worked and the residents are just asking for one simple thing that that's what they came up and asked that's what I got emails about it wasn't about revisiting and Reinventing the wheel like like this new Council seems to want to do on every subject that comes up is we're going to reinvent the wheel so i' I'd ask you know members of this body to do what the residents that elected you here and and do what they asked you to do not overthink it right not think about different court cases or anything else just do what they've asked you to do now there aren't many of them here in this meeting but I will tell you that if we don't pass it I believe this chamber will be filled at the next meeting and they will be saying please just do what we're asking you to do um and if we continue doing that we're going to have 12:00 meetings like we did with the Cannabis meeting so it's just my recommendation um that I hope we can move forward and pass this thank you council president thank you councilman Brer yeah councilman P yeah Council pres I just want to make the one I would say the not the correction but my advice 7 years ago when the Redevelopment plan the overlay plan was adopted it was not one meeting there were series and series of meeting we went through many iterations in fact we had the planner engaged uh who did the full study so I don't think this body really needs to step in into their shoes get into the land use laws get into the planner aspect start designing the things start looking at how beautiful are how you know the the design has to be you know let the uh the plannner leave it to the planner so that's what my request is plain and simple is a very simple resolution asking planning board to consider reducing from four story to three story they can come back with you know various findings and probably uh some recommendation that this Council can further discuss and if at all we can either adopt or accept those recommendation or we reject those recommendation if you're accepting we are going to again modify our resolution and going to send it back my only the concern is are going to lose two more weeks and again the 45 days clock start and I don't know we'll get in summer we may not get the planning board hearing well in time and this will drag in forever so my my thing is we are already late and I always believe don't be too late if we have the real intention to get it done get it done today we always have a chance to correct it in future thank you council president uh thank you councilman p uh as for me I agree there is seems to be no vision a cohesive vision for Clare Barton and Amboy have and I think we need to put that together as Council M Brer said I believe there is a meeting that is happening soon within a week from what the administration told me with CLA Barton to get that cohesive vision and I am okay with waiting one more meeting to see how a proper ordinance drafted to address some of the concerns that councilman poer and councilman mu brought up uh so as for me I am okay with waiting uh to get a proper ordinance in especially listening into the residents to see what exactly their concerns are I know they just want to say let's cut it down to three stories but there could be other issues that we can tackle this at once including the designs um that the councilman pointed brought up so saying that that can I get a motion for a I mean roll call sorry Council can sorry if you want to say something go ahead um if if okay um considering that this is just to send it to the planning board for their comment I'm okay with that I will have a resolution prepared for the next meeting with additional design standards and amendments for them to consider now if you think that that's being redundant and overburdensome that seems to be the choice that I'm left with because yeah in fact that makes sense let's show the progress thank you uh may I get a roll call council member brusher yes council member Quil no council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schal no council president Patel no it passed so this is actually it's a motion to add it to this is a motion just to add to the consent agenda right it's not on the consent agenda it's altering the agenda I believe that requires a two3 vote to add something to the agenda that the president hasn't put on to the agenda done can we clarify that so now what are you saying now all right so we had there is a knows for you can you explain what's the debate so that the public knows okay so the the motion isn't on the resolution itself the motion is to add the resolution to the agenda it's not currently on the agenda um my understanding and what we're trying to clarify is that a motion to add something to the agenda that is not already on the agenda for the evening's meeting actually requires a two-thirds vote rather than a simple majority so that that's what we're trying to clarify okay uh so we can work on that until then can I get you know I will set the example you know Council while attorney research I'm on this dice for so many years we have added the resolution in fact the the ordinances with 43 but just that's my experience thank you so then let's keep it at that that's fine okay yeah so if that's the consistency that's what we'll keep so it passes now number R 134 03224 to the consent agenda are you no one 41343 okay on a consent agenda so anything to pull for a separate vote uh councilman all right anything you want to pull for a separate vote council president r122 r122 being pulled by councilman Patel yes uh council president r19 r19 being pulled by councilman vice president anything else council president uh r123 r123 being pulled by councilman poter okay U just did you pull the 122 yeah correct okay we 119 or 119 by Council vice president Harris R 122 by council member pel R 123 by council member appointer all right so the consent agenda is r116 to r118 r120 to R 121 and r24 to R 134 motion to approve may I get a second second so I have a motion by councilman Patel second by Council vice president this is for the consent AGA for the consent agenda may I get a roll call council member brusher yes council member Co yes council member yes council member P yes council member poiner yes council member schl yes council president Patel yes all right starting with r 119 Council vice president yes uh I want to Echo Lois tar with what she said that um we are very pleased that the this resolution is about to be approved I believe and I also want to thank the mayor for having uh taken my advice to make some changes to the term limits so that the veteran committee me the commission members committee that turned into commission members that had been on for a full year are getting the two and threeyear terms and the newer members are getting the one-year terms so I'm very pleased to see that this is going for a vote and that I am hoping that this is approved and uh very pleased that we're moving ahead thank you thank you vice president any other comments council president I just want to again the sentiment of council vice president it's a great resolution thank you mayor my only the ask is Council vice president you work on getting the the funding and especially start with a t-shirt so the members are recognized at least in the audience and they will have the continuous meeting and they come they remain active and make this as a Vibrant Community again congratulations to everyone who is on the commission and good luck for the next step thank you thank you councilman Patel anybody else as for me congratulations vice president I know this is something that you been pushing for quite handsomely so I wish you all the success I wish all the commission all the success and I hope we can get that performing our CER and and just a little addendum that we had uh secured a free piano a free spinit piano it's in really good shape and it is now sitting in the fante house so uh we're real happy about that too thank you thank you Council vice president may I get a roll call I mean can I get a motion to adopt motion to adopt a motion by Council vice president May second by Council may I get a roll call council member brusher yes council member Co yes council member Harris yes council member pil yes council member pointer yes council member schum yes council president Patel yes and I'll do r123 councilman pointer thank you council president I know that the crossing guard situation was a bit of a Hot Topic year ago um so it is good to see that we are taking the steps to try to keep keep things inhouse uh the wage component to it is good I think it's going to you'll see that it's at the higher end of the Spectrum in comparison to other municipalities around the township uh it's good to see that the term is for the four four years and that there will be retroactive uh back pay so I'm happy to see this I'm happy that the administration is taking these steps forward and I hope that is a success thank you sir pointer anybody else council president Council presser yes um I I'd like to thank the mayor and the administration for working through this and keeping this in our town um they know how unsettling it was to me when I when I hear that we're Outsourcing um but they did take that initiative and it looks like it was negotiated fairly so I I thank you all thank you councilman brusher council president Council mcoy um thank you council president I I am very happy to see this and I appreciate the members of the council supporting this when it comes to Outsourcing crossing guards I think it's a huge no um and when you look at the challenges that the police department has uh it's not a good thing that police officials are directing traffic and taking away from our Emergency Management but when you have 50 spots 50 plus spots to fill you hire 60 people to fill those spots it's no different than a football team you a football team you have more than the players on the field in case someone gets injured in case someone can't come to work there's more in this budget uh that would allow Outsourcing to to keeping it in house there's more in this budget who allows us to hire 10 more people that can be back up in the event there are call outs on average I'm here and there's five callouts so those people who are sitting in the queue would be called up to work so the problem relies on hiring more people and having a backup list that those people show up every day to backup so Police Department officials don't have to be out there someone uh reached out to us today uh to to get in touch with um the person in charge who lives local and is a teacher's aid today and wants to do this job that is a perfect person to be in the neighborhood that lives there and shares the same sentiments as all of us in the community so I'm extremely happy I'm looking forward to the administration working harder to make sure we have more guards than we need to fulfill the positions so we have a backup list I'm hoping that will come together thank you thank you Council mcoy as for me I am excited by this I'm glad the administration got this done I don't believe our police officers should be used to help with the crossing guards especially they can be uh patrolling the streets so I am glad we will have a good coverage and I'm excited by this so Madam CL may I get a motion can I get a motion motion to approve second motion by Council vice president second by councilman pointer may I get a roll call council member presser yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member Patel yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes and as for r122 uh councilman Patel thank you Council Pres you know I rais the concerns uh and especially I you know thank you Sonia for sending the the bid specs however I still did not get the tech stack the maintenance schedule the hosting schedule you know some of the Integrity I was looking for but while researching this company further I did not find any reference of any government experience which I heard on Monday uh Monday council meeting uh hence I'm not comfortable first the cost is too high the second thing I don't think we really really need to redo our website and the last thing is we can revamp our current website and still spend less money and get get that working so hence I will be voting no thank you council president thank you councilman Patel anybody else councilman brusher yes um you know when this first came up right we pointed out that that the cost seemed to be exorbitant um since then I did find out that I believe the school system I I think the township um if I'm correct Sonia we have about 1100 employees give or take more more or less about thousand the the school system in Edison has 2200 employees um the school system also has 177,000 students that navigate their web page and the schools paid approximately 4 $4,000 for their web design now I did um councilman uh Bob deal councilman Bob deal um and I did make recommendations where I told him that if if I were the mayor of the town right I wouldn't try to reinvent a wheel or or learn how to boil an egg better but there are numerous towns in the state of New Jersey that have the same website and to be quite honest with you a as a resident or as a as a resident of New Jersey right when I go to look at different websites it becomes difficult navigating all the different websites in New Jersey um I think if we went down the road of not trying to reinvent the egg like I said but were to look to do what these same towns are doing and there's multiple towns that have the same website from what I've been told here um that would be a better Avenue um so it's it's not just the cost and it's not just that the schools only paid 40,000 and and they're like twice our size um but then there was another concern and I I brought that to your attention where I said the company is from outside the United States and you did send me that they're registered in New Jersey and and I do get that but on on their website they are from outside the United States we are a municipality we are a government I don't know that we're looking or or I'll be honest with you I don't know that I feel comfortable to have somebody that is going to have this web design and and be able to backo access and all of that kind of stuff being done by a foreign company um even though they might be registered here in New Jersey you know I I think it really should be a solely us-based company um so on that matter right there when we talk about cyber security and that's all that I hear about I I just don't feel good moving forward and you know where I found that was I think it was their Facebook page that you know claims that they're on a different I think it was a Facebook thing and this was something just so the public knows I didn't find this somebody from the public decided to look into to this and this is one of the things that they put put up and they sent me a screenshot um and the ba did confirm though they are registered with New Jersey like any foreign entity can register in any state and do business I'm just saying since we're a government entity the company I think should be us-based um so I I just I don't like this moving forward here um I'd like the administration to relook at this maybe look at that other web design um something of that nature but thank you council president thank you Council mess council president Council vice president I too am troubled by the cost factor and and looking at the one that is the next one down from this one uh that was egrove I think this is exu then the one next one down was egro which was roughly give or take half the cost looking at the so looking at the Apples to Apples aspect of this I'm wondering is exu really worth that much more I know that is uh EG grve are they're based in East East Brunswick is that correct okay so they're in East Brunswick now I know exu says that they're Edison but I believe that the headquarters I think as you're referring to councilman Russia are in India is that correct I I don't recall the country it was just not it didn't say USA on it um I really I kind of wish Jeff Davids were here this evening to me he was part of the committee and obviously had passed muster with him but um as is until I hear I think um councilman pointer has some more to uh to contribute to this discussion because this is way above my pay grade um but um I'm really betwix in between and so I need to hear more before I register a vote thank you thank you Council vice president council president councilman pointer thank you council president um today's websites they are not just websites in the traditional sense they pretty much are applications that everyone uses whether it's on your desktop whether it's on your tablet whether it's on your phone with that said how websites are developed you have front end and you have backend front end is what you see that's the website that that we're all familiar with seeing the back end that's all the information how it's gathered how it's stored how it's retrieved what I found that this company has to offer is that they have the competency on the front end stuff the examples that we provided showcase that they had the competency on the front end stuff how you access the backend information is of vital importance not only into how the website functions but how that information is used now they do have a lot of expertise from what I was reading in terms of the backend and to me that is a viable asset because you will know how those systems are set up and how that information can be retrieved and therefore displayed in a manner that is acceptable to us to see um there was a mention about the government aspect to it uh the main uh Gentleman on the uh on the application does hold a CG CIO certificate that is a certified government Chief Information officer from Ruckers University uh just for reference that certificate is meant to ensure the holder is up to date on it Technologies and challenges so we talk about cyber security making sure that we are up to date on what the industry is currently facing and what municipalities face is important um some other advantages that I saw with the company uh the size of the company means leads me to believe that they will have the assets available to actually perform the work within the time now I understand that as part of the bid specs it says that this will be done in 90 days but if you're comparing a company of a size of 150 to 160 compared to 30 there's more likely that the company of the larger size will get it done done on time just because of the resources that may be available I also like that they offer different web hosting opportunities uh e Grove was mentioned but their primary web hosting was just through Amazon whereas what their The Exodus uh website said was Amazon Google and numerous other hosting capabilities after a year the township to my understanding is going to be taking on hosting responsibilities so that migration over to whatever system afterwards is going to be important so having those options available to me is an asset um I liked how they were actually going to be reviewing the code itself I wish I had printed out the actual code on our website because it's about 50 pages long with each page that is created you have to make sure that all the links all the JavaScript code all the whether you're calling uh PHP the interaction with the CSS and I know I'm speaking a lot of coding jargon but all of that needs to be fine-tuned so that we have a good functioning website I know that the price is higher than the uh than the lower biders if you average the highend and the low end you get $130,900 if they are based out in Edison which my understanding is that they are I understand that they do have an international component to them but I did not take that to say that they were based out of an International location um if you take the medium price between the EG grve and the highend that comes to 139 this is at 144 if you're saying hey you're willing to pay a little bit more to keep it local I think that makes it a bit more justifiable thank you council president thank you councilman poter as for me uh what I'll say is that I'm looking at their website their main office is in Edison New Jersey they have multiple offices in New York Texas Massachusetts California Canada United Kingdom and India so they are a big company and but their main base is in Edison also this company is the only one that has that certificate which it is important to me because cyber security attacks just now if you're Roku customers a lot of roku's passwords and emails have been hacked and they being sold there has also been previous attacks in other municipalities so this is a great concerns that we need to worry about and as for the website I do believe we need an updated website that is the 21st century uh the that you cannot delay this we need to move forward and we need to have a better website that serves the community as a center point where we can find everything that we're looking for in the township is where the events are going to be where where everything right now now is so disjointed we cannot find anything in time so many people are not using the websites they're using Whatsapp they're using Facebook and that becomes their source of truth I want our website our Township website the something that the taxpayers pay for to be the source of Truth with that said I'll take a motion for this that more thing council president if I may yes um when the last time when the last time a contract was awarded for this work how much how much did uh did that contract go for uh before the change in the scope I don't have those numbers here this this immediate moment I can find that out for you and get back to you well for the purposes of voting um it it would be really good to have that as a comp as a comparison and when that was and how much it was I understand I I the workshop I know there were several questions I I wish it would have come up then and I would have gladly answered it's just coming up now just came to me okay thank you thank you I'll take a motion for this you know I need to make the comment because I heard the I made the comment but I heard something which not necessarily true and I need to make sure that the people or the residents really understand what we are voting for number one I I get it you know back and front and I'm an IT guy this is my bread and butter okay what we are talking about the technology is what you referred is probably 5 years old what you talking about about the CSS and PHP and all that it's no longer the state of art technology yes because I'm in the IT world that's what I'm mentioning that uh council president you mentioned about the cyber security let me tell you all these websites will be hosted on the cloud AWS provide the cyber security Google provide the cyber security azour which is Microsoft provid the cyber security so what we are talking about not the financial website we are talking about the Township website which is not the financial transaction which is not the health information transaction so I don't know where the cyber security kind of a buzz word playing that important role for voting yes or no if you allow me and if you reject this tonight I will use my 30 years of it experience and I will redevelop this website free of cost for these taxpayers thank you sir thank you c p I just want to counter that there is taxpayer information on our website there is also what we were concerned about with the PDF formats our plans and everything on our website that could be accessed uh the same concerns does apply but may I have a motion for this ordinance motion to approve all right uh second second or I may I get a roll call council member brusher no I'm going to take Mr batile up on his offer uh just a roll call yes or no please council member Quil yes council member Harris stain council member ptil absolutely no council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes yes all right uh oral petitions and remarks opening from the list Mr Sweeney y i just acknowledge him he's a Bo Scout yes you you can come on up first do you want to come up first okay Mr Sweeney just counc pres while Mr Sweeney comes in Mr swey I would like to acknowledge you know thank you boys Con coming here and witnessing the council meeting it's a good government uh government experience thank you for participation uh Rich sweny 313 suton Lane you recognized um you know I've been coming to these meeting for over 30 years I mean over 30 years way before any of you were on the council the vuler that I heard on Monday night it should not be allowed I don't care about a First Amendment Second Amendment 21st Amendment 25th amendment 14th Amendment it should not be loud should be shut down he could stay here but mute him from TV and YouTube to get out there to trash our our Police Department the way it was trashed picking on an individual should not be allowed should have been shut down immediately and boom right in the dump truck anyway I was a little I was a little upset with that vulgar especially you know you got you might have little kids sitting with Grandma watching this and then say hey Grandma what does MF mean you know I'm not going to say it because I'm not going to be as vulgar you know but anyway I a little bit about development I know a little bit about development it definitely changes communities I mean was involved ining it for 20 years in New Brunswick it definitely changed the New Brunswick community and the thing is I've seen buildings go from eight stories to 23 stories to 32 stories to and it's going higher you know and uh I mean I'm retired seven years now but when I go over that rington River Bridge and I look over I just can't believe the how how New Brunswick I mean it's unbelievable how New Brunswick came from trip XX movies and I you know I can go on and on and on but it definitely changes communities and you got to you know developers one thing about developers that you got to watch they love mixed use they got to have that mixed use that's how they make their money but anyway other than that I'd like to say goodbye to all the council people um uh this would be my last council meeting in 30 years um I bought a house next door to my grandkids and uh you know I I'd like to thank all the council PE people whether I agree with you or disagree with you because the time that you put in for this town a lot of it isn't appreciated a lot of it is not appreciated people in this town don't realize that they have what other municipalities and towns have whether it's for the kids whether it's for the seniors I can go on and on and on and not only that in Edison as far as middle sex County was taxes whether it's East Brunswick South Brunswick North Brunswick I can go on and on and on Highland Park N touin you're one of the lowest tax in in in middlex County you know now this one other thing I like to say if you could change your bylaws to where you have 72 districts in this in this community and what happens is when you have one person as a Freeholder that can dictate to our political system it something's wrong with that picture when they're taking people down like kantos you know I didn't mind Joshi because uh he's not doing a bad job but uh the bylaw has to be changed well how can 72 committee people be over R by one person it's not right I mean I I watch the court proceedings with this on YouTube you know but I think you got to change the bylaws so one person can't dictate to our political system um even though I'm not going to be here I'll be a mom in County but uh yeah you know Edison's been great for me my family my kids they got a good education here they still talk about Mrs Gerber and Mrs Gerber her son is a police department a policeman her her husband was a policeman but my kids she she taught them in grammar school they're 40 years old they still talk about Miss SCBA but anyway everybody enjoy life thank you Mr Sweeney we're sad to see you [Applause] go next up is Stephen zerb stepen Zer Bal seven Oliver Avenue you're recognized thank you um thank you again for giving the opportunity to speak here again my name is Steven zeder Bal I'm the president of Edison Emergency Medical Services um here to shed a little bit of light about our organization ation um to the council members and to the residents who may not be fully aware of who we are um give a little bit of an update on our operations that have been happening um so Edison Emergency Medical Services we are Edison's volunteer first aid Squad so for those that didn't know we've been serving since 1935 so there's always been a very good volunteer presence in this town serving the uh residents volunteer ambulance services uh billing non-existent free for again since 1935 quite a long time and some exciting news we had an old name essentially the three squads in Edison combined to form what was formerly called Raritan Valley Regional EMS and we've successfully changed the name to what it should have been um Edison Emergency Medical Services last year so it's a pretty exciting update for us uh we finally kind of moved the ball forward on recognizing ourselves with the proper name our ambulances our uniforms Etc to better represent who we are again we're Edison's volunteer Squad we're here to support you guys the township everybody um so again I really just wanted to share a little bit of the the the good stuff that we're doing um answer any questions and be very transparent about our operations so some really good updates again started happening last year with the name change we had just over 13,000 member riding hours uh we're pushing over 70 members wide span of members of age demographic background um education levels we had just around 899 one calls responded to which in terms of what goes on in this town and our part to supplement the pdms services I'm very proud first of that number and what's more important is the growth uh which was a 54% increase from the last year over 300 calls more and this year we're projected to hit over a thousand calls uh that's my goal we're really working hard to make that happen again support the town as much as we can and help out JFK EMS the paid Services uh we recruited 21 members last year which was probably the largest we've had in quite a long time we covered a lot of events the Diwali Festival 4th of July Memorial Day Parade the Lunar New Year Oak Tree Road um any Edison event what's really great is we've developed that relationship with the township so Edison now comes to us and say hey can you support this event and we're more than happy to say absolutely we'll be there at least with one ambulance if not more than that um again growing that relationship with the township when the township came to us and said hey we need to have a senior center our senior center is undergoing Renovations clar Barton first aid squad on one of our buildings at Amboy Avenue more than happy again to support the township and the residents say absolutely welcome Open Arms um every single high school football game in Edison last year and I definitely can confirm a year before that every single game we covered not a problem so every single high school football game and that's going to continue again as long as we're supported we're going to absolutely support the township for any school games that they need in ambulance for um and in a lot of numerous trainings Girl Scouts Boy Scouts local businesses have started to reach out for CPR trainings uh we supported the babysitting class with the Edison Township again we're trying to do our best to not just be an ambulance service but a point for the community uh a point for people to grow and to learn so as I mentioned again for this year we got some pretty big goals um you know of course with the township support we really want to make this happen with hitting a th000 calls it's only 3 months in we've already recruited 10 members already so we're going to recruit even more than last year and I can share that I have a waiting list with dozens of applicants and that's not a lie um the high school kids the college kids it's an absolutely great chance for them to get into this field uh volunteer and again help out the community um it's almost we can't even keep up with the applicants which is a really good problem to have um again building a relationship with JFK EMS we meet quarterly with the paid Services Hack and Sack M and health every single quarter to work together now uh to rebuild that relationship to figure out how can we help each other how can we support their mission to provide EMS Services we essentially supplement them um to answer that common question you know how do we integrate with the paid Services when we call out the service we are basically one of their units but of course we're volunteer we're unpaid we do not bill but if we the closest ambulance to an emergency we get that call there is no discrimination at that point of what ambulance comes to your call um if we're on duty and we're close we're going to get that and it's actually cool to say we have two trucks on right now as I speak so um that's another big thing that we've done we have a crew almost every single night now or every single day at some point during that day of the week we're probably going to have a crew which is again in an era where unfortunately a lot of volunteer squads in the area are going in the poor Direction they're getting shut down by different municipalities or they're struggling with membership I could probably say Edison is going in the right direction we're growing we're rebuilding um rehashing out those relationships again with the hospital the township and just really doing our best to keep to our mission which I'll kind of end on this note our mission is very simple to reiterate to to the residents to you guys um we do not want to Bill to the member uh to the residents of the town our mission is to provide free services to the township as much as we possibly can all volunteer and we just want to expand upon that we want to do as much as we can um if any questions I would love to answer as much as I can um or if anybody on the side would like to chat at a later time again I would love to do that I've already done that I know with a couple of distinguished council members um I would love to come back next meeting we have a couple of little things that I've been working with mayor Joi and uh mayor Chief of Staff to kind of help out with so I'll end it on that thank you guys council president after the public portion closes you can ask questions if you like right could you not could you stay little bit yeah if you don't mind L thinging we will have questions but it'll be after the public portion closes absolutely thank you Steph thank you council member uh anybody else on jury ship jury ship um Edison Main Street um you recognized yes like the young man who went back there I remember when I told the council earlier in the year about you changing your name to Edison I'm very glad of it because it it fits right in it fits a lot better and I applaud you guys and I applaud all the things you do because that's a really a tough job to do at all you know because I I'm gets nervous when I see a like blood or anything so I super implored you guys now just like he went down and sat down I spoke to a couple other people and they really have issues with the way you've changed this thing around because when questions are fresh in their mind and this young man is up to there they would rather for the questions and stuff to be taken care of then they said the problem they're having with this whole new way of doing things first of all uh stuff is always out of hand and it's you know when more people come because of the way that it's set up now some people like another person that told me that was here other time she said I I couldn't stay way to the end of the meeting waiting hours to get an answer for something like why was on my mind now I want the answer now I just think it' be a better deal when if the one person gets up and asks that question you answered that question answered that question for that for that one person there okay and the way it's going now the I don't know I guess it had more decorum like last year because you got to get a real answer upfront and the way is going now that you have to wait and the way the hours go by and the time goes by you don't get to answer that's and that's was mentioned when I was in stoping shop when I was in the bookstore every place I go they said you do not answer their questions you wait till the end and by that time they said it's so many other subjects that came up in between that they don't get the full answer and the full response of what they're asking okay so I'm just I'm saying that too I'm telling you that from a classroom size also the reason why people are having a whole bunch of problems is the master plan like come on we were playing this game with the with the community saying oh we'll have it in a 100 days we'll have all this stuff taken care of that's why the clar Barton people are here that's that's why the Cannabis people are here if they had all that stuff done by now going on two years then they would be able to see in which area all this stuff is they they don't have the ability to do it and the other person that was talking about uh dollar stores and all that in the downtown area tell them don't worry about it because a thousand of them are closing already so that's that's a a done deal so also the um thing about the still about the amount of money that's spent on I know all about cyber security and all that stuff because you have to do all that training I belong to a commission that Services the whole state and the amount of money it's cheaper than 144,000 than the website you know what I mean you may be able to tell some people who don't have a I clear idea of what websites are but I like I know councilman ptil I no he knows he he knows other lay people read and they discuss it but if somebody's doing that for their bread and butter that that's the person that you really you really should be listening to that person who does that for their bread and butter but and then they were asking me uh what did uh councilman Brer mean by pay to play I don't know what it was meant by they said what did he mean by pay to play when it came to the website I'm not sure of it I don't I don't know at all they just told me to ask that question and finally with the um seniors the senior said that they some of them have joined other places like mouin and different places because they have ceramics they have knitting they have all these different things for them to be involved in and last but not least um it's a little better on the council tonight is a little better because it looks like people are paying attention whether they're paying attention or not and another thing oh at the library that thing about the library about wanting to the administration wanting to close the library I was there last night and I thought it was just disingenuous of the people that he appointed for the library for them to scream and yell about change orders one minute yeah about change orders I said the council the administration does tons of change orders I say but you guys are doing change orders just to slow the library down just to kill it off and I think that's very unhealthy for our children with all this book banding and stuff to have anything closed that would represent education thank you thank you Anthony dammer and uh Wy AV you okay um first of all uh I want to commend uh good opening today I wasn't here but I I heard I saw I heard it in the car um so um good explanation I guess from you guys um I also uh thank you I I left here uh last meeting on Monday uh I asked some questions um fortunately I left early but I did hear you on my way out from from the uh from YouTube so um regarding the amount of Patrol officers that we have on the we had capacity I believe the answer was we're about six or seven under I would I guess if that's correct um obviously I like to see those numbers get get back up uh it's important um I guess the other question would be is are we Act full capacity in terms of just like from Chief all the way down to the low Patrol rank um so if we can find that answer out um that would be great too but I appreciate uh you guys responding to that question um I guess the same question would also be for the fire are we at capacity for the fire as well um and uh the firehouses I I I heard uh there was talk about a while ago about the up there needs to be upgrades to um some of the fire fire stations um is that still are we still in need of that um also there was a bond I believe there was a bond a couple years ago maybe under the previous industry I'm not sure um that was supposed to take care of some of these cosmetic upgrades um I thought there was a bond maybe about over a million or so which cosmetic updates for the fire stations I think station one station two I I don't know which station it was I think there was a bond maybe one point something million um so are the are have their upgrades have already happened with the with the firehouses uh if not did we bond out for that already over a million and if we did has it been used um would be my other question so I'm not sure I could be wrong on that so if somebody could maybe check we did Bond there was a bond for that um for for some upgrade so um and I think that's uh that's just about it oh and the the F the first day guys I you know I it's been a while um I I you know recognized him when I came in but um you know I did a tour up there with these guys uh a few years back uh did a video with them try to well they do great things up there they are fully Vol they're all volunteer uh they're passionate as hell um as you can see so um they're they're a huge asset for the town so um you know just wanted to say that thank you council president thank you Anthony I apologize I'm recognized I I came in late and you said new rules do you it's up to you you guys want to say that again because I came in halfway through someone told me that you said you recogniz so don't worry I'll stop you if you're not following the rules okay uh your name no no no I follow the rules I I think you don't know the rules is that's what the pro that's where the problem lies so you Rec uh your name would you like to stop my clock and say say what you think the new roles are your name please uh I don't I don't uh Daniel's law I'm not going to recognize I'm not going to say a name all right you recognize as Anonymous you can start the time thank you um so yeah somebody told me out out there that you guys said that you were going to have somebody thrown out I just wanted you guys to clarify if I if I heard wrong what I heard um yeah I don't I don't have to follow rules of the Quorum okay I only have to follow what the law is and the law if you don't appreciate the law you know you took an oath to follow the Constitution New Jersey state constitution USA Constitution Rosenfeld vers New Jersey says you're certainly allowed to curse it happened at a count uh Board of Ved meeting with children president you can put the gavel down sir this is my time to speak what are you waiting for you can continue seems like you're you're he it seems like he's waiting for something councilman Brer um so you're allowed to curse even if children are present you cannot remove somebody for cursing and claim decorum you can and then and then you face the lawsuit um so I'm just absolutely disgusted I'm absolutely disgusted that the same person who says oh let the chips fall where they may let's uh get a lawsuit that would be easy for me to win has a frivolous lawsuit against the city keep in mind when I file my lawsuits they will be very legitimate okay $250 a week no show job for mayor lanky for what so he doesn't bash Mar lanky on his fake news site that nobody watches anyway um I'm absolutely disgusted uh I I did nothing wrong the last meeting uh I want to thank you council president I want to thank the lawyer I want to thank councilman John pointer for for last year for treating people with human decency and respect um but yeah I I did nothing wrong council president and I'll explain to you what happened at the last meeting I did my complete lawful activity nothing was wrong you guys charged me I was in jail for eight days uh over two years I couldn't use my social media um I couldn't generate an income through my social media for over two years uh I used to give my mom the YouTube my YouTube paycheck and then when I finally did get my YouTube paycheck on the 21st two years later she passed away two days later so all I was doing is explaining my feelings to the deputy chief before I send the deputy chief emails to update me on the Predator catcher no response before the meeting before the meeting I saw uh deputy chief outside I asked him question questions he smiled about it walked away well lawyer what's the appropriate time place and manner I come to my council meeting when it's my time to speak to air my grievance to the deputy chief now he can't run away from me anymore what what happens when you show up when when you follow someone out in the road or show up at someone's house you guys claim harassment so we're trying to do the appropriate time place and manner I I did nothing wrong and if you think you're going to change the rules on people that that's absolutely disgusting we have a young kid that's going to be a Boy Scout you should you should set an example and not be tyrannical you understand um and I think you did a good job yesterday there was no reason to kick me out the meeting I disagree with what Sweeney said I'll come back for the rebuttal but to hear from someone who used to be the mayor's assistant that both kissing up to Han kissing up to Joshi and and hopes so he could get paid to be Edison TV absolutely disgusting if I want to come up here and air my grievance to the deputy chief to the police who are always running away from me every time I ask them for a meeting that's up to me that's their fault that was my time to speak to them if I'm wrong somebody can can tell me I'm wrong two years I couldn't generate an income thousands of dollars lost I'm trying to lift myself out of poverty you understand what you guys did is absolutely disgusting and to be gaslighted by an abusive man like that and and to be gaslighted by abusers like you to say oh now we're going to change the rules nothing was wrong nothing happened they got to suck it up put on their big boy pants if they don't like it they can go to North Korea you understand but as long as you're here in the United States of America um people have the right to air their grievance I didn't threaten anybody uh I don't believe I was boisterous in fact the only time I was spoke loud is because you were interrupting me council president and in order so the micro in order so the microphone can catch the Audio I try to speak a few decb than the person that's interrupting me it's not that I'm yelling just so you can understand that lawyer you understand what I just said so you know thank you for not throwing me out I shouldn't thank you it was my right to you did a good job now throwing me out of the meeting um and I don't have to explain myself to nobody you understand so absolutely disgusting okay um the fact Anthony deamon okay frivolous lawsuit against this town and he comes up here and tells us oh uh let's get some more lawsuits on people absolutely absolutely bad advice somebody who steals socks and impersonates DEA agents is going to tell me how I'm going to use my freedom of speech absolutely disgusting how much time do I have lefts God Bless America and thank you very much for for treating me with human decency respect anybody else Joel bass off 17 Beach Lane you recognized for one thing I'd like to get some clarification because uh the proceedings earlier were a little little B confusing about the Amboy Avenue resolution that was to be added to the agenda so my understanding is is that it got four votes and and to be added to the agenda and therefore should have been uh so is that correct because that will impact on I will let legal explain this so yes it got four votes it was determined that it would be added to the agenda the issue being that under normal rules of of procedure under Robert's Rules of Order the chair controls the agenda and overruling the chair's agenda by adding an item to the agenda that's not already there generally requires two3 votes what was explained to me after I asked that question what was clarified for me is that this Council has chosen uh in the past to allow that to be done with a simple majority vote which I'm fine with I just wanted to make sure that the rules were being observed as they had been observed previously and that it remained consistent so it was added to the consent agenda and then voted on as part of the consent agenda and approved as part of the consent agenda I see so it has been then sent to the planning board uh very good um it was really just a making sure that the proper procedure was followed to to make sure that there was no question about it right well I appreciate the clarification and and just just for everyone's information the municipal code actually um allows the the council to add an item to the regular agenda uh with a an affirmative vote of four council members I think it's 2- 2.6d so uh you're uh you're covered you don't have to flip through Robert's Rules of Order uh another suggestion yeah as you know I've been here in these council chambers about two months so that's why I I wanted to make sure that that it was done properly I did confirm that afterwards and did check the municipal code for it afterwards but in the moment there was the question understandable it it there's a complex interplay of rules and procedures that take place but uh as a member of the public and someone who's visited Clara Barton many times someone who's spoken to many Clara Barton residents I'm gratified and I know a large segment of the community is gratified that the process has been set in motion and that this will go to the planning board for a recommendation and we're all looking forward to a resolution of the matter that is consistent with what the public wants and the public has really made it loud and clear what they want in terms of development on am boy Avenue suggestion that I'd like to make in terms of the recordings of the meeting I noticed that the recording uh work session has been removed from from YouTube and from the Edison TV site there's really no reason why that can't be restored to the site with any offensive language either muted or bleeped out I'm sure that Edison TV has the technology for it if they don't um it would probably be worthwhile for the township to spend the money to get a bleeper or a mutter so that public can once again take advantage of being able to view uh an entire meeting and and not be deprived of that meeting just because there are a few seconds that were offensive so thank you thank you anyone else uh any firsttime speakers hey good evening uh my name is Sam gangula I live in sagur Avenue I sent an email today to Mar about okay please speak closer to the mic sorry yeah can you hear me yeah yeah so um I have um I live in basically the duplex home where I it's a giant home where uh apply apped for altern alterations of my home where in my community so many people are building so I have submitted the application for zoning office so they have sent me a email right Patricia sent an email that get a consent from my neighbor in July 25th so I shared the same information with my neighbor um that he is not willing to sign and then the only the the agreement says that you know are you okay with the uh any sidings or the you know any other elevation issues but he's not willing to sign but it's almost more than 7 months I've been waiting right so there's no time Bond and then he's not proceeding but everybody else is been building but because of one condition that you know neber has to mandat sign it's been holding the journal approval right now since last 7 months okay um is there something he can do in that particular situation is there's possibility because this might take a little bit longer than answering it right now if you can email me at n Patel Edison nj.gov I can forward to the right team and they can look at it and get you a proper answer yeah so the response I got from zoning office is it is mandatory to get you know signature from the neighbor but um that neighbor signature is only the the farm is different I can send you the details what I've been I know happening last 6 months if you if you stick around I'm happy to talk to you afterwards just it it may take more than six minutes for me to to have a discussion with you about what you may be able to do in that situation okay okay I just want to make sure that I could throw you answers right now but they may not be what you need they may not actually apply so okay yeah I'll wait till the M thank you thank you any first time speakers dror Nasser Pleasant Avenue you recognized so I didn't know exactly what was happening Joel just explained it um he's a great resource for us um so this has passed to go to the planning board so that changes everything that I was going to say I was you know typing away I was going to try to free uh freestyle it but I decid it was becoming a little complicated I had to write it out but so I want to thank everyone that uh voted for taking this down to the planning board I wanted to thank um councilman poter for deciding that he was going to put a separate resolution there I believe in keeping it Stu keeping it simple stupid um so I don't think we want to complicate it by putting everything together and then you know delaying more and more with the time because we've already been waiting for eight years uh the discussion that we should have had had should have been at the eight years that we've had it shouldn't be like let's let's wait another month another week we've been talking about this forever and ever with the clar bar from the planning board meetings last year with the master plan um and I'm not sure how many people um up here actually went there and offered their suggestions so the fact that they're saying that you know what we don't agree with the H style building we don't agree with what's going on it really should have been said back then so when the master plan comes out the residents don't have to go ahead and you know fight more things um so I wanted to also give a special thanks to council ptil I know that you had a long commute today you came specifically for the clar born people I appreciate that uh councilman Brasher I appreciate that you went ahead and you put this to go ahead and put on a discussion agendas stuff like that so we know who's looking out for us um if the rest of you are looking out for us we're hoping that you go ahead and tell us how you are uh I know that councilman Coyle you wanted to meet with us um and the mayor wanted to meet with us and that is something I spoke about on Monday um I had the mayor call on Monday and I asked for specifics I was uh busy I couldn't really talk at that moment um I haven't heard back since then so they're we're open the people of clar barn are open I am open to go ahead and have further conversations uh this going to the planning board doesn't change anything it's just a discussion and we'll see what happens at that point I think there's multiple discussions that can happen between them and I'm just going to end it there thank you very much for your time thank youor any other first time speakers seeing none any rebuttal Crystal if it's not a rebuttal let me know thank you am I recognized you are recognized and just remember this has to be a rebuttal I I know the rules I know what a rebuttal is I'm going to rebuttle what Mr uh bass off says and what Mr Sweeny said quickly on what Mr bassoff says you cannot just mute the public meeting okay there's no reason to get mutters there's no no reason to get bleepers it should be posted and that's it don't try to Gaslight me and try to blame me a second time okay everyone knows it's what what councilman Brasher exposed the mayor for and now now I'm being gaslighted because I said a few bad words let's get real now but now I want to move in to what Mr Sweeney said I want to re what Mr Sweeney said best police department around absolutely not you saw why I cursed off there's many reasons why I cursed off deputy chief D Dash one of them is because we have the worst Police Department uh through the chair to councilman Co and uh Brasher and Margo and possibly you if you want to hop in um recently I released a a YouTube video that shows yeah they are the worst Police Department video around it shows the uh a whole shift of police officers covering up for a retired sergeant that punched the woman in the face broke her nose best police department around huh best police department around uh they're the worst Police Department around because what for over two years they put three fake felony cases on me one because I told the cup I hope he gets hit by a car council president point of order stop the time I'm explaining this is not a rebuttal I just it is a rebuttal because I'm explaining why they're the worst Police Department you can explain to him hold on he asked that that they stop your time so you can make the point of order I'm sorry coun Co was it's clearly not a rebuttal he came here to rebuttal a gentleman who spoke about something totally different he's talking about the police department now how my understanding is is is and clarify for me if I'm wrong here you believe that Mr Sweeney stood up and declared that the Edison police department was one of the best departments around correct correct and that is what you were rebutting you're offering to rebut that assertion from your point of view correct okay I think he's he's within the rules for the rebuttal Mr Co thank you for for sure actually make sure that we're all on the same page you can restart his time thank you um they got me with the Predator catcher case um slander me all over the media why I said what I said to dud Dash it's because if you read the newspaper article dud Dash is the one who who said what what was said to it said dud a said so he should have clarified he should have apologized he didn't want to do it so I sced my grievance which was cursing him off completely legal to do and I'm not apologizing to no one about it um how much time do I have left Marina 55 seconds yeah I disagree with what Sweeney said Thank God he's going to Monmouth County we need all right you're going off of base now no I'm not no I'm not that's not necessarily no I'm not I'm allowed to I'm allowed to don't I got 50 how much seconds do I got left 41 41 seconds so for M Mr Sweeny to not like what I said up here um he's not a victim to that is and police I am many other people are victims to that is and police and I I don't want these Township employees and people who have family members in the police department to come up here and start gaslighting us like like we're we're the ones who did something wrong this is the exact place for us to come and air our grievance so hopefully a change can be made and if they don't like it these are the people that come to promote themselves or promote their fake political agendas why why can't res come up here and say hey this they did me harm thank you point of point of clarification council president um so that your time is done you can you can have a seat sir um but uh to to be clear um the Airing of Grievances is not something that is prohibited by the council rules um criticisms of the township departments are not prohibited by the council rules um you can come up here and say it's the worst city in the country if if that's what you want we don't have to agree with you um you know I I I happen to personally disagree with that but uh that's that's your right to come up and say the the restrictions that uh the counil uh and that um we believe are appropriate are the manner in which you express those opinions uh and the rules of decorum uh dictate uh that you must do so respectfully the use of vulgarity the use of the cities in the expression of that opinion um will subject you to enforcement of the rules of deorum which is not a change of the rules it is an enforcement of the rules as they exist within the code thank you for that um seeing no other public comments may I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close the uh oral petitions and remarks may I get a second second I have a motion from councilman pointer second by Council vice president all in favor hi hi at this point I would like to ask if we can uh Motion in Stephen as we want to do questions back and forth and I think many of the council members might be interested so may I get a motion to have Stephen Z Zed bomb come up uh to the podium so we can question can I get a motion motion to allow the gentleman to come up to speak second I have a motion from councilman pointer second by councilman Patel is this all in fav all in favor Hey so uh I will let councilman Brer start do he had a questions yes I I have a question um and this goes back to the first time that I actually ran for office um we right before that we disbanded our our EMS and we outsourced it to um JFK um and as anybody's ever heard right I'm like against Outsourcing um I know that you guys had a a period where they weren't even giving you calls right so now you guys are working like in conjunction with each other and I think that's a great thing but there was one thing that you said you said that you do not charge for your services um and I'm going to ask a question and I don't know if it's something that you and maybe the administration could work together on um but everybody has insurance basically and if you don't have insurance then you can't afford to pay for for an ambulance call um currently right now JFK provides an ambulance service um to everybody in Edison as a resident um when they show up they come they pick me up and they did they took me to JFK um and then my insurance company got a bill right and they build my insurance company but if my insurance company only pays $1,500 for the trip right they will accept only the $1,500 so so they don't charge the residents more um and that's what they told me they don't charge the residents more but they charge the insurance carrier you know my question to to you guys is why can't our old when we were volunteer they used to charge the same thing but they used to charge less than what JFK does now my question is can you guys charge the insurance carriers and like if my Council colleague here doesn't have insurance you wouldn't charge him right and you would just delete that but as long as his insurance would pay that you would charge a nominal fee of whatever it might be $800 $500 ,000 that could be used to new equipment trucks um things of that nature you know so it's it's not coming from the resident's pocket right it's not really coming from anybody's pocket but the Insurance's pocket who's paying JFK anyway um is is there a reason that can happen or yeah no it's a great question and it's it's a valid point that's been brought up quite a bit um one to give a little background I've been a member now about six years so even my history three doesn't quite cover some of that period that you're referring to in terms of the period where the volunteer squads were shut down JFK EMS came in um it is somewhat related to that point um a couple of reasons why we have avoided going down that path and the way you're explaining it is what is commonly referred to as soft billing to your point where you would build only the insurance company so as long as there is Insurance essentially is hey you give us whatever you can for the insurance but the individual ual would not receive a bill um that is pretty common for a lot of volunteer squads um elsewhere in New Jersey one of the difficulties with that um there's something called an EMT training fund form and essentially what that is there's a fund a bucket of money from the Department of Health in New Jersey that funds volunteer agencies only that non bill to pay for EMT class as soon as you start billing you lose that so there's 0.1 there um which is it's important but to be even more honest about another big reason why we have avoided it um two is probably the call volume to be very Frank as you alluded to when this first started with JFK I don't want to get too deep into the history it's pretty convoluted to be honest um but we had to fight for years just to get a contract a sliver of a piece to work with JFK and it was one truck at a time only overnights um there was a very poor relationship between both parties to be very honest and this was before my time when I came in I know a big priority for me was to amend and we've part of the reason up here that's been very successful um JFK comes to us honestly for help sometimes again we are now on such great terms it's whatever you can provide as many ambulances as you can give at any time any location basically all the stipulations that happen at that period are gone um they initially also in the contract said we could not bill as that stands that contract all those terms that contract exists but all the stipulations are not being followed because at JFK's will they want us to provide more than one ambulance r at these different hours so that contract is actually under revision with JFK um it's essentially a subcontract of the master EMS contract in Edison um so for us to even first consider billing that would have to change and the call volume piece which I was getting to is difficult if we did decide the bill because when we got shut down we lost quite literally hundreds of members we're rebuilding right I mean back then we used to take every single ambulance call Edison it was thousands of calls you could support yourself on soft billing and you're right around that period before that I believe the squads I don't even have the full story I'm not going to speak of what I'm not educated on but there were periods where there was somewhat of a paid entity within Edison EMS there was some billing involved but they had the call Vol to sustain themselves I could say right now knowing what it would cost for us to even hire a billing company um we wouldn't be able to sustain our stues based off of that alone and lastly to answer why we've decided not to do it we'd be worried about losing donations from our residents which our resident donations are what keeps us afloat right now amongst some hall rentals and the gracious like Edis and Township donation similarly the a concern that if we start billing again and I even tend to lean towards I don't want to Bill I would like to just make it very simple no have that continuous Township donation um the fear is that if we start the bill the township might re-eval and think well why should we be giving you a donation if you could sustain yourselves off a billing and I could tell you up front that we couldn't sustain ourselves off a billing so hopefully that answers some of your questions I can elaborate more if you'd like no I I get it you complex it's difficult but no you've been beaten down to where you have nothing and if you cause a Ruckus they're going to take away the little that you have I I I understand that um but I'm just thinking from a from a Township perspective overall um to help I'm happy to see volunteers a lot of my friends are ems volunteers and fire volunteers um throughout New Jersey and you know it's they don't do it it's not it's not about the money it it's about the job they they enjoy you know helping the public so I I I thank you guys for for sticking with this and sticking it out and um I appreciate your service thank you thank you thank you for the great question thank you Council Brer council president councilman pointer just a a little bit of a simpler question um if anyone wants to contact you guys to find out more information where where should they go to yeah so we have a great website it's very simple Edison .org um there's a lot of information on there about requests for public records hall rentals how to join donations uh pretty much everything you need would be on that website um I would say probably an email is better sometimes people try to call us and I can't guarantee that a volunteer is going to pick up the phone but um and if it's an emergency call 911 don't call the phone which has happened um but yeah the website has a really good amount of information there awesome so thank you very much thank you awesome president I just want I just want to say how much I appreciate your enthusiasm and your great service and I believe you come from a very storied family right are you is it your gr great-grandfather grandfather who served in World War II correct yep my my grandfather uh my dad's actually sitting here today he's also on the ambulance Squad as our vice president my grandfather was World War II you got some good cred going for you and so appreciate your service you you too sir and certainly your grandfathers and uh thank you thank you for what you do thank you I I just had a follow up with the what councilman bresser said so I I know that you said that when you are called you do not charge but if JFK is called they do charge so is it a draw of the luck as to who's closer it's completely draw to luck and okay again a common question because some people are like well how do I get you guys to come out to avoid a bill un fortunately can't happen Okay um but that's the big reason why we are trying to do everything we can again possible to supplement the paid Services because it's only in the the the benefit of the resident the more you support us the more ambulances we can put out the better chance that we will be there um okay we're we're doing our best we really are it's just it's Edison's also a massive town and that's another big piece of it is we're there almost every single day or night now but Edison is more than one ambulance so yeah no I know and I seen the the command center they have at the JFK uh Center where they are just dispensing the EMS services and it's crazy how many people are working there with multiple monitors B operation it's a big operation so I understand that it's not something that volunteers can take on and take care everything but thank you for your service my wife served as an EMS and that's when she was my girlfriend I used to come visit you guys I was not volunteering but I wish I did I think it would have been fun uh that's about it for us thank you cool thank you appreciate it uh with that I will take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn uh second I have a motion from Council vice president second by councilman Patel all in favor this motion meeting is adjourned at 9:03 e for