e all right good evening everyone I'd like to call the meeting to order this is a regular meeting of the Town Council Township of Monclair it's being broadcast live on Channel 34 and a streaming live on the moner tv34 YouTube channel it's available on demand and Canon will be rebroadcast um this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings act uh this meeting was included in the annual notice of the meeting schedule as set forth in resolution R22 245 adopted by the council it's regular meeting December 20th 22 advertising the official newspaper December 29th 2022 and January 5th 2023 posted on the bullon boards outside the municipal building and has remained continuously posted there in addition a copy of this annual notice is and is available to the public and is on file in the office of the Township Clerk with that please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance un States Madam clerk councelor Cummings present Deputy Mayor Hurlock pres councelor price Abrams pres councelor Russo pres councelor schlager absent councelor Terry present mayor Spiller present thank you all right um moving through we'll go to uh public comment uh all must sign in next to the uh clerk for um speaking uh and again for this we'll allow for 3 minutes and we'll open up to public comment I wish to speak is there a microne okay okay um my name is Wade Ren I am the founder and uh currently vice president of mesh with whom with which you're very familiar I'm sure and happy to be here and I'm here to give to thank uh the council for for their continuing support of respit our respit program and uh also to give thanks for your make having serious consideration of our request for an increase in funding uh and in the new budget um and I especially want to I publicly I want to uh give thanks uh not just to the council but to the community of Mont Clair itself because I have become very aware I've lived here for 26 years and uh I have become very familiar with the hospitality and generosity of this community which makes me proud to be living here and uh it's something I think we're all aware of and I became aware of this uh wonderful trait characteristic of Monclair when and I uh realized the need for Sheltering the uh homeless population here in Monclair and I did so back over 20 years ago and uh began uh a shelter program at first of all at uh Central Presbyterian church and then also at St John's Episcopal Church um and doing so the um we we open open the uh shelter every night it didn't matter temperature every night we were open during the winter and uh because I realized that it was 40° if I'm cold they're cold and so we were and um when what we were doing became known through the Monclair times about back in those days um people's generosity was overwhelming and enabled us to um to fund to fund the uh uh rest the rest bit we now we call it a rest bit but the shelter and we did so I was able to do so with the help of uh hope Crawley you all know C hope Crawley God Rest her soul um she is the mother of an Merin and uh wonderful woman who is very dedicated uh to caring for those less fortunate than herself herself so um I'm here to um thank you and also to let you know that uh we in mesh we are really hoping to restore the respit program as originally uh established that is every night not by uh Cod blue limitation to 32 degrees uh because you can imagine uh the homeless people right now are walking on their streets looking for shelter from the rain and for the cold and uh every night uh would be best for them uh so I'm here to um make an appeal support the appeal for increased funding um for several reasons one of which is the cost of providing breast bit or shelter well we thank you that that was your time a little while ago so we just if you can finish up your comments we appreciate it and and thank you so much and we'll certainly be considering that as well minutes is up okay well I want to thank you uh hope that you will indeed uh take it into serious consideration as we want to increase our program and I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving you as well thank you thank you thanks for your time thank you good evening I'm Anette Batson I think you guys know all know me he did the Preamble of everything I want to say he's Wade is amazing I'm here for mesh uh I have been a resident of monair since 2004 been cooking and serving um mesh uh guests uh who are food insecure and home insecure for uh the past 20 years um through my church St John's I recently went to uh one of their fundraisers and found out that they are in dire need of um additional housing I here to thank you for the support you've given mesh uh rest which is giving them place to sleep when they don't have a place to sleep in horrible weather and cold uh these people are you know young people old people children parents single people uh they all um need to get back on their feet and you can't do that if you're scared at night um because you don't have a place to stay or you're freezing or you don't know where your next um meal is coming from um I love Montclair because of its vibe its diversity it's uh social justice forward this is something we should do we're asking you for more money so we can extend more nights of care to these people who you know and we it gives us as a town an opportunity to show our Humanity to put our money where our mouth is and do what what we profess to do diversity inclusion and caring for our community so thank you very much um I just hope you will consider the um EX giving extra funds out of the budget this year for a really worthy cause we live in a Land of abundance so let's give it out and give thanks and Happy Thanksgiving thank you uh hi I'm the third person from mesh so you may get a little sick of hearing from us but I'll be very quick I also my name is Janet link and my husband and I have and our family have lived in Montclair for 30 years and I to to uh go to St John's and I have been participating in the mesh you know uh program for close to 20 years I'm not sure exactly how long cooking but basically not providing rest bit but what I've noticed recently since the pandemic the our um the community of people who come for food and I know for shelter has grown and I've also known noticed a change in the demographic of the people who come because I've noticed more young mothers with children coming and these people are desperate even though the economy is improving for a lot of us it's not improving for them and it's sorrowful and um and it touches me and I feel I feel that the shelter is an issue that if we can do that it would be a wonderful thing I I don't know how much it costs exactly but if if some more funds could be given for shelter um we're taking care of the food from our from our personal finances wherever we go my my friend and I from St John's and other places and we make sure down at the office every the first Friday of every month these folks can count on us to be there to give them a good food Annette made a turkey dinner last time it's fabulous for them before Thanksgiving we do things we make chili we make meatballs we try to make it they they really really love this it's good for them and I think the respit is is is so important and especially I I know in the summer it is a little different but I'm sorry but especially when the cold comes if these folks um can know they have some place to go it would it would be really and I think it it's true that um we all have so much abundance and I feel strongly that we should be sharing it with the people who don't have as much as we do thank you thank you mayor I just want to ask a question uh thank you for thank you for everything you're looking up here ma'am sorry oh the good looking guy the old guy now I'm the old girl we did discuss this last week gu want to get this clear with the manager maybe didn't we have on the agenda several mesh resolutions last week right so I'm just trying to get it clear I'm always advocating more money I was told the County's going to be helping more there's more help from the county so what what are you exactly are you asking for because I'm always advocating to go from whatever thir 35,000 we've always given to 50 I've always advocated this at every every budget year I was coming just to represent Nesh and my side of meeses is food provision people but I understand that they receive I don't know what's so prove they were seeking more money for shelter yes so I talked to Alby and their Finance group and asked them to come up with a budget and a number that they feel that they can expect from the township however what I told them was was we we provided them the 35,000 this year upfront normally we've split them funds 1717 7575 and the other part is that the county has now offered up to $40,000 that they can get through us for their overnight respit this is a request that they're trying to do where they want to increase it to every day and not just on code blue when it's when it's deemed 32 degrees or below and so with that I explained to them that's a significant change and what we would need from you all is some type of number that makes sense that we can justify if we can afford it but it CU that's a lot different than what they've done in the past so they need to come to us and provide us a a rationale which is going from say 40 days to 150 days I mean they would like to do 365 um so it's a conversation that we need to have in terms of budgetary numbers of how we can afford to increase and what that number would be that makes sense and you can't answer what M councilman Cummings is asking right you can't answer that what is the question was question what the number is that you need no I I was going to ask you who who needs to come to you well I I discussed this with Alby on your Treasurer okay right we had this discussion all right but it's like I told them going from 32 below code blue days to every day is a significant increase and therefore you got to show us what would be a number that would be okay he knows that yes okay so are are you wait does he have a deadline to respond to you where where does this live so after the meeting the other day I told him we're going to talk again and so Albi meets with a group that I also work with for this every we meet the fourth mon fourth Monday of every month so we'll meet again in December because this month is being Thanksgiving and these discussions will be had then okay but it's not something that's going to happen in the next two weeks because there's a significant change of what you're talking about it's just that felt when when I heard that deg when I first started volunteering for mesh many years ago and when I heard the temperature thing I thought how can people could you sleep I couldn't sleep outside 32 de so this is sounds like there's progress here and that's really wonderful we all support whatever you do and I just want to get clear because I made motions in the past to increase the 35 to 50 but that's not really the overall figure that's needed see there may be more there may be more money from the county county representative is here so we want to help you in any way we can okay and let councilman Cummings work with the staff on this okay well that's excellent thank you all so much and have a happy thanks thank you thank you thank you hi I'm Caitlyn Brook um changing gears for a second pun intended um my son rides the bike bus to bulck um these kids are so cute they are singing the songs they learn in chorus as they go ringing their Bells discussing their Halloween costumes this is Peak childhood and it is such a joy to see um they're empowered they're proud they're tired at the end of the day but when kids first join the bike bus they're kind of surprised by how far they can ride because the sad truth is they're generally not riding through the streets of Monclair and as a parent I know why it doesn't feel safe um the bike bus has enabled our children to have this experience they've made it safe enough with volunteers vests signs education 183 children rode to school on October 27th but we aren't done I still hear about regular car crashes my 9-year-old knows that when he presses the button to cross Grove he can expect two cars to keep going and one car to go around the cars that have stopped I want our kids to feel the safety and the joy that they feel on the bike bus every single day everywhere in Monclair but the best policy is proactive not reactive so I want to thank you for asking the county to lower the speed limits um a person is 70% more likely to be killed if they are struck by a vehicle traveling at 30 m hour versus 25 miles hour that's insane um and I would love if you guys could provide an update on that um we also need uh drivers to listen um people need to know that they're held accountable for their driving and also their parking I know that's a big issue in Monclair um be it patrolling or cameras people's behavior changes when they are held accountable even when people are trying humans make mistakes it doesn't matter if they're walking driving or biking this is not a moral failing it's inevitable we need traffic in infrastructure to guide us now our roads bike Lanes raised crosswalks bump outs if you've ever driven you know how much the environment impacts you I know the vision zero task force is working on recommendations and I really hope you consider them carefully I've worked for 10 years as a policy analyst in state and local government and I have seen many task force and advisory groups formed and then watched their recommendations be placed in a drawer to gather dust sometimes the recommendations are waved aside because they're too expensive unpopular or they're too difficult but actually fairly often recommendations are just not brought into the decision-making process people get too busy to read reports budgets are tweaked annually um but they remain largely the same and maintenance goes on as usual and we miss opportunities we get busy time passes speaking of time passing um can I just make two requests are there opportunities we're missing in the recurving and Paving that's currently underway and can you carve out money in the budget to actually fund the vision zeros thank Youk recommendations thank you just so you know that the status is we've all lobbied the county we have to send them the request but they have to be lobbied to get it done County representative is here and sure he'll take back to them our concern but it's political government decision has to be made we think the County's going to go along with what we're requesting 20 miles and 25 I'm going to push for 15 at schools eventually but these are all things we're working on so thank you for coming and asking us the status yes thank you a copy so thank you hi there my name is Dr Thorp live at 21 mapin I'm a teacher in town one of the co-founders of the Montclair bike bus and I couldn't be happier I mean I was sitting in the audience the last time we were all here and listening to the discussion that was happening and how you all were being proactive and asking the county to make some changes so I really applaud each and every one of you for doing that I thank you I'm glad to hear that this is moving forward and um i' I'd like to see it also move forward on our town roads and what you're looking at right now um we know that speed is the number one culprit in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities and that graphic that you're looking at kind of hammers down the fact that just um 5 miles an hour 5 miles per hour can make a huge difference so according to the National Transportation safety board if hit by a car traveling 20 M hour 5% of people will die die that number jumps to 45% when you just go up to 30 mph and then at 40 miles per hour we're talking about 85% death rate that's a huge deal so bike bus um what our position is is we are asking you all to consider a 20 mph speed limit in town with 15 that is in the school zones and this is all supported by data that's out there um we also know that this is not going to come without dedicating money we need you to allocate specific dollars into school saf well I guess it's not school safety because that would be Boe but into our our safety budget our community policing we need you to actually put dollars towards Vision zero task force to make it go beyond funding the coordinator for 6 months and actually putting money towards demonstrations um that we can put around town things like artificial kind of bump outs and curb extensions those things to get people kind of used to driving when my husband and I were driving over here today I said what roads do you slow down on and he said Norwood and I said why and he said because it's curvy and that's absolutely true that's that's a traffic calming measure right make the roads a little bit more curvy and you can do that Park Street would be a perfect example of just having some bump outs to make you actually have to go around some curves um another street that I thought of is South Park Street I automatically go down to like a snails pace when I hit South Park at Bloomfield Avenue between Bloomfield Avenue and um I guess what is it PL Church Street definitely um and you just you're forced to slow down there um so there are things that we can do that are not that do not cost a lot of money there there's Paving I'm sure that's already slated ready to go recurving repaving before those projects get underway can we look at doing some of these bump outs curb extensions um Chans just get it you know get it going already um that's it I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving but easy easy easy like low hanging fruit that's not expensive so uh thank you uh and as you know as we moved last week and we're doing again this week we're lowering everything down let's start with 25 we're getting done right um uh I'll also note that and especially with our County representative here sometimes things that seem easy easy easy are not as easy easy easy as you think um for example every time the township does a bump out on a street the county has rules that say they no longer take care of the snow plowing right and they make the town take on that responsibility even on County Roads when we add bump outs right so those are conversations we have to have if you support the work of the vision zero Task Force at the county level will you continue to plow those streets even if we do add bump you know so it's just a little more gosh the most amazing machines that they now have for doing exactly that snow removal machines that are amazing for these small areas great stuff so we just have to make sure we get all those you know I know it's not simple but we will continue couldn't agree with you more I think they thanks a lot if I if I could add Mr Mayor just real quickly um we've been doing this throughout the town for for a number of years we need to do more of it quite frankly Kim craft the former Township uh engineer worked very closely with me on Jerome place which was a real problem when I first became elected and what we did which was very clever and I give Miss craft the credit I'm not me is we took Jerome place and we actually created what I would call a slalom we made parking on one side above the tracks parking on the other side below the tracks and it caused the yellow line to be a curve like you're saying and it worked perfectly and it slowed down we didn't knock on wood we didn't have any more problems after that so there's things we've been doing and we need to do more of it but we can be creative like you just said and that costs nothing awes thank you thank you mayor one other comment M ma'am just one other comment the gentleman sitting right there his sister is an expert in the state of New Jersey on traffic and all the the signage and everything that has to go on she's an engineer spoke to my class at Monclair State last week about this so I want you to talk to ilmar but what they came up with was ideas bump outs are one thing then there's speed bumps and speed humps they're two different things so our stud students were learning about all the ways to calm traffic and what Mr Scott Ketty I hope you know him has been putting a recommendation for all these different things but we got to get very clear what can be done and what can't according to state regulations the kind of signage for example monair state has 15 Mile signs all over campus but that's on campus they have a right to do on campus we have to really get permission to do something we're going to have to work on getting it down so I support your idea of 20 and 15 right now we're going to 25 and 20 so it's progress and that's on that's on not just County you as a town we as a town are doing that tonight like I didn't see we as a town are doing that tonight and we're making the request of the county for the county thank you but just see ilmar right there yeah good evening everybody Council mayor uh my name is Deborah Kagan I live at 66 Beverly Road in Monir been a monair resident for 30 years I'm the executive director of the New Jersey bike and walk Coalition a long-term member of bike and walk uh Montclair and currently and excited to be a new member of the vision zero task force in town by the way that curvy thing is called a shicane thankk you I appreciate that I like curvy thing though but and cvy things I'm I'm okay with calling it anything as long as we do want absolutely so um first of all I want to thank the council for um passing the resolution to create the vision zero task force I think this is a great step forward and I'm very excited uh about this um initiative and also for the first reading and this intent to do 25 miles an hour across the town um I am aware of the difficulties sometimes with County and Municipal around these speed limits I was on The Pedestrian advisory committee maybe five six years ago when we brought up uh the first resolution to slow Grove Street down to 30 mph that took at least a year before there were signs up and we asked for a painted lowcost low hanging fruit um medium to narrow the Lanes on Grove Street at that time that was not accepted by the county at the time I live two houses away from Grove Street I cannot tell you how many times I have witnessed witnessed near misss how myself I have witnessed near misss my neighbor across the street who has been injured on grow Street Grove Street is a heavily residential Corridor now I know that the county will want an engineering study for this and I just want to bring up that this is an opportunity for this Council and the town to take leadership the the county Essex County has gotten grant funding to also do by the way and I helped them to know about this to get grant funding from the feds for something called ss4 way ss4a to create a vision zero task force they have to create a vision zero task force they are aware of the changes that need to be made this is an opportunity for us and I'm asking for leadership and bold action from the council in negotiations with the county under understanding that they are going to want engineering studies we cannot continue to do the same thing and expect the changes to be made that we are talking about for reducing fatalities for reducing serious injuries for making it safer for all the reasons that the bike bus people talked about for our children on the streets if we don't change the way we are doing things we will not get a different outcome so I'm I'm proposing a strong position for the county and also um across the town we need to do awareness and signs for 25 thank you and we look forward to you helping us with that strong voice to the county so yes I know you are so we you always are thank you you know the county representative there don't you you know the county representative do you know who this is government has to work together good evening uh my name is Sarah Avery and I've been a resident for over 37 years the uh Township's 2022 audit was required to be filed with the state no later than September 30th as of November 15th I became aware that the audit was not yet filed and now delinquent due to the June 6th Cyber attack the town ship paid a $450,000 ransom for return of files but there are no resolutions that reflect that the topic was discussed or that the payment of the ransom was voted and agreed upon allowing the town manager to make a unilateral decision with the insurance company with no oversight is a weakness in internal control how was pko able to perform the audit there are still records that have not been returned specifically identified as being Oprah requests they couldn't possibly audit around missing documentation unless they agreed to accept those conditions pko also failed to follow up on its 2021 comments and recommendations that the town should review security measures related relating to its information cyber security the 2021 audit report and part four roster of officials comments and recommend ations Pages 205 to 211 are the only Pages out of the 222 page report that council members are required to certify that they have actually read the affidavit was filed with R22 216 I have reviewed all the council meeting minutes from September 2022 through July 2023 and there are no resolutions addressing this comment I also noted that the CFO was not a member of the finance committee and pko should have addressed this as a risk in their audit the town participates in the state health benefits plan and has since 2017 as per resolution 16178 that had unanimous approval of the meeting attended by both William Harlock and Sean Spiller certainly both council members are aware of the eligibility requirement that local government officials can only participate in shbp if they work for a local employer that participates in shbp the statements council members signed are written in a way that makes it impossible to interpret as anything other than fraud the combination of the delinquent 2022 audit undisclosed Cyber attack evidence of council memb fraud and missing records Rises to the level of reportable material and significant weaknesses in internal control this Council must refocus its priorities on matters important to community members thank you for your time thank you all right hi everyone uh my name is Noah seagull I live at four Hilltop Place with my wife Lauren and our two and a half 2 and a half-month old baby girl named Sloan we moved there at the beginning of August uh and she was born about a month later so we're very new to Montclair but really enjoying it here so far um I'm joined by Matthew dresnick who also lives on Hilltop Place with his wife Aaron his two daughters Charlotte and Natalie uh and we're here on behalf of the neighborhood comprised by Hilltop Place Lewis court and Pleasant Avenue um we'd like to request additional safety measures at the intersection of Hilltop Place and Pleasant Avenue namely in the form of additional stop signs or the relocation of the existing stop sign um Matthew if he so chooses can speak to some of these specific dangers he's witnessed at this intersection and his years living there um but it poses a major Hazard um can you explain what you mean by real location of the existing there is I have a picture I I would like to show you all if you're amable um there is one stop sign currently on Hilltop leaving the culde-sac um whereas a true three-way intersection would have stop signs at all three points but primarily on the intersecting Street in this case Pleasant which intersects Hilltop um there is no stop sign in that location and there was really poor visibility around all the corners of the intersection um there's also no crosswalk and there is a sidewalk on only one side of the street um I think in a perfect world ideally there would be three stop signs from our point of view it seems like a small lift I understand in practice there are challenges to that um so we request one of two things specifically um one being either an additional stop sign at Pleasant or the relocation of the existing stop sign to Pleasant which um to my understanding would have no material cost it's really whatever the amount of Labor is necessary to have it moved um with my remaining time I'd like to show you that picture of the intersection renable um and if you have any my understanding is that this has been posed not sure if to the council or the county previously on numerous occasions complaints have been filed I can't speak to those but um I think this would be incredibly beneficial for the safety of the neighborhood um and my wife and I plan to be there for two or three decades at least so we'd like to see it a place where we don't have to fear for the safety of our child so see you got on your phone so I'd say if you can email that over to the clerk so we can all take a look at it I'll also note I think some of the biggest challenges we get this all the time it's these four-way stops or three-way stops in this case everything else um Mr Lola can speak to this a little bit as well but it's important we get this in his hands so we can start to take a look at it um we are you know are governed by a lot of uh State rules around this um they call it a warrant study you know you've got to look at crash data a bunch of other things in terms of trying to put four-way stop signs relocating it from one one um Street on the intersection to another might be a little different so I think there's an Avenue there that it might be able to happen a little bit quicker or a little bit easier so if you share that again with Mr Lola he can look into is that different than requesting a four-way stop or in this case a three-way stop right which does require a higher bar of these warrant studies these traffic studies you know crash studies Etc maybe if it's just switching it it's it's not the same I don't know enough in this instance but if you share that over Mr Leo will get get an answer for you and we'll figure out how we do it sure and what is that email address or where could I find it he's got it for you right there thank you um this doesn't invol involve County Roads though I don't don't move so no all right Mr Russ is on a roll he's trying to get everything over to the county tonight so no I'm saying doesn't invol so don't confuse we have the power over those roads fantastic and when would be a good time to revisit this personally at a meeting I I'd say email him again he's got to go ask if it's different between a four-way stop and a just moving a stop sign I don't know that answer I'm not sure exactly how long that'll take stop sign wants a stop sign added on Hilltop he asked for both he asked for either correct yes whatever you can do would be an improve and htop it's right down the street from my house you're councilman you know you're councilman tell what he's asking for it's already I'm tell it's already on Hilltop he would like one on the opposite of Hilltop as well as pleas sir um I would like either one whatever you are able to do would you prefer the two certainly that's what I'm trying to clarify yes I no I got I got what he prefers I was saying there's one that may be easier so let's find out the answer all right thank you all very much yep hi I'm Matthew dnik I live at One Hilltop so I'm at the corner of that intersection and Bs I have a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old I've lived in Montclair for 17 years been at wind Hilltop for seven years um my kids cannot play outside in front of the house because of all the Uber drivers and lift drivers coming from West Orange they speed they go I don't know 5050 mil down Hilltop sometimes um so those stop signs uh would be crucial my kids could play outside right now we have to go to Lewis court for them to go and play which I kind of think is crazy that they can't play outside my house so that's really all I have to say thank you how do you know they're Uber drivers cuz they say Uber I know but you know could it be other people speeding no absolutely I mean it's anyone you have the a hill Pleasant is4 miles and and it's a drag it was recently paved I think maybe preo so I mean it's fresh they they they speed all the time I mean we had a block party and a car was going 50 Mi towards us while we had the road closed off and we me and another Resident had to like stop the car from speeding and hitting the kids on the bike race we got these problems all over town of and I just don't I've seen it for years I don't know what we're going to do people are just Madness in speeding today so and we got to stop it but it would be put signs everywhere and we'll look at you thank you good evening uh my name is Kareem benon I live at 347 North Fullerton um I realize the the green vest probably gives it away but uh um my kids are part of or at least my daughter my son is is a sophomore in high school so he doesn't quite do the the bike bus but my daughter partakes in the uh in the whole experience and it's a really again fun enjoyable um confidence-building experience um I'm but I'm also here I think I what I'm realizing is we I'm also representative I think as many people here of safety in in Montclair uh we all know the it takes a village uh sort of statement um it takes a council it takes uh the residents of the Town it takes a County uh it takes everybody to kind of come together and really sort of figure out what are the right priorities and how do we how do we do our best especially to kind of keep the town safe I think this is a a cause that is a a win-win win there is no loss if we all commit to this and I wanted to thank you and applaud you for uh Vision zero task force in place but also for your decision today to actually go ahead and start uh with the process of lowering speed limit um on North Fon it is extremely uh uh well traveled and and people speed nonstop I I'm constantly kind of looking out for our children and the children on on the Block um near Wong I witnessed actually it was sort of dusk but kids leaving the uh the field um and a car kind of speeding not even sort of thinking of slowing down I had to sort of really raise my voice to kind of remind them that there were children around and and they just seem oblivious as you say it's sort of a little bit of Madness um I just want to encourage and I'm and you know it's wet and cold out here I feel there's warmth here there's a lot of sort of dialogue going on not too much heat it's a quiet it's a quiet evening right not too much heat but um I feel like we're going in the right direction I think there's a lot to be thankful for proud of in terms of what we're doing there's still a lot to do um I see us all of us as part of the bike bus team as hopefully Partners we we're full of energy ideas creativity I know it's not easy it's a it's sort of a a juggling game and we kind of have to figure out how to keep everything sort of uh where where it needs to be but I just really want to encourage us to kind of be mindful and thought thoughtful about continuing to make this safe I think there a beautiful story to be told about Montclair and and for us to be sort of a model for towns out there so keep going at it and and we'll be here and we'll be supporting you but also making um suggestions and requests to kind of keep keep things going in the right direction so thank you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving thank you good evening my name is Mar Scott and I am a resident of 59 Pleasant Avenue in the fourth ward I am representing what I presented last month because you were not um here at that time I came to the budgeting meeting in January of this year and spoke about a variations of issues that I have as a resident and as a homeowner in Monclair in the fourth ward on the same Avenue as the councilman I found that none of my issues were addressed because one of the issues that I spoke about was that the councilman's wife and his pet had been processed had been trespassing on my property and as a result of me bringing that up along with the fact that there are large amounts of events that happened there where the noise is going in DJs and these parties go upward to midnight and the police have not been called I have called the police and then even one of the women who have come here and has represented I guess the renters or Association David Toler uh Mira Toller has been present and I've called the police on that home they turn the music down they turn the music back up I am a resident who lives directly next to Major Jennings who is the principal of Buzz Aldren who has trespassed it on my property trespassed on my property on several occasions nothing was addressed and what I received was a threat to have the police called on me because David Cummings found that me stating that his wife was near my home and that his property his pet has been on my property and I have had to deal with feces dog poo dog poo poo and other things so because you were not here last week I are presenting to you at this moment evidence of his dog on my property now I've been at these meetings and I find them to be quite contrary to the the response that I have gotten because I've never in my entire life had anyone threatened to call the police on me for speaking the truth I've heard various individuals speak in reference to budgets in reference to fraud and and a slew of things and they have always been met with quite kindness or they get you know they walk off and there's no Kickback or no push back on that at all but what I received after I said the reason why I will not be calling the police for a lot of these issues is because I don't deem them to be important enough to abuse the police's resource to address these issues but instead what I received was a threat to call the police so then in addition to that I've heard several times where they discuss budgets and what I've seen several times living next to Major Jennings house which is one of the most disturbing houses that I live have ever purchased and I've never had an experience where I've lived next to neighbors who have been this disrespectful what I have seen several times is the fire truck come over to that home where they are picking up they are picking up packages his son-in-law comes over to hug his son I find that the abuse of power that is being dis played by This Town by the individuals who are employees of this town is disgusting to say the least thank you for your time so Mr Mayor I just want to respond to the to the police the police were called because the the police were being called to see what their recourse was for my wife because the neighbor put her picture up on Halloween on her yard and my wife felt that was very disturbing and so she called the police to see what her option well if I might offer councilman you know I get it it seems like you know there's there's something going on here and it's less of a council will disect kind of thing and maybe you guys can have that conversation in whatever space is is is appropriate that you can hopefully have some type of resolution but do you see what the difference is at this moment I have heard someone come up here and accuse you personally of misplacing millions of dollars in an njaa and there has been no dispute about that he is still not addressing there there's a lot of dispute about that however I'm not here to just well he that that person was let me let me be clear that person did not get a threat to have the police called and even when presenting the truth not even the decency of acknowledging that on record January 17 2023 he said that I was wrong that it was an untruth he found it to be discer and that he was going to contact his wife he was and tell his wife to call the police to defend that lie so even at this moment when I've presented this as kindly as I can I've taken a moment to present this as if this is a law like like a court of law he still does not have the decency or the courtesy to address me the same way you address every other Township member that is disrespectful and I find it to be a very targeted attack especially as a black woman when I come here to speak a truth that was so simple as dog poo and you still are still continuing to not even acknowledge that that's your wife that's your dog and that does not warrant a call to the police it's disrespectful and it's racist anyone else for public comment good evening I'm aaba fiad president and first founder of the tenants organization of Montclair and to clarify from a previous public comment Mina Toller is not in charge of renters in Monclair this is recorded right the tenants organization of Monclair is the group that brought you rent control with the help of my advisor Mitch Khan of the New Jersey tenants organization good evening everyone who's on the council and thank you in this week of Thanksgiving still to date over 120 municipalities in the state of New Jersey have rent control we are proud to be an example of one that took almost 50 years to accomplish two of those years being in the midst of a World Health crisis that we will move Beyond however never forget numerous others whose presence and partici participation was made known at several Council meetings and Beyond put in tireless hours organizing so that our ordinance will come to fruition now I would like to take a moment of silence for everyone who's had family and friends transition may we honor their memories live and love on during the holidays and all of our days to reach the tenants organization of Montclair tenants organization Monclair gmail.com 973 936 8848 to end my public comment I would like to remind everyone that thank yous are always in order for the following members of the tenants organization of Montclair these are posters these are posters that were actually donated by uh our local Staples in Cedar Grove I'm a part of a program with them they donated these to us when we were outside of the council to get rent control when the pandemic first started thank you thank you for your time we'll just do one more and all of you thank you appreciate that thank you thank you all and have a really good Happy Thanksgiving and I appreciate all of the work that you do and that you've done for us with all the crazy things that go on you know you're still in very difficult positions we understand that um this is huge for us'll never never forget it and we have it now forever thank you that we're very proud of that thank you uh councilwoman price uh AA I just wanted to as you as you called out um for whatever reason at this time that we're we're prompted to give thanks also to remember people who just passed and I just feel called upon to say that in my professional work role um someone on my own team um just passed away on the weekend I'll just say her name is verita white and I'm very deeply saddened by her law so just for you having brought that up I just wanted to acknowledge that that's you know for many people I'm sure there's somebody real in their space so thank you yes thank Happy Thanksgiving hi good evening everybody um we could have coordinated that but it must have been sort of psychic because I also wanted to first of all start with thanks thanks to you for taking the time to jot down all the important information for the people who can't be here thank you to Mr lepola for stepping in and you've already been so responsive in many different ways thank you Mr herlock for spending time with me earlier this year after I was not so nice to you so even more forgive thank you I forgive you too um Mr Mr Terry it's a Love Fest um welcome and thank you for stepping into this role Peter yakobis if you're watching this thank you for everything you did while you were here and believing in a lot of different things that I wasn't sure anybody would believe in Mr Spiller thank you so much for being respons responsive you probably conduct the best meeting around here um there's a lot to learn there Mr Russo you're a champion for so many people and uh your voice is like a family member at this point and so thank you for all your work and everything you've done to pass the gas leaf blower ordinance Lori thank you so much none of this would have happen without you and um I know how hard you work here Mr Cummings thank thank you for engaging with me even when we disagree it's scary to be last on Mr B my son just recently said you're not being mean to Mr Burr are you um his daughter's really cool um so I will never be mean for you to you and I hopefully I won't be ever mean to anybody so thank you for that and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving um this week was really difficult um if you see my face it looks like I got beaten up cuz I feel like I got beaten up to watch those trees be felled was painful it was so painful there was people sobbing people crying and I know that that is stuff that people are going to make fun of you know Tree Huggers what a tree people but it was different it wasn't just about trees it was about our climate and our future and as a mom that's what I worry about maybe it's a privilege to be able to worry about my kids and how they'll COPE in climate change if that's my privilege then I'll use that privilege to try and make some change um that reality is inevitable and so we need to do more in Montclair to protect our trees says the woman who helped ban gas leaf blowers um it's important we rely on those trees and I worry about um overburdened communities which actually champagne Terrace is defined as such by the NJ DP and now they have no trees all to look at people who grew up in those homes um tears and hugs and people who came who I had never even met strangers in the street there's so many people who came in support of trees in Montclair and I know that that situation was sort of impossible because it wasn't outside of your control and there are other things that hopefully through the zoning board will be looked at but um we need to do more about trees and our tree ordinance is so weak and we as mon it doesn't represent us uh we shouldn't have a tree ordinance that um gives the power to an paid arborist to Define which trees need to come down so I would say let's please get that going because I worry deeply about what's going to happen to those trees and so many people in 1986 contributed to um preserving trees here in Monclair so we need to do better um the other thing I wanted to mention is if you would like to come and visit um Champlain Terrace there's a lot of neighbors there who would love to just share what has happened to them and how they feel and if there's anything that can be done to plant more Street trees there to help we certainly are all going to pitch in and volunteer to plant pollinator Gardens in our health strips now that we know it's allowed and my last 40 minutes I want to dedicate to another thing I'm so thankful to in Montclair and that's our animal shelter we have perhaps one of the most wonderful animal shelter directors Liz Morgan and I would like to see her have all the help that she needs so I know you guys are figuring out the budgets but um I don't know that it's okay for our animal shelter director to be the one who's cleaning up everything and who has no staff if people get sick so uh she never complains but I can see it and I've gone and I volunteered and we lug stuff and I would like to do more but I my time is constrained and that animal shelter does magic in people's lives so we should support them thank you I'll just say a couple things that you noted um one thing I'd say and I'd ask is certainly to connect with our environmental commission they did a lot of work around finding the balance of what was legal and you can control around the tree ordinance I know it took years to get what we actually have there in terms of that tree ordinance um and I know they're always looking for you know Community involvement in their meetings their open public meetings and often times here or other places and just the conversation there as to what that would look like and I'm sure then they'd say help vol ER to you know what that might look like um and then of course running it through legal to see what we legally can prohibit on either private property or you know or otherwise school property or you know the like so um I'd ask you to get involved in that if you can and appreciate that for for sure and the only other comment I'd make is um I think your your comments are microcosm I think everyone's here um of the difficulty around budgets right we've heard you know almost everyone tonight you know hey we'd love to do something that we do some days we want to do it every day we'd like to see dollars put into investment in streets to make them safer we'd like to see I mean you know you hear it here right there's an ask an ask an Ask um we'd like to see more in the community policing we'd like to see you know those were the things we've heard already and it is always balancing okay where are those dollars you know where are they coming from and what does that tax levy look like but we will continue to always um look for ways we can to be efficient and to kind of support those pieces but I'd ask uh specifically if you get involved especially around the tree piece with the environmental commission I know they did put a lot of work into what we have it took I remember 2 years to get what we had you know kind of enforced specifically um and uh I know they'd love help with any kind of changes you'd like to recommend yeah definitely uh Lisa Johnson and I had an lovely conference call with the US Forestry Department and they gave us a lot of mentorship and um pointed us to ordinances that have withstood the test of time and um and I think ours is good it's just the authority who decides is is where the problem is um so it might be a more minor tweak then twe yeah yeah and then the animal shelter I think just a part-time assist or something would be great we hear you it's all dollars thank you though mayor just a question Anna are you are you do congratulations from us because people told us you got an award or you did get recognition from the state on sustainable Sustainable New Jersey or whatever it was that you thank you recognize well it's my award is shared with all of you uh yes I was um I got an email funny enough while I was crying cuz trees were falling in front of me um from the NJ DP uh announcing that I've won the the governor's environmental Excellence award for my efforts uh for clean air in Monclair but that wouldn't be possible without you so thank you thank you and if you'd ever like to come up and do all that again we're going to give you five minutes next time specifically to you for that yeah sure you can give it right to the clerk yeah hi councelors um I there's a a handout that I'm circulating um and I I just want to say that name what your name I'm sorry my name is Amy vich I live on 535 Upper Mountain Avenue um the intersection of Mount Upper Mountain Avenue and and Mount Hebron um and I was I'm just I'm very excited and super supportive of the ordinance to reduce the speeds on Upper Mountain Avenue um when I look closer at the proposed streets I thought great you know 25 miles hour this is fantastic wonderful wonderful but I was really disappointed to see that one mile from Little Falls to Drome Street on Upper Mountain is not being included with that 25 M per hour speed limit and I'm here to ask you to reconsider to Advocate I know that one of the ordinances that you guys uh read last week um was to reduce all the county roads to 25 miles hour and I I would just like to in my to advocate for this section as well it's 1 mile it's 3 minutes of travel time and in that stretch you have um Mountainside Park which is a massive pedestrian Hub you have the swimming pool you have the playground you have Iris Garden you have Mills reservation just as a note to give you some sol we're advocating for 25 everywhere and including All County Roads okay good including Grove we're advocating for 25 everywhere everywhere okay well if I can give you any more to kind of help in that argument with the stretch that's not on that listed tonight so you have the park and you have Bradford Elementary School and uh on one Friday morning I was just sitting there and just out of curiosity I was like I going to count how many pedestrians go by so for a two-hour window in the morning on a Friday I counted 112 people crossing that corner and primarily most of them were school children with Bradford Elementary School they were kids going with their parents walking to to school and classes from Bradford going to the park going to the Mills reservation and I I just if you guys can look at your little handout you know I I feel like the headline is is a really uh bad title for a movie for crashes in 40 days but I I want to just draw your attention to this middle picture which I took through my window as all the kids were walking on that corner on that street and if you notice the numbers corresponding to the photos up above of the crashes and the cars where the cars were thrown on that sidewalk um literally where all those kids are and you know again I said 112 people were on that corner and a 2hour window on a Friday it's like it it's so anyway and also the university one mile down so or one street down so anyway that's a little yes thank you please don't forget the rest of the County Roads because they all matter and on the back just some uh Graphics to kind of visually tell you the difference that speed makes y thank you thank you I appreciate your time and happy holidays I know it's a close to the break so thank you for all your efforts thank you good evening ilar Vander 127 Road echoing some previous speakers I'd like to mention a few things I'm thankful for this holiday season I am thankful to live in a wonderfully diverse town like Monclair which is always fascinating never boring never a dull moment I'm also thankful that we live in a democracy where people are free to express their views even if we don't all agree and we have free and fair elections to choose who represents us I'm also thankful we have a very patient uh Town Council who listens as we bring our concerns to you so I first of all want to commend the the council uh very much for your Swift and decisive action in lowering speed limits around town which is definitely um you know necessary and um uh I do have a question though as councelor Russo mentioned last week my sister who is a licensed civil engineer specializing in traffic engineering with 30 years experience did indeed do a presentation for our class and she left us with three words to consider and remember this comes from an engineer with 30 years experience enforcement enforcement enforcement she pointed out that you know lowering speed limits is nice but it doesn't always reach the desire effect by itself so given that we have such a robust and wonderful Police Department I'm wondering what actions what corresponding actions we might expect to help optimize this speed limit and help regulate and reinforce Behavior around it well I just say thank you if you're if you're done we'll respond to comments but anything else You' have to add oh no no I'm just wondering I thought somebody might have something to offer well I certainly won't speak for the police chief but I think we've heard him up here last week um and he noted and I noted right even with us switching to the Pitman schedule to get more officers on the street um I was shocked and I think my Council colleague could speak to it better than I um how few officers we have on patrol even given our size of our force with the different space they have to be in I also well aware because residents reach out all the time where they're constantly asking for police assistance in a number of matters right certainly if it's a burglary area or people want to focus in an area or um there's an issue with um you know somebody that they feel threatened by and they want something checked out you know their officers are called in a number of different places I certainly think enforcement is important and you've seen the dollars that are invested in the police department um quite frankly with some uh conversation around should those dollars be invested at those levels in the police department right but um we I think view overall that Public Safety is number one right so we've got to make sure we're investing there I will say um while I appreciate your comment about enforcement enforcement enforcement um I don't think that we are going to work our way through this solely with changing speed limits I don't think we're going to work our way through this solely with enforcement I think it is going to be changing physical infrastructure right because that is the way uh over time through your Capital Investments we can change the perception of a road to a driver to make them control their speed as opposed to the chance that an officer catches them speeding or me or you anyone speeding right so I think it's going to be an investment over time it's going to be what we learn through the vision zero task force and other efforts um but I don't think it's going to be um you know the dollars that we put to try to get enough officers to be everywhere to catch everyone's speeding um is a tough uh you know tough move um but we're going to work through education yes we're going to work through lowering speed limits yes we're going to work through um making drivers aware you made a great Point some of those signs is show how fast people are going we're going to work we're going to do all those things but I do think that longer term capital investment as streets are redone and all those pieces that you change the physical um space that drivers are in is the winner from all the data I've seen and and everything that I've heard um um so it's a yes and but I think that's the key so I appreciate the enforcement enforcement enforcement important yes um but there's some other pieces I think are at least as important without question without question but specifically about the speed limit that is a critical component thank you for going on the record with that and demonstrating your understanding of a complex issue I'm happy to share the presentation with the council if anyone is interested Happy Thanksgiving you as well you as well thank you mayor you made a good point also education and the court system add that to it also that that needs to be changed and the judge needs to be made aware of some of the issues that we do have in the community one last thing on that mayor and and Mr Vander um I know your sister had really knowledge of all the signage and all the equipment there's so much equipment and I know Roger um Roger Terry visited some of the vendors in Atlantic City as I did that have all this equipment there always advancements made but to to alert people how fast they're going that's about the best sign that you ever could put on a road you know but Roger if you wanted to tell us anything about what you learned or is there any new equipment we got to buy more flashing lights you know to warn people you're sister told us certain things are allowed certain are not certain they're in a book that's actually got all the different regulations and signage Roger there are a lot of updated devices that they have uh today that are available if you've seen around some of the municipalities there are signs that flash the amount of speed that you're going but nowadays that not only do they Flash the amount of speed that you're going they take the data for the amount of vehicles that are speeding on that street this data can be brought back to the police department to let them know exactly what streets that they're having the biggest problems on and these devices can be taken and moved around all all around town some of them are uh I would say somewhat expensive somewh a little bit less expensive but that's something that I'd like to have Mr Lola you know I spoke to him a little bit before about it and uh my colleagues up here and I think something is very doable you know we can purchase some of these devices and put them around town and hopefully that they will help just part of the problem as you indicated thank you hi I'm Christina Thomas 257 North Mountain na and I just wanted to say that spending more money to recur the same narrow streets without actually addressing infrastructure seems kind of shortsighted but so does investing money in departments without knowing important data like how many fires there are in Montclair to respond to Happy Thanksgiving this was a difficult meeting to come to because of the timing of it last week I explained to you in detail why the interim Township attorney should not be extended past December 31st of this year yet you extended him not to the end of your terms but through the end of 24 and once again you demonstrated a refusal to abide with opma you did this dirty deed in a non-transparent if not clandestine manner why do you continue to engage in dishonest practices that are actually illegal what do you why do you consistently disrespect all of the taxpayers of this town that you're required to to represent I know on the record and for the record that the reappointment resolution was not on the agenda it was not listed in the summary under the recording opma says that even if a resolution is introduced from the DS dis it must be reduced to writing before being voted on why doesn't the township attorney know that why doesn't the clerk know that what are they doing in their job jobs and in this these positions and why are you forcing the township to pay for these people who can't do the job as required this was yet another resolution that was secretly passed in the middle of the night so hardly anyone knew about it there is an expectation that you may be voted out of office next May how come you're saddling the next Council that will take over on July 1st 2024 with the unqualified attorney that you selected and reappointed three times despite so many issues caused directly by his lack of relevant knowledge and lack of experience the above issues are all important but what's most important is the fact that Mr Burr is obviously and painfully unqualified for the function he's trying to fulfill this has real consequences for all of us in this Us in this town as a result of his bad legal advice the township is mired in several lawsuits which are not only embarrassing they're costing the taxpayers more and more money I noticed that Mr Spiller hired his own attorney in the civil case of Mrs brow that you're not even named as a defendant in with your um ordinance you're hoping to get reimbursed that's unfortunate thank you for your time thank you keeping Mr Burr in this critical position is unbelievably offensive to us all and you all should know better hi everyone I'm Laura deiza and I'm a resident of 577 Upper Mountain AV I just wanted to um Echo what Amy had said I actually wasn't going to speak at this meeting but I my three children are three of The 100 plus pedestrians that cross Upper Mountain Avenue between Mount Hein and normal on a daily basis to go to school and when I tell you it is a very very dangerous stretch and I will never ever let them cross the street Alone um it's unfortunate especially because there's no sidewalk on my side of the street so to go to and from Bradford we do we have to cross the street um and I've only lived there for 2 years but I've witnessed it get worse over time I think a lot of it is because of just the speeding and the reckless driving that occurs I know that you're working with the county um to get that stretch also reduced but I just wanted to Echo my concerns as a resident of Monclair as a resident of Essex County if there's anything that we can do to help um and I will be introducing myself I'm happy to see that there's an EIC County representative here at the meeting um but actually just curious as to what the timeline is on how to move forward with the county sure I I'll let Mr Lola uh answer that specifically you know certainly as we introduce there's already been conversations with the county from a number of us and from Mr laola um you know we do engage in that uh before things we we bring to them of course is a courtesy as well uh and an encouragement for them to take action um we then pass this we will continue those conversations I'm not sure how quickly they will act I think as one of uh you know was noted already um you know they are likely going to require certain studies and some other pieces they've indicated as such um but we are hopeful and again with your voice and all of our Collective pressures uh you know we hope to see some action there but again as they are going to be requiring studies of the area that's going to take some time you know they look for x per I don't know what the right numbers are X period of time to look at what's going on here to measure speeds Etc um and then get some data from that right so um that usually I know on our end local end when we do those they often take a little longer than you'd think right they pick optimal times when there's the most traffic they pick you know times when you know they're making sure they capture everything right so Mr Le do you have a little bit of a better idea and I know your work also in some of your other capacities might give you some experience in that area sorry I can only assure you that this section of Upper Mountain Avenue is at the top of our list in terms of studies yeah and I would really suggest going there when it's you know between 8:30 and 9:00 when there's a lot of school children who are trying to cross the street there um going to Bradford and I know that there's a lot of bus stops as well um if there is ever an accident that occurs like had occurred a couple of weeks ago a child's life would would be at stake thank you have a Happy Thanksgiving can you take and see if there's a crossing guard there during school hours there is a crossing guard yeah there is a Crossing who also has almost gotten hit on numerous occasions as well but thank you for sharing that okay with that I will uh close public comment um thank you for that uh and certainly you know mindful of with the uh public comments being closed at this hour I know one of the comments before was the um the late hour with which we conduct some business but that is also because we I do try to hear from everyone in public comment and when that time ends that's when we conduct our business um I know that I'm on the record councilman you and I'd love for the council to consider this that we put a limit of when people can sign up because often times it's disrespectful for folks who show up here on time and wait and then people come in late and sign up which you know often times there's a it's a number of people so I would like to talk to Mr Mr Lola and Mr bur to look into the possibility of um limiting this sign up time for individuals to come in here CU When people come in at 8 and 8:15 to sign up I I think that just extends our day when we're here at 7:00 you know the time the meeting starts I know sometimes people say well they have things have to do I get that but um so I've I've I've had that discussions with several of you guys already so it's something I think we need to seriously consider yeah maybe I'd ask as you engage in that conversation anyone else El wants to join in there's a number of boards and commissions who also have a set amount of time for public comment so that the business isn't being done that late meaning if you have one hour of public comment you know and then you go to the business um but uh I leave that to you to have those conversations and maybe come back to the group as to what you're you're thinking there the time limit is interesting but then if people are here you know and you put it 3 minutes each it that can extend it whereas if you're not here by 7:30 and not signed up on it I know know that the Board of Education what has done is at some point well at least when I was on the board once we um started uh after we went through certain U things and once the meeting started whatever wasn't signed up the uh didn't would not speak it was kind of cut off like it was right the sheet was brought up and then the meeting started well certainly some stuff for us to think about give that some thought okay um thank you to everybody there with that public comments are closed um I did want to uh uh move a proclamation here we got this request in and given the month and certainly this is the last meeting we have in this month uh this is a request to have an official Proclamation recognizing November uh 2023 is transgender Awareness Month um this was whereas the mission of out Monclair is to increase Awareness on the importance of compassion uh equality acceptance and love and whereas Almont Clair seeks to promote compassion acceptance protection awareness and visibility to the transgender and nonbinary community in today's itical climate and in the state of New Jersey and whereas according to the gay lesbian straight uh education Network 29% of the transgender Community lives in poverty 74% of transgender youth report youth report verbal harassment at school due to their gender identity and expression 55% of transgender youth report physical violence and attacks due to their gender identity and expression and whereas the National Library of Medicine released data in 2022 that shows that 82% of transgender humans consider suicide and that approximately 40% of that population has attempted suicide and whereas the Town Council uh seeks to stand in support of our lgbtq plus Community by declaring November as transgender awareness month to stand up for those whose voices have been drowned out um and silenced by hate and violence so that transgender humans may continue to lead a safe and productive life uh in their TR as their true selves now therefore be proclaimed at the mayor and Council the township Monclair uh that the month of November is hereby proclaimed as transgender awareness Awareness Month in the township of Monclair and it be that further resolved that the mayor and Council pledged to increase awareness and to uh and the importance of love acceptance and compassion for the lgbtq plus Community nice so move move to thank you so much uh all in favor I thank you and certainly uh as we do with so many of the proclamations it's important that we raise awareness um and uh that we speak up on issues uh around uh all the members of our community so thank you to all appreciate that um next we have uh ordinance 02338 which is an ordinance to establish new section of the Township Code entitled chapter 134 privately owned salt storages we discussed this last uh meeting I so move second it's moved and seconded any questions concerns comments uh Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herock yes councelor price a yes councel Russo yes Council schlager absent count councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes uh next is ordinance 02339 which is an ordinance to amend section 32711 speed limits uh of the code of the township of Monclair New Jersey and I so move second it's moved and seconded this is again uh moving to lower all speed limits in the township to 25 milph um again as we noted in the last one we've already moved to make uh speed limits around schools and the school zones and during those times uh lower than that uh as well um and this is also requesting that the county um move to lower every County Road in the township of mon Clair to 25 um as well Mr Leo anything else to add to that uh that we have here uh ordinance uh no mayor I mean pretty accurate that yes okay uh oh councilwoman I think and then Deputy Mayor which just a question we're on question um so this is saying date of introduction is tonight so I'm just trying to just help me with what we did last time and what this is we're not on a second reading because we can two different two different ordinances last time had to do with the school zones this has to do with making our policy of all Municipal roads um at at 25 mil an hour so I I gather we we discussed it at the meeting last time but we didn't actually have text and this was what you produced in light of that discussion and that's why I the text and what we had last meeting was school zones specific specific for school zones as part of that conversation was around the town and the town having already lowered speed limits but we caught these nuances of what about here what about there broadly this is to make sure that every Road in the township falls under this and and if you see County Roads listed it's because on those roads there was a uh speed limit change made permitted approved by the county requested by the town so when you do that you have to include it in your ordinance so you may see a road in here that's not a um a municipal road but if they agree to change the speed limit say they do from 35 to 30 it has to be included in our ordinance so that's why you may see some County roads in this no thank you and it's really not because we had already gotten them to reduce the speed that's why they're included in this so for example to that point Grove Street is down here at 30 because we had previously requested and gotten them to do that per people who spoke earlier that's why it's there we don't we can't change it ourselves hang on but so what we're doing also is separately making inquiry that they might bring that down to 25 and that's going to require traffic studies we heard and all that so that I just public was asking and I was trying to make sure I understood it myself so thank you for the clarity Mr Deputy Mayor thank you Mr Mayor um I I in in light of Miss Beach's comments I I would like to see and I don't know if this is substantive and I don't know how the hell this plays in with the county with all do difference uh sir but I would like to see that Upper Mountain Avenue 25 from Bloomfield Avenue to the Little Falls Town Line is that a substantive change Mr I don't think it is this is on for first reading so whether it be a substantive change or not wouldn't impact so I can ordinance on first hold second let me just understand this hold on a second we start talking about substance to change or not the goal here and the understanding is that this would be 25 every town every road correct M Municipal Road Municipal Road and requesting every County Road to do the same right right doesn't that fit the ordinance that's not what it says here sir with all due respect yeah yeah help me I Sean what I like to do quite frankly is on the second page here of this where it says Upper Mountain Avenue 25 with the 35 cross out yeah all I want to do is go from Bloomfield Avenue to the Little Falls Town Line which is inconsistent with what the first line says but the first the first line is the county road and the rest there's only a section of the road that's the county the part from 300 ft J own place is so how do I get this done you're going to get it done because we have to do a study and go back to the county and get their perm and get them to reduce the speed on the section of the county road that you know that's their jurisdiction that last part there so none of these are County Roads is what you're telling just one part of Upper Mountain Avenue is County Road and the rest of these are not none of these are County County roads but they're only in here because previously we had requested the county to reduce the speed limit say so Grove streets say 30 m hour because we requested and they agreed to reduce the speed limit from 35 to 30 and as a result when you do that you have to include that road in your ordinance okay we did that in 2018 to Mayor Jackson and as I mentioned this will be the number one five years later okay all right but now with so the goal you're hearing there is to get this done like we agree with you right we're hopefully get it all Mr Mayor for your accuracy okay thank you Mr Mayor you bet sir I'm just going to be straightforward here this is really going to come down to I think your thoughts of the infrastructure so the past week I've literally tried driving 20 mil hour and it was not easy so I believe Mr Terry your suggestion of the signs so people can see what they're driving because you're not driving and looking at your your your miles per hour while you're driving but that that those signs CU I see them work and um there's one in West Orange actually when I go to uh one of the golfers they have it in the area and that sign does make an impact on your driving whereas without that sign 25 M per hour and 20 M hour in a car does not feel very fast so there has to be a way to engage the driver to look at what you're doing and the street changes is very important that's infrastructure so you know which is considerable people talk about they want us to give away pilot money but where's that money going to come from that's that's where that money comes from and but also the enforcement part I hear it's one thing but it's really going to come down to the driver and we have to make sure that we are enforcing ways that drivers are reminded and see how fast they're driving cuz I challenged all of you to get in your car and drive home tonight and tell me you went 20 mph and we're able to do it and do it the whole way you got home it's it's just you know and and the numbers and what they've given us tonight show the impact and the difference in those impacts of what can happen but if this is something we're serious about the only way that I see something immediately in terms of like lwh hanging fruit is trying to get the signs on the roads that show what your speed needs are with the with the with the equipment that you talked about to give police the information to see what areas are violations or things occurring consistently so then it may come down to them not so much enforcing but put the the decoy cars in the street as opposed to you know literally and then people see that so there are multiple things that can happen but I'm looking at this from both sides and I think as we move forward and and these are things who's the council representative for vision zero well that's what I actually wanted to speak to okay so so the mayor is one and I am another um and I I think you know I think there's been a uh ground swell partly for the bike busz folks showing up partly because Vision zero was sort of simmering for a while till it finally got launched and we had a meeting like a week and a half two weeks ago the first one so now we have both um commitments tangible you know ordinance that we we got started with right away about lowering these speed limits but there's a talented group of people with lots of expertise from different kinds of sectors Gathering to to help us figure out what the recommendation should be so you know whether any of you um gets comments to the mayor and me um whether you know directly to Laura Toro or or anybody else um I think we will be coming up with these suggestions and solutions I mean it's really there's now finally a ground swell of activity around this and I think it's been long and coming The Advocates who show up have helped us sort of uh bring it to I think came from multiple taxs so I just think we're we're in a good place to be taking this on the steps we're doing right now are very good but let's listen to see what the recommendations come through I mean Deb you're sitting here still is there anything else you would I don't this is amongst us and I think the number one suggestion from the professional staff was an engineer MH so if we're talking about what we need to do and Mr Leo I believe you were in agreement yes we need to get an engineer who can come in here and really get to the work because okay again as as resident said this could be years and years and we don't anything but you know we have some accountability here we've been told what was needed which was an engineer a a traffic person so we need to get moving on that as soon as possible and I think I've been you know encouraged to hear Mr leola's plan of that hire that he's talking about for that position to be an engineer so I think we're on that track and I'll just note um whether you or anyone else I know Mr pole had Le pole had reached out um there's room for another council person on the vision zero task force right so we've asked around who else wants to be on it so if anybody does you know Reach Out Laura torture did call me yesterday ask me that if we had an answer to that question so okay yeah I I if there's another person who I recommended I don't want to overburden Roger but there's got to be a police component well I'm just saying I recommend Roger even though I was asked to take Peter's place but I recommend Roger but it's up to Roger it's up you can't force somebody on a committee I I I just suggest that um let me just ask one other question of what bill has been talking about I'm still trying to get this clear where it says Upper Mountain Avenue 30 then there's a cross out on that Upper Mountain Avenue 25 and it excludes parts of Upper Mountain Avenue am I correct because that's what the gentleman who came with the dog said that he had his dog hit in that one part of Upper Mountain that's a County Road or that's a Town Road but people don't know it so they still go 35 because it's got County signs is this going to correct that in any way yes I I think what happens there was different speed limits this just where it says the the top part where says 30 m hour from 300 ft north of Jerome place of Little Falls Town Line that is a County Road the rest of it you go to the bottom Bloomfield Avenue to the point of 300 ft north of Jerome place that's the Municipal Road and reducing the speed limit to 25 there okay so that's what the gentleman had come for cuz you don't know that you're going to right be able to red okay thank you thank you and the final thing I also ask that we make sure that daycare centers are included it's up to 20 mph and I don't see that but find out you know yeah just get a list of our daycare centers okay and that equipment you mentioned before the police are pricing that now I see our Deputy Mayor did you yeah thank you um Mr Mayor um oh yeah before my tongue comes off its roller here because I've got a lot of things I want to say it wasn't just I agree with you David but it wasn't just the nursery school there's the private schools there's saying catch all of those areas need to be looked at Mr Lola um so Mr you're telling me that the only area on Upper Mountain that's a county road then is Jerome place to the Town Line okay and we're going to get that included in here somehow excellent I like to hear that I I have to respectfully disagree though with some of my colleagues and you know I have a lot of respect for you all but you cannot sit here and tell me I'm I'm in my car and I don't know how fast I'm going that that is just absurd because I know if I'm going 25 you just said it was hard to do 20 and I know if I'm going 55 and we have a bunch of clowns in this town that are going 55 on Grove I know someone came up earlier and said I live two houses away from Grove I'm one house away from Grove I'm also across the street from northeast school and these circus clowns every morning after drop off are shooting up Fairview they got to be going at least 45 50 55 M an hour and I if I can see that and I'm in my own car and I know when I'm going too fast or whatever I appreciate the signs and yes that's a limited uh effort David quite frankly but you cannot sit here and tell me that people don't know how fast they're going because they don't look at their speedometers what I can tell what I can tell you Bill is I specifically for the last week after the meeting every time I got in my car and I have to go go down Washington which is 25 mph and I looked at it and I was like 20 and I'd get to headed towards Ridgewood and without really even like gassing my car anymore I'd be at 27 so yes if you're going to be doing 40 you know the difference that's not and those are the ones I'm concerned about my point my point my question to you is drive home tonight at 20 mph and see how what that is like and then again think about the fact that to your point when clowns as you require as you say they are hope you're not talking about me because you sometimes you know you do that if they're going if they are going 40 on Grove Street then they see a sign in front of them that says you're speeding at 43 milph all of a sudden that triggers in them because you know yes you have clowns but you also have people who are driving and and I've driven down grow Street i' actually coming home I do it quite a bit and going from when you come off Route three and you're going down you're going down Grove Street it is easy to get to 35 miles per hour and so therefore what I'm saying is as cars are driving as a deterrent this is a deterrent because everyone is not the same and so some people literally may feel like they're not driving fast but they are and so these are reminders for them you do have folks who do drive fast so we we're just going to disagree to disagree well we can agree to disagree but I'm also the only one up here that lives and works in Monclair mhm my office is on Bloomfield Avenue on Willow which is a whole other circus and then my house is over by Northeast as I said and you don't have to tell me to drive 20 going home tonight because I'm going to be on Park Street and the limit's 25 and I'm going to be going 25 I pulled over twice on Sunday with my family cuz I had one of those clowns that are supposedly going to slow down when they see the flashing lollipop lights about this far from my bumper and I just pulled off and I let them go and every time I stop in this town whether it I go to work every day here okay I have close calls at least two times a day at least and when these people stop you couldn't even put a piece of paper between my bumper and their bumper I can't even see their headlights or their dashboards that's how close they are so I do the speed Li in here believe me so what's the what is your remedy hold on I think you guys we're all saying the same thing so started no I didn't counc Terry wants to jump in here but the I'm hearing you guys are all looking for for for uh things that we can do to improve it so thank you both but yeah councilman I have the information from the individuals I talk to down in Atlantic City let them come here and do a presentation to you so you can take a look at the devices that they have you know some of the speed cing you know uh devices that they have today for this decade that are very good now I'm a 35e retired police officer and I'm telling this gentleman right here that most people do not look at this fedom now maybe you do but most people don't you could feel if you're going 50 you can 50 but it's you're saying 25 miles an hour you said 25 I see that the counil wanted to get involved in this conversation dire in a dire way I was also in Atlantic City and I looked at this stuff too I didn't get credit for it anyway I dis we can agree to disagree let's just continue that's exactly 50 and 35 are totally different if you have a 25 hey David you just said 20 was different it is and what I'm saying to you I'm telling you so uh can we move and vote on the lower all the speed in we this discuss I I just want to say one thing we're really all on the same page we are on the same page I want to say no what bill bill was very dramatic and described this I also live and work in town because I the only place I do go to work is monair State and up there they've got their own that's in Little Falls well you know the entrance so the the when you when you enter monair state it says 15 but they have their own regulations but I'm just saying that what we've got to do is get the equipment that Roger's talking about I'm glad we brought that up got to do the enforcement that Mr Vander is talking about and we've got to lower the limits with a lot of signs the signs are key I told the story last time about Park Street when we put 25 mph signs on in 1994 when I was councilman first W it slowed everybody down for a few months but when people found out nobody was watching they started to go faster because they didn't City police now how do we get enough police presence to really ticket the people that are speeding that is the other issue and infrastructure changes to change the dynamic of the street and and education also you know we did the uh clicket or ticket remember that when that all started well you can do a town wise education piece for speeding also start right in the schools you do it in the elementary schools even though that they're kids you know what to watch out for and these type of things you do it in the middle schools you do it in high schools for people who are just getting their Summit their uh licenses there you know I think that that is very important you know as a direction to go in how do you educate those older clowns that Bill's talking about I don't know who he's talking about like you know but okay all right Madam clerk know somebody's going 50 you gotta be doing 50 Madam clerk all right up please counc comings that's if I'm on the highway David still can't do 20 Deputy Mayor herlock you know are we going to work to get this I know I'm not supposed to comment but are we going to get this Jerome place to the line at 25 like the rest of the street Mr L under given that representation I'm going to vote Yes but man this one's tough for me councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R23 252 which is resolution approving the submission of the best practic checklist checklist inventory to the director division of local government services on behalf of the township of mclair um I will move for the purposes of this discussion here I will second it only for the mo purposes of discussion so Mr laola I'll go back to you I I know I'd given you um you know some of the items at the end of last meeting mentioned some during the last meeting um that I know for a fact some of the items are wrong like our uh project labor agreement which um you know helped pass and introduce here so you know so on so so I know that we've got unfortunately whatever our points that look like here we've done better than what's been listed here my concern secondarily is you know uh we shouldn't be submitting incorrect information and thirdly we should know right the answers to these questions um that said I know there's some time frame and time crunch around accepting some of these pieces getting the points and and making sure we don't get dinged from the state for not uh submitting what we do have and we've met the number needed I got that um but uh certainly as I moved in said for discussion I'm you know uh okay voting yes but only in the context of you very clearly figuring out a way that we remedy the errors that are on here noting the things that we are also doing I think I hear you saying there's three of them that were wrong on here right right um I think that's got to be noted and certainly I'd ask you to make sure putting in place some of the practices that we don't have those kind of Errors again these are you know ones that you know you can't I I see instantly and and uh we've got to we can't have that where this is wrong it might matter in another year when the points are closer and it still matters and that you want to be right point taken I just want to ask again the mayor is right that that there's three that I saw that are no and should say yes but what I'm trying to figure out is why would anybody think that we didn't have a project labor agreement which we agreed to years ago go under mayor Jackson and then why would we not have we certainly have a list of what roads should be fixed we we do keep but somebody just didn't think we do that yeah we we don't keep a long-term Road list we do an annual review so it's a matter of interpretation the same thing with the project Lamor agreement it was we have a we have it uh in the code an ordinance was passed but there's not the literal agreement so there was some interpretive things there that perhaps you know should have been included you know so who who is so how do we find okay so my question is cuz we discussed the project labor agreement pretty as well as the roads so then who said no we don't have this that that came from the CFO but I think it was a that had to do with whether or not they you know I I read the the question is do you have it in place to do it I think the interpretation she had was there's not an actual agreement that we've used so where would she get that interpretation I just think it's interpretation of the question no no I'm So when you say the interpretation that she had I'm just trying to find out is this something she she says on her own or does she go to staff to find out I I don't know the answer to that question sir okay because I mean this that was pretty alarming to me and knowing it way I do I would I would assume that we would be able to get an answer to that so that so the number 12 we're talking about so are we saying that that's going from no to Yes uh yes yeah will go from no to yes it's not going to be changed in the resolution tonight but we will because this was already submitted and we have to have the vote but we will note the corrections and then what were the other two project labor was the other one that project LA and then there was two involving it which was number 13 and number 18 which we do have a plan pursuant to the GIF um and also we are a member of the njccic okay but on on Project labor again when you say maybe that we have it because we passed an ordinance for this I remember mayor and I recall this the thing is that you say we don't necessarily do it every year there's sort of a limit of how much money is being spent on a project I think that triggers this yes $5 million right so that was something was asked of all by the labor unions and we went along with it so I just want to make sure everybody knows that we have it and we abide by it and we support it as a council as a town that's yes Big labor union issue question get that get that correct get that corrected right away thank you yeah well we certainly again not to beat it but I'll just say in seeing it very quickly I noticed those those ones are just inaccurate so um but so yes if there's agreement on three that we think the answers could be you know we want to change the interpretation I understand they were submitted could we sub we will do this to make it timely but then could you after the fact you know amend just for the record yes we will we will we can't officially amend it okay but we will submit documentation that corrects it we're not looking for a better score cuz we're satisfied anyway that we met the threshold but for the purposes of accuracy Etc right thank you okay yeah okay thank you Mr Mayor but can we just Mr lello can we just make sure can we get something in writing that that was done no no you know sure no issue with you or or anyone I want to see it to the mayor's Point there'll be a letter or or or memo that will be attached to it okay so even for the what's what'll be on public record here I believe it goes to the clerk after the after the vote and we will make sure there's an exp explanation attached there thank you and same with the you know to local government services yeah and the last piece like I said I just want to make sure that we've got something in place that it doesn't happen again that whatever review processes or other pieces we're talking about um yes the buck stops with you you're like Harry Truman I'm well aware of that all right coun with that uh Madam clerk councel Cummings resol Item B resolution R23 252 I don't want to all right so this is uh local government services right yes yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councilor price Abrams yes Council Russo yes councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes um next we have a consent agenda but first I'd like to pull to make sure everyone's good with it if everyone can pull item 10 please um there was two pieces Mr Deputy Mayor you see on the calendar there's the removal of the date that You' noted okay um uh councilman Cummings you'll see on that there's the change of the date you noted and the only other one I hope that we uh have to consider her uh everyone had a chance to review the only one that said another conflict is councilwoman um price Abrams and she's asking that we move the October 22nd meeting to October 29th I don't have any objection to that can we make that move and then move this4 yeah good by me okay uh Mr Deputy Mayor really good by me of October so that Madam clerk did you hear that one please October 22nd move to 29th okay all right with that I will put it back ask that we also take resolution number five out well hold on I'm just putting hold on I'm putting this one back on consent agenda then with that change sure Madam clerk okay so that goes on now everyone does see the consent agenda items on there are there any items I'm hearing one um uh to be pulled off consent you want five want to discuss that number one no number five five any other items to any other items there just one I'm good with what we're doing but I want I'm spoken to Mr the CL Anderson number doing there had email okay all right you want it okay so with that I'm moving items 1 through 13 ping number five I'll second it it's been on one second okay so yeah y okay 1 through 13 pulling number five uh no objection Madam clerk if you'll call the roll councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes resolution uh R23 272 which is resolution authorizing the competitive Grant uh Contracting to procure police off duty uh detail management system services and I so move second if moved and seconded any question concerns comments okay so that's the one I want to get clarified again is um and maybe Roger being a police expert could clarify we're changing the off duty we we we're giving you permission to contract with an outside vendor to do off-duty scheduling is that what this is I I I believe what it is check that out number it's to go out to bid again yeah it it the last time we did not do competitive bid for the vendor but this time we are going to competitive bid but that's to do what so the public understands to do so we schedule the police internally detail management we don't schedule internally right now so anybody who uses our police office uh loses police officers or needs police officers outside of regular duties has to go through a separate system right now they pay directly to that system that system manages and facilitates the assignment of those officers and handles all that work that's what we do now this is going out to bid to see if there's another vendor who can do that at a cheaper rate obviously allows us to have options up to 5 years which get gets us a better price got so this gives you the authority to do that yes we have to vend yes any other questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo no councelor schlager absent councelor yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R23 281 which is a resolution authorizing the competitive Contracting for consulting services in connection with various Professional Services required by the department of planning and Community Development I so move second it's moved and seconded any questions concerns comments councilwoman uh price ABS yeah uh so I do see that the um our planner has just given the categories of that she wants to solicit vendors for so this is for the purpose of then seeing who will then be competitive and then that's what we're do so right is this just done every year or something I don't recall is this like typically done this way every year or she's changing something on some of these it'll give the option I mean we'll do shorter terms for some of them but on some of them you know it'll be for the whole options for the five years okay all right thank you any other question comments so so last year this Council uh passed the uh diversity inclusion program for contracts like this so my first question would be if you can look at the current list that we've contracted out and tell me how many of those are minority vendors okay and then for this the agreement was that we would have at least 20% of our contracts would go to minority vendors so like to see that that is um followed and then if you need help finding minority vendors please let me know because one of the push Backs from previous um I'm not going to name anything was finding them and so I know there are qualified minority vendors throughout the state so let's make sure that we do our best to I did send you draff language that we're going to include in all bids and rfps that notify people that we have the program available but I'm more interested start to as an example currently how many of them are minority vendors any other questions concerns comments no hearing none Madam clerk I'm sorry mayor I don't uh have a record of who is the movement in the second this is 14 Deputy Mayor may we moved okay thank you councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councilor Russo no council schlager absent Council Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R23 282 which is resolution authorizing the emergency purchase pursuant to njsa 4A col 11-6 to replace the boiler and qualifying property for mler Home Improvement Pro program is some move second it's moved and seconded any questions concerns comments uh Council woman price sa yeah no I was just glad to see that you know where there's a a resident who has this kind of a need that we have this program what what source we have the Home Improvement program that's how is that funded how do we fund that pot does somebody know Mr Lao David you not sure okay no I mean it's not going to prevent me from appr this I the is this the 25,000 limit annual where folks have to qualify for these funds well does seem to be pursuing too qualifying but um maybe you could just let us know when you pursue that Mr Lola I'm just curious what how we fund this particular pot thank you any other questions see none M clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hof yes councelor price Abrams yes councel Russo yes councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R23 283 which is the resolution authorizing the award of non and uh non-fair open contract for Atlantic Uniform Company for the uh provision of Township police uniforms I so move second moved and seconded any questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R23 285 which is a resolution amending the contract for snow removal for uh parking uh the M parking utility I so move second it's moved and seconded any questions concerns comments yeah we can we save money this year depends on the weather we save it every year last three any other questions concerns comments uh Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor hura yes councelor price Abrams yes Council Russo no councilor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R uh 23286 which is a resolution authorizing use of competitive Contracting uh for the provision of consulting services in connection with the township Professional Services is the parking utility financial accounting and Payroll Services I so move second moved and seconded any questions concerns comments yeah I just want to know is this going to what David was referring to when we go after to all these places or bids are put out we've got to pursue in an affirmative way minority vendors and uh women-owned companies so will we do that with this or is just a got a one company that keeps applying and that's the only one we get I don't I I'm not aware of what they're um if they do anything in in terms of you know going out and looking for a minority businesses to bid on these contracts but I can find that out for you councel because it should apply across the board the reason I'm voting know on these things I want to know these these contracts are going to be fairly you know distributed that we're the one town that would do this more than any other town we Tred to be affirmative all these years so I want to see us continue but that's just my question any other questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor yes Deputy Mayor Hur yes councelor price Abrams yes councel Russel no councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R23 284 which is a resolution authorizing the executive session uh without the public being uh uh permitted to attend in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-12 b i so move second all in favor please say I I I oppos extensions we'll now go into executive session thank you very much mayor before we go in before we go in I just want to tell everybody that you know yesterday was Robert Kennedy's birthday but tomorrow is the 20 is the November 22nd 60th anniversary of President Kennedy's death and there's going to be a ceremony tomorrow in Newark at the monument for President Kennedy assemblyman Giblin is holding that at the memorial statue memorial statue in um in Washington Park in Newark to remember that President Kennedy was assassinated 60 exactly 60 years ago and we shouldn't forget those 4 days and try to remember that was a great leader thank you thank you off scared all right with that I'll make a motion to come out of executive session it's moved and seconded all in favor please say I we're now back in a regular session first I would like to move a resolution to appoint uh Roger Terry to the planning board I so move second it's moved and seconded all in favor please say I I opposed extensions thank you very much and congratulations sir appreciate that thank you thank you very much did you ask uh Raz uh next is a resolution authorizing the township to enter into the settlement agreement uh with the mill Social Services building I so move second it's been moved and seconded uh uh any questions concerns comments just just a comment mayor this is a great thing because we're going to be able to use and work with those who own the building it's a social service building and it's been used by a lot of nonprofits for years we had an office there when I was headed the consumers League of New Jersey and it was always very you know reasonable rent so Social Services nonprofits will hopefully be able to use it again and maybe it's going to offer us an opportunity to talk about a senior center hopefully thank you yep and once again this keeps all those protections locked in in terms of usage which is the goal for the library and a um this a resolution all in favor please say I I I opposed extensions we don't unanimous we don't need that one's not spending money but do I need to call that individual no it's a resolution it's not spending money no money okay next is a u a resolution um by the township of Monclair to uh uh to obtain and from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs approximately $75,000 to carry out a project to purchase vital sets of turnout gear to adequately protect the township of Monclair uh Department firefighters so to accept those dollars and I assume move second it's moved and seconded questions concerns comments all in favor please say I I opposed extensions thank you very much accepted that uh next is a resolution approving and authorizing the execution of certificates of completion for the East project and West project of the Redevelopment of Seymour Street Redevelopment area pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Redevelopment agreement between the Tang of Monclair the Wellmont development uh LLC I so move second it's moved and seconded and for those you know listening and uh you know I'm sure those interested parties listening in we had the conversation around the busing uh we have been assured that they uh did in fact comp comply and build uh bus parking for two buses um in that location and certainly Mr Leo I'm sure you will make sure that those are utilized there and we have less of the traffic on Bloomfield Avenue so um with that it's moved and seconded any other questions concerns comments um this is uh this one roll call Madam clerk councelor Cummings no Deputy Mayor h Lo yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo no councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes uh next is uh an ordinance this is an ordinance to repeal chapter 18 contracts and amend chapter 44-12 of the township of Monclair and I so move second uh and this complies with the state law and the request from the state to remove any uh Municipal air laws that uh um go beyond the state law correct Mr Lolo right was moved and seconded any other questions concerns comments uh Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hof yes councelor price Abrams yes councel Russo yes councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes uh and next we have an ordinance to amend chapter 48 Personnel regulations article 48-1 of the code of the township of Monclair I so move it's moved and seconded and again this pulls out language uh in reference to various code and other pieces that do not uh exist any longer correct Mr Leo so that cleans that up um any other questions concerns comments read the title of this one again ordinance amending chapter 48 Personnel regulations article 48-1 of the code of the township of Monclair this relates to the stick policy and such like that that one okay um right and I I just I wanted just to um recognize what I had inquired about earlier it relates to aligning it with the rest of the municipal code and and therefore it will in in time save you know resources to the T thank you any other questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Harlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councel Russo yes councel schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes um next I will entertain a uh motion to adjourn it's moved in second seconded all in favor please say I I we are adjourned have a great night Happy Thanksgiving everybody Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving I got my Thanksgiving tie on