gu we're at 6:00 okay so nothing happen I'm going to have problems here I'm sure I hit oh hello micophone okay um call the Mee order and let's start with the pledge of allegiance of the United States of [Music] America stands one nation [Music] indivisible this is meeting of the Hillsville World Council on the 5th day of March 2024 notice of the time and place of this meeting has been provided theual news and the Bergen Record copy was posted on the bulletin board outside of this meeting room and provided to any interested party please silence all cell phones and wait to be recognized by the mayor during the public Hearing in the public com part of the meeting you will need to state your name and town of residents for the record for the call the r council president Escobar here council member Fox here council member Lundy here council member ooso here council member ruko here council member Tru here mayor Shino here let's move on to the approv of the minutes uh with the please read the rule oh well we have a motion to approve minutes motion second second any discussion please read R council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member ch um obain I wasn't here it's the initial public comment um it's a limit of 3 minutes we don't have anybody here um but online does anybody wish to make a comment yes I have some on you have somebody on okay okay iPhone good evening mayor Jonathan Joseph New Jersey just give a call in regards to the special budget presentation or discussion for this evening just going to see what's going to be discussed there there was no attachment on the agenda on the website this is uh mayor this is going to be just an overview of the introduction which will be next week uh so we do have uh some copies here our CMO will make the presentation but it's a Top Line just uh a preemptive to the introduction of next week okay give us a brief understanding of what's going on High level yeah great okay any other questions from the public see no one else Let's uh that uh the public comment period And discussion um do we have any professional reports we have the engineers report uh he he's not here he thought it was 7:00 okay so I just texted him I said come next week instead this okay so we I know we're out of order have correspondents no nothing no no correspond okay uh committee reports let's start uh Abby let's start with you this time councilwoman Lundy okay um I attended the ambulance service meeting on February 20th the PDM daytime EMTs are running smoothly with 14 employees at this time two of who are also members on the volunteer side that are fulfilling the requirements of both volunteer members and a PM member um the approximate call uh call volume since January 1st 2024 is 9 1 calls with 53 calls being covered by the PDM staff the squad is working closely with Westwood volunteer ambulance cor and hopes to better staff openings on weekends with volunteers the goal is to keep at least one ambulance available between both towns Friday night through Monday morning when the pmts come back in service um as public information the new Valley Hospital will be opening and beginning operations on April 14th they're located at 650 Winters AB in paramis and anyone needing to go to the emergency room should go there beginning that date not the old Valley Hospital all medical transportation will be directed to the new address mayor shinfield and I met with Washington Township mayor Camari to discuss the possibility of a shared service between the two am uh ambulance services in the Two Towns to reduce the cost of pmts and to become possibly become eligible to Bill under the Department of Health guidelines we will revisit the issue once the township mayor has the opportunity to review stats and status with his Ambulance Service we'll also meeting with River veil in the near future um Stony book registration opens March 18th and early registration runs through May 5th the pool director is introducing a new program called first friends and I'm sure you'll see the flyer posted shortly it's a new program for parents with young children it'll be on Mondays and Fridays in July from 8:45 to 11:45 a.m. one adult and children under the age of three will be able to to join this is when the pool is not in use by any of the camps so they'll be able to use the kitty pool use of the playground have fun and the young children can be there before nap time so it's $200 for the month of July and as I said the flyer should be available shortly but it's a nice program for parents with young children who may not be able to go for the full day or want to do a full membership and they can meet other families with young children as well um the environmental Commission also met February 19th they have been working as I mentioned at the last meeting on getting the tree ordinance up to code with the new um State mandate and that I've seen a rough draft of it there still reviewing it they formed a subcommittee that should be sent to council so that we can give to the burough attorney to review we're hoping shortly so that it could be introduced in May and we could um introduced in April and we could meet that may deadline but if not I don't think it's a hard deadline as long as it's in progress um the environmental chair said that we should be able to contact the DP and get a little bit of an extension of it's still under review so they have been working on that uh the seedling distribution will'll be April 13th 10:00 a.m. at the train station in the event of rain it'll be held at the library and the bur administrator and I met with members of the EC to discuss several issues such as the Beachwood nature trail Grant Alexander cleaner sustainability and as I said the tree ordinance and I believe the B administrator has followed up with the D on Alexander cleaners and was waiting for some response back from them and lastly the next senior lunch in will be held at St John's on March 20th there'll be a corn beef lunch for St Patrick's Day as well as entertainment by the buron county pipe and drum Court it GE that's it just short cman Fox no report no report council president you like to go we have a couple of things to discuss and close so I will be giv my committee reports uh next week at the meeting okay Council yes um I had a library meeting in February and um they wanted me to uh make sure to tell everyone that on um um March 16th they're having a it's it's called New Jersey makers day and it's going to be a showcase for uh Innovation creativity and craft and uh they're seeking entries and there's going to be $50 in prizes in seven different categories and you must declare your entry by March 11th and you can find the entry form online um the other thing that they wanted me to point out is that actually this Saturday March 9th between 10 and 12 they're introducing their new seed library and um this is a um uh a library of seeds that they put together that you can go and borrow seeds but you're actually not borrowing them yes you're not actually returning them so you may yes maybe you have to bring back uh the results of of what you planted um but um they're calling it a seed library and so it's opening this uh Saturday but they'll also be doing a like a do uh a project a bird seed um feeder project so you know families are welcome to come and participate in that um I mean since the last meeting I've also had uh planning board meetings but there isn't anything to really report to the public on that as those meetings entail um you know homeowners and their various uh variances that doesn't pertain to any public uh I guess interest quote unquote um and that's it for me um Economic Development Committee will be meeting next week and so um I'll report on that in the following at the following meeting and that's it thank you thank you mayor um I uh attended the local school board meeting and the primary discussion revolved around the referendum that's going to take place either in September or November uh they're still uh determining what is the the more attractive date uh to gain a voter interest um hopefully they make a decision on that pretty soon um the option that they're going to go ahead and go with uh is the option to renovate George White end to end uh and then there's going to be a further vote uh to go ahead and decide on whether or not they want to add additional classrooms um that's what uh that's where they kned out after all the discussions that were had uh with the public in the community um I believe it's the lowest cost option um for the the residents to undertake and um I think it has the best chance of getting approved um with regards to fire um I want to Pro uh report monthly on the number of calls that they've had because there's a reporting tool that they use and gets published on a monthly basis uh for 2023 they were actually called to service 274 times uh calls would include things like fire alarms carbon monoxide detector alarms uh motor vehical accidents uh and actual fires uh luckily for us the the fires are very few um but the there is a great deal of activity uh within the department for the month of February uh it was uh 23 the actual calls to service and again those include fire alarms and carbon monoxide alarms as well as um some Motor Vehicle One motor vehicle accident in the month of uh in the month of January uh with regards to uh Recreation uh I'll have further report next week uh we have our Recreation uh commission meeting on the 11th um well we are waiting for a uh notification from kers with regards to a study that they're doing as far as uh a cost estimate for a renovation to Centennial Field um and hopefully we'll have information there to make a decision on how to proceed uh and then uh further along uh those lines there's also going to be a bigger project of a larger scale within Memorial Field um and we're waiting for feedback from them uh with regards to that as well um so we'll have more information on that next week it do it it's interesting little fa I think is doing their referendum today on their school okay U so we should hopefully and they're doing a they're voting to rebuild it was a half the price of what we were proposing so it'll be interesting to see where they come out on it and they have the exact same questions and concerns that we've been dealing with and they they chose a the March dat and they and they well we went last year in March right right that was their their choice um CC thank you mayor uh the Board of Health met on February 20th uh Northwest Bergen who issues monthly progress reports specific to Hillsdale they will ensure that they are uh sending those reports to the Bur clerk uh they do issue an annual report that is general and that is available on their website that covers their overall activities across the county but they also as I said earlier they they issue a monthly report just for Hol stale uh RIS Cohan did a follow-up call on January 11th to a resident that um ultimately proved to be crucial uh to the resident's survival the woman's survival um I just want to say after hearing about the incident you know Lois is a devoted member of the community who makes a real difference to people um and and their lives those people who live in in our community um the Board of Health is looking to see if comparative Revenue data for the same period as reflected in their monthly revenue report that they get from the clerk's office can be added to that report I think the clerk is more familiar with that report than I am I can show you the report that they're referring to uh but I think that they want to pursue that with you um they discussed their support for the hiring of a social worker dedicated to the burrow um now that the local assistance board has been disbanded and transferred to the county they're planning a skin cancer screening for one day on a on one day it's not going to take a full day I think it just takes about 2 to 2 and 1 half hours right here at Burrow Hall um the uh burrow nurse has the details on that margar deer and they approved the hiring of Dr fenart as the CHC position for one year at their meeting with respect to the access for all they met on February 26th uh they're planning their annual art show it's proceeding is to be held in the library May 7th at 6:00 p.m. they realize that the uh the night is a night of a 700 p.m. council meeting uh but they would appreciate our attendance for a half hour or so uh and then we can come here to the uh to to the meeting um they're looking for liazon from the various departments and particular they're looking for liin from Recreation from police and from the fire department um that is something that is stipulated in the creation document for Access for all committees and that usually falls to the uh responsibility of the burrow administrator um I gave them some names of the within those three groups that they might reach out and talk to them though um they're seeking a special 2-hour window at the Hillsdale fire department carnival on the last uh on that Saturday which I think is May 11th for disabled individuals uh where lights and sound would be absent uh I raised that at the last fire committee meeting that Clement deaso called um I gave them access for all I gave them the contacts at the Hillsdale fire department my initial take on this is that I don't think the fire department is going to be able to provide it but it's their decision in the end and um that's all I have uh ba thank you mayor thank you uh the uh the the construction work is on schedule at the police department and we'll begin at the front lobby uh next week uh we move the front desk uh clerks to the room next to the chambers here so if you come for more business uh there'll be signs to direct you to to the room uh mailboxes that are damaging by I by our plows during the snow storms I ask our attorney to prepare an ordinance for next year's season uh which will allow us to pay $100 per mailbox damaged by our crew but we have a plenty of time um prepare for that uh we will have uh proposals for Centennial and for Memorial Field on the agenda for next week I received them uh this evening and we'll be meeting with the field committee committee to go over them and present them to the council uh next week on a light note I want to share with you that I'm here now for one year which I know surprises many of you I thank you I want to thank the staff the department heads uh all members of the council current and former professionals Mark medo the engineers uh on the many projects that we needed to start and right size and I just want to give you just quick highlight of what we did last year with all of us this is not by any means a one person uh job uh we did the shared services with Oakland for our esteemed CFO increased the DPW staff by one employee uh we added one full-time account payable to be able to pay uh bills on time added one full-time Recreation director uh we changed the qpa to the best qpa in the State uh we have shared services with Westwood for the court we move the welfare services to the county and we will be discussing to create uh a new part-time position for social services the aison for Hillsdale uh we changed the ambulance services to per de EMTs during the day the lobby overhaul uh we added two new officers to the police department where now they can meet uh their commitments and their obligation with a schedule negotiated seven contracts new Chief to lieutenants cell tower DPW clerk the waste uh pickup uh with we dealt with the floods at the police station uh we pushed to pave 31 roads to catch up with road maintenance last year uh we moved the mayor and Council meetings from paper to paperless this is the second meeting hopefully they work and uh finally we established the business breakfast and began serious discussion on resoning the downtown to attract more ratables and stabilize our tax base that's what I did last year that's it that's it good thank you I forgot one point Mr Mayor if I might uh for Access for all um and it pertains to the discussion you and I had about the train station and the access or the lack of access um the the AFA folks are disappointed they they made that clear to me that the current njt and the Federal Regulations will not allow us to uh to install a platform for the disabled at our train station unless that platform abuts all the cars as the train is in in the station which wouldn't be reasonable considering that some of those cars sto mid Street correct um but they have decided to continue to pursue the matter in some way that is still not clear to me so I thought I would just I would just present that I'm willing to work with them or help them explore different Avenues I may come back to you and and we can talk and I thank you for you reached out to the congressman and and they and they met with the yeah yes and I mean and usually that's about as high as you'll go um but who they may have better connections than we'll see that was the last Point I've gone paperless as you can see and I and because I've gone paperless it's uh to see all right um I have a question do we have any sense now for timing of what's happening with the development of the so they have all their permits they're doing uh they're starting the demolition next week they should have the fence up already okay and uh they're on schedule great we should be getting uh our first 250,000 probably last few months he knows it's already built in the bu uh thank you we'll move on to the ordinances now ordinance 2403 for adoption an ordinance establishing salary ranges for the staff of the Hillsdale swimming club School Commission in the B Hill County of Bergen state of New Jersey you have a motion to open the public hearing onance 243 motion second there a second second second uh discussion all in favor see no discussion all in favor talking about we have what are we on sorry we went what all right the meeting of the public anyone desires to be heard heard on uh 2403 only please say your name and wait be recognized once recognized state your name and address it for the record okay are there anybody out there that wishes to comment on it see nobody commenting on it um is there a to close the hearing on 2403 motion to close second second roll call council member lendi yes council member ooso yes council member ruko yes council member chimu yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes motion passes now therefore the resol of this ordinance is adopted and the B CL is authorized to advertise the same according to law we didn't we did just did the motion publicar Sor so yeah unfortunately this was cut off it's not here so just to just to be certain um we voted the last vote was to close the public hearing is that correct no no yeah the last motion was to close the public hearing so now we have to do a motion to adopt so right so now we have to take a vote um I need a motion to adopt motion second is there second first all right council member ooso yes council member ruko yes council member Chim yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lindy yes pass result is adopted the B CL is stand according to law um 244 adoption an ordinance to amend the supplement ordinates 091 13 chapter 71 swimming pool commission motion to open public hearing on ordinance 404 motion second second council member Ruka yes council member chosen yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member lendy yes council member oo yes okay I will now open the meeting in public if anyone desires to be heard regarding ordinance 244 please say your name and wait to be recognized once recognized state your name and address for the record okay I'll now rain a motion uh that the public hearing be closed on or 2404 that it be resolved that this ordinance was posted on the Bulet board on which public noes are customarily posted and published in the news copies of said ordinance were made available to the general public motion to close the public hearing on ordinance 2404 motion to close second second pleas read the RO council member chimu yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member lendy yes council member ooso yes council member R yes motion to adopt 244 motion to adopt second second R council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Osa yes council member rugo yes council member truk yes motion passes now therefore be resolved that this ordinance is adopted and the B clerk is authorized to adage the same according to law um now we will Pi up ordinance 2405 for adoption in ordinance to amend ordinance 401 establishing Recreation Department program in summer camp fees in the far of hilsdale motion to open the public hearing on ordinance 2405 motion open second second okay the council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member choking you yes council president Escobar yes I will now open the meeting of the public if anyone to be heard regarding ordinance 2405 please say your name and wait to be recognized once recognized state your name and address for the record we have nobody okay I will now entertain a motion that the public hearing on ordinance 2405 be closed and that be resolve that the ordinance was posted on the bulletin board on which Public Notices are customarily posted and published in the news copies of set ordinance were made available to the general public motion to close hearing on ordinance 2405 motion second second oh you have a point of discussion if I might sure um I noticed in the red wine that we got that uh camp pasca Camp Adventure and field trip camps declined both for residents and non-residents I was just wondering what that was a result of what what did that reflect a competitive process that we we were overcharging you know in relation to what other camps were maybe it went down in each Case by $50 to $100 could it have been that they removed the co search charge no because it was I don't think the co soar soch charge was in it to begin with but I just I'm just curious as to why that was those were the only ones that had a reduction it's usually unusual right I mean things you're used to seeing things go up this they came down if this is what they're happy with I'm not going to you know but I just wanted to ask that question that's all okay well so um motion to adopt ordinance 2405 motion second council member ooso yes council member R yes council member CH yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes motion pass without therefore being resoled this ordinance is adopted first is authorized to advertise the same according to law 246 ordinance introduction ordinance amending chapter 220 arts and Recreation areas of the B code modify section 2203 unlock the ls to modify section uh 223 J prohibiting leash or Unleashed dogs on Municipal Fields be resolve that ordinance 2406 does has now passed a first reading and the set ordinance be furly considered the final passage at a meeting of the mayor and Council in the municipal building three hills adue Hillsdale New Jersey on April 2nd 2024 and that and at said time and place all persons interested will be given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same and the cour is hereby authorized and directed The publish set in the rwood news one at least one week prior to set Europe with a notice of its introduction and of the in place when and where s events would be considered the final pass is there a motion to consider motion second second please read the rcil member ruko yes council member choh nuk yes council president Escobar this is I'm sorry this is just for to open to the public or is this voting on The this is to introduce intruction any just introduction no discussion of course there isn't there is no public discussion on this whether or not you want to introduce it right pres no council member Fox yes council member Lundy no council member oo yes2 it's introd is there uh I I apologize I didn't hear that anyone had an issue with the language on this is there I think it's a cont um language can we discuss anything is that that we discuss it among the council is there something that well I I just don't agree with the ordinance in the general I I I I think the residents like bringing the pets to the parks and allow to this this is specifically directed to sports Field playing Services which is all our Fields but just the fields but it's all Fields yes but it's not the parks oh but I'm sorry I was I was asked to write this because apparently there was a problem with um dogs defacing the actual PL surfaces of the fields um this was not at all intended to lessen people's ability to bring dogs to the park but they just you know can't is this because is this because their owners weren't hinging up after but the dogs were D I was asked because the uh there was an effort to put up signage which said no dogs on on the fields the playing fields um and that the rec director or someone felt that or gpw perhaps felt that they needed an ordinance in order to put up the appropriate signage to say no dogs allowed no dogs on the plane I would just sorry I would just say I understand it and and I'm not totally against it what I'm saying is all of our all of our Pro basically feels okay so anywhere you go on you know centenial oil be it's a playing field so you're like in Ence saying you just can't be on the fields that's the especially claric yes especially on Centennial after we fix it it'll be all grass uh so if we have a sign without the ordinance number we can't enforce it uh the parks they can come to the parks they come to the uh to the plays and all that but we can put signs only on the playing field this the sports Fields where they play the actual Sports not the forks yeah but like Memorial has a big fenced in field behind the baseball and softball field it's a big fenced in area I bring my dog there all the time and it's fenced in and he doesn't defecate there but if he would I would be a responsible pet owner and clean up after him I don't think we should limit we don't have a place to bring our dogs we don't have a dog park um and right now I think the ordinance reads um Unleashed but now we're even making it leash like if I want to walk my dog around that area I couldn't I'm just against that's the ordinance so for is there any is there any thought with respect to when a time where where there's actual field being used for sport oh I wouldn't versus not yeah I wouldn't bring my dog I bring my dog there during the day when the kids are in school and there's nobody playing on the field I'm not going to walk to a game with my dog of course you know the challenge is when they bring their dogs and they leave their stuff there and then they leave it there and then we go to clean it if if if it's grass it will leave a mark it'll kill the grass yeah and then we feel that's that's what the DPW wants to make sure that uh we we control and there are a lot of places in town like Stony Brook St John's that beg for the dogs to come because it keeps the geese away um okay I'm just against I realize this was even okay the the way I understood it the attorney and I spoke just before the meting was that uh the intent was not to keep um dog feces off let's say Memorial Park the Veterans Park downtown because they have concerts there and people bring their dogs they they open up chairs my concern was that that that this ordinance might be viewed as prohibiting that which I don't think would be right I don't have a problem in prohibiting dogs from running on Centennial Field or Memorial Field or a baseball field um because they do leave their droppings and a lot of times they're not picked up and I think that's why the DPW wants to have this ordinance in place so they can put up the sign whether it's actually going to be enforced by the police legally this allows them to enforce it from practicality Viewpoint I'm not I'm not sure that they will do that as religiously as the covid rules were not enforced are they allowed now there's there's there's a law that just they can't leave it there a dog they have to pick up they have to pick it up so the police now can technically enforce that compon you're right right right if the police see the dog defecate and then the owner walks away yeah otherwise and if you work pick it up you weren't going to pick it up and then there's not going to be any crime scene investigator trying to figure out which dog did this Saturday night right yeah I think we're penalizing the responsible pet owners if right now it's supposed to be enforced and now we're saying you can't bring your dog you don't see something you're be a to catch anyway is there it's what the ordinance is there well there's there's an ordinance anyway that says you can't leave it uncleaned up leave it there right so we can pull it easily mean this is not done de by any me I just don't know I almost think it's kind of redundant to that point that if a dog dicates and the owner doesn't clean up regardless they're going to be stopped by simply saying a dog can't be there then then the police are I guess the only they can do is stop an owner and a dog from being on the park and don't have to be vigilant to say what is that dog doing at this moment so councilor with the first and second motion to pull this in the event people want it pulled or somebody wants to discuss it more I this came out of a blue to me I wrote what I was asked and I don't have a I don't have after a further clarification this is a I'm going to vote no and this is a not a police matter police don't pick up feces so let's move on pleas so the the the vote was may I ask the clerk what was the vote it's now through the three because he voted oh he voted because Council changed his vote so it's 3 to three but that was for what for introduction to introduce right so now 3 three for introduction so what does that mean American I think there's I I think it needs further study I would V okay so let's pull it and if someone wants to interface with me about some better language uh of course I'm very happy to write it up whatever way they like uh mayor uh beond the hbsa this is a problem so for the children that play baseball and the kids utilizing the fields um it comes up in discussion all the time at the meetings uh during the season and um there hasn't been a remedy to it so I think that uh I'm not sure where the I'm just I'm just curious about how this would actually Remedy the situation well I think it further further Pro if the language further states that listen you you got to behave yourself well we we do we do we have signs in the Parks now that says you're required to CL After Your Dog we do but there's no number there's no but no no no but but but but it's a requirement right it's a law you have to clean up after your dogs right so but often people don't do that well right so the theory was if we know 50% of the people or 25% of the people aren't going to do that at the very least keep them off to playing surface where you know there will be kids falling all over each other and onto to the ground that's how it was explained to me again I don't particularly care either way but that is what was explained to me was that obviously as a person who owns three dogs I'm very responsible I'm sure aby's very responsible but I am often shocked by the number of people who are not and so that was how it was explained to me and this is something you'll see on opening day and you'll notice it on the field it it it but but my question is how this furthers to stop it really well it's much easier to see a dog on that field no but if the dog is if the dog is there and and leaves his Mark or her Mark well it's and it's gone there you're still going to add that there it's much no it's much easier to detect a dog a 10 the presence of a dog in a 10,000 ft playing surface then detect the presence of his P okay so I mean it it could not be clearer that the idea is supp if there are no dogs on the surface period which is easy to see even at a great distance that there will likely be less poop and we will not have to have people really getting shall I say very granular with the idea did someone leave this much on a plank surface that's the ordinance whether you like it or don't like it whether you think there's a better draft or not I don't know that it's complicated or that there's a way to talk around it if if someone would love to come to me with a better alternative as far as words I'm I'm always anxious to hear it perhaps our rec director or DPW can chime in a little bit and maybe see what the intentions are understand the the purpose of it I think we should greater Harmony my biggest concern was that servic so Elin aside from like Memorial on the right side I mean Beachwood where like to have the concert area there that's pretty much all a to build that right you pretty much all Memorial you play on on like we legit huge Park where where the DRS can go that aren't there but we don't have Okay so but I'm confused uh dogs are supposed to be on a leash so what are they doing on the fields they're running with the owner and the leash like I'm not Unleashed Unleashed but they're not supposed to be unleash supposed to be un so they're not supposed to be Unleashed they're not supposed to leave their droppings behind um but people do that so this particular ordinance would now make it very clear that you can't be on this field with your dog and so I I think that was the purpose which is which is what what the council president is saying he opposes well so he wants people to be able to walk on the field and have them running around Unleashed and pooping on the field no I would hope that they'll be more responsible than that's but councilman Hope Springs Eternal and they're not doing it I get it I I don't think it's going to stop the do being under well is there a way to narrow it in scope to to I mean you know there are very few felds I can think of in town I mean you know well it's the morning so we can make it more specific to the field so we have a four to three vote as a no we can pull it we'll discuss can discuss it more language yeah we can make specific to the field uh where they're not supposed to be instead of just in general it is you gotta okay all right guys uh so there's no reason for nothing okay let's go to the consent resolutions um we have resolutions 24086 through 24094 okay this um a motion I can't get out of here you want to motion yes I I can't get 249 and I I would like to pull 2489 from consent or from the consent agenda for separate AB Council you asking to pull it entirely or like some further discussion okay so we have two items that are now on the non-consent that's 24090 and C loc which one did you want uh 24089 089 so two in a row okay other the those two can we get a motion on the consent resolution motion second second okay um Ro council member choim yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member lendy yes council member ooso yes council member ruko yes okay consent resolutions with the exception of 2489 and 2490 have passed uh then we have discussion on 24089 at first yeah um you know I'm happy to see that the that the pool commission is planning beer events and other events that that's cool um I think that the resolution all allows the pool commission to be the sole decider this year um of allowing alcohol to be served with the exception of the alcohol commission too um um I think that it's either since this is a code um I would expect that if you're going to provide a waiver it should be the mayor and counsel that picks what is going to go on or at least the burrow administrator who is an employee the Stony brol committee is consisting of volunteers they're neither elected nor are they paid and I just think it's in appropriate to have them make the decision to decide the time and the place and to wait what is essentially a bur law um you know and say well this group can have a a a beer event I think it should at least come with the the approval of the burrow administrator sure I mean I thought that what this resolution was doing was almost like a blanket saying if you're going to have an event at the pool where they're going to be serving beer or uh seltzers or whatever it is that we're approving that because last year I think we ran into a problem where they had an event and we didn't have enough time to give them that approval and they had to postpone the event so all we're saying is yes you can do this when you're planning such a vent I I don't know how it's any different than us giving the Recreation Commission approval to have the beer garden at the fall festival or any of the other things that we've given approval for we're giving the approval by passing this resolution aren't we I just I'm looking at the last uh the fifth paragraph it says the Bar Council uh result that there shall be a waiver from the said Barrow code allowing alcohol on burrow property during the 2024 season only for the dates uh locations and times approved by the Commission in advance and in conjunction with the vendor approval from the alcohol and Beverage Control and what I was saying is I think that the ba should be involved in dates locations and and times um he should be the he should should also sign off on this well I I unless I'm mistaken again in the past I think that they plan the event and then still come to us for approval of that event but in the meantime they're able to plan it and retain the vendor and get their proper permitting from the ABC and or whatever is needed I have no problem with that but what you're saying is um we give them a waiver they plan it right is that well they still plan it but I think they still have to come to us for approval of the event if that's true then I have no problem if that's the way it works maybe the clerk but I don't think this doesn't make that clear yeah that's how it was done last year also I can I can add so we did this for Stony Brook and the library last year um we gave both of them the ability the um Library board of directors had their say same thing with Stony Brook they made their own own events they still have to go through the ABC um alcohol and Beverage Control to get approval for this I have to sign off on it and so does the chief of police so someone other than just their commission will know about the EV yeah they don't get the overall just because they say they want it doesn't mean they actually get it they still have to follow the laws through the with that clarification then I have no problem so um let's vote on let's vote on them separately U 2489 for consideration the RO I need a motion for motion second second okay council president Escobar yes council member fox fox he's lit up like he's talking but I don't hear you may not have contivity council member lendy yes council member Oso I'm going to abstain on this I I own a Lial license in town and I've been asked in the past T my license for these events so I'm uh council member ruko yes council member chimu yes go back to councilman thought yes okay so that's five eyes and one abstention correct okay uh 24089 passes um can we have uh 2490 discussion on Council number one you yes I think uh Mr Mayor just uh made a a motion to to discuss it yeah for a second and then open for discussion motion for discussion motion second okay discussion okay I guess my question is and unfortunately I lost it on my iPad so I I think if I remember the resolution correctly it's for $6,000 Grant um for beach with nature tra but I don't know is what are we doing at the nature trail with $156,000 we haven't even got out to bid yet for the first beach with nature trail Grant and just want to make sure it's not a matching Grant and when are we completing the first grant before we apply for more money and when do we need more money for it so so the first one is for this year uh the two grants which would total 248,000 so we start this year this is an open grant for next year it's money on the table uh we will apply for it and we will use it for uh the to add the bumpers on the side of the walkways and add more more planks and change the planks um it's free money if we don't do anything it's not a matching Grant it's not a matching Grant it's actually two Grands totally 156 uh it will cost us about $5,000 to apply for it uh but it will be at least between 100 and $156,000 can I suggest then I knew it was a non-matching from looking at the background data that was sent that we add the word non-matching for the and I was going to suggest that this reason anyway because I think when people go back to these resolutions and they wanted research it's better to say it's matching it's non-matching so with if you would just add that word non-matching so you can approve as amended uh to add the word matching uh non-matching and does that address the councilwoman's um can I just ask one more question Mr administrator yes ma'am when will we be going out to bid on the existing grants for the future of nature trail I'm hoping the next few weeks we were focusing on Centennial proposal and Memorial proposal which we will have next week so as soon as we get that off the table we we'll be working on the okay so we don't have the bid spec because I feel we don't have the bid specs yet because I know I've asked for the bid specs to please go do the not yet we have the plans we have uh the specs that will go into the bit spec but not the actual bit spec page okay thank you okay um motion to is any more discussion on it okay motion to consider 2490 motion second second okay we roll council member Fox yes council member Lindy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes as amended council member CH yes council president Escobar yes pass so we already have on our consent agenda and when you know 24095 is the temporary budget uh emergency uh motion motion second second please read roll council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member Oso yes council member ruko yes council member tro yes discussion no uh discussion cons we need two3 of a vote so I to make sure okaye read the did we did so yeah we're good no the next one so the next one one time yep you want I want to do so we did 24095 that's done we had a motion in a second I did roll call so we're good okay so 24096 authoriz transfer between budget appropriation motion motion second discussion discussion no vot council member Fox yes council member Lundy yes council member oosa yes council member ruko yes council member chosen yes council president escar yes okay as well um there's nothing left on the nonconsent agenda we are moving to public comment um please limit your comments to 3 minutes on any topic state your name and town of resid for the record do we have since there's no one in the room is there anyone online with their hand up comment okay see nobody Let's uh close that comment section uh Council commentaries um I would just like to I'm going first um I wanted to just discuss for a second um potential development on the uh property on the corner not really on the corner on Phil Avenue by pasc Road M the old candy Allen property it's now been um it's now been marked by the owners for development uh I've heard from a number of concerned citizens on this matter um that live in the immediate area and I've spoken with the ba to make sure that any evaluation to any contamination will be done uh a thorough investigation of that uh before any permits will be considered for anything on that property so that's my big comment on that um since I started this way before let's go on commentaries the other way thank thank you mayor uh just one one comment um just want to remind everyone Daylight Saving Time begins uh this uh this Sunday morning I think um there's always talk around this time of year do we do daylight saving time do we stick to Standard time I I I always laugh because I lived through daylight saving time in 1973 and people wanted it to save oil and then everybody hated it within 2 to three months because the children were going to school in the dark it was 8:15 and 8:30 and there were mothers standing outside Manhattan streets in the total darkness um I think it's better to extend Standard Time and uh if you're going to stick to one or the other I'd go with standard time but I have no problems switching my clock back and I hope everyone in the town does it on the T we man you don't like that extra daylight I I do but uh to hold Daylight Saving Time right through November through March it's ugly and you're and if that if that's what our leaders decide to do you're going to you're going to you're going to see problems that's all okay no comments no comment to the council president I don't have anys counc M fox just one one uh go ahead to the new C Mr the word of aice CED not by emotion yourself own person password roting writing F editorial and of the B Hills can't wait what happen this is this question correct I I we can't hear you you're breaking up I think we're going to have to pass I don't know what he said you want to call one of us we'll put you on speaker but breaking up over online councilor Fox do you want to you want to call me I put you on speaker while we're doing that Council Mund comment I have no comment no comment are you calling him I texted you calling him you call him okay can doing teleph he can't hear he just texted me he can't hear well we're we're trying than I going to put your on speakers out okay yes I'm going to put your on speakers out okay okay modern technology Let's see we get no for get it you have [Music] to he has to turn off his uh computer that's turn off the volume the volume yeah mute otherwise it's just in the circular yeah well okay I think I think that's it he just muted himself so oh he did yeah one [Music] last session of us hopefully there's that answer so okay so much Council commentary from counc box sorry uh next on the agenda is special 2024 budget discussion un fortunate to have our CFO in the [Music] room okay good evening everybody has the budget package in front of them yes and Behind Me Maybe eventually right on time um so in advance of the introduction which is uh scheduled for next Tuesday at the uh council meeting we wanted to give the governing body an overview of the budget where we are right now some of the key elements driving the budget um just a kind of a history of the budget process we started back in o October uh getting budget information out to departments November the business administrator and I met with each department head uh then the finance committee met with the six largest departments uh went through line item detail with each of those departments with their requirements what the changes were our finance committee has had several other meetings to kind of finalize and review the package we've had meetings with the mayor and the finance chair as well uh so it's been a been a four five month process to get us to where we are today um and so you got the proposed budget now in front of you total cost to operate the burrow of Hillsdale 2024 is estimated at around $19.3 million uh this is up from a 2023 budget of 16.1 this is an increase of about $3.2 million or 20% yes that number is really big um but that is not all sitting on the tax limit uh we have some other onetime drivers that are in it and we'll go through those and and we'll talk you about what what those individual parts are the um specifics for the taxes to support the budget is 11 million um that's an increase of about $379,000 over 2023 that's a 3.5% increase to the tax levy um we do have cap Bank available um good portion of that Inc increases outside of the cap uh so we are cap compliance uh this results in a tax rate of 65.8 per $100 of assessed value up from 63.7 last year and what it means to the average home of $476,000 is a $15 increase on the municipal portion of their tax bill uh questions on a quick overview before we get into some of the detail okay first up is revenue um this this slide kind of breaks out out how the revenue comes into the burrow both this year and over time uh for taxes in support of the budget that's about 58% of the revenues that we're anticipating this year uh miscellaneous Revenue count to about 12% uh state aid uh Surplus you can see those numbers coming down um year-over-year you can see the changes we already talked about the tax levy miscellaneous revenues up by about a million dollars uh there are three things driving that um interest earnings were up significantly uh at one point we were down to 25 basis points per interest we're now up over four four and a quarter so the increase in interest we're able to now start anticipating uh so that's kind of a big boost to the budget about 6 $600,000 uh Patterson Street project is going to give us some developer contributions uh this year and hopefully in the next two budget cycles of $250,000 this is aside from the ongoing pilot Revenue we will eventually receive um so that's going to help this year's budget and we are pulling in around $300,000 from our Capital reserves that's toh support some of the things we want to do on the capital side this year um Surplus Surplus is up by about $1.9 million it's almost double where it typically is uh this is a onetime increase in Surplus uh that we're looking to utilize uh to fund what we're calling the field Improvement Reserve um if we recall the conversation we had at previous meetings of the 2021 tax increase included a commitment by the governing body to start putting money aside for the fields uh this is kind of catch up on the money that wasn't reserved I'll put it in some place where we can start spending it on capital projects and in the future spend it on any Debt Service that we may have uh for some of the other projects that are coming down the pipe okay um I I I like to give perspective over time um I think Mike and I are trying to focus on trying to keep a tax levy that is consistent and steady in terms of what it is year to year try to start anticipating what we're doing year from now two years from now so we're not seeing wild up and downs in the tax levy and the budget uh this year again is 3.5% if we look over the last three that's about 2% increase on the tax bill not in the levy but on the tax bill for the residents and that includes the library as well as the municipal and if we look over the last 10 years that's about a 2.1% average increase so it's pretty steady reasonable place to be on the graph you can also see uh the gray line or if you've got color in front of you um where cost of living is loaded CPI so you can see what inflation has been doing to North J Jersey over that same time period I just kind of give us perspective on you know how our increases in our tax levy have been with uh inflation and everything else given the next slide up is a surplus given the large increase in Surplus I I thought it probably appropriate to kind of review some of the Surplus history uh and what we're out looking for Surplus regeneration this year um over time is a six or seven things that really Drive Surplus regeneration miscellaneous Revenue do we do we bring in more or less than we anticipate um in Hillsdale we anticipate just about everything we can so it's not really a big swing uh normally it's a very specific item that's going to rise that uh the one going down in 2020 was when the interest rates dropped out you know that's pretty standard kind of thing for everybody um last year again we had some significant increases in interest earnings and a lot of other items that pushed pushed up last year on average around $40,000 or so a year we get delinquent taxes we don't gain much from our tax levy driven by the rut because we have such a good collection rate a lot of the rut feed right back into Surplus um that's up and down a little bit but average about $550,000 I think we're safe to say we can anticipate that this year uh Mna miscellaneous Revenue not anticipated um that again seems to be pretty steady in terms of what we get uh prior year Appropriations this is when we have our Reserve budget when we're done with the second year that budget laps into some into fund balance I look at the actuals for this year what we laps what we reserved usually pretty good estimate on that about 80% of what you reserve you're probably going to keep at the end of the year most of the bills are encumbered so that goes into the appropriated so we should see about 1.2 million I did take out non repeatables every year if we had one unique item that we don't think we're going to see every year I didn't want that affecting our average our expectation we do think we'll get about $300,000 from the uh uccc fees on Patterson Street so I did put that in that's going to be something that we're pretty sure is going to happen so when I I look at what I think we'll do this year we're going to get about $2.2 million in replenishment after our budget will'll be down to about 2.0 you put those two together we may be around 4.4 at the end of the year for 2025 what does that mean we apply our Surplus policy that we've talked about and haven't officially adopted yet um we'd be looking to anticipate about $2.1 million in Surplus the next year's budget that's down around 1.85 million now 1.3 of that is for the field Reserve but that still leaves us short about $500,000 against next year's budget that's a pretty big gap that we're going to have to work on to close um we could use let Surplus this year which would obviously close that Gap if we lose less this year uh the Gap is smaller and we have more in reserve to use next year uh to do that we would have to either increase the tax leting or you'd have to decrease decrease some line item of appropriation um so as we're thinking about and going through the process if we're concerned about that gap for next year those are the actions that we have to think about taking a pretty tight budget as it is isue it's a pretty tight budget um again when you look at the Appropriations which we'll get into in a minute um could we squeeze Appropriations yes but if you're not taking some actionable U something to take an actionable thing to take the money out of the budget and just not reducing the budget unless you're doing squeezing Surplus the the following year right so if you don't have something where you're going to reduce headcount change a service uh do a shared service or find a a better way of doing something that is cheaper you know those are the actions you have to take and again by the time we take them this year your impact on this year's budget is going to be much smaller since it's already or in March question what is your view as to why Surplus was so large this year not I don't mean the utilization of it but why why did it grow why did it regenerate at such a good Pace last year uh so it regenerated based on prior prior years lapsing of surplus which was you know very very significant um that was about 1.3 million year before that was 1.2 so you can see that that's been creeping up we're not going to lapse as much much next year as we did in 2023 if you remember the budget conversation that we had uh health insurance while the costs went up the budget went down a few years ago EXs budget had been in for health insurance and that was feeding a significant amount of your Surplus also we have the interest earnings from last year we had about $600,000 over the anticipated Revenue that's not typical that you're going to see something like that and you also had some earnings that were significant in terms of surplus regeneration in 2022 uh where you anticipated or brought into the budget um $600,000 of um off duty that you had you know realized and so that also pushed Surplus for the prior year a little B high so those are the things that are kind of been driving over the last few years making a little little bit a little bit higher than it would be I I don't want to get ahead of us but we're going up about $3 million in Bu from 16 to 19 yes how much of that is is fix in cost that we're encumbered with and how much of it discretionary um yes you're probably ahead of us as we get through the Appropriations we can talk about which of those items are in the budget in which come out the the biggest one that's you know coming out is a 1.3 for the field Reserve um we've also fully funded Capital which we hadn't done in a few years um last year's Capital contribution was $200,000 yet we did a one you know $2.8 million or so you know um ordinance for Capital that we're now using debt to pay down and when the truck gets here we'll have to go into additional debt so this budget keeps us from building additional debt down the road um and it gets us back to a level of capital Improvement funding that I think is probably appropriate for a burrow of this size and the amount of projects that you look to do every year so is what you're saying if we didn't put in the amount that this budget assumes we going to put into the capital Improvement fund those capital projects would get funded but they'd get funded through borrowing that's that's that would be the option I'm not you that's that's up to you the governing body always even putting that money in the budget doesn't mean those projects happen the governing body must pass an ordinance saying yes we want to do those projects the funding being available says we do them with cash if the funding was not there and we still wanted to do the projects we' have to do the down payment and then you would be incurring debt well I understand that we we you know we make a commit we're going to buy a fire truck so we're going to have that on the book but I'm also talking about you know we have the d a contract we put we put you know daytime was paid on we you know there were things that we did the police officers that put you know added to that number so I've got I've got a summary of all those items at at the end and as we go through each different individual Department I'll highlight them during that discussion but at the very end we will go through that list excuse me yeah excuse me can you talk a little bit about the vbt in the town on it books uh the debt for the town is very very good uh right now we've currently got around $5 million in total debt both debt that we've actually borrowed against and that that we've authorized you know so the debt ratio is really really good that's all shortterm uh our debt is currently shortterm um and right now shortterm long term depending upon which month you're getting those rates hav't been significantly different couple years ago when long-term debt was you know down around the twos great time to borrow outcome not at the moment and it seems that 41% of this budget is salaries wages insurance and pension right I sure we if we go on to the next slide and start talking about Appropriations I can go through all of those those specifics um so the first first cut at the Appropriations is a pretty high level that kind of talks about what councilman also was just referencing that if we look at what makes up our budget around 40% of it is salary wages and pension and insurance that's headcount driven that's the people we have working here uh Capital not including debts around 14.5% then we've got miscellaneous OE that's OE that covers every Department that's your legal department your it um then you have Department specific OE what does the police spend what's the DPW spent so you can see how those all break up and what the increases and Chang are and obviously the the big one that should be jumping out at everybody is the increase in capital um going from 200,000 to $2.6 million is a very very significant increase again a goodly portion of that we're funding out of our high Surplus availability and $300,000 from a couple of capital reserves as well as some what we hope will be ongoing budget contributions uh next slide digging a little bit deeper um this is more of a departmental view uh what is each department grouping doing we have General government everything from Rich to me tax collection um this is you know General government operating you know the for the buau you've got your community services and while community service looks like it's down it's actually not there was a $100,000 budget reallocation uh we move some salaries off of that line out of the budget so actually the budget for community service is going up when you take out that reallocation spending has not changed down it's going actually changed up Public Safety is up $280,000 um we've got our first full year per DM first aid uh that accounts for about 130 of that and we've got about a 70k increase in uh the fact that we got two additional officers on the police force Public Works is up about 200k as well we have incremental headcount we have multiple promotions uh we have steps we have Solid Waste contract uh that was changed and increased the the base salary pays um those those things alone are up 252k we actually have some give back on that with some other line items uh in that department that are bringing that back down from from leaf collection and some truck rentals uh insurance is up big about $250,000 everywhere workers comp liability um health insurance it's Market driven you know we get those costs from the state uh we have very little input into what those costs are going to be um the only impact that we can have on those is the amount of head count that we we have so again that's why that last slide you look at that picture that headcount drives headcount Drive salary pension and insurance and da that insurance cost is that mostly medical insurance um or is it other types of insurance so uh medical is up 192,000 general liability is up 45 um and workers count up 15 so it is mostly medical it's the the biggest percentage wise is is the actual the liability and you know if you talk to the people after the J they think that's going to continue to be a big pressure point on the budget with those those increases coming because all the things that are happening in that future increase in Futures when we had our discussion you said you related that back to cyber uh yes a lot a lot of the changes you have to make in cyber security a lot of the claims that are coming you know out of out of those those areas this budget um taken to in the public works department uh area is calculating in any way um the issues that we've had with flooding and having to move off um it is it is not taking into account anything as far as longterm uh the budget takes into account the things we have to do um with where they're working from an administrative point of view right now uh the insurance will help us get to some of the repairs uh so that we could get the facility back close to where it was pre flood but long term that's going to have to be a capital capital item okay and until we you know have a good idea what what it is going to be it be premature to say okay which way we're going to go yeah uh the next three slides are a real deep dive um in terms of what are the what are the key drivers um Broken Out In salary and wages Department OE and miscellaneous um I'm not going to go through line by line you have this information if you have some questions um you can reach reach out there are some notes there um again the two biggest salary and wage drivers are actually Public Works um and admin um and again Public Works is being driven by incremental headcount and all those changes um to the contract promotions also added line item for snow removal it's been a challenge to get contractors come in to remove so we actually put some monies in um in case we have to utilize our our dies and new new overtime for that um on the admin side uh that's being driven by uh incremental headcount um and as well as changing people's number of hours after working here can you talk a little bit about the 100,000 from 23 to 24 which line that uh Recreation Recreation yeah that's moving to trust the expenses have always been in trust there was a budget line item here that was in last year's budget that had no nothing charged against it so you know we were looking at this we said okay if if I think long term we want to look at moving salaries into the current fund ongoing um whatever the decision of the government body is we can certainly do that over time but since it wasn't in the budget and we were so tight on the appropriation cap we said well if we're not spending it there why keep a budget line item that we're not using so it's an accounting change as opposed to a real decrease that's the community services change I said it's not really a change you know we're not changing the service or what we're spending it's just a budget line item change uh Department OE Big Driver is um Solid Waste there a contract that you we just incurred for the next 5 years that's not unique to us that's every municipality is seeing those types of incre increases with solid waste and recycling um the other one that's significant in terms of what it's doing to the budget is first a you know providing the full first a you know first during the a coverage for a full year um has a significant budget impact we we allocated for only six months last year so we had 120 of it uh no we I think we allocated 90 of it last year year 5 months 110 maybe it ended up 120 but really did 5 months we're thinking we're thinking really we're talking about 260 220 for first aid per DM the other 40,000 is the ongoing contribution we've made every year to the first aid Squad can we just catch up on a slid till Denise which slide you on so uh your two back two back that's right it is D is this the norm with regards to garbage that that we can expect 10% increases year over year yep yes um it it is it is something that every organization from you know the cfoas and gfoa and Municipal managers they all talk about it they talk to the league about it they talk to their your representatives about it it's it is a significant impact to Residents and their tax levy um and we we don't get much much much action are are municipalities like um Li Bale the priv contract are those users also experiencing the 10% increase um I don't know what their rates are doing I would imagine that that they've got a captured audience they're they're not just sharing the rates with us that they're sharing the increas with everybody yeah and I also might add too that the uh what we originally thought would be a straight line average of 5 years uh turned into a backloading of the expenses so this expense that you see for garbage pickup will increase cont it was it was like this right it was we took it and tilted it I don't know that it's back load or what we've done is we've taken the the total increase and split it over the five years so it steps up each St so it's the same we minimally impacted this year again if we had to eat that o this year we would not be able to meet our Appropriations cap and we would you know have to be cutting service yeah I look at it's still an increase uh from talking to the CFO and from having participated in that in you know with the ba it was still a significant increase because of the market for lack of a better term longer term opportunities you talk about bringing that in house so yeah I know in in Western Bergen County there are three towns that have gotten a leap Grant to investigate doing a shared service bringing solid waste collection back inside um conceptually they've they've gone out they've looked at different um different people to come in different Consultants to come look at that they're going to be looking at okay what what are the true costs you know you got to buy Capital if you got to have trucks um you got to give everybody the garbage cans count increase good you'll have potentially headcount increase there are benefits to headcount increase uh if you have increased staff on your DPW they can do other things when they're not collecting garbage have you had discussions with Blake I if they collect their figure out their experience haven't haven't I'm familiar with it because the town I live in and was council person on we kept solid waste collection inside it's been phenomenal clost cost inrees are nothing like what you're saying what we're getting is salary a little bit of capital and the uh ties which we pay anyway but I would think the initial Capital outlay to buy garbage trucks and provide residents with the cans and all that is that's that's what those Western Bergen County towns are going to have those Consultants look at to tell you what it is obviously the capital you can do over time so if you can save operationally and against a contract up front then it be becomes a Debt Service load again those are all the things that to look at to say is it a is a breaking or not the equipment maintenance equipment yeah got to got to find a place to store the equipment so that it has a longer life and and and so nobody suggesting that it's a it's a Panacea absolutely not um other Alternatives in in terms of the budget is you could take it outside of the current fund and make it a utility that doesn't change the cost to the taxpayer but it keeps us from having budget challenges year to year over something we cannot control I mean we can go out to bid how many did we get competitive bid we had two two we've had I've had towns experience that only one one usually one it's usually one you know so again we can control it but we can't so you know that's another alternative or you can go completely private and just say you know we're not going to play it all and you contract with a local which is really just kicking the can that's kicking the can and not not looking out for the taxpayers right that's not really you know so there are things and I think we should look at all of them you know over time and we will we now have years we have time to do it that's not that far out we talking like Abby said about Capital purchases oh yeah you got to probably have 18 month lead time on you know trucks like that now well right now we have we have no place to put our West lot every time it rains the West slot is getting our equipment anyway we're not uh interested in yeah you most likely want to do that with the shared service with other others that um on the more generic miscellaneous um OE um again we talked about health insurance we talked about Capital so then to just quickly go through them uh utilities are flat in terms of the budget so we expect the cost to be up we just had some space in last year's budget so I think the budget will be okay um Capital Again part of our budget process was to get with each department the commissions and ask them for what they're looking for in need in terms of capital for 2024 um we have the OEM fire flood siren replacement this came up very late in the process um that's about $660,000 um two things you'll see what they requested in the project or equipment total costs and what we're fully funding means that's what the finance committee is proposing that we include in the budget for this year uh recreation equipment improvements you can see a list there um the conversation that we had at that meeting we're putting $500,000 into the reserve let's utilize that for all those different types of Field improvements is that realistic for that but that's really the that's not that's not um it it is we're not going to spend $1.8 million on centennials regrading I certainly hope we're not spending $1.2 million on engineering and design clost for Memorial Field so I think we've got that money available to do other projects if the you know governing body wishes to do those other projects that the rec program is looking for because I think long term with a projected cost for Memorial you're probably going to be utilizing long-term debt to pay for that which will likely be less than a $500,000 per year on an annual basis once you go to a long-term Deb uh fire department uh this is fairly typical for what you know fire departments need to provide the services that they do um if you're looking for real specifics we got some light specifics from Dan on the mobile data Terminals and therminal imaging um if you want more specifics uh we can reach out and see if there's more information if you want on any of those specific items uh DPW had uh some significant requests uh finance committee chose to defer most of those larger items just given the amount of things that we got in the budget this year um uh next page we've got infrastructure improvements uh we know with increasing storms and the severity of Storms and an aging storm SE infrastructure we need to start budgeting and allocating Monies to do that uh this $50,000 is not a lot um but I think it's a good start um at least to be able to have us some monies if we have to do some repairs uh to catch B or you know to smaller parts of the system longterm we're going to probably have to increase that over time 750,000 for roads um uh to do the road program we're anticipating for this year uh we've got a lock time Memorial Park restrooms and we have a patrol vehicle listed there uh but with discussions with the chief are going to fund that out of the DEA you know trust that we have that's one of the applicable uses that we can do and then there is some specific equipment that we have to get for officers as we bringing in new people onto the force so we have some of that budget in there as well so you're saying the 105,000 105,000 will be taken out because of the it's not in your proposed fully funded section it's not planned for any debt it is going to be out of some so we're rough L funding if you chose to do all those items we are now roughly funding that so we can pay cash for those um again we're utilizing some of our Capital reserves about 300,000 we have a small balance of capital improving fund and a few other reserves sitting there but we are we are not in a great shape with reserves um so we do need to take some time over the next couple of years to start building those up so we have some of those reserves there in capital for any any emergencies that may may pop up we technically outside the expected life of our sewer system AR we I do not know I have not done any analysis of the sewer system imag the other town is region wide it's over 50 years and this is all put down in 60 yeah some sometimes towns are looking to privatize it but then you're liable to that and just so that $50,000 is wish of player Al Al is a way for us to get started okay um and in other towns I've worked you know that number is $200,000 a year in terms of storm sewer improvements and what that's allowing them to do is do some of those storm sewers while they're doing road work so that you know they're digging up the road once so we're not doing that when we come in when the county comes in we have our road ping program we're not touching anything other than just the roads just the roads so I think over time we can we can get there so that we can start doing that but even even most Road programs you know if you think about at one point you thought you were going to get 25 years out of the road they they would even let us you know bond that for 12 now right so so you know your the amount of Road you should be doing every year is significantly higher than most towns can probably to from an affordability perspective da I think I I know um this all came in after you prepared this and after any budget meeting that I was in attendance I know there have been other meetings but we received a request from the ambulance service came in on Friday for a capital expenditure did did anybody address that just to so we' we've looked at it it's net total you know $44,000 um that is not something that we can put into the this year's Capital plan without taking something out we do not have that cash availability we just we just don't we don't have reserves that could fund that either so that would have to be a give and take um I think that give and take conversation is probably most appropriate when we actually sit down and discuss what our next Capital ordinance is going to be because that's where you would you know go through and rank and evaluate and say okay what a need to do sooner versus later it was interesting their budget request I haven't not talked chance to talk to Justin yet uh was over five years um a smaller amount each year um you know so I don't know if it's their desire we have get back to on that side just this past week so we'll close the loop on that and get more information before we have that conversation okay David to do this going back to the revenue line items yes sir for Grants right we see um significant reduction of Grants 22 to 85 yes is that a timing it is we a good job with grant writing no you'll see you'll see that in every budget what happens is right now I can anticipate we can anticipate grants that we know about um and we don't know about everything um many of the grant programs you've just authorized one in you know three three months when that gets awarded to you I then you know do a chapter 159 and we bring that into the budget and that'll add 150,000 you know to the budget budget so that's that's always one of those things when I'm looking at the grants they artificially change what your budget increase is every year so usually if I'm looking at a detail I always zero out the grants until I'm done with the rest of the budget because I don't want them distorting you know what's really happening to the rest of the budget so we there some favorability then oh gosh most certainly you obviously we've talked about we've introduced or you know applied for one I think you had one on last week's agenda as well in terms of a Grant application so we'll we'll continue to do that right tonight was 156,000 right right we get we get that you know that's closes that Gap you know most of the way and that's we REM March um last slide we want to head there we can talk about again just summarize the key the key items interest that's up $65,000 it's mostly driven by the minimal contribution to last year's budget again that was a budget decision you know at the time uh again for all of these I'm just talking about the impact not not a value judgment whether they were good decisions or bad decisions or great decisions just they had an impact and they were decisions that we have we have already already made um but again the the minimal contribution means that you have to go to debt for all the things that you authorize in the in the ordinance for the capital Improvement fund that that increase is getting us back to where where I think you're going to need to be to fund the amount of capital that's required to run a town this size and probably higher if you don't want to incur incur J over time uh the next two line items are on the field of improvement Reserve um this is to get us to where we had planned to be when we did the tax increase in 2021 um so that's kind of a a catch up and collecting that money and putting it back into where we can spend it for those purposes that we had intended tax increase for uh the bcua they got some Debt Service that's increase that's $50,000 increase to our budget um that's kind of normal if you had a water suit utility as part of your operation you'd be seeing those type increases in any case so it's nothing way out of the ordinary but just is a highlight uh the library of a milon went up that's statutory we talked about the disposal contract um DPW salary and wages we made the the contract decisions we approved the collective bargaining agreement uh we did the hiring now we're seeing all the impacts on the other side of that first aid for DM we talked about first year salary and wages for police to officers health insurance passed on by the state we didn't change our plan this is Jesse increase to keep the plan that we had uh liability again no change just coverage increase passed on by the JF and admin salary and wages a head count that again the government body has already approved and we have in place uh providing services to the community taking out the capital CU they pretty large numbers that kind of distort things a little bit it's about a $923,000 increase to the rest of the budget um where did it come from from really quickly came from miscellaneous Revenue called that interest earnings and then tax Le um in terms of that increase that's really what's paying for you know those those increases there so the disposal contract so basically the increase would would been wiped out at once a week of course twice a week um yeah I'm not I'm not sure exactly how the 122 uh was whether that was for the light of the contract or or per year that was per year yeah so yes if if we had not had you know chosen two days and gone to one that increase would not be in or a different increase smaller increase would be there we'd still probably Flo it over so this isn't even taking into account that we push money the the average the increase would have been you know I think over 200 over 200 yeah well well over 200 for this year okay and got closer to three because of where we were and we're at 3.5% increase over $15 tax if we were down 122,000 what would that translate to Bringing Down 35 I think that's about a third slightly slightly less than a third I think because our budget increase was 379 so you figure $125,000 get you about a third of the increase so $35 or something on that price y okay questions questions thoughts comments Justin you still with us mayor and Council given all these changes and all the additions this year is almost like the right sizing of our budget uh $5 per household with the additional services and and the Manpower uh I think this is a good responsible budget uh the CFO did an amazing job the finance committee uh the staff and uh uh did did a really good job uh fine-tuning it I I think we are as fine-tuned as possible we went you know through it several times and this this you know given all these changes and only the 3 and a half% increase uh uh I think it's it's a very good budget and I have to Echo the department heads were really really good and when they came in they had asked for some things and we pushed back and they either Justified it or said oh well you're right and said okay let's let's take that out it was it was not a a hard process to go through they were very willing to look at and really analyze what they asked for what they needed based upon what they'd spent over time and you know a lot of lot of money came out of their initial requests someone back in there was sometimes we looked at a bunch of Lin in and you don't have enough in there based upon what we're seeing um but for the most part the department had really did a nice job putting these together I just wanted to compliment you Dave um for the work that you've done I mean I think I've been on Council since 2015 and uh have gone through different roles on finance committee and I really think that uh you know this budget um addresses the needs of the the needs that were set or committed to as well as desires that have been expressed by the council um I when I came on board on the finance committee in January uh you had already set motions so to so so to speak some of the numbers and how question I never POS but I'll pose tonight is with respect to the DPW we've set a reserve for Fields but I remember when we had residents they had a concern about their D DPW they was that at that time they were talking about a community center they were talking about Fields they were talking about DPW did it ever come up that we should put up a reserve for DPW because I what I heard you say is like this is the black box we don't know now we don't know which way we're going to jump yeah is that um it it came up in many conversations that we've we've had uh with DPW with Mike and I reviewing and looking at Capital plans and longterm because we Mike and I spend almost as much time looking at this year as as we do looking at next year and the following year because we're really trying to say okay what are our long-term requirements going to be from a budget and how can we look at revenue and make sure that we can you know generate revenue and increase our our rles so that we don't have to rely just on the tax levy for any increases because budgets are always going to go up can't imagine a time when a budget is going to go down unless you Outsource a significant piece of us and then you're just changing where that cost is so we spent some time um so it really is right now we don't we don't know a lot about what we don't know um and depending on what it is and how long it going to take to get there you might say okay let's put a couple $1,000 aside for the next three years so we can do short-term debt and pay this down if that's $600,000 to make enough of an improvement here to allow them to function um in that facility or is it find a brand new site now you're talking you know millions and millions of dollars which you're going through long-term Deb for and technically your impact of the current budget is less you know because now you're just in debt service over a long period of time so we've talked and looked at all about that and think that until we really go the next step we have a pretty good idea on the fields of what we want and what we wanted so reasonable to say okay we think this is what it's I don't even think we're out to think yet we're still out of let's figure out what we might think we want to do I think I think in dead ey at some point that's going to be a consideration that's going to significantly impact the budget yeah I mean it's sort of almost in the same category as the sewer need to put it put money aside in the sewers and the only other question I had is is is the presentation that you've just given us do you prefer that it be accessible to the public um in you know so that's that's obviously governing body's decision on that typically what we would normally do is we'd have a more resident facing that's got less less chart less data and more just key points um for the public that we would put out when we introduce and obviously once we introduce they actually get to a deeper level of detail than than this is there's nothing in here that's not going to be in the introduction document the state docum in the state do it's just a different look right now um so certainly we can do some clean up and get it posted when we do the introduction absolutely yeah because the state documents are be to understand this distills are down to a nice package of what 12 Pages whatever um I'd be very I'd be very supportive of making this available to the public I mean I think it there's copies of it sitting on the table for anyone who would actually come in person so why not so why not just put it on the website and make it public that's fine yeah I would I wouldn't consider it the public facing document but it's well it's working do something if anybody's got interested it you can put it up and of course we have user friendly budget document which is just really user friendly friendly I I think this document is excellent um it's very thorough very detailed uh it just covers everything I think anyone can pick this up and follow it um and I think it would be great if it was put out for the public to look at dra Market draft Denise will have it up on the website by 8:00 6 minutes get going don't have to David the mayor mentioned the increase in absolute dollars for 105 yeah I think we just make it clear that the 3 and half% is only on the municipal portion not if people are listening yes um it's not on your entire no right no um I would imagine that maybe by introduction we're fairly early on introduction um but probably before we adopt we'll have the schools numbers we don't have the counties but we'll have the schools you know submitted budgets so we'll be able to upload those I I'll stick them into the state document you know at a 2 and a half% increase just that's on average what they've been doing over the last five or six years um could be higher could be lower um doesn't necessarily Drive Hospital give everybody a a picture we'll try to get as much information as we can from that what is the deadline for the state for the providing the budget the budget has to be adopted by the end of April April or the first meeting in May we're on track mayor just last comment on the budget uh this David the CFO mentioned uh the tax levy and and revenue uh for us and we're looking at next year and the year after 5 years out we have to increase ratables so we don't increase taxes and uh Janetta as the chair of the economic devel development committee they will share a plan shortly on how we do that and I hope you take it as a positive way looking forward to increase rateable so we can stabilize the tax rate and there is the money in the budget to support professionals and design and engineering and planning and all those things that you need to do to get that kind of stuff started so we got to make an investment now to get to return later with some R the end of the budget yep okay thank you D thank you very much you if you have any other questions J D um okay well at this point we're um going to to uh Clos session to provide for a meeting not open public accordance withis New Jersey open public meetings ACTA 1042 Personnel police social services onw facility are the subjects to be discussed uh is there a motion to go into close session move second council member Lundy yes council member ooso yes council member ruko yes council member Chim yes council president Escobar yes council member Fox yes CL session and we'll be returning to open session when that is hopefully that be terribly long maybe an hour thank you thank you David over there okay can I get a motion to reconvene motion second second CL please take the role council member ooso yes council member rupo yes council member chingu yes council president esar yes council member Fox is not counc member yes is there anything else before we adjourn to does anybody have anything that they want to say that we haven't exhausted okay uh can I get a motion to adjourn motion toj let's just do it by eyes all in favor fav we are done for the night thank you