good evening everybody adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meetings Act was provided through the posting mailing and filing of the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings at the Town Council on December 12th 20123 the notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building provided to the Westfield leader in the Star Ledger and filed with the clerk of the town of Westfield Miss ly may I have a roll call Mayor BR here council members have here here here keeper here here here here here please rise for the invocation which will be given by Council andala and remain standing for this me to the app as we begin this meeting let us take a moment to appreciate the privilege and responsibility we have been given to serve our community let us seek the highest ideals honesty integrity and compassion in our interactions and decisions May our differences Inspire dialogue rather than Division and may our shared goals unite Us in purpose let us move forward with the Open Hearts and Minds committed to doing the well-being of all PL to the flag of the United States of America should we go nothing from you all right start with the most important thing of the night come on girls come on up this is our Girl Scout [Applause] Proclamation I to I for the occas exactly so come on up come over I was telling these girls I had a group of first gr first grade daisies from Tomas today last week I had second gr second graders and then I was uh ran into the Girl Scouts in front of the Starbucks on Sunday and came home with five boxes of cookies so I have been celebrating Girl Scout week all week long so this is always a highlight for me all right you ready girls and thank you for once again coming and doing this really love this whereas March 12th 2024 marks the 112th anniversary of Girl Scouts of USA the largest and most successful leadership program for girls in the world and whereas as the world's Premier leadership development Organization for girls girl scouts has emphasized Public Service Civic engagement and fostering a sense of community in girls for over a century and whereas Girl Scouts work to Champion the Ambitions cultivate the talents and develop the skills of girls to be leaders in their own world and in ours and whereas in these incredibly challenging times Girl Scouts provides Community consistency and connection for girls and is a safe haven in all the uncertainty and whereas at a time when Civics education is missing from many schools Girls Scouts has introduced new K to2 Civics badges to bring girls more experiences that deepen their understanding of democracy and government prepare them for a lifetime of Civic engagement and motivate them to be Catalyst for Change and whereas Girl Scouts offers offers girls 21st century programming in science technology engineering and math the outdoors entrepreneurship and Beyond helping girls develop invaluable life skills and take the lead early and often and whereas Gold Award Girl Scouts already take on projects that have a measurable and sustainable impact on Community by first assessing a need designing a solution completing a project and inspiring others to sustain it and whereas today more than 50 million women are Girl Scouts alums including me and whereas Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey serves nearly 13,000 girls across the state now therefore I Shelley brindle by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of Westfield do hereby applaud the Girl Scout movement and Girl Scouts heart of New Jersey for providing girls with a safe inclusive all girl space where they can hone their skills and develop leadership abilities and I declare March 10th through 16th to be Girl Scout week congratulations [Applause] girls [Music] cies thank you so much all right this meeting is adjourned um okay so Jim nothing you're all good okay uh all right so um before we get into the evening's uh agenda just want to update everybody on a few things like I always do um thank you for everybody who's here in person and joining us online just remember public comments only accepted here in person you can always watch online and the replay um a few in items of interest to the community one very exciting is the fact that there is a national Champion the track team in our midst um you know Jim Guild day never likes to do a special shout out but it's worth noting that his son is one of these national champions on that 4 by 100 meter and and today I had the mom of the anchor Alex send me a note of when he was here with his Cub Scouts in like seven years ago and now he's a national champion so it made me realize how long I've been here um but anyway it really is quite momentous and I think are they coming next meeting are we GNA see them boys swi team and and winter track team and the winter track team which is incredible and although you know the 4X 100 meter relay team won the National Championship which is itself incredible in Boston but the whole boys and girls team really had I mean there's they set personal records school records it's just sort quite a legacy that they're building um at Westfield High School so so excited to see them and coaches next week so March 26th um and just a few other updates related to Transportation so um uh some of you know that I am the co-chair of the raren Valley Line mayor Association Along with uh food mayor calling mayor mayor commissioner Kathleen Kathleen pry in uh Cranford um and we had been very active prior to covid and then things kind of took a pause because of covid um and now we're gearing back up to really re-engage in Jersey Transit now that there has been some kind of normaly but different commuting patterns and we hope that there's some opportunities maybe to talk about um revisiting uh more one seat more one seat ride train service to Manhattan in light of that so um and the Gateway tunnel hopefully you guys have been following it I certainly have Has Broken Ground it's moving forward and it will has the promise of delivering a one seat ride to Westfield when it's finally completed in 20135 that but we don't want to wait that long but the fact that we actually have promise as I tell people if you're moving into Westfield and you've got a two-year-old by the time they're in high school you're going to your property values are going to go up so but to that end tomorrow night um Kathleen mayor pry mayor M and commissioner pry and I are going to be attending um an event for the Gateway Corporation with the Commissioners to hear an update on Gateway um and then we are um obviously engaging in New Jersey Transit some of you may have seen um I signed a letter as part of the as my role in rvl mayor's Association against uh Fair TR Fair hikes if they're looking at New Jersey Transit is considering in light of their $1 billion doll deficit which has happened over decades and unfortunately people have been M administrations on both sides have been raiding the New Jersey Transit operating budget to plug holes in the budget and it's absolutely caught up with them so they had initially proposed a fair hike because they need to fill a b budget gap which is not ideal because it only the way you get more money is to get more Riders and when you raise bikes to actually diminish right so it's not a sustainable strategy but in the meantime in the governor's budget address he did actually propose a per uh 2 and a half% corporate Transit fee on corporations with more than $10 million in net profits that would be specifically and dedicated towards funding Transit New Jersey Transit which would bring in about $800 million annually so me and many other organizations have suggested to put a pause on the fair hikes while we see and realize the impact of this uh what's being proposed in the governor's budget to then determine what Fair hikes may be necessary so um so I signed a letter we'll be going this Gateway reception and I just want everybody to know that um we are fully re-engaged on conversation with New Jersey Transit about what we can do to improve service reliability and hopefully additional uh one- seat ride service um very importantly I don't expect all of you follow what's going on in Trenton um but there's a lot going on in Trenton that people should be paying attention to a lot of stuff that's being fast-tracked um but I do want to provide an update on affordable housing to follow up I guess I've updated s an update in the last two meetings but I can't I just want to underscore how important this is and the potential impact it has on our community and communities all over the state so um last month the assembly passed an affordable housing bill it's called A4 and now the Senate has taken up it's called s50 um there was a senate committee hearing yesterday where it pass and it's being barreling through a speedy passage by the full Senate on Monday um I've Speak to other Mayors regularly every many have alarm Bells going off it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or Democrat it's more or less the makeup of your town depends upon how you react to it um Suburban Transit communities like mine are probably extremely and most alarmed um so I've spoken to Mayors both our planning staff our administrative staff our affordable housing legal counsel and there's there's a lot we have concerns about but there's two Provisions in particular that are very concerning um and it's complex and tricky so bear with me a little bit um there's a provision that requires land poor land poor municipalities such as ours and that really means fully built out communities that don't have a lot of vacant land um and it's a there's a provision that is requiring us to create a realistic opportunity to satisfy 25% of our unet me and typically the way it works is they give you this uh number that fair share deems that you should be delivering and then they give you what they call a vacant land adjustment determine on how much you can build and that happened um this past round now what they're saying is they're going to they're going to take away some of that vacant land adjustment and and reduce that adjustment by 25% and it's a change that would have a significant impact on the number of affordable units requiring for us so for example just to in the pre round not you have your requirement of what you have to meet and then you have this unmet need and what that means is in our case we had 998 units that they say are unmeet but we have to prove that we're doing what we can to try and meet them and what that means is that we do like we establish these overlay zonings it's some of the first things that I had to do going to office after the skitzki administration um you know finally resolved or or settled with fair share so we have to find this uh we have to address is in the need of 9998 units we establish these overlay zones and so forth it doesn't mean it'll all get built but we have to prove to them that we have made efforts to enable them to happen if they do get built the stuff that you see on South Avenue and North Avenue that's part of our overlay zones it's going towards our unmet need some of them on may never get built but they are there and that's what we can say we've allowed that opportunity so that was so if that was all built it would provide approximately $69 units but they're not however under this proposed legislation if we had to provide for an additional 25% of this unmet need under this new provision in we would need to provide for approximately 250 new affordable units and because affordable is only 15% of the total it equates to a maximum build out of approximately 1,666 total un new units that's crazy um it's absurd it's unrealistic and it's not even in the realm of good planning or policy so I say this because I want everybody understand the implications of this um and there's many folks like me and other municipalities that have the same concerns but I just want everyone to understand um Additionally the second big concern is that their uncertainty that remains over the extent of Municipal immunity from Builders remedy lawsuits and basically as you well know what that means if we don't make the effort to meet Our obligation Builders can take it to court and sue us and you could end up with a much bigger project than what you would have to do otherwise many municipalities have seen that happen and I'll be honest with you nobody ever wins a builder's remedy lawsuit in court um so that combined with the context of the 25% obligation we would lose sovereignty of our own Planning and Zoning policies under the threat of costly litigation so um I've been working with the New Jersey League of UN municipalities of my capacity as an executive board member I get regular updates we've been talking to John drill our our affordable housing attorney trying to give them what we need um I'm also reaching out directly to influential state senate members to communicate our position to uh ensure and hope for a more Equitable and rational outcome so um we'll see I as written the one siiz fits-all legislation currently under consideration is not one that I would recommend supporting it's not in the best interest of Westfield and we are a want to just go on the record that we are supporters of affordable housing we are probably in exceptional standing with the fair share housing setting and very and we should be very very proud of that we are a fully compliant town and our record and commitment to affordable housing speaks for itself look no further than the veterans housing that we just approved um that being said I implore the legislature to slow down the advancement of both of these bills until our concerns and those of other municipalities can be adequately and fairily addressed so I'll keep you posted um but I just want to bring everybody's attention and highlight what is happening in Trenton and it's happening fast um okay so on our legislative front we are going to have several ordinances on second reading tonight um from the finance policy committee it's that we have the bond ordinance authorizing the purchase of the single family home at 1037 Central Avenue which is adjacent to the Firehouse number two property which we introduced last meeting um as we discussed the fin the property owner is finally ready to sell his property and it's a property that we've been seeking to purchase for over 15 years to accommodate the future expansion res renovation of firehouse number two um I do just want to remind everybody that the current Firehouse is going to stay there indefinitely so even if it has to stay there at Firehouse number two for decades it can this is really only impacting a long overdue and needed upgrade to a new headquarters to address things like proper Canam photo protocols female firefighters and other things so that's we're hopefully adopting that ordinance tonight and then we also have an ordinance out of the code review and town property committee to clarify permitted awning sign Dimensions which I know I think it went through the planning board um for uh compliance last week so with that let's get to work um Miss lley are there any advertising hearings yes mayor there are three advertised hearings tonight starting with special or 20241 Bond or to authorize the acquisition of real property for future use in connection with the expansion of fire department facilities in and for the town of Westfield in the county of un state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of 725,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issu of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes anticipation of the issu of such bonds anyone wishing to be heard on special orance number 20241 please come to microphone state your name and address see no one maying this hearing is closed next is General orance 20245 ordinance to amend the land usein of the town of Westfield to clarify per on sign Dimensions you wish be heard on General 20245 please come to the microphone address record see no one married this hearing is closed 20246 Provisions in the Landin of the town of West relating to proed signs you wish it to be heard on General ordinance 20246 micone this hearing is closed councilman ha good please move for the adoption of special ordinance number 20241 I'd like to move for the adoption of special ordinance number 20241 on second reading Bond Bond ordinance to authorize the acquisition of real property for future use in connection with the expansion of the fire department facilities in by and for the town of West Seal in the county of Union New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $725,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anti ipation notes and anticipation of the issuance of such bonds I have a second second second think Council in armento um any discussion please call the role council members have yes D yes yes keep yes yeso yes contract yes yes this motion is carried councilman contract please move code review and town property ordinances I would like to move for the adoption of general or orance number 20 24-5 on second reading an ordinance to amend the land use ordinance of the town of Westfield to clarify permitted oning signed Dimensions I have a second second councilman Saunders any some guy over there any discussion please call the rolec yes yes yes yes yes yes cont yes yes yes this motion is carried next I'd like to move for the adoption of General ordinance number 202 24-6 on second reading an ordinance to amend certain provisions of the land use ordinance of the town of Westfield related to projecting signs you have a second yes by Council Macky any discussion please call the role Council memb yes yesal yes yes yes yes contract yes yes yes this motion is carried may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the Town Council conference and regular meetings of February 27 2024 by councilman Mackie woman sorry second second by Council ha could any discussion all in favor yesos this motion is carried now it's time for open discussion by citizens anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the Council on any subject on which we have jurisdiction please state your name and address for the record and please limit your comments to five minutes I was waiting for you Keith good evening members of council my name is tell and I live at 241 East Dudley Avenue I rise tonight to lend a few observations I have lived at my presentent address for 51 years and in Westfield 56 years come June I dare say that is longer than almost anyone on the Das in my years living in Westfield I have served as president of many of our Civic organizations served on the board of education served as chairman of the Recreation Commission founded the Westfield Soccer Association founding board chair of Imagine as Center for coping with loss founder of the American Heart Association in Westfield past president member of the Y board past chair of the major gifts division of the United Way presently in my eth year as president of New Jersey Festival Orchestra ad nauseum I mention these not to impress anyone rather to impress upon you my dedication commitment and love of Westfield during the last 56 years I have witnessed Harmony and great Community spirit in that time only on two occasions have I witnessed our town government not listen to the will of the citizens and both resulted in distrust of our government and failure shoppr right and the building of three parking decks all under Republican majorities and now I see history repeating itself I see a divided Community Brightwood Park and the Edison project both went down to defeat because in my opinion our Council and board of education did not listen to the collective Community we now have a lawsuit against the size of the development downtown further dividing the community most citizens want development but not to the size being planned I hear citizens excoriating newly elected councilman because his family owns property in town this very fact should be celebrated not denounced further this very family has been here for generations and many of their relatives have moved back to Westfield what an endorsement as to councilman Saunders I have known him since he's 14-year-old freshman at Westfield High School who made the varsity soccer team very few freshmen make the varsity soccer team he made it through hard work dedication and perseverance this enthusiasm he carried to williiam and Mary College where he excelled in track he then began and built his own business employing hundreds of workers which has allowed him to purchase a nice home in Westfield since we since when we as a country have vilified success especially someone that is homegrown now here we are I personally know everyone on the dis save two folks I everyone I consider and intelligent person dedicated to their respective constituents and friends so how is it that we can't get along as soon as you take your seat you are no longer Democrats or Republicans you are representatives of all the people in your Wards whether you agree with them or not mayor if you will allow me a sports analogy you have just been the winning coach of the Super Bowl and as now during the off season you have through drafts And Trades collected new players to assemble into your system and game plan they come from different systems and may have different ideas you welcome them their ideas their energy and now to continue your winning ways you need to fold them into your vision as a team I have chaired many different organizations and I have found that the best results and the most solid results occur when there is an exchange of ideas and consent mayor you are our leader we need your leadership embrace our new councilman listen to their comments ideas Etc they're not your enemies being kind requires intentionality by being mindful of our words and actions and constantly trying to build each other up rather than tearing each other down perhaps a joint lunch dinner Retreat for all to get to know each other may help believe me we the citizens are behind you all thank you good evening mayor council members Greg Casco 4:34 Everson place I say happy new year because this is the first council meeting I've been to I think since November um while I was away I was able to watch the Council meetings on Facebook and YouTube thanks to this Administration back in the day it was tv36 if the cameras were working sometimes you had to wait a couple days um before I approached the microphone tonight I was looking up online Council on local mandates code of ethics and two things I want to address tonight just want to read one of these and I think it may or may not have to do with the letter that was signed by four councilmen regarding crime and other issues in Westfield that was sent to the state but under a council impartiality number three it states a council member shall neither initiate nor consider expart Communications about substantive matters concerning a pending or impending matter coming before the council the council or any of its members so authorized by the council May with the consent of all parties confer separately with the parties or their councel in an effort to mediate or settle matters pending before the council I don't know if that applies or not I'm not here to excoriate anybody but what I'm here to do is I'm here to provide some facts and at the last last or the last meeting I saw Rob galgano a resident appear before this Council he played a video from councilman Saunders campaign and it was last year um I believe it was a campaign video expressing his fears um regarding One Westfield place and what white what might happen should one Westfield place come to town um I believe correct me if I'm wrong but after Rob sat down um councilman Saunders had brought up the fact that we all own property in Westfield we all should build each other up we should all be happy that you know we're able to afford to live here in fact some council members live in town I'm assuming we meant or he meant the downtown central business district but the difference is there's nine of you that are on Town Council the rest of the population is not on Town Council we don't get to vote on matters that you vote on in executive session um during that video and if you will I'm trying to bring it up here um councilman Saunders you had mentioned about your fears of what your father's business which you have the potential to inherit what might happen to that building once One Westfield Place comes to town and at the February 13th meeting you had made another comment that kind of in my opinion contradicts that and if you'll bear with me I'll play it I have to go to videos here it is uh you mentioned my opposition of one westle place I want to be clear that has nothing to do with my inheritance so in one video again back in last year's campaign season when you had played that video or you had made that video um you had stated the following this building for a very long time he pays almost $150,000 in property taxes and he's scared and I'm scared because I'll probably be one of the people that inherits and helps manage the building what is this building going to be once one west of place comes what so in my opinion I'm looking at those two statements and wondering which one is it I applaud your family um for being able to raise you here my parents raised me here I raised my daughters here for those that may not know we're downsizing and I wish One Westfield place was available now because I want to stay in town um we're looking for other places to move locally um but this is a great town great Town Council I've been coming to town Council meetings since 2010 religiously Mr casy you're almost out of time I'll be out of here in 10 seconds and I can assure you in my appearances at those Town Council meetings it wasn't fair and I will say that since 20 17 things have changed I'm a registered Republican now an independent but this Town Council this Administration has given me a listening ear when councils before didn't and I think you've been very fair with the public thank you thank you Jim boys 122 first place uh good evening mayor and councel uh much has there's been much discussion in the last several meetings regarding uh legal expenses incurred by the town in the defense of the lawsuits against Prospect Ferris in one Westville place and I happen to be watching a replay of actually it was the last council meeting in which you the May the mayor responded to a I guess an inquiry by um a resident regarding those uh expenses and how they were not being picked up by deification agreements and I believe you indicated with respect to the Sofia that there was no Redevelopment agreement in place and uh that seemed very odd to me because I remember in fact that there was so I went back and I looked at the Redevelopment agreement for Prospect Ferris which was adopted back in May of 2022 and I went to section 8.9 indemnification and um I'm going to ask with you to bear with me for a moment but I'm going to read that for those who are listening at home okay the redeveloper for themselves and their successors and assigns Covenant and agree at its sole cost and expense to indemnify defend and hold harmless the town its governing body the respect Ive officers employees agents attorneys and Consultants representatives and employees agents attorneys consultants and the respective signs and successors from any thirdparty claims liabilities losses costs damages penalties and expenses including reasonable attorney's fees resulting from or in connection with Acts or missions of the redeveloper and or of the redevelopers agents employees or consultants in connection with the Redevelopment financing design construction operation or maintenance of the project so in short and really the town is to be commended for negotiating a very strong and comprehensive indemnification agreement um yet you um alleged that the town incurred $20,000 in attorney's expenses in defending the Sofia project and I I guess I'm a little confused and I'm trying to understand how we could have incurred fees that do not fall within that very very broad indemnification agreement um it makes no sense to negotiate such a fine agreement on which is in the best of the town and then not enforce it so I guess perhaps we could drill down a little bit more with regard to those expenses and um if you could with some spec specificity indicate where those expense uh those expenses are coming from is it a case that the developer is refusing to to pick up those costs that he will he willingly agreed to within the confines of this agreement I'm quite honestly I'm just a little confused and if you could offer some more details on that I'd be greatly appreciated thank you very much uh good evening Carla bonach 603 Lawrence Avenue two weeks ago I raised that there is a need for community-based planning for the scattered sites the scattered sites are four four sites total in four acres there should be comprehensive design guidelines community-based planning could produce a set of comprehensive design guidelines to set the vision for what the full community wants and its priorities rather than being on our back foot reacting to some developer proposal tonight you adopted two separate narrowly targeted sign ordinances and the ordinances do not provide an overall sense of what all signs should strive to be within the community context there are no examples or sketches of what is expected in Westfield I looked up suit design guidelines and morest Town's design guidelines and they clearly have a nice set of signage guidelines that could be exemplars for us and I know that um Tom Dar mentioned section 3.7 but my point is that you have to slide log through various sections of the zoning ordinance when it would be nice if it was all in one place we also checked the downtown west field corporation website and there's nothing in that regard other than they help people fund it uh we have these opportunities like the scattered sites to shape our town in proper planning sequence it's also not too late for the North Avenue overlay Zone which is developed in an ad hoc fashion with the Franklin 500 North Avenue and there's another little building um with these wings at the roof uh now is the time for the town to develop and adopt some comprehensive design guidelines for these substantial development Parcels that can be supported by the community the council could identify and establish a working Committee of residents and business operators to help count staff to advance this effort that need not be costly nor time consuming these there are models to emulate let's collaborate towards consensus before it's too late and start small with signage guidelines thank you uh Carrie Murphy 502 cotting Road as always These are My Views My Views alone at the last council meeting the administration took time to read text from a recent litigation and in my view it felt like publicly like publicly shaming those taxpaying residents members of the Westfield Advocates and others for proactively trying to save their town from massive overdevelopment that then in my view was forced upon taxpayers by this Administration the following is a small portion of the text that's concerning as I feel it belittles residents who don't support the current agenda here's the portion it's important to know that the Westfield Advocates litigation has so far cost taxpayers 70k to defend 50k for One Westfield place and 20K for the sopia thank you for that Clarity on the Sophia they have now filed an appeal in the Sophia case where the taxpayers will once again putot the bill to defend a lawsuit that Advocates themselves as admittedly uh they have little to no chance of winning while they also continue to solicit donations to support their legal fees in both cases with that being said and with the litigation behind us I want to reassure those who have concerns about One Westfield place that we hear you you do I honestly feel that statement is hard to believe since we've been asking many questions bringing up many concerns and so far almost zero of them have been answered that I know of but I could be wrong if you did in fact hear us taxpayers would not be getting up here week after week month after month and now year after year writing LTE sending emails in gener that generally go unanswered what's being communicated in these meetings in the Facebook post we get by the administration as it relates to One Westfield place and other overd developments can begin to feel like empty words as many are aware and I believe the administration is as well there were a number of things that came into play well before the litigation just in case here's a brief refresher of some of the things that I can recall during the covid global lockdown the town was blighted thus rendering taxpayers essentially without a voice our right to vote a legal vote was stripped from US based on the entire town being deemed as blighted as I understand it by blighting the entire town taxpayers not only lost their voice but the administration gained more power power to change zoning laws and other such extremely important things that helped to keep Westfield the Charming town that it was the town we all moved to spent lots of money on a house to raise our families created memories essentially the Integrity of our town as we know it felt lost when too much power was gained by the administration and lost by the residents when we went through all of the meetings and the zoom calls and we care so much about your opinions and other such nonsensical phrases all the smoke and mirror games um we realized it was a smok and mirrors games and our voices didn't really come into play and that there was a greater plan that didn't involve us the taxpayers had some very important questions and received few answers to my knowledge and know sending people to an FAQ doesn't count as answers in my book the administration denied us a non-binding referendum vote they said it was not legal taxpayers showed proof that it was legal however during one of the council meetings we were told we would not get a non-binding vote because they didn't want an up and down vote the administration essentially ignored a petition that was signed by well over 2500 residents who had concerns it was ignored and we were told as it is not all common in these meetings that we didn't have the facts or we were misinformed Etc the administration didn't really consider the tap into survey that was done it was pretty much reflected the it was which pretty much reflected the same that the petition did so you see long before litigation came into play we went down many different paths to try and get an understanding to try and get ERS and to try and be heard by ta uh and taxpayers faced roadblock after roadblock after roadblock funny though I thought the developers didn't the developers didn't seem to face roadblocks in many ways and in my view the red carpet was rolled out it seemed they were actually taking the Reigns so before we try to shame taxpayers we should lay out what came before the litigation while on this subject if you're going to reference wasting taxpayer dollars perhaps we should reference some more waste or at least you know a little bit perhaps one of the biggest strains on the taxpayer may not be immediate but down the line will be the O will be that over the decades long life of the streetworks pilot the residents of Westfield will likely have to pay millions more to fund our schools because Street works is paying nothing toward the school budget for the development properties as is the nature of a pilot unless there's been some earmark by the municipality which I haven't heard the 250,000 for the installation of water and electricity for a restaurant at the train station why again is that a taxpayer burden two years down the line do we have a general idea of the number of tax dollars that have been spent since 2020 on the overdevelopment projects the Consultants the meetings the presentations M Murphy I'm sorry try stop shaming taxpayers who are concerned thank you uh about a town they love enough is enough okay let's let mockery and democracy not confuse each other thank you seeing none I close this portion of the meeting um uh just to address a few things so Mr herel thank you for coming thank you for your Decades of service to Westfield appreciate the comment um um you know the good news Spide to you sitting here I think the nine of us are doing a pretty good job of getting along and I think we would all agree with that and um uh I think our meetings in committees and behind the scenes have been cordial Cooperative we've had very collaborative so you should in spite of maybe what you're assuming I think actually what we're discovering is that we're working really well together and so I think that's great news I was kind of chuckled when you mentioned a retreat I think the sunshine laws might have a problem with us going on a retreat together and uh I mean the downside quite frankly of those Sunshine laws it does preclude us from actually being spending time together as a group as you well know so but I think in spite of that so far in the short amount of time we work together that it's been cordial collegial and respectful and I think we're going to continue to do that and I'd like to feel like their ideas have been heard and vice versa so you should feel great and our community should feel great about that so well it should and yeah and um yeah I second motion yeah so yeah I don't think anybody's arguing with that i' like to I don't want to think I pretend I'm speaking for everybody but that's certainly the way um it's been and it's been a really great I think pleasant surprise for probably all of us and so the community should feel really great about that um um Tom do you want to address Mr boy's comments about the legal costs because we we're not making it up just seeing know yeah I thought you might ask me that mayor and as you know I neither drafted or negotiated that so I'm going to punt for tonight because I want to consult with Redevelopment Council and get back to the Council on that okay got it um but Mr Jordine before you leave the mic um my understanding of the indemnification Clause that Mr boy read at the mic is that the only time that the developer would be responsible is if they did not withand end up to their responsibilities so it says a lot of things but what it really comes back to is the fact that you're responsible if you don't uphold your own obligations under the agreement and as far as I know that that was not had nothing to do with the case that was brought by the Westfield Advocates against the Sophia yeah I think he was um reading from a section I think 9.8 of that Redevelopment agreement I don't think that's a correct 8.9 sorry and uh I think the correct section is actually the definition of town costs and that's why to consult with Mr Millen on that so thank you um and miss binachi your comments are duly noted which will be passed on to Don samit and um councilor Macky who's chair of the code review no not anymore but I was when we talked about the signs in the first place um we agree with you our our sign um ordinance is very convoluted and it is something that we have been um working behind the scenes and Summit is been the gold standard of a community that has a very clear ordinance to follow it's not an easy thing to undo but it is something um that Don samit has already been looking at for quite some time uh tonight's second reading ordinance was really just tweaking um fine tuning ordinance that are ordinances that already existed and when we did the blade sign ordinance a few years ago it was was far more extensive there were many photos and samples and we did a walk around town uh so to allay your concerns that was absolutely done and I will say that even though our ordinance is complicated we have an outstanding design chair in Peg Lockwood who's been with the downtown Westfield Corporation for 15 or 20 years and she handholds everybody the downtown westfi corporation uh provide provides sign facade assistance and they really do an amazing job I believe every time um somebody comes into town and avails themselves we see something that's wonderfully in keeping with uh the district's sensibilities and I think you can look forward to more of that in the future and um and Miss Murphy your comments are duly noted and um we had a very good conversation about pilots and schools in the conference session session um which I think was very informative for everybody there so um and uh Jim Mr G and I met with the school district yesterday specifically talk about schools and needs and capital projects Etc so I can only assure you and the public that we have a probably closest relationship with the school than we've ever had in the history and um it's in our best interest to make sure that we have well-funded well educated kids to make sure that Westfield maintains one of the primary reasons why people choose to move here and we are committed to doing that so um with that um we will move on to oh and I'm sorry councilman Saunders I apologies do you want to address that comment yeah if I can address Mr cas's comment and Mr hertel's comment um first Mr hertell appreciate the uh the kind words and I want to Echo what uh mayor brindle said I do feel like and I think I can speak for a lot of us I don't want to say most of us um that things are very cordial we are working very well here together but I think that takes the entire Council and I think it takes help with the residents as well um Mr Casco to your question on that video I've addressed it a few times so I'm not really going to address it again but I guess my ask for you is in order to keep us United and the town united we need to focus on topics facing our town right there's really difficult things facing our town that we're all sharing ideas agreeing and disagreeing and we all want to unite here um I have had a lot of residents from last meeting and the meeting before come up to me and say why why do you do this right you go on you you you lend your time you go up here and all people do is go up there and try to crush you for um personal matters and I just hope that as residents and as the council we don't do that to people up here people that are giving their time because we want other people up here helping the town we want residents we want to talk about real key issues so my ask for you is like let's try to focus on uniting the council let's try to focus on uniting the town and let's focus on real issues facing the town I'm happy to talk to you about anything else personal outside of that but I I really don't think I need to address that again and again I want to Echo what the mayor said we're working really well together up here I'm not sure if you can see it um from that side but I'll be the first one to say the first few meetings were Rocky but we got there and we're we're heading in a good direction sure you know I was not going to say anything but I just can't uh sit here good conscious and let Todd always have to defend himself that one of us saying something and I would say this if the comments were made about anybody else in the council there have been multiple people that have said this multiple times that Todd has some sort of ethical issue that needs to be resolved without citing or quote or St some standard by which this should be measured against and without that these comments are nothing more than gratuitous attacks and I for one will hope that they stop after tonight if you you think that Mr Saunders should somehow recuse himself or step down make a formal application and we'll hear it or somebody will hear it whatever the standard is but to keep coming up here and commenting on this young man's finances and his father is getting absurd and so I would say this if it happened to anybody else in the council and he shouldn't have to defend himself by himself every week on this that's all okay so all right um so mayor if I could just address one one thing with respect to um there is a local government government ethics law as all of you know and uh you are all bound by it as all public officials are and to the extent that anybody has to take action on something in which they may have a conflict um we will provide you the legal guidance at that time when it's necessary to determine whether to recuse yourself I can assure the mayor and the council that that advice and guidance is not going to be given in this form or in public um but uh yes you all of course take your obligations under the local government ethics law seriously and when the time comes for a vote to be taken and if you have to recuse we'll have that discussion then thank you okay so moving on to bills and claims councilman have good I'd like to move bills and claims in the amount of [Music] $653,000 authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant to replenish bul mail permit two resolution authorizing the CFO to draw warrant for dog licenses for February 2024 three a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant for overpay taxes four a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Rec Recreation Department fees Five a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Police Department fees and six a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Street opening cash Bond you have a second second by Mackie uh any discussion all in favor yes yes opposed this motion has carried and then I'd also like to move a resolution authorizing the CFO to make a budget transfer you have a second my Council contract any discussion please call the role council members yes yes yes yes yes yes Contra yes yes yes this motion is carried next up is Public Safety transportation and parking committee Council Guardia thank you mayor I'd like to move a resolution authorizing a maintenance agreement with flock safety for automated license plate readers may I have a second second second by Council Founders any discussion all in favor yes opposed this motion has carried may I have a motion I'm sorry just before you end the meeting I just wanted to remind everyone that the next council meeting two weeks from today is the presentation of the budget so I would encourage all of you to come and bring your friends participate you'll it's you're going to like it so may I have a motion to adjourn so move by councilman Mackie second second second by Council Daria all in favor yesos this motion is carried and this meeting is a Jour good night everybody good night