okay we're good to go to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all in accordance with chapter 231 open public meetings act adequate and proper notice of this meeting given to the public by publishing a notice in the Glenn paper Glenn voice monair times and the Star Ledger and posting said notice on the Bolton board in the municipal building the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www. Glen nj.org a public comment period will be held as listed on the agenda please state your name for the record and note that comments will be limited to three minutes per person Madam clerk can we have a roll call yes Madam mayor councelor leitz here Hughes here Moody here councelor law is absent councelor Mayer here councelor Maro is absent mayor man is present mayor mans you have the Forum thank you very much I have a motion on the adoption of the minutes of April heard the motion by coun mood do I have a second coll call W here yes councilor left good abstain councelor Hughes I councelor Moody I councelor Meyer I three eyes one exstension the motion carries before I have a proclamation I just want to again thank everyone for um organizing the really nice volunteer event um that we had last week and congratulate mayor Patrick Stuart Patrick again sorry um um Proclamation for National Police Week to recognize National Police Week 2024 and to honor the service and sacrifice of those law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty while protecting our communities and safeguarding our democracy whereas there are more than 800,000 Law Enforcement Officers serving in communities across the United States including the dedicated members of Glen Ridge Police Department whereas since the first recorded death in 1786 there are Curr 24,067 law enforcement officers in the United States that have made the ultimate sacrifice and been killed in the line of duty including one member of the Glen Ridge Police Department whereas the names of these dedicated public servants are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC and whereas 282 new names of fallen heroes are being added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial this spring including 118 officers killed in 2023 and 164 officers killed in previous years whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed on the line of duty will be honored during the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial funds 36 candl visual on the evening of May 13 2024 and whereas the candlelight visual is part of National Police Week which is observed this year May 10th through 16 May 15th is designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day in honor of all fallen officers and their families and US Flags should be flown at H therefore be it resolved that I mayor Deborah mans along with the buau council will observe May 10th through the 16th 2024 as National Police Week in the buau of Glenridge and we publicly salute the service of law enforcement officers in our community and in communities Across the Nation thank that's all I have um for comment do we have any written Communications comments from the public turn over to counselor um thank you Madame mayor would would this be the the time to make the budget presentation yeah we'll go through our budget presentation and then we'll go through the adoption process okay move the audience mhone yeah here thank you everyone for coming to the uh budget presentation um and uh I I hope people uh watching at home will also um find it uh worthwhile this uh budget presentation um is going to go through the uh process of putting the uh the budget together as well as the goals and objectives that we have in this process uh and then it's going to break down some facts and figures regarding the municipal budget as well as the water utility I.E drinking water and the swimming pool utility IE swimming water so on the next slide we have the uh timeline uh for the budget process so we are most of the way through this timeline which began last year with the CFO Matt lar uh Ing and analyzing the bu's financials and providing updates to the administration and uh and and to us the the council um this proceeded to the process of meeting with um department heads to discuss their budgets and uh priorities for 2024 earlier this year the finance committee um which I chair had uh held meetings to discuss the bu of finances capital projects and operating goals the the budget was actually introduced at our meeting of April 8th and uh actually the uh the cap Bank was U passed at the last meeting on the 23rd of April so in terms of the next steps we uh have as I mentioned uh the April 8th meeting where the um the budget was uh introduced the cap Bank also was introduced this was followed by a period of review at the state of New Jersey and the budget has been posted on the the town's website and in local Publications uh we're here tonight for this hearing um the cap bank's been previously adopted on the 23rd and tonight we expect to adop the the budget so the budgeting philosophy of Glenn Ridge is a conservative sustainable and longterm so uh we need to take a long-term approach to know that the decisions that we make about this year are part of a sustainable pattern um that we're not um you know sort of spending today and letting tomorrow sort itself out uh we're using conservative accounting uh practices which As We Know uh do not follow Gap but the specific accounting standards for New Jersey municipalities uh and we're following a fund balance policy um whereby up to 25% of the uh general fund expenditures may be uh kept in reserve as um a a surplus fund balance on the balance sheet uh currently that's closer to 18% so these policies have served us well uh because we're a ablea sable rated uh debt issuer and uh our debt is modest and scope and not driving the uh the budget um I I find this slide quite interesting um it's a double-edged sword really on the one hand it's showing that tax levy is going uh behind inflation uh which should be comforting in a way to uh the taxpayers of Glen Ridge um on the other hand it does indicate a certain squeeze on the budget right so real costs are rising faster uh than we can raise taxes to uh to pay for things like asphalt for example so it's a so it's a double Ed story just to um summarize so in in in rough terms a quarter of the uh the budget a quarter of the total tax levy I should say not the budget the quarter of the total tax levy is for the municipality of Glen Ridge about 60% is for Essex County and uh sorry 60% is for the Board of Education that's the largest portion Essex County is 17% the total budget and the the library is just a little sliver uh at roughly uh 1% uh and on the presentation you can see the um impact per household per average household of these various items so the um total taxation per household $ 22,651 4861 and the library is just under $300 per household um this also an interesting slide it shows how the tax levies of um related to the municipality the school and the county uh have grown uh generally they've been growing together uh and uh all of them are impacted by the um by the cap that applies to uh Municipal taxation in New Jersey here in Broad terms is the um some of the uh some of the features that that apply to and and and Define the municipal budget uh that the the net taxable value of the properties in Glen Ridge is about $1.7 billion doar um which is only a very slight increase from 2023 the municipal tax rate um just about 75 cents uh and that is a 3% um increase from 2023 again defined and constrained by the uh cap um that means that the average Municipal tax so so not the the total tax that people pay but the average Municipal tax is just over $5,000 on on this slide you can see the impact of um the tax amount and the tax increase uh for different proper so if if you're sitting in the average property in Glen Ridge which is assessed at $673,000 then your uh Municipal tax again not the total but the municipal would go up by $148 um if you're at the higher end of the Spectrum in a home that's assessed at a million uh your tax would go up by 220 or if you're uh I don't know sitting in one of our condos and it's worth 500,000 and your your Municipal tax be rising by 110 now sitting that um and that's not a good thing advate for that but show that some counties year thanks for that Insight um so turning to the next Slide the the budget drivers for this year uh first and foremost the um first and foremost the uh salary and Personnel cost so roughly half of the budget is related to Personnel cost um and most of the uh employees of the buau are covered by collective bargaining agreements um those bargaining agreements generally are um following this magic 3% increase number so things are uh in a kind of a Harmony where that's concerned uh next driver is general liability insurance um Insurance costs are rising rapidly uh in New Jersey um so that's uh certainly an item of long-term concern um which we uh you know we feel the impact already and and we have to think about what the future may hold there um one uh positive factor is that the 2017 refunding bonds have been paid off that's giving us a certain amount of financial flexibility so that's that's a good thing um inflation uh the fourth item cost of goods and services um the the afor mentioned asphalt is much higher generally all kinds of materials and Fuel and supplies uh cost more um and uh many of them are rising faster than the average uh 4% inflation rate um and finally the uh police department has added an additional uniformed officer um you know Staffing levels obviously are not driven only by the budget there are planning and public safety issues involved but it's a it's a material Factor so on the next slide it uh breaks down the percentage of the overall budget that goes into um various items um the the police department and uh Public Safety uh which has just been mentioned is the largest portion at just about 29% um followed by uh garbage and utilities at close to 16% uh insurance is uh a big cost at nine and a half percent and um the other items can be seen in this uh in this pie chart in in terms of the average uh monthly cost per taxpaying household um public so on average we're paying 10021 a month to uh Keep Us Safe $66 a month garbage Recycling and utilities and and so on uh for an average monthly service bill of $49 to uh move to the next page um here we see the revenues versus the expenses so in the overall proposed 17.9 million budget um the largest item uh at 12.9 million the municipal tax um this uh in one sense I suppose could be combined with the library tax since they're both coming from the same place um and uh then we have other items including Municipal receipts so fees and uh fines and what have you uh that would contribute 2.3 million and uh using balance could contribute about 1.9 million so so that's the the revenue uh on the expense side you can see uh again that the salaries and benefits are close to 15 50% of the total at 8.5 million uh other operating expenses uh 7.4 million and capital statutory just under 2 million for the total uh budget expenses of 17.9 million uh next we get down into the weeds a little bit with the water utility uh budget um this is a smaller portion of the total but it's obviously critical I mean water we can't live without it um the most important thing that I would note where the water utility is concerned is that costs are going they've been kind of held down for some years and uh the fees are increasing 5 to 7% for 2024 uh which in a sense is uh kind of chewing up the cost to uh well kind of chewing up the cost I guess catching up with this uh on the next page we have the swimming pool uh budget um which is really the smallest budget that we're we're looking at within this whole exercise uh the the pool debt has been paid off and this has freed up $170,000 uh within the pool budget uh we also have $100,000 uh to be allocated in capital investment for new furniture and fixtures um the swimming like some other uh Town operations is affected by the increase in minimum wages and wages generally so uh the wage is going up to uh 1373 an hour uh and another couple of years it'll be at $15 an hour uh minimum wage and that's the the budget presentation uh thank you very much and are there any questions thanks very much right [Music] so um Madame mayor if I can just take a little bit more of the council's time I have some resolutions and some ordinances excuse me the first is resolution 85- 24 we resolve that the following claims be approved and warrants be drawn for the same um and we have a current fund demand of 373 37359 various other fund listed there so Madam May the resolution you've heard the motion by Council left cours do I have a second seconded by councelor Hughes um discussion on this resolution see no discussion Madam yes Madam mayor coun hi Hughes hi roody hi Meer hi eyes no the motion carries um and uh Madame mayor I I then have um three resolutions related to the budget the first is resolution 86-24 um this is to provide that the budget as advertised um uh can be read only uh by its title uh if it's been uh posted in a public place and copies are made available to each person requesting them so um B I move that we be able to approve the budget by title you've heard the motion by Council leward D second call the motion by councelor Le seconded by councelor Meer any discussion on this resolution seeing none pleas call the yes M mayor councelor i Hughes roody hi Meer hi Four Eyes no Nam the motion carries and next M of Mayor I have um resolution 8724 adoption of the 2024 Municipal budget by title you heard the resolution by Council left do I have a second you heard the motion by Council after it's seconded by Council Moody any discussion on this resolution yeah just make sure that we open aaring and Anin it says resolution I know it's okay you don't have to whis so go to like the final reading for an ordinance okay and do like the public hearing okay even though it's a res okay all all right uh counselor could you start over uh sure um Madame mayor I have resolution number 8724 um this is for uh final reading and and adoption uh adoption of the 2024 Municipal budget okay um I declare that this meeting is open for the discussion of this resolu and this resolution only uh this being the time and place for a public hearing with no further comments forthcoming uh I declare this public hearing closed Madame mayor I move that this resolution be adopted now the motion by Council Le seconded by councelor Moody um Madam cour please call the M counc Li hi Hughes hi Moody hi Meer hi for eyes no need the motion carries and uh finally as regards the budget Madam mayor I have resolution number 88- 24 this is a resolution to amend the approved 2024 capital budget um this is not changing financially in the budget but um revising uh the way that certain uh water related items are presented in it uh and the the details are in the text of the resolution so I move resolution 88- 24 you heard the motion by council do I have a second second heard the motion by Council seconded by councelor Hughes any discussion on this resolution seeing none uh mad clerk please yes Madam mayor councilor Lovitz i Hughes I Moody I Meer I Four Eyes no needs the motion carries uh and Madame mayor I have or number 1805 an ordinance titled uh Bond ordance re appropriating $824,000 including $823,000 oh I'll second's gonna kill us that's all you second Madam mayor our second introduction of ordinance 1805 she's very St okay great all right is there any discussion amongst especially on finance is there any discussion amongst the members of the council seeing no further council's for comments forcoming with the clerk please call the RO yes Madam mayor councilor leit hi Hugh I Moody I Meer I Four Eyes no this ordinance is passed on first reading and Madam mayor I have ordinance number 1806 uh first reading this is an ordinance entitled uh establishing titles for non-union and other employees of the buau of Glen Ridge and fixing the 2024 maximum annual salaries and other compensation for those titles so I have the ordinance for first reading Madame mayor I second the introduction of ordinance number 1806 is there any discussion amongst the members of council and we should just clarify that the main impact here is to sort of right siiz the compensation for the crossing guards so that we can get more crossing guards exactly seeing no further comments forthcoming will Madam clerk please call the all yes Madam mayor councelor Le hi Hughes hi Moody hi eyes no means this ordinance is passed on first reading and finally Madam mayor I have resolution 89- 24 this is a resolution to authorize estimated property tax billing for the third quarter of 2024 you heard the resolution by um the motion by councel leids do I have a second second heard the second by councelor Hughes any discussion on the resolution seeing none Madam clerk please call all yes Madam mayor councelor leitz hi Hughes hi Moody hi Meer hi Four Eyes no as the motion carties Council are you done spending all our money I I am I am done M I'm just talking to him about buying around raising money too easy it's true Credit Credit yes yes okay thank you uh ready for Public Safety I am yes uh mayor uh today uh this afternoon the Public Safety Committee met I'll report out on the meeting um an update on Sunset Avenue where we still have continued reports speeding on Sunset we did a traffic survey and found that results did indicate um you know a high rate of speed along Sunset and so we're still reviewing options as looking at a four-way stop at either forest and sunset Andor ston housee and sunset uh good news is Bloomfield has told us that they will approve a stop location at Stonehouse should that location be chosen and our traffic officer Sergeant Perico is working on compiling some additional traffic data uh to be shared with our engineering firm and they'll come back with with a recommendation um at Glen Ridge Avenue in Highland there's been um you know requested traffic modifications due to speeding issues we've done a survey also found that there's been a high rate of speed there we've been conducting daily traffic enforcement in that area and the engineering company brigh viw has been working on a comprehensive engineering study uh of that roadway th improvements uh we have seen fairly High number of crashes at that location in the last three years um the average the 85th percentile speed is 34 miles hour and 25 M hour zone so it is it is a bit of an issue um Glen Avenue we're looking at potentially adding a parking Lane indicating it because as they if people come that the eastbound I guess and they and they see that turn they're going at a high rate of speed sometimes they can't make the turn so we think that some additional Lan Mark visuals um thank you for reading the uh Proclamation on release week uh and I would point out that May 11th sadly is the anniversary of Officer Roberts passing uh the PBA has purchased and placed a wreath at his memorial in the gr GL uh and that's that's it for my update on the Public Safety Committee meeting I have now have an ordinance uh 1807 uh this is for first reading uh this is an ordinance by the buau council amending chapter 10.32 parking restrictions on designated streets Madame mayor a second the introduction of coordinance 1807 any discussion amongst the members of the council this is just a clean up a clean uh yeah this is uh yeah exactly something that we did years ago we put the signage up but we don't have the uh the ordinances properly in place to support the sub seeing no further comments foring Madam clerk please call the RO yes Madam mayor councelor hi Hughes hi Moody ier I Four Eyes no knees the motion carries I don't have a formal report tonight Madam mayor but I would like to Mark some upcoming events in town that I think are important for our residents to know about in particular this Saturday nothing on wood for the weather uh we will have the Arts and Eco Fair which is one of the biggest all handson deck events of our calendar and we are greatly appreciated of DPW law enforcement and all hands that make that a really great day for the entire town uh the Rob speaking of Officer Roberts the uh Rob Roberts golf outing is going to be on May 20th and 21st the Rhino romp I remember feeling old because my the first Rhino ROM I can't even like now it has become the kind of established thing on the on the calendar the Rhino R will be on May 24th and that just gets the kids embracing running around and uh being active Healthy Lifestyles and then of course uh on a more somber note May 27th Monday will be Memorial Day and that is a very importas and that's marked in this town with aade we encourage everyone to turn out a lot going on and we appreciate all the um work with the police department of the STA to make those successful events and of course all our volunteers that is the end of my rundown um Council law is not here for coun May uh no rep this even no rep for parks and coun Mar is for plan and development Mike any comments ADR I would just like to thank uh councilor leitz and our CFO Matt ly for all the work that uh was put in together with this budget um Matt mostly gets to hear me screaming and yelling and swearing uh I just be for him but they've been great and uh this is always it's always challenging with costs just going you know things that are are Beyond inflation um you know insurance and our um just a host of our costs keep going up and and the work that they've help put together and bring this budget in where it is is really really uh very much appreciated uh second I would just like to thank everybody the volunteers the mayor the council everybody that showed up for the celebration of volunteerism last week and where we honored uh mayor Stuart Patrick and we also took a few moments out to recognize Mike rall it took us up our former business administrator you know three times but we finally got to it and it was wonderful so thank you for everybody that put that together and um it was it just a great event and we have a host more coming up May and June so I'll just encourage Everybody follow us on social media for any cancellations or movement or things of that nature traffic alerts just uh stick with us and anybody who has not signed up for Town alerts you're out there what are we looking for what are we paying attention for um just in case some they're canceled or they're moved or something of that nature yeah we just want folks yeah just bear with us and uh follow this thank you mayor than you thank you for the proclamation and obviously our best wish is still go out to Robert's family um other than that I don't are thosea change driver Behavior at all yes we I mean we've gotten um a large amount of positive feedback about the pylons or the delineators that we put out there um we're looking at additional locations to put them also we actually got called from M Clair I got a call from M Clair too asking where we where they can purchase them because they're looking them in their traffic plan um yeah it may take a little longer for people to drive aone Ridgewood because if there is that that um car that's making left turn that can't go around them but that in turn slows traffic down and um makes the crosswalk safer because it it just eliminates that that car from being able to go around and have that blind turn so they've been a tremendous impact CL uh yes the only thing I have is our upcoming primary election on June 4th all fing locations will be open and um vote by mail will also still be available and early voting hasn't started yet but it will be available and the drop boxes will be open um in front of pretty much every municipal building in every town um contrary to belief you can use any Dropbox in Essex County no matter where location is if you're closer to a Bluefield drop box you can drop your glenbridge ballot in a Bloomfield or a monair Ballot Box um right up until uh election that's great information will you be posting or sending an email out as we get closer to a little bit closer to um election date yeah we send some info out all right we do have um coun H we finish new business yes uh I do I have resolution uh 90-24 be resolve that in accordance with the statute the mayor and burough Council approve a raffle license for an on premise 5050 and casino night submitted by won as house to be held June 5th 2024 at the Women's Club I move the resolution thank you heard the um motion by Council Hughes do I have a second I'll second [Laughter] get motion by counil he second by councelor lewitz any discussion seeing no discussion Madam clerk whoe call the RO yes Madam mayor counselor leitz hi Hugh hi Moody hi Meer hi Four Eyes no names the motion carries I'll open up comments on the public one more time second I'll close that coun Moody do you have a a motion for us Madam i' like to make a motion to