me get a two hours you're good Council vice president oh all right Madam clerk call call the RO 602 call to order 602 and the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands na Madam clerk roll call council member Brasher here council member Co council member Harris here council member Patel here council member Patel here council member pointer pres council member schmuel where was wasted all right so now I just want to take a moment of silence for the passing of David Amada our former employee just retired on December 31st 2023 Madam clerk adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public G act has been provided by n noce stion the home News Tribune Star Ledger Desi talk and in newest India times on member 12th 2023 and post main lobby Municipal complex on that same date thank you madam clerk uh reports from all Count Council committees starting with councilman brusher uh none at this time sir Council mcoy none sir Council vice president yes the cultural arts committee meeting was unfortunately cancelled last night due to the inclement weather waiting for a reschedule date for that I was not present at the reorganization meeting for the library board I was just landing at the airport in Newark when uh they were meeting but I did get the minutes and so at the reorg meeting uh president was uh the elected president again is Patricia Massie and vice president is Sue kase O'Neal secretary Lisa Krauss and Treasurer Fiona me there were the resolutions that included the meeting dates which are generally going to be the second Tuesdays of the month which would be at 7 o'clock here in council chambers um they had a resolution to approve the library auditor for 2024 so suply cloy and Company was approved the resolution to approve the library attorney for 2024 was Brady greenan LLC and that was approved resolution to approve newspapers of records for 2024 of the home News Tribune Star Ledger and the Sentinel those were approved resolution to approve this official Bank 2024 TD Bank was approved resolution to approve administrative salaries for 2024 those were approved and the resolution to approve Clos days and holidays for 20242 uh those dates were approved as well and that's all I have for the library board and the first meeting of the animal shelter is going to take place next Tuesday at the shelter at 12: noon and uh so we look forward to the partnership that we're going to have with the the shelter the shelter employees and uh with Ross litra and uh and and the others so we're we're really looking forward to getting that going I believe that is all I have thank you thank you vice president councilman Patel this time thank you councilman Patel Council pointer thank you council president the deer management uh subcommittee will be having a meeting on Wednesday January 31st here in council chambers at 2 o'clock pm and the Smart City advisory committee will be meeting on Thursday January 25th 7:30 pm here at council chambers thank you council president thank you councilman pointer councilman Sho at this moment thank you thank you um moving on to point of Lights any councilman council members have point of Lights yes council president Council vice president uh first of all we have this coming Saturday at from 1 to 4 I believe it is it's the MLK Day event that's held at minil and all are welcome to attend that particular event um also this coming Saturday over at Haley's harp and pub in matachin is going to be and that's from 12: to 4: I believe is going to be an an it's going to be an event there to donate to the animal shelter so animals will be there for people to view and consider and I believe Haley's harp is going to be donating half its proceeds that during those hours to the animal shelter so that's a really good thing council president Patel mentioned the passing of David Amada yesterday and this is indeed a a big loss and I know this is points of light and this isn't a typical Points of Light type of item but for many people David Amato was a point of light and he worked Faithfully for the township for about 20 years he had just recently retired and sadly died suddenly last night and so we are awaiting the arrangements the information about arrangements for him and uh he will be missed and I want to send sincerest condolences to all his friends which were many and family thank you council president thank you vice president any other Council memb members council president uh actually the passing of DEA is not really point of light but I hold heartedly agree with my Council colleague in fact I'm not only shocked uh but I don't have words uh in fact when I read the email I felt I shouldn't be joining tonight's council meeting I knew day for a long time and have been I celebrated many good moments with him and Lisa uh especially a special friends events uh at mini bille uh he was very energetic positive and always around to help the people I know whether it's a political campaign whether it's a personal health whether it is any event you call and one person you can count was de M he was always there especially for me uh when I called and I again I I don't have a lot of words to here uh but certainly he will be missed rest in peace thank you sir thank you councilman Patel any other council members all right and for me uh I just want to make an announcement about MLK holiday on Monday January 15th the Monday's garbage and recycling will be picked up on Tuesday and January 16th and Tuesday's garbage will be picked up on Wednesday January 17th and Tuesdays and Wednesday's recycling will remain as scheduled I also want to mention that there will be no scheduled Ecco tour this weekend uh but if you are interested in the middle sex Greenway before it was a Greenway it was a railroad the Lehigh Valley Railroad matachin Edison historical so Society is presenting the program Lehigh Valley Railroad across New Jersey by Ralph heis if you're interested in it it'll take place Saturday January 13th at 1 pm. at the first a squad number two on new do moving to administrative agenda from Mayor Sam josi uh there are three notice of appointment uh members to human Relations Committee Rupel Patel and rased Khan also we are adding John sues as a class two member of the planning board term expiring December 31st 25 and appointing Leonard sandeski as class for member of planning board term expiring December 31st 2027 uh moving to the agenda from business administrator 7A resolution authorizing a professional service contract to Bell planning consultant Inc for planning consulting services and to serve acting director administrative officer not to exceed 175k B resolution awarding contract purchase orders to CW CDW government Incorporated through Educational Service Commission of New Jersey Cooperative pricing system for the purchase of various technology supplies and services 50,000 and C resolution authorizing extending contracts with various Township professionals until February 29th 2024 and I will open up for questions any council members okay moving on to eight Department of Finance a resolution authorizing refund in the amount of 487 5885 for the Redemption of tax sale certificate resolution that's fine B resolution authorizing refund for tax overpayment total a 3,294 49 cents C resolution of taxes for authorizing cancellation and refund of taxes for Exempted disabled veterans D resolution approving corrective action plan for 2022 audit e ordinance of Township of Edison cancelling 1,945 74071 cents in B Bond authorization and also the proceeds not needed for original purpose and transferring 671 67132 uh to proceed to Capital fund balance F Bar Bond honness providing for various Capital Improvements in and by Township of Edison um appropriating 7 .9 million uh for and therefore and authorizing the Assurance of 7,505 th000 bonds or notes for the township and G Bond owners providing a various water main system improvements for water utility in by Township of Edison appropriating 9.5 million any questions from the council members actually before we open it up for the questions uh Sonia can you take us through the three bonds and just give a quick summary I mean three ordinances sure um if you'd like I can go in detail in terms of the bond ordinance sure okay so in terms of the bond the second Bond ordinance sorry there's a feedback here um what we're covering in this Bond ordinance is um additional funding for various improvements throughout Public Works our buildings alterations um this is all of our municipal buildings um not just this building in particular um then um there Furniture fixtures equipment uh workstations um as you all know we're working through the animal shelter so we're looking to do some Renovations so this covers a lot of the inhouse work that we're also doing um in public works we have the I'm sorry there's a terrible feedback here um the municipal generator which uh it we've we've had here some issues so we need to redo re Vamp that generator here um we have work in various firehouses um that quite frankly in the last 20 30 years a lot of work has not been done so we're looking to put a lot of investment into that infrastructure of our firehouses um for Public Works we've um as you all mentioned there's some signage that we're working through um so there's about a quarter million just on that um additionally we're looking to redo the Stelton community Center so the breakdown of this um goes to a roof replacement um through some remediation work um I I know councilman brusher did a walkr yesterday so um he saw firsthand some of the work that we were looking to get done in there um as well as create an additional community space for our residents um the other one is for the health department uh we're trying to put out an RFP for architectural firms to put in a design um in that space uh possibly to to go up and create a medical examination room um especially with our partnership with the um Monmouth um SPCA um and then the other additional costs are section 20 cost so what those are for our professionals that do the work our engineering firms Consultants um those costs and as well as our Engineers we can charge for specific projects we can charge um the work that they do out of the section 20 costs so that would um be the remainder of what we put in for 2023 we just had to break it out to two Bond ordinances um because of down payment purposes um now that that's fully funded um and certainly Ken can provide a little more elaboration on terms of the finance component of what we're doing with the bonding um the other Bond ordinance is for for the various um ACO which is the consent order from the DP of work we need to do um for uh water and sewer remediation uh there's a list there that provided to everybody in terms of uh one uh the major one right now is right well one of the major ones is mcginness there is a huge problem our residents in that area are facing with Browning of water and that needs a imediate attention so we're hoping again to present this to the council um we're hoping at a later date that we can put on the other Bond ordinance for the meter uh I know we called it a smart meter but these are um they're smart in a sense where the technology is much different there's uh more of a an immediate reporting that we could provide um you know we're really trying to build our infrastructure this year to elevate it to the point where um we're we're more efficient um in what we do so those are the two those two Bond ordinances um here's the other one the water and the special notes so um I'll have the cancellation for the bond ordinances so you want to just cover that Ken yes so the number e where we're cancelling Bond authorizations these go back to 2001 1 through 2015 and under tax law since we issued tax exemp debt uh we're not we should not have that money sitting around we can't use it uh because the uh authorizations are so old so this is just a matter of housekeeping where we're cleaning up our uh our balance sheet cancelling those out that'll free up more funds into Capital Surplus which we could use in the future for debt reduction or future towards future capital projects thank you Ken thank you Sonia Now open up to the council members for questions anyone have a question yeah council president um vice president not a question but a comment in uh laying out the specifics of the bond ordinance on F I'm very pleased about the bond ordinance for the Stelton the the Stelton center it's about time and I'm pleased about I know these are big big repairs that need to be made but I'm very pleased my understanding is that this is going to go towards a senior a a community center and also a special needs Center uh that part of it is going to be dedicated for special needs what they had originally been talking about moving into the current CLA Barton library but now is going to be there and I think this makes a lot of sense and um I this is a I think the building goes back to 1923 or something like that and uh I'm really glad it's going to be rep purpos I'm actually interested in hearing what councilman brusher found during his walk through yesterday so I'm going to leave it to him to uh to talk about okay uh any other council members that want to make a comment or questions yes Council bresser council president um there's a couple issues the one was the um old Stelton school which I did take a walk through the other day um and we did review where we're going to spend the money but I guess what I'd like the public to know is once we invest this money into the ston community center it's not going to be the place that you're going to go and and go wow I love this this is you know this spectacular um the 3.7 million is basically going to get us a roof it's going to get us some Asus removal it will get us heating and air conditioning so we can acclimate the space and we no longer have like plaster or paint that'll be peeling off the walls um and some minor Renovations so you know with this 3.7 I think this is need it I I think it's something that we need to do to secure the building but I believe that the township needs to invest maybe another couple million dollars after this gets done I I think maybe to bring it up to something we'd say you know I like this um uh business administrator and I I I certainly agree with what your your assessment um what the township has been doing proactively is seeking out grants so we're working on that so we're hoping to get that additional funding to cover the programming aspect of what it is we're trying to do and of course we'll include our seniors on there um as not only with the uh special needs um Community thank you so yes I mean that's just where I was going with it we're making an investment but the investment is just to keep the wheels on the cart kind of thing it's not a new cart that we're getting um and and that'll take a substantial investment in the future but I think once we secure the building um I think that's a good first step and then I think moving forward you know looking at everything I I think we'll come up with a a great plan for that building it's good to see that we're using it now in any way um the other one I had that I wanted to talk about was the the correction the corrective action plan okay and and I've been I've been speaking about things on there for for for some time now and um I get the feeling that that nobody listens okay so there's the couple issues that came out of the auditor's report the one was the insurance right where we don't we don't have enough money to cover the insurance um and that was evident because we needed to borrow a million dollars last year but what the public doesn't realize is the township went to a self insured which is something that they did many years ago I don't know 10 15 years ago and that was great that was a one-term shot in the arm um that allowed the township to probably gain one quarter or eight or10 million in usable Revenue um the problem with that is that if we ever want to change back for whatever that reason is the township will have an eight or10 million doll hole so the township should have this money as the audit report says we should have this in the budget um and it should be there so I'm hoping that that we take part of this we take light of what the auditor said and we see this included in in this year's budget I know last year I did ask that our insurance be increased at the budget because I I had a feeling it wasn't going to cover the other one that's a real sore point for me and is kind of like um you borrowing money to to pay for your food is we have funding that we are supposed to put away for employees sick time vacation time um and personal days and what I've heard is we we have employees and they don't use all their time so the time gets carried forward and they're allowed to carry the time and then when that employee goes to retire the township has to pay them out somewhere around you know $80,000 $110,000 okay and the problem with that is we bond for that so we're bonding for that at the point of millions of dollars a year that we're saddling future taxpayers for for time that was accumulated during my time here so well I've lived in Edison now for for 30 years and a lot of these employees are retiring I never actually got to contribute and make those payments towards them um because the township never carried that money in their budget so what they end up doing is they end up bonding for it at the end of the year which is eight or9 million so when I move or pass away whatever happens um the people that are living in my house now are going to have to pay for those employees for the 30 years prior and and I've been talking about putting this money in there and the last year we talked about putting more money so we could cover it and I was told that we did so um I'm suspecting I'm not going to see another Bond um moving forward would that be correct that is our hope and that's why we funded the operating account versus a capital Bond ordinance okay I'm that one was just for the record you know what I mean um so I appreciate that thank you um oh and on the water um a little pet peeve we have we're investing in water can you tell me that if we approve this bond that our residents will not have brown water after this money is is spent yes that is the infrastructure fix that we're hoping to make with this Bond ordinance very good I just want to make sure we had that covered because I seen pictures on the internet and it and it wasn't flattering um but no that this will take care of that that's that's a good thing that we're invested in the infrastructure so I do appreciate that um that would be a council president thank you you councilman Brer any other council person council president councilman pointer uh just to pigy back off of the the uh water Bond um I think that these are investments that are absolutely necessary particularly mcginness that's the Brown water that council member Brer just mentioned they've been dealing with that for years now now um when I first got on that was one of the first first emails that I actually received as a council member so I'm thrilled that this is back up here to hopefully be able to remediate um their water quality issue that's going on I'm also very happy to see that uh and hopeful that we proceed with the smart hydrants U my understanding is that the proposal is for 18 caps that would be placed on the smart hydrant or on our fire hydrant throughout the township these caps would help monitor water flow of throughout the township so if there's a decrease anywhere uh we would be able to get that detention ahead of time and be able to be proactive versus reactive obviously with it being a fire hydrant aspect um from fire safety you know we want to make sure that our water flow is continuous is at high levels so that in the event of an emergency that we can be uh active and uh situate that so I'm happy to see that this is back on the agenda and I look forward to supporting it thank you council president thank you councilman pointer any other counsel person that wants to make a comment or questions council president I just want to point it for clarification of the 33,000 water customers we have 11,000 approximately does a portion have some brown water not the entire 11,000 customers and I'm happy to see that the streets that they're mitigating will be uh cleaned in um and and fixed so it's a wonderful opportunity thank you thank you councilman Coy uh as for me I actually had a question for Ken for the Self insurance I saw some notes can you go through a bit more for me so respect to the corrective action plan yes yes so we we fund and have been historically funding our self insurance as councilman Brer pointed out it is sufficient to pay current claims M but if we were to terminate that policy and go to a third party like Blue Cross Blue Shield or ETA for health insurance we'll still have liabilities hanging out there from the period that we self insured that will still need to be paid and that could be as high as $5 million to $10 million we don't know the exact amount but it's more than1 or two million so that's the challenge that we have and that's why the Auditors continue to fund it so in the past C in past years uh that's been an item in the budget that was easy to cut uh and so we've been on this slippery slope of not having sufficient funding this has been going on for years so with Administration we've been attempting in the budget to increase the funding we in 2023 we had the largest increase in funding for that and we're hoping to do the same in the 2024 budget okay all right and then in terms of hold on so for the smart hydrant I agree with councilman pointer I agree this is a safety issue uh we want to make sure that when the firefighters get to the hydrant they want to they want to know that there's going to be water there to fight the fire and not find out at the moment that there's not enough pressure or the water that is not there and definitely we need to take care of the Brown water situation and I agree with Council and rusher that uh you know this a good start to the Stelton Community Center but as Sonia said we need to put more grants and fundings and I think we will get there it'll just take time all good things does take time so thank you for that now moving on to number nine from the Department of planning and Engineering uh a resolution to rele well I'm not going to read all this I'm just going to say I a through I any questions on a through I or any comments from Council this is for nine yeah 9 a through I um yes I have two um what's going on with all the trucks I see we have the SUVs on I but I noticed throughout we're we're rejecting bids so uh the that question was answered in the emails it was thing asked by councilman pointer hold on let me find it the public safety Vehicles were purchased through another Co-op and this was approved by council at the meeting in December and the other vehicles were rejected since the township will begin purchasing hybrid vehicles for non-emergency Personnel so that's why they're essentially changing the scope okay all right and we had the change order for the tote Center and I see that this is a um an oil tank that was removed mhm but we never did the paperwork to remove an oil tank so like when I when I have to do it right I have to take out a permit and I have to go through testing and everything else so the township did it and we just took it out of the ground we didn't do any testing of the the site or anything and my question is who would be responsible for that and who did that I will so if I may I did provide the copy of the permitting that was done back in 2020 M um so that would have been something then I don't have an answer for you in terms of why they may have that may not have been done however the permitting was done um there was a uh certification um for the removal that was done um however when we started to do the construction and we were doing our due diligence this was obviously one of the the The Little Speed bumps I would call call that we are dealing with um but it is not hindering the project from moving forward well I guess I guess here's here's where my concern is we removed an oil tank I'm going to say that we did it legally and correctly um I I don't find anyone to want to do illegal things so then that would leave me to believe that we couldn't find the paperwork you know for the monitoring or whatever else we needed to do or the sampling of the soil so so either somebody lost paperwork right and and we need to kind of fix that hold that person accountable or that department and come up with a plan that we don't lose records anymore or the testing and all this was never done in which case again somebody else should be held accountable and I mean either way it's going to cost us right I mean because we need it done I and I do I do understand that my my question is is that to me a mistake was made somewhere here and who made the mistake and and what as a business administrator what are you doing to implement something that things like this don't happen whether whether it's procedures aren't being followed or whether they're lost records you know what I mean e either one so if you can get to the bottom of that and give us an update on that before next meeting maybe sure I mean I can certainly explain to you I think part of the process and that we're correcting and the way in which we found this is doing a d our due diligence when we're embarking on projects so having discovered this this is this is part of the implementation process doing our due diligence making sure that we're serving the property so that is much more of what we're implementing in this Administration again I can't speak to what was done in 2020 the permitting was done the paperwork uh was completed for the per permitting uh part of it however I can't speak to the follow-up but we're certainly making sure we're doing the right thing um to having that building back up and running um you know hopefully by the end of the year so okay I guess where I'm going with it is um I think this happened three years ago correct I don't want to go too back and forth on this if anything we can take this offline well well all I'm looking for is to find out who is responsible and what's their plan moving forward if there is someone that needs to be held responsible Sonia please email councilman brusher in regards to it thank you all right council president when when so you're telling me that nobody there's a possibility no one could be responsible I'm not sure but I said if there is someone I you're assuming that there is well I'm saying right either I want back and forth on this that's all I'm saying you don't have to do back and forth but what I'm just you have any other questions uh on this I'm sorry no nothing there any other council members with any questions or any comments okay all right moving forward to 10 from Department of Public Works there's only one resolution accepting bid and awarding a contract to site one landscape supply for grounds material any questions or comments seeing none um council president yes Council Brer yes this is um this is just for us to buy more landscape material right but only the material that was shown on that bid sheet like there were let's say 300 items but they only actually gave us bids on I think it was maybe like 30 items yeah I don't think they bit on everything from I I understand right Sonia yes the bid summary sheet you'll see there the quantities included in that is the uh either a pickup or delivery but that was no bid so that that that wouldn't be included in there but um part of that is the top soil mulch things that we do throughout the township okay so it's just the stuff that's listed that we have dollar amounts on not all the other items that they were asked to bid okay thank you all right number 11 from counc sorry about that my apologies I do have a question on uh u a for the ground materials at the end of the bid there was a note that said 20% off the list price is does that occur after the fact or is the pricing that was on there already the 20% reduction I'll have to follow up for you on that thank you okay um moving on to number 11 from the chief of fire a resolution rejecting public bid 23130 midsize pickup truck any questions or comment yes council president and I'm going to be asking this about 12 as well is this also about moving to hybrid or electric vehicle vles is that why these bids were rejected um so on the fire and the police side uh those were done purchased through a co-op so that's why they're being rejected um for the plan planning and Engineering those were part of the hybrid um turnover that we're looking to do but these were actually purchased through a co-op oh okay all right thank you uh moving on to 12 from Chief of Police very similar a resolution rejecting public bid 23201 police pursuit rated vehicles any questions or comments seeing none moving on to 13 from the Township Clerk resolution appointing council member John pointer to the planning board class three member term expiring December 31st 2024 any questions or comments council president councilman fatel and I'm very happy to see that uh councilman poiner is going to the planning board because he's very thorough in uh analyzing every single case and I'm I'm very hopeful that this Council will be able to learn many more things in detail about every single case again thank you thank you for appointing him thank you councilman Patel yes Council vice president just want to say I'm delighted with that appointment thank you council president council president I just want to make sure we allow moving the time for his report for it from 90 seconds to two full minutes because I I don't want him you know I feel two minutes he'd be happy with I councilman brusher um yes council president I I normally don't agree with my Council colleague but um councilman poter I think is a little too thorough um which makes our meetings go a little too late but beyond that I I have a question and I've asked this before and never got an answer um this body this Council we have authority over the zoning board and the mayor has authority over the planning board is that correct then why do we send somebody to the planning board since it's not one of our boards like it would wouldn't it make more sense to send somebody to the zoning board would you volunteer yourself no absolutely not I'm just I I I just I asked this before and and no one oh okay I will let Hank answer that oh there is it's a statute good evening under the state statute 40 colon 55d I think it's 23 talks about it talks about the U membership of the planning board there's four classifications class one is the mayor or his design class two is a Municipal Employee you get to appoint every year I think it was John suus for tonight uh class three is a council member from the council and the council appoints its member to the planning board and then count class four are all the regular members the public they're allowed to be chair people they're up to fouryear terms and then there's two one- year appointments they're all done by the mayor I think he just sends it out here as a courtesy there his appointments the only appointment to the planning board that you have is your own member and then you do have complete control over the zoning board under the statute and there's nothing in the statute says we send anyone to the zoning board right you send everybody to the zoning board oh okay well you pick the members there's no council member that goes to the Z board that's your question now because we send everybody there you send everybody there okay there your representatives it makes yes makes very good sense 1975 was the the law put in place so you know all right thank you very much that' be a council president all right and for me I am very glad that councilman pointer has decided to take this up he was my guide last year and he does a much better job than I ever could so thank you very much for that council president uh if I can just make a quick comment one of my presuming I this uh gets approved one of my New Year's resolutions was for a more concise report this upcoming year so okay that that's a goal can't guarantee it will happen but you know New Year's resolution never actually followed through no one follows through on those but either way let's uh take a do we take a roll for okay okay uh moving on from the council member to the planning board that will be me so this is my last report uh because I didn't do it last time I'm just going to quickly read it through it wasn't very interesting uh we moved just Nation case P22 d222 to January 29th uh case number p16 2022 was also carried to January 29th uh we amended the chapter 37 zoning by creating a new RC Zone which we sent from here and it was passed with no name all Yes uh old business uh p1222 75 Carter Drive Edison LLC the applicant went seeking final site approval with restriping of the existing parking lot uh this was this was uh motioned uh to pass and new business none of them was heard because we did not have a court stenographer and the case p523 Richard place is being carried to January 29th case p8 779 New Durham is being carried to uh January 29th and case p19 2023 is also being carried 2020 uh to January 29th 2024 and that will be my last planning board report once John takes over um all right so now we have the discussion items first uh I will open up to councilman brusher I see three yes um I have two more items that that are added um one is I I'd like to just formally say to um d a m and his family and his friends um you know that I give you my condolences I knew Dave um very nice individual um it was very saddening to to hear what happened um the other day so I just wanted to put that out there um the other was you know I I know all over the news we had these things about immigrants and everything else and I know that um this Council has brought up to the Administration over the last two years about people coming here um but my my question is I believe that law enforcement is not allowed to ask any individual about their status whether they're illegal immigrants or or they're they aren't um I'd like to see if the chief can you know tell me whether that's true or not even good evening everybody um yes councilman so unfortunately in regards to dealing with uh a potential immigrant situation our hands are tied in a lot of regards in questions that we can or can't ask of someone um and so yes to answer your question the answer is yes for that okay and and you know that came up because to me what happened here over the last week was call it politics I I don't know it was it was to me our mayor wanted to end up in the newspaper and and and that's what he did but by law we can't go around asking people getting off a bus whether they're illegal immigrants um because the Attorney General gave guidelines to that and then for us to put him on a bus and ship them somewhere else he would need approval by by the body to spend the money so to me that that just seemed like a whole political thing to get name recognition um and that's that's my opinion the next thing I'd like to talk about are the um uh the ward system um the residents have talked about this for a while and the question came up whether the council could put the ward system on the ballot and leave it up to the voters to decide and if this council could do we get to decide whether it's a November election or a June election or an April election um so that question would be to our attorney I'm not entirely certain how to set that up um if if you to reached out to me I probably could have looked into it before right now uh but I'm happy to look into that get back to you about EX L what your responsibility from the council's perspective is in introducing that and seeing if it it can go to a vote right because you want to change the you want to change the the designations within the township right if I understand correctly that yes that's correct um to like a ward system where you would expand it or whatever that might be but um I know that by petition we can do it but I'm wondering what that takes um for this body because when we did the last water um sew thing you know it was the people that went and did it um which didn't didn't bode well for um sitting elected officials at the time and I I think this body should have the same opportunity with the Ws as as was given with the sewers um so if you can just get back to me on that one certainly the other was um I've been asking about um I call it a dump in in the email that came back to me it said landfill so I I I guess we can differ on the word but I'm looking for the reports over the last few years because we have to do monitoring on there and and things of that nature and I know that it was said that you know engineering went out to go look at it or something or or or is reviewing it but I'm looking for these documents on this if I may council president Sonia go um currently we don't have a report um what happened is again this is a a prior um issue before obviously it's a decade issue as you all know with the landfill en closure um what we did was pick it back up because there's some grant money tied to it to the land closure uh to the landfill closure rather um we're we did a walkth through with d it's still being looked at our engineering we did um if you recall back late last year we put an RFP out for Engineering Services for the landfill we're working with that professional um so it's going to take a little bit of time to get that to you obviously it'll go back to this body for any approval of uh remediation funding spending of funds things of that nature so right now I do not have a report for you okay could you go to that engineering firm right ask them when they started and have them send you a list of whatever documents they might have to date and and I'll tell you where I where I go with that this this was part of a conversation I guess we had about the Jets field um called it's really a follow-up is what it is um by me asking and then producing documents I know then they're going to be working on it cuz six months from now we we can look at those documents compared to the documents from six months from now so it's really a follow-up type thing [Music] um [Music] there okay the other one I forgot just forgot I'm sorry the here's another one I'm looking to get information on because I don't understand uh we have Hank who can answer some questions on the landfill okay councilman good evening um we uh I walked the the landfill recently with the new consultant along with our engineer um and the people from um from d and there's it's it's a very troubling site so that's U that's going to be of U a pressing matter for the for the council in the months to come as far as the department goes I have several boxes of things that I've inventoried uh that were just stacked up in the office so we have all that stuff if you want to come up and spend an hour we can go through all that paperwork it's very difficult to see what you're looking for as far as new reports we haven't generated any of those yet we will moving forward because son has um mandated that we get this stuff rolling again so we protect the money that we got from the uh from the state to do the do the uh closure closure work um it's my understanding that there's a substantial amount of money that's been held in escrow over the years so that we can start doing that work but it's going to be substantial but again we I've just got done inventorying the boxes of all the old reports and things that we have some of the stuff is outdated but you're certainly welcome to come up and see any any of that we can arrange that for you at any time all right I I'll give you a call to set that up just so I can go through that um but yeah if we can get an an update from the engineer and and if he has absolutely absolutely nothing and he's done nothing that that's an okay answer no he's already they've already reached out to Trenton they already know the the limits of the um of the landfill itself I think we we go past our limits so there's some issues there um there's some old old stuff that they dug out from the state so we we are working on it and and uh they haven't really issued a report yet we only had one meeting out in the field and it's only about 30 days so um and it was very cold the last day I was out there so but we are working on it you can certainly come up and we can have that for you right I'm just look to do the followup because I noticed that that's when the ball gets dropped because we don't do followup it's in my lap now and I don't plan on dropping the ball all right thank you um thank you Hank and then I have this last item which I don't really understand I hope our attorney can can maybe help or or the business administrator so I became aware that we have money that goes into a trust account that is supposed to be spent to to help with our lowincome obligations is is what I'm going to say and I I did get reports that showed that we spent money right and and this body knows that we did because we approved closing costs for people or a down payment for people so we do know that that some money has been spent but I'd like to know who decides who gets this money who the people are are the the names of the people I'd like to know if they receive any kind of compensation or if anybody within the organization receives any compensation or they pay rents or or any type of expenses because let's say there was $12 million $2 million got spent like inhouse so I'm looking for what we spent that 2 million on over this time and yeah it's really like the spending of the money and the people that are in charge of this and who makes those decisions with within the township of Edison right like I know that we give it to four or five different groups right and and they spend it appropriately because they come to us and they say this is what we're going to spend it for but but who's actually looking at all of this and and doing this so I think the question is who's the authority that decides this so um under this body we go to you when you approve the affordable housing budget um that's one of the component of it the other component is that we have a um cgp which is uh Community grants planning and housing uh they're all over the state uh quite frankly so they administer the program itself um as as I'd given to the council president to distribute to all of you there is a maximum income limit qualification there's a table here that would then qualify a an household to to that um would determine exactly ly what amount they would be receiving um there's a list it's a fairly large list I'm there's a waiting list um and again there's a list of qualifications that I'd sent over as as far as how the administrator of this would work and that's cgpn how the administration right that that's I guess what I'm looking for is is somebody somebody authorizes this These funds to come to us so somebody takes all these applications from these different groups right and somehow it goes from those people in their applications to this body that votes yes or no on it and I'm wondering what that is like who are those people who makes those decisions um you said it was a group from the state but they've spent $2 million of that money so I'm wondering what exactly they spent the $2 million on because the 2 million isn't on lwi income or affordability you know it's not us giving someone 100 Grand I think it was um it it looks like the cost to run their organization um no the report that you did receive is for actually costs related to people the people that are applying for this for example um there's um outside of the planning Services obviously there's um the down payments the closings as you mentioned um then there's uh reimbursements generators um there're also infrastructure there are also residential um construction things that related to this program that they can apply for so the so the 2 Mayon that was spent was spent by this body that we approved to make these improvements or water heaters for example is another one but but there's 10 million that's still left in untouched i' I'd have to get that uh finite number for you but again it's ever changing so I I can give you an update of the affordable housing account right and I'll tell you where I'm going with it I know that very shortly our our co- obligations are going to become due and I don't know I don't know that we're spending this money um wisely or maybe we can come up with a plan on on how to spend this money that helps best achieve our our COA obligation um I will certainly say that we are following what our COA obligation is and that's why um these do come to the council for approval to make sure that we're meeting our obligations so I can certainly provide to you what was approved by this body for the spending so there's there's a breakdown in terms of not only um what what I'll tell you where my thought was okay so we're giving somebody $100,000 so they can put it down on a down payment on a house right and then they end up getting a house $100,000 less than everybody but they're low income and that's what we do and I'm going if we keep on doing this with $10 million how many people are we helping right are we helping a h 100,000 so that's 10 we're going to help 100 people and that would be the the bottom line of it to me there might be other ways to do this where as opposed to us allowing a developer to build an additional 50 condos could we not give him the 50 condos but give him money in this fund towards the Kaa so that some of his existing are you know are used so we don't have to um so we don't end up with a Camelot like we have over in um Clara Barton where there's a couple hundred units built you know we could probably have cut that down if we would have use that money to help with the new apartments or whatever are getting built um because what happens is they end up going to court and they say we have a CO obligation so they get approval to build all these town townh houses condos and the Court gives it to them because we're not compliant with our COA um no we're fully compliant with COA I mean I can certainly have Hank come up who um oversees part of this council president just point of order this and I appreciate uh Council bresser's interest in this and I and this is a wonderful subject this is a deep subject yeah I think this is a and I and I think he's on to a good he's on to a very Gooden but it's a it's a deep dive he can you quickly take us through core obligations and yes the townships we're in our third round and we are in comp we are in comp ciance we have to provide the units under Mount Laurel or COA now um the town is responsible for the units not the developer so what they what we developed a long long time ago was the builder remedy which gave them the five and so you got four regular and then then 20% was set aside 10% low 10% mod that's how that all came about um the last settlement in the town gave us a huge number because everybody got a huge number in New Jersey real quickly um the new number is going to come out again in in 2025 and if you've been watching the legislature they're planning on having a new U maybe changing the law to make it a little more reasonable in terms of how they come up with these numbers for what the responsibility of the community you know is um they're anticipated number of 224,000 units just of low and moderate units have to be provided in New Jersey well that's only 20% of the number where you going to put all those houses so they know they have a problem and it's they're they're working on it and I believe the fund that you're talking about is around $8 million that we have put away for but it's it it's it's all part part of the spending package that has to get approved by the planning board and by the council and prior councils have approved that plan um I don't know all the particulars on how what money's being sent where I can certainly we can meet and talk about that as well and I can get you that information as well does that help you um kind of I mean no one else seems to have even known that it existed uh um and far as Council people that I know no one told me they knew that this the last settlement was done in the last Administration um Mr North was the attorney right I mean my concern is that we have or10 million right we're spending for this and no one really knows anything we haven't been spending it though on that we've been what happens is the developer comes in when he gets his number we get our we get our credits that's what we're looking for is our credits um there's all kinds of ways of in the old days of spending that money you could you could uh help Revitalize older houses at their income levels are the right levels but then we place a 30-year um U deed restriction on their property people don't like to do that and then it account for affordable housing the other issue that we're going to face soon is that the first round of housing that was about 30 years ago and those units now are going to go back up on regular units they lose that protection for low and income so that's why the state has to start looking at this thing so we kind of keep helping folk so there's a lot to it all right I'll spend yeah spend time more time with you I've been involved I was I was involved in the very first exclusionary law suit New Jersey was called Oakwood versus Madison when I was a very young planner and then Mount Laurel was filed 6 months after that that so I've been involved in this for a very long time so I will certainly help in sit and explain thank you sir right sir thank you Hank thank you council president thank you councilman BR uh moving on to councilman Coyle thank you council president uh I also will attend uh with Council brusher when that day happens um I just wanted to report just uh briefly on our store management with the DPW uh I think we did since I'm thankful we didn't have a crazy snowstorm but I can say we were certainly prepared and I had a chance to have a discussion with the director and he had his staff on standby and I I think if anybody's out there misunderstood of where and when we're going to make our move um the weather throttles with wind throughout the town I mean I was on amby we had snow but in South Edison we didn't have any snow uh so I'm happy that our director and his staff you know sits back thoroughly to figure out when to dispatch and uh um there's a lot of risk versus staff and sometimes you just have to put wheels on the ground not knowing what the forecast can be in the next hour but I am grateful for what we do have in place and I think we're well covered in Edison when it comes to storm management uh and also as far as the rain storm we had I was happy to speak to our chief to see how we were well prepared with generators and any type of outages and uh things set forth so again I think Edis is in a good position when and if there's a situ situation for our seniors any buildings that need to be um up and running so good to hear on that um I have other items that can wait till the next council meeting so that's all I have council president thank you councilman Coyle moving on to council wice president none sir and moving on to councilman P thank you council president um I will run through the list uh to council president to administrator uh just want a confirmation that the first two especially the Baltic Avenue very short run and fishal road which is around the I think there is a creek that goes down the DPW was helpful to do some Poole repairs uh we appreciated that but that road really needs uh to be taken care so if you can please confirm that they will go in this year's resurfacing plan that would be helpful number three or C the speed limit signs I'm bringing this up uh meeting or meetings I think uh either attorney if you don't mind sending a letter to uh County uh because this is a County Road uh you know they need to do the traffic study and look at you know where those signs are missing uh I think few meetings ago Mr stoal did pull me out and said the speed limit is 35 miles an hour but if you go anytime on o Road the cars and trucks are probably going more than 45 50 55 miles an hour and it's very dangerous especially when signs are not there people do take the advantage the next one is Kilmer Road striping I would like to get the status and this is especially on the uh there is a signal uh close to the parking lot and from actually right from the post office going towards uh like coming towards Edison uh coming inside the Edison or coming towards the plan Field Avenue it's wide open road it's very hard to find out who is going left who's going right because that's the street line says stop here but there are two lines and there is no striping there and this is Not Just Happening Now this has been there for decades so but this needs to be resolv so if you can sure have someone to look at that please uh F Heaven speed hum sign that was a redundance sign there do we know it was taken out it was yes perfect thank you uh there a one sign that was left 35 M an hour between Adam Street a and Edison Avenue I hope that was also taken out or that's still pending are you looking for the removal of that sign yeah that's only one sign that is WR that's also uh left out there okay I will follow up with that thank you uh in man raway this corner tree Ro removal I know the uh you work with PSG to remove cut the branches all that was done and this was all set to be removed uh do we know the ET would um so there there was a we did go out there and begin to remove it again however we do need a lot more um public safety personnel around it because of the area so we're going to go back out there we did start removing it earlier this week thank you I appreciate that uh Maplewood Avenue embow Avenue I saw some comment on council president detail it says the stop sign is there I think you know that road also needs to be repaved uh it is not recommended to put the crossing there but unfortunately there is a burst of right on amb Avenue and kids needs to cross so we definitely need the uh the striping there but and also we need potentially uh the flashing light or some sort of a mechanism uh when students are you know moving from one place to another place um I know the solar power flashing light uh you know they are ordered some of those I think you know we it will be good idea to start at least doing the pilot but there are various sections throughout the town uh schools or the high city areas the traffic areas again you know the I'll be happy to send the details of all the intersection that I feel but if the Traffic Unit goes out and identifies at least for the first pilot and then we can go to the capital ordinance Etc to roll out that full-blown project will be helpful traffic lights at duraman Brotherhood uh this is something I know this is not just an Edition it will also invold other towns so at least if we can start the conversation with the other towns and see uh if they would like to come forward and collaborate and possibly you know work with the county to see if we can get some help from there but this is very very dangerous intersection the another item the properties they were demolished by Township I believe that it happened in last couple of years uh do we know the cost and what's the current status there I see couple of properties on oakry road I believe we demolish one on 27 as part as my knowledge goes but do we know what the status like are we doing Redevelopment there or are we handing war or what's happening there um still working on that list for you in terms of the demolished list correct yeah okay and the cost that we incur and the cost right thank you the condemn property I believe there was an attorney from the other party uh startech he came in and appeal was made to this Council not to condemn the property but the council still went ahead and and condemn that property I don't know in fact the resolution was sent to the planning board H you might have more details but do we know what happened to that like so there are several uh parts of the process of the condemnation which you've also received we've come to the council resolution condemnation with Redevelopment so in some of those processes is that we've been working with the actual owners of the properties to do that for example I know planfield in route 27's been a big one so we've been working with the owner there um so if there were specific ones that um you have I'd certainly look into those specific ones but they're just all in different levels of between legal and process that I can certainly then provide that level of detail for you I was very specifically looking at that route 27 and pl field so that one in specific we're working with the uh owner owner okay thank you my next one is HOA reimbursements um do we because I you know people did reach out to me and they say they did not receive especially for 2023 do we know how many years it's spending so I'm still trying to gather the number for 2022 and 2023 um specific with the recent Hannah work um I know there was correspondence between our attorneys and their attorneys with regard to uh reimbursement and status of the work okay uh the next one actually it was my typo it's not the mayor's executive order it is mayor's executive decision that relates to Water and Sewer this again goes back to the HOAs uh can we get the details because we are operating with an ordinance which states something than what mayor has taken the decision like Hana Road is a perfect example right not going into the private properties and not serving those private properties uh and I have the email chain that says that you know it is mayor's executive decisions which is okay you know mayor is can't take any uh can take the executive decision but we still need to either amend the ordinance or may has to release the executive order just on the email will not work okay um the to answer your question and I'm sorry if it were um there was no executive order was uh policy with regard to um private property so that could be a private residence or or an HOA um the township wouldn't necessarily go in there and start fixing a private residents in the same aspect that in this case there was an emergency uh it was a health uh safety issue so the township did go in there after as you know several attempts that there were issues that nothing was being done wanted to make sure that the residents were safe it was getting cold we didn't want any any ice situation to occur so we went in there did the repairs and that did get built into um the HOA no I I understand you know uh what happened there but my question is there is the policy that is adopted is that documented and is that circulated because that has a impact on the our current ordinance that policy itself um is separate from the ordinance is what it is it's in terms of like the work that we can do up to the curve that that is separate so it's pretty clear in terms of the work um so what we're not doing is working into private residents so it's still in compliance with the ordinance I would highly doubtful I will have our attorney to really take a deep dive and understand the way the ordinance is written versus how it is uh interpreted by the residents and how the policy the new policy not to serve the private Community impacts it's not just a Hana Road now we are looking at the blueberry Cod raspberry code rendel Hana Road uh Aspen Manor you name it wherever our Edison water U is there so it will be be probably better for us to make sure that our ordinance is in compliance with our policy understood yeah thank you the next one is fire hydrant I know uh Chief to uh he was working on uh finding out how many fire hydrants uh that are under the Edison water utilities perview uh and how many of them are in compliance they are not in compliance because this is again a safety issue uh but I don't see him but you know maybe next council meeting uh if we can get an update from him he was close on getting the inventory but I don't know once we have the inventory uh we need to have the fire department go there and make sure that those fire hydrants are checked to make sure they are working if they're in private properties and if they are needed to be handed over or uh ask as to be asked by those associations or H to be maintain we need to make sure that we do that proper handle yes um so in terms of the HOA it is it's on private property they're responsible for it um we we did start compiling that list um so um we're you're looking for a list I'm looking for the list and I'm looking uh for the comp making sure that all the fire Hants are working regardless you know who is supposed to maintain because if there is a fire then ultimately our fire uh employees will go there and we don't want their life to be at risk there's currently one that's not working that's being worked on by the water department that's on Washington okay so that's the one that we're aware of that is not working okay uh next one is I'm chasing this probably though this will be fourth fifth year this cber Stevenville project uh some Street and gr was added later on but let me start with the first the engineering study this has all completed uh by CME and was supposed to be handed over to our current engineering company and then probably Capital project would have taken care of that but every single time we go back and forth you know there is a different message can we get the precise update saying where we stand did we receive the Handover from CME or we did not receive or we need to restart there what's the status because we I remember we spend more than couple of million dollar in that study that that project has been picked up um as of a couple weeks ago so right now what we're trying to do is just update the DP regulations to make sure nothing changed uh from the last proposal so our Department's picking that project back up perfect so we have all the documentation everything is there yes we just need to make sure we're in compliance with theep uh any update on Summer Street and gr Avenue flooding or that still needs to be worked out because last year I was told that we'll have the engineering study started on these two areas I will follow up on that one thank you appreciate that the next one is bicycle path repair there are still many areas uh again the reason I'm bringing this up is uh it it's not a good time to fix but you know we probably will start the paving program very soon and maybe we'll have to start looking at you know some of these areas as well Patel do you specific like the engineering were asking for specific locations so if you can provide that for us thank you sounds good uh number of new streets paved in 2023 I think this was discussed there was not nothing was done right because of the fund was approved late or something happened there um right so that list is being finalized because we're work we have two working lists and we're making sure that they're um meshing together obviously between you know areas and things like that so um we're just finalizing those two lists the plants are closed right now uh we need to have three consistent days about 44 degree weather um so without that we can't do anything at this moment so usually about March is when they start to reopen um but uh we we've done a lot of the engineering if not most actually the engineering the field work so we're going to be up and running to go um by then that's my understanding was we are ready to set go but then I think there was a little Delay from the council side getting the uh the bond approved the $20 million Bond that's where this one of the the line atom was there correct uh and again the weather and all that but hopefully know this will be picked up in by March uh next one again this is we have so many streets open whether it's a plane field whether it's embo or so many streets and I don't know these utility companies and what our policy is that they should be restoring all the roads to the original condition and I don't see that's happening you know the the work is done on plane field they left road is still bad and you I see the same thing and I'm pretty sure you know rest of the town has a similar situation the thing is you know we need to find out did we release their escrow payment Road opening escrow payment um I will follow up with regards to the list and the escrow payment um um the one on planfield road I have been communicating uh directly with the county so they won't do anything until um it is obviously the weather picks up that was one of the big things uh the last one this was my request to remove the township seal from the floor but again that may be me I don't know what other council members feel there uh but I would prefer the seal the original wooden seal to go back so sure so I just I I just just um for purposes of the well the seal on the floor um we' done a a bunch of background in terms of seals and them being on the floor we look throughout several other towns um not just here locally but Nationwide and um they've been on the floor I understand your your your position in terms of the um standing on the seal um but the seal we we did a quite a bit of research and that usually a seal would be on the floor I mean I myself my University we did it we had one you just don't walk on on it it's like a curse right uh but the one in the back is on order so that um I will make sure we get an ETA I know it's been quite a bit so I understand your frustration so I'll make sure that we're on that thank you thank you sir thank you councilman pill councilman pointer thank you council president uh I will start with my comment first I'm going to uh not speak about the forry management plan um I'm thinking that it's a new year I was thinking about types of initiatives that we could look to uh deploy this year many people are familiar with the state run adopta Highway program for Road adoptions allowing individuals and entities to sponsor cleanups and beautification initiatives numerous municipalities offer similar programs at the local level one need not look further than neighboring South planfield for an example of an accomplished program my request tonight is for Edison Township to develop a similar program to deploy in the near future now I realize this is not a foreign concept residents can utilize the clean communities program to organize cleanups however those are more Standalone events as opposed to annual sponsorships also chapter 23 of the municipal code is the townships adopt in area ordinance however this seems geared towards Landscaping businesses instead of residents or Community groups my focus is to create a more resident small business or community group friendly program to increase engagement with people wanting to beautify our Township my request to the administration is as follows one if not already done develop a formal application process for adopto spot agreements two if one is already in place increase promotion of the program for more awareness and three if our code needs to be modified to allow for this type of initiative to thrive let Council know so the those modif ifications can happen I do want to mention the clean communities program for anyone interested in organizing a cleanup this year this program provides equipment such as gloves trash Grabbers and bags to people to perform the cleanups as well as financial compensation based on how much is actually collected if you are interested in organizing cleanup you can contact either the department of health or the Edison environmental commission for additional information increase engagement towards beautifying our Township offers numerous benefits to our community and I look forward to expanding on these efforts in regards to a couple status updates those are the remaining items uh first thank you to the administration for getting back to me um updating on these items the first item for the community energy aggregate program I know that in up some information is still being waited on so get an update on that unless you have anything sure um we did meet with the firm last year um to make sure that we're in compliance so um we're looking to pick that back up um this year so I know sustainable Jersey has been a big thing for us too so and that's an equal component to it so I look forward to seeing that implemented uh it's often asked about Old Post Road and Boulevard of eagles the crosswalk there uh I was advised that engineering has reviewed the project deemed it would be acceptable for light Beacon flashing light system engineering and construction costs associated with this project are figured to be part of the 2024 budget so once the budget comes uh I will revisit this topic Jackson Avenue uh last year the council approved for application of a grant to widen the road of Jackson Avenue among other items I was advised that an update request was sent to the grant writer and once the response is received I would get that update Grove a venue speed limit study uh last year we had done the ordinance to reduce a portion of Grove Avenue from 35 miles down to 25 miles uh Lieutenant Turner advised the Traffic Unit met with residents of the area to discuss potentially having the 25 M per hour span entire Grove Avenue uh an item of concern to this expansion would was potential furthering of grid lock uh it was mentioned a recent traffic study was done indicating that minimal speeding was happening so right now we're currently in uh in weight on that and the last item in regards to the uh sewer system repair slaco I spoke with our Department of Water and Sewer director Mr Smith uh he advised that things are still in the works uh however we have been submitting the reports that we've had to submit they've had inspections done and everything is uh still in in line with the ACL that would be the end of uh my items council president thank you very much thank you Council pointer council member sh yes thank you thank you council president uh real quick I just um just want to talk about what uh councilman brusher said about the co and the affordable housing I think uh it is a broader subject that we need a few more hours to discuss but uh I would like to join you um and meet with our town planner uh Hank mcnell and our new appointed um uh councilman on the planning board look at the master plan and see how we could alleviate some of the issues that may come up with Co and affordable housing uh in the future and what the Edison master plan looks like uh with regards to that thank you counc shamuel uh as for me I just wanted to follow up on the sidewalk issue with the attorney sure uh last week we were here I know councilman Brasher had asked um about I think it was councilman Brer had asked about the the possibility of imposing uh requirements uh in a essentially a committee person came up and they had an idea of whenever we do a a sale of the house yeah put it so that that aspect alone uh doesn't look like it would fly under the the mlul um essentially if a house or other uh building has been constructed according to the zoning codes at the time and according to um approval by the planning board whatever it is and that didn't include a sidewalk you're not going to take away the certificate occupancy based upon changes to that however um this part I know councilman BR did bring up uh the fund uh that you may have collected from uh developers or from Builders or from homeowners themselves for application towards that uh that can be used there's a a procedure under chapter 19 in the Township Code that lays out how sidewalks can get constructed uh and it has references to the local improvements law under title 40 uh where by ordinance the township can do uh um improvements roadway improvements sidewalk improvements construction of those sidewalks and depending on depending on how you want to go about it it can be charged wholly to the property owner uh it could be split between the property owner and the township for them to pay a percentage it can be done completely by the township it can also require that the homeowner do it themselves and then the township come in afterwards if they refuse to do so there's advantages to all of those um approaches and there's disadvantage to you have the homeowner Jo himself you get a whole street of six different contractors coming in and doing it in different ways or doing it with with different materials that's potentially problematic um aside from that there's also having developers do it as part of putting in uh whatever it is that they're building if they're building a shopping center and you want them to contribute to constructing a sidewalk through the neighborhood that's adjacent to it they can be as part of that development a portion of that cost can be assigned to them because they benefit from it so if you have uh any specific questions about how to get it done happy to address that now or we can address it later if someone wants to to reach out I can put together a memo depending on how you want to approach it in what areas you're talking about because the the ordinance uh the township ordinance itself does lay out in a list of priorities um I think it's a study that was I think done in 2005 that has a list of Township priorities I don't know how up toate that study is I think that might have be a conversation that we'd have to have with with Mr bnell um but it also has the director of Public Works involved in making those determinations if that's something that the township wants to do and expand upon usable sidewalk area so uh it's more than a f minute conversation it's it's more of a long-term plan for how you want to approach so I think the first step I believe will be to first get an idea of how many sidewalks are we missing uh so is there a way we can get a sidewalk study done and how long would that take Sonia Sonia there should be one that was done that we can use as a basis for comparison because it might be horribly out of date um it might be relatively accurate at this point depending on on what's been done over the last 15 years um so that would be I think step one would be okay so let's do this uh let's for the next meeting can we have that uh study and for Mr Burns can you provide us with a memo as all our options as you said you know we could do this this this I I've started uh I've started one I've got the draft here with me but until I talked to you I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly where you wanted me to focus if you want me to lay out the options yeah lay out the options and I'll let the council decide will be the right approach and uh moving on uh I have some good news on the economic developer uh we did put uh opened up a position and put out a fer so we're hoping to have an economic developer for the township uh just like major towns around us so that's good news and that's it for me in terms of discussion items council president yes just want to add one more line item for sure I'm sorry I missed that uh while I was talking about the the drainage stuff or the flooding area uh with the last rain we saw the grow Avenue and jp1 entrance the school has to close so if you can please add the engineering study uh of drainage system of gr Avenue and jp1 entrance it's very important part thank you Council pres okay thank you councilman Patel in terms of uh president remark uh there is something I wanted to try so let me bring that out so this year my objective is to reduce our meeting durations from four to 5 hours to maybe just two and to achieve this I plan to ruce some changes and monitor their effectiveness if we successfully shorten the meeting that's excellent if not I'll evaluate what other adjustments are necessary here are some of the changes I'll be implementing moving forward uh I know this was the first meeting so I didn't really uh convey the messages but moving forward discussion topics must be submitted to our Madam clerk by Wednesday preceding the work session meeting to be eligible for consideration uh this approach will guarantee that all council member members will have ample time to prepare for discussion and allow our ba uh to anticipate and address any potential questions in advance uh councilman pointer or just pointed this out to me this is already in our code uh that we need to present our discussion items to The Madam clerk by Wednesday uh when a council person is speaking on a discussion item I will encourage them to stay focused if they deviate from the topic I will intervene and redirect the conversation to ensure our meeting remain efficient and on track uh Council vice president Harris pointed out that what happens if there's an urgent situation that happens between Wednesday and the Monday work session uh for now I believe the procedure will be will propose a motion for discussion and that would need a seconding and we'll then conduct a roll call and then council's decision will Det mine our course of action and uh that will be it for the president's remark uh moving forward to new business proposed ordinances public hearing set down for Wednesday January 24th Madame clerk read the ordinance ordinance of the Tantra of vent canceling 1,945 74.7 in bond authorizations and bond anticipated notes proceeds not needed from the original purpose and to transfer 6713 $27.77 in bonds or Bond Vision notes proceeds to Capital fund balance all right I'll need a motion to introduce council president Ive I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for January 24th May I have a second second all right any Council comments um I I would just like to go on the record and say um it's good that we're cleaning up our books number one but I'm a little disheartened um that we didn't spend the money that was allocated for claraa Barton um and we're canceling that out I hope we don't forget about Clara Barton in the future that's all thank you thank you councilman Brer any other council members okay seeing none roll call Madam CL council member Brer yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member pel yes council member pointer yes council member shal yes council president Patel yes Madam clerk please read the next ordinance Bond ordance providing for various Capital Improvements inent by the township of Edison appropriating 7, 900,000 therefore authorizing issuance of 7,555 bonds or notes to finance their part of uh may I have a motion to introduce I move this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for January 24th May I have a second second any Council comments seeing none Madam clerk read the next ordinance council member brusher yes council member coil yes council member Harris yes council member pil yes Council M pointer yes council member schel yes council president Patel yes Madam clerk please read the next ordinance Bor is providing for various water main system improvements for the water utility in by the township appropriating 9,500,000 therefore authorizing the issuance of 9,500,000 bonds or notes to finance thereof may I get a motion to introduce council president councilman I'm moving this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to the law for further consideration and public hearing set down for January 24th thank you Council Mel may I get a second second Council comments seeing none roll call please council member bresser yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member pel yes council member pointer yes council member sh yes council president Patel yes all right uh moving on to public comments on the resolution anyone would like to make a comment on to the resolutions uh come on up Council number one will I'll be getting a copy of the resolution approving the correct oh joy ship Freeman thank you okay Edison New Jersey all right um well I'll be getting a copy since I had to sign off on the I had to sign off on the resolution so it looked like I should be getting a copy of the action plan since I had to sign off on the audit I think that should be more than okay well if I had to sign my name on it at all so um and let's see resolution authorizing Professional Services contract the big planning consultants for planning consultant serve to serve as the acting director of administrative officer in amount not to exceed 175,000 what does that job consist of luckily for us Mr Hank is here uh would Sonia would you like to speak to this sure um that provides oversight for our planning and Engineering including zoning construction departments um and so as you can see Mr Bell tonight covered an array of areas um so that deal with COA um planning engineering zoning um all things related to thank you Sonia oh so U Suz is not part of that he's not part of that connection Mr Suz is the construction official is not a department head and Mr Hank Bell acts as the department head for that department oh he acts okay thank thank you all right resolution authorizing extending contracts with various Township professionals until February 29th 2024 Council Wanship if you just don't mind reading the number so this makes it much easier okay 016 okay thank you res authorizing extending contract with VAR Township professionals until February 29th 2024 okay that's just a random amount of of people like who I mean like who are the professionals uh I think these are just the contracts that we extend out because this the beginning of the year that we do every year uh I think there's a list there's a list of the people that for that can I get that list it's in the resolution we can provide that to you okay the other one is number 22 22 Okay resolution authorization of a change order number three um for the year 2023 can I I get a list of the change orders because I mean there change orders every time so I don't even think that's fair with the bids if you always have change orders and last but not least uh number 24 resolution accepting bid and awarding contract to cyone L landscape supply for grounds material in an amount to exceed 285,000 up there by papani Park when they took that soil away so what happened to that did we put that soil somewhere that we could use it I am not sure Sona um that's unrelated to this contract that had to do with the field and that soil had to be taken uh separately by the contractor that was there doing the field work okay also the contractor gets that or he gets that um soil for free and this is totally different I think uh this is like Landscaping so I know Landscaping I know about soil because I know about Top Soil believe me I've been on this Earth quite a while okay so I just wanted to know about that you know I figur if we have good soil someplace why can't we use that soil I don't think we stored it I think the contractor did move it the contractor keeps it and moves it to and sells it to somebody else I'm not sure what he does with a Sonia do you know what they do with the soil they're taking to uh dumps to plant okay thank you no problem anyone else come on up good evening Ben from medicine New Jersey do have the floor coun you you were recognized Ben thank you um uh resolution 025 and then 026 can you clarify about the midai pickup trucks what is that referring to is that a police vehicle I will let Sonia answer this uh that was related to the fire department okay and the thank you Sonia uh and the resolution for 026 uh ejecting public bid for police pursuit rated vehicles what is that Sonia um those are police vehicles and uh as I mentioned we we'd gone out to bid so formally we have to reject the bids the reason being we're rejecting is because we ended up going to a CO Coop and purchase the vehicles through that Co-op what is a co-op uh Cooperative purchasing so it's a bunch of um let's say towns get together or systems or units and uh they create a co-op and they do all of the bidding process for you and in that way it's um through that purchasing we're able to easily get the equipment that way we don't have to we don't at the township don't have to go through the bidding process okay that's very interesting thank you Sona um so with the p police pursuit rate so are we trying to get vehicles to like if the police had a um a Pursuit do we have a special vehicle for Pursuits and they just because I seen other law enforcement they have a special vehicle where on the front of the bumper they have this tool that they latch from the tire and I'm I can't find the the I think it's called bolo or something there's like a there's a thing called bolo I'm not sure if um Mr dudash if you want to clarify that good evening council members um in regards to your question so the vehicles that we did ultimately purchase are Pursuit rated vehicles created specifically for police agencies the aftermarket components you're referring to no that are not part of our purchase so the vehicles are specifically built by Ford Motor Company for law enforcement purposes okay um if or you guys will be interested to get the bolo do you know what I'm talking about the we'll have to research that I'm not sure at this time it's it's on the market for a quite some time I seen videos when they have a high-speed Pursuit Chase they have like a bumper and then that they when they chase them it you need to like I think 10 feet to if if I could just cut you off for one second so we have we have attorney general's guidelines for Pursuit here in New Jersey that we have to follow so some of the technology that you may have seen on television may be legal in other states but may not be legal in New Jersey just beware all right I um nothing else to say and I I will approve these or uh these resolutions if anyone wants to eject or S table them thank you thank you Ben anyone else come up yeah you can come on up what are we speaking about I know we're on the resolutions so we on a specific resolution I will ask for name and address um May I stay Anonymous please Public Safety okay that's fine so what are we talking about now um on the resolutions all the resolutions y only the resolution okay I'm against every single one of them Sam josi and his administration can't be trusted so I think it's all correct what resolution would you be referring to I was about to to get there you had some patience a little bit so when you start can you please number the resolution you'll be speaking to so we can all be on the same page I'm looking for the one that AJ was just talking about can you help me out and tell me which the police one was r26 r26 r26 oh thank you brother very kind thank you um I'm against R 026 I'm against giving anything to the police department uh till they get their act together until they know who it's proper to take orders from and who it's not and uh oh r27 Mr John pointer oh I I support it because you you that's why I didn't come in so many times last year you all right but yeah r26 I'm against it police pursuit raided vehicles to the through you to councilman brusher um it seems kind of strange councilman braser that we're going to buy some police Pursuit rated vehicles when the Attorney General's guideline says we're not supposed to pursue anyone you know deputy chief dudash is that correct that we have a when someone's on a motorcycle or anything else we're not supposed to be high speed down in it so we are not purchasing or rejecting a vehicle so it's called no change policy no chase policy would the ba like to add because I saw her mouth moving would she does she have anything she like add wearing off the topic sir okay so yeah if we're not allowed to be chasing Vehicles down it's against the Attorney General's guideline so we are just rejecting the bids in this particular resolution doesn't matter it's I'm allowed to talk about it you can reject it all you want um it's up on the I'm talking about um so it seems strange to me that someone would even put it on on this um agenda someone put it on the agenda you're the council president were you the council president who put this on the agenda I'm sorry what are you referring to you you put on r26 you wasted our time with a resolution to buy a a police vehicle to chase people mhm but the Attorney General's guidelin says we're not allowed to so we're rejecting the bids is is that what why you rejected the bid or is there another reason why you rejected the bid uh well we rejecting this particular bid if you would have done your due diligence before you put this on there it wouldn't would have made its way to the it's so contradictory deputy chief dudash would you agree that we don't need any do you have problems chasing you don't mind theair question to me through the chair to the deputy chief dues um is there a problem with the police vehicles that you have are they not able to pursue maybe they're not electric they're not fast enough yet they don't have the power of the juice to uh meet those but yeah it just seems very very strange to me give nothing to the police department make them beg for everything give them nothing um they need to get their act together I'm still talking about r26 um how much time do I have left [Music] Marina two minutes is a long time but yeah um r r do 026 Das 01224 that's that's exactly what I'm against I I I want it perfectly clear I'm not talking about r025 I'm talking r. 025 D 01224 for anyone paying attention well 2 six whatever um I made a mistake so I'm going to have to re I'm G to have to restate it people listening might think I'm talking about something r. 026 D 01224 I'm against it how much how much was the minimum bid for that vehicle I'm sorry can you repeat the question speaker has one minute the the minimum bid how much was the minimum bid for a police pursuit rated vehicle are the vehicles we have now not well this is just a rejection of the bid so there's no number to attach to it I never heard anyone call a police car a police pursuit rated vehicle that's a little strange to me first time for everything I suppose it insinuates that the other vehicles don't have the ability to chase pursue would you agree with me on that I am not sure I understand the question through the chair to councilman brusher councilman brusher when when you put down something like this on the agenda that you're going to buy a cop car but they're calling it police pursuit rated vehicles it seems to me they know they have enough cop cars they can't come to you guys and say oh we need a cop car so they need to call it something else else and they're trying to be a little bit slick about it um council president you don't have the floor sir sorry what's that you don't have the floor we're going to move on to the next person anyone else have any questions now you already went Mr B all right do any rebuttal yeah any reut okay I am seeing none uh all right uh motion to public portion thank you second second um resolutions I got all right uh moving on to 19 anyone any council member wants to pull anything for separate B oh sorry uh all in favor to close the public portion I I right thank you councilman Coy uh moving on to anyone any council member would like to pull anything for a separate vote uh seeing none the consent agenda will be oh uh the consent agenda will be r008 to r027 uh can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda council person before you approve does these two appointment need to as a part of any resolution no okay it's just for uh for knowledge thank you agenda second all right we have a motion and a second uh roll call Madam click council member brusher yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris council member P yes member pointer yes counc yes council president Patel yes okay and have nobody on so we have uh we're opening up to the public for petition and remarks but we have no one on the list so Maria come on okay Maria you recognized Maria orgid 83 Jefferson can everybody hear me yes okay here we go on the dates uh tomorrow Thursday is the open space meeting at 700 p.m. also tomorrow will be a celebration of MLK at the New Beginnings Church hosted by the double the nacp open to everyone I'm not sure what time is it 7 starts at 7 to 9:30 then on January 13th haly's harp is going to have a fundraiser for the animal shelter I'm not sure about the time oh 12:00 p.m. as well as please come by and see the dogs and cats available for adoption on January 18th the environmental commission will have their meetings it's open to everyone we look forward to seeing everyone and open to the public please check on your seniors and your disabled neighbors we had bad snowstorm rains and snows over the weekend please make sure that your neighbors are safe consider a public advocate Clara Barton library signs uh followup on the following Dear study master plan crossing guards we need more members to the human relations commission please apply we have open beds at swes and dwire Community Gardens please see Edison Community Gardens initiative to apply also we're doing a plastic collection we're collecting the plastic for a donation for a bench at swes Park if there's any locations where we could place our boxes plastic such as you know the wrappers on the Bounty towels or the toilet papers or even newspaper wrappers or we can collect and get get a get a bench we need a th000 lounds thank you thank you Maria councilwoman sh PR all right Joy ship framing all right the community aggregate program um out of all seven people I was the only one that didn't really wholeheartedly vote for that because I felt like that um a lot of the seniors because it was a where you had to add in it wasn't you had to opt in and um and then you couldn't get your regular psng and the other companies lowball you on the way in and then if a ice storm or something comes and somebody's bill that's 3,000 or whatever and as I look at the news each day I see jcpl at 5,000 people don't have you know any lights or any energy and I look just at psng there's only 50 people who don't have power so I'm kind of I'm looking at that I'm looking for all the people looking at that so and I um would like to know the number of streets paved in 2022 and let's see what else and someone told me that the the volley cost came to 320,000 and but only 120,000 was collected and I don't care about that that much I just like for you to be honest with me when you're telling me about the amount of money that you're receiving because I think it's a great celebration I think all celebrations are great I think people should do things that bring us together more but just tell me the truth about the money you receive and the money that you spend and um the other one is the um Comcast Comcast um did we sign a paperwor Comcast did we sign any type of agreement with Comcast no I was just wondering because um I know for a fact uh because everybody tells me how horrible horrible Optimum is and I know Comcast Optimum all different places have a monopoly where they're at and I just know that Comcast will cost us the same or more because they would have to actually initiate or they would have to um you know build their own Foundation back and forth so and other than that um John pointer uh councilman John pointer my family said thank you because you're a very sincere young man when you speak and I spoke before um with you about Cola at a different time before and you was explaining how we'll never actually catch up with where we will even need to be and I um I understand where councilman brusher is coming from and I really didn't see a defend of answer that he got he wants to know the actual people that sit there who determine who is eligible and who will get the money back and forth because I know sometimes if your brother or if somebody in your family happens to be in that realm and you're looking for you know you're having a little bit of problems and you want to get that they want it to just be fairly distributed across the board because I know for a fact I didn't know we had all that money sitting there because there's one entity in town that's asking for just asking to borrow $800,000 to move their program forward and they seem to keep getting doors slammed in their face and like he said before I know on the certain programs it's like a 25 or 30e limit on it it so I'm still learning more about the difference between fair housing and the difference between affordable housing and the way these different things operate but you know and I know with the apartments being 27 yeah 2700 a lot of people can't afford that and with not just talking about here with the people in Trenton that Administration getting ready to get a 67% raise while me and other people check got smaller this month from pension so I don't know and that's why I always have problems with the people upstairs on the third floor making like 150% more than people throughout the rest of the building okay maybe you know I'm just I just worry about the everyday person surviving because a lot of people I happen to be that a lot of people are one paycheck away from being on the street and being homeless last but not least um well the um immigrant program that plunged us into the news and all that drama about the places being here uh the people coming here since June is incredible to me because um everybody kept telling me it was disinformation then I find out I'm like then I seen films I was like whoa we actually have immigrants coming here to this town you know what I mean so that was a you know that was a bit disturbing but other than that um I just want to know the number of the streets that were actually paved in 2022 and um well else they asked me they asked me when are we going to take care of some of them potholes they said it's a it's a sinkhole somewhere on the street somewhere they were telling me about a sinkhole in one of the streets so you know and I'm just having a fit that this town is turning into like a crazy City because every time I turn around there's a fire here there's somebody running over here there's crime here whatever I'm like I I didn't I'm not in here in Edison for that I'm not here for that thank you thank you councilwoman ship uh in terms of the street paved for 2022 do you have a list Sonia I will send that to you tomorrow thank you and uh for the potholes Council mhip if you can just have them send us a picture at think they can take care of that real quick that shouldn't be a big issue come on up Ellen Arthur Edison I just have one um concern earlier in the meeting I think you um saw that there were two people uh placed on the human Relations Committee I would just ask that you be kind of the Watchtower to make sure it's not a committee it's a commission and they have to be approved by you and I would just I'm very concerned that you make sure that you monitor that that there is diversity on that commission uh so just so you understand they don't have to be approved by us it's just a notice it's the mayor's appointment yeah uh there's no talk going back and forth counc uh I will move on to our Boe member B Patel uh and I'm here in my personal capacity uh I would like to start with congratulating my friend councilman Brasher my friend councilman Joo my friend councilman AJ parel for um just cing Spa in last week for a full fouryear term um we have worked a lot together so it will be wonderful for years and nice to see you all back and council member SCH we worked together in zoning board so so happy for you to be here so congratulations um I would like to say thanks to councilman AJ parel for asking for the engineering study for the drainage situation outside JB Steven school so thank you so much for that um the main reason I here is to the chair um last year I came to this meeting and expressed uh opinion about ABC ledge Key Program the after before Care Program um today I am here representing several parents who are concerned about that program uh I have concern from at least 50 parents who are who are sharing the same similar concerns the program charges $160 for the morning care they charge $220 for afternoon care in the morning maybe they use pretty much whole portion of the program in the afternoon most of the parents do not even use the entire 2. 2 and a half hours of the program some pick up their kids at 4:00 some at 5 some at 6 um rarely someone at after that and it's it's not allowed after that but they don't utilize the full program but the point here is lot of parents have work schedules and they could not get to the school at 3:30 for the dismissal so they have to to pay this Hefty sum of money enroll their children in that program so that they can pick up their kids later that's the program used to be very good and um we heard over years that they used to give nice snacks and you know other things make make them to homework activities uh but recently there have been concerns that the program quality has been deteriorated um the money that was charged was $180 just before a couple of years it became $220 now I I completely get it and understand about the inflation and so do so many parents at the same time What We Have Heard is Township makes a huge profit off of this program a huge sum of profit um the school facilities are completely free it does not cost Township anything there is a cost to lunch aade and we have heard lunch aads complaining that they are not getting well paid too so um lot of of us don't understand where the money is going yes it's it's still for the township it's for the taxpayers it's not going in anyone's pocket I understand that but the point over here is it's really if Township is making that much amount of money as a profit the fees of the program should be reduced the fees should be leveled up in a way that every single penny that is going extra for this program should be given back to the parents it should not cost this much now the program also gives discount to multiple children in a family which is great it sounds like a YMC and LA Fitness deal but the problem with this that is this you have three children in a family going to the program now you're giving discount to the second and third child which is great again but the program has limited space so it's taking away opportunity from another child now assuming the CH three children are coming from a household who can really afford any Maybe $450 per month and the child who was left out their parent may not be able to afford 225 per month even right so it's really uh in this scenario it may not be the 100% fair thing to do rather give opportunity to every single child uh who can be part of the program at an affordable cost this is the day and age I mean this year we are talking about you know tremendous State and uh almost 0% tax increase and or minimal tax increase and we are there's going to be Buzz about free preschool in that year charging $220 and making profit of an after CARE program is really not a wise thing to do so I would really request that if I can get an answer so I can pass on to the parents that how much money the township is making off of the program and if we can revise the fees to give every single money back to the parents and accommodate more children into the program because the school facilities are free thank you so much actually I would like to ask how much do we make from this latchy program uh we'll get that numbered to you but we did create an analysis of the program and the costings um we can certainly provide that to you as well um okay yeah can we have that remote report for the next uh meeting thank you uh so we can get to the bottom of this obviously we want to make sure that we're not charging cuz the township is supposed to provide services and obviously we don't want to be making profit off of this thank you for bringing this to our attention buau Come on Anthony D excuse me you recogniz Anthony thank you um first up uh quick question on the uh train tracks on Vineyard Road uh it looks like they're going to be possibly um I I've I've lived in that area back behind in the vineard village section for 30 years i' never seen those tracks in use before but it looks like they're about to get ready to they're cleaning up over there going right into Amazon do we know if they're they're going to be put back into use at all which train tracks are these on vinard road right next to uh right next to Amazon in Costco I just that would be a traffic disaster if that's the case okay son do we know if those train tracks are going to be used and um we don't have any jurisdiction over those train tracks that's uh through um I believe it the Conrail or um am it's not Amtrak it's uh through the federal okay and do we have a plan if they do start using it because obviously that would cause a traffic issue council president I can give an update when he's done with all those questions council president if I may um have Hank come up here to answer some of that questions sure if you don't uh actually can can we do that after his time is up okay we can get that done after that's fine um in regards to um the legals that were uh you know obviously it was it's been a Hot Topic the mayor got a lot of attention over the last week um for his comments um I I only asked this why he he's known about this uh issue for at least going back to the summer of 22 um I just like to know why the administration said nothing did nothing uh except release uh these individuals uh to the public um I'd like to know if the administration knows where these individuals may be are they in our schools um are their children involved you know do do they have the where are they uh you know it is it's amazing to me considering the fact that you know the the the PD has a big time shortage on the road right now um you know you hear constantly crime break-ins are just happening all over town there was just one in the vineyard Village section they ran stacked the house they do this in broad daylight now criminals are are breaking into these homes in broad daylight there's very very little um fear of consequences um just just from from top to bottom there's there's just it's it's it's very very wor worrisome and I'd like to know you know he he the mayor had a lot to say regarding them uh starting from last week or whatever it was two weeks ago but what about the ones that been coming here in the middle of the night since 2022 what about them because he said nothing he did nothing so I I'd like to know what the mayor where the mayor stands on that and where these where these individuals are we we don't as far as I'm concerned I don't think we know where they are um also i' like to thank you know the uh everybody from last night's storm looks like you know it was tremendous storm so to the PD fire department DPW looks you know um I know there was a lot going on I saw um they from they did a great job uh considering so um and I'll end with this um today would have been my mother's 73rd birthday um she was a a resident here in Edison for 30 something years and just a quick story I never actually said this told the story but um when she got sick I I she was very sick when she when we found out she spiraling um I I called then mayor lanky um up and asked him for a favor and I asked him trust me and he he owed me no favors um this is before I became his assistant and he I asked him if he would marry my brother this my brother and his fiance this is in the height of covid by the way and the mayor so diligently and eloquently uh had the empathy and and said yes he we had a ceremony very small intimate ceremony out outside on the the bridge near Lake pepan and he married uh my brother uh and his now wife um so my mother could see it before she had passed and nothing was you know no attention was made to it and uh you know I I I just wanted to share that story because uh yes Mary Lany uh you know was extremely kind to do that for me um and my family gave us uh really made my mother happy and uh considering today landed on a council meeting day her birthday landed on this this meeting um I just wanted to share that story and um you know recognize uh the former mayor for for his Good Deeds so one minute thank you thank you for sharing Anthony uh M Mr Hank if you can shed some light on the train tracks Mr chairman it's my understanding that the railroad tracks are it was correct that some says they belong to the Conrail they have no no say over them um the tract are being cleaned off I believe the adjacent proper was dumping illegally on it and he was asked or ordered by the by the train to clean those tracks off okay there I have no knowledge of any kind of Trail uh raar train or or siding going into the Amazon property and if they do it requires amended site plan approval and the public would be receiving notice if that ever happened but there's no application that I know of pending about that stuff all right so they would have a public hearing on that they couldn't do without approval thank you good to know and uh council president just one sec deputy chief D Das can you give us a update as to what the police is doing to take care of the the rise in crime okay um so council president in regards to specifically what what type of crime are you referring to uh I think the catalytic converters the deaths a lot of uh just break-ins that's been going on okay so each one of us is kind of a separate and distinct issue because generally speaking the criminals committing those crimes are committing those specific CRI crimes individually if you will it's not the same criminals conventing all of them all right so it it creates a set of issues for us as a police department and for police departments around this whole region uh let's address catalytic converters first and foremost so our community policing unit had put out a series of um tips if you will things that you can do to try to prevent a vehicle's Cadillac converters from being stolen off of a vehicle there is no exact science in reference ref to that but there are some things that you can do um that can at least lessen uh the possible um ability for a criminal to do that okay so that's first and foremost um as far as the home breakings and car thefts so we are putting out extra patrols unmarked and marked on a regular basis um throughout the areas that we're experiencing uh these burglaries and subsequent either attempt thefts or car thefts all right so that is ongoing and uh in addition to that we're working with other agencies for intelligence to find out um hopefully who these individuals are where they're coming from and uh to try to stop it of course before it happens so that is ongoing uh literally every night thank you Chief every night thank you Chief so there is an increase in police presence every night thank you Chief dudes uh councilman Brer if you don't mind can we just hold the after the public section is closed to do with this question about the railroad that you know nothing about and the ba knows nothing about and the public knows nothing about and Hank is wrong and he knows nothing about but I'll tell you what council president since I'm the council Council to answer you can say it after it's fine you can give the answer you do your work and then you give the public okay that's fine anyone else have a qu comment for you to speak after public question and the people are gone he a horrible council president you didn't like John I think this is horrible Ben from medison New Jersey to have the floor you have the floor awesome thank you council president um going back to the um ordinance in the that I talked about I found the information Mr dudash is called grabler so 30 states are using that for highspeed chases I send you um an email if you want to take a look and also a YouTube video as well um okay so going back to the mayor's comments um oh boy uh I know there's been a lot of lot of heated arguments about this and look I I'll stand with the mayor on this we don't know where these people are coming from they they I guess one of the I how did this came I'm trying to figure this whole out they they someone called the police said it was in the train station one of the officers came I guess they were trying to get some information then all a sudden they have to go back to Texas or something like that we don't even know where these people come from we don't even know that if those people had any guns drugs like I I I have here's the thing I I feel like the mayor did a good job to keep Edison safe and secure because you don't even know who these people are you know I have a I'm mentoring a 17-year-old kid from Mexico you know what their government is telling them now to leave their country because America is free open borders I had to Mentor a 17-year-old kid told him don't do that you know why because if he tries to cross over from Mexico to United States legally he cannot become aica America he cannot come back if I'm not mistaken for 5 years once you are like if I'm I don't know how can I put this as an example like uh if I cross over I'm American right but I'm I'm IM like I'm an immigrant but if I cross over and the border patrol gets me I can't go back to that I cannot come back back to United States for 5 years I was told from the law itself so I'm mentoring this 17-year-old kid from Mexico his name is Carlos he just lost his mom from a heart attack um this uh September I've been mentoring him for quite some time he wants become a citizen I told him to do the right thing we don't even know if these PE we you know I I'm I'm glad that the mayor did the right thing we don't even know who these people are you have to in order to become a United States citizen you have to do the right faint you have to follow the law and if you don't follow the law there's repercussions with these people and now we got the cartel sneaking up fentanyl literally in the down in the there there's so much problems I've been hearing that's why my sister was in Arizona they had to come back to Jersey because all of that they they it was it was like wallfire in Arizona Nevada California California does know what the hell they're doing Arizona doesn't know what to do Nevada doesn't know what to do all from that border they don't know what to do because they're it's I think if I'm not mistaken there's been Millions hundreds of millions of people crossing the board un legally and just it I just want people to just do the right thing just if you want to become a citizen follow the law because if you you know I think Barack Obama said this if you you do your taxes and you follow the law you can't you can become a United States citizen so we don't even know where these people coming from I praise the mar on it I I got criticized as well you know on on Facebook that's fine people trying to find out where I live and all that stuff oh you're just one of those wash up Democrats no I'm not I'm not I'm not a wash up Democrat I'm the new face of the Democrat so thank you thank you and to the residents here behind me I want to make sure that when this happens because this is going to happen again trust me cuz New York's already having problems if we if it happens again we got to start following the procedures of how to uh tell them like hey you can't be here you you know get get get that go back to Texas they have to and a lot of there's been a lot of hate on this you know I I just want people to just follow law just do do the right thing and that's it you know it's we we're we're going through so much tribulations and trials of this year you know there's been movies coming out I'm not sure you I'm not sure you guys seen the the movie with I guess Barack Obama created the movie I for uh when when the world I forgot the name of the movie but Barack Obama created um a movie of a documentation a couple of months ago it got released I watched that um that is a powerful message but I wish they um gave a little bit more inside of that movie I'm not sure you don't know what I'm referring to what if okay um I'll find it right now hold on uh what if the what's the name of that movie real quick if you guys want to watch it I just watched it it's mindblowing silver war just um just came out from the reflection of the day of the world stand still or something like that I can't remember that movie but we're going through a lot these days and I wish people need to just come together and unite as one um I made a video yesterday I'm not sure I tagged you guys in it but there you go thank you thank you Mr B anyone else would like to speak for the first time thank you I'd like to identify as Commander L's friend am I recognized you're recognized thank you what's up Commander um human Relations Committee I want Joyce on the human Relations Committee I want the lady that was sitting to the left of her renewed on the human Relations Committee dudash isn't here so he can give us any updates on the Predator catching Case by Design line he he left Joi Mayor Sam Joi always went against the mayor when he was a councilman now that you are Council people he wants to strip you of the same rights that he used to enjoy he guas slates government officials residents and employees that when you don't do what he wants him to do that you're just going against the program you're divisive the sky is going to start falling down um that's abuse that's abuse that's that's a lot of things um Mayor Sam Joi and his Xeno xenophobic racist remarks all the time um he has his hate speech against the Chinese Community we all remember that he has his hate speech against the Muslim Community we all remember that he has his hate hate speech against the Jewish community of Lakewood if you don't remember that one um he accused the Jews of Lakewood of being the reason for the Corona virus those that was the reason Sam Joi gave and then he had to issue an apology which is why I don't care how many Jewish groups give him Awards um it doesn't matter to me we all remember I mean when you say something like this and you got right-wing extremists listening he he he could have caused that people went out and and started attacking Jewish people we had an incident during Co where because of the Chinese anti-chinese rhetoric a Chinese person was attacked is Sam Joi ever going to take responsibility for his actions is Sam josi gon to apologize for when he created a me m on a government account slandering me as a Neo-Nazi no he's not he's immature when Mayor Sam joei said these people don't belong here these people don't belong here who is he legal Asylum SE they were granted the right to seek Asylum and he just stops them is this like the movie Rambo you know the the movie Rambo where that one sheriff's deputy uh threw the chair to D Das dudash you you've ever seen the movie Rambo you remember when Rambo was harassed by the sheriff's deputy to um he he's not going to save you cuz I said through chair I'm allowed to question you um do you remember when the when the cops just started messing with Rambo saying no you don't belong here it's okay you can talk after me you don't have to take my time away that's what's become of Edison Township I'm always being thrown out of the public lobbies and harassed by a lot of these cops is it because they're taking orders from Mayor Sam Joi I thought the cops are supposed to take orders from the chief of police and from the Attorney General's office since when do they they take orders from the mayor unless they want to get some extra stripes on there how much time do I have left two and a half minutes two and a half minutes so when you see the news article Joi beats josi what's the first thing that comes up on Google I come up in the article you guys can't even have a democratic organization why doesn't it come up in the article that the guy who won the Edison Democratic organization is not just the mayor's uncle but sexually assaulted a woman which reported on mayor dudash uh I mean deputy chief dudash it seems to me the difference between me and you is that the very same people you once reported on you now take orders from them um we can all see that so yeah I find that very disgusting that Marco you were Vice President of that isent Democratic organization I I would love we have someone like you or Joyce or Richard Brasher Sam's not even a Democrat you can you can listen to the news you can tell he sounded like he was running with Trump last week that's that's how I took it I mean legal Asylum Seekers they were granted the right they're going to have court in New York they got a court date in New York you guys give them the right to seek Asylum they have a court date in New York and then you you try to stop them from going to New York out of all the states out of all the cities why didn't any other city or state stop them why is Edison the only one that breaks federal laws why is Sam ji always ordering the cops to break federal laws deprivation of rights under color of law conspiracy to deprive rights under color of law I'm going to write that ethics complaint I'm going to find out which was the who was the officer that did that order they might International war criminal now you guys have graduated from civil rights violators to International war criminals good job deputy chief dudash do you have any update how much time do I have left 34 seconds do you have any update on the Predator catching case um any update you had so much to say to suzan Russell why did why did the charge get downgraded from Criminal restraint to harassment how does a criminal restraint now turn to harassment I don't have enough time to go into detail but shame on this town I have no respect for that isn't uh police I I respect those two guys out there they were very respectful today but as a department in a whole I have no respect for you guys I see what you guys are doing in the community you guys have no backbone and you don't say to the mayor we will not take your illegal orders I'm sorry I'll sit down thank you anyone else would like to speak for the first time all right any rebuttal Ben you can come on up please Mr Ben the attorney will let you know if it's not autal I understand I'm going to disagree with Christo for simum Seekers like I said before people need to follow the law people need to follow the law okay it just a shame what what's going on in these days events I agree with kristo people got to follow the law I don't care if you are silencing or not you just have to follow the law okay and I guess I guess uh that's it oh the movie I was talking about was thank you Mr Ben so please watch that thank you thank you all right uh I see no one else uh motion to close the public portion motion to close second all in favor I all right councilman brusher if you would like to provide the answers no council president you seem to know everything so you can do what you're going to do and what I'm going to tell you is from now on when the public comes and asks me a question you can slam your gavel all you want but I will answer the Public's question and you could have one of the officers remove me in which case as per the lawsuit that was that happened that our resident pointed out I'll go down that road but no longer will I sit here and be silenced and have the public ask me questions and for you to tell me that I won't speak and that's all that I have to say to you sir thank you I have a greeing to you anybody else would like to make a comment all right counc president that's just not fair of council brusher he had the wait six minutes we closed the public portion for a reason so we don't have a lot of back and forth I admire his comments I wish I heard them I don't think it's a challenging issue but I'm sorry he feels that way so my comment to that is I am trying to make the meetings more efficient and I'm hoping that you can answer your questions and I hope you do answer the question and Enlighten the public but we can do it after the public portion closes so the other people that are waiting I understand you don't have the floor Council pressure councilman pressure you don't have the floor councilman pressure you don't have the floor have a good day sir all right have a good night uh so my point to this is that I'm trying to run a more efficient meeting and you are more than allowed to speak your mind and allowed to answer the questions but there are people waiting and people that don't come to the council meetings some have already emailed me that they do not come because our meetings last 3 to four hours so I am just trying to get this meeting to run more efficiently and you will have your say after the council closes the public portion thank you council president before we add churn I just want to acknowledge we have we had the board of President B Patel who but we have vice president Mr Jo ramano who is patiently waiting and hearing this thank you Joe for coming thank Joe all right uh motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second all in favor