e e but Mom's coming out she's I open the Bernard Township committee meeting for April 23rd 2024 please stand for the flag salute I flag un States ofice the mayor's opening meeting statement adequate notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building one call your lane Basking Ridge on the township website an email to the Bernardsville news whiy The Courier News Bridgewater tap into. net patch.com and filled filed with the Township Clerk on December 18 2023 any motion to go into closed session will include that the matters discussed as such closed session will be disclosed to the public when such matters are finally determined and there is no further reason to prohibit the public from disclosure of information relating to such matters the meeting rules adopted by Township committee no new business will be introduced after 10:30 p.m. public comment will be accepted at all meetings speakers will be limited to 5 minutes each all meetings will journ no later than 11:30 p.m. Christie roll call please miss DTE McCarthy here miss Fields here Mr MCN here mayor AC here and Mr Balman is excused this evening thank you Christie do we have executive session this evening none this evening mayor great thank you then we go to presentation resolution 2024 d210 proclaiming Arbor Day in Bernard's Township wonderful so I have a wonderful resolution I having an audio problem just so you know somebody just text me that's trying to watch live so I I think you just need to get closer to the mic okay okay thank you sorry the budget I want to make sure thank you um so we have a wonderful resolution proclaiming Arbor Day in Bernard's Township and we are very pleased to have Randy centuro uh represent to accept this resolution um before we present it um I'd like to uh mention a few things um that are on this resolution and then invite my colleagues on the de to also speak so whereas in 1872 J Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special D be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world um our trees in our Township increase property values enhance economic Vitality of business areas and beautify our community and spiritual renewal therefore be it resolved that the township Committee of the burnard of the the township of Bernards does hereby Proclaim April 26 2024 as Arbor Day and therefore be it further result that in the community of burner's Township we encourage all citizens to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our towns urban forestry program so with that would anyone like to make any comment sure I would like to mayor uh so I have the privilege and honor of serving as the township committee liaison to the shade tree Commission and as our resolution mentions Arbor Day started in 1872 and our shade tree commission has existed for almost as long as 90 years uh it was launched in 1933 by ordinance and which is pretty extraordinary and has done just tremendous work I'm really impressed with all of the work that our shade tree commission does um Brandy will probably mention what's happening this Arbor Day which we're going to be giving out trees to families and individuals uh there commission has relaunched an activity which brings Arbor Day to our schools so this was something that was done in the past and there'll be an assembly at Liberty Corner school to focus on the importance of trees to our environment and community and as the mayor mentioned it's just something that's really important in terms of sustaining the value not only of of homes but more importantly our health and our physical and mental well-being which is something that green space plays a major role in so I'm really happy to see this ordinance to this resolution mayor um and also just to thank Randy he's been on the shade tree commission for 18 years and among the others on the commission we also have our own Judy o Connell who's Bernard's Township supervisory of of Treasury Services who's been on the commission since 2008 as commission secretary so a lot of long serving and expertise that brought to our commission so congratulations thank you anyone else go ahead oh I just wanted to say um I think it's so important um with the um environmental with the uh every year that we give out the trees and I always find it so amazing how many text messages I get from people saying within an hour the trees sold out so I think it's really important because that's what it's really about the celebration of trees and how important it is that we continue to do that so one of the things we did discuss and we will be doing and I'm sure you're aware of it I've heard is that next year is our 265th anniversary AR of Charter and we will be planting a tree to commemorate um the celebration of our anniversary so another way for us um to to celebrate this um this Arbor Day so I just want to say thank you and thank you for all that you do you've been there a long time thank you I too would like to congratulate Randy honor all the members of the shade tree commission both now and in the past for the extraordinary work that they've done over the years um you know trees are very important to burnard Township uh there leaves around all our stuff uh and I'll tell you um you know when I first set foot in this town uh what struck me was the beauty of the trees uh and I wasn't even here during the fall at that time but uh we have a wonderful community and you know our trees are a big part of that so um honoring uh Arbor Day you know is important resolution to do and uh I'm pleased to be a part of it thank you in closing out um so I feel a special connection to the shade tree commission my husband served briefly on that and um he learned a lot um from the very dedicated volunteers and um so through his work I got to see some of the work um that you all do uh trees are very important to Bernard's Township I mean you know when I use the gavel um it is the Basking Ridge Oak the 69 year-old Great White Oak um that is so important to our community so 's always a remembrance of the trees that we know have we have no longer and you know we do have the baby oak that is behind the Baskin R Presbyterian church so um trees are very important and so we are very grateful to all of our volunteers and to all of our residents to keep all of our trees healthy um so excited to see the the new babies that get planted so with that I will ask my colleagues for a motion please so moved second Christy roll call please miss Duarte McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you and what I'd like to do is ask Randy to come up and we'll take a photo and then um if he has any uh brief remarks would like for him to share thank you very much may say thanks the mayor asked me to say a few words oh sorry thank you first I'd like to thank the township committee I've worked with probably all of you on chry issues in the past and and I'm sure in the future and you've been very supportive um we have we're also lucky to have a tree Fund in town that developers pay into and we've been planting trees for example this month we planted trees at Pleasant Valley Park I I think uh Anna mentioned that uh probably at the last meeting um but we have trees in we have a we have some plans for planting trees later in the fall but it's also important for residents to plant trees trees which is why every year we give away small saplings on Arbor Day as mentioned uh we will be giving the away starting at 10:30 at the Environmental Center right at the um the lawn in front in the driveway uh and I would suggest getting there at 10:30 or soon after as Chad has said uh because they might be gone um also with the program for the school as Anna mentioned we did this very often before the pandemic hit and then of course um we were restricted from going into the schools and we're trying to start this up we're starting it up with one school at Liberty Corner this year we hope to do multiple more schools in the future um I know the residents support trees and you can show your support by coming out and planting a tree in your yard and I just again thank you everyone and we'll take this back and tell the chry commission the last thing I wanted to mention is that we recently um and I believe this was mentioned last month we've been certified as a tree City USA for the 19th year and there's quite a bit that goes into that first of it the first of all the tree has the town has to support trees in their budget and we do every year we we pay for the maintenance of trees and that's part of the requirement for this we also have to have a shade tree commission and we have to have a ordinance protecting trees which we do um if you see the signs of around town when you come into town Tre City USA uh will be putting up the 19e sticker sometime before Charter date probably the last thing I'd like to note when you're at Charter day stop by our at the shade tree Booth uh take the tree quiz we'll have lots of information handout um and maybe a few other things well thank you very much thank you thank you then moving next resolution 2024 - 219 recognizing April as autism awareness month so we are very grateful um we have the co-presidents of parents of exceptional children here to receive this wonderful resolution um I like to just share um a couple of the brief statements that are on this resolution and then we'll do something similar uh so whereas autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills repetitive behavior of speech and non-verbal communication and whereas autism affects an estimated one in 54 children in the United States today and whereas there is no cure for autism It is Well documented that if individuals with autism receive treatment early in their lives it is possible for those individuals to lead significantly improved lives um Bernard's parents for exceptional children was formed in 1985 by local mothers and formally became a 501c3 in the early 2000s in an organization that is available to any family whose child struggles with behavioral development developmental emotional or academic challenges Bernards PEC in essence serves like a special education PTO representing students and their families in all of the six district schools as well as out of District placements they accomplish these schools through programs events educational opportunities and their mentoring program offered to PEC families as well as the community at Large therefore be it resolved that the township committee and the township Bernards we do hereby Proclaim April as autism awareness month and the township of Bernards and encourage residents to show support for Autism Awareness in order to become better educated on the subject of autistic Spectrum disorders so what I'd like to do is I'd like to ask my colleagues on the DAT to make any comments I'll start mayor um I'd like to salute the U members of PEC both now and in the past asked um for you know their leadership uh in Autism Awareness over the years uh and through to today I think that parents who have children with autism uh need to feel um uh that sense of community uh not just among other parents uh who have children with autism but among the community r large um and I think that this organization like many other Autism Awareness organizations uh provide provides and a tremendous service to both the parents and the children so I salute you thank you now just to Echo Andrew one of the things that uh this resolution struck me was I first became aware of autism when my neighbor moved in 23 years ago U Danielle Lumby and she has four children her second son Shawn was diagnosed with autism at the age of two and one of the things that we talked about before the meeting is how fiercely we will Advocate when we want to see change when we want to see opportunity and when it's your children and your family and the impact that uh that diagnosis had on the Lumes and what they went on to do and forming U The Hope autism Solutions Foundation just created a lot of education and awareness and also introduced me to parents of exceptional children and you have been Fierce Advocates you've continued to partner with the school with the community and your children of our children grow up and one of the things that Bernard's Township has done is we now have five thriving group homes uh for adults with disabilities including autism with a six apparently coming from the ourhouse foundation so your work um continues to be important um education and awareness is critical to Foster inclusion and I join my colleagues in just recognizing all that you do and all that you'll continue to do uh to really be beacons for Hope in our our community so thank you my colleague said it also well it's so important to uh to recognize it and most importantly The Advocates like yourself um how you work tirelessly to to promote it and have it recognized and what's important is it have to keep it going we've come such a long way and I think it's very important funding also is um really needed so this recognition will give that a boost I'm sure and you're just exceptional people and um like I said we've done a lot in the community to recognize it and we will continue to do so so thank you for all that you do and like I said I can't say it any better than my colleagues have said it thank you so rounding at the end um I was first introduced to parents of exceptional children with my older children um they became mentors and um the training was fabulous I was so impressed and then my older children I coached them in Destination Imagination and they did a special event uh with some of the the PEC families and it was truly not only the children but also the parents um the parents are so involved so I have admired parents of exceptional children for many years um so you do well more than autism although I am wearing blue for Autism Awareness Month but um you do so much for the community and so much um what you do you perhaps you're driven by your children but but you do so much to help so many and I've seen it over years uh so you know when I first started Fabrica Bernard's April we did a program for um special needs children and so um and maybe I'm just even more tuned to it since my son has special needs you know peek did a wonderful program I think it was in February on ADHD so you really you benefit many people not only autism but well beyond that and so so grateful um for all that you do for all of us so it's just such a a minor honor if you will uh to represent the significance that you that you impact and I want to thank Susan for also connecting us and and making this happen tonight so um with that I would like to ask my colleagues for a motion so moved second Christy roll call please miss DTE m Ary yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you um so I have this resolution I'd like to invite you up for some brief remarks and a picture thank thank you thank you to do something no okay I don't really even know what to say I'm so glad that you all are so aware of parents for exceptional children um because I don't have to say much you all really covered it um so clearly we are doing a very good job of letting people know who we are and and the families that we support not only um autistic families but families with this a spectrum of various disabilities um ranging from anxiety ADHD um which unfortunately is so rampant currently but but we have become a district that pioneered those services in the school district and I think that is what having one of the first um ABAB based classes um which is known as the cbap program really attracted autistic families to our town um and we are considered still to be one of the leading districts with uh if not the leading District of um special education classes that other districts don't have whether they're behavioral type classes like our bridges program or the cat program um that so many districts are creating their programs around um Allison Reed and and Jean um have just done such a fabulous job at providing our families with that support and I think that because we continue to attract these families it's so important that we continue to educate the community because they're hearing about us and moving here and um we take that as a huge compliment and um it just gives us more um families to welcome in to our PEC community and um have us you know join our our Squad so um thank you so much for this resolution it really means a lot appreciate it thank you thank you for your [Applause] leadership excellent as I shared with them uh you're free to go or free to stay no worries either way so moving on to the next topic please any public work session none this evening mayor any reports none this evening any correspondents none excellent then that brings us to public comment comments are welcomed during the public comment portion during this meeting on any agenda item or any matter over which the township committee has jurisdiction however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please hold your comments for that particular public hearing the public comment portion of the agenda is not structured as a question and answer session but howevers an opport offers an opportunity to share your thoughts with the township committee the committee may or may not address these comments during the meeting however all comments are considered to address this body the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to 5 minutes the clerk will keep time please promptly yield 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 I open public comment of the township committee uh my name is Lily Wong and I live on labur Corner Road in Bernard's Township um the reason why I came up to you uh is that in past Township committee meetings we have talked about the Township's uh upcoming obligations regarding um affordable housing especially in 2025 and I wanted to point out to you uh article that was on northjersey.com on February 27th it was about Governor Murphy trying to encourage more accessory dwelling units uh in his upcoming budget and accessory dwelling but units for those who don't know are uh small independent structures that are in the backyard or it could be uh structures on top of your garage or it could be a basement living unit right and so in his proposal he wanted to uh work with in as a test case about 10 communities where he wants to give these Municipal municipalities about a million to give to homeowners so that they can um build these and design these units and in exchange the homeowners will promise to give um those of lower income uh a use or rental uh for those units for 10 years so um I wanted to point that out uh this particular article out because for two reasons one is um for the town to consider uh maybe participating in this program uh but outside of this program um it could be something that the township would consider in fulfilling potentially the 2025 uh affordable housing mandates so uh please know that in Princeton Montclair Maplewood East Orange are some of the communities that are um passing uh in the process of passing local local ordinances for these accessory dwelling units so um I always advocate for our Township to be uh more creative as it's always been in um keeping our Our Town beautiful but also uh hopefully uh affordable for families to move in and even uh for keeping uh younger Generations in the same home who may not otherwise for to stay in our community thank you for your consideration thank you Chris McManaman um 99 lur Line Drive uh good evening mayor Deputy Mayor committee women committee men and general public as a resident of and contributor to our community since 1992 the visual pollution has steadily increased during the previous Township meeting two residents Nancy D Andrea and Anna forzan spoke about signs in our Township I found this interesting for I brought up the same subject three years ago my attention pertaining to signs in general allowed throughout the township during covid-19 our Township allowed the posting of signs almost anywhere to promote business and during that time this made total sense I fully endorsed this practice for local businesses had to promote they were open and pay their bills but this period in our lives is moving on and the zoning laws need to be reinstated the constant barrage of signs in our town has to stop Bernard's Township temporary sign permit states that signs cannot be posted earlier than 2 weeks prior to the event event and must be removed no later than the day after the event driving around our town we see this is definitely not the case burnard's Township enjoys roughly 20 Township owned Open Spaces or Islands at Street and Road intersections that we as taxpayers contract with outside landscaping companies to maintain with all the signs placed on these Open Spaces the landscaping companies can't do their job the result is our Landscapes become overgrown and deter from our communities welcome Beauty we as taxpayers end up paying the landscape companies for not enabling the maintain of them we may not be able to restrict the signs residents place on their private property but we can control our public lands dur during the meeting resident Nancy Deandrea spoke about political signs suggesting and I quote wait until after 911 I think it would be better looking for our town to wait and have that so they are not littered all over Harry Dunn Park area as we are going over there to be at the ceremony committeeman Andrew MCN disagreed on imposing restrictions on signs he said and I quote to me it's fundamentally a First Amendment issue and our political speech is the highest order of speech deserving of the most protection he added that he believes imposing restrictions on signs might prompt litigation issues again saying and I quote I see it as the first amendment issue and that's why I would not impose restrictions on signs the US Constitution First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting any an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise therefore of ab abridging the freedoms of speech or of the press or the right of the people peace peacefully to assemble and to petition the government for an a redress of grievances one part of the First Amendment specifically covers commercial speech commercial commercial speech is speech done on behalf of a company or individual for the purpose of making a profit unlike political speech the Supreme Court does not afford commercial speech full protection under the First Amendment to effectively distinguish commercial speech from other types of speech for purposes of litigation the court issues a list of for IND disia the contents do no more than propose a commercial transaction the contents may be characterized as advertisements the contents reference a specific product the DISD demeanor is economy economically motivated to distribute the the speech Bernard's Township permits for signs ordinance 1809 from September 13th 2005 no no sign shall be constructed or displayed prior to obtaining a permit approved by the zoning office and if applicable the construction code enforcement official section 21-1 17.2 General sign regulations and these are applicable to all signs in all zones section F no sign shall be erected on any lot or building which does not pertain to the use of the lot or building unless permitted for elsewhere in the subse no commercial signs shall be erected on any public property or public right of way all signs shall be maintained in good repair lack of proper maintenance shall be considered abandonment and the sign shall be removed upon notifi notification by the zoning zoning officer with the exception of temporary Craftsman contractor signs and temporary signs for the charitable uses fre standing signs with wire supports and any signs constructed of cardboard or CG ated plastic are permitted ordinance 2243 mayor we've reached the 5 minute Mark there's no reason to bring up the First Amendment for this and thank you for your time thank you anyone else good evening Barbara giri 66 Triden Road first thank you to the mayor and Council for your time dedication and service to our community I am here to ask the town to install aeds automatic external defibrillators in our Parks this is not my first request but hopefully it's my last I have attended two of the last four parks and pathway committee meetings to present this option to them I do not believe the committee volunteers should make a decision of this magnitude of the two meetings I attended the board's attendance was sporadic making it in inefficient to make Talent ship decisions I first introduced this to the committee last May it was discussed at the September meeting that I could not attend because it was 911 the committee decided not to pursue this due to concerns about maintenance liability funding and lack of grant opportunities and relying on those renting our fields to provide their own I followed up on the ever 2023 meeting asking once again for the committee to resar research this further when I presented information regarding the maintenance the New Jersey GR Good Samaritan law and the fact that the device could not Shock a healthy heart access to this life-saving device is not just needed by those renting our Fields a few me a few members at that meeting were unaware of this topic because they were absent at the prior meetings this was put on the February 2024 agenda but again the minutes for this meeting was not available at this time and will not be available until May 2024 at this time the public is not aware of any decisions that committee has made about installations of aads and is not included in the 2024 budget to my knowledge I also emailed the mayor and Council about this request and the response was that the parks and pathway committee has toin The Proposal in September of 2020 23 I'm asking that you find the funds to install aads in our Parks before you move forward with this year's budget a AIDs aeds excuse me are not just a piece of equipment they are Lifeline they're essential to saving the life of someone in cardiac failure installing aeds in our Parks could mean the difference between life and death to a community member the chance of survival while waiting for Emergency Medical Services during cardiac emergency decreases 10% with every minute I'm sure you've heard the countless heartbreaking stories about young athletes having cardiac issues and needing life-saving AED we are incredibly fortunate that our local sports organ organizations such as rud Sports Ridge Baseball Club wham's AO who are not required by law to provide a aeds do so for the safety of our young athletes but what about the other residents enjoying our beautiful Parks playing tennis pickle ball or they take their grandchildren to the newly installed playground at Harry Dunham or the coaches who volunteer for our town Run Sports such as field hockey they do not have access to this life-saving device many of surrounding towns have Mount have mounted them in their Parks I have spoken to many Recreation dep Department directors and they have not had experience with vandalism have no issue with maintenance and did not wait for Grants to install them regardless of what what others are doing we should be the leaders we were just named the second safest city in New Jersey based on the simple resarch the cost to install seven aeds two at Mountain Park and one at Harry Dunham Pleasant Valley Souther war memorial and re Rebel Hill it was estimated that there another town is installing that 36 devices at a cost of $2,500 per device even if my estimates are wrong and it's double we're looking at either $18,000 or $35,000 that's less expensive than the $ 45,000 budgeted for the outdoor exercise equipment that it's adjacent to the parking lot in last year's budget I think this is a nominal amount for what we're asking I think it needs to be researched completely by not a committee that meets four times a year I appreciate their volunteerism but it needs to be a greater issue the cost seems nominal when it means saving a life I hope you take the time to discuss this and add it to this year's budget thank you for your time thank you good evening Nancy Dandrea three Vander drive all right three things let's start with the the real nice part Randy Santoro I've known him for well over 25 years and also my my spouse and him worked together at 18t 30 years ago uh Randy is uh uh not only an exceptional volunteer for us but a exceptional volunteer for the Somerset County Park commission uh and just this past week we had the volunteer appreciation dinner for all the volunteers at the Somers sou County Park commission and Randy was there representing and getting an award so he's an awesome human being and does a lot not just for our town but for our County uh next up um uh to the sir that commented and to the gentleman that commented thank you very much for those comments um uh yes I I'm still standing my with my request you know to wait until after 911 I don't think it's a free First Amendment uh situation because I'm not telling you to not say it just when we say it I don't know we you know I wasn't even going to talk about that but it came up again again I'm just re reiterating what I want as for um Miss giri who is not here now um I asked her to stay but you had to Bell I address it so I'm just going to clarify a few things cuz I am on Parks and wreck um and I'm the deputy chairperson there so uh we did discuss it at the last uh meeting in in 2023 and then we realized that we had to do something with it and we do only meet four times a year um and so in February when we met uh we created a subcommittee for the AED uh subject topic to find out more information uh and go forward with that okay so um that you know that will be looked into and Jen Gander can definitely if you want to find out more information you can speak to Jen uh the other thing is um as for the address about our attendance being sporadic well just like we have you know 20% missing tonight you know we have a large group and as long as we have Quorum you have a meeting you know so uh I didn't think it was paradic there always seems to be at least six or seven of us there out of the like nine so uh you know I don't know what that comment was for but we are looking into it we are aware of the AED request but we can't just say hey yeah sure let's do it when we we saw it from yes it's valuable but holy cow there's these other issues possibly okay and we have to find out and look into those issues so I'm speaking as a parks and wreck uh representative right now uh and and more information can come from Jen Gander okay thank you Nancy one second mayor please excuse me I was going to wait till my comments what I was going to say is it's not just about funding I know that you're researching it what she doesn't understand is that's a decision that you make as a board we Empower you to do that and you're not just volunteers you're also invested in the community oh yeah and so when we tell people to go to the boards and they want something and you say no it's no because you're there to listen and to research and make those decisions and I know I personally have looked into it myself and it's not just funding it's you know by the time maintenance maintenance is another big one main but it also location where will somebody know how will somebody know how to use it also sometimes nine times out of 10 the police would get there before someone would even find the uh the machine and be able to it up look at the size of you know Mountain Park I mean you know so I I I know that you guys have worked on this already and that you've come to um a decision that I'm comfortable with that right now it's it's right so right now it's in sub committee and they will you know we are meeting soon we're meeting early May cuz that's our Charter day meeting but that will you know it'll come up again and uh again um you know Anna and I will discuss and we'll talk with Jen and we'll see what decisions are made uh Anna is is on the subcommittee and then three others from the committee uh different Anna different Anna different Anna I'm sorry to clarify but I wish she would have stayed because I she doesn't she just understanding that if she was here you would have told her what's going on and I would have told her what's going on that's okay there's always the video YouTube that's true but thank you thanks for youring thank you thank you mayor tile Stein Riverside Drive um I think Mr santor meant to also mention with um the Environmental Center it's on Lord Sterling Road off the South map blav if you hit the gravel you just pass the Environmental Center so that's where it would be if you want to pick up those um those trees um aeds just what happens I'm trained using the AED and I would think you'd be better off having first aid kids with Band-Aids in the Parks because that would be used more than AED it's only used AED is only good for certain rhythms and not all rhythms they've become a lot smaller than they used to be when they first came out so the technology is changing and maybe one day it'll be a handheld unit um so I don't think need have to run around with a hair on fire about having aeds like Nancy mentioned the parks are massive where you going to put one or you going to put one on each corner I mean it could go on eyes I think the response from the police department and the first aid squads are quick enough where somebody needs it they'll have it and you're probably better off learning how to do CPR and basic first aid that would be much more helpful than just having AED um according to with the affordable housing these many houses not Fort you know we have zoning and as it is we get a lot of people coming in they want to expand their houses and stuff and goes through a lot of big processes just so people aren't building on top of each other with these little houses they're meant to be built on top of each other that's why if Monclair wants to do it if East Orange wants to do it that's fine I've worked in East Orange I wouldn't want to be living in a mini house in East Orange but is a rural suburban community I'm not for many houses built or zoning allowing that sort of stuff thank you very much thank you anyone else if not then I'm going to close public comment moving on to staff comments Township committee comments and board leas on reports Pat would you like to start sure mayor thank you um so I I I think uh committee fields and Nancy did a good job with respect to the uh defibrillators um it's not just a question of money it's a question of placement it's a question of you know are they in working order because they're so remote um and the police department I mean they they're on the scene as quickly it can in an emergency it stands the reason someone will call 911 before searching the park especially given people will be there but as Nancy said it it belongs in that subcommittee they make those decisions they do the research and then they make recommendations up to to the township committee so they ask for an adjustment to the budget at this time would not be appropriate uh with respect to the signs um you know I'll double back with our zoning just to make sure that there is enforcement where it needs to be relative to contractor signs and so forth and so I'll get back to you with um any issues there that I find that's all I have mayor thank you thank you you Christine none this evening thank you mayor are legal okay um Anna thank you mayor Pat Mr Monaco you said it well um subcommittee takes up the aeds and thank you Nancy for clarifying that we'd also looked into that in the past uh I think because of a situation that came up and one of the things I had heard was it is something you need to know how to use um so to that extent we'll look forward to hearing what the recommendations are coming out of parks and wre um relative to I'm not an expert on First Amendment but I will certainly like all of us appreciate a concern around our Town's uh environment and sustainability and all the things that we can do to ensure its beauty and preserving that so um in that Spirit certainly I like the idea of looking at some of these signs that are decaying and over seeing where we can start to immediately make changes that do fall within our our zoning ordinances um as we explore potentially different Pathways going forward so differently uh I wanted to just give a couple of quick uh reminders and openings so the golf advisory committee our Golf Course is open I often say this is one of our Jewels uh and that it is open to persons of our Township it's also as non-residents there is an event on Saturday a women's golf Clinic uh which will be running at 10:30 with our local Pro so I encourage anyone who's interested in in improving their golf game or just learning a bit about it to please register for that um our Municipal Alliance um has its Twilight run which is an important fundraising opportunity on June 2nd uh I've shared this a few times please do sign up to support the mission of our Municipal Alliance and to also consider you can do a healthy walk it's just a mile around the park or the 5K which is a bit more challenging at Pleasant Valley Park um either or it does import a very it does support a very important cause in our community um and then lastly last week I had the opportunity to represent our Township committee on two occasions on Friday I joined Deputy Mayor Fields uh for the Somerset County ribbon cutting on the newest trails at Lord Sterling Park and this launches an interconnected network of 22 miles that run branches throughout the park um there's a new parking lot that's off of Lord Sterling Road just east of South Maple and it connects the Environmental Center with Lords the stable at Lord Sterling Park um Nancy Dandrea who you've already heard from tonight is the Somerset County Park commission president she was also there as well as our County Commissioners and it's just a really exciting investment um from the county and our community and then I also had the opportunity to represent our committee at the Rolling Thunder empty chair and table Memorial dedication at the VA hospital um and this is a remembrance of the sacrifices of our nation's military U it's one of the data points is that since World War II more than 80,000 service members are unaccounted for either missing an action or prisoner of war and the ceremony included two speakers themselves Vietnam War veterans um so it's there at the VA hospital and uh again just a a wonderful segue from the very compelling dedication to our own Captain Ford Shaw so thank you thank you mayor Andrew thank you mayor um first uh on May 8th uh at the stretch lab beginning at 10:30 a.m. and that's located at 25 Mountain B View Boulevard we'll be having another coffee with a cop event uh this is part and parcel of our community policing efforts getting our police officers and Leadership at the police department out into the community and interacting with our residents about uh their concerns um and uh this was something that we restarted postco last year and I'm very happy to see that we're back at doing this I'd like to thank uh our chief uh John Berger as well as Tracy basari who leads up those events um uh I encourage everybody to come out and have a cup of coffee and speak with the wonderful members of our Police Department uh in addition to that um regarding uh aeds uh I think I can Echo the comments of some of my colleagues here I certainly would like to thank the folks who came up uh and made their voices heard on this including Miss Deandrea uh member of our parks and Pathways commission um but you know in government um we often talk about certain actions that are taken and then much later uh people are talking about unintended consequences associated with those things um you know here in burner Township uh we're deliberative uh not just this body but certainly uh the Parks Commission among others um and we try to avoid those unintended consequences sometimes the gears of government turn more slowly than people would like uh sometimes uh people don't get the answers that they would like necessarily but uh it's a very deliberative process and I would like to take my hat off uh to the folks who serve our Parks uh on that commission uh for taking their time and examining all the various issues which extend beyond budget as we've talked about and uh finally on signs um my remarks made at the last meeting were within the specific context of political signs which indeed are afforded uh the highest level of protection under the First Amendment and my experience with that deres not only from my education as the lawyer but also encountering First Amendment issues in various aspects of my practice including working in state government um commercial speech uh that's not really something that uh we I was talking about at the last meeting although it is afforded a certain degree of first amendment protection but not nearly as high as political speech and I want to thank Pat Monaco for looking into that and I look forward to any feedback you might have um and we'll take a look at issues surrounding uh commercial signage thank you that concludes my report thank you thank you okay bear with me because there's a lot here uh first address the sign issue so um I know that we started last year the DPW started evaluating our signs and looking to what needs to be repl and how we can replace them some are more expensive than others uh so we we were doing that Pat will uh will agree with me that we're going we were going through a checklist there's a actually there's a lot more signs in town than you think so um that's the one thing if you feel some are deteriorating we are um keeping an eye on them and uh looking to replace some of them and as far as if you're talking about political signs and I I meant to say something last time and I didn't get a chance I do believe in the freedom of speech but a lot has changed because you have the vote by mail so the signs are going going up earlier and I too I've been a candidate and I've been a worker I've been perturbed by too many signs um going up so what I've done as a community is whoever signed I feel is there's too many up I've called The Campaign and said listen you know I'm in Basking Ridge you've come out in our town and put signs up and there's too many of them and I'd like you to come and take some of them away so and that's the thing I mean we all know young kids will go out for candidates whether it's Statewide or countywide and blanket our town and they're just having a good time and they think it's funny to put like 20 signs in one area and doesn't this look great but not realizing the effect how it affects our community so I have done that actually called up the campaign and said listen you put too many signs in this area somebody needs to come and take it down so uh I ask you to do that if you find there's an issue and I will continue to do that myself um also I wanted to talk about affordable housing Lily uh I hope you'll attend our program on affordable housing the mayor has put together a special program to disc discuss the issues and what we're dealing with and some options so probably would be a great place for you to go and discuss your um your um idea and um to discuss the article there also um unfortunately I'm going to miss the Twilight challenge this year it's so much fun and it's so important for us as a community to get out and help support the municipal allines they do so much for us that we can't do and as far as the defibrillators in the Parks um um my colleague Andrew said it best I mean we can't we're five people up here we can't run everything we're not in charge of everything so we respect our boards they work really hard they come back to us and they tell us what the suggestions are and that's what they're there for each of those boards they run independently some of them and they make their own decision and some of them give us recommendations but we appreciate the time and effort that they put into the boards and so they are our eyes and ears and that's what they're for and so when it came to defibrillators that's what they did exactly and it's been extensive I know I've person I'm not on the board but I personally have asked about this and gotten a really good feeling on why it's not really a good idea for us to do this so I just wanted it to be known that it's not always a money issue we don't always say no because we can't put it in the budget or we can't afford it there's other situation there's other more important pressing issues on why we can't do something that people just don't see I've talked to so many people even business owners that think it just should be I should be able to put a key in the door and just open it up the business no there's rules and regulations we have ordinances and that's all for a reason so uh just you know be mindful of that um also wanted to talk about I wanted to thank Kippy padichi she's coming on to the zoning board thank you for serving our community in so many ways you're on the library board the planning board and now you're going to be on the zoning board so thank you so much I appreciate your service and you always do such a wonderful job so um your talent and expertise is very much needed so thank you so much for stepping up um next I want to talk about an I had discussed um we had a great time thank you to parks and the Parks Commission on the new trails uh was a great experience doing wonderful things there our tax dollars being well spent um and here right here in our community so hopefully everyone will come out enjoy it not only in burners but throughout the whole County so thank you appreciate that um the library wanted me to give you some updates the new upper level doors are being installed today they were installed today so our Grant Construction progress is nearly complete so we've gotten some great grant money through the library and so they want you to know what's being spent on and the upgrades that are being made um also d uh DPW has been working with them um and they put up a and help them mount a poster frame at L tra and station to help advertise the programs that they have at the library so they have a whole initiative the library to get out there and let people know what they're doing and that they're there and I really commend them for that because they've come up with some really good ideas to really Outreach about the library and get more people to join and then the week of April 8th was um National Library week they had a number of community members delivered Bak goods and cards for staff um they are currently working on their economic analysis for the library HVAC system they're also working on an evaluation of an installation of a generator uh which they will be looking into um we have recommended the township committee that they look into some Grant programs on getting a uh generator for the library presently they do not have one so um thank you mayor that'll be all thank you thank you so I'm going to address um a couple of the comments and then and then I have my prepared comments um so related to affordable housing um this threat as I've shared we've tried to be as proactive and transparent as to what's coming um and so before the legis was finalized we secured what we feel are the best planners in that particular topic that we could get and so I'm very confident and excited um they have been uh provided all the background documentation for the community um and we'll be meeting with them soon uh there's a subcommittee that's that's that's looking over um to understand first off what is our problem what are the numbers that we need first first before we think about potential Solutions so I'm interested to understand that more with with all of the folks that have that expertise um you know what are our numbers what is the problem we're trying to solve and when I say U problem again it's we will meet the Mandate that the state requires um that will be something that we do and again none of us are against affordable housing per se it's the overdevelopment that comes with the meeting the affordable housing number is is what we're concerned about so um I'm confident in our um experts that we have hired and so I expect that they will know about that article um and any solutions that we can have that will protect our community from the overdevelopment that is potentially caused by the affordable housing requirements so um so more to come on that so I'm not at the solutions yet I need to know the problem first and so but I do encourage everyone to please come that was one of my topics um at the end of May um that is May the 29th at 7:00 p.m. we will record that um and that's that is the A to Z the nuts and bolts about affordable housing just the facts ma'am and we'll we'll learn from these amazing women the second um topic since we were talking about boards grateful for all of our amazing volunteers um we have wonderful boards um and part of the reason why we have wonderful boards is because we have great volunteers that have deep expertise so for instance Nancy your service on our towns and your uh county is just invaluable um and so Kippy we're very grateful to have you back your land use experience is unparalleled and so we are very grateful for your volunteerism to serve on on that particular board so I'm thankful for that so I'm going to go back to my originally scheduled program um so on April the 12th many of you were there um the captain Ford Shaway dedication we were there because of the coordination and the agreement between the township committee and the board of education for the road to be paved um the ceremony that was held was so meaningful and so appropriate um again thank you to Pat your vision working with um your department heads chrisy your assistant um DPW the materials that they constructed it was it was perfect and then working with Mona Jen Gander uh worked with Mona Shaw she put together a beautiful program um we got to learn more about Captain Shaw so when I see his flag I now have a better understanding of who he is and his name will always be remembered so I'm just I was very grateful it was iffy the weather you know people are like are we do it or we not I'm like you know what he was a marine like he worked in way worse conditions we can we could suck this up but we had a wonderful crowd and thanks to the media for coming and and documenting the stories were wonderful um I know the the shaw family um was very touched and that's what we were hoping to do so again huge support I can't thank um our committee members um for their attendance and um our Board of Education As I understood they were they were there as well so I'm just very grateful for that um a couple quick announcements um we have a lot going on so it's it's good stuff so just as a reminder next week um as a part of Fabrica Bernard's Small Business Week is next week so especially if you are a small business owner or you are thinking about it please come we have a speaker from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority so we're partnering also with the Basking Ridge business Alliance um for that program to be April 29th at 7:00 p.m. we are also going to record that um I mentioned at the last meeting that we're going to have our focus on seniors on June the first that's that collaboration with the county um so more to come on that flipping to understanding Bernards again around transparency as to what's going on Parks and Recreation so uh Jen Gander and her team will be presenting on May the 6 at 6 p.m. this is such an important department it touches so many families within our community so please come come in and listen and support Jen and her group um I mentioned about the affordable housing and another thank you to um assembly woman Michelle matsakas for her help in getting scheduled the um Motor Vehicle Commission mobile unit that will be here on site May the 3D and May the 10th so um there are still available spots for folks that are not looking for real ID so please um come and take advantage of those we're very excited for that now um I'm going to give some information that has not been shared yet so this is sort of hot off the process so around my favorite topic safety so um I'm going to defer any comments around the budget to the actual budget uh after Sean does that presentation um but obviously there are investments in public safety there now um a fun fact I learned that all aplr cameras so the license plate readers they all been installed as of Friday and they are all in working order so this issue where we pulled forward the budget that implementation that occurred so um the locations of those the police department has decided where those are and they will maintain that information for themselves so we can just rest assured that they implemented we are very grateful they also had to work through some um where ever those um cameras are located um they had to get permissions for those installations and in some instances they had to go to other organizations other authorities to get that approval and they also had to work through flock also had a tremendous Rush on their supply chain and so again a huge thank you uh for implementing that it takes me to my next topic and the reason why I know about that is because I was also engaging with the police department our police department has encouraged us all to do neighbor neighborhood watches right so as a part of this get to know your neighbor what's going on well looks odd um as such my neighborhood did the same so I'm just sharing that as a private citizen I reactivated my neighborhood unit uh and as I was talking to my neighbors they were concerned um with you know some of the Resurgence in um property crime in particular long story short I was asked can we get a camera can my neighborhood get a camera I went to Chief Berger and said is that possible he said well yes it is so I am sharing with you that um my neighborhood is privately funding via donation to the police department for an aplr to be installed this is not a selective opportunity so in speaking with Phil Jina um if other residents in the community are interested to do the same via private funding either through their HOA or other manners that is something that is an option so I'm sharing that um and there will be more to come the police can can share more about that you can hear that in in more information but I just wanted to share that we're doing it um we work through uh some documentation uh literally today and um so that is an option if you so choose my neighborhood it was important to them and I think it's amazing that that we're going forward um the third topic the Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee still working with all the various towns um so we'll provide you additional information um as we continue to have updates as those additional uh committees bring on ordinances for their towns tomorrow I happen to be going to the library the library has a meet your neighbors program at 2:00 um and I've been asked to do a safety Q&A so I'm excited to meet meet folks um hopefully there will be people there um to talk about my favorite topic and additionally you know continuing to do safety presentations oh I'm excited to go to the Hills uh the Board of Trustees meeting May the 14th I'll be providing a safety update there so again safety is not over um it is always in the Forefront and we'll continue to work to ensure that all of our residents feel that they're protected and I think that allows us to move on on to the next very important topic do we have any fire and rescue appointments none this evening mayor then that brings us to unfinished business 2024 Municipal budget and golf utility presentation okay good evening everybody we do have our 2024 budget prepared for adoption tonight um um I have a presentation that I'll that I'll run through um first just want to note that there have been no changes to the budget since we introduced on March 26th um since we introduced the uh budget has been reviewed by our auditor Man Lee who's here with us tonight thank you for being here man um man makes the Trek out here every year for our budget adoption and we've very much appreciate it um in addition to man's review of the budget um the township was subject to State examination this year uh that happens on a three-year rotating cycle so uh our budget was submitted to the state after introduction they have reviewed it uh they've approved it so we are all clear to uh approve the budget tonight following our public hearing on budget um so tonight tonight I'll I'll just kind of run through and recap some of the things that we looked at at introduction as far as Appropriations and the capital budget and then we'll get into a little bit of the revenue side of the budget as well as our uh fund balance uh use of fund balance as Revenue in this year's budget so uh to recap some of the the highlights our total proposed 2024 budget remains at 46,2 52,800 rate stands at. 269 per $100 of assess value and that number is down 5.57% from 0 283 last year we reviewed this appropriation summary introduction but again to to quickly recap you can see our total uh total budget Appropriations here remain the same after we back out our grants our capital budget and our reserve for un collected taxes our actual oper budget which includes all of our department salary wage lines OE lines as well as all of our statutory expenditure lines that include employee health benefits uh pension system uh contributions as well as employment taxes we have an operating cost increase in this year's budget of $1.2 million which you can see right here or 3.67% um now in addition to what are simply inflationary cost increases do want to note that this increase does also accommodate three new full-time staff positions uh two of those being uh new police officers in the PD and one additional mechanic position in the DPW Fleet Division and then lastly this budget does also uh include an increase to our capital budget of 15.29% or $895,000 for 2024 taking another look at our capital budget again for this year uh total Capital program funding comes to to 6,750 455 which again as I mentioned represents an increase in the budget funded Capital program of $895,000 as you see in this graph on the right our 2022 and 2023 Capital budgets were supplemented by some grant funding which you see here in the darker orange color um this was the uh Federal local fiscal recovery funds that were awarded to the township as part of the American Rescue plan um those those grants were available to us only for those two years um so what we're focusing on here and what we've been able to do with this budget this year is to continue to bring the level of actual budget funded Capital which is what's shown in the in the lighter color orange up back up to that that level of roughly $7 million um so that's what we're attempting to do with the capital portion of this year's budget um that of course is particularly important for us when we're trying to maintain pay as you go funding for capital projects uh while managing the inflationary cost increases that continue to drive up the cost for for all of our capital projects and purchases so certainly critical to avoiding debt is ensuring that we keep Pace with the cost of our infrastructure maintenance now Switching gears to the revenue side of the budget on this slide uh taking a look at the major budget Revenue categories as we mentioned previously the amount to be raised by taxation to fund this year's budget comes to 22 m725 348 uh we're then funding about a third of the budget uh with anticipated fund balance at $14.7 million um we've been able to to increase that amount that we're using this year by roughly a million dollars and we'll take a closer look at that in the next few slides um additionally we're increasing the amount of Revenue that we anticipate from local revenues which is this line here by 300,000 this year and again we'll take a look at that in more detail as well um the remaining Revenue categories listed here are are alling staying relatively consistent with last year uh with the exception of our public and private grants uh which we do of course see fluctuate depending on the timing of when we receive those funds in the year so as we receive additional grant funding throughout the course of the year the budget will be amended uh to add those funds to the budget to both the revenue and and appropriation sides of the budget and here we take a look at the share of each of those Revenue categories as they relate to funding of the budget as a whole amount to be raised by taxation making up just under 50% of total budget revenues followed then by Surplus anticipated at about 32% with the rest of our Revenue categories here making up the remaining 18% um this this chart is looking specifically at the three Revenue items within that local revenues category that account for that additional $300,000 in anticipated Revenue that I mentioned um we're able to increase the amount for each of these each of these items shown here by $100,000 this year um and what you're what you're seeing in the chart is is the history of the amounts that we've anticipated for each item going back to 2021 so for two of these um Recreation fees and permits and swimming pool membership fees these were um two Revenue line it that were really significantly impacted by Co um as a result of that we did have to reduce the amount of revenue for each of those that we anticipated in the budget for each of those years um and really what what we're trying to show here and what you're seeing is um a slow incremental increase back up to that pre-o uh Revenue level um and we are just about there with uh Recreation fees and permits at $322 in total um anticipated as Revenue in this year's budget and 460,000 anticipated for swimming pool memberships the third local Revenue item that we were able to increase is our interest on investments and deposits um of course that's entirely dependent on interest rates um thanks to increased rates on on essentially all of our uh funds on deposit in 2023 continuing into 2024 we did feel comfortable um increasing that anticipated item by um $100,000 for this year oh and one other one other note here um we are again anticipating um additional surplus of just under a million dollars uh as revenue for this year's budget taking a look at that fund balance um so we were we were able to anticipate some additional Surplus this year thanks to um some very positive results of operations coming out of 2023 um that's what we would consider the the Regeneration of our Surplus we want to make sure that the amount of surplus that we use gets regenerated every year and what we're trying to illustrate here is really the three funding streams that go into regenerating that fund balance um those are uh Revenue um in excess of of any amount that we anticipate in the budget our budget cancellations uh which is always primarily that $4 million non-s spending cap base appropriation that we include in the budget every year and then lastly our unspent appropriation reserves um which for this budget year is the remaining balance of our 2022 Budget on the left here this analysis just shows to illustrate our Surplus uh position at uh December 31st of 2022 at just over 18 million um these are our results of operations from 2023 at just under 17.6 million uh then we pull out the amount of surplus that we utilize in the 2023 budget which gives us our Surplus balance available at the end of 2023 at 21.8 uh then we pull out the um amount of surplus we're proposing to use in this year's budget and here's where you can see that additional $1 million versus last year uh and that leaves us with our um Surplus Reserve in cash at 7.1 we put that cap provision of $4 million amount back in leaving us with a fund balance reserved of just over $ 11.1 million um as we've we've mentioned before Township does have a use of fund balance policy um that policy dictates the amount of surplus that we have to make sure that we retain after we use any amount to fund the budget um so at this amount we are meeting the requirements of that of that policy again for this year based on this budget the county and school numbers shown our estimates at 2% um over last year until we get those final certified rates from the county for this year um and then of course we have the share of the total tax bill for each of those taxing districts shown in this pie chart here on the right um again taking a look at those same tax rates from the previous slide um here we're comparing burn Township's tax rates for the township the school and the county for this year um comparing those to the average tax rates for all municipalities in Somerset County and then again to the average tax rates for all municipalities in the State uh for 2023 um and again just to note that the school and County rates here are based on our estimated uh numbers of 2% over the rate for last year and lastly we're adopting the golf utility budget for this year tonight um as with the town's Budget Golf utility budget remains unchanged from introduction and as you can see here total budget for golf utility 2024 comes in at $531,500 for this year um so that is all I have on budget for adoption and I will turn it back over for our public hearing the township Committee of the township of Bernards declares that the statutory requirements found in njsa 440 a-4 4-8 subsection 1 a and 1B for posting a complete copy of the approved budget have been met permitting the budget to be read by title I open the public hearing and welcome comments I'll just read the resolution by title as well mayor thank you resolution 2024-25 adoption of 2024 Municipal budget and 2024 golf utility budget and this is the public hearing Title St Riverside Drive we'll start with nobody likes to pay taxes so we know this nothing we could do about it we have to live with it but I do have some questions one is um why do we need to spend $40,000 for a gate house at pill Hill that's used by one man for two days a week and when there's no cars or he's actually in the the dumpsters looking for stuff I don't think we need to spend $40,000 for a shed especially since I have bought a shed uh 12 by 24 for maybe $4,000 and I put a new roof on it last year for $1,000 so I think $40,000 for that little Shack is unnecessary also last time you spoke you mentioned that we're getting three new police cars are these additional police cars or these new police cars on top of the ones what I mean is generally every five years you R you rotate cars out every year I think of a fiveyear um lifespan so I like to know are these those cars that are being rotated out or these three more since we have so many police car and we do have a lot of police cars um I also like to know um about I love I won't say anything about that you did mention that the tax rate I think you said um. 269 per $100 but actually that's actually going to be lower than last year but I also know that my property value went up by $65,000 automatically meant that I already am paying more money in taxes so I hate when people say that that's lower when the truth is you already taking the money out of my pocket and I wish we wouldn't play the say those things just like when we compare ourselves the average to other towns because I know other towns are are much less than the like Harding or um pack or stuff I know they don't have the same type of infrastructure we have but you know I said nobody likes to pay taxes and I understand you try hard to keep it low but you somebody's got to throw stones once in a while thank you very much thank you and Lily Wong uh uh I wanted to make a quick note about the budget I noticed that uh the amount that is uh related to Grant went down significantly in part because some of the grants were only available the last two years um and U Mr McCarthy also mentioned that as we get more grants that number number would go up a as we get them and allocate them out uh my comment is to encourage our Township committee to either um find more grant writing resources or contract out um resources to to increase the number of grants that we apply for um and bringing more money that doesn't rely on our taxpayers uh to fund our infrastructure and other programs thank you anyone else then I will close public comment I have a committee person to move the resolution mayor I move that resolution 2024-25 be approved second and now I'd like to ask my committee members um if they have any points of discussion they'd like to share who want to go first who'd like to go first I'll go first so um a couple of things this is my first time in a budget process so I want to thank uh Deputy Mayor fields for accompanying me and providing background in the meeting meeting we had with uh Pat and with Sean um this budget process is I think most of you who are here know starts months ago and it begins with the work of the department heads to really look at um you know continuing to invest in our community but also looking at things like inflationary costs among others and it's a lot of work and I think it's responsible to continue to keep Pace with what actual costs are while looking at uh the opportunity to expand Services as needed and the drum beat this year clearly was on Safety and Security there's been an investment made there by our community which is critical and at the same time you know thank you Lily for your comments we will continue to explore opportunities for Grants because that is something that enables us to um I think continue to keep Pace while being fiscally responsible so I do want to thank uh both Sean and Pat and the department heads uh both for your uh sort of tutorial on how this process works but also for all of the work and Leadership you show in bringing this together as well as to my colleagues so thank you for that I'll go next mayor that's okay please so let me give my my comments by saying thank you to our CFO sha McCarthy um U uh Pat Monaco of course all of our departments my colleagues on this day as uh worked cooperatively on this budget um as I think most people know I had the honor of serving our as our Township's mayor last year and uh when I assumed the role uh at our reorganization in January of 2023 I said in my remarks that uh we fac two challenges primarily uh Rising costs as a result of inflation and Rising public safety concerns uh which are indeed Nationwide uh and neither of these are unique to our community um to State the obvious it costs money to ensure that we have a great police force and that they have the resources to keep us safe uh among a whole host of other things that we did last year cooperation with the Board of Education we saw to it that every public school would have an armed officer on the premises during school hours uh we also um were called certain officers that were out on loan to the Joint Auto task force the um drug interdiction uh uh Center in in in in Trenton uh reasoning that while they were learning great things and doing great things for our community or our state by virtue of those uh roles it was more important to have them close to home um we've since Rec called all the officers we can so that lwh hanging FL fruit has already been plucked um but I'm pleased to report that the extraordinary work of our Police Department with the support of this Township committee has been recognized uh safewise.com a uh uh organization that does rankings in terms of Public Safety uh both in New Jersey and around the country recently re released a report ranking uh the safest communities across our state and I'm pleased to report the survey results uh released La last month ranked Bernard's Township as the second safest community in New Jersey that is out of 564 municipalities across the state this independent recognition is something we're extremely proud of and the line sh credit rightfully goes to the men and women of the burner Police Department um so we're number two in the state I told my mom about this today when I was visiting with her she first question who's number [Laughter] one it's ver and Township up in Sussex County in case anybody's wondering um but uh you know I I think she sort of hit the nail in the head uh because we're not satisfied with being number two we want to be number one um and you know certainly uh by virtue of being this High among so many communities within our state um you know it's not lost upon us that uh hey that's a great ranking but that doesn't mean you're Crime Free and um you know there is a rising tide of some crime all across the country so um what we're doing to address uh uh crime in our communities um is uh multifold uh last month we enacted an ordinance to prosecute criminal criminal Behavior at the local level and our officers have been engaging with various communities to educate them on ways to keep themselves safe um so what does that have to do with this budget well uh it's often said that a budget is a statement of priorities and this budget is no different I consider myself a budget Hawk and throughout my time on the TC we have endeavored to keep our Municipal tax levy low while still funding our priorities and as uh Pat and Shan can certainly attest to when we sit down to the budget it's you know I come in with a red pen I'm looking to throw things out um those things that we look to compromise on are important things uh things that are important to a great many people in our community but in addition to being about priorities it's also about compromises but uh there's one place that I am not willing to compromise on and that is Public Safety um and there is a direct through line between between what our Municipal tax levy is going to be and these Investments that we're making in hiring additional officers uh technology like Advanced license plate readers um and so to keep our community among the safest in New Jersey uh and the country of at large we cannot continue to ask our police to do with more with less or even more with the same uh the time is come for them to do more with more and so I support this budget and I re reiterate my thanks to Township staff RPD mayor AC my colleagues here on the township committee thank you thank you thank you Deputy Mayor thank you so another year here we are so I've learned so much and we've changed so much as far as finances so first I want to thank Sean our CFO and his finance department and I want to thank Pat and all our department heads so last five years being here going through the budget cycle every year our department heads have done everything they can to cut costs that's what we' asked them to do and that's what been required of them and they've been able to do it so we really appreciate it last year I sat up here and I said to everybody it's going to it's getting really tough It's really getting tough and I just wanted to be on record so that everybody knew that we would be in the place that we are today and we are so uh everything last year really went up um costs everyone knows you shop you buy gas you travel um so last year was really really tough but we made it work but looking this year we just couldn't to make it work at a lower level than um last year like the uh like Andrew had said was uh with the public safety so for me this is a responsible budget why is it responsible because priorities first we laid out the priorities are all our priorities being paid yes they are but all those priorities come at a cost so they've all increased like we all know everything has gone up so now it's more than what we were paying before there's no wants in here there's a lot of things we'd like to do we just can't afford to do them and then there's things you have to add into it which is like you said we hire two new officers um we had to hire a um mechanic so that adds to it so on top of if we want to stay where we are we couldn't anyway because everything is increased and then we had to add into that another thing there's a lot of moving Parts like I said before about a lot of things is that's important is our Capital how much are we spending on Capital how much are we saving for Capital every year we've been putting we've been spending less where we really can't afford to do that so we're trying to come to a level where we're responsible when it comes to Capital and why is capital really important we save a ton of money because we pay as we go and we have older buildings we're not bonding for a high tech new building we're dealing with what we have and that comes at the cost too we're saving yet year after year the maintenance on our older buildings our infrastructure is a lot more so like I said we pay as we go the capital is important we've we've increased that we want to continue to increase that which is really important um the other thing is that I am so proud of my colleagues is we don't want to kick it Kick the Can down the road you know I was watching a docu series and it was saying how in the 70s how New York got so bad because every year they just kept kicking the can and saying every new Administration would deal with the uh with the with the financial problems we didn't do that this year we said what do we really need what are the priorities what's going to make it better our community which is the safety which is huge and we with the safety issue I have to say we had an issue and we are one of the safest towns but instead of saying to ourselves oh well it's just you know it was just n no we decided to prioritize it do something about it before it got worse and said let's increase our police force and more community policing and that's what we did we didn't kick the can down the road so that's what I'm really proud of is that we took the initiative to make sure that everything that we needed to be taken care of and so much more is in this budget so I just want you to all feel really comfortable about that and last thing I think that's really important is the grants we do everything we can as far as the grants sure we can do more but you have to realize that we're competing with cities we're competing with the urban cities so when you have more you get less so that's the unfortunate truth so what and I'm always happy for whatever we get cuz the truth is we're really lucky that we get the grants that we get like I said because those who have less get more and so when we have the opportunity for Grants and we do get them I'm really happy it does save us a lot of money um so like I said I'm proud of this um proud of this uh budget we've all worked really hard my colleagues and I and just know at the end of the day that it's all about priorities it's about the safety of our community and there's no wants in here it's what we really needed to do to make difference and next year is another year so hopefully this year the things that we did will make next year even better thank you mayor thank you you guys took a lot of my good talking points um proud I think one word that I would say is I'm proud of the budget and it's due to the leadership of Pat Monaco Shan McCarthy and the department heads it's been stated but I have to repeat that um we are so grateful to your leadership to ensure that we are able to provide the level of service to our residents at this lowest price um and just very grateful for that um the theme you heard is safety you also heard at the highest level that there are investments in headcount to expand service that our community needs don't know if you're aware the last time that there was an increase in headcount it's been over 15 years this was very thoughtful um around making this decision this was not a quick decision this was a very thoughtful so we're very careful about what we're doing because it's not just for now but it's also making sure that we can pay for these things in the future because these employees we hope will be here not just one year in 10 years in 20 years um and as those costs go up and also as Deputy Mayor said the investment in capital so um we have to make sure that we're continuing to invest in those assets that have more than a fiveyear life so thank you Sean for helping to remind me what the definition of capital is so those are those are some of the key themes I want to make it crystal clear to you that there are some things that are not in here besides wants we only have the needs in here not wants there is no debt no taxpayer money is going to service any debt in our budget that is unique and I want to make sure everybody understands that and appreciates that the reason why that is the case is because of the way that our heritage has been the way our spending is done and I I want to give you just one example so this is behind the scenes I like to know the wise the inner workings so for instance this year some communities are being faced with a Radio Systems dilemma okay there's a new radio frequency situation this has been something that as I've learned it's been over 15 years in the making okay it's been a threat out there for quite a while some towns didn't do anything about it our town under its leadership of the folks that we've talked about with our CFO and and Township Administration and the township committee they squirreled away the money they've squired away a little money here and there over the years and as those radio frequency um those that Radio Systems they purchased equipment that could handle the old frequencies and the new ones so those Tri band are helpful now so while we will pursue grant funding to try to get additional Radio Systems we will absolutely apply for grant funding that's available we're not as an IND dire situation as others that have not taken any action so it is that thoughtfulness that deliberateness of investing putting money away for when we need it that we are avoiding a crisis so I I hope that gives you a little bit of an idea if you look around some of the neighboring communities some folks are having that as a crisis we are not not so please understand it doesn't happen by accident so along with some of the other things that has been said we've delivered this budget despite absorbing inflationary pressures right CPI over the last three years 5% in 2021 2022 2023 right 5% nonetheless we continue to invest to attract and retain our key staff those awesome people that deliver these services are our employees and we need to keep them despite the increased labor market uh competition we also are very proud that they continue to look at additional Revenue as ways as as well as ways to cut costs like being Innovative and thoughtful around it services to be as fiscally responsible as possible the other thing that I think is I'm really proud of is that we don't build a budget based on anticipated grant funding so I wanted to speak very briefly about grants so grants as I have met with other Mayors I've learned that there are a lot of communities that rely on grants and that's how they build their budget assuming that they're going to get grants we don't do that here now grants grants are important and as I've learned I think what since 2019 we've gotten almost $8 million in Grants so we've done a nice job in acquiring that so the process is that our department heads our department heads that are closest to the needs of our community they are the ones that scour and look for Grants they look for grants that actually meet our needs once they find those then they look to see can we qualify as Deputy Mayor said in some instances they're need-based and like it or not Bernard's Township may not be as need- based as other communities nonetheless um there are other things behind grants that we have to be cognizant of it's not just the getting of the grant the the money doesn't just you know parachute into our accounts there's also things called Grant Management you have to have the wherewithal and the staff to be able to manage those grants in some instances they're very arduous including regarding reporting so grants are very very helpful though right um we look for them we want grants that meet what we are are trying to achieve not take us off in a different direction as an example the uh construction that's happening outside for the elevator that's due to a Federal grant so for those really large important things you know our staff will get them and typically right they're one year non-renewables so again this is where we don't want to live our budget we don't want our budget based on grants that disappear what does that mean then if you hire staff then you have to fire staff it's just it's not a way of doing good responsible budgeting so grants couple other things our Township committee members each of us are working at all levels of government to try to get additional grants besides the department heads that are scouring you know um I know I'll speak for myself I am operating at the federal level um trying I worked very closely with uh Congressman Kane's office and looking for federal level funding um Deputy Mayor and um committee man MCN I know are are working at the state levels and I understand that um anad dor McCarthy is working at the uh the county level so please know that each of us as elected officials are also trying to work with um all the different levels of government if there's money out there for our community we're going to try and get it for our residents other fun fact um I have enjoyed meeting Mayors from across the the um the State and I learned for instance in February it was at the um uh Somerset County elected officials and I learned of a firm that some folks were using and so I immediately brought that back to pad and I said hey this town says that there's this grant writer can that work for us and so he has been doing due diligence to say can they do better than what we are already doing and that assessment is being done so I want you to know that um if there are opportunities to get grants we're not just going to willy-nilly ply money towards a firm and just hire them we're going to make sure that it makes sense and can they do better than us and so that assessment's going on right now so thank you Pat for your leadership on that and the other is is we're always looking for new resources new new revenue streams so fun fact um today and I don't even know if everybody knows I did this uh today I attended a program called the film Ready New Jersey there's a state and County effort around uh TV and movies and and things and perhaps doing some things within our community and revenue streams related to that not only revenue streams to us but also to our businesses that would also benefit from Productions that take place within our community that is something we're exploring so I just want you to know that um just because it's been done a certain way does does mean it's always going to be done that certain way we are open to new ideas and we are looking at new things so more to come on those um but I just wanted to put that out there so in all of that context um this budget I consider that it is responsible budgeting and it's being done based on needs and not wants so with that I'm going to ask for a roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Miss Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you that brings us to new business and consent agenda the items listed in the consent agenda portion of the meeting have been referred to the township committee for reading and study are posted on the agenda on the website are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion of the township committee with no separate discussion if separate discussion is requires the item may be removed from the agenda by Township Committee Action and placed on the regular agenda under new business would anyone like an agenda item removed from the consent agenda I actually have a request I'd like to pull number seven resolution 2024 0224 okay and we'll just take um a vote on the consent agenda and then item seven thank you we have a motion so moved second Christy call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you moving right along resolution 2024-25 as the uh Board of Education and one of the ways that we work together I just wanted to thank um Pat Monaco and the township committee uh for finding these wonderful ways of working and benefiting ultimately all of our residents so with that may I have a motion so moved second roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you moving on to maral appointment so for our zoning board Kathleen Pichi regular M filling the unexpired 4-year term of Joseph pavloski expiring December 31st 2027 I want to thank um Joseph for his service and welcome Kippy um we're very lucky to have you in your land use experience thank you welcome back Kippy yeah thank you kiy thank you next Township committee appointment Municipal Alliance Pamela heandy PTO representative one-year term expiring December 31st 2024 may have a motion so moved second all in favor I I next Municipal Alliance anou pubali student representative one-year term expiring December 31st 2024 I have a motion so moved second all in favor I I thank you to our wonderful volunteers yes next topic ordinance 2449 accepting a sidewalk easan on property located at 179 cson road block 2601 lot 9 from Far Hills Development LLC to the township of Bernards and this is Introduction mayor I move that ordinance 2549 be introduce on first reading advertis required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on May 14th 202 24 second CL may have a roll call please miss Duarte McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you next ordinance 22550 an ordinance amending the revised General ordinances of the township of Bernards chapter 7 traffic schedule one no parking to prohibit parking on the north side of watch on Drive in specified location and this is an introduction mayor I move that ordinance 2550 be introduced on first reading advertis required by law and scheduled for public hearing on 514 2024 second clerk roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you next topic ordinance 2551 an ordinance to amend the revised General ordinances of the township Bernards chapter 21 drainage and this is Introduction mayor I move that ordinance 2551 be introduced on first reading referred to the planning board and adverti as required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on June 11th 2024 second clerk roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you next please ordinance 2554 accepting an amendment to conservation easement a reparan Zone conservation easement and a declaration of easement terminating on property located at 8,000 Fellowship Road Block 9301 lot 33 from fellowship Village Incorporated to the township of Bernards and this introduction mayor I move that ordinance 2554 be introduced on first reading advertised required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on May 14 2024 second clerk roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN Christie I'm going to recuse myself on this vote thank you mayor AC yes motion carried thank you next ordinance 2555 accepting a Wetlands conservation East on property located at 99 Minebrook Road Lot 7201 lot 3 0.01 from eoll cisi and Kathleen cesi to the township of Bernards and this is Introduction may I remove that ordinance 2555 be introduced on first reading advertised as required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on May 14 2024 second clerk roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried next please ordinance 2556 accepting an ordinance of the township of Bernards appropriating 5,715 455 for various Capital Improvements and this is Introduction mayor I move that ordinance 2556 be introduced on first reading advertises required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on May 14 2024 second clerk roll call please miss Dart McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you moving on to approval of minutes April 9th 2024 Open Session minutes I have a motion so moved second all in favor I I next uh Christie do we have any executive session none needed this evening mayor then we go to adjournment may I have a motion to adjourn so move second all in favor I I e