start the meeting the next televised regular council meeting is March 19th the exe executive session begins at 6:30 p.m. and the public portion of that meeting begins at 8:00 pm. March 21st and 28th are two additional budget meetings that begin at 7.m like tonight there will be an American Legion Drive public update at the Roa Center gymnasium on March 27th at 7.m it will be broadcasted on Zoom but participation is in person only council did not meet in close session earlier this evening and before we move on to the next order of business I just want to congratulate our te High School Highway woman on the incredible basket season that they had they are ranked number 15 in the state of New Jersey ranked number one in the big North conference and ranked number two in Bergen County our Highway women have also won a big North National division championship and a North one group 3 New Jersey state sectional Championship we congratulate them and we are so so very proud of them but we also want to congratulate the coaches the parents and the cheerleaders too because they were there with our student athletes every step of the way during the basketball season so our next order of business is good in welfare and any member of the public wishing to be heard at this time can please come forward and state their name for the record comments shall be limited to three minutes per person if you are on Zoom we ask that you please list your first name and your last name so our clerk can call on you and we ask that you turn on your camera when speaking if possible and please remember that this is a budget meeting and that the proposed budget is the main focus of this meeting thank you is there anyone in Chambers who would like to speak during good and Welfare seeing No Hands Mr clerk is there anyone on Zoom seeing No Hands good and Welfare is closed next order of business Mr manager is budget discussion and department head introductions it's the floor is yours sir so we're going to do the introduction of department heads again um far will be here around 7:30 due to Ramadan everyone else is here Isa is just upstairs finishing up the the budget books the print outs for everyone else but I'm going to do this in alphabetical order uh and uh you know just let me say that you know I work with 14 different department heads um I I I say this all the time and I and I mean it it's an incredible group of talented individuals where I'm successful because of them they make the town successful they make my job heck of a lot easier I appreciate what they do and um so I'm going to start out with um alphabetical order the assessor's office James Tai and jam James has been with us since 199a James good evening uh mayor council persons uh James Tai yes I've been here for 26 years uh we just finished our third revaluation in my 26 years uh just yesterday we closed the books our our accessible value increased from its uh 2023 aggregate which was approximately 5.3 billion to 8.4 billion that's a 60% increase in the nine years since the last revaluation um as I said that was just finished yesterday uh so we will be mailing our postcards today and everyone's already been notified as to what their proposed assessment was now they'll be certified and then we'll move on from there um this year as part of the revaluation contract of course uh the revaluation company will be handling the appeals process for the most part at the uh County Board level uh so hopefully most of them can be handled at that level and we won't have too many go to the state and they'll also handle it next um which takes a lot of pressure off of my office uh my office is basically a two-person operation myself and assistant and we're responsible for the assessment of about 12,000 properties um as I said the rateable base is approximately .4 billion now um so it's it's small office but we do have large responsibilities and um in addition to tax appeals we do added assessments every year which can number from a 100 to 400 depending on the amount of construction that's finished that puts extra money in the Township's coffers it's actually unanticipated income uh it's outside the school budget it's outside U well it does go to the county but uh we as I said we get anywhere from 100 to 400 of those a year they've resulted in 1502 over million dollars a year in extra tax collection in October with the fourth quarter or November with the fourth quarter uh we also handle the um senior V earn uh Widow deduction forms we qualify people for exempt properties uh we handle routine requests regarding property ownership um we uh record Deeds as they come in uh we basically keep the database for the township owners and addresses used by all the Departments once again we we have fairly large amount of responsibility we're a small Department have fairly moderate budget and uh I'd like to say we run it pretty efficient question I just want to say I know it's been a really busy year for you um and it was my first reval and um thank you for getting us through it so smoothly I didn't hear I mean other than the usual grumbling I really didn't hear any complaints from residents so kudos to you thank you thank you uh most of those will come after the fact [Laughter] but we tried to make them understand what that meant we did put uh the implications if the budget did not change which of course we can't project what that's going to be so they have an idea yeah yes one really quick question is this the largest increase you've seen in assessed value since you've been through this three times no the first time uh there was actually a 20y year interval between so it in some cases property values had tripled um so yeah it would depend on the interval but it it's a relatively short interval for 60% increase so it's actually the residential component of the tax base now is higher than the entire tax Bas was in 2015 um just two questions so for 2023 um from 2022 to 23 did you see an increase or decrease in in tax appeals and then are you expecting obviously with the rebal are you expecting that to go up or down um the the increase was moderate uh they were I think there was in 22 there might have been under 30 appeals at the County Board and last year it might have been 40 to 50 which is basically no increase as far as I'm concerned we did have years where there were 2000 um there's always an uptick in appeals after a uh revaluation a lot of people don't understand that you know you were appealing your assessed value not your taxes so we may not see a huge increase this year next year when the full implications of their new assessment become obvious because they have their new tax bill then a lot of them file but a lot of it's based on yeah my property I I I can't argue with the property value but my tax too high but that's a different argument so not one you can bring that to Tax Board Miss beler yes a quick question and thanks for your presentation um since um I guess between 2005 and 2022 the the um Municipal open space tax um has been at a rate or tax levy at a rate of like 0.1% per 100 but and for some reason it seems like on 2022 uh three it went to from that to 011 is there any reason why you would think that would increase so much and I don't really get involved in that part of it most I'm just concerned with the valuation of the properties yeah I just noticed it on my tax yeah I'm not sure how they do that budget okay you know our budget obviously is we take the budget and divide it by the total accessible value of Township so we projecting a much lower rate but that one I'm not sure how they do okay I'll look into to it further thank you thank you Mr Ty than thank you James may be loved right now but it may take a little uh your next tax bill not to like James but no thank you for all your hard work James with this the reval so next up is our building department and that's Mark bino and Mark has been with us since 2006 Mark mayor council the tck building department is a local Municipal enforcing agency which is issues construction permits conducts ress inspections and issu certificates of occupancy in accordance with the state of New Jersey uniform construction code building department also administers the township of Teek development regulations and provisions of the state of New Jersey municipal land use law to accomplish this we must collect fees portion of these fees for the enforcement of the New Jersey uniform construction code are required by state law to cover only the costs of enforcing the regulations our mission is number one to protect the health safety and Welfare of all users of buildings and structures within the township of EK through the enforcement of the uniform construction code to ensure the adequate maintenance of buildings and structures throughout the township by the AC of enforcement of the uniform construction code of the state of New Jersey provide and maintain a pleasing visual environment through the application and enforcement of the Township's development regulation to assist in the orderly development of the township by applying the rules and regulations established by the township Council to assist assist the township Council in providing a better Community by suggesting the elimination of elimination of unnecessary or obsolete regulations the alteration of regulations to recognize new and Innovative Technologies and the establishment of new regulations to recognize uh to address changing Lifestyles and objectives to assist applicants in the process of obtaining necessary approvals for use and development of properties within the township provide assistance to property owners and users in times of Crisis to minimize disturbance of life and livelihood to maintain and Advance the quality of life of people living working and visiting the township of EK by promoting the ideals and principles set forth by the township Council through their legislative action some of the highlights from 2023 we processed 718 zoning applications and issued 567 permits we processed 2,641 construction applications and issued 2785 permits and conducted 8,386 inspections the average weight time for inspections was less than two days we also coordinated several pre-construction meetings and pre- certificate of occupancy meetings with developers to try and smooth the process of construction and the closing of permits we also have met with multiple citizens and contractors to help walk them through the application and permit process and we also filled an enormous amount of Oprah requests I estimate we spent approximately 480 hours in 2023 accomplishing this thank you anyone to have any questions sure thank you for your presentation just quick question in terms of like inspections like um because of uh we have so many um homes being sold uh in town and typically on the um in inspection side um the fee for that um typically like a is born by the buyer um do you feel that our fees are within line with um with what where they are in terms of other townships well are you talking about CCO fees like we do not have a CCO program here in most of the other towns around us do uh but we do not do you feel that that's something that we we as a council should consider or evaluate I I do I do I think one of the issues that we run into is people buy homes and they have either open permits or somebody bought the house maybe they lived there for years and they did Construction in the house and didn't take out permits or we have flippers also they buy a house they flip it they don't take out permits now we find out about it and the new owner is is stuck with paying the fees any penalties and paying for any corrections because sometimes more often than not it's shoddy work so um I think it's a wise decision to do and from discussing this with uh construction officials in other towns uh it is a um it does pay for itself more than pay for itself so and most most Realtors are used to towns that do charge uh for ccos yeah we'd have to see obviously what we would charge for that we look at other towns and see what they get and what we think we should get um in terms of number of inspections and number of construction permits were there more um this year than typical or was it pretty typical uh construction permits zoning permits were down um construction permits were about even and inspections were up a little but not that dramatically prob all within about 10% I just had a quick question you mentioned that you had 480 Oprah requests this year is that up or down and 480 hours oh 4,880 hours so is that up or down from last year that's about the same is there anything that could be done on your part that could help ccos a lot of the opras that I get are realtors and lawyers doing their due diligence to make sure they're aren't open permits and to see if there's work done that doesn't show on the house card for permits is there anything digital that would help alleviate that from your department um people could search through sdl if they went into the portal to see what permits were there they wouldn't even have to file an Oprah okay that's what I wanted to do thank you and I just want to say thank you for everything that you do and your department I know it's not easy being um forward- facing to the community it's almost like being a pharmacist sometimes and explaining things to people they may not understand um but I also have heard very little in the way of complaints lately and um I appreciate everything you do thank you it it it eases the pain from that a lot to have a a manager and a council that supports us really does so thank you thank you Mark thank you Mar right next we have the clerk's office Mr Doug ruson three minutes good evening Council folks back home all of our department heads for our first budget meeting of 2024 I can't believe we're already here again a year really flies by before you know it especially in a Township that is as active as ours uh you know the township clerk's office is really a place that gets to see and participate in every aspect of the municipality and in the organization I'm a one of the Departments here that definitely has the privilege of working so closely with all of these wonderful department heads uh to my left it's definitely a very active town all good bill all good it's definitely a very active Town keeps us very busy uh but it's definitely a good group here professional group that definitely keeps things under wraps clerk's office participates in a lot of different statutory duties here in the township though we handle all different kinds of Licensing and permitting we handle open records requests as everyone knows one of our favorite things in the township uh we also handle the Contracting process help organize all of our different Council meetings and of course we run all the elections in the municipality something that we started a couple years ago which has really picked up traction is our pole worker meet and greets where we invite old poll workers new pole workers people who are thinking about becoming pole workers to the town hall we actually meet here in Chambers and uh we collaborate on the challenges that will surely come each election day because in a town as large as Teck there's definitely all kind of things going on on Election Day uh something that we were able to Institute last year which is something that we're definitely going to build upon this year with the cooperation of the Bergen County Board of Elections and our Tek Board of Education we were able to fit in a program with our local high school students to work the polls on Election Day Teek was actually the first town in ber County maybe New Jersey to do that uh and that's something that we're looking to build upon this year as well I'm already already laying groundwork with the county and the Board of Ed to uh work for the primary and the general uh which is a really enriching experience for the kids they get to see their neighbors these are a lot of kids that aren't even old enough to vote yet helping carrying out our Civic process it's definitely a really cool thing um the clerk's office of course also One Stop Shop for all kind of information I may not always know we may not always know exactly what you need but we definitely know where you could potentially find it with our two staff members John and Kristen who everybody here has definitely worked with closely at this point also they really help hold together the office uh digitization you know recordkeeping that's something that the township is definitely getting into we have awarded a contract uh late last year for our website redesign which is something that our office is working closely with our it department on to make sure that our website is ushering in the services is that we can provide to our residents in a comprehensive intuitive Manner and really bringing our technological presence into the 21st century our website's been lagging behind a little bit and uh we're definitely looking forward to updating our website in a way that you know it's not that we don't want to talk to all of our residents you know what I'm saying we get a lot of phone calls daily but these are a lot of phone calls that can potentially not come through if people look through our website right now the website's a little hard to sort through it's something we're all in agreement about and uh we're working really hard on making sure that that's not going to be the case uh to limit phone calls but also ease of access ease of accessibility for people you know there's a lot of things that folks can do from home now such as watching this council meeting and that's about all we have looking forward for 2024 there's any questions dening our website would you say that all of our residents um that need to pay any kind of fee um that's accessible by way website can be paid on our website currently not any fee no fee fee payment on the website and digitally is something that we're working on I believe our court office has started taking credit card payments but not digitally that's that's in in person and then you have Recreation through recpro and of course your taxes and building department yep so we're slowly getting there where a bunch of different fees are we we started last year accepting parking permit fees in our office on sdl which was really cool too but you know slowly but surely we're trying to automate those processes for sure something that uh will definitely come through with this website and something that we've been trying to do with sdl is automating some processes or digitizing some processes that don't have fees attached them certain applications obviously op requests uh and things like that um as you continue to digitize how do you think that'll impact your bandwidth for your department well you know as we're talking budgetary items a Digi a digitization project is something that you know throwing it back and forth the last couple years it really seems something to be more prudent that would be done through a Contracting process with a company looking to maybe have someone come in and evaluate Quote us on what it would be to digitize and obviously a very organized conceivable manner so all of us would be able to access it no problem uh and there's obviously a price attached to that and that's some that we're going to need to evaluate going forward um I know that the manager and I have discussed possibly trying to maneuver that through some Capital funding but you know one thing at a time we'll definitely get there there's a lot of records and just until then do you feel like you have the resources you need for your department at this point absolutely we have two staff members that uh like I said they really help hold together the department we're pretty much busy every day right I think every Department would be able to find a lot of task that could be done if we had another set of hands but we definitely make do you know and we definitely get the job done um your congratulations again on your tenure this year I think my favorite meeting or my favorite part of any meeting was uh having the residents call in and really talk about how they've gotten to know you and how you've helped them so much and I know that the clerk's office is the gateway to the residen in town and um I'm I'm really glad that you're there I appreciate that councilwoman that's right yes council did decide to give their town clerk tenure in January so now it looks like I'm sticking thank you guys thank you so I'll be sticking around for a while thank you Doug all right nothing else Doug good all right good all right that's a tough act to follow but uh the next person I'm going to call up can do that very well and that's our finance uh Department CFO Issa Abasi Issa good evening I was dreading following Doug but uh he followed me done a spectacular job and I'm very proud of him so Town's in good hands good evening Council mayor Isa Abasi uh CFO since May 1st 2019 can't believe it but next month I will start my 15th year here 15 years um it goes by fast it's been enjoyable it's still enjoyable with the staff I have I have my Deputy CFO Aisa adomi and payroll clerk carene Estes they make sure everyone gets paid everyone's pay is accurate everyone's enrolled in the pension system anyone who shouldn't be on the healthcare bill is not on the healthcare bill um and they make it flow I have my accountant bruny kees who makes sure with Simona in her office that uh we have a bill list every council meeting and that bills get paid um I also have my tax department who make sure they take everyone's taxes and are do their best to be as pleasant as possible and give information out so that's Natalie Tino The Collector Jessica Lewis the deputy collector and Roy Matthews the tax clerk the Department of Finance is responsible for effectively maintaining the financial administration of the municipality and overseeing its resources the CFO supervises division of finance division of tax collection and division of payroll we also review our departments as deposits and expenditures on a daily basis um with coordination of the purchasing department and we attempt to remit payments as swiftly as possible the Township's vendor uh has provided to us the receipt of goods and satisfactory delivery of services are certified that's that claiming thing that IO Scott design which he does very fast our accomplishments from last year include one I'm very proud of this building out the Edmond system online so that way whenever we bill commercial users for using more than their fair share of 100,000 gallons of Wastewater you can now pay your bill online so any of these large users who are not residential but commercial can now View and pay their bill online number two we've continually negotiated interest rates up with our local banks I was hoping we'd have over a million dollars in interest we came fairly close 777000 in interest last year which is an increase uh from 2022 of 112,000 huge increase uh that's by the way very common among other towns I was on a round table with other CFOs last Friday and that's kind of the thing that's happening this year we also permanently finan through a bond sale of 13.78 million in bonds at 3.26% man I wish any of us can get that for a mortgage you know future home buyer um we also migrated time and attendance to the employees Delight uh through our ADP uh payroll and HR System so now you can request a day off from your app on your phone this year we're hopefully limiting to uh basically audit those balances and stop any paper or email request just go on your phone put in your time off and it's approved by your department head for 2024 we are looking to hopefully finally catch up now that we're online with our SE billing for 22 and 23 we typically have a one-year look back but because of covid and then building up the system we haven't been able to catch up for more than one year number two is revamp our escro system and integrate it with our Edmond Financial Suite uh again because we have taxes there we have purchasing there we have Finance there it just makes sense to have that be your be all end all and include that utility payment in there and we're getting there and as I said earlier eliminating our paper PTO time off request with a full migration of ad0 and that's it thank you Issa any questions Bel yes not so much a question but a statement I I attended the uh League of municipalities um budget webinar this past Saturday and uh it really kind of like Illustrated the fact that we are very fortunate to have a CFO because I hear from a lot of towns a lot of council people are saying they don't have CFOs so I think we're very fortunate in that oh thank you thank you for the word Mr reinhardt's very tough act to follow the county but uh you know I need to get together soon anyone else I just want to thank you I know this is your busy season and I hope you ate dinner tonight already Yes um very quickly good I'm efficient um and and just to thank you for all the explanations bonds and bands and and the education about things that we don't um come up here knowing about and I know that you've been Clerk and um moved your way to CFO and so you're a wealth of information and help to all of us and um I really appreciate you thank you Council yes it's a lot of information gathered between driving up and down the turnpike to New Brunswick as far as Vorhees for class 10 years ago but it's all worth it and it's a pleasure just like Doug said to be in the township with the council and the manager and all my department heads by the way thank you Mr welcome thank you Thea came on as the executive assistant in 2010 and then moved his way up to Clerk and then uh CFO and I failed to mention Doug came on board in 2018 as well so next we have um uh the fire Chief Joseph berol and Joe has been here since 1990 Chief good evening thank you Council thank you manager thank you rest of the department heads as my department couldn't operate without their help and their support every day um I will be back next week so I'll try to keep this as very brief as possible um just some statistics in 20123 um uh for 2023 the fire department responded to 3,00 954 calls of emergency service out of that 148 were fires 14 vehicle fires um we had seven firefighter injuries and we assisted at EMS calls for 560 runs um in tenek we had unfortunately four civilian injuries but luckily no fatalities last year um I can't stress that enough home smoke detectors um when I get to the state statistics and the federal statistics again it clearly drives home and we will um as I'll talk probably more in depth next uh week uh we do have a grant for smoke detectors we're going to be pushing hard the next two years because of this grant to get out there to make sure our residents have all working smoke and carbon dioxide detectors as I can speak to everybody again it's important that you have a working smoke and carbon oxide detector on every level and outside every sleeping area it's it's a must uh as you know thank you so much for the capital investment in the fire department of an engine and a ladder truck uh bless you Doug last year that was a great and will be uh well received in 2026 when we actually receive it um okay so um as you know the T fire department has four firehouses uh they range in years from uh 82 years of age being fire headquarters being the oldest who are youngest or new which is uh station three which is 33 years uh currently the uh 56y Old Firehouse is under some Renovations and upgrades some statistics you should know across the United States and federal government unfortunately we lose 100 firefighters to the line of duty deaths fighting fires in New Jersey unfortunately we lose anywhere from three to six firefighters every year in New Jersey both career and volunteer um we also unfortunately lose 53 civilians to fires or Home Fires in the state of New Jersey if you look at the statistics and this is why it's so important back to that smoke detectors that we constantly pledge and push 85% of all residential fires occur in Residential Properties out of that 53 are in single family homes which comprises most of tenek and another 32% are in those multif family homes last year unfortunately we had uh 300 civilian injuries in the state of New Jersey due to those homes and those Home Fires um the ages unfortunately of the victims did we did lose across the United States range in 50 to 90 age and unfortunately children under 10 when we start to look at those statistics so again it drives home the point of why you need to have working smoke detectors you need to have an escape plan and you need to practice practice practice and when those detectors get old you need to get rid of them and get new ones it's a cheap investment for your life and your life safety as you know the fire department continues to work on grants we have a radio Grant an SCBA Grant a fire prevention Grant and a training training trailer Grant with the city of hackin saac we can talk more about that next week uh we're continuing to move the dispatch to hackin saac uh we continue to hire new members we have a bunch of members that you allowed us to hire that are attending fire academy right now and will be off the line for the summer uh Staffing always becomes an issue with firefighters as we roll through and firefighters age out and retire it's a unfortunately a revolving door and when we do get the chance it can take up to six months to hire a firefighter it's not it's not an instantaneous process I also want to thank the DPW uh because of their budget which they'll be up in a couple minutes as Travon will say he supports all of us and he truly does because they bear the burden of repairing all our fire trucks we have some fire trucks that are close to 30 years of age we just spent $27,000 to repair a Waterway on our 2014 um 1986 ladder which again comes out of his budget and then of course we have those four firehouses that are constantly on on need of repair updating and um um maintenance and they do they do unfortunately need some maintenance as they're starting to age does anybody have any question thank you Chief any questions I was told that I keep it on the three minutes I I don't have a question but I feel like we need to say something really nice about everybody tonight because I'm so happy that you're all in the room and I don't know when we'll have the opportunity again um I know your your guys had a real rough um month and um were really busy uh with the two fires that we had in town um they did have a chance to come to my house when my daughter's um hair dryer started smoking and it was the first time they had been to my house in a few years since I stopped cooking they used to come often um but I they're so professional and um they're so kind and I really appreciate them thank you um just so you know there's not many career fire departments in Bergen County and I would say we probably have the best and again thank you for all your support throughout the years you also probably if you were to run in numbers in the other towns probably the most I don't want to say cheaper uh less cost for your bang for your buck so not only do I do I believe you have the best firefighters across the board in Bergen County but you're also probably paying the least to get the best if anyone else thank you Chief thank Chief and the chief also serves our Deputy OEM uh coordinator as well uh next up is our health officer Courtney Stine another rising star with many new uh visions and goals and she'll talk a little bit about I'm sure the accreditation process that we're undergoing right now Courtney I sure will mayor and Council thanks for having me here today and a rising star thank you I appreciate that Dean um so before I get started with really what the health department does I would be remiss if I didn't share with you all that every day that I come to work I love my job and every day that everybody that works in my office comes to work they love their job um I'm so proud of them there are nine of us including me that are fulltime for the he Department um they serve this community the best way that they can they're always willing to learn and again it's such a pleasure to work with them we're really lucky to have the staff that we do here um so I'm I'm really on the time clock over here with my colleagues so I'm going to go through some big buckets that we handle in the Health Department Public Health nursing health education animal control code enforcement environmental health restaurant inspections Property Maintenance rental inspections we're busy uh two of the things that I'd like to mention um are that since October of 22 the health department has been the recipient of about $600,000 in grant funding we have put most of that money towards salary and Fringe reimbursement for current staff and we've also off offset our operating cost with that money um and we look forward to more grant funding coming in to supplement us also as Dean mentioned we are preparing for the accreditation process it's a national process that really emphasizes the importance of datadriven and evidence-based practice so we have revamped our mission our vision our values which were maybe 20 30 years old we've completed a strategic plan a Workforce Development plan um and a continuous quality improvement plan we are working towards that accreditation process every day that's all I got if anybody has any questions any questions anyone just wanted to say I just wanted to thank you Courtney for the work that you do for our Township and uh it's a pleasure serving with you on the stigma free Advisory board thank you and tamasa thank you and um thank you for all the work that you did I don't know that you got enough recognition from the town but it seems like um the um many babe shops that we have in town are actually under control right now so thank you and thank you Chief um hopefully our our youth are are healthier for it and better off for it thank you anybody else thank you Miss Artin thanks Courtney and next I'm going to bring up our library director Chen hun who does an incredible job with the services and programs at the library and continues to do more with her staff and and with the resources that she has so chenet it's all yours thank you um good evening mayor and Council um I hope you all know we had very busy year last year uh there have been many new exciting programs and initiatives uh first I want to mention our ESL program that was stopped during the pandemic and we rejuvenated with our local volunteer tutors they had four virtual training sessions and were paired with the local residents wanted to improve their English um we had 24 volunteers 37 students who benefited from from this program to meet the high demand for technology help the library developed and offered a series of Bas basic computer classes in addition to our ongoing oneon-one Tech Health Program K residents learned a basics of uh using computer internet keyboard mouse skills file management and using Google doc the Liber received a Bergen County art Arts Grant to develop and Implement a series of art and craft programs for adults uh the total of 16 art programs such as watercolor growing cam were offered through um the grant that these programs promote creativity and bring people together and providing lifelong learning um and enriching their lives for our residents to celebrate our culturally diverse town the library offer many programs with our community members such as Luna New Year black history months St Patrick's Day June teth concert Hispanic heritage months just to name a few we also continued our successful programs in March more than 400 people participated in our maker Day program the annual summer reading program was offered for adults teens and children over 600 people participated in the program and read over 3,000 books to the summer Fall Fest in October was filled with fun activities craft snacks and a petting zoo for families to come outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather in December we celebr celebrated the holiday season with with famous Broadway singers and highlighted tck authors in our first author Expo the library owns over 180,000 items in print and digital materials through the buckles system our residents have access to more than 5.3 million items that can be delivered to the tin public library in 2023 the library checked out over 319,000 items physical items and over 68,000 digital items K residents borrowed over 97,000 items from other buckles libraries library collaborated with the Small Business Development Center Farmers Market age friendly EK tin Creek conservancy and schools in EK the library visits senior housing facilities to deliver books and offer technology help there we offer all our programs and servic with 19 full-time step members and about 30 part-time step members on behalf of the uh te Library Board of trustee I like to thank you for your continued support thank you Shen any questions and just a comment I I love your the programming of the library I think it's it's it's top of the line I think it's the best in in the county if not the state thank you and and I get to hear this report every month and I know this is just a fraction of what you do um and how many people come through those doors now and how it's really become a a focal point of the Town um I'm sure we'll hear a lot um as we close for renovations coming up um no I just wanted to Echo you know I think the programming has always been great and the library has always been awesome and I wanted to also be bill or here who raised money for the library also wanted to thank him as well sh you all right thank you Chen Chen has been with us since 2022 and has done some incredible work I'm working with her uh talking about some different ideas when we do have to make the reservations to the library and when um uh when we need to shift some of the resources and I think we have a place that we're going to be talking about I think that will be very convenient for for the residents as well so the next uh person I want to bring up operates one of the largest courts in beron County been with us since 2017 and that is our court administrator Greg fonan CG thank you Dean good evening mayor and Council nice to see you um the mission of the municipal courts in New Jersey is to achieve Justice while remaining neutral and independent of the executive and legislative branches of government this judicial Independence is crucial in ensuring confidence in the legal system by the litigant we serve uh the municiple Court's executive component begins with our two judges The Honorable jeppi Randazzo and The Honorable Erica youngbl myself as the court administrator and our Deputy Court Administrator an Marie Gallagher our remaining support staff consists of one senior Clerk and three clerk typists uh the municipal court has jurisdiction over all moving parking criminal and local offenses filed within the boundaries of the township of Tink offenses of indictable nature continue to be processed by our office and are transferred to the County prosecutor excuse me for indictment or downgrade back to this court we are also empowered to hear matters of change of venue from other municipalities when ordered by the assignment judge the court processes numerous citizen complaints on a yearly basis uh typically resulting in conducting probable cause hearings before one of our judges who then determine whether these matters will issue and move forward we also refer minor neighborhood disputes to mediation when applicable at no cost the litigant involved uh our court sessions continue to be mostly conducted virtually um however four sessions typically four sessions each month are scheduled uh in person uh with matters that are calendared that meet the criteria that is established by the administrative office of the courts uh and just some numbers um our staff processed 14519 parking moving n DWI cases uh this number also includes all local Township offenses and criminal offenses in 2023 uh our staff disposed in 2023 of 14246 six cases uh when we compare these numbers to the uh filings within 2022 it indicates a decrease in filings of approximately 19% uh total revenue collected by the court last year totaled 76,6 of which $455,000 was turned over to the township the balance uh going to all required State and uh and County agencies uh Revenue to the township uh when compared to 2022 did decrease slightly by 7.7% however in 2024 uh court filings as compared to this same point in 2023 show an increase in filings of 21.7% and an increase in Revenue to the township of 22% so that's really all I have unless you have any any questions [Music] anyone thank you I just want to say a thank you even though I have happily luckily not needed to see you in in action that way right yeah thank you anybody thanks Greg thank you great work uh next person I want to introduce uh it's been with us since 1993 and gosh over the last couple months been in touch with him and spoken to him more than more than ever and this morning when I spoke to him he was very very happy and pleased and I said what's going on and he said I shot a 48 on the back nine so those that those that know that uh that's that's G terms for I guess having a pretty good round so without further Ado Chief Andrew mcer thank you Mr manager it was a 47 but okay thank you uh good evening Mr mayor council Mr manager and uh fell department heads and members of the public um having been in this position for a full year now um I just want to Echo the sentiments that it is really a pleasure working with everybody you see before you uh the department heads in this room are just great people to work with on a daily basis and in my position I get a better appreciation of you know what it is we do with with the different departments all the time um coming up through the ranks you don't see it as much until you get to the top and then you realize how much we interact with each other so um of course the DPW supports everybody we couldn't run without them uh but we deal with everybody on a daily basis between the fire department the health department the courts obviously um and again everybody's just such a great uh you know people to work with and so professional and I'd also like to thank thank this Council for your support for our department we couldn't do what we do without your support um my name is Andrew mura and I'm the chief of the tin Police Department the mission of the tin Police Department is to safeguard the lives and property of the people we serve to reduce the incidents of fear of crime and to enhance Public Safety while working with diverse communities to improve their quality of life our members are committed to the highest ethical standards and to providing public service with honor integrity and respect our department is accredited by the new Jersey State Association of chiefs of police and has an authorized strength of 97 sworn officers we also have 16 civilian support staff one parking enforcement officer and eight auxiliary police volunteers the ten police department also continues to be the primary Public Safety answering point for the township atin since we completed a full renovation of our Dispatch Center in October of 2022 in 2023 our department received almost 50,000 calls for service we ended up filing 8,194 reports that includes handling 732 criminal investigations by our detective Bureau 508 investigations by our juvenile Bureau the department made 306 arrests with 41 for DWI officers made 4,631 motor vehicle stops and attended to 3,419 Medical emergencies the routine Patrol activities included conducting more than 7,000 building checks uh 2200 business checks and over 6,000 house of worship worship checks since October 7th our department has dealt with several demonstrations maintaining the peace and ensuring the safety of those involved and affected I'm very proud of the men and women of the T Police Department the job they do and the level of professionalism they consistently display we're dedicated to providing the best police services possible for the township we will always look for uh innovative ways to provide our services and we we will continue to work with the community to better understand their needs the budget for the police department was crafted over several months and considers the needs of the department the level of service our department our residents expect and the impact it has on the overall budget of the township thank you for your time and I look forward to answering any questions be any questions m g I just want to acknowledge and thank you and all the police officers in tenek I think this has been a really tough couple of months where we've had so much going on where we've required the support of you and your team and it's just been phenomenal um I was there for certain moments where I thought oh my goodness this is going to go the wrong way and the officers that were there were patient were thoughtful understanding of of all the folks who were involved and I just I couldn't be more proud um to see them in action so I just want to say thank you for all of your your hard work thank you Bel I also want to Echo um the fact that it has been very difficult times in uh last few few weeks um and I just want to thank you for the training and the sensitivity that your officers have um displayed so thank you thank you do you feel like with what's been going on the past few months we need to um re-evaluate your budget or do you feel that Staffing will be enough going forward if we continue on a path path like this um I I also want to Echo how how proud I am and how grateful I am for every single police officer um but I I know that they're working very hard and um not even the cost of the overtime which I'm sure Deputy Mayor cats will speak to but um it it has to be very trying on them um to be working all the time and so I'm I'm wondering if that's something we need to plan going forward and certainly don't need an answer right now thank you also Jamie just put in her papers today I think so I don't even think I can vote on your budget Scott okay I I okay um I just wanted to also say thank you for everything I've watched every single thing that you guys have done and all the officers that have been there and I don't have the words but I just want to say thank you thank you thank you very much thank you Chief uh next is a person I call uh the get it done guy and that is our director of Public Works Travon Romeo again I'm I'm sure he's very tired of hearing from me hearing from Tom uh we every day whether it's emails text messages so I appreciate what you do and never says no and uh he gets it done so Trevon hi good night everyone um K public work uh we operate out of a building that is approximately 132 years old and we look forward to um the construction of a new facility we also maintain um 124 miles of roadway we maintain a sewer system that is approximately 100 years old uh we uh maintain 26 Parks um we respond to um every emergency within the Township from every Department here uh we also um are involved in um in snow plowing um any emergency operation and we have an on call crew that is available 24 hours a day uh 7 days a week we also maintain um 250 vehicles that are owned and operated by the township of T having said that um with the age of um the infrastructure with regards to the um the sewer system and many of our buildings um you would see that we requested a a higher than average increase for maintenance of these um infrastructure and buildings have um skyrocketed and that's all I have very short thank you Mr Romeo any questions oh thank you very much wait we need to get you a new building and and we're working on it um and that will be I think the highlight of all of our careers up here when we're able to do that we we are trying and I want to say from a personal level I did not get one complaint to bet leaves this year which is crazy not one not even on social media and not one complaint to about leaf pickup this year so thank you so much thank you thank you to the manager for um giving us the extra resources we needed to accomplish that we evaluated the operations um um with Cel woman uh Goldberg sorry bra I'm getting old um I'm here 24 years now no 21 see the brain the brain I feel I'm here so long but um we revalu to the operations and as a result we tweak um some stuff and we had more resources this year we were able to finish um leaf collection earlier than normal and uh thanks to the hardworking crew and like I said again the funding and support from the manager I just want to thank you as as well for the work that the gpw does um I I would say that because spring is coming next next week hopefully we've dodged the bullet of another snowstorm I'm just not good on that um but also I just want to say that I think of any Department it seems that we talk most about DPW so hopefully that means a new infrastructure of buildings in the future yes I look forward to that thank you thank you Mr Romeo thank you Trevon next I have our purchasing agent Simona Cassie and seru has been with us since 2011 again just a another incredibly busy Department day in and day out there is no break with purchasing and and certainly appreciate everything you do Simona thank you Dean good evening mayor council thank you for H having us here today and taking the time to listen to us um as Dean said um I've been with the township for about 13 years now and uh 7 years as purchasing agent um I have a department that consist of myself and an assistant um who's been with the township for almost two years um we do interact day in and day out with all the Departments we really do um and uh Tran is right he does need a uh a lot of money in his budget only because in the past year I've seen the prices go up absolutely astronomical in a lot of parts um Automotive is is um probably one of the most affected Industries and um we're we're on a hunt always to try to actually find the parts that we need to to repair our vehicles uh the purchasing department is responsible for the procurement of all the township equipment supplies and services and also supports the finance department monitoring budgets and Department departmental spending and fulfills the function of accounts payable uh last in 2023 uh we have issued um almost 5,000 purchase orders totaling over $6 million and we processed payments over $6.5 million we held 26 public bid openings um and uh we monitor compliance uh with um the state affirmative action regulations uh we are I represent the public agency compliance officer for the township we also um do a lot of our purchases through um a lot of co-ops in the state we're members of um a few State co-ops as well as National co-ops to try to um streamline some of the process um and we also assist in preparing resolutions for the council agenda making a recommendation for contract award thank you thank you Simona any questions anyone culture that I I'm sure the challenge is the supply chain and and the inflation how prices have gone up so much uh what are some of the ways in which we as a council can can help to assist in in any way as it pertains to keeping cost you know under control I know you mentioned the co-ops but are there any other suggestions you might have I'm I'm I'm not sure that you know that really you know falls back on you necessarily um I constantly say that it's it's probably a bigger problem a bigger problem than is to be addressed probably by uh Trenton you know possibly the federal um you know one of the biggest um hurdles that we've had last year were vehicle you know the purchase of vehicles is um you know the hardest thing to to really do nowadays where we used to have vendors come and just give us Vehicles now we're we're waiting over a year to to see these and when we do find them you know we have uh dealers that hold on to the vehicles and try to sell them at you know such a high cost that sometimes you know the township cannot cannot do I didn't even realize that was part of what you were going through that's part of your job but thank you thank you s okay thank you Samona next person is someone that's been with us since 1981 and a person that needs no introduction and the recent recipient of the Michael B Burman award for administrative excellence and that would be superintendent Glenna Rockett Glenna good evening everyone the recreation department is structured into four Focus areas we manage the over 51,000 square foot award-winning Community Center 7 days a week we offer classes and activities and special events within our three divisions we offer individual education Fitness arts and dance classes non-instructional activities in the Rota Center outside virtually and offsite facilities for ages 18 months to over 100 years old many at nominal fee or no fee at all we also offer a state licens after school program State licens full daycare program a state licensed camp programs additionally we schedule a number of special events including the July 4th Community celebration our movies in the park our Summer band concert series and outdoor concerts te- neck day we also operate this the summer swimming pool Sprinklers and splash pad we offer workshops and art history lectures movie reviews and other relevant workshops and discussion groups to our seniors in the spring of 2023 our Township social worker Alex cbone facilitated health related lecture series also to our seniors we also provide transportation to seniors and disabled residents we have two to three vans on the road five days a week transporting residents one way or roundt trip to medical appointments food shopping and miscellaneous errands we provide the very popular and valuable service free of charge throughout the year facility reservations we issue permits for a variety of amenities in our parks and indoor facilities we schedule users for our tennis and basketball courts our ball field Sports plex picnic areas soccer fields and request Bard ofed and County facilities for a variety of our town programs and sports organizations throughout town on a yearly basis we also schedule the you of the roota center for Council events and to Township groups and local organizations we were the site of flu clinics health fair blood pressure screenings Health consultations and access to our Township social worker for our seniors through our collaboration with the health department and we served as one of nine County sites for early voting the department department is currently staffed with 13 diverse and multi-generational full-time employees and over 200 part-time and seasonal employees throughout the year an interesting fact our medium age for fulltime staff went from 56 years old in 2023 to 44 in 2024 thank you is that going down even more I'm sorry is that going down even more no no no no no no that's it that's it oh no our part-time staff or we started sometimes age 15 to over think our oldest is 86 so miss beler I just want to thank you uh Glenna for all the work that you do I mean we have the best Recreation Department I think in in the State Bar None thank you m organ might be easier if next time you just tell us what you don't do instead of what you do um thank you so much for everything that you do and and always for greeting us with a smile when we thank you thank you thank you how many 300 games wner 19 19 okay rocket reminds me all the time thank you Glen um next um and the last person I want to introduce good good friend of mine gosh I work so closely with uh with her and her husband and uh great great people um and I just want to bring up our Township engineer Farah gani Farah thank you Dean uh good evening everyone uh uh so my I'm par gani Township engineer um I'm civil engineer with over 25 years of experience in the field of Municipal engineering I'm a professional engineer in state of New York New Jersey and Delaware uh I'm also professional planner and certified Municipal engineer and this is my 10th year serving uh Township uh I'm also uh vice president of uh New Jersey Society of Municipal engineer and president of fastic Consulting uh my department consist of myself and two clerk which I share with you um so uh the engineering department provide Engineering Services uh for the township infrastructure system infrastructure include stor drain system sanitary sewer building grounds Park roadway system traffic signal Etc uh the department prepare Capital Improvement program as they relate to preparation of capital budget and implementation engineering and design construction administration of these programs in addition the department evaluate the impact of new development will have on the township infrastructure such as traffic condition sanitary sewer and St water assist uh the department review residential plan for the tinic codim compliance and ensure that construction is according to the approved plan and there is no adverse effect on the joining properties and public right of fa uh the township engineer prepared and coordinate various uh Federal State and County grants uh for opportunities to fund Township projects uh the engineer represent the township on the Community Development Regional Community and Bergen County open space trust fund Northern well um the engineer um the township engineer also act as Township strong water coordinator and submit an annual report to ngdp for municip strong water permit um last year uh the engineering department delivered over 12 distinct project including roadway resurfacing of 26 streets which involve total reconstruction of Maran and Washington Street uh we uh received three grants totaling about half a million of this project uh and we paved around five miles of roadways uh we also managed design and construction of V Park Bandshell and vti Park basketball court uh other projects included Julia Street SE main replacement and B and Beverly cber construction um some of the project which will be done this year um design and construction of 2023 roadway resurfacing project including resurfacing of 16 Township streets and total reconstruction of haml terar bisade Avenue Improvement and fight Lane Improvement uh construction um construction of Vy Park shed and shelter prefab restroom um tennis court lights and design and construction of pic Park and much thank you thank you Miss gani anyone have any questions for our engineer just want to say thank you for all that you do for our Township thank you thank you for all your support and and we're so lucky that you're a tneck resident also and and um thank you thank you Farah thank you Farah so so mayor again this town offers a tremendous amount of of services to its residents and we're very very fortunate I speak to a lot of administrator throughout the county throughout the state and really what we offer here is first class top-notch service to to our residents it really is I'm not saying that because I'm your manager but I can tell you hearing feedback from other municipalities how we do things here they wish they did that at their own municipalities so yeah I hear the same thing actually a lot of the county building that we are one of the best run towns and it's thanks to all of you I just I just again I I just to reiterate I I work with an incredible group of professionals and just want to um uh to thank them again I'm privileged to work with them on a daily basis again they make my job easier and uh I appreciate all they do day in and day out not only for me but for Council and for the residents of TX so thank you very much thank you everybody appreciate you guys next on the agenda is yep sure is this is the um introduction of the the budget my presentation to Council on the 2024 budget and let me say this as well and real quick do they have to stay because I don't want to keep them out later if they they can head out if you want yep you see you don't ask you don't get you can please feel free to stay but I know this is going to take like another half hour whatever you want you want us to come yeah yeah anything you guys want I love that you love each other like so much that this is what you want to do of course we would love to be in there this is a happy happy group of individuals who enjoy coming in every day should we stand to make it easier Doug how do you think we should do this should be in back you're the clerk you're the dj shall We Stand Stand Up Guys coun stand is that my camera it's my phone that's my phone B is getting that one's for me all right we [Music] got and I can tell you that doesn't happen at the county you don't see the department heads taking photos with each other all right thank you so much thank you all so so very much for everything that you do for our hometown we appreciate you so much mayor where else does this happen at a council meeting doesn't happen only in T I wish thank you everyone have a good evening thank you gner all right Mr manager the floor is yours sir so just to to open up again 2024 I I will tell you uh in my time doing uh the budget the last U I guess six seven years and then helping out William Isa is very instrumental in this as well this by far was the toughest year uh we had to make some very very difficult decisions up until uh this afternoon uh today I had an emergency meeting with my department heads on Monday got them all together and to see what we could do to kind of reduce some of the operational budgets uh it's a responsible budget it's one that maintains services but uh it was it was certainly difficult and I hope everyone understands how we got to where we got to with the budget when it's done um you know we'll have some time to review it uh over the next couple weeks there'll certainly be and I'll cover this in the PowerPoint presentation there'll be um budget meetings uh next Thursday for various departments the following Thursday for various departments but this will give you a good idea how we got to the number we got to and and why we had to be at this number right now so Doug you want to ceue us up most of you have heard this presentation several times some of you have heard it once but I I think it's important to go over this and and have a full understanding of of the budget next next slide Doug yep so the first slide covers the whole budget presentation or Preparation process and again it's hard for me to believe we're going to be starting this in about 6 months again uh so we originally uh we send out e ni send out notice to department heads in September of 2023 the beginning of 2023 uh to notify them to start preparing their operational budgets uh we get them in October um e and I review the department head submissions uh we go over this um with the department heads and then we scheduled the uh department head public budget meetings and they took place this year on November 6 6 7th and 8th that's open to the public uh we did have a few people from the Public Public at most of the budget meetings um we had a public input at council meeting on February 13th and 27th I don't think too many people have any spoke about the budget uh the manager the CFO and the auditor we conduct our budget review um during really from uh January through the current date uh a couple other important dates we had our annual debt statement that was due on January 1st uh I'm sorry January 31st Doug next Slide the annual financial statement uh was due on March 8 was recently submitted to the state and we really can't do too much uh with our budget until that financial statement is done uh we work very closely with our auditor um the next step is the manager's budget to council uh and that is tonight the uh revised statutory date is February 27th or the next regularly scheduled meeting which is tonight March 14th uh we're going to conduct the public hearings on March 21st and March 28th um hoping that Council will introduce the budget by the revised statutory date of March 31st or the next meeting which will be for us on April 2nd so the introduction should be at the April 2nd meeting uh the hearing and Adoption of the budget the revised statutory date is April 28th uh for us our next scheduled meeting would be May 7 so introduction by 42 April 2nd and adoption by May 7th next slide Doug so these are some of the assumptions that the 2024 budget is dependent upon uh again multiple factors here uh Council determination of the 2024 Municipal budget Appropriations our fund balance which is also referred to as Surplus and what's available to us in 2024 uh the 2023 Municipal revenues analysis and the 202 for Revenue anticip uh anticip anticipations I'm sorry uh state aid allocations for 2024 which we will go over and special emergency financing for terminal leave severance pay next slide Doug and what's the difference between appropriation versus Revenue vers rate Appropriations is what the municipality intends to spend on our operational costs the revenues of course are what the municipality earns through various fees and through the collection of taxes and and the rate is that the amount of taxes to be raised the net property valuation and is the tax assessor mentioned uh we are at 8,472 525 55,800 that's an incredible increase uh simply stated the tax rate is a percentage of your property value that you are actually taxed on next slide Doug so just a little bit about the 2023 revaluation uh that was ordered by the County Board of Taxation in 2022 and the reval was done by and conducted by appraisal Systems Inc uh all property assessments were revalued to become an inline with the current market conditions and the role uh of appraisal systems is strictly really to Value properties according to the market value and it really has no bearing on the municipal budget and to put this into perspective we created a chart that shows the difference between 2023 and 2024 so the average home value in tenek in 2023 was $ 39,7 N2 in 2024 it's at $629,999 and that's a difference of over 238,000 or 61.2% uh now tax point in 2023 it was 525,000 and change uh we went from that amount to in 2024 to $847,500 so 525 to 847 uh with a difference of 322,000 or 61.3% so these are these are high numbers from last year Doug next slide so we're looking back at the 2023 tax breakdown uh it's important uh the proposed budget refers to so everyone understands the municipal portion of taxes only uh the Board of Education and County taxes are separate from the municipal portion and all of course all um taxes are paid to and collected by the minister py through our tax collection office um taxes then are forwarded to all taxing entities by weekly and quarterly and just a very uh interesting fact uh e and I looked at this number and we look at it every year just to make sure we're correct uh so the TA tax breakdown comparison um for the municipality so in 1943 uh it was 38% at 38% um then um in 2023 uh it's at 33% so it actually went down so uh is an incredible you know I I think fact in in 1938 uh I'm sorry 1943 was 38% and then uh today it's your Municipal tax is 33% next slide Doug so these are the known impacts that we're facing in 2024 you know we're going to see a reduction of available revenue from the American Rescue plan ARP everyone may know uh notify to utilizing a budget so that's uh you know a little over $1 million um filling of open positions in the police and fire department to meet their authorized strength for the table of organization again these are impacts on the budget increase in contractual obligations to employees uh increased health insurance budget uh which is based on the 2023 actuals increased operation budgets for DPW and this includes things like disposal costs uh from the police end crossing guards as well uh we Outsource that uh certainly as a purchasing agent said there are increases to cost of goods uh sold and services and and nothing is nothing is cheap these days next slide Doug additional known impacts on the 2024 budget you know we have an increase of 4 million a little over uh four 4.3 million in expenses beyond the Township's control when I say uh beyond our control there's nothing we can do about this uh it's the monies we have to pay out so you know help health insurance increase this is not a teet problem this is a every municipality problem you know we're seeing an increase of 1.3 million salary and wages a little over 1 million uh Department expenses uh 569 th000 our debt service went up 578,000 and the percentages are there on the right uh deferred charges 433 uh or uh payments to uh pension such as the public employment retirement system and the police fire retirement system you know was up 183,000 buron County Utility authorities that's up 177,000 or or 4% again these are uh these are figures we cannot control next slide additional known impacts on the 2024 budget uh less one-time revenues of 600,000 um so it's a decrease of 100,000 from our reserve for payment of debt and we also used about a half a million dollars from a DPW crant to salaries last year that's no longer available to us so in in total there's 4.9 million of increases to our 2024 Municipal budget which we have no control over rate of inflation um went to 3.2% and that was as of February 2024 January 3.1 February went up uh to 3.2% next slide so uh the proposed 2024 Municipal budget um there's a modified tax increase of 6.99% and this is how it's broken down uh as mentioned and this is again important the average home is assessed at 6 129,000 and change uh so the impact or the increase in taxes on the average home of 629 uh per year is right now is $435.00 uh per month that's broken down down to $362 so the tax levy again equals the budget Appropriations minus the revenues and we mention this every year uh POS it could be possible appropriation cap issues in 2024 if the cap Bank ordinance is not adopted normally Council does adopt it and and that's done at the time we introduced the the budget uh there is no tax levy cap issue right now uh this budget will be reviewed by the auditor as well Doug next slide so this shows the difference between so the appro this shows the difference between the Appropriations cap versus the levy cap so the Appropriations cap was enacted in 1977 uh originally CA the budget Appropriations in increase at a cost of our cost of living uh otherwise known as Cola and back then in 77 the maximum Cola adjustment uh is 3.5% and required the adoption of the cap Bank ordinance that we speak about now the ordinance again allows a Township to bank a cushion if needed for future unanticipated expenses above the Appropriations cap and the levy cap was enacted in 2007 more recently and amended in 2010 uh to 2% and modified exclusions that could be included in the in the levy cap next slide Doug okay so uh the local Finance board issued and this is the finance notice that they issued to the town and to all the municipalities it's 202 24-3 and that was issued on February 23rd 2024 that allowed for the following appropriation increases in excess of 3.5% for 2024 for the budget so the these are allowed um they include garbage and trash removal and Disposal recycling costs um the pension uh employer contributions for Pur and pfrs uh include gasoline and diesel fuel work as Compensation Insurance um and we are not allowed to use the same ex exception that we use in 2023 however we did not use any exceptions in 2023 so we shouldn't have any any issue and or problem next slide Doug and the importance of the Appropriations cap banking uh this is another um good information the C Bank ordinance really has two purposes allows the township to budget up to the permitted amount if needed and allows the township to carry over any unused amounts from the last two prior years and adopting this cap Bank ordinance does not again does not add funds to the budget and the budget can always be reduced by Council prior to budget adoption regardless of the cap Bank ordinance so this does not add funds to our budget it's also important to note that if not adopted the township may be required to reduce services in the current year or a future year based on the cap calculation again passing this cap Bank ordinance provides a Township with budgeting options in the current year and in future years and it needs as I mentioned needs to be introduced at the budget introduction next slide Doug so this is how we arrived at the 6.99% tax increase when the budget process started e and I looked at this very closely we were close to 10% actually 9.9 9% 99.97% and again there are increased costs beyond our control totaling uh over $43 million uh we experienced a one-time reduction in revenues that was 600,000 uh we we had as I mentioned we had to make some very tough decisions um not happy about them again we'll revisit them with Council uh so no new hires are budgeted for 2024 across all departments uh we we are considering a possible switch back to State health benefits plan on July 1st as the private self-funded plan uh cost annualized was higher due to our claims experience next slide continuing how we arrived at this number we reduced our operating budget by $2 million uh there's decrease in Surplus utilization by $1.7 million and just to go over uh Surplus everyone understands it we build Surplus in two different ways one is by not spending complete Appropriations and the step two is by realizing higher revenues than anticipated and a good example of this is the hotel tax we realized more Revenue than anticipated in 2023 and uh that uh that amount will be put into capital and we'll utilize special emergency financing for terminal leave in 202 for due to some retirement next slide Doug uh we also e and I looked at very closely with our capital budget uh we reduced capital from 13.5 million to 8.4 million again the hiring freeze delayed hiring for the remainder of the year um bu field maintenance was moved uh from the DPW uh from DPW operations to our Minal open space trust account um we um we opened up the bids today and received a very favorable one for field maintenance and we uh will award that at the March 19th meeting uh and several of the police Capital expenses will be funded through forfeiture so we took those out of uh capital and we will fund those through the police forfeiture account next slide some of the factors and future impact on a 2025 budget now um terminal leave may need to be budgeted in the past we budgeted $750,000 we haven't done that in a while uh we've been um funding this through a special Emergency due to the volume of retirements uh we may not be able to utilize the special emergency in 2025 so that's why we have to consider putting $750,000 uh into into the budget next year's budget for terminal leave um this year terminal leave 2024 is estimated to be an additional 240,000 so that needs to be added of course you have the inflation state of economy cost of goods uh increased Capital uh budget uh to fund some of these projects that we want to get done uh increased hirings assuming retirements in police and fire department assuming retirements of the police and fire department again along with filling these open positions that we're not going to fill uh the remainder of this year so in addition to new uh retirements police and fire we're going to have to fill some of these open positions that we're not filling for this year next slide additional future impacts on the 2025 budget of course health benefits uh the premiums you know they don't go down they go up uh 20 25 pension contributions go up uh no ARP funds as Revenue utilization so that's minus 950,000 a potential increase in bcua Bill uh the consideration for the new DPW facility the expenses associated with that um reduced Capital surplus of minus 200,000 and of course a contractual increases next slide so you know the amount this kind of puts everything in perspective the amount needed to reduce this budget so to get it down a half a tax point we need 424,000 and that would reduce the increase to the average house uh per year uh to $43 to get it down one tax point we need $848,000 and that would uh the average home would see a $372 increase to get it down a point and a half 1.2 million in change that would bring the increase to the average house to 340 and to reduce it two tax points to 499 you need close to 1.7 million and that would bring the increase to the average house down to $39 next slide so these are some pie charts that just give you an idea about the uh 2024 proposed budget the appropriation categories and where the money is spent so the bigger one of course is to the left that's salary and wages 45% of that uh brings the amount to over 37 million other expenses to the right covers 32% that's over 26 million our statutory expenses over $10 million or 12% um so this gives you an idea of where the money is actually being spent you know you have the reserve for uncollected ta uncollected taxes uh some deferred charges uh Capital Improvement fund and and our debt service next slide and this again this pie chart just breaks it down a little further about the proposed salaries and wage es uh for each department the biggest one of course is the police department at 35% a little bit over 13 million uh fire is close to 11 million or 29% the next biggest one is DPW at 14% or a little bit over 5 million uh and Recreation a little bit over $2 million so that all comes through for our proposed salary and wages 37,2 2016 next slide uh so the salary and wage increases required by Union contract leaves very little flexibility for us under binding OB arbitration of course is Public Safety police and fire that's on the right and uh to the left are all the other ones the bottom right you'll see only 12% of salary and wages or a little over 4 million of for are excluded uh exempt employees we have about 40 of them so this again brings it to 37,2 2016, $51 next slide Doug this is a breakdown of where we are with the collective bargaining agreements everyone is settled uh some longer than others the only one up this year the end of this year is a DPW supervisors uh I've been in um contact with some of these uh Union heads um you know there's a good chance that possibly for them we'll have extensions that bring it out to 2030 the larger Union so I'm working on that and hopeful that we can reach some sort of agreement for the extensions this way again this is something that uh we do not have to worry about for many years and it helps Issa out with the with the budgeting process as well next slide uh this is the summary and recommendations for the police the current Table of organization provides for 97 sworn officers they currently have 94 uh with the um hiring free no um no one will be hired we had to remove the part-time Park Rangers or s1s um and right now there are no uh planned retirements in the police department so table of organization 97 they have a 94 currently um the budget calls for no hires uh for the remainder of this year and we had to remove the part-time Park Rangers and uh which we call SLO special Law Enforcement Officers one uh from the budget next Slide Fire the 2024 recommendations current Table of organization provides for 91 firefighters current Staffing of 87 uh they do have one retirement planned on July 1st um we have to hire one firefighter and that will be done as of May 1 that's a mandatory hire out of my control um as the chief mentioned we're going to be transitioning to Shared uh Service uh with hacken sack fire automatic Aid and that should begin on or about July 1st next slide and next is DPW uh we have one vacant labor position that's open uh as I mentioned field maintenance is going to be awarded to a vendor at the March 19th meeting and this should help to allow the parks division to concentrate on some other areas in town uh the field maintenance company will handle about eight or eight or nine Fields next slide Doug overtime uh gives you a little look at where we're at with the overtime so in 2023 really this has remained flat since 2017 and has not been indexed for inflation despite alley rate increases uh police fire and DPW do an excellent job managing their overtime uh there's been a lot of different unforeseen events weather events um uh public events so uh it does make it very challenging but we have not increased the overtime for 2024 you'll see fire is at 500,000 DPW is at 326,000 and the police at 600,000 right now and it shows you what was spent in uh the previous year so for fire um they were at 656 858 DPW is at 320 28 and the police we at 600 a little over 696,000 next slide Doug so this covers Appropriations and other expenses kind of breaks it down with the pie chart um you know we're spending over 26 million uh for GP uh Group insurance for employees uh for Department operating expenses for utilities uh contributions to the self-insurance fund and other insurance premium so this totals a little bit over $26 million again this is really out of our control next slide this just breaks down the utilities it shows you that almost 5 million is going to Burton County Utilities Authority that's 68% uh the other big one is um uh water fire hydrant Service Electric um Street lighting uh so this is where our utilities are going and that totals 7,363 th000 next slide so what what are we get this question all the time what are special emergency Appropriations and what's allowed under the statute which is 48 4-53 uh so some of these special emergency Appropriations that can be covered are preparation of tax maps uh revaluation uh codification of ordinances preparation of the master plan drainage engineering uh consolidation Severance liabilities uh terminal Le preparation of sanitor sanitary storm system apps and tax appeal refunds and as the assessor mentioned uh appraisal systems is going to handle uh our tax appeals for calendar years 2024 and 2025 next slide deferred charges um these are again utilized for special emergencies uh in 2024 we have terminal leave liability um we have the revalu ation special emergency and that's included in the 2024 budget uh to pay for appraisal systems that was a little over a million dollars uh also includes uh prior terminal leave special emergencies we utilized that in 2019 through 2022 and the covid-19 pandemic special emergency um so deferred charges come to a little bit over $2 million next slide so our contributions to the Self Insurance Fund uh there's actually a decrease to 20 from 2023 of $150,000 and and really A lot has to do with the Township's efforts of aggressive subreg and recovering monies from accidents and various claims um this also falls under this category of workers compensation title 59 torque claims uh coverage such as slip and falls and proposed settlements uh to be funded in in the future next slide uh other insurance premiums that uh covers about 1.5 million that's uh pjf our public entity joint Insurance Fund uh and that coverage includes many different things such as Auto liability Collision Employment Practices public officials facilities cyber security and general litigation claims next slide Debt Service Debt Service we're at almost $5 million uh you know we had an increase in bond principal and bond interest due to the 2023 Bond sale uh so the total line item increased five a little over actually almost uh $580,000 with 133% in 2024 so this is our debt service again there is an increase of 578 and uh we did have an increase due to the bond principal and bond interest in 20 in the 2023 Bond sale next slide so statutory expenses again out of our control uh that accounts for over $10 million that's uh police fire retirement system increased over $82,000 the Public Employee Retirement System increased $101,000 so this total line item increased $183,000 almost $184,000 in 2024 next slide Doug Capital Improvement funds so the total cost of improvements uh we had 8 million for this year we're looking at 8,45 th000 uh so we have to put down 5% of that that comes to $425,000 and we're going to do that Capital Improvement fund review that's scheduled for March 21st so uh we're going to be coming in at a little bit over 8.4 million and again we must put down to 5% and that's the 425,000 number on the right hand next slide so our estimated revenues for 2024 uh again the municipal and Library Levy is 65,535 and change really the total first I should say is 83 million 55748 uh the municipal and Library Levy account for 65 m330 n77 uh that's followed by the local Revenue numbers which accounts for 10 10% and that's 8,241 ,000 uh State revenues a little bit over $3 million uh Surplus uh close to Six Million and the collection of the linin taxes 700,000 next slide and this is uh just a a pretty big pie chart on the breakdown of the estimated local revenues uh for 2024 um fees permits building 1.7 million that account to for 21% of this uh miscellaneous revenues 1.7 million Hotel occupancy tax was 975,000 for 2024 which was very good more than we anticipated interest on investments at the CFO mentioned before uh over 700,000 and we're always looking for better interest rates and we will find better rates and uh move our monies uh ARP funds Revenue that was 950,000 uh Port fines 450,000 so this again is a breakdown of uh all of our uh estimated local revenues for 2024 next slide um state revenue uh there's a slight increase uh we're at 3,772 ,000 uh this just gives you an idea of what that number is right now that's 4% next slide Doug so the budget wrap up you know it's it's pretty pretty simple our Appropriations much match our Revenue in order for this uh in order for us to balance our budget so our appropriation number must be the same as our Revenue numbers and the appropriation number is 83 milon 557 4843 our Revenue numbers are 83 milon 55748 43 which balances our budget for 2024 next slide Doug some strategies short and long term um you know again we mentioned merging the fire dispatch with the city of hackin saac uh sale and development of selective uh selected Municipal owned property improv police radio communications I spoke to the chief about this the county has great infrastructure and we're looking to transition uh we're on VHF high and we're looking to uh go to a much better um infrastructure radio infrastructure that comes at a cost of $1.2 million of course the health department accreditation is underway uh enhanced the ratables through business attraction and and future development improved infrastructure to attract Economic Development uh continued Redevelopment of Alfred Avenue 359 I believe is the next one uh there uh possibility of cannabis resoning parking lot improvements electric charging stations next slide Doug uh infrastructure improvements at fire headquarters of course we we talk about The Pedestrian safety measures traffic caling striping Road resurfacing Municipal Building basement renovation and the library upgrades Park Renovations and park bathrooms uh consideration for a skate park uh consideration for a new Gard Club um I mentioned Alfred Avenue um 189 to Plaza potential development American Legion Drive uh continued work on the DPW facility uh next Doug website upgrades uh Community Choice aggregation that's ongoing additional field renovation sewer drainage upgrades community policing programs um and just you know I will I will say that development over the last five years has really helped us to generate some positive ratable income you know some of the ones that come to mind right away Avalon 1475 pal 1500 Tina Gro 329 Alfred and and huba I know there have been others but certainly the develop to those projects has helped the helped the township next so the upcoming budget meeting is as follows the next one will be uh March 21st Thursday March 21st where we'll do a review of The Police Department fire department legal department and the library budget next slide Doug uh March 28th that's the recreation department Public Works and Engineering the capital budget and also we'll do the manager Council clerk budget um next slide so you know I I just want to thank everyone for your cooperation with this budget process as I mentioned this year by far has been the most challenging I I want to personally acknowledge a few people of course the the Town Council for your support as always our auditor Dan de Gangi all of my department heads and assistant department heads for their patience and understanding with this I put a lot of pressure on them with their operations budgets this year um and last ly two of the most important people in the budget process of course is our CFO Isa Basi and our Deputy CFO isisa Adam munji uh they they really do incredible work um can't do it without them uh the budget book and the PowerPoint will be posted on the website we'll get that up there uh tomorrow morning as well so everything that was here posted will be on the uh website tomorrow morning next slide and that wraps up the 2024 budget present presentation I know it's a I know it's a tough one you know we can talk uh this out at the next two budget meetings meet with the budget subcommittee but I tried to give everybody an idea uh what it would cost us tax pointwise half a tax Point full tax point you know to get it down to you know if you consider 4.99 a reasonable percentage manager anyone on Council yeah have you started thinking about um if we did if council did decide that we wanted to see that number drop down even substantially even below maybe 4.99 where you would identify potential areas to scrub the budget to get there well we we reduced operations as much as possible and I I said this uh earlier on Monday I had an emergency meeting with my department heads and asked them to cut an additional 10% over what they already cut from their operations budgets we reduce Capital um we have these expenses that are out of our control um and you know really um as much as it hurt to reduce or hire do the hire increase for this year um you know the only other way and I don't advocate for this at all the only other way is through Personnel that's where you save your money salaries and benefit so in other words um you don't see uh any um kind of a deferment of any Capital Improvements as a way to um save money we we can but keep in mind the capital you know the down payment is only 5% so it's really not impacting our overall budget but can I get uh the capital budget down we did go down 11 or 12 million down to 8 million and change you know can we get down to five million four million we we can uh you know we can reduce the road resurfacing there are some other things we can reduce but those are important to us with infrastructure but again we we'll need to discuss that that's um the route we want to go direction we want to go we can do it but it doesn't really impact the overall budget too much because we're only putting down 5% if I remember right with the 8 million and change it was 450,000 I believe Visa in that area 450 for Capital so um so if we go down another we go down say to $5 million you're cutting uh you know may maybe $80,000 out of the budget 100 uh 100,000 out of the the budget and again a tax point is $840,000 so that's it's a lot it's a lot of money to find yeah one more question and then also just a comment um so first the question is um in the infrastructure bill um the 2022 infrastructure Bill do we anticipate receiving any grant money from through that bill so we we have I I know through Congressman go Heimer um the federal infrastructure Bill we're getting 1 2 million for The Pedestrian overpass but just keep in mind you know grants are great uh and we've been very successful but we have to put up the money first so this isn't here's your check go out and do the work so we have to raise that money we have to put up the money first and and show them the bills and completion of the project so we've been doing we just got the Grant from Senator Booker uh that was 5 $50,000 that's for the sewer project down on um old New Bridge Road a New Bridge Road uh so we're we're getting these grants in you know we're successful with that but we keep in mind we have to put the money out first that's a problem and and then my comment is um given the reval and that probably about half of our residents saw an increase in their property tax um their Total Property Tax is just from the revaluation I'm concerned about what another 6.99% might be for them those who saw a reduction maybe they won't be as much and so I just think we we need to be um conscious of that I I agree and it's going to I wish I had a better answer it's going to sting again this is just the municipal portion of your tax right you have the Board of Ed and you have the county right so um it's it's going to going to sting yeah and I hope um Isa doesn't change his cell phone number before he knows he's getting a phone call from me um that's a few items are one I think we can take a look at over the next few weeks and see what it does to our Revenue side one is increasing the hotel tax I know um you we've discussed that briefly over in the last few months coming and going see what that can do to our numbers because we've been very successful and the fact that we've been very successful with our hotel occupancy means that that adding a 10% of hotel tax would only be15 $150,000 or maybe a little bit more than that but definitely something I think we should look at um next it used to be online Park Side the new the huba properties coming on I used to be on Edmond's now I can't see it on Edmund's anymore but I know about 36 units have been sold already um and those are you know they should be taxed about $20,000 a pop which is obviously for um if I'm correct the first year we don't pay Municipal is is that correct you said we I'm sorry the first year we collected all for municipal we don't pay Board of Ed and at 30 to 40 homes coming on board a 20 grand a pop that's half a million bucks at least so I wish James was here but my understanding from the assessor is that you get it as an added assessment in October and it's like a fraction of that it doesn't come online until next year now remember just a general comment because I don't want to get into specifics and I can do that offline with anybody you're interested you're only allowed to forecast your Revenue at the maximum and so you know the issue this year is that we keep upping our revenues closer to the maximum so for example hotel is a little bit over a million dollars right how much over a million last year corre the forecast right now is 1.2 I can't put 1.2 in the budget I can put up to that million we put 975 so the way you build Surplus is the million minus the 975 I only have a $25,000 Vigor cushion that I can go up more so Dean and I have been in the last two Saturdays from 7 AM to 1:30 PM really going through this with you know the auditor U scratching our heads every which way you know DEA knows that we read this day in and day out doesn't uh it hurts both of us just as much as hurts all of you um as I said before as a future homeowner I'm priced out of tck just by taxes alone uh and I don't want to see that happen to really anybody I want us to be a thriving liveable Community you know there are options that we could discuss with the committee that we could think of but again any one year option you have is one less option you have for next year and then with next year I mean no hotel tax increases not for this year in theory what you're saying but it is for every year thereafter that's not a one-off I'm very good at the one-offs but these that's not a one-off actually yeah I mean look the hotel's grown significantly if you remember in the pandemic and that's one of my favorite barometers we barely got like $350,000 in hotel tax in 2020 2021 and it started rebounding this is last year was the first full year that we had both hotels online so the fact that we cracked a million dollars makes me giddy um you know you have the World Cup coming in two years so you know I can't wait to see what happens with that but you know at the same time who knows how much more can go up and even if it does you're not going to build much more Surplus on that one item because you're going to the max maximum forecast you can um so you know again I can correct but that again that's for this year so mean if we don't do anything now next year we're going to have the exact same conversation but if we start start this year it will be for the following year but then going back to huba some of these units are already occupied so it should be back to last October yeah I can check with the you check because there's hundreds of thousands on yeah I just saw the cnc1 which is like the added construction is roughly 17 million more which gets you uh you know that much more that you can add onto the budget not going to make that much more of a difference that you can add on it adds on basically another $18,000 to the budget for the calculation for Revenue that you could add on oh I can go through that with you offline yeah but the order is going to add that once we review with him to towards the budget but preliminarily we didn't think it was gonna be that much more of an effect this year it would have to be like 15 million added value assessment to really impact us positively okay thank you Miss beler uh you know it's like when you do your own personal budget at home you know wherever you can find um you know Solutions so I appreciate you know anyway you know what you and and Dean are doing in terms of trying to find what are some of our options what are the various scenarios if we did this then this would happen if that we did this because I do um agree with Deputy Mayor G that um the fact that we're in the midst of a revaluation the the con the mindset is we you know we want to uh pretty much not have issues with our residents make making them feel as if we're doing everything we possibly can to keep taxes low anybody else have any questions or comments I had a question I think I don't know if it's being Isa or Scott um can we look into like I I know we have three car rental places is there like an occupancy tax that we can look into on the car car rental places for additional Revenue anyone else so we're not at zero let's all take a minute to thank everyone for ell cat's not coming one one quick question are there are any of the developments that have been improve approved in the past are there any permitting fees coming through or anticipated to come through on any of them or is that is everything paid up on that possibly 359 later in the year possibly and that would be for a substantial amount I I think Mark would we get 700,000 3 yeah we got about 650 $700,000 the problem of course is is that the demo permit doesn't yield us much in the footings and the foundations we're not going to have the building one in for this year um it'll probably be the following year and huba is all doing fa phases and a lot of the phases were already paid out this year because they're almost um Broken Ground on most of the buildings 189 will be in should be in this coming year but also foot EX foundations is a much cheaper permit we the later on in the phases where we get our money so unfortunately that delay kind of where we took that pause construction's going to hurt us but we uh hopefully American Legion Drive next year anybody else on Council I just would like to S Suggest as a something to look into uh Dean and that is I think we're one of the very few towns in our county that does not have fees related to ccos so that may yeah may be something we want to look into because uh keeping in mind that's typically uh paid for by the buyer coming in so um or you know in in terms of that or even even the seller going out you know so it's it's uh it's something we may want to look at because that could be an additional Revenue councilor there's one thing I just wanted to add I know the assessor is not with us something he explained to me because you know he and I obviously discussed the reval and my question to him was you know I wish pra systems didn't put hey if you know if you simulate your taxes they would go up or down because none of us knew until kind of tonight was going to happen and you explained to me that you know appraisal systems through years of trial and error kind of put that on otherwise the assessor's office would be bombarded with questions so that's that's literally them saying hey if this was last year your taxes would be this they would go up or down it's clearly scenario you know if you're getting any phone calls like that's what I would respond if I was in your shoes that that's a completely hypothetical it's not 100% factual because both us the Board of Ed and actually the county all three of us are still working on our budget now I just want to mention that you keep in mind for next year 329 Alfred Avenue because it's a pilot it's expected to be an even $1 million that's solely to the bottom line their occupancy starts in the end of quarter three of this year so that is plus the huba which will be sold out by then for 2025 and if we can do something with the hotel tax we're looking at well north of $1.5 million Revenue more than we have tonight so just just like Kevin new on track tank I love Revenue so I mean please I'll take it I know it's uh yeah between him and Mark cubin but you know I I really feel with all of you it's it's a tough year like Dean said we've never had it this difficult I wish it could have been better news but we're ready to sharpen what's left of our pencils with the committee and uh you know see what else we could do for this year anybody else on Council Dean thank you so much for working so hard on this Isa thank you for working so so hard on this and thank you to everybody else on staff who work so hard on this we have a lot to discuss and I make a motion to adjourn second all those in favor please say I I thank you everybody for joining us tonight we appreciate you everybody get home safe Mr manager thank you for all the pie charts on Pi Day