I'd call this meeting to order 7M and ask the city cler to read that stance meetings act into the record this meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act with the meeting notice provided to the Trenton Times the hunter County Democrat VAR various individuals on the list serve department heads and the city engineer the meeting is being streamed live and recorded using the zoom meeting platform the meeting agenda provides for Action items known at the time of publication and is subject to change roll call yes please councilwoman Kaminsky here councilman L here councilman segman here council president Lambert here mayor Noah here rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence what world piece looks like in your moment [Music] indivisible of liberty and justice for all thank you good evening everyone uh I'm going to open the uh the meeting up to public participation uh we will have several public participation uh periods tonight uh one for the ordinance P Bank ordinance the adoption of the budget uh and the second reading public hearing of the um the the last one so uh something you like to safely step up to the podium you have set your name and address and you have three minutes of uninterrupted time for your questions or comments anybody would like to speak Christie is on yeah Christie is on yes hi Jeff TI 33 wison I just wanted to uh say that I was troubled by the meeting last yeah last week on on the seage authority because I felt that key issues that need to be addressed or not addressed that the um person who put on the presentation said that he was going to get to certain uh answers uh at the end of it never did and I don't know how we can go forward with something when we don't know how exactly it's going to lay out uh what form it's going to take as far as how many Staffing it's going to have which's is budget going to be what type of projects it's going to be looking at what their bonding Authority is um and expect you know it to you know and expect it to go forward and it's very troubling we went out and bought a farm for $3 million it turned out to be worth half of that maybe even though there were the towns of appraisal on the property that that said it was worth a lot less and then the sale of part of the property to one from one of the family members to the other and now we're seem to be heading in the same direction be answers before we can go forward and the other part that troubled me is that the people that are pushing it all have bested interests in it happening they've gotten a series of Grants and money to do it uh many of them also our consulting firms that would do the work later including company the group we got the Grant from uh they would come in as the Consultants on green infrastructure and what troubled me is that we don't know how it's going to cost but in my mind because I know a lot of the people there were three people from Princeton Hydro two from an two from Le of from League of conservation voters two from New Jersey future and the one person who called in works for sustainable Business Council who's also getting funded we not got we're getting a dialogue from Consultants we're not getting a dialogue from the public and I really think there has to be a much more open process where people can come in and find out more about it and more these questions can be answered I'll leave it at that Judy gon 86 North Union Street um I just I ran into a couple of people in town business people and they I said hey you know you have there's no parking this no parking charge this weekend isn't that great and they said what are you talking about and I said well the it was suspend this weekend and they said well nobody's advertised it nobody has said it to anyone the Chamber of Commerce hasn't said it no one has said it are you sure you know what you're talking about and I well yes I'm sure but yeah so I'm just wanting to say that if we're gonna do things to help our businesses and you know I'm in favor of that you know I thank you for doing that when you passed it um but marketing is about a forward momentum thing and you sort of have to let people know it's coming and you sort of have to do it and I I know the town doesn't have money to do it and I know they're having trouble with stickers and stuff on the parking bags but the bully pulpit still is worth something and if the town says something people will pay attention to it if they say it outline or if they say whatever so I'm just encouraging you to remember the voice of the town and what you're doing for your community can only be from you so hopefully the next time and hopefully there will be a next time it will be more one widely communicated and if you're working with the chamber which I think you said you were they need to like do something because otherwise here it is th's it thank you that's uh everybody in the room is there anybody online how many people do we have online 4 4 thank you have a motion to close the public comment period please okay let's do all in favor uh I I I hi you the motion carries uh any comment from the council responses I just I just have one on there um so uh with respect what you're saying about the chamber I did think that today they did put something out they put a really nice video out and I saw uh the city shared it on the website um but it was today and obviously it's this weekend um but I hope we can do more I was actually talking to Lieutenant Brown about some of the ideas too and I think when we do it again we should definitely talk to him um as well um but you know again we'd love to work more with the business and I know the chamber I think there's a new president coming aboard too um so hopefully um we can continue to do this and help the business so thanks for for your comment anything else okay uh yeah and I would just say uh we did get four four or five volunteers who did the bags do you remember their names you want you want to give them a shout out it was tedious work okay well I can come next week in lamberville matters and uh we do have two volunteers who are going to be bagging The Meters tomorrow so got two volunteers uh we're going to chip chip in tomorrow morning at 10:30 after the street sweeper passes and uh have parking up ser veio and uh somebody from the Department of Public Works to do that as well uh I did I did announce it in Lambertville matters I think a couple of weeks ago that we were doing this um and I don't know was it I don't remember was it in this so we did announce a couple weeks go as well so but we will continue to work with the chamber and try to get the news out faster next time um all right uh we're going to begin tonight with uh the budget related uh ordinances so that the budget consultant and the cmfo don't have to stay throughout the meeting um so tonight we're going to look at the second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 08 2024 k bank ordinance um uh chy would you just give give us a rundown of what that is one more time please just for sake of everybody's edification hi sure I actually wrote something up so that way would be easier to explain so I wouldn't get my words Twisted so um the State caps spending for all municipalities at two and a half per. by passing this ordinance this gives the municipalities the ability to increase their spending by an extra one 1% bringing it from 2 and A2 to 3 and a half% this does not mean the city is increasing their spending by three 3 and a half% and only gives them the ability to do so if need be this is for expenditures only like salaries health insurance gasoline um things like that only spending only so if the city uses less than three and a half percent they can Bank the amount for two years after two years if it is not used it is lost hopefully that explains if anybody has any questions further um I can explain it a little bit more thanks for that Christie um at this point I'm going to open the public hearing for ordinance number 08224 so if there's anybody in the room from the public who would like to ask a question about the C bang coordinates or make a comment this is the time to do so I have a quick question um Christie this is uh benedetta um so you said if the city spends less we we bank that we put that those monies aside what is the what is the amount is it the amount from 2% to three and a half perc so one and a half perc or is it the whole three and a half percent anything less that so you're allowed up to a maximum of three and a half perc if you only used 1% then the two whatever is the maximum is three and a half so whatever you don't use is banked thank you in the room about C Bank coordinates this is the budget piece or this is the C Bank next anybody online okay okay I have a motion to close a public comment perod on this please second please say I I was that an I was that an I was counc thank you for those who you who don't see me up there I'm calling in so and the voice of Christmas P you explain that um so are there any questions or comments from the count ordinance number 08224 hearing none I would entertain a motion to adopt ordinance number 08224 on second reading granting final approval okay uh on these C we're gonna do a roll call councilwoman Kaminsky yes one second councilman L yes councilman segment yes council president lamber yes may n yes motion carries now we'll move on to the public hearing and Adoption of the 2024 uh budget uh I'm pleased to offer the 2024 budget to the public and to the council with an estimated tax rate lower than last year's actual tax rate our Municipal finances have stabilized as a result of discipline focus and careful planning decisions made in 2022 and 2023 have had a direct impact on the success of this year's budget we welcome new sources of revenue we've increased increased fees to appropriate levels we've canceled old debt and we had a successful Bond sale all the while meeting our statutory obligations and improving service to our constituents our DPW is now at full staff we have filled vacancy in the police department with a wonderful new hire and we now have a part-time accounts receivable clerk which increases productivity across the board at City Hall we've borrowed carefully for Capital needs and we've continued to seek grants of all kinds to improve our infrastructure and Community needs while lessening the taxpayers burden that we generated $664,000 in Surplus in 2023 tells the tale not just of a broader economic environment and the valuation of our real property but also of our hard work to be responsible stewards of the taxpayers trust this is a good budget and I owe my thanks to the finance team and the city council for their commitment to our shared success like all the best things in life this success must be shared um I will just note that the budget has been approved by the state as well so that's an important part of the process are there any comments from the council before open this public hearing okay I'll now open this uh up to uh to public participation if you have a question or a thought about the budget you'd like to share please step to the day and same rules apply to all public participation period Judy gon 86 North Union Street so I was not one of your early uh opportunities to talk about the budget because I was out of town but I did listen to the reporting of it and I am concerned because it may be the budget and I just don't recognize it because I'm not a budgeter so you know I say but maintenance for storm water activities what we need to be doing right now to deal with the openness or the problems with our underground piping and all the rest of that kind of stuff I didn't see any of that in there but I recognized that I wouldn't see it so if it's already there in a clear way so we know that it's there that will be fine and hopefully you'll tell me that when I finish but I did know because when I was at the uh State Board of medical examiners as their executive director when I was at Council to the Department of Agriculture I learned that you got to start dealing with budget issues way earlier than the day of so in February I asked about maintenance what are we doing because we know the rain could be us tomorrow and this is going to be a problem if it is and in excuse me in February I asked about uh maintenance expenditures and expressed my concern about it and that Mr Mayor you said that we didn't have anything in the budget for maintenance and at that time you said you could put it in and council members s said they thought that was a good idea and that is recorded also in the minutes and then March 7th I asked about maintenance and what was going on and I learned that the storm water management Grant needed a storm water pollution prevention plan when we were the first to the party on that so we were in good safe now we have the framework we can do it so I'm hoping that when I shut up you will be able to tell me where it is in the budget because when it rains and it happens we don't want to be saying oh well we didn't have the money which BR me to my last point which is cannabis money is new money for us and this is a problem that we know we we say we don't have the resources for and I believe you that we don't in our normal percentage we have new money this is one of the places we ought to be looking at cannabis money to get going on this stuff because whatever idea there is about the future or what we might do down the road or whether we'll do anything down the road we got to do something now and I'm hoping that the next thing that I hear will be yes it's in the budget then so don't worry thank you Jeff TI 33 Wilson Street I just want to say that I know the budget been the DC it's been approved there's not a line item in it and I I know it's you're not going to go out and amend the budget but I think at least there should be you know both how much money is coming on cannabis and projected for the year and what the costs for storm water maintenance and any the other projects that may be associated with it could should be just broken out SE L and just let the public know that was a role any questions anybody online I have a motion to close the public period on this pleas second please all in favor please say I I I okay uh just a couple of points here um so we did in fact include U maintenance uh new number for Maintenance Building Maintenance in the budget this year um Michael do you remember what they were I think it's remember the exact amount now get it to moment okay uh secondly uh as we've done and always done to date uh something that I'd like to change is all of the storm water management uh requirements for the city are folded into the general budget right so this year uh as we learned in the um uh the the public meeting for the storm water utility uh we anti we the estimate was about $39,000 this year in total storm water management costs that includes salaries that includes um repair maintenance capital projects so that's all folded in the budget we've never done we've never to my knowledge and you could probably correct me if I'm wrong we've never had individual uh line items for storm water management and I think that at a minimum I would like to see us breaking these costs down every year and made available to the public um so you know while we didn't do that this year we talk we certainly know what I think this is probably the first year maybe ever that we've actually been able to identify the estimated annual costs for storm AR management so that in itself was an accomplishment when Cindy was doing all of the research for the storm AR utility um you know she went back 20 years uh to to to gather information and data about what our total capital and but mostly I think it's all our Capital wasn't we didn't qu we didn't we didn't work in salaries or any of that basically capital projects just Capital project we've never kept track of it from year to year um this year we know what the figure is for this year and uh next year we'll know what the figures are and I would like to start breaking it out I think the public needs to know exactly how much we're spending and how much we need to spend on St water ement and uh you know one of the nice things about the um stor water stor water utility uh feasibility study this is going to provide uh a fiveyear a fiveyear um sorry I'm not very feeling very well night a fiveyear um uh schedule of of future costs so that'll be made available in the coming weeks um so that answers I think your questions are there any other comments or questions for uh did you number thanks Michael uh so this year the budget has in in build cleaning and maintenance buildings it's a $45,000 appropriation that's up from the um previous appropriation of 28,000 198 so it's it's a significant more amount of parts of that our property um and may I just add to your thoughts um I know we have a public work Public Works budget about a quart million dollars that working hard on the Storm suicide um and $51,000 in down payment towards Capital Improvements this year and some of those Capital Improvements already are targeting some very important smallwork projects okay thank you I think too of the where the Cannabis money is and the budget was at like because it's not a line item that says C cannabis tax revenue it's a line item and he told me it and I heard that Chris mentioned at last meeting I think Chrissy where where is the canvas where does the canvas Revenue go in in the budget it's included in the fees and permit line on the budget and so what's the I guess the question the number is $160,000 is here that's and that's conservative estimate as I just said in a couple of the meetings uh the Union chill's projected sales for 2024 $9.5 million and uh bake by the rivers projected sales are 1.5 million so if they both realize their goals it'll be cl to $190,000 in Revenue this year and we kind of Base that off to what was collected in 2023 which correct which was right on the money which was that number was because I people ask all the time I don't I don't remember the final number we we did we did we did talk about these number at I think almost all the council meetings we have been releasing those numbers um if anybody like I don't want to give a wrong number yeah I'm happy to uh I'm happy to publish it next week's Lal matters or anybody who's interested to provide it for you but the numbers we're estimating do not count for the third license that if they get moving that that's going to be significant amount of Revenue that we're going to add them to it as well so hopefully I know they've got a couple more things they've been need to do but maybe uh you know this year they're going to be able to open which would at significant amount because I think their sales are going to be estimated higher than the other two so what we're spending it on it's really everything that's I'm not going to get back into about but everything gets folded into the into the General Revenue category right and uh you know so it allows us to do like increase the build the building maintenance you know some alline that we I the other thing too just to finish what Judy was saying you know if we do the storm water management utility or even if we don't regardless we need to do more storm water uh management work so if it's not going to be through the utility we still need to do it so yeah and I I concur with that and I would like to see his talk start working with the MUA now on shared services for some of the equipment we need and doing some of these things for the for the for the drains because they're just uh you know um I think that they have a lot of resources we have a lot of we have a lot of similar concerns you know I mean they care about what's going on underground as do we and uh you know shared services is the way to go to with some duplicative cost that would also save us some money as well as you know um accelerate some of our storm water management eff councilman stigman did you have anything to to add in regards to the uh no no mayor I uh what I had uh spoken about last time is the access to the numbers early that you made available and Michael jur is's time uh for myself uh for padena and the other council members um to have uh it was very important to uh to go through that and I appreciate seeing it early so thank you for that you all right uh hearing no other comments or questions I'm going to ask for a motion to adopt the 2024 budget have to close the public hearing I'm sorry may have a motion to close the public hearing move second all in favor please say I I closed and now I would ask for motion to adopt the 2024 budget no move have a second please second and may have a roll call please councilwoman Kaminsky yes councilman Li yes councilman stman yes council president Lambert yes mayor mayor gosh anyway uh the mayor whatever his name is yes sorry I'd like to thank Michael drus and chrisy for coming to the meeting tonight and we'll take they can they can excuse themselves and head out the door thank you very much Michael thank you have a nice night like making voice that's all right Cindy you'll have to work late now you know thank you Michael all right moving on uh a proclamation tonight for building safety month you're all out for it same building all right say all right so can I have a motion please so all right uh let's just do let's into a voice quote on this one all favor please say I all right the motion uh carries and uh we have adopted resol uh resolution so we have a kind of a consent agenda tonight resolutions number 76 2024 through 79 2024 there any questions about any of these resolution from the council all right hearing N I would ask for a motion have a second second all in favor please say I I I councilman statan yes I uh moving on to ordinance's Second reading this is ordin ordinance number 72024 it's an ordinance of the city of lamberville County of hun in state of New Jersey amending and supplementing Lambertville city code 2014 chapter 11 fire prevention article one uniform uh fire safety standards to establish a designated local enforcing agency responsible for the enforcement of the New Jersey uniform fire carrier so we have conversation uh and discussion about this during the last meeting so I'm not going to replay all that but if there are any questions from the public or comments I'd be more than happy to take those now please we in public hearing for this ordinance see anybody in the room is there anybody online okay may have a motion to close the public hearing on this Sor all in favor public hearing please say I I I does the council have any questions or comments on this ordinance okay uh in that case I would ask for motion to adopt ordinance number 07224 on second reading granting final approval so call please cind yes councilman Kaminsky yes councilman live yes councilman segman yes president Lambert yes mayor no yes thank you motion carries uh resolution number 880-22 this is a resolution to authorize the mayor the City attorney and the city clerk to sign the memorandum of un with the Lambertville Fire District number one Board of fire Commissioners serving as a local enforcing Agency for en enforcement of the uniform firey safety act for the submitting of monthly reports and of review so this uh was a result this was a result of the meeting uh the the first reading of this ordinance um we did draft one uh did did draft anou uh we did present it to the uh Commissioners who voted on it uh and it has been signed already by the Board of Commissioners so um all that's left around you is to have any comments or questions about it and then and then MO Move Motion so mooved okay second second let's just uh let's do a v call on this please well Cindy Council Kaminsky yeah councilman live yes councilman Stegman yes council president Lambert yes and no yes thank you the motion is carried right a few announcements uh tonight um I want to thank uh Cindy who uh my request submitted a $500,000 uh request for Community Project funding with Congressman Kane's office to continue our work up on music mountains would be phase two of that um we did as everybody knows get the the federal appropriation in 2023 for $450,000 so it's a lot of work to submit these um uh these requests and I I'm very grateful to Cindy who did it really all by herself this time which is what she mostly does but I was unavailable for for that so thank you thank I was on the I went on the the webinar it dropped a lot you do it's a lot it's a lot of work and so I'm grateful to you thanks uhh as everybody knows uh we've already announced they were begging the meters this weekend so we hash that I do want to thank Dan KN he uh met over at Mary sh in park with Lester this week to fix the electric issues uh over there once and for all so our thanks to to to Dan for volunteering us time um I would also like to thank that boy scout troop number 49 um spent several hours on Sunday hauling junk out of uh the Delaware rton uh top paath Park they brought out shopping carts and sofas and beds and there was a real encampment there so I'm just gonna give a shout out to the scouts I'm just gonna say their first names but I want to thank Stan Bren Bradley Noah Isaac Jack and Sam and uh and and their leaders it was a was a great day uh for them there was a lot of poison ivy I so watch out on the poison ivy and the met TR leader said they supposed to know a poison I here so we're good so hopefully nobody got poison I and thank you very much for that um and just one other announcement the County Commissioners invite uh everybody in Lambertville to help clean veteran headstones this uh coming Saturday in St John's Cemetery from 8 to 11 um so hope some of you will be able to make that uh Convenience Center hours Saturday May 4th and May 18th from 9:00 to noon and Wednesday May 15th from 3: to five uh Convenience Centers located at 122 Cory Street um unless the council has anything for discussion I think I don't have anything for myself okay correspondence uh none and uh so I will now open it up to public participation for the last session so anybody in the room would like to speak okay anybody online I have a motion to close the public participation session right all in favor please say I I I you thanks for joining us tonight councilman uh from the from Florida right yep glad call now i' ask for a motion to Adin the meeting at 7:30 pm so second all in favor please say I I thank you thank you everybody for Shing up and still light out it is still