we are live and recording okay good evening everyone welcome to Anglewood the city this is the city council meeting we're in the municipal court building it is December 19th 2023 and just a minute it is 7:36 in the evening uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for okay yany will you please read the statement regarding the open public meetings act this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law notice of this meeting was included in a notice sent to the record and the Star Ledger and adver advertised and said newspapers on January 10th 2023 posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as the required notices under the statute excuse me a copy of this notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the municipal clerk proper notice having been given the municipal clerk is directed to include the statement in the minutes of this meeting thank you yansy roll call uh councilman cobs on his way councilman Rosen present just a reminder to everybody uh green light means on uh councilman Wilson present councilwoman wiski present council president Marin present also present is Mayor Michael Wilds city manager Robert S Hoffman City attorney Bill Bailey CFO Michael calman and city engineer France FY and HR Director oh and our also present is our HR Director Alexis waiters okay thank fire chief Jeff Kaplan sorry get that okay um we are opening our meeting with a swearing in of probationary firefighter Mike Galo uh he is a graduate of Dwight Maro high school and a current Englewood resident he recently was honorably discharged from the United States Air Force where he served as an aerospace medical technician Mike was able to to take the fire exam shortly after leaving the air force being hired late last year he came to us already certified as an emergency medical technician through the air force he is already attending the Bergen County Fire Academy where he is doing well academically and nearing completion of firefighter 1 could you please come forward Mr GGO Mayor Michael WS will do the swearing in [Music] girlfriend uh this is a very special uh treat uh for the city of Anglewood um it's actually going to be the last uh meeting that our council president Judith Marin uh presides over and I think it's very appropriate uh that we're swearing in new uh folk uh to keep us safe and protected under your watchful eye and your good work uh the gentleman served our military and now he serves our city I can't thank you enough uh for that extraordinary moment uh and now career that you're building out in our Fair City lives in tenly Road hails from Columbia where they called him Mike by accident with an A but they left it the way it was because of respect for culture and we appreciate that you're here today this is a very inspiring moment for all of us particularly our fire department uh there is also a very special person that we mourn the loss and it was a lieutenant stemper stimer who had uh passed away had a heart attack in the line of duty uh this month many years ago I would just ask that we just have a moment of science uh for the good Lieutenant he's shining down looking at us knowing that the department continues and that your exemplary service not just our nation but our city commences now we wish you God's speed and a very safe uh Tour of Duty um would you like your parents to hold the Bible where's okay thank you all right come forward if you don't mind if you don't mind right hand up put the left hand on the Bible left hand thank you I repeat after me I state your name I Mike dieo do hereby swear do hereby swear that I will support the Constitution I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear and I would bear TR true Faith true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments and to the governments established established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state Under The Authority Under the authority of the people of the people of the city of Anglewood of the city of Anglewood further further I do swear I do swear that I will Faithfully that I would faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform justly perform all the duties all the duties of the position of of the position of angood probationary firefighter angood probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to my best of my ability so help me God so help me God [Applause] congratulations our fire chief of Department uh will now uh make a presentation uh to the young probationary officer congratulations not too bad right yeah too bad you want to say a few [Applause] words I want to say everybody thank you for coming um this is a great moment for me I'm super grateful to work here in the city of Anglewood a place where I went to middle school High School um I'm super happy for having my parents for the way they raised me um and the people that are in my life I just want to be here and I want to help the people of Anglewood and I'm super blessed for this opportunity so thank you everybody and my grandma and my girlfriend and everybody else who's here I greatly appreciate it uh I love you guys all I love the city I've been here all my life and I wish to be here all my life as well thank you thank you thank you thank you congratulations you don't want to for the firefighter [Music] okay [Music] we now I don't know exactly how we're going to do this so um uh there this is a special presentation um the um yansy would you like to read it's resolution 383-1190 this is a resolution uh honoring third W councilwoman Judith Marin thank you yany um Can can I do the honor of U reading the resolution aloud oh thank thank you okay uh thank you for that opportunity oh do we have to have a motion first so moved I'll second okay thank you second um so whereas Judith Marin has diligently tirelessly and proudly served the residents of the city of Anglewood currently as third wart Council woman for three years also serving as president and vice president or president proem of the council and whereas Judith Maron a 56-year resident of ble wood has a strong belief in community service that belief is demonstrated through her involvement in a range of organizations that make a difference and whereas Judith Marin received a BA in psychology from Brooklyn College and attended Harvard College for special courses she began her professional career as an elementary school teacher in New York City where she taught in the gifted and talented programs and as music and art specialist she served as office manager of David Lloyd Marin architect and joined the asid to provide Interior Design Services to the practices clients Judith later joined the executive staff for project renewal as its director of operations where she served for 22 years and whereas during her time in Anglewood Judith Marin has been a volunteer for many organizations she was a tested for f housing of Bergen County member of the title 7 Advisory board board member of the League of Women Voters serving as local education chairman board member of Temple Sinai as editor of the Sinai Century trustee and president of the Anglewood Board of Education as well as its negotiation chairman Executive Board member serving as development chair of flat Flat Rock Brook Nature Center Executive Board member serving as philanthropy chair of the Women's Club of Anglewood and whereas based on her leadership and vision to secure vacant Parcels of land to serve as flood prevention buffers du this initiative resulted in the city's commitment to purchase 47 Brook Avenue to serve as flood mitigation for the surrounding area now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Anglewood County of Bergen state of New Jersey that Judith Marin be accorded by the passage of this resolution the profound gratitude of the city and its citizens for distinguished service to the cause of a better and greater Anglewood thank you and if I can add some of my own words there cuz we came on the council together with a a zoom meeting and um you know certainly I've I've always admired uh your integrity and commitment to angle wood and and I'll sorely miss that um and your tenure as council president this year um you know some things do you know the budget came in again at under 2% which is great and a great accomplishment uh but hopefully we'll do that again this year but there's some things that I think uh and you passed 31 or 31 ordinances is which has been the most in in a decade I thought I was hot stuff last year with a 23 uh so uh you got a touchdown more than me there um but you I think a lot of your accomplishments will be things that the community appreciates probably for the rest of this uh Century so certainly 47 Brook Avenue um is really the first city property probably in 50 years that's been purchased by the city specifically for flood mitigation we've talked about how there's a new normal which means we need new strategies and you were the champion of that and and the effects of that will uh Outlast everyone who's in this room tonight um also you save the city from overdevelopment through build his remedy with very difficult year and getting the affordable housing across the finish line and um I think that's something that probably not the rest of the century but probably just a couple of decades so uh uh so your impact will um uh last for for for many many years it's been an honor serving with you and I I wish you all the best thank you very much I'm sorry my mic was off but thank you so much Mar if I if might just add uh my uh two cents uh in gratitude on behalf of the entire city also um for not only your service but the service of your dear husband uh a Dean on the board of adjustment your daughter who joins us uh this evening um are there any other relatives here if I may ask it's a front row granddaughters the whole uh we have a row the whole mishak the whole family is here and that's wonderful um I think uh the good councilman really artfully articulated the impact that some of these ordinances will have in our city um it was a true privilege uh to work uh with Judith um she was in it for the right reasons and like everybody else that's assembled here loves uh the city with her whole heart uh it'll be hard to match uh the time and the commitment um and imagine coming on in Zoom uh and then actually playing a major role with her husband in moving an entire house from the kesher synagogue to the Ellena Harvey Park and that was a little big thing that was done uh in the middle of all this thank you for joining all of our sessions with a coffee with the mayor and lending in uh your two cents for agreeing and disagreeing as a gentle Lady of the first order always sharing your thoughts your opinions changing our minds we wish you uh godp speed and we hope that you'll figure out someplace where you want to volunteer CU a person who has a nice big fat paragraph like this and a resolution generally doesn't stop a cold turkey and there's always going to be room for you in this great City so thank you on behalf of all the residents and our families too thank you very much mik Michael um I was going to save what I was going to say until later but I I think it might be appropriate um to to give some words right now um this is a very Bittersweet time for me tonight I end my term as Third Ward councilwoman I'm very proud of all that has been accomplished during my time as a member of the council what seemed to some as a council comprised of members did not agree often has in reality been a council that after discussion disagreement and compromise produced a very significant body of ordinances and resolutions I would like to thank my colleagues Ken Rosen swag Charles Cobb Lisa wiski Kevin Wilson and Michael Cohen who I served with during my first year on the council and Mayor Michael Wilds for all of their work and their generosity in sharing their know knowledge with me looking back I take great pride in being part of the council that selected our city manager Robert Hoffman our police chief Thomas grey our Deputy Police Chief Matt De Roa our fire chief Jeff Kaplan and our HR department head Alexis waiters we also created the job of Deputy city manager and selector John Berkner to fill this position these positions are the key positions in our city and I am very secure in my opinion that they are a team that will serve Anglewood very well we will all reap the benefits of their talents for many years to come we have dealt with many difficult situations I joined the council as it's only female member during the covid epidemic our Council meetings were held on zoom and created a situation where we were forced to reach out to our constituents whenever possible to solve local issues ues not being able to meet face to face can be difficult and does not make it easy to bond with our neighbors the council was suddenly faced with the aftermath of hurricane Ida our new city manager was confronted with the problem of dealing with substantial damage due to the storm his quick action alongside our DPW and Mr edroy jenin Drew up plans to alleviate situations that contributed to these problems they were successful for the most part and have led to substantial outside funding to help deal with the destruction caused by the storm I found myself thinking about what could we do to help eliminate conditions that contributed to flooding I began to consider the possibility of purchasing flood prone properties to use for flood containment Mr Hoffman contacted Engineers from several universities to help create programs for us in these properties with the support uh of the council all of this has been accomplished I eventually became involved in the acquisition of a property that was ideal for catch basins and I believe we will be awarded funding to help us Implement a creative plan when the plan is completed Anglewood will serve as the model to be followed by many other cities in New Jersey I have suggested to the council that an advisory committee be formed reporting to the council that will examine city-owned property to develop into parks and Gardens throughout the city this will work to alleviate flooding and provide Anglewood residents with wonderful areas throughout the town I would love to be part of this advisory committee using these properties that we already own would be a win-win situation the affordable housing litigation was very difficult to reconcile after many hours of study and meeting with our planning Consultants we were successful in phase three of this lawsuit we avoided being placed in a situation where we had to Grant Builder remedy which would have placed us at the mercy of developers who with this in place be able to function without abiding by our current building code we must encourage our planning board to select their planning consultant and begin to review and revise our current master plan our new master plan must contain chapters covering flooding and affordable housing so that our residents have an opportunity to have their opinions reflected the group that is now bringing our Council to court to overthrow our plan which has already been accepted is only wasting time and our City's money I hope those citizens that believe this will be a positive mood will re-examine this and see that they should look forward not backward and stop costing the city money responding to this lawsuit I cannot end my recall of accomplishments without mentioning the traffic lights at West Hudson Avenue in Nica Road this intersection has been the location of numerous actions throughout the years when I realized that this was the only nicab backa intersection that lacked a traffic light in the in the center of the intersection I immediately began to contact people who could do something about it LO and behold we have it now I know many accidents will be avoided because of this thank you to France volce and Bob Hoffman for the P Paving program which was instituted many of our streets have been paved that have been there for many years have been ignored I'm delighted to be part of the council that served during a time of fiscal success our tax rate as Ken said has remained under the cap of 2% and we have revised our debt service to result in several $100,000 in savings we have been successful in Grant Acquisitions and awards by both County and state our Council has supported Robert Hoffman in facilitating this accomplishment I have been consistently impressed by the confidence and creativeness of our Englewood employees since I cannot name them all please know that you are sincerely appreciated by me I will miss many of the people that I have had the pleasure of working with I have learned a great deal from you thank you all very [Applause] much cool the okay we have a motion so could roll call for the for my the resolution councilman cop yes councilman Rosen yes councilman Wilson yes councilwoman wiski yes council president Marin yes um we have presentations oh who is going to do it I don't know if I can ask our state senator uh to step forward to make a presentation to you Miss marin oh Mr Johnson yeah good evening everyone it's uh it's good to be back in this room again it's been a while since I've been in here on the days but uh we're here tonight to recognize um Miss Marin Judy Marin and I I'm here on behalf of the New Jersey state senate and New Jersey State Assembly recognizing you for what you've done I would go to listen I think Ken roses swag covered it already so we won't do that again so uh when when an individual chooses to become a public servant to work for their community and to come to the meetings and to uh try to resolve issues try and also have a vision to look forward to make that Community better for the future and then that's what you have done your dedication and tenacity so from State Legislature I have this resolution and we have a photo op here so um thank you for what you've done for the city thank you good you live two blocks for me but that's okay I'll come visit I like the traffic light by the way so thank you for what you've done and very much we'll be in touch as you said you're not going anywhere you'll be around okay thank you and thank you everyone gyo Judith if you don't mind just wait here I think we should all come down there's another presentation of the resolution and the ple congratulations to you young man uh a long time ago probably before you were born I I I raised my hand I was a police officer here in Engle for 25 years so uh being working here as a public servant is rewarding it's fun it's hard work sometimes but it's a great career so congratulations to you and I'm sure we will appreciate it we the people of the city of inle so thank you for your dedication Air Force though huh that was Army but we'll still talk congratulations again o yeah you have a microphone uh presented by the city of Anglewood to Judith Marin in grateful appreciation ation for your many years of outstanding dedication and service to the citizens of the city of angood your distinguished tenure as council president and third word councilwoman has exemplified the true meaning of Public Service commitment and Leadership a big thank you December 19 2023 [Applause] congratulations okay we'll now have a five minute recess so anyone who would like to leave you're all and refreshments in the B and there are Refreshments in in the back of the room uh the approval of the minutes we're at resolution 384 D12 d19 d 2 three um this is a resolution accepting the minutes do I have a motion so move second we have a motion and a second um would anyone have any comments on the minutes okay yany roll call councilman cop yes councilman rosenke yes councilman Wilson yes oh sorry these are for uh the the older ones I have to abstain I have to take that back sorry councilwoman wasi I abstain council president Marin yes okay okay we now move on to bills and claims this is resolution 385-1212 d23 this is the approval Bill bills and claims do we have a motion so I move this but I'm asking to remove eight items to vote on separately can can we wait for um a second to your motion I'll make second okay okay you want to could you please uh yeah starting on page five um they all start with 23- so 23- 02334 which is mad science 02405 which is graffiti 02439 which is the film initiative 0395 mad science 0 3419 mad science 0282 murder mystery 01953 mad science 0341 9 mad science and so you've the last two yes I I Che what were the last two oh they did on page six 01 953 0341 n both M science okay so basically what we have here is uh minus those eight items we have bills and claims are there anyone else have any comments on bills and claims minus those a question items and I think that this that's the way it should go could you please repeat that Char but I'm saying is pulling items we should just discuss the items as we go through them same thing we resolve it right there and have the same conversation for because one Department we're looking at one department and what who's going to explain that to us Mr Hoffman Mr cman who's going to explain it I don't know Bob could you explain those items or I'll tell you why I asked to have them pulled um because I I really just don't understand them and I can't vote for something that I don't understand these all regard the after school program and you know we have an enormous number of workers at the after school program and now we're bringing in 20,000 more more than $20,000 of outside Specialists um so what happens on the days that those Specialists come in do we have fewer employees or employees just sitting around do the employees not show up and still get paid what's the oversight going on there $20,000 is a lot of money we had a constituent earlier this year say the bathrooms weren't cleaned and her daughter had a change in a porta potty cuz she couldn't get into the bathroom and we were told that we did not have enough money to clean the bathrooms in the rec department but we're spending $20,000 on on Mad scientists I really just don't understand this and I can't vote for something I don't understand um I'm not here to not pay vendors but we got to sort this out before we just throw $20,000 at people uh um did these people show up have they had any interactions with some of the the the the issues with the after school program we need to have all these questions answered before we proceed and I and I can in good conscious uh vote for this uh this is no individuals these are companies and we need to speak to them and see what they're doing and what their interactions are so that's why I've asked to have these ped and and I and I believe at this point there was a motion and a second and so um after discussion that's what the vote is for does anyone else have any question or comment about uh the mo the bills list minus or the eight items that are being uh we asked to pull from the Bill's list Kevin good evening Council um constituents Madam chair are these items services rendered right Michael are these services rendered yes they already happened okay so it seems like we're revisiting a situation where as opposed to getting ahead of this and we and we take a hard look at it prior to that we have the services already rendered and now we we're discussing the fees and I can understand some of it uh why we would pull it and why we would discuss it but I I think in order to be fair that moving forward Madam chair that we need to look at things prior to it coming on the bills and claims if in fact we do have problems with it does anyone else want to and I I would just point out for example on Med science there two $3,160 charges do you see that uh it is not a duplicate okay because I asked that question in advance I said why why are we being build the same so we actually paid them then 3,160 twice yes wow n none of the bills for Mad Science here are duplicates it's for different times of the year we got another bill 1,760 from Mad Science labeled January through March of 2023 yes why are we getting a bill in December for a 2000 January through March bill they sent them all together and this is when the finance department received them so uhhuh so I I got a question if in fact that we have outstanding bills it could behoove the council to receive this information even though it may not have been submitted so we get an opportunity to take a look at it and possibly dispute the upcoming bills you know if like if we know if we knew back in in uh March that we had such an astronomical bill that may have raised the eyebrow or to yeah we try to tell departments to I mean the the New Jersey Law is you have to enter the requisitions in the purchase orders in before their services are rendered I mean we so we're not doing that we keep yeah exactly we keep reiterating that to the Departments is that not part of our contract is isn't that like stipulated already that's the state law right yeah okay I'm I'm just checking yeah and you know we've told the Departments we've had classes for the Departments and is this the only depart excuse me no no so we have several departments that uh issue bills after the services have been well is there any uh is what did what happens when they do this we just go ahead and pay pay their bill yeah and we get another comment at the end of the year so that's well don't don't you think we should have there should be some some uh negative consequence if these departments are not following procedure yes has any Council to your recollection ever proposed any uh consequence for not following procedures no I'll I'll tell you also before I started working you know in Anglewood I was an auditor so I used to go to different municipalities and it's not excuse but almost every municipality had the same problem it's not an excuse but I'm just no I appreciate the information but I since I'm not going to be here I would hope that our Council would uh consider this and uh as you say it appears in the audit this report every year in the uh and the council is stuck with having to pay bills for you know where the services have been rendered so uh we could be in default which is ridiculous you know I think there's a solution for this I mean the solution for this is that when we do a budget proceedings in the in this in the winter that we have a list of all the programs that are scheduled to take place and what the C are and the council reviews this in advance of of putting it in the budget or I mean we didn't actually approved this last year in the budget on a line by line item we just gave a an amount for creation and this is why we run into the to this problem so going forward in the budget proceeding my expectation and I think I've I've sent this to to um Mr Hoffman and Mr calman my expectation is that when we do the budget for all the Departments that have programs is I would like to see a list of those programs in advance and I'd like to see the cost for these programs so we do have this discussion in advance and by the way and councilman Ren why you were mistak taken we're not talking about $20,000 here we're talking about a lot more than $20,000 all right do we have any other comments well I I have some other questions about this but you know what's interesting this is month 12 and now people are talking about the bills and claims the reality of it is is that this is nothing compared to some of the items that are on here that we should really be questioning and the other thing is during the budget process line by line that's not what the council does we we budget to the Departments and that that's what Mr Hoffman does that's his job to manage that and oversight that so we have to decide what we're going to do are we going to micromanage or we just going to manage if but the but the bottom line is is is is is that these Services as coun Wilson said have been rendered already so we we going to have to pay them and if you're so concerned about that then that's a that's a whole another thing let's talk about process then we with if there's a process that's broken let's fix the process cuz the we let's talk let's get to the root cause of why this is happening and then look at the process because we'll be back in and and as I recall the last council meeting we had the conversation about something similar to this and then we come out and it's the same department but no nobody's asking about for example how come M strategy has two entries of 4,000 each when we used to they used to charge is 3250 now it looks like they increased whatever it is I don't know but I'd be more concerned about that cuz we have them on a regular on a retainer so what is that excuse me did you say millennium are you Millennium I think they five it's 4,000 no but I'm just saying they went from went they went from 3250 now it's all the way to 4,000 and we got two entries with them for 4,000 for millennium strategy also when we do the budget process and we go through the lines let's say we give after school you know 200,000 I'm just giving an any amount we give after school program $100,000 I mean it's the department heads usually the the discretion what to use that $100,000 for because and I get it because what happens is we for example with the rent it's how many kids sign up for a particular program if you don't get enough you don't have that particular program right so that goes based on how many kids are participating in that so I I think that uh we don't have a choice but to pay these bills and if people pay more attention to it and and if they got questions with the process so be let's have that conversation well perhaps that's the that's the issue I think that's the conversation if you're concerned about let's look at the process let's understand what it is now and if it's a audit finding and it's a repeated audit finding then that's a whole another story that has to be dealt with purchasing prior yeah so that that that's that's something else and we should have that conversation during the budget hearing if that's a audit finding and how we resolve it if we don't put in the right controls then then people should be held accountable for that that that's what that's what should have if this is where it's at at this point this conversation here is moot in terms of this this bills and claims right now cuz we can't hold it up we can't carry it over to the next year this is the last meeting of the year uh if if I may go ahead U thank you the um what's what's being said some some of what's being said is um is accurate we're also finding that the vendors they're delaying sending in information and they're also when they do send it in they're not signning it part of the public contracts Law requires uh valid valid signatures either uh in person or or electronic and where we've been having trouble getting getting some of those signatures so we we do have um items that are encumbered but it takes it takes a while to get them properly processed um so that's the good news is we have we have the funds encumbered but it is frustrating for for our staff members to try and process the payments when it's um there there has to be give and take with the with the vendor and we're train we're training them to work with um local governments so uh we we continue we continue to do that uh the uh Millennium strategies the council now actually the city went out for um we went out for a bid for for this service and Millennium strategies their fees did go up but they were the best overall value for the city so um that's their that's their monthly retainer and we are um receiving significant um services from them we have uh we have received grant funding that's thanks to their efforts and they've been working closely on with our our engineer and myself on different capital projects and grant funding opportunities so they they have been um they have been bringing the city more Revenue than than they have cost us so just examples so Millennium strategy they increased their their fees in the middle of our contract or is this no the the contract had expired and we went out we went out to bid um we were looking for grant funding of Grant other Grant we were looking for grant funding firms so they they responded so did a couple of when did their excuse me for interrupting when did their contract in was that the third quarter is that why we're receiving this in the was it was it June 30th of this year or was it last year no was this this year we just did it recently yeah so it was yeah it um the new contract started July 1st of this year and how long is the contract good for about I think it's two years with a with an option to renew for a third year but we can we will we can look it up and send that out tomorrow yeah that'd be nice if we were locked in for the 4,000 two years I would like to get back to the the issue of the bills list minus the eight items now since we've already received the services it sounds to me like um our Council members are interested in taking it off the table at this meeting just as a heads up not just for the department but for the companies uh we it's it's unbelievable that we're not receiving bills in in a timely way and uh and you are questioning the process so uh there is no problem with paying a bill a month later as far as I know we have incumbent the funds it's not as if we're not going to be uh short the funds is there a problem with us putting off the uh items till for the next meeting I'm only and I'm not aware of anything yeah I I don't think I've never heard of the trying to close their books what everybody's trying to close their books it doesn't matter what they oh yeah and some of these are are older than a month I mean these are June July January you saying I asked you the question that when you know when you receive you you say you just received them so I have no I have no problem uh putting it off a month to have the people on the council get whatever information they deem necessary or pull together some new procedures that we may not have in place as I said I don't think it's against the law to to uh pay the bill as long as the funds are encumbered the problem why not pay it a month later really doesn't matter can you share with us what the problem is with that prompt payment law that we officially supposed to pay what the vendors contracts yes I'm not sure just falls into that um and when did you get them though that's just got got that's what I meant I'm not exact the date that we got the invoice what's going to change that's nothing's going to change whatever he's telling you now it's not going to change so Charles you have you have two members of the council that have expressed I'm I'm only saying what's going to change the proced telling you is not no proced the procedure is not the procedure won't impact anything that has already taken place that's going forward that's going forward so it's not going to impact what we already have well I believe the these companies if we're going to continue using them they get the message that perhaps they have got to to send their bills in a timely manner and the department itself has got to be put on on alert that uh this is not acceptable the point is right now there is we we've been told tell you the invoice date on one of these says is 4623 so it's not we didn't get it a month ago or a day ago that's the Eno dat they dated at 420 46 doesn't mean they sent it or they I need to know don't you stamp in things that when they come in don't the bills you know when you receive bills don't you have someone giving the date of the receipt departments don't do that as a now no who doesn't do that the Departments get the invoices I think this is a mess I I agree with uh councilman C's suggestion I agree that we need to have an audit of the after school program and also of the summer day camp I I didn't hear him ask for that but right now we're dealing with uh we're dealing with resolution 385-1212 3 minus the eight items that deal with the recreation department um are we ready to does anyone else want to say anything about this so do I but I I would like to say one last thing before we vot on pulling those several items um if in fact that we do pull it what's what's what's our hope here is our hope that the vendors will change their price their procedure um or how we pay what what what's our hope as we as we pull that excuse me I just got a call not work we know we know we got the information our internet is down um recording the meeting and we'll post it tomorrow very upet about um Mr Wilson was that a question to me uh yes if you if you're I'm hoping pull I'm hoping I get some insight into what our taxpayers are spending their money on just on this one bills and claim $20,000 and and if if a constituent asks me what we spent the money on and I said a mad scientist I I would hope that they'd be disappointed in me so I'm going to really need to know what's going on there before I can vote on this because this is a lot of money um and are we paying for employees the same day that we're paying for a program to come in I don't know I don't know what's the role of these companies in in the in some of the issues going on with the after school program program I don't know so I don't have any insight into what's going on there I don't have any insight why we can't clean the bathrooms so that a constituent's daughter doesn't have to change in a porta poot I have no insight into that so I'm hoping I get some insight into that so I can vote on this with a good conscience for the taxpayers I represent that's the whole issue and I can't describe this right now so I see spooky skat tacular supplies by the health department now I didn't ask specifically about that but they probably bought a skeleton to put up to celebrate Halloween I don't need to ask about that may maybe I will one day and that was uh $90 this is $20,000 and we're not cleaning the bathrooms that's my problem and I need some insight into that before I vote for it and all these we have 10 pages here that's all been paid uh encumbered already or or services rendered why are we even voting on it then why don't ask me for my vote just do it without me then but you're asking for my vote so I need to have some insight into why we're spending $20,000 on Mad scientists but we're not cleaning the bathrooms so when I get that Insight I'll be able to vote that's all I'm saying and and thank and thank you for clearing that up um that's a concern of mine as as as several other line items here including the police department DPW tires and so forth I am in total agreement with you that it makes no sense to spend this type of money on Mad Science which I have no idea what that is and who gets paid and how it gets paid all I'm saying is as we're governing as as being a governing body and going over the bills and claims in actuality it's too late the services have been rendered and in order to get in front of this thing we need to set procedures that are already in place that aren't being followed by by Personnel by management whether they they're giving it to us on time or prior to we should have knowledge of these services and the city manager could explain these programs to us and where this money goes because there is no way that you can spend $90 on the skeleton and you can't spend 90 on cleaning the bathroom I'm in agreement with that but all I'm saying is that these Services have been rendered and I'm going to leave it like that thank you so you know what's interesting they talk about cleaning the bathrooms I stood up there with DPW while they clean the bathrooms I was up there when they put the party potties why they while they were there and this has been going on for months and nobody said a word but now tonight we're going to talk about this so if we're going to talk about this let's have that the whole bills list nobody has said um anything about the Sid and how much money we we got paid from the Sid how much was paid hund and something th000 what's the difference what do we ow this here now what's the difference that's important cuz they tell they they basically paid for the parking meters that's more significant than what we're talking about these few items at the rec department not saying that that's not important but if everybody wants to muscle up and get a little courage political courage let's have at it right here cuz I would love nothing more than to go through this line by line and let's have a question about every one of them the fact of the matter is there's a problem the process is broken that's what we should reconcile what what's the root cause of this if that's your concern if you choose not to vote that's your prerogative that's your prerogative nobody's not telling you that but all of a sudden there becomes a Target here but when there's a whole bunch of targets on this thing that we should be really talking about I I I look forward to having this type of conversation about the bills and claim cuz it's important we should we should know what we're spending our tax dollars on but what I'm not going to stand up here and do is like we're going to selectively go after certain things well that's not right we we're not doing it justice if we're going to do this whole process we we we have a moment with Mr Kaufman and Mr Hoffman and say hey the process is broke this is what we' like to see we feel bad about it and if especially if I understood what Mr Kaufman said that this is a audit finding we shouldn't even be arguing about it we should say what was the resolution to the audit finding because if the resolution is not working that means that okay we got a problem sometimes Mr Cobb that they have selected the items from the rec department as the thing they're looking at however you and I both know that's just symptomatic and it's something they could they could uh stick their teeth into right now but obviously what this will do is force you to get information for your next meeting so you can begin to discuss the pro you know the process the procedure sounds crazy to me well that we've been allowing this well but but but again that's what Mr Hoffman and Mr Kaufman they're responsible so we have to hold them accountable for what we feel that's not being done right because listen we're the policy makers but they're they're the procedures they're executing this daily and all I'm saying to you is it's it's it's not just that one it's a whole lot of things on here that are problem no one is disagreeing with you and all all I'm saying is listen right now end of the year this this is a move point we got to move forward this is an audit finding how do we figure this out how did we do this you know to pay so little when we got other items on of that are significant in dollars you know I think that there are some questions we need to be getting answers for there too as well I don't want to be repetitive but I understand what they're doing and you do too uh sometimes in order to initiate the discussion you've got to be able to Target something this was an e this was a no-brainer because it's uh it's very obvious and there are so many items involved you can pull these and these will be discussed in terms of receed te at your next meeting and it should be taken up at the next workshop and you're absolutely right Mr hofen and and uh Michael have to have to answer for this I I just want to make a comment um you know we get the bills and claims I think usually Friday night before the council meeting I just want people to understand that and then we have time to look at it before our meeting on Tuesday so the the fact I I would disagree with you with saying that it's quote targeted because I usually you know Mr Hoffman asked me can I send him a list of my questions and bills and claims two days in advance so usually by Sunday I send him a list and it's throughout the bills and claims it's is that not correct Mr Hoffman I go through every y I mean I mean I I went through quite quite a lot of these all the Departments bills and claims and I start getting answers back usually on Monday some I get back on Tuesday some of them it's explained and I understand what these bills and claims are that's most of them and then sometimes they're those that just stand out and you say okay you know we have a we have a problem and and so that's that's what you're seeing but but to say I wouldn't say we're comp you know I I know I can speak for myself as I'm compr apprehensive I go through all the bills and claims and and I ask my questions in advance and they do take a couple of days for the answers to come in and I think that's that's how it should be done by everybody you know giving people time to answer the questions but we do have a problem um with with the eight bills that um councilman Rosen swag asked to pull you know we could have another discussion another time about the red flags and all that but um I just wanted to set that record straight right point of information please U Madam president the um i' I've heard a lot on the I've heard a lot tonight about the bathrooms I want the the governing body to know or to be reminded that we did go out to bid for for this service and the bathrooms are being cleaned um we wound up adding bathrooms and Recreation that uh that needed to be cleaned uh they had been done before so we had we had portal potties but um sometime in I guess this the spring or the summer we we went out to bid for cleaning services for our our buildings as well as for our our recreational assets and um we met with with the the rec director to make sure we knew when when the bathrooms needed to be cleaned because they usually need to be cleaned uh three three out of the Four Season so we we put that into our bid specifications and now now the bathrooms are being cleaned and we we've eliminated most of the portal potties uh the audit finding for the um for our for some of our bills was that uh the the bills were not being encumbered um prior to the services being rendered so what's been happening is that uh we have been doing blanket purchase orders and we have been in we been meeting with the department heads and we've been making sure that the um that there are purchase orders in place or that there are are requisitions in place so that the services whatever the services are the funds are encumbered before the services are delivered so um that was um that was the audit that was probably the audit comment that that our CFO was was referring to Michael was that it yeah okay thank you so so the easiest thing to do is one once it's encumbered then you need to review it if it doesn't stick then we take it out if it doesn't what sorry stick if it if once it's encumbered into the system then you need to go in and review what's encumbered and then there needs to be a question to say hey does this make sense or does this what's behind us what does this to so that way it doesn't go any farther until it's approved so it's could be either approved by you or Mr Hoffman that way we have that's the control right there your approval and so that's how it has to move forward well yeah everything everything everything that's encumbered every single thing is is is checked out is looked at before well okay so so so then then then then you're answering the question so you're saying that all these items that councilman Rosen swag wants to pull have been reviewed by you or Mr Hoffman that's what you're saying to me yes right so he's asking for additional information cuz he doesn't feel comfortable with this but if he's talking to you and Mr Hoffman and you all reviewed it then you guys need to tell him what you can add to this or what you cannot add to this because you're the people that based on what you're telling me right yeah the counil I mean if Council wants me to if the department says that this is the program that they're doing is it I you know do you want me to go and question I mean how am I supposed to question I'm saying that that that's that's that's my responsibility to you is at this point now basically you said everything that's encumbered you've reviewed or you or Mr Hoffman have review whatever right so what all I'm saying is what additional information can you provide councilman roses swag with that so he gets comfortable or if he doesn't get comfortable with the information that you give him you know you're the person or you or Mr Hoffman is the and if you don't have any additional information you should say that we we we have a report you know it's it's a long report I could send it out monthly the whole budget for every Department everything that's open everything that's and then the council could review that every month and see what is encumbered if that's what the council was no no that's that I I I I listen I got my answer I know the process you just explained it to me so everybody else has to get comfortable with whatever that is and you're saying that between the two of you there's a review that's the control so when we want to test the control we want to know and say okay can you add give us additional information or not that's a yes or no answer that's very simple that's very simple so I I I got the process I I I get that so you know if somebody wants additional information you should say we either have it or we don't have it I mean I think it's it's very simple that's all we have a motion in a second for the bills and claims list minus the eight items I I I had a question that never was answered sorry um 14987 627 on page those those were the meters that the uh my question was how much more remaining do we owe that's that's it so this is that this is the final payment yes okay that that was and I I have two other questions we we have the Pierce Arial ladder for a million 359,000 and then we have another one for the Pierce aerial ladder 987 is that the same apparatus or we got two things coming uh councilman cob what page is that on page eight okay the uh the 1.3 million for the um for the Pierce that's for the ladder truck and that was actually leaving Wisconsin today so yeah but but but we got another entry that says Pierce ladder aial ladder is well CU it was charged cuz it was charged to two different ordinances that's why is that what it was yeah yeah the same truck maybe we can make a reference in there so we know it's the same thing you know what I mean if it's the same item letter say one one or two two or two whatever it is you know so we know it's the the same truck and I just I I just had two other questions Judy and and and there're for Mr VY action Mr Mr VY uh 155,000 5669 on page 8 the Hudson Avenue covert replacement what's the status and where we at um obviously put that together expecting some of the C reconstruction turn it come France France come here okay no I'm okay they're they're expecting some of the delivery of the covert pre-cast on the uh 29th so they're going to be working um all through the holidays to make sure that they're ready to receive those those pre-cast um there was some uh some issues with deliveries but they found an opening I guess during the Christmas break um some openings opened up in terms of delivery so they accepted the they're accepting the pre-cast as quickly as it can come so right now it looks like the delivery day is the 29th so they're going to be working um so they make sure that they're ready for those deliveries but the final end of this is probably we're looking at April April uh March April for the project to be completed okay and I got one more question Chester Street 237 237 same page right below 237 that's new prints um we are in the process of repairing Chestnut Street um part of the project was to uh analyze the storm in the sanitary um because ches street is a concrete roadway it was impossible for us to really know how badly the sanitary and the storm was impacted um after cleaning it out and tving it we're finding out that either did a a major number um in the sanitary and the storm system uh the sanitary was sort of like half full it was still functioning but it was it was severely impacted and the storm system is just a lot of the piping has just been dislar so we've asked new Prince to give us um several quotes for the repairs of the sanitary in the storm um and we are in the process right now with uh working with FEMA um trying to get some funding uh to see if we can get that that process uh that those those uh those infrastructure items completed so that's where we are right now so and for both of those projects and all our projects when they're um being engage are we notifying the residents you know we keeping them aware of uh how long these things are going to take yeah part of what we do is prior to the project starting we notify the residents and let them know hey we're going to be doing let's say we're going to be doing chest Street we're going to be doing the road reconstruction of chestnut between Bron and and Li Decker and it's going to last for the for the next 90 days um what we're finding now is there's additional work that needs to be done uh that notice hasn't gone out yet because we're still trying to figure out hey hey can we get the funding to get this done how long it's going to take Etc once we have that finalized we're probably going to send a secondary notice to the to the residents to let them know that the project may be may be a little longer than we anticipated yeah I think that courtesy would help people phone calls yes thank you madam chair I have a few questions what Mr M is there if I may go ahead Kevin good evening sir how are you today how are you good um just so you can clear up um in regards to uh the status of uh the pads that we talked about so the constituents will know um in our budget line it's taped off for a particular reason and so now that we have people here and listening as well I would like for you to explain to our citizens so we don't fall into sure as you know we are in the process of uh putting a brand brand new play equipment uh along McKay at McKay Park uh it consists of three parts there's the outdoor Fitness there's a new playground area for the children there's also the swing set uh what we've currently done right now we've sort of poured the concrete pad in the curbing um for the uh for the fitness areas but what needs to happen uh right now they're all watered off no one should be using them what has to happen is we say that one more time no one should be using them okay um we still have to put the rubber matting um on those beneath those PL surfaces um what happens is with the rubber matting you need at least 45 degre of temperature dry weather for that rubber to adhere to the concrete Etc so right now it looks like that's something that's going to happen in the spring so right now we have everything sort of cautioned off and um it the public should not be using those uh that equipment right now the public should not be using the equipment it does I think it it's it's going to be very nice when it's completed we still have some Landscaping we want to do when it's completed and we still have a few touches that we want to add to it for the final project but right now unfortunately because of the weather we're sort of like at a standstill thank you I appreciate it um if we can turn our attention to page number one uh if you go seven or six down and it goes uh 230 3388 uh the icma conference is that for the um League of municipalities uh no that's the um International City County management association it's an it's a International Conference that I attended it was in Texas okay and prayerfully that benefits us for you bringing back that information oh it AB it absolutely does there were several sessions on um on sustainability on climate change but also on um on the the the changing role of police departments and uh interaction with with uh with residents and um there is very very valuable information that I've brought back that I've shared with some of our department heads and uh that'll be rolled out during the 2024 budget process okay thank you um and if we move down to uh 2303 558 in regards to work on backlog of minutes and I understand as uh as my uh as Ken had brought out before that we have had a bunch of ordinances passed and I I guess we're we're getting above ourselves and if in fact that if this is something that we cannot keep up with should we be looking at um permanent help um yes that's that's something that needs to be evaluated but part part of this is the um there was a we want we wanted to make sure that the um all of the minutes that were related to COA were were were were up to date that so that's that was part of this okay but um going forward right now um we have an unfunded state state mandate for Oprah requests and it's taking approximately the the the work hours of five employees to keep up with with the opah requests and the the majority of the OPA requests falls on our city clerk she's responsible for the records of the city but um over the course of this over the course of the city staff it's it's taking up a significant amount of time but it's also there there are things that have to be done um there's basically a seven 7day time when when the city clerk has has to respond so that means that other things for you know have to be put aside so that's why we were you know we needed that so that's going to be a discussion for 2024 and why and why I bring that up is because I get several calls and I I want the constituents to understand that um the clerk's office is overburdened and the people do not understand in regards to opal requests not being met in a timely manner and so we know that that's part of the situation so so that's why I offer the opportunity for us to get some type of assistance uh councilman Wilson if I may one of the things that I'd like to complement the Council on is um they helped us invest in technology and software this year so that we would be able to um reduce some of the time the time delay for opah requests and other things and we will be able to point residents towards uh information that'll be on on our website through spatial data logic and other things and that's just something that has been pilot tested pilot tested by our our city clerk by our construction official and others and um we are we are moving through the implementation process but that will um provide benefits to anybody that's looking for oah requests and it will help us reduce the amount of time that it takes to respond to those oah requests because it can be done electronically and um Oprah has become a crutch for some types of work so uh when when houses are being sold there's Opa requests they want you know every piece of information under the sun related to a block and a lot so that's that that's some of the information that we will be able to point people to through sdl and that'll that'll help ease the backlog in the clerk's office okay I I understand how it will relate to real estate as well but it also relates to police fire and uh just what we do here as a city being transparent um and a lot of constituents do not understand that process so the Oprah seems to be their only Outlet uh and if we move down quickly to uh Business Systems unlimited equipment police SL garage for $2,320 could we explain that real quick that was on page one thank you do quarters of the way down 2303 426 this was a lot of equipment for the police in the garage that could go through each no is it their garage or is it the parking garage the parking garage so is part of that the upkeep of the cameras that were concerned about passing the ordinance in regards to the graffiti yes some of this some of this is related to the cameras that were vandalized and were replaced okay and if we go down to page two police department Valley Health Medical 2303 366 and it says $400 pre-employ physicals uh is that the psychological hold on cuz the last time I asked this question on the on on the item shaking your head no I'm I'm waiting to see sorry what page is it it's on page number two and so what I'm really waiting to see is um the bill for syes no this is for drug testing and uh so so am I missing psychological entries or is that would that be on a different caption cuz this is the second meeting I've asked about the physical part and it doesn't seem to come up is that part of the package that comes in physical this Valley Health this is part of the physical so there's pre-placement physical exam for each person $6 $70 and then no no no I I understand that now that you've explained that I appreciate that what I'm asking for am I missing something for the psychological I don't know so so you're asking if it's on the spills list and we'll don't the previous meeting as well for the bills and claims and my concern is because we're we're problematic in certain departments that if in fact that they're going through the proper channels of being vetted and the [Music] psychologicalscience seen it and I'm concerned because previously we've we've had individuals come into our city that hasn't had psychologicalscience not I I'm I don't believe it's on this bills list okay uh I'm sorry it's not on the bill list is it being right does it exist that's my question okay uh and so I'm I'm going to try to move through these as quickly as possible but it's a real concern of mine um we're we're we're going back to uh to tires and the last builds and claims I didn't get the information in regards to I don't I don't even want to repeat the number of what we were paying for tires I'll just sayate current on what tires are here uh 2,448 79 um I just so what what page is that on councilman page number two to for the fifth item from the bottom okay and the um some the the the questions for the tires the last time they they were there was an email that was sent out to the council a couple days after the um after the last meeting but we can I have go back and take a look at that I must apologize I must have missed that so these are rotors and pad pad kits okay um now this is a big one uh you have you have red dye and red dye comes up to $ 28,6 16 and it's competitive entries in regards to Red Dy on page three Michael yes say see okay and as you're looking for that I will ask my final question which is I don't know um if we go to page seven under utility 23342 462 uh Solid Waste Disposal the last quarter of the bottom of page seven you have 1 two three four five five entries in the amount of 1,00 1006 $168,200 20 um I I I don't I don't doubt that that may be the price um my problem is H how are we governing in this and because I'm getting complaints in regards to lack of leaf removals um that are causing situations on hanik and other areas where individuals have their basements flooded because we are not attending to the leaf SL debris problem but we're paying over $68,000 for removal this and we're having problems with people's basement being flooded because debris and leaves aren't being removed in the area and that's hard for me to sell to my constituents when they're having um continuous property damage this is the um this is this is the disposal from our DPW Yard after it's after it's collected off the streets this is when it's it's removed to go um to to go someplace else uh what you're what you're referring to is there's a uh we I I spoke with um with a nice lady in the in the back of the the um Auditorium before who um had um problems with water in her basement and there's uh she showed she was nice enough to show me pictures and there's there are there was cars on the street that were parked on piles of leaves and then um there was there was a leaves that looked like it was hard to get to from for the DPW but we're we're going to follow up there was a also a couple of other problems on that street um there was debris that was came from other um commercial establishments that wound up in in our sewers sewer lines but you know this is this is something I was just made aware of and we have to we have to follow up on it um there's also um a problem with uh with with some electric on that street but we we need to look we need to look at that and and make sure that uh things are taken care of I will say I will say that um you know over the last two weekends with with the heavy Rings we had on both weekends we had relative you know we had um areas where we had flooding on some some roads but only on part part of the roads but you know when it's in somebody's basement that's a problem yes um and I believe our our fire our police or DPW my personal opinion of our city workers are that they're superheroes and so if in fact that this is a a part where we have to P play on having proper signage and having the cars alternate um usually these these individuals don't live in our Fair City um and I want to give our superheroes a chance to either give them tickets Tow and slash um have proper street cleaning because there should be no Street or no ward in our city that should be underserved so thank you oh you're right and um you know it was timely because our traffic Sergeant was outside so the information about um Mary and hanik was was related to him so that we can take action tomorrow and thank you for giving a a shout out to the superheroes and the DPW because for the past year they've been cleaning out catch Basin and storm lines and when you looked at the overc creek this past weekend and the weekend before it was flowing rapidly and there was there was no there was no Islands in it so that helped prevent flooding in several different areas of the city but but we have to we have to help these people enforcement has to take place absolutely it it it has to take place yeah and and it doesn't and that that's part of the problem because if these guys come to do their job and you know what we're getting ready to go to snow season and it'll be the same thing as Leaf season same exact thing so I think that we need to you know get out communicate and tell folks that they need to move their car so DPW can do their job we got to help them in that way absolutely the red dyed sorry the red died you you SD was for September and October our SE system how that what is what is the particular usage for red Dy because I I see several entries in in that and I would hope that we're doing something to help along our our infrastruct structure if you will okay I'll get i'll get specifics from uh edoy okay I thought was coming back with the answer thank you yeah that that and doctors okay we have a motion and a second on the table for bills and claims minus the eight items roll call councilman C yes councilman Rosen yes councilman Wilson yes councilwoman wiski yes council president Maron yes okay we now move on to ordinances this is the second reading uh yany you want to read ordinance 2329 this is an ordinance of the city of Anglewood County of Bergen state of New Jersey to amend chapter 319 property registration of the general ordinances of the city of Anglewood um okay we're going to have um a public this is a public hearing uh so that any of you that would like to uh speak question criticize anything that has to do with ordinance 2329 please come up to the microphone we need your name your address and you have three minutes and remember this is only to do with ordin it's 2329 with which has to do with property registration Mr Bailey could you explain that to the public yeah I was just about to ask that that's I didn't know what that is sure um the the ordinance that's before you right now is essentially uh the format prescribed by the state a few years ago the state legislature passed uh laws that required for vacant and abandoned properties um but also properties that are in foreclosure not just the owner of the property but if you're XYZ Bank foreclosing on a piece of property you have to identify yourself register with the city so that if it's vacant and it's not being maintained you can go to the entity that's foreclosing and say Hey you better clean this up This Vermin it's overgrown it's getting dangerous uh and it requires them to file with the clerk um and the city so that our code enforcement can then go out and there's an account party to go after all right can something like that be construed as discriminatory or targeting certain individuals especially you know in the black and brown communities because most of the time we see something like this as just a way for people to you know get a heads up so that their buddies or their cronies could uh go and use that registration list and try to you know snatch these properties from underneath poor people I mean what is the necessity of I mean the bank knows the property foreclosed what do you have to register for I mean don't you register enough things you register your dog you register your bike you register everything like how many more things is there a fee to register or I mean who's it benefiting to register these properties I mean I know we have the Accelerated Tax sale you know and to me that seems a little bit discriminatory too you know I mean you know how do you accelerate a tax sales and we all know where those sales are basically focused at you know primarily in the fourth ward or in some cases the third W but it's never on top of the hill so you know what if we see these legislative lynchin we know exactly what they end up you know who they actually end up affecting so I would really like to know like what is the necessity to have anything like this on the books it doesn't it defeats the purpose to me if you're in foreclosure you're in foreclosure what the hell you need to register for somebody's not keeping the property clean send them a letter tell them to clean the property up it's going to benefit somebody I know but it's going to be somebody that's not even from the community at the end of the day this is what happens all the time this is gentrification in Redline in 101 you know these things always end up discriminating against a certain race or class or group of people it's it's a no-brainer you know what I'm saying so can you tell me that cuz I think it's going to be a problem and you know in the word of Ken Rosen swag I need some insight on this you know you give me some insight yeah do you want to sure so one it's a state law it's not something something that the Council made up number two this let you go after the bank if there's a bank for closing on One Main Street the city doesn't necessarily know what bank it is this requires them to sign up with the city so the city can say hey Bank you're foreclosing on this you need to take care of the property but to me it seems like you know that's also a way for a potential buyer to get in you know people in the city that have friends and connections say well you know this property and this is the bank so it kind of goes around and you know I don't care about state laws or International laws or any laws at all bill because most of these laws people break them some people feel they don't apply to them and they still affect people that look like me so laws don't mean anything whether they're at the state or anything there's just another way for people to exploit other people that's what a law is you understand a statute is the same thing or an act is the same thing all right so I just don't understand and again I want to use Ken's word I need some insight on this right here cuz I still don't understand what it is and I just see it as something else that's going to exploit people of color in this community um I would like to answer that Mr WBY uh the calls that I've gotten about vacant Properties or properties that are you know overgrown and uh are causing a problem uh whether it's rats or squatters or have all been about properties in the Third Ward when you pass a property that's overgrown Nobody Knows the color of the person who owns the property the neighbor excuse me I'm talking the neighbors know all the neighbors know is it's a it's an eyes saw and they they're afraid of it they don't want to live next to a house that's vacant uh I have one very close to me and I know the neighbors are not very happy about it uh it's very important for the city If We complain to the city about a property like that that they be able to identify who to go to so that uh so it's all blone this black brown white green who cares the point is it's a problem in the neighborhood nobody cares about the color of of the owner what we care about is the safety of the people who live on the street I can't wait till you go home swear to anyone I have a question if I may um you want to close the public hearing I'm now going to close the public thank you so my question is is there have there has this been uh challenged and constitutional grounds uh for overreaching uh throughout the state or any part in the state I believe it has it has um because this statute was actually amended in 2021 in response two challenges so I am the that we have a uh police interest if you would in code enforcement and cleaning up property but there is a element of privacy and piercing veils that are not within the city's interest uh and and the breach of privacy that also U May create content are these lists going to be publicly available or only available to the city it's a list of the foreclosing entities they have to register no I understand that so if somebody buys a proper public record so in other words if somebody buys a property and they don't want anybody to know about it for estate purposes or otherwise um we're breaching their privacy it's public record anyway no I understand that the block the lot and and general price right the price and all of that stuff is common knowledge but there is a proprietari interest in preserving people's privacy I mean I can understand going after people and asking somebody at a certain point if a house is is becoming um unkempt to then register and give us the bank information I can see the police interest in doing that um but I do see this to be overreaching in some fashion with the eye towards preserving every house in case they all become whatever and it becomes another job registration fee process um why who promoted this and why if I ask Mr Bailey the state legislature no I understand that but think has this every town I'm requ pretty but I'm also concerned about the Constitution but the information you've mentioned you can get anyway just from getting someone's property record card I get that that shows the grand War the gr that's a town record I understand the police interest for those homes that are unkempt and historically are not kept well and then pursuing it in a process in a system for those houses I think is admirable doing an entire thing throughout the city I think may be overreaching and there may be consequences we don't perceive you only register if you're a bank foreclosing only if you're you have to say I'm taking this property is in foreclosure the people have been evicted okay so so now we code official since there's no one the prior owner is not there okay they can contact the bank say hey clean up the so this isn't a registration for every property in the city of Anglewood it's just for banks that are starting a process right okay what were the constitutional challenges in other communities I I didn't read the opinions I don't know you know have they been surmounted have they no this law is been in effect now for two years all right do you see any consequence to banks that the city of Anglewood does work with would there be a conflict if they're putting us on notice and they're vendors for some of our accounts no it's just the private action that there right and there is a transparency element then I suppose to the community that a bank is beginning to register its interest in cleaning up a property to the extent that that puts pressure on a homeowner or the owner of the property to change it I have less of a problem if that's what it's for thank you if I if I if I may Madam chair um I I think that this is I think that this is very important um especially in my w there there individuals whether they're investors or private homeowners who come into a particular area and purchase property only to redevelop uh build out or knocked down and until such time it's done the property is not maintained properly and so this gives the city a recourse on how in fact that we can go after these individuals that blight our city um whether it's in my ward and other Wards but I know my ward suffers from blighted properties that put our youth in danger so I for one I'm for this thank you Kevin okay um do we have it I for one I'm for this because it it's it's it's blighted areas that put our put our children in in danger and and it's part of transparency who's in our neighborhood investing who's in our neighborhood being a slum Lord um that's not what inwood's about and we want to keep our seniors and our section A people and whoever they may be safe and this is just a process and for those investors that want to be named left Anonymous that's a problem if in fact fact you want to be in our city and be autonomous to our laws and not do the proper thing that also is a problem so I for one and for this thank you Kevin um we a motion we need a motion I'll make a motion do we have a second do we have a second I second it thank you Ken uh roll call councilman cop yes councilman Rosen yes councilman Wilson absolutely councilwoman wiski yes council president Marin yes thank you yany okay the next uh the next ordinance is ordinance 23-31 uh yansy would you please read that this is an ordinance of the city of Englewood County of Bergen state of New Jersey establishing chapter 315 proceed procedure to name public spaces of the general legislation of the city of Englewood okay we now will open the public hearing on ordinance 2331 anyone with anything to say questions comments uh we need your name your address and you have three minutes please come to the [Music] microphone yeah Rick willby again uh the last time we was here and we talked about this ordinance um I guess Ken was really concerned about this thing and he wanted to push it through right away so uh and I asked a question about the break room in the police department being named after somebody was that something that was also taken care of or this was just swept on the rug business as usual cuz I mean I understand how somebody that gives the police department sandwiches and brings them to the house and gives them gift cards and all this nepotism and stuff gets to name a whole room room in the police department after himself I just don't get it I mean I know there's no such thing as racism or anything like that but do I still have to be dead for 2 years to have something named after me around here or what is is the process I don't have to talk to my councilman I don't have to engage Kevin in this in case he doesn't like me I could just go around the process and get a street named after me around here I just want to know I need some clarity I need some insight again if that's okay anybody give me some insight excuse me if there are any other questions we'll take those first and then we'll get you an answer all right I'm going to wait good evening my name is Frank huddle the thir 485 High View Road Anglewood New Jersey I'll watch the clock um I'm here tonight on procedure 2011 Council policies were reformed to achieve best practices and full transparency a work session was created it didn't exist the way it exists from 2011 through 2017 2018 that work session is not to have any votes it's supposed to be a work session we actually sat here and colleagues speak and the public speak and all documents were provided that's not what occurred here this ordinance should not be here tonight because you didn't follow the policy council president this is your last day and this seems to be some Rush which at least I believe no I don't I believe let me rephrase that municipalities don't do what's happening today because more information is needed now I got 1 minute 41 seconds next your ORD says a common practice to co-name existing streets Etc is a common practice I have no idea councilman Rosen swag what you've done in the last 3 4 years cuz you said a 100 people called you I'd like to get that list I live in your word I'd like to know who wants to be honored however I was coun I was mayor for 9 years I was council president I believe for 3 years and there were three streets named in three years that's not common practice and those three streets were Vince leardi Reverend Taylor and Rabbi golden and each of those instances the mayor moved that forward and surprisingly there was some comments of resistance but all in all the council as Mr Bailey should advise the council that there's a majority vote so at any time that can happen now I wonder whether we would be able to honor those three individuals through codifying some rules and regulations that again councilman Rosen swag says is not binding oh boy about 15 seconds let me get to this this ordinance needs to be amended to allow the mayor to also bring forward those to be honored and requests should go to the mayor and the city council not the city manager so in a nutshell for once before you leave council president the city really requires open and transpare government this ordinance should have been provided two weeks ago and it should not be voted on the last day so your moment in time is and others to pass a law that could potentially last forever I believe this ordinance should be vot voted down allow the elected officials to do their job and if necessary bring it to council at large for majority vote thank you thank you just to piggy back Leroy Campbell tfly Road just to piggyback on a little bit of what Frank said um I think we all here tonight know why this is and it's because of the library and that's all I'm going to say because you all know what's happening at that Library what what should happen at that library and and you're stalling because you don't want it to happen does anyone else have anything else to add before I close the open session General Session I to I'm sorry only one time okay all right so I am I am closing the public session do can we have a uh a motion please or anyone on the C oh okay Kevin do we have a second yeah that's what we're doing do we have a second who made a motion Kevin second Kevin you made a motion to what discuss okay to either approve ory yeah you got to be okay okay it does you're taking it back okay I need a motion so move second I'll second okay discussion discussion I I you know after reading this thing a few times I am troubled with a few parts of this uh uh ordinance um and so therefore I will be voting against this I think that one of the things that I see here that's really I think uh kind of disrespectful to the people that we want to honor is when you say they'll have to pay or the people who who put them up will have to pay a fee with the petition and that's not what we want to do to people that we want to honor uh I I just think that it should be a simple process a process that's also respectful of the individuals that come up to be honored so I think that this this is something I understand we have to have a framework I I I believe in that but this is not the framework that I think that uh we need to have I think there needs to be some adjustments to this some major leags so my vote will be no for this and uh that's where I stand on that but anyone else like to say something on the council Kevin yes look in in the previous meeting we discussed some items that we were able to take out and I am appreciative but I also think that this is a document that needs some work and for for me for one I I think it's important that we have things on the books um so we have some type of guidelines to work by but what I don't like to do is to rush through these guidelines that we're putting in place and we go ah we'll fix it later if in fact that we think that things need to be fixed let's get it right the first time um so I would like to see some of these things adjusted and slash removed um and I think in in honoring our citizens or our superheroes and sheer rose that the city should be on the line of paying for these uh streets and signs on the building thank you would anyone else have anything to add okay roll call councilman cob no councilman Rosen swi yes councilman Wilson no councilwoman wiski yes council president Maron yes so the final vote no is 3 yes 2 no motion passes okay now we go to uh ordinances introduction this is the first reading there are none um now we go to public comment on agenda items once again um we're asking for your name your address you have three minutes please come up to the microphone no one this is public comment on agenda items the consent agenda as it is on this is resolution 3861234511 9-23 I do Raymond Diaz 408 Shannon Court I see um resolutions 401 through 405 it says authorized execution agreement with Condominium Association but has no information I'm asking is this Cross Creek Condo Association or it's another one I'm not sure what is that Oak Oak Trail Oak Trail mhm okay what is this agreement about what do we make an agreement because there was a bill item which I didn't have the opportunity to ask a question which at one time we did and uh I was wondering if it's tied into this where it was a condo association reimbursement fee of $ 140,000 is that typical we have what is that and do we have it with all condos um Bob you you want to answer this okay yes um thank you council president I will um by the way there's there's updated agendas over there that has has additional information but um this this is agreement with the condo association it's to um to pay to pay them for um picking up picking up garbage for street lights for things of that nature but it's um you know it it's it's based on their costs and then we compare it to the cost of if the city came in to pick up the garbage and things like that so um that's that's what this agreement is for and by with all cond of associations there's a state law that that says that we have to have agreements with them to do that to uh pick up their garbage and we PID for that per perhaps abely so statute the qualified Municipal Services act so municipality um like for single family homes you know typically picks up the garbage recycling Leaf um pay for the street lights snow plowing if municipality doesn't do it for a Condominium Association the Miss p is still is obligated to at least reimburse the association for them having to get a private contractor to do all that work and they have to reimburse at the cost of what it would have cost the municipality if it did it themselves or the actual cost that the condo association incurs whichever is less almost all the time the municipal cost is less because the private contractors tend to charge more and they may come out if there's half an inch of snow as opposed to two inches of snow things like that so it's a statutory requirement um and so that's what the the the prior one was for Cross Creek that agreement was approved um two weeks ago this one's for another one called Oak Trail okay appreciate it thank you others out there that we're working on gotcha is anybody else have anything related to the resolution the consent agenda okay can I close the General Session yes okay I now can I have a motion to approve resolution resolutions 38612-0 d23 through 42-12 d19 d23 I want to pull 401 do does anyone 401 and have that explained to us and and 392 please person can I uh Charles you want it explained or pulled I want to pull it it and we want to talk about it 401 pull for a vote or pull just to talk about it 401 you're talking about Personnel policies is it to vote on vote on separately or just vote on separately but talk about it too all by okay so we're going to pull 41-12 D1 9-23 which is adopting Personnel policies and procedes and what was the second one 392 I like the opportunity to have that explain on cancellation of old outstanding checks V sear oh you that voted on separately not necessarily a simple explanation okay so we wanted an explanation of the cancel checks cancellation of the cancel checks and uh Charles is asking for to 41-12 d19 d23 to be pulled and voted on separ and voted on separately okay um um I don't believe I got a motion on this well I want to get a motion you want to just address councilman Wilson's question about 392 sure go ahead Michael those are any uh outstanding checks that are 6 months or older we cancel them we contact the individuals that didn't C cash their checks and reissue them if we could get in contact with them we try all the methods to contact them that's that's kind of what I I thought that might be but I wanted to hear that explanation because that may explain why when we have the bills and claims that we're having double um entries on certain um units or are these ccel checks that we do with vendors one time and they go away my concern is policy adopting I mean if if we're getting vendors that aren't cashing checks and they volunteering for their services that's great I don't think that's the issue so I want to understand the process how we have this amount of money um and it's available and not being cashed I could get they just are not cashing the checks I don't know how to explain that better of okay all right so you can call for a motion and roll call all on all of them but ex 401 except 401 okay so can we have u a motion on 386 d121 19-23 through 42-12 d19 d23 minus 41-12 d19 d23 everything except the um policy manual can I have a motion so move second it wasn't ready to go on can I have a second I second say it wasn't ready to okay roll call this is everything but 401 councilman C yes councilman Rosen SW yes councilman Wilson yes councilwoman wasi yes council president Marin yes s now 401 now we're going to discuss 41-12 d19 d23 which is the resolution adopting Personnel policies and procedures um would you second first uh okay first uh can I have a motion Mo second second okay discussion now we need the discussion Mone thank you welcome yeah well thank you so um this is to go over the personal policy manual this is the first time this has been so just if I may this is our HR Director this this is Alexis waiters um Miss waiters joined our staff on February 1st of this year and um she's been a very welcome addition to our to our staff and she has this is one of the first projects that uh that she undertook was to help us update our Personnel manual the last time it was updated was in January of 2020 and uh we're appreciative of our effort so go ahead Alexis okay so um in reviewing the policy manual we had some assistance from our attorneys who um gave us some updated information but we also looked at our policy manual and compared it to some other cities so our policy manual is this one it's 171 pages but then when you look at the city of newor their policy manual is 40 pages so we have a lot more detailed information in our policy manual than you see in other cities but also in looking at it we um added some policies that we thought would needed for the city one of them is nepotism policy one is working um remotely um and those are probably the two biggest ones that we have so in looking at the different policies we also looked at some of the things that we wanted to add and this is what you have in front of you so I wasn't sure exactly what some of the questions were that you have that I can answer and whatever questions you have please let me know is it is this policy manual going to be distributed to every employee of the city of Anglewood and are you going to require them to sign it to say they have received a policy man that is correct so it's for all employees um so there's some exceptions would be um collective bargaining agreements that will supersede the things that we have in the manual but if it is if the um Union contract is silent then the city manual will be the one that we look we work with yeah but but I I get that but I'm just saying I just want to understand everybody will get a coper correct everybody will be required to to sign that is correct that's right no other questions you're making this too easy oh no there there's more questions I was just waiting go well we're not we're not going we're not going to waste your time like that but I'm sure councilman Wilson has some questions good evening good evening welcome thank you um I'm I'm happy that you came CU people wanted to see a face to the name of the new position um and who in fact they may uh contact so welcome to our Fair City this doesn't seem to be pulling up um anyway to get into the nepotism policy in regards to um I think the Hot Topic is vetting right now um so the policy now is one it's going to be very transparent so we actually um have understanding of what a prohibitive relationship would be um some of the typical things is that um someone who is related someone shouldn't be answering to them directly there should be something around that and also as part of an application process we ask all candidates to give us the relationship of anyone that they may be related to so before we even start an interview process we already know who's related to who and now it can be more transparent as we move for for yeah we hope we hope that to be the case um how do we address in the booklet in regards to existing situations in our departments so I would say that that would be something that if we look at see it's problematic that I would bring it to the city problematic problematic would be um so we say here that a prohibitive relationship is created when one relative will have an authority to supervise either Direct or from one level above appoint remove discipline evaluate otherwise affect the work or employment of another in of another relative um the relative would be responsible for ordering the work of the other other circumstance exist that which would place the relative in a situation of actual or reasonably foreseeable conflict between the city's interest and their own okay um and so we're clarifying the the word relative is that correct yes not relationship because nepotism comes in many different forms and one may be a marri or situation or a sleeping Arrangement situation and we suffer from some type of nepotism from time to time when people have relationships within the department and they look for those individuals to be hired are we looking at anything like that as far as nepotism or are we calling that something else well the definition is to hiring promoting transferring demoting or reassign of relatives is prohib I got right so so I adjusted that to give it to you for a real scenario of situations that we have going throughout the city right now MH did we skip that and you said that in 140 pages so we did skip this because this actually was not in the old policy we did not have a nepotism policy that was in the employee hambur I understand and so this is probably your first time hearing me and so what I'm concerned here at the council is I'm I'm so tired of us saying that we never done something this is the first time let's pass it let's Overlook it we'll look into it next time let's fix it the next time around I am so tired of that um we're all intelligent here I'm PR sure you're very intelligent because we wouldn't have hired you I want to get this thing done right and I don't want to skip over opportunity ities that are happening right now as we speak and people are looking for promotions for those type of favors and to me that's a different type of nepotism and we're suffering from that whether it's lawsuits um supervisors that may not be ready to do that particular position and I don't want us to be liable for things that we're not covering ing so I I I just I I I think it's important and I can appreciate the work that you put into 140 Pages we've been working with HR for the last I don't know 26 years trying to get policies in place in regards to um the chain of command of testing of interviewing of um but that may not be in the human resource manual either but it's in your pereral so um I would just like maybe that I I don't know if the supervisors are part of the input of that or is that your particular baby so I think I think absolutely that supervisor department heads have an input in this I think that this is a living document and as part of that in order for it really to be something that becomes effective everybody has to buy into it so the first step is actually putting this putting this out here to everybody to discuss it um make some changes if you need to how long does excuse me how long does that document left it lives forever it lives until we decide something dies okay and it can die next month if you want to but it go through the whole process but once we start this it it lives from the exception so from the moment we talk put in paper it Birth has started and now we are going to protect protect the life and if we have to make changes to that then we go through the proper challenges to make sure that happens but everybody who is part of leadership is part of this process or part of the problem depending how you look at it is a glass half full or is it half in well I'm I'm here all my life and i' I've worked for the city so and my and my concern is is that we have a particular large amount of lawsuits M and I don't want to I don't want to compare us to nework or anyone else I think we're a unique City within ourselves and my concern is um hostile work environment if you will um and that's one of the headlines in I think it's number seven or something but it's in there right I don't remember the the proper verbiage but my concern is accountability when we subject when we subject women or people of different choices Andor men in our departments and we continue to send these people back under the same supervisor that has created a hostile work environment whether it's calling them a name put them on improper Duty and or slash time and the individual that works for the city gets tired of that where they have no other recourse but to find another job which usually doesn't happen and more likely we get sued and so I've had a conversation with the city manager some time ago in regards to that that we have supervisors that have said to our employees what are you going to do suei and so that is problematic and I I think in a hostile work environment that we need to hold our supervisors to a higher accountability so it doesn't backlash on the city and we have to open up the piggy bank because someone's insensitive whether they're being racist or they're addressing someone's gender so if in fact that you think that that's in um that policy I'm more than willing to say let's let that policy live but I don't I don't think it is though I think when you look at the the employee handbook in in totality ma it is in there the first thing I think we have to do is set expectations so what does the city of Inglewood want for their employees you want them to work in an environment that is fair firm and consistent and we should be that should be our first look at every time we deal with an issue that is not where we are ma'am that's true that's not where we are but that's why we have a living document so we have to change it so that we can be get there because it is something that is attainable but the only way to be attainable is for the city to set expectations that we give our leadership and expect our leadership that Tre our employees the same well that's what I was asking in regards to the hostile work environment what are what are our expectations for the leadership that we are fair that we are firm and we are consistent so it doesn't matter what your um where your place in society is are we treating everybody the same do we have the same expectation absolutely not and if we don't why don't we set it up it can be done okay so if in fact that someone violates their that particular policy what happens to that particular supervisor they should be disciplined and who determines that you well I think that it is a shared responsibility so you have your city manager we have attorneys we have Council we need to sit down and have a conversation of what and how we should treat a person who is violating the company policies procedures you know State statutes Etc because we have some of those things on on the books already and we have employes being having horrific attitudes towards our citizens and that can't continue I I totally agree there there has to be some type of line where these individuals that are constant offenders are being addressed in that in the spirit of that that manual well we have to act on it if we have a document and a document is approved and we ready to go for it then we have to act on it that's what consistency comes in place okay I'm good thank you yeah Miss Marin I have a quick question thank you so much Alexis for being here this evening um you spoke of setting expectations transparency um and I appreciate what you're trying to do that a person in a leadership role if they have a familial relationship could you give us the term of art if somebody's a God child um or worked with somebody in another environment but they're not related and they have a close enough relationship from another employment is it Encompass all of those relationships what is the actual term of Art and then is there any teeth in the Personnel document that if somebody does not reveal it um is that then immediately used against them or is it just one of the factors to in I wouldn't say it's immediately used against them I think that is a factor it's it goes through truthfulness and if we expect our employees to be ethical if we expect our employees to be trustworthy then we have to set the expectation that when you fold your application out that you're doing exactly that thank you and I appreciate that but can you just read the term or at least recite to me in generality is it uh the question ask if you're in a familial relationship if you are an immediate relative if you're uh related to um if you've worked with each other I just want to get the terms so I understand how broad it is to Encompass this transparency well read this paragraph So employees who marry enter into a civil union or domestic partnership or become related by marriage civil union or domestic partnership may continue in their employment if the marriage civil union or domestic partnership does not result in creation of a prohibitive relationship where the marriage civil union or domestic partnership results in creation of prohibitive relationship the human resource director or the desate will explore the situation including reassignment or other appropriate actions relative includes spouse civil union Partners domestic partner parent stepchild stepar child sibling stepsibling half siing father-in-law mother-in-law sister-in-law brother-in-law grandparent grandchild Aunt uncle niece nephew and first cousins and then also they actually look at cental relationship section of the policy for harassment in the workplace so this policy applies to all employees hired promoted transfer demoted or reassigned on or after the date of adoption and to all prohibitive relationships created on after the date of adoption thank you so it wouldn't include second third cousins and all of that presumably it would only be first cousins it would third cousins it wouldn't right it says cousins but some a cousin right so in it only said first cousin it just didn't say cousin well in different communities family means a whole lot of things sure so when when someone passes away we give people flexibility to show that although this is not my related mother this was a person who was Mother likee in my life and we'll give them bement time I would say that's the same way we should look at this for consistency sa so and I appreciate that there's a lot of familial relationships do you think it wise Alexis to have another term or any other familiar relationship in other words if you say that that you're coning def say that I would take that and give it to our Council and let them give us a definition for it so that we can be consistent how we applying things because because another problem when we inconsistently add this and add that without having any support to do to support us no I I know I and I also don't want to Target out I have a lot of people in my life as I was growing up where I called them uncle or Aunt um and they weren't related to me but I was raised to address them in that fashion I just want to make sure it's overly inclusive because I know that there are a lot of in many parts of our city familiar relationships or distant relationships and we're trying to feret all that out so thank you so much so this is actually talking about relatives so this policy is the defining relatives it's not defining familiar relationships as I gave you an example in bement but we're talking relatives okay so we're asking people when they apply for this job to actually give us a list of those people that they are um they consider to be a relative so we do give an candidate or an employee an opportunity to Define who they consider to be a relative is there any other circumstance other than familial that you think would be relevant in other words if somebody worked or let's say somebody's spouse works for a spouse of a Personnel or chief of a department and therefore there could be a pressure on that person outside because there's an employer employee relationship in other words I I can't extrapolate or create all of them but it's not just familiar relationships that create creates an appearance of impropriety or pressure it could be an employment Vector also has that been accommodated it could be because we're saying to that candidate to give us those relationships right just the familiar ones I'm asking for an we ask this talks about relatives so relatives include spouse and it goes through those whole defition so somebody's spouse then so you should not be working for your wife or your husband right in in the city of Eng or if your spouse is working for somebody who's related to the Personnel director that's right that's right okay um I have I have a couple of question questions in in the same realm what about a romantic relationship I I was listening for you uh you know in other words uh do we have anything that relates to that at all well that goes under harassment so now if anybody has any type of influence over another person and we found that we find that um that person is getting special treatment that can fall under that doesn't necessarily fall under under nepotism but that goes into a harassment circumstance and that is covered under our handbook as well okay uh because that could be even more difficult but anyway um we have definitely uh different uh bargaining units that have their their agreements um when it's an area is not covered in the agreement uh that means that the policy in that book is going to govern traditionally that's the way it has worked that if you have a Union contract and the Union contract is sounded on some issues but we have that as our policy then we will go for the policy now we might we might get grievance but that would be the way to start no I I just wanted to make sure and the other thing was in the litigation that Kevin was referring to um when you have people who are uh cited time after time um in different lawsuits by employees um what is the what is the position of the city in terms of obviously while the cases going on uh I I haven't I don't remember anyone being um suspended um I'm just wondering how do we deal with employ and supervisors that are uh that are involved in this the these uh cases over a period of time numerous times well I would say we would we would look at just the way we've had other circumstances in the city where someone's accused of a circumstance that may turn out to be something criminal and while we are investigating that person we remove them from the position in most cases with pay oh we do yes we we have done that not all cases but I can definitely show you cases where we have okay cuz some of these are civil actions they're not criminal well while we're doing an investigation while we're doing investigation and we're doing the fact finding we remove that person from that role so that we can start to look in the circumstan and if we didn't we should have well I'm concerned about that because a lot of these cases you know are settled they're not they never go as far as a trial well it's it's up to the city to decide how they want to move f move forward once they finish their fact finding and one of the ways of doing that is to settle that's one of the op no I unfortunately I know what about that what I'm saying is if an individual male female doesn't matter if a supervisor is involved in a series of issues uh what is the city's position can a person be fired for something I haven't seen anything like that happen a person can definitely be fired because if you are involved in a circumstance that goes through an investigation and we complete finish our fact finding and the fact find reveals that people did not follow the policy or procedure who may have been unethical once you made that determination then we can move forward from there so everything is on the table while we're investigating but you don't make the final decision until you get all your facts together or you shouldn't anyway well okay thank you do anyone Char I have a question I think Council councilman Wilson asked you something about if you're filling out something with the application or something and if you don't disclose that if I understood what you were saying they may not be terminated for that well if someone puts a false some false information in on the application or purposely just and this is going to be part of the application and they did not tell us the truth that means they weren't truthful and we can terminate them based on that no no no I mean they should be terminated for that I mean I I think that should be clear in most applications it tells you if you mislead or misleading statements or whatever you will be effectively terminated immediately and that's as part of our application process as well oh I I I want to make sure because I don't think that uh you should start off a job like that you should never be like that at a job but I think that we should send a message that the these are the types of employees um we have here but but it also I I think part of this that I heard also was fairness mhm that don't happen here well we got to change that listen we can CH that well I listen I I I hope that you're the messenger of fairness cuz we you know what I could be the M of fan if I get all the people here to feel that that is an expectation that we want for this well then they have to have the political courage to do that and then if that happens then we can have fairness because it's it's a team effort it's not one person no I I agree with you and I'm all about fairness but you know what fairness starts at City Hall it's the tone at the top then it comes down whatever whatever the top it's the government party the government party but you you you're there to execute the daytoday operations exactly right so there's a certain expectation because you deal with the folks we're we're just the policy makers right that sounds good but we know that's not really the way it works but no no no that's people look at the people here on this de as the people with the power who makes the difference and as long as we're being fair we're being firm and we're being consistent we send a message that this is the expectation to work for City if we operate the way you just said this there'll be a lot of different promotions in the city of angood than the ones that are happening right now I will tell you that that's true I will tell you that right now I will tell you that right now cuz that ain't that that's number number one and number two those these salaries in here will be a lot different I will tell you that right now I stand on that and I take anybody who wants to talk about that let's have at it so so that's what I'm saying to you so we don't have to get into that but what I'm saying but we're here to talk about this document right so I'm not going to get off topic with with that but I stand by what I said and if you believe that fairness is here then guess what you have an open invitation to come all time and you shouldn't have just came tonight you should have been coming right cuz we're here to make sure that you're successful and if if you need the tools to be successful we want to hear that because we want we want or let me just say this let me back up what I'd like to have for people who work at the city of ingood is to feel that they work at a place that's fair a place that they can grow a career and I have a career we have certain expectations this is a commercial moment no no no it's I'm not I'm not being real I'm not I'm not I'm not making no commercial no I'm talking about being real so in order to get that message out this is something that has to repeated with all of your partners up here if everybody feels that way let's move forward listen I I'm as I said earlier I'm speaking for myself and everybody here up here is capable of speaking for themselves right but I'm just saying to you that fairness people in the city of Angela whether you have unions or whatever they should feel that every day they come to work they're going to be treated fairly now the fail is that can be defined many different ways right but you know some of the key things are is that we're giving them a fair living wage we we should assess that I've been asking for that for a long time I'm not I'm Drawing the Line in the Sand in 24 so whatever I got to do I'm going to do for that because we we have expectations of people coming to work every day to do their job on the flip side they need to be rewarded for that some people do get rewarded and some people don't that happens across the board and and in many corporations and all that right but I'm I'm you know if people say they're Fair they're getting promoted fairly we have we we are hiring people with the right skill sets so we have we can uh uh execute the expectations that have been put upon us or those women and men that work for the city of Anglewood but there's no way that anybody could sit up here and say oh we are fair cuz we're not not not in terms of so many things it just like that document we should be a work in progress to get there right this this this document but if you feel you need our support then you need to say that which you said I need your support because this is not going to work if you don't get support from the government body it just doesn't work if it does if you get the support then what you can change that people can't come to work in city of in and know they're going be treated fairly because not only will it get for a government body but it will trickle down for real yeah but you know what you just said right you put yourself in the box cuz if I give you my support then I have expectations right real talk so that you're in HR the the expectations there are very serious very critical to the success of this city right people who get hired here have to come through the pro there's a process there right to to to get that but it's also an expectation that people are being held accountable people's problems when they come to you are being addressed in in a manner that people believe that are are comfortable with that um but more importantly you you've been here since February you have an opinion now you know what I'm saying and I'm not going to ask you for your opinion in public right now but you have an opin you formulated an opinion you know what we need to do you know what the shortcomings are but I can tell you that there are a lot of people that work for the s that are not happen that are not being treated fair but my expectation is that that needs to be addressed good bad or indifferent in a way that says that we are fair we are a fair employer right and and to to to to our employees right so you know I My Hope Is that that document along with what you're planning to do will get us to there that that that that's my hope and that's the way it really is because this is the starting point this is the foundation this is you manage through your policies you can't say somebody did something wrong unless you have a policy that addresses the expectation for there you share the policy with all employees you make sure everybody knows where to find it and then when people do something that you feel is a violation whether it's very low or very high this is where you start and if you don't have this you can't start can't you can't get to that huh we're lacking enforcement well you're not really lacking enforcement because you don't have a policy now if we adopt this and we don't use it then we're not enforcing it but the first step for do we have to adopt the policy we have to have a rigorous conversation to determine what needs to be in this book and how it should be used because you are the people to go to once we do that then we can go for it and then we can talk about enforcement but first we have to have it before we can enforce it because right now we don't have it you you're saying we're the people that you go to that's right if an employee comes what you're saying is employee comes to us M what you're saying it's okay for them to come to us we address it it's going to be a little different than you address it I got no what I'm saying is that we go back to the government body so the first thing we all have to understand that there a chain of command so even if a a resident comes to you and talks about it you should direct them back to the process and we have to understand the process and have faith in the process to make the process work no so people go into you I'm tell them to stop because if you're the governor body and you g with this you're saying that my faith is in the policy that I looked at that I read I have some understanding on that I ask questions about and go through the policy go through the process and let's see how it comes in there it's like do you believe in the system or you don't if you believe in the system then you say that I have influence to change the system and I can get people to see the same way that's what this policy is all about usually what happens is people come at least they come to me because they've gone through all the Hoops already and their frustration has led them to me so so then then you're saying then you sending then you're telling me to send them back to you no no that's what you said no I'm saying that if you believe in this process if you looked at this handbook and you read read through it you have questions about what you think should or should not be in it but once you adopt it then all of us have to take the responsibility of using this as our document and as we go through it because the living document when we start to see failings then we talk about what can we do to change it to get us back on track but we also realize as part of this process we still have Union contracts that we already agreed to and sometime there's going to be a conflict and if we don't agree with them and they don't agree with us then we go through agreement procedure and arbitration that's how we handle that but for those employees that don't have an agreement this is there this is how we go for it and then they may not be happy and they may go to council and say they're not treating me fairly then we can just go and give information so that you can see the process is being handled like it's supposed to because if it's not then you can look on page 17 and say you didn't do this you didn't do that we didn't do the post testing we didn't ask questions we didn't go for Witnesses it's all these things that we can look at to see whether not we're treating people fairly when we have already adopted a handbook that people use to go for it well then then the people in the leadership positions need to be trained on that document right no doubt and my concern is also retaliation for employees well so so and how do we Ma how do we Monitor and manage that how do we the first thing with training so the fisal of training so we train our leaders we get our department heads we get our managers we get everybody who's a people leader and we train them as part of that training we tell them about retaliation because retaliation is part of his policy too and if a leader is caught retaliating they're being subject discipline as well so we are being transparent from the beginning everybody knows what the expectation is and the number one thing is being fair being firm and being consistent and when somebody wasn't doesn't want to do that and they've been train then the the the uh all the accountability Falls in them because the city that they were supposed to do now if we train the leader and they're not following then the leader has to be disciplined you know you talk about discipline on lot of people but you know in certain or corrective action I'll change the word the corrective action or corrective action but with retaliation most companies now do termination so that's what that's what I'm saying why don't we be live and use that word so people understand the severity of it when you take an action that's negative against somebody else who's an employee of yours well that's what we training is so when you read through um when you read through retaliation policy and you train your leaders on that they have to know and they will know that part of the um consequences when you treat people unfairly and you retaliate against them because they're doing what's right and you don't agree with that they can be disciplined so employees should have the confidence to know when they come to work that they're going to be treated fairly and that when they go to somebody who is of in leadership the leadership person have the Integrity to say we're going to go through the process and see what happen happens that's what we have to say you think people think they're being treated fairly no okay people won't be treated fairly you my question if you never set up expectations how can it be no no no but but because listen you just said no and now we got say expect right but I but I but I listen even if we didn't have that there's a certain just how you deal with people and how you treat people right so now we have a a a a framework a fluid framework because it evolves it can be changed and and we can add take whatever and and and as we go along how it fits right so people need to be educated how to use that policy to their benefit but also use it as a training tool to guide them in how they go to work every day so that means that we're going to invest time in every employee in terms of training so they understand what's in that policy I agree I think that's the way to do it I mean I I mean I would hope that y'all already got laid out here's who going to go here's we have it laid out we have a plan we can't use this plan until we get this adopted no no no I I I get that you know I I I I I get that because we have nothing now so something's better than nothing but I hope that that document is used in the way that it it protects the city but it benefits the employee right so it has to be fair to the employee cuz there there are a lot of shortcomings I know some people don't want to say it I'm I'm calling it like it is cuz you know I I think people tend tend to come here and want to do a good job they work hard uh but they need to be treated fairly and they need to be clear on how you get promoted how you get raises and all that needs to come into that and and I know you just got here and you can't do everything at one time but they need to understand these things right because the better and and the better that people understand how it works the the easier it is to have those conversations with them that's Absol and and and to be and to be guided with them right right and part of our training is to get our supervisors and leaders to share expectation with their with their employees at the beginning of each year and then on a regular basis have one-on ones and then you have a midyear evaluation and then you have your end of the year evaluation and if that happens then we will see a city getting better we might see some complaints rise because it you know you need turbulence to get to the next level and if you never have turbulence you never get to the next level and that's part of the process we'll see thank you all right it just go ahead Ken I miss waiters thank you so much your attention to detail on this is is is obvious so really thank you it's a breath of fresh air to to have you here and congratulations on your first year here well thank you thank you all I'm I'm going to uh call for a vote if we're uh if no one else on the council has anything okay um roll call councilman cot yes councilman Rosen yes councilman Wilson yes councilwoman wasi yes council president Marin yes and thank you very much thank you um okay I carries easily that was good okay we now move on to uh the resolution for vote we're talking about 43-12 d19 d23 which is the appointment of a member for the board of adjustment Michael you want to uh tell us who this is uh Miss Margaret Haynes a longtime resident of the city of Anglewood recommended to me by Mr Lita frel I conducted a zoom uh session with her uh concerned about very legitimate um development and challenges in our Central business district um and I think would be a fine adjunct to the board of adjustment I would suggest moving Mr ER mé who has the capability of leading the board of adjustment according to the current um chair from a uh alternate position to a full position and then putting Mr Haynes into the alternate uh position um I want to thank Angelina Rivera who's going to be leaving yeah the city of Anglewood for her service dedicated appreciated uh in a big loss for our city but we wish her godspeed uh in her service there will be other people stepping forward as I've been in touch uh on that board the board of adjustment the environmental commission the library board uh and the other boards that I have the privilege of appointing if anybody's interested in serving please send me your resume there is an appointment that's available on the Housing Authority uh there are requirements uh for that and some of the other boards that you actually participate in educational uh forms there was a member of my planning board that had to step down um because he hadn't taken the classes um and I was about to appoint somebody to relieve him and he had taken the classes and came back so that appointment I'll be making shortly a reappointment uh but if anybody wants to serve in any of these boards or has an interest uh please reach out to me the right email for those watching this is Mayor Wilds at City ofa.org m a yo r w l d um at city.org thank you thank you Michael um do we have a motion before we move uh I have a question for the City attorney so I'm just looking at Dr Haynes is um CV um I see she's um on a committee at Mount siai where I work um I'm I'm I'm actually not familiar with this committee I have no interactions with it um so um you know there are 42,000 employees at at Mount sign I don't think you okay all right excellent thank you okay can can I just ask a question before we move forward um so the two cand the two um members that were vote potential members that we're voting on I know them but um when it comes to January and if we're going to be voting on new people to the board of adjustment and the council needs to vote on it what is the process for the council to get to know uh people who are who we're you're asking us to vote for on the board of adjustment like should we be meeting them in close session uh you know just uh so we know who you know so we can so we know who we're voting for I I asked several of the city leaders um before I made this appointment if she I'm not talking about these these appointments I'm just saying going forward if there going to be new people who are not reappointments coming onto the board of adjustments I would like to see a process in place for the council to meet these people before we vote on them because I don't think that um we're doing our respon our our taking our responsibility seriously if we're voting on people that we don't know well that's the process um for the board of adjustment allows the uh mayor to make a nomination um I don't think there's any problem with you reaching out to the individual individually and either having a meeting or doing a zoom directly or the governing body having a committee and setting it up I don't want to torture any one resident into a series of meetings only to introduce them to the world of Zoom where both the board of adjustment and the Bo and the planning board are relegated um and again before I make appointments it has been my practice to reach out to the governing body members to let them know that I'm doing this before I put pen to paper but there's nothing preventing you or any other person meeting with any of these appointees whether I nominate or not so Mr Bailey do you do you find that in some some towns that there's a process in place for the council to just have an opportunity to meet um I've not in years seen candidates for one of the boards actually come to a closed session and be interviewed I have seen the individual elected officials reach out to that person cuz sometimes it's someone that four out of five of you might know for 30 years and know their qualities and all that but there might be someone that's new that doesn't know the person and there as the mayor pointed out there's nothing wrong with reaching out to that person I also have I also I'm sorry I also have notes uh that I take and I was looking for them now I just find those the questions that I put to people when I interview them sometimes they proprietari and I wouldn't want to put it out there but I'm happy in camera or privately to show my notes and share them as to why I felt it was I called up the board of adjustment chair some members of the governing body that may have known her and a former councilman um also Mr HR just to check if he had known the party I also look through my uh emails and my notes this isn't this isn't no not on this person but I'm saying I there are a lot of ways for us to cross reference the person's ties and and qualifications but you're free to interview them by all means Mr Bailey yeah answered the question he said that if we want to if we don't know the individual we're asked to vote for to out and have a conversation and so that's the process so now I know the process thank you need a board okay um okay I have my uh do we have a motion this is U to app you have a second please second I second um any other comment on this all right roll call counc C councilman cop yes councilman Rosen yes councilman Wilson yes councilman wiski yes council president Marin yes okay we now are moving to uh Communications from the governing body and the city manager Michael thank you thank you it's uh it's so late um but I'm going to try to do this as quickly as possible a happy holidays ladies and gentlemen I want to wish everyone a safe and a holiday happy holiday season a healthy and prosperous new year whether you're recently celebrated khek as I did or looking forward to celebrating Christmas or k Quanza in the coming days follow other Customs or none at all we still agree that this is the time of year that we should reflect on our stations our relationships appreciate neighbors family friends other blessings strive to spread peace love and understanding throughout our community and Beyond uh to those celebr crating please be respectful of your neighbors allow loud uh late music or parties and be safe if you're drinking don't drive and remember that most fireworks are illegal here for a reason so leave them to the pros we want everyone around in one piece to enjoy the new year with us a garbage and Christmas tree pickup uh schedule I'm not going to go through it at length but it is posted um again if you do not if you do keep your tree up for an extended period of time please remember they can become more of a fire Haz it over time as they dry out so please continue to provide water to the base of the tree until it is removed and keep it clear of open Flames or high heat again all the different Wards and the Christmas tree uh pickup and the tree pickups and all of that are posted uh for the community please continue ladies and gentlemen to enjoy the free metered parking I want to remind everyone parking is suspended through December 25 in order to make it easier for residents and visitors to take advantage of our tremendous downtown shopping dining an entertainment experience new businesses continue to open we have two ribbon cuttings uh this week uh still so if you haven't visited our downtown lately now is a great time to see what you've been missing or if you are regular it just are that much easier to support a local businesses while enjoying all that they have to offer this applies to street parking only however not parking decks the sunf fund after school program in Winter Camp our city manager has informed us that the angood recreation Winter Camp MK ice rink will proceed as planned from December 26th to the 29th the sunf fund McLoud after school program will continue as usual through Friday December 22nd however as of January 2nd 2024 the program will transition to the Burgen Family Center at the Greco School parents can contact Bergen Family Center for enrollment uh information enhanced security measures have been put in place for both programs to ensure the safety and security of our children enrolled I thank our city manager Robert Hoffman the chief of police Tom gy superintendent of schools Marney Hazelton and our additional staff who've been so diligent in attending uh to the well-being of our children we take any threat uh to them seriously and if any child parents or community members are having further concerns I know that there have been efforts to help educate parents and I urge you to contact us so that you can be heard and your concerns addressed our Congressman Josh gimer recently hosted his Fifth District Hometown Heroes event at Bergen pack congratulations to our own angood award recipients Nicole Davis the executive director of the center for food action Carol rasher the president of the north New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and Paris Terry with the angood neighborhood Pantry along with all the other Hometown Heroes who were honored we have seen through a pandemic flood storms and all sorts of challenges just how lucky we are to have these kinds of dedicated and selfless members of our community thank you for all that you do and thank you to our congressmen for giving this welld deserved uh recognition when speaking of Hometown Heroes I also feel the need to mention our own Jeff Carter Amy Bullock Courtney suffrin and the Bergen County NAACP for their work in providing winter coats hats scarves for those in need through the angel tree Christmas charity drive my firm and I donated I urge all of you and all the other organizations and individuals who worked so hard and care so deeply for our community I thank you and I urge you to reach into to your own Pockets to help those uh in need on Public Safety we once again thank our angood fire department for their heroic efforts in keeping our community safe during the recent storm also very special Tidings uh to the Department of Public Works very important citizens in our city along with our police and other city employees who kept busy responding to a variety of Hazards including gas leaks down power lines some of which led to a second alarm fire that needed to be put out they also helped with the evacuation of residents from flooded homes in New Milford and a part and played a part in the mid Bergen Mutual Aid task force and I commend them for their efforts uh to those also uh including some of our favorite uh people that were uh given promotions in both the angood police and fire departments we congratulate you on those accolades uh on the toy drive we thank our police department and fire department along with the north Jersey Chamber of Commerce and our good friend Ryan rerio on the CNBC Network for all the other volunteers and donors who support of the community toy drive that is now in its 20th year toies will be distributed to families who are registered Visa via a drive-through station at Dwight marrow high school tomorrow evening um finally law enforcement recruitment seminars um they are hosting a law enforcement seminar on Thursday December 28th at 7 p.m. in the McKay room the Anglewood Public Library anyone who's interested can come meet members of our Anglewood Police Department to have questions answered and learn about Pathways to her career and law enforcement the testing hiring process opportunities for mentoring and more uh in the advanc upcoming entrance exam to be held January 24 2024 interested candidates must sign up an exam via the policeapp.com but no prior registration is needed simply to attend uh the information uh seminar again we have a host of ribon cuttings coming up I urge you to join us every Friday at 11:00 on the Facebook uh page of the library where I host uh coffee with the mayor and again a special wish a Merry Christmas to all those that are here especially Miss Merlin Lorent again we have Bernard in our minds we wish you God speed thank you good evening thank you and at this late hour I'm not going to be long I'm not going to give you any commercials I'm just going to give you some facts um it's been they they're coming in 2024 there you know it's been a long year and we will be evaluated by our successes in terms of what we have done for the community you will you will be the evaluators of of what we've done I want to thank you for coming out tonight I want to thank you for coming to all the meetings all year long I think it's important I want you to encourage your friends your relatives your neighbors to attend these meetings however they can because it's important information that they need to get we're going to be having budget talks coming up and you need to know how the city is going to spend your money I think it's very important that you voice your concerns if you have them that's what this is here this platform is for you to take advantage of so please please do that I want to thank uh Reverend given for hosting a toy drive on Saturday along with the placed family uh along with Lloyd Fields family and the Shiloh um Amion Church uh as they always do they stepped up big um for the community once again so I think it's important that we support those those things as as well um there are a number of uh houses of worship that have stepped up Community Baptist Church also has their toy drive and toy giveaway for their for their um residents around the city uh Galilee has been feeding people every Thursday um and these are things that I think that we need to recognize and uplift people and and I'm sure there are a lot of other people doing some things that are not pounding their chest to get credit for but just helping you know even if you're knocking on your neighbor door and helping them out you know that's appreciative we we need to do that type of work we need to continue to work hard but we need to continue to be focused we need to continue to hold this group group up here accountable and come here and get your facts and if that if your questions are not getting answered be persistent to get your answers don't go away without getting your answers this stuff is too important to you and when you come to the mic speak your mind that's that that's what you deserve to do here um I I just think that uh it's important I I want to talk about DPW we have infrastructure problems we have flooding but I will tell you that they've made every effort possible to to deal with this water but we can help right don't put leaves by the drains and things of that nature and if your landscaper comes tell them to put the leaves away from the drain so the water can get down in in in the drain listen we have problems it's not going to be perfect but it's about the attitude and the effort that they're putting out there to try to get things done so we need to help them this is Lea season we we still have snow season to come as well right we got to deal with that so I think it's important that we we help them with with that because we need to make sure that these streets are safe to travel you know the leaves get out you get wet you hit the leaves you can have an accident so it's important that we we do these things now they're they're going to have a test for the police department at the McKay room they're going to have a seminar and so if young men men and women want to do that they need to go sign up you know because what What's Happening Here is we want to get we want to be committed to getting people from angle with these jobs I'm not against anybody but what I'm against is that we're not getting the opportunity I want to make sure our young people get the opportunity to get these jobs pass these tests we need to help them we need to put a framework in place I'm being a little selfish and I'm and and I'm and I'm I got a lot of intent because you know what they need these jobs here it's a lot different it makes your community a lot different when people live in this community and they understand how to navigate this community we got a lot of good people in this community that are sitting on the sidelines because they're disgusted about what's going on in this Community people are not getting the respect they're not getting the answers that they need this has got to change and every day this every day that we come here we have an opportunity to make a difference and we need to work on making a difference you know it ain't about me it's about we and when we get to we then we'll do it you know what you might not like what somebody comes to the mic and says what they say but you know what they're entitled to say that that they're they're they're entitled to say that but we we also signed up for this so it's important that we do we need to do not just for some of us but for all of us you know you know you don't just represent one Ward when you vote you vote Citywide so you have impact on everybody's life whether you whether you agree with it or not that's a fact I don't need to take pictures I think we just need to go work put the work in and that's what we need to do in 2024 I think that that's what people expect from us you know people are working hard it's tough times so let's get behind them and let's work together collegially and work for a better Anglewood make this place better for everybody I think that that's important and that's what I'm going to do and it may not be the popular thing to do but we have to do that and we have to call it out and we have to be held accountable and we have to be transparent didn't say we are perfect you know we had we had an engagement with the the HR Director but she knows how we feel but that's okay cuz she understands this this stuff is important but y'all are important the resent to the city of Inwood are the most important things our young our old everybody and we should treat it as such I I I I I tell you that we should we should treat it as such you know so I I just want to wish everybody a happy holiday season I want you to spend some time with your family and reflect on what's important we've lost a lot of soldiers this year in Anglewood people who've been here you know the same I'm trustees in the Jo these are people who have been here for a long time Curtis caves and they've played important roles in this community and I would hope that when we come back in 2024 and start this new Council that we will continue to do the work that will help people move forward we can't move forward with with leaving people behind we got to make sure every everybody participates some way or some form you know I I think it's important that we do that and if you see somebody struggling let's try to help them I think it's important cuz all of us are one step away from something else that we don't know so let's let's let's get together let's enjoy our season let's come back and let's be ready ready to work come up with ideas come up with supporting each other and trying to get there and try to make this city the best city that we can possibly be and not be on the map for other negative things and let's speak some positive things we got some young people here our football our baseball and our soccer teams have done great work and they have represented this city well so we need to support support them as much as we can for our young people the growth of our young people they're the future and we need to put them in better positions and they need to feel the pride self digity for themselves so thank you for listening to me and enjoy your holidays thank you Ken thank you good evening everyone and um my compliments to uh DP W Anglewood Police Department the Anglewood fire department for their excellent work on this week this week's storm um you know uh there was some damage to the city but orders of magnitude less than we've seen in the past I'd like to compliment um Mr Hoffman for his continued diligence on improving store management in the city because there's no question it would have been a lot worse except for his efforts over the past 14 months usually we're a city that needs help it was uh this time we were the city that gave help to our neighbors and our neighboring communities so that was nice to see that we could give back uh to people have helped us in uh to communities that have helped us in the past wish everyone a warm holiday greetings and I hope this time gives you moments of Joy uh rest and reflection wish everyone good health and continued success to the city and to everyone in the coming year thank you good night thank you Ken Lisa hi good evening um I too want to give a shout out to DPW Mr Hoffman for all your work um with with um preventive work to help with our flooding we did really well this weekend and thank you um I want to thank uh councilman Wilson um for notifying me yesterday he called me about 405 p.m. to tell me um to let me know that Rock Creek Terrace was without electricity um a few weeks before that in November uh Senator Johnson and I had met with The Rock Creek terrorist management both locally and regionally so we had a relationship I was able to reach out to their management company right away they had been calling psng all day long and were told they were told that the election would not be restored till 10:30 p.m. they had 10 residents on oxygen um I was able to connect the um the uh Rock Creek Management with Mr burner a deputy city manager and uh they were able to reach out to psng um Senator Johnson's office reached out to psng as well and within an hour and a half of making these phone calls uh the electricity was rest shorted um 5 hours before they said that that they would so I want to thank councilman Wilson Mr Berkner Mr Hoffman and Senator Johnson for everybody working together and we got we got this done um today at at The Rotary Club we had John Herman from the Anglewood fire department come and address members um uh John Herman is is a licensed associate um clinician and also a 7-year professional firefighter he trains um new firefighters in mental health awareness and he also set up a peer Counseling Group in the Anglewood fire department um we were joined as well um uh by uh Chief Kaplan and also Captain tamy Mintz it was really wonderful to hear the attention in the fire department to mental health I want to of course thank our First Responders for everything they do to keep us safe in the city and finally I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful and uh holiday season I look forward to seeing everybody back after the new year thank you Lisa Kevin thank you madam chair um first giving honor to God without him this wouldn't be possible for me um and honoring the community uh this is the end of my first year I couldn't have got through what I got through with some of the mentorship that I received um and that's invaluable for the community that continues to pour out and to reach out to me um for not only just complain but with Solutions and sometimes Solutions are slow to come but be assured that I'm in prayer and constant work on Solutions um I I would pray that everyone has a happy and safe holiday and just remember that the blessing is truly in the blessing so what that means is if you're if you have the opportunity to bless someone else you should consider it your duty um to bless someone less for fortunate to you than you um and one of the people that or organizations of the NAACP that are taking the range on that is the angel tree so kudos to you guys for what you do uh it's it's not easy um just because you're a blessing I'm not saying that it's not that it's going to be easy uh the Bergen Family Center I don't know what to say but thank you thank you thank you for stepping in helping this city in a crucial time helping parents that were in despair of what to do with the young so anyone that helps elderly and seniors has a special place in my heart so thank you to you guys and I think it's important not just during this season but if you see something say something a lot of people go home or come home from work and they go oh my God the garbage all the recycle all the leaves and you don't say anything you don't you don't reach out and you get annoyed and then you come here and you explode I get it but we're supposed to be here for you so if in fact that you do have a problem reach out I was able to to help and help mitigate and I reached out to my constituent um to Dr Lisa and she jumped right on it and for that I I I appreciate your help and getting back to me and getting back to the residents that's important that we work together um I the holiday seasons are special for a lot of people um for for newborns for families for relationships and then you have the ones that not so much because their loved ones or our loved ones are no longer with us so with that in mind I would like to extend a special holiday to the placed family my heart goes out to you guys uh you're missing a loved one during these these precious times so I'm continuously in prayer and that we will have some type of resolution in 2024 I can't say enough about are heroes and Shero throughout the city that work tirelessly whether it's up here the people in the Adas or the people that print out these reports and the people that are working behind the scenes that appears to be a thanless job so I consider you guys Heroes and Shero because you don't have to do it um and those that don't want to put on the cape there's probably another town that would accept you but we want to have people that are willing to put on the cape get their hands dirty do what's do what needs to be done uh we do have a police test coming up uh stay tuned it's posted I believe that if in fact that we want a better town we have to promote for better candidates and what better way than to promote within our own town so thank you I appreciate your support throughout this year hopefully I can grow with your continuing support and phone calls so be safe be aware of your surroundings have a good night thank you Kevin um well once again um I'll keep this very short the DPW turned up this morning on West Hudson Avenue and Valley View Road to work on a partial flooding situation that was terrific uh it was very impressive they closed down the street they pumped out the water and uh it it was just uh a very well done job I did attend the Hometown Heroes event which was wonderful it it's I am a big believer in awarding and and recognizing people that do great things for their towns and uh they the people on the stage represented uh Town toap Bergen County and they all were just they they were just terrific people uh all ages all sizes all colors uh they were just great people and it's nice to see that come into the sunlight more because there were a lot of amazing people and in Anglewood especially my experience who care so much about this town and do so many good things um the only my last word I really would hope the council would uh next year which is hard to believe but next year we'll form an advisory committee uh to talk about developing city-owned property into parks and Gardens throughout the whole city not just one area we own these properties they're City own they're just doing nothing right now some of them are flood prone uh this is something this would be a gift to the city from the city and uh I would hope we could form a committee I would love to work on a project like that since I'm going to have some free time now and um I thank all of the people that were just wonderful to me during these last three years and um I I just hope a lot of us during this particular season focus on all the wonderful things we have you know you come to these meetings and there's a lot of anger and instead of that for a for a couple of weeks focus on all the wonderful things and the wonderful people we we are surrounded with anyway thank you all and uh Robert hman uh thank you council president and good evening everyone El late good evening I'm pleased to report that the city is scheduled to purchase 47 Brook Avenue on Thursday December 21st uh this is the property that's part of the city's long-term flood mitigation program and then um just looking back during the week the weekend of Saturday December 9th and Sunday December 10th uh the city experienced significant rainfall and there was no flooding then on Sunday afternoon December 17th into Yesterday Monday December 18th the city had another significant storm we actually had 3 41 in of rain uh in a in a short period of time and uh we experienced some minor flooding on roads and we had some other issues but um such as Forest Avenue on both sides of the railroad tracks were flooded but uh the the overp creek was running smooth and was able to accept most of the water uh that was draining into into that area so the DPW and our engineering department they're they are doing an assessment of the areas where the where we had flooding and water where water was ponding and we're going to look to see what we can do in the in the future to help mitigate that but both of these storms would have caused significant damage uh and flooding if the DPW for the past year or a little longer had not removed obstructions from the streams as well as from culs and um the council has said it but I I want I want to say kudos to the DPW for their continuing efforts um and I also wanted to say thanks to the fire department and our Police Department because they were hopping on Sunday and in into Monday just with with efforts to help keep our residents safe and to um you know to answer answer alarms uh once again the city has loaned uh the county has loaned the city it um a longarm excavator so that we can continue to remove debris from the over pet Creek we will continue to move north on that uh we're going to have to wait for the water to go down but the um the long arm excavator has been delivered and we intend to use it again to help um reduce reduce flooding exposure the 2024 calendars will be mailed out tomorrow uh Wednesday December 20th so this is two weeks earlier than last year and I want to be a I want to thank Vanetta and Katherine Norma edroy and Ray Romney for their work on this project over the past few months so look for those calendars and they'll there'll also be some in City Hall uh if you if you would like to get some the fire department's new ladder truck left Wisconsin this morning and should be delivered to New Jersey later this week where it'll be fitted out and tested and we're looking forward to having the ladder truck being delivered to Inglewood so that it can be placed in service and that was one of the uh that was one of the bills on the bills list that $1.3 million bill so we'll have to check in the safe for when when the truck is delivered also there's a high water rescue truck that will soon be delivered to the city and this will be used by the fire department the police department the office of emergency management and the DPW during storms such as we've had over the last two weekends um uh you heard a little bit from our engineer um just about Chestnut Street and uh you know he France reported that FEMA in informed the city that they are willing to accept some of the um they're willing to accept Chestnut Street as an old as a as part of the Ida project which is very very good it's very significant so um once we have more details we'll be able to report it but that that just means that we anticipate some money coming from Fe FEMA to help us uh repair this uh this street and the police department has been participating in a pilot program called arrive together and this is a pilot program where mental health professionals are available um 24 hours a day or 24 hours during the week to assist the police department with mental health calls um the program started a few weeks ago with 16 hours and then it's been very successful and it's up to 24 hours and it's provided invaluable assistance to our to our residents that are in need of some social services and Mental Health Services the police department recently started their walking on Palisades Avenue so from 11:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. uh you'll see two officers that are walking U walking Palisades Avenue uh tonight officers donigan and Gayo were out walking the uh the Avenue so it was nice to see them there it was nice to see them interacting with um with residents and Shoppers and um we look forward to seeing that again during the holiday season and then um council president I just want to thank you for your service to Inglewood and I want to wish you the best of success and I want to wish everybody a very happy holiday and um enjoy enjoy your families and enjoy your friends thank you okay uh now we'll open up the public session anyone that like I'm sorry sorry about that um I'm opening up the public session the mic anyone who has something to say please come up your comments your criticism you have three minutes so we need your name and your address willby 289 Plantation way uh the scripture tells us that the love of money is a root of all evil and um we need to understand that we live in a world right now that people are being motivated by money to do pure evil it is also given for man to die all right nobody's going to leave this place alive uh I've been working with the Bernard placed family now for a little bit over a year and uh you know my heart always Grieves for Marlene and her family but my heart also GES for all those mothers over there in Gaza and in the occupied territory that are being indiscriminately killed by a racist occup of zionists that want to tell the whole world that they have the right Once Upon a Time the pilgrims thought they had the right the Nazis thought they had the right the Klux Clan thought they had the right we live in a very inhumane world where people continue to look at the suffering of others and say that that doesn't affect us where is the humanity I need to know I attended a school board meeting in tenek and it made me really understand Inglewood and how people in Englewood actually do what they're supposed to do to make sure that our first amendment rights are protected designers keep on telling me to read a book I read a few books and the more books I read the more it indicts your ideology I know about zv jinsky I know about Theodore Herzel I know about the Zionist project I know about the Bal for declaration I know about so many things that if you read a book the worst advice that design could give anybody tell them to go read a book or even go research international law then you'll find out that what's going on is just white supremacy 101 if the Jews that belonged to that land were black nobody be getting killed America would not be sending billions of dollars to kill anybody but it's to preserve white supremacy the Baton has been passed on from one white supremacist to another white supremacist this is all that's going on and islamophobia is on the rise everything else is on the rise and all people could do is talk about anti-Semitism I'm black people call me a niggaer all the time it doesn't affect me people tell me things all the time when Donald Trump ran they said make America great again think about what the white supremacist is saying to you I didn't think they were calling for my Extinction or trying to kill me because they want to make America great again so when they say Palestine from The River To The Sea you got to understand that there was refugees that came from Europe that actually said that the state of Palestine had the right to be free from The River To The Sea so no matter what you want to change it to it will and always will be that and one thing everybody needs to understand is that you could always kill a revolutionary but you cannot kill a revolution all over this world we see where people of good faith are waking up to their humanity and saying not in our names not now not ever thank you my name is Greg W Englewood resident I'd like to thank um you know the whole panel uh you guys come in with great intentions and it's about um you know working together um I've had some experience with many of you uh this year and it has worked out you know pretty well for me I wish uh the policies that are going to be put in place I really wish you good luck with that um if from my understanding some of it is union-based and some people on the wck department areas probably not Union based um but if it could work in that type of a framework um and having people have warnings and you know policies to be met and you know everything to be expected it should should go well you know I've stepped you know in in the space of different um offices you know along this journey when I have represented a small community which is our youths I come from a place where I represent a small group of people that grow up which will be our next Generation Um it's been been pretty you know good for me um but you know I'd like to say that you know I really appreciate you guys you know work with me up at this point you know moving forward I think that on the level where I'm working with there should be appointed certain Zars to help to build these programs cuz myself that I do these things you know in my spare time you know I've I know that I have helped built and embedded trust in a community with parents for their young kids so I'm putting the gauntlet out there for you guys to help make a change because I know that I can help that level thank you thank you Mar Lawrence um I'm here tonight to talk about uh HR the way they put policy right now and then when I was listening to her I was saying to myself I wish you have that before it seemed like we didn't have a policy in place when something happens usually in the police police department because I I I I thought if you have that before when that happened to my son the policy will be in place to do what you're supposed to do for the three police officers who who kill my son I wish all of you to do the right thing when come to that situation I don't want to happen to anyone any mother go because still that affect me um in different ways after that happened my life changed my family changed everything changed you don't know what I'm going through every day that's mean I hope all of you take responsibility for your job and I was reading as a council who what all your responsibility I think for me you didn't do the right thing for me all of you should talk she put action behind when that happened to my son I know will but um Wilson um went to several occasion I know you've been there but not all of you come to me and talk to me you are father you are mothers none of you come to me I know you I know um is was your responsibility but as a human being I don't see that from you guys I wish you do the best for the 2024 and I wish to happen to anyone in engood and I always said that all of you don't treat me good and I feel it and you make me feel that but I know I have God and that's helped me to my situation but the policy you're going to put on have to be respect and it have to be in the uh police department and I wish you the best guys for 2024 and then make Ang good I remember when I when I when I live in when I was I used to live in New York I went online I check for place to live I check Eng goood I was so happy to come in and go I said that's the place I want to live I was so happy you can imagine when I went online and look for place and I choose Anglewood see what happened to me to Anglewood I was so happy to come here with my kids to learn but I have I have a good turn with you guys that's you can change that for her family I wish that policy can help other the other the people in the in engood thank you thank you thank you be attorney from Leonia I I got we can we can hear you we can hear you you can can yeah yes um I am with uh a friend of Bernard placed and his family uh and this is the this is the season of uh peace on Earth and Good Will toward men but unfortunately there has been no peace for the placed family uh since as as as marene has just said and there and all of you are very hardworking and very concerned about this community and it's clear that there's care but there is no action as Merlene was saying uh it's one thing to have peace but there has to be Justice in order to have peace and it's been a year and almost four months since Bernard was killed by Lan sharp and to to this date nothing has changed in in and and hopefully as you're saying there's going to be police officers that will come into the force that will be from Anglewood and will be able to really be part of the community in a very different way but right now there has been no justice for Bernard and his family his mother has no peace uh neither does the family so what what would be Justice for Bernard Luan sharp has to be accountable and she has to lose her position as an officer in the Anglewood police department and it would seem that Anglewood would take a strong stand uh in in supporting uh even though you can't vote on it but to support the ccrb with subpoena power because there has to be civilian oversight of of police uh all over the state of New Jersey and that would be the beginning of justice and arrive together is very important program however it must be implemented it has not been implemented effective L it wasn't in Patterson with Naji C Brooks and it wasn't in Jersey City with with Andrew Washington so here there needs to be oversight to assure that arri together will actually work with the police and make certain that there's oversight uh in police activity thank you for your hard work and we hope that there will be peace and justice for Bernard pleasy thank you very much we Roy Campbell tly Road um I guess my question is for Bob Hoffman um cuz I saw your letter where you placed Merl Simon on administrative leave um that's kind of puzzling to the public especially to this mother who lost a who lost a son um Merl get placed on administrative leave with pay but Luna sharp is still working with a promotion the public the citizens of Anglewood is trying to understand that and somebody needs to give them some answers give us give us some answers because it's appalling how do you I mean do we have do we have rules for white people do we have rules for brown people do we have rules for black people and are these rules different are they the same CU with this with this action it doesn't seem like it's the same for everybody across the board so we're trying to understand how can one person who didn't kill anybody get placed on administrative leave and another person who took a life a human life gets promoted the public is trying to understand that and somebody needs to give us some answers thank you good evening members of the council happy holidays to everyone as I sit here I'm just listening to loss after loss after loss it's very troubling um most of the families that look like me and Englewood they're not here they should be um when I think about the loss Bernard um the young mother whose child was violated the young lady back last year who was violated most of them look like me so it's very hurtful and it's very troubling most of them don't know how to get up here and articulate their thoughts or they're too upset they don't know how to say not only do we need transparency we need action I sat here and I listened to your Director of Human Resources she started in February of 2023 this problem did not start February 2023 this is a longstanding issue in the city of ingu the city whether you have Union or non-union employees is a business there there has to be accountability if you work in a place you get a verbal you get in wrting you get a final written and then you get reviewed for termination that's holding people accountable not letting things go on for years and years and years or seeing a item on your docket at a meeting and say oh why are we paying $20,000 when I had to write our councilman at large back in September because 200 kids are using disgusting porta potties that are overflowing but we have $20,000 to give to science and math and stem and then we're also paying an after school teacher $2,000 this is troubling and once I saw all the things that were going on in the city of Eng I said I'm going to make it my business as a resident because I have a young child that looks just like me that attends here School here in the city of inle he uses the Recreation services here in the city Inglewood we have to do better our children are our future we can't worry about what's happened going forward 2024 we all have to look at ourself and be held accountable so I'm holding myself accountable by making sure that I can make every meeting possible so I can come here and stand here and speak to my council members and my local government to know that you guys have to be held accountable for what's going on here in the city the parents want answers administrative leave unacceptable this is not the first situation with Miss Simons thank you thank you very much ma'am your name please the clerk ask for your name thank you okay I'm going unless uh there's someone who hasn't come up yet okay I'm going to close the uh General Session now uh I believe that is the end of our meeting can I have a motion to uh close our meeting I move to adjourn second second okay meeting [Applause] adjourned all in favor happy holiday enjoy sa every body in favor of closing adjourning yes say yes ow yeah no I just my knee just