is that what you're trying to say how do you like son yeah yeah good I me I think you're good evening everyone today is Monday November 27th the time is 6:09 p.m. and this meeting is called to order please uh rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with lice mad clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member coil here council member Harris council member Patel council member PTI here council member pointer pres council member ship Freeman yes here adequate notice please notice if this meeting as required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice to the home News Tribune store Ledger Sentinel disy talk on December 1st 2022 and posted main lobby missal complex on that same date thank you at this time we'll open up for oral petitions and remarks starting from the list m t thank you mic's not working um Mar if we can just pause her time please thank you I'm wondering if you have an answer to the question I asked at the last council meeting whether it was the purview of this Council to change the animal shelter into a rescue animal shelter or not um question I have so I found out some differences from a legal aspect of shelter versus a rescue if it's under the council's purview though I did not get that clarification I don't know if our legal can yes I I yes I would opine that it is within this council's perview to make a no kill shelter correct okay then let me make a recommendation that the council consider that in future thank you thank you uh Mr Bassel Joel bassoff 17 Beach Lane I'd ask for a couple of um free tutorials on some items on the agenda um perhaps at the appropriate spot when it comes up on the agenda uh number one on Municipal Finance uh there's an ordinance to transfer uh Bond proceeds um to the capital account and my question on that would be uh whether it makes sense to just prepay the the bonds or the the notes and if we can get information on what interest rates we're paying on those bonds or notes uh and then uh I have a question on the proposed settlement for the the Charlie Brown property what the procedure is first of all um if the public will have an opportunity to see the stipulations so that uh the public can uh comment on it at the appropriate time and also just what the procedures are for something like this uh does it go to the zoning board for the the issuance of use variants does it go to the planning board for the subdivision of the property uh just some education as to how that works thank you thank you um considering both items are on the agenda and there a couple you can wait until it comes up on the agenda appreciate the understanding thank you uh we are off the list with anyone else yes good evening Diana joffy 86 Laurel Hollow Court thank you about a month ago I came up here to talk about the ritton Avenue Ron Road Inman Avenue T that was that had a blind spot uh for traffic a dangerous one I also talked about the Timberline uh Timberline Drive sign that's totally faded you can't tell what the street is and I was told it would be dealt with can I ask if anything has been done to our business administrator I don't know if you have any updates I don't at the moment um but I will shortly thank you thank you anyone else would like to speak yeah evening council president uh Nick Fagen 42 Edgewood Road in Edison um a couple questions uh I see that the u r 647 from the Department of recreation is back on the agenda uh which uh and but I see it's for the same amounts was wondering if those questions got answered from councilman brusher as as well as some of the members of the public in terms of the algorithm to figure out who's getting what and then who or who or what entity the North Edison Athletic Association is um when the appropriate time comes and then um uh regarding the construction work that's going on on uh planfield Road there's the the county has done a project to do the water M I believe andas main um the last I spoke with uh Lieutenant Turner in traffic um that project was expected to take 6 to8 weeks it's now I believe 8 to 10 weeks later and it doesn't look like they're anywhere near done if you gauge from the amount of pipe that is at 22 F plane field which is their staging area um I realize this is a county project and I see that the chief isn't here but I was wondering if the business administrator could get us an update and and the neighbors an update as to how much longer that project has got to go and then the Cy's uh notice says the project was supposed to go from Oak Tree Road down to Oak Hills Road but now they've gone South of Oak Hills Road and headed towards um St Joe's and then the railroad tracks so are they keeping go are they intending to keep going into matachin and then um so far and and further south so if you could find out that please and then I share the concern of um Mr bassoff about um the resolution which I don't doesn't have a number uh from the Department of Law about 222 planfield Road uh would like to see the settlement agreement the devil ises in the details I am excited as well as the neighbors are excited to see single family homes that's what we've had asked you for and we do appreciate that but the the the the details are matter tremendously in these kind of matters and so we would like to see the full um stipulation of settlement agreement so that we can comment on it and uh and see what you agreed to uh in the Whispering Woods deliberations um cool that's what I had thank you thank you um to our business administrator if you can um reach out to the county about the I do have an update for you council president so um they've been keeping us apprised uh on a weekly basis so as far as uh what Mr Fagen just just to repeat what he said um the crew is installing um down planfield road in front of St Joe's um since the high school is off they're going to start they were going to start some of the construction at 7: a.m. um and the high school is going to be doing some events so they're very cognizant in terms of the events that are occurring in the area um as far as the what's happening um let me just go um they're installing main down planfield AV Central a towards Forest Street and there'll be a second crew working on Marian Street um which won't interfere with planfield AV um they'll be working in front of the entrance to the football field by Miller Drive um as of today uh so um the project is ongoing I can certainly try to get some sort of estimate I've asked actually last week and they won't quite give me an estimate in terms of how much longer but I can certainly inquire again thank you and just for clarification is the work figur to go into the matachin uh area that's where they have I can also follow up on that thank you uh and then in regards to the other two items uh I'll bring you up during um uh when we review the agenda anyone else like to uh speak for oral petitions and remarks excuse me oh Mr work yeah sorry I'm late I had traffic Maria Orchid 83 Jefferson thank you did you see 27 these days it took me 15 minutes to get here well and that was coming off of 287 okay uh uh December 7th it The JCC of oak tree is going to be the manur lighting December 9th Winter Wonderland although I'm not sure what the times are for the winter wonderland uh we're a little upset because didn't know the tree on Amboy Avenue was going to be lit we like to do a little presentation that we fondly remember the years of a notable Edison resident coming to light the tree uh Herbert Hoover uh Santa Claus being there a nice Community event with the winter wonderland it seems that everything is coming down to Lake papani and it's shorting out our wonderful mom and pop businesses on Amboy Avenue oh yeah Amboy Avenue have you seen it lately it's a mess it's been cut up by all these different utility companies the wonderful road that was once paved is now as Rocky as the moon um beautiful Edison is doing a wrapping I guess fundraiser we partnering with Trek so we wanted to know can we have a I guess a box here for residents to drop off the like wrapping on the bottles or bounties or toilet paper if we get th000 pounds we want to get a bench for swes that's all I have thank you Council thank you uh yes uh Council M Freeman um on December 9th there will be a Quanza celebration at um the athletic center at planful Avenue at Job Core beginning at 12:30 on December 9th Kwanza celebration thank you um to our business administrator if we can find out if there's a process to have a donation box set up uh sure thank you and then uh I guess if we can see if there's any opportunity to do a tree lighting in the future along Amboy Avenue thank you council president yes uh councilman I did have a conversation with the and he was on board he asked as the local community what date would work best uh so I failed to get that to happen this weekend but I'll reach out to someone across from me in a moment um could I comment on the road condition council president would you want to provide an update on that yeah sure I mean from what I understand um there's an opportunity to have it paved right away uh however there's a change in plan with the gas company and they're going to do it in March uh I I thought that was better for all of us because the problem here matching is something I looked into with one of the engineers and again I the inspiration can speak deeper on it at a later date but the man hold sink after time and I'm hoping we can correct that problem I know Council Brasher said he would get involved as well so that they're raised and some type of collar can be put on them so that when it's repaved so gives us a little more time I know it's Rocky when you hit the manholes only it's not Rocky at any other location uh I drive it as much as you but so looking forward to a you know February March when the timing's right the entire roadway is going to be paved including all the areas of residential streets including the keyways um I'm told we'll also have new parking striping and all the cross roads will be reamped with the original uh pavement stamp so we're I think we're getting a lot of extras of what was done in the past so thank you for bringing to our attention thank you council president thank you for the update anyone else would like to speak see none canate motion to close the oral petitions and remarks motion to close second motion by councilman PTI second by councilman Patel all in favor I the uh oral petitions and remarks is now closed five review of minutes uh a combined meeting of October 11th 2023 any comments see none six reports from all Council committees I'll start to my right Council M Brer I'm going to ask if uh our council president could give us an update for the Amazon um I'm not sure exactly what to say at this point because we were saying but so I'll update for the animal shelter um on the 8 uh myself uh margar we're going to meet down in Mammoth County um pose our questions and listen to what their plans or ideas are um it's like the first step you know we have the report we just need to find out how they plan on addressing that report moving forward uh with with our current shelter um there's other things that we're looking into too because somebody told me we can't expand the animal shelter because it's it's on Parkland so it it could be a a combination of things but initially just looking at it maybe we can't afford to take on the other towns that that we currently are taking on um or at least on a temporary basis moving forward um but we'll have more after that meeting thank you council president thank you councilman presser councilman Coyle thank you council president um what conversations we've had as a committee with DPW regards to the winter obviously everybody knows we are fully prepared and I'm confident that the timeline of supplies and trucks and and staff is G is prepared for the winter I do have a question to the administration later and I had that had time is when the decorations will be hung for Amboy Avenue that's a timeline on that and that um and I just want to comment uh on the great job they did on Dali uh all of that work that was done was mainly done through DPW all the improvements and um light display that was hung up along the walkway um that walkway of light was just amazing but they also staffed it and worked as leas onto the administration I think it was a remarkable job working together with the recreation department and DPW a lot of people a lot of management so congratulations to B DPW and Recreation for the hard work they do thank you thank you Co councilman Patel none sir thank you councilman Patel councilman P none at this time thank you councilman P councilwoman sh Freeman n I've been away thank you Council Freeman uh for myself um the dear uh population committee U myself and I believe deputy chief dudash are meeting with a couple of representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday just to see check out a couple of locations within the township if a deer management program would make sense at any of those locations uh in regards to the Amazon subcommittee we did meet and discuss um not sure I my Council colleague I I think can uh understand some of the uh uh topics at hand but we did uh discuss next action steps that would be occurring and on behalf of uh Council vice president Harris I do have an update from the cultural arts committee I apologize I do not have the library board um notes that were forwarded to me I didn't get a chance to review them but in regards for the cultural arts committee the cultural arts committee met on Tuesday November 14th and the following items were discussed and were mentioned uh there's a mural recently completed by the Edison arts society at the Edison tower for anyone who may be interested in seeing uh there was discussions on social media Pres presence and establishing a Facebook page uh there was a suggestion about having a booth at the Winter Wonderland festivities but I believe there was an update that that was not going to occur this time around uh there was opportunities discussed as to how to utilize the fante house um updates have not been finalized as of yet uh there was a request by the Board of Education about doing a student of the month display um they are also sending to the administration uh application document for use for the downstairs gallery and the next meeting is Tuesday December 12th 2023 any other subcommittee or committee reports see none moving to Points of Light any points of light um for myself um before mentioning a couple items I'd like to offer a moment of silence for Daniel Clark uh he was a um employee of the St utility who unfortunately passed away on the 22nd so if it's possible just to offer a moment of silence thank you want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving we celebrated last Thursday upcoming events uh Friday December 8th is the Christmas tree lighting and winter wonderland opening at Lake papani uh that will be going through from the 8th until the 10th and I believe it's 2:00 to 9:00 p.m. but I'll confirm on Wednesday December 13th want to clarify that so it's on the 9th and it's from 12: to 8 I believe there's a question with regard to the timing of the event my apologies so it's uh December 9th from 12: to 8 um Council Freeman had mentioned about the K Quanza the Quanza celebration it starts at 12 but it doesn't go that late it's like from 12 oh sorry it starts at 12 o'clock is at the um job core right there in the Kilmer location it starts at that time so they'll have a k Quanza celebration that Saturday also thank you and then on the 13th uh Edison Township and the middlex county JCC will be holding a minor lighting at 1775 o Tree Road okay The JCC what time is that sir I think it's 7 o'clock but I have to confirm okay any other Points of Light see oh yesc president the The JCC was that the 7th or 13th 13 13th okay it's my first niece's birthday at this time we'll move on to review of the agenda uh from eight from the business administrator a ordinance establishing not to exceed salaries of certain officers department heads employees B resolution awarding contracts for printing services eight vendors $151,100 and C resolution awarding contracts for uniforms and clothing two vendors $78,400 comments questions or concerns council president yes Council sh Freeman um you know 8A is is something is it just really bothers me that we keep pouring money into the top and as the other employees barely make $15 an hour but we still got we have all this money to pay all these top people it bothers me that you you have to be on Section Eight and have to get extra food and you work 40 hours a week I'm really really having issues with that about the people that's on the lower levels that you know I think that if we want to do stuff fairly in this town we need to bring the bottom up before we start giving out all the money to the top that's I'm sorry that's not fair I mean I've been I was a teacher during the course of my life and people will know I worked 30 I worked a lot of years for recreation because you have to make make up money when you don't make enough money so me being a woman in uh female dominated places they don't seem to be able to pay people the proper money so they can live comfortably this is 21st century and I know it's not just this town because I know it's throughout the nation but we all need to wake up and bring the bottom up so everybody can live with dignity and number and number B um B um the printing I just thought that was weird all this Printing and stuff and and the what is that Illuminator is not even included in that and don't we have printers in Edison I this it's just weird that some of these vendors and some of the printers for the small amount of stuff we could do it ourself no you know I'm like why are we because I know we okay in these printing stuff cuz I remember us endorsing it saying yes yes yes so why do we need printing why do we need maches and stuff and we going to keep sending everything out to everywhere now I know I didn't see listed maybe they do some business with her another time got we got a female printer printing business right here in town you know so we should think more along that and then the uh C I want to ask the question about it when it says sports uniforms and clothing so is that divied out in the allowance that we allow the um teams in Recreation oh Sports to have um to our business sure um that's for the team Center program that's being held at the recreation program Department the team Center program that's for the team Center Program Sports uniform it says so that's for something totally different than the youth um uniforms that they pay for along with the U programs that the youth we have like say we have Cricket say we have of different sports for the Youth that's not that's not part of that which which one are you looking at specifically because there's a I'm looking at see because I used to be a coach in all the different things and I know that we used to have uniforms you know we would sell tons of candy and stuff and probably eat it and then pay for it ourselves but it was tons of um uniforms and stuff so I just want to know what are these sports uniforms and clothing what are they part of the award of the recreation for the town that gives out uniforms to the children or is the money that's dived out to the sports team are they responsible for their own uniforms I think we're talking about two different things this is for Township related programming that's why I'm trying to I know that's why I'm trying to clarify it with you that we're talking about two different things I want you to explain to me what the difference is this is strictly for Township programming I think there's a little confusion because the title reads sports uniforms so like under um any of the recreation programs my understanding I know councilman B had asked about the basketball t-shirts right right my understanding is that would be used for the Department of recreation and yes it's technically a sports uniform um but there are also other uniform and clothing items included I don't know if that's how we have to type it up because that's how how it's sent out from a bid perspective um in terms of having to say sports uniforms specifically but I can understand where that kind of causes some confusion to the whole matter thank you council president thank you thank you uh Council council president uh on a just want to ask a question on the ordinance itself uh before I even go into the details of the proposal here is is our current ordinance intact in the sense it is followed in its own entity yes we do follow the current ordinance because I do see some of the salaries are already exceeded the the cap there are no salaries here that have exceeded the camp the current employee salary the current employee salary is more than what is as of 2023 what's the max amount is forget about the propos 24 25 26 I'm not looking at that I'm looking at what it exist as of today the max salary range minan and Max do we have any department head that is making more than the max amount on the salary no okay then the supporting document looks like incorrect uh probably you know we can read through the supporting document in that case number two is this printing are these the envelopes and the letter heads of different departments and probably you know most of I think the printing is for our finance department I think you know those notices or those type of that's the area Okay uh but it's a valid question that if some of these letter heads uh you know we can print in house because we have heavy duty print machines I don't know it's a matter of buying good paper and use those color printers and use those rather than Outsourcing and the third one is really confusing you know in fact when I looked at I also saw some Council uh t-shirt that we get also part wrapped into the whole we have to put everything because of the bidding uh laws we everything is in the Aggregate and related to commodity yeah some some somehow the title The Sports uniform kind of misleads but again what the reality is that's important I did look into the details of that but again thank you for providing this information my only the question through council president on this particular line atem are we maintaining the inventory because there are hundreds and thousands of t-shirt that are getting printed are we maintaining those that inventory by sport by section the way we did for DPW are we doing that here we do okay and we don't have anything left out from this year that we need to buy for the next year I'm I'm could certainly check for you as far as if there's any overflow but um depending on the sport or activity okay uh but just to clarify I me I don't know if you're done with your questions but as far as the salary ordinance is there a specific title that you've looked at that exceeded it I looked at at least I found two or three of them they already exceeded but that's for the I think Wednesday's discussion thank you council president thank you uh councilman um just because yeah I I don't know if it's proper for me to State it but there's at least one that I see and I'll I'll advise afterwards if that's okay um thank you any other questions councilman brusher yes when it comes to the uh salary just to just to just to clarify I'm sorry I apologize that was a revised ordinance if you recall we'd put on a second Bond ordinance to revise the tax assessor position so that's why this ordinance didn't include that update but I what I will will'll do is provide a copy of that second salary ordinance to you all so I apologize for any confusion uh council president sorry yes with a with the salary ordinances um after our meeting our last meeting um in in trying to work together so we don't have to be here till midnight um I had some conversations that the Council should be part of conversations before it just pops up on our agenda um and many people when I was down at the league told me the same thing you know most Mayors or administrations meet with their entire Council about everything I told them that that's not true that doesn't happen here in Edison any longer but but In fairness I I wanted to do that so what I did was I reached out to um Bob deal I asked him if he could set up a meeting with myself and son um specifically about this ordinance he was going to get back to me with dates that were available um with the business administrator and to the date he hasn't now after I sent you that email today Sonia did respond and said I can come up at any time but yeah I'd like somebody with me to make sure that I'm communicating correctly what what I'm looking for um because I know there's been miscommunication it seems or or misunderstandings so I'd like somebody at that meeting and there were many issues that I had with this um number one certain people you're increasing their so let let's just take um I don't know like a a prosecutor we have people that aren't at the top of that level um correctly now so why would we increase it so there's questions like that that just standard you know kind of management questions that the administration should give us um originally I heard that you know we were talking about really a 3% raise um I'm not like Einstein when it comes to math but um a quick math in my head tells you that it's way more than 3% so so why um so there's a lot of questions and my Council colleague made a point that there was somebody or or maybe two above that so we we never had those discussions to go through this so I think that should happen um otherwise I actually don't feel comfortable with this ordinance the way or yeah this ordinance the way we have it um I go to B and when I go to B and I go to this is about the making copies right and I don't know that my I mean I I spent about five minutes on this document just to look through but if you look at p-1 A3 right and we look under division of fire and you look at the first one you got vacation request forms I mean a vacation request form is a very simple thing that you just make a copy of like you have one document you make a copy or you print you print it out on your computer I I don't know why we we like why would we be making these by the cases to distribute to the fire department so I I don't think that the administration really looked at at that one very closely but again if we had that meeting with Bob deal and the business administrator I maybe that could have been clarified maybe it's some kind of special triple TI form with um what was that black paper they used to put in between all the paper carbon copy paper right maybe it was a special paper but then when I go to see right and I know we talked about this a little bit but on page one I have uh let's say $1,240 for reversible basketball jerseys W which I I get maybe we do need a couple basketball jerseys right um but then I got basketball hoop shirts and over here I got another basketball shorts I got 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 so so it's about 6,000 of this whole whatever $78,000 for basketball shooting shirts and shorts and stuff like that what are we doing with this and so we have a basketball league right that later on we're giving money to is is that the same group of children or is this a different group of children it's a whole new sign up so would potentially could be different children but is this a separate program like we we do basketball so do we do do we do baseball do we do football do we like all the other Youth Sports what do we do for them what makes this different that it's basketball by the township as opposed to the $10,000 we give that league for the basketball I think I think it's 10,000 maybe was eight if we're differentiating between the clothing that's separate because that's a town ship program but as far as are you referring to the league resolution yes so that's for their operation so according to the calculation that's for whatever amount of fields they're using unrelated to this so the township does basketball and we we going to we need to buy them like basketball jerseys and shorts it's our programming so it's usually offered I do they pay for any of that do they contribute to to pay I'd have to confirm confirm in terms of the registration fee we do a fishing derby they pay 15 bucks or whatever you know and they get a couple worms or maybe a little hook um all right so this is the only program that we're running is basketball right we don't do baseball we don't do anything else it's just basketball and the kids can't just wear regular t-shirts coun black shirts white shirts or we used to play skins and shirts councilman can I off counc I uh would like to speak you because I did do actually I did coach basketball and stuff but consist of basketball you have timekeepers you have referees you have a lot of extra people that you have to pay to maintain that sport there at the game so it's not just about the uniforms when it comes to basketball there's a whole lot of other people at the time keep I can't think of all the positions but there's a about yeah about four of those positions there then you also have the referees also that cost money it cost the same amount of money I mean what how much was this resolution it 78,000 or something approximately yes yeah 78,000 so so close to 10% of this is just for basketball uniforms like for for the entire thing for the entire Sports uniform and clothing I don't know 10% just seemed like a lot for one sport and and you know right when I was a kid we just had t-shirts and shorts we didn't have no kind of special Michael Jordan t-shirts or nothing um so yeah I don't know that I feel so comfortable about this one either um but that would be a council president thank you thank you Council Brer if I can request to the administration to provide us the bid specs for both of those items I think that would help um my guess is that they would have to have like the cuts on the inside just to know what type of outfit that they're producing thank you any other questions comments or concerns council president yes councilman I could be repetitive but for the salaries can I get the current list of salaries for those positions and also for this uh Consortium thing each year the council usually gets shirts or jackets and or a jacket for the incoming uh council president or a jacket with a different name change for the outgoing council president because uh so I don't see anything on here for search for the council so I know there's a list here from the clerk's office so I don't know is that just the location of what department requests clerk's office Hawk Graphics that's something for their Department I imagine if there if if so um can we be added to this list or is it too late and this third question is the DPW department has done a great job with supplying shirts to all the staff and it looks great when we're out there and we have a uniform people can identify with that we're not Amazon making a delivery it's a a Township employee on your sidewalk so I I just only see about a couple hundred dollars for um public works so I'm just curious where that can be adjusted if needed um that's all I have I'm open to PLL us if the council president or other members agree I pull just pull to table it temporarily or have the answers by Wednesday whatever works uh and I'll resend out the salary ordinance if that was not provided I apologize um I think the bid specs would oh you just okay then I'll I'll look to get the information on the additional questions that you had for the uh under the clothing any other questions comments or concerns see none nine from the Department of Finance a reported dispersements through November 21st 2023 B resolution authorizing tax sales certificate refunds in the amount of 174 364 C resolution authorizing transfer of funds in the calendar year 2023 current fund Appropriations D resolution authorizing tax overpayment refund totaling 9,272 46 e resolution authorizes settlement of tax appeals filed by 510 Venture LLC and F resolution authorizes settlement of tax appeals filed by which shopping plaza Associates LLC any questions comments or concerns council president yes councilman Brer yes um on the reported dispersements if we could go to page 28 item 15 and 16 uh where it says Amboy Avenue fire new do fire that's correct sir uh yes yeah my my question revolves around and this goes back to like the salary type thing right when our employees get a 3% raise I I think it should be across the board um you know our upper people are compensated fairly to begin with so at the end of the day everybody deserves the same increase I don't think it looks right and over here if you look the C this is a cable bill from Optimum and I have one firehouse that's like $165 and one that's $80 but if you look at the other ones they're they're also different and I'm just wondering why we have a we have firehouses why wouldn't they be the same with the the same Optimum Cable do they have different Cable packages or I apologize I'm not trying to Def look for that in terms of the package I'll look at the bill and I can send you copies of the bill right if you look they're they're they're all different that that's why it just seemed kind of odd to me um and then on C you know I I objected the last time we did a transfer when we were taking money from the police department when crime has been up you know when crimes go when crime goes up you don't cut that department so you know I was kind of really against that and over here I have a similar type thing where we're we're taking money from our seniors that to me I I don't know that we're taking care of our seniors to to the utmost so I don't think that's a good idea to take it from their line item um and I just wanted to go on the record with that one also and that would be a c president thank you councilman Brer any other questions comments or concerns council president yes councilman pel B I did set my questions to you hopefully we can have some answer by Wednesday on the amount how much amount we keep or we gain in terms of tax interest anything forfeited premiums you know I can get quarterly numbers or I can get probably 20 22 numbers and where it gets categorized but I can wait till Wednesday to get that answer I believe um Sonia you had sent a response to that I didn't get a chance to fully review it but I did if I could just repeat the numbers for you um so for um 2022 we collected $14,888 3 before the tax sale and $ 54,4 4487 during the tax sale that was a total of 9,282 um and your second question was how this fund is classified in the budget and where it resides um so revenue for tax sale cost and fees is included in the budget as in 2023 interest and cost on taxes uh the budget uh number was included there and that's 400,000 and then in 2022 interest in costs on taxes um $399,450 thank you I'll look at the budget thank you councilman any other questions any other questions comments or concerns pertaining to items from the Department of Finance a format CC president before you move I think you know there was a question on the both the tax appeal and this was question to the attorney to check if there is any donation contribution made by any of these entities to any of the elected officials sitting on these tires I think this was takeaway for the attorney yeah it was it was a request from right now um I'm going to presume Mr Mello is unaware at the moment but I will abess them of what the request was to Mr R thank you thank you any other questions comments or concerns uh just to uh for myself to make comment on the uh transfer resolution I understand the point that my colleague makes in regards to uh transferring from out from the senior's account when you look at the uh budgeting account at the moment what has been used in comparison to what's appropriated the um the total the total percent hasn't been utilized as of yet so that 40,000 is looking to be transferred over um I understand the point but from a totality aspect I don't think it's actually going to be utilized that is not to say I don't disagree with that more of the funds should be utilized in regards to attending to to our SE seniors uh but just as a totality of what's appropriated in our budget um it's not a big hit as to what's currently been utilized yes I mean I I I do understand that other departments have have funds that are unused um what I'm saying is that if right if those funds are there they they should be allocated for seniors like that's where I'm going with it it shouldn't be sitting in an account it shouldn't go into a general fund it shouldn't be transferred it should be used on our seniors and the same with the police department you know what I mean there there's other places I think that they could um transfer funds but council president I have one more thing I'd sure like to say um I I missed it I just wrote a little note but I I think we're sending the wrong message with our dispersements because on the dispersements I noticed that we purchase water um and well I guess that doesn't seem unusual the only part that to me seems unusual is that we own a water company right and I mean typically if I was making a product right if I was making a Chevy I would drive a Chevy I wouldn't drive a Tesla if I was making a Chevy um so here we are we own a water company we should have the best water in the country and we're purchasing water on the outside um I I just think it's the wrong look for the township that's all thank you council president council president yes I also was I was also I had read at home I was baffled by the money being taken from the seniors I also seen the 40,000 I'm saying well evidently that goes to show that we're not spending it properly that there's a lot of programs and a lot of different things that if you prepare for them now then that money can be spent you know there's a lot of place and interest and stuff I mean I got a list of things and I got a lot of list of things from other seniors that would ask you why that money was not being spent on some of the things that they would like you know cuz it's not just the clubs there are other seniors in this town that are very very interested and I'll give you another list council president and maybe you can push the list all okay thank you so you'd like to make a comment on sure I just wanted to clarify in terms of um the transfers that does not uh prohibit or inhibit us from spending what we've already allocated in in terms of police and seniors um if anything with seniors we've added those trips back and has obviously it's separate from any clubs and what they may may be doing so we've continued the programming so we have not displaced any of the funds inappropriately in any manner and that includes for police and seniors thank you any other yes pres you know a quick question on this transfer you know I don't like the once you all look or once you budget a specific department and if you don't use that fund I think it should go either in Surplus so that we can take it back to the same Department following year because once you set that as the the dollar amount say for 2023 I'm pretty sure 2024 the same will slide this is probably the way to you know add more money into the budget but not to spend it and repurpose somewhere else this it's very bad practice in terms of not using the budgeted money is there any reason that we are transferring that into uh not transferring into the Surplus or something my understanding is that there are accounts that I don't want to call it overdrawn but are in the red this would put it into the black correct so if there are accounts that have overexpanded and of course it's the last quarter that's why the transfers happen happen um so that we are able to bounce because we can't spend more than what we've potentially allocated so in order to do that that's why we have transfers and we've done them on numerous occasions usually around this year um anything that we do not expend that obviously then does go to Surplus to your point understood is there a way by Wednesday we get the revised I would say not 24 budget but at least end of November how much money we spend versus how much we budgeted for each department so we know what's R and what I do I do have that I'll send it after I apologize I got inundated with a lot of emails and didn't get to go through everything I know that was one of them so I absolutely forward sounds good um and one of the things just to councilman brusher point and meeting with you all um what I will be preparing is the 2024 budget it's in the works already but like to sit down with each of you um to look at the prep worksheets so that you are aware of those line items and the typically it shows you a five-year projection so so that you understand exactly what has happened throughout those years so if we can sit down and review those that may better um help you to understand what has happened sounds good thank you and again I'll send over the uh capital accounts that where providing I apologize um I didn't send that out earlier uh 10 oh yes Council now that we've continued to talk about the seniors and the transfer of money if it's appropriate to expend some of that money towards um music or a Pianist that comes in I'm not sure what the money is allocated for just curious of what's left I mean if the council's asked for for seniors of course we'll come up with some ideas if there's left over money through savings or a project that wasn't as expensive as thought but always curious I know Council manhipster arm for music for seniors so I know I got I'm quite certain all of us agree um never can do enough for seniors throughout the week uh through Co they sat around a lot so open to compete with other towns to make sure we have more thank you thank you uh councilman Coyle any other questions comments or concerns pertaining to the Department of Finance see none from the Department of Law um yes uh council president there's a one item uh it's a resolution for settlement this item was discussed at length at the uh last council meeting uh with the law director Lou renon um the uh settlement uh the proposed settlement and ordinance is available for public inspection um though at this time I recommend being that this is a matter of pending litigation uh that Council refrain from any comment uh at this time uh thank you and just for clarify ification the um I'm still getting used to whether to say stuff added reduced at the time that it comes up or at the beginning of the meeting so I apologize for any confusion um we are adding an ordinance amending chapter 37 zoning um am ially yes absolutely you can add it right now by creating a new 37-13 a uh which creates a new gc-b Zone uh this will be added to the agenda as was mentioned and I know this is a little confusing because of the litigation aspect but uh because it is litigation any discussion would be asked to yes the as the the council was fully briefed on all the particulars at the last council meeting um if there's a if there's a uh if there is additional questions um we can certainly schedule another closed session uh but this time any public comment I'm going to as your legal councel I'm going to ask that you frame thank you uh councilman ptil C president I understand that the council should not pose any question on the Maring developer settlement here that resolution is perfectly fine not to comment at this point in time however the ordinance are we saying that we should not comment on the ordinance um if if there are questions with the or because the ordinance comes from is is attached to the uh the settlement document it's my recommendation that if there are questions regards the ordinance that were not discussed in the last Clos session that there should be an additional closed session to discuss the ordinance because it may in that conversation bleed into uh the litigated matters understood but this ordinance is not going to be secret by any means by Wednesday so there will be public absolutely the and the ordinance is now available for public inspection my my my request is that the council not offer comment on that resol on that ordinance but certainly ordinance the resolution um all um once the once the resolution is voted on then I I have no concerns about Council speaking uh about the ordinance itself but the resolution must be voted on first before any comment can be made okay so probably then Wednesday is going to be a little tricky to handle this matter may may I offer uh opportunity uh put on for a close session for the beginning of the meeting on Wednesday so that we can discuss the the ordinance would that be Council the council Council pres that's perfectly fine we can ask the question back door but this ordinance will be there for the first reading and audience will be able to ask the questions not introd if you wanted to make comment on that on the US we we'll do the close but I'm talking about public well the the Public's right is there is first of all there is no public hearing on on the first reading so it would merely be introduced um if Council had uh questions I would as your legal council I would I would answer those questions but as as you sit as a council member until the resolution is voted on it's my recommendation because it is pending litigation that you not comment on it understood because you know zoning is I I thought zoning ordinance yes it is tied to that but it's still a different again I'm bringing the same point Wednesday council meeting not on the ordinance but in the public portion towards the end of the meeting there will be someone from the audience that will come to the the podium when we'll pose a series of questions MH so we'll be obligated to answer those questions anyway no you're never obligated to answer any question legally um if people want to make comment you though as a council member can speak very publicly answer any questions that you want to at second reading okay let's see how Wednesday goes you know just from a point of clarification I don't believe there is public comment on introduction that's correct there is no there's comment amongst us yes no no not that at the end of the meeting I I understand or petition remark you know anybody's going to ask the question and then we can't say that we we're not and then we'll be answerable saying why did we vote and we have no answer to that but you will already voted on the resolution understood that which will which will have adopted the settlement so at that point if you wish to speak it is perfectly acceptable sounds good council president apologies for all the confusion yes Council you will allow us comment um at the next meeting if we so choose on on the ordinance yes because at that point the resolution will have been adopted the settlement will have been will have been voted on assuming that I don't know how you'll vote but if the resolution is adopted now if there's comment on the ordinance itself that's perfectly fine um I'm sorry but the I'm sorry but the ordinance will come first yes so no so my my question my my recommendation to you is to uh save your any comments that you would like to make on the orence till second reading because on first reading you will not yet have voted on the resolution so that's my recommendation because it is part of the settlement U the resolution we're voting on on Wednesday correct correct the the ordinance is just up for uh introduction today no no on on Wednesday as well correct right on Wednesday it's up for for introduction yes um so we can comment then at the following meeting yes that's what I'd recommend yes because then at that point the resolution will have been adopted and the case will have technically been settled settled um and you can speak as freely as you like just for clarification I am offering Clos session Wednesday prior to all this occurring so any of those questions or concerns could be asked during the close session and if for whatever reason it's not in the council's purview to move forward with the ordinance then we can take it off at that point correct let me just the resolution passes let's say hypothetically the ordinance does not mhm does that affect the resolution no I I would like to answer that question in close session for you oh yeah um okay council president yes uh councilman Coyle I'm listening to the order of questions here is it possible we can just have the first reading after the resolutions are adopted we certainly can yes if you'd like if you'd like to do in that order you can do that I mean on the resolution and then vote on the ordinance fact we script front loading it could whether this pass or fails we at least have an open discussion happens at the end of it that'll be a normal discussion that we accept Council accepts which whatever the questions May councilman Co that's an excellent idea I think that solves the problem people say I have good ideas including counc understand that it's a little convoluted given all the matter so it will be Council presentent only the concern there is because I wish this ordinance should have come first because we are passing the resolution and then in introdu I don't think anybody says anything on introduction but it is coming for voting down the line and if it that fails then this resolution has zero meaning technically so I don't know why we are rushing to pass the resolution first and then the ordinance second but again I will leave it to your thank thank you coun uh any other questions comments or concerns pertaining to items A or B under Department of Law see none 11 from the Department of planning engineering a resolution authorizes refund of unused portion of developer escro fees uh B resolution authorizes refund of unused portion of developer escro fees C resolution provides for Township acceptance of construction improvements final retaining out of contract 4 of the 2022 roadway resurfacing program the resolution authorizes refund of unused engineering inspection fees e resolution authorizes refund of unused engineering inspection fees F resolution authorizes release of cash maintenance Bond G resolution and authorizes release of cash maintenance Bond H resolution authorizes refund of cash performance bond I resolution authorized tree maintenance Bond refund and J resolution authorizing mayor in Township Clerk to execute an agreement with the county middle sex for the milling and Paving a portion of old Ron Road in Edison any questions comments or concerns council president yes councilman Brer um this J right is this a um like a joint project is what it kind of looks like to me right that it's like a county project and an Edison Pro like Edison's doing part of the road and the Count's doing another part all r Road in Edison I might have misre I thought they were doing by it's by the county yeah I thought the county was doing all the all the paving I don't think it was and but now that's that's an an a Township Road or a County Road I'm trying to understand you know who's doing what and and who's are we helping them who is supposed to do what yeah my from my recollection I thought the county was going to be doing the entire Road um Old ridan Road from the county borderline to Jenna Lane what which I think would be from Woodland Avenue up to the first left which would be Jenna Lane like if you're going northbound on Woodland Avenue making the right there uh going from there to jelene which is the first residential property on the left hand side I guess my I guess my question is why would we be having the county PVE our road so similarly to um I'll take for instance parsonage Road in that area um so because the plan is to essentially get all of it done um sometimes if the Count's already out there it's worth the while and worth the money for them to do it while they're out there this is one of those cases so the County's not doing old Ran Road they're doing another road no they it's old Ran Road um okay so so the county own a portion of Old raran Road and we own another portion of Old ridom Road I I okay I I don't understand there's an agreement right where we have an agreement with the county it's a road who's supposed to maintain that road to we do share it to answer your question we share the road we share the road correct so we own half the road and the county owns half the road cuz I haven't seen that I've seen the county owns roads and we own roads I didn't know we split roads roads it's my understanding that we share the road I mean I've seen like on Wood Avenue left hand side going northbound again Edison Township right hand side Woodbridge I've also seen like on as was mentioned on parsonage where you go down well not at parsonage on the crossroad there where portion of that ised and then it goes to Woodbridge right the intersection I get but this isn't an intersection it's going from one road to another road if it's okay can I get back take yeah I'll look at the tax maps see where that boundary is and for c um I I'd like to try and get a list of all these roads from where to where that were done that we're sending this back but I'd like to get this by 10:00 in the morning so that I have time to drive down all these roads and take a look at it myself you're looking for 2022 roadway I'm looking for C right uh that's specific to 2022 okay right um it it's this this year we're giving back the bond money I just want to make sure it was done properly um so I'd like to know what roads they were um that would be a council president thank you councilman Brer any other questions comments or concerns uh seeing none and we'll get back on the U contract number four for the roadway Reserve for sing and the uh uh ownership of Old raran Road 12 from the Department of Public Works a resolution to release Street opening escros any questions comments or concerns 13 from the Department of recreation a resolution awarding payment to various nonprofit organizations for League recreational Services funding Sports um just for clarification there's going to be a modification to the total amount uh from the 228 432 down to 224 975 uh there was a item uh realized uh first to answer Mr Fagan's question about the sports Matrix that was provided it was sent out uh I think there might be discussion about re-evaluating the Matrix for next year but pertaining to what the Matrix included there was one small discrepancy which causes that uh $3,000 reduction so just want to make sure that's clear Council yes councilman P question on that you know I looked at the metrics but I don't know the every sport you know really qualifies or that criteria is correct I looked at the cricket it says new sport probably this is third year I'm voting on this this not new this is evolved a lot that's number one so again I'm not happy about not doing the due there and number two this Council recognized the new sport malakam the team who won the World Cups you know several medals bronze and silver after that Proclamation I did send an email to Mayor and Sonia to you administrator asking to at least start recognizing because this is nonprofit organization let's encourage this new sport and if you're reducing the money I would again Ask to add this sport into this resolution so we can encourage those youths to participate into the next World Cup and evolve that sport in Edison just remember this team has put Edison on the world map by winning at the World Cup and I'm surprised that in spite of the request that sport is not reflected in the list uh so definitely know this when Wednesday I won't be voting on this resolution if this either you know we make the corrections in terms of the cricket or the the new sport thank you counc pres thank you councilman councilman Patel I had a question on how does this get allocated does organizations have to apply for this yes okay so if if malakam applied for it that they they could be eligible next year uh they could yeah okay just council president just want to rebuttal the comment from my Council colleague I don't think in spite of that ask anybody reach out to those individual support organization to apply because I'm in close contact so it is not something someone would know hey there is a money it's awarded it's our job to make sure we reach out to those nonprofit organization especially when we acknowledge them we recognize them and I I don't understand why we failed to do our own due diligence so just making that point here here not somebody's going to come if we are to really encourage some sport we need to make sure that we reach out to them and say hey this is the facility available would you like to participate thank you council president thank you councilman P any other questions comments counc yes councilman Co a few comments on what I've heard here first is you know can we create some Outreach on a marketing plan that nonprofits are aware to make this application for this opportunity I on the council in eight years now and each year it's I'm asking when it's already being allocated so um it's already too late for that I'd imagine but but also did you say Council pres you sent out the ratio of reason behind each one yeah the sports Matrix or that's what the title was okay I I'll look at it I'm sorry I didn't get it and um I I I'm open to some adjustments only because Sports have changed in the youth today and Robotics is Big um uh and there's different nonprofits that have competing World opportunities that that are out there so absolutely I mean I would definitely look at how we can add to the fund Andor um move some money around to give people a start even if it's only $22,000 it's something thank you council president thank you councilman to any other questions comments or concerns see none4 from the chief of fire a approval of volunteer firefighters B resolution to accept lindel basil corporate grant program approval and C resolution to accept embri Grant approval any questions comments or concerns see none 15 from the chief of police a resolution awarding a contract purchase order for renewal of the nixel system any questions comments or concerns just for myself I think it's um good that we are reupping this uh this program I believe the backup did say that we are expanding on it in terms of the notifications that could be sent out and I look forward to hopefully continuing using this uh this service you know council president one comment whoever from the township monitors that I got an alert I guess like a month or two ago it was about 1:00 in the morning about the child abduction in Piscataway um 1:00 in the morning phone beeping child in Piscataway might as well tell me it's a child in Texas and what I what I did find you know in that whole nixel thing a lot most of those aren't where a stranger took a child they're where the fighting parents took the child yes you know um is there some way that we can make it so it's more local in the and I I'm only suggesting this because I had the same issue with other townships notifications being sent to me on the system preferences when you log on to the nixel system they have the surrounding areas um generally they're check checked off as a preset you can uncheck them so you won't get those uh notifications actually that's a point of light I think we got to keep that one up thank you thank you any other questions comments or concerns SE on 16 from the Township Clerk a resolution setting uh resolution setting council meeting schedule for 2024 any questions comments or concerns um two well two questions and one we talked about but there's a meeting on a Thursday the first meeting is Passover and I believe the clerks have a conference on that Wednesday so they would not be here for that Wednesday okay and then the other one was um February 14th I'm Valentine's Day open to change it into Thursday if the council prefers yeah okay um from a procedural standpoint I guess we would have to well it's a work session so we'll make it for February 15 um I would just ask the clerk just to make sure that there's no religious holidays or anything like that that I'm not aware of counc presid like to vote on that I'm single I'm not making any upset by being here and and Joyce also has you know was okay to work work on any day uh any other questions comments or concerns uh see none 17 from the council member of the planning board councilman Patel the planning board meeting was held on Monday November 20th at council chambers uh there was a master plan comments had there were members from clar B Barton section uh that were telling uh noting that you know there's no room for parking they want to keep the restaurants as restaurants uh they also had concerns about the safety uh the trucks going through ambo AB they definitely do not want four-story buildings and are worried about the tax increases due to new kids coming into the township uh there were some explanation as to what the master plan is it's a policy document it does not do any active changing and Zoning it just guides uh also planning board authorized Hank to do the pre preliminary investigation for the 41 glandel as a condemnation the Development Area the old business that was heard was case number P1 2023 yashraj 5 LLC 39 Thomas Place block uh the application applicant was proposing construction of AG restricted 55 plus apartment building on awant land this property falls under the Thomas place rale velopment plan area uh 89 parkings were provided on the 86 required uh they also would have a deed restriction on providing a shuttle service to local amenities uh affordable housing was provided eight units and again it's restricted to 55 plus the setback request and design wavers are being requested and it was approved the second case that was a continuation from the last time was case P22 d222 just Nation at 271 meta Road the applicant is seeking to construct a 12,800 square footage structure to assist in the site operation uh it was the opposing Council uh bringing their witness and their experts to talk about as to why the applicant uh is not being truthful um and there was no new business heard the next planning board meeting will be take will take place Thursday November 30th this will be a special meeting same thing with the next one which to be December 6th as the planning board has fallen behind due to the just Nation uh Court Casa uh case being dragged for or continued for two meetings uh and the following cases will be heard on November 30th uh P1 14-22 2023 ANC Patel at 761 771 W app the applicant is proposing a minor subdivision approval uh second case will be heard will be P1 18-220 three Federal business centers Sweet Water lanane and Dock Road a minor subdivision approval is sought for existing vacant land also will be heard was P1 17-223 psng 234 Pearson applicant is proposing construct a new mobile transform Transformer with assist Associated Transformer storage area construct a one-story Maintenance building also on November 30th will be p7- 2023 TNS future Investments 63 ta Tav applicant is Seeking a minor subdivision approval to create two lots existing sfd to remain and construct a new sfd on the second lot I'm not sure what sfd is uh carried to November 30th will be p15 2023 AK reality 2 LLC 67 Brunswick can have applicant is proposing preliminary and final site plan approval to construct the warehouse on a weak land thank you thank you councilman pel uh 18 unfinished business we are this is actually going to be removed uh from the agenda so there would not be a public hearing set down for Wednesday if it's to be brought back it would have to go through the full introduction uh process so um and apologies maybe I should have mentioned that earlier but again learning when to mention it or not was that for the new um for the uh for the oh yeah for the bond cancellation so that's being removed from the agenda there will not be a public hearing on Wednesday thank you uh 19 discussion items started from my right before I'll start to my left this time councilwoman ship Freeman start from the middle from midle sure councilman Patel so actually I'm not ready I can go first if you want councilman ptil thank you council president okay I'll be pretty much repeating some of the line items that I discussed but let me start with good thing thank you uh Edison police Administration for the extra SEC Safety and Security measures during the Diwali holidays I made several phone calls uh when suspicious activity activities were reported personally to me so I made the phone calls and there was a good response so thank you all the police officers we were on duty working extra time again thank you and second thank you for removing the the last speed hum that was left there uh but there is one thing that I think DPW needs to do is remove the speed hump sign they removed the speed hump but they didn't remove the sign so if you can please note that down on the gr Avenue uh there is a section that this Council supported to reduce the speed to 25 M an hour however there is one sign left 35 miles between Adams and calart when you come from maachan It's Always way up to Adam that signal is 25 M hour and again for few hundred ft it's 35 and again it becomes 25 so it's confusing so if you can please remove that sign and just probably the next Council not the next council meeting because this will be an ordinance so maybe we'll have to replan uh extending this grow Avenue uh throughout all the way to the in man uh probably sometime in January 2023 Paving list I know we didn't do any Paving in 2023 from the 2023 Paving list it was 2022 we are carrying uh so did we merge 2023 and propose 2024 or how that's working out again I communicated to our engineering team and they were finalizing list and I will follow up with them again okay also if you can please take feedback from tpw because you know I sent few request to them to patch holes and they did report that this road needs to be repaved they can continue to patch this so if you can take the feedback which um which road specifically fish Fisher fishal yeah the flooding area the C calor Stevenville you know this is my probably fifth sixth year I'm bringing this up I I saw the supporting document but it only talks about the hunting T in fact I was pitching in for or Warwick Nottingham that entire neighborhood so I don't know where the ball is dropped are we doing partial or we're doing full I know for the fact that CME had worked on this project they had completed the design work but I seen the supporting document only huntingt done so if you can please provide me uh the additional information on that also of the Summer Street continuing the uh flooding area kilma Road this is my four fifth month I'm bringing up there is no striping you know there's it's it's a quite wide Road and I think you know two cars one way going but there is no Middle Lane uh that needs to be fixed the tankers on the abbar restaurant this is probably again my Council colleague Council woman brought this up several times uh I also brought this several times but I still see you say you know this the property owner is storing and this is the violation the zoning violation I don't know why we are not able to enforce this uh raway in man 1198 in man Avenue you know thank thank you for your last email that you have raised the request to PG to cut the branches so County can remove this tree uh do we know the status the tree will actually be removed by the township um what would the utility company um came in cut the branches um and now DPW will be able to go in there unless um they may need to call a different company which I think may be the situation so I'll follow up to see exactly where that's on the tickler thank you it's a good progress on that thank you I appreciate that the other property 715 through 723 Duram Road uh this was probably second month I'm following up the property cleanup uh I did reach out to zoning officer I I know you had sent an email uh email forward from the health department didn't help uh there are machines on the uh the property but there's no movement there you know it's probably two months I think either it's a time to issue the summons and get this cleaned up or we go and clean up and issue the bill you know we can't have the neighborhood uh that neighborhood is not happy I think the the another one ambo Avenue and Maplewood Avenue intersection I sent email on October 29th uh this is very dangerous intersection there is a bus stop on the ambay Avenue uh kids are crossing this intersection the request was to put the stop sign I don't know we are 2 months and I don't see an traction as of last week it was still going through the traffic division review okay if you can please give me the update probably by next council meeting the another important thing the summons they were issued in 2021 this were PA political related summons there were Fierce election and uh I personally sat with mayor with Township attorney with the zoning officer and we all agreed the summons were improperly issued so we established the protocol of issuing the first warning and then issue the sub summons the summons were dismissed in 2021 they popped up again 2022 they were dismissed again they came back in 2023 so I don't know why this these summonses are not going out of the system there are several there are more than 100 summonses it's my understanding we haven't formally dismissed any summonses but I will I'll double check that for you um because the the list that I received um recently for for those years did not get formally in fact just before this council meeting I got a text that his uh someons was supposed he was told that it is uh dismissed but he got noticed today that it is scheduled for January I don't know who you're speaking to specifically so um I'll I'll give the examples I I'll send you the examples the another line atem is a late fee so let fee these are set by the ordinance right the fire department the fire marshal the letter goes out to whether to the businesses or to the homeowner association I saw the line atom there if it is not paid by this due date amount is double the invoice amount I don't think you know this Council has ever passed any type of ordinance to set the fees late fees double the invoice amount and and often the penalty is higher than the actual bill so I'm surprised you know how how this is happening is this something fire marcial department is taking their own decision or this is set to the ordinance these are specific to fire prevention yes okay the next line item is on the fire hydrant uh again we had several discussions on this di when the hanaro folks came in here they spoke about the fire hydrants are not working uh especially in that neighborhood including uh the neighboring community and I think the deputy chief was doing some research and I don't know if anybody took any decision on getting those fire hydrant operating even though it could be responsibility of uh individual area or the association but it's our responsibity to make sure that all the fire hydrants are working in operational in case there is uh any fire if you can please follow this is very critical l atoms I'm bringing this third time uh this needs to be mitigated shortly this means we need to change ordinance so it be but let's get this done quickly the other line atom is solar operated speed limit sign the flashing science again this was I think two months ago I spoke I was told that the cost is very high I don't think cost is very high I looked at online even the commercials are available around $4 to $5,000 we are spending millions of Dollar on the capital project project I think it's a high time that we should start uh investing uh money into into this area and the last one is I think the paying list covered that's it thank you council president thank you councilman ptil uh councilman Patel son I want an update on the website as to what's going on uh we should be awarding it very soon okay so when when is soon let me get back to you tomorrow okay and then uh I know during the questionnaire in the last meeting one of the suggestion was the cyber security uh multiactor right MFA is multifactor Factor authentication authentication are we looking into getting that done is that we I'm guessing that be part of The Office 365 it is part of The Office 365 okay and when would that be going live um I provided an update at the last meeting so that's ongoing right now they're working on the back end okay um so hopefully by the new year we'll have okay the installation I know The Pedestrian Crossing solar lights I'm going to wait for Rey when he comes back so I'll ask that the following meeting and I wanted to ask you about that idea for Amboy and calber uh when do you think you can get back to me if we can do that pilot or not this is for the striping so I got your email this afternoon and I included both the traffic and um engineering because ultimately they would need to do some sort of traffic study in order to make sure that that is feasible okay and assume I'm new at this how long would that traffic study would take I not sure I don't want to give you a timeline because again this may be something new I've haven't seen this come across okay thank you thank you thank you councilman councilman Co no sure thank you council president um I guess we're on traffic pick uh signs I know it just brought up something maybe similar but seem like we never have enough of these traffic Billboards I know we use them as message signs too I think they're just great for us how many we have I don't know but as we produce our budget for 2024 I'd like definitely like to see more um as they're shared for money purposes um the other part was an economic de development committee or coordinator um years ago we had a page staff person that did that um one of my Council colleagues you know talked about warehouses becoming data centers rather than fulfillment centers but unless we have someone in place to try to recruit this why behind what the public may want it just seems like anything that's being produced in Edison is produced through an organic interest of the investor only um when if we have an economic development coordinator that paid that person they would go to recruit to find out what's best in the interest of the public or what's the best suitable opportunity for the town um and they can go out and recruit that person anybody who receives a phone call from the mayor's office or for a Township employee already feels an automatic invite um to say it's easy to build anywhere in New Jersey for an investor i' i' believe that they'd say it's challenging and challenging in Edison to get something done unless you know how to navigate so it would increase the opportunity of investors coming knowing that we're friendly and we would be acceptive of these opportunities the other portion of this economic developer uh committee or coordinator which would be a paid person uh with this expertise is that you hear from time and time again the public will say I'd love to have they have this wish list of things they'll never want to do themselves because it's too much work to open up a ice cream store and a Tian shop um you know a steak shop it's a lot of work and it's a big investment but they want it I mean it's no question we'd all like to see these novelty shops in our community and why stores are empty is part of this reason because you know the Realtors don't rent stores they sell homes there's there's there's an economic reason why they sell homes because the commission is almost driven by the interest of living in Edison and it's can happen in 90 days stores the Landy don't pay to fill a store that's 2,000 square ft so it doesn't have anybody interested in pushing that need or shopping that need but we definitely have a dynamic uh group of residents and it's important that we start to play that role to fill those stores to get specially opportunities in the town uh you know I remember a council colleague from a different town com over to our coffee shop and ask them hey would you like to come to South planfield and open up a place and that's more of what we need to do uh is knock on doors of pre-existing restaurants and different locations around the town of stores we may want in our neighborhood and I think and I hope we've talked about this I know it's in the queue but we truly need to push as a council to make this happen what people see today is organic growth by investor only through the sale of what's being sold and when we find out when it's being sold it's not like that like this Township is on MLS or gmls to know what's going on dayto day if you look at the operations of of a small town like Carterette that may knows everything for sale day by day hour by hour We're such a big town it's it's challenging for to do that in an Administration so if we had this person we'd be aware and if we had an interest to to protect that piece of land no different than Silver Lake we could have protected that knowing when it went on the market but if we don't act it's too late because the investors out there move a lot faster but we definitely have the tools to do that so I hope uh this Council would you know push to get behind this I know we've all discuss this individually we know the purpose but I just wanted to extend other reasons why an economic development Coordinator would help and it's that small retail still that keeps our downtown or our neighborhood you know uh Charming um it's having you know an opportunity for a specialty store over another service I mean because it seems like our town by default becomes a lot of services and services are great but you need a combination of services and specialy stores and restaurants to make a Town great so uh that's my main discussion for today I'll leave it at that for now and I thank you council president thank you councilman Coyle councilman Brer um yes we we had that little raid storm the other day um we we need the street sweeper can I get a list of what roads every week the street sweeper does and and I'll I'll tell you what kind of happened it's just a quick little story um the prior Administration on Grove Avenue it I'm talking about it's flooding in front of my home um they told me that they had to change the heads on the sewer grate and they told me it was a new law yet when I walked with an engineer and showed him a sore grate that was about 100 feet away that was the other type of Sor grate head he couldn't explain how the one was in there and not the other um so so in other words in front of my house they put the most restrictive grate that leaves don't go down since the leaves don't go down it's not like I don't clean in front of my property but what happens is I have two hills on the right and left of me and when it rains the water washes the leaves down and they get stuck in the grate and grow floods so the prior Administration before every flood used to send the street sweeper down um now in two years I haven't seen it um I think my Council colleague here asked for a list of when the street sweeper came uh because I complained about it and I'd just like to get a list of like like every week I'd just like to get an update it's a simple thing the guy does street sweeping DPW has a record of it they can just email me and say these are the streets that were done I I just like to see that we actually have somebody Manning the machine and he's driving around he's doing streets that's all the next question was um Floyd Street um that was that that small street that we had a by JP Stevens we're looking to get a sidewalk for the kids we've been talking about it for four years the past administration said that there was a um stream um this Administration doesn't really know much about it or the need for it so so if maybe somebody from the administration would like to come out around 2:30 and we can walk around 2:30 3:00 when the school's out so you can see the importance of it I'd be glad to show you but I'm going to ask every week so I'd like to get an update on Floyd Street um palansky Park is another one um I was told by somebody in the county that we paved the parking lot it didn't look paved to me um but this was the basketball ball court again um we approved the bond and the past business ministrator Moren gave us a list of parks that we were going to do and palansky park was on it it was approximately $500,000 for a basketball court so I'd like to get an update on palansky Park the flooding I I kind of got a little update but the flooding by Calbert um I had a couple Council people that were working on it and the last that I heard was um two councilmen one is no longer a councilman he's part of the administration now but the two were just needed signatures from the neighbors to take care of some flooding behind the homes so I'm wondering where we are with that because the response that I got was like we're going to look into doing the engineering for all of this so I I it's almost like we're speaking separate languages um but you know I'd like to get that resolved so that at least the administration is on the same page with the same flooding area and um Bob deal I think he has an office somewhere up by the ba so they should be pretty close to know what we're talking about then before I have this meeting um which is going to be Friday for the animal uh shelter I need a list of what each Town should have paid what what each town has paid for the last three years to the animal shelter and then what Edison Township has paid um to the animal shelter because if we're if we're what gentleman came the other day it was it sounded like we were underfunding it so I I'd like to know what we're getting from those other towns if we're receiving funds if they're paying their bills or not and then what our contribution to the animal shelter is as a separate as a separate item but I need that preferably by Thursday so at least I can review it before I go to this meeting on Friday and that would be a council president thank you councilman merer Council woman Freeman all right um first of all I'm going to say I was very uh sad when I heard that um here we are the 21st century and of all the parties we're throwing in Edison and the veterans don't have soap I was reading they didn't have enough soap in the Meno Park and different veterans places you know I'm very fond of our veterans because of them that's who I am and you know I just had a real real problem with that then um I noticed that today we have a open space not I didn't notice this Committee just today but I noticed that they were stating that they're tearing down all the good green life and they're putting up 12 plastic fish s so you know I don't know I just got I just have problem with us getting rid of grass and trees and stuff all the time I think that's very important for the environment and I think when we flood out when we don't have enough trees to absorb the water then you know that's when everybody will start screaming and saying something about it and also I would like to um um some questions was asked and I would like to get U Better answers to them because you know everything online is not true so I like to get answers from here um now there seems to be a Green Acres or something issue with the Senor build the senior building on what is it ID wild is that true is that's what holding up the doing it or whatever no it's not holding up any um issue with the building um there's we're looking into whether there was there was removal of a tank at some point and the green ACR so there's a couple of things that we need to just confirm so who are you going to confirm you going to find it from the state yeah and we have to go back to our files to see exactly what was donees it's not holding up the construction okay so um and also the animal shelter and the land that is on is there problems with that also the animal shelter is also on Green Acres so um what we're trying to um engage with is with an architect once we'll put an RFP out is that rather than expanding to the side we would create a second floor in order to make the facility bigger um for what it needs to be done as far as use so from my understanding we're having like Green Acre problems all over Edison uh this is this is a bit much um that we're having that um Green Acres programs and last but not least with the uh senior different programs and stuff that you could bring to the senior building a lot of seniors do not like to go out at night because they don't want to do the driving you know some people suffer from cataracts and other things and uh there's a lot of good programming that they could bring just like um council member coyo stated before they like a nice little you know only cost a couple hundred dollars like a little Jazz program in the after afterno something going on I mean you know there there ought to be things for our seniors that make them want to come out and uh some of the seniors that just don't want to be with just clubs that actually represent themselves they do want to be more involved as they keep telling me the different things and as I know a person that was in charge of the Zumba she asked me she said what does your town do as far as Zumba Gold and different and things like that now if you have a facility that only heads to the people 80 and up you cut off a lot of people like because even I think the state starts at at 62 or something where you have these young seniors that usually I meet in Woodbridge half the time because they're over in Woodbridge in the mornings with me at 8 o'clock in the morning doing different things so that's why you know I get really stressed out about about us not putting enough time in to the places we should and I just would like to know um how much Green Acre property are we trying to get rid of in in Edison or you know trying to make some adjustments too because as as someone explained to me before they said hey it's not like it used to build they won't be satisfied until there's nothing left but a blade of grass now all the everybody and the young people and everybody everybody CLA claims that they're so environmental they care so much about the green and about us being able to breathe but I I don't know what's going on with that and last lastly uh um I noticed that there's more than the amount every time I look on every time I look in a news break there's another lawsuit to Edison like I mean the amount of losses with suits we're getting is getting to be like a little bit ridiculous and and who who authorizes them only the administration authorizes and the lawyer takes care of those behind the scenes or we don't have to okay the amount of money that's going out for the lawsuits we just sit back and whatever you want to give somebody if they have a lawsuit for you I mean it's getting to the point where it's getting ridiculous because the amount of lawsuits reflect on us it reflect on this town so you know what I mean so let's just go to Edison let's get get us a lawsuit you know cuz they just settle real easy and that's how they do it and I'm just saying I'm quite disappointed with that and I'm very very disappointed with uh I say it again with the veterans not having the things that they need thank you thank you uh Council sh Freeman um to our legal to Sonia can you advise on I guess what I guess from a financial standpoint what happens when the township gets Su yeah absolutely uh first of all obviously we have no control about who sues the township of Edison um you know any any uh plain if can file just by you know filing the requisite filing fee with the court and file a complaint whether it's uh valid or or uh or frivolous uh as far as settlements are concerned we uh this this Council authorizes uh our uh involvement in a joint Insurance Fund uh we are members of a joint Insurance Fund the Central Jersey joint insur Insurance Fund um and they act as our insurance provider um because uh at certain points it becomes their money as as a joint Insurance Fund they have the right to settle certain cases uh they obviously work in conjunction with uh with the law department but um being that it's their dollars they ultimately have say hopefully that answers your question thank you I don't know if there's any other council president can I get clarity um from our attorney because it sound like didn't cost us anything but oh no cost us definitely yeah our premiums and the more claims we have our premiums go up is that like my regular Insurance like after I get in an accident right my premiums kind of go up not necessarily CLA with claims they look at a few things they look at not just the amount of claims they look at the settlements of those claims how much it cost so a case that we were able to dispose of very quickly may not have a very large impact at all on our on our on our claim history as they call it so things that go into are the obviously the amount of claims the um the amount of claims and the ultimate exposure on those claims how much does it cost us let me and that'll affect our premium over the three-year period that they that we enter into contracts with the GIF okay quick question about the GIF um do you know who runs the GIF the towns the each town is a voting member on the J who's our voting member I I couldn't tell you I don't know who our voting we could certainly find that out right you know what I'm looking for is um could we get a list from the GIF of all claims like paid out overall um right to see how that kind of looks as far as um rates that Edison is paying um because this we're talking about this type of GIF right there's there's multiple gifs oh there's there's many gifs I'd say there's maybe upwards of 50 gifs in the state right and where I'm going with it is um I I know when I was on the board education they had a issue with um prescriptions and the broker and the person running this conglomerate of many towns with this wouldn't give us our uh lost runs for um you know for the drugs so our our what we originally thought was that Edison was carrying you know South River and South Brunswick and everybody else that was part of this and we ended up changing it to to a new you know a group of uh carriers and I think the first year we saved like $1.8 million so so I believe we probably were carrying you know carrying the ball for the other towns I absolutely I I think uh can we can request a loss run from the GIF so it's not something we have at our fingertips but something we can request so we can do that um secondly it the generally the GIF uh contracts are three-year deals so and I I recommend and I believe our our broker would do that as a matter of course is to basically shop us every three years to see listen when it came to Insurance yes right you might know about law but I do know about insurance and that's a scam what's a scam sorry insurance and the Brokers and your loss runs because they only give you the loss runs two days or three days or 4 days before you're about to renew so so they hold a gun to your head when technically they could have given you the Lost runs for your last few years um and when I was on the board Ed that was the main issue um that's how they ended up saving money um so yeah I'd like to get a list and see what we pay him you know just see that it's fair we'll make the request thank you thank you son would you like to add I just wanted to add I do attend the GIF meetings um and Bill northg grave actually who um sits as the chair and um also works with the St Township still on the Jeff but um there will be a point of transition where that's why I'm attending the GIF meetings and typically every every ba attends a gif meeting so during those meetings what we do discuss is a stop loss between the general liability and then of course the workman's comp um so I I'm fully aware exactly where those things Li but just to Mr mello's point is that some of those decisions in terms of settlements that is there money and then that's really divied up between all of the member townships our premiums have been relatively uh divied up if not evenly pretty much evenly between all the other towns so they've been kind to us even if we've had bad years or other towns have had bad years because they understand that you know every year is different so we should really look one one another out I mean that's kind of where I'm going I I don't know you're telling me that you have it so therefore right if you review it it should be a pretty simple document for me to get now right so and that and that's what I'm really looking for is just like I said what I found out on the board of education was Edison was carrying other towns so now that we talked about it I'd like to verify that that we're not carrying everybody else on our back absolutely and then also to look at when you know I think to your point is when are are we effectively marketing ourselves when it comes time for Renewal to make sure that we have options right than thank you thank you um for myself I don't have any discussion items any other discussion items from any other council members see none uh can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn motion by councilman ptil second by councilman Patel all in favor I any oppos this mean stand adjourned