e e e e e e e e in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act we advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7 pm on Tuesday May 21st 2024 meeting details and the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to salute the flag to flag the United States of America it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all before we sit down um I just want to say a few words our community's hearts are broken over the loss of Milbourne Police Department Officer Luke Lions we want to send our condolences to his wife svette his two young children his family and his family at the milour police department if we could just um have a quick moment uh just to remember officer lines thank you and although our employees don't all live in this town they're still part of this town they're they're still our family so um I just wanted to share that thank you roll call vote Please Mr Cohen here M here mayor sey here Mr ster present mayor R here thank you may I have a motion to approve the agenda may I have a second second all those in favor I I okay we have a proclamation uh committeeman Cohen your scheduled to read excuse me whereas amot trophic lateral sclerosis known by many as lugar's disease is a progressive fatal neurogenerative disorder which a person's brain loses connection with the muscles slowly taking away their ability to walk talk eat and eventually breathe and whereas every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and someone passes away from ALS and on average patients diagnosed with ALS only survived two to five years from the time of diagnosis and whereas ALS has no cure and people who have served in the military are more likely to develop ALS and die from this disease than those with no history of military service and we are securing access to new therapies durable medical equipment and communication Technologies is of vital importance to people living with ALS and clinical trials play a pivotal role in evaluating new treatments enhancing quality of life and fostering assisted Technologies for those living with alss and whereas we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Ice Bucket Challenge through a renewed commitment to Galvanize public awareness and support funding leading to significant investments in alss research and whereas the ALS Association as the largest philanthropic F fun of ALS research globally has committed over $154 million to support more than 550 projects AC across the United States and 18 other countries and whereas our commitment to accelerating the pace of Discovery remains unwavering fueled by the hope that one day ALS will be a livable disease for everyone everywhere until we can cure it and whereas ALS Awareness Month increases the Public's awareness of people with als's desire dire circumstances and acknowledges the terrible impact this disease has not only on the person but on his or her family and the community and recognize is the research being done to eradicate this disease now therefore be it resolved at the township Committee of the township of milour in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to hereby Proclaim May 2024 as ALS awareness month and we call upon all Americans to join in supporting ALS research advocating for increased funding and standing in solidarity with those affected by this Relentless disease and it's signed by Anette Romano the Milburn Township mayor on May 10th 2024 um I will be presenting this uh this proclamation to Jun shechner whose family has been touched by this illness she was unable to make it tonight because she is running a program for people with disabilities and so that took precedence over we're being here but I will uh I will present it to her actually tomorrow so thank you very much thank you okay reports um just a reminder to the township committee to uh please just provide reports on matters pertaining to boards and committees that you serve as a liaison okay um I'm going to go first I just want to say a huge thank you to the Ceda committee um Stephen Amanda and all the organizations and committees that were part of Founders Day on Saturday um it was a beautiful day the rain held out um we had a lot of people participating a lot of visitors and just a thank you also to everyone that donated to stuff the bus for the food pantry your donations were are greatly appreciated and then just the Memorial Day parade is on Monday May 27th we're stepping off at 11:00 a.m. at the high school and we have over 20 organizations that are signed up and registered to participate in the parade so it's going to be a great day and we'd love to see everyone uh Deputy Mayor would you like to go sure uh so environmental commission will be having a special meeting on Thursday uh here at Town Hall at 7 pm uh to disc discuss potentially phasing out um gas powered certain gas powered lawn equipment uh there's going to be a lot of landscapers that were invited to participate in this meeting uh so it should be a good informative event um where you know the environmental commission will be able to hear concerns of the landscapers and residents and uh there'll be some speakers that are providing uh some education materials uh so if you're interested please attend uh the planning board met recently uh and voted that the recent zoning change ordinance that passed on first read at the last TC meeting was not inconsistent with the master plan which basically means they gave it their stamp of approval um no updates at this time for HBC or the zoning code examination committee committee woman approve this no Comm Miss sure thank you uh we'll start with the mountain communication centers uh Center they received a proposal to evaluate what's needed for a potential move of the Communication Center from New Providence uh the board will be reviewing the proposal in the near future most likely at our July 17th meeting the lease for for the Mountain Valley Emergency Center is up in July 25 uh and we have controlled to extend the lease in additional 10 years uh and the board is looking at the long-term future and placement of that Center recre committee uh the pool is opening as hot as it was today it'd be welcome uh it's ready to go uh it's the water is full and it's just heating up uh don't forget to register for your membership uh on community pass uh the pool will be open for Memorial Day weekend through June 16th pool will be open seven days a week starting on June 17th uh somebody asked me about the pickle ball courts they're on schedule to be completed sometime in July uh so looking forward to that uh special Improv movement District uh for everybody I saw a lot of you guys at founding day huge success uh we had dozen Community organizations participate with tables dances song and poetry uh the 12 Mill Wheels were unveiled uh they were all designed and painted by local organizations uh explore has completed the spring cleaning activities over 50 tree pits uh and 35 planners have been planted with spring flowers and there was a major streetcape on Morris Turnpike so if you drive down Morris Turnpike you'll notice that they removed all the broken ashphalt and replaced it with stone uh and uh and it starts a 12we street cleaning pilot program next major event for explorers girls night out on June 6th Etc affordable housing Jared caner will be addressing that uh Boe uh Board of Education uh not much to add there however a new uh Acting Superintendent was designated last evening uh Miss disin uh to replace Christine Burton joint Fields nothing report there emergency dispatch we talked about uh nothing no real big updates on flood mitigation that's my reports me sure wrapping up the book sale from the library the numbers are in and they netted $177,000 from the book sales which is uh pretty impressive um this year they saw a record number of uh student volunteers which was helpful because it's a lot of work to swor it uh and catalog all those books and this year they tried something new they had a Friday preview sale for educators which was a big success and they will be um adding that to the book sale as a regular event uh next year um the other thing is they've announced that they will be holding a Pride Celebration on June 8th at 2 pm where there will be live music a fashion show Crafts and food um and then the on the Arbor side um they were very proud of the fact that a team from the corah heart show rarita finished in first place in the word world series of birding which is a 24hour event where you catalog all the various species of of birds that you see and so some of the s from the algarita participated in that and came home with a first place trophy cataloging somewhere in the neighborhood of about 200 different species of birds in the Essex County area thank you um just a few brief updates um and announcements um on May 29th 2024 at 7:30 pm uh the police department will be holding an information session here in town hall and Via Zoom um residents are invited to come out and uh speak uh with the police department they're also going to present uh similarly to what they presented at their previous information session about um tips on home safety uh car safety uh as well as some updates on initiatives that they're uh they're moving forward on just a uh a quick update uh regarding Fair Fairfield Drive I I know that this has been a a long outstanding project with the township um however uh not a lot of this is under our control currently jcpnl uh when we were out there in November we discovered a conduit under uh Underground Conduit on Fairfield Drive that was about 2 inches under the surface of the roadway it was not safe for our contractor to continue working on curbs as well as doing a Mill and pave of that roadway uh we alerted jcpnl at that time uh of of the condition they came out uh took a look at it and then for five months later uh had utiliquest actually do a depth reading of that conduit and we are finally getting to the point where we see a light at the end of the tunnel with this work and we'll hopefully have completion of Fairfield Drive in the very near future um just to provide some specifics which we are happy to finally have uh from jcpnl uh they have a scheduled outage next week on Wednesday 5 529 that was previously communicated as Tuesday but it is now Wednesday uh May 29th uh which the area will be out of power for approximately six hours uh as a pool P another conduit and um de-energize a wire and re-energize another wire um this will be the completion of their work which will allow us to start uh and remobilize our contractor to finish up some minor curb work that's on Fairfield Drive and then get the uh the street mil and pave uh we're looking at you know fingers crossed early June uh to get that all all done in addition um the township has done its uh uh bid out its 202 for Road reconstruction projects we received those bids uh last week uh we anticipate awarding those on June 4th one of the first jobs out of uh that that that work is Fairfield Terrace and marale to do curb work and drainage work uh after that work is complete uh psng is responsible for the mill and pave of those two streets psng in a similar time frame will be reconstructing those areas that were impacted in the beachcraft area uh curb to curb on the streets that they they did work on that will be sometime in uh mid to late June as well um the township held a town hall renovation meeting on May 13 uh describing and the idea of renovating this building um or you know the potential of building a new building all of that information is currently on the Township's website under Municipal projects and we encourage residents to take a look at that uh we tend to have uh the architect present at a future Township committee meeting and uh hopefully uh have uh that project um considered by the township Committee in the near future that is all I have to report mayor Mr thank you mayor good evening um just a couple quick fair share housing litigation updates um for those you been following the fair share housing litigation um uh the court made a determination and uh RPM although it was widely reported that the township uh lost the motion um and the developer won developer moveed for reconsideration of the motion um developer wants the court to force the tach from Milburn to build uh on the nine Main Street site uh on the DPW site um we oppose that motion it's fully briefed um it's currently scheduled to be heard on Friday um that's the returning of the motion however given that's Day Before Memorial Day Weekend a lot of Courts and judges are not hearing motions on that day uh hopefully by tomorrow we'll know if the Court's going to hearing it at what time and I don't know whether it'll be virtual or in person or even if it will take place on Friday but um that motion is fully briefed um and secondly um part of the Court's order was um for uh the township fare housing Corporation to provide uh alternative sites um so the special Master could determine uh which sites were feasible um the Township's planner uh submitted a report um as a fair share housing Corporation uh the developer RPM also had a a planner submitter report despite the Court's order that they were precluded from doing so uh the special Master said he's going to consider uh developers report also um uh and today rebuttal reports were due and the tach submitted a rebuttal report to both um the developer and fair share housing Corporation fairshare housing Corporation and the developer uh both Express an interest that the DPW site was better than the alternative sites proposed by the township um that'll be the decided by the special Master he's supposed to report back to the court um and I'll continue to update the public and this committee as as more things go on um and if we do get the uh time of for the board appearance on Friday I'll let Mr McDonald know and he can obviously post to website as I know there's a lot of interest and um I know there's been um you know some residents who participate not participated but who come to watch uh if it's virtual and or in person I have no further report unless the mayor or anybody on the committee has any further questions thank you thank you okay we have a presentation now uh forgotten history Trail by Mr Bob Gula good evening good evening so you have a you have a handout that I just passed out which is two pages you can refer to it but I'll I'll summarize what's in here briefly so my my name is Bob Gula I'm a res 30 year resident of Short Hills with my wife Shelly and our five children we have strong roots in the community as I have been an active parishioner and CCD teacher at St Rose of Lima and a little league coach for 10 years my wife grew up in town with her mom and dad Marilyn and chub Jeffrey and her two brothers Michael and Andy since my retirement about nine years ago I've been heavily involved in local American history and my own family genealogy I'm an active member of the sons of the American Revolution the sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Mayflower Society during my retirement I focused my efforts on researching the participation of my ancestors and the local communities in the battles that took place right in our backyard the battles of Springfield and Connecticut Farms which took place in 1780 these are often referred to as the Forgotten Victory Trail which is actually what this presentation is called our organization the Forgotten Victory Trail Association was formed by David sigfreed and John keer in 2021 in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States which will be celebrated in 2026 the Forgotten Victory Trail Association engages with local towns to bring focus on the Revolutionary War fighting that took place in Essex and Union counties Elizabeth Union Springfield and Milburn Milburn was originally part of uh Springfield along a route frequently referred to as the Forgotten Victory Trail the battles of Springfield and Connecticut Farms in June 1780 were critical in the defense of New Jersey and particularly Washington's forces which were encamped out in marown and they were also critical in the weakening of the British forces ahead of the battle of town the battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield do not get the recognition deserved as historical focus is placed on other large New Jersey battles Trenton Princeton Monmouth and the areas of fighting are now heavily urbanized and congested in our area our organization has also initiated a grammar school education program where I wear my revolutionary ear a military uniform and educate fourth and fifth graders on the local American Revolution with emphasis on the role played by our communities during the battles of Springfield and Conneticut Farms to date I have educated over a thousand students in Milbourne chadam Summit and Westfield we plan to continue this program through the 250th anniversary in 2026 I'm here today to explain another of our compelling initiatives informational signage describing the role of Milburn during the American Revolution on the Forgotten Victory Trail the signage will essentially create an outdoor Museum as I mentioned Milbourne then part of Springfield played a critical role as the Last Stand in June 1780 against the advance of British troops in New Jersey during the American Revolutionary War was actually a a stone out front with a plaque that recognized that that was the last stand of the British in New Jersey considerable fighting took place in this area in June 1780 during the Battle of Springfield Town Hall egg's Bridge which is where the deli is now and Little's Bridge which is the voxhall bridge down by Staples and Five Guys Washington Rock and hessen house also add to milburn's patriotic history Taylor Park will be an ideal location for signage given its proximity to downtown it's got considerable pedestrian traffic and the fact that it's the ston throw from where the fighting occurred in downtown Milburn we have the support of the Milburn shth Hills historical society and we have gained the unanimous approval of the Milburn Recreation committee to proceed with a kiosk in Taylor park at the entry to the park at Taylor and Main Street we are proposing a kiosk that will highlight the fighting that occurred in downtown Milburn and that will also show it within the the context of the broader fighting against British troops that occurred All Along The Forgotten Victory Trail the informational kiosk will be two-sided you can see in your handout with maps and text indicating the relevant revolutionary locations and Associated historical commentary with limited space on our signage QR codes can also be used for enhanced interpretations and videos project costs for the kiosk are estimated to be approximately 17 to $18,000 which we anticipate will be covered through fundraising as part of milburn's committee to celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary in 2026 the signage itself will be designed and installed with the assistance of our partner Crossroads of the American Revolution Crossroads is a well-known New Jersey historical Association and they have helped Implement many of these informational kiosks in Heritage locations across the state of New Jersey other partners at the Forgotten Victory Trail include the Washington Association of New Jersey marown National Historic Park the North American the new J sorry the north Jersey American Revolution Roundtable and historical Societies in Springfield Union professors of archaeology and history at cane and konth universities we have additional plans for informational signage in Elizabeth Union and Springfield which are all part of the Forgotten Victory tra there are three three primary benefits of this project one we commemorate the brave sacrifices of New Jersey's American Patriots on the 250th anniversary of the founding in the United States two we educate our local citizens on the important role Milburn played in the American Revolution which would of course complement the grammar school education initiative um that we're fostering in the Forgotten Victory Trail and three will Foster pride in the Milbourne community and in our nation I brought copies of the proposal which include background project benefits and costs and a draft markup of both sides of the proposed signage thank you for your time and consideration and I'm happy to answer any questions you have thank you very much does anyone have any questions for Mr I have a statement just thank you so much for bringing this to our town uh the history is Fant fantastic and I think it's just great for the kids and the children to be educated on this and actually follow the victory Trail thank you Mr it's uh it's remarkable because I I just did Wyoming elementary school this week and I had about a hundred students four different sessions and and it's remarkable how enthusiastic they are about this when they find out that right in their backyards they were literally on Hobart Avenue uh Continental troops up in the Hills there were militia from different counties so the kids the kids get very excited when they hear about the history that's in the backyard so so are you asking the township committee for the entire project cost no oh no we're we expect to do fundraising we're we want approval oh okay approval to do the sign in Taylor Park we've already got the approval of uh the milman recreation fundraising for the entire cost yep we expect that private donors will probably cover the bulk of it we might get some corporate assistance if we need it but as part of the Fourth of July committee for 2026 I'm expecting that we'll do some fundraising and is that when when do you plan on it going up it takes about it takes six months between design and then uh implementation we'll try and do it sooner rather than later so we'll probably kick it off in the next couple months get the design laid out run it by the Historical Society of lurn Short Hills and then put it in the ground the next few months after that amazing Crossroads of the Revolution which is uh Crossroads of the American Revolution has done these in numerous locations and they have it down to science um and there's a prototype which is pretty much what you see there um it's up to us to design the locations that we want to show on the maps so one side I anticipate being local sites so it'll be specific to Milburn Short Hills and that'll show you you know you are here here's the other locations hessen House Washington Rock Downtown Milburn fighting U foxall bridge eggmon bridge and on the other side is the broader battles that took place around that same time Battle of Springfield Connecticut Farms in Elizabeth Town so and those that depiction is not as scientific as the the final product the final product is going to be very much enhanced this was my rendering without the professor's input so I'll have some professors helping me with that thank you anyone else do we have consensus to take it to the next step or see what happens okay well then it just the approval right do it I think you're just you're seconding what the Recreation Commission has already approved yeah we'll keep Alex in the loop through the whole thing thank you very much thank you thank you public comment what invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milburn resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you called in and would like to comment please press star6 now if you are attending by computer or electronic device please click the raise hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you will be prompted where there is 30 seconds remaining a reminder that this is not a time for dialogue or to debate a matter and this is a time during our business meeting for the public to offer comments I will now open the public comment period good evening Jeffrey Feld uh I live in the poet section I grew up in Springfield and and one of the things is give them wats boys and the smallest National Park is located in Springfield I Was A Min man also kind of all hous so I really support that and my wife's family fought at Bunker Hill we're not tied to New Jersey we Massachusetts um first I'd like to also update and supplement the litigation update first if it's possible that the reports that were submitted to the um special Master shared with the public um because I don't know that would be a problem that we see what the various parties had um as to the be properties um litigation um a propos settlement proposal was made to the township was rejected the arbitration that's scheduled for May 29th has been postponed because a motion has filed by plaintiffs for mediation and I just want everyone to know where we stand um prior to the meeting on Sunday I sent a email to the Council on various people people giving like heads up questions uh and comments um as to what we're going to do tonight later on you're going to be approving a I guess a capital lease and a $92,000 lease contract in the future can you attach the agreement so the public knows what you're approving because $992,000 is a lot of money and to be given access to a document this thick when you walk in it's not right I mean it should have been attached that we have the opportunity because this is the problems that we've been having in the past I thought we tried to correct it um and as to the capital lease I just think the public should be able to know what are the payments for five years at the end of the lease is do we own the property I mean just to have a feel what's happening because you can't tell from the way the the resolution is drafted doesn't have the mouns I just want to go to the bill list there's three checks I highlighted the first one was guarding now because I made an open request to confirm whether we made the payment to fair share housing of the monetary sanction that was entered in November we were supposed to satisfy within 60 days um because of that action on the bill list it shows that on the 10th of this month in response to my open request that we paid that amount why the delay do we have any Cal claims against for recruitment um R got um McCarthy's Bond Council feed there's one Bond I can't track down on the supplemental debt statement that's the $77,000 one piece I think it's now 7500 7,500 piece I can't find the ordinance that that goes to if you can help me there as a 22 East Willow there's questions about that that goes back to the original approvals prior to this Council I guess my time is up thank you but answer the questions I hope this be part of the record good evening everyone good evening hope you had a nice day today my name is Richie cyber I live in Melbourne very short um two things one I asked uh last meeting about how many potential tickets were given out when cars park in front of the mailboxes the street where you not allowed to park that was one and two another just another pet peeve so you're coming to make a left onto Essex Street and the crosswalk is on the right so you can look see if any cars are coming but the people cross over here so you drive over them you understand what I'm saying there should be a signs that says please cross in the crosswalks they're nicely painted crosswalks Mary you will follow what I'm saying on that one I was just I was trying to understand so here's the train station you're coming up you're making a left on to ESS Street okay the cars are coming from this direction you look to the right you see no there's the crosswalk you see no cars coming you go to make the left turn and the person's crossing the over here you're really not looking this way you should look both ways but anyway just simple things thank you good evening hi everybody um I'm Tony wal I live in Short Hills lived here for about 25 years uh want to start off by just thanking all of you you're all volunteers uh you ran for office and so I I it's it's wonderful that you've chosen to to do service and don't take anything I'm saying as complaining all I'm trying to do is a resident of trying to make our community a better place and a and a more safe place and so I want to talk about crime I've been here before to talk about this issue I talked to many many residents and the public does not think we you all of us are doing enough on crime despite what statistics may show of being flat or down year-over-year they don't feel safe and I was always taught that perception is reality and that is a reality that we just have to do something about that is our number one obligation I think as elected officials and so appropriate resources must be allocated I've looked at the budgets of Public Safety and they've been flat for about five years I've heard when asked the police chief has said if you could have any amount of additional resources what else would you want and he has said I have everything I need and I I think our police department does a great job we can't change bail reform we can't change a lot of the New Jersey laws I have great respect for these terrific men and women women but that answer is not acceptable it makes no sense if you are asked in any business for more resources to do your job better the answer has to be I want more because any level of crime should be unacceptable as a society we should not accept any level of crime and we can do things about this um look we can only control what we can control and we're not going to solve we're not going to eliminate crime but we can do things to move crime elsewhere I see I've only got 30 seconds left so i' I'm not here to just complain I've got some solutions and I've discussed some of these with with others in my neighborhood I live in DS we've had five or six robberies over the last 12 months we've hired private security to Patrol our area eight hours a day it's working great we're getting along well with the police department it's working we ought to do that the only thing that's to deur going to deter this crime is a massive showing of police presence around our streets there just aren't enough I thanks there just aren't enough we don't have enough cars to to to do that and so we can Outsource this on a variable cost basis doesn't hit fixed cost have to give pensions and it's simple I provided Alex with contracts in the past I know lots of these agencies they do it for 30 to $35 an hour we need a shock and awe strategy for several months so these kids on the street wherever they are they say oh my God have you seen what's going on in Milbourne we shouldn't go there we should go somewhere else last comment I really think we should form a Public Safety Committee in partnership with police and have represent representatives from the community so we can talk more about these issues thank you very much thank you thank you good evening good evening my name is Adam Bell I'm here from uh Short Hills I've lived here also about 25 years uh I wasn't prepared to speak but after hearing that you only get three minutes I'm going to speak as well so Tony over here shared some numbers with me and it basically seems that for 50 to $30 per household we could put 20 cars on the street immediately there's absolutely no reason why people in Milburn paying the amount of taxes we are are not feeling safe this is a failure by all of us I mean yes police is doing a great job but they can only do so much as a community this is a shame that the number one neighborhood in New Jersey people are starting to leave because they don't feel safe and it can't be well they're just breaking into the cars you shouldn't leave your keys out these are all excuses all excuses well they went into the house but they didn't really steal anything we can keep playing around but at the end of the job day it's your job our job to fix this and until we fix it you're going to start losing people in town the taxes are going to go down and we're gonna have a problem and this is the number one issue you guys should be focused on security number one yes we can have the signs and 10wn that's great but it's our job to fix the security if we can't fix it shame on us this is an a layup we can hire 20 cop 20 off-duty police officers for 15 to $30 a year per resident we've done the math he's done the math and we're sitting around fitting around here it's terrible and we should all be ashamed of ourselves especially the committee that has the time to focus on this and apologies if it comes off hard but this is reality the crime in here to hear that last weekend someone broke into a house and the people were sleeping in Milbourne in one of the nicest areas in New Jersey are we kidding ourselves this is not once this is cars these are people's houses these are people's lives and let's not keep our eye on other things crime is number one it's about time we take it seriously thank you thank you good evening David Cosgrove I'm a resident um wanted to comment just on uh the citizen affordable housing committee 2677 d24 just urging all of you to to vote Yes on that um it's uh it's G to be good thank you thank you hi hi uh Jonathan back I live in Short Hills I've lived here for about 11 years now um have four for children in the school district um I'm here today because I'm concerned about the 7 million Bond ordinance that was voted on or nearly two months ago I guess for Paper Mill Playhouse Capital Improvements uh it's split into 1.8 million for the parking lot and 5.2 million for building and ground improvements and my main concern is with the ladder so overall I just say up front I don't think this is taxpaying money while spent uh I think we could find much better ways to spend this money um so the reason we're even looking at res giving them 7 million is because we rescued the paper mill in 2008 by purchasing their property for 9.1 million and then Michael stots the executive director of Paper Mill and his Public Presentation in January represented the major maintenance and Improvement to their facility is required and I don't dispute that however under the lease terms between the township and paper mill paper mill is solely responsible for all maintenance and I can understand why we did that back when We rescued them we didn't want take on the responsibility for looking after their premises so they're responsible the least explicitly states that the town is not responsible for the maintenance on property um they also P Mill have also stated they have 21.4 million available for Capital Improvement so they only need our $7 million so putting aside their need for taxpayer money Mr stots also represented in his presentation two primary economic benefits why the town should contribute this money first was that without the Improvement more of a negative benefit without the improvements the town could be exposed to liability as we own the facility and the second was knock on economic benefits to the town from patronage of the uh Theater As far as the first benefit is concerned again the lease completely indemnifies the town for anything that happens uh on the paper mill property and since they're responsible for the maintenance anyway there's no way the town can be liable so that's mood point and as far as the second benefit is concerned which is the knock on benefit to the community of the paper mill that's only an incremental benefit if as part of their Capital program they're planning to increase the capacity of the paper mill and will get more pain into the town but they're not planning to do that so the only kind of residual again negative benefit is perhaps we're at risk of Lo losing the paper mill if we don't provide the 7 million but that seems very very unlikely um the paper mill pays no property taxes on the pr premises it pays a limited uneconomic rent for the next 59 years and they will certainly struggle to find a similar deal elsewhere so in general given the paper mill has the funds for the necessary improvements they're clearly responsible for those improvements under the terms of the lease I think we have much better ways of spending 7 million of taxpayer money if you went out and asked every household to write a $1,000 check which is what it amounts to you wouldn't get very far in that case we can do it we've got affordable housing obligations coming up we're going to have to expand the schools as a result of all of that and I don't think we should be spending 7 million on paper thank you good evening my name is Stuart bson I live in Milbourne a in a resident and I'm uh talking also on the paper mill and I have a u similar but slightly different perspective towards the whole situation which is we heard Mike stot describe the Papermill and the benefits to our town and I think it's a great program I think it gives us benefits I think there's a lot of positive things that come from the Papermill and I think there could be benefits for the town to be buying the lot helping with a continued uh situation where we're giving to them every year through tax abatements not abatements but they don't have to pay the taxes because be on the land and this is a mutually symbiotic relationship which I think can continue to grow however as Mike pointed out is that the paper mill is coming in in a situation much different than it did in the past they're Financial sound they don't have any particular immediate needs that have to get this done immediately and they have a financial obligation to themselves to be planning ahead to be taking care of the facility and that planning could be from getting donors and so forth I think the town May benefit from the parking lot but when you look at the other benefits the facade fixing the drainage the lighting in the parking lots these are things which I think they could directly get donors for I don't think the Town Council which has all the things we've heard about tonight which includes crime affordable housing and other traffic and other things that they could be focusing on should focus on whether that is a good deal or bad deal and acts a proxy between the donors of Milburn and the Paper Moon instead of voting yes I would propos that we' let paper mil directly go to the residents the residents who support them can directly donate to them and therefore the funds would be speaking directly to what that individual wants their money to be used for versus it going into taxes and having the decision made for them by those who they have elected thank you thank you anyone before we go online good evening everyone Jackie Benjamin lieberberg former mayor founding board member of explore and current chairwomen of explore I'm here to express my concern that there is discussion scheduled for new business entitled District Management Corporation Board of Trustees for the record neither myself nor anyone on the board of or the executive director have been approached by the township committee regarding this item due to the lack of Engagement I can only speculate as to the motive for this discussion in that context I'd like to provide a brief history lesson in tonight's discussion about restructuring the board and how it is selected the dmda was formed with the best of intentions and operated well for many years however breakdown in the elected Board of the organization led to disunity bickering infighting a lack of consensus about leadership Direction poor performance and eventually the dissolution of that organization in 2020 I led the effort to form a new Sid and worked with my colleagues to find a system that would prevent a repeat of the failures of the dmda the current Sid board operates under the control of the township committee this oversight provides protection structure and maintains performance standards we have created a fully appointed board required that the office be in town hall and hired a full-time executive director who provides stability leadership and a strong commitment to our community most importantly the city has no authority to pass a budget without Township approval has no land use or regulatory Authority and can only recommend appointees to the township committee the Explorer Board of Trustees and the advisory committee are composed of a wide range of property owners business owners residents and Township leadership across all five districts what arose From the dmda Ashes is a sid that has far exceeded the expectations of the found ERS including myself unlike the dmda elected board our appointed trustees work collaboratively without ranker have a common Mission and engage in professional development in the wake of a failed Sid the economic downturn caused by covid the damage from Hurricane Ida and a rapidly changing digital economy explore has been a godsend to the business Community explorers commitment in making melbour a better place has been impactful the statistics have reduced vacancy vibrancy educational programming and events spee volumes none of this none of us were consulted about this agenda item and it clearly does not speak to the transparency and honesty that was promised by this Administration there's no reason whatsoever to consider the change in the composition or organization of the explore board and I'm disappointed that this being considered thank you thank you good evening Jerry Kung Short Hills resident at the last TC meeting I asked about the source of the 1.2 million Reserve dollars offsetting the $7 million Papermill Bond issuance instead of confirming that the reserve was taken from rent payments owed to the township ComEd man Stoler replied rewatch The TC meetings and look at the memos it's all there you probably missed it the first time or second time or third time or fourth time but maybe a fifth time will help you understand it I thank Mr Stoler because his condescension reminded me of an important lesson from my doctoral studies and from my stint as a Quant that lesson is trust but verify we should not simply trust that the paper mill deal make sense we should verify that the sales pitch is rooted in reality a key argument Mr Stoler presents in favor of the paper mill is the direct local impact particularly for residents in town at the TC meeting on March 5th he said are a direct impact on our restaurants in town of $3.8 million a year that's $68 per Patron for about 30 cents 30% of the patrons that come 190 shows including mates that's about 55,000 visitors who come downtown about 375 visitors per show indeed the $38 million $68 per Patron match up with this memo commissioned by the paper mill but the claimed $68 spend for Patron excluding tickets is curious after digging up the cited Source I found that $68 is the average spending of attendees on nonprofit Arts organizations in Phoenix Arizona for venues closer to home like those in Mars County and Mercer County New Jersey the same study shows $30 per Patron I did do a quintuple take upon seeing this did the study cherry pick an irrelevant data point to overstate their impact furthermore rather than using actual tick sales the analysis assumes every showing sells out taken together this economic impact could be oversold by about 3x in the interest of transparency accountability and methodical decision making will you ask the paper mill to explain these discrepancies prior to Future action upon reviewing the record I also noticed that Mr Stoler has characterized the $7 million Bond as being self-funding I assume he means that the annual rent helps to make the bond payments but this neglects the fact that this is owed to the township as per the 2008 lease irrespective of this new Bond issuance just because dollars are fungible does not make muding the accounting acceptable you each were elected to be fiduciaries of a public trust we the public rely on you to be good stewards of the public treasury to exercise due diligence and to act impartially you are not elected to cheer lead for special interests and you should certainly not be paring as gospel dubious analyses commissioned by entities to demanding taxpayer hand going forward I also ask for a more respectful dialogue where questions from the public are met with answers they deserve not deflection and disparagement thank you anyone before we go online hi all good evening everyone Char go short resident well I'm here again talking about the most priority issue which which is which is really concerning issue for me as well um um to reduce crime I live in a neighborhood where there have been many attempted break-ins and at least seven in the last six months and after speaking to my neighborhood residents and other people all of us are literally scared of these attempted break-ins and I asked in the last DC meeting committee men Stoler how are we doing with budget allocation to increase more police presence and I urge that we definitely need more police presence uh we need to to feel feel safe and secure in the neighborhood as an entrepreneur who is deeply involved in early childhood education speaker on men mental wellness and special needs initiatives I can tell any Breakin or attempted break-in leaves a deep rooted scar in adults as well as teenagers children small children so could you know I would urge to please help provide that Safety and Security that will improve the mental Wellness which most of our residents are literally facing and we are discussing day in and day out you know on WhatsApp groups on chats and everywhere like everybody's scared to even open a door for a person who who's really looking for help so that's my number one priority issue and the second is in the interest of transparency I wanted to ask um the additional size for fair share housing that have been allocated or are being determined did we hold any public session to provide that information and knowledge to the public thank you thank you evening everybody murn Township 27 years if you tell the truth you don't have to remember everything Mark Twain and I agree with him this core question is only for Miss Romano Mr Cohen Miss prus and Mr canri maybe you can Enlighten us on some things um as it relates to Legal I'm I'm asking this question as it relates to the app applicability to run for a seat on the essis County Democratic committee before I ask for some listening that may be unaware this committee is responsible for choosing milburn's Democratic Township committee candidate for all elections among other tasks that support the Democratic party it is an important role because each of the two District or neighborhood repres Representatives voted in or put on the committee if there's no Challenger listens to and carries the voice of your neighbors needs and wishes for the township and their area if you don't live in the district you can't run in the district at the time of election at least that's what I've been told which makes sense because you want to be in the trenches regarding your community's pain points as a member representative each district has very different pain points as you all know as everybody knows in this town and desires so getting back to my questions for the four of you first first the Democratic party is officially putting on the ballot two people who I am running against in Dearfield District 12 can you each please advise me if a district candidate for the Essex County Democratic committee can run for an election or even be put on the ballot to run if it is known that they have a confirmed intent to move out of their District within a few weeks to months of the election date second what are the rules and are there any consequences if the Democratic party members supporting this person knew in advance of this situation Andor if the person running in deerfields district 12 did this with intent to mislead voters in the district my last question is do any of the four of you know if one of the two people running against me who was sponsored by the members of the democratic party how if their home has gone under contract and if so do you know if this person is moving out of town moving within their District or to another District I think the residents and voters have a right to know the answer to this question I will assume that no answer in this meeting is a confirmation that this party member is moving out of the district I have a I'm not sure how many minutes I have I'm on a fast today I'm a little dizzy so I have 30 seconds so I'm gonna start on crime in public safety and end at my next three minutes um which is more important do you think to a resident attending the latest show at the paper mill or not being the victim of a home invasion Public Safety is Paramount and no one bothered to contradict my state statement in the last TC meeting that we've had three officers on overnight out of 44 patrolman there was something very wrong about this allocation logic I was told that the police know what they're doing and basically they are not questioned by the TC by a TC member thank I will finish later thank you so much good evening uh Charlie Bambara 27y year resident of this town um have just have to question um the commitment the uh con responsibility and respect that some uh some Town Township not Township committee members uh Town employees have to suggestions made by residents to improve certain things in town uh one example uh Comm installer said the town pool is open it's heating up two years ago I made a suggestion to uh one of the representatives of the recreation committee to put solar collectors on the roof of the pool house um uh to heat the pool water you already own the pumps because you're circulating the water through the filters it's just a matter of putting collectors up there the pool would be heated up already now if they were there and they're awfully cheap compared to some of the other projects you're talking about 26 years ago I saw an old Dam in Tay the park and I made some suggestions on how to improve it I didn't get an acknowledgement I got nothing back my suggestion fell off the face of the Earth and now we have a dam that's inappropriate for the installation and the surface that it's in uh I also came to understand that the Township's uh heavy Machinery could not be uh placed into the uh raway River to help excavate certain sections of the raway river that have silt uh I took it upon myself to do some research I recommended to certain Town employees hydraulic fluids that were environmentally responsible and outfits that would come in and change the fluid and certify it and I heard nothing back Township's talking about leaf blowers I made a request for ansy standards American National standards Institute standards applicable to them and if the township could obtain some copies after I called the library and they said they wouldn't be able to do that I had to call the town no response no acknowledgement that I even made a suggestion or asked a question so this is a history that's been going on for me personally the 27 years that I've been a resident I think that when residents make suggestions to the township they deserve at least the courtesy of acknowledging thank you for your concern thank you for your question we'll work on getting you an answer or we can't answer it something back again I think the residents of this town you have a base here of residents that are extremely intelligent you're not utilizing it very well thank you hi Jean Pastor resident of Short Hills I just want to offer my condolences to the Milburn police department and officer Lions family very sad day for our community um I'm grateful to um residents and Dr Kung for taking so much time to study this uh paper mill $7 million taxpayer giveaway I learned from the budget meeting that our CFO wasn't involved in the analysis and and I really feel you did not give proper attention to Residents and their concerns before committing uh the tax to bond um deal the more troubling data too is is that's not uh clearly or transparently shared is that 20 months of rent was forgiven by the township during covid amounting to approximately $341,000 so putting all this together it's a lot you know of money that could be used to repave roads deal with crime Etc um I'll restate my previous comments it seems a nonsense to say that the bond pays for itself which I heard over and over said by Mr Stoler uh because the annual rent payments from the 2008 lease are being used to offset the new 7 million Bond issuance I mean we paid for the original $9 million Bond issuance taxpayers did so it seems like we're double counting here and I really think it needs to be more transparent to the public what this money's being used for um I'd urge you to table any further actions uh regarding the paper mill deal until objective dispassionate analysis can be done uh four taxpayers uh by this Township committee I also want to add I really support the agenda item 26 7724 the citizens advisory committee on affordable housing and I'm really glad to see that there's going to be a discussion about the uh crime Public Safety advisory committee um I also had suggested a while ago a Citizens um budget advisory committee and I did it again after I attended the budget meeting um I wonder if you could provide an update on that I know it's a lot of citizens committee but I do think it's really important um we don't have a long range Capital spending plan or we don't have a strategic plan for the township we have a lot coming on stream um a committee of talented residents can assist you all in this endeavor which is a critically important step in good stewardship in the future management of our town um and the other one other point about the citizen Safety Committee we have some really excellent people dedicated hardworking volunteers doing neighborhood watch um I hope that uh this level of commitment from just an individual who's overseeing that can be spread widely across the community because without the whole Community being involved it's not going to really make a difference um and I do agree with um Mr Feld about getting uh information out prior to the meeting so that people can evaluate what you're U discussing and approving this is how we got into that black hole with the uh fair share housing agreement and I'm sure that Sunshine is desired by all here so can we please have it thank you very much thank you good evening folks my name is Al Carlin a 30-year resident Al I'm not a property owner or business owner uh I believe that on June 4th we have a primary in uh in Essex County and it's very very important that everyone gets out and votes uh there are several candidates running for Senate take a look at what they are saying and what they are not saying uh if you've gone on New Jersey public news uh several people talk about genocide uh without even knowing what the real definition of genocide is and uh could go on what genocide really is according to the United States government not according to the government of South Africa uh let me be clear uh I've he this word genocide uh according to USC 18 USC 1091 so forth of what genocide is where does the word genocide come from in 19444 and how it's being interpreted not by South Africa so I ort everyone to go out and vote on June 4th and look at the candidates thank you very much thank you good evening good evening Perry erso upper Milburn Avenue so why is it necessary to veto Oprah if there's nothing to hide then there would be no need to veto would you agree if it wasn't for attorney resident Mr feld's noise the public would not have been enlightened and the public would not have the right to speak prior to official action it was a big mistake that the prior TC members treated Miss Stone and myself so poorly and threatening to have us removed from a meeting in August 2020 thank you Mr Feld for knocking on our doors and coming to our defense I am aware that this body and prior TC's have been afforded the very same defense that is one offer that should not be ignored so I asked this body if they will be putting on a resolution on the table for consideration this evening considering it to be urgent to walk on a resol resolution tonight or the next meeting agenda to support The veto Oprah Bill I'm surprised Mr Canter's reports did not reflect the bare Property Management litigation because today we were notified that May May 29th arbitration has been stayed pending resolution of our motion for mediation this gets back this gets me back to the judge Moore said in 2020 that this matter should be mediated not litigated also the community should know that we've made a statement proposal that did not involve money to be paid to pair Properties Management it is about the validity of the expanded appointed five district Sid understate law it was rejected by the majority of the TC members can you explain for the members of the public as for your reason to prolong and spend taxpayers money on this case a case where the Sid executive director has twice stated publicly that the state has directed Milburn to redraw the boundaries of its Main Street New Jersey application supporting the Sid I am tonight lastly I am more Curious over concerned number two under new business Miss lieberberg statement was not only disturbing but rather disappointment disappointing the lack of transparency began under her mayorship and there has been absolutely no Sid oversight whatsoever not all thank you I will now close public comment does anyone have any um respond want to respond to any public com sure let's see um Mr Feld um I agree with your comments uh that things like the police Staffing study budget proposal should be in the agenda packet that is distributed prior to the meetings um I actually uh spoke with Alex and chistine about this um and it's something we can look into I think one of the challenges um that Christine is having is you know who's going to make a decision as to what documents can be shared with the public versus what should be confidential because there are sometimes things in our packet that aren't for public consumption um so I am going to try and work uh with them to see if we can come up with some ideas I mean maybe we could have these things reviewed by attorney caner um I would also you know love it if other uh members of the TC uh would perhaps support the idea of having things like these uh proposals be shared with the public uh because if we're going to vote on it tonight you might as well see what's in it um let's see um uh Mr cybert I am not sure how many tickets we given out maybe Mr McDonald can provide an update on that or if not maybe he could direct Mr cyber to someone in the police department that might be able to answer this question uh Mr wul um I I AG I feel that many residents feel that not enough is being done about crime um and I I I agree I know the statistics seem like they're trending in the right direction but more and more so I get calls from residents that are concerned um they don't feel safe in town uh there's been a number of home invasions recently there was one uh very recently where the uh residents were at home in their bedroom and the perpetrator broke their glass door uh and entered and actually came into their bedroom and then they had to be chased out uh this happened on Randall Drive um as you can imagine when people hear about incidents like this they're very concerned um and and you know quite honestly they they should be because our town is definitely being targeted Mr Wolf I agree we probably do need some sort of shock in awe type uh campaign we need to have um I suggest that we maybe use Consultants or contractors uh to increase the number of cars on the street and we should try this for a few months and see if it makes a difference because obviously whatever we've been doing is not helping residents feel safe so we need to try something else I agree with you Mr wol I too am disappointed that the police chief uh did not jump on the opportunities he had uh to ask for more funding I know that when uh I was elected Mr Stoler and and and miss puus and I met with the chief uh before we took office and we said look you know we got elected on a platform of you know fighting crime as one of the tenants and we said what do you need every option is on the table you could literally ask us for a helicopter and we'll we'll think about it and consider it and I was told by the chief as as he said last year in the public information session that he had everything he needed and you know when he needed things he he would ask the town and they would provide it I think that demonstrates a lack of creativity um you know in the business world as you said you know when it's time for budgets there should always be other things you want there should be a wish list you might not get it but there should be a wish list and we don't have that here and that's disappointing so I'm hoping that the other TC members would be willing to consider uh having some private security augment our our staff uh I think it's something that we should look into um and additionally we are going to be talking in new business about a uh citizen uh crime uh advisory committee um Mr costro thank you for your support of the affordable housing committee um hopefully we'll get that passed tonight uh Mr Baxter I I wholeheartedly agree I think this town has plenty of better ways to spend its money as opposed to giving it to the paper mill uh for their vanity project um you are correct the lease terms say the paper mill is responsible for the maintenance uh maintenance that they didn't keep up with over the years and and now it's going to cost them more as a result uh and yet they've come to the town and four of these committee members have decided to give them a a bailout again basically giving away money so that they can make repairs and then on top of it they have this vanity project for this giant glass Atrium and you know nice new Lobby and this that and the other thing and quite honestly it is exactly what I said it's a vanity project it's not going to increase the amount of seats it's not going to increase the revenue going to the paper mill the paper mill doesn't pay taxes to the town so we're not going to get any additional Revenue that way the lease terms are not changing so quite honestly it's just a giveaway and we're getting nothing back furthermore because the paper mill is not going to leave town if we don't give them the $7 million all of the positive benefits that they may give the town uh are not going to go away and this ties in uh with what Mr Kung said um you know I find it interesting that that economic impact study as you pointed out it looks like they cherry-picked the data I think you're absolutely right and I think we need to get some answers from them on that because it seems like they picked misleading figures based on uh data from towns and other states and use that to justify their economic impact and you know I think it's PL um grossly overinflated um so I really do think we should have the leadership of the paper come in here and answer for what was in uh that proposal how they got those numbers and why they feel that economic impact study is correct and I'm also just extraordinarily disappointed with other members of this committee specifically uh you know the member of the committee who negotiated with the paper mill I feel that more due diligence should have been done it shouldn't have required a resident to go and dig into the documentation and you know look at all the footnotes to figure out that the paper mills number were inflated uh Miss goel um you know I I agree I think this crime issue is definitely Weighing on the mental Wellness of many in the town you you've heard my suggestions um and you know hopefully uh we can get some some positive action going up here um Miss best uh you address the questions everyone except me so uh I don't feel I can answer that but I will say I do think in general in order to serve on a count County Committee of any party you do have to be a resident now whether that means you can get elected and then move two days later that that I don't know so maybe Mr caner could advise on that uh Mr banara um I I've had conversations with you about this as well I appreciate your comments and I am sorry that you feel the township um staff is not giving you the the respect that you deserve or or or a response um I would encourage Mr McDonald uh to make sure that when residents communicate ideas there's at least an acknowledgement thank you for your suggestion we look into it you know we we're all we're all friends and neighbors and uh we should make sure that we're being respectful um Miss Pastak the citizen budget advisory committee uh is going to be on for new business next meeting it was originally going to be on this meeting um the mayor and I felt that there was a lot on the agenda tonight and so we thought there wouldn't be too much harm in carrying that to the next meeting but that is absolutely um going to come up uh on on the next meeting um let's see uh Miss berso I I agree with you I to have concerns about the Oprah legislation uh you know that uh is now you know awaiting the governor's either signature or veto um I would love it if this committee could put together a resolution urging the governor to uh that um that piece of legislation I think Oprah is important I do think sometimes it's abused um and we should try and make sure that doesn't happen um but I do think that there are many instances where it is beneficial to the public um because you know it's very important that people understand how uh their elected officials are making uh decisions that affect them so with that I will rest I'm asking Alex there's a way that we if that would fall under any ability to have a close session of a TC with the chief to talk how about this I'll answer it um when it's my turn I'm gon I'm do a search real quick but if if there is some um way that that could uh that we could do it under a Clos session I would say that we should do that as soon as possible to address the the crime issue and also the potential of hiring another service to patrol um and then miss best because you asked me a direct question I do not serve on the Democratic County Committee in milb Bur Short Hills and I don't know anybody like I don't know who are the representatives so I cannot answer your question and I don't us to Sur my apologies yeah I do not serve on it I don't know who does I don't know who you're talking about and um I wish you H the best of luck in your campaign yeah sure this should be fun um Christine best I agree with you 100% you should have full visibility on if somebody's going to be in that town or not I'll I'll actually defer that to the Democratic Township committee but I agree that you should have that visibility uh Charlie Bena um 100% agree with you on a lot of these uh I always put a request prior to Township Comm Council into sdl Portal so that you can actually show here's where I've put it in and manage that and walk it all the way through the process it's that's what it's there for and then you know you have a written record of of uh submitting it and it went through uh Mr wol and and and friends and such 100% I agree priority number one is safety uh let's not conflate or prioritize there's no money we won't spend on crime uh and I 100% agree that no one should feel unsafe and to M goel you know I was my home was robbed in h Florida my home was attempted Rob here Rob twice here so really it is a mental problem and and so so I agree with you there uh we're doing we will spare no expense to make sure that we're trying that we're stopping the crime uh kind of diverting it and hardening our our um Community a couple things we have done which may have not been communicated is one is this Municipal U uh resolution ordinance we passed where we can actually take Municipal action versus the county and lock people up and hold minor parents accountable uh and that should be coming online soon uh and then in addition cameras cars County Sheriffs Etc you're throwing the entire kitchen sink at it I agree 100% um in in in discussing the paper mill I don't really want to go down I think there's a lot of misinformation mischaracterizations um obviously the demographics of our town are changing obviously Mr Kong who's married to Mr uh second mday obviously you don't go out to eat if you think you can eat out in milb Bur for $30 a person so that's a it's impossible to eat out in Milbourne for $30 a person all those numbers uh I went out and met with fyama I met out with laera with Basilica with moonshine you name it we met with them their number one priority was the uh was the um paper mill uh and this whole idea a giveaway is is completely bogus uh it is self-funding and that we're taking in $400,000 of Revenue uh Stewart uh $400,000 of Revenue of lease and parking Revenue over the next 30 Years plus from the paper mill our payment on a bond is $197,000 uh per year so 400 minus 417 leaves $200,000 of surplus so I'm not sure how that's done uh Mr Kong I know where did I mean it hurt your fing I know you went to MIT and I know you went to Harvard so just the whole idea of you not understanding just took me for a loop uh so I thought it would be nice and for everybody go back and rewatch the information sent section and you can watch number one two three four or five if you have to to understand all of the Salient points of why we four of us passed the Papermill and I know it's a big deal in the Chinese Community with WeChat you told me directly to my face that the Chinese don't want it uh and you know Frank told me that if I don't vote for the denter for the HBC they're going to jump board that's fine I don't need somebody to hold my hand on decisions I make on this day it's just absolutely not needed for me um what else uh a couple other issues just with that is that we've not been communicated is all $39 million of the capex improvements that happen on day one after it's done come directly under our balance sheet we now own 99.2 contiguous Acres at the paper mill uh to leave one of the properties in the middle out is not a good thing also too if they do leave and and listen they're killing it right now in terms of uh the the the uh performances are putting on Summit Westfield Montclair everyone is chomping at the bit to have a a draw like that that is considered the jewel of Milburn uh right up there with our school system right up there with our location to New York City um and low crime we have to get back to that low crime part toh put that out so um what else I got here that's it for now thank you so much yeah I always seem to go last so I don't need to rehash uh everything that some of the things that have been said I was going to speak for the STL portal to Mr B I've used it myself and that way there's a record and you can always uh you know with all the followup and whatnot and you know you won't be ignored and if you are it's an easy way to ask that I'm also anxious to hear what Mr caner said because I agree with Miss puus that if we can have a meeting with the if lead we are allowed to have a close session for that I'm I'm full support of that um as to Mrs erso I don't in my mind I don't see the fact that the Main Street application which is for a particular part of town needs to be the same as the boundaries of the C those are two separate things the Main Street application is for one of the districts of the city and I know that's you know I know everybody like sometimes people like to tie things together but just because two events happen doesn't mean that one is related to the other also with regard to Oprah to correct some misinformation even if the governor does not veto the bill Oprah is not going away the system has been abused and that that bill will provide some structure to to what goes on but I get a report every month of all the opah requests and I don't think any of them that they will people will still be allowed to request documents none of that is going away I think there'll be some structure some recognition of technology that has occurred since the Oprah bill was first was was first uh devise but it is not it is not the the misinformation that has continues to be spread Mr McDonald um all I'll say is that um I will look into Mr cyber and Mr Ben's uh concerns and get back to it Mr thank you mayor um as to the question regarding the county committee seat um if the address on the petition was accurate at the time and it's within district and it was certified to and the clerk approved it they can run for County committee at that address if at any time they cease to be a resident at that time a vacancy will occur in that uh District upon no longer being a resident District because residency is a requirement um and that position will be filled by the chairperson of of the party on uh vacating I don't know any of the facts I don't know that the house I don't I don't know if a house for sale I don't know any the underlying facts I'm just giving giving W thank you um as to uh committee women group question regarding um whether or not we going to close to discuss these matters the open public meetings act uh does have exceptions to exclude the public number six is tactics and techniques utilize and protecting the safety and property of the public um this would fit under that accept and so we could discuss this uh in close session I think that we should schedule that as soon as possible absolutely agre absolutely um I don't have anything else in my report unless anybody in the committee or mayor have any questions thank you I don't have anything else to add and in response to miss best question I didn't I don't have an answer for you either so sorry okay Township committee will now consider consent agenda resolution are there any comments from the committee in regard to any items listed on the consent agenda no may I have a motion to approve resolution 24141 through resolution 24147 which are listed on the consent agenda so move may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M puus yes Deputy Mayor s Mandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-48 uh yes I have some comments so just so the public is aware um this resolution is for a police Staffing study and that's a little bit of a misnomer because it's it's more than that um this study is seeks to not only analyze the staffing needs of the Milburn police department but also its core principles and management practices the firm uh that has been selected uh for us to to vote on um has done work throughout the country uh they've worked for large cities such as Tacoma Washington Santa Fe New Mexico Miami Beach Florida Fort Worth Texas Columbus Ohio and San Jose California they have a deep panel of experts they're going to be able to look at everything the police does from top to bottom and they'll be able to make recommendations uh and give us a detailed fiveyear strategic plan I'm sharing this information with you because for you know fortunately it it is in the packet but unfortunately that was not um distributed in advance so if anyone would like a copy of that please let me know I'd be happy to get that to you but um this is something that we have been asking for you know since since we got into office this year um so I'm delighted that it's it's up for a vote and I encourage my fellow committee members to support it because this is the first step towards you know really looking at whether we need more officers and you know whether there's a way to better utilize the resources we have anyone else no I couldn't agree more uh it's a study that's going to give us complete transparency and visibility that's what Frank and I ran on uh to understand the EVs and flows and also to have you know another set of eyes on it as well and I think it's a it's beneficial for I agree it's beneficial but you know let's make no mistake this is a longer term action and certainly does not eliminate the need to do something tactical in in the the inter when is the staing when will it do back when will we get the stud back just yeah may I have a motion to approve resolution 24-48 may I have a second second call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M pus yes Deputy Mayor second yes Mr ster affirmative mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24149 yeah um Alex can uh can you please go through the benefits of this and you know why this is a good thing rather than leasing rather than buying all this kind you know those kind of decisions sure so we've been looking at this option for for a while now and had previously discussed it with the Finance subcommittee as well as when we met with the committee on um the budget um individually uh the the idea behind leasing Vehicles is so that we can turn over our Fleet um quicker and receive uh funding for and better resale value on those vehicles um so we're gonna what we're looking at is a step program to lease uh anywhere between five to 10 Vehicles a year I think we we have a a fleet an eligible Fleet of 50 vehicles that um that we can lease the benefits to this are one uh certainly lower maintenance costs on those vehicles uh better fuel efficiency on those Vehicles part of the Town Hall Fleet uh whether that's tax assess or building department things like that is to start to convert them to plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles which will allow us to do that U more quickly um through this program um generally what happens now is we May purchase a vehicle um through Capital uh which um certainly then also eats up some of that Capital funding for other other things in town um and those Vehicles may be held on to for 20 25 years uh depending on the vehicle and the use and so you start to see a major degradation in the maintenance uh or in the fuel efficiency and then increased cost in the maintenance uh this program will allow us to lease a vehicle for 5 years we still have the option to purchase the vehicle at the end of that at the end of that lease um but you know sort of trade that in um and um receive funds for that uh over the long term of this program it'll allow for it it'll produce savings uh in that effort um this is something that other communities have been um venturing into we are in no way committed to you know doing this for five years or six years but I think it it it is a beneficial step um um to see if this is a a way to move forward with uh the fleet and can you review the 50 cars with departments they belong to uh fire DPW and Town Hall um so fire has civilian type Vehicles they're they're their inspectors uh the the uh the battalion chief uh vehicle which is a sort of a command vehicle um those types of vehicles uh public works for anything that is generally not a large Mason d truck anything less than that will be eligible for lease and then certainly the vehicles that are in in the town hall Fleet thank you may have a motion to approve resolution 24149 so move may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes purose yesy mayor s yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-15 sure uh so just so the public is aware uh this bill A2000 is a bill that will impose mandatory minimum penalties for juvenile offenders uh if they are caught with doing certain auto theft related crimes or breaking into you know a house to try and get keys to steal a car um It Is co-sponsored by our assembly woman assembly woman the one of our Assembly women I should say um and it's it's a great bill and it's a great first step in trying to um UND do some of the damage that's been done over the years by The Catch and Release policy so hopefully this will pass I think it's great for our Township committee to be having an official resolution supporting this um hopefully it'll pass quickly and uh then hopefully we'll start to see some Downstream impacts I have a motion to approve resolution 24-15 motion may have a second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M brus yes mayor second man yes Mr St absolutely mayor Romano yes committee M Coen you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2675 d24 would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2675 d24 Capal ordinance of the township of milour in the county of Essex New Jersey authorized the making of various public improvements and Acquisitions in by and for the township appropriating therefore the sum of 1, 72,000 and providing that such sums so appropriated shall be raised from the capital Improvement fund of the township and from the Township's capital reserve for police and capital reserve for DPW so this um this there there the ordinance uh covers about six projects um covering the fire department DPW the police department they're all reasonably the the Public Works project is is the largest at 6 162,000 but they're all uh it's a collection of relatively small projects that are being booed together into one Capital order I would just like to point out a few things with regard to this Capital ordinance this is our annual Capital ordinance that we are that is funded through the budget um this is this is um essentially cash um Capital items just to point out a few things one is that the Department of Public Works is currently working with um with uh Springfield and we're hoping to have a shared pricing agreement shared purchasing agreement regarding the largest portion of that Capital which is the uh um sewer flusher um and so we are hopeful that we will be able to split that cost uh with Springfield um in addition just under the police department I just like to point out that it is for the acquisition of additional license plate readers um uh and for um engineering it is drainage and there's a lot of also pool uh Recreation improvements including lighting at your Road Park the number and the ornaments assumes we will not be staring it with that is correct correct so there would maybe if we do then they'll be unused money that but then go back to the capital if I'm correct I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the town clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law in the item and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday June 18th 20122 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M purus yes mayor second yes Mr ster yes Mayo yes committee man Stoler you are scheduled to sponsor or ordinance 2676-20 thank you um I'd like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2676 s24 or creating a temporary open container area uh this is for the Town Hall Plaza uh that we done that we're doing as a compromise to closing down Main Street uh it's I've seen the plan so far it's tables chairs lights crisscrossing zigzagging the entire Street uh multiple tents uh band have been programmed uh and there's going to be so many great events in terms of uh different nights they're going to have lobster roll nights um uh Sushi night things along those lines so the family can come out uh over that period of time uh bring a bottle of wine uh BYOB and enjoy uh the live music that's going to happen down there uh all it's all going to be roped off so the kids can go play their Games Etc um and uh that's starting on July 2nd when when we're actually going to make an amendment to move it up one Tuesday to July 2nd um any questions I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law and the item and for hearing a final passage on Tuesday June 18 2024 yeah all right so I'd like to make a motion to amend it to July 2nd dat second roll call vote roll call vote please mrin yes M yes mayor s yes Mr St affirmative mayor yes Deputy Mayor Sanda you are scheduled to sponsor oh so I'd like to ask for a motion to approve as amended and set a public hearing uh with the public hearing date on June 18th 2024 as uh in ordance with and publish an item roll call vote Please Mr yes missus yesy mayor secondy yes Mr St affirmative mayor yes Deputy Mayor Sandy are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2677 d24 i' would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2677 d24 establish citizen advisory committee on affordable housing uh just a brief explanation this is a committee uh that's going to be advisory in nature um they may potentially get access to confidential information uh as we are going through the affordable housing planning process this committee is going to be geared towards next round and notably the committee uh is going to um have uh resident members uh from each of the five elementary school areas of the township so that way we get representation from all different parts of town um um this is something we've been working on for a while and uh very happy that uh we have it before us I move that this ordinance be taken up and P on first reading I just have a question sure assuming that this passes Christine do you have to change the volunteer interest form ask people what's because I wouldn't know from an address and we don't even get the address what school district they belong to so you'll change the volunteer interest form accordingly I think that's good for all the boards and committees actually like that's a good piece of information to to make sure that the all the boards and committees are kind of represented throughout the town so I think that's a great addition to the volunteer I have a question as well in terms of uh is it two-year periods or is it um so uh as per the ordinance um there are detail here I want to say exactly correct um yes there're a two-year period period um and there's going to be some staggering of that as well okay good initially yeah in initially and just for the audience too there's gonna be two Township council members as well on it two Township committee members know they three it's a threee it's a threee term it's a threee term yeah so the first St right right but overall for threee term twoyear term yes so actually there right two residents for a three-year term initially two for a two-year term and one for a one year term initially and then I guess the Le the year terms thank you for that clarification yeah all right uh I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law in the item and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday June 18th 2024 so or second second oh sorry that's okay second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes M yesy mayor secondy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes committee M Stoler you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2670 d24 27-24 yeah this is the one we're going to table yeah uh so uh just read the move to itable so I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the public hearing and consideration of adoption of ordinance 267 0-24 entitled an ordinance of the township of Milburn County of tics authorizing the township of Milburn to execute a memorandum of understanding with the paper mill playhous for 20 Brookside Drive uh to Tuesday July 16 2024 Milburn Township committee meeting at which time the public hearing is scheduled seeing the township is waiting to obtain uh ownership of the property may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M puus yes Deputy Mayor second Mandy yes Mr ster affirmative mayor Romano yes mayor just for the record there'll be no further notice of the public hearing this is your notice of the public hearing that'll be on July 16 2024 thank you okay ordinance 2671 d24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 2671 d24 an ordinance to amend and supplement the revised General ordinances of the township of milour chapter 11 tree preservation the purpose of this ordinance is to make permanent changes to the Township's tree preservation code the tree preservation code including various fees and definitions has not been updated since 2015 the following revisions will reflect the increase in tree prices fees for tree removal a a desire to protect trees on construction sites and establish a registration process for tree removal companies to ensure quality tree work in the Township in addition several definitions have been added to the tree preservation ordinance to further guide residents and tree companies doing tree related work or general Construction in the township tonight is set tonight is the time set for the public Hearing in final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open okay I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title passed on Final reading in accordance with law may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes M purus yes mayor secondy yes Mr Stoler affir mayor Romano yes ordinance 2672-20 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 2672-20 and ordinance to amend and supplement the revised General ordinances of the township of Milburn chapter bh4 bh4 retail food establishments the purpose of this ordinance is to make permanent a change to chapter bh4 retail food establishments to establish a reinspection fee the state New Jersey retail code NJ C8 colon de24 requires that the local health authority inspect every retail food establishment as often as it seem deems necessary in order to ensure compliance with health and safety standards of the state of New Jersey this ordinance will establish a reinspection fee of $150 a new section bh4 d211 will be established under chapter bh4 for this purpose this extra this existing licensing fee for retail food establishments will remain in effect tonight is the time for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open again my name is Jeffrey Feld in the poet section I have some questions I understand you're amending increasing the inspection fees but do we have inspection fees for other food establishments in in a similar Livingston reinspection fee ordance because in Livingston they have four classes we only have two because I think right here is our food manufacturers excluded because we do have a food manufacturer originally was in downtown now it's down lower are they excluded from inspection because I don't know if we've expanded our inspections for them for home Cottage Cottage food prepare is excluded because we're seeing more people are advertising that they manufactur food and the sell for retail you know are they subject to inspection are nail salons hair salons barber shops and cigar l es excluded from health inspection and inspection fees I mean we're just doing the retail food shouldn't we also be looking at the inspections of nail salons and uh barber shops and the cigar um lounges to see if they are also getting their health inspections and with even if they failed the first one would they be subject to a increased inspection I just want to have some kind of more consistency but also focusing on the food manufacturing because we found out unless two years that we do have a food manufacturer in town thank you I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with with law I have a second can we respond to comments that were made does that happen now all things and they have to go back to would we be increasing we just well all all all I'm gonna say is that this was a recommendation from your health officer um that this is the concern that they had with regards to food esta Ms it was not uh brought forth as any other issues or any other uh concerns regarding reinspection so I'm assuming we're addressing an issue that they have noticed and that's why it's limited to them got and Alex can you just follow up on question and if we need a a you know a second ordinance cover those we can certainly do that sure may have a second second roll call vote please Mr yes M brus yes mayor second yes Mr ster affirmative mayor yes commit M stol are your scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2673-20 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 2673-20 temporary closure of Town Hall Plaza between Essex Street and Milburn Avenue pursuant to nj. .4 sa. 467-6995 New Jersey the purpose of this ordinance is to establish a temporary street closure pursuant to 40 col 67-69 on Town Hall Plaza between mobr Avenue and essic Street for outdoor dining and other permitted uses beginning July 1st and ending September 2nd 2024 tonight is the time for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open no I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and at the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with law may I have a second second R call vot please Mr Colin yes M purus yes mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes okay uh old business hisor designation process revision Mr ped J good evening uh mayor Mano members of the township committee gram pedo here this evening uh Township planner um this uh draft ordinance before you which of course is not yet on for introduction but for your consideration um is a product of the zoning code examination subcommittee um of which Mr sakandi is a member um and Par as well as Mr Cohen um so um the ordinance um in its draft form uh does a couple of things just to um improve the process by which the historic preservation commission will execute um designations of historic properties um you know to to provide a little bit more clarity within the ordinance and Define the process um I'm happy to answer any questions that any members may have or any additional insights so this uh by my read of it it actually has a a second notification period that'll go to residents right it gets a notification letter and then it goes to the HPC for public comment and then if the township committee takes it up there's then a second notice that goes out cor yeah so essentially um so a couple things one is um the HPC upon receipt of a nomination report um must schedule a meeting at which they will review the nomination report uh for its completeness and content to ensure that it is consistent with the requirements set forth in ordinance um so that would be an advisory review there is no formal action taken um the commission would do that at a public meeting and then move forward with a public hearing process whereby uh residents of the proposed uh designation site would be serve uh certified notice uh public hearing would be scheduled the documents would be available for public inspection um and then follow then the HBC would hold the public hearing at which point they would make a recommendation report to um the township committee who would receive that document um and if the town committee moves forward that would become an ordinance and it would follow the general ordinance course whereby there would be public hearing at the second meeting so yes there would be two two public hearing components and then we didn't have to go we have to go back to the planning board there is in in the intervening period following introduction by the township committee as this is a a land use provision uh the planning board would opine on the the the proposed designation which is an ordinance um for its consistency or inconsistency with t ex plan so it's about a five four or five lost count but a four or five step process that's correct start to finish and then there's a a mechanism that the affected area of the designation or the proposed designation could um vocalize their either support or nons support of it that is correct yeah the draft ordinance before you makes reference to that by citation to uh the municipal land use law contains a section um that allows for a protest provision uh against a proposed zoning uh modification um the uh proposed ordinance before you this evening just makes reference to that section within the missan law so so go is that is that transparency what is that and how do we understand what that protest protest provision is because from complete transparency you know well you know unless they understand what it is how do they know what it is they have to go hire a lawyer and look it up what is that just tell me what it is yes so the citation so just just to answer your question first um the citation then the proposed ordinance you know lists exactly where that is um but you do need to go into the municipal land use law section to identify that language and just for everyone in the room it's 40 col 55 d-63 notice and protest um and just for the benefit of everybody here this is a section that's applicable to all zoning modifications uh historic Z historic overlay or historic designations are considered a zoning overlay so this is a zoning modification um and the protest section I can read it aloud it says a protest against any proposed amendment revision of a zoning ordinance may be filed with the municipal clerk signed by the owners of 20% or more of the area one of the lots are land included within the propos in such proposed change or two of the lots are land extending 200 feet in all directions there from inclusive of Street space whether within or without of the municipality so um if those that 20% owner of record um you know files a protest then that goes to the clerk and that must accompany the report as it proceeds through the process um so the committee would see that there's protest lodged and the planning board and and so on and so forth so is it 20% of the owners is it based on how much the size of their property or it says uh signed by the owners of 20% or more of the area either of the Lots or land included in the proposed change so it depends on the size or the configuration so okay so that's that's a state level statutory provision that applies to any zoning chain historic designation this has been in the municipal us la oh W correct that's correct so I think that that needs to be spelled out what the protest um what is it the what is it called the protest provision needs to be explained what that is not just the number but the entire verbage of what that is should be in the orance so the zoning code examination subcommittee talked about that and it doesn't seem to make sense to be copying and pasting things from State Statute into a local ordinance especially because State Statute could change and then you have to go back and revise your ordinance whereas if you simply cite it if you pop that into Google you'll get the uh Municipal land use law and it'll tell you exactly what you need to know and we have received protest letters for various designations in the past well I'm not sure that anybody during this last round of the historic designations kind of everything we went through nobody knew about provision protest or the protest provision right and now it's in there and if you if you research it there it is it's not wait one second can I finish talking please and give you the respect sure thank you yeah thank you um I don't I think that we should make it as clear as possible for our residents and I think that we should lay out the entire um provision all the vers so I understand your point of view and that you don't think it's necessary and I do think it's necessary I don't know how the rest of the committee feels about it but I think it's you know I think we should take a vote on how we feel about it um personally do you think it's necessary as a planner to have that kind of transparency when we had 153 homes designated in the middle of the night uh without any previous discussion with the owners of those homes uh which caused a fi day in here uh and they politicized the HBC which we never want to politicize police HBC Etc what do you personally think that you have more Comfort just telling what what it is I mean this goes back to a point where I was Voting against arbitrarily uh uh uh not letting someone tear down their home uh giving them their right their legal right to tear down the home if they bought it and it was not historical without a clear clear path to arbitration or mediation uh versus is litigation only so when I think about this I you know I'm just trying to understand personally do you think the clarity is better for transparency reasons for the people of our Township I you know in in my experience having you know facilitated historic preservation ordinances and another municipality and you know assisted the protest provision process the municipality Mal I was working did spell out the protest Provisions within the ordinance um it does provides why did you take that transparency out this is again as I mentioned at the top of this this is the result of the zoning code examination subcommittee so we okay who's okay who's on that zoning subcommittee I don't have the full list of membership in front of me but um that that's you know something I think that you all can we can assist and identify a decision to be made and again yes a recommendation correct this is just a recommendation ordinance we follow their recommendation you the township committee has the ability to modify or you know amend or change the proposal for you but to to finalize the answer to your question um you know my experience um as a Municipal Employee and facilitating this um it does assist Municipal Employees in assisting homeowners when they come in with questions if it is presented within the ordinance um because typically Municipal staff wind up having to explain what that provision is and then kind of and there can be missteps uh in kind of being the messenger uh in this process so it's it can be you know improved to provide the clarity up front you I'll be I'll be transparent you and I did have a conversation I was concerned about things getting out of sync you know as was just mentioned if the state rule changes then the ordinances is is stale and um two things first of all you said this is uh something that is very rather unlikely to change but you know things happen but even Beyond but more importantly you said that if it if it spelled it out along with the number that said as amended then that would mean that the state if the state did change that would automatically take precedence in that time until we got around to fixing the ordinance to be back and safe so based on that and I didn't see any reason not to spell it out yeah and that just to finalize that point that was a recommendation that I had pending confirmation of you know legal to confirm that that is an acceptable approach just cited as amended I am okay with it I'm also okay with you know spell I mean there's it's really up it's really up to this committee I mean the fact that if it's totally spelled out and there's a change to the statute I mean I mean Graham's a great planner and he I'm sure our planner at the time will will say hey there's been a revision to the statute we need to update our ordinance um those things are published um it is okay to list it as amended and the reason why that's okay is because um the statute's there and when you pull it up you'll get the most recent version of it so nobody would be you know um have have you know wrong ideas so e either way is good it's really what this committee wants I think I don't make the decisions I'm just think that there's two separate opinions up here and I think each has its own validity and I think it's up to this committee to decide but I'm okay legally either I think we should also spell out the statute and in addition to that um on letter C uh a public hearing may be scheduled for a regular or special meeting of the commission I think we should change that to it will be scheduled that's one thing that I that I noticed and the other um letter I why are we changing it from 65 to 60 days to 35 days for the turnaround from the referral to the planning board I believe that's to create consistency with the current requirements for referral of ordinances to the planning board but I can confirm that from you um I have that I think I think I remember you explaining that that way and then to to May aro's Point can is there a reason that that may yeah I think that that can certainly be modified the the public hearing note the May versus sh okay okay thank you yes we'll facilitate that than you appreciate thanks next steps with that what are the next steps with this we're going to get the ordinance does it go back to the uh Zone code or does it just come directly just comes directly come directly right okay uh zoning just we have any time frame you know is that something that can happen you know the next meeting two meetings from now what's I mean what's s on so I think it depends if the committee is is otherwise fine with the ordinance as as it would be amended based on based on your recommendations here then we can place it on uh the agenda as an introduction otherwise if you want to see those amendments again um we can place it on the agenda as old B i' rather as an ordinance for first reading is there consensus from the committee that we just put it on for first reading is given those amendments offer transparency yeah can we just gr can you do a quick turn around on those so we can see them before they go into the packet just to make sure that we if there is anything that hey new business Mr G Mr P Zing application and definition sure uh good evening once again everyone uh gram pedo uh Township planner um so this ordinance again uh for your benefit this evening um is another product of the zoning comme examination subcommittee um this is another um uh we've kind of broken these up so they're a little bit more digestible um this is another uh proposed uh ordinance Amendment to the definitions chapter of the uh Township's uh DRZ um we have a couple of tweaks to definitions to create more consistency throughout the ordinance um to the floor area ratio uh for non-residential and multif family buildings which previously was not contained we did not have a reference multif family in that definition um we're creating a definition for shopping centers of which there is not presently a definition for shopping centers even though we have shopping centers uh within the township um and a couple of other um standards in that regard um we've also um one of the the prior amendments to the ordinance regarding a prevailing front yard setback which we adopted last year um removed an exemption for small covered porticos or covered entries to encroach into a required FR front yard by four feet um we're restoring that provision because it's created a lot of logistical nightmares and uh a lot of folks are getting referred to the zoning board when really they're just seeking to cover their front entry way so a couple things like that so this is really a much more technical edit um but any any question question if anyone has anything directly have to questions what's how do you just quickly how did you define shoing after uh sure I can read through so it's a group of and this is a brand new definition because we did not have one um a group of multiple commercial uses developed on the same property that are integrated in site design through elements such as common site access circulation and parking areas such as in strip malls indoor shopping mall developments and Regional shopping facilities shopping centers commonly contain retail sale and Retail service uses may contain other commercial uses shopping centers contain two commercial uses with a minimum to total gross um floor area of 25,000 ft or at least three commercial uses um and this is really to create consistency with your parking standards because you have a parking standard for shopping centers we didn't know what that was so we've created now a definition for the zoning officer and other um you know administrators of your development regulations to say this is what a shopping center is and this is what the parking requirement show right and is that a that's the common definition this is a very common definition yes anyone else question thank you thank you do we have a consensus to go forward yes yes yes District Management Corporation Board of Trustees Deputy Mayor sure um so those of you that don't know the district Management corporation is also known as the Sid um the Sid places a tax directly on businesses or rather the commercial landlords in town um there are some commercial landlords that don't live in town therefore they don't have a vote for Township committee members and the way the Sid board is currently structured the township committee appoints the members um and so if you look at it through that lens in some cases it's literally taxation without representation um therefore I suggest that we restructure the C board so that some of the members of the board and this should make up the majority of the members quite honestly should be voted on by those that are affected by the tax now if the commercial landlord wants to assign that voting right to the actual business that's leasing it we can probably have a provision for that and I would suggest maybe doing so uh and we could still have a couple seats that would be appointed by the township committee but if the whole idea is that businesses are paying this tax and they're supposed to direct some benefit from this Sid then they really should have more of a role in deciding who's going to govern that Sid um so that's that's my take on it uh because I do think it's taxation without representation at this point committee I agree with Deputy Mayor SEI and I think that I think that we are so far are away from the dmda that that conversation to make a comparison I'm fully aware of where the DMD ended up the dmda and what the failings of it were at the time and I think that we do have a strong executive director I think that we have a strong um we have a strong wrong Sid and I think I don't think that the comparison of how what happened to the dmda at that time and the voting can be compared to what would happen now if we went back and I think that it is being represent it's representation that vation just it just is there's no way around it um so I think it needs to be changed and I also know why when because I voted for the Sid in 2020 and I know why we chose to have it be appointed into town hall it was kind of like we were correcting what had happened to the dmda but now we are four years from that point and the Sid looks very different I mean completely different than the dmda did at its final final years and and so I don't share in any of the concerns that it would fall back to the state of the dmda SP if that is if I'm clear on that so I think um I think we should restructure the way that the board is formed it may be interesting uh at least for me to know why it was formed the way it was formed due to the uh I don't want to say uh uh the fael dmda but the Fel dmda why was it put in that form why was it appointed yes so I think well I know that it was it was appointed because so so at in 2016 17 2017 like the TC didn't even know that they had needed to have a representation on the DM like there was no oversight nobody was talking about the dmda nobody was paying attention to it at all and we so we wanted to make sure that that didn't happen again but we did not have a full-time executive director at that time and to be to it had just kind of people stopped paying attention and so we felt in that moment that it needed really strong oversight from the TC as it was forming and um to make sure that that didn't happen and that people were paying attention to it I think everybody is paying attention to the Sid now um so I'm not concerned that it would just uh that there would be no oversight and we' still have some TC members sitting on the board right yeah it would just make it so that the people that were paying into it would be able to vote instead of the five of us appointing who would sit on the board so you're the only one well I'm the L on to T so you're the only one so you know are we proposing there be two now or well we could I mean I think what we wanted is to have a discussion about this and if we can come to consensus that the majority of the board should be voted on by those paying the tax then I think we can look and decide okay well there should be you know either one or two TC members on there and then you know maybe have one or two other appointed positions as long as the majority of the uh board is is elected by the businesses I just have two points first of all I'm hesitant when when the whole um the whole fact of whether the the Sid is legitimate is being litigated or mediated or arbitrated whichever way we go in the in the courts I'm not sure that this is the right time to make any changes to its structure and secondly we still do as a as the Town Fund part of the Sid so I think we need more than you know one or two members maybe that's something think no that's a good point Michael I mean I sit on the TC on the L on to CC for the Sid and the work that they're doing uh and the turnout for all of the events and just off a founding day off a L's night out off of all of the events they throw in this summer um you know I think it is an important tool for for our for our Township uh I'm all for transparency I'm all for represent you know having representation for those who are paying the tax what I'd like to understand because it's been changed and not on a whim just go and change implode it without having some type of databased decision making process in place I mean there's a lot of quants here that can also look at it and understand how you know it's done and compare it and what the positives and negatives of it are um you know I I just hate doing something in a rush without having that substance to make a real decision off of um that being said and I do know we're in litigation Etc and mediation and and whatnot um I I just don't see you know how to change it in the Midstream of that well you can enact it so that the change takes place at the end of the year when you know to be approved everything else we'd have plenty of time to do a overview and have an independent person look at and tell us before we implode it because I'm telling you they're doing great things uh out there you know they helping businesses with their websites uh they are really making a difference and uh you know I know there's Parts where people are embracing it and if someone doesn't embrace it um you know where is that you know a better chance of uh cooperation I just think we need more data before before I would vote to blow it up what sort of data would you con specifically want well I'd want some decision making some databased on on the operational efficiency of it uh the the meeting is it meaningful to the town because I see it every week every two weeks when I go to the board uh and I'm out there looking and watching how the businesses are responding to it um you know as as a small business listen let's let's this goes back to my point of the myopic view of people who don't run businesses Amazon's eating businesses lunch Guys these based these businesses have no chance so what the Sid's doing is they're putting them online they're helping them work with Amazon they're helping them work with online centers there's just so much that's going on and I mean thank God for the Papermill that the restaurants are staying in business uh with those seats when you think about these businesses that don't have a presence and what we can offer them and support them I just don't see it disconnected yet I just can I just add one thing I I think we still have a property owning owner vacancy on the board right I think they're still property so you know so so we've got you know people that want to be represented on the board and have a say but yet we can't fill a property owner seat for over a year there's a reason one so I just make clear wait I want to make clear that um I do not want to blow up the Sid that this is not about blowing up The Sid this is not about and I have a small business in town so we're directly so like I know the value of it and that is not why I'm proposing to do this but on an ideological um just from like an ideological viewpoint I think it's really important to give the people that are paying into it the people that are paying into it from the town with $50,000 and I'm not recommending that that goes away either that they have a voice by electing us and I think that the people that pay the tax that don't live in town but own property that they should have a voice too in the board that's representing them so I don't because it's like you're like using this language about flowing it up and getting rid of it and that is not my intention at all and so that is not the conversation that we're happen on the other hand I would hate to I would hate to shoot ourselves in the foot given our legal case I would hate to see that used against us in in the legal case as evidence as to why the Sid should not exist despite the fact that I understand you're in favor it seems like there's consensus I mean it feels like this like that there's not support I think Mr yes want to jump in I mean my legal opinion would be that if we adopted an ordinance and I'm not saying which way to go it could move the litigation because the challenge is the adoption of the original ordinance so if we pass adop if we pass another ordinance I I wouldn't use litigation as a factor as in this I I don't think it sways either way the challenge is to the original ordinance and how it's passed but SP may have a different opinion but you know but that's not I think that's I think that's important because if we made this change to the governance structure and we Chang the ordinance it could make the pending legal case that we're dealing with move and therefore it could go away and then we would have a new improved set of leadership it may not it may not but it could right so you're saying one way or another or create a new challenge or or just or just create a new challenge a new litigation I didn't understand what you said in terms of either so one of one of the arguments in the pending litigation is that the ordinance was not adopted properly so if we were to reopt it properly as we did adopt it properly but one of the allegations is that it was not adopted properly so um if we were to adopt an ordinance potentially and I have to look for all the issues you know there could there have to be a new challenge to to the read-option yeah so that I don't just on this one point wouldn't that make that first objection to the first casting of the or not even an issue right like to what I I would say that we could ratify the actions of of the first governing body as part of that ordinance perhaps I would want to look at it a little more closely yeah so terara um maybe I just don't understand the structure that's proposed uh the current structure that we have in place today are we suggesting suggesting to get rid of the executive director and the entire board Etc so what exactly are you proposing because like I can tell you I'm proposing I'm not exactly unless you or or or Frank so what I'm what I'm proposing is we change the structure of the board so you can still have the executive director you can have one or two members of the TC sit on the board uh and then we'll have a number of Representatives that are voted on by the businesses or the property owners that are affected by the tax and if we need I don't if you feel that we need a liaison from a different department or something we could certainly look at that and add that but the the idea is that the majority of the board is comprised of individuals are voted in there by those affected by the tax because otherwise if we continue on the current path it is taxation without representation and I think that goes against you know your 100% beliefs of transparency Etc so from that standpoint Frank is it possible to do it and as we in this litigation to bring one representative or a representative from either from any of the business districts onto the board understand how that affects the board and not stop all the good process that's in in in flow right now without all of the the uh right in the middle of a litigation all of the uh I guess I don't want to say dysfunction because there is no dysfunction I see uh but I want to do it methodically with ba you know fact-based decision making I don't see how it would stop any of the progress if we do something at the end of the year when the S budget rolls over next year there's you know members that would have to be reappointed anyway it seems like that's the time to do it I think one way that you can find out if this is necessary or not is to talk to the property owners and involve them at this point and say hey Property Owners I agree would you like to have a voice would you like to have a vote who's sitting on this where know so can we do that study first so we can understand what feedback is yeah I just want the question how would how would this election take place well the old dmda did it f like a ballot I mean it wouldn't be in a general election it would just the executive director would hold I mean I think the executive director would hold or the chairman of the board would hold an election why not defin way to do it or we could establish you know instead of going this way go the other way and establish some number of seat and I don't know the the proportion that are elected by property owners who don't live in town recognizing the fact that property owners who do live in town have voted for the TC so I don't know what the proportion is of property owners living in town versus those that don't we could look at that maybe leave you know maybe add a couple of seats to represent those interests and leave the rest of property owners that don't live in town I mean I don't know that I I don't know that well that's who that's the taxation without representation you take property owners that don't live in town get a get a c or two whatever the numbers you know make sense to be right and the rest of the board is appointed by the TC because the prop no I don't know that the property owners wait not everybody in town that votes wants to sit on the TC board like that's why they vote for somebody that does want to so we wouldn't tell say Property Owners you have to sit on the board no no right okay so that people would be like when it comes up moves up for for what board seats these are the people that want to sit there than the there's you know just like on the other thing we reserved spots for different school districts in this one we would reserve some spots for that are voted on by property owners who don't live in town and the rest of the ones would be would be appointed as they are today by the TC that eliminates the taxation without representation can I just jump in real quick I'm sorry because we keep saying taxation without representation but given the fact that these property owners don't live in town currently we're taxing them for the township for the school board things like that so I just don't want to go too far down that road I'm not making a comment on I'm just because everybody's saying it's dangerous taxation with without representation we that currently happens based on the way the but this is specifically for the C is specifically just designated District of these properties do we want do we I think we I'd like to have request that we actually have a study done to understand what the veracity of today's structure is and how we can improve it to assuage everyone's you know feelings and make sure that we have a path forward and do it in the middle of litigation I don't know study yeah I'm like I'm not sure I'm not sure if we would do that study and what that study would well I would defer to the township administrators of va to understand how who would do that study if we if that's we wanted that to have full full U transparency on how it's going to be affected Charlie will do it Charlie will do it I I mean I think first and foremost what you want is some just additional information right you know Property Owners how many don't live here you know things like that um maybe some of the to the point of maybe having some of the concerns from the property owners expressed and understood um so that there's at least a little bit more information around that and I just want to make one point if they can't if like you can't find like I'm curious why you can't fill that property owner seat like that's upsetting to me like alarming just I think that goes back to the point that if a lot of them don't live here then it's going to be difficult for them to fill that board seat so well they might not have been aware there are some that do live that could be too Mr second that could be too I'm just saying so I think that's some of the information that can be gathered in in this I know when I was on the Sid board last year Mr gorilla was having a hard time filling that spot and it's still still vac it so I guess we just um table this for a later discussion okay okay [Music] and citizen crime Public Safety advisory committee Deputy Mayor sure um so I mean the idea behind this is sort of similar to the citizen affordable housing committee we would have representatives from uh various parts of town and ideally we'd have some members of the police force that would sit on the committee and then you know maybe one or two TC members and the idea would be actually have some notes here um you know the idea would be that this board could work to help innovate with the police to talk about new strategies new technologies Etc that might help fight crime this board could also help be a liaison to the community uh you know into trying to educate them about you know what the department is is doing uh they could also potentially interface with the neighborhood botches um you know you know right now some of the neighborhood watches are successful but it seems like there's a single individual that's sort of the head of all of them and that individual seems to be choke point in terms of communicating information so you know that might help expand this out um but I mean we've heard from a number of residents they'd like to have a committee where residents get to work with the the police department to share ideas talk about concerns Etc and you know I I see no reason why we shouldn't have an advisory committee in that regard I agree I think this is something that we could bring in at the same time as the community policing when that is ready to start we haven't even discussed that well the the community policing we have been the that's the two officers that are the two new officers that are coming on Community Poli we have discussed it um you know personally I think that it's a must have and these guys to interact they could come in at the same time as the two policing officers but and there's so many great ideas out there by the the general public I mean miss our soap with nixel what three four years ago uh five years ago why you know why we don't have that in place I'm still confused we need nixel perero uh and just other ideas like parking cars in certain places uh cameras I think it's a great idea to come in at the same time so then maybe we take this opportunity figure out the structure in place and when are the two officers slated to be starting so again and I know there's been a lot of um discussion uh about the police department and one thing is I just want to remind everybody on May 29th um police department will be here um at 7:30 p.m. to uh interface with the public and uh that will be via Zoom as well um and that the township committee has um also stated that they would like to hold a closed session uh I believe there was consensus on that with the police chief to discuss the concerns that were brought up here tonight um I think that just it kind of answer the question directly first is the police department has three p three people in the academy that are graduating at the end of this year and a lot of this information will also come at out at that public information session uh three individuals that are graduating at the end of this month um two officers that are going to be considered by the township committee on June 18th to be hired um and then they'll enter the the academy um and I think that the police chief is has also been working on on uh the community policing or Community Service Unit um uh as had been previously approved and described by the township committee uh when they authorized the table of organization increase to 60 from 58 uh with those two additional officers now um you know those two additional officers may not be the actual people but I think the idea is that the timing of them coming on and the ability to move people in the department um to help uh provide that community Service Unit I think which is a which is a uh a resource that we've been missing uh within the police department and something that is uh important to for a lot of reasons uh not only the interaction between the police department and the public but also I think it will help with this um you know I've heard a lot tonight about the feeling of unsafe um and feeling unsafe um and I think that sort of a better uh uh interaction point and sort of a focused interaction point with the police department through that unit uh benefits that feeling as well um because and I'm gonna I'm just gonna be quite Frank up here uh as I've heard uh what was being discussed I am not disagreeing with anything that anybody has said um or that you know you know these innovative ideas or some changes and things like that aren't needed but I think that at times um and I believe it was Mr wol who said I'm sorry he's still not here um because uh he he stated that regardless of whether the numbers are flat or down if the feeling is that we feel unsafe that we have to do more about it shock and all whatever it is I just want everybody to sort of recognize again not that there's not changes that need to be made or things that can be done or IDE that we have or the fact that you know uh this town spent $1.5 million on license plate readers or that we've spent you know 43% more this year in burgo Patrol than we did last year but that idea of chasing a feeling is going to be very difficult I just want that to be understood so um uh with that um that's the the direct and indirect answer to your question wait did you say when the community policing was no I did I'm going to leave that to the chief I'm not take no he asked when those officers beir June 18th no I think he said when are they gonna start right June 18th is when they're going to be hired they have to go to the no I just said that just because those two those two officers allowed movement within so if that's gonna start June 18th why not get working on this so that we can have this start with those officers I again if you're gonna have a direct conversation as a committee with the police sounds so we're good yes okay can we take a three minute break before we do public comment thank e e e e e e e e e e we're going to get started with our final public comment okay this public comment period is allowed for final comments from the community excuse me when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident Andor property or business business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public a reminder that in order to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session maybe wait until our Township attorney's back wait for Al good start again my name is Jeffrey Feld um first I'd like to just incorporate my comments I've sent to you that we have an answer I don't know where to begin the city is a creature of state law best practices requires each district to have its own separate Sid I've been saying that for X years one of the things I asked you did you all receive the audit of the s for 2023 I think we need to return back to the statement that was read by our former mayor who created this city she used the word today controlled entity a controlled entity because every member is appointed I know I should try to bring it down if you read this St stat four of you were not involved in creation the statute was clear that members who were getting taxed elect the board Mr staller I was a small businessman for more 25 years I was involved when orange tried to create a sid Mr con you need to introduce yourself to Jeff buer and asked him about my conversation with him in July 2008 where to have a Main Street New Jersey application you need a valid Sid if you go back to September 1st 20120 when I appeared before this body for the first time I told everyone there was a trojan horse four of you were not here this is an issue that's been going when judge Moore tells you to mediate because he sees my smiling face I invalidate ordinances there are not that many people in this state that had judges declare ordinances as being unconstitutional I have done that there's not that many people in the state where the Department of Community Affairs say contact Mr Feld I'm the one that shut down the uee program in 2007 while I was speaking to the State uez Board orange was serving my family when missable complaint that happened a week after the mayor got arrested by the FBI I have a history I don't want to hurt you people there's a reason why the original ordinance does not have a dissolution clause in it when you look at the website of the DCA as to the Sid it says there should be a sunset provision doesn't have it in here I renew my offer to meet with you in close executive session so I can explain why our proposal was reasonable all the evidence that supports it the case will and if you can post the um Rams rent control report I think the public needs to read it because it affects about about affordable housing thank you Phil kers Milburn resident I can only speak about the Sid as a as a resident um as someone who was at the meetings I think when uh committee women prus is speaking about a time when really the old Cate really blew itself up I mean there's tremendous amount of chaos there was infighting there was physical fighting um one of the things I saw from the outside was I think the business owners um as they should be are are so busy with their businesses there are sometimes a small number of them who who get involved or brought here um about one issue or another but basically I think my feeling is that they want to run their businesses and they are more than willing to have uh something like the new Sid that was made give them help so I'm not sure where this idea came from about no taxation without representation I'm sure there are many there are many things that we all pay taxes to that we have very indirect representation if any we don't worry about it um we may have indirect representation so I'm not sure I'm not sure how many uh business owners don't live in town um I'm not sure if they would end up with a more direct representation than other ones who do live in town and voted for Township committee members and that might cause some resentment um I would just really caution that partly because For What from what I can see the C is working very well I see the promotions I see the the emails that I get that I never used to get about what's going on in town where it's happening that can attract me to things and I would say when you do examine this just be very careful because things seem to be working very well and I think there are I think it's maybe a case where representation where like I said let the business owners run their businesses I'm not sure they want to get involved on the level of these promotions and you know things helping them out so I I would say just really um work slowly on this work with CAU and see if you need to change anything and if so what but I would not want to see any kind of large restructuring I don't know why you'd even want to do that I'm not sure where this C where this came from thank you thank you Jonathan back to sh Hills again I just wanted to follow up on a couple of things that Mr Soler said about the 7 million ordinance for the paper mill um well he said three things really one was questioning the value or as if we're questioning the value of the paper mill to the town I don't think anyone here is questioning the value of the paper mill we see the value of the paper mill to the town what we're really looking at is what incremental value is the town getting for their $7 million investment because we can choose not to do it and so one claim is that it's self funding I think that's clearly false um the parking lot 1.8 million will return 50,000 a year the rest of it the 5.2 million doesn't return anything so that part of it is not self funding and the parking lot is about a 2 and a half% return Which is less than treasuries now so yes you could argue self funding but self funding at a very low rate for only only that part of it so the remaining part or the remaining point that Mr Soler raised was the Capital Improvements that they're going to do is going to go on their balance sheet so it'll ostensibly improve the value of the property but again I don't think that's a benefit that can Ur to the town because of the very special nature of the property if we were to ever sell it we would have to find another theater company that could actually pay for those $40 million worth of improvement we won't find one so it's probably just the value of the land which is what's on the books right now so I don't think the balance sheet situation improves with these Capital developments for the town and in fact I think the town shouldn't be in the business at all I mean we bought the property reluctantly from them in order to save them from a financial situation 16 whatever years ago so why don't we just sell it back they're in a much better cash situation now they could just buy it back off the town they can run it however they want then and we'll collect the same amount of money by the way or even a little bit more because of the property taxes so that seems to be a better solution to me thank you thank you I totally agree with Jonathan sorry Jean Pastak I I mean Ben you talk about misinformation okay what exactly do you mean you you stood here and heard from really smart people who are well educated know how to do analysis better than you and better than me okay and I'm sorry they have a very legitimate point to make and you're not listening okay I don't think any of you really have this information before you vote it and I think it's high time that these people that are brilliant have a chance to be heard and listen to not just come up here and talk to themselves but actually would you please listen to them this is serious stuff I mean the forest through the trees is not being viewed I said this directly to Ben and my husband and too this deal you have to think are you do we want to be in the theater business as a Township why would we want to do that we have so many other things that are so difficult and so complex yet we're going to jump into the theater business now for what what is the purpose like why are we doing this to satisfy whom I mean I know there's a slight conflict when someone who runs our town is sitting on the board I mean it's hard you you befriend people you become close to them it's hard I understand that but I think that's why you have to have a dispassionate very clear data driven approach to evaluating all these purchases and all this stuff that you're approving you need to have data from people that know what they're doing I mean I we there's an Oprah of a memo that came from Mike stots an email to Ian Mount board member Ted Burke board member and Alex okay back in January of 2024 the 12th before they made the presentation we have our next hi guys we have our next Township engagement committee meeting next Wednesday at 10: a.m. in preparation I have EOS salt solution or whatever update the economic impact study that was done in 2022 our numbers are even better can you give it a review prior to Wednesday so we can discuss your comments and any changes or edits we want to make I mean what yeah you hire a consultant but now you're telling them well let us tell you what we wanted to say so we can get our point across no this is taxpayer money you cannot be operating with this kind of stuff okay sorry I I'm so totally against this as you've heard others say the same the other thing is I just had dinner about four three or four times in town the last couple months and I think my bill was well under 30 bucks I'll tell you where the sushi place downtown the diner and uh tonight at Lada so go for the under $30 dinners they're they're good last thing I want to ask about that I forgot to is about code enforcement um I happen to run in to somebody I already had talked to um the zoning board uh chair but this person did as well and he again emphasize they go to all this trouble to to put rules in place but they're not enforced and I see it I've talked to you directly about my situation next to my home we got to get more enforcement we just have to do it thank you Christine besan um Annette I wanted to thank you for clarifying that um the person that I was speaking about is is possibly moving out I mean it seems like by not telling me that you don't know anything about that being the Democratic ex-chair I find that's a little off ex yes chair but that still means you're involved so um anyhow that's just my personal opinion and again Tara my apologies um so I want just go back to I don't know what to talk about because there were so many things that I wanted to jump in on but just I want to go back to the crime because that's what I was going to focus on um you know I I talked about it last time and this is like really the last meeting is the first meeting you guys took it seriously I brought it up a few times I I even you know wrote a whole um email and thank you again Ben and Michael for responding um and what Tony wols said was very valid um 100% I don't think it's imaginary I think we have to really look at the types of crimes I think they're more serious crimes and I may be wrong but I don't have access to that data and I don't want to like load you down with more over requests but I think I would really like to see a 360 degree review done they do it in corporations all the time maybe back in my Heyday um and have the police officers that report into the police shap do a review of their department and their managers and what they actually think because you know I actually talk to these guys on the street they're so nice and I'm always happy to see their face they're just down Earth guys they're always the person who's going to help you and I I'd like to hear what they have to say about the department I think it would be very valuable and it wouldn't cost that much money there's a lot of companies in come in and do that type of thing pretty easily and again Frank I really appreciate the fact that you've addressed this and gone out to a lot of residents and talked to different people thank you so much and for your perspective on it I do really fully 100% agree with what you said and I would like to see if maybe even we can just put out a million dollars or half a million dollars for four you know four to six month run and have 22 officers and Alex I think you talked about um hiring new people that they were in the police academy but the biggest thing for me is and of course this is a rumor I heard that people don't want to work at night so we don't that's why we don't have people on I don't know if that's true you could clarify from me no I'm just saying I I asked in the last meeting I asked in the last meeting how many people worked at night no one clarified that for me so I said three information oh well I understand that from I I understand that but keep asking and keep saying okay I but it feels like there there's not that many people running around cuz the cars that there were parked were there for many weeks so I was a little concerned about it so and then again I really think that we should maybe put together an ordinance about Amazon because they have gig workers that are a lot of them are like felons they don't even do background checks and they are I mean they're D I mean I'm just saying like we don't know there's all these random cars driving through my neighborhood all the time and I wish I had more time to talk but um thank you Charlie B Barett 27 year resident of Milburn sh Hills um I think something pertinent happened last night right along the lines of what we're talking about uh my two daughters came home from college uh I went out for a walk last night after dark and uh they called me up and asked me if I'd come and pick Pi them up because they didn't feel safe and I know you address that Alex it's a feeling and how do you how do you address a feeling but they didn't have that feeling two years ago three years ago they have it now and so I mean I think there's a legitimate concern and I think if they during their walk would have seen one or two patrol cars come by with the lights on which I I admit I've seen now in the poet action I see them going around they don't have the flashing lights they have the lights on steady so you could tell it that it's a patrol but I think if my daughters would have seen that a little bit more frequently they'd have felt safe enough to finish their walk I don't mind going out and picking them up but that wasn't my point you know I think people need to feel safe in town I don't think they do thank you should I say my name again anyway it's me it's me again you excuse me we we really can't hear with all the background noise thanks so I didn't mention this to anybody but yesterday when I was walking my dog which I do regularly I saw a black car in my neighborhood which is South Mountain all the windows were dark including the windshield it was a black car I tried to see who was in the car but he the individual turned the car around and zipped away so I I don't know if there is any laws about having all dark windows in a car but I don't know what can be done about that I don't know how it works but I did see it in my neighborhood and I I kind of confronted the person and they they went I didn't tell you about that license no I I it you know it happens quick you know what I mean Hello Perry uro I appreciate this second comment because sometimes I'm not able to get here but thank you for your time so um sadly um our hearts go out to uh officer lions actually one officer that we didn't know and to be quite honest in 30 years we really don't know any of the police officers anymore they don't walk in the neighborhood they don't ride their bikes anymore so there's like almost no to I don't know I just just want you to know that as a business owner we don't know any of the police officers anymore um I agree with the public concerns it's um but also I think if you're going to be talking to the chief I would hope that you incorporate some of the police officers because you want to know what do they need why they're keeping us safe so we want to keep them safe so they can keep us safe and I'm sure that's been talked about all the time already uh I've been doing this ordinance 25612 dance for nearly four years be Property Management put an offer on the table via attorney what TC members declined our offer and was there discussion of a counter prior to taking action on anything and I do appreciate the new business that's what brought me here tonight I was kind of curious not so much concern because this ordinance is out of my control um but I would strongly consider doing a comparison as I currently am and I've been publicly criticized for filing opras with other towns it's astonishing what I have found out with other towns and I'm like I said I'm in the process of doing in a comparison and I I strongly advise somebody might should do that as well there are five districts not just upper Milbourne Avenue and not downtown and I really shouldn't care about the other districts but I do care about the other districts outside of downtown because we're all orphans and you be fooling yourselves and if you believe that every all the other four districts are equally or if not being um that's the word I want to use represented outside of the downtown um I asked the I by way of Oprah I have been trying to get all events dates times and locations in the Sid I think it's important it's important to do a comparison why now and if it's something that they do not possess any longer because that's what I've been told say it but in 2021 I did the same exact Oprah and I was afforded all the all the events all the dates all the times and all the locations lastly um you talked about the property owners and the and the communities or the B um uh sorry commercial property owners that are either out of town but are the actual are Property Owners even residential property owners are they aware that we're paying $55,000 to your C executive director's Salary thank you have a good night and Canon 21y year resident um I also serve as the sons of the American Legion Commander here in town I'm also on the township um Memorial Day Parade committee I just want to allow everyone here to know and invite personally as well as the township committee to join us on the Memorial Day Parade coming up this uh Monday there are other activities that are going on about Memorial day as well uh this third Thursday evening uh at 4:30 uh troop uh Scout uh BSA troops 17 and 19 put uh flags on all the headstones of veterans that have passed over at St Stevens as well as in St Rose uh then on Monday uh we continue doing the same there is a ceremony once again that's usually not highly attended by the public and I'm not sure why and that's why I'm here at 8:30 in St Stevens Cemetery there is the led by the American Legion there's a a small graveside remembrance the Milburn Police Department is there it does a 21 gun salute as well as the scouts really don't see much public support in those events that event in addition at 9:30 it's we then March over to uh uh St Rose at 9:30 there's a similar event led by the church there as well and once again other than the parishioners of the church there's not much other representation so looking for more Township uh representation there as well as the Memorial Day parade that starts at 11:00 a.m over at Milbourne High School proud to announce we have 30 organizations hundreds of Marchers there's going to be Flags there's going to be bands there's going to be Scouts they going to be veterans there's going to be the American Legion and it's going to be youth organizations fantastic uh uh uh compilation of of a representation of our town and diversity as well in each one of these the Desi Club is there the uh Chinese Club is marching so there's a good representation of how our our Township has changed we then move over to the uh tayor Park and around I would say it's hard to depending on how the parade goes at uh say around 11:50 to 12:15 depending on Logistics we will then have a ceremony the ceremony there we're going to have Raymond Wang is our Grand Marshal he will say a few words about his service he was a a West Point graduate also he served on our uh Board of um Board of Education as well as our environmental committee so excellent choice next we also have a Milburn Township res uh uh Native who unfortunately died in Pearl Harbor this individual was his name is uh Chief water uh Chief water tender Francis day Francis day died in Pearl Harbor he was born in 1904 here in milberg he was actually 1925 he enlisted and then died unfortunately in Pearl Harbor saving 15 lives his body was unidentified for almost 80 years and due to forensic science just recently last month he was buried in Pearl Harbor so we're actually going to honor him and his uh family there with a proc and another gift so I want to invite the entire town to come it should be a great day and please uh join us thank you put your C good evening put your camera on please there she is hello you're muted here you go all right sorry about that um good evening everybody I'm sure everyone's ready to call it a night and go home so thank you for giving me the opportunity to get my comments in um you know first and foremost uh my name is Puja Peri I'm a Short Hills resident um you know before I get to the business part of my comment I just wanted to say that in light of Officer Alliance untimely passing I want to extend my deepest uh condolences to the police department and um absolutely his family and you know during this really unimaginable time so I think he had really young kids um and a wife so I'm sure that they're really really going through a hard time right now and I you know learned that he was a very well-liked within the department and was a committed police officer and a veteran so I I hope the township will consider a memorable way to honor his life and service to our community um so with that said the business part of my comment that I wanted to to make was you know I'm glad to see that there is um consideration for this Advisory board for the crime in public safety I think that it's a fantastic way for us to address what's going going on in terms of these um increases in home burglaries and invasions and in more proactive and um comprehensive way um you know I think this board is essential for addressing these surges which have impacted our communities well-being and safety during the May 7th meeting you know I highlighted the concept of psychological safety in response to Residents concerns about these crimes um you know aside from being a um an active resident I am also someone who happens to be licensed mental health professional and I've seen the changes within many of our community members myself included I am more anxious about these break-ins um and you know I think that it's uh important for us to address it through something like this Advisory Board I know that we there was some discussion um earlier about possibly waiting to start it I strongly urge that we consider moving forward if this is formed and to really strongly consider um forming this sooner than later because you know summer tends to see an increase in these um in these crimes and with everybody going away I think for vacation I think is go going to be even more important that we address it now and at least start to move forward with it um and that way we can start to you know consider what we need to do and if the I think the workforce study can't do you know if there's a survey that you know needs impact or perception survey that can't be done this task force Andor Advisory Board would be a great way to do that and I think we could move something forward because I don't think we should wait to start this in January this should be something that we consider now with the summer coming and I think that um we need to have a collaborative proactive and and sort of a direct communication line between Police Department leadership our Township committee members and our residents so you know I just want to um thank you for listening to me tonight and for your commitment and time thank you so much thank you no that's it okay close public comment to resp anybody want to respond I'd like to respond sure um so Mr Baxter uh you are correct the $7 million is not self-funding despite what some members of the TC may try to say um we paid $9 million for the paper mill the 30-year lease was structured so that that $9 million would get paid back over 30 years um regardless of the fact that the bond for that may have been paid off that that doesn't mean that you know that money shouldn't still be coming to the town and you know if we then try to say okay well we don't have to worry about that because it's already paid off and you know oh the $7 million is self funding I mean that's that's just a ridiculous thing to say and I'm not sure how anyone on this TC could say that with a straight face um second I agree the town should absolutely not be in the theater business bailing them out uh once was enough there's no reason we need to be funding their vanity project and again what everyone needs to understand is the paper mill is not necessarily going to pack up and leave they pay no property taxes their their leas is relatively inexpensive for what they get out it I don't think they're going to pack up and leave and for people on this committee to say oh well we must do this to protect the restaurants the revenue to the restaurants that was never in danger if the Papermill doesn't do their expensive vanity project people are still going to go to the Papermill they're still going to watch the shows people that don't go to the Papermill aren't going to start going to the Papermill just because it has a four-story glass Atrium it just boggles the mind that some people on this day don't understand understand that um so so I agree wholeheartedly with you Mr back um Miss best uh I agree I think a 360 review we'll have to find out if the police do some sort of review process but that is something that's standard in businesses um so that's something we can ask the chief uh when when we meet with him to find out exactly what their review procedures are because I I think that's definitely a good idea um I'm also interested in what you said about the delivery drivers um I would love to know if it would be legal for us to require delivery drivers that operate in the town to at least register their license plate with us so that our police know you know okay this is an Amazon delivery driver versus you know this isn't and that way if they get a call from someone saying suspicious vehicle here's the plate number they can say oh yeah that's that's your local Amazon delivery driver so we should see if that's something we can legally do um Mr BAU I I'm I'm very uh dismayed that your your daughter who's you know presumably grown up here lived here her whole life you know comes back from college and now feels unsafe I think that underscores what we've been saying uh throughout the night that the community doesn't feel safe and and we need to do something about that it sounds like there's agreement from the TC to try and take steps to do something so that's great um Miss erso uh I agree with you uh I'd love to see more officers out and walking around town um hopefully when we get these community policing officers will start to see uh more of that um I'd love to answer your questions about the settlement but I don't think I can because there's ongoing litigation so when that's all settled and behind us if it's legal for me to do so I'd be happy to answer those questions um and uh Miss Miss Peri um thank you very much for your for your comments I agree with you I don't think we should wait to form this committee or at least get the structure of it in place uh over the summer we only have you know one meeting per month so if we're going to do this you know properly and have these be multi-year seats and we have to do it by ordinance you know even if we introduced it uh at the next meeting we wouldn't be able to pass it until July and then by the time we go and actually put people on it it would be August so I just really think there's no reason to to wait uh I think we can add in the community uh policing um you know when when that's ready available so with that that's all I have to say for tonight thanks everyone um the only thing is that I do agree that the citizen crime Public Safety advisory committee we should get started on that and I'd like to see that a draft form of that at our next meeting at our an initial draft I don't know who is working on that in terms of drafting it um I that start did the committee I I I think Mr McDonald might need a little bit more Direction on what you wanted what we want it to look like I guess well I can start working with FR and then don't then we have to don't forget we have to add add it to the volunteer interest form right well that's the last step but I think that's the last but it's the step but it's a long step you know not it's a Google form I think that Frank and I can at least start discussing what this would look like absolutely um and then so that we have something to at least talk about under old business at the next meeting agre does that sound good y good excellent great comment no I certainly feel for uh Mr bber my kids are coming home from college too and that's just not a good deal have them be walking around ons safe or feel unsafe um Christine best uh good point on the on the drivers and such is there anything we can do to monitor that also too some of the crime that happened uh was that's happening is happening in the T in the in the neighborhood that we do have the uh extra or the hired uh security by the residents so that's a little distressing to me as well you know there's something much more uh something much larger going on so if they're waiting for the private officers to to take their eye off the ball and then breaking into a house while people are sitting there we need to fix that and and I agre I'd love to see this is in uh security put forth by Frank and Miss puus um Jeff Feld we appreciate everything you do uh and and all the good information you bring to us thank you uh and then Mr Beck um I still think you don't have all the information I'd love to sit with you and kind of take you through uh the information that's available uh and gave you because the two and a half% versus uh is is not the number I came up with but I'm happy to sit with you and make sure you understand and if you give me that courtesy I'd appreciate it so you have all the information being jined up and such by by somebody or other people uh so I appreciate you just I'm just reading Stu yeah I appreciate you coming up that courtesy um and uh and I also too was past four to one so it's uh four people in the day is uh versus uh versus one uh and you know just for the record too I'm not going to legislate based on WeChat or quit proquo or any will of a few people this is for the entire resident base for all residents that live in the township no I understand no sir you're not recognized sir you can't speak speaking from so uh you know that's I just want to put that on record uh Mr Canyon thank you so much for coming out and articulating this uh events that are taking place I know I plan on coming to the Memorial Day Parade um and and you know and participating as much as I can um also too uh there's a service for officer lons which I hope to see everyone at as well uh and there is a GoFundMe for his family uh you know he was a newer officer and such uh and there's the PBA is running a GoFundMe page uh you know if you if you're inclined I think it's just a power number help out that's it thank you also also interested to see what you guys come up with on the you know and agree should quickly on that and of course some of that is going to be shaped by our meetings with the chief Mr C nothing further mayor thank you just just uh few things regarding 360 review uh for the police department does do reviews um there's accreditation process that they go through uh has been presented before the T committee before uh in addition to the police Staffing study providing some of that activity as well um and then as far as the Amazon drivers go I I I I I mean uh I just got a caution about like I think you're probably better off uh prohibiting deliveries in the township between certain hours rather than trying to register vehicles um because otherwise it's gonna be so um yep yep yep so I just again I think you have to really think about that in a way that is actually feasible uh and reasonable to enforce um I'd certainly like to speak to miss Pastak about code enforcement um you know obviously sometimes there is there there are times that the codes are not enforced and there are sometimes that the rules are not good and that feels like the codes are not being enforced so I think that uh having a better understanding of that is important um and um I think that's it one thing if you're going to pick on Amazon drivers I mean what's next Uber drivers that we don't I think that's delivery drivers if you're talking about strangers being in town I mean it could be well and can I just so like again the township has an ordinance that says that you can park on any Street between you know 2: am and 5:00 a.m. you could make the delivery window the same thing I mean if people are getting food at 2:30 I guess I mean door dash at 2 I [Music] mean the one one other point one other point I want to make uh is before we go is Richie cyber um uh there's that non-emergency number I I know it's been put out there quite a bit um anytime you see something that looks suspicious we've been told my entire life you know growing up is to say something um so I'm I would encourage you if you saw it to call that non-emergency number call 911 I mean especially if it's completely against the law all darked out and no front license plate you know there's something going on and it's better to have the the police involved I mean I there was uh I saw a Nissan or something with the same type thing in three different parts of town driving very suspiciously and I called the the one he was very thankful the whoever answered the phone because you know those are the tips that help stop the crime before it occurs yeah and and just a piggyback on this because this is the second time and I'm certainly not faulting you uh Mr receiver but like this is the second time I've heard of residents approaching vehicles that they thought were suspicious do not suggest that in any any way um again towards this feeling of safety just call the police let them take care of it they're happy to do so all right motion