hi everyone uh we're going to get started all right good evening everyone good evening all right we're going to get started um I'm just going to read a statement you keep talking I'm just going to read a statement um statement of compl iance with the Sunshine Law this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act an adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by law specifically the annual notice was emailed to the West essics Tribune and the Star Ledger on January 2nd 2024 the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available on www. Livingston nj.org certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for the purpose of personnel Andor other matters as outlined in the Sunshine Law decisions made Andor discussed in closed session will be known to the public at a later time notice to the members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during the meeting shall be used solely for the purposes of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open public records act to the extent possible this evening's Township of Livingston council meeting will be live streamed via Facebook at www.fb.com Livingston Township NJ questions or comments will be accepted by emailing live comment Livingston nj.org by 4 p.m. on the day of the meeting each speaker should follow the rules of order in Livingston code 2-15 uh roll call please thank you mayor council member bani here Viera present kleene here Deputy Mayor mhart here mayor Anthony here uh if we could all stand for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America okay next on the agenda is the Essex County updates is Eileen Fishman here uh not seeing her all right we'll move on to proclamations and presentations uh nice night in Livingston uh promotions are always fun and great for the town um we where is Gary or I didn't see Gary yet Chief is here there he is hey Gary I didn't get to say hi before I'll say hi when you come up here all right uh Chief you want to take it away uh we are tonight we're promoting sergeants right was that yeah so mayor um wait one second we have our assembly woman uh Rosie Bol is here I think oh there you are sign I'm just okay thank you um did oh fantastic okay great all right uh mayor before the chief starts I just wanted to just briefly remind both the council and for the benefit of the public uh to let everyone know um the township and the police department uh the PBA in particular which is the governing the uh collective bargaining unit for uh Patrol officers and Sergeants uh the way the contract is set up we agreed upon a promotional procedure uh a written exam for sergeant uh eligible candidates were allowed to take a written examination which was then used to narrow the field down to the top 15 the top 15 uh then Advanced to the interview and second phase of the process um based on that we develop a list and a rank list um off the current list we in 2022 promoted now retired Sergeant Greg DRS and then last year promoted Angelo Vel uh to Sergeant and then as I think you're all aware late last year and early this year we had a flurry of retirements starting with the two captains which uh then led to lieutenants being promoted to Captain which opened lieutenants vacancies as well as Lieutenant uh retirement plus a sergeant retirement uh all of which led to a significant number of vacancies so uh we went back to the list and um so what what we're at now is we in the last two months uh promoted six individuals six Patrol officers to Sergeant uh in the order they were on the list so uh the first was uh then now Sergeant Kevin meany uh then now Sergeant Michael Spano now Sergeant Paul lensy then David Cordo Joseph fosco and Carl mcamera uh we invited all of the most recently six promoted um sergeants who have been promoted and and sworn in but we we always love to do a ceremonial event and invite families and stuff it's a really nice moment so they were all invited to attend tonight and with that I'll turn it over to the chief to give his introductions as he always does thank you Chief thank you thank you manager appreciate that introduction uh my name is Gary marut I'm the police chief here in Livingston uh I want to welcome welcome you to Livingston and thank you for being here tonight for our ceremonial uh swearing in uh presentation um before I do I want to just mention that we do have the fire department here first aid Squad is here for us as well uh we have our uh assembly woman is here with us too so we have a lot of VIPs in the room so we appreciate their support um also too before I uh forget I just want to mention that usually we we do National Night Out in Livingston we've actually changed that date so I just want before I forget to uh mention it later on in the presentation I just want the residents to know that everybody's invited but we are now calling it the community Livingston Community block party and it's going to be on Sunday September 29th um there's multiple reasons why we changed it and we decided to do our own thing for this event uh but the number one reason is that we're competing with a lot of the resources that are um popular to popular resources horses helicopters dogs things that everybody wants to see especially the kids well if you have your event on National Night Out you're competing with so many other police departments that are all trying to grab those resources so if we have our own event we think that we can uh make it just like we always do in Livingston we think we can make it bigger and better if we move it to September 29th so we hope everybody comes um I just want to reiterate I think I'm repeating a little bit of what the manager said over the last seven months we've been rebuilding the police department um because of attrition we've replaced two captains two lieutenants two sergeants and four Patrol officers uh the officers are leaving in good standings with most of them receiving job offer offers uh they couldn't refuse we have uh recent retirees that are working in Global Security um school security security for the Jewish Community Foundation and public administration we also have a few that are pursuing Hobbies relaxing and just spending time with their families like Captain drum in the back corner over there um we hired 11 officers over the last seven months six of them are transfers from other departments and we currently have five that are in the police academy um we do plan on bringing our six uh new officers to a swearing in ceremony probably in September we're going to ask if the council would invite us back and we're going to swear in our new officers but we had uh two captains four lieutenants we sore them in and tonight it's all about our sergeant um and again we're rebuilding the department from the top down so our six transfers were going to come back in September if they're nice enough to to have us back um the officers from many levels contribute to the uh process of recruiting top candidates uh with of course Mr Lewis having a final say uh we work hard to hire um hardworking and compassionate officers who we think are going to be a good fit here in Livingston uh during the process of rebuilding our officers have done an excellent job of maintaining their efficiency and Effectiveness and I would like to quickly highlight some of the re their recent accomplishments for just a minute I'd like to just talk about their accomplishments and what the officers are doing while we're upstairs trying to rebuild the police department with the manager um can I just go into a couple stats real quick I know uh hold on so uh crime is always on everybody's mind right now with what's going on in the world so um I just want to bring it home real quick uh in Livingston we have some stats that I want to share with you they're positive stats and um I wanted to do it while the officers were here and I know I'm kind of like um uh shifting a little bit uh this night's all about our new Sergeants but I thought it was important to share these stats uh while the officers were here because they deserved credit for it uh and also the council as well and I'll get into that that but um you know this is going to be easier if I actually put my glasses on so just give me a second trying to read this without my glasses um all right so residential burglaries and uh this year to date now when I say uh this year I mean to date right so um the stats from last year 2023 I'm going to compare them to the stats from 2023 and that is for the entire year so uh we're tracking right we're talking about tracking these stats so right now it's attempted residential burglaries this is attempted burglaries to a house this year we're tracking five uh in 2023 we had 27 total um residential burglaries were the homeowners were home at the time in 2024 uh we're tracking two and last year we had 16 total for the year uh B burglaries we're going to get to the car thefts because I know that's part of it too but I want to go into the burglaries uh burglaries where nobody was home this year we're tracking six and last year we had 22 total um and then burglaries into residents where they were targeting automobiles this year we're tracking two last year we had nine um motor vehicle burglaries break that's a Breakin to a motor vehicle this year we're tracking 11 for the total for last year was 43 and um this this is the interesting one uh stolen Motor Vehicles again I I know I'm kind of um sidetracking the swearing in ceremony but I again I wanted to share this with with the officers while they were here um uh stolen motor vehicles um that was a huge problem in Livingston so this year right now we're tracking four stolen motor vehicles and last year in 2023 we ended the year with 35 stolen Motor Vehicles so last year total 35 this year four does anybody want to guess out of the four how many of them had to key fob in the car anybody Justin that's right they uh the answer that is four all four last year 25 of them had the key fobs in them and we had a total of 35 that were stolen now the 10 that didn't have the key fob that you know there could could have been a few in there that still had the key fob and we just couldn't uh couldn't prove it um this is a stat that every police chief likes to hear uh eluding alluding is a term that we use for pursuing a stolen vehicle any kind of a Pursuit um you know it's always kind of a double-edged short for us we want to catch the bad guy but we also don't want to endanger the public so we don't see like to see a lot of Pursuits so this year we've pursued 12 vehicles for this year 2024 we're tracking and in 2023 we had 55 Motor Vehicle uh Pursuits in Livingston so that's a very encouraging stat for us um the the burglaries the home burgies what we're seeing is a little shift now we're still obviously we we want that these numbers to be zero right every yeah every time a house is broken into um you know this is these are our customers but they're also our friends and every time a home gets broken into we feel it internally and we take it personal um so we would like to see these numbers at zeros but what we have seen is a shift from um inner city Urban use that were stealing uh Motor Vehicles now we're seeing a little bit of shift to some Central American gangs that are breaking into houses for um you know uh jewelry and cash and and Trad burglary type of Target um I want to get into the alprs real quick and this is where I'm going to thank the council a couple times uh maybe 10 times I might thank the council tonight for this um so our camera system we have cameras up and running I think I publicly can say that we have about 16 cameras um they were purchased with the help of uh the council um also we're going to get a few more because uh Mikey Sherl has uh was able to find us some Federal grant money so going to add to this too but we have about 16 operating cameras right now so we did a little math and we looked at what the stat was for the last 30 days on these cameras so basically these cameras now have we've kind of created a dome over Livingston with um uh entrance and egress into into the township so these cameras just is this is just the last 30 days the camera scanned 2.8 million vehicles in the last 30 days um they have a total hits now I'm going to explain a hit a little bit without I don't want to waste too much time but I'll try to explain what a hit is we had nearly 60,000 hits now a hit could be anything from wanted person stolen car could be uh motor vehicle related could be suspended license it could be anything so it's it's it's searching databases for motor vehicle records crime records uh wanted records um so those hits are somewhere around 60,000 in the last uh 6 and some some of them are false some of them turn out to be false right uh so the officers have to you know assume you know they have to investigate but uh you know they have to uh verify so to speak um in the last 30 days 830 hits in the NC that's the National Crime information center so an ncic hit is a little bit more serious that's a wanted person or stolen vehicle it's that's the national uh crime uh information center 830 hits um so so to give you example so PE people say well crime is down Statewide and I believe that it is down Statewide so there I just want to give you a quick comparison year-to date Statewide total stolen Motor Vehicles now they do track um as they're going so from so when I give you a 2023 stat um so it was the same time last year New Jersey had uh 8,815 cars are stolen by this time of the year this year 7,787 so on average that's 8 uh 38 stolen cars per day this year versus 44 stolen cars per day last year they're down 12% Statewide okay here in Livingston um I didn't do the math but uh I I can comfortably say that we're down about 85% on stolen cars from last year so we are definitely uh there's there's something to this the officer is doing a great job uh the council investing US in US uh the council has been investing in us with technology equipment training um and of course the patrol officers uh without all that training and Equipment uh you know we wouldn't be where we are now if it wasn't for the hard work of the patrol officer so I can't thank them enough and uh when I say technology too we received a box today um when we received a grant for body warn cameras we didn't have enough to outfit our auxiliaries so with the money that the council has just provided us we received a box in mail today so now we have body warn cameras for all of our auxiliaries that are going to be deployed um in the next week or so so we appreciate that as well um now on top of all that I'm done with the stats for now I'll stay if you want me to if you want me to talk about more about these you could come in every week uh on top of on top of rebuilding the department um and also those those exciting stats that I just shared with you uh we also ran a junior police academy uh held multiple Community meetings participated in Memorial Day Celebrations and uh Sergeant Val was the keynote speaker right um partnered in a successful Summerfest multiple School traffic related meetings um law enforcement helped to train and Orient our new officers to Livingston hosted tours in our headquarters uh maintained uh managed weekly protests at the Town Hall and helped with the Fourth of July celebration on top of all of our calls for service so that's it I just wanted to give you that update but we're in a good place and uh I hope it stays that way so tremendous job Garen thank you thank you Chief thank you to all of LPD here tonight the men and women here thank you so much for protecting and serving us uh I know there's still work to do right Chief but uh tremendous rebuilding it and uh some of those stats where the the state is down maybe 12% but we're 85% down that that's a reflection of an Testament to your leadership and everyone here in this room and who's not here on who's on the force as well so thank you so much all right now to get back to this s in here uh so from the time that I was promoted to Chief Mr L Lewis and I never stopped talking about succession we've always shared the primary goal of making sure that Livingston would be in good hands hold on a second for year for years to come tonight we are going to uh swear in some dedicated and hardworking individuals who will help lead this department as consumate professionals the promotional process is difficult and competitive which requires their participants to invest a significant amount of time away from their families I am proud of all the officers who work so hard in the interest of Livingston not just not just the ones receiving the promotions tonight um I would be remiss if I if I did not thank retired Captain Smith and Captain drum for their contributions to this process uh this was the last promotional process that the two captains were involved in we we we make recommendations to the manager and the manager actually executes the promotions and uh the decision ultimately his but um the two captains gave so much to Livingston during their time time as captains and their assistance in creating this uh process was greatly appreciated um and now we're going to start calling up the uh promotees pretty soon but unfortunately I wanted to mention this because this is true for more than one of our new sergeants tonight unfortunately some of our new sergeants recently lost family members that they wish were here physically uh but I would argue that they are here tonight and they're very proud of you and they're always with you so let's start the swearing end ceremony so do you want me to call them up and then read the bio or read the bio once they're up here hold on Michael Spano [Applause] well um's his family come up hold let me read bio do that yeah we've only done this like we've only done this like 20 times so um okay Sergeant Michael spanel graduated from William Patterson University with a bachelor's degree in physical education Sergeant Spano originally taught physical education in the city of Patterson School District before deciding to pursue a career in law enforcement like his father John Spano who was a sergeant in the Patterson Police Department Sergeant Spano graduated from the uh Pake County Police Academy class 1341 in July of 2013 and after working for the Clifton Police Department he was hired by the township of Livingston in January of 2016 throughout his career Sergeant Spano has has worked in both the Patrol Division and detective division before being promoted to Sergeant in May of 2024 Sergeant Spano is currently assigned to the Patrol Division as a shift supervisor Sergeant Spano would like to thank his family and his children Michael and Dean for the years of love and support and go ahead Michael call him up here if you if you don't come up then we got to come back to next council meeting no all right it's okay I'm shy too all right so Michael unfortunately Michael's uh father passed away recently so tonight Larry Spagnola is a retired Chief from the city of Patterson uh police department is going to uh pin him tonight and we are going to go ahead and swear in who's going to hold the Bible tonight Michael okay I KN I need my glasses I'm Michael Spano I Michael Spano do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties of Sergeant perform all the duties of Sergeant according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you congratulations thank [Applause] you P him new so they're a little stiff an honor look [Applause] good yeah yeah we'll do uh okay we're going to do a family shot right now and then at the end at the very very end we're going to have everybody come back in and take one uh photo with all the new Sergeants but for now F quick family photo yeah and at the end we'll have everybody take one quick photo with all the new sergeant nope I'm not going to P all right s hold on Michael I need you don't go anywhere oh oh you're going there oh okay all right with I this B all right Michael come back up for one [Applause] second St for one yeah yeah so uh it's an honor for us to have assembly woman Rosie boli here tonight with us so I'm going to give the microphone to her and uh she wants to honor her local officers and um we're going to take it so we appreciate that um I want to also thank the council for giving me the time and the mayor and Deputy Mayor um for always welcoming me when I come to council and giving me a bit of voice and stealing a little bit of the show so I really appreciate that but I thought it was really important when I found out that our sergeants were being promoted tonight that the state of newers recognize their work and effort that they do every day on behalf of the citizens of Livingston so on behalf of the state of New Jersey we have a citation for you they all say the same thing so I'm going to read it once um commendations and Praises are extended to you on behalf of the state of New Jersey's General Assembly by the centry of the 27th New Jersey legislative district through their elected representative of me for your dedication and outstanding commitment to the Livingston Police Department resulting in your promotion to the rank of Sergeant congratulations thank you so much thank you thank you very much thank you take a photo with take a photo there you go there you go now you're getting it Michael pay attention back there you guys all right at the end at the end we just want to do one more photo with everybody at the end but uh yeah no now no now you can you can step up here if you want but uh all right next Sergeant Paul linday I'm G to read your bio first and then we'll call up your family okay so I was very happy to find out that um Sergeant lind's vacation plans changed originally he wasn't going to be here with us tonight at the last second his vacation uh CH uh plans changed and he was able to come so I'm very happy to have him here with us so so Sergeant linday served his country in the United States Navy from 1992 to 1994 uh serving in both the Persian Gulf and uh Somalia after his service he graduated from the middle sex County College with an associates degree in criminal justice Sergeant linday graduated from the Somerset County Police Academy class 2299 in June of 1999 and prior to being hired by the township of Livingston in September of 2001 he worked for both the middle sex County Sheriff's department and the dellan police department Sergeant linday has held positions in the Patrol Division training and was assigned to the Traffic Division before being promoted to Sergeant in May of 2024 Sergeant lens linday has been an academy instructor at the Somerset and Essex County policey Sergeant linday is currently assigned to the Patrol Division as a shift supervisor Sergeant linday would like to thank his family wife juette and his uh children Balin Cody Bryce J uh Justin and numerous grandchildren for the years of love and support I get that right I got all right all right get them up here let's go [Applause] who's going to hold the Bible somebody okay thank you I Paul linday I Paul linday do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true Faith you had to tell me [Music] that no we'll keep and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the government established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties of Sergeant perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston in the township of Livingston according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations yeah you want to you want to uh just turn for the photo so yeah supposed to be been a while so did you want to do a family photo or is this all that's here that's all you have oh okay so you want to do a photo family photo hold on hold on Paul assembly woman you want to just hold on wait a second yeah yeah [Applause] congratulations next up Sergeant David Cordo come on down conratulations proud of you all right pass it back on again all right Sergeant Cordo graduated from uh the count uh uh County College of Mars with an associates degree in criminal justice uh Sergeant Cordo was hired by the township of Livingston in March of 2012 and graduated from the essence County Police Academy class 1202 in August of 2012 Sergeant cadero takes great pride in being the first Latino officer hired and promoted to the rank of Sergeant by the township of Livingston uh Sergeant Corda has worked in both the Patrol Division and detective division before being promoted to Sergeant in June of 2024 uh Sergeant Cordo is currently assigned to the Patrol Division as a shift supervisor Sergeant Corda would like to thank his family wife Katherine and daughters Matilda and Penelope for the years of love and support and let's get that family up [Applause] here back down on the Bible raise your right hand Kathy Kathy's gonna hold it okay I David Cordo I David Cordo do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the cons constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further Solly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston according to the best of my ability perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations good job family photo all right time's up assembly woman boli here we go officer Cordo but you know what I am going to say a few words I don't know if you're aware that I was the first Latina Council woman elected to the Livingston Town Council also the First Assembly woman from this living from Livingston the 27th legislative district to be Latina to also be elected I asked you when you first jumped up I said where are you from he said I was born here um I wasn't I was born in Dominican Republic so for me it it fills me with extreme Pride there's a feeling that you get when you come from another country and you um excel in your education or in the career that you want to achieve I know how proud my parents were the day that I got on the council and even the day that I joined the assembly I will never forget the looks on their faces so every movement that we make and I I commend the township because we're hiring a diverse group of individuals into our Township which makes me immensely proud but it also fills me with pride to have someone come up the ranks who is of Latino um origin and build themselves in our community so I am profoundly um proud um as another member of the Latino Community to have you here in Livingston and to represent us on the police force so thank you very much for that here you go I was up with something else when I asked him there you go thank you thank you okay good n we next is Sergeant Joseph fosco [Applause] Joe and I have been friends a long time he's been here a very long time serving Livingston and we're very fortunate to have him and we're fortunate that he has as much energy now as he did the day I met him 30 years ago right Sergeant foser graduated from St Peters University with a bachelor's degree in computer science and a minor in criminal justice Sergeant fosco grad graduated from the Mars County Police Academy class 40 in December of 1992 and after working for uh the town uh Pake Township Police Department which doesn't exist anymore well they changed her name he was hired by the township of Livingston in September of 1995 throughout his career Sergeant fosco has worked in a Patrol Division detective division professional stand Bureau records Bureau and most recently held a position of traffic officer before being promoted to S to Sergeant in June of 2024 Sergeant fosco is currently assigned to the Patrol Division as a shift supervisor Sergeant fosco would like to thank his family wife arleene and mother Margaret for their years of love and support [Applause] need you again I Joseph Falco I Joseph fosco do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston according to the best of my abil ability perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank oh thank you thank you family photo family photo yeah I know if you're not part of the fosco family remain seated congratulations Joe first I told your wife she has to tell me where she got that suit I love it um but on behalf of the state of New Jersey I congratulate you as well Sergeant you go thank you take a photo so unfortunately we can't promote them all and this list is now expired it was a two-year list but the last person to make it off the list um we're going to call up uh Sergeant Carl [Applause] mcnamer uh Sergeant mcnamer graduated from Maris College with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and psychology uh Sergeant mcnamar graduated from the Bergen County Police Academy class 111 in December of 2013 and after work working with the Clifton Police Department he was hired by the township of Livingston in July of 2015 throughout his career Sergeant mcnamer has worked in both the Patrol Division and detective division before being promoted to the rank of Sergeant in June of 2024 and is currently assigned to the administrative Sergeant position Sergeant mcnamar would like to thank his family uh wife Colleen and children Alexandra and Cameron for their years of love and support Carl congratulations and let's get them up here [Applause] [Laughter] want to hold it a little bit great I Carl mcdm I Carl mcam do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I support the Constitution of United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state to the governments established in the state and in the United States under the authority of people okay and I do I do the that's good oh good good good you're doing great I do I do further solemnly swear I do further further solemnly swear that I will faithfully and partially and justly that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston according to the best of my ability perform all the duties of Sergeant in the township of Livingston according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations car great job you were awesome awesome all right great that's gonna make it harder car congratulations thank you proud of you good work thanks Chief all right I had a sorry I had a 50-50 chance the kids all like Captain Mueller family photo all right stay up here for a second assembly assembly woman we're we're ready for you [Applause] yeah we'll bring back up um we're going to conclude our ceremony now but our five uh new promotees we want them to come forward for a group photo and I want to thank everybody for coming tonight and uh for your support also um just want to remind everybody we're going to bring our new hires back in about a month or so we're going to wait for the uh everybody to get done being on vacation everything and um then we'll bring in we have uh you know some amazing new hires and we're looking forward to bringing them to the council meeting as well and also we have some new reassignments around um uh the police department as well new detectives new traffic officers and we'll mention that in uh September when we come back so thank you very very much and thank you for your support and I just want to get the sergeants back up here so thank [Applause] you can I get the two captains to come up to two captains please hold hold on one thank you [Applause] thank you brother thank thank you thank you for coming in tonight thank you Chief thank you for the update congratulations to all e all right let's see next we have uh Livingston youth uh Livingston youth leadership does someone want to come up and uh talk about that it's your microphone oh great great okay you want what's that you want to spread what do you want to do want to spread out a little yeah you got a spot all right what happened all right uh Livingston youth leadership which has been around for a few years but we wanted to give them a PL platform um these are your potential everything right Business Leaders Mayors Governors presidents everything but I want to give you the microphone tell us a little bit about uh Livingston youth leadership good morning good evening councilmen and Town members thank you so much for having us today we greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak about our organization we are the Livingston youth leaders and are proud students of Livingston high school my name is ahana agal and my name is real mahotra we are the co-presidents we operate as the youth division of the global Karma health and education trust and Corporation this is the rest of our team my name is Von chapati and my name is RF SRI and we are the VPS of operations my name is arv g o my name is nikel toari we are both uh Rising Juniors and we are the BPS of marketing my name is janum Gandhi I'm Von chasov and we are the treasurers our mission is to promote philanthropy in in youths by advocating selfless service to the community and providing a forum for participation in various nonprofit events and opportunities for youth involvement the gcat youth division has a deepr rooted history stemming from the dedication of Livingston moms and their children in April of 2021 at the height of the covid-19 pandemic we formed the Livingston youth leaders to help raise funds to help India combat its severe shortage of oxygen and medical equipment our first initiative a bake sale successfully raised significant funds for covid-19 Relief efforts building on this success we collaborated with Dr suia Shaw the president of gcat who is here with us tonight and managed to send oxygen concentrators and BiPAP machines to India this accomplishment solidified our belief in Collective action motivated by our success we are now committed to supporting underserved communities in the US and worldwide over the past four years our annual fundraisers have raised over $24,000 for numerous Charities we firmly believe in the impact of helping others knowing that while it might not change the world it can certainly change the world for just one person now I would like to hand off the mic to Ria who is going to talk about our past events hello so through our annual fundraisers and additional events we've contributed our profits to many different causes for underprivileged communities and other organizations around the world in order to raise this money we involve many small businesses and shelters opportunities to represent themselves we provided money to different countries such as India for Co relief in 2021 and we SP sent spend respirators and money for HPV vaccines following that we assisted Ukraine with war relief in 2022 additionally supported organizations such as let's save ma who Advocate women to be more aware for breast cancer we funded free mammograms to assist them in this aim in the same year we send money to Turkey to Aid those who were victims of the earthquake also we've done book and coat drives for and a Thanksgiving food drive last year we've also had many ongoing projects such as collecting rehab equipment for disabled and uninsured patients in trinas Regional Medical Center we believe that giving back to our community is vital to supporting those in need now I'll hand over to Maya uh to arov who will talk about upcoming events on September 8th we plan to organize a fall Fiesta fundraiser outside Livingston high school with all proceeds benefiting two local charities the event will feature a variety of items for sale including delectable baked goods such as cookies and brownies and popular Indian Cuisine like samosas or mangoli we've taken great strides to ensure that we support local businesses by setting up vendors for them to advertise their products moreover we will also offer clothing jewelry and gift items we've also planned A Car Wash which would be a great opportunity for members of the community to get their vehicles cleaned while supporting a good cause to ensure fun and memorable experience for the attendees we've also uh added a series of engaging activities including a raffle with exciting prizes these efforts are all aimed AED at supporting the work of our partner Charities which makes significant impacts in our community now I'll pass it over to Vidant who will explain where the proceeds from this event will go so the funds from this event are going to be going to support the Livingston Education Foundation and bridges Outreach Bridges Outreach is an organization dedicated to helping underprivileged people in New Jersey supporting Bridges Outreach mean extending a hand to our community's most vulnerable members these contributions will largely impact the mission of ending homelessness in New Jersey in supporting initiatives to help people in need the remainder of the funds will go to lson Education Foundation and we hope that this support will enable the implementation of new Innovative programs in our schools furthermore another ongoing event is our rehab equipment drive we are collecting wheelchairs Walkers crutches canes and more additionally we have several upcoming events on the 2024 calendar including our Thanksgiving food drive and our winter code drive now I'm going to hand off to and he's going to share his own experience working all right so I wanted to share my experience working with the Livingston youth leaders through the years that I've been part of this organization I have felt inspired and encouraged to advocate for those in need in many different communities as each year came with different problems that we contributed to this has been nothing but a fulfilling experience and has taught me leadership skills as well as the baking and setup required for for our past sales I'm so glad to be a part of this Oran organization and its ongoing events helping the community each time I would like to share our information through these flyers please reach out to us for any questions you may have on behalf of the Livingston youth I would like to thank all attendees council members and mayor Anthony for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to us today we hope that Livingston council members will continue to support us and also spread Awareness on behalf of gcat um um please feel free to tell friends families and new social media post about our gcat event additionally our event is on September 8th and we hope everyone here will attend thank you thank you so much uh as we heard um great work uh from the from our youth and I think I speak on behalf of the council that it makes us feel really good that um our intern I mean look at what you're doing I mean it's h for health it's for just charitable work education uh I different countries I mean you guys should really be commended for what you're doing and keep it up and you are uh giving us we wanted to have you into build public awareness of what you're doing and you're giving us some um material on how people could get in contact with you and uh and and I think there's uh email on there and and such okay great well thank you so much for coming in and I don't know Michael you want to take a photo yeah I'll uh yeah great thank you so much keep up the great work such a pleasure hearing what you're doing thank you so [Applause] much e no okay we are now up to the approval minutes so may I like to make a motion to approve the minutes pending Corrections of the July 18th 2024 regular conference meeting minutes and the hold on I'm not done yet and the 18 and the 18th and July 18th 2020 for a closed session meeting I'll second that thank you Deputy Mayor thank you councilman May um all in favor I any opposed no okay great i' like to make a motion to open the meeting to public comment on agenda items only second okay all in favor yes opposed no okay agenda items only hi Mr Mayor Justin Al 56 Amhurst Place uh three things one with respect to the Essex County updates I'm not really sure it does anything to have the women from the county come here and read from the website to us what's going on in the county we ought to be sending our own Envoy the council ought to be sending its own Envoy to the uh XX County meetings reverse the lines of control so we can start asserting Authority at the counter county level two um with respect to the salary ordinance um we have no idea how much the uh salaries are being changed it would be nice to have that before the next uh meeting also it would be very nice to have a salary or chart so that we know above the line and below the line how much we're paying people in the community to do the work that responsibly needs to be done and how much cash flow is pouring to people who don't live in the community outside of the community to do the work if we're going to be building up our Community Values we want to be paying real living wages to people in the community to do the work that responsibly needs to be done um rather than just throwing numbers out there it might also be worth it to figure out what a real living wage what a real living household income is in this community uh be very nice to get that report I don't know if HR can deliver that uh prior to the next meeting but would did very much like to know how much money we're spending on our own people and how much money we're spending on people outside of the community uh and the change how much is being changed in each position position how uh is it going up uh by how much in each position or is it a flat rate across the board it would be nice to know that lastly uh the ordinance with respect to regulating u-turns um Madonna is a funny one to regulate obviously there are ver times where there are a lot of traffic where you don't want people doing u-turns but a lot of times it is just an empty Street and if you're dropping your kids off it's not easy to keep driving and drive all the way around the block there or make the turn and do another uturn and uh perhaps we could either eliminate Madonna from that or uh perhaps we could put hours on Madonna because if you're out there by yourself it seems silly to prevent u-turns on Madonna thank you very much Mr Mayor great thank you Justin I'd like to close the meeting for uh comments on agenda items only oh what's that Barry another I'll second it okay okay I'll second it okay um all in favor any opposed no all right we're up to the final hearing um Madam CLK I think that's been uh carried to the next time we're carried Barry carry I'd like to make a motion to carry ordinance 16 2024 okay to August 26 August 2 August 26 excuse me is there a second I'll second it okay um we need a roll call on this council member bani yes via yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor weinhard yes mayor Anthony and again just to reiterate this will be carried till the August 26th meeting okay yep and no no further notice will be required okay thank you counselor all right we now have we have ordinances for introduction want start with the first one Caroline thanks thank you ordinance 18- 2024 appropriation of 2.75 75 million for improvements to water utility system I need a motion to introduce Mo motion introduce okay second Council any comments any comments on at this point no okay council member bani just one second so sorry uh maybe quick comment here uh in the um in the next uh area or maybe right now how about if we explain this a little bit in a more plain English language for for folks this what are we doing here with with this one and maybe the next two as well I'm not sure if Barry or an if you can explain that a little bit uh yeah and these are all part of the uh the capital budget that was introduced and and were discussed at the budget Workshop I'm going to try and pull the ordinance uh in real quickly so the first one is so essentially this is uh in fulfillment of our Capital Improvement plan the first one is for the separate water utility system it's approving uh I have to find the actual details um hold on just a minute yeah well I was looking for the more even more detailed than that from the workshop but um yeah I mean the summary is on section three which is purpose financing uh various improvements Replacements Renovations of water utility System including but not limited to installation replacement of water main Renovations and improvements to Water Production Wells and assessments and Renovations in construction of water facilities including all work and materials necessary um I could probably find it more specific detail then that was part of the uh the budget Workshop but that that summarizes the nature of the improvements thank you Barry so this is uh this is related to water uh I'm going to just jump into save time a little bit on the next one is for SE and maybe the third one we can explain a little bit more in detail yeah the thir the third one are General improvements it's basically the debt Services funded the the both the first two the water and the sewer are separate self-liquidating utilities that have their own budgets and out of those budgets which are largely uh funded through the fees charged to the customers uh those budgets pay for The Debt Service on those two authorizations uh the third one is a general Improvement ordinance that debt service is funded by the current fund which are paid for by taxes uh that amount includ includes uh significant number of Road roadway improvements Public Works equipment some additional funding for the public works or that's not the Public Works garage that's in the capital budget but we're waiting to see what the bids come in on that um there are let me again look real quickly um and within the ordinance it's on the SEC second page which is listed as page 40 uh so there is uh funding for um it equipment uh computers Communications equipment audio visual this includes cameras server stores dispatch consoles for the police department security cameras wireless network equipment also includes funding for design improvements remediations reconstruction renovations to public buildings and Facilities included but not limited to Firehouse I think this relates to the roof on one of the firehouses some other things Community Center uh bathroom and floor improvements uh Furnishing in improvements for Parks playgrounds Syl LS facilities also includes funding for reconstruction of Paving so almost 3 million of it is for reconstruction repaving of various streets in the township curbs sidewalks drainage storage and storm water Improvement system improvements um Capital vehicle acquisition um certain uh we we've done a lot of our vehicle acquisition through Enterprise but the larger uh util uh trucks for the DPW and some of their specialized equipment uh backos loaders Etc uh are not available through Enterprise so we purchased those um and there is also a line item for the Reconstruction and Paving of Martin Road which is uh largely offset by an NJ do Grant thank you Barry sure thank you thank you Barry so we are on still the first ordinance roll call council member Von yes Vieira yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes and the uh public hearing and final hearing will be on Monday August 26th at 7:30 p.m. okay great thank you then 20224 say that right 2020 ordinance 202024 okay appropriation of 4 million for improvements to the sewer water sewer utility system excuse me I'd like to make a motion to approve ordinance number 2024 for in uction second okay roll call please uh council member bani yes Vieira yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes uh this also will have its public and final hearing on Monday August 26 at 7:30 p.m. okay thank you 21-2024 ordinance 21-2024 appropriation of 6, 45,000 for various improvements need a motion to introduce motion introduce second is there a second second all right any oppos okay Noor no other motions council member bani yes viea yes Klein yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes ordinance 22-22 that's for the 26 also yes sorry August 26th will be the final in public hearing for um at 7:30 p.m. as well thank you ordinance 22-22 24 amending chapter 29 regulating u-turns on certain streets Long Acre Drive motion introduce second okay roll any comments on this one just a quick one here uh on the motion about the Long Acre so that is why we calling out separately Long Acre is that a particular reason well that's the only that's the only addition to this ordinance all the other streets are already currently in the code so this is just adding that to the list thank you and there is an actual issue here which is uh trying to address the uh the the safety issues around the school that's correct that is where exactly yeah they changed the uh the pickup uh procedure at Harrison school instead of being done on site uh the the parents have to park off site and they're now all parking on Long Acre and it's very narrow road and it's not conducive to u-turns right and that was a recommendation of the police department exactly and then exactly to that point um the partnership the resident partnership with uh the police the town the council um there was conversation there was a committee set up and there is a conversation around it and and of course B of fed uh to kind of you know make sure we work the Town work as a team thank you deputy mayor mineard for reminding but exactly is the case is to really bring all the bodies together and bring the right solutions for the problems that we are facing the safety of the kids is is Paramount of course and that's this ordinance just want to highlight that mhm thank you Council councilman utani I'd also like to thank Sergeant uh Carl mamero who's here tonight and sworn in for um this recommendation and the work that went into uh adding uh Longacre to this ordinance yeah um the deputy mayor and I were in the initial meetings on this um with uh with Barry and um uh Matt when he was working for the town and um you know we really wanted to try address the the concerns of the residents around Longacre drive and I think this is a a good step in that direction um and we're going to keep our eyes open and just try to see if there's anything else we need to do we know that on snow days for example it gets even tighter um and if there's ice on the ground it you know becomes harder to walk in that area and uh you know we're going to work with the schools and do what we can to make sure that the area is as safe as possible so mayor I have a question is is the council going to get an update on what's going on because I know last last year to parking around that area was kind of horrible and I know I started receiving calls in in August and it went throughout the entire year um and I questioned Dr block but uh will we be getting some sort of answers of what's going on or if any changes are going to be made over there recommendations not yet so you want I answer that yeah so so there were a couple of sessions uh at The Pedestrian Safety Committee uh one of our town resident is leading it hannaha and there were are working on with of course as I mentioned the board of fed the council uh mayor mayor Anthony and I are are representing us um the recommendations are forthcoming but I think at this point all the solutions are being discussed one of the solution is the immediate one is exactly what we are seeing right now is to avoid u-turns then get into parking that get into the choking situations in Longacre drive and the other streets surround it thank you councilman so this is one measure and U more to recommended as we go yeah the key is I think the the partnership uh of all departments and the residents together yes and I again it's I I called out Sergeant MC but there is other members of uh the police department that have uh act actively participated in that committee Board of Ed as you mentioned Kon and and everyone else who volunteered their time okay um what do we roll call roll call council member BB Tani yes via yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor Reinhardt yes mayor Anthony yes and this also will have the public final hearing on Monday night August 26 at 7:30 p.m. great thank you 23- 2024 ordinance 23224 salary ordinance motion to introduce motion introduce is there second second all right uh roll call council member of Tomy are we saying oh any comments you just one one quick comment sorry one quick comment uh I think if we can add some more information uh very on this uh details uh especially on the on the lines of what is existing and and what we are what is the proposal here and so on uh maybe there are some benchmarks out there that we can yeah sure and and um happy happy to provide additional information obviously wouldn't do it in the ordinance itself um by law we have to have an ordinance on the books that where salaries are paid within the authorized range um these ranges are developed uh in conjunction with the finance department payroll personnel and Human Resources um who do uh constantly doing sort of Market studies getting they have surveys from the league of municipalities from other towns they get other salary ordinances to ensure that we're Market competitive um so so the ordinance with the ranges and again just to be clear these are ranges as a minimum and a maximum I had seen there was somebody suggesting these represented raises from one to the next which they're not um I I can also share and and I will get additional information on how many people and what titles they're at but uh just as a general in response to Mr Albert's question um at least since I've been here the cost of living increases have not exceeded 3% and they've varied between two and 3% um and certainly have been in virtually every case below the rate of inflation but in recognition of the fact that we have a 2% uh hard tax levy cap um so the the the sort of across the board if you will Cola increases at range between 2 and 3% um there are certainly circumstances where different individuals based on either a promotion additional responsibilities getting an additional certification or a license where there are salary adjustments but uh by and large the across the board Cola increases have ranged between two and 3% yeah I I think I think thank you very I think just want to highlight that or stress that that these two columns are really minimum and maximum yeah it's not from to two uh and that's what they ask is to add the from to two right thank you and Barry we would need something else to actually move it to that right the we were doing the we doing the goal posts here right the yeah well so the goal posts are what are done by the council and under the council manager form of government the setting of the actual salaries within those ranges to fall on me as the manager MH any other remarks no okay all right Carol um council member bani yes Viera yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes and this also will have its public final hearing August 26 at 7:30 p.m. great thank you carollyn all right the we're up to the consent agenda for Resolutions all matters listed with an aster are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and will be approved by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the governing body so request in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders first one and only one right I'd like to comment on it so if we have to pull it out I don't know if leaves no I don't know if we do right that's a good one why don't we read them all at once and you could remark that as you wish all right yeah you could read thanks Carol May wanted you to read first second okay that's yeah just read it it's 24-1 yeah just open it up right resolution 24-1 195 Bay Shore recycling extension um do we do a motion to approve motion to approve motion to approve second I'll second it second um I I would just say that um I don't know where's Russ is oh Russ is right here okay um you're sitting back I thought you might have got to the bathroom or something but I want to thank Russ because who always works uh very hard on these things um I I think we're very lucky to have bore um they really allow us to recycle the full range of recyclables one through seven one through seven and you I talked to a lot of other you know a lot of people here may know that um you know I I care about these issues and I care about uh the environment um and um it's something I think about all the time and I talk to a lot of other uh Municipal leaders around the state and there's very few people that have recycling options where they can have a you know a company that we can work with that uh goes one through seven so I think that when living looks at sort of you know how much waste we generate and you know what we're doing with that waste I think we probably do as well as anybody in terms of making sure we try to even though there are questions about you know how effective recycling is overall I think we do it as effectively as as anybody does so I'm really proud that we're able to extend this and um I think it's great for the town thank you councilman any other comments remarks no okay great I think you said it all all right thanks council member bub tan yes via yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor Reinhardt yes mayor Anthony yes I'd like to open the meeting now to the public portion on any subject second second second okay all in favor yes un oppos good evening Lee trackman uh 16 Carol on Circle here in Livingston so I've proudly called Livingston my home for 56 years I'm here tonight to to discuss an issue that I believe is important to all the residents of Livingston the physical appearance of our community specifically I want to address what I can only describe as the deplorable conditions of the grounds at the heart of our town the Livingston Town Center retail I've lived in town center now for nearly 12 years I currently serve as the vice president of our Master association's board from the day I moved into the community we've been frustrated by the neglect of the property and the appearance of the retail area I understand that the town has recognized these issues over the years and has communicated with the retail owner the aarian group however this summer I have observed a significant decline in the ground's maintenance and the property has never looked as bad as it does now while we all understand the business challenges of managing a retail property including the critical need for retail revenue and the impact of vacancies aaren has an obligation to Main maintain the property's appearance unfortunately the retail area now looks abandoned which is not even an exaggeration weeds are as tall as 3 to 4T the grass hasn't been cut in over a month these conditions are unacceptable and likely violate basic Township codes regarding Property Maintenance Livingston lacks a typical downtown area and like many other neighboring communities Town Center was intended to be our downtown the focal point of our our community sadly it has become an eyesore the residents of town center including myself have vested a have a vested interest in seeing the retail area Thrive I believe the town also has an even greater interest in in ensuring that the development fulfills its intended role as the centerpiece of our community therefore I ask the counil what has done what has been done to compel aarion to address these embarrassing conditions and what can be done moving forward I would add our board is ready to assist in any way we can I thank you for your time and attention to this matter thank you so thanks so so if you don't mind toly thank you for coming I appreciate you spending the time this evening um you know we had met a year I think last year was it last year with Deputy Mayor yeah the year before every year with the xarion group we walked the property step by step uh with Beth Litman as well from the bid um and we have I know we've tried through code enforcement to work on certain items um and you know we're really still frustrated where we are today so now that we have a representative Barry of the um residential I guess HOA is that the best way I could describe who who you represent right now and maybe it would be interesting to have a meeting with the representatives of the HOA maybe two representatives of here of this Council and asarian group of course to join us as well and sit down and really have a heart-to-heart talk as to what their thought is of the future of the retail side we know that the residential side has done very well we know that it's completely sold out and you know with residential prices we know it's booming but we also see on a daily bases all of us who go there um the conditions and the lack of um stores at the commercial side so I think this will be a good time now to coordinate with the HOA group and us as well to have a meeting with everybody you know I I agree uh Deputy Mayor um if you could uh okay I'll I you have his contact information okay and we've expanded uses there right didn't we uh in the last we have uh at their request we looked at some of the uses that were there to try and give them an opportunity to recruit more tenants uh they also in this as you spoke it reminded me they provided us with a whole list of their plans to make repairs and do all kinds of things and I think we need to go back to that list and see what kind of progress they made I know it's been a challenge Property Maintenance has been on them constantly I was just reviewing correspondence again while you were speaking about the grass cutting did that ever get cut because the last email I saw they W in a dispute with yeah they must have known you were coming or something but that's literally the first I've seen their grounds people in at least probably five to six weeks yeah they they had sent an email to code enforcement that I got copied on that they were suggesting they were in a dispute and that they found a different landscape cont contractor and now was going to get cut so at least I've encouraged to he it finally got cut but uh we will continue and and certainly uh I I think the deputy mayor is a good suggestion if you're amenable and willing to meet um maybe we have an initial meeting to understand your concerns and hot points but then potentially a mayor you know a meeting to include aeran as well and Le I I haven't seen the clock recently is the clock working no that I don't know okay because I forever it didn't work I mean I don't think there's anything more embarrassing for a town than to have the biggest clock in the Town showing the wrong time the WR I mean it's just it's atrocious of the foot weeds that are there's lots of problems I just think the clock you can see from a lot of places and it just seems like that's that if that's not right then everything else you know there's a lot of other things that aren't right also yeah mayor I would volunteer to be on that uh uh one of those people on that committee to meet with the zarion we could um okay yeah we'll figure it out I know I'm going to be as part of as the bid representative too because I have had meetings uh there uh we and thank thank you for bringing this to our attention and Barry we'll try to get that set up right away all right and then we'll figure out who's going to join me sure Michael I'm glad you're interested in it thank you uh any other public comment he Mr Mayor Justin aler 56 amher Place uh to Mr trackman's Point uh you know the problem is that you have these outside institutions that you know end up flipping the properties but the property remains in outside trust in perpetuity and we ought to be using tax policy to forcibly depreciate the interests of outside institutions in local real property in favor of affordably reacquiring that property so the community is always on an intergenerational basis making the decisions locally about how to best use that property as well if the rent cash flows are pouring out of the community it's very difficult to convince someone to open a store in the community if it's just going to benefit an outside institution it's a tax problem and it needs to be addressed with our legislature and it's a good legislature and it's a good opportunity for this Council to establish a forward position secondly um could we please have a report on uh I guess the past several months if there have been any two on twos and what has been discussed what two two on tws are planned going forward uh the two on tws seem to be an end run or an open conversation I don't know if we've had one or two five on fives this year uh but is there another five on five planned for the fall and if so should there if not should there be and uh when are we going to have that conversation about uh making the investments in our schools that need to that responsibly and accountably need to be made to support the growth and development here in town uh actually lastly one other point uh did the construction on vulker Stop Bar to stomp I haven't been over there in a bit it it has not it it you know there's a they TR to they came to the plant there was a they were supposed to come to the planning board on two different occasions um and they didn't have all their facts and figures so I think it's temporarily um stopped while they're working on an issue with some of the other owners in that area all right we should take care of that because it is not in a situation that it can be on pause where it is it's it's it's it's an embarrassment thank you I know they I know they they twice they were scheduled to come to the planning board and twice they pulled they pulled their um because there there's a discussion going on with with something and I know they're anxious to get it resolved and get yes back to work but but getting back to the two on two just just so you should know I actually reached out today to um president of the Board of Ed Pam Charles to so now that we have the new interim um superintendent who's been in here since July so we want to give him a month we're going to and I just talk to councilman Klein to have another with the informal two at least the informal two on twos I don't know about any of the five on fives I'll leave that to the mayor's question the plan Justin was we had one five on five for that to before school ended and we were going to have another one in the fall so but leaning up to that we would have another 2 on two is it possible to publicly notice the two on2 so people could attend the two on two I don't think that's that's why we're called two on two is because we don't we don't we have some there's no I've been but I've been reporting every time there has been in one of these two on twos I've been reporting back what we discussed and I've said many times and I continue to say and Council M Klein I think will agree with me he's been on a few of them with me prior to assemblywoman boli um that they're very productive and uh and and the township manager is there as well and uh I've reported back on what has been discussed so and we do discuss everything that we talk about here development growth um and um and also non-growth as well which are some of the schools are going through well it is conducted behind closed doors it' be nice to bring that out into the I bring the comments right to you yeah I don't think it's behind closed doors actually it's not notic we're not invited it's not noticed we're keeping uh the lines of communication open and we do plan on having another five on five um any other public comment Foley 16 M Pleasant Parkway sorry for missing the past two uh meetings with the heat and everything you guys know what I do so you know hopefully I get reduction on my my season tickets for the council so um you know what you know why I'm here I sent you guys pictures right you know during during sent something today right during the uh yep sent it right as I walked into the building it's getting out of hand now guys seriously these properties behind my mother law house they they need to be taken care of the legal dumping again the dumpster is right on top of the property line I know she she lives on a on a the property line uh of commercial but those dumpsters again I I if you want I can go back in Google Earth and show you where the dumpsters were 10 years ago they don't belong on somebody's property line and again that driveway is closed off it should be open they closed it off because there was a storm drain that's failed and I don't know if it's the Township's or if it's the property owner's responsibility to get that fixed but ever since that was that failed that driveway has been closed and now it's overgrown with with with uh vegetation and and everything else and the dumpsters are my mother-in-law gave me a list uh since last time I was here average pickup is between 330 and 4:30 in the morning of those dumpsters way too early for right next to a residential area so and mainly on I see Tuesdays Thursdays and a couple Fridays so and there are three different companies that pick up dumpsters there so yeah are those pickups being done by the cont the company that we've contract these are these are private those are these are private these are that's what I thought they're private wanted to confirm you know and it's 6:00 I've given I've given you the names but again it's uh direct Waste Services waste management and the big dumpster that we got a little smaller that we won there but it's uh that company has uh been there D that dump that so those are the three compan what's going on with with code enforcement over there and and you know the The Dumping again I sent you guys pictures by I don't have your I didn't send it to you because I don't have your cell um but can you those pictures I mean it's it's hideous looking yeah I was made aware and I did reach out to Marty uh Marty but that's what I've been hearing for the past four months five months I've been fighting this this long it's it's unacceptable now I'm getting really annoyed with the township you know fines should be starting to come out now because they're not doing anything he he he did confirm violations have been issued a summons has been issued uh he's been unable to reach one property owner that the trash is on the C ified mail came back uh third owner is not connected to the property uh summons they were sent notice of violation summons for illegal dumping uh owner of dumpsters sent neighbor a letter asking her to trim overhanging branches was that somebody right to your mother asking her to trim branches or is that a different neighbor that's the only neighbor that's backing up to those four Lots is my mother-in-law's house all right Tim I will uh follow up and and find out if there's a court date set for for the summons and maybe something that you or your mother might want to provide some information to the absolutely anything that you need we want it cleaned up right that's so there's this the code enforcement has been against the owner of the property but that does not is that also include the time of when the the garbage is being picked up this is the first time here and then three I the last time I was Tim said that to us before the last time I was here three meetings ago I brought up the the timing of the dumpsters that that that is all new but I'm just giving you I told you you told us before that it was about the times of the dumpster it's not the first time you're saying that to us we've heard this before right yeah now now I have the the days and times at the time I think I asked you like do you have an idea of times and dates so we could have somebody the top or somebody sit there and try monitor she's been writing it down ever since the last people I've made a note of that and I will uh incorporate um obviously we have police here 247 uh so I I may lean on the chief to see if he can have somebody basically stake it out during those Tech tonight to pick up according to you you said Tuesday at 3:30 in the morning in the morning so that would be that would be today or or that would be tomorrow morning tomorrow morning in a couple hours Tuesday Thursdays are the main days she has a Friday here a couple times but majority of it's Tuesdays and Thursdays okay six hours from now I I've written that down and uh and again with that that's the I've done it I've after he picks up his dinner on Route 10 after he picks up on rout 10 on the way back I've done it in 2019 so it won't be the first time so I know I know okay go ahead I'm sorry no I just said so I will um I'm going to I'm going to try and elist the police because they're here at those hours obviously code enforcement is not here at 3:30 in the morning uh to to keep an eye out for this and if they can obviously find somebody doing it they'll pull them you know ticket them do whatever they got to do uh in the interm I will check and see if there's a court date uh and then I'll reach out to you uh and and certainly if you're willing I'll volunteer your information with the prosecutor abely they're okay yep absolutely I do have a question though what happens for that homeown or that land owner that that's not or just ignoring us what what do we end up uh well that that's another one I need need to follow up where he said the certified mail was returned and and whatever just even if he just uh ignores us what what what do we do well that's that's what I'll need to to look into in terms of what our recourse is there uh and I also want to look into what our recourse is to go after the dumpster companies themselves uh typically Property Maintenance focuses on the property owner um but obviously if we can't get a property owner then if we know which dump is on that property maybe we'll see if we can go after the yeah there's total of four dumpsters those three companies uh again two of those dumpsters don't even belong on that piece of property where where they're being stored right now it's actually Andy's music store has two of those dumpsters actually belong on their property and they're on the neighbors's property because they keep all the dumpsters together well unless they got permission to do that I'm not sure but technically those two dumpsters belong on the next neighbor's house should on the proper take two of those dumpsters very away from my mother-in-law's house because the synagogue's uh parking lot is is right there so okay you know unfortunately she's got four four commercial properties along her property line on the one side of the house so so uh one quick question Bary this is just one summon so how many summons has we have I'm going to confirm that as well I I just got it from Marty he said summons has been issued I don't know if he meant more or not on yeah sounds like more than a few complaints already and you have visited us I haven't received your last email I've been here six months about it I haven't seen your last email I I wasn't I haven't received it maybe it was to some other council members but I think no it text it should be on texted you us okay yeah I sent us okay as I W as I walked in into the building Tex I okay okay so and they they were taken right before I got here yeah the key is though uh for every summons there will be a code date if there is it is not honored properly right and there will be a that's the repercussion that's the next step that we have yes as a toship um and however many number of violations we're talking about that's what we are issuing I mean we want to make sure we are issuing we are making that respons typically um to the extent they're there they're considered continuing violations you issue one summons there can be a fine for every single day they're there right uh each day is a new violation cor okay thank you thank you I know my time's up but I just want to uh reiterate what uh Mr trackman said I mean I've known Lee we grew up together we went to school together absolutely it's a hideous looking area I mean what was what was there needed to be taken down because of the age of it but it's kind of returned turning back to that and you know again fourth generation of my family had been in this town and you know it's it's it's you know it's it's time to pick it back up again guys you know and CLE clean these commercial properties up you know that's one I'm I'm complaining about another they're all they're all lack of Maintenance so thank you thanks thank you Tim any other public comment motion to close public comment second all in favor all right what do we up to now the reports oh the reports um I know it's only been 11 days since the last one so it's quick turn report thank you mayor what's that in nothing to report for me all right thank you thank you Adam good thanks uh Barry uh I'm good you're good Russ I'm good tonight thank you may all right um counselor anything nothing to report mayor no nothing no all right car for me either thank you all right so we'll uh Kon I went out of order last time but sure I may mix it up next time back to this order all right um yeah no I think uh I'm gonna I'm gonna uh go over a couple of things uh first is really uh an excellent excellent event over the weekend that I had attended uh National Council of Jewish Women of Essex uh chapter what a brilliant way of of uh executing as well as amazingly noble cause uh delivering 1,00 uh kits to kids who can come shop in their Marketplace what an outstanding concept so Kudos and congratulations to that team uh but at the same time uh amazing feeling that came out of it and I was I was very very proud of their work um couple of events that's coming up um August 11th we have uh sanskriti organizing India Fest and 4 days after there's a flag hoisting 6:30 at the the town town hall and the India Fest is at the Gazebo 3:30 to 7:30 and one other thing um that's the LD uh is organizing a pool party uh at the Hanes pool uh it's on August 20th uh I think it's it's 4:00 and Rain date is uh August 22 so I think some good summer uh events coming up I'm looking forward to that and happy summer days great thank you Kane um Michael thank you mayor I did you want me to go no that's that's okay I I have I have a couple uh again I want to congratulate uh all of the new sergeants uh that's great uh and uh just congratulations to them and uh we want to also thank their families because they spent a lot of time in town uh protecting us uh want to thank uh our police chief Gary mutes uh that was a wonderful report that he gave today those numbers were were really great and uh I think those um um license plate readers that uh that this Council and especially when when it was first brought up by Council MC clein uh maybe two years ago a little bit more than that uh really is showing a difference in this town um I'm very happy because I did have a conversation with the police chief uh during the budget negotiations about body warn cameras so Ann I don't know whether it's uh thanking you for finding a money or if it was a grant but uh it's wonderful that the auxiliary police now have uh the body warn cameras it's uh it really does uh protect them um this coming Wednesday is the last of our uh series of concerts um and then following the concerts every Wednesday I guess for the next four weeks are uh movies in our um at our oval so please come out enjoy the last concert and then the start of the movies um kuana golf outing is August 12th uh those donations and all the proceeds for that will be going to our wonderful uh volunteer first aid Squad and the last thing is that if anybody has um um any non- perishable foods or um or anything uh Livingston neighbors helping neighbors is always in need especially the summer months uh there is a 24-hour drop off basket at the police department so so please there is definitely a need thank you mayor thank you councilman um councilman coin um I would just uh Echo a couple of um points ref heardred already um I think you know the number one budget item every year for us is Public Safety it's the it's the job um that is the most important job that this Council uh carries out and there's nothing more gutting to us to hear about someone who's had someone break into their house that doesn't feel safe anymore um certainly as as a council person that's the thing that uh motivates me to to to try to figure out you know what Avenues are available to us to do better um I think that uh the purchase of the lprs has been an incredible Boon uh to this community um it's something that when we look back on our careers it'll probably be one of the things I'm most proud of um because when you look at the difference between you know 12% drop in the state versus you know whatever you know I think the chief said 85% in some categories I you know it just it's an incredible accomplishment um by the police department um by the effort of this Council and uh and Barry's work and um I just think I'm it's something we can really be proud of um and let's be clear nothing stays perfect there's always work you can do and we're always going to try to work harder but this is something um that we should take a step back and be and uh and recognize um as something that we've it's really counts as an accomplishment um I also went uh with um Kon but I didn't overlap time at the National Council of Jewish Women um what a joyous and wonderful event that is each year um to act as a personal shopper to uh you know a disadvantaged kid who gets to run around and pick a shirt and pick pants and pick a jacket and they just have an absolute ball um and it there's a thousand kids that get uh you know back to school clothing and calculators and backpacks and it is a really special event that they do and um you know we're lucky to see it happen and uh hopefully next year in Livingston it's it's really even better when it's in Livingston as far as as we're concerned for sure um and then the third thing is is uh just sort of a challenge to everyone out there we're going to form a uh cornhole team uh the council um and we're going to take on all comers there's a there's a new cornhole League uh that's being started by uh s LS and uh um we're going to work practicing Around the Clock we're going to work shocks from team names um and uh we're going to we're going to take on all comers as part of this league so uh anyone in the audience who wants to maybe there's a uh a trib team that might want to come out and face against us uh but but we think this is going to be an absolute blast uh in the fall for this new cornhole uh team and we think it could be a great new tradition in town and we hope that there'll be a lot of uh a lot of players and teams that come out uh and have some fun thanks mayor thank you uh Deputy Mayor so the nice thing is that I'm just going to Echo a lot of what was said before I just wanted to call out the police as well like every else has you can't sit up here and not thank the police and the chief and all everybody else for everything that they do every day um for this entire Community uh the one group I'd like to give 30 seconds on was the uh Livingston youth leadership that we heard as well I thought they did a tremendous job they are like I always say when I hear kids like this I'm really um not worried about the world at certain times because we have leaders like that and I also want to just applaud and give a shout out to their parents because those parents have taught the kids the two words that are the in my heart that I see what they do as well and that is giving back they have learned what it's like to give back to those who are less fortunate um and I just want to compliment the parents who have instilled that into them so thank you mayor well said Deputy M um yes I uh a lot of echoing um the uh sansy the uh India Fest is August 11th and the flag raising is on the 15th which which is India Independence Day um which is our tradition um the um thank you so much uh for to the parents like uh like Ed said uh for the youth leaders that was amazing hearing what they're doing uh whether it's local whether it's for health whether it's for charity whether it's International um it's just amazing seeing what um our youth our kids our young adults are doing um it just always amazes us up here and I've always stated one of the my favorite parts of being up here is that we're here on these Monday nights and we see what everyone's doing uh and it really does warm your heart and make you proud to be uh sitting up here be proud to be in Livingston um also same thing with uh our police chief that was a a terrific update we do work hard on that we do try to as a council have their back they have our back we're trying to make it as safe as possible in Livingston we um we feel like we should do everything we can to help them protect and serve um and like Shan had said that is our biggest part of the budget and and it's just so nice to hear when the state is uh at 12% and we're lapping them at 85% in a in a decrease um that really makes you feel U great and and congratulations to the the new sergeants and their families um for all they do uh keeping us safe um the next council meeting we do have a few weeks it is August 26 uh we'll be uh uh with our budget and everything else you heard um Carolyn mentioned tonight for second readings we do have a um a let's see a ribbon cutting coming up for dance extensions that is on August 11th at noon um that is a Sunday uh I don't know how many we do on a Sunday but that one that one will be on Sunday and I do want to say uh that back to school event is really another one that really warms your heart um that I've been to many many years uh going back to when Rodney freelen heis was that show you have been going for a while there um but thank you so much for our Council who go and thank you for everyone who runs that that's a really terrific um event all right we are up to the we are going back into regular um not conference meeting and is there and I think we have nothing on close tonight that got the closed portion got taken off uh this is one for attorney C privilage affordable housing that is not being uh that's not on for tonight so with that we'll adjourn and go to our conference meeting thank you everyone they never adjourn this right for