[Music] [Music] need [Music] [Music] girl [Music] you want my [Music] look [Music] all right have to start are we ready good evening families friends and guests happy New Year welcome to the annual reorganization meeting of the Hillsboro Township committee for 2024 I am Sarah bre Hillsboro Township municipal clerk and I'll preside over this reorganization meeting until the members of the township committee select a mayor Miss lenzo please call the RO committeeman bring here committee man Le Pon present administrator Ferrera here Township Clerk break here attorney Willard here committee chiarelli here yeah we will now have the presentation of the colors Pledge of Allegiance and invocation our colors are being presented by the following Girl Scouts from Service Unit 72 Abby graner Abigail Lombardi Cath C O'Brien Alysa Pera Allison valo Addie Warner and Olivia Warner they are being escorted by Hill Hillsboro Tanta police Lieutenant Scott McCarthy this will be filed by our invocation offered by Reverend Tim Wolf please rise and remain standing for post your colors Color Guard retreat I flag United States na indivisible Li and justice for all good evening will you please bow your heads with me as we pray almighty God and Heavenly Father we are grateful to you for the many opportunities and blessings in 2023 we are also thankful that you were with us during our trials and difficulties Tonight We Gather at the beginning of a new year to commit to you the community of Hillsboro Township God you have called the members of our Township committee to the awesome responsibility of being servant leaders we thank you for them and all those who serve with them we ask that you grant to them your spirit of wisdom charity and Justice that they may Faithfully serve in their positions to promote the well-being of the people and institutions of Hillsboro please surround them with supportive family and friends strengthen their bodies their minds and their Spirits as they Endeavor to serve you and the people of Hill bro we humbly ask for your continued blessings on the organizations businesses schools and families of our Township in 2024 and we ask for your blessing this evening on the township committee reorganization meeting we pray all these things in your holy name amen amen please be seated thank you girl scouts of Service Unit 72 Lieutenant Scott McCarthy and Reverend Tim Wolf for your participation this evening please join me in another round of applause first round of [Applause] applause please be advised that in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 public laws of 1975 that notice of this meeting was made by the posting on the board at the Hillsboro Township municipal complex and notifying the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at the Hillsboro Township municipal complex at 7 p.m. on January 3rd 2024 before we continue I'd like to acknowledge a number of special guests who have joined us this evening both former and current elected officials your support of Hillsboro Township is truly appreciated I have a long list if I when I read your name just just give a wave I hope I don't miss anybody we have congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman Senator Andrew zicker assemblyman Fryman sorry I'll slow down Down assemblyman Jack chedell Somerset County Commissioner schel Robinson Somerset County Commissioner Melanie Morano Somerset County Commissioner Paul Drake surrogate Tina jallo Freeholder and former mayor Ken sheer mayor Anthony Ferrera Mayor Bob Wagner mayor Frank delor mayor Carl sarach Deputy Mayor Helen Haynes Deputy Mayor Chris Venice commit committee woman Oita Holmes and Montgomery mayor deah Keenan oh and mayor Doug Thompson how did he not make the list thank you Senator oh and senator Kip baitman anybody [Applause] else I got you you I think we were still clapping CL said she got you he was number two yeah was thank you again for joining us it is now my honor to announce the results of the November 7th 2023 general election certified by Somerset County Steve Peter electing Samantha hand and Katherine Payne to threeyear terms to the Hillsboro Township committee ending on December 31st 2026 congratulations [Applause] ladies Miss Han please come forward with your family so congresswoman Watson Coleman can administer your oath of office [Music] yes just hold the mic come back here since I have a microphone may I say happy new year be blessed be healthy and be strong I Samantha Han I Samantha hand do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that 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 true faith and allegiance to the same and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the United States and in this state in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will impartially and justly that I will impartially and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of committee woman of committee woman according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations [Music] [Applause] congratulations [Applause] another out picture we get another all right here no no no drop the flowers and get to work welcome commit in hand I'm go [Applause] okay welcome Committee in hand next we will swear in Miss Payne Miss Payne please come forward with your family so commit in leani can administer your oath of office [Applause] I really don't need to read this I've said it enough times but I'll hope ready okay left hand right hand I Samantha hand joke teasing this is why I was so on the fence about Sean doing this she's nervous I had to break it up all right ready for sure I Katherine Payne I Katherine Payne do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that 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 I will bear true faith and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the government's established and to the government's established in the United States in the United States and in this state and in this state by the authority of the People by the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will impartially that I will impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the office all the duties of the office of committee woman of Comm committee woman according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations [Applause] hold welome welcome committee woman pay please join your colleagues here on the [Applause] Das Miss lenso please conduct another roll call committee man bring here committeeman chiarelli here committee woman hand here committee woman uh committee men leani here committee women Pay Here administrator Ferrera here Township Clerk break here attorney Willard here we will now proceed with the election of the mayor of Hillsboro Township for 2024 are there any nominations for the office of Mayor Miss break uh it' be my honor and pleasure to nominate Bob Brit as mayor of hillsb t are there any further nominations n a second is there a second I'll second are there any further nominations seeing none I declare the nominations closed roll call please committee man bring humbly yes and thank you committee man chiarelli yes committee woman hand yes committee man leani absolutely committee women pain yes I declare Robert bring mayor of Hillsboro for 2024 I now call I now call on former assemblyman Jack Chelli to please come forward with mayor biding and his family for the oath of office Robbie Christian Grayson come on bring Mommy we get we want to see your [Laughter] face so across the United States throughout the first week of January there'll be no less than 25,000 reorganization need at which we will swear in new leadership and uh if the turn up of the name plates proves anything here here in Hillsboro we have the peaceful transition of power and uh we continue with that with this ceremony I state your name Robert doly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith I will bear true faith and Allegiance Al to the Saint to the is that the government is established and the government's established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me go so help me God I do further somly swear I do further solemly swear that I will impartially I will impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties all the duties and the office of Mayor and the office of Mayor according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God thank you [Applause] I ask my parents for a picture as too Mom Dad and and me my mother-in-law and my sister yeah we're bring him up bear with me we're going to do one more picture of more family I'm going to bring up I coach a lot of children here they're all going to come up as well too I want them to come up their parents want to come they can but want the kids to experience opportunity how you the children that I've coach and their parents if they want they can definitely the kids girls all the girls sisters got you got all the ladies come up up right Bab [Applause] ladies and Gentlemen please welcome Hillsboro Township 2024 mayor Robert bring switch seats switch seats oh boy here we go ready let's do it do it might take a while to break into a new butt huh yeah Sean is a boner butt than I have so it's going to be T seat's going to be different really all right okay so Sean how do I make this taller I'm only 5 eight and a half all right here we go all right so I'm going to sit on the New Jersey Bell book right next time here we go all right so all thank you very much um I'll have a few remarks in a few moments uh that I'll read and speak to um but first we have a little bit more of our reorganization business to go through so we will proceed with the election of deputy mayor for 2024 uh are there any nominations for Deputy Mayor I'd like to dominate John committ chck R committ man chck rally sorry all right is there a second I'll second that are there any other nominations okay I don't see any so I declare nominations to be closed Miss break will you please conduct a roll call to vote on the election of the election of John chicarelli as deputy mayor for 2024 committee man chiarelli uh humbly yes committee woman hand yes committee leani yes sir committee woman Payne yes mayor bring absolutely yes John is an awesome guy congratulations [Applause] [Music] John yep yep okay uh so now I declare John uh John chicarelli deputy mayor for 2024 congratulations call upon Jack Chelli uh assemblyman Chelli once again to please come forward with uh mayor uh Deputy Mayor chiarelli with and his family for the oath chedi and Chelli I know everybody thought you were related a year and a half ago two years ago fix it it's okay to Solly swear to Solly swear and I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and I will bear true faith and I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the Saints to the Saints and to the government's of STA and to the government's establ in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help I do further somly swear I do further Solly swear that I will impartially that I will impartially and just and justly perform all the duties of perform all the duties of the office of Deputy Mayor the office of Deputy Mayor according to the best of my ability according to the [Applause] best all right John good thanks guys job John good thank [Music] you see phone oh somebody take it for oh I'll do d d Mr BR Papa bring you take a picture use take a picture for that's okay go for there's a whole room of people you can ask what a good [Applause] good things play musical chairs good okay all right are we all set all we can get cruising so we can get some cake right all right so good evening and happy New Year welcome friends family and honored guests uh to the hillsb to the uh Hillsboro 2024 reorganization meeting uh thank you Jack again for administering the O of office uh as mayor really do appreciate it your continued support over the years has been absolutely and greatly appreciated congratulations to uh the new Deputy um Deputy Mayor ch the committee woman hand committee woman pain congratulations I'm looking forward to working with everybody this year I think we have a lot of great things we could do um before I go into some upfront not yet wait hold off on the one presentation oh should I should I wait off on that you do you just tell me what to do we'll keep going okay so so I'll start with my comments then right yes what we're going to do is we're going to make a few com I'll make comments the deputy mayor make comments and and also the two new the two new people um who have been elected as well to committee woman hand and committee woman paint so again thank you everybody for being here and welcome everybody um I want to thank my family for being here uh my wife uh Kelly thank you for for allowing me to do this uh I know it take a lot of time away from you and from the kids and it puts a lot of extra stress on us and it's worth it and I know we both recognize that and the boys are proud and that's what matters to me and my mom and dad thank you for just being who you are and I'm very lucky I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have you guys as parents and if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be doing a lot of great things in my life so so thank you for that I love you guys uh my mother-in-law my sister-in-law thank you for always being there for everything you guys have been great terrific Robbie and Christian and all your friends right this is a great opportunity for you guys to learn what doing the right thing is and standing in front of problems and trying to be one of the heroes in the world and I I hope you guys learn from this situation and I'll I'll teach you whatever I can as we move forward but um I just love you guys more than anything I think Grayson stepped out right one of his 12 babysitters this year yeah he does not really babysitters just all the F friends they have sisters and the sisters then they take them all and he walks around with six people foll him all the time it's pretty cute um so I just have a few comments to make and but before I do that I wanted to just um congratulate uh our our always be mayor leani to me um for all his years of service in the past three years it's it's not an easy thing to do there's not of public servants here regardless of side a lot of you here it's not easy to do you're in the middle of a lot of situations and problems and you're forced to step up and make tough decisions and uh I think you did a Absol absolutely bang up outstanding job and Hillsboro is a better place post pandemic because of you so thank you for that I mean that I absolutely mean that I always think of uh as as I can't I'll just say Sean even committee man leani but Sean is he was the the the great um he's the great stabilizer after after Co and we have a a previous mayor Deputy Mayor and committeeman Doug Thompson who was the mayor prior to that and during Co this one of the reasons I got involved was because of Doug Thompson and um you know he was the uh he he was the great communicator during a very difficult time so thank you for that Doug for being here and all the other Mayors as well too so thank you all right so I'll get through this in a reasonable period of time for you so now moving to the Future right and I promise my children that I would protect Hillsboro on every level you're going to hear that word a lot protect and safety I got involved with Hillsboro Township to help point it in the right direction for a better future I'm humbled absolutely humbled you have no idea um that that uh uh by this nomination of my colleagues and by the support of all my family and and my friends there's many of them up here it's the first four rows have them all up here thank you for being here so many of the children I coach and whose families I considered are here tonight thank you uh you guys are legitimately uh I get up 3: clock in the morning thinking about what I can do to make a difference and I'm not kidding I think about how I can make your lives better so thank you for being here uh so just in two years I've been involved uh truly with the township committee and and and I've been directly involved in helping protect the township across the board and making sure that we have a long-term perspective towards the future and you can all on both sides expect that to continue I'm going to commit to you a few things here tonight I commit to you that uh commit to all of you about my intentions and how I will be operating this year so you know who's sitting here I will be unapologetically honest I can guarantee you that I will always put Hillsboro first never any special interest I will hold decision makers accountable including myself I will continue to prioritize our children and our our senior citizens as they deserve the best future and the best life regardless of external economic or political situation that comes our way as a Township collectively I will stand in front of problems to protect the values of our town and the value of the town and that means your home values as well too with that we have a clear direction for 2024 I'm going to go through a few items first fiscal responsibility and that that goes across the board we will continue to balance the budget and tax rate for the residents to understand and know people who are not involved in politics the township committee and the township only collects 133% of your only 13% of your taxes that come to the township come to the township committee the remaining 87% go to the Schoolboard the county open space other areas right this is your money and we're going to treat it very very seriously and I can guarantee you that will happen from an open space standpoint so first fisical responsibility next is open space those of you who know me have been paying attention you understand that matters a lot to me I will continue to push our local governments my s and also the county and the state to protect our open space and preserve our land prior to my time on the township committee Warehouse applications exploded across the state in Hillsboro as well last year proudly in 2023 I blocked the first of first two warehouses near residential and high traffic areas because the cost the overarching cost not just the financial cost the overarching cost to the taxpayers and the people who love living here exceeded the financial benefits further uh F uh further future Warehouse applications are no longer allowed in land in question we passed an ordinance last year stopping any new warehouses along the main Corridor in 206 and we're very proud of that as well too nothing new comes in and there's a little Yogi bar ISM for you for those of you who know the Yankees and the old school Yogi Bara long-term thinking goes a long way it does you have to think long term I worked with and I championed uh the four ton weight limit on country roads that was executed on by our previous mayor thank you for operationalizing that and making that happen thank you for your leadership on that subject really appreciate that protects Country Roads that's imperative for Hillsboro we increased our open space and preserved land we're almost at around 40% protecting what we love is vital and we will continue to do that the people who live in Hillsboro who are not again not as attuned to the political aspect of it four out of 10 40% is open space and preserved land we're going to maintain that way Public Safety I see many of the police officers in the back I am your friend I am so glad you're here you guys are fantastic they're in the top 4% for uh for a number of different items and they have a accreditation which is not not normal and they are really really good at what they do I fully supported and championed full resourcing our police department and related Public Safety in Hillsboro to keep our residents safe Hillsboro Township which is named on the national stage if you read the New York Post article the second safest town in the entire Northeast of the United States of America in 2022 that doesn't just happen our country from town to town is changing that's an obvious statement it's changing we are doing everything we can in Hillsboro to maintain the highest level of safety for our citizens and we'll continue to do that Chief where you at back there right and your leadership team I look forward to working with you this year we're going to keep make it even better infrastructure now this one is extremely important and one that is on everybody's mind frequently R this is where you at Rod this is what we talked about before we started focus on fixing our Township roads with that it is important to note that Hillsboro has many miles of County and state roads also that make up the remainder of our road system every road you're on in Hillsboro is not just a Hillsboro Road there's also County Roads there's also state roads work is needed as there well as well and I'm looking forward to working with our state representatives and our local other assembly uh representatives to help fix that as well too um we will talk my my request to that group will be to to to better understand what their plan is for the long-term future and I look forward to working with you there as I mentioned earlier holding people accountable I'm going to hold myself accountable unapologetically I will be honest and I will hold myself accountable but we are going to increase pressure on the state to get 206 moving and hold all local public officials here and in the county and in other areas within the state to get this project moving it's taking way too long and it's at the detriment of Hillsboro Township Hill Route 206 for context I can't even kill weeds on 206 without getting my hand hand slapped by the state they have to fix it we need help and we need you guys to help us affordable housing this is also part of our infrastructure because affordable housing impacts infrastructure simply put it is unreasonable for the legislature to expect housing Advocates Municipal officials and other stakeholders to fully understand much less be able to provide meaningful input on the affordable housing bills with so little time and opportunity review there's an affordable housing bill that's up for review the people of New Jersey deserve better than to have affordable housing bills however well- intended they may be and they are well- intended rush to enactment in the last two weeks of a lay of a lame duck session which happen wrapped around the Christmas and New Year's day's holidays this is not in the best interest of anyone and we will be addressing this in future Township committee meetings the township Master Plan update has been and will be under formal review Deputy Mayor chiarelli will address this further in a few minutes just for all you to know he's an expert engineer and he's the perfect person to be spearheading this for the Township from a business standpoint just two more and then I'll close it out business in 2024 Hillsboro Township means business and I mean that our business Community is filled by 1500 small businesses with about 30 more looking to set up shop in town Hillsboro residents would benefit by new businesses coming to this Township I'll be working with our Township administrative team Mr Farrar and his team and the business advocacy group to provide these business to to Pro to prove to these businesses that Hillsboro with its 43,000 many dual income resident families that this is the right place to set up shop we all want to shop in Hillsboro and my objective is to move us in the right direction for a better future more to come on this in coming meetings this is an active situation people is are are you'll get to know me people are um probably the most important element no matter what you're talking about to me is I consider myself uh a servant leader our Collective culture is critical you haveu Republicans mostly sitting over here you have a lot of Democrats sitting over here we have to work together this is going to be an election year and it gets rough and people say things they shouldn't say but we have to get things done in Hillsboro and we're going to do that people will be prioritized in 2024 our greatest asset are the people around us and the ones we love my goal is to create a positive environment for everyone living in Hillsboro Township and I promise you that now my wife Kylie and I chose Hillsboro Township for our children it's easy to talk about the things we working to overcome such as the state shutting down 206 project the challenges with warehouses that every other town is dealing with as well and the disastrous affordable housing program I think there's an opportunity to talk about the great things that are that we're going to continue to do in 2024 because Hillsboro Township in the end is a wonderful place to live we delivered a budget that was under 2% cap while expanding Services Under mayor Leon we added to our Police Department so they can contribute to be one of the best in the state which they've been recognized for over and over again we have award-winning Parks my kids use them all the time and they love them we protected land and we will continue to protect Land We protected Country Roads from tractor ta tractor trailers that was the right decision we have one of the most dedicated staffs Mr farar thank you for leading your team the way you do in any M municipality and we are recognized as a leader by other towns and I think deputy mayor chiarelli might have touched on that a little here and there the bottom line is we have an amazing Township and we should be proud to live here let's never lose sight of of this in the end this is not a town of Republicans Or democrats or Independents I look forward to working with everything on the with look excuse me I look forward to working with everyone here on the de committee woman hand as well too and we're in different parties but I I can't wait to work with you I think we could do some really good things also working with the local and the state leadership Hillsboro is a community that strives to maintain that small town feel that has large Town goals and I'm humbled and honored to have the chance to lead it now it's right after New Year so if it was a you know champagne I would say here's to making our children and families proud but here's to making our children and families proud this year happy New Year here's to the best year that we could ever have and finally and this is the most important part to me may God bless you may God bless Hillsboro Township and may God bless the United States of America thank [Music] you so now we have some comments ments from some our of our other committee members Deputy Mayor so next is Deputy Mayor we have a we have a quick presentation oh before you'll know this about Chelli he's an organized guy we'd like to call up the employees oh we're doing that okay yes good good okay all employees that are here if you could please any Hillsboro any of the Hillsboro Township employees if you could just uh come up to them and we see you we know who you are so come up here uh m Mr coise you can uh take the [Music] mic and uh former mayor leani if you can come down there as well thanks okay do we have everyone hello everyone uh Happy New Year my name is David KO and I'm the planning director for Hillsboro Township uh I've been working for the town for close to 12 years on behalf of the employees of Hillsboro Township we would like to thank mayor leani uh the three time mayor in a row uh with a commemorative Hillsboro Township the first ever and only one so very valuable uh it's a hockey puck with your name on it it says uh uh the mayor hatrick and it Comm commemorates 2021 2022 and 2023 it has the township seal on it and on the back says from the township employees uh thank you [Applause] well that that's a goal right there um first of all thank you all of you um I think I've spoken enough in front of you all the last three years so I'll try and keep it short as a lot of people say here you never want to be between you and cake so um but the past three years has been probably one of the most uh fulfilling uh things I've ever done in my life you know you go into these things not sure if you can do it right first time I've ever been a mayor I've done a lot of things I run a business what but being mayor is you know kind of a big deal in some ways but the people of Hillsboro are nothing more than generous to me the the people behind me here were nothing more than supportive uh when I went into this the first thing I said is that I would and similar to what mayor bring said is I would be honest I'd rip the Band-Aid off once sometimes you got to be honest up front and then try and not tell you the truth because you all know where I work so if you didn't like it you knew how to find me anyway so I might as well just tell you upfront the truth that you need to hear um and I hope that when I was done that you said if asked about how I did that you thought I was fair and that I was honest and that you respected me for the job I did and I hope that I did that and uh I'm not going anywhere I'm right here but again thank you for this honor this is this is cool um I might take this one home I'm I might not leave here but uh thank you to my predecessors in the back Frank Carl Doug it was weird not seeing you up here and uh I'm sure when you saw little kids running around during the oath you thought of your 12 years ago I did um but thank you very much squeeze in [Applause] to our regular all right so here the final comments by the rest of the members up so Deputy Mayor chiarelli would you please thank you mayor and good evening to all and Happy New Year uh once again I'm truly humbled and honored to be up here on the Das last year it was as a elected member of the township committee and this year it says as Deputy Mayor so thank you to the township committee for putting your faith in me uh and approving my nomination to this role and I won't let you down uh I have many people to thank uh for helping me get to this point and starting with the really starting with the residents of Hillsboro for electing me to serve them all I must acknowledge and thank my wife Kim uh for her supporting me through this journey and for the understanding she exhibits while I attend meetings attend ribbon cuting for new businesses coming to town or I'm out hitting up restaurants in town three sometimes four times a day during restaurant week so you may have caught that this year um and tonight for her birthday she gets a A an aisle seat in front of the day in front of the de among other gifts so and maybe some extra cake so I'm I'm going to spare her the embarrassment of everybody singing Happy Birthday unless we really want to absolutely let's do it on I was going to wait for cake but maybe not let's do it let you want to do it all right all right one two three happy birthday to you her name is kimy birth birthday to you happy birthday dear K happy birthday to you all right this all right that that might soften how much I'm going to owe her now but maybe not I may owe her twice as [Laughter] much there will be cake after we adjourn um so along with Kim I want to thank my daughters Sydney and Alexa Sydney's traveling and you saw Alexa up here earlier tonight all three of these young ladies have helped me in various ways through this past year uh and also thanks to my extended family in town my mother-in-law and brother and sister-in-law in the back uh who are here tonight and countless other neighbors and Friends who've lent support uh and last year my parents were not able to attend the reorg meeting but this year they're here and uh I thank them always for loving and supporting me and my family and instilling in me the virtues of hard work and integrity that made me the father and commitmen that I am today so I hope I've uh I hope I made and will continue to make them proud as I serve Hillsboro with those same virtues uh thanks also to the Hillsboro Republican Club and its supporters who put their faith in me as a nominee and to Jack Chelli for his unwavering support through the years and for admin administering uh my oath of office tonight um so in attendance tonight we also have a lot of residents who've volunteered for or who have been assigned to Township committees or commissions or boards um and if you're here and you know it could you raise your hands I just want to see who all right looks good thank you get a hand um so thanks to them and many thanks to the staff many of whom were up here I was going to call them out too but I think they were all in the picture um these loyal Personnel run and maintain Hillsboro from the admin office here in the Municipal complex to the infrastructure throughout the town to the highly regarded Hillsboro Township Police Department who keeps us safe um they have all been a pleasure to work with and have made my transition to office seamless and are uh truly responsible for making Hillsboro one of the greatest places to live in America uh there are num numerous items that go unrecognized but were accomplished with the staff last year uh for example our Hills the Hillsboro business uh ass uh Advocate off office and The Economic and Business Development Committee were acknowledged by the county as one of the best in Somerset County as neighboring Towns come to us for Lessons Learned and how we we run uh we attract business and treat businesses in town um Hillsboro obtained another sustainability award for the state from the state and had an all-time high of 730 points which I know doesn't mean much but what it really means is that we were second place in the state for the towns of comparable population so that's a a really great achievement that we continue to strive to be uh first place um we were acknowledged at the league of municipalities and by our neighboring towns for how we are mitigating Warehouse development uh as painful as as it is for us other towns are actually looking at us to follow our lead to see what we do um Hillsboro continues to be a leader in shared services for example we we administer and manage three shared courts as well as health services Siobhan's in the back there um and we look to expand these efforts in 2024 and Hillsboro secured almost 2 million in Grants to help offset the costs of programs and projects and uh Town administrators from all over the state bye Grayson come to Hillsboro to learn come to come to Hillsboro to learn from our Forward Thinking strategies and best practices for how we run our town and our our staff is also recognized throughout the state For Thought leadership and are frequently asked to present at uh various conferences um again I want to thank the mayor and Township committee as we embark on 2024 the mayor laid out his plan and goals for 2024 and I'll be there by his side to help achieve his vision um for 2024 I'll continue leading as I did this year 2023 to those Baseline principles outlined last year which include continuing the business-like approach of governing and maintaining strong fiscal policies we kept the tax rate flat while increasing Township services and maintaining our debt service well below statutory requirements and Municipal best practices we'll continue to working on our sustainable infrastructure some of which was articulated by uh mayor bring and will preserve and expand our already extensive open space through coordination with uh our own open space advisory committee Somerset County uh Green Acres and farmland preservation efforts uh and lastly I wanted to uh let announce that I'll be driving the Master Plan update as mentioned by the mayor uh we've already the the the master planning committee has already embarked uh on updating the process in large part with help from the staff to complete the first step for the vulnerability study and now we're moving to the next steps so stay tuned for notifications online as we'll be reaching out to the community for your key input um I'll also be spearheading uh diabetes awareness effort I'm working with the health department and the mayor's wellness program to spearhead Hillsboro the Hillsboro diabetes awareness Center on the Health Department's website so uh be on the lookout for further details in the coming months on that as well we have a lot of serious work to do and I'm sure there'll be some bumps in the road little pun intended there and as I stated last year there's no reason that that this can't be fun I've enjoyed my first year on the committee uh enjoying I enjoy helping people and I'm looking forward to helping people to succeed in this coming year I look forward uh to working to the best of my abilities with my fellow committee members uh the township staff and residents during the coming years we'll continue with a non-nonsense and Common Sense approach to completing projects and resolving issues to keep Hillsboro as one of the best places to live in America thank you again for putting your trust in me and uh to execute the duties of Deputy Mayor and as mayor Brit said God bless Hillsboro New Jersey and the United States of America thanks again thank you Deputy Mayor Chelli I'll keep him up here just a little bit longer I have three boys as you guys know the first two followed Kelly around like a puppy I finally have one that follows me around so he's going to sit here with me for a second so the next is a committee woman hand thank you good evening I'm thrilled and honored to be here tonight as a newly sworn member of the Hillsboro Township committee there are many that I would like to thank starting with my fabulous husband Matthew and my daughters hiy and Lily they were there through out the campaign process coming to um walk with me as we visited Hillsboro voters um and kept things going on at at the house while I was gone please tell me one of you fed the dogs tonight excellent fabulous they can't feed themselves all right um additionally I would like to thank all of my family and friends who are dialing in from across the US I appreciate it and to my family and friends here in the audience specifically my mother-in-law Bobby and my brother Derek thank you for coming thank you Congressman congresswoman uh Watson Coleman for swearing me in tonight um she is the epitome of what a public servant is and should be and I will endeavor to emulate her as I move forward I would also like to thank um chairwoman schaer Senators wicker assemblyman Fryman assemblywoman elect drulis commissioner director Robinson commissioner Morano commissioner Drake Saget Jala chairwoman kid committee woman excuse me committeeman Goldberg um former committee woman Holmes and mcgomery mayor Keenan for sharing um this moment with me tonight for all the support and for being here I would not be here if it weren't for the efforts commitment encouragement and now friendship of my campaign team of passionate Hillsboro Democrats including my running mate Ron Yoder thank you to all those that walked jogged and ran you know who you are with me um on the campaign Trail thank you for making calls attending fundraisers donating and helping out in so many ways we may not have always agreed but we worked together and we built a team that I am proud to be a part of and one that will continue to grow most importantly thank you Hillsboro voters um who placed their solemn trust and me to represent them as we move our community forward as a new member of the committee I know that there is much to learn and understand Hillsboro's future depends on recognizing the reality of a growing community and the challenge of facing and maintaining the quality of life that we all want for our families we cannot afford for to play catchup The Way Forward is to ensure that we engage in thoughtful inclusive comprehensive and informed dialogue with all residents and business owners in town as well as our County and state representatives the ongoing review of our master plan as part of this together we can develop clear attainable goals and develop plans that will guide hillsbor as we move into 2024 and Beyond of course I'm not sitting up here alone and I would like to congratulate Katherine on her success as well as mayor Brit Deputy Mayor Chelli and CH chiarelli there's so many I know I apologize and and thank you committeeman leany for your continued service I fully recognize that I will need to work closely with my colleagues on the deis and by Nature I am a team player but I am a realist and recognize that we will not always agree on is issues that being said when we do disagree I believe these differences can and should be addressed in a thoughtful and respectful Manner and I am confident that we can do this of course to all the residents in Hillsboro I will always listen and learn from you in order to represent all of you in the best possible way in closing thank you Hillsboro for this opportunity to serve our community I sincerely appreciate it thank you very much commit laon I've said most everything I need to say uh I'll just add a couple more caveats um because I honestly the whole Puck thing caught me off guard so um it is it has been you know obviously my pleasure to to sit up here from the day I was elected even before I became mayor because this is the town that I love I grew up in um most of the people in the audience are either friends customers acquaintances um so it was more than just a political ideology here it's really me about me helping Hillsboro which I learned from my father over 30 years ago when he was a member of rotary and a chairman of the board of adjustment for over 30 years um I was honored to follow in his footsteps and take it a step further he was never one to be in the front uh I happen to have the little gift of of Gab and and um May those years as salesman uh I learned that but um really it came down to it wasn't a job for me and it isn't a job to this day it's really about helping the town that I live grow up my daughter grew up here uh all our kids are from here so it's it's local Poli exactly that it's way of life that we all want to have everyone have a better way and a better town to live in and lastly I'd like to thank specifically my family both my brother and my mother when you own a business and you spend time away they have to pick up the slack and there are many of times probably you came in to the store to see me and I wasn't there because I was here but my staff at the nursery was able to afford me the time to be here to do the people's business I'll be around a little bit more now the Nursery because I won't be here as often M mayor Brit you've got the you you got the you got the con as they say but lastly I'd like to thank my family my wife and my daughter who isn't here because she lives in DC but they're the ones as you all know that are missing birthdays or coming to birthdays at meetings not home on weekends or out campaigning on on the weekends over summer right so he's basically gone for a summer so it's a team a family team that probably stresses them more than because they really don't get anything out of it other than not you not being home so to all the township committee or to all the public officials that are here they understand but more than likely their families understand the sacrifice that is made and I personally would like to thank my wife Tas in the back who hates being singled out but she she put up with me being mayor three years in a row um and I'd like to thank her for that personally I love you thank [Applause] you thank you former mayor Leon and St Tara uh committee woman pain so of course I'm last after Sean and now I'm standing between you and your cake so I'm truly sorry for that but I didn't write a speech so it'll be quicker I promise so it is on okay sure there will be a lot of this this year I'm just sorry in advance but so I just really am so thankful for the voters of this town and more importantly that we are past November I'm really really glad that we can finally just put you know start putting Hillsboro forward not have a party and of this and of that because it's not about that it's about you everybody in this room the voice that you brought to the table and we thoroughly appreciate you and your vote and your time and your commitment to us and your fundraising for us and everything that you did to put us in these seats so thank you um I also I'm not sure I want to thank Shawn yet so I'm gonna hold off on that because Sean's actually the one who roped SL brought me here so in three years I'll let you know how that went I am very glad also that they're threeyear seats for Sam and I to not have to do this again every year so my three initiatives are primarily open space um I was on the open space advisory committee this past year and it was amazing to see the inner workings how we're looking at open space with coordinated efforts with the county what that means across the town of Hillsboro the importance of it especially as we near 2025 my second initiative is OEM so I really look forward to working with John Sheridan Chief everyone else in involved with those um efforts as you all know you know when it rains in this town east west and north of here you're stuck you can't get in you can't get out so we've already been talking about a couple different plans with that I'm really excited for some of the things that we can do and also just know that when you get those personalized swimmies in the mail that say Hillsboro that was the last hch effort so you'll float home we'll get you safely um in all seriousness though the other thing I bring to the table um that I'm really excited about is I'm the first person on this Township committee who's bilingual and I look forward to some of the community efforts that the've already has been started in this amazing office thanks to yasine and your direction Anthony um but with Yasmine and myself I'm really excited to bridge some of those gaps that we have in our community for people who don't speak English there are many children in our school systems that do not speak English um although the township committee doesn't have any bearing on the school district I'm really excited that hopefully I can still reach out to that community in a really positive way and I don't want to keep anybody any longer so I am super excited go Hillsboro this is a really good time for us to move forward together and have an amazing 2024 and I thank you all for your time being here thank [Applause] you all right all right so for those of you that that want to go soon with those of you have children what time is it 8:07 it's bedtime about 23 minutes for most of you I get it I understand it um we're just a just a few just one final comment for me then we're going to go through resolutions which should go somewhat quickly and uh then we will uh likely adjourn after unless there's any other comments from the floor so just for those of you who are not typically involved you understand the process so final comments I just want to say thank you to everybody on the day everybody um for for your comments I mean this is you could already tell we're trying to work together and that's that's the right thing to do for Hillsboro Township hands down that's it we have things that we have to fix in Hillsboro as it relates to continuing to protect our open space as we've talked about we have to focus on 206 we have to bring our our our business um our business Community forward and we're going to do that together and Grayson's upset that he's leaving sorry um now but there's a lot of things that we need to do this year and I think the only way we can do is if we operate as a team and as as as committe committee men it's hard to say this now committee men leani said it's we operate like a family so thank you for all of your comments it's going to be wonderful working with you all right so now moving on to our other reorganization business for the evening so resolutions this is the second to last phase of the of the meeting we will now be moving on to consent agenda this evening we will be adopting resolutions numbers 1 through 20 some of the items to note include uh setting the meeting schedule for the year as well as the 2024 reorganization date awarding Professional Services contracts establishing the temporary budget and appointing volunteers to various Boards of commissions sounds like a lot but we're not going to it's not going to go through everything that way so uh does anyone on the de wish to take any of these resolutions separately remember between them and cake no no okay good all right so consent agenda 1 through 20 all right Miss break a motion you would make a motion I'll make a motion to uh 1 through2 second approve I'll second second I'll second all in favor got a roll call oh roll call excuse me yep I'm learning the process committee woman hand yes committee leani yes committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor tarelli yes mayor bring oh uh yes yes sorry you were saying oh we did that didn't that didn't show up okay did I miss anything Miss break comments on the for the agenda the public what proceed public proceed to comments public comments okay so um so uh so we we've gotten through the resolutions correct now right okay very good all right so now I'll open the meeting to comments from the floor of matters not on the agenda please keep in mind this is for comments uh on items not on the agenda thank you does anybody like to make a public comment move the mic outside we can bring the mic out if anybody raises their hand who wants to come up everybody wants cake no seeing none move on seeing none we'll move on okay motion to adjourn I think I'm going to make a motion to adjourn the meeting this evening second I didn't I was going to give you the I'm asking someone has to make the motion all right I'll make a motion Oh I thought he was making the motion I'll make the motion to second okay all in favor roll call roll call committee woman hand yes commit Lani yes committee woman pain definitely yes Deputy Mayor tarelli yes mayor bring yes yes yes thank you oh yeah yep thank you all for coming this evening this concludes our 2024 reorganization meeting the next regular meeting of the Township committee will be January 9th next week uh at 7:30 p.m. good night and happy New Year I think we're good there's cake and coffee and water across the hallway now before you guys leave there is cake and coffee across the hallway thank you so much for being here this evening everybody