e e last night so that's that'se tree so were new sweater for Valentine's Day was a suggestion I haven't worn my old sweater enough and my daughter which you will see goes can I have on the 13th what time are we supposed to be there in Franklin L 9:30 she's on a budget so they do a calendar too oh thank you you know now now somebody's going to put in a budget request for $1,000 for a new chair watch yeah oh no I can't go you can't be sitting on it you can't have waight on it fine I'm I'm well then don't give the blow shair to the guy yeah switch them around oh we're ready really how much we budget for okay know everybody ready y great yeah good evening this is the Village Council special public budget meeting the date is February 5th 5 2024 the time is 5:08 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood news the record and by submission to all persons entitled the same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call please Deputy Mayor parin here council member Reynolds here council member whites here council member winegrad here mayor Banos here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag I pled alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all and so let's start with public comment three minutes per person hi hi my name is Susie maharan suie if you could speak into the a little bit like this perfect this is new for me excellent that's okay you let me know all right my name is Susie maharan and I live at 138 Weston Avenue I'm the mother of three girls all which are in Ridgewood Public School System we Mo you get a little closer to the mic yes sure thank you we moved here three years ago and um I'm here to speak on behalf of my youngest daughter Arya and she is a fourth grader at Ridge we use Clinton Avenue to walk to school usually every day and every afternoon and while you work through your budget process I would just please like it if you kept in mind the kids that use Clinton to walk to school it is becoming more and more unsafe there's more traffic there's barricades up there's signs up but cars just go right around it we take pictures daily we send it to the police department they're probably tired of getting photos of us and watching the cars so [Music] um just think about them when you make a decision don't place the burden of safety into the little kids hands you know that's a lot I'm my daughter's fortunate I walk her to school but there's a lot of kids that don't have a parent to tell them scoot to the side of the street they're um hearing cars honk behind them to get them to move and run to the side and it's kind of scary you know it's not just cars it's garbage trucks it's Amazon delivery cars it's um it's ways people following ways I had one older lady she rolled down her window and literally apologized and said I'm so sorry I know I'm not supposed to come here but ways is forcing me to come here so we're just asking that you um follow the advice from The Ridgewood police department and the engineering department and just put sidewalks in shouldn't be a doesn't seem like a problem to us however anyway thank you for your time thank you Susie hi my name is Katherine Brady I'm also here to talk about the Clinton Avenue safety um I live at 141 Highland Avenue and uh moved here about four years ago in 2020 I have a fourth grader at the ridge school and I have a seventh grader who used to attend Ridge a few years ago um I'm here today because I want to implore The Village Council to prioritize resolving the Clinton Avenue issues this year and ensure that the children attending Ridge Elementary School have a safe walking path to school my child along with so many others in the neighborhood walks to and from the school every day most of the time she walks alone and she's taking a risk every time she does it I've personally witnessed cars and trucks speeding along Clinton Avenue during the supposed closed Street Times narrowly missing children and parents it's unacceptable that Ridgewood does not provide a safe route for kids to walk to Ridge I only recently learned the current ordinance to close Clinton Avenue is neither enforcable nor does the police department have sufficient resources to enforce it were it to shift to an actual street closure instead the village is currently misleading students and parents into believing they have the right of way when they actually do not it's really the worst of all worlds thinking that you have a safe blocked off street but you don't I appreciate what the police department has done to gather data around alternative roots and also traffic volume I also appreciate what the town engineer has researched and recommended all that is left now is for the Village Council to set aside budget to ensure that we are no longer neglecting the safety of the families who walk to Ridge Elementary thank you all so much thank you Katherine and let me just say this is a matter that um Lorraine has been very involved in um but no one else on the Village Council has it has been addressed to us yet we know that it it we're working on it there was a meeting um uh a couple weeks ago that um most of us were unable to attend uh but there's a meeting this Thursday night um on the first floor here um I will be there I know the rain will be there and that's when I will be discussing it for the very first time so this is obviously something that's very important to all of us um like I said but we have to just get our arms around it um so uh I I promise you we're going to do a deep dive into this and figure this out thank you you're welcome uh do we have anyone else Dylan I have nobody online great in that case I'm could I just add to that because well let me just close public comment first and now that that's done sure so I I feel for you guys um I was the safety chair this is my big Flex at Orchard for six years so I'm and all of us are parents up here so we understand the hazards around the school I just want so when it each of us has boards and when the board comes up with something like the seesac in this case it comes to us and the full five of us are not all on the same page because by law we can't all five meet so the next step will probably be that it'll go on a workshop agenda where all the details that you know we've been getting the email so some people have some information we're not sure what's out there it'll go on a workshop agenda it'll come out in front we'll be able to ask the police a question we'll be able to ask engineering a question and then it'll move forward for us to each individually discuss so I just want to make sure because we are in government process heavy and um this is a budget meeting and we don't even have a value yet to discuss amongst the five of us but so when it comes on the work session I'm sure Lorraine will let you know and that way all five of us then will have all the information information okay yeah and and that's really a key point that that she raises that by the way no more than two members of the council can attend the meeting on Thursday we are not allowed by law so until everyone hears everything and gets to talk to police and and engineering and you'll there'll be plenty of opportunity for um uh people involved in this families um uh and we'll discuss it at length and in detail at this point like I said it's this is a brand new subject for us but we are going to spend a lot of time on it to make sure we get this right okay you're welcome thank you so much for coming tonight and with that let's go thank you let's go to um our regular agenda Keith um thank you mayor uh in continuance of hearing from each of our departments at their budget hearings I'd like to call up Kim McWilliams from our Municipal Court uh she's our court administrator to make her budget presentation this evening hello Hi how are you good how's everybody good um I just want to first start off with we um just signed a sh uh agreement with the collection agency for outstanding funds that are owed to the Village the balance uh is $60,800 not cost The Village um anything out of pocket because what happens is whatever the defendants which is the person that's accused pays 20% of that will go to the company so that's good news because there's a lot that's not a drop in the bucket Kim if I may how how soon will they be able to engage uh they're going to start March 1st okay great so it's quickly very good uh on the lines with savings we also have an employee that is going to be retiring December 31st so she's a uh clerk violations well she her title is actually data entry if we go and line with that we can hire a violations clerk instead of paying 75,000 we can start at 50 so that'll save next year not this year and that's that's the good news that I have so I don't know if there's any other questions or yeah so first let me thank you because I see that you're asking for like 4 and a half% which is a wonderful starting point so thank you for bringing that to us my only real question is and I hate when I ask this because I don't want to penalize people for being good stewards of our money but it looks like you actually spent quite a bit less than we appropriated last year and I assume it looks like what you're ask here is is off of last year's appropriated amount not what you actually spent so I guess my question is why was there such a big difference between what you we appropriated versus what you spent and then why are we not starting from where you what you spent last year as opposed to what you appropriated uh I know someone's looking across the room at me so there are a few things that haven't been posted here yet for some of the time that was incurred um what we do is we also have a settlement with shared service with Glenrock so we sort of have to reconcile that as we move through uh plus there's another $36,000 of a cash receipt that came in from the poaa that's offset in this actual line item it isn't guaranteed every year it's an excess that they had you don't see it sitting in there but that's one of the reasons why the actual is less than um what the request was so I'm sorry but I thought what I was looking at here was just our expenditures not our income so why is the $36,000 showing us as an offset so the the paa it was requested that money be transferred because of excess funds or funds available in the POA trust so Kim requested $36,000 to go against the pay the payments that were made that's why it's reduced it's put in there rather than grossed up in Revenue okay and I'm sorry on which line are you are you are you pointing so I'm in line one for fulltime and if I may the POA is every time someone receives a parking ticket a certain amount goes to this trust fund and the administrative office of the courts has to approve what we spend what we spend what we're allowed to um filing cabinet we can do a parking clerk salary but it's very specific you have to fight for the money so okay and I'm sorry and it's not guaranteed like Bob said I'm just not seeing it which number account number so 0 11 it's in 185,000 actual oh I see okay if you add 36 to that gotcha you're going to get close to all right so if you take if you take that into account then you're pretty close to Flat correct all right how how the rest of these be like this one when when we're looking this how would we find other than asking that how would we know where the ability to draw down on the trust is is that there any indication here it it's so rare okay um there's only two or three accounts that will affect it like recycling trust is is a big one snow trust is a big one um you will be getting for the next meeting a list of all the accounts that we have are holding in trust okay and explanations to what's in there but this is a rare occasion we don't transfer every year from the POA trust it's only when there's sufficient funds available and bear in mind we need AOC approval on this account so we can't just just arbitrarily make that decision we have to go to the county and the county has to either approve or deny I'm with you just tell me what AOC stands for administrative office of the courts got it and that's because it's joint and shared no it's every Municipal Court falls under the AOC got it in this so if Kim wanted to buy a printer for example and she had money in the trust she would have to file paperwork to get permission to use it that way and then they tell me I can transfer that money right the same thing with offsetting salaries great I mean I I love that we have a trust I think it's a great jaw down so great job and I hope they always say yes to you they usually do and Kim we we've received notification from the AOC that they've approve the proposed budget correct yes yeah just uh two days ago thank you all right can I just one ask one general question so this has been a bit of a theme where we're coming in under budget compared to last year's Appropriations what do we do with all that extra money I mean are we leave able to carry that over are you using that to meet unforeseen expenses so there's two ways this two ways it's handled you actually have two years to spend the money but the fun but the expense has to be incurred within the year so in 2023 if I get a bill in February or March related to 23 I can use the money against that that that's the excess after two years whatever is left goes into fund balance into Surplus okay and I we going to be talking about any surplus we had from two years ago that we can now tap into now absolutely look forward to that conversation I know you are all right um I have a question I have a question about 01k regular sessions um this is not a big dollar amount but what happened between 2022 and 20123 that appropriation went from 25,300 down to 5,000 in 2023 so we have regular sessions there's four per month when it goes into the 5th Thursday if we have a backlog in tickets then we would have to have a court session or DWI that's older so we don't know until uh time passes no question does that make sense there's a little more there's a little more little more history to that um at back in 2022 I believe we accounted for the prosecutors salary in there and then we moved it uh down to Village attorney oh oh okay so it's gone the part of that appropriation was moved from this budget to to to the Village attorney's budget different part right got it yeah the pro the public defender and the prosecutor now fall under the village attorney's budget even though they work in conjunction with the anybody else have any questions thank you Kim thank you so much for coming thank youim and if only the next person testifying comes in with a decrease in their budget that's I think you set the tone for the evening so we're looking Chief you ready Chief Lions let's see if you can match that welcome Chief welcome hello hope everyone's having a good evening mine's a little bit more extended than that wish it wasn't um real quick I'll just give you a brief statement uh 2023 was obviously a big transitional year for us uh we lost uh two of our top lieutenants and the chief um we are still working to hire Replacements that we lost in 2022 just I had broken that all out but uh we're still actually not replacing the people who lost in 23 we're still replacing people from 2022 um for the first time we're using the countywide list which we have the Civil Serv service list it's generally residents then it goes to County and then State we are very deep into the county list that's why we are looking at exploring those other opportunities for hiring we're having great issues and it's not just the ridge of police police in general are having a lot of issues in hiring new qualified candidates uh some of the big things that's going on currently is we're switching from the Kalia accreditation to the New Jersey State Police uh Association of chiefs of police uh accreditation program it's a little bit more narrowly focused on what we actually do in New Jersey New Jersey and I'm sure everybody can kind of back me is kind of on an island of its own when it comes to policies procedures and regulations and Kalia was more based for California Ohio the rest of the country um we are now kind of focused in on what New Jersey actually does New Jersey is actually setting the gold standard for a lot of the regulations um that we have to comply with which is a good thing though the rest of the country is actually slowly coming on board with that we've already kind of rocketed ahead our attorney general guidelines a lot of other states just don't have them so and they're like what what are you talking about I'm like we have sets of procedures for almost everything that just don't exist in many other states some do but the Lion Share don't uh we prioritized our presence at the schools we're trying to direct a lot of people there obviously we have an SRO program and we're working towards something else which we'll get to later uh we prioritized the presence at our citizen safety advisory committees and our CBD um advisory committees that's just some of the stuff we're trying to do moving forward the major Focus we have is licensing this is brand new for 2024 again some other states have done this before us but we're in a very good spot because a lot of our training already lines up perfectly for the new licensing requirements so it's not going to be a crazy new lift however it does create a whole new administrative section of how we're documenting how we're tracking all sorts of things like that whereas we're already doing the training which is the good news it's now we have to just kind of modify how we train it and track it and do all that stuff uh again the biggest issue we have is we luckily you uh the council's given us authorization to hire we're having issues finding the people to hire so what this means is that some of the numbers myself Keith and Bob might be able to adjust moving forward we're not 100% sure yet but as of right now we found three people to place in the police academy we need eight we found three uh hopefully a fourth we can find for we won't be able to get them into a class coming up shortly but maybe we can find four five and six hopefully all the rest of five for the end of the year but I don't know that that's going to be possible are they in the budget though the ones we don't have are yes so so what the council authorized in that closed session if you recall we had it pretty late at night in this room that's what Bob applied to the budget um however between now and the time that we introduce this budget we anticipate that we'll be able to scale back some um we're going to be conservative about that because obviously the need to have police officers when we're able to hire them you know we want to have that ability during the course of the year um but we're going to work with the chief to uh to refine some of the numbers that you see here tonight I'll be honest I hope we don't have to scale back but it does very much look like we will it's just very hard to find find people is so six are in the current budget or five right now we have we have four starting right now and then another four that we're scheduled starting at towards the end of the year so the game plan as going into the new year was that we're were going to budget for four in January and four in July those salaries would obviously have been pro rated um so that's what's in here okay now we're a month into the year already and we haven't hired anybody we have three that are pending um the start of the academy whether they go to the ber County Academy which was suspended for a period of time or whether we they go to the pay County Academy which we have four slots reserved believe that starts in April um you know we're still going to see some adjustments to the budget from a salaries and wages standpoint just based on when start times would be and then we'll have to handicap the hiring process for the rest of the year understanding that the council's goal was to have eight hired throughout 202 so essentially we have a we have three candidates for the first trunch but yeah the right okay we had four and unfortunately one was deployed uh at the last minute so he's not going to be here to to work for us yet maybe in the future yeah depending uh there's some word that he may actually be back by the end of this year if that's the case maybe we can get him into an academy late be great the year but great that you know it also might be extended till the next year but we are going to have to find alternative roots to find the additional five so I I know everyone here clearly supports that so thank you for pushing ahead on that given how difficult it is is to find qualified candidates and I know from our conversations chief that you're not settling which I very much appreciate I'd rather wait to get the right people and get the wrong people in quickly so thank you for doing that and thank you for your folks that are making up that that Gap with with overtime I'm sure um I have a couple questions I don't want to cut you off but no absolutely that was I just wanted to give you a brief overview of where we're going but go ahead um and again also let me preference this by obviously we all have a tremendous amount of respect for the police so please do not take any of our perhaps point questions as being derogatory they are far from that yep totally understand but with that it looks like you're asking overall for only 2.2% increase believe so so first of all well not first of all thank you for that that's still just because your budget's huge and well it should be that's still not an instate amount of money um and I keep coming back to the same sort of questions I have before which it looks like you know you're only asking for about 200,000 or so more versus what we appropriated to you last year but close to a half a million milon over what you actually spent last year so is there any wiggle room there that we can bring some of this budgeting down to maybe bring it closer to what we actually spent so that we can make up for some of your colleagues um aspirations so what I'll explain which is unfortunate is we're having huge supply chain problems so we actually tried to order a lot of the stuff that we need and were unsuccessful um a lot of stuff as you know Vehicles is just one one of them a lot of stuff is just taking 8 months to 18 months and when you try to order it they literally tell you yeah that could be 8 to 18 months so we'll order it they don't bill us for that stuff to hold it so we might still be U getting some stuff that we have to pay for within this year from last year's budget so I wouldn't hold too true to those actual numbers that being said some stuff we were just not able to order because they have imposed ordering Windows not just on cars but on some sorts of electronics and different different things that we do um so while those numbers are a little lower in the actual column it wasn't for a lack of trying a lot of stuff that we're hoping that we'll be able to get ahead of this year by ordering sooner and actually get in those lists and get on those lack of a better term waiting lists to get materials and supplies so the the numbers that we put as our um our proposed or our requests are pretty accurate they're not like shooting High and especially with um if you take a look at uh let's see other contractual service 029 a lot of stuff just the contracts that we use and requ are required to use just they going up people are raising their things by 8 9 10% and what I'm talking about here is the axon camera system crossing guards uh licensing lexip Poole the shooting range these are all contractual services that were're required we need them and they're not sticking with the 2% 3% caps they're like hey we we raised our rates 10% you're like oh thank you Chief can you speak to the accreditation piece too yeah so one of the bigger raises in the um 029 other contractual Services is when I first took over what I did is I removed one of our sworn personnel from a position where he did only accreditation and I put him back on the road because we are having a hard time getting qualified officers and he's a more senior officer and he's a good officer what I had uh said was I need to contract with lexip pole who helps do accreditation to make up for that so there's an increase there of approximately $42,000 to have lexip pole help with our accreditation that increase is only a onetime increase of 42 it goes down to about 12,000 a year but this first year when we're just getting accredited is more expensive that being said I would like to explain I took a expensive sworn police officer and I'm asking for to 42 while it is a brand new line item and if anybody looks at it it's like hey we never had that before please remember to offset the senior patrol officer that we got back on the road for that and then next in the next years it should be down to $112,000 a year granted I don't know what the interest and their little price rates will be but it will be negligible compared to the cost of the senior patrol officer so that's great I know I'm a big proponent of if you have a badge and a gun you probably should be outside the office so that's what we've been trying to push for yeah I'm glad to hear that listen I know it also looks like we had a bit of a windfall in that our salaries are actually down we would normally expect that to see that you know with step increases would' expect to see that grow the fact that we're down I mean it's not down by much but the fact that we didn't grow is a huge offset to the rest of your budget so I would go back and just say you know we normally are never going to see a negative salary number you know from percentage wise um you know if there is any other savings and listen I like I can't really beat you up too much because like again 2.2% is fantastic um and we're giving you eight police officers which we Absol deserve but to the extent that before we start voting before we start voting on a final budget look at some of these other expenses which are up you know significantly um but again you're offsetting that with the loss and salaries to see if there's some other other sort of pencil sharpening we could do there but again overall great work thank you um so just a quick question so last year the actual overtime budget was like 270,000 your budgeting for 350 this year is that because of the lack of police officers so we were fully staffed not fully staffed but we were operational last year this year we expect to be uh under for a significant portion of the Year especially with the police academy being pushed back so I am not confident that the number we came in last year will be hopefully we can keep it within the realm but um we are going to be over just because we're going to have as people retire this year we do not have bodies to replace them and they start retiring very shortly as soon as August 1st so if we had hired the police officers that were requested last year you probably wouldn't be asking for 350,000 overtime could have been slightly less yeah okay and and keep in mind too when the council adopts the ordinance to change the table of organization that will indefinitely cut back on the brass over time uh for that one shift where we only have one supervisor um so that that'll that'll have an effect on overtime once we make that promotion okay and the only other question just to just throw a point on the table here okay when I first got here that overtime line item was close to $800,000 no I remember that but that was because so police have done a great job in pulling that back and you know dealing with scheduling that they had to so accolades for them they yeah I mean that 800,000 was the last time we were underst staffed and I I mean I was actually thrilled when I saw that it was 270,000 last year because I know when we talked to Chief lucky lucky last year and she asked for five and we gave her one I I said in my mind we're going to have another 800,000 overtime year so that number I was happy with but I still feel like if we hired people last year we wouldn't be in that overtime situation for 2024 but it is what it is the only other question I had was I mean it was just something that was on on social media the last couple days somebody posted that a uh the police department only has one motorcycle and it got washed out in one of the storms so it did get washed out but that was two years ago oh okay yeah when I saw that it's a new post that's very old yes so that is correct I did get washed out but uh ever since I'm going to say ever since that happened we've taken great pains to make sure that nothing is in that area which is very hard to do because we don't have amount of space but um that did happen but it happened in 2021 and and just to be clear with regard to that press report today that did not happen during these most recent St okay all right that's fine I was curious I because I had never heard of it before but it made me think does the police department want or need would it be helpful to have a motorcycle in the absolutely uh for for a couple of reasons too is um one we do try to use smaller Vehicles when we can I know everybody doesn't like the Taho and stuff and they have their purposes and we do need some of them we have tons of equipment and I could get into the merits of large Vehicles all day but there are times when we want to drive around the central business district um and you want to get on Pathways and behind buildings and all stuff that and Tahoe or a Ford Explorer cannot do it right uh a motorcycle does serve that purpose as well as it it's an excellent community policing tool people love it if as you see like stuff gets traction people every time we do a an event down downtown for the holidays we had Glenrock bring their motorcycle and kids are lining up to take pictures with their motorcycle and makes me feel kind of bad cuz it's not ours but um yes no I remember and I actually spoke to that officer my H my husband loves motorcycles so he actually went up and introduced himself and he told us he was from Glenn Rock and we were like Ridgewood needs a motorcycle you know so I mean I know you're not asking for one is that correct uh we had in the past it it was cut a few times so this time it was kind of bare bu uh but we could also look into getting a used one M how much money do you think you would need for a used one 15,000 okay I mean in my opinion I think it's well worth it I I don't know if we want to throw that in there somewhere not that I'm you know spending money haphazardly but I I think if we could find a good used motorcycle for $155,000 it it would go long way I hear everything you're saying about a motorcycle and let's see where the numbers come out I'm still very concerned in that last session everybody was coming with 15 20 25% overages and the Motorcycle all due respect if we can afford it great to me it's not a must have um but certainly if there's money left over in the budget happy to export it is there any sort of certification or other costs associated with the motorcycle that come with that they they have the certification class right at Bergen County uh police academy and it's free of charge for in County residents so other than helmets and gear which is going to be negligible so I mean I too it would be cool I remember the Glenrock guy was pretty neat but again let's let's figure out where we end up before the end is my view anybody else yeah I have a couple questions so one I just wanted to check in I went through my notes from last year are we doing better with the Oprah is there have you taken it away from fulling and yes we hired we hired a civilian and she is currently working on redacting videos pretty much eight hours a day great and thank God she's still doing it and she's okay doing it no no police are like actually working on the reduction it's 100% clerical at this point so it's it can never be 100% clerical because police will still have to review certain cases and certain ones that will be going to the prosecutor's office and stuff like that which a detective has to review but I'll say we we freed up 75% of his time um and I mean that's the most you're going to free up because a lot of some stuff uh gets into evidence and it just it has to have police oversight but the the of that work now is definitely 100% civilianized which helps us immensely awesome um so I'm going to ask this and I'm assuming everybody else knows what do you mean by the change in licenses and what is the actual burden you said that three times and I don't know what that means oh okay so um New Jersey passed a law that requires police officers to be licensed now some other states have done it basically just like a attorneys have licenses uh CPR has a license that you have to maintain um New Jersey's always had strict standards in what education and what classes you have to take and you know qualifying twice a year use of force domestic violence but there was no standardized license um to to go so the police training commission has implemented a licensing system so what has happened now is they gave us a limited list of what classes you have to take within the calendar year how you have to take them and how they have to be documented I will say it's in flux they created a new system it's called arcadis is online maybe 20% of is up and running they're trying to do an LMS a learning management system that is not up and running yet however by the end of this year a third of our police department will have to have their licenses renewed so what we're looking at and what I had spoken earlier about was um an outside vendor has kind of come up and the same one that does accreditation and said that they're going to implement the plan and give you all the requ Required licensing training done that way we can make sure we are complying with this new legislation this uh training is pretty much being done all around because everybody doesn't really quite understand what will be needed from us and in all honesty the um attorney general in the PTC they they created this program but they're still learning with it so it's my definite recommendation that we get all the help we can right now because we don't want to be behind we want to be in front of this new licensing requirement that's great and then I have one more question did well first of all did all of you guys know about that about yeah okay I didn't know that and I find that interesting that's great and I think it's awesome to use Professional Services for it my question is with going back to the eight and the four and the four if we go with the budget and we don't achieve it which it seems like we're not going to because we can't find the hirers how does that work it just goes into on demonstrated can police carry over to next year so before our adoption in April M we'll probably have a better handle on what the time is for new people coming on board so we can make adjustments then if we leave the budget intact the way it is and it's not used then it goes into the subsequent year and it will we can transfer to other accounts if we need or to roll over it can roll over into a different area two years okay two years um if if I inquire everybody's attention to sheet 29 29 29 so to to the chief's point we're budgeting $45,000 and $110,000 respectively for a total of 55 halfway down the page for Lexa PA this is the accreditation that the chief is talking about in my mind this is really part of that state mandate in order to accommodate the licensing requirements for police officers so this is not something that we've budgeted before if you notice the 23 column is is blank um but these are the dollars that we're going to need to appropriate under that contractual line item in order to meet the standards of the license requirements for all the police officers so just to clarify it is 45 not 42 we're get that I'm sorry it's 45,000 not 4 45,000 for the Lexa pole accreditation but that's only for the first year subsequent Years it'll be 125 and then the licensing requirements on top of that for Lexa pole are 10,000 and this will go on as additive like clle for lawyers right they'll have to keep doing this it's not at one time yes yes so licensing is every year the way they broke it up was the initial is some people have to do it this year some people next year and the next year but moving forward they'll have to do continuing education every year we'll have to document it in their um online portal every year um the only question we have is some of the training that they recommended they didn't say what it constitutes so whereas it says You must provide case law training case law training as the attorneys here know could be 20 minutes to 12 years of case law training so they have to kind of come up with the you know these are the cases or it's you know arrest search and seizure case law it's use of force case we don't know but we're we we will be getting guidance on that and having a company that'll come up with uh accredited tests like the lexip pole will do will give us kind of not who's doing it uh we have this guy teaching it it'll be this is the state recommended the New Jersey State Chiefs of police recommended courses that we're taking so and and I'm sure some feel that it's a great thing that police officers are being licensed I think that's yet to be seen but at the same time this is a great example of the state mandating something but they're not paying for it and that could be very frustrating when you're putting a budget like this together well I will also say and this is the thing I wanted to interject is we have new from that licensing we have new mandates for training they did not give us funding for that training so we're we're looking at that overtime and we're talking about how 270 and now 350 we have um 16 hour 28 hour days of um active shooter that are mandated and while I 100% agree and say they're necessary and we'll never say otherwise I think we should do more than that that is a lot of overtime and a lot of money 16 hours of uh active shooter training it's a lot of unfunded mandates exactly right I actually agree with the Mandate but the money should have come from but not the unfunded and then Chief do you want to talk a little bit at the bottom of the summary page but there's actually a tab uh entitled class three you want to just bring us up to speed on your discussions with uh the superintendent of schools on this yes so the class three is a program that I've been very adamant uh about bringing about I know some of you share my sentiment um it is basically retired police officers um that will be used as security within the schools I've had some extensive talks with the um super prevent superintendent of schools and he is bringing it to his board to try to get the salaries paid for um which would be approximately $60,000 a person so he's looking to do three this year again I don't believe that's passed so I know he's he's looking for it uh in every other municipality what generally happens is the school board will pay the salaries and the municipalities will pay for the training uniforms car and um Firearms that's by far the best way because what we would do is we would take these three retired police officers bring them to our active shooter training bring them to uh the range bring them do all that stuff with us even do some lineups make sure they know what's current and uh going on in our community as that's being done we we put all the the kind of cost here this is a rough it's an estimated cost uniforms shouldn't be that expensive but the the Police radios are and we want them on our same frequency so we have an immediate conduit should we need anything in the school we can literally just use our radios there's no delay in communication uh this includes leasing of cars for them we figured they don't need uh very expensive cars but they do need cars to put all their equipment in we would like to and again outfit them with uh ballistic helmets ballistic Shields body armor radios command incident command structure stuff that would all be in the car we would Mark the car and have it put out in front of the school as a deterrent so this was the basically the cost you'll see the class three is 62450 this is just for radios uniforms Firearms things like that the training we could kind of absorb into us there shouldn't be too much training as long as we do them while they're on duty and stuff like that we can absorb training cost for the most part this is for three class three officers yes and this has not been passed by the board of Education no no and I I just want to be clear if you look at that sheet the class three sheet we would be responsible for the there would be our employees because they have to be by Statute they have to report to the chief of police we would be responsible for equipping them clothing them um giving them all the resources that they need to do the to to do the job as a class three police officer in the schools however the salary would be reimbursed uh conceptually again none of this is etched in stone the salary would be reimbursed by the Board of Education as we're proposing it in this budget all that has to be worked out there'll have to be an agreement that's um written by the attorneys on both sides um but we want to we want to prepare that we would need to do the onboarding and the equipment the equipping of these uh of these class three officers so this money we're putting in the budget but if the Board of Education doesn't pass it then what happens to this money that's a bob question but we wouldn't use it is it just for the so three is it for the high school and the middle schools because right now we have a full police officer and an SRO correct at could you go over the school structure now sure right now we only have one SRO okay we have an SRO but he floats to all the schools and an SRO and a class three are actually very different the SRO is supposed to be the liaison with the police department he'll go and he'll teach classes he will um you know train kids on pedestrian safety bike safety he teaches some of the um little forensics classes that I have the high school he's more of a liaison than a security officer at any given time we don't know what school he'll be in he goes where the problems are and he addresses them as needed this would be and again this is working with the Board of Education one at the high school full-time security and one at each Middle School the idea would be hopefully to expand in the future but this would be a good start many towns right now have multiple class 3es in their schools in addition to the SRO the SRO is generally kind of the floater and he doesn't have to stay at one school in fact he's not supposed to he's supposed to float around from each school to address the problems they have and kind of be the liazon with the juvenile detective and the police department in general so the existing $100,000 is for the SRO correct that's the SRO so that's the SRO and that I mean I felt like it was 100% the high school but no it it's not he he the srl currently goes up to Ridge Somerville pause anything whenever they're doing fire drills any drills he'll be there and that's kind of he's really the floating liaison if you will and anytime there's an issue with a student that would require call it intermediate police assistance not quite criminal but you need to elevate it a little past the school level that's where he'll go and he'll he'll address those whereas the class three would not leave the school he's assigned to because he's responsible for the physical structure there we'll have Bob answer the mayor's question but I I just want to point out out too most of those line items that we would be responsible for at the top of that page are startup costs so these are not necessarily costs that we would have going into next year's budget the portable radios the Firearms the physical uh the physicals for the new hires all of that is sort of startup cost to create the program so that number that the village is responsible for if this came to fruition that number would go substantially down in the 25 budget MH so if this doesn't happen by the time we adopt then we have a choice of either removing it or leaving it as is with the understanding that it may happen by the end of the year if it's not used it's available to transfer to other accounts if we need them in De in uh November December do we have any idea when the Board of Education might be making a decision in this well they're they're in they're starting their budget discussions now as well um so I believe Dr Schwarz was going to bring that to uh to to the Board of Ed and to to his business administrator keep in mind this program wouldn't start if it did start until September um so again these startup costs are are what we would need to to get it off the ground got it thank you so I just I just want to clarify with the school resource officer we share the cost of that with the Board of Ed 5050 right cor 5050 so these um new hires if if it becomes if the Board of Ed agrees to it their salary would be paid 100% from the Board of Ed and we would just be responsible for basically startup costs and all that that's been the successful model in the numerous towns that if have implemented that I'm sure all that could be up for discussion but that's kind of what has worked everywhere else because they really are spending 100% of their time in the school right whereas the SRO isn't and that's what people get a little confused about they think oh you have a security he's he's splitting his time between the department work and the school he's supposed to be liasing between the two which he does a very good job of but that is what they're doing so they're 50% the police and 50% the schools and and the difference here the difference here is the sworn police officer who's the SRO currently is a 12-month employee of the village whereas these employees special class 3es would potentially only work 180 days a year okay when the kids are in school and I don't know if you mentioned it I know you mentioned 60,000 but I thought that was our responsibility did you mention the salary that these uh class three would have so they're generally paid an hourly around4 $40 an hour which is a 60,000 for the year because it's half year um but that is generally borne by the school board right okay thank you sound sounds good thank you for for putting this together um I'm a strong proponent of this and um I just asked what was the thinking behind focusing on the elementary I'm sorry on well not focusing on elementary schools but rather focusing on the middle schools and the high school uh right now we're trying to kind of gauge how well and successful the program would be in Ridgewood uh my initial plan would be to put one in every school that's what as the chief I I strongly believe in that's my thinking as well but yeah um but um unfortunately uh budget-wise I think the idea with the school was they start with the older children who are statistically more prone to get in trouble um however the other ones I'm not saying anything anything you can't happen there but statistically you start with the older children then hopefully work it to the rest okay I think it's purely monitary at this time no I I I'm okay with the baby steps approach makes sense um I I would very much like to leave this in the budget unless we know for sure the board of vet is not going to vote for it um but again thank you for putting this together I think this is this is something Sly needed I agree so would we keep the SRO and and agree to one two or three of the um the new retired police officers depending on what the Board of Ed say uh comes up with yes I would like to keep the SRO program is kind of separate from this the SRO program kind of bridges that you know with the with the junior Police Academy and everything kind of gives us a little bit more involvement with the juveniles the class 3es even though they'll report to the police are primarily um you know employed by the schools and we won't have that much interaction they won't really be bringing cases or things like that back to us so the SRO program I'd really like to actually someday even make more robust and have more more people involved in that um but the class 3es and the sro's are separate they really do work very well hand inand but they are separate and apart so I really wouldn't want to destroy one to start the other right and remind me is the SRO armed the SRO is yeah he's a full sworn police officer full full everything as F freeze by the way yeah I heard that part and I I just want to stress that we're sort of in the infancy of having this conversation obviously the superintendent's only been here since July had a lot of priorities at the district level so you know the chief and I have been having these conversations we're going to see how this conversation evolves as we get to March when we introduce the budget and we'll we'll see where we stand um and also I think the district may have an opinion on what their priority is between you know the traditional SRO and the uh and the special so I think they have a voice in this as well so good other questions Chief thank you so much of course can we just go over the chief's Capital requests real quick Oh by all means so um the chief initially made a request uh for additional police cars um after we did a thorough review of open Capital um and also applied some funding to the budget which as I've mentioned to the council is my long-term goal to get our entire police Fleet rotation um under the operating budget rather than in the capital budget uh but he's been able to reduce that number down to $66,000 uh to bridge the gap on the needed police vehicles um and with that effort we were able to um make a request for $120,000 to replace portable radios um I'd like the chief just to talk about that because we do have some radio struggles um not only with police but you've heard it from chief judge in on the Fireside and you'll hear it from Jeremy climing on when he comes in at the next meeting to talk about OEM but Chief you just want to talk about where you stand with the uh with the portable radios yeah sure so our portable radios are actually um much more Antiquated than the fire department and even o am uh we have um 6 thousands and the current iteration is 8000s uh so what we would like to do in basically with that means is the 8000s are now multi-band frequencies so we can switch over to the county now highest frequencies we could go to and so does the state our radios do not allow us to do that so in an emergency if we wanted to coordinate with other towns we have to go through Central Dispatch they have to call them it's a very complicated thing to do also when we have other towns working in our town they cannot speak with us without getting one of our radios which is you know complicated especially for large events or when you have a real major issue what we're trying to do is switch over to the 8000s which aside from infrastructure which we'll need to discuss separately and uh you know to actually build up the infrastructure this will allow us to pick a county frequency and actually go on the same frequency as Midland Park oh hocus Paramus so we can actually be inter operational with all those towns without changing infrastructure they're not our channel so we'll have to request the permission from the county or the state but in a real emergency we will be granted it immediately um so the the idea is to transition all to these 8000s the fire department already has the 8000s so they they need different infrastructure stuff we just want to get up to those the problem is they are extremely expensive so we're talking about over 8,000 of radio and we have the need for 50 radios so the money in here you see the 120,000 you know we're not talking about too many so my idea is to try to do it over two or three years um obviously we can't spread it out over 5 years because with technology by the time we get the last ones of five years we're going to be needing to replace the top end again unfortunately uh so if we could do it in two years and actually split and say hey we got uh all the command staff and the supervisors have the radio that way if there is a critical incident they can switch over and communicate with all the other towns um I think that would be the best way to go and then the next year we can get the rest of line officers to have all them as well once we do that there are other options that we can explore with channels and things like that once everyone is on that system but this is a good a good starting point is to get all supervisors and Command Staff on these radios you bought $40,000 worth of radios last year were they the 8000s and how do you like them so we we actually still have a lot of that 40,000 left because we were planning on implementing this we we're trying to kind of tear it into that uh the 8000s are a much better radio just in general we have one un loan from the county uh that we've been using just so we have some sort of um interoperability but it doesn't really work when there's one and you know we have eight people driving around so Bob can we use some of that 40,000 on this or is it the same rule where we have to wait two years no no the $40,000 is in capital yes cap so we're accumulating the Capital to to get enough to to buy the requisite amount of radio so what I foresee him doing and chief forgive me if I'm speaking out of school here but take the 40,000 and the the 120 from this year make a purchase exactly next year try to match that number make a purchase and then you should be up to date with your with all your inventory correct yeah and that's exactly what we're looking at so I I have the 40,000 from 2023 right there that I have earmarked to add to this and we will get as many as we can this year and then hopefully we will be able to finish the so it be 160 this year and probably somewhere around 120 140 next year to bridge the gap and that'll replace everything that that the Chiefs in need of having but really 120 because we said yes to 40 last year right it's 12 it's it was 40 last year 120 this year and then there'll be another ask for next year I remember last year that being brand new to the council and Blown Away by the cost of radios R I couldn't believe it radios are by far are the most expensive piece of equipment we have and my only question was last year with the radio allocation we did I believe approve some for EMS have those all been given elsewhere like does the fire department just assume all the radios from EMS I'm not at I don't actually know the right thing comes into the next meeting he can explain exactly how all that's segregated now between uh emergency Ops and the fire department I mean I think it's great the more that we can communicate and the more we can draw on larger Services I mean it it would be unfortunate if we ever had that day but I think we need to be prepared and so we've actually had plenty of incidents uh because you got to remember we have contiguous towns that we can't communicate with and uh we've had incidents in Midland Park or On the Border where they come to help us or we go to help pamis and you know you just basically find one of the cops from the other jurisdiction and stay close to them because and they can't talk to us we can't talk to them we can do it through Central um which does work but there's a big delay in where you could just say hey everybody switch over to you know this Channel and then actually have that kind of so I'm completely supportive this makes all the sense in the world you say you need 50 I assume one per officer can you share like I mean I assume you guys you know I mean I've been downstairs you guys have a stack of radios you don't have 50 cops on all the you know I imagine it's unheard of to have everybody on at the same time so so and Evan if it makes you feel better I was thinking the same thing so I was going to ask that question so here here's the problem with that sometimes is um we always plan for or our our officers have their radios home at all times uh we have everybody kind of listens to the radio and we also plan for we have at any given time working in town 25 30 people when we have our major events every officer is here so there would come to a lot of issues where it would come to you don't have your own radio and you wouldn't be able to kind of uh operate the other thing too is they're they're serialized and numbered so you know exactly whose radio is whose so that would be very tricky to kind of change off because there's the FCC regulations and things like that I have to assume though at least at the beginning before we have 50 radios you would share so yeah in the beginning that's kind of the thing is we would get them to we disperse them into each Squad well enough that they would be we'd be able to manage the year I wouldn't want to go much past a year year and a half before getting them not to mention I can guarantee that when we go to place this order they're going to say that's like 15 months away I made that up but that seems how everything goes right now so okay um with regard to long-term planning on the radios uh for 25 26 and 27 if I'm reading this correctly you've you've um predicted $20,000 a year but wouldn't it have to be more like that was my prediction prior to the number being cut my initial ask was 360,000 so with that and the 40 uh with that and 40 it would have been 400,000 which would get us 50 radios at 8,000 a piece so I didn't change the numbers because it was cut to 120 from 360 so those numbers would drastically change like next year would have to be again one 160 or whatever it would be I see and then if I may go back to operations there was a big jump in uniforms um uniforms and something else uh the new hires so that's in anticipation of us actually being able to hire eight okay so normally youd see that number we're going to hire two uniforms you know we only have to about7 $8,000 a person but if you're going to hire eight that number goes up same with the Medicals the psychologicalscience had some wind at your back this year with the with the with the salaries we lost a lot of top level people so yeah I mean that's bad but I guess from the bottom line it's good um again I would hope that we could have had a closer to flatter year given the windfall we've gotten a little bit on that um because we nor we never I'm never going to see this again on this Council never going to see a winfall like this Council um so would ask maybe just to go back and see if there are ways to sharpen the pen which will you know hopefully give you some credit for next year but again 2.2% is hard to argue with thank you all right thanks Chief thank you so much you mayor next up we have the Ridgewood Public Library just so you know Emergency Management is not going tonight it's G to go next time Jeremy's out of town so we're gonna reschedule him for our next budget meeting even good evening how are you so mayor just before we start um I just want to thank thank Lori and her team uh we've had a great relationship uh that's still in the process of being built between the the village and the uh the public library um I value all the work that they do over there um Public Library serves as a great resource for people in the community uh we talk often about the fact that libraries are not just books where people come to uh to study or to take out references or anything of that nature but they've really become community centers unto themselves um I just want to point out to the council and and many of you probably know this from being through budget before um but the set amount um the dollar set aside for the public library is statutory um it's based on a um a formula that was adopted by the legislature years ago and it's onethird of a mill um of each dollar of accessible property within the municipality based on the equalized valuation um so that number is statutory so Lorie's here tonight uh to present what's in her stat atory amount um and the budget and some of the good things that they're doing over at the Ridgewood Public Library so Lori the floor is yours thank you thank you Keith and I appreciate um the effort that has been made in including the library in department head meetings I feel much more engaged with what's going on with the village so that we can respond you know effectively when you need something from us so thank you for that um we Lori I'm not sure your microphone is on maybe I'm not talking loud enough much better okay yeah you she speaks with a library voice so we come to you again in our um advantageous position of having a a a good third of a mill year um we don't take that lightly we look at at um our stewardship of that money is excuse me if you could keep that closer just our stewardship of that money perect thank you is um very um important to us so when we look at at an increased amount like that we look at it is we know that that can go either way at any time so we we try not to put it into categories that would would cause us an in an ongoing expense so we look at books and materials things that will directly benefit um our residents and also our aging building we put it there because those will also directly benefit the residents um as they enter the building so that's our our sort of strategy going forward when any anytime this happens um I just wanted to share a couple of successes um anyone who has walked through the building lately has seen that we have uh finally mostly completed the downstairs renovation um that we um set out to do last year uh with mostly privately raised funds so um the carpet was on the village so thank you for that you're welcome um and I I did want to mention because I'm very proud of the staff that we did it without closing the building not one day uh we had we did have to close off access to the children's department but we brought materials out we worked out of the lobby and um when you ask the staff to do something they're they're going to get it done so it would have been easier would it have been easier for us to close a couple days yes but they made it happen so I just wanted to point that out and and we want to say thank you and um I've seen those changes and they look wonderful they and I think they they enhance the entire Library experience so we're all grateful great thank you and there's more to come and I I don't want to go over too many statistics you you know what we do we come in every year with the with the same Spiel but um something significant I think to point out is that um the the value of the materials that we circulate and that's stuff going in and out from other libraries is about $8 million um annually so if you look at that and that doesn't even take into consideration our programming and things that you can't necessarily put a monetary value on so we feel that the library provides a good return on investment um so when we have these good years we we'll just going to make our services better and then just looking forward to next year we do still have some Renovations ahead um we'll be um starting on the mezzanine adding six study rooms and and a conference room which will also be B very beneficial right now we rent out a little um little room that we have and it's booked every day of the week because people need a quiet space so we're looking forward to that and of course we've put on the new roof we're looking toward the air conditioning and we're making progress in all of our um capital projects projects and I'm going to pass it to Rebecca Rubenstein who is Rubenstein I'm on the Bernstein kick so Ruben who's our Treasurer s testing okay thank you for having us I'm Rebecca Rubenstein and I just finished my fourth year as uh trustee for the Ridgewood Public Library this is my second year as board Treasurer so to summarize how the library is funded and as Keith mentioned New Jersey municipal libr liaries are leg legally entitled to a minimum appropriation based on what's called a 13 mill rate which is calculated as 33 cents on each $1,000 of equalized value of all accessible property in the village equalized value is the estimated market value of your home as compared to the assessed value which is the value of your home reflected on the tax roles of the municipality the library's minimum appropriation has increased over the past few years this year it is 8% higher than 2023 and the library understands that this level of funding fluctuates year-over-year and an increase is not always guaranteed the library is fortunate to be able to supplement its appropriation with money raised by two outstanding fundraising organizations Friends of the Ridgewood library and Ridgewood Library Foundation which collectively pay for all cultural and educational programming databases Museum passes technology selected building improvements and much much more as with other municipalities health benefits continue to increase and the higher appropriation this will help this year will help offset those costs as well as a proposed 3% salary increase later in 2024 the library is planning to launch a slow rollout of passport services to the community we expect Associated Personnel costs will be absorbed by shifting some hours of existing staff and while we anticipate only a small amount of net income this year it's a path to generating some material income in future years as you know the peas Library building provides substantial rental income from its two tenants Northwest Bergen central dispatch AKA 911 and the newest tenant bowler engineering the building has been self-sustaining despite ongoing maintenance and adherence to historical specifications in 2024 the library will finish paying for the replacement of all four HVAC units at at peas as well as pay off the balance of a real estate commission both of which fulfill the contractual obligations of its leases beginning next year the peas Library will start clean and a larger amount of net rental income will flow into the operating budget in 2024 the library will use a portion of a donor bequest designated for books and materials to help offset its books expense this amount of $80,000 will allow for an increase of budgeted buildings and grounds expense to fund repairs and maintenance projects that were deferred for many years due to the hope that the library would receive a construction Bond Grant from the New Jersey State Library which It ultimately did not receive in 2022 the library regrouped and made plans to make improvements in phases using private funds raised by Library foundation and in 2023 interior upgrades began with the creation of a bigger teen room and the updating of its first floor circulation department and art studio this year the the library will work towards adding study rooms on the mezzanine and longer term projects such as upgrading the auditorium and Tech Lab as well as pursuing grants to renovate the bathrooms in order to become ADA Compliant finally there is a $65,000 capital budget request to supplement the cost of the much needed electrical hookup of the generator sitting adjacent to the library the generator hookup will provide a valuable service to to the community allowing full use of the building in the event of power outage and allowing the library to become a hub in emergencies thank you for your consideration and please let us know if you have any questions thank you Rebecca questions Council I have a couple um under technology there's a 133% increase what's that all about okay so um we had to add some funds for um a uh consultant um due to an ongoing Personnel issue I see and we wanted to make sure that we had enough cover budg it is likely that we will come in under that amount but we just wanted to be sure okay that we covered our technology needs and then uh down towards the bottom audit Bank fees legal um there's an increase of 155% additional legal fees in the notes or comments um what's that b related to the ongoing Personnel issue gotcha so I just want to say a couple things so one thank you I always love the library because you have alternate sources of income which is so great and um because some of the Public's watching I love that P is such a revenue generator and you guys are finally reaping the benefit where we're seeing peas come into your budget so Rebecca you're the best Treasurer I don't think you're ever quitting and because I'm not going to let you but that is like such a compliment to bring in that much revenue and um because it's your birthday year I think Mrs P set that up so well it's such a great agreement and I'm so impressed with it too I want to say from my perspective when I went over last year's request and this year's I I want to advocate for the generator one because Glenn has talk to me so much about the generator um the generators at Ridgewood water if you guys want to for the rest of the council this is like a public safety issue for me because in the event of a power outage it would be very advantageous to have the library powered we did say no to them last year and one of the things I always feel like when we have these high performing groups like the library financially and holistically in every way because I love the library is that we just I want to make sure we advocate for that $65 ,000 because I felt like similar to carryover from Capital last year I felt like it was a good Capital expense last year and I think it's great this year and that's all that's it mayor if I may um just to piggyback off those comments so the $65,000 for the generator is being recommended for Capital um one of the things that Lori and I have talked about is utilizing the library as a cooling or warming station um especially when we have power outages during extreme weather events we did investigate whether or not there would be any FEMA grants or any type of Emergency Management grants that would support that and we came up empty at this point um and that's one of the reasons that we we want to put an emphasis on on the $65,000 to hook up the generator and again as the the councilwoman said that that machinery would support both the Ridgewood water building and the public library once it's hooked up which is half the total cost of the installation the library would be absorbing the other half so just to clarify so we're essentially just budgeting what we're legally obligated to give to them under law right that is correct sir so first of all thank you um I am a bit biased in that I have the privilege of being the liaison um to the library board uh I cannot tell you how impressed I am in every meeting that I go to um the fact I think this is the first presentation we've had where these are non Village employees assisting Lori these are not folks that are paid to be here these are people that doing it on their own time um we are as a village so amazingly blessed to have the friends the foundation all the volunteers the meetings that I go to are just impeccably run um and the fact that we get so much for so little for what we give to them is a testament Lorry to you and your staff but the dozens of volunteers that do just amazing work to make the library the jewel that it is the passport service thank you my family and I had to go to Waldwick this year to use their passport service it felt wrong I had to hide my face I don't want anybody see me duck it into the Waldwick Library um but Waldwick is a great role model for passport service they did a really nice job really nice job so I was about to get to that um even outside of looking at as a revenue stream I'm less interested in that and then I am the I think um just the service that we'll provide to VI residents how easy it was how Flawless it was we made an appointment we went in like two weeks two months later we had the passports mailed back to us just so well executed I'm sure you guys do a great job I too Echo the generator I think it's a wonderful Public Safety um upgrade the fact that you all are paying for half of it is tremendous and again a testament to the hard work so I I've said that I don't want to BPO too much um you know thanks onto all these places because I have to ask the hard questions too late I can't do it here I can't do I mean you're coming in flat you get it's fantastic thank you thank you I just I just want to have a quick story because I a lot of people take for granted Ed passports my son lives in Colorado in a remote area he needs to renew his passport the closest place was only 10 miles away he goes there the woman that used to do it isn't here any longer we never filled her spot and we don't know and you know I called up the passport office and the closest place was a 5H hour round trip drive for him so it's really convenient to be able to go to places for passports so I appreciate app that just one quick question so besides the money that we're obligated for you you're asking for an additional 65,000 or that's already included in the obligation the 65,000 is the capital request so that's outside the operating budget all right so just a quick question does Ridgewood water um put any money they have already they have they have already so this is the balance this would be this would be to to for the other half and to hook up the the we can't ask would water to do them they they bought so the connection it's the connectivity between the two buildings and so because the the generator rather large and has additional power that is left unused unless we put the connection in place so they they hooked up they paid for their hookup from the generator to water now we need to pay for the electrical hookup from the generator to the library okay and $130,000 extension cord basically right okay and from TR a safety issue I totally agree yeah from a best practices standpoint you know Ridgewood water is a standalone utility the library is an autonomous board so it is it is better from an auditing standpoint and from a uh a financial standpoint for everybody to to pay their part in in sharing this piece of equipment the beauty of it is is that we're sharing a piece of equipment and we don't have two generators over is the generator I'm not even exactly sure I know it's placed it's it's on the library property correct how high up is it like if we were if we were to get flooded is it protected it's on a it's on a pedestal you have to a high pedestal and that particular area is closer just speaking to the microphone Sor it's it's um on a pedestal you have to climb stairs to get to it and it is well it is in our lowest lying area but um it is not in danger of so there's no concern there is no concern all right thank you um I want to Echo all the great things that have been said about the library um I know that especially for the the volunteers who are there at all the meetings and at all the things this isn't this is this is a mission um this is a passion um and we are so fortunate to have such an incredibly successful library in our community serving our community I know the number but please say it out loud how many visitors we get per month cuz I just love hearing it and I'm stunned every time I hear it it's more than that it's more than that I know it's more than that where are my visitors oh 10,000 plus a month that that is our number well I I I know the number to be so much bigger that I'm not going to say it out loud because for fear that that my number is inaccurate but let's let's just say that that it is a very big number and a lot of people get a lot out of that library and uh I think that the mission of providing Safe Haven in a storm um in a uh where there's a power outage uh by uh by having a a standalone generator there is essential I will not say that that this will be done at the at the end of this we have to see what we have and what we can afford I will tell you that and I know I speak for the entire Council that we all want to get this done this year so we're going to take a look at at the end um but I know that this is a priority for us so thank you all so much for being here tonight thank you thank you any other questions because I'm ready we're good good luck good luck with the rest of the budgets thank you mayor do you um you want to take a 10-minute recess and then we'll come back and do Heather mine Village manager Village attorney oh you want to you want to go a little further or call whatever you want to do let's go a little deeper what we got well we can we like go another 45 minutes and be done 45 wait 45 minutes is a long time for my sandwich to be sitting there let's let's take 10 now and then move on okay only 10 though somebody put on your time I'm putting on a Time lunch box that's for [Music] is e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e they're on they were off they were off which is a very good move I will go so if you could just call the meeting back to order let's call the meeting back to order will you take a roll call yes uh Deputy Mayor perin here council member Reynolds here council member whites here council member W gr here and mayor ranz here okay and let's go on to the next line item which is Village clerk here she comes here she comes okay so um I just want to kind of go over major things that we can uh quantify in the village clerk's office so last year we did 681 Oprah requests process them some are very simple but most of them are multiple departments or multiple emails or um multiple requests um there are days when we get six requests in a day 10 requests in a day sometimes we get none so you can never predict it it's always um a uh surprise let's say um raffle licenses we processed 23 parking permits we sold 2133 um commuter parking per permits and um CBD um parking permits were 1,138 that includes the stickers the monthly hang tags the 247 365 and the overnight and there were 160 garage sales which includes coordinating um the two townwide garage sales with the individual who does that twice a year so um that's basically what we have um so Village clerk uh it really has not gone up much at all um we are finally at full staff I'm very excited we have um a myself the deputy and two uh clerk typists in our clerk's office and then we have a morning receptionist and afternoon receptionist our afternoon receptionist just started um last week and everything is going well so it's very exciting to be able to say we're at full staff um that'll help um individually I don't think there's a large increase in any the only one is the um that I see is the village code updates uh the amount spent is actually um less than half of what the actual is it's probably close to $8,000 that we've spent and um that's because the December bill has not yet been processed so um we do updates in July and December so that has not yet been processed umse was I going to say oh and basically my budget 90% of it is out of my control it's things like legal advertising which depends on what ordinances we adopt you know um other Professional Services includes our minutes and that's again how long our uh meetings are um and then the things that are and then the village code updates as well and the things that were within our control the office supplies conferences and meetings and professional association dues is about what we have control over so we do need to have I do need to go to conferences for cus to maintain my certification um the deputy is probably going to go for her um RMC test sometime this year either it's usually April and October so I'm not sure which one she's going to choose but she's going to um try to obtain her certification as well and then she also will have to obtain cus some of them are close to home a lot of them we do at our um County Association meetings so it's easy to get and then others as you know are in Atlantic City and um that's twice a year so any other questions questions but overall you're coming in at 2% lower than you came in last year you know Heather you could have started with that okay and just mention just dropped the mic and walked away and we would have all been okay with that would been okay okay which actually I would have I think we would have scheduled you first and said this is the standard there you go meet that and we're good okay anybody else no and Heather I suggest you run before we come up with some questions I agree yeah I think some it up so I just have to do elections as well so this year obviously we have a municipal election the biggest expense is always are um other contractual Services which is through the County Clerk they charge us for the primary election and it's based on the number of mail and ballots that they send out they actually charge the towns individually back for how many they process and send out and so we never know how it's going to be um it was 24,000 last year probably around 20,000 for a while but because this is a presidential election that could easily go up to 25 27,000 we um usually at the general election for President we get um usually around a 75% turnout so depending I mean you know our primary is late obviously by that time it's usually already decided who the candidates are however um if that's not the case then um you know there are a lot of people who want to vote in the presidential primary as well so that's a biggest expense there anything else anybody I two questions so with school security are any of the HSA still kicking in to match any of that yeah we pay we pay for half and this is just on Election Day so we pay for half and the Board of Education pays for half and um there they are only there during school hours because after school really their concern and I understand are the teachers and the students and other than that um you know after 3:30 the security is no longer there but obviously there are custodians or other obviously the police are nearby so it was basically so nothing would happen during the school day okay and then not not this year but do you imagine next year given the effects of early voting we may see a reduction in polling locations not that many people take advantage of early voting unfortunately um and the county is actually looking to consolidate uh locations so they the Board of Elections anytime you change um polling locations has to be approved by the Board of Elections so the Board of Elections is looking into it they certainly won't do it during a presidential year and possibly not even next year because it's a gubernatorial year however they are looking to do that you know um we have to fill out a polling place accessibility form every year and this year for the first time they asked us to check how many outlets were in the locations and how many you know um so they could potentially see where we could consolidate um I think it's probably going to be coming from them more than from us because they you don't want to have polling locations that have astronomical numbers of registered voters in them because even though it's maybe once or twice every four years with governor and president that would get the huge turnout you also don't want lines out the door all day long so I I highly encourage though for anyone who's listening and here to please take advantage of early voting if you know you cannot go to the polls on Election Day because they are open it's approximately I believe it's um 10 days it may be just over a week that they are open and they're even open on Saturday and Sunday and so um it would be really um beneficial because those votes are then the first ones counted when the polls closed so you know those those are pretty much accounted for those numbers are released and then the votes as that come in from all the districts on Election Day are the next ones and of course the final ones are the provisionals and the um mailin that they get late so good anyone else that was easy thank you thanks wait a minute we don't want to make it easy next through your mayor we move on to the Village attorney budget um major highlights in this budget include the restoration of a litigation line item which is line item 046 um in 2022 it was 50,000 when it was modified last year $20,000 was cut out of that to bring it down to 30,000 uh Bob and I are recommending um at least for preparation of the initial budget that we consider moving that number back up to $50,000 in case there's unanticipated litigation we're also placing in this year's proposal $225,000 uh for our labor attorney uh we have two Union contracts that are upcoming in 2024 both the blue collar and the white collar contracts are set to be negotiated and we have a carryover contract that expired in 2023 with the supervisors those negotiations I'm proud to say are going well um however due to the transition um in the manager position we were a little late in starting those negotiations which is why the contract lapsed um but I'm hopeful that in the first quarter of this year those that contract will be um renegotiated and settled the um third piece is miscellaneous expenses uh line item 98 um again at one point that in 2022 that line item was over was $200,000 um last year it was modified to $1,000 um and this year we're looking to bring it back up to $10,000 um I just want to make note that the overall budget from 2022 to the evolution of this budget at one point it was 468,000 last year it was 234,000 and this year with those restorative cuts for litigation and negotiations primarily it's up to 289 so that's the village attorney's budget any questions yes I see the um appropriation for the prosecutor MH but the public defender is zero is that somewhere else public defenders 40 so on the on the prosecutor um last year $20,000 was budgeted um but he was actually paid out because I think it's set by ordinance 30,000 Kim this year is recommending an increase of $1,000 for the prosecutor um which is minimal in the in the grand scheme of things um the public defender position I think is detail either was that in Municipal cler in in the clerk the court clerk municipal clerk uh sorry Municipal Court yeah that was moved to municipal court so if you go go back to the Municipal Court it wasn't there it wasn't there thought it was nope it's down it's the last it's the last line atem under Municipal Court $6,500 65 yes I don't see it's below the total budget number that's why that's why you couldn't see it got it so it's a that percentage increase is so much because it shifted went from and and what we can actually do uh Deputy Mayor is Olivia 040 can actually be taken out of this budget for the on the village attorney side just so that there's no confusion going forward so you're going to put it back in the village attorney no we we'll probably leave it in the court um unless the O and the AOC approved our budget so I think it's it's satisfactory to have it there but I think we just so it's not duplicative into different budgets with one line item being zero I think we'll just take it out so it's cleaner all right could I just I just have a question so in you said in 2022 the litigation budget was 468,000 not the litigation budget the total budget for for the village attorney right was 468 and this year the proposal is 289 and what would constitute a miscellaneous I mean I'm comfy with 10,000 but what would ever cause a miscellaneous contribution under legal I'll yield to Bob on that because that was a 22 appropriation so Matt Rogers would us a list of litigation which I can't talk about but that's what go here and I would just lump sum it to one number got it thank you I guess my only qu really is the litigation budget I mean I see that we spent only $113,000 last year I mean in other years how much have we spent because it's a pretty big gap between what we're budgeting and what we actually spent the last year it it is probably the hardest line item to budget for um that and utilities because we don't have a crystal ball as to what might be coming at us so to speak um I I always feel more comfortable with a few more dollars in the litigation line item in case something unforeseen um is brought forward um but again depending on where we are when the year end numbers are calculated and where we need to trim um before we present the final budget to council you know that'll be one of the line items that's flagged yeah because I mean the increase that you're asking for I know it's not a huge amount of money but it's like $100,000 more than you actually spent last year that's like a third of of of the total outly here so you know in the grand scheme of things I get it but it does seem like and I agree with you Keith let's be cautious right but that's a lot of caution and and and just to remember too that there is a somewhat of an attempt here um keeping the bottom line in mind to to sort of get some of these line items back to where they were in 22 so that we don't run the risk of overexp sping any line items in 2024 I mean I and one of the things that could go through here as well are tax appeals when they get to the state court level if it requires adjudication if you go back and forth you might have costs in here that we don't know about right now I'm not aware of any but the other night when we talked with the tax assessor about that reserve for tax appeals that's sort of that cushion for the tax piece of it and then there's also the attorney representation from our side so as Keith pointed out it's a very difficult budget to put together as we are right now a month from now this may change so yeah I look for it those numbers because the 30% increase over what we spent last year to me strikes me as a little too cautious and that's great two years from now I guess when we get to spend that money whatever's left of it but um again I hear what you're saying anything else on the attorney okay moving on to the Village Council so the only major changes to the Village council's budget um is the line item 048 which is Professional Services um we have our grant writer which the council entered into contract with late last year um budgeted there and we also have the consultant for the um special improvement district in the CBD so those are the two um main changes as far as that 048 line item going into 2024 where is I see the um the Professional Services those two are in that 70,000 yeah if you flip back to um oh to page 048 it'll give you a detail with those two line items so I would assume right now we have since the person just started late December there's no uh we have received nothing for which for which position for the um grant writer so the grant writer um we've engage their services uh we now have full portal access each of the department directors and some of the supervisors have access to the grant portal we're receiving updates every day to potential grants um where we have to make a decision as to where our spending goes with regard to the grant writer is whether we're going to write some of these grants in housee um for example engineering does all of the Road Grants all of those types of things he's going to he's going to maintain that responsibility uh the open space Grant we're probably going to kick to to the grant writer they have extensive experience writing open space grants for Bergen County uh we also want to apply for the historic um aspect of the Bergen County grant program uh for The Pedestrian tunnel uh Deputy Mayor and I were in a meeting on that on Friday um and then there are grants every day that the Departments are starting to evaluate and look through as to where they're going to apply don't leave them out shade Tre Shad definitely wants to uh go for Fort no they do they really are obsessed with writing grants and last year we applied and we thought we on our own we thought we were Grant worthy so they I feel like shade tree and Parks both want to utilize them more which is a good thing okay and also I I would like to keep our eyes open for um something to clean up the World War I Memorial so Keith I I'll I'll just repeat what I had said when we considered appointing this person um very supportive it's great use of money because we should be able to get a lot of money back from it timately when this comes to us next year I'm not going to care how many grants we wrote I'm not going to care how many grants we submitted I'm going to care about how many dollars we got understood so understand my eyes on the prize on this one so I'm good for this year it's a great investment but you know trying is not you know unlike I told my kids trying just trying is not enough here they have to cover their they have to cover their cost tenfold right exactly exactly may maybe ninefold I'll be nice in the first year there you go dly noted he is softening with age any other questions on Village Council okay all good let's go moving on to the manager's budget um first and I think I've I've mentioned it um at a few meetings thus far uh We've restructured the assistant to the Village manager position uh formerly held by Janet fricky uh to a communic and special projects director position um that person will be starting on our team on Tuesday very proud of um of moving forward we're going to really tackle uh some of the communication um challenges um and really make an effort to to get information out to the public um in real time so that line item has actually been reduced from last year um there is some breakage in that salary um so that's on the salary and wages side um in addition um we have increases in line item 028 um the two major changes in that are $122,000 for background checks um all new employees are going to be required to have a thorough background check uh before being hired um so that is one of the um newly instituted budget requests here um and then the second is for staff training um we've undertaken a new system to employ to evaluate uh Municipal Employees across the Village um in 2024 every employee of the village of Ridgewood will be formally evaluated whether they are up for any type of increment adjustment or not um so we are in the process right now of working with a consulting firm uh to train both our directors and our supervisors um in the staff of value valuation process they've actually had a hand in creating the new forms uh that we modeled off of what they do in the fire department um and um we'll be launching that this spring all employees who are up for an a July adjustment uh they will be evaluated uh in May and June and then all employees will be evaluated uh in September and October and that process will be completed by November 1 of each year um so those are the two um additions to that 028 lineup everything else uh pretty much remained stable or has been reduced questions well good let's go all right I think that actually rounds it out right do we want to do yours okay so mayor just to adjust the schedule ever so slightly um with um the move to of OEM to next Wednesday the 21st um I think we're going to move to the areas that Bob covers tonight while we have a little capacity um and then we'll wrap it up there and we'll pick up with Emergency Management water and solid waste and recycling on next Wednesday so bye sure so I'm going to do Finance Tax Collector and I'm going to touch upon parking as I know it now so we'll do Finance first so in my department we have about an 8% increase this year sure under Finance yeah look for the look for the rgr yellow tab those are Bob's initials everything after that is his problem correct so we're under Finance I do love the rgr because it throws me every single time even on the emails I'm just like I just go straight for Rooney here 100 times in this budget you should seen what happened when I set up my email account everybody is just two initials first and last I had to have the G in the middle so that created controversy anyway we got it well set R roll set all right so under Finance uh full-time employees uh stay the same I'm looking for uh I budgeted last year for 6,000 for part-time and I'm also looking for time for temporary and seasonal and overtime uh I am short two people right now one in the T that works my tax collector and I will be short one as we wrap this budget up uh Pleasant so uh she's going to bring a beautiful baby into this world so I need somebody that's going to step in for her uh during her absence she promised me that she would not leave until the day before the birth and two days after so only kid only kid you're giving her the whole three days I had a barter for that she wanted you know like four you guys are getting so soft on me I can't stand it I know it's tough um and then under uh other expenses the the big change there is under other contractual Services uh we're are going to move forward with a time and attendance system uh we tried to implement this several years ago we bought the time clocks had them all set up and then Co struck and stopped that process completely so I'm fortunate enough where I can use the same clocks they they'll be tested in a couple of weeks just to make sure they still have the same that they're upgraded with the software but we will be using them for time of attendance we'll be minimizing a lot of time that's spent today on a manual system of updating people's time you wouldn't believe how many people touch a piece of paper to get it to where it's final that's all going to be eliminated we're going to have the opportunity for people to um enter their time in Mobile if they're off site uh do it on their computer they can actually actually do it on a phone our own phone system uh there's controls that will be put in place to make sure that people can't do that you know halfhazard supervisors will be able to um go through vacation requests time off requests uh it's just going to minimize a lot of paperwork that we do right now so and the big part about this it gives us documentation for God forbid any FEMA events occur because one of our challenges has always been when FEMA asks for documentation for time during an event we scramble and then we provide them halfhazard time reports that you know they want tied out to the minute this gives us the opportunity to identify every time that's been put in by whatever Department to document those FEMA requests so it's a it's a very good thing that that we're going to be implementing for this this this year Village Wide Village Wide yes every Department uh I'm sorry let me back up not police and not Fire Police have their own system VCS which is tied in we have access we have all the controls built into that but because their shifts it'd be very difficult to implement into our system fire again because of their hour their long days difficult to administer to so they keep their own system police keeps their own everything else will be covered by uh this time in attendance system questions Finance anybody looks like we're good Bob I I just want to say Olivia good luck I mean we're very we're very excited to have 10 additional toes and fingers on the budget next year can I can I just can I just mention the the time and attendance system um in two of my other experiences um we've implemented a system like this it cuts down on manour of having to track people's time U benefit time time at retirement um all those different things it also enables the employee to go in and request time off and immediately an email is sent to the supervisor um author asking for authorization for that person to take the day um there's just a lot of built-in efficiencies and a significant reduction in paperwork that goes along with this system um plus it it almost guarantees completely accurate attendance record so I commend Bob for for um reinstituting this initiative um postco and we're going to sit with our our friends on the on the union side um and talk about the implementation of this um so that it protects everybody it protects the village and it protects the employees just as much thank you for doing that Bob so next we have a tax collector so I won't speak of salaries and wages um because uh Evan said if I'm below 2% I'm okay I stand by that I I'm I'm with you I'm with you yeah and then Evan's going to ask for a little more I'm was going to wait till the next line before he got to me me asking for all right let's let me just do salaries and wages so we have a new tax collector if you're as you're aware um and my account by Nicole moving into the tax collector's position and filling in with a a new person which is yet to be hired um I do have some savings there on the annual salary other expenses so for the most part um if you add back the $110,000 I cut last year I'm down overall so nothing to talk about I cut 10,000 out of this budget last year so if you take that and add it to the budget appropriation of 30,000 675 you'll be at 4,675 right de sorry I'm I'm so in the 2023 budget is so we were talking we went back to um prior years let me get the line I might cut it have it right here I mean it looks like you've been consistent for since 2022 right yeah hold on let me just get it please 02 2 was the uh the line item I cut last year so if you look at 022 you'll see I took $10,000 out of that budget to reduce it down to 36 okay so this year if you added that back I'm really below it I'm short of last year's ask so I'm not going to beat you it looks like you're asking for like eight grand more than what you actually spent and budgeted so on on other expenses so I'm not going to beat you up too bad but if you got two years where you didn't miss the 10,000 why are we adding it back in postage costs have gone up drastically so is our um the mailing cost for our tax bills um so can I ask a question about that because you know about me and paper in the mail do we have to by law do that do what mail all the tax bills that I get in on mail I mean is there an opt out system for people who like me don't love mail I get lot of mail I am I am not aware of the opportunity for you to say I don't want it mail to me so it has to go to everybody that's my understanding I think that might take yeah I I'm I'm gonna make a joke you clearly haven't heard about my mail issue I'll I'll let Paul deliver it's fine required that information also has to go to the mortgage company okay insurance company so it's it has to be shared many places um not on our no I mean that's that's a completely acceptable answer if it's required I mean I'm not alone that when you get all this mail people are like you know nowadays could this be emailed I agree it's the only piece of paper I get anymore where the bill is from you guys so but it's required it's required right is this required by state law to my knowledge yes perhaps this is something that we can begin to lobby for that we can then at at least where it's agreed to by our tax the the individual taxpayer that they can receive it by email that's a good point so can we look into that for next year we can it's a good thing I think I think we'd have to look into lobbying me this is one of those things to make you feel better it's like the calendar you know some people love getting the calendar in print which I learned and um some people don't want it and some people would prefer to opt in and opt out but the the paper and the commitment to paper and mailing which which is required is huge you know we we we as a village print and send a lot of paper let's not forget about this for next year I know and move on next all right so let's touch upon parking so the good news is on a preliminary basis I have covered with the revenues this year my Appropriations so that's always a positive sign um I have to look into the breakdown as to um the revenues by Source but as of right now and um this is preliminary doesn't appear as if we would need a rate increase for next year okay but I'm going to do preliminary uh budget standpoint we're asking looking for another uh 1% increase in the budget we have uh two full-time um two full-time parking officers and we have two part-time U peos um they from what I understand uh I know from the two full times they're doing a fantastic job they've uh Blended in well with the the district they seem to be communicating well with the the store owners down there and and and those that are um seeing them on the streets and I think they're being well received of course every once in a while you get a glitch on parking complaint but that's going to happen it's just just a way of life but I do think that they're they're doing the job that we've hired them to do and they also appear to be um very conscientious they they're looking to work they some of them want to work more if they can uh so they don't mind doing the weekends and extra time so they they're pretty good uh from an overall standpoint of other expenses uh debt Services relatively flat statutory expenditures relatively flat the other expense allocation same as last year and the other expense charges so far um this is the high point I anticipate this number to go down uh after we start looking at some of the actuals that went through uh for the prior year but so I think this the budget that I'm proposing right now of $2.7 million I anticipate being down to about $22.5 million but I don't have those final numbers yet yeah I'm going to look for that I mean it looks like you're asking overall for about 200,000 more than we budgeted last year but in terms of expenditures it's a little less than a half a million dollars more than you actually spent that strikes me as a huge number and it does concern me that Al the bulk of it is other expenses which is a little morice so I I'll Reserve until we maybe get some better numbers because I'm not completely comfortable with the transpar on this one understood other questions let's go so that's it for me yeah so just to Circle back just to Circle back on the tax bill question it's njsa 54 col 4-64 delivery of tax bills and it does refer to the tax collector's obligation to prepare and mail although there is a provision for otherwise deliver but I don't know that that's ever been taken advantage of say prepare or mail does does that does uh your Source um show when the last time that statute was updated 2022 interestingly enough really but he did just say there's a look it's it's small and I just think from a service standpoint it's worth looking if it otherwise delivered it just you know with Co e signatures e things are maybe we ask m yeah no he would he would be the next Source I mean just as a check because we do I just Googled it so thank you I don't profess to be an attorney like other folks in the room that's delivery yeah maybe it's something other good do we have anything else no just want to say thank you I today was a much better day than the last one I'm still a little concerned by having to make up ground from some of the percentages that were asked in the last meeting so I look forward to the next meeting and again just reiterate that you know we are going to come in at a much more pable number than where we started and certainly than we were on the last year um but again really nice work toight thank you should we get through everybody next time real quick I'm going to go over what we're doing next time okay sure so we have OEM with Jeremy uh Rich Cal is going to be doing water Solid Waste and Recycling um I believe and we'll leave this open we'll be going through the final Capital funds the final Capital bud budget uh Debt Service statutory expenditures revenues from the general fund and water uh uh trust funds Surplus staff levels and an overall final budget so that's that's the plan and that's next Wednesday right no it's the 21st next one next Wednesday would be our public meeting Valentine's Day is it 21st is the next one make sure your wife brings you flowers she always does don't forget the Roses it's in the budget uh no roses if I got my wife roses at Valentine's Day she'd be really mad at me it's like you can do it any other time of year for a fraction of the cost so and with that uh if we have nothing else let's go back to public comment seeing none I will close public comment and we will entertain aot toour second in favor I I anyone opposed okay thanks