okay okay in the municipality so there are 16 units that are part of Parkside Lane which I believe was 520 Palisade Avenue and the 16 units uh we're marketed have been marketed and will'll have a um a deadline date for applications to be received so you can go right on our website you can fill out an preliminary application and we'll create um a database of applications we anticipate to be extremely long um we'll collect all the applications basically in that database and then have what people commonly refer to as a Lottery what is really a random prioritization of all the applications received through that deadline date and that determines how then we or what order we start processing final applications I'm sorry I I he said trust trust you that's okay so basically um we're in the process of marketing the homes um and we'll be I think the deadline date is 1 p.m. January the 30th 2024 to get your application in for that program and so shortly thereafter we'll have the um the random selection the random selection is basically a half hour Zoom program where we um help folks understand more about the property and about the program and we um we do the random selection and then after the random selection they're posted online so folks can find out what their priority excuse me what their priority number is um thereafter there you go so this is um this is the page for this particular property on our website we um are doing this process the same way that we've done your affordable housing um although it's a little bit of an updated process so if you see there's a a a little button bar if you will under P neck under Parks Side Lane and that will bring you to the preliminary application you just fill that out it's very um simple to do and then we will collect the data from that preliminary application in order to generate the the priority list if you could go back thank you and just scroll down a little bit so there's a lot of information here for folks who aren't familiar the website is www.housing.com and on our main page when you hit housing quest.com you'll see um a number of properties that we call the Feature Feature properties they're the newer properties on our website and you can find Parkside Lane right there and that'll bring you to this page now if you scroll down um you'll see the click on the sales prices and income limits so there are the sales prices of the each of the units were determined earlier on um there's three categories of or there's two categories of affordability low and moderate but the state requires that the pricing um there' be multiple pricings even within those categories so you'll see there where there's a one-bedroom lwi income unit and there's two sale prices for it 91,000 94,000 Etc basically the way the pricing is structured it's so that a um a uh a theoretical household um say for a three-bedroom unit a theoretical household of um four persons no three persons anyway theoretical household um and then they we utilize the median income and to determine um using all of what that person what that theoretical family would look like and using that person's income to purchase the home and pay for their housing cost so that calculation means that that theoretical household would pay no more than 28% of their um of their income on their housing cost and the housing cost so when we do it the housing costs include the um loan principle and interest so um one of the the um features there or one of the um variables that we fill in is the current interest rates when these were created uh not too long ago so they're just over 7% is what we used in this calculation you have the interest ratees you have the taxes of property taxes the um Insurance your primary insurance if it's in an HOA then there's an HOA fee that we would use so that we gather together the the um those particular variables and then we create the um the pricing on that basis so the Prices range from the one-bedroom low income from 91 ,000 up through the three-bedroom moderate income at $196,000 um if you scroll down uh a little bit more you'll find there's other information that folks may be interested in such um the well there you have the um household limits low and moderate income based on the household size and if you keep scrolling there's unit features there's information there um and property amenities uh floor plans so if you click on floor plans you'll be able to blow up um each of those floor plans um to to um be able to take a look at them as well this property is located at F what 520 Palisade and there's other information there but that's basically the way the process um works it works the same pretty much for uh sales units as it does for the um rental properties that we've done today anybody have any questions Deputy Mayor G I have five questions actually um first um how many affordable units are available 16 how many applications have you received thus far do you know I do not it was recently posted um I I do not know the number um we anticipate it being a pretty significant number though does Piaza provide financing guidance like to folks who may not have purchased a home before that's a good question we don't do any financing um we give people um the names of various financial institutions we um encourage we generally encourage people to take a look at their ability to finance uh property well in advance of actually applying for for a property we've done Series in the past um online to help people understand more about their credit and how to how to um how to um in increase their credit criteria the credit scores Etc so we've done that but we don't Finance um and we don't really get right too involved in the financing we do require a um a uh a not a commitment letter but a you know a basic letter from a from A lender M do the applicants have an opportunity to tour the units before committing oh absolutely yes absolutely so after the lottery quote unquote the random prioritization if you will we start sending final applications one of the things that everybody has to do is go and visit the property so they have to visit the property they have to you know acknowledge that they they want that unit Etc and then send the uh final application into us and then my last question is what happens um if God forbid an applicant gets the unit buys the home and passes away or if they decide to move how was um how do you treat that unit that affordable unit when that person who was approved no longer owned it or is you know who's moved on well there's two scenarios that you mentioned when someone wants to sell the unit they basically would have to go back through us again um assuming that the the controls have not expired yet which doesn't really happen until a minimum of another 30 years so if the controls remain in place they come back to us and we go to the original waiting list that we created for the initial property and then we start processing final applications um and it's up to the seller we put the seller in touch with the um the buyer at that point to make arrangements to purchase the unit um the second scenario is if in in the event that somebody passes away and leaves the unit to um what we call a class a beneficiary the class a beneficiary would be like a son or daughter could move right into the unit without any question if it's even if they don't meet the income criteria no they don't not not if it's a class a beneficiary they could just move in if they're not a class a beneficiary or if it's left to an estate then the unit has to be sold by the estate um and again through the process that I mentioned earlier miss you Miss Belcher hi uh Mr pza uh thanks for presenting tonight I just had a question about what is the expiration on a park side for on their affordability uh I I think the deed uh will say a minimum of 30 years 30 years 30 years yeah and at the end of the 30-year time frame um that's probably leads to a good good question there the um basically when the unit's purchased there's um an estimate made of the value of the unit as a market rate unit an appraisal as of the unit as a market rate unit without any restriction and the difference between the price that of the applicant pays for the unit and the value of that unit as a market rate unit is then put in the mortgage and note so that that particular that's like the benefit right that the folks received then when it's sold after the Restriction period ends that benefit goes back to the municipality okay so anything beyond that benefit that the value increases then goes to the obviously to the to the person um the owner of the property okay Miss Oregan I'm not a question for you but I did have the opportunity to to tour Parks side and um the affordable units are beautiful the other units are beautiful and and I hope um some very lucky people spend many happy years there um because it's a really nice place that's good to hear Mr Mayor yes Mr Schwarz yes um I believe I'm sorry my sound cut out earlier we're going to hear from the developer for a few minutes as well correct I believe he was in in the room yep you're correct okay okay so my one question and maybe it's to the manager um first of all if everyone on the council and the town itself and people in the room and people on Zoom can please get the word out um this is obviously these are $800,000 units that are going to really be a generational multi-generational asset for people that can need it and we all know that home ownership is is the way up um is the American dream but also the way to build um um Equity so please please please get the word out and let's give as many people the opportunity to get these units at at at 10 to 15% of the market price um Mr manager were we able to understand how the taxes will be assessed on these affordable units whereas normally an $800,000 assessed value would yield us approximately $25,000 on total Municipal and board ofed tax how would it work on these units um to the township and Schoolboard that's a good question mark I'm going to have to consult with our tax assessor on that I can report back to you tomorrow first thing tomorrow unless Frank can can assess that yes it's my understanding not a tax assessor not an attorney but it's my understanding that as all new construction is assessed um on the basis of the first the of the initial purchase price so the purchase price will be the value of that H home for the purpose of Taxation so in reality and again this is one of our long I've been involved in town in 19 years this is our first Force sale affordable unit and I believe one of the units was about $150,000 correct correct so we're looking at only about a $5,000 Municipal tax bill for that three bedroom unit correct right and that's built into the actual price of the unit you good Mr schw yeah I just think the counil we should know that you know in terms of that's a that's additional um subsidy that we're going to be providing for the next 30 Years in terms of of a reduced tax bill it's almost like a a pilot to a low-income housing it's something that we should be aware of and I think fair share should be aware of because we're doing a lot more whereas in our rental we really wouldn't be seeing that in this case that is something to factor in that that's hundreds of thousands of dollars of subsidy for these 16 units which is well needed so I'm just you know put that out there in our minds about the further subsidies down the line on this so yes that's actually excellent thank you for the um information Mr thank you Mr Schwarz I think Miss G has a followup question yeah I just have a clarifying question based on what councilman Schwarz said he compared the affordable units to the $800,000 market rate units but my understanding after visiting is that they're not exactly Apples to Apples right I think some of them are even half the size in terms of number of floors um relative to the market rate unit so I just want to make sure we're not misleading people when we say they're getting a the same thing that the 800,000 market rate um unit are are offering because I think there is a difference not only in the size but also even the um the different finishings as well anybody else on Council have a question for Mr Piaza um you mentioned about the Piti which encompasses the principal interest on the on the loan and the taxes and of course Insurance any um HOA considerations on this there's there's an HOA so we took the HOA fee and we uh included that in the calculation okay and what percentages did you primarily use for taking into account what percentage of income was used to help qualify B I know it's based upon one it's basically 28% of an applicant's income is used to pay the principal the interest the um taxes um the HOA fee property insurance and PMI okay 28 is 28% is the but it's a fictitious household it's just a you know it's it's a certain household anybody who buys it does it's not adjusted for the household that actually buys it it's great thank you I see someone on your team standing up did you want to say something sir he he's the developer okay thank uh good evening um my name is Paul schne I'm with a company called Fleet te LLC and we are the actual Builders and developers of this property um when we first uh took title to the property it was a defunct manufacturing plant that needed uh massive Demolition and an environmental cleanup which we we uh undertook successfully uh it's been about two years now and uh what we have today is uh a budding lovely community of 78 town homes in total and of those 78 Town Homes as Mr pza said 16 are affordable um and 62 are what we call market rate the um the affordable homes are mingled with or intertwined with the market rate homes and so there are actually two affordable homes in eight buildings eight different buildings to make the um 16 affordable homes um I don't know if anybody's seen the site but the site consists of 14 buildings uh with um I think three to seven homes per building and uh the site is accessed from Palisade Avenue and that per perpendicular street that brings you into the site has two large buildings on it those will be the last two buildings we construct and then uh the the length of the um the site there are 12 buildings and of those 12 buildings I think 11 are in various phases of construction um just to give you a sense of the overall development we have uh we've got 11 of 12 buildings on the construction we've got uh 25 homes sold market rate home sold and we have um five closings thus far with another I think I think seven closings thus far with another five before the end of the year um as M Oregan said the uh the homes are quite nice even the affordable homes they're not as large as Miss G said as the market rate homes market rate homes are about 2,000 square feet these homes range from about a, to 1,200 or 1300 square feet um they're all on two floors although they're handicapped adaptable at least the downstairs units are and um these are uh very unusual affordable homes in that every affordable home has a onecar garage which is generally unheard of and half of the affordable homes have decks which are quite nice and if you look at the buildings you can't tell what's an affordable home what's a market rate home which is uh the goal to to uh to bring everybody together in this affordable Community um um I heard I think Mr pza did a good job of explaining the process uh we are not involved in selecting the purchasers the purchasers go to pan Associates um they fill out applications they get qualified there's a lottery and then they're sent to us and we meet with them show them the potential home that they would be purchasing um we fill out a contract with these with the buyers and we send them to uh one of our lenders and uh we go from there so we are obligated to uh bring on the affordable homes in a prata fashion with the market rate homes and we're totally in line with that because as I stand here this evening uh by the end of December early January we will have our six first six certificates of occupancy for the affordable homes so we'll be poised to to sell those homes um whenever qualified buyers are sent to us thank you Mr Schneider does anyone have any questions Mr Schneider no sorry this is just for Council to ask questions thank you Mr Schneider thank you Mr Patza where'd he go thank you for your time and for your presentation thank you very much appreciate it we have thank you Paul two to go and before we call up the next one Mr manager would you be so kind to just give us a brief history on the Holocaust Memorial project the enslaved African Memorial project please sure I'll be about two minutes and not all the dates I speak about are U inclusive of all the different meetings that took place uh so just quickly uh Council petitioned in 2012 by the northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial and education center to allow a permanent Holocaust Memorial originally in Andreas Park the location was rejected this is how it all came about but it was suggested by Dr puit seated in the front to have it on the municipal green along with an enslaved African Memorial organized by the enslaved African Memorial committee so that took place in 2012 uh Council agreed to the concept and established the garden to nurture and human understanding to include the two groups uh with space for one or two more groups to participate as well and it was an educational component to this uh that was part of uh part of the project a 501c3 was initially established for joint programming and marketing under the garden to nurture and human understanding uh PowerPoint presentations were done by both groups that was around 2015 uh Council passed resolution 80- 2015 awarding a Professional Services contract the Philips price the Township's planner uh to establish design parameters and a layout for the municipal Green in May of 2015 Richard Price also establish Lish the principles and parameters for proposed monuments for the master plan for TAC also in 2015 a monument subcommittee meeting took place in attendance was then council member Alan S former manager William browon Richard Price Stanley turrets Town attorney Bill R toown attorney and members from the pprb PAB abcr hpab in October 2015 Dr puit memorialized some concerns with the project and there were multiple meetings in between uh those those states that I just mentioned then in March of 2016 Richard Price prepared an agreement on the monument plan for the municipal green it called for two monuments to be located north and south of the central walkway so if you can picture out front the main walkway that leads to the um flag pole and monuments there there would be two memorials on either side North and South with about a 60 to 70 foot walking path that leads up to The Monuments uh fundraising efforts took place and grant opportunities were explored in October 2017 Richard Price outlined the monument plan recommendations from the tenek memorial subcommittee to council uh bylaws of the garden to nurture human understanding were signed by the committee on May 10th 2019 um and October 20th of 2020 Doug I don't know if you can pull it up if you have it up uh what we did is just to um bring both groups group together again um and to kind of sort of breathe some life with the with the project uh we met this was during the height of Co we met in this room it was just myself um Steve Fox Pat Butler there may have been one or two others there from from the group but uh we signed anou that was signed by both groups at the council meeting which had a three-year expiration date and theou really served to reaffirm the commitment of both groups for the creation of The Monuments that included two memorials uh and an education site space um within the tenek library so that that document was signed can't see it up on on the board there but that was the that was the document that was signed uh meetings additional meetings took place over the next several years um and most recently Steve Fox Pat Butler appeared before Council this fall to speak about their respective projects and where they were at uh so the public knows that total of 360,000 in Grant funds were received for this project 90,000 came from the garden to nurture Grant and 270,000 came from the community resource Garden Grant each group has a small remaining balance has a f further commitment from the town not only the land in the municipal green but uh we are committed to security uh maintenance and lighting for The Monuments there on the municipal green so that's a quick update mayor on where we're at right now thank you Mr manager Mr Fox you are up sir thank you for being here with us tonight the floor is yours I'm sorry wait Miss Bel you want to say something yeah before we get started I just want to make um it a point of clarification that these presentations were just added today so this is just a presentation it's not was not originally a part of the agenda well if I could say something his was added earlier about three or four days ago and we were waiting for confirmation from the other group and the group didn't confirm until today just and I'm just making a point of that the community may not be aware of these you know the whole point of our of presentations is for for the our constituents I appreciate I just wanted to make thank you Miss beler Mr Fox the floor is yours sir okay so I prepared the whole history but U de you took care of that so I'll just uh skip that part I want to just uh elaborate on some points because I know there's been some information some misinformation that's been going around prior to this meeting in 2020 the memorandum of understanding was drawn between both groups and we did most of the things that were on there together including very successful moderated exchange between Jewish students from the idea school and African-American students from Ek high school we also applied for a number of Grants together unfortunately the two large potential granters that we were pursuing were only interested in funding programming and not brick and mortar so after a while we put those programs on hold as we were not set up to do strictly programming in the meantime each group ran a multitude of educational programs for the community with funding received from the state Grant which was also given to the tck library who received $48,000 from those funds to be used in conjunction with our projects reality is the library has not used any of that money towards our projects that's for another discussion the ideas of theou are still viable if we encounter a foundation willing to work with both groups then we are happy to pursue that the other um the other part here is that in the meantime each group is pursuing their own funding with a mutual understanding that if one is Success one's success is not contingent on the others but we hope that if one group reaches their goal first and is about to put a shovel in the ground it will encourage people to give money to the other group but let me make it clear to date neither group has enough money to do their project and once we are hopefully approved this evening we will continue to do our fundraising regarding our money for the state grants we ran a lot of programs regards to Crystal KN we had program with child survivors speaking about their experiences we had speech by Diplomat Jason greenblat a program about the rabbi Aben Wald films like who will write our history and of course our annual Holocaust commemoration all payments from the grant were funded through the township and scrutinized by the township ship other funds on our end were spent on brochures publicities videos and to date we still have some money that's left in the pool why do we want to do a Holocaust Memorial and why is it more important now than ever for one thing as time goes by the memory and lessons of the Holocaust are being forgotten and fewer and fewer young people even know what happened fact today Holocaust deniers are flooding the internet the Survivor popul ation is also dwindling so hearing survivors speak in person will unfortunately soon be a thing of the past I am the son of a holocaust Survivor who escaped the wars so ghetto and became a partisan and he was very determined that people not forget the atrocities of Holocaust and the lessons to be learned from it as we all know the rise of anti-Semitism in this country and worldwide is at levels not seen in 80 years so Holocaust Education is more crucial than ever we want to address the educational aspect as well as offer a place for the community members to memorialize a family member or loved one who's either killed or survived the Holocaust our initial Plan called for a centerpiece statue a reading Rail and a memorial wall which would have cost about $1.2 million to be frank we were not successful in raising that type of money so this past summer we came up with a paired Down plan which we believe is attainable this plan calls for a 30t by 6 and2 or 7t interactive wall with a 10- foot center that will contain a combination of space for historical information as well as space for dedications both communal and personal how will this work we plan to develop an app that will recognize words and letters so for example if there's a panel that shows the concentration camps the visitors will be able to point their phone to a name of each camp and see information about that camp similarly if I wanted to dedicate my father's name on the wall who survived the war or a grandparent of mine who was killed a a visitor will be able to point their phone to that name and see information could be pictures could be a short video could be a paragraph we are taking the concept of names not numbers to another level to be permanent fixtures on the memorial to our knowledge nothing like this exists in any Community we want people to visit from all over the state and learn about the Holocaust as well as offer members of the community a public place to memorialize a relative or loved one aside from the wall we would like to have benches for people to sit discuss and contemplate and would take advantage of the auditorium in the library if groups would want to come and have follow-up discussions with their teachers as I mentioned earlier this is a paired Down plan that we anticipate costing between 325 and $350,000 and once we are approved tonight we will embark on raising the funds as well as planning the educational material to be included I hope I've answered some of the questions that have been raised and dispelled some of the fake news that apparently has been spreading prior to this meeting we look forward to having members of the community both Jewish and non-jewish support this worthy project and we also encourage the EMC to continue their Venture as well and we hope that one day both of us will be successful have our memorials on this Garden to nurture human understanding where people who ordinarily would not visit a Holocaust Memorial would do so and people who ordinarily would not visit a memorial to enslave Africans do so as well thank you thank you Mr Fox do anyone on Council have any questions for Mr Fox Mr Mayor I just yes m goldbert one question Mr Fox when we had spoken I just wanted to like you to explain to the public you had mentioned also about um ambassadors for for the monument is that still part of your plan and can you elaborate on that depending on how much money we could raise we would want to have do or ambassadors if a school comes a synagogue a church comes any sort of group if we can get the funding for that we would want to have people to take them around and tour because it's one thing when you tour a memorial by yourself and again we will make this as userfriendly as possible but if we can get somebody if we get the funding to do that we would be happy to do that yes anyone else on Council Miss G um hi so we just received today um uh an overview of some of the expenses that were understand that there were about $360,000 worth of Grants given to both projects um and again those grants were given based on the fact that there would be a garden of of nurture and it was supposed to be a joint project um in addition my understanding is that when the council first approved it for on Township property again it was under the the understanding that they would all be together I just had a couple of follow-up questions to that um I noticed when going through the expenses there was about $57,000 spent on um the Jewish Community Council for fundraising purposes another 11k on $111,000 on Fox marketing Services another $15,000 to the former I guess Chief legal officer for the for Donald Trump and the Trump Administration another I think $1,500 on advertising on the Jewish link so I'm just curious with all of these State funds um and all these marketing funds that were spent what were you able to do so far well first of all this um bringing up this Donald Trump thing I think was just a little bit out of line it was Jason greenblat who was not in the Trump Administration anymore and we paid him to speak as part of a fundraiser so we paid him a good amount of money to speak but we also you know raised funds you know at that event so that's number one number two I I think I did iner at a number of programs that we ran um the services that were provided by my company were basically at a 75% discount of what it would have been otherwise we did make many efforts to raise money we paid a fundraiser didn't do that well but we paid a fundraiser we also printed literature we also produce videos we also have a website so there was a lot of effort put into this with the expenditures of the state and again everything that we spent as I mentioned earlier was paid through the township as well as scrutinized with receipts from this Township so everything was done totally on the up and up and again part of that grant money from the state about 48,000 that went to the Library part of that money they took for um video equipment that were going that they were going to do Zoom meeting meetings with part of that money they took for virtual reality equipment which um we had asked them to set up in a room and that each group would have a workstation dedicated and that's sitting in boxes because the library basically reneged on doing this so there was a lot of effort and certainly nothing from our end went wasted we did our best we did a lot of program we did a lot of programming for the community and we did some joint programming with thec yeah and and just to clarify the only reason I ask this now is we just received these numbers four hours ago otherwise I would have asked in advance Miss beler did you have a question Mike thank you for your presentation um and I I just want to concur that we just received this um Excel spreadsheet um within you know hours ago so it's just given us um you know a a few moments to kind of like review um certainly you know as leaders in the township we're concerned about uh fiduciary responsibility when it comes to State funds coming to this this organ this this entity this project we know that just from looking at theou um which here again we just received about four days ago um which you signed and and um and also the enslaved African Memorial signed um some of the concerns that I have is that many of the components of theou um I've not really seen anyone speak to that uh speak to the fact that what you know specifically what marketing you've done what fundraising that that actually took place uh I know that you know the education component was a responsibility of Li of the library but I'm a little concerned about you know what can you site from theou that you actually feel that you accomplished well I can tell you what we attempt we did a number of programs together as I mentioned earlier in my Pres presentation we had a program with EK high school and the idea school where African-American uh students from Ek High School um talked together with Jewish students from the idea school and each of them talked about what they understood about each other's uh story and each other's situation it was a beautiful program uh we spent a lot of time and effort trying to get money from the Puffin foundation and from the Rasberry foundation and that was and literally we work with our fundraisers we made major presentations to them Unfortunately they were not interested in funding anything brick and mortar and Russ Berry who a major funer in this community said to us we are very happy to fund joint programming because they they had actually come uh were the other the that other program was on Zoom so they watched it they loved it they saidwe are happy to do that but we're not going to give you any money to build anything we're not we are volunteers who all have businesses we're not an educational institution if we were an educational institution and we got money for funding we got funding to do educational programs that would have been fine but we're not we're all volunteers who have our own businesses and search our own jobs so at a certain point when we realize that Russ Berry and Puffin were not going to fund any anything that was join anything that would help us build the memorials then sort of those ideas sort of dissipated but we did do a number of programs together we did many efforts to Joint to fund raise together and obviously they didn't bear major fruit so at this point we're working on our own to try to raise the money but the concept of theou and the principles of theou still hold true because if we're both successful we will both have um memorials on the green and we are both encourage both want each other to succeed because if one succeeds it makes easier for the other one thank you Mr Fox does anyone else on Council have any questions you have a followup okay I I have a followup that I'd like to ask you about of course Mr Fox you know we live in a very diverse Community made up of many people from Many faiths Many Nations how do you feel that you this Memorial be it this Memorial even you can speak to the enslaved African Memorial would contribute to the the entire Township and understanding the educational component understanding that the library is very uh involved with ensuring that our histories are taught how do you personally feel that this would help our community by adding this to the municipal green where ultimately we we're asking our our residents our taxpayers to pay for ongoing maintenance lighting and security so let me let me give you um an example in most of the Holocaust Museum and around the world in Washington New York 75% of the visitors are not Jewish the lessons of the Holocaust are lessons that are important to everybody what are we learning from the Holocaust we're learning what happens when racism takes hold we're we're learning what genocide takes hold what can happen to people what can happen to society the lessons of the Holocaust if learned by our young people learned by our community benefits everybody it benefits African-Americans it benefits Arab Americans it benefits everybody because the lessons that we want people to learn we want people to see what happened in Nazi Germany what happened to Eastern Europe during the Holocaust what happened to the people what happened when a government becomes a fascist government and starts taking away people's rights so the lessons that are learned from Holocaust Education benefits everybody it also we hope if successful we'll bring people to the community from other parts from other parts of the county from other parts of the state because what I me mentioned about the dedications does not exist anywhere nowhere in the world that you can have a community where they can come to I can take let's say my granddaughter and say look Point your phone to you to my father's name and you'll see who he was and you'll see what happened to to him and you'll have a paragraph about him in the war so we want to take the Holocaust and make it personal for everybody and we want to take the lessons for the Holocaust and teach the community to teach young people to teach the visitors and I think very clearly that Ed Holocaust Education is one of the best ways to stop anti-Semitism to stop racism because if people understand what happened there hopefully they won't happen here anybody else on Council thank you Mr Fox for your presentation and your time sir Miss Butler you are up Ma good evening everyone I'm Patricia Butler longtime teic resident probably 80 years no but more like uh since 1972 uh Steve thank you for the presentation fabulous um what can I say because um you know so much has already been said but I want to give you a perspective from the enslaved African Memorial's point of view and the untold history of the Africans that were enslaved in New Jersey and the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe is an inspired effort to share these stories we have a unique Town that's comprised of these two very dominant groups obviously over the last I think decade or more our community has truly expanded and become what we would call a quintessential Multicultural Society but here it is we have these two groups that have been here a very long time much is known about the Holocaust history I learned about the Holocaust story in school starting in the Middle School however it was not until I got involved with members of my committee that I found out there was slavery in New Jersey and that New Jersey was considered a slave state furthermore I discovered there was an African burial ground on Palmer de walk next to the swim club that my children and my family and I were members of that we went to year after year and then we further discovered through research working with our historians faculty and people and universities that Bergen County was the largest slaveholding county in all of New Jersey having said all that it's a huge project because we are not necessarily commemorating the people the icons of the Civil Rights movement many of us in this room and our children and grandchildren can list at least 10 but not one of us in this room can list one name of an enslaved person anywhere in Bergen County and I'm here to tell you tonight that that movement has changed and I believe that has to do with the incredible work that our team the enslaved African Memorial committee has been doing over the past five years we've not only been ardent persistent resilient volunteers but we've made connections and collaborations with um universities of higher education in their history departments in their anthr anthropological Department in their archaeology Department um we have a partnership with Monclair Ruckus University and we're building one with RMA po the three of us are actually doing a conference in March but I want to say that the memorials that we have proposed that we've come forward and had this lengthy uh discussion work around um the Holocaust has been at this even longer I'm not sure if we went into this I can't speak for Mr Fox I can speak for our committee we went into this with passion and na if you do the research on monuments they're usually usually built by private donors Andor vested groups like the daughters of America for example where you have lots of Confederate monuments and tribute to their heroes in the South right you might have the veterans um organization they could put a veterans monument in the middle of the green but there's nothing there's no track record for us to capture to create a monument that's to people that have been forgotten invisible erased from history to that end we spent most of our Monies to capture that history we've had seminars symposiums we we conducted at least 10 symposiums you could look at our website EC nj.org and they've been filled with ongoing events during covid through Zoom Mr Fox and I received a small Grant even though we did you like you said lots of work to secure this Grant from Puffin and I think for them they wanted to see what we could accomplish at the time they're not interested in investing in this project a few years ago that might change through the Holocaust I was able to sit down with Russ Berry they were very very amable but I think they went on pause but nevertheless they recruited me to be involved in a black Jewish leadership program that took me to Israel in March for two weeks and while there I did visit the West Bank and Jerusalem um which brought me back with a new passion about the need need for us to have something that brings our communities cross-culturally together I think the enslaved African and the Holocaust Memorial committees will do the work needed because at this critical time in our current situation it's needed now more than ever um in addition to that we have had to change our approach to fundraising we relied on on state grants the first one being given to us through the generous um the kindness and sponsorship of uh former state senator Lor Loretta Weinberg it was just so you're clear about how the money was divided the Holocaust and the EMC the enslaved African Memorial committee split um I guess what maybe half no more than half of that with a portion going to the library everything that we did had to go through the township all the invoices all the recordkeeping was done by the township and the Holocaust and I managed to get quite a few things done for example that Grant allowed us to retain uh well-renowned Architects Rodney Liam who created the African barrr New York City and Mr um hman okay who was involved in the creation of the uh the mall in DC that's pretty spectac ular we also were able to create our websites our publishing materials our brochures higher videographers so there were lots of things but to sum it up the ultimate vision of the enslaved African Memorial and the Holocaust committee is to share our respective stories that create meaningful dialogue around the principles of freedom and equality the ultimate goal of these monuments is that they become a destination and a place of interest that impacts our understanding about oppressed and marginalized communities and these stories connect to contemporary issues as we see now attitudes and policies in America in relation to ongoing racial and religious bias I would like to uh conclude Sorry by saying did you pull up my design Mr you're much too kind thank you um we're currently focused on our Capital campaign we can no longer rely on two foundations in town we have to expand our minds and our experience and I think we've create we have developed lots of Knowledge and Skills we're focusing on private donors corporations and outside foundations that have interest in this project because it is so relevant at this moment and um that's it I hope that the township the new council members will continue to be briefed by us will ask for additional information when needed and that we can sit with you and we can always come back to the community where we can have a full um presentation and not in such a short period of time um I have no concern that the resolution that's on the table will be extended for both groups this is a a rendering of the design that was approved by the township and the engineers and the legal team and that's a whole it represents the say Co for bird people can walk through it and they'll see different pockets of history about the enslaved people in New Jersey particularly Bergen County thank you thank you Miss Butler so much for your presentation questions from Council Deputy Mayor G yeah again so I just received the numbers and I want to ask you a couple questions about these expenses you you just shared that most of the expenses went towards programming but I look through the numbers it looks like um 96,000 of the 136,000 that was spent so about 70% of the uh dollars that were spent um 63,000 went to Rodney Leon Architects um you know I just got a quote for a renovation of my house and it was $20,000 and that was on the high end for a huge house and I'm just curious house you know what $63,000 um what you got for $63,000 given that there hasn't been any ground broken and then the second big chunk went to bridge philanthropic another $33,000 and so I'm just curious in terms I know you said so much was done those dollars I'm just curious I can tell you what you would say that wasar Mr Leon I'm sorry I'm having a little itch um Mr Leon received um there should be line item um numbers there Mr J Leon our architect received um different payments over a period of three years so that that amount represents three years of spending the grant that we got from the division of cultural Affairs specified that we can use that to retain and to develop our design and that's what and for at the level of his expertise it was almost a Bargain Basement price and that was over three maybe to four years um your other part of the question I'm sorry was relating to the B the bridge philanthropic group The Consulting Group they were recommended To Us by Mr Leon because they were successful in helping to raise large sums of money to build the Martin Luther King statue in DC um again the problem we had we we got lots of information from them they help us to put together our proposal to Puff in that we then use for PR purposes they help us to um consult on our website they also made very important introductions to the state legislature the black caucus members we had me meetings with the majority of them we went to meet with um Congressman Josh goth me's people Cory Booker's people so there's a lot of introductions that they gave us that we might not have made on our own because they're professionals um they opened up an entryway for us to meet and to start to spread the word educate and make all these elected officials aware of this wonderful possibility in T and then one more question can you share a little bit about who sits on the committee and how many are T residents the majority of us are Teck residents we have a gentleman whose family lives here he was one of the former chairs um most of our members are TX School teachers um I have my my chair is there miss Oliver raise your hand I have a recording secretary Z are you here and there people on Zoom or this um media thank you Miss Butler anyone else on Council have any questions for Miss Butler Miss beler I I do uh I'd like to go back to theou that which here again we just recently received as we just got the financials today um one of the things that theou uh speaks to this is the scope of work and it speaks to um that both parties are to work together in marketing and and fundraising can you give us some specifics as to what was done from the time the mou assign until now uh as it relates not to educational programming but as it pertains to marketing and fundraising well Mr Fox um has this printing company so he produced I guess a brochure for the holocost we produced our own brasure I think there was um a case of support Bo that we did together that we use for marketing [Music] um what else Steve have I forgotten something uh yeah we applied for the grants together but you have to understand we were in a very it's like a catch 22 simply because the grants that we had access to through the state um historical commission those grants are only for cultural and educational programs so that's a good thing but again we can't use them for any Capital campaign you can keep going around a circle but we're not an educational institution we're just an organization trying to do a project and learning how to one educate the public about it and build on that to attract funding thank you Miss berler oh depy regie um so again we know that the the project was given $360,000 in state funding what has changed in the last 11 years that makes you feel like the next $360,000 you raise will get you to the next Point let me say this the 360 is a substantial amount of money um let me be clear I'm just curious 360 and I need to do my own math and I I guess Dean and I will sit down with Steve and I uh was over a three to four year period that money was divided between three entities so if I were to calculate what we got each year for our groups yeah am got 136 275 and then the rest would be in a percentage towards the library secondly that was an initial Grant um I'm not sure if we're going to apply for another one because it really is the same sort of circular motion we cannot use it for Capital to build anything so we'll be doing some of the same things we're doing but now we have to actually build that's where we're at so we have to change our focus and our focus is private donors corporations and uh philanthropic organizations and anybody in between and we welcome anyone in this room that wants to support our cause anybody else on Council Miss Miss organ um not a question just a comment for both you Pat and Steve um I want to say that after all these years and after three years working together with anou that has since expired the fact that you're both willing to move forward and try something different while still supporting each other and still maintaining such a nice working relationship and understanding why what you're doing and what you're building is so important to all of TX residents um both groups but really everybody through education um really warm warms me and I have a feeling that if one of you shows success and finds the recipe for finding the funding for this so that we can get these beautiful projects on our green um I have a feeling that the other will share uh and supporters will share because um it it would be a very nice balanced um Monument to both if um if we can fund that but I understand you're requesting to go your own ways and and follow your path and I'm I'm supportive they're both uh such important causes well we thank you for those kind um sentiments appreciate it thank you anybody else on Council Deputy Mayor G another followup question sorry one one more question um you know I also fully supportive of the vision of a joint um Memorial I think that would be a beautiful thing for uh Tek and I love you know to Karen's point that you're so committed to working together um have you ever considered having one fundraising pool so that both projects can go up together rather than separating them so that way you can can really um uh make sure Ure that it's a joint and you're not because one of the points you made earlier is it's really hard to fundraise for things that people don't know about like enslaved Africans the Holocaust is something a lot of people know about so it might be easier to fundraise for that versus the enslaved well I disagree disagree I can't tell you why I disagree hold on let me just finish my question I guess the question is has there ever been a thought if the initial Vision was a joint project bringing te- neck together was there ever a thought it's always been on was there ever a thought let's do joint fundraising and raise it together that's what we've been talking about put it all to one or the other side no we have done joint the agreement if you read the mo MOA and I don't have it in front of me because I wasn't prepared um this was sort of thrown out there short notice um I would have had more information but the mou speaks to Joint collaborations for fundraising purposes the Holocaust committee and the EMC went through that Journey we still continue to go through that journey I just shared with you my contacts at puff and brought us a grant to do some cultural and educational programs with the youth and tenc and um the Holocaust brought to the EMC the Rus Berry Foundation that ended up with me having to go to Israel which is a good thing because if we're doing this project I do need to know well what is the culture what's the politics there what is all of that you know um I'm sure Steve was learned a lot maybe I'll send you to Africa through another organization but nevertheless um yes we have uh done a lot of things and I don't think Mr Fox and I are opposed and are not oppositional to doing joint fundraising we just have to find the right way to do so and it took time for us to build our foundation thank you oh you have another question Miss pure uh I just want to uh make a comment here that uh originally prior coun have agreed to this based upon it being a joint initiative what I think is is problematic is that I mean absolutely we you know the a memorial for the Holocaust a memorial for enslaved African is are extraordinarily important but I I can't seem to overcome the one point and that is the original agreement the original understanding was that this is a joint initiative and um in by the simply by theou if you look at theou if you look at the research that we've done and and to your point I totally agree with you you seem like you just thrown up in the last minute to give a presentation so I I I totally get it that's how it's been feeling all day for us right now join the club yeah so but I I really feel that there there is a a true history here and there are many people in our community that have worked on this collaboratively um beyond your committee beyond the Holocaust committee so we have residents that have a um a stake in this it's a community stakeholding uh project 100% 100% so I think there lies in that in that whole understanding that this be a collaborative effort as oppos to standing up two different resolutions or standing up two different initiatives so I I'd like you to to speak to that for a minute well what I can say is theou that was something that did not come out of the township it did not come out of Mr kazinsky office that came out of a discussion that we had in a meeting with the Holocaust group that was our collaborative idea to create anou that would set the tone about our inter interaction our collaboration all that we did that this was not something that was imposed Upon Us by the township we voluntarily said this is a good idea secondly we had when we started out Community meetings discussions we actually had the senator Weinberg come and introduce the architects who did their designs publicly with feedback um we had this huge uh project program at the burial ground to again re-engage the community around the living primary history that's in our backyards that most people don't know about I just actually did a presentation for one of the element schools um and I can't tell you how shocked the teachers were so it's never been about one or the other it's about who can raise the money in what Manner they can raise the money money the Holocaust one of the things that Mr Fox and I discussed over time was the notion that because there are many Holocaust monuments and and Steve really you can address this as well he felt and their committee felt that's why it's been difficult to raise money because people say in his own Community well look at this we have quite a few monuments and tribute to the Holocaust the enslaved Africans don't have anything like that and that's why it made even a better collaboration because we would be we hope to be inspirational in the Jewish Community saying well you know let's work together because we do have a long-standing history of doing that so we've never been separate that's never been an issue our M was created by us ourselves thank you so so very much Miss Butler and thank you Mr Fox uh we have a very packed agenda but if you want to add one one quick thing Mr Fox just want to address the if you can on the microphone please so just to address what you mentioned the theou was written in 2020 in TW in 2016 the township agreed to allow both uh memorials to be uh constructed or to to to initiate the projects the thought has always been that there would be joint fundraising as as well as each group would do their own individual fundraising it's never been the situation where it was only joint fundraising because we knew that there are people or there there are foundations that would only give to one or the other there are individuals that are only give to one or the other and there are corporations that would assumably only give to both so the fundraising aspect has always been a three-prong they will raise their own we'll raise our own and they'll be joined so if again as I mentioned if there are opportunities to do joint fundraising or if we go to psng or or a large corporation who sends for example and they want to give to both then we will work to get that but that is not to say that we are not going to be able to do our own fundraising for our own our own uh purposes and uh as far as attainability we have reduced basically our project in about a third of what it was so we we saw that when it was a larger number we were not getting the money we need we've reduced it by about we reduced it actually 2third so we're hoping that it will tame but again the fundraising has always been individual for each group as well as joint thank you Mr Fox and thank you m to that point I would say that always I I always tend to go back to the last contract that was signed so if the if the if the intent of theou that you guys signed in 2020 is all we really have to go by in terms of what the intent was so if we read this the intent were was for you to work collaboratively that both in other words both of your logos are on this mou so both of the the the components of theou speaks to the two entities working together and we did to a certain degree work together and we though that door is still open but it doesn't mean that we can't work individually to attain our goals whatever we have attain our goals thank you Mr Fox does is Council okay with letting Mr pu speak he's raising his hand he's not a part of the presentation but he does have I'm asking all of council I'm sorry we we have a long agenda Mr Mayor it's it's 9:15 at night we have a lot of people in the room they just speak this was there's no action being taken tonight so I think you know we should just move this forward now if there was action of course but there is no action right now I'd love to move this agenda the agenda action I'm referring to action I interrupt everyone please if I I just have a minute I'm okay with giving Dr puit two minutes if you'll be quick sir because we do have a very packed agenda would you like to say something historical reference Mr puit and then we really do have to move on because we have a very lengthy agenda of over 700 Pages tonight Mr Mayor I think councilman Kaplan on zoom and would like to speak as well for talking historical they were both on the council I'm sorry Mr Schwarz we're only we're only doing one then we really gotta move on that's okay de mentioned me twice so I guess I have to get up here and say something I've made some mistakes in time and maybe I made another one when I was on the council there was an effort to put a Holocaust Memorial on on the west side of town I said hey we have a reputation of being a multicultural Town let's put one on the Village Green with the African-Americans now African-Americans have been the most mistreated folks in 1619 and they're mistreated now I think there was a massacre up in Boston the other day Jews have been mistreated for centuries to put these two people together these these two things these two people together and not whisper about it we've been whispering about it there's no reason to confine our commentary to Bergen County this is a national issue te Tac Township is collaborating between the Jews and the African-Americans to put these monuments on the green to educate everybody the formula we are working out doesn't work my s my daughter works for the Rockefeller Foundation they got lots of money to give away and people in teac have relationships with all kinds of folks if it's a town effort if we only going to do one I'm opposed we have to do both and when you put the shovel in the ground there got to be a shovel for both thank you unit I think I saw up thank you Dr P it's time to move on thank you everyone our next order of business and we have a very the agenda is work session items and first up is miscellaneous Mr Mayor yes M go I would like to nominate uh Allison Davis and Christina pamy as co-chairs of pprb please um um I'm sorry did I hear a second was that Mr Schwarz yes sorry Mr Mayor you know I'm doing all the personal nominations I don't know what she all right so she made a first and a second any discussion or do we just have a vote on it I I thought the discussion is I thought in a closed session we said that Deputy Mayor G was going to put forth the nominations so I don't know why why council goldber is making is usurping that uh that intent um that was clearly stated during close session I mean she made a motion I mean yeah she a motion but she realized that session deputy mayor G who is overseeing Personnel we even allowed to talk about what we discuss in close session well I mean I think we just should ought to because uh certainly it is the public needs to know uh and we shouldn't hold there's a motion on the table yeah I I simply said that during close session all of us heard that Deputy Mayor G was to put forth the nominations so I don't understand why councilwoman Goldberg is taking it upon herself to change that I I can explain that if you'd like um I I was in close session also and we don't agree on everything so it can't just be that Deputy Mayor G will bring a list and introduce it and everything necessarily gets voted on I I brought the same wait wait before anyone speaks twice every council member has an opportunity to speak so I think M up so last meeting I did the exact same thing and I created a numbered list for that purpose so that if you did not want to support everyone on the list you can call out the number and say which ones you supported and which ones you did not we did that La we practiced that last month I don't know why this would be any different because once you nominate those people if there aren't enough spots then no one else can make another nomination until they're voted on that's incorrect you can nominate as many people as you want for open positions that's incorrect any otherc want to speak to this before you you spoken a second I think I saw another hand did you raise your hand let's ask the attorney why don't we ask the attorney go right ahead but there is a motion in a second on the floor I guess what specifically is the question the question was whether or not you can only nominate the number of people to the number of open positions and I'm making the claim that you can nominate as many people as you want to any open position there's no limit on the nominations it's the fir the first step of the process of yeah guess not nominating them that's sorry oh the fir the first part of the process you can uh of nominating them you can but it's once they've been filled correct I'm not sure what I'm sorry counc I'm not sure what you you referring to when you say that I you think I said this before there's one open seed and Deputy Mayor G uh nominates someone to that seat and then we vote um um and if there are four votes for it then that person moves on to the consent agenda well they move yeah they move on to the next the next and then you you can't nominate somebody else that's what you told us I'll go to the video when when we did advisory when we did statutory boards that's for appointments not for nominations yeah I think it's for the second vote I I'll I'll watch the video with okay well yeah I mean if I said something different then I apologize I I don't recall saying that but we do have a motion and a second on the flooor so roll call does have to well I'd like to amend the motion because I want to read the whole list are you making a motion yeah motion to amend the motion on the table to include the whole list as discussed second all right so which one do we vote on first Mr attorney would be it would be on the amendment correct on the amendment one yeah second all right so the motion is to vote on the entire list that Deputy guty can you just please repeat your motion motion to amend the nomination which was a nomination to the pprb for co-chair Allison Davis co-chair Christina Pammy I would like to amend that to also add a nomination uh to the pprb full member Lillian Lewis with an expiration uh date uh her term expiration date of 1231 2025 I would also like to nominate four members to The Pride Advisory Board um to full members all of them expiring term 1231 2025 anarie amberino Raina masuchi Alicia Ross and Michelle White I would like to note that there are pending interviews on amarie amberino and Michelle White um between now and the the date they would actually be appointed which is not today to be clear to everyone listening these are just nominations uh addition Al I'd like to add uh nominations to the Social Services Advisory Board first Echo Schumacher puit full member with an term exper expiring on 1231 2025 this would be a reappointment second uh Tova goldwaser full member also pending an interview with the term to expire 1231 2025 and lastly I'd like to uh nominate for co-chairs of The Advisory board on community relations Uh current member Ray Goldberg and current nominee RMA Khan I'm sorry you're gonna vote on the amendment to the resolution first and then the original yeah so what she's saying is she wants us to vote on all of these before we vote on the two nominations that she made you yes you're essentially you're essentially voting on that first as an amendment to the original resolution and then whether that you know pass or fail depending on on the result of that then you're going you're going to vote on uh whatever the the resolution ends up being okay does that make sense yeah this vote is pretty much on this entire list basically okay you got that Doug sorry lot going on and the the list that uh we're talking about here is numbered to I just want to point that out from 1 to 12 yes and uh again this was to Debbie Mar G amending that motion to add these to that motion okay councilman Schwarz no on the amendment I'd like to vote for individually that was just a no on the amendment C no on the amendment thank you sir councilman beler yes as what has been presented by Deputy Mayor G councilman Goldberg no because I want to vote on them separately Council Oregon no de Catz de m g May pan it fails um no sorry want to vote on them individually what didn't hear the comment didn't hear the comment at all Mr Mayor is that appropriate I didn't hear what was said from behind Jewish Township talking that's was said by the person sitting yeah yeah please please please please only only Council speaking please don't say that sir we're we're trying to conduct business we have a very packed agenda whoever said that please don't say things like that we're gonna vote now on we have a motion on the table from councilwoman Goldberg councilwoman Goldberg may you please just repeat that original motion for the record I am just nominating Allison Davis Christina Pammy for pprb co-chairs second Schwarz yes calling Mork Schwarz thank you for that Council in beler we're gonna nominate the rest I I would say yes to that it's a yes Council bu thank you councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes Deputy Mayor Catz deput mayor G yes of course mayor Pagan yes deput mayor G sorry do I have to rename the names again for this new nomination or did we want to do them individually why don't you just call out the number you don't want to support rather than waste our time it's a long agenda you can call out the number of the person don't want to support please should we do this in the past you wanted to do this by the board you wanted to do your entire list is that what you're saying I'm saying let's do the entire list to not waste everybody's time you call out the number you don't want to support right make your motion make your motion wa you said it's a long agenda you didn't want to waste time I'm trying not to waste time not about wasting time I never said that phrase wasting time because it's never a waste of time govern I'm not really comfortable voting on people by number can we can we do this by name like can we can we please say the name as well say the name say the name as well want to say the name um okay so I'd like to nominate to Pride and Marie and no Raina masuchi Alicia Ross Reverend Michelle White second Schwarz so that you were doing it just by board for that I was going to keep going but we'll just do it by board since that seems everyone wants to do that okay so you were just doing we'll do Pride candidates okay and you were doing a first for Amar Raina Alicia Ross and Michelle Way correct yep was there a second on that that was from mayor cats or councilman Schwarz going down the RO councilman Schwarz yes councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes tall councilman Oregon yes deput mayor Catz deut mayor G yes mayor Pagan yes all right that was for Pride next Social Services I'd like to nominate echoo maker puit and Tova goldwaser second councilman Schwarz yes councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yep Deputy Mayor Katz Deputy Mayor G yes mayor Pagan yes Deputy May next I'd like to nominate as abcr co-chairs both Ray Goldberg and RMA Khan point of information if they're not on the board yet can they be if we haven't voted on the resolutions to to put them on the board this is a nomination not an appointment so oh you're nominating someone nomination what it's a nomination I'm confused I'm sorry I didn't hear what councilman GE just said we have a resolution on for each of these people to be put on the board now this is um they're they're not on yet there is precedent because there are people currently on resolutions who are being nominated to be reappointing and be co-chair so there's precedent it's being done right now but that's on the resolution it's on a resolution I'd like to make a motion I'd like to make a motion to nominate Cheryl Hall as chair of the abcr wait I'm sorry wasn't there a motion there's a motion on the floor right there's already motion there's already motion going on it wasn't seconded was it yeah it was second it was seconded so what the the can we go back a second the what was the point of information repeat it again sure so a lot of the resolutions that are in the packet that are already on the consent agenda for this meeting meeting say co-chair or chair next to the person's name so now we're voting on people later in the meeting but right now we're going to nominate them as chair and then instead of amending the resolution now we're going to just give them their chairmanship at the next meeting we nominated people last month as chair who were not appointed to their role starting January 1 done this before I I well I don't see there's nothing in the uh there's nothing in the code right now that would Rend you from doing it at the same time um it doesn't it just doesn't say it just doesn't say anything it just says that the council can appoint the council obviously has the prerogative to make appoint to fill these seats and then it also says that the council can uh and is responsible for appointing chair so it doesn't doesn't lay out like an order like you have to do one first and then you come back later you would vote give them their seats now and then at the next meeting vote for them to be to have their leadership roles well you you voted I'm sorry you're voting for them for I mean for both at the same time then at the next at the next meeting does that make sense no right now they're actually in the consent agenda so we're voting for them to be on the boards yeah are we just changing those resolutions and adding chair on to that well these people aren't on the consent agenda now this be these are just nominations for the next meeting no the abcr co-chairs are on the consent agenda sorry I should have explained both people that we're about to vote on now that are on here are on the consent agenda for seats so for if you're talking about uh Ray Goldberg and re mcon they're on the agenda for just their full member seats they're not on the agenda to be co-chairs so tonight we're voting just for them to be full members tonight we're now nominating them to be co-chairs and then we would vote for them to be co-chairs in January all right Mr clerk we have a a first and a second correct and this was for the abcr co-chairs correct correct we had a first from w m g a second from councilman belshire councilman Schwarz no on the chairs councilman belshire yes on both councilman Goldberg no I can support them as regular members but not as co-chairs right now councilwoman Oregon no his chairs Debbie Mar Catz Debbie Mar G yes to both as the community vations L on they both agreed to work together as representatives of the Jewish community and the Muslim Community because they want to create healing so yes absolutely Mike foran yes Sor sorry folks in the crowd doing Mental Math here four to three I think it failed yes 4 to three I'd like to make a motion to nominate Cheryl Hall as chair of the abcr second sorry one second that was the first from councilman Schwarz the second from councilwoman Goldberg councilman Schwarz yes to an incredible healing woman councilman beler I just want the community to know that we did this for the sake of trying to bring healing and collaboration our because we are div it is so visual everyone can see it and feel it and my my colleagues think by doing this that this is GNA make a difference no it will create more silos thank you m although I know Cheryl Hall I've known her for years she's a wonderful servant leader oh my gosh but I just want you guys to know the backstory because you know what it's time that we stop talking and close session and talk in front of you it's our time because these games can't you know the the best is light Miss Bel appr infected I appreciate out and we're gonna Shine the Light despite the fact that those do not want it to happen all right so you can that okay there's a reason why were voted to hear there's a reason why we're sitting in these seats to represent our entire Community our entire Community okay so these G GES have stopped Bel have a so I will vote Yes to chery but you want to know the backstory I just want you to know that backstory thank you thank you Miss Bel Mr clerk the rest of the roll call please that was a yes correct Council Bel Council overwhelming yes Council Oregon yes Debbie Mar Catz Debbie m g I love Cheryl Hall and I hope you recognize what we were trying to do and if you were on this committee with me you know both of these candidates you know they would do a great job and I you know what's going on and I hope you'll step up and do the right thing here I will support Cheryl but I hope Cheryl There's an opportunity for you to step up and do the right thing here you know what this is so hard because last month we we gave the liaison credit when we were all not supportive of what the liaison was trying to do I'm the community relations liaison and I ask for your support and for credit what I was trying to do and I don't get that same courtesy so I agree of our community everybody quiet please we have a roll call vote it's not your turn your vote maam so I'm devastated about what's going on today I will support Cheryl because she is awesome as well but we talked to these people we had a plan and you came here today and in a sneaky malicious way and turned it over and you knew we wouldn't turn our backs on Cheryl because we love her when members of the community let's just take the vote let's just finish the vote you voted yes Mr Clark on the last vote right I vote Yes two minutes max please I have 30 seconds when members of the community ask for certain words to not be said Cheryl Hall recognizes the pain of her neighbors so thank you Cheryl all right please everyone please please pleas everything everybody please we are still under miscellaneous please MERS would like to make one more nomination please okay M I didn't finish my nominations I have pprb so okay go ahead I should nominate Ken hofman but pprb I'd like to nominate Lillian Lewis I'll second that Schwarz I second Lillian's a great servant leader councilman Schwarz yes councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes deie Mar cads de G yes meran yes okay anyone have anything else under miscellaneous one more nomination I would like to nominate Maxine Angel to youth Advisory Board second Schwarz go advisor sorry one second Maxine Angel youth advisor first who did that second I apologize cats Maxine Angel as adult adviser on the youth Advisory Board there was a first from Council and Goldberg second from Deputy Mayor cats councilman Schwarz yes councilman beler no councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes Debbie May Catz Debbie May G no May pan yes does anyone have anything else under miscellaneous no does anyone have anything under old business no does anyone have anything under new business you know does anyone have anything under Communications does anyone have anything under Communications does anyone have anything under Communications no committee reports by Council Lea zon committee update Mr Schwarz that's you correct sir it is I have two updates for you first um for all those in the audience and on the this the subzone the zoning subcommittee report detailed report is in the packet please read it I won't go through it now word by word and additionally there is a report from our planner Keenan us on our recent American Legion Drive meeting so please read that as well second report tomorrow night Cedar lean's annual holiday meeting and uh dinner takes place at their office at 6:30 um I'm actually unable to attend for my first time this year but please uh Council Mr manager if everyone's around Mr clerk if you're around to please stop by uh wish our CED Lane Management Group um a happy holidays and and we look forward to next year thank you thank you Mrs schz does anyone else have any committee reports Mr Mayor yes M so pprb had their last meeting of the year and while discussing the recreation budget for 2024 one of the ask is about a new stove for the senior kitchen and the Roa Center so this raised the conversation about an issue from 1998 that there was a gas smell in the senior kitchen my understanding is that this has been checked by the fire department and psng over time but the source of the smell cannot be found um so they're using water tables that were purchased last year to heat the food for the senior lunches and that'll cook them to sufficient temperature but the ask by pprb is that can we do you know additional due diligence to really talk to engineering or pcng and really evaluate the source the smell so that the ovens can hopefully be used um it's a security risk for our seniors they're afraid about right lighting a match is there anything that more we can do to identify the source of the gas smell manager yep so so again um and Lisa skx here from um Recreation Department uh this problem I believe I I don't want to call it a problem but this is something that has been around for a a while probably 20 20 years uh we cannot find the source psng has been there numerous times the fire department they bring their gas meters there are no readings of gas uh so this we don't know what the issue is uh we have shut down the gas stove just to on the just error on the side of portion we use the steam table for the hot lunches which is working out which is working out well um we will call PSC again to see if they have any recommendation as to what we should do but they've been there numerous times the fire department's been there numerous times DPW has been there numerous times um uh we don't know why there's that occasional smell of gas I don't know how strong it is uh Lisa I don't know if you can opine you just gotta goone please Lisa thank you Lisa I hello um there is times when we can smell it you can smell it when you go upstairs there's sometimes you can smell it coming down the stairs I've called a fire department numerous times myself we um I've pulled a fire alarm but PSG comes DPW nobody can find where the spell is coming from we evacuate everybody the seniors the children everybody um they come with their gas meters as Dina said and nobody can find the gas it's just a smell but we can't locate it so we turned off the oven thinking maybe there is something going on there but we don't know as far as the steam tables go that is how we normally heat up the seniors lunches so we're we're using the proper equipment that we need to do to heat their lunches up to the proper heat um but honestly it's been years and nobody can tell what the smell is coming from like behind wall not not to um be too gr safe though right everybody's safe yes everybody is safe but sometimes the smell of a dead uh Mouse does sometimes smell similar to uh a natural gas odor so we're also right off of Route four so it could be that you know during traffic and the exhaust and everything can happen it's really hard to say but all the experts in that field have told us they can't find anything but definitely the senior lunches are being heated up properly the way that we're mandated to do thank you Lisa sorry my mic no no I agree that the I was just asked to bring this up because if we can identify the source of the gas or if there is a gas or if there is a dead M if there's something um you know it was voiced that there was a concern about you know striking a match or lighting the St like there was there was a security concerned so if we can try to figure out a way to identify the source if it if it's real like as gas versus a mouse or something um I just don't know what they're using the most modern equipment to detect gas uh and there are no readings no there's never any readings all right thank spelled it as well but there's never any readings Thank you Lisa thank you Council thank you Mr manager does anyone have anything else under committee reports no moving on there's nothing under Council listed items Township manager report Mr kazinski uh thank you mayor I'll I'll try to run through this quick um we received notice from Senator Booker's office and I just wanted to mention it quick he recognizes the the poet lar at the Scott Pleasant so it was a nice letter that he sent to with the Scott which I gave to him last night basically says it's it's a pleasure to congratulate you on becoming the first poet Laurette the town Chic proud member of the Senate cultural caucus I know the profound impact the Arts can have on people's lives poetry is one of the most powerful ways we can express ourselves and connect with each other and I'm grateful for your refer effs to promote poetry enrich your community and expand access to the Arts again congratulations and I look forward to your continue impact on the teet community that was sent by Senator Booker I gave that to uh Scott last night when we did the manora lighting a couple other announcements the townwide cleanup is going to take place uh this sun this Sunday on the 17th this is the third time it's been scheduled unfortunately Mother Nature hasn't cooperated with us that's from 122 please go on the website to to register DPW we will provide all the necessary supplies for the three or four different locations we have for clean up the 2024 at times is going out to print very shortly anticipate delivery to every household the end of December or the first week in January some uh project updates DPW completed their fourth uh pass complete pass of the town for leaf removal last U last week uh 90% is collected they have about 10% left uh to do uh do not rake any leave to the curb after the 15th which is Friday uh we extended the leaf season to the 15th but after the 15th please do not push anything out uh to the curb all the sidewalk repairs were completed we finished bookstaber Park uh with the broken slabs that um Mr Yuck reported to us and also a couple slabs on CED Lane by Lincoln Place uh that concludes a sidewalk or replacements for for the season from the town uh DPW weather permitting is going to conduct the sidewalk uh power washing next week and that will be done during the night thank you wart uh equipment for the DPW was trickling in uh some of the equipment we took delivery of recently was a new sweeper and a bobcat uh last week we took delivery of two F 350 pickup trucks uh and also a bobcat Milling attachment that we're going to use for Milling sections of our roadways we're going to be taking a delivery of an8 yard Packer truck with within the next two weeks along with two Mason dumps another F350 pickup a new sewer truck is coming next month and our new tree truck is coming in 20124 so we've really made council's made a a tremendous effort along with my office to really replace some of the older equipment at DPW and once we get this in uh we should be all the equipment and we should be in good shape uh 2022 Road resurfacing is done we're finalizing the 2023 Road resurfacing project uh right now we have 1.5 million in capital to handle that uh Maple Avenue which is the concrete Street that's going to be the next cdbg street listed for improvement in 2024 uh we recently completed pavement markings as well in various areas of town um we are notified by NJ do on November 29th that they are preparing the signage work orders for the three-way stop sign and that's at the cater and Alfred I mentioned this before but do controls and is responsible for about a 500 foot radius is from the on and off ramps um again it's taking longer than we thought but I I have no control over this Tom has been on dot quite frequently to get them to move forward but they told us on the 29th they're submitting the uh the work orders uh work on Lancer field continues uh the sod's going to be delivered Thursday this is the 90 foot field at V Park they'll perform final grading rolling and conditioning uh this Saturday weather permitting horon field I know I'm getting a lot of inquiries fourth on field is not complete when they put all the new Play Down unfortunately we had a substantial rainfall uh additional work needs to be done once the clay dries out this is a tough time of year to put new clay down especially if it rains uh takes a long time for it to dry out there were carbs put on but unfortunately water got underneath that field that forth arm but uh there's still some more work that needs to be done and it will get done as soon as the uh certain permits are received athletic fields Amer going to begin work at Southern Little League um I had a conversation with Gable the Township's energy consultant uh they they believe the market conditions are more favorable for some GAA deals and starting in June of 2024 as we anticipate another increase in utility tariff basic generation Service rates in in June so I'm going to uh I'm going to meet with Gable uh this week and looks like we'll probably test Market um sometime in the spring and probably go out to to bid again um appointments gave three conditional low off of employment uh to three new police officers they have to pass the medical psychological and physical before appointment to the police academy in February we're also looking to hire three alternate route candidates uh in late winter and that should get us close to where we need to be with our table of organization I recently appointed Anthony marchas Sani to the position of Plumbing subcode official he's replacing Calvin King who's retiring the end of end of this month and the other day we received u a grant award from New Jersey do the amount to $249,250 that's going to cover milling and Paving of Palisade Avenue from West angood Avenue to the uh the North End of Palisade by the C dis that's it thank you Mr manager Mr sammon do you have a attorney's report um yeah the just a couple of the ordinances that are up I just want to mention um the uh ordinance number 43 2023 uh it relates to the increase of membership on the senior systens Advisory Board this is just a simple increase of the number of members from 9 to 12 um the uh Township the um the number next ordinance ordinance number 40 uh 40 4-20 2023 is an amendment to the Charter and administrative code Township this is a pretty substantial um uh I should say a substantive a lot of substantive changes to the code it is uh streamlining it it's making more I'll say uh I'll say clarifying A lot of the language in there which is in many cases or I would say frankly archaic I think it's grammatically um confusing in a lot of pieces one of the biggest things that the this does it moves um under the current code the process for appointing uh uh individuals to statutory and advisory boards was set off in a separate section from the Township Code this integrates the language uh into the body of the um uh the body of the ordinance which I think is going to help prity for people that are that you know want to understand what how these uh appointments are going to be made um it also one of the other big changes that it does is it it incorporates uh Robert's Rules into how our meetings are going to be run uh before I say currently uh the Township Code uh sort of creates its own parliamentary procedure uh which has I think in the past caused a lot of questions and uncertainty and changing of how things are done based on the on the whatever the given council is and so using Robert's Rules will help us to standardize uh standardize that because it's so well so well documented uh the next ordinance is ordinance number 45 2023 this Rel link to accessory dwelling units this is similar to the ordinance that was has been previously introduced by the um by the council which originally went to the planning board planning board came back to us with a number of uh suggestions about things that they want to see in the accessory dwelling units most of them are just are are really just clarifying uh some of the language that was used um this uh this one does this this new a new version incorporates those changes it also incs includes a change to allow historic properties to um uh to uh have adus on them um and the the one thing that was requested by the by the planning board that that this is not uh include is uh the planning board had asked to change the numbers for um uh in the in the R1 residential zone for lot lot and uh and bu and building coverage these just numbers that um relate to when you have to go before one of the planning either the planning of the zoning board uh to get a variance if there just there's just too much too much prop uh too much building on your property um that's those are not that's not really a change that we can make at this point without uh w i St wall hour master plan is under review that's the one section that that was excluded from what the planning board recommended um and then the last thing I just want to mention is there there's a um uh an amendment I'm sorry an ordinance number 46 2023 this has to do with uh time limitations on foring concrete there is currently a Prohibition from foring concrete uh when you're replacing your sidewalk within the township uh over the winter um this was the suggestion of our of our Township manager uh which I think is an excellent suggestion uh to allow allow homeowners to uh to do that uh to replace their sidewalks po concrete over the winter um it's going to I think reduce our legal liability I think it's going to make uh the township sidewalks signif safer because going to allow allow homeowners to replace them as as issues come up instead of having to wait a couple months uh my understanding this there was a consultation with DPW the health department engineering and they all agreed that this was a this is a good thing for us to do as well as obviously the legal department agreed this is a good thing to do so just because there are a lot of ordinances that are on the agenda I just wanted to briefly go through uh what what they what they what these guys what they looking like thank you thank you Mr salmon our next order of business is a public hearing on New Jersey Greenacres application for Sagamore Park improvements Mr clerk we have a presenter right that would be me oh it's youy even better floor is yours you can go to we prepared a a quick PowerPoint uh again we're applying for Max funding from Green Acres to make improvements to Sagamore to Sagamore Park and um we're looking at the up to $750,000 but I just want to go through the the slides on the PowerPoint so everyone has an idea what we're trying to do the uh the board up front just give some general designs of some of the park improvements on eil here um again subject to change some of the designs here but uh so what so what we going to do is go over the introduction Doug with Sagamore Park and this is a park for those that don't know Sagamore Park between sits between Bell Avenue and Windsor Road and it's west of the CSX railroad tracks located north of beis and south of sag more uh the proposed improvements are located in the North End of the park and it's a pretty big Park Sagamore Park about 4.48 Acres but uh the improvements for this phase are going to be in the North End of the park the facilities are currently outdated in a state of disrepair and and the park is certainly overdue for an upgrade uh so the scope of work includes uh the demolition of some older facilities and construction of of new facilities and it's going to provide new amenities to Sagamore Park uh this site this park is currently fully developed and again as I mentioned it's about 4.48 Acres mostly a grass area uh with a gentle slope that includes you have the basketball court there a baseball field three playg grounds and a and a spray park uh the area is fully urbanized um the access easy access to sagore park over Bell Avenue Windsor Road and surrounding homes and the park sits in a residential single home area to the north south um East I'm sorry and the west and they have the railroad tracks to the east there's going to be no environmental impact to the upgrades we want to do because it sits the SES an existing developed Park so we're not uh making any or removing any um any trees or any making any changes to the uh to the park at all the design of the park uh right now the park is 100% fully developed and again we're not going to disturb any habitat that uh or populations a species of threatened or endangered plants or animals we're just replacing what's there um there's uh really no alternative to the proposed construction that we're going to to do and what I want to put up is um just the site plan that the engineer did Doug if you can get to that that yeah that one there so if you can picture Sagamore Park what we plan to do is uh propose to do is to have a new children's playground for ages 5 to 12 years old and that's at the there you go at the top that's a new playground area for children um 5 to 12 there's going to be a another play area just to the east of that and then you're going to have just to the east of that play area there's going to be a new children's playground for ages two to five years old uh we're going to put in a a new splash pad or spray pad with a what they call now a spray pad it's not going to be as elaborate as the one we have at vot Park but will certainly serve the purpose and we're going to do put in some new prefab restrooms and they will sit at the North End of the park and Doug if you can go to the engineers's estimate for cost and this stuff is certainly certainly not not cheap these are the proposed costs I don't know if there's a way to blow that up a little bit but uh proposed cost for site clearing and demolition is 50,000 uh at 10,000 square foot new children's playground is 400,000 ,00 foot square foot children's spray park runs 350,000 uh safety surface that's that rubberized surface for the playground is um is going to run about 250,000 that is about 10,000 square feet that we have to put in uh prefab restrooms about 350,000 we're going to do some grading and draining improvements which is 50,000 and some additional it amenities another 50,000 so that brings the grant total to 1.5 million if we can secure the 750,000 uh Grant from Green Acres that will be supplemented by funds from uh approved through Capital by by Council to make up the difference so that's that's where we're at with Sagamore Park and mayor you can certainly open up FL to thank you Mr manager so much so the public hearing on this and this only is open Green Acres Sagamore Dr powers powers this will be quick when the uh Town first got the approval for the Sports plex it was in 2010 many of you remember the night that Council actually received the first check from Green Acres for that for that facility that was less than $750,000 in the grant but um plus plus the loan we're still paying but that was not until 2015 it's five years we're in the same situation here of course this is a wonderful project it stands behind the her Improvement project both of which we're seeking s $150,000 from from the Green Acres folks who clearly owe this Township a lot of money for all the years we haven't been getting it but we won't get it until we have a an approved Recreation open space inventory that is prerequisite it's what held up the Sports plex money for five years that must get done thank you thank you Dr P any want to speak about Green Acres Mr vaty Council I'm a resident of the neighborhood I use sagore Park maybe 60 70% of the time the days that I'm in at home it's a good Park as it is the manager isn't hoping to improve the park and I don't dispute that but it's adequate as it is now you if you have to J judge where you're going to spend the money uh you ought to walk the park and see how you feel it is I we've added trees there's uh expanded the existing amenities so if you're going to knock down those and then put up new ones how much you going to gain for a million and a half dollars sorry that's my opinion and I'm there like 300 days a year thank you m Mr clerk you said we had someone on Zoom uh marps your hand is raised this is just about the Green Acres application for Sagamore Park improvements this is not about any ordinances or any other items on our agenda this evening just Sagamore Park Green Acres application Omar I'm sorry your name is cut off on Zoom so I don't know just AAR shows up feel free to unmute and state your name for the record if it's about Green Acres I'm sorry no I'm not ready yet okay I have Michael Katy Michael katsky just about the Green Acres out good evening um my name is Michael KY uh tck resident I'm calling in tonight to speak about the Green Acres application for sagamar Park uh I first want to commend the township manager and all the town staff who put a tremendous amount of effort into uh working and compiling this application getting it forward for funding to Green Acres it's really the first step to getting this park redone um as someone who kind of like art batky I I go to this park at least 300 days a year um I can't say there's a there are a bunch of issues uh related to the equipment being overc capacity uh several quite often uh many people who use the parks are very familiar with the issues there the township manager is familiar with the issues at the park and some of the equipment is kind of dated uh the standard for playground equipment these days is to include inclusive and sense to replay all of the equipment is fairly basic from a different era I I commend Township manager for doing this and I recommend that the entire Council approve this unanimously uh this is a tremendous step to get this funding I do hope that the council will match that funding so that a really a fantastic Park can be created here perhaps with more amenities that would apply to a wider age range of age groups other than the the tots the small children and the uh five to 12 year olds uh thank you again have a great evening thank you Mr Katy Mr Rose Howard Rose ten resident uh I'm wondering I have a recollection that that Park had special accessible for the handicapped features to the playground if I'm correct is that something that's being continued with whatever apparatus is coming in second you talk about changing drainage I'm wondering if that's drainage towards or away from Bell Avenue uh and then thirdly uh what percentage of Green Acres money actually goes towards purchasing Green Acres thank you Mr R someone on Zoom Doug you said I am bringing in Jesse Leon again this is about the Green Acres application for Sagamore Park and that is it please state your name for record three minutes hi good evening um I am Jesse Leon I live in EK uh my children play very frequently in Sagamore Park so I I feel a little bit qualified to talk about it um I think it would be great to have a fresher Park especially with usable bathrooms and not an old porta potty that's a little bit disgusting um I would recommend one thing in the renderings it looks like all of the trees will be ripped out right now the park uh play areas are nicely shaded by the trees and ripping out the trees will uh make it really hot Under the Sun for the portion of the year when people actually like to play on it um in the last year so I've had the occasion to visit playgrounds in Florida and Israel both hot areas um and they had really beautiful um sails or Shades over the playground areas so that children could play through the hot sun um all year long I would recommend looking into something like that for this park espe frze if as the renderings look a burn unit for our kids um but otherwise that's all thank you thank you Jesse Debbie elaho good evening all Debbie El yahu T resident I just first of all I'm not questioning the need or the design anything like that thank you very much it looks lovely I just wanted to ask about that um rubberized uh stuff on the bottom is that chewed up tires okay if it's the chewed up tires I just wanted to say a couple of things from what I remember when my 24 year-old was a toddler within 30 seconds the darkest black hands you can imagine and therefore as a toddler everything in the mouth I wonder about that and also if if sunlight gets on that super hot within seconds so I just wanted to know if other um what was it and it yeah I was wondering about that also in terms of the safety and they're talking about now surfaces you know like AstroTurf and all that and what it does to um internal organs and all that so I was just wondering about that so if you could answer that I know that you do a ton of research on all of these things so I was just wondering if you could ex expand on I'm sorry thank you Debbie no words it's all good thanks so much thank you so much Doug someone on Zoom I have brought in norac and I just want to remind no no you haven't I'm sorry I'm sharing my husband's zo tonight um is this just about the Green Acres application my friend this is brush R privately this should have a different um background um okay is this about the Green Acres application our friend the Green Acres I just wanted to say I also really like the design I am very excited about the potential for bathrooms and I share uh Debbie's concerns about the flooring that's all thank you anyone in Chambers want to speak about this Doug someone else on Zoom I am bringing in Keith please state your name for the record just a reminder this is is about the Green Acres application thank you very much uh Keith Kaplan tck resident um I am very happy to see that the bathrooms are included the modular design has been a huge hit at Felts spark and I hope they continue to all of our parks and uh do haste um as far as the renderings I love the spash pad I love the concepts the uh design for the equipment that the kids are uh climbing on I'd like to see if it's possible to get a more modern uh version I've gone to places in Pennsylvania I've gone to places in Massachusetts there's uh leap uh Quantum leaps in the type of equipment that kids use even if you go over to overp park the type of equipment there's stuff that's uh right here in Bergenfield if you go straight down uh Sussex Until the End uh you'll see a park right over there brand new types of equipment it's a very different than the dated design that we have in a lot of our parks and some of the renderings are pretty much just you know updates of the old types of stuff that we have kids and I have three of them they will look for a certain level of uh uh uh how to put it um danger uh you know a certain level of flow through uh the equipment and the new type of equipment that's out there is much better suited for that purpose so whether it's through the rec department or if you'd like suggestions I'd happily show you some of the designs that I've seen in other Parks but I think for a very similar price we can get something that uh would be used for decades in the future as opposed to some of the uh newer equipment that looks like the older equipment thanks thank you Mr Klan no one else in Chambers Doug someone on Zoom T btz T btz please accept the invitation state your name for the record again this is just about the Green Acres sag hi good evening can you hear me yes loud and clear hi good evening this is Teresa btz um my son Sammy bewit spoke to the council at the last meeting about potentially installing a skate park in Teck it's great to hear that we have this Green Acres application um and funding and I just wanted to keep the skate park on the agenda for something to possibly add to TX Parks thank you thank you miss bayt someone else on Zoom Doug no nobody in Chambers this public hearing is closed does anyone on Council want to respond before we turn it over to the manager anyone no Mr manager yeah thank you so we have a port in place rubberized surface in two of our Parks right now one is at the allinclusive in V Park uh which uh replaced the tiles that were there uh you generally get a a fiveyear warranty on the rubberized surface uh generally can get 10 years out of it before any sort of repairs need to be made uh tun Park if those that haven't uh been there yet tun Park is our most modern playground uh we finished that last uh I think it was early spring of 2023 that has a rubberized surface uh there's no danger of uh loose particles uh with tun park there was a slab of uh concrete that was put down underneath the rubberized surface it's a uh it's a safety surface that protects children from falling uh there is no risk with health risks with the rubberized safety surface it's been around for a while I'm very confident with what we're putting in there and and I of course want the most modern uh playground equipment possible I have seen Bergen Fields Park the one off of of um uh New Bridge Road it is a nice facility but we will certainly uh put the most modern uh playground equipment we can find that fits into our budget there and and the design will be nice again subject to some changes but uh we we do want to modernize everything in the park and having the prefab bathrooms there the intent is not to take any trees down but we may have to uh if um the preat bathrooms have to go in a location where there is an existing but we will certainly we plant any trees that do come down thank you Mr manager we appreciate it our next order of business is our public hearing and Adoption of ordinances Mr clerk can you please read the title of the ordinance record absolutely mayor we only have one ordinance this evening up for adoption the last ordinance of 2023 for adoption actually ordinance number 42- 2023 amending the storm water Control Ordinance for the township of TAC to regulate privately owned salt storage thank you Mr cleric the public hearing on this ordinance is now open any member of the public wish to be heard on this ordinance and this ordinance only can please come forward State their name for the record comments will be limited to three minutes per person anybody want to talk about this ordinance Chambers no anybody on Zoom Mr clerk nobody on Zoom all right public hearing is closed on this ordinance anybody on Council want to say anything motion to approve this ordinance I'll second that Mr clerk councilman Schwarz yes councilman beler councilman Goldberg yeah councilman Oregon yes Deputy Mayor Catz Deputy Mayor G yes mayor Pagan yes ordinance 42 adopted thank you Mr clerk our next order of business is good and Welfare any member of the public wishing to be heard at this time can please come forward and state their names for the record comments shall be limited to 3 minutes person Mr vaty I saw your hand go first again okay uh I've got a lot to say I won't I'll Rush So within three minutes um first of all about the Holocaust and uh the the Black History Center okay when it comes to the Holocaust we say six million people have died does anyone know how many total people died in the gas mask in the chambers in the guns and in the bit pits that they built 11 million people so not just six it's not only six it's not only Jews it's other human beings they died under the hands of the Nazis assisted by some other people in Eastern Europe so I think we've got to spread our attention and not just concentrate on how Holocaust only I agree with concentrate I agree with the Holocaust as a situation but too many other people have died include them in the education that you're going to have for the suit the for these Liberty sites for these sites okay it was like Holocaust for everybody um about the the site I totally disagree with the site that you want on the town green which is surrounded by te uh T Neck Road and which I have taught there I taught uh students there for like seven years it's too noisy it's way too noisy it's excessively noisy you guys work in con sealed windows and stuff like that if you're outside you're going to hear the trucks downshifting you're going to hear the buses uh accelerating you're going to see a lot of noise it's not conducive to a I think what the intent of this Center would be my suggestion and it's only mine and maybe there's a some type of rule that says you can't have it is is Mayor mayor okay is a better location in my view it's vti park vti park is across from the rotor Center it already has bathrooms there's parking all around for it it's suitable it's visible from what road is that wind not Windsor Road well Palisade Avenue thank you and uh you own the park build it there I think it'll be easier it'll be more visible you can have great press for it great visual for it thousands will come I think because you can find it when you drive past that intersection that tck road and Cedar Lane you just got to be paying attention to the traffic you can't look off to the right or left don't do it there think about it thank youy Doug someone on Zoom Sandy Silver Bird please unmute say your name for the record you have three minutes you are up here Sandy dokie I don't know yes here I am good evening Council thank you Miss beler good evening Mr manager thank you for my stop sign Mr clerk friends before I say anything else I want to wish everybody Happy Solstice celebrations and I would like all of our lights to shine to relieve the darkness I urge you not to support the resolution 362223 this is consistent with my position from the very beginning if anyone want wants to build a monument to the Lenny lenp I would not oppose that but to construct brick and mortar monuments or memorials to specific groups currently in town smacks of exclusion and pandering if the residents of Tink are going to be asked to build on the municipal Green Space of the town let it be a center for the study of genocide all genocide human populations migrate I well remember when Jewish people and black people could not live in this town it was in my lifetime that there are Jewish and black people here now does not guarantee that those two significantly large and important minorities will always be here who knows if there won't be rwandans Armenians the M cambodians living in this town as significant minorities do these monuments physical monuments promote community relations I worry about that instead let's spend money on making an inclusive learning experience for all people as to the specifics of this particular resolution the original work group was a Cooperative Jewish and black Le group they split the leadership fell apart leaders left the original understanding was for the two groups to work together what happened to that I attended many meetings for these projects nothing materialized the former head of the library and the board at that time did absolutely not want to act as custodian for the funding the library in no way reneged I kind of didn't like that if dollars went to the library I don't know that if they did where are they there was an idea that the northern wing of the library would be Ren inovated to contain a Learning Center about genocide nobody talks about that now although that would have been a good idea there's not enough space in the library now for them to carry on their ordinary business but if you want to make a center of learning in the library start with the Holocaust which I I agree with my friend is Way Beyond just used just one group of people if we're going to give up Green Space let it be for Universal understanding thank you Sandy thank you someone on this side Mr Schwarz thank you Mr Mayor Ron Schwarz and president please appoint R McAn to the community board of community relations thank you I'm speaking also tonight on behalf of one Town one vote the group that brought you elections in November and more democracy in tinck I'm speaking about the two resolutions relating to the memorials in 2020 a memorandum of understanding or anou was signed in a Township meeting with two independent committees the northern New Jersey Holocaust committee and njhc and the enslaved African Memorial committee eamc to develop a open quote Garden to nurture human understanding on the green the goal of theou was to develop a memorial that reflects both the aspirations and the lived experiences of two important subcommunities of EK theou stipulated that as a joint project to educate the public I'm sorry the mou stipulated this as a joint project to educate the public about these twin tragic injustices theou also stipulated that the joint committees would work together to identify two additional sites for recognition of other diverse subcommunities of Teek in the future one to one vote enthusiastically endorses the plans as outlined in the mou however the resolutions being introduced tonight are not simply out of sync with the original mou separating them in this way actively perverts the original intent of the project furthermore both resolutions were added to the agenda as said before at the 11th power and neither makes even passing mention of the other this raises numerous red flags regarding transparency Democratic representation and responsible expenditure of taxpayer money OV respectfully submits that the council withdraw both of these proposed resolutions until the public can be informed about three key issues one regarding transparency the council has met privately with individuals identified as representing nnj HC and eamc respectively why were these discussions not held in public regarding number two regarding representation the resolutions are clearly discordant with the original intent of the project has the original mou been rescinded or rejected by this Council if so by whom can these individuals produce meeting documents meetings and voting roles to document that they legitimately represent the views of their respective committees number three regarding fiscal responsibility arguably the most important issue is taxpayer liability our former state senator Loretta Weinberg lobbied for and secured substantial State funding for the joint projects based on the terms of theou supporting a joint Memorial more than $440,000 according to Senator Weinberg and Senator Johnson has already been dispersed by the state evidently about 15,000 was given to the library these need to be accounted for Paul rman is going to read the rest of our statement Thank you very Doug someone on Zoom bringing in Jim Dunley bringing in Jim dun leevy please unmute mayor sure thank you good evening everybody and before I start happy holidays to everybody I hope it's a good time where we can all come together and enjoy each other um I just wanted to make a few comments about the two resolutions regarding The Monuments I want to make sure people know that during my time on Council um I had many discussions with both groups and in the attempt to try and move this thing forward and as you know I tried and I unfortunately failed uh in my attempt to create a unified Monument where both groups would be involved but have the ability to expand this to other groups uh that should be represented uh in such a project however I want to say to uh Deputy Mayor G and to uh council member beler you are right you are right to question the dollars spent so far and question after so many years if they can actually raise any of this money you're also right to question the formal agreements that these groups have made with their contractors and take a look at where the money actually flows you are right to question the timing of this when our town right now is so divided and this does not have a Time sensitivity to it at all I also would like you to uh speak with our manager who was in all of those meetings to get a clear understanding of how they did or did not uh communicate well with the town and how the finances were done and finally having separate monuments for the Holocaust and the slavery group just accentuates the separateness that we're feeling right now and this is why I wanted a unified Monument we need a UniFi in symbol like the concept I proposed that can be expanded to other groups that should be represented here remember remember the people in the synagogues in the mosques in the churches in the malls and the schools of this country who have been murdered senselessly they're not there they are worthy of our time they are worthy of our thoughts and prayers they are worthy to be commem at so I ask you to to table these to take another look at this group I'll be happy to help you in any way that I can uh having been there and having been in the room and I hope that we can start to think about this in a unified way so that we can bring something a symbol of peace and unity to this town through this process thank you very much thank you Jim ma'am hi can you hear me okay my name is Medan and I am one of the co-organizers of the student walk out for Palestine first I'd like to make it clear that although the school was aware this was in no way a school sanctioned event to put it frankly we would have gone through with the walk out regardless of the school and Town's reaction I wear black in mourning of the millions of Palestinians undergoing a genocide right now it is a genocide against children mothers fathers sisters brothers and cousins it is a genocide against toy shops bakeries libraries schools and hospitals against doctors news reporters it is a genocide against those with special needs pregnant women and the elderly but simply it is a genocide against Palestinians we have been made very aware of the lack of support from the community as there was a counter rally sponsored by councilwoman Oregon and Goldberg calling for the suppression of student voices the reaction to the walk out was so premature and the immediate outrage is indicative of the long-standing racism rooted in the community to assume that black and brown students are violent is textbook Prejudice behavior and ignorant at its root I'd like to highlight that the nature of the walk out was not only peaceful but educational as we had many student speakers and informational pamphlets prepared I'm very proud of what we put together in spite of whatever backlash we received but I can barely Express how disappointed I am that these are the adults we're meant to be looking up to it is the adults who are blinded by their immorality and it is my responsibility as an educated youth to spread the knowledge to all those around me I understand the controversy surrounding the phrase we used from The River To The Sea principal Valdez urged me to think twice about saying it at the rally so I did I told my peers to say this chain proudly but not before explaining to them what it means from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea Palestine will be free for all Creeds colors and religions as it once was before the Zionist entity to change the meaning to what you please and claim that it has genocidal Roots when it is as old as The Liberation movement itself is merely a tactic used to police our language so that we remain under the white supremacist boot this issue is purely humanitarian so to hide under the guise of anti-Semitism is to have missed the point entirely I did not stage this walk out so I could continuously defend myself against accusations of anti-Semitism when I myself am a Semite so that I could receive countless death threats from adults all over the country so community members would be comfortable in calling me a juvenile terrorist so that I would live through the same Prejudice my parents went through in the 80s so that my parents would fear for my safety every time I left the house I did not stage this walk out so that I could stick the word peaceful in front of it and repeat it over and over and over and over again no I staged this walk out to educate my peers on what has been front of mine for me and countless others as it should be this should eat away at your trust in humanity this should make you sad if you can live with your privilege and watch others Suffer Without feeling any empathy then I fear you have lost your Humanity we stage this walkout to call for The Liberation and freedom of the Palestinian people who have been struggling against oppressive Israeli forces for decades now I staged this walk out to humanize Palestinians after EK Township passed resolutions dehumanizing them I have been accused of causing division in town but really I only brought to light the deep-seated issues and prejudices in Tink however the students are strong enough to look past them and stand on the right side of History never again means never again not for anybody we will not stand idly by and we refuse to be silenced come on I have sherry hi there can you hear me hello so the folks on Zoom can hear us folks in the crow thank you hello thank you Sheran yes please state your name for the record you have three minutes okay Sher Han Eid longtime resident of tenek um first I just want to thank miss beler and miss G for holding up for upholding your promise to serve the community of EK as a whole it was difficult to watch and listen to the council show us their implicit bias towards Muslim appointees to advisory boards the council also showed their implicit bias by continuously silencing and talking over and sidest stepping the two black women on the council that was disgusting to say it plainly we need to stop tokenizing the diversity of this town and actually live up to it I'm tired of hearing about how great this town is because of its diversity but we're just living separate lives really time and again the council shows diversity is only C celebrated when it suits them when students speak up and exercise their freedom of speech respectfully they are being Cyber Bullied docked online and coming into Harm's Way in real life to find there was no mention made about the horrific aggression towards these students tonight again shows that certain members of the community simply do not matter to the council and why is that is it because of the way we look is it because of our names is it the way we worship please before you run for councel acknowledge your biases this is training that every professional has to do and I'm surprised that our own council members can't do that or haven't done it just remember that you're sitting up there because we voted for you and just like we voted for you we can vote you out again I'd like to thank Miss Belcher and Miss G for upholding that promise to us and that young woman who just spoke before me you are braver and with way more intelligent than I ever was or will be and I thank you for standing up for our community thank you so much thank someone on the side Mr Wilson before I get started I just have to say something I'm very upset for what I saw up here on this Council today very upset about it the disrespect that you have for each other I feel very disappointed for the mere fact that I walk these streets of Teck to get some of you elected and I'm very hurt behind it whatever you do behind closed doors and you vote on which the public never knew you should keep it there if you can't come out in the front and respect each other then don't be up there as a young lady just got finished saying the same way we walked these streets and pounded on doors and got you elected believe me it's the same way we can get you off right now I'm really here because I'm a former member of the enslaved African-American committee along with other Northeast Community leaders I know that this was a joint project that started in 2016 to have a garden to nurture human understanding on the memorial green by erected monuments to honor the Holocaust and enslaved Africans and as a former member of AMC I fully support this project the intention was to have the Committees work together with the tck library to give joint programs so that the community at large could learn about anti-semitic and racism with the introduced resolutions 36223 and 36723 they are now two separate monuments and the purpose and scope of having both monuments erected to serve as a model to demonstrate the cooperation between the African-American community and the Jewish Community have been abandoned both committees and the library receive New Jersey state grants funds to create the garden of nurture human understanding the funds were sent to the township of tenek to manage and disperse the Committees for Approved expenses will the New Jersey state funds have to be returned from the township of te since the council appears to be approving the Committees to abandon the joint projects I fully support erecting both monuments as a joint project to fulfill the purpose that was presented to former Senator Loretta Weinberg in 2016 however I am not in support of the new resolutions as they do not support the original purpose and scope of the joint project as well as closing we're talking about unity and keeping peace well from what I see up on the DI I don't know who's looking for what and who's furthered themselves but you sitting on the DI are continue to create hatred within this town thank you Miss Wilson Doug someone on Zoom I have Lil Lewis Lil Lewis please unmute state your name for the record good evening Lillian Lewis 40-year resident hi Miss minutes thank you uh first want to say thank you Denise for your transparency I want to speak regarding the two addendums that's the 362 proposed resolution for the Holocaust Memorial war and also the other regarding the enslave African Memorial committee I am the founder of the enslaved African Memorial committee when Steve Fox got up at the council meeting spoke about the Holocaust Memorial he wanted to erect I came right behind him with the enslaved African Memorial that's when Dr kit suggested the memorial green I had to step down because my husband had a stroke so I had step down from the leadership initially both groups were to work together we agreed to work together I went to meetings with Steve Fox Bruce and Alan hatman we had great meetings together and that was supposed to be that way to work together to erect a joint Monument on the municipal Green in 2020 I wasn't part of the uh committee at that time but I see you did have aou again with a joint um a joint work working together now uh if the hollow committee want to change from the garden of of to Nur human understanding to a war memorial well let's call it a wall for peace and Justice and again let's work coll collaboratively together okay because the purpose still is to educate the public on the tragic injustices of both groups with what they endured now speaking for my people the Africans they not only suffered inhumane enslavement also they suffered a century of lynching that followed from the first lynching in St Louis 1835 to the last a 19-year-old African-American young man from Mobile Alabama in 1981 I can also speak on I spoke on this before and shared where my grandmother's cousin was lynched in Mississippi and she barely escaped from Mississippian left her family sent her to St Louis Missouri when my father was five years old so I have a very close uh suffering with this whole thing of lynching and the atrocities that took place on African-Americans so I think we need to work together as one the Jewish sufferings and the African-American sufferings with a wall of peace and Justice that would also include other sufferings later on we need to work together as ever to show an authentic effort to promote healing and Harmony within this town and we need it now thank you thank you Miss Lewis the gentleman all the way in the back good evening mayor and Council Aaron Cohen I'm a new resident of tenek um within the last year and a half um I live right by heric Park and I'm here to request a crosswalk from Griggs Avenue where Griggs Avenue tees into Palisade Avenue towards the entrance of heric Park I cross it frequently with my family it is dangerous we have to send one of us out so that the rest of my family can cross to slow down all the cars um and so that's what I'm up here to do and two uh if you need a volunteer from the public to help make the improvements to Eric Park a reality I am happy to help thank you thank you sir Doug someone on Zoom bringing in Jesse Leon please unmute can you hear me loud and clear sir three minutes okay thank you um I am tired of talking about things that are outside of the purview of a municipality I think that um we should talk about crosswalks by heric Park and we should talk about herck Park and we should talk about Sagamore Park and we should talk about chickens and stop signs and and the Roa Center the the the the oven and the Roa Center all of these stupid little things that exist only on the municipal level are what we about at these Council meetings and I think that we've gotten into the habit of tripping over our own shoes creating memorials for everything and and some sort of expression for everything and and I know this is a maybe a difficult concept for the council because because you're lawmakers and and when everything is when every when when all you have is a hammer every problem is a nail you don't have to do something for everything you can just just do the the simple job that that we want you to do we want you to pick up the leaves and we want you to pave our streets and we want you to put up stop signs so that our kids don't H get hit by cars and we want nice Parks so that our kids can play together you know we talk about we've been talking about unity and the lack of unity you can't create Unity Unity is not a physical thing that you can conjure through passing the right uh combination of words in an ordinance or or or in a resolution if you want Unity build a beautiful Park that I will have bring my Jewish kids play at next to my Muslim neighbor kids you know proximity is Unity using the same shared available spaces is Unity creating a a you know a genocide Center where we'll fight about the definition of genocide that no one's gonna go to in Andrea Park if I want to learn about the genocide I'll go I'll go to to the to the Simon weisenthal Center in Manhattan it's 10 miles away you know the Teek high school has a genocide a holocaust center it's not Council job to educate people it's not your job to teach us how let's just let's just stop focusing on all of these extra things and and and not pass any more resolutions and not make declarations about things let's just do the like 10 to 15 things that like people expect from their municipalities and just maybe then we'll stop fighting each other so much at these meetings they can be you know not five hours long where we're arguing about such esoteric things that really make no difference in our daily lives because your job is to make a difference in our daily lives you know my street is so poth hold ever since I've come ever since I moved to tck it's it's ruined the bumper on both of my cars I hate it and it's never gonna get paved I joke that it looks like it's bakot you know like fix that don't build a center in a park that I'm never going to go to that's just just just just just take take your roles back down to earth back down to Teck New Jersey you know don't don't do all of these things for all of people just do the things for the people who pay the taxes in this town and who vote in this town and who want a nice town to live in thank you thank you Mr Leon Dr pu it I'm not sure what that dust up about the community relations vaj B about the town is sick and we need to put the application to try to heal it now I don't understand that at all and the quicker we get to try and fix it the better we going to be it was it for a long time has been a safe zone for people who live here we have to restore that and while I'm on the topic while you counsil people are sitting in that seat you got to respect the pain of the rest of the people in your town thank you Dr BR I make a motion to extend the meeting until 11:30 all those in favor please all right douge someone on Zoom bringing in Natalie Addison Natalie Addison hear me hey Natalie get a little closer to your microphone for us we can hear you okay good evening to all and Happy Holidays to each and everyone may you have a healthy and prosperous one for you and your family family in the coming year 2024 I am calling I am on talking in reference to this community relation Advisory Board uh first of all I congratulate Cheryl she is a good leader and representative for this uh this community and also also resma Khan is also be no the work she's done in this town she is she's a person for everyone in this town it's not one separate group of people and she is a leader she's probably a leader that should be sitting up there at that Council on that as one of the council I am so disgusted with the council and their behavior I thank a g and Miss beler but I wish the rest of the Cil would put their personal issues and politics aside you are here to represent all of T neck resident so please do your job as we had voted you in my eyes are open and I am watching I made some bad decision in my support for last election but I bet you I will be boots on the ground and I will be out there the same one everyone had said we voted you in and we can vote you out so please do your job for the people of tenet and please when you get ready to vote uh for members of the of the uh Community relation Advisory Board I hope and pray it's a unan unanimous vote for resma KH she is an excellent excellent leader for this Township thank you and everyone have a good evening thank you Miss Sison Mr elani good evening Mr Mayor members of council karani T I'm just going to give you a little tutorial on Moroccan Arabic so in Moroccan Arabic if you want to say Jews you say or you say hello sorry about that can you reset okay um yeah so you can sayood or you can say or like the sons of my uncle who are my cousins so I just want to wish my cousins a happy Hanukah but I would like to also tell you here and share with you that what I have noticed tonight has been unprecedented in terms of the circus that we've we' we've observed and I've been watching these meetings and I've been involved in Tina for the past seven years and Es what is noticeable especially is that how the resolution for the Holocaust Memorial was introduced by itself initially but I guess Council woman organ caught up with that so thank you so much but but if you add that to what you've done to the Muslim Community a little just few weeks ago on October 17th and I think this Council lives in a parallel world you're not here with us you're not understanding how we feel as a council and I can tell you that I think you're heading us towards the destination of sectarianism we are telling the community here that if you want to be treated fairly you need to have absolute majority as a subc community on Council and I think that is not constitutional under the state of New Jersey's constitutional Constitution and the May the attorney can verify that article one section 4 okay now I've heard the word healing I'll tell you this as a Muslim resident of Tink I do not want anything from this Council when it comes to Healing what I want from this council is that you fix the wrong that you have done to my community and there are only two ways to fix that one you pass a resolution that absolutely unanimously and exclusively Mourns the death of Palestinian civilians who have died in Gaza since October 7th and if that's a terrible idea because these resolutions are bad then October 17th is bad then October 30th is bad walk them back and apologize to us for the hurt that you have caused and the divisiveness that you have caused to all this town since October 17th last but not least I'm G to call you out you're my friend and I'm GNA say you need to step up because there is a lack of leadership on this Council and you're the guru here and you're the experienced person so you need to do something Ellie outside in addition to what you're doing outside which is commendable I think you should you should you need to do more last but not least I'll add one last thing and I'll say listen we swore you and we we elected you and you got sworn in so that you serve a Municipality of over 40,000 people that that has component like it's composed of all walks of lives if you are not capable of doing that leave leave goodbye I don't know how many languages you want me to tell you this we elected you to serve us all not your own subgroups and if you can't stand up the right way to the to the lack to the lack of Harmony that exists in this on this Council you should also leave thank you somebody on Zoom Ben Sandler sorry I just realized mut hi can you hear me loud and clear sir thank you all right Ben Sandler team ni resident um IO Jesse Leon said a few moments ago I want to Echo that um I've watched the last few Council meetings I uh feel bad for our council members we elected you to do important work in town and you love you have to listen to hours of uh history lectures and other such matters every uh every time there's a meeting um I don't know what the legal uh way to do this is um hope hope the town legal adviser can weigh in but if there's can be a way that um both the things that the council speaks about and the members at the meeting speak about are gerain to our town um we should not be discussing history um we should be or other parts of the world outside of the township of Tink um except it relates directly to the business of the Town um I would also say that we don't need um we don't need the town to uh make resolutions put up Flags put up murals put up memorials any of that um I think what's going on is what psychologists called projection everybody in town seems to feel like they have to get the Town Council to be their voice and say say whatever they're thinking whatever there's important to them um I don't think uh it's great that J and uh and the African Community in can get along I don't think the Holocaust and slavery are the best of what a community has to offer I'd much rather see us work together on local issues um parks and Roads and things like that that we all uh the school things that we all share um that's where we should be finding Unity um so I'd like to suggest that you know we have the highest property taxes in in the country let's not spend a penny of taxpayer money on any memorials um let's not spend any time at the council meetings talking about what uh what to put up what flags to put put up when mural's put up if you want to put up a flag put it up on your house don't put don't don't come to the council and spend hours arguing about which flag should go up on uh on public property same with memorials um put whatever you want in your house fund whatever private uh donations you want to fund but let's uh let's leave it out of the Town Council Let's uh let's make t neck boring again thank you thank you sir Mr Berliner OB te resident Mr mayor council fellow citizens there's a Jewish tradition to apologize for any wrongs and hope for a better and more successful New Year happy New Year and holidays to those who celebrate I hope that my neighbors who objected to the last council meeting hosted by fdu a global institution of Higher Learning straddling Tek and hackin saac raised the same concern with the tdmc which hosted their Loretta Weinberg Gala at a hotel in Fort Lee would have been an opportunity to support and highlight local businesses maybe even some on Cedar Lane decisions were made for may have been lacking when does this end more importantly how do we move forward what history does tenek choose to write for itself and Council what Legacy do you want to leave tin is special we've had our share of conflict and disagreement and sometimes it is even spilled over into the borderer arena but we are passionate and I believe we only want what is good and right we know how Tink integrated the school system we are home to the people's pool my friend Allison Davis loves to share that the bans shell was a focal point for leading jazz artists to practice and perform the armor even hosted a professional basketball team that later became the Nets artists factors leaders in sports industry and government they all chose to live here because of the Hope diversity and opportunity the tinac offers I will go ahead and a Lim and say that is why we all chose to live here taxes are high Fields can be improved and we may even have a shortage of catalytic converters but we all chose to live here raise our families here and maybe even retire here black brown white lgbtq atheist agnostic Buddhist Jewish Muslim Christian bah humanist pastafarian and everything in between Warriors and pacifists all here in tinok from every corner of the world in 1949 tin was selected from over 10,000 entrance to Spotlight how democracy works and what a model Community looks like we are not a Melting Pot we are the hearty gumbo contained within joining together while maintaining our individuality to use the cliche tinic is the embodiment of a city upon a hill and I believe that we still are the one in 10,000 but where are we now neighbors no longer speak boards are fractured even members of the clergy will not come together to help heal the public dysfunction and lack of leadership from the mayor on down has a broader impact it is noticed it has made its way into local state and the national media grants we no longer receive political leaders who are absent at our meeting phone calls that don't get returned but wait there's more we now have a superintendent of schools who doesn't understand the uniqueness of tenek who bends the Flames with their responsible memos and presides over a situation where students staff and faculty feel threatened they did not feel safe they do not feel safe where is the peace and unity here at home what is the solution I don't know but it's not clear to me that many of you do either many of you entered into our lives with the promise of new leadership under the banner of transparency fiscal responsibility and Trust I urge you to set aside your differences and understand that you represent your constituents the citizens of Tink us poman G in 2021 to the students at Ben Franklin you paraphrase the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King and urged them to quote be conscious of yourself and the world around you so that you are better prepared to navigate it but let me add what follows where he finishes together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish fools thank you for your consideration thank you Mr Berlin Doug somebody on Zoom Muhammad Muhammad please unmute state your name for the record hi my name is Muhammad I am a d resident for more than 15 years now uh for 15 years I was in a kind of a delusion kind of I was really happy we were living peacefully with each other but this Council right now have ignited a fire within us we shouldn't be like many gentlemen before they said that we should not pass any resolution without checking Community we are taking only one side talking about one side and we are not talking about the other side we're talking about Jewish people but we are not talking about Palestines they are dying too every day every time there's a social media it's full of them open your eyes please look at them they deserve the same thing which every other person deserve a freedom so I would ask the council members stop creating hate and spreading hate and please please please what the students stand for they stand for something they feel they should be and it shows that our Young Generation are more vocal than what we are they're not ruling by power but they're ruling by freedom and it was a freedom of speech what they did what they showed and we totally support them thank you thank you sir Mr Roven uh Paula ROV um I'm completing the reading of the statement from one town one vote um and I'm just going to go back a little to point number three regarding the fiscal responsibility I'm talking about the the The Monuments issue arguably the most important issue issue is taxpayer liability our former state senator Loretta Weinberg lobbied for and secured substantial State funding for a joint Pro The Joint Project based on the terms of the memor memorandum of understanding supporting a joint Memorial more than 4400 $440,000 has already been dist dispersed by the state evidently 15,000 of this total was given to the tenek public library for their educational efforts with the balance to be split by the uh Holocaust Memorial and the uh enslaved Africans Memorial before the council moves forward on any aspect of either project the taxpaying citizens of Tink deserve to know exactly how their money has been and will be spent and what the final cost of the two now apparently separate projects will be this also raises the additional question of whether the state has been informed about changes to the original mou implied by these resolutions and if so whether these changes jeopardize the future funding or obligate the township to return any money to the state again the council should withdraw both resolutions until the public has been been given clear and complete answers to each of these uh three key issues and in the my remaining time I would hope that you will revisit the um the question of the appointment for the uh Community bo uh board on community relations and uh go with the idea that had been originally presented that uh rashma would be uh one of the chair people of that group um I think it's it's very important and I am sincerely disappointed in what's happening in this town Council right now I'm sincerely deeply deeply disappointed thank you Paula Doug someone on Zoom Deborah blir Deborah bber please unmute say your name for the record hello Deborah BL can you hear me clear do hi good evening I would first of all like to wish everybody celebrating a happy Hanukah and I would also like to talk about the um Memorial um monuments because I think it is actually a wonderful idea because um if each group tries to fundraise and they work to fundraise for themselves it will help to push the other one and I think there will be mutual fundraising between the two of them and I would also like to remind people that actually on Panda walk we currently have a memorial for the enslaved African-Americans and the enslaved Native Americans it is a beautiful Memorial on Panda walk the town graciously bought one of the houses knocked it down loud Memorial to be built they have built a fence around the private property there to sure that nobody steps or trespasses in the area so the homeowner of that particular home does not feel unsafe in any way and um I would thank the town for doing that you should all really try and go down there if you stand there and you look at night I have been told by the Creator and I've been stood there and you look where the sun sets and how it lands on the mound where the N enslaved Native Americans were buried you can see how the reflection of the Sun hits the mound it's actually quite beautiful I would like to thank Patricia King for educated me also about the area she spoke to me about the enslaved African-Americans and she explains me about the issue with the area not being fully marked off so I appreciate her input I have hopefully built a great relationship with her and um I appreciate her words and everything she said tonight and I would also like to mention she's probably going to murder me Dean I who EP who to rates the area she's very very passionate and she knows that area and she was very specific about how it the scense should be built to make sure that the um nature should be flooding wouldn't be an issue so I would like to just be very very clear and I would also like to congratulate Maxine Angel for being appointed to the youth advisory committee I think she will be a huge asset and she's highly insightful one of the most calmest people I've ever met and I am so excited for everything that she will do and one last thing to congratulate Sher hall because she is a sorry and you're all yelling me a Queen I love her she's amazing and thank you very much have a good evening good night thank you Miss playberg Mr Rose thank you Howard Rose resident I see tneck in 3d diversity divided depressing it's not just the residents it's the council we talk about these two monuments supposed to be a project done in unity reminds me of when I was a kid 1954 I guess it was they had Little Rock School integration getting rid of separate but equal as a reasonable situation in tenek it seems we have separate and unequal it's unfortunate if we want more education regarding these two issues we have a former member of the board of veds sitting here and a former Board of Education member standing here and we know that you can approach the Board of Education and request that they increase the level of learning the level of Education regarding these topics and maybe that's where it should reside and that's where we should go forward on it accountability Finance when we're talking about the monument I don't understand how a person who's on the committee is also a vendor providing a service even even if it's a discounted one seems inappropriate I want to thank you Miss Bela for what you said about transparency and we had the same problem on the board of education when I was there I didn't like committee meetings that were done clandestinely I didn't like the fact that everything was out of sight I like public statements takes a little longer during a meeting but it means everyone knows what's going on we need more transparen here so I appreciate what you said Mr kazinski perhaps you can answer one or two of the three questions I posed regarding Sagamore Park I'd appreciate that uh you've become a little bit difficult to watch for the audience for the people as Spectators and for the people as uh participants here I had Great Hopes for this Council I still do please I hope you meet mine and other people's expectations in the future thank you Mr Rose Doug someone on Zoom RK RK please state your name for the record three minutes uh thank you Doug this is rishma Khan can you hear me and clear three minutes great thank you um good evening everyone I would like to start by saying that we all take a moment to remember Jim W one of our close friends who passed away last week uh he was a dedicated member of our community he was an udent lover of open spaces and he had a real passion to enhance our natural environments here in Tac he collaborated uh with the most team of which I'm a part of uh he used to come to our meetings and he left such an indelible mark on our community um he leaves a legacy that will be intertwined with the Open Spaces that we we hold dear here in town I will always remember Jim because even though he was not a member of most he was there offering advice and he was warm and kind and the generosity he extended to everyone uh who was in his Circle my sincere condolences to Jim's family and all of his friends and all those who had the privilege of knowing him may his memory be a blessing in our town uh next congratulations Cheryl I think you will make a terrific chair for the abcr I can't wait to uh see how we can bring U these our communities together so best wishes on your appointment um council tonight uh you your this meeting definitely took disrespect and hate to a whole new level uh we all see your true colors I really hope better sense prevails and you start governing for all residents I loved how tenek residents came out tonight uh to tell you to stick to the boring stuff and I hope you heed that seriously uh and finally a sincere call to my fellow resident ents that all of us make an effort to live together here in harmony as we did prior to October 17th when this Council took the first step to divide us we all love this town let us respect our diversity and our diverse points of view so we can all peacefully coexist thank you thank you Miss Khan I saw miss lightburn your hand was up pretty much what I came out here for everybody has said for me um I have been heartbroken by what I've seen in this town I've been here pretty much all my life I have seen the love even with the election even though we may have been on different sides we were together as people um all I can ask you all to do is take the emotions out because that's what I see going on I understand I empathize I can sympathize but I think when we're dealing with politics and you're dealing with people's lives you'll have to take the emotions out and what I mean and I know it's going to be hard but your job when you go to work you don't take that you're feeling pain to your job or you have a toothache or whatever I know this is minor you know because you can't say the wrong thing I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings I just want it to stop I would like to see our community back together that is why I thought it was excellent idea to put two people as Community advisor together as co-chairs but and I have any nothing else to say about this I agree with everybody that has been calling in I rather go back to fighting about the chickens um also in terms of um um oh I was on the committee one of the people for the committee also that's the other thing I came out here for is that I don't think I never I left that committee the emac and your situation the yes it's a nice concept however if you talk to people around town they don't want it the reason they don't want it is they don't want it on the green they don't mind it being built anywhere else everybody loves the concept but I love what somebody said about it being in the schools take it back to the schools and that's how they got me involved because I thought the whole concept was for our kids to be able to walk over and learn something but we have the library we have other places that can do that and if you go down to Atlantic City you will see monuments like what you're talking about for the veterans and it's huge and that's my other con concern and always has been my concern how big is this thing going to be the people over in this community and I don't even live on this side but I used to ask them they were being on the green they just want a nice little Mayberry Town that's all anybody wants to go back to even though we're not really maybry but just go back to being a supposedly Multicultural community that likes each other that's all I have thank you Miss light bur and Doug someone on Zoom Omar please state your name for the record hi can you hear me yes sloud and clear name please hi I'm Ahmad hello everyone I hope you're doing well I'm Ahmad a senior at UK High School I grew up in UK I'm going to jump straight to the point the death threats maram and I have been receiving ever since we organized our peaceful walk out at tinac high school made me lose hope in this town we are miners and we've been getting non-stop death threats before and after our walk out our walk out that stands with Humanity our walk out that stands against violence our walk out that's calling for an end to the 75 year occupation our walkout that's calling for a ceasefire our walk out expressing our needs for a free Palestine the town attempting to do everything in their power to stop students from walking out is very unfair the response from this town before and after our walk out made me extremely disappointed in tinac accusing us of being anti-semitic hateful and violent before and after the peaceful walk out occurred is just sad it doesn't even make sense for us to be anti-semitic when we are literally Semitic that word is thrown around way too much especially in UK our First Amendment right is freedom of speech and the members of Tink try to take that away from us we need to realize that there are more voices that need to be heard not just the voices of The zionists 100 100 plus students from tinac high school walked out for Palestine even though the principal and administrators were standing in front of the main entrance when it was time to walk out yelling at the students to go back to class even when the adults that were supposed to trust and feel safe with overstep their power to intimidate and scare students we still got 100 plus students even with the Saturday detention threats we still got 100 plus students even with teachers sending out emails and messages telling students and athletes they can't participate in after school activities and sports if they attend the walk out we still got 100 plus students you can try to silence us all you want but we will not remain silent I wasn't able to make it in person today but that wasn't going to stop me from speaking up speaking up for human rights we will not remain silent while we watch a genocide happen right in front of our eyes I hope we can do better as a town thank you for your time and free Palestine thank you miss that was to this side out of the room keep going back and forth yeah you sorry sorry um hi my name is Amanda um and I have lived in EK for most of my life um and I'm speaking in support of the students who have organized the walk out in support of Palestine many before me have insisted that it's not TX place the comment on geopolitical events however this is a disingenuous call to refocus on Town politics when time and time again ten council members and their constituents have boasted about their ties with Israel you made it tin's business when you made statements claiming that tenx stands with Israel and you made it 's business when the students who are speaking out about up about Palestine are threatened I am insisting that the township of Tink recognizes and take responsibility for its participation in the genocide of Palestine Tink as a town has been loud and proud about the long-standing relationships between the town and Israel including honoring and I say that in quotations t residents in the Israeli Army who are currently contributing to the bombing raping and killing of Palestinians it's excuse me excuse me it's it's be it's because of this that we must answer to the calls of firm and unwavering support for Palestine which is exactly what these students have been doing I am proud to have gotten the chance to know these students and I'm equally horrified by the way that they've been treated by the schools and their neighbors the student organizers have had their personal information distributed they have received many death threats before and after the workout sorry walk out and during the walk out itself a car toing the Israeli flag attempted to plow through the crowd of children Pina council members these aggressions are on your hands after you have incited violence through racist tropes and falsely equating anti-zionism with anti-Semitism you have encouraged this time every time you claimed being pro Palestine is synonymous with being a terrorist it is on you to ensure that these students lives and livelihoods are not jeopardized any more than they have been already any further incidence of violence against any student for expressing their support for Palestine will be your responsibility because you created the conditions for violence against them to proliferate let that be your um let that guide your words and your actions D somebody on [Music] Zoom please your name for the record can you hear me yes hi this is shanas so I've been in tin for 50 years and I've been blessed to have a diverse friends and very true friends my Jewish childhood friends still connect with me there are some who have different opinions but our friendship is strong and respectful my college roommate was Jewish and we were the best of friends I've always been proud of Tink for its rich diversity today I'm seeing a council that says it loudly that hate and bigotry has a home here in Teck I'm seeing a council that divides people that prioritizes mourning prioritizes suffering and prioritizes people America has supported many atrocities in addition to Holocaust this nation was built on genocide of Natives and hope we honor the LPI Indians on Whose land African-Americans were enslaved to build this country I am glad Cheryl is nominated to the community relations board and I'm not surprised that rishma was not nominated I want to actually thank the council for revealing your biases your discrimination and your bigotry thank you for not nominating rmma Khan to the community relations advis board we do not want rishma to be a token hijabi to the council that Champions hate and bigotry on the contrary RMA represents friendship and unity I also want to ask tin residents to be The Advocates of Peace this council is looking to divide us and it is up to us to stay United therefore I ask the people of tinic to understand language that is sensitive and be respectful on that and educate in safe spaces I ask the people of te to be brave and reach out to your neighbors tonight we had a very beautiful call aad at vti Park and I enjoyed lighting the manura and listening to the prayer please do not expect this Council to work towards peace and unity as there are five people on this Council who do not represent the black and brown Community we need to do this ourself let's work peacefully and know that we are a new majority in this town and we can change the way the council looks thank you thank you sh I make a motion to extend the meeting until M second all those in favor please say I I um ma'am wow these are tough act to follow I will say this my name is Hy Dylan I'm 38y year resident here in Tac um I would just say to the council before I go to my other comments that I have prepared that you have a lot of work to do amongst yourselves um I I do think that you really need to work your display tonight of how you are um publicly arguing showing a lot of uh bad examples of productive discourse is a terrible example and and to set for the children that bother to come here and stay up till almost midnight to to speak and those that are listening and to all of us that really care about this town um I think you have to do a lot of introspective work and I hope that you'll take the time and spend the money to do it because you need help beyond that I would just like to say that we are doing some very positive things in our town if you want to work towards a healthy environment I sit on the environmental Commission tonight the council has the opportunity in their consent uh agenda to sign two resolutions that were put forward by the Association um of New Jersey environmental commissions one is to uh keep the corporate tax to support open space green spaces and cleaning up of hazardous um Environmental zones throughout our state including in our County and our city and the second is to stop the expansion of the New Jersey Turnpike instead of using those billions of dollars on that project it should be used towards better public transit for people get to get to and from places within our state especially within our County and our town we need better public transportation so I really I appeal to you tonight I probably won't stay that much longer because it's way past my bedtime but I hope that you will pass those things in the interest of everybody in our town we all breathe the same air I also want this is a great opportunity as Jesse said and others said throughout tonight we need to be working together as a community on improving our community a very simple thing you can do is to show up at 11:40 5 at the r Center on Sunday we were rained up for two Sundays in a row but the environmental commission is working with our DPW for a Township cleanup before the end of the year and we welcome everybody to come and keep te neck beautiful but let's do that together and show that we can do something productive together I would like to bring the attention to our town manager is that my time's up yes thank you Hy sorry thank you H Doug someone on Zoom Michael clazy hey uh good evening everyone um my name is Michael Katy a t resident uh I'd like to share a little bit of uh personal story with the council there's been a lot of talk about the the African slave daral ground and the memorial side of town green as well as the Holocaust Memorial side of town green as well a years ago I was working at uh New York City Department of City Planning and and their their headquarters was at 22 Reed Street with another building at two Lafayette Street and the reason why this is important is because these two buildings were connected uh with the passageway and in between these two buildings and the reason why these two buildings were never connected was because during an excavation uh they encountered remains of African slaves who were buried at that location and a monument was created there uh the the African burial Monument is now part of the National Park Service for some time when I worked there I did not actually know this place existed or what it was it was just like this uh oddly round shaped uh stone monument that was kind of outside my window one day when I was walking downstairs I went down and I I kind of I walked through it and it was very it was really a breathtaking Monument that was extremely insightful and educational for someone who really hadn't been exposed enough to the story of this uh the African slave diaspora in the in North America South America and you know it kind of really made me think because for for somebody who's a Jewish person a lot of us even though we've been you know exiled and we've faced a lot of persecution in many different places over time we've we actually know where some of our roots are it to me it was unimaginable and horrific that there are people who you know they live in New Jersey live in New York and they have literally no idea where they came from or who their ancestors are because they were just literally seized from a village somewhere in Africa that's terrible and I think that this is the sort of story that needs to be told and to be honest I think this Council should work with the National Park Service or the state of New Jersey um to purchase pomander walk it's time to condemn all the homes use eminent domain powers and create a monument where this is I I and for one I hear stories about people who go to places in Hungary and Poland and Ukraine who purchase buildings that where there are cemeteries and mass Graves of Jewish people this should happen here as well it's a travesty a panda walk take do the right thing thank you and have a good night thank you Mr classic ma'am the second row it's too late to say good evening isn't it um my name is VY I'm a mother of two tck high school graduates and I have two tck High School seniors um what's left for me to say the high school walk out's over the damage is done the death threats have been made towards my daughter and her friend the car that was going to run them over with the large Israeli flag has been pulled back into its driveway and the calls for Dr Spencer's head on a platter of been made and yet there's still so much to be said up until two days ago the the students that walked out were afraid of an unknown punishment from the school well that's over now but the fear-mongering still happened and the hurt still there our town is still fractured and the genocide of the Palestinians is still happening at the hands of the Israeli government some are still looking please ladies and Gentlemen please don't interrupt we're not interrupting you everybody please ma'am miss everybody please please don't interrupt some are still everybody please don't interrupt sorry about that ma'am thank you I hope I get my time some are still looking for where to place the blame somehow they've decided to lay the blame on adults in the community as organizers of the Walk who had nothing to do with it like rashah Khan and N Hussein they weren't there they had no control over it they had no idea I stand here to speak for those who don't have a voice or who don't feel like they have a voice to speak for themselves at the last meeting someone reminded me that I used to tell my students that I like the Lorac spoke for the trees and I would teach them what the onler said unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing's going to get better it's not this is one such moment in history unfortunately we have some parents who kept their children's home because even though their hearts were with those who walked out they were afraid of retaliation we also had students who were planning to walk out and were walking out but were confronted at the doors and turned around because they were scared this was definitely an abuse of authority those students had the right to walk out they shouldn't have been made to feel intimidated enough to turn around the idea of a garden of nurturing human understanding seems wonderful not as it is now but as a place where people can learn about diverse people's and Global genocide studies I do hope it can be used to teach through diversity that our town truly has unfortunately as we're seeing right now the lessons of the Holocaust weren't learned because when someone speaks out well we just saw what happened when that happens so I'm talking about pal inian lives Muslim lives that are lost in Gaza that we mourn daily and keep going unnoticed by Our Town Council but I'm not talking about puppy kisses maybe if I was you would take this seriously I'm talking about 20,000 Palestinian lives and it's easy to see that these aren't taken seriously since you can easily see a threat when it's our high school students that are deciding to voice their concerns staging a legal walk out at a public high school thank you thank you ma'am someone on Zoom ma'am ma'am name for the record once more name for the record once more I apologize Faruk yes we can hear you sir okay well uh I've never attended a Tina council meeting before this is my first one and what I just saw was like U eye opening I'm just surprised I've been here for 25 years I thinking everything was hunky dory but clearly that's not the case um and what I've seen today was just uh Injustice unfairness and also I'm uh concerned for the well-being of these kids that were doing their civil Duty As Americans exercising their their First Amendment right and they have come under death threats and as As Americans we should be neutral not choosing sides we should be working toward Unity I went to school here grew up here have raising my kids here and I went to school and every day they made us get up pledge allegiance to the flag for liberty and justice for all America is not perfect but has the promise of the ideals which help bring people together where they could live coexist with one another in peace because we all want common the same thing is to see our kids grow up safe and healthy and uh succeed and and have a better life for our future and I would thank the council because I was never really involved not really concerned with uh politics especially local politics and uh seeing uh once your first amendment rights are under a scrutiny and uh you don't realize what you have until you think you're going to lose it kind of wakes you up uh Congress has already passed u a resolution go um equating Zionism with anti-Semitism which is completely unfair because it implicates even Jewish voice for peace and they become anti-semites but people that become people that want to stop death and destruction these are characteristic the same people that uh protested against the Vietnam War and other wordss and asking for peace cannot be anti-s medic it's quite the opposite and that's all I have to say thank you sir Sher Hall can we get to show a hands please how many people want to speak in the audience okay thank you where is the timer hi I'm Cheryl Hall I am an over 50-year resident of this town and I have served five years already on The Advisory Board of community relations it's kind of tough to be sitting in a room having people direct a lot of anger towards you you they don't even realize that you're sitting there what I see here tonight by a lot of people is an attempt to pit two women of color against each other that will not be happening this day I walked myself out to my car and I contacted both Ray Goldberg and rishma Khan and I had a discussion with rishma and it is with her full support that I accept the nomination as chair to the community relations board I clearly did not expect that coming in here tonight I was here to hear about the enslaved Africans Memorial and the Holocaust Memorial that's what I was here for I wasn't dressed to accept anything like that but believe it or not the people that had cross words for me in the hallway were a part of my decision because I will stand up to bullying as a woman and as a woman of color I will stand up to it and I know I stand side by side with Rey and rashma and we will do this job together we will do the job that no one else can do we will bring this town together and I will fight to my dying breath with nothing in it for me I will never run for a political career I am not a chess a Pawn on a chess board and I will not stand for that I am also deeply troubled that people under the age of 18 have been receiving death threats and I asked for full accounting from our town manager please contact the chief of police and come back here and tell us where that investigation is going and I expect this Township to prosecute those adults to the full extent of the law I thank you for your confidence in me and if you don't have that confidence I hope that I will earn it I will work very hard for it thank you thank you Cheryl someone on this side since Doug isn't here to zoom ma'am hello my name is Lila Graham I'm a resident of EK and a mother to two tinck high school students um I'm I'm here to address the incidents that happened on November 29th the walk out at tinac high school the night before the walk out I was made aware that the two teenage Co co-organizers were receiving dozens of death threats to their social media accounts and via text message late Tuesday night a mob of anti-palestinian islamophobic bigots came out to the municipal green to try and intimidate aric Youth and call oning education and intimidation of our superintendent and Board of Education I heard phical speeches that circulated on social media calling the plan walk out a liable call to exterminate Jews pleas don't interrupt Goldberg I want to address to you personally myself inciting hateful R and use you personally took it upon yourself to spread panic and Chaos in this town over what children for the end of a genocide children advocating and using their voices to call for a SE fire is that a blood liel is is that a call for an extermination of Jews a sire I saw the type of violent hate speech directed at these teenagers myself many of whom were from our local area hiding behind Anonymous usernames there were comments expressing the desire for a school shooting to help inic High School to take care of future terrorists this is the type of unchecked bigotry that your Reckless anti Muslim Ric is creating I have two children in Tina Public Schools I won't stop until being pro Palestine in t schools is normalized and isn't meant with retaliation intimidation and threats the treat the treatment of our tinic youth that are that they're being subjected to right now is unacceptable and I personally will not allow the future generation of tinck high school students to be silenced on this matter I want to end by thanking councilwomen G and councilen vure uh the teen organizers themselves V have told me to Express gratitude to you for prioritizing student safety and for supporting our tinx Scholars right to demonstrate and rally for a noble cause they believe in so thank you these young people have been exemplary leaders I am so incredibly proud of them they did what so many grown-ups would never have the backbone to do they have exposed the ugly underbelly of this town that seeks to shut down any sympathy for an indigenous group of people facing l genocide as we speak they've chosen the right side of history and they will be remembered as Brave activists big shout out to Med and and class of 2024 free Palestine thank you man Doug someone on Zoom Harry dubitsky Harry dubitsky hi uh can you hear me yes that clear three minutes yeah I'm uh 22 years old born and raised in Teck uh love the town all I want uh is everyone to be happy peaceful amongst each other but um just from recent things I've been hearing um I I I think it's pretty clear that there's a lot of misinformation going around making it like there's a genocide against the people of Palestine I think everyone can agree we want the people of pales Palestine to be peace we want the Jews and Palestinians be peaceful however why there's such a strong stance from particularly the Jewish community in EK about Palestine is because many of our daughters Sons sisters brothers are serving an Israeli Army when people on social media say the Israeli Army does this the Israeli Army does that the IDF this the IDF that to us it's not the IDF this the IDF that that's our family that's our people that's why we care and we know that they're not committing a genocide because those are our family we know what they're doing we know all they're trying to do is stop terrorism that's it that's all they want to do and I know they want to live in peace with the Palestinians and hopefully we can get there one day hopefully in EK we can all be happy amongst each other as well um so that's pretty much on that and the second point on the Holocaust Memorial and the slavery Memorial um I think both situations each sides um I think each side should be represented as a whole and not together each went through different struggles both very very very bad struggles and can't be compared and each are separate things and hence they should be separate things and that's why it shouldn't be joined together uh thank you everyone love T am alai thank you Harry Mr Goldberg hi good evening gal gross Teck resident and also a member of the Bergen County Jewish action committee if we want to lower the temperature in town we can all do so by stopping to drop inflammatory bombs here at Council meetings and by trying to do the hard work that Cheryl is committed to doing to bring our town together and I can say as a member of a Jewish organization here in town which is trying to do the responsible thing to lower the temperature and bring people here together you have our full support rashma has our full support this entire Community has our full support and we have to stop fighting and coming here and being divisive and saying ridiculous misinformation and I want to also say to all these people who are getting up here and and talking about people receiving death threats that is absolutely unacceptable and the Jewish Community fully supports any of those threats being fully investigated and prosecuted go to the police don't go to Council meetings here in Scream and make unsubstantiated claims go to the police and report it we will support you in that nobody wants any kids to be threatened in this town not Jewish kids not Palestinian kids nobody and the pl and let's do the responsible thing we have to be responsible adults and and not sit up here at Council meetings and be inflammatory that doesn't help anybody it doesn't help any of us let's come together as a community and let's work together to build Bridges and bring our community together thank you thank you sir Doug someone on Zoom sure group please unmute you have three minutes stay your name for the record hi good evening my name is shuk Council Members I am deeply saddened to learn that some of my Muslim and Jewish neighbors along with Council woman Hillary Goldberg have expressed feelings of insecurity this is an unacceptable reality and I share the same vulnerability self-reflection is a crucial aspect of leadership and I implore our council members to reflect on their words I must convey that at the end of each meeting when divisive false statements are reiterated I too feel a sense of unease the first amendment is a Cornerstone of our nation's greatness allowing us to freedom to express ourselves and protest against Injustice we are fortunate to live in a country that upholds these principles however there is a troubling hypocrisy in our town divisive statements from council members are often defended as freedom of speech while con tional Decisions by the Board of Education are quickly labeled as hate speech this double standard is not only dangerous but compromises the safety of our community as evidenced by recent events in Vermont where three young Palestinian men were shot I understand that demonstrations May pose challenges both financially and logistically for our town I believe that if Council takes a more proactive role in holding each other accountable for their words we can create an environment where descent is expressed responsibly fostering greater understanding and reducing the need for demonstrations if the representation of Muslims in this town and black people continues to be marginalized because that's what we're seeing we will persist in our demands to ensure that our voices are acknowledged and heard I respectfully urge you to oppose the resolution regarding monuments as it has the potential to further Foster more divisiveness within our community I appreciate the commemoration of historical events but I must Express concern about the timing of this project Amed the ongoing genocide in GZA what efforts will the town make to be inclusive of all people's suffering I agree with previous speakers let's stop with the flag stop with the resolutions and stop with the monuments let's go back to worrying about beautifying and bridging our communities in regards to Hillary Goldberg's sneaky Behavior it's crucial to emphasize the importance of representation that transcends personal biases enough is enough with this selfish behavior if we have council members that cannot represent all of their constituents they must step down immediately because this hateful rhetoric is trickling down into our community and we are divided enough we will not allow you to continue this thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight thank you ma'am Mr Addison good evening Council wow it's almost 12 o'clock however it's an old saying that A House Divided among himself cannot stand we divided be careful on the way going up because you'll meet the same people on the way coming down some of us up but we'll be down and once the toothpaste is out of the tube you can't put it back the toothpaste is out of the tube we need to slow down and think about Humanity on both sides everyone's losing someone let's communicate let's not be hateful hateful speeches don't get us anywhere anyway anywhere we need to realize that a human life is a human life I would ask the question if you needed blood are you going to ask what blood it is blood is blood is a lifesaver we need to slow down stop the rhetoric stop the hateful speech do not be divisive because it gets us nowhere we walk the streets to get people elected as my wife said she put the boots on the ground I'm with her 100% we can also walk the street to un seat you guys okay so be careful on what you say what you do you're in a position to represent not just one part of t- neck but you're representing the entire t- neck all the people of tck tck is unique but tck is getting a bad rap because of some people you cannot take back what you say once you speak it's out there you cannot take it back apologies are great but the words are already emanated and it's circulated be careful on what you speak and be careful on who you speak to and what you say when you speak thank you thank you Mr Addison I make a motion to extend the meeting to 12:30 all and I just want to let the public know we're rapidly approaching the two-hour mark for good and Welfare once we get to that two-hour Mark we're going to have to end it because we still have a lot to do on the agenda which is over 700 Pages um Doug somebody on Zoom s kesi s kesi please unmute state your name for the record kesi are you there sir oh yeah yeah this is say kesi the floor is yours sir thank you um you have three minutes sir yes Mr Mayor and Deputy Mayors and council members there are many issues to talk about today after watching disappointing discouraging and bias attitude towards Muslims of tinic community we feel discriminated this council is shattering the spirit of unity I thank Deputy Mayor G and council member buch culture for their stand I congratulate cherl Hall with whom I am in a group discussion about Je history in Temple Shalom with Joel bosi however I would like to focus on high school students walk out why students staged walk out number one because our Cil failed and refused to acknowledge the loss of thousands of innocent children women men men doctors and journalists number two IG high school did not allow Palestinian Club while there is an Israeli Club in the school number three there was an announcement on school sound system about the Hamas attack which terrified the students does the school announce every attack that happens in the world the students stay walk out to educate their School Fellows that how much suffering death and Devastation was inflicted upon innocent civilians in Palestine this walk out was not the first and only walk out in penix history I thank Dr Spencer for allowing the exercise of First Amendment right of the students I was amazed after researching into the slogan from The River To The Sea the slogan is not not peculiar to Palestinians but Jews are promoting the same late prime minister of Israel gamir said in a famous interview there is no West Bank or east Bank all is Palestine the party believes in the sovereignity of Israel from The River To The Sea prime minister Netanyahu from the podium of United Nations showed the whole world a map in one color that was from the river to the Sea the question is why the same statement by a Palestinian is anti-Semitism and hate crime while the same statement by Israeli Prime Minister is admired to achieve Harmony in teenag Muslim Community Muslim Community stood with Jewish Community when Tree of Life Massacre happened I joined synagogues for a visual after October 7th I talked to rabbis and stood with them for working together at Chambers of Commerce ambulance score of teic blue Faith Internet Interfaith meeting of interfaith organized by Bergen County Sheriff talk to the rabis of I'm sorry to I'm sorry to interrupt sir but that that's three minutes Imam okay I'll stop here thank you for your comment sir you're wel thank you thank you sir um someone on this side hello my name is name is HSA I want to reiterate quickly the disappointment that I have a little bit in this console uh what I saw today was incredibly appalling um I've been made aware now why there's an age limit to become an effect an elected official um and I don't want to address um completely what the the Colin speaker Harry had said in his statement about the IDF because it's very public right now um what the crimes they've committed but I'm not here to talk about public um Universal issues I'm here to express my concern and disappoint in the recent events and the ways that this Council has handled the tenac high school walkout two weeks ago I want to express how inappropriate the Uproar was and how irresponsible it was to indirectly or directly instill fear into our community 14 to 17 year olds were receiving death threats from grown adults for days before and days after their event as representatives of this Township your priority should be to ensure the safety and security for all of this town 's constituents not to Flame the fire of racism and discrimination against anyone much less a group of students what happened to the freedom of speech and the First Amendment does this not apply to children or people in this town because of their ethnicity or color because of their religion because they disagree with the positions that you hold personally to a foreign issue our community faces enough fear of islamophobia anti-Semitism and discrimination instead of inaccurately labeling a simple walk out from school as blood Lial or anti-Semitism we should be focusing our efforts against actual discrimination that is running rampant lately our community strongly condemns anti-Semitism and islamophobia of All Sorts because that costs lives hate speech costs lives lies cost lives and it puts our safety at risk a school walk out for peace and solidarity with Humanity a position in which more than 300 Holocaust Survivors and thousands of Jewish academics have also stood for should not have caused this much uproar this town is where I was born and I was raised down that street on fiky Lane I thought I could bring my children up here but instead of promoting community and acceptance we're promoting Division and discrimination the community in this town has been diminished and I cannot imagine how much worse it will get with individuals like Hillary Goldberg on this Council who instead of promoting peace she lies to instill fear in our community and to Pro to promote Hate to this Council your responsibility is to this town to this constituency if you have a hard time separating your biases you should not be in a position to represent us I repeat the calls for Hillary Goldberg's resignation thank you for your time thank you and dou on Zoom Aaliyah Alia please unmute state your name for the record feel free to correct me if I pronounce your name wrong good evening my name is Aliyah and um I um would like to thank you all for what you doing for just town which is very diverse in its population as a resident I do think it's important to have rishma Khan on The Advisory Board because she is very passionate president that I have known and she's a good citizen who works really hard to bring people together I have seen her and all her efforts in doing so so and it's really important in these difficult time to put her along the Advisory Board I also want to say how proud I am of the students who organized the workout for Palestine and as a parent I condemn how they have been treated by some of the school staff please I urge you to help protect our students lastly I want to point out how contradictory it is to hear the council talk about Lessons Learned From The Holocaust while at this moment Palestine is literally living genocide every day and um nothing is being done about it it's important that we come together as residents of tinck and stand up for justice for all not for some I do want to thank and recognize the few the very few who are standing up for justice thank you thank you ma'am Dr Powers dou Powers tin you all owe the late James Beach a moment before you leave he made an enormous contribution to this town you also have to recognize I hope all seven of you recognize the incredible Grace of reace mccon and what she did tonight I want to talk about the fact that you are I'm G sort of surprise you you are prisoners with this in this body of some structures that are helping to build I'm not sure that the seven of you can learn again how to govern this town after tonight I'm not at all clear that that's going to be possible but part of it is you can't this was 646 Pages which I found some astounding mistakes on if you actually asked the attorney because they would have absolutely contradicted what it was you you originally did in your first two meetings as a new Council unanimously that this became 7 103 Pages yesterday what 46 Pages were those I bet you you don't know and I'll be damn sure you didn't actually read them and the additional six pages maybe a couple of those had to do with the with the resolutions you come you have 67 resolutions yet to pass the night before 12:30 you are structured in such a way that you allow this thing to grow and be absolutely incoherent Curr ly functioning among you right up to the last day that you're functioning you should cut things off on the previous Thursday you should have a much better procedure for figuring out if one of you wants something on the consent agenda it only gets there by virtue of the fact that that's what the most most of you decide to do with it if in fact you had meetings that were not decision meetings workshops to wrestle with should you have two monuments at this point are two resolutions really the way to move forward or is there some way to back heal guess what it was that we have been trying to do for the last four or five five years in terms of creating a place not just for two but for four why not figure out a way for you to have discussions in front of us about things that allow you to put together a better way of governing you have no idea where that money was was actually spent on these two on these two projects at this point that was that was well pointed out is it really five is it really what the what the state thinks it was $440,000 or is it 360 or 126 as we bounce those numbers around you don't know what those are but if You' had a workshop to to figure out how to put together what would be the right policy to build at this particular moment in this town's life and it's the this this how to be pulling it together with the right policy moves in relation to just to the three or four communities who are affected you need to think about a structure that will give you at least a better chance of functioning thank you sir somebody on Zoom Adam Wiman Adam Weissman I was muted sorry Adam Weissman please unmute say your name for the record I'm not unmuted now Adam Weissman please unmute there we go all right I have end haate now I have end hate now please state your name for the record let me go to someone let me go to someone in the Audi hi my name is Sharon I'm a m Sharon you have three minutes don't know if Harry is living under a rock but the fact is the genocide is happening in Gaza and all of Palestine it didn't start on October 7th please go and understand the history of on occupied Palestine and the colonization that has been occurring for the past 75 years the Despicable divisiveness brought to T started with the resolution and must stop kids are being threatened by grown adults imams are being attacked and formal councel members where Kias with Jews can shoot messaging furthermore the point that the man made that Holocaust Memorial will be an educational experience what lessons from the Holocaust are being utilized now in Gaza thank you councilwoman G and belter um for being transparent and requesting the same for government funds and voices um I support sister RMA for the community Advisory Board she's an activist and voice for all of tea irrespective of race gender class Religion she is a just and Fair leader who has been exemplary in all of the community activities and all of the town's residents she's an empathetic charismatic strategic thinker who will be an effective in community relations rashma is a role model for our young people a strong voice of empowerment hard work and commitment our um Muslim Community does not have a representative how is it possible to have a community relationship committee without equal representation as there is a large population of Muslims residing in conducting business in and worshiping in t not being represented thank you thank you ma'am sir Arif Khan P resident good evening everyone happy Hanukah to my Jewish friends neighbors and uh condolences to the family of Jim we he and I were on the tdmc uh the te Democratic uh Committee just name for the record one KH and congratulations to Cheryl H there um I'd like to bring up a few quick points today the first one being the tin high school students walk out the students decided to express their support for Palestine but right from the get-go there were people labeling them and pressuring everyone from the superintendent of the board uh and the uh the board to stop the protest from happening the calls against the protest singled out this particular walk out when in reality several walkouts have happened at EK High School As Told To Us by the EK alumni the students were standing in support of Palestine asking for cessation of hostilities the resumption of Aid and to stop the killing of civilians residents and non-residents of teenx should be careful not to conflate these issues with anti-Semitism the next thing I'd like to talk about is that in last month's council meeting there was someone who tried to slander our Imam and uh that's offensive hate speech so so I would say that clergy are a reserved class of people and I demand this person apologize for his animosity towards our Imam and going forward to watch his words thank you and good evening thank you sir Doug wait wait uh how many more people in Chambers are wanting to speak one more okay Doug um zoom and then young lady over there and then all right Keith Kaplan please unmute Keith Kaplan tck resident I believe the uh previous speaker was uh referring to me the issue that I brought up at the last meeting for clarification was that the Imam had uh spoken of the bombing of the hospital on October 17th which allegedly was done by Israel as it turns out it was an Islamic Jihad rocket it was not done by Israel it did not kill 500 children and the entire thing was a blood liel and I simply emailed the Imam and I asked him if he had a comment on it I did not hear back I emailed him again and I emailed the president of the mosque I think that if leaders are to be held to account and I believe all leaders should be held to account we shouldn't rush to do so publicly we should give them this space and something I learned from my Christian Neighbors The Grace to be able to come together and do that when I did not hear back I did ask at a council meeting and I don't think anybody including rabis priests or imams are Beyond uh asking questions like that um as for the uh Council work here uh I was on the council uh in the midst of the resolutions for uh both projects I there was no one that was ever against either project the notion that it is taken three times as long to get a project done to teach about the Holocaust as the Holocaust actually took is a problem the New Jersey schools mandate Holocaust Education because right now gen Z and Millennials have abysmally poor showings of knowledge about the Holocaust we absolutely need to show that crimes against humanity have repercussions far cross uh Society it is not merely that they call Israel a little Satan they call America the big Satan the values that enable people to scream at leaders here are values that don't exist in other countries and that's what we need to understand that's why Holocaust Education is so important when people are willing to enable the kind of misinformation that leads to a holocaust that is what you get and it cannot be further exemplified by the hate and rhetoric at a meeting like this as to why education education education is so important at bringing people together and I'm talking about education done by professional Educators that deal with this kind of hate all the time the last thing I wanted to mention is uh councilwoman beler and uh Deputy Mayor G referenced closed session items closed session planning for Open session is a violation of the open public meetings act I would like to Lodge a complaint about actions that are happening in closed session in violation of law thank you Mr Kaplan our next speaker will be our last speaker because we're at the two-hour mark thank you ma'am hello everyone thank you for letting me speak my name is Jasmine I have lived in t my entire life and I'm a proud alumni of the tin Public School System I'm here to express my unwavering support for the T high school students and unconditional hope for all children of the community to grow in their empathy and education and hopefully the adults of the community will be able to learn and follow in their footsteps as a reminder the township of tinac is extremely diverse and is comprised of white black Native American Asian Arab American and many other people of the community and the only High School within our Township that represents such diversity is Tek high school as every other private school in Tac is completely white as per demographic data that's accessible to everyone I want to give a reminder that in 2020 the historic issue and ongoing Legacy of police brutality against people of color was put into the public psyche and yet for a peaceful demonstration of students of a school that is predominantly black and brown police officers were dispatched relentlessly as an additional means of harassment intimidation may I remind you that on April 10th 1990 Phil panel a black teenager was shot and killed by Gary Spa a white police officer in tck New Jersey this is not okay and this cannot be the norm the thank you thank you ma'am our clerk is informing us that there's one more person left so we're just going to do one more person and then we're going to Adam Weissman let's try you again are you talking because I can't hear you sir I'm talking can you hear me now oh we can hear hear you okay great sir yes uh first just wanted to say I was horrified to hear about the removal of the trees at Sagamore Park uh those trees are habit for wildlife I saw a red tail hawk in one of those trees recently we should not remove the trees in Sagamore Park um on to other matters um we are talking tonight about a Holocaust Memorial um I think it is easy though though important it is far it is easy to commemorate uh past events and far more important to recognize the injustices of our time if we are truly committed to the most important lesson of the Holocaust never again the most important Holocaust Memorial that we can raise is for This Town Council to follow in the footsteps of the UN General Assembly today which passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing horror and yes genocide that is taking place in Gaza um for us to only commemorate past events while we ignore the elephant of the room of an ongoing atrocity uh taking place makes a joke out of the Holocaust and suggests that we learned none of the lessons that so many members of our families uh died from were suffered from my great-grandmother was a holocaust victim it shames her for us to look only to the past but to turn a blind eye and to be insensitive to the suffering happening today I want to ask the people who were so outraged by from The River To The Sea which apparently was the thing that made that rally so unacceptable how many of you were in VY park today um there weren't chanting there was no from The River To The Sea there were you there people in in tck today were saying were making comments like if if you have to to both sides that you've missed the point what what is this thinking that we we are select we are that we I mean this is depravity to only to be so selective in our concern to be only able to mour one side what lessons have we truly learned um as for the council I would strongly suggest that some of the members of this Council read the book How the Irish became White which talks about how an oppressed Community can uh gain a can take gain access to power and privilege and become agents uh themselves of white supremacy we saw tonight two black women effectively being told to know their place while standing up against the islamophobia of another council member some of the members uh some members uh may be wondering uh why there is this uh outpouring of support from members of the black community for our Arab and Muslim neighbors is it because they're anti-semitic no it's because oppressed people who learn the lessons of Oppression can recognize and see oppression and be sensitive to it and stand against it and those of us who are descendants of Holocaust victims should be doing that we should be abandoning this narrow tribalistic fearful uh hateful approach where we smear other communities and recognize that the lesson and responsibility of those of us who are the descendants of Holocaust victims is to stand against all forms of Oppression to recognize that never again is for anyone to stand with the students to oppose the genocide in Gaza you sir your three minutes are up thank you sir thank you so very much that concludes good in welfare Miss beler would you like to lead us off Mr Mr Mayor oh sorry Mark go first yeah if you don't mind yes I'm actually about to log off and I apologize so thank you for calling me first of all um a lot of confusion but um the votes prior were for chair chair people and I um look forward to serving along with um Cheryl Hall um Allison Davis and Christine Pammy and their chair positions I also because I do not think I'll be there for the vote later tonight I do want to um wish what I think will be unanimous vote for R KH for the um community relations board I'm sure she'll do an excellent job and I'm I thank everyone sorry I do have to cut off in a few minutes but thank you everyone for staying the night and happy healthy Hanukkah Christmas and New Year's thank you thank you Mr Schwarz Miss Belcher um first all I want to thank my neighbors for coming out and uh calling in and um expressing your comments so always very important to hear from you um I want to say that um on October 17th um was the last time we actually received a um presentation in close session uh it was a presentation that was given by Pat Butler um of the um the African um enslaved African U Memorial and what was uh noteworthy about that is that as she was presenting in Clos session there was hundreds of people in the parking lot screaming a each other okay during the the protest that many of us um you know about uh what was concerning about that is that uh when I heard um the phrase that was being used that it seems to incite a lot of conflict in our town ironically rushma was the one that I went to and who explained to me what it actually meant for different communities so one thing I'm learning in the midst of this is language means different things to different different people okay but one thing I do know is that protest is not hate speech and I want to speak to the students tonight and I want to Simply say that every virtually every um movement of peace and Justice in this nation has its origin in student protest from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War to women's rights to in my generation it was students coming out against an apartheid South Africa with chance of free Nelson Mandela and Nelson Mandela was freed from serving 28 years in in prison and he came out and be and became uh a leader of a nation and changed the nation so I leave you with this thought you are change makers you can be based upon what you do and what you believe in you led a nonviolent protest you spoke truth to power and you have every constitutional right to do that each one of us sitting here swore an oath to the Constitution to uphold our first amendment rights so I just want to uh lead with that I think it's very important to realize that we are a divided town and I am really hopeful that our community relations board along with leaders that sit in this community we can find a place back a place to be civil with each other a place to respect one another uh and a place to understand that we are diverse but in our diversity lies strength so I just would like to thank my neighbors and I would like to welcome uh to basically um have an enjoyable holiday um won't see you again till January thank thank you Mr Belair I'm I'm GNA make a motion to extend the meeting till 1: am hopefully that's the last extension motion all those in favor please say I miss organ so to everyone who's not aware or everyone who didn't speak hear the manager speak many hours ago these monuments preceded us um they have been in the works in one form or another for over a decade and um for anyone who wasn't here for the presentations from Steve and Pat Butler in 2020 they decided to to sign anou with three-year mou which expired this past October to join together um and and try to work together to raise funds and build their monuments together they still had their separate plans for The Monuments um they came to us in October and uh November or September and October and each presented to us their plan going forward because theou was expiring um and we listened and we heard them and then the north Jersey um northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial asked to move ahead with fundraising separately and we said sure no problem um I said um do we have the votes um I pulled a few people and we had the votes for it or they had the votes for it and we added it to the agenda with no harm meant to a garden of unity and no harm me um to the enslaved African Memorial and when we found out that people had a problem with it and thought it was one-sided somebody reached out to Pat and said would you like U um to be on the agenda as well a resolution also and she said sure I'm not ready to move ahead right now I don't have my my plans cemented but sure no problem and so it it went on the agenda and for some reason this caused a portion of the community to come out screaming over I'm not quite sure what because both of these are good projects and both of these would benefit the town and both of these have been in the works for a really really long time so nothing nefarious was going on we got letter after letter speaking about a subc commmunity of the community which I I found very hurtful um but I I don't understand why there's a group that jumps right away to think that everything that's happening has some underlying context I don't I don't think that's okay um I'm very happy to support both projects um this week we got statistics that 20% of uh people in their 20s don't believe the Holocaust happen and to me that's crazy um and so sad and I am sure that there are people um who support the enslaved African Memorial um who feel personally about it have the same feelings um tonight hurt me so much hearing um the the speeches from these young people in town over I I um I don't know um it really tore me apart I I my world is upside down and I don't understand it I know that educating the young is very important um I um am happy that we're in the middle of Hanukah and it's the holiday of lights and I have never felt such darkness before and I hope that next year at this time we're in a very different place um yeah that's it happy New Year everyone thank you Karen Miss Goldberg thank you Mr Mayor The Advisory Board of community Rel ations is sacred I was asked about my vote for rash Maan for chair of abcr multiple times and multiple times I said I cannot support her as chair members of this Council still chose to make this nomination knowing that I would vote no I have gone above and beyond speaking to my colleagues speaking to members of The Advisory Board of community relations speaking to my mentors to spiritual advisers to my family and to Rush Maan herself the chair of the abcr must be able to hear when members of the community are saying begging to be able to support the Palestinian cause without those hateful words those words are not a folk song They're hurtful and offensive and painful they hurt me they hurt members of this Council and they hurt members of this community our neighbors and our neighbors are asking that those words not be said a seat at every table means that Cheryl Hall can lead us and bring this town together something I know that Cheryl Hall can do a seat at every table means that rash maccan can and will be a regular member of abcr a seat at every table means that Maxine angel can have a seat on the youth Advisory Board Cheryl Hall has my full support as does everyone else being voted on tonight I did not use the words that I have been accused of saying the video is online the public is free to watch on that same note I too call and I trust our police at the local state and federal level to investigate and prosecute anyone who sent death threats to our children and I say that that's unacceptable I I fully support any prosecution of those that I that's dis disturbing and disgusting to me there are very beautiful and successful things that have been done in this town to bring us together tea talks Thanksgiving the educational events organized by the two high school girls these are the things that need to be worked on these are the things that will bring us together I do represent all 41,000 members of this town I also ask that the new abcr work on educational and healing activities to learn about the history of anti-Semitism of racism and islamophobia and I will vote to support the budget for that work thank you and happy New Year thank you Miss Goldberg Deputy Mayor G first I'd like to take a moment to recognize the life of James Beach he was a passionate Teck resident and Advocate and I send my condolences to his family and his wife um also before I forget I want to say happy Hanukkah to those celebrating uh merry early Christmas happy Quanza and happy holidays to all who are celebrating um in this season um I also want to apologize to uh the residents here and those on Zoom for my contribution to the chaos earlier I agree with Chuck we can probably use some team building after this so hopefully we can set up some time for a retreat um want to just go over a couple of things that came up today uh the memorial I don't know if my colleagues really listen to what people said today um because my position walking into this meeting is so different than my position position right now after hearing from everyone overwhelmingly it seems like people do not support these monuments as it stands there was I think one caller who was in support but overwhelmingly people had questions why are we doing this why now why does this make sense we haven't done our due diligence we haven't we just got the numbers today um I was getting contacted by formal council members with even more information that I had been completely unaware of I think we need to pause and table this until we've done our due diligence we have a fiduciary responsibility to our residents and to taxpayer dollars to do the right thing um the walk out this is hard um I I want to shout out the students who participated today they were so polite they were so respectful despite all the hurt that they've experienced they've received death threats these are teenagers our children they've received death threats and to sit here and say you condemn these death threats but not acknowledge your contributions to causing these death threats is problematic there are people on this deis who perpetuated fear who um who shared information that made people think that it was going to be a violent protest when it was not and I think we owe those students an apology by accusing them of being violent when there was no violence caused by these children everything the superintendent and Dean did was to protect the student he was not condoning the the the um walk out in any way and as you heard from them there were threats inside the school telling the kids that you would be punished if you walked out so all this language that this was school condone Board of Ed condone was just false and I think we have to acknowledge that I also want to talk about the language from The River To The Sea I hear what it means to the different groups of people in in this world um and and for me it's really simp I liken it to the Confederate flag right there are people in the South who say the Confederate flag that doesn't mean I you know I was supportive of slavery for me it just it's about the south and that's why it's you know I I I I rais the flag because I'm from the south and I'm a proud Southern person but there are people who say when I see that flag it makes me feel it reminds me of the times of slavery and it and it really makes my Humanity feel undervalued and so I ask people not to raise the flag around me because it makes me feel unvalued to that same point those words make our Jewish community members feel pain they make it makes them feel like that we were calling for their genocide I know it is not the intent of all those folks using those words but if we know it causes them pain can we please not use those words I I truly ask community members and today we did not hear those words uttered once even though there are students who said this is not what it means to me they did not utter it and I think it's out of respect for our Jewish community members so I just want to acknowledge that as well um I want to there was a member of the chair of the Jew the Bergen County Jewish action committee um he shared words that were very positive when I learned about this committee I was really concerned because the president of this committee is the same person who threatened my family on social media so I hope the things that he said today are in fact true and that he's looking for a peaceful F path forward for all community members but I'm truly concerned that the leader of that uh action committee has made threats to my family online we have a lot of work to do um this was not our proudest moment today um there is and there's more to come on this agenda we don't agree on everything but I think we need to be respectful one another we St behind closed doors we want no surprises we want to be transparent let's try to do that and if it takes a retreat and talk about accepted norms and behaviors let's do that because what we saw today cannot continue continue thank you thank you Deputy Mayor G as always I want to thank all of ours for coming out tonight and participating and it's getting late we have to move on because we have a lot of business Mr manager did you want to answer any questions or say anything before we move on to the next order of business uh sure just quickly uh just to answer Mr Rose hopefully I remembered because what you asked was yesterday uh we have 47 Municipal Green Acre facilities in town 16 Green Acre County facilities in town uh the park will be ADA Compliant to chery Hall I can't publicly comment on any active police investigation but rest assured that any civil rights violations that take place in town are promptly handled and investigated by the New Jersey attorney general's office and uh also or um uh federal attorney general's office so um I can't comment on anything publicly right now but if there were any civil rights violation complaints that were um uh alleged they will be Handle by the appropriate authorities thank you Mr manager our next order of business is our consent agenda and all matters listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and AG by Council and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items if any discussion is desired by Council that particular item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately Mr clerk can you please read the amount of the bill list into the record absolutely and also I just uh want to take that notion to remind Council about uh resolutions 328 and 361 um about the issues that the manager and myself shared with you about um 361 is the Office 365 contract we're going to be seeing that hopefully on January 9th there is an issue with that resolution and 328 um a corresponding issue with the ordinance L you want me to make a motion to pull those right now yeah yeah I I'll make a motion to do that sir thanks second let me call a roll on that quick Council this is just to pull the two resolutions we just spoke about uh that's councilman Schwarz oh he's not available sorry councilwoman belg yes councilman Goldberg yes Council organ yes D May Catz d g yes may Pagan yes yes by all so yes mayor we are looking at the consent agenda with h two sets of r a lot of resolutions excluding 328 and 361 which we just pulled and the bill l in the amount of 11,594 1092 and 29 cents Deputy Mayor G you had your hand up ma'am yeah I'd like to pull items 362 and 367 actually no 362 is the Holocaust Memorial and 367 the two Memorial down yeah yeah yeah is the enslaved African Memorial okay I'm pulling the two uh uh memorials the Holocaust Memorial and the enslaved African Memorial okay I make a motion to approve everything else on the consent Jenna yeah yep sorry note taken counil woman belard councilwoman Goldberg yes councilman Oregan um um yes on all except 316 and 355 I'm AO 316 and three Joshua Perez 55 new that's a no right counc woman and 365 you said 316 and 355 355 sorry was like three pages of resolution end of the year um Deputy Mayor cats um yes on all but I have a couple of extensions and just got to go through all the pages um exstension on uh 369 and uh an extension an extension on 355 um and that's it okay uh I think you said it was a yes except yes you didn't do the bill list on this one right yes we did so then an exstension on the bill this is m g sorry yes no may be gone yes to all cool all right depy mg the floor is yours ma'am um in light of um in light of all the feedback that we've received from the community on the memorials and in light of the fact that we received fresh information um from uh the township manager and the CFO I would like to suggest that we table both of these uh resolutions and and have a workshop session to really talk through what the best path forward is and engage the community as well because they had some really good ideas involving the schools thinking about curriculum and to the to the point from the speakers they said even we can get funding for um not for Brick and water but we can get funding for programming so if that's where the money is let's rethink this like is this the right path folks were saying it's noisy you won't even be to hear it's so small or is this really going to be a destination or would you rather go to where there's a high school and they have a they already have a Holocaust Memorial there or would you go to the city where there's a largest like I just want to be really smart about what we do here because it's going to be there forever so I I just think we should take the I'm not saying it's a no but let's take the time and really think it through uh Mr Mayor I would agree with that I think it's wise to to really have an opportunity to have a workshop and really talk through this uh and to engage the community the community has a lot of great ideas there are a lot of uh good Educators that are um you know that have even spoken tonight that can add a lot to um to you know making that decision I am not a no vote I'm just saying let's give it some time so that we can do it right so I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth are you making a motion to table and you're making a motion a second to table Yeah okay sorry 362 and 367 and so that's that's a first from Deputy Mayor G motion to table seconded by councilwoman beler yes councilwoman beler yes councilwoman Goldberg no councilwoman Oregon no Deputy Mayor Catz no Deputy Mayor G yes may gone NOP motion failed motion to table fa and M Mr clerk I'm back oh okay we just went down the sorry you missed that role yep yeah I heard it um so now the resolutions are hanging out there they were pulled from the consent agenda motion to table them Fair yeah was Mr Schwarz trying to say something no he was just letting us know he's back oh okay no I'm back thank you very much CH glad you're back um so we have resolution 362 and 367 there was a motion to table that motion died I believe that they're still hanging out there can I just have a question to my colleagues what is the point of good and Welfare if when everyone who spoke said I don't think this should happen or let's let's talk this through more it's been 11 years and when I'll address that let's talk about it more let me just finish my thought mark thank you when two people say let's just take some time to talk it through it's been 11 years what's the harm in taking time to Workshop it why push it through Mr schwar okay I'll address that yeah I'll address that with yes let's the the the process for talking about this has lasted double the amount of the actual Holocaust so I think the time for talking to stop these are both excellent groups that have worked together will continue working together on their separate projects secondly it's a line of use often I explained to you often um we don't count the room and count votes in the room we have 41,000 people in the room whether or not I believe the comment you said there was only one person called it in favor of it no there's 41,000 people whether or not those people called me text me pass me in the street I don't answer to the room I answer to all five square miles of the room six square miles then what's the point of good and Welfare someone want to make a motion uh no Mr Mayor uh since my colleague had to comment go ahead uh I just want to just go on record and just kind of remind everyone that this this has to go before the planning board this is uh this is a land use uh of of one of of the the green uh and so essentially uh I think we need to get it right before we we um quickly make these rash decisions simply because we have not even seen a survey with these monuments superimposed on that survey so we don't know how much land are we giving up I mean will we not be able to have patriotic observ observances because we have given up land to two monuments have we thought about that have have we thought about the implications of uh land use laws have we given any thought to that have we given any thought to the fact that we're asking taxpayers to pay for maintenance security and light lighting for forever all we're saying deputy mayor uh uh G and I are simply saying is let's just take it to a workshop let's take it to a workshop so that we can find answers to those questions we can take employ an engineer to say here here are the two monuments this is how it would look on the municipal green here's a survey of it this would mean that we would have this amount of space left for other activities on the green that's all we're asking and I don't think that's too big of an ask can can I just say something to that um we we had the planner do that many many years ago there's actually room for both memorials plus two others if there are other groups that are interested this was all thought out already please this is back and from the audience I'm sorry but um you know respectfully so um councilwoman just like we just saw an Excel spreadsheet of the numbers like five hours ago and theou like five days ago I've not seen what you're referencing so all we're saying is wouldn't it be wise us as Leaders to have a compreh R hensive review of all the things that perhaps you're privy to that I might not be right now we're we're just giving them the opportunity to move forward with a project you you just said it yourself it's got to go to the planning board I am sure that this is not the final project it's a schematic for both of them there's there's nothing Final in this they're just asking to move ahead with two worthy projects it seems to be that and I I've been biting my tongue all night not to say this but this has been going on here since January 3rd it's just the shoe is on the other foot now let's just vote on it you know I I I simply think that we owe it to our residents to not just vote on it but to get it right to do the research to do the listen to do the heavy lift Ken it's not just it's not just just let's just vote on it but the ramifications of what the vote means we have to think about this is this is our residence property this is our town that we're basically saying let's give up we're introducing an ordinance tonight on adus I asked you over and over again to let it go until the master plan came out because it is a change for our neighbors personal property in their homes I asked you this at the meeting where you brought it up before it was tabled and you said no you couldn't wait we're hearing now that the master plan will be available in March and yet it's on the agenda again reworked with more funding paid to the attorney so again that's the reason why now talking that yeah I'm gonna respond I will respond okay so just let me finish so it can't work both ways right some you win some you lose some and it seems like tonight for some reason you you cannot let this go so no not at all okay not at all it's not a win or a lose I don't see it as a win or a lose if we if we take that attitude then unfortunately our residents are in a situation where it's a win or lose that's a that's a bad uh position to take the reason why I I allowed you to speak let me allow me to speak the reason why the Adu makes this different is that that's private property rights people that own property have a right to do what what they desire to do this is Township property wait a minute that we're asking people to pay for sec security lighting and maintenance forever so that is the that's a big difference there's a big difference between the Adu um uh uh um ordinance and and what we're dealing with here this is PRI this is a a Township property that we're giving up for Generations so this is actually an even bigger deal than that because you're dealing with people's homes that border homes that will be allowed to build an Adu now and so while I agree agree that this is important that was something that you couldn't wait three months on and to me that's really important I voted no on introduction the first time I'm voting no on introduction tonight and if by doing that and including it in the master plan it would have brought it to the planning board to decide instead of us so I I know it has to go back to the planning board but I would I would see it in the master plan before I would have us vote on it tonight especially when we're hearing from our planner that it's three months off okay so to that point I would I would uh say this that in the uhou for uh these monuments the master plan is is uh reference the the master plan is reference in in the mou so why don't we wait for the master plan for this will you wait for the master plan for the adus oh that's a great great question here again I don't infringe upon private property rights that's the that's please answer the question s right are you guys going to keep going at it or is someone going to make a motion because you did okay can I move both resolutions Doug please second these are 362 367 motion to adopt I assume correct councilwoman please Council and that was seconded by councilman Goldberg Council right councilwoman Bel councilman Schwarz yes oh councilman Schwarz thank you sir yes councilman beler yes councilwoman Goldberg yes Council Oregon yes deie Mar cats yes de G I'm St May gone yes that's 362 367 d223 resolutions adopted thank you Mr clerk our next order businesses our introduction of ordinances Mr C can you please read the title of ordinances into the record Council we are introducing the last ordinance pie es of legislative year 2023 we have ordinance number 43- 2023 amending the township code for the township of Tek to increase membership on the senior citizens Advisory board he was just passing something ordinance number 44223 amending the township code for the township act to modernize and clarify the township Charter Administrative Code ordinance number 45-22 3 amending the township code for Township T to enact a new section establishing and regulating accessory dwelling units adus ordinance number 46223 amending the township code to the township at act to remove time limitations on pouring concrete last but not least Council ordinance number 47223 amending section 36- 111.2 of chapter 36 in Township Cod Township T adding restricted on street parking space for handicap at 999 Bell that's question for the ordinance 47 2023 does that have a sun Sunshine sunsh sun called Sunset CL I I will need to clarify the language um I don't know off the top my head that's partly just because I'm a little fried but um I will double check and assure that the sunset Clause is in there I know that's something that council's been trying to stay on top of the handicap ordinances I make a motion to approve Mr Clerk yes can we do them individually because I wanted to amend one sure so mayor could you move yeah I move to approve 40-h sorry 43- 2023 second that was councilwoman Goldberg councilman Schwarz work is needed but yes to introduce on all this is just for yes I understand I understand Council beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon no that M Catz yes that m g yes may Pagan yes all right that was ordinance 43 introduced we'll see it on the 9th next up is 44- 2023 can I amend sorry can I make a motion to amend 44 Scott can you help me on 44 so 2-23 A3 okay 2-21 A3 A3 at least four weeks prior to filling any of the vacancies on the boards can we make the three months prior we start to advertise because we keep getting in a rush close to the meetings I I also like to make some amendments okay can I just make one more and then okay and then there's there's something on there about having open uh interviews for um statutory boards I don't think any interviews should be open I don't think we should put people through that so I just I can't find it right now I agree with that okay so I just want to say I think that especially for our statutory boards oh sorry especially on our statutory boards I think that the public has a a right to know who's being appointed whether what what the questions that are being asked and and who's being appointed specific specifically to the statut um that is transparency and there has been asked ask by our residents here about opening up subcommittees and and this is opening up part of the subcommittee um so I I understand the concern I I do think that they should be open yes um so I want to Second um for a three for changing four weeks to three months that was for all boards yeah just so we're not rushed we're doing the the rolling interviews are in there right that's correct okay yeah yeah um so it's curious to me that the folks who are recommending the rolling interviews and that everyone be interviewed are not on Personnel so they don't have to do them um so I actually would recommend that we include language that acknowledges if a thousand people request interviews it does not make sense to interview a thousand people in the real world people submit resumés you use the RS to narrow the list I would be opening to having um each council member Reserve five spots for their preferred candidates if we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to choose you know recommend folks to be interviewed but I think we have to be realistic with our time we all have full-time jobs it does not make sense to interview hundreds and hundreds of people if we don't have the capacity to do so so I that's I'm I'm going think that if we have hundreds and hundreds of our residents that want to join a board that is excellent we should meet them face to face and as I did last time I'll gladly fill in keep in mind we do want to hear from all our residents one of our great Deputy Mayors once said yeah and I I agree we this last round and I am the alternate on Personnel um so we interviewed 62 residents I think it was um and there were interviews of people that I've never heard of before they they they they're not involved in any groups they're not on Facebook they and they there were pointed tonight they sorry you I don't understand why people can interrupt me they were they they were interviewed because everyone got an interview who responded to the call from the clerk um and this was an amazing process that we found residents that wanted to participate that we would never have found any other way and I I strongly strongly ask for everyone if it's a thousand people amazing that means people are engaged and people want to be involved in their in this town and and they should have a right to have an interview I would just ask that when I'm speaking I not be interrupted I didn't do that when anyone else was speaking I let them go through their entire list so can I please have that same courtesy I don't understand why this keeps happening to us um but what I okay back but I'll respond since folks were allowed to interrupt me I'm not saying to to not interview people who are talented if there are talented people out there have them submit their resumés and I'm saying if we have under I don't know what the number is if we have under 200 sure let's interview all 200 but if it gets to be a number that's impossible I'm saying an impossible number we all have full-time jobs this we cannot interview thousands of people so if you want to make the number absurdly High fine but I'm just saying let's we are committing future councils to this by putting it in an ordinance let's be smart and not force things into an ordinance that don't need to be in other townships they don't even put this in an ordinance they give their personnel committee or whatever the council's flexibility to decide how they want to manage their process and I just think we should not be overly pres prescriptive I want to get through the rest of my list but did you want to speak to that no I just say I would agree with that I think that we should um give our colleagues the latitude to make the decision uh in terms of the number of people I'm sorry to interrup can I make a motion to extend the meeting till 1:15 motion all those in favor please say I I I okay can I maketing so the language the language that I'd like to see in in this ordinance is I'd like to uh see that and we spoke about this in closed session and that is I believe that these individuals and I don't sit on the Personnel committee should be tck residents I think that's very important that they be tneck residents uh because we've had some questions about about that so I think you know I don't know if it's it's in there Scott but I think it should be uh in there if you would u i did yeah um the other weird thing in this resolution is that we require interviews for statutory boards but not advisory boards so that's a very strange double standard um it's strange double standard that we required everyone has the right to be interviewed for statutory but no one has the right to be interviewed for advisory boards it doesn't make sense if you're going to be it's just inconsistent and if we're talking about process and we're saying everyone has a right then why is it inconsistent St and advis I thought both were going to be in there nope see when one person does all of the editing it's confusing and there's no discussion one person didn't do all of the edit there was a suggestion from one person also um I and I saw this in there the 2020 Advisory Board ordinance already has that language in there and it hasn't been changed for the advisory boards about about the interviews um I have a question regarding the what would the qualifications be I think I think Danielle had some more yes there's more um oh the other thing is that we made the edits that we the Ordinance one has an edit will you edit the ordinance to incorp the the New Order the scab um okay and then I didn't see any mention of the social services coordinator in the in the ordinance just like when they listed all the different roles in the township employees I didn't see him in there or that role in there the social services coordinator there was a list where it talks about I can't remember what page it is I can send it to you after but there's a page that lists all the different um roles the township employees do you know what I'm talking about so at one o' morning give everyone opportunity i' second that table it for January 9th everybody okay with tabling it for January 9 we have to make a motion for that right in a second for January 9th yeah I I just want everyone clear on what it is we're tabling the introduction of ordinance number 44223 to January 9th I guess Mr salmon will be the one to let us know if the number the ordinance number will change or not I guess depends on what yeah probably change will connect I'm looking forward to Doug's breakfast that he order someone else I make a motion to approve ordinance 45223 wait wait wait wait wait we did 44 I need a first to table that int the first and the second who was the second I second it who was first I made the first cool and everyone was in favor yes love it 45 I made the motion to approve 45- 2023 there second second cats councilman Schwarz yes in is councilwoman vure yes Council Goldberg yes counil woman Oregan no Deputy Mayor Catz yes Deputy Mayor G yes and mayor Pagan yes sir make this one we see on January 23rd yes correct not January 9th thank you sir I make a motion to approve ordinance number 46223 second councilman Schwarz yes to introduce councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes Debbie May Catz yes Debbie mayor G yes Mayan yes all right introduce and I make a motion to approve approve ordinance number 47223 and I'm going to make sure the sunset Clause is in there was there a second second sorry Deputy Mayor cats councilman Schwarz yes to introduce councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes yes Deputy Mayor Catz yes deput mayor G yes mayor pan yes introduced thank you Mr clerk do we have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn have a good night I'll second that all those in favor please say I all right thank you everyone for coming out tonight have a happy holiday and a happy New Year good night Township at Teck it's been a real 2023 with all the you we will see you