##VIDEO ID:Lnu7ZPcwtAM## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yours I'll take it take it right there square on it good evening everyone the meeting will come to order Madam clerk would you please read the adequate notice of comp statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in the preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dated December 18th 2023 which was properly distributed and posted per statutory requirements please be advised that fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain the assistant atas and return it thereafter thank you Madam clerk roll call please Mr Boer presid Mr Minar here Mr pavy here Mr Smallwood here Mr Varan present president prot present uh if everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all Madame clerk would you please read the notices regarding closed session and hearings and comments a closed session meeting is authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda please be advised that Council meetings are broadcast live on concast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturday on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 one invited to speak please come to the lecturn clearly state your name and address spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes unless you are using electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you madam clerk at this time mayor would you like to give your report I'll be glad to the Department of Community programs has a few events coming up uh including Fiesta Latina this Friday September 20th at 600 p.m. on the Village Green the doggy dip at the Aquatic Center Saturday September 21st from 10: a.m. to 12:45 with separate sessions for small and large dogs and battle of the bands on Sunday September 22nd beginning at noon on the Village Green more information on these events can be found at Summit Community programs.com other news from the DCP is that the paddle Courts at Wilson are closed until reconstruction is complete and the Age 2 to5 playground at maybe playground has been removed as part of the Village Green phase 3 Improvement project the age 5 to 12 playground at maybe remains open and the Maybe playground transformation project will'll go out to bed shortly and work is expected to begin late fall um tonight I am also looking forward to hearing from Leah Griffith who is the chair of our homelessness task force about the incredible efforts of the task force thus far really proud of this group and grateful for the energy and the Devotion to this cause um recently there have been questions about vacancies in City Hall while specific details um related to Personnel matters must remain confidential I want to assure you that these transitions present a valuable opportunity to strengthen City Hall for the future some vacancies stem from long serving employees retiring others from individuals pursuing New Opportunities or due to personal changes in one instance an opening allowed us to promote from within City Hall demonstrating our commitment to continued professional growth for our city staff another allowed us to hire someone from a neighboring Town providing fresh perspectives on our processes each change reflects the adaptability of organization ensuring we continue to evolve when the new Council and I first took office we recognized the need to enhance succession planning and we continue to make this a priority I am confident in our Direction City Hall remains stable focused and fully dedicated to serving our community finally the response to our open positions has been overwhelmingly positive people want to work here and that's a great Testament to the reputation we've built as we continue to grow we are committed to building a cityall call that is tailored for the future ensuring that we remain agile and responsive to the changing needs of our community thank you thank you Madame mayor I will give my report as president protm bear with me tonight this is obviously my first time running a meeting so I'll give you a quick update uh we have a busy night tonight ahead of us with a few proclamations uh three brief presentations uh council members swearing in uh some resolutions and some ordinances in the interest of getting business done efficiently uh we will be hearing public comments for anything on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting so any resolutions or ordinance will have public comment sorry so there will not there there will be public comment for anything not on the agenda at the end of the meeting so tonight if you want to comment in the beginning it's anything on the agenda and at the end it's anything anything that was not on the agenda um I'm simply trying something new for one meeting uh at the advice of some of my professionals uh in order to speed up the meeting uh we're going to focus on the city business first uh it's just a trial may not work out but I figured if you got this shot to be council president one time maybe you try it up so looking uh looking forward to your feedback you can tell me it was a horrible idea tomorrow um uh however I am giving two opportunities for public comments and tonight if there was uh an ordinance for a hearing you would have an opportunity to comment uh around that as well I would like to point out that tonight we will be moving resolutions 11 1461 and 11491 to uh the next meeting uh that was the Teamsters Local agreement our professionals simply need more time to review that and the bid advertisement of the park line project for phase three will go to the next meeting today I sent out a recap of the September 3rd council meeting uh in this recap there is a link to the Firehouse that our city employee Megan trindell completed I encourage everyone to not only look at the firehouse video but I wanted to recognize the talent of Megan for producing such a phenomenal video members of City Council met with the Board of Ed this week to discuss Anderson Fieldhouse Renovations and the path forward and I believe the Board of Ed will providing will be providing some updates as well as the city in the coming weeks uh as the mayor mentioned the paddle courts uh we are putting caution tape on those uh because we are renovating those but we have deemed that they're not quite uh up to our standards right now we don't want anybody to get hurt uh and I'm I'm really hoping I don't want to make promises that I I can't fulfill but with Mr tui's help I think we can potentially get the paddle courts done by Thanksgiving hopefully well it it'll be a push it'll be a push it's it's aggressive but my reach for it uh some members of council also met with employees of D regarding the saltbrook area uh that where the houses are falling into that the the streams need to be stabilized over on Springfield Avenue uh so there's a bunch of houses that are um are really suffering over there so we're working with our city engineer and d uh as well as our Consulting engineer to try to come up with a game plan there and finally I think the last thing director shreer can you just give a quick update on the Village Green project I've had a lot of questions about the Village Green it's all torn up so I just wanted him to just for a minute or two talk about that certainly The Village Green project which we identify as the phase three project is really the completion of the fourth and final quadrant of the Village Green which is the southeast quadrant which also houses the maybe playground uh project started about a week and a half ago and the plans are available online through the DCS engineering website for viewing But ultimately it will kind of mimic what's on the other quadrants where the the walkways will be realigned in conformance with the Village Green master plan uh lighting will be added uh as well as some landscaping and drainage as required uh then once this is completed it should time up well with the maybe playground so it kind of will stay under construction by next spring or early summer we should have both parts of those and both projects finished so we can enjoy that part of the Village Green thank you you thanks for giving that update and and two more quick items as you leave here tonight um from City Hall I'm probably not going to explain this correct you might be able to explain it better Rosie but they put a new light in that piece of art and it's beautiful now oh yes so if you as you go out tonight just take a look at it it's really a special they increase the wattage of the inrease the wattage of the light so as you leave tonight hopefully it'll be beautiful um and then last thing tonight one of the first resolutions will be filling the vacancy for council member in Ward 2 and then at the next meeting we will be asking for nomination for council president and I think that is all we can go on to proclamations the first Proclamation is going to be Pilgrim Baptist so Reverend Allen all right can you hear me oh God it's too tall that's better okay whereas pil Pilgrim Baptist Church is an offspring of the fountain Baptist Church originating from Chestnut Avenue in Summit New Jersey and whereas Pilgrim Baptist Church was organized in 1929 through the Visionary imagination of the late Reverend Henry R Cooper with the help of a small group of Christian worshippers the church was chartered in 1929 and Incorporated ated in 1930 property at 35 to 37 Glennwood Place was purchased in 1931 and whereas the late Reverend Nathaniel Gilmore had visions of building a new Pilgrim Baptist Church but after eight years of dedicated service God ended his work here on Earth and called him home in 1957 before his dreams materialized and whereas the late Reverend Lester Glover became successor to Reverend Gilmore and during his pastorate plans were finalized for the construction of the present Church site the church moved from Glenwood Place to 77 Morris Avenue on June 23rd 1963 and whereas the Reverend Ronald Allen senior was elected interm pastor of the church on June 24th 1997 Reverend Allen was unanimously elected as the pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church on June 5th 1998 Reverend Allen has a long list of accomplishments and under his leadership the church has experienced great spiritual growth and whereas Pilgrim Baptist Church has been a valued presence within the city of summit for 95 years and continues to be a beacon of light faith hope love praise Comfort worship fellowship and service now therefore I Elizabeth Fagan mayor of the city of summit Do hereby Proclaim September 17th 2024 as Pilgrim Baptist Church day in the city of summit and ask all citizens to join me in congratulating pil Pilgrim Baptist Church on the occasion of its 95th Anniversary in witness whereof I have here onto set my hand and caused the Seal of the city of summit to be affixed this 17th day of September in the year year 2024 [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] M out the way sorry thank you and next Proclamation um may I have uh our Beacon fire chapter uh members who are here I have Lois and hagaman who's the director I hope I'm saying these names right Katherine bber is the assistant registar Linda seelbach historic events and Patricia Dixon black as membership all right and I was practicing her name all day it's always awkward I Someday I'm gonna figure out a process here whereas September 17th 2024 marks the 237th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention and whereas it is fitting and proper to Accord official recognition to This Magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the Patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion and whereas Public Law 9:15 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the president of the United States of America designating September 17th through September 23rd as Constitution week during this week we celebrate our Constitution and the rights of citizenship that together we enjoy as the people of this proud Nation now therefore I Elizabeth Fagan mayor of the city of summit to hereby Proclaim September 17th to September 23rd 2024 as Constitution week and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties remembering that lost rights may never be regained in witness whereof I have here unto set my hand and cause the Seal of the city of summit to be affixed this 17th day of September in the year [Applause] [Applause] 2024 maybe you should go someone next to May on your other side somebody put somebody on that side balance yeah okay all right to there you go I'm G start [Applause] putting yes thank you and congratulations moving on one of our first resolutions as discussed in close session this evening uh is the vacancy left by Ward 2 candidate uh or sorry councilwoman Lisa Allen uh council member palowski thank you this is resolution number 11493 with the resignation of councilwoman Lisa Allen before her term expired um the governing body must appoint a successor to fill the vacancy for our closed session discussion Council has voted to appoint Mike McAn Mike was a two-term councilman for Ward one I believe in the teens including two terms as council president he since moved to W two is eligible to take Miss Allen's seat and we are lucky to have him I move to adopt this resolution second Council comment welcome back public you can do it now because it wasn't welcome back any public comments on that one I'll make a quick brief comment if there's no more public comments um Mike's been a leader in the community for a long time he's a mentor I think to most of us up here Greg I know he's mentored you in the past and you know I think Mike's going to be someone who uh brings the community together uh we're looking for him for leadership and I know Rosie's very excited to have Mike back uh familiar face uh Mike thanks thanks so much and uh I guess we'll do the swearing in um go I'm sorry I I just I just found my notes Here you mind uh tonight we have the pleasure of introducing uh Mr McAn to our Council following the recent appointment of Tom Tui at our last meeting these introductions are a testament to the council's sound judgment and strategic decisionmaking by bringing on individuals with extensive experience and a deep commitment to our community we are ensuring that Summit is Guided by leaders who understand our City's needs and are equipped to navigate its future with confidence Mike's proven track record as a former council president combined with Mr tui's Decades of Municipal management experience underscores our council's dedication to effective and responsible governance their appointments demonstrate our commitment to harnessing the The Experience necessary to maintain a seamless forward-looking approach in managing Summits Affairs we are excited to welcome them both on board and look forward to a positive impact they will bring to our city thank you thank you any other comments we do the swearing in Rosie uh first you have to take a vote all in favor oh yeah forgot about that okay all in in favor anyone opposed motion carries motion carries [Applause] congratulations the Bible's right under there all her stuff all all right I am well yes sure I am ready okay excellent repeat after me I Mike McAn I Mike m oh I Mike mcin do do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the government govern ments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of council member W two of council member W two according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me God so help me God [Applause] council member you'll be sitting on the other side next take your seats right take a seat now yes please take your seat that seat Mike you got to come back up here I need the wifi password get that for you tomorrow and we will now move on to presentations uh officer ktia all right all right good evening mayor May Council council president protm my uh my name is Officer David Kum with Su of police department um as we're all aware the Su Police Department please uh we have placed heavy emphasis on U Community engagement and tonight I am very proud to announce uh the return of a very popular program The Summit police trading card program this program was started in uh 2004 2005 this year marks the 20th anniversary of the program which is now the fifth installment it's going to run from now through the end of the school year and the program really aims to uh I guess Engage The Summit youth uh for them to be more comfortable maybe approaching us sorry um the back of these trading cards which is very similar to an average uh baseball trading card features uh picture of all of our officers from the chief on down to our newest higher uh addition in addition to our uh City staff within the police department um The Summit Elks here which by the way I'm sorry I didn't introduce I'm I'm here tonight with the leadership from summ Els you have Fred hanold exalted ruler ruler excuse me uh you have Fred Wolf and John dooo I know you are so um some Elks uh are very active within our community and they are they were very kind enough to sponsor this program so without them this program probably would not exist um so I definitely want to thank them for that they the summ Els have a feature trading card as well on the back of these trading cards will be either bio of the police officer um or the history of say the Elks or their mission statement as well as our Summit patch uh this year for the first time we have uh mayor Elizabeth Fagan has a trading card featured oh yeah that's going to be a hot item so uh but as I said I'm very excited to launch this program this program is going to run through the end of June uh NE next year National Night Out in August 2025 we will uh announce a winner uh or winners I should say the trading card program um all these children who I guess collect a certain number of trading CS their names get entered into a raffle for prize drawing at the end of the year and so we we'll determine at a later date um the number of winners and which prizes they they will receive uh with that let me just turn over to uh Fred here want to say a few words special thanks honored to be here in front of the council uh a few months back uh good friend mutual friend Edgar mavas came to me and said I've got an idea for you he said the summit Police Department is having their 20th anniversary of the trading card now as I look up here at the Das we have a number of summit right behind you we love to partner in town for all worthy causes and we couldn't think of a better one than partnering with the summit elk with the summit Police Department basically to bring children in a very friendly fashion to connect with our officers um now I'm going to do you the honors here of giving you the first set of el cards that we have but I also want to note that I do have two special ones that are collector items already a mayor Fagan and an officer kigga and with without anything further disclosure each has a personal message on the back so if you want to find mayor fagins you got to get a copy of this card but with that we really are honored to be here one final note all four of my children went through the summit school system and when they went through uh I was amazed at how they just love being here at our schools I was asked by Officer ciga to be there at the dear graduation now all grammar schools represented I have never seen them as enthusiastic before and I credit that fully to officer cigo so with that our uh former uh exalted ruler current uh trustee and a lot more too many to mention Rick wolf right thank thank you Fred thank you thank you da for bringing this idea to fruition um I think as everybody knows uh the Elks LOD and Summit is an in integral part of the community and and we're very proud uh that this was brought to us and that we can support it um I'm disappointed that these cards will not uh alleviate any of my parking tickets in town but but it is very special um the Elks uh believe in supporting our First Responders our police force uh as well as our fire department for State Squad and we look forward to moving this program forward and we look forward to working with the city council and and and the police department and the other First Responders and doing uh some type of event uh which uh we'll work on later this year thank you very much and that's it that's all I have to say the uh we will be putting out uh basically a list of of names cards that are maybe featured uh every other week such as maybe members of the detective Bureau or our administrative staff such as our you know C our chief and our captains uh so be on the lookout for that uh I just want to thank Megan trendell for her hard work uh Nikki Griffith um and actually i' like to mention sergeant Tom Rich he's the one who initially uh introduced this program in 2004 2005 so we're just continuing on that that tradition like you said it's a huge hit with the kids and it just uh just further solidifies um our position within this community and and um continues on with our goals of of Engagement with uh with not just the residents but our youth all right thank you thank you so much thank you joh thank you very [Applause] much okay thank you thank you Jim sure you won't find it on eBay okay I wonder how they football and now we will have our affordable housing attorney Nancy Holm give an update for affordable housing ohk good evening mayor Fagan nanc I'm sorry can you just move your microphone a little bit closer sorry is that better okay sorry I'm not usually quiet so good evening mayor Fagan uh president PRM Hamlet and members of the city council and members of the public um the latest affordable housing update news is that the city was required based upon the amendments to the fair housing act that were signed into law in March of this year to provide trust fund and unit monitoring um to the Department of Community Affairs the city's Municipal housing leison Stephanie suos and administrative Agent Mark leckington worked very hard to input the data into the new DCA database which launched only two weeks before the deadline and and expected every municipality to enter 30 years of data into a system by yesterday uh and my office also sent hard copies and emails to the DCA uh to ensure that the reporting deadline was met um I want to uh thank Stephanie and Mark for all of their hard work over the past two weeks it was an impossible task and they did an incredible job uh the city created the Mount Laural subcommittee which has been meeting since March of this year to work on recommendations for the city on how to complete its round three responsibilities as well as begin planning for round four which is set to begin on July 1st of 2025 um an overview of the city's numbers um the city lacks enough vacant land to satisfy the past two rounds worth of obligations so the court approved the city's vacant land adjustment which makes the city's actual number also called a realistic development potential uh 36 there's also going to be a test when I'm done so that you all remember all of this uh the remainder of it of the total is called the unmet need and that number is 702 the DCA will be coming out with round four numbers at the end of October for now the focus for the city is to finish round three which ends July 1st of 2025 the city has fully satisfied its RDP of 36 and has a surplus of 13 credits going toward its unmet need from already built units within the city the city H has also implemented six overlay zones to capture units in likely places where the city could possibly redevelop in the future unmet need is an aspir is an aspirational goal and the city has put all of the mechanisms in place that are required that will help it catch your unit within the new with new projects uh including a multif family set aside ordinance across the entire city the city also has a separate terminate settlement agreement with fair share housing center that states the summit shall take all reasonable steps needed to achieve the goal of facilitating the construction of 50 new rental or ownership units within the city in 100% scattered site affordable housing developments these fif this 50 new units language um are also units that apply to the city's unmet need and the city has until July 1st of 2025 to demonstrate that it has facilitated the construction of those units as you can see from the city's website 32 of the 50 have been zoned for built approved or in the planning stages we have had a tremendous interest in creating affordable units by members of the community within Summit and the subcommittee has explored options with them and most are in the infancy planning stages um as the city works with these members of the public to see what can be built and what the options are for potential projects if if at all because there's nothing concrete yet that is all I can report on these item on these items while the city can't comment on the details yet the city is also working with several developers and affordable housing providers to complete the remaining 18 units I hope to be able to report on at least some of these projects to the public in my October update the Habitat for Humanity project is built and habitat has closed on three of the 12 units so far with more closings to come the subcommittee and the city's affordable housing professionals are also working on round four recommendations and necessary tasks related to Preparing the city's round four housing element and fair share plan which must be adopted and submitted to the State's new administrative entity called the program by June 30th of 2025 as I stated previously the new numbers around four uh are scheduled to come out from DCA in late October but for now the subcommittee is exploring recommendations for the council part of that planning process was also for the subcommittee was to develop uh a recommended developer engagement process which is before the council tonight as a resolution to adopt as a formal process this way the city and developers have a chain of communication and a process by which uh developers can have projects in possibly included in the affordable housing plan um that cannot be created as of right with with the city's existing zoning um these projects can be considered in a meaningful way and the city can make informed decisions about how to plan for the round for round four my intention is to bring an update to the public hopefully once a month in the city's affordable housing accomplishments and planning for round four thank you thank you Nancy any questions from Council Members appreciate that update actually it's just curious what um what's delaying the process for filling those units for the habitat um they're for sale units so it's the same process as buying a a condom ium unit there's um loan documents and they have to be approved um they also have the extra step of um re requalifying the households as um as low and moderate income households so sometimes that just takes some time okay so they're following the process they have an administrative agent that does everything it's just a but they have applicants that just yes going through the process yes they're they're just in the process of doing all the closings now okay thank you for your update thank you for for all your efforts appreciate it thank you uh next we would call up uh Leah Griffith to give an update on the mayor's task force uh for the uh uh the unhoused and and Sumit uh good evening uh thank you for having me uh first I wanted to say thank you to the mayor and to the council for forming the task force to address such an important issue in our community I applaud all of your efforts in forming a wide and diverse first group of of people to address this tough issue um for those that are not aware our group consists of representatives from the summit Police Department Summit fire Summit first aid Squad Bridges Family Promise Summit warm Hearts Bridgeway Grace ship the Summit Foundation other fellow First Foundation downtown business owners residents the summit Public Schools clergy and Overlook medic IAL Center we're a big group we're fortunate to have such a dedicated talented group of individuals willing to work together for the most vulnerable in our community so why was there a need for this task force um just to give you a little background over the last year concerns and complaints from downtown business owners area private schools using the train and concerns residents grew particularly on Union Place and around the train station the summit volunteer first aid Squad responded to over 280 calls related to alcohol and unhoused individuals in the first eight months of this year alone the summit Police Department responded to likely three to four times that amount critical emergency response systems were being taxed most importantly a growing sense that what we were doing is not working and a growing concern for the health and well-being of the unhoused in our community so what is our unhoused population um nearly all of the unhoused in our town did not lose their housing in Summit but have adopted Summit as their home many have experienced trauma or other difficult situations mental health issues and alcohol misuse are prevalent however I would urge you to not consider the group a monolith each has a unique story so what are we doing we first met on June 17th as a group of 25 since then we have met over 15 times in a variety of breakout groups to understand the problem the resources and solutions we've conducted near weekly Outreach sessions at the train station with Bridges Bridgeway Summit first aid Squad and the summit Police Department talking and offering resources reaching out to our unhoused Summit police department has enforced existing ordinances like public urination open container and jaywalking we've begun to connect to County and state resources to ensure that we are utilizing existing shelter and existing resources we've toured two Union counting shelters to understand what is available we've worked with existing service providers in town to ensure we are working together and working toward the goal of housing not comfort in being unhoused we're working on obtaining additional case management resources to ensure that all interactions are case management forward we've already begun to see some improvement in the environment around the train station and on Union Place so what are we doing now we have a stated goal of housing our unhoused by November 15th this will not be easy and it will require considerable effort consistency and resources but we are optimistic with the group working together that we can meet this goal we're working creatively with State and County resources and private funding to exhaust all shelter and housing options we've increased um weekly Outreach Outreach to twice a week and we have a weekly triage group that is uh meeting to case manage each individual what do we need from you I have two requests for my fellow citizens please don't offer money to any of our unhoused unhoused friends if someone is panhandling call the non-emergency number please we have some amazing organizations in town that will make great use of your generosity to help the unhoused bridges Family Promise ship any of the houses of worship handing out money makes our city less safe and makes the job of this task force more difficult unfortunately your money will likely be used for alcohol if you see something say something if you see someone in need or in an unusual situation that is non-emergent call the non-emergency police number they want to know the more we know the more we can help and connect resources I want to thank you all for your support I ask for your patience please reach out and let us know what you are seeing good and bad together I feel really strongly that we can solve this problem with compassion and Care thank [Applause] you thank you very much Leah and thank you for all your volunteer work at the EMS it's just what you're doing is is truly impactful and meaningful for the community um I will tell you I sat in the mayor's uh task force uh last week and it's just an amazing group of people they're working so hard uh and as like Leah said uh the most important thing is case management uh the more we can figure out uh the different the buckets in which people need help um we can truly try to get them help I'm working uh right now um with uh Robin Tanner trying to contact Union County um so that we can get vouchers so for unhoused they actually can get priority in certain uh for certain housing vouchers so um we're going to be working really hard this week and next week to try to get our hands on some more vouchers uh for those folks so thank you very much okay no yet now you're going to open the public com right okay at this time this is public comment for items already on the agenda uh at this point in the meeting Council welcomes comments from any member of the public about issues that are on topics of tonight's business agenda whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please provide a copy to the city clerk and email or email it at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes I did try to get rid of the clock but apparently the other timer is not working so I apologize it's my first time uh if you come up please state which resolution you are speaking about council members this is your opportunity to listen and pay attention because when we go through the ordinances and resolutions it's important to remember the comments in case you want to take any of those into in into account I want to address um the affordable housing presentation is that okay it was on the agenda so okay on on the agenda Vicky Letterman Clark Street um several years ago I wrote to council after I had read that ruers published a study a survey 47% of the single family homes in Newark in that particular year I it was a couple years ago that were owner occupied single family homes were bought by hedge funds and investment companies and turned into rentals and typically overpriced rentals and non-maintained and the trend is moving to the suburbs it's not just cities like Newark so I wrote Council several years ago and asked if they would consider some kind of protection for Summit to prevent that from happening and I don't know what that is I'm not an attorney um because I think you have to do that you would need to do that well in advance not when it actually is on your doorstep cuz then it looks like you're affecting a particular developer um I got no response I would like to present that again also we have a number of areas in town I believe down by the Marco Polo is one where developer is buying up land on spec and subdividing it in order to build more units without any affordable housing in it because it's more than one lot and I think that's unconscionable and and I would propose that what difference does it make how many Lots it is or even when it is why isn't it a per developer you build four houses on spec the fifth one you build is Affordable wherever it is whenever it is you don't want to do do that then you don't do business anymore in Summit if You' built four houses I don't think it should matter that you know I think this developers wants to build six units so in order not to build an affordable one he's dividing the lot in half and building three and three I mean you know we have the we have Nancy here so maybe you can say whether I'm correct or not um anyway I think we need some innovative ideas and I I think those are very palatable one thing that I don't think can be done unfortunately I live in the least expensive neighborhood in Summit and we have a particular Builder every time a ranch house comes on the market he buys it tears down builds a mcmansion it's private property you can't avoid that but I wish there was a way because we're losing the least expensive houses in Summit and like tripling their price I think that's a shame thank you thank you for your comment sorry my microphone was off thank you for your comment any other public comments for items on the agenda good evening dear ho Nal Court why has this Council made it impossible for the public to comment on six of the 16 resolutions on the agenda why did you open up these resolutions for comment now when these items are quote pending closed session end quote so there is zero information about them in the agenda packet how is the public expected to know what was discussed during CL session at this stage in the meeting the alternative you offered to the public is to wait and comment on an item after you have voted on it how does this allow the public to make informed comments or be heard in short what are you trying to achieve traditionally Summit residents have been allowed to comment on every ordinance or resolution as it's being discussed by Council has debate resulted in Long contentious meetings in the past sure should debate be avoided because a meeting could get contentious or run long whatever your plan may have been when you made this change I submit to you that they dog at the plan then a bad ombre ate the dog and now it is just a concept of a plan I will end by quoting then candidate balowski quote when did it become uncivil to ask tough question questions our children are watching we do them a profound disservice when we stay in our Lane and go with the program we must teach our children to ask questions fearlessly to demand honest answers to learn and to think for themselves Summit deserves no less from this Council end quote thank you for your comment thank you D are there any other public comments for items on the agenda bring up the I'm sorry sir can you mark gold tangle with drive and can you tell us the resolution that you well it's not can we ask a question about what she brought up about the homeless people and Summit and what you're doing goe okay sir one is how big of a problem is it in how big of a problem is it in Summit how many people are we you know talking about how large of a population is it and two um it was mentioned that they're being rehomed or helped where are they being homed and helped is it in Summit I mean what are we doing with them I didn't understand you know when she was explaining sure we trying it was such generalities I'd like to know a little specifically we talking about six people 12 people 100 people people how big of a problem is it answer thank you thank you for your comment we can certainly uh discuss that tonight as a council mayor you can probably give some because it's a good question we can I mean I can I can weigh in on a couple of things so um you know it's there's a larger population and there's a population that um is really the Focus right now and that's 17 individuals um that have been identified across um all of the service organizations that are providing care and and assistance um between you know the PD and you know um warm hearts and Grace and bridges and um all of those organizations and and so we're trying to um and actually Leah mentioned the um small sort of subgroup triaging each of those individuals as individuals um and so what you know we're not in the proc the process is ongoing um they have not been sheltered yet that's the goal um and so the the um the resources are from state county and then locally um so it's a collaboration of a lot of moving parts and I think Leah is doing an excellent job of of coordinating that those efforts and those conversations there any other public comments on items on the agenda okay with that we will close public comments however there will be some comments on your your one GRE correct correct yeah okay um council president protim I think it's uh helpful to explain to the public that the items that were pending close session discussion you will give the opportunity to the public to comment on those as they occur yes okay okay sorry moving on to ordinances for introduction Madam clerk would you please read the ordinance for introduction 11473 an ordinance amending the code chapter a schedule of fees appendix and chapter 4 General licensing section 4-3 automatic or electronic Amusement Games pinball video or arcade Amusement Games subsection 43.4 issuance of license and term councilman migar thank you council president proin this is an ordinance that will amend chapter a schedule the fees appendix and a subsection of 4-3 3.4 under chapter 4 that deals with the fees associated with licenses for automatic or electronic Amusement Games such as pinball video games or other arcade Amusement Games this ordinance will change the fee for obtaining a one-year license to operate those types of games in a business to Simply $250 per machine per machine uh this is a change from a license fee that varies based on the number number of machines that you operate ranging from 140 currently to to $695 the $250 fee brings us in line with nearby cities such as Morristown Westfield and chattam were they sure play a me pinball I've heard I move to introduce this ordinance you should say and I second sorry any Council comments uh hearing none Madam clerk would you please conduct the roll call vote Mr Boyer I Mr migar hi Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I Mr Varan I Mr McAn I and president protim Hamlet I motion pass and the hearing will be on the hearing will be on October 8th right moving on to resolution the first one as I mentioned earlier 11461 uh we will be having at the next meeting potentially uh pending Mr job's uh guidance so we are moving on to council member migar thank you council president toim this is number 11497 and per close session discussion this resolution amends the Consulting Services agreement with 6th Avenue Consulting LLC from where we obtain the services of interim City administrator Mr Tom Tui this extends that agreement for an additional two months into November 2024 for an additional amount of $122,000 per month and I move to adopt this resolution and I second council president pro yes um I'm just want to announce I'm going to since I was an in Clos session uh I'm going to recuse myself on uh the finance resolution the capital projects and community service resolution the community programs and service resolution and the first one of safety and health very good thank you exactly no I I'm GNA recuse myself any other Council comments and then since this one was in close session if there are any comments from the public happy to listen to comments from the public on that one okay and and so we will go for a vote all in favor I any opposed motion carries council member Vartan thank you madam president okay uh this resolution did not appear this is resolution ID number 11439 it did not appear in our public facing agenda packet uh so in the interest of transparency and per our closed session discussion I will now read the ordinance uh or read the resolution rather um whereas the common Council upon the recommendation of the Mount Laurel subcommittee finds that it is necessary to establish a process by which the city can uniformly process proposed affordable housing projects from Developers for consideration of inclusion in the city's plan for satisfying its constitutional obligation to provide its fair share of affordable housing now and in the future and whereas the Mount Laurel subcommittee has deliberated and proposed a process to the common Council for its consideration and implementation and whereas the common Council has considered the recommendations of the Mount Laurel subcommittee and has determined that it is in the best interest of the city to implement the recommended process from the Mount Laurel subcommittee and now therefore be it resolved by the common Council of the city of summit the city the city of summit's developer implementation process shall be as follows one the developer will request an introductory meeting with the development facilitation group following an expression of an interest in proposing a project not otherwise permitted as of right via the city's current zoning ordinance that includes affordable housing units and two the development facilitation group will then contact the developer to request documentation for the proposed project and will schedule an introductory meeting with the developer and three the developer will prepare and submit the material requested to the development facilitation group and for the development facilitation group within approximately 30 days will'll review the materials submitted by the developer prior to the introductory meeting hold an introductory meeting and then prepare a summary and Analysis of the proposed project to the Mount Laurel subcommittee for review and five upon receipt of the summary of from the development facilitation group the Mount Laurel subcommittee will review the proposed project at the next available meeting and six the Mount Laurel subcommittee will prepare and submit its recommendation to the members of the governing body for review and seven the members of the governing body in close session at the next available meeting from its receipt of the subcommittee's recommendation will review the subcommittee's recommendation and any supporting documents and will decide whether to move forward with discussions and the developer about inclusion of the project into the city's affordable housing plan and eight upon direction of the governing body the city's administrator will contact the developer and nine the developer will decide how to move forward by taking action that may include but is not limited to request for rezoning submission to the zone board and our planning board proceed as of right request review of an amended concept plan by the development facilitation group Mount Laurel subcommittee or withdraw its proposed project from consideration the development facilitation group shall consist of the following members the city administrator the city's Municipal housing liaison the city's planner and the city's affordable housing Council so that was a lot of talking for me just then uh but I want to just so so we've talked there there there has been a lot of discussion in this community about affordable housing uh what has been discussed this year is implementing a process and being transparent and public about what that process is uh council president protm Hamlet and I uh agreed that the way to be most transparent about doing that is to formalize it in the form of a resolution the resolution it's not just me talking we will put it up on the site um but now that once we once we have this established nobody up here can change it without having a resolution and it will be clear to the community what is happening internally when a request is made that relates to affordable housing so I'm supportive of it and I will leave it at that uh except to say I make a i motion I move to adopt the resolution and I second are there any Council comments I have one uh I know that we I just want to explain to the public as as Greg said I think this is um something that councilman Varan and myself as well as um our attorney Nancy Holm the mayor uh the Mount Laurel subcommittee has been working really hard on so we've been going back and and really fine-tuning this um this resolution I think it's going to be a really good thing for the community and obviously welcome any advice from uh our new council member or our new interim uh City administrators so um at this time uh we can take comments from the public since this was in Clos session on this topic are there any members from the public that would like to ask uh make a comment about the resolution number 11439 I'm sorry keep standing Mark gold so what's going to happen with all the applications that came in prior to this resolution are they going to be suscep are they going to be applied to this and have to start the process all over again um or are they going to be grandfathered in to the way you've been handling it up to this point do we want to have so we let me get this sorry um we've formulated this process and any developers that have come in since the process has begun we've started uh implementing it so um all the developers no one has to start all over again it's um we're moving forward from this point so that all developers know that they contact the municipal housing Le on and start the process so that means all the ones that have applied up till before now are not grandfathered in and they will continue by whatever process you were using prior to implementing this process am I correct there there are only um a few a few projects that are in the pipeline but but they've been using this process so there there aren't any that are grandfathered in um to use your term so okay thank you for your comment can I just add one more thing thank you council president um I I think it's fair to say it I think it's fair to say for a while that this process in essence has what has been what is the practice of City staff and of the council even before even before the creation of the Mount Laurel subcommittee however uh we are a somewhat charged environment uh surrounding affordable housing and we've been talking for a while about the need to be as transparent about it as possible and saying we have a process is good actually implementing writing it down and then sharing it with you I think is better so that's what we're doing here uh thank you councilman Varan at this point we will take a take a vote you could do a Voice vote do a Voice vote okay all in favor any opposed motion carries move on to council member Smallwood thank you uh Council protm uh this is ID number1 1486 to declare vacation vacancy and Parking Services Agency administrative assistance uh last meeting we um had announced that we had hired a new parking director which was uh within uh and Nicole swii has done a a fabulous job so far so this position is to replace her old position uh so that she has an assistant uh to work with so I move to adopt this resolution and I second are there any Council comments at this time if there a member of the if any member of the public would like to comment about this resolution feel free to come forward seeing none we will go for a vote Voice vote Yes uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries and council member Boer thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11485 which authorizes the appointment of Anthony Mana as a police officer Anthony is currently enrolled in the pay County Police Academy and is expected to graduate and on September 25th he holds a Bachelor's of arts and criminal justice from St John Fischer University and he has demonstrated a strong work ethic and Leadership skills throughout his academic and extracurricular activities his experience as a teacher assistant football coach and team captain highlights his dedication to the community and and he has um he has really good problem solving uh abilities he was the captain of his football team um we spoke we spoke about that uh briefly he's definitely a leader I moved to adopt this resolution second I'm sorry are there any Council comments at this time if any member of the public would like to come up and comment on that resolution feel free seeing none we'll take a vote all in favor I any opposed motion carries and your second one thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11462 authorizing the request agreement with the county of Union to permit the installation of a rectangular rapid flashing Beacon and a crosswalk at the intersection of Mars Avenue in Butler Parkway uh having grown up a couple of blocks away on Dennis place I attended Washington school and I frequently play basketball and football uh at tlock phille which is now investors bank but this Improvement is something that has been needed for years and it is crucial that we increase pedestrian safety in our community particularly at this intersection C and this has been confirmed by the Safety Committee as a necessary measure and I am extremely happy to announce this resolution I move to adopt this resolution second okay are there any Council comments yes um I'm very happy to see this I I frequent that area very often and coming out of but parkway onto Morse Avenue uh I've seen a lot of kids coming from tatlock field rushing over to get to Magic Fountain uh so hopefully this will be a much safer opportunity for them to use that flashing Beacon Light uh one of the things I've noticed about the Flash and beaking lights is a lot of people don't push the button and they just stand there and I would like to caution to everyone if you do come across a crosswalk that has these Flash and beaking L buttons please push the button because it does get the attention of the drivers uh and especially with Morris Avenue being a very busy street um I hope that this will uh create U much more safety for the kids crossing the street between Magic Fountain and Washington school as well as tatlock field and I look forward to having more of these flashing Beacon Li lights put on to other streets in our town as well go ahead Greg thank you um Aaron can correct me if I'm wrong on the numbers but uh the seven or eight or so uh flashing beacons have been added around town in the last two or three years that supplement uh additional four-way stop signs uh additional sidewalks and other traffic calming uh sorts of measures um do we have a a timeline on when we might expect to see this actually installed yes through council president so when dealing with pedestrian traffic safety and then also when you complicated by it's a County Road Morris Avenue is a county road so the The Crossing would be across uh Morris Avenue uh it it's a little bit complex so this is basically we have done our study to prove that this is something that should be installed we have sent it to the County engineering division who concurs with our assessment we had to make some tweaks to the plan and some of the requirements so now this is the formal request by the city to have them produce an agreement that we will execute that will give us permission to do so uh and then after we have that assuming probably a six to 12 week timeline to get it ordered and installed so when you factor in you know two months possibly with the the legal teams going back and forth possibly by the end of the year if not early uh winter 2025 so thank you thank you any other Council comments Andy thank you um three counc president protim uh Mr Sher you last year talked about the option for those um those signals to be some in some cities communities some areas have them on timers meaning at certain times a day they automatically are that that kind of they're flashing at certain times a day have you evaluated this for this particular intersection so through your council president if we if you could just clarify so this is the the push button activated one and then they do have flashing beacons that are in a timer that will just flash s during school hours uh in this area since this is a high pedestrian trip generation when you have both the school uh and the the ice cream shop uh you would want one because there could be people random days random times so this is one that would be activated um by a pedestrian themselves I do agree with council member Smallwood and I appreciate that I don't see the hit rate I'd like to have in terms of hitting the button uh and it's really not a big effort to do so so please um you know follow his recommendation to hit it but at this intersection you'd want one that gets hit but we did have at the school previously and might still be event Hubbert that it is on a timer uh which you know can help the problem is when you have cancellations uh when you have school schedules that change uh sometimes the technology isn't there you just can't do it rapidly so right okay okay thank you thank you council member miger I think it's a really good point I hadn't thought about it um what I will say is when I think about that uh timing of crosswalks Summit Avenue comes to mind um there have been a few occasions where if we have a crossing guard mixup and it's just such a to your point it'd be great to get the school ones on a Time timer if we could go go ahead Bob thank you um so we've been working on this for I don't know eight and a half months right um and so I get frustrated with the timing but um you know it is when you're working with the county this is on a County Road uh there's a lot that goes into it and a lot of following up and the County's not always in the biggest rush or they have a a pile this high and yours yours starts off on the bottom so I'm really glad that we're able to finally do this um if you if you grew up in this town and you walk to tatlock right you come out of the high school and you'd like to cross on Weaver if you can then you don't have to worry about Crossing down there but if the cars are coming and you can't you always just hang a left and then you're playing Frogger when you get down to Magic Fountain on your way to uh to the Fieldhouse so uh I'm glad we can finally do this and I think Aaron you can um tell me if I'm all wet on this but I think it this may also help with turning left onto moris have off of Butler when a pedestrian Crossing on that crosswalk the traffic will have to stop and people who are waiting to go left will be able to go too which has also been an issue down there yes through you council president it will have some ancillary benefits that that might be one of them um we are also looking at other implementations that we might consider in that corridor the previous study didn't show we should do anything in terms of timing restrictions for those turns but having this in a formal stop will will help alleviate some of the turns there so yes thank you one question please yes go ahead can I yes uh Aaron will this installation have the backup generator component whereas if you had a power failure you put a generator on it and it would continue to to function uh F your council president so I believe it'll have that option it is solar powered so they do generally work pretty well um in this location because it doesn't have big tree coverage uh so we're pretty confident we'll work but like every mechanical thing it will be subject to failures and Replacements so we'll we'll stay on top of it okay thank you one other thing I wanted to mention the sign for Butler and Morris is mixed up so you think Butler is Morris and Morris is Butler I don't know who would be responsible for fixing that but um might want to put that on we have this really cool app called C click fix I should have done it but nice plug since we're here yes yeah it would be our responsibility but C click if if you see I mean just to the general public if you see things like that put it in C click fix we take care of it I don't know if a truck hit that or if it was kids but it does happen so we'll fix it and the other thing I'd like to mention is I think we officially can put these if they start in safety let's just keep them in safety we're going to have director shreer sign off on these but it makes the most sense to keep the rapid flashing beacons in in safety so you can have all the rest of them okay uh at this point we'll public comment yeah did you offer public comment oh it was okay sorry yeah uh with that being said we'll take a vote all in favor I any opposed motion carries so we're moving on to the consent agenda right yes okay so for the con consent agenda we are pulling uh we are not moving forward with ID 11491 which was the authorizing the bid advertisement for the park line project was not quite ready uh for prime time tonight so just for the record we're pulling that one out and would anybody else like to pull anything out out the consent agenda I just call for a motion to approve the council agenda uh consent agenda so I'd like to call for a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second all those in favor all in favor I iOS any opposed motion carries almost tripped me up on that one um okay so now it's about 8:50 we welcome public comment on anything that was not on the agenda uh um whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please provide a copy to the city clerk or email city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an Orly meeting as we mentioned again um please limit your comments to 3 minutes state your name and uh just remember that it is public comment so we won't have a dialogue back and forth cool um well I was going to ask a question uh I don't know if I'll get an answer but we'll see the um ID 11491 your name sir oh sorry uh Corbin Schwarz Henry Street uh for 11491 authorizing the bid advertisement Parkland project phase three um do you know what the source of the delay is on that and why we are not discussing that today uh and also when might we expect to discuss that well I am going to answer that one because I know it's really important um we were we were hoping and Aaron you can sort of jump in here um I think the park just so for members of the public um the park line in many different forms has been presented at Council um I think Rosie how many times has it been presented at Council I too many to count um but with that being said there were certain phases and I believe this was supposed to I can't remember director Sher when we were supposed to um they were supposed to start phase three um might have been July I can't remember the exact timeline but we got the plans back from Suburban Consulting I believe it was about director shreer what date was that believe about yeah a week or a week or two ago but probably 10 days about 10 days ago uh so we are we finally are sending our final comments they're about 90% complete we were sending our final comments so director shreer has a timeline for the next uh month or so about meeting uh engaging with the residents especially residents like yourself down on Henry Street showing you the screening options again um council member of our tan and I have been um going rounds about this one for a while I know it's really important for all of us and I know you know we take your concerns down there very seriously so we can get out something this week I think on that communication correct director Sher yeah just to provide an update on the timeline so in the next day or two residents that AB but the this phase of the park line which is from Morris Avenue to Russell Place uh we'll receive a letter inviting them to a meeting we'll be hosting under the Russell Place Bridge next Wednesday the 25th and 5: to 7:00 p.m. it'll also direct them to the website which will have the renderings and plans posted so uh residents and really any Resident um uh can view it and and make comments and reach out to us and the meeting itself though we're only sending the invitation to those abing it obviously anyone is welcome to stop by uh we'll hope for good weather if not we'll send out an update that we'll have it at City Hall great thank you does that answer your question um yeah I think so thank you hi uh apologize my voice I've lost it uh but Brandon Sternberg uh for Dale Drive um I wanted to ask Town Council for an update on the initiation and the initiative to install a sidewalk on Ashlin Road between rotary drive and Silver Lake Drive I wanted to thank uh Miss Hamlet Mr Smallwood Mr Boyer Mr Sher for reaching out to my wife Ally Sternberg and I after she spoke at the July 30th council meeting about the safety concerns uh your comments as well as the rest of uh Town Council um was encouraging so thank you on that um as a refresher for everybody listening online and here in the room there is no sidewalk on ashin Road between rotary drive and Silver Lake Drive ashin road is a main road a county road with a 35 mph speed limit which cars often exceed walking on walking East eastbound on Ashlin you are forced to walk with your back towards traffic um and taking the risk that someone driving cannot see uh for those in a wheelchair or pushing a stroller there's no alternative option it's not feasible to walk on someone's lawn um as we are entering the fall months um it's getting darker earlier um which is Expediting and making the risk uh even greater um So currently as of today September 17th we have about 228 residents who have signed the petition requesting that the town prioritize a sidewalk between rotary and Silver Lake it's my understanding that a d was was open on August 6th for the town to further investigate and the matter was routed to the appropriate department head and the safety and health committee thank you um so I have three questions uh one has the item uh been further discussed at the safety and health committee and what are next steps uh two what is the latest status of the reissuance of the sidewalk installation and maintenance plan and will the portion of Ashton Road um we're speaking about be on the priority list and then three what further action needs to be taken uh to further push this along uh my wife and I constantly get stopped asking like when when we're walking hey what's the latest on the sidewalk so I think um answer to these three questions above will promote transparency and um help um you know everybody in the room um and online listening be informed and again I want to thank everybody for prioritizing and glad we're getting the Motions moving it's very encouraging thank you thank you for your comment director shager I I want to answer this one because I I know we've been talking about it a lot so uh yes a couple items just to point out and try to answer the three questions uh I I have not been at a safety meeting where it was discussed but based on some of the council members who ARS feedback I know I feel like it has been discussed so it is not forgotten um so that's so I believe it has been discussed at safety and if not it will be uh end at caps as well as we move forward in terms of the reissuance of the sidewalk uh installation and maintenance plan uh yes it it is definitely a a high goal of the department to finish that as quickly as possible um I was hoping we had it done but obviously we we've had some uh Staffing and workload issues that made it a little bit challenging but we are very close with that so we hope to circulate that within the next week or two to the two committees caps and safety um for then a possible vote in the the second October or 1 November meeting um and at this time I think we appreciate the residents you know preparing the petition and reaching out so it definitely will be a priority project in there uh I don't think there's anything that that can be done right now other than the process to play out so we um we should just set some expectations that a sidewalk won't appear there by the end of the year because in addition to having the plan and then developing plans which will be unique and tricky in itself because that is a area of you know Ashen that does have the Plymouth rear-facing properties and a lot of fre so there is uh some some questions um that will have to be looked at once we get a survey um we would could better assess and then assess cost as we go into the 2025 capital budget planning so um so I guess we're we're moving on as quick as we can and and we'll provide updates when we have them okay thank you director Sher do you want to comment I mean we've discussed this at length and at this AG committee and um I I think the the next step is sending it to caps for um insights on budget you know um but as from from a safety perspective we looked at it uh we didn't see no one had any objections to it uh but I think we need to look at cost so I think in the Caps committee you know um see what's feasible see what can be done but uh the committee didn't have any objection to the the sidewalk so yeah and I would just add one thing um Mr Sternberg um he he he characterizes this as a sidewalk between rotary and Silver Lake and I've also heard some folks would want to just continue it right on to mountains so that so that you don't have to go around Plymouth I've taken a good look at it out there and there are no trees really that would be in the path of the sidewalk between rotary in Silver Lake and I don't think we'd have to even move any telephone pools so from a safety perspective I really think we could use it there and I don't think that you have those other concerns between Silver Lake and Mountain there there are what I probably think are hundredy old trees taken up a lot of space would would be right in the path of the sidewalk so whether it's feasible there or not I don't think should delay us moving forward on the stretch between rotary and Silver Lake I'm sorry the speed there on Ashlin is 35 35 so I have a question for Mr Tucci throw this back at you Tom um I was actually on a webinar the other day and it was with um Hoboken and I think they were implementing their think it's called Net Zero vision Zero vision zero um and they talked about one of the first things they did I think in their municipality was they moved the speeding limits to 20 on certain streets but I've always been told that we can't do that is there like is there a way to potentially lower some speeds on certain streets and I don't know or maybe that should be offered to you director Sher I don't know I'll I'll take a stab it at first and then he could pick it up from there uh what would have to be done was you'd have to do some sort of a traffic study first of all to see what the current condition is and then you would have to do a proposal uh and offer some traffic caling because you just can't well all a sudden HD an area and drop down to from 35 to 20 so it would have to be some traffic calming devices put in is it doable yes but there's a process as the city engineer will tell you AR here sure the the first part would be a speed study and I think you know depending on the area you're looking at if it is downtown you might be shocked to see what the average speed is it's likely probably around 20 if if not lesser yes you have the occasional uh random car that that will go faster especially later at night um it doesn't matter what the speed limit is they're going to do what they want uh and it could have some impact but you you have to just justified through the study and there's there's all sorts of you know methods detailed in both the mutcd and through us do of how you can justify doing it but then the issue is how do you post it because now uh we don't have the speed limit posted downtown right now so now you'd be throwing up 20 mph signs everywhere and how do you enforce it so if you're not going to enforce and it's not going to change anything uh the gain would be minimal where you're better off just trying to protect your pedestrian U vehicle uh interactions the best you can at the inter section So yeah thank you very much yeah okay are there any public more public comments I'm sorry sorry if you can just um come up and state your name Carlos figeroa 26 Russell please Carlos fig back to the gentleman's question on Russell please because I've been hearing so many stories but I haven't got any correspondence or any anything related to a parking lot that's going to be where that P that walk walk path is it the whatever half it is that they're doing there and I'm right next door to it I mean I haven't received any any kind of Correspondence in reference to anything that's being built there or anything like that like a parking lot and if and if there there is something going on there I mean I I would like to know because because it's going to directly affect not only myself but all the all the children in the area when the uh the rec center kids go through there right walk through there they go right to the pool you got a couple of hundred kids walking by and if you have a parking lot there you know how is it going to affect the kids walking by there number two who is it going to bring to the area so I'm not sure if I'm really talking about a parking lot is is it really happening or it's just hearsay so can somebody you know at least send me something or let me know or is it in the next meeting in reference to what's going on in that area absolutely because I'm completely blindsided with all that all I just hear is what what's happening what's going on director Jun yes so there were Concepts so it's essentially on the south side of Russell place where the park Line Trail will uh this phase will terminate on the east side of it there is a portion of land that is owned by Onyx that there was Concepts that times that did include a parking lot there uh for use of of the park Line Trail uh this phase will not include that uh it will have a stairwell coming down just like we have at the Morris Avenue uh intersection with the park line uh but there's no parking lot now it's Onyx land for number one so we don't have it and number two that the park line committee and and and really our committee had ruled against it at this this time uh so that is not included in this phase of the project uh again residents starting you know tomorrow at some point we'll be able to go on the DCS construction page and they'll they'll see the plans and the renderings uh and they should get the notice by Weeks end about the meeting on on Wednesday so I think what I'm going to try to do I actually asked Dr Rabino who's is um one of the main uh leading efforts behind the park line to actually bring out the old model that he brought out several years ago just for any new residents that might you know want to see the um the old model of the park line I'm not a resident I've been there 20 28 years and I haven't received one letter of anything that's happening in in that particular site that's what I thank sir just been completely thank you thank you for your comment next public comment good evening John's associ 17 Styles Road South New Jersey first off I want to say I want to thank the city and the Department of Public Works for the RO improvements my shocks thank you my Kies thank you and I don't know why people don't come and say thank you for all your good work you deserve it uh I'm uh I'm a member of the summon Els Lodge for the last 40 years um my committee is drug awareness and I also chair the um scholarship committee the Elks on a national basis give out $4 million annually in scholarships that doesn't mean we're going to get it all all 4 million in Summit but two years ago we had four winners in Summit we're trying to beat that I have notified all the high schools in Summit about our scholarship opportunities uh and um it's it's open to seniors that uh children are going into the senior year this year uh and it's based on aptitude Financial need and uh Community involvement uh so all I can say is if you're a senior in high school go to elks.org apply and apply for the scholarship you you can go into now your your portal is what many times as you like the other committee is drug awareness uh we're having our annual talk on drugs crushed I gave a copy of this to Rosary so where having our annual talk on drugs this Sunday September 22nd 12:00 noon at the Elks we're going to have various speakers talk about the evil of drugs how to combat it and uh and uh also drug rehab reabilitation Personnel that will talk on how they uh help uh people get off drugs also uh the state of New Jersey oh uh Els has a conference down in Long Branch uh every uh February beginning of February where we send 700 children for a 3-day weekend it's called our peer leadership conference and they learn about drugs bullying peer pressure and worse of all suicide well last year they prevented a job from committing suicide I think by at it time thank thank you very much thank you for your comment and all your hard work good evening mayor Rus hello someone's phone John good evening my name is Nora raist uh and I live at 18 blackfront place in Summit um I'm a former mayor of summit for Mr Tucci you don't know me um and I have served from eight for eight years from 2006 16 to 2023 uh I have a few comments but first I want to welcome councilman MC Turnin it's not the same up here without you I know I'm very happy to see you in this in Lisa Allen's place and uh we had certainly many years of very Equitable and productive years very much so welcome and uh good for you um I'm here to offer a few comments and not questions about the decision mayor Fagan made to hold appointment only office hours um my comments are based on experience and and Not Mere speculation mayor I understand your reasoning that you don't want to be speaking with the resident and then another Resident stops by and they feel uncomfortable having to wait for you um that happened to me from time to time for sure um but either the resident was willing to schedule an appointment or he or she was willing to wait for a bit um frankly many of the hours during my scheduled office hours were spent with City staff as you I imagine I received many emails from residents with questions and concerns but upon receipt I did not always have answers for the residents I had to talk to staff for information that I needed um my office hours were very helpful for me and the staff to have such conversations they knew when I would be there as well as gain insights from them as to what their departments were doing and how they might need assistance um additionally in this historic time of significant departures of staff from City Hall many of whom are at the senior management level I would think as the leader of our city mayor that you would want to be present and approachable at City Hall to reassure staff and residents that despite some evidence to the contrary the city May in fact be stable so that's are my thoughts thank you thank you for your comment yes sir good evening Andrew MCC uh Parkview Terrace um my comment is about this turnover in City staff in recent weeks uh and what is going to be done to address it um my understanding is that the over the past 40 years Summit has had something like four City administrators um which is pretty amazing actually uh and so last council meeting when uh Mr interim administrator tuci uh took the de there was no real discussion about about what was going on and from what I can tell there's never been any real significant explanation of uh why ministrator Rogers is no longer up on the de um so setting aside that that lack of information which is confusing and and glaring uh there Remains the important question of how the seat will be filled how the position will be chosen um not only for that position but for a number of other City management positions that are vacant um uh in what appears to be an unprecedented Exodus from City Hall so I would ask you to consider what it looks like from the outside because there's a real concern among residents that this could become a trend in the summit um consider to an ordinary citizen who is not priv what's said behind closed doors at Council uh you have an election last year you have a new Administration within months there's half a dozen City staff civil servants uh leaving or being pushed out we don't really know what happened and being replaced um and so that's that's a real concern uh because is that going to keep happening in the future is that a trend is that is that what happens after the next Administration change um and that concern and that worry only grows uh with the continued Silence about this from Council so uh my my request for tonight is once again more information on the details about the turnover um beyond the you know cursory summary at the at the beginning of the meeting um how will the positions be filled what will the search process be and I read that there was a proposal uh circulated among council at least one proposal about how that search process could happen you could put together some sort of search committee uh that involves residents as well as City staff and elected officials and that you know that might solve a problem of insulating the decision-making uh and preventing against protecting against this concern that you'll have turnover after each election uh and people being replaced so I would urge uh the council to consider that proposal or something like it I could achieve the same uh ends uh to to address that concern thank you thank you for your comment council president I'm I'm going to keep moving forward uh you do it at the end right thank you yes sir good evening uh my my name is Miguel valz I'm a resident of 113 Mountain Avenue and I will be there 40 years in December um I just have two quick questions not a whole statement uh actually simple um it's my understanding that uh PE no one is allowed to post political signs or Billboards on city property or city offices is is that correct sir this is just public comment if you could just make your comment just make your comment it's just not a back and forth if you could just make your comment please well my comment is going to follow your question the question because here let me let me make the a comment then I think there's enough copies for everyone do you want I think we're going to have to share okay so my comment is that since August uh I've noticed this employee at the transfer station who is the agent at the gate uh has turned her SUV the back of it into a 3x5 Trump uh billboard and she uh strategically Parks it every day at the entrance so that the back is facing yes the place where people have to drive so it becomes a very visible sign for the people who go to Transportation or the free or the free barking now uh she has a right to put that on the back of her of her vehicle I don't know what the vehicle laws are but the the way she Parks it is for maximum exposure of the Trump sign if she just parked it the way a normal person would park it uh facing the other way it wouldn't be a problem it wouldn't be visible now so I see this as as a displaying political sign on city property by a city employee now the Ted approval wink wink it or not it's okay uh sort of reduces the confidence in the administration's Integrity uh the other thing is that uh uh it may give people the impression that you are that she is doing your your bidding so I give that to you uh that is by comment I think I have 40 seconds left yes sir which I can use very quickly follow up on my previous uh the previous person uh I've heard that there possibly five to seven people who left two planned retirements five administrative retirements now uh I I I have been here for 40 years and I'm concerned about the city's Bond rating this turnover has cost us Decades of experience and I don't know if that's going to affect the fact that we are look like we're unstable with a very high 40% % I think turnover is going to affect the review of our AAA rating thank you for your comment just GNA hold uh one second uh Mr giobi can you um opine on why don't I do that at the end okay perfect that's fine we'll we'll address your question around the sign at the end of the public comment as long as you see it if it's still there next week I will know your answer so next my name is my name my name is Dave Krok and we live at 20 Hickory Road since 1995 really appreciate the opportunity for public comments um the purpose of my remarks is to comment about the postcards we've been distributed through the mail by a group calling themselves The Summit Democrats and to appeal to the council members who may be part of this group to suggest the group stop sending them I think we have two members of The Summit Democrats um so the first one in early may we received a direct mail piece from the summit Democrats about the summit M Municipal budget and the irresponsible spending plans driving up Summit taxes by what they refer to as the new Republican Republican Le common Council one of the few data points in this mail are noted 104.7 in% increase in the capital budget that big number got my attention but it also seemed a little odd so I dug into it the fine print on the card about the massive 104.7 capital budget increase included a reference to page 36 of the budget page 36 didn't provide any granularity but on page 4 429 the def detail for the capital budget began the facts are that the 104% increase highlighted in the mailer was from a starting point of 1.99 million to an ending point of$ 4.07 million so about $2 million which is relatively small considering the size of the total budget 1 million or approximately half of the total increase was allocated to a traffic sign Improvement line item which is noted as Grant funded other big chunks making up the other million bucks are related to the new athletic field at the high school New Bridges at the golf course and the infrastructure improvements to the to many of our roads my guess is that the Democrat members of our Council voted to approve these Capital Improvements too so the $1 million capital expenditure not covered by a grant is being spent on things approved by the entirety of the common Council yet the headline on the mailer misleads the recipient to believe that the Republicans on the common Council are out of control Spenders so as far as taxes go our property taxes have more than tripled since we moved into our house in 1995 through that time we've had both Democrat and Republican majority common Council so I believe a card like the one we received in May could have been developed every year for the past 29 years cherry picking whichever budget numbers best serve the purpose of the sender just like in this case the second mailer just came at the end of August this one had a big red slanted Violator on the front with the words vacancies and another reference to Summit City Hall the gist and intended takeaway of this piece is that the Republicans are running rough shot through City Hall firing many of our valuable employees and we doomed as a city because the as the postcard asked who's in charge at City Hall once again this mail is inflammatory and lacks context one of the one of the questions was why aren't the mayor or Council being transparent and what's going on what does that even mean here are a few reasons people leave their jobs not in any particular order poor performance inadequate compensation and benefits lack of career advancement have to ask you to wrap up I'm wrapping up sorry about that downsides or layoffs so I just what I want to say is that in nearly 30 years of living on Hickory Road I can't recall another time when when we got political hate mail from a local political organization these mailers are most definitely not meant to be informational sir and I'm done sorry sorry sorry it was so long I practiced it in 3 minutes I have your statement sir sir sir I think there's uh there's some other people behind you and he made them at first good evening Mr HCK I thought you were going to be present for a number of meetings so I wanted to congratulate you first on becoming council president it is an important responsibility you get to set the agenda and the tone for these meetings and for our city as do all of you as a resident I am rooting for you to be successful in America we should be able to speak truth to power and have our grievances heard in 8 months this Administration has been at odds with a number of important constitu in Summit clearly not Mr brok um number one many of us feel indeed that the budget excessively increased taxes and spending and could explod debt and I have numbers I also read the budget 75% of us who want outdoor dining wonder why it was canceled in a midnight announcement with no Vote or public comment we can't mean have a meaningful debate from faulty premises so I will attach to my statement for the record um the transcript from the May 2nd 2023 uh comments from our city solicitor explaining that it can be done legally as melber net number three many of of us are concerned about an increased risk of a builder's remedy lawsuit since we're unlikely to meet our run three affordable housing obligations and we have not heard until this evening a word about how we will meet our deadlines for round four four reasonable concerns expressed by faith leaders and others about the resident protection ordinance remain unaddressed 9 months after Council promised to address these concerns number five the S the tack Lo lights and the proportion of our capital budget that was allocated to this field without allocating a penny to repairing the Anderson Fieldhouse which it turns out everyone knew it was in diara for for renovation and finally the elephant in the room Decades of expertise have left City Hall in the last eight months many of the departures un planned and adding up to several hundred, in unbudgeted settlement costs to put this in a broader perspective this year's presidential contest presents two contrasting views of power one candidate believes in absolute power while the other candidate Works within the American tradition of compromise which excuse me which is the glue uh that holds our democracy together many prominent Republicans will not support Mr Trump including the last two Republican vice presidents Dick Cheney and Mike Pence and many Republicans who served in the last four Republican administrations closer to home our state Senator John bramnick is running for governor as an anti-trump Republican these citizens recognize the danger of authoritarian impulses which includes quieting dissent as you take the Reigns of power I encourage you to rethink how this Council engages with those who disagree indeed true governance requires compromise to draw a distinction with a national Republican party that has done precisely the opposite you all run as a local politics team claiming to rise above partisan Politics As You draped yourselves in our town colors your neighbors expect you to live up to this promise and make sure everyone is heard thank you thank you for your [Applause] comment for those of you who don't know um my little guy and and Diego's little guy are the best of buddies so we uh we'll have to talk uh talk about our kids what happens in a small town that's why we we have to be enbl absolutely thank you for your comment and with that being said are there any more public comments thank you um Claire to to at 11 Sunset Drive I had asked a question two weeks ago that didn't get an answer so I'm going to try again um on July 30th Council passed an update to the storm water management ordinance there was no explanation of the ordinance there was no discussion of it and I would like to know in Lay person's terms what was in the ordinance what changed and hopefully why it's better than what was there before thank you thank you for your comment again Mark goldart um one is Christ Anderson recently left and I just wanted to acknowledge to everybody sitting in this room if you're relatively new to Summit and you did not have the pleasure of working with Christa Anderson you missed out she was an asset to the town she had a great way of telling you to go to hell and making you happy to be on your way I was on a firstname basis with her Mark you're doing this again and I would take care of it to replace Christa Anderson is not going to be easy and I want to give a lot of credit to this Council as well which is a relatively new Council this is a big turnover of more people than we've had on the council at one time in a long time and I've been here over 30 years and you got to get a little give them a little time to get settled you got to give them a little time uh to undo the damage that was done in the last Administration as well and I think you guys are doing a terrific job trying to move forward all of you and the last thing about the sidewalk I live on Tanglewood but I have 300 ft or so of sidewalk on Ashland and it would be great not just to be able to go it's dangerous walking on Ashland and I don't think going Road rotary to Silver Lake is enough and if we're going to push the plan through let's go for the whole thing because it would add a lot of safety I think it would add value to the town as well that we have a safe road where you can walk cu my dogs will tell you if anybody ever walks by my house I know every dog in the neighborhood and hundreds of people go by my house daily but anyhow it's going to be tough to replace I know three of the people that left they retired they didn't leave because of the council they didn't leave because they were unhappy with Summit and if you guys have lived anybody that's lived here for a long time we're not easy th this town of people is demanding and they're trying and how Christa everl lasted the amount of times she did it's amazing and she's not really replaceable so give them a break let them hire the right person let them get another Christa Anderson let them get quality people and stop complaining and give them a little break and give them a little time to hire the right people thank you for your comment Mr Orin speaking of people who've been here a long time my name is Gil Orin 45 Wallace Road in Summit rry I have thank you hurry up time's wasting listening to Council meetings and being downtown fortunately for over 50 years almost 60 there are certain things that opinions you get and I heard council meeting after council meeting since the beginning of the year outdoor dinning on Maple Street and I am not in favor of it I'll tell you why and we have a very favorable conclusion to this problem that I consider a problem if I can put my glasses on one council member has made it almost her main issue and I respectfully disagree with her proposal to have outdoor dining on ail Street it's a main thorough fair and I'm not in favor of it being closed first about about a year ago at a council meeting Summit solicitor solicitor City administrator and director of community services all AG great that closing Maple Street for outdoor dining was not feasible second closing Maple Street for outdoor outdoor dining has become unnecessary because of the action taken by our downtown restaurants during the past two years with people helping we made a survey of downtown and during the pandemic there was support some support for closing Maple Street for dining since outdoor restaurants could not use their entire restaurant space inside and the sidewalk in front outside due to covid restrictions those restrictions were listed more than two years ago and the restaurants have had full use of the restaurant restaurant space and the portion of sidewalks in front how many restaurants do you think have taken advantage of out outdoor dining downtown 27 in the last two years with over 500 seats for outdoor dining this I think the restaurants have done a great job and anybody that wants to to dine Outdoors has 27 seven opportunities as a result Maple Street is one of our two main arteries the other being Summit Avenue to and from downtown Summit should remain open for cars and truck traffic for those who enjoy outdoor dining and I'm one of those persons now have 27 opportunities for outside dining at a restaurant in downtown Mr or I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up yearround weather perit 3 minutes thank you sir simpy [Applause] simpy public comments Mr Jael Daniel Jael 28 Morris Avenue I just want to reinforce what what Gil has said um because this Maple Street keeps keeps coming up and the businesses have moved on Co is over they put tables and chairs out he says it's over 500 tables and chairs so I don't understand why this keep last week it was brought up well maybe it's it's it's schools out tables out it's it's uh why why don't we do it seasonally but we can't Define a season we just we're beating ourselves up and the businesses have moved on they know what to do if we want destination Summit we have it we have we have restaurants that are taking advantage of it with seating with a lot that we can SDI uh I remember when they were talking about their budget they said well we put some money in case we have to put tables on Maple Street no you don't what you got to do is promote what you have in the present you know it's been how many years since Co and and and the businesses are doing it I think is what Gil is saying so there's no need to just constantly convolute as to how exactly we're going to make this work we have the the the tables and the chairs are safe and they're legal and there's a lot that we that Summit could do to advertise what's going on now we don't have to do it we just constantly keep coming back to Maple Street and it just doesn't make any sense to me so thank you for your comment any more public comments hi Dory gagna on 27 Bedford Road [Music] um so I have to say and I want to ask a question Mr Varan you're in charge of the suit Democratic party correct you're also a council member correct and Mr grok is correct that he did get two mailers from the summit Democratic party I also o got them too so I get them and I'm like now that you're in charge of the democratic party you also have an oath as a council member that you should help all the citizens 22,000 residents I think there are here in the city of summit but you know I read your Council page and here you are calling all members to come out to Council meetings because you're upset with so many different things public comment new council members park line that's one and then you post it on your smdc page come out uproar right now Trump did that right and it was come you know March the capital people and it was a big uo it's the same thing you're doing you're like calling all of summit to come here and attack council chambers because you're upset and you think it's funny it's not funny we're trying to calm down the city here and you're causing all of this uproar for what nobody understands it I don't find it funny I don't think anybody here finds it funny Michael Rogers said he closed Maple Street illegally if that was Corporate America he would have been fired but he was still here Broad Street West $17 million Firehouse there with how are we paying for it now so we have all these unknowns and everyone's scratching their head saying why why is everyone leaving I don't know let's think about it oh the budget went we have we have our taxes are going up how are we paying for it Ian like what's unknown and then you're saying come to council and ask all these questions and what I mean what are you doing you can't have you can't be in charge of one thing sit up here and try to represent 22,000 people and then vote no for teror and her property that you messed up you have to do the right thing once in a while just think about it before you send it out or have somebody take over one or the other or resign like Lisa did think about it thank you for your [Applause] comment I was just leaving I'm sorry I'm sorry ma'am can I have your name r I'm sorry I just can hear you it's sorry 26 R of place I was leaving and I had to come back Greg I want to thank you for being there for us thank you for notifying what's going on with the phase three of the park line we've been there almost 30 years and not even until today we've been notified of what's going on so I thank you you have a lot of support from many of us thank you for your comment [Applause] Tracy Keegan 15 sweep Brier Road um I just want to make a comment about the firehouse it's being paid for by a 40-year bond so we're okay with that um there's been a lot of happy talk tonight there's actually been some good news from some Community groups which I was happy to see but since the together for Summit team took control of council our community has been plagued by toxicity Faith leaders speaking up about equity and inclusivity are ignored and insulted disparaged doxed and harassed Mr Boyer even went on multiple Outlets like Fox News to claim he is being victimized by them the together for suit Republicans just stole a Council seat although Mike McAn was a good choice when the council president resigned a few days after the deadline where an election must be held for that seat now the head of the summit Republican party not the voters got to choose her replacement mayor Fagan campaigned on availability but canel nearly 30% I'm sorry she canel more than 20 of her weekly mayor's office hours and then broke tradition by abruptly switching to an appointment only system why can't she be bothered to hold open Office hours community leaders have been slandered by a City attorney who was here earlier who accused them of seeking profit in their suggestion to build an all affordable building on the former Firehouse site Mr small wood and Miss Hamlet disparaged residents for asserting their first amendment rights to gather on the Village Green and then in Mr Smallwood's case turned around and disparaged the head of SDI just this past weekend when she politely requested that a downtown event be free of campaigning which I think would be a bre and fresh air for all of us Mr Smallwood ignores constituent questions on his Council Facebook page posting laugh emojis and snarky I'm out of office comments on the page Mr palowski ran on the importance of tough but civil questions but once he was elected suggested that public comment is a privilege not a right the Republican Council sets a timer before every public comment and then yells those speakers down if they go even seconds over their allotted limit residents who disagree with the actions of together for Summit majority are physically confronted and verbally abused by Republican supporters during and outside Council meetings and constantly on social media especially in the toxic residents for Summit Group Republican supporters record their neighbors on phones during Council meetings and even during meeting breaks some residents are even falsely accused of committing crimes which is slander per se and which has affected me personally none of this is ever addressed by the Republican Council and all of it serves to intimidate those who desent and as we heard at a council meeting this summer residents are trolled over inappropriate late night DMS by Miss Hamlet which brings me to my final Point ask you when our elected officials don't abide by the rules it hurts all of us miss Hamlet Communications around were ask my point is being right now but you excuse you did not turn over Miss Kean your time is up please your time is up may I have your statement please it'll be excuse me ma'am Chief have this woman remove no that is not right excuse no it's not minutes three minutes and that gentleman you have spoken three times tonight that's right hello I'm Susan Bowen 45 walren Avenue um and my dirty little secret is that I spend all day every day on Clos all right my dirty little secret is I spend all day every day on Zoom calls so I have quite amount of time to peruse the internet and I'm struck as a 61e summit resident um by the difference in the past two years and it's not right I was here on July 9th I saw real hatred and I wish I hadn't I think there's plenty of room for disagreement but hatred screaming accusation of bribery accuate terrible accusations about Council L Boer there's no place for it here there's no place for it there are 22,000 of us and I would posit the 21,500 of us don't know how each other votes and don't particularly care because we are residents of summit and we love Summit and we chose Summit and we chose to be in a collegial atmosphere and I think I appreciate that this council is toning it down I think we all need to tone it down there's no room for hatred we're a small community and that's my comment thank you for your [Applause] comment Monique Taylor 167 Pake Avenue don't worry I won't be long instead of being agents of change the Republican majority Council are agents of chaos and division voting barely a month in office to implement the resident protection ordinance the language of which is deeply problematic and dangerous especially to folks of color and 6 months later voting to sell property that could be used to satisfy our affordable housing obligations while lying to residents of Weaver Glennwood and veto Gallow about plans to rehab their buildings posting on Facebook let's take care of Homebase first so where are your plans or are they just concepts of a plan and what happened to I'm for 100% affordable housing declarations from palowski and Boyer at the candidate Forum last fall it's as if you can't read rehabilitate current housing options and build more affordable housing no Republican council members would rather spend their time disparaging maligning and intimidating residents volunteers clergy and Community leaders and sicking your online trolls like Kevin mgoi Rich Ford and Dory Ganon and others to surveil threaten harass and defame one even mentioning in a Facebook post to me that he had guns at his home I didn't ask so why would you offer that information and another wanting to weaponize the police Mr Mt Mr jacobe who those people who are merely ex exercising their first amendment rights at Council meetings you shouldn't be calling Chief zagorski to remove anyone beginning with last year bid to cancel the pride festival using the vicious and homophobic attacks from the Republican former Treasurer and championed by Hamlet and Allen to the fictitious and vengeful drama fabricated by Boyer meant to Sully this year's juneth celebration I've been weighed aware of a similar attempt by Boyer during the MLK that last January the difference being in that case that the resident was a white senior who told Boer that there are no speeches given at this annual celebration so wonder I wonder why there was no rant then no crying to your supporters about how you were discriminated against my guess is that you wouldn't get much sympathy from white women who think you're a good guy make no mistake Summit this is a coordinated effort to undermine our community events especially those uplifting the principles of equity diversity and in inclusion at the Arts and Crafts Festival on Sunday I met a resident who said to me I've never seen it like this before and I think ask you to wrap up yeah I'm done thank you thank you for your comment wait didn't yeah well she she spoke during the um affordable housing you didn't do you didn't do a comment comment okay right Vicky Letterman Clark Street I'd like to welcome our new city administrator I hear City staff are thrilled with your hire and the changes you've already made Summit is a wonderful town except for a couple of loudmouth devisive political hacks and a pathetic outside agitator who make up crises summit's just fine through you council president Greg you have yet to answer anything if you had no clue why some staff were leaving then what the hell are you doing up there do you think you have a conflict of interest when as a councilman you Snidely imply your colleagues cause the resignations think you invading staff's privacy do you have any idea how Juvenile and unprofessional your behavior is if you have a problem with your colleagues you discuss it like an adult in closed session regarding Lisa's resignation maybe if you were more grownup and less partisan you would have gotten more notice do you understand that being an elected official is not about your wishes being City staff's command or speeches and photo ops it's doing the mundane things that help citizens and solve problems your job is Ser the coach Aros the Weaver Street residents when they ping backs up people whose homes have been broken into and the people who live next to the saltbrook if you can't do the real work and your only interest is partisan politics and photo ops then get the hell off Council lastly I commend the rest of you for having the fortitude to replace political and dysfunctional staff who weren't showing up or doing their jobs properly properly whether they left by their choice or yours and replacing them with competent apolitical professional it's the job of council and the mayor to make sure the best staff are in place doing the best job for Summit without regard for party no wonder morale is up and Tracy Keegan who gets so hysterical over an umbrella she calls 911 is hyperventilating again Democrats have lost five seats in a row because people are sick of the ridiculous political divisiveness and obstructionism no one's falling for it I will vote Democrat again when the party denounces and kicks out the wack job haters gets back anity and bipartisanship and stops wasting everybody's time with these manufactured crises it's what they do this is what they do even though it's not good for Summit and it loses elections not to mention the gross fiscal mismanagement and at least three potential lawsuits under Greg's tenure our newest council members were not elected because they're Republicans but because of how they act in the best interest of the city and do the work without regard for Party politics thank you for continuing to stay focused on what's good for Summit in the face of all the divisive driil to paraphrase K Harris it's time to turn the page on divisiveness it's time to bring our city together thank you for your comment there are no more public comments then I will be closing the public comment session miss Keegan you already spoke com ke ma' you have rules three minutes you're out of order mention my name no you're out of order sit down you got up and spoke you're out of order Sit down you're not allowed to speak again I just want to remind the person ma'am you can take it ma'am chief chief come on in ma'am chief chief please remove Miss Keegan from the de thank you pleas to call the room to order calling 911 Chief no chief chief chief no chief chief intimidating people from calling 911 Kevin mgy have removed can you please tell public how dangerous Chief please take Miss Keegan outside and if she wants she already spoke okay I'm going to close the public comment period um I'm just going to ask that everybody just guys we're in a meeting thank you I'm going to close the public comment period and I'm going to try to address as many questions as I can with our professionals okay um Matt so there there's been comments about the First Amendment first off this is called an open public meeting I'm really asking for everybody to just just give us 15 more minutes here or so let's just try to get through this it's called an open public meeting and an open public meeting it's the meeting of the common Council public meetings have a public comment session and the law is very very clear the law is clear that you can control and mandate how long you let people speak for we have rules they've been rules for as long as I've been here where they have time limits on speakers you don't have a right to continually address its public comment again you're here to watch the council do business and you can make comments this Council and I've said it before this Council affords people multiple comments on agenda items not on agenda items on items resolutions that were discussed in Clos session people have multiple times to speak about business there was a comment about um and I wouldn't call it it was billboard it's not a billboard somebody has decals in the back of their car we live in this country it's called America there's a First Amendment right we do not have the right to tell somebody to take decals off the back of their car that others find objectionable sometimes the first amendment allows OB objectionable speech this isn't objectionable speech this is political speech and so we are not going to tell somebody in a city employee what they can and can't have on their bumper stickers if we do that sir ma'am sir ma'am you're' chief chief chief if this woman CH if this woman does it again you're going to have she's going to have to leave just speaking out of turn and you know you know it's incredible I didn't interrupt people when they spoke but when I'm speaking I'm getting interrupted that's just rude that's not how you treat one another it's unbelievable that people just think they can speak over everyone people should have some civility in this room and just civility to one another and not interrupt the last couple meetings ago I was told to shut up that was well there there you go again you you should learn some civility ma'am you should as well and and and so the First Amendment if people have bumper stickers or decals on their car we are not advising them that they have to take them off that would subject the city to First Amendment litigation I'm actually defending a school district where the superintendent did just that he told an employee to remove a sign that was in the back window of his car pending stake County right now I'm defending it because that was a violation of the First Amendment we're not going to do that we live in America there's speech that could be objectionable guess what you have to deal with it that's America um I don't know if there's any other questions that you had for me I think that was that was it did you want to discuss any of the City personnel questions oh well first off we don't discuss reasons why folks decide to leave um the city people leave some gentleman said it perfectly people leave for all different reasons no no no one people 70% that's all nonsense this city is well-run you have incredible professionals actually you probably have the best clerk I've ever met in all of my travels in Rosie look at I mean frankly could probably fire half the city staff and just let Rosie run it and it'll be perfect um by the way she brought in some really good figs she grew to so she's also good um but you have incredible City staff you have a CFO who is incredible incredible engineering group led by Aaron you have great professionals people change and the one thing I I was told long ago by my father was nobody's Irreplaceable so don't don't don't think that people are replaceable and with ch is change difficult of course it's difficult but guess what with change good things often come so you have a very seasoned interim uh manager here Tom Tucci who was the manager for Cedar Grove for decades and retired he's also the chairman the chairman of the Pake Valley sewage commission which is the big sewage plant east of the Mississippi he runs the biggest sewage plant east of the Mississippi and so this city is very fortunate to have somebody serving as an interim administrator for the next several months while we look for uh a city administrator but at the end of the day people have the right to leave people are we again we live in America nobody is forced to stay at certain employees people make decisions to depart and we treated each every one of them with kindness and dignity and frankly all the all this rhetoric is not treating them with kindness and dignity each one of these people served the city very very well and uh did a lot of great things and we should thank them for their service and let them go go find whatever they whatever Journey they want to go on that's their decision not anyone on this Council and no one can force them to stay so I I hope that people understand that when we when we enforce the three minute rule we we treat everybody the same you speak for 3 minutes you don't get a yell from the the the audience you don't get to disrupt people and when people get up and make comments and then somebody else comments about them that's between two private citizens they can take they can address that on their own but again I think everyone needs to be a little bit more civil to one another in this Chambers and just more civil to one another generally cuz I can tell you I've definitely seen a lock of Civility over the last several years where neighbors are saying horrible things about each other it doesn't make them some at a better place and frankly if you want to attract good employees another gentleman I forget who he was said it perfectly Summit residents are demanding group and they should be they pay a lot of taxes and it's a great city to live in but you want to make sure that you're you're able to attract top quality people to work here if if if I got on if I was going to come here as a as a city administrator and I watch this meeting I don't know it would give me a little pause for concern so that's all I have to say Thank you Mr giobi um on a lighter note the gentleman that came up and spoke about the zoning officer um we are very close on hiring um a wonderful zoning officer I wish I could give you more detail but we've spent a long time looking for a zoning officer and and we're excited to share uh that announcement in the next couple of weeks see uh director shreer could you oine I and Claire your question is a good one and we did not get back to you um so thank you for your question and I meant to ask you director shager after last meeting and I did not get a chance so Claire I just want to acknowledge your question and say thank you yes through you council president the original major changes to the storm border ordinance took place in March of 2021 that is when the ordinance was revamped significantly you know primarily impacting what's classified as major development uh which is defined by njde uh in brief it's just if you're adding a quarter acre of new impervious or disturbing an acre of land it would kick in uh the revisions that were made in July uh were relatively minor it is just that the state since we adopted ours in 2021 the state put forth new requirements primarily related to the design flood elevations and some other you know more minor um definitions and items that were in their General ordinance this city did just adopt the recommended State ordinance basically verbatim uh so we didn't go above and beyond it at all um so that's in regards to what was adopted uh July uh and it was the deadline we were required to do it just to make sure our ordinance met the state's requirements but separately you know just speaking from caps we do have uh certain ordinances that are being circulated that we are going to be considering throughout this year just because we are aware of some change in weather patterns and we're seeing an influx of drainage complaints so uh that is on our docket to keep looking at we have those circulated and hopefully that will result uh combined with some recommendations from the planner and ordinance changes moving forward and then specifically I think one question um I meant to ask you was there something I think Claire had mentioned we were supposed to submit something and we did not submit something I don't if you caught that part of the question but we can look into that this week uh yeah I can reach out to Claire directly just to find out but if it was this ordinance did have to go to the county and the state that we did adopt it within the time we were supposed to yes TR be told we were days late but that's fine just because it's the way our meeting fell okay thank you appreciate it appreciate you hanging in there with us tonight um council member comment yes so at this point if any council members have any comments yes would welcome them uh I just wanted to and hopefully the uh our city treasurer could help answer this question I believe one of the only things that would potentially it wouldn't necessarily be departures of our uh City staff but that would affect our bond rating but it's more of our I believe we have a 99% collection rate on our on our taxes that would affect our bond rating is that correct so through you council president um partially yes um I just had three rating calls Summit um has always engaged since I've arrived here in getting a rating by all three credit rent rating agencies so having just sold bonds for the school because we're a type one school district um the city issues thatt on behalf of the school the school pays for it um but I issue it for them so I engaged in those rating calls with Moody fish and standard and pores in August um they did all three reaffirm our AAA rating um it has been that way since before I got here and has remained that way um they do have a plethora of things they look at when you go on these calls you're on for anywhere from a half hour to an hour or more um they go through a series of questions even even like weather resiliency and it's it's a whole array I don't know how much you know what the ratio is they don't they don't Define that for you or disclose how much different things take into account they do ask you about your um debt policies they do ask you about your management practices and your employment they do ask you about litigation they do ask you I mean it's it runs the gamut and they all kind of ask similar questions with a little different caveats here and there um but I don't see as long as the city maintains the way that we're going and the way that we handle debt and the fiscal responsibility that we have um I don't see an issue with a change as long as we have people coming into positions we do have an interim administrator as mentioned that has experience we still have a lot of Staff members here that do have experience um I don't see that affecting our Bond reading in a negative way at this point okay thank you and I just want to mention also uh Mr orin's comments regarding the number of restaurants uh I I forgot to write down the the number of restant I believe you said 27 uh but I do know there's only three restaurants in town that do not offer outdoor dining uh and that's Finn fiorinos and Ani I'm G to crush the name Anie ramen noodles are I believe the only three restaurants that we that do not not have outdoor dining um at least that I counted um most of the other restaurants do offer some outdoor dining and I know that the reason why F Ros and Finn is because our sidewalk sidewalks are not large enough for them to put tables out there uh all of the other restaurants uh from our diners to our fine dining uh do offer outdoor dining so I just want to mention that as well thank you are there any other council member comments or updates from your committee oh yeah but I'll I'll go live you wanna I'll go after you okay I have a a number of things I'd like to mention the first is lawn signs um stop messing with the lawn signs folks um I know uh C candidate cmon had a post recently a bunch of her signs got knocked down that's wrong um I know a bunch of Don Nelson signs have been knocked down uh thankfully at least to my knowledge none have been torn up and destroyed like Jamal's and I were last year but once these lawn signs go on somebody's yard it's it's their property so you're destroying somebody else's property and you know it's their right to to say who it is that they want to support so please have respect it's embarrassing already um second on uh Maple Street I'm not I won't sing Gil but you're preaching to the choir I think everybody knows that um on public comment brace yourself I agree with Mr hoik um uh let's put it back to the front let everybody talk after everything I don't mind stand a little later it's how we've done it um recently and you know I think it went okay tonight but uh I think if you were trying to shorten the meeting you could have not done that and we probably would have saved about 10 minutes of people complaining about the change to public comment um let's see um Trump on a car if uh if it was to on a car would anybody have complained yeah it would have just been Republicans complaining right so it's all protected people um sometimes the first amendment allows objectionable speech and that's exactly why we need it I think we all know that um SDI I think uh somebody said that they sent out a friendly request that there's no campaigning read it for yourselves um it was not a friendly request it was an attempt to uh tell the candidates what's what and you're not allowed to do this so I thought that was a mistake and I thought it was a bit of overreach by the executives at SDI um so I wasn't gonna revisit juneth um I really didn't want to but um I did have some comments that I never gave previously and since Miss Taylor brought it up again today I'm going to say what I have to say um so at the July 30th council meeting C Negron made a statement with which I cannot agree and so I'll get my I just want to give everybody my thoughts and my experience with what happened on the record Miss Negron said she was uh speaking on behalf of the summit anti-racism Committee of the Interfaith Council and would like to enter into the record the following statement the anti-racism committee and the summit Interfaith Council were not involved in the planning of the summit juneth event all all statements claiming either organization was involved are mistaken and incorrect so for the record uh by email dated May 3rd Monique Taylor informed the city that quote the anti-racism committee and Beth hadaka haava haava uh would like to sponsor a table for the juneth celebration last month the city received a check for $200 from the summit Interfaith Council anti-racism committee for its juneth table and a handwritten note from Miss Negron stating this check is for our participation in juneth so perhaps there's a semantical difference between planning and participating but I thought the the public uh would be interested in these facts along with the fact that several members of the anti-racism committee were on the juneteth planning committee regardless of whether they participated in any official anti racism committee capacity ma'am you have to stop you can't talk I'm asking I'm asking a question of public comment is closed no he brought up my name doesn't matter Chief it's not he's lying I'll also note that the anti that the Interfaith Council was listed as a part of the planning committee on a City press release months before the event and it was not until after the event and after the controversy that the Interfaith Council requested it be removed from that press release I see this as damage control and just a belated effort to distance itself from the controversy I have some additional thoughts and facts to share about this matter at the February 6th 20124 council meeting councilman Bo discussed his experience growing up in Summit I heard it with my own ears people mocking him from the gallery I am black we can agree on that councilman Boer asked that's debatable Miss Taylor shouted from the gallery uh Reverend Rod Williams wiggled his hand as if to say sort of I was there I heard it I saw it many of you did too um the public can decide decide for itself what to make of it unfortunately though this was a continuation of treatment councilman Boer experience on social media during our campaigns leading up to juneth I and at least some other council members believed councilman Boer was speaking at the event we were looking forward to it as I know councilman Boyer was Folks at the Department of Community programs confirmed it back in February and they are certain that they told the rest of the juneth planning committee but what if there was a miscommunication what if they just plane didn't tell the other committee members councilman boy is the first black councilman in Summit why wouldn't the Jun te planning committee have him on the list of speakers to begin with I'm not saying he should have been the keynote speaker as former councilwoman harston once was but nobody thought to say during the months of planning how about Jamal that it crossed nobody's mind is untenable to me and it leads me to believe certain people wanted to exclude him when it did become clear that councilman Bor wanted to speak and that the city wanted him to speak the planning committee initially refused why I heard talk at the July 9th meeting about how the event was timed to the second but anyone who attended the juneth event knows that wasn't the the case so why when the city made it very clear that councilman Boer would speak at the event over the their objection the planning committee offered a compromise to allot 45 seconds to each of seven council members seems to me that this was a measure designed to limit councilman Boer if he's going to speak let's make it as short as possible but let's take the the planning committee members who spoke on July 9th at their work and assume there was a timing commission a timing issue the committee allowed 5 minutes and 25 seconds to the seven council members as councilman uh councilwoman Allen took the mayor's slot there's an extra 45 seconds I councilwoman Hamlet and councilman Smallwood offered our time to councilman Boer let's call it another 90 seconds because councilman Smallwood did ultimately speak Andy migar was on vacation there's another 45 seconds so since timing really wasn't an issue why not give summit's first black councilman a few extra minutes of time Miss Taylor suggested on July 9th that the committee didn't want it to be too partisan I don't even know what that's supposed to mean but the solution apparently was to invite five Republicans and two Democrats to speak instead of simply giving councilman Boer slap at at the juneth celebration I witnessed Miss Taylor's glued to her watch as councilman Boer spoke there are photos of it online don't take my word for it go see for yourself Miss Taylor after Consulting with Reverend Williams interrupting councilman Boer to tell him to wrap it up Reverend Rod Williams attempting to clap councilman Boer off the stage why at the July 9th 2024 council meeting we witnessed in my opinion much disdain for councilman Voyer anyone who didn't see it can watch it on YouTube and decide for themselves Miss Taylor spoke about what she characterized as councilman Boyers quote claim they don't consider me back black and waved her hand up and down towards him shouting it's obvious we don't need to relive it all here today but I will note that when councilman Voyer finally had the opportunity to speak that night former councilwoman Harrison stood up and led a bunch of people from the gallery turning their backs on him and walking out before he can finish of course that's their absolute right but when I put all this together I come to the inescapable conclusion that some members of the juneteth committee in particular the most vocal members of the Interfaith council's anti-racism Committee just don't like Jamal why because he's a black American who has a different political philosophy because he disagrees with them on certain issues take my comments however you will just think for yourself thank you are there any other council member comments Mr Baran thank you council president um I'm going to work backwards through the public comments and just try to keep it brief so in response to M Letterman uh people should just never be discouraged from calling 911 uh that's where we'll keep that um all right in response to um Dory Miss gagnan I have definitely heard better impression of myself uh Michael did not say uh Michael did not say the Maple Street was closed illegally because it wasn't uh what was made very clear was that the only thing missing from the process was a letter from Summit sent to the dot explaining that we did this exactly the same way Milburn did it so we'll go next to Mr Orin which is on the same topic um so Maple Street closure to Vehicles made Summit a destination there was a Vibe we felt it we saw it the dancing in the street the businesses however have not moved on SDI now has data they have uh what's called Placer AI which gathers aggregate cell phone data and visits of people to the downtown and they are tremendously tremendously lower than they were a couple of years ago when we had the closure of Maple Street and it's not just on the closure of Maple Street it measures the entirety of the downtown it measures it measures uh uh Beachwood it measures a union place and it is clear from talking to business owners this year that this was not a great summer and I think it is our responsibility to talk about the things that are different and that's one of them that is different uh all right backing up a little bit further um I don't think I have anything here on this page um I agree with Diego and Bob uh I think if we if we just went back to the way the comments were now at this point we probably would have saved the time but you know me I like to get the business done first and then we do the public comments on at the end but I do think we need to give we need to give our explanation of the of what's happening with the resolution and then give the community the opportunity to ask us questions on it um I will um also agree with uh I will agree with everybody that's talked about um the signs on cars um I will respond to Mr grok uh actually I did vote against the budget uh for the reasons I described at the time uh that include I did not feel it was necessary to raise taxes to the maximum percent and I thought we should have cut more on the capital budget I will back up further uh Mr mccartie um I do think we need to give the community an outline of how we are going to fill these positions um and then I'll I'll wrap up my response to the public comments uh with the sort of theme that was in there right which is the the partisanship the the desire I think by some uh that there should not be politics there should not be partisan politics in our in ourc local races and that and that local politics shouldn't local government shouldn't have anything to do with state or national issues and the unfortunate I guess for those folks reality is just that that's not the case the context the context of our government the context of our political reality is that everybody here chooses to affiliate with a party and everybody here has run and won affiliated with that party so I'm proud to be a member of the democratic party and to support our nominee for president I'm assuming the others here on on the deis are also proud to be members of their party because of the partisan political activities in which they engage including being members of the Republican committee going to the Union County nominating convention and uh going to fundraisers for state and National political figures so I'll say three things in closing number one is there are those seeking to bring the politics of personal grievance to this city in order to distract two there are very many serious issues that we need to address and they include affordable housing our financial situation and yes the vacancies that we have at City Hall we my third thing is we as a council need to address them for the people that we serve and we need to do it in the context of a very heated political environment so we have to figure that out but I'll start by saying I'm incredibly thrilled to have my old friend Mike McAn back and uh I I look forward to uh raising a glass with you so thank you thank you very much thank you Greg Uh Kevin I'm just I'm gonna give it to Jamal and I'm gonna be like two seconds it was I thank you Greg for reminding me because I meant to say thank you Michael for for stepping up and and and being able to do this again I know you've been on Council for two terms and you were council president and it takes a lot of work and I really appreciate you you're being here and I looking forward to working with you on on Council so thank you council president I can I go before Jamal because I heard you should never follow him no um first off I I just want to thank everyone for welcoming me back on the dis um it's an honor to serve uh the city of summit uh and it's an honor to be thought of as a replacement for a wonderful council president that was Lisa Allen so um she has shoes to big shoes to fill and I'm happy to be on the the DI to try my best to do that um you know a lot of people have asked me like why are you doing [Music] this and uh it reminds me of I did when I where I used to work I can't remember if it was Ruben or Paulson who was my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss um he he left a company and he went to be the treasury secretary and he told the staff when you get a call to serve you should take it and it's kind of your patriotic Duty now this is not the treasury Department at the White House um but I feel as passionately about Summit as I I feel any place in America this is where I grew up or I where my kids grew up um I've lived here for 23 years um my kids have gone through the school system and it's been a wonderful place to raise a family um and I really didn't have a good reason to say no um so it was a reason I so my my wife could have found a reason um but I I do want to thank her she's always supported me whenever I've decided to do something that she raises her eyebrows about um and and and she did this time too um she would have been the only person why I wouldn't be here if she told me I shouldn't be able shouldn't do this for whatever reason and she didn't so I I love her I respect her and I thank her for letting me do this um I will say just being up here kind of scratching my head a little bit A lot's changed in a few years um the Tone's changed in in a few years and sadly I can't say it's for the better I I think you know I I get it people have passions they should be passionate about what they believe in and they should be able to express it um I will say though how you express it sometimes can detract from what you are saying you only remember how they said it not what they said and um I don't go a lot on social media so if people want to talk to me they can send me a note and I will have a phone call or I'll have a coffee or a drink with you like normal human beings used to do rather than engaging uh over social media what I just witnessed here tonight was a this was like a Facebook page fight but in person it's embarrassing it really kind of is this isn't this shouldn't be how neighbors speak to neighbors we all are in the same town and I understand that you know people have different political views I I completely agree with councilman Varan that people should Express their political views I disagree when that that passion that that you know vitriol on the like it's a black or white issue at the national level seeps down in tier to Summit we're neighbors we have different political views that is okay um I teach social studies I I like what Mr jacobe said you can't have civilization without civil you just can't have it and we should be civil to each other okay so um you know one of the things I hope we can do up here is try and have meetings that are civil we want to hear people I want to hear people um you should be able to express what you want to say but let's not attack our neighbors let's not attack Council people you know how many people you convince on a Facebook post uh to change their mind zero no one's ever changed their mind on a Facebook post and in this little meeting we just had guarantee no one's Minds were changed okay so let's just try and get back to being neighbors that would be my comment thank you thank you I'm going to take um I think we're uh you're obviously here for a reason so thank you for your comments and and thank you for your leadership so Jamal I'm just going to ask you to um what's up well Jamal is AR no go ahead yeah go ahe Andy yeah you can go um so Greg just touched on this and um Mr McAn you actually just touched on this as well and I'm going to talk about just one thing that um I think is a little bit difficult to talk about but I think it will actually hopefully change some Minds it is not uh is not political um Miss leaderman yes you and I I know you remember this you and I had a long conversation on the green several months ago while we looked together at the plans for the future of maybe playground you remember this day um I had really never spoken with you before at any length and until then and so it was actually the only way that I actually got to know you a little bit was that conversation and to hear what you thought about stuff unrelated to politics hear about the plans in the park was it was a good conversation I um you said something to me that day that made a a an impact on me I don't know if you remember this um you told me that at one time you felt unsafe you remember saying that no I remember saying I wasad enough I'm just going to ask just we can't have back and forth coun sorry I I'll I'll trust that you remember some stuff but I I remember you saying to me that you have you had felt unsafe at times and um you that you considered leaving and I was taken back by that and I thought to myself and I even said it to you I did not know you that well I was direct to you and I said don't leave don't leave because it was it it it it hurt to hear that and I I just my immediate reaction as a summit neighbor was to say don't leave that's that's not the that's not the right thing when you feel unsafe there are of course resources available to you uh no matter what the problem is and that is the beauty of living in the city like Summit is that you know we're really really fortunate we have resources that other towns don't we have a great police dep Department we have a great fire department we have first aid Squad volunteers that really do goove above and beyond saving lives tons of friends and family around you you've all lived here for a very long time Vicki I don't know how long you've lived here but I'm assuming you have family and friends here too and really strangers who will reach out and help you without even thinking about it at the drop of a hat a stranger will reach out to you and help you um you can and should feel that you can reach out for assistance when you feel unsafe um but you surprise me tonight and I'm going to keep this extremely respectful because um I know that I know based on that conversation you told me I know there's a bit of uh reciprocal feeling of unsafety so we'll just I'll just say that but one thing you said this evening in your last comment was about someone who I think um you don't like which is fine that person made a difficult on thefly decision to call 911 right when she felt safe she literally saw something and said something that is a motto that is a that is a uh that's something we teach our kids to say that's something we follow ourselves when you see something say something our Police Department who we respect greatly in this town they tell us to do that this person literally thought in that moment that she had the responsibility to keep herself and those around her safe and she took action we teach others to follow it it's a game plan we know saves lives thank God that the one tool we have in a moment in time right now in our country when there is gun violence and there's almost daily shootings at schools the one tool we have is that we can reach out for help um we cannot disparage somebody who reaches out to the police for help we cannot disparage somebody who reaches out for help in in any way no matter how much you may not like the person we cannot disparage somebody for reaching out for help that feeling of safety is important to me like it is to anybody and I know it is to you and I I know you understand what I'm saying here the only way that I really know you is from that conversation so I I know that the desire to feel safe is is important to you as well I want you to feel safe here and I want you to know that in moments of fear and potential threats to your safety even perceived Vicki even even if you're not sure but there's a hint that something bad is going to happen you should be able to reach out for help if that's what's the right thing to do according to your perception that goes for anyone here anybody we should teach our kids that it's okay to reach out for help instead of being scared to do so never never make them scared to do so let them speak up we cannot make a person feel ashamed or silly for making a split decision like that and and being incorrect so I'm really hoping that that is um something I can uh impart to you today this is this is as genuine as I get so that's all thank you uh councilman Bo I'm going to ask if you don't mind just I are you going to give me 40 seconds to say just try to be brief I'm looking at the audience and I I know you probably have a lot of profound things to say but you know what I got to I'm just ask you to be brief yeah I get you but I took a lot of heed to that so I apologize please uh please give me the due respect like everybody else got to speak freely and not give me 40 seconds I didn't say 40 seconds I just said keep it everybody trying to give me 40 seconds all the time2 42 right well listen let's be clear criticism of the government is a vital component and at Le leads to healthy democracy you know I get that questioning and debate holding your leaders accountable ensuring that the government serves the people but there is a vast difference between constructive criticism and what we've witnessed here today and actually continue to witness you know constructive criticism seeks to find Solutions it comes from a place of genuine concern for your city your community and your neighborhood a desire to make things better what we see from certain individuals however is not constructive it's disruptive it's hostile and it serves no purpose other than to tear people down and undermine the good things that they try to do these actions reflect a form of political hypocrisy it's h hypocrisy to demand accountability from others while refusing to engage in civil discourse yourself it is H hypocritical to claim to be fighting for the community while creating an environment of hostility and division it is hypocritical to scream about transparency while spreading misinformation and refusing to participate in honest and open dialogue we should never confuse volume with validity the loudest voices are not always the most representative or most reasonable we must remind ourselves that true leadership true commitment to our community is not about shouting the loudest or tearing each other down it's about listening engaging and working together to address the issu issues that we Face to those who attend these meetings and contribute positively who raise concerns in respectful and thoughtful manner I want to thank you I appreciate that your involvement is invaluable and it is through your efforts that we can continue to make progress but to those of you who come only to disrupt and to hurl insults I ask that you consider what you're really truly contributing if you are generally concerned about our community then let's have a real conversation let's talk about Solutions not just problems not just yelling and screaming at me not just die tribe my door is always open I'll never hate any of you I'll never respond to you on Facebook in a negative way my mama always taught me to be a gentlemen and I'll continue to do that and by the way when people come up here and they say things at me don't feel sorry for me I got I got thick skin I ran on the beaches in uh in seagert I'll be all right all I want from this community is to see my passion to see my love for everyone and by the way Diego I I was draped in maroon and gold my entire life um I love this community and that's why I'm up here so I just ask everybody especially in this highly charged political climate to be respectful of each other and to be honest it starts up here too as Leaders especially on social media you know um it it it it's not good discourse even for us to go back and forth and make this environment in our community more charged than it really is remember we're all neighbors we got children that go to the middle school high school elementary school together it's not a good reflection on them as well so thank you for listening I appreciate all of your uh concerns and all of your feedback and we will continue to do our our our hardest I was going to say damnedest but we we will continue to do our best to help each and every one of you thank you [Applause] well thank you all for for coming yeah I um it kind of reminds me I was like 20 or 21 and I went down to Fort Benning which is not called Fort Benning anymore and I signed up for Airborne school which I thought was going to be a good idea until I started jumping out of the planes and then I thought I called my mom and I said you know I don't I don't think I like jumping out of planes and uh and she said it's a little bit too late and the first thing I did was when I got into the army as I made sure I did not get assigned to an Airborne unit so so um but with that being said I want everybody to remember what I said at the beginning of the meeting which is at the at the next meeting I'm going to ask for council president nominations um but thank you for bearing with us you don't want to do the job anymore come on F I got through one I got through one but um you know I as Mike said you know and Jamal and and you know Greg and Andy you know the the funny thing is what everybody doesn't realize is we work pretty darn well in committee all of us Democrats and Republicans up here and that's the truth um you know I worked well with Andy and parking Greg and I had a couple battles this week but we we kissed and made up you know we kiss and make up but we made up um you know we we make up and I think the important thing is we're all doing we're all doing the best we can we got to try to come together as a community and I had some I had some really good conversations with people today that I never thought or this week that I never thought would happen and we're actually making a lot of progress so hang in there and um we'll see you next week can I get a motion to make a motion to a journ I'd like to make a second meeting is adjourned