mayor i' like to call to order the work session meeting of the mwood park mayor and Council for December 7th 2023 to order at 7:00 p.m. on roll call we have council members Dennis here folo here gbec here peline here Sheridan here council president biseri here mayor klei here we have a quorum thank you chenet good evening ladies and gentlemen there you go now we're on the same page uh we have an interesting night ahead of us here uh we are going to be swearing in a new officer which is always a great moment for us here in El Park but first we're going to ask our chaplain to bless this meeting our Creator God first all heads B Eternal Father in thank you thank you for this day thank you for the privilege of allowing us to come together father God here at this meeting there's going to be some decisions that has to be made will be a lot of discussions I ask you right now to invoke your presence invoke your loving kindness here because you're welcome here we just thank you we honor you your majesty and your dominion and we all say amen amen please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you where as a chapter 231 of the public laws of the state of New Jersey require at the commencement of every meeting a statement of compliance be read by the presiding officer now therefore be advised that the meeting requirements for this meeting have been met by publishing a special meeting notice in the record inh Herald news and by posting such notice in the office of the burel clerk as well as in a public place within the municipal building and also by notifying interested citizens said notice was posted and transmitted on January 6 2023 and published on January 10th 2023 mayor for our items we have one Standalone resolution we have resolution r- 44323 and through you may I will read this resolution by title only appoint police officer Danny Magano may I have a motion on the resolution so move second any discussion Calla roll please first by F solo second by peline our roll call we have council members Dennis yes folo yes goabc yes peligre yes Sheridan yes council president biseri yes motion carries at this time I will ask for officer Danny to come forward with his family to be sworn in by mayor klei alongside Chief fno and police commissioner uh councilman folo are we shrinking or sir I you do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey that I will be a true faith that I'll be our true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the Saint to the same and to the governments established and the government established in the united states in the United States and this state and this state Under The Authority Under The Authority of the people of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform perform all the duties of the office of all the duties of the office of police officer police officer according to the best of my ability so help me God according to my best ability so help me God [Applause] congratulations that's Council comments I will start off with Tanisha officer Danny I cannot pronounce your last names I apologize I just want to congratulate you and thank you for choosing Elma Park as your home um you're joining a wonderful supportive team here and I wish you luck I pray for your safety and I just want nothing but the best for you congratulations Mr folo councilman congratulations offer uh officer Magano and your family I tried um you come highly recommended I wish you nothing but health happiness here in umw park you're joining a force that's Second To None uh they're truly a very integral part of our community so I wish you nothing but uh safety out there and uh all happiness and all you do in life thank you thank you councilman councilman gobec thank you mayor officer magino all the best uh congratulations on your appointment um I hope you stay safe have a successful and rewarding career here and I just ask that you serve uh our community with Integrity every single day thank you thank you councilman councilwoman Terry Sher thank you mayor officer dny I'm not even going to tempt the last name I just want to say good luck congratulations um make us proud and be safe thank you councilwoman Lorraine pelen yes congratulations Danny wishing you a safe and successful career here Welcome to our team and Welcome to our Elwood Park family thank you last but not least council president Cy Biser congratulations and welcome officer Magano uh I want to just say that you are joining a police force that I always say is second to none I wish you much happiness here in your career and God bless and stay safe always thank you councilwoman well we uh you are joining a great force I'm pretty sure you know that by now uh you look at your comrades there uh the RO very respected uh we have two different types of policing in this town that merge into one and that is a police officer that's community-minded and also the benefit of having the safety of the public and also the officer uh you have a chief here that is second to none uh he is demanding but he's also he's very humane if I I can use that phrase uh when he has to be uh but uh so you you stay on your toes young man I I know you're going to do well and welcome to the [Applause] force uh this concludes our public portion of the work session at this time we're going to move back to the room to conduct our regular work session meeting and the public is welcome to join us yeah I think we should yeah I I think we're going to stay in the chambers if that's right with the council uh because of the crowd out there I'm fine with it all right go go get your F I'm okay then I'm we'll pause the recording so we can go get our stuff okay we never yeah they got come back andri they got to wait mayor I'd like to reestablish a quorum for the December 7th 2023 work session of the EM park mayor and Council on R call we have council members Dennis here poo here gobec here kreen here Sheridan here council president Valeri here mayor klei here we have reestablished a quorum thank you Chen uh ladies and gentlemen I'm about to open this meeting this work meeting to the public I do want to say up front that we have some issues here tonight and I'd like for everyone to be respectful to each other and civil anyone from the public here to speak on any matter whatsoever at this point please come forth we need your name and address you won't correct me if I'm wrong Mike they won't have an opportunity to speak during during our meeting this would be the time correct that's correct mayor at the second public all right Kenny come on I hey turn the button on Ken how are you Kenny good good good to see you how you doing I came to tell you there's 20 lights out on maret street are those lights you want to put in and public service came and they looked at them they couldn't get them working are you saw I'm trying to fix it okay yes well if Public Service can't get them done we're in trouble do we know what's going on with that mic we sent the work order in two days ago I guess they came out to evaluate it today and they're on it so we're waiting on them but there's 20 they're the only game in town so I count them there's 20 we counted them too we sent them a list with the poll numbers every single light and they came out and they're going to get back to it okay one is missing a glass to yet we told them yeah and anything me tomorrow you're going to wrake the Christmas tree up I'm sorry Kenny I didn't understand you tomorrow you're going to do the Christmas tree we we in the Christmas tree tomorrow I'm going to be there you're coming yes all right I'm going to help you okay yes Mike we got to get him into the uh ceremony it might be too late for that mayor but I'll see what I can do okay all right thank you all right Kenny yeah thank you all right oh one more thing that we is a lady back way the parking lot back into the car in the one of your uh fire cars that was in the parking lot and hit it I saw it and nobody no cops around no cops around when you need them right right all right what when did that happen Wednesday Wednesday night Wednesday did you report it to the desk no I didn't do nothing but I just see something say something I know but I just say to you it's not that much damage the car I looked at the car okay but he she had a little damage but she didn't care did she hit did she hit anything with the car yeah she hit your one of your your cars she hit one of the cars yes we'll check into it oh yes and that's where in the parking lot here yes I we'll get him I don't forget I seen it I know I he seen things in front of my house so I guess see things in the pocket lot that's the good about it I'm inan a pocket lot did you notice what type of car it was yeah it was a r like um a read um one of those uh uh big big the like you know big van like like yeah big V USV that's it on Wednesday right yes and happy Wednesday night about 9:00 all right we'll take a look h all right Kenny thank you y Sergeant Woods you got that got anyone else from the public here to speak yes Clarity will the public speak at any other time at this meeting no this is it this is it no it's not at the end of the meeting wait wait wait there's another public session at the end at there'll be a second public yes okay but while we're going through the agenda no one could speak okay okay yeah okay all right at this point then if nobody else cares to speak I will close the public [Music] portion okay mayor first up on the agenda we have a Redevelopment request from CSG law firm uh in reference to 99 Main Avenue you can come forward well good evening uh thank you for the opportunity to be heard mayor councel uh my name is Mike Plum I'm with the law fir of CSG we represent 99 M LLC that's a property that our client P maano holds the TA tax certificates to um well let's see let's see if we need to uh he's here uh with his environmental consultant Eric shower from Peak Environmental um uh I don't know how much background you have on the site uh the property has not been used for about 40 years it was contaminated by a prior owner which is bankrupt uh we're trying to get the property redeveloped there's an opportunity for there to be some Eda funding by the way of tax uh incentives uh for an entity that redevelops the property um all we're looking for right now is a letter of support from the municipality stating that you support Redevelopment of the property that'll give us an opportunity to acquire some tax uh credits uh which would then be used to offset some of the cleanup costs associated with the property now we understand that in the future there will be land use approvals required we're not asking for land use approvals tonight we're just asking for a simple letter that would say that the municipality supports the Redevelopment of the property uh that is we're requesting that because by regulation it is an element of the application process for the Eda funds the pro the property uh is not a tenable Redevelopment site without this incentive uh so the uh letter would simply allow us to move forward with our application for Tech credits which would then allow us to take a property that has been unused for 40 years and make it a usable site again and the use would be an approximately 6,000 square foot office space with a lay down area behind it um and that's the proposed use obviously uh there's land use approvals that would be required in the future so that's sort of the background and what we're requesting and I guess if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them and again Eric is here if there's any technical questions mayor if I may uh I'm just going to refresh the council's recollection on this matter if you remember way back uh 99 Main Street was a piece of property which was contaminated it was purchased by a tax certificate the individual at that time came to before the council requesting assistance in a sense that he was trying to clear the place up un realizing that there was approximately $2.5 million in leans by the Department of Environmental Protection I uh in an effort to intervene and assist a potential land H owner and avoid potentially lawsuits uh in this matter I requested the Council to authorize me to attempt to negotiate with the D together with the applicant to negotiate the lean and to see what can be done to help him along we worked on it for about almost a year and a half back and forth several conferences with the team over at the D I took special time off to take care of all that with assisting them participating conference es correspondences back and forth a ton of email a ton of paperwork that was reviewed we have to argue and so forth so I was I believe in some in some part very instrumental and attempting to negotiate the lean which it happened the D negotiated they worked out a deal which was very amable to Mr manano and the property owner now putting the property back on a tax role which the de gave up their lean but with the understanding that he was still contain continue to maintain the cleanup portion of it now this part is something other than and that was resolved which I'm very happy about and very happy that Mr maano is now a good owner and is going to be paying taxes on this property which for 40 somewhat years there was no taxes being raised uh now they're asking for some help which is a letter uh authorizing or giving them the authority to apply for particular funding and tax waivers which I am in the process of reviewing and I'd be more than happy to continue to review it and I don't see a problem with the the letter of uh support is a reasonable letter that they're requesting and I think that would only build up the particular property and raise more tax revenue okay I just want to give you the background and I made you thank you thank you uh for bringing us up to date the request is it is are they asking for the council to designate that for redevelopment no and to go through that procedure no mayor it's it's they are there it's a letter which G is given to the uh department for uh development in order to say with that you are supportive of the development of the property you're not designating it they're not doing anything okay okay it's just a supportive letter okay does the council have any problem with that I have I have a question yes please so sir you're you're you're stating that you're um that the property owner wants to redevelop it for a 6,000 ft office type like a commercial uh more of a commercial industrial type thing uh it'd be a 6,000 ft office space and then with a lay down area uh for the balance of the property do you have any objection if the town's letter like has language that it's not endorsing this uh for any kind of residential development at this time no we don't have any objection to that we don't have any residential plans but why don't we let uh Pat speak to that I just want to clarify if I could um thank you for the clarification uh the the one thing I would say is that that that2 plus million D lean um goes away once we move forward so we're still in this applic ation area and I only say that by way of if it falls apart then it's there for the next guy if if we can't make this part but you you didn't answer the councilman's question I I I said that I'm going to let Pat speak to that because I want to make sure that we give you the right answer okay yes my name is pasal meano and U I purchased this uh tax lean at a bid that was In This Very Room not uh not knowing you know what I was going to get to uh because I couldn't get any information from the the uh town clerk I proceeded with the and I became the low bidder in this particular tax lean so going forth we find out that uh there is a a a 2,200,000 in change of a lean on the property for work that the p did to clean up the area I understand that that there was a big uh Factory there years ago which uh uh I guess they produced the Soaps um liquid stuff which uh they put into a a little Swale that's behind the property and uh the DP went ahead and they cleaned it up uh as much as they could and then this came about with the tax sale so my plan is I dealt with the DP for about three years ever since that tax lean and we came to an agreement where uh I paid their fees whatever they wanted and um uh they um uh they required I think two years or 3 years of monitoring the monitoring Wells which are there now which are are pretty clean I mean my consultant from uh peak development from the Nova group they could tell you a little more about that so they forgave the uh the lean that they had on the property and they required x amount of dollars to uh to spend to complete the final cleanup take takes about 2 years to continue doing that and uh like I said Mr Eric slou he could explain more about that and my plan is to uh to build an office and a garage to uh uh operate from uh that particular property Mr meano the the question that was posed was do you have any intentions of converting that property into a residential not a residential no thank you absolutely not and I have one question you're still within that twoyear window of cleanup so you haven't received no further action letter yet no it's um in reality it's not cleanup it's just monitoring the wells that are existing gel if I may it's not a matter of cleanup uh the the deal that was struck with the DP was that Mr maano would be responsible in maintaining monitoring the property which I was uh involved with with regards to Garfield which is the Waterworks that's what they're concerned with and there was documentations that was provided to the the that the contamination has been less and less showing with the monitoring so it was working out very well where Mr Mao continues to monitor for two years they will wave ping fees so so s regarding the town by us agreeing to uh give give them the nod for the Redevelopment we are not taking on any liability of for this uh property none whatsoever mayor okay and I would never I I will eventually get the the finalization of their application to review uh and I will make sure that the town is not in any way exposed to any kind of liability very good Daniel you had a question I would just I think our correspondence to whatever agency should be very clear about what we are supporting because and I'm not doubting your intentions but you know if the town sends a letter says we support the Redevelopment of this property and someone buys the property someone else the property in 2 years and uh our let's say our COA situation is up and they want to put 200 units and they say you support the Redevelopment I I just want to protect the town to a tea because when this subject came up with all due respect sir I was at the tax sale when you bought you know when you were the lowest bidder and we had like six or seven properties on there this was the biggest one I drove by it and there were like three signs that had like you know like you'll die if you enter you know and and you came to us and said I had no idea what I was buying so I I just really want to be very clear about what the town is endorsing in our letter I support something good there something with taxes but I don't want the town to to to put something generic and then regret it because we've had issues where we take people's good faith word I.E marow and then people do other things so that's all I have to say okay and just to add if I if I may respond to that sure just just to add some uh Assurance I guess is you know what we're suggesting the letter would say is something to the tune of you know uh we support the Redevelopment for a 6,000 square foot office space with a lay down area for this particular property and we understand that it will be subject to Future land use approvals um and so I think that covers both of your concerns okay any any uh other questions by the Council no mayor I support um the the letter of support and also concur with uh councilman golc on the assurance that the town needs uh and I also want to commend our burough attorney for his hard work and in facilitating this and and I wish you the best any other comments okay yes absolutely just have one question is that property zone for office yes zone for office oh yeah office okay if it wasn't and it became a use variance and the council's recommending the office it wasn't permitted use that well we do want to make sure that you know if there are going to be land use approvals required in the future we we completely understand and we're not asking for any type of prejudicial decision now regarding those decisions right well all we we just need to get past this first hurdle and we understand that land use decisions will occur in the future and if they are uh if if it requires a variance um you know we'll go through the proper steps to try and get that variance and we're not going to get any tax credits along the way unless we're re redeveloping the property so this gives us the opportunity to move forward to the next steps and I'll I'll just say we appreciate that this is a awkwardly drafted regulation because it requires at this stage a letter of support from you that will later require um decisions right other decisions are required in the future but as for right now it's simply a letter that says we support this and the regulation just so you understand the regulation says that we have to send to to the Eda a letter evidencing support for the project from the municipality so we'll send that in if we can cross this hurdle then we'll deal with the land use approvals in the future the letter is not prejudicial to those decisions was going after that if this was not a peruse and's uh testimony and you produce a letter that says the council endorses the office use can we do this Tom a pered use yeah that's it contingent on the permitted use or to go a step further include in the letter this is you know not prejudicial to Future land use decisions right that's fine I'll let jorney gear that but the use issue just I just want to make sure we don't get somewhere we don't mayor just for the sake of the count Council being aware I have been uh in contact and speaking with Mr cresy who was the actual attorney before and continues to be unfortunately he's broke a leg or something that he couldn't be here or it's like and then we may have to shoot him because he broke his leg but that's all right one way or less is not a problem uh basically mayor I have a discuss with him wording with the letter The Proposal I am going to before anything is done bring the letter A formality of the letter and that the letter will only only address the support of the application for their approval for development not in any way approving the development always subject to zoning requirement planning Board review Zoning Board review everything that is necessary they have to still comply with nothing is given away for free okay is the council satisfied with that all right thank you gentlemen good luck moving on to our second item we have affordable [Music] housing now can hear me okay great uh good evening Dan hin DMR Architects uh we're the uh buroughs planner in a number of aspects including uh as of earlier this year affordable housing um I I always like to try and start off my conversations about affordable housing with a little bit of background I'm not going to go 40 years back but I'm going to go maybe about what is it five years back now 2018 the burough uh entered into a court approved settlement agreement with fair share housing center uh which established uh the um Burrow's affordable housing obligation according to the uh the uh Fair Housing Act and the uh regulations of the uh the moribund COA as have been preserved by the courts um it laid out a number of uh tasks that the burrow has to uh fulfill in order to uh remain immune from Builder remedy lawsuits until July 1st in 2025 and uh just as a reminder a builder remedy lawsuit is a uh a legal action that a developer can take uh to court where they say that the municipality is not meaning its affordable housing obligation and therefore court please uh essentially uh uh negate the burough zoning as respects to uh my property so that I could build a much larger uh residential project than uh the zoning would otherwise allow um so uh the burrow has uh adopted a affordable housing plan uh last November December J of 2022 uh that plan was adopted by the planning board um and uh we were brought in uh earlier this year to finish up the other requirements of the affordable housing process so that we could continue to protect the burrow uh from these Builders remedy lawsuits um we uh uh so you know have until March uh end of March uh 2024 to submit a number of documents to the court uh including some that I'm actually here tonight to discuss uh namely uh to start off the affordable housing uh uh Rehabilitation and administration services that uh you have a resolutions uh I guess before you either tonight or later this month uh to adopt and I'm here to explain what that actually uh is so um there are uh there uh programs that the buau has to um has to to uh oversee as part of its obligation one of which is a rehabilitation program which offers um funds from the Burrows affordable housing trust fund to low and moderate income households to rehabilitate their housing units the uh burrow like virtually every town in Bergen County is eligible to uh well I guess the residents of the burrow who are Income qualified are eligible for a similar service from the county however the county service only uh benefits um homeowners it doesn't benefit renters and so what that means for uh municipalities like Elma Park is that you have to have your own program which is open to both rental households and homeowner households uh realistically uh renter households rarely get the actual benefit of these programs because it has to be uh initiated by the property owner um and the uh the uh uh I guess the security that a property owner has to put on the property is a lean of 10 years uh in exchange for these funds the lean make sure that the particular unit that is benefited by this project is uh can't be uh rented or resold uh at a market rate it has to be re-rented or resold at a rate that is Affordable to income qualified households so you have to do a program of 32 units for that and there's also a requirement to set aside a portion of your affordable housing trust fund for what's called affordability assistance uh and what that is is a extra measure to ensure that um income qualified households that are uh renting or purchasing affordable units uh can uh uh more easily afford those units so usually this is in the form of some kind of a security deposit uh protection or a down payment assistance uh which many towns including um I believe what we're going to do in elet park uh treat as a revolving loan where at the time that the household moves out of those units they send the money back to the trust fund to be recirculated back to Future households so in order to administer these uh programs you have to appoint an administrative agent this can't just be anybody this has to be someone who has uh gone through the proper training and is certified as an administrative agent so uh per the uh the resolution that I believe has been circulated to everybody the buau is looking to to appoint uh Community grants planning and housing cgp and as they're commonly called they're very reputable they're used in most of the towns that I work with um and they would administer these units they would make sure that the uh money goes to the proper uh households the proper units uh and what they will also do is as new affordable housing units come online in the burre uh they will take on the responsibility for most of those units of making sure that again proper households are putting them uh that they are being charged the rents that are required by the state um and uh just ensuring that the municipality is complying with its affordable housing obligation there's a few other resolutions that uh we will uh either uh be sharing with you to adopt later this month or next month um depending on uh how some things work out one of which is uh to adopt a spending plan and that is something that I'm preparing and what that basically does is it tells the court we have X amount of dollars in our affordable housing trust fund we anticipate based on some realistic expectations that we're going to get this amount of money this is what we're going to spend it on to comply with Our obligation um and uh so we just need a resolution from the council approving that spending plan which will be circulated uh within a couple weeks if not tomorrow uh there has to be a resolution of intent to fund and what that basically means means is it's a resolution stating that if for some reason the spending plan does not anticipate uh the realities of how much money is coming in or out of that trust fund uh you will do what you need to uh fund the uh commitments that you have made which in this case mean uh mostly uh funding your Rehabilitation project or any projects that you might be uh choosing to fund with your affordable housing trust funds you also need a resolution to appoint a municipal housing lead on and that is essentially someone who is the designated person in the municipality to uh be on top of affordable housing matters uh remain in contact with the administrative agent and uh developers that is typically um a clerk or uh administr or administrator occasionally it's a CFO but typically it's Clerk or administrator and let me just make sure I'm not forgetting anything here sounds sounds like you're asking for everything including firstborn I'm sorry it sounds like you're asking for everything including the first born you could keep your firstborn I I have one kid that's enough um oh and then there's one more there's a resolution in of the council endorsing the 2022 housing element and fair share plan that uh was apparently never adopted that just has to be done at this point let me ask you this in terms of the fair housing share or machine are we in place right now because there's some developments that are coming up and they're concerned about their fair share paying their fair share so um through because of the settlement that you signed uh years ago you earlier this year had to adopt a an ordinance that uh states that any new uh project that creates five or more units has to set aside their a proportion of those units for affordable housing so um uh there are more that are going to come online just by way of that um I know that um we're working with some of these redevelopers who also provide affordable housing just so that we are meeting the intent of that settlement um but uh What uh otherwise based on the settlement agreement and your plan you are compliant you have a yes you have a a prior round uh uh the PRI round obligation which is what they refer to as the COA rules from 1986 in 1999 you have units that are that are meeting that um and uh you conducted a process called a vacant land analysis for the third round which is basically the year 2000 to 2025 where uh we basically made the case to the court that burough doesn't have any land to produce any large projects minus uh things that it might uh do through Redevelopment um which uh basically said the kind of it limited the Burrow's responsibilities to just rezoning and and to the riverfront and River Drive projects which uh one of those is constructed one of them is in the process um so provided that all of the units that are in our settlement agreement continue to be uh legitimate which is part of the process that we actually have to approve to the court by March end of March uh you shouldn't have to do anything um if for some reason the projects are problematic which we're still trying to make sure they're not um you might have to to come up with a remedy um and uh that remedy would be soon to be discussed I guess as needed all right thank you um do we have what he needs s are we there prepared to yeah uh with all du respect uh Mr was working on this thing and IED up and when I was appointed for the first time 2019 where I realized that there was an issue of the finalization of plan and we've been working on to final and it's been a work in progress which has been between myself and Mr car Dan how we've been really away at this to make sure that the ised of the situation finally we have scenario where everything is in place there's no issue okay well Gentlemen let's get it done because we we have some projects that are be coming in and I I don't want us to be lagging uh to slow down that process with the developers if I could have been done yesterday I would have been done yesterday I assure you uh there's things that are other than and these resolutions which I think we just have to uh you know dot the eyes cross the tees uh they'll be those are should be adopted if not to your late December meeting early January other things were involv um unfortunately depend on the uh responsiveness of people outside of the buau and outside of the fair share housing center and the courts and the special Master advising the courts um so um we are I'm calling I'm emailing everybody but we're so but fingers crossed we'll be done with this before the end of March all right thank you we'll do all we could to to support you thank you very much any questions by the council moving along he moving on to item three we have our CFO Roy Rano to discuss the budget good to see you at night R try not tonight you look better at night feel better good evening so I usually come in December to give you nothing but good news but tonight I have some um not so great news but we'll be covered this year's uh budget we're not going to be able to uh make the entire budget which means that the transfers that you're going to see come in the next next two weeks are uh there's enough money to fund those transfers but we're still going to have a shortfall that shortfall is because there was nothing that this Council or myself could do um we've been working on us for about a month now I was hoping we would not have to do this um resolution which will be before you uh it's being prepared by Steve rogert and Willcox the ad administrator myself and what it is is basically a multitude of um disasters that literally happened financially uh we had many many uh without going into detail and sto me uh under Hippa but we had um employees officers that have been injured um as a result our workers compensation um had to be paid out to those people literally Act on the job our insurance premium as you've been reading all along has gone up we've had assessments throughout the year um we've had overtime um normal but it was a little bit higher we've had some situations in town that I guess the chief you can do an executive session on those um when you put it all together um the the amount of money is going to be around a million however we have had those reserves put in place in January before we did this budget this year which you all know you all know um so that is not going to be detrimental to the 2024 budget the reserves are there the revenues are there um so that's the good news so going into 1124 um will be F in we'll be picking up those pieces and moving forward that's where we are I never want to give you a resolution May until I explain it so that'll be coming in about two weeks yeah now that's not good news uh but let me ask you something what does that do to the projected taxes for for 2024 we knew when I came here back in March April that there would be a tax increase how much we still don't know we don't have final numbers mayor but it will not be zero yeah well these this has always been my concern with this year especially we didn't have that grant money coming in and I was very concerned about a shortfall and taxes going up this year lo and behold that's what it sounds like there'll be an increase but we did project that last year when we did this budget yeah well we got to do a better job that's what I say that's what I have anybody have any comments Roy anything else you want to say nope um as soon as we finalize these numbers there'll be a resolution before you um it is a statute and law that I present that to you um and from that point on again I'll leave it at this we're in a very good financial position we have the deficit but we have the funds to fund that deficit come next year so so basically you talking about these funds what is it the reserve money we have we yes we have res we have plenty of reserves in many of the accounts um and when you many years ago nothing to do with you today but we always had a rainy day fund yeah we have that rainy day fund mayor yeah usually in in November you transfer anyhow correct that's and I have enough money to transfer the majority of those accounts okay um the accounts which I rather go into executive because they do come under Hippa okay okay all right so it so it was nothing to do with anyone on the de myself these are um very extenda circumstances okay we won't go into that in okay yeah thank thank you one yes go Mr do you know the the council has awarded several retail marijuana licenses that allow a 2% local taxation yes how helpful would that those kinds of funds be to the financial picture of the burrow well I can't count that high they are that extreme good um literally speaking it will be public uh record town next to you did a100 million on Route 17 that Township is getting a million four this year mayor I think you know why I asked that question absolutely you you answered that question because the planning board denied an application on a corner of Route 46 in mola drive because of traffic situations now the $400,000 that would be coming from that that specific entity it would be well appreciated but at what expense to the town so you can't bring this up here now and saying that's what's causing a shortfall when we had a year ago enough time to prevent this just by tightening the belt if I'm not mistaken it was four extra cars on that corner in the peak hour just to clarify there was no impact of traffic after two traffic studies yeah but look the plan our traffic study and their traffic study came in saying there was no impact of traffic and they still shot it down there was eight seven members of the planning board who disagreed with that so what is the function of the planning board it's another checks and balances to our government I mayor my point is not I didn't get into that part of it whatever because it's an ongoing thing my only point is there is real money on the table that should be coming in every month and it's not okay well it means what you're saying has no bearing on anything because it never materialized you're going on assumptions of money that's coming in that's going to offset the the EXP the spending we're doing that's what you're doing you're spending money before we got it anything else Roy I have um mayor may I just say some of the comments that Roy made are things that were beyond our control when he mentioned workers compensation insurance premiums overtime things like that I don't think that the council could do anything for these expenses so to say we didn't tighten the belt or we missed the ball on something might just they should have been anticipated to a certain degree I can understand if it goes over that anticipation but there should have been some anticipation we can't anticipate workers compensation claims going up and well how much did they go up the million dollars no some people talk about an executive but control about $300,000 mayor well that's a big piece it's huge that's a big piece and I'm going to say it again publicly no one on this St it's or myself or the administrator it's none of our fault that we have this deficit well not listen you take care of the numbers we give you the numbers I'm not we're not blaming you for what's going on here I'm just saying that you have in anticipate of not getting a grant like we had in the two previous years I foresaw taxes going up next in in 2024 and I i' been preaching that from the day one to to this Council let's hold back on the Reigns a little here this way we don't have to raise the taxes and this as far as I'm concerned there's no reason why we should raise taxes when we have our our tax base is being broadened as we speak you have to but what you what we have to do is as the tax base broadens then we spend and keep it at zero that's been My Philosophy from day one it's never going to change and it works but when you get a 25% increase in Insurance when it's a three and a $4 million bill mayor that's why we have the issue it's a huge amount that you never experienced I never did I'm not arguing that I'm not arguing that that that is like you said that's perfunctory that's something that happened out of our control but there's areas that were not being conservative in that could probably offset that a little bit that's my point okay anything else that's enough okay yes have a good night thank you moving along yes now we have item four we have the engineers report item 4A the monthly status report I'm going I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mr Thomas L manowitz from Alo engineering okay thank you um going to go through my report uh I know there's a long agenda here so I'll try to be uh uh efficient um item number one is the cdbg road program that work that design work is underway for bid um late winter or very early spring so we get the good prices and get that uh project completed as soon as possible um tax map update is underway I understand there was a we had our first submission with that for the state to review and get back with more comments uh item four is the Elmer Drive Park um that PR did not um find any uh I'll call them red flags so we'll be providing a proposal for the January meeting for that Park design I'll just want to sit down uh with the bureau uh and make sure we have the scope of work uh nailed down uh as you know that the the Grant application was based upon a concept um that I just again want to polish up a little bit before we start doing a proposal um number six the road Burrow road program is essentially complete we've got some striping we got some punch list items uh there is a payment for that project on the agenda today uh we had some issues with the contractor's numbers and making things work and I I did send uh actually two versions already uh unfortunately there was one more typo found afterward I didn't want to confuse things by adding a third uh the corrected payment is a little bit less literally a few hundred less than what was in that original report so you're not going to have an issue with the certification of funds for that payment but I do have a new copy that I will give to the burough clerk um with those new numbers and the uh uh accompanied paperwor next item is uh number 10 which is uh mola Boulevard tap coordination uh the Trap the Tre tap coordination is for a lighting project from philli to Broadway uh that project is being administered through GPI uh we understand that the state sent the bureau uh an agreement that they needed sign however it doesn't seem to have made it to the uh to the right hands and uh we've asked for a second copy to be sent however this time we we asked them to use the uh up the UPS account so that we can track pack it because a DOT doesn't do that uh they just send it in a regular mail um number 11 which is the m Boulevard lighting that project is essentially is essentially complete the only thing we're waiting for there was for pscg to actually put the wires and the lights in um and that contractor uh has agreed to do the side curb and sidewalk work across the street here at the end of an rer he'll be starting there probably next next week uh next item is item number 13 which is the uh the traffic signal at River Road and River Drive we did go to a meeting with the county on that they proposed a roundabout um we had our traffic people look at that and are are not recommending that because the roundabout was very small um and tractor trailer trucks uh would literally have to ride across the um the raised island in the middle of the rotary trying to get around that and we didn't feel that was appropriate uh particularly if you get into car carriers or or or construction trailers the low boys uh it would cause issues with them hitting the island uh and the island would also have to be plowed in the winter which would cause another issue and it just was too tight so we're we haven't gone much farther with that I've asked for another meeting to move that forward Tom can can we just get a a signal light there that that was the original intent mayor um they uh the the county came up with this roundabout kind of out of the blue um there are places where it works however in order for it to work there we'd probably have to purchase um the property uh of the restaurants to make the circle big enough to allow the type of traffic we expect to safely get around the circle okay that's because of the different roads the way they're merging at that corner de well it's not so much that may it's the fact that a tractor trailer truck needs room and the the circle on this was so tight that the larger tractor trailer trucks which we would expect from the new Warehouse from uh the maral property uh to go around that Circle the trailer would almost be to the middle of the circle just because as a as the tractor makes its curve the trailer act obviously has a different radius and it would be halfway across the island trying to make the turn Okay so you've got you you've got it's a raised Island so the truck's going to be moving it's just an awkward an awkward situation uh as the trucks make that kind of turn they're going to slow down because the the trailer wants to tip so it's going to it just uh it was just found to be too tight uh to do that um next item is uh the Municipal Marina Park improvements number 14 um we did submit the D permits uh we're expecting preliminary comments once we get those um if there as long as there are no major um comments from the DP uh we'll go ahead with a proposal to do the no I'm sorry we already have the final design we'll go ahead and get the the bid document started I don't want to get too too much into the bid bid the bid documents until we know the D is not going to come back with something um excessively expensive or or or make ask us to make a major change to satisfy their requirements so I'm kind of holding back on that till we get the a little better more response from the um some of the other General items we're dealing with some issues with complaints on the Turnpike Authority there's an issue of water and there was recently an issue of lighting that we're dealing with um with respect to number 17 the railroad crossing removal uh a railroad crossing up around 449 Market that Crossing is going to be removed the rails are going to come up um I talked to the county about uh supporting uh in some way uh that the Burrow's requests for the railroad to also uh close in the gap of this curb and sidewalk uh they the county said that they are willing to give their support uh in a in a non-cost form because they reminded us that the sidewalk even though it's a County Road the sidewalk is the bur's responsibility uh so that's something else we're going to be pursuing those are all the new items on my report uh I skipped through and just dealt with the new items if there's anything else i' be more than happy to answer any questions any questions uh by the council I have a question please um we went past the turf project and last time we spoke about it it was like we didn't have a date yet and there was supposed to be some conversations about changes to the plans to fit the budget with the new contractor um it says here that there was a meeting on the for do you know what those changes if any changes have been decided yes I completely skipped over that I'm sorry that's the biggest thing I have on this report uh the we did have our preconstruction meeting um Tuesday I believe it was and the contractor is starting to move his stuff in now the uh the the the contractor did offer some suggestions of reducing the budget and that is what was uh negotiated with the bureau uh we went through their list of what we'll call Value engineering items um and we agreed with some of them we disagreed with others but we also added some other uh uh cost saving items uh when all is said and done at this point we're actually lower uh than the cost originally agreed to by the by the contractor between the contractor and the burrow we're actually I'm I'm going to take a guess at about 100,000 less uh because of how we move things around so we do have a little more fluff in that um we'll be expecting we're expecting the results of the testing the soil testing that the B that the contractor is obligated to do we're expecting that back in a couple days and depending on how that comes back that'll tell us if we can then um use the allotment that was set aside for soil disposal so uh you're going to see action out there uh there's some action out there now they have some equipment they're moving in and some materials but that will be moving along very shortly you're going to be seeing a lot of action out there until the weather closes in uh the turf field is not uh terribly weather uh dependent obviously if we get a foot of snow it's going to slow us down but they can get into some pretty cool temperatures uh before they have to stop work uh so we should be able to get a good deal of that done um get that moving along fairly well okay um I would like to see a list of what the changes are just to compare what we've been looking at versus what the final project would be and then my other question kind of says he does it anticipate a completion date of April 1st um I don't know if any contingencies were discuss what if we go past that date how do we address that with our our Sports programs and things like that was that part of the conversation the the the contract documents actually have uh a time frame on it which I believe is the first week in March they're supposed to be complete oh was ail right again they they there was some discussion on that I had to go back after the meeting and and talk about um and review the documents but I believe it's it's March uh obviously if we get into weather that's going to be extended but um Mr Warren from the recreation department is is is involved directly involved all of this and we are looking at scheduling and making sure that we're ahead as far as moving things around any other questions for Tom Tom real quick I have uh one item uh I think going forward with when we pave roads where the new pavement meets the old pavement after about a week or two we get fraying on the scams I think we should have included in the price for the the total job taring of those seams well they should they shouldn't be coming up it should be tacked and when they do that joint so if there's stuff coming up um on the edges and I didn't do the last walk yet for them I'll look for that because if it's coming up then that's another issue yeah but even though yes they're knitting in the old with the new you it's still you don't get a perfect there's there's some hills and Deals and that causes for the fraying to occur so if we made a standard procedure to T those those horizontal edges um what could the cost Factor be we spend a million dollars on Paving it could be it's negligible right all right I will I'll look at do you have a particular location that you're seeing no I think I just standard procedure going forward okay but is there something in the paving project that yes yes well you you will Stone a you come on Stone a you'll see that but and that should that should be the same condition throughout the town I agree I just if there are something's particular I want to look at it to make sure no I I just think it's it's a better even though they attack the they attack prior to Paving if you seal that edge with tar that that gives us some that puts two three years on that specific spot before we have to repave again okay we can do that and it the cost Factor should be minimal I agree anybody else have any questions for Tom if not Tom thank you very much thank you we won't see you right uh for the new year right no we just have our work we just have one more regular meeting then one public meeting and then so you have a a a great holiday yes and everyone also please have a safe and happy holiday and uh obviously we'll be around moving along yes mayor we have item 4B current estimate number two for the 2023 Road program any questions or discussions okay moving on to correspondence we have item 5A Bergen County Utilities Authority public notice any questions or discussions okay item 5B Bergen County Utilities Authority Solid Waste Amendment they are adjusting the solid waste cost any questions or um discussions okay item 5c we have proposed holiday schedule any questions or discussions okay item 5D we have the proposed meeting schedule for 2024 any questions or discussions moving on to resolutions we have item 6A resolution to redeem third party tax lean any questions or discussions okay item 6B we have resolution to refund overpayment any questions or discussions I I have a question okay it's it's it's a lot that that we're looking at here so and I don't know if you can answer this REM sh um one of them is for marel and yeah it's over $100,000 so the question is do we have to return this money or can it just be held and applied for the next payments as a credit that I would have to check with the tax collector about I'm not sure can we can you find out for yes it's a significant amount compared to to other reimbursements that we've done okay I'll hold off on that overpayment and um pull it out [Applause] okay any other questions or discussions okay moving on to item 6 C affordable housing rehabilitation services any questions or discussions item 6D affordable housing Administration Services any questions or discussions item 6E we have the towing applications the ones that were approved any questions or discussions item 6f we have items of Revenue and appropriation any questions or discussions item 6G we have handicap parking request any questions or discussions item 6h we have cannabis approval recommend recommendation for culture craft cannabis any questions or discussions item 6 I we have cannabis approval recommendation for Treehouse dispensary LLC any questions or discussions item 6j we have the Bergen County Utilities Authority service agreement any questions or discussions item 6K we have the third quarter fire department stien any questions or discussions okay item 6 L we have a vacation buyback any questions or discussions item 6m we have the building department refund request any questions or discussions sure sorry so they apply for a permit and the company goes out and does the work the homeowner cancels the contract so we have to give them back the money the work that they already completed that I am not sure I have to ask the construction official it just kind of read that you know the homeowner um cancel the contract but if the services already rendered why are we giving a refund uh I think it says prior to this work being perform maybe I can answer that for you councilwoman uh the particular refund is that they did file for a permit to do it the owner changed their mind they didn't do it so they didn't do any work yet they hadn't done any work yet so that's why they're asking for the refund back okay also Shai real quick uh for 6 L we usually get an amount on that um I'm not sure this time it wasn't included or I haven't received one yet I can um email it to you guys before adding it all right thank you okay hold on okay then we have two items that were just added under resolutions we have item 6n endorsement resolution any questions or discussions can you just give us an overview of what it is um it's a property in Elwood park that is going that is applying for a cdbg grant and they're asking the burrow basically for permission to apply for the grant and the resolution is endorsing it to say that's just format just a basis to get them appr thank you you're welcome any other questions for discussions okay the other item added was item 60 fire department clothing allowance any questions or discussions yes one is the stien and then this one is the clothing allowance sorry okay moving on to departmental reports we have item 7A Recreation Advisory board meeting minutes from September 18 2023 any questions or discussions okay item 7B Library board meeting minutes from October 16th 2023 any questions or discussions item 7 c monthly court report for October 2023 in November 2023 any questions or discussions item 7D Millennium strategies monthly report through November 2023 any questions or discussions item 7e we have the building department monthly report from November 2023 any questions or discussions moving on to Applications we have item 8A American Le Legion applying for an instant to start in January 2020 2024 through December 2024 any questions or discussions we have item 8 B from the American Legion for a bingo to also be held from January 2024 through December 2024 any questions or discussions okay now we have item moving on to item nine discussion for the fire department Mike you want to take the lead on this uh yeah I'm going to call up uh labor attorney artbo welcome Marty are you good okay um I know some of you have received uh emails from the chief uh Chief ligno relative to an incident that occurred um in the fire department in early November the question for the council is uh does the council want to hire or bring in an independent investigator to look at the incident why it occurred um how to prevent it in the future and how to avoid future liability to the burrow um the fire department purported to do an investigation but from what we can tell the investigation entailed a review of video um and written statements and while that may have been a good start to an investigation you can't actually investigate it an incident unless you actually talk to people and question people um and that video uh that is available and that was provided to you raises lots of questions that should have been asked to the driver of the fire truck um and to the other members that were on that truck when it pulled out with another M of the fire department Still Standing uh within the bay and near the truck so um you know I'm of the view that this needs to be looked at uh you heard from Roy ratano that your workers comp bills have gone up had that firefighter been injured and unable to work in his um private employment you pick up the worker's comp for that um he gets covered under your comp Bill uh you also have liability for negligence uh if there's a determination that the driver or someone else was negligent uh and that exposes the burrow uh to liability so I would suggest that you take a look at that determine if you want someone else to come in and take a look at it um over what was done by um the fire department itself questions thoughts so so in a nutshell what what are you saying that um procedures were violated here here or I'm not suggesting that procedures were violated what I'm suggesting is that I don't think that there was true investigation done here you had uh individuals who looked at a video and and read a written statement and didn't ask a question you know when you look at the video and you asked the driver the vehicle how did this happen what did you see when did you see it right what did you know and when did you know it you know that that famous line mare um none of that was asked because it was just in a written statement they just accepted that written statement evident and then reach conclusions and the conclusions that were reached could never have been reached simply based on a written statement um and you have those um conclusions and and and more importantly it's like well what are you going to do in the future to make sure that this doesn't happen again right what is the department going to do what is the burrow going to do to make sure that this doesn't happen again um you know what kind of protocols what kind of rules uh standard operating procedures are going to be put in place to make sure that that this doesn't happen that a fire truck that you know pulls out of the the bay with a firefighter still standing in the bay right what are you going to do and there's no suggestion that they're going to do anything to prevent that I believe the um captains they had a meeting and uh They concluded that they didn't see anything there that was uh at ordinary yes was an inent leaving the the subject behind but uh what is that fitting to this well that that was their again that was the investigation they reviewed a video they evidently took written statements from uh people who were either already on the truck or in the bay and then reach the conclusion without asking questions I mean I look at that video mayor and and I could come up with 50 questions for the driver as how it's possible that you pull out of the of the fire Bay not ensuring that everyone that was in that bay is on that truck okay I have a question is this the first time something like this has happened to my knowledge and how long have you've been with us as far as the fire department goes well I've been labor counsel in the burrow since 15 or 16 okay now doesn't the fire department have their own protocol as far as when things happen they have their their own bylaws as to what they're supposed to do but responsibility for fire protection rest with the burrow that means arrest with the council by as a matter of law you can have a Volunteer Fire Company but you are responsible for fire protection okay and there was a video on this there's a video okay CU I personally didn't see the video it was it was it Shar open it on my phone so yeah it it was shared with you email that the chief willo had sent it out there if the council is satisfied then say so and let's move on Chief what did the the insurance company review any of this yes it was sent to our risk manager the fire specialist Ken Schultz uh video and some of the emails he concluded that he felt that something you know was wrong it shouldn't have happened that way and that he suggested some policy revie views and uh circulating some training materials yeah I uh saw the video and I got to be perfectly honest so I didn't see anything that was planned or or detrimental other than the moment which is and I I know the firemen have a procedure for this and they work on it but you're still talking about anxiety there that has to be held back uh keeping that in mind I once again I didn't see anything that should have brought this situation to this point in my opinion can I say something we received some emails about what can be done to be safer as the chief was saying from the GIF and I certainly don't think it could hurt to sit down down you know possibly with some fire me with the fire department and the GIF and the chief the ba and the council and just see obviously I don't think anything was done on purpose things accidents happen but I think if we have information that could possibly prevent it from happening again because you could you never know what can happen right I think it's it could be a learning experience for all of us and we can only you know be better for for hearing those policies that other municipalities have in place that could possibly teach us more and help us more that's not saying anything was done wrong or anything like that it's just saying that you know we got information that could make things possibly help us you know and and I don't think that's a bad idea that you sent a lot of good information to us and I think we should be willing to at least all review it together and see if we can you know work together and just make things even safer than they already are um not trying to point fingers at anybody but I think things happen that could be a learning experience and we can do we can you know learn from it and possibly you know prevent something from happening in the future that's just my opinion anyone else here to comment so we got a written complaint on the on this right so as an attorney like you know what what what what should a burrow do when they receive a written complaint about a a specific incident that happened so I I don't disagree that the fire department in the first instance should have reviewed it it's just that the investigation was only started not completed right you don't do an investigation by looking at a video and then reaching conclusions without asking questions you just can't you know I respectfully mayor I disagree I mean you and I agree on many things but I disagree you can't just look at a vehicle at a video and say or and read a statement and say that's the end of it no but what I meant by that I didn't say anything that was egregious well I I saw the same video that you saw I question how it was that the driver wouldn't know that there's somebody right next to that truck right oh this one's working okay so so I'm not an expert and I don't prank myself to be one so I don't mind having an independent consultant kind of look at this and and guide us properly um I saw the video and I can see it both ways I don't think anything's intentional but then again I don't know what's happening at it this is not where my specialties come in so I don't think it's a bad idea to have someone outside of the burrow outside of the situation to to look at it and it's kind of like if I had an accident tomorrow what did I do wrong how can I prevent it don't do it again type thing if we just need to use this as a learning tool um to update our processes and procedures within the burrow I don't think that's a bad suggestion or a bad idea for us to pursue thank you sorry anyone else care to speak I I'll just agree with the councilwoman uh I can speak for myself I think the rest of the council the council's not interested in the politics of the fire department who likes who who doesn't like who who has history with who we have something in front of us we have something somebody that puts something in writing that they think it's a serious thing we need to look at and we need to we need to check the boxes and let whatever it is come into writing no one's looking out to get anybody but you know we have a video of a a vehicle leaving and someone almost getting hit by it that's not something to gloss over it's there I mean I saw it anyone else could to speak um I I also do agree with that because I mean obviously you have a complaint we have a video we you know we need more information or you know whoever investigates need more information so I I'm for bringing in somebody and just look into a little bit just to clear it clear it up sure yeah please Mike so if I may um I I don't believe anything was done deliberate I do however qu my my questions are these was a policy violated by anyone involved right driver passenger uh firefighter in the in the in the building I don't I'm not a firefighter I don't know that firstand was a policy violated by anyone or should there be a polic was there no policy violated because one doesn't exist I feel this needs to be looked at in that Vein from was there a policy violation or if not should there be a policy and this is simply to make us better as a burrow and safer as a burrow that's the way I look at this and that's the way I think it should be should be looked at you know Chief I agree that we definitely need to improve because that can't happen again no matter how it happened or and again I'm not saying anything happen intentionally but it just needs to improve so it doesn't happen again all right Council how do you want to uh move on this oh I'm back on thank you sh something happened um I'm okay with someone reviewing our process procedures and the video and giving us um their feedback on how we can be better as a burrow and and have better safety for our firefighters do we have already we have somebody that can look into that I'm sure we can we can certainly find somebody to do that anybody else have a an idea other than what has just been brought to the table I I have a question I know I know which microphone using yeah um if we're going to hire somebody I think we should hire somebody from outside that's like literally outside okay already yeah we could do that of course yeah of course okay right all right so are we all in agreement with the Tanisha has presented uh us with you good okay moving along moving along there I get the St so I get talk to you guys later you need anything else from us art no right now we're good you're good okay thanks probably won't see you uh no we have an executive session oh you you're within ex okay okay moving along that concluded my portion of the meeting I'm going to turn the meeting over to you I believe we're not doing committee reports I'm going to ask the uh Council to foro their Council reports due to the length of the meeting tonight and we still still have some uh areas that we have to go through uh okay with that said if everybody's in agreement I need a motion to open the floor to the public second anyone from the public here to speak on any matter whatsoever please come forth give us your uh name and your address and uh we'll take it from there my name my name is Ken prestler I am uh live at 123 Hamilton AV and I'm the person that we're speaking about um first of all I'd like to ask what happened tell me what happened anyone care to answer that maybe we should put the video on the screen if we're going to talk about it I like I don't understand yeah please put it on the screen Ry would you you have a video we don't have the video Ken I have the video would you like to see it let's put it on the screen I have it on a computer has anybody on the DI not seen it I've seen it has anybody not seen it I have not seen it on not seen it have permission to come up with it one one second okay we're good good to have that shown no problem okay bring it up please all right it'll take a minute so let him keep going all right does anybody anybody do a song or dance out there to kill some time while he's setting this let let's get the video I don't want to speak until we see exactly what's happened here because Lonnie it's pretty quick right so we can move it down yeah we show it see put think oh maybe it's there I'm going to assume Sam I was against e e e e anybody else need to say did you see did you see it line yes I okay if you can move down here and give them the benefit of seeing it and then uh we can move on did you see all right let's come over herey all right okay so the council has seen it first question to the council is what happened tell me exactly what happened anyone to address that mayor what happened what I saw yes I saw an emergency situation uh a truck pulling out of uh of the garage and I seen a a person that was to the left of the truck origin originally and then I believe came to the right of the truck do I have that right as the truck was pulling out uh and the person didn't get on board that's what I saw okay but no intent no I didn't see any all right there was there was a letter sent or an email sent by the chief saying that this was a vendetta uh because he is my son and Mr Ken presler has defamed my character for well over a year and is now taking his hatred towards me against my sons spe specifically sha in this matter because of this gross negligence of Mr Ken prestler the incident tonight my sons um could have been harmed or possibly killed there was no gross negligence gross negligence it's a big word in my mind how do how did I do gross negligence let me explain something I think what we're saying is how can that be determined by a video there questions have to be answered not to place blame or single anyone out but we received the burrow received a complaint in order to protect the burrow we have to consult with the attorney the attorney's recommendation is that gets looked into further because he feels the investigation that was done is incomplete it's not meant to nobody's on trial here or or or anything like that but the burrow has to uh protect itself from future liability that's all this is you're taking it personally I need to be protected from future liability the day I met with you I asked for legal counsel or a gif but we don't provide you legal counsel in that in that setting so so what you're saying then is if a fire extinguisher falls off a truck kills someone on the side of the road or in in a car you will not stand by the fire department or the or the member so Chief that's a different issue how is that a different issue I was driving a br I was driving a br vehicle doesn't provide a defense to a target of an investigation that it's going to look into that's why right they're going to look at why would you leave the Bay right the investig is going to look at that and he's going to ask you questions he's showing the video and he's going to walk through it you know maybe all your answers will satisfy the investigator and then satisfy the burrow and then he's going to say well look these mistakes were made it wasn't intentional it wasn't egregious you know there's some negligence here yes there could have been some harm but the burrow when it investigates you know whether a volunteer or employee doesn't provide the employee with an attorney into investigation I've been a I've been a fireman in this town for 50 years but that doesn't mean that you don't that you have a bubble around you ask I'm not I'm not saying that I'm not saying that but for 50 years I've seen hundreds of firemen left in the firehouse like that but none of those were brought to our attention what generated this was an email was sent saying that this person who happens to be the fire chief who we have to say has experience feel something was done wrong for us to just look the other way and say maybe nothing was done is is irresponsible on the Burrow's part don't take this person I I question I question maybe the fault some fault is on the person that walked in I don't know maybe they're supposed to hit a button to say they're here I don't we don't know this I question why was the fire chief home for reported working house fire and he's watching videos I don't know maybe that will come out in the investigation this is why the attorney said you can't base it on somebody's written statement and a video these questions have to be asked to flush out what transpired at my at my expense no why your expense what does it have to do with your expense since November 6th so you're saying because you're this insults you we can't look into it it's not against you it is against me but we didn't we didn't flush this out it was it is it is it is directed against me it was BR to us Mr Bruce Mr Bruce as you said to me that morning morning when I discussed this with you and the mayor you said Ken this has nothing to do with the situation it has to do what's gone on in the past year you said that yourself to me what oh now you're going to say you didn't say that mayor know what you're talking about the last year I'm not involved with that drama that's has nothing to do with me no that's that's that's what you said to me it has the bottom line if the mayor and Council are are satisfied then they can say that on the record and we can move on that's it it's nothing personal against you from any it's nothing to do with personalities it's got to do with you said that that morning when I met with you don't drag me into this mess absolutely mayor you were in that same meeting K it's not clear the chief is Right bringing us into this when we were trying to settle this thing before brought to this this point and I don't think any of that conversation should be brought out here uh because it's irrelevant to to what they're saying the what the council is saying here and I personally don't agree with it okay but you got seven people six people up here that agree with it that this should be they should have an independent investigation to to see procedurally basically their goal is to see procedurally if this could be avoided in the future but and that's that's that's what we're facing here right now Kenny I know it's not what you want to hear but that is exactly what we're facing you know I feel that this town has become a little town in in Mexico where we don't have laws we don't follow what's being done this is absolutely ridiculous absolutely ridiculous I I'll say I have to Mayor I have to make a comment so this was said that this was happens all the time happens hundreds of times right and it happened November 6th okay so all this is going on we're get to this point let's say we cut this conversation off right here let's say next week it happens again same situation someone shows up they're behind the truck as you look at the mirrors whatever they end up there and again one in a million one in a million scenario they they slip as they're getting up into the truck and the truck starts moving and something happens that we don't want to happen right and then you know a a lawsuit happens or or or worse and they come back to the burrow and they see that attorney sees that we had an identical situation a month ago we discussed it and and just did nothing like this is the world we live in 2023 people put something into writing it could have zero validity it could have 100% validity it could have be somewhere in the middle okay okay and we have to like do something we have to go through a process and have a report that we did something like that's just that's the world we live in now I don't I don't see how someone put something in writing regardless of what the history is and and we're supposed to like just just just just we feel it's okay like that's just not the re real world we live in today whether it's government or business it's just not the real world real world we live in anymore so like you know I don't know what else to put to that I mean what what is so offensive all this is is a vendetta against me this has nothing to do with the situation that happened nothing absolutely nothing and the discussion with the mayor and police chief did say that that day you know you know how could someone sit down with you have a man-to-man conversation and then you come up to the podium a month later saying you said this at this meeting that's just like mind-blowing I don't know how that happens I didn't say it they said it Mr Pressler may I say something for a sec um when I made the suggestion to have an outside Council look at it I I kind of glossed over all of the um accusations thrown in some of the emails that we received I I don't know the background of what's happening within the fire department um I looked at procedural wise and a video that was presented to us to say I can't determine what's happening in this video I don't want to come to a conclusion because I'm not educated enough to do that and that's not my specialty I've mentioned that so I just want you to know that for me I didn't take into account any uh comments that were made any malicious statements that were made against you or anyone else in these emails I looked at it as we got a complaint and like you said this may have happened many times before but how do we prevent it from going forward and there something we can do to change our processes and procedures and I don't think that that's not an attack against you and I just wanted you to know that because regardless of what's Happening and I'm not privy to know what's going on uh personally amongst some of the comments that you have read out to us I looked at it as um an incident occurred and how we prevent it from happening to someone else going forward and nothing about some of the accusations that were made and I just wanted to make that clear to you that it's not anything personal I'm going to make a comment here there's probably not one firehouse in the United States of America that this hasn't happened this this is common you know when when you get a report of a work in house fire every second that it takes us to get there is a big deal how do we know there's not kid sitting up on a second floor and they can't be rescued you know I mean we we always try to get everybody onto the truck we we always because our Manpower is low we attempt to bring everybody on the truck this situation the gentleman went on the other side of the truck went behind the truck I didn't even know he was in the firehouse all right and now I'm getting crucified for this this this is ridiculous and and now we're going to get into big investigations and in the meantime since November 6th my life has been destroyed destroyed and and no one seems to care about that you know I was here this past Sunday when the town or the the Epic committee gave me another award from from the town my wife was sitting in the front uh seats here crying this is what you want this is what you get to be a volunteer in this town 50 years and this is what I get thank you anyone else care to speak on the matter any matter as a matter of fact go ahead Ronnie my name's Ronler press the button Ronnie there you go my name is Ron presler 62nd Street I've been a fireman here 55 years five years longer than my brother I don't want to tell you how many times I've missed the engine as I'm in the firehouse and the engine pulls out especially for a working fire like Ken just said every minute counts God forbid there's somebody trapped in air we were lucky that night the assistant chief got there and there was candles in a window he he returned the engine they were only two blocks away they came back and Rob Bruce's son was in a firehouse laughing haha I missed the engine that's dangerous and and at the next day oh the Primal vent hit him the Primal vent is a tube like this corrugated tube that connects to the connects to the exhaust I could stand there all day with this vent hitting me nothing would ever happen to me and to turn around and say he was in danger I disagree 100% And like Kent alluded to this isn't about his the chief's son getting hurt it's a vendetta against my brother there'll be other people here getting up to Vendetta against Tyler Lewinsky and at the end of this statement you'll hear about the Vendetta against me because I've been afraid to come to you Mike and let you know what's going on about me and and I'm glad you have what she announced before about the sement for the third quarter we'll get into that in a minute the chief in this fire department doesn't care about the safety in this town if he was worried about the safety is this town he'd have been all year coming to you and saying we have a problem with Manpower during the day and even at night sometimes but let's suspend a man who works for the town because the chief took a defense of how he wanted him to act on a member of another company and that's what where all of this is coming from Tyler went the G that would what started all of this excuse me bull is gentleman from number twos a young gentleman not even 21 years old decided to send somebody an email and excuse my language that Tyler Lewinsky's a jerk off Steve CO's a jerk off that's the captain and lieutenant and the rest of the company is a bunch of jerkov Tyler put it out to all our members here's what's being said by another member of another company which is all against our policies all against them then the chief gave it to Tyler to go straighten it out the assistant chief didn't like that because Tyler's kept on them finally after a month Tyler goes the proper way we have a a board that is supposed to handle our problems he he goes to the secretary to let the the president know that there's a problem all of a sudden it gets squashed oh yeah the assistant chief talk to this guy gave him a two week suspension you know no disciplinary board just take care of that problem make it go away but I'm going after Tyler and as all you all should know this gentleman that you're paying every day to go to work down a DPW you can't go to fires during the day if you're going to suspend somebody any kind of disciplinary let him at least go to fires during a day so you get a good day pay out of him no let Tyler stay down the yard or do whatever else he's doing and you can have a working fire here you people don't care Oh Tyler's on suspension only over words not safety at least let him go to fires during the day but you don't think that we need firemen during the day and Ken was sus not suspended couldn't drive for a week so that's two less people last year you had a gentleman he was a lieutenant in company number three he happens to be a paid fireman in Clifton they had at just about this time of the year he had a a tour party and he had little too much to drink he called the chief the next day and said just so you know I got pulled over for a DWI you're you're suspended it took months for to go to trial he ended up getting 3 months susp driver's license suspension he excuse me interlock device the Breer all right sorry sorry thanks for the I don't want to say anything wrong three months he lost his driving privileges he was suspended or couldn't go to Fires for 11 months a volunteer organization we don't need people but now according to the chief it was you at least that's what he kept telling us in our company cuz I kept questioning him the Lord lawyer said don't let him come back till October 11th I mean he's been driving for months we need these people but that's what goes on right now you have a gentleman that's trying to join the fire department his name happens to be Carl Roberts he's trying to join number threes for what Captain the last three months the last three months well I don't think anybody here knows Nicki are you here Nick all right the gentleman's uh property has some debris on it and there's I don't know what kind of what what kind of uh he has something against him because of a dirty yard a violation a violation he can't join the fire department cuz he's got a yard violation for being 30 per our chief Mike do you know is that a true statement I mean we talked about it in public we did that in public depart a yard violation he can't join I mean does that does that make sense to anybody we the whole Council discussed this the whole mayor and Council discussed this publicly in a meeting and there was no no um everyone was on the same page there's there's a couple more facts that you're missing I'll leave it at about wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute so Ron all right now now now it's me okay I started hold let me say something we have a 10-minute limit but we're going to let you go on please get to a real quick now it's about me I was I was afraid to to you Mike because of the repercussions that would happen afterwards if you would to say tell this gentleman or anybody else here of what I'm bringing up tonight and I hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the [Music] ass the stien program he's keeping me out of the stien program and if you would look at the third quarter stiping program my name is not on it but every month the either the captain or Lieutenant puts my name in even though I'm I'm not getting any money but it should be recorded every time I go to a fire and and to a drill or anything else it's not being recorded by the chief but the our company officers submit it every month that that should take issue with the so I I have all the paperwork here Mike I give it to you so you could have it all this way you don't have to look back at the last two the the the agenda is for the first quarter and second quarter stien I was getting it all last year or the just the credits I'm not looking for the money all of a sudden my name is not on the list all right R so so again who's he after he's after certain people in our department in our company thank you straighten that out anybody else to speak 10 minute limit I don't mean to sound harsh but of course should be able to get your point AC cross over in 10 minutes y my name is Justin Linsky live at 85 F that dear mayor and Council the members of the ELO Park Volunteer Fire Company 1 are writing this letter to bring to an bring to your attention a matter of significance concern regarding the current state of morale within our fire company unfortunately for the past 3 months we have been without a c Captain Tyler Lewinsky someone who is known in our company as a true leader Captain Lewinsky has been a dedicated member of Fire Company 1 for over 13 years and has demonstrated commitment and expertise in ensuring the safety of our community Captain Lewinsky is known as a first one in last one out type of fireman one that will put himself In Harm's Way to protect not only civilians but also fellow firefighters Captain Linsky has proved this time and time again most recently had an ice rescue on the bake River involving a civilian her child and the police chief I would also like to remind you of a rescue he made at the Red Carpet in motel where he removed an acument from a second story window during the fire placing such a decorated officer on an administrative leave for in our opinion a petty offense at best jeopardizes the efficiency of our firefighting operations and puts not only firefighters but members of the community at risk of injury and God forbid death unfortunately Captain Lewinsky was placed on an administrative leave a term that is not in our burrow ordinance fire department bylaws burrow of andwood Park employee handbooks and the standard operating guidelines of the EM park fire department 3 months ago by assistant chief Ed maesi prevented him from responding to fire incidents training drills and meetings he was placed on administrative leave regarding an incident in which he stood up for the men and women of his fire company when a brother firefighter from another mwood Park Fire Company attempted to persuade a potential member potential new member to have second thoughts about joining Fire Company 1 with a text message through snapchat the contents of the me the contents of the message describe the current fire the current members of company one as jerk offs who were trying to quote unquote trying to screw the the fire department and further going on to call Tyler and Steve K the biggest ones talking about Tyler Lewinsky and Steve coek we guess when someone goes against the nepotism in the thoughts of the current Administration and fights for what they believe is right they have the privilege of being called that name in our opinion we wouldn't want anyone else representing our company but the two J Tyler Lewinsky and Steve coek two people who would defend their men and women and their own fire company from un unfair treatment we would like to expand on the captain Linsky administrative leave incident he was originally placed on fire medic leave by assistant chief Edward maesi on September 10th 2023 preventing him from attending fire incidents training drills and meetings until a fireboard hearing was set up we would like to once again State there is no such thing as fire mtic leave in our bur ordinance fire department bylaws employee handbook or standard operating guidelines of the M Park fire department on that date Captain Lewinsky was not informed of his charges and when he asked he was told it was for his actions and it and it was said to him you know what you did Captain Lewinsky questioned Chief majeski if and when he would be having a disciplinary Board hearing which is the required action in our fire department bylaws once a suspension is enact and is the past president for any firefighters being investigated more specifically captains he was denied and was advised that the fireboard will be the jurisdiction for the specific trial it is our understanding that according to past practice the fire board is there for a member's appeal and not their initial trial I should also bring to light this interaction occurred a day after Captain Lewinsky filed disciplinary charges with the fire fire department disciplinary board against assistant chief Eddie majeski and that firefighter from Engine 2 they called engine one members jerk off for lack of action on the matter and conduct uncoming it should be noted that both investigations were rejected not by the fire department disciplinary board but by Chief Rob Bruce who has no jurisdiction on that matter we refer you to our to our fire department by laws article 8 section 4 where it quotes all applications must be heard within 45 days of filing end quote in this case the charges were intercepted by the chief and discarded it is a shame that all members are expected to follow the bylaws and ordinances but others could do as they please it seems that retaliation and mistreatment are not fam are not unfamiliar to Tyler Tyler was elected to be the battalion chief at of Fire Company 1 in 2023 he won the election at the November 2022 Fire Company 1 meeting 10 votes for him three votes for Rob Bruce the BW state that only one Chief can come out of each company however at the December department meeting Chief Roose ran once again as head chief for a third year even though the ordinance read at the time no one shall be permitted to serve in any office for more than two consecutive one-year terms unless there is no other candidate from a company who meets all the requirements for set office Tyler met the requirements for the office of chiefs but Chief Bruce advised membership that multiple members of the council said it was fine that we break the ordinance and he also produced a letter that had me members of the council supporting him Captain Lewinsky was then nominated as the fourth Chief behind assistant chief majeski Balian Chief Thompson and head Chief R Ruth but he was not allowed to fill that position because we would be breaking ordinance these special rules made the department president mik the president Mike Pressler treasurer of the of the fire department Ken presler incoming cap captain of company 1 Steve coek and incoming Lieutenant of company 1 Justin Linsky all stepped down from their positions because they did not want to be associated with the decisions being made and the questionable actions by the department and the burel it saddens the membership of Fire Company 1 that members of the council agreed to support Chief Bruce who was openly violating a town ordinance following the rules is what has kept this volunteer organization running for over a 100 years we also want to speak about that incident that we talked about with Ken Pressler where Chief Bruce excuse me excuse me 10 minutes is up plus so if you can condense it I got half a page half a page finish please finish in that incident Chief Bruce sent a vicious email regarding a member who has served for over 50 years ex-chief Kem prestler accusing of having a personal venden against him and taking it out on his son at an incident at the firehouse just a side note in Ken's investigation four people were on the investigation committee which we feel is fair and just but with Tyler only one person was investigating the matter that he brought to light and the that same investigator was Alle was investigating the alleged violations against him regardless it is a shame that a dedicated member with over 50 years of experience who is not only well respected not only in park but throughout the state of New Jersey is having his motives question and must answer to accusations after responding to a fire incident ex-chief pressler's experience and expertise in and out of the firehouse is a critical part of the day-to-day operations that not only company one but the entire um Park fire Department his 50 years of experience can never be replaced and is needed now more than ever especially due to the current lack of morale Manpower and Leadership these incidents have put fear into the membership of company one and the rest of the EM park fire department we find it difficult to do our jobs without fear of retaliation for not only for not being on the yes train with the current leadership we're requesting that the the mayor and Council conduct a thorough investigation into these incidents to ensure a due process was and is being followed furthermore we question how the mayor and Council can support support the actions of one person when he seems to be the common denominator for all the incidents mentioned your transparency will help build the morale of the fire company one and the enwood Park fire department which will help us serve the enwood park community effectively because in in the end we feel the life and safety of our residence is Paramount thank you for your time can I I just have one question one simple simple question right so you just demanded a thorough investigation into all the things you mentioned yes great perfect no problem but someone else demanded a thorough investigation something that was very important to them and the response was but we don't agree that there should be one am I following this correctly that was my response I'm I'm making a general point I'm making a general point for the room to understand right people say things things are wrong I feel something's wrong something shouldn't be investigated they bring it to us with they writing or in person our job is to investigate or do whatever we need to do to cover that part I'm just making a bigger Point okay thank you name and the address please uh Michael cologne 205 Orchard Street Corner Orchard and Boulevard I'm sure you welcome times there I just want to say uh I moved here 2006 I know the Pressler is very good I live right next door to their father when he was there I know Tyler Lewinsky I'm currently a fire chief at A Garfield 14 years as a fire chief 2 5 years Dan you know me okay if you actually look at the video and you could have brought it up why did not that person why didn't he get in on the left side of the truck why did he walk around where the pimo vent was actually blocking him I drive a truck I drive a truck we back in so the driver's side so you see everything so the firefighter hold on then I got you the firefighter the gear rack is on that side correct okay so why didn't he grab his gear and get on that side second of all before you even say anything yeah just let me speak there was a working house fire did he have his gear on did you bring up the video did he have his gear on hold on this is why there has to be an investigation we don't do this for a living right and maybe maybe the firefighter was to blame in some regard I'm not why I'm trying to make you're proving understand something okay you don't need a lawyer to come out and and call the GIF guy have a guy come over go through the whole thing but in in the meantime I pay taxes in this town we have a guide to and drive we have another member that's suspended okay now we're low on Manpower listen everybody's low on Manpower okay all towns all volunteers you don't come out at night none of you guys come out at night and it's it's not something I'm saying like intentionally okay so when you're sleeping in the bed nice and warm these guys get out I get out I come you Aid here and everything okay you're not getting members they're not banging on the door and I can tell you we just did a recruitment in Garfield we got three people that signed and didn't go to no firehouses okay did anybody ever do a do a um like find out what it would cost to do a paid fire department here how much 78 million you just heard what Roy said right so with $78 million that's my taxes are going to go up so whoever else lives in this town your taxes are going to go up 78 million every year okay thank you I I just I just want to just about Recruitment and and our actions you know let's let's put all this to the side the mayor and council's actions in the last year let's say have been as as I hope Pro recruitment as possible you know we revised the Cen program we did a sign on bonus so this is not this I just want to put that out and be clear like this is something that no no no I I mean the the the the sement program it's a great program I'm not saying that you're not doing anything I'm saying if people aren't coming to join we're trying to keep the people that we have right experience so you suspend the driver you suspend the firefighter that could be getting the rig out so in the middle of the night he can't come to a call so that rig can't roll right but again no nobody here wants any particular thing to happen nobody here asked for anything to be brought to us we didn't ask for a complaint to be verbally filed here tonight this is part of the job like things come up and right so so you you started out with why didn't the driver why didn't the the person do this why didn't the person do that I'm try what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to help you out because you guys see you guys know nothing about the fires side so so how so how would we get the answers to that so if you actually look at the video and you say okay if this guy's going to get in the truck carrying his gear to working fire how's he gearing up when you're supposed to have a seat belt on but again you're asking questions of the incident like why this why that why this how do you get to the bottom of everything that we're asking you're asking but not with a not with an attorney you call up call up to ask somebody and you say okay let the GIF Guy come out we'll do an investigation and say the GIF guy says this is what she could do better we we the burough sent it to JF Kai and there was a lot of things written back okay they deed didn't him write back huh he should have gone to the left what a fool like that's that was not the response we got well you're not going to get a response from JF like that no no but but I'm telling you like you know so now the burrow has in writing that the insurance company mentioned a couple things like oh this oh that do do you do you not concede that we have an obligation to to look at I didn't say you didn't have an obligation and that's where we're at sir that's it that's where we're at that's all I'm saying right but you know okay I get it but I want to come to the next meeting and find out if anybody's got the true fact how much is been CL PID fire because I'll do the research and I'll come back to my answer then yes yes ma'am your name and samanthaa 109 gav um I'm captain of company number four and I was involved in the investigation of Ken presler um I'd like to speak on behalf of the investigation committee and also before I even get into that um it is nerve-wracking being up here because it has been very um vague with the rules and who they apply to and who they don't because getting up here means I might have a Target on my back now so I just want to clarify that for you all now um when it comes to Ken presler we read the statements there were questions asked no we were unable to interview people I would be happy to interview people I would be happy to interview everybody after reviewing the video we saw that there wasn't a cause to believe that M I'm so sorry um that Mr presler did anything out of malice um against Shan Bruce part of the problem with what's going on right now here between the council and the fire department is the council is doing what they're supposed to do you want investigated because you want to make sure that no future incidents happen where somebody gets hurt unfortunately the fire department knows that this investigation wouldn't have happened if Rob Bruce liked Ken presler that's part of the problem is that if it were an individual that he liked driving the engine that day this would not be an investigation um people are left at the firehouse all the time I can't tell you the amount of times I've been left at the firehouse I've been running up to the truck to go to a call completely missed sometimes unfortunately you don't see somebody you don't hear somebody you don't see somebody pull up there's a multitude of various different things that could happen when it comes to Sean Bruce possibly being injured on top of the investigation of the video as well as the statements um I did ask questions to anybody who could answer them that was in the investigation committee um and they were answered as well as I did Research into um diesel fuel fume extrication systems and injuries and possible things that could happen if they're not maintained or if they fail not once did they say it could injure a firefighter or hurt them or kill them it's that if the system fails somebody could unfortunately get cancer and that's the point of the system to extract the the diesel fumes from the firehouse and hopefully assist us to be to continue to serve the town and stay healthy none of this would be happening right now we wouldn't all be here right now if it was an individual that Rob liked that's really it comes down to and I totally get and respect that you guys want it investigated further I get it you want to make sure a further incident doesn't happen but I can guarantee you that's not the point in other people's minds thank you may I excuse me I askt a question one I understand your nervousness up here because I don't like speaking in front of groups so I appreciate your courage to come up here and speak and I know that you're nervous so I don't want to put you on the spot yeah um but quite a few people made some comments about the um current status of the fire department and some of the words used were like lack of morale fear of retaliation things like that correct now on the Burrows level we have an obligation regardless of how we got the information we got it and we have to do what we're supposed to do um my concern after it's all said and done and maybe you guys can help answer that is how do we as a borrow as a department as as our volunteers which are crucial to how our burrow runs how do we get past um the these fears of retaliation this this lack of morale what can we help you guys do to to strengthen the morale within the department to know that you're supported by the council in the town and you're appreciated by the residents what can we do to show you guys that to kind of you know get over this hurdle once this whole thing is done I think I and I don't think it's anything against against the council I think the part of the problem is what is presented to the council um by the chief um I think that's part of the problem and another part of the problem is some things that I mean personally I've wanted to address I can't think of them off the top of my head but certain things that I've wanted to come and address I can tell you for the past year and a half at a bare minimum I've wanted to say something and I've been terrified to do so cuz I don't know what the retaliation would be can I can I also say something mayor is it all right if I say something yes pleas I've been sitting here listening to like everyone else and it really really saddens me because to me you're all heroes okay you all risk your life every day for us and it's sad that I'm hearing this as a council woman all this stuff why wasn't why couldn't someone come to us okay and say we need a meeting there's big problems in this in this fire department because we're willing to try to sit down with anybody that wants to sit with us and help us and and I don't care if there's faces in the audience no one has ever sent a letter to the mayor and Council and said we have a big problem we'd like to sit with you I have not read an email like that Tyler Mrs all the problems started when he was given that third year that she that's when everything started extra year yes of course two years ago the ex-chiefs of this department came to the mayor and councel sat down with them and said we have a problem we attempted to meet with the fire chief as a head of the committee guess what the chief abolished that ex-chiefs committee so don't say we never came here to to to address problems we all all the ex-chiefs came sat in that back room and told you there's a problem in the department no one the chief abolished the committee so but then did you ever if that was so and that you never had a meeting where this was all cleared up then it would be to revisit and come back to us we're not mind readers of what's going on in your department we're trying to help you Ken you can make faces we're trying to help you we're not against you and there there's one more thing that really bothers me how come I'm getting I don't want to use the wrong words here but there's been other there's been sexual harassment charges against a fireman's son in this department that was never investigated we didn't bring in outside investigators and all that that that just got swept under the rug thank you never heard about that you would you would finished here councilwoman peline I'd like to address that if you can just wrap it up please because I just want yeah when I say that I'm terrified to have a Target on my back by speaking up that's the only reason I haven't spoken up because I have wanted to speak up for a year and a half because anytime you try to address something with Mr Bruce if you disagree with him um he will come back at you with a Vengeance and he will find a loophole or way to make you frightened for whether it be suspension or anything else I've been I've been terrified to speak up and I've wanted to for a very long time so this is taking a lot out of me and like the nerves aren't so much speaking in front of you guys it's I'm awaiting the Target on my back as well thank you um can I just say that you are welcome to send a message or an email or a phone call to anyone on the council whenever you're ready to to voice your concerns and kind of get some of those feelings out that I think everyone up here is open to having a conversation with you so I want to offer you that thank you um and just to make it clear um Mr Bruce's family and my family have known each other for a very long time and we're very close for a long time and the fact that this has come between like a family lifelong friendship really sucks I mean that has nothing to do with this but I just want to make it clear that this has nothing to do with this like for the man yes next a remind you please uh keep it to 10 minutes good evening Mike Jones 594 Boulevard m Boulevard Mr Mayor councel um to hit a couple of points recruitment I've handed in many applications same time as other companies my application seem to get lost so my recruitment I've had people leave saying to me well if this is happening now what's going to happen later what's going to happen when I get on all right I've had two good people that'll be great for my company walk away um Ronnie presler brought up about my lieutenant having an incident he had an incident he took care of everything right away he was put on administrative leave by what I was told by your orders and then all of a sudden was suspended with no representation from a company officer it was Chiefs from the other company no representation from any officer from his own company I can speak up because I've already been a target of his retaliation I held the position of first battalion chief Mr Mayor I had the honor of you swearing me in he found everything he can use against me to try to force me out I was told if I ran for another year he would find a way to get me kicked off and embarrass me so I stepped down I I now hold the rank of Captain I've tried to to your point of why I haven't spoken up further because I'm trying to keep my members in my firehouse they're sitting there I'm sick and tired I don't need this I have too much other stuff going on and I got to try to keep them in all right um I don't know what else to say so I thank you for your time thank you next good evening all T wisky I'm B employee and also a member of down Park fire department I currently live at 281 4th Street SLE BR New Jersey mayor and Council before I begin thank you for giving me the time an opportunity to speak to you all I'm coming on my 13th year within the N Park fire department I started out as a junior firefighter at the age of 16 and currently have been the captain of company one for the last 6 Years also in August of 2023 I was hired by the Bergen County fire academy one of the most respected firey in the state of New Jersey as an instructor in my spare time I continue to take training classes I also read about in study building construction fire Behavior which are two major contributing factors to firefighter death or injury I'm I'm here to talk about what has been happening within the fire department of the past year and particularly what has happened to me as a result of events which occurred during the past year as you may know the town is elected to proceed with a fireboard hearing this hearing was in no way required and any issue could and should have been handled at the department level as is the past practice but this particularly true but this is particularly true given the disagreement it is alleged that I continued to seek an inquiry into a series of text messages which disparaged me and failed to deescalate the situation no fireboard hearing was conducted by the town against such member only made and as a result you should ask yourselves why are we doing this especially on the municipal side as opposed to let the fire department handle the matter I believe some background information is important in November's 2022 company meeting an election was held the current chief of department and myself were candidates against each other as to who will represent the company as a chief officer for the year of 23 I won the election with a 10 to3 vote in reality the chief wasn't eligible to run at the time considering the chief was finish in his 2-year term as per B ordinance he could not run again for the third year as chief of the department this ordinance was amended in 2023 for reasons unknown to me which permitted a third term but well after the election during the December 2022 me him the current chief stated he wanted to remain Chief and quoted this is what's best for the fire department the chief was then nominated on the floor despite the vote and despite the ordinance concerns were expressed by Lieutenant coek as well as other executes from the Department because this was against the burough ordinance all three Curren trees were renominated for their current positions and I was then nominated for the fourth Chief's position members from the Department stood up and expressed their concerns saying this is going against the fire department ordinance and nowhere does it say that you could have two chiefs out of one company let alone a three-year term for the chief position because the chief got elected for a third year this calls the department President to resign from his position the department Treasurer to resign as well as the company 1's officers for the year of 2023 to resign from their positions because of the chief not following fire department ordinances and the chief picking and choosing what he wants to follow and it will benefit him unfortunately I believe the town was given misinformation or a lack of of information about these events when it amended the ordinance during this time March of 2023 and despite what happened I believe it would be best not only for the members of the company and the department but also best for the residents of this town to continue as Captain I I again remind this counselor that I am a volunteer and I love this committee I spend my free time making sure it is safe during the summer of 2023 the fire department experienced a series of issues between members on June 5th at 11:49 a.m. the chief sent a text message to all chiefs and Captain excluding myself since we spoke earlier on the phone expressing that he expected everyone to act professionally and respectfully the chief stated a general statement everyone please keep your comments to yourself if anyone has a problem with anyone or something please send an email to Steve and I and we will send it up the chain if we cannot handle it as Captain I sent a similar message and he used it as an example the chief also followed up with regards of what they are about other departments FD people PD Etc this is a general statement that speaking disparaging of members or other groups will not be tolerated on July 20 23rd 2023 I attended our monthly Chiefs meeting held that company to during the chief's report the chief stated that all members of all ranks must be treated with respect within this department department on August 11 I was approached by a new member who was in the process of joining company one he had only been accepted by the company and not by the mayor council as of yet he then showed me a conversation between him and another member from another company town on a social media platform called Snapchat the messages from the other member were were the following did you actually join company one EP response yeah oh boy I don't want to be a pain but they're all jerk offs over there trying to screw the department Tyler and Steve PA the biggest ones cuz this response rarely yeah basically Tyler and Steve want Robin Eddie out as Chiefs so that they can be permanent Chiefs so they screwed the entire department response damn yeah sogg just be careful sorry to rain on your parade about it this prompt my new member who is in the process of joining the question me and call second thoughts about joining this department where all members are needed due to limited Manpower throughout the day and night not only did this member from the Department say this stuff about Stephen myself but also about members that have 130 years of service and experience to this town and the residents of M Park that were just given awards from the mayor and Council and other committees I then took a picture of the conversation with my phone I reached out to the chief in that company chat and asked him the following Rob quick question didn't you have the officers put out to the members to tell everyone to keep their comments to themselves about each other throughout the department the chief responded with that is correct the picture was then sent to the chat with the member's name blacked out less than 5 minutes I received the phone call from the chief asking who said those comments about Steve the company and myself I told him who I was and asked the chief of if I would be able to handle it that I would like the Chiefs to not get involved he the chief agreed with me and gave me the okay to handle the problem he also told me to include his captain which I agreed with him all we wanted was to just speak with the member and his officers and for no disciplinary actions against him I advised everyone in the company chat that Robert approved that me handling the situation received phone calls from members that they were happy with me handling it about a week goes by and I decide to reach out to the chief to confirm that lieutenant kochek and I were going to be handling the investigation with the officers from that members company and at that point he told me that we are not anymore and that the assistant chief will be handling it September 9th 2023 11:58 a.m. Lieutenant cooch and I sent an application request in disciplinary board to the department secretary to review the member who made such allegations about company one Steve and myself and to also investigate the assistant chief due to this being a conflict of interest and nepotism at 1:33 p.m. Stephen I received a text from the assistant chief saying that the so-called investigation has been handled and closed let it be known it took the assistant chief 29 days to investigate a matter where we had written documentation Lieutenant cooch and I both texted the assistant chief asking what the outcome was and who was on the investigation committee as passed practice there's also three to five officers involved with the investigation to prevent any nepotism conflict of interest and to make sure there was no abuse of power little did I know the following day I was the next victim of being personally attacked September 10th 2023 at 9:00 a.m. I received a call from the assistant chief requesting to meet him as soon as possible possible for a meeting we were able to meet at 9:45 a.m. at truck 4 I met with the assistant chief and the battalion chief I do have a recording of how this meeting went it's a good recording of how the assistant chief conducts himself I was placed on fire mtic leave effective immediately prevented me from responding to all fire calls no drills and no meetings with no charges given because the assistant chief refused to tell me my charges no s action was taken against the other member during that mean I requested a disciplinary Board hearing and was denied on the spot and that I will be going in front of a fireboard which involves the town it should be noted that past practice used in investigation of line officers was disciplinary Board hearing with one occurring in April of 2023 in which I sat on the disciplinary board nowhere in any bylaws burrow ordinances or fire depart standard operating guidelines do we have fire manic leave other than myself self request on Le on firea duties which I did not on September 11th I met with the bur administrator and expressed my concerns the B administrator advised me to send an email to the assistant chief request in my charges because he legally has to give me my charges to now build a defense case The Bu administrator also advised me that the town will not be getting involved and that the fire department heads need to handle the problems in house and to stop running to the town little did I know again this is not what is currently happening September 12th 2023 at 1:34 p.m. I received an email from the assistant chief with my charges I was now placed on administrative leave for my original firomatic Lea from fire armatic duties the following charges I received were neglect of Duty conduct on becoming of an officer in the EM park fire dep and lastly in subordination with a brief description of each charge it has been 88 days since I was advised on on fire mically and S have not had a fireboard I have been retaliated against suspended without basis and I am forced to come before you all mayor and Council I ask you to do a thorough investigation to the policy and procedures followed in the investigation and to me as I feel I was targeted and retaliated against by the assistant chief and the burough it's never too late to do the right thing furthermore I asked for this investigation to see if any B ordinances bylaws and policies were violate more specifically The Whistleblower policy I I am requesting that you look into why I was not given a dis a department disciplinary board heing is that was the was the past practice when line officers were being investigated for similar charges neglect of Duty if it is founded that the jurisdiction should still be a fireboard I request the remain Council immediately step in and make sure past practice is followed and my fireboard has seven members with three members from the Public Safety Committee and four members from the fire department more specifically ex Chiefs it should be know that my fireboard hearing is scheduled for December 11th 2023 and a fireboard of four members three Public Safety and one ex-chief is not a jury of my peers unfortunately furthermore I ask you to reinstate me immediately so that I can go back to my duties as a captain of the park fireman and to do the job that I SWS to provide life and safety to the members of this fire department as well as the residents in this town thank you for your time anyone else here to speak Steve coachi 14 Memorial Place Lieutenant company 1 so I had a whole thing here that I was going to read but everybody else in the room is pretty much hit on everything um I just want to address a few different things uh councilwoman peligre you had a question before about why didn't anybody reach out I did uh fire commissioner Dan gallach I had reached out to you after this whole thing happened last year at the uh department meeting I sent you a text message uh he never responded back um we ran into each other at an event right after the new year uh he said were busy that you apologize he didn't reach out to me they'd give me a call next week we can sit down and talk still waiting for the phone call so and if that all went down that way I apologize but I'm just going to refer back five years or four years when there was an issue with another Chief and like 8X Chiefs like asked to sit with me and I made myself available like four times so I'm not I'm not if that's what you're saying is is true that that's on me but the last time there was an issue with the Chief and people wanted to talk about it I think I had like 50 plus conversations about it so just you're you're not wrong but I just I do want to make that that noted you know we we've gone through an entire year and and and what happened four years ago when there was issues it didn't play out and there was a lot of dialogue back then and let's just say it didn't get to this point but I I can see your point so the reason I did try to reach out to you is because of what was going on with the ordinance it was violating the ordinance the reason I stepped down is because I can't stand behind something that the ordinance is going to be violated um I did go back into an officer same thing with Tyler after the February meeting we went back in correct me if I'm wrong March March March uh the ex-chiefs of the company senior members sat down with us asked us to come back in because they wanted leadership of the company the only reason we did is because the ordinance was changed and the fire department was no longer in violation of that ordinance Council dannis you would asked before have how can you fix stuff um little bit of my history of 20 years in a fire service 10 years as a career of fireman 20 years as a volunteer also good 10 years parttime specialized fire mortown airport when I got hired out in mortown airport it's one firefighter to a shift I just going to read the small excerpt from there uh and hopefully this will kind of go to where you were looking for before uh ear as mentioned I worked at mortown airport As A Firefighter for 10 years working there was a little different and there was only one firefighter to a shift and the fire was a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday position with the majority of the time you were by yourself for all fire alarms medical calls and aircraft incidents with automatic Mutual Aid dispatched after I was trained and passed my test uh to work alone the fire chief sat me down and told me something that I will never forget and live to by this day he said now that you're good to work alone you'll be The Incident Commander on all calls when you're by yourself you have to make decisions sometimes you you may make the wrong decision as long as you can justify the decision with a reasonable answer even if I feel it's a wrong decision I will always stand behind you to this day as an officer I live by this statement and feel that this is a sign of a go good and true leader because of what's going on today I have members that are afraid to come to calls afraid to do anything why you ask because they're afraid of exactly what everybody's been talking about is this retaliation that's a good leader I don't feel it the fire chief the assistant chief is going to back their men you need somebody to back their men Tyler we back his guys you got an ex-chief over there it will back his guys Mike Pressler other one over here Nick fedors Kenny Mike in the back Mike cologne from Garfield all these officers here back their guys that's a true leader unfortunately Rob hasn't done that there's been a lot of retaliation and there's a lot more that we can go on and on and on about there's a been a lot and all I'm going to say is the members that stand behind me and support you know when the fire department management doesn't have your back I do thank you thank you anyone else care to speak Michael Mike Pressler 134 Godin out Elwood Park um mayor we had a long conversation over the weekend um we discussed policy and procedure um I'm a firm believer that we follow the rules and we go with the r rules and not go around people and that's what I did just now I thank you councilman gbec for the response today from my letter I appreciate you reading that and I hope you take that into consideration again you've known me for many years many of the council members known me for many years I was fire chief in 2015 2016 I do things by the book I always pride myself on that right I found the fire department I left it better than I found it and that was always my my goal whenever something came up I tried my damnest to handle it internally because that's what you have in a department people that are make very balanced decisions level decisions um back with the last city manager Chief unfortunate I didn't get to work with you as city manager but I may be came to the town two or three times mayor mola God bless his soul used to say Mike solve the problems in your Firehouse don't come to the town we don't need to get involved we want don't air your dirty laundry try to handle internally count uh mayor KY was my fire commissioner we worked very diligently as my liaison and I looked for him to advice for advice and again I think maybe I had two issues I had to come to town with over a two-year term again things were different back in 15 and 16 the world has changed councilman gbec you are correct liability is a terrible word however what I want to hit on is the fire service unfortunately firemen are crazy all right we run in you run out we're a different breed but there's one term that want everybody to think about it's called Brotherhood okay you're my brother on a fire scene if I'm working a fire with you I don't know who you are you got a Saddle Brook shield in your helmet or a hobo can shield in your helmet hey brother what's going on hey brother move out of the way hey sister brother whatever you want to say I I want to you know segregate but however that's how it works we all have each other's back years ago growing up in the firehouse if we had a problem you went in the back room you took care of it yes we can't do that nowadays liability right hazing so on and so forth you took care of it all right you duked it out you screamed it out the door would Breathe we shook hands and we left his gentlemen and that was the end no one went here no one went there cuz you're Brothers right now since this November 6th incident I'm very hesitant to respond to fire calls been a member for 28 years my average is probably 78% my response I was devastated after November 7th I missed my first night call since I broke my leg in 2017 that shouldn't bother me since November 6th stuff that I see my father going through and the rest of the members of his Department it's disgusting I just don't know how to function when the whistle blows I don't want to go and that's not me mayor you were here on Sunday when they said I guess I had no choice to join the fire service when I was born you're 100% right and I loved every minute of it I even do it as a career but I cannot fathom to the spot that we've gotten here we've tried as ex-chiefs we've tried as members to give advice Rob followed me as I was his chief he followed me give advice give him pointers give him lessons he don't want to hear it which is fine he's the chief that's fine I respect that I stand back and watch that's why here it's very hard for me to come and complain because I don't like to air my my issues but again Brotherhood we solve things in the firehouse at your kitchen table okay that's how it works all this confidentiality it's very cloak and diag in Firehouse now don't say this don't say that don't look at this guy don't say that guy this is this this is that they're going to Rice you they're going to do this that's how the fire service works I'm sorry you could all disagree and say oh get get with it Mike is 2023 no we're brothers none of this Cloak and Dagger I'm going to trust you in my life if I can't trust you here I'm going down a hallway with you the fire is rolling over my head and I turn around you're gone I can't trust you you should be with me even get burned to take me out of that building that's how it works here we don't leave people behind and we don't screw people over so I'm taking a different approach in the whole thing remember the term Brotherhood but again I understand Poli and procedure but at one point the town has to get involved and see the common denominator here and when every time the common denominator comes crying to the to the to the council hey bud go solve your problems on your own and come back to us with real problems thank you thank you Michael anybody else Nikki sure sure good evening Nick Fedor 28 Maple would have I'm a 44 year member of this department I was hoping to make 50 maybe I'll make 45 I was going to leave because I don't need this but you know what Tyler and Steve and other ones ask me to stick around for their support and I will give them my full support I have never seen more people suspend it in the last year in this department because of Mr Bruce and not even with doing an investigation there was a road raate incident right away you're suspended and then all sudden the next day the kid they lift it do your investigation uh remember they were talking about engine 3 the chief's job is to spend for one month he's to spend for three months this man thinks he could walk on water and he has all the right because of his job he said to me one time I notes Here say because of was I met him at his Firehouse I was happen talking to somebody if this department fails it's because of Tyler and Steve no if this department fails it's because of you you know what as if right now if I could do a vote of no confidence against him and the incoming chief of Eddie mki I would do it because I don't have confidence my job is to worry about what's ahead of me saving that lady from the window saving that cat saving that dog whatever I don't need to be looking behind my back to see if I'm get get suspended it's this is so wrong I was I've been on the BOS committee since Ron pressle was chief that was right after dinosaurs right yeah and you're great you can't cover everything like with this incident you can't cover everything in law if things happen then you got to take care of it I understand that but it this is just so wrong what's going on here that everybody's got to look behind them Dolores camlet wanted the investigation board before we came to Mayor and councel well at that time has a fire board she wanted dis board so we handle I don't ever remember coming in front of you people maybe every now and then maybe it's because of a truck issue you want we want a new truck but maybe wait a year not for problems like this like I said if I could do it right now I would take a no vote of no coms against him and the assistant chief coming in because something's going to happen they're not going to straighten the stuff out this train is off the rails down the ditch not coming up nobody here should be afraid to do their job to run in and go do somebody but worried about getting suspended come on it's ridiculous thank you thank you Nikki anyone [Music] else happy holidays everybody um my name is Tim whis I'm Tyler winsky attorney from bie look I just want to talk about the procedures we we've heard about the merits of this thing um I think the council you're going to deliberate you're going to go back into a Clos session and and I can tell you I do a lot of this on the municipal side we represent about 25 towns and beron County as their labor attorney I've just gone through this with another municipality mayor you indicated at the beginning of this that the uh burough of emwood Park is a family and unfortunately what's happening right now from the fire department's perspective is the council is unwittingly acting to support the chief right this fireboard that that's going to occur on Monday that's your choice just explain the law with this you contract with Volunteer Fire companies that their own entities they have their own bylaws just like the council has its own bylaws those bylaws have disciplinary processes most things are handled in house and we're talking about a series of text messages and what Tyler is being accused of and he's been suspended for 88 days 88 days without a hearing at this point and and Mr W I'm going to cut you off there because you know this hearing was scheduled for early October and it was adjourned at your request now and it's been 88 days and who who the October since when do you suspend people without a hearing you suspend after the fact and we can argue about that later Mr Trent I'm not I'm not going to talk to you about the merits I'm talking about the fact that this has happened and this is consistently happened provide them with full information which is that this this was scheduled to be heard and I think it was October 4th and it was again I'll wrestle my point that you do not suspend people without a hearing there been no suspension there's been no suspension he's been suspended for 88 days administ what is administrative leave what what is that administr is where is that in your code you don't need it in the code it's an inherit ability for volunteers and and my point is this you are going to have a problem you do have a problem with volunteers people that volunteer their time to go in and fight fires in your building that fear retaliation from the chief okay you should ask yourselves when Tyler asked for an investigation did you have a fireboard hearing for that member no you didn't was it raised beyond the chief level of course it was you're copied on Mr CH you're copied on emails it's very clear that the council has unwittingly and and I don't fault you I believe you unwittingly have have gone down this path of picking and choosing Council you talked about investigations you were not consistently handling these things things that are handled in house should be handled in house as they were handled before and now you have a fireboard hearing for someone that's blown the whistle and requested an investigation and heavy-handedly the council has exercised its own jurisdiction over a series of text messages think about that for a second and what type of message does that sense respectfully the charges are in subordination for for what for for not turning over a document and Mr Tren we we can go back and forth on the merits on Monday I'm happy to do that my point is this ahead of you and just think about this ahead of you is going to be a hearing that hearing is going to be appeal to the mayor and counsel from that hearing you get to appeal to Superior Court if we Prevail on that hearing you pay our attorney's fees that's by Statute in addition to any potential litigation that could come we do not want to do this we don't want to be here doing this but you're forcing our hand when you act in this manner and continue to go down a path where the council picks and chooses based on who they feel like having hearings for and who they don't my point is on Monday I ask you all to go back to close session talk to your labor attorney there's two of them here they're very competent Mr Tren been nothing but professional during this obviously we have a disagreement on the marriage of this thing but this is not a path that I think you want to go down it's within your control to call this off it's within your control to send this back to the department to handle this in house and whatever happens in house H happens in house but my point is if this hearing happens on Monday you are setting into motion a series of things that will not be able to get undone and Mr Lewinsky will have to defend himself so I thank you for your time that's all I want to say tonight and and I apologize for for the lateness of this meeting but thank you again I just want to respond just to just to one piece of your comment sir um something about unwitting wittingly whatever been and I just want to make extraordinary clear from myself and probably others would agree that the council members the fire board the public fire Public Safety Committee is not interested in the politics and person ities of the fire department at large this is not a subject that I I I spend a lot of my day I'm just I'm very clear with you because you made certain insinuations about I I sure did why why are you having this fireboard hearing for Mr Lewinsky for nobody else I'm just I'm I just asked you that what is different about this circumstance you made your point I'm not I'm not getting into Q&A but I I just I want to make my point that I I a resent an insinuation that there's like a a personal angle from anyone here or any kind of prejudgment okay being in this position is a great job sometimes there's tough situations to deal with and that's all I can say do that matter sir and I'll rest on that I I don't this does not have to happen and it's I think I believe it's clear why it's happening it's clear why this is happening anyone else from the public here to speak if not I will close the public portion we're done I need a motion to adjourn no executive motion to go into executive all in [Music] favor this my name same