okay I like a motion to open the public hearing motion second all in favor okay anyone wishing to uh discuss it please step forward all right seeing no one stepping forward at this time I like to make a motion to close the public hearing motion second all in favor okay I'd like a motion to approve ordinance 2117 motion second all right roll call please counc president Conan yes councilman corns yes councilman dinino yes councilman doie yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Rex yes okay moving on ordinance 2118 please okay ordinance 28-24 and ordinance amending chapter 19 cultural and Heritage committee and chapter 260 library of the municipal code of the burough of midd set I like a motion to open the public hearing motion second all in favor I okay anyone wishing to to step forward please step up to the mic give your name and address do I need to or can I make my comment now too um actually I think I close the public portion then we'll make a motion a second and then then you can go all right yes sir all right good all right see any other one stepping forward I'd like a motion to close motion second all right all in favor okay I'd like a motion to approve approve ordinance 2118 motion second second any discussion any discussion yes um I would just like to point out it's not a personal thing against anybody but I do believe that this is a direct code violation ordinance that violates our Preamble of our chapter six which is number one Inspire confidence in the middle sex Bal government we had a lot of witnesses come up here that said that that just did not happen and also number three be independent and partial fair and your judgment there there was no impartial there was not fairness in this and I know it's here I know where it is I know exactly like it's like it's just kind of too late but I I don't even know understand how this is legal to be honest with you how this whole thing was approached I was kind of expecting it to get like stopped and then maybe we brought it back and talked about it to figure out what was going on but to in my opinion to waste taxpayer money to discuss something like this where the ordinance is written it just makes my stomach hurt and it's not um it's not a personal attack on anyone up here I just think a story got taken out of line where I was attacked in a personal park by a library employee that triggered my PTSD and my ADHD symptoms and it brought me into a scenario where it made me look aggressive and it's tumbled down from there there's been no nobody com up there's been no one challenging when I'm saying that this is false allegations where's the proof everything's kind of being done right and this is very upsetting for me because this is from the appearance in the perception of not only this this is like this is just as unethical as you can get and changing an ordinance in the way it was done so I mean I've made the disc The Plea before not the plea but the comment before to just stop spending money on this bring it to the door but now we're stuck with all of this and then we're replying to the to the recreation department like it doesn't it's not a hill to die on it like Council m talk about I guess not a hill to die I'm like this shouldn't even be happening it's like a wolf broke into a sheep pen killed some sheep and then got out and said well there's some sheep left are you happy like no like this should have been left alone it should have been handled a whole different way but it was tackled in a very unhealthy lack of communication and Shady darkness and it's I don't think it was done in a malicious way but it was done and I do believe it brings in our honor as our jobs as Representatives that to have Oath I do strongly believe that we are not upholding our code by this and even if this was had nothing to do with me and this was happening to another council person I would say what's going on here but that's it sir okay anybody else okay roll call please council president Conan yes councilman KS abstain councilman dinino yes councilman Dodie yes councilman Quinn have St and Council Rex yes okay okay all right thank you all right uh now we're going to move up to the uh 2024 budget introduction uh we have our CFO here tonight who's going to take us through this uh Carolyn the floor is yours I just wanted to First go over the process we used in this the budget request from Department heads were submitted in January there was an initial reviewal of them by myself and the administrator after that we met with the mayor and the council president to go over some of the uh important factors we wanted to focus on while working on the budget after that we had meetings with some of the larger departments who have bigger budgets uh usually it would have comprised the department head myself the administrator sometimes a council representative or even in a few cases full Council committee after that another final full review was done with myself and the administrator and I worked with the auditor to complete the budget document double check all of our figures make sure everything was aligned properly and then a draft of this budget was sent to the council for review on March 26 some of things of note in this budget after uh the revenue item of surplus in this balance we will have increased our Surplus balance by 108,000 this will bring our current Surplus balance to approximately 1.6 million our goal remains to have a surplus at 15% of our overall budget which is a goal to improve our standing with raing agencies to achieve our best interest rates when bonding for capital projects the 15% is something that is a recommended recommendation level by both our auditing firm and by the rating agencies that we the tax collection rate for 2023 was 98.55% this was a slight decrease from 2022 when it was 98.7% there was a decrease in the town's overall assessed valuation by 1.8 million that can be attributed to a few factors we continued to lose some property to the Army Core there were adjustments from tax appeals there were exemptions for uh churches veterans any burrow or school property Acquisitions with this budget the averaged M residential Municipal tax increase would be about $198 per year the biggest increases we faed this year were additional Staffing to police and step increases for recently hired officers Insurance costs specifically liability for cyber security premiums and workman's comp premiums due to changes by the state legislature a full year of the emergency dispatch contract is on our boot now and increased sewer charges to the scattering Township and mcua which is the county and those are actually driven by The increased amount of rainfall we see because they measure flow that goes through our sewers system we also continue to work at chipping away old unfunded debt items in an effort to clear and clean up our records this also adds to our financial stability and is viewed very positively by our Auditors okay um you know that's the pretty clinical line about it uh the good part is we are adding to the Surplus it's a very solid budget in terms of we are increasing some expenditures for seniors um obviously we did talk about the police but you know a large a large amount of money has gone to stuff that is out of our control which is you know insurances uh sewer you know and and and items like that um this is the introduction Dave I know you are going to have some questions about that I I did want to let you know I have a copy for you all right one of the things that that is important to note that you know if you're looking at the last couple of years you know you're going to say wow that's a pretty big increase however I think it it's unfair not to look at it in terms of probably for four years where we had two years at zero and two years with an increase and the two years were when we were at zero were years when you know we were in the middle of the pandemic we had other factors that were happening that were really you know we weighed we weighed our options at that point we just figured we'd try and take it easy on the taxpayers unfortunately the last two years have been brutal I mean in terms of the last four years this year right now they're ravaging the the cost of living the inflation rate is over 4% it was about 4 and a half the year before it was 6 point I believe 6 and a half or 6.8 the year before that it was seven the year before that when we were having a 0% tax increase now one of the things that happens during the course of that is that it's like a building up type thing because as as it flows through the items that are like get built with gas and Plastics all those all those supply line items they didn't hit right away but they're all hitting now and and probably they started really ramping up the beginning of last year and now I mean we've we've just seen some crazy increases and I'm I'm speaking not only for the burrow just in terms of some of the things especially anything that's like rubber-based products like tires and stuff like that anything that's made with petroleum and gas those items have gone up I mean some of the things that you wouldn't think have gone up a ridiculous amount like grass seed they've also gone up you know so you know we we looked at this in terms of what's reasonable and you know to anybody any kind of increase is not reasonable but the thing is that you have to understand is that our as our expenses go up you know we've gone through line by line by line especially this year I know we have because I sat through a good part of it to really try and Cobble back what we were spending money on because we don't want to waste it we knew we were going to have a a tough time because of just the way the money fell out and you know although you would like to make it less although we could have made a decision to take maybe some money from the Surplus that would have actually been the exact wrong thing to do because that would put us in a in in a bad position um do we have some things that are happening this year that I think they're going to help us yeah I mean some of the things is we've taken some of the hits we've taken the Personnel hits and you know one part of it was is that you know we're you got to remember a few years ago we were at 23 police officers 23 you know and there was a lot of stuff I mean they do a great job they're running around but you're you know you're not getting the same effort when you're supposed to have uh not the same effort because the effort is always there but you're not going to get the same results when you have a fully staff police force with detectives and traffic and all the rest of these things that are there to protect us and you know we made a conscious decision that we were going to get ourselves restaff be back where we need to be with the programs in place and uh you know just as an aside on on top of this one of the things we are looking at that that is in here is that we are looking to have actually we we put the request out to have a meeting with the super in tenant because what we do want to discuss is the SRO and the schools and and and stuff like that which something that has not been there so although we've gone lean and mean with a lot of the expenses there are certain areas where we did spend money where I think it's for the betterment of middle sex and uh if you guys want to pipe in feel free but I I I think at this point I said everything Dave you're going to have a copy to go through look and you know certainly Caroline will be more than happy to talk to you if you have any questions and um the only reason I'm I'm not addressing you because you're representing all the people but you are here and I know that that it concerns you so you know we're just we're we're we're trying to be accommodating because I think it's we're we're we're trying to be transparent we have nothing to hide and that's that's where we're at um oh yes the resolution Okay resolution 113 2024 the introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget I need a motion motion second second okay uh it's going to be obviously we're goingon to have the public meeting coming up so at this point uh roll call council president carahan yes coun cars councilman din yes councilman Dodie yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Rex yes okay okay very good thank you adoption of minutes please okay we have approval of the March 26 2024 regular and executive meeting minutes okay uh motion to approve motion second second all right that's an all in favor all in favor I okay all right very good okay just uh for the mayor's report I don't have too much I mean I can tell you is that we spent a lot of time working on on the budget and and having some discussions on it to try and make sure it's the best budget that we can put forward I do want to make uh a quick announcement uh for you guys here uh up on the de don't forget that uh April the 13th is opening day at 9:00 a.m. at the middle sex Youth Baseball Club Clubhouse if you're available please stop by all right also um you know they had a swack meeting today I didn't have a chance to listen to it perhaps Doug did but you know they do have a an item they have upcoming events here but what they do actually have coming up here on on May 17th Friday from 9 to 12 they're going to have a paper shred event at the health services parking lot hose Lane in Piscataway that seems to be the closest one to to to that's happening around here 17th May 17 May 17th yeah one June huh one June here okay well that's good this way we can uh but I guess it's not being run through to Middle sex County yeah it is I think it's June 15th really mistaken we're not listed okay we will check on it check on that do that's what I was going off of how about that see actually read notes okay um outside of that uh we do have uh a couple things that we we've been working on with the administrator um he's going to discuss that in his report as far as the DPW I just I did want to make mention that I saw our Hydro rake that seems to be quite the quite the thing and uh I I'm looking forward to what it's going to do for us at Victor crra that's that's all I have here uh council president conahan anything I do mayor yes uh a couple things I I wanted to thank start off by thank you Bob and ailia Sher for their many many years of service to Middle sex especially the last four or so including Bob he was um been an integral part of the joint Landing scort from his formation as well as was hard work on the board of health and navigating numerous challenges within our contract with middle County Amelia has also dedicated countless hours on the board of health over 20 years of service and most recently her successful election to the board of Board of Education and she was sworn in back in January they both will be sely Miss at long time volunteers middlex I attended the recreation meeting last night and was unable to attend a laary board of trust meeting which is at the same time I I'll be at the next meeting mayor on uh 13th of May and I'll provide an update following that meeting uh you've heard me you've all heard me speak a lot about our first ever volunteer fair but it's only 11 days away and it's happening on April Saturday April the 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m in the Library community room Harper Bon and from our o have coordinated all efforts and will be managing the event we have also we have almost 20 burough departments boards commissions committees and organizations who will be exhibiting at tables and we'll be engaging in sharing information with visitors to the fair about volunteer opportunities throughout the B we are also encouraging each table to connect with other tables to exchange information and better understand what each organization's mission is remember women and men of all ages all experienced levels are invited to come light Refreshments will be available throughout the entire event we are grateful for all of our dedicated volunteers however middle sex as you've heard me say is facing a critical shortage of volunteers like most other towns and middle sex need recreation in partnership with our American Regan Post Number 306 is working on planning our annual Memorial Day Parade which is on Monday May the 27th rain or shine it starts at 10: a.m. with a ceremony of Victor Crow park in the back and then the parade takes off at 10:45 a.m. hot dogs and first GE to be served as the American Legion following the parade also watch your calendars Community day will be Saturday June the 8th from 2: to 700 p.m. in Mountain View Park uh excellent job to our entire pcw team for getting all of our athletic fields prepared for spring Sports they look absolutely great uh that also includes our Parks after a long cold winter they really look good at the parks Improvement meeting last week we discussed the draft version of the Victor Crow Park this is what I call a master plan request for proposal or an RP with the administrator replac and that should be finalized in the next two weeks and posted for engineers to apply thank you administrator repl and uh one last thing um a very big thank you to our CFO Carolyn venson who I know is there um thank you Carolyn uh Caroline LED our 2024 budget process with input and help from our B administrator Michael Place Carolyn and Michael met with each department head I know the mayor touched on this multiple times to cut any and all unnecessary budget increases they produced the very least budget that does not reduce or eliminate one existing service or resource to our residents in addition it makes a long overdue investment into fully Staffing our Police Department utilizing Somers County dispat that's it all right thank you all right let's move down Council mcns I do I am extremely disappointed with with what I've been witnessing and I wasn't even invited to the uh meeting for the finance for the seniors I really had not much to do with the planning of this so I don't really see the point of in here I will let the council know if I'm going to remain with you in the upcoming uh days I did send an email to everybody asking if they wanted to come in for a meeting and I respon email okay councilman dinino yes a couple things I with I met with money today which I normally do either Monday or Tuesday of each week um he advised me a few things grass pickup is now in force every Wednesday as well as Branch pickup third Wednesday each month talk about the hydro rake it was delivered last week and they have a demo all most of the um Public Works guys took a chance with the company so they all have training on it somewhat the tree farm posts have been installed on Rock Lane we're waiting for the fencing so we'll be ready to go there shortly as far as bulk pickup in March 81 curbside bulk pickups were completed um after the earthquake um Lenny went around to most Building look for anything major obviously he's not constructural engineer but he looked to see if anything was serious and didn't seem to see anything like that as far as the annex they were there working today they painted the garden rail it looks really good and they started to install some millings nothing major just to get some of those low spots and those trip houses out of the way um handicap stalls were painted today at B Hall which we talked about um as far as now on environmental the meeting dates are set now it'll be the third Tuesday of every month first meeting next week 16th 700 p.m. in the committee room also this Saturday April 13th 1:00 to 3 at Mountain View Park it's a Earth Day tree giveaway um so and it's also a meet and greet for the environmental Commission Claire also we will be collecting used eclipse glasses to be sent over to Latin America which will have Eclipse August 24th so wish I knew pretty interesting as far as J Love Like Mike said I'm sorry to hear about Bob Shar he was an intricate part since I've been involved with it so we surely going to be missed and that's all I have here all right thank you all right councilman just one item because my reports haven't come in yet for you mayor uh don't forget 22nd to 27th is the Fireman's Fair please go out and support them this is their biggest fundraiser every year and does a lot for that organization so you get an opportunity go on out there and support them that's all I have I got them after the agenda was out mayor sorry couple that's okay all right councilman Quinn okay so the uh Shak tree commission is meeting this Thursday here in the uh courtroom Kevin Do's going to attend the Board of Health is meeting same day over in Rec Center um I got an update from the construction Department that we're hiring a new electrical inspector but he's sort of going to be on an unall basis so he's not going to be paid unless we utilize his services that was from uh Tyler he also told me that the digitization has begun and they scan the first set of documents into the uh Cloud so that's moving along that's all I had okay as far as the digitization has anyone seen it I have not no I haven't seen I mean I know that's like after they scan it in has anyone like open one up and looked at it look good she can see it's the first they took six or seven boxes oh okay I mean we've all been down that road oh yeah it's scanned it's no problem this is more serious than that yeah that's what I'm saying just want to make sure anything else no okay uh councilman Rex no I don't have anything to report thank you Ma all right uh just just another a couple other quick things um from the middle sex County Improvement Authority the recycling participation survey Believe It or Not middle sex is at 80% so we're number three for the county which still means that there's room for improvement but you know um based on every everyone else that's around there that's a that's a respectable showing not at 21 not not too shabby I got to ask how be calculating that though because like you know if our if our DPW picks up a bag full of cans and they don't know cans how do you you know how do you quantify that you know what you do like to do the Academy Awards you say thank you and take your award and just move right move right on all right uh just so you know um also residential single stream curbside recycling 96 tons were picked up in February so you know you don't think it's all that much but you know it's it's an impressive number when uh when you look at it um Michael administrative report please thank you Mr Mayor members of council of the audience um I want to take an opportunity to really give a a big thanks to our CH Financial Officer Carolyn Benson um not only for being here even do the introduction of the budget but our hard work on Guiding the budget process um and including all the Departments and the mayor and councel and um I think we're off to a great start as far as getting the budget do thank you um as mentioned by councilman Dino uh the Department of Public Work is really busy this spring with unification and maintenance projects throughout the burough um and as you mentioned for instance at Victor Crow Park we're trying to make the what we now call the Victor cral Annex the at 302 Union um much nicer looking inter appearance while we enter into this planning process that we'll be doing this year um so um you mentioned grout smoothing out the gravel making the guard rail look nice Bing the trim of the building um mulching up some of the flower beds things like that so just so that as people are on Route 28 such a major Gateway into um the burough we want to look nice while we plan for greater things in the future uh last week um as as mentioned by the council president I uh presented a draft request for proposal our speak to the park Improvement committee for their review and comment this is for working on that master plan for Victor Crow Park in the annex site I'm hoping to get all the comments back this week so we can move forward with that so that's really an exciting project that we'll be working on um the burough clerk chisar has been working hard to put together the next issue of the burough newsletter uh the May 1st edition of the newsletter will be posted on the municipal website and printed copies will be available at bur Hall the recreation senior center and library so look forward to that coming out um Council resolutions on the agenda this evening include ones to release performance bonds for completed road projects from 2021 and 2022 um to authorize the purchase of Swift water rescue GE for the fire department and this is great news a resolution to execute the agreement to sell Surplus Municipal property on grow Street which is known as a property known as the former Fire Department headquarters um on the tax maps at slot 25 of block 265 um and this is part of something that we're going to be working on very hard in the year and years ahead looking at vacant properties in the burrow um that are owned by the municipality that aren't needed by the buau to get these properties on the tax roles and you know help of our economic Vitality so um great start to that process and the clerk's office had to work very hard on that so thank you for that um regarding the book Road 28 Street beautification project and I know I sound like a broken record um but the municipal engineer today said to me that because the weather seems to be clearing or is expected to be better next week we're hopeful that the street lighting which is the last component of the street skate project um will begin next week so look for those street lights open hopefully next week and pray for driveway uh let's see um topic for discussion during the agenda Workshop session this evening is um Heather Lane the AR rosan issue in that neighborhood and in an executive session this evening um we will be discussing two items um regarding real estate located at 1190 Mountain Avenue and and cre to okay um I'll have to give the uh the municipal engineer a little break on the street lighting because I do recognize that the weather's been bad because we're hoping that when the weather finally gets good enough that we can also get over on Heather Lane well yeah the weather's been bad for a lot lot of different IND yeah exactly you know I wish we could I wish we could send this precipitation to drer parts of the country at this point sure yeah thank you okay uh moving on privilege of the floor um please come up state your name and address I did PA kage 240 Hazelwood um before I get into my budget questions I a couple other quick things I want to ask about um what just happened here with Mr KS because we're sitting in the audience and I see him get and you know your mics are not always clear he gets up and he walks out what what just happened we're not 100% sure huh what's that but not 100% sure I think he was uh a little upset over what I could pick up was uh the communication during the budget process but I know that that that everyone had a fair shot to yeah I sent an email to the entire mayor council with all the budget documents attached to it and said if anybody wants to talk about anything or has any questions or want to come in and meet to let me know and he didn't send me an email so he did he vote to introduce it I everybody else here did did he vote Yes as well what was the vote uh hang on uh resolution yes yes so he voted yes yeah and that's just the guess I don't I'm not 100% sure okay I'm going to take a stamp that it was about the uh culture inherit but I'm just guessing too okay all right my one other non-budget question is U I was just wondering um about a year ago somebody got a cultivator got turned down and then they had a settlement with the town and they got approval are they doing anything the Cannabis cultivator it's supposed to be over toward the border with m scataway is there is there any movement over there I drove a Bott it didn't look like anything was going I know there are cars there there are at times in uh okay so maybe we doing work in so okay do we know if they been open yet are they open I don't I I I online and and plugged in their name and I didn't see that they had the hours or anything yeah it's a private facility it wouldn't that they're not open for the public at all they got approval from the J I know those on it because they they redone their they rid their plans right but I just I B one day and it didn't look like there was any real action but okay but they could be working inside uh not evident people would drive by um all right so I have some comments um in the last um I don't know month I've had numerous well let's say about half dozen conversations usually people solicit me talk to me and the the theme of their comments is wow that board of education they're raising their budget for 4% and these are people that are active in the Republican party and they're outraged by it for 4% at the at the school board level you guys are raised yours over seven so I don't understand the outrage with the school board you know granted they control more money than you don't but I don't understand the outage quite honestly well if if you like to hear one of the reasons I'm a little concerned over it okay is from 2021 to 2024 our state aid went from1 m77988 to 1,81 055 so basically 20 grand all right now there's no money coming from anywhere else except what we raise after that the the schools over the last two years have are increasing 4% but they've in just in the last two years have received the the better part of $4.5 million of increased state aid okay so you have an increase on an increase on on a windfall but you know okay no I understand where you're coming from but I looked at that uh their budget resolution or whatever it was it broke down like different things and it looked like one of some of the aid that we got some of the tax levy increase by the school board we had to pay back a percentage of something because of it said something I what my understanding of this and and don't quote me on it because I'm not 100% sure but I believe that when they they are allowed to increase their budget up to 2% each year in within caps schools I don't think the school has a cap I don't know what I was thought was right yeah I I I think if you I think there was like a number of like 2% and if you didn't go to the 2% and say you saved 1% you had up to three years after that to throw that 1% back on that's that's the cap bank but um I thought there was another 200 some thousand on the resolution and I thought it had something to do with if you get State a for certain things they calculate your um they look at your assessments and there's a formula and based on their C State state's calculations if they think afford it you have to pay some of it back so some of it is not free money for the state if you are in certain categor okay you afford get a little bit back and that's what I think 20720 something thousand up there yeah I you know to be quite honest Dave I we have asked for a meeting with the superintendent of schools and the with the business administrator and and and and Caroline to to sit down and just kind of go through their budget to help make sure that we understand it and I really don't want to answer any more questions because obviously I'm I'm I'm talking out at a school and I don't really know and I wouldn't want to say yay or nay without actually having a chance to really sit down and go and go through right well I wasn't I wasn't looking for a detailed discussion of the school budget because obviously it's not your budget but I was just saying I hear these comments oh my God they're raising their taxes 4% you guys are raising your seven so a second year in a row um now I Caroline discussed the process what direction would the department heads given what were they told just give us whatever budget figure you want were they told you know keep it to 10% keep it to% I mean they 10% they had to justify every line expenditure every single one I provide each department head with a worksheet that shows the amount they spended the prior two years and the amount of their budget the prior year so if they are asking for any increase over their prior Year's budget they need to provide justifications for that increase okay um but would you I and and it's good that they have the justify increases but you know I would think if you're coming off a year where there maybe a 2% increase or 3% increase as opposed to coming back off of the Year where it was a 7.55% increase last year that you would have to have a little bit stronger of a justification in that instance I mean I can I can highlight some of the way some of the department budgets have changed if you'd like me to I can I appreciate that you know I really want I don't think these guys want to sit here I listen to be talk too much but um you know so maybe the another day I can contact you but um it's just you know I mayor you and I talked the other day we had a good conversation other day on the phone I heard everything you said about you know and I and I think had email I sent to you guys I am fully behind you know Staffing the police department you were talking about the things that the public doesn't see that the police thing that you guys know going on I've been exposed to some of that through my job so I know that there's a lot of crazy stuff going on out there but it would seem to me you know it's just like when you do a household budget if you know you got a leaky roof then you're going to go on a little bit less extravagant vacation this year you've got to make it up somewhere and to just say 7 7.5% last year and 7.4% this year oh we didn't raise it for a couple years okay that's true you didn't but I know of other towns who have kept it flat a year or two or 1% really towed the line and not W Wallop everybody the next year to compensate I mean I I just think it's excessive I just I think you know there I've also over the years had many Financial people municipal Finance people and administrators say to me there's always fat budgets you can always find something here something there there's always a rainy day fund for something other issue um this came to my attention in looking at Mr corini's legal bill these tax appeals okay there's six of them on the last building Mr crini worked on I'm not naive enough to think we're going to win all six of those appeals and they're they're all going to stay where they are are somebody's going to get a settlement out of some of those one of those people might even to win anthon gens pays $300,000 a year in taxes if they get a decent reduction and there might even be other appeals that I don't know about right now who's going to make up that difference we are that's on top of the s% that you've already wasted on us for this year okay so there's even a couple of other hidden percent hanging out there that you should be anticipating that you should be thinking about if these people go to the tax board and win all right you know inflation you mentioned inflation another thing that I have heard in other towns in a time of high inflation that's when you try to keep the stuff off the backs of taxpayers you know um you in fact a meeting or two ago made a comment here about the stuff that I see coming by my desk about how and you I think you even said it's difficult out there it is difficult for people out there and to be hitting them with you know a tax increase this of this size it's just I don't think it's appropriate you know another thing you told me the other day was you know Revenue it did it's not it wasn't what you thought it would be because part of it you identified was the fees that you guys were looking at increasing and the landlords came here in October or whenever it was they were supposed to get increased in November didn't get increased so you can't anticipate it in this year's budget I understand how the wall works on that but you know the land Lords came and said give us a receve he started you know complaining about it now can the taxpayers come in here now and complain and say give us a onee reprieve on our tax increase the landlords did why can't we do that they didn't Dave well that's what you said to me you said they didn't I said the revenues didn't come in fast enough fast enough right well that's what I'm saying can I say all right can you take my tax part of my tax increase next year and so that this year because the landlords didn't have to pay their inspection fees right away they got a little bit of I I'm not saying they were absolved but they were given more time to pay can so why can't we spread out some of these uh expenses and give the taxpayers more time to you gave the r the landlord a consideration well they're not it's not the consideration that you think they're getting Dave there is a measure in the ordinance that they their latees are acing for every month that they are late just like you would have interest appr if you P your property effectively it's absolutely a large issue that needs to be dealt with but there are they're not and da sorry car and and I get it but and that part of it is just one part of it and I think if you actually pulled that out it probably wouldn't amount to $10 a year on on each would which is not acceptable anyway but still the bottom line is is that the the bigger fishes to fry over the last few years is that you know last year we had a huge increase in health insurance I think it was either six or $800,000 by the time it was all said and done you know so it's close to $800,000 what this year you know we're looking to the tax levy increase with with everything that we're looking at is is a million dollars 800,000 of that would have went in just to one item and and and and just hear me out for one second I mean listen we we sat there and we thought about all these things because no one likes to get hit with a with a large increase and all the rest of that but at the end the day over four years it's 3.85% over the four years which still not good but you know the thing is we were put we put ourselves into such a bad spot by having not enough police officers we had not enough employees we had we we weren't paying the employees what they they they really should have gotten and and in addition to like all these other things that are coming in from the government and the government's not helping us at all with the insurances with the with with uh everything else that goes on the insurances the um I know what I'm missing with the health insurance the the liability insurance all these little items are coming in there and I know that you you you sit there and you know you you mention like even the the attorney's bills but the attorney's bills are going to go up because everyone we're in a suit crazy thing we got a couple of ones that are as you identifi are just like really that but we got to deal with it and then on the other side of the coin is we can sit here and do absolutely nothing and not look at anything and I guarantee you that increase would have been double what it is right now we looked at every single line and the thing is it really comes down almost to a point what do you want to cut but what do you want to cut we don't want to cut any of these things cuz our people need it and in our budget you know which we don't which we don't talk about we don't know how much other towns got hit with health insurance increases we don't know how many other towns absorb the sewer absorb the garbage you know and some of these other things that we do I mean we're known we're known for having decent Services here which you know a lot of people regard as a soft cost but there is a cost to it you know Everyone likes the fact that you can go to recycling center and just dump stuff off Everyone likes these things Everyone likes that a large increase I don't even want to talk about because I think it's well worthwhile is the library library was almost H 100,000 that's that's statutory isn't it it's statutory but still it's $100,000 that that came out of our pockets I thought that was I thought from the thing I looked at I thought that Levy was separate from the Lev I've been talking about no well it's it's in a different spot it's in a different spot but it comes out of your ATT the appropriation Fe okay so if yeah so if I were to figure that I didn't figure the library thing in my calculations I just went on rest of the bu so if I were to figure that in the increase might be even more than 7.4% it might be but the point I'm trying to make is Mayor is you know you brought up a million or 900,000 it would be less no no you said about a million or about 900,000 is the amount that the levy went up right budget so that's my point is I've seen the The Sur going on I don't think you should drain the Surplus I mean that's what got us into trouble years ago so I don't think we should drain it but to take a couple of extra 100,000 out of there and then go back to the department heads and say make a couple more Cuts if you can get to even $400,000 between those two combinations you've cut a seven 7 plus% increase down to about four just just so you know Dave their recommended Surplus For Us is around four million bucks we we're not going to be there for a while well we're not but the bottom line is if we actually cut right now I guarantee you the interest rate on our debt would would more than make up for whatever we thought we save well that would be that would be something to look into I agree well you know we've done that well as a matter of fact we're looking at floating uh changing the debt around next year I mean when I tell you we're leaving no stone un turn you know we're we're not we're looking at every single thing that we got here I'm I'm just saying you know I I don't think you guys just like you know threw the paper up in the air whever it fell I'm not trying to to say that but I mean you know like I said I mean it it to me it's sort of hypocritical to have heard all these Republicans approach me in the last couple of last couple of weeks say 4% 4% of the board meeting and it's going up seven over seven here 15% in two years I mean again I know we had some zero years there but I know other towns have had 1% 0% half per and they didn't the next year Hammer everybody they you know it went up more than 1% what but Dave you know you're not you're not looking at all the all the information that's out there no I am no no you're not because information am I not looking at Dave you got to look at at this way one of the main numbers that she just rattled past was $1,800,000 of ratables gone right okay well you did talk about that a couple of weeks ago and that's another reason that's another reason to be be you know conservative with your budget I mean Jack I mean when you got sworn in at the reorganization meeting you said I'm a fiscal conservative I don't see that 7 and a half% is being a fiscal conservative after s and a half% last year Mr May jump in here because I I think you're you're kind of getting to is our process of how we G about with this started off this budget I want you to understand something when the budget was first when we first asked first of all at at our manag team meetings ST which I have with the department heads on a monthly basis I gave them the charge that this is going to be a really tough year revenues were down we want to hold spending to belows to can be cut things that would be great if you need anything you're going to have to defend it you heard me say that more than one that budgets came in before we met with the department heads Carolyn and I sat down and made Cuts cuts that we thought were necessary then we met with dep department head made cuts that we all agreed on that was before the council ever saw it so there were numerous times when we tried to shave this budget down I just wanted you to know that that was the process you're kind of giving the impression that we asked the department heads to give us a budget that came in and that's where we started I'm sure there was some triming here but then you know and and I some significance I'm glad you interjected that because but now it makes me think gez before Mr Le place and cine went over this thing what did it look like before that can I can I just read you just few know just to I know I know you said you know if we could trim like 400,000 off the budget or something like that right no combination so scataway and MX County Sewer went up $215,000 that's unavoidable we don't get any say what they charge us the emergency dispatch contract is going up $98,000 that's we signed a contract that's done for we cut some of the departmental budget tax collector went down 25 00 their whole budget is 6,800 Code Enforcement was cut $1,800 their whole budget is $7,000 construction went off $800 the whole budget is $6,300 if you take all of those actual Department budgets that have department heads and you don't include police you don't include fire you don't include BPW all the rest of us are only about $170,000 total not $170,000 increase $170,000 in our total budget M we established the police went off a lot that was a big portion of our increase and we established some of other things the fire department went up $25,000 and DPW roads went up 500 buildings and grounds didn't go up at all parks went up 3,000 garbage went up 5,000 garbage is where we budget for all the tires for all the vehicles and the entire fleet and sewers didn't go up at all for budget okay well you know the mayor made a comment to me the other day about you know on revenues that were not that you were hoping for or you expecting other than the landlord thing where were the other revenues that didn't come in that supposedly anticipated what other Revenue was construction permitting was down last year there just wasn't as much work done in the town as there had been done the last few years how much was it down like you know just like 000 you know what Dave I don't want to cut you short but I'm gonna but you know the thing is Caroline's got a lot of time in this as as do the rest of the guys we're going to give you a copy right and just to be clear this is my working document this is not the actual budget document that'll be available later on yeah this is easier to read this is just my version of a working document I'll just say one last thing I know given be much more more than five minutes or three minutes I appreciate it but you know you again a couple meetings ago you talked about the things that are coming across your desk and you said it's tough out there right now economically meaning for the people in town lot of working two jobs whatever they doing I think you you guys push through a 7 and a half% budget the board ofet does for and I know in the back of everybody's mind is are they pushing some type of building plan over there that's going to happen who knows I mean Rumblings about that I think you're going to see a lot more horror stories coming across your desk about people who can't pay for this can't pay for that can't afford this homes going in foreclosure because it's just like you know I don't know where some of these people how they make ends game I really don't and I and that's be aw all this I know and I appreciate your comments you know one I am going to say one thing you know you keep mentioning 7 and a half% and it's a number that I don't like I wish I could get that on a CD or something like that but you can't but the the idea is at 75% the real the reality of it is less than $4 a week it's four bucks that's for the owner of an average okay what's that's what well you can only talk about average da I mean if if someone's in a bigger house and they're doing better to start with that half people in to are than that because average we think is somewhere in the middle true so that means that number is a little bit misle um what's what's the average home in town assist that you know 425,000 425 okay all right thank you very much you're welcome all right thank you Dave you're welcome don't forget this when you leave I will not all right thank you all right okay so moving on uh anyone else for the privilege of the floor all right seeing no one else for the privilege of before I'd like a motion to close motion second all right all in favor I okay very good let's uh let's move on to uh new business and the consent agenda please Linda okay we have resolution 114 2024 authorizing the release of the performance bond for the 2021 Road Project Judson drive and turn drive and 2022 Road Project Hazelwood Avenue Lal B drive and and M Lane an acceptance of the maintenance guarantee excuse me resolution 115 2024 approving change order number one the amount $868 25.98 for the 2021 Road program judge and drive sh drive and 2022 Road program is avue and lvi drive and Miss Lane resolution 116 2024 authorizing the tax effective to issue tax titling redemptions on block 12 lock three res resolution 117 2024 approving the refund of $1,875 Street opening department number 2021 L3 toar Orlando 221 Beachwood Avenue Middle sex New Jersey resolution 118 2024 reimbursement of drug license fee in the amount of $20 to mer mer Santa Wasau due to insufficient rabes vaccination resolution 118 2024 authorizing the purchase of Swift water rescue gear for the fire department in an amount not to exceed 97376 resolution 120 2024 authorizing the execution of an agreement for the sale of bur and property block 265 Lot 25 resolution 121 2024 authorizing the mayor to execute the department of the army offer to sell eement in an amount of $230,000 for Block 278 lot 52 resolution 122 2024 authorizing the refund of $25 to Dollar Tree number 044 overpayment of the 2024 2025 Board of Health work and child license resolution 123 2024 authorizing self-examination of the 2024 Municipal budget of the mayor and Council of Bor MCH resolution 124 2024 awarding the bid for electrical services to lead electrical installations say for the period of 51 2024 430 2025 subject to the propriation of funds in the 2024 and 2025 budget resolution 125 2024 hiring of Timothy caneri as a substitute electrical subcode inspector for the B of middle sex replacing Robert Vandenberg take a breath okay all right does anyone want to split any of these out no okay I need a motion to approve motion second second any discussion okay roll call please counc president Conan counc president Conan okay yes all right councilman D now yes councilman Dodie yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Rex yes okay all right so moved okay uh non-consent agenda please we have resolution 126 2024 pale fames I need a motion motion second second any discussion okay roll PA please counc president conahan yes councila yes Council Dodie yes Council Quinn yes Council Rex yes okay moving on we have one agenda Workshop item tonight uh which is the Heather Lane property erosion um unless there's any news to report of anything different I think we're just waiting for a break in the weather yeah we hoping next week look a little better than I mean everything's there ready to go so all right so moving on from that privilege of the floor on the agenda Workshop items uh let's open it up motion second all in favor I any anyone want to come up Heather Lane Heather Lane no okay motion to close motion second all right all in favor I all right um resolution for executive session we have a resolution 1272 24 executive session Mo all right uh roll call right CC president Conan yes coun Dino yes C doie yes coun Quinn yes C Rex yes okay we're going to move into executive session we're give a couple of minutes for the room to clear um there is going to be no action taken tonight and for those of you that are leaving