okay everyone uh good evening and thank thank you for for joining us today this is the Town Council regular meeting uh this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings act this meeting was included in the annual notice of the meeting schedule is set forth in resolution R23 277 adopted by the township Council as regular meeting of November 21st 2023 advertis in the official newspaper on December 21st 2023 December 18th 2023 and January 4th 2024 post on the bulletin boards outside the municipal municipal building and has remained continuously posted there in addition a copy of this annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the Township Clerk please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the it stands one nation indivisible Justice for All Madam clerk a roll call please councelor Cummings present Deputy Mayor Hurlock present councelor price Abrams pres councel Russo present councelor schlager here councelor Terry present mayor Spiller present uh thank you very much we'll move the agenda with flexibility um first before I uh do give the state of the township address do just want to take a moment um and why I um you know uh rushed over here um I was just uh had the opportunity to um you know visit uh with uh somebody that I considered a friend sheriff bernick in Pay County um had the opportunity as a high school science teacher teaching forensic science we worked and partnered with a sheriff's department to um to help teach that course they would come in and help us uh help the students learn about uh different crime scenes and and and so many other things and really built a relationship um and somebody who I know really was committed to our students he'd always helped uh support the valedictorian salutatorian breakfast that we would do and it was just uh just just such a good guy and um so with that um it's just such a a tragic loss and certainly I think an opportunity for us to highlight here uh the work that we all need to do to make sure that we have the the supports in place for people who need them when they need them um and it's it's just important reminder of that and to make sure we're checking in on on everybody at all time so with that I would like to start with just a moment of silence uh for sheriff bernick in uh Bay County please thank you well good evening everyone at the outset of each of the past three years it has been my pleasure and privilege to provide my colleagues and Monclair residents with an update on the state of our Township our reputation here in Monclair has been built by generations of residents who have come together to shape what our Township values and the principles that we honor it has been built of a town that knows that leading Progressive communities in our state and our nation can be examples for so many we are Community known for diversity and culture for our vibrant downtown and beautiful treel line streets we are known for our engaged and distinguished citizenry and our world-class Public Schools people from all walks of life races and religions have worked side by side to thread the rich tapestry that makes up our community these qualities are what draw so many of us to mon when my wife Lauren and I discussed putting down roots in a progressive Cosmopolitan town to start our family we knew we didn't have to look any further than where we already lived we have made Montclair our home and our lives here I'm grateful that my two my two sons will be able to grow up in a community that welcomes them with open arms there's no question that living in Montclair has its charms and its privileges living in Monclair also comes with responsibilities Montclair is more than just a place it's an IDE deal and it must be nurtured and protected as residents and as public servants we are caretakers of this special town just like our physical infrastructure sustaining the values that form the Bedrock of our Township takes Continuous Care and investment the last few years have been beset by challenges some are shared by our nation in the world and some are unique to our community we've gone through a global pandemic face down an extremist Administration in Washington and we we've been forced to Grapple with the implications of our own Prosperity both the opportunities it affords and the struggles it can create navigating change is never easy or straightforward change however as unsettling as it may be at times is inevitable in the face of change how can we as a community make sure that what we're moving towards is a brighter future deeply rooted in our ideals and not veering from our core values each successive set of stewards in this community must carry within a compass that guides the way our Compass is set by the efforts of those who came before us and the promises that we make to our children it directs us forward keeping our aim fixed firmly on our values if we follow our compass and remain true to our ideals we can together deliver our precious Community safely intact for the Next Generation in recent years Monclair has been fortunate to see an influx of investment and prosperity this influx has meant new opportunities for our Township and has creat some new obstacles we've seen new and exciting development and Innovative repurposing of commercial space the Wellmont Arts Plaza is bustling this year already serving as a hub for arts and culture new restaurants and small businesses are opening at record Pace reinvigorating our retail corridor from Bloomfield Avenue to Valley Road to Walnut Street to Watchung Plaza to the South End moir's commercial districts are alive with activity Commerce and Community this year alone new business openings numbered at least 49 9 here in Monclair accolades continue to roll in including one from travel and Leisure magazine who affirm Montclair status as one of the top 10 places to live in New Jersey this has never been more obvious to us than we see the demand to live in our community so it's no surprise that our residential housing market has been on quite a tear with home prices at record levels on one hand this economic growth is a testament to the work we've done together preserving and enhancing the desirability of our Township alongside Prosperity this Vitality has also brought with it challenges for so many longtime residents especially renters diversity is now being pressured by the demand it helped create navigating the changing landscape while remaining firmly anchored in our values is one of the key roles of local government I cannot thank enough the work of our residences on residents on countless committees and groups like our planning board Library board environmental commission our seniors and so many others each offer offering guidance and support to our Township that's also why alongside residents Advocates and my Council colleagues I'm proud to have helped lead an effort to pass the first ever rent control Common Sense rent control ordinance in montclair's history codifying rent control was a product of years of research and advocacy and provides residents a measure of protection especially our seniors renters will no longer be subject to double- digigit year-over-year increases in rent allowing families to plan for the future and continue to call mclair their home since enacting this law we've added a full-time rent control office to make sure that new regulations are faithfully and uniformly implemented montclair's rent Control Ordinance is an example of forward-thinking public policies that our town Prides itself on we're showing that Prosperity need not come at the expense of diversity that a thriving economy and Progressive values go hand inand we're demonstrating that once again the state of our Township is strong not only does monair look to the Future we preserve our past and our Rich stored history is proof last year a group of residents embarked on a mission to preserve an iconic piece of that history the James how house on Claremont Avenue has stood as a testament to montclair's fight to secure racial Justice one of the oldest homes owned by an African-American the house tells a story of struggle From Slavery to Freedom preserving this piece of Monclair and African-American history became a unifying cause for our community led by a dedicated and resourceful group of volunteers who came together to form the friends of the how house through their efforts and with support from our community the how house and all it represents is now preserved for Prosperity I want to thank all the members of the friends of the H house for spearheading this project and from the entire Monclair Community we say thank you honoring and preserving our past is the key to securing our future Montclair is fortunate to have so many dedicated residents and leaders who have shaped our community and none more dedicated than the late Al palum as many of you know Al palum was a pillar in the monair community for decades Mr pelum served as president of the monair NAACP executive director of the Monclair neighborhood Development Corporation as a mentor for so many Mr pelum was also a guiding force behind project Oasis a basketball but educational program based in Glenfield Park to provide positive opportunities for our youth to honor Mr PM's life and his contrib to Montclair it was fitting it's fitting that a number of us here were able to gather with government Partners from Essex County to dedicate the sports complex in Glenfield Park in his honor basketball courts and recreational facilities where Al pelum impacted so many lives now Bears his name the Albert E pum Sports Complex will continue to serve Montclair residents and honor Mr PM's Legacy for years to come Mr P worked to serve children from many different backgrounds he celebrated and nurtured their diversity monair is proud of our history celebrating diversity and continued commitment to supporting diverse communities and upholding the ideals and compassion Mr PM showed towards us and today we're continuing to build on that Legacy of inclusion and diversity in Monclair we know that our differences make us stronger again this year I was proud to attend the Montclair aapi Lantern Festival in Edgemont Park and for those of us who were there we witnessed a moving event where we were given the opportunity to come together we honored the many contributions of our aapi community and remembered those who have lost their lives or were harmed treated poorly and experienced violence and Injustice including anti-asian hate others face these challenges and threats of violence as well our Jewish Community was subject to the hate and discrimination that so many saw last year in the wake of anti-Semitic violence in Bloomfield and threats of violence throughout the state my Council colleagues and I worked with our partners at the county and state level to ensure sure resources were deployed to protect our Jewish neighbors Monclair please stood watch outside our local synagogues and kept our worshippers safe sending the message that Monclair will not be intimidated this is a commitment that my Council my colleagues the great men and women who work in this Township are are part of a commitment to making sure that we stand together that we support one another this is the commitment that my Council colleagues and I affirmed when we joined communities throughout the state and signed on to the standing up for the others pledge Monclair will always stand up for others always stand up for each other against hate violence and discrimination and now let me turn to another top priority ensuring Monclair is on sound financial footing a solid fiscal Foundation means balancing the spending priorities of today with sustainable future for tomorrow as a result of careful planning and prudent management we've been able to make Monumental strides during my terms as third W representative and mayor we've reduced our Municipal debt by more than $75 million earning the community of AAA Bond rating in a time when most municipalities throughout the state saw their debt burden increase year after year we continued to reduce montclair's debt the debt reduction in the bond rating has earned us had translated directly into savings for taxpayers and critical investments in our community when it comes to investing in our community improving our enhancing our physical infrastructure has been a top priority we have paid roads at a record Pace we've replaced substantial portions of our water infrastructure increasing its resilience we've improved traffic flow added much needed parking and launched initiatives to provide safe paths for bicycles their Riders pedestrians and motorists to share the streets in this great town this includes walkability as an intrinsic part of our Township but sadly we see as we did this past year when our Township suffered the tragic loss of one of our neighbors who was killed Crossing her own Street the that as a community we can and we must do better to ensure pedestrians can safely navigate our town in May 2023 the council and I voted to create a vision zero task force with the goal of eliminating all pedestrian and cyclists involved crashes in Montclair by 2028 this is ambitious but a necessary goal that will require a broad based approach accounting for streetscape signage speed limits and more the safety of our residents is of greatest importance and as you've heard me say before while we are proud of our improvements our work is never done some of our plans and projects have already been put into motion and others continue as that work in progress goes forward we will continue to improve our roads see the benefits of increased parking and add more electric vehicle charging stations we'll look to examine the Street Cape a streetcape as a way to help ensure Public Safety we are aggress aggressively upgrading our sewer lines and replacing our lead pipes but also managing our storm water INF infrastructure to help reduce flooding we are committed to improvements to our public buildings creating the senior and Community Center and to providing safe and an updated public safety building our minds are set on Resident and pedestrian safety through supporting and implementing Vision zero being conscious of our actions on the environment and providing ample spaces for our community to gather safely we have beautiful Parks wonderful festivals and thriving small businesses all of these factors result in better experiences that support the health happiness Comfort Safety and Security of our residents and visitors and we will continue to work with our Community Partners to look after the wellbeing of our fellow residents it is the type of support that we see when helping Tony's kitchen put together meals or serving dishes for those in need I was proud to help secure more than $600,000 in state aid to sustain their efforts during the pandemic but we know that the need is continually grown and we must do everything on our power to make sure that the team at Tony's kitchen has the resources they need to carry out their vital Miss and that we create supports for families so that they can achieve a sense of food security housing security and economic security but it is also providing a space to shelter during the cold winter months and the supports needed to get Alice families to a better place and yet sadly for all the good we see all the things we share all the things we help create the world we live in can be a tumultuous place the national political climate is on edge and amid this uncertainty it is more important than ever that places like mon C exist our work to create a sustainable Community not only benefits us but shows communities everywhere what is possible diverse groups of people living in harmony overall Municipal debt reduction critical investments in infrastructure protection for vulnerable groups and still a thriving economy each of us here each of us is here tonight because we deeply understand how special this community is we may differ on issues of policy but we are bound together by the shared love for this Township ship and the respect for one another I want to thank each of you each and every one of you for taking the time to be here this evening and for taking an active role in the future of our community I thank you all and may God bless Monclair and our great nation thank you very much thank you thank you all with that um we will move next to our proclamations and councilman Terry if I'll ask you to please do the honors thank you very much mayor it's quite an honor first of all I want to uh say hello to all my colleagues many of them who had the opportunity to work work with over the years it's good to see many of them here tonight and uh as we honor uh Mr McGrath his father is here who actually I went to school with and ran track with back in the day it's good to see you here sir also officer mcgraph the sworn officer of the township of Monclair play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of our residents in and out of the community and it is important to know and understand the problems duties and responsibilities of law enforcement and that numbers of such agencies recognize their duty to serve people by safeguarding life and property by protecting them against violence and disorder and by protecting the innocent against deception and the weak against oppression on October 5th 2023 officer Scott McGrath was off duty and traveling westbound on Eagle Rock Avenue in his personal vehicle in the township of West Orange He was accompanied by his wife and two juvenile children while driving West on eigor Rock Avenue he observed oberved a vehicle that was stopped with his hazard lights on in the middle of the road traveling causing a traffic jam near the corner of Eagle Rock Avenue and coni Avenue Michelle Mardy was standing in front of the car so officer mcgraph pulled over in front of her and exited his vehicle assuming she was having car issues and upon exiting the vehicle Mrs morard was screaming for help he ran over to inspect what the issue was once he got to her car she was screaming that her friend James Brown who was in the front passenger seat just went limp and was not breathing or responding off mcgraph immediately started assessing Mr Brown's condition and did not feel a pulse Mr Brown was fully unresponsive and Miss Mor arti was on the phone with West Orange 911 a mcgraph advised her to tell the dispatch that he was an off-duty police officer from Monclair and that he was initiating CPR officer mcgraph took Mr Brown out of the car and placed him on the side of the road where he checked for signs of breathing or pulse both were negative CPR car was start started and continued and approximately 3 to 5 minutes until Mr Brown start started very shallow breaths he also regained a faint pulse a police officer excuse me from West Orange arrived on the scene and took CPR while officer mcgraph remained on the scene assisting eventually the Medics and ambulance arrived at which time they hooked up an AED to Mr Brown several shocks were advised Mr Brown was then placed in the ambulance and taken to the hospital on October 8th 2023 a mgraph was updated with the news that Mr Brown is now full off the respirator with no brain damage and has completed feeling all of his extremities the doctors believe he had has suffered a massive heart attack while in the car now and therefore the mayor and counsel of the township of Monclair hereby recognizes officer Scott McGrath for his bravery and his selfishness while off duty and join the police department and congratulating him on his exceptional police work and his dedication to duty [Applause] thank [Applause] [Applause] youate hi good evening everybody I'm Michelle morard and I have to tell you that the moner police department is so fortunate to have an officer of Scott mcgraft on your Force he went above and beyond and if it wasn't for him I would not be standing here talking to anybody this evening now we've adopted him into our family him and his wife and children so now you're spending Christmas with no but no we really he's unbelievable and he just is amazing man and we now have a nice friendship going on with him and his wife so thank you again James can't be here this evening because he's in Morristown Memorial he took a very bad fall and went into congestive heart failure again but he's going to be operated on on February 16th for open heart surgery so Scott thank you again for [Applause] everything I I also want to I also want to commend a mcrat for your off-duty actions in Saving Mr Brown's life your dedication to this department is a credit to you everyone who doesn't know know Scott's born and raised in Monclair he's a Marine 2002 to 2008 served in Iraq he's an fto in the department of field training officer he's on the CRT team and if you just look around the room the S SOA and PBA members here he's respected the whole department that's a credit to you Scott you're just a great individual we appreciate everything you do I do want to say one other thing too for all the guys out there and the men and women out there every day they come to work and they've had many life saving jobs CPR prevented people from choking AED countless Naran saves helping people in crisis the only reason they're not up here is because those jobs happen on work and they understand that and they appreciate that but again Scott awesome job mayor counsel I want to thank you for taking the time to do this angelise I know you preparing this thank you so much Mr bur you had anything to do with it thank you but thank you again and thank you Scott for your commitment for this job thank you [Applause] don't make any funny faces back there um I'm humbled by the uh the turnout this is awesome to see all my brothers and sisters out there um it's it feels weird to give a speech I didn't plan on it but uh it's not celebrating me it's uh celebrating the life of James because he's still around and I wish he was here he's a funny guy he's actually Navy veteran too so it was great I could fell uh help out a fellow veteran we uh we talk weekly get fell updates all the time and um and like to piggyback off the what the chief said my brothers and sisters in the back they do this stuff every day most of these people have done more CPR than they can even count I just happen to be going fishing that day with my family and I was in the right place at the right time so it worked out but just keep in mind that these guys we do this stuff every day and uh you know I didn't even really tell anyone about it cuz that's what we do is instinct and if any one of these guys were driving by her while 100 cars passed her I happen to be the one that stopped and while I'm doing CPR another 100 cars pass and nobody stops so I know none of these guys will do that and that's why they're here and we're just showing our Brotherhood and uh thank you mayor thank you C Council and uh thank you Chiefs and I appreciate the [Applause] award [Applause] he's a great guy a great officer all right we do have uh uh next three proclamations I'll ask our Deputy Mayor Mr Deputy Mayor yes yes thank you Mr Mayor these are for the three Eagle Scouts is there anyone here this evening for the eagle scout proclamations uh seeing no one Miss May I'll just quickly go through the names if that's all right these uh three Eagle Scouts are all from a troop 12 here in mountclair which is one of the oldest troops uh in the country quite frankly and we have three Eagle Scout uh candidates who will be full Eagles and that is Michael Hadley Aiden katowski uh Liam vanellis so we will present these at the appropriate ceremony which will be coming up for Choop 12 uh always a pleasure to do this and we've done many of these Mr Mayor over the years uh together and um thank you Mr Mayor and these are the proclamations thank you thank you [Applause] congratulations okay with that next we will go go to um Mr Lola uh to you and welcoming Chief coni uh to come up and and present so I'll welome him up please okay uh thank you mayor um Chief coni is here with the with his uh with the deputy chief and uh and other members of the forest to make a presentation on the uh on the uh very popular issue of uh traffic accidents and what the uh police force has been doing in response to these issues um I'll turn it over to the chief can you hear me now yeah first hear me uh here with me today I have Lieutenant Stephanie nezo she oversees the traffic Bureau and for those who don't know she's also assigned up at the Essex County Police Academy she does a great job representing Monclair to all new recruits that come through there then I have Captain Rob REM with me I brought Rob here today because I felt he can give a good perspective on a daily basis what he sees in Patrol as well as Rob is the OEM and counterterrorism coordinator for the Department for those who don't know obviously he's been very busy over the last few months with information with the Israel Palestine crisis and obviously my partner over here DC Young so why why are we here today in response to the concerns that we've been hearing I had requested to come to the meeting because I felt the need to address the public on some of the things that we were hearing but before we talk about what we're doing in terms of enforcement and on a plan moving forward I do want to go back a little bit and talk about what was happening before the pandemic and the first thing I want to to spell right now is there's this perception or this belief that we're experiencing more accidents now than we ever had before that's not true if you look at 2023 we had more accidents prior to Co at a time when we're issuing more summonses because there's a belief if we issue more summonses the accidents are going to automatically come down and that's just not the case so if we exclude the co years and when I say the co years I count 20 21 and 22 because those years in 22 we're still having concerns regarding covid over the last 15 years we've consistently been in the same range of motor vehicle accidents between, 1300 and 1500 total accidents with 1,300 61 total accidents in 2023 however all five years prior to the pandemic were higher than we had in 2003 with the highest number recorded in 2015 with 1, 155 total accidents now I'm not saying that that's a good number I'm not saying that's a bad number I'm not okay with that of course we want to see the accidents come down of course we do not want people injured but the point I do want to make is we're going to have to rely on not not just on enforcement to make the street safer or to change people's behavior it's going to take much more and I think that's why bringing lieuten anes here today she could talk about some of the things that we do but I do want her to talk a little bit about accents before we go any further thank you Chief mayor council Mr Lola good evening thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here tonight um so I just wanted to touch on a little bit about Crash data um so as the chief mentioned although may not be the desired number that that you know um or it may not seem like the most desired number it is important to note that we are trending downward with our total crashes with our total pedestrian crashes um compared to our pre-co numbers uh and when we look at the increase in the amount of development that we've had in town um that brings with it uh many more residents more businesses so we are bringing more vehicular and pedestrian traffic to town um so when you look at the number as a whole uh we haven't increased where it could be expected to be increased at that point because of the development um so again while it may not be the desired number or there you know if there is a desired number and we are working again with the vision zero task force to try to make that um happen um we are trending in the right direction um as far as our uh pedestrian crashes um I think there see there is a misconception that it's usually speed that is associated or as a contributing factor with most of our pedestrian crashes which is it's just not true when we look at the data um most of our pedestrian crashes occur during the day in normal dry conditions um when people are out walking around that's not always the case but that's the trend that we t we that we're seeing um we Contin continue to conduct our um our decoy operations um under our pedestrian safety grant that we have been lucky to receive every year since 2008 um we were actually one of the pilot programs Montclair and South Orange were the pilot programs to um get that uh program and grant funding underway so we're proud to be a Pioneer in pedestrian safety in that regard um but our decoy operations sometimes we do them as a warning campaign because the educational component is just as important as the enforcement um so uh when we do these warning campaigns we do hand out warning cards that actually have the information on them so that people understand what the statutes are to protect pedestrians um we have also discovered that not all of our pedestrian crashes are the driver's fault so we do have um we do have a lot of educational efforts still to be made on both sides it's both the driver and the pedestrians responsibilities pedestrians have to realize that they have um a responsibility to make sure that they cross with due regard for their own safety that being said most of our enforcement efforts are geared towards our motor vehicle because we we know in a motor vehicle versus a pedestrian crash that The Pedestrian has much more to lose um injury wise so our efforts are concentrated towards changing driver behavior um the other Trend that we are seeing is that uh and when we look at the crash data and compare our pedestrian crash reports um we're seeing a lot of left turn conflicts the left turns at intersections seem to be the contributing circumstance not yielding the right away way to The Pedestrian when we do see the driver at fault um so one of the things that we would like to do this year uh I would like to initiate this in conjunction working with the township and with the county because it has to do with our County Roads as well is to implement a warning sign something as simple and very coste effective it's putting signs up but having like uh you know an educational component along with it um just putting signs up at intersection saying please watch for pedestrians before turning because that really seems to be one of the things that we're seeing as the biggest contributing factor um so again just that's just one of the um initiatives maybe that's something we can even work with the vision zero task force with to make happen um and we will be looking to the township and the county for support in making this this initiative happen thanks Chief yep so just getting back a little bit prior to the pandemic so in 2020 two major events occurred we had the co pandemic and we had the homicide of George Floyd which affected how we police during the covid pandemic less people were on the roadway with more people working from home many residents expressed concerns for being stopped by the police afraid that they may catch the virus due to exposure from the officer by talking or exchanging documents the department respected the community's requests which caused less interaction with motorists you want anything that will uh just with the co pandemic um as we all know Co was hard on all of us um officers were worried about getting sick we were worried about them getting sick and ourselves as well um and even worse we were worried about as well as all the officers about getting sick and taking something home to your families um the pandemic was really devastating for many and I can speak on that personally um officers and their families unfortunately were not exempt but we couldn't stay home we had to be at work work um so sadly uh too many of us attended too many funerals during the co pandemic um it was a great concern the chief and I uh to keep the officer's exposure as low as possible so proactive obviously proactive uh traffic stops were pretty much halted at that point unless the violations were deemed to be egregious something that that had to be addressed and uh despite our efforts keeping everybody healthy we we got hit we got hit pretty hard during the co pandemic so that also affected our enforcement activity as well so as a result the police reform after the death of George Floyd thousands protested in Montclair and called the department demanding less interaction from police it was clear that the public did not want any type of proactive policing which included stopping cars there were discussions about not having the police in schools changes in our use of force policies training hiring practices and having mandatory body cameras there also talks around the country and in Montclair about not stopping Motor Vehicles for minor motor vehicle violations due to the potential of having an unnecessary confrontation with a motorist and just looking back now I can't tell you how many meetings the deputy chief and I attended after the U George Floyd incident and it was very clear message to us that no one and again these weren't issues happening in Monclair but because they were happening around the country we attended meetings and we invited many people to speak to us but it was very still very clear to us nobody wanted any type of proactive policing and again that includes pulling cars over it was a clear message to me and that went on for quite some time want to talk uh with regard to police reform uh we we saw many uh policy changes AG guideline updates uh additional requirements with Crisis Intervention training uh body cameras became mandatory uh just to name a few officers had to be trained and retrained equipment had to be purchased and subsequently deployed um all were steps that Chief and I felt were important that we needed to have in place before we started our re-engagement campaign in Motor Vehicle Enforcement so by the end of 2022 and through 2023 we felt that enough time had passed to have officers be more proactive in their Motor Vehicle Enforcement and deciding to be more proactive we took into consideration that all motor vehicle stops are video recorded and the stop date is reviewed to ensure that the stops are violation driven and not caused by race or other factors officers are also fully trained in wearing body cameras which are not only great for transparency but help protect the officers from false complaints DC you want to go over to uh yes with the stop data uh we've been tracking our stop data here in Montclair well before it became uh mandatory but uh probably late 90s early 2000s uh our data demonstrates clearly that our stops are violation driven and not uh influenced by any other Factor IE race ethnicity gender type of car Etc uh this data is reviewed monthly I generate a quarterly report me and the chief review that report and it's sent to Internal Affairs uh as well um and during our tenure Chief and I we've sat with the NAACP and the Civil Rights Commission and gone over some of this data as well um I can touch a little bit on about the uh enforcement yeah uh we strongly encourage the officers to conduct Motor Vehicle Enforcement um however officers do have discretion in writing a motor vehicle summons uh discretion is essential to patrol function uh the community police relationship and it is essentially at the core of educating the public at the ground level with regard to traffic laws and that is especially poignant with our young drivers out here we don't need to be sending all of our young drivers home they just got their licenses with tickets for Mom and Dad to pay for um and I hope y'all guys can understand that um enforcement is the absolute function of the department however it must be done smartly uh it's got to be done equitably across the township uh as we answer complaints follow the data derived from our traffic studies and observation and complaints from the public as well and uh just to answer some of the concerns we heard prior to have officers out there beating people in the head for minor motor vehicle violations it's it's it doesn't make sense it absolutely doesn't make sense for Minor vehicle infractions that as we know through police reform has been at the root cause of some of those conflicts between police and citizens so need to say that's been proven across the country and it's not a healthy practice um we feel Chief and I that we're here to work with the citizenry we're not here to be an occupying force over the CIT citizenry um and that's where the education component comes in into play we play a part in that as well and uh regarding enforcement activity uh I meet regularly with our Bureau commanders and our tour uh commanders weekly we discuss Trends we direct our uh employment uh enforcement activities as we see fit however there's much more to an officer's day than doing motor vehicle violations the captain will touch on a little bit of that uh momentarily it's crucial that we maintain a balance of uh between what we need to do what we must do and what people want us to do that's uh critical and as Chief coni explained there were many factors which impacted US during the previous three years uh understanding our needs making sensible adjustments to get back to Optimal levels that is where our focus is and that's where it's been um we have additional training ongoing new and updated equipment pending and uh we're moving in that direction good so based on everything that led up to this point we felt that the best way to re-engage with the public was to continue to respond to calls for service and to increase traffic enforcement focused fing on the only more serious traffic violations in 2023 we stopped 5,873 vehicles and conducted numerous traffic related details funded by grants we issued 2769 moving violations which included 20 du IRS and 1,66 parking tickets starting in January 2024 and moving forward we have increased enforcement we recently assigned another officer to the traffic Bureau and are in the process of purchasing more radar units using forfeiture funds from January 1st through January 29th so less than a month we have conducted 1,074 motor vehicle stops issued 675 moving violations 125 parking tickets and have continued to assign officers to the traffic related details I'm confident that it was important that we listen to the community's concerns during the pandemic and after the death of George Floyd based on everything that was going on with police reform everyone on a heightened alert during the pandemic we feel that now we're at the right time to increase enforcement and hopefully get back to the levels that where we were prior to the pandemic do you want to add before I go into St uh just basically again we feel it's our responsibility to to balance the needs of the community as well as our enforcement uh activities um our re-engagement has been very positive th thus far uh we we continue to see results we've increased enforcement maintain positive relation in the in the community uh at the same time um that is our goal you know we're we're here uh with a great team we have a awesome group of officers standing behind me and even those who obviously can't be here but uh we couldn't be prouder of the work that they do out there and they uh they put their best foot forward every day we encourage them to go out there and do their best and they put that sleeve of compassion on when they leave the building and you need that in policing today um there was a uh young officer when I was first hired back in 19 93 who uh sat me down and said uh you know I've been here for a little while you know I grew up in this town and uh no matter what you learn don't you ever forget when you leave this building don't lose your compassion for people and he's still here with us today so I have not just uh just one more thing I want to add to that I know it was mentioned at a council meeting that there was a culture of not writing tickets and again based on the numbers that I just read to you that's truly not the case I hope that they're listening and understand that this was done by Design to balance the needs of the community while at the same time ensuring the safety of this Township and I'm proud of the way we brought them from through the pandemic reform into a time now we're comfortable issuing summonses and stoping motor vehicles I think I'm going to turn over to Lieutenant nezo this time to go over a few things thanks Chief um so we are very fortunate that we have that we have a traffic Bureau I'm very fortunate um uh and we've been able to continue you know a lot of departments have gotten rid of certain bureaus and you know throughout the years and when certain things happen um we're very fortunate we have an Administration who has allowed it to grow um and now as the chief stated you know we are getting back into our normal um what I would consider our traffic Bureau responsibilities they haven't stopped but now they're definitely picking up much more um we although I know that we are um in the traffic Bureau responsible for enforcement of course um there are many other responsibilities uh daily responsibilities that um myself or and the officers in our Bureau are responsible for so I just wanted to go through a few of those things to give you a little bit of an overview to know that it isn't just enforcement it's not just enforcement it's not just education that we do that is a part of it but there definitely is more um I've been the fortunate to be the traffic Bureau Commander for almost 14 years now um I supervise four officers that are out on the road um motor officers um we just got our fourth thank you Chief um and there's an um officer and a secretary in our office who are um assigned to our traffic Bureau office so um I oversee the review and approval of all crash reports that are generated uh annually and we have got you know mentioned those numbers so that can be upwards of 14 to to, 1500 um crash reports a year um we oversee the permit process we issue dumpster permits um temporary handicap PL uh placard uh permits the film permits also we work in conjunction with our uniform Division office so a lot of that those permits and applications come through our office initially and and we are part of that review process um we ensure all summonses are properly entered into our law soft records management system and ensure that the crash reports are also entered and accounted for and properly entered um I apply for and administer all the traffic safety grants that are awarded to the township currently we have five that we receive every year uh sometimes that number you know we do get other um opportunities to apply for other grants as well uh one of them is some one of the grants that we've created uh as a comprehensive Grant due to proving that you know showing that we had some issue in town and we use that as enforcement funds I'll get into some of the grant stuff in a little bit um but we this basically includes the application administering the grant um from SCH everything from scheduling the details to submitting progress reports reimbursement requests uh and I'm also the um Police Department Lea's honor designate for any traffic related uh meetings with Township groups such as Vis Vision zero task force um so we wouldn't be able to complete uh many tasks in our bureau if we didn't have the proper equipment and vehicles um so we maintain um our Police Department Motors motorcycle equipment um all of our speed enforcement equipment so I know we talked about little bit of enforcement um our radar enforcement can't be done if we don't have the proper equipment we have different kinds of Radars you know they have to be calibrated to ensure that we're doing everything on our end to make sure if it's needed for later Court purposes uh Discovery purposes so we're respon our Bureau is responsible for maintaining all of that equipment our alcohol and drug testing equipment which includes the instrument making sure that that stays calibrated annually that there's parts to it that have to get sent out to get calibrated so there's a lot of a lot of moving Parts um with all the equipment that we maintain uh our temporary traffic control equipment which is not just used by the traffic Bureau it's used Department wide that's the um traffic cones barricades anything like that um is handled through our Bureau our variable message signs some of you may have seen that recently up on uh deployed on Upper Mountain so we use that for important traffic messages but it's not just a matter of you know it it it's something that seems like it should be simple it takes programming by the officers it has to be hooked up to a trailer so it is something that does tend to take a little bit more time than just dropping off a trailer um but we do use that to obviously post important Traffic Safety messages um throughout town and finally our um our Jamar boxes is what our speed study equipment is called uh so we uh maintain deploy and produce our um reports based on the traffic studies that we use those for um we also have our TR uh crossing guard program um all of our crossing guards are um you know whether it's hiring scheduling making sure ensuring Crossing posts are covered on a daily basis that's all done by the officer in in our office um and we do conduct periodic Crossing surveys to determine whether either we need to maybe eliminate a Crossing which we obviously try not to do we want to make sure that we have everything covered I wish we could put a crossing guard at every corner in town but um you know it is important to stay on top of things like that we do that proactively sometimes it's a you know we do get um a request or a complaint um so we will definitely use that that also to see if we need additional which we've done recently need additional guards anywhere else in town um as needs change traffic control so many calls that we of course we receive um traffic complaints and parking complaints or issues um that you know we deal with on and many of the but many of the calls that we receive in the office are also from um construction vendors um or film shoot you know vendors that need to speak to somebody to see if there is a need for Traffic Control ultimately our job is to make sure that everybody in town the streets are safe so Public Safety comes first so we do um determine the need for any traffic control to and also to stay apprised of any construction projects that may affect traffic in town and make sure there's no conflict with other projects that might be going on we attend uh the event planning meetings to determine um the need for traff traffic control and security for large scale events such as the festivals that we have in town um our runs that that are hosted in town um so we establish what traffic safety is needed that will cause the least amount of disruption for residents and businesses um along those lines our side jobs um again we work in conjunction with our uniform Division office um but we determine the need for traffic control on any of those construction or Road jobs and assist with the distribution of side jobs through our extra Duty Solutions um company and if needed um our office also activates any call back lists if we know that those jobs aren't filled but there's a need for those for matter of public safety that um a call back list is activated um also schedule and maintain training um all the equipment is no no good if we don't have officers that are trained to use it and those require certain recertifications um annual or you know banal um that have to be um they have to attend and we schedule also and um maintain all training files for any crash related training so um we have officers that are a little bit more experienced in handling crash investigations um our enforcement so we do monitor um the tra traffic productivity on a regular basis report monthly summons reports um Department wide um and part of this is also administering the grant enforcement activities and operations um and providing the officers with any new Motor Vehicle Commission updates um to our education component again you can't just do it on enforcement Alone um we do need to continue with the educ education and um we do conduct safety talks in the elementary middle schools and high schools in town um it's really important to that we get to so we talk we do uh safety talks in the driver's ed classes at various high schools not just Monclair High School um it's important to get to speaking with and make sure the upand cominging drivers understand the laws and again it's not just about going out and giving them a ticket you know um it's the last thing we want to do so we would rather get ahead of it and make sure that they see us also in this capacity and that they actually know what to do if they are stopped we don't want them to get stopped so we're going to prevent that if we can but it's also important that we've seen through the years that it it um makes it a little easier for them if they they ask questions that they know what to do if they are stopped um we participate in um and provide police support at community events um whether it's the brotherto brother bike ride um the bike bus um so these events also provide officers the opportunity to educate the kids and adults participating about pedestrian and bicycle safety and and we try to provide handout information so that you know we really do reach everybody the best way that we can and um we do work in conjunction with the Community Service Unit also on a lot of events we work together with them um and another educational component that we do is our child passenger seat installation um this is usually done by appointment we have officers that are child uh passenger seat technicians they've gone to additional training and um it's really important they make an appointment they bring their vehicle and the CH the child seat and the officer installs it and shows the parent the proper way to make sure that their child is safe while they're um while they're in the vehicle so um I I mentioned earlier that we also have our Traffic Safety grants so just to give an idea I just wanted to mention a couple of the ones that we do get our again our pedestrian safety Grant or what we call walksafe um we get um 30,000 annually that we've been getting for pre-co since pre-co um 28,000 for enforcement 2,000 in Commodities so as I mentioned those handouts the information that we give out we're able it has to be printed materials we we purchased that um so this provides 400 um extra enforcement hours per year on grant funding and those are the funds that we use to conduct our decoy operations those are the cops and crosswalks um operations that we conduct last year we completed completed three decoy operations or 150 decoy hours and um 48 individual details were conducted for a total of 250 hours um the one comprehensive grant that we have is our bicycle and school bus safety Grant we receive 18,000 annually 16,500 for enforcement and 1,500 for Commodities and this provides 235 um extra enforcement hours or and we did 47 individual officer details as a result of that some of those were just individual officers going out and enforcing and we also use those for um we actually had a a school bus safety initiative where we would follow school buses on their routes and if people didn't stop for the school bus they got stopped so we use the extra grant funding to be able to conduct that enforcement um click or ticket Grant so that's for seat belts uh we we've been awarded that annually in addition to our distracted driving Grant um between those two more than 300 extra hours A year going towards enforcement um and our drunk driving enforcement fund allows us to conduct extra overtime as well um we uh fulfill also our educational component as one of the grants requires us to provide a certain number of public presentations which we complete easily with our P our um safety talks in the schools um I already mentioned the there some of our Traffic Safety initiatives I did mention our um the school bus enforcement um we also conduct school bus safety checkpoint uh with Motor Vehicle Commission their um inspection unit and this we do once a year and it allows us to ensure that the school bus companies are complying with licensing and Equipment uh requirements I'm happy to say that they actually they passed with flying colors last year so that's a good thing um and um our Traffic Safety checkpoints uh school bus safety awareness events that we've done at Applegates and at Edgemont Park uh the the Duck Derby um Monclair received the gold level award from safe roots to school um we just filled that nominate uh filled out that nomin again this year um so hopefully we'll get that award again um that requires you to meet certain criteria to be able to be eligible to receive that award including a letter of Township uh support from Township officials uh annual crossing guard training which we do every year crossing guard policy complete streets policy Crossing post surveys um any any involvement with um sa Traffic Safety events like bike and walk to school day or um the bike bus like like we've been doing um we have a new initiative that we've done the last two years called carfit and it's in partnership with triaa and Sean Hall University um it's an inspection that's completed by technicians usually done through the school they've been trained um to teach mature drivers how to be properly fitted to their vehicles to make sure that they feel the safest driving but also that they know what they should be looking for when they're driving uh and that we've gotten really good feedback on that the last few years our National Night Out every year we have an August um with the police department and um our annual teen driving safety Event in May May is teen driving safety month and we do that at the high school we do an extrication demonstration it's a great opportunity for us um to work with community policing um to go out and meet the kids teach them about some traffic safety they have fun they drive the Sydney machine which simulates drunk driving to give them an idea of that and um we it's it's just a really good partnership with some local businesses as well who sponsor the event um are the fire department ma uh monair ambulance unit and um other Community Partners um and uh finally besides our daily enforcement um one of our biggest tasks is responding to um inquiries for traffic studies um so we deploy our speed analysis equipment um sometimes it's complaint driven and we do try to stay proactive with that as well um it allows us to determine whether or not first of all there is a speeding issue on any given Street and uh if there is how to better deploy our resources for Effective and efficient enforcement um if we do determine there's a need for further study we recommend that to the um Township Department of Community Services engineering um and just because we don't recommend or or um determine that there's a speeding issue it doesn't mean there might be some other issue on that street so it could still be looked into further um again we don't make the determination we make the recommendation um going forward so uh just to give an idea 2022 we conducted 33 speed studies 23 we conducted uh 22 speed studies um and sometimes that uh again it doesn't always um it's not not always to implement traffic calming in the way of speed humps for like speeding um but we have also seen that um that some of these recommendations have led to changes more recently for example orange and Union um our traffic signal Improvement there uh forest and Claremont they always stop Fernwood and Inwood at a stop sign and Chestnut and Central became an Allway stop as well um so again just to give a little bit more of an overview of what we do in traffic it's not just enforcement so while that's a very big component of what we do on a daily basis it's not all-encompassing um and again we're very fortunate to have this Bureau to be able to complete all of these tasks because it's a lot of stuff to do on a daily basis some of it's not daily but um you know the officers work very hard in the unit to make sure that everybody's getting done what needs to get done so thank you good thank chief chief is there any way I just want to tell Lieutenant nzo I got a nice message today hello Council r i just just want to thank you for the new sign recently installed on Wang and Ridgewood Avenue both directions and she shows the sign says turning vehicle stop for do you know about this CU this was something you folks must have done and I want to thank you but this is a reson Thanking us for getting a sign up uh but you know she says in this she has several other things she wants but she says she's not sure who to go to because it's in the intersection of Bloomfield Glenridge and Montclair where they all intersect so that's the problem that we often face right is it cross borders So you you're able to deal with that but I'm I'm concerned that you should with your four people what if we gave you some more because I think if you need if you need more help and I see you're nodding your head but it's not my decision on budgets the thing is if you need help and your division is your unit is so important I'd like to see our budget focus on more funding for the traffic Bureau and I want to thank you for your effort but I think you need more Staffing so that's up to the chief to request for the manager all but I think that more Staffing with all the things you said you do and with all the people complaining and wanting things done I think signage is very important we've put signs everywhere but we've got to enforce them but I want to turn to councilman Terry has often brought up those signs that tell people to slow down and what their speed is could we just buy more of those that would help you too wouldn't it be good to give you more equipment too absolutely um you know the an example those signs you know that they're they're not cheap um we all there are ones that are temporary there are ones that are permanent we see the ones around the school um that post your speed you know as as as you're driving um so definitely those are great um tools to be able to to use um I don't think they should be put everywhere so I think there would have to be a determination of where they would best be deployed but certain certainly yes but the more 25 M hour signs we have on them with 25 to stay alive is My slogan uh but the more signs you know it's helpful I think because people will slow down if they see that speed limit yes sir thank you counil did I understand that you want to increase the number of cops did I hear you correctly you did Chief in her in her division did I hear you correctly in her division wait until hear my talk okay in her division to increase her division we have from another Shi around okay yeah you complete yes thank you sir good evening Mr mayor council Mr laola tonight I want to start by congratulating officer McGrath for his outstanding work his dedication and commitment to his duties are truly commendable I also want to thank all the off-duty officers who are in attendance tonight just like officer McGrath the men and women of our department consistently go above and beyond in their duties they face challenging situations daily often putting themselves at risk and they do so with pride dedication and without hesitation while there is not enough time to individually acknowledge each officer who has demonstrated an act of heroism or who has saved a life I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of them their seph actions make our community a safer place as a Patrol Captain I have the privilege of working closely with the chief and deputy chief discussing current trends and areas of concern I also spend time in the community with our officers gaining firsthand knowledge of what is happening and what needs to be done together we develop and Implement plans of action to meet the needs of our community in 2023 we responded to over 100,000 calls for service which amounts to roughly 300 calls per day every time someone calls for assistance the police department is there to respond our town has undergone significant transformation ations and through it all the police department has remained a reliable and adaptable Force catering to the dynamic needs of Our Community Medical responses accounted for over 4,200 calls on average 20 to 30 of these calls monthly are handled by ambulances from other jurisdictions because of the strain on Mau so the time spent by officers providing care on scene is dramatically increased we have also seen a dramatic increase in Mental Health crisis calls suicides and suicide attempts especially in our younger population it is disheartening to note that this trend shows no sign of decreasing car thefts and burglaries are on the rise both locally and Statewide however many of these crimes can be prevented through increased education locking doors and securing Vehicles we encourage everyone here to use their home security cameras ring Nest Etc and to promptly report anything suspicious to the police department it is crucial that we work together as a community to ensure the safety of all I would also like to address the issue of Motor Vehicle violations throughout the town as well as the challenges of a more robust Bloomfield Avenue business district it is an understatement to say that addressing every issue is a challenge factors such as remote work increased ride share services and delivery drivers have added to the problem nonetheless our officers have done an excellent job of enforcing traffic regulations through summonses and education and we will remain steadfast in this endeavor while prioritizing calls for service in addition we handle a wide variety of incidents including domestic violence assaults theft fraud disputes shoplifting barking dogs and traffic crashes we regularly conduct area checks as part of our daily responsibilities this involves patrolling the business districts prioritizing the safety of our schools monitoring areas with increased crime rates and responding to locations affected by threats our dedication extends even to challenging situations such as weather events power adages and cyber attacks lastly being a destination Community we host numerous large- scale events Pride JazzFest races concerts demonstrations parades and festivals the these events require meticulous planning extensive resources and Manpower they require coordination and communication amongst different agencies including our ambulance unit Public Works Department fire department as well as our community federal state partners and you our community stakeholders our Collective efforts ensure that we have taken every possible measure to ensure the safety of the residents participants and attendees mitigating any potential threats or problems s that may arise in conclusion I am immensely proud and fully support the work of the men and women of our Police Department I stand with them in our unwavering commitment to protect and serve the residents of our community just as we pledge to do so thank [Applause] you I got two other things I want to address that uh I recalled from watching past meetings one our response time I guess was called into play and questioned a little bit on a motor vehicle accident I reviewed the body camera I looked at the dispatch uh recordings and the time once the officer received the information took 3 minutes to get to that call now there was a delay I will I will admit that but the delay wasn't the officer's fault first we had a new dispatcher in training who was juggling a medical call at the same time with uh special needs student who hit their head and had a seizure down at lacana Plaza we had a large funeral going on at the same time closing streets down and we had some construction sites going on and the main thing I want to say is the caller made it very clear that there was no injuries so there was no reason to rush over to that call so again I understand that sometimes people can get frustrated they want us there but no one's sitting around doing nothing everyone's going to go to the call they know when something's legitimate if something pops off they know to go They're not going to be sitting around and it seems like sometime people get a little frustrated I get that but at the same time some of new officers asked me why were they being critiqued on that and I I looked into it and the reality was took three minutes for the officer to get to that call the other thing I noticed was a couple times at somebody these meetings someone brought up Revenue that we're missing out on revenue and I don't even want to hear the revenue when it comes to ticketing we don't ticket for Revenue we ticket for enforcement we ticket to educate people we pull cars over to make the to Town safer not to generate revenue for this town I don't know why that keeps coming up it's illegal but for some reason there's no quota system we're out here using discretion and we're doing the best we can so I just wish the revenue end would stop as well well thank you Chief and and certainly just want to say this um appreciate you uh listening to some of the comments that have you know come forward um and coming in here and addressing them I think um certainly speaking for myself I'll say you know the the information the data is very important you know writing a lot of them down here you gave a lot of numbers and and and details around that but I think what has been even more informative and and hope for a community for the community as well is the rationale behind some of that and certainly when you talk uh about I mentioned before covid and the impact that that's had and you know how we all need to modify our strategies and make sure people first and foremost were safe during that um and also you know being mindful of uh what's the uh cost benefit analysis of an interaction that could uh escalate to something else versus uh an educational opportunity that that helps uh you know uh benefit right so those are all the calculations that I know that um each and every one of you have to make uh you know each and every day at every single call uh but I think that was very helpful for me at least and I hope others to kind of get the thinking behind why those numbers are what they are and the rational that you use to to get to that place um certainly understanding also um the ability at least with with the specifically the covid piece to kind of move things back into a more normalized position although some of those other factors still remain right those are those are things we'll be we'll be um working with for for for a long time I'm sure um you know I think that uh again appreciate all the details I know from you know uh um you traffic enforcement we hear you know a lot like and quite frankly I think on our end a lot of it's request for uh studies you know that's that's our often our first interface you know that we reach out is through asking for a study or asking for something to be assessed um it was good to hear like what those cap capacity numbers are you know in that range as to how many studies can be done and we know uh quite frankly often residents are looking for what what are some solutions um you know there is a a tendency to feel that it's speeding right away and then of course you realize uh you know that vehicle might not be traveling at the speed you think and you get the data to find out if that's the case or not um but I think that's really a place where um there is a lot of with our community pleasing for sure but also with your trision a lot of interaction um with the community so I think it's appreciate you going into the detail as well explaining all the different things that that uh that that entails so thank you for that um any questions from my colleagues uh Mr Deputy Mayor yes thank you uh Mr Mayor um and thank you all for being here this evening and thank you all for your support back there as well uh couple quick questions deputy chief you had mentioned about uh stops for Major versus minor infractions can can you just give us an idea of of what that what's a major and what's a minor or yeah um major infractions you're speeding um minor infractions you you failed to signal when there wasn't a lot of traffic or things of that nature uh some of the uh uh mechanical the mechanical problems with a vehicle you you had a traffic uh tail light out things of that nature cuz cuz a headlight I mean with due respect for me having the left headlight out is problematic that's a problem but because you're you're making we're talking about as the lieutenant had um indicated right the left- hand turns can a problem if I got a head left headlight out to me that would be something I'd hope we would look a little harder at a headlight would be but like a tinted window like um an inspection sticker these things that came out of police reform I didn't make them up people don't want us pulling over cars for minor motor vehicle violations that's just the way it was I don't know if you heard anything on the your end at the NAACP or not but that came out of that the the other question I had too and and we've spoken about this you know at least the last 11 and half years I've been up here and we we've come up with some great ideas by the way that you know with the speed bump over on Park and Alexander like there there's what we did up at Bradford school um I'd still like to see us get away and I don't think this is a Montclair thing I think it's a state thing right where it's like we looked at the crash data and then of course the hair on the back of my neck stands up because we don't have enough accidents at that intersection if we could get out of that realm if you will and and you know look let's look at the other stuff and let's look for other ways that's not even a question it's just a statement she did touch on that a tad if I may sure she said just because the data may not dictate one thing or another there's other things that we may be able to do at a particular intersection to address the concerns of the residents there at and and I and I respect that deputy chief but but over the years that's been a big factor is that we we looked at the crash data and there weren't enough crashes and for me that's ghoulish because I don't want to hear that but working together for other uh uh you know other Solutions I think is great and then the last thing I'm going to say too and and you know many of you have heard this before I know many of you have heard it before too I fortunate enough as part of my law practice to do police reform work all over the country and for the last three years I've been in Albuquerque New Mexico where the district court judge and the doj appointed me on their excessive force issues that they've been dealing with and I was fortunate enough enough too because I dragged Mr Terry out of retirement and had him come out there working with me as well as one of our investigators but I I just just want to thank all of you all of the officers out here we are so fortunate to have you in our town thank you all for your service thank your families for your service because what I see out there is just crazy and we don't have any of that here and I thank you all for that thank you Mr [Applause] Mayor councilwoman Scher yes thank you may mayor and um and thank you for being here for thank you for that comprehensive overview I learned a lot and and I'm really I'm so pleased to see the thing the efforts that are going on I had a couple of questions I uh first of all the two stop signs that I put on put up in down Central the one on the corner of Brunswick and Central and Chestnut in central have made a huge difference on Central Avenue um the it was a Speedway for so long and every all the cars have um calmed down the speeding has calmed down there immensely um Lieutenant when you talk about crashes because that was a big number does that include like every little fender bender is do you consider that a crash yes you know when you hear the word crash I think of you know breaking glass um I know yes it's it's all inclusive it is everything from um any minor CRA we call them crashes and not accidents now I mean that was actually a terminology that they changed it it does have a little bit more of an impact than just saying something was an accident and that was one of the reasons why they changed that terminology so um but yes it is all inclusive it is minor crashes um I almost said it myself again accident reports um crash reports that are reporting property damage and injuries or just property damage uh it's inclusive of pedest crashes and bicycle involved crashes as well okay yes thank you it's a total number okay the one thing that well it's a lot of things that plague the second ward but one of them in particular in particular the streets that um between between Grove and Ridgewood Avenue um there's Prescott I know has an issue Glen Ridge Avenue um uh Steven Street Gray Street it ends at the Glen Ridge Country Club all of those streets are plagued with Speeders coming from Montclair into Bloomfield or into I'm sorry into Glen Ridge um and the streets I mean I hear from them very very often and those streets are shared with Glenn Ridge so do you have any suggest every you know and I meet with them regularly on these different streets um residents want speed bumps they want bump outs you know and and I don't blame them a lot of those streets have little you know young children um are there any suggestions or do you work alongside with Glen Ridge to help those streets they stuff sure uh I we have looked at a couple of those streets um and again as we stated some of it is complaint driven or you know that somebody brings a situation to to light to us um I know we did look at um I I believe we did all three of those streets and we did them simultaneously um that so basically when we do a speed study it takes about we usually we collect data over a week um making sure that we get the Monday through Friday that's where we see most of the traffic because that's when people are going to work going to school so we're also not going to include a week where they they have three day two days off or three days off so we skip those weeks you know we always try to make sure that it's fair across the board wherever we're trying to do a study from um and I believe that we did do the study of the three streets simultaneously to make sure that we're capturing accurate data um and and I want to I don't want to give the wrong information but from my what I my if my memory serves me correctly there wasn't a a a speeding issue when you look at what we used at the time the 85th percentile speeds are um I know that there is talk also about trying to get away from that a little bit um but we do need to use that that is the state standard um and that's what we're using right now to at least establish whatever our Baseline um is to determine if something should be studied further um so that's not to say that there isn't a car that might be speeding at at a given point um and I but I believe that happens on every street at some point um unfortunately so at least it will give us an idea of whether there is actually a speeding problem there or um and and the problem we see also you know Grove Street is a very busy um arterial roadway County roadway way and um it it is connecting two towns so we see those as connector roadways you know um it's not those aren't the only streets that have complaints with that um but again if my memory serves me correctly we did analyze it but it doesn't mean we're not going to do it again those when we do get the complaints we do like to do the several different studies or or different periods of time right so we we'll make sure that we we look into them again thank you thank you again and thanks everybody by thank councilman ter I want to thank you for the exceptional work that you have done and that you continue to do uh I don't think uh that many people realize how dedicated and hardworking that the officers are in this community and uh from firsthand you know I appreciate it very very much uh you mentioned Chief NAACP yes uh law enforcement is one of the only professions that something could happen a thousand miles away and unfortunately people think that you're doing some of the same things you know you and I have talked you showed me exactly the number of stops that you're making who you're stopping you know and uh it doesn't reflect in what happens like in some of the other places around right uh I have a question I know that this year uh they're asking for licenses for officers you know what will that entail yeah we have an officer now we just assigned again this goes back to the police reform changes that have been made we assigned an officer now to just oversee training which is going to also involve police licensing so yeah you have a police license and at that point my understanding we're still learning about it but it will get renewed every so many years and we're just going to learn as we go along with it but we have an officer going to oversee just the licensing process right now so right now all police officers monair our license and then at some point they'll be up for Renewal now if you get in trouble or something happens they can pull that license to PTC I believe I don't have everything on it but I do have an officer assigned just to do that so again you go you assign an officer now oversee license and you shift them from some other priority it means something else probably is not getting done the way you like so we're constantly juggling at the police department the same thing with internal affairs we increased our internal affairs with two officers now two supervisors because of the accountability and all the work that goes through that office two officers that work in that offices work hard I mean they whether there's a complaint or not they have to follow up on every use of force every um really pretty much everything that happens in an apartment any type of arrest they look at it you have a early warning system to make sure there's no problem so we're constantly shifting our needs in the police department a lot of that came through reform some of it happened through the accreditation and then also just evolving over the years but the licensing is a big part of the future of policing in New Jersey yeah and finally I wanted to say congratulations to officer gulan and then he retired right he did he has his walk out today yeah and he he left I saw he left here how many years was that he had 29 and a half his father was a a Cranford I believe Lieutenant his brother was a prosecutor's office great family all around uh you know we're going to miss Ray you we have we have a lot of good guys here obviously good men and women really good thank you very much thank you any other question uh Council councilwoman price aers I will uh give good evening I I do want to extend again my appreciation I it was a very comprehensive report and there's so much you know that I gleaned that I I knew some of which and many parts that I I learned some tonight so thank you again all of you for uh and Mr Lola for sort of recognizing there's so many questions that have Arisen that he invited you all to be here so that was uh I think helpful to the community and to us on one very specific I want to acknowledge as the third word you know you you touched upon a couple of very key intersections the Union Harrison uh Orange Road one big one there's still some glitches I think we can talk about and and other the one I think you mentioned forest and Claremont but um I just want to know if um crosswalks like for school kids does that have to go through the same kind of study evaluation because um Harrison Avenue actually where I live um even Mr Childs who was a past principal of of Hillside you know has has come out there was a crash and we're talking about the fact that we need a flashing light we need a crosswalk we don't necessarily need a guard but we need some more of that is that something that requires a whole study or should I just be writing you an email to talk about it um you can send an email uh you're talking about requ something flashing lights like the flashing and yellow Bo crosswalk would be you know maybe there's a few of those without the same kind of cost as yeah putting personnel there no that's that's fine a request and then we can forward that and be um you know we can work something as something is easy as establishing a crosswalk um every intersection is a crosswalk what if it's unmarked it's just unmarked it's easy to mark it if we need to make it a mark crosswalk so I mean there's not necessarily a whole cross street you know it's a long stretch of road so anyway I'll follow up but than yes and you can follow up with that and we'll look definitely look into that okay thanks a lot you're welcome any other questions right seeing none um I'll I'll just Echo what you've heard already um again thank you for all the data thank you for being very thorough thank you for coming and answering in the questions um you know and I I'll simply say as well uh it is a testament I think to the work that all of you um uh and everybody on the force does that here in Montclair um I had the pleasure years ago of kind of seeing firsthand some of the community interactions um some of the innovative ways I remember early on some of the plays that were being done just to you know become part of the community and reverse roles and and experience things in different ways that I think were cutting edge and remain um certainly having the had the opportunity years back too to um to kind of uh uh ride and see what happens in some of these cases and see the difficult decisions that are made in Split seconds um and also the the reason why you're often rushing from one place to another um with the Staffing I think on our end we've um you know done what we can in terms of uh you know um authorizing and changing scheduling and overlapping and some of the pieces that we've done to have more officers like on on the street and in places we do get those es and flows as well you know we'll hear concerns um quite frankly some some people coming here talking about defunding police um and but also then saying hey wait a minute we've seen an increase in car thefts and other pieces we we want more officers here or we want more officers around uh traffic Patrol and other pieces so um those are the conversations but I think I appreciate you guys being right in the middle of those conversations and helping all of us as a community to help understand them and and with that and managing all those pieces uh on behalf of the the full community I want to say thank you thank you for the work that you do thank you for helping to keep everyone safe and um thank you for the commitment that you have to this Township thank you thank you mayor thank you sir thank [Applause] you okay next we will move to approve the minutes there have been presented to us the minutes for December 5th uh and I so move second it's been moved and seconded any questions concerns comments modifications seeing none all in favor please say I I all oppos please say no extensions uh thank you uh next we have the public hearing on the Green Acres Grant application which is resolution R 24024 which is a resolution enabling the state uh of of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres application in support of the initi and park uh complete inclusive playground uh with that I'm going to open the hearing on this uh is there any objection to opening the hearing no seeing no objection is there anyone who wishes to be heard on this issue I'm sorry point of clarification here um I understand there's going to be a presentation and it may be beneficial if we hear the presentation before people ask their questions it may would you like to speak to it now and then we'll use that as part of the hearing that would be help without objection y so please thank you mayor council uh good evening to all and uh thank you for the opportunity to speak uh as you correctly noted who are you again can you tell us who you are Roberto Hernandez with neglia engineering Township engineer um so as the mayy correctly noted this is the public hearing for the 2024 New Jersey uh Department of of Environmental Protection Green Acres application um before I jump into the scope of what's actually being proposed just would like to kind of give a brief synopsis of uh how we got here and why Nishu Wayne Park uh playground it was selected uh over the number of years really since we I've been around uh over the last six years has been a concered effort to either rehabilitate our playgrounds or in some cases do full-on reconstruction for our somewhat older playgrounds uh and that's been consistent over the last several years uh and we were announced that the gr was announced late last year uh and when we were informed of this we discussed this internally on what would be a an ideal candidate uh for this Grant and those discussions uh there's understanding that Nishan playground has been um underserved for some time uh I believe based on the records I have uh the last reconstruction was done in 2004 um so there's been it's been quite some time since this was uh you know paid any attention so uh that along the side that uh there's understanding that there's a desire for this playground to be a uh inclusive playground um the state just so happen this year uh open up a new C category uh for Green Acres uh funding uh which is called the Jake law funding uh and in that case it provides specific funding for completely inclusive playgrounds that comply with the Jake law requirements as defined by the DCA um so U the idea when I have spoken to the state is that application submitted under this specific program would be a um non-competitive submission so and as Essence so long as you submit the required information um and it meets the eligibility requirements for the program uh you should in essence receive uh funding without necessarily uh having to compete with other applications for that funding um depending on the demand for that specific program so but that that's the intent from the state so uh with that said uh Nish playground is what we have uh prepared here before you today uh you should have individual handouts of the same uh briefly it's a relatively straightforward project um essentially complete removal of the existing playground equipment fixtures that are currently in place removal of uh the surface as it currently exists today um and Rec and Reconstruction from the ground up uh that includes new perimeter fencing uh New Port and place safety surfacing and a a uh complete overhaul with the uh playground fixtures that meet the completely inclusive uh definition under Jake's law um to meet that requirement there's several um criteria that needs to be met shading of the playground it's a minimum of 20% of the playground needs to be provided with shading for users whether that be through natural canopy coverage through with trees which there are currently Three Trees within the playround ground which are to remain uh there's currently no plans to remove those trees uh so we'll work around that or through the use of artificial shading with canopy structures um so there's a mix of both in here to meet that requirement uh there's a requirement for the playground to include a what they designate as a quiet play area and uh that's also included here as well towards the bottom left corner there's a uh designated Zone which meet that requirement it's essentially a uh small gazebo structure uh which is somewhat uh enclosed and uh secluded from the surrounding areas inside of that it also has uh various sensory and tactile uh fixtures that you know children can interact with um and be somewhat uh you know have some privacy there um in addition to that we also have some uh fixtures which are completely accessible with a uh wheelchair I know that's that's been a concern for some residents as well and um and just just to be clear um the application as presented is an idea of what it could be not necessarily what it will be um we understand that there's various stakeholders Community groups residents uh that have various you know situations that want to make sure that they can be accommodated here uh those discussions do not end here uh and in fact the state encourages those to continue uh until we have a full-fledged project put together uh we have still some time we still really the goal here is to ensure that we submit an application that is in compliance with the state's requirements complies with Jake's law um and that uh we provide a basis for justification for the requested funds uh for this grant uh once we receive a response to State regarding funding uh we'll be able to then really dive deep into what we want to do and what we can do with the funding that we receive um so specifically for this grant uh the opportunity is to receive uh anywhere between a 500,000 up to a $750,000 grant um that is a 75% match on the state side so in essence you would have to have at least a million dollar project or above in order to receive the full 750 that's the cap so the township would have to contribute at least 25% of the costs um or over if it's exceeds the uh the million dollar requirement so as currently as currently proposed right now we have a conservative estimate this is assuming full bells and whistles and other amenities uh we have a a drinking fountain proposed here as well which is not necessarily a requirement for Jake's law but something we thought that would be uh certainly beneficial uh there is currently one drinking fountain but it's somewhat a ways away uh by the tennis courts at Nish Way park so uh this would be immediately outside of the playground so um cently the estimate sits at 1.3 million uh and uh again once we receive response from the state with with regards to funding uh we can C curtail that um as well as incorporate other fixtures and um you know pieces to accommodate certain needs that need to be met uh for the Township's residents um now to touch on a few things uh that was required as part of this um Grant application um aside from the public hearing itself uh there is again like I said uh a strong emphasis from the state to involve the public and Community to get feedback uh and really put together a project that fully serves the residents uh within the township of Montclair so uh again a from the public hearing itself uh we have also Incorporated a public resident survey which can be accessed on the township website uh and there there's a variety of questions I think about eight questions in total uh residents are you know free to fill that out uh there's there's opportunities in there to make notes recommendations again if you have a specific condition or situation uh that you would like to uh make sure is it is at least uh considered to be included in this playground that is the place to do it uh we received a total of 50 responses so far um and we are continuing to accept uh feedback uh probably for another week or so uh applications are due this February 7th so um you know we'll be closing that submission shortly but again the conversation does not end uh at that point you know we're we're open to continuing those discussions uh until we uh until we have a fully fledged project Pro uh put together um aside from that we also have a uh a requirement to perform uh what would they call a preliminary environmental impact assessment uh for the site and the project that's proposed uh based on that we really have not found any any concern with respect to potential impacts forther environmentally or that would require mitigation measures we understand there's a concern uh among among uh residents with the use of PED in place safety surfacing um as part of this assessment we did we did investigate that um and really what we found was that uh and not and again this is not a negly uh assessment that we did studies on the port and place material itself or Township of Montclair study on the port and place these are these are studies that were performed uh by various state and federal agencies really across North America um such as EPA uh the uh have the CDC Kansas Department of Health uh and environment us consumer product safety commission as well as the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors um this uh is you know comprehensive study with the available information to date uh but they essentially all concluded the same thing uh to date based off the information we have available today uh there is no real uh link to the use of port and place surface with various um you know cancerous effects or or um or environmental impacts with the use of the surface in relation to inhale inhalation or direct exposure um you know skin to surface contact so that's been the conclusion to dat with the information that uh that they have gathered but studies are continuing to uh be cond conducted and um you know we reached out to D themselves they have not objected to the use of the surface as well um but uh that's that's an ongoing conversation but uh just to you know on the record clarify uh that's that's that's that's the current position uh for most um federal and state agencies on on that on that subject um just also like to uh um just would also like to clarify uh that the um the use of the port and place surface is not something uh that is necessarily new to the township uh we have done several Parks across town um which currently have the uh port in place surface and have been in place for a number of years um so again this is just just is just something that uh we believe is is is the best course of action CU again with the grant requirements to F comply with Jake's law it requires the use of what they call unitary uh safety surfacing essentially you have two different kinds of playground safety surfacing you have a unitary surface or a loose surface loose surface is like your wood chip engineered wood fiber PE gravel um that's that's what we consider loose and your unitary is your port in place surfacing um and uh you know rubber tiles Turf um that requires the use of unitary surfacing a number of reasons why not only ada8 compliance but just um ease of access you know wood chips um engineer wood fiber uh is technically ada8 compliant but you can imagine someone in a wheelchair trying to roll through that it certainly provides more difficulty uh for that accessibility and movement as compared to a solid port in place uh surface so um that's in essence the application um and uh you know justifications behind of you know why we selected what we did today again just to reiterate um this is not the final version this is not a bid ready project this is not a final bid plan set or a set of construction drawings uh this is just an idea of what it could be and um certain that that conversation will continue um as we move forward that concludes my comments m l would you like to add anything that there this this is nothing is set in stone and we intend to have a a robust conversation with the community in which we seek their input and hopefully we will come up assuming we received the grant we will come up with a plan that is satisfactory to uh to uh the community so I just want to emphasize that that the pictures are just ideas and that we don't design playgrounds or anything else until we have the funds uh that we know we're going to receive so at that time when uh when we receive the grant we will start full-fledged to design the project and seek the input from all the stakeholders councilwoman um yes thank you thank you um Mr hernes for all of this so I have a few questions the black lines the thin black lines on the big picture mhm the black lines are will be the new structures that are coming correct those are the locations of the new structur so what's so like the blue structure that orange that's what's there now that's just yes so we we basically use an aerial image as a base map um which shows the current playground as it exists so anything coloriz is essentially the existing conditions and the black line overlay is proposed locations and uh conceptual equipment uh options bathrooms included in this plan or not necessarily in this particular plan um however there are restrooms available immediately adjacent with the pools um granted those aren't always open um you know year round but uh you know for the majority of the year they they are open and accessible to the public are the um the shade elements are those plastic or canvas like this potential like this yeah those as shown those are canvas um but uh again that may that may change depending on uh you know the desire and need when the all on the all-inclusive um all access playground was built in edgemon park the we we made sure that there was parking and um and um um ways for families if somebody was in a wheelchair to get to the playground so there are Pathways from the parking lot and Pathways from Edgemont Road there was there's a pathway to make you know flat surfaces for our um people with disabilities to get to the to the playground safely is where is the parking for this playground and would there be Pathways right so currently so we actually just redid All the Pathways in the park um last year so those are all new there is a parking lot currently at Nishan Park um it is a ways away it's by the it's by the firehouse yes correct but there is on Street Park also uh on High Street with I believe there is at least one Ada on street parking space um so there's accessibility there as well we may need to do some minor modification may be put in a ramp at the curb to facilitate access but um there is direct access from either the parking lot or on High Street uh with a pathway directly to the playground um currently okay good thank you thank you anything else I I thank you for the presentation and I know you did you know enlist some public support or or in comments through the website and you're saying there's still an opportunity for that and I know that you know some members of the public are here now and and we'll still have time so I I know that was a point that's been made and just emphasizing um I think I might want to just hear what some of the other folks have to say I may have some other thoughts stimulated but um you know I think the importance is that we're we're meeting the deadline there's a very relevant kind of a grant that we can go for that would really help deliver on some commitments that we have that we want for the community you know Council Cummings is in the fourth W but it's really the third W that also all kinds of residents from um just across the street from Harrison Avenue are pouring over there as well so it's really very much a community um space that I I care a lot about and I'm really happy to hear that this is in the work so I think I might want to hear some of the other public comment and maybe have some more questions if you're going to be around we can I'll be here throw them to you thank you I just want to clarify one thing sure uh the bathrooms have not been on operation that are close to there and if that's something that you want to do it's going to require the council because it's been shut down for years the B the bathrooms are right off the tennis court there's a house right there by the tennis court and there two bathrooms right around there they've been shut um through several administrations um and it is something that I think we need to look at opening those bathrooms up it's a good question Robin and then your your part about the access way so you're really going to have to off of High Street do some curb cutouts because there is no place at all on High Street where you can walk off the street right and have access and then and again with the ramps well with the new surfaces the new Pathways have been put in um the entrance way to the park that you have on there will probably require a little bit more pathway built because the current when that goes to the pool you know you're going to need make a left to go into that entrance and then this park has two entrances and so the one that's closer to the tennis court will probably need the same type of you know one so when you look at it closer think about that but I do think the bathrooms are one thing that we should look at very closely in terms of getting that open because that is uh an unused adet in that part understood thank you so you'll stick around for a second I'll be right here okay all right anyone from the public wishing to be heard doing this hearing good evening good evening good evening turn on or off lights are we good yeah hi hi guys you recognize me from your inbox I'm Aaron bullan um I live on Champlain Terrace on October 30th the Town Council received a letter from the president of the national Center for Health research Diana's Zuckerman Dr Zuckerman was a recent featured presenter at the cdc's childhood lead poisoning prevention program annual meeting I'll give you the cliffs notes version of uh the letter that was sent to you I will also pass it out to you when I'm done uh as you probably know the American Academy of Pediatrics states that no level of lead exposure should be considered safe for children the CDC warns that plastic grass made with nylon or other materials contains lead whether from infill plastic grass or rubber playground surfaces the lead doesn't just stay on the surface with wear the materials turn to dust containing lead and other chemicals that is invisible to the eye and is inhaled by children when they play This Cloud stirred up by activity on synthetic surfaces is referred to as the pig pen effect by Harvard University Dr Stewart shallot poured in place in artificial turf fields contain synthetic Rubber and plas that are made with endocrine disrupting chemicals there are numerous studies indicating that endocrine disrupting chemicals as well as known as also known as hormone disrupting chemicals found in rubber and plastic cause serious health problems the consumer product safety commission has ban numerous hormone disrupting chemicals from toys and other children's products yell scientists found that 20% of the 92 chemicals that have been tested in pour in place in artificial ficial turf are classified as probable carcinogens and 40% are irritants that can cause asthma or other breathing problems or can irritate the skin and eyes none of these products are proven as safe as natural surfaces love you guys anyone else who wishes to be heard on this even I ly Lacy and I'm here as one of the coair of the is is that still on thank you start again hi Wendy Lacy I know most of you I'm here as one of the co-chairs of the people with disabilities Advisory Board I sent an email to you this morning sharing our support for the concept and design of an inclusive playground and mentioning a few important things for you to consider As you move forward we know that this process is in the very beginning stages there are some towns that have done a wonderful job with inclusive playgrounds and that there are other towns have done terrible jobs and have made mistakes that we can all learn from there are great resources and examples during planning ADA compliance should be the absolute low Bar for our community and the principles of Universal Design should be the rule for us when we design any pro project that's supposed to be inclusive our committee is made up of self- advocates parents professionals and concerned citizens we are charged as an Advisory board with advising the Town Council on on all aspects of things that affect the quality of life of people with disabilities in our town we are very connected to the people who will benefit from a fully inclusive and accessible playground s several of our members are on wheelchair rely on wheelchairs to move around and experience what our Township has to offer some of the points I was going to make have already been made curb cutouts thank you you safe flat Pathways one of our committee members who uses a wheelchair really wed me to spend some time here talking about those issues and how important a flat surfac is I know there's going to be discussions about what kind of surface it seems like common sense if it's going to be accessible and inclusive it's got to be flat for wheelchairs in a nutshell shell our Advisory board has a wealth of knowledge to share and a network of community members who will benefit for this project please use us as a resource As you move forward in this project Pro and good luck with the Grant application thank you thank you and thank you for offering to assist appreciate that hello I'm Norman Rosen Bloom 183 Summit I'm also a member of the people with disabilities committee and I'm here to read a statement by uh Steve wayy who is not a Monclair resident however he is a friend of Monclair you may know him as as an actor in The Hulu show Ramy he's also had many comedy specials and he's also was the speaker this past this past year for the Montclair of people with disabilities uh parade in rally um he says my name is Steve way I live in Rutherford and I was born with muscular distrophy I am an actor comedian and the former chairman of Rutherford Civil Rights Commission and member of access for all Rutherford one of the greatest achievements in my professional career was having a hand in creating Rutherford's Rutherford's fully accessible kids park at Memorial Field so all children could be active with their peers and he hopes that one day to go to a park that will grant him the ease and excitement of playing with a child um like every other parent accessibility means it's for everyone something cannot be called accessible if certain people are excluded from it it is either accessible or not there is no in between middle ground or compromise we can no longer allow half measures that perpetuate stereotypes segregation and discrimination growing up disabled and being a wheelchair user for most of my life I have not had the same opportunities as non-disabled people because of that is my mission it's my mission to make sure that disabled children are offered the rights and privileges that I never had every child dis abled or not deserves the ability to make memories and have access to the same public spaces if Montclair Prides itself on being all inclusive that I must put those words into action I urge the mayor and councel to consider the plans for this park so no one is Left Behind and I would be honored to assist this Vision be fulfilled it is easy to ensure Equity but only if if Equity is chosen solidarity forever thank you thank you thank you and noberto I'm sure you're connected with emails and everything else to make sure you're getting all the information cor hi good evening Anna Gman 63 Essex Avenue um first of all I just wanted to express my gratitude Mr is it Mr neglia oh no okay take it take it you just got to stti anyway thank you this whole process is exactly the way it should be public hearing survey environmental impact statement congratulations points from me 100% I have no objections to anything other than the um playground surface and I would be uh really happy to share some updated studies with you because I think what you're referring to was quite old and that in fact there was a whole bunch of research studies that were put on hold during the Trump Administration no surprise and and um they these materials that poured in place surface are still of um serious concern they contain pasas they contain neurotoxins they contain lots of things and children being lower to the ground are just more vulnerable um to anything that's on the surface and it gets on their hands and there's plenty of data about that and in regards to an ADA compliance surface from what I have read there's a really good opportunity to use something that's completely non-toxic such as um engineered wood fiber and they're interlocking so that they do create a flat surface for exactly the reasons why you would have found pip um attractive so you know I think that that needs to be explored so that we can not rely on a material that comes from the petrochemical industry why would we want to give public money to them and secondly a material that can uh be recycled whereas Pon PL cannot port and play is made from recycled tires you cannot quantify what's in there because they're all from different manufactures and they have all sorts of stuff in them um so yeah I would just say move forward with this this is fantastic you did a great job with the process and um please reach out to me if you would like me to connect you with uh Dr Sarah Evans at Mount Si children's Environmental Health Center who has lots to say about P pip and it's all research based thank you thank [Applause] you hi everyone good evening uh my name is Norma tassi I live on Southern Terrace and I'm a lifelong Monclair resident I was raised um playing in Nish Park I raised my son playing in Nisha Park and a tree stands in Nish Park in his memory now what I would like is the I think all this talk about the playground is great and I think any improvements to the park should prioritize the play space But as we talk about um this project I would like to ask the town to find money to refurbish Nishan Park generally speaking the Western Edge on Harrison Avenue all the flowering trees need you know pruning and upgrading and transplanting um the tennis court bathroom like David Cummings mentioned um has been closed for a generation and that doesn't seem good so just all the things that we're talking about um doing in terms of improving the play space I hope that we'll be able to improve the Nish Way Park experience for everybody I'm talking about the benches I'm talking about the play space that stage there whatever money that can be found and combined with the grant money to improve the park as a whole experience I would really appreciate it and so would everyone else thank you mayor I just want to ask Norma Norma and our Parks director is right here you know um so this is something you you're bringing up that's going to have General funding requirement from the town you know beyond a gr that Grant's just for specific uh playground so I want our town I guess the town manager can look into this see whether we can do something because this park borders the fourth and third Wards but normous point is well taken um that whole area where we have the tree commemorating your son and all that's the area we need to do a lot of work in but I hope we can include something like that with the parks folks you know maybe proposing some funding they've got to request it I think you know before you speak Bob I think the real reason is we may need DCS to do a better job of consistently pruning that area and cleaning it out um because the trees Aren't Dead and it's really a matter of just cleaning out you may need some lighting there because it does get dark at night and I know that um Mr Brandon has mentioned that several times uh to myself and Mr biano that um Lighting on that particular area of the park as well as just just consistently cleaning it up would be very helpful to what Norm is really discussing that's okay um hi my name is uh Leslie scl um and first of all I want to say how pleased I am that Montclair has decided to build this park uh and before you begin I'd just like to draw your attention to a couple of things several years ago Essex County renovated the playground at was accessing park into an all access playground Unfortunately they failed to consult the people who could have advised them on how to make a playground truly inclusive to people with all types of disabilities my friend whose daughter has cble py and uses a wheelchair was one of the people who was not consulted as a result this park lacked some fundamental elements after we presented the county with a petion with over 3,000 signatures the county made certain changes to the playground that improved it greatly from the beginning their intentions were admirable but it would have saved the county a lot of time and money if only they had consulted people with the right expertise in the first place I want to make sure that Montclair doesn't make the same mistake there's a simple example a playground with no accessible bathroom facilities is useless to people with disabilities at a minimum a truly accessible bathroom is one that has an adult-sized changing table and a hoya lift that can lift both adults and children if you can't take your kid to the bathroom or use it yourself then you can't use the park and therefore it is not accessible um uh Alma Schneider and Iris M have emailed you some documents which have great resources about really good equipment ABA is the bare minimum it's not enough um and i' just also like to say I don't have a child with a disability but I have friends who do I work in a school for physically and cognitively disabled children and every single one of them loves to move and play and needs to move and play it's essential for their development and for their souls I see every day the struggles that severely disabled children and their families have to overcome and please don't let a substandard playground be one of them and please please please talk to the dis people with disabilities of advisory committee they have the expertise they're hooked into all of the people who actually will use this park and will be able to tell you all the details that that we just don't think of not because we don't want to we just don't see it thank you hello my name is Keith alal uh I live at 35 College Avenue been in mon Clair since 2018 father of three kids so excited about a New Field New playground that's awesome thank you for the conversation I Monclair rules I'm so proud to live here um and I'm so proud of this this conversation again I dealt with um Woodman field and they kind of sprung this field Upon Us in ways that we weren't happy with this is awesome I just have a couple concerns the gentleman um who's who's help leading the charge in the new field he said that there are no studies saying that um there's studies saying that there's no harm to to the kids I've seen plenty of studies that say that there's a lot of harm being done to the youth with artificial Fields when in doubt I hope that we protect the kids um so again Anna mentioned she could share studies with you there's tons it's it's sports players don't want to play in artificial Fields anymore it's it's it's really is a problem um according to a study a report by Pew charitable TR trust 78% of ocean uh microplastics are synthetic tire rubber we're going to put that in a field in Monclair it's going to rain it's going to just spread we're going to be spreading microplastics about I thought this is about I'm going I'm going to give uh you know as chair I'm going to give it's on topic but you know stick go ahead sure I I'll be more specific sorry I'm just concerned about a a a poor and place field very concerned about that happening uh I hope that we go with the alternative wood fiber some other organic I I I understand it should be level field that's awesome inclusive great let's just please go with an organic substance so that we can can protect Monclair um the other thing is we have an opportunity to start a trend W with this new playground and being an environmentally sound field like we can we can be Monclair and set the framework for how to do this the right way I hope that we do that lastly um with the shade we put more trees up there please more trees Monclair needs more trees is my favorite part about living here we have our opportunity to add more please let's do it thank you thank [Applause] you hi I'm Mar I live on Garden H Avenue uh I'd like to ask about the plan for maintenance for long-term maintenance and whether with this grant it's possible to set aside some part of it for a long-term maintenance or at least midterm maintenance I'll be okay so I'm commenting on that because Edon park is in horrible State and I took a kindergartener who broke her leg her mom authorized me to say her name so it was his a daughter she was a kindergarten at northeas school and she lives right here she's your neighbor on North Fullerton um and I'd like to Echo what what Norma said I also spent time at Nish Park my daughter is a kindergarten at Nish now and I'm in the PTA so I spend a lot of time in school when I pick her up we go to the park when it's not as cold as today and both parks that I use that are municipal arish way and Ed and Edgmont and both of them are in a horrible horrible absolutely horrible state of desert bear it's embarrassing it's shameful and it shows where this community not the community where this leadership's priorities do not align with the community's priorities right so so to give you actual data Montclair has the highest taxes of any municipality there are 48 municipalities on this list with a population between 30 and 50,000 people uh I added three municipalities because they're close to us so going up to 52,000 so we can include Bloomfield in this list of those municipalities uh only Orange has higher taxes than we do yet we're behind 35 other municipalities 35 municipalities in this list of 48 spend more money in their Parks than monclar do we spend 24 $21 per capita and we are behind Bloomfield bridgew hackinside hborg Livingston Princeton North Brunswick East Brunswick South Brunswick uh Nutley Wayne Fon you name it all these municipalities with taxes lower than ours spend more money on their Parks they have nicer Parks than we do they have better maintained Parks Parks deserve funding they deserve to be in the general fund if we spend all of our money in public safety we can't have Parx and then we can't be safe in Parx and that's why is Zora broke her leg because your priorities are not aligned with our priorities who benefits not [Applause] us anyone else seeing none uh with that I'll close the public uh hearing any additional comments from counselors I know people spoke time about any additional comments yeah just just what what Miss scam scl said um with what happened at Essex and our Essex representative is here you say that the the Watsessing Park you know didn't have the input so here we're trying to make sure we have input and that's what I want to say to Norberto remember the folks that have here from the people with disabilities committee they've got the knowledge and the expertise and the contacts so please talk to them and have them give you the input on what they feel is is needed and let's avoid what happened with Watsessing where they had to redo I think thank you thank you councilman uh and I'll just also say um working with the manager I think it's important to have that conversation about the bathrooms I know you know initially uh first off full access is important uh as was described um we've got to figure out how that fits in with I know that originally um they were you know vandalism concerns and issues why they were closed at many of the locations um so something's got to be figured out there I get it you know I know why was closed they're vandalized and broken and you remember that but but what's the plan so working on something there that would allow for Access um but you know being mindful of what what has happened in the past and could happen again how that's addressed absolutely any other comments from comments you heard yeah so I I just address a few items that came up um obviously the the rest room situation so the so going to clarify Jake Jake's law specifically um there is there is a um there is a criteria under Jake's law specifically that does require that restroom access be provided however the state under this grant program I guess understands that that is an additional burden to kind of put on just to get the grant um so that is not a necessarily requirement that needs to be met met to receive the grant not saying that we can't obviously do go above and beyond and include that um but that's why that was excluded from our uh initial assessment but uh again that would just be additional funding uh through through the township capital budget um maintenance um the one of the main benefits of using a port and play surface uh is the really the the relatively low maintenance requirement at least up front everything have has a useful life uh generally speaking they last around 8 to 10 years that's really when you uh need to start really considering doing a reserving project at least for it but uh DCS we our personnel there uh they are trained have the material to do patching um as as that issue kind of comes up over the years uh but it's not something that uh is really expected uh or normal to occur immediate um as uh engineered wood fiber playground wood the wood chips that does really require continual maintenance just because the loss of the uh surface material through just use and weather uh that surface gets washed out and needs to be replenished regularly uh you don't really have that issue of long-term maintenance requirement uh with a port and place surface um but again just to reiterate it does require the use of a unitary playground surface so in this case yes the engineer wood fiber uh is ADA Compliant and yes it does it's designed to to interlock with each other when a fall occurs uh but it still does not classify as what is considered a unitary playground safety surface um and not to get too deep into the weeds of what a port in place surface is but essentially uh yes it is comprised of recycled rubber tires which are shredded and broken down um but that's utilized primarily as the cushion base course um which is then bounded with an angent and uh it's not necessarily loose rubber which uh has really great opportunity to just be obtained unintentionally um and then that is then covered with a topping course a wearing course which really doesn't necessarily have those same concerns U so it it is protected and capped essentially uh so there there is some protections there uh but um yeah certainly we'll be continuing to uh to coordinate with the various stakeholders and uh community members and uh keep this conversation going Council and price uh so thank you nober really in the comments in general and and for your responses um so I think you just said that what was suggested as a possibility you're not sure is compliant in terms of the engineered correct wood fiber yes yeah we we've used that in other locations um most recently Essex Park does have engineered wood fiber um but again that wasn't done on this grant I mean I'm picturing it like a you know like a parket floor of swords in other words it's not made of that kind of wood it's just that it's it's it's integrated it's it's I don't know why it wouldn't be something you would roll a it's wood chips essentially no not wood chips I think if I understood correctly it's it becomes like you know the floor of a wreck hul it's just not it's not wood planks it's Som it's not hardwood no it's not it's not like hardwood planks like that it's it's not planks it's fibers that I think are fused somehow to make what would be a surface so I guess before we submit I don't know if we submit with that if something we're going to actually look into and talk about if it'll be too can we swap it out or can we you need this the week I understand as long as it meets the unitary service requirement meaning that it's it's it's one complete surface it's not a loose material yeah I think wasn't loose but I don't know if there's if there's a desire to use an alternative material that uses like engineered wood fiber with some kind of binding agent uh to kind of keep those fibers together that's something can be explored uh but um you know just for purposes of just making sure we get the get the get the money uh you know we've included the port in place which is an approved surface to that program to use can that be a swap if we put it in now and we change our mind like in other words yeah like I said you know once we get the funding and we know what we're getting the equipment pieces the exact surface type we'll have to have discussions with the state to make sure that an alternative uh surface uh meets those standards and they're they're okay with funding it uh but those are conversations like we had and if they're acceptable then yeah we can certainly swap it out um I guess if you get the information in the next day and you can look into it and if it's something that could be considered I guess I'd like to know if it could be considered as part of the application itself and if not it can be a conversation for later they've been great uh as far as like getting responses back we've have had open dialogues with them over the last few weeks uh just part of questions that have been coming up so uh we out tomorrow and see what they say thank you all right I mean I mean I know you need the information people are going to share with you I guess you'll I just want to tag on to that because rather than wait to see if later on they're going to say we can't do it we'd like to see if we could do it sooner tell them this is the kind of thing Monclair wants to do you know we're we're just not give it we don't want to give money to the petroleum industry so if you can if you can find out sooner that's what I'd like to see what councelor price aam is saying because we don't want to have you get the grant based upon this you know application having this poured surface and then they say later well that's what you wanted it's not what we want see so but if they're going to reject the grant then that's another whole issue we got to deal with it but tell them this is what we want Yeah a different alternative could be used so do your best certainly thank you certainly and and again councilman Cummings back to the bathrooms that shouldn't be a part of this grant that should be taken care of by us yeah because that's separate of the Grant and also as the mayor stated vandalism was a major reason why we didn't that's we have to do something with locking the doors overnight and things like that so but to the real level set here so Grant application goes in February 7th any idea of time frame of when you were getting response to whether or not this grant is good and we can move forward yeah so they haven't really announced an official like announcement time frame uh I'm expecting just historically speaking uh late summer early fall at the earliest uh just based off what you know has happened in the past so essentially we're talking about something that probably won't start till next year at this time based on weather so it's not something not a yeah should not look for it is happening immediately I just want to clarify that all right thank you that's correct you any other questions uh once again thank you for all the efforts you put into this and appreciate the uh you know Communications with us and certainly with the public in engagement and I think you've got uh you know Clarity around that engagement moving forward and we do appreciate you making sure you're working expeditious expeditiously to attempt to get this grant abely thank you mayor apprciate time counc um with that it resolution R 24024 has been moved um is there a second it's moved moved and seconded uh Madam clerk V call please councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes thank you uh next we have um appending ordinances for second reading first ordinance is 02316 uh and this one uh speaking with Township attorney uh again you know this week received more information on a new uh option correct and with that asking that we you know delay this till we yeah we received the new uh ordinance drafted the new ordinance we're going to move it through subcommittee uh get an understanding of how it impacts make whatever necessary changes there's uh some stakeholders who would like to be involved in that process and I think if we carry this uh table this for two uh meeting Cycles that would be great any objection to the table for two cycles no objection it's tabled the next is ordinance uh 02338 which is an ordinance to establish new section in the Township Code title 134 privately owned salt storages um uh ISO move second this moved and seconded going to open it to hearing is there anyone who wishes to be uh wishes to speak to this ordinance seeing none I'm going to close any additional comments quick question Mr Mayor for Please Mr dep mayor thank than you sir um is has this been an issue with the with these salt sheds in the past is that why we're Mr Lao would you like to speak about counil on that Mr Burr not I just answer that question that again mayam absolutely please use the time for my repeat to to find it um I I just wanted to know if this was an issue anywhere because I've not heard of this being with private privately held um facilities that were storing these types of product I I have not heard that this is an issue okay I think there was there was a what was the impetus then I just can you turn on your microphone from the D the impetus is regulation a new regulation from the DP involving storm water and we had to do these there's a memo attached to the back which will explain how it how it came about my apologies thank you and you asked for a clarification too which I believe was included I what I was going to say is I mean I I know somewhere I read that it's a model ordinance in other words we're we're just adopting one that they're recommending and I I read the memo when I get it I just wanted to see if there was an issue in town that we should be aware of that's all thankfully appear is not mayor thank you Mr Mayor good um see no further comment uh mam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hof yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes thank you very much um next we're going to move to public comment on agenda items uh please come on up if you'd like to speak to an agenda item please reference the agenda item you'd like to speak to um and then speak to that item anyone wishing to speak to a specific agenda item please come forward now um public on agenda hi I'm Christina Thomas 257 North Mountain Avenue I'm here regarding consent agenda number8 resolution number R 2423 authorizing the execution of a fair and open Professional Services agreement with engineering for calendar year 2024 um for municipal Engineering Services um on 1016 23 Michael neglia of the neglia group gave Shan Spiller $1,000 as evidence from the NJ elect form R1 for the election fund of Shan Spiller which shows that Sha's mayoral campaign for mayor has as of 11424 79,2 $43 I just want this entire town to know that um you may not remember that resolution R23 D12 in January of 2023 provided neglia with a not to exceed contract of $400,000 then they gave sha $1,000 then on November 21st 2023 this Council passed R23 279 amending neg's contract adding another1 ,000 so a $1,000 donation gets a half a million doll contract well at least that's what it appears to me and that is something that the whole town should know we don't have a lot of money to just throw around according to you and if they're going to give $1,000 of a discount to somebody perhaps it should be the town and I think that um maybe just maybe we should worry about the appearance of impropriety especially when someone decides that despite their insurance they need to take money from us taxpayers to pay for their teeth can I mayor can I just ask a question of the manager since this is listed as a consent agenda item number eight right negli engineering cont contract I'd like that to be pulled from the consent agenda so we can discuss it when it comes to that number eight so we can discuss the the contract with the engineering company okay good evening my name is June Regner I live in Montclair we had a great state of the Town report tonight but there's a couple things we did not discuss some data that was not mentioned that I really do think citizens want to know and that's the newspaper reported that Frank Aro was advising you mayor Spiller to take the fifth also that he had successfully delayed any depositions for over two months what is that costing us you're running up bills you're running up a credit card that we're actually going to have to pay and that is is something that should be presented at every meeting in fact every single Town counselor who is employing private Council as AOL are you speak which item are you speaking to that's the state of the Town address which is on the agenda okay well this is for anything on the resolutions or items on here okay all right uh that would be then what is missing from our resolutions because it should be a resolution now I also would like to say it was really really great finally having a tiny smidge of data from our police chief it was desperately long delayed and overdue we did get some data which was great I also was really interested to find out that um there's a lot of data that the police's access is is recording and putting together that's actually not being shared with citizens the number of accidents the number of calls the type of accidents Etc and this is the kind of thing that other towns have presented on a very regular basis Monclair people want to know and it's really important that we start actually getting to know it one more thing that's on our agenda is the second reading of the pending ordinance about the wireless facilities the first reading was in July you're changing it you really need to have a new first reading thank you hello my name is Sarah Avery I live on Irving Street uh my comment is on the employee handbook which is number r 24031 and I'd like to know did anyone on this Council uh read the employee handbook you are approving tonight as part of the consent agenda do you know that it includes a code of ethics and a whistleblower policy everything that I have reviewed or examined throughout my investigation clearly points to a systemic disregard for obeying the law I'm disappointed with the attorney letter I received from The Joint Insurance Fund with one sentence there are no responsive records the public has a right to know and the town pre refuses to provide transparency Spiller and Burr acted outside of the authority of their respective positions spending Township funds without CFO certification there is no resolution for the ransom payment of $459,000 there is no evidence of a ransom demand no evidence of a negoti in taking place leaving only two options gross incompetence of the CIO or insurance fraud The Whistleblower policy states the township abides by all federal state and local laws Etc employees are expected and encouraged to bring any misconduct to the company attention the Ral case specifically identifies multiple incidents of town misconduct and rather than apply The Whistleblower policy the town chooses to retaliate at Great expense to the community we have already spent over $400,000 for the town and Stafford's defense for actions that are indefensible what value do policies have if you don't follow them thank you that's a real question it's not rhetorical thank [Applause] you I just want to ask a question of the manager a app propo this that the cyber security maybe our um IT staff can answer do we have how's that all been resolved now the cyber security issue the payments the plan what do we do we have a plan we have a program that we can see um well we do have public can you drop the question so you can answer it and we don't um take their time but yes answer that as soon as I I'd like to I'm asking this for the public I'm asking that n just to talk to me later alone okay that's the whole point just after they finish so they're waiting but uh if you'd like to I appreciate that but not everybody let's answer it while I'm here while I'm asking it please Mr the PO is it an extensive answer or is your microphone on I Cann we do have a plan some of it was confidential but we have I believe we have released it under the OPA request Tony is that correct yes and if we want me to address anything regarding the Cyber attack I can do that another time or whenever you want yeah thank you well I'd like to address it right now what's the which part would you like to I would just like to say that while I was not here when it happened my review of everything is that every everyone from the minute occurred followed the law the every step of the way we had an insurance policy through the GIF with Beasley insurance they assigned the professionals based on everything we we took their advice in terms of payments negotiations Etc while we can't make that information public at the current time it did occur as a result of the actions that were taken and because we had insurance policy our out of pocket expenses I believe correct me if I'm wrong uh Council was $25,000 we continue to review uh we had to go file by file and I don't mean literally paper files I mean anything on on uh in our system it was long it was arduous but I think our response was a model response the notion that anyone did anything that was illegal or or not following the law or not approved is I I can't even respond to that I just want to say that we we have a a a contract with the GIF the purpose is to be self-insured and to have policies for example on cyber attacks on physical injury on personal attacks on officials Etc and once this happened Emergency Management and consultation with with elected officials with Council notified Department of Homeland Security in New Jersey National FBI followed the protocol notified the insurance company which triggered their involvement negotiations these are people who do this for a living that's all they do we went by the book I think that while it was unfortunate that it occurred that once it did occur we did everything according to the law see that wasn't so hard was it no to answer still I understand I'm just saying it wasn't so hard to answer that question right okay my point made polyi 101 good government sorry I held you up oh it's all right this is the only time I get out every week or every month really I usually am at my desk writing you emails um anyway I am here again to say good job um good job on hiring an attorney to clean up our water from pasas that is amazing pasas is an enormous contaminant and dangerous and it's in a lot of different things including artificial turf and it's in our water and we don't want it there we didn't give permission to be contaminated by these companies so it's incredible that you're holding companies like Dupont accountable by having them pay for the pollution that they are creating in our bodies and in our children it's so mainstream that CDC just issued guidelines recommending that doctors discuss past testing with with their patients when was the last time you can recall being told maybe we should test you for this environmental chemical never only LED this is the uh report that the Monclair Board of Education and their contractor provided about the artificial turf that is going to be laid on the ground it's an absolutely ridiculous meaningless report it does not at all prove that the product product that they are about to install thousands of square feet of near our Wellhead overlay protection area is free of past in fact we know it has pasas because the same product was installed in Portsmith New Hampshire and now they're dealing with additional past contamination from having had that promise broken because their Town Council in that case it was a Town Council not a bard of Ed um trusted the vendor so we know too much now you are doing this to hold polluters accountable so here's my question to you I'm going to go get tested so that I can get a baseline level of pasas in my blood I'm pretty sure all my neighbors will too who is going to hold the Board of Ed and the Monclair Public School District accountable for polluting us with more pasas because now it's so mainstream that you can just get it checked on your annual checkup so please stop them they're polluting us thank you and I know this uh full body will give kudos to our um director Gary abar who years ago um came to us with a plan uh to filter uh before it was required by the state or it was in on anyone's radar uh to filter that out of all of our water systems which we have been doing but it is great that we're now able to go after them for some money uh to cover some of those costs but just for residents to know we we do filter uh that out of all of our water sources thank you Annie you were talking on resolution number 14 right yes okay thank you uh good evening Eric tomato uh Norwood Avenue 25 speaking on 2423 get it 25 2423 come on help me out here um just very quickly this is the town as indicated by your moving speech at the beginning that tries to not just do the minimum ethically that's sort of the whole point of this place you don't just do the ethical minimum and get away with what's legal you try to be a little bit better the Revelation that this ,000 donation was made quite recently to the person who runs the company that you're voting on for dispersement it may be legal for you to vote on that Mr Mayor at a bare minimum but is that really what you want to do you want to do the legal bare minimum so I would say why don't you think about recusing on that and giving it a wash instead of just doing the minimum that this state which basically is one big legal minimum ethically in this country unfortunately why don't you just rise above it a little bit tonight and not take that vote and let let your colleagues do it instead thank [Applause] you hi Lauren Burman Highland Avenue I'm also here to talk about the conflict with neglia and that you should not be approving it tonight I was unable to attend the last meeting because I was Ill when a number of residents spoke about how the Aubrey group should not have been approved because they didn't even have relevant experience Eric deato looked you in the face and asked you if we were going to find out that the Auber group donated to your campaign since the last meeting we've seen your R1 we've seen that yes the auy group has donated your campaign we don't have an interest in having all of our tax dollars go to your campaign donors and so we're asking you to do the right [Applause] thing good evening everyone I'm Allison Sergeant lifelong resident of 11 Champlain Terrace and I would like to alert the Town Council as I know you are um in a lawsuit which saddens me greatly with the board of add um this morning a very sad or yesterday morning excuse me a very sad demolition occurred at Woodman field just after Daybreak the historical ticket booth that was the oldest structure on Woodman Field built in 1926 by the national acclaimed Architects firm of uh Starrett and Van vle they also built Monclair High School Watchung school and many other Clair landmarks this ticket booth in 1926 was um to all the first and only point to enter Woodman field games and took place and it was Essex field at the time then named Woodman field in 1935 history has it that many of monir's most acclaimed athletes and their families walked through this ticket booth and often signed their names it was a jewel of sports history in Monclair and deserve to be preserved moved documented photographed anything would have sufficed I have continually been horrified by the dysfunction in the demolition renovation of woodman field but yesterday at 7:00 a.m. when I asked the workmen very politely to not crush this historical ticket but Booth pause just make a phone call and check with their superiors at the mler boa I had met with actually a gentleman that Dr Pon sent to speak to me the second week in September I noted to him because the ticket booth is at the end of my driveway for my family's entire history over 70 years and I told him of it of his its uh historical significance the ticket booth the wor the workers ignored me crushed and demolished it faster and faster and just if I could finish the point I got a call later yesterday from the historical preservation Society who had heard of this reached out to Dr ponds asked for a call back just to identify and go look at the remains in the dumpster no calls have been made I beseech you thank to please I know you're in a difficult position help this situation you did nothing but speak to history we are demolishing history in front of us it you you have to do something about it thank you thank [Applause] you so hello again some Marana on Gardon H Avenue again um I'd like to ask a question about the P um law fir what which entities are they going to sue like who's polluting our water what is the plan if you'd like to use your time then he can answer your question that's number 14 number 14 again I I'll catch him up later then I thought everyone would want to know no answer it um then I'd like to talk about efficiency and about your interview of the wonderful people at the police department they told us about all those great things they do and they didn't talk you did not ask them how they could do it at a better value to M taxpayers i' like to remind you and these are data from 2022 that's the latest data available from the New Jersey Department of Community Services which Cates all the userfriendly budgets from every municipality in New Jersey Monclair has 5.2 Public Service public safety full-time employees per individual resident the only towns that have more than us are Atlantic lyen orange karney hackinside and haway among those 48 that are our peering size these towns are not our peers they do not pay as much of their school we pay 90% of their school they state pays for most of their schools we pay our Municipal Taxes are about 85% coming from r residents commercial taxpayers pay most of their taxes know of the communities who are our peers who pay as much for schools and Pay As Much from residents spend as much as Monclair Monclair is spending $553 per every woman man and child in this town only for the police officers personnel only and only those Personnel who are police officers the towns are paying as much much for others the other 44 municipalities are not paying as much thank you in fact I'd like to let you know that Westfield is wonderfully well-managed Mr laola lives there and I'd like to tell Mr laola that Montclair taxpayers would like to pay $39 per man woman and child which is how how much Westfield is pain I would like a police department that is not just wonderful it's efficient thank you thank you Mr [Applause] bur uh mayor I can't identify what who the specific defendants will be um because that would be it's impending litigation and once a list is provided to the township and they identify all those uh defendants and file the lawsuit we will make that list available thank you mayor we do know it is 3M and Dupont have already participated in the class action suit and the way this works is based on historic data provided to the D and the EPA lists or develop as to what communities are prioritized Monclair is on the a list I just wanted to mention that um Livingston received $6.5 million in a similar class action settlement uh for a PS cleanup so I think it's important and that we move on this and and hopefully get our fair share as quickly as possible yeah we're g to we're going to move on this for sure okay um I'm Aaron bullan 17 Champlain terrorist very quickly I would just like to bring back to resolution number 14 um that and and just say out loud I I think and I kind of said it but very simply if you are going to very wisely participate in this cleaning up of pfas do not very excuse me but dumbly allow a massive amount more to just be dropped right back in why would we do the work to take it out if we are simply going to dump more back in that's it okay love you [Applause] guys good evening Diane angland 158 Orange Road mon New Jersey 07042 um I don't know which resolution but I do want to say um that and I know people look at me and Diane is the president in aacp but I am here as a resident today speaking for myself um I want to congratulate you all I thought the presentation from the police department was well needed and we appreciate that um but I also want to talk to Residents and just have them understand that we all have different histories here in Montclair sometimes what people value um we were brought up and we were educated on the fact that like like even with Woodman field um my mother well my grandmother went to mon high school and couldn't get her diploma because she didn't have a birth certificate but she did go through um my mother Mna Tyrie worked for the town forever but my mother um in those times that that little Fieldhouse was sitting there you know we had different ways to enter Woodman field um she was the only at that time she could only there could only be one African-American cheerleader and um my mother one year I think nobody could beat her out she had it going on so she said I'll become a twirler so that somebody else can become a cheerleader so some of the histories in Monclair and people you know we look at things and people say oh I saw this and I did that it's very different for a lot of African Americans who came up in this town so I just want to make sure that people understand those histories and how different they are for different people have a good night thank you thank you very much seeing no one else to speak to um uh resolution items we'll close that part of the hearing here uh next we've got new business ordinance 02401 which is an ordinance supplementing chapter 190 housing in the Township Code Monclair Le paint I so move second this moved and seconded any questions concerns comments Council price savings thanks mayor um you know I didn't I don't know if I threw this question to earlier Mr Lola but um you it occurs to me and I know if this is the reason for us to pause it and and just pass it next time perhaps but um if there's an issue about the lead based paint and it may require in certain dwellings that it be remediated I just wondered if how this might cross over with the rent Control Ordinance and whether there's any kind of like could this end up being passed on as a cost to tenants or you know like with some exception that they're allowed to raise it because they've got this as an expense I just I was curious if that could have maybe an unintended impact and I just raised that with my colleagues I didn't have a chance to like hunt everybody down to discuss it but I don't know if that's a reason to sort of unless there's a reason to move this more exp I'll defer a councel on your question but the second part is we need to pass this so we have the enforcement power to enforce the new new law we need to amend the code that gives our inspectors the authority to do this you're saying so it's got an urgency of passing tonight well it's got to be intr it's got to be introduced right for introduction if if we do learn something in the next two weeks we might have to amend it um uh councilwoman price a you had raised that question this this afternoon yes you did so we or yesterday one one was that you we read we saw your email today we looked at it we um went through the rent Control Ordinance and there are protections already in place for uh that would not allow the landlord to just simply pass along the um cost of of the lead abatement in the case that that was um you know that was that occurred so in the rent Control Ordinance there are certain Provisions that allow for hardship and capital major capital increases but that has to go the rent control board those applications so we feel confident that if there this does occur there are the safeguards in place with the with the Run control orance okay and then to the extent that it's in the minutes of the meeting I mean I'd like it reflected that that is the intention of the body when we pass this that that would not be acceptable based on what the attorney just described as their review so noted any other questions concerns comments thanks seeing none mam Clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is ordinance 0242 which is an ordinance to amend the salary ordinance Office Professional employees union local 32 so move second move second any questions concerns comments just a question for the manager this is the U the union that represents them offic of professional employees is that just for a title it says for the year 20 209 through 2025 so this is like a retroactive contract the contract ends in 2025 just for the purpose of this is that when we started our budget discussions back in November it came to my attention that there were employees of the Town making $15 an hour basically a little bit less and we made a commitment to pay a living wage so we we approached the union and said we wanted to raise is the salaries of these people to n over $19 they came back and asked if we would include the step for the following contract year but I think this is the last of the employees who are making minimum minimum wage so we are happy that we have I think this is the end I don't I don't think there's any others but we thought that it appropriate that we at least pay $19 in change as a minimum wage of course thank you that's a good thing good thing to do people should make $25 an hour okay thank than you any other questions conc comment uh seeing none uh Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo right yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next we have uh uh consent agenda consent agenda items we've got items 1 through 7 uh uh A8 was asked to be held and ISO move second it's moved and seconded this part of consent agenda so Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herlock yes councel price Abrams yes councel Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R2 24023 which is resolution authorizing the fair and open Professional Services agreement with negle uh Associates for municipal Engineering Services I so move second it's moved and seconded questions concerns comments yes this is the reason I pulled this out because people had questions my question is it's not about the political part of it my question is for us to spend I think $400,000 for Engineering Services when we had a full-time engineer a few years ago and full-time engineer cost us less than half of that no no aspersions on you Norberto but you know for us to be spending that much money for an outside consulting firm I would recommend we bring it inside and pay less than half of that I believe I mean the salary of course you have to add benefits but that's what I think our former engineer who was an outstanding African-American woman left and we started to do this Consulting system which has gone up and up and up and then of course the questions people have been raising here makes me even more concerned but it is a question financially of how we're spending our money again not efficiently uh not productively it's a wasting of of resources that could be used to hire teachers and other people to do work social workers senior citizen programs this is just a question of our priorities Mr so I'm opposing this contract do you have any specifics around the question which is the all I would like to in response to uh councilor Russo is that I I do believe that at that time you still had Consulting Engineers granted it may not have paid as much but if we were able to find a consult an engineer or higher on staff the salary would probably be in the $130 to $180,000 range Plus benefits so if we were to take that and deduct it out we'd still you know we'd be spending you know we'd still have to be spending at least three or $100,000 on Consulting Engineers just on the traffic matters alone that we're working on which in addition to what we're doing with the parks and everything else but you know we have probably quadrupled at least on the projects we're trying to accomplish in terms of traffic so I don't think in my in my experience that this is an unreasonable number at all if you're going to be active and do projects you're going to have to hire Engineers to to assist in that role gone are the days where you can have two or three or four Engineers on staff to do the work they're just not there so you're saying we would have a savings but it wouldn't be 200 no I think it would be I think you'd be you'd spend the money on a salary plus a consultant I think at the end of the day it's going to cost you the same amount of money oh okay so you're you're you're saying that the 400,000 for this firm is all we're spending now we don't have any other we don't have any other outside consultant right so it's just this occasionally on a bigger project that we do I I I can I can tell you this much we are advertised for the director of uh Community Services we've advertised all over we've said Engineers engineer preferred and I think we received one resume out of about 50 who had an engineering degree but had no experience out of 50 see we pay better I want you to I'm sorry to dwell on this but I want you to prove this by showing me the numbers because everybody's been saying GE was spending too much on a Consulting fir but you're explaining that we'd have to have Consultants anyway but even in addition to this firm as nice as Norberto is you still may have to have Consultants on top of that so you could be spending a half a million let's say we go up to half a million for Engineering Services when we had a full-time person could be 130,000 as you said so I I still say it's a a Sav you could save half the money if you hired a full-time person that's the bottom line so show me the numbers any other questions concerns comments yeah two couple questions here so I just want to make sure understand this we hire a full-time engineer and we're still going to have to go out for jobs for engineering work on some things right it well can you put your microphone on Mr Leo if you have a a a large amount of work that you're doing you have an engineer who spends most of their time supervising all the projects that are going on the engineer is not sitting there and designing noberto works on this we have other Engineers if you're going to do a big project say and hypothetically you were you know going to to you know do a major reconstruction of of something or major road project that cost millions of dollars you'd have to hire another engineering firm to do that that design work and oversight etc etc that would not be done internally I don't think that the numbers we pay for engineers is anything extraordinary I think it's in line with what every other every other town uh of this size or you know any size would have to pay but there are not Engineers we've been looking aggressively to find an engineer to hire on staff and literally it's it's it's not happening so I think the answer the question Bob really wants to know is how much have we spent on Engineering Services in the last year or two years you may not know that right now but I think that's something that he'd like to get I I I can get to the information I know what we we we paid negly but I would have to give the information on the other projects if you want that well I do want more numbers more information that that's I can't see us spending a half a million dollars on engineering when we used to have a full-time engineer that we spent maybe a 100,000 at that time so I think Bob what you're asking is that we find out what the differences will be yeah what did we spend when we had an engineer what are we spending without an engineer I think it's a fair question yeah councilman sler um I have a couple of questions I it's nothing personal Norberto but um so Mr norber Mr Hernandez works for enega so he's our designated engineer through their firm does he work for any other towns or just Monclair exclusively I think he works for a couple of other small towns is that corrects exclusively for and really that does transcend into now 5 days a week essentially okay okay and you have he I'm sorry I don't he has a designated office here and he said here he do no it's it's in the other building but Community Services okay okay that's all thank you any other questions concerns comments Adam clerk councelor Cummings no Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councel price Abrams yes councelor Russo no councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R 2425 uh fair and open contract with Morton salt for the provision of rock salt ISO move 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 yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R 2426 which is authorizing fair and open Professional Services uh contract uh to Waters mcferson and mcneel for Bond Council I so move move seconded questions concerns comments I'm just could we Bunch the rest of them um want no let's do this individually there's a lot of money involved here okay what would you like one held out we shouldn't do we should just do what's on the agenda which is individually to do these they're not consent these are not consent on the consent right forgive me that was my okay um it's been moved is there a second y move and seconded questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor herlock yes councelor price Abrams councelor Russo no councelor schlager absent councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution uh authorizing the town R 2427 resolution authorizing the township toward Professional Services contract uh General litigation attorney rer danzing I still move move to seconded questions concerns comments yeah I'd like to know how much this is costing us again Mr uh attorney what's the question what what's it costing us to have Riker Danzig do you want to know what the not to exceed amount is for Riker Dan 95 90 or 95,000 90 so have we been exceeding it of course have we exceeded it yeah have we been exceeding it I don't understand the question well the question this contract this year we're just entering into this contract this year right but what about our past contract yes we exceed it did we exceed the 23 yes we did by how much I don't have the exact number but it's substantial right yeah well it's substantial because they've done a lot of there's been a lot of litigation work in town right councilman Mel well before you're not asking me I'm asking you wait a minute before you get of the public I'm asking you before you get into that I did ask Mr Burr how many lawsuits we currently are involved in and do you mind saring those numbers uh well the major litigation there are approximately one two 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 major cases that are currently being handled uh that that the township is currently being sued in that doesn't consist of uh all the slip and fall and Tor Tor cases that are going on in town also there's probably about 20 uh lawsuits going on in town at at present so you can expect us to spend over the amount oh yeah I'm just saying why couldn't we do more law work internally this is what I've been saying for years and spend the money on you and your staff or add to your staff and not go out with these expensive law firms that's all I'm saying it's a concept of government keep the the staff and expenditure internal like with engineering with law when you go out to these Consultants engineering firms law firms you're going to spend a lot of money you put caps on it then you have to keep exceeding so it goes Way Beyond what you're planning to spend and you can't for for cast that I know you can't always know but it is a costly way of doing things no and to to to your point councilman Russo um I believe I've had indicated um back in 2021 when I was being uh interviewed for the position that I thought that the Law Department was well understaffed and needed additional uh attorneys in the in the department um for a town this size you you probably need another two or three attorneys uh similar to a corporate Council staff um if you want to keep everything inous or a majority of it inhouse uh I have asked uh uh in the budget presentations for a pargal that would help at least least us managing those lawsuits that are being handled by outside firms because that's a lot of the time a lot of our time is consumed by that but the one thing it it wouldn't eliminate just to be clear it wouldn't eliminate the use of outside Council because there's Specialties that we uh need or the township needs from their attorneys whether it be labor Council whether it be tax appeal whether it be Bond counsel and it would be similar to you if you needed medical attention and you go to your generalist for a heart condition or for a neurological condition you wouldn't go to that individual you would for the to to treat you you would want to see a specialist so it's not a good analogy so we do here here's the point so we do here's the point you are spending a lot of money on outside legal counsel on things that we didn't have to have lawsuits against us okay that's the problem so let's stop all the need for lawsuits being defended by outside councils that's number one number two bring it in house you just said paralal I thought you had somebody on your staff that's sort of a paralal you should have a paralal on your staff we used to have a pargal that I dealt with so I think you ought to have a power legal we should actually reduce the Reliance on outside Council and keep things in house that's General philosophy of government that I'm advocating and I know a lot about it because I teach it well well aren't there conflicts also why you have to Outsource some of those uh lawsuits that's correct that's correct that's what the issue is uh that that is a problem if we have too many conflicts that our town attorney has too many conflicts to not the township attorney is some of the internal works that happen here well my point is made I'm voting against it any other any other questions seeing none mam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo no councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution r24 028 which is resolution uh authorizing the township toward Professional Services contract for labor employment attorney uh clear job Al alier alier Jacobs is so move second questions concerns comments just a question again I see that number 13 is also a labor attorney so I just have a question question for you Mr Town attorney why are we going to hire Hatfield Schwarz Law Group as well as this Law Group when we used to have just Genova Burns which I know they don't want to be our attorney anymore for labor and employment but why two firms to to address conflict issues councilman they both a little bit lower to address okay in other words we've got the two of them retained but we don't NE necessarily have to spend it on both we don't necessarily we we use them as we need them and we will determine that based on the actual cases that come up all right any other questions comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo we need labor attorneys yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution r24 029 resol resolution authorizing the township toward Professional Services contract for labor employment for Hatfield Schwarz I so move second move seconded questions concerns comments seeing none mam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes mayor I'm sorry councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes uh next is resolution r243 resolution authorizing the Council of the township Monclair uh to execute Legal Services agreement ment related to the p uh pfas Litigation Services um ISO move anything else any questions PS seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings yes Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is resolution R 2431 which is a resolution approving the adoption of the revised employee handbook for the township of mon Clair so move move second Mr Leo would you like to speak to it who we going to table this would do you want to speak to it then we'll table I was going to say that uh Council price aams has asked for a couple of weeks to review and ask questions any objections no I agree with her when I read the way the resolution read it it it says that we've read this and I know I haven't so I appreciate you bringing that up I'm seeing no objection it's considered tabled uh for two meetings was the number all right next is resolution r24 32 which is resolution awarding a contract to the Au group for the township grant writing services and I so move it's moved and seconded questions concerns comments yes uh multiple questions here um starting with who came up with the $50,000 amount I believe last year's amount was $40,000 and we um decided this year to increase the amount to not to exceed $50,000 so here's the thing when we first engaged this grou it was $115,000 then the next year there was a request to go up to 40 which became a matter of some internal issues within the township and then now we want to go to 50 and so I went on their website and looked up some of the townships that they represent and then inquired about those fees so the city of East Orange has a contract of $25,000 with the orbey group the city of newor has a contract for 295 Union has 35,000 so why are we giving them 50,000 we come nowhere near the size of nor we're almost doubling it and therefore and I think when you do work with grant writers one of the things that should come into that is the more work they do the better pay they can get it shouldn't be we're going to pay you 50,000 UPF front and then you get work whereas I mean to go up that amount considering what the other townships that work with them are getting I just think this this needs to drop some considerably I think it's not to exceed and we spend time the education committee Consulting with them basically monthly uh and then there's some consultation I know they do with people U employees of the township as they're doing followup but we identify grants that we believe will actually be beneficial through Parks through other infrastructure through they're very knowledgeable about how to go and get these things and so it's how much time we have them spend I mean it's it's money that tends to pay for itself and that's why we've I didn't pick the amount but that's why we've went from 17 or whatever it was up to 40 um to the extent that there's this number I don't know if I I specifically focused on it being different than last year's number but the point is I know we spent a decent amount of time monthly running through a long list of projects that we identify as suitable or not or it's been made to our attention we can send it to the history Center maybe that actually is something they can pursue on their own so we've been made aware of how we can benefit the town in various ways and that is why I think they've been effective for us so I would like to know how many grants they've gotten us and then on top of that I do go back to I have no idea how they would spend more time with us than nework because I don't see New York would have full-time on sta what I'm saying to you is for us to pay them this amount of money for grant writing services the not to ConEd can go lower because we didn't also do they get a percentage of what we they bring in no so we just pay them flat fee of 50,000 up to $50,000 and after that there's no more money that they can request well we we haven't I mean we we if they they couldn't expend it unless we came and asked for additional funding from Council to to increase their exactly and so my point is they went from 15 they went from the 15 to the 40 which is a m is one of the reasons why we're in one of our lawsuits and then because there was some concerns of of why we went up so much in one year and now we're going up to 50 so have they done what what say from 15,000 so have they done four to five times more work in the last five years or the last three years that we've had them and on top of that you know as a couple the grants that they have gotten for us I mean these are grants have run a considerable amount of money that you know Township employees do a lot of the writing of the information because technically they don't know it and then the other part is this this is the same group we gave $60,000 to the last meeting for a service that they have no experience in and so my question was I did ask can you tell me one Arena Stadium building that the ARB group saw in engineering since they anywhere in America anywhere yet we gave them 60,000 last month now we're giving them 50 so $100,000 in two months I just think that's too much money to give to someone when the work that they do if they go over if we if we offer them $330,000 I bet you they take it and if they did more than $30,000 work we'd have to pay them but to start at 50,000 that's just too much money and I think we we just had a whole conversation about how we're stewards of money how we care about everything this is an example of just not doing that uh Council I I would like to say they I would like to say a couple things one is that they secured us two very significant very significant grants and someone else will remember the dollar amounts more early in the tenure of our Council and it was based on Staffing in this building that they weren't actually followed through on and so they have sought to support and to make sure we're getting the connections with the federal agencies and things and some of those things were dragged not because of their efforts that said if we want to notch this down to 40 and then go from there or 30 and come back and revisit it I'm actually fine with that so if we wanted to bump it down to 30 and then just say we can revisit this if their work is requiring and we would believe it calls upon additional dollars we we will we will see how far that takes it Mr laoa you you have to authorize all of these expenditures correct look it it all becomes a function of we're we're being very aggressive on grants now so reached a point in time where at some point in the year and in the past on those lower numbers they reached a point in the year early in the year when their services just stopped the numbers weren't increased grants sort of just floated in the air while decisions were made on whether or not the to increase their funding so it's totally up to to to you mayor and councel um but I would just tell you that if we're going to be aggressive we we will we we will be back to ask for an increase I I and that's what we do with engineering it's the same thing so we should just be I agree we should be aggressive but to start out if to go this amount of money over what we've done compared to what their same deals with with other municipalities some larger than us some equal to us it makes no sense why we're paying them 50,000 and unions paying them 35 why do you think they're getting the same service why why would I didn't say they get the same service I said they're getting let me ask you this question did anybody here did anybody here ask how much they're getting from other locations that they work for and then if you go on their website they don't even have mon Clair on there as a client Council the only thing relevant is what the hourly is if the hourly is a discount that's a different issue than if it's if it's the only thing if they choose to have less what's relevant to you is not relevant to me what's relevant to me is that we have a location not have two people get in the back she asked me a question is that it does not make sense to me that we're paying them $50,000 same organization we gave a $63,000 contract due last month for something that they have no experience in doing and so it just doesn't smell right to me and I think if anything I'm not questioning their ability to do grants however if you're telling me that they'll do less work for us if we gave them a $30,000 contract than in 50 that tells me something about them they would so I'm I just think it's too much money to go to this grant writing company and that's not just them any just like with millennium Millennium was a company that does very well with grant writing services they have a whole bunch of townships we in fact they used to work with us but what we found was because they're doing so much work with other places they weren't giving us the services that we needed so we went to Ary a smaller group not as many companies but the money that we're spending is too much upfront in my opinion now we have other counselors there's six other people up here who can say just say something different I do want to make one other point if I may um you you've said a couple times they have no experience and the other project that we just authorized them for and it's not about ice rinks it's about how do you do a fundraising initiative how do you they have substantial experience as I understand in what it takes to La if you read the RFP it acts for Engineering Services for building Parks we've talked about the Engineering Services that was separately a separate study that we have so I'll call the question M CL wait wait wait wait wait wait wait don't call question I just have to ask now did they were they involved with the anti-hate grant that the police got on a very limited basis that Grant was that Grant was pretty much done they came in and took it to the end but there there was also an issue with there was also an indic issue with once the person who wrote that Grant originally with us left the company and then in between that is one of the reasons why the anti-hate grant was was delayed a lot but were participant in that Grant yes but now since that Grant has not been used for two years the company that's our grant advisor okay the people that are in charge of grants for us see if we had a grants I'm not going to talk if they're talking the people in Char if we had a grants writer on staff or somebody assigned to Grants writing within our government structure then that person should be involved in this whole what I call a fiasco of not having used the money for two years for the anti-hate crimes Grant but now these people were on board they should have maybe been involved in making sure a grant that we did receive was in fact used to help our town they been C up okay now let me just get to the point that councilman Cummings made because I feel the same way he does if you you're telling me that Newark and other towns even bigger than us are paying a lot less for this service why are we paying $50,000 so I have to ask again and I'm going to ask this question on behalf of the public that's asking me which I can't answer did this company give a contribution to Mayor Spiller yes yes I'm asking mayor Spiller okay so we'll call the question and specifically I'll say this before we go to the vote M mayy go ahead and speak I don't want to cut you off but I I do have a couple questions over here I've been painfully quiet so fa enough as long as we don't call don't call the question on me fair enough go ahead sir thank you um councelor Cummings real quick you had said you had made inquiries but who of whom did you make the inquiries I'm I just want to know where you got your information are you talking about from townships well you you had said I made an I asked about Arena and other projects I I don't know who you did you just do it on your own on the website or yeah I looked at their website and looked at the the work that they've done their Client List and none of it showed anything involved in that okay and then I looked at our but first I looked at our RFP when you're talking about the arena correct right that's that's what I'm talking about okay because because um and I wasn't involved in negotiating this I used to be on the education committee Once Upon Time I'm not now my concern too is that there's no incentives built in we've always had incentives when it came to the grant writers when I was on the education committee Once Upon a Time it just makes sense now we don't have that now I don't know why but that's a concern that I have quite frankly every Grant when I was a consultant and if I brought money in I got 5% of what I brought in on top of whatever my monthly fee was I do know from working at another Township that employed the ARB group that they had a $3,500 month contract for six months and after that six months they did not renew and so because but I'm not com I'm not saying that that influenced this right here what my issue is compared to other townships I looked on that on their website that they call clients calls to people I know in those governments to ask specifically hey what are you guys charging and those numbers were considerably different than what we're putting putting at is it not to exceed and so that's where I'm saying why are we at it not to exceed and to your point about incentives I do think incentives are very important and are we because what you get you know you eat what you you pray absolutely that's why it's incentiv I agree can I just clarify one point on incentives you can't pay them part of the grant so you have to budget the incentives AB without a doubt so you are going to be in a position where yes you know you give them an incentive and we get the grants but the budget AR impact correct for the cost of the consultant will be higher well Mich can't give them part of the grant it's and it's not my first rodeo I know how the grant how the incentives were because we had them in the other contracts and I'm glad you clarified that Michael and I wasn't suggesting no different than what noberto brought up about Nisha that amount if if we do all the things that people are asking us to do it's probably going to go over the cost of what the state is offering so we are going to have to put Pony up we will and if this grant riding company delivers money they God bless them we should Pony up to them you come up with a fee that is is Equitable and fair to both parties but just to say we're going to go above because then when you do what we're doing is we're saying okay not to exceed 50,000 they're going to go do work we're going to get bills from them we're going to go over $50,000 and we don't know what the limit will be all I know is right now they got 100,000 for us or if we if we add this right here and I I appreciate that Mr Cummings and I thank you for doing the leg work and that's why I was asking I wasn't trying to challenge your sources I just wanted to know where it came from listen it's called eode gee I never heard of that one before um thank you Mr Mayor I appreciate that sir um specifically I just will note I think to councilwoman price sa's point I know you have the opportunity as well uh to serve there this is a not to exceed amount uh not to exceed amount is not how much someone gets paid it's the rate you noted it specifically uh the rate that is charged town by town uh those that's the comparable number the rates are the same that's what you're paying for other entities as you note some of the larger places that do have full-time grant writers uh that do the work uh they obviously might use an outside grant writer less or more depending uh secondly or thirdly whichever number I'm up to I know that because it's been noted a few times here uh and quite frankly residents have come to this meeting uh last couple meetings uh prior to this one uh talking about uh specifically one of the really big grants that we received and has languished and we on the education committee have watched that Mr Lola I know you tried to wrap your arms around it uh it languished because after they secured the grant right it was moved over to staff and then it did not get handled right and we have to then factor in Mr Deputy Mayor to your point um Mr laa has reached out and asked you know some of the grant work to hey Shepherd it through after the grant has received to make sure that we don't lose these dollars right that's not a you know going to Reet more money Reet more money it's a hey if you want that time you're going to pay the hourly rate to manage that Grant but to make sure we're not giving back the million so well spent at yeah at that point so I know Mr Leo was leaning into that space so there's a lot of pieces on it uh again it's a not to exceed I think the challenge before um or anytime you have in this Arena a not to exceed and if there's a delay and we're not going after grants um you know that's the problem but anyway that's where yep Madam clerk councelor Cummings no Deputy Mayor Hurlock no councelor price Abrams yes Council Russo no councelor schlager yes councelor Terry abstain mayor Spiller yes all right next is resolution r433 um councilwoman Scher you yes um whereas invoices against the township of Monclair in favor of the following persons for the amount set opposite their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct now therefore be resolved by the Council of the township of Monclair the county of Essex that said invoices B and they are hereby ordered paid that checks be drawn by the finance department to the order of such persons for the amounts respectively here and after stated on the computer print out attached here to and made a part here of this bill list is dated January 30th year of 2024 for $1,110,000 4 cents and I shall move second let moved and seconded any questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings I have to abstain because I haven't read the bill list I got in late as I asked you to deliver my packet on Monday CU I was out of town for work all weekend and it rained so I didn't want the rain to tear it up because unlike Mr Hurlock here I don't have access to my house other than when it's raining outside so um I will will abstain from this is that like to dog ate my homework Mr Cummings CU it sounds like it's me just saying Deputy Mayor more adult version uh yes Madam cler thank you councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes uh that concludes the agenda items and thank everybody uh with that we'll open up to public comment all speakers must complete the shin sheet before addressing the council uh and uh again you have three minutes to address the council please does that say almost 11:00 p.m. yes it does so this public comment period at the end of the meetings folks could you hear me this public comment Mr manager I don't object to having a public comment at the end but there should be a public comment on any item at the beginning as other other towns like Verona and Bloomfield do because now 11:00 is when some of these folks have been waiting here all night to say something about a general issue and it's not fair and it's not Democratic to have to wait till 11:00 to speak I've been saying this all along but now here it's proven 11:00 [Applause] p.m. democracy in action to 12 uh my name is John Lang I'm with the bike bus um live on Midland Avenue um and I'm here to talk about Street safety um we had a great presentation from the police department earlier um and that's just part of some of the focus we've had on this topic over the last several months so I wanted to acknowledge that Focus um and issue some thanks uh thanks to the council for creating and funding the vision zero task force and for passing the speed limit resolution recently and starting to implement that uh thanks to the MPD both for the presentation uh for supporting the bike bus and our weekly rides the broader safe rout to school program and also as we heard earlier for restoring their resources for traffic enforcement um the problem we have is that traffic enforcement isn't a scalable solution it could be part of the solution but it's not the whole solution uh we need to do more and signs as we heard are are fine but you only need to spend a few minutes at watching Plaza watching illegal left turns to understand how well signs work it's it's not very well um a better more efficient answer comes from better Street design um over the last few months I've heard some acknowledgements of that idea from the council just tonight councilor schlager mentioned how effective stop signs have been slowing traffic on Central Avenue my kids bus stop is at the corner of Central in Brunswick so I see this every day uh we need more action like this Lieutenant igno earlier mentioned complaints from residents about speeding uh on the side streets between Grove and Ridgewood why don't we run some experiments with traffing cing on these streets try a bunch of different strategies collect some data see what works meanwhile at the other end of those streets over in Glenn Ridge they've taken a step forward by putting up Flex posts around the crosswalks this on Ridgewood AV which is actually a County Road the posts improve visibility of pedestrians by enforcing existing no parking rules they discourage the kind of unsafe passing that is all too common on Montclair streets we could do stuff like that too so while I'm appreciative for the progress we need to keep it going uh there's more resources going into enforcement we've heard that and I'd like to hope that there are also resources going into traffic calming there's steps that we can take immediately and that Montclair as a progressive Cosmopolitan town to borrow phrase should be taking thank you thank you thank you good evening my name is dear Scott I am a homeowner in the fourth W Ward and a grandchild of a veteran who served this country I attended several Township meetings last year where I expressed the abuse of power by employees and the fourth word councilman I was deemed a liar and was threatened with police involvement I provided evidence of abuse and was threatened with further police inv involvement for the purposes of Defending that lie I've been underprediction for telling aaren to get off my land the fourth ward councilman blatantly lied and not one representative of his Township addressed or corrected him the conduct of Monclair and the incompetency of leadership in government are one of the reasons why many do not vote when when I come here as a black woman and I express a problem I do not expect to be met with any types of retaliation by the police major Jennings house the principal of Buzz Aldren and a friend of David Cummings continues to be St disturbing at all hours of the day and night I have been unable to practice any of my Christian beliefs or even have a decent night's sleep major Jennings and his household progressively grow more and more hostile the more that I speak up in come to these meetings I have the right to live safely in my home without the police being used as Defenders of trespassing crimes and personal security guards I asked for a code of conduct of the township employees and representatives and I have not received it mon cair seem to subscribe to the Trump Theory believe what we say and not what you see I do not subscribe to that theory if you abuse power you should lose power do your job or leave make room for someone who has the ability to tell the truth and take action on behalf of resident who do not cower so does um so Mr Lola I believe it was you I asked for a code of conduct for the councilmen and Montclair a Township employees I have not received anything I don't recall that but I apologize and we'll find whatever there is if there is it would be in the code so okay so I would like to receive that because if you don't have a code of conduct that sets as a minimum if you are taking a seat here that you should be at least on the side of righteousness or even on the side of truth then you do not need to have a seat just because I have not grown up in this neighborhood although On This Town although I have worked and lived in this town for 20 years but although I have not lived here from the beginning to the end it does not mean that because I do not subscribe to joining your click or bowing down to what you guys do in the neighborhood has nothing to do with me I do not get a discount on my taxes because you are who you claim to be I'm expected to pay my taxes I paid over half a million dollars for that house more than both you and Mr Jennings have paid and when I do something like that I don't expect to have any disturbances from anybody because they are friends with the four4 counsilman thank you for your time have a good I'll be back until address good evening I know it's late so I'm going to be quick my name is Ria Tomkins you've seen me up here before 50 Greenwood Avenue Union Garden I'll say it like this new management new faces same issues okay um with me first of all elevator was out for 3 years came up for 6 months it's been back down for 6 months back door broke 3 months okay they do not help us um back in um December the code enforcement came to our building and had an inspection in every unit every unit with the management I asked I sent the email to code enforcement as well as to the management Miss Malloy seatan hall seatan Hall students and Miss Malloy and the landlord tenant advisory committee they're the only ones that help us only ones and all I asked was tell me a listing of what was in my unit that need to be repaired okay because I'm not going to just let anybody just walk up in my unit and you're just all I get is an email or something oh we're going to do repairs what are you repairing who's coming in my unit that was December 12th no reply not from code enforcement not from management Sunday I sent another email cuz I knew I was coming tonight still nothing so but if I don't let them come in my unit then they'll send a thing to their attorney saying I'm not in compliance by letting them come into my unit would you just let people come into your home just because they said they can that's not fair to us we are paying tenants they also um if you don't let them come they try to bully you people are having still having issues with their ledgers regarding being told that they owe thousands of dollars because previous management didn't do recertifications okay and now this present management hasn't done the recertifications but we're supposed to be penalized because they didn't do their work they didn't do their job who is going to help us who we've been here since 2000 my sister had to leave cuz she she had to leave but we've been here since 2018 with this same issue and nothing has changed if anything is got gotten worse personally I think what they're trying to do is get us all out demolish the building so they can build up to go along with all the other pretty little buildings that's around that's what it seems like to me thank you did you want to speak I'm sorry guys if you wanted to respond to her you well I could listen to you both I didn't know you were about to say you can respond to her first so just simply I I don't know that I received anything from you specifically but I would be happy to try and talk with you Mr laola maybe we could figure out who from code enforcement is supposed to help them I mean I I'm not sure of the mechanics of what what's his name car Carmine is that yeah I would offer this in a reminder so uh we did have code enforcement on this issue right come into these Chambers and speak to this issue and the the elevator was at the time right one of the big ones right here we are though you said it work for you know whatever three days right um so Mr Lola maybe there's the you know we we had the extensive report from code enforcement when they came here and explains pieces but there needs to be you know it go it goes down then you know for for your description right it they they come in and check appreciate that but you manage code enforcement right so please make sure that code enforcement um is working on like an ongoing basis to keep updates and checking in because it sounds like as they you know we pressed and pressed and pressed and the last meeting totally got it or not last meeting but last time they came in right fully explained what they were doing and where they were and the violations that they had um but then now it seems it's resorted back so I think there's got to be be a way where it can't be driven by you know you got to come to a council meeting for code enforcement to to re-engage on it right you should be able to give us an update on that and if you would please keep me posted and then we can at least keep some follow-up tabs for you thank you for coming can I just ask a quick question before my time starts who is uh Mr Lola is he the Section 8 he's a manager oh okay so piggybacking off of what Mrs um Tomkins said the management at the building is bullying us it's to the point where you can't even get in contact with them because the phone is off and when I say off that they didn't pay the bill so whoever they have the service through disconnected the phone no one's never in the office it's many people they come it's just people showing up at your apartment they don't give you their name there's a no employee identification saying that they work for this company or even what their name is and then when you don't let them in they bully you saying well if you don't let them in we're going to throw you out we're going to take you to court to get you evicted how fair is that for me to let someone I am a young disabled female living by myself and someone showing at my door I'm just supposed to let them in I don't know what could happen to me they could kill me rape me anything and because I'm not going to let them in because they can't identify their self they now all of a sudden they're threatening to take me for eviction like that's not fair to us and we've been here before last March we came here and they said it was going to get looked into and nothing was never looked into but the only thing I feel that was looked into between March and when we're back here again is a menu to order lunch that's it it's not fair at all there's nowhere for us to turn the upper management of the company they won't answer us nobody is helping us we don't know where to go we don't know what to do all we doing is asking for help so we can live comfortably and then like she said as well I think that they are going to eventually get us all out tear the building down and put something else there because the new prices that they have in Monclair is absolutely ridiculous and whoever is on the Section 8 committee knows that the voucher they give people will not even cover what these landlords are charging for the rent for a two-bedroom voucher in Monclair it's $1,750 they are charging four and $5,000 for just two bedrooms you see how big of a difference that is so we're stuck we can't go nowhere we can't do nothing it's not fair at all nothing is fair is that and we're not being helped well Mr Burr maybe I go to you and I know as a private with private residen there there's a harder situation there but especially with the federal piece there with Section 8 other like if there's a uh can you can you look at all the levers at our disposal and see what it is um Miss Malloy is getting ready to come up from the landlord tenant advisory uh Comm committee which I know assists and uh AIDS tenants with information uh on where they can go um there you know it's if your section 8 uh tenants you're receiving Section 8 you can speak to the Monclair Housing Authority officer Mr Morgan uh and let him know that you're having problems there if he's not able to assist you I know the HUD the S uh the DCA Division of Community Affairs has a Section 8 can I respond to what you just said yes so when I told them about the situation because I'm looking for something else cuz I have a whole dialysis center in my apartment and need more room they said they don't help you look for apartments you have to find it yourself and Monclair has said that several times as well well I think you what you then need to do is reach out to some other agencies that provide the that type of assistance their uh volunteer Attorney Services down in um let's see let me hear what do you want to add to this or dear droy chairwoman of landlord tenant advisory committee um some of the things that you're hearing are um long-standing historical issues um we have engaged HUD and DCA and a majority of the life safety issues were addressed however there are still some life safety issues that are not being addressed because there's yet again New Management U within the last I think 24 48 hours I'm hearing about this additional stuff here um I have reached out to Mr Lola regarding code enforcement uh and I advised Mr Lola's office that if in fact code enforcement is used as a weapon against the tenants that would be a problem but I do not believe that Carmine would do that I've also put Management on notice that they cannot threaten or harass these tenants and what's happening is is they have these new staff the old super is no longer there so they want to send in people to pick up the pieces from months ago to finish reinspect the apartments the problem is is they don't know who these new staff members are and several of the tenants have health issues and are requesting masks and booties so uh the management threatened that if you do not let them in because we're not going to provide masks and booties we will violate you for non-compliance and so on and so forth I'm just hearing about the fact that you were just told that you would be evicted I got a violation letter okay so what ha what will happen is is that landlord tenant advisory committee will pick this up again with these new concerns and review them I am going to reach out to HUD I have a very close relationship as the committee does working with HUD we let them know what's happening they contact management immediately via email and address these issues um the problem is that it does appear as though they're trying to force the tenants out I am concerned about that um the lack of repairs the mismanagement and some of these other things I don't know how true that is but sometimes it is a pattern with certain types of ownership buildings that are subsidized again that's an assumption it's a pattern that seems to be forming I not saying that it's true uh however these concerns are not getting better um HUD asked me to allow this management a few months to the end of the year it's now January that they would have things resolved and that's not the case um the the financial records are in such um disarray that they can't even discern rightly the ledgers because they were never recertified and it's just really a massive mess so having said that um we will step in and take a look at what's happening so that we can get all the facts together like we did before like you did thank you uh and we'll work with code enforcement in Mr Lola's office and I'll speak with the tenants about the elevator and things like that and contact the County as well if you could do exactly as you did before which your thank you and I think that was very effective at least in that moment so thank you m Tomkins hold on Miss Tomkins Miss Tomkins my friend Miss panfil who lives there you know what I'm talking who I'm talking about Miss panel says she has been threatened and not given proper heat and she's had to go to court because they're trying to force her out and this goes back to March of last year I have text messages from that resident in your building so I know that this is going on there's evidence that this is going on it's it's a pattern as you said so I think this is a terrible landlord that's doing things that shouldn't go on in Montclair of all places and we need to take action ourselves and I hope that we can do more for you because I thought it was resolved I'm going back to the time of Mayor Jackson Remember mayor Jackson was up here trying to get it done we're still 6 years later you're suffering un unfortunately and I wanted you to know that I'm getting texts from people there who are saying they're being threatened threatened to know who the who the owner is no one will tell us who the owner is this is outrageous go look for it ourselves we don't even know who the owner is United States of America right housing for not for people so that's something we'll help them with um it's the management company that's really the issue um and seat and Hall law is representing some of the tenants and they have successfully done so excellent EXC yes advocacy group would would would be greatly benefited here well we are last thing I'll say is uh Mitch Khan is working with us to help them form attendance organization because attempts failed oh they said they didn't recognize it don't worry about that I dealt with the management company on that and told them they were violating their rights thank you so much get back thank you ladies thank you thank you [Applause] both hi again Eric deato 25 Norwood you may have noticed that I and some other people were passing around a document uh and I just wanted to re uh share with you out of fairness um uh it is um on the issue of of the benefits uh problem that we have here uh and I just want you to know a couple of things first of all it was written uh by a group of people about a half dozen people including two attorneys uh it was uh completed uh largely before the news yesterday of the mayor's uh taking the fifth at his deposition uh in the trial uh uh and again I just want you to have an opportunity to read it it's to the attorney general Mr platkin um dear attorney general platkin uh we write as a group of concerned citizens uh of the township of Monclair regarding ongoing reports that eight current and former members of our Township Council including mayor Shan Spiller are under criminal investigation for the illegal receipt of state health benefits paid for with premiums from our municipal government as well as the submission of written certificates by councilors fraudulently claiming a minimum of 35 hours per week spent working on official Count Council business our purpose in writing is to put your office on notice regarding the implications of political manipulation of the ongoing investigation as a resident of Monclair yourself and appointee of the current governor you will be well aware of the political sensitivities of this case in addition to being mayor of Monclair shanp is a president of the unit of the New Jersey Education Association the largest public employee union in the State and what the New York Times has called a political Titan spiller's also widely seen as potential candidate in both the May 2024 municipal election here as well as next year's gubinatorial election as a result any decision to Halt or delay an investigation or indictments in the case will invariably be seen as politically motivated therefore we implore you to ensure that a thorough investigation is completed regardless of any political discomfort it may cause given the factual similarity with the case in Wildwood where three former members of the city commission were indicted for theft by unlawful taking from the state health benefits program and for tampering with public records we would have hoped that the same urgency was applied in the Monclair case indeed on December 12th the Press of Atlantic City the fourth largest daily newspaper in the state called Monclair quote The Champ of benefits abuse unquote saying the township is in a league of its own when it comes to improperly showering benefits and money on affluent local officials I'm going to seed my time now to miss summer Padilla Lonnie summer Padia Montclair resident for taxpayers and residents of Montclair the injury goes beyond the improperly received premiums and opt out payments which total more than $350,000 for mayor Spiller and the four other currently serving counselors implicated in the arrangement Lori price Abrams David Cummings William Hurlock and Robin schlager according to an investigation by New Jersey Advance media former mayor Robert Jackson Who currently serves as the powerful administrator of Essex County and former councilors Richard McMahon and Peter yabis were also cited in the same report the council is now spending thousands of dollars more of our community resources to fend off a related whistleblower lawsuit filed by our Township our filed by our own Township CFO who claims to have faced retaliation for drawing attention to the scheme questionable tactics and positions taken by the township have led to public denunciation by Superior Court Judge Steven Pat the personal attorney for mayor Spiller has repeatedly sought to delay his client's deposition in the case and to put proceedings under seal while mayor Spiller has refused to be deposed on Fifth Amendment grounds the Montclair case is egregious for other reasons the council hastily and potentially improperly passed an indemn indemnification ordinance which compels taxpayers to pay for the counselor's individual defense and at least two of the counselors who have been implicated in improperly attesting to working 35 hours a week to receive benefits are attorneys regardless of the multiple legal cases the township is now facing as a result of the improper actions of Township employees and elected officials we are determined to see Justice served in this case and will scrutinize any further attempts to delay avoid or dismiss charges for signs of political intent because of this we are copying the Office of Public integrity and accountability the New Jersey Supreme Court office of Attorney ethics and media outlets on this letter we wanted to share this with you uh so that you would have you would hear it firsthand from us this is democracy in action thank you thank you uh Sarah Avery uh Irving Street uh Sean Spiller this is a continuing theme mayor of Monclair and president of njaa uses his position of authority to fund his personal campaign despite the obvious conflicts of interest the njaa conflict of interest policy explicitly states that taking advantage of your position for furthering your own Financial or material gain within or outside of the association is grounds for removal the njaa 3 person executive committee chaired by Spiller has complete authority over njaa and Pac funds Spiller has held one of the three positions continuously since September 2013 over time Spiller in direct violation of the njaa conflict of interest policy has directed over $143,000 to his personal campaign funds $10,000 from the NJEA and 33,000 from Community for academic excellence and the County Association as CEO Spiller has authority over Community for academic Excellence the Paya County Education Association the Wayne Education Association and Garden State forward did you know that the community for academic Excellence is 100% funded by Wayne public school teacher mandatory union dues Spiller took this money from teacher salaries do you believe that teachers are so well paid that they would rather support Sean Spiller than buy groceries $143,000 is a lot of groceries during his tenure with njaa Spiller has authorized the payment of over $65 million to Garden State forward funded by mandatory union dues to support the Democratic political machine without any transparency to members do you believe that teachers are so well paid they would rather buy elections than a house $65 million is a lot of houses Sean spiller's abuse of his position as president of njaa is destabilized to our children teachers schools educational system Community institutions and the entire State while abusing the position of Mayor to politicize the town he is undermining our Safety and Security can someone please tell me how is Shan Spiller protecting our democracy it's I got 10 seconds and it's not a rhetorical question from pretty much the moment it was sworn in on July 1st 2020 the council has been mired in Scandal and dysfunction and by now has compiled a record so woeful it's hard to imagine anyone running on it much less defend it from the illegal receipt of state benefits a c and cash waivers to the submission of certificates certifications fraudulently claiming they worked a minimum of 35 hours a week on official Council business to harassment by counselors and our former Township manager of our CFO the hasty passage of an indemnification ordinance putting Montclair taxpayers on the hook for legal costs of implicated counselors in the ongoing attempt of the township to keep secret the content of the deposition of Sean Spiller who pled the fifth for those of you who are not trial lawyers the US Supreme Court has held that the right against self-incrimination extends to civil cases that's McCarthy V arnstein and the court is entitled to draw adverse inferences against the party who leads the fifth as Justice Brandy said silence is often evidence of the most persuasive character it's almost unreal that Shawn's now requesting reimbursement for his private attorney to plead the fifth he wasn't even a named defendant but that's still only one plot line even those of us who tune in every week have had a hard time keeping up there were fire department related scandals the giveaway of of millions of dollars in services to subsidize Glenn Ridge time sheet fraud rigged promotions deals for politically connected law firms irregularities in the passage of the lacana plaza Redevelopment plan the granting of Lifetime tenure to the same Township Clerk a Court ruled had harm the voting rights of our residents the retaining of a municipal financial advisor that the federal government barred from serving as a municipal financial adviser a costly attack on the public library a mass resignation by of by the senior citizens advisory committee and gross mismanagement of capital and renovation Pro projects like the public school pool closed during the summer and a municipal parking garage that set empty for months because it flunk the town's own inspection nothing has gone right at least for us residents and while mayor spillard due to and its Council allies apparently stopped caring how bad things look that is what you did last week when you gave us all the the proverbial finger when they admitted you all admitted that You' never received or read the proposals that you were going to vote on and David Cummings asked you to table the issue until you had time to read it and you all said no and then Robin tried to tell us the process for how we always choose the lower contract and we've worked with these people before and we have lots of money to burn on a contract that she's never read actually that that's not the process and procurement anomalies are another thing that we need to be seriously concerned about we have a procurement officer thank you what you do is illegal and improper and costs us a lot of money please stop good evening that was quite a list you guys shame while you protect democracy to just fill your pockets and your political war chest citizens are coming up over and over again to try and actually save whatever is left of democracy in this town and it's really sad but there's not a lot I would like to thank Mr Lola for having the police chief come and present tonight as I attempted to say earlier here getting a little bit a start of the data was super helpful I actually ran a volunteer group for many years in New York City supporting a police department on the way Upper West Side I think what police do are very important and needs to be supported but the problem is in this town the town Council never asks for data not of the police not of the the fire not of anyone you guys spend more money on Public Safety than any other similar town and maybe it's because we have different needs and maybe it's because we do such an incredible outstanding job but if that is the case you need to prove it because we're not seeing it okay the laundry list of really shameful undemocratic things that you guys have been doing since the beginning of your tenure really it's terrible I don't know how you guys live with yourselves it's not right this is a town where people actually believe in democracy do us a favor just just leave so we can start all over again I'm Mar Gordon Avenue but I might as well be the same person as as Jun right now you know me sper a friend of mine knows and the attorneys for raal and before it was reported he told me that you had PL the fif and when I heard that I felt a lot of empathy for you cuz I tried to put myself in your shoes and I thought what would be the day after for me what would feel like if I were a public official an elected mayor responsible for taking care of the needs of 40,000 people in this town and I had to plead the fifth in a civil suit which you know it's not the same as claiming the claiming the fif on a Criminal suit which anyone who has Sun Ron walking would do right when you claim the fif on a civil suit you have to claim it over and over and over again you're not just not showing up to a deposition you're there and the attorney asks you and then you claim the fifth and then she ask another question and you do it again and she ask another question and you do it again and she has another question and you do it again and every time you do it a criminal court can't use it but the Civil card can they can ad they can draw adverse inferences from every time you play the fifth so you're basically admitting to wrongdoing over and over and over again and that means you're throwing the township under the bus you're ensuring that we lose that very expensive case while you we pay for your personal attorney to defend you you're saving yourself you're throwing the township under the bus and I thought after that how would I live with myself what would be the day after how would I look at my child how would I look at my partner how would I look at my neighbor neighs you know how would I face anyone after that the shame I would feel I would feel a lot of Shame so I really I truly felt a lot of empathy for you I wondered where you could go from there you know perhaps Hawaii would be a good idea uh it's I would want to go as far as possible I felt so much shame on your behalf and then that turned to the worst feeling in American public life these days which is outrage cuz I felt outrage when I find out that I found out that you'd be giving a speech today as if nothing happened as if you had any legitimacy as if you had the right to be here as if we owed you respect we don't I felt empathy for you now I just feel outrage because you don't you lost all legitimacy you have no right to be here we don't deserve this you should not be here I hope you feel the shame that I felt on your behalf shame you always a lot of shame in addition to money thank you thank you all right seeing no one else for public comment I'll close public comment Mr Deputy Mayor anything no thank you Mr may actually two things real quick there there were two things and it's late and I know it but you know sat here all night um there was a great event at the Women's Club of upper Monclair uh attended the lunch in there which was great and many of us attended the uh High School where they did the We the People again which is always a great event that's just is that's a phenomenal I love that yeah quite frankly I wish we had it when I was in school but uh thank you to the teachers who put that on and to CGI and thank you Mr Mayor thank you Mr Mayor counciler nothing uh councilman Terry nothing counc Russo yes I just like to say that um we're we're in a new year now it's January and the beginning of this month three public officials that served Montclair well that I've had opportunity to work with over the years were retired whatever politically happened U it's unfortunate we've lost them we have good Representatives now Senator John mcken is our new state senator assemblywoman Alex on kassos Gill is our new assembly woman but we've lost a great assemblyman who is a great labor leader Tom Giblin who served us for many many years and did a lot of charitable work in town so I want to salute Tom Giblin I want to salute Senator Nia gill who helped many times get aid from Montclair for school transportation Aid and she served a long 30 years years in the State Assembly and Senate and then of course Senator Richard Cody who did represent Monclair for many years his family had a funeral home in Montclair so Senator Cody Senator Gil and assemblyman Giblin I want to thank you on behalf of Montclair for all the hard work you did and welcome our new legislative leaders the only other comment I have is that the senior citizens came to us a month ago two months ago and asked us to appoint a committee to deal with the senior center issue and I I see we're not going to have a a session to do appointments tonight I regret that because people have been waiting to be reappointed their terms have expired as of the 31st of December and a lot of committees including the zoning board which asked that we please appoint people my colleagues I'm asking you to do the right thing and get these things done so now we're going to go home it's 11:30 and we've heard a lot of criticism and I hope the public understands that I was not a part of of a lot of the things that you've complained about but I feel badly about how This Town Council has worked and you see tonight again postponement of working on all these different issues that people are concerned about the senior citizens asked me today well will that finally be appointed Bob no we're not going to deal with the senior citizens request for a senior senator we're not going to appoint the people on the zoning board that have expired we're not going to put the people on Civil Rights Commission we're not going to put the people on the people with disabilities three of them were here tonight they're they've expired Wendy who spoke she's exp they've expired yeah we can have holdovers but if You' like to see that great movie The holdovers I just regret that I'm up here working with a group that does not want to get things done okay good night you know you don't want to get you're going to do it Council not funny I wasn't going to say much it is it is fun there's no need to be offensive Bob that's all I'm going and you excluded out that yeah and I didn't do those things you did that's right I didn't do some of those things surprised you were going to stay I'm CGI was fabulous I was really glad to be there as a judge the first time I was there with one of my kids then councilman Spiller was one of the judges um uh anyway um I'm tired have a good night everybody councilman comings yeah just I want to make sure that uh properly so resolution for the auy group 24032 did not pass that's correct okay just want that on record second thing uh Friday Roger and I will be at Glenfield Community Center for uh we lost three really important well really really forthward people in the last two weeks uh Kenny McDougall was a cop in Orange I'm talking about folks who I since I was a child uh swab passed away and uh Larry Audrey Fletcher's brother and so we'll be moralizing Larry on Friday and I you know this will be you know we talk about being here forever some people talk about that well if you want to see the fourth Warden M come by Glenfield Park Friday and you will see um a lot of folks who grew up here and I just want to acknowledge that just because of Audrey Fletcher is one of the people um I stand on her shoulders see her picture over there and so I just want to acknowledge that because I know she'll be in town and um it's great and yes the CGI program was great the students were unbelievable um I I have no idea how they remembered those citing those law cases history yeah without a cart it it was just like phenomenal and you know so that's one small learning committee that's getting Community that's getting it done and forget about it um it was tremendous it was a good way to spend the two hours absolutely uh Mr attorney anything nothing mayor uh Madam clerk no report mayor thank you uh Mr manager I just two things briefly um mayor first of all um last Thursday I had a meeting with those same senior citizens actually it was representatives of both groups within the community it was extraordinarily productive it lasted a few hours we have another meeting scheduled the week after next I heard their uh ideas it was a Frank exchange I think it was extraordinarily positive and I'm looking forward to working with them the second thing is that we've established the Clary Anderson advisory committee our first meeting is February 6th um and um we look forward to getting the input of the community as to exactly what we should be proposing um for that um Clary Anderson so that's that's the two updates for right now great thank you and speaking along those lines um I'll just say this uh uh thank you all for sharing that a lot of great things going on in town always um uh I'll give you a lot of credit councilwoman schlager you uh and I did not slip when we went on the ice for the Monclair cup over at Clary um and certainly uh exciting game ended in the uh the one-1 tie but it was really an example of uh seeing our kids uh really having a ton of fun and so many other students who were out and members of the community um you know and uh but it was it was uh uh really nice to see the energy in there and and a lot of fun for sure so um you know congratulations uh to both of them for their efforts um with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn second all in favor we are adjourned have a great night