States of America America and to the Republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all justice for all the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied with respect to this meeting of the mayor and Council of the Bureau of Glen Ridge specifically the time date and location were included in the meeting notice posted in the municipal building and sent to the official newspapers of the township the Glen Ridge paper the Glen Ridge voice the Montclair times and the Star Ledger Additionally the agenda for this meeting has been posted on the official Glen Ridge buau website the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www. glenridge.org a public comment period will be held in the order is listed on the meeting agenda and instructions on how to comment will be provided at the appropriate time will a Kirk please call the rooll yes Mr Mayor councilor's n here Hughes here leovit here law here Meyer is absent marrow here mayor Patrick is present Mr Mayor you have a quarum thank you uh at this time I'd like to have a motion to adopt the minutes of our last regular meeting on November 27th 202 three I'll make the motion mayor Marie thank you Marie um any seconds motion right um any comments on the minutes seeing none will the clerk please call the rooll yes Mr Mayor councilor's man hi Hughes I leitz I law I Maro I five eyes no names the motion carries thank you are there any written Communications no Mr Mayor well then I just want to say that I wish you all a very very happy healthy and prosperous New Year I also want to wish Debbie the very best as she transitions to Mayor mans okay uh at this time we'll take comments from the public okay there is one member of the public on the call I'm not sure if they would like to speak um if you would like to hi go ahead you can goe Shon mold dowy 151 Carterette Street Bridge go ahead you can you can State your comments okay I'm just wondering why on the on your Facebook page the town Facebook there was uh no Merry Christmas or happy Hanukkah why was that is it funny I think so you think it's fonny who said that you wish a happy it's councelor Hughes and and and we uh we you know we have had uh we've witched each other a Merry Christmas we've witched the public a merry Christmas we have uh displays in front of the Town Hall um okay I'm not talking about displays right now I I I've already been denied the nativity scene okay um what I'm asking is on the Facebook page you wished a happy K Quanza there was Graphics it was professionally done you did a happy dewali that's great but why did you specifically ignore Hanukkah and Christmas hey this is councelor mans I'm happy to H talk about this I find it really sad that someone would laugh you have yeah I just wantan to I just want to finish my thought you know you have you passed a resolution in June about diversity and inclusion and By ignoring Hanukkah and Christmas that's the opposite you're not being inclusive you know I've spoken to several of my neighbors who are both Christian and Jewish and we all found it offensive okay so thank you for your comments I do want to note uh right now in Communications is we don't have a professional communication uh we don't do Graphics professionally um so I just want to clarify that um and I think when things are handled in house there's a number of things that were done to re recognize uh both Christmas and Hanukkah and social media is uh sometimes there's some gaps on a number of things so I also want to clarify please let me finish I also want to clarify that nothing was done deliberately or specifically and I let me please let me an oversight no it's not an oversight it's just oh okay so thank you for your comments we always appreciate you bringing your voice to the table and uh I'll leave it over to the mayor okay um I we thank you for your comments and we will certainly um review the situation as we go forward yeah it's very offensive to Christians and Jewish people to have this huge oversight considering you passed a resolution in June about diversity and inclusion so you shouldn't pick out specific holidays that you wish to celebrate and ignore others it's it's offensive it's the opposite I just want to clarify nothing was done deliberately or specifically and if there was an oversite on a Facebook post it should be seen as that and again please when you're talking to your neighbors please tell them that nothing was done deliberately and we're telling you that specifically so we don't have to hear people say that the council and the mayor or any buau staff were deliberately excluding someone because that's absolutely false and can I just say that I find it really really hurtful I'm telling you this that that people are upset by this that someone on this phone call was laughing I find that really really disrespectful you don't agree with me would we neither agree nor disagree I said to you and I'll say it again we will take this under advisement and if we need to make some corrections as we go forward we will and we appreciate your call and well that's great but don't laugh at people when they complain to you about an obvious offensive someone left okay I don't we don't have a video again I know the last meeting that I spoke at there the video somehow was lost I don't know what happened there okay first I heard it was covid then then it was there was a technical issue whoever laughed at my comment Beyond offensive really hurtful listen happy holidays let's hope this never happens again goodbye thank you um Tera anybody else nope there is no one else from the public on the call okay then uh at this time uh counselor is it going to be councelor moral um mans okay councelor mans go ahead yeah I have it I have resolution number that the Chief Financial Officer treasurer of the Bureau of Glenridge is hereby authorized to issue the payroll for the employees of the Bureau of Glenridge for the pay date of Jan one 2024 I move the resolution you've heard the resolution may hear a second please I'll second thank you is that David yes okay thanks David uh any uh discussion hearing none will the clerk please call the rooll yes Mr mayor counselor mans hi Hugh hi leovit I law I marrow I five eyes no a the motion carries thank you thanks Tara now Tara I I believe you said resolution 17523 is tabled correct okay do we need to do a motion on that yes okay uh I I make a motion to table resolution 175 d23 settlement agreement um mayor a second please I'll I'll second it's ad Marie thanks Michael do you want to say anything about this or just move on uh we're we're not ready yet mayor we thought we were there unforunately we're not John I thought that we had worked on this uh over the last 10 days actually and uh this deals with the situation with the rehab grants on Baldwin Street uh but um the settlement turned out to be very Elusive and at the moment um uh there's really nothing nothing that more can be said but so you you don't feel that uh this is imminently going to come back to to us is that correct no it it it it may very well because the the property in question is um on the market um it was scheduled to have a closing uh tomorrow which created the for uh resolution of the issues but there are a lot of moving parts to it because we're not the only parties to it there's our uh administrator our co-administrator uh there is a a third- party contractor uh that U our a had worked with there's the homeowner there's the new buyer um and all of the parties really had to uh agree on the path to go forward and it just has proven to be difficult uh I think there are four parties there are six views if there's six parties involved are eight views so it's very difficult wow yeah okay thanks for the explanation um uh will the clerk please call rooll yes Mr Mayor councilor's man hi hi Hughes i leovit i law I Meyer oh is absent sorry and Maro I five eyes no a the motion carries thank you I have one final resolution resolution number 176 d23 um yeah just want to make sure so it's uh offered uh by Hughes but we'll put that on man's I guess okay yeah Chief Financial Officer and bur administrator have reviewed the 2023 budget revenues and Appropriations and whereas it's been determine that proper fiscal budgetary practices require cancellation of Appropriations contained in the 2023 water budget um and the appropriate journal entries be made as described in the resolution I move the resolution you've heard the resolution may hear a second please L second Thank you Rich any uh discussion seeing none will Kirk please call the rooll yes Mr Mayor councilor's mans I Hugh I Lovitz I law I tomorrow I six eyes no names the motion carries thank you thank you mayor that's all I have thank you councelor Hughes mayor no Report on Public Safety but I do have a resolution 177-204 raffle submitted by the Glen Ridge High School HSA to be held on February 10 2024 at 200 Ridgewood Avenue Glen Ridge I move the res res olution you've heard the resolution may hear a second please this is I'll second it's anarie thank you uh will uh any discussion will Kirk please call the rooll yes Mr Mayor councelor mans hi Hughes hi leitz I law I marrow I five eyes known as as the motion carries thank you um councilor leitz do you have something for us um Mr Mayor I would just like to briefly report that the uh Library trustee board uh met earlier this month on the uh 13th and um we've nominated a couple of um new uh Library trustees who will be uh presented for the council's approval at our next meeting and let me say they were very very well um qualified and uh it's it's a amazing that uh people will stand up and make a five-year commitment as these two individuals have done so again I think you know Carol is going out with a bang there she's done a great job oh fantastic and uh you know the not only are these two uh candidates very impressive but uh you know the the whole field was very impressive and we had a lot of really good uh candidates to sft through so it's an encouraging sign for uh you know a high quality of volunteerism in in Glenn Ridge so we're we're quite happy uh to be in this situation yeah to quantify that there were 18 candidates who really wanted the job so I think it's uh it's fantastic and uh I think that assures that we're going to have a very VI vibrant and uh Library going forward so that's great thanks um councelor mans I think I'll take I yeah yes I think that is public works yeah that's yeah that's I'm sorry I know it's it's it's all yeah I think we all have I took last year's I think I took last year's uh order for this um last year's department heads all right so um yep Mr Mayor I just nothing report for public works but I i' like to wish everybody a very happy and healthy New Year and uh certainly thank the public works department for you know all the efforts in 2023 so uh that's all that have for report tomorrow that's great um are we let's see mayor is not here um so I think we've heard from everybody uh planning yeah just just me Stuart okay goad just I have no report uh again just also want to wish everybody a happy healthy New Year uh there seems to be a Resurgence of covid RSD and just general flu so uh although I'm not a medical professional I would say if you're not feeling well uh stay home and uh don't uh hug or Shake anybody's hand um and then again i' just also like to thank the building department our uh Eric deline and uh all the folks that that work there um and and members of the planning board as as well uh thanks for their help uh this past year and look forward to all the work to be accomplished uh in the coming year as well very well said okay at this time we'll take comments of the administrator and department heads Michael hey mayor uh it's Mike Zak Kelli um unfortunately i' just like to uh note the passing of H Mark blesi Mark was a uh in our police department and fire uh chief of our fire department and um eventually served as a OEM coordinator and uh and code enforcement officer uh Mark Mark recently passed away way he is uh just been an asset to this town and a friend and whenever mark would always go out you probably saw him around town he lived over by um by the hospital on his walks he would always just stop by stick his head in sit down with me for a few minutes talk about town and things he sees going on and uh I'd just like to uh extend our condolences to his uh his entire family thank you thanks Mike um John uh mayor thank you I would like to also wish everyone a a happy and and healthy New Year um it's been a pleasure working with everybody I work mostly with Mike and Mike is a joy to work with uh it's great to have such a good working relationship where we uh call each other and uh we all immediately answer the phone so that's really a positive thing when sometimes it's hard to get a uh a voice at the other end but again a happy and healthy New Year to everyone and I had worked with Mark weski I'm sorry to hear of his passing he certainly was an asset to the okay thank you John uh chief chief is not on the call Oh I thought I thought I saw him on the list I'm sorry that's okay um is there uh any new and unfinished business no Mr Mayor then we'll hear comments from the public if anybody is uh wants to be heard okay at this time there are no members the public on the call okay then I will pass the gavel here to uh councelor lequ you got something for us David uh yes Mr Mayor I'd like to um move that we adjourn this meeting with a happy New Year same to everybody all in favor I meeting is adjourned thanks all thank you car you're welcome