7:02 pm and would you please read the open public meeting act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by foring a copy to the Cur new star lend and posting on the township website at least 48 Hours far to the meeting all in accordance with the open public meetings act this meeting will not substantially go past 10:30 roll call Madam clerk Mr Kudo abson Mr Donnelly here Mr Foster here Mrs zillis here Mr Mrs po you all please rise for the flag Al indivisible liy and jusice for can we make a not to change the flag oh to change it out oh yes all right feeling this was our backup got mov okay Mr Foster okay where is the provisions of the open public meetings act njsa 104-1 at secc provide the public body moov executive session they exclude the public that portion of a meeting at which the public body discusses I'm good I had that check I got home n g s a somebody I'm sure uh 10 412b and 12b parentheses 7 and whereas the township Council the township has determined it necessary move into ex executive session to discuss the following subjects all of which are included in the AET exceptions attorney client privilege contract negotiations chief of police therefore be resolved by the Town Council of Township of Berkeley Heights and does hereby move to the executive session pursuant to sa 10 4-12 B and 12b parthy 7 to discuss the opper matters and is further resolved that the opper said discussions shall be made public either at a public meeting following the set executive session or at any such time as any litigated or personal matters are concluded or upon conclusion of any negotiations or related discussions or as otherwise specified and as further resolved this solu resolution shall take effect for service the law approved this 21st day of May 202 twister have a second second roll call Madam clerk Mr donelly yep Mr fer yes Mrs Ellis yes Mrs poke yes okay we will now executive session and return to uh our two conference matters and then into the regular agenda just the public e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e so tiny but so mighty just e but whatever it is what it is how is school wait don't you have school tonight oh that's it's okay right well uh senior assassin started yesterday not really yeah but unfortunately Patrick got well Patrick was out helping to get his shooting person he needed to shoot he he has a friend of the person he was shooting help him but then the person that he ended up shooting set up Patrick so it it was like he he did the kill and then he got he got he got he did the kill and then he got killed yeah yeah yeah so he's out I said well you lasted 20 you know 36 hours that's better than some yeah e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Anis yes well there is cancer in his head and Nest I don't know um I don't know exactly I think I read something on the FV of 2.5 or over you're not on 4.6 4.8 3 3.5 you're not on mute but I'm not sure how to e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e moving on to conference session um first up we have an update on the affordable housing situation and uh Eric noan would you be so kind as to come forward and introduce yourself and lead the discussion name's AR Nolan I'm the Township's affordable housing attorney I've been the attorney for uh since 2013 so I've been involved with the entire third round and now we're getting ready for round four so the presentation strictly about what's going on what the new laws that are coming that just got signed into into by the governor and how that's going to impact the town so I'm going to go through that so the new bill was introduced in January of 2024 um there was a lot of push back the bill was probably drafted by the developers and housing Advocates rather than municipalities municipalities was not involved um so when the bill came out there was a lot of push back from the league of municipalities and a lot of different towns um to like try to at least make the CH make changes to the bill so that it's a little bit more Town friendly and that occurred like there were people push back in the mayor you didn't B so people push back and managed to get some amendments made to the bill but the bill was adopted um on March 18th and Governor Murphy signed it on March 20th so we have and what the bill did has completely changed the fair housing act in the way and all the affordable housing laws that we've had um for the past 30 years and not for the better but it is what it is and we're going to have to live with this process I'm here to tell you about what that process is what we're going to be going through to get through that process so back in the day I'll go really quick you you would get your housing element fair share plan approved for round you could either go to COA Council affordable housing you could go to the the court and get a judgment of compliance or Repose um but in 2015 when Co wasn't processing the plans well the the Supreme Court ruled at Mount 4 decision that Co wasn't functioning and they kicked it to the court so we've spent the last nine years in court battling these um cases out one by one in Berkeley Heights we what you ended up having to do is you would settle with the housing Advocate fer your housing center first and then do your plan which was completely backwards way of doing it and bogg down but we were able to get our Judgment of compliance and repos in 2018 here in Berkeley Heights for round three um and that and that you've seen in round 10 you can see that that's being implemented at this point um and we're we're in really good shape in that we just have a small Gap left we have I think it's some like 30 38 units left and that's going to be closed we're working on the town is focusing on that closing that Gap out for round three because round before starts on July 1st of 2025 so and you're going to have to still be responsible if there's a gap so right now we're focused on getting that Gap done and when the when we switch to round four what's gonna this is what's going to happen and I want to go through the process there's a instead of COA Co has been abolished completely instead of the Court there's a new entity called the program sounds scary right yes uh the program has made up of seven retired Mount judges and those judges were just appointed on M so we have the list of the judges a couple on my leg some it should be fun seven retired malal judges so they're ready to go the program is going to process the plans they're going to have people under them to help them they're going to process the plans they're also going to have the power to strip your immunity immunity from the town if you're not cooperating and following the procedures properly so immunity as you probably know but I'll go through it briefly is the most important thing municipality gets that protects you from Builders remedy lawsuits that protects you from lawsuits from housing Advocates so that a builder can't say hey my site I want you to build 5,000 units on my site which they could do to build this Rue if you're not complying if you're not participating in the process right now we have a judgment of compliance or oppos is in place around three so a builder can't do that but in order to stay current we're going to have to make sure that we keep our immunity going into round four um so what what happens if you lose your immunity in the program you're going to be immediately kicked the court and the problem with that is that's going to be a race of the Court between the town trying to file a declaratory judgment action to protect itself and the Builder filing a builder's remedy which is a much easier thing to file so what's going to end up happening Builders are going to know that happened they're going to file a complaint which can be three pages and suddenly you have Builder's remedy in your town so that my job is to make sure that that doesn't happen so we're going to make sure we follow all the steps step by step and I'm going to go through right now what those deadlines are they're coming up because they're coming up pretty soon we have two deadlines this year but there're smaller deadlines they're just giving your affordable housing trust fund accounting to the DCA and an accounting of where you are with your progress for the for the third round okay we built this project we did that we have one deadline that's in June we have another one in in um September those are being handled internally that's not a big deal we've done those kind of reportings before we're going to take care of that the first big thing that happens though between October 20th and December 1st the DCA is going to issue a report that that gives you the regional need and the municipalities fair share numbers so that's going to be your numbers numbers are going to come out in this report now unlike Co when Co released numbers back in the day that would be your number okay here's our number and you start working on it all right how are we going to meet this number not this not in this case this number is you can challenge the number you can say so let's say the number comes out it's 100 you can say you can have your planner look at it you can have an expert look at it and say we want to you know we think it's 75 but by January 31st which is if it's not released in December which is probably more likely knowing how the state works that they to hit the later deadline if it's not released until December you're going to have two months to decide if that number is adequate or if you want to challenge the number and then you have to adopt a binding resolution hand it in the program by January 31st saying okay we accept a number or this is our the number that we're going to defend we think it should be 75 not 100 for whatever reasons we our expert comes up with if you don't commit to that number you get your immunity stripped okay that's the first strip immunity so we have to make sure that we either accept a number or come up with another number by February 28th an interested party can challenge the number too so now you can have a developer or you can have a housing Advocate say you think it's 75 we don't think it's 75 we think it's your 200 and now they're going to come in and they're going to object now if nobody comes in on March 1st you have your number set now you're ready to start planning if somebody comes in then you're going to have to fight against them you're going to have to go for the program and make your case and say we think number should be this the developer is going to say the number should be this housing advoc you know it's have a totally different number by March 31st the program has to make a decision on what the number is going to be so they're gonna they're going to say okay town you got to write your number is what you said town you got to completely wrong your number was really bad like you guys were obviously trying to like you know cheat the system let's say we're going to strip your immunity that's another option they have the third option is you know it was close we're just going to adjust the numers slightly so it's not 75 it's not it's not 200 we're going to make it 100 and they're going to adjust the number that other experts adjusted so by March 31st you're going to have a number that we're going to have to now plan for by June 30th which isn't too much after that we're going to have to adopt a housing El fair share plan to hit whatever that number is okay and you but one good thing that I like that there's a there's some positives I'm I'll go through the positive is that you don't have to have all your implementing ordinances and resolutions adopted when you hand the plan in like you used to have to before COA back in the old days now you can just have a draft of those documents which I think makes a big difference because now you can make changes to the plan while you're going through the process you can adopt those later I'll get to when you can adopt them but your plan has to be done and adopted with the draft ordinances it has to cover make it's going to go back and say make sure you did round one two and round three properly if there's any gaps they're going to want that that filled and then round four um if you do not adopt your housing on the share plan and turned in guess what happens get your immunity you get your immunity and you're back in court you probably have a developer coming after you right um Now by August 31st is the deadline for developers or housing aths to challenge you so that can now now they can challenge your plan they can't challenge the number anymore but now they can go after your plan and like that plan's not act plan you know that that's a non realistic project look at my great project I have over here but it does specifically say which I like in the parent hous act now that a developer can't just say hey my sight's better than the sites in your plan they can't just say you know when our site it's better is they have to show a real strong reason why your site is not adequate okay in court so I think that that's a good change that wasn't in the fair housing act before so that's a positive thing for towns um now if nobody files any complaint against you by August 31st then they will analyze your plan and give you what's called a compliance certification which is the same as a judgment of compliance inter propos or substance certification back when COA which gives you protection from all Mal Laural lawsuits including Builder remedies for 10 years so that means we've we've been protected all the way to 2035 okay so your plan's in place and then you just have to implement your plan build up whatever projects you have do what you have to do that's August 31st that's your deadline to object now if someone does object which is probably very likely and I doubt this especially a town where there's something available to attack you're going to see developers attack they're going to they're going to object by August 31st then there's a time period they give it from August 31st to December 31st of 2025 to work that out so okay you going have to redo your plan and maybe you do a deal with a developer you work them into the plan that's one option or you say nah we don't want the developer we don't need a developer and you fight him but either way you're going to have to by December 31st you have to tell the program that you're going to fold them into your plan or you're not going to fold them into the plan so what happens then is if you fold them into the plan you get a compliance certification if you don't the battle continues but this and then the last deadline while this battle will still continue until they resolve this the program resolves it or they kick you to court for a court to resolve it that could happen too I can see that happening on March 15 2026 which is the final deadline you have to adopt all of your implementing resolutions and ordinances which is good that's pretty far off that that's not the way we've done in the past and I like that they give you plenty of time to adopt those and if you're still battling with developers and you're still having a fight in court you don't have to adopt them until the battle's over so that might push that deadline off a little bit some of the other good things in the bill that I like is attorney fees are no longer everyone has to Bear their own attorney fees what ended up happening in round three was everybody settled with f your housing center and they charged attorney fees or made towns pay their attorney fees which was extortion was ridiculous so we tried to fight it but towns ended up caving in a lot of times because you know it's it was less expensive just to pay $40,000 at at the fairity center than to pay legal fees to fight you know $100,000 to fight the $40,000 fees so it was a really not a good situation but we don't have to settle with fair share now which is good too so now we're going to put our plan forward and then a fair share they can attack the plan but that we don't have to do a settlement with them which was actually excruciating to try to try to settle with fairy Center I've had I mean I just I was still settling cases this I just finished um a town last week you know and it's nine years into the into the round we're still just finally settled with fair housing center so that we can get through this round get through the round for that town um so Berkeley Heights though we wrapped up pretty early on you went pretty well but a lot of the CH that's not always the case so that's that's a godsent I think that we don't have to settle with them but they're still going to be around they're still going to cause trouble they're still going to come after us some of the other building really quickly some of the requirements you still have to do very low income units that's in the Fair Housing Act they didn't change that 133% you still have to do rental units 25% you have to do 50% of your units have to be family units they've allowed some newer things transitional housing if you have some of those kind of facilities in your town up to 10% of your fair share you can you can get credit for that the other one other good thing they did was the age restricted cap used to be 25% they raised it to 30% so now you can do 30% of your round four number can be ad districted units Which is less impactful on your schools and everything else so people like ad districted better we try to maximize those those numbers what was that percent I'm sorry 30 30 you just repeat those from the 133% really low you mentioned two other ones yeah 133% very low which is the same as it's always been 25% rentals you have to do at least 25 5% of your round four number is rental units that's the same as it's always been that that's not changed this next requirement is a little bit different 50% family with kids see they want to make sure you get so that's just language like that scattered all over how do you guarantee that there are going to be children that's a practical question you can't no practical question they didn't figure that out when they didn't 15% five 50 50% has to be family units whether they're for sale or whether they're rentals um the transitional hous up to 10% only of your obligation so what is Transitional hous that' be like um a a place for like battered women facility something like that it's transitional so people don't stay there can also get credits for grof homes those are permanent housing units and those you get a credit for each bedroom so that's a better that's a better way to get credits but this is something new that they just came up but they have a bunch of rules on how you have to you know people have to qualify and you know each time we'll analyze whether or not they have them we haven't I don't think we haven't really gone through whether we have one here in Berkeley he if we do we we'll look into it group or transitional sorry we have I don't think we have transitional have some group group count those right there there might be so we expl we'll explore that see if we can get those credits that's 10% of your obligation um so and and you also have to make sure they're adaptable for um for in in case there's hand handicap people anything like that you have to make sure they're adaptable if they're not if you don't do that you get your immunity STP the final thing I want to talk about is the vacant land adjustment now Berkeley Heights if you can't hit your number you don't have enough land you get What's called the vacant land adjustment where you adjust your number down so if your number is 100 you say hey I can only do 25 and you have your planner show that Berkeley Heights had a a small vac adjustment we couldn't get quite to our number of 389 so we had it adjust it down to 359 that is a smaller one usually they're much bigger than that um but that that's the 30 unit Gap at the back that they're trying to fill because to hit that number if it if we fig if we can hit the number it's better to hit the number because then you get your bonus credits you're allow 25% of your units to be bonus credits so that means those don't have to be real units that's two for one that's a bonus credit for a group home uh bedroom so you want to maximize your bonus credits you don't get to do that with um an RDP you do but the number shrunk down so you're going to have less bonus credits but if it's turns out that we have to do a vacant land adjustment we will do that we'll have our planner Mike mrea do that um the one problem I didn't like in the bill is that they they sneak little words in like reasonable density which wasn't in there which is lawyer you know language that getting crank to density up so I'm concerned they're going to you're going to have developers argue well it should be 30 unit breaker not 60 unit breaker you're going to have battles over your RDP where it might get to the point where you might just have to do the whole number anyway so we'll see how that that battle goes as and they have your bonus credits that I just spoke of they introduced a whole slew of new bonus credits to get to your 20 you're allowed to do 25% of your entire round four obligation as bonus credits and there's all different types you get a bed for one bedroom of a group home you get a bonus credit you do a market to Affordable unit you get a bonus credit you do 100% affordable projects you get bonus credits um very low income above the 133% so if you did 15% very low you get bonus credits on the 2% that go about 13 you get bonus credits if you're near Transit which might work here in Berkeley Heights because there's training station so that's good um you get e restricted bonus but only up to 10% of your e restricted units so they limit that it's not good you get bonuses for three bedroom family housing you get bonuses for redevelopment you get half a bonus credit for each unit that's part of a Redevelopment project um so this there's a bunch you know these the planner is going to have to figure out how we get to our 25% but we'll make sure we get to the 25% we make sure we maximize our age restricted that's what you always want to try to do so in conclusion I just want to you know this is going to be a long process it's going to be convoluted the bill the people that put this bill out said oh this is going to you know reduce litigation I don't think that's G to be true at all I think developers are going to attack and we're Court more under this program than before but we'll see we'll see how it goes there's some good things so um that's it I don't have a one Qui question um the bonus credits in your Transit how close do you have to be to the train station um this would I think it's like I I I'm not know the exact number but it's it's half a mile or something like that so you can get the credits like I think a lot of the products here would have qualified for that if they had it but it didn't matter we got we got all the bonuses around three that we wanted to get so so I have a question sure when back in the beginning when you were going through the dates you said that sometime between October 20th and December 1st we'll get the report or the reports will be published the report will come out the numbers that's right so then between December 1st in January 31st because January 31st is when we have to adopt the resolution you said that we can modify if you you can either accept the number or you can have if you feel there's a reason that that number is not acceptable that you think that the DCA made State it's be very difficult to do they're going to do that on purpose but you could try to get you know you still try to challenge out your planner challeng it maybe hire an expert in challeng there's experts that do this kind of thing so we'll see when the number comes out for Berkeley Heights and we'll you know we'll make we'll we'll let everybody we'll be like okay this number looks like they made mistakes in it because my firm does we've we've been involved with numbers dro the last round so we're pretty good at calculating the number so we'll figure out if it's a if it's a solid number if there's a problem with the number okay and go but we have to pass adopt the resolution by January 31st which means like it has to happen in advance so that's not that number that we're passing a resolution on is that our statement of what we think or is that a negotiation you're accept the number from the DC you're gonna accept the number from the DCA or you're going to say we think the number should be X instead you can say what that number is so then we just say what we think the number is so they arbitrary you can't arbitr no I know but let's say they give us 250 and we say that's not you think yeah your experts look at it we justify what we think the number is and we submit it back to DC I'm definitely back to DCA and then they do we submit it back to DCA or do we pass a resolution no the 31st you have that your number done yeah and you're stuck with that number through the battling process and you mean we have to have our number and and we think it's reasonable and DCA has accepted it if we're going to challenge it okay so I guess that's not a lot of time if you're wondering how we getting that done in two months and we're not the only Town that's going through this yeah oh you you came up with the other problem like there's be you know last time 300 60 municipalities canli out of the 530 whatever there are so all the towns will be hand these things in at the exact same time so I'm sure the state is so efficient that they'll just get it all done easily this the whole thing get jammed up and they're I have the same question with March 31st deadline because that's when the program has to look at you know our number their number R number The Challenge number that's correct and come up with a decision but they only have a month between the challenge date and when they're giving us a firm decision we're not the only town and that's correct you you're just being logical okay you just can't do that I just want right it's gonna there's gonna be a big problems you to see it come as a train Rec week but we're going to do what we have to do but once you get that number it might take them six months to do that they might extend a deadline you going see well you know we can't process we haven't had enough time so we're going to extend the deadline I'm sure I'm sure that's going to happen they're going to realize not work they still they they have it divided into regions so each judge doesn't have well they I'm not they haven't really said how they're going to do that yet the program now consist of seven judges that were appointed they didn't say whether they're going to split them up into have them each cover a different region that hasn't been that they haven't saided what they're doing yet very so maybe they'll do that that would be a logical way to handle it but we'll say we're going to find out and then the other thing what right at the top of the presentation you said in 2024 there were a couple of things that we had to do first one of them was the affordable housing trust fund accounting yeah and what is the other you have to have you have to hand in and this is under our current settlement for round three we had to do this every year anyway so you basically just say this is what we have in our affordable housing trust fund that will be collected this is what we expended this is how many this is what we've done as far as building housing this past year you know we've done we built this project this project is currently for planning board this project you just it's like a status update report basically that you're going to get essentially they're all built up except for the king site and that'll be be done so you know ber height is actually pretty far ahead which is really good that put in a very strong position going court because we've done we got bonus credits for that for doing what we're supposed to do we thought for that you should get some sort of credit for being good girls and boys and doing the right thing right said you're poster child yes and that's it and you get nothing I don't I don't know if that's a v Bond or not which it's good in court as far as being depend on the court so okay so we if I remember correctly when um Mr Jess did a presentation a while ago November when November um and we reviewed where we were you said 33 units but that's not 33 Apartments a 38 unit Gap was 38 unit 38 unit Gap and and there was still seven bonus credits out there so if you get the 38 you still there were seven more bonus credits you could stretch out to the full number I thought we the number 31 so that's where that's you get that's where you're getting your 31 from your 31 is coming from subtracting the bonus RS out I remember as 31 yeah so you actually have to build 31 actual units to plug together real unit affordable units yes right so that's times x number right market rate so other questions anybody else have any questions I always allow the public to come up and ask questions before we allow you to leave and enjoy the rest of your evening does anybody from the public have any specific questions on what Eric and and just to um uh to add on we do have a resolution number eight U we have a m Laural committee um we had make some minor tweaks council president former council president um but we do meet on a regular basis and we will start to have a very regular schedule as soon as some of these timelines and deadlines are approaching so um we are working actively on on this subject anybody else have any other questions for Eric Mr Nolan this evening all right thank you great presentation appreciate it she online Lia name is Felicia so we have a second conference session but I'm not sure that the person is are they going to zoom in someone was going to zoom in but I thought someone was going to be here in person the DAT that confusing because we kept changing things around yeah I guess we just spoke to her today okay okay we'll give it it AE what did John L lenon say life is what happens when you're busy making other plans that's right I don't have a text from her email so I guess we I told her to be here by 8 before 8 so 23 okay well we'll move on and then for some reason maybe she hit traffic or something happened we can stop and do a presentation and just keep me apprised if you do see her and I don't notice okay so moving on from the conference session into the regular agenda and the approval of the minutes um I move at the minutes of the regular meeting of the township Council held on a 30 as distributed second any discussion roll call please Mrs Donnelly yes Mr fer yes MRIs Mr M yes Mrs po yes and I move to open the hearing on agenda items only second anybody second sorry discussion Mrs an MRIs Mr Machado yes okay comments are welcomed during the public comment period during this meeting on any agenda item however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please fold your comments for that particular hearing to make your comment the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to three minutes the mayor or council president will keep time please promptly yield on the floor when time is called and return to your seat your cooperation in adherence to these rules of order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting so with that the hearing on the agenda items only right there I don't know I heard something oh okay oh we'll get this part I'm GNA count down from five four three two one seeing no one I move to close the hearing on agenda items I'll second that any discussion roll call Mr Don Mr Foster MRIs Mr Machado Mrs yes okay Paul you have first resolution one approving Bill list dated May 21st 2024 in the amount of 491648 25 I'll second that any discussion roll call please Mr Donnell yes Mr pler yes Mr zillis yes Mr rard yes M Poe yes I bring forth resolution number two authorizing the appointment William of William I chief of police for the township of Berkeley Heights second any discussion yeah i' just like to say one thing um I am abstaining from the vote however I respect Bill a lot and I think he deserves a position and I would have voted yes so just wanted everybody to know that thank you Paul um I'm also gonna speak or Susan I'm sorry want be the cleanup crew and I'll go sounds good so I also wanted to say um I was thinking what leadership qualities uh people have that make a great leader and then I specifically looked into law enforcement so leaders in law enforcement must be able to articulate their goals expectations and intentions in a clear and concise manner strong communication helps to ensure all members of the team are on the same page and working toward a common goal and a good leader should have integrity self-awareness courage respect compassion and resilience so transformative transformational leaders create an environmental employees desire to go above and beyond the required expect ations because they're working hard towards shared goals and these are some of the things that I see in Captain IES and I'm really excited for him to be our chief hopefully thank you Susan goe first um I just wanted to say I've got to know ke and IES a little bit since I've been on Council and I've seen the respect that he treats residents and his fellow officers um he's always helpful he's um I think he'll be a fabulous leader for the department and bring a sense of stability um so yes thank you great comments yeah I just want to say uh coming from the law enforcement background that I have um and the officers and the Chiefs that I've worked for uh Captain IES is a head and shoulders above everybody out there um he is uh very respectful he is he's just he's just a decent Guy and um sometimes you know it's just you don't expect that out out of police officers but he is he is excellent and I'm glad he's G to be our new Chief thank you thank you John Bill do you want to say anything no thank you all right so I've known Billy IES for quite some time as first of all he's been he's served this community for 27 years and that is an incredibly honorable amount of time to serve a community especially in law enforcement um Billy captain has uh started as a dispatcher so he is literally worked from the bottom up to the top um it is incredibly fortuitous through circumstances that he is going to be our chief I've seen his leadership qualities in action um happen to be able to have known him for the last 20 years both personally and professionally um he is legitimately one of the funniest people I know so you should you probably Mike probably knows um you don't always see that side of him he's got this really biting white amazing humor um so it is going to be my incredible honor once the vote happens uh to sign this executive order so uh Captain if you're out there thank you and we're looking forward to a beautiful future with you roll call Mrs Donley Mr Foster absolutely yes Mrs zis yes Mr Machado yes this poke yes all right Billy if you're out there G make it official 3 designating the property on block 702 Lots 4 6 and 16 as non-c condation area in need of Redevelopment pursuant to the local Redevelopment and Housing law 414 to 424 Springfield Avenue and 458 Springfield Avenue and three and 230 Sherman Avenue I'll second that any discussion roll call please Mrs anell yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zis yes Mr Machado yes Mrs po yes bringing forth uh resolution number four awarding a professional service contract to meglia engineering for for surveying engineering construction Management Services 2024 miscellaneous drainage improvements Martin's Lane and an amount not to exceed $199,990 I'll second it any discussion roll call please sit down Mr Foster Mr zis Mr Machado yes M yes now I move resolution five authorizing the township to enter into a national purchasing Cooperative agreement with by Board second any discussion Mr Donell Mr Mr fer yes Mr zillis yes Mr Mach yes Mrs po yes Paul I think it's you oh sorry I move on resolution sixing the award payment 2023 L benefits Top members of the volunteer second any discussion roll call Mr Don Mr poer Mr sis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Po yes I bring forth resolution number seven authorizing temporary emergency Appropriations second any discussion roll call Mr Don Mr poer yes Mr zis yes Mr Machado yes Mrs poke yes um I'm a resolution updating the resolution 8 updating the membership of the Mount Laurel subcommittee to assist the township and addressing affordable housing issues second any discussion roll call Mr Cudo Mrs Ann Mr Foster yes Mrs Mr Mado yes Mrs po yes I move resolution number nine appointing Ryan SAS s SAS and Jeremy snas to the active roster of the Berkeley Heights Fire department I will second that any discussion yes I have to say something I know both I know both of these two boys personally and I can tell you something right now they're going to be excellent members of the fire department uh they played hockey with my son Kyle and they are just they're just great kids they really are and they're going to do fabulous so I'm glad they're glad they're there yeah I was I was happy to see these two names on this agenda as well um their service yes thank you for their service roll call Anna Mr Donnelly Mr fer absolutely yes yes Mr Machado yes po yes um before we do Council reports though I think that our um conference presenter is here can we oh I'm sorry that first and then go to council reports or do you want to finish I don't see her on the zoom oh she's on the zoom she can't it is but if um if you have power I can thank you technology issues good evening good evening just gonna get another C I'm a short person so just give me a moment while I ad a little bit good things come in small packages thanks E I appreciate that okay well first of all I just want to thank you all my name is Tina hin and I am a 25 year resident of Berkeley Heights I live at 28 Baldwin Drive and I had planned to introduce um an organization that I'm really passionate about and introduce a someone that works there um but I'm going to take this myself so please bear with me because I wasn't really you're gonna do great I'm sure of it I wasn't really planning to do it myself but I think I could hit the high points and get the key messages out um so I am on the board of an organization called families and communities together they are the CMO of Union County and part of the children's system of care the community director was going to be here as I mentioned Felicia Frasier but she um for some reason can't get in so I apologize for that before I go into the presentation I just wanted to tell you a little bit about why this is such a important organization to me personally um and I want to thank the township Council and the mayor for the important work that you all are doing to D digify mental health um my D daughters in fact my whole family has struggled with anxiety and depression those strug struggles were most pronounced for my youngest daughter who has uh was diagnosed with ADHD in the grade uh during covid we experienced a tremendous amount of loss and it got so difficult for my daughter that we actually had to pull her head of her senior year of high school so that she could cope uh develop better coping skills in preparation to going off to college so the good news is she is a college and she's doing very well um and you know as a result of all of this I've started talking more and more to people in our community neighbors and one thing is clear lots of people are dealing with these challenges sorry I'm getting a little emotional um and and it's very difficult to know how to navigate and knowing what resources are available to us particularly free resources is really critically important and in fact organization is one of those resources so that's why I wanted to be here today to make sure that people are aware of this great resource and had access it okay so there's quite a few slides here the presentation has been provided and hopefully people in the community can see it I guess the main message I want to make is that there's lots of contact information in here um to get more information and I would be happy to answer any questions tonight or I know there's compressed timeline here after the meeting today if there's people in the community who need information I'd be happy to be res can we post the um PowerPoint on our website all right perfecta okay great so families and communities together is the Care Management I'm not going to exactly follow the slide um I'm just going to tell you the high points so it's the care management organization for Union County every county has a care management organization what is that it's basically a uh group that provides wraparound Services when people need support uh for their children under 21 um with a whole host of different types of things um developmental disabilities oh is she on oh we got her on yes okay for first I thank you for coming up and shair and position and taking a lead on that right out of the gate so no problem no problem and I know you guys are you know Str child for time so is she yeah you can Felicia can you hear us okay I we can't hear you technology is grateful it doesn't work we cannot hear you though is your volume tell her I've got it you guys don't have a ton of time whatever you want to do I mean if you're comfortable leading we can continue if you want to wait for her that's that's perfectly fine I mean I I can either way I you know I've been on the board for a while so I know what they do and I think it's important just to understand the resource okay I think she's going to watch she's okay great so I will I will take that um and I have a copy of the presentation thank you still stands so all right so the first page uh here is about the fact mission statement but I think the important thing here is that this is a a resource for people in y County but there is a similar resource that people know of um people struggling in other counties of New Jersey there is a CMO in every County uh these are resources that are available able for for people under the age of 21 and their families who have emotional behavioral mental health substance abuse and developmental visibilities and as I mentioned it's all about the wraparound approach they aren't providing any Services directly but what they do is act as a care management organization they meet with family they meet with people in the community who know the youth and they make sure that there is a a plan in place to support whatever is happening the second page um I mentioned already that it's part of the children's system of care and sorry um so what is a CMO in in uni County about a thousand youth are currently being um serviced by the CMO of uni County um in the in towns like Berkeley Heights that's there's VAR small numbers and so one of the things that I'm passionate about is making people sure that towns like Berkeley Heights and Summit New Providence know about this because there's very few um people who are being served by this organization even though we know there's a significant need Care Management Services are funded through Medicaid and contracted State dollars so they're free to families regardless of language spoken income and citizenship status okay so again the goal of of this organization is to provide a care manager to identify the resources that are needed to do wraparound services and to keep to keep children in their homes and in their communities okay we're going to keep flipping through so um flipping through this so individual service plan components I'm going to go all the way there right so basically the Mo will work with the parents with the community to develop an individual service plan and that would include crisis plan strengths Vision needs and strategies okay and it's not just counseling resources it's all kinds of things okay and some of the community resources are mentioned here important to know that you can't just call up and get uh a CMO person you know uh that's not the way it works so in order to access the the resources uh you need to call if you go to the page it says information and referrals in order to get these resources working for you you would call this number perform Care at 187 7652 Etc they come in they do an evaluation and then they would identify whether not care management organization is the right thing to support you through your challing time and then they would bring in um the care management organization as appropriate Felicia included in this presentation uh resource information Beyond just the CMO and so it's available for people to go on and look into it there's also a lot of information on social media about that and what resources are available so I tried to go quickly and hit the high points I don't know if anybody has any questions um so if if there's a family listening or somebody who Tunes in later yes how did they how do they start because I I know families that have had challenging situations my included and as a parent you're sometimes overwhelmed and you don't really know where to go so your primary care is not necessarily the right you don't so that's my question that's exactly why I'm here right because I I found that as I was talking to more and more people dealing with circumstances similar to mine they didn't they didn't know where to go and so you know and in the schools can help sometimes if you meet with the right counsel will give you some of this concept information but I would say a parent can call this perform Care number they you know uh a teacher a counselor anyone can call if you're dealing with a a serious situation if you call they come out they have emergency response um if it's that serious and they come they do an evaluation and then they identify the right resources and with CMO would be one of those resources that then would come in and evaluate the situation more holistically identify a Care Management a care manager who would work with the family and identify all the additional resources that are needed when you say come in that means a home visit they come to the home they would they would generally typically come to your home and if a school called do do they necessarily need a parents permission to call a school counselor like how do I'm not sure how that works this the school counselor can call the parent can call a neighbor can call anyone can call that perform Care number to get support excuse me can you hear me I'm so sorry I the wrong thing correct me I was yes I wanted to jump in there Tina you did an amazing job absolutely per thank you um when it comes to calling in for to perform care for supports and services is that assistance um it has to be the the parent or Guardian they have to call in because it's a hippo violation if someone else's calls but usually because schools sometimes doctor's offices are that first line for identifying like uh that need for help or that's where the parent or Guardian will usually go to First for help if there is any question all they have to do is call fact you can call us before you call perform care and say look I need help I've tried to call perform care and I've had difficulty navigating that that system because it can be very cumbersome uh you can give us a call my contact my team's contact information is on the PowerPoint as well thank you for clarifying that I appreciate it Lea that's right one thing I'm GNA do I'm G speak to the school counselor the director of school counselors because hopefully they have your contact as one of their referrs and references but I'll double check that yeah yes and so one of the things that we're really trying to make sure is that all the communities in uni County have access to this information the commun so Felicia's role is relatively new and she has been making a big you know circle around to all the communities to get this information out and we're going to do the same to make sure that the schools have the information as well so I don't know if you know one of our little mantras now is it's okay not to be okay yes I don't if you've seen some more videos and so it's really powerful I think when people come and they say I've had problems my family's had problems we all have problems it's okay not to be okay so I appreciate you sharing your personal story with us yeah I'm happy and I appreciate the time I know you're short on time we're always short on time joh John I'm so sorry i' L to go first a quick question um hopefully it's quick um we just recently had a trying to remember it and I'm I'm drawing a blank right now but there's officers from different police departments that will go out with um units in the county are are you related yeah Aspire asire sh service asire well they'll go out for for they'll have a umal mental health professional go out with a police officer do you guys do that also is there something where you like because I see you have a mobile unit that goes out so Lea I'm GNA let you no that's that's the we are definitely connected to to that new initiative Aspire and we're just being aware that that is a that is a support for the team everything we do is is about a child and family team and on that team could be a clinician when you're what you're speaking to is mobile crisis which is one of our uh system partners and they do have the police often escort them to different call depending on the need yes but fact will not come out to that call fact will be privy to the information if it's a fact involved family at the time yes I was going back to my former life but um as a police officer if I went on the scene I wouldn't call you first to be out there and if I got there because we got called to the scene we would call that unit first and then you would have the information going forward for anybody that might need help going forward right okay all right that's good at least my the idea behind this is because I was a police officer for 28 years and there's many many times where I was on a call many many times I was by myself many many times I wish I had organizations like VI or any of the other ones out there instead of having to you know get an ambulance and go to Trinitas or go to you know it used to be S Elizabeth's Hospital with somebody and then turn them over to them where it's like you could have somebody come out to your scene and be part of that program where you know more than I do because I get to a scene and it's like it could be total chaos but you you've seen that before you know and I do the best I can with what I have um so it's it's good to know that the guys that are on the job that are out there you know have information to go to or places to go to or people to go to okay and vice versa I hope you feel the same as far as police departments go that if you need any kind of assistance that they'll be there for you you also yeah we've made an effort or and continue to make the effort to connect with all of the system Partners fact my my department is the community engagement and resource development and part of our Outreach effort is making sure that all the system Partners know that we exist and that we are going to work together so the scenario that you presented if uh you were uh called to an incident and then maybe someone from the Aspire you unit was there okay but they identifi that this kid is already CMO involved then the care manager would be called and notified as to what the crisis is and then we will be able to pick up the ball so there would be no dropping of the ball whether the kid is hospitalized or returned home or de-escalated fact would continue to be involved and work with that youth and that family through that crisis something we would do that's excellent thank you was not identified as a fact uh involved youth that would be the the time to help the call us and say we've got this kid we really think that they would benefit from your services and we could help the family navigate the per the call to perform care and get Services started EXC thank you very much just have one question also um so when you say kids uh what What's the range again I think the maximum was 21 is that what I think I saw up until their 21st birthday sorry from age we have kids right now raging like two and three year olds up until the 21st birthday and the next question I have is uh do you have individuals on staff that can speak fluent Spanish for example absolutely there's some families in planfield that I work at and they could probably use this we currently have care managers that speak well we have several units that speak that are bilingual Spanish we have bilingual Portuguese uh Creole French uh Mandarin is a new one for us and we are always the human resource department is always actively looking for those uh supports those care managers that they're able to capture all the cultur cultures that we are managing and if we don't have it we do get translators things like that and in fact presentation that we went through tonight we also have a version of it in Spanish that we could post if that's helpful and you could share with people thank you and don't hesitate to call if if you have a a question later something comes to mind or it's very specific you can give me a call you can send me an email my contact information is on the PowerPoint much thank you so thank you Tina thank you Felicia thank you we got that presentation thank you for setting that up you're welcome okay so on to Township Council reports 's not here Paul uh I have nothing to report other than I made a public statement and I never got any answers and all I ask for are answers to my questions and that is all okay thank you John okay uh the S preservation committee is going to be meeting on June 6th at 7:30 uh we usually meet upstairs uh in the room there um the latel Lord Festival is going to be October 19th from 12 to 4 the rain date is October 20th I also want to let you know that uh the Berkeley Heights historic preservation committee was the recipient of the current $500 Alero car donation hey so on Thursday at noon at the slite we're going to be having a check presentation so anybody's around you come see what the house looks like it's really it's really coming along and it's you know it's really actually pretty cool to see it like be like taking life almost it's like preserved being preserved right coming it its own own thing here um the uh downtown unification committee had a meeting but it was a cancel due to conflicts the next meeting is going to be on June 25th uh and just a couple things from that um I got an email update if I could um so they're putting together a list of and for the welcome signs and the park signs um the DPW was met with uh I believe this was probably yesterday morning um to get that all set up uh hopefully the planting can occur in the next couple of weeks um letters are being sent out to all the restaurants for restaurant month uh block party is June 9th so come on down and we're going to close off Spring for the Avenue yes okay um and uh that's all I have this morning thank you very much all right very good thank you John Margaret I'm GNA sneeze um okay so allergies um the I attended the um environmental commission meeting um recently to discuss grant opportunities and also learn from them about projects that they're working on that was a very informative meeting and I look forward to attending more of them um the grants committee met um were pursuing uh first responder grant for the rescue squad the uh Grant deadline I believe is June 11th um we're also looking into other potential first responder grants that can pay for things having to do with the um fire and police so perhaps some training opportunities some enhancement to community policing some firefighter gear so we're doing what we can for our First Responders um we're in the beginning stages of work on a Federal grant for safer streets for all um working with Liza and we'll be working with um John Leo um with his complete streets program um also coordinating with the police department um I've been working on the storm water management ordinance update that's a uh bigger than a bread box um I saw just today that the kww 5 okay registration is open so mark your calendars for September 15th and start your training um and you know so sometimes they have to close the registration so make sure you register early um and that's all for me okay very good bill uh unfortunately I don't have too much um other than that I've been training to become an auxiliary police officer that's one of the reasons why I was late today uh however I will be graduating on Thursday time to U attend a lot of of our neighborhood events so looking forward to getting back into the groove again thank you all right good job Bill way to go Susan oh yeah hi a couple things uh from mayor's Wellness so we are going to have a booth at the street fair and we're going to have art therapy experience for visitors where you'll be able to join together to create a Berkeley Heights Community mural and then so join us at the booth not sure where we're going to be but find us we'll be there and then uh the book club that we're in I'm not sure if we're actually going to meet on the 13th down the mayor has a conflict you can't have the mayor's book club without the mayor but it's Lorie Gotti's book maybe you should talk to someone I'm finding it amazing I know yeah it's she's a great writer and she's has quite the life so if you haven't read it yet you we have a lot of copies here in the library Amy um said they have a bunch of copies that you can get and then the mental health awareness in conjunction with the schools there are green ribbons all over all the schools and there was awareness days for each school where students and teachers wore green and the school counselors provided many lessons and activities as we know that children of all ages and adults of all ages do struggle sometimes with their mental health and that's all I've got okay thank you oh one more thing I'm sorry it's good earlier before we had the flag raising for aapi and I guess Angus you going to come up and speak about that a little bit all right so I'm Gonna Leave it to Angus that's it for me okay very good thank you Susan on to Administration reports we try not to be redundant um so happy to welcome the warmth in May um again I want to thank you um for all those who participated in our second walk with the mayor it was fun it was much better weather than the first time and the aapi flag raising um it is also National Public Works week so thank you to the amazing job that our DPW and our s plant work workers do for our town so thank you all um members of the Veterans Memorial committee met last week to discuss the final details of the Memorial Day event um some concern was also raised about the health of the evergreen tree near the memorials and members are working on options to save the tree um the VAC is also working with the Boe to create synergies between veterans and children um actually several vets and me will be reading to students tomorrow in honor of Memorial Day so I'm very much looking forward to that uh also in the process of crafting a letter to be mailed to households identified as having veterans residing in them to give them information about some of the unique programming that we're offering at the township um by launching B this year Susan mentioned the book club we also read bernee Browns um I thought it was just me but it isn't and we had a really robust fun conversation and I'm so glad we were all kind of tired that day and we pushed through and we had really great times rejuvenating it was fun um also met with the human resource officer who works out of Milwaukee um foris serve to do some joint um May's Wellness committee with them and one of the things that we're thinking is doing a big um walk with a bunch of orange shirts because that's their signature color I think that would be amazing to see the sea of orange um shirts in in honor of mental health awareness um and as I mentioned earlier the Mount Laurel committee met since the last time we had a council meeting I participated in the Mary K McMillan Community Day with Al s coaching dur it's always fun to hang out with little kids I love going ours was rain we were at yeah I know I wanted to give flat Andrew back to student so I still have flat Andrew um other maral duties included ribbon cuttings at Berkeley Crossing and the coder School Francis was with us today he's an amazing business person they're a great family great additions to our community um a big thank you to Mrs gates from Governor Livingston Marissa Kagan and the ra life for life Leadership committee all high school high school students for a moving ceremony um and even though it was raining they didn't let that stop them it was a really nice ceremony uh finally want to extend our gratitude to Congressman Cain for stopping by or an official presentation of our $2 million um it was a ceremonial check but we still appreciate it and touring the bhpd in honor of their H 100th anniversary I don't know if people realize that but this year marks the 100th anniversary of our Police Department um he came in the and I was aware of it but never seen one but a commemorative Congressional Record um which talks about the the police department in the 100th uh anniversary so uh he presented that to Captain eyes which it's really kind of fun to say it's actually Chief eyeses now so that concludes my report Liza thank you mayor just a few things um as of today bulk pickup is over so thank you to everyone who had their items out as instructed until next year uh spring chipping we're now in section two moving to section 3 on June 3D uh we're moving ahead on the Sherman a peppertown park revitalization projects um with the do we're finalizing our 2024 road paving program uh details on which roads we'll be Paving this year will be on our website and our newsletter on social media everywhere uh we're bringing the contractor in in the next few weeks to see how many roads we can get for the funds we'll have available this year uh not just those that are funded with this year's budget but also with funds we're reappropriate from PR previous years that were not used um the 2024 Municipal budget is scheduled to be up for adoption on June 11th uh yet we still continue to look for grants for emergency services infrastructure sewer plate and other departments programs and services to augment those funds uh Berkeley Heights residents are still permitted to get rid of their brush during our recycling events at our DPW on the first and third Saturdays of each month between 9:00 a.m. to noon also a reminder that those are the days for electronics and foam recycling events and thin film plastic can be dropped off the first Saturday of each month between 9:00 a.m. to noon our rec summer concert organization is in full swing I know the rec department is working hard on that um please check the schedule band line up and locations um concerts will be I believe here at Memorial and conell on the recreation department website I do believe they also when plans are finalized they'll have their own BH summer concert series website and then I also believe you can still sign up for playground camp and there may be some more Teen Scene uh weeks open please check the rec pages of our website for info and registration it's all thank you okay very good well I move that all Township official reports be accepted and approved second discussion roll call Mrs B Mr Foster yes MRIs Mr Mado yes pop yes citiz second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo M Mr fost here Mr matado yes Mrs po yes Sor okay but that is now the same rules effect that talk about yeah the library Chen Chen six deep deel Drive I want to thank mayor Town Council particularly Andrew and Susan for speaking um and everyone in the township for giving us the this flag raising and uh so thank you for that and thank you Liza for putting out the information about that as well as next week so Wednesday May 29th 6:30 p.m. in the Highlander room we will have the fre screening with Refreshments um of photographic Justice the C story uh who you know was a great man a personal friend of Natalie and I and uh it'll be a pleasure to Showcase that film for the public this is the only screening of the full length film in New Jersey so it will be coming people coming from different towns across the state to this screening so um we encourage everyone here to register and come see the film there's also be a TalkBack um with we the filmmakers might even come here as well um but you know now we'll share her experience with cor Le himself as well as some of the people friends in his life so that's G to be very touching and and important moment that's amazing thank you for organizing I'm I'm registered and excited so thank you very much thank you Angus and thank you for organizing and doing all that you do for the diversity Council we appreciate you thank you very much and to that goes without say we appreciate Natalie more than we appreciate the township photographer for sure right all right else close the C here second that any discussion roll call Mr Donnelly y Mr fer yes Mr zillis Mr Mado yes this is C yes okay we the executive session previous I to just with great