good evening I call to order the mayor in council meeting on June 10th um I ask for a moment of Silent uh for all of those impacted by Wars and civil unrest around the world ready salute Al to of the United States America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God IND with liy and justice for all Madame clerk call oh sorry statement of compliance with the open public meeting act this meeting complies with the open public meeting act by notification on January 11th 2024 of these location date and time to the town news and the record and by posting of the same on the municipal bulletin board and Boral website and filing a notice of the same with the municipal clerk here here here here here thank you we have a few proclamations and awards and I think we have the riverdell robotic team certificates to hand in um Dr Edward Houston are you the do the stem CL moderator yes sir okay so I'll read them into the record and then each one of you will get the your certificate okay okay all right so uh recognition of the Riverdale hypnotic robotic steam 4215 for winning the state of New Jersey competition and qualifying for the world's Championship finishing second overall in their division May sign mayor Thomas papala June 10th 2024 on behalf of the mayor and Council congratulations I everybody's name you help me okay Jen I think this a team Mentor yes Rachel zamski random ye William voler David SW Jeremy Salto sary soil monum cam AR belar so I'll give it to you suan Kumar SED Parker surine and last but not least Maline compest you want to say a few words on behal of the team please um yeah I just I want to say how proud I am of these guys this was truly a world competition because there was 25 countries represented 45 States speaking 18 different languages so this was real Gathering from from around the world every iny continent um and to to make it as far as they did I just to make it to the competition in the first place but it was incredible but to do as well as they did once they got there it was over and above so um guys salute you and good job you want together yeah if you want to go on that back wall there that's whatever works for you good whatever works yes me too picture thank you congratulations guys thank you're more than welcome to stay we have a full agenda ahead of us but it's up to you yeah you're welcome con congrat culations super all right so moving forward with the agenda uh as everyone knows this is uh Unis pride month so I'm going to read a proclamation and if anybody in the public is uh willing to accept it please come forth not I'm gonna read it to the record anyway Proclamation whereas the struggles for dignity and equality for lesbian gay bisexual transgender and questioning lgbtq plus p people is reflected in the tireless dedication of Advocates and allies who strive to forge a more inclusive society and whereas President Clinton on June 2nd 2000 declared June gay and lesbian pride month to commemorate the June 1969 Stonewall Uprising in l Manhattan and on June 1st 2009 President Barack Obama expanded the commemoration further by declaring the June to be lesbian gay by seexual and transgender pride month and whereas June 20 8 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the stone wall of rising which broke out following a police raid of the Stonewall in targeting lgbtq and patrons and other marginalized people in violation of their civil rights leading to the birth of the gay right movement and whereas LGBT lgbtq and Americans including those who live in our local communities face discrimination simply for being who they are and for who they love and they remain much work to do extend the promise of our country to every person and whereas The Landmark Supreme Court decision of 2015 guaranteed marriage equality in all 50 states was a historic victory for lgbtq plus Americans and continues to affirm our belief that we are all more more free when we are treated as equals now therefore be a res that I in representation Lisa montisano by Thomas papalo mayor of the Boral River Edge in recognition thereof do hereby proclaim the month of June 2024 as lgbtq and pride month sign mayor Thomas papalo if anybody in the community is here to receive the the proclamation please let me now if not we'll move it to move to the next of the agenda or on the uh I don't know if anybody Michelle on the call if anyone on the call would like to accept it please raise your hand Perfect all right so now we're moving to item six of the agenda public comments of any items of the agenda I ask for a motion and a second to open to the floor to the public of any item on this agenda so move second uh as members of the public who wish to speak to come forward and stay their name and address for the record when they do so and raise your hand if you're online and you would like to speak on item on the agenda just for a procedural perspective everybody in the in the com public comment has two minutes so okay uh Kenny Layman 1901 you so um thank you thanks for having us tonight uh thanks for getting on the agenda the item with regards to the um resending of employment offers to several senior students from the Riverdale Community for this Summer's uh um summer camp the thing that I wanted to bring up tonight is that um while I understand there might be circumstances that might lead to budgeting issues or what have you or or resourcing issues that I think that unfortunately the way that this has played out this year okay did not work well for our senior students especially those that depend on this source of income or depend on this employment opportunity and ones who have been returning some of them since they've been you know in the camp themselves since they were five years old so what I wanted to point out is that unfortunately due to the fact that this didn't play out very well and that the the timing of it just is very an opport it's just it it it creates a wrongful experience for our for our kids right basically employment offers went out on May for on March 14th okay attached to that was an actual employment letter an offer for employment in neither of those Communications was anything with regards to a restriction on time off stated okay after um I can only speak to the experience of my son Gavin who's here with me tonight but after he did returned the sign letter along with my wife's signature he did receive a receipt of that um of that offer you know by Mr ra who you know acknowledged that that it was received and again in that email there was no communication of any restriction on time off all right the next email he received I believe was on there was an indication that uh more information would come out on dates in April time frame that actually came out on believe May 9th and then on May 9th he received another email no mention of any restrictions went through the entire thing with you know dates for orientation and what have you and and ask for sores two minutes you can finish your senten it it was never expressed there was a restriction until I went through Community pass and through Community pass did the notification came back that said if the time off requested was not expressed during the community press application process would it not be honored okay so for them to then find out from May 9th and then on June 3rd which happened to be Gavin's 18th birthday that he was no longer going to be employed as a third-year counselor first as a counselor first year second year as a unit leader and now again as a unit leader unfortunately I don't think that that's doing our senior students in a right way and I think that they should have their offers of employment honored this year and if you need to make changes enact them going forward after this summer thank you thank anyone else someone online does have a comment is there anyone else here who would like to speak first you do it's not hard just your name and address um my name is Olivia power 15 ten aage um so this year would have been my third year as a counselor and I got um an email asking to be a unit leader so of course I was very thrilled I love my job as a counselor um I love the kids and I love the families and one thing that I feel I have to mention is that um as a senior I feel like um I just think that it's unfair again the timeline of it um being only two weeks for the summer and us as seniors most of us are heading off to college and this was our job for the summer that we were relying on and because of the late notice the timelining of getting another job is going to be pretty hard um because a lot of those positions have already been filled for their Sumer employment opportunities um especially knowing since we do have days off um um also I just think it's a little unfair for now um us and many of our other counselors to have to tell the families who trust us um that we're not going to be there for the kids this year and um I know that a lot of um Juniors and seniors um got their employment taken away because of dates taken off so right now they only have the younger high schoolers um to take care of their kids and I'm not saying that's not okay I just think that um for the parents sake that um having some older um teenagers and adults because we're 18 the seniors um that that would be a nice relief on the parents but yeah that's it I love my job and I just was disappointed thank you there's two okay um start with Tad HG I'm not sure I said your name wrong if I did no it's I forgot to change over the zoom sorry uh this is Colleen ham shic 140 wne Avenue go ahead okay um I'll come right on and say this was not a nice thing to do to the seniors um they if this was the this has been the past policy uh my son would have third year he did it he took over for the seniors last year as he did the year before for the seniors the year before that if this was going to change the policy they should have been told months ago and not started the online training and told that they had a job they should have been told in February March even April all these kids could have had another job gone to look for other jobs my son alone could had other job offers he said no because he thought he had a job this is not fair if this is the new presence then it should be for next year not this year it is simply not fair this is a nasty thing to do to these seniors who have given their time effort and they've been wonderful to these kids and these kids are looking forward to having them in the camp the other thing is too they bring in experience so now you're saying if this right now you're going to say that okay so now you're going to have only 16 and 17 year olds and you're missing out on this awesome supervision from 18y Olds people with you know kids who have been there for the for three years I'm just saying this is wrong this is not the thing to do I've talked to the rec director and he kind of was wishy-washy and said well I didn't know about it but that's his job to know about it he should have known about it and told the kids way before I think you need to reverse this decision this year take a look at it and not put this decision on the seniors they didn't do anything wrong it's the rec department it's the town you need to take a look at this and reverse this upor that was that was time thank you thank you okay um next is Monica one second Mana yes hi can you hear me yes yes hi good evening to everyone uh I am just uh uh here because I spoke with the library director Dar gooner this afternoon and I also called to speak to um the the lady uh at the NG uh's her name the let me see her name I spoke with uh uh liit liit aort yeah so I was advised to come to this meeting to ask a question we are having a private event at the River Public Library uh for Sen for adults me to let me interrupt you for a second I think we are in the uh right now speaking about a situation with the summer camp um you can either uh hang on in the call and speak at when we open to the public uh lat on uh in the agenda would that be okay yes yes that's perfect I was not sure I thought everybody was asking their questions so let me know when it's time to speak yeah yeah we're just going to give the the others that may want to speak about that item and then we'll open up again later in the and the agenda okay okay I I apologize yes nope no no nothing to apologize okay that that was it no one else that was it all right um so we have here for the for the uh public I'm going to read something uh from myself into the record um and um take it from there um right so now that we have heard from everyone uh I ask a motion and a second to close to uh to the public so move second fa all in favor I I'll move on and I'll read the my statement into the record as a member of this community this matter is very unfortunate while the process has not been as it should and nor the messaging minimum wages increases low registration during the course of the application process an opportunity to return was sent to former Camp counselors 18 returning Camp counselors expressed interest in returning at start of the application process during the application process these 18 councilors informed us that they all would be away one week some longer during the five-week camp program once the rec director realized this would impact 20% of the job commitment in collaboration with RBA Mr portella this was determined not feasible since the camp is self-funded no fees increase were considered for this year providing coverage for the absent Camp counselors would negatively impact the success of the camp causing reduction in activities of or even closing the camp for the time counselor's request a time off this is both impractical and not practical at all and not fiscally responsible subsequently the rec director communicated to all Camp counselors that had requested time of a resent offer letter given them the opportunity to reconsider changing their schedule to my knowledge non responded or reconsider and to ensure the camp was fully staffed for the five weeks off offers were made to the crew that committed it to work for uh the five weeks that all said I asked the cam reg the cam director and in coordination with M Pella that the cam registration remains open past the due date of 618 hoping we can reach capacity of 300 kids so the rec director and the ba can evaluate the balance of the cam trust fund account personally to ensure clear communication and think I think formal offers of employment should only be sent once the application process is completed and time off and vacation requests are reviewed lastly while this matter is very unfortunate has caused unrest the rec direct director has been subject to verbal abuse and P over the of in person and over the phone verbal abuse against B employees is not what River Edge is about so for additional content I context i al ask Miss Pella to provide a synopsis of the chain of events for the edification of the community and everyone present Pella thank you in mid-march of this year an Outreach letter offering the opport opportunity to return to this year's Camp session was submitted to approximately 50 former counselors not administrative Camp staff to gauge interest and determine whether new counselors would need to be solicited it was a version of letters issued in the past that had been updated with the 2024 minimum wage rates and Camp session dates and during this time the recreation department which consists of the director and a part-time assistant um they were working on the River Edge run prepping the field for various sports events repl maning the fields that um have been impacted with um by flooding working on various Grant applications with me and the grant writer and the bur engineer preparing capital projects such as the batting cages that were recently installed for little Lee pickle ball tennis yoga Memorial Day and uh revamping the senior program in that time period of the 50 former counselors 37 Express an interest in returning an outline of all the steps in the process was provided which included a link to submit an application the date of the mandatory meeting which is June 18th information on annual online training required by the municipal joint Insurance Fund and a link for working papers if applicable um early bird registration opened up on May 2nd through the 9th and now we're in the late registration process in miday through the end of May 50 new applicants were interviewed for consideration by June 3rd all potential Personnel were assessed 18 of the 37 former counselors 50% were taking the same week off or more of the program 20% of the program as council president monano Cohen explained Camp is solely funded through fees assessed for the program that are deposited in a dedicated trust account that trust account covers supplies events and Personnel the current balance is $17,569.13 the estimated total payroll for 39 counselors and unit leaders plus the administrative Camp staff is 86,2 18575 assuming there are no rain dates transportation for trips and supplies adds another estimated $728 that leaves a balance to date of $1 13,949 90 having this information after thorough review the options were increase the program rates to hire additional Personnel to accommodate the former counselors who are planning on missing the program at the same time thereby notifying the families of 249 children already registered that they would need to pay more for the program this year cancel camp for that week in question which is the third week of the program let the program run into the negative which is not permitted by law and drastically increase rates next year or notify these 18 former counselors that they would not be rehired due to the impact this week off would have on the overall program but offer them the opportunity to have the decision reconsidered if they requested days off change to best of my knowledge today none of the 18 young adults advised that they were adjusting their time off schedule so they could work the program hiring them in addition to the current Personnel selected for the program would add $2 27,2 34 which as of today would reduce the trust account in the negative by $3,284 this decision was not made lightly that is why they were given a couple days to make adjustments to their time off since none of them had changed their schedule 18 new counselors of the 50 that were interviewed were hired the entire situation was to determine what was the best course of action for the program's participants the ratio of counselors for um kindergarten first grade is 1 to six and for second grade an older 1 to8 or 1 to 10 depending on group size to hire an excess number of counselors is fiscally irresponsible and impractical thank you Mr Pella so moving on I ask a motion and a second to approve the following appointments and Personnel changes um do I need to read the name no the three day approve the hire of Camp staff from June 24th 2024 through July 26 2024 as per the list of onile with a boros clerk's office I move second all in favor moving on monthly reports the we have uh the following monthly reports on file within the clerk's office and available for inspection and I'll read them into the item in each into the record environment protection commission and green team May 21st 2024 tax collector report May 31st 2024 Library board trustees June 4th 2024 we have some ordinances to read into the record I request a council member to make a motion to introduce and pass on first reading ordinances 2415 and 246 when I read them um a set hearing for June 24th 202 before at 7: p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be heard as the date and time at the liver River Edge Library as the place and zoom as a virtual platform for the hearing of s ordinances I'm going to read the ordinance into the record uh ordinance 24:15 an ordinance amending and supplementing the revised General ordinances of the Bor Riveredge chapter 400 vehicles and traffic ordinance 2416 an ordinance to amend chapter 206 of the revised General ordinances of the war of rivered entitled fees second um typically we asked uh RBA to provide a brief synopsis of the ordinance and mrot please yes 24:15 um is the outcome of the discussion at our last council meeting which would allow up to 15 parking spots at the solely at the River Edge Road um train station parking lot to be uh designated for nonresident commuters and um 2416 goes hand inand with it it what it does is it establishes the rate to be assessed to the non-commuters as well as update um the resident commuted parking rates which um were increased nominally the last increase was six years ago thank you is madam cler roll call yes yes yes yes counc yes yes all right I have resolutions by consent I'll ask if anyone wishes any resolution to be pulled for discussion or separate vote if not I'll requ I'll um request a resolution to be I ask for a motion and a second to approve resolutions 24-1 190 through the resolution 24-20 a couple questions sure um which resolution uh dat yeah give me a second um president um 196 the Recycling yard yep uh labor how many hours a week do we are we budgeting for that up to 29 hours okay it doesn't say that in the resolution I don't know if you need this ask information um are you still in the same resolution Dave what are you still in 24196 or you no no that's it okay but I I want to ask a question about 197 okay um Z can you describe the work because the resolution um states that there's a copy of the change order attach but I don't see it I don't see any attachment did you grab the public version yes okay so what what's the word um it is understand it says to build up the suboor yes um so is that the full amount to install an elevated subfloor in the entire space yes and um upon further review the entire the entire flooring does not have to be removed so this is a subfloor addition moving the Vault um because that has to be the Vault has to be lifted and the closet is reconfigured installing the wood blocking uh the existing joist for extra support installing sleepers floor Joys and Plywood And so this is this is the total am 9563 yes the total work and it also includes the the overhead the poet the bonding all the allowable increases so all the work associated with elevating FL in that space that'll be occupied by the finance department will be completed we hope in the amount of $1,495 63 yes nothing has to be removed so there there doesn't need to be um any type of remediation that's what would have driven up the cost significantly thank you anyone else what um what Dave said on 196 does that have to be in the resolution yeah I'll I'll uh raate the motion with the amendment of adding the hours got it anybody else okay so once again I uh once I I I need a motion in a second to uh all resolutions by consent 24190 through 24200 and 24 196 amended to includeed up to 29 hours per week per week so move second R call sorry I one more question yes um it's for um our attorney I could just get a yes or no answer to us I really appreciate it regarding 199 this action res is this a statutory requirement to advance the process yes thank you so I need to abstain from 199 I apologize I apologize Iain too yeah they're not the motion okay so I restate the motion uh a third time um I need a motion in a second for Resolutions 24-10 through 241 199 amending 24 1996 to include up to 29 hours per week up to 200 it oh so okay so again from 24190 to 20 24200 um with an amendment to 24196 to include up to 90 29 hours per week so move Che all of the items except for I am abstaining from 199 that's yes yes all the items except 24-19 I yes yeah wonderful all right [Music] uh so I I I request the council woman cment uh as president of the finance committee to move resolution 24-20 pay payment of bills at a regular meeting of the mayor and Council of the burough of River Edge County of Bergen state of New Jersey held on June 10 2024 be it resolved that the mayor and Council of the buau of Riveredge approve the following expenditures current fund 84,3 4917 General Capital fund $1,624 Grant fund $750 animal control4 $ 5680 trust other $ 35,41 19.13 payroll $2,772 unemployment trust $3,540 35 developers es growth $367.00 Self Insurance trust $1,282 199 Recreation trust $967 so moved second R yes yes yes coun Larry yes coun yes coun yes right so item 12 of the agenda brings us to new business and I believe there is a residential parking permits discussion about Grove Street parking lot uh that I believe is be that's the one uh behind the parking lot of of the river lot correct um yes it's behind I think behind Richley yes yeah so who will speak to uh to this matter will Pella yes um a resident uh of 33 broke Street had reached out to um uh to myself to the uh Lieutenant zi requesting that they've had an ongoing struggle with parking their um their driveway only accommodates three of the four vehicles that they own and um so if everybody is home or if they have visitors there's really no other place to park in the vicinity because that parking lot on Grove Street is solely designated for business owners um this has been reviewed with the Traffic Division and they have um looked at similar requests that they've received over the past five years and in their evaluation the business district parking lot never had more than 10 permits issued in a calendar year based on their records so um they do say that there is space to accommodate up to three residential vehicles and um if the governing body wishes to move forward we would just do another resolution amending our parking ordinance to state that The Grove Street parking lot will allow for up to three parking spaces and then um establish the fees by a separate ordinance similar to the action we took tonight all right and is it fair to say that the three permits will will be first count first serve yes all right um open for debate is there any expectation that other people will want these spots versus the one who requested um if so it's such a small area it it won't be stiff competition for it it's not s like the computer parking that there's demand people who have asked for it or people who live in that flock makes sense to me so me too so what what will be the next procedural uh um arrangement for this Mr pel um preparing an ordinance for introdu ction at the next meeting and working with the bur clerk's office because the sticker parking that we have designate that it's for Commuter so we would just have to order residential stickers and make sure they're a different color so that way it um it stands out right and just for the for the for the the community awareness this already was beted and reviewed by the police department and S Patrick Damon who's the Traffic Unit yes the Traffic Division reviewed it and um nothing leaves the particular divisions without um being vetted by the captain and ultimately the police chief okay thank you so um I'll ask now everybody else in the governing body if anyone has any other new business to bring to the Forum seeing none all business anybody I have something oh we were awarded $69,000 under the 2024 local Recreation Improvement Grant um we requested 100,000 it's to help with the overhaul of Memorial Park addressing the drainage and the gy safety um issues and every bit of a grant that we receive is less money on the taxpayer so um congratulations to our Recreation director working tirelessly with Millennium strategies our grant writer and um we just now have to wait for the state to formalize the agreements for mayor papalo to sign off on and how soon can we expect that rant to be actually received um it's a reimbursable grant so we would have to spend the money first and submit the paperwork to receive that funding um usually from when these types of Grants are announced um Agreements are issued within three to four months okay we also got to forgot to mentioned last time miss appella our cyber security status I thought you wrote something in one of the emails about that yes we are um in our joint Insurance Fund of all the municipalities I don't not all 7 are in that fund but there are significant number I think over 30 or so we are um we are in compliance with the Cyber risk um liability program so we we met all the requirements and you know we're constantly monitoring so I'm all those emails you send me is this legitimate it's legitimate it's part of the testing process and don't click on anything if you don't know where it comes from thank you so I'll ask a mo a motion in a second to open the floor to the public on any item second all in favor I mon okay so one second okay Monica are you there yes hi no problem can you hear me yesly yes so I was asking um about um uh I mean this is the first time uh we I'm having uh I'm a I'm a volunteer in a nonprofit organization and mon can I stop you again I'm sorry could you restate for the record your full name and address I know we had it at the beginning but you have to do it again I'm sorry it's okay my full name is Monica juk and I'm a resident of 83 V Avenue in River Edge thanks Monica go ahead yes uh thank you so I a volunteer at a nonprofit organization and uh we are having a private event for uh you know the residents of River Edge or anyone who's interested for a free meditation session on this Saturday at the library but uh because we are uh we are not sure how many people will come we wanted to uh have a banner outside the library to give handouts uh just on that day of the event uh you know maybe 11:00 till 3:00 3:00 is the event so is that um uh permissible uh and the other question is for the same event I was uh thinking if it would be okay to go to the farmers market that uh that is um uh every Thursdays from 3: to 7:00 p.m. to give handouts uh to anyone who approaches me so these are only my two questions because I haven't been able to do much campaigning uh but other than uh you know have the event on the community's Facebook page so this is something we wanted to do because we rescheduled the event uh because you you know of nobody registering for it is is this allowed like uh the dere asked me and uh the leet asked me to come to this call and ask uh you guys so you spoke with DAR the director of for the record the director of the library correct yes okay um I'm GNA just pose a question to our Bor attorney but I think the library as aasa independent entity is the one that has to decide whether sorry I don't they're wholly independent they're not qu they their the library is is is their own board they have their they theore they have their own attorney they can sue and be sued in their own capacity so they make their own decisions with respect to the banner that if that was a question about who puts the banner up that that that should be answered by either darra or by the board um not by the cham Council does that answer your question Monica Farmers Market may be a little different because that's run by the by the body I believe or by the yes so I will yes I can ask Derek uh if I can you know we can have a banner outside the library just on that day and give hand outs to whoever is visiting the library to attend the session and what about the farmers market I know it only happens once in a week so this Thursday is my only choice opportunity so are you planning on just giving out handouts at the market yes that's all I think that's okay then yes as long as it's not for-profit yeah yes I think that's F commercial Enterprise okay it's only for I'm planning to do this because it is by the library and anyone who comes there in that neighborhood to the farmers market will get a chance to get a hand out the flyer that is also uh in the libraries notice board it will be the same flyer that we I would be just giving out uh by hand only uh five to 7 p.m. that Thursday this Thursday that's fine that's fine right you can yeah you can come on Thursday and and look for one of the farmers markets committee members and we can coordinate how to best do it without disrupting the public okay so uh on that day uh we can I meet somebody on that day yes yes just look for me look for Michelle kofman or myself or somebody from the committee okay Michelle I will remember okay so I I look for Michelle before I uh give out the handouts Michelle cof yeah so Michelle I will be there Thursday after work so around 5 o' I will come there with the Flyers and then you can direct me that's good okay I'll see you then see you then thanks and I I'll ask Derek tomorrow about the banner thank you love mon okay any anyone else online nope we don't have anyone present does anyone else have a question or comment online all right so at this point I'll ask a motion in a second to close the floor to the public second all in favor all right at this point we have Council comments anyone from the governing body has any comments for the public I have some comments go ahead thank you I think it's horrible that um our Recreation director was not provided with the respect that he deserves in connection with the camp issue um I asked Joe that Joe be here tonight but I didn't provide much notice but I'm happy to see that he's online with us thank you Joe I don't really understand what happened I I heard put the information from what I was told um by various people associated with the burrow and what the public said today about this Camp count coun uh events what occurred in the burrow with the the camp Staffing of the camp um um I'd like to suggest of course in the future that we are um responsive to the concerns that were raised today by the public um but especially I'd like to ask if there's any way that any of these kids can be brought on as Camp counselors this Summer that we still make every possible effort to do that if someone drops out if there's another opening if more kids sign up we find some money in the budget let's get these kids a job let's do everything we can to try to fulfill their expectations even if it's just a matter of some of them serving a substitute you know some kidss are taking off a few days let's offer let's offer everything we can to the folks that thought they had a job and found out kind of late in the game that they didn't that's that's my request of I guess who's ever managing the hiring that's all I have to say thank you thank you Dave anyone else okay so uh I've asked for a motion and a second to adour the meeting to move all in favors hi