[Music] any councilman simuka here councilman Garrick here councilwoman Sanchez here Council Meer here council president Aram here please rise flag alleg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all sorry adequate notice of this meeting has been sent to All council members and to all legal newspapers in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the public is hereby advised that any statements made during the meeting of the township Council of the township of sbook may not be privileged are protected and have persons or entities who take issue with such comments or are offended by saying May having a passo it leg will redress through the courts any member of the public who addresses the council speaks for themselves and not for the councel motion to open Mee to the public motion second roll call councilman samuka yes councilman Garrick yes councilman Sanchez yes councilman Maser yes council president Alano yes me now to the public good evening everyone Tom L 128 Lincoln AV souer um tonight I'm just going to give you a quick update of the mayor's youth group over the last month um I do want to thank all the youth group members who helped out with um the Easter celebration that was held on March the 30th in here at the municipal conf complex they helped out with the food drive that they that was held they helped um Recruit new members they also uh helped out with the with the eight garden and helped with the Easter bunny photo area so I do want to publicly thank all of the members who came out and helped with that and help create a poster really help show show our community what what they do to and how they serve our town so again I want to give them thanks looking ahead we're going to be doing our annual Earth Day cleanup um in honor of her day in honor of protecting our planet um that'll be this Saturday uh at 10:00 a.m. at tricentennial park at the corner of flat and southurn road so we hope we get the marriage youth group members to come out again that's this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. um we'll have the cloves provided we'll have all the tool garding tools provided it will be a planting of flowers around the flly pole and then as well a cleanup of tricentennial Park so we hope to see everybody there and anybody who's in grade spth 12 are always welcome to join us anybody who Liv in Sal thank you and [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening oh our um I have a few items uh we were discussing a couple weeks ago at the workshop meeting a few other items and I'm just going to elaborate a little bit more right now I got like one two three four five topics I'm going to be quick uh resolution number three on the agenda today doesn't have an now I believe that every resolution should have a price uh in the meantime that you are looking into that into that resolution uh I will have to thank you for looking into the matter of the uh the scooter ordinance or electric vehicles I believe that it will be safe for a lot of residents that are riding in in the town and especially with these scooters that don't wear helmets once this Ordnance uh goes for second reading and becomes a law I believe that everyone should be safer uh in the intering I'm going to take a parenthesis and I believe that a lot of times I bring some points on on the council do not respond to me when I'm here and I'm not having any points against any of you actually I just bring points that are I believe imperative if not necessary if not uh interesting to the residents inide I believe that the public out there needs to hear from you guys that we're electrified by the people and for the people to hear some of your comments but a lot of times I just mention things and and things just go mute no one said anything like in the last meeting I question like on my new tax post carard my my the value of the home of my home it went up almost $505,000 so I request if any of you have any comments on that and I didn't hear nothing I believe while I'm walking the streets people have a lot of questions because they don't hear nothing from the elect their officials I'm just trying to convey the message because uh most of you know that I'm going to be running for the uh Council position uh on this primary and also in the general election in November so as I start talking to the people now to the residents and and and voters they got a lot of questions and one of the questions were there about the taxes now as I go along with that uh also reading um the third ordinance first reading ordinance number three he says that the water rates are going to be increased and I believe the residents not just me just the resident deserve a response a proper response why it's going to be increased not just on the on the orance uh I'm sorry on the on the on the on the D when he says just because SS is going to go up I believe I got five minutes right you got three minutes okay oh I thought last time you said it was 5 minutes last time was was 5 minutes for that day uhhuh it's 3 minutes we didn't change the ORD yet it's 3 minutes you didn't change one we didn't change your yet still 3 minutes Oh I thought I wasn't under impression that it was 5 minutes whole times I spoke to you last night that's why I was just elaborating a little bit more it was that day it's you know that is the predicament of the council president who runs the meeting yeah I just understand that it's three minutes oh I'm going to respond that to that but he actually well if you didn't spend half the time using the might there as a platform you probably would have finished you see if you said it's a platform it just that you don't answer the question that's fine I'll leave it up there that's fine that is fine you were elected and you don't want to hear that's fine if that's your prerogative just to I believe your time is very important and not the residence that's why we do get back to your question no no you're going to hear me now cuz we do get back to your questions you happen to always walk out when you don't get the answer that you want but when we respond and when you're not here to people do hear what we say opposed to what you say to us so for you to come up here and say that we don't respond is an outright lie cuz we do respond you leave early before the comments because you never respond the proper the proper thing it's like we respond to the comments it's I have to opra I have to opra what is the cost of the new building $10 million $20 million $30 million $40 million can just someone respond one person can just please allow the town residents to know what is the total cause of this town hall what what was the total cause of the building of this town hall can anyone tell me complete building yes oh to purchase the building and to everything out was I believe 28 million $28 million cor all right thank you very much have a good night anyone else motion Clos second all in favor I I [Music] thank you council president uh as many of you know it this month is Autism Awareness Month and I have a proclamation and I'm going to read whereas globally since 2008 autism awareness day is April 2nd and is observed throughout the month the day often features educational events for healthcare workers teachers parents parents and children with autism autism is a neurological disorder that interferes with the normal function of human brain the human brain and can affect anyone regardless of ethnicity gender or socioeconomic background symptoms and characteristics of autism may present themselves in a variety of combinations and can result in significant lifelong impairment of an individual's ability to learn develop healthy interactive behaviors and understand verbal and non-verbal communication a variety of public and private organizations and agencies strive to provide quality care support and services to children and adults with autism to help enable them to live as independently as possible and reach their full potential so now therefore on this 18th day of April 2024 I Robert D white the mayor of the township of Saddlebrook do hereby Proclaim April Autism Awareness Month I urge all residents to become educated and informed about programs services and opportunities to help support individuals with autism I wanted to uh bring up uh several several items but uh I wanted to mention that we received the $1 million Congressional appropriation Grant um there was a press conference here a couple of weeks ago with u congressman pasel but we received the million dollars for an emergency generator for this Municipal complex now this generator will power the entire building um we do have two smaller generators now that provide backup power to essential areas only now having the entire building powered during outages is beneficial in that in case we want to utilize this building for an emergency evacuation site or shelter we can do so now most buildings don't have full capacity full power uh backup power certain ones do obviously hospitals our police department does uh but it's not required uh data centers that that control a lot of uh information internet they obviously have them but we're not required to have it but this is a this is a great a great thing for the town and uh the bottom line is we saved a million dollars because we could we we did consider it when we when we purchased and retrofitted this building but we decided against it and we went for this grant because we really didn't need it we don't need it now but this is a great thing for the town so like I said the biggest thing is that if we do have it's a it's a huge building it's a huge facility and uh we want it to be powered and for backup power in case of an emergency in case uh of of a power outage so we're very happy with that but I can understand there some some members of the public were I guess a little taken back they didn't understand fully so that's why I wanted to bring up these these particular items to just to let everybody know what what actually happen happen there um other grants we've applied for $160,000 Community Development block grant funds to pay Third Street um that should be we should find out mid year whether the committee uh approves that allocation they're going going to be meeting sometime uh either the end of this month or or beginning of may we also applied for a grant uh through the county for open space of $120,000 that's to uh for further improvements of Fifth Street Park uh our Paving program for 2024 I'm going to list the streets because I A lot of people are interested to know which streets are going to get be paided this year uh Lincoln Avenue and Van Orton street from Liberty Street to P Avenue are going to be paid Nightingale Road from Bell Avenue to Cambridge Elm Avenue the hallway from shephers Avenue to Wilson Ash Avenue which is the next street over as well from shapis to Wilson dire place which is off the Saddle River Road by grumpy over there just the small town street that's going to be done Samson Street from Market Street to the dead end of Veterans Field uh that's going that's going to be using uh New Jersey Transit funds we receive the grant for that of uh 200,000 Sterling Place off the sad of River Road and Orchard Lane off the River Road those two are Community Development projects from last year uh I failed to mention at the last meeting that I had uh I had attended on February 28th a meeting hosted by Loi mayor uh Scott Luna uh the Army Corps of Engineers assemblywoman Lisa Swain representatives from Congressman Pascal's office and Governor Murphy's office and local Mayors uh in the in Loi area along the Saddle River also some Bas that were there too business administrators uh we're there to discuss the flooding problem and ways the state and federal government can assist um we're really pushing hard for some funding um so it was a productive meeting but we've had several other meetings we have to I I believe that we have to band together all the towns along the Saddle River and and stay on top of um our elected officials are our County and State and uh Federal elected officials as well as the Army Corp Engineers but there's power and numbers and we have to keep keep at it so hopefully we'll uh something will come of it um I wanted to mention that we had a solar eclipse on April the 8th um the reason I'm mentioning it is because I want to thank the out library for handing out free sunglasses to the schools um I guess there was quite a stir about this uh eclipse I don't know if everybody knows what it is you probably do by now but the the the shadow of the Moon causes Darkness on the land in the middle of the day and it's not going to happen for another two decades so so if you missed it but uh Thomas I don't know if he's still here but he took some fabulous pictures that he posted and we put them on uh the township Facebook so uh our Easter celebration was Saturday March the 30th another great job by our projects and Activities Committee uh Chris Christine jaria shanon akamondo I want to thank Thomas van winkl and the members of the mayor's youth group um we had a food drive for the S food pantry at the event and they helped out with that um collecting the food and also they they did a uh they tried to recruit new members they had a a membership uh drive so to speak and they did a nice poster board with photos of all the group activities that we do and that was displayed at the table we did get a couple of new people from that which is good I also want to thank the Side Library for participating this is the first year they they did uh they did arts and crafts with the children and I also want to thank the Women's Club uh for handing out snacks and they they come to every event they're just a fantastic group that give a lot back to the community the little Lake parade and opening day ceremony was Saturday this past Saturday April 13th the weather did hold up and we're able to get everything in including uh all the games for that day want to thank the Little League executive board all the managers coaches volunteers and the parents um I also want to thank the Police Department fire department ambulance Corps and DPW for their assistance with the parade we have some upcoming events this Saturday April the 20th girls softball opening day it's an all day uh Affair we'll put out more information on Facebook and our notification notify me um alert system Monday April 22nd is Earth Day Thomas brought that up um Earth Day is an annual celebration that raises awareness of the needs to protect our Earth the Earth's natural resources for future Generations today's origin for those who might not know dates back to um events in the United States back in the 1960s uh some environmental Master Fe particularly Santa Barbara oil spill in the katoga river fires of 1969 that I don't remember either them but um I probably should uh cuz I'm that old uh Tuesday May 14th uh Town Hall will be open Mr Lio our town clerk will be there for voter registration it'll be open till 9:00 p.m. it's the last day to register to vote for the June 4th primary election um the sbook police memorial is on Wednesday May the 15th 12 noon at the monument at 93 Market Street the old toown all um the townwide garage sale I've been getting a lot of questions about this but it's going to be Friday um through Sunday May 17th 18th and 19th um Saddle River Road is going to be closed they're working on that bridge now uh they've been working on it for for uh several months um but they're going to actually close uh the road for the whole weekend from uh 6:00 p.m. on uh Friday night till 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning uh it's going to be closed both ways um they're going to do two dates in May right now they're saying May 17th and May 30th that could change with the weather because if it rains they're not allowed to to work um they're also going to do two dates in July but they haven't set that yet um what they're doing is they're replacing the Garden State Parkway bridge over s River Road um the residents in that area in that immediate vicinity will receive written notification and uh probably going to go door too with um our DBW or our Police Department community policing unit will talk to the residence it's going to be loud it's going to be a difficult uh difficult for them in that area uh but it needs to get done and uh we're also going to have to notify everyone else there's going to be sign boards uh notifications on social media nixel and maybe even reverse 911 uh for that so that's going to be it's going to be difficult but we'll get through it they'll be police doing the traffic there too I just wanted to mention quickly we don't have anybody from ler Avenue here but um we did post the no parking signs 10:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. there CU there was an issue with uh employees from Sheffer foods that were parking there and we are working on a resolution now with with the uh management of Sheffer uh they may be able to use the back of the building to park uh Passenger cars only so we're working on that um also the county park playground we had residents here last meeting um and they did attend these these residents attend ended a commissioner's meeting I don't know what the date was but I know councilman Garett did go to that meeting um and uh we'll probably speak about that with his comments uh I know councilwoman Sanchez wrote an email to to them I also wrote wrote a letter that I emailed to the county executive and the Commissioners pretty much just ask me that they considered and the the residents input there because they're they know they're uh they're not happy with a with a few of the uh proposals there and uh so just wanted to make sure that they listen but I I personally feel I mean it's a project going to spend $3.7 million and it's going to be a benefit to the you know to the town but hopefully they'll they'll do it the right way and I I think they are but uh there's just a couple of items that uh some of the residents have concerns about um happy Passover um which is Monday April 22nd to April 30th happy Mother's day which is Sunday May the 12th thank you uh good evening everyone uh as the mayor said I did attend the County Commissioners meeting last month uh I along with the res with some of the residents from Saddle Brook voice concerns about the location the park also some of the uh residents had concerns about the flooding with the Saddle River um the residents live very close to the sad River there they have flooding issues so they were concerned about that as well so uh we're hoping that they could come up with an alternative location for the park and not put it right on Saddle River Road um but obviously they spend a lot of time and a lot of energy looking at the best location so we have to understand that as well um we did have a flood committee meeting on Thursday March 28th uh mayor white pet Le uh OEM coordinator Tom Dickman myself and we had a couple residents uh Neil Neil fidu and Gale attended uh we discussed flooding along the Saddle River and on shav uh there's a little bit of a ground of water there that's been an issue um uh we with that being said there's also been some issues in town regarding groundwater rising up and unfortunately we're not the only ones there's other communities as well where the water table is very high um so that's been somewhat of an issue we are going to have another meeting in June um at the main meeting I will tell you when that's going to uh happen in June uh I also participated in the little leite parade it was a great event uh good luck to all the players um I couldn't believe there's over 200 uh kids involved in that program so it's a very successful program the coaching is great um it's a great program uh I also participated in the Easter celebration that was outstanding and I just wanted to thank all the volunteers and the participants in that um another successful event that we had uh also um water rates are increasing unfortunately uh the town is not making money off of that um we pass that along so when the water company says rates are increasing unfortunately residents have to pay more for water and that's for us too as Council people we're not happy about it but the price of water has gone up and we have to pass that along to the residents unfortunately we don't get any Joy of doing that we don't want to do that but it's something that has to unfortunately be done um so that's why water is going up the Water Company's charging more for the water okay um good evening and thank you Council thank you council president good evening everyone um this com I'd like to acknowledge the um all the coaches and the parents and all the volunteers and of course the sponsors too the Little League um I wasn't able to attend the parade because I had my granddaughter's First Holy Communion in Hillsdale at the same time but um but I want to uh wish everyone well and to have a great safe and successful season um i' also like to acknowledge Community projects and activity they always do an amazing job and all the volunteers that also that are involved in them and we do appreciate everything you guys everybody does and um of course Thomas and uh his crew always there uh to L the hand and help out everywhere any time and uh to come down Saturday do some planting and try send try send a park feel free to park in uh TLC's Park lot and uh Happy Mother's Day thank you thank you Sanchez so like the mayor mentioned um I did send an email to the or County Commissioners um expressing the concerns of the residents um for the [Music] playground I definitely want to you know show them my support I do support them um and I like I stated ated at the last meeting um I do share some of their concerns so I did follow up um as they also stated you know I did attend the Easter celebration for a brief period it was done very very nicely um thank you to everyone who made it what it was and uh have a happy Mother's Day than you chairman uh the gentleman had talked about uh appraise value of his house going up by $50,000 and and I don't think that that's an accident just look around anyone who's trying to buy a house is now paying over asking price don't even go in with asking prices just you're just going to get shot down they might not even sign up your contract uh there are houses that are going for 50 70 $100,000 more than the asking price so everybody's value of your house if you sell it today it's going to be a good amount more than if you sold it last year so it's not unusual for the value of the house to to go up but it's across the board everyone's house is going up so you're you're not being singled out for this increase that you've got to Bear the brunt of that it it's across the board and if every once go up everyone's value goes up you know our tax rate will most likely go down so it's not as if went up $50,000 so now going to be paying you know $1,000 more this year in terms of the flooding I talked to Mayor Luna who's I graduate high school with him actually so uh and he said something that if I was there I would have said the same thing the Artic Corp of Engineers do study after study and then they take so long to do anything while doing nothing actually uh those studies become obsolete so then they do another study and these studies are not something that takes 6 months these are 10e studies um I'll be long dead probably before they dredge this River uh however what he said was to them when they told him listen we're just a small Speck on the map here and I don't know if they're going to dedicate any uh money to us he says you know it's funny thing is that every year when it's election time you come around to the small towns like Saddlebrook and Loi and Wallington and look for our support and look for our votes and look for our money to donate to you um but you know now we're we're small potatoes so they've got to change their way of thinking CU we are important it's a whole set of people you know the Saddle River goes from wherever it starts up in New York and it it goes down into uh to nework uh but they have to do the whole thing we can't dredge saddle people say why don't we just trudge inad River over here I'll I've heard people say I'll bring in my own back and start doing it well it just gets jammed up someplace else you have to do it the whole way and we're talking a lot of money and the federal government has a lot of money and when you look at some things that they spend money on they spend money on a lot of stupid things a lot of things that uh just if you look at their budget and all these I say dumb things that they're spending their money on uh should be spending it on something that's going to improve people's lives so that's something that I know our mayor and the Mayors are the community along the sou River we'll be looking at um water rates I I remember I've been on the council for 16 years and I remember a long time ago uh we had to raise water rates and we look back and I think I I was relatively new at that time and it turned out that we hadn't raised the rates in8 years but United Water who was our water provider at that time uh kept raising it every year so it turned out that we were basically the town was subsidizing the individuals using the water it's kind of the same thing I don't think we've raised water rates in four years I think it's about four years but the water company has raised the rates uh if not every year most years so like the mayor said we're not profiting off any kind of raise we're just passing along it's it's like anything if if the the price of uh sugar goes up Dunkin' Donuts is going to charge you more so unfortunately we've got to pass the cost along to the consumer again we don't bite doing that but the alternative is that people will be paying for other people's water uh like the mayor mentioned we're all wearing blue today to acknowledge uh Autism Awareness Month it is uh something that we see every day and years and years ago we didn't see a lot of people that you would consider autistic on the streets I think that um a there's an increase in people with um you know that condition but also it's not something to hide uh people with Autism uh can be you know be proud of what they what they accomplish and there is they call it the spectrum because you've got somebody and we have our our own saddle Brook's own ambassador to autism Ryan Ryan Roy who almost everyone out there probably knows um who is very vocal and very intelligent and you've also got some people on the lower end of the spectrum who can't speak and uh you know need to be taken care of on 247 basis um but uh God bless those people and also the caretakers and especially the parents who um their lives depending on the uh the level of the spectrum their lives are greatly impacted and and they go through hell because I know a bunch of people who have that and you know so uh God bless all of them for what they're going through and uh continue your good work with them um I also attended Little League opening day and it's uh scary to see that some of the kids that you coached are now coaching their kids just shows that you're getting old I guess uh softball opening day is like you said uh this Saturday I look forward to going there uh at uh Veterans Field which is you know everyone I talk to from other towns is says you should be very proud and everyone out there should be proud of of that venue because it is a great venue for sporting events um I attended the grand opening along with some of the the mayor and a couple of council people of Maiden Dominican Republic that's actually where I have my dinner tonight uh so anyone who likes that kind of food please uh patronize that if you don't know about that food please go give it a try you might find that you like it in terms of the uh ordinances tonight uh the first one that we're going to talk about or vote on is the um shortterm rentals and I believe we've got a report back from the planning board because we said things like this to the planning board for their input and I 100% agree that the fines for a violation of that should be increased um otherwise it's just a cost of doing business I think the original fine was $250 or 350 or something like that so you rent your house out for 28 days and you violate the ordinance and you get paid you find 350 you've made thousands and thousands of dollars so it's something that we've again we're going to tweak it and we're going to work on that but good job by the planning board to uh give us input sometimes we don't always agree but um it's a great back and forth that we have in a great relationship um we do have for first reading the electric scooter ordinance which we've been working on and again tweaking that over and over again to get it to uh where it is now uh the fines in my opinion might be higher or could be higher but you know what let's see where where we're at know if we get five violations in a year there's no reason to change anything if it turns out that we're inundated with violations then we might have to step it up a bit and um I think just see believe that is uh we mentioned emergency generator and I wasn't here at the council at the uh work session but somebody had asked about you know you should have done that before well if if we would have done it before you know hindsight's great but uh we saved a million bucks that's the bottom line we did get the grant so uh thank you to the federal government for their Grant some of the good things that they're doing not the dumb things this was a good one so thank you and we'll have a great one thank you I'm just going to pick you back off Andrew with the Army core of engineer I was watching a special and it was based out of uh Rockland County New York where where you had mentioned and they're talking about they're getting a grant to build a dam and they were stating that if they build a dam up there it would suppress most of the flooding south of Rocky County they're saying if it's true we'll see when they're done um that's a start and hopefully the Army Corp will work their way down south towards Jersey Bergen County and and do whatever they could do to help these poor residents say have to deal with flooding Waters every time it rains um I want to thank everybody for the Easter celebration it just seems to be getting better every year I know I say it all the time but it just there's more people involved whether they live here or not it's just great to see these little kids having fun I want to thank Raphael for always being there last minute you give him a call within 6 minutes he's here with his equipment ready to go so thank you also thank you to Thomas Thomas for a guy who gets paid absolutely zero cents puts a lot lot of money puts a lot of time and effort into making sure he he takes pictures of everything that happens in this Township um Good Luck to the Little League I wish you a wonderful season I miss those days I wish my kids were little again but fortunately they grow up and one day hopefully we have grandkids um and happy Mother's Day to uh Sanchez Miss sper and all the wonderful mothers out there thank you we have the ordinances first ordinance on the agenda is ordinance number 1744 d24 an ordinance of the township of sanbrook in the county of Bergen and the state of New Jersey amending chapter 206 Article 4 General Provisions section 206- 9 of the code of the township and tile permitted uses to ban short-term rental of dwellings for periods of 20 days and any all zoning districts for a second reading motion for second reading second all in favor hi I in ordinance of the township of sant Brook and the county of berbon and the state of New Jersey amending chapter 206 Article 4 General Provisions section 206- 9 of the code of the township entitle committed uses to ban short-term rental of dwellings for periods of 20 days in and any or zoning districts Mo motion to approve second we have a motion to open the me I'm sorry motion open to the public motion second all in favor I it's open to the public on item only anyone wishing to speak yes I read it very fast uh conman s gave a great explanation more than 3 minutes of course but it was good that's what the people wants to know that's what the people wants to hear and I really appreciate your comments and everybody should have the same type of language and trying to explain to the residents uh however I do not agree with him I'm trying to increase the fins that is the C of doing business because as I read it I I think that is enough because the first fine if my memory is still good is $250 second day second find is $350 third day is $750 and then is per day $750 per day that's a lot of money of course that we don't want no one to do that but I believe that right now $750 per day that's a lot of money but that again the violators as far as they know that there are fines of course that they will have to think it twice before doing it thank you very much for listening thank close second in favor through the chair before the governing body votes on this ordinance we did as uh Council M maluca mentioned receive a letter from the planning board they actually had and the planning board reviews any ordinance that impacts owning and they make recommendations to the governing body the governing body of course it's their prerogative whether they wish to implement the recommendations but they did have a recommendation to change the fines the fines as listed on the ordinance are $350 for a first offense $500 for a second offense and a third offense is $750 each day is considered a separate violation so so someone rented the uh unit for more than a day the fines of course it's it's you know a little subjective but are pretty significant but if you want to change that we can but you would change that before approving the adoption the second uh recommendation they made was that they want the ordinance to specifically state that who the inforcement agencies would be and they had the building department police department and Fire Prevention uh Bureau uh the police have the authority to enforce all ordinances but again if you wanted to specifically include that in the ordinance we could that would be the Second Amendment and uh the exemption as to the sale of residential real property that's already in the ordinance that was a recommendation they made previous time that the governing body agreed with so any uh any uh daily stay based upon a use and occupancy agreement for a generated through a residential closing is not or would be an exception to dis ordinance so at this point you'd have to give uh me some direction as to whether you want to implement the increase in the fines and add the provision about the enforcement if you do then you would not be adopting this ordinance I would make the changes they would be advertised and then at the next meeting you would adopt the ordinance through through the chair I I'm a member as uh as well Council M Garrick is as well U of the planning board so we were we attended that meeting um as far as the fines go there was a lot of talk about that but Mr C alone did he did mention that the fines are every day so it's not just for the first offense it's each day after so um as well so it's 350 and then 5 right so um I don't know I I kind of felt that that wasn't with that in mind that really wasn't necessary to increase the fs because that's an awful lot um you know that that so to me I I I I would say just leave it alone there as far as the the uh um having having other enforcement agents um right they they mentioned Police Department I agree I agree with Mr Cino that the police can do it already and that was brought up by uh Mr uh Anthony Ambrosio who's our building uh from our building department in zoning and uh you know he had he brought up fire prevention because they do they do a lot of inspections so they're in a good you they're in a good position to to see that if somebody is renting it out is an airbn PA so uh I agree with that part I think I think that that's probably something that is a good idea uh what was the what was the other one the other one we already have in that was the exception for right right right yeah that was already in I don't know why I don't know I don't know if they they had an old ordinance where it wasn't in there cuz they they had made that recommendation a while back right yeah yes so I is adding adding the uh fire the fire inspector Fire official is that a major we have to could we change that tonight vot I think that was the only change you can make I I would say that yes you can change that tonight without having to right further amend it we can make that that would not be a substantive change because it doesn't impact uh the uh really the violation or what constitutes the violation or the fines which would be a significant part of the ordinance the substance Parts I should say I me I don't know what do you uh through the chair I I would go with the mayor's recommendation I think that's fine I mean I think the fines are are high enough as they are um adding the fire prevention Bureau to the um to be able to write a summons that that would make sense if we could make that change and then the third one is already there so I think that that would be a good option for us just to include the fire prevention Bureau I leave everything else as is in the ordinance Mr the chair I I Just Disagree listen I'll go along with it but in terms of the um interpretation of how the fines would go my reading of it is you have to be convicted and that would be a first offense so if somebody is cited they're going to be cited one time they're not probably not going to get cited 30 times they're going to get cited one time that you've had it uh you rented some place for more than 28 days um I'm sorry for less than 28 days you have one violation and you would get a $350 fine for every day that they can prove that you violated that the second conviction then it's $500 a day and the third conviction will be 750 a day the way I read it is that it doesn't go the first day of your conviction the you're convicted in the first day is 350 second day is 500 third day is 750 and every day after that is 750 that's not the way I read it maybe you know different Minds uh differ well you're a prosecutor so you would have a good idea that um but my my thing is what if and this this happens a lot of times what if they go there you know they get a they get a complain they go there they see that they're they're operating and they they issue a summons and they tell them you got to stop and then they go there the next day and the people were still there so that would be like they would write a separate one so I I you know I don't know I'm not an attorney I don't know how that would work well through the chair I think you know basically the two points are well taken uh the but the uh enforcement official would have to issue a separate violation for each day and then when they went to court as the councilman pointed out the prosecutor would have to present the first violation separately from the second day violation and a third day violation in order to get the escalating fines and to the mayor's Point that's what would have to happen the inspector would have to go back on a daily basis and see if someone was occupying the unit and then again that would separate summons for each day would have to be issued the odd thing about this is that usually you get fined uh because there's a continued violation here if it's only limited to offenses where you're you're um uh leasing or renting from less than 28 days usually it's it's it's always you do it in excess of what you're supposed to do here it's you know once they past 28 days they're allowed to do it apparently if you get you have a two-month rental you can do it but it's only these shortterm rentals that you're trying to to do away with so it's it's just an odd way of them going back because the next day they could they could leave just because they it's like an Airbnb that you're ter Airbnb for you know a weekend and by the time somebody finds out they're already gone um it's number one it's going to be tough to enforce but I I think that uh I I don't see them going back every day and giv you're still here oh you know because what if they say well we're going to be here for 30 days you know so don't give me don't give it anything to me because these people are going to stay for 29 days or 30 days so it's it's just my my interpretation of how it would be uh dealt with in court by and I guess that would be the judge's ultimate discretion on how he's going to consider these but I do think that uh you know if we're trying to stop this and they give them a summons and the summons is for $350 and they had them there for a week I'm sure a week for Saddlebrook is probably a lot more than 350 $ but uh you know again just like the scooter ordinance it's a work in progress we can see if we may never ever give anybody this this violation so to Bel labor is is wrong um so I'm I'm good with it uh if it means that we get this on the books now so we have something as opposed to waiting if the like uh Mr scapi said uh the other changes would not be material we wouldn't have to read vertise or anything like that so I'm I'm good with getting this on the books right now and we could always see where we go with it later on one question who's Mr scapi what's his name scatino was my colleague from here my eyes are bad play yeah we can go on so the amendment uh would be to change the enforcement to include the building department police department and Fire Prevention yes a motion to amend motion motion to amend second all in favor I I we resigned by the township Council of the township of sbook that the ordinance entitled an ordinance of the township of C Brook in the county of Bergen and state of New Jersey amending chapter 206 Article 4 General Provisions section 206- 9 of the code of the township entitled permitted uses to ban short-term rental or dwelling of units for periods of 28 days in any zoning districts as amended is now passed on second and final reading and at the Township Clerk be directed to advertise that ordinance or title thereof in the Press together with the notice of the passenger that ordinance ACC to vot motion motion to approve second Ro councilman samuca yes councilman gar yes councilman Sanchez yes counciler yes council president yes ordinance two on the agenda the first reading ordinance 1745 d24 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 196 of the code of the township of Saddlebrook entitled vehicles and traffic be passed on first reading motion motion second loc councilman samuka yes councilman Garrick yes councilman Sanchez yes councilman Maser yes council president Aram yes yes and through the chair uh first I want to thank councilman maluca for providing the Hoboken ordinance that we did use as a model and then it was modified significantly at the last meeting to be more specific as to Saddlebrook and if anybody has any further comments before the next meeting before we adopt it please shoot me an email and I'll try to well I will make any changes uh for that meeting if you have any uh I think that the revisions that were discussed are all Incorporated but it again there were many revisions made so you may want to take a second look and uh suggest other changes as well thank you now therefore be resolved that an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 196 of the code of the township of sbook entitled vehicles and traffic here to for passed on first reading be further considered for final passage at a meeting to be held May 16th 20124 at 7:00 p.m. or soon or after as the matter can be reach at the municipal complex 55 Mayhill Street and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning set ordinance according to law with the notice of its introduction and passage on first reading have the time in place when where set ordinance will be further considered for final prac motion motion second councilman samuka yes councilman Garrick yes councilwoman Sanchez yes Council Mas yes council president Comm yes ordinance three on the agenda's first reading ordinance 1746 d24 an ordinance to amend and supplement an ordinance entitled an ordinance to fix water rates and service charges and penalties for the Municipal Water System of the township of Saddle River now known as Saddlebrook and the county of Bergen revision of 1931 as amended and supplemented for first reading motion motion second all in favor I I now therefore be resolved by the township Council that an ordinance to amend and supplement an ordinance entitled an ordinance to fix water rates and service charges and penalties for the Municipal Water System of the township of Saddle River now known as Saddlebrook in the county of Bergen revision of 1931 as amended and supplemented here to for passed on first reading be further considered for a final passage at a meeting to be held May 16th 2024 at 7:00 p.m. where soon there after is thetic can be reach at the municipal complex 55 May Hill Street and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance according to law with the notice after its introduction of passage on first reading have the time in place when where set ordinance will be further considered for final passage motion motion approve second local councilman simuka yes councilman Garrick yes Council Sanchez yes Council Masa yes council president aaman [Music] yes all items listed with an aster are considered routine and noncontroversial by the township Council and will be approved by one motion there will be no separate discuss discuss on these items unless a council member or members so requests it in which case the items or items will be removed from the consent agenda considered in its noral sequence on the agenda the one motion signifies adoption of all resolutions receiving file letters correspondence reports and approval of minutes and applications motion motion second call councilman samuka yes councilman garri yes Council Sanchez yes Council Maser yes council president Alo yes whole business new business just the chair I just got a couple couple comments um I I wanted to I agree with Mr simuka about the the whole thing with the Army Core of Engineers you know what it's it's amazing and and the the wasteful spending because those studies cost millions of dollars and they basically do it they spend all that money and and they tell you that they restrict what you could do they they tell you you can't do what you want what you need to do to correct the problem it's it's just it's amazing and uh you know I know you you don't want to just go and do something without without consulting with the experts but I'd rather them give us that money to do things that we're allowed to do with drainage and such um as far as with the appraisals uh Mr Rodriguez it it's incredible it really is it's I it's frightening in a way I feel sorry for the for young people the new homeowners that people looking to buy a house it's I A friend of mine just sold his house basic Cape uh nice you know nice neighborhood small yard cuz he got a garage he he he was asking 530 for it he ended up getting 600,000 for a standard Cape yeah the kitchen was done over it was nice looking house but no additions I mean it it's it's just it's getting out of control it really is so uh I mean I guess eventually it's they're going to have to come down may just to piggy back off that the neighbor next door to me just rented their cape for 3850 a month standard Cape no Dormer no addition standard Cape no garage 3850 a month the rent it's crazy yeah it is and then the last I just wanted to mention about the the water rates that um during Co we were not the state had a law that you weren't allowed to raise the rates during that that two threee time period so we couldn't have raised them anyway even if we wanted to but you know that that we haven't raised him in four years so but Su is now it's me here they raised it they raised it twice I think so we we have to pass that along uh and other thing too what uh what Flo said about the the sponsors I I I I missed that that's a really important thing because the businesses in this town they and you know what they're it's it's a tough economy they're hurting right now too so and they still they still give they still give back to the community which is a wonderful thing so I thank them I thank all the sponsors not only little Le that sponsor all the rec programs and our concerts all the things are our uh Township Technic so thank you for all them I don't know if anybody mentioned yard sales did we mention it this month you did oh you did okay everybody knows the dates good okay anyone else do this over the meeting to uh agenda items only motion to reopen the meeting for agenda items second all in favor I motion is open for agenda agenda items only anyone she [Music] speak Omar Rodriguez uh I was accused of using this as a platform I've been doing this for years bringing up points but anyway if that's how you want to take it I wonder how the other cers have been expressing themselves that are running for election are they selling the platform of course not this is democracy anyways Point ordinance number two I just need to point it out on the ordinance really quick I believe it's like seven pages but on page three under D2 uh I'm just wondering if you can just be tricked a little bit because it's my impression that electric scooter can be right by two persons and it's very dangerous because they ride in the middle of the street and if it's two people in a SC in a scooter kind of dangerous it should be just allow one passenger I believe I believe and also because it's just 10 minutes of five minutes to read the entire book is see any possibility to have the agenda ahead of time or at least one day or 12 hours before online or have the recordings of the workshop meetings that will help the residents to understand what's going on in the town um moving forward ordinance number three um oh by the way C looka by any stretch of your imagination I never said that I was trying to be single out with a $50,000 increase no just to just to cover and thank you for men but no I'm just saying that residents deserves an explanation and tonight some kind of explanation was brought up and that's what I was looking for just to have The Interchange of words or or or or ideas uh ordinance number three on the water rat uh I heard two council members saying tonight that we're not making no money when I said we the government not making no money council president let me ask you this do you know how many payroll members on pay employees do we have in the water department are we paying any employee out of the water department line item do you know that yes we are oh yes you are how many it's three how much money that's how we making money that's how we making money to say that we're not making money that's how we make money because basically we're receiving the water from the company and just putting into the home owner residency or commercial buildings but we are paying salaries one two 3 four five employees we paying out of the money so that's money that shouldn't be getting paid out of the water department it shouldn't be getting paid out of regular payroll but we using the water department to get money out of the water and paying those employees for your information so somehow yes we are making money is it fair now to say we're not making money I don't think that it's fair actually to increase the rat to the homeowners under those conditions unless you guys come and tell the homeowners of the truth whether we making money or not government is making money with this thank you very much for listening happy Mother's Day if we don't see each other time for change thank you close motion close all [Music] favor all right motion to a journey um just one second I just want to mention something I just want to um acknowledge our our uh fire department for the mutual that they provided to um a devastating fire Garfield the DPS yeah a long time favorite place of mine as well but I'm glad that everyone you know returned home safe and U thank you again through the chair if I may just uh if I may point out one item if that's okay uh no no it's okay um just if it's okay regarding utility budgets um just to to what the member of the public just mentioned just in general the especially here but it's also industry standard and and municipal government even other levels of government when there is a utility that's ran through and operated by The Entity it has its own uh operating budget and it's completely appropriate and fair to um itself liquidating and offsets itself it should in theory um and also it's very appropriate industry standard to supplement those salaries in and out of that utility budget so it's very appropriate to to you know to In and Out whatever all those salaries and the positions that are are required to to run and sustain that utility what comes in and what's generated through there is meant to offset thank you just in general thank you thank you just for the people out there that may be new to saddle government the gentleman who was complaining or not complaining I don't want to misinterpret uh misrepresent what it was said but the person who said that the salaries of that of those employees should not be paid out of the water budget have always always been paid out of the water budget and I believe can't be quoted on it but uh there was an issue because we had that particular person was on the council probably had five or six people who were on the uh on the payroll through the water department and those people have had nothing to do with the water department whereas currently the people that are on the payroll do uh are intimately involved with the water department including the person the water Clerk and people that are uh assigned to do uh functions with the water utility so a little disingenuous to to say that we shouldn't be doing that when it's been done forever and done when that person was on the council and was council president and we now know that the slogan is going to be time for a change so thank you for pre previewing that for us thank you Engineers report I forgot about so I apologize about problem no problem um just uh Hobson Avenue last fall water M was replaced um very soon there's going to be worked on to improve the street itself uh some concrete curb and some drain uh minor drainage improvements and then the roads going to be M and paved so that may be happening you might see start seeing some work next week and that milling and Paving should happen soon as well as the portion of Midland Avenue that the uh new water me was installed um the road program we've uh We've today actually submitted completed plans for Samson Street and submitted them to njdot for their review Once they buy off on everything we can go out to bid uh Orchard and Sterling Place those plans are also complete they'll be submitted to cdbg tomorrow and then we we can very soon very shortly go out to bate on those roads we're currently working on the other six roads that are part of the program we've completed surveying them we're now preparing the plans and we'll look to go out out to bid on in the near future on those roads and uh the last Road that's scheduled for Paving is Alberta Drive um those folks should should be patient we're we're still waiting for confirmation but I believe the gas company will be replacing the gas g on that road so we will allow that to happen first before m in overlay and that's all I got right thank you council president just I have one more thing uh I just want to wish all the mothers out there a happy Mother's Day I failed to mention that before and I want to make sure my locks don't get changed at home so uh at least I can get in the house so happy Mother's Day to all the residents thank you just want to just want to say that I believe that this Council Miss mayor have um engaged in the most comprehensive Road program in the history of S Brook so uh trying to get to every road there were years there were decades where no roads were paved uh but as you heard we've got a number of roads being paved this year and we have already in plans for for next year so um I think that we are um trying to help uh the town uh by doing the right thing so that's been changed we changed from we did change from not Paving roads to having a comprehensive and successful Road program and it benefits everyone thank you motion toour motion second all in favor I [Music] [Applause]