can I get a motion to reconvene the meeting no motion second all in favor I okay great um we're going to go right to you guys for a review of the well you've already got your presentation up there so you know we don't want it to burn the screen so get you going as fast as possible Mark and just if you want to introduce yourselves and I'm sure we all know who you are but you got and first of all that that presentation you gave before unbelievably impressive we're moving forward and I think a huge part of it is the two of you and I really just want to go on the record and say thank you for what you've been doing okay name is the Curr chief of I'm also director of the service we September can you just talk more into the mic I I'm not sure yeah you can sit if you want to sit you can sit yeah and they making going it's going making a presentation on this yeah okay I'm G to come around and see it just tap it make sure it works all right well good afternoon everybody um for those that don't know my name is Justin eliopoulos I am the current chief of Hillsdale Ambulance and I am also the director of our pum service that we've implemented this past September good evening mayor and Council my name is Mark Greenwood I am the deputy director of Hillsdale Ambulance Service I thank you for your time and your generous support I am an EMT police officer I was previously a dispatcher and I'm also a volunteer EMS Chief and I'm happy to be working in the buau helping with the solution great thanks here to take us off sure so again for those that don't know we made a transition this past September to a combination model which is much different from our solely volunteer model we had in the past uh our daytime coverage is primarily considered of pum staffed employees um with our nights and weekends being comprised of volunteers um to cover those off those off hours excuse me um we recognized very early on the past couple of years that volunteerism especially volunteer EMS was very hard to sustain and there were a lot of times we were dropping a lot of EMS calls there were residents of this buau that were being unserviced by medical coverage and we wanted to make a change to better staff our ambulance so we could ensure proper coverage to our Bureau um we wanted to make sure that we prioritized quick response properly trained employees professional attitudes um all for the benefit of our residents in our burrow here in Hillsdale so that's why we made the change over to this kind of hybrid model we have here a little bit about our overview right now we have 15 perm employees that are working and their salary their pay scale is between $26 an hour and $28 an hour that's allowing for 247 coverage our volunteers aren't stressing themselves out being that long away from their family so they're able to take on more of the overnight shifts our perdm members are working Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. and our volunteers are still providing coverage on the week nights and the weekends right now during the day we're only focusing on Hillsdale our resident are guaranteed an ambulance when they call 911 and often times we're arriving with the police department if not sometimes beating them Chief sorry happy about our PDM members are also able to be in the schools this past year we've done a few presentations with different clubs and teachers as well as at daycares and we're really looking to move forward with that because our perdm members they're available during the day they're not at another job and they're happily to be there and provide that resource to our community the volunteer members are still going to the football games they're still participating within the community they're still doing fundraiser we have our 50-50 raffle next month and again you know they're out in the community they're helping out our mutual Aid Partners when they need us like I mentioned before a quick little timeline um once we started getting this established we work with the Boro to make this happen our job openings open about June 2023 we had a large influx of applicants come through in applications that we had to vet through to find the perfect employees for this agency to start um once we kind of compile those uh applications in July we SED reviewing those candidates bringing them in for interviews and on September 1st it was our official launch date of the service with that day actually us taking three calls back to back to back which was a great start for our uh our service in terms of our response times and whatnot the biggest thing that we're trying to emphasize and what we've been able to provide is when you call 911 we have an ambulance coming we're both volunteers we understand that it's difficult to staff volunteer ambulances but we want to ensures that the residents have timely care when it counts for instance this past year we responded during the eclipse there was a resident who fell 15 ft off of a deck requiring to be medac to a Trauma Center because of the severity of his injuries just within the past two weeks we had a roll over on Kinder KAC we had an entrapment right on Hillsdale at Magnolia by the school and our crews are arriving there very fast providing Rapid Care and sometimes they might still be on the phone with the dispatcher when the ambulance is outside very quickly in regards to our response time just to kind of give a gauge for how quickly our crews are actually getting out the door and onto medical scenes um currently right now the national average from national average time from dispatch to scene which is from when those initial emergency tones drop to alert our members that there's an emergency going on to when our ambulance arrives on that scene is 13 minutes and 59 seconds just about 14 minutes the national average compared to Burgen County average is roughly the same our average response time from dispatch to scene has drastically decreased down to 5 minutes and 6 seconds and that is from the second do tone drops till we are arriving at your front door bag in hand ready to help you with whatever emergency you have going on so you can see we were very close to that national average before and even with our volunteer coverage as well we're still at that 5minute Mark right now so it just shows it just shows everyone how quickly and how efficiently we're working now with this new and new and improved model this is a very brief graph that we're going to touch upon you can see a large gap between the top and the bottom on the top is the time that it took for volunteers last year from the time that the call was sent out by the dispatcher to the ambulance arriving on scene very similar calls whether it was a stroke patient was in Cardiac Arrest A significant vehicle accident or significant trauma or an overdose our ambulance Crews that are paid now are arriving on the scenes consistently under five minutes average of about five minutes for General calls able to provide that expeditious care and really helping our residents and finally just a 9-month review again we started in September of 2023 and as of right now we have treated 436 patients which is 436 medical calls um with 289 of those patients being treated by our pums with 147 of those patients being treated by our volunteers so you can see that discrepancy between PMs and volunteers uh again 5 days a week 12-h hour shifts you're bound to get more coverage compared especially with some night shifts having a little bit less volume compared to the days so it just shows to Goya how uh impressive this model has been for us and how thankful we are for you guys that you guys have been supporting us in this endeavor and making this happen for us and working together make Hill stale a safer burrow for all of us prior to the model being implemented you'd often times not know who's going to come during the week who might be responding to the school to provide care for one of the residents children or someone who's in the town could be a hospital ambulance it could be an ambulance from one of our mutual Aid Partners but now we're guaranteed we're in service Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. which I think is an incredibly strong message to send to the residents that we're here for you and then last but not least this is established in Hillsdale and we're looking towards improving this model to make everyone in our in our Bureau and everyone in the surrounding area much much safer so with that we just want to again extend our thanks to you all for making this happen without your support without your gener generosity we would not be in the position that we are today and I just truly need to say from the bottom of my heart thank you guys for making this happen questions question with regards to activity with regards to activity do you guys do a study as when you uh you know experience more activity is it later at night during the daytime hours where you realizing meing employees so we have conducted studies like that in the past and actually those numbers reflect that certain discrepancy um I don't have the exact percentages here but there is a a somewhat large discrepancy between daytime calls versus nighttime calls even with predominantly all of our calls during the daytime being Hillsdale we are still seeing more calls during the week days and the week nights just because night times there are a lot more ambulances available to cover certain jurisdictions um as well as as we all know most people are asleep and not engaging in any activities that could injure themselves during the night time so there is there is a discrepancy on on a um there higher higher call volume excuse me so higher volume well most definitely yes sir may I've been working with them for about a year and you know from my behalf um these guys are superstars um professional passionate about what they do uh there's one number that's not there from from from the time the signal goes off to the time they're actually out of the door is less than minute and a half so the EMTs are sitting there do during the day uh they're cleaning the equipment and preparing it for the night volunteer crew so they they don't have to do refilling the oxygen tax and stuff like that so um this has been working amazingly and I know the chief is very happy with the response time and I have my radio on dur during the day and I hear different towns and they go first call uh waiting for a second your crew member second call and third one cancel after about half an hour 45 minutes police or somebody else got into the hospital or something it wasn't the amb and we don't want that in Hillsdale were you guys finding a basically you have a 2 to1 ratio of day versus night um and I assume that that happened also when there was volunteers the year before that's same ratio correct the the ratio never changed the only difference now is that we are actually able to respond to all these calls that are going through okay yeah just want to thank you guys for making this happen you this is a very impressive presentation we appreciate your service and uh how many members do you guys currently have now in terms of for DM volunteer or both uh per DM per DM right now we have 15 employees on our roster right now with all except one right now due to school being active and volunteers volunteers we currently have 32 on our roster with about 12 to 14 actively picking up shifts with the rest rather being on vacation or academic leave medical leave different leaves like that all right thank you very much guys thank you once again thank you very much for your support we appreciate it thank you guys okay uh let's move on to the approval of previous minutes start with the closed session from June 11th uh councilman also absent uh can I get a motion to approve those minutes motion to approve the closed session minutes from June 10th June 11th motion second second all those in favor opposed motion passes oos you're opposed yeah I do not think that the minutes adequately reflect the discussion the reasons for increasing the size of the police force okay so it's 5 to one um you abstained oh no you can't vote vote four to one right okay 4 to one uh Council minutes uh the public minutes from June 11th 2024 can I get a motion motion second second all those in favor I I opposed no opposition uh passes what we yeah you have to obain anyway it passes it passes one okay uh initial public comment um limited to three minutes for the agenda items only I see we have uh Fred's here Fred if you come up and give your name your residence and uh so just make sure it's on if you just tap it to make sure that mic is on great okay thank you my name is Fred rubel I'm a resident of Hillsdale and have been so for over 30 years I've been a member of the Hillsdale environmental commission for seven years and currently serve as its chairperson I have worked as an environmental and occupational safety professional for more than 50 years environmental commission is an advisory body and a resource for the Burrow's government the environmental commission is comprised of volunteer residents that have some pretty amazing professional backgrounds and hands-on experience I am here on behalf of the environmental commission to uh comment on two uh important points that uh we would like to convey uh the first has to do with the tree ordinance revision that you're uh considering tonight hopefully everyone knows by now that an abundance of trees helps reduce runoff of storm water preserves water quality improves air quality offers shade and cooling on hot sunny days like we've been having uh reduces noise in the area and contributes greatly to hillsdale's Ambiance character and residential property values healthy large and impressively old trees or gems sitting in plain site here in Hillsdale many were seedlings around the time of the Civil War and earlier more than 150 years ago few things can be more distressing to a resident than the buzz of a of chainsaws and watching Once beautiful trees on neighboring properties being reduced to chunks of wood and carted away leaving a sudden gaping opening in the canopy above our current tree ordinance does not do enough to to discourage what are often foolish acts of tree destruction and removal we're excited that tonight you the burrow Council will start considering changes to the current tree ordinance as proposed by the environmental commission first let me thank council member Lundy for her support during this effort and we similarly similarly thank uh burough administrator gasali pending our more detailed review of the draft being proposed tonight we believe that the changes that we have proposed will make hillsdale's tree ordinance more effective and will also result in more new tree plantings around the burrow some key features include instituting a requirement for the first time to apply for a permit in advance of tree removal except in certain uh exempt circumstances uh better accounting uh for the important impact of larger trees um in so far as uh the removal and replacement of trees will be correlated to the size of the tree in addition uh to the property owner contractors who remove trees in violation of the ords will now also be subject to penalty I will add our disappointment if rather than being a leader in this Hillsdale merely Falls in line with other communities and allows Three Trees to be removed in any 12-month period without further approval by the burrow we recommend that um that this be no more than two trees removed per 24 months without further approval by the borrow during your review of the proposed ordinance change please let us know if you would like us to explain any aspects of what we are proposing we're available the second item uh I will just very briefly talk about and that is um uh that um uh the pasak Press reported that uh 2.7 million Capital ordinance approved June 11th includes funding for artificial turf fields at least one council member um member council member rugo uh reportedly indicated that the cost benefit analysis for the artificial field Sur uh Surface versus the cost for an improved real turf field was not explained satisfactorily but can you just we're at three minutes but I want you to have a chance to quickly go through it but we're everybody gets three minutes and you're exceeded that but if you just quickly okay so so uh we we have a position paper on this and uh I would just highlight that uh the initial obvious thought of an advantage of having artificial turf uh could easily be superseded by the cost of uh between 375,000 to $450,000 uh for the disposal of a football field worth of artificial turf at the end of it uh usable life which could range from between 8 to 25 years I'm done thank you thank you would anybody else in the audience like to speak seeing no other people uh looking to speak let's move on to um the Professional Services report I don't see our burough engineer here he is not here but he did submit his report if you have any questions on the report okay great anybody have any com just a clarification I guess I I seek um he talks on the top of page two current status and he's talking about the Magnolia Avenue project and he says the his the engineers estimate was 322,000 and change right um but just on the preceding page he talks about an a 504,000 estimates so I'm a little confused as to what his estimate was for that so the grant award is 270,000 all right see that on the bottom of page one right um and then it's followed by the estimated construction cost of almost 54,000 so so we had two bids uh one was for 284 one was for 322 so he's he so that last bullet point the the lower bidder was 284 versus the next one higher up is 322 that's what that is just so this isn't the the 322 isn't the engineers estimate it's the second bidder right okay so this is a this is an error okay um and then I mean I guess this gets back to the issue I was going to ask the engineer assuming he was here about this Synthetic Turf versus artificial turf um you know what why haven't we receive that type of analysis because there clearly issues that will be raised by residents as well as council members about artificial turf versus natural and we were told earlier on that they would be looking at that um and that the rec committee and the council would make its decision based on at least after hearing that input there was no in there was no input there was no discussion either at an open council meeting um or at a recreation committee meeting so why are we now in the path of artificial turf without any discussion we didn't ask him to come up with analysis on Turf versus natural we asked them to take a look at the field assess what can go on there uh with a Turf we didn't ask him to do the analysis one versus the other one I mean I I raised that at several Council me several several Council meetings ago and I was told by you that there would be that type of um you know discussion we haven't had it um I think it's a rather important discussion to have we we we can still have that discussion at some point but their their scope of service was to come back with what can go on Memorial Field after they do their assessment of the field well if if that's the only thing that we I mean if that's the way they request to them was posed I get that but I'm saying that that shouldn't have been the way that request was posed well this is their recommendation then no we asked them to look at at the field to Turf in the field but if the council wants to discuss at some point we can have it on the agenda at some point discuss which one is better we can have someone because I don't think K here are the are are the professionals that can give that they have to bring someone else in the house to tell you if it's which is better you know based on the accidents based on shelf life based on the cost we asked them to do turfing analysis and that's what they're doing okay if I can just expand a tiny bit on that one of the things that the engineers did say is based on the number of fields that we have in town and how much use our Fields get that they would recommend that we have a turf field because the natural side Fields need to be rested and without a turf field we don't have the opportunity to rest any of those fields so they actually recommended that we Turf a field right and I I think that recommendation makes a lot of sense when you value utilization of the field as a primary goal it doesn't make a lot of sense when you value when you value safety to the residents and you notice how I'm sorry you know what this how do I know whether or not go on no I'm asking I was asking for I know it's an issue so you wanted you wanted I want I I thought that there would be a discussion councilman about uh the pros and cons and what the historical scientific records show about um artificial turf myma M had out has installed artificial turf not without some negative issues so well there's also over a thousand turf fields in the state and I know the state also gives grants for for them as well so I would imagine if the state thought it was in that it wasn't safe for the residents I don't think there would be offering grants for it and and maybe that's correct but my obligation is to the residents of Hillsdale to have that type of discussion I don't really care what the other thousand school districts have done yeah but I think the state does have a lot of say in it not in Hillsdale but just in general I haven't seen from the engineer the arguments Pro or con for artificial on the safety issues and that's that's what I thought we should have done um I do have further questions about the engineers report um page three um there's a reference to a production of an updated storm water pollution prevention plan is the plan complete no okay um and so no one no one obviously has seen the plan it's not doesn't exist yet do you know when it will I don't okay it it's on the list okay all right and last question at the bottom of that page page three U it talks about uh this is on the Beachwood Park Band Shell Improvement project um they say that when it came to the uh Bandshell they recommended that the design and project coordination be handled by an architect um where does that stand so DMR was approached and they didn't want to take the job they asked to go somewhere else so I'm actually working with a superintendent and with u uh direct director to actually hire a separate contractor on on our own outside of the you know these businesses and do it on on our own it's a small job that no one wants to take the design aspect of the design and the actual project Okay so so we are moving ahead yeah we have $58,000 that we have to use by the end of this year we can still extend it one more year if we have to but we're we are planning to do it this year and we're going to hire someone other than DMR correct we did offer him uh the job um they said they uh they can't do it okay all right thank you you welome I had a quick question for Mike with regards the the engineer and the D permit that was filed with regards to centenum yep um is there any update on that we've been a couple of weeks in that was fil yes there is sir I was going to give you that update uh in my update I can do it now um so uh I do it now sure we have a question so we uh submitted uh the application to DP we actually gave them a copy of of the of the of the application months ago so they have it in in advance and then they didn't have any major comments so we submited the final one uh to them uh we are speaking with them once a week uh they did ask some questions which is good that they're looking at it uh they were looking for the lot and block number they were looking for other information which we gave uh so we're on schedule uh we're looking to go out to bid uh on August 7th and to open the bids on September 4th and for the council to award on September mber 10th so we are on schedule as is uh what we're looking at uh from the D between four to 6 weeks turn around and from all uh indication we are on schedule thank you you're welcome any other questions on the report okay let's move on we're going to move on to committee reports and let's start with council president Escobar thank you mayor the uh police committee met a couple weeks ago actually the week before last rather and um we discussed the uh need for the hiring of two additional police officers as well as a promotion of one the promotion is to fill in the table of organization um the chief explained to the committee the uh need to expand the force and uh he explained it to the police committee's satisfaction and uh based on his re based on his recommendation the police committee re the police committee recommends that we do hire the two as well as the promotion of one and um that's all I have councilman Fox your report uh Renovations are ongoing at the DBW uh we have a Time limitation to move out of the space we in right now um we're also in the process of hiring one additional labor and we think we're on track to to get the current our existing DPW in good working shape I think Within 90 days right yes yeah we have uh the four bay garage that we will be working on on our own and then uh the main building uh we're actually looking to move the offices out of the building um and just keep the equipment there uh there's one big wall that has to be fixed eventually you can see the Light Between the cracks uh that's going to be major uh cost we do have money from the Ida uh hurricane y uh that we are using uh so we're just uh moving forward with that so within 90 days we should have the four bay garage uh for the mechanic all done uh there's some stuff on the second floor we have to move it's been there from the '90s we have to go and clean up but we should be okay and we'll so I just want to make sure we'll have safe space for everybody that's currently taking the break down in wli Lake to come back here and we'll be in good shape yes safety first okay great uh councilwoman Lundy okay well my committees are Hot Topics tonight so I think we covered everything I was going to say about parks and Fields I think we covered everything I was going to say about Ambulance Service um environmental commission met last night topics that were discussed were the Beachwood nature trail the nature trail signage Lantern fly traps the tree ordinance which is up for introduction tonight and the ba and I have a meeting scheduled with the EC chair and vice chair for tomorrow to discuss further e related topics as far as Stonybrook registration for this year is still down slightly down um compared to the same time period last year down approximately uh just under $15,000 the total revenue as per the director is $930,000 455 with payments of over $80,000 still due from snack bar camps and the swim team pool rental the commission met on July 10th and the June minutes were approved and have already been posted in case anybody is interested interested in reviewing those minutes um July 11th the comedy night was held there were approximately 50 attendees I don't know the um if it was a profitable event or not but I will find that out at the next uh pool meeting there was a new outdoor TV and new music system installed and they're all in place the facility has been very crowded with the hot weather and there's also been some member parking issues that have been addressed with the PD that concludes my reports thank you Council manoso yes uh attended the rec meeting last night uh summer concert series is underway um we had uh two concerts already an orchestra and a boy band and uh the first concert of the orchestra was attended by about 125 people uh the boy band actually had 200 in attendance so it was received favorably and there's one more concer concert left to be held on uh July 31st so if you're around it's a beetle uh cover band which uh seems to be very popular and we have that we've had scheduled them in the past uh just a summer camp update summer camp uh ends on July 26th there were 340 registered uh individuals um there was a need for about 50 more so uh there's talks to address additional capacity or have a Hillsdale first registration to make sure that the Hillsdale children get addressed before outside towns uh there may have been an agreement in place with Rivervale so they're looking to that um there was a new playground installed at the Ralph Park and they're just waiting for mulch so that it could be uh be put in use and um and we talked about the D permit for C so that's it counil Roo uh yeah before I give my report uh mayor I'd like to just ask the councilwoman um a question about the uh Sony Brook incentive bonus plan um I um like the the concept liked it from the beginning I like the concept in general for us um I raised some questions in early June you presented those questions to the pool commission you some of them got answered there's a couple that um remain though that I I don't think have been answered um and I think it it's a problem um the plan if I remember has two components one is financial the other is management uh the Financial is based on the pool profit um the other is management quality that latter aspect the management quality aspect was never defined at least to my to my satisfaction the second point I I raised was the Commissioners still haven't defined how they will measure p&l um of the pool's operations upon which the bonus amounts are going to rest um they haven't defined whether the bonus percentage to be awarded is applied to gross salary or some other salary um measure I presume gross but um the percentage it's a percentage based on the net profit right but if it's a percentage based determined by the net profit which hasn't been defined yet nor has the base to which the 2% or one and a half whatever it turns out to be that hasn't been defined either um and the the fourth item was that the commission failed to answer my question of whether they would document the performance of the two individuals who which is the the director as well as the assistant manager um you know you're going to give somebody a bonus it's typical that you document the performance in some sort of appraisal or memo as far as the documentation on the appraisal there are two members of the pool commission who will be doing the appraisal of the pool director and the pool along with the ba and the pool director will be doing the appraisal of the first assistant manager and I believe I believe and maybe you didn't have a chance to look at the minutes yet but it's all in the minutes so before the the award is given there's going to be something in that person's file there's going to be a document yes that's good all right um because there's a there's a potential here for abuse as as we discussed it's those Commissioners often give jobs to uh or those the two the director as well as the uh assistant manager can sometimes make decisions about jobs and sometimes those jobs go to the Commissioners relatives so it is important that there be a sort of wall there uh and and that wall should be defined through the appraisal process and the last point was um Point M mayor I'm sorry this is the committee report section yeah I was going to say if there's if these questions they should be addressed if if you're not comfortable getting it we should get it from the ba and he'll report back to you on this right I would have had I would have asked the councilwoman the question but you you immediately went to down this way for the commission I didn't get a chance to say I have a question we we usually do that do we say any questions for the for the council person who's making the presentation but that never that never came to pass and finally um you know the plan allows bonuses to be paid off assumptions about pnl months before the books close I don't know of any anybody else that does it that way uh so I mean that that too the commission has never really answered why that was valid I'm comfortable answering um they did explain it because all of their revenue is typically in by the end of the summer so they said they would give out all of you're making a face as if that's not the case but all of their revenue is in by the end of the summer and so they're going to give out part of that bonus based on what their net profit would be based on that revenue and with the Assumption of what the expenses would be then they will adjust it when the books close at the end of the year if there's a difference they'll make that adjustment in the next payout all right because the their their actual document or what they said was we will make certain assumptions about p&l and I don't think that's right to make assumptions based on the actual Revenue up up to that time what but it's not based on Revenue it's based on profit well it's based on profit but using the revenue and the Appropriations expenses budgeted so they can assume what the profit will be based budgeted is one thing expensed is another well their budget expenses are going to be much higher than what their actual is so I would feel more comfortable if they cut their books and then say we made money well they don't they don't want their employees to wait to get this incentive bonus until next year it their books don't don't close in the fall they don't close in November where they can award the bonus this is the way that they decided to do it they are an independent commission over which you have no purview so I don't understand all of these questions well that's fine I just I just think that you know it's also not taxpayer dollars so the the incentive bonus program is a good thing if it's done professionally and correctly and I don't necessarily feel that it is at this point so let me move on to my my report the um the Board of Health meeting uh was held June 18th it was a rep from Bergen Newbridge uh Hospital there they outlined various services and ways that the Board of Health uh and themselves could collaborate the rep from Northwest Bergen Health covered their activities and services uh several towns still owe us um money for through the Child healthc Care Program but it's not major um there were no complaints filed in May to the Board of Health uh Revenue through May is 185 or almost 185 um lowest Cohan reported on various activities she engaged in again she's she's a Dynamo exercise yoga classes at uh Hillsdale house Fitness classes at the library coffee cookies conversation at the library presentations arranged at the 50 plus club by a cardiologist home visits referrals to support um it's sometimes it's almost breathtaking what she does um and then they passed an ordinance adopted regarding their compensation for Board of Health employees they passed the the ordinance that was uh basically it's the same ordinance the same salary structure that exists last year access for all met on June 24th uh I informed them of our efforts to update the Barrow employee handbook they indicated they intended to speak with you Mike um the ba on how the burrow might uh comply more fully with the Olstead law um and the integrated Community project if you I I have some details on the lad if you need to know more about it I can provide you um the members intend to Advocate more visibly to the recreation committee for recreation facilities in our part parks and playgrounds for facilities for the disabled and they've started a petition uh directed toward the mayor and Council already uh they plan to have a table set up at the September 29th Hillsdale Fall Festival um advertising there uh what they do for the for the town and they're partnering with the library on future workshops such as plant and craft workshops um they've already scheduled for August 20th an inclusive art workshop at 10:30 in the morning uh presented by Jay Robinson art for adults with disabilities regardless of skill level um it's open to Residents and non-residents alike but it favors residents um you you can reserve a spot there by accessing the bur the U AFA website Hillsdale access forall at gmail.com the finance committee uh held its meeting July 10th uh it in um I was informed at the start of the meeting the council Mr trro mu could not could not attend so I really didn't have any time to see if other members of the mayor and council could attend at that meeting and that's a sort of apology but not an apology um we reviewed the two of us it was myself Abby Lundy uh the CFO uh the ba did I miss anybody no um we reviewed appropriation reports nothing eye-catching in that review we discussed the feasibility of changing the process by which council members sign off uh on purchase orders but no changes were made it was decided to stay with what we have now finally on the naming and recognition committee uh we met June 25th that's myself the burough administrator and the rec director we considered a proposal from a monfil resident that was referred to the committee um by the mayor and counsel last year to name a street after her parents who were apparently business owners here in town uh the committee decided on the merits of the information that was provided to them not to recommend that the mayor and counsel act on that proposal and then that's all I have councilwoman truk do you have any report not this evening thank you okay let's move on to the borrow administrator thank you Mr Mayor melver Road and Douglas Drive improvements on schedule uh the bid opening will be late August and uh the mayor and Council will award a bid uh September 10th meeting and the construction uh will start in October Magnolia Avenue is on schedule we that was in the report uh the paving progr program for 2024 is all completed what's left now is the striping which is scheduled for tomorrow 7:17 uh Memorial Park uh we are going to have the plan back from the engineers hopefully end of July I'm I'm thinking in July early August once uh we sit with the fields committee and present it to the council uh what you agree on uh then they'll put together the final plan and the cost estimate based on menu driven model uh the construction of the police department and the main office at Bor Hall have been completed we do have some additional money left over from the original funding from the insurance and from the grants that we'll be spending on fixing outside uh making it safer and uh there's some concrete work that that needs to be done and block walls around the building uh we are having regular staff meeting and department head meetings we started uh we are going to be cross trining employees from the different departments especially construction and the front office uh at times when they go to lunch or someone is out we actually don't have anyone in the construction department so we have to have coverage uh finally the employees handbook uh is almost done the last copy had a formatting issue and between myself and Mr Wiis here uh we're cutting and pasting literally uh just to recreate that uh to make it a working document and I'm hoping to have that on the agenda for for next month and that's all I have Mr Mayor thank you we're going to move on to the introduction of our one and only ordinance of the night 2413 an ordinance of the burrow of Hillsdale County of Bergen state of New Jersey replacing uh State ordinance uh 286 trees in the code of the borrow of Hillsdale uh be it resolved that ordinance 2413 does now pass a first reading and that set ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting of the mayor and Council in the municipal Municipal Building 380 Hillsdale Avenue Hillsdale New Jersey on August 13 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 said ordinance in the Ridgewood news once at least one week prior to said hearing with a notice of its introduction and of the time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for final passage may I have a motion to introduce motion second second will the clerk please read the role can discussion we usually use discussion hold discussion until next one the second meeting no discussion on the introduction then no okay no clerk please read the role council member oo yes council member ruko no council member choim yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Wendy yes it is introduced 2413 is introduced uh we're going to move on to the consent agenda 24197 through 24215 does anyone have anything that should be pulled off or can't vote on yeah I'd like to pull 24 1997 and 24202 24 202 and 197 okay so can I get a motion to pass the consent agenda 24197 through 24215 with the exclusion of 20 241 197 and 24202 20 24203 was it 203 for me oh you want 203 all right so we'll move 24203 as well from that we have three resolutions off of the consent agenda is there anybody else 24216 24216 let see it on this it's not on here yet we that was discussed in closed that we're going to be bringing it out so that'll be done after we do these anybody else okay just for clarification the consent agenda 24197 through 24215 with the exclusion of 24197 24202 and 24203 can I get a motion motion second second the clerk please read the rolec yesc yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member lendy yes o so yes and the consent to agenda as proposed passes and let's move on to 24 1997 councilman roko right I asked that it be pulled because I just had a question is this a new facility that we're doing or is this uh just something that we uh we already have a contract with this group and we're going to renew it this is this is new one we have them already yeah we have we we already used them so this is just to renew the contract okay and and there's nothing new knew in in what they're proposing it sounded like there was some new services that they were going to do I was going to ask what do we gain from that but you're say saying it's there's nothing new in it it's basically for all our social media um so in case there's an Oprah there is a history that we can go back and have it pulled so you know people can comment delete but it will always be there so if someone does open and we don't have that now that ability we do now yes because we have this cont we're going to continue it with Goa okay thank you okay let's move them one at a time um 24 197 can get a motion motion second second please read the role council member choim Muk I couldn't even hear but I think it's yes okay I can't was that the contract yes for the for theic plus social media council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member ooso yes council member Lindy yes council member ruko yes 24197 unanimously councilman roko 24202 right I found that the cost on this is is very high um and uh I I did have a discussion with the bur administrator on this a couple of days ago I think he agrees with me um I don't want to put words in his mouth but uh I'm I'm questioning why we would spend 4 something, on a road survey I mean our prior our prior engineer would do this had done this maybe not to the degree that kers will do it it but we used to do it for something like under 10 grand yeah Mr May so we had asked him to submit the proposal uh they did I didn't know how much it will be so we we did put this on and I did have a note to actually ask one of the council members to pull it it is higher than I would I thought it it would be I I I suggest we pull it have a discussion with them separately and then uh come back again we asked them to do a 10-year plan and this is their time and their that's that's their cost um it's a onetime cost yeah an evaluation $40,000 to evaluate which is which would be for 10 years of proposed I have a com um but how was this ever hand in the past we used to hire someone it wasn't that's why're painting 40 roads do this evaluation I don't think this was ever done in Hillsdale from the records I have what we did is we asked them to give us plan uh a 10year plan road by road so someone who lives on a street they know exactly when that street will be paved with here and and that's the cost they came up with uh I think there's a different way of doing this uh if you want to pull this for now and then I'll I'll I'll discuss it separately with the engineer um counc so I guess I mean yes you can pull it but my my point is if we we didn't do this type of a survey how would we proceed we proceed with fixing the roads the way we've always fixed the load so what are we getting like what's the value of spending is $42,000 how is that going to benefit us or reduce some future cost for us that's what I'm not think the ba recommending that we're pulling it as an alternative plan not that we don't have a plan but that we would do an alternative plan and consider it I guess at the August meeting at that point okay so let's let's see um let's let's take a motion on whether or not we want to pull it okay this would be to pull 24202 off the agenda entirely uh and move forward with the idea that we would put something back on for the August and now this would not interfere we're not going to lose any substantial ground in this right we're okay on the time okay um can I get a motion to pull it motion second second uh will the clerk please read the role council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member lendy yes council member ooso yes council member ruko yes council member truk Janetta yes okay uh it's unanimous it's pulled uh so 24202 does not pass it is off the agenda 2423 councilman Oso there's a bill there that's going to get paid to deani restaurant yes that okay so you'll be pulled off of it okay so uh can we get a uh motion to pass 24203 motion second second okay uh will the clerk please read the role council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes with the exception of that one bill okay council member ruko yes council member Chim Muk yes council president Escobar yes okay 2423 passes as amended I suppose with with councilman uh abstaining from voting on that bill um while we were in closed session we added the following resolutions that I will read and we will consider them one at a time 24216 a resolution authorizing purchasing under a national Cooperative purchasing organization Omnia Partners to provide Goods services from an authorized vendor safe Weare Service uh commodity wheen Mass siren that's the new siren that we talked about for 64,000 um is there any discussion on that no you yeah who who suggested this to be replaced OEM had been discussing this for a while now and it was on the list of things to do that it was it it had lived past a useful life and so it's not working right now I I think it is I think it's sort of on its last legs so this is like an upgrade it's a replacement that I assume that having one that works properly and they don't have to worry about it is they actually couldn't even get parts for the existing one they had to get a new one and there wasn't a streamlined version where it doesn't have to include audible Sirens except for flooding where they actually give it like an audible alert that I can't answer to it B you 62,000 seems like an exorb amount of money so they presented this counil and they presented this at the budget um last year we actually have a uh this is a a capital item $60,000 and then we pulled 4,000 from the contingent account so the 60,000 was already budgeted for this in the capital ordinance okay so it's in our budget it's it's in the $4,000 right exceeding okay can I get a motion motion second second the clerk please read the rule on 24216 council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member Chim Muk Janetta yes y council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes and 24216 passes unanimously now we'll consider 24217 a resolution appointing assigned detective police officer Matthew so Sodus to the rank of Sergeant any discussion can I get a motion motion second second M clerk please read the role council member ruko yes council member choim Muk yes Council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes and resolution 24217 passes unanimously um 24218 should we wait a minute all right uh recommendation of hiring probationary police officer Christopher Miller do we have any discussion we need a motion can I get motion all motion okay motion motion second second can the clerk please read the role discussion now I would like a discussion um yeah I I don't know Chris Miller and I know there's another resolution for gn's Mena uh the addition of these two individuals will will grow the the police department staff to 23 um I I have no comment on either the the individuals they seem very good very qualified so this my following comment are not directed at them um but I believe that we just have not had enough justification to to see to justify going from 22 to 23 um the fourth quarter of 2022 we amended our code to allow for the expansion of of the force from 22 to 23 um and in the process eliminated the previous requirement for a public Hearing in the fourth quarter of 2023 we increased our force from 20 to 22 uh to address increas administrative burden and to protect us from average above average sick out periods we were also informed that the increase would allow us to reinstall an SRO at the high school now eight months later we're being told we need to go up to 23 for the same reasons that we approved going from 20 to 22 um as fiduciaries of the public funds Public public trust I think better justification in writing needed to exist before we take any additional financial obligations that can be expected to run well over $6 million over the life of 25y year life of an officer um and in present value terms that's 4 million if we were considering a $4 million investment today we would certainly have a discussion on that and see if it made sense um if a department head were asking us to spend $4 million that's what would happen and and without justification uh and no robust discussion Open Session I I don't see the justification for it um in addition um you know the lat well the latest statistics that I've been able to get from the FBI in the 2019 I guess was the latest that they've manipulated their data we are right on Target in terms of size of size of our our staff um they're saying that we have we need the typical midatlantic state has 1.8 officers for every thousand residents so we are already above that and now we're moving even further above that so that's and I'm not saying that that's a reason not to go ahead but we need the justification and I we haven't had it thank you for your input um is there anybody else who would like to make a comment on this having seen none uh is there a motion have a motion in a second you have a motion in a second okay will the clerk please read the role council member troh Muk yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko I'm going to abstain because I don't want Mr Miller to think that I voted no against him um that will consider 24219 recommendation of hiring probationary police officer GN Ellis Maya Mr May I'm sorry can I yes for someone to abstain there's a conflict of interest it's a yes no vote uh the councilman abstained is there a a conflict of interest I I don't see any but I'll turn to the attorney I I look at your bylaws but I I think obstain is a vote that you can have I mean typically it is using a conflict of interest but typically there's a yes and no Vote or abstention um you're abstaining and I'm abstaining because I I chooses not to vote correct okay so that's I don't want I don't I I want no doubt that I'm voting against the concept but not person you're voting against the concept but not the person and abstaining as as a wave I think he's qualified to be from what heard although we haven't gotten a resume from the police committee um I and from my discussion he's qualified to be an officer but I just don't see the argument to go up from 22 to 23 okay well we're doing the same thing now for um police officer Mana um can we get a motion motion second second um can I assume uh that you voice the same objection okay um can we will the clerk please read the role council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko abstain council member choim Muk yes okay great uh resolution passes 24220 is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract for a joint feasibility study regarding ambulance services may I have a motion motion second second is there a discussion seeing none will the clerk please read the role council member Fox yes council member Lindy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member choim Muk yes council president Escobar yes great resolution passes unanimously and finally 24221 a resolution authorizing the participation in litigation to address the constitutionality Andor validity of New Jersey's affordable housing mandates may I get a motion motion second second is there discussion seeing none can we move on to a vote little quick please read the role council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member choim Muk yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes and the motion passes unanimously is there anything else off consent I have seen nothing there public comment on any topic limited to three minutes seeing nobody let's move on to the council commentaries as I am uh in this position I will speak first I want to thank um the staff everybody here for um getting the new website up the residents don't see it yet but the backbone is in place to greatly enhance the information that we provide and to do so in an easier manner for them to digest and I know that the clerk and the staff there and the ba will be working on that and I've already started bothering the clerk on this so um I I'm just very appreciative I'm very excited about where we're going to be uh next I wanted to just say that I spoke to our representative who is working on potentially giving us a new cell tower over by the pool um they are on track they're working at it and they give us a rough estimate that we should be looking at possible completion here by the end of 2025 we would have that so there's that um the Planning and Zoning Board just is an FYI is going to be putting forward an ordinance in the coming months probably weeks they had a subcommittee to streamline the process for residents and employees who compile applications to make it easier for them to understand how to put together a package um and basically to update it we haven't had it updated in a number of years the subcommittee went out and surveyed how other towns do it worked with the attorney to try to come up with um modifications that would make the process better for for the residents and for the employees so they can compile it easier faster and make us more efficient so that's coming up so that's what I've got to comment on um and let's move down we'll start with councilman ruko for comments thank you mayor um I was just a little bit uh distressed that we had we introduced some resolutions at the end of this meeting that were not on the agenda admittedly they came up at the last minute well they came up through close they came up in close but we did not have a full reading of those resolutions so I don't think for example on the ambulance services on the uh Mass siren replacement the affordable housing mandate uh and the um the the siren um I I don't think that you know residents would really understand what the hell we did here tonight right but they they'll be available to them no I I get it but you know for the sake of brity we all understood what it was it's going to be out there I I understand I I sympathize but we do serve the public um point taken the the other uh Point uh my the introduction on the tree ordinance I'd like to change the vote if I can if that's possible to a yes uh because I failed to realize that this is an introduction I have suggestions to make I can still make those introductions between now and the next meeting so I have no problem oppose the introduction I do not oppose the introduction you can't change your vote yeah it's up to you if you want to reopen it I mean if you want but if not well let's just move on it's not it's it's not going to make a difference this past um the um handicapped I I've had this question uh conversation with the ba the pink or rose-colored handicapped accessible mats that are on many street corners they're showing where some of them are pulled up they're actually hazards to seniors and to handicap people at this point as opposed to AIDS um I pointed out uh you know the hazard and I was pleased that I guess the burrow is going to be moving ahead to replace those I did ask at whose expense whether it was the county or ours the answer was the latter unfortunately um so uh anyway that's I I'm just want that to be known that we're going to be replacing those I've got a number the county even on County Roads is only responsible for curb to curb any of the curb cuts and any of the signages that is our responsibility okay and that concludes my comments okay Council manoso comments no comments no comments councilwoman TR do you have any comments no okay council president Escobar no com councilman Fox just want to congratulate uh Sergeant Matt Salas and his a promotion great councilwoman Lundy again I just want to commend um Captain iopus and mark the managing director for their presentation and moving this forward they really did a a fantastic job and appreciate everything that they've done to move this ahead wonderful quarter a nine here can I get a motion to adjourn motion second second oh it's tied to see who gets it all those in favor and we are adjourned see you all