[Music] [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Music] thank you Mr Fagan good evening everyone both joining us in person and those of you that are joining us virtually uh to our what is today the 23rd Tuesday July 23rd town council meeting um we do not have a robust conference agenda tonight uh so uh with my colleagues uh support going to um once we get started we're going to make some changes to the agenda uh so that we can take care of some things a little earlier in the evening uh rather than later uh so having said that uh let us get started Madame clerk this is to inform the general public that this meeting is being held in compliance with Section 5 of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to The Star Ledger and filed in the township clerk's office on November 21st 2023 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on November 30th 2023 councilwoman celino present councilwoman gber Michael councilwoman Scarpa pres councilwoman Williams pres council president Rutherford here thank you uh Madame clerk um before we go into our um as you can see we don't have a conference agenda uh tonight what I'd like to do uh discussed it with uh Madam Clerk and with uh the our license holders I'd like to move our ABC hearing up so we can handle the two items 74924 and 75024 now get that out of the way um and release these gentlemen back to their evening um can I have a motion to do so that is the motion is there a second second okay okay councilwoman Celina yes councilwoman gber Michel yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president R yes okay perfect thank you uh so we are going to start with uh 749 okay Mr Williams That's you this is a resolution authorizing a person-to-person transfer of ABC license 0722 33004 d002 from bow and arrow Manor Inc to Legacy Manor LLC 109-111 Prospect Avenue West Orange New Jersey uh good evening everyone Robert C Williams appearing on behalf of the uh applicant the Legacy Manor LLC hopefully to be trading very shortly as a Grand Chateau I have with me the two principal members of the LLC like them to step forward we have um varius kadida and Eric binsky uh they will be running the former premises of the manor um both of my clients have extensive experience in catering they currently operate the Royal Manor in Barfield and the bethwood in Toto so we're looking forward to uh restructuring the one of the finest uh facilities in the state of New Jersey the matter into the Grand Chateau tonight we're asking you to approve the transfer of the license so that we can move forward and hopefully in a few short months invite you up for a grand open beautiful and we here if you have any questions other than that ask your approval yeah thank you this is really exciting news and um you know just sort of a long ter time the Manor has has been there and now going to stay at banquet facility you know we were once known as The Wedding capital of uh of the state and hopefully we could get back to that status especially as we move forward to our our uh New Jersey tourism and destination uh status um so just a few questions on what you're looking to do to the complex is it are you renovating or you yes excuse me I don't know this works works yeah so our goal is to uh clean up beautify and renovate repair the rooms and then kind of keep it within we're not thinking about extending it right now we keeping to stay within uh footprint of the building renovate the building and and uh revive it and what about the Dome room I know that that was always used as a separate uh bar restaurant would that be open to the public or you're still just it's all don't know yet obviously we have to do extensive repairs to the Dome because that the whole area hasn't been renovated by N's family so we gota so we kind of don't have plans to open up to the public as Z card at this point so right now your your plans moving forward are as a a banet fac focusing mainly on weddings and special occasions celebrations celebrations celebrations okay beautiful thank you and thank you for investing in our Township look forward to working with you colleagues any questions yes good luck yeah uh thank you gentlemen um all of you for coming so uh there's a motion to entertain I move for the acceptance of the resolution U hold on a second I'm sorry I lost my it's okay 7:49 okay so who offered the first Sor I I did okay okay thank you councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president rther bir yes once again thank you for accommodating us we look forward to seeing you again thank you thank you gentlemen wish you the best welcome to the neighborhood absolutely thank you if it's [Music] easy uh 750 yes 750 is for one license I provided the resolution to you this evening um it is for uh the restaurant on Main Street uh Jenny's LLC trading as chimpum Cleo Restaurant and Lounge um she received her tax clearance certificate today has paid all fees she's ready to renew um and then that's it she's ready to go so is there a motion to approve 750 uh it is I believe it's 274 mean I'm move for the acceptance of this resolution okay councilwoman Celina uh yes councilwoman g i yes councilwoman yes councilwoman Williams yes council president rord yes the motion is carried thank you madam clerk now I need a motion to uh adjourn ABC and enter into the uh yeah to well to get back to the conference agenda like to give uh my colleagues a chance to do their announcements okay perfect so all in favor I any opposed all right the motion carries excellent so um we're going to begin going in alphabetical order um with any liaison announcements um that you would like to offer or any other updates um we are 12 minutes before 7 so if you can please um be mindful of time sure uh so councilman you want to do your announcement I have no announcements okay um I'm sorry I'm sorry I skipped you councilman that that that's okay councilman C yes so um you know we're in the midst of the summer but uh no shortage of summer activities and great events going on throughout the community want to thank our deputy mayor uh maafa Rodriguez um uh our uh world's uh language supervisor of the high school of philx I apologize his his last name uh Escapes Me Right Now Santas and the whole um whole team of the Hispanic Foundation organization they did an awesome job on Saturday night July 13th with Hispanic latinite and uh it was a great time for all it was hot but uh it was uh very cool and many ways so we want to thank them for all their efforts and giving the community great event our downtown Thursdays continue since we last met we had a a really great turnout for again Latin night so it must be that aesome music that's bringing everybody out and uh we were down in Tory Corner uh shut down the street in front of Washington School on Franklin Avenue had about a 100 folks out there they had a great time uh last uh this past Thursday we were in quickley parking lot for a family pajama party we had some folks from the neighborhood come out for that which was a really hot night but the kids had fun playing games and the parents as well and uh this Thursday if it doesn't rain we've been lucky with the rain so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed we'll be at Supreme Bakery in fromont of the PNC Bank in that courtyard there with live music and um and games for the kids again uh we have some volunteers that will run and get your food and we have tables out so you know we encourage and people have been um uh buying their uh purchasing dinners at the local restaurants and bringing food back to eat at the festivities so it's just a chill relaxing night as we move forward you could uh come down to West Orange uh downtown and catch your energy and uh continue to enjoy the summer nights with us uh also I went to the Friends of the board Trustees for the friends of the library uh last Monday night and we're planning a very big book sale we have uh a lot of books that been stored up for quite some time uh hopefully we look forward to moving uh them at the uh beginning of September and um the friends are still looking for active members we're uh saving to buy a activity uh board uh for the children section in the uh new building it's a lot of great and exciting activities there um we look forward to opening back up in the spring and let's see what other event oh and I got to visit OAC I won't steal the Thunder from my colleague but I did get to see Sister Act uh Friday night and it was just so awesome just the the talent we had many uh many Town residents in the play in this play and they were just truly just awesome so it was great night and it beautiful cooled off Thursday it was extremely hot it beautiful and Friday night it cooled off and I just want to thank all the volunteers that come out all summer to to entertain Our Town residents so look on the website a lot of activity still left in the in the summertime and um that's it I just want to I would be remiss I know I'm going to ask council president on the agenda this evening we're uh you know in the midst of hiring and new CFO our current CFO uh John gross is retiring um at the end of this month and I know um he is unable to make it with us this evening um I hope we could invite him in uh to be recognized um for his retirement um he's given us many years of service and there was the staff had given him a a a party last night that was very touching and um you know our longtime employees uh deserve recognition when recognition is due uh when Mr gross started with the township I was not here I did not hire him but when I first came on we did not have an IT department and he had uh actually formulated that uh for the township amongst many other procedures uh as we've been Antiquated in years past so I just wanted to give recognition where recognition is deserved and uh thank him for all his years of service and hopefully we could do that properly uh in a meeting to come so council president if you can mark that on your calendar I'd appreciate it thank you here thank you councilwoman uh councilwoman Scarpa great um as H councilwoman celino mentioned Latin night was more fun than I ever dreamed I picked up rosary melli and thought I would have a dance partner for my salsa lessons but unfortunately she refused to dance so I want to thank superintendent Hayden Moore for accompanying me as my dance partner on Sal lessons he was fabulous the kids would be very proud of him and we had a wonderful time Camille Veo from Pleasant D Valley Productions and ozac I want to thank her for her generous support of our seniors in bringing them to Sister Act um I know that she um has a lot of Productions where she just about breaks even finances are always tough we were able to give her a grant a block grant and she is very grateful to all of the council members for that and ask me to thank you um we had a fabulous time at Sister Act the Laura and Noelia from Senior Services did an incredible job and Mike fonzo too spent a lot of time trying to help us get transportation for that evening I know it was not easy it was a real uh feat and thank you for all of your efforts and Noelia for actually joining us uh if you saw the look on the face of the seniors as they got off that bus there were canes there were walkers on a Saturday night these seniors would never be able to get out by themselves and it was only because of our generous efforts that they were able to join us for the play in fact there was a little couple there um and they told me they were on a date they were from the senior housing and I asked them where they typically go on their dates and they said to me that they don't drive so I said well we have to get the bus again for another concert so you can have another date so I want you to know that all of your generous gifts and all of the work that we do for our seniors is not only so appreciated but they really wouldn't be able to get out and socialize the way they do if we didn't support them so thank you to all who helped me with that um and let's see I think that's that's about it on the on the coun the council thank you councilwoman councilwoman Williams thank you council president I would like to share that the municipal Alliance commission will be hel holding their U meeting for the last part of the quarter um that's going to be via zoom on June July 30th at 3M that is an open public meeting and the link is on the Township municipal website at West orange.org um the Arts Council ended their uh June season um with their juneth exhibition but they are seeking artists for their Latin uh exhibition that's going to be coming up in September and October so if there are any artists aspiring artists local artists professional artists that would like to submit their work um please do so and contact the West Orange Arts Council I'd like to also just salute um the Sheila Oliver civic association uh for hosting their first uh event honoring the legacy of Sheila Oliver our lieutenant governor late lieutenant governor it was an absolutely fabulous event um very very uh well put together to honor her Legacy um and it was just well attended with um over a thousand uh friends and family and loved ones um to salute uh our late lieutenant governor um we don't have a uh historic preservation meeting coming up um so that will complete my remark oh for Latin night for those I just also want to join my colleagues and just um letting the Hispanic foundation and all those involved um and how superb Latin night was it was um quite a privilege and honor uh to be a supporter of Latin night um and um it was a marvelous time and we know that that event will just continue to grow so thank you to all those involved thank you council president thank you councilwoman um the only update I have is uh regarding the joint meeting which met last week Thursday uh um and also last week um we received our Surplus payment uh back or at least we received notification of it um for those that don't know um every year each municipality pays into the joint meeting it's how we perform our sewer uh services in town and at the end of the uh budget cycle uh once all the items have been reconciled any overpayments are returned back to the member municipalities um so our that was uh calculated and sent out to the member municipalities last week our um our Surplus uh return payment was a little less this year than it might otherwise be uh but the fact that we got one back at all I think is a win um and that's really the only update I have on that I do want to Echo um the sentiments of my colleagues uh and congratulate both the Hispanic heritage Foundation uh West Orange Hispanic Heritage Foundation um and our downtown Alliance on a successful Latin night um and a successful uh what was it called soda Luna does what was Saturday night called um the Saturday well we have family pajama party no not that Thursday night oh sister oh the at atot at the high school ohac oack latinite yeah night okay well well Thursday night was downtown Thursdays and then and then we followed up with Saturday night at high school um I was on vacation last week so forgive me I'm I'm forgetting these dates both nights were outstanding I'm very pleased to see uh the Hispanic community in West Orange finally get some recognition um they are vibrant uh and significant portion of the community so I'm very happy to see these types of events they were so well received uh many people uh uh commented to me that they wanted them to be annual events particularly this the one Saturday night at the school uh at the high school I do Echo that as well uh since that was my first and only salsa lesson but I do feel like I am ready uh because the instructor was fantastic um so yeah do congratulate them and I'm certainly glad to see uh that part of our community uh receive some recognition outside of the normal uh days that are allocated on the calendar uh with regard to your uh request uh councilwoman castelino for an acknowledgement of Mr gross at his retirement I'm happy to do that and I think we should do that but I think we should do it for everybody that's retiring like when folks finally decide to make that life change and they're they've given certainly you know in this case it's not an entire life but 12 years is not insignificant uh but we've had others that have retired after 20 or 30 or more years I think they deserve some acknowledgement too so let's figure out how we can do that um and and um you know celebrate some more of the folks that have made this town um just so you know it's Count Council president um just been a tradition on the council uh he had s sat up on this day for many years now that's why made the request like we did when Mr s had retired as well so and other former Council people I get it and I would love to do a a monthly or whatever we need to do recogniz annual we can figure it out even in a resolution we could even uh yeah yeah you know twice a year uh you know acknowledge those folks that have called it a career yeah absolutely um all right um no other comments on liaison announcements it's 7:02 that's perfect timing um we're going to uh move move into our public meeting okay okay yeah mam this is to inform the general public excuse me that this meeting is being held in compliance with Section Five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to The Star Ledger and filed in the township clerk's office on November 21st 2023 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on November 30th 2023 councilwoman castelino present councilwoman gber Michael present councilwoman Scarpa present councilwoman Williams present council president Rutherford here will everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance IED aliance to the of the United States of America the stands Nation indivisible withy andice for the council is now in their public meeting you madam Clerk um all right so it's in your hands right uh well no public comment sorry um so before we get into public comment I do want to make a statement about uh the Quorum uh and also about the agenda tonight Mr and I am certainly going to start with with you uh followed by Mr pesi but before we do I I just wanted to remind everyone including my Coles uh those representatives of the administration of um what we've been able to do this year with regard to uh the tone and tenor of our meetings I think and I think you'll agree that they are they have substantially improved um and I think it's important that we um lean into that and do the the work required to continue that progress uh so to that end um we know that there are certainly uh significant political dynamics that are being navigated um and then there are some legal ones we are not going to resolve those um in the meantime we still have to find a way to work together so um I'm going to have a little more to say about this in a non-public setting uh but for the purposes right now while we are in here um let's just be reminded of a couple things number one this is now a permanent record and people will be able to watch this going permanently into the future so what we say tonight may not actually end up being accurate down the road if we don't have substantial basis to say something especially if it is accusatory uh or defamatory um even though we may be right in saying it let's figure out a way to say it without um without uh the vitriol without the intensity of the emotion of the moment um and I will use myself as the example um and I've had this conversation with multiple people that are in the room now and some that aren't in the room um there are some times where I feel like folks have gone too far and have said and done some things they shouldn't and in some moments I feel like they should be called out right then and there uh and I'm right because they're wrong um and in spite of that though sometimes it is more destructive to to go down that road so um in every moment that we can if we have two ways to say it choose the Kinder way if there is an accusation um if there is an intense back and forth um I want each of us as leaders in this community to do what we can to step back take a breath and model a better way of conflict resolution to the best best of our ability now obviously I'm saying this for a reason and many of you know maybe not all of you know um but I do think it's important that we not undo some of the work that's already been done and further deteriorate these relationships even in the midst of difficulty so um the stuff that we don't agree on we don't agree if if it's the five of us let's just take the vote uh if it's between the administration and the council we agree to disagree um without the follow on additional stuff that we've seen um almost everywhere in politics so it's not like this is just a new thing in West Orange and this isn't to accuse anyone or to defend anyone and which is why I'm not using any names other than my own um but we do see where politics are period And before we get back to that really toxic Place let's take a breath and avoid it if at all possible we have no idea how what we do here will affect or Inspire someone outside of here and we certainly don't want that on our conscience either so um just wanted to remind us about the Quorum amongst ourselves between the administration and ourselves as well as with the public um and we'll have a little further conversation on that later on tonight uh so now Mr Fagan you think you can keep from cursing uh thank you council president president and I just would like to add that having had the opportunity of living in a Spanish speaking country one salsa lesson is all you need so I think you're well suited for the future thank you sir um tonight I'd like to start uh with um OAC coming up at OAC on July 25th is The Adams Family uh once again it's a $10 Omission uh please bring your own uh chair and blanket um if you haven't been there this might be a good a good weekend to to start uh as councilwoman celino had mentioned uh this Thursday July 25th downtown Thursdays continue at St Mark square and it looks like there's going to be more music more dancing uh there's always a lot of fun and game activities for uh kids and the most important thing is it's all free it starts at five o'clock um some good news for West Orange uh West Orange has received the largest Grant in County in the New Jersey safe routes to school so what is that amount uh so West Orange has received uh almost a million $966,000 and that represents uh that was announced on July 10th by the uh Murphy Administration over $21 million was awarded for 23 grants and in West Orange this will mean that sidewalks high visibility crosswalks Ada curb ramps LED stop signs and flashing be beacons will be installed along Gregory Avenue and Lowel Avenue right here in West Orange the good news thank you I wish I could take credit for that and I can't the uh good news continues West St will also receive almost another million doll allotment from a local Transportation projects fund and this will improve uh improvements along South Valley Road Union Street Nassau Street Wheatland Avenue I'd like to mention that my father was born on Nassau Street in 1921 and speaking of Wheatland Avenue this is probably the first Improvement on Wheatland Avenue in fact this is the creation of Wheatland Avenue in uh 1888 with the construction of the cable Railroad in West Orange uh an update on a police uh police department um last we spoke we uh had the figures through May we now have them here for June they don't change all that much uh they're pretty consistent um and uh I'd also like to point out that uh a a Police Executive resar Research Forum uh reports that uh in a recent survey that 51% of people say they have either a great deal or quite a lot lot of confidence in the police and this is basically uh due to retraining of police departments across the country since the uh George Floyd a homicide um not to lead out the fire department here's official record fire incident log from 1904 1906 okay why do I have that here across the top there's date location owner building in damage and I understand that this is quite blurry and you can't see it but here from June July August 1905 which really was a period from May 27th to September 13th 1905 there were no fires or alarms in West orange which I think is a feat yet to be matched uh but to bring that more up to date for June the West Orange fire department now uses the uh nfirs code and uh these are 187 codes or categories that are standard through our fire departments in the United States and uh here I have the some random categories and you can see that uh in the month of June there was 657 calls across all 187 C categories and EMS calls which topped out at 409 is probably the um the most call uh and that's a code of 321 and just to give you a quick random sampling of some codes uh if there was an ice rescue it would be a 362 if it was a surf rescue would be a 364 now I don't anticipate that being a case in West Orange here however if the Chicago Bears team bus broke down and needed uh assistance from the West Orange fire department that would be a 5531 and that's an assist the NFL that's an actual category in this coding system um mayor McCartney's open Office hours coming up August 1st uh right here uh in mayor's office 66 Main Street no appointment is every ever necessary um we have this listed on the website there's Paving notification uh that for gas system upgrade project this list here uh is on the website and you can check this is ongoing work and it's going on through the beginning of August so this is available West orange.org you can check your stre your street and see what the tenative date is we also have ongoing work with PSG uh doing trim tree trimming uh there's ongoing operations in West Orange I get daily reports um sometimes there a side street and it's impractical to really list it this morning I posted that Northfield Avenue Prospect Avenue and Main Street was being done so I I try to keep up with the updates in the morning when they come through um I'd like to talk talk briefly about Brandon burn our 47th Governor he was born in 1924 so this is the 100th anniversary of his uh of his birth uh he grew up on Prospect Place he went to Washington Street school he went to St John's school he also went to the Gaston Street School in a 20 uh in a 2013 interview he explained to me how dangerous trolley traffic was on Main Street and as a a youngster he almost uh was hit by a trolley he graduated West Orange High School in 1942 and certainly following high school he joined the army and he served aboard of b77 flying fortress and flew 32 missions over Germany from bases in Italy and uh he was a navigator and on the left as a navigator seat and he also doubled as a waste Gunner 50 caliber machine gun that you see there on the right the B17 flying fortresses were equipped with at least seven guns and they had four engines and Brendan burn uh told me the story one time he had to find a way back uh over the Adrien sea back to Bas in Italy now he he was part of the 414 bomb Squadron of the 15th Air Force and he achieved the rank of uh second lieutenant and uh also received the distinguished flying cross and part of World War II our 17s flew missions into Germany but in starting in 1944 they're able to fly deeper into the heart of Germany because of air fighter escort now the 332nd Air Group fighter escort might not uh seem familiar to you but they were part of uh they were 51 Mustangs and they were known as the red tail Devils we know them as the Tuskegee Airmen so they flew um a fighter escort for Missions that uh our governor burn was on now um I bring this up uh because we have a celebration coming up this is a picture of Brendan burn uh when he was about 10 years old and in that 2013 interview he told me that in this room in 1940 May 1940 he met um Spencer Tracy and uh Governor uh Charles Edison uh no one of course would know at that time that burn would come on to be a governor it's probably the only time in history that the two Governors met and uh he also told me that the proudest moment of his life was when he elected governor and uh his father Francis jurn now you might recognize that name that's the name sake of the Francis J burn Golf Course uh seen him become elected governor but did not live to see him be reelected and um in that uh when we concluded that uh 2013 interview Brendan burn uh invited me out to lunch at Jimmy Johnson Steakhouse and I said Governor what's your in a recorded interview I asked him what's your fondest memory of West Orange and he said he just kind of lean back and smiled and laughed and said I want to be remembered as a HomeTown boy and you will have that opportunity to remember our governor burn uh on August 15th there will be a marker d uh dedication part of downtown Thursdays it's August 15th at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park 211 Main Street West Orange of course you know where that is and you can rsvt the mayor's office uh and and and to reserve your spot unfortunately I will not be able to be there only because there's a zoning board meeting that night um we have uh West Orange planning board coming up we have two meetings uh next week the July 30th and July 31st here in uh council chambers the zoom links are posted at West orange.org please note that the zoom links for both meetings are different uh and they are posted on our website uh maybe Mr P would talk a little bit more about this but uh Rucker Center for Health identity behavior and prevention studies in Partnership with Essex County is seeking lgbtq plus adults in Essex County to participate in a survey this information is on our website uh we also have a family fund day coming up on August 30th sponsored by zuel Health they're right here on Mount Pleasant Avenue across from town hall and uh finally I'd like to conclude my report I probably already went overtime but we have two new display cases in uh Town Hall here you may have noticed and as part of revolutionary New Jersey I have the Williams family clock which is um 260 years old old in dates back to the Revolutionary War the Williams family is the family that Tory corner is named for it's on display right across the hall I invite the public to uh come on down to town hall and see these artifacts on display and certainly if you have any questions I'd be glad to answer uh once again you can contact the council at weststar.org in a single email uh thank you council president pres I successfully was able to get through the uh presentation without even thinking about using an ill- faded word look at you thank you sir Mr pesi uh hi Anthony py representing County Executive Joe de venzo uh Joe pretty much covered the lgbtq health assessment that we're asking people to participate in uh basically what that is helping us do is um helping that Community overcome any obstacles or deficiencies in health care that they have access to it would help our health department create programs to um help that Community um so the participation from the public is very important because we want to learn from everyone else's experiences and if they have any ideas that that's their opportunity to share them as well uh that uh survey is open until the end of this year so they have until December but we don't want people to wait until then they earlier they can participate the better um just a couple of upcoming events uh of course our summer concert series is ongoing we do come to West Orange on H Friday August 16th in Eagle Rock reservation and the uh band that's going to be playing that night is Memories music so that's more of an old oldies older music crowd uh and then the next day on August 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m at our um One-Stop Center in East Orange is our back to school event each year that event gets bigger and bigger we have free backpacks for children uh there's some refreshments and then there's also um displays from not only County agencies but also agencies that we work that we partner with uh that would help um uh students and families uh overcome obstacles in their lives so we do invite everyone out to that event once again that's August 17th uh both of these are on the Essex County website which is Essex County nj.org thank you very much thank you sir we will now we will now have a comment from those that are uh in the gallery only uh as you know we no longer accept uh public comment from Zoom participants uh if you are present here tonight you're welcome to join us at the microphone you'll have five minutes to address the council you do not have to wait for for any particular order but you do need to give us your name and uh street address for the record uh public comment is now open we invite you to the microphone council president council members I'm Paul tractenberg I live at 96 Sullivan Drive in West Orange my comments relate to agenda item 22624 which is is a resolution prescribing fees relating to the tree ordinance that you adopted unanimously last month on June 10 I specifically want to address the fee schedule before you this evening and its relationship to the development application at the planning board uh which is the subject of the July 30 and 31 hearings um if that application is a approved the developer plans to remove many thousands of mature trees and to replace virtually none of them uh in fact pursuant to the ordinance you adopted in October 2020 regarding that site the developer would get a credit for 6,360 trees by virtue of erecting some deer fencing on the property based on the schedule before you that credit could be worth as much as 6,966 th000 uh otherwise payable to the township but in fact in this case retained by the developer because of the ordinance provision but I'm here to provide you with some good news um Weare the organization I represent which is the main objector to that application does not believe that that October 2020 ordinance ever went into effect because the township failed to file it with the Essex County planning board as is legally required um we've taken the position and that resulted in the cancellation by the board of two meetings scheduled for July 16 and 17 we pursued the cancellation of the July 30 and 31 meetings but apparently the planning for is persisting in uh holding them uh I just want to say a word because I know the planning board is a legally separate entity and we're making our arguments there and not here but it does intersect with something that might happen in connection with the council uh the township uh finally filed this October 2020 ordinance with the planning board on July 3rd of this year couple of weeks ago uh that was the day after we sent them a letter to planning board attorney suggesting the defect the failure to to file the consequence we believe under state law is that the prior ordinance relating to that site the West Essex Islands Inc site uh the ordinance is 19344 04 stand in for 2004 when it was adopted uh is still in effect we think and it explicitly bars multi family housing from that site which of course is precisely what the developer is proposing to erect there so I think there's going to be a a significant legal and policy confrontation at the planning board uh there many other problems with the 2020 ordinance and with the development application uh we have and will raise the planning board I'm not intending to raise them here uh uh we're determined to prevent the hearings from happening to the extent we can and from having the application approved uh we did that previously in 2006 contrary to what most predi predictions were uh was defeated by the planning board 5-2 in my view this is a far worse application than the one that was defeated then that was for 136 single family homes this is for 496 rental apartments uh I want to raise that issue with you now however because if we are successful with the planning board uh it's likely that this matter may be back before you and we hope that this time around you will act in a way which serves the interests of your constituents rather than those of a Short Hills developer so that's my say right now on this subject we have more to say at the planning board thank thank you yes sir my name is Joseph pulo I live on hton L domestic spells in the 200 foot notice area of the proposed development that Professor tractenberg just referred to he and I are working together with a number of others in Weare to oppose not just the project but the reasoning behind the project and the consequence of the project we spoke before this Council I'm sorry Mr President council members been even I'm sorry sorry spoke before you a month ago when the amendment to the tree ordinance was adopted on June 10th was proposed and I think rightfully didn't get a second reading and we go to effect um Paul discussed a few things about procedurally what has just gone on and I don't want to get too far ahead of anybody here but I would like the council to anticipate the possibility that it is going to need to be in position to review for consistency an ordinance which was not effective on the date the site plan review advisory board approved an application of ordinance under which it couldn't be opposed couldn't be done so we presented that to the planning board we got a response today we'll probably respond before the first planning board hearing the bottom line is whether we Prevail to interrupt or we end up on appeal we're all going to spend a lot of money discussing something which procedurally is out of order as a matter of Law and as a matter of fact and the facts are in the record and they're not our facts they're facts that actually come from gasic County planning board and the town of West Orange so the rest is law I'm not sure why there should be a debate I'm not sure why it should be a prolonged let's all go through the provisions of the rules of the planting board to do something that the planing board shouldn't be considered in the first place that said at this time there are a number of documents that have been loaded presented we're scrambling to keep up one of the things that's very clear is there are a lot of things that are not known and will not be known should the planning board get to proceed and then have to go through the so on a among them traffic report traffic impact study was just dropped it describes opening up over Road widening it making it a Boulevard cutting a big hole across it directly to put a fourway traffic signal and left turn rain right turn Lanes an evil rock where there's no public transit today and the signal will end up coming before the as6 County planning board if and when the planning board here in West Orange approves be permits have been applied for recently notice letters came out to people within the 200 foot notice area week ago new app new permit things have been filed we're going to isolate the deficiencies and bring them up to both the planning board and the D but I can assure you that before the preliminary site plan is approved if it were to at the planning board the settlement agreement provides for both preliminary and final approval at the planning board and what that means is preliminary can be granted final subject two and that subject two are other agencies which will include the D and in the recent drawings that were submitted buildings have been adjusted where things are going to have to be moved where the roads are actually going to be allowed to go due to repairing zones freshw Wetlands other crossings that won't be known until if you approv preliminarily final final is going to be up to not going to be an objective we'll be objecting to it but there won't be a formal process here sanitary stores storm water public water interconnection where you blast the holes in the mountain after you take down the trees to bring those interconnections Mr President you mentioned the joint meeting Union essics to carry s down W nor got a credit back I don't know where the interconnection goes Nobody Does and I'll add one more point because there are way too many but the notion of widening over Road which is going to bring a internal traffic problem within the Condominium Association the Pleasantdale Chateau the grand to Transit almost 1100 cars through them to get to the top of the mountain and then bring them back down through roads that can't be widen the circulation plan is the rest of any reasoning or logic I see a sidewalk resolution there I don't know where else it applies I can't see good enough to read it but there's not going to be sidewalks inside the condos there's no place to put them there retaining walls there are street parking there's garbage trucks there's heavy traffic goes through it now and it circles back as it go to the bottom of the hill where all that's going to go I don't know the wetlands on the Pleasantdale Chateau side of road are not delineated the notion that you could just widen a road and submit D permits without knowing where is the water on the other side of that road you have to find your time is up thank you I'll end it there I'm sure I'll be back thank you much appreciate it thank you sir anyone else good evening Michaela Bennett Old Indian Road um last time I was here before you I raised concerns about the request for bids for solid waste and recycling collection so I'm speaking to you right now about item number 228 229 230 231 and 232 I think that's all of them and what I raised then um was the notion that um when you put out a bid or request for proposals on a bid and you tailor the bid so specifically it's called um rigged specifications when you tailor a bid so so tightly so that only one um only one uh vendor can qualify it's a request for proposals it should be Rewritten should be redrafted so I would encourage you to make sure that that's done so that there are um multiple vendors who can bid on the contract so that you have before you um confidence that an 18 million well let's start at the low end a 15 million to18 million contract is actually the cost of the service that you're asking to be provided in response to last week in response to my suggestion that the the uh RFP should be Rewritten um Chief Abbot said it's illegal it's illegal to do that Mr Jenaro is an attorney I'm an attorney there are other attorneys in the room I would caution anyone who's not an attorney to provide legal advice to a buy government B that's number two but in response to that I was surprised to see if the special meeting that um the chief attacked councilwoman uh Scara raising your voice and saying to a public official I am not your secretary is inappropriate but doing so as the business administrator and police chief of our town is conduct unbecome he doubled down I don't know if all of you are privileged to the blind copy of the email that he sent where he attacks me councilwoman Scarpa and councilwoman gber Michael but he misrepresents he gas lights and then he threatens in that email it's inappropriate it's uncivil and he violates his own codes of conduct I would ask you to make sure that he is no longer the interim business administrator he really has no business in a leadership role in this town if he can't conduct himself in accord with what's required of every officer and every employee of this town and then lastly what I'd like to raise is um president Rutherford um for the past few meetings that attended I've withheld um certain comments that weren't related to agenda items because the agenda um leaves an item called public comment for non-agenda items and then at the end of the meetings there's not time there that's not um that's not announced and I don't know how to notify the council when there's an intention for public comment that's not an agenda item so I would just ask that if that's no long that either gets removed or it gets announced at Future meetings thank you gotam n West over um I kind of wish I had have got up um one person sooner because I don't want this to be related to anything that was just said because I'm not fully versed on the parameters of what was just said but um uh my heart's been heavy all week um and um myself my family and others that I'm connected to have been in prayer uh for the young woman from Springfield who lost her life in her home and um it's another tragedy in the in the face of many tragedies that have happened throughout our nation um that is just Grievous uh to even think about even consider um and I can't imagine what life is like for those parents um but I really came down and I was just speaking to the officer outside and so um uh again I I just am not um wanting to blend what I'm saying with anything that was said before but I really came down um to thank our town leadership to thank our chief of police and our Police Department um because I've been here for 27 years and we've never had to face any of those tragic stories and um we we're 15 minutes away from a city that has tragedy um multiple times a day every day and even some of the cities surrounding us here in New Jersey have tragedies several times a day every day and um you know at this point I I just feel like um when there are those Bad actors that need to be dealt with and we jump to the four of dealing with those Bad actors that need to be dealt with there's time when we need to stop and just thank those folk who are look and trying and working to try and do it right um based upon the stories and the information um that woman was struggling with some degree of mental health although I have to say I I did not see in the video any indication that whatever struggle she had with mental health was putting anybody in danger um but in our town our Police Department has gone and and they started this work with mental health professionals to have mental health professionals go out with them and to partner with them and partner with Community organizations and partner with um the clergy in town to make sure that when they're encountering people in our community they're trying to do it from the most human way possible um our police department has the this Angel Network where there are people people in town who have been trained and called out to work with people who have addiction issues and can turn in drugs and paraphernalia and and it be a safe place you know our Police Department you know during the the George Floyd time when things were very very contentious between the public and law enforcement our Police Department was out here with our young people from the high school talking about their anger and the issues and the struggles that were going on our our very own police chief was standing on the porch with them I I grew up in the 60s uh my earliest me public memories was my mother taking me on marches I have photo and and video of family members my own position who became a senator um in in Michigan uh went into politics and left his office because he got brutalized at a protest and so when I think about what it means for us to be able to live in West Orange what it means to lead an armed Force every day into the community and to do it as well as they've done um that's actually the reason I came down is I just wanted to thank our leadership I wanted to thank our police chief I want to thank our police department and every man and woman that serves in the Police Department for caring enough about the residents to be mindful of how they engage us even in moments when their own lives are at stake and so that's really all I want to say is just thank you to them thank you um anyone else for public comment in Chambers seeing none uh public comment is now closed um going to begin public comment in reverse order we'll start with councilwoman Williams thank you council president just wanted to thank all of our commenters this evening um thank you all for coming and attending the meetings in person uh we do realize that that is um sometimes an exorbitant task after a Long Day's Work families children uh other responsibilities so we do appreciate each of you who came down uh to speak in council chambers as far as um public comment is concerned um about the westex highlands I really um am not in a position to respond certainly we have legal counsel for the municipality um that is um dealing with these issues in addition to the planning and zoning department so I will have to yield to um their expertise but certainly some of the information that has been pointed out is duly noted and in the event it comes before us for us to render any type of decision um I do appreciate you all's efforts um certainly overdevelopment is not something that we're looking forward to in any part of West Orange and I certainly um have heard many of the residents who live in that area not just um West Orange but Beyond West Orange on the Essex and the Barona sides of the Border um so we are very aware of the concerns but again it's a legal matter and we have to let it unfortunately do its process so um Miss Bennett thank you for your comments Mr Adams thank you for your comments um as far as um loss of life um we were remiss we did not take a moment of silence for the family in West Orange yes um that perish the two small children as well as the grandmother um so council president with your permission I would just like to ask us to take a moment in silence for the direct and immediate loss that we have in our Township absolutely thank you so I'll just ask everyone to just briefly acknowledge their loss and pray for the family and their souls thank you thank you um council president for the opportunity to provide remarks um we have a complete and full agenda tonight in addition to an executive session um so hopefully we will be able to go into executive session early in the meeting um before we get to our agenda um but thank you again everyone for coming out and um we appreciate your continued support of our municipality thank you thank you councilwoman councilwoman scarin thank you uh Paul tractenberg thank you for all of your advocacy both many years ago and today to try to push for responsible responsible development in our town um as we said we're very limited to what we can say here um but Joseph pulo too thank you for all of the material that you've been sending us keep it coming we want to be as a breast of the situation as we can and the material that you've been giving us really has enlightened us and what I'd like the administration to do is perhaps get uh ask legal to talk to us in an executive session about how we can assist in any way that we can and what our limitations might be but I think we all want to assist you in any way we possibly can um the traffic's concerns have always been an issue too for everyone and I and even the fire department had been concerned about those for many years um Doug Adams thank you very much uh I agree with you our Police Department goes above and beyond all the time as does our fire I've had experience with both particularly the fire department when I was a caregiver for my dad for three years after his stroke they are always there Chief professional and I just can't say enough good things about them um Michaela thank you for paying attention and helping everyone understand that the public is watching and what I I want to say to you and to all the public who have brought this to my attention that there is a considerable amount of bullying intimidation and disrespect that goes on on this St and I will not take pardon it for the public who has brought me their concerns and there have been many people at the pool all over town when it's been directed at me um I just want to share my thinking with them Maya Angelo is my favorite po poet laurate and she says when someone shows you who they are believe them the first time the way we treat one another on this Dias is an expression of who we are and it's an expression of our character our integrity and I will let the public see for themselves and make their own judgments about about what goes on here and I will speak privately to anyone about these kinds of issues but thank you for watching and that's about it thank you councilwoman councilwoman g m good evening everyone thank you to those of you here in council chambers with us as well as watching on Zoom um I would like to start by thanking uh Mr professor tractenberg and Mr panula for your advocacy and everyone in We Care um thank you for your commitment to putting West Orange residents first I appreciate you it is not easy to do what you do um and we're all in this together I agree with you and your points I support the work that you do and what others are doing so thank you very much Miss Benet thank you as well as always for your advocacy and commitment to putting West Orange first and Mr Adams I Echo your uh remarks regarding our wonderful uh police department as well as our fire department we are blessed to have amazing Public Safety without Public Safety there is no quality of life and my family has witnessed I I grew up here have witnessed the amazing men and women who have helped us and respond to our calls and I and I always hear amazing things so thank you now in terms of uh what Miss Bennett said I'm going to read something and chief this is directed to you I was actually going to read your email onto the record that you sent a couple days ago that you blind copied I don't know who else on but I was shocked by your words honestly as I was I did not expect that not I was shocked by your words and your professional conduct like question it was difficult to read your emotionally charged email that mischaracterized material facts and I have to address the several in accuracies and the tone of your communication which I found to be uncivil inappropriate and unprofessional first and foremost the insinuations and personal attacks against myself my fellow counsel colleag councilman Sara and a member of our community are unwarranted and unproduced you're an employee of this Township your primary responsibility is to serve our community with integrity and respect res resorting to personal attacks undermines this goal and does not contribute to the constructive discourse we need to effectively govern and regarding the specific points raised in your email you completely misinterpreted what occurred in the last meeting with me yes I was emotional at the insinuation I did not care about the firefighters being at risk of cancer you suggested you suggesting that I shouldn't be emotional as a problem also when I made my commentary I addressed Mr smdo directly not you so please you can go back and watch the video to witness that worse you reference an incident that occurred last fall between myself and councilwoman Williams in which you were not present we were present it did not happen not the back and forth it did not happen two weeks ago in the meeting what you say did not happen in that meeting in fact what I was emotional about was I what I just mentioned about the firefighters and then I mentioned that no one on this diet had lost more me family members to cancer than I have so you know you were mistaken about what occurred in the last meeting in your email I was very confused as why you referenced what privately occurred between us in that email again that you bu copied I was just I was so confused with your email it is the obligation of the council legislative body to be the checks and balance of the administration and the executive br branch and I will beautifully do my job your bullying and disrespect and attempts to belittle or dismiss the very important work that we do needs to stop like this came left I was just I was just really confused you're the police chief and currently the interim business administrator of this Township and as such you should be holding your conduct to the highest accountability personal remarks about your colleagues emotional responses or capabilities are uncalled for and detract from the serious matters that we are addressing professional deform should be maintained at all times Chief and moving forward I urge the administration to engage in respectful fact based discussions and you should be aiming to work collaboratively with us to focus and and the focus should be on the well-being and progress of our community and for the better benefit of our constituents all work together and I end my response public comment Council presid thank you councilwoman um but Chief I know you want to respond I um I just want you to hold it for a moment I'm going to um allow Council M castelino and I hope she does not have a comment on that particular issue but I'm gonna allow her to speak I'm gonna give a quick something before I I call on you if that's uh if that's all right councilwoman okay so thanks for letting me follow so listen tensions Run High here on this de we have a a lot of Hot Topic issues we have um a lot of passionate um a lot of passion this room at night and this year has been a really big year for that and um you know I I follow I I I I hear what everybody says and I've always encouraged um for all of you to meet outside the stus to um try to communicate with each other so we can look through each other's lenses a little bit better and uh unfortunately um that's not always um my advice isn't always taken so I hope that can happen moving forward um but yeah I'm gonna let the chief respond and because there are things said where I could see how Administration gets very frustrated with us but yet I do understand my colleagues at times too um got to work with the frustration and and this job's tough we can't we you know we got to have skin here with that being said I appreciate the speakers for coming down and to um to share their opinions West S6 Highlands uh I'm the only cting council person that had to go through um all of the I wasn't on the negotiating team at the time but it was stressful really really stressful so I appreciate all of the action that uh Weare has taken and glad um to see um the group grow and I I wish folks were there uh few years back uh very informative and um but again I'm going to keep my comments limited because because uh we did have that settlement agreement and all I could share is you know it's frustrating it it's hard because we're we're trying to make great development happened within the township and sometimes when it's forced it's it's extra stressful and the systems get stressed as well as we talk you know with the sewer systems and traffic and and all of that and to have Smart planning and smart deel development is is what's needed here in the township so again I just want to really reiterate thank you very much and I'm glad to see Mr tackenberg you're you're you're back I know you were concerned being out of town and missing the meetings and I'm glad you're able to be here for them it'll be very enlightening uh with that um Mr Adams Echo the your comments for the police department last week when I heard about the Fatal fire that um besieged the jury family in the township um it it was just heartbreaking and for our figh Firs firefighters and police officer who first arrived on the scene it it's my heart goes out to them as well to have to to get a call and to walk into that situation is is just just so dreadful for them and and appreciate all the training because it's important in our training they would not have been able to handle that situation in the way that they did without their training and the support that they need to overcome a tragedy like that and uh kudos to to to all and for this family um there is a gofund meet page on the public school website and um I I hope folks can uh go to it and um there's not much we could do for this family with the loss that face but they are a need and if if folks can go to that website and donate it would it would would help them but our thoughts and prayers just just go with them it's horrible uh Mr py thank you always for all the great things the county does for us and um Mr Fagan thanks for bringing up the grants so important for the grants um for us to to be able to pave our Township uh pave our roadways in the township um and also the uh safe roots of school I just want to mention how hard and how hard that Grant is to get for many many years the the schools uh work with the town to uh apply for that Grant and just so exciting not only the that we were awarded but the amount of money we were awarded and all the work that um the Town Township employees and the School Employees had to put in uh to get that Grant I got to I got to thank them because this is this is wonderful for the Gregory neighbor we're trying to get sidewalks for over 10 years I think we get to 20 20s it's it's it's been insane how long to get that Grant so great job on everyone's part and um thank you all for coming down tonight council president thank you councilwoman uh Mr pesi Mr ban as always thank you for your information look forward to seeing you seeing you again at some of the events around town um Mr tractenberg I do appreciate your presence as well as well as your advocacy and voice on um on these issues um I'm on the planning board so I'm going to limit my commentary uh regarding uh that I will ask our uh Township attorney if he can uh weigh in on what if anything the township Council can do with regard to this challenge of a planning board meeting um yeah if there's if if there is something that we can do let us know I don't believe there is I believe there's autonomous in that regard but happy to hear your opinion when you say challenge to the planning board meeting can you just clarify what you mean so when I go back to so what Mr pulo and Mr tractenberg were referencing uh were the emails that were sent uh I think Mr Potter uh is the attorney for week haes and uh there were some others back and forth prior to that one too uh that spoke to the ordinance that the spread approval was based on for this particular development and what those emails assuming they're legitimate and the one that I read today actually had timestamped um documents from the county to just to uh show us when these documents were filed so their argument is that the ordinance that passed in 2020 that the sprb was based on I go never got filed properly the county has pretty much confirmed that with the documents they prepared they've sent to us and they've said that since that since your preliminary site plan is based on a non-existent or non-applicable ordinance you shouldn't you should have to go back to square one they shouldn't be able to move forward in the application process if the initial um sprad approval was based on an ordinance that was not in effect at that time and they talked about submission a time of submission the emails sent by Mr B I'll bring it up to Mr trank and planing board Council and do that tonight before the end of the meeting see if we can get a response from him because if there is something we be something better discussed in the executive session as well okay just due to all the because it was Court approved settlement yeah just due to any potential issues regarding that it just might be better discussed in executive session which I can Dr Richard see we can get it time for maybe that meeting sooner well if if you can give us any advice or guidance before we get into executive tonight that'd be great and if not then as soon as possible because this meeting is still scheduled for the 30th the first of two meetings uh still scheduled for the 30th and you know we don't want to we don't if if if we're I just would like to be clear on what if anything we can do since it has been raised as an issue to the town Council uh understood I will see if I can't get a hold of it if it's possible maybe discuss with regard the other stuff thankk you I do appreciate that and that addressed both of your comments um um Mr panle and Mr tractenberg um Miss Bennett uh what I failed to do tonight but what I have done in every other council meeting uh is announced that public comment is open for agenda and non-agenda items uh at the very beginning you don't have to wait till the end um for non-agenda items um we'll look to have that removed and um and and if we need to because of hot button issues separate which is the reason why we separated we need to do it again and we'll just do it again down the road um Pastor Adams uh so uh I share your um sentiments about the West orangish Police Department as my colleagues have to a person echoed um and I'm I'm grateful um if you look at the chart that was provided earlier I think might have been before you got here uh or maybe not I don't know but there was a chart provided earlier um and I was going to comment about it anyway um I don't I I love when I can just ask for stuff and it just gets done um and that was one of them so thank you very much uh Chief um for just incorporating that going forward um I find it interesting the use of force um um and I look at our use of force reports on an annual basis uh I review the uh emails that are sent with regard to the mental health uh responses that we have um I share uh all of the praise for our Police Department um I am I I would not have brought it up tonight it's just a little too soon um and I also think that the time to praise uh our police or firefighters or those folks that risk their lives for us uh is before the crisis and this isn't to criticize you this is just a philosophical approach to it so that when you are in a crisis especially if it's contentious if there are feelings that are hurt on both sides of an issue if there are concerns on both sides of an issue you don't have to address it in that way in that moment um which may not be helpful now this isn't something that happened in New Jersey I was a little confused at first uh but it's not something that happened in New Jersey so we don't have to worry about folks on in this community being on necessarily both sides of it uh but the unarm the killing of unarmed black people um which is what that it was an unarmed black woman um that is triggering for the black community no matter where they live um and so because of that I I I wouldn't have brought it up tonight and that would be my only criticism so but now that you brought it up I had to speak about it because I certainly want to make sure our police um our First Responders um all of our town hall employees but certainly those that risk their lives for us uh know how grateful we are for not just the job they do but how they do that job um uh I found out today regrettably uh about the fire that happened last week for those that don't know I was on vacation last week um and I didn't and I distan myself from all of these phone calls so some of you may have tried to tell me I had uh I dealt with Township work on Wednesday and Thursday and that was it uh and as little as possible um last week so I didn't find out about it until this afternoon when I left town hall had a phone call and um and it was with my mother actually and as me if I knew the residents that had died I didn't even know they had died uh so my heart um goes out to them I've already prayed for them we'll continue to pray for them um I do not know what we can do as a Township but for those that are connected to the family for the family in particular if there's anything that I can do or we can do uh to be helpful in this difficult period of time which we know does not end after the funeral uh just let us know we're happy to help in whatever way we can um all right and then and just wanted to remind folks the CFO interview last week that I was not able to attend I attempted to attend um spoke with our municipal clerk I could not get on Via Zoom um and I could have called in from my phone um but my laptop was down so I didn't have and I was traveling so I didn't have the hard copies I didn't have any digital copies it would have been pointless for me to participate so after about 15 10 or 15 minutes and I do apologize but that is why she was out uh I don't know what else you were out for but I know you were on the phone with me um I do appreciate you sacrificing the time uh but that's why I was not in the meeting last week um and councilwoman was on vacation as well uh so she could not she had already uh told us that she wasn't going to be there uh I had agreed to the meeting and um uh intended to be there just couldn't um but since then we have interviewed the two candidates um and uh am happy to have further discussion about it tonight uh in our executive session all right I think that is oh no Mr abbit I know you want to response and this is what I wanted to say um all of us are human um each one of us brings a some total of our life experience to every single one of these interactions we have um what I have been able to communicate with my colleague about with my colleagues as well as the administration um is uh my uh perception of our role as leaders in this town um and how we can and should conduct ourselves in moments like this had a a long and healthy conversation with Mr smarald today I had a somewhat less long but healthy conversation with Mr Abbott as well um I understand how um intense um these moments can be having said that um what I think is best for us I know some things have to be corrected because there's a permanent record what I think is best for us to the extent we can handle these things outside of council chambers we should um and if someone addresses us in a way that's disrespectful and it's brought up whether we feel it was warranted or not as Leaders we have to fall back um and I know it's not always easy um you know I I get it I I am very much aware how some people can say and do some really horrible things and responses make May um uh the the appropriate response may have been earned by that individual no matter who they are whether it's in writing uh as I read the emails too I know they're charged and and you know I I know uh I know the source of your complaint um I understand the source of yours I don't know yours as well I understand the source of yours uh and Mr smdo who was able to escape it tonight until this moment um but the point I'm making is in regardless of who is right and who is wrong um and it's been a tough lesson for me to apply to myself because I am a stickler about who's right and wrong and if you're wrong and you and and I then say something to you about it I'm right because you were wrong but uh some of the stuff that we do has to be outside the public eye so that we can uh one continue to to to strengthen the public trust um two mitigate some of the risk that comes from these kind of moments and three hopefully have a better working relationship so having said all of that and I know I'm not teaching you anything you've been doing this longer than me but after saying all of that I I do know that you want to respond I would encourage you to do so with a little restraint absolutely so for starters I don't think there's anybody in this community that knows me better than the clergy and I would like to embrace what Pastor Adam said and I think of that is how I'm generally thought of in this community not as others may have you believe um as a matter of fact um this is a fact not an opinion there's no tone or inflection in an email the reader puts their own tone and inflection into it so you read it Angry you read it Angry you read it as a joke you read it you read it right across the board you read it right across the board um nobody should assume to know what my intent was when I wrote it my frame of mind I should say not my intent um you couldn't have said things better about everybody needs to do better and we can all do better and we should all strive to do better um I would like to forgive councilwoman Scara and councilwoman gav Michael myself as they did me start with a clean slate appreciate that my pleasure all right I am glad we hit the reset button now um public comment is closed I'm gonna right we're done with public comment uh I'm gonna ask my colleagues to indulge one more change to the uh agenda tonight um I wanted to kind of get through this if we start going through these resolutions we're going to be past the 8:30 Mark we did invite uh the attorneys that are here for executive session uh we advise them uh to be prepared around 8:30 um if they are prepared if if then I I will move that we go into second uh into executive session and look for a proper second second thank you are they but are they ready okay Mr Beck was here he was on first on the agenda ready to go and I believe all the other attorneys are here for all the other parties thank you probably moved in seconded councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michael councilwoman spara councilwoman Williams council president wford motion carries council president yes sir so just in regard to the previous comments about settlement and the planning board meeting coming up to the extent that there are any questions or argument from Mr Potter with the attorney for uh the group that's challenging I'm guessing um he should reach out directly to Mr Tran he'll address questions if you have any questions specifically about it send them to me or send them to him um and then I will get them over to Mr Tren get your response prior to this July 30th 30th and 31st yes sir so just so we're still on the record just so that you guys know you don't have to I will take the email that Mr Potter sent to us I will forward it he forward it to me I'll print it out for him leave it on his chair with a couple of questions and I'll make sure you're cced on it uh and that's um advice from our legal councel so I won't worry about my standing on the planning board you'll send it over to us and then we'll drop it off to them perfect um all right so West Orange we are going to take a uh not so brief recess we do have executive session and quite a few issues to cover um so we will be back um in time yes uh but it will not be less than probably 90 minutes or more um so just want to prepare you for that thank you West orangen hi this is Jor fan public information officer is now 12:38 as you can see in the zoom audience the township Council has returned to the de and at this time I'd like to turn the floor over to council president Bill Rutherford council president thank you Mr Fagan thank you West Orange for your patience um before we go any further I offer a motion to um re to uh end our executive session and resume our regular meeting second okay all in favor any opposed the motion is carried all right so we're back in our regular meeting now um just we had several issues as you can tell we spent quite a few hours uh discussing several matters uh all of which were you know properly advertised uh and we have made some progress uh in the interest of time we are going to uh get through um the remaining portion of our agenda and some items will be left uh are going to be pulled and will be addressed at our next meeting um uh we will be announcing in just a moment uh our decision on the Garbage Contract uh as well as our new CFO um and so but in order to do that we have to get through the rest of this agenda so Madam clerk approval of minutes okay so let's well we don't have any minutes on the agenda this tonight but um just pick up there that's what I me yeah I'm just going to start at the bills list because that's where it starts the bill list for this evening 72324 is there any questions not for me okay okay resolution so resolutions being pulled from what I understand are 223 is that correct okay um 226 yes 229 um [Music] no sorry we're keeping 229 yeah we're keeping that that's gonna stay on 23 233 230 231 and 232 okay 32 okay uh okay Qs and I think that's all that I have so I don't know if anybody else has anything no that was it everything else is consent I move for consent second okay uh all in favor I opposed the consent agenda is implemented okay excellent so now what does that mean um we just voted on a new CFO we can announce the name now I assume no do you want to not notify him first yeah okay it we have to put in the name we have we have to put the name here so so can I ask something because so as far as announcing can you announce this person tonight without have they accep we're going to make a job offer yeah we make any offer I think you can read it into the record you should read it into the record talk to their where they're Le yeah okay have you negotia salary H that's not our job I know but have they so are we not announcing this now then that's that's fine we can just move on I don't know how you vote on it if you don't say who it is yeah right how do we do that so and and we are we and both candidates were notified that we will be making an announce they were okay good all right so West Orange tonight we um uh deliberated and decided to appoint uh John detc uh CMO cmfo ccfo uh as our new uh Chief finance officer or financial officer um each of us had an opportunity to to interact with him in an interview uh we've had his resume for some time and are uh excited to have him join so welcome uh Mr DAC uh we're looking forward to the next tenure uh in that role uh additionally we just voted on 22924 which is the garbage contract for those of you that have been following it you will know it as option number one um it is keeping everything the exact same now this was a difficult uh deliberation some of us uh wanted to go with carts some of us did not some of us wanted to go with carts but not just yet um so after the back and forth we decided to um award the contract to 22 uh the contract uh to option number one um and we are going to AG rively look at what our options are starting early next year so we can be prepared uh for the end of this contract should we wish to make any changes which would include carts uh and if we do decide to do that we're going to go through a massive education program in town there's several other things uh on the on the agenda that we just approved I don't think we have to read them all into the record um but those were the two that I thought had the um had the most interest interest in the public excuse me council president could we just add also because I know one option uh that uh we got a lot of input back on was the commercial component and that's something we felt that we should look at um but yet not at this time so uh we appreciate the um options that we're giving um but there was a lot more due diligence we felt that we um need to exercise and uh configure for the entire Township so that was we're Big Town that's have different neighborhoods and what works from some neighborhoods may not work for all the neighborhoods but we're we're committed to getting there and I would hope next time when we do this um reconsideration of our Waste Management that we also give the public an opportunity to weigh in in advance um so that we can do an appropriate poll of our community and see what they're interested in as well I think that's a very important St and that needs to be done and it's going to take some time thank you council president oh you will uh finally for me I voted in favor of uh 236 and 237 awarding contracts to baglia and to pkf OK Conor uh after having voted against it um at least one or maybe two meetings ago um after speaking with the employees in town hall most directly affected by um the voting down of those contracts and having further conversation with the administration um regarding a longer term approach to solving some of the labor challenges we had um in compromise um we are going to allow the well well I voted in support of these limited contracts through the end of the year uh with the condition that we add uh another employee into our finance department which um in addition to the ones that you're already trying to fill as soon as the budget gets approved we expect that job will be advertised and um hopefully more help will be on the way to those in the finance department um all right that's it um we can go to any other anybody want to say anything else before we go to ordinances um no but I I you know we I do have yeah we can't go to ordinances just yet only because take care of the on we right 223 was pulled for the forensic auditing so do you want to yeah well that's what I was gonna ask I move to table so I need a second so wait wait can we just all of them because I thought that was what we agreed to so let's just well it's one at a time garbage uh yeah garbage ones I just have to call for a motion and you don't have to answer because we already picked someone obviously but legally I just wanted to make sure I had on the record that there was no motion it failed we picked the first one so there are two that are going to be taed 230 31 32 those those are voting no those were not even I'm going to motion and no motion will be offered but there are two that are being taed 226 was the other one all right 223 and 226 are going to be tabled to table all right I'm G to do them individually 23 right and then I need a second for that second okay I just have to do a roll call okay uh councilwoman celino to table yes uh and they'll be tabled to August 6 our meeting cor councilwoman yes councilwoman Williams yes council president R yes okay I move to table 226 second okay councilwoman Celina yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president reer yes okay um all right now 230 231 232 obviously you're not going to make a motion because we already we'll just call for a motion right so is there a motion to approve 230-4 seeing none the motion fails or the resolution fails 231-242 approve seeing none uh 232-242 approve seeing none okay so that's take a request please Council thank you I would like for the administration to give us revised numbers um on the increased cost of the Garbage Contract from the 15,000 that was 15 million that was put into the original Municipal budget for 2024 I'd like to know what the numbers are going to be um now that we have approved number one thank you and now we go on to ordinances ordinances on second and final reading 2859 d24 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7-3 2.2 restricted parking zones of the revised General ordinances of West Orange 52 Hazel Avenue and 122 Whitty Avenue now I move for adoption on second and final reading well it's to introduce on second and final reading second okay councilwoman celino yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams council president Ruther yes okay public hearing public comment is now open for those that are in the gallery uh 2128 59 any public comments on these this ordinance on second and final reading okay seeing none public comment is now closed okay I don't have is there a motion to approve on second and final I move to accept on Final reading 2859 second okay we're supposed to not say so moved anymore we're supposed to put it into the record because if someone was watching it um from the public and we don't and we just stay safe okay councilwoman celino yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president rerd yes okay 2861 d24 in ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 20 streets and sidewalks and subsections 20-1 at SEC of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Orange is there a motion to introduce on second and final I move to introduce on second and final second okay councilwoman celino yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes okay public comment is now open on 2861 there someone in uh person in the chambers that wishes to make a comment now is your CH seeing none public comment is now closed okay is there a motion to approve 2861 thank councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman uh Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams council president Rutherford yes motion is carried 2863 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank I'm move to introduce on second and final reading thank you second councilwoman calino yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Ruther bird yes thank you public hearing public comment is now open if anyone would like to comment uh in person only to deobi Bernette Terrace um I have to question why you would approve uh allowing the township to go over the the budget basically um it's not fiscally prudent I've complained about fiscal Prudence uh in in with this Administration for a long time and many of the decisions that I've seen even recently and tonight don't seem to follow a fiscally prudent approach so I'm questioning the need to pass this resolution or this ordinance um you you haven't even passed the budget yet and you're already you know voting to approve going over the municipal appropriation it doesn't make any sense thank you thank you Mr deobi Mr Abbot do you want to address that we'll have a CFO soon enough to do that but but I will give it my best shot so what Mr gross had told me was this is a statuto requirement that it's done every few months just to establish the cap bank and to ensure there's enough money to pay all the bills so um just going to read the headline we had a robust dis discussion about this in our last uh meeting um 2863-20 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank um it was explained to me similarly as you've expressed that this is a a statutory thing it allows us in case we need to to be able to do it it does not require us to uh and part of the conversation I don't I think you were here I'm not sure you come to most of the meetings but um part of the conversation was around the 2.5 to 3.5 uh increase that stated in the ordinance because we were only at a proposed 2.47 uh percent increase so the question was why do we need to give the ability to go between two and a half and three and a half if we're not even at two and a half yet right um which is a reasonable question and it was answered in um what I will characterized as a reasonable fashion um by our retiring CFO um which was one it's a statutory thing but two um you know we haven't passed the budget yet we may need to go over it we we don't we didn't at that point in time um but what we just did tonight with regard to the Garbage Contract uh option four would have cost us a little over 15 million um option one cost us a little over 18 so now that 2.47 will certainly be over the two and a half limit um and had we not done this I don't know that we we could um have done it we would have had to cut somewhere else uh which you know may or may not have been painful so uh I share your concerns um part of the reason why it took so long to get through executive session tonight is because of those kinds of concerns um and um what I'll say is that in this particular case I don't think and I you know I'm I'm relying on information so that's what it's worth in this particular case I don't think um this ordinance 2863 falls into that level of concern although there are plenty of other things that do um um I'm going to leave it at that I think um I don't think this falls into the concern that I hear you articulating and that I've heard articulated in our executive session as well um so I do thank you for your comment though does anyone else want to respond no thank you I think that sums it up nicely is there did you want to respond sorry a good job Council no good job is there a motion to approve on second and final reading I um move to approve on second and final reading the number was is carried thank you first reading okay uh 28 64-4 in ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7-21 multi-way stops of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Orange um you want for introduction on first reading yeah this is on first reading is there a motion to introduce on first reading I to introduce on first reading thank you councilwoman celino yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president rord yes um we made a slight error on uh 228 a resolution rejecting all bids submitted in response to the request for bids for solid W right so what we can do is we can resend the previous vote on consent and then take a separate vote to send the previous motion on consent second okay uh councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes okay now I move to uh well we don't wait wait now I'm going to call for a motion but if you're not going to do this just like the others then you shouldn't offer any wait wait what we just resend okay so that's not what I thought we were doing we just rescinded the entire consent agenda no no no only 28 just rejecting the bid okay yeah so we only resend it to 28re agenda yes okay um yes so with that said is there a motion to approve to 28-24 okay good the motion fails matter can we have update on can I can I just wrap the meeting please well I have a question you can you can ask the question but you have to ask yeah to speak um so in our inbox we have um some questions about when we are going to reopen uh the Cannabis application process um the response that um inba sent uh said that it's up to us to coordinate with the clerk on when we want to open that process I just need to understand what that actually means for us from a Time standpoint uh and a meeting standpoint so the ordinance was read and accepted on second reading at the last meeting I believe is that correct Okay so 20 days following that um which within the next week you can open the process um I think we can kind of do it the same way we did it last time except we didn't last time we had the Cannabis task force we don't have that anymore so the council licenses the entities not the administration we'll help you any way we can we'll advertise for you whatever you want but we have to have a uh an open uh RFA request for applications from would be cultivators and is there a minimum minimum amount of time that we have to have the RFA open for we said 30 days we usually do at least 30 days we requested 30 days in the res in the in the change specifically okay but I just wanted to know if that was satisfactory is there is there there's no we could there's no gu I would I would sh I don't think there is for this because this doesn't even really come under Paul it's not that's not a purchase you know so all right so so we could open it for 30 days uh and then once the 30 days are up the applications that have been submitted we will then have to sit down schedule a special meeting to review similar to AB it would be like an ABC thing yes and there are also parts of the ordinance where entities like police Sony people do have to get involved at that part but you would basically accept the applications and tell us we need you to do your part so once we accept the applications we the administration then sends it to the bordered to the police fire whoever they have to send it to they get their comments they feedback they send it back to us with a recommendation and then we deliberate at that point is when we would deliberate because we don't need to have a meeting to send off the applications to you need to pick we need to pick if we get more and the three we have to pick them because they've only opened it up to three entities we said that they also have to come to us with a location yeah they have to site control totally understand that but the picking part that we don't when so I'm way I'm hearing it from you is different than what I envisioned I envisioned after they made their recommendations we would review all of those and pick whatever one two or how my understanding is that we're reviewing any application that comes in not the administration and that we're accepting and then they so I think this is semantics um my understanding and you can correct me or correct us when we vote to to open up the RFA period that period of time will be open for 30 days we will receive some number of applications once we receive those applications they're automatically I would assume given to you the administration Mr Mo Mr I had exended to a whole bunch yeah so so hold on let me finish because we went through this already right it's not gonna be substantially different tell you what we did on the task force well hold on one second I know that Moon I know that Mr Moon um gets it I also know that you send it out to each one of these various spaces the the question was there's no interaction from the council with Mr Moon that would then forward those applications to you so so you could get them to where they need to go get their feedback receive that back for us so that we have a completed application to review but they come into to you first they do right and then you give them so on the task force didn't the Task Force review before it went out to any other department okay so we made recommendations but there is no task force I understand we're the task force but there was a work in progress because we were developing the process so I believe and I'll let the chief check on this tomorrow we'll have to go back and look at some notes and whatnot but I think what should happen is there's a a checklist of all the things now that we require just with the application so so there should be a checklist a form that you that you check off now one of those requirements obviously one was the operating agreement uh so we know who the stakeholders are right up front um the other uh requirements that we have listed Ed and then once that's all completed at after the 30 days we would get the applications and then we would decide as a group and we could do like ABC hearing which ones we want to interview now no candidate should be interviewed without a um either a valid lease agreement or a purchase to right to buy the property that's the problem we were in at last time with people had letters have intent but they wer no letters have in yes and we agreed to not to do that this time to make sure that when we interview yeah it was in the ordinance so we interview people and then at that time when we go to interview when we're ready to uh put somebody to vote on for um uh for the final application we also put in there if I'm recalling Folks at home it's it's 10 after 1 that's why I'm thinking so clearly um we also voted to put in there um that they have to notice 200 feet at that point in time instead of waiting so there's an issue with a location within the community we know right out of the gate as opposed to waiting you know further into the process so that that will all need to be in a completed application right you I think this is the question you're asking the answer would be your right this wouldn't come back to you until yes because no we should not be interviewing anyone unless all the teas are gross eyes are addition to that we gonna do um our interviews in executive session because again I don't think that the interview should be done in front of the public uh so no we well so so okay so so the task force interviewed the first rounds of questions in in private but I think then they came back to us then they came back to us and then they'd have to go over see the things like security and things of that nature some things you could ask in private but certain things you can't ask in the open because but the task force used to didn't do their interviews publicly not the first round they were all done public not the first round but the council got council's interviews were public I understand that but we now are the task force and I don't think I think we're going to be able to ask questions that are going to be proprietary and I don't think that should be exposed to the public well the statutes actually allow for for that to be confidential um with the with the cannabis laws they're exempt from Oprah Etc um so yeah I would think you would want your your first round to be in type some type of executive session yeah exactly that's the the question was the original question was like what kind of time commitment is that from us and meeting commitment is that from so what we're if we open it up whenever we open it we're going to have to put on two separate meetings one executive one public um first off is there any time requirement that is there any time so it has to be done not unless we built in the ordinance and I don't remember that we didn't put it in hours but so no I don't think State doesn't care once the RFA is done the candidates may be under some pressure yes some pressure from the state to to get this done but um it remains to be seen but I would suspect you're not going to get an overwhelming number of applicants because they have to show py control and they have to be an industrial and there just very so once they acquire a place you know if you only have two or three you may be able to just do them before a council meeting you know maybe an hour early something like that so if we were to we would have to go 20 days from I like to get the budget done first we start get the budget done booking extra meetings exactly we're almost there and do we need to weigh in with Mark Moon and get any feedback from him on well they gotta they got to do the due diligence so it's 20 days from the 10th whatever meting so we could open it August 1st the RFA does anyone object to opening the request for applications on August 1 is the packet ready I think we need to the application is the same no it's notd it a little bit I mean there have been some minor changes to the ordinance but it's substantially let's not give I was through and better understand the process I'm sorry what' you say CH we'll have Mr Mo take a look at the application at the to ched get so it doesn't just requ us to coordinate with the municipal clerk so we need to we we so that do we need to do anything formally with Mr moon to request this not that not that I can think of I think we just need to have him which Madam Clark can have call him and just say can you take a look at the application in light of the amended ordinance and see if the application needs to be changed all right so let's let's do that and then also and I don't mind council president calling him to ask him please do about what we did in the process and so Madame clerk has the right checklist and all the other I'm definitely gonna need that you know the because we gotta get organized with yeah this has to be done right and and I'll do I'll do it tomorrow and ask him also what the time frame he needs before opening up the application process okay and I'll respond with the Madam Clerk and she could get that to everybody thank you counc I just have um I'm sorry we done with this part that uh so just a quick question because we were talking you know in regards to the budget um so there obviously tonight and the question was asked earlier by my colleague about the increase now with because obviously option four was in the contract you asked for the difference um and what that will be then we have the other items amendments that we were talking about all the some of them so so changed so um we have to get all those figures together and how do you want to go about handling that because what's our timetable because you know we got to get that done and then we got to also do the capital budget yeah so and I totally agree um what I I don't know I I think switching from option four to option one on the Garbage Contract is going to change some of the potential changes to the budget that's $3 million so that's an extra three and four five oh God okay yeah and we could do even um I don't want to do Zoom but no let's not do Zoom but so we we need to we made a a lot of list of additional staff that we that that was already in the budget all of those additional for yeah person yeah so you know there was copious notes there everybody had their own set of notes you know we need to combine those notes to see where we're gonna how much how long will it take us to know what the proposed increase is now that we've chosen option one on the Garbage Contract we can do the you talking about the gross number yeah to re well let's get it tomorrow from from the finance office number one and number two if you don't mind me making a recommendation that we also get uh per what is it 600,000 he used 300,000 300 what that dollar amount is so we have a the guide um emailed to us so we could look at our notes and start thinking of what you know any additional increases to know what that um what those payouts are going to be Chief if anybody retires that's not in the budget yet so we need that because if we have to I know you said we Bond the money but I think we need to understand what that might look like as we're going into this budget and may impact how we make some additional changes is that it because I have a couple things yeah do we need a date though to scheduled so we could get this done or where we at with that we might wait so that we make sure that councilwoman gabri Michael is available we don't know what her schedule is call us then maybe if Madam cler could just put some dates out yes thank you council president you're welcome um wanted to Mayor we were just going on by yourself without it so why stop now uh because sometimes you're a little slow in giving people the green light but quick and jump in the gun and talking over people in the cast okay we're all tired we're tired we're tired and it's annoying and it's unnecessary and I think some tension they should stop I think you should stop as well a lot of things but we're not gonna We're not gonna go there tonight I'm just gonna go ahead and make my comments if I may um and I wanted to address 8 Main Street and the removal of the trees um so there was a lot of inquiries about why all the trees came down in front of 80 Main Street um the letter that we received uh from Mr Kip our Forester as well as others in the administration there were three trees that had fallen one across ad m one uh in the parking lot and another um on the grounds as well one on a car damaged the car um and so they cut those trees with permission um so that they would prevent any additional hazards as well as liab ility and they have a replanting not that I have seen it but they do have a extensive Landscaping um plan that has been presented to the administration or to the appropriate board um but I did want to address that there were tremendous concerns about just the the removal of the trees and then I also wanted the the administration to discuss the ccrb positions if you will please sorry I was looking for the U the email options yes what what would you like ccrb positions we have made some recommendations so we have the mayor has one opening and you have one opening but I don't have any candidates so I had a candidate who um is uh not allowed to serve uh because of their um aspirations politically um so you know now we're back to square one I have put out some feelers um for some folks that may be interested just haven't gotten anything back yet is that a one-year term for or is it longer I want to say it's three I'd have to check the ordinance what's the time commitment on that it's not going to be much it's probably going to be like maybe there's a little training to begin with and it's probably going to be like quarterly okay thank you that was all of my inquiries for the evening I am interested didn't go home so I'm going to I'll second that second all in favor any opposed the meeting is adjourned thank you [Music]