you ready good evening this is the Ridgewood Village Council special public budget meeting the date is February 21st 2024 the time is 50:06 p.m. 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 entitle the same is provided by law of schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call Deputy Mayor pin here council member Reynolds here council member whites is not here council member Winograd here and mayor vagianos here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible andice for we'll now go to the public comment portion of our meeting and please state your name and address for the record yes uh my name is Sarah Wilson and Sarah if you could speak into the mic this way everyone can you gotta really get close to it my name is Sarah Wilson I live at 128 West End Avenue um I'm here to express my support of the Ridgewood police department and Village engineering recommendation to install a sidewalk on Clinton Avenue uh a village designated route to school for Ridge Elementary students uh I myself have three children in the Ridgewood Public Schools uh one at the Ridgewood High School one at GW middle school and a third grader at Ridge uh all of my children have used Clinton Avenue as their walking route to Ridge School uh and in the past I've I've you know grown increasingly concerned by the volume of vehicles that I see accessing Clinton Avenue while Elementary age students um walk along the road some escorted by adults some not young children between the ages of 5 and 11 sharing the road with and navigating parked and moving Vehicles including commercial vehicles delivery trucks and vans service Vehicles landscapers construction and utility vehicles I fully support uh Ridgewood police department and Village engineering recommendation which is consistent with recommendations from the US Department of Transportation safe roots to school program a program The Village has participated with on other safety related projects to ensure safe roots to school for our students students I am hopeful The Village Council will set aside funding to expedite sidewalk installation in the interest of student safety um I do want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who is engaged in this discussion uh with parents and residents including Clinton Avenue residents uh we appreciate all the efforts to address the safety concerns that we have raised uh and thank you thank you very much Sarah anyone else seeing no one else I'm going to close public comment and we can move on to our regular agenda oh excuse me we have someone online hello good evening hi good evening I'm P D benedetto uh 226 West and AV and I am also here to um support uh the Clinton Avenue sidewalks to sure that the children have a safe way of getting to school uh I'm a we have three daughters two currently at Ridge one in the middle school and um it's always been a concern because we take that route and as uh Sarah Wilson was saying there are many different types of cars not just residential cars coming on that street specifically during school time um as a working mother a teacher it's concerning for me when my daughters walk to school by themselves and sometimes they can't walk because I don't have a neighbor to to walk them there which is uh disconcerning considering that all other elementary schools have um safe access on sidewalks to get to Ridge so um as I read the report the um sidewalks are safer from the national research and um this is why I am supporting the sidewalks thank you very much thank you anyone else seeing no one else I am now going to again close public comment and we can go on to our regular agenda Paul if if I may sorry it's my and and Pam's gonna Echo this because the public is here I just want to make sure there's a little bit of a process here so this is a budget meeting where we've been given all the planning from last year like Glenn sidewalks was like chat chat chat and now it's carried over into this year and I I've read everything from everybody in Clinton I think you've been very diplomatic on both sides the council as a full even though Lorraine and Paul have spearheaded it and I'm sure they're doing awesome we have not seen all the information as a five so just process-wise we have two types of meetings well actually three when you count this in the next meeting which will be next Wednesday is a work session where the full five of us get the full set of facts like how much are our sidewalks going to cost how's this going to and then we can make a decision so I don't because I love when people come I really love public comment and we get new people the first time we as a council will discuss and you might want to advocate for it next week as well will be that meeting we're unable to budget anything for this because we don't have any numbers and we don't have any information but because I used to be a member of the public that sort of seems like we're blowing you off um so the work session will have all the detail to the five of us we'll chat about it and then and I'm going to say Lorraine's probably going to move for it to be voted on pretty quickly but um I just wanted to make sure you understood and we have heard you and we've heard everybody else but there's this is just not the place where we would talk about Clinton hav okay thanks good thanks for that explanation Siobhan anyone else all good and now we'll go to Keith mayor good evening can everyone hear me yep okay uh first first of all I want to apologize for not being there in person tonight unfortunately this morning I took a covid test and uh the results were positive fortunately I feel well um but in the interest of Public Health uh better to do this remotely uh with regard to the comments of the last two speakers if I may mayor um we have another meeting with concerned parents and the resid of Clinton Avenue which is scheduled for next Thursday February 29th at 700 p.m. in the the first floor of Village Hall in the senior Lounge uh where this issue will again be discussed I believe the mayor and council member Reynolds plan to be there along with representatives from The Ridgewood police department and our engineering department um I've asked our Chief Financial Officer Mr Rooney who's with you tonight uh to do a full review of all open Capital uh that might be available for any additional sidewalk projects that the council may be inclined to pursue um and Mr Rooney is undertaking that effort and we will have that information prepared for next Thursday's meeting with regard to that uh moving to the budget side of things uh we have with us our coordinator of the office of emergency management jerro clamman who's with us tonight who is going to present his portion of the proposed 2024 Municipal budget good evening Jeremy right mayor if I may as Jeremy gets set up I just want to point out to the council um that the summary sheet for emergency management is color coded uh it's color coded in the same manner that fire that the fire department budget was because we did merge um parts of the EMS budget with fire and with the office of emergency management um those color codes indicate um blue where there is a new line that was moved from EMS to OEM um orange is are combined lines where there was funding for OEM and now there's combined funding from EMS um and those two colors will reflect some of the adjustments that were made as these budgets were merged in a similar way to the fire turn it over to jby thanks Keith okay um couple quick sort of highlights or notable things that happened in 2023 I think are worth mentioning um one is um my longtime um Deputy coordinator Brian palman retired as you know in October after 12 years um and we replaced him with uh by appointing two Deputy coordinators um chief judge from the fire department and Lieutenant Chuck from the police department and that was by Design just so you know I I feel very strongly that the other Public Safety departments should you know they are stakeholders in in emergency management and they should have a seat at the table this way we're not working in silos um you know everything we do there's a representative of each of those departments as well at the table with me um so which I think I think is important um so that's one um two is at the end of the year uh we um we recertified our our village Emergency Operations plan which as as you probably know you know had been done every three years um the state changed the requirement and going forward it's going to need to be um revised and recertified every three years it's a painful torturous process each department head um that has a relevant portion of that document which is like a 1200 page document um has to has to revise it up updated it all has to be put together um and there are certain uh conventions to it um that were required to use um we were the only I think the only municipality in Bergen County that that got it in like two or three months early before our our our expiration period um I met with two representatives from beron County OEM the way it works is County OEM reviews it um suggests changes so that it's in compliance Etc um and then when they approve it it gets forwarded to state police OEM um and they and they certified uh I met with representatives from Bergen County OEM um they came down here uh it's the normal routine where they I expected them to turn pages with me I budgeted an hour and a half the meeting was 10 minutes they said we've never seen a document submitted to us a draft that basically didn't need any changes they changed like one date on one page or whatever so has nothing to do with me um everyone that had input into that that document and did their piece did a great job and it's nice to hear from the county Representatives that what a pleasure it is to work with you know people from Ridgewood because we're just buttoned up so I just want to pass that along all right um the last thing and and and sort of the biggest thing um which Keith alluded to is um the restructuring of emergency services and the fact that OEM inherited um you know major chunks of that department over and integrated them over the last year um the Special Operations Division and the ties teens and Emergency Services um and you know it was it was a lot of work to to get our footing and you know get that going but I have to say um it's been it's been seamless we have a very good team of volunteer uh officers of Special Operations that are running that chip day-to- day you know there's an emergency call the trucks get out we do the job clean up go home and you know there there have been no issues a problem so I'm very very pleased with with the way that's been working um any questions or anything on on that so far anybody before we go to the budget how many people are are working on Special Ops uh that's a great question I don't have the exact headcount I would say special ops we probably have you know 40 people on the roster probably 25 of whom are are really active um some come out for special events and things like that but in terms of getting called out in the middle of the night to close a road or something probably have about two dozen that are that are pretty active um on the the ti side with you know the the kids that volunteer with us um that's also you know a big roster so we probably have close to 80 but again not all of them are are active right so you know it's it's it's the the usual you know 20% of the people are driving the bus and 80% are you you know the cliche but and the officer stipend um which is proposed at 23,500 is that H how that's spread among how many people that spread around let's see one two three six thank you six yeah and that number is you know is is a reduction over last year obviously because the the EMS officers you know we're pulled out of that anybody else proceed okay I don't have the colorcoded um operating in front of me so I don't know if you you want me to just go to Capital or if you have questions about anything in there do you want me to run through I can Jeremy I can run through for you um 23 and 26 um are merged and everything from 29 to 40 on the summary sheet or merge if does help any questions from the council thank you okay um all right so it's it's the stiens right um I'm just looking again again I think it's safe to say there there's no dramatic increases yeah it's pretty flat line items what what you're seeing here is money being moved from another um another budget into this budget which is why some of these numbers uh increased um but it was money that was previously budgeted for somewhere else in 23 and prior and here it's uh I've got a question I'll ask Keith because you've seen both um if you combin the two the the the two departments was there an incre increase overall very minor very minor good okay Capital yep let's go okay right just a few items um one is $90,000 for uh surveillance camera trailer I hate that that the word surveillance is in there because it it sounds a little creepy but um this is um a piece of equipment we've borrowed them um many times in the past from the county um you probably know what they are right they look like the light Tower trailers that are on vets field um but they have cameras um that feed into an interface um so so we can monitor um for security purposes and we've used them for many many special events uh parade uh fireworks Memorial Day run other uh events that we've had Uptown where the um the fixed cameras we have don't you know um don't cover um and so we've borrowed we've borrowed them in the past uh We've also had situations where they've been in use by other municipalities and they weren't available to us so the thought um the thought was um to um to acquire our own um it would be used primarily by by the the police department uh at their Direction um but importantly it would be the same type of equipment that the prosecutor's office has that we borrow so that if we B if we borrowed um units from them uh and they were on the same network uh system as ours um we could uh you know they they'd be integrated into one platform so um that's that's what that item is um next is 30,000 to replace uh and replace the garage doors um at Douglas Place um there are seven U bay doors um they are over 30 years old uh haven't had routine maintenance one of them broke several weeks ago um signal was able to come out and and jwy rig it and get it working again but it doesn't have any of the safety eye um sensors on the bottom and uh the equipment is starting to go so it's just routine um maintenance those doors need to be replaced um and then the last item is attack and security camera up upgrades at Douglas Place um it does not have a system that is integrated into the village Network um so we want to put in proper uh video cameras uh and and um lock systems and have them on the same system as Village Hall and some of the other facilities so the police department can monitor the cameras and you know the proxy card access will be identical to you know this building and so on so um Lieutenant Chuck is spearheading that project and um and we want to get that done this year great questions and mayor if I may we we also um in an effort to mirror what we're doing for the fire department and the police department uh we do have $60,000 um in the proposed capital budget for the replacement of portable radios for special ops too um that was sort of an an add-on as we were trying to um put the resources together to make sure that all of our EMS division all of our emergency responders um are outfitted with uh with a new radius yeah thanks Keith yeah sorry I missed that one it was down at the bottom so so that was actually my question about the 60,000 but then the longer term spend on radios out to 2026 it's $1.4 million I mean radios are always a bulk like I'm wondering do we need more this year is that is that number real for 20126 we have a projection on the radio side I think it's radio that in 20 I'm I'm I'm cool with the 60 for this year I do have questions about how many radios that would be but it seems a rather large jump in two years we're going to spend $ 1.5 million on radios right so um um the the long-term capital uh project we put together to totally revamp all public safety radios both the infrastructure the software and the actual units was like yeah I guess that's the that's the phase one is is the million four right um and you know as a stop Gap at the very least we need to replace the actual Hardware right the portable radios the mobile radios um to move to the all band or Tri band radios um that that's the current technology so um you know we can do it a little at a time 60 is great it buys you a few radios uh I can tell you um because we just we just ordered two last week um the current version of the portable radios that we use um with the software you need installed are $9,500 each so this is going to get you you know like five or six radios so meaningless in this scheme of things um so to do this right and have every Public Safety person and every vehicle have the current state-of-the-art radios plus infrastructure upgrades so the signal reaches where it's supposed to go plus you know the encryption and the security on you know all that stuff um that's that's the you know the the 2026 big number so at the very least we'd like to you know on on an annual basis because who knows what's going to happen um you know with the you know with with the 2026 budget so at the very least you know we'd like to start replacing a few you know five or six every year um so at least we can upgrade um what we have um it's not perfect without the rest of the infrastructure upgrades but at least we have actual radios that can communicate for example on the county frequencies and we can speak to the county um and we can speak with um outside agencies that also have those radios so they come to town for you know I don't know got forbid an active shooter again call at the high school and we have five surrounding police departments that show up we don't have a situation like we did I want to say last spring where officers from you know woff and some other surrounding towns um showed up but were standing around with their hands in their pockets because they had no way of communicating with central dispatch or with our you know commanders on the scene and through through you mayor to the councilwoman's question I think it was our general philosophy when we had our capital budget meeting with our department heads um was to move towards doing these purchases of the handheld radios the portable radios so that these were actually on the First Responders um part of their gear um we are going to have to have a greater conversation next year U about some of the infrastructure that supports the radio system um and we are already meeting about that to put a plan a multi-year plan together um because obviously the cost of upgrading a system like that are are significant so but that that's something that we will have conversations about as we move through 24 and we get ready for 2025 and 2026 Capital uh requests good any questions anyone Jeremy thank you so much and thanks for the great work you do we really appreciate it he um mayor if uh director calby is there um his discretion as to whether uh Solid Waste and Recycling will present first or Ridgewood water nope no there you go there okay I'm going to try first time wearing a mask in a long time uh so we're going to start with um a sanitation and then pivot to recycling uh Sean's going to you know do a high level overview for you uh the biggest changes uh through both budgets this year are disposal costs for solid waste um we'll detail those and of course equipment as as you all know the truck situation uh but we are in somewhat better shape given the uh the rentals that you have provided uh the fleet uh to to utilize it this moment so I'll turn her over to Sean we'll start with uh sanitation Thank you Rich good evening mayor and Council welcome Sean thank you for having me so uh we I'll start off actually by uh we did get a the first piece of good news that we've gotten since we got the rental trucks uh we do have uh the truck that we ordered in last year's budget for recycling will be arriving tomorrow and uh give or take two weeks or so it should be on on the road servicing the coing will pick up so that's a huge help excellent news that's the recycling yes M um where we are right now uh we all know I presented it a couple of weeks ago to you guys the budget the disposal budget went up uh significantly uh by almost $13 for sanitation that's the going to be the biggest hit that we do have um we do have one employee in sanitation that's retiring this year that's going to turn u a bigger salary into a $78,000 salary 79 into a $53,000 salary which is going to help out uh a lot we also have uh at least one possibly two employees moving over to the uh to the fire department so uh that's going to hurt for a minute until we find their Replacements I spent a lot lot of time training those guys um but uh but I'm happy for them if uh well at least the one if I'm not sure I think we find out later about the second um but that's also going to shave a little bit off of the operating budget um other than that um we are in good shape right now with the rentals um hoping that we stay that way we still have uh three trucks that are down um two sanitation trucks and one recycling truck so we're still not uh anywhere near full capacity there uh so the rentals are definitely needed still um my goal is to hopefully be able to extend the rentals uh to help out with the yard waste pickup I know Keith has asked us to reach out to other towns to uh to find out if we can work out something with their uh with the trucks that uh that they're currently not using um waiting to hear back on that for recycling um we have one employee that's going to be retiring uh a senior employee that's making uh that's an $85,000 salary uh we are going to miss him um we have another one that we're still waiting he's our most senior guy he's been working for us for 33 years but every year he says he's gonna retire and he doesn't uh he doesn't pull the he doesn't pull the switch so uh but he's he's currently injured right now and I think that's going to help him make his decision uh that's what my hope is for him because he's put in a lot of a lot of years here and also um we are I'm so grateful that you guys did the the ordinance to to buy the recycling truck for next year that's going to give us another dual steer we'll hopefully see that in the early part of next year that's going to help out our collections immensely uh on any questions so far about the operating budget um do you have enough drivers we do have enough drivers right now we have a couple that are um in the process of acquiring their um their CDLs um moving forward I am looking for uh the the guys that are going to be leaving us I'm hoping to get CDL Drivers applying for those positions and not have to to train them because we could use a little bit of experience right now um I just wanted to say Sean I wanted to thank you on behalf of the council that U you thanked us for for uh uh setting aside the money to to get the trucks um I want to thank you for getting everything done with not nearly enough equipment when things were getting tough with trucks breaking down um you know and and it was something that I know I know you and your people worked exceptionally hard to make it so that nobody on the other end even knew that you were down all that equipment so really thank you so much thank you and all the credit goes to the guys that did the work there was a lot of stress for me fortunately I don't have any here to pull out uh but uh they they really I give all the credit to them they they they work their butts off we're going to thank you anyway I I just want to Echo the thank you that that's not entirely true it goes to them because as a new council member on my list for my notes was we owed you two garbage trucks we knew it was not sustainable and you know when we all talk about last year's gaps in the budget um and I I do think it has to do with you and the way you ran the department and I you know I was very excited to see the bond come in and for us to move that out and I just hope you get the staff that you need if you need any help with that I mean obviously I know you're looking for experience but sometimes we could partner with the schools I'm assuming nobody at the high school has a commercial license but or Bergen County if you need any help let us know I'd just hate to see you short staff experiences preferred but able bodies will do thank you um to close up on recycl um I think we're we're in a good place uh uh our ACR Atlantic Coast Recycling is looking at being done and open for business in April which is going to save us a lot of money in overtime and wear and tear on trucks the truck to Newark has been treacherous on our Fleet and uh and I'm really looking forward to going back to Pake again that's a that's a huge step for 2024 on the uh on the capital budget uh side I'll start with uh recycling Sean before we go there um under materials and supplies you have recycling barrels for 15,000 and a little bit um are those for the guys who are on the truck or are those around town those recycling barrels those actually are for um think that that was for the um for the replacement of recycling barrels for the residents oh okay gotcha and TR before you go to Capital uh were you done Pam yes I am yeah um on the sanitation full-time salaries I noticed a bit of a bump from about 1.4 to 1.6 million um can you walk us through that from 1.4 to 1.6 is that just thing so we have one new employee in that department um Vic amoruso who came over from Building Maintenance that's right right I forgot about poor Vic and then we then we have uh two laborers that were anticipating hiring for the year um and that might go up depending on what we do with the transfer over to the fire department gotcha great thank you both thank you thank you Bob kick safe mayor before we move to Capital yep um I just want Sean to explain to the council um and also for the public certification um Sean can you just run us through what we're trying to accomplish in this budget by extending the lease agreements that we had previously approved um earlier this year at a council meeting yep that was going where I next and how that's going to outfit um the um you know your division moving forward yep so uh right now even even though we we have we have the rentals so we're in a good spot right now but if we give back the rentals at the end of the 3 months um we're always going to have trucks that are down uh even if the capital goes through this year and yeah there are three trucks on the capital budget this year even if we order those trucks we don't see them until next year so we won't we won't uh be in a position to utilize those trucks for the yard waste pickup so the idea was to see if we could find a way to fit into the operating budget to keep the um the rentals for full 13 months and what that would do is that would take $900 off of each truck for the uh uh per month for the year and then it'll give us the ability instead of buying three trucks this year buy two and then uh next year make the two trucks that we buy the rentals that we have and the idea is that we have the trucks on the ground if we order three this year we possibly don't see them until next summer and then uh the truck that we would order next year we don't see until 2026 2027 um and the price is going to go up uh they the price for the trucks have been going up steadily uh about 15% uh a year since 2020 so if if you look at the capital budget and you see the project the projected you know budget for the next 5 years the jump and price that we're projecting it to be if we can get the the trucks that we have now at a price that uh that they Quote us now yeah and plus we can use at the end of the uh the 13 months we can use 25% of the money that we used on the rentals towards the purchase of the price uh the price of the truck next year plus we get brand new trucks when you when you sign up for the 13 months uh rental program what they'll do is they'll send somebody out with two new trucks that haven't been rented um and take back the ones that they rented us right great so so just before we before we go on I just want to note for the record that council member Evan whites has arrived so go ahead Keith so so mayor while this is somewhat uncustomary um the supply and demand chain is what has warranted us to try to fit these extended rentals into the operating budget for 2024 um as Sean said we're still going to need to buy trucks through Capital but with such long lead times on delivering these uh these vehicles um we feel that converting the rental um into an ultimate purchase um would be the right strategy so that we do have these vehicles on the ground and are be are able to be used by sanitation any questions anyone good um Sean I do want to note that um uh we've talked about getting more electric vehicles in our Fleet and I noticed that um in your Capital request is a Ford F-150 electric pickup truck yes I've been trying to do that for years and now it's more important because uh last uh last year we promoted Moses Bona to assistant supervisor So currently he has no truck um so most days if I'm doing office work we share you know I share my truck and he takes it but then uh there are some days when he needs it and I don't have it so I'm out uh putting tags on people's you know garbage cans and recycling cans in my personal vehicle and that's going to lead to a problem one day listen I'm just I'm just happy that look we got a long way to go on electric vehicles we do have we do have a plan um in place right now uh I spoke with uh with signal um and in the parking garage for right now because we don't have the infrastructure at our at any of our sites for an electric vehicle for parking um we they did when they installed the um the charging stations in the parking garage they left the accessibility to add on the onto the third level more Chargers so they can put a charger there and uh and they can put a lock on it so I can that can be my parking spot for where I park my uh my car and uh and charge it overnight so that's a slow charge no it would it would be a level two charger because it's it's a truck it have to be higher yeah sorry I I just I'm wondering why everyone's so calm about this I wonder who's going to get to roduce the bond and second it I think you're going to have a fight from Pam Paul I mean it's super exciting we've talked a lot about the electric vehicles I've talked a lot about the lightning I think it's great I think it's probably one of the most Innovative thing we've seen in Capitol it's just very exciting and I thank surprised Pam's not saying and just on a side note yovon he's been uh he's like the champion of the the uh the Ford Lightning group and he uh he sent me an email last week where uh I guess one of the for dealers in New Jersey had uh a town order uh six of them and uh and they riged on the purchase so they're available that is one question I have does Ford have a charging station at the place where they sell them the way Tesla does I'm sure they do okay good any other questions Sean thank you so much thank you well did we go over everything for Capital yeah we can go over the capital be pretty simple we've already uh we've already crossed one Bridge with the bond ordinance um the uh the other one we're looking for a uh 29 yard dual steer Kenworth um for recycling that's just going to give us a uh a truck that uh another dual steel steer truck so we don't have to steal employees from sanitation to make routes when we don't have a operational dual steer um and then for sanitation uh we're looking at uh getting another uh another Kenworth uh single steer uh just to get to get us back up and start uh we have two older Kenworths that are when when I say that it's is going to sound crazy but in 2018 or 2017 they purchased these two new Kenworth Trucks and they're great but they decided to uh put bodies that were from the 1990s on them and we're having all kinds of problems with them now they and they did it to save money I get it back then they were you know but this is why you don't put old technology on new vehicles those two of those trucks are the ones that are down right now waiting for parts wow got it did they know at the time when they purchased them that it was yeah it saved them it saved them money on having to buy uh another body they were Surplus in the uh the old trucks so they took the old trucks uh and took the bodies off of them and it just it all they had to do was pay the the rebuild fee they didn't have to pay the uh the price for the for the bodies of the trucks but uh no I don't think that they anticipated that uh that the bodies were going to change so dramatically over the next few years and now that body style is is so old that they just sit around waiting for the for the parts when when they break down even though the trucks are brand new that's B anything else well good thank you Sean Thank you Rich mayor we we'll move on to Ridgewood water I believe Mike quz and Rich calby are going to make the presentation okay thank you Keith um going to do a little bit different this year um um Michael Kors is going to lead the presentation um myself and staff is here to answer any questions that you have on any of the items um this budget that you have in front of you um and that's going to be presented has been reviewed by an outside outside rate expert um Raph Tellis um their firm experience in rate making on they reviewed the entire budget and found that in their opinion it's reasonable and appropriate um there's a four to six page memo um that they've published uh we'll make this available um it'll also be on the Ridgid water website along with a copy of this presentation uh by the end of this week um so with that I'll turn it over to Mr Kors to to lead the presentation thank you Mr calbi I'm sorry and this is the water utility tab oh it's the pretty one sorry in the front corner here I'll start off a little bit by talking about our structure you know when we designed this presentation it's for presenting the budget as well as presenting the budget not just for the council but for our rate payers and to be posted out to the public uh so there's some more detail than what I'll cover just in here for uh the sake of of a the year-long evaluation of this um before I start I would like to take a moment to first of all recognize you our governing body uh not just for your actions and oversight in our all of our processes uh or for representing the residents of Ridgewood but also in the unwavering support I felt from you and this is the end of my first year here and I seen a lot of strengths within this Village uh but the support that I've seen for the water department especially with all the uh challenges we are facing has been probably one of the brightest spots of my job so I'll start off by thanking you on a sadder note uh we would like to make a little dedication with this year's budget uh we've lost a very valuable member of the water industry as well as the ridard water Financial team um so we'd like to dedicate the 2024 budget in the loving memory of Howard J Woods um Howard Woods has been a very active member in our budget process and in our financial reviews for the past almost a decade now um and his experience has really grown into creating a more sustainable and a more transparent budget as we move forward and his impact will be felt for years to come so for his undying dedication to water industry and these uh the love of his analysis for Effective rates we wanted to dedicate this to Howard Woods I have many reason reasons to be grateful this year one of not only just for you guys but as I look and reflect upon the team I've been able to become a part of so on the screen you see our management team um of course uh you know coming in I was able to see the stable leadership other Heather our former manager um but I've also been excited to see the strong vision and the forward moving atmosphere brought by Keith um I able to operate under the strong Direction and Leadership of our director Rich calby um and I feel a great camaraderie amongst the team on my management level where we have our senior engineer Joe Fano our superintendent of water William beas and our uh and I I feel like I'm stepping into great shoes with the many different business managers that have come before me so it's been an easy job to take on maybe not easy may may maybe that was just a slight exaggeration slight one yeah sorry and who is your other colleague here ah yes welcome Alex is a very strong member of our team who came to us first as an intern and has grown through our GIS department has become a valued member bringing a level of experience in an astronautical engineer aeronautical Rood high school graduate yes yeah what year 201 nice1 and 19 198 something or all right we're just old we'll just leave it at that and just as importantly in many cases more so I want to recognize the strong operation staff that we have you know first leading with our uh great supervisory team where we have four divisions under our chief water operator uh Chief water treatment plan operator James techio our GIS specialist Neil galone our Senior Management assistant Justin popek and our our supervisor of our distribution team Brian tenhoff um we also have our assistant supervisor Daniel uh liida who has stepped up and done an amazing job assisting that team uh I'd be uh remiss if I didn't recognize our newest engineer uh Yolanda mullum lonni um and for her undying energy and support she's done to many of our programs you know one of the themes of this year is the amount of money that has already been borrowed but now the projects that need to be executed because of that and having the engineering team we have in place goes a long way to enabling us to do that um along with that we have 37 skilled programmers laborers operators repairs technicians inspectors and administrative re uh Representatives that all come together to make this make the pieces become a full puzzle so I was impressed when I came to Ridgewood just in general from uh you know the challenges we have and the steps that have already been taken but seeing the depth of the team has really left an impression upon me we have a saying in the Water World an optimal parameter does not lend to an optimal process um and while each of these individuals are optimal in their own way it's how the division supervisors work together that really pull the pieces together and with that it's not just within the Ridgewood water team that we see that type of camaraderie if um I want to take some time to give special thanks to our colleagues throughout the village of Ridgewood um again in the water you start to find uh and you view your system a little bit as a baby of sorts and we all know it takes a village to raise a child so thank you to our fellow department heads and their dedicated staff for the support that they provide to us in various different things throughout the year talking about where this budget goes and what kind of activities um it supports uh want to do a quick review of the uh different steps that we've taken particularly focusing two of the biggest regulatory requirements that have come about since the Safe Drinking Water Act you know it's a very exciting year because you after all of the planning and all of the work and all of the budgeting and figuring out where the balances can come from uh we're finally at the stage where we need to move forward and execute and I'm happy to say we're at this state where just about all of our treatment facilities are at that State of entering that execution you know car and T have been running for years now um we have our interconnects we have two very strong interconnections live and offering us the support of njd pasas meeting the nddp standards and giving us another source as we uh affect our operational strategy uh we have taken the next step with the car treatment facility as we are now rerouting and starting to move some of the satellite Wells through that facility Ravine has had its groundbreaking last year and we're expecting to come along online this year and Prospect ECT has already entered the first stages of construction so we finally have four of our 12 facilities under construction with that the rest of the eight are in different stages of their bidding construction projects and final design but we are at those final steps for all of our 12 treatment plants and that's probably one of the biggest things to see going into the this next year is that all of these plans the hard work going in these last three to five four years have really come together are going to start coming in and the pieces are going to start fall into place and if pasos wasn't enough the next thing we want to focus in on and we have been take making great strides in is in our LED service line replacement program talk about the two Regulatory Affairs the first one being our posos treatment requirements the second being the mandate to replace our LED service lines it's very exciting to know that we have about 95% of our system identified and have already replaced about 3 326 Main deur since we've started replacing these from where I came from beforehand and saw many of the systems you would find most of them at this point you know say probably 75% are at almost 100% unknowns where by the end of this year we're expected to have all of our identification completed and be moving on to all our replacement plans with that we've also contracted um a consulting firm CDM Smith to come in and help with the final design of those of that customer side replacement plan and moving forward so we can meet our goals to have all these lead service lines out of the system by the end of 2031 and if those goals weren't enough in addition we have a few more targets uh where you I like to say we have our two biggest regulatory but the other biggest challenge we have is the Aging infrastructure and the system as historic as this and as advanced as it was for its time will come with that age infrastructure and every year we have a certain amount of main replacement that we are bringing into the fold so we'll see in our capital budget that that's where part of our big Focus beyond our pasos and our lead service line we have our main Replacements coming in we're working on expanding our lab and expect to have our lab certified for gcms by the end of the year we're also increasing some of our water conservation and campaign and Outreach efforts in order to support that pasos operational strategy even further as we wait for these treatment plant to come online uh when I am excited to also announce is that we've uh launched we've reached one of our first goals this year of launching an emergency routine construction map on a construction activities page this is similar to an outage map if you go to our website um outage map you might find on like a psng website where they kind of indicate where power outages are we're going to be trying to Showcase all of our construction activities so if somebody sees there's work going on in their streets or if there's you know they're out of service for a day they have a place to go and see and get a description of where that actual work is taking place Mike what does gcms mean uh gas chromatography Mass spectrometry I get that right Bill aren't you glad you asked I'd have to go back to my chemistry classes to tell you what the full process is but uh the gcms is designed to uh build our capacity in analyzing voc's voluntary organic compounds and be able to bring that all in house so so as we look at what the budget is going to support let's talk about what those actual figures are so for our 2024 budget highlights Rich had already mentioned that we have been lucky enough to commission raap Tellis financial consultants um not only to review and verify our budget using Howard's Woods model but also then adding in their own perspective so it has a nice Viewpoint of almost having two perspectives Howard's View and what he set up for us as well as this new uh consulting firm coming in being able to give their perspectives and expand upon what we already have with that they will review it for three specific areas which we'll kind of focus on throughout the project our Revenue requirement our expense calculations and then discuss what our rate projections will be will provide to give us the revenue we need to meet all of those expenses ra HS completed that review earlier this year and as Rich mentioned we will have a copy of that memo um available on the website for the public to view overall it all comes down to a budget increase of about 133% over last year now when I say 133% I want to emphasize that only 2% of that is actually going into operation is actually coming from operational increases the rest of that is coming from uh amounts that we have put into well the increase we have in our debt service we've been borrowing and borrowing and now we have to start paying back and in addition we've been taking a special effort to move some of our uh Capital expenses that we may have you know taken out new debt for in the past into our pgo account and we are utilizing a certain amount of our Surplus in order to stabilize our rates and make sure that we aren't taking on unnecessary new debt as we have already enough of the debt that we are taking on so I just want to be clear operationally you're only up 2% the other 11% is to modernize our facility and to establish treatment facilities so that our water is cleaner and better yes great how you go well approximately how much of surplus are you attributing to the debt this year's total anticipated Surplus is 3.8 million and round numbers and you're going to put 100% of that to the debt no um the portion at going towards the debt um we put in 1.1 million to avoid future debt the the other balance is going to balance uh avoid rate increases to stabilize the rate and that URS like the three the Surplus how much will you project the surplus of next year roughly and in terms of the balance yeah um the balance is projected to be north of 10 million doll still even after the use of this full Surplus in 2024 okay yeah so so walk me through that because I'm interested how you're going to pay for the 13% so talk to me about that about how we're paying for the 133% um that might that might be the answer yeah no there's a I want to hear right there's a future slide with the uh rate increases okay that are are the resulting net of the increase but I guess before we get there though to talk to me I didn't quite follow um Siobhan's question um about the Surplus so we are predicting that we will have $3.8 million left over at the end of this coming year no okay no the 1.1 million is is how much we took out of what would have been Capital that we would have borrowed for and inserted into the operating budget um because we had the Surplus money available to utilize so we're avoiding having to borrow for those four projects that are bulleted at the bottom of the slide so you're using surplus funds to offset the 13% then correct okay I I I said that eagerly await the slide and paying for the 13% but that sounds good and there's remaining two in change left this year that's what you said there was 3.3 and took 1.1 no there'll be over $10 million in Surplus balance still available okay in the in the water budget yes I love Surplus that's great so uh breaking down the uh expense requirements um we took this slide to separate into our regular operations budget as well as the allocations we see uh being attributed to the increased cost from posos um overall the numbers at the bottom was the ones I wanted you to focus in on um you know when we're breaking down the number of expenses we tried to categorize them in a number of different ways we found these six categories to break it into uh but overall the budget we're asking and we're proposing is going to be 22 m678 281 uh it's an operations budget of around1 18, 327 and the P allocation around 4.3 million looking further give a different representation uh ask question sorry sure so how do we know because the bonds are across the time what the rate is Bob I mean I'm assuming there's multiple Bonds on this yes okay and do we ever like think about consolidating them all under one rate are we allowed to do that so no you're not okay only if you were to defease the bonds and usually that comes at higher interest rates for a lower interest rate so every year we have a financial advisor that walks us through what the options are y so um we don't have that opportunity right now and just because people ask about this how many how many bonds is is it 10 is it 15 issues or Total Bonds total outstanding bonds for the water department yeah that I'll have in front of me okay I will get it for you though you don't you don't have to I was just you know it's like sort of people will ask you how much how much money across how many bonds how long have we been paying the interest while you're talking to them I'll see if I can pull it up okay thanks on this graph we've broken out uh the different categories for those budget uh I wanted to focus in on the big three our salaries and rages are about 22% of that 22 million figure our operations are about 24% and then our debt is about 20% what I wanted to Showcase a little bit with this slide is where we are going where we have been and where we're going with our water Capital um budgeting you know obiously we've had quite a year last year where we had about 79 million hit us in 2023 what I liked when I saw this graph is we took some time to do a five-year budget projection as well as look as where we are and you know as we saw ourselves increasing leading into that 2022 then had the big uh you know borrowing as we tried to enact this past master plan we're back on track into where that more normalized range changes of seeing about 16 million 14 million 14 million 13 million 12 million as we're moving forward when we break out 2024 what we're really looking at is about 4 million for our current capital outside of pasas the 16 million also includes 12.5 million in order to cover the uh execution of the last three pasas treatment plants which is the main mountain and side so everything else has been through through through the final design and has entered into either the final permitting approval phase and then these are the last three that we have to borrow for this year moving forward some of those amounts that we see are because we're entering into the ledge service line replacement program and as we know with that we will have certain recovery as we collect that over the next 30 Years from the residents and through that program now this expensive requirements can be quite alarming um that's only if we're not looking at what our Revenue stream is and I'm happy to say our Revenue stream is fairly strong you know while we are doing that 3.8 Surplus added into that Revenue in order to uh stabilize those rates this year um our water rents have been up last year um and we're collecting about 16 million in water rents we have high service fees which is a nominal amount but about 182,000 um and through me various miscellaneous Revenue news we have another $1.2 million uh that includes an increase of new cell tower rents as we've had a uh great project come unfold this year with a new cell tower rent for the financial industry bringing almost an additional $500,000 um our in water rats our proposed rate increases should bring in an additional $173,000 and our P sear charges will bringing in an additional 500,000 so long and short with with those figures that is where we get our budget um that's how we meet our budget and this was the slide that we had talked about to explain a little bit of how we're going to meet that 13% increase so how does it affect people's water bills that's yep I I keep being ahead of you guys I know you're jumping on on man next year I'm going have to reorganize these slides yes so always looking ahead EV it is very nice so before we get into how that affects folks water build um let's talk about where we are for how those water bills are broken down uh we have three types of charges that we have within our water rents um we have our P sear charge we have our volumetric rates and we have our fixed service charge um we're not looking to have any changes to our fixed rate um right now we are proposing an increase to our posos rate that's along the schedule we've talked about in the past um and that P that increase will allow us to bring us to a total collection about $1.8 million in order to start paying back into our pasas funds that we've been borrowing into um our VAR metric rate we're proposing our standard 3% increase to break down what those revenues actually look like as far as each of the categories you know our two biggest ones are coming from our water rents as is always our main source of Revenue Vue and then we have uh about a quarter of that chunk maybe a third of that chunk looking well less than a about a fifth of that Chunk from our Surplus um then we see that 7% is coming in at that miscellaneous revenue and 1% from our hydrant rents looking at the big part of that puzzle there the um water rents we can break that down into our three types of charges so the vast majority of our income is coming from our volum metric rate um then our fixed rate brings in about 19% so the the volumetric rates will bring in about 70% of our Revenue our fixed rates bring in about 19% of our revenue and then our P foser charge for this year we're bringing about 11% of our Revenue these are the new proposed rates that we will be uh asking you guys to uh evaluate make a decision on um the pasas treatment charges uh so we're looking at about for our standard and most used meter size of 5/8 meter about a $24 charge per quarter these increase will help us generate that 1.8 1.9 million we're looking to recover for the pasas payments for the volumetric rates we'll be looking to go up to about 5.86 and uh as you asked what that means as far as water bills first on a comparison not from where we were in 2023 to 2024 this is what the average water bill will look like for the entire year for a typical customer using about 7,000 gallons per month so in 2023 it was $645 in 20124 we'll be looking at about $695 now if I did a uh search to find out what New Jersey state average water bill is the annual for the state is 864 so at this point we're well under what the average is nice further comparison this graph is a selection of different water utilities of either similar stature or you know different Dynamic throughout the state and uh the two highlighted uh sections are what we were in 2023 and where we'll be in 2024 what's very important to note here though because it looks like we jumped over three Water Systems when we uh propos our rates is that the rates were calculating for the rest of the bars are based on January 2024 so that doesn't necessarily mean that's what they will be proposing for their rate increases but as far as where they currently are and where we currently are is where that first bar is at 645 somewhere towards the front half and then depending on where they go but according to the rates that we have on their websites to go off of we'll be jumping up to that next state either way still quite in the middle of the rack as opposed to weighted to one side or the other so your average resident sees an extra 50 bucks a year yes oh okay so sidebar question just because it's a very good visual coming out of the budget maybe we could send this to Keith and have a discussion about posting some of this because I mean I think it's it's clearly an increase to the homeowner but it's below the state threshold which is good and with the increase we get the added benefit of improved infrastructure and I just I think this information is very palatable and would be very interesting and part of our job is to engage people in the process so um these two slides are awesome you know awesome and they're great and I think they're very um good way to get more public engagement on what the budgeting process is and and I have you you mayor I believe that the intention is to post this whole presentation up um on the Ridgewood waterer website we can also help to um work with Carol to um spread this even further than that but we can highlight as far as um pushing out those two specific slides that the coun council member mentioned I mean if you agree Keith I don't want to overstep but I do think no I I think I think I think I think it's important I think you know there's there's going to be a um a full explanation as we get towards the introduction of the municipal budget and certainly you know these data points from the water department are important to be shared right and you need to add your lovely ridw water logo because I'm going to go For Broke because the four water drops indicate the four areas of service I always long time ago Rich calby told me that and you are also ahead of the game because the next slide is going to tell you about the next steps in the process and how the public could get more involved and see where we're going with the rates and before we do that I want to just emphasize the point that Javon brought out uh the fact that our water rates are below the state average while we are in the middle of a $150 million infrastructure rure filtration project that is going to make Ridgewood water among the cleanest water in the state in the country to bring posos to non-detectable levels that is really amazing like absolutely amazing and you should all every one of you should be commended for that and and we appreciate it both as a council but as residents uh because that's that's just I I I'm I'm not sure how you did that but I'm really happy you did so first of all by the way this bridgid water I'm drinking from tonight so I'm on board guys um I'm assuming the posos charges go away in 2026 how they do not when when do they when do they go away they will continue as long as there is debt to pay for those improvements or until such time there's recovery or other methods to offset them such as grants maybe insurance assuming no grants or recovery then that PE I mean are we talking how long are we talking decades um I can't give you full projection on the end date but one of the things we did um with Howard Woods last year was a 10-year projection um we plan to come to you at a later time to present the 10-year plan um it is a worst case scenario and the posos search charge it is expected to top off again with no recovery at $129 in change uh by 2028 mhm that's per quarter so it does go up substantially um in the future so I mean that that's my concern right like so it's 50 bucks I get it um and huge inflation going on right now this is about a 7 to 8% increase is what you're what you're proposing which is not an insignificant percentage and if you do that year over year over year over year that's going to be a problem and I appreciate that we're under the state average and that's fantastic but for your average resident especially a senior citizen they just know what they've been paying sure so what assurances can you give this Council that next year we're not going to see another 7 and a half% none because it's actually could be more by 2026 all the ibank loans become reality right now we're paying nothing on them um the shortterm financing issued by the ibank it all gets rolled up once the the project is complete 2026 is when the first loan will start payments and then they'll build from there as each project completes so we're really going to hit the Pinnacle Point of debt probably in 26 through 29 or so that's part of that 10-year plan so this year in in a ways though even though it's 7 8% M it it's it's a breather um in terms of where we may be going and that's why it's important that every year we pay attention to the other parts of how we're doing the operation to be efficient that's why we've cut back on General debt um we we set for ourselves a goal of no more than $5 million for regular general fund debt outside of P fos and Le service lines um this year we've we've brought down to four by moving a million of that into the operating budget just for this year um you know we're going to do things like that moving forward to try to help balance it but but again once that debt comes due um on top of the other general fund debt um that that Bob has you know fortunately able to get good rates on and consolidate um we're looking at some future years that could be a lot worse so I mean we do need to have that discussion at some point and we need to think about that again I understand what you're doing here and everything you just said Rich makes a ton of sense and I appreciate you trying to limit Capital to only pfos or as much as possible which is great to try to head off what's coming but this does concern me in the sense that you know 7% Is Not Great again 50 bucks I get it P Paul's point it's fantastic but this feels a little bit like a Time BMB sure can I can I just add to that through you mayor um that you know there there is a little bit more of a global strategy to this as far as funding especially the um the P treatment centers um we've pursued multiple grant opportunities through the federal government and with the help of Congressman gimer um when we did the um the groundbreaking on goel road I think that was offset by $2 million Rich worth of federal federal funding 2.8 million 2.8 million we have a meeting uh the first or second week of March um with all of the legislative delegations uh councilman that represent the Ridgewood water service area uh because we do need to have some discussions with the state about offsetting some of these costs obviously uh you know the P treatments are a mandate coming from the EPA and the D and we're looking for the state to partner with us to sort of offset those costs and then of course there's the pending litigation which we're actually going to speak about tonight in closed session um which will have some impact on this discussion Point as well I just also want to say because I understand the finance and that it's linear but in addition to the mandates we do have a public call to action I mean I think you guys do a great job but there is the clamoring sense of our brand needs to be improved our water brand and and you know this is what happens if we improve the infrastructure we pay for it and we pay for it over the course of the time through the bonds and to improve the technology we need to do the spend to do the spend we need to bond and the interest becomes a burden but you know the rigid water topic and again I'm sure you guys have all heard it is a topic within our community from our taxpayers there's been many people who feel unsafe drinking the water you know when people who I mean I'm not having a baby but when I was people was a big discussion so I feel there's been a public rally cry in a lot of ways along a lot of lines to improve it and I get I too would like the bonds to be smaller that's why I want to talk about some of the interests but we have invested and it is going to be more expensive because we've improved the quality of the water and in addition to the mandates at least I do you know the mandates Keith gets and we hear it that way but the public has demanded we improve this water I mean mean a lot I I can't be alone the only council person who's repeatedly heard the questions and the approval and you know tonight the lead I mean lead is a long-standing issue it's like kind of crazy to me again going back to the babies I mean I had Liam in New York City and we had to do the mandated lead test that's 20 years ago so I I think it's great I mean I I agree with evident needs to be low but I don't want the response to public input the Improvement to our infrastructure infrastructure is really expensive and I think I think you guys are moving in the right direction and we want to make sure it doesn't blow off but I mean it it it is going to be more expensive there's no way around it so I I don't think anyone disagrees that we need to fix lead we need to fix pasas again I'm literally drinking Bridgewood water tonight so I'm completely on board of that my problem is just figuring out how to pay for it that's the issue we need this but what I don't want to have is for a future Council or one of us if we're so lucky to be here in four another four to eight years is to have to explain why Richard water rates are doubling that's not fair to seniors it's not fair to folks on fixed incomes it's not fair to the rest of us so I don't think there's going to be a lot we're going to do about this tonight again I think you guys have done a very judicious job for the short term and appreciate you know 50 you know 50 bucks 7% which I'm not thrilled with but it's 50 bucks and to Paul's Credit there's a lot of Paul SP there's a lot of work going on Keith I appreciate we'll have some close session comments on litigation I definitely want to hear that I want to ensure that we don't lose sight on this issue we need to figure out a way to to take you know the you know to take the time bomb away a little bit uh and try to figure out ways for that debt to not hit us all in the face another 3 or 4 years 2026 when that comes due because if we do 7% every year over and over again that's that's not going to be acceptable it's just not and if it sounds like we don't know what it's going to be in 2026 it could be greater and that's what really concerns me about we have to be good stewards of the future of the village and ensure that we're not sticking the next council with some huge bill because that's not fair and and and and that's totally understood and you know to rich in his team's credit they they've always projected the worst case scenario yet at the same time are are equally putting effort towards finding um you know ways to offset what this is going to cost the customer base um in the four towns you know as we as we meet the Mandate so obviously you know our partners at the federal and state level are going to be crucial uh to trying to help lift this burden um and we're committed to doing that and like I said we're meeting with the legislative delegations um at the beginning of March I agree with Keith we are uniquely burdened with with P fos every every town in in New Jersey does not have this problem and the state and the federal government we should be impressing on upon them that something like a Superfund approach may be appropriate and we will be which is as as Keith said that's why we've already got a meeting with our State Legislative um uh uh leaders to sit and discuss this we're going to be meeting with federal leaders Federal legislators um we are again just tonight we're going to be discussing our uh legal options because we're in a lawsuit with the manufacturers of posos we're looking at a lot of different options whether or not they come through remains to be seen but the issue at the end of the day is well we can have less expensive water that isn't necessarily what we want to drink or we can bring it up to the standards that we have to bring it up to and then go to these different areas to try and find funding for it which is exactly what we're doing and and Evan your point is incredibly well taken which is why we've already set up these meetings and we're discussing discussing this litigation tonight and if it's any relief I mean that's actually the entire purpose of the P Foster charge to separate this from typical rate increases so that we can plan for that and find ways of recovering it without that being such a burden as on the typical rate uh and to finish off we just have a a few next steps we're posting up on uh the website for those that need to see it um you know we obviously have our budget presentation tonight we'll plan to have this up on our public facing side by the end of the week as long as well as the uh memo for rais um next week on Wednesday at 7:30 you will be our discussion where you guys can be discussing the uh rate proposal we've just presented uh on the 13th will be the introduction of the budget and the rate ordinance and then that final reading coming in April 10th so with that that completes our presentation you've al already asked some great questions but if you have any more we're happy to entertain them anybody mayor not to not to prolong this or to throw out more accolades but I I just want to point out for everyone that one of the things that I've sort of marveled at uh during my time here has been that this water department is not only operating the day-to-day operations that they're charged to do but they're also taking on as you mentioned earlier um a project that's going to cost $150 million um when it comes to the P5 aspect of of what they're doing to build these treatment facilities so you know I don't think that should go unnoticed um you know this water department is walking and chewing gum at the same time um on some major major projects um posos and Lead just being you know two of the the highest level example so I just want to thank rich and um and his team over there at Ridgewood water uh for what they're doing every day um we've developed a great working relationship um over the last few months and I I just want to thank them for everything that they're doing for the Comm you thank you very much everyone really appreciate all your great work um mayor at this point that wraps up the three budget presentations that we have uh for this evening uh on Monday we'll have another budget meeting uh where we will be reviewing uh some of the financial revenues uh the cap we'll finalize the capital budget with some luck um and Bob's going to talk about our year end numbers um and then at that point it's after Monday's meeting it's going to be incumbent upon he and I and some of the other department directors to go back in and take another swipe um at this budget um to bring a proposed budget to the full Council for consideration for introduction in March so I don't know if Bob Rooney has anything else that he would like to add to that good can so with that could could I ask two questions can we write you questions about the trust Reserve between then and now abely okay you guys are excused thank you so much thank you oh that's right because you're going to be here for our Clos session meeting our colleagues could leave though so mayor if I if I may uh just to answer council member Winter's question uh we'll be talking about capital budget statutory expenditures uh parking utility trust fund levels and Staffing levels um at the meeting on Monday if any council members have any questions um or are seeking any information between now and that time please feel free to just send an email to myself and Bob um and we'll gather that information hopefully get it to you beforehand if not be able to share it at the next budget hearing um on Monday evening great thank you Keith thank you anybody have any questions for Keith nope no no then with that we will open up public comment and seeing none we will close public comment and entertain a resolution to go into close session be it resolved by The Village Council of the village of Ridgewood that the Village Council meet in Clos session on February 21 20124 at 6:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter on the agenda can be reached and that said close session will be held in the Sydney B stultz courtroom of the Ridgewood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue Ridgewood New Jersey and be it further resolved that the matters to be discussed in closed session is limited to Legal Ridgewood Water lawsuit these matters are allowable under njsa 10 4-12 at saac and be it further resolved that the minutes of this meeting shall be made available to the general public when such matters have been deemed completed by resolution of the Village Council may I have a motion so moved second second Deputy Mayor paron yes councilwoman council member Reynolds yes council member whites yes council member winegrad she stepped out okay and mayor vagianos yes and with and then we need a motion to adjourn the meeting so mov second actually go ahead May mayor procedurally I think you'll have to come back out to the council chambers to adjourn the meeting at the conclusion of the executive session I'm sorry Keith I didn't hear you I said I think procedurally you'll have to come back into the council chambers to or into the courtroom to adjourn the after the executive session if you say so thank sounds good but for the moment we are done thank you thank Keith what time