I'd like to call the meeting to order adquate notice of this meeting has provided as required under chapter 231 pl1 1975 specifying the time date location login or dial in information and to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court and two Municipal Library bulletin boards Municipal website providing copy to the official newspapers at the township and by filing a copy in the office of the Township Clerk in accordance with the certification by the clerk which will be entered into the minutes in order to ensure a clear record of the meeting can be made and all all parties are heard in an organized fashion all members of the public that are participating remotely will be muted during the meeting the township will provide for public comment periods for both remote and inperson attendees separately if a member of the public wishes to speak during any public comment portion for remote attendees please raise your hand this can be done either through Zoom app or by pressing star n on your phone when is your your turn to speak you will receive a prompt to request your unmute please click on the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute and begin making your comments all members of the public will have three minutes to speak and should ask any and all questions they may have during that period at the conclusion of your three minutes the remote attendees will be muted again iners D will also receive three minutes to ask any and all questions and may then take a seat at which time the council Administration will respond as necessary should you have any further comments or questions the township is always available by email and phone and you can always call the mayor's office during normal operating hours each member of the public shall only have one opportunity to speak during each public portion as the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on any individual phone line or login user account we ask that if you wish to speak that you log in or dial separately so that we can recognize you as a separate individual Mr Cedar would you please take a rooll councilwoman kahill here councilwoman carmichel here councilman espanosa here councilwoman Lombardi here councilman Rouse councilman Shaw yes council president Erin here please stand for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all item number five comments from Administration or Council regarding adment on any matters on this agenda none thank you no comments council president item number six open to the public comments regarding consent agenda items for remote attendees if you wish to speak at this time please raise your hand either on Zoom app or by pressing star n on your phone when is your turn to speak you receive or hear a request to mute yourself please click the promp or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time please state your name and your address know that you have 3 minutes in which to make your comments the council Administration will respond if necessary if you have completed any comments or questions council president there are no remote attendees with our hand raised regarding this agenda item going to close more protion for inperson attendees if you wish to speak at this time please come to the podium state your name and address and know that you have 3 minutes in which to make your comments you may take a seat after completion of your comment comments or questions and the council or Administration will then respond if necessary this is for the consent agenda item number six item number 12 gas 58 Curtis Avenue scway 58 Curtis I welcome everyone here come and walk around that house please tell these people what you see um this item 12a uh does that include 7th and Menville that corner has to be done please thank you yeah council president this includes our uh transfer station site where we have uh when we have large damage events that we store and then every six months or so uh we have a company come in and and grind it down and then remove it to the recycling facility thank you mayor okay I'm going to close the public portion item number seven fully super ordinance second reading 2,500,000 various sewer improvements and this is open to the public resolution adopting ordinance Mr C do you please read the ordinance okay before I do that I just want to acknowledge that um councilman Rouse I believe is on the call can you unmute yourself councilman Rous so that we can see if you're here with your audio can you hear me yes thank you very much I just wanted to acknowledge you're here at the meeting thank you all right be it resolved by the township Council of Piscataway Township New Jersey that an ordinance entitled ordinance appropriating $2,500,000 from the seore utility budget capital outlay for various sewer utility improvements in and by the township of padway in the county of middlex New Jersey was introduced on the 9th day of November 2023 and had passed the first reading and was published on the 17th day of November 2023 now therefore be it resolved that the offet ordinance having had a second reading on December 5th 2023 be adopted pass and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of Passenger approval in the official newspaper be a further resolve that this ordinance shall be assign number 2023 31 this is open to the public for remote attendees if you wish to speak at this time please raise your hand either on Zoom app or by pressing star n when is your turn to speak your receive or hear a request to unmute yourself please click the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments the council Administration will respond if necessary if you have completed any comments or questions council president there are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item I'm going to close remove potion for inperson attendees if you wish to speak at this time please come to the podium state your name and address and un that you have three minutes in which to make your comments you may take a seat after completion of your comments or questions and the council Administration will respond if necessary this is for item number seven I see none I'm going to close the public portion do I have a motion motion do I have a second second see did you please take the wall councilwoman kill yes councilwoman Carmichael yes councilman Espinosa yes councilwoman Lombardi yes councilman Rouse yes thank you councilman Sha yes council president Ern yes item passes on a second reading item number eight Bond ordinance second reading 4,2 220,000 4, 9,000 various Capital Improvements this is open to the public as a resolution adopting ordance Mr C you please read the ordinance be resolved by the township Council of pasaway Township New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance providing for various Capital Improvements ined by the township of piscatway in the county of middle sex New Jersey appropriating 4 million $222,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $4 m9000 bonds or notes of the township to financed part of the cost thereof was introduced on the 9th day of November 2023 and had passed the first reading and was published on the 17th day of November 2023 now therefore be it resolved that the offer at ordinance having had a second reading on December 5th 2023 be adopted past and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of Passage or approval in the official newspaper further resolve that this ordinance shall be assigned number council president there are no remote attendees with their hand ra regarding this agenda item I'm going to close remot potion for iners if you wish to speak at this time please come to the podium state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments you may take a seat after completion of your comments or questions and the council or Administration will respond if necessary this is for item number eight Bond ORS I see none I'm going to close the public portion do I have a motion motion do I have a second second carmichel see did you please take to all councilwoman kahill yes councilwoman carmichel yes councilman Espinosa yes councilwoman Lombardi yes councilman Rouse yes councilman sha yes council president Ern yes item passes on a second reading item number nine ordinance on a first reading amending and supplementing various chapters of the municipal code is a resolution adopting ordinance Mr C did you please read the ordinance be resolved by the township Council of Piscataway Township New Jersey that an ordinance entitled ordinance to amend and supplement the revised General ordinances of the township of piscatway County of middlex state of New Jersey amending CH chapter 2 Administration section 64 and 80 .12 chapter 7 traffic sections 8 14 17 and 25 chapter 15 short-term rentals sections 2 3 8 and 9 chapter 16 housing and rent control sections 2 4 6 and 12 chapter 19 fire prevention and protection sections 10 14 and 15 chapter 20 land subdivision Section 5 chapter 21 zoning section six and chapter 24 site plan review Section 5 being is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published in the official newspaper and that a second reading of public hearing be held at 7:30 p.m. prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 455 hosan Piscataway New Jersey as well as by remote meeting format on the 19th day of December 2023 be a further resolve that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final Passage and a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public thank you Mr Cedar do I have a motion motion do I have a second second see you please take the role councilwoman kahill yes councilwoman carmichel yes councilman espanosa yes councilwoman Lombardi yes councilman Rouse yes councilman Shaw yes council president ER yes item passes on the first reading item number 10 ordinance on a first reading amending and supplemented chapter 7 traffic section 40 control of the movement and parking of traffic on public and private property to assert title 39 jurisdiction on 135 Flemington Street the resolution adopting ordinance Mr s did you please read the ordinance be it resolved by the township Council of Piscataway Township New Jersey that an ordinance entitled ordinance to amend and supplement the revised General ordinances of the township of piscatway County of middlex state of New Jersey amending chapter 7 traffic section 40 control for the movement and the parking of traffic on public and private property to assert titled 39 jurisdiction on 135 Fleming Street B and is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published in the official newspaper and that a second reading and public hearing be held at 7:30 p.m. prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 455 hosan Piscataway New Jersey as well as by remote meeting format on the 19th day of December 2023 be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage and a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public thank you Mr C do I have a motion Mo sh do I have a second second r m c did you please take the role councilwoman kahill yes councilwoman carmichel yes councilman espanosa yes councilwoman Lombardi yes councilman Rouse yes councilman Shaw yes council president ER yes item passes on a first reading item number 11 ordinance on a first reading granting Municipal consent for the operation of cable televis Vision system in the township of badway to CSC tkr LLC DBA cable vision of Ron Valley this is a resolution adopting an ordinance Mr C did you please read the ordinance be it resolved by the township Council of Piscataway Township New Jersey that an ordinance entitled an ordinance granting Municipal consent for the operation of a cable television system within the township of Piscataway New Jersey to CSC tkr LLC doing business as cable vision of Ron Valley be and is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published in the official newspaper and that a second reading of public hearing be held at 7:30 p.m. prevailing time at the pasca municipal building 455 hos Lane pasca New Jersey as well as by remote meeting format on the 19th day of December 2023 be have further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage and a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public do I have a motion um council president if I could before we take a motion I just wanted to comment on this um and and I don't know if the mayor will want to say some things but um we all know up here on the board um all of the struggles that the township went through and obviously all the municipalities across the country with um bandwidth during um the lockdowns and covid and the strains on the system and we had a lot of residents who are very upset um nothing is perfect as we know we would love to see even more improvements but um the um mayor was um part of one of uh a handful of New Jersey towns uh um I was honored to just be part of that um conversation and testifying in front of the BPU about some of the issues with what was going on with um the service to the town and our residents um this obviously is our contract to keep them but as a side note there are some additional things that uh um Altis has agreed to that aren't part of your regular contract that are specific to our town that was from a lot of negotiations and really putting our foot down and then um mayor I don't know if you want to talk about the BPU settlement because there isn't a settlement yet but my understanding it's coming coming but I just want to rewind the council members this is really just for the cable TV portion right here because this is all only what we can franchise it's not has anything to do with the high-speed internet or anything to that effect so this is just for cable TV and you have to remember that there's subscriptions are dropping now that there's got a lot of cord cutters out there as Dennis knows um you know so you know when that that drops that's less Revenue coming into the town as far as the cable TV but they still agreed to um in this contract continue with the support and actually add extra even though there some extra things that from some of our government fac facilities like the community center the libraries and things vpu settlement is about the Broadband correct that's correct and that hopefully will'll be soon maybe not before the end of the year who knows thank you g do I have a motion motion I have a second second C you please take the role councilwoman kahill yes councilwoman carmichel yes councilman espanosa yes councilwoman Lombard yes councilman Rouse yes councilman Shaw yes council president Ern yes item passes on a first reading item number 12 consent agenda resolution for M for efficiency items have been Consolidated into concession J to be voted on together the materials of these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting at that time at this time is there any item that Council would like remove from the consent agenda to be discussed or voted on separately I see none do I have a motion motion second C you please take the role councilwoman kahill yes councilwoman carmichel yes councilman espanosa yes councilwoman Lombardi yes councilman Rouse yes councilman Shaw yes council president Ern yes item passes item number 13 announcements and comments from officials councilman carel thank you um council president um I would like to wish um the residents of Piscataway who are um about to start celebrating some of the major holidays um Hanukkah will begin uh first full day on Friday but starts in the evening um of the 7th um and as we come into the holiday season um there are plenty of organizations in around town who are in need of donations such as fish other food pantries um and just ask that our residents be aware of that um and contribute where they may thank you thank you Carn corich good evening I mentioned this last night at the Santa show uh the the homes Marshall Firehouse women's auxiliary is hosting a Christmas party for children on Saturday this coming Saturday at 1: p.m at the firehouse and uh they are they are having a free toy giveaway on the first come first serve basis plus food and refreshment so um come out if you bring your kids bring your kids they do such a good job over there thank you Council Council yeah I want to want to remind everyone one that uh as um uh uh councilwoman um K had mentioned that there's a lot of festivities that are going to start so please be safe out there drive very slow um the temperatures are dropping uh and also you know you have to be careful of the roads out there so please take your time there's no rush going anywhere you know it's okay if you're five or 10 minutes late just just please you know slow down thank you counc party yes this Friday evening uh Santa will be arriving at our uh Town Hall here at 7 o'clock and we'll be having our annual tree lighting here for our uh families here in Piscataway so hopefully everyone can come join councilman Ralph oh yes um while be while being uh restricted and shed in uh it's a new experience for me because I'm normally out there doing some of everything but um I want to thank the whole Council the mayor and everyone that's involved that has prayed for me and my family uh going through this uh recovery so I just want to thank you all and one day I'll be able to thank you person personally but have a wonderful season of holidays and I pray God's blessing upon everyone God bless you thank you councilman R councilman Shaw no thanks this is ministrator GAC mayor just want to remind uh folks uh Thursday is a solemn day for the military in the country it's a Pearl Harbor day and if anybody's everever been out to uh to see the USS Arizona Memorial it's a very moving experience don't borney no comments thank you yes and I have no comment either item number 15 I'm sorry item number 14 agenda session for September 12th 2023 resolution authorizing cancellation of sewer for sprinkler credits various blocks and lots resolution Fire District number one Commissioners compensation resolution authorizing acceptance of the project and release of retainage e Road roadway improvements km Construction Corporation resolution authorizing budget transfers and a motion to accept the minutes of the council meeting October 3rd 202 three item number 15 open to the public for remote attendees if you wish to speak at this time please raise your hand either on Zoom app or by pressing star 9 when it is your turn to speak you will receive or hear a request to mute yourself please click the promp or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments Council Administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions council president there are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item I'm going to close more person for inperson attendees if you wish to speak at this time please come to the podium state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments you may take a seat after completion of your comments or questions and the council or Administration will then respond if necessary gas fos 58 Curtis scatter away there are two ordinance violations in our block that were created by our Justice of the Peace it's 400 square fet from two different homes 200 square fet that become an ISO Mr what's up when is that going to be taken care of thank you hi my name is Amanda leer and I live on 98 Pleasant View Drive I've been a Piscataway resident for the past 3 years and for that same duration I've been a nurse at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital back in October me and several of my colleagues came before you to spread awareness about the sobering reasons we went on strike just as a brief recap Decades of research show how vital it is for nurses to have explicit thresholds on the number of patients they can take care of safer nurse patient ratios emphasize quality over quantity and are an important factor in reducing preventable complications and deaths understaffing nurses undermines the care we can provide and the compounded stress and guilt for each shift this happens is detrimental to our identity as professionals we went on strike because we could no longer tolerate this as being the status quo after four months our Union leadership and the hospital have reached a tentative agreement which reportedly includes Provisions for enforcable and impropriate Staffing ratios once these exact details are disclosed to us we will vote whether or not we feel this is worthy of our patience we are cautiously optimistic we have won our battle but the war is not over what happened at our hospital is not an isolated incident but is part of a larger Public Health crisis in New Jersey a study revealed 75% of nurses in New Jersey hospitals rate their Staffing as inadequate and the same percentage say that the situation is only growing more dire this year alone New Jersey dropped from ranking number one in the nation for having the highest percentage of hospitals score in a for safety down to 13 never again in New Jersey should nurses have to go through what we did in the name of patient safety so we need to become one less state that doesn't have a safe Staffing law Piscataway was the first town hall we attended and it was the start of taking this fight beyond our picket line and thank you for your previous oral resolution advocating for us in our strike we are here tonight to request if the council would consider passing an additional resolution supporting New Jersey safe Staffing bills s304 and a453 6 that would establish standards for every hospital these resolutions serve as testimony that save Staffing matters to constituents and that these bills deserve a future we have laid the groundwork but we can only get you so far if you won't stand up for yourselves this cause cannot and should not be fought by nurses alone not when the public has 50% equity in the outcome whether these bills are passed or not we are happy to provide any Clarity and resources you need to help make an informed decision on behalf of the citizens of Piscataway and again thank you you have to hold it down sorry about that oh too much technology my bad uh once again good evening uh my name is Roberto Molina ban and even though I don't live in piscata way I live here um your next door neighbor uh with your Avenue in dellan I do have family here in Piscataway who live across the block on Fisher Avenue and I'm here with the 1700 nurses well the representative of 1700 nurses um pleading uh a similar request last night at dellan they passed a resolution that we're requesting to request to ask the municipal leaders to pass the resolutions s304 and A40 4536 uh you can join uh the other municipalities which include seille Clifton miltown Edison Highland Park Franklin Township donellan and Monroe counties we are also asking that you please call on the assemblymen Joe Danielson and Joseph Egan as well as Senator B Bob Smith to push for this bill we also have a call to act to the town and if um community members can also call on their legislators this will greatly help our push for safety in the hospitals I think that you guys have been part of a hospital at some point I mean not part of but been at a hospital and very frequently patients call for their nurses and on their disma they're trying to figure out where their nurses are and many times they're thinking that they're just sloughing somewhere or like you know know they can be found for no reason however on our side we are frustrated because we can't get to them because we have many other higher priority patients that we need to take care of addressing the safe Staffing bill can you know help both the patients that are looking for their nurses as well as us giving us the tool and the time to be able to take care of those patients who you know clearly need us um so this is the request that I have for you today thank you hello my name is Michael tadak and I'm a resident of matachin and I come here with the 1700 nurses on strike to speak on behalf of the 1700 nurses at robertw Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick as you may or may not know we've been on strike for 5 months and on sep September 1st the nurses got stripped their health insurance we are here we are out here fighting for safe Staffing standards I am a two-time patient and both were in the ER I had I had to wait more than 5 hours and when I got in I didn't even get the proper care that I needed so I come here to ask you today to please help and support the nurses by looking over and supporting and co-sponsoring the s304 and A45 36 Bill we need more nurses in the bed we need more nurses inside the hospital especially the bed side if this goes in effect all the New Jersey hospitals need to comply with this including all the nursing home facilities we need we were we already went to the top and the top doesn't want to support us so we're going to start at the bottom we're going to ask you guys to please support us because we need safe Staffing not only in New Jersey but we need sta safe Staffing all over but we need safe Staffing especially in New Jersey and especially at the bedside thank you very much anyone else wants to speak that I'm going to close the public Mo portion council president um in in light the nurses coming out tonight and we want to thank you I think we we said this I think previously we've all um we we need our nurses we you know we've all been either at the hospital or a loved one at the hospital hital it had it not been for the nurses we know um our loved ones or ourselves would not be um in a good uh situation um and at that time we we actually think called on a resolution asking the governor to to end the strike which could have happened um quickly but it didn't so you know this board um isn't familiar with the two bills that you're speaking of very well we we do know that um our Senate Senor is supporting um or has looked into signing on to a different bill but that said I think um if the if the board members agree with me and they may not but uh maybe they will um what I'm would love to do is to um hold voice resolution um asking um this Council to um call on our legislatures in Trenton to hold hearings on the bill this will allow for the okay good I'm I'm glad you like that because I think um and I come from a union family I think that the more publicity around the bills where the news media is covering it and the average persons um start to hear um that in fact there have been no sort of laws on the books protecting you folks from being overworked as you have for so many years so I would like um for this Council who's very much in supportive of of you folks and especially of course Robert with Johnson right we are right across the river um some of you or many of you live in this town and um are our residents um who we represent so I believe that what we could do here that would really be beneficial not just for um you all but really for our municipality for our residents is that our state legislature holds public and open meetings on um these bills so that the public can hear it and uh a real vote can be taken I don't know what the board feels about that but know if I can add in there that it should be directed to the uh speaker uh Coughlin yes and also to Senate President scary because ultimately it'll be their their decision decision to hold the hearing yeah absolutely and it should be public so I don't know if I have the support of the board here but I think it would be a valuable um resolution at least for us to impress upon our leaders and Trenton to move forward and also iner should go down to the com troller because obviously he needs something to do so yeah I just yes it should go to anyone the acting controller who can't get confirmed so you know that you have this Council support we firmly believe in in the power of these public hearings um and that it should be um something that all New Jersey res here um publicly so you're making a motion then yeah well I guess so is there anything you want yes I have a second I second the motion Mr C did you please take the role councilwoman K yes councilwoman carmichel yes councilman Espinosa definitely yes councilwoman Lombardi yes councilman r house yeah councilman Shaw yes council president ER yes item passes and Council Council mayor just for the last oral resolution we memorialized into a writing and sent it over to the governor's office we'll make sure we do that with this one and and get it sent over house do I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn I have a second second all in favor I meeting adjourned have a great night everybody all