okay okay you ready we going to started good evening welcome to the City Council budget Workshop meeting of February 29th 2024 it is now 7:02 will we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag un United States of America the rep under godible with liberty and justice for but we were all done sorry and bless you whoever ceased okay well city clerk please read the open Public's meeting act the budget Workshop meeting was called pursuant to the visions of the open public meetings law notice of this meeting was published in the record on February 12th 2024 in addition a copy of the notice was posted on the city's website the bulletin board in the municipal building and filed in the office of the municipal clerk on a forementioned date notice on the bullettin board has remained continuously posted please take notice that in accordance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 colon 4-6 and seek and local Finance notice 2020-21 establishing standard protocols the city Council of the city of Englewood adopted resolution number 06602 6-24 authorizing the city of angle Anglewood schedule of Council budget Workshop meetings for 2024 to be held remotely via Zoom members of the public who wish to participate in the meeting May do so by clicking on the link below at 7M or by dialing 6465588656 uh please see link on our website the webinar ID for this meeting is 9 73 9189 0437 and the passcode is 080 498 individuals will be able to fully participate in the meeting including providing public comment public comments may be submitted by 3M on the date of the meeting either through L Written Letter or email to meeting at cityofinglewood.org all written comments shall be read during the public form portion of the meeting and shall be subject to the same time limitations for public speaking duplicative comment shall noted for the record and summarized the agenda for the meeting can be found on the city's website at www.cityofinglewood.org a separate meeting will be used if closed session is required proper notice having been given the municipal clerk is directed to include the statement in the minutes of this meeting will the city clerk please do the roll call councilman Rosen president councilwoman wiski present councilwoman David pres Council thank you um councilman Wilson is calling me right now and council president cob yeah do you want me to pick up the phone and answer him yes please all right I'm gonna all right he's trying right now to log in uh I'm going to continue the roll call Sor sorry also present is Mayor Michael wild city manager Robert S Hoffman Deputy city manager I think he's here John Berner yes CFO Michael calman and city engineer France wiy is in in the attendees on standby if needed okay would would you know keev councilman Wilson can join us as we move forward because we have a number of topics to cover so he can hear um tonight's budget Workshop agenda items are fire department Department of Public Works city clerk's office and administration including human resources and the finance department and first is up is the fire department is is is councilman Wilson having success trying to log on um I think he's trying yeah he's I resent him the the link yeah oh here he is okay here we go okay um Jee I don't know if you had a presentation you can share screen if you like on your end yeah I'll just I'll just give a brief uh my quick 30 seconds and then Jeff could go uh their budget for Sals and wages increased by 338,000 which is uh 5% and there other expenses increased by $44,500 which is uh 12.1% all right and just just so that sorry can you repeat that again Michael yeah the salary and wages uh 338,000 right 5.2% and their other expenses 44,500 which is 12.1% all right specialized Services was the main increase over there sorry sorry B that's right I just wanted to point out that the fire department um there they overtime there is a significant Improvement in in overtime and that part of that budget increase was related to contractual obligations for the uh um in in the in the department um and then that uh you know there there's there seem to be an increase in the in the number of repairs but we we have uh recently took took delivery of a new fire fire truck and then a high water high water rescue truck but the the chief can elaborate on on those other things but I just wanted to and and the list and the list is expiring so we're we're going out for the chief right for the chief's list yeah but that but that yeah that that's part of the presentation so yep okay yeah great okay good evening everybody give me a second and hopefully I can figure this out so open the file you want to show and then hit share screen on your end and pick it everybody see that or no not yet Hing on my side did you hit share screen yep you want to email it to me and then I can just tell me when to go next some sometimes the uh PowerPoint screen shows up twice on share screen I'll just send it to yansy it's easier you can just send it to yansy in the uh in the interest of time we'll just do that let me know when you send here it com it just takes a second to get through the firewall I don't know if it's going to sound I'm going try one more thing it's a big file yeah it's going to take a while them to get through is it more than 25 megabytes oh yeah oh then it's not going to go through i g to send it as a PDF okay might have to call my kids for backup support here nothing it takes time to get through the firewall just needs a minute how big is the PDF file was like 19 I should go through okay here we go tell me when you want to go next sure next time please oops sorry okay so good evening everyone thanks uh for having patience with me with the technical difficulties um so another busy year for the fire department um we had a 3.5 increase uh in calls from 2022 with a total of 2,418 um interestingly enough we had the same amount of structural fires um as 2022 but a small increase in um um Rec uh larger alarms we had a third alarm fire on nicapa road um seven second alarm fires which is uh a little bit of an increase from 2022 and um notably and I don't remember a year like this where we had several fires in commercial establishments um a fire in a restaurant um several fires in larger commercial establishments um and you know for being for most part a bedroom community I just thought that was unusual um but the guys did a terrific job and saved all of those commercial establishments um with minimal damage uh there were 94 company recalls and seven platoon recalls um all of the other numbers for the most part stayed very very similar to 2022 um there were 324 total um rescue motorol type calls 992 activated fire alarms which is a slight tick up from 2022 hazardous condition calls which include calls like wires down Transformers gas leaks um carbon monoxide leaks 3 48 which again is pretty uh pretty similar to the year before um we still do a tremendous amount of service calls which include lockouts of people's homes and apartments lockouts of people's automobiles um water leaks uh and I I think that's something that's unique to the anguid fire department where we try to um service service the community um with things that a lot of other fire departments might not do but we try to be a full service fire department and help people in their time of need and then finally Mutual Aid requests this was a uptick we requested Mutual Aid 14 times but we responded to other communities 32 um 32 times and like I said last year we respond to a wide variety of emergencies and different service calls next slide please so um we're pretty active on social media we like to get the word out of what we're doing and let the public know um that we do respond to a a wide variety of emergencies and you know we kind of joke but whether it be a cat stuck in a tree um or to flood emergencies or motor vehicle accidents we do it all and whether it's a structural fire our firefighters have to be prepared for a wide variety of emergencies and that requires a tremendous amount of training and a lot of effort um and and you know being in a a a small community it puts a lot of uh you know taxes the firefighters a lot because we have to be sort of a jack of all trades we really never know what we're going to encounter um we might be going through a fire one minute a gas leak the next and uh you know putting on a wet suit and going into flooded flood waters you know an hour later so it really you know it it taxes the guys to you know have training and have knowledge in all these different emergencies but we pride ourselves on being prepared for you know whatever is thrown at us and what whatever might come next next slide please oh I went backwards sorry so a few of the major accomplishments um for 2023 I'm very very proud of this accomplishment that we H hired 10 probationary firefighters they were all City residents and I think that's a a great accomplishment um we we followed the city ordinance we um we had a great successful testing process at the end of 2022 we had all our our interviews done at the end of 2022 and um we were able to finally um hire the firefighters at the tail end uh at the beginning of of February of 2023 they all started the academy and all they were all successfully completed that process um the first seven group uh just finished their probationary period the last three are still on probation and are at different stages of training some have completed the academy one firefighter is still in the fire academy but again I think it's uh a testament to working with the mayor and Council um working with the city manager that we we followed the process um we did a a good recruitment effort and um I think it shows that we can we can follow that and we can accomplish that goal so so thank you for letting us do that um we also promoted to fire officers during 2023 we completed several large construction projects uh during the year and we have several others that are about to take place um from 2023 Capital uh that included painting the entire Firehouse um rebuilding the front apron I'd like to thank fron I know he's not right you know in the G he's in the gallery but France um was terrific with us um rebuilding the front apron I know was sort of like an a cold audible but uh we've seen damage to the firet trucks because of the old apron and we we decided to fix it sort of real quick and um hopefully the the damage caused to the firet trucks um won't we won't see any of that moving forward it it it really has helped us since doing that um we were able to restart the fire prevention openhouse um I'd like to thank Lieutenant Brown our Community Service Officer uh that's his project he spearheads that what happened here we okay um we we restarted our open house after covid um we we wanted to get that done and it was a a good success and hopefully we'll build on that moving forward and then finally we're able to finally take delivery of two hybrid electric SUVs for our fire prevention Bureau I know that the council has um made it made an effort and made it a mandate to try to um have more hybrid electric vehicles and although the larger fire apparatus that's that's very difficult but some of our smaller vehicles and our our everyday um cars and SUVs that is possible and we were able to uh take delivery of the vehicles and we just put them on the road within the last month so I think that's another good accomplishment for us yany next slide please so um we've been very very successful with grants in the in the last I would say six or seven years and 2023 is no different we are able to complete um an advanced driver training class with $170,000 um assistance of firefighters uh Grant um every member of the fire department firefighters and officers alike went through this program um we actually have additional funds left over from this Grant and we're continuing more driver training uh in fact this past Monday we uh are doing um driver training on the new high waterer uh flood vehicle to make sure that all of the firefighters who are going to drive this new type of vehicle are properly trained to operate this vehicle and then with additional money left over from this grant every firefighter will go through a pump operator class later this year so we really maximize the dollars that we're getting from FEMA and making sure that all of the training that we're doing um goes a long way and it's um training that we really need so like we driver training it this will lower our insurance costs we're reducing accidents we're making sure that we're you know covering our liabilities and so all all the training that we're picking through grant funding um really goes a long way um we received uh almost $112,000 from the state to run a lithium ion battery training program so that's a real Hot Topic right now you know it's all over the news of these lithium ion battery fires so every member of the department attended this program as well we received for uh for 2024 but it was awarded in 2023 $270,000 for floodwater training and we're hoping to kick that off very soon as soon as the pool opens up actually so that we can start doing our training and get every member of the department certified um in flood water response in 20122 we received $1.8 million from FEMA to fully fund six of the new firefighters um the period of performance starts Actually March 1st of 23 so the last year actually as of tomorrow that was one full year of of fully funded of six of the new firefighters was fully funded by FEMA and we can talk about that a little bit in a minute but um $1.8 million is a really big number that six of those firefighters were completely paid for by FEMA we were awarded $42,000 from the Division of Community Affairs using arpa funds to pay for $42,000 worth of turnout gear which basically paid for all of the turnout gear of the new recruits we were awarded another uh nearly $122,000 from the attorney general to pay for compressed natural gas vehicle fires which we're doing this year but that again that award was made last year we got to $95,000 again from FEMA through a regional program to pay for a mobile training trailer so we can essentially bring the fire academy to Anglewood and do training right in Anglewood in the backyard and do all sorts of training right here we don't have to send to the guys of the academy as much and we can lower overtime costs now because we'll be able to do training in our backyard and then finally we will received $155,000 from the liry firefighter Foundation we're going to be doing Advanced leadership training for all of our officers and we're going to do that later this year so that all was in two uh 2023 uh all of that money was awarded so we're really really doing great with grants and we continue to apply for Grants um we're applying for two more grants next week um so that's been the life blood of our fire department next uh slide please n yansy so like I said training training training um the fire department is very young and obviously you all of you have been witnessed to all of the hiring that we've done in the last three years and it's almost half of the fire department has less than three years or less um on the job and the fires are down and the the age of the fire department is down and the experience is down and that's something that we've talked about for a while that we're dealing with an experience vacuum and the only way to make that up is through training so we're taking advantage of it a lot of it is paid for through the FEMA money but some of it we're just you know we're just making it up by going to training doing training at house uh the picture on the top is members at the Bergen County fire academy uh we have the distinction of being the very first fire department in the county to use their new $17 million live burn facility and we were honored to participate in that and put it through its Paces we were able to go to the academy twice it's a very Advanced building it uses all what they call class a burn material which is wood and hay but it burns real fire it's not propane fed and it's the most realistic training that you can get um so we we put all of the members through that twice this year and and it helps to give them the experience that they need we're not doing it any other way um the picture on the right is the uh bailout training where firefighters if they get uh caught in a building and need to escape quickly um all the members participate in annual bailout training and then finally the uh photo on the bottom is one of the grant funded training where all of the members learned how to properly use the ladder trucks and that's really important when you buy a 1.5 million ladder truck we want to make sure that they all know how to use it properly and can position it properly and if God forbid someone is trapped and they need to put up the aerial quickly they know the proper way and the quick the correct way to do it so again we're trying to maximize the dollars so our equipment and our training won't fail us okay next slide please one of the things I'm very proud of and I can't take credit for it I have to give credit to our firefighters is two initiatives that really came into in its own in 2023 the first one [Music] oh sorry the first one is physical fitness um physical fitness was never really a big thing in the efd especially when I started couple people would work out but it never really um Mr Cobb spoke about it Monday night about the culture the culture in the fire department the culture in the police department culture in the fire department never really pushed physical fitness and these young guys really are um showing the importance of physical fitness firefighting obviously is a very very physical job um you need to be in good shape to do it and you don't want your physical fitness to let you down when you need to rescue somebody or rescue one of your fellow firefighters so starting with a group of seven firefighters in the academy in February we wanted to make sure that physical fitness was part of the academy and although the Bergen County Fire Academy does not um mandate this and they don't make it part of their Academy we wanted to make sure that um our firefighters would go up there and conduct um physical training or PT with our recruits three days a week and we partnered with the teic fire department to do this and we had it instructors our firefighters who are certified to do physical training along with teenx firefighters who are certified to do this um work with their recruits and our recruits so that three days a week they would do an hour of PT to make sure that our recruits would be in top physical shape and instill that culture of physical fitness um when they started the job and that has uh carried over to I would tell you two-thirds of our fire department who work out on a regular basis um the physical fitness uh level has gone through the roof the health of our members has gone through the roof the morale of our members have gone through the roof um we have firefighter Anderson and firefighter Lee who have led the charge with that but it's contagious and the physical fitness levels of our firefighters I would tell you is probably uh some of the best in New Jersey and it's for their enthusiasm and their performance and uh it it's really amazing to see how the culture of that fire department has turned around and I'd be um I'd be neglectful if I didn't thank Captain Marino who recently retired in 2023 he was the one who really started it and got these young guys involved in it so nearly a 30-year uh member got the young guys going uh going to do this the other big thing that we did in 2023 is we started resiliency training Mental Health Fitness Mental Health Training um again the years and years of going to fires and going to emergencies and seeing some of the bad things that we do um we realize that it's building you know building mental illness and building um yes suicide has become a huge um problem in the fire service um suicide is one of the number one killers of firefighters right now and um firefighter Herman is a licensed uh clinical social worker and he came to us saying that he wanted to start a resiliency program within the efd he recruited a few of our members to go through um the International Association of firefighters a peer resiliency program and they took that training this year and I'm very proud to say that every member of our fire department has gone through resiliency training to make sure that we can recognize the signs of um suicide in or potential suicide thoughts or um potential mental illness in our firefighters um they can recognize the science of PTSD and our firefighters so between the physical fitness program and the resiliency I think those are things that we should be very proud of that we are recognizing those things and and um supporting those things in our fire department um on top of the regular training so those are two things that are really important and and I think that we should be supporting next slide please uh of course we continue with our community involvement the picture on the left is from our open house and the picture on the right is from one of our many uh attendance at at the community events whether it's uh the many festivals or National Night Out um we love doing these things it's great to get in touch with the community and and meet the people of the community um the five is so important and we look to expand it like I said Lieutenant Brown is terrific with it um our junior fire academy is great we have great attendance we have a waiting list every year uh I wish there was a way that we could expand it um but we have enthusiasm from the guys who participate the firefighters that do it volunteered to do it and uh again it's just it's another way that we can get into the community and people can see a different side of the fire department next slide please so let's talk about Staffing and Manpower for a minute um our current Staffing is at 55 we have 18 officers and 35 firefighters the table of organization is authorized for 59 members So currently we're four firefighters short like I said we hired 10 probationary firefighters last year the onboarding takes nearly nine months and uh like Michael alluded to um the overtime didn't reflect uh didn't reflect the hiring until the late summer so by the time we hired the firefighters in February they went to fire school they went to EMT school they did um field training essentially um the overtime didn't really uh reflected until late summer and unfortunately the summertime is when we'd like it to be reflected with all of the vacation and and people taking off but one we saw the dip in overtime around August and into September when all of those the the seven guys came online came on board and were into the Manpower count and we did finally see a big dip in overtime and now we're seeing the at least the firefighter overtime um really have tapered off and that's that's a great thing that was really the you know one of the main goals of of getting these guys on board um we currently have two members set to retire um one one member in April and one member in June and there are also seven other members who are eligible to retire immediately who have at least 25 years so those members could leave really at any time I don't know if they are but they have at least they've met their obligation and could retire so uh my proposal and Mr Hoffman and I have talked about this that the two firefighters should be hired midye to replace the retirees and I'm requesting four additional firefighters this year to be um to fill out the table of organization to bring us back to 59 and that's the same request that we made last year looking to fill out the table of organization in addition uh Michael also talked about this um our promotional our promotional process or our promotional list is set to ex expire in October and when we did this the last time when we give our firefighter exam in 2022 we didn't budget for that and the budget took a big hit because the bud the testing process is expensive so we're looking to put a little bit of extra money in the budget this year to ensure that we have enough money to run the exam um the current list is either exhausted or if it's not exhausted um the the test the list ex ex the list itself will expire so we want to make sure that we budget for that this year and that we start the the process to plan for it so that we can give the test at the end of the year and that we have a a a promotional list in place um when the list expire next slide please so like I said before we have the safer Grant in place 2023 was the first year that the six firefighters were paid for we'll have two more years of of it fully being paid for um and my my recommendation is that while we have this I'll call it an amnesty while we have these uh six firefighters being paid for this is the right time to do the hiring while we are not paying for these six positions um use that use that money that you that you normally would be paying for these six firefighters let's use that money to fund additional positions um we always apply for safer money we've been applying for it every year unfortunately we didn't get funded in 2023 um but we will of course apply for the safer Grant again in 2024 it's it's uh you know we have a 50-50 shot some years we get it some years we don't but of course we'll continue to apply for safer and we will again try to get funded but there's no guarantee that moving forward we'll get additional grant money for additional firefighters but I would suggest that we take advantage of the next two years of not having to pay for these six firefighters that we we try to use that amnesty period um like I said from last year I'd like to set a goal of trying to fill out the table of organization this year and then add four more people to the organization for 2025 bringing us to 63 members um the city is growing and growing um we're certainly not getting any smaller and I I I believe that the Anglewood fire department is in need of more Personnel um to effectively fight fires and I'll talk about that on the next slide so I I I believe you know everyone must have heard about the fire we had last Saturday um at 76 James Street everyone's familiar with this building this building has been in town for you know for decades and decades and we responded to this fire with minimum Manpower three officers and six firefighters and in actuality we have uh one firefighter that's operating the pumper so now we really only have five firefighters who are fighting the fire and one officer um operates at the command post so we really only have two officers that are fighting the fire so with two officers and five firefighters in a building that houses 32 apartments and you know over 100 people in this apartment building these firefighters did an amazing job and held it to the fire um to the apartment in place and you can see at the picture that they left this apartment was gutted and I and I I I'm scared to think of what could have happened if this fire extended from the apartment of origin we're talking about you know dozens and dozens of people that need to be searched for potentially rescued um hose lines that need to be stretched how do we do this with seven people in the building and that's why year after year I continue to ask for more people there are so many jobs that need to be done search rescue ventilation stretching the hose line up a up a stairwell this was only on the second floor but what if this fire was on the fourth floor and then I'll talk about something else the day before this fire a building very similar to this in New York City there were rope rescues because there was no access so if you look where the arrow points there's no way to get a ladder truck back there to make rescues if we had people coming out of the uh Windows the roof rope is the only way to rescue these people which we train on but that's a Manpower intensive operation so I guess my point is is that um we ask for more manpower for a reason firefight and although you know I'll admit it we don't go to many fires but when we do go to fires it's all hands on deck we need as many hands as possible and it's for fires like these where there are a tremendous amount of uh lives at stake there's a huge life hazard in buildings like these and the apartments that are being built in Anglewood are bigger and bigger and bigger there's only so much we can do and we need more help we need more hands and um that's why we continue to ask for more people because there really are um so many lives at risk and the more firefighters that we throw at the fire quickly the more lives that we'll save and and that's why I wanted to emphasize this fire in particular next slide please so apparatus uh we've talked about this for quite a few years and and I'd like to say that we're making progress um the engine that's on order although it's been pushed back a little bit we have a delivery date of Halloween of 2024 and I think that's great news um unfortunately we continue to have to fix the older trucks um our rescue truck is 22 years old um our now our our older ladder truck is 19 years old our our engine that we're still running is 16 years old and so we still have a a pretty old Fleet that continues to need need maintenance um the nfba standard says that we should be keeping our firet trucks in Frontline service for 15 years and unfortunately we're really not doing that I think that we're on the right track and with the delivery of the new ladder truck and the delivery of the new engine our frontlines Fleet will be less than 15 years old so I think that we are on the right track um and as far as a replacement program uh Mr Cobb and I have talked for a long time about having a rainy day fund and we are doing that now so we are doing or heating you know all our own advice there is money put aside and and the budget this year um asks for additional money so that in 2025 we can be to purchase another new fir TR so I think that we are on the right track um we just have to make sure that we stay on this track and we don't go backwards um that we continue go down this road the only big development that I just want to make the council aware of is that postco uh something crazy has gone on in the fire apparatus industry and fire trucks are taking between three and four years to build and the only reason why we got our new truck so quickly was cuz essentially we bought it like off the lot but if we were bu building it normally we're looking at a 3 to foure build time so we just have to PL take that into consideration when we go to purchase and leave those three to four years as a buffer knowing that even when we cut the purchase order the new truck won't be here for three three years at least so um it's just something to keep in mind as we budget and we plan out buying the new trucks they they are not coming you know within a year anymore hopefully that will change but it doesn't it doesn't look like that's going to get better so something to keep in the back of our minds and then finally like again good news we've had to rely on laner trucks borrowing trucks from other municipalities less and less so like I said there is progress and I think that we are doing a lot better in the apparatus uh Department okay next slide please uh Capital expenditures we bought um turnout gear and PPE replacement and we we do that every year I'm very proud to say that every member of the department has two sets of of personal protective equipment that's very important with cancer prevention when firefighters go to a fire they can immediately come back to the Firehouse switch into a clean set of turnout gear and put their dirty contaminated gear into our in-house washer and dryer wash it and get rid of all the contaminants and then when they're done they switch back into the primary gear and put their spare gear back in the locker again we're one of the only departments in the state that have that but it's goes a long way to keeping our firefighters healthy and cancer free um we went and did our two-way radio replacements for 2023 um we will again ask for that for 2024 and start to phase out the older radios and make sure that we don't have a catastrophic failure and slowly and methodically replace the old stuff and make sure that we have new stuff in place before we have a failure the picture uh uh on the slide is of the brand new hybrid vehicles um we're looking to replace two more and that way the 12-year-old vehicles are replaced prior to failure uh one of the things that I'd like to do this year year start to replace some fire hose we replaced a large amount of it in 2018 but again let's do a little bit at a time so that we don't have to replace all of it at once we spent a lot of money in 2018 and rather than do that again all at once let's do a little bit at a time and slowly replace it rather than doing a huge purchase all at once and then finally uh we did some building upgrades um we're looking to do more building upgrades unfortunately um the exterior of the firehouse is in really rough shape uh France and I looked at the building we've talked to some contractors we talked uh repair versus replace and we feel that replacing the building siding is the long-term right decision but all of the siding on the back of the firehouse is failing it's allowing water to get into the building and we're concerned about um the long-term effects it's going to have on the building as a whole and we want to make sure that the firehouse is going to be um up to par and and um you know I don't know what the right word is but worthy you know uh sturdy for the long term and the amount of water penetration getting in around the doors around the windows is is very concerning and it needs to be addressed sooner than later okay next slide uh some goals for 2024 uh we want to complete the delivery of all the new apparatus the new ladder truck is in service there are a few bugs that need to be worked out but by and large it is in service it's obviously responding to fires so we're all set uh the flood rescue truck pictured below um it just got uh address had some issues addressed today by the manufacturer we're doing training uh we had two two days of training and two more are scheduled and then it will be in service um and then like I said the new engine is scheduled uh for the end of the year so that's the big goal to get all three trucks in service and on the road uh we talked about hiring the additional firefighters and filling out the table of organization conducting the promotional exam uh one of the things that I'd like to do this year we found out about a FEMA grant called the fire prevention and safety Grant this will give us money to not only purchase smoke detectors but also supplement um um salaries for firefighters to get out into the community and basically canvas Community uh canvas different neighborhoods to see who's at risk and who needs smoke detectors um and we're talking not a not a little bit of smoke detectors we're talking thousands of smoke detectors um and so that's one of the things that I really want to do you know we've kind of talked about smoke detectors for a a long time but we were always kind of talking about like I don't know 100 smoke detectors 200 smoke detectors we're talking about thousands of smoke detectors so I really want to apply for that Grant that's coming up this spring and I'm I'm hoping that we're successful with that Grant and we could really make an impact with um getting into the community and getting into um people at risk the elderly um people like that who probably don't have smoke detectors and canvasing those neighborhoods and making sure that we uh can make an impact that way um we talked about this a little bit last year uh we're using a program called Lexus which is using industry professionals who are assisting us with assisting us with redeveloping our policies procedures we are at the tail end of this but these are legally um legally B not legally bonding that's the wrong word but legally approved or legally vetted policies that meet all state and federal regulations that um are imposed on fire departments so essentially like any OSHA regulation that the fire department needs to have we now have policies that meet those OSHA regulations um any state law that fire departments are are bound by we now have policies that uh make sure that we are following state law or state regulations and we really never had that so um it makes us much uh much safer to fire department a much less liable fire department um we have a committee that meets with the experts from lexo once a week um we are going uh policy by policy right now with our membership so that they understand anded and they're signing off on the policies there are literally several hundred policies that they're doing we are in the tail end of it um but we're I would tell you a much less liable department and City because of it and leaves us Le much less legally um liable because of the program we're doing and then finally I would love to look at a strategic plan so that the fire department knows where we're going for the next five years like I said we're a very young department and um you know the older guys are starting to leave and taking that knowledge with them and I think we need to leave a road map for the young guys so that we know where the department is going for the future next slide please uh and that's about it like I said there's a lot going on in the department there's a lot of equipment being purchased there's a tremendous amount of training um we're we're a department um in transition right now and uh it's just a very exciting time to be an angled fire department and I just thank you for all of your support the last couple years and and open it up to questions um I'm gonna take down the sharing sure that way I can see people sorry go ahead um who has any questions for the chief nobody wison good evening good evening Chief thank you for your presentation we appreciate you taking the time and such a a diligent job um I guess everybody may know that I'm a little biased um but uh you're making us look good uh Chief with a presentation like that I have a couple questions in regards to the Lexa pool poll is it yep now is is this going to replace our existing um sop standard standard operating procedures it's it takes our existing policies and integrates them into the bigger policy and procedure manual so they take they take some of theirs they take all of ours that are angled specific and it kind of merges it into one larger document so essentially anything that like I said is a requires a state or Federal mandate I'll use an example of uh like bloodborne pathogens federal government says that we need to do bloodborne pathogen training annually they've created a policy so that we're in compliance with that but if we had a policy let's say on responses to Anglewood Hospital which is obviously Anglewood specific they're taking angle's policy and integrating that into the policy manual as well so it's it's a mix it's I don't want to say it's a hybrid but um they take what we have we take what they have and it creates it into an online onine platform so that employees have access to it 24 hours a day they can literally look up any policy on their phone if they need guidance and I think the nice thing about the system is that um their their experts constantly monitor um the laws so that if a law does change they automatically update the policy so that we are in compliance with changes in the law so if a federal law changes that affects the fire department they will automatically update our policy so that we continue to be in compliance and you know we we would never have that ability to monitor a legal journal and know that you know every single law you know changes we just don't have that ability but they they scour that information to make sure that we are in compliance and I think that's a nice uh way that we keep ourselves protected thank you for that so if they add two new Sops or two new policies to to the procedures right right out of 10 how many of those would be to retrain our individuals or our Manpower and how will we get that is that through a grant is something they offer or should we look be be looking to put something else in the budget for training for these new Sops um I don't I don't think that any of the policies that we are talking about require retraining I think a lot of it is what we're doing already but I think it's more of documentation and um a lot of the things that we were talking about I I just think that we have failed to document over the years and I think this is more of um a cya if that's a good good example I think that we're just putting things into paper now that have never been properly documented or have kind of fallen through the cracks over different administrations over the years and uh special orders have kind of vanished over the years and this is um this is done in an electronic Clearing House where it's it's always it's always kept in a in a in a secure area where a piece of paper has tend tends to you know get shoved in a file somewhere and loses you know loses the light of day and I think one of the things and I think you could appreciate this is a special order that was read to you 20 years ago doesn't have any bearing on a young kid that got hired last week he never had the he never had the benefit of hearing that special order but now that it's in a database that he can review all of the policies all at once he can see something that was developed a long time ago as well as seeing something that was developed a week ago he has access to see all of the policies and um I think that's what's nice about it nothing vanishes it's always there and it's whatever's updated he'll be able to see that it was updated he'll see a reev you know he'll see a revision so he'll see the original let's say from 1985 but he could see a revision from 1995 as well so it's it's a living it's a living document I think that's the best way the living document um yeah and that's important because when I was working my special orders were written on Papyrus and they're probably getting ready to evaporate um how are we doing with mutual Aid when we respond it's it's important as you well know um that we have our own Personnel on our own apparatus especially with these new trucks in this hybrid of new training um we're prepared for that as we send out our new rigs to the special to um Mutual Aid if you will um I Think Mutual Aid is an interesting topic um Mutual Aid has definitely changed in the last five years where the towns that were normally very reliable have become less reliable and we've had to become more dependent on the career fire departments that surround us that are staff 247 and some of the towns unfortunately that are volunteer um volunteer staffed and I'm not making a knock on the volunteers but um they have not they are not as reliable and there have been numerous occasions in the last two or three years where we've called for a town that neighbors us and they haven't shown up or they show up really late and after the fire is out and that's concerning to me as a fire chief where we are assuming that a pumper is showing up or a ladder showing up from a neighboring town and it never gets there and that means that we need to rely more on our own Manpower or our guys have to tough it out longer by themselves and they think that help is coming and then they come outside and they say well you know where are the guys from you know Smithville and they're not there and that's only going to get worse that's not going to get better as volunteering volunteerism declines um that that problem will exacerbate itself in the future it's not going to get any better and certainly there are times in days where it it's worse or better but um that's that's a concern that um you as as as the council have to be aware of um and and that kind of leads into you know why it's important to have you know good Manpower okay um I just have a few more quick topics um I I just want to be mindful in in ordering new fire apparatus as we know and and as we've been learning as we've been moving along is that they move the price they move the price line out um the longer it takes for them to build out whether they get U more orders or lack of material to build the the specifications that we ordered and it may start at a 100 and then as time goes eight months later it's 150 and then another eight months so I'm saying do can we try to put something in place is there an animal out there that we can order in 2024 and it's the same price as they're bu building it and we receive it in 2028 uh that's a really that's a great question um I think that certain manufacturers are not honoring that contract and are doing exactly what you're saying um you know moving the goalpost so to speak where we lock in a price today and and you know prices are being raised and and that was a situation that Ango had found itself and there are other manufacturers like the one that we just bought the truck from that I think are big enough to absorb that cost increase yeah but we bought we bought that off the rack I'm saying if we don't buy something off the rack and it's specifications for us is that something that our lawyer needs to look at at the contract because they keep moving the the goal or upping the price once they know that we're on the hook I think that's an excellent idea and I think that we could put language in the contract or language in the specifications to ensure that and I think that uh in the next go around if we if we end up buying a fir truck next year that we should have Mr Bailey um look at the contract and maybe research from other towns so that we don't end up in the mess that we did uh last year I think that's a really good idea um yeah I I haven't heard it happen in a lot of towns but in the one manufacturer in particular that's happening so I I think that's a great you know if if I may with with that um we did have Mr Bailey look at that there were also attorneys from other other municipalities that looked at that because this was a jersey wide problem and the manufact um the manufacturer was not willing to honor their contract they were willing to break the contract um because they had they had other buyers in other states and um they they they were will they were willing to go to court with us but they weren't willing to honor the price or deliver the truck for the for the for the contracted price and that was very frustrating for for every everybody is and So my answer remains do do you think there's such an animal or since Co has change the the the way we do things nowadays is this the way that we have to look forward to ordering stuff I think I think to your point I I think that there's still honorable companies out there that will do the right thing and honor the price that you signed the PO for um but I think that there are some companies that are to your point not honorable and will move the goalpost at the end so I think that we need to be very leery of that as we move down the road well I would like to see us move forward and looking at those honorable um companies like right now um because we know we're going to need apparatus in three to four to seven to eight years and and hopefully those manufacturers that were AR there were there a superior um craftsmanship yeah um and so moving on uh real quick so we can move this along um train you mentioned that there would be uh two members ready to retire this year seven have uh we'll have 25 as well and so what I would like to see is and hopefully we can discuss this with with my constituents is I would like to see that we create a pool um because we don't know exactly when these individuals I was about to say ladies and gentlemen but we have no ladies these individuals will be retiring um and as you know the academy is under siege and has pressure and it's a it's a timely it's a timely um operation so I would just like to see us um be prepared because as everyone knows inid is becoming very attractive and we having more Personnel move in and so that puts a strain on all our services DPW fire and police so I would like to see hopefully we can figure something out on how we're going to increase our recruiting and um possibly having more individuals in the in the queue uh do we have something in Parts training as diversity for you guys is that still in the in the table because a no time ago we used to have that for the diversity training to keep the city out of trouble I know that we spoke about it at the management meeting on Monday that it is uh in the queue and scheduled for this year I think Mr Hoffman could better speak to that but but yes yeah okay we can talk about that off the line Mr city manager um sure and and the fitness program coming down the line would that put someone at Peril uh as far as if they do not have the capability of fulfilling that requirement for training um an individual has 18 years we go to this fitness program and obviously they can't climb three flights of stairs it's a good question right now the fitness program is completely voluntary um I think the nice thing about the fitness program at least the people who are helping put it together is that they're scaling it to people who you know well a joke like you and me who are maybe a little bit older and you know you know we we've tried you know they're like ah come on Chief you know jump in on the workouts and I'm like I don't know if I can I don't know if I can hang with you guys but so they'll scale it to make it you know maybe a little bit you know easier or they'll start slow with some of the older guys so that we're not jumping in you know with both feet um and I think that the guys who are running the exercise program are very cognizant and you know even if it's walking and walking around the firehouse or walking on the treadmill the it's something better than nothing and we've been you know the nice thing about the new Firehouse it has does have great facilities and and even just the I've seen you know again I don't want to name names on on the public call but older members who have been here 20 plus years who are doing a lighter workout a walk you know you know lightweights but that's great to see that it's contagious and that maybe the young you know the young kids who were doing a lot you know they want to try to catch up or they just they want to feel included so maybe they'll do something lighter but again right now it's completely voluntary there is nothing mandated but I think that that culture like Mr Cobb said Monday that culture has changed and it's not one or two guys doing it now it's only one or two guys not doing it and I think that's that's a testament to you know the spirit of the guys and the enthusiasm of the guys it's really great okay thank you and and I think I have three last quick ones um are we thinking about creating a library a book library for our firefighters and our officers in regards to having material at they're ready besides the computer that they can go into a particular area and read this material while they have their D downtime uh there was one kind of like brewing a little bit in the kitchen but I think that's a really easy thing to do and certainly something we could execute pretty quickly so I'll I'll work on that getting that done okay that sounds good um and the last test was I believe 2022 and you said something in regards to us possibly not having people in the queue because of the the pricing um and as everyone knows here that a life is invaluable you can't put a number on pricing um so what's the budget for that uh I I I don't I don't want to say I misspoke um the the test was very the test was very expensive and it just it hit my budget it hit my budget very hard and I wasn't expecting it to be so expensive so with uh with a test pending this year we wanted to budget appropriately so that other things wouldn't have to be pushed off to the side um especially the firefighter exam where it's not just a written and an oral there's also a portion of the the Physical Agility there's a psychological that that test in particular was very expensive I I would anticipate that the officer test would be less expensive but I just think it's something that you have to anticipate budget wise that um it it is expensive so we should plan accordingly um it it it didn't push I don't think it it affected Life Safety in any way but it's something good planning and good budgeting um it it should just be something that we anticipate ahead of time and while we so we know ahead of time now just like in two years we'll know we'll need to give a firefighter exam again we should budget that appropriately and and make sure we have money ahead of time to do the exam and not and not let the budget absorb that cost unexpectedly I think that's that's the point and I'm GNA end with this and thank you for your Indulgence to you and my constituents um I I I love when things come under budget I love a bargain I love a sale um and but I I see see in on page number 50 uh 00233 fire department books and other Publications and that speaks directly to what I was sharing earlier in regards to study material um and it seems to have been under budget significantly by maybe 1 12200 or 1100 and something um no no no I'm sorry 2,000 or something dollars some of some of that is because in the FEMA grants the books and the Publications that we use for the programs are directly funded in that program so when we get reimbursed the money comes directly from the line at and from the grant um we are running several programs one of them started today um one of the one of the programs or one of the efforts that we're trying to do this year is prepare um young firefighters who are going to be taking a promotional exam this year we are getting we are getting them ready by having them take um prerequisite courses for the Fire officer program they started the incident safety officer program today and any books that they would require we would obviously pull out of that line item so that they they are not purchased in that book the books are expensive some of the books are upwards of $100 so to your point where we would create a library or create the books we have we have an account set up at the ifs the LI you know if the bookstore and we could purchase the book so I think that's an Eagle Eye for you where you're seeing that the books weren't purchased but a lot of the manuals or training manuals sometimes do come from the grant line item so that we are not paying for them they're coming paid directly from the grant um but to your point to your point yes um we cly because I know it's the internet area and I would hope that we're doing U the social media for new new applicants and candidates and so forth and I know uh guys study online as well so uh just wanted to bring bring that up thank you Chief again for your presentation and your time and hopefully we can uh knock down some of these items offline sounds good councilwoman David Chief how are you good how are you I'm good thank you um first I I would like to say I have no questions but my comments uh I'm very impressed by your thorough presentation it's awesome thank you it made me see the entire scope and also I like your um new and innovated um initiatives that you put in place so far and also um it's a great pleasure to have known you I guess for almost two decades and thank you for your continued service to the community of Englewood thank you thank you thank you for the kind words anybody else have any questions for the chief councilwoman raski hey thank you um I have to find you on my screen so I can I can look at your picture here um so thank you for that wonderful presentation um I I think you've you've done a wonderful job with the grants with the um resiliency training with the training of the officers the community involvement and these are things that that are evident and um noted so so and thank you and thank you for the great presentation um when when you talked about just so so when you talked about the siding failing and I know recently there was a problem with the garage doors H how old is the building uh the building will be eight years old in April so should we be seeing siding failing I I would think not if it was your if it was your own home I think you'd be upset and I think you know we certainly and France and I have talked about it we are frustrated with the amount of problems with the building um there are some very serious problems with the building and we've addressed a lot of them but there there are there are some significant issues so we have knocked off some of the bigger issues and address them um I think that you know and again you you can ask France he's more of the expert I think that we're getting towards the end of that those bigger issues but for a building that's just eight years old we find it very frustrating um that we're dealing with some some of these major issu these aren't little issues these are major issues and and I'm I'm wondering Mr Hoffman I mean is do we have any warranties or any recourse in terms of in terms of these repairs when the building is so new well the building's eight years old most most of the warranties last for two or three years so you have you know you you may have a um a 20 year warranty on the uh vinyl siding or the aluminum siding but most most of the maintenance issues that's that's only a two-year warranty right and so and so now if we go and repair it how how do we know you know I mean is is this just with a poor workmanship or you know or okay I guess I guess we have to as we repair it because I know those garage doors was a problem from day one almost and and um and now the sding I guess I guess we have to be more careful going forward that we that we get what we pay for in terms of the work and well yeah you did bring up a good point um just about the garage doors because there was a very large garage door and there was a you know after having after having significant problems with that door you know going back years it was there was basically a redesign so that there's Jeff there's two smaller doors now and is that is is that working better since the redesign of last year 100% I mean you know it was frustrating to have to spend the money but now it's designed the way it probably should have been done from the beginning and we haven't had any problems since the new doors were installed so you know it yes like I said we've we've corrected a lot of these major issues but I I would feel I feel pretty strongly that moving forward now that we've corrected some of these bigger ticket items those problems will stop and it sort of has a ripple effect because now it's you know one of the doors fell on a member you know the apron was damaging the fire trucks it has a ripple effect it's not just the door itself it it had other you know other problems that it it was affecting other things so I think it's important that you know we do we do correct these problems as frustrating as it is it's frustrating to me and I have to explain it to the firefighters but it's frustrating to you as the as the council having to approve it and to pay for it so I I I understand it but um but I think that we're nearing the end of some of the bigger things okay um you know that smoke detector grant that you're applying for sounds great will that also include carbon monoxide detectors it will be a like a 10-year sealed unit which is a combination smoke detector and carbon monoxide and and T TP typically um we would identify neighborhoods and the firefighters would essentially go door Todo and identify homes that don't have smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors and we would assist residents and putting them up and making sure that they were put in the right place um you know it wouldn't be just handing them out and saying well here's your here's your smoke detector we would go as far as putting them up and making sure they worked and and people understood the importance of them so a little education that went along with it and also you know if you're doing that at the same time you could you could also assess you know residents who need that extra call in the morning to make sure everything is okay because I know you know there's always um a lack of people signing up for it and more people would benefit from that service cor um so you talked a lot about your table of organization and your promotional exam and um you know what concerns me is that and this predates you being the chief and it predates me and most of us being on the council angle would spend a fair amount of time in the news when they hired firefighters and then they fired fire figh so I so what's really important to me that as you do the promotional exam and you fill your table of organization that it all be done in a very fair and transparent Manner and um so so so I'd like to say that and what I and what's very concerning to me is that when you talk about the and I'm going to quote you you talked a lot about the experience vacuum that you have now in the fire department right and and what's concerning to me is when I look at the table of organization there's no one in the deputy chief position and that's been empty for a long time and it's really important to me that a fair and transparent process be laid out to fill the position of a deputy chief so so is is there an exam that's going to be offered for the deputy chief position when will it be offered and what kind of process will be in place for that um I I think that that's a a maybe a question for Mr Hoffman and the this the um and that's that's more that's more that's more of a question for uh for a closed session but there's um there is uh there there was a there was an exam um and there's a there's going to be there's going to be another another exam coming up you know in the in the future for it but there there were some issues that predate the predate the chief and I that uh that need to be addressed you know that are related to related to the exam process so the good news is yeah just just given our history you know with with being being in the news for hires and fires and everything else you know whether it's a deputy chief position and all the other positions let's let's just you know fill that table of organization you know as you've requested get the promotional exams done and just make sure everything is done fairly and transparently and I I would the other thing the other item that you talked about that was very concerning to me had to do with the shared what we talk I guess the shared service well it's not shared but you talked about the um I guess Mutual Aid right so it's the mutual Aid and and and I think you're right that the council should be concerned about the fact that when you call for Aid and the ne neighboring towns that you used to rely on are unable to send manpower to you or equipment to you or in a timely way and so given that we're one of a few departments that have paid fire a paid fire department I I kind of want to want to you know understand for example these neighboring towns that are not responding to you what what's happening in their towns when they have a fire are we responding to them yes yeah yes okay so okay and so so so so given that that's the case are they are are these other towns helping us like we have you want to hire you know we want to hire you're talking about how important it is for us to hire more firefighter Fighters right because we can't rely on the neighboring towns but yet they're relying on us so I think we have to look at that carefully to to Mr Hoffman maybe this is you know more in in in in your you know um I don't know if you know if this is if this is more your responsibility or or how we look at this but we you know do the other towns need to help us in funding in some of the funding needs that we have because we're we're coming to their aid and the second the second thing I wanted to say about that is when you talk about I think you called it the safe for Grant the safe for Grant award was that was that the that that where you apply for Grants to pay for our firefighters correct I mean I think that that that has to that that has to uh be considered when we apply for this Grant and and is this a grant where I remember in the past uh Congressman pascrell used to help us with grants and and all is that the same kind of a grant it's the same Grant and when Congress Congressman pescal um represented uh angt in his district he always wrote a letter of support he actually um he is the author of that program so he was the one who pushed for it it its creation um and now that uh Congressman goth Heimer has taken over our district he also writes letters of support and um Senator Booker also writes letters of support on behalf of Anglewood every single grant that we write we reach out to um both offices and they always support Anglewood um I would like to think that that's one of the reasons because of the both um both officials support is one of the reasons why we are so successful in getting the money um to your point yeah the the mutual Aid issue is is an issue um the fire chief in tck and I have had long discussions about it and ways that we can both support each other um we we use a term or we've discussed a term we haven't implemented it yet and and Mr Hoffman and I have briefly talked about it of automatic Aid it's it's very similar to Mutual aid but that on the report of a fire we would send a piece of apparatus to Tac and Tek vice versa would send help to us automatically anytime there was a report of fire so that we would have help automatically sent to us anytime there was a report of a fire and that way we would have you know another firet TR automatically coming to us and vice versa to tck and we could we could depend on tck being a career fire department it's it's something that a lot of communities are switching to um to eliminate the delay of the volunteers and having to page them out and them to respond to their stations um we're working on on something like that it's been in discussion for a few months and we're trying to get the support um built behind it it's it's just another uh a way of of trying to solve a problem you know both both departments need more manpower and this is one um different way a different lens of looking at it you know that doesn't cost um doesn't cost as much money but solves the problem quickly and efficiently so it's something that's certainly um on the on the burner and talking about um and you know yeah and it's it's something that's being discussed but it's in the discussion stage because the devil the devil is in the details and there are um many many issues that have to be looked at through this um so this is this is um this is not something this is something that isn't it's it's an option that's being reviewed but it's not ready for it's not ready for a full discussion okay I'm I'm glad to hear that it's being reviewed and if there's any way that the council could help you help you with that you know you should please let us know so thank you well yeah we we we first have to complete complete all the wh ifs and then then we can go we can go to the next level okay thank you and thank you for an excellent presentation and for all you do thank you councilman Rosen swag do you have anything I'm I'm still thinking if anyone else wants to go ahead I'll I'll be ready in a minute or two Chief uh you you invoked my name a couple of times uh I don't know whether you wanted to know if I was here or not or I was paying attention so but but I have a couple of questions one of the things that and I think we talked about this before and I think that this would be a good exercise because the equipment that you use is so expensive and the the process to go about it you know I'd like to see like forecasting done like for five years and things that you need that are big equipment items and so that way we get a sense of how we have to to do the budget right when we really talking about what does it really cost us you know in terms of this and what is something going to cost us we have a piece of equipment that we want to take offline in five years so we're prepared in five years to to pay for a piece of equipment that that replaces that you know i' I'd like to see uh some forecasting and and I and I will tell you I'm a little Disturbed to hear that something hit your budget that way uh for testing I I think that testing we should always account for and it should probably be uh in some other part of the department or some part of the budget so it doesn't hit you directly where it impacts something or potentially impact something that you're trying to do that that's the way I look at that so you know I didn't know about that one so we have to we have to correct that because we should probably have a budget line item for all the areas in the city that we that do testing and say we're going to we're going to put this much money into testing because we know we have to conduct these tests and what do these tests mean and what's the bottom line and come up with that I'd be interested to take this offline in terms of what did it really cost you to do that test um so hopefully that won't happen again you know and I'm saying that right in front of everybody here and it shouldn't happen again we should make allowance is for for that part of of of the action um now you talked about the building and it how it's uh you know what for lack of a better reason falling apart uh and hopefully uh Mr VY can look into it and work with you to uh make it because at eight years old when you have these amount of problems it's very troubling to hear but it's also you know I know that uh and I didn't want to bring this up but I think somebody brought it up about we changed the doors and then we changed the doors in my understanding somebody backed into the doors you know uh you know hopefully that doesn't happen with that new ladder that we have there so hopefully that that the folks there uh are paying attention understanding that the residents pay attention we pay attention and then we have to pay for a new door that's expensive takes a long time to get so hopefully everybody takes their time and guys get out and guide those those big that big equipment back into the bay area I couldn't agree with you more on that so you know um and and I agree with councilman Wilson training is Paramount we we just got to keep training and training investing in training I'm I'm a big supporter of of of training because I think it's very very important and we keep people relevant and we are investing in our employees so one of the things that you and I have had conversation about is this good morning uh program and I and I'm I want to work with you on that we we have to launch that we have a number of seniors and I'm getting a lot of conversation around that they live by themselves and they're kind of almost isolated so we don't want to do that so you know we need to talk about how do we reach out and and I'm prepared to do that reach out along Ong with you know the fire department to make sure that we have a program in place that serves all the residents of the city of Anglewood and that we're especially our seniors to make sure that they're okay you know um a lot of these people you're finding out now as you know are living by themselves so I I I I will be in touch with you about that the other thing we talked about and you brought up today about the grant uh for fire detectors and if you recall remember I said we should probably put that in the budget somehow so we had them so when you guys went out and you identified that you had some Supply that you could offer uh to these folks you know so you know I'm glad to hear that you you're going with that but in the case that that doesn't get done we need to have some allowances in the budget to to make sure that you do have a supply that can be delivered to people who don't have it cuz you know I'd rather spend the money and make sure we're protecting people because that's what we do and provide services as opposed to you having to go back and try to pull them out of there because we have a five right so I I I think that that's that that's that's important but really um I I think that and I I agree with you because we're doing so much construction we have to really do an analysis what's the right size and what do we have to have what what are the right numbers you know um we need to determine that and we need to have a force that reflects that as well we have we have an opportunity to do that because you have a young Force but we we we have to be cognizant of that and but we have to also with that young Force we have to have the right leadership in place as well right to make sure that these folks learn on these jobs right because you're you're in a life-saving business right so you know it's they they need to understand what this really means you know so you know I think that you know it looks like you're on a good track but let's let's just keep moving along and and and and and keep wherever we can help uh in terms of the budget and and tools and resources and things of that nature for these folks let's do that um again I think it's important let's try to talk about an analysis that looks forward so you know what you got you you kind of do an assessment of all the equipment and how much it cost to replace it so we we're doing a fiveyear forecast so we know what it is and then you just roll it right into the budget seamlessly to say hey we here's what I have and this is what we knew and then we get a sense of the age of the equipment that you're talking about and like you said tonight you kind of touched upon that the fleet for example but but all the types of equipment that you have that you have to it has a shelf life and so we need to know that and understand it better so we can support those changes and prepare for those changes and question how that works and I think that that would be um very helpful for us and and and and you know and I believe we did have uh and it's you know we want to diversify but we it'd be nice to get some females in into the uh fire service right to do that so let's let's continue to work towards being the example that we want to be um and let that be cuz there's only so many um paid fire departments in Burton County as you know so and if the mutual Aid folks are not going to help us out then we need to know about that so we can help you out and you can tell us what what we need to do in terms of helping you out to to make sure that you got the right support I am troubled to understand you had small staff you know so we have to make sure that we do the right thing so we don't have our guys out on the island by the self trying to put out a fire so thank you so much for coming Chief thank you you um council president two two comments the um go going forward the the fire department when look they're looking out five and 10 years but um we probably should be requesting money from Developers for and to be put in escrow for specialized equipment for the fire department because there are there are some pieces of equipment that the fire department is going to need for specific types of buildings to make sure that they can um you know that they they can protect the the lives of the people that are in there um but that's that's going to be a that's something that we're we're looking at but that's going to that's going to be coming up to the council is there's you know specialized equipment that the fire department needs and you know if a building was built a certain way then there should be a contribution so that we we can have that piece of equipment well that I think that that's going to take you know where where it's approved that from a you know from the planning board to say this is the ass this has to come in front of them and they have to make that request and the other thing is I I will say just because pascarell Bill pascarell is no longer our Congressman he is very influential with that fire equipment as as the chief said and he's still a friend of ours so you know we we get him to say hey man we these guys are trying to hang us over the barrel with this car here can you help us out you know I mean listen we got to do what we got to do you know what I mean so we got to use whatever resources we have so somebody doesn't hold us hostage because they want to you know another price that's not what you know how we should be impacting the business we're are municipality and you know if somebody's going to do that to municipalities and to government agencies they'll do it to anybody so that that's just not somebody maybe we don't want to do business with either I mean I don't know but anyway we got more to say Bob you have some more to say about this no it's just those it was just those two things look looking ahead you know specialized equipment because of new buildings um you know and then we're we're we're doing a 10-year Lookout because of the cost the cost of the the um you know the lead time needed for some of the some of the trucks council president if I may real quick Mr Hoffman um in the past there has been programs as such that you speak in New Jersey um so maybe we can all take a hard dive and look for those again sure councilman r s yeah thank you I'm still thinking some things through from what you said today but as always uh an amazing presentation it shows the thought you put into it and the um the care for what you uh have for your department and uh an excellent uh communication um you know the good morning program the last time we I know it's been very tough to enroll people the the last time the last number I heard was three is is it still kind of about that level yep yeah it's still pretty low okay yes so we'll need to do some Outreach on that well it's not JP Morgan who started it councilman Wilson am I correct and I changed the name to honor the first black Chief and he actually didn't I say that Chief as well you are correct okay so so let me understand this Chief and and and thank you for bringing that up um councilman Ros schwag I appreciate that did did you say the number is three I believe that it was the last number I heard that's how many people were enrolled there's work to be done councilman Wilson there's work to be done everywhere all of us should be pie Piper in this program I don't want to sound morbid or anything did our number go down because of covid and people are no longer with us no no pre preo it was three what okay I me there's a lot of work honestly you know again I not to prolong the presentation but I mean I think the natural place to do you know to plug the program is in the houses of worship yep and and you know a partnership with with the you you know with the spiritual leaders is the natural place to do this and you know maybe we have a meeting you know with the ministers and the rabbis and and the other church leaders um and to explain the program and the importance of it I mean I think that's the natural place to start um and we move from there uh can I continue does anyone else have anything yes yes so I can continue now yes yes okay um your grants um you know is Millennium strategies helping you out with them uh yes the way that we do the grants is that we are we are writing the bulk of the grant we are writing all of the technical portions of the Grant and they are putting the grant into the portal um that's pretty much the extent of what they're doing for us um so I would say it's a partnership with Millennium but but the the physical writing of the Grant and the narratives um myself and I have a lieutenant who is brilliant at doing them he he has surpassed me at doing them I was good he is great at them and we we do them together so he he's very very good at them once you once he was a student now he is the master a thousand per Star Wars yeah um so just uh you know let's say New Jersey TR do do not necessarily just Anglewood and you might not have this information do most firefighters retire at 20 years on the dot or does it vary from 20 years to you know 35 years just depending on where they're at in their life I think that's that's a really good question um I think that uh retirement right now is 25 years to get your 65% um I think that you're seeing a lot of police off officers leave at 25 years but firefighters are tending to stay a little bit longer um I I don't you know I don't want to I don't want to uh you know I don't want to guess it why but I think that um you know maybe it's a maybe an easier an easier lifestyle you know we have an easier schedule maybe less less wear and tear um and so I I think that some of the firefighters are staying 27 years 28 years I mean there's certainly people who are staying 30 years um not too many people are staying past 30 um financially I don't think it makes sense to stay past 30 but there are people who do stay past 30 Chief enderson stayed 38 but that's that's I think unusual I think I think 27 is like the sweet spot okay yeah because they the obviously what I'm getting at is if you hire everyone on the same day you know um you know then at the 2051 budget hearing which I'll be at um go go God forbid um uh you know you'll you'll be saying yeah we have a lot of retirements this year so we just you know there's some there is some strategy and and staggering too so there's always a ladder of experience and just finally um very very disturbed to hear that you know with mutual Aid other towns aren't showing up you know because what that says to me is that these other towns have the benefit of of a professional Force without paying for it you know and and they're not you know uh doing their share you know it it always made sense to me that you know the the professional cities you know would would help each other out and why would these volunteer cities in in the mutual Aid but okay but they came here they were Manpower even if they're not as um skilled as professionals because obvious how how how could they be you know still having the the the crowd control the people there or whatever jobs they could do but now if they're not even showing up that's not to mention we had a neighboring Town who wouldn't let us drive through them uh you know and and and I'm sure we go to help save the lives in that town as well um you know uh this is a very disturbing Trend I think we'll have to keep an eye on and you know if they maybe if towns with a volunteer Force weren't Mutual Aid maybe you know they need to um pay for some of our professionals because it's just not fair that we're the de facto professional fire department for you know uh I don't I don't yeah I saw the maps of the the mutual Aid regions I forget I forget exactly which one we're in but of our 12 towns or whatever it is just not a appropriate that the angle with taxpayers is paying the bill and getting nothing in return so you know I'm not saying we uh go all you know we're leaving NATO you know uh type of thing on this but um but you know it's it's not right and and we'll have to see what the trends are and I don't know if you speak to the volunteer Chiefs but I think you could unless my colleagues disagree I think he can send word back that we're very very disturbed that you know our our firefighters aren't being supported when they're in dangerous situations uh and people coming up after the fire's over I could stop by after the fire is over and and do just as much you know you know um so so that that's that's not that's not helpful all right and no again not your fault but just something to obviously not your fault but and and and and you're the messenger but maybe get that message back that it's it's something very upsetting to me thank and again thank you chief for a great job thank you thanks Chief I think you're if there are no more questions I think you're off the hot councilman Wilson you want to say something or you just waitting oh he's just waving all right thank you very much I'm just waving good night thank you all right thank you thank you thank you thank you for coming thank you thank you next we'll have Department of Public Works YY can you let uh those folks in hey um Raymond edroy please unmute yourselves uh edroy to unmute yourself just press star six yes good evening good evening good evening good evening everybody good evening I'll just start off There's a summary sheet in the budget book so the uh overtime we kept the same uh salary and wages actually went down 3 3% that in because of a few people that left but we have in this budget we're trying to add a few new positions DPW they'll talk about it they want to uh bring more things inhouse so we have like a electrician a plumber a carpenter stuff like that to bring in um other expenses increased $200,000 or 10.38% and and but um M Michael that the other expenses part of that was the uh was that for the b bcua or no the bcua is under uh a different category it's not included in in okay some right um Michael you finish yeah uh i' just like to make one uh comment make make a statement tonight's Mr Jenkins last budget hearing with us and I just like to thank him for his Services uh to the city of Anglewood and he's gonna be missed Mr Romney will be stepping up as I understand it and uh he's been part of the team um so he he knows what the expectations are I believe and so Mr Jenkins you know what thank you appreciate you gonna miss you um Mr Romney I guess you're gonna lead this uh budget hearing tonight you're gonna talk to us tonight about what's going on budget well it's gonna be both Edward's gonna lead um what I want to say councilman I want to thank you and everybody there but I'm going going into it because um some of the things that I'm looking to do this year transfer station we um looking to reopen the transfer station with the help of Mr Hoffman and F and um Mr Romney they're looking to um real so we could be a full pledge um transfer station again with Recycling and also um um doing food waste also um so we're looking at doing that plus composting um we're also looking at doing those things but you know my two my well Rama's 2 electrical trucks will probably be here I think Robert correct me if I'm wrong probably be looking at the delivery date probably in July or June yes edroy that's correct and you Pro you promis to come back on the day they're being delivered yes so that's that's something we looking forward to I think we going to be the pilot um we probably going to be the first one in Bergen County to get those trucks right so we probably going to be the pilot program for that I'm pretty sure it's going to go well with my new Max electrical trucks coming in um looking at my um looking at my streams and things like that we moved out I think I don't know I forgot how many square sare square yards of um weight we moved um we moved out of the um the streams and things like that to prevent flooding so you know we we're doing all right just just my manow we're working on getting um slowly but surely we're working on getting more manpower right but what I wish what you know I love my guys to death my rank and foul they're some of the best guys out there and they supported me all my years I've been here my support goes for the support you guys give me that goes to them that that doesn't come to me that over me that goes to my ranking file and my my second in command and my other supervisors that's there just what I want what I wish you know I know I'm leaving but what I wish from my guys is to step up with I know Kevin and um councilman Cobb the education the extra training and things um we you know we're trying to um give these um different vehicles that we have comeing newer vehicles and that we're not I'm having to use I I wish I could give Jeff some of my shared services because I do you know we don't have no problem with shared services anytime I call tck um R rid um RFI park or any of those guys there Leon Englewood Cliffs they're here to help me with dump trucks whatever I need they're here to help me and vice versa with them so I don't I don't really have that problem I wish I wish I had could give some of that to Jeff because seems like Jeff um Jeff needs that at this point right so but like I said what I wanted to do is just just I want my guys to get more knowledge and understand and don't don't sit back and understand that that's that would help my operation with um with them getting more training and and and and I'm a big fan of of of giving them more training but they have to you know I can um I'm from the South but they say down south you can lead a horse to water you can't make him drink and and that and and that's a big problem because with the shared services thing I end up sending trucks out the other other um share services with paramas to other people to do it which would save me uh you know save me from if I could do if the if my staff would do it in house and stuff so um that's one of the biggest things that I'm looking at right now um but I want to thank every I want to thank my you know my second right now that's gonna be my first right now um I want to thank everybody else my city manager my um um my retired um Third Ward councilman um Wayne HR if he's on I want to thank came along with with cobs um Ken Lisa um um just just my um my new two Council um two council members I want to thank them and even though I haven't been able to work with them long enough for them to know me Angela you and Kevin but Kevin's knowing me for while Angela I hope I you know Raymond's going to do a good job for you all you got to do is call Robert you call Robert you call Raymond they r that your Helm so they always have been and I've always have but I just want to thank everybody okay um well I'm gonna go out a little onl I'm gonna ask Raymond Raymond do you have anything that you'd like to add you want to JP jump in the pool well basically um we are part of government that has the most frequent contact with the residents um but we just want to be a little more sustainable although we are under with the salaries and the ra wages and overtime we would like to do more of more of that work in-house getting rid of some of these contractors what have you we we working with the city manager's office we are going to get some new hires so we could have some electrician plumbers everything could be brought inhouse so we could be once again more sustainable and work together as a team to keep everything in Anglewood instead of having those other expenses leaving town so once again we'll work together with everyone on the council and Management try to open this compost center like Mr Jenkin said the transfer station so we could at least bring a little revenue from this department and just educate the resident a little bit because one of my main issues is when we transfer to single stream we went from having revenue from recycling to actually paying a higher wage to thepose of the recycling we pay more to thepose of recycling than we pay to thepose of trash so I want to educate the residents so we could bring that revenue from recycling back to town basically just bringing down our car our carbon footprint and just being more sustainable as a city as a Department working with everyone thank you re and does anybody have any questions for the gentleman of DPW no questions for DPW C councilman Wilson thank you council president try to be as brief brief as possible thank you guys for the presentation um you know we're losing one of the great ones uh that's managed our city DPW for some time so I wish you all the best in your retirement um don't forget about us come back say hello when we're looking at um page 54 on uh Road repairs at 00361 when we talk about Road repairs and maintenance Dash salt and I guess that's I don't know I can't figure it out on my point uh Cinders oh that's a I okay I wasn't sure was a d maybe I need to change my description okay um do do we do we need to update something um to maximize our s capacity like is it is it always being covered is is it something that we should be concerned about we're not much over budget but we're a little bit over budget so I'm just thinking moving forward as this weather so unpredictable um are is there something we can do to help you to better preserve our salt does the salt House near the door or something I I I don't know um councilman um the problem is you um as you see probably the last two years right most of the most of the events that we have have been salt events um um um not so much plowing um we do get um um we we do get we have we do play County Roads and things like that I mean we s County roads but we only get reimburse back from that if we plow um but most if you look like you know the last few years is the mostly been s events and what we do what my main thing is I want to look better than any any town around me um if I have to use Brian if I have to use um talk to prep the streets and things like that that's what I would use right to give you know to get some sometimes give us extra time to get on them um my main street it's mostly to keep my residents safe or when they get up the next morning they have to go to work um um they could get in their car and they could go to work go ahead and do what they need to do right um so it's mostly my fault because that's what that's what I like doing if I ride down to the t- neck board and the T Raymond to tell you the T neck border and T neck T neck rose look better than mine we got we have a problem ten fly um um Leonia even with Cliff I I I need mine to be pre because um before I became direct that that was one of the things that um that my residents had a problem with me uh with us of not our streets looking worse than the towns around us um and I you know and I'm I'm I'm a um I guess me and Raymond both we um we try to we want to think ahead sometime that hurts us sometime by doing that but but I rather think ahead and and use a little more salt or whatever I need to do for my residence to be safe nobody hitting nothing as you know if I lose my East Hill yeah then I got a problem so i' rather use more salt more BR or whatever I have to do for the safety of my residents when they get up that morning or they're going home that evening or my kids are going home coming home from school and different things like that I rather use I'm gonna use that so um and thank you for sharing listen in all aspects of the city safety is my biggest thing um and if we can't find safety for our residents we're doing something wrong uh and so all all I'm asking is I noticed that the numbers were going up if in fact that we could do something to help facilitate better storage better management I I didn't know why the numbers were going up and maybe we could look into uh Mr city manager in regards to um a quicker reimbursement from the county um and if we move if we move on uh I got a number here or lack of a number on page number 55 DPW Administration over time pay is that accurate um we're working on to prepare um repair that now um because it's probably a little bit more Kevin than it is there right now so that $79.38 is not accurate it has not been updated yeah that that's a mess there we yeah we don't spend we it's not it's probably one hour or something we don't we we don't really give overtime to non to non-union employees the only reason DPW would have it in that and it would be because if they worked let's say Leaf season extra or something like that but if they didn't work extra overtime then we wouldn't they would take either comp time or or overtime pay so the numbers right Le yes Le um Kevin is my supervisors only get overtime on during the leaf and snow season so that number is accurate yeah the only people yeah for the people that are charged to that to that budget understand thank thank you um and if we go to uh page number 56 DPW administrations of the contract Service I'm not really sure what that means it's 0000 d229 we have a $4,000 over budget what is that for other s other contracts on page number 56 micha's looking at that yeah okay no I just want to be clear Mr Hopkin yeah cuz sometimes when people um holler out numbers I got a hard time following them as well that was for water well we filling the pool or [Music] something Crystal Springs that's the water that the guys drink the DPW Administration other contract Service that's water yes yeah can can we can we make notation or something that that's water I mean because contract it's not really clear yeah and and and and it was it's usually charged to specialize it looks like they they usually charge it to specialized services and they charg it to or it was just miss miss uh I get it hope hopefully the the people under this contract are staying healthy and they're drinking more water cuz there that's a $4,000 difference or or actually um $1,800 I would imagine um okay so let's move on real quick to my last well um yeah let's move I I got two two more real quick uh 0024 240 page number 56 DPW Administration training AIDS and [Music] program yes Z Z4 excuse me yeah yeah for $1,200 we spent it's 26 right $2,649 yeah and we appropriated did 16,000 for it oh yeah okay 1200 12, was spent 209 was uh encumbered so yeah so8 say again please yeah 894 is actually gonna be paid this meeting the 90910 you see it's sorry so I'm not following you where's the 90910 I don't see that okay in in the in the budget transaction audit Trail which was an attachment we sent that so I'm looking at what we actually spent so I don't have what you're looking at you have it but it's on it's digital all right we need to discuss this offline because I need to I need to try to track that and my last question on on page number 57 excuse me tell you what it is consists of do you want to know what it consists of the $2,000 it may be accurate but if I can't look at it I can't see it in in the book you know what I mean I I didn't look at the electronic um Yancy and them were able to give me the book early so I'm looking at the book but yes you can give it to me thank you yes so uh holiday lunch DPW staff was $894,000 CRP certification um course materials for an employee I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm I'm not tracking it like that I'm tracking it like on a couple different years occasions we budget it for 16,000 yeah U what the um we we were fortunate last year and that the there were several training uh sessions that we were able to use through the GIF so they were no cost to the city so um they were they were webinars and things of that nature that we were able to take advantage of and um uh at our last safety meeting I guess it was earlier this week did um the GIF recognized the city for for its increased use of their of the training portal and um so that that helps offset that that helps offset this budget line I I get it and and I appreciate that I would just like to see us kind of just crch that number a little bit better because that's a huge that's a huge difference where we can budget that probably somewhere else um yeah and uh my last question on page number 570000 d301 it's probably the fourth one down DPW Administration that's for the calendars we're going to put the calendars so we don't budget for that at all we haven't but now we're budgeting 11,000 so previously in 19 we budget $400 and now we went to 10,000 we were charging it to another account so we correctly put it into we put it into that account now you know why that stands out to me right yeah so it I I would just like just for me I I don't know about so these things can be trackable to me because that that really jumps out at me okay um and and and I I am so happy um edroy and um Mr Romney that uh we we're looking at the transfer station um that was a big plus for us ingood has usually been Innovative and moving forward for technology and the things that our police fire DPW do so thank you guys for for that um and that one last thing is uh I know it sounds simple about our electric garbage trucks coming um it is there not training required for that because as you guys know fires have been up in regards to charging stations and improperly charging and debris um I I just want to make sure that we're as safe as possible with getting this new electronic equipment and prayerfully we don't burn down thank you um councilman yes we're already planning on the training um as those trucks come in right but just like I said you know um um I'm I'm pulling teeth sometime right um um um I don't know what I got to put out there to make my guy jump at I you know I got some guys that are jumping at it but um but they they're looking I don't know you know I I done tried my best you know and I don't know maybe I'm hoping that some of them Step Up um step up I don't want to no nobody had to do those things I should have that just like me and Raymond know we should have those things in house that's just like you just said it's comp time offered for any training um you no we pay for the training right yes we pay for the training we also pay for them to go to if they go go to the training right we you know all that's been told to them but it's just you know I don't know well ex excuse me if I can interject the for the for the Mac for the trucks when the trucks are delivered um part of the Mac contract is that they're going to be doing training for for the DPW employees so for the drivers as well as uh any anybody that's going to be us using using the truck there they will be having training and then there's going to be additional training for um for you know uh for for the fire department just so that they get to they get to know the truck just just in case and what what has to be done if there's a fire in in the in the back of the truck in the in the hopper if you will um and I'd also like to say I wanted to compliment I want to thank um Mr Jenkins for his service it's it's been a pleasure working with him and I wanted to point out to the city council that over the the last eight months of 20204 2023 the DPW Yard went through a remarkable transformation so if you go down there it's much more organized um and uh it's it's a it's a more efficient layout and that's um that's something that um Mr Jenkins uh started working on with with some colleagues from um from other other municipalities and then there was the there was the input of Mr Romney and other staff members but if you when you go down there you'll see that the yart is um much more organized and um it's just there's there's there's been a there's just a better layout in in the flow of of the DPW Yard and the the people that that need to be in there so um Ed Roy thank you thank you for accomplishing that Mr coun uh yes uh Council councilman Wilson you're done right I want to make sure you're done yeah yes sir um he answered the question he answered the question on why the training was so low um I for one would like to see the training increase so we don't have to keep doing out out Services yes I'm done thank you council president councilwoman and wasas I believe oh councilman Ro so I can go first I'll wait all right thank you um so Mr Jenkins uh I know this is not your retirement party uh I usually don't tear up during a budget hearing but um yeah I just wanted to congratulate you and thank you again for an excellent presentation to the council and I I think the um the key word that I hear from you that that explains your success is the word my that you really you know take the city to heart you think of everyone as you know your friend your family your city your your residence your streets the men the men and women in your department and and that comes through with your everything that you've done for the city so um I really thank you for for caring so much about the city over the years it shows in in every single um act and uh and congratulations to Mr Romney I don't think it's official official yet but uh um but glad to have you here and and you also have that same level of dedication um so defin and you know again thank you for an excellent budget presentation and if there's you know uh like like uh Ray said you know you're the department that people see the most of and you know you haven't had too many snowy days the past uh 600 days but uh you know no one's happy to see you come around the corner on a snowy day because they know they're going to be able to get get out of their driveway um running to get their trash bin up to the to the curb before maybe that's time you hope to slow down the one arm bandit slows down a little bit before you get up there so um and you know always see a smile on the face and away from the the workers so you so thank you for creating that culture and and best of luck to you both thank you Council M wasowski thank you and um again thank you edroy for everything that you've done for the city and um and I look forward and congratulate you U Mr Romney um so just just two just two quick things um I think we um Mr Romney you you had I think had mentioned in in a meeting that we had had that um a lot we need to have uh some of the DPW employees get better training in terms of the field maintenance and and uh taking care of the park so I just want to make sure that that gets done yes yes Lisa um there's actually a meeting set up between the I serve the city manager and the deputy city manager to discuss that very topic so that's actually one of the stuff that priority on our list and I will we basically am I need I want us to take the parts back so that'll be a great step in reaching that goal okay thank you and and the other um my my my concern was just looking at your organizational chart and to see so many vacancies in in the DPW I thought there were there were I mean my impression was there were a lot of vacancies am I am I right about that Mr Hoffman uh there's um yeah yes you know and it it it goes in Cycles some some of it has to do with with retirements and the the fact that we're looking we're looking for some specialized skills right now okay so so um that those were my comments so thank you um Raymond and edroy um I guess I made my comments early but I'm gonna make my final comments in terms of I have a few questions and I'm going to start on page 60 and I'm going to look at [Music] item 302 00224 and it says sewer maintenance facility maintenance and I guess we budgeted like 35,000 we used the 12 so Rond or ero if you could tell me what that what that was about that line item like rapid pump of these are like contractors it's basically a sign of our s Department doing a great job so there's no need to call for um we have less emergencies because the job our staff is doing okay so I guess when we go through the budget and we look at it like that wherever you really didn't use as much money maybe we can tweak the budget that way and allocate some of those funds in other places you know what I mean sure about the pumps and like you know because if you look down if you look down here on other contractual services at uh 30200 229 right then we have this where we budgeted 2,000 but we actually use 18,000 335 you know what I mean yes so we could what was that what what what was that what happened there Michael do you have that budget stuff handy for that line yeah uh 42 Cedar Lane uh 130 West Anglewood I think those are the uh pump stations right yeah we have a problem with the pump station so we spent all that on those that's all 42 Cedar what's it's maintenance 42 Cedar 130 West Anglewood 73 sou Brun and cross and Mars when when we talk about maintenance are we do we have contracts with somebody who maintains those pumps is there a price with that oh we do we have um contracts with rapid pump right but um they go in sometimes a muzzle had to be replaced um different things like that you know and and you know um and and those you know what happened is those pumps back up right especially the ones over at Mars Park and different things like that right that thank God we haven't had those problems you know as of late um right but but when those things back up you know you got to bring in um um either rapid pump or then if we have a um a collapse sewer line um a new Prince or somebody we have to bring in to repair those lines sometime and what that is sometimes is our agent also our aging you know sewer lines and different things like that do we have to bring in people um um the um you know um that's things that's not foreseen um that we can't foreseen right is it's use of equipment and Asian you know Asian um um pipe that's fine I just want to make sure that you know I I understood and and we understand and you explained it to me so if we go to page 64 and we go down to 30500 228 and we budgeted 25,000 for it but it looks like we spent on one light item it looks like we spent 52,54 and then 30,000 you know uh um maybe it looks like we had a problem there as well that's sanitation specialized Services yeah that's what agent yes Fleet and and that's that that that's one of the things we talking about about you know um my Center maintenance and getting more training in different places right because what had to happen I have to send those you know with different things but not understanding the technology we have to bring guys in bang people in or send equipment out to get those things repaired okay we we just have to encourage them how important this is and I I just want to make sure I understood something you on page 68 on at uh 310 0000 229 it looks like we budgeted 30,000 but we spent 173,000 for 58 is that right Michael is that right yes that that was our Landscaping Maintenance that we were charging we went out for bid we we're moving that this year I actually spoke to Ry about this we're moving that to 224 we're going to be charging that out of there but that so a lot of it a lot of it was the uh Landscape Maintenance right so one of the bids so that that that was the extra landscapers we brought on board to help us uh maintain the parks right yeah okay and you're saying we're gonna back that down a little bit I I think Raymond mentioned something we're gonna get our guys do we have the capacity to take on that work or we're we're gonna be charging oh sorry councilman my thing with that right is that um um it's going it's going to take my it's going to take time to get up to that to that point right so my recommendations is to um to do it for do it for this um do a two-year contract for this with um um with a with a contractor for this um this for these two years and then by that time that would give Raymond at least time to get his you know get his man power up um get his man power up right that we could take those things back and stuff but I just think I don't want to you know run into no um running no I don't want him running into no brick walls right now you know what I'm saying but I think the ask should be a little bit different when we have the contractors as well and what I mean by that is just cutting the grass ain't good enough right it's like how do how we make this grass look good you know we have some stuff out there that looks like I don't know what it looks like but we need to make sure that when we enter into a contract that they're really spending their time trying to uh groom this stuff so it looks like a Turf that you could play on and sit on you know so we need to have that conversation before we give anybody that opportunity to make these kinds of funds with us you know we got to manage those expectations all right yeah yeah councilman also that's why some of the um some of those expectations that you just talked about right was put in was put in for this contract right the ation um um the mtion of the beds and different things like that right bring those things up to spec right um um and and and those were things that were put in um put in for that two-year contract but we got to rebid that contract though you know it need to be done and what you what we have we really have to look what we have to do we have to look at that to make sure I just wouldn't um we building we're building our Workforce up right but we know we're not going to build it's not going to come that quick right so I'm just what I'm just what I'm just recommending is is give two-year contract another two-year contract with the um um with the contractor right and and then and then you know and then by that time those two years that gives us enough time to build up the um build up the workforce and then we could take those parts back over because the C we go you going to spend I'm tell you going to spend just as much as not more with the overtime and then with the material and things that you got to get the mul um the you know you got to have special special um special license the fertilizer and different things like that you still going you know you going to spend that up up probably more and stuff but that's just my recommendation yeah I you know the contract is not is is is is important but it's it's it's what we look like after we are those services are provided right and and what we expect the the fields or the grass the parks all that to look like and it's just I think more than just cutting the grass you know what I mean um and so you know that's that's where I'm at I'm not talking about the Manpower obviously we need to get that up and that comes with hiring and training and all that that all this goes back to training and we have to really encourage our membership to to to take the training because that means that the city is investing dollars into them so that they will be able to execute the job use the equipment the the right way and it it and it helps everybody the employee it helps the the city helps everybody and we have a nicer product that the residents could be happy with yes okay no no problem uh mayor WS thank you uh council president and just a a a wrap up thank you edroy uh for your extraordinary uh professionalism Your Excellence Your Love of our city and for keeping us shining all these years Mr Romney I know you're going to step into a good stad you've got deep shoes to follow and you've already shown yourself I wish you God's speed and again thank you this was very productive um thank you mayor and also um I'm hoping um um Judy husband is on on the line right C I also want to thank her right because she was a big support of mine too so um hoping and and and you know I give praise to her also because she's another one that helped you know helped me through the through the times that I came through so I want to also thank her and and her husband for giving us you know the time that I had her with me you know to thank him and her you know both you know we we'll get word to him thank you thank you any more questions for Mr Jenkins or Mr Romney gentlemen thank you so much we'll see you thank you thank you thank you edroy once again thank thanks guys appreciate all all that you do thank you yep every day you charge with making this city look good so thank you for that work um next we're gonna have the city clerk's office yany hello so just uh quickly yansy salaries uh are budgeted to go up $38,000 which is due to the we're we're asking we're asking for for half a year for Deputy city city clerk so and the on stay the same so sorry I got to write notes something okay ycy it's your turn all right I gotta write notes and and and do my thing at the same time sorry okay um so as as Michael said uh we're looking to finally put in a deputy city clerk um into the department so probably halfway through the year um keeping my o ande the same no increases um this year focus is elections uh elections elections elections there is a lot going on with that um and trying to close out some projects that we started last year as well don't really have too much to add um really not looking for anything new like I said my focus this year is purely the election process and making sure everything runs as smoothly as we can possibly make it um for our voters now yansy just came back from um from some training sessions because the this is this is a presidential election year there is new there is new equipment and um so she's going to be taking she's going to be taking the lead on um on on many things for for not only the city but for the county because she's the president of the clerks Association in Bergen County and we are all of the Departments are just going to be there to help her to make sure that the elections run smoothly as smoothly as possible yeah um thank you for mentioning that Bob these uh the elections when we run them they are a major team effort uh it's not just my department we work with uh police DPW um other departments it's it truly is a team effort to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible um really thanking every all the department heads that have helped throughout the years and really looking forward to this year as well you didn't huh said that's it for presentation on my end I I have one question for you sure you didn't you didn't talk about any you didn't talk about Oprah at all oh oah how much it the burden it brings to Bear your with your department yeah it's a huge burden uh not just on my department but other departments as well right now we have one staff member who is pretty much 90% devoted to um Oprah requests and we also have staff throughout other departments that work with us to fill these opah requests they are very burdensome and costly um when we need our it guide to um pull emails for example that's like a constant request simple hey on line request I want all emails from this to this to this to this you're pulling thousands of emails that are it guy has to do and that's a bill right there we get having the attorneys review um uh requests that are in Gray areas sometimes that's also added costs so it truly is a major unfunded mandate for uh the taxpayers of of the city um people using it for commercial gain um is another problem you know we get these companies that come in and just mining for data that's another burdensome thing that we have to deal with uh the reforms aren't there that we need help with um and so just becoming bigger and bigger and costlier and costlier and most of the records that we give out we give out for free because again of the way the laws are written thank you uh councilwoman wasowski hi thank you um okay so in the last in the recent bills and claims Mr calman you you may uh there was a number for like our attorney fees for the Oprah because and and I remember when I asked you Mr hoffen about it you said it was for 11 months of Oprah review do you do you remember what that was do I remember the the the number yeah now that that was part of um that that was part of our our city solicitors Michael do you have that particular subsection handy you're muted Michael all right just give me a one minute and I'll look that up and while while the CFO is looking um know track tracking the cost of Staff time to to look for to assist with opras we're we're closing we're closing in on the equivalent of five full-time staff members you know over the over the course of course of the year just for opah requests because as uh as yansy said there uh you know the requests come into to her but there's requests for uh records from the Construction office there's there's records related to boards and commissions and um just what's that police is the other big one yeah yeah so so I I I had mentioned I I remember yansy I I mentioned to you when I I had gone to the league and I spoke to a g gentleman who was Deputy City Clerk and they Outsource all their opras I think I gave you um the contact information um did did you ever follow up on that I'm not com comfortable with the idea of Outsourcing I need so so I think we have to find a way to control to you know to to control the Oprah um that whole Oprah business that we're doing control well one one of the if I may the the council was was uh was wonderful last year they helped in helped us invest in technology so some some of our as as we're able to bring more and more of our paper records online it it will help reduce some of the some of the time for Opa requests because we're we will we will have better access to them um you know and that's that's what that's one of the ways that we can help combat some of the the higher costs for for Oprah but so may maybe you know since it's something that many that many different departments I mean everybody's struggling with the same thing and people have found different ways to deal with it Mr Hoffman do you think that that maybe you could look into a way that other like I I I'm try I can't even remember the municipality that it was that you know but but maybe we could find a way to streamline the op requests whether it's you know Outsourcing it or or what and look into it I wouldn't you know say I'm comfortable or uncomfortable until we see what other people do and what their success is and what that costs us I'll be hon Lisa I haven't heard of anyone Outsourcing and by law I am the custodian of Records so I don't know why that town outsourced because ultimately the clerk is responsible for everything so just because but maybe we we can look for May maybe we can have this conversation offline because I'm not comfortable having it in public thank you okay so I could answer your question now if you want yes thank you okay so we made multiple payments during the year we uh we made a payment for 13, 729 we made another payment for 12,147 we made another payment for 1,600 we made another payment for 8,400 we made another payment for 4,800 there was one big payment that we had I'll have to find it those are pretty big payments some of them yeah reviewing police records of the bulk of that yeah 12,000 1,000 and let's not an Oprah litigation itself we're in the middle of one right now yeah right so so so I'm just um I mean my my concern really is that and and now now I hear what you you know what I'm hearing about you know the election's going to take up a lot of time I just want to make sure that we have the appropriate Staffing I know with the with the deputy City clerk that's you said six months right that's a six month item oh no we would start looking and by the time we hire them at six it would start in like July it's not a six month job it's a 12- month job it'll start they probably get hired in July right and and that and the and that purpose of that that's an additional position it's not taking some an existing position and adding a responsibility it's uh looking for a new body a new person correct okay and and that and and the responsibility would be to to um to be pretty much be my right hand and me with my duties well the the longterm the longterm goal is to to have have them become a a registered municipal clerk like like gansy this also goes back to it's it's a it's a minimum of a three-year process uh to to obtain your R the RMC and um you know this will this will help the city going forward and you know this is this is part of the succession plan that we're looking at for all of our departments okay and and um and um in the last budget we had we had an item for um we had we had hired someone to assist with uh take with with the minutes and what is in the budget for this year for for that um one of my staff members has been trained to assist me with that and we're working through them okay so we don't need need to air that into the budget we no longer need to Outsource them yeah and that that was that was to help with with the backlog that that was there um just the the the the overall cost just that the CFO had talked about for litig related to Oprah was uh when you when you add it all all up it's $467 that's what you know those were the Oprah those were some of the Oprah the legal payments for Oprah in 2023 okay so [Music] um all right I mean I mean and you know I guess I guess I'm concerned that we have enough help in in the office with like you said elections is going to be taking up a lot of time and you talked about Bergen County and I don't know are are they are do they help at all financially with if we need more help you know because of the elections is there any kind of financial so I mean I mean do we do we have the help that that we need do do we have enough you know in in that department with the elections coming up yeah all minutes and Oprah and everything else yep yeah we it's enough yeah I yeah again not comfortable talking about work performance no I'm not talking about performance I'm asking if we have if we need to put another position in do we have enough do we need to Grant put any more money in the budget well we are putting we are putting in a deput request is to put in a deputy clerk yes and that would be and and it's not just for this it's also part of succession planning as Bob explained I'm not gonna be here forever and it'll take a good five six years to train somebody to replace me um I I know a lot of people don't understand what it is that I do on a day-to-day basis but it is very detail oriented and it's a lot and it's going to take about five six years to train somebody to replace me all right and I thank you yansy for all your hard work and I appreciate it and I just want to make sure that you have the help that you need I do thank you and I I appreciate um the council take you know considering allowing me to uh and Bob to U put in the the deputy clerk position um it's something that's been weighing on me um you all know I I when I came in I replaced um my predecessor Lauren who was uh terminally ill and one of the statements she made to me before she left was she wanted to make sure when she left this position that she left it in good hands and I'm I have the same thought process when I leave I want to make sure I leave this position in good hands um and hopefully someone internal that's willing to work their way up right right so that's that I think is what confused me because I thought I read somewhere you know that we wanted someone internal that's why I I I'm confused because if we're hiring someone internal internally then we're not even adding the position no not from my department not in meaning someone already an a city employee not necessarily someone okay so you are gonna get an extra person yeah okay good thank you again you're welcome thank you Miss David sorry I'm not being able to keep my notes sorry Angela Angela you got your hand raised there you go she's on yes yes could you hear me now I'm sorry um Yan you are greatly appreciated in everything you do you wear many hats um me coming from the border of Ved elected three terms and um you know Cheryl vetto she was inundated with a lot of these same requests Opa request so imagine she had she had a bigger staff than what we what you have basically she had a whole it team put together uh and that wasn't even enough and it was still backed up and uh I think you need yourself cloned it's going to be hard to do but um you are greatly appreciated and also congratulations on you being part of the whole um you know the clerk Bergen County Association and I understand you do need help because it can be overwhelming um and um I'm you know it's a lot and thank you thank you mayor W uh thank you council president um there's a big tug and pull between uh open transparency and people like you artfully said yansy that may have corporate interests and are abusing the privilege um but I happen to think uh until the state comes up with reforms we shouldn't be creating anything out of the ordinary you run a very smart group uh yansy and I just want it to be said as the longest standing mayor the city ever had and all the clerks and experiences that I have you're are perhaps one of the most consumate professionals I've ever seen and whatever you suggest I think this governing body should be following and the fact that you inherited it from some somebody who had the same concern that you have should be the impetus for the city manager to put this on our agenda and get you the resource you need um then we can help support any of the other reforms that our colleague communities believe in uh but I just want you to know there hasn't been a time where I have made a request or residents have been pointed in your direction and you've not stepped up less than superb so thank you thank you anybody else have Ken Council thank you you yansy this is a yansy Appreciation Night okay yeah and I'm I think every night and I'm not very good with public speaking either so I'm like yeah well I think every every night should be YC appreciation I um and congratulations on uh your leadership role in the in the county clerks um I'm sure you uh your experience is really helping out with that I'm sure um you might okay and you might not be comfortable answering this so you can uh say no comment uh you know with 20 you know I wasn't on I wasn't on the council 2020 um it started January 1st 20 January 2nd 2021 so were there any specific challenges in November 2020 because that was one of the largest turnouts of any election I think I think maybe since 1960 even um uh and and 2024 might you know there might be some apathy because it's looking like the same candidates but there also might be a very heated election and of course the election denialism going across the country was there anything unique about 2020 that we can help you out with for this year's election again you might not be comfortable talking about it because uh some of it might be uh confidential but um but is there anything you're thinking about you know and it's going to be a very stressful presidential year um my the main thing that I could think of with this upcoming election is education uh we have brand new machines brand new processes and a lot of people have not voted on a machine since the 2016 presidential election as you recall 2020s presidential was done by mail and ballot so now we have people who haven't a lot of people don't come out and vote except for the presidential election so now here they are coming back out new machines new processes uh so educating the public on the processes and the new machines is going to be key um we do have security concerns obviously and that is something that we are discussing uh behind the scenes but um everybody please keep an ear out if you hear anything always please um I don't have my ears on the street all the time believe it or not I'm sometimes the last person to hear of something so please if you hear of something bring it back to me let me know what's going on people's concerns uh want to address everything in advance uh we do have 12 polling locations which is a lot you know I I talk to a lot of my colleagues throughout the county know they have one two three four Max polling locations here we are with 12 it's a lot to handle it's a lot to um manage and and but you know we've been doing it over the last few years presidential elections bring out a lot of Voters it's a high voter turnout um anywhere from 70 to 80% turnout so we we're going to be encouraging everyone to uh vote early do uh take advantage of their early voting uh we'll we're going to keep advertising that as well as mail and ballots and also if you're going to be voting by mail and ballot bring your ballot to our Dropbox don't send it out throughout the mail because um it's only counted if the uh County receives it by a certain date so we don't know how the post office is running how slow they are so uh so education is going to be a big big part of this upcoming election and especially the new machines the new processes yeah to answer your question how slow is the post office doing very slow uh very very slow um and uh um and do we know uh where 14 is going to be voting yet for the for November election 14 is oh used to be in um 11 West yeah they going be back at the library again okay and what will help get the it will help get people out well wherever they voted last time was it here I think it was here in City Hall yeah I thought I thought the first City Hall yeah we're keeping them city hall because they're more familiar with getting to City Hall than they were at the library I heard a concerned that a lot of people there was a lower voter turnout because they weren't familiar with the library and they were more familiar with the with the with City Hall so we we brought them into City Hall and we're going to keep them here because with the newer machines we're able to consolidate districts on one machine yeah okay all right sorry I'm very about things sometimes especially uh elections yeah yeah on and on for you okay all right well thank you very much again let us know what you need as as the situation on the ground changes definitely thank you councilman Wilson you have anything for us thank you for asking council president um yeah I I I I made some clarity at our last meeting um because the the last thing I I want y see to feel is unappreciated and I I made sure that what I meant was clarified in my statement um and all I was Champion for was for our clerk to get as much help whatever she needs to get the job done um I have no idea how you do what you do um the information that you help impact making decisions for us we if if we don't have that information we can't make quantifications in and in proper decisions so um I'm not a bandwagon guy jumping on but um thank you for what you do I truly truly appreciate you um and I I just got one question what can we do to make it easier I mean I am so elated about um you you're getting a deputy um and I want to clarify something as well you said the training for someone to replace you there is no replacing you so knock it off I don't care if you train them for the next 38 years it's just it it it won't happen so um my thing to you is what can we do uh to make it easier a easier lift for you and and you don't have the answer right now you can think about it um you know and we're in our 125th year anniversary um and and that's going to come with its own set of circumstances you got the voting which comes with a tremendous amount of circumstances that is just bananas um so through it all um I I personally want you to stay healthy and if we can get you additional help or Machinery or something whatever that may be to make your life easier I'm all for it thank you I I appreciate it I I'll I'll tell you I I truly feel appreciated by everybody here I I have not in at any point uh in my tenure here in Englewood felt unappreciated uh I've had great elected officials that I've worked with uh throughout the years um and and hopefully continue for few more years um um I I mean anything I requested you youve you none of my uh governing bodies over the years have have denied you know we brought in two great new companies last year three actually I mean the audio system alone with with that price tag and bringing in sdl um which hopefully will have that project finalized and and completely up and running uh this year with not just my department but other departments that help tremendously uh you know these these programs came with huge price tags with Bob's help and and and all of you you know so please at no point have I ever felt unappreciated I I I know I want to thank you all for all your help and assistance over the years did we just have a a budget hearing or do we just have like a good B party I just I know no we I'm still here for I'm still here for a few more years does anybody have any specific questions about budget items if I I don't have you're not retiring are you y down you know down the line we got we got one more budget hearing to have here right it's not it's a little bit down the line but like I said it takes a good five six years to train somebody to to uh to really be able to like like this know what they're doing and that's what I want to leave behind okay thank you yansy thank you thank you Council now now we move back on we put this train back on the tracks okay so next we have the Nancy if you have anything you want to close with or we're gonna just go right on to Administration which includes human resources and the finance department so we can wrap up our evening um Bob do you want me to to bring Alexis up or and John or no John's already on here yeah pleas please bring Alexis up or on see who else is it's just okay good evening good evening good evening hi Alexis says every every 12 hours we we have a meeting it does seem that [Music] way okay you guys want to get started all right um sure Michael did you want to do an an overview of all of of all of them and then we'll talk talk about the software and different things Michael you're muted yeah you're muted thank you um I mean there's a lot of departments here I the biggest increases I could just I could just go through the general government section that we don't really we haven't talked about which uh I mean the city manager we went down in other expenses by 55,000 one of the reasons last year we we we are moving some of the uh software cost to the uh HR department which like will talk about or Bob will talk about the increase in other expenses for human resources which was mainly to do with software they'll talk about that salaries went up for HR that's salaries went down for finance because we were planning on the person that we hired is is working mainly in the HR office so we switched that from Finance to HR um legal legal I mean po about Finance went down other expenses uh that's due to us going off RFP for banking services and I included having them pay for our payroll services so that's being paid now for by the bank so we don't have those fees anymore um taxes stay the same assessment went down a little bit we had less less fees uh legal we we keep the same I mean that that's the general governments I'll just go through that legal we kept the same as last year and that's really it yeah the big the big increas is basically just software costs yeah and then the legal that we we were talking about before with OP that's that's that comes out of this legal line as well so when you're um yeah when you're looking at that that's that's all inclusive um yeah the um there there are there are several exciting initiatives that um that were kicked off in 2023 and we're we're moving forward with them in 2024 um and we're um we're we're track we're tracking our our budgeting costs and we're putting them we're putting them where they where they um uh where they it's it's the right it's the right fit so um we have we we're using several software um components Citywide but they're they're um they're headquartered in HR because um they're they're all they're all related to our to HR and to our Personnel issues and our HR Director um you know has uh has has done a a a a a fine job of looking for software that will that will help us track track the needs of the city but also help us to advertise for the city and then um well Alexis why don't you talk about neogov and and the other things I mean we we have licenses already that we just weren't making the best use of and and now we're gonna we're now going to be implementing them on a monthly basis right so I will start with power DMS so we currently use power DMS for police and fire and now we're expanding that to include civilian employees and power DMS um is really about training so it gives us a repository to have an organized space for information so now every employee in the in the city can go online and take and do the training and we will be able to track it online so with power DMS they allow you to use their training other people's training or you can create training and then employees can go online and take the the training and then also we are adding neogov so neogov is a organization that specializes in um government and educational facilities and it will allow us to have applicant track systems so right now we are still accepting paper applications which most of the world is not this gives an opportunity for us to be U present ourselves much more professionally and people can go online and see all of our positions and that we you know we're hiring for and then we will be able to get all the demographics that we need and to stay in compliance and then also we are going to be working with um an audit company that will do some for um forensic investigation for our files and allows us to be able to um Implement best practices for all three of these programs are ones in which we'll be able to being compliant have access to information immediately and be professional as well you know and the the the go the the city council you know they they were they were wonderful they helped at the February 20th meeting the uh the the HR the HR um audit of of all of our files was approved by the city council so now we have a mechanism to get everything on board in a correct Manner and that's all I have to share yeah that's that's your presentation yes sir so it's one it's three new specialized services that are all um electronically based and they're out right now they've been rolled out you're using them and everybody else is familiar with them people are familiar with them we have them implemented them fully okay so we that's our next step okay yeah yeah they they've been they've been pilot tested um of the HR HR identified a couple a couple of tweaks that were that were made so that they're they're they will be able to be better used by our departments and then and then we're going to be rolling them out soon but um well let me say this we we're doing the budget meeting tonight and I hope that everybody has been introduced to Alexis waiters I I want to make sure sorry for our bad table manners I don't know if everybody knows who you are Alexis but uh welcome late but I just want to make sure that everybody knows you okay uh Miss David uh you have your hand up yes could you hear me yes I can thank you hi Miss waiters how are you this is um councilwoman David hi good you how are you um my question is that okay um every you said everyone know about it and it will be introduced and some are not introduced so I'm conflicted with that second I'm asking that if you're tracking people someone specifically has to be trained especially with the new law in the fight in the um Police Department that has to go through an ongoing process so who's track in this person that has to be trained to make sure that they're implementing those practices in certain departments so I mean tracking the paperwork is great but you know there's new policies that showed up I went to training um and and my big thing is tracking yes tracking is great but who's tracking those that has to be tracked qualified to be tracked because you're not qualified to track a police depart a police department because you don't no you didn't go to training you're not go ahead let me can I finish you're not qualified to track a police department because you didn't you're not certified to to you didn't go through the training to see what the qualifications were so I'm my question was that so who in your department went through this Strategic Training to see what's required for the police department to know know what they're looking at I mean I can give you what I got but do you know like all the bullet points what's required with the new law and everything and you can't see normal doctors you got to I mean you can see dark doctors but you got to see the state mandated doctors and everything so there's a lot of work into this so talk are you talking about work no Angela let she's respond she's trying to respond to you work what we're going to be doing when it comes to like training we partner with the police department and if there's issues with the employees you have your internal audit investigation where the police department handles and we H we help them with things outside of that so when it comes to those things that are you know operational of course the police department handles that but those things outside of that HR works with them to handle that but Power DMS is a training where all of the mandatory trainings that we're supposed to give to our employees on every two years this gives us a a a tool to use where we can download training and set and um then um set employees up so they can take the training and then when they take the training we'll be able to go back online and see that they did that and that way we stay in compliance so the trainings that we will set up would be your harassment trainings your diversity trainings all of those mandatory trainings that you need to have as an employee and I got that makes sense can okay no that makes sense Miss um that makes sense I like that because you know what when I worked for NJCU as an Adent Professor we had to take training but now I see the Lev your training does not include like the police policies and stuff like that which is one that you understand right and so police and fire traditionally have used power DMS for all of their mandatory trainings and they already have people identified who manage that for them and okay so this is going to be those trainings that are not um Public Safety police type of trainings it's the all the other mandatory trainings that you need to have as an employee and then neogov is a company that will help us with applicant tracking systems so other words when we start posting positions we'll use a cloud-based system which will which we will use to post our positions and then people can go online apply for positions and then we will have all the demographics and statistics of people who applied we can work with different departments so they can see who applied and give them access to um riew those candidates and then start an interview process and then the forensic investigation for files that helps us we'll have a third party who will go out who will come to HR look at all of our files and make sure that we are in compliance and give us the best practices so that to ensure that we're doing everything the right way so this is totally separate than what you would see for police or anything that's specialized because the Departments take care of their specialized um training HR is taking care of all the general trainings that all employees would need right and um no Miss let me finish Bob Miss waiters I'm just end this and you can talk Bob Miss waiters thank you for answering my question which means that this is HR based basically but not for anything else above that but this is great this is a great tool for tracking and um thank you I appreciate you oh thank you you're welcome yeah okay Bob oh okay thank you um Alexis one of one of the things um that coun councilwoman David was talking about was just um the the police certification this is what what you and you and the chief and the deputy chief and I had the had the the uh the planning meeting about and this is the the the Attorney General is going to be coming out with the updated guidelines around June 30th July 1st and and then that's when that's when all of that information is going to be you know when when the police do their their follow the Attorney General guidelines then then that information is going to come over to HR but we we still don't know the form the form that's that we're going to have that we're going to have to verify it in okay yeah so right but this will what what we will see is that power the MS every employee we will use each employees um work email as their log going so every employee will now have access to get their proper training and training is going to be in general training but each department has specialized training for their employees and we can work with the department heads to make sure people get that training so whether it's the police whether it's fire whether it's um working in the building uh or DPW we'll be able to make sure that our employees are properly trained and that we have a record of it thank you Miss waiters um you did answer my questions and you're greatly appreciated thank you thank you Ken yes thank you Alexis for once again another extremely professional uh presentation and I'm very glad to have you here so and uh and have I hope you have a great year thank you anybody else have any comments for Alexis councilwoman wasoski mayor WS do you have any comments yeah just briefly um not an easy task um and a lot of moving parts postco and everything but everything that I've seen and the way you've handled things at City Hall uh and this evening I think we're in very capable hands so well done to Robert and and to your good offices um thank Mr Cobb I have uh councilman Wilson on speaker phone here they lost power where he's at okay can okay go ahead any questions let me go ahead I know if you can hear him go ahead Mr Wilson okay good good evening um sorry for that we had a quick outage hold on one second okay sorry um thank you for your presentation it was kind of brief we we had um DMR on online before so how has that improved you said DMR yes the the is is that the right acronym are you talking about mo mo vehicle records or maybe power power DMS maybe not no no the DMR program okay oh so I'm not familiar with the acement what does that mean the d d oh maybe you is it DMR or DMS Mr Wilson I don't know what is the program that you stated earlier that you used the city has used power DMS so power DMS traditionally has been sorry DMR I don't know I'm sorry please forgive me DMS okay okay so po DMS yes the city has used PO DMS and traditionally it's been used by police and fire we're now expanding that so that all employees whether you're Public Safety or civilians we will all be using the same framework um we we have it divided up so that you know depending on who you the user will show what you have access to so if you're a police officer you have access you're Fire have access or if you're a general employee you have access as well so depending on who you are shows what access you have to for the information but we will have one repository with all of our training needs Mr Wilson okay we got you back on if you can unmute yourself I'll turn the phone off so so is it is it now is that a is that a training process that you're going through for the other departments that it's it's being initiated for and and how is that how does that help us become more efficient well it becomes more efficient because now we will have a cloud-based program with all of our training so if we have sexual harassment training that means that all employees regardless of where you work have that training and when you complete your training we will have a record of it so if we ever get audited we will be able to show the training that each department has for each employe so in that way we now become a more compliant organization and and is one of the programs also going to be diversity absolutely so of diversity eeo um sexual harassment training supervisory training so we will look at our needs and then decide what what classes we want to put out there so um I definitely recommend diversity I recommend supervisory training especially new supervisors it gives us the way to help employees get better and also it becomes another tool for corrective action so sometimes people do things and they don't do the right thing now we have another tool for training to help them yeah I want to mention some things and I'll just give them to you to think about um I I just want to create something or I would like for the city to create something um and and maybe this is this is it where we have a better tracking record where um if in fact that the city has repeat offenders and I I mention that because we have situations that we have to monetarily possibly take care of and so moving forward I would like to have us put things in place especially in your department so we can track these things that happen that put exposure to us um so without getting into too many details um maybe we can council president we can pick this up um at a close session with the human resource um administrator because I think it's very very very important now that we have this opportunity for the budget that we make sure that all the tools are in place right you know and with that being said we have the GIF so the GIF has a lot of trainings now we have a place to put the trainings in the system and assign employees to it so when you have repeat offenders on whatever the um issue is we can go look at all the training that JF has and assign that to those employees to help them out so that gives us a way to address the issue that employee has but also give them a remedy so how long have we had the DF I think we had J for years so now this now the time for us to use it more effectively this tool let use it better I I don't I don't I don't if in fact that we had JF for years and they had some things in place I don't know where the loopholes are but I for one would like to see them closed because there's too many there's too many repeat offenders and there seems to be no end to it and and it has to stop so when you say repeated defendant that's a very general term I'm not sure where you're going words you just said but but what I'm saying to you is that once we can identify what the issue is whoever whatever the infraction is now we have another way to help a person get past that so whether their infraction may be I don't know drinking on a job maybe infraction is that they keep having accidents because they're not you know being um uh being being aware of this their surroundings now we can find a training that we already have access to assigned to the employee and now they take that training and when they finish the training we now have a record of the date they took it the training they took it and what the score was where they passed or fail and then going forward it we always have that and if we find that people do have our repeat offenders for what ever infraction there is we have another tool to help address that okay um like I suggested earlier uh council president that's a large concern of mine and I know it's a budgetary issue and I only brought it up so we can make sure that we have additional assistance in place for these things and I I for one thinks that think that this needs to be picked up in the close session so we can dig dive deep into this y thank you for your presentation I appreciate you coming in and sharing your information you're welcome thank you um I don't see any more hands uh up for you Alexis so knowing knowing the drive that you make each and every day back and forth I think I'll let you start your evening earlier to go to sleep and uh thank you for that U Bob I don't think anybody else from you from Administration is up schedu to speak is it no okay um thank you good night thank you good night good night um now I'm gonna open I'm GNA open up this uh meeting to the public session so anybody from the public yes you ready has kept his hand up the whole night so I'm G to finally it's going to be the first one up to who's that Mr Diaz Mr Diaz we'll bring him on he's give us his name and his address and and uh we'll look forward to his questions Mr Diaz please unmute Mr Diaz yeah all right we can hear you now go ahead well I didn't have any questions for tonight but it was a great presentation by all um thank you for your comment yeah thank you for your comment Ray thank you for you staying on this late yeah waiting to to to raise your hand so I appreciate your uh patience and uh commitment to the process thank you so much yes and I appreciate all of your efforts also I'm I'm being aware of all of the responsibilities that you have and decisions you got to make and they're not easy but I appreciate the efforts thank you very much thank you thank you for waiting thank you have a good night um yes anybody else I have Diane Jansen okay please unmute hi Diane Jansen 589 midgeland Terrace um sorry I was not able to hear uh the entire um presentation tonight uh but I did hear uh part of of the uh city clerk uh presentation and uh uh we uh just feel uh that yansy always responds to any uh questions or needs that we have so we were so glad to hear what everyone had to say um that being said I do have a question on human resources and uh one of my questions is is there an employee assistance program program budgeted uh in the um in the budget um many companies have an employee assistance program so I you know I think that helps employees um and it's uh confidential um and so um and they do monitoring so you don't necessarily have to do the monitoring they give you the reports um you know keeping uh anonymous uh where it's appropriate so that's one of my questions the other question is do all these systems do tracking of how many job openings we have of how many uh how long it takes to complete a job opening um to fill a job opening um etc etc um I won't get into you know all the specifics you get the idea so uh that's that's all I really have to say right now um thank thank you very much Bob you have can you respond to that uh yes council president the the city does have an employee assistance program it's had it for several years it is budgeted for and it is used uh then the second has to do with the the the HR systems and whether they track the length of time that a position has been open um and how long it takes to fill it um I'm not sure I'm not sure about the uh I if all if if we have that ability um to do all of that um so we we at least we are able to track it and we are able to track the positions um and we were able to look at the responses and when they're coming in but I um I'm I'm not sure it's I'm not sure I can answer the complete question of Miss Jansen maybe we can find the answer out Alexis or somebody tomorrow and yeah it's either yes or no and we go from there okay and then this is not related to tonight but this is uh related to last night's meeting of the um Jones Road Bridge over Route 4 it seems like we're going to need a lot of uh uh police uh for uh directing traffic or assessing traffic uh and redirection and the like so I hope we have something like that in the budget or that the Department of Transportation will be paying for that with de you know on a on a designated uh time of uh uh frame for when they're whenever they're doing construction um and that they report to someone designated within the Anglewood Police Department uh in traffic so thank you very much thank you anybody else no nobody else has their hand raised well there's nobody really in the public okay we're going to close the public session of this meeting and we're gonna move to adjourn this meeting uh Yancy we just need a motion and a second we need a motion and a second I motion I second it all in favor I I hi hi meeting is adjourned thank you thank you good night all good night all see you on Monday right thanks for the reminder yes wow thanks good night all right good night hey Mike what's up hey Mike all right man everything all right everything good you yeah running around running around but grateful you know very grateful they had a few things going on in the community tonight so I