Council vice president Falls would you please read the open public meeting excuse this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting of March 13th 2024 was included in a list of meeting notices sent to newspapers of record and posted on the bulleon board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted at the required notices under the statute in addition a copy of this notice has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the municipal clerk everyone please rise for the pledge of alance iedge Al to the flag the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with and justice for all sco would you please do the invocation sure Lord we are meeting today to conduct matters of business guide our hearts and our minds in the spirit of fairness right thought and speech impart your Supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our Affairs May reach a successful conclusion thank you for being our source of guidance today amen amen roll call please councilman cor here councilman Kennedy here councilman scuro here Council by president paus here council president Marino here bills list please the regular bills list as of March 12th 2024 is 1,265 39 the prepaid Bill list is zero for a grand total of 1,126 5539 thank you motion to accept the bills so move council president yes I have a question go ahead um on the bill list um I see $1,020 for pipes and drapes for Council meetings now what's done is done I just don't feel it was necessary so that's all I'm going to say about that okay thank you okay we have a motion to pay do we have a second so move there second any discussion okay roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbo yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes K the minutes of the February 14th regular and executive so moveed second any discussion roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paulus yes council president Marino yes public discussion on agenda items okay seeing n we're moving on okay ordinances for second reading 02243 a Redevelopment plan ordinance of the town of filbur County of Warren state of New Jersey pertaining to block 10005 lot 13 con known as 540 Marshall Street and designated as an area in need of Rehabilitation by the town of Philipsburg in accordance with njsa 48 12 a-7 entitled 4A 12 a-7 adoption of the Redevelopment plan motion so moved second any discussion with Council before we open it to the public hearing on seeing on since this is the second reading it's open to the public anyone want to talk about it please state your name seeing none roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes ordinance for the first here reading 0224 -06 in ordinance of the town of Philipsburg County of Warren state of New Jersey replacing chapter 677 road truck restrictions and schedule for with chapter 67-78 Truck Group we take the ordinances one at a time motion so move second any discussion on Council okay the public doesn't get first only to council seean none call the rooll please councilman cork yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman sco yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes second ordinates for the first reading 0224 d07 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank njsa 48-4 d35 14 so move second any discussion by Council phone call please councilman cour yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scero yes Council vice president paus yes council president Marino yes okay resolutions on the consent agenda resolution 2024 d41 through resolution R20 2 4-47 we need a motion so move second okay any discussion by Council on cour okay roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes moving on the old business any counc have any old business councilman scurb yeah I have something I just want to thank uh our business administrator uh Matt Hall for helping draft the resolution from our prior meeting uh disavow the comments from the former mayor Frank Needler and expressing support to renaming uh Street um a different name I want to thank him for his help on that um and moving forward uh collectively hopefully Council we can work together to find a new name for that street um what we find is uh is right for the town thank you very welcome thank you coun any other old business new Business Council sco um yeah been uh getting a lot of calls from the irn street area um wonder if we can get out there and maybe do a traffic study there's a lot of speeding going on um I'm not a traffic expert I know the police they set up equipment uh maybe we can look into that area there's a lot of kids that play there and um a lot of cars parked where they can come out and a lot of blind spots where it could be dangerous uh we're also having a problem with uh people parking IL legally at the bus stop in that area uh making it hard for uh the bus to get there to let the children off so maybe if we can get there and take a look at what we could do to make it safer over in that area um I'd appreciate that okay thank you councilman scuro uh Matt could you met the chief of police it's a heavily populated area a lot of little Precious Angels are up there and there's a lot of parking problems there so that' be appreciated absolutely councilman Kennedy I don't have anything councilman Clark I'm good thank you you're welcome Council vice president paus no nothing thank you I don't have anything I'm done motions fire fighter application Ryan Buck Holtz moved second second okay roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes and thank God we're getting more volunteers cuz because we are a volunteer town okay public petitions and it again um I want to make one two things actually one statement I want to comment about the open space committee because of a recent article that was in a paper saying that the committee failed personally I take offense to that as somebody who was serving on both the rec committee and the open space committee those committees were never given a chance since DJ copy left meeting stopped we've had two Recreation directors in between who have done nothing with either one of those committees and I don't feel it's fair to the people that put the work in and the new people that were appointed to that committee back in October who have not had a chance to do the work on those committees I think it was a very unfair statement by the reporter to say that um so I have a question how what shared service agreements do we currently have in place Alpha PD uh animal control um Alpha Court I may be missing one but but honestly we don't have very many okay so there's been discussion at previous meetings about Vehicles being used what the former mayor did so I was was told something and I thought before I say anything I'm going to do research so I overed some information on a town vehicle and the GPS records and when I got them the last statement says personal information has been redacted from the report so why is a town vehicle being used for personal use because realistically the only town vehicle that should go home in this town with anybody is the on call detective because they need to get to a crime scene secure evidence preserve the crime scene and here is a report with a whole lot of information blacked out at all different times not to mention other personal use that's on the vehicle I mean I didn't write the report this is what was printed out so we've heard a lot of talk in the past about the GIF and what the GIF would do with vehicles so what's the GIF going to do if this vehicle is used for personal use and that person gets in an accident who covers that sorry I mean we're talking about cutting here's an expense we can cut because gas mileage wear and tear on a vehicle Tire earlier than needed brakes earlier than needed and how many other vehicles is this happening with cuz you can't sit up here and say as I do you know do as I say not as I do and criticize somebody else for using a vehicle for personal use when it's being done it's just facts I didn't make up the report I just asked for it no it's a fair point I don't drive any so I can't answer that Matt do you have any answers s um the personal information you're referring to is the home address of the person who drives the vehicle why is it being taken home it's a town-owned vehicle if it sits at the municipal building to be used for Town business I'm all fine with that shouldn't be going home there should not be personal information on a Town owned vehicle just shun it you can't condemn somebody else and then sit up here and do the exact opposite of what you're criticizing other people for doing that's all any other public petitions good evening uh David morset address redacted on advice of counselor so uh yeah just one quick thing uh regarding uh rental uh the renting uh ordinance um and U so if uh rental price controls are put into effect the end effect of rank control if it is on units four or less will be to reduce the number of rental units in the town of fisberg I know some of the folks here um took econ 101 in uh when they were in college and uh those who didn't take econ 101 have common sense when the profit margin goes down on the rental units you're going to have landlords selling now um I'm not going to argue for or against R control but I do think it should be uh I do think it should take into consideration what the effect is going to be and uh actually this is something uh this may surprise you when I say this but this is something that I actually am in complete agreement with with former councilman Robert fer however I don't know that you can argue that a long-term reduction in rental units is a positive for renters so again I'm not arguing for or against rent control but I do think you need to be realistic as to what the long-term effects are of rent control thank you very much anyone else J piis I'm going to follow off for Mr Mars about rent control and I'm going to quote councilman Kennedy when we had about rent control the rents that he quoted were from hunon County moris County Sussex County you can shake your head all you want I did my research my husband's not from here the ones you quoted was from Ocean County which was Tom's River Hunting County which was bloomsberry and Sussex County was hakan you can shake your head all you want I'm fact quoting the facts that you stated rent control is needed disagreeing with your facts so excuse me I'm speaking it's my time back okay so I'm a renter I was a homeowner here okay you keep letting the rents go as high as they are you're not going to have to worry about anybody living here okay you may be a homeowner I was a homeowner at one time and I'm a renter now and I've lived in my rent rental department for 2 years now and my rent has gone up drastically I'm not eligible for any assistance as you would put it and like I stated the last time I was here you keep making the rents go up you're not going to have to worry about anybody living here or worry about any business is coming here we're worried about the people staying here and the people living here I'm a lifer here I'd like to stay here and you're worried about we can't pay our bills but now our taxes are going up our sewer rate just went up 12% now our taxes are going to go up not counting School tax and the library went up because we need a public library that cost us a million dollar a public library it's pretty sad that everything keeps going up except for our paychecks and a lot of us are on fixed incomes and a lot of us aren't and a lot of us fall under the guidelines or over the guidelines and our seniors and our children live here but all you are worried about is like Council said the budget and we didn't pay our bills last month or last year rather excuse me but none of you could say how to cut it but two council members voted for a fat budget last year and here we are and there's no way to cut it thank you council president yes can I say something sure ahead uh regarding the library uh the library went to referendum the vter decided to fund the library just wanted to make that point Joe Miner again uh at the um what are they called uh work session last work session which was on rent control uh the president Pete Marino promised that there would be more four public here public meetings on rent control at which time I will present my two cents anyone who would like my two cents there's two pieces one of proposed compromise and the other is a uh argument that establishes uh where the appropriate place has to be for rent control the place where the bottom moves to that's Philipsburg these are documents just tell me I will email you both those documents thank you jff after the meeting of course I expect a l any others under public petitions Dan Bo I have a question about the library now that it's fully funded by taxpayers um do they have to pay their own utilities maintenance costs insurance cost wages everything else now or is the town still going to put the bill for that which is a one way to cut taxes there I'm guessing second of all I mean that's one you guys currently under negotiations okay well I think that's it's something that the public should know sure that's where we're at we're in talks okay second uh thing is uh the warehouse the warehouse has been POS for how long at least 3 years which means I understand there's a $113,000 it brings in $133,000 in taxes a year now as it sits but if it was developed it would be at least a million dollar a million dollar have been wasted 3 years by a frivolous lawsuit that most of the most of the points have been thrown out by the judge I don't know why it's continuing but it is continuing okay I'm I'm looking at it with all the problems solsburg has one year's time the tax is a million dollar fford could build a homeless shelter to address the homeless problem we have in town okay there's a lot of lost jobs the most pathetic thing is these people and and I don't want to say I mean um there's a lot of kids going to to bed at night hungry because people don't like the way they look in the mirror I don't know what the hell is the reason they want to fight this for the man bought the property he owns the property you can't see the property from South Main Street so using that argument is stupid okay you have to go all the way down Howard Street before you would see it okay there's old you know the argument about the traffic which is already been addressed it's been said numerous times but every time you say that it's being addressed they say well there's going to be truck traffic there's going to be truck traffic all over once upon a time there was at least like eight or nine Industries within the the South Main Center Street area what would what would you say if all these industries would still be in in function now Stockton Street you had Martin zil um was one you had orbell across from the the elementary school you had the the flock industry how many trucks used Center Street for Ingress all Ram that was okay then now you don't want it it's I don't know people want to complain oh I like my town book good I like my town book good too but I've seen some of my neighbors I don't know what the hell's wrong I I just I don't understand some people's arguments that are just ludicrous really I watch a science fiction Network and they can't write this stuff as good as what's going on here thank you you anyone else on their public petitions hello Karen W I'm a homeowner in town here and I just caught something a couple minutes ago that the shared um things that we do the police with Alpha service can you answer me then why our inspector was in um lehab Val live saying how he works for us here in perber as well as Alpha and how quote he would leave a job here in perber and go immediately to one an alpha and was paying you know getting paid $25 more an hour or whatever it was he said in there so I mean that's annoying as a taxpayer so we're not not not publicly so it does touch on Personnel so although you're not part of the government he said it publicly it was on he can say whatever he wants publicly these people up here cannot I'm just making you aware that as a taxpayer I would hope that that's not happening that I'm paying a salary for somebody that's working here and he's doing other business on our on my dollar you know what I mean just just wanted to bring that to your attention because it it was out there on we have all live so okay sure thank you look into that anyone else okay last call anyone else under public petitions hearing none seeing none Council open time councilman scuro yeah so like I said before like I stated before I think it's important that when we're on social media putting out information as elected officials that it's accurate information um past couple weeks I've seen stuff that was mistruths maybe things to try to stir up controversy uh Mr Clark stated that we had a secret meeting that was a work session that's been published since January which he voted no for by the way back in January so that schedule was posted if you looked at the agenda and you looked at what you voted on before you would have known that yourself um also it stated that he authored the resolution that I thanked RBA it was in a Lehigh Valley live article stating that he authored it and he wrote it it's not accurate so I just like again I would caution if I put something out it's going to be accurate it's going to be facts to back it up and if I don't I would hope you would hold me accountable too um we can't do this going forward as a town we can't do this we have five people on Council we can't have one person putting misinformation out there and then coming here and then trying to work together it just doesn't work we need to work together which I thought we were going in the right direction until I started seeing these comments um like I said I would caution on that um moving forward and as far as rent control since it was brought up uh by our residents a lot here at the podium I'm for rent control everyone's hurting um personally I'm looking for a second job for my family um something has to give if we can find some way we can cut something for our residents where we can save money I'm all for it and I don't think there should be opposition to that um there's things that are under not under our control the budget we explained millions of things that happened in the past where we're at now that I wasn't on Counsel during that time so I really can't be responsible for that I'm only responsible for where I'm at now um so I'm for rent control and I'm actually for every rental unit not three or more I'm for every rental unit in town we need some kind of relief here inflation skyrocketing people are you know can't even sometimes they don't even know if they can provide groceries for their families we got to do something here and we got to work together we got to stop putting misinformation now we got to start working together and be on the same page thank you councilman Kennedy yeah I'm going to light it up so oh can somebody get that I'll talk over it I'm going to lighten it up uh as a uh person of Irish descent I wanted to invite everyone this Sunday 9:30 to Chappelle Park we're going to raise the Irish flag and um if you're not of Irish descent uh there's an old Irish saying there's always room for one more so you can all beat honorary Irishman for that day and I'm jealous of my friend Dennis back here with his outfit from envious of that so uh yeah if you can attend it would be great and uh hope to see you there thank you councilman councilman Clark yes so a few updates first first of all I want to thank nor westcap for inviting us to participate in Reading Across America last week uh both Me and Mar pza went to the Head Start program to read to the uh preschoolers there um great time I think it's a very good um investment for the Youth to learn how to read because it's a critical base uh for education and in their creative development so thank you nor westcap for sponsoring that also on the ground of nor westcap um Frolic and the park for this year will be scheduled for May 2nd 2024 5:00 p.m. to 7 at Walters Park so come out if you can it's going to be a great time and just to reiterate um councilman Kennedy's uh points St Patrick's say flag racing uh so Matt I just wanted to thank you for working with me to help reserve the space for 9:30 a.m. for the event sure um so I think that's all good and then regarding the comments of open space that were made earlier I completely agree and I do apologize for every member that was voted on to serve on that committee cuz y'all didn't deserve that my final point and I really didn't want to end on this point but you know when you're being slandered at the DAT I mean all all Robert's Rules just thrown out on that one I mean we're not supposed to address anyone up here by name we're supposed to have more courtesy more professionalism than that I mean we can disagree all we want but you know you don't take that Beyond professionalism you know we're elected Council people now we need to keep the Corum because the reporters are here they're reporting on this developers read about this it makes us look bad we're adults up here hate to say that I'm the youngest one up here calling older ones out don't do that don't act like that have more sense you may disagree with me that's all right but don't don't pull be better than that landed like that now they say if you can't attack someone's argument attack the person try to discredit them I will never apologize for keeping transparency never and I will never be intimidated in not speaking the truth so I'm more than happy to have those discussions with you my colleague but don't ever try to intimidate me don't ever try to discat me no no he's already trying he's already trying I know it you have to remind me I know it rebuttal and it's not going to happen from the next meeting thank every councilman including everyone you're going to be professional or I will call you out thank you was that a professional council president no no we're going to leave it go let him finish up and that's it leave it go so that's all I wanted to say and that goes for Everyone by the way everyone on Council you're going to get called out publicly if you call another councilman out continue thank you that's all I'm asking just civil the Corum so thank you very much for everyone for coming out I know we we had a heated budget discussion but again that is democracy we're not always going to agree but let's get it done but yes I I'm in his current form I can't support the budget but at least we can have the discussion thank you thank you Council advice president PA I think I've said a lot tonight and um I'm looking forward to hearing where those cuts are going to be recommended because otherwise I support the budget that's it thank you okay I had the opportunity to walk some the open space in peber Born raised in downtown peber and anyone knows where Mount Peres is can anyone tell me if that's one whole mountain or is it divided what is it train track that runs right through the middle of it divided in three spots three spots you walked it in the rain you'd be surprised that there's a lot of open space back there my opin not a professional just a Pete Marina from the town of P born and raised downtown there's so much land down there that that I'm hoping and praying that project comes in that will clean that area up you won't be able to see it from what it Cherry alley I believe my memories right and the sad part the sad thing in America which we have no control over we were called down here by a private entity to see the home homeless to see the debris to see the unsanitary conditions it's my understanding if it's railroad property and you make a complaint they will fence it off so you got Trails the rails coming in or Rails to Trails I get them screwed up and you got a lot of beauty back there that could and it's going to happen you move further down south there of that area it's a garbage dump there's more down there so I know the town has been diligently working on cleaning it up that social problem is not a peber problem it's a country problem not ours we don't have the resources for it but I'm going to say one thing to my fellow Council people you want to argue I'll argue all night long but I'm not going to take it no more I let it slide tonight it won't slide no more you talk about transparency you talk about being a gentleman or a lady talk about tell we're going to start acting it cuz I'll shut you down you can do all you want you're going to be professional because I know for a fact people want to move up here and we portray this kind of imagery to them why would you want to spend $300,000 for a house on the lower end I won't mention the street that doesn't have a backyard or a parking place out front so if they're willing to do that we should be mature enough to act like adults and don't play your political agenda up here I'm too old to hear that AC on what's good for the town what's coming into the town and by the way outside of Matt scbo we serve on school boards in Town Council you want a lesson you want to learn go there before you come here two different entities okay people talk about oh do the job you're supposed to that's all I asked my fellow Council people do the job you're supposed to we're not all going to a grave I'll tell you right now they're young I'm old I think young but they don't think the way I think I'm thinking 10 years down the line what's going to come to Bart and if you portray this negativity it's not going to come 20 years ago we're going to put a train museum in here I donated I don't know how much stuff to that museum my grandparents my uncles my dad worked on all different two different railroads PG had five I don't even know what happened to all that stuff I'll never donate nothing again never came all these promises this point on Council you're going to act like adults or I'm going to gather you down if you don't like me personally I don't care but we're going to do what we've got to eled to and we're going to listen to the people whether we like to listen to them or not you will have a voice that's the way I operate that's the way I work when I raise my hand to take a oath I'm telling the God's honest truth before God or I won't put my hand on that Bible with that there's no executive session I'm done talking my voice is gone a motion to ajour so M all in favor have a good evening and be safe