e e e calling the regular meeting Wednesday June 26 to order the time is 700 p.m. please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God ible with liy and justice for all clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member Coyle here council member Harris here council member Patel here council member ptil here council member poer present council member schmuel here all right Madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public Act of 1975 has been provided by an an notice sent to the home News Tribune Star Ledger Desi talk and news India times on December 12th 2023 and posted main lobby mpal complex on that same date thank you madam clerk uh as for the council president's remarks I as I stated Monday I will be moving forward giving you one warning uh by calling a point of order for disruption if any more further disruption continues I will ask the officers to remove any said person uh moving forward resolutions and recognitions Madam clerk please read uh r328 oh actually got appr minutes first oh no I'm sorry you're right or 3 to8 whereas Mr John zimowski has Amplified remarkable dedication and compassion through numerous acts of kindness and significant personal achievements Mr Kowski self selflessness commitment to the community of Edison including his regular piano performances at Brighton Gardens and JFK has brought joy and comfort to the residents of these assistant living facilities for many years in 2006 he contributed to electrical engineering were were recognized with the prestigious electrical engineering Milestone award for his nomination of the Thomas Alva Edison historical site at Mena Park 1876 presented by the institution of electrical and electronics engineering an event attended by state and local Edison Personnel Mr Z sowy's dedication extends Beyond professional recognition encompassing a deep care for well-being of the people of Edison and his own family therefore be resolved the municipal Council formally recognize and commends Mr zimowski for his outstanding contributions to the community his achievements in electrical engineering and his ongoing acts of kindness which have significantly enriched the lives of others it further be resolved this resolution be presented to Mr zanowski in honor of his M service dedication positive impact on the community Comm of Edison and the Edison Light Tower thank you madam clerk now this will be open to public uh portion if anybody would like to speak seeing none motion to all right the resolution resolution r328 the one I just read U if seeing none motion to close the public portion second can motion first motion to close the public portion second I have a motion by councilman Coy second by Council vice president all in favor hi all right any Council comments council president I'd like to personally thank uh Mr zimowski um his dedication to Edison spans decades um and that's something that should be commended and and that's something that we should acknowledge um he's never asked for acknowledgement you know this is coming from the community and people within our community that that ask for this for um it's just because of the many years of service that he's put in and volunteered in our Township so I'd like to personally thank himoun brusher any other council members council president Council mcoy I everybody knows this macowski family and uh they've been around for decades in business in town and I think it's just incredible to spend Volunteers in in the community I thank him and his family for the support to continue his efforts and to donate his time not just to Tower but to other things he's done around town thank you thank you councilman Co any other council members council person Council pel I Echo the sentiment of my Council colleague uh anytime when it is about the community service it's a pride moment getting that recognition not easy to spend time away from family and giving back to the community again Kudos and congratulations for this recognition thank you thank you counil m Patel anyone else right seeing none um is Mr zimowski here well I would love to present this to him in person but we will give that to him all right Madam clerk please read r329 oh sorry motion to adopt motion to adopt second all right motion by councilman Patel second by Council vice president um Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member coil yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member mu yes council president Batel yes madame clerk please read r329 whereas Mike dumato better known as Mike is Dependable demon demonstrated a pillar of excellence in his role as broadcast communication manager starting his 20-year career with Edison TV in June of 2004 Mike was one of the original employees of the TV station in May of 2005 Mike became a full-time employee of the township Mike has an extensive background and Lifelong Love of television and video and theater he obtained his bachelor's degree from recers University Nork In Theater Arts with a concentration in television production member of the alpha Pi Omega and chapter and chapter quarrel he started in many theater Productions at Ru Center Players theater and many other venues Mike enjoys making everything work from the inside out from script writing to event planning to editing to post production his skills include many types of editing Photoshop multimedia lighting and writing music passionate about video Mike has won many awards including 2001 Hometown Video Festival editor for espanol and Aion live in 2007 Hometown Video Awards overall excellence in government TV in 2010 outstanding video Jam video Festival NJ on stage news and magazine format whereas he loves spending days off relaxing at the Jersey Shore appreciating new restaurants and old haunts in Mammoth and Ocean County composing and experience with music and spending time with his wife Beverly and his puppies he has th thoroughly enjoyed the people and places he experienced while at Edison TV now therefore be resolving Miss Council of Edison desires to recognize Mike's ex exceptional dedication professionalism and talent significantly enhance the quality of our broadcast thank you madam [Applause] cler all right this is also open to public portion if anybody would like to speak come on up hi name and all that yes please Howard Meers 71 Calbert Avenue West you're recognized I will make this brief because uh I know we're the ones who have to render this tomorrow so shortness is uh is a good thing um I don't know how many Edison residents understand how fortunate they have been for the last 20 years to have Mike deato at Edison TV he is by far the most talented and gifted editor videographer I have ever worked with his vast knowledge attention to detail and willingness to do whatever he needs to get the job done right has benefited this Township in countless ways the production values he brought uh have made our programs more professional and watchable than many other local outfits and I have seen many I never fully uh realized till I started working here how demanding this job is on a daily basis both physically and mentally and I've never fully realized the enormous care that gets put into every project uh but uh thanks to Mike I do now and this is a town that never sleeps and there's always stuff to do there's always shoots going on and we are constantly busy uh the station loses audio on a Saturday night and it's fixed within hours that was Mike equipment issues threatened to fail a a meeting getting on by deadline but it does that was Mike the last second request for a shoot in Ultra bad cold hot weather rainy conditions that was Mike fixing others mistakes like mine That's Mike making me look good That's Mike making you look good That's Mike uh commitment That's Mike he's responsible and dedicated to his job in the residence of Edison to a fault he's always upheld the Dignity of our Township with his Productions and every citizen should be grateful that he made the decision to take this job 20 years ago congrat congratulations on your retirement you should be proud of the body of work that you created and I am personally grateful for the wisdom that you shared with me your knowledge and advice thank you Mike Mike deato don't be a [Applause] stranger thank you anyone else I seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close public portion may I have a second second that's a motion by Council vice president second by Council MTO uh any Council comments yes council president Council vice president first of all Mike you had me at the word puppies that's all that's all I need to know but um you've seen a lot you've seen a real lot and because of you we've seen a lot the public has seen a lot you've been tireless in your dedication to putting on the broadcast and uh you've got very big shoes to fill so on behalf of the entire Township thank you immeasurably for all you've done thank you thank you m councilman Patel and council president Mike I I think you know people think you know behind the camera is someone is walking around and taking the pictures or recording they don't realize how hard it is especially the elected official unit to make sure we look good and you have done a wonderful job I have seen you working pretty much around the clock rain shine hot weather many events covering I don't know how your family allowed you to do that but finally it's a time for you you know your retiring will definitely miss you uh you have given your long hours to this Township making sure every person looks sharp and presentable so that the residents feel that we we are good on top of that you have been very humble very honest approachable it's not easy you know people come and go especially the elected officials but you are always there for anyone and I have seen you working very hard so congratulations and definitely will miss you thank you thank you for your service thank you Patel anyone else council president councilman co uh Mike you thank you for all your dedication that you've done for the years I've known you and your work I have to say I'm truly proud of how you've handled yourself with each one of us and different elected officials a long time I remember back in the 90s I don't think the council was very supportive of the of your department and you're working with very little and you brought a lot to this town with uh little very little technology and and still to this day outdated technology that you're working with I mean I can't begin to believe how many times things may have crashed on you and you got us back online how many times you were working on an edit in the middle of an edit after two hours you lose everything I can only imagine what your day was like not knowing I call on them uh with an ask and you even temper Joe I'll get to it and we appreciate that and I don't think there's ever been a council person or on this day that you've had a problem with and or shared your frustration with on your day we never knew what your day was like until we've been in your location uh but I thank you for everything you've done and uh it's it's countless times we've needed you do and your your how you manage things not easy and you've always showed a poker face a smile showed up to everything and how many weekends your family may have not been with you thank you for that to your family and the sacrifice that you've given because it takes two it takes it takes a team and I recognize that I'm sorry you're leaving I'm hoping you'll be in touch we plan to call you nominate you for some new opportunity but uh enjoy your vacation enjoy a time with your family and we hope to see you again thank you Council MCO Council presid Mike I'd like to thank you for your service to the town as as a resident because I guess I I first came across the work you did as a resident not as an elected official um and it was appreciative at that time even because you can go and I and I could watch things at this point um people in the public have when I see me out you know like on the street and that they um they tell me I look a lot younger on the camera so I attribute that to you and I and I want to personally thank you for that um maybe if you could follow me around in your retirement you know that might help um this is actually a very good thing um and a good day I always like to see when people can get to a point where they can retire um you know putting in the hours that you put in because with the township schedule it's not like you're working from 8:00 to 4:00 type of thing your hours are all over the place and that's something that you know is it people take for granted they don't realize um that type of commitment that it is for you and for your family you know I mean they have to get used to you not being there for certain major family events um so so for that I'm very grateful I'm happy for you that you're getting to retire um I'm sad that the town's losing you but um good luck and thank you for your service to us thank you coun Russia anyone else council president Council pointer i' just like to Echo the sentiments of my colleagues I think they pretty much summed it up but I can admit I've been one of those uh members that has reached out on a Saturday from residents that reached out to me saying hey there's no audio on Edison TV and within a half hour fixed so your dedication your service to this Township uh honestly is immeasurable when we talk about transparency and getting information out it's because of the service that you provided so I say just deepest down thank you what many people may not understand uh they see the guys out here on the cameras going around that post production aspect to video and rendering those those videos those photos the time that is required to do that end alone is insurmountable so take that put that on top of the fact that he may be here for a six-hour council meeting which I apologize for last year that we had a couple of those um overall just thank you for your time your dedication your sacrifice and I hope you enjoy retirement thank you Council pointer council president I think my colleague said it all thank you for your services and uh good luck in uh in your future endeavors thank you as for me Mike thank you for all your services all that you've done and thank you to your family for allowing him to work with us for all this time and I hope you enjoy your retirement and we will miss you but I am glad that you get to enjoy this CU we're happy for you thank you Mike uh should I do the U you want to present Council vice president will present you the recognition this here you can come up here here you come on up let's go now remember to use the mic to put it right under your chin not down here not all the way over here it's not a rap session yeah yeah you say a few words oh yeah so uh yeah I'll say just very briefly I think everybody just all that everybody had to say was fantastic thank you so much it is really deeply appreciated um and I want you to know that you're going to be in good hands with Howard and Rob Garner who's in Greece right now on vacation hopefully he'll come back uh you're going to be in good hands Howard and I believe it or not both started exactly the same way in video production tkr Cable commercial insertion 5 million years ago so you're be in good hands again Edison TV is all about um promoting what's going on in the town and memorializing what's going on in the town so that people who were there can see themselves again see how they did on camera right all you guys you taught us a lot there you go and the people who can't make it out maybe it's too hot out maybe they're not feeling well it's their chance to see you know the Departments here and the organizations in this town work really hard to put these events together Joy of recreation I'm I go on all day Joe with the chamber you know these are great events and not everybody can make them so it's their opportunity to see what the town's doing for them and uh hey that's it is TV's job that's it so I thank you all thank you very much [Applause] all right Madam clerk can I get a motion to adopt motion to adopt may I have a second I have motion by councilman p second by councilman pointer Madam CL roll call please council member Brer oh yes member Co you didn't say yes yes yes council member haris yes council member P council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Batel yes all right uh we're on to number six approval of minutes may I have a motion to approve motion to approve may I have a second second second I have a motion by Council vice president second by councilman pointer should I say it now well yeah you can say it now I I just wanted I just want to note that I was out on January 22nd okay and uh June 12th AJ you out on the 12th okay okay so all in favor all in favor all in favor okay fine all right moving on to number 7 2024 calendar year Municipal budget and solid race budget uh a r330 we have to do it separately right yes the bud okay all right can I get a motion to adopt r330 motion to adopt may I have a second second last motion by Council vice president second by councilman Shel uh Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member shuel yes council president Patel yes yep okay and can I get a motion to adopt r331 motion to adopt may I have a second second all right motion by Council vice president second by council member Patel patil uh Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes okay so now this going to be open to the public for comments anyone would like to on the municipal budget all right seeing none motion to F the public portion may I get a motion to close the public portion may I get a second second motion by councilman Coyle second by Council vice president Madam cler roll call any Council comments all right seeing none counc uh that was just a close ad uh motion to adopt Council motion to adopt oh wait wait one sec one sec uh a I think can we do it after the yes that's what I want all motion by councilman Co may I have a second second second by Council vice president now open to council comments oh thank you council president counc and first of all you know thank you Kane and Sonia for providing pretty much all the answers to my question uh however you know I have few comments to make I'm not going to take along the reason I won't be supporting the this budget for very simple reason if you look at the numbers staggering starting from when the new ad Administration started our Municipal budget has been up by close to 177% whereas our actual Revenue uh realize versus anticipated is 20% in short we should have been zeroing the budget all across the board the way the board of education did uh there are many more questions line atems uh especially uh the reserve for tax appeal I'm shocked that we never ever had such a low reserve for the uh tax appeals we know that year or year uh prior Administration as well as this Administration until last year has done a good job of closing as many tax appeal as they could but for 2024 it is the lowest historical lowest for the tax uh appeal and of course you know there is a big bump into the Reserve I don't know why we can't give the tax money back to the residents and with those reasons I will be voting no for this budget thank you council president thank you councilman Patel anyone else councilman russer yes uh I spoke the other day about how I believe that the budget has been inflated um which leads to over taxation of the public um but some other numbers that the public should know is is over let's say the last 30 years um our debt in the township was about $116 million um before this Administration took over and in the short three years that this Administration took over is now ballooned from 116 million to 182 million and at this rate it's un it's not sustainable a lot of these bill haven't come due yet so they're not going to show up in your taxes because this money hasn't been actually spent or allocated yet at this time so I felt uncomfortable with the amount of spending that we've done over the last three years and I do understand that we did have infrastructure okay but most of this money didn't go into the infrastructure and that's where my concern is if the money went into our infrastructure like we had with Suez where we had to put $100 million in and we did that um I understand that but that's not what I've what I've seen our Municipal budget too has just the budget itself has grown um I guess in the last year of the previous mayor we were at 150 million and now we're up to like 175 million so for all of Edison's existence when you look at it from a tax point right we started off probably with zero taxes when when Edison was first Incorporated um maybe it was 10,000 or $20,000 a year at the time and and the township has grown so I do understand you know the taxes going from there to the 150 million but what I don't get is how it's went from 150 to 175 or or it's grown by that amount over just this short period of time um so for those reasons in general um I'll be voting no on this budget that would be a council president thank you thank you Council MC rusher any other council members council president Council McCoy I just want to thank the administration and each department for handling this budget and also prior years uh of each department in their continuous revenues especially construction and zoning and and what they do it's my opinion that uh this is a solid budget for us I think we're set up in a good place for the following year and when it comes to our expenses of Revenue I think this administration's done a a great job it's my opinion that some members of this Council took on Su and I was happy for that fight and the fight was all about us borrowing $800 million the township going to take a loan for 40 years for 800 million why because at that time that Administration that mayor at that time felt that we should give up our utility our close to $40 million of Revenue to give it up permanently to another company from France for them to do $800 million of improvements so today I look at this in my opinion that much of this Bond much of this much of this revenue is the fact that we have a sewer utility today although it's in a good place and I believe we've done great things since that we have an entire department W that cleaned up and repaired over 3,000 issues to date we have a full Department stoneyard you garage fully ready to dispatch for emergencies for this town and I'm proud of that so however we look at it if you look at us taking on Suez and 800 million or today's between you know 116 in in debt to 116 in a budget to 182 that's our difference there you a majority is that and let's all look at the 30 years of Building Maintenance in this town nothing was done for 30 years and today walk around come through here I'm happy to take a tour with any public resident to meet them here on a scheduled time to the council president to the clerk and walk them through what's been done here I'm truly proud of that when it comes to Public Safety we've done a remarkable job of Public Safety improving the the streets and in the fight against Crime and home invasions and car theft this is a cost to the taxpayer to have safety our Health and Senior service are better than ever our improvements of those buildings as well better than ever so we are at a Tipping Point of going from nothing being done to so much being done so I'm truly proud of this Council since day one this new Administration taken over and all the great things have accomplished thank you council president thank you councilman coil any other council members council president councilman poter thank you council president I will try to be brief but I know there's been comments before that we did not elaborate enough on the budget so please allow me a couple minutes just to go through my thoughts first just as a general reference anyone that is interested as to how this budget will impact you if you go online to the introduced budget there is a userfriendly version on page 10 there's a table which based on your assessed value will give you what the differ IAL of this year compared to last year's taxes are that would give you what the financial impact would be to you you can find and if you're not sure where your assess value is go to the how toi Tab and under there you'll be able to find what your property's assessed value is the proposed tax increase for this budget is 2.52% when you average it over the past three years it's 2.96% Appropriations are being increased by 3.12% in the past three year average is 2.1 2.75% when you look at the projected uh inflation rates by the CBO which is the Congressional budget office they're projecting it at approximately 3.6% and the Consumer Price Index is from the past 12 years is at 3.3% so when we look at our other expenses I find that what we have spent this year versus what's being appropriated is actually with in line with what we would expect just general inflation cost to be if you look deeper into the budget some of the major expenses that are increasing include health benefits and insurity which is 1.1 million uh Social Security expenditures are increasing by 634 and this is because we are taking on more employees we have more expenditures on that if you look at just salaries and wages those numbers are not accounted in there um when we look at the revenues we're not accounting for the liquor license which which was uh just bid out and we're not accounting for municipal state aid which the past two years have been approximately 1.6 million those revenues will be able to add to the Surplus and next year be able to be utilized to stabilize the tax rate further in review of our departments um one that's not often talked about here because it's technically a board is the zoning board it's my understanding that in a recent application the board is actually utilizing its funds to get a third-party uh professional opinion on a matter now I won't go into specifics because it's a zoning board but when we talked about increasing the zoning board's budget last year one of the focuses was to make sure that they had the resources to be able to defend their decisions so I'm happy to see that they are actually utilizing their appropriation when you look at the engineering department we know that we've authorized a lot of extra projects if you go back to resolution I think it was 165 of this year the the contracts that we authorized in not to exceed limits if you compared that to 2023 the authorized amount for engineering for regular engineering Water and Sewer increased by $950,000 and the reason because of that is because we are actually going to be doing more analysis to be able to make the infrastructure improvements that we need to do if you look at police as my colleague at the opposite side said um we've increased our Personnel we're replenishing uh vehicles and if you think about the uh the crossing guard contract crossing guards is under the police budget right so we increased crossing guards salaries and I'm not complaining against that but it was a little bit so we could we should expect that that department has increase there DPW um look we had the teamster contract on the on the docket today that increases the yearly average again I'm in support of it however there is a backd amount so there will be incurred expense to 2023 is budget that is currently not not expended at the moment which we will have to carry forward Recreation we're doing more events than I think we've ever done right it's pretty self-explanatory uh and I believe that these events have a substantial positive impact for the community at large um additionally when you look at projects like Stelton School splash park the recreation building we're going to need additional Staffing levels in order for those projects to actually at the end of the day be fully successful so we have to make sure that we appropriate uh accordingly to make sure that they're successful likewise on the Health Department with the Toth Center expansion we're going to need additional Personnel to be able to um to situate that and if uh if and when the Edison Light Rail be U comes into operation we will need additional labor to be able to uh man or woman or whomever those uh those Vehicles Water and Sewer look we're under the ACO we got we have a lot of work to do as my Council colleague said in regards to our infrastructure here let's just be honest most of it was created in the' 60s it's dated it needs to be M maintained and needs to be updated uh and finally I like that the animal shelter does have its own U line item appropriation so that we can better um better be able to plan for that specific allocation I will say I do hope that the clerk's department does get an increase in the future in regards to utilization of surplus um look at the at the end of the day you may come up with expenses that you're not planning for if I knew at the beginning of this year that my AC was going to go out at the end of last week during the heat wave believe me I would have made sure that I was budgeting accordingly for that likewise and it's not good timing that my car ended up going at the same time likewise from a municipal standpoint we deal with those same situations in 2020 we had the pandemic that affects things 20 8 there was the financial crisis um which we know that that led to a lot of the debt um in the early 2010s because we had to bond out because of the tax appeals so having a reserve in my opinion is not a bad thing I'm gonna play my favorite game and I apologize for the length I'm almost done but let's compare to Woodbridge Woodbridge in their pilot programs is $26 million of Revenue that they uh incur for this year's budget Edison currently has $3 million 3.3 if I'm going to be more approximate um this additional amount when you look from Appropriations is why Woodbridge is able to spend more additionally if you look at the school funding aspect school funding did does not did not and I'm not I believe still does not account pilot program Revenue as part of what they use to analyze for their funding equation so that is a net benefit for Woodbridge woodbridge's total Appropriations is $26 million we're at $175 million if this budget passes take away the 26 million that I just mentioned on the pilot program and they are still at $180 million which is more than what we're currently appropriating and then if you look at their Surplus they started at 25 .6 million at the end of last year they are utilizing 20.12 6 million which is 78% of their Surplus we're utilizing 12.75 of 17.3 which is approximately 73% so we are in line I think with our closest neighbor who has always been complimented on what they do for their Township and what they're able to offer we are making improvements to get to that point and I think that we are well on our way to surpassing that uh when we talk about the debt that's been occurred we asked Ken here at the dis you know what level are we comfortable to be at he said in terms of debt to Equalization a 1.00% if this budget passes and the capital Bond passes we would be at 0.93% I would just like to remind everyone that 12.75 of that is with the Glendale property that's 7% of the debt that we've incurred that if it gets utilized for open space there's funding available to reduce that down or if it gets redeveloped those funds would be utilized to reduce down that portion of the debt um in regards to budget inconsistencies that's been brought up look in 2020 the budget was from a tax rate percent was increased 5% from Appropriations it was 6% I hate to say it but that was during the pandemic so if we're going to be criticized for doing this during economic upturn like let's just be real about it um I mentioned about the average in the last three years and I'll just go to my conclusion at the end of the day I believe um that the improvements of the services I've seen I've heard I believe that this is a fair budget one that continues to stabilize taxes as we aim to eliminate inconsistencies and year-over-year rates based on my reading of the budget I believe we will continue uh the support of the township Workforce and continuing its improvements uh to increase and improve the services to the residents of this great Township in conclusion I will be voting in favor of this budget thank you council president thank you Council poter for that Illuminating answer uh any other Council comments I last yeah so I'm just going to close this out before we do roll call as for me uh counc presid I I do have the comment I thought I don't want to I don't want to go back and forth I want to just move on because not like that it is based on the comment I heard you cannot give the misrepresentation to the taxpayer and this is councilman pel you're not recognized I'm sorry you cannot council president you cannot take the role call without having the council president the council Council you are out of order you you can ask the attorney you cannot stop councilman already you have already spoken on this subject doesn't mean that I cannot speak again I'm asking the permission to make order let the council explain you you've got it open for Council comment um he's only spoken once um I think that if he has uh further comments on the budget that you have to recognize him um although you know there is a concern about spending the next hour going back and forth I can understand that uh but I do think that you have to recognize him okay allow him to speak all right Council you recognized thank you sir this is my ninth budget by the way you can't unless you understand the Parliamentary process you should not stop a councilman thank you let me correct what my Council on the my right hand said about the utilities like the water and suar I don't think this Council has ever objected in spending in the infrastructure the $182 million debt we are talking about has nothing to do with the utilities we have 43 million debt for the sewer we have $14 million debt for the water that is completely separate if I add those number we are weigh somewhere $250 million so your comment was you know this Deb is more to invest in the infrastructure nothing to do with water and sewer that $185 million let me talk about the the stack tabulation cement on my left hand side it is said there is an inflation I understand that but if you look at what we budgeted versus what we realize there is a big difference if you look at the numbers right in 2021 we realized $3 million more than what we budgeted that's because of the inflation the cost went up our Revenue went up so that is already adjusted there in 2022 $5 million we realize more Revenue than what we anticipated in 2023 $1 million not one not two1 million so in all in last 3 years we realize $19 million more than what we budgeted that's your inflation that's an adjustment toward the inflation on top of that this year we are not telling the truth what we are telling is hey our tax is going by up by 2.5 or whatever that number is but we did increase the property value now if Ken would have been here I would ask him what is the net impact if you have kept the original property value that $1,000 what he mentioned it is more much more than $25 million so let's be honest and transparent my other thing is about the pilot or let me go before that uh in terms of the the Departments yes I'm very proud that all our departments are working very hard they are doing a wonderful job but that's a b in terms of the revenue in terms of the budget we already anticipated what our expenses are they're already budgeted there it has nothing to do with inflation what we are you know failing to do here here is is we are not using our current budget to improve the quality of life we are borrowing the money to do the projects good to have projects most to have projects I get it but where is that rest of the money that we are getting extra why we are not spending that on the quality of life related issues the last thing you know my council is say hey you know my favorite compare Woodbridge guys don't ever go close to Wood Bridge the services they offer the transparency they have the way the government operate is very different than what we do in Edison look at that do they get the flashy magazines do they have the pr firm how their Council Works how their projects works why the pilot works in the Woodbridge why this admission failed to bring the pilots I know the cman coil we have done quite a few pilots in past so we should in fact the we are saying that we fail to bring the pilots in this town rather than saying Hey would be does pilot that's why they have more money yes mayor mccor does a good job he works with the Board of Education he does the pilot project but he pays back to Bard ofed he build the free schools he build the schools without bonding the money what we have done in this town nothing so let's not go and say that hey we are super smart we are doing the right thing we are spending the money at the right places guys what what I feel is for the taxpayer standpoint of view if you look at average Spare Time point of view from 21 to 24 if you look at your net tax increase is more than 6% let's be honest and I'm saying if it done just acknowledge yes yes we need that money say that right but because our economy is growing we are getting more tax revenue than what we anticipated or what we budgeted we are moving that money to Surplus and I agree you know we need to have the more money to the Surplus but I completely disagree not having the enough money for the tax appeal at the same time so where we stand in terms of balancing your budget so let not say and you know Pat our back saying hey we have done the wonderful job this Council holds the responsibility we need to do our own due diligence in fact you know we couldn't I have not received the updated budget binder yet we are modifying or uh amending the budget but yet I don't have the the binder which should have been corrected by this time it should be on the council dies for everyone at this time but it's not there yet we are voting for the bud thank you council president thank you council president point of clarifications I'll be extremely brief Point uh when you look at the uh total Appropriations if we get more grant money we appropriate it so our Appropriations would go up based on that fact alone and that if we have more ratables in Township our Appropriations would go up accordingly um it was mentioned about the pilot program and I understand uh that's why I mentioned the the number taking out the $26 Million number and finally in regards to what I said about the inflation aspect I specifically started by detailing other expenses utilizing what we actually expended in 2023 um and applying what the figured inflation would be which if we spent 49.3 last year we would expect to be around the 50.8 that's currently appropriated under the Departments thank you council president council president thank you Council poter Council rusher yes um Council imp Porter did make a a point that if we were were to receive $40 million in grant money it would have increased our our Municipal budget by $40 million and we would spend that $40 million but the way that he phrased it made it seem like that's why the budget went up but if you were to take out the grant money from 2020 when the last mayor was here to now we've still increased it over $20 million right so if if I said it was 25 22 25 what I'm saying is over three years that that exponential increase is just a bit too much for for me to accept in such a short period of time you know with without getting direction from the administration or the mayor to tell us what his goals and those are um and this will get I'm I'm going to go back into that when we get to the bond that comes up um and I'll tell you why I'm disappointed in the bond but it goes to the same thing where it's not like we have a plan there is no plan that this Administration this mayor has there is no plan he has not shared it with the council nobody here knows exactly what he's building or what he's doing we still don't know whether there's basketball in the Jets field or not right there there there's so much that's left up in the air because he doesn't even share it with the council body here okay and like I said when we get to the bond I'm going to explain that because it's very self-evident that there is absolutely no plan so that would be it um thank you Council you councilman brusher all right as for me council president all right Council I'll just be brief I'll be 30 seconds I do appreciate all my colleagues in their comments my comments were combination of Revenue over debt and that today I'm still stand strong that I support the utility and I support the fact that today we have 30 plus million in Revenue that we' not have had we gave it to Suz we'd be giving up our Revenue ticket to somebody else and be 800 million in debt thank you council president thank you councilman Coy all right um okay as for me budget you can slice it any way possible as you can tell there's various opinions and various analysis of this but the way I came around on this is what up what percentage of the budget do we control 80% of the increase is already built in based on the contracts based on everything that the township is already committed to so all the budget 80% is already committed the only P the 20% that we have control over we have to do you know Public Safety Recreation we have to provide services to the residents I believe we are doing a good job we have have the highest number of police we have great events we have great Parks we're getting better and better our DPW is getting more efficient with better tools and better equipments there are old equipments getting replaced with new ones all of these things cost money and I think this is a fair budget you cannot have your cake and eat it too you have to spend money for the services of the residents and I think balancing the increases which as councilman pointer pointed out is 20 point 2.09% average for the three years is pretty good uh and as long as we can balance this and keep it steady I think people can understand the cost as the res long as our services are getting better uh toad Center we got the splash parks we have more events we have a lot of good services and better Public Safety happening so I'm okay with this so with that said Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher no council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member PTI no council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Batel yes all right um moving on to the public hearing for Sol solid waste any members would like to speak I seeing none motion to close the public portion motion to close the public portion second all right motion by councilman coil second by Council vice president uh may I have a motion to adopt motion to adopt second uh motion by councilman coil second by by Council vice president Council comments South yes Council MC Brer yes all I was going to say is is this ties together we we had money in there um that I spoke about that I don't know that we actually necessarily needed to do this $1.4 million Bond and we could have offset that way the the 1.4 million is for our Solid Waste right they're they're tied together and I think we had 1.4 or was it 1.3 in in like reserves or Surplus this came up when when we were going through it and what I was looking for was for the administration to amend you know the two so we didn't need to go out for such a large bond with that um since I didn't see that that change I don't feel comfortable in voting for The solid wage budget either uh that would be it thank you council president thank you councilman Brer any other council members council president I just have one question yeah uh is this next ordinance that we have for 1.4 million is that already included in the solid West budget is that the question yes okay perfect thank you and this purely deals with our uh sanitation department that's correct any overlap with DPW or anything with the sanitation budget solid was budget you mind repeating question is there any overlap in terms of expenses with the solid West budget with DPW which is part of our Municipal budget any overlap because it is under one umbrella there are some services that are associated with it so okay is is there again I don't need today but is there a way to quantify the service and its cost impact uh between these two departments and we can have that afterward but just want to understand what is the cost impact the reason is it does impact the public and private garbage districts if there's a overlap because DPW is across the town whereas the uh garbage pickup is only very specific to uh the section but you know I don't have any other question thank counc thank you any other council members all right seeing none Madam clerk roll call please motion to adopt oh sorry I think we did that council member brusher no council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes all right moving on to number eight unfinished business ordinance for further consideration public hearing and final adoption uh Madam clerk please read the ordinance Bond ordinance for improvement to the solid waste collection district and in the township of Edison appropriating $1.4 million therefore is authorizing issuance of 1.4 million bonds or notes to finance the cost thereof all right now it's open to public comments any public would like to speak to this all right seeing none motion to close the public portion motion to close the portion second motion by councilman Coy second by Council vice president uh all in favor I all right motion to adopt motion to adopt have a second all right motion by Council vice president second by Council McCoy uh Council comments all right seeing none Madam cler roll call please council member brusher no council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member po pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes uh madam clerk please read ordinance 2224 PL ordance providing for various Capital Improvements by the township Edison appropriating 28,45 th000 therefore authorizing the issuance of 27 M51 250 bonds or notes to finance their part of all right uh this open the public to speak on this ordinance all right seeing none motion to close a public portion please motion to close second motion by Council vice president second by councilman Coy all in favor I I all right can I get a motion to adopt please motion to adopt itive second second all right motion by Council vice president second by councilman pointer uh Council comments okay Council brusher yes uh this is where where I was talking about the the mayor and the administration are supposed to put together a list of um wants and needs um that they're supposed to come to this body and explain to the council members here the importance and the accuracy of what they actually want to spend that money on um consistently we have not had that um what what has happened is they have come up with what their vision is but then they they changed things along the way um and this has happened numerous times and in this Bond ordinance I don't know if anybody remembers back a few weeks it was a $29 million Bond not a $28 million Bond but in that bomb we were going to purchase the Jade Dynasty um for what I don't know but it was a $5 million purchase that Jade Dynasty came out of this Bond therefore this should be a $24 million Bond just using general math um but what we got back here was we got a almost the same $29 million Bond so when we say wants and needs you know if he was looking for 30 million if he wanted the 28 million and then he wanted the 5 million for the Jade Dynasty that's what he should have came to this body and explain to us and then taking that off and these are what his wants and needs are but what I see was he's like wow I got everybody up here that's going to vote for this and they're going to move forward with it and they don't care what what I put in front of them so I'll just spend the 5 million somewhere else and we don't really have a the want or the needs um I I don't feel comfortable also with all the paving we're doing we do have quite a bit of P Paving and I've been a big fan of Paving but I've also watched us do Paving and then a couple years later the roads are opened up so so why does that happen um is it a coordination issue I don't know right I'm it's not my job to make the calls to the utilities um all I know is that we've paid pav roads and I'm looking at roads that are opened up like throughout the town so because wasn't a want and need and this is what what's necessary this was just like hey I got extra money so we're going to spend it um to me it speaks of irresponsibility when it talks about a budget um and it goes back to the budget where I told you the budget was blow it and there's a lot of money in the budget they don't need the extra 5 million in here okay they could do that with the budget that they have um I sat down with my colleagues and the and the business administrator and I explained that I thought we could have reduced that by 9 million and and then we would have been bare but you know that's where I'm at at maybe six and my colleagues here are are higher right it's just a disagreement of a of a number so I don't blame anybody for that but but this year I do because this year should have been the 5 million off the top this is not like I have the council that's going to agree to 30 million and now that I'm not going to do this I'll just do something else so I just feel I guess offended as an elected official that I don't hear anything about exactly what they plan on doing right we want to do a splash park great um what exactly are you going to do in the splash park we get nothing on it I get a picture what can I tell about a picture my grandson does better pictures or is good so you know we don't get anything there's no input by this body or or I haven't found one counsil colleague that's been able to tell me that they specifically worked on any of these projects putting anything together so because of that yes I've lost faith in in the mayor and his administration to make the town a better place so I don't feel comfortable in voting for this Bond thank you council president thank you councilman brusher any other council members Council pres councilman Patel this Bond becomes so questionable as we know that we have $175 million budget roughly 70 75% goes into the wages and salary we still have 25 30% left which is roughly $30 billion plus historically we have always received more Revenue uh because of the rate increase in rateable and this is where I was talking about most of these projects are great that deals with the public safety that talks about the improving the facilities for the uh DPW that talks about the the flashing light that that I'm calling public 50 however there are unknown $1.2 million for carab Barton sidewalk yet there is no confirmation that that is good enough money to do that so I don't think that's a good thing I would have expected half of this one could have come from your regular budget and that is what I was talking about using the budget for quality of to improve the quality of life not Bond the money to improve the quality of life because we have enough money in the budget that is is available and that's how we are inflating our budget year over year you know we have our budget in last 3 years 17% up from where we were uh if this Bond would have further broken into different categories like for the paving for the public safety for DPW I would have probably supported some of them but not all of them hence because this bond is one lumsum money I never like to approve the lumsum money uh which is not really a great thing to do uh and hence I will be I will not be voting for this Bond thank you council president thank you Council M pel uh thank you um it'd be tough to put all of these uh capital projects into the budget when it's U it'd be approximately $4 million it it just be difficult in my opinion but personal opinion that's it um in regards to the game plan of the bond I mean we all received a budget binder in there was a capital Improvement plan that laid out on each of the items um what the anticipation was I will give credit in regards to the adjustment in regards to Amboy Avenue about that being um not included in the budget binder at that time however I frequent Amboy Avenue every day like I'm I'm sorry 1.8 is probably about right in regards to get it where needs I've I've dealt with the the flooding along Pleasant and Amboy I see the pavers that have started to dilapidate they've become uneven we've councilman Cole and I have discussed about in regards to um how the utilities are used right now how the everything's overhead whereas now a lot a lot of things are going underground so I do see where the appropriation will be utilized for the benefit of the Community uh if I look at all the line items and I won't go through each one uh if when I compare them against previous fond ordinances there are things that overlap Park improvements vehicle purchases the road resurfacing these are not new items so with that I will be supporting this thank you council president thank you councilman pointer any other council members do we have one question but to the engineering on this one okay uh thank pres through b if you can answer the question uh we have roughly how much is 2.4 million into cdbg funds uh Sonia if you know that is this money can be used for the carart sidewalk or any of those Improvement does the does the Clon section falls under the category that we can use cdbg f so actually the um mapping is going to be updated as July 1st so I can't give you that answer tonight but I can update the mapping um so if I get tell you yes or no that's going to change July first okay and that's because that's the type you know the fund we should be really use for the neighborhoods like Clara Barton to improve the sidewalks or something and that's what I I was in disagreement to include into the bond we could have done our due diligence beforehand but that's the question con thank you thank you Council P any other council members council president Council rer just just just two items um one I was wondering if um and when I tell you you know you get offended when you think that your vote is taken for granted um somehow tap into Edison uh local paper this morning I woke up to the Edison Council approves a$ 28.5 million Bond as of this second right now this body has not voted on it so the question is how could the newspaper have known that this was going to be approved I believe that the pr firm sends out a press release okay so I know they do they send out press releases and I think the press release got released a little too early but the perception was they have the votes so they're going to approve it so they took this body for granted and um as an elected official I find it disgusting is um probably the best way to describe that then when we talk about how great DPW is here and and I see the people here I don't I don't see Rey um but I agree they do a lot of work right but what I don't know if you guys heard what I just heard but what I heard from the other side of the DI here was Amboy Avenue has issues with um the the the little brick pavers that we're going to spend 1.4 million and this is my big problem with this Administration and this mayor right what we don't do here is we're not maintaining what we have right over the last three years we should have had people out there maintaining this and and this is not what they do the only thing they know what to do is to rip it out and put new in okay and like instead of having the guys build these great parties that we have if they would have taken that Manpower and put it on Amoy Avenue that would have been beautiful okay it would have been beautiful um so I disagree with my colleagues that basically we don't need to maintain things we just need to re rebuild everything okay because I came from I I live in a house that was built in 1967 um I've maintained that house if you came into it you'd know it was an older home but everything in the house kind of looks new um and that's that's just maintenance I didn't tear the house down and build a new house I I know that happens a lot here in Edison but that's never been where I come from you know I was a big fan of the Stelton community center right you you don't tear that building down you leave that up that's part of our history and then you refurbish it so yes you know back to this Bond um I believe there's items in here that aren't needed um there are items in here that are needed but the mayor and the administration never brought um anybody I know in on this body to say hey these are what we're looking for what do you guys think about each of these things the past administration did do this okay I was part of that I went into those meetings so I was actually part of you know what we were going to do to try and make the town better um and it's for that reason yes I'm I'm still voting though thank you council president thank you councilman brusher council president I will be brief first I want to thank my Council colleague for policing the news I only wish you'd police the news when they talk bad about me and exaggerate the truth so but I also thank him for considering uh the Jade D te being back in the bond um I know one will talk about that article ex exagerating the truth but when he has a chance to kick the football on the the the untruth he kicks the football but at the end of the day it's his opinion it's our opinion as we sit together but as my Council colleague mentioned John pointer of the various uh expenses for this bond that are in here but let's talk about the money that's being allocated today in a bond doesn't mean it determines that we given the mayor a blank checkbook to spend as he wants we are still the purse of the expenditures in this Bond there's still time for the public at each expenditure to come up to the podium and ask what we're spending it on in the details of that various expense so still there's another 20 rounds maybe 50 rounds of spending in this $28 million that you'll see here at the day that's fully transparent into the opinions my other Council colleagues have but here it's noted in 0224 2024 the various expenses and I'm truly proud to vote for this bound to move forward and and bring this town into an area that's never been before and improve so many things that hav't been touched in decades thank you thank you Council McCoy any other council members all right as for me uh I clearly see a need uh there is Need for public events there is Need for improved fire equipments for fire safety there is a need for traffic calming for residents there is a need for improved roads there is a need for pedestrian safety there is a need for drainage projects so that we don't our town doesn't flood uh there is a need to improve our Parks uh and as Council MC Coyle said there is always control this body always has control control over the spendings this is just a a credit essentially they'll still have to come back to us if they want to use this money so we still have control over this so I believe there's a need and in this Capital Bond there is money to maintain our buildings to maintain our equipments so all of this as councilman brusher asked you know we will be maintaining stuff as well so I am in favor of this ordinance and with that Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher no council member yes council member Harris yes council member PTI no for council member pointer yes council member shuel yes council president Patel yes moving on to number nine new business proposed ordinance public hearing set down for Wednesday July 24th Madam clerk please read ordinance 2225 an ordinance amending the 1 1000 IM Avenue Redevelopment plan in the township pursuing to local Redevelopment Housing law njsa 48 colon 12 A-1 all right uh may I get a motion to introduce uh I move this ordinance be passed on the first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday July 24th is that correct may I have a second second all right motion by Council vice president second by councilman pel any Council comments council president just want to verify that this is the development that is being designated for over 55 is that correct okay it's age restricted all right thank you all right any other Council comments all right seeing none Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schuel yes council president Batel yes Madam clerk please read ordinance 2226 an ordinance adopting 1810 Route 27 Redevelopment plan route 27 and Skyler Drive study area block 160c lot 18-01 pursuant to local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 48 colon 12 A-1 all right 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 Wednesday July 24th and may I have a second second all right that's motion by Council vice president second by Council Mel uh any Council comments council president Council pointer just as a general clarification because people who have been following this may have seen that originally there was uh another property on Route 27 uh and the shiler drive um which is included here at the last meeting we had taken the other property off that's why it's not in the title here and in the plan here it does not account for uh specifics in regards to shiler drive so this is pretty much pertaining to 1810 Route 27 just wanted to make that uh statement thank you thank you Council pointer for that clarification any other council members all right seeing none U Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Batel yes uh Madam clerk please read ordinance 2227 an ordinance amending toship code to add an address to the list of persons entitled to handicap parking space 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 Wednesday July 24th all right and uh may I have a second please second all right a motion by Council vice president second by Council M Morel any Council comments all right seeing none Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Cole no council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member app pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes uh moving on to number 10 public comments on the resolutions is open if any public would like to speak on to the resolution all right you okay uh you can come on out that this will be specifically to the ordinance I mean the resolutions okay okay am I recognized yes you recognized thank you I'm against all the resolutions through the chair to councilman pressure because he's the only one who gives answers to anything um are these all the liquor licenses in town on on the last page just just a small portion of them okay through the chair to councilman Brasher I just don't understand how they keep renewing these I don't have a problem that they're renewing them but when they need money they now sell liquor licenses they started at 800,000 and we we still don't have any marijuana stores councilman Brer so I just here we allowed an undocumented immigrant okay to come into this council with with barell bring a whole whole bunch of other people that we don't even know if they're documented and telling us in this and we don't even know if they live here in this town but to tell us in this town that we shouldn't have pot shops but uh through the chair I am talking cuz I'm I'm about to get back on this now the council president is is constantly awarding these liquor licenses so I mean we all know marijuana is safer than than alcohol uh a lot a lot of us either have family members or ourselves it's very difficult to stop drinking alcohol but so so why do we keep I don't have a problem with renewing the one ones we have why why are they giving out new liquor licenses and then they're giving it out to their friends but we here in the community that we' we've been waiting so many years for our our pot shops we don't even have one we're supposed to be generating Revenue just from the taxes from these pot shops and so I find it disgraceful that we're renewing these liquor licenses I don't care about renewing it but they're giving out the new liquor licenses all right they talk about health they talk about safety and they just EV every corner they want every corner to be liquor they want to flood this town with liquor you know that that's how I see it that's how I see it because if you have a problem G giving out licenses for pot shops I I'd like the council president explain what that problem is and and why do we allow a bunch of people to fill up this room not today I'm talking about other days you remember that day that the room was all filled up most of them weren't even Edison residents the person that led that charge ail Malhotra and undocumented doesn't even have his green card yet but wants to tell us the Edison residents that we're here all our lives it's dangerous for the pot chop how many pot chops do through the chair at the councilman brush how many P UPS do we have in Edison right now zero so the the revenue we're generating from those P from marijuana is also zero ABS absolutely disgusting how much time do I have Marina on the two and a half minutes two and a half minutes and and thank you for no one stopping me and saying that I'm off I'm not talking about the resolution you know I appreciate that so not one of these are are new licenses it's all a renewal they didn't stick a a new one in here right all right for R 346 can can you please explain to us why we need a to study that area after I speak of course because uh through the chair to councilman Brasher one one block away from this okay the mayor harassed the owner said oh it doesn't matter we're going to forc him to pay all all these legal bills um he tried to condemn that property okay and then now he's taking credit that they're about to build something on the same guy that he harassed that's about to build something something on it Mayor Sam Jo's taking credit for that I I I find that immature um through through the chair of the lawyer is isn't isn't that rather strange that you all these lawsuits were having because your Law Firm can't can't even tell Mayor Sam Joi proper legal advice through the chair to councilman Brasher councilman Brasher when when lawyer North grave was here I think the reason North grave got fired was because he always told Sam no on everything no it's not and then he would explain why it's illegal but it come it's my opinion that Sam doesn't like to be told no if you tell him no he'll hire another firm that's willing to tell him yes and that's his Law Firm no no Integrity no backbone to stand up to the mayor and and that's why why we have all all these lawsuits now so for R 346 um is this what is this what they do right before they condemn a property do a study time is up please sit down than you council president uh Council Brer yeah it's just that that are that was that where we were talking the other day about the resolution and the ordinance um because we have to do it by resolution to then do the ordinance correct that which sends it to oh uh to to Hank um to look at that's the process we do and and the liquor licenses we every town is allowed so many by population I believe it is and our population increased so so we did get some additional liquor licenses which we sold these are all been well established you know what I mean and as far as the uh cannabis we have approved a couple people I know that I've voted on them um why they haven't opened you know I I can't tell you they're looking for a different type of venue um there are venues available in the town maybe they don't have the maybe they're looking to have that like little smoke shop thing where what they would really need to do would be like an aarant Center it would have to be something quite larger you know and maybe they don't have the funding to do that um it' probably better for you to approach them and see if if they would transfer that license to you then you know if you can come up with the funding for it um that that would be it council president thank you thank you Council pressure council president Council pointer um just to uh reply in regards to who obtains any new licenses we go through a bidding process so it's whomever bids the highest at that point just to clarify um and I actually made similar statements during the previous round in regards to uh hypocrisy that we don't have marijuana in the township while we have liquor licenses here um so with that uh and just as a point of clarification uh while we approved the support from this body this body cannot authorize a license for any cannabis establishment that goes through the state so while we approve the resolutions of support we do not have control over the actual licensing granting thank you president thank you Council pointer uh any other residents would like to speak on the resolutions all right seeing none may again I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close may I have a second second all right motion by Council vice president second by councilman Coy all in favor hi I any council member would like to pull the any of the resolutions for a separate vote council president yeah Council vice president uh pull 363 363 okay any other 351 351 okay council president yes 343 and 345 okay any else I I don't know attorney is not here in fact I wanted to add the resolution to repeal the ordinance 2 215-224 uh which was for amending the H which we adopted housing by amending the section 17 looks like that's a very unreasonable ask and I when I read through it was not appropriate and I wanted to have that dialogue so I want to ask is there a way that I can add the resolution to repeal that ordinance the resolution to repeal which ordinance the ordinance o do ordinance 2215 d202 4 it's not here it's we already adopted this ordinance ordinance amending the chapter 17 housing by amending section 17 this is about the multif family apartment complex license license requirement so you can ask the council yeah so we are on the concern agenda know individual council member have pulled the uh resolution for separate discussion my question here is can I add resolution from the floor to repeal the ordinance o.2 215-224 which was adopted by this body I believe in on April 25th uh you can't do that by resolution because it's part of the municipal code you would have to introduce an ordinance to amend or to uh essentially amend it no it it's about the repealing the ordinance it's a resolution to repeal the ordinance the way we did it to repeal the ordinance and we send that to the planning board for Clara Barton the same way I would like to repeal the ordinance what we have here the way that we did that uh for CLA Bartons was through the um the permissive um procedure under the uh the Redevelopment law so that allows for a different procedure what you're talking about here is is the ordinance itself that was already adopted in order to change that ordinance I'm not changing I want to repeal so it restores if you want to repeal that ordinance you've got to actually introduce an ordinance to delete that ordinance or to restore the old ordinance or to introduce a new ordinance to amend it because it's not under the local Redevelopment law that that's the difference I get that but this is an ordinance you know what I understand by parliamentary process that the any ordinance can be repealed by this body without even introducing it can be done through the resolution and it can go to respective bodies it can go to health it can go to Zoning for the consideration I think uh we have the answer from the lawyer so we're going to I want to double confirm which is is fine and we can obviously take a look at that and see if I'm wrong uh but uh the secondary part of that is that um the Township Code uh strongly prefers that resolutions be introduced in writing um rather than introduced from the floor so but we'll talk about that we can discuss what you want to do how we can do it and we can get it done for you if if it's possible okay but that's a whole different process can we introduce without a resolution the piece of paper that's whole different thing but I wanted to bring to the attention to this body that either we do it next council meeting if not possible tonight but I would be in favor of repealing that ordinance okay Michael could you make that ordinance for us for repeal for us to vote on the repeal for it I'm sorry could Brer you recognize what's your question could could the attorney draft up an ordinance for a repeal right that that we could introduce at the next meeting yeah this will be not we can discuss that topic at another time is there any other uh resolutions that council members would like to pull for a separate vote all right seeing none so we have 343 345 351 and 363 PLL for a separate vote so the consent agenda is 332 to 342 uh 344 346 through 350 352 to 362 and 364 to 376 may I get a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve the concern agenda may I have a second second I have a motion by councilman Patel second by Council vice president uh Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member poer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes okay so we will start with 343 and 345 would you like to do it together or separate separate please okay so let's start with 343 I just wanted to provide uh additional context because I know myself and the council vice president had questions at Monday's meeting um while and to our attorney please correct me if I mischaracterize any of our previous conversation while the current property is a four bedroom unit they have applied for uh zoning and uh construction to add a second floor which would bring you up to the five bedrooms which is why um that answers our question about the four that we saw online versus the five that's before us tonight my understanding is that the funds will not be released until that is completed and be able to be verified that there are indeed five bedrooms there and that as part of that verification with the deed restriction at that point the funds would be released so I just wanted to provide that clarification if I misspoke or mischaracterized please let me know but with that I'm okay with this thank you council president thank you councilman pointer uh may I have a motion to oh you have a comment oh sorry Council p no problem I didn't ask for the three questions any you know who owns it this was on Monday is this approved by is it within the F criteria because I don't know why we are rushing to approve something which is not approved by the zoning board I understand that we not release the money but so the backup that was provided to you on Monday all of that was attached in terms of who the owner was and what they've done um what I did follow up with um our department is that there there was an application put in the zoning so they've gone through all of the processes that they needed to in order to get to this point is it approved application by zoning yes it is okay then that Sol the problem Zing zoning okay so with that are we looking to approve number 343 well we need a motion to adopt okay all right motion to adopt second okay roll call please council member presser yes council member coil yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member Schell yes council president okay the vote all right adopted okay councilman poiner 345 um thank you Council pres or Council vice president council president um there are items that I'm just unclear on so I'll be abstaining thank you okay all right can we get a motion to adopt motion to adopt second roll call please council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer stain council member schmuel yes council president okay adopted uh 351 who pulled was that you cman Brer 351 yes okay um I gave my comments at Monday's meeting okay all right very good um can I get a motion to adopt motion to adopt second okay second by councilman pointer roll call please council member brusher no council member Quil yes council member har yes council member P yes council member pointer yes council member schuel yes council president Patel yes okay moving on to R 345 we just did that yeah 63 that's mine um my question is I read today on Facebook so it must be true that um Richie sports bar is in the midst of a sale that they are selling ing this and they're pretty close to this being a done deal and so I'm wondering and that that what it's going to be turned into is not going to be a bar um do you have information on this um de tell you I I don't have any formal information on that from the owner um you're telling me you read it so that could be possibility but the license is a separate entity from the building anyway okay I can still hold the license in a pocket status so we have to renew it everything has been met to renew okay all right thanks all right uh with that may I have a motion to to approve 363 yeah motion to approve 363 motion to approve may I have a second second all right so motion by Council vice president second by oh Council all right um Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member shimu yes council president Patel yes we're done right now mov on to number 12 moving on to number 12 all right uh just a note I do have to leave a bit early today so Council vice president will be taking over and I will thank her for thaty thank you happy anniversary thank you okay water okay all right calling up Anonymous no I'm not I'm not I appreciate it am I recognized you are recognized I wanted to walk up while with this while Nish was here but okay happy anniversary Nish uh through the chair the councilman Brasher I I want to I want to address that flag over there in the corner um it's not the American flag it's the maritime flag I me myself I was never in the military so I when it comes time to pledge allegiance there there shouldn't be a gold Fringe around that flag it's it's against the flag code and you know we're supposed this is the law of the land the Constitution is uh the Constitution is uh no gold Fringe around the flag so as long as you continue to have that gold Fringe around the flag I I will not salute it I will not pledge allegiance to it and okay well I think I think Council uh council president Nish Patel wants to give one one warning I I think he was specifically addressing me um someone's out of order you can tell them they're out of order as many times as they want that that that's to give the person notice that that they're acting out of turn so that just seems kind of strange to me it seems like he's targeting somebody I wonder who he's targeting um I I really appreciate councilman Brer and councilwoman Margo Harris for the lovely remarks that that they made uh about the mask but we need to start making remarks as things are happening you you guys saw the cop chasing me around the room in the back the whole time I was being harassed nobody said anything about uh a uh simply a mask cannot be provocative okay if the mask is provocative through the charity councilman Brer is is my sweatshirt also provoc I too so you know it's what are we really doing here you know and I'm not the one who started wearing the mask you guys were the first ones starting to wear the mask not only he started wearing the mask when somebody wouldn't wear the mask you would harass them through the ched councilman breure the lawyer had a case law this the this lawyer brought up a case law that had nothing to do with me so I'm want to challenge him to an intellectual debate right now the case La that he brought up the person refused to put on the mask I wanted to wear my mask so how where does he go where does he go off taking that case law and claiming it applies to me the only the only similarity is that that they can claim is they think I'm obnoxious and you know how does it apply here could you name the the case law that you were referring to the reason why I was kept out the meeting uh lawyer so I can put that in my tour claim honestly I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head however it wasn't about the mask it was about the Quorum at the public meeting it was about disruption of the public meeting rather than whether or not you were wearing the mask yeah none of that applied to me so they just had that on the back burner to use it uh about the pr firm the pr firms uh put out that you guys approved some kind of budget you didn't you hadn't yet approved through the CH councilman Brer do you think that this PR firm could also put out the fake news articles on me possibility possibility fake news that was put out it definitely was fake news it definitely was fake news um so so that's all I have that day was very dehumanizing very demoralizing all of you all of you on that day said nothing the cops are chasing Ching me around the back of the room none of you question why was I being chased around the room why did I have a cop standing right here I I was standing over there by the by the camera why why did he follow me across the room and and just stand in in in intimidating posture you know um I'm disgusted by that I'm disgusted that the that the lawyer allowed all that to happen there's no reason for it and how much time do I have left a minute and a half a minute and a half so at at the very end you know all right they didn't recognize my time to speak but God forbid 10 seconds or 20 seconds 25 seconds I just ask what La what law and through the chaos through the Havoc through the confusion that they like to create I have to sit down right away without even out of order nobody ordered me out of order nobody slammed on their gavel um other people who who didn't have the floor then interrupted the meeting to order me out what is this what is this speaker has one minute and anyone can explain what that is you guys know people are allowed to wear a mask when they come in because you guys threaten people for if you didn't have the mask on that you'd remove them so I mean what what's provocative about this what what's provocative about it you understand and through the CH to councilman Brer I know this is the anonymous mask right away they started creating this narrative that guy Fox was some kind of religious extremist that went around blowing up you understand and they were trying to tie me in with this guy Fox guy I didn't even know who the hell he was you know so it goes to show you their MO motivation it goes to show you their intent um if I was just some Indian kid put on the mask would they have harassed me the same way I don't think so I don't think so thank you Anonymous you're welcome anyone from the public here to speak hello sum Malone Barber Pleasant Avenue Edison thank you um hope everybody's keeping cool this brutal heat um I just have a couple of requests that I don't think really is the council's perview but maybe Sonia can um take them there is a giant pile of garbage for the last three days on the corner of ambo Avenue and pleasant right in the crosswalk um we don't know where it came from maybe it fell off a recycling truck it looks like a bunch of wet cardboard but anyway if we could send someone out there it's pretty big um and then um I have a request I think councilman PTI brought this up a while ago is there any way to increase um the recycling pickup uh schedule it's getting increasingly hard to hold all that garbage for two weeks so just a formal request um maybe we could um um sprinkle in a few extra pickups in a month um and then I wanted to talk about the minutes I see we approved three minutes but I actually was right there are no minutes posted this will make four for the year so I know I understand the constraints um in terms of personnel and and people being overworked but I I do feel like we should be trying as as we can to get those minutes up it's been six months and there's no minutes so um and the reason I'm saying that is because that is a um it just reinforces a lack of transparency so okay did you want to ask me a question no we'll see what we um with regard to I'm sorry and just if they're notos so as long as they're approved I can't hear you say it again just if if the minutes have been approved you can always call her office and get a copy of them um if they're not posted it's only uh yeah I mean I know but but it's again it's just about the lack of transparency I mean the administration is always being accused of a lack of transparency and um I know it's not the administration it's the council but I just feel like you know not posting minutes it's the law and we should try and do better I know everyone's working really hard I'm not being accusatory but I do think it's something we probably shouldn't scrimp on hire a couple temps get them up there um okay and then lastly I wanted to talk about um 1810 Route 27 the Redevelopment plan how does it happen that we have the resolution to send the Redevelopment plan to the planning board on the same night that we actually adopt an ordinance approving the Redevelopment plan um you can imagine for me clar Barton residents it's pretty sensitive topic um because we've been asking for Amboy Avenue to be fast-tracked and we're we're promised July um but that's four months and again you know hopefully no no applications come through for four stories but um how do we do that for some things and not other other things and I I guess my direct question is why was that fast-tracked and why couldn't we FastTrack Amoy Avenue so the planning board's already seen this because we we adopted the um the ordinance before we even approved the resolution sorry sure Council the the ordinance itself wasn't adopted the ordinance was approved for putting up for hearing and adoption right it was first reading yeah first reading was done um okay once first reading is done it then has to be sent to the planning board they may or may not have a response by the July meeting but that that's where that went oh that's Wednesday July 24th I see okay okay that's still pretty quick YY it's also under a different section of the Redevelopment law than what we're dealing with with Amboy Avenue but that's or not Avenue um and there's different rules depending on what section you're under yeah it's a it's a fairly significant statute okay all right thank you okay coun did you want your did you want your uh the questions about the garbage and recycling okay if I if I me um about the garbage at ambo Pleasant and this kind of piggybacks on what I was saying at mon at Monday's meeting with regard to the trash that's been strewn about in including Amboy um and and uh actually octar contacted me about this as well okay um any uh anything we can do to get this out of the way Sonia with regard to the garbage that's on Amboy and pleasant and which the request has been already sent out to DPW as we were here okay thank you okay and then the question about increasing the recycling pickup schedule increasing the number of pickups is that what you're saying yeah I mean we're right now they're every other week um and for a while that was great but there's so much recycling now [Music] um just I I we're kind of strapped ready to buy another can what would what would that require um in order to look into that so we can look into it I can't necessarily promise it is a a pretty tight schedule however the recycling center is going to open and that's the opportunity that we're going to hope that you're able to take things um over that would be awesome that would be that would be fine too that that's the plan so there's a solution all right thank you Son thank you councilman Brer did you have something to say yes there there two items um minutes for the meeting um does is a clerk's office fully staffed no no if the clerk's office was fully staffed could we get the meeting minutes yes yes okay what so okay so so and and i' and I've noticed that it's been under staff why can't we hire someone is it is it a is it like um do we need a special PhD to um be able to do minutes or or like what is the what is the hold what's the process of hiring someone in the clerk's office because the the clerk works for the council if I'm not mistaken and and there's nobody on this Council that would disagree with hiring someone is it that they don't put an ad out for people I mean what's is there's a problem right there's obviously a problem the publ came they've spoken about it and and I don't know really the answer to to where this is broken um so how does this get fixed Council vice president if I may so um with regard to the minutes that is the responsibility of the clerk um having worked in the clerk's office I understand the way in which the minutes are written now um it's a it's a preference you don't have to write a Verbatim there are motions um so so we can always find Solutions and certainly make some adjustments to those minutes it's again it's a perview of the of the council if you wish to to write minutes in detail that does take time um and not necessarily an attorney can elaborate if that is really required that you write that level of detail so it could shorten the amount of minutes and time being spent um the other with regard to the hiring certainly we have been working on there there we've interviewed folks um I know um there's been some recommendations I can certainly follow up with human resources see where they are with those candidates um but there's several components and I don't necessarily um think that there's a a one thing that you can point necessarily to that but but I guess what I'm saying is how how long have they been underst staffed is it three months or four months or is it is it is it two years I mean I'm I'm asking I I don't know about a year I would say Cheryl or so um are Oprah requests are are just take up a lot of time and so so human resource is your problem whoever is running your human resource for a year can't hire someone in the clerk's office to help with all these things well let me we we did make some offers she knows and then they didn't it didn't work out so I mean we go back to the drawing in this past year that just didn't work out is it a union uh it's a union position so you don't have an offer right it's whatever the contract is right where we're obligated to to to that contract okay so let me let me ask you a question because because anytime I've applied for a job right I never went through the whole interview process met with human resource done any of that and then when they offered me the job and they told me they were only going to pay $20 $1,000 a year right shouldn't human resource have listed the salary on the application when it goes out so that the the person you you like I mean everybody here has to accept that this is broken if it took a year to hire someone we still don't have someone and I don't know what the process is and I really don't want to get into it right can can I get a time frame as to when we believe we can get someone hired because if we don't then um going to I'm going to send you a whole bunch of emails right we'll get it from your resource we'll find out where the problem is who's not doing their job and why this isn't happening can we get at an approximate date and and and I'm workable you know if you want to tell me two months Sonia I'm good I'm you know what I mean but I I need something because this isn't the first resident that that is asked I can get you an update fairly sooner than that so so we'll we'll get somebody on board within like two months that's it I hope so okay all right so I I put it in my phone thank you thank you Council vice president yes um I disagree with my Council colleague I think it's observed for him to believe that the clerk's law office is not function because of one person I've been here today I've been here nine years I've had three complaints about the the minutes it's the workflow choice of the clerk it falls on the clerk whether she likes to hear from you or not her priority of how she suits to to detail the work in her office and the work flow in her office we've raised salaries in an office we've had good people there no one Department gets fully staffed all the time every time it's not the one person of why we're not doing minutes and that I'll never agree with if all's on the clerk it's Cheryl's responsibility to have this happen if she feels it has to be delayed it's your choice there's not a single person we've never a crowd of people say that the minutes aren't done this is videotaped it's online it's fully online the minutes yes relevant to many people we've had so many people who understand it few complaints so I I don't listen to anything Council brush Council BR says it's just wrong he's just beating up the administration on another opportunity because we didn't hire someone it's wrong it's dead wrong and it falls on the clerk one more thing I just have to say and you're welcome to rebuttle all you want uh as far as the complaint on Amboy Avenue the tra before that large amount of cardboard is picked up I would hope that the Zone would investigate who put it there threw it out across the the sidewalk carelessly not just a few boxes it was like a a truckload of uh boxes just dumped there so I'd hope that person be find I don't want us to pick it up right away I want us to investigate who dropped it there cuz it's just wrong it's totally wrong on how they just did that and it should never happen I hope they get fined and I hope we before we pick it up we investigate who put it there because it's labeled it fits an address and the person of the address put it there thank you Council vice president president yes um just just for the public just so the public knows right this was um a difference of opinion right um my opinion is that if a staff a Department is supposed to be fully staffed it should be fully staffed I do understand when you don't have people our DPW was under staff for years and many things went by the wayside okay I recognize this it is up to the clerk to decide what's more important than another and what has to wait I watched a DPW director up here come up um Jeff we had and the council would ask him why we can't can't do this road why we can't pick up that garbage and the answer was he was underst staffed so where I'm going with this is my Council colleague seems to think that it's okay that you don't get your meeting minutes it's okay for you not to get your Oprah requests but here's the difference between me and my Council colleague okay I I had a business for 30 years it was very successful he ran his into the ground so who do you want to follow want to follow my advice or bankruptcy boy all right I'm I'm going to I'm going I'm I'm going to stop this right right here we're getting personal now please please take this this is a point of order please Mr PR he Co he hasn't had his license revoked councilman Coy thank you thank you take this offline WR for him to character Co point of order assassinated yes character all right nothing but an obstructionist there is no character in your body enough all right anyone else from the public here to speak and post next week what license license you joke name excuse me gentlemen gentlemen point of order gentlemen thank you yeah my name is Samba gangula I live in partar wood so new Ed so I live in Corner Community I've been coming Excuse excuse me can you hold his time maybe you should call a recess I'm not going to call I am not going to call I am not going to call a recess I am going to ask you for the last time to preserve order here this gentleman is is speaking and you're going on and on that's unacceptable thank you sir you may go on so uh I live in uh parted Woodbrook Community Edison so uh I'm planning to do uh rebuild my home as it is attached uh home so for that uh zoning requireed attached home authorization letter so that authorization letter my neighbor is not willing to sign so I spoke to the planning office and boarding of board of planning board and joining officer gym so and also I spoke to aay p and other people last few months so they advis me to make an amendment to the uh the authorization letter to add a condition to has a time limit for the you know neighor owner to sign the agreement so that's what I just I'm suggesting you to make an amendment to the form that is only way for a neighbor like me which are impacted by the neighbor which are not signing the document so I need your help to make an amendment to the form but I have the form just to can you okay we this came up at the last me a couple meetings ago where where are we at with this okay actually this goes to um I think I think this goes the clerk would would make copies of this the clerk the clerk can make copies of this okay he's he's got enough copies though do you okay all right give them to the clerk um okay so what's what's the status of the situation with the form okay so that falls under the zoning um it's a civil matter so not necessarily anything that this body um would um make any decisions about so the attorney can elaborate in terms of the application that he's being make making or rather Amendment okay Council do you have a specific ordinance or code section that they rely on to to do this did you get that information from the planning board attorney or any of them a joning officer told me that there's a condition in the sale deed but I don't my sale De doesn't Okay s has a condition that a neighbor cannot uh sign the you know hold the agreement for a long time right he he has to be that is specifically written in the SED which is with the joining office so we've discussed this a couple of times before in that the the real issue that you have is that your property is deed restricted right and I think the last time that I talked to you there there was a question as to whether or not there's any actual ordinance or or aspect of the code that this council could address that would have to do with the time period by which your neighbor has the right to respond um to the the the form letter that zoning puts out right and if there's not then the issue is that this is a a deed restriction that you have um that you bought into um and that your neighbor is holding up for you which for our purposes becomes a a civil matter um that is outside the purview of this Council to effect now if it's just a matter of this form and this form is controlled by the ordinance somewhere and I'll reach out to the planning board attorney since this is I think your third time here and you still don't have that information for me um I'll reach out to the planning board attorney and ask him if there's some specific aspect of the the the planning board ordinances or if there's something in the in the Z zoning ordinances that says that that we have any control over that outside of your specific deed restricted instance then I can make a recommendation to the council but uh all I have is the knowledge that you have a deed restriction in this form that gets Pro promulgated by zoning in those instances where you have a deed restriction yeah so yeah I think let me one comment here so so this form was introduced recently it is not existing you know previously it was you know introduced only about 5 six years ago that time um the form was considering you know um all the condition which are written in the sale deed right so I just want to I'm requesting right because there are few people are impacted right M the majority of them are okay to for the neighbor right almost 40 houses have been built last few years only houses like you know three or four people like me was been impacted because of neighbor is not willing because of so many other personal reasons and my understanding is that it was introduced because people were ignoring the deed restrictions and then the zoning board would approve things not knowing that there was a deed restriction or that they were essentially not honoring what their neighbor might want and so this form as I understand it is simply to notify zoning before they can give you an approval or make a determination that you've done everything on your end that you have to do with respect to the um conditions of the deed restriction that you have right yeah that that's my understanding to to why it was created if you don't get your neighbor's permission though and without seeing your specific deed restriction but my understanding is if you don't get your neighbor's per permission doesn't matter what the zoning board said you still didn't abide by the terms of your deed restriction which is why I don't know that this council is the place to to assist you um so I will have to reach out to to the zoning you said the zoning attorney who told you to come talk to this Council or the plan zoning Officer Jim right Jim told to you have authority we'll talk after right the gentleman's time is up thank you so much thank you okay yes ma'am council president if you want me to make the remark because this gentleman hasn't here for four time I don't think it is the responsibility of the homeowner to research and find what ordinance and what resolution that this body might have adopted I'm very familiar with this matter for the property when the resident is buying the property there is no de restriction on his own purchase however for that entire neighborhood there is the blanket deed restriction so when these residents are buying the property they have no idea this neighborhood has any deed restriction and I have looked at his deed I have gone through it I spoke to zoning officer this Farm was introduced you know I believe roughly five or six years ago in fact I was involved back then the whole idea was instead of the resident coming to the planning or zoning board and spending time and money while they are within their framework in terms of f they they should be simply getting the consent from the neighbor should be that so this is how they became the form I think this body again it's up to you or the administration to look into what is that ordinance or what is that process that this governing body whether this governing body uh adopted or maybe the zoning department themsel decided to come up with this form so that the interest of the the neighbor is safeguarded so I would say that we should do our due diligence rather than asking resident because I know he's frustrated and there are three more residents who are frustrated they keep calling me but I keep telling them hey you have to talk to zoning officer I spoke to zoning officer he said councilman this is the form if you want this body can recomm and changing the form and the whole idea or the narrative behind this was hey you know send registered letter rather than asking the resident send a registered letter if the if the the neighbor has an objection he would respond to that letter saying I do not approve that was the whole idea there here that you know the poor neighbor you know now this guy has to go to neighbor and knock the door and you know beg him to get this approved this should have been a very systematic way of you know mailing it and you know if they don't respond in 30 days 45 days hey you have the blanket approval or we should should not go with this process we should say guys because there is a de Deion go in front of the zoning board and maybe their attorney will send the public notice the residents and the neighborhood can come if they want to oppose and the application should get approved so they are penalized for nothing and that's where you know we need to do our own D thank you sir thank you very much okay yes ma'am The Best For Last or the last for best Janette Kamal Jack Edison I'm probably meaning to talk to Sonia or as Sonia um I'm asking about the over at the senior center the coordinator senior coordinator that we had and we don't have no more because she quit um probably over four years ago I mean four weeks ago uh is there any chance that we're going to get another one is that in hired or we're going to get another one nobody seems to know uh before we had had um Judy for the longest longest time then it took us maybe over a year to get Judy replaced I was just wondering how long is it going to take us to get Sonia replaced now uh Joie yep so um she she resigned for she moved out of state so not not that I but however we did find someone um and they will be starting um after July 17th oh that's very good very good thank you very much okay sure okay thank you very much I any rebuttal okay seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close the public portion can I get a second second okay council president before you adjourn would like to congratulate for 23rd marriage anniversary thank you councilman wish you good luck okay thank you okay can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second this motion this meeting is adjourned 9:09 p.m. thank you very much have a safe and happy 4th of July