e e e e e e e e e e okay everyone we're gonna get started in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act be 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 7M on Tuesday July 16th 20 24 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 to the stands na indivisible andice roll call vote Please Mr cin here missus here Deputy Mayor Sandy here Mr ster mayor Rano here may have a motion to approve the agenda so may I have a second second all those in favor I I okay um next we have a um statement that we are going to read this evening whereas the township of Milbourne is steadfastly committed to upholding the principles of democracy free speech and peace ful political engagement and whereas political violence stand as an effront of the values of our community our state and our nation threatening the very Foundation of our democratic system and tearing apart the fabric of our society and where is the recent incident of Senseless violence in the form of an attempted assassination of a former president of the United States has shocked and saddened Americans Across the Nation serving as a stark reminder of the very real threats all current and for elected officials and their families face in stepping up to serve their communities and whereas elected leaders on all sides of the political spectrum and at all levels of government have loudly and clearly denounced the political violence that led to the death of an innocent civilian and shaken the core of our democracy and whereas it is the duty of the community and its leaders to Stand United against all forms of violence and to promote a culture of respect and peaceful dial dialogue treating everyone with dignity and tolerance now therefore be it resiled by the township Committee of the township of Milburn in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to hereby Proclaim condemnation of political violence the Milbourne Township commit committee unequivocally condemns all forms of political violence regardless of the perpetrator or the target support for victims the Milburn Township committee expresses its steepest sympathies to the family of the civilian that lost his life and all those affected commitment to Peaceful political engagement the Milburn Township committee reaffirms its commitment to promoting and upholding peaceful political engagement encouraging all residents to participate in the Democratic process with Civility and respect for different viewpoints call to action the township committee calls upon local state and national leaders as well as Community organizations and citizens to join in condemning political violence and to work together to foster a safe and respectable environment for political discourse thank you may have a mo may I have a motion to approve the June 18th 2024 regular Township committee minutes so may I have a second second all those in favor I any the opposed may I have a motion to approve the June 18th 2024 special Township committee minutes some may I have a second second all those in favor I okay now we have an appointment to the fire department uh chief aaria okay good evening mayor Romano Deputy Mayor sakam Mundi Township committee members Alex Timothy colleagues friends and family on behalf of all the members of the Milburn fire department I want to express my sincer thank you to the township committee and the community it is my great honor and pleasure to be able to introduce the candidate for appointment tonight at this time probation probationary firefighter Jonathan feberg please come on Jonathan fineberg is being hired for the probationary firefighter position Jonathan was raised in New Providence and moved in with his father in rockberry New Jersey he attended rockberry High School graduating in June 2010 Jonathan's Journey continued After High School as he embarked on a new chapter United States Navy his dedication and Leadership skills were quickly recognized leading to his promotion to damage controlman petty officer third class his service took him to the Arabian Gulf the med Mediterranean Sea in 2013 where he continued to excel in his role in July 2017 Jonathan was hired as a patrolman for the hon police department and then transferred to the Morris County Sheriff's Office he has received several recognitions for delivering a baby girl including CPR saves and the lifesaving award he is still currently a member of the Mount Arlington volunteer fire department As A Firefighter Jonathan's journey is not a solitary one he is accompanied by his loving wife Marissa their four children Aiden EMT meline and Esme and their faithful dog Nova their unwavering support is a testament to Jonathan's character and will undoubtedly be a source of strength in his new role may have a motion to approve resolution 24-17 which confirms the appointment May I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor sa yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you Miss Gad will you now issue the oath of office to the new appointment I state your name I Jonathan fineberg do solemnly swear do solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and I will Faithfully discharge and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of firefighter the duties of firefighter of the Milbourne Township Fire Department of the mbour Township Fire Department according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations just pleas we could give everybody a quick five minutes in case you don't want to stay for the rest of our meeting e okay uh please uh please provide reports um on the Committees that you are uh liais on to and I'm going to begin I don't have any reports I just want to um again applaud the um for the July committee for uh a wonderful day um we made it just about made it through the rain at night and um they just did a fabulous job again so that may sure um planning board has not met recently um neither has the um zoning code uh examination subcommittee that'll later this week so the EC has met uh and the EC encourages all residents to attend one of the open space trust fund information sessions held at the library from 7 to 8: p.m. on Wednesday July 31st Wednesday August 21st Tuesday September 24th and Wednesday October 23rd on October 5th Milbourne residents will have the opportunity to vote on the open space trust fund ballot referendum question these information sessions are an excellent chance to learn uh what having an open space trust fund can do for Milburn and to get any questions you may have answered please uh visit the Township's website for more information um commus committee M staller uh sure uh Recreation committee uh the poll had over 11,000 check-ins from Memorial Day Weekend through uh the end of June uh which is the most we've had in 15 years uh the final summer concert is at Taylor Park tomorrow night uh featuring Twilight disciples which is a dance rock cover band which should be exciting uh the guo park pickle ball courts are going to be open tomorrow night with 40 people slated to play uh right now there's a ribbon cutting I guess at 5:30 pm uh pending the weather and I'd also like to to acknowledge that Short Hills resident Molly reckford will represent the United States in the 2024 Paris Olympics on the women's rowing team so big kudos to her Sid special improvement district Town Hall Plaza right next to here is in full swing through Labor Day uh they music food exciting menu special events also a lot of other events tomorrow is a cigar and fire pit night followed by a family triv trivia night on Thursday uh they're going to have a street chalk for kids on July 24th a s'mores night a uh kids dance party on August 8th so if you go to explor [Music] milburn.org on there obviously it's a summer haven't heard anything on the contract negotiations uh joint Fields no new updates emergency dispatch nothing to report there and um the uh flood mitigation we're going to be putting out a report uh soon uh for the entire Community affordable housing uh I am going to let Alex address that but I do have a quick statement uh just on my personal feelings on it um and the recent developments in the litigation uh our town proposed two exceptional alternatives to replace an ill-advised and clandestine agreement made by our former Township council members this previous deal promotes income based segregation by situating 75 families on a contaminated site in our meeting with the special Master he whole hardly agreed that two new sites were Superior based on various factors these new sites could be developed more quickly would have had a significantly lesser impact on our infrastructure including traffic would avoid segregation includes Workforce housing and would be more financially feasible for our town however there's appears to have been some irregularities to me from the time the special Master left Milburn after walking the SES with Frank and myself um the situ suggest improprieties to me I'm not I believe there should be an investigation into what transpired and what happened during him leaving here in the final report uh I believe our town should also hire a special counsel to understand how this deal known as the worst fair share housing deal in New Jersey history was imposed in our town in secrecy additionally past Town Council Members have already indicated that the process was flawed particularly concerning why it was conducted in secrecy and details were not shared with the residents public prior to its agreement I.E transparency uh the Situation's deeply troubling I am adamantly opposed to the dump project that violates my oath to the state of New Jersey to the United States Constitution and to you guys the residents who elected me with over 65% of the vote based on our commitment to opposing this ill-advised project transitioning our town to nonpartisan politics reducing crime and much more this is merely an expression of my profound disappointment and what I believe is a broken system where residents F they have lost their agency with that being said I remain fully committed to working with fair share housing to deliver affordable housing that is sensible economical and practical in every manner thank you thank you don't have any reports but I would like to publicize the fact that the new bur Short Hills ambulance Squad is holding two CPR classes in August on the 3D and the 10th Saturday morning um you can register for it on their website it's a very nominal cost cost compared to those same courses offered by other other agencies and um they're looking for people to sign up they provide that as part of their chart of Community Education so I would encourage you to attend thank you Mr McDonald yes just a few brief reports um one is um an update on the psng work that is taking place at the intersection of spring in mbour Avenue uh we do expect a few more days of that work uh it is quite a large and complex um project in which they are tying in all of the work that they did in the Washington section to a large gas main that runs down Milburn Avenue uh but there is a uh sufficient detour put in place where uh those driving down Milburn Avenue can detour back to Milburn Avenue through Spring Street if uh Spring Street is closed Milburn Avenue will be open uh I think it's been flowing pretty well traffic's been fairly light um and it is the summer it's probably the best time to deal with this intersection uh but just wanted to let the residents know there will'll be a few more days of that um the 2024 Road reconstruction projects are going to get started um if uh some of them have already started so just want people to keep in mind that I know you know I think somebody used to tell me that summer was orange cone season um so this is uh there's going to be a lot of work done in town uh but a lot of good work improving the infrastructure uh and uh just wanted to let you know that list of roadways that are being um Mill and paved and some curbing work done or drainage work done depending on the state of the roadway is all located on the Township's website uh if you're interested um but just wanted to let people know there will be some some closures uh throughout the town uh this summer and lastly just want to update the community that the home energy aggregation um will be uh some of you will probably start receiving if not have already received information pack it's about home energy aggregation which is a a program that uh puts a uh an aggregation on all of the residents um energy from jcpnl uh from one distributor and uh results in a reduction in price you are able to opt out of this program at any time um there will be information about opting out uh there's also an option to opt up if you wanted to receive green energy as opposed to just uh normal energy all that information is being sent out to residents there's going to be an information session uh next week via zoom on Monday the 22nd and then there is a information session at the library on uh July 24th um so residents that are interested in that can attend those information sessions if they have questions um uh the hund and energy aggregation Cooperative is the one that's running it um for us and 18 other municipalities and just wanted everybody to be aware of that thank you mayor good evening um I have two uh brief litigation updates uh for comme tonight first is a be properties update um the be properties case is a case in which plaintiff challenged the validity of an ordinance which was passed um to establish the S um the court decided some pretty significant motions last week uh plaintiff was seeking toh protract litigation sought to reopen Discovery uh seeking documents um excuse me Mr f speaking um um and wanted the court to order uh and wanted the township to participate in mediation um typically when uh a government action is challenge is done by way of prerogative RIT and that's the way it's typically done in courts um it's it's typically a simple briefing schedule a motion practice and Discovery is is limited um the the township filed the motion seeking the case be properly tracked as a prerogative RIT and S that the court dispose of the matter through a briefing schedule uh the court denied all plain this relief and granted all the talent relief so the case has not been placed on a prerogative risk schedule and there's a briefing and there is a briefing schedule um by the court so hopefully that matter will be resolved uh in an inefficient manner um additionally I have a fair share housing uh update um so for everyone who's been following um the township thought that it had created a a significant opportunity um for the township as everybody knows this governing body is committed to its affordable housing obligations is committed to um doing it the right way the right way for the residents and not only the residents of the township but also um low and moderate income individuals who would be moving into this community they want to do it the right way um so we were given the opportunity um to find alternate sites as as many of the community know and through the efforts of the governing body as professionals you know our administrator a lot of hard work went into identifying two locations um and of course our planner um a lot of locations which were far superior in the Township's opinion to the nine Main Street project um and I know commit installer touched on some of it but you know just briefly um the nine Main Street require significant remediation um in addition um it's located uh between the DPW garage which would remain uh it's on the Morrison esss line rail embankment and there's a PS CG substation which sits behind it which isn't really very conducive to residential in addition it's a fully exclusionary project um it's a very active DPW site it requires the removal of um a pumping station it requires moving of salt Dome it requires removing the Township's recycling facilities um a lot of extensive stuff um the two new sites that were proposed not only propos affordable housing for the township but also something called Workforce housing uh the difference is affordable housing starts at 80% of the median income work force housing is 80 to 120% of um of Medi income and I see you know we have our assembly woman here and she's aware that stay is a big proponent of Workforce housing currently it's a great opportunity uh for people to uh to live in the communities they work um the state has provided a lot of funding for that it's something that this committee thought was a very positive thing uh for the township at milb so I think that's great um the two sites um proposed one would have had 29 affordables with 14 Workforce the other one would had 46 affordables 21 Workforce the total affordable count would have been 75 The Identical number so at no point would there have been less affordable housing in the downtown with the addition of the workforce housing creating an inclusionary atmosphere everybody on this committee at least think is better than having an exclusionary uh commitment um we did walk the site with the special Master the special Master walked all three sites we got some very positive feedback uh on the alternate sites as opposed to the DPW site um this was this was definitely going to be a win win win for everybody it be a win for fare housing it be a win for the T M win for the residents um the court um instructed special Master to um prepare a report and making a recommendation to the court um the order provided that only the township and fure housing provide input to the court as to which site would be located um the special Master allowed the the the developer um who was already designated on the site who has nothing to lose and only to gain by building on the site to participate in the process and submit reports the special and we advised the special Master of the flaw and in it in allowing them I also advised the judge that it was against order um the judge said that she would have allowed it had had she been asked and she was okay with it um so ultimately the court adopted U Mr vish's report in its entire Mr B report um is that the nine Main Street site um is the most is is site said the 75 units should go on um it's realistic it's it's feas it's it's feasible um so the township is ordered as of the date of the order and the order has not been entered yet to um pass the RPM Redevelopment agreement um within 30 days um and there should be no changes to the Redevelopment agreement um in addition the township is to negotiate and adopt a pilot agreement with RPM within four months um and we're to apprise the court of any changes in addition the court wants to updated did uh completion schedule for the project um doesn't want dates adjusted other than to adjust for the time in which she claims the township wasted time and not allowing the project to move forward um again we were we were highly disappointed uh in that outcome uh we're reviewing currently reviewing all legal options um but at this point we haven't seen the order yet and we're waiting for the order to come uh mayor that's my report I'm happy to take any questions from the committee thank you does anyone have any questions for Mr caner thanks mayor great thank you um so I invited assemblywoman boli to come tonight to give us an update on the legislation that she is currently sponsoring and thank you for coming so I'm sorry I'll good evening everyone I'm gonna have my chief of staff the other me Genesis Alaba we prepar a little flyer for you that lets you know all the legislations that are currently before well actually the first ones have passed the assembly the other ones have kind of been tweaking a little bit since I've been coming to your council meeting um excuse me want to use the mic I'll use the mic sorry which way you want me to face so this way the five bills that are in bold at the top in the flyer that I'm handing out um a 4527 a 4528 4529 4530 4531 you see them in sequence because they were a package of bills presented before the assembly and it were it was meant for home security and safety um the first bill concerns keyless locking mechanisms that burglar are now learning new ways to tap into your Wi-Fi systems and break into your digital I I I haven't used the keys in years because I've always relied on my keyless entry um but that's connected a lot of them are connected through a Wi-Fi or through a batter um so there's a bill now to um restrict those mechanisms and to make sure that they cannot be tampered with um establishes the next one EST that's this is my bill that I'm sponsoring which is I got from a meeting that I attended with Frank um which was to start a a a home security systems antiburglar task force with the state um to see what burglaries are occurring across the state how individuals are breaking in and how we are going to provide more support to townships that are being um that where these events are continuous and reoccurring and where we how we best can support your police departments provide education to Residents and hope to mitigate through law enforcement um Samson Bill 4529 requires the Attorney General to conduct a study tracking residential burgar and issuing guidance to law enforcement and the public um a 4530 allows sentences to ex uh sentenc sentence sing to be extended for terms for repeated convictions of stolen property of receipt of stolen property that also includes like your somebody takes your Amazon package from your home if there there's someone that's repeatedly doing that um it could be simple theft as that or coming and breaking one person breaking into a home repeatedly um the next one it's limits negotiated plea agreements for the crime of burglary when a firearm is involved so it limits negotiated P deals um those those five those five bills have already passed the assembly they were part of the package of 130 bills that we passed the last day we were in session this past June 28 they have to get through the Senate now um so these are already in the assembly done we voted on them they have to be voted out of the Senate and hopefully get to the governor's office for signature that's the way it works um the next one is one that I've been advocating for it's actually shenique spakes bille she's a sheriff's officer in Essex County and this one increases penalties for juveniles and adults convicted of mort vehicle theft and related crimes that bill has not passed the assembly so I have been asking for your support in writing and lobbying your state officials like me don't don't I'm already supporting this sponsoring this don't drown me with emails but other officials to get them to move this bill forward um and just you know wanted to let you know that I am hearing from your committee I am hearing from um your mayor Raman and taking opportunities when I'm invited to come out and speak with residents on the concerns that you're having as far as I mean I I tell you when I come before you that I live on my last H my house is the last house in Livingston I am the very last house in Livingston I border Short Hills in mbour so I whatever affects you affects me right I am your neighbor literally your neighbor so when these incidents continue to happen it's not just concerning because I live next door it's concerning because it's part of my responsibility and duty to make sure that we are passing legislation that is supporting whatever is happening in our legislative district and Community if you have additional concerns if you want to know how you can best support this legislation I've also provided you with my contact information I'm happy to sit down and schedule a meeting if you have other ideas besides the ones that have been outlined here and you think that another legislative bill needs to be proposed I am happy to put it Forward um happy to have conversations please feel free to contact me my information is there and that's why I brought my chief tonight so you could also get to know her if you stop by my office you can also reach out to her and have conversations as well um I I you want me to take questions it's up to you I don't know the L I don't I don't think so I think if anyone wants to reach out to you they have reach out to me directly I'll stick around for a little bit too um thank you so much thank you so much for coming no problem thank you I just want left a couple of copies Mar I have the pleasure of serving in in two of of Assembly women moli and she really is just an outstanding legislature we're lucky to have her in Milbourne and Livingston so it's always a pleasure to work with her thank you thank you okay next up we have a presentation on the proposed Town Hall renovation project Mr M uh yes um we just have a a brief present ation from Eli Goldstein of the Goldstein partnership um we had done a previous um uh public information session on the uh potential Town Hall renovation wanted to make sure that we had done that in front of the township uh Township committee and the township uh you know at a committee meeting so we've invited Eli to just do a brief presentation uh this information is all located on the Township's website as well uh for those that may be interested in more um but I'll turn it over to Eli for that presentation thank you so I guess we'll start with the slid so uh we're going to quickly run through some slides to give everyone an overview of the concept and again for anyone who wants to get into more detail it's all can be found on the website so first slide please so this is an aerial view of of downtown Milburn and you can see that uh as we all know town hall is facing uh Milburn Avenue which is the along the bottom of the of the photograph and in the upper right corner of town hall there's a small building that we call the alarm building which is currently the home of the food pantry and used by the the fire department for some storage as part of this uh development plan we're planning to demolish that building and extend our the town hall to the north towards Essex Street next please so in order to understand the existing building uh one of the firms that's part of our team used a very sophisticated L laser scanner and scan the entire inside and outside of the existing building to develop as built drawings since there weren't any in the town's files next slide please and uh and then uh one of the people in my office who was specialist in historic preservation of buildings did an analysis of the existing building and concluding concluded that it was built in three phases the phase at the bottom which faces MN Avenue was built in the late 1800s the two green Wings the upper left and right were built in the early 1900s and the infill in the middle of the back was put in in the mid 1900s and that's one of the reasons why if you look if you were to look above the ceilings of the existing building you'd find a lot of different types of construction because each time the building was added to it was built a little differently next please so here's a view from the west of the existing building and you can see poking above the roof on the far left is the hose Tower from when the building was first built that was for the fire department because the fire department occupied the building at first later the police department occupied it next slide please we'll get into some of the details of the inside in just a minute so as you saw the building is about 140 years old and it's suffering from a lot of problems so we had a lot of objectives um as part of our study we wanted to take a holistic view of the building try to solve all these problems in our design we want to make it functional adaptable accessible because it's required to be accessible under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and then on and on all the other things that we're trying to achieve here and the bottom also look at the feasibility of incorporating into the building the Municipal Court which is currently located across the street in the police station next please so in order to get to this point in the project we did a lot of studies we we had the site surveyed we met with representatives of the State Department of firment and protection regarding floods we had the water company check the water pressure in the street and so on and so on and again you can read all this on the website next please uh in the process of analyzing the existing building we found that there were many aspects of it that were not accessible to the disabled the restrooms the elevator the basement several of the entrances many of the doorways almost all of the door hardware um parts of this room and parts of the deas where committing s and then other things we learned as we analyze the building we had some portions of the exterior wall opened up so we could find out whether there's any installation in the original building and we found that the original building exterior walls are completely uninsulated which explains why the energy bills in this building are very high and why it's high hard to keep it comfortable in very cold and very hot weather um there are there's some contamination in various parts of the building from asbest and lead the basement has experienced some flooding the stairs in the building are very steep much steeper than currently permitted by code and the hbac systems have reached beyond the end of their useful lives and cannot provide comfortable indor conditions that's just a partial list so um these are uh existing plans of the building and um the uh color coding has to do with various functions for example the finance department or the health department or the recck department or the engineering department so each color represents a different department and if you look carefully you see that many of the colors are distributed are not in clusters they're distributed over various parts of the building in some cases over multiple floors so one of our objectives as we met with and talked with heads of the Departments was to rearrange the groups so they're all together so that the Eng Ing and planning are all in the suite and so that the rec department is all in the suite and the finance department is all in the suite and then to R arrange the Suites in some coherent manner in the plan next slide please and so these are plans the proposed plans and you can see that in these the colors are tended to be clustered because of what we've done in rearranging the plan and um essentially the lower half of each plan is the existing building and the upper part basically back toward Essex Street is where we're proposing to expand the building to the north and so in very simple terms we're hoping to do or proposing to do is to take this room this commity and take it out of the original building and move it up into the upper left hand corner where the so that this building is essentially all offices and then the addition is a new larger and accessible and fully outfitted with equipment and so on meeting room multi-purpose meeting room and then the blue the upper portion of the dark blue would be the violations and that would be next to this new meeting room so they could also support room and then the color coding in the lower half of each plan would be the distribution of your existing offices redistribution of them within the first and second floor of building next slide please as part of this uh as we discussed Thea of members of various departments we concluded that in this day and age it's for security and and uh functionality it's better if the staff areas are secure for public so that the public comes to a window or counter and interfaces with the STA but cannot just circulate wherever they want in the building as they do now and so in this plan the green areas are the public circulation and the blue areas represent where the staff was circulated so we've got two separate circulation networks we proposing a public circulation Network and a staff Network and U they meet at the service areas service transaction windows with the public this will become clearer in a few minutes next slide please now one of another reason to do this is because it will allow the building to be um the building used to be controlled by for instance when there's a meeting like tonight so during the day the public will be able to get to all the areas that are shown in yellow next slide but at night the public Area Public Access will be limited just to the lobby on the first meeting meeting and the public bathroom second floor be completely closed door and secure from any use and as well as all the air conditioning system and the second floor will be completely shut off at night to save energy next slide please so we then did a test putting furniture in each of these spaces to make sure that all the staff members and visitors could fit next slide please and then we did a careful analysis of the square footages compared to existing I proposed and how they're changing and biggest change here is where whereas the existing there's only one real confence cor up hereos to put up a number of conf for so that there's more room for meetings with the public next all right so this is an aerial view of the site the Blue Line represents the perimeter of the site and you can see in the upper right corner the dog leg also esss which is all part of the edge of this property next slide please so here is a survey of the site again the Blue Line represents the limit of the site and you can see again the alarm building that small rectangle to the upper right of the existant Town Hall next slide and so this is what we're proposing to do extending the building to the north um almost up to the limits of the property next slide and then here we're indicating where the entrances will be so on the right there'll still be an entrance from this parking lot but we're adding a new entrance on the we from the West we're keeping actually improving the entres from Noor Avenue and then we're creating a staff in on and as you can see on far left based on the latest flood information the flood elevation in this area of town increases as go towards Essex Street next slide please so this is again you probably recognize this from the photograph I showed earlier this is the west elevation of the existing building next slide and this is what we're proposing as an initial design concept for the addition where the meeting room would be in in that uh brick-faced piece on the far left and there would be a glass enclosed Lobby between it and the existing building next and this a little more three dimensions gives you a sense of what that would look like and so we're keeping the facade and the tower from the existing building after talking to the historic preservation commission about the historic aspects of the existing building would match the brick in the new par next thing please so these are threedimensional cutaway views of a study model we've built to show how the spaces would be distributed and essentially we're proposing to put a Lobby in between existing building in the upper drawing existing buildings on the far left and addition is on the right the lower view is flipped the existing building is on the right uh the basement which you see on the bottom both of these would be abandoned because of the flooding issue right now it's being used for storage and that's been a great risk and there's been some water damage to some of the records that have been stored down there next as some of you may be aware uh the environmental commission is very strong in favor of building sustainability and uh I'm I'm proud to say that our firm was the architect for the maplehood court right up the street which is was the first uh lead certified public building in the state of New Jersey so under Township ordinance of milour we're required to make this project meet lead silver and so as part of our design so far we had to figure out what credits we would pursue in as part of the design process in order to achieve lead so and this is what we call lead scorecard which indicates which credits we're going to pursue next slide please and then we have the project uh estimated by construction cost estimator about a year ago and the estimate at that time uh for the building construction was a little over12 million including the uh environmental remediation or bu next slide please and so then we laid out some major steps that we uh uh had suggested the township committee needed to take in order to move this forward and then hopefully soon they will start considering those steps next slide I don't I don't know we're taking we're not taking questions that from the from the commit does any member of the township committee have any questions for Mr Gold see okay we're going to show a short video if if that's okay so having created the model for this design with our computers it's very easy to manipulate and to study various design options so we're going to show you a quick walk through to give you a sense of what it be like entering using the new board once it's expanded so 10 if you run it so this is taken from the East parking lot so as you enter the from the East there'll be a a much nicer entrance and on the left as you come in will be the building department which will have class fronted offices facing out to the street and then a long uh Gallery which will have the violations window at the far north this is now the new meeting room when you come out you can see all the service windows then you can go upstairs a public stair and on the second floor there'll be another series of Windows the clerk conference rooms other offices go back down the stairs and we're to go out this is the new entrance from the West that's the west parking lot if you come in there you get a sense of what it look like from the west and the entrance through this glass entrance so thank you for your time have some sense public comment when [Music] invited when invited to speak to offer your comments please please come to the Lector clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne 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 call in and would like to be and would like to comment please press star six now if you are attending by computer or electronic device please click the raiseed 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 comme to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you will be prompted when there is 30 seconds remaining a reminder that this is not 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 all right my name is Eric oerman Short Hills New Jersey um two separate comments here uh first former mayor prus um uh many view you as a swing vote on this committee and uh the comments from uh attorney caner earlier uh make me a little unsettled about the path forward um particularly on the dump site and so um let me remind you of a very supportive comment that you made on our behalf during the election last year that uh we're extremely grateful for as are the many many residents who voted for Frank and for Ben and you stated may I quote I am voting for Ben Stoler and Frank sakami because I know that together we can prevent the slated 75 unit 100% income segregated development on the DPW site approving the fair share housing settlement was the worst decision I made in office which I deeply regret with Ben and Frank we can write that mistake I want to thank you again for that comment I urge you not to sign this agreement that uh the court is going to order us to sign I sent all members of this committee uh an email a couple days ago with the comment don't back down quoting the very popular Tom Petty song I Won't Back Down there ain't no easy way out I Won't Back Down hey I Will Stand My Ground I Won't Back Down um my comment here is look all of you have faced very difficult obstacles in your businesses uh a merchant on Milbourne Avenue for instance who doesn't give up because sales are less than expected the first few months of being in business she tries new products new strategy until she gets it right I'm going to run out of time but I'm going to mention a young Analyst at JP Morgan who can't get the numbers to calculate properly in his spreadsheet he doesn't give up he's he keeps at it until he gets the correct calculation um let's all learn from that because you're here to represent uh us residents so we urge you to work with Council Jared caner to pursue new legal filings new approaches new appeals to stop the dump project from ever being ordered by the highest court of jurisdiction over Milbourne Short Hills if your resolve ever should weaken you will be disenfranchising two-thirds of the town so let's respect democracy don't back down thank you very much Charles Bambara 27y year resident of Short Hills uh I'm wearing this shirt for a reason tonight it's Milburn colors I love this town I was RA I raised my family here I'm proud to be a mbour resident when a trash rag like the Gothamist demeans this town and its residents I get damn mad and I resent it when our New Jersey state usurps this town's right to self government bullies us is not truthful forcoming and fair and violates this town's constitutional rights to self-governance I am damn mad and I resent their actions this fight should not be over I fully expect this town and its Township committee to push back stand firm and appeal this ruling all the way up to the state supreme court if need be thank you thank you okay Fran Feld Milburn 40y year resident um it's been a while since I've addressed you so I sent a letter to the township committee yesterday and I'm going to just read as much as I can squeeze in three minutes I believe we are at a critical juncture in our Town's David and Goliath battle against outside forces as I have mentioned to some of you and now to all of you with this email I have been glad to see civility return to the TC under the direction of Annette and with the cooperation of all it makes one proud to be a Milburn resident I've also been cheering from the bleachers for all of you to continue to push back against the bullying that has been ongoing from the fair share housing folks the state Administration and the developers that supported its actions this bullying particularly with nine main street has been the main stay of the state's urgent push to urbanize our town no matter what the cost while we await the further building up of our Township it is the nine Main Street project specifically that has been tainted from the very beginning our former attorney told the then TC members that judge Gardner instructed him to conduct the agreement signing behind closed doors imagine the surprise when on a follow Zoom call with Township residents judge Gardner made it clear that he never said any such thing today we are still suffering the blowback from that shameful closed door meeting the nine Main Street project has been a misbegotten disaster from the beginning a 100% income segregated building a dump site that needs toxic waste remediation at unknown cost a Department of Public Works that would need to be moved to a new site also at an unknown cost a key town ship artery Main Street that is already jammed with traffic at rush hour Etc I understand that the pressure to give into the state's demand can be unrelenting I also understand that this could be costly to us but since we've already said we're going to spend 7 million to help the $40 million project at the paper mill let's think about our town not just the paper mill and how much money are we willing to spend to keep this project away from our DPW site we must think of our town and its residents first before external pressures I'm asking all of you to stand strong do not back down or give in do not back do think of our town first there's only one Milburn Short Hills we expect lots of apartment buildings to go up here in the next decade but please do not make nine Main Street one of them thank thank you um good evening my name is Jeffrey Phil I am not related to Fran Phil make that clear um at the end of the meeting on our second time to speak I will address the comments that were made by the attorney about be properties and what incurred in court I'm shocked that he didn't talk about my loud spontaneous stage whisper utterance which forced the judge to change her opinion and give us four months to do to Pilot I just want to focus now on the agenda no one's ever discussed why the paper mill ordinance was removed and how it ever got on the agenda in the first place if you did not have the agreement when we do do consider the be um the paper mill Playhouse now be in September start looking at judge Deo in a BBS case this has occurred when I was a young fifth or sixth year associate record it about pledging the same collateral twice or three times people went to jail for that look at that um as to the or as to these parklets how many parklets are we talking about we're put in 2023 and how many parklets are we talking about for this year that's resolution 178 as to the resolution that's not on the consent agenda which is the cell tower use that's a lease I just have a basic question as to law is there a real estate lease it's not a contract of goods and services why in the draft that was in the agenda packet do you cite a statute that applies to goods and uses and services and not land land is done by ordinances but the local land and buildings law that's a discussion I've had with Municipal attorneys for four years it's sort of reason why we're coming back to the same things who watches the quality and the work product of our Municipal attorney that's the issue we have there be later will be the audit you're going to approve it and one of the issues we have in a state your only requirement is to say like the recommendations and findings what I've been always saying the real hidden meat of the audit is the footnotes you could go watch The Good Wife with Nathan Lane the secrets are buried in the audit yesterday a major opinion came out of Florida regarding Trump most people talk about the appointment but there is also the last 10 pages of the opinion talk about Appropriations this is one of the issues we've been having I've been having about 22 East Willow and the paper month you had to say when you're doing appropriation where you're going to use it what you going use the money for and where are the sources in the paper mill you never broke out how you're using like $5.2 million I wish we have an opportunity at some point to discuss the audit because there are serious questions in there in the that bears on be properties I will speak at the end of the day thank you it's always a pleasure good evening everyone my name is m Bala I'm here to address the issue regarding the Papermill uh funding project as uh many of the concerned residents have raised I would like to ask uh just a few questions to our respectful mayor and the township Council in terms of uh supporting odds and Finance in this particular Township what do the residents get for subsidizing this uh $40 million project do we get uh balcony seats do we get uh discounts of the tickets and we understand that this is a facelift and there is no incremental increase in the number of seats that have been allocated uh while we are very concerned about our residents making sure that they attend the Papermill Playhouse and support it as our local um arts and finance related area and as a concerned residents we are asking uh would Township residents get any subsidized values for other dance cultural programs that might be utilized in the Papermill pay house these are the main questions that I have which I would expect the township Council to probably analyze discuss with the paper mill Playhouse management and provide a reply to us thank you thank you Leah Cruz Short Hills resident um I just want to concur with Eric Osman Charlie Bamba and Fran um I support you guys pursuing every legal remedy and every appeal possible um I believe if memory serves me correctly that we spent close to $8 million on the disastrous complete streets project which was supposed to improve traffic flow and I think this affordable housing issue is a cause that will have a much longer lasting impact on our community and um Ben and Frank you were elected to really oppose this and I know you do and so I really urge you to continue in the fight thank you good evening my name is Dr Richard Rea I've been a resident in this town since 1961 other than the two years where I was in the military service I've seen the Persona of this Township change over the years we were once the townies the hillies we were on this side of the track and now we're on that side of the track the Persona has changed but I want to address the Milburn Playhouse issue since the township purchased the paper mill Playhouse in 2008 milber Papermill Playhouse had the sole responsibility for the maintenance of that property the executive director of the paper mill Playhouse Michael St should have in his annual report to our Township business manager Alex McDonald uh which should have included a summary of such maintenances maintenance and the future maintaining of the said property was this ever done and how was it done I'd like to see the plans the next part that I had is it's been reported that the PMP received 4.8 million dollar in shuttered venue operator grants because of covid if so did the executive director stoes include this reporting to our business administrator and the financial accounting for the distributions of the said monies where did it go during this period of time the paper mill P Playhouse did not pay any rent to the township the paper mill Playhouse if you look at their tax reports has liquidity where is the distribution of this liquidity and how has has that been used may I finally suggest that the township committee put forth a resolution for a November ballot a referendum a referendum to educate the public to the issues thereby allowing the public we the people of the Milburn Township whether or not we want to fund this commitment to the paper mill Playhouse I submit respectfully I will give the report to the clerk if she so wants it than good evening everyone Richard cyber 25 year resident so I've lived in town 25 years I never came to a town meeting until about three years ago when my wife said to me they're going to build a tenament on the dump so I said what so my family's from New York we know tenaments world we know what tenaments are if they ever lived in New York you became acquainted to them anyway some people don't like that word that's what it'll become anyway the when I found out about it I said I'm going to go to the meetings now I want to hear about this and I came to the meeting the night that RPM was here with their Builders friends and I'm a man of my word and I want you to help me keep my word because I turned around and I said to him on my word you will never build on that site I told the RPM owners you will never build on that site and he said oh yes we will in October we're going to start building there and I said to him again you're not building on this site anyway one time before I spoke here and I said RPM a dollar and a dream so he wants to pay a dollar for this property and his dream is to own the building for 30 years he's a young guy at the end of 30 years he doesn't have to stick with affordable there he can make it all luxury so as a resident of the town here having my family kids go to the school and grow up here understand the whole school system the traffic I pretty much know every street it's not good for the town and it's really in your hands now not in my hands anymore we've all come out we've spoke about it we voted people in for it so it's really in your hands I don't have to name you it's in your hands it's your vote it's your vote it's your vote I hope you do the right thing I really do thank you okay Ted C in res of Short Hills for about 40 years I won't be quite as forceful as a prior speaker but I have some questions about the paper mill that I I hope you guys address and I just want to know like if there's been a real good financial analysis done of the proposed 7 million bond issue that we're supporting and if it has been done can you share that with the residents of the Town we'd like to see it we all have an interest in this you're curious about this $43 million plan that we have they understand that 20 million has been pledged already and is that have been collected or is that only a future promise don't know and are there any restrictions on this pledged amount or can it be used for any purpose such as emergency repairs for to fix safety issues or walls or lighting or is it really set aside for what I would call more the vanity side of this project building this glass Atrium and re really redesigning the entire paper mill so we uh and it's anyone of you guys seen a spec sheet of outlining the detail of the work to be done on the paper mill of this 43 million how it's going to be spent and how much of that budget is for safety issues and how much is it for vanity the vanity side of this project um and I guess you want to know you know who on the Town Council has a financial oversight for this entire project Alex I guess it would be you um I don't know uh and has there been any audit of the uh paper mill operations you know to see how well they're performing how do they know how well they've been operating it looks like they're doing fine I looked at the tax return last the last years and it looks like they're making money so it looks like it's being run fairly well it also looks looking at the balance sheet you know the uh they have assets of $53 million and of that Savings in cash are almost $12 million investments in equity mutual funds and fixed income mutual funds another 21 million so it looks to me like they have 31 or 33 million of cash and marketable securities the liabilities are are limited is 17 million not a ton of liabilities a lot of it's deferred revenue so it looks to me like the paper mill has a lot of liquidity itself why do they need our 7 million and how is it in addition to the some of the additional money they plan to raise so I just would love to know if you guys really looked at where all this money is going and do we does it really require our financing it looks like we have a lot of future infrastructure requirements in this town you know the $12 million for the municipal building is just probably one item there's probably all sorts of other infrastructure work that needs be done you guys know this better than us so in a longrange strategic plan you will identify a lot of the future requirements so doing this $7 million bond for this particular project seems to me a little excessive and I'm sure if it's really necessary to really keep the play Mill in a uh the condition it needs to be in thanks my name is Howard Leo um my family and I have been living here since 1977 uh we moved here primarily because um it was um a very very uh in terms of relationship to New York the commute was not excessive um also it was a nice bucolic town there wasn't overbuilding you know it was very nice it's been very pleasant now things and we're not here all the time but but I I I'm a developer in New York so the bottom line is and now you know we're we're looking at these projects the affordable housing then I think and council did a very good presentation on what is a plus and a minus about this the uh the dump site um is really an incredible problem I've been involved in remediation of sites and I can tell you something that unless I mean what I've been told is that the idea by the developer who will have you know a dollar in on this project uh essentially what's going to happen is you're going to Tar over the existing well that doesn't help because you have so much uh pollution that's been building up in there for 100 years that that's going to come out and to have people living on that site it's a time bomb but of course the developer will not have that liability the town will so again that site I think is it has to disappear in terms of the idea of uh the developer building on it uh the other thing that um bothers me is uh the Papermill Playhouse we didn't move here because of the paper mill and the paper mill is lovely It's a Wonderful institution the question that I have is uh and I I have seen you know some of the documentation about the paper mill and it says that they have the liability to do restoration work now the question is what is the restoration work why are and apparently from what Ted said they seem to have the funding why do they need us to put up a $7 million Bond uh furthermore we don't know what they are intending to do there's a spec book that usually comes with projects with development projects we haven't seen that now I also don't know do we get you know financial statements I mean since we have we basically own this property do we get financials you know on six months or annual whatever um the the other point about it is that we have to decide are we are we in the entertainment business are we in the restaurant business and that's essentially you know is that why we're backing this so heavily I I don't see the point of it I think that um you know they have a very nice situation there apparently they have the funds and to come to us when we have other projects we have a sewer system that's archaic you want to do this new building for this you know which is another 12 million bucks which no way is going to end 12 million it's going to be at least 20% over that thank you hi Diane Eglo lifelong resident um hodge podge of things Alex I'm just wondering if the crosswalk at Ivy Ridgewood is being scheduled because with the kids going back to school that's an important crosswalk in South Mountain um every is still incredible that $7 million is giv to the paper mill while the downtown falls apart spend the money reduce the bump BS at Milbourne and Maine the turning radius onto mil Avenue is just ridiculous you can't get make a right on Main you can't make a left off Maine I support the town hall renovation I think with that Town Hall Plaza should become a permanent Park line that entire parking lot with trees put perky papers there make that invite people to this part of town um and then Spring Street obviously has to go back to two ways as it was uh new topic I hope the Forester along with the shade tree committee is looking and studying where they can plant trees along milour and Essex because it's like you know it's a cement desert it's ugly it's hot it should has to be fixed this Township has a proven history of spending Millions to fight projects they don't like 25 million 25 years to stop stop stop saop and shop um I don't know how much you spent fighting High Center I don't know how much we spent delaying chadam road that hasn't come to being built yet um spend whatever money and time it takes to stop nine Main Street do not build on the library parking lot that would be a disaster the traffic on Glenn is already terrible where would anybody Park that parking lot is used um I don't know if it's a rumor but I heard they're closing the Walgreens at morrs Avenue what a great place for a nice big apartment building fair share would love it give that to them hi J morale Township resident I'd like to start by thanking the TC members for their service to the community a few Kudos my son with his wife and 2-year-old daughter stayed with us over the holiday weekend and we were fortunate enough to get to Taylor Park for the kids activities and they later enjoyed the fireworks kudos to the 4th of July committee also we had the pleasure of visiting Town Hall Plaza enjoyed some music and some lobster rolls Kudo to explore and everyone involved in creating a family friendly fun area for the summer for dining and entertainment we also spent some time at the pool which looks better than ever so kudos to the park district so many good things going on in Milbourne with that I would like to switch gears and repeat a request that has been made by me and others over the years and that is asking the township committee to send out a reminder to Residents especially those with miners living in or visiting their homes to safely store their firearms gun violence Remains the greatest cause of death for Americans under the age of 18 on June 25th of this year the Surgeon General declared gun violence in America a public Health crisis well we are fortunate in New Jersey to have one of the lowest gun death rates in the country no Community is safe from gun violence and the young are most at risk just two years ago a 16-year-old high school student in Maplewood took his own life with a gun other towns in New Jersey have taken steps like North Caldwell which sent this letter out to all residents reminding them of the importance of safely storing Firearms so can't we I'd like to acknowledge police chief Gil feder for posting information on the police's website and comments made earlier this year by Deputy Mayor sakami at a TC meeting regarding safe storage but there is more we can do so I ask again if we can send email to our residents asking them to lock their car doors why can't we send out a reminder asking residents to safely store their firearms let's not wait until after after a tragic event to speak up thank you good evening Dave coso from Resident I sent everyone an email um over the weekend on 24178 and 180 which really were technical comments on those so I'm going to kind of skip those and hope those will be addressed but I wanted to address 2678 d24 which is the new application for you know for uh land use application um and I gave you some language I'd like to see inserted in that I'd like to it's part of the transparency aspect um and whether people follow it or not what happens to Residents who are interested in projects is they're currently told that until the zoning board secretary or the you know or Miss davit really signs off as the application being complete that these are confidential documents and no one can see them um so then they get approved eventually that's some point um and then the it goes on the agenda and the residents are given two weeks or maybe three weeks to address the issue but no time at all to get their people together to get their experts together etc etc so I'd like you to put that language in there that those are now I I I've heard before from people in the past oh well it's an Oprah issue it's not an Oprah issue it's an issue of whether this board who all ran on transparency at one point or another want to make sure that residents get to see stuff it's got nothing to do with Oprah um and that document when that application is filed is not confidential there's nothing confidential on the document and there's no reason to hide it from people thank you thank you anyone else before we go online wow I agree with everything you said Mr thank everybody proba SP three or four hours writing amazing things and doing research I really appreciate it so I'm gonna not add to those comments but I fully support everything was said tonight want to talk about transparency and by the way I live in Milbourne Township um my name is Christine best and I forget to say that every time I come here so tonight I'm G to focus on a court issue that I have evidence to prove about some members of our Democratic party in town and unfortunately for me these people are clearly not Democrats that love Milburn Miss goo is a democratic committee candidate knowing I don't think you should be calling out people by name not our residents I actually think that this is am I right okay you know what I I'm just going to defer to Mr caner if he says it's fine then well this is actually something that was I think done very inappropriately and you I I think it should people in town should know about it mean really like public comments about politics or electioneering or or supporting different candidates it's fraud it's about fraud so I I'm sorry I can't I can't speak about it I can't you you guys call people out all the time I mean we do it all the time I'm not allowed to talk about what was done excuse me let let's just um because you were involved in an ad so you were let's let Mr caner answer the question why don't why don't you say it without Iden all right I I'll try to do that but I think that it's a Well I will do you know Mr caner I respect you and I will do that for you a democratic committee candidate knowingly presented herself to the public with her running mate in the Deerfield District 12 as a deep and caring fellow neighbor who was very concerned about solving the ongoing crime challenges to help as she calls it our Deerfield neighborhood she actively campaigned declaring herself as a candidate that would solve her District's problems after she placed her now previous home in the district I'll be nice and off to call not call out the address on the market in early April many weeks before the election with the intent to sell she walked to your homes and lied to you about her immediate absence with the intent to sell and move she tricked you into electing her so you don't to electing this person so you don't have either someone you didn't elect or nobody depending on what the SS County Democratic committee decided to do with that position I can confirm this through a screenshot of public tax and deed records that this is their house and that the best and final offers were due on 42324 the person's house went under contract on May 7th almost a month before the election yet that person campaigned and campaigned as your trusted neighbor in deerfields district 12 I can confirm this through also a screenshot of public tax and deed records that best and final offers were due and were under contract a full month before the election her closing are sold date was listed on Zillow as June 27th and the transfer of deed was recorded on 73 2024 on the property in the district the purchase of the tent the house that was closed or sold on 611 that was purchased in another District Pilla records was very concerning can I have 20 more seconds and I argue with you well you actually broke my I can't allow you to go over and not allow anybody El but you you actually broke my you actually talked that okay do you want you can have a couple more seconds Miss best he says he stopped the clock but I didn't know that he did kind of stress me out so excuse me I mean I have to like take people's names out and think about that so I've also seen I've had quite a number of witnesses people that I know in fact the person that this person bought their house from happened to know his personal friend that that's another way I actually heard about it just randomly at a at a club party okay so you guys one two and another person were all in the room on the 521 TC meeting part of the election where I asked if it was a allowable for potential Democratic Committee Member to fraudulently make statements about their intentions to represent neighborhood constituents in their District when they're knowingly leaving the district thank you okay I'll finish later thank you thank you Jean Pastak resident um I had written to each of you uh about the 911 memorial um uh aspect of adding the Survivor um wording to the the different plaques and I did get a reply and I appreciate those replies I just wanted to restate as Mr Cohen had asked me to what my request is uh my family is one of those survivor families my husband was exposed to toxins he inhaled from the burning pile after returning to downtown Manhattan to work we were unaware of the connection between the 911 toxins and his unusual cancer in his 40s only by chance more than 15 years later through a conversation in the oncologist waiting room with another Survivor did he make that connection as a result he was able to pursue that cause and effect and be cared for under the offices of the World Trade Center health program and the victim compensation fund it was a huge help to our family we would like to help ensure other families are made aware of what we came to know very late given our Town's proximity to the toxic Zone and the potential for others in our town to have been impacted and also unaware we're proposing that the survivors be acknowledged and an awareness statement be made about the 911 survivors at the same time the language I proposed is this 9911 Memorial is dedicated to those Township of Melbourne residents who died on the morning of September 11th 2001 those who survived and those who lives were changed Forever on that day thank you for considering that request um I'll just add to everybody else's course we are 100% behind you and fighting back against the um nine Main Street project uh your constituents gave you a clear mandate in November with 65% of the voters electing Ben and Frank on the vote for Milburn platform uh this project was voted upon without any prior public input it was clear from campaigning knocking on hundreds of doors and talking hundreds of residents that they are overwhelmingly in favor of pursuing every possible legal remedy to stop the segregated 100% low-income housing project on a toxic site in our town I'm confident that each of you will vote on what the town residents ask you to do uh the election should get far more weight than a handful of comments from residents who disagreed and likely did not vote for that platform and Ben and Frank um the Papermill I think enough has been said one thing I will add I love the idea of the referendum uh the school board has similar amounts maybe a little bit more that they have referendums um on on for voters so this to me fits in the same category uh and I'd also like to add to Leah's comment that very people that um are on the board uh at the paper mill were also responsible or a couple of them were responsible for complete streets uh a former mayor Ted Burke and uh I think he was a deputy mayor Ian Mount so that should give you some more information and um lastly out addresses to Mr Donald I appreciate the investigation you're conducting about the private citizen criminal complaint found Against Me by our former mayor mayor Maggie miggins um I oh I think I'm out of time okay thanks uh good evening everyone Jerry Kung Short Hills resident um I was in attendance at the court hearing uh where judge Santoro said a lot of stuff related to the area in need of Redevelopment designation of the dump um my understanding is that the requirements for an area in need of Redevelopment have somewhat changed due to case law and I think last year there was a case out of West Orange with the library site um and so I think and I haven't looked at this in a while so apologize if this isn't totally coherent it it said that the standards are that it needs to be demonstrably you know detrimental to the environment of the town to be classified as an area in need of Redevelopment and since the DPW site is an active DPW site that we actually need to you know help during natural disasters it's hard to argue that it actually has a detriment to the town so I'm wondering if that could be an Avenue to explore you know revoking that area in need of Redevelopment I know she had previously said that I know the township committee had previously revoked the area in need of Redevelopment designation and the judge said that she was going to nullify it so is she actually able to nfy it was there actually an order that said she nullified it can we challenge that revocation because I think the Crux of the the Crux of the developer agreement selling the land for a dollar and not via a public auction uh requires that it's a valid area in need of Redevelopment and so you know if if state law has changed regarding whether or not it is an area in need of Redevelopment um maybe that's one Avenue we could look into challenging the validity of the developer agreement which says that we need to convey the land for a dollar uh rather than buy public auction so um I'm going to move on now from the dump project obviously everyone everyone who's spoken here tonight has said much more eloquently than I have that you need to continue fighting this um I'm going to now talk about the Papermill um I just wanted to Echo Dr Eva's sentiment that there should be a bond referendum for this clearly there's you know many people have many thoughts about the issue I think that the probably the fairest way to resolve all of this is to just put it out for a bond referendum to let the people of the Town decide um especially as Jean said you know this schools have referendums for a sensibly property that you know the town not the township committee but you know the the Board of Education owns um and you know people move to our town for the schools I know a couple members said that they don't move to the town for the paper mill uh so it seems a little bit strange that we're giving people aay in whether or not to renovate the schools that we actually own and not giving the people a say in renovating the paper mill which you know yes we own the land but you know people don't come to town for the Papermill um so thank you very much thank you anyone else before we go online thank you excuse me we're still in public comments thank you good evening Sarah Sherman resident I offer my remarks with respect and Civility and I am pleased that some others are doing the same this evening in almost 33 years in Milbourne I have sometimes opposed actions taken by the TC or the Board of Ed that is my right as a citizen and I exercise my right to speak that doesn't mean I should be vilified for my views or that those who share my opin opinions should be called names on social media platforms we can disagree and that is our right I don't agree with the decision to give the paper mill the amount of money we did but I accept that a vote was taken I oppose attempts to defy the judge's orders on nine main street because voters didn't give the township committee a blank check and unlimited time to fight this battle I'm not alone in this opinion the two new elected TC members gave it their best shot but the judge has made it clear that the township has postponed its constitutional obligation for too long we had four decades to get this right and we are still struggling I want to address the proposed use of the side parking lot at the Milburn Library which was offered as an alternative to nine main street in full disclosure I am a library trustee the library has experienced record-breaking growth in the last year in all areas circulation program reference electronic circulation and visitation the children's room is ranked number one in the buckles network of 78 libraries visitation is back to pre-pandemic numbers and through June 30th we offered 589 programs to 12598 participants the parking lot at Glenn and lacana accommodates Library patrons commuters and attendees at sports events in the field nearby 98 parking spaces would be moved to construct a five-story building with 67 units clearly this site will now be of interest in future negotiations so we have opened a door unnecessarily and proposed a change that would hinder access to one of our Township's greatest assets our Public Library bad idea residents are entitled to speak out and to oppose decisions the township committee may be about to take even if some of us are alone out here we ask for accountability and transparency how much will non-compliance with the judge's orders cost the township how much time will be spent on this effort we want to know and we are entitled to know thank you thank you may 1 good evening please put your camera on on it yeah we did it there you go good evening everybody uh Tom hilner long-term resident I have some questions that I want to ask about the nine Main Street development it seems to be Universal agreement that this was a disastrous uh agreement and that we are uh kind of impaled on the horns of this agreement and my question is this has it been any attempt to vacate this agreement forget whether or not we've complied with it I mean for example are there any grounds to vacated has that been examined has it been was it involuntary and I'm not suggesting with a municipal body it was is there fraud is there a breach of the agreement by the fair share housing people is there any other grounds are there new circumstances that we didn't know when we signed the agreement that now have come to the four and that might be grounds to modify or change the agreement I haven't heard any discussion I haven't seen any discussion about whether or not we can do anything uh to get out of this agreement I am aware of the fact that a lot of money is being spent on this matter and the township sentiment seems to be fine and some people want to have an unlimited checkbook on this which may also be fine depending upon the circumstances what are the likelihoods of success what are the chances on a appeal could this be stayed it's my understanding that we've been ordered to pay uh attorneys fees to fair share and to RPM it's also my understanding that we don't have a figure on that yet but that's going to get even higher and I don't know what the what the ballpark is for that not to mention what we've paid to uh to defend this action so that that's a concern there's a urging not to sign the agreement with RPM which the court directed us to do so what are the consequences of that could we for example be ordered to pay a certain amount of money thousands for example per day that we don't sign it another alternative is the deems it signed by us whether we choose to sign it or not there are a lot of aspects to this that are beyond the universal agreement that this is a bad idea but we did enter into this agreement and we have to face up to that and the thing is what can we do about it one thing that was just suggested was perhaps there's some illegality connected with building this is there some legal thing reason why we can't do it something we discovered that we didn't know then but we now know now or is that just a wishful thinking so those are the questions I have because as we go off to battle we have to understand the full consequences of what we're doing and what the results are going to be uh so in some circumstance circles we're getting a black eye if we're not uh for opposing this I'm not concerned about that but I am concerned about a reasoned approach to what we're going to do to get out of this agreement that we sign voluntarily apparently thank you thank you good evening good evening Perry erso Short Hills Mr hildner that's a tough act to follow I also agree with many previous speakers like many I never attended and came forward to the T until I was introduced to the Sid which opened my eyes I had participated in fairness herrings and the exception of the most recent July 10th we are in favor of the affordable housing and even publicly stated and suggested that perhaps the obligation could be satisfied with senior housing which would keep many of our longtime Milburn nightes in the town they love I sent an email earlier today to this body regarding the fair share housing and the Main Street uh nine Main Street project I will read as much as I can into the record dear fellow committee members Township committee members I am hopeful that you all have had the opportunity and took the time to read attorney resident Jeffrey feld's pleading submission which was sent to multiple recipients on July 15 2024 at 6:40 a.m. I am truly concerned that this current Administration has chosen not to accept the multiple offers Mr f to assist the Township in the fair share housing mess all at no cost additionally I respectfully requested that you see our attached letter which was sent to the honorable Judge Gardner in September of 2022 why you asked well history matters on February January 28th of 2022 the honorable Judge Gardner allowed the public to participate at a fairness hearing as one of 42 participants including judge Gardner attorneys professionals and residents I touched on a particular concern of my prepared talking points I took the opportunity to present my first comment and began stating to that the prior Township committee members have failed to afford the public an opportunity of open discussion regarding the fair share housing settlement agreement and why when the question was asked during TC meetings it was told over and over again and this information actually was found on the township website under affordable housing question and answer question number four as of on January 24th 2022 number four stated why can't the Township's affordable housing litigation be discussed publicly answer the township has been repeatedly told by judge Gardner and the courta appointed special master that the settlement negotiations are confidential yada yada yada yada so I respectfully stated the following comments and asked the question to judge Gardner during that meeting why can't the Township's affordable housing litigation be discussed publicly I further went to say the township has repeatedly stated that they were told by you judge Gardner and a courta appointed special Master at the settlement negotiations are confidential I then continue to ask you misso does that sound like something that you would have told the township off on multiple occasions honorable J okay excuse me everyone we're not finished good evening hi can you hear me yep my name is marily reek Milbourne resident been for most of the last 66 years I've already written to all of the township committee members about my concerns about appealing the court decision for 9 Main Street Deputy Mayor sakam responded to my email and others with a lengthy answer indicating that he has already decided to vote to appeal the judge's ruling regardless of the cost to Community Committee men Stoler has also just made a statement indicating that he will want to appeal judge Santoro's DEC ision no matter the cost so let's talk about the cost what have we spent to date on attorney fees and what is the projected cost to appeal this decision if we lose at the Appellate level will they be willing to continue the fight up to the state supreme court how much will that cost the township will no doubt be sued by the developer and will incur legal fees to DET defend itself as well as potentially paying out a significant judgment what's the projected cost of associated with that how about the court the cost of Court sanctions and what about other Associated costs we've been fortunate that the courts have not yet imposed fines and have allowed the township to retain control over our land use boards if we do lose control over our land use boards what decisions might be made relative to Future developments in town that would be upsetting to Residents and what about other priorities that are competing for funding in the town we've already committed 7 plus Millions to the ill-advised Papermill bailout the town hall desperately needs renovation as you saw from the presentation and of course investments in flood mitigation are top priority we do not have unlimited funds for everything and what about reputational costs friends relatives and acquaintances and other towns roll their eyes when affordable housing comes up in in conversation relative to mbour milburn's image has been tarnished by what is perceived as its nimi position my understanding is that per the Court's ruling the township must move forward with fulfilling the terms of the agreement even as an appeal is initiated unless there is a stay which I would guess is unlikely by the court given judge Santoro's position please clarify if this is the case members of the township committee took a bold chance in trying to stop the main the N9 Main Street project it was worth a shot but we've lost let's move on thank you very much thank you excuse me everyone was respectful when you spoke so please be respectful for everyone else thank you no okay okay okay I will now close public comment um I think we're going to start with Mr caner uh mayor I'll Reserve comments at the end I just want I just want to address one thing um so Mr hner raised a bunch of potential defenses and there was a lot of talk on Fair Share housing and U what the Township's response is going to be uh it was a it was definitely a matter that was discussed in close session today I'm just going to ask uh I'm sure the committee wants to respond and some of the issues raised but I think specific defenses and specific strategy at this point should be kept attorney client privilege it's not for transparency it's um things can be done ahead of time by the parties who are opposing us and I think it's just prudent at this point um to keep our strategy and whether we're going to appeal and what our potential defenses are but I think Mr hner certainly did a great job of summarizing some potential defenses that are out there and I respect his opinion it's just I would advise this committee that if he said something that rang a bell or that we're not unaware of a lot of things that have been said tonight we're aware of thank you thank you Deputy Mayor I always go first I let someone else go first maybe Mr Stoler sure I'll go since you for for some reason um Miss uh best uh obviously transparency and those in those lights I support you at night for understanding that I agree I think that should be looked into uh Jean Pastak 100% agree with you on 911 I was down there multiple times with some Volunteer Fire uh uh folks who were living at staying in our home in uh South Orange at the time we went down multiple multiple times just a tragedy and people being affected multiple multiple years 10 20 30 years later uh absolutely should be acknowledged um uh fair share housing I I'll defer to uh to Mr caner uh and then on the Papermill Playhouse uh really uh everything's not burning down I've gone through numerous exercises on it it's all online um it's a der elction of Duty not to support the cultural icon and the the a pay-per playoffs a performing ARS Center that underpins the vibrancy and the economic activity of downtown Milburn um they they keep seats in the restaurants filled uh our demographics are changing as a town I I know a lot of people are being ginned up but our demographics as a town are changing uh people are not going out to eat as much due to that change in demographics uh we we need to support the paper mill uh Additionally you know this town has never been stronger than it is right now economically economically and culturally so I just want everyone to take a deep breath and understand that mil bur Short Hills is in great position we have $4 million in that debt we have debt capacity up to I think $260 million based on a AAA credit so uh we're all neighbors and appreciate everybody's input thank you thank you Comm yeah I just want to say a few things first of all I agreed with Mr morale I think we should send out an email blast about um reminding people to lock their firearms if they have them um I also agreed with Mr cosbro on and I participated in some of the the ordinance about uh redoing the forms for the planning in the the zoning board but I do agree with him that the documents should be made available to the public that should could be noted on the form as he pointed out but giving giving the neighbors only two weeks or three weeks to respond for something that's been sitting in the queue for months is just is not right and uh I think we should make that change Oprah is he mentioned something about it's not an OP issue you can hide it as an oah issue because Oprah doesn't require you to distribute draft doc but it doesn't mean that you can't and I think that we should um and lastly as I told Miss P Miss past I fully support her uh her request from the 911 memorial I I was it was only by the grace of God that I was not there that day as I was working on the Wall Street at the time and I was so super fortunate to have uh been home that day and I certainly feel feel extend my sympathy to anybody um who suffered that tragedy or or incur some illness as a result thank you Deputy Mayor sure heard it again so much uh I really appreciate everyone that came out tonight to speak their mind um and give their opinions about how the town should proceed uh with regards to you know either continuing the fight uh against The Dump project uh or you know throwing in the towel uh I think you all know by now I'm not a f not in favor of throwing in the towel I think that uh we owe it to the residents of our town we owe it to ourselves to stand up for what's right and what the court essentially decided last week was that they along with fair share and RPM they're segregationists they are advocating and fighting for a segregated project an income segregated project why on Earth would you do that when you have been given an alternative two pristine pieces of land that are readily developable that will produce the same amount of affordable housing units and on top of it produce much needed Workforce housing why on Earth would any sane person not take that offer I don't know I'd love for the judge to explain herself sometime but uh right now I think she's she's just ADV for the construction of a tenament it's unconscionable so for me I say we continue the fight and uh hopefully other members on the day will agree with that I'm I'm just gonna ask this committee not to take that as a poll as to giving a vote as to whether or not because I think that would give legal strategy away as to how many committee members support or don't support going for an field at this point sure um the paper mill we've talked a lot about the paper mill over the last few months uh I've made it quite clear that I think it is an irresponsible decision tonight I heard uh some great ideas of how we should handle this it was suggested that we should have a referendum I fully support that I think that is probably the best way to handle this given that it is not a critical infrastructure project it is not something critical for the functioning of the town it's a vanity project and it's not something we have to do and if residents in the town want to do it fine let's have a referendum let's let them vote for it and then if that's what they vote for then that's the will of the people but I think it is irresponsible for members up here on the de to make that decision for the residents it's it's it's a sizable uh cost so uh I absolutely think we should do a referendum um and and I hope others will consider that um see here oh with regards to miss Sherman's comment about opening the door uh by proposing the alternative sites one thing that I think the public needs to understand is my understanding at least of the fair share housing laws is that municipalities cannot be forced to give away land or spend money to produce affordable housing that's actually in the law now towns in order to get more favorable terms in a settlement agreement will sometimes offer to construct affordable housing or offer to convey land for the construction of affordable housing that ultimately is the decision of the Town based on a settlement agreement my recommendation to our town is to learn from the mistakes of the past and uh never do that again we should find another way to satisfy our affordable housing obligations zoning changes Etc so I think that it is disingenuous to say that proposing the alternative sites which we proposed in good in good faith because we want to produce the affordable housing we want to produce those Workforce units and we offered two pristine sites for that but offering that up does not necessarily uh expose Us in any way in the next round so I just wanted to correct the record on that um it's a lot more I'd like to say but as Mr caner pointed out we we do have to hold some things close to the V uh with regards to strategy and how we're g to move forward uh we also need to await the judge's final ruling which we have yet to receive so um thank you all for coming out I appreciate your remarks from from both sides thanks thank you committee woman approv add something I add something so so Frank 100% agree um listen people made the the statement tonight on Fair Share housing and affordable housing in nine main street that that we shouldn't spend the money to to pursue all of our ability to either change or improve move the dump whatever it is a point I made I may not have made it in my initial comment was we can't for not to fight the dump that's the comment the stresses on reputation are you kidding me we're creating a income segregated tenement downtown Milbourne there's gonna be lifelong litigation tied to that site jeene Pac discussed 911 we're gonna have that same issue the stress to the school system no one's mentioned that yet that can be alleviated through proper planning it really can but we need to do that planning we need to be doing sensible development and then just to stress on the infrastructure I think uh Mr caner was talking to us today about coming down H the Short Hills Road to here and it was backed up forever there's one Ingress Ingress and egress to that site that's planned you've got 75 cars coming in usually one and a half cars for the parking spaces uh you've got a significant Log Jam there already so my point is we can't afford not to fight this project um [Music] Mr just wanted to address um Mr feld's comment about the parklets um at this point there's only one interested um restaurant in a parklet um and parklets are limited uh by uh number of spaces distance to another parklet you know things like that various approvals Insurance um and this is only authorizing the procedures and the uh for the use of parklets um but since that's on the consent agenda I just wanted to address that I think his other comment regarding the cell tower will be addressed when we go to that resolution on theend mayor I have no comments unless the committee wants me to address anything specifically thank you mayor thank you um do you happen to know off the top of your head if what we spent on Stop and Shop litigation that that over the the time period was close to 25 not 25 no no thank you thank you and I also um think the the safe gun storage maybe we could ask the police department if everyone's okay with it to okay great okay the township committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions are there any comments from the committee in regards to any items listed on the consent agenda may have a motion to approve resolution 24- 171 through resolution 24- 178 which are listed on the consent agenda may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr yes M Fus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24- 179 Mr from may have a motion to approve resolution 24179 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor second Mandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor R yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-180 uh I I have quick comment um so this is this is something that I think is long overdue um cell phone coverage in the poet section of town uh and parts of heart chorn has been abysmal and in some cases there's no coverage at all and that creates a public safety issue so uh I'm very glad that this committee is taking up this resolution the one question I do have from Mr Mcdonald though is do we uh know what the anticipated Revenue will be in the third year I believe that after the the first two years we get 50% of the revenue do we have any any estimate at all of what that might be yeah so um so in our discussions with uh we understand it's going to be anywhere between one and four carriers on on the cell tower um and it could be a 50% of the revenue would be approximately 45,000 to 105,000 so depending on the number of carriers and and their leases with those carriers um you know we've uh Peter Lupo myself have reviewed this um for a while now just to make sure uh that we understood all the terms and and and different things that were being asked in in the bid and um to Deputy Mayor SE M's uh Point uh the propagation of this cell tower does significantly improve the poet section as well as um heart shorn obviously the further away you get from the tower the less um propagation there is but um yes the revenue would be anywhere between 45,000 105,000 and they do expect to pursue up to four carriers the township will also have space on the tower should it be needed for um backup emergency communications as well um and um the site may become a little bit bigger than anticipated based on um what the needs of of diamond are in this uh in the construction of the cell tower but um this will be going at 137 JFK the leaf compost site uh and there is room there to expand that so I have a question you mentioned those two and so self service pretty crappy and Glenwood as well so will will this this w't affect it so what is the plan so so what you're going to see in those areas is more of I think the small cell technology in fact uh there are currently um some uh there Verizon is looking to do an application for which may end up again in this whole uh land uh lease um situation to Mr feld's point we're approving the bid and we will enter into an ordinance for land lease of 137 JFK um but um Verizon is pursuing one by the short host train station which is the small cell technology which will help improve the cell serviceing so I mean I mean it sounds what you're you're telling us we're going to be paid to improve service that just seems like a well it and also did we look at Best Practices on uh on any health issues and related items as well that we're using best technology clear clear selling technology I know there's some people in our community who are very uh focused on uh the uh health effects of cell phone towers yeah so I think um your bidder here has to come and speak about that at me okay may have a motion to approve resolution 24-180 so moved may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr pman yes M pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes may yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-1 181 may I have a motion to approve 24-1 181 may I have a second roll call vote Please Mr yes M yes mayor yes yes may Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-1 182 may I have a motion to approve 24-1 182 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes Miss PU yes Deputy Mayor secondy yes Mr ster affirmative mayor R yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24183 may I have a motion to approve resolution 24183 so may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr comman yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor secondy yes Mr ster affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you okay copies of the audit in full are available in town hall upon request and have also been posted on our website I would like to introduce our CEO Matt larsy so he may provide a brief overview of the AIT thank you mayor um our auditor David Ganon who uh is the head auditor for pkf of Conor Davis couldn't be here today he's gonna make himself available to come to a a subsequent meeting if asked to and he'll make himself available with any questions uh via email phone call Zoom um the audit was just completed um today you're just certifying that you received it and that you read the comments and recommendations uh the audit is really split up into four sections the first section is just the overview financials the big picture picture of financial statements it's like the balance sheet income statement um and some detailed schedules there there's the notes to the financial statements that gets very detailed in terms of describing the accounting policies that we operate under um there's detail on debt detail on our pension liabilities um and some other items in there and then it's the supplementary schedules um all the funds the current fund parking Utility Fund Capital fund and trust fund have a variety of supplemental schedules that's why it's a 130 page audit because um they do get very detailed all those numbers tie into the balance sheets and the last section is just covering the comments and recommendations we had no formal recommendations meing was it was a clean audit um it's a financial statement audit and a compliance audit we operate under a lot of uh statutory compliances some of which purchasing contradict each other because they're uh adopted by legislatures that are then change later and then some you know so we have a variety of compliances that we operate under um but we did not uh we didn't have any recommendations swaying from those um so if there's any questions that anybody has I'll answer those feel free to review it in your own time peruse it on the beach if you're going way in August um if you have any questions at any time on any of the financials always reach out uh and I'm happy to talk through it thank you thank thank you may have a motion to approve resolution 24184 may I have a second roll call vote Please Mr yes M perus yes mayor s yes Mr St affirmative mayor Romano yes uh committee and Co and you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2681 d24 yes I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2681 d24 an ordinance to amend and supplement the revised general orance of the township of Milburn chapter 4 General licensing the purpose of the of the following amendments to make necessary changes and safeguards to the Township's canvassers solicitors transient merchants and pedlers these changes include increased fees for permits increased time for staff to review and issue permits the ability to perform a apprpriate background checks the ordinance Amendment the ordinance amendments will also decrease the time that that an issued permit is valid from one year to six months these changes will continue to allow the practice of canvasing and solicitation and improve the health safety and Welfare of the Township's residents I move that this ordinance be taken up and pass some first reading and at the Township Clerk we authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with the law in item and for hearing and final passage from Tuesday August 13 2024 may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes M cus yes Deputy Mayor secondy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes committe Stoler your schedule to sponsor ordinance 2682-20 I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2682-20 ordinance authorizing the submission of a question for the election of a charter commission under the fauler ACT njsa 4069 A-1 in the 2025 general election uh this is to put forth as we've discussed uh a committee to uh elect the five uh committees uh or people representing the districts to uh uh pursue a charter commission may have a second second I move I move that this ordinance be taken up and before I ask for the second okay so I have some all right go ahead go ahead I'm sorry I have coms I think I think that the ordinance is somewhat vague in certain parts specifically the part where it says all other ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent here with are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency I would like some specifics on what those ordinance actually are secondly it says any part of this ordinance shall be deemed invalid by an administrative agency or Board of competent jurisdiction such jur such decisions shall not affect the legality and enforceability of any other provision hereof I'd like some information on what that means that's also kind of clear as much and lastly I think this is a 2025 issue I don't think this is something I think that this is something that effectively done next year early in the year so that there's enough time to collect the signatures but I don't think this is something that the 2024 Township committee should be voting on for an election that will be held in 2025 Especially since one of the members has chosen not to stand for reelection and will not be part of the 2025 Township committee and so for that reason I move that we table this ordinance until next year is there a second to that motion um I just want to add that I don't think think it's I don't think it's fair that we tie the hands of whoever's going to be sitting up here next year with a decision that's made this year and I also had a question um we have like if if this happens um and we and we have this chart like we don't know what the quest Quest costs are going to be like the charter study needs funding to hire attorneys or Consultants so there's a motion to table there a second oh I'm sorry i' to yes second table is there any discussion on the motion get some answers question sure you want to have a discussion on the motion of paper this appropriate time sure um so Mr caner I believe the questions with regards to the language about if any part of the ordinance is not found to be consistent the rest of it stands isn't that something that's generally standard form we try to put in most of our ordinances yes the sessions um that were referenced by committee M Cohen are boiler plate um Provisions in any ordinance I don't think they particularly have any applicability uh to this ordinance I'm unaware of any provisions in the code or other ordinances that would conflict with this one um it's an event that a part of the ordinance is found is deemed to be uh inconsistent that anything else would be repealed but I don't believe there is probably I don't doubt I don't doubt what you're saying but in the year and a half that I've been on the township committee I've gone through I can count how many ordinances I have never seen that language in any of them it's it's been it's been in several and and I think since Mr caner took over uh we found that our ordinances are more complete and he has the standard language that frankly we should have had in ordinances that are prior attorney I do think that I I my office did draft this ordinance yeah and I think before too we just approved this in some of the zoning and land use uh initiatives that we passed literally a month and a half two months ago we had almost the exact same language yeah know this it's it's it you know it's best practice have this language of your Emergen um I have a question if we vote if the voters vote no why are we still asking them to pick a commission because it still may pass although one individual resident may vote no to establish a charter commission they still have the right to vote on the Commissioners if the overall town were to approve the charter commission so we don't want people to say no to the commission and then not have the to vote for the Commissioners because it's possible they both know but the town votes yes and do we have any idea what the process is um for those Commissioners yeah it's uh it's it's uh njsa 4069 a-3 um candidates for Charter commission um they're required to have the lesser of 3% or 100 signatures so in this case I I believe it's 100 signatures may be less than 3% of the population but I'm not sure on that um and they have to file their petitions 60 days prior to the election so there is ample time to even pass this ordinance next in in February you late second meeting January or first meeting February that's again that's not the legal issue but that's more of a governing body issue but certainly it doesn't right would not need to be passed tonight to go the 2025 hour I see no reason to to delay delay it I mean look it's a referendum if people don't want it they don't have to vote for it right why would anyone want to go against giving people a choice that's what democracy is all about let's give the people a voice let's give them a choice and how are we going to let the rest of the community know um you know what we're doing why we're doing it um if they were interested if other people like wouldn't even know about Commissioners or that's the beauty of doing it now it gives us full little more than a year to educate the entire Community it it gives it gives those that want to run to be Commissioners time to campaign and to educate the community um and you know I I would like to know if there is anything we can do as a government body in terms of putting out you know factual information maybe something on the website as to like you know what how the process works uh obviously you know need to be not have not take another I think it's it's new to the administration too so I don't know like who would be like where would we everyone get that information town have done this before so I think there's probably you know the very least we could put the statutes on the website right I know a few times I know Red Bank um recently went through a charion study and changes form of government I don't know any other municipalities but I think there's been another one recently that also had change in form of government I think there's at least two within the last three four five years when there's a referendum in the school they do a whole campaign about it and educate for many many months and the I've seen it that members of the board are part of that campaign and the um administrator is part of that campaign so I I don't know why it would be done any other way differently than how the Board of Ed does their refer the the only thing I can say to that is that you're talking about referendums are based on spending money on infrastructure projects this is more of a you know I mean look I'm not saying because much like the referendum for the with space tax you know that is being promoted and and information is being given I think that's that's sort of um but it I have caution those involved that you need do not necessarily take a position right which is going to be impossible right impossible people particular thing but like but it's just providing residen the information about it rather than saying you should you should go this way or that way or you should be in favor of a you know an open space tax well we talk about transparency the fauler act and and this Charter commission is to provide information and give recommendations based on the existence of what exists today and looking back know I think the last time we had a stud was done how many years ago Frank I think it was 1972 72 or so I think the number was so I I think it's a der elction of our duty not to do the charer study not to look at the appropriate manner of how we're operating this Milburn Short Hills uh and press that forward just does not say we're going to change the system of government this says we're going to do a study and be advised and that those Commissioners are going to be integral parts of it and I believe that once the Commissioners conclude their study if any recommendations they have then have to go to another referendum and the resents have to accept it so you really have multiple checks control once once the commission's established if they recommend the new form of government it goes on the ballot once the TC approves this ordinance and provided it stands through the time in which it goes on the ballot next year um the TC then you know the committee loses any control the commission is then commissioned with choosing a form of government whether say to maintain the same but they want to change and that was under B based on their recommendation and my concern is that those Commissioners are going to campaign and spread information and you know pass out their it's um my concern is it's going to be one-sided that is my concern and I don't see any other way to um to educate the people that are that are going to ask you well what's wrong with our form of government now I'm Excuse me but we're having a discussion you know and this is listen this is all question can I just ask a procedural question yes so um if we were to vote for it tonight and it passes and then we start the work of educating the community about this referendum question that is potentially going to be on the ballot on 2025 right because then next year the committee could decide not to continue so yes it would be my it would be my legal opinion that until and I it's I don't I don't know the actual date in which the referendum question we have to be okay so August I'll defer to Madam clerk um but I think up until the point that the township actually submits to question to the referendum the governing body at that time could repeal this ordinance by ordinance so procedurally that makes it easier that if somebody comes in and they don't support it they can build consensus to have it pulled they can pull it right is that correct but you know again I think it would well it would not be logical politics aside but I'm saying that option will be there and this gives a lead time of preparation to do it the correct way to make sure everyone is informed uh and that people can you know give it the due consideration it's it it it deserves but again my question is who is going to do that it's not I don't think I don't feel it's the administration's responsibility to do that I don't know who responsibility decide that tonight we're deciding whether to do the referend right but in order to decide that we have to ask these questions first I just I think that there's still questions so I'm I'm just seconding I'm second it reminds me that like Tara when you were elected um you know on complete streets and you know we thought we had the majority we were going to fix it and then they pulled the money away because they didn't want to do it I mean it's it's a 2025 issue it should be decided on by the 2025 Township committee and February the second meeting in January first meeting in February is ample time to do to do all of the work that needs to be done should it pass let's take a vote on that motion mayor okay so we're gonna take so we're gonna take a vote to table ordinance 2682 d24 yes so I'm second so first and second discussion closed discuss roll call vote please mrin yes M pus no deput mayor Sandy no Mr ster negative mayor Romano yes thank you the motion was was was not successful so there's no it was not can I put a motion to so the mo so so the ordinance has already been moved okay and there's a second so there was a motion to introduce and hold the public hearing so we can take discussion before the vote if you want May unless we've already fully discussed it no I had more to say okay so I'm wondering in in kind of the manner that we've done things maybe to people on the committee right now want to work to figure out as a subcommittee on this kind of what the next steps are going to be and how this is gonna how this is going to be worked on this year yeah I I think the decision we make whether to do it is separate from the formation of that subcommittee I think we can vote on this tonight and if it passes move it forward and then I think we should work to form a subcommittee and and fig and work with which share it and figure out you know what exactly we can do as a governing body in terms of disseminating information uh and I think that also gives people time in the community to start to you know ask questions and and learn about this um I also think that whoever wants to run to be a commissioner is you know G to make the case for why we should we should have this commission right so I mean that's when you're dealing with anything political it's the people that are running for that office that to make the case to the voters as to why they should be voted for why it should be voted for have the opportunity to do that so who speaks up for to be opposed to it I'm not going to run for commissioner to to to not do it Commissioners could absolutely run and have a position of I plan on running and not changing anything right a commissioner is welcome to do that I don't think it's the commission I think the commissioner doesn't go in with I and they interact with the community to figure out what the community wants I would no so I don't think anyone's going to run I don't think that's like anyone's going to run saying oh I'm running as a commissioner for the study vote for me because I already know how this whole thing is goingon to play out that doesn't make sense it it's entirely possible and what I'm saying is if if there is concern I think toward the community people in the community that are opposed this are going to speak up sure they won't vote for it right and then there some some group of concerned residents will come up and they will take the opposition to vote no on the referendum I want to say as far as like educating the public obviously it has to be in a position neutral fashion but I do think that even if the ordinance were be introduced tonight and passed and adopted on second read I think it's given this wouldn't be into the general election of 2025 I think it's premature to start educating the public at this point for an election that's not taking place for a long time I mean that's you know just confus people yeah I agree I but that's for you guys to side but my opinion would be you would probably want to start it after the primary I mean you know obviously you could put information out there that's position neutral but then if that's the case I mean I know my motion failed but if that if you feel if that's the case then why are we doing it tonight what's the advantage of doing it why aren't we doing it for the 2024 because that would give adequate time for Commissioners to collect 100 signatures and to really inform the community a lot of people are away for the summer um and rushing it and having it fail means that we can't try it again for another four years so we're better off doing it right and I think that it would be political suicide for next year's TC to take a referendum away from the public because the only reason to take the referendum away from the public is because they would be so afraid that the public might go for it and and want to reexamine our form of government and that's why you're doing it now we have the votes to do it now it's got to be methodical and it has to be done in a practical Manner and listen this is going to make it a uh whether we have a person two people running for TC coming up it's going to make that an issue as well I mean where do they stand are they for nonpartisan politics or do they want the divisive nature of partisan politics in our town you have that issue regardless that all the more reason to have it next year because that you know that would still be an issue in this year's campaign I think we have three votes I think we have three votes to get it done now and to vote on it now so discuss I I think we all have we have differing opinions we should vote and the majority is the majority okay so where were we so we have we have a first and second mayor to introduce it to here I believe uh committee Mall introduced it and committee woman second okay and we had a discussion and this is introduced and set a public hearing thank you Mr can may I have a roll call vote please oh well I I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading no I did read that the public hearing will be August 13th August 13th 2024 sorry about that okay so okay sorry okay roll call please Mr cin no M pus yes Deputy Mayor second yes Mr stoer affirmative mayor Romano no the ordinance was introduced uh where are we Comm May sto are your scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2670 d24 ordinance 2670 d24 I would like to make a motion procedure okay I would like to make a motion to adjourn the public hearing and consideration of adoption of ordinance 267 0-24 titles an ordinance of the township of Milburn County invests authorizing Township of Milburn to execute a memorandum of understanding with Papermill Playhouse 420 Brookside Drive nurn New Jersey 07041 to the Tuesday September 3rd uh 2024 Milburn Township committee meeting at which time the public hearing is scheduled seeing the township is waiting to obtain the ownership of the property this hereby serves this notice of the change of public hearing date to September 3rd Township committee meeting and no additional notice will be published in a newspaper may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr cin yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor second this vote is tojn yes Mr ster affirmative mayor Ramona yes committee woman frus your scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2678-20 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 26784 ordinance amending and supplementing the township of hburg development regulations and Zing ordinance tonight is time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with the law I declare the hearing open Jeffrey Feld a one time resident I Concur and Echo what Mr cosgro said while Mr con about clarifying when the application materials can be provided to the public and I think that we should clarify that because I know I've had problems getting access to documents not pursuing to oer by going to the let's say the zoning a plane board secretary and she denied giving access thank you so how do we make that change we have Mr pedos here so yes I didn't close it okay okay I move that this public hearing be closed and Ed down fin reading may have a second second uh good evening uh mayor uh members of the to committee Grant P here this evening as survey as Township planner um so just to kind of touch on the um idea of you know access to the the applications um having myself previously been a board secretary and another municipality as MP planner as well um you know on filing applications are available for public inspection uh that is not subject to a completeness determination um if a member of the public comes in and wants to review an application form that is possible um I think that this is really an administrative process that can be handled and not something that is derain necessarily to the language that's contained with the the ordinance and the checklist documents um so that's something that that can be handled um in that way but but I feel like this is a different conversation is is this is this different from the conversation that took place at planning board regarding notice requirements and when when when people are actually I guess yes I should take a step back because I am not aware of Mr cos Bros Mr made reference to his comments that submitted to you I've not seen it's not the notice it's not no one saying that the notice should change some but but people know that stuff is happening a draft doc correct right right yeah um you know but I will just mention because I do think that this is important you know while application forms aren't necessarily going to change the content of the application form um there are typically lots of iterations that happen to plans um you know in the pendency between filing an application and the the final completeness determination um I've seen many cases where a developer comes in with projects that's four stories and oops you know that's not going to work or that's not going to pass muster so we're going to change that now it's three stories so um I think it it becomes incumbent upon um whatever is posted online or you know there's a process to kind of clarify with the public what is the latest and greatest I'll say and what is the true representation of what's going forward with the application there can be a level of confusion that that does happen so I think just want to register that level of caution with some fol that you know that can happen I I totally agree with that but I think it's outweighed by the fact people getting three weeks notice to find out something some major building is going on you know that borders there prop I I agree with you Michael um and if someone else on the day agrees then maybe we can make a modification uh so that we can increase the amount of transparency uh and uh make make more information available yeah as I mentioned so the checklist documents detail the submission requirements that the applicant is bound by or what they are to provide administratively to the municipality for filing application this is it's an administrative matter it's something that's handled administratively as far as how documents are posted or how they're shared out when that posting happens those types of things so it's not something that would be Germaine to the ordinance is what I'm saying right so if we wanted to make that change to how it's done adly that would be a separate somebody asked for but okay I mean I think I think I can have further discussion like on Frank since you as well and maybe have a better understanding of what you're looking for administratively in terms of how this how how the information is distributed I'm happy to support that conversation well yes thank you thank you uh roll call vote Please Mr Colin yes Mr pus yes mayor second yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor yes committee M ster you are scheduled to sponsor 267 9-24 thank you I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 267 9-24 ordinance amending supplementing the township of Milburn development regulations and zoning ordinance tonight is the time for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open I declare the hearing closed I move that this public hearing be closed an ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the Township Court be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with LA may have a second second anything to add Mr ped or okay roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M brus yesy mayor abstain Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes okay this is ordinance 2680 d24 I present for consideration ordinance entitled ordinance 26 8-24 ordinance amending and supplementing the township of Milbourne development regulations and zoning ordinance um I just go on all right ordinance 2680 d24 was introduced by the township committee at our June 4th meeting in order to provide more clarity we would like to revise section 804 d3h of the ordinance to include details on the statute cited this is a nons substate ative change to the ordinance I would like to make a motion to amend ordinance set for public hearing and final passage as amended as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted as amended on Final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with LA may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Collins yes mrus yes Stephan mayor no Mr ster affirmative mayor Romano yes are we on to Old business already W rolling right [Music] along um yeah so it is was asked of me to put on the agenda a um not only I think by um committee women prus but also by the townships Forester uh regarding a bamboo and noxious weed uh ordinance this is an ordinance that many municipalities um already have and um we've provided the committee with some proposed uh with a proposed draft of an ordinance for um the curtailing of certainly the prohibition of planting of bamboo but also the ability to U make those property owners that may already have existing plants uh responsible for the spread of those plants and so we provided a a draft ordinance I don't know if there's any uh comments or questions or concerns or uh revisions that the committee would like to see uh but it is my understanding that this is a pretty standard ordinance um uh that a lot of municipalities have at this point in time uh and would be something that helps protect our residents from uh not only bamboo but other um noxious plants that that tend to spread um uh like wildfire in people's yards so don't know if there's any discussion yeah I know that the EC um has been working on language for a proposed bamboo ban um I think that I don't know if it's next year or the year after but there's some sort of um period that's going to happen and a lot of the the some of the more dangerous bamboo species are going to be able to multiply um you know just like cicas are dormant for a long time I guess some species of bamboo uh have the same the same issue and so it is very important that we do a bamboo ban in time because once it starts to spread underneath the ground it can affect people's foundations pools Etc I only ask would be to maybe since the EC has been working on it can we consult with them as to the language and you know do that quickly and then we can move this forward of course just because you know I think they know a lot more about it than than we do uh I just want to make sure that whatever we have here is complete and includes everything it needs to include I having dealt with this at my home I agree because there's it's more complicated than it looks it really is I I was ask [Music] en we can we can have that discussion with the EC and see if there's um you know uh so hopefully be able to get it back quickly but um obviously ending their their comment theirs no problem think just letting AC know that there's support here perfect we have no new business so our public comment this public comment period is to allow for final comments from the community when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a nurn resident and or property or business owner please do not provide your address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public I remind you that that in order to help facilitate in order orderly meeting and permitt all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session well now open public comment J Morelli Township resident I first want to thank the committee for uh agreeing to send out information on safe storage uh we'll never know um but it uh whether or not it saves life but uh I think it's imperative to do everything that we can um so thank you more Kudos that I didn't have time for the pickle ball Court some kudos to those hopefully the weather holds up tomorrow I am one of the lucky people that got picked to play so uh weather permitting um thank you to Alex for arranging a meeting with Jason Co the tax uh assessor who answered a ton of questions U me and a neighbor had regarding um how reassessments work and the process and and property taxes both on the residential and uh commercial side uh very educational I learned a lot so thank you Alex explore that um Thursday night concert series more Kudos there um I was out last Thursday it was fantastic um it's a great time to live at Milburn uh I'll just leave it at that um quick one on the street fixings balus ra Road would be nice to hear about um I I I am sure you are uh to answer some of uh the mayor's questions regarding uh education of the public I do think it's the Township's um uh the township should set up educational sessions with experts um with a non Viewpoint to educate the public I can recommend uh mark feifer from uh rers University who Alex knows personally I can recommend Michael Collins who was the attorney in the Red Bank uh uh Charter commission very knowledgeable um he could also answer your questions about cost my understanding is that the whole process cost the township less than $50,000 but you know do your own research on that with regard to who would oppose it groups will come up that say we love our Township form of government we know it's 250 years old but we still love it and you'll have vote for the referendum signs that go up the same way you'll say V yes the groups will form naturally yes Commissioners that are interested in being on the committee will get up and and will campaign much like people campaign for Township committee um it's it's a natural process it's a regular process everything that that Deputy Mayor Shak amandi said was was spot on um so so Kudos on that um finally um I just want to uh agree with Jean on the um Survivor note um having been a 222 Broadway and having watched the dollers come down having watched the jumpers um having waited through ankle high Ash um and walked to Midtown uh where I stayed with a colleague because I was living in London at the time and couldn't get home not seeing my family um I I still struggled to to think about it and talk about it but I could not agree with more on this thank you for the extra time hi um Debbie Frank Milburn resident um just U something on the chter commission uh first of all to um Miss puus uh when when the board goes out for a referendum the board is the advocate because the board and the administration is asking for something in particular I don't think that's you have in mind here and I don't have a position on this um I wrote about it actually when I first moved to town in 1980 uh and asked about it then I do know however that it is not an uncomplicated procedure and it has ramifications on both ways both sides so my only thing is that I don't think that the committee should lead this I like the idea of having somebody else because anybody who is going to be investigating this and my assumption would be that the people that you would like to be have Commissioners are people who will investigate pluses and minuses how does it change how does it affect this and it's hard to know where that comes out so I would say that you would need to have people who genely want to investigate the process that it's not really the township the township I think could guide it in terms of just helping to find experts but this is not a position this is not something that the committee I don't think should take a position on one way or another you leave it to them they investigate it they present pluses and minuses to the community and yes they will have made up their mind doing that they will campaign how they campaign but I think it needs to be in their hands so that was one thing um the other thing is um I would be a little wary I mean about referendum referenda here referenda there I think that there's a reason that whether under a you know a different Charter under this Charter that you elect people to be on the township committee and that is that the township committee itself makes some decisions I do believe that in the case of the Papermill playhouse that that is the decision that the P that the committee made to do do this that the that that decision rests in the committee and frankly that going out for a referendum is kind of ducking your responsibility to make decisions for the community I think that's your job thank you thank you coming back um so I just going to just start in the middle of what I was talking about um and I just want to since I'm not allowed to talk about names the person on the far left and everybody from Mr McDonald's over I'm not addressing okay I'm really disappointed that there's a lack of transparency and there's an aggressive approach as committee Democratic Committee in our Township to block people intentionally from being elected into position with this person who ran IND District 12 the fact that she put her house on the market in mid April before the election probably before I was even on the ballot um and then all of a sudden got on the ballot knowingly purchasing a house in the poat section and selling their home really is is troubling and the fact that I brought it to the attention of the township committee and the people on the Democratic committee at on the 521 meeting and nothing was done about it just makes it even worse and so for me well Mr caner you're 100% right that it is not illegal to do that and then ask the person to step down which I believe she has I've had it confirmed um is disturbing and it's just it's just an egregious use of power and it doesn't make me trust certain people on this Das for anything that you say to me at face value and it never will so because you've broken my trust so and this person has broken my trust and I really really hope she doesn't run for her office um and that's why there's a group of people that now are running under Democrats who love melbour because they're frustrated and that's why people want to have a different form of government okay we don't want it to be party Centric so I'm going to talk about cell towers which I probably should have talked about earlier and I know I'm an outlier but there are so many towns now in the state of New Jersey Spring Lake is one of them Point Pleasant is one of them Belmar is another one Belmar has enlisted you might not like Bobby Kennedy but he's a major attorney um especially in Wireless technology and he is they're actually litigating the whole County of Mammoth County okay so it's not like an outlying thing that like crazy Christine's talking about other people in other towns are actually doing codes and we're not we've done nothing to do that I know that there was a small cell tower that was just erected on the corner right near the some type of substation corner of Mohawk Road and um parsonage and what's really disturbing about that is I really hope the people that just bought that house right there because the house was pending know that it's it's there because I would not buy a house that had a cell tower a cell tower needs to be safely sighted 15 to 1600 feet away which is a quarter to a third of a mile away from somebody's home to be safe and people must give their informed consent I'm almost done inette people must give their informed consent to have radiation put on them just like when you give informed consent to have cancer treatment thank you so much good evening Jeffrey fil um I Echo what Jean and my friend over here said my wife was in the World Trade Center both times and I've been we've been advocating for three years to amend that plaque um also we have a resident whose brother was in one of the planes it's time to recognize that we all suffered on that day and it wasn't just firemen it wasn't just people in that building it was everyone suffered for their lives uh I don't know where to begin now two and a half hours we read a proclamation we all said your commitment to open transparent government participa ATI but about 20 minutes ago two of you opposed to have a discussion of changing the form of government I'm still shocked that the township filed an objection for a determination that I'm an interested party in the fair share housing litigation Mr hilner summarized arguments that I made in September 2021 for judge Gardner where your former Municipal attorney in the case management conference began case confence for attacking me and judge Gardner told him to shut up at the fairness hearing attorney buus said the only issue before the court is the interest of poor people and I said to him judge one of the issues you had to attack is whether the contract is valid and I've been sending you various cases whether you're in contract one you know about the rest or we violated a PO public policy today there's a half page ad in the Star Ledger regarding about releasing monies for projects and they talk about two parts about notice to the public about what happens that's been the whole problem and of anyone in this community who's the only one that really can talk on behalf of the residents who was in this building on July 30th 2021 when you approved it who two people ran out of the building so they wouldn't be part of it the hearing go back and look at the time sheets on that day there was time spent till they approved it then they come back after two hours meetings they approve it then they were on the phone with judge Garner for four hours look at the time summaries something was smelled here and I filed pleadings and the question is I'm still trying to figure out who authorize the objection because the objection you want to keep the issues I'm funding my litigation everyone talks about what it's cating the community I'm going in my own pocket to do it I'm doing you guys a favor I'm doing this prono to save us who's the one that restored our right to speak that you that this Township the prior Township committee removed without us you violated our first amendments we're going to the United States Supreme Court folks hi team Pastak resident um I just wanted to finish one one point um just the events of this week kind of brought at home for me a little bit about even locally how these kinds of things um where people you know I have no it's it's it's simply a a my own personal opinion but when people um leverage things that are under their power and control like our judicial system or our law enforcement system it can be very very harrowing um to resident of the town so uh I appreciate that Alex has stepped up and he's doing an investigation about the criminal complaint that was filed against me by the former mayor um we've had a good Email exchange I've given him some evidence to the contrary of what he described the policy should have been I received a letter from the Milburn Municipal Court uh and a summons was contained in it it was signed by the mayor uh on the date after uh the probable cause was determined so something clearly was not quite right uh so I really appreciate that perhaps an an independent investigation be done uh that nobody here that was involved look at this and understand why this happened and how this happened okay thank you anyone else before we go online hi Shar Sarah Sherman president um to the subject of the charter study commission I did a little homework on the 1972 effort and someone recently sent me actually the letter that the commission wrote where they determined they weren't going to to change uh from what I read in 72 what was attempted was a change to the council manager format and it was presented as a cost-saving measure that would deliver greater efficiency nonpartisan elections were as I understand it ancillary this was not um the focus uh personally I don't see the rush to getting started on this I do agree with Mr morale that it is neutral parties who need to uh explain to the public not the TC what this would look like if we made a change because I think there are a lot of people who will not understand going in I certainly don't know about it what would be the role of the TC what's the role of the business administrator or the staff staff at Town Hall so um I think it's very important for neutral parties to be involved and I think that um uh that's critical the other thing that I would say is that I I agree with Miss Frank on this issue of oh let's have a referendum that's like an oopsie you know oh we voted on such and such but oopsy we changed our mind so let's go have a referendum and as I said earlier I don't support the money we've given to the the Papermill clay house but I respect that a vote was taken and I would go along with it I didn't love the settlement agreement but oopsie now two people said oopsie so I I don't like that you know if this is a trend I don't I don't think it's a very uh productive one but I look forward to seeing what happens with the the charter study commission and that it moves forward impartially and that it is not controlled by people with an agenda thank you thank you hi Perry erso I just wanted to uh complete my letter about history matters for the question and answer number four that was listed on the uh January 24th 2022 uh under for housing on the website the question was why can't the Township's affordable housing litigation be discussed publicly answer the township has been repeatedly told by judge Gardner and the court appointed special master that the settlement negotiations are confidential so I respectfully stated the following comments and asked the question to the judge Gardner during the January 28th 2022 fairness hearing why can't the townships affordable housing litigation be discussed publicly I further went on to say the township has repeatedly stated that they were told by you judge Gardner and a courta appointed special master that all settlement negotiations are confidential I then continue to ask if does that sound like something that you would have told the township officials on multiple occasions honorable Judge Gardner clearly stated on the record I am certain that I found I am certain that it can be found within the transcripts that he he never directed The Town not to disclose final settlement terms after consideration of official action have our prior Administration misled and lied to us in the public perhaps this is something that um would be able to assist in the matter of the um this litigation that's going on and be assistant to try to uh Rectify things in closing I leave you with that this is the opportunity to urge you um I'm sorry opportunity to argue for the good of the Town simply based on the fact that the public was left in the dark and lied to this will be your chance to shine bright and sleep at night knowing that you have made the right decisions knowing that you all couldn't consciously allow one individual to live on a contaminated piece of property a piece of property which would sell for $1 to a developer a project that would be a financial burden to the township with remediation and not to mention any future lawsuits from residents reside residing on the prior DPW dumpsite sadly all of this was done and more without any public input I have included some enclosures with that letter my letter to judge Gardner a screenshot of the question and answer and also the updated question and answer link as of today admitting the question answer number four reference lastly tonight you approv the bill list resolution 24171 please explain payment number check number one uh 4141 in the amount of $1,824 34 made payable to schwank price Smith and King for the Professional Services reference delar Russo versus the IRS thank you for your time and good night thank you good evening you're muted hi this is Alex zman uh resident uh I'd like to thank the board the township committee members um voted for um the study to to be done for uh the nonpartisan elections in 2025 and know it sounded like it's a long time away but um as a former school school board member um when we have a referendum a a lot of time is given to educate the public and I think even though it's 2025 um I do think that it is um having a lot more time is better to have less time especially in a situation where um a lot of explanation is going be needed for the public um so I just wanted to say that I fully I fully support that and that's all thank you thank you okay I will now close public comment um I just want to uh make a comment to miss best um since I was elected to the township committee I've never given anyone a reason to not trust me I've never lied or misled anyone um H we I will not comment up here as a member of the democratic committee um I am currently not the chair and um I just really took offense to you saying that you could never trust me again so that just um bothered me a little bit but um that's all I have do anybody else want to comment I would just like to point out one thing we've heard this like a million times we know that Jud and for anybody who may be new we know that judge Gardner is not the one who told everybody that they had to remain quiet it was Mr banners the same Mr bner that just uh insisted that we do N Main Street rather than the alternative sites we have a history with him it goes as far back is that perhaps back then our lawyer at the time should have challenged that he didn't you know we can't what can you say hindsight 2020 but he didn't challenge it that that's where that happened so I I don't know that that has a lot of bearing anymore you know we know TCH gner didn't do that it was banished that's that thank you anyone else uh yeah uh Mr caner I'm curious um to I'd like an answer to Mr feld's Question um I know you filed uh a motion um you know opposing Jeff's motion Mr felt's motion uh I just want to know was that a decision you made on your own because I I know I certainly wasn't consulted I'm just wondering where that decision came from uh Mr Feld made many disparaging remarks about the Township in his papers Additionally the court Mr Feld was I mean I can get if we want to discuss Mr feld's legal positions they were wrong in just so many multiple ways um as far as an who can intervene in a fair share housing action the party that they intervene is either a low and moderate income individual a organization which represents moderate low and moderate income individuals which is fair share housing Corporation or a developer who is building Mr Feld is none of them to allow his motion to go un oppose and allow the things he said about the township um I don't think would be in the best interest of the township um the township has come a long way in it's fair share housing obligations pursuant to the settlement agreement um I not I thought there may have been a consultation but uh I don't know who authorized me to do that um second um uh Mr McDonald I I do think that this pastor Knack has a good idea here um with regards to some sort of outside investigator to uh figure out exactly you know what happened with that complaint and whether there's anything that was done properly um that way we can get an independent opinion one way or the other um I have seen uh you know the evidence that she was holding up you know I I don't know enough about it to make a determination but I do think it's worthy of Investigation so um you know I don't know if that's something that a different County or I don't know who would do that investigation but that might be something we should consider um let see here um this best uh I hear your concerns about the cell towers I've done a lot of research on this even I've talked about this I will say those small cells that are going up uh I believe they have about 1% of the radiation that a normal cell tower would so um if anything you know if you're concerned about radiation those small cells are are probably a good thing because it means you might not need to have a larger Tower um but you know the FCC in the government sets regulations for radio frequency admissions uh and I believe you know all of the cell phone uh carriers that built Towers have to abide by those um you know what we do here in town is no different um so you know I I would I would trust the the experts uh that have made determination this is safe uh with with their assessment there I'd also note that they're now starting to beam 5G down from satellites so you know it's it's sort of unescapable and I think the public uh safety issues outweigh uh you know the potential concerns uh that very few believe exist let's see think that's all I have sure um I certainly agree that there needs to be an investigation on the criminal complaint against Mrs past act I mean we live in a society where you have freedom of speech and you have certain civil liberties and if those are being violated hell that can be a criminal activity to fall file a false complaint just as I said earlier I think there's should be an investigation of the prior TC and what induced them to go into that settlement agreement I'll leave it at that and that's as much as I want to touch on that um J morale you know and and and U everyone else including Jeff uh you know this smell that I cannot get out of my head anytime I think about to 911 is the smell of the ash that smell will never ever and for people who are affected we must you know take that step uh Miss Sherman uh 52 years ago I was born 1972 that's the last time our uh government was inspected I think uh it's certainly time to have um updated Charter study um you it's a dereliction of Duty of the day-to-day uh townships not to look at what's the best practice and where we need to be uh and such um in terms of uh in terms of uh referendums I do agree we can't have a referendum on every item uh when we put concern Milburn residents together we went in front of the judge and Mr Feld knows this better than anybody uh they said that you know the township committee's elected to make decisions on behalf of the township uh they are put in place uh at the at the privilege of the residents to to come here and make decisions uh so that to that point she said if you have a discrepancy vote them out and she was talking about the TC members and that's exactly what uh we did to come to sit at this seat right now um so I think we would just go down the ugly path of uh of U referendum after referendum after referendum I so that's all I have wish you a very good night com I already s Mr I just want to add one more thing to so you know Mr Fel likes to come up and and expe what he believes is a law and it's just excuse me I just want him to talk to my face talk to my face if he's gonna come here talk to my face I'm standing right here Mr all right I what do you mean in your face I'm sitting right here all you do is I'm sitting right here he had his turn now you give me another no I I'd like to hear what what Mr caner has to say so he raises his issue regarding a fairness hearing and as if the court is supposed to evaluate whether the agreement is fair to the township of Milburn fair share housing law is clear the only thing the court considers is whether or not it's fair and reasonable to Regions very low low and moderate income households based on the need of the township the amount of units given that's the only thing the court evaluates and that he keeps coming up and saying I'm missing an issue and I'm not doing my job and I don't know what I'm doing the law is clear and and the law is clear what a fairness hearing is to do it's not to decide whether or not the residents of Milbourne believe the agreement is fair it's determine whether or not the agreement is fair to very low low and moderate income households I'm not debating you you had your turn that's what a fairness hearing is so to continue get up and tell residents that that you have a right because you don't believe the agreement is fair to tell the court why you don't think it's fair the court doesn't care why you don't think it's fair nobody nobody thinks these Agreements are fair the court had a fairness hearing Mr phel and that argument just doesn't it's not going to pass judicial muster thank you we'll find out some up go up to the P division um I just like to get a third person to say in terms of an independent investigation of this issue I'm a third [Music] person motion to adourn