down [Music] tonight there you go okay recording set to go okay want to call the meeting to order and start with the Pledge of Allegiance Chief Smith will you lead us please America I FL the United States of America the stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all this is the meeting of the Hillsdale borrow Council on this 12th day of March 2024 notice of the time and place of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the Bergen Record a copy was posted on the bulletin board outside of this meeting room and provided to any interested parties please silence all cell phones please wait to be recognized by the mayor during the public hearing and the public comment part of the meeting you will need to state your name and town of residence for the record will the clerk please read the role council president Escobar here council member Fox here council member Lundy here council member ooso here council member ruko here council member tro yuk here mayor shinel here okay now we get to appoint you guys are all here for I I I wonder could it possibly be we have uh a great honor here to promote uh Brian con position of detective sergeant of the Hillsdale Police Department is there a Bible down there we still have to do you got the B okay great resolution all right um can I get a motion for the promotion motion second second uh CL point to read the RO council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member trinu yes okay okay good evening everybody Chief Smith of the Hillsville Police Department thanks for coming out tonight to uh celebrate another promotion very very proud to introduce our new detective Sergeant Brian conine but before I do so I'd like to acknowledge the bur administrator and the mayor and castle for letting his promotion and approving this promotion so thank you very much once again for uh bolstering our Police Department uh with a new detective Sergeant so me tell you a little bit about Brian before we uh before he takes his oath Brian was hired by the Hillsdale Police Department in September of 2014 as a patrolman after serving as a police officer for the Union City and NG NJIT police departments prior to law enforcement he graduated from Bergen Catholic High School and studied Criminal Justice at Bergen Community College and Sean Hall University while attending college Brian volunteered as an EMT and a police Reserve for the bur of Westwood his assignments at the Hillsdale Police Department have included Firearms investigations CPR instructor member of the beron County rdf youth leadership instructor and field training officer Brian has received numerous life- saving Awards and is a two-time recipient recipient of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving award for commitment to keeping roads safe from impaired drivers I just want to personally say that Brian if there ever was a hardworking police officer in our Police Department it is this man right here Brian conin and this promotion is very very welld deserved uh there's only two Detective in our Police Department in our table of organization and I'm proud to say that in a few moments ban will hold that rank um Mr M do you want to come up and uh introduce the oath and Brian Brian's family please come up Brian will be joined by his wife Linda and his beautiful daughters Ava and Chloe where did we go hold on no okay okay raise your right hand repeat after me I Brian constine I Brian conine do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and the governments established and the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this States and in this state under under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of the office of detective sergeant of detective Sergeant for the Hillsdale Police Department for the Hillsdale Police Department according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratul okay Mr man okay go first of all thank you all apprciate um had a long long journey in my career um not just for me my family all my friends my colle here here a lot lot app so you know how much you really want to stay for municipal business but why don't we take a couple of minutes to allow uh anybody anybody probably nobody who wants to leave right um to go out and maybe celebrate how's that sound okay so we're going to we're going to take about a five minute break okay congratulations [Music] I know I know deserve how's it going good I just I saw your brother e e e e e learn yeah start okay although they're not here tonight I we we've got two members of the fire department to appoint officially Landon Morgan and Joseph ' Conor May I get we do have oh we do I didn't think we have one all right great okay okay here we go let's get a motion can I get a motion motion second second second first please read the role council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member troh yes council president Escobar yes second uh I vote Yes too I'm sorry I missed him sorry just in got the chief [Music] Sol I will support the Constitution I support theit state of New Jersey state of New I will bear true faith and Allegiance be true Faith andg to the same the the government established the Govern the United States stes and St the author people the authority of the people I will Faithfully I will faithfully and partially and just and perform all the duties perform all the duties the office to theability thank you s sor okay uh having no proclamations or recognitions let's move on to the approval of minutes February 21st 2024 Council minutes meeting uh TR Muk absent I have a motion second second please read the role council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member choim nuke just council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes okay pass uh it's time for the initial public comment limited to 3 minutes items on the agenda only one topic per speaker please state your name and town of residence for the record does anyone wish to speak tonight I have uh I have Jonathan J Joseph oh okay online Jonathan De Joseph on the phone or on the zoom mayor Jonathan De Joseph Hillsdale New Jersey does a resolution on tonight for $55,000 for additional um Professional Services at Centennial Field just want to see how much money has been spent to date there on professionals and how much additional funding is anticipated to be spent on Professionals for the work so I have 345,000 or so on professionals and on the drainage system I don't have the separation of the professionals alone I can have that uh for tomorrow as far as how much we spending more on uh the fields uh we cannot disclose the actual number because of the bidding process uh but the council will have access to that number the 55 ,000 is for the professional uh Services excuse me okay also complete the project excuse me I I you weren you didn't come through clearly try again mayor was that is that going to be to complete the project or there going to be additional proposals on additional work there to complete the project at that's it's the 55,000 to put us in position to then for Centennial Field the Midfield only not the side field and it should be noted that the the money that has been spent in the past would have had to been spent now if we hadn't already done some of that work most of that money we would have to do again to do the testing and the D permitting and all those things we still within the window we're using it correct okay may I ask a question of our bu attorney please is this public comment or public question because everything we're discussing is on the agenda already and the resident did not make a comment he asked questions it's it's it's public comment I refer to the chair as to entertaining questions and we do occasionally entertain we do occasionally entertain questions uh I leave that in mayor's discretion we I don't think we have a whole lot of people that are talking tonight so I uh is is there anybody else you're welcome anybody else yes please state your name and town and what you want to discuss James Waller Hillsdale New Jersey great to see everybody here tonight um I'm excited about the prospects of the future here with the fields obviously there's been some great movement um we're on board you have the support of the parents in this town we're excited about the future here for our children for our home values for everything that comes with living in a beautiful town like Hillsdale so we thank you uh for continuing to push this forward and we look forward to the future thank you thank you for your comment okay uh yes for kapo Hillsdale um i' like to Second what Mr La had to say um it's good to see that the council and new mayor are on board with this uh Project funding and you know Improvement of the of the fields uh for our kids um I I speak to uh some of the residents who have kids that are older and it seems that this has been an issue for a long time in this town and uh I'm glad that we're finally getting around to moving it forward and getting this done and uh thank you mayor for your support um it's nice to have would anybody else like to comment anybody online okay let's uh let's close the public comment period and um is there any discussion no um correspondence no correspondence professionals report we have callers here good evening mayor and councel uh so I'm going to start off with a summary on pting projects a couple of these we are still waiting for the budget to pass to get moving um that that's going to be the uh the 2024 and the 2023 dot projects so um once once we've gone through the budget we'll we'll see some more movement on those for uh the 2022 dot project that's Alpine Terrace Shadyside Lane and CR Court we are still working on the close out for this project we're getting very close to finishing that we just need some uh some paperwork basically to get that resolved and we'll be able to close out that project and recoup the outstanding funding to the burrow and then the fall Capital Paving project is the only other open Paving project that we have right now we just received the fin invoice from the contractor so we are reviewing that payment package and we're going to be issuing a a recommendation for payment to The Bu shortly for the field projects we recently provided proposals for both Centennial Field and Memorial Field we understand that the uh Centennial Field project is on the agenda for the mayor and council's consideration tonight um the only other project I wanted to discuss was the Beachwood nature trail so we just recently completed plans for this project we provided those plans to the bureau we understand those plans are being currently reviewed by the environmental committee and um we are awaiting a final blessing on that to submit to the D so once we have the uh the sign off on those plans we're going to be submitting that to the D um hoping for that to go smoothly and then we can we can get that project out to bid all right that's all I have uh do have any question questions I was just going to ask in your experience how long do it usually take for the DP to get back on something like that so it depends on what what permits are involved I'm not sure if they have ironed out exactly what permits that we need yet um I understand that the the plans are currently being finalized and then they are going off to our ecological Department to evaluate that um I I don't think that meeting is extremely complicated for that project so I wouldn't anticipate an extremely long perming process for that okay there any one that I wait for the resolution okay any any member of the council have a comments questions thank you for your report thank you uh it is time for committee reports let's start down with councilman rogo uh no committee report coming back now Council manoso yeah I I just wanted to mention that uh we welcome Dan KY to the Recreation Commission he is the new Rec director uh he started a couple of weeks ago he's uh worked in uh the burough paramis as well as the burough May Maywood we look forward to seeing some great things from him he's already uh beginning to introduce a brochure of uh events and activities for the children and the population of the town uh that will be introduced via the web uh shortly um with regards to rec I also wanted to mention that baseball's opening day is April 6 uh we have a lundry list of things that we're getting done uh prior to the the start of the Season uh rain date is April 7th uh so hopefully everybody comes out there's a number of things that are planned Council hello hi um I did meet with the library board last night um again I just want to reiterate that this um Saturday is that um maker day that they're having that um but it's it's open now even if you didn't sign up to be part of the contest it's still open for uh families to go because there's all sorts of activities uh to make crafts and and and whatnot so it's it's really like a a fun day of activities and it's from 10 to 4: um and addition I just wanted to point out that the library is uh has an open position for um part-time position for evenings and Saturdays so again I would you know encourage people to go to the website and see what what it you know what the description of the position is there um we I've also had the economic development committee we met last week um we are still in the process of discussing uh different uh ideas and thoughts that we have we're meeting with the um burrow planner um Darlene green at sometime next week and that will probably uh give us some more data and information that will help us sort of solidify more of the concept that we want to bring to to the town so um don't have anything in more detail to report on that particular subject um and other than that that's it for my committee okay thank you um council president esar the only thing we discussed that the police committee a couple weeks ago was the promotion of s in conine and for OEM there's nothing to rep and it's O we we avoided the flood yes we did barely good yes your handywork councilman Fox nothing to report councilwoman Lundy okay I gave most of my committee reports last week but just to reiterate sty Brook registration opens Monday the 18th early registration closes on May 5th and Stony Brook will be holding their open house May 18th from 10: to 3 there's a 10% discount for new members um the senior luncheon is March 20th at St John's and the field committee met last week to discuss plans for Centennial and Memorial we'll have further details on that as we go through the resolutions that are on the agenda great okay thank you uh it is time for Budget ordinances 24-7 introduction borrow Hillsdale calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank be it resolved that ordinance 2407 does now pass a first reading and that set ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting of the mayor and councel in the municipal municipal building 380 Hillsdale Avenue Hillsdale New Jersey on April 2nd 2024 and at said time and place all persons interested will be given an opportunity to be heard the same and the clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish said ordinance in the Ridgewood news once at least once a week at least one week prior to set hearing with a notice of its introduction and of the time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for final passage do I have a motion motion second second please read the rooll council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member choim yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes and consider it introduced uh now we get to the 2024 budget updated budget presentation 2024 introduced budget um first we'll have the resolution uh uh on waving the reading of the full 2024 budget please let's let's wave that uh motion motion second second please read the rule counc council member ruko yes council member TR Muk yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes resolution passes you the ORD first passes uh unanimously 2499 self-examination of the bud motion moot second second second cler please read the rooll council member chimu yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes resolution passes uh 24100 introduction of the 2024 budget motion motion second before we move on that yes if we could have a couple minutes discussion hi David Jones CFO of Hill uh as we were building the budget we left the re salaries as they had been status quo paid through out of the trust councilman also sent me an email today so I inquired I reached out to our auditor and the recreation salary should be in the current fund and they should be paid for out of the current fund hasn't been the past practice um but but it is something that he says we should be doing to do that we would need to amend the budget before we introduce it uh the rec salaries for the rec director and the assistant would need to be $120,000 so we'd have to mend a few line items to get there we also have to take advantage of the Appropriations cap exceptions for this year I was hoping to leave them in the bank for futures uh but given what that will do to our ation cap will have to move a couple of things around in the budget on the revenue side we have I think two options uh we can do a tax levy increase over what it was and let the 120,000 sit on the tax levy that would be $33.33 to the average household and that's above the 104 that we talked about last week or we could take it out of surplus uh we had reduced our Surplus utilization earlier uh when we found some ordinances unspent on the road program so we didn't have to fund as much in this year's program so I think those are the two items that we should consider um as far as moving direct salaries into the budget and how we address it on the r side Dave if you take it out if you increase taxes what will that in what would that bring the tax rate to on the average I don't know what the rate is I only did a dollar calculation the dollar calculation by $33.33 okay and and how all right but we're saying how much in total the 120,000 is what is in the salary system based on conversations you and I've had that's like a 1% increase or maybe a little more so it would go from 3.49 to 4.49 just about yeah and what will this do to the out years now reducing the Surplus uh better than we were last week not as good as we were on Monday D you said you had you said you had some found some favorability right for road work yes that wasn't done we couldn't just offset the salaries against that U that that has already been brought down in the budget document that's in front of you we've already taken that that's if you look at the updated presentation it shows a surplus deficit down to 250 for next year here instead to 550 that would be back up to 350 you would just raise the deficit right that would be the only change those would be the changes I'll read them specifically before we introduce I'll read sheet and line item that we would change once you let me know which way we want you to see right so that that was still better than last week better than last week okay not as good as Monday right sure so are you asking us tonight to tell you which way we want to go if we don't want to do that we could introduce that is then we would have to do an amendment because it is greater than 10% of a single line item which would mean we'd have to do the amendment at the next meeting then read advertise the amended and then so that pushes us out or adoped may it pushes us out a month so I'll start at this end I would prefer to take it as Surplus I I agree with AB I would go out of circles I would be comfortable taking it out Surplus myself if you want my recommendation that would be fine agree with you recomendation Surplus I'll go the recommendation as well okay then the changes to the document in front of you would be on sheet 14 general liability would decrease to 214 814 workers comp would also decrease to 21418 on that sheet 14 on sheet 15b rep salary and wages would increase 120,000 on sheet 20 this is for uh Appropriations cap relief a liability would be 56276 workers comp would be 7737 and on sheet four Surplus anticipated uh would increase to uh 38700 so those would be the changes I'll have an updated document for uh the CL CL um to be able to post um but I check with the auditor we're good on adopting it just on that meing and that Amendment before you introduce okay would you agree so as amended then um we get a motion then to move it forward as amended motion second second first please read the rooll council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member yes council member ooso yes council member rupo yes council member TR yes introduced first reading unanimously all right um we're moving on to 2408 introduction of a capital ordinance for the burough of Hillsdale in the county of Bergen New Jersey authorizing the main of various public improvements and Acquisitions in by and for the swim pool utility of the burrow appropriating therefore the sum of $102,000 and providing that sum that such sum so appropriated shall be raised from the swimming pool utility Improvement fund of the borrow be resolved that ordinance 248 does now pass a first reading and that said ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting of the mayor and Council in the municipal building 380 Hillsdale Avenue Hillsdale New Jersey on April 2 2024 and at said time and place all persons interested will be given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same and the clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish set ordinance in the Ridgewood news once at least one week prior to set hearing with a notice of its introduction and of the time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for final pass passage do I have a motion motion second second will the clerk please read the role council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member chuk yes council president Escobar yes pass is unanimously we now move on to the consent agenda resolutions 24101 through 24111 anyone does anyone have anything they want pull yes yeah I'd like to pull 24109 and 24110 to the non-consent okay can I get a motion for the consent resolution with the exception of 24109 and 24111 motion second second court please read the role council member oo yes council member ruko yes council member chimu yes council president Escobar yes council member lendy yes okay those resolutions have passed uh let's take the nonc consent resolutions one at a time starting with 2419 uh discussion I had asked that this be pulled um this was uh we need a motion first motion for for discussion motion second second have a motion in a second councilman R was going to yes discuss let's go okay thank you um I ask that this Paul just to have uh some a brief uh history as well as put this in the proper context um we've spent according to the ba almost $400,000 on in the past trying to get Centennial Field that Middle Field uh renovated um over the years since 2018 uh some of that money is wasted some of it will not be wasted as I understand it some of it will go to the new effort um or we it it resulted studies that will be helpful to the new effort um it authorizes an additional $56,000 to let cers um provide various Engineering Services um outlined in their letter of of March 5th and that letter was sent to the Barrow administrator to the CFO and to the clerk the public hasn't seen it yet um I think it's an integral part of of the public allowing the public to understand what we're doing so I'm curious as to why that wasn't shared with the public public prior to um to this meeting tonight be like to address sure issue so this will go to bid and for the bidding process Integrity uh we did not share it with the public I shared it with the clerk I shared it with the uh with the fields committee they have seen it uh uh John R I spoke to him about it I gave him that number but the 55,000 is uh to use some of the previous work that that was done and this is a whole new work uh this is for for us to deliver a playable safe field we have to have a secondary drainage system we have to have the rim so we can have the drainage netw workking uh this will be started it be there's a maintenance uh schedule on it but for us to say here is the actual work and here's the the actual cost that we think we it it will cost and we should uh budget for it the contractors who are going to bid and having those you that number they will have an advantage knowing exactly how much we have budgeted for but they would all know right sorry but they but any advantage if there's multiple biders yeah we don't share how much we would uh it will cost we did in the past by accident and and that was u a mistake but it was a best learned so for us you know for me to share how much uh the engineer said this might cost uh it won't be coming from me the letter of March bit doesn't have that information it does not right so why would you not want to share this with the I said why because we don't want to share it publicly so the biders don't know how much we are budgeting to spend the amount you're budgeting to spend is it in here it's actually redacted it was but it the the letter that I have here only talks about about the Engineering Services that you're going to be providing you wrote the letter does it have the an estimate of what the construction it's not there okay but so why wasn't this letter made available to the public I just said c because we don't want to give out the number that we are going to budget but they wouldn't detect that number from this letter this letter as we all received it a few days ago does not have that information you saying that letter was not shared why that that was not shared redacted letter hasn't been shared but this letter was not made public on our agenda it's it's not a draft so why not share this letter with the public that could be made public without the num words so the proposal that we got hadn't been discussed just like we do this every time hadn't been discussed amongst Council yet so it's a deliberative document until the council discussed it now that they are discussing it it could put it out there but it will not have any cost estimates on there because of the bding process okay that's a separate issue which I was going to get to my first question was why this letter as redacted apparently which I didn't know why this wasn't shared with the public she just told me she just said and the council has spoken about it it can be shared the answer I'm hearing is it falls under the advisory consultative and deliberative exemption of of Oprah which I question but that's not my role here to to make that decision but it seems like we do our residents a disservice it's optional whether we apply that standard to this particular letter I've written to a number of people asking you know is this what's done is it required the answer I get back from New Jersey Le municipalities there no it's not acquired this body always has the option of making it available um but this body has chosen not to be as transparent as it should be with the residents my second question is what's wrong I mean I'm asked to to vote on this I don't know how much no written estimate that I've received I'm not aware of any written estimate we've talk individually about broad numbers but how do you expect any one of us here to vote on something when we don't know what the project in Broad scope will will cost us so the fields committee seen it this was the last space it has breakdown of the numbers the fields committee making the recommendation that we proceed with us to the council as is well if we I'm not on the fields committee but if we don't find a number that's acceptable we don't have to move forward we don't at that point this is this is just to take the next step and I agree with you now that we've had the chance to deliberate about that document I personally would not have a problem disclosing it redacted if there's any financial information there I think now that we've had a chance to discuss it it could be made public I wouldn't want to vote a yes or no on this resolution until I know what I'm buying how much am I going to be in for the only people that aren't going to know are the people bidding to do the work we've all spoken about what we think it's going to cost and if we get a if we only get bids that are way outside the range we can turn it down okay so here here's a from historical perspective Mr Mayor when we've had prior Engineers statile Associates neglia when they've provided a letter like this they've always provided us with an estimate of the construction costs I'm expeced to vote on this I don't know what the construction cours are going to be you want to F committee okay you know what the estimate is do you know Janetta no no do you care I'm relying on the fields committee whose job it is to review to um have the conversations and be in touch with all the details just like we on the finance committee recommend the budget the people on the field committee do their due diligence and they make a recommendation to the rest of the council and I'm relying on their recommendation that they think we should Mo move forth with this because they have the necessary information to put this forth to the council for vote that's what I'm ring on let me ask a question then if someone were to come to you and give you an estimate for your roof and tell you I want $1,000 down but I can't tell you how much the whole job is going to cost would you hire them it's not the same subject why not because as I said there are three people on this Council I guess or or you're you're on the V committee and um they've met with the proper individuals and they know numbers just like that letter that you have that has been redacted had numbers in it but it's not privy to everyone because of what um the ba has been saying we're going to be going out to bid so you understand the concept that we can't tell so okay if we say oh yes we're willing to spend $20 million on this so now we're going to go out to bid is anyone going to bid under 20 million they're going to be if they want the job if they want the job they're going to $20 million because they know that if they want the job they'll B no no they're going to know that we're willing to spend 20 million so we don't want appreciate you come back is there any other member of the council that would like to weigh in on this thank you so this resolution is to retain coler's engineering to prepare bidding and design specs for this project right they're going to come back with the with the bid with the design spec and then we'll see an overall project why does it matter right now if how much that project is we don't want to take the bidding project we want them to do the work we want to make sure the project is feasable that's what we're voting on for Colliers to do the work that needs to be done in order to proceed with the project does anybody else have any comment on it okay I think we should move it to um for consideration can can I just ask Nick uh a question Nick with regards to the work that was done in the past right can you speak to that a little bit and how this work would further leverage that and how would it would improve our situation uh at Centennial I think I think it's important for the public to know that uh uh you know we're trying to get this right or corrected and uh we're not just uh just spending money out there all right so there I I don't have an itemization in front of me of every single thing that was done and we had spoken about a baseline cost with regards to the this work and I think that all the council members were involved in a conversation with regards to that cost at some point or another over the course of the last few weeks um it was reasonable to me it's one of the reasons why I'm in favor of moving forward with this resolution right but I would like you to go ahead and and provide the the support for doing the work from an engineering standpoint sure so we've done geotechnical testing the geotechnical testing is still valid and useful in terms of Designing the field as we are proceeding now right we have done Environmental investigation we've done coordination with the lsrp in relation to the landfill all this information that we've gathered this is a very complicated site this is this isn't a straightforward you know we can just lay out grass or grade it or do whatever we want and it's there's a lot of poops to jump through in order to get anything started here just because of the fact that it is on the landfill and how shallow that landfill is so all the information that we've gathered throughout the prior iterations of this project where it's been the the the scope that we were planning on doing has changed several times the information that we've gathered as we develop those those pieces is still relevant and useful to what we're planning on doing now so I I I can't I can't put a number on it off the top of my head exactly what is useful and what isn't I know that we've had those discussions and I I believe Mike you provided breakdowns to this in the past I have um can you T on the draining system how it will work with the current system so they know that there's more just Gress sure so there was previously installed a u a drainage system by Chris teal firm we are planning on building on top of that system in order to bolster it and improve upon it um so his his drainage improvements that we put in we're not going to just rip it out and say we don't know what that is we're just going to rip it out and do a whole new one we're going to build in addition to so that will be an added factor of safety that we have in terms of making sure that this F drains the the reason or the thinking behind doing that is um it's it's difficult for us to determine exactly where or if there are any problems with that system because we don't know the specifics of how it was designed and we didn't observe it being installed so there's a number of things that that could have happened we we don't really know and we don't want to take chances we want to make sure that you get a field that functions properly and in order to be able to back that and guarantee that for you we have to be able to install our own system so we're we're very confident that if we do what we're proposing to do that you're going to get a feel that that drains well and that works would you say in in your professional opinion that the teal system provided some incremental benefit to the drainage on that field I'm I'm sure it did yeah okay and this will further improve the situation on that field that's correct okay uh with regards to the two baseball fields at either end of that uh field where we're going to do work the work that you're doing is going to impact the drainage on that field no that's outside of the scope of the project no no what I'm saying is that anything that you do there you're not going to run off now no because things have changed right no but we aren't going to be specifically addressing drainage on those fields that was part of the original F that we talked about but because of budget reasons we scaled that back right and are you addressing irrigation with rest yes that is part of the proposal okay because that is an issue as well right okay yeah have any other questions I have a question but for the B administrator sure thank so the last page of the letter had the information that I'd be looking for yes field committee knew it the mayor knew it you knew it the three council members did not know it correct why didn't you share that last page with the three council members I shared the number I didn't share the page I shared the number with you also you shared a number verbally it was a range right it could be anywhere here I am thinking it's not in writing I would not feel comfortable voting on this Mr May unless I saw it and writing Mr may I was not given that opportunity okay just so that last page has the breakdown of the services to be rendered including irrigation the soil movement and there's number for each one of those by the way I haven't seen that in actual other than hearing the stroke numbers as well we don't want that PA to be public and if you had shared it with us it would not be public in any event it just is courtesy I shared it with the council with the three members of the committee okay well we're going to we can go back and forth on this all the time we've already had the Motions will the clerk please read the role council member ruko abstain council member choh yes council member sorry council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member yes council member also yes passes five nothing with one exstension uh the consent right no I was going to that next 24111 uh corrective resolution amending a w amount for the contract for grass cutting on burrow own property no 110 110 oh 110 oh okay right okay resolution toting Kathy elard position dep parttime social work uh social EA on a motion to discuss I had asked that if you we're going to have discuss about that that's what we did I accept motion okay motion I need a second second is there a second second I'll second okay uh it's open for discussion yeah I I only asked um you know we're we're considering this creation of a new position because the uh the state demanded it return over to them case workk for the local assistance board um and that occurred because of an unfavorable audit on some aspects of local assistance board was doing so now we're creating a position where some of the work performed will be retained by the burrow um and I thought that we owe the residents um an explanation of what those duties have been assigned to the position um to help less fortunate residents because that's what we're doing when we pass this this resolution um it's viewed as desirable by me and and by others if fact presum on the council but I just think that we should before we just create this position on the consent agenda and add $177,000 to our salary liability that there should be some explanation of what this position will entail would be like to comment sure so we're doing exactly what Westwood is also doing uh we're we're using the same person there are families either in need uh families who don't speak the language or new families that move to town and they need and require uh Social Services they don't know how to obtain a services from the county uh and this position will be that leaon so it's Leon's position this person will be working with people who we will never know who they are who they are uh to help them either to find U how to get food stamps how to get assistance from the county uh how to learn English as a second language the library uh there are no numbers to be traed we don't have to report to the state on what she's doing this is appointed directly to the Bor and uh between us and Westwood uh where they have the same need uh and same person actually also so it's just a liazon between the county the state and people in need of services and the position will not entail the handling or transfer of funds there's no funds involved at all and these people otherwise were falling through the cracks on these issues because what my understanding was that the stuff that was going to the Board of Social Services were welfare recipients and these are not necessarily Ware recipients correct okay someone who moves to town and they need to learn speak speak English uh this position will will guide them to where to go and make sure that they get the service that they need okay Mike you'll be able to manage her utilization make sure that um her hours are filled right she will be providing uh a monthly report and then uh I can report uh on a monthly basis on some of of the services that we are providing right and in the event that we're not getting value there we could we always have the option can I this employee has not been noticed and you're talking about her performance her evaluation I think the bur attorney needs to stop this line of discussion she hasn't been race noticed I wasn't talking about her yeah are I was talking about utilization whether or not she was actually fing calls and uh that's a performance let's let's limit our discussion to the position as opposed to any discussion of the person I I will I will make clear to the council I'm sure most of you are aware of this that you only have to Rice if you go into clothes you don't have to Rice an employee if you discuss it in public whether it's a good practice or not or whether it's polite or a nice way to do business is a different story but rice only accompanies a motion to go into close and it only provides the employee with the option of saying she wants to be there or not open so of course a discussion in open does not require R nonetheless uh it would always be my advice that we should stick to the position the position and the resolution the resolution is one which suggests that we should be funding a part-time position similar to Westwoods for a person to undertake these duties which I think we have discussed already at some length is there any anything else that should be discussed about that my question was strictly about utilization hours as it relates back to the $177,000 yeah she it's not about performance it's not about we're not given her a peer review you know just about whether or not that that $177,000 is being spent on uh delivery of product that's it she'll be an employee for the borrow reporting Toba I'll keep a track of our activities and I I'll put on the workers to doing this is a good service the Bor is providing to the residents many towns don't have this service okay everybody reasonable about the outcome without further please read the role council member TR yes council president esar yes council member Fox yes council member lendy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes resolution passes it is time for public comment uh limited time to 3 minutes any topic please state your name and town of residence for the record yes PA kapo Norwood New Jersey I find it interesting that the first person who spoke uh tonight via Zoom had the number of 55,000 so I don't know where that person got it from he say it's in the agenda it's not in our agenda it's in the resolution which resolution the resolution solution there is 55 the the cost of cers yes that that number is the price for CER services not the estimate for the work to be done that's a widely released number that's in the rest 4 40 2419 um what is the resolution yes yes yes yes there's no there's no number in this that's a resolution the actual resol where that printed you have the title for it only okay you would have you would have to hit the the link to the resolution and there's no on online it's accessible yes and that's the price of Coler service not the price I have no problem with it I was just curious how that person who called in had the number a different thing click through gotcha okay um and thank you Council for supporting um moving forward on the Improvement of field would anybody else in the public like to be heard yes almost tripped on that dis hey everybody Chris Camp uh Raymond Street Hillsdale um yeah I was just uh I was just looking at this and I appreciate the uh the detailed uh analysis of uh the the the budget I know there's some changes need to be made before discussed again but from a resident perspective I'd be kind of curious uh to get like further assurances about certain things like I see that the uh I the obviously we're we have a heavy Reliance on the Surplus coming in and then there's also uh in terms of uh miscellaneous Revenue um re with the main driver being uh interest earnings um for that so I I kind of I would be curious from the buau to kind of get some sort of risk analysis um I'm there's like a slight residential concern about the the flexibility for future years uh having so much of the the budget be uh you know be increased towards uh these The Sur uh being relying on the Surplus and the miscellaneous cost so just some sort of uh assurances on the forecast the future for forecast of these numbers and uh how we plan to deal with that from the future kind of make things a little clear for the public um to just to see that like I for for instance the uh the the revenue analysis trending graph it's got a general uh Trend upwards so uh what what are we going to do to get that uh in control for future years so thanks thank you for your comments does anybody else from the public wish to be heard nobody online we will now close the public comment section and move on to council commentaries I'm going to begin um by this morning uh the league of municipalities the Mayors got together and met uh for I think the second meeting in a row on affordable housing Y and um the numbers are rather interesting and that's to be kind um it looks the legislation A4 passed the assembly last month and we're anticipating next week it's already been through the Senate uh procreations committee finance committee and it's now going to go to the full senate for review and it appears that the state number for Affordable housing units beginning in 2025 is going to be 8469 which if you extrapolate that out being that 20% of that is affordable housing you multiply to get to 423,000 units um to be allocated among the 565 or so municipalities that comprise New Jersey to come up with that number now we're all going to um have that number brought down in our municipalities by actually taking a look at what is actually developable land um we have a lot of stuff that's underwater we just don't have a whole lot of other possibilities to do that so that's going to be factored into it as well um but I'm still not positive how the 25% Factor they have a number that is supposed to be your aspirational goal and then there's a number that's given and in the past there were allowances it was your RDP for what you had to what you had to create and now they're going to take 25% of that aspirational number and factor that into whatever number you've got I say all this because ultimately that number could just be put upon us and with that number put upon us that is going to impact all of our services um if we're going to have this many more units and it's going to impact our power grid it's going to impact our sewers it's going to impact all of our services and it could depending upon how it works out um impact our borrowing capacity because if we have to pick up the cost for the financing of these ancillary Services related to these units uh it could be heavily impactful I'll I'll be kind to that um Hillsdale is fortunate in that we actually have three people because we have the mayor of Montell who is there who was our VA to attend as well as the mayor Emeritus who is granted you're on the board now of the league uh to attend as well so um correct me if I'm wrong on any of this it's it it can a rather daunting number there's a whole lot of other numbers that go into it but suffice it to say um that in the very near future we could be sort of with a gun to our head as being forced to come up with a number and just roll with it so I just want to make everybody aware of that it's looming out there uh since I just spoke on Fair Share housing one I start with um the ameritus member of the board uh down there yeah thank you mayor um I I share your concern we heard the same numbers um I even calculated using 15% as the gearing ratio because most of these apartments are rental units or will end up being rental units you're going to have to add about 565,000 units Statewide um it's unsupportable for towns like Hillsdale and the towns in PC Valley um and the only way to satisfy our RDP which is uh an acronym for uh residential development potential if I remember they they they value the treasure housing with abbreviations um it's to build up and to build higher um and as a couple of the Mayors observed today we don't want to look like hackensac um no one does among that that group of pesak Valley Mayors and and even other Mayors around the buron county that attend these meetings and even when accounting for the fact that Hillsdale has very little vacant land available and we do the vacant land adjustment and as you pointed out then you have a 25% factor to apply to the difference between what originally was and your adjusted the number for vacant land and you still have to um include that in your uh uh in your in your plans you have to um the legislation even denies us the protection that we here to for had received received from the court by virtue of having a court endorsed plan uh it now opens that plan that third round plan the old plan that we agreed to uh to questions from developers and at the same time allows developers to question what we do in the fourth round which is coming up um we get no Repose from the courts apparently under this no no secure repos it can always be challenged and this is no way to run a business um furthermore the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is ramping up its regulations for towns around the state making it even more difficult to pick land to upon which to build um that makes our job even harder finally I'd have to say that the deadlines that were included in these two bills which is what a A4 and A4 totally unrealistic um requiring us to come to a number by the end of this year and then in January I think we to the end of January to approve it which as Senator japy noted that if we have turnover if we have new members of council if we have new whatever um if you have people that are not acclimated to it and whether Hillsville or any Town um there's going to be uh a learning curve that is really unrealistic especially then the deadline is what February 2nd to to get them to approve become and just so that that there's no misunderstanding the Mayors and and everyone who was attended this meeting Council presidents or councilman sitting in for the for uh for their Mayors uh nonpartisan composed of Democrats and Republicans not one person in that room and there were about maybe 30 um wanted to go forward with this uh but it it's just like a as someone said it's a train wreck the train is moving down the tracks and you see the wreck but you can't stop it and apparently our legislators down in Trenton don't care or they're uninterested or they're ignorant of what the impact would be on not only our towns but their own towns um so it it's a bad situation um they told us at the meeting well write your write your state legislature and your assembly representative well in our district our guys are already opposed opposed to it I don't know what good it does for you or me or anyone on this Council to write to another District's legislator as you were joking with me you say well this guy doesn't live in my district goes the letter so um it it's just a bad situation overall and that i' it at that at this point I with with again strongly urging this Council to engage and I know you're sensitive to this and you plan to do this engage uh our col's engineering Miss darene green uh who is helped us immensely uh at at our last uh round uh and walk know full well benefits that you provided us engage her quickly and let her start to guide us y uh you to to protect us if if that's possible um I had uh two things I just wanted to mention my counil and commentary besides this um I wanted just to congratulate Brian conine on his promotion to detective Sergeant uh congratulate Joe o Conor and Lon Morgan on their Pro U not promotion but their acceptance into the fire department with respect to the budget um I'd like to thank the bur administrator the Chief Financial Officer um my fellow members of the finance committee uh for all their cont contributions to the budget uh that has been introduced tonight I didn't sit in on the department head meetings that occurred in dece in December I guess um but thank them as well because I know they put in time uh the committee the the financial uh finance committee was pleased with the efforts of both the CFO and the uh ba and developing a budget that strove to meet the uh regulatory appropriation cap the levy cap requirements uh in the face of some demanding funding U requirements posed by prior decisions of the council by an increase in normal operating expenses and um in attempting to accommodate the council's aspirational wishes to significantly renovate uh our athletic facilities um CFO and the ba are to be commended for doing this uh and as a member of the finance committee I can say that this budget weighs out a financial pathway for that um and certainly uh I think should involve Us in some further discussion but but as I said earlier budgets earlier in the finance committee budgets represent priorities because it puts money where one's mouth is um it's a financial representation of those priorities uh and a vote to adopt this budget any budget uh involves a somewhat different calculus for elected officials than what the CFO and the ba have to go through uh not technical but political in the best sense of that word in the sense of a significant cial choices having to be made so each of us will review the budget uh public will review the budget but we will use our own discernment of the public will and what we value individually um to decide to to adopt this budget or not will make recommendations during the the intern period lastly want to observe uh to our Muslim residents Ramadan started March 10th it ends April 9th a small percentage of hillsdale's population about 1 half of 1% uh belongs to the Islamic faith uh nevertheless I wish them all a u a successful month of fasting prayer reflection and Community which is at the heart of of their religion um that's all I have to say Council boso yeah it's tough following uh the mayor Meritus here um I don't want to repeat everything he said I also want to thank the uh the audience here it's nice to have people actually attending the meeting meetings and coming out to support some of the things on the agenda Council I also want to thank the audience for attending and of course you all are always welcome to attend any of our Council meetings and bring your friends with you thank you okay uh councilwoman Ry okay um I'd also like to uh congratulate to Texas Sergeant conines on his promotion and the welcome the new firefighters to the fire department um they have a safe career wish everybody a happy St Patrick's Day a happy Easter and that's all I have councilman Fox I too want to just congratulate to Tech of Sergeant Brian Constantine and the new members of the fire department Landon Morgan and Joseph roner council president vavar and I doo want to congratulate fact con and the members of the fire fire department and I want to wish everybody a very happy St St Patrick's Day if you go into the city on Saturday hopefully the weather holds up and Sunday we'll be Pearl River so I just want you guys to have a nice safe holiday and maybe I see in a par okay and the ba please get on the first round thank you two quick things uh one uh thank you to the CFO and to the finance committee on the budget this was the year to rise size the budget so we actually building in for what to come in 2025 and Beyond in terms of staff policing and the services so thank you for the introduction and hopefully we do the adoption uh we began to install the French drains around the Bor Hall um around the police department hopefully we don't have to test that anytime soon uh the zoom system in this room is attached to filos and opon systems and it hasn't worked well forever uh we have it te here every week uh the way to do it is to overhaul everything in the $100,000 range um Zoom is is a curacy we're not required to have it uh and almost all the towns around us don't use zoom uh since government was meant to be to meet in person uh we would like to move away from Zoom uh starting starting next month uh that will still be on FiOS and Optimum and if a council member cannot make it they can call in we'll have a speaker phone uh it to be connected to the system and it will work I know I pulled the the council and the mayor before on whether or not that's acceptable if you'd like your mayor to you do that again uh we'd like to stop it next month if possible well so that would mean that anybody that's interested who's been commenting on Zoom would be required to come in in person in person otherwise so it's asynchronous it's a one way communication they watch it on on public access correct at that point it's a public meeting it's wide open phone would not work Mike for a resident um the phone we will have a phone just for the council members uh to have a new system I don't we want invest in that okay that's I was just you'd end up with having to have people calling for a busy phone number wouldn't get through be like a radi station everybody remember those um anything else that's I just want to have you okay that uh we can disconnect the zoom from the system from the council and you how does everybody on the council feel about that there no other option as far as trying to enhance it you said the cost to be over 100,000 we have to change it whole rack I think it's definitely a benefit if you can't attend in public to be able to zoom in uh but if it's not working then I mean there's no other option it's a courtesy that we offer we don't have to do it uh we've been doing it but it it doesn't work well plus when we have to make presentations uh we have to have multiple PCS on at the same time to try and make it and doesn't work well can we table it we don't have to make a decision tonight on it I think we should talk about it further I agree okay okay let's talk about that further anything else that's it okay um no more business before the board uh can I get a motion to adjourn motion second second all in favor say I I we are a jured thank you okay