##VIDEO ID:noDs0FgKRTc## good good I'm just checking to make sure oh you have it thank you this meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public public meeting law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided this meeting of September the 3rd 20124 was published in the Korean news and Star Ledger and placed in the barl website notice of this meeting was also placed on a bulletin board at the borrow Hall with a complete agenda a copy of this note is available to the public and a copy of the statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting roll call please mayor Brian Gallagher here Teresa Bonner here Glenn Deni here Tom Mitchell here Randy pits is excused for tonight Gina straic here Roger V here okay please stand for the salute to the flag and please remain standing for a moment afterwards I algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and jce and I would just ask for a moment of silence for uh for Lorraine Sarah Lorraine was a a fixture in our downtown for many decades her husband Bill and Lorraine ran for many years the Somerville Business and Professional Association which essentially is the uh Chamber of Commerce for for Somerville businesses um she was a store owner uh on town on Main Street and uh she was an absolute character um you had pleasure of working with her or getting yelled at by her uh she was just a wonderful wonderful person who had Somerville in mind all the time so please a moment of silence thank you okay moment uh uh motion for approval of the minutes of august 19 2024 so moved second discussion roll call Teresa Bonner yes Glenn Deni abstain Tom Mitchell yes Gina straic yes Roger Ru yes okay departmental reports and notices are as listed I do have uh one uh Proclamation uh for ovarian cancer awareness month and uh Kevin uh this was sent in to me on Friday Kevin uh put together a proclamation uh very quickly Zena put together a proclamation for me very quickly and I appreciate that very much uh can you ensure that this gets into the right hands thank you you all right uh committee reports let's start with Tom uh yes mayor the National Park Service has announced the award of a $750,000 semiquincentennial grant to the DP for rehabilitation of the Old Dutch parsonage Grant funds will pay for a historical architectural consultant to design and contract installation of gutters leaders and flashing sofit and cornice restoration window door and shutter restoration and brick and Foundation masonary repair and repointing in addition storm water management will improve Downstream Environmental Quality for the residents of the community that's all I have mayor well thank you that's a great addition uh and and greatly needed so thank you Gina uh the Board of Health will be meeting on uh the 18th of uh this month uh 6 pm at the um Warren Street Building uh they have their meetings there check the website it'll be posted um so they're just getting uh resuming from summer so they'll have a a planning meeting going on so anyone has any ideas for Board of Health projects uh we'll be doing that as well as revie reviewing the latest dat data um the uh um Rescue Squad uh will be at the uh 911 ceremony on uh September 11th uh and they're also planning a trip to the memorial uh in November uh for especially for members who are on the squad at that point in time and served in New York City my report thank you CL thank you mayor uh environmental commission uh has teamed up with New Jersey Electric vehicle association and ridewise to bring back the electric vehicle car show uh it'll take place along with the street F on October the 6th um also they've uh We've promoted their first social and cleanup event on Instagram and have partnered with some people to clean up some of our parks and that was a successful one they're going to plan on having another one so tune in to Instagram or Facebook to see when that happens and then also there's been ongoing review of the DP storm water management plans to try to help uh get everything up to speed on that uh the meeting will be held next Tuesday uh tune in for time and location great all right thank great thank you Teresa thank you uh the Somerville public library has open Notary hours every Wednesday starting at 10: a.m. in the main reading room uh and uh 10 uh teen leadership committee meets Thursday September 6 uh SE September 5th 5th I'm sorry at 600 p.m. uh in the young adult room if you have a teen looking for volunteer hours please have them register and attend um ATS nj.com that's it thank you Roger certainly from Somerville Recreation the spray parks will remain open until mid-september uh Michael LEP Park is open from 10 to 6 and John long is open from 11 to 6 uh registrations are being accepted for the following programs the NJ Santos Rush Soccer CL clinic and games for ages 4 to 7 adult pickle ball lessons beginner and intermediate uh youth tennis lessons grades K to2 3 to five and 6 to8 Junior Pioneer basketball clinic uh is is happening at Vander and also we have the Somerville 5K Turkey Trot uh the fee did go up uh the early bird is over so the fee for the month of September is $40 to register all of our activities can be found at Somerville j.org fall-- activities thank you okay thank you uh just a couple of things one uh the planning board has begun their review process of uh planners uh a number of months ago we solicited uh requests for proposal from uh from a number of different planners we're looking at three different areas uh one area is the day-to-day planner uh another is the uh the documents which include the master plan the Redevelopment plans uh and then the third is is the housing plan as we gear up for uh for the affordable housing component uh which the regulation should be coming out in December I believe it is yes um and and they didn't leave us much time so we're trying to get get ahead of that uh so they're still currently under review uh and then a bit of interesting and nice news um over the past uh eight months um I've gotten to know a gentleman named Drew Smith uh Drew was uh born and raised here in Somerville and uh his father was Arthur Smith a former mayor and uh he was mayor from January 1 1966 to December 31st 1967 that's back when they had two-year terms rich I don't know if you remember him good so if you go up in Burl Hall um he's the handsome gentleman with the shock of white hair you can't miss him he's on the left hand side as you go up the steps and uh and his son has that same shock of white hair um but we've had some great discussion over the time his father owned a an insurance agency on Davenport Street and uh just a very uh engaging conversation so he just recently uh moved back to Somerville or at least part-time and uh he uh he was going through his things as he was clearing out his house and he found a few items so he asked if I would get these to the uh uh the historic committee and uh he's got a couple of things one is his original name plate which I think is kind of cool and then for provenance we have a photo of the council from 1966 which is kind of cool because if you look closely the council used to meet up on the second floor of burrow Hall and if you know where Dave Meyers office is you've got those stained glass windows right above the porch Portico uh as you enter burrow Hall that's where the council sat and uh it was just very very uh very intriguing um and then they also put out a little booklet of uh all the Committees commissions and uh and the folks and they also gave all the uh mayor and council's phone numbers too and they're addresses of where they live so I think actually most people know where we are anyway so uh but that was neat one of the really nice things though he uh he gave me something and he said I'm giving you this um to give to Historic but I want you to use it for the remainder of your term and that's his original gavl and the gavl actually has his inscription his name and his uh his term of service on so he asked if I would use it and uh use it in in good faith and and in good company and uh and I will I'm going to keep it back here each meeting I'll I'll I'll bring it out but uh I think it's just a nice bit of history that uh that we can kind of continue on so I'll turn those over to you Tom accept the gavl um at the end of the meeting so so Drew here's for your Dad how's that good good stuff um next up order of business the mayoral appointment uh with the uh resignation of uh dear rosinski we have an opening uh we have a current um alternate member uh who's been an alternate for uh for a number of years uh Christopher addex I'm going to bring him up as and appoint him as a planning board class 4 member uh to continue uh in dear's uh term so I'll make that appointment um at this point I will ask for a motion to open the meeting to the public so moved second discussion roll call council member Teresa Bonner yes Glen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Gina straic yes Roger V yes okay uh please state your name and address for the record and please address your comments to me the public portion is now open Megan Andrews 12 Walnut Street I've reached out to you uh and burough staff and board several times as well as spoken here regarding the resolution violations at 131 North Gaston Avenue parking lot since the beginning of the year the parking regulatory sign on William Street was taken down and the exit on William Street which the resolution was very clear about being oneway was turned into a two-way opening this occurred years ago the building over owner never asked nor received a variance the local police department eventually replaced the no stopping or standing sign but told me personally it was up to the town to deal with the change of traffic flow and missing signs in the lot I mentioned this several times to Mr sluka uh even as of Midsummer he made a comment to me that he would might ask the police to handle the violation as per the information I got through OA the business owner was informed of the violation and given 20 days to respond a meeting occurred with the owner and burough staff including Mr sluka and the town was under the impression the owner was going to seek a variance however last I was aware they never did since then I've got no information about where the matter stands or how much time is going to pass before this dangerous situation gets rectified meanwhile there's been at least five car accidents on that block of William Street in the last few years I believe the last one included three cars directly in front of the store or that mall when I asked Mr sluka where things stand with this he said he had no further information he could publicly share when I asked for clarification about that he said the matter was I was referencing is an active case when I asked for clarification on that he said the public is entitled to documents which I have provided to you I report directly to the mayor and governing body and the statutes of matter and future steps are discussed with the appropriate members of the organization which can include legal counsel governing body and mayor on all types of matters I'm unable to provide you additional additional clarification as I feel I have appropriately responded to you the matter you are referencing is not closed and remains an active matter school starts tomorrow and the town has identified the violation they're not offering the public any more information about how this matter is going to be held and what if any timeline can be expected for its rectification you sir have stated a lot about how transparent the town is but this sure doesn't back up that statement I remember you making a big deal about leaving me a voicemail supposedly to answer my questions about this but still hadn't even after I showed up to the next council meeting my second concern has to do with your response to myself and another Resident who spoke in April at a council meeting I emailed you my concern since then followed up at least once and more than once with Mr sluka no answer to refresh your memory it was the meeting when there were a lot of Eagle Scouts in the audience and at the beginning of public comment you inform the speaker resident that you don't go back and forth with residents during public comments the thing is you had gone back and forth with residents at past meetings including February 5th this year I emailed you examples of those q&as that occurred and I'm happy to resend them to anyone anyone the links and minutes that show that they occurred that night was also when I brought up how there were only two sets of minutes for the entire year at that that time but after public comment you stated that and I quote we've been very very thorough in our ability to get minutes done on a very timely basis and that will continue I'm assuming now that you were talking about past years because that statement was definitely not accurate at that time ever since you took office that night you also claimed that folks were going after burough employees and officials families on social media you gave the impression that you were accusing residents who are against the new gun store of doing this which floored me and several others because to be clear I have no knowledge of anything like that coming from that side of the aisle nor does anyone I've spoken to your words that night were especially disconcerting because the young people in the audience that night the statements I'm referring to were either flat out ontrue Andor from a biased perspective something I think the group of young people here earning a communication badge should know although we couldn't ask questions at the meeting we did bring up issues which you didn't respond to I'm going to ask again even though I have an email how come no one ever mentioned to the concerned residents that there was an appeal option even if the belief was that we missed the time limit how come you just repeatedly said nothing can be done instead of something like if you had sought an appeal before the time limit passed then there would be options it was as if no one there knew there was an appeal process or that they were trying to hide the fact that there was one from my point of view anything any of the res ents have brought up regarding anything at 131 North gas Avenue you're going to need to begin to wrap this up please thank you one sentence from my point of view anything any of the residents has brought up regarding anything at 131 North Gaston Avenue has been either dismissed mocked or otherwise not met with any kind of respect or an actual want to have residents involved thank you any other public comment I am here to talk about the insurance ordinance that is um on the table for tonight uh we'll take that up at the or the time of the ordinance at the time of the ordinance okay yeah we'll have a public uh before voting on it yes absolutely okay thank you thank you any other public comment hi uh Jennifer lochran um Bridgewater New Jersey um you might remember me uh as the skate park lady I do who's sometimes mad at pickleball uh for the record I don't hate pickall um I do have some feelings about the hundreds of skate parks across the country that were replaced with pickleball courts but I actually very much like your pickleball court um so one of the issues that I wanted to bring up was about how Redevelopment changes the landscape of our towns but often it also pushes young people out of public spaces uh for example the first skate competition in Somerset County was held on Division Street the train station three stair was a local spot where we would all meet up before like we went you know on the train line to another town um kids now get shooted off of the 911 memorial and out of plazas the police and the sheriff are actually really cool about it they don't write tickets now um but they hang out on the top of garages they ride their bikes along the train tracks they they haul obstacles over to that slab that's across from the pickleball court only for it to be taken away and I'm not saying you guys take it away it's it's probably hauled off by kids and you could say well if they didn't spray offensive graffiti then you know maybe um but I think that if they had somewhere to go that was theirs and they were encouraged to be stewards of that space it would be different you could say go to Anan but why should they have to leave their own Community especially for something like skateboarding and roller skating and riding bikes and did you know that Anan was actually originally unsanctioned it was actually built by local skateboarders kids today are in dire need of social spaces of sensory play of physical play and a sense of community and Mr Mayor you were the first to build a skate park in Somerset County you recognized that youth needed this Outlet sure it had some issues but you changed the lives of so many young people and now old people like me we still remember that skate park development has changed it's not like what it was back when you built that Park and skat Park advocacy has taken on a whole life of its own I found it BR skateboarding to promote lowcost Action Sports such as skateboarding parkour roller skating scootering and BMX with the encourage of per of with the purpose of encouraging young people to engage in Social and physical activities within their own community and to make these activities accessible including to those who have Financial insecurity behavioral complexities and disabilities my catchphrase build a skat Park means so much more than just building a skate park as towns like yours redevelop I'm here to ask you to consider these activities as part of it consider bike Lanes free public spaces for multi- recreational purposes parks and recreational facilities consider that skate park obstacles can mitigate water and build a skate park thank you you thank you any other public comment uh James Meister 102 Bermuda Drive uh Branchburg so I'm back for episode two of the environmental uh discussion on the ordinances that should be passed in Somerville as well as Branchburg I've been there as well um one of these ordinances is the flood Hazard area control act that the state passed that requires municipalities to also pass this act the purpose of this is to or designed to minimize the impact of flooding on human life um a fellow neighbor mentioned overdevelopment as a common theme in the state and I understand that some a lot of the time it's out of the municipalities controls but when it comes to the environmental conditions that we are sitting in especially after Hurricane Ida when it comes to flood area which we saw a lot of in the recent years um this policy is applicable to activities including construction development and land use changes um and more importantly it provides that there's protection for natural flood plane functions water filtration wildlife habitat and groundwater recharge which are really you know up on the level of environmentalism here which is really important for our community um the second one here is a storm water management act again another one passed by the state that municipalities are required to act now this also is related to the environment as understood but um it's with storm water management and the water quality with groundwater recharge and the requirements would be that municipalities adopt the storm water management plans as part of their Master plans and Implement them through these ordinances this is really crucial for the greater good of the community and um the the final thing I want to address is an ordinance that I personally drafted that I plan to uh propose and discussed at the environmental commission meeting next Tuesday um that also discusses flood planes um that recent uh proposed idea for the giant apartment building I think down by some R ice cream I believe it was down by Hamilton Street um they declared that there was no flooding issue in the boarding meeting despite the fact that clearly it exceeded the floodline according to Drone footage back in Hurricane Ida um so before that is constructed and before it's even uh you know set in stone that that is happening this would really help mitigate those potential conflicts thank you thank you any other public comment hearing not I'll ask for motion to close so moved second discussion roll call council member Teresa Bonner yes Glenn Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Gus straic yes Roger Room yes so I'm gonna go in reverse order so uh um the regarding the uh flood Hazard control area and the storm water management act I I agree with you um one of the things that we're doing right now at the planning board um we are taking a look at planners planners and engineers and and we're making a determination both in three areas one we're hiring a planner engineer for well maybe not an engineer but a planner for day-to-day planning issues uh dealing with uh site plan applications at the planning board level um second is uh housing plan uh um and and and preparing ourselves for the affordable housing rules that are coming down uh at the turn of the year uh and then the the third is the um what I'll call the supporting documents um the master plan uh the Redevelopment plans the uh the recreation plans because this stailes into what you were speaking about Jennifer um and and we're taking a look at all of those and and you're right flood Hazard and the storm water management we actually just had some discussion on on one of those tonight um uh so it it is top of mind it's it's something that we are beginning to look at um we understand obviously with the raran uh with the petersbrook and the r River Confluence uh were're affected uh almost on every storm and it's a challenge so we have to make sure that our environmental concerns work in sync with our development conc concerns work in sync with our Recreation concerns and that and and that's not an easy task so but trying to approach them as one-offs um and taking one individually we have to look at them as a whole and what we're going to do is to start with the master plan and then begin to Branch down from that into our other documents so that we can support ultimately what we want to do in the master plan so that's kind of uh an answer to you and in regards same thing uh Recreation um we're not we what we don't want to do is uh a shotgun approach and we want to create uh a recreation master plan that fits the needs not only of today but you know 10 years from now we have to understand what people are demanding and something I told you last year when we spoke we have to understand what people are demanding and it's not just kids it's it's folks my age well dare I say see can I say senior am I am I am I there yet I don't know um but uh um but it it runs the spectrum of all the ages but we have to understand that what what those desires are From somerville's perspective first so but it is on it's on you know it's on the table absolutely um and then um Miss Andrews isn't here I don't know if she stepped away or if she left um the the issue regarding 131 North Gaston Kevin if I'm not mistaken that's in the hands of Code Enforcement uh and they will they will follow that as as they need to uh comp with the law and uh you know once a determination is made then they'll move forward with that um she did say something that I I found a little disconcerting that uh that we've been very untransparent regarding the uh the firearm store um what I can tell you is that there have been over 26 Oprah requests made on this site 26 um every one of them complied with uh every one of them uh turned over uh rightfully so every citizen has the ability to uh to request those documents um but what I will tell you is it becomes owner at a certain point and and it shuts burrow Hall down nothing else can be worked on when an opah request comes in I think people need to understand this when an OP request comes in everything stops everything because we have a set timeline I think it's just it actually loosened up today a little bit but we have a set timeline that we have have to comply with and if we don't we have fines that we have to face so those become our primary responsibility and we answered every single one of them uh hundreds of emails uh regarding this very issue uh to not only Kevin but to various Personnel um the amount of time and money uh that was expended on this um was inordinate um I understand understand the passions behind them I shared some of the concerns uh but at some point it reaches a uh it becomes onerous and I think folks have to understand uh and I instructed Kevin at one point when somebody calls and says why isn't this done you need to explain to them why because we have to fulfill oah requests first uh it wasn't targeting anyone in particular but we have to fill those first those are our primary responsibility uh otherwise the tax we get hit with a fine which ultimately the taxpayer has to get hit with um we will always strive to be transparent um you may not agree with the answers that are provided but I try to give very unbiased answers when I sit at this table I've been doing this for 20 years and some would say it's probably too long but what I would say to you is there's a reason I've been doing this for 20 years because I try to answer people's questions I try to be fair and I try to be reasonable and I try to listen to all sides um so you know targeting burrow Hall targeting folks uh yes people were uh targeted with language uh that that's an absolute fact and and I take umbrage with that and I've said that at the time that I will defend my staff because my staff is topnotch they work extremely hard every single day this Council works hard every single day and I will defend them as well um we do this because we care about this town um and and if you have a difference of opinion I welcome that sometimes it changes their mind sometimes it it actually adds to our conversation it does it's why we encourage people to come um this young man has been coming to meetings now and you know some of it I look and I I listen and I go and some of it you know what he just talked about two things tonight right on point right on point um and we agree with that so you know that's how government works it's a give and take it's not just a take take um we have to listen to understand not listen to respond so um with that uh let's move on to ordinances for introduction the first one I'm actually going to pull because I think we need to have some discussion on this at our next council meeting um I think this one is worthy of this is regarding garbage and this affects everybody so I think it's worthwhile for us to have a deep dive that's a bad no pun intended on the Deep dive um but I think we need to have a deep dive on this and actually walk through it we can put it up on the screen and show what the changes are uh what they aren't and and why they're being done done and actually have a conversation about it first before we do an ordinance introduction I think that's I think that's a lot of time well very well spent are we mending this for our own accord or is this a state regulation that we have to meet uh it's it's it's on our own accord the but the challenge we have is I think we have a year left on our huling contract Kevin is that correct oh we do we have a uh a little more than a year left on the solid waste collection contract so this does affect that a little as well as immediate uh uh sanitation needs not I wouldn't say immediate but sanitation needs that we got to take care of and we're facing some challenges with the way the bidding laws are being structured now and and what more importantly what the responses are in terms of what will be picked up and what won't but I think that's that's exactly why we need to have this as a as a discussion point at the Council next council meeting so if we can put that on the agenda for discussion right all right uh number 2 741 is amending chapter 166-cc Street East of North Bridge Street uh this is an ordinance that um on the on the corner of Northbridge and uh and West Cliff uh the the very large Victorian it's on the North Western Corner uh has a zoning board approval to convert uh the office building into residential uh Without Really changing the character of the building uh at all I think the planning board or the zoning board did a great job um but as part of that there are two spaces that are um that that let me back up the driveway is within literally 10 or 12 feet of North Bridge Street and uh the the property owner wants to move uh the driveway further to the West in order to create a safer space so in order to do that um the there are two parking spaces there that would need to be rescinded uh to allow for a curb cut for a driveway to go in that driveway will then also access two properties it's not just the one property it's also the adjacent property uh the zoning board uh went through this uh it's their recommendation that this be done Council heard this and vetted this at the last meeting uh the uh the applicants attorney uh came in explained uh additional information to us and uh the council uh unan unanimously thought that uh that this was a worthwhile Endeavor so um I will open for public comment on 2741 which is not required but it is something that I do on introduction so public comment is open on 27:41 hearing none we'll close and motion for introduction uh so moved with a comment let's get a second second second discussion yes uh I believe the uh in the title it says it is east of North Bridge Street I believe it is west of North Bridge that's correct Tom it is that's it the the other question I have is have the uh residents been notified you know are the residents on that use potentially use those spots been notified that this is I think they would be notified at after this meeting for uh for adoption correct yeah I mean generally they're not notified in advance I I will tell you it's probably likely those spots are being utilized by people that uh because they're free spots yeah so that they're likely to be utilized during the day by people that are going to court actually yeah um or somewhere else and we may gain one spot back that's correct yeah U because we can't gain two because it gets too close to the corner yeah so but we might be and that's going to be kind of a game day decision once they do it we'll check it out and see how you know what the Dynamics are yeah and those spots are not in front of a residence okay they're in front of the that residence yeah well that that that house that structure yeah but it isn't not yet a residence correct that business yes all right uh roll call council member Teresa Bonner yes Clen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes jusic yes Roger Room yes all right uh ordinance number 2742 is an ordinance providing funding for burall HVAC renovation project for the burrow of Somerville at appropriating $360,000 for such purpose Uh Kevin just kind of give us a brief overview on that sure so so uh ball has no air condition so uh we've been operating for the last year with window units the chiller went out about two about a year ago um we did look at the price of that uh to replace chillers are generally lasting in our building anywhere from 10 to 12 years I was here when the last one was purchased it's a significant amount of money um that that's no longer it's kind of an older system so we've met with our our Architects that handle historic preservation and we talked about going into a split system we' lose the window air conditions obviously there there are going to uh it's going to be a different type of system that's in there um and what this appropriation is doing is paying for the design and eventually uh bidding and construction of that project okay uh again uh public comment is not required on introduction but I open up anyway public comment on 2742 is now open hearing none I'll close public comment and roll call council member Teresa Bonner yes Glen Deni yes Tom Mitchell uh yes with a comment jic you want to comment yes you haven't voted to approve it yet this is closing public comment no no I public comment doesn't need a I don't think we got a first and second then to approve it did we no no we didn't oh I need a motion so moved second all right discussion Tom yes uh I just wanted to to say uh we want to make sure that that uh this new design is is consistent with the historic nature of the property that that we're not putting uh per uh mechanical devices in that that are upsetting the the uh uh aesthetic of the building okay we do have to get shipo approval for this um but based on the architect's experience in other historical buildings they've approved that um so we are using uh the same architect that did the preservation plan so they're quite familiar with with our building as well as uh ship house so when it does get to a point we are going to have to get State historic preservation is that HMR that is HMR yes good good okay second comment um I also sent assistant engineer Mark Abraham uh a couple resources um to contact regarding um energy savings uh uh funding programs um so I don't know if he's looked at those or Shaham he he did reach out for me I explained to him what that program was he had some familiarity with it uh we're investigating that program as a potential Source that's usually um that's usually utilizing the Energy savings that's captured from the project to pay for a contractor sometimes the preservation programs are a little tricky about that but we did uh use that for the fair years ago um but if that's an applicable uh way of of uh saving money and and sourcing it it's we're examining that so thank you yeah and there are a couple resources too that were uh at the league of municipalities a couple different firms that also deal in Energy savings uh programs so if that one doesn't work there may be others but I I would urge us to um see if we could recapture there's plenty of government money out there for these programs thank you great thank you any other public comment public Council com roll call Teresa Bonner yes Glen Den yes Tom mitu yes Gus straic yes Roger Room yes all right uh ordinance number 2739 is an ordinance for public hearing and adoption this is amending chapter 97 entitled Insurance creating article two to be titled business insurance registration uh this is intended to uh uh comply with the uh state law uh which uh essentially states that there's a certain level of insurance that a business must have shall have uh as a part of their uh as a part of their operation and it authorizes the uh uh burrow Hall to uh to collect those at a certain point in each year um it is not retroactive I know that there's been some discussion on that as to whether it is retroactive or not it's a point forward it's not a point backwards uh so there is no retroactivity to this um the uh I think that's about it so I'll ask for a motion for public hearing so moved second discussion roll call council member Teresa Bonner yes Glen Deni yes Tom Mitchell yes gvic yes Roger V yes public hearing is now open all right Caroline Flo uh 37 West Spring Street um so I'm glad to see that the um burough is coming into compliance with New Jersey state law uh 1368 um I actually hold a a license I'm a licensed Insurance professional um so this was something I was very grateful to see the time and effort that went into this and I appreciate all of that um there were a couple of things questions and things things that came up for me when I was reading through the document uh that was attached to the agenda um so in reading through it if I understand it correctly it seems like there's going to be a form provided to the businesses in town by uh the burough Clerk and if so um have you guys had a chance to review that form um you can ask questions make comment it's not a back and forth okay all right very good thank you so um that's just general question all right um the second thing is that I see the the use of the word unlawful in here um typically that word when it's used in reference like this is typically talking about a criminal act and not a civil act this is a civil law and so typically like with civil laws my understanding is that um fines can be levied if things aren't followed through but we're not like throwing anybody in jail typically um all right so section five talks about how an application for uh the business insurance shall be filed um and again it references the form so it would be helpful just to know what the form is because the law requires um that people provide a Certificate of Insurance um okay another section and that section actually we're referencing the bill number rather than the law number um so the bill was before it was actually voted into law it says um PL 2022 um instead of s365 um and then the other question is there's a penalty section that says there's a $500 penalty um but it doesn't really outline what would cause someone to be out of compliance and have to pay that $500 penalty um I don't see any kind of dates or deadlines or anything like that um and specifically like there isn't a whole lot outlined as to what would incur the penalty uh there's also nothing on there about when it would go into effect that the penalty would take place uh and then the only other thing I noticed and this is minor I don't know that it would really affect like whether you guys would vote Yes or no um but we have um section five and then it goes back to section three again instead of going to section six that just seems like a typo it doesn't that's not really material to all of this um but I did want to point that out though because once again like we're codifying this so I just want to be sure everything is in order um and that's really that's it thank you okay any other comments in public hear hello Seline Greaves 97 East Spring Street um I also wanted to uh thank very much the board for um taking up and addressing this issue this is important and um um I appreciate that this is being addressed um I also uh however had some uh concerns um that were brought forward um at the last meeting um about the language um in particular being um so different to um what's put forth in the state and so I would um ask that there is some time for the reconciliation um between what the intended uh result of this would be to make sure that what the languages in um being presented actually achieves that attended result um there are some discrepancies in um pardon me uh typos and also the inclusion of the unlawful illegal verbage uh that put me in a position to not be comfortable with this ordinance as written um and as so um I have spoken with an attorney and um they do unfortunately need a little bit more time to um review because of the holiday I did not expect there not to be any changes from the last time to this time so I just wanted to inform and to let you know thank you thank you any other public comment hearing n I'll ask for a motion to close the public hearing so move second discussion roll call council member Teresa Bonner yes Glen Deni yes Tom Mitchell yes G straic yes Roger Room yes all right uh and then I will ask for a motion for adoption uh mayor I'd like to to move the we table it uh for now while while the uh Miss flamos is obje well let's get it on the table and then we can have a discussion once we've adopted it it's no you once we have it open we can table correct Jeremy yeah so let's let's get let's get it up on the table we can have a discussion any time okay yeah so do we have a motion so moved second okay discussion I think we should consider public comment I mean she seems to have experience in the field and maybe we need to look at it uh so I'm trying to figure out what exactly we're looking at so I have the word unlawful um which we had some discussion on last time and I I struggle with that a little bit and I'm not trying to you know I struggle with that because something is either lawful or it's unlawful I don't I don't I don't I don't discern the difference and and uh Jeremy I I don't know if you can weigh in is there is there any criminality to using the word unlawful is there a degree sorry no the way I read it is just like any other ordinance in town that prohibits spitting on the sidewalk or littering or you have toas your dog it shall be unlawful to do any of those things and here's aine if you do do those things it's not a crime it's not even an offense it's not even a traffic violation it's an ordinance that says You must do this and here's the penalty if you don't and here's the Civil penalty if you so it's so unlawful is not reserved for criminality it can be used in civil new in particular makes a very distinction between something that's a crime something that's an offense something that's traffic violation and even lower level things like this ordinance VI okay it's as as it okay um and I might not one as as pation articles go I think where it says section penalty I think every section be article that's probably your intention should be article article all I think that's probably um and then I have the question was is there an application I'm I'm assuming you are working on that or will be working on that yeah so this this by the way this ordinance is there's not many municipalities in state of New Jersey working on this only because we're we're we're mirroring and we're getting a lot of phone calls on it saying what are you doing with it right so by that indication means a lot of people aren't working on it so so the form that that really that we're asking for is probably what we call a seamless document which people are familiar with they go online they fill it out and then they'll have to attach their certificate with it there are there we all utilize a specific software in in many municipalities in state New Jersey the company is looking at a portal right now to do this where where people can go in and fill it out and and and attach their certificate um this is not an easy task at all this is going to be it's one of those uh knee-jerk leg legislations that are going to be difficult for any municipality that's small to that don't don't have a full-time person tracking these um so it's definitely going to be a a working progress so the form really that that was being questioned it's going to have your name address and some minor information it's a certificate that's going to have the value that we're going to be able to evaluate similar to you know other certificates get we get we send it to our risk manager they look at it they say okay you could move forward and this is trying to that's trying to this is really how we're going to set it up we did talk to some local Insurance folks as well they had notifi they said that they had notified their clients that this law went into effect and if municipalities are asking for it this is what it's about but but you know they didn't get a large response either because again there's not a lot of municipalities in this area that are currently um have this in effect and active um so there's it's certainly going to be an effort of of trying to perfected over a period of time so so typically in creating the form you would wait until it's I have all the forms for other municipalities that are doing it and they're just regular forms and it's really just making sure that the the insurance company gives them that certificate of that's correct and they would send it to us and and you know our entire role is to file it at that point and at some point we're going to try to create a database that's going to match up with the form yeah because now you know businesses come businesses go um so it's going to be like I said it's going to be a little difficult to do this but you know it's a legislation where Unfortunately they didn't really talk to local government to kind of figure out how they're going going to do this um then there was a discussion about Bill versus the reference of the bill versus the law yeah um we're miror we mirrored this ordinance off of some others yeah so certainly that's what they might have had in there but I mean if the public law and the Senate bill and the assembly Bill are interchangeable it you know that could be swapped out I it's not an issue when when we when we co codify the ordinances by the way they do pick up certain things that are that are not um substantive to the intent of the ordinance and they will call us Zeno and I up they're attorneys as well they'll call us up and say Hey listen you have this in here we're just going to change this out and and that's the way the codification kind of works okay all right um and then you you will fix the uh the section numbers that yes that's di Minimus that's so about to approve this will be correct yes and and so they Di minimist changes they don't change the intent they just change very small portions just to be in more in compliant compliance um and then the question regarding the penalty and more so the timelines I think was was the uh so so the penalty the previous version had a a range of penalties so it was could have been between $100 and th 12 $2500 or something what happened was based on on the advice of council we gave a fixed amount and the reasoning before that which makes a great sense is courts are not going to hear this right and and I'm not speaking for the courts but their their their dockets are full so there may be those times when someone is unwilling to comply but willing to pay the fine so I can't have a quit hearing to determine how much money the judge is going to set for the penalty so if someone wants to come in and say listen I'm guilty I failed to do this here's my $500 penalty I'm done we're done right so that was the idea to kind of behind that change um similar to what we've done with other things such as grass cutting right where the courts are not going to hear those cases right but if someone wants to plead guilty and pay our fine they could do so so it's like paying a parking ticket you can you can pay it or yeah and and the fine will be imposed with with um obviously if someone refuses to comply that's that's you know the burrow always has the ability to find someone it says I think it probably says may fine um because we're looking for compliance right um you know so the fine is kind of a little of the bite that we have that's disposal to us as a resource that if you don't give it to us you'll get a fine um the whole idea is to get it you know okay all right um I think that covered all all of the concerns one I believe one of the concerns that you mentioned was that you didn't see when what date or deadline there was for it to be filed but I do see it under Section uh Article 2 Section 4 um registrations shall expire on December 31st of each year renewals must be submitted by December 1st of each year so we do have a deadline of December 1st um just so yeah good clear on that thank you mayor there's just one thing I got to correct on the record last time Councilman Mitchell raised a question regarding room in houses um when I reached out to um my colleagues it was kind of a split decision um but discussing it with legal councel We Believe rooming houses falls under the category of owner rental units there's really three categories while the ordinance and the state law looks very large there's only three categories it's businesses owners of rental units and owners of multif family homes with four or few units so we believe based on our conversation with Jeremy and I that the owner rental homes is a rental unit would be a roaming house so I correct my statement last time it will they will have to comply with this legislation good okay um sorry Tom so so no Jeremy I'll ask the question nothing in in here really is is more than di Minimus Chang Okay C thep okay so those can if the changes that Kevin needs to make with you know the M the typos those could be changed to reflect what we've said here based upon what we've disced after we' voted yes and those with with those revisions with the regard okay thank you now what what you what they would attach to this document would be what a copy of the insurance policy like the Certificate of Insurance Zen and I used to getting a from from from a lot of folks just like limousines and and so forth they'd have to give us a Certificate of Insurance that we're familiar with we would run it by our risk manager we we have a risk manager that would review it and just make sure it's in compliance and once it becomes standard it's probably something we could just look at at a regular basis and but usually it's a Certificate of Insurance you could tell your insurance provider just to send us a copy we we get copies of insurance certificates from folks that we don't even know who they are sometimes because I've never I've never seen a document like that with home insurance what we could probably do is put a template on our website I think you know so that people could see what it should look like if they're not familiar with it but they probably are they and but they would have to get that from their insurance provider that's correct yeah and sometimes the insurance providers will send those directly as opposed through through others um we we do get them we get them regularly in the mail yeah yeah um so there's really nothing here that would would force us to hold if if the council so decided okay um and I will I also say for the record that this ordinance came about through a comment that somebody from the public did make so this this was this was publicly driven uh and and caused us to take pause and and begin to take a look at this so um so I will ask for a roll call council member Teresa Bon yes Glenn Denise yes Tom Mitchell yes Gus traic yes Roger V yes okay thank you um consent resolutions we have one addition which is number 267 um which we will take up as an individual because it is a walk-on we don't like Walk-Ons uh but uh this is housekeeping that has to be addressed so we'll talk about that at the back end because we have to treat that one individually are there any that anybody would like to have pulled off 255 and 257 5 five 257 okay any others all right uh 251 establishing a title of hourly project manager 252 is approving Somerville Fire Department application for Kevin O'Neal 253 is approving Somerville Fire Department application for Alexander ngi 254 authorizing the sale of surface property being a 2007 F50 uh F350 dump as noted 256 is approved approving the hiring of Brendan n as an hourly part-time project manager 258 is awarding a contract through sourcewell National contract for purchase of a 2024 CV 515 truck chassis embody from Allegiance trucks 259 is cancelling uncollectible taxes uh Jacob deini known addresses 200 Davenport Street block 102 lot 3 260 is awarding a contract to Harvard protection services for crossing guard services for September 24 through June 26 261 is appointing Rebecca harmes to the position of assistant to the CFO dep Deputy tax collector 262 authorizing use of competitive Contracting for the procurement of specialized Property Management Services for the emergency services facility 263 is awarding a contract to G2 automotive technology autom automated Technologies LLC in the amount of $1 14,580 44 for the emergency services facility 264 is app pointing John gorino to the environmental commission to fill an unexpired term expires 12312 265 amending resolution 105 authorizing utilization of New Jersey state contract with steel case Inc uh in the amount of $534,500 515 for the emergency services facility uh 266 is adopting the OPA request for and appointing record custodian substitute custodian sub custodians and alternates how State speak is that um do we have a motion so moved second uh roll call Council m Tera Bonner yes Glenn Deni yes Tom Mitchell yes Gina straic yes Roger Ro yes all right 255 is awarding a contract in Nature's choice for yard waste disposal services in accordance with njsa as noted in the maximum amount of $40,000 motion please so moved second discussion uh yeah could we uh explain this to the public is this going to affect uh should this affect how we we uh put our leaves out should it uh should we work with the environmental commission to do public education on reducing uh leaves um composting leaves that kind of thing it is we're moving these leaves yeah so this does not affect the operation at all what this affects is where the where it ends up so for many years we've had uh several different options years ago we used to use the landfill um and then we were able to transition that to local farmers um and most recently to do Dukes um we we received a letter from from Dukes that they no longer could accept leaves um the way we provide it and so all the municipalities that were involved in that Arrangement had to find other sources to dispose them so this is the contract that we're going to be paying for them to accept our leaves as far as the operation and Logistics concern related to the pickup nothing changes okay it'll it'll still be picked up by uh Somerville employees that is correct and it will be transported to the to this uh Foothill Road address by our our people um it's going to it's going to a a Bridgewater location right uh the company the company's fairly local but they all they're headquartered in hell they used to be headquartered in Hillsboro um but it'll be transported to um to um Bridgewater fo word so does this include Transportation or this is just to pay the transportation's on our cost this is for them to accept there was another resolution this is only only for s for a a I'm sorry I'm confusing my resolutions this is a a year contract for this season yeah so we are paying by the yard uh it looks like so paying based on last year's estimates of what we collected um so it would be who want to do public education to to encourage composting absolutely oh yes y absolutely very much glad maybe we can put that on list for environmental commission and also with Patty hunt in terms of yep some techniques to do that better at home good all right uh roll call Council yes yes yes yes yes all right 257 is awarding a contract to WC property Management in the amount of $28,155 what'll happen is um in in addition to utilizing our forces right someone has to manage the entire project it's it's a 247 operation the fire and police station and being together there's really um it lends itself to a a greater management need so there are technologies that are in that building that we don't have the skill sets or Technologies to to respond to so this comp will come in and they'll be available 247 to handle the operations there but they would be including our vendors so what would happen would be during the day for instance our custodial management uh company would be managed by this company our our you know snow plowing our um our our technology there cameras anything that that's associate with the emergency services facil facility building would be managed by this project management compan who has an expertise in managing similar projects like this that involve Emergency Services um it's something that I particularly have not done before um I think I would I highly recommend this Approach at this point I don't think our current uh resources would be able to manage that building and and uh 247 um so I think that this is the better option so I did speak with the state of New Jersey about this because we this is I wouldn't say unique because the state New Jersey they actually manage one of their buildings as well um but the state of New Jersey has to approve the way we're doing this so this contract is for six months and then we're going into like what they call competitive contract that's a resolution that you just approved prior to that and it's going to allow evaluation of different project management companies that manage similar same type of facilities so um hopefully that answers your question um Rodney and Mark will still be involved in some level of this but for the most part the 247 operation is it would be managed by this property management company so are they going to have a person on staff 24 hours they could have people on staff so they're not going to have they shouldn't have people on staff but they could yeah they could so if if something were they needed someone there overnight they would provide that um but they act they're they they manage that so they do also provide an opportunity for for you know they could hire an electrician they could hire a plumber they could do all that under this particular contract we're asking them to U utilize our trades people um and our vendors that we utilize under this particular are trades people being our staff um not necessarily our staff but but the people we use such as plumbers electricians that are local and and you know what I'm saying so we use some local plumbers we use some local electricians weuse we use a a a local uh a higher local preference yeah we we we hire we have a local snow plow so we don't need them to hire those people they're going to manage those those entities and we're going to see during that six-month period if that option is the best option for us they offer other options too they can manage from A to Z and handle everything well it sounds like they are you said it snow plowing no no but they would be managing our vendors that that we utilize so like and again name name vendors we we have Rogers Paving for snow plowing we have um you know um total one for custodial maintenance was this a budgeted expense um I would say that that it's either we're hiring someone to manage it um which would be we we're obviously when we say it's budgeted it's budgeted for the remainder of this year it's definitely not budgeted we have not done our budget for next year yet so we're talking about the months from October through November I'm sorry October through December um that's what we're looking at and then we'll go into next year um I I think it's you know for my recommendation it's approach that that the council should take I wouldn't recommend it if it wasn't having gone through that building I don't know if you've had a chance to uh to take a tour through that building yet if not we'll no I I haven't been invited so so that we I've talked to Colin Colin is arranging an in an invite for everybody to go there um Zena has been all top of me on this she said make sure you get the council eye there so I think it's in two weeks we're nailing down the date it's the the technology in the building is uh it's beyond state-of-the-art and I could understand technology I'm I'm a little bit concerned about paying someone to plus about a lot of the stuff is under warranty so um when I say under warranty this company's also going to manage our warranties as well to make sure what's in what's not if there's something we have a a discrepancy on they'll handle that for us um it's an interesting approach I and I think that you know in either case we don't have the resources to do that and I don't think we're in a position today to hire someone to come on board to do that I think this may be an option that we consider for the long run and council did vet this uh once before you had you had brought this up we got references on on the company we we vetted that that was an executive session corre think uh councilman was there the the uh reference refences yes we have a whole proposal for them we had reviewed their references so the um they like I mentioned to you they are currently doing a they currently are handling a building that's a state occupied building which again lends itself to a little benefit for us because of prevailing wage issues as well as dealing with noise ordinances work hours over time so there's a nice value that they have because they they provide that um and you know again I think it's until we get we look at other any potential proposals that may be similar I think that I'm comfortable with with with this uh as as we get through the end of the year I just don't think that we we as Municipal staff have the appropriate resources without going out and hiring someone to manage that building on staff right now yeah thank you so they will uh for example make sure that uh we have chargers for all the batteries in the electronic I can't imagine for $28,000 great segue uh roll call please yes yes yes no yes all right uh 267 is a walkon uh this is authorizing the mayor to execute the commencement date memorandum with the rent schedule for the emergency services facility this adjusts the uh commencement date actually it doesn't yeah it adjusts the commencement date of the lease for the emergency services facility beginning uh from August 15 2024 and there is a typo it should be August 15 2064 it's 40 years right 40 years so it's right now it says 2024 um so it should 2064 all right um do we have a motion so moved so discussion roll call counc yes yes yes yes rer yes all right bills and vouchers Roger oh goody let's see here I forgot to write it down on my paper today my apologies everyone all right I make a motion to pay bills in vouchers in the amount of 1,100 25,33 second discussion roll call yes yes yes yes yes Councilman Mitchell I will entertain a motion for adjournment motion to adjourn second discussion all in favor I I opposed this meeting is adjourned